bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Impact of maternal morbidities on the longitudinal health-related quality of life trajectories among women who gave childbirth in four hospitals of Northwest Ethiopia: a group-based trajectory modelling study
Authors: Malaju Marelign Tilahun , Alene Getu Degu , Azale Telake 
Published: March 2022

ObjectivesTo identify distinct trajectories of health-related quality of life and its predictors among postpartum women in Northwest Ethiopia.DesignHealth facility-linked community-based prospective follow-up study.SettingSouth Gondar zone, Northwest Ethiopia.ParticipantsWe recruited 775 mothers (252 exposed and 523 non-exposed) after childbirth and before discharge. Exposed and non-exposed mothers were identified based on the criteria published by the WHO Maternal Morbidity Working Group.Outcome measuresThe primary outcome measure of this study was trajectories of health-related quality of life. The Stata Traj package was used to determine the trajectories using a group-based trajectory modelling. Multinomial logistic regression model was used to identify predictors of trajectory membership.ResultsFour distinct trajectories for physical and psychological and five trajectories for the social relationships and environmental health-related quality of life were identified. Direct and indirect maternal morbidities, lower educational status, poor social support, being government employed and merchant/student in occupation, vaginal delivery, lower monthly expenditure, stress, fear of childbirth and anxiety were found to be predictors of lower health-related quality of life trajectory group membership.ConclusionsHealth professionals should target maternal morbidities and mental health problems when developing health intervention strategies to improve maternal health-related quality of life in the postpartum period. Developing encouraging strategies for social support and providing health education or counselling for women with less or no education are essential to avert the decrease in health-related quality of life trajectories of postpartum women.
Prevalence and significance of anaemia in childhood bacterial meningitis: a secondary analysis of prospectively collected data from clinical trials in Finland, Latin America and Angola
Authors: Pelkonen Tuula , Roine Irmeli , Kallio Markku , Jahnukainen Kirsi , Peltola Heikki 
Published: March 2022

ObjectivesTo describe the prevalence and severity of anaemia and to examine its associations with outcome in children with bacterial meningitis (BM).DesignSecondary analysis of descriptive data from five randomised BM treatment trials.SettingHospitals in Finland, Latin America and Angola.ParticipantsConsecutive children from 2 months to 15 years of age admitted with BM and who had haemoglobin (Hb) measured on admission.Outcome measuresPrevalence and degree of anaemia using the WHO criteria, and their associations with recovery with sequelae or death.ResultsThe median Hb was 11.8 g/dL in Finland (N=341), 9.2 g/dL in Latin America (N=597) and 7.6 g/dL in Angola (N=1085). Of the children, 79% had anaemia, which was severe in 29%, moderate in 58% and mild in 13% of cases. Besides study area, having anaemia was independently associated with age <1 year, treatment delay >3 days, weight-for-age z-score <−3 and other than meningococcal aetiology. Irrespective of the study area, anaemia correlated with the markers of disease severity. In children with severe to moderate anaemia (vs mild or no anaemia), the risk ratio for death was 3.38 and for death or severe sequelae was 3.07.ConclusionAnaemia, mostly moderate, was common in children with BM, especially in Angola, in underweight children, among those with treatment delay, and in pneumococcal meningitis. Poor outcome was associated with anaemia in all three continents.Trial registration numberThe registration numbers of Angolan trials were ISRCTN62824827 and NCT01540838.
Quality of refractive error care (Q.REC) in Cambodia, Malaysia and Pakistan: protocol for a cross-sectional unannounced standardised patient study
Authors: Burnett Anthea M , Lee Ling , McGuinness Myra , Varga Beatrice , Perez Hazel Yadira , Ho Suit May 
Published: March 2022

IntroductionThere are 161 million people living with vision impairment, due to uncorrected refractive errors. A further 510 million people are living with near-vision impairment. There is a need for clearly defined indicators that capture the quality of refractive error service outputs and outcomes and provide insights to shape, change and stimulate action. This study aims to evaluate the quality of refractive error care (Q.REC) in Cambodia, Malaysia and Pakistan, by using unannounced standardised patients (USPs) to identify the proportion of prescribed and dispensed spectacles appropriate for people’s refractive error needs and pinpoint/detail opportunities for quality improvement.Method and analysisA cross-sectional Q.REC study will be conducted in randomly selected optical services in Cambodia (180 services, 900 USP visits), the Klang Valley in Malaysia (66 services, 198 USP visits) and in Jhang, Sahiwal and Khanewal districts of Punjab region/state in Pakistan (64 services, 256 USP visits). USPs will receive baseline refractions by three skilled study optometrists/refractionists trained in the Q.REC protocol. USPs will then visit individual optical services, undergo a refraction, purchase spectacles or lenses (if recommended) and record observations about which elements of a refraction and dispensing were conducted. The study optometrist/refractionist will assess each pair of dispensed spectacles by examining the USP’s aided visual acuity and visual comfort at distance and/or near and compare the lens prescription to the averaged baseline refraction.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the University of New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee (HC210102), the National Ethics Committee for Health Research in Cambodia (043 NECHR), National Medical Research Registry and the Medical Research and Ethics Committee (NMRR-21-689-59279) in Malaysia and the College of Ophthalmology & Allied Vision Sciences Ethical Review Board (COAVS 545/2021) in Pakistan. Written informed consent will be obtained from USPs. Service owners will have the opportunity to opt-out verbally or in writing. Results will be disseminated locally through workshops including the relevant local ministry of health personnel and stakeholders, published in peer-reviewed publications and presented at national and international conferences.
Analysing MyOptions: experiences of Ireland’s abortion information and support service
Authors: Grimes Lorraine , O'Shaughnessy Aideen , Roth Rachel , Carnegie Anna , Duffy Deirdre Niamh 
Published: March 2022

AbstractBackgroundIn 2018, the Irish government enacted a liberalised abortion law permitting expanded access to abortion from January 2019. A dedicated information and support service – MyOptions – was established to provide non-directive counselling and clinical advice about unplanned pregnancy. MyOptions provides contact details for abortion providers but does not make appointments for abortion-seekers. In 2020, the Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC) conducted research into Irish residents’ experiences of abortion care under the new law, including their experiences with MyOptions.MethodsBetween September 2020 and March 2021, ARC administered an online survey. Qualitative data were coded using NVIVO software and analysed through thematic analysis. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively. This article analyses a subsection of these data to answer the question: What were abortion-seekers’ experiences of using MyOptions?ResultsMany respondents were unaware of MyOptions before becoming pregnant. Some described MyOptions as useful and compassionate. Others noted a lack of clarity from MyOptions about the scope of its service and a lack of information on accessing abortion after 12 weeks. Respondents reported frustration that the service did not arrange appointments, explaining that having to contact general practitioners (GPs) themselves was stressful and time-consuming, as was GPs’ refusal to provide care or refer to a willing provider.ConclusionsMyOptions primarily benefits abortion-seekers whose pregnancies are under 12 weeks and who are comfortable contacting a GP themselves. The addition of an appointments booking service and guidance on how to access abortion for medical reasons and abortion after 12 weeks could improve the service.
Surgeon-performed pericapsular nerve group (PENG) block for total hip arthroplasty using the direct anterior approach: a cadaveric study
Authors: Kitcharanant Nitchanant , Leurcharusmee Prangmalee , Wangtapun Pakawat , Kantakam Perada , Maikong Naraporn , Mahakkanukrauh Pasuk , Tran De Q 
Published: March 2022

BackgroundDuring total hip arthroplasty (THA) using the direct anterior approach, orthopaedic surgeons can identify all anatomical landmarks required for pericapsular nerve group (PENG) blocks and carry out the latter under direct vision. This cadaveric study investigated the success of surgeon-performed PENG block. Success was defined as dye staining of the articular branches of the femoral and accessory obturator nerves.Methods11 cadavers (18 hip specimens) were included in the current study. To simulate THA in live patients, an orthopaedic surgeon inserted trial prostheses using the direct anterior approach. Subsequently, a block needle was advanced until contact with the bone (between the anterior inferior iliac spine and iliopubic eminence). 20 mL of 0.1% methylene blue was injected. Cadavers were then dissected to document the presence and dye staining of the femoral, lateral femoral cutaneous, obturator and accessory obturator nerves as well as the articular branches of the femoral, obturator and accessory obturator nerves.ResultsMethylene blue stained the articular branches of the femoral nerve and the articular branches of the accessory obturator nerve (when present) in all hip specimens. Therefore, surgical PENG block achieved a 100% success rate. Dye stained the femoral and obturator nerve in one (5.6%) and two (11.1%) hip specimens, respectively. No dye staining was observed over the accessory obturator nerve in the pelvis nor the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve.ConclusionSurgeon-performed PENG block during direct anterior THA reliably targets the articular branches of the femoral and accessory obturator nerves. Future trials are required to compare surgeon-performed PENG block with anaesthesiologist-performed, ultrasound-guided PENG block, and surgeon-performed periarticular local anaesthetic infiltration.
Importance of multi-step processes in the Coulomb and nuclear breakups of 15C halo nucleus
Authors: Mukeru B. , Ndala L. V. , Lekala M. L. 
Published: March 2022

Breakup reactions involving heavy targets are known to be dominated by the Coulomb breakup, and this is understood as due to the long-range nature of Coulomb forces and a large charge of the target nucleus. In this paper, we intended to find out whether these two factors alone can justify the large importance of the Coulomb breakup over its nuclear counterpart. To this end, we considered the [Formula: see text] breakup reaction at an incident energy of [Formula: see text]. By analyzing this reaction, it is found that the continuum–continuum couplings and higher-order multipole transitions, which are characteristic of nuclear reactions induced by loosely bound projectiles, strongly suppress the nuclear breakup cross-section and have a negligible effect on the Coulomb breakup cross-section. When these reaction dynamics are removed, the nuclear breakup cross-section becomes more important than the Coulomb breakup cross-section at large incident angles. In conclusion, these results infer that the predominance of the Coulomb breakup over the nuclear breakup in reactions involving heavy targets can be explained by three main factors: the large target charge and the long-range nature of Coulomb, as well as the prevailing reaction dynamics such as continuum–continuum couplings and higher-order multipole transitions. These results could motivate further improvements on the theoretical approaches used in pure Coulomb breakup calculations.
Effect of Clinical Nursing Pathway Intervention Based on Evidence-Based Medicine on Venous Thrombosis in Long-Term Bedridden Patients
Authors: Chen Jing , Wen Yanli , Jin Lin , Peng Junwei , Ji Jin 
Published: March 2022

Background. Venous thrombosis is a type of medical condition that establishes as deep vein thrombosis of the limb or pulmonary embolism. This disease arises as a result of interrelating hereditary, ecological, and interactive risk aspects. Clinical nursing pathways also known as critical pathways are pathways that guide nurses when developing a patient’s care plan. However, the effect of nursing intervention on venous thrombosis in long-term bedridden patients from the perspective of evidence-based medicine had not been reported. Methods. A total of 170 patients hospitalized in the hospital from January 2021 to October 2021 were selected, and the bed time was more than 2 weeks. The patients were randomly divided into the control group and observation group. 85 cases in the control group received routine nursing in cardiology, and 85 cases in the observation group received clinical nursing pathway. Venous thrombosis, lower limb pain, swelling, D-dimer level, hemodynamic parameters, and nursing satisfaction were compared in two groups. Results. The incidence of deep venous thrombosis in the observation group was 8.2%, lower than 24.7% in the control group (

P

< 0.05). The incidence of lower limb pain and elevated D-dimer in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (

P

< 0.05). The improvement of hemodynamic parameters such as SBP, DBP, CBV, PR, CI, and CO in the study group was better than that in the control group (

P

< 0.05). The satisfaction of the observation group was 90.58%, which was higher than that of the control group (82.35%) (

P

< 0.05). Conclusion. Clinical nursing pathway can improve patients’ nursing efficiency, improve the treatment effect, shorten hospital stay, and improve nursing satisfaction.
Control of shunt-wound motors with DC/DC converters using the pole placement technique
Authors: Shalash Nadheer Abdulridha , Abdul-Adheem Wameedh Riyadh , Abdul Jabbar Yasir Khaldoon 
Published: March 2022

<p>Many techniques have been developed for the speed manipulation of shunt-wound direct current motors (SWDCMs) established based on armature and field control. The current research proposes a controller based on the pole placement (PP) control technique and compares it with a proportional integral (PI) controller for trajectory speed control of SWDCM with uncertainty. The circuit of the DC/DC converters energizes the DC motor. The responses are analyzed according to the dynamic mathematical model of the implemented controllers and the model of the DC/DC converters. Comparison of the motor dynamical response of the conventional PI and proposed PP controllers indicates that the PP controller exhibits improved performance in terms of rise time and steady-state error</p>
English speaking proficiency assessment using speech and electroencephalography signals
Authors: Hanani Abualsoud , Abusara Yanal , Maher Bisan , Musleh Inas 
Published: March 2022

<p>In this paper, the English speaking proficiency level of non-native English speakers<br />was automatically estimated as high, medium, or low performance. For this purpose, the speech of 142 non-native English speakers was recorded and electroencephalography (EEG) signals of 58 of them were recorded while speaking in English. Two systems were proposed for estimating the English proficiency level of the speaker; one used 72 audio features, extracted from speech signals, and the other used 112 features extracted from EEG signals. Multi-class support vector machines (SVM) was used for training and testing both systems using a cross-validation strategy. The speech-based system outperformed the EEG system with 68% accuracy on 60 testing audio recordings, compared with 56% accuracy on 30 testing EEG recordings.</p>
EEIT2-F: energy-efficient aware IT2-fuzzy based clustering protocol in wireless sensor networks
Authors: Al-Husain Enaam Abd , Al-Suhail Ghaida Abdulrazzaq 
Published: March 2022

<p><span>Improving the network lifetime is still a vital challenge because most wireless sensor networks (WSNs) run in an unreached environment, and offer almost impossible human access and tracking. Clustering is one of the most effective methods for ensuring that the relevant device process takes place to improve network scalability, decrease energy consumption and maintain an extended network lifetime. Many research have been developed on the numerous effective clustering algorithms to address this problem. Such algorithms almost dominate on the cluster head (CH) selection and cluster formation; using the intelligent type1 fuzzy-logic (T1-FL) scheme. In this paper, we suggest an interval type2 FL (IT2-FL) methodology that assumes uncertain levels of a decision to be more efficient than the T1-FL model. It is the so-called energy-efficient interval type2 fuzzy (EEIT2-F) low energy adaptive clustering hierarchical (LEACH) protocol. The IT2-FL system depends on three inputs of the residual energy of each node, the node distance from the base station (sink node), and the centrality of each node. Accordingly, the simulation results show that the suggested clustering protocol outperforms the other existing proposals in terms of energy consumption and network lifetime.</span></p>
Morphological Development at the Evolutionary Timescale: Robotic Developmental Evolution
Authors: Benureau Fabien C. Y. , Tani Jun 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
Evolution and development operate at different timescales; generations for the one, a lifetime for the other. These two processes, the basis of much of life on earth, interact in many non-trivial ways, but their temporal hierarchy—evolution overarching development—is observed for most multicellular life forms. When designing robots, however, this tenet lifts: It becomes—however natural—a design choice. We propose to inverse this temporal hierarchy and design a developmental process happening at the phylogenetic timescale. Over a classic evolutionary search aimed at finding good gaits for tentacle 2D robots, we add a developmental process over the robots’ morphologies. Within a generation, the morphology of the robots does not change. But from one generation to the next, the morphology develops. Much like we become bigger, stronger, and heavier as we age, our robots are bigger, stronger, and heavier with each passing generation. Our robots start with baby morphologies, and a few thousand generations later, end-up with adult ones. We show that this produces better and qualitatively different gaits than an evolutionary search with only adult robots, and that it prevents premature convergence by fostering exploration. In addition, we validate our method on voxel lattice 3D robots from the literature and compare it to a recent evolutionary developmental approach. Our method is conceptually simple, and it can be effective on small or large populations of robots, and intrinsic to the robot and its morphology, not the task or environment. Furthermore, by recasting the evolutionary search as a learning process, these results can be viewed in the context of developmental learning robotics.
Split-Screen: Videogame History Through Local Multiplayer Design
Authors: Karhulahti Veli-Matti , Grabarczyk Pawel 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
By looking at videogame production through a two-vector model of design—a practice determined by the interplay between economic and technological evolution—we argue that shared screen play, as both collaboration and competition, originally functioned as a desirable pattern in videogame design, but has since become problematic due to industry transformations. This is introduced as an example of what we call design vestigiality: momentary loss of a design pattern's contextual function due to techno-economical evolution.
The Design of Firms: Part 1 – Theory of the Firm
Authors: Dong Andy , Kleinsmann Maaike , Snelders Dirk 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
The theory of the firm addresses the economic choice concerning the coordination of production: direct control by an entrepreneur on the one hand or an open market pricing mechanism on the other. We draw upon design theory to offer new thinking on the choice to integrate economic activities within the boundaries of the firm. By drawing on the scholarship in the field of design studies, we show that the coordination of production could both be created and eliminated by a design. It is a design that specifies the labor and material inputs, thus defining the type and number of factors of production. An important factor is the formality of the design, which influences the potential for its modularization into discrete units of production that can be contracted on the open market. In sum, the article argues that design theory can contribute novel conceptualizations to theory of the firm questions on firm existence, scale, and scope.
Scoping a Justificatory Narrative for Design Practice in Research: Some Epistemological Intersections in Dewey, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger
Authors: Dixon Brian 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
Design research involving practice (i.e., practice-based and practice-led research) can be seen to offer a unique approach to knowledge production grounded in imagination and transformation. Yet, in spite of this apparent uniqueness, the approach largely lacks a justificatory epistemological narrative—a way of describing and qualifying its underlying theory of knowledge. It takes the view that any attempt to frame such a narrative requires deep philosophic engagement. This article aims to cohere the perspectives of three key philosophers—Dewey, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger—drawing their voices together around the coupled themes of experience-being, language-meaning, and knowing-truth and representing the whole in design terms.
Using High-Density Electroencephalography to Explore Spatiotemporal Representations of Object Categories in Visual Cortex
Authors: Gurariy Gennadiy , Mruczek Ryan E. B. , Snow Jacqueline C. , Caplovitz Gideon P. 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
Visual object perception involves neural processes that unfold over time and recruit multiple regions of the brain. Here, we use high-density EEG to investigate the spatiotemporal representations of object categories across the dorsal and ventral pathways. In , human participants were presented with images from two animate object categories (birds and insects) and two inanimate categories (tools and graspable objects). In , participants viewed images of tools and graspable objects from a different stimulus set, one in which a shape confound that often exists between these categories (elongation) was controlled for. To explore the temporal dynamics of object representations, we employed time-resolved multivariate pattern analysis on the EEG time series data. This was performed at the electrode level as well as in source space of two regions of interest: one encompassing the ventral pathway and another encompassing the dorsal pathway. Our results demonstrate shape, exemplar, and category information can be decoded from the EEG signal. Multivariate pattern analysis within source space revealed that both dorsal and ventral pathways contain information pertaining to shape, inanimate object categories, and animate object categories. Of particular interest, we note striking similarities obtained in both ventral stream and dorsal stream regions of interest. These findings provide insight into the spatio-temporal dynamics of object representation and contribute to a growing literature that has begun to redefine the traditional role of the dorsal pathway.