cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Structural insights into BCL2 pro-survival protein interactions with the key autophagy regulator BECN1 following phosphorylation by STK4/MST1
Creators: name: Lee, Erinna
name: Smith, Nicholas
name: Soares-da-Costa, Tatiana
name: Meftahi, Nastaran
name: Yao, Shenggen
name: Harris, Tiffany J
name: Tran, Sharon
name: Pettikiriarachchi, Anne
name: Perugini, Matthew
name: Keizer, David W
name: Evangelista, Marco
name: Smith, Brian
name: Fairlie, Walter
Publisher: name: La Trobe
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 31
subject: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
classificationCode: 3101
subject: Biochemistry and cell biology

description: BECN1/Beclin 1 is a critical protein in the initiation of autophagosome formation. Recent studies have shown that phosphorylation of BECN1 by STK4/MST1 at threonine 108 (T108) within its BH3 domain blocks macroautophagy/autophagy by increasing BECN1 affinity for its negative regulators, the anti-apoptotic proteins BCL2/Bcl-2 and BCL2L1/Bcl-x L . It was proposed that this increased binding is due to formation of an electrostatic interaction with a conserved histidine residue on the anti-apoptotic molecules. Here, we performed biophysical studies which demonstrated that a peptide corresponding to the BECN1 BH3 domain in which T108 is phosphorylated (p-T108) does show increased affinity for anti-apoptotic proteins that is significant, though only minor (<2-fold). We also determined X-ray crystal structures of BCL2 and BCL2L1 with T108-modified BECN1 BH3 peptides, but only showed evidence of an interaction between the BH3 peptide and the conserved histidine residue when the histidine flexibility was restrained due to crystal contacts. These data, together with molecular dynamics studies, indicate that the histidine is highly flexible, even when complexed with BECN1 BH3. Binding studies also showed that detergent can increase the affinity of the interaction. Although this increase was similar for both the phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated peptides, it suggests factors such as membranes could impact on the interaction between BECN1 and BCL2 proteins, and therefore, on the regulation of autophagy. Hence, we propose that phosphorylation of BECN1 by STK4/MST1 can increase the affinity of the interaction between BECN1 and anti-apoptotic proteins and this interaction can be stabilized by local environmental factors. Abbreviations: asu: asymmetric unit; BH3: BCL2/Bcl-2 homology 3; DAPK: death associated protein kinase; MD: molecular dynamics; MST: microscale thermophoresis; NMR: nuclear magnetic resonance; PDB: protein data bank; p-T: phosphothreonine; SPR: surface plasmon resonance; STK4/MST1: serine/threonine kinase 4.
Twist: Sound Reasoning for Purity and Entanglement in Quantum Programs
Creators: name: Yuan, Charles
name: McNally, Christopher
name: Carbin, Michael
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Programming Languages (cs.PL)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Quantum programming languages enable developers to implement algorithms for quantum computers that promise computational breakthroughs in classically intractable tasks. Programming quantum computers requires awareness of entanglement, the phenomenon in which measurement outcomes of qubits are correlated. Entanglement can determine the correctness of algorithms and suitability of programming patterns. In this work, we formalize purity as a central tool for automating reasoning about entanglement in quantum programs. A pure expression is one whose evaluation is unaffected by the measurement outcomes of qubits that it does not own, implying freedom from entanglement with any other expression in the computation. We present Twist, the first language that features a type system for sound reasoning about purity. The type system enables the developer to identify pure expressions using type annotations. Twist also features purity assertion operators that state the absence of entanglement in the output of quantum gates. To soundly check these assertions, Twist uses a combination of static analysis and runtime verification. We evaluate Twist's type system and analyses on a benchmark suite of quantum programs in simulation, demonstrating that Twist can express quantum algorithms, catch programming errors in them, and support programs that several languages disallow, while incurring runtime verification overhead of less than 3.5%.
description: This version of the paper differs from ACM Proceedings in that it includes a more refined comparison to prior work, specifically in Sections 3.5 and 9.6
The Impact of Geography in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Retrospective Population Based Study
Creators: name: Yu, Irene S.
name: Liu, Shiru L.
name: Zaborska, Valeriya
name: Raycraft, Tyler
name: Gill, Sharlene
name: Lim, Howard
name: Davies, Janine
Publisher: name: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Year: 2021

description: Background: The treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) includes different therapeutic modalities and multidisciplinary tumor board reviews. The impact of geography and treatment center type (quaternary vs. non-quaternary) on access to care is unclear. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on HCC patients who received sorafenib in British Columbia from 2008 to 2016. Patients were grouped by Statistics Canada population center (PC) size criteria: large PC (LPC), medium PC (MPC), and small PC (SPC). Access to specialists, receipt of liver-directed therapies, and survival outcomes were compared between the groups. Results: Of 286 patients, the geographical distribution was: LPC: 75%; MPC: 16%; and SPC: 9%. A higher proportion of Asians (51% vs. 9% vs. 4%; p < 0.001), Child–Pugh A (94% vs. 83% vs. 80%; p = 0.022), and hepatitis B (37% vs. 15% vs. 4%; p < 0.001) was observed in LPC vs. MPC vs. SPC, respectively. LPC patients were more likely referred to a hepatologist (62% vs. 48% vs. 40%; p = 0.031) and undergo transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) (43% vs. 24% vs. 24%; p = 0.018). Sixty percent were treated at a quaternary center, and the median overall survival (OS) was higher for patients treated at a quaternary vs. non-quaternary center (28.0 vs. 14.6 months, respectively; p < 0.001) but similar when compared by PC size. Treatment at a quaternary center predicted an improved survival on multivariate analysis (hazard ratio (HR): 0.652; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.503–0.844; p = 0.001). Conclusions: Geography did not appear to impact OS but patients from LPC were more likely to be referred to hepatology and undergo TACE. Treatment at a quaternary center was associated with an improved survival.
The effects of parameter estimation on minimising the in-control average sample size for the double sampling X chart
Creators: name: Khoo, Michael B. C.
name: Lee, M. H.
name: Teoh, W. L.
name: Liew, J. Y.
name: Teh, S. Y.
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: The double sampling (DS) X chart, one of the most widely-used charting methods, is superior for detecting small and moderate shifts in the process mean. In a right skewed run length distribution, the median run length (MRL) provides a more credible representation of the central tendency than the average run length (ARL), as the mean is greater than the median. In this paper, therefore, MRL is used as the performance criterion instead of the traditional ARL. Generally, the performance of the DS X chart is investigated under the assumption of known process parameters. In practice, these parameters are usually estimated from an in-control reference Phase-I dataset. Since the performance of the DS X chart is significantly affected by estimation errors, we study the effects of parameter estimation on the MRL-based DS X chart when the in-control average sample size is minimised. This study reveals that more than 80 samples are required for the MRL-based DS X chart with estimated parameters to perform more favourably than the corresponding chart with known parameters.
Examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family mental health in Canada : findings from a national cross-sectional study
Creators: name: Gadermann, Anne
name: Thomson, Kimberly
name: Richardson, Christopher G.
name: Gagné, Monique
name: McAuliffe, Corey
name: Hirani, Saima
name: Jenkins, Emily (Emily K.), 1981-
Publisher: name: BMJ
Year: 2021

description: Objectives In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation, school/child care closures and employment instability have created unprecedented conditions for families raising children at home. This study describes the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on families with children in Canada. Design, setting and participants This descriptive study used a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of adults living in Canada (n=3000) to examine the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Outcomes among parents with children <18 years old living at home (n=618) were compared with the rest of the sample. Data were collected via an online survey between 14 May to 29 May 2020. Outcome measures Participants reported on changes to their mental health since the onset of the pandemic and sources of stress, emotional responses, substance use patterns and suicidality/self-harm. Additionally, parents identified changes in their interactions with their children, impacts on their children’s mental health and sources of support accessed. Results 44.3% of parents with children <18 years living at home reported worse mental health as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with 35.6% of respondents without children <18 living at home, χ2 (1, n=3000)=16.2, p<0.001. More parents compared with the rest of the sample reported increased alcohol consumption (27.7% vs 16.1%, χ2 (1, n=3000)=43.8, p<0.001), suicidal thoughts/ feelings (8.3% vs 5.2%, χ2 (1, n=3000)=8.0, p=0.005) and stress about being safe from physical/emotional domestic violence (11.5% vs 7.9%, χ2 (1, n=3000)=8.1, p=0.005). 24.8% (95% CI 21.4 to 28.4) of parents reported their children’s mental health had worsened since the pandemic. Parents also reported more frequent negative as well as positive interactions with their children due to the pandemic (eg, more conflicts, 22.2% (95% CI 19.0 to 25.7); increased feelings of closeness, 49.7% (95% CI 45.7 to 53.7)). Conclusions This study identifies that families with children <18 at home have experienced deteriorated mental health due to the pandemic. Population-level responses are required to adequately respond to families’ diverse needs and mitigate the potential for widening health and social inequities for parents and children.
Drug Delivery Systems for Advanced Treatment of Pain and Inflammation
Creators: name: SANTIBANEZ, JEFFRI STEVENS RETAMAL
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2022
Subjects: Cell Biology

description: The main focus of this thesis is to understand how the signalling of GPCRs can influence cellular processes of relevance to pain and inflammation, in a spatiotemporal manner. Two key receptors in pain pathways, including the Neurokinin 1 Receptor and metabotropic glutamate receptor mGlu5, were investigated to assess how these GPCRs contribute to signalling when distributed to endosomes; and if endosomal signalling can be targeted to modulate pain. The thesis utilises genetic encoded biosensors, pharmacological tools and polymeric nanoparticles for location-specific drug delivery. An additional study investigated the importance of the ion channel TRPV4 as an effector protein for serotonin-induced 5HT2A receptor signalling and edema. This thesis includes 3 results chapters and 2 manuscripts published in peer reviewed journals. The main project of this thesis is an unpublished chapter studying the role of mGlu5 endocytosis for pain transmission.
How great thy brand: the impact of church branding on perceived benefits
Creators: name: Casidy, Riza
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: There are mixed opinions in the literature in regards of the appropriateness, relevance and significance of church branding in the context of church participation. This pilot study applied the 'perceived brand orientation' (PBO) construct in church context and examines its impact on perceived benefits among regular church goers of one Pentecostal denomination and non-regular church goers. The results indicate that PBO is significantly related to perceived spiritual, social and purpose-in-life benefits in both sample groups. A multigroup analysis also found that PBO has a stronger effect on perceived benefits among non-regular church goers. This study highlights the importance of being brand-oriented to attract members' participation. Relevant implications for church leaders andmanagers of nonprofit organizations are also identified.
Multiple glassy dynamics of a homologous series of triphenylene-based columnar liquid crystals -- A study by broadband dielectric spectroscopy and advanced calorimetry
Creators: name: Yildirim, Arda
name: Krause, Christina
name: Huber, Patrick
name: Schönhals, Andreas
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
subject: Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Hexakis(n-alkyloxy)triphenylene) (HATn) consisting of an aromatic triphenylene core and alkyl side chains are model discotic liquid crystal (DLC) systems forming a columnar mesophase. In the mesophase, the molecules of HATn self-assemble in columns, which has one-dimensional high charge carrier mobility along the columns. Here, a homologous series of HATn with different length of the alkyl chain (n=5,6,8,10,12) is investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) and advanced calorimetric techniques including fast scanning calorimetry (FSC) and specific heat spectroscopy (SHS). The investigation of the phase behavior was done utilizing DSC experiments and the influence of the alkyl chain length on the phase behavior was revealed. By the dielectric investigations probing the molecular mobility, a $γ$-relaxation due to localized fluctuations as well as two glassy dynamics the $α$ core and $α$ alkyl relaxation were observed in the temperature range of the plastic crystalline phase. Moreover, the observed glassy dynamics were further studied employing advanced calorimetry. All observed relaxation processes are attributed to the possible specific molecular fluctuations and discussed in detail. From the results a transition at around n=8 from a rigid constrained (n=5,6) to a softer system (n=10,12) was revealed with increasing alkyl chain length. A counterbalance of two competing effects of a polyethylene like behavior of the alkyl chains in the intercolumnar domains and self-organized confinement is discussed in the context of a hindered glass transition.
description: 31 pages, 11 figures
Analysing the Robustness of Dual Encoders for Dense Retrieval Against Misspellings
Creators: name: Sidiropoulos, Georgios
name: Kanoulas, Evangelos
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Information Retrieval (cs.IR)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Dense retrieval is becoming one of the standard approaches for document and passage ranking. The dual-encoder architecture is widely adopted for scoring question-passage pairs due to its efficiency and high performance. Typically, dense retrieval models are evaluated on clean and curated datasets. However, when deployed in real-life applications, these models encounter noisy user-generated text. That said, the performance of state-of-the-art dense retrievers can substantially deteriorate when exposed to noisy text. In this work, we study the robustness of dense retrievers against typos in the user question. We observe a significant drop in the performance of the dual-encoder model when encountering typos and explore ways to improve its robustness by combining data augmentation with contrastive learning. Our experiments on two large-scale passage ranking and open-domain question answering datasets show that our proposed approach outperforms competing approaches. Additionally, we perform a thorough analysis on robustness. Finally, we provide insights on how different typos affect the robustness of embeddings differently and how our method alleviates the effect of some typos but not of others.
description: Accepted at the 45th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (SIGIR 2022)
Unpacking National Parliamentary  Perceptions of CSDP Operations,  2016–2021
Creators: name: Kissack, Robert
name: Michaels, Eva
name: Fernández, Óscar
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: This paper provides a first snapshot and comparison of national parliamentary perceptions of EU military and civilian operations that could be observed in the parliaments of 13 selected EU Member States during the years 2016 to 2021. Tracing parliamentary perceptions of recently concluded and ongoing EU crisis management operations, and where possible also perceptions of contemporary crises in Europe’s neighbourhood, associated threats and risks and preferred crisis responses, allows us to identify patterns of change and continuity regarding the positions of national legislatures on security and defence matters. This, in turn, helps to better grasp the diversity of views on the topic within the EU and its effects on EU policymaking, which tend to remain understudied. In addition, we discuss the salience of CSDP operations and external crises during this period in the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence. This provides a broader comparative context to the degree of salience and scrutiny of CSDP operations in the national parliaments of the selected EU Member States. Overall, this paper unpacks national parliamentary perceptions of EU crisis  management to contribute to better understandings of why the EU behaved the way it did and what this may imply for future EU crisis responses.
Weiterentwicklung Blauer Engel Programm durch neue Umweltzeichen und Dynamisierung bestehender Produktgruppe: Bildschirmgeräte
Creators: name: Zimmermann, Till
name: Spengler, Laura
name: Jepsen, Dirk
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Produktkennzeichnung
Umweltzeichen
Fernsehgerät

description: Innerhalb des Rahmenvorhabens zur Weiterentwicklung des Umweltzeichens Blauer Engel (FKZ 371395322) fanden unter anderem Arbeiten zur Revision der bestehenden Vergabegrundlage zu Fernsehgeräten statt. Ziel ist es, den Geltungsbereich der Vergabegrundlage an die hierzu laufenden produktpolitischen Diskussionen auf EU-Ebene anzupassen (Zusammenfassung von Fernsehgeräten und Monitoren als Bildschirmgeräte) sowie die Vergabegrundlage mit Blick auf bedeutende Umweltaspekte wie die gestiegene Energieeffizienz sowie weitere Anforderungen weiterzuentwickeln. Dieser Bericht enthält Hintergrundinformationen zum Vorschlag für eine überarbeitete Vergabegrundlage für Bildschirmgeräte, unter anderem zur Marktentwicklung, zum Energieverbrauch sowie zur Ressourcenschonung. Quelle: Forschungsbericht
description: Within the framework project aiming at the further development of the Blue Angel Label (FKZ 371395322), among other tasks, works were conducted on the revision of the existing criteria set for televisions. The aim is to align the scope of the criteria set with the current discussions in product policy on EU level with regard to this product group (common criteria for displays, including televisions and monitors) and to enhance the criteria set with a view to relevant environment aspects such as energy efficiency and other requirements. This report contains background information related to the proposal for a revised criteria set for displays on the market development, energy consumption and resource conservation, among other things. Quelle: Forschungsbericht
Informing the research agenda for optimizing audit and feedback interventions: results of a prioritization exercise
Creators: name: Colquhoun, Heather L.
name: Carroll, Kelly
name: Eva, Kevin W.
name: Grimshaw, Jeremy M.
name: Ivers, Noah
name: Michie, Susan
name: Brehaut, Jamie C.
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2021

description: Background: Audit and feedback (A&F) interventions are one of the most common approaches for implementing evidence-based practices. A key barrier to more effective A&F interventions is the lack of a theory-guided approach to the accumulation of evidence. Recent interviews with theory experts identified 313 theory-informed hypotheses, spread across 30 themes, about how to create more effective A&F interventions. In the current survey, we sought to elicit from stakeholders which hypotheses were most likely to advance the field if studied further. Methods: From the list of 313, three members of the research team identified 216 that were clear and distinguishable enough for prioritization. A web-based survey was then sent to 211 A&F intervention stakeholders asking them to choose up to 50 ‘priority’ hypotheses following the header “A&F interventions will be more effective if…”. Analyses included frequencies of endorsement of the individual hypotheses and themes into which they were grouped. Results: 68 of the 211 invited participants responded to the survey. Seven hypotheses were chosen by > 50% of respondents, including A&F interventions will be more effective… “if feedback is provided by a trusted source”; “if recipients are involved in the design/development of the feedback intervention”; “if recommendations related to the feedback are based on good quality evidence”; “if the behaviour is under the control of the recipient”; “if it addresses barriers and facilitators (drivers) to behaviour change”; “if it suggests clear action plans”; and “if target/goal/optimal rates are clear and explicit”. The most endorsed theme was Recipient Priorities (four hypotheses were chosen 92 times as a ‘priority’ hypotheses). Conclusions: This work determined a set of hypotheses thought by respondents to be to be most likely to advance the field through future A&F intervention research. This work can inform a coordinated research agenda that may more efficiently lead to more effective A&F interventions.
Design for nature and the nature of design ability: a study connecting birding, Visual Communication design and scientific illustration
Creators: name: Barlowe, Cherry Denise
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: This thesis investigates how Visual Communication design expertise can make a significant contribution to digital scientific illustration for Australian birds and to knowledge about creative practice in Design. Using case studies this research develops Identicons, a new graphic information system for Australian bird identification applicable to bird field guides, for use in the field by the birding community, and for environmental education. Through reflective practice the research analyses the creative process in the act of designing to increase knowledge of how the Visual Communication designer understands the nature of his or her own design ability in their design practice.
Existence of positive solutions of a Hammerstein integral equation using the layered compression-expansion fixed point theorem
Creators: name: Dhar, Sougata
name: Lyons, Jeffrey W.
name: Neugebauer, Jeffrey T.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Classical Analysis and ODEs (math.CA)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 45G10, 34B15, 34B27, 47H10

description: In this paper, we show the existence of a positive solution of a Hammerstein integral equation under certain conditions on the kernel. We apply the recent Layered Compression-Expansion Fixed Point Theorem. Finally, we provide corollaries to help in application of the main results and present an example.
Lyapunov-Type Inequalities for a Fractional Boundary Value Problem with a Fractional Boundary Condition
Creators: name: Dhar, Sougata
name: Neugebauer, Jeffrey T.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Classical Analysis and ODEs (math.CA)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 34A08, 26A33, 26D15, 70K75

description: In this paper, we consider a linear fractional differential equation with fractional boundary conditions. First, by obtaining Green's function, we derive the Lyapunov-type inequalities for such boundary value problems. Furthermore, we use the contraction mapping theorem to study the existence of a unique solution to a nonlinear problem.
Second-Order Sensitivity Analysis for Bilevel Optimization
Creators: name: Dyro, Robert
name: Schmerling, Edward
name: Arechiga, Nikos
name: Pavone, Marco
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Optimization and Control (math.OC)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: In this work we derive a second-order approach to bilevel optimization, a type of mathematical programming in which the solution to a parameterized optimization problem (the "lower" problem) is itself to be optimized (in the "upper" problem) as a function of the parameters. Many existing approaches to bilevel optimization employ first-order sensitivity analysis, based on the implicit function theorem (IFT), for the lower problem to derive a gradient of the lower problem solution with respect to its parameters; this IFT gradient is then used in a first-order optimization method for the upper problem. This paper extends this sensitivity analysis to provide second-order derivative information of the lower problem (which we call the IFT Hessian), enabling the usage of faster-converging second-order optimization methods at the upper level. Our analysis shows that (i) much of the computation already used to produce the IFT gradient can be reused for the IFT Hessian, (ii) errors bounds derived for the IFT gradient readily apply to the IFT Hessian, (iii) computing IFT Hessians can significantly reduce overall computation by extracting more information from each lower level solve. We corroborate our findings and demonstrate the broad range of applications of our method by applying it to problem instances of least squares hyperparameter auto-tuning, multi-class SVM auto-tuning, and inverse optimal control.
description: 16 pages, 6 figures
When does the use of individual patient data in network meta-analysis make a difference? A simulation study
Creators: name: Kanters, Steve
name: Karim, Mohammad Ehsanul
name: Thorlund, Kristian
name: Anis, Aslam H. (Aslam Hayat), 1959-
name: Bansback, Nick
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2021

description: Background: The use of individual patient data (IPD) in network meta-analyses (NMA) is rapidly growing. This study aimed to determine, through simulations, the impact of select factors on the validity and precision of NMA estimates when combining IPD and aggregate data (AgD) relative to using AgD only. Methods: Three analysis strategies were compared via simulations: 1) AgD NMA without adjustments (AgD-NMA); 2) AgD NMA with meta-regression (AgD-NMA-MR); and 3) IPD-AgD NMA with meta-regression (IPD-NMA). We compared 108 parameter permutations: number of network nodes (3, 5 or 10); proportion of treatment comparisons informed by IPD (low, medium or high); equal size trials (2-armed with 200 patients per arm) or larger IPD trials (500 patients per arm); sparse or well-populated networks; and type of effect-modification (none, constant across treatment comparisons, or exchangeable). Data were generated over 200 simulations for each combination of parameters, each using linear regression with Normal distributions. To assess model performance and estimate validity, the mean squared error (MSE) and bias of treatment-effect and covariate estimates were collected. Standard errors (SE) and percentiles were used to compare estimate precision. Results: Overall, IPD-NMA performed best in terms of validity and precision. The median MSE was lower in the IPD-NMA in 88 of 108 scenarios (similar results otherwise). On average, the IPD-NMA median MSE was 0.54 times the median using AgD-NMA-MR. Similarly, the SEs of the IPD-NMA treatment-effect estimates were 1/5 the size of AgD-NMA-MR SEs. The magnitude of superior validity and precision of using IPD-NMA varied across scenarios and was associated with the amount of IPD. Using IPD in small or sparse networks consistently led to improved validity and precision; however, in large/dense networks IPD tended to have negligible impact if too few IPD were included. Similar results also apply to the meta-regression coefficient estimates. Conclusions: Our simulation study suggests that the use of IPD in NMA will considerably improve the validity and precision of estimates of treatment effect and regression coefficients in the most NMA IPD data-scenarios. However, IPD may not add meaningful validity and precision to NMAs of large and dense treatment networks when negligible IPD are used.
Acceleration Strategies for MR-STAT: Achieving High-Resolution Reconstructions on a Desktop PC within 3 minutes
Creators: name: Liu, Hongyan
name: van der Heide, Oscar
name: Mandija, Stefano
name: Berg, Cornelis A. T. van den
name: Sbrizzi, Alessandro
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Medical Physics (physics.med-ph)
subject: Image and Video Processing (eess.IV)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering

description: MR-STAT is an emerging quantitative magnetic resonance imaging technique which aims at obtaining multi-parametric tissue parameter maps from single short scans. It describes the relationship between the spatial-domain tissue parameters and the time-domain measured signal by using a comprehensive, volumetric forward model. The MR-STAT reconstruction solves a large-scale nonlinear problem, thus is very computationally challenging. In previous work, MR-STAT reconstruction using Cartesian readout data was accelerated by approximating the Hessian matrix with sparse, banded blocks, and can be done on high performance CPU clusters with tens of minutes. In the current work, we propose an accelerated Cartesian MR-STAT algorithm incorporating two different strategies: firstly, a neural network is trained as a fast surrogate to learn the magnetization signal not only in the full time-domain but also in the compressed lowrank domain; secondly, based on the surrogate model, the Cartesian MR-STAT problem is re-formulated and split into smaller sub-problems by the alternating direction method of multipliers. The proposed method substantially reduces the computational requirements for runtime and memory. Simulated and in-vivo balanced MR-STAT experiments show similar reconstruction results using the proposed algorithm compared to the previous sparse Hessian method, and the reconstruction times are at least 40 times shorter. Incorporating sensitivity encoding and regularization terms is straightforward, and allows for better image quality with a negligible increase in reconstruction time. The proposed algorithm could reconstruct both balanced and gradient-spoiled in-vivo data within 3 minutes on a desktop PC, and could thereby facilitate the translation of MR-STAT in clinical settings.
description: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (in press)
Numerical simulation of foaming in metal processing with population balance modeling
Creators: name: Sattar, Md Abdus
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: In this study computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model has been developed and numerical simulation has been carried out to predict the formation of foam, the number density of different bubble class, thermo-chemical reaction and multiphase flow phenomena. A new approach for the numerical simulation of foaming has been proposed and used in the present study. Numerical simulation of multiphase flow with bubble break-up and bubble coalescence model available in the open literature has also been incorporated in the CFD model. An anomaly was identified in the model of daughter bubble distribution available in the literature and rectified in the present study. Population balance modelling was used to track the number density of different bubble class. The decarburisation reaction with heat generation due to exothermic reaction was considered in the present study. The numerical prediction was based on Eulerian-Eulerian approach where the liquid phase was treated as a continuum and the gas phase (bubbles) was considered as a dispersed phase. A user subroutine was written in FORTRAN programming language to incorporate foam formation and destruction, bubble interactions and decarburisation into the main CFD software. The simulated results from the CFD models were validated against the experimental data available in the open literature.
Gestörte Idylle
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Lärmbelästigung
subject: Garten
subject: Lärm
subject: Gartengerät
subject: Motorsäge
subject: Rasenmäher
subject: Rasenmäherlärm
subject: Gartengeräte
subject: Motorgartengerät
subject: Kettensäge
subject: Freischneider
subject: Grastrimmer
subject: Rasentrimmer
subject: Heckenscheren
subject: Vertikutierer
subject: Schnittguthäcksel
subject: Verkehr
subject: Transport

description: Die Garten-Saison hat wieder begonnen. Gartenfreundinnen und -freunde freuen sich auf frische Luft, Sonne, Ruhe und Entspannung im eigenen Garten. Dass damit auch viel Arbeit verbunden ist, versteht sich von selbst. Rasen mähen, Hecken scheren, Bäume beschneiden, all das gehört zur Gartenpflege einfach dazu. Dabei helfen uns zunehmend motorisierte Maschinen und Geräte. An dieser Stelle hören Ruhe und Entspannung auf, denn Rasenmäher, Motorkettensägen, Gartenhäcksler und Co. können für enormen Lärm sorgen.
Clinical laboratory test-wide association scan of polygenic scores identifies biomarkers of complex disease
Creators: name: Dennis, Jessica K
name: Sealock, Julia M
name: Straub, Peter
name: Lee, Younga H
name: Hucks, Donald
name: Actkins, Ky’Era
name: Faucon, Annika
name: Feng, Yen-Chen A
name: Ge, Tian
name: Goleva, Slavina B
name: Niarchou, Maria
name: Singh, Kritika
name: Morley, Theodore
name: Smoller, Jordan W
name: Ruderfer, Douglas M
name: Mosley, Jonathan D
name: Chen, Guanhua
name: Davis, Lea K
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2021

description: Background: Clinical laboratory (lab) tests are used in clinical practice to diagnose, treat, and monitor disease conditions. Test results are stored in electronic health records (EHRs), and a growing number of EHRs are linked to patient DNA, offering unprecedented opportunities to query relationships between genetic risk for complex disease and quantitative physiological measurements collected on large populations. Methods: A total of 3075 quantitative lab tests were extracted from Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) EHR system and cleaned for population-level analysis according to our QualityLab protocol. Lab values extracted from BioVU were compared with previous population studies using heritability and genetic correlation analyses. We then tested the hypothesis that polygenic risk scores for biomarkers and complex disease are associated with biomarkers of disease extracted from the EHR. In a proof of concept analyses, we focused on lipids and coronary artery disease (CAD). We cleaned lab traits extracted from the EHR performed lab-wide association scans (LabWAS) of the lipids and CAD polygenic risk scores across 315 heritable lab tests then replicated the pipeline and analyses in the Massachusetts General Brigham Biobank. Results: Heritability estimates of lipid values (after cleaning with QualityLab) were comparable to previous reports and polygenic scores for lipids were strongly associated with their referent lipid in a LabWAS. LabWAS of the polygenic score for CAD recapitulated canonical heart disease biomarker profiles including decreased HDL, increased pre-medication LDL, triglycerides, blood glucose, and glycated hemoglobin (HgbA1C) in European and African descent populations. Notably, many of these associations remained even after adjusting for the presence of cardiovascular disease and were replicated in the MGBB. Conclusions: Polygenic risk scores can be used to identify biomarkers of complex disease in large-scale EHR-based genomic analyses, providing new avenues for discovery of novel biomarkers and deeper understanding of disease trajectories in pre-symptomatic individuals. We present two methods and associated software, QualityLab and LabWAS, to clean and analyze EHR labs at scale and perform a Lab-Wide Association Scan.
title: Interleaving subtraction strategies to foster primary students’ strategy proficiency
Creators: name: Nemeth, Lea
Publisher: name: KOBRA Universität Kassel
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 370
subject: 370
classificationCode: Mathematikunterricht
subject: Mathematikunterricht
classificationCode: Grundschule
subject: Grundschule
classificationCode: Interleaving
subject: Interleaving
classificationCode: Strategie
subject: Strategie
classificationCode: Subtraktion
subject: Subtraktion
classificationCode: Kognition
subject: Kognition

description:
This thesis explores the potential of interleaved practice to improve primary students' strategy proficiency in three-digit subtraction tasks. An experimental classroom study with 236 German third graders compared the effectiveness of interleaved practice, including between-comparison prompts, with blocked practice, including within-comparison prompts, in teach-ing the adaptive use of different subtraction strategies. Across four articles, this research high-lights the superiority of interleaved practice in promoting flexible and adaptive strategy use. The results show that interleaved practice better fosters students' ability to adaptively select subtraction strategies based on task characteristics than blocked practice, leading to improved problem-solving accuracy. This effect was observed immediately post-intervention and sustained five weeks later, indicating that the benefits of interleaving are long-lasting. Notably, the positive effects of interleaving on adaptive strategy use were found to be independent of students' prior knowledge, indicating its broad applicability across a diverse range of learners. The effectiveness of interleaving was influenced by students' need for cognition. However, this influence did not differ significantly from its impact on blocked practice. Moreover, the results show that interleaved practice helps to reduce overreliance on the standard written al-gorithm and encourages using more efficient strategies, such as indirect addition and compen-sation strategy. Cluster analysis further revealed that interleaved practice predicts inclusion in a high-adaptivity cluster, highlighting its role in fostering comprehensive adaptive strategy use. Additionally, interleaved practice promotes the development of flexible calculators—stu-dents who employ various strategies with few errors. This is in sharp contrast to the blocked condition, which tends to lead to a greater reliance on the standard algorithm with associated errors. This finding highlights the potential of interleaved practice to cultivate a more versatile and accurate problem-solving approach in students. This thesis contributes to the understanding of effective strategy instruction in mathematics. It advocates for the integration of interleaved practice as a means of cultivating adaptive expertise and accuracy in problem solving.
Three Queensland premiers and the Mungana scandal
Creators: name: Moore, David Edward
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: This thesis examines the unique role that the Mungana Scandal played in Queensland history, affecting the careers of three Premiers: Edward Theodore, William McCormack and Arthur Moore, who led the state between 1919 and 1932. The story has primarily been presented as a political one with the focus on Theodore, whereas the key person to follow was McCormack. Access to wider archival sources, technical information and review from today's perspective enable the entire story to be told in chronological sequence. It concludes with a re-assessment of seven myths which have evolved about the Chillagoe-Mungana story over a 40 year period.
Synthesis of DOTA-pyridine chelates for 64Cu coordination and radiolabeling of αMSH peptide
Creators: name: Yang, Hua
name: Gao, Feng
name: McNeil, Brooke
name: Zhang, Chengcheng
name: Yuan, Zheliang
name: Zeisler, Stefan
name: Kumlin, Joel
name: Zeisler, Jutta
name: Bénard, François
name: Ramogida, Caterina F.
name: Schaffer, Paul
Publisher: name: Springer International Publishing
Year: 2021

description: Background: ⁶⁴Cu is one of the few radioisotopes that can be used for both imaging and therapy, enabling theranostics with identical chemical composition. Development of stable chelators is essential to harness the potential of this isotope, challenged by the presence of endogenous copper chelators. Pyridyl type chelators show good coordination ability with copper, prompting the present study of a series of chelates DOTA-xPy (x = 1–4) that sequentially substitute carboxyl moieties with pyridyl moieties on a DOTA backbone. Results: We found that the presence of pyridyl groups significantly increases ⁶⁴Cu labeling conversion yield, with DOTA-2Py, −3Py and -4Py quantitatively complexing ⁶⁴Cu at room temperature within 5 min (1 × 10⁻⁴ M). [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-DOTA-xPy (x = 2–4) exhibited good stability in human serum up to 24 h. When challenged with 1000 eq. of NOTA, no transmetallation was observed for all three ⁶⁴Cu complexes. DOTA-xPy (x = 1–3) were conjugated to a cyclized α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (αMSH) peptide by using one of the pendant carboxyl groups as a bifunctional handle. [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-DOTA-xPy-αMSH retained good serum stability (> 96% in 24 h) and showed high binding affinity (Ki = 2.1–3.7 nM) towards the melanocortin 1 receptor. Conclusion: DOTA-xPy (x = 1–3) are promising chelators for ⁶⁴Cu. Further in vivo evaluation is necessary to assess the full potential of these chelators as a tool to enable further theranostic radiopharmaceutical development.
Large payload bidirectional quantum secure direct communication without information leakage
Creators: name: Ye, Tian-Yu
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A large payload bidirectional quantum secure direct communication (BQSDC) protocol without information leakage is proposed, which is based on entanglement swapping between any two GHZ states. Two remote authorized parties, Alice and Bob, can safely exchange their individual secret messages without worrying about the information leakage problem. Our protocol uses a shared secret GHZ state to overcome the information leakage problem. The shared secret GHZ state plays two roles in the bidirectional communication process: on one hand, it lets Bob know the prepared initial state; on the other hand, it is used for encoding Bob's secret messages. Moreover, our protocol can transmit six bits of secret messages per round communication. Compared with those previous BQSDC protocols, the advantage of our protocol lies in having the following two characters simultaneously: on one hand, it overcomes the information leakage problem; one the other hand, its capacity is as high as six bits per round communication.
description: 9 pages, 2 tables
Spot-adaptive Knowledge Distillation
Creators: name: Song, Jie
name: Chen, Ying
name: Ye, Jingwen
name: Song, Mingli
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Knowledge distillation (KD) has become a well established paradigm for compressing deep neural networks. The typical way of conducting knowledge distillation is to train the student network under the supervision of the teacher network to harness the knowledge at one or multiple spots (i.e., layers) in the teacher network. The distillation spots, once specified, will not change for all the training samples, throughout the whole distillation process. In this work, we argue that distillation spots should be adaptive to training samples and distillation epochs. We thus propose a new distillation strategy, termed spot-adaptive KD (SAKD), to adaptively determine the distillation spots in the teacher network per sample, at every training iteration during the whole distillation period. As SAKD actually focuses on "where to distill" instead of "what to distill" that is widely investigated by most existing works, it can be seamlessly integrated into existing distillation methods to further improve their performance. Extensive experiments with 10 state-of-the-art distillers are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of SAKD for improving their distillation performance, under both homogeneous and heterogeneous distillation settings. Code is available at https://github.com/zju-vipa/spot-adaptive-pytorch
description: 12 pages, 8 figures
Development of Coronavirus Treatments Using Neutralizing Antibodies
Creators: name: Fouladirad, Saman
name: Bach, Horacio
Publisher: name: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Year: 2021

description: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. This virus has led to 61.8 million cases worldwide being reported as of December 1st, 2020. Currently, there are no definite approved therapies endorsed by the World Health Organization for COVID-19, focusing only on supportive care. Treatment centers around symptom management, including oxygen therapy or invasive mechanical ventilation. Immunotherapy has the potential to play a role in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), in particular, is a relatively new approach in the world of infectious diseases and has the benefit of overcoming challenges with serum therapy and intravenous immunoglobulins preparations. Here, we reviewed the articles published in PubMed with the purpose of summarizing the currently available evidence for the use of neutralizing antibodies as a potential treatment for coronaviruses. Studies reporting in vivo results were summarized and analyzed. Despite promising data from some studies, none of them progressed to clinical trials. It is expected that neutralizing antibodies might offer an alternative for COVID-19 treatment. Thus, there is a need for randomized trials to understand the potential use of this treatment.
Information leakage resistant quantum dialogue against collective noise
Creators: name: Ye, Tian-Yu
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In this paper, two information leakage resistant quantum dialogue (QD) protocols over a collective-noise channel are proposed. Decoherence-free subspace (DFS) is used to erase the influence from two kinds of collective noise, i.e., collective-dephasing noise and collective-rotation noise, where each logical qubit is composed of two physical qubits and free from noise. In each of the two proposed protocols, the secret messages are encoded on the initial logical qubits via two composite unitary operations. Moreover, the single-photon measurements rather than the Bell-state measurements or the more complicated measurements are needed for decoding, making the two proposed protocols easier to implement. The initial state of each logical qubit is privately shared between the two authenticated users through the direct transmission of its auxiliary counterpart. Consequently, the information leakage problem is avoided in the two proposed protocols. Moreover, the detailed security analysis also shows that Eve's several famous active attacks can be effectively overcome, such as the Trojan horse attack, the intercept-resend attack, the measure-resend attack, the entangle-measure attack and the correlation-elicitation (CE) attack.
description: 11 pages