Search

The increasing prevalence of fake publications created by paper mills poses a significant challenge to maintaining scientific integrity. While integrity analysts typically rely on textual and visual clues to identify fake articles, determining which papers merit further investigation can be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack, as these fake publications have non-related authors and are published on non-related venues. To address this challenge, we developed a new methodology for provenance analysis, which automatically tracks and groups suspicious figures and documents. Our approach groups manuscripts from the same paper mill by analyzing their figures and identifying duplicated and manipulated regions. These regions are linked and organized in a provenance graph, providing evidence of systematic production. We tested our solution on a paper mill dataset of hundreds of documents and also on a larger version of the dataset that deliberately included thousands of documents intentionally selected to distract our method. Our approach successfully identified and linked systematically produced articles on both datasets by pinpointing the figures they reused and manipulated from one another. The technique herein proposed offers a promising solution to identify fraudulent manuscripts, and it could be a valuable tool for supporting scientific integrity., Competing Interests: No authors have competing interests., (Copyright: © 2024 Cardenuto et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Oral contraceptives (OC) are the most used form of contraception among women in the U.S. and Europe. Like other medications, their packaging must include patient information leaflets. This study quantifies the environmental impact of paper waste generated by these leaflets. We conducted an observational analysis, measuring the weight of leaflets, pills, and packaging components across various OC brands. Significant variations in leaflet weights were observed. On average, leaflets accounted for 55% of the package weight, while pills and blister dispensers represented only 32%. The mean weight of OC leaflets was 12.3 ± 5.5 grams (4.7-21.9 grams), leading to an estimated annual paper waste of 6,118.4 tons, 5,763.5 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, and the use of approximately 146,841 trees for production. Standardizing leaflet weight to the lightest reported can reduce annual waste by 3780.5 tons of paper. This study highlights the substantial environmental cost of the waste generated from OC leaflets and proposes practical strategies to mitigate waste, including electronic leaflets and standardized packaging. Targeting these materials presents a significant opportunity to enhance sustainability, aligning with global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the healthcare sector., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Safrai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Color correction is an important methodology where a digital image's colors undergo a transformation to more accurately represent their appearance using a predefined set of illumination conditions. Colorimetric measurements in diagnostics are sensitive to very small changes in colors and therefore require consistent, reproducible illumination conditions to produce accurate results, making color correction a necessity. This paper presents an image color correction pipeline developed by HueDx, Inc., using transfer algorithms that improve upon existing methodologies and demonstrates real-world applications of this pipeline in colorimetric clinical chemistry using a smartphone enabled, paper-based total protein diagnostic assay. Our pipeline is able to compensate for a variety of illumination conditions to provide consistent imaging for quantitative colorimetric measurements using white-balancing, multivariate gaussian distributions and histogram regression via dynamic, non-linear interpolating lookup tables. We empirically demonstrate that each point in the color correction pipeline provides a theoretical basis for achieving consistent and precise color correction. To show this, we measure color difference with deltaE (ΔE00), alongside quantifying performance of the HueDx color correction system, including the phone hardware, color sticker manufacturing quality and software correction capabilities. The results show that the HueDx color correction system is capable of restoring images to near-imperceptible levels of difference independent of their original illumination conditions including brightness and color temperature. Comparisons drawn from the paper-based total protein assay calibrated and quantified with and without using the HueDx color correction pipeline show that the coefficient of variation in precision testing is almost twice as high without color-correcting. Limits of blank, detection and quantitation were also higher without color-correction. Overall, we were able to demonstrate the HueDx platform improves reading and outcome of the total protein diagnostic assay and is useful for the development of smartphone-based quantitative colorimetric diagnostic assays for point-of-care testing., Competing Interests: Financial support for the development of this product was provided by HueDx,Inc., an early-stage venture-capital-backed company. All authors are employees of the company. The HueDx system, consisting of the color correction pipeline, HueCard(with custom sticker) and HueTools are commercially marketed products. Code for the color correction pipeline cannot be made available publicly due to legal restrictions., (Copyright: © 2024 Menon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Hardness is one of the basic parameters of water, and a high-level hardness of drinking water may be harmful to human health. Thus, it is very important to monitor drinking water hardness. In this work, a portable lateral flow distance-based paper sensor for the semi-quantitative detection of drinking water hardness is demonstrated. In the presence of Ca2+/Mg2+, the hydrogel can be formed via the chelation between sodium alginate and Ca2+/Mg2+, inducing a phase separation process. The viscosity change of the sodium alginate solution is directly related to the Ca2+/Mg2+ concentration and can be determined by the water lateral flow distance on test strips. The sensor successfully realizes the quantification of Ca2+ and Mg2+ in the range of 0-10 mmol L-1 and 4-20 mmol L-1, respectively. The recoveries are found varied from 95% to 108.9%. The water hardness is acceptable for drinking if the Cr values lies in the range of 0.259 to 0.419, and it is high with the Cr value above 0.595. Remarkably, the performance of the sensor is comparable with the commercial kit for real water samples, which avoids the subjective judgment. Overall, this method provides a portable approach for semi-quantitative detection of drinking water hardness with the merits of convenience and low cost, which shows great potential for the potential application., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Excellent traditional culture is the root and soul of a nation, which is the carrier of historical precipitation and continuous development. In this aspect, Hubei folk art of carved paper-cutting has important cultural value and historical significance in the composition of Chinese traditional culture, which is a national intangible cultural heritage under key protection and urgently needs to be carried forward. This paper carried out an empirical study using the survey and comparative analysis methods on the feature extraction for Hubei folk art of carved paper-cutting. Through investigation and comparative analysis of vast artworks of Hubei carved paper-cutting, the classics are selected as the representative to extract the regional characteristics, the artistic values, and the composition and modelling methods. Results indicate that the common features exist on the artistic values in beautification of life and education, the composition principles of central-based, symmetry, balanced or conformal, and the modelling techniques using Yin and Yang carving, unobstructive perspective, distortion and exaggeration. However, the regional features in cultural expression, folklore communication, modelling skills are apparent and strong interlinked with the regional historical development in social activities, labor productivity and surrounding environment. This study provides a multi-dimensional perspective for the modern inheritance and development of traditional Hubei artworks of carved paper-cutting with specified characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of our study was to determine the order in which science and health researchers read scientific papers, their reasons for doing so and the perceived difficulty and perceived importance of each section., Study Design and Setting: An online survey open to science and health academics and researchers distributed via existing research networks, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn., Results: Almost 90% of respondents self-declared to be experienced in reading research papers. 98.6% of the sample read the abstract first because it provides an overview of the paper and facilitates a decision on continuing to read on or not. Seventy-five percent perceived it to be the easiest to read and 62.4% perceived it to be very important (highest rank on a 5-point Likert scale). The majority of respondents did not read a paper in the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion) format. Perceived difficulty and perceived importance influenced reading order., Conclusion: Science and health researchers do not typically read scientific and health research papers in IMRAD format. The more important a respondent perceives a section to be, the more likely they are to read it. The easier a section is perceived, the more likely it will be read. We present recommendations to those teaching the skill of writing scientific papers and reports., Competing Interests: The authors declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Shiely et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that is widely used in various industrial applications. It has concerns in its use as a color developer in thermal paper receipts since it is identified as an endocrine disruptor and causes hormonal disturbances. In this study, thirty thermal paper receipt samples were randomly collected from various locations in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Sixty percent (60%) of receipt samples showed BPA levels above the acceptable limit (200 ng/mg) set by the European Union (EU) for thermal papers. On the other hand, 40% of the samples reported very low BPA levels (< 0.02 ng/mg). However, estimated weight adjusted daily intakes (EDI) ranged between 8.22 ×10-11 and 0.000812 μg/kg bw/day for the general population, and between 7.89×10-9 and 0.0681 μg/kg bw/day for the occupationally exposed cashiers. Thus, all calculated EDIs were below the European Food Safety Authority Tolerable Daily Intake (4 μg/kg·bw/day) and the provisional Health Canada Tolerable Daily Intake (25 ug/kg bw/day) under varying paper-to-skin transfer coefficients and absorption fractions. Nevertheless, due to its health effects and recent legal restrictions by EU, the occurrence of co-exposure to dietary and non-dietary sources should be considered in the health risk assessment of Bisphenol A, mainly for people with frequent occupational exposure to thermal paper, and especially with the increased use of sanitizers. The current study is a first within the UAE context in relation to BPA in thermal paper receipts, thus its significance especially with the recent EU enforcement of BPA limits in paper receipts. The study highlights that proper policies as well as education and awareness may assist in limiting transdermal BPA exposure for the general and occupationally exposed populations., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Semerjian et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Postures at work are paramount in ergonomics. They can be determined using observation and inclinometry in a variety of measurement scenarios that may differ both in costs associated with collecting and processing data, and in efficiency, i.e. the precision of the eventual outcome. The trade-off between cost and efficiency has rarely been addressed in research despite the obvious interest of obtaining precise data at low costs. Median trunk and upper arm inclination were determined for full shifts in 28 paper mill workers using both observation and inclinometry. Costs were estimated using comprehensive cost equations; and efficiency, i.e. the inverted standard deviation of the group mean, was assessed on basis of exposure variance components. Cost and efficiency were estimated in simulations of six sampling scenarios: two for inclinometry (sampling from one or three shifts) and four for observation (one or three observers rating one or three shifts). Each of the six scenarios was evaluated for 1 through 50 workers. Cost-efficiency relationships between the scenarios were intricate. As an example, inclinometry was always more cost-efficient than observation for trunk inclination, except for observation strategies involving only few workers; while for arm inclination, observation by three observers of one shift per worker outperformed inclinometry on three shifts up to a budget of €20000, after which inclinometry prevailed. At a budget of €10000, the best sampling scenario for arm inclination was 2.5 times more efficient than the worst. Arm inclination could be determined with better cost-efficiency than trunk inclination. Our study illustrates that the cost-efficiency of different posture measurement strategies can be assessed and compared using easily accessible diagrams. While the numeric examples in our study are specific to the investigated occupation, exposure variables, and sampling logistics, we believe that inclinometry will, in general, outperform observation. In any specific case, we recommend a thorough analysis, using the comparison procedure proposed in the present study, of feasible strategies for obtaining data, in order to arrive at an informed decision support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hot spring bathing practice helps to manage hypertension. However, the details of the relationship between hot spring bathing and hypertension remain unknown. Older people are thought to be less adept than younger people at using digital devices such as mobile applications. Whether mobile application questionnaires, which have been increasing in recent years, can be used by older people is unclear. To address the knowledge gap regarding the management of older patients with hypertension, we prospectively evaluated mobile application and paper questionnaires regarding night-time hot spring bathing in respondents who had a choice of which to use. Changes in blood pressure because of hot spring bathing were evaluated. To investigate the effects of night-time hot spring bathing on blood pressure in adults, 1116 volunteers at 14 institutions in Beppu completed the study, including 562 in the mobile application questionnaire group and 556 in the paper questionnaire group. A total of 474 of 477 (99.3%) respondents aged ≥65 years used paper questionnaires. There was a significantly lower drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure after using hot springs in respondents aged ≥65 years than in respondents aged <65 years (p<0.001). An age ≥65 years, hypertension with medication, arrhythmia, depression, and using a chloride hot spring were independently and significantly associated with a lower drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure after night-time hot spring bathing (p<0.001). Night-time hot spring bathing was significantly associated with reduced blood pressure in older adults (p<0.001). Extending this research by examining how psychosocial factors in respondents aged ≥65 years influence preferences for mobile and paper questionnaires may be beneficial, and further investigation is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In current neuroimaging studies, the mainstream practice is to report results corrected for multiple comparisons to control for false positives. In 2009, Lieberman and Cunningham published a highly cited report that promotes the use of uncorrected statistical thresholds to balance Types I and II error rates. This paper aims to review recent studies that cited this report, investigating whether the citations were to justify the use of uncorrected statistical thresholds, and if their uncorrected thresholds adhered to the recommended defaults. Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection online database was queried to identify original articles published during 2019–2022 that cited the report. Results: It was found that the majority of the citing papers (152/225, 67.6%) used the citation to justify their statistical threshold setting. However, only 19.7% of these 152 papers strictly followed the recommended uncorrected P (Punc) < 0.005, k = 10 (15/152, 9.9%) or Punc < 0.005, k = 20 (15/152, 9.9%). Over half (78/152, 51.3%) used various cluster-extent based thresholds with Punc, with the predominant choices being Punc < 0.001, k = 50 and Punc < 0.001, k = 10, mostly without justifying their deviation from the default. Few papers matched the voxel size and smoothing kernel size used by the simulations from the report to derive the recommended thresholds. Conclusion: This survey reveals a disconnect between the use and citation of Lieberman and Cunningham's report. Future studies should justify their chosen statistical thresholds based on rigorous statistical theory and study-specific parameters, rather than merely citing previous works. Furthermore, this paper encourages the neuroimaging community to publicly share their group-level statistical images and metadata to promote transparency and collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research has suggested that addressing multiple needs simultaneously may increase the chances for positive labor force outcomes, few studies have explored a multi-pronged approach to assist individuals with jumping off the benefits cliff. The purpose of the current study is to explore the potential of a Career Pathway program designed to supplement benefits for those who "jump off the benefits cliff." This study will employ qualitative impact assessment protocol (QuIP) and observational methods to assess the implementation of the career pathway program through (1) observation, (2) focus groups with service providers and program stakeholders, and (3) semi-structured interviews with program participants. Qualitative thematic analysis will be employed to analyze responses disaggregated by the various service providers and program participants. Codes and themes generated from the analyses will be compared both within the groups of service providers and participants and between the groups., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 St. Vil et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Cost and statistical efficiency of posture assessment by inclinometry and observation, exemplified by paper mill work." The correction is related to an error in Figure 2, specifically the efficiency ordinate scale in panel B. The corrected figure is provided in the document. The article discusses the sampling efficiency and costs associated with different strategies for posture assessment using inclinometry and observation in the context of paper mill work. The authors of the article are Svend Erik Mathiassen, Amanda Waleh Åström, Annika Strömberg, and Marina Heiden. [Extracted from the article]

How do author perceptions match up to the outcomes of the peer-review process and perceptions of others? In a top-tier computer science conference (NeurIPS 2021) with more than 23,000 submitting authors and 9,000 submitted papers, we surveyed the authors on three questions: (i) their predicted probability of acceptance for each of their papers, (ii) their perceived ranking of their own papers based on scientific contribution, and (iii) the change in their perception about their own papers after seeing the reviews. The salient results are: (1) Authors had roughly a three-fold overestimate of the acceptance probability of their papers: The median prediction was 70% for an approximately 25% acceptance rate. (2) Female authors exhibited a marginally higher (statistically significant) miscalibration than male authors; predictions of authors invited to serve as meta-reviewers or reviewers were similarly calibrated, but better than authors who were not invited to review. (3) Authors' relative ranking of scientific contribution of two submissions they made generally agreed with their predicted acceptance probabilities (93% agreement), but there was a notable 7% responses where authors predicted a worse outcome for their better paper. (4) The author-provided rankings disagreed with the peer-review decisions about a third of the time; when co-authors ranked their jointly authored papers, co-authors disagreed at a similar rate—about a third of the time. (5) At least 30% of respondents of both accepted and rejected papers said that their perception of their own paper improved after the review process. The stakeholders in peer review should take these findings into account in setting their expectations from peer review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The primary objective of this inquiry was to explore the nexus between authorship attribution in medical literature and accountability for scientific impropriety while assessing the influence of authorial multiplicity on the severity of sanctions imposed., Methods: Probit regression models were employed to scrutinize the impact of authorship on assuming accountability for scientific misconduct, and unordered multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine the influence of authorship and the number of bylines on the severity of punitive measures., Results: First authors and corresponding authors were significantly more likely to be liable for scientific misconduct than other authors and were more likely to be penalized particularly severely. Furthermore, a negative correlation was observed between the number of authors' affiliations and the severity of punitive measures., Conclusion: Authorship exerts a pronounced influence on the attribution of accountability in scientific research misconduct, particularly evident in the heightened risk of severe penalties confronting first and corresponding authors owing to their principal roles. Hence, scientific research institutions and journals must delineate authorship specifications meticulously, ascertain authors' contributions judiciously, bolster initiatives aimed at fostering scientific research integrity, and uphold an environment conducive for robust scientific inquiry., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Peng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Introduction: Literature is lacking on the safety of storing contaminated PPE in paper bags for reuse, potentially increasing exposure to frontline healthcare workers (HCW) and patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of paper bags as a barrier for fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by storing face masks, respirators, and face shields. Methods: This quasi-experimental study evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on the interior and exterior surfaces of paper bags containing PPE that had aerosolized exposures in clinical and simulated settings. Between May and October 2020, 30 unique PPE items were collected from COVID-19 units at two urban hospitals. Exposed PPE, worn by either an infected patient or HCW during a SARS-CoV-2 aerosolizing event, were placed into an unused paper bag. Samples were tested at 30-minute and 12-hour intervals. Results: A total of 177 swabs were processed from 30 PPE samples. We found a 6.8% positivity rate among all samples across both collection sites. Highest positivity rates were associated with ventilator disconnection and exposure to respiratory droplets from coughing. Positivity rates differed between hospital units. Total positivity rates were similar between 30-minute (6.7%) and 12-hour (6.9%) sample testing time intervals. Control samples exposed to inactivated SARS-CoV-2 droplets had higher total viral counts than samples exposed to nebulized aerosols. Conclusions: Data suggests paper bags are not a significant fomite risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, controls demonstrated a risk with droplet exposure. Data can inform guidelines for storing and re-using PPE in situations of limited supplies during future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the feasibility of pre- and post-encounter patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure collection within an outpatient integrative health and medicine (IHM) clinic and to characterize factors associated with successful completion. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of 27,464 outpatient IHM encounters including 9,520 chiropractic; 8,237 acupuncture; 5,847 massage; 2,345 IHM consultation; and 1,515 osteopathic manipulation treatment encounters at four clinics offering IHM over 18 months. Patients were asked to complete paper questionnaires rating pain, anxiety, and stress from 0–10 immediately pre- and post-encounter. Generalized linear mixed effect regression models were used to examine the relationship between demographic, clinical, and operational covariates and completing (1) pre-encounter and (2) paired (i.e., pre and post) PROs. Results: Patients (N = 5587, mean age 49 years, 74% white, 77% female) generally presented for musculoskeletal conditions (81.7%), with a chief complaint of pain (55.1%). 21,852 (79.6%) encounters were among patients who completed pre-encounter PROs; 11,709/21,852 (53.6%) completed subsequent post-encounter PROs. Odds of PRO completion were more impacted by provider, operational, and clinical-level factors than patient factors. Covariates associated with increased odds of pre-encounter PRO completion included being female, having additional IHM encounters, and having a pain or anxiety complaint. Covariates associated with increased odds of paired PRO completion included being aged 31–40 vs. 51–60 years and having additional IHM encounters. Conclusion: Implementing a paper-based PRO collection system in outpatient IHM is feasible; however, collecting post-encounter PROs was challenging. Future endeavors should leverage the electronic health record and patient portals to optimize PRO collection and engage patients and clinical providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a comprehensive exploration of topic modeling methods tailored for large language model (LLM) using data obtained from Web of Science and LexisNexis from June 1, 2020, to December 31, 2023. The data collection process involved queries focusing on LLMs, including "Large language model," "LLM," and "ChatGPT." Various topic modeling approaches were evaluated based on performance metrics, including diversity and coherence. latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), combined topic models (CTM), and bidirectional encoder representations from Transformers topic (BERTopic) were employed for performance evaluation. Evaluation metrics were computed across platforms, with BERTopic demonstrating superior performance in diversity and coherence across both LexisNexis and Web of Science. The experiment result reveals that news articles maintain a balanced coverage across various topics and mainly focus on efforts to utilize LLM in specialized domains. Conversely, research papers are more concise and concentrated on the technology itself, emphasizing technical aspects. Through the insights gained in this study, it becomes possible to investigate the future path and the challenges that LLMs should tackle. Additionally, they could offer considerable value to enterprises that utilize LLMs to deliver services., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Jung et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Introduction: Pregnancy increases the risk of periodontitis due to the increase in progesterone and estrogen. Moreover, periodontitis during pregnancy is associated with development of pregnancy and birth related complications. The aim of this study is to determine, whether periodontal treatment during pregnancy can reduce systemic inflammation and lower the risk of adverse pregnancy and birth related outcomes., Methods and Analysis: The PROBE study is a non-randomized controlled intervention study conducted among 600 pregnant women with periodontitis. The women will be recruited among all pregnant women at two Danish hospitals in Region Zealand during their nuchal translucency scan and will subsequently be screened for periodontitis. The intervention group includes 300 pregnant women, who will be offered state-of-the-art periodontal treatment during pregnancy. The control group includes additional 300 pregnant women, who will be offered periodontal treatment after giving birth. Outcome measures include periodontal measures, inflammatory, hormonal and glycaemic markers as well as the prevalence of preterm birth risk, low birth weight and risk markers of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and preeclampsia that will be collected from all screened women and further during pregnancy week 20 and pregnancy week 35 for women enrolled in the intervention., Ethics and Dissemination: The study's findings will be published in peer reviewed journals and disseminated at national and international conferences and through social media. The PROBE study is designed to provide important new knowledge as to whether periodontal treatment during pregnancy can reduce the prevalence of complications related to pregnancy and birth., Clinical Trials Registration: The study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06110143)., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Winckler et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Global evidence on psychosis is dominated by studies conducted in Western, high-income countries. The objectives of the Study of Context Of Psychoses to improve outcomes in Ethiopia (SCOPE) are (1) to generate rigorous evidence of psychosis experience, epidemiology and impacts in Ethiopia that will illuminate aetiological understanding and (2) inform development and testing of interventions for earlier identification and improved first contact care that are scalable, inclusive of difficult-to-reach populations and optimise recovery., Methods: The setting is sub-cities of Addis Ababa and rural districts in south-central Ethiopia covering 1.1 million people and including rural, urban and homeless populations. SCOPE comprises (1) formative work to understand care pathways and community resources (resource mapping); examine family context and communication (ethnography); develop valid measures of family communication and personal recovery; and establish platforms for community engagement and involvement of people with lived experience; (2a) a population-based incidence study, (2b) a case-control study and (2c) a cohort study with 12 months follow-up involving 440 people with psychosis (390 rural/Addis Ababa; 50 who are homeless), 390 relatives and 390 controls. We will test hypotheses about incidence rates in rural vs. urban populations and men vs. women; potential aetiological role of khat (a commonly chewed plant with amphetamine-like properties) and traumatic exposures in psychosis; determine profiles of needs at first contact and predictors of outcome; (3) participatory workshops to develop programme theory and inform co-development of interventions, and (4) evaluation of the impact of early identification strategies on engagement with care (interrupted time series study). Findings will inform development of (5) a protocol for (5a) a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial of interventions for people with recent-onset psychosis in rural settings and (5b) two uncontrolled pilot studies to test acceptability, feasibility of co-developed interventions in urban and homeless populations., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Hanlon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Threatened shark species are caught in large numbers by artisanal and commercial fisheries and traded globally. Monitoring both which shark species are caught and sold in fisheries, and the export of CITES-restricted products, are essential in reducing illegal fishing. Current methods for species identification rely on visual examination by experts or DNA barcoding techniques requiring specialist laboratory facilities and trained personnel. The need for specialist equipment and/or input from experts means many markets are currently not monitored. We have developed a paper-based Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) to facilitate identification of three threatened and CITES-listed sharks, bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus), pelagic thresher (A. pelagicus) and shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) at market source. DNA was successfully extracted from shark meat and fin samples and combined with DNA amplification and visualisation using Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) on the LOC. This resulted in the successful identification of the target species of sharks in under an hour, with a working positive and negative control. The LOC provided a simple "yes" or "no" result via a colour change from pink to yellow when one of the target species was present. The LOC serves as proof-of-concept (PoC) for field-based species identification as it does not require specialist facilities. It can be used by non-scientifically trained personnel, especially in areas where there are suspected high frequencies of mislabelling or for the identification of dried shark fins in seizures., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Tiktak et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV) is a chronic, relapsing-remitting condition associated with increased morbidity. Previous research has shown patients with AAV report high levels of fatigue, pain, depression and anxiety. Over recent years successful work has been carried out to improve clinical outcomes, resulting in reduced mortality and end stage kidney disease (ESKD). Despite this, little work has been done to better understand the role of the patient within this condition. The prevalence of AAV is increasing and to date, there is a shortage of specific tools that assess and measure key features relating to patient reported outcomes (PROs). This protocol details how we can better understand the lived experiences of those with AAV through the development of a disease specific, patient reported outcome measure (PROM), to be used in clinic practice. This will allow us to recognise and validate PROs and the impact the disease and its treatment has on patients' health related quality of life (HRQoL). In addition, we aim to identify potential differences in PRO's between demographics, organ involvement and treatment subgroups in AAV as well as outcomes relating to the patient experience. Patients from a single centre in the UK will be recruited to take part in the exploratory qualitative study which will include focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The inclusion criteria comprise anyone with a diagnosis of AAV and willing to participate, including those who have active or relapsing disease, those are economically active, unemployed, retired and patients receiving renal replacement therapy. The aim of the project is to identify key issues patients experience in relation to their disease and its management and how these can be better assessed in a new PROM developed for use in the clinic setting. This will enable better delivery of individualised care and inform shared decision making, while also serving as a platform for future research looking at PROs in other glomerulonephritides., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Floyd et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Context: The retraction of research papers, for whatever reason, is a growing phenomenon. However, although retracted paper information is publicly available via publishers, it is somewhat distributed and inconsistent. Objective: The aim is to assess: (i) the extent and nature of retracted research in Computer Science (CS) (ii) the post-retraction citation behaviour of retracted works and (iii) the potential impact upon systematic reviews and mapping studies. Method: We analyse the Retraction Watch database and take citation information from the Web of Science and Google scholar. Results: We find that of the 33,955 entries in the Retraction watch database (16 May 2022), 2,816 are classified as CS, i.e., ≈ 8%. For CS, 56% of retracted papers provide little or no information as to the reasons. This contrasts with 26% for other disciplines. There is also some disparity between different publishers, a tendency for multiple versions of a retracted paper to be available beyond the Version of Record (VoR), and for new citations long after a paper is officially retracted (median = 3; maximum = 18). Systematic reviews are also impacted with ≈ 30% of the retracted papers having one or more citations from a review. Conclusions: Unfortunately, retraction seems to be a sufficiently common outcome for a scientific paper that we as a research community need to take it more seriously, e.g., standardising procedures and taxonomies across publishers and the provision of appropriate research tools. Finally, we recommend particular caution when undertaking secondary analyses and meta-analyses which are at risk of becoming contaminated by these problem primary studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper mulberry pollen, declared a pest in several countries including Pakistan, can trigger severe allergies and cause asthma attacks. We aimed to develop an algorithm that could accurately predict high pollen days to underpin an alert system that would allow patients to take timely precautionary measures. We developed and validated two prediction models that take historical pollen and weather data as their input to predict the start date and peak date of the pollen season in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. The first model is based on linear regression and the second one is based on phenological modelling. We tested our models on an original and comprehensive dataset from Islamabad. The mean absolute errors (MAEs) for the start day are 2.3 and 3.7 days for the linear and phenological models, respectively, while for the peak day, the MAEs are 3.3 and 4.0 days, respectively. These encouraging results could be used in a website or app to notify patients and healthcare providers to start preparing for the paper mulberry pollen season. Timely action could reduce the burden of symptoms, mitigate the risk of acute attacks and potentially prevent deaths due to acute pollen-induced allergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The partograph has been endorsed by World Health Organization (WHO) since 1994 which presents an algorithm for assessing maternal and foetal conditions and labor progression. Monitoring labour with a partograph can reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes such as prolonged labor, emergency C-sections, birth asphyxia and stillbirths. However, partograph use is still very low, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). In Bangladesh the reported partograph user rate varies from 1.4% to 33.0%. Recently, an electronic version of the partograph, with the provision of online data entry and user aid for emergency clinical support, has been tested successfully in different settings. With this proven evidence, we conducted and operations research to test the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing an e-partograph, for the first time, in 2 public hospitals in Bangladesh., Methods: We followed a prospective crossover design. Two secondary level referral hospitals, Jessore and Kushtia District Hospital (DH) were the study sites. All pregnant women who delivered in the study hospitals were the study participants. All nurse-midwives working in the labor ward of study hospitals were trained on appropriate use of both types of partograph along with standard labour management guidelines. Collected quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 23 statistical software. Discrete variables were expressed as percentages and presented as frequency distribution and cross tabulations. Chi square tests were employed to test the association between exposure and outcome variables. Potential confounding factors were adjusted using multivariate binary logistic regression methods. Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional review board of the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b)., Findings: In total 2918 deliveries were conducted at Jessore DH and 2312 at Kushtia DH during one-year study period. Of them, 1012 (506 in each facility) deliveries were monitored using partograph (paper or electronic). The trends of facility based C-section rates was downwards in both the hospitals; 43% to 37% in Jessore and from 36% to 25% in Kushtia Hospital. There was a significant reduction of prolonged labour with e-partograph use. In Kushtia DH, the prolonged labour rate was 42% during phase 1 with the paper version which came down to 29% during phase-2 with the e-partograph use. The similar result was observed in Jessore DH where the prolonged labour rate reduced to 7% with paper partograph from the reported 30% prolonged labour with e-partograph. The e-partograph user rate was higher than the paper partograph during both phases (phase 1: 3.31, CI: 2.04-5.38, p < .001 and in phase 2: 15.20 CI: 6.36-36.33, p < .001) after adjusting for maternal age, parity, gestational age, religion, mother's education, husband's education, and fetal sex., Conclusion: The partograph user rate has significantly improved with the e- partograph and was associated with an overall reduction in cesarean births. Use of the e-partograph was also associated with reduced rates of prolonged labour. This study has added to the growing body of evidence on the positive impact of e-partograph use. We recommend implementing e-partograph intervention at scale in both public and private hospitals in Bangladesh., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03509103., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Many complex physical systems exhibit a rich variety of discrete behavioural modes. Often, the system complexity limits the applicability of standard modelling tools. Hence, understanding the underlying physics of different behaviours and distinguishing between them is challenging. Although traditional machine learning techniques could predict and classify behaviour well, typically they do not provide any meaningful insight into the underlying physics of the system. In this paper we present a novel method for extracting physically meaningful clusters of discrete behaviour from limited experimental observations. This method obtains a set of physically plausible functions that both facilitate behavioural clustering and aid in system understanding. We demonstrate the approach on the V-shaped falling paper system, a new falling paper type system that exhibits four distinct behavioural modes depending on a few morphological parameters. Using just 49 experimental observations, the method discovered a set of candidate functions that distinguish behaviours with an error of 2.04%, while also aiding insight into the physical phenomena driving each behaviour., Competing Interests: This project received funding from a commercial source: Mathworks Ltd (https://uk.mathworks.com). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

We describe herein a method of recharging used commercial spin columns or assembling homemade spin columns using filter paper as binding material for cost-effective, low throughput nucleic acid purification. The efficiency of filter paper-based spin columns was evaluated for purification of nucleic acids from various sources. Following protocols of commercial kits, we found filter paper to be a useful binding material for purification of nucleic acids, including plant genomic DNA, plant total RNA, PCR products, and DNA from agarose gels. However, filter paper has a weak binding affinity to plasmid DNA in tested miniprep protocols. Protocols for the use of filter paper recharged spin columns or homemade spin columns for low throughput purification of plant genomic DNA and total RNA with unused commercial kit buffers or less expensive homemade buffers are presented., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The digital transformation of enterprises has brought great changes to the audit service demand of enterprises and the audit service supply of auditors. Therefore, there is a pressing need to study the digital transformation of enterprises and its impact on auditor switch. This paper aims to explore the influence of enterprise digital transformation on auditor switch and its potential implications for improving auditor efficiency. Using Python's machine learning tools and text analysis methods, This paper measure the digital transformation of Chinese listed companies and study the impact of digital transformation on the frequency of auditors witches. Our findings suggest that companies that have undergone digital transformation have reduced the frequency of changing auditors by alleviating information asymmetry, enhancing the effectiveness of companies' internal controls and increasing audit fees. This unique measurement mode of digital transformation provides new evidence for the relationship between the audit service demand of enterprises and the audit service supply of auditors under the digital transformation environment. The research can assist businesses in understanding how digital transformation affects auditing professionally and in improving their audit processes accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contamination of waterways is of increasing concern, with recent studies demonstrating elevated levels of antibiotics, antidepressants, household, agricultural and industrial chemicals in freshwater systems. Thus, there is a growing demand for methods to rapidly and conveniently monitor contaminants in waterways. Here we demonstrate how a combination of paper microfluidic devices and handheld mobile technology can be used by citizen scientists to carry out a sustained water monitoring campaign. We have developed a paper-based analytical device and a 3 minute sampling workflow that requires no more than a container, a test device and a smartphone app. The contaminant measured in these pilots are phosphates, detectable down to 3 mg L-1. Together these allow volunteers to successfully carry out cost-effective, high frequency, phosphate monitoring over an extended geographies and periods., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In the era of rapid product iteration, companies need simple and effective methods to guide the entire process of product innovation design and enhance their product innovation capabilities. Most research focused on improving one or several steps in the product design process. Although some scholars have proposed methods that guided the entire process, they combined more than three different theories, which increased the difficulty of theoretical learning and the complexity of practical implementation. This paper proposed a product innovation design process composed of three theoretical methods: Kano, Axiomatic Design (AD), and Theory of the Solution of Inventive Problems (TRIZ). This new process guided the entire product design process with fewer theoretical methods, reducing the difficulty of learning and implementation. The paper demonstrated the effectiveness of this method through the design practice of a portable two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle. Additionally, the discussion section explored the method's potential from the design management perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work was focused to design a cheap, rapid, portable and easy to use filter paper based assay for the qualitative and quantitate analysis of acetone. Sodium alginate gel was loaded with the acetone specific optical signal probe, and subsequently coated onto filter paper surface to design portable colorimetric assays for acetone monitoring. The color of the paper sensor strip was observed to change from dark yellow to light yellowish in the presence of varying concentrations of acetone. Three different color analyzing models including RGB, HSV, and LAB were employed to probe the output optical signal, and their performance was compared in terms of better interpretation of the generated signal. The LAB model was found to provide better analytical figures of merit with a linear response for the acetone concentration ranging from 2.5 to 1500 ppm, and a limit of detection of 0.5 ppm. Furthermore, the specificity of the designed filter paper based sensor was demonstrated against different common interfering compounds. The results demonstrated the potential of our proposed filter paper based sensor as a novel tool for the analysis of acetone., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The cost of specialized scientific equipment can be high and with limited funding resources, researchers and students are often unable to access or purchase the ideal equipment for their projects. In the fields of materials science and mechanical engineering, fundamental equipment such as tensile testing devices can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. While a research lab often has access to a large-scale testing machine suitable for conventional samples, loading devices for meso- and micro-scale samples for in-situ testing with the myriad of microscopy tools are often hard to source and cost prohibitive. Open-source software has allowed for great strides in the reduction of costs associated with software development and open-source hardware and additive manufacturing have the potential to similarly reduce the costs of scientific equipment and increase the accessibility of scientific research. To investigate the feasibility of open-source hardware, a micro-tensile tester was designed with a freely accessible computer-aided design package and manufactured with a desktop 3D-printer and off-the-shelf components. To our knowledge this is one of the first demonstrations of a tensile tester with additively manufactured components for scientific research. The capabilities of the tensile tester were demonstrated by investigating the mechanical properties of Graphene Oxide (GO) paper and thin films. A 3D printed tensile tester was successfully used in conjunction with an atomic force microscope to provide one of the first quantitative measurements of GO thin film buckling under compression. The tensile tester was also used in conjunction with an atomic force microscope to observe the change in surface topology of a GO paper in response to increasing tensile strain. No significant change in surface topology was observed in contrast to prior hypotheses from the literature. Based on this result obtained with the new open source tensile stage we propose an alternative hypothesis we term 'superlamellae consolidation' to explain the initial deformation of GO paper. The additively manufactured tensile tester tested represents cost savings of >99% compared to commercial solutions in its class and offers simple customization. However, continued development is needed for the tensile tester presented here to approach the technical specifications achievable with commercial solutions., Competing Interests: We declare that the work was partially funded by Goodyear Rubber and Tire Company. Goodyear (or other funding sources) were not involved in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the paper; and/or decision to submit for publication. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Before organizing mixed-mode data collection for the self-administered questionnaire of the Belgian Health Interview Survey, measurement effects between the paper-and-pencil and the web-based questionnaire were evaluated. A two-period cross-over study was organized with a sample of 149 employees of two Belgian research institutes (age range 22-62 years, 72% female). Measurement agreement was assessed for a diverse range of health indicators related to general health, mental and psychosocial health, health behaviors and prevention with kappa coefficients and intraclass correlation (ICC). The quality of the data collected by both modes was evaluated by quantifying the missing, 'don't know' and inconsistent values and data entry mistakes. Good to very good agreement was found for all categorical indicators with kappa coefficients superior to 0.60, except for two mental and psychosocial health indicators namely the presence of a sleeping disorder and of a depressive disorder (kappa≥0.50). For the continuous indicators high to acceptable agreement was observed with ICC superior to 0.70. Inconsistent answers and data-entry mistakes were only occurring in the paper-and-pencil mode. There were no less missing values in the web-based mode compared to the paper-and-pencil mode. The study supports the idea that web-based modes provide, in general, equal responses to paper-and-pencil modes. However, health indicators based upon factual and objective items tend to have higher measurement agreement than indicators requiring an assessment of personal subjective feelings. A web-based mode greatly facilitates the data-entry process and guides the completing of a questionnaire. However, item non-response was not positively affected., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Pyocyanin is a toxin produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Here we describe a novel paper-based electrochemical sensor for pyocyanin detection, manufactured with a simple and inexpensive approach based on electrode printing on paper. The resulting sensors constitute an effective electrochemical method to quantify pyocyanin in bacterial cultures without the conventional time consuming pretreatment of the samples. The electrochemical properties of the paper-based sensors were evaluated by ferri/ferrocyanide as a redox mediator, and showed reliable sensing performance. The paper-based sensors readily allow for the determination of pyocyanin in bacterial cultures with high reproducibility, achieving a limit of detection of 95 nM and a sensitivity of 4.30 μA/μM in standard culture media. Compared to the similar commercial ceramic based sensors, it is a 2.3-fold enhanced performance. The simple in-house fabrication of sensors for pyocyanin quantification allows researchers to understand in vitro adaptation of P. aeruginosa infections via rapid screenings of bacterial cultures that otherwise are expensive and time-consuming.

Non-invasive diagnosis on biological liquid samples, such as urine, sweat, saliva, and tears, may allow patients to evaluate their health by themselves. To obtain accurate diagnostic results, target liquid must be precisely sampled. Conventionally, urine sampling using filter paper can be given as an example sampling, but differences in the paper structure can cause variations in sampling volume. This paper describes precise liquid sampling using synthetic microfluidic papers, which are composed of obliquely combined micropillars. Sampling volume accuracy was investigated using different designs and collection methods to determine the optimal design and sample collecting method. The optimized protocol was followed to accurately measure potassium concentration using synthetic microfluidic paper and a commercially available densitometer, which verified the usefulness of the synthetic microfluidic papers for precision sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the fast spread of Covid-19 across Europe and North America in March 2020, many people started stockpiling commodities like toilet paper. Despite the high relevance for public authorities to adequately address stockpiling behavior, empirical studies on the psychological underpinnings of toilet paper stockpiling are still scarce. In this study, we investigated the relation between personality traits, perceived threat of Covid-19, and stockpiling of toilet paper in an online survey (N = 996) across 22 countries. Results suggest that people who felt more threatened by Covid-19 stockpiled more toilet paper. Further, a predisposition towards Emotionality predicted the perceived threat of Covid-19 and affected stockpiling behavior indirectly. Finally, Conscientiousness was related to toilet paper stockpiling, such that individuals higher in Conscientiousness tended to stockpile more toilet paper. These results emphasize the importance of clear communication by public authorities acknowledging anxiety and, at the same time, transmitting a sense of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our study, we have empirically studied the assessment of cited papers within the framework of the anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic. We are interested in the question whether the assessment of a paper can be influenced by numerical information that act as an anchor (e.g. citation impact). We have undertaken a survey of corresponding authors with an available email address in the Web of Science database. The authors were asked to assess the quality of papers that they cited in previous papers. Some authors were assigned to three treatment groups that receive further information alongside the cited paper: citation impact information, information on the publishing journal (journal impact factor) or a numerical access code to enter the survey. The control group did not receive any further numerical information. We are interested in whether possible adjustments in the assessments can not only be produced by quality-related information (citation impact or journal impact), but also by numbers that are not related to quality, i.e. the access code. Our results show that the quality assessments of papers seem to depend on the citation impact information of single papers. The other information (anchors) such as an arbitrary number (an access code) and journal impact information did not play a (important) role in the assessments of papers. The results point to a possible anchoring bias caused by insufficient adjustment: it seems that the respondents assessed cited papers in another way when they observed paper impact values in the survey. We conclude that initiatives aiming at reducing the use of journal impact information in research evaluation either were already successful or overestimated the influence of this information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nucleic acid amplification is a sensitive and powerful tool for allergen detection. However, it is limited due to the relatively cumbersome methods required to extract nucleic acids from single plant seed allergen (e.g. peanut and soybean). In view of this, an approach of extracting nucleic acid with untreated glass-fiber paper (paper-based microfluidics) was applied for nucleic acid capture and purification from plant seed allergen and commercial products. After cut by hollow cylindrical cutter, a certain size the paper chip it used to absorb DNA. And this paper-based microfluidics with DNA was directly applied for amplification by loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). To evaluate the adsorption performance of paper chip to DNA, CTAB and SDS method were used as comparisons. From amplification results, the established technique has good specificity, high repeatability (C.V. values are 4.41% and 6.17% for peanut and soybean) and favorable sensitivity (7.39 ng/μL or peanut and 6.6 ng/μL for soybean), and successfully used for commercial products (2 kinds of candy and 2 kinds of cakes containing peanut, and 2 kinds of drinks, candy and 2 kinds of biscuits containing soybean). This speed and flexible detection method makes it suit for applications in point-of-care (POC) detection at different scenario, such as custom house and import port. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycled paper has the potential to be used as a mulch for vegetable production and can be adopted for the cultivation of Italian zucchini. However, there have been no studies about the water savings or crop coefficient values used in irrigation management in this system; therefore, there is a need for more research. In view of the above, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of recycled paper mulch on evaporation and evapotranspiration in Italian zucchini and to determine the crop coefficients in its developmental stages. The study was carried out in two cultivation cycles conducted at the Lysimetric Station in Viçosa, MG, Brazil. The experiments were installed in a randomized block design with four replicates. Four lysimeter cultivation treatments were applied: without mulch (C); with recycled paper as mulch (CP); with only recycled paper (P); and with Bahia grass (G). Irrigation and drainage measurements were performed daily to calculate the crop and reference evapotranspiration, and thus the crop coefficient (Kc) values. The following characteristics were evaluated: fruit yield, NDVI and water productivity. For the cultivation of Italian zucchini using paper as mulch, Kc values of 0.54, 0.77 and 0.44 and Kcb values of 0.15, 0.45 and 0.18 are recommended for the initial, intermediate and final stages, respectively. NDVI can be used to estimate the Kc values for Italian zucchini. The use of recycled paper as mulch reduces the water consumption of Italian zucchini. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupting chemical used in a wide range of consumer products including photoactive dyes used in thermal paper. Recent studies have shown that dermal absorption of BPA can occur when handling these papers. Yet, regulatory agencies have largely dismissed thermal paper as a major source of BPA exposure. Exposure estimates provided by agencies such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are based on assumptions about how humans interact with this material, stating that 'typical' exposures for adults involve only one handling per day for short periods of time (<1 minute), with limited exposure surfaces (three fingertips). The objective of this study was to determine how individuals handle thermal paper in one common setting: a cafeteria providing short-order meals. We observed thermal paper handling in a college-aged population (n = 698 subjects) at the University of Massachusetts' dining facility. We find that in this setting, individuals handle receipts for an average of 11.5 min, that >30% of individuals hold thermal paper with more than three fingertips, and >60% allow the paper to touch their palm. Only 11% of the participants we observed were consistent with the EFSA model for time of contact and dermal surface area. Mathematical modeling based on handling times we measured and previously published transfer coefficients, concentrations of BPA in paper, and absorption factors indicate the most conservative estimated intake from handling thermal paper in this population is 51.1 ng/kg/day, similar to EFSA's estimates of 59 ng/kg/day from dermal exposures. Less conservative estimates, using published data on concentrations in thermal paper and transfer rates to skin, indicate that exposures are likely significantly higher. Based on our observational data, we propose that the current models for estimating dermal BPA exposures are not consistent with normal human behavior and should be reevaluated.

In the first half of 2023, text-generative artificial intelligence (AI), including ChatGPT from OpenAI, has attracted considerable attention worldwide. In this study, first, we compared Japanese stylometric features of texts generated by ChatGPT, equipped with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, and those written by humans. In this work, we performed multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) to confirm the distributions of 216 texts of three classes (72 academic papers written by 36 single authors, 72 texts generated by GPT-3.5, and 72 texts generated by GPT-4 on the basis of the titles of the aforementioned papers) focusing on the following stylometric features: (1) bigrams of parts-of-speech, (2) bigram of postpositional particle words, (3) positioning of commas, and (4) rate of function words. MDS revealed distinct distributions at each stylometric feature of GPT (3.5 and 4) and human. Although GPT-4 is more powerful than GPT-3.5 because it has more parameters, both GPT (3.5 and 4) distributions are overlapping. These results indicate that although the number of parameters may increase in the future, GPT-generated texts may not be close to that written by humans in terms of stylometric features. Second, we verified the classification performance of random forest (RF) classifier for two classes (GPT and human) focusing on Japanese stylometric features. This study revealed the high performance of RF in each stylometric feature: The RF classifier focusing on the rate of function words achieved 98.1% accuracy. Furthermore the RF classifier focusing on all stylometric features reached 100% in terms of all performance indexes (accuracy, recall, precision, and F1 score). This study concluded that at this stage we human discriminate ChatGPT from human limited to Japanese language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe herein a method of recharging used commercial spin columns or assembling homemade spin columns using filter paper as binding material for cost-effective, low throughput nucleic acid purification. The efficiency of filter paper-based spin columns was evaluated for purification of nucleic acids from various sources. Following protocols of commercial kits, we found filter paper to be a useful binding material for purification of nucleic acids, including plant genomic DNA, plant total RNA, PCR products, and DNA from agarose gels. However, filter paper has a weak binding affinity to plasmid DNA in tested miniprep protocols. Protocols for the use of filter paper recharged spin columns or homemade spin columns for low throughput purification of plant genomic DNA and total RNA with unused commercial kit buffers or less expensive homemade buffers are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents a comprehensive review and meta-analysis of literature to examine the impact of various leadership styles on organizational adaptive performance (AP). AP is essential for job performance, especially in environments undergoing rapid changes. Previous reviews on AP found that transformational and self-leadership had had a positive influence on job adaptivity, while the relationship between other leadership styles and AP had not been clear. First, authors outlined the theoretical framework of AP and leadership, clarifying how job adaptivity and the different leadership styles are defined and discussed in the scientific literature. Subsequently four scientific databases were explored to identify studies that investigate the Leadership and AP' relationship. 32 scientific articles and 2 conference papers were investigated for review, of which 31 were used to conduct a meta-analysis; 52 different effect sizes from 32 samples were identified for a total sample size of 11.640 people. Qualitative synthesis revealed that the influence of different leadership styles on AP depended on contextual variables and on aspects related to the nature of the work. Moreover, it was found that leadership supported AP through motivational and relational aspects. Through this meta-analysis, it was found that a significant positive relationship between leadership and AP existed (Zr =.39, SE =.04, p <.001. 95%CI [.32,.47], r =.37). However, no differences emerged from the different leadership styles examined in the studies. This review deepens the importance of leadership as organizational factor that affect the employees' likelihood of dealing with continuously emergent changes at work, extended the search to emerging leadership approaches to highlight the value of collective contributions, ethics, and moral and sustainable elements that could positively affect AP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are under-represented among authors of scientific papers. Although the number of retractions has been rising over the past few decades, gender differences among authors of retracted papers remain poorly understood. Therefore, this study investigated gender differences in authorship of retracted papers in biomedical sciences available on RetractionWatch. Among 35,635 biomedical articles retracted between 1970 and 2022, including 20,849 first authors and 20,413 last authors, women accounted for 27.4% [26.8 to 28.0] of first authors and 23.5% [22.9 to 24.1] of last authors. The lowest representation of women was found for fraud (18.9% [17.1 to 20.9] for first authors and 13.5% [11.9 to 15.1] for last authors) and misconduct (19.5% [17.3 to 21.9] for first authors and 17.8% [15.7 to 20.3] for last authors). Women's representation was the highest for issues related to editors and publishers (35.1% [32.2 to 38.0] for first authors and 24.8% [22.9 to 26.8] for last authors) and errors (29.5% [28.0 to 31.0] for first authors and 22.1% [20.7 to 23.4] for last authors). Most retractions (60.9%) had men as first and last authors. Gender equality could improve research integrity in biomedical sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading is considered a non-intuitive, cognitively demanding ability requiring synchronization between several neural networks supporting visual, language processing and higher-order abilities. With the involvement of technology in our everyday life, reading from a screen has become widely used. Several studies point to challenges in processing written materials from the screen due to changes in attention allocation when reading from a screen compared to reading from a printed paper. The current study examined the differences in brain activation when reading from a screen compared to reading from a printed paper focusing on spectral power related to attention in fifteen 6-8-year-old children. Using an electroencephalogram, children read two different age-appropriate texts, without illustrations, presented randomly on the screen and on a printed paper. Data were analyzed using spectral analyses in brain regions related to language, visual processing, and cognitive control, focusing on theta vs. beta waveforms. Results indicated that while reading from a printed paper was accompanied by higher energy in high-frequency bands (beta, gamma), reading from the screen was manifested by a higher power in the lower frequency bands (alpha, theta). Higher theta compared to the beta ratio, representing challenges in allocating attention to a given task, was found for the screen reading compared to the printed paper reading condition. Also, a significant negative correlation was found between differences in theta/beta ratio for screen vs paper reading and accuracy level in the age-normalized Sky-Search task measuring attention and a positive correlation with performance time. These results provide neurobiological support for the greater cognitive load and reduced focused attention during screen-based compared to print-based reading and suggest a different reliance on attention resources for the two conditions in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work was to investigate the influence of hydrogen bonds between fibres on static and dynamic strength properties of paper. A commercial bleached pinewood kraft pulp was soaked in water, refined in a PFI, and used to form paper webs in different solvents, such as water, methanol, ethanol, n-propanol and n-butanol, to determine the effect of their dipole moment on static and dynamic strength properties of resulting paper sheets. Paper which was formed in water, being the solvent of the highest dipole moment among the tested ones, showed the highest breaking length and tear resistance. When paper webs were formed in n-butanol, which was the least polar among the solvents, these parameters were reduced by around 75%. These results provide evidence of the importance of water in paper web formation and strong impact of hydrogen bonds between fibres on strength properties of paper.

In this paper, we present a facile and cost-effective method to obtain superhydrophobic filter paper and demonstrate its application for efficient water/oil separation. By coupling structurally distinct organosilane precursors (e.g., octadecyltrichlorosilane and methyltrichlorosilane) to paper fibers under controlled reaction conditions, we have formulated a simple, inexpensive, and efficient protocol to achieve a desirable superhydrophobic and superoleophilic surface on conventional filter paper. The silanized superhydrophobic filter paper showed nanostructured morphology and demonstrated great separation efficiency (up to 99.4%) for water/oil mixtures. The modified filter paper is stable in both aqueous solutions and organic solvents, and can be reused multiple times. The present study shows that our newly developed binary silanization is a promising method of modifying cellulose-based materials for practical applications, in particular the treatment of industrial waste water and ecosystem recovery.

Background: The high childhood mortality and life-long complications associated with sickle cell anemia (SCA) in developing countries could be significantly reduced with effective prophylaxis and education if SCA is diagnosed early in life. However, conventional laboratory methods used for diagnosing SCA remain prohibitively expensive and impractical in this setting. This study describes the clinical validation of a low-cost paper-based test for SCA that can accurately identify sickle trait carriers (HbAS) and individuals with SCA (HbSS) among adults and children over 1 year of age., Methods and Findings: In a population of healthy volunteers and SCA patients in the United States (n = 55) the test identified individuals whose blood contained any HbS (HbAS and HbSS) with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for both visual evaluation and automated analysis, and detected SCA (HbSS) with 93% sensitivity and 94% specificity for visual evaluation and 100% sensitivity and 97% specificity for automated analysis. In a population of post-partum women (with a previously unknown SCA status) at a primary obstetric hospital in Cabinda, Angola (n = 226) the test identified sickle cell trait carriers with 94% sensitivity and 97% specificity using visual evaluation (none of the women had SCA). Notably, our test permits instrument- and electricity-free visual diagnostics, requires minimal training to be performed, can be completed within 30 minutes, and costs about $0.07 in test-specific consumable materials., Conclusions: Our results validate the paper-based SCA test as a useful low-cost tool for screening adults and children for sickle trait and disease and demonstrate its practicality in resource-limited clinical settings.

We propose a stochastic generative model to represent a directed graph constructed by citations among academic papers, where nodes and directed edges represent papers with discrete publication time and citations respectively. The proposed model assumes that a citation between two papers occurs with a probability based on the type of the citing paper, the importance of cited paper, and the difference between their publication times, like the existing models. We consider the out-degrees of citing paper as its type, because, for example, survey paper cites many papers. We approximate the importance of a cited paper by its in-degrees. In our model, we adopt three functions: a logistic function for illustrating the numbers of papers published in discrete time, an inverse Gaussian probability distribution function to express the aging effect based on the difference between publication times, and an exponential distribution (or a generalized Pareto distribution) for describing the out-degree distribution. We consider that our model is a more reasonable and appropriate stochastic model than other existing models and can perform complete simulations without using original data. In this paper, we first use the Web of Science database and see the features used in our model. By using the proposed model, we can generate simulated graphs and demonstrate that they are similar to the original data concerning the in- and out-degree distributions, and node triangle participation. In addition, we analyze two other citation networks derived from physics papers in the arXiv database and verify the effectiveness of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the role of dopamine differs according to the evolution of eusociality and how it is required in the flexible society of Polistes paper wasps need further clarification. In the present study, we compared the storage and usage of dopamine-related substances in brains between the castes of paper wasps. The head widths, lipid stores in the abdomen, and levels of biogenic amines in the brains were measured in newly emerged females before male emergence (workers) and after male emergence (gynes) in four Polistes species. The head widths and the lipid stores were significantly larger in gynes than workers in P. snelleni, P. rothneyi, and P. jokahamae, whereas they did not differ between castes in P. chinensis. The levels of dopamine precursors in the brains were significantly higher in gynes than workers in P. snelleni, P. chinensis, and P. rothneyi, whereas those of dopamine and its metabolites did not differ between castes in these species. In P. jokahamae, the levels of dopamine precursors and dopamine in the brains did not differ between castes, but those of a dopamine metabolite were significantly higher in gynes than workers. Thus, the caste differences in the levels of dopamine-related substances did not always match body sizes and nutritional reserves. Foundresses in P. rothneyi had significantly lower levels of dopamine precursors and higher levels of dopamine and its metabolite than newly emerged gynes. These results suggested that in several Polistes species, dopamine precursors were stored in the brain without dopamine biosynthesis at emergence, and then converted into dopamine in foundresses during colony founding. These neuroendocrinal states in Polistes species largely differed from those in eusocial bees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive paper wasps such as Polistes dominula are a major pest and problem for biodiversity around the globe. Safe and highly targeted methods for the control of these and other social wasp populations are needed. We attempted to identify potentially-lethal gene targets that could be used on adult paper wasps in a gene silencing or RNA interference (RNAi) approach. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) was designed to target genes for which silencing has proven lethal in other insects. dsRNA was provided either orally to foragers or directly injected into the wasps. We also provided the dsRNA unprotected or protected from degradation by gut nucleases in two different forms (lipofectamine and carbon quantum dots). The effects of oral delivery of 22 different gene targets to forager wasps was evaluated. The expression of five different genes was successfully reduced following dsRNA ingestion or injection. These gene targets included the FACT complex subunit spt16 (DRE4) and RNA-binding protein fusilli (FUSILLI), both of which have been previously shown to have potential as lethal targets for pest control in other insects. However, we found no evidence of significant increases in adult wasp mortality following ingestion or injection of dsRNA for these genes when compared with control treatments in our experiments. The methods we used to protect the dsRNA from digestive degradation altered gene expression but similarly did not influence wasp mortality. Our results indicate that while many of the same gene targets can be silenced and induce mortality in other insects, dsRNA and RNAi approaches may not be useful for paper wasp control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]