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The prevalence of diabetes has increased over the past years. Therefore, developing minimally invasive, user-friendly and cost-effective glucose biosensors is necessary especially in low-income and developing countries. Cellulose paper-based analytical devices have attracted the attention of many researchers due to affordability, not requiring trained personnel, and complex equipment. This paper describes a microfluidic paper-based analytical device for the detection of glucose in tear with the naked eye. The paper-based biosensor fabricated by laser CO2, and GOx/HRP enzymatic solution coupled with TMB was utilized as reagents. A sample volume of 10 µl was needed for the biosensor operation and the results were observable within 5 minutes. To evaluate the device performance, color intensity-based and distance-based results were analyzed by ImageJ and Tracker. Distance-based results showed a linear behavior in the range of 0.1–0.6 mM with an R2 = 0.967 and LOD of 0.2 mM. The results could be perceived by the naked eye without any need to further equipment or trained personnel in a relatively short time (3–5 minutes). Moreover, glucose concentration could be obtained non-invasively by tears collected by this µPAD.

We demonstrated the thermally robust reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) papers and their application in electromagnetic interference shielding. In order to overcome the thermal durability shortcomings of electromagnetic wave shielding paper based on rGO nanomaterial, rGO/BNNT electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding paper having excellent thermal durability could be manufactured using BNNT nanomaterials having excellent chemical and thermal stability at high temperature. With the addition of a little BNNT, the durability against temperature can be increased by more than two times while there is little reduction in EMI performance.

Malnutrition, muscle loss, and cachexia are prevalent in cancer and remain key challenges in oncology today. These conditions are frequently underrecognized and undertreated and have devastating consequences for patients. Early nutrition screening/assessment and intervention are associated with improved patient outcomes. As a multifaceted disease, cancer requires multimodal care that integrates supportive interventions, specifically nutrition and exercise, to improve nutrient intake, muscle mass, physical functioning, quality of life, and treatment outcomes. An integrated team of healthcare providers that incorporates societies’ recommendations into clinical practice can help achieve the best possible outcomes. A multidisciplinary panel of experts in oncology, nutrition, exercise, and medicine participated in a 2-day virtual roundtable in October 2020 to discuss gaps and opportunities in oncology nutrition, alone and in combination with exercise, relative to current evidence and international societies’ recommendations. The panel recommended five principles to optimize clinical oncology practice: (1) position oncology nutrition at the center of multidisciplinary care; (2) partner with colleagues and administrators to integrate a nutrition care process into the multidisciplinary cancer care approach; (3) screen all patients for malnutrition risk at diagnosis and regularly throughout treatment; (4) combine exercise and nutrition interventions before (e.g., prehabilitation), during, and after treatment as oncology standard of care to optimize nutrition status and muscle mass; and (5) incorporate a patient-centered approach into multidisciplinary care.

This work analyzes the energy performance implications of the physicochemical properties and the mineralogical elemental composition of agro-industrial wastes in the form of pellets (ISR pellets) and pine bark chips (PBCh). ISR pellets were made from a mixture of industrial wastewater treatment plant (IWTP) primary sludge, coal boiler ashes (CBA), and wood waste chips (WW), which are wastes rich in inorganic material and with a usable energy potential. All these residues were obtained from the production processes of paper company (Smurfit Kappa Colombia). ISR pellets and PBCh were tested as individual and mixed fuels in the thermochemical gasification and combustion processes. Several synergistic effects were found through the co-processing of these fuels, resulting in improvements in the performance indices normally used for the energy assessment of waste, as well as substantial environmental impact and operational behavior improvements. These effects were predicted through fusibility correlations from the elemental composition of the inorganic content, particularly the low melting point salts precursor species and fusibility temperature, as developed for coal ashes. The results of experimental co-processing validated these predictions.

Background Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), firstly reported in China last November 2019, became a global pandemic. It has been shown that periods of isolation may induce a spike in alcohol use disorder (AUD). In addition, alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is the most common consequence of excessive alcohol consumption worldwide. Moreover, liver impairment has also been reported as a common manifestation of COVID-19. Aims The aim of our position paper was to consider some critical issues regarding the management of ALD in patients with AUD in the era of COVID-19. Methods A panel of experts of the Italian Society of Alcohology (SIA) met via “conference calls” during the lockdown period to draft the SIA’s criteria for the management of ALD in patients with COVID-19 as follows: (a) liver injury in patients with ALD and COVID-19 infection; (b) toxicity to the liver of the drugs currently tested to treat COVID-19 and the pharmacological interaction between medications used to treat AUD and to treat COVID-19; (c) reorganization of the management of compensated and decompensated ALD and liver transplantation in the COVID-19 era. Results and Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly carried us toward a new governance scenario of AUD and ALD which necessarily requires an in-depth review of the management of these diseases with a new safe approach (management of out-patients and in-patients following new rules of safety, telemedicine, telehealth, call meetings with clinicians, nurses, patients, and caregivers) without losing the therapeutic efficacy of multidisciplinary treatment.

Since the first statement of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS) is meanwhile an established treatment option for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). There are three HNS systems available in Germany which differ in their technical details of the underlying comparable basic principle. For the unilateral HNS with respiratory sensing, several comparative studies, high-volume register analysis and long-term reports exist. The continuous HNS without respiratory sensing does not require a sleep endoscopy for indication. For the bilateral continuous HNS as the single partially implantable device, a feasibility study exists. For indication, the assessment of positive airway pressure failure by sleep medicine is crucial, and the decision for HNS should be made in discussion of other treatment options for at least moderate OSA. The implantation center holds primarily responsibility among the interdisciplinary sleep team and is primary contact for the patient in problems. This depicts why structural processes are required to secure outcome quality and minimize the complications. The aftercare of HNS patients can be provided interdisciplinary and by different medical institutions, whereat, minimal reporting standards to document outcome and usage are recommended.

Allergo journal international 30(5), 155-168 (2021). doi:10.1007/s40629-021-00178-2, Published by Urban & Vogel, München

Rearrangements in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase ROS (ROS1) genes characterise two distinct molecular subsets of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumours. Lorlatinib is a third-generation ALK/ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) shown to have systemic and intracranial activity in treatment-naive patients and in those who progressed on first- and second-generation TKIs. Despite being generally well tolerated, lorlatinib has a unique and challenging safety profile that includes hyperlipidaemia and central and peripheral nervous system adverse events (AEs). This article summarises a set of strategies designed to monitor and manage lorlatinib-related AEs that were agreed upon by a multidisciplinary panel of specialists in a meeting held in July 2020. Among the recommendations hereby described, special emphasis was placed on communication: prescribing physicians should inform patients and their families/caregivers about the likelihood and nature of lorlatinib AEs, encouraging them to report any symptoms, while at the same time reassuring them that most events are manageable and resolve spontaneously and have little to no interference with cancer treatment. Importantly, all patients should undergo a set of baseline assessments, including biochemical analysis, evaluation of cardiovascular risk, electrocardiogram (ECG), neurological evaluation and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, which should be repeated regularly during lorlatinib treatment. Supportive medications to treat or relieve lorlatinib AEs were also discussed, as were the conditions requiring specialist consultations and/or adjustments in lorlatinib therapy. The overall goal of this article is to serve as a practical guide for oncologists to systematically and effectively approach lorlatinib AEs.

Feedback is beneficial to students’ learning process and overall achievement, but one of the common complaints from students about college education is regarding feedback. So, this study aimed to examine whether digital written feedback positively influences students’ learning experience and attitude toward learning. Digital written feedback refers to feedback provided through a learning management system as handwritten feedback added to a scanned copy of the student’s paper-based assessment using a smart pad and smart pencil. The study surveyed a diverse set of college students’ (n = 175) perceptions regarding feedback satisfaction, learning satisfaction, the usefulness of digital written feedback, and perceived achievement via an online survey. A one-way analysis of variance found a significant difference between feedback satisfaction and learning satisfaction according to the feedback method. A multiple regression analysis indicated the satisfaction and perceived usefulness of digital written feedback predicted perceived achievement. From the students’ open responses regarding the benefits of digital written feedback, five themes emerged, namely usability, psychological relief, accessibility, self-regulation, and acceptance. The implications for digital written feedback are discussed.

Social aggression is a pervasive feature of insect societies. In eusocial Hymenoptera, aggression among females can affect task performance and competition over direct reproduction (egg laying); in most species males participate in social interactions relatively rarely. Males of the independent-founding paper wasp Mischocyttarus mastigophorus are exceptional: they are aggressive toward female nestmates, leading us to explore the function of this unusual behavior. We applied social network analyses to data on M. mastigophorus social aggression to quantify sex differences in giving and receiving social aggression. The network analyses supported the pattern of biased male aggression toward female nestmates; females are relatively rarely aggressive to males. We then asked whether male aggression toward females was biased by females’ relative ovary development. Males were more aggressive toward females with better-developed ovaries, opposite to patterns of aggression among females. Because food brought to the colonies is often monopolized by dominant females, we suggest that males direct aggression toward socially dominant females with better-developed ovaries to obtain food. The implications of biased male aggression for female task performance and physiology are unknown.

Over the last few years, the microfluidics phenomenon coupled with the Internet of Things (IoT) using innovative nano-functional materials has been recognized as a sustainable and economical tool for point-of-care testing (POCT) of various pathogens influencing human health. The sensors based on these phenomena aim to be designed for cost-effectiveness, make it handy, environment-friendly, and get an accurate, easy, and rapid response. Considering the burgeoning importance of analytical devices in the healthcare domain, this review paper is based on the gist of sensing aspects of the microfabricated paper-based analytical devices (μPADs). The article discusses the various used design methodologies and fabrication approaches and elucidates the recently reported surface modification strategies, detection mechanisms viz., colorimetric, electrochemical, fluorescence, electrochemiluminescence, etc. In a nutshell, this article summarizes the state-of-the-art research work carried out over the nano functionalized paper-based analytical devices and associated challenges/solutions in the point of care testing domain.

In recent years, the paper industry is developing strongly and plays an important role in the industry of our country. Most of the factories have their own wastewater treatment systems. In general, wastewater in paper mill is very difficult to treat and to handle, especially color (Pt–Co) index. In this research, activated carbon with a high surface area and high adsorption capacity was prepared from corn stalks, an agricultural by-products. The suitable conditions of pyrolysis were investigated to prepare activated bio-char from corn stalk. Then, as-obtained carbon material was applied for color treatment of effluent from paper mill. The activated carbon showed high efficiency and capability in color removal of waste water, with the color reduction of 77%.

Background The study tests the effects of data collection modes on patient responses associated with the multi-item measures such as Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement System (PROMIS®), and single-item measures such as Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE), and Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) measures. Methods Adult cancer patients were recruited from five cancer centers and administered measures of anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbance, pain intensity, pain interference, ability to participate in social roles and activities, global mental and physical health, and physical function. Patients were randomized to complete the measures on paper (595), interactive voice response (IVR, 596) system, or tablet computer (589). We evaluated differential item functioning (DIF) by method of data collection using the R software package, lordif. For constructs that showed no DIF, we concluded equivalence across modes if the equivalence margin, defined as ± 0.20 × pooled SD, completely surrounds 95% confidence intervals (CI's) for difference in mean score. If the 95% CI fell totally outside the equivalence margin, we concluded systematic score difference by modes. If the 95% CI partly overlaps the equivalence margin, we concluded neither equivalence nor difference. Results For all constructs, no DIF of any kind was found for the three modes. The scores on paper and tablet were more comparable than between IVR and other modes but none of the 95% CI’s were completely outside the equivalence margins, in which we established neither equivalence nor difference. Percentages of missing values were comparable for paper and tablet modes. Percentages of missing values were higher for IVR (2.3% to 6.5% depending on measures) compared to paper and tablet modes (0.7% to 3.3% depending on measures and modes), which was attributed to random technical difficulties experienced in some centers. Conclusion Across all mode comparisons, there were some measures with CI’s not completely contained within the margin of small effect. Two visual modes agreed more than visual-auditory pairs. IVR may induce differences in scores unrelated to constructs being measured in comparison with paper and tablet. The users of the surveys should consider using IVR only when paper and computer administration is not feasible.

The present study investigated the adsorption efficiency of laboratory-produced activated carbon (AC) from pyrolysis of mix waste plastic (MWP) for treating paper mill effluent. In the present work, adsorbent was prepared from MWP and was characterized in comparison to commercial adsorbents. A lab scale adsorption study was performed in 100 mL batch experiments to get the optimized condition of different variables by eliminating the pollutants from EOP wastewater and was found as AC dose 10.0 g/100 mL, temperature 35 °C, agitation rate 150 rpm, contact time 7 h, and pH 9.0. The EOP wastewater was analyzed for different quality parameters after treating with prepared AC (PW-AC) and two commercial ACs (SC-AC and M-AC) at optimized conditions. The efficiency of ACs was found to be in order as M-AC>PW-AC>SC-AC. The optimized conditions were applied for the removal of chlorophenols using different ACs in comparison to control EOP wastewater. The study revealed that elimination of chlorophenolic compounds from EOP wastewater (7824 ng/L) was the highest in M-AC treatment followed by PW-AC and SC-AC, i.e., 1426 ng/L, 1759 ng/L, and 2200 ng/L, respectively. PW-AC had major impacts on reduction of chloroguaiacols (82%) as well as chlorophenols (80.7%) that were present in chief amount in EOP wastewater. PW-AC was found to be a capable adsorbent for the removal of chlorophenolic compounds from the most toxic bleaching effluents of pulp and paper industry.

Diagnostic and evidential static image, video clip, and sound multimedia are captured during routine clinical care in cardiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, pathology, physiatry, radiation oncology, radiology, endoscopic procedural specialties, and other medical disciplines. Providers typically describe the multimedia findings in contemporaneous electronic health record clinical notes or associate a textual interpretative report. Visual communication aids commonly used to connect, synthesize, and supplement multimedia and descriptive text outside medicine remain technically challenging to integrate into patient care. Such beneficial interactive elements may include hyperlinks between text, multimedia elements, alphanumeric and geometric annotations, tables, graphs, timelines, diagrams, anatomic maps, and hyperlinks to external educational references that patients or provider consumers may find valuable. This HIMSS-SIIM Enterprise Imaging Community workgroup white paper outlines the current and desired clinical future state of interactive multimedia reporting (IMR). The workgroup adopted a consensus definition of IMR as “interactive medical documentation that combines clinical images, videos, sound, imaging metadata, and/or image annotations with text, typographic emphases, tables, graphs, event timelines, anatomic maps, hyperlinks, and/or educational resources to optimize communication between medical professionals, and between medical professionals and their patients.” This white paper also serves as a precursor for future efforts toward solving technical issues impeding routine interactive multimedia report creation and ingestion into electronic health records.

Paper-based microfluidic analytical devices (μPADs) have shown great potential in the field of analysis due to their advantages of rapid analysis, environmental friendliness and the ability to realize the flow of fluid without external power. Saliva is an emerging biofluid which is used in diseases diagnostic and screening for the easy collection and the reflection of the physiological state. This review focuses on the fabrication methods for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) μPADs and their applications on the saliva analysis. In the first part, the flow mechanism in μPADs is discussed. The second part mainly introduces the fabrication methods for the μPADs and compares the different methods. The third part presents the application of μPADs in the detection of biomarkers such as nitrite, glucose, and thiocyanate in saliva. Finally, the research directions of saliva analysis are discussed in the conclusion. There have been a lot of researches on μPADs, but the fabrication methods and applications need to be further studied to meet the commercial needs.

In recent era of modern and bendable technology, energy dearth arises as a paramount subject around the globe with a dire demand of flexible and lightweight energy storage devices. This study targets fabrication of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and utility of abundantly available, cost effective, and environment friendly lignocelluloses (LC) fibers extracted from Carica papaya source, as a binder to bind active material (rGO) as robust and compact paper sheet. Fabricated samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction for crystallographic analysis, Scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscope for morphology, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for structural bonding, and Raman spectroscopy for vibrational modes. Robust and bendable rGO/LC paper electrode was tested for energy storage application by employing in different characterizations, i.e., cyclic voltammetry for capacitive behavior, galvanostatic charge–discharge for symmetric EDLC, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for resistive charge kinetics, respectively. rGO/LC composite sheet employed as working electrode in 3-electrode CV measurements and revealed specific capacitance of 591 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s by keeping the undistorted shape of voltammograms at higher scan rates which present it as a suitable candidate for modern flexible and energy storage devices. rGO/LC-based symmetric cell revealed the highest specific capacitance of 228 F/g at applied current density of 0.1 A/g, the energy density of 6.3 Wh/kg, and power density of 129 W/kg, respectively. rGO/LC-based symmetric cell confirmed the cycling stability by revealing capacitance retention of 82% after 200 cycles. It can conclude that biomass-based rGO paper sheet can be a potential candidate as environmentally safe with remarkable electrochemical activity in energy storage applications.

The X-ray diffraction internal standard method can quantitatively determine the ash content of paper, but the requirements for the experimental environment are high, the determination is not convenient and the cost is high, and it is difficult to be widely used in the papermaking enterprises. In order to determine the total ash and its components of the single filler paper samples, and meet the ash determination requirements of papermaking enterprises, the continuous X-ray method is proposed. In this paper, an X-ray tube is used as the radiation source and an ionization chamber is used as the detector. Through polynomial fitting of the total ash and voltage logarithm ratio of the single filler paper samples, the mathematical model of total ash is established; the total ash and its components content of paper are calculated according to the mathematical model of total ash and the Beer–Lambert law deformation formula; the total ash and its components content of paper are verified by the burning method. The research results show that the total ash error of the single filler paper samples is less than 4%, and the ash component error is less than 5%.

One way of exposing predatory journals is to submit a spoof article to see if it gets accepted. We investigate one journal, looking at how it has performed since a spoof paper it accepted came to light. We find that it has published almost 20% more papers following the acceptance of the spoof paper. The journal has a new web site, which appears to show that it did not publish its first paper until 2018. However, there is an old web site that lists 321 papers dating back to 2012. The editors said that this is due to a new workflow system, which meant that previously published papers could not be listed on the new web site. Moreover, the number of papers could be not accommodated, as a high configuration server would be required to provide a responsive web site. We found some plagiarism, which looks quite serious. We conclude that the spoof paper had little effect on the journal, which continues to operate, seven years after the spoof paper was accepted.

The color gamut of imaging media is significant for the reproduction of color images because its magnitude directly affects the degree to which colors change during the printing process. Over the last few years, digital impression technology has started to play a substantial role in the printing industry due to the quest for short runs and variable information printing. The color gamut of electrophotographic digital printing depends on various parameters including the printer and toner, but especially the properties (whiteness, roughness, and gloss) of the paper, which influence the final printed color gamut and replication quality. Artificial intelligence approaches are applied herein for the first time to choose and predict the performance of a paper with appropriate properties to achieve the maximum color gamut. A genetic algorithm-based computer code is developed to optimize the architecture of an artificial neural network, thereby yielding an accurate model to predict the color gamut achievable in electrophotographic color printing. The gamut volume was generated using an Eye-One spectrophotometer, ProfileMaker, and ColorThink software. The properties of 11 dissimilar types of paper were assessed by atomic force microscopy, spectrophotometer, and goniophotometer. The results indicate that the reproducibility depended considerably on the features of the paper. Although high whiteness and gloss increased the color gamut volume, and high roughness decreased the reproducibility of the printing machine, the artificial intelligence approach provided the opportunity to achieve a high gamut volume with low gloss and high roughness.

The study aims to find the quality of research papers published in the domain of entrepreneurship in India. This study covers 100 research papers. A standardized measurement tool developed by the earlier researchers was used to evaluate the research quality. The data compiled using the measurement tool were analyzed with the support of the SPSS. The statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, Friedman’s test, factor analysis, two-sample ‘t’ test, and ANOVA are applied to analyze the data. The study findings reported that the quality of research papers published in the field of entrepreneurship is not up to the quality standards. The quality of multiple-author papers is better than single-author papers. Similarly, the quality of papers published by foreign authors is comparatively better than Indian authors. Further, the quality of papers published with the combination of foreign and Indian authors is substantially good. The quality of papers published in foreign journals is higher as compared with Indian journals. Further, the standard of papers published under the qualitative approach was comparatively better than the quantitative approach. The authors developed a Conceptual Model of Process and Product of Research (YOVA model). This model clearly shows that the whole research process yields six levels of research products. The study recommended that the researchers need to go for international collaborations to improve the quality of the publication. The funding agencies, higher learning institutions and research institutions should focus on enhancing research infrastructure. The study examined the validity of research articles searched by novice researchers in India in Google by using keywords related to entrepreneurship and, as such this non-focused approach is a big impediment to quality research.

Headline generation is a challenging subtask of abstractive text summarization, which its output should be a summary, shorter than one sentence. It would be precious to develop a dataset for the evaluation of abstractive summarization methods on this task in the Persian language. There are several datasets for headline generation in Persian, most of which are not large enough to be used by more sophisticated methods of text summarization, such as deep learning models. Moreover, all of these datasets are focused on daily news and there is no dataset for summarizing scientific Persian papers. In this article, we present “ElmNet,” a headline generation dataset of about 400,000 abstract/headline pairs of scientific papers, gathered from six major publishers for scientific articles in Persian. We, moreover, evaluate the performance of the most important deep learning-based headline generation methods, on the proposed dataset. The results prove the comparability of the performance of the state-of-the-art methods on this task, to their results on the existing English datasets.

Here we report broad range, tunable and foldable paper-based passive components and filter circuits. Reported electronics fabricated through solvent-free garage fabrication techniques using inexpensive and off-the-shelf materials like graphite pencils, aluminum foil, copper tape, paper, and such Previously reported paper-based passive electronic circuits are single-valued and lack real-time tunability. Broad range passive components and tunable RC filter circuits fabricated through inexpensive, eco-friendly, and cleanroom-free fabrication techniques like hand drawing of graphite pencils on paper and garage fabrication techniques like cutting-pasting of readily available materials demonstrated expected functionalities with tunable cut-off frequencies. Cut-off frequencies of low and high pass filters are tunned from 15 to 190 kHz by penciling graphite flakes of different graphite content pencils. The paper-based passive electronic circuits showed robust performance against applied stress during bending and folding. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been reported on tunable paper-based passive electronic circuits. These paper-based electronic components and circuits open pathways for green and foldable power electronics, flexible and foldable printed circuit boards and consumer electronics, touchpads, disposable security systems, soft robotics, and many more.

Purpose: Some universal accessibility practitioners have voiced that they experience a mismatch in the research focus and the need for knowledge within specialized problem domains. This study thus set out to identify the balance of research into the main areas of accessibility, the impact of this research, and how the research profile varies over time and across geographical regions. Method: All UAIS papers indexed in Scopus were analysed using bibliometric methods. The WCAG taxonomy of accessibility was used for the analysis, namely perceivable, operable, and understandable. Results: The results confirm the expectation that research into visual impairment has received more attention than papers addressing operable and understandable. Although papers focussing on understandable made up the smallest group, papers in this group attracted more citations. Funded research attracted fewer citations than research without funding. The breakdown of research efforts appears consistent over time and across different geographical regions. Researchers in Europe and North America have been active throughout the last two decades, while Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Middle East became active in during the last five years. There is also seemingly a growing trend of out-of-scope papers. Conclusions: Based on the findings, several recommendations are proposed to the UAIS editorial board.

The printing effect of paper packaging has an impact on the circulation effect of products. Only when the printing effect is good can it attract consumers’ purchasing desire. In this study, based on color management technology, the printing of the designed Bazhong specialty paper packaging was studied. Firstly, the content and process of color management were analyzed, and equipment correction and characterization were introduced. Then, the printing process of Bazhong specialty paper packaging was explored, and the printing equipment and the establishment of the profile file were analyzed. The application of color management achieves a high-quality printing effect, which provides a theoretical reference for its further application in the printing industry.

Why does the cross-disciplinary field of “development studies” have relatively low “journal impact indicators” in comparison with other mono-disciplinary fields of study? We argue that a reasonable explanation is the existence of a “paper drain” phenomenon: a certain proportion of the papers dealing with development is eventually published in journals that are assigned to other (non-development) fields. We conceptualize the paper drain phenomenon and empirically estimate its size for the field of development studies. Running an algorithmic procedure on the Scopus database, we identify six “key development issues” and estimate that the subject category of “development” is approximately publishing 28% of the papers dealings with these issues within the Social Sciences. The remaining 72% are “draining” to other (non-development) categories. We offer some recommendations in order to rise the scientific impact (and influence) of development studies, such as increasing the number of journals covered by the impact indicators.

Scientific research cooperation and co-authored papers are becoming increasingly popular in the era of big science. However, allocating appropriate credit to each co-author of papers remains a challenge. We consider author contribution declarations according to the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT) scheme (assigning each co-author to 14 contributor roles) and propose a new method of author contribution to allocate co-authors’ credits reasonably by converting the 14 contributor roles in an article into a binary author-role matrix. Based on the data of PLOS ONE, we further explore the new method’s advantages by comparing with other representative methods: It normalizes the total credits of different articles to 1, avoiding the inflationary bias caused by the increasing number of co-authors; awards different credits per co-author based on the participation rate of contributor roles to avoid the equalization bias; reduces the impact of the increasing number of co-authors on the credit of the first co-author.

Journal ratings are a key factor when individuals or institutions assess research and select journals. Despite their significant development in recent years, ratings are still not sufficiently precise or updated enough, depending on the subject and method used. In this paper, we present a new methodology, called paper affiliation index, with which to create subject journal ratings using expert judgment and research impact, both of which are based on secondary, objective measures, thus making it possible to produce lists every year without human manipulation at virtually no cost. We compare the results of our methodology with the selection of top journals by the ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects in the Social Sciences, the Excellence in Research for Australia, Australian Business Dean Council, the Academic Journal Guide release by Chartered Association of Business Schools lists, and the Journal Impact Factor calculated by Clarivate Analytics.

In many countries around the world that use authorship and academic papers for career advancement and recognition, the accurate identity of participating authors is vital. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), an author disambiguation tool that was created in 2012, is being vociferously implemented across a wide swathe of journals, including by many leading publishers. In some countries, authors who publish in indexed journals, particularly in journals that carry a Clarivate Analytics’ Journal Impact Factor, are rewarded, sometimes even monetarily. A strong incentive to cheat and abuse the publication ethos thus exists. There has been a recent spike in the detection of papers apparently derived from paper mills that have multiple issues with figures. The use of such figures across many papers compromises the integrity of the content in all those papers, with widespread ramifications for the integrity of the biomedical literature and of journals that may be gamed by academics. The use of ORCID does not guarantee the authenticity of authors associated with a paper mill-derived paper, nor does it fortify the paper’s integrity. These weaknesses of ORCID may dampen trust in this tool, especially if the ORCID platform is being populated by “ghost” (empty) ORCID accounts of academics whose identities cannot be clearly verified, or disposable accounts (perhaps created by paper mill operators) that are used only once, exclusively to pass the paper submission step. Open-source forensic tools to assist academics, editors and publishers to detect problematic figures, and more stringent measures by ORCID to ensure robust author identity verification, are urgently required to protect themselves, and the wider biomedical literature.

The authors of the title paper (Journal of Optics 49:181–186, 2020) claim to have grown a so-called urea potassium dichromate (UPDC) by slow evaporation of an aqueous solution containing equimolar amounts of urea and potassium dichromate and characterized it based on a unit cell study. A critical analysis reveals that the claims in the title paper are erroneous. Hence, we reinvestigated the crystal growth reaction and determined the structure of the product crystal. Based on these studies, we prove that due to no chemical reaction between the reagents fractional crystallization of potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) occurs and not formation of any so-called UPDC crystal. Taking the title crystal as an example we show the importance of reporting single-crystal structure for new compound characterization.

Predicting the impact of academic papers can help scholars quickly identify the high-quality papers in the field. How to develop efficient predictive model for evaluating potential papers has attracted increasing attention in academia. Many studies have shown that early citations contribute to improving the performance of predicting the long-term impact of a paper. Besides early citations, some bibliometric features and altmetric features have also been explored for predicting the impact of academic papers. Furthermore, paper metadata text such as title, abstract and keyword contains valuable information which has effect on its citation count. However, present studies ignore the semantic information contained in the metadata text. In this paper, we propose a novel citation prediction model based on paper metadata text to predict the long-term citation count, and the core of our model is to obtain the semantic information from the metadata text. We use deep learning techniques to encode the metadata text, and then further extract high-level semantic features for learning the citation prediction task. We also integrate early citations for improving the prediction performance of the model. We show that our proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art models in predicting the long-term citation count of the papers, and metadata semantic features are effective for improving the accuracy of the citation prediction models.

In the midst of challenges facing affordable, safe and sustainable housing development, there is a continuous increase in the vast amounts of carton papers, melon seed husks, and groundnut shells discarded as waste materials. This is of great concern, especially, as such residues are under-utilised and their improper disposal creates grave problems. Thus, this work was designed to assess the feasibility of solving the emerging problems by valorising the said wastes into value-added products that can be used for building construction. Samples containing varying weight proportions of waste carton paste (WCP) and melon seed husk (MSH) were developed using Topbond as binding agent. Other samples were similarly fabricated but with groundnut shell (GNS) as a component. From the results of tests performed to investigate strength and heat transfer behaviour of each developed sample, it was observed that nailability remained 100% irrespective of the composite formulations adopted. In other cases, the test results varied according to WCP loadings. Though samples containing MSH appeared to be more efficient than their counterparts with GNS content for thermal insulation, the observed differences in the results were statistically insignificant. Aside being sustainable and inexpensive, it was found generally that the afore-mentioned wastes are promising alternative raw materials for production of medium-density panels that are environmentally-friendly and also suitable for use as either ceiling or interior partition boards for effective thermal insulation in buildings. Such undertakings have the potential to minimise the adverse effects that could be caused by the wastes in question.

Our main objective is to create a framework to analyze signals sent from academic journals. The signals chosen for the framework were: journal’ scopes; and the latest published papers. We apply the framework to the field of accounting with the main focus of categorizing the journal scopes and the latest published articles into research topics by using text mining techniques. We analyze the published papers of research topics in accounting journals during the 2016–2018 period. Another objective is to compare research topics from the last published papers with research topics identified in accounting journal scopes. We found a majority of journals with a broader scope in terms of accounting research areas, but we see a concentration on specific research topics by analyzing the papers. In addition, the most signaled accounting areas in scopes are financial accounting and auditing. The framework helps us categorize 5270 research papers into accounting research topics correctly, faster than manually reading titles, abstracts, and keywords. While specific scopes may carry the risk of missing new research trends, broad scopes may require more reviewers from different research areas. Diversity can be seen as applying other methodological choices, theoretical lenses, and conceptual or empirical research approaches. We believe that academic diversity is for the benefit of accounting research.

Along with the unceasing growth of worldwide economic and the associated issues on resources, energy and environment, clean energy generating technologies that are based on recyclable materials, if possible, may become the future trend of development. Here, we report the design of a cheap, lightweight, and recyclable single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that utilizes waste paper as the triboelectric material. Under the current strategy, we successfully developed green energy machines without vastly increasing the mining of various critical minerals around the world. The as-designed TENG could not only collect and convert mechanical energy into electricity with sound efficiency, but also has the merit for continuous reuse and quick construction. The maximum output power density is as high as 171 mW·m−2 at a resistance of 130 MΩ and could be integrated into a book for monitoring reading actions, thus providing a new approach to the low-cost, green and sustainable self-powered electronic systems.

Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) represent a large group of hereditary degenerative diseases of the nervous system, in particular the cerebellum, and other systems that manifest with a variety of progressive motor, cognitive, and behavioral deficits with the leading symptom of cerebellar ataxia. SCAs often lead to severe impairments of the patient's functioning, quality of life, and life expectancy. For SCAs, there are no proven effective pharmacotherapies that improve the symptoms or substantially delay disease progress, i.e., disease-modifying therapies. To study SCA pathogenesis and potential therapies, animal models have been widely used and are an essential part of pre-clinical research. They mainly include mice, but also other vertebrates and invertebrates. Each animal model has its strengths and weaknesses arising from model animal species, type of genetic manipulation, and similarity to human diseases. The types of murine and non-murine models of SCAs, their contribution to the investigation of SCA pathogenesis, pathological phenotype, and therapeutic approaches including their advantages and disadvantages are reviewed in this paper. There is a consensus among the panel of experts that (1) animal models represent valuable tools to improve our understanding of SCAs and discover and assess novel therapies for this group of neurological disorders characterized by diverse mechanisms and differential degenerative progressions, (2) thorough phenotypic assessment of individual animal models is required for studies addressing therapeutic approaches, (3) comparative studies are needed to bring pre-clinical research closer to clinical trials, and (4) mouse models complement cellular and invertebrate models which remain limited in terms of clinical translation for complex neurological disorders such as SCAs.

The photon energy of terahertz waves is of the order of a few milli-electronvolts and is much lower than the thermal energy of ~ 26 meV at room temperature. However, the fast and sensitive detection of terahertz waves is notoriously difficult at ambient conditions. Moreover, the material flexibility is also very important within existing terahertz technologies for development of wearable and portable terahertz devices. We experimentally demonstrate that multiwall carbon nanotube flexible paper (MWCNT-FP) is one of the potential candidates to be used for terahertz detectors at room temperature. For the first time, MWCNT-FP sample is measured over a wide frequency band ranging from 0.02 to 4.5 THz at room temperature as compared to previously reported materials that demonstrate prominent frequency response between 0.2 and 2.5 THz. The MWCNT-FP sample delivered wide band absorption between 0.02 and 4.0 THz. Over the transmission, a high absorption peak is detected at 1.0 THz. The optical density spectrum is observed around 1.25 and 3.37 THz in the low-frequency regime and high-frequency regime, respectively. The present results suggest the potential application of MWCNT-FP as a wearable THz detector.

This study's objective was to assess which caring recruitment behaviors correlate with the successful recruitment of older African-American adults-a two-step cross-sectional design employing a vignette-based survey methodology. Kristen Swanson's middle-range theory of caring was used to guide the examination of African-American adults' (65 years of age and older) perceptions of research-study-recruiter recruitment behaviors. This study's main findings are twofold: Step 1: Seven of ten invited experts identified major revisions of the two core vignettes, written at an eighth-grade reading level and high school comprehension. Step 2: A 51% response rate yielded findings that this methodology successfully captured older African-American adults' perception of research study recruiters' behavioral characteristics during the recruitment process. Older African-Americans who received the hypothetical caring vignette were twice as likely to indicate their willingness to enroll in a research study with a high commitment (i.e., brain donation) compared to their counterparts who received the hypothetical uncaring recruitment scenario. Vignette-based survey methodology holds promise as a tool for informing the recruitment of older African-American adults and other minorities into federally funded health-related research studies.

This paper does not set out to describe the reasons why a new concept of dental care should be deemed as acceptable and recognised as mainstream. Rather, the starting point of this paper is the belief that some dentists who are increasing the overall vertical dimension for worn dentition patients are not using the protocols of the traditional 're-organised approach'. If adhesive direct restorations are used, there seems to be anecdotal indication that despite not restoring in the terminal hinge axis, it can have a successful outcome. So, while not criticising this approach simply because it does not follow orthodoxy, the paper has two objectives. It hopes to stimulate some debate and research on this subject. Furthermore, by suggesting some parameters for what might be considered a new approach, it aims to improve patient outcome.

Despite the increasing number of potential biomarkers identified in laboratories and reported in much literature, the adoption of biomarkers routinely available in clinical practice to inform treatment decisions is very limited. Reimbursement decisions for new health technologies are often informed by economic evaluations; however, economic evaluations of diagnostics/testing technologies, such as companion biomarker tests, are far less frequently reported than drugs. Furthermore, few countries provide the health economic evaluation methods guide specific to co-dependent technologies such as companion diagnostics or precision medicines. Therefore, this paper aims to guide the process of the development of cost-effectiveness models of cancer biomarkers for targeted therapies, focusing on companion diagnostics. This tutorial paper provides practical guidance on how to conduct economic evaluations of cancer biomarkers and how to model the characteristics of the biomarker tests as part of the value for money of corresponding targeted therapies. This paper presents a brief introduction to the methods and data requirements, a step-by-step guide to constructing a health economic model of companion cancer biomarkers, and a discussion of issues that arise in their application to healthcare decision making. This practical guidance is provided in R, and worked examples are provided in this paper with R codes in the accompanying electronic supplementary material. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40273-021-01069-8.

Laser-scribed graphene (LSG) electrodes have gained popularity in many miniaturized and lab on chip systems such as micro-energy harvester, flexible electronics, portable power storage, electrochemical sensors, etc. This study presents the development of a fuel cell on a cellulose filter paper with integrated LSG electrodes. Here, cellulose paper acts as a microchannel to transport the fluids through capillary action. Paper devices offer several important advantages, including the elimination of membrane and external pumps with the integrated co-laminar flow through embedded capillary systems. Herein, the paper-LSG fuel cell uses HCOOH and H2SO4 as fuel and electrolyte, respectively. Experiments have been performed to enhance the performance of paper-LSG fuel cell by optimizing various electrode types (Plain LSG, Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)/LSG, Pure MWCNT), concentration of fuel and electrolyte, and different grades of cellulose paper microchannels to understand the impact to the porosity of paper. The developed paper-LSG fuel cell, with MWCNT/LSG as an optimized electrode, delivered a peak current density (CD) of 166.82 µA/cm2, and power density (PD) of 14.42 µW/cm2, at a stable OCP of 350 mV with Grade-1 cellulose microchannel. Such fuel cells are amenable to be utilized for sustainably powering various microelectronic devices.

Catalogue of billions of phrases from 107 million papers could ease computerized searching of the literature. Catalogue of billions of phrases from 107 million papers could ease computerized searching of the literature.

BackgroundHealth information systems are crucial to provide data for decision-making and demand for data is constantly growing. However, the link between data and decisions is not always rational or linear and the management of data ends up overloading frontline health workers, which may compromise quality of healthcare delivery. Despite limited evidence, there is an increasing push for the digitalization of health information systems, which poses enormous challenges, particularly in remote, rural settings in low- and middle-income countries. Paper-based tools will continue to be used in combination with digital solutions and this calls for efforts to make them more responsive to local needs. Paper-based Health Information Systems in Comprehensive Care (PHISICC) is a transdisciplinary, multi-country research initiative to create and test innovative paper-based health information systems in three sub-Saharan African countries.Methods/DesignThe PHISICC initiative is being carried out in remote, rural settings in Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria through partnership with ministries of health and research institutions. We began with research syntheses to acquire the most up-to-date knowledge on health information systems. These were coupled with fieldwork in the three countries to understand the current design, patterns and contexts of use, and healthcare worker perspectives. Frontline health workers, with designers and researchers, used co-creation methods to produce the new PHISICC tools. This suite of tools is being tested in the three countries in three cluster-randomized controlled trials. Throughout the project, we have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders and have maintained the highest scientific standards to ensure that results are relevant to the realities in the three countries.DiscussionWe have deployed a comprehensive research approach to ensure the robustness and future policy uptake of findings. Besides the innovative PHISICC paper-based tools, our process is in itself innovative. Rather than emphasizing the technical dimensions of data management, we focused instead on frontline health workers’ data use and decision-making. By tackling the whole scope of primary healthcare areas rather than a subset of them, we have developed an entirely new design and visual language for a suite of tools across healthcare areas. The initiative is being tested in remote, rural areas where the most vulnerable live.

The early diagnosis of active hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains a significant barrier to the treatment of the disease and to preventing the associated significant morbidity and mortality seen, worldwide. Current testing is delayed due to the high cost, long turnaround times and high expertise needed in centralised diagnostic laboratories. Here we demonstrate a user-friendly, low-cost pan-genotypic assay, based upon reverse transcriptase loop mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP). We developed a prototype device for point-of-care use, comprising a LAMP amplification chamber and lateral flow nucleic acid detection strips, giving a visually-read, user-friendly result in, Current HCV nucleic acid-based diagnosis is largely performed in centralised laboratories. Here, the authors present a pan-genotypic RNA assay, based on reverse transcriptase loop mediated isothermal amplification and develop a low-cost prototype paper-based lateral flow device for point-of-care use, providing a visually read result within 40 min.

BackgroundSmall bowel obstruction (SBO) is a common surgical emergency, causing high morbidity and healthcare costs. The majority of SBOs are caused by adhesions that result from previous surgeries. Bowel obstruction, however, also occurs in patients without previous operation or known pathology, a so called virgin abdomen. It is unknown if small bowel obstruction in the virgin abdomen (SBO-VA) can be managed according to the same principles as other cases of small bowel obstruction. The aim of this position paper is to evaluate the available evidence on etiology and management of small bowel obstruction in the virgin abdomen.MethodsThis is a narrative review with scoping aspects. Clinical topics covered in this review include epidemiology and etiology of SBO-VA, diagnosis and imaging, initial assessment, the role of surgical management in SBO-VA, and the role of non-operative management in SBO-VA.ResultsOur scoping search revealed seven original studies reporting original patient data related to SBO-VA. All the included studies are retrospective cohorts, with populations ranging between 44 and 103 patients with SBO-VA. Adhesions were found to be the cause of the obstruction in approximately half of the reported cases of SBO-VA. A relatively high number of cases of SBO-VA were managed surgically with studies reporting 39–83%. However, in cases where a trial of non-operative management was started, this was generally successful.ConclusionThe data available suggest that etiology and treatment results for patients with SBO-VA are largely comparable to the results in patients with SBO after previous abdominal surgery. We therefore propose that patients with a virgin abdomen could be treated according to existing guidelines for SBO and adhesive small bowel obstruction.

Eight major publishers have issued joint guidelines for how journal editors can spot and deal with suspicious images or data. Eight major publishers have issued joint guidelines for how journal editors can spot and deal with suspicious images or data.

Background This article is a duplicated publication from the Japanese version of “2019 JSDT Guidelines for Peritoneal Dialysis” with permission from the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy (JSDT). This clinical practice guideline (CPG) was developed primarily by the Working Group on Revision of Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) Guidelines of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy. Recently, the definition and creation process for CPGs have become far more rigorous; traditional methods and formats no longer adhere to current standards. To improve the reliability of international transmission of our findings, CPGs are created in compliance with the methodologies developed by the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) working group. Part 2 of this PD guideline is the first CPG developed by our society that conforms to the GRADE approach. Methods Detailed processes were created in accordance with the Cochrane handbook and the GRADE approach developed by the GRADE working group. Results Clinical question (CQ)1: Is the use of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors (RAS inhibitors), such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB), effective in PD patients? Recommendation: We suggest the usage of RAS inhibitors (ACEI and ARB) in PD patients (GRADE 2C). CQ2: Icodextrin or glucose solution: which is more useful as a dialysate among patients with PD? Recommendation: We suggest using icodextrin when managing body fluids in PD patients (GRADE 2C). CQ3: Is it better to apply or not apply mupirocin/gentamicin ointment to the exit site? Recommendation: We suggest not applying mupirocin/gentamicin ointment to the exit sites of PD patients (GRADE 2C). CQ4: Which surgical approach is more desirable when a PD catheter is placed, open surgery or laparoscopic surgery? No recommendation. CQ5: Which administration route of antibiotics is better in PD patients with peritonitis, intravenous or intraperitoneal? Recommendation: We suggest intraperitoneal administration of antibiotics in PD patients with peritonitis (GRADE 2C). Note: The National Insurance does not currently cover intraperitoneal administration. CQ6: Is peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis better as the first renal replacement therapy in diabetic patients? No recommendation. Conclusions In the future, we suggest that society members construct their own evidence to answer CQs not brought up in this guideline, and thereby show the achievements of Japan worldwide.

As part of a misconduct crackdown, Chinese funders are penalizing researchers who commission sham journal articles from ‘paper mills’, but some say the measures still don’t go far enough. As part of a misconduct crackdown, Chinese funders are penalizing researchers who commission sham journal articles from ‘paper mills’, but some say the measures still don’t go far enough.