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The practice of information technology (IT) in academic libraries is changing rapidly, not only with new and evolving developments in the technologies themselves but also with the organization and management of IT at both the library and institution levels. This study presents the results of an online survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic library members to identify the biggest challenges they perceive in the area of information technology organization and management. This article compares their responses with challenges reported in earlier studies to identify new and changing trends as well as ongoing challenges that remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In health care centers, monitoring the medical outcomes is desirable to quickly detect performance changes. In recent years, monitoring the surgical process has gained eminence by accounting for patients' health conditions before cardiac surgery where the data is heterogeneous with respect to patients' health conditions. In the current study, we focus on risk-adjusted moving average-exponentially weighted moving average (RAMA-EWMA) control chart to identify the survival time after cardiac surgery. For this purpose, we used two years data set of the cardiac surgery. The performance of the control chart is evaluated by the average run length. Based on the extensive simulation, the average run length properties are computed. It is revealed that the proposed control chart has better shift diagnostic ability than the control chart considers in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While researchers and practitioners are seamlessly trying to develop methods for minimizing the effect of outliers in control charts, detecting and screening these outliers continue to pose serious challenges. Keeping in view, the researchers rely on robust estimators to modify the detection limits structure so that the chart can be more sensitive against outliers. In this study, we propose a robust S2${S}^2$ control chart based on Pn${P}_n$, MAPD,$\ MAPD,$ AADM$AADM$, GMD$\ GMD$, PSD$PSD$, and τau$\tau au$ estimators, whilst the process parameter is estimated from Phase‐I. Through intensive Monte‐Carlo simulations, the study presents how the estimation of parameter(s) and presence of outliers affect the efficacy of the S2${S}^2$ chart, and then how the proposed outlier detectors bring the chart back to normalcy by restoring its efficacy and sensitivity. Average ARL$ARL$ properties are used as the performance measures. The AARL$AARL$ properties establish the superiority of the proposed scheme over MAD$\ MAD$ and Tukey's outlier detectors. The applicability of the study includes the effectiveness of the proposed detectors in industrial data set but is not limited to manufacturing industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current literature outlines the importance of—and strategies for—collecting student life material in institutional archives but does not address the inclusion of this material within collecting statements. This study examines publicly available collecting statements from Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions’ university archives, seeking mentions of student life archival material, diversity, and proactive approaches for collecting said material. Findings suggest that while many ARL institutions mention student life in these policies, most do not make the connection to how this material relates to diversity within the university archives, nor do they provide a proactive approach for collecting this material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses document analysis to review the content of the policies available on the library websites of 119 academic member institutions of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) for policies that address viewing legal visual (video or images) pornography on computers within library spaces. The authors seek to answer the question: How do ARL member libraries address the viewing of legal online pornography by adults in their library spaces as noted in policies or guidelines on their website? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid pace of change and the high cost invested in information technology, it is important for academic libraries to evaluate the information technology solutions they use in their institutions to determine whether they are meeting the needs of their students, faculty, staff, and other users of their libraries and resources. This study presents the results of an online survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic library members to benchmark the assessment strategies that they used to evaluate their IT activities. This article compares their responses with earlier studies to identify trends and make recommendations for effective assessment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, there have been multiple peer-reviewed articles that suggest academic libraries do not establish appropriate succession plans, nor do they develop the required leadership capacity in their librarians. This article discusses (a) the development of a survey instrument to measure the frequency with which succession planning activities take place in libraries, and (b) the results of a survey study that explored succession planning practices in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in the United States. This study utilized a cross-sectional design with a stratified random sample (n = 353) of academic librarians and administrators employed by ARL member libraries. After data analysis, validity and reliability analyses revealed the survey instrument demonstrates acceptable psychometric properties and produced a strong alpha coefficient of.91. Findings also suggest that several factors impact respondents' knowledge of and/or participation in succession planning activities, including their sexual orientation, primary job duties, layers of management in their library hierarchy, and whether or not managers identify and prepare interims for critical positions in their library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to evaluate different serial correlated structures in Hotelling T2 and Shewhart control charts in monitoring multivariate statistical process control. For this purpose, the false alarm rate and shift detection performance were calculated by considering different autocorrelations in the presence of three covariance matrices for the errors. Both simulated data and real data are used for validating the analysis. The result of the simulation shows that the false alarm rate decreases with the increase in the magnitude of autocorrelation in all three low, moderate, and high error covariance structures. In real data, two quality variables of the production process are used. By ignoring autocorrelation in real data, it is concluded that ARL0 shows the process in controlling on the average for nominal value. The performance of Hotelling T2 in ARL1 varies as the shift changes only in x1 otherwise ARL1 have small values as compared to the individual Shewhart chart by increasing shifts in both variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Multivariate Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (MEWMA) control chart is an effective tool for monitoring small shifts in the mean vector of multiple correlated variables over time. The traditional MEWMA control charts are not appropriate when dealing with data that has indeterminacy. For the purpose of dealing with indeterminate data, we present a novel Neutrosophic MEWMA Control Chart that incorporates bootstrap control limits in this research. A simulation study is conducted to compare the performance of the proposed method with the neutrosophic Hotelling T² control chart. The study considered Alarm Rate (AR) and Average Run Length (ARL) have been used as the performance evaluation metrics. Finally, an illustrative example from the chemical industry was used to demonstrate the application of the proposed chart. It is considered that the proposed chart can be effectively applied to a wide range of manufacturing processes, providing significant benefits in process monitoring and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The double EWMA (DEWMA) has been proposed as a more efficient control charting procedure for monitoring the mean of a process. Comparisons of the DEWMA and the EWMA charts, which often indicate the superiority of the DEWMA, are often flawed because the same smoothing constant is used in both charts. We take the approach of first selecting a shift that we would like to detect, and then compare the optimal DEWMA chart and the optimal EWMA chart for that particular shift. We consider the DEWMA chart whose smoothing constants are restricted to be the same and the general DEWMA. We find that there are situations where the optimal DEWMA outperforms, in the sense of a shorter out‐of‐control average run length (ARL) for a fixed in‐control ARL, but the improvement is slight. The optimal EWMA chart usually performs much better than the optimal DEWMA chart when the actual shift differs from the shift used to optimize the chart. The poor performance of the DEWMA chart away from the shift for which it was optimized, the nonmonotonicity of the DEWMA weights, and the additional computations required of the DEWMA chart indicate that the EWMA is a better overall choice than the DEWMA chart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modification of the average run length (ARL) of the Double Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (DEWMA) control chart resulted in a useful tool that could quickly notice small changes. The purpose of the present research is to generate explicit ARL for data characterized by trends and a seasonality autoregressive model on the DEWMA chart. For simulated data, the explicit ARL was constructed and validated versus the implicit ARL computed using the Numerical Integral Equation (NIE) technique. The explicit ARL was widened to make comparisons with the EWMA control chart and has been shown to have superior detection performance, especially when there are tiny shift changes. The median run length (MRL) was used to confirm their ability. The findings of the present study show that the advised ARL of the DEWMA control chart can outperform in terms of detecting tiny changes in the process compared to the typical EWMA control chart based on the data, which also had an autocorrelation. Moreover, they were made applicable to actual data in the illustrative field of economics. For example, the data on quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) from transport, storage, accommodation, and food services in Thailand (Unit: Billion Bath), which are important variables to indicate growth in the economy of the country, showed the same result with simulated data. These can be the point in making decisions for economists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifetime data has two distinguishing features: they are usually censored and have non-normal distributions. Generally speaking, censoring schemes can be classified into (i) censoring schemes with replacement and (ii) censoring schemes without replacement. Replacement during a life testing means that once observing a failure item, it is replaced by a new one. While there is a relatively large body of literature regarding control charts under censoring schemes without replacement, i.e., the second type schemes, designing control charts for the first type schemes has not yet received considerable attention. In this paper, two types of control charts are developed to monitor the lifetime data of an exponentially distributed item. To obtain the information of the lifetime data, failure censoring is conducted: n items are randomly selected and put on the test simultaneously. The test continues until observing r (r≤n) failures. During the test, once observing a failure time, it is replaced by a new one. Development of Shewhart type and exponentially weighted moving average control charts under failure censoring with replacement is the main novelty of the current study. Comparative and simulation studies are conducted. ARL curves are also derived with respect to different parameters of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct torque control (DTC) based on sliding mode control (SMC) has been widely applied to permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives for torque ripple reduction and flux tracking. However, the control performance may be degraded due to disturbances such as variations in motor parameters or uncertainties. In this paper, a DTC strategy with an improved composite SMC controller is proposed for the PMSM drive system to enhance its performance under various disturbances. The speed controller is first designed based on a proposed adaptive reaching law (ARL) to eliminate chattering that appears in the conventional SMC, accelerate convergence, improve tracking performance, and reduce torque ripples. Then, an enhanced extended sliding mode disturbance observer (E2SMDO) is developed to estimate the lumped disturbances of the PMSM drive system in real time and compensate for a feedforward to the speed controller. By combining the ARL and E2SMDO, a composite controller (denoted ARL + E2SMDO) is established, whose stability is proven through the Lyapunov theory. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by simulations and experiments. The results of both simulations and experiments demonstrate that the composite ARL + E2SMDO controller has a fast dynamic response, reduced torque ripples, strong robustness, and good anti‐disturbance compared to other conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts combine information from the current and past samples, they are relatively more effective in detecting small process shifts than Shewhart control charts. A prevailing problem in control charts is the property of not responding quickly to process shifts, that is, showing statistical control of the process while a shift has occurred in the process parameter(s). This property of control charts, which is referred to as "inertia", is an important issue in control charting and has been a major concern to engineers and statisticians. This study surveys the inertial properties of EWMA control charts in detail. First, the distribution of EWMA chart statistic and signal resistance probability (SRP) are studied for many different cases when there are undetected transient shifts. All measures are calculated and evaluated via a Markov chain approach. Then, an optimal scheme is proposed to minimize the out-of-control average run length (ARL) for a specified shift, subject to SRP constraints. The results reveal that the inertia can be sometimes a serious problem in EWMA control schemes that should not be overlooked. It is shown that an appropriate scheme based on both ARL and SRP measures could be useful for processes that may have sustained and/or transient out-of-control states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical control charts were developed with the assumption that the quality characteristics being monitored are independent. However, observations from several time‐dependent processes, such as industrial or manufacturing, are bound to be autocorrelated such that their autocorrelations decay gradually (long memory) rather than exponentially (short memory). Runs rules monitoring schemes have been proposed in Statistical Process Control literature to monitor processes in the presence of autocorrelation by incorporating the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) class of models which can only handle autocorrelation with a short memory. This paper therefore incorporates the autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA (1,d,1)) model into four one‐sided runs rules schemes to monitor the mean of an autocorrelated process with long memory. The performance of these four one‐sided schemes was assessed using average run length (ARL) and expected ARL (EARL) metrics. Based on the ARL and EARL of the improved runs rules (IRR) schemes, the IRR5‐of‐5 and IRR2‐of‐7 were found to issue an out‐of‐control signal faster than the corresponding standard runs rules (RR) schemes, RR5‐of‐5 and RR2‐of‐7, respectively. Also, the four one‐sided schemes IRR5‐of‐5, IRR2‐of‐7, RR5‐of‐5, and RR2‐of‐7 in their steady state condition perform better than their corresponding zero state condition. We further observed that as the fractional parameter d increases, the detection ability of the monitoring schemes reduces. The application of the four one‐sided schemes was demonstrated on the diameter of cable production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory control charts or charts, such as cumulative sums and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), are widely used for tracking minor to moderate changes in process parameters. The literature presented an EWMA chart for monitoring exponential processes, assuming probability limits to determine both in‐ and out‐of‐control average run length (ARL). The use of probability limits for memory charts is an incorrect method. So, we are aiming to correct the EWMA chart by Aslam et al. and the proposed EWMA chart (represented by IEWMAE${\mathrm{IEWM}}{{\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{E}}}$) for the exponential process using the run‐length (RL) method based on the simulation method instead of the probability‐based method. The ARL, standard deviation of RL, and median of RL are used to evaluate the proposed chart's performance. For practical consideration of the proposed chart, a real‐world example of a urinary tract infection is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction A biopsy protocol for diagnosing Hirschsprung's disease (HD) in children using the anorectal line (ARL). Materials and Methods The ARL was adopted for diagnosing HD in 2016 using two excisional submucosal rectal biopsies performed at different levels, sequentially; the first just above the ARL and the second, further proximal (2-ARL). Currently, only the first-level biopsy is performed (1-ARL) and examined intraoperatively. Management was observation if normoganglionic, pull-through if aganglionic, and a second-level biopsy if hypoganglionic. Hypoganglionosis was considered physiologic if the second-level biopsy was normoganglionic and pathologic if hypoganglionic. Colon caliber change and bowel obstructive symptoms reflect the severity of hypoganglionosis. Results For 2-ARL (n = 54), results were: normoganglionosis (n = 31/54; 57.4%), aganglionosis (n = 19/54; 35.2%), and hypoganglionosis (n = 4/54; 7.4%); physiologic (n = 3/54; 5.6%) and pathologic (n = 1/54; 1.9%). Normoganglionosis and aganglionosis were always duplicated in 2-ARL (kappa = 1.0). For 1-ARL (n = 36), results were: normoganglionosis (n = 17/36; 47.2%), aganglionosis (n = 17/36; 47.2%), and hypoganglionosis (n = 2/36; 5.6%). Second-level biopsies were normoganglionic (physiologic: n = 1) and hypoganglionic (pathologic: n = 1). All normoganglionic cases, except one, resolved conservatively. All aganglionic cases had pull-through with HD confirmed on histopathology. Both pathologic hypoganglionic cases had caliber change and severe obstructive symptoms as definitive indications for pull-through with hypoganglionosis of the entire rectum confirmed on histopathology. Physiologic hypoganglionic cases were observed and currently have regular defecation. Conclusion Because the ARL is an objective functional, neurologic, and anatomic demarcation, normoganglionosis and aganglionosis can be diagnosed accurately with a single excisional biopsy. Only hypoganglionosis requires a second-level biopsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control charts are prominent tools in monitoring various variables of manufacturing processes. In this paper, the control chart based on sample median is proposed for process location parameter using Shewhart's approach. The proposed control chart is developed under some distributions including normal distribution. Its performance is studied in terms of power, average run length (ARL) and standard deviation of run length (SDRL). Also, the effect of non normality on this control chart is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the results of an online survey that benchmarked the organization of information technology (IT) functions in academic library members of the Association of Research Libraries. The survey investigated whether responsibility for 14 key areas resided in the libraries or in an institution-level information technology department, whether responsibilities have shifted over the past 20 years, satisfaction with services provided, assessment methods used to evaluate information technology services, and top challenges facing library IT. This paper considers the survey results addressing where the responsibility lies, satisfaction with the support, and whether and when the responsibility changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of a control chart to detect a shift in the process can be determined by the average run length (ARL), a widely used performance indicator for single sampling interval (SSI) control charts. When it comes to variable sampling interval (VSI) schemes, average time to signal (ATS) is utilized instead of ARL. Although analysis of ARL has been extensively studied for SSI schemes, calculation of the ATS for VSI control charts is still in its infancy due to several theoretical challenges. In this context, the paper derives closed-form expressions for time to signal distribution and the ATS for a spatial design of VSI multivariate Bayesian control chart referred to as the dual sampling scheme (DSS). In a DSS strategy, the process is being monitored initially with a longer sampling interval, which is changed to the shorter sampling interval at a designed switching point. Unlike previous approximate developments where the switching point is ignored, the paper derives exact expressions for computation of time to signal distribution and ATS within such a Bayesian framework. Derivations of the ATS are based on an intuitively pleasing definition of an artificial absorbing state and coded values of the posterior probability using Markov chain theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When product quality follows the Gamma distribution and is related to one or more covariate(s), then Gamma regression model (GRM) profiling will be used. The Gamma profiling is generally based on a maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). In GRM profiling, when two or more covariates are linearly related, the MLE-based GRM profiling is unsuitable. In this situation, an alternative to MLE-based profiling is required. So, this study develops the Gamma ridge regression profiling based on Pearson and deviance residuals. The performance of the proposed profiling is evaluated with the help of a simulation study under different conditions, where average run length is considered as the performance evaluation criterion. The simulation findings show that the Pearson residual based profiling with ridge estimator is better than the deviance residuals-based profiling with MLE as well as ridge estimator. Furthermore, we consider an application to evaluate the performance of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student evaluations on the teaching efficiency of faculty members are significant in Higher Education because they allow decisions makers to identify potential inefficient faculty members and by making appropriate decisions, to improve the quality of the teaching process of their Institution. In this paper, we revisit the methodology framework of the previous paper of Sivena and Nikolaidis in order to expand it in various ways. More specifically, we examine in detail and evaluate through simulation, several popular types of X ¯ and X ˜ control charts, identifying the most suitable among them, using various statistical properties of control charts as optimization criteria. Additionally, we present two more tools that will allow Higher Education Institutions if exploited in real life, to find differences in the teaching performance between evaluated faculty members, either the latter are compared in one or more pairs. All in all, we provide Higher Education decision-makers with easy-to-use and reliable tools for monitoring the teaching process of their Institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ADP-ribosylation factors (ARFs) and ARF-like (ARL) GTPases serve as essential molecular switches governing a wide array of cellular processes. In this study, we used proximity-dependent biotin identification (BioID) to comprehensively map the interactome of 28 out of 29 ARF and ARL proteins in two cellular models. Through this approach, we identified ~3000 high-confidence proximal interactors, enabling us to assign subcellular localizations to the family members. Notably, we uncovered previously undefined localizations for ARL4D and ARL10. Clustering analyses further exposed the distinctiveness of the interactors identified with these two GTPases. We also reveal that the expression of the understudied member ARL14 is confined to the stomach and intestines. We identified phospholipase D1 (PLD1) and the ESCPE-1 complex, more precisely, SNX1, as proximity interactors. Functional assays demonstrated that ARL14 can activate PLD1 in cellulo and is involved in cargo trafficking via the ESCPE-1 complex. Overall, the BioID data generated in this study provide a valuable resource for dissecting the complexities of ARF and ARL spatial organization and signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop adaptation to waterlogging stress necessitates alterations in their morphophysiological and biochemical characteristics. Cowpeas, which serve as a dualpurpose legume crop (food and fodder), are sensitive to waterlogging stress, especially when exposed to extended periods of water stagnation during the early growth stage. In this study, we subjected five distinct and superior cowpea varieties to 10 days of waterlogging stress at the early seedling stage (V2, 15 days post emergence for 10 days) under controlled conditions. The aim was to comprehend the response of these varieties and identify the ideal trait for screening a large collection of cowpea genetic resources for waterlogging tolerance. We measured and analyzed changes in morpho-physiological and root parameters to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism underlying waterlogging tolerance. The treatment (waterlogging and control), genotype, and their interactions had a significant impact on the most studied traits (p < 0.05). The results indicated a significant reduction in morpho-physiological parameters such as plant height, leaf area, leaf number, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), chlorophyll content, and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters under stress treatment than control conditions. However, root parameters like the number of adventitious roots (AR) and their length (ARL) significantly increased under waterlogging stress in tolerant cowpea varieties like DC15 and PL4. Correlation and PCA analyses further revealed a positive and significant association between cowpeas' waterlogging tolerance and AR formation and its AR length. Therefore, the current study reveals that swift development of AR and ARL may serve as potential traits conferring waterlogging tolerance in cowpeas. Using suitable mapping populations, these traits could reveal genomic regions associated with waterlogging tolerance in cowpeas. The tolerant varieties and key traits identified in this study could be beneficial in breeding programs aimed at enhancing waterlogging tolerance in cowpeas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though most control chart developments have revolved around the normal distribution, productive operations, in fact, often use non‐normal data, and some even use skewed distributions. This occurs with cycle times and many processes with a single specification limit. Under these conditions, gamma distributions often offer a better characterization where CUSUM schemes provide optimal performance to detect changes of a known in‐control (IC) parameter. In practice, gamma parameters have to be estimated, and limited phase I samples have undesirable effects on the phase II average run length (ARL) that has not been examined. To address this situation, this study uses Markovian models to assess the ARL of a CUSUM developed to monitor scale changes when IC parameters are estimated. This paper discusses the conditional ARL performance and proposes an adaptation of a stochastic estimation algorithm to guarantee a minimum performance. IC and out‐of‐control performance is compared with the conditional performance of a traditional approach where no corrections are made to guarantee a specific behavior. To demonstrate the practical application of this new approach, an implementation was made in a packaging process using multihead weighing machines. Practitioners interested in using reliable monitoring schemes will find, in this proposal, several implementation guidelines such as algorithms and look up tables to facilitate their implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Librarians are frequently consulted on various topics, a central one being the proper citation of sources. Information literacy sessions, taught by librarians, are usually taught in less than an hour and may not cover the use of visual resources. To support teaching and research, outside the classroom, librarians develop research guides to provide scholarly resources and guidance on how to properly cite them. Often, the use of visual resources and proper citation for them are absent from research guides dealing with citation styles. This paper presents a study of research guides on image use and citation by determining which U.S. libraries in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) currently maintain guides on the legalities of citing copyrighted works, provide citation guidance, as well as examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer in women, and remains one of the major causes of death in women worldwide. It is now well established that alterations in membrane trafficking are implicated in BC progression. Indeed, membrane trafficking pathways regulate BC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and metastasis. The 22 members of the ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF) and the >60 members of the rat sarcoma (RAS)-related in brain (RAB) families of small GTP-binding proteins (GTPases), which belong to the RAS superfamily, are master regulators of membrane trafficking pathways. ARF-like (ARL) subfamily members are involved in various processes, including vesicle budding and cargo selection. Moreover, ARFs regulate cytoskeleton organization and signal transduction. RABs are key regulators of all steps of membrane trafficking. Interestingly, the activity and/or expression of some of these proteins is found dysregulated in BC. Here, we review how the processes regulated by ARFs and RABs are subverted in BC, including secretion/exocytosis, endocytosis/recycling, autophagy/lysosome trafficking, cytoskeleton dynamics, integrin-mediated signaling, among others. Thus, we provide a comprehensive overview of the roles played by ARF and RAB family members, as well as their regulators in BC progression, aiming to lay the foundation for future research in this field. This research should focus on further dissecting the molecular mechanisms regulated by ARFs and RABs that are subverted in BC, and exploring their use as therapeutic targets or prognostic markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • rTN activates glial cells in the vCA1, and increases extracellular adenosine, leading to anxiodepressive-like behaviors. • Activated astrocytes release excessive ATP by Cx43 and convert ATP into adenosine under the catalysis of microglial CD39. • Activated microglia release the proinflammatory cytokine IL-17A, promoting ATP release from astrocytes. • Adenosine enhances vCA1 pyramidal neuron excitability through A2A receptors and drives anxiodepressive-like behaviors. Glial activation and dysregulation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)/adenosine are involved in the neuropathology of several neuropsychiatric illnesses. The ventral hippocampus (vHPC) has attracted considerable attention in relation to its role in emotional regulation. However, it is not yet clear how vHPC glia and their derived adenosine regulate the anxiodepressive-like consequences of chronic pain. Here, we report that chronic cheek pain elevates vHPC extracellular ATP/adenosine in a mouse model resembling trigeminal neuralgia (rTN), which mediates pain-related anxiodepression, through a mechanism that involves synergistic effects of astrocytes and microglia. We found that rTN resulted in robust activation of astrocytes and microglia in the CA1 area of the vHPC (vCA1). Genetic or pharmacological inhibition of astrocytes and connexin 43, a hemichannel mainly distributed in astrocytes, completely attenuated rTN-induced extracellular ATP/adenosine elevation and anxiodepressive-like behaviors. Moreover, inhibiting microglia and CD39, an enzyme primarily expressed in microglia that degrades ATP into adenosine, significantly suppressed the increase in extracellular adenosine and anxiodepressive-like behaviors. Blockade of the adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) alleviated rTN-induced anxiodepressive-like behaviors. Furthermore, interleukin (IL)-17A, a pro-inflammatory cytokine probably released by activated microglia, markedly increased intracellular calcium in vCA1 astrocytes and triggered ATP/adenosine release. The astrocytic metabolic inhibitor fluorocitrate and the CD39 inhibitor ARL 67156, attenuated IL-17A-induced increases in extracellular ATP and adenosine, respectively. In addition, astrocytes, microglia, CD39, and A2AR inhibitors all reversed rTN-induced hyperexcitability of pyramidal neurons in the vCA1. Taken together, these findings suggest that activation of astrocytes and microglia in the vCA1 increases extracellular adenosine, which leads to pain-related anxiodepression via A2AR activation. Approaches targeting astrocytes, microglia, and adenosine signaling may serve as novel therapies for pain-related anxiety and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When p related variables in a multivariate process need to be controlled, p1 variables are easy to measure and inexpensive, while the rest of p2 variables are difficult to measure and expensive. Therefore, controlling the whole set of p variables may be difficult and expensive. In order to reduce sampling costs of the multivariate control chart in detecting shifts in the process mean vector and the process covariance matrix of a multivariate normally distributed process, a new multivariate control chart with variable dimension (VD) is proposed, which uses two different dimensions, two different control limits and one warming limit. The VD multivariate control chart uses genetic algorithm to optimize the parameters and Markov chain model to calculate the performance measures. The performance of the proposed optimized VD chart is compared with the standard chart for which all p1 and p variables are measured. Numerical results show that the VD chart surpasses the standard chart in detecting process mean vector and the process covariance matrix, while also reducing sampling costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multivariate nonparametric control charts are highly sought‐after due to their flexibility to adapt to different distribution assumptions. However, many of the existing multivariate nonparametric control charts are only distribution‐free for certain distribution families. Although those distribution families may contain different distributions, it is still difficult to verify whether the underlying multivariate distribution from a particular application belongs to those distribution families in practice. A few existing multivariate nonparametric control charts are fully nonparametric. As shown in the literature and in our simulation studies, most of them are not efficient in detecting location shifts. In this paper, we propose a new multivariate nonparametric control chart based on the idea of projection pursuit. The proposed control chart is fully nonparametric and can be applied to any multivariate distribution as long as its covariance matrix exists. The control limit of the proposed control chart only depends on the nominal ARL0$\text{ARL}_0$, which makes its implementation much easier. Our simulation study and real data analysis show that the proposed control chart performs well across a variety of settings, and compares favorably with existing multivariate nonparametric control charts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coefficient of variation (CV) chart is widely used in the process where the standard deviation is proportional to the mean. In this work, two separate one-sided triple exponentially weighted moving average control charts are proposed to monitor the CV squared (denoted as TEWMA- $ {\mathrm{\gamma }^2} $ γ 2 chart). By adding the variable sampling interval (VSI) feature to the proposed - $ {\mathrm{\gamma }^2} $ γ 2 charts, the VSI TEWMA- $ {\mathrm{\gamma }^2} $ γ 2 charts are further proposed to improve the performance of the TEWMA- $ {\mathrm{\gamma }^2} $ γ 2 charts. Through extensive Monte Carlo simulations, the zero-state and steady-state run length (RL) performances are presented. The comparisons with the existing CV charts, based on several run length metrics show the superiority of the proposed charts, especially for small shifts. Moreover, the overall measure, expected ARL (EARL), also shows the outperformance of the $ {\mathrm{\gamma }^2} $ γ 2 charts. In addition, based on the average time to signal (ATS) and adjusted ATS (AATS), it is shown that the VSI strategy makes the TEWMA- $ {\mathrm{\gamma }^2} $ γ 2 charts detect the shifts more quickly. An illustrative example from the sintering process is finally provided to display the application of the proposed charts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposed a new real-time manufacturing process monitoring method to monitor and detect process shifts in manufacturing operations. Since real-time production process monitoring is critical in today's smart manufacturing. The more robust the monitoring model, the more reliable a process is to be under control. In the past, many researchers have developed real-time monitoring methods to detect process shifts early. However, thesemethods have limitations in detecting process shifts as quickly as possible and handling various data volumes and varieties. In this paper, a robust monitoring model combining Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) and Random Forest (RF) with Real-Time Contrast (RTC) called GRU-RF-RTC was proposed to detect process shifts rapidly. The effectiveness of the proposed GRU-RF-RTC model is first evaluated using multivariate normal and nonnormal distribution datasets. Then, to prove the applicability of the proposedmodel in a realmanufacturing setting, the model was evaluated using real-world normal and non-normal problems. The results demonstrate that the proposed GRU-RF-RTC outperforms other methods in detecting process shifts quickly with the lowest average out-of-control run length (ARL1) in all synthesis and real-world problems under normal and non-normal cases. The experiment results on real-world problems highlight the significance of the proposed GRU-RF-RTC model in modern manufacturing process monitoring applications. The result reveals that the proposed method improves the shift detection capability by 42.14% in normal and 43.64% in gamma distribution problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the simplicity and low cost of attribute inspection, several control charts have been proposed for employing attribute inspection to monitor the mean shifts. But these charts usually require a larger sample size to perform well as the X ¯ chart. In this paper, a new npCEV chart is proposed to monitor process mean shifts based on attribute inspection in which the conditional expected value (CEV) weight method is adopted to take full advantage of the censored observations obtained from attribute inspection. The optimal design of the proposed chart is derived from optimizing average run length (ARL) properties. Several numerical experiments are conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed chart. The results demonstrate that the proposed chart is always superior to npx chart by reducing the sample size by 70% to 97% while achieving the same ARL as npx chart. In addition, the proposed chart always achieves a smaller ARL1 than X ¯ rec chart. Furthermore, the proposed chart outperforms X ¯ chart as it achieves the same ARL as that of X ¯ chart with a lower inspection cost. Finally, an industry example is given to illustrate how to simply apply the proposed chart to the manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age at menarche (AAM) and age at natural menopause (ANM) are highly heritable traits and have been linked to various health outcomes. We aimed to identify circulating proteins associated with altered ANM and AAM using an unbiased two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization approach. By testing causal effects of 1,271 proteins on AAM, we identified 22 proteins causally associated with AAM in MR, among which 13 proteins (GCKR, FOXO3, SEMA3G, PATE4, AZGP1, NEGR1, LHB, DLK1, ANXA2, YWHAB, DNAJB12, RMDN1 and HPGDS) colocalized. Among 1,349 proteins tested for causal association with ANM using MR, we identified 19 causal proteins among which 7 proteins (CPNE1, TYMP, DNER, ADAMTS13, LCT, ARL and PLXNA1) colocalized. Follow-up pathway and gene enrichment analyses demonstrated links between AAM-related proteins and obesity and diabetes, and between AAM and ANM-related proteins and various types of cancer. In conclusion, we identified proteomic signatures of reproductive ageing in women, highlighting biological processes at both ends of the reproductive lifespan. Mendelian randomization and colocalization analyses identified 13 circulating proteins causally associated with age at menarche and 7 proteins associated with age at natural menopause, highlighting the proteomic signatures encompassing both ends of women's reproductive lifespans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, the mean of the run-length distribution (ARL) of an in-control (IC) process is used to design and implement statistical process charting schemes. When standards are unknown (Case U), the unconditional ARL is considered during Phase-II monitoring—surprisingly, by suppressing the term "unconditional." The literature has recently highlighted the difference between the unconditional and the conditional ARL in studying the properties of Phase-II charting schemes under the Case U. The effects of bias in the Phase-I sample may lead to remarkably high rates of early false alarms. We explore the idea of restricting the probability of unconditional early false alarms by using lower percentile points of the unconditional run-length distribution to design nonparametric charting schemes. This new approach is named "the lower percentile-based (LPL) design." We consider the design and implementation of six distribution-free schemes: five precedence-type schemes and the rank-sum scheme. We carry out simulations to compare the six schemes with a prefixed value of some lower percentile point of the IC run-length distribution. The best scheme is the one with the lowest value for a specific higher percentile point of the out-of-control run-length distribution. We illustrate the new design and implementation strategies with real data, and offer a summary and concluding remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) was developed for the monitoring of variables that are either all numerical or all categorical. In the present paper, we describe a nonparametric control scheme that can be used to monitor a mixture of numerical and categorical variables simultaneously. It integrates Principal Component Analysis Mix (PCA Mix), a multivariate statistical tool, with the conventional Hotelling T2 chart. To estimate the control limit for the PCA Mix-based T2 statistic, two nonparametric approaches – kernel density estimation (KDE) and bootstrap – are employed, because of the unknown nature of the underlying distribution. The simulation results demonstrate that with an appropriate number of principal components, both bootstrap and KDE exhibit convincing performance in terms of generating the same, or nearly the same, number of false alarms (ARL0) as expected, and being able to detect process shifts efficiently (ARL1). Compared with bootstrap, KDE is shown to work better with small sample sizes (n < 800) and to be slightly more sensitive to small shifts. However, the results also show the instability of the estimated nonparametric control limit when highly imbalanced categorical variables are included, which indicates the need for further research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-three morphometric characteristics of spiny-cheek crayfish Faxonus limosus from Danube, Serbia, were analyzed to describe the general body shape. Forty-eight specimens were caught in May 2022 and January 2023 and measured for morphometric variation. Also, the values of two crayfish condition indices, Fulton's condition factor (FCF) and crayfish constant (CC), were determined. Most of the analyzed characteristics were moderately variable (CV 10-30%). Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the morphological measurements. All the variables make similar contributions to the variance of the first principal component. The highest contributions are from variables CEF and ARL. ARW, CPH, ABH, CPW, and ROW significantly contributed to the second principal component variance. The population of spiny-cheek crayfish at the investigated site has a relatively stable age structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 75 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Air Resources Laboratory (NOAA ARL) has been at the forefront of federal meteorological and climate research. As the Special Projects Section (SPS) of the U.S. Weather Bureau (USWB), the laboratory pioneered the development of atmospheric trajectory modeling, initially used in studies related to nuclear weapons following World War II. Model development was guided by observations following weapons tests, assisted by later experiments using a wide variety of atmospheric tracers. Today's familiar Gaussian plume dispersion model, previously in nascent form, was developed and promoted with ARL research, as was the much later and widely used HYSPLIT model. Much of ARL's early research was focused on the challenges presented by the complex terrain surrounding nuclear installations, often addressed with high-spatial-resolution meteorological measurements, atmospheric tracers, and site-specific models. ARL has since extended boundary layer research to increasingly complex landscapes, such as forests, agricultural lands, and urban areas, and has expanded its research scope to air quality, weather, and climate applications based on the knowledge and experience developed throughout its long history. Examples of these research endeavors include the establishment of the U.S. Climate Reference Network, fundamental contributions to the development of the National Air Quality Forecast Capability, and foundational participation in the National Atmospheric Deposition Program. ARL looks forward to continuing to refine scientific understanding from field experiments, including coupling ground-based experimentation with modeling, and sustained observations, in order to facilitate the transfer of knowledge into practical applications of societal relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most real‐world applications, such as production and manufacturing processes, the underlying process distribution does not always follow a normal distribution. In such cases, statistical process control literature recommends the use of nonparametric (or distribution‐free) control charts. This paper introduces a new distribution‐free precedence chart using repetitive sampling. The performance of the proposed chart is investigated in terms of the average run‐length (ARL) profile. The expressions of the in‐control process probability and ARL of the proposed chart are introduced using integral formulas. The out‐of‐control performance of the new chart is compared to that of the existing precedence charts with and without runs‐rules. A numerical example is provided using real‐life data to demonstrate the application and implementation of the new chart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical process control (SPC) is used for monitoring and detecting anomalies in processes in the areas of manufacturing, environmental studies, economics, and healthcare, among others. Herein, we introduce an innovative SPC approach via mathematical modeling and report on its application via simulation studies to examine its suitability for monitoring processes involving correlated data running on advanced control charts. Specifically, an approach for detecting small to moderate shifts in the mean of a process running on a homogenously weighted moving average (HWMA) control chart, which is symmetric about the center line with upper and lower control limits, is of particular interest. A mathematical model for the average run length (ARL) of a moving average process with exogenous variables (MAX) focused only on the zero-state performance of the HWMA control chart is derived based on explicit formulas. The performance of our approach was investigated in terms of the ARL, the standard deviation of the run length (SDRL), and the median run length (MRL). Numerical examples are given to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed method. A detailed comparative analysis of our method for processes on HWMA and cumulative sum (CUSUM) control charts was conducted for process mean shifts in many situations. For several values of the design parameters, the performances of these two control charts are also compared in terms of the expected ARL (EARL), expected SDRL (ESDRL), and expected MRL (EMRL). It was found that the performance of the HWMA control chart was superior to that of the CUSUM control chart for several process mean shift sizes. Finally, the applicability of our method on a HWMA control chart is provided based on a real-world economic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process monitoring is frequently done with quality control charts. To find tiny and moderate shifts in the process, the DEWMA control chart is a useful choice. The purpose of this article is to construct precise formulas for the average run length (ARL) in order to improve usability with observations from a seasonal autoregressive model. The Fredholm integral equation has been used to solve the explicit formula, and Banach's fixed point theorem has been used to guarantee the solution's uniqueness. The explicit formula's accuracy was checked using the numerical integral equation, also known as the NIE approach. And then, its efficiency was proven by the computation's speed. The results of the new ARL’s explicit formula were compared with the NIE in relative error (RE). It is calculated as less than 5 10− %. One significant finding from this comparison is that the calculation, in terms of the computation's speed, i.e., the explicit formula, occurs practically instantly. It was also extended to evaluate the effectiveness of the control chart between the original EWMA control chart and the suggested ARL's DEWMA control chart. This study covered both simulated and real-world data, and the findings showed likewise. And then, the application in this study was chosen to be about air pollution, which is one of the pollution's problems in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study library guides, as published on Springshare's LibGuides platform, new approaches are needed to expand the scope of the research, ensure comprehensiveness of data collection, and reduce bias for content analysis. Computational methods can be utilized to conduct a nuanced and thorough evaluation that critically assesses the resources promoted in library guides. Web-based library guides are curated by librarians to provide easy access to high-quality information and resources in a variety of formats to support the research needs of their users. Recent scholarship considers library guides as valuable resources and as de facto publications, highlighting the need for critical study. In this article, the authors present a novel model for comprehensively gathering data about a specific genre of books from individual LibGuide pages and applying computational methods to explore the resultant data. Beginning with a pre-selected list of 159 books, we programmatically queried the titles using the LibGuides Community search engine. After cleaning and filtering the resultant data, we compiled a list of 20,484 book references (of which 6,212 are unique) on 1,529 LibGuide pages. By testing against inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure relevancy, we identified a total of 281 titles relevant to our topic. To gain insights for future study, citation analysis metrics are presented to reveal patterns of frequency, co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling of books promoted in LibGuides. This proof-of-concept could be adopted for a variety of applications, including assessment of collections, public services, critical librarianship, and other complex questions to enable a richer and more thorough understanding of the information landscape of LibGuides., INTRODUCTION To advance the depth and breadth of research regarding LibGuides, the dominant platform for creating and hosting library guides, researchers Cody Hennesy and Annis Lee Adams, in their article [...]

The purpose of this study is to examine changes in services offered by academic libraries belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020–2021 academic year. The study reports on aggregate safety precautions libraries took, based on a corpus of public-facing policies from 112 institutions, but also provides insight into whether political affiliation, library expenditures, and public or private institution status had any bearing on library safety precautions. Findings of interest include (1) library expenditures and public or private institutional status were unrelated to the extent of precautions libraries took to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and (2) academic libraries in states with Republican governors were significantly more likely to employ fewer COVID-19 safety precautions than academic libraries in states with Democratic governors. The article concludes with a discussion of the partisan response to the COVID-19 crisis and provides recommendations for libraries based on the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, there has been a growing focus among researchers on memory-based control charts. The Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) and Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) charts and the adaptive control charting approaches got the attention. Control charts are commonly employed to oversee processes, assuming the monitored variable follows a normal distribution. However, it's worth noting that this assumption does not hold true in many real-world situations. The use of the algebraic expression for normalization, which can be used for all kinds of skewed distributions with a closed-form distribution function, using the proposed continuous function to adapt a smoothing constant, motivates this study. In the present manuscript, we design an EWMA statistic-based adaptive control chart to monitor the irregular variations in the mean of two parametric Weibull distribution and use Hasting approximation for normalization. The adaptive control charts are used to update the smoothing constant according to the estimated shift. Here we use the proposed continuous function to adapt the smoothing constant. The average run length and standard deviation of run length are calculated under different parameter settings. The effectiveness of the proposed chart is argued in terms of ARLs over the considered EWMA chart through Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation method. The proposed chart is examined, followed by a real data set to demonstrate the design and application procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supplementary run‐rules have been used since the 1950s to improve the performance of the basic Shewhart X¯$\bar{X}$ control chart. A procedure known as Klein's 2‐of‐2, a simple and efficient supplementary rule, signals that the process is out‐of‐control only when two sequential sample averages are observed above the upper control limit (UCL) or below the lower control limit (LCL). The use of this rule results in a substantial reduction of the average run length (ARL) in detecting small process shifts when compared to the traditional X¯$\bar{X}$ control chart. However, it presents a poor performance of the out‐of‐control ARL for moderate to large process shifts (the ARL1$\text{ARL}_1$ converges to 2 for large shifts in the mean). In order to minimize this issue, some authors introduce additional control limits to delimit decision zones in relation to deciding whether the process is in control or out‐of‐control. Despite a better performance for moderate‐to‐large process shifts, the process complexity is also higher. In this paper, we include a simple procedure (with no additional control limits) in relation to the 2‐of‐2 rule by examining if all values of each unit of the sample are beyond the control limits whenever its average is beyond the control limits. The new procedure has a similar performance in terms of ARL for small shifts in the mean and a better performance for moderate‐to‐large shifts (the ARL1$\text{ARL}_1$ now converges to 1) when compared to the standard 2‐of‐2 rule (where the ARL1$\text{ARL}_1$ converges to 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]