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ABSTRACT Background Aim Design Data Sources Methods Results Conclusions No Patient or Public Contribution Trial Registration Transitions from the intensive care unit (ICU) to the general ward cause great impairment of physical and psychosocial functioning in children and their parents. Better understanding of parental experiences during children's ICU‐to‐ward transitions is required to inform the development of ICU transitional care.To examine the parental experiences during their children's ICU‐to‐ward transitions through the synthesis of original qualitative studies.This study follows the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta‐analyses (PRISMA) and the enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research (ENTREQ) statements, uses Thomas and Harden's thematic synthesis framework rooted in a critical realist philosophy to present qualitative meta‐synthesis.We conducted a systematic review in June 2024 and searched nine electronic databases including Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Sinomed, CNKI, Wanfang and VIP. Eligible studies contained parents quotes about their children's ICU‐to‐ward transitions and published in either English or Chinese since 2005.Systematic searches yielded 2825 identified studies. Two reviewers screened titles, abstracts and full text and reached consensus through critical discussion with a third reviewer. Eighteen studies were finally agreed for inclusion. Data were extracted into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and synthesised through line‐by‐line coding of relevant quotes with the help of NVivo.The qualitative synthesis resulted in four descriptive themes followed later by two analytical themes. Specifically, these were (1) the nature of the parental experience during ICU‐to‐ward transition (challenging but responded proactively) and (2) factors involved in the ICU‐to‐ward transition (both facilitators and barriers).This study indicates the nature of parental experiences and factors involved during the critically ill child's ICU‐to‐ward transition. Healthcare providers serve as the primary support network for parents and should collaborate closely with them to facilitate a smooth transition by providing tailored support.This is a meta‐synthesis of previously published qualitative studies.We have registered in the PROSPERO and the number is CRD42023422055 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual reinforcement learning is important in various practical applications, such as video games, robotic manipulation, and autonomous navigation. However, a major challenge in visual reinforcement learning is the generalization to unseen environments, that is, how agents manage environments with previously unseen backgrounds. This issue is triggered mainly by the high unpredictability inherent in high-dimensional observation space. To deal with this problem, techniques including domain randomization and data augmentation have been explored; nevertheless, these methods still cannot attain a satisfactory result. This paper proposes a new method named Internal States Simulation Auxiliary (ISSA), which uses internal states to improve generalization in visual reinforcement learning tasks. Our method contains two agents, a teacher agent and a student agent: the teacher agent has the ability to directly access the environment's internal states and is used to facilitate the student agent's training; the student agent receives initial guidance from the teacher agent and subsequently continues to learn independently. From another perspective, our method can be divided into two phases, the transfer learning phase and traditional visual reinforcement learning phase. In the first phase, the teacher agent interacts with environments and imparts knowledge to the vision-based student agent. With the guidance of the teacher agent, the student agent is able to discover more effective visual representations that address the high unpredictability of high-dimensional observation space. In the next phase, the student agent autonomously learns from the visual information in the environment, and ultimately, it becomes a vision-based reinforcement learning agent with enhanced generalization. The effectiveness of our method is evaluated using the DMControl Generalization Benchmark and the DrawerWorld with texture distortions. Preliminary results indicate that our method significantly improves generalization ability and performance in complex continuous control tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a numerical simulation study of the airflow organization and aerosol diffusion process in a typical isolation ward is carried out to explore the effects of mixing ventilation (MV) and perforated ceiling air supplying ventilation (PCV) strategies on aerosol diffusion and deposition in the ward. Furthermore, the effects of aerosol particle size (5μm, 20μm) and aperture ratio of perforated plate on aerosol distribution were studied in this paper. The simulation results show that: compared with the MV case, PCV results in a more uniform flow field and temperature field in the ward, and can increase the discharge speed of aerosol particles, which can effectively reduce the risk of cross-infection among medical staff; by counting the proportion of aerosol deposition, discharge and suspension on each surface in the ward, it can be found that small-sized aerosol particles (5μm) are more likely to diffuse and suspend in the ward under the influence of the flow field, while large-sized aerosol particles (20μm) are more likely to be deposited on the ground and on the bed under the influence of gravity; when using PCV, reducing the porosity of perforated plate can accelerate the deposition and discharge of aerosol particles, reduce the suspension of particles in the ward, and reduce the risk of virus infection in the air．

The erratic, intermittent, and unpredictable nature of sweat production, resulting from physiological or psychological fluctuations, poses intricacies to consistently and accurately sample and evaluate sweat biomarkers. Skin‐interfaced microfluidic devices that rely on colorimetric mechanisms for semi‐quantitative detection are particularly susceptible to these inaccuracies due to variations in sweat secretion rate or instantaneous volume. This work introduces a skin‐interfaced colorimetric bifluidic sweat device with two synchronous channels to quantify sweat rate and biomarkers in real‐time, even during uncertain sweat activities. In the proposed bifluidic‐distance metric approach, with one channel to measure sweat rate and quantify collected sweat volume, the other channel can provide an accurate analysis of the biomarkers based on the collected sweat volume. The closed channel design also reduces evaporation and resists contamination from the external environment. The feasibility of the device is highlighted in a proof‐of‐the‐concept demonstration to analyze sweat chloride for evaluating hydration status and sweat glucose for assessing glucose levels. The low‐cost yet highly accurate device provides opportunities for clinical sweat analysis and disease screening in remote and low‐resource settings. The developed device platform can be facilely adapted for the other biomarkers when corresponding colorimetric reagents are exploited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-electronic wearables that utilize skin-interfaced microfluidic technology have revolutionized the collection and analysis of human sweat, providing valuable biochemical information and indicating body hydration status. However, existing microfluidic devices often require constant monitoring of data during sweat assessment, thereby impeding the user experience and potentially missing anomalous physiological events, such as excessive sweating. Moreover, the complex manufacturing process hampers the scalability and large-scale production of such devices. Herein, we present a self-feedback microfluidic device with a unique dehydration reminder through a cost-effective "CAD-to-3D device" approach. It incorporates two independent systems for sweat collection and thermal feedback, including serpentine microchannels, reservoirs, petal-like bursting valves and heating chambers. The device operates by sequentially collecting sweat in the channels and reservoirs, and then activating thermal stimulators in the heating chambers through breaking the valves, initiating a chemical exothermic reaction. Human trials validate that the devices effectively alert users to potential dehydration by inducing skin thermal sensations triggered by sweat sampling. The proposed device offers facile scalability and customizable fabrication, and holds promise for managing hydration strategies in real-world scenarios, benefiting individuals engaged in sporting activities or exposed to high-temperature settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the performance of mixed‐frequency predictive regressions for stock returns from the perspective of a Bayesian investor. We develop a constrained parameter learning approach for sequential estimation allowing for belief revisions. Empirically, we find that mixed‐frequency models improve predictability, not only because of the combination of predictors with different frequencies but also due to the preservation of high‐frequency features such as time‐varying volatility. Temporally aggregated models misspecify the evolution frequency of the volatility dynamics, resulting in poor volatility timing and worse portfolio performance than the mixed‐frequency specification. These results highlight the importance of preserving the potential mixed‐frequency nature of predictors and volatility in predictive regressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]