Search

This chapter introduces heat flow in the subsurface. It begins with defining heat, energy, and enthalpy and proceeds to an overview of conductive and advective heat transport. It then reviews the general equations of heat flow and examines two analytic solutions for one-dimensional heat flow, which are useful for examining vertical groundwater flow rates. The chapter continues with discussion of crustal-scale heat flow followed by discussion of shallow heat flow and temperature profiles. This latter discussion includes an examination of evidence of climate change, and methods for estimating recharge rates and groundwater discharge rates. The following section describes hydrothermal systems, hot springs, and geysers. The chapter concludes with sections covering geothermal energy production and ground-source heat pump systems.

Uterine rupture can be associated with severe maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. It should be considered as a differential diagnosis in all pregnant women who present with acute abdomen, haemoperitoneum and have specific risk factors, even during the first trimester. This is a case report of a 25-year-old woman who presented to emergency department with abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding at approximately 6–8 weeks gestation. She developed an acute surgical abdomen and required urgent surgical management. Despite intervention, she had massive haemorrhage, disseminate intravascular coagulation, admission to intensive care unit and prolonged hospital stay as complications. Posterior uterine wall rupture while rare, must be considered as a differential diagnosis as early intervention is crucial to prevent bad outcomes.

In this paper, a Phase-shift-modulated (PS) Resonant Two-switch Boosting Switched-capacitor Converter (RTBSC) and its modulation map are proposed. Compared with the traditional RTBSC, all diodes are replaced by active switches and then phase-shift modulation is applied. The advantages of the modified topology are obtained as follow. 1) The voltage gain can be regulated efficiently either below or above the nominal value even at light-load condition, making it suitable for applications with voltage fluctuations; 2) The conduction loss is reduced by replacing all diodes in RTBSC with low turn-on resistance transistors, especially for high-order and high-gain configuration; 3) All switches achieve the zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) turn-on operation; 4) The soft-charging property smooths the current profile. Aside from the topology modification, a comprehensive analysis of operation principle, voltage gain, component stress and ZVS region is given. On the basis, a modulation map with the optimal operation region is proposed. It provides a guideline to operate and design such converters in the target gain range, low component stress and ZVS region, making up for the lack of modulation map and design guideline in aforementioned literatures. A 120W prototype with low-voltage side 43-60V and high-voltage side 150V was designed to verify the above analyses.

Millimeter wave components, such as circulators and isolators, frequently use magnetic fields to break symmetry of the signal propagation and provide unidirectional signal transmission. While effective, these components have not seen the level of miniaturization of other millimeter wave components, primarily due to the discrete nature of the magnets used in the components. Using circulators in the 40-50 GHz range as a motivating application, requirements arise for the deposited films, namely immunity to eddy currents, sufficient magnetization to act as self-biasing magnets, and out-of-plane orientation of the self-biasing field. Based on these required properties, hexaferrite materials are selected for their strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) and low conductance. The difficulty of integrating these components monolithically with monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) originates from the incompatibility of crystal structure with standard semiconductor materials and process conditions. Additive manufacturing using a composite of strontium hexaferrite (SrFe12O19) particles and photoresist has been chosen as a method to overcome the difficulties of integrating hexaferrite material to semiconductor substrates. Due to their large internal anisotropy field, the particles of strontium hexaferrite tend to rotate to the field direction instead of changing magnetization direction under application of an external magnetic field (less than the anisotropy field). We have developed a method for 3D printing composites of high strontium hexaferrite concentration (up to 20% by volume) in a liquid photoresist, SU8. Rotation of hexaferrite particles in polymer matrix and thus magnetic anisotropy has been demonstrated in the composite, which is subsequently cured to hold the physical position and orientation of the particles. The anisotropy of the self-biasing field provided by the films has been experimentally characterized, and a ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency ~43 GHz has been observed. We have also characterized the viscosity of the particle-laden polymer at different particle concentrations. 3D printing of this composite with poling will make it possible to directly print magnetic components that require out-of-plane anisotropic magnetization.

Objective The objective was to develop a novel scoring system that would be predictive of postoperative pulmonary complications in critically ill patients after cardiac and major vascular surgery. Methods A total of 17,433 postoperative patients after coronary artery bypass graft, valve, or thoracic aorta repair surgery admitted to the cardiovascular intensive care units at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus from 2009 to 2015. The primary outcome was the composite of postoperative pulmonary complications, including pneumonia, prolonged postoperative mechanical ventilation (>48 hours), or reintubation occurring during the hospital stay. Elastic net logistic regression was used on the training subset to build a prediction model that included perioperative predictors. Five-fold cross-validation was used to select an appropriate subset of the predictors. The predictive efficacy was assessed with calibration and discrimination statistics. Post hoc, of 13,353 adult patients, we tested the clinical usefulness of our risk prediction model on 12,956 patients who underwent surgery from 2015 to 2019. Results Postoperative pulmonary complications were observed in 1669 patients (9.6%). A prediction model that included baseline and demographic risk factors along with perioperative predictors had a C-statistic of 0.87 (95% confidence interval, 0.86-0.88), with a corrected Brier score of 0.06. Our prediction model maintains satisfactory discrimination (C-statistics of 0.87) and calibration (Brier score of 0.07) abilities when evaluated on an independent dataset of 12,843 recent adult patients who underwent cardiovascular surgery. Conclusions A novel prediction nomogram accurately predicted postoperative pulmonary complications after major cardiac and vascular surgery. Intensivists may use these predictors to allow for proactive and preventative interventions in this patient population.

Magnetic circuit components have long been the largest and most difficult components to miniaturize. Printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication methods cannot achieve small diameter, high aspect-ratio vias for high winding turn numbers to achieve high inductance, and microelectronics methods cannot achieve the high-quality and thick ferrite core materials. In this paper, we present an alternative breakthrough method of printed circuit fabrication to significantly reduce the effective via diameter for embedded magnetic devices, boosting the inductance per unit area. To reduce the effective via diameter, high-density via plugs are ex-situ fabricated and shaped, and then embedded into PCB substrate in the same process as standard magnetic core embedding. The structure of the plug is such that precise placement within the substrate, or alignment to the plug with the winding pattern, is not necessary. Devices presented in this paper use via plugs with an effective diameter of 40 μm and a theoretically unlimited aspect ratio, though refinements in the plug fabrication process are expected to reduce the via diameter down to 10μm. The process is experimentally demonstrated with a 14-turn racetrack shaped transformer; novel diagnostic methods using magneto-optic garnet films to image current paths are also demonstrated.

The goal of this study was to see how much genetic and environmental interaction affects essential oil yield and patchouli alcohol content and find superior genotypes over the years of patchouli's unique aroma in India. The tests were carried out for one year in 2013–2014 (initial evaluation trial) and then for three years in 2015–2016, 2016–2017, and 2017–2018 (major yield assessment trials). The fourteen patchouli genotypes and one commercial variety (CIM- Samarth) were studied in an RBD design with three replications. A pooled analysis of variance was performed across the environments/years for the eleven economic attributes. The results showed that most of the attributes had significant differences. In all three environments/years, genetic correlations between economic traits played a critical role in genetic improvement, for example, the traits X3-vs-X4, X3-vs-X5, and X4-vs-X5. As a result, according to correlations throughout the selective environments/years, picking these features will be favorable. Furthermore, the heritability in a broad sense (h2BS) was expressed as a percentage. The scores for all ten attributes ranged from 87.13 to 99.25%. The genetic advance over mean (GAM) percent, which ranged from 13.42 to 162.83%, was equally fascinating. The four winning genotypes for essential oil yield, G/PATC-11, G/PATC-1, G/PATC-2, and G/PATC-5, and the lines G/PATC-1, G/PATC-4, G/PATC-9, and G/PATC-11 for patchouli alcohol percent), were explained by biplot analysis as stable and higher-yielding genotypes. The percentage of ar-curcumene in stable genotypes with a distinct fragrance ranged from 8.60 to 8.71% in G/PATC 4, G/PATC 11, G/PATC 14, and G/PATC 1. Ar-curcumene has been found for the first time in the patchouli (Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth) species. As a result, it may be prudent to cultivate these stable genotypes on a big scale in India.

This brief proposes a low voltage ultra-low power 10-bit 100-MS/s successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). To overcome the performance degradation due to the signal-related current fluctuation under lower supply voltage, an adaptive-biasing comparator with current self-compensation (CSC) technique is proposed to obtain a constant working current, reducing the minimum supply voltage from 0.7V in conventional ADCs to 0.55V. Since full-scale range shrinks with the supply voltage, voltage undershoot in power rail caused by capacitor digital-to-analog converter (C-DAC) deteriorates effective-number-of-bits (ENOB). Conventional solutions involve enhanced regulators and large decoupling capacitors, which cost remarkable power dissipation and large chip area. This brief presents a pulse-injection undershoot compensation technique which reduces the DAC-related supply fluctuation from a typical 15mV to 1.8mV, and improves the ENOB by 0.4 bit. The prototype was fabricated in TSMC 28nm HPC CMOS technology. The proposed SAR ADC achieves an SNDR of 54.7dB and an SFDR of 68dB with the power consumption of 0.16mW under 0.55V supply voltage, a figure of merit (FoM) of 3.6-fJ/conversion-step is achieved. The chip area of the ADC core is 130μm×225μm.

Water electrolysis is a promising technology to produce hydrogen but it was severely restricted by the slow oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we firstly reported an advanced electrocatalyst of MOF-derived hollow Zn–Co–Ni sulfides (ZnS@Co9S8@Ni3S2-1/2, abbreviated as ZCNS-1/2) nanosword arrays (NSAs) with remarkable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), OER and corresponding water electrolysis performance. To reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2, the cell voltage of assembled ZCNS-1/2//ZCNS-1/2 for urea electrolysis (1.314 V) is 208 mV lower than that for water electrolysis (1.522 V) and stably catalyzed for over 15 h, substantially outperforming the most reported water and urea electrolysis electrocatalysts. Density functional theory calculations and experimental result clearly reveal that the properties of large electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) caused by hollow NSAs and fast charge transfer resulted from the Co9S8@Ni3S2 heterostructure endow the ZCNS-1/2 electrode with an enhanced electrocatalytic performance.

In this work, we consider transferring the structure information from large networks to compact ones for dense prediction tasks in computer vision. Previous knowledge distillation strategies used for dense prediction tasks often directly borrow the distillation scheme for image classification and perform knowledge distillation for each pixel separately, leading to sub-optimal performance. Here we propose to distill structured knowledge from large networks to compact networks, taking into account the fact that dense prediction is a structured prediction problem. Specifically, we study two structured distillation schemes: i) pair-wise distillation that distills the pair-wise similarities by building a static graph; and ii) holistic distillation that uses adversarial training to distill holistic knowledge. The effectiveness of our knowledge distillation approaches is demonstrated by experiments on three dense prediction tasks: semantic segmentation, depth estimation and object detection. Code is available at: https://git.io/StructKD, Comment: v1:10 pages cvpr2019 accepted; v2:15 pages for a journal version; Code is available at: https://github.com/irfanICMLL/structure_knowledge_distillation; fix typos

Purpose: The current study aims to quantify the effect of brief behavioral treatment for insomnia (BBTI) studies through meta-analysis. Method: Searches were performed from inception to February 2020, reporting on the effects of BBTI using randomized controlled trials (RCT) (adults aged 32 to 84). The main outcome measures were sleep onset latency (SOL), wake after sleep onset (WASO), sleep efficiency (SE%), and total sleep time (TST). Results: BBTI showed improved SOL compared with control group in mean difference at early (-15.42 [95% CI: -33.05 to -12.01; I2 =49%]) and late follow-up (-10.52 [95% CI: -1.12 to 0.54; I2=93%]). This was statistically significant at early follow-up, but not at late follow-up. The improvement of WASO by BBTI over the control group was shown at early follow-up (-17.47 [95% CI: -2.67 to 0.45; I2=90%]), and was statistically significant. For WASO, a non-statistically significant improvement of BBTI over the control group was shown at late follow-up (-12.77 [95% CI: -22.47 to -3.08; I2=0%]). SE% was shown improved statistically significant by BBTI over control group at early (4.47 [95% CI: -0.35 to 9.29; I2=98%]) and at late follow-up (6.52 [95% CI: -4.00 to 17.05; I2=89%]). The TST was shown no improvement by BBTI at early follow-up in mean difference (-2.97 [95% CI -38.83 to 32.90; I2=96%]). At late follow-up, TST was shown improvement in BBTI with mean difference (14.52 [95% CI: -31.64 to 60.68; I2=94%]) compared with the control group.Conclusion: Current evidence suggests that BBTI can be considered preliminarily efficacious and can be used for samples of middle-aged and older adults.

Interpretation bias is a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying anxiety. Theoretical models highlight the role of parental interpretation bias in predicting and maintaining child anxiety. However, very few studies have examined parent interpretation bias as a treatment target. The current pilot study tested the feasibility and acceptability of an interpretation bias intervention delivered by a smartphone app, called HabitWorks, in parents of anxious children who self-reported at least mild symptoms of anxiety and negative interpretation bias. Parents of anxious youth (ages 8 to 16) were recruited from the waitlists of three child anxiety clinics. They were asked to complete interpretation modification exercises via the HabitWorks app 3 times per week for 1 month. Participants completed assessments at pre- and post-intervention and 1-month follow-up to assess changes in interpretation bias, anxiety symptoms, and overall perceptions of HabitWorks. Participants (N = 14) (Mage = 44.36; 14.29% men, 85.71% women) completed an average of 13.29 exercises out of the 12 prescribed. Acceptability ratings were high. Interpretation bias, as measured by an assessment version of the intervention exercise, significantly improved from pre- to posttreatment, and these improvements were maintained at the 1-month follow-up. Anxiety symptoms significantly improved from the “mild” severity range to the “none to minimal” range. In this pilot feasibility study in parents of anxious youth, HabitWorks was a feasible and acceptable low-intensity intervention. These preliminary results support a future controlled trial of HabitWorks for parents. Future studies are also needed to test whether targeting interpretation bias in parents has downstream effects on maladaptive parent behaviors and ultimately, child interpretation bias and anxiety.

In this study, CO₂ conversion to acetate and CH₄ was achieved in a flow-through laboratory-scale microbial electrosynthesis (MES) cell composed of a 3D conductive polylactic acid (cPLA) lattice cathode with electrodeposited metal electrocatalyst coatings. The MES cell with a bare cPLA cathode showed the poorest performance with the lowest H₂ and CH₄ production rates and low Coulombic efficiency. This was ascribed to a poor electrocatalytic activity of cPLA towards H₂ production and high electrode resistivity. When the cPLA electrode was modified with metal coatings, the CH₄, acetate and H₂ production rate increased significantly, with the following trend: cPLA < Ni < NiFe < NiFeMn. The better performance of the metal-coated cPLA in terms of CH₄ production was attributed to the lower electrical resistance, enhanced H₂ production and enhanced electron transfer between the cathode and the biofilm. At the cell potential of 2.8 V, the best-performing NiFeMn cPLA cathode showed stable production of CH₄ (50 ± 6 mL d⁻¹), acetate (185 ± 27 mg d⁻¹), and H₂ (545 ± 175 mL d⁻¹) at close to 100% Coulombic efficiency.

In 1961, K Merendino ‘in pure curiosity’, while tracking the murmur of mitral regurgitation, placed his stethoscope ‘on the vertex of the head’, and ultimately led to a medical curiosity and exam finding that not only bears his name, but awes medical learners at all stages of their careers. Merendino and colleagues collected seven such cases of the ‘Murmur on Top of the Head’ building on the work of others who provided a detailed description of mitral regurgitation and noted murmur radiation to the neck and cervical/lumbosacral spine. The majority of patients suffered from rheumatic heart disease or subacute bacterial endocarditis in native heart valves. Here, we report on a case of the ‘Murmur on Top of the Head’ and provide the reader/listener with a direct recording of the ‘Merendino murmur’ (as well as its spinal correlate) in an elderly woman with a bioprosthetic mitral valve.

A fit middle aged man presented to the emergency department with headache, myalgia, vomiting, fever and rigours. He was hypotensive with mottled peripheries, tachycardic and dyspnoeic. The only significant medical history noted was an emergency splenectomy 30 years previously following a road traffic accident. The patient had been on prophylactic antibiotics initially and was vaccinated in line with recommendations at the time following splenectomy with no significant health issues in the intervening years. The patient was treated empirically for septic shock and meningitis based on presentation and admitted to the intensive care unit for pressor support and subsequently required intubation and ventilation. Investigations revealed bilateral pneumonia. Streptococcal pneumoniae urinary antigen and serum S. pneumoniae PCR were positive supporting a diagnosis of invasive pneumococcal infection. A lumbar puncture was negative for meningitis. Distal mottling affecting all limbs progressed with resultant bilateral upper limb digit and below knee amputation. The patient subsequently required extensive rehabilitation. Following a prolonged tertiary and rehabilitation hospital admission, the patient made an exceptional recovery and was discharged home with ongoing appropriate support and home adaptation.

Rapid identification and management of students with COVID-19 symptoms, exposure, or disease are critical to halting disease spread and protecting public health. We describe the interdisciplinary isolation and quarantine program of a large, public university, the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. The program provided students with wraparound services, including medical, mental health, academic, and other support services during their isolation or quarantine stay. The program successfully accommodated 844 cases during the fall 2020 semester, thereby decreasing exposure to the rest of the university and the local community. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(10):1772–1775. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306424 )

Adolescents and young adults working in agriculture are at greater risk of injury. We describe the development of an online safety and health training for people who hire, teach, or supervise young agricultural workers. The online training targeted specific skills supervisors can use to effectively supervise, train, and communicate with young workers about health and safety hazards that impact injury risk. Consistent with NIOSH's evidence-based Total Worker Health® approach, the training integrated safety and health promotion and was also informed by behavioral change theories. An iterative approach was used to develop and evaluate the training. A content review provided feedback on topics and organization of material. Safety and health experts assessed the revised training content and rated the training topics on clarity, accuracy, and completeness. Finally, a pilot study with employers and health and safety professionals was used to evaluate the training materials. The content review suggested ways to reorganize the material to improve flow and reduce redundancy. Ratings of clarity, accuracy, and completeness were high, ranging from 5 to 7 (mean ratings from 5.8 to 7.0) on a scale of 1 ("does not do this at all") to 7 ("does this very well"). The pilot study led to changes in wording and items used to assess knowledge. A theoretically-informed approach was used to develop an online supervisor training to increase awareness and build skills. An iterative process that included expert review, evaluation of learning competencies, and a pilot study with the end-users is described.

Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) due to multiple vaginal lacerations is difficult to manage and tamponade is used as a life-saving measure. Condom catheter with stay sutures at the vaginal introitus for this purpose has not been reported. We describe successfully managing PPH due to multiple vaginal lacerations following a forceps delivery using a condom tied to an 18 FG Foley catheter. The device was introduced to the vagina, inflated with 700 mL of normal saline and was held in situ by sealing the vaginal introitus with interrupted nylon stitches running between the labia minora. Condom catheter is cheap and freely available in low-resource settings. The preparation and application can be done by a less experienced operator.

Our patient was a 57-year-old woman with a history of bilateral retropectoral silicone breast augmentation and axillary hyperhidrosis who underwent a bilateral thoracic sympathectomy via video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery by a surgeon at an outside hospital approximately 20 years ago. The left side required an open thoracotomy. Shortly after the surgery, she developed a left-sided Baker 4 capsular contracture and the left implant was noted to be ruptured. Both implants were exchanged. Several years later the patient began to experience progressive fatigue. Work-up revealed a left lung nodule and she underwent a biopsy that confirmed silicone granulomas. It was hypothesised that at the time of her initial thoracotomy the implant was violated resulting in silicone spillage into the thoracic cavity. The patient was referred to our institution for advanced management of her intrathoracic silicosis. The patient underwent bilateral removal of her silicone implants, total capsulectomy and needle-localised removal of her left thoracic silicone masses. She had an uneventful postoperative course with resolution of her fatigue.

Nilotinib is used as standard treatment in managing chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). A 23-year-old man with CML and on nilotinib was admitted to the intensive care unit due to respiratory failure. Three years prior, he developed pleural effusion from dasatinib therapy thus, his CML regimen was changed to nilotinib. Although the pleural effusion had once improved, the chest imaging revealed left-dominant bilateral pleural effusion. Endotracheal intubation and left thoracic drainage were performed. Nilotinib treatment was discontinued, and approximately 60 hours later, nilotinib concentrations of 927 and 2092 ng/mL were determined in his blood and pleural effusion, respectively. Severe pleural effusion may be induced in patients administering nilotinib, and nilotinib concentrations in blood and pleural effusion can be elevated in patients with nilotinib-related pleural effusion. Cross-occurrence of pleural effusions needs to be monitored precisely, especially in patients who are switched to other tyrosine kinase inhibitors after dasatinib treatment.

Study objectives Digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (dCBT-I) can reduce acute insomnia and depressive symptoms and prevent symptom recurrence. The current study evaluated self-efficacy in managing insomnia symptoms as a potential mediator of the relationship between prior dCBT-I and subsequent insomnia and depressive symptoms assessed during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Method Participants were 208 adults who completed a randomized controlled trial of dCBT-I versus sleep education in 2016-2017 and also completed self-report assessments of insomnia, depression, and self-efficacy in managing insomnia symptoms. Data were collected in May 2020, five weeks into state-wide COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Regression and mediation analyses were used to evaluate the extent to which self-efficacy accounted for the relationship between treatment condition and improvement in insomnia and depressive symptoms from pre-treatment to COVID-19 follow-up. Results Prior dCBT-I predicted greater self-efficacy in managing insomnia symptoms. Self-efficacy accounted for 49% and 67% of the protective effect of dCBT-I against COVID-era insomnia and depressive symptoms, respectively. Conclusions This study affirms the importance of self-efficacy as a key intervention outcome and potential mechanism by which dCBT-I predicts future sleep and mental health. Future studies that evaluate the role of self-efficacy in treatment effectiveness and resilience can provide additional clues about how to optimize dCBT-I for maximum benefit to public health.

Objectives Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes substantial morbidity and mortality in older adults. We assessed severe clinical outcomes among hospitalized adults that were associated with RSV infections. Methods We performed a nested retrospective study in 3 New York City hospitals during 2 respiratory viral seasons, October 2017–April 2018 and October 2018–April 2019, to determine the proportion of patients with laboratory-confirmed RSV infection who experienced severe outcomes defined as intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation, and/or death. We assessed factors associated with these severe outcomes and explored the effect of RSV-associated hospitalizations on changes in the living situations of surviving patients. Results Of the 403 patients studied (median age, 69 years), 119 (29.5%) were aged ≥80. Severe outcomes occurred in 19.1% of patients, including ICU admissions (16.4%), mechanical ventilation (12.4%), and/or death (6.7%). Patients admitted from residential living facilities had a 4.43 times higher likelihood of severe RSV infection compared with patients who were living in the community with or without assistance from family or home health aides. At discharge, 56 (15.1%) patients required a higher level of care than at admission. Conclusions RSV infection was associated with severe outcomes in adults. Living in a residential facility at admission was a risk factor for severe outcomes and could be a proxy for frailty rather than an independent risk factor. Our data support the development of prevention strategies for RSV infection in older populations, especially older adults living in residential living facilities.

OBJECTIVE This investigation examined the impact of social networks on drinking reduction efforts following a brief alcohol intervention. In a reanalysis of data from an earlier randomized controlled trial with nonstudent emerging adult drinkers (Lau-Barraco et al., 2018), we aimed to test three domains of preintervention social network features as potential factors influencing intervention response: (a) general network characteristics (i.e., network size, network stability), (b) general network alcohol use (i.e., network alcohol abstainers, network heavy/problem drinkers), and (c) risky peers in network (i.e., proportion of drinking buddies, presence of drinking buddies identified as heavy/problem drinker). METHOD Participants were 164 emerging adult heavy drinkers recruited from the community (65.9% men; mean age = 21.98 years; 56.2% ethnic minority). Participants were randomly assigned to either a brief personalized feedback intervention (PFI) or assessment-only control and provided data at 1-month and 3-month follow-ups. RESULTS Greater network stability and greater representation of alcohol abstainers in one's social network were associated with improved initial postintervention response. Heavy/problem drinkers in the network did not moderate initial postintervention effects on drinking outcomes, but there was potentially a stronger intervention effect on risk reduction for those with higher proportions of drinking buddies in their network. CONCLUSIONS Study findings provided evidence that a PFI was efficacious in mitigating some risky social network influence. However, findings did not support a consistent impact across all the network variables examined. Future research is needed to further clarify social network influences and how they may be targeted to enhance intervention efficacy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The working alliance may be relevant in unguided smartphone-based interventions, but no validated measure exists. We evaluated the psychometric properties of the six-item Digital Working Alliance Inventory (DWAI) using a cross-sectional survey of meditation app users ( n = 290) and the intervention arm of a randomized trial testing a smartphone-based meditation app ( n = 314). Exploratory factor analysis suggested a single-factor solution which was replicated using longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis. The DWAI showed adequate internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Discriminant validity was supported by a lack of association with social desirability, psychological distress, and preference for a waitlist condition. Convergent validity was supported by positive associations with perceived app effectiveness and preference for an app condition. Supporting predictive validity, DWAI scores positively predicted self-reported and objective app utilization. When assessed at Weeks 3 or 4 of the intervention, but not earlier, DWAI scores predicted pre–post reductions in psychological distress.

Objectives. To test a tailored mobile health (i.e., mHealth) intervention for waterpipe tobacco cessation in young adults. Methods. From 2018 to 2020 at 2 US sites, we conducted a randomized trial with 349 waterpipe tobacco smokers aged 18 to 30 years randomized to control (no intervention), untailored, or tailored intervention arms. Intervention arms received a 6-week mHealth intervention conveying risks of waterpipe tobacco through text and images and strategies to enhance motivation and support quitting. The tailored intervention was personalized to baseline measures and intervention text message responses. Risk appraisals, motivation to quit, waterpipe smoking frequency, and cessation were assessed at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. Results. At 6 months, cessation was higher in the tailored (49%) than the control arm (29%; odds ratio = 2.4; 95% confidence interval = 1.3, 4.2) and smoking frequency was lower in the tailored (mean = 3.5 days) than the control arm (mean = 4.3 days; P = .006). At interim follow-ups, significant differences in other outcomes favored the tailored intervention. Conclusions. Tailored mobile messaging can help young adult waterpipe tobacco smokers quit. This scalable intervention is poised for population implementation.

Metacarpal shaft fractures are common hand injuries that predominantly affect younger patients. There is wide variability in their treatment with no consensus on best practice. We performed a systematic review to assess the breadth and quality of available evidence supporting different treatment modalities for metacarpal shaft fractures of the finger digits in adults. A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases, in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A total of 1600 records were identified; 7 studies fulfilled eligibility criteria and were included. No randomized controlled trials directly comparing surgery with nonsurgical treatment were found. One retrospective study compared nonsurgical with surgical treatment, whereas 6 compared surgical or nonsurgical treatments. Considerable heterogeneity between studies along with a high or critical risk of bias restricts direct comparison and conclusions. There is a lack of high-quality evidence to guide treatment, supporting the need for well-designed, multicenter trials to identify the most effective and cost-efficient treatment for metacarpal shaft fractures in adults.

Paiton Extra High Voltage Substation is one of the large substations that serve transmission with a voltage of 500 kV in East Java, which gets electricity supply from PLTU Paiton of 4600 MW, for outgoing Paiton GITET also sends electrical power to Grati 1, Grati 2 and Kediri 1, Kediri 2 with a voltage rating of 500 kV. Based on the Decree of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Number 0074.K / 21 / MEM / 2015 concerning the Ratification of the 2016-2025 Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL), the load growth every year has increased. Therefore, there will be additional Generating Units with a capacity of 1000 MW at PLTU Paiton, it is necessary to analyze the effect of additional loads in 2017 - 2022 on the 500 KV GITET system before and after the addition of a 1000 MW generator. Based on the analysis, it is known that the additional power of 1000 MW will strengthen the Paiton GITET reserve margin in bearing the load growth, it can be seen from the reserve margin value before the addition of power plants by 16% and after the addition of 29%. For the ability of the Paiton - Grati GITET transmission line until 2022, the load is 62% with a power loss of 35.41 MW (2.85%) and the load on the Paiton - Kediri GITET transmission line is 62% with a power loss of 35.41 MW (2.85%) indicates that the channel still in good shape. In addition, the load condition for the IBT transformer until 2022 is 84%, it can be concluded that the transformer is in good condition.

This paper studies the coordinated use of smart inverters with legacy voltage regulating devices to help increase the energy savings from conservation voltage reduction (CVR) in distribution systems with high photovoltaic penetration. Two voltage optimization algorithms are developed to evaluate the CVR benefit by considering two types of smart inverter functions: aggregated reactive power control and autonomous volt/VAR control. In each algorithm, smart inverters are coordinately controlled with the operation of legacy voltage regulating devices including load tap changers and capacitor banks. Both algorithms are tested on representative utility distribution system models. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can achieve around 1.8-3.6% energy savings when only using legacy voltage regulating devices and an additional 0.3-0.9% when adding smart inverters.

Text entry for smartwatches is a useful service for many applications like sending text messages and replying emails. Traditional touchscreen-based approaches are two-handed text entry methods, that could be cumbersome when the user is performing other tasks with one hand. Therefore, we propose AirText, the first one-handed text entry method which achieves accurate and practical handwriting in the air for commercial smartwatches. By analyzing the inertial readings from the smartwatch worn on the wrist, AirText is able to accurately recognize the in-air handwritten characters. However, the wrist movements, which produce the inertial readings, are harmful to the user to focus on the screen. In order to address this challenge, AirText uses a novel cross-modal supervision design to achieve accurate character recognition from the small wrist movements. AirText further includes a novel word recommendation method to speed up the text entry. We implement AirText on five smartwatches and evaluate its performance extensively with eight volunteers and more than 25,000 in-air handwritten characters. Results show that AirText outperforms two baselines methods and achieves comparable text entry speed as two-handed approaches.

The prone position is extensively used to improve oxygenation in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. Occasionally, these patients exhibit cardiac and respiratory functions so severely compromised they cannot tolerate lying in the supine position, not even for the time required to insert a central venous catheter. The authors describe three cases of successful ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein cannulation in prone position. The alternative approach here described enables greater safety and well-being for the patient, reduces the number of episodes of decompensation, and risk of tracheal extubation and loss of in-situ vascular lines.

The steep voltage slopes of today’s wide-bandgap (WBG), fast-switching power semiconductors — like SiC and GaN — lead amongst other challenges to reflection on long cables and thereby overvoltage at inductive loads. To enable the use of these inverters with motors without specially reinforced insulation the voltage slopes need to be slowed down. This article presents a new low-loss countermeasure, which involves the parallel connection of two half-bridges via an interphase transformer. For this one half-bridge is delayed relative to the other one by a delay tuned to a resonant circuit. Undesired DC components in the cross-current of the interphase transformer occur due to non-idealities in the voltage symmetry. The subsequent DC magnetization ultimately can cause the core to saturate. The paper describes the effects due to inaccurate timings and the aspects to keep in mind when dimensioning the magnetic core. Also, this article describes an approach to deal with the undesired current components using a closed-loop control. For that, a special differential-mode shunt is used which enables a dedicated measurement of the cross-current mean value and mitigates the influence of the switching frequency. Finally, the controller concept is presented. The controller is implemented and verified on a 500 kVA SiC inverter test bench.

Background Coma is one of the frequently encountered clinical conditions in any intensive care unit (ICU), which is responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality. Therefore, this study was designed to look at the clinical and EEG profile of Nonconvulsive Status Epilepticus (NCSE) in comatose ICU patients using portable electroencephalography (EEG). Methods In all 102 patients of unresponsive coma (GCS ≤ 8), who remained in poor sensorium despite 48 h of optimum treatment in ICU, were included in the study. All patients underwent 1 h of electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring with a portable EEG machine. All EEGs were screened according to Salzburg Consensus Criteria (SCC) for Nonconvulsive Status Epilepticus (NCSE). Patients with evidence of NCSE were administered parenteral Antiepileptic Drugs (AED). A repeat EEG was done after 24 h of baseline to ascertain the effect of AED. The primary outcome was the recognition of patients with NCSE on the basis of established EEG criteria. The secondary outcome measure was the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) at the time of discharge. Results Out of 102 cases enrolled, 12 (11.8%) cases were detected to have NCSE on portable EEG. The mean age of patients with NCSE was 52.2 years. In terms of gender distribution, 2/12 (17%) were female, and 10/12 (83%) were male (M: F = 5:1). Median GCS was 6 (range 3–8). Looking at CNS infections, 4/12 (33.3%) had evidence of some form of CNS infection in the NCSE group, compared to 16/90 (18%) in the group without NCSE. This difference was statistically significant (P-value 2 points) after administration of AED’ was noted with good clinical outcomes (GOS 5). In five of these 12 cases, death was the final outcome (GOS 1). Conclusions NSCE should be considered in the differential diagnosis of all unresponsive comatose ICU patients. In resource-limited settings, where continuous EEG monitoring may not be feasible, bedside portable EEG testing can be used to diagnose patients with NCSE. Treating NCSE reverses epileptiform EEG changes and improves clinical outcomes in a subset of comatose ICU patients.

Presbyphonia negatively impacts quality of life in patients with age-related voice changes. A proof-of-concept study showed promise for high vocal intensity exercise to treat presbyphonia, which became the basis for a novel intervention for age-related voice changes known as Phonation Resistance Training Exercises (PhoRTE). Expiratory Muscle Strength Training (EMST) has also been proposed as an additional intervention to target and strengthen the aging respiratory system; however, EMST has undergone limited evaluation as an adjunct treatment for elderly patients undergoing voice therapy for presbyphonia. This study determined if the addition of EMST to PhoRTE voice therapy (PhoRTE + EMST) is at least as effective at voice improvement as PhoRTE alone.Prospective, randomized, controlled, single-blinded, non-inferiority.Participants aged 55 years or older with a diagnosis of vocal fold atrophy were randomized to complete PhoRTE therapy or PhoRTE + EMST. The primary outcome was change in Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10). Secondary outcomes included the Aging Voice Index, maximum expiratory pressure, and acoustic and aerodynamic measures of voice. Repeated measures linear mixed models were constructed to analyze outcomes at a significance level of α = 0.10.Twenty-six participants were recruited for the study, and 24 participants were randomized to either treatment arm. Sixteen participants completed the entire study. Both treatment arms showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in VHI-10 (PhoRTE mean [M] = -8.20, P0.001; PhoRTE + EMST M = -9.58, P0.001), and PhoRTE + EMST was noninferior to PhoRTE alone (P = 0.069). Both groups experienced a statistically significant pre-post treatment decrease (improvement) in AVI scores (PhoRTE M = -18.40, P = 0.004; PhoRTE + EMST M = -16.28, P = 0.005). PhoRTE+EMST had statistically significantly greater changes in maximum expiratory pressure compared to PhoRTE alone (PhoRTE M = 8.24 cm HThis study demonstrates that voice therapy targeting high vocal intensity exercise (eg, PhoRTE) and EMST can play a role in improving voice outcomes for patients with presbyphonia.

Background Carbapenemase producing gram-negative bacteria (GNB) has become a huge problem in majority of tertiary care centers worldwide. They are associated with very high morbidity and mortality rates, especially when they cause invasive infections. Therefore, rapid detection of these organisms is very important for prompt and adequate antibiotic therapy as well as infection control. The aim of this study was rapid detection of carbapenemase genes and thereby likely carbapenem resistance, 24–48 hours in advance, directly from the positive-flagged blood culture bottles using CHROMagar and Xpert® Carba-R. Methods Aspirate from positively flagged blood culture bottles was subjected to differential centrifuge. All gram-negative bacilli on gram stain from the deposit were processed in Xpert® Carba-R and inoculated on CHROMagar. The presence of genes and growth on CHROMagar was compared with carbapenem resistance on VITEK-2 Compact. Results A total of 119 GNB isolates were processed. One or more of the carbapenemase genes were detected in 80 isolates. On comparison with VITEK-2 result, 92 samples showed concordance for carbapenem resistance 48 hours in advance. There was discordance in 21 isolates with 12 major errors and 09 minor errors. The sensitivity of direct Xpert® Carba-R test for rapid detection of carbapenem resistance, 48 hours in advance, was 81.42%. The sensitivity of direct CHROMagar test for accurate detection of carbapenem resistance, 24 hours in advance, was 92.06%. Conclusion The ability to detect carbapenem resistance with very high accuracy, 48 hours in advance, helps in appropriate antibiotic therapy and implementation of effective infection control practices.

Statement of problem Bilateral balanced occlusion has been advocated over nonbalanced occlusion for improved removable complete denture stability and function. However, assessments of quality of life and patient satisfaction studies between the 2 occlusion schemes are lacking. Purpose The objective of this parallel randomized control trial was to determine the difference in quality of life and patient satisfaction between the nonbalanced and bilaterally balanced occlusal schemes. Material and methods Sixty participants were included in the parallel randomized control trial of nonbalanced and bilaterally balanced complete dentures. Thirty were recruited into each group with definitive inclusion and exclusion criteria as per the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines. Quality of life was estimated from the oral health quality of life (Oral Health Impact profile) for edentulous patients questionnaire, and patient satisfaction was analyzed from a visual analog scale. The estimation was made at 0, 3, and 6 months after denture insertion. The data were statistically analyzed with the Friedman, Mann-Whitney, and t test (α=.05). Results The mean ±standard deviation Oral Health Impact profile score was 60.81 ±8.87 for nonbalanced dentures and 64.12 ±8.98 for bilaterally balanced dentures. The mean ±standard deviation visual analog scale score was 2.84 ±0.28 for nonbalanced dentures and 2.90 ±0.31 for bilaterally balanced dentures. The Mann-Whitney and t test indicated nonsignificant differences between the 2 groups and at different time intervals for Oral Health Impact profile and visual analog scale scores (P>.05). Conclusions The study detected no significant differences between the 2 occlusal schemes in quality of life or patient satisfaction.

Souissi, MA, Elghoul, Y, Souissi, H, Masmoudi, L, Ammar, A, Hamdi chtourou, and Souissi, N. The effects of three corrections strategies of errors on the snatch technique in 10-12-year-old children: A randomized controlled trial. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2020-Sports movement correction is one of the major problems for motor control and learning. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine which of the 3 strategies, i.e., the self-observation method with direct instructions (SO-DI), self-observation alone (SO), or the direct instruction (DI), would be useful for correcting errors during the snatch technique. Forty-eight children with 2 months of experience were randomly assigned to one of 4 training conditions: SO-DI, SO, DI, or control. In this study, the experience lasted 15 sessions. Subjects completed the test sessions before (T0) and after (T1) 12 training sessions and a retention test session after 2 weeks (T2). The Kinovea version 0.8.15 software was used to measure the kinematic parameters of weightlifting performance. After the training intervention, the data showed that the SO-DI group registered a greater improvement in all kinematic parameters compared with the SO, DI, and control groups, and this benefit was present 2 weeks later in the retention test (e.g., the horizontal displacement of the bar in the first pull with respect to the starting position [T1 vs. T0: +32.57 ± 6.69%, d = 1.87, p < 0.001; T2 vs. T0: 25.07 ± 11.55%, d = 1.32, p < 0.001] and the horizontal displacement of the bar between the receiving position and the reference line [T1 vs. T0: 24.34 ± 29%, d = 1.17, p < 0.01; T2 vs. T0: 25.53 ± 30.4%, d = 0.99, p < 0.01]). The results of the present study could have practical implications for physical education teachers because, even if practice is required to improve the technique, the effectiveness of the learning process is essential to enhance learner self-efficacy and motivation.

Investigating the prognostic value of the Murray law-based quantitative flow ratio (μQFR) on the clinical outcome after treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) with a drug-coated balloon (DCB).Patients participating in a previous randomized clinical trial for DCB-ISR were post-hoc analyzed. The primary endpoint was vessel-oriented composite endpoint (VOCE), defined as cardiac death, target vessel-related myocardial infarction, and ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization. μQFRs at baseline and after DCB angioplasty was calculated, and its prognostic value as a predictor of VOCE was explored in Cox regression.A total of 169 lesions in 169 patients were analyzed. At one-year follow-up, 20 VOCEs occurred in 20 patients. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis identified a post-procedural μQFR of ≤ 0.89 as the best cut-off to predict VOCE (area under curve [AUC]: 0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.67-0.80; p0.001), superior to post-procedural in-stent percent diameter stenosis (DS), which reported an AUC of 0.61 (95% CI: 0.53-0.68; p = 0.18). Post-procedural μQFR was significantly lower in patients with VOCE compared with those without (0.88 [interquartile range: 0.79-0.94] vs. 0.96 [interquartile range: 0.91-0.98], respectively; p0.001). After correction for potential confounders, post-procedural μQFR ≤ 0.89 was associated with a 6-fold higher risk of VOCE than lesions with μQFR0.89 (hazard ratio: 5.94; 95% CI: 2.33-15.09; p0.001).Post-procedural μQFR may become a promising predictor of clinical outcome after treatment of DES-ISR lesions by DCB angioplasty.

Power components such as High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) are used for high power and high frequency applications. These tend to overheat and destroy their packaging and connections to the wire bondings. This paper presents planar micro-thermoelectric sensors (μTESs) developed to measure partial heat flow dissipated by the HEMTs to avoid the HEMTs from reaching critical temperatures. These sensors use the same active materials as well as the same fabrication process as the HEMTs, enabling them to be fabricated simultaneously for a simple integration. The HEMTs’ active layers consist in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures resulting in the formation of a 2D Electron Gas (2DEG) at the interface. Tension factors of 47 mV/(K.mm2) were obtained with these sensors and heat flows of 0.2 W to 7 W were measured.

BackgroundDespite its efficacy in treating comorbid insomnia and depression, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is limited in its accessibility and, in many countries, cultural compatibility. Smartphone-based treatment is a low-cost, convenient alternative modality. This study evaluated a self-help smartphone-based CBT-I in alleviating major depression and insomnia.MethodsA parallel-group randomized, waitlist-controlled trial was conducted with 320 adults with major depression and insomnia. Participants were randomized to receive either a 6-week CBT-I via a smartphone application, proACT-S, or waitlist condition. The primary outcomes included depression severity, insomnia severity, and sleep quality. The secondary outcomes included anxiety severity, subjective health, and acceptability of treatment. Assessments were administered at baseline, post-intervention (week 6) follow-up, and week 12 follow-up. The waitlist group received treatment after the week 6 follow-up.ResultsIntention to treat analysis was conducted with multilevel modeling. In all but one model, the interaction between treatment condition and time at week 6 follow-up was significant. Compared with the waitlist group, the treatment group had lower levels of depression [Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D): Cohen's d = 0.86, 95% CI (−10.11 to −5.37)], insomnia [Insomnia Severity Index (ISI): Cohen's d = 1.00, 95% CI (−5.93 to −3.53)], and anxiety [Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – Anxiety subscale (HADS-A): Cohen's d = 0.83, 95% CI (−3.75 to −1.96)]. They also had better sleep quality [Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): Cohen's d = 0.91, 95% CI (−3.34 to −1.83)]. No differences across any measures were found at week 12, after the waitlist control group received the treatment.ConclusionproACT-S is an efficacious sleep-focused self-help treatment for major depression and insomnia.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04228146. Retrospectively registered on 14 January 2020. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04228146

The electrochemical performance of solid oxide cells (SOCs) is investigated under both fuel cell and electrolyzer operations to understand their asymmetric behavior between the two operation modes. The current–voltage and electrochemical impedance characteristics of a hydrogen-electrode-supported cell are experimentally analyzed. Also, a numerical model is developed to reproduce the cell performance and to understand the internal resistances of the cell. Partial pressures of supplied gas and load current are varied to evaluate their effects on the cell performance. The gas partial pressures of hydrogen and steam supplied to the hydrogen electrode are kept equivalent so that the cell performance can be fairly compared between the two operation modes when the same current is applied. It is found that the origin of the asymmetry is mostly from the hydrogen electrode; both activation and concentration overpotentials show asymmetric behavior particularly at high current densities. A numerical experiment is also conducted by deliberately changing parameters in the model. Asymmetry in the activation overpotential is found to be originated from the non-identical charge-transfer coefficients in the Butler–Volmer equation and also from the non-uniform gas concentration formed in the hydrogen electrode under current-biased conditions. On the other hand, asymmetry in the concentration overpotential is associated with the non-equimolar counter diffusion of hydrogen and steam caused by the effect of Knudsen diffusion. Therefore, enhancing gas transport in the hydrogen electrode and reducing the contribution of Knudsen diffusion are effective approaches to reduce asymmetry not only in the concentration overpotential but also in the activation overpotential.

Statement of problem A consensus on the clinical performance of implant-supported removable partial dentures (ISRPDs) is lacking. Purpose The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the clinical performance of ISRPDs in terms of the implant survival rates, marginal bone loss, and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Material and methods Four electronic databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) were independently searched by 2 reviewers for articles published up to December 2020. A single-arm meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the implant survival rates and marginal bone loss by using the R program. The Cochrane collaboration tool was used to evaluate the risk of bias of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for non-RCT studies. Results Sixteen studies were included, with a total of 334 participants and a mean age of 58 years. The participants received a total of 581 dental implants, 475 conventional and 106 mini-implants. All included studies reported implant survival rate above 90% (range: 92% to 100%). Meta-analysis indicated a high proportion of implant survival rates of 3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2% to 5%) and a low mean raw score of marginal bone loss 0.98 mm (CI: 0.61 to 1.36 mm). Compared with conventional RPDs, improved patient quality of life and satisfaction were reported by studies that evaluated ISRPDs. RCT studies exhibited a low risk of bias for most domains, while most non-RCT studies were classified as good quality. Conclusions ISRPDs exhibited high implant survival rates and acceptable bone loss with improvement in the quality of life and satisfaction of patients when compared with conventional RPDs. Therefore, they can be considered suitable for the rehabilitation of partially edentulous patients.

Relay selection solutions for underwater acoustic cooperative networks suffer significant performance degradation as they fail to adapt to incomplete information, noisy interference and overwhelming dynamics. To address this challenge, a hierarchical adversarial multi-armed bandit learning framework by proposing an online reward estimation layer is designed to improve adaptive relay decision control. In online reward estimation layer, adaptive Kalman filter estimator is developed to properly handle noisy observation to support accurate reward. Meanwhile an online predict mechanism is projected for all relays to enrich learning information. Furthermore, based on estimate error variance, an adaptive exploration structure is developed to accelerate the balance between exploration and exploitation. All gathered information are exploited to learn relay quality for the decision-making. Accordingly, we present a Hierarchical Adversarial Bandit Learning (HABL) algorithm to fully exploit the heuristic interaction between the hierarchical framework. HABL integrates reward estimation, information prediction, adaptive exploration and decision making carefully in a holistic algorithm to maximize the learning efficiency. Thereby, the HABL-based relay selection algorithm has higher system throughput and lower communication cost. Further, we rigorously analyze the convergence of HABL algorithm and give its upper bound on the cumulative regret. Finally, extensive simulations elucidate the effectiveness of the HABL.

The vetiver is an excellent source for essential oil, fodder, thatching, handicrafts, and mulching. Besides its various utility, a limited study has been done as fodder for ruminants. The major studies in the vetiver were focused on oil production, soil/water conservation. The study related to livestock cattle feeding on vetiver is very meager. The essential oil content, yield, nutritional, and protein quality of the fodder are highly affected by the G × E interaction. Objectives were to determine the extent of genotype × environment interaction for the nutritional quality of fodder, oil yield and to identify stable genotypes for the future breeding program. The thirty lines were evaluated to meet the above objectives to select genotypes with high oil yield and fodder quality. The genotypes were planted in RBD at the Institute in three years. The observations were recorded on twenty traits. The roots were distilled for oil by hydro-distillation for 24 h. GC analysis was performed in a Varian CP 3800 system using an Elite-5 fused silica column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μm). The pooled mean observations of all characters were analyzed for stability by the GGE biplot. For after the pooled ANOVA across years, all the twenty traits showed highly significant variations except four. Except for one variable, essential oil content, genotype was very significant for all twenty traits (%). For maturity stage × year interaction, all the twenty traits also showed high significance except four traits. For the maturity stage × genotypes interaction, all the twenty traits also showed highly significant variations except four traits. For years × genotypes interaction, all twenty traits also showed highly significant differences. For the maturity stage× years × genotypes interaction, all the twenty traits also showed high significance except one trait. The genotype Vg-11/selection 24 expressed the highest performance for eight traits: digestibility, protein, potassium, phosphorus (%), iron, copper, and manganese (mg/Kg) in vetiver leaves and the root yield/plot (g). The genotype Vg-15 for the three traits: calcium (%), khusinol, and β-vetivone (%) in essential oil. Despite the importance of essential oil, its leaves are vital due to their nutritional quality and can be used as fodder. Genotype Vg-11/selection 24 may recommend as a suitable and nutritious fodder and Vg-13 for high oil. The vetiver also has a perfect opportunity to be as nutritious fodder in livestock for nutrition and production.

This article examines convergence by providing a systematic literature review using scientometric method. Despite the steady growth of convergence literature, we still have an incomplete understanding of convergence concepts as well as the processes of industry convergence (IC). Our systematic review highlights several key findings. First, our review highlights six clusters of research on convergence. Second, our analysis suggests that the process of convergence does not necessarily progress in the three- to four-step supply-side process as postulated in the literature, i.e., from scientific convergence, technology convergence, market convergence, and finally to IC. Although existing literature suggests that IC occurs as a result of supply-side convergence, we expand on this proposition and put forth market-driven convergence processes. Third, we provide a typology of the convergence concepts to bring clarity and avoid indiscriminate use of the various convergence concepts. Finally, our article offers new debates on the literature of convergence, providing scholars with research directions that extend beyond the standard convergence processes. Our systematic review is relevant to scholars and managers as the study highlights a taxonomy of convergence scholarship, a typology of convergence concepts, and a re-evaluation of the IC process model to drive the research forward.

Background Since July 2019, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been facing an outbreak of serotype-2 circulating vaccine derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) in addition to continued transmission of serotype-1 wild poliovirus (WPV1) and SARS-CoV-2 in 2020. Understanding the risks of cVDPV2 transmission due to pause of global vaccination efforts and the impact of potential vaccination response strategies in the current context of COVID-19 mitigation measures is critical. Methods We developed a stochastic, geographically structured mathematical model of cVDPV2 transmission which captures both mucosal and humoral immunity separately and allows for reversion of serotype-2 oral polio vaccine (OPV2) virus to cVDPV2 following vaccine administration. The model includes geographic heterogeneities in vaccination coverage, population immunity and population movement. The model was fitted to historic cVDPV2 cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan between January 2010-April 2016 and July 2019-March 2020 using iterated particle filtering. The model was used to simulate spread of cVDPV2 infection from July 2019 to explore impact of various proposed vaccination responses on stopping transmission and risk of spread of reverted Sabin-2 under varying assumptions of impacts from COVID-19 lockdown measures on movement patterns as well as declines in vaccination coverage. Results Simulated monthly incidence of cVDPV2 from the best-fit model demonstrated general spatio-temporal alignment with observed cVDPV2 cases. The model predicted substantial spread of cVDPV2 infection, with widespread transmission through 2020 in the absence of any vaccination activities. Vaccination responses were predicted to substantially reduce transmission and case burden, with a greater impact from earlier responses and those with larger geographic scope. While the greatest risk of seeding reverted Sabin-2 was predicted in areas targeted with OPV2, subsequent spread was greatest in areas with no or delayed response. The proposed vaccination strategy demonstrated ability to stop the cVDPV2 outbreak (with low risk of reverted Sabin-2 spread) by February 2021. Conclusion Outbreak response vaccination campaigns against cVDPV2 will be challenging throughout the COVID-19 pandemic but must be implemented urgently when feasible to stop transmission of cVDPV2.

In VANETs, it is important to support fast and reliable multi-hop broadcast for safety-related applications. The performance of multi-hop broadcast schemes is greatly affected by relay selection strategies. However, the relationship between the relay selection strategies and the expected broadcast performance has not been fully characterized yet. Furthermore, conventional broadcast schemes usually attempt to minimize the waiting time difference between adjacent relay candidates to reduce the waiting time overhead, which makes the relay selection process vulnerable to internal interference, occurring due to retransmissions from previous forwarders and transmissions from redundant relays. In this paper, we jointly take both of the relay selection and the internal interference mitigation into account and propose a fast, reliable, opportunistic multi-hop broadcast scheme, in which we utilize a novel metric called the expected broadcast speed in relay selection and propose a delayed retransmission mechanism to mitigate the adverse effect of retransmissions from previous forwarders and an expected redundancy probability based mechanism to mitigate the adverse effect of redundant relays. The performance evaluation results show that the proposed scheme yields the best broadcast performance among the four schemes in terms of the broadcast coverage ratio and the end-to-end delivery latency.

Vibration measurement is a crucial task in industrial systems, where vibration characteristics reflect health conditions and indicate anomalies of the devices. Previous approaches either work in an intrusive manner or fail to capture the micrometer-level vibrations. In this work, we propose mmVib, a practical approach to measure micrometer-level vibrations with mmWave radar. First, we derive a metric called Vibration Signal-to-Noise Ratio (VSNR) that highlights the directions of reducing measurement errors of tiny vibrations. Then, we introduce the design of mmVib based on the concept of Multi-Signal Consolidation (MSC) for the error reduction and multi-object measurement. We implement a prototype of mmVib, and the experiments show that it achieves 3.946% relative amplitude error and 0.02487% relative frequency error in median. Typically, the average amplitude error is only 3.174um when measuring the 100um-amplitude vibration at around 5 meters. Compared to two existing mmWave-based approaches, mmVib reduces the 80th-percentile amplitude error by 69.21% and 97.99% respectively.

Nb2O5 nanoparticles with an average particle size of 10 nm supported on a rhombic dodecahedral metal organic framework (MOF) were successfully synthesized by a facile one-pot hydrothermal reaction and subsequent calcination process. Experimental results demonstrated that the prepared catalyst drastically improved the hydrogen storage behavior of MgH2. 7 wt% Nb2O5@MOF doped MgH2 started to desorb hydrogen at 181.9 °C and 6.2 wt% hydrogen could be released within 2.6 min and 6.3 min at 275 °C and 250 °C, respectively. The fully dehydrogenated composite also displayed excellent hydrogenation by decreasing the onset absorption temperature to 25 °C and taking up 4.9 wt% and 6.5 wt% hydrogen within 6 min at 175 °C and 150 °C, respectively. Moreover, the corresponding activation energy was calculated to be 75.57 ± 4.16 kJ mol−1 for desorption reaction and 51.38 ± 1.09 kJ mol−1 for absorption reaction. After 20 cycles, 0.5 wt% hydrogen capacity was lost for the MgH2+7 wt% Nb2O5@MOF composite, much lower than 1.5 wt% of the MgH2+7 wt% Nb2O5 composite. However, the addition of Nb2O5@MOF had limited effect on reducing the dehydrogenation enthalpy of MgH2. Microstructure analysis revealed that Nb2O5 particles were uniformly distributed on surface of the MgH2 matrix and synergistically improved the hydrogen storage property of MgH2 with MOF.