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Palladium-supported Fe3O4@SiO2 functionalized methyl 2-phenyl thioacetate as a sustainable catalyst for Isatins synthesis

RETRACTED: Enhancing pipa tuning stability with piezoelectric materials: An adaptive system for real-time performance adjustment

Introduction The study explores the development and performance evaluation of a Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (NFIS) for adaptive tuning of a pipa string instrument under varying environmental conditions. The NFIS adjusts string tension in real-time based on voltage, temperature, and humidity sensor inputs by integrating piezoelectric sensors with IoT capabilities. The primary objective is to maintain tuning accuracy within ±0.1 Hz, even with environmental fluctuations, thus improving the stability and consistency of musical performance. Methods A dataset of 2,000 samples was collected, including voltage (0.1–5 V), temperature (10–40°C), and humidity (20–90% RH) values, along with corresponding output adjustments. The NFIS utilised Gaussian membership functions to categorise sensor inputs into linguistic terms (e.g., “High Voltage,” “Medium Temperature”), and a comprehensive rule base of 40 rules was established for adaptive tuning. Training of the NFIS was conducted using gradient-descent backpropagation with a learning rate of 0.01 and L2 regularisation, validated through 5-fold cross-validation. Real-time performance data was transmitted via an ESP32 microcontroller to an AWS IoT Core database, with user adjustments and data visualisation provided through a mobile application. Results The NFIS was highly well tuned with a mean pitch deviation of only ±0.08 Hz at stable and varying environmental conditions. We have cross-validated the model, and it produced an average MSE of 0.012 across folds, which speaks to the robustness of the model. During an 8-hour test period, our IoT system achieved an average data transmission latency of 120 ms on the server and 99.8% system uptime, with our error correction mechanisms ensuring 98% data integrity. The compensated voltage deviated less than ±0.1 V from the baseline voltage at varying temperatures and humidity, and the environmental compensation minimised the voltage deviations within the original compensation limits. Conclusion This NFIS-based adaptive Tuning System keeps the tuning accurate during environmental changes. In conjunction with IoT for real-time monitoring and adaptive learning capabilities, this technology adds more responsiveness and reliability, thus making it an efficient tool for musicians to perform consistently.

Secular trends in body weight perception among Norwegian adolescents: a 28-year cross-sectional analysis (1994–2022)

Abstract Increased exposure to social media and societal pressures to conform to idealized body standards may have amplified feelings of inadequacy among youth, notably in body weight perception. This study describes secular trends in body weight perception in Norwegian adolescents from 1994 to 2022, both before and during a period of technologically transformative changes proposed to influence body weight perception. To investigate trends in body weight perception, data across eight survey years from the Norwegian part of the repeated cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study were used. Body weight perception was categorised as “Too thin”, “About right”, and “Too fat” among 11-, 13-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. The analyses showed stability in body weight perception across the 28-year period, with some gender and age differences observed. Small fluctuations were noted, most pronounced in the oldest age groups. The only significant change observed from 1994 to 2022, was an increase in the proportion of 16-year-old girls perceiving their body as “About right”. Between 2018 and 2022, there was an increase in the proportion of 11-year-old girls perceiving their body as “Too fat”. Stability in body weight perception was observed from 1994 to 2022, despite the assumed impact of certain technologically transformative changes, such as social media. However, the study highlights a concerning rise in 11-year-olds perceiving their bodies as “Too fat” between 2018 and 2022, underlining the continued need for regular monitoring of body weight perception in the adolescent population.

Business and entrepreneurship is declining as scholarly field: Empirical evidence

This paper presents evidence from 68,792 papers published between 1961 and 2020 that progress in the scholarly field of business and entrepreneurship is declining. It is found that the annual number of papers published in the field has increased exponentially since the Second World War, growing on average by 17% annually since 1961; the average disruption score of papers have declined by a factor of 36 between the 1960s and the 2010s; and that the average team size per paper has increased from 1,6 between 1960–1980–2,4 between 2000 and 2020. Estimates from an ideas production function suggest that the field is getting fished out and that researchers may be stepping on one another’s toes. A Wald-test indicates that a structural break in the disruptiveness of business and entrepreneurship and papers occurred around 1999. These results could reflect pathologies in how research in the field is organized and/or that the field has matured.

Ethnic dance movement instruction guided by artificial intelligence and 3D convolutional neural networks

Effect of screw access hole or vent hole opening strategies on the adhesive filling rate of oral implant cement-retained posterior crowns

Purpose This study investigated the adhesive filling rate (AFR) of implant prostheses on the abutment shoulder and axial surfaces under various hole opening strategies,and examined the correlation between hole openings and permanent adhesive retention strength. Methods Implant crowns were divided into five groups: No hole (NH); Occlusal regular hole (ORH: 2.5 mm); Occlusal mini-hole (OMH: 1 mm); Lateral upper mini-hole (LUMH: 1 mm); and Lateral down mini-hole (LDMH: 1 mm). In the AFR experiment, abutments and prostheses were connected with two-color silicone rubber; the coverage of rubber at the inner surface of the prostheses was photographed. Images were analyzed by ImageJ software. In the adhesive retention strength experiment, prostheses and abutments were bonded using permanent resin cement; retention strength was measured using a universal testing machine. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Welch’s ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s honestly significant difference test. Results Abutment shoulder AFRs were OMH (98.70 ± 0.42%), LDMH (98.40 ± 1.30%), LUMH (97.92 ± 1.33%), NH (93.99 ± 5.45%), and ORH (86.11 ± 4.90%). One-way ANOVA revealed significant difference among groups (p < 0.001). Axial AFRs were LUMH (99.2 ± 0.47%), ORH (98.3 ± 0.8%), OMH (98.1 ± 0.5%), LDMH (97.9 ± 1.06%), and NH (96.4 ± 4.5%),Welch’s ANOVA indicated no significant difference between groups (p = 0.054). In the retention strength experiment, OMH had the highest retention force (369.58 ± 27.27 N), whereas ORH had the lowest (272.81 ± 41.43 N), showing significant differences (p = 0.002). Conclusions Implant screw access hole or vent hole opening strategies affected AFR of implant cement-retained posterior crowns. Larger holes or no openings decreased AFR at the abutment shoulder, whereas axial AFR was less affected. Hole openings variations on implant cement-retained posterior crowns might also influence their retention strength.

Prevalence of acute diarrhea and its risk factors among under five children in flood affected Dasenech District, Southern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Identifying distinct subgroups with severe pain in sickle cell disease: A cluster analysis of the GRNDaD multi-center registry

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects millions of individuals worldwide, and is characterized by both acute, episodic pain and chronic, persistent pain. Despite the significant burden of the disease, clinicians continue to face significant challenges in treating SCD pain due to variability in pain experiences. The objectives of this study were (1) to identify distinct pain subgroups based on demographic and biopsychosocial characteristics and (2) to evaluate the relationship between the subgroups and pain impact – a SCD-disease specific measure of pain interference. To achieve these objectives, we performed a hierarchical cluster analysis on a cross-sectional sample of adults with SCD who are enrolled in the Globin Research Network Data and Discovery (GRNDaD) registry. Five hundred thirty-two participants (61% females and 64% with chronic pain) were included in the analysis. Six distinct subgroups were identified, 3 with chronic pain (Clusters 1–3) and 3 without chronic pain (Clusters 4–6). Despite differences in biological markers of disease severity such as genotype, hemoglobin and fetal hemoglobin percentage, chronic pain subgroups had comparable odds of reporting worse pain impact, suggesting that chronic pain has a disproportionate influence on SCD pain when compared to other factors. Longitudinal studies are needed to further validate these findings and to determine how these pain subgroups may change. Overall, our findings indicate that understanding and preventing chronic pain in SCD must be a top priority to improve the quality of life of those living with SCD.

A framework for handweaving robotic textiles with liquid crystal elastomer fibers

Abstract Textile production methods present a rich set of strategies for developing materials with both form and function encoded at the fiber scale. Beyond simply acting as a static flexible barrier, the ability to incorporate environmentally responsible materials into fabric architectures significantly expands the textile design space by adding on-demand and programmable 3D structural morphing. To this end, liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are a promising candidate for enabling these reversible actuation behaviors in fabric-based constructs. Drawing on traditional textile manufacturing techniques and through a detailed exploration of the vast woven textile design space, we have demonstrated programmable and reversible curling, puffing, and in-plane shrinkage behaviors by embedding the functionality of LCE fibers into single and multi-layered woven structures. Predictable shifts in fabric structure directly influence the mechanical properties and the resulting form factor of the actuated textiles, which can in turn be effectively leveraged for the generation of multi-functional devices, enabling new directions for the engineering of flexible stimuli-responsive materials.

Brain tissues, assemble! Inside the push to build better brain models

Superconducting gap of H3S measured by tunnelling spectroscopy

Abstract Several hydrogen-rich superconductors have been found to show unprecedentedly high critical temperatures1–4, stimulating investigations into the nature of the superconductivity in these materials. Although their macroscopic superconducting properties are established1,5–7, microscopic insights into the pairing mechanism remains unclear. Here we characterize the superconducting gap structure in the high-temperature superconductor H3S and its deuterium counterpart D3S by performing tunnelling spectroscopy measurements. The tunnelling spectra reveal that H3S and D3S both have a fully gapped structure, which could be well described by a single s-wave Dynes model, with gap values 2Δ of approximately 60 meV and 44 meV, respectively. Furthermore, we observed gap features of another likely H-depleted H x S superconducting phase in a poorly synthesized hydrogen sulfide sample. Our work offers direct experimental evidence for superconductivity in the hydrogen-rich superconductor H3S from a microscopic perspective. It validates the phonon-mediated mechanism of superconducting pairing and provides a foundation for further understanding the origins of high-temperature superconductivity in hydrogen-rich compounds.

Within-subjects ultra-short sleep-wake protocol for characterising circadian variations in retinal function

Prior studies suggest that visual functions undergo time-of-day variations. Under naturalistic entrainment, diurnal changes in physiology may be driven by circadian and/or homeostatic processes, and repeated measurements at different times of day are thus not suitable to draw unambiguous conclusions about circadian effects on visual function. In this study, we disentangle circadian and homeostatic effects on variations of retinal function. We examine the earliest stages of image-forming (temporal contrast sensitivity of the post-receptoral channels) and non-image forming visual functions (pupillary light response) by employing a short forced-desynchrony multiple-naps protocol lasting 40 hours. Participants (n = 12, 50% female) will stay in a controlled time-isolating environment under dim-light conditions and adhere to an ultra-short sleep-wake cycle, alternating between 2h30m of wake time in dim light and hour of sleep in no light. During eleven intervals of wakefulness, participants will undergo psychophysical and pupillometric assessments with silent-substitution stimuli. We hypothesize that the sensitivity of retinal mechanisms undergoes circadian variations. This hypothesis will be investigated by separately determining psychophysical contrast thresholds to silent-substitution stimuli targeting the post-receptoral (consistency) pathways (isoluminant red-green, L–M; isoluminant blue-yellow, S; luminance, L+M+S). We will furthermore measure the pupillary light response to peripheral stimuli (annulus 10 ∘ –30 ∘ ) in comparison to the response to stimuli isolating or including melanopsin stimulation. All stimuli will be delivered at constant retinal irradiance using a Maxwellian view system or artificially restricting pupil size. Additionally, we will quantify and report effects of our test stimuli on the circadian system by comparing the dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) timing during two supplementary evening sessions, comparing dim-light conditions to such with experimental light exposure. Our work informs the fundamental biological mechanisms underlying the influence of light on the human circadian system. Based on our findings, current models about the sensitivity of the circadian system may need to be modified in order to account for the bidirectional influence of circadian function and photoreception.

The association between antenatal indomethacin exposure and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn in extremely preterm infants

Characterization of small extracellular vesicles from ovarian cancer patients and pre-diagnostic patient samples: Evidence from the Danish blood donor study

Aim Ovarian cancer (OC) is the leading cause of gynecological cancer deaths. Current biomarkers of OC are not specific or sensitive enough. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), EV surface proteins and their cargo microRNA (miRNA) show potential as biomarkers. This study aimed to characterize the ability of EVs to identify early OC-biomarkers among blood donors six months before their diagnosis. Methods Study groups of OC patients, benign tumor patients (B), healthy blood donors (Control), and blood donors with incident OC diagnosis within six months of the last blood draw (Pre-diagnostic; PD) were established. Small EVs were enriched from plasma using ultracentrifugation. EVs were characterized by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), EV Array, NanoFlow Cytometry, Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, and Western blots. RNA from EVs was isolated. A discovery study was performed on OC and B patients using the TaqMan Array Human MicroRNA A card. A validation study of 9 specific miRNAs was performed using RT-qPCR. Results With DLS, it was identified that the OC patients’ EVs were more heterogeneous in size compared to the other groups. Western blot identified CD63 and TSG101 in the EV enrichments. EV Array assessed 22 known protein biomarkers. TaqMan MicroRNA Array cards indicated a differential miRNA abundance between OC and B; however, technical replication and validation could not validate this pattern. Conclusion This study has analyzed EVs in OC, B, Control, and PD women. More extensive investigations of EV CD9, CD151, and CD81 in conjunction with other risk factors and well-known biomarkers like CA125 or HE4 should be the main objectives of future research.

Psychomedical named entity recognition method based on multi-level feature extraction and multi-granularity embedding fusion

Novel forms for the expression of aspect in heritage Greek across majority languages

This paper investigates, on the one hand, which verbal features are re-organized in heritage grammars and, on the other hand, the production of novel non-canonical forms for the expression of verbal aspect by Greek heritage speakers in Germany and the US compared to monolingually-raised speakers of Modern Greek (henceforth Greek). As aspect cannot be seen in isolation from other morphological features such as voice, tense, and phi-features, the analysis of the novel forms is conducted under the prism of the verbal complex. The results indicate that φ-features and aspect seem to be the most re-organized elements encoded in Greek verbs and, furthermore, that heritage speaker groups differ significantly from monolingually-raised controls in terms of the production of novel morphological forms, demonstrating that heritage speakers, especially those in the US, face difficulties with the morpho-phonological adjustments needed to be built in verbal forms.

Educational environment changes toward resident duty hour restrictions in Japan

Needle in a haystack: Coarse-to-fine alignment network for moment retrieval from large-scale video collections

Moment retrieval from large-scale video collections aims to search and localize the temporal boundary of a video moment from a collection of numerous videos according to the given natural language query. Existing methods for moment retrieval in a single video is too time-consuming to directly scale to this task due to their sophisticated network architecture. In this paper, we decompose the original problem into two mutually boosting subtasks: video retrieval from video collections and moment retrieval in a single video, and propose the coarse-to-fine alignment network (CFAN) including a video alignment module, a cross-modal interaction module and flow of multi-level coarse-to-fine alignment information. Through the interaction of the multi-level information from two subtasks, our method makes full use of the global contextual information in videos and the fine-grained alignment information between videos and queries. We perform sufficient experiments on three public datasets ActivityNet Captions, Charades-STA and DiDeMo and the evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed CFAN method.

Assessment of water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) distribution and changes in Lake Koka and Lake Ziway through remote sensing techniques

Quality of life and retention in care among people living with HIV initiated on ART in the era of “Universal Test and Treat” policy at a large HIV Clinic in South Western Uganda

Background Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) improves the quality of life (QoL) among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH). Most studies documenting the gains in QoL have been conducted among persons starting treatment at advanced HIV disease. In the era of Universal Test and Treat (UTT) policy, most PLWH start ART early with high CD4 counts. Therefore, we investigated the association between baseline CD4 count with QoL and retention among PLWH during UTT in southwestern Uganda. Methods Between June 11, 2019, and June 10, 2020, we reviewed medical records for PLWH initiated on ART between April 2017 and September 2018 and interviewed them to collect QoL data. The primary exposure was CD4 count at ART initiation categorized as <500 cells/µl (low) versus ≥500 cells/µl (high). Physical and mental health-related QoL were the primary outcomes. Retention was the secondary outcome. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the association between the exposure and the primary outcome, while the Cox Proportional Hazard regression model was used for the secondary outcome. Results Of 300 participants, 59.7% initiated ART at a low baseline CD4 count. ART initiation at a higher baseline CD4 count, compared to a lower baseline CD4 count, was associated with a lower mental health-related QoL (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.32–0.97) but similar physical health-related QoL (aOR 0.54, 95% CI 0.10–2.78) and retention (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.30, 95% CI 0.08–1.14). Conclusion In this cohort of PLWH on ART, those who initiated the treatment at a higher baseline CD4 were less likely to have good mental health-related QoL functioning compared to those initiating at lower CD4 counts. However, the two groups were comparable in physical health-related QoL and retention in care. PLWH initiating ART at a higher baseline CD4 may require mental health-related support as part of treatment.