Hasil untuk "Analysis"

T. Ozawa

Yuan Wang, Norazmawati Md Sani, Jing Cai et al.

Background As aging populations continue to grow, smart home technologies—such as smart locks—have become increasingly essential to support older adults’ independent living. Long-term use remains a challenge, however, with most studies focusing on initial adoption rather than sustained engagement. Methods In this study, we examined the key factors related to older adults’ continuance intention toward smart locks, applying a socio-technical framework that integrated the Expectation-Confirmation Model of Information Systems (ECM-IS), the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model, and external variables, including privacy and security, trust, and habit. We analyzed survey data from 422 Chinese participants aged 55 and older using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA). Results The model explained 71.6% of the variance in continuance intention (R2 = 0.716) and showed strong predictive relevance (Q2 = 0.623). Trust and perceived usefulness were positively related to continuance intention, followed by satisfaction. Task-technology fit and confirmation were significantly associated with perceived usefulness and satisfaction. Habit and privacy and security were not significant with respect to continuance intention. Conclusions These findings provide theoretical and practical insight for designing age-inclusive, trust-enhancing smart locks that better support older adults’ needs in post-adoption contexts.

Choon Chiat Oh, Boon Yee Lim, Elizabeth Chun Yong Lee et al.

ABSTRACT Background Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) remains poorly understood at the molecular level, both in the immunocompetent and immunosuppressed population with skin of colour. Data on the diversity of viruses found in cSCC is also lacking. Objectives We aimed to characterise the immunological and molecular profiles of cSCC in organ transplant recipients (OTR) and non‐transplant recipients in an Asian cohort (n = 53) and explore the diversity of viruses detected. Methods Gene expression analysis was performed on snap‐frozen cSCC tissues using the NanoString PanCancer IO360 panel. Viral detection was performed using the Twist Comprehensive Viral Research Panel. Results cSCC presented dysregulation of immune response pathways and tumour microenvironment remodelling compared to adjacent normal skin tissue. Cell‐type profiling based on gene expression profiles showed higher levels of exhausted CD8 cells, neutrophils, and cytotoxic cells in tumour cells. Furthermore, three distinct clusters of cSCC gene signatures could be observed, where Cluster 3 with the highest Tumour inflammation signature (TIS) scores displayed distinct upregulation of most pathways suggesting a more inflamed or “hot” tumour phenotype. cSCC of OTR exhibited greater expression of tumour markers (AQP9, SERPINA1) and reduced expression of T‐cell cytokines (CXCL10, CXCL11). Viruses were particularly enriched in tumour tissue, as compared with normal skin. In addition, there was an enrichment of detectable viruses in transplant‐associated cSCC, with several tumours harbouring multiple viruses (HPV, EBV, MCV, and TTV). Conclusions cSCC is marked by a pro‐tumorigenic immune environment with altered immune cell populations. These findings support the potential for stratified, immune‐tailored treatment approaches for cSCC, especially in OTR who have a higher disease burden. Future studies on the possible oncogenic role of the detected viruses can be undertaken.

Peixuan Sun, Ruiyuan Tang, Lixia He et al.

Amid growing concerns over fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation, developing alternative energy sources is imperative. While MoS₂-based catalysts are known for their syngas conversion activity, their selectivity toward alcohols remains limited. This study addresses this gap by developing Cu-promoted MoS₂ catalysts to enhance alcohol synthesis. The results indicated that the introduction of copper significantly modulates the catalytic performance of MoS₂. We demonstrate that incorporating Cu significantly modulates the catalytic properties of MoS₂. The optimized catalyst with 9 wt% Cu loading exhibited a CO conversion of 17.9% and a markedly improved total alcohol selectivity of 46.4%, with a space-time yield of 67.6 mg·g⁻¹·h⁻¹. Although Cu addition slightly reduced CO conversion, it markedly improved alcohol selectivity by facilitating active site dispersion, suppressing Fischer-Tropsch side reactions, and stabilizing heteroatomic active phases. Finally, a catalytic mechanism for the synthesis of low-carbon alcohols from syngas on MoS₂-based catalysts was proposed based on the catalyst analysis and reaction results.

Angelica Cardoza, Henry A. Colorado

This study shows an alkaline activated cement (AAC), also known as geopolymer, made from red brick waste with partial addition of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). This is a sustainable material since incorporates waste from the brick industry to make cements, therefore increasing the materials circularity and this reducing pollution. The material was cured at room temperature. The brick residue was activated with sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate in aqueous solution to form the hybrid cement. Several mixtures were made with different amounts of waste and proportions of alkaline activator. The mechanical properties of the materials were studied to determine their feasibility to be used in the construction sector. Three contents of OPC were used: 10, 20, and 30 wt%, which were added to improve the mechanical behavior and post-curing time. The activated hybrid cement was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), compression, and flexural tests. The main results show that the addition of OPC to the brick derived AAC produces an increased compressive strength of 106 MPa when 30 wt% OPC was added, a very significant result since the control sample found was 33 MPa in compression strength, an improvement for more than 3 times. The data were corroborated by statistical analysis.

Takashi Oshio

Abstract Background Psychological distress (PD) is a major risk factor for mental health among middle-aged and older adults and affects their quality of life and well-being. This study aimed to examine the evolution of PD with age and the relative importance of its determinants, issues that have been insufficiently studied. Methods We used longitudinal data obtained from 17-wave social surveys conducted in Japan from 2005 to 2021, to track 34,128 individuals (16,555 men and 17,573 women) born between 1946 and 1955. We defined PD as a Kessler 6 score (range: 0–24) ≥ 5 and estimated fixed-effects regression models to examine the evolution of its proportion with age. We also conducted a mediation analysis to examine the relative importance of specific mediators such as self-rated health (SRH), activities of daily living (ADL), and social participation, in the association between age and PD. Results Regression model results confirmed an increase in PD with age. Poor SRH, issues with ADL, and no social participation were key mediators of aging on PD, accounting for 34.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 21.0–47.3%), 13.7% (95% CI: 8.2–19.3%), and 10.5% (95% CI: 8.0–13.0%), respectively; consequently increasing PD between 50 and 75 years. Conclusion The results suggest the need for policy support to encourage middle-aged and older adults to promote health and increase social participation in order to prevent depression while aging.

Pablo López-Porfiri, Sebastián Ramos-Paredes, Patricio Núñez et al.

Abstract Membrane distillation (MD) is constantly acknowledged in the research literature as a promising technology for the future of desalination, with an increasing number of studies reported year after year. However, real MD applications still lag behind with only a few pilot-plant tests worldwide. The lack of technology transfer from academia to industry is caused by important gaps between its fundamental basis and the process design. Herein, we explore critical disconnections by conducting coupled mass and heat transfer modeling and MD simulations; we use well-known MD mass and heat transfer equations to model and simulate flux over a typical MD membrane for different geometries, areas, and operational conditions in direct contact configuration. From the analysis of the results, we propose research guidelines and process development strategies, and construct an MD module performance curve. From this graph, permeate flow rate, thermal energy consumption and outlet temperatures can be determined for given feed inlet conditions (temperature and concentration). Comprehensive tools such as this MD module curve and good communication between membrane developers and process engineers are required to accelerate the process of bringing the MD technology from a still-emerging status to a maturity level.

Michela Prunella, Roberto Maria Scardigno, Domenico Buongiorno et al.

Automatic vision-based inspection systems have played a key role in product quality assessment for decades through the segmentation, detection, and classification of defects. Historically, machine learning frameworks, based on hand-crafted feature extraction, selection, and validation, counted on a combined approach of parameterized image processing algorithms and explicated human knowledge. The outstanding performance of deep learning (DL) for vision systems, in automatically discovering a feature representation suitable for the corresponding task, has exponentially increased the number of scientific articles and commercial products aiming at industrial quality assessment. In such a context, this article reviews more than 220 relevant articles from the related literature published until February 2023, covering the recent consolidation and advances in the field of fully-automatic DL-based surface defects inspection systems, deployed in various industrial applications. The analyzed papers have been classified according to a bi-dimensional taxonomy, that considers both the specific defect recognition task and the employed learning paradigm. The dependency on large and high-quality labeled datasets and the different neural architectures employed to achieve an overall perception of both well-visible and subtle defects, through the supervision of fine or/and coarse data annotations have been assessed. The results of our analysis highlight a growing research interest in defect representation power enrichment, especially by transferring pre-trained layers to an optimized network and by explaining the network decisions to suggest trustworthy retention or rejection of the products being evaluated.

Delvi Yanti, Eri Stiyanto, Nika Rahma Yanti et al.

In determining the utilization of the area, many government regulations have been made from the Central, Provincial, and Regional levels using a production data approach. However, it is getting different results with the same slice. The purpose of the study is to identify areas and determine priority agricultural commodities for food crops, horticulture, and plantation groups in Pasaman Regency. Analytical techniques used in Pasaman Regency are LQ analysis, shift share (SS) analysis, and field observation with a stakeholder approach. Based on the research, it is found that LQ and SS were able to determine the leading commodities of food crops, horticulture, and plantations in Pasaman Regency. The main food crop is corn, with the central development area in Tigo Nagari District. The superior horticultural crops and their development areas are chilies in Panti District and mangoes in Mapat Tunggul. The main plantation crop is rubber in a central development location in South Rao District.

Hacer Efe, Ünsal Umdu Topsakal

In the study reported on here, the effects of science centres on the perceptions of secondary school students towards the nature of science were examined. The study group consisted of 16 students aged 13 and 14 of which 7 were female and 9 male. In this study, a total of 4 trips were arranged to the science centre twice a month for 2 months. Students attended different workshops, planetariums and exhibitions on each trip to the science centre they attended. The activities that students attended during these trips were independent of the school curriculum. The data were obtained in the spring of 2019. This study was experimental research. Mixed method was used as the research model and the concurrent triangulation pattern was used as the design. The Scientific Knowledge Scale, the Questionnaire for Scientific Knowledge and semi-structured interviews were used as data collection tools, which were administered to students before and after the activities. In data analysis, qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. Quantitative data were analysed using the SPSS program. As a result of the research, it was determined that science centres caused an increase in students’ scores and levels of scientific knowledge and an improvement in their views on the nature of science.

J. Holler, P. Kedron

Reproducible open science with FAIR data sharing principles requires research to be disseminated with open data and standardised metadata. Researchers in the geographic sciences may benefit from authoring and maintaining metadata from the earliest phases of the research life cycle, rather than waiting until the data dissemination phase. Fully open and reproducible research should be conducted within a version-controlled executable research compendium with registered pre-analysis plans, and may also involve research proposals, data management plans, and protocols for research with human subjects. We review metadata standards and research documentation needs through each phase of the research process to distil a list of features for software to support a metadata-rich open research life cycle. The review is based on open science and reproducibility literature and on our own work developing a template research compendium for conducting reproduction and replication studies. We then review available open source geographic metadata software against these requirements, finding each software program to offer a partial solution. We conclude with a vision for software-supported metadata-rich open research practices intended to reduce redundancies in open research work while expanding transparency and reproducibility in geographic research.

Jihyo Kim, Seong Man Park, Meeran Joo et al.

The purpose of this study was to gather opinions from experts via the Delphi method to inform the future development of a virtual reality based English language communication program for university level students in Korea. The participants, who consisted of a panel of experts and professors who majored in English language and multimedia education, completed three Delphi surveys based on Context, Input, Process, and Product evaluation, which is referred to as CIPP. In the first Delphi survey, the participants answered multiple choice questions and open-ended questions related to four areas relevant to the development of a virtual reality based program. Based on their answers, a second Delphi survey was designed to determine the participants' level of agreement with the appropriateness of the questions related to the four areas. In the third Delphi survey, participants were shown the results (mean, standard deviation, median, interquartile range, consensus chart, and convergence degree) and were asked to confirm or modify their answers based on the other participants' answers. According to the analysis of the Delphi survey results, need for the development of a virtual reality based English language communication program was suggested, and recommendations were made regarding the content and application of the program.

WANG Xiaohua, JI Xiaope, ZHANG Jixiao et al.

Objective To find out the causes of anterior femoral notching in 3D printed patient-specific patient-specific instrumentation (PSI) assisted total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Methods A retrospective analysis was carried out on the consecutive cases undergoing PSI assisted TKA in the Peking University International Hospital from January 2019 to September 2021. The clinical data of those having anterior femoral notching were collected. 3D CT scanning was performed on the knee joint after intraoperative osteotomy and the intraoperative bone fragments. Rapidform software (Version 2006) was used to reconstruct 3D images and to perform image registration and comparison analysis with the preoperatively planned 3D models. The anterior femoral notching depth was measured, and the differences in the thickness of bone fragments between preoperatively planned and intraoperative bone cutting in order to analyze the causes of the anterior femoral notching. Results A total of 86 consecutive cases (94 knees) were included and 17 cases (18/94, 19.1%) of them had anterior femoral notching. The causes of anterior femoral notching were summarized into 3 categories: abnormal position of the PSI (10 cases, 83.3%), intraoperative reduction of the femoral prosthesis size (2 cases, 16.7%), and overextension of the femoral prosthesis (1 case, 8.3%). Conclusion Abnormal femoral PSI position, intraoperative reduction of femoral prosthesis size, and preoperative femoral prosthesis overextension design are the main causes of anterior femoral notching after PSI assisted knee arthroplasty.

Michael Doube

Sequential region labelling, also known as connected components labelling, is a standard image segmentation problem that joins contiguous foreground pixels into blobs. Despite its long development history and widespread use across diverse domains such as bone biology, materials science and geology, connected components labelling can still form a bottleneck in image processing pipelines. Here, I describe a multithreaded implementation of classical two-pass sequential region labelling and introduce an efficient collision resolution step, ‘bucket fountain’. Code was validated on test images and against commercial software (Avizo). It was performance tested on images from 2 MB (161 particles) to 6.5 GB (437 508 particles) to determine whether theoretical linear scaling (O(n)) had been achieved, and on 1–40 CPU threads to measure speed improvements due to multithreading. The new implementation achieves linear scaling (b = 0.905–1.052, time ∝ pixelsb; R2 = 0.985–0.996), which improves with increasing thread number up to 8–16 threads, suggesting that it is memory bandwidth limited. This new implementation of sequential region labelling reduces the time required from hours to a few tens of seconds for images of several GB, and is limited only by hardware scale. It is available open source and free of charge in BoneJ.

D. Warner North

AbstractI entered the field of risk analysis forty years ago from a background in physics followed by doctoral training and experience in decision analysis. I came into the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) after participating as a committee member in the 1983 National Academies report, Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process. The insights and recommendations from this report, and successor reports from 1996 and 2008, merit revisiting on this 40th anniversary. Risk analysis includes risk assessment, a process of summarizing applicable science to inform decisions; and risk management, a process of making informed choices, usually involving multiple stakeholders. Inherent in both is the need to deal with complexity, uncertainty, and differing perspectives and goals. The lessons I have learned include the need for a conceptual separation of risk management from risk assessment, the benefit of an iterative dialogue between these activities, and the wisdom of articulating and assessing what we know, what we want, and what we can do as we seek to understand and manage risks affecting ourselves and those we advise.

Vander Luis de Souza Freitas, Thais Cláudia Roma de Oliveira Konstantyner, Jeferson Feitosa Mendes et al.

The inter-cities mobility network is of great importance in understanding outbreaks, especially in Brazil, a continental-dimension country. We adopt the data from the Brazilian Ministry of Health and the terrestrial flow of people between cities from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics database in two scales: cities from Brazil, without the North region, and from the São Paulo State. Grounded on the complex networks approach, and considering that the mobility network serves as a proxy for the SARS-CoV-2 spreading, the nodes and edges represent cities and flows, respectively. Network centrality measures such as strength and degree are ranked and compared to the list of cities, ordered according to the day that they confirmed the first case of COVID-19. The strength measure captures the cities with a higher vulnerability of receiving new cases. Besides, it follows the interiorization process of SARS-CoV-2 in the São Paulo State when the network flows are above specific thresholds. Some countryside cities such as Feira de Santana (Bahia State), Ribeirão Preto (São Paulo State), and Caruaru (Pernambuco State) have strength comparable to states’ capitals. Our analysis offers additional tools for understanding and decision support to inter-cities mobility interventions regarding the SARS-CoV-2 and other epidemics.

Sahile AT, Bekele GE

Addisu Tadesse Sahile,1 Getabalew Endazenew Bekele2 1Department of Public Health, Unity University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 2Department of Social and Population Health, Yekatit12 Hospital Medical College, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Addisu Tadesse Sahile Tel +251 9 12096667Email sahdis91@gmail.comIntroduction: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most public health challenges of the twenty-first century. Globally, 382 million people had diabetes by the year 2013.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and identify its associated factors at public health institutions in Addis Ababa.Patients and Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was carried out from June to July 2016. A total of 758 participants were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data were collected with a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire; a WHO STEPwise approach of NCDs risk factors identification, and the collected data were checked for completeness immediately following data collection and the filled questionnaires were entered into Epi–Info 3.5.1, and then exported to SPSS 23 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentages, standard deviation, and ranges were determined. To identify factors associated with diabetes mellitus, binary logistics regression was used.Results: The overall prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 14.8%, with a sex-specific prevalence of 18.35% and 16.62% for males and females, respectively. Older age participants had higher risks of developing diabetes mellitus than younger age individuals. Alcohol drinkers had more risks of developing diabetes mellitus than non-alcohol drinkers. Participants with plasma HDL-C ≥ 40mg/dl were more likely to develop diabetes mellitus than those with < 40mg/dl. Participants with a higher level of plasma triglyceride ≥ 130mg/dl were found to be more exposed to the risks of developing diabetes mellitus than study participants with a low level of triglycerides.Conclusion: A higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus was observed in Addis Ababa public health institutions. Factors such as age, alcohol drinking, HDL, triglycerides, and vagarious physical activity were associated with diabetes mellitus. Concerned bodies need to work over the ever-increasing diabetes mellitus in Addis Ababa.Keywords: diabetes mellitus, prevalence, associated factors, health facilities

Lewandowska Sylwia, Łoziński Michał, Marczewski Krzysztof et al.

A two-factorial field experiment with soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merill) was conducted in a randomized block design, with four replications. The tested factors were seed priming method and genotype responses. There had been seven soybean varieties (Aldana, Aligator, Annushka, Augusta, Lissabon, Mavka, and Merlin) and each of them had control (unprimed) and seed primed groups. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of hydropriming on germination ability and emergence under field conditions, on the growth and development of selected soybean varieties. Shortly before harvest, 10 randomly selected plants were collected from each plot, and their morphological and yield-related traits were measured. In addition, the seed yield was assessed. On the basis of statistical analysis, significant differences were found between the applied hydropriming method and the control group in regard to morphological traits. Seed treatment resulted in a slight increase in harvested seed yield, which is within error margin. The seed yield of Aligator increased significantly by 0.5 t ha−1, indicating a genotype-specific different reaction to seed priming in terms of yield.

E. R. Shchukis, S. K. Shchukis

There is a great necessity of a set of highly productive, well-adapted, complementary, economically specific and ecologically differentiated crops and varieties to realize agro climatic potential of West Siberia. Soybean is one of them. The volume of soybean production is constantly increasing worldwide. The sowing areas of the crop exceeded 100 ml hectare and continue increasing. During the last years soybean areas in Russia were increased fiftyfold, but the pace of soybean development significantly lags behind the leading countries of the world.The share of soybean is only one per cent of all worldwide sowings. The sowing areas in Altay Area vary from 10 till 23 thousand of hectare, being 18838 ha in 2014. The paper emphasizes the importance of soybean as a food and fodder crop. It considers the possibilities of its implementation in the conditions of Pre-Ob forest steppe of Altay, the ways of its productivity increase. The paper gives the analysis of varieties, discusses methods, principles and ways of improvement of soybean varieties and total characteristics of the new variety ‘Nadezhda’.

Agung Wahyono, Elly Kurniawati, Kasutjianingati et al.

Yellow pumpkin (Cucurbita moscata) is a popular plant in Indonesia, but its utilization is limited. It has been reported that the antioxidant activity of the yellow pumpkin increased by increasing the drying tempe-rature and immersing the pumpkin in bisulfite solution during processing. The aim of this study was to opti-mize the processing conditions for the manufacturing of pumpkin flour using Response Surface Methodo-logy (RSM) to enhance its antioxidant activities. The optimization process was done using a Box-Behnken construction. The factorial treatments consisted of immersion in metabisulfite solution, drying temperature, and drying time. The results showed that the scavenging activity as measured by DPPH and ABTS corres-ponded well to the independent variables based on the multiple regression analysis particularly the multi-variate quadratic regression (MQR). Based on the MQR, the determination coefficients (R2) of DPPH and ABTS were 0.97 and 0.96, respectively. Based on that model, the optimum conditions of pumpkin flour manufacturing were immersion in metabisulfite solution for 23.05 min, drying temperature of 85°C, and drying time of 11.40 h. This optimum condition was predicted to yield pumpkin flour having DPPH and ABTS scavenging activities of 90.12% and 94.38%, respectively. Based on the validation data, the optimum condition resulted in flour with antioxidant activities of 80.23 (DPPH) and 86.67% (ABTS). The quadratic models developed were powerful in predicting the actual values of the antioxidant activity by DPPH and ABTS. The accuracy of the models in predicting the antioxidant activity by DPPH and ABTS were 89.02 and 91.83%, respectively.