Background There have been numerous intervention studies focusing on the development of preterm infants,but there has been limited investigation into the home environment as a determinant of developmental outcomes in ...Background There have been numerous intervention studies focusing on the development of preterm infants,but there has been limited investigation into the home environment as a determinant of developmental outcomes in preterm infants.The aspects and extent to which the home environment affects the early(18 months corrected age)neuropsychological development of preterm infants are still unclear.Aims This study aimed to analyse the effect of the home environment on the neuropsychiatric development of preterm infants at 18 months corrected age after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit(NICU).It also sought to provide a basis for promoting neuropsychiatric development among preterm infants by improving the home environment.Methods In this retrospective cross-sectional study,275 preterm infants born between January 2019 and January 2022 were followed up for systematic management after discharge from the NICU at Shanghai Children's Hospital.The Home Nurture Environment Questionnaire was used to assess the home environment of the infants and analyse its impact on the developmental quotient(evaluated by the Gesell Developmental Scale)and the rate of developmental delays at 18 months corrected age.Results A total of 41.454%of the infants were extremely preterm.The developmental quotient scores at 18 months corrected age were in the middle of the scale.The language domain had the highest rate of developmental delay(46.182%),followed by the adaptive domain(37.091%).Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that compared with infants in supportive home environments,infants with moderate/unsupportive home environments had significantly elevated risks of development delay:2.162-fold for global(odds ratio(OR)2.162,95% confidence interval(Cl)1.274 to 3.665,p=0.004),2.193-fold for fine motor(OR 2.193,95%CI 1.161 to 4.140,p=0.016),2.249-fold for language(0R 2.249,95%CI 1.336 to 3.786,p=0.002)and 2.042-fold for personal-social(OR 2.042,95%CI 1.149 to 3.628,p=0.015).Conclusions A supportive home environment is a crucial protective factor for the neuropsychological development of preterm infants.It is associated with higher developmental quotient scores and protects against neuropsychiatric delays.Incorporating evaluation and continuous improvement of the home environment into the management framework for preterm infants to promote optimal neurodevelopment is essential.展开更多
The soft-hard combined structures involving varying microhardness on the specimen surface of grey cast iron,processed by bionic laser technology,exhibit excellent wear resistance under dry sliding condition.Both the p...The soft-hard combined structures involving varying microhardness on the specimen surface of grey cast iron,processed by bionic laser technology,exhibit excellent wear resistance under dry sliding condition.Both the primary phase(PP)and the laser-treated phase(LP)play pivotal roles in the wear performance of grey cast iron,in association with various combinations of PP and LP microhardness,originating from different laser processing and heat treatment.Owing to the optimized combination of microhardness,the result exhibits the dominant role of LP,with higher microhardness,in wear test,indicating that this technology,apart from producing complex structures,can also act as a design-process method to modify the tribological properties of grey cast iron,and thus providing a feasible approach to tailor the surface microhardness and to modify the wear performance of grey cast iron.Moreover,a threshold of wear resistance is obtained,while LP microhardness is above 900 HV;meanwhile,beyond it,the change of PP microhardness has only minor impact on wear performance.Finite element analysis shows that,in line with varying microhardness combination,distinct stress distribution on specimen surface is achieved,agreeing well with the good wear resistance and tailorable microhardness of LP and PP.展开更多
In the context of use of large museum centers,numerous national and international methodological experiments show that the wayfinding project must consider the needs of both habitual users(user-centered design)and loc...In the context of use of large museum centers,numerous national and international methodological experiments show that the wayfinding project must consider the needs of both habitual users(user-centered design)and local communities(design for communities)and the importance of environmental protection(eco-design)as a priority interest of the community.This“double target”,“user-centered”and“environment-centered”can be applied during the selection process of materials to be used in the project.With respect to these possibilities,this contribution intends to present the results of research focused on material characterization of the reception and distribution spaces of large museum centers.This characterization is based on use of sensory materials and aims to evaluate their impact on the usability and sustainability of wayfinding systems.The paper directed towards a proposal for organization of integrated information on new generation so-called smart materials;within the design of a wayfinding system,these can balance the aesthetic-perceptual and performance and environmental impact,in order to allow designers to make informed decisions oriented towards inclusion and sustainability.The study was addressed by conducting two phases of systematic literature and library review of materials.The investigations conducted led to achievement of a first research result which consists in the identification of a“standard sheet”for the mapping and cataloging of the materials used for wayfinding.The“standard sheet”allows organizing the information on smart,sensorial,and eco-friendly materials,balancing the aesthetic-perceptive component with the performance on the environmental impact along the entire life cycle in a circular perspective.This tool could guide designers towards an environmental communication project oriented towards sustainability and is effective for usability and wayfinding.展开更多
The emergence of mechanically one-way materials presents an exciting opportunity for materials science and engineering. These substances exhibit unique nonreciprocal mechanical responses, enabling them to selectively ...The emergence of mechanically one-way materials presents an exciting opportunity for materials science and engineering. These substances exhibit unique nonreciprocal mechanical responses, enabling them to selectively channel mechanical energy and facilitate directed sound propagation, controlled mass transport, and concentration of mechanical energy amidst random motion. This article explores the fundamentals of mechanically one-way materials, their potential applications across various industries, and the economic and environmental considerations related to their production and use.展开更多
Background: Urinalysis is a simple and cost effective medical tool used in the assessment of urinary abnormalities for early detection and prompt management of asymptomatic pathologies. Aim: This study assessed the ur...Background: Urinalysis is a simple and cost effective medical tool used in the assessment of urinary abnormalities for early detection and prompt management of asymptomatic pathologies. Aim: This study assessed the urine profile of newly employed health workers of a Teaching Hospital in South East Nigeria. Method: A descriptive retrospective approach was employed to assess the urine parameters of 512 employees. Results: Abnormal findings occurred in 30.7% of the population, with ascorbic acid being the most common (11.5%) while the least was nitrite constituting 0.58% of the population. The study also revealed that only one male employee had abnormal urine pH. There was no significant association (p > 0.05) between gender and urine abnormalities. Conclusion: Routine urinalysis should be included in pre-employment medical exams for disease surveillance.展开更多
Background: Malaria remains a global health threat affecting approximately 97% of the population in sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Nigeria. Despite efforts made to reduce the mortality rate in Nigeria, th...Background: Malaria remains a global health threat affecting approximately 97% of the population in sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Nigeria. Despite efforts made to reduce the mortality rate in Nigeria, the disease still poses a major morbidity challenge. Aim: This study, therefore, was aimed at identifying malaria prevalence in symptomatic febrile patients attending David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted with primarily structured data collected from the hospital medical laboratory between September 2023 and April 2024 among 613 febrile patients attending David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu Ebonyi State, Nigeria using microscopy (thick and thin blood films). Primarily structured data was used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics and factors perceived to be associated with Plasmodium infection. Malaria Parasitological Record Book data was collected, while thin and thick blood films were prepared from capillary blood buffy coat samples. Data were analyzed using Excel, Python, and Google Sheets. Out of 613 febrile patients, 480 were confirmed to be infected by Plasmodium species. Results: Our results, thus, showed a malaria prevalence of (78%) of the study population. The age groups 31 - 40 years constituted the greater proportions of the population with malaria parasite infection 18.5% (89). On the basis of gender, the highest prevalence occurred in females (297) constituting 61.9% of the positive malaria cases observed in this study. Conclusion: It is recommended that a malaria surveillance unit be established to help standardize data collection and monitoring of malaria patients in teaching hospitals, while Molecular Malaria Surveillance (MMS) also needs to be introduced in teaching hospitals in line with international best practices.展开更多
As a well-known urban landscape concept to describe urban space quality,urban street vitality is a subjective human perception of the urban environment but difficult to evaluate directly from the physical space.The st...As a well-known urban landscape concept to describe urban space quality,urban street vitality is a subjective human perception of the urban environment but difficult to evaluate directly from the physical space.The study utilized a modern machine learning computer vision algorithm in the urban build environment to simulate the process,which starts with the visual perception of the urban street landscape and ends with the human reaction to street vitality.By analyzing the optimized trained model,we tried to identify urban street vitality’s visual features and evaluate their importance.A region around the Mochou Lake in Nanjing,China,was set as our study area.Seven investigators surveyed the area,recorded their evaluation score on each site’s vitality level with a corresponding picture taken on site.A total of 370 pictures and recorded score pairs from 231 valid survey sites were used to train a convolutional neural network.After optimization,a deep neural network model with 43 layers,including 11 convolutional ones,was created.Heat maps were then used to identify the features which lead to high vitality score outputs.The spatial distributions of different types of feature entities were also analyzed to help identify the spatial effects.The study found that visual features,including human,construction site,shop front,and roadside/walking pavement,are vital ones that correspond to the vitality of the urban street.The consistency of these critical features with traditional urban vitality features indicates the model had learned useful knowledge from the training process.Applying the trained model in urban planning practices can help to improve the city environment for better attraction of residents’activities and communications.展开更多
A novel identification method for point source,coherently distributed（CD） source and incoherently distributed（ICD） source is proposed.The differences among the point source,CD source and ICD source are studied.Acc...A novel identification method for point source,coherently distributed（CD） source and incoherently distributed（ICD） source is proposed.The differences among the point source,CD source and ICD source are studied.According to the different characters of covariance matrix and general steering vector of the array received source,a second order blind identification method is used to separate the sources,the mixing matrix could be obtained.From the mixing matrix,the type of the source is identified by using an amplitude criterion.And the direction of arrival for the array received source is estimated by using the matching pursuit algorithm from the vectors of the mixing matrix.Computer simulations validate the efficiency of the method.展开更多
Forest ecosystems are our priceless natural resource and are a key component of the global carbon budget. Forest fires can be a hazard to the viability and sustainable management of forests with consequences for natur...Forest ecosystems are our priceless natural resource and are a key component of the global carbon budget. Forest fires can be a hazard to the viability and sustainable management of forests with consequences for natural and cultural environments, economies, and the life quality of local and regional populations. Thus, the selection of strategies to manage forest fires, while considering both functional and economic efficiency, is of primary importance. The use of decision support systems(DSSs) by managers of forest fires has rapidly increased. This has strengthened capacity to prevent and suppress forest fires while protecting human lives and property. DSSs are a tool that can benefit incident management and decision making and policy, especially for emergencies such as natural disasters. In this study we reviewed state-of-the-art DSSs that use: database management systems and mathematical/economic algorithms for spatial optimization of firefighting forces; forest fire simulators and satellite technology for immediate detection and prediction of evolution of forest fires; GIS platforms that incorporate several tools to manipulate, process and analyze geographic data and develop strategic and operational plans.展开更多
Forest fire risk estimation constitutes an essential process to prevent high-intensity fires which are associated with severe implications to the natural and cultural environment. The primary aim of this research was ...Forest fire risk estimation constitutes an essential process to prevent high-intensity fires which are associated with severe implications to the natural and cultural environment. The primary aim of this research was to determine fire risk levels based on the local features of an island,namely, the impact of fuel structures, slope, aspects, as well as the impact of the road network and inhabited regions. The contribution of all the involved factors to forest fires ignition and behavior highlight certain regions which are highly vulnerable. In addition, the influence of both natural and anthropogenic factors to forest fire phenomena is explored. In this study, natural factors play a dominant role compared to anthropogenic factors. Hence essential preventative measures must focus on specific areas and established immediately. Indicative measures may include: the optimal allocation of watchtowers as well as the spatial optimization of mobile firefighting vehicles;and, forest fuel treatments in areas characterized by extremely high fire risk. The added value of this fire prediction tool is that it is highly flexible and could be adopted elsewhere with the necessary adjustments to local characteristics.展开更多
A well-recognized fact is that addressing the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities and minority groups remains a central focus toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,specifically Goals 11 an...A well-recognized fact is that addressing the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities and minority groups remains a central focus toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,specifically Goals 11 and 13.Approaches for effective adaptation to climate change through national and local efforts fundamentally aim to create environmentally sustainable,socially inclusive,and economically vibrant communities.This paper associates the impacts of climate change to the preservation of threatened minority languages in semi-arid areas in Northern Ghana.This review relies on primary and secondary sources on climate-induced migration,minority languages,and threats of language loss through a keyword search followed by rigorous content analysis.The study confirms that forced displacement due to harsh climatic and other environmental conditions is currently occurring in the upper regions(Upper East and Upper West Regions)of Ghana with minority linguistic groups being forced to migrate to the southern part of the country,where their culture and language are threatened due to large linguistic groups.The literature well establishes the north-south mobility with various debates on its root causes.However,the phenomenon is understudied along with the lack of specific national strategies for addressing it and the associated language loss.Therefore,the need emerges for further studies to enhance the current understanding of the phenomenon to inform policy interventions and protect minority languages threatened by climate-induced migration.The focus on an understudied subject and geographic scope makes the findings extremely relevant for the expansion of knowledge on internal migration in the context of climate change in Northern Ghana.展开更多
OBJECTIVE： In spite of the World Health Organization＇s recommendations over the past decades, Ghana features pluralistic rather than truly integrated medical system. Policies about the integration of complementary m...OBJECTIVE： In spite of the World Health Organization＇s recommendations over the past decades, Ghana features pluralistic rather than truly integrated medical system. Policies about the integration of complementary medicine into the national health care delivery system need to account for individuallevel involvement and cultural acceptability of care rendered by health care providers. Studies in Ghana, however, have glossed over the standpoint of the persons of the illness episode about the intercultural health care policy framework. This paper explores the health care users, and providers＇ experiences and attitudes towards the implementation of intercultural health care policy in Ghana. METHODS： In-depth interviews, augmented with informal conversations, were conducted with 16 health service users, 7 traditional healers and 6 health professionals in the Sekyere South District and Kumasi Metropolis in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Data were thematically analysed and presented based on the a posteriori inductive reduction approach. RESULTS： Findings reveal a widespread positive attitude to, and support for integrative medical care in Ghana. However, inter-provider communication in a form of cross-referrals and collaborative mechanisms between healers and health professionals seldom occurs and remains unofficially sanctioned. Traditional healers and health care professionals are skeptical about intercultural health care policy mainly due to inadequate political commitment for provider education. The medical practitioners have limited opportunity to undergo training for integrative medical practice. We also find a serious mistrust between the practitioners due to the ＂diversity of healing approaches and techniques.＂ Weak institutional support, lack of training to meet standards of practice, poor registration and regulatory measures as well as negative perception of the integrative medical policy inhibit its implementation in Ghana. CONCLUSION： In order to advance any useful intercultural health care policy in Ghana, the government＇s total commitment in informed training and provider education, enforcement of regulatoryinstrument and improved community engagement is needed. Evidence-based incorporation of traditional medical therapies into clinical practice will provide safer, faster and more effective health care for the underserved and resource-poor, particularly in the rural areas.展开更多
A new state-of-the-art indoor smog chamber facility(CAPS-ZJU) has been constructed and characterized at Zhejiang University,which is designed for chemical mechanism evaluation under well-controlled conditions.A series...A new state-of-the-art indoor smog chamber facility(CAPS-ZJU) has been constructed and characterized at Zhejiang University,which is designed for chemical mechanism evaluation under well-controlled conditions.A series of characterization experiments were performed to validate the well-established experimental protocols,including temperature variation pattern,light spectrum and equivalent intensity(JNO2),injection and mixing performance,as well as gases and particle wall loss.In addition,based on some characterization experiments,the auxiliary wall mechanism has been setup and examined.Fifty chamber experiments were performed across a broad range of experimental scenarios,and we demonstrated the ability to utilize these chamber data for evaluating SAPRC chemical mechanism.It was found that the SAPRC-11 can well predict the 03 formation and NO oxidation for almost all propene runs,with 6 hr △(O3-NO) model error of-3%±7%,while the final O3 was underestimated by-20% for isoprene experiments.As for toluene and p-xylene experiments,it was confirmed that SAPRC-11 has significant improvement on aromatic chemistry than earlier version of SAPRC-07,although the aromatic decay rate was still underestimated to some extent.The model sensitivity test has been carried out,and the most sensitive parameters identified are the initial concentrations of reactants and the light intensity as well as HONO offgasing rate and 03 wall loss rate.All of which demonstrated that CAPS-ZJU smog chamber could derive high quality experimental data,and could provide insights on chamber studies and chemical mechanism development.展开更多
Over the past decades,cancer has become one of the toughest challenges for health professionals.The epidemiologists are increasingly directing their research efforts on various malignant tumor worldwide.Of note,incide...Over the past decades,cancer has become one of the toughest challenges for health professionals.The epidemiologists are increasingly directing their research efforts on various malignant tumor worldwide.Of note,incidence of cancers is on the rise more quickly in developed countries.Indeed,great endeavors have to be made in the control of the life-threatening disease.As we know it,pancreatic cancer(PC)is a malignant disease with the worst prognosis.While little is known about the etiology of the PC and measures to prevent the condition,so far,a number of risk factors have been identified.Genetic factors,pre-malignant lesions,predisposing diseases and exogenous factors have been found to be linked to PC.Genetic susceptibility was observed in 10%of PC cases,including inherited PC syndromes and familial PC.However,in the remaining 90%,their PC might be caused by genetic factors in combination with environmental factors.Nonetheless,the exact mechanism of the two kinds of factors,endogenous and exogenous,working together to cause PC remains poorly understood.The fact that most pancreatic neoplasms are diagnosed at an incurable stage of the disease highlights the need to identify risk factors and to understand their contribution to carcinogenesis.This article reviews the high risk factors contributing to the development of PC,to provide information for clinicians and epidemiologists.展开更多
Discrete-event system simulation technology is used to analyze distribution system reliability in this paper. A simulation model, including entity state models, system state models, state transition models, reliabilit...Discrete-event system simulation technology is used to analyze distribution system reliability in this paper. A simulation model, including entity state models, system state models, state transition models, reliability criterion model, is established. ‘Next happen event’ is taken as impulse principle of simulator clock to determine the sequence of random event occurrence dynamically. The results show this method is feasible.展开更多
Travel times have been traditionally estimated from data collected by roadway sensors. Recently, new tech- nologies, such as cell phone tracking, license plate matching, automatic vehicle identifications and video det...Travel times have been traditionally estimated from data collected by roadway sensors. Recently, new tech- nologies, such as cell phone tracking, license plate matching, automatic vehicle identifications and video detection, are employed for this purpose. In this study, the data collected by TRANSMIT readers, Bluetooth sensors, and INRIX are assessed by comparing each to the ＂ground truth＂ travel times collected by probe vehicles carrying GPS-based naviga- tion devices. Travel times of probe vehicles traveling on the study segment of 1-287 in New Jersey were collected in 2009. Statistical measures, such as standard deviation, average absolute speed error, and speed error bias, were used to make an in-depth analysis. The accuracy of each travel time estimation method is analyzed. The data collected by Bluetooth sensors and the TRANSMIT readers seem more consistent with the ground true data, and slightly outperform the data reported by 1NRIX. This study established a procedure for analyzing the accuracy of floating car data （FCD） collected by different technologies.展开更多
Objective: The objective of this work is to search for a novel method to explore the disrupted pathways associated with periodontitis(PD) based on the network level.Methods: Firstly, the differential expression genes(...Objective: The objective of this work is to search for a novel method to explore the disrupted pathways associated with periodontitis(PD) based on the network level.Methods: Firstly, the differential expression genes(DEGs) between PD patients and cognitively normal subjects were inferred based on LIMMA package. Then, the proteinprotein interactions(PPI) in each pathway were explored by Empirical Bayesian(EB) coexpression program. Specifically, we determined the 100 th weight value as the threshold value of the disrupted pathways of PPI by constructing the randomly model and confirmed the weight value of each pathway. Meanwhile, we dissected the disrupted pathways under the weight value > the threshold value. Pathways enrichment analyses of DEGs were carried out based on Expression Analysis Systematic Explored(EASE) test. Finally, the better method was selected based on the more rich and significant obtained pathways by comparing the two methods. Results: After the calculation of LIMMA package, we estimated 524 DEGs in all. Then we determined 0.115222 as the threshold value of the disrupted pathways of PPI. When the weight value>0.115222, there were 258 disrupted pathways of PPI enriched in. Additionally, we observed those 524 DEGs that were enriched in 4 pathways under EASE=0.1.Conclusion: We proposed a novel network method inferring the disrupted pathway for PD. The disrupted pathways might be underlying biomarkers for treatment associated with PD.展开更多
By combining satellite tracking,land-cover extracted from Landsite 8 images,and the traditional stable isotope analysis,we studied the habitat selection and food preference of a vulnerable migratory waterbird,the Whit...By combining satellite tracking,land-cover extracted from Landsite 8 images,and the traditional stable isotope analysis,we studied the habitat selection and food preference of a vulnerable migratory waterbird,the Whitenaped Crane(Grus vipio),in one of its key stagging sites,the Shandian River Basin in the semi-arid northern China,to provide knowledge that is critical for its conservation in the Anthropocene.Our results showed that the White-naped Cranes used both uplands and natural wetlands in the stopover site.While the cranes used farmland and natural land cover equally as night-time roosting grounds,they spent most daytime foraging at farmlands.Despite the extensive usage of croplands as their foraging ground,the Bayesian mixing models based on stable isotopic analysis revealed that crop residues after harvesting,such as Maize(Zea mays)and Naked Oat(Avena chinensis),were only a small fraction of the White-naped Cranes’diet(~19%),and their diet composited mainly natural plants,such as Allium ledebourianum,Potentilla anserina,and P.tanacetifoli.Moreover,more than 20%of the total wetlands in the region were modelled as home range of the cranes.On contrast,less than 10%of croplands and about 1%of the unused uplands were identified as home range.In addition,the entire core habitats were located in natural wetlands.Our findings demonstrated the importance of natural wetlands for the survival of the threatened crane.However,the satellite-derived land cover data showed that croplands increased rapidly in the last decade in this area,at the expense of natural wetlands.With the sharp decrease of White-naped Crane population in China,the conservation of stopover sites becomes imperative.Based on our analysis,we recommend the following management actions:conserving adequate natural wetland area,regulating anthropogenic pressures such as the use of herbicides,expanding the duration and extent of current conservation regulations,establishing a comprehensive monitoring program,and initiating basin-scale ecological restoration,for effective conservation of this threatened species.These integrated conservation strategies for migratory waterbirds are necessary,considering the rapid land-cover changes and agricultural expansion that have been occurring in East Asian-Australasian Flyway,especially in the semi-arid temperate zone.展开更多
This paper has examined how the resources of the White Volta River are enhancing food availability for riparian communities in northern Ghana despite climate change and its associated effects on food security. Using p...This paper has examined how the resources of the White Volta River are enhancing food availability for riparian communities in northern Ghana despite climate change and its associated effects on food security. Using participatory methods such as focus group discussions and interviews, data was collected from households and institutions in three riparian communities. The result of the study indicates that, all things been equal, cultivation of food crops along the river bank in the rainy season gives significantly high yields as compared to yields from farms farthest from the river under rain fed agriculture. Higher organic content and moisture retention capacity of river bank soils explains the yield differential and adaptability to climate change. In addition, farmers now irrigate cereal crops which were hitherto, reserved for only rainy season production. However, inappropriate irrigation practices are accelerating erosion and sedimentation of the river and thus, threaten the sustainability of agriculture and food security in the White Volta Basin. The paper therefore, recommends the adoption of IWRM （integrated water resources management） and the participation of local communities, Government and Civil Society organisations for sustaining the productive capacity of the White Volta Basin for enabling adaptation of agriculture to climate change in the riparian communities of the basin.展开更多
基金funded by Shanghai Municipal Health and Wellness Commission Health Industry Clinical Research Special Project(202140299).
文摘Background There have been numerous intervention studies focusing on the development of preterm infants,but there has been limited investigation into the home environment as a determinant of developmental outcomes in preterm infants.The aspects and extent to which the home environment affects the early(18 months corrected age)neuropsychological development of preterm infants are still unclear.Aims This study aimed to analyse the effect of the home environment on the neuropsychiatric development of preterm infants at 18 months corrected age after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit(NICU).It also sought to provide a basis for promoting neuropsychiatric development among preterm infants by improving the home environment.Methods In this retrospective cross-sectional study,275 preterm infants born between January 2019 and January 2022 were followed up for systematic management after discharge from the NICU at Shanghai Children's Hospital.The Home Nurture Environment Questionnaire was used to assess the home environment of the infants and analyse its impact on the developmental quotient(evaluated by the Gesell Developmental Scale)and the rate of developmental delays at 18 months corrected age.Results A total of 41.454%of the infants were extremely preterm.The developmental quotient scores at 18 months corrected age were in the middle of the scale.The language domain had the highest rate of developmental delay(46.182%),followed by the adaptive domain(37.091%).Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that compared with infants in supportive home environments,infants with moderate/unsupportive home environments had significantly elevated risks of development delay:2.162-fold for global(odds ratio(OR)2.162,95% confidence interval(Cl)1.274 to 3.665,p=0.004),2.193-fold for fine motor(OR 2.193,95%CI 1.161 to 4.140,p=0.016),2.249-fold for language(0R 2.249,95%CI 1.336 to 3.786,p=0.002)and 2.042-fold for personal-social(OR 2.042,95%CI 1.149 to 3.628,p=0.015).Conclusions A supportive home environment is a crucial protective factor for the neuropsychological development of preterm infants.It is associated with higher developmental quotient scores and protects against neuropsychiatric delays.Incorporating evaluation and continuous improvement of the home environment into the management framework for preterm infants to promote optimal neurodevelopment is essential.
基金supported by Project 985-High Performance Materials of Jilin University and the Project 985-Biomimetic Engineering Science and Technology Innovation and National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51275200).
文摘The soft-hard combined structures involving varying microhardness on the specimen surface of grey cast iron,processed by bionic laser technology,exhibit excellent wear resistance under dry sliding condition.Both the primary phase(PP)and the laser-treated phase(LP)play pivotal roles in the wear performance of grey cast iron,in association with various combinations of PP and LP microhardness,originating from different laser processing and heat treatment.Owing to the optimized combination of microhardness,the result exhibits the dominant role of LP,with higher microhardness,in wear test,indicating that this technology,apart from producing complex structures,can also act as a design-process method to modify the tribological properties of grey cast iron,and thus providing a feasible approach to tailor the surface microhardness and to modify the wear performance of grey cast iron.Moreover,a threshold of wear resistance is obtained,while LP microhardness is above 900 HV;meanwhile,beyond it,the change of PP microhardness has only minor impact on wear performance.Finite element analysis shows that,in line with varying microhardness combination,distinct stress distribution on specimen surface is achieved,agreeing well with the good wear resistance and tailorable microhardness of LP and PP.
文摘In the context of use of large museum centers,numerous national and international methodological experiments show that the wayfinding project must consider the needs of both habitual users(user-centered design)and local communities(design for communities)and the importance of environmental protection(eco-design)as a priority interest of the community.This“double target”,“user-centered”and“environment-centered”can be applied during the selection process of materials to be used in the project.With respect to these possibilities,this contribution intends to present the results of research focused on material characterization of the reception and distribution spaces of large museum centers.This characterization is based on use of sensory materials and aims to evaluate their impact on the usability and sustainability of wayfinding systems.The paper directed towards a proposal for organization of integrated information on new generation so-called smart materials;within the design of a wayfinding system,these can balance the aesthetic-perceptual and performance and environmental impact,in order to allow designers to make informed decisions oriented towards inclusion and sustainability.The study was addressed by conducting two phases of systematic literature and library review of materials.The investigations conducted led to achievement of a first research result which consists in the identification of a“standard sheet”for the mapping and cataloging of the materials used for wayfinding.The“standard sheet”allows organizing the information on smart,sensorial,and eco-friendly materials,balancing the aesthetic-perceptive component with the performance on the environmental impact along the entire life cycle in a circular perspective.This tool could guide designers towards an environmental communication project oriented towards sustainability and is effective for usability and wayfinding.
文摘The emergence of mechanically one-way materials presents an exciting opportunity for materials science and engineering. These substances exhibit unique nonreciprocal mechanical responses, enabling them to selectively channel mechanical energy and facilitate directed sound propagation, controlled mass transport, and concentration of mechanical energy amidst random motion. This article explores the fundamentals of mechanically one-way materials, their potential applications across various industries, and the economic and environmental considerations related to their production and use.
文摘Background: Urinalysis is a simple and cost effective medical tool used in the assessment of urinary abnormalities for early detection and prompt management of asymptomatic pathologies. Aim: This study assessed the urine profile of newly employed health workers of a Teaching Hospital in South East Nigeria. Method: A descriptive retrospective approach was employed to assess the urine parameters of 512 employees. Results: Abnormal findings occurred in 30.7% of the population, with ascorbic acid being the most common (11.5%) while the least was nitrite constituting 0.58% of the population. The study also revealed that only one male employee had abnormal urine pH. There was no significant association (p > 0.05) between gender and urine abnormalities. Conclusion: Routine urinalysis should be included in pre-employment medical exams for disease surveillance.
文摘Background: Malaria remains a global health threat affecting approximately 97% of the population in sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Nigeria. Despite efforts made to reduce the mortality rate in Nigeria, the disease still poses a major morbidity challenge. Aim: This study, therefore, was aimed at identifying malaria prevalence in symptomatic febrile patients attending David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted with primarily structured data collected from the hospital medical laboratory between September 2023 and April 2024 among 613 febrile patients attending David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu Ebonyi State, Nigeria using microscopy (thick and thin blood films). Primarily structured data was used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics and factors perceived to be associated with Plasmodium infection. Malaria Parasitological Record Book data was collected, while thin and thick blood films were prepared from capillary blood buffy coat samples. Data were analyzed using Excel, Python, and Google Sheets. Out of 613 febrile patients, 480 were confirmed to be infected by Plasmodium species. Results: Our results, thus, showed a malaria prevalence of (78%) of the study population. The age groups 31 - 40 years constituted the greater proportions of the population with malaria parasite infection 18.5% (89). On the basis of gender, the highest prevalence occurred in females (297) constituting 61.9% of the positive malaria cases observed in this study. Conclusion: It is recommended that a malaria surveillance unit be established to help standardize data collection and monitoring of malaria patients in teaching hospitals, while Molecular Malaria Surveillance (MMS) also needs to be introduced in teaching hospitals in line with international best practices.
基金This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council[grant number 201706195004]the National Natural Science Foundation of China[grant numbers 41001093 and 51778278]the Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province,China[grant number 18GLB014].
文摘As a well-known urban landscape concept to describe urban space quality,urban street vitality is a subjective human perception of the urban environment but difficult to evaluate directly from the physical space.The study utilized a modern machine learning computer vision algorithm in the urban build environment to simulate the process,which starts with the visual perception of the urban street landscape and ends with the human reaction to street vitality.By analyzing the optimized trained model,we tried to identify urban street vitality’s visual features and evaluate their importance.A region around the Mochou Lake in Nanjing,China,was set as our study area.Seven investigators surveyed the area,recorded their evaluation score on each site’s vitality level with a corresponding picture taken on site.A total of 370 pictures and recorded score pairs from 231 valid survey sites were used to train a convolutional neural network.After optimization,a deep neural network model with 43 layers,including 11 convolutional ones,was created.Heat maps were then used to identify the features which lead to high vitality score outputs.The spatial distributions of different types of feature entities were also analyzed to help identify the spatial effects.The study found that visual features,including human,construction site,shop front,and roadside/walking pavement,are vital ones that correspond to the vitality of the urban street.The consistency of these critical features with traditional urban vitality features indicates the model had learned useful knowledge from the training process.Applying the trained model in urban planning practices can help to improve the city environment for better attraction of residents’activities and communications.
文摘A novel identification method for point source,coherently distributed（CD） source and incoherently distributed（ICD） source is proposed.The differences among the point source,CD source and ICD source are studied.According to the different characters of covariance matrix and general steering vector of the array received source,a second order blind identification method is used to separate the sources,the mixing matrix could be obtained.From the mixing matrix,the type of the source is identified by using an amplitude criterion.And the direction of arrival for the array received source is estimated by using the matching pursuit algorithm from the vectors of the mixing matrix.Computer simulations validate the efficiency of the method.
基金co-financed by the European Union(European Social Fund-ESF)and Greek national funds through the Operational Program‘‘Education and Lifelong Learning’’of the National Strategic Reference Framework(NSRF)-Research Funding Program:Thales.Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund
文摘Forest ecosystems are our priceless natural resource and are a key component of the global carbon budget. Forest fires can be a hazard to the viability and sustainable management of forests with consequences for natural and cultural environments, economies, and the life quality of local and regional populations. Thus, the selection of strategies to manage forest fires, while considering both functional and economic efficiency, is of primary importance. The use of decision support systems(DSSs) by managers of forest fires has rapidly increased. This has strengthened capacity to prevent and suppress forest fires while protecting human lives and property. DSSs are a tool that can benefit incident management and decision making and policy, especially for emergencies such as natural disasters. In this study we reviewed state-of-the-art DSSs that use: database management systems and mathematical/economic algorithms for spatial optimization of firefighting forces; forest fire simulators and satellite technology for immediate detection and prediction of evolution of forest fires; GIS platforms that incorporate several tools to manipulate, process and analyze geographic data and develop strategic and operational plans.
基金Significant part of this research was co-financed by the European Union(European Social Fund-ESF)Greek national funds through the Operational Program ‘‘Education and Lifelong Learning’’ of the National Strategic Reference Framework(NSRF)--Research Funding Program:Thales.Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund
文摘Forest fire risk estimation constitutes an essential process to prevent high-intensity fires which are associated with severe implications to the natural and cultural environment. The primary aim of this research was to determine fire risk levels based on the local features of an island,namely, the impact of fuel structures, slope, aspects, as well as the impact of the road network and inhabited regions. The contribution of all the involved factors to forest fires ignition and behavior highlight certain regions which are highly vulnerable. In addition, the influence of both natural and anthropogenic factors to forest fire phenomena is explored. In this study, natural factors play a dominant role compared to anthropogenic factors. Hence essential preventative measures must focus on specific areas and established immediately. Indicative measures may include: the optimal allocation of watchtowers as well as the spatial optimization of mobile firefighting vehicles;and, forest fuel treatments in areas characterized by extremely high fire risk. The added value of this fire prediction tool is that it is highly flexible and could be adopted elsewhere with the necessary adjustments to local characteristics.
文摘A well-recognized fact is that addressing the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities and minority groups remains a central focus toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,specifically Goals 11 and 13.Approaches for effective adaptation to climate change through national and local efforts fundamentally aim to create environmentally sustainable,socially inclusive,and economically vibrant communities.This paper associates the impacts of climate change to the preservation of threatened minority languages in semi-arid areas in Northern Ghana.This review relies on primary and secondary sources on climate-induced migration,minority languages,and threats of language loss through a keyword search followed by rigorous content analysis.The study confirms that forced displacement due to harsh climatic and other environmental conditions is currently occurring in the upper regions(Upper East and Upper West Regions)of Ghana with minority linguistic groups being forced to migrate to the southern part of the country,where their culture and language are threatened due to large linguistic groups.The literature well establishes the north-south mobility with various debates on its root causes.However,the phenomenon is understudied along with the lack of specific national strategies for addressing it and the associated language loss.Therefore,the need emerges for further studies to enhance the current understanding of the phenomenon to inform policy interventions and protect minority languages threatened by climate-induced migration.The focus on an understudied subject and geographic scope makes the findings extremely relevant for the expansion of knowledge on internal migration in the context of climate change in Northern Ghana.
基金the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Grant number.SGRT.46/T12)the Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA-Nigeria)the French Embassy in Ghana for providing financial support for the study (these scholarships were offered to the first author)
文摘OBJECTIVE： In spite of the World Health Organization＇s recommendations over the past decades, Ghana features pluralistic rather than truly integrated medical system. Policies about the integration of complementary medicine into the national health care delivery system need to account for individuallevel involvement and cultural acceptability of care rendered by health care providers. Studies in Ghana, however, have glossed over the standpoint of the persons of the illness episode about the intercultural health care policy framework. This paper explores the health care users, and providers＇ experiences and attitudes towards the implementation of intercultural health care policy in Ghana. METHODS： In-depth interviews, augmented with informal conversations, were conducted with 16 health service users, 7 traditional healers and 6 health professionals in the Sekyere South District and Kumasi Metropolis in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Data were thematically analysed and presented based on the a posteriori inductive reduction approach. RESULTS： Findings reveal a widespread positive attitude to, and support for integrative medical care in Ghana. However, inter-provider communication in a form of cross-referrals and collaborative mechanisms between healers and health professionals seldom occurs and remains unofficially sanctioned. Traditional healers and health care professionals are skeptical about intercultural health care policy mainly due to inadequate political commitment for provider education. The medical practitioners have limited opportunity to undergo training for integrative medical practice. We also find a serious mistrust between the practitioners due to the ＂diversity of healing approaches and techniques.＂ Weak institutional support, lack of training to meet standards of practice, poor registration and regulatory measures as well as negative perception of the integrative medical policy inhibit its implementation in Ghana. CONCLUSION： In order to advance any useful intercultural health care policy in Ghana, the government＇s total commitment in informed training and provider education, enforcement of regulatoryinstrument and improved community engagement is needed. Evidence-based incorporation of traditional medical therapies into clinical practice will provide safer, faster and more effective health care for the underserved and resource-poor, particularly in the rural areas.
基金supported by the Natural Science Founda-tion of China(No.51876190)the Environmental Protection Agency of Hangzhou(No.2017-008)+1 种基金the Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51621005)the program of Introducing Talents of Dis-cipline to University(No.B08026)
文摘A new state-of-the-art indoor smog chamber facility(CAPS-ZJU) has been constructed and characterized at Zhejiang University,which is designed for chemical mechanism evaluation under well-controlled conditions.A series of characterization experiments were performed to validate the well-established experimental protocols,including temperature variation pattern,light spectrum and equivalent intensity(JNO2),injection and mixing performance,as well as gases and particle wall loss.In addition,based on some characterization experiments,the auxiliary wall mechanism has been setup and examined.Fifty chamber experiments were performed across a broad range of experimental scenarios,and we demonstrated the ability to utilize these chamber data for evaluating SAPRC chemical mechanism.It was found that the SAPRC-11 can well predict the 03 formation and NO oxidation for almost all propene runs,with 6 hr △(O3-NO) model error of-3%±7%,while the final O3 was underestimated by-20% for isoprene experiments.As for toluene and p-xylene experiments,it was confirmed that SAPRC-11 has significant improvement on aromatic chemistry than earlier version of SAPRC-07,although the aromatic decay rate was still underestimated to some extent.The model sensitivity test has been carried out,and the most sensitive parameters identified are the initial concentrations of reactants and the light intensity as well as HONO offgasing rate and 03 wall loss rate.All of which demonstrated that CAPS-ZJU smog chamber could derive high quality experimental data,and could provide insights on chamber studies and chemical mechanism development.
文摘Over the past decades,cancer has become one of the toughest challenges for health professionals.The epidemiologists are increasingly directing their research efforts on various malignant tumor worldwide.Of note,incidence of cancers is on the rise more quickly in developed countries.Indeed,great endeavors have to be made in the control of the life-threatening disease.As we know it,pancreatic cancer(PC)is a malignant disease with the worst prognosis.While little is known about the etiology of the PC and measures to prevent the condition,so far,a number of risk factors have been identified.Genetic factors,pre-malignant lesions,predisposing diseases and exogenous factors have been found to be linked to PC.Genetic susceptibility was observed in 10%of PC cases,including inherited PC syndromes and familial PC.However,in the remaining 90%,their PC might be caused by genetic factors in combination with environmental factors.Nonetheless,the exact mechanism of the two kinds of factors,endogenous and exogenous,working together to cause PC remains poorly understood.The fact that most pancreatic neoplasms are diagnosed at an incurable stage of the disease highlights the need to identify risk factors and to understand their contribution to carcinogenesis.This article reviews the high risk factors contributing to the development of PC,to provide information for clinicians and epidemiologists.
基金SupportedbyNationalNatureScienceFoundation No .5 0 1770 17
文摘Discrete-event system simulation technology is used to analyze distribution system reliability in this paper. A simulation model, including entity state models, system state models, state transition models, reliability criterion model, is established. ‘Next happen event’ is taken as impulse principle of simulator clock to determine the sequence of random event occurrence dynamically. The results show this method is feasible.
文摘Travel times have been traditionally estimated from data collected by roadway sensors. Recently, new tech- nologies, such as cell phone tracking, license plate matching, automatic vehicle identifications and video detection, are employed for this purpose. In this study, the data collected by TRANSMIT readers, Bluetooth sensors, and INRIX are assessed by comparing each to the ＂ground truth＂ travel times collected by probe vehicles carrying GPS-based naviga- tion devices. Travel times of probe vehicles traveling on the study segment of 1-287 in New Jersey were collected in 2009. Statistical measures, such as standard deviation, average absolute speed error, and speed error bias, were used to make an in-depth analysis. The accuracy of each travel time estimation method is analyzed. The data collected by Bluetooth sensors and the TRANSMIT readers seem more consistent with the ground true data, and slightly outperform the data reported by 1NRIX. This study established a procedure for analyzing the accuracy of floating car data （FCD） collected by different technologies.
文摘Objective: The objective of this work is to search for a novel method to explore the disrupted pathways associated with periodontitis(PD) based on the network level.Methods: Firstly, the differential expression genes(DEGs) between PD patients and cognitively normal subjects were inferred based on LIMMA package. Then, the proteinprotein interactions(PPI) in each pathway were explored by Empirical Bayesian(EB) coexpression program. Specifically, we determined the 100 th weight value as the threshold value of the disrupted pathways of PPI by constructing the randomly model and confirmed the weight value of each pathway. Meanwhile, we dissected the disrupted pathways under the weight value > the threshold value. Pathways enrichment analyses of DEGs were carried out based on Expression Analysis Systematic Explored(EASE) test. Finally, the better method was selected based on the more rich and significant obtained pathways by comparing the two methods. Results: After the calculation of LIMMA package, we estimated 524 DEGs in all. Then we determined 0.115222 as the threshold value of the disrupted pathways of PPI. When the weight value>0.115222, there were 258 disrupted pathways of PPI enriched in. Additionally, we observed those 524 DEGs that were enriched in 4 pathways under EASE=0.1.Conclusion: We proposed a novel network method inferring the disrupted pathway for PD. The disrupted pathways might be underlying biomarkers for treatment associated with PD.
基金This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.31971400)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.BLX202144).
文摘By combining satellite tracking,land-cover extracted from Landsite 8 images,and the traditional stable isotope analysis,we studied the habitat selection and food preference of a vulnerable migratory waterbird,the Whitenaped Crane(Grus vipio),in one of its key stagging sites,the Shandian River Basin in the semi-arid northern China,to provide knowledge that is critical for its conservation in the Anthropocene.Our results showed that the White-naped Cranes used both uplands and natural wetlands in the stopover site.While the cranes used farmland and natural land cover equally as night-time roosting grounds,they spent most daytime foraging at farmlands.Despite the extensive usage of croplands as their foraging ground,the Bayesian mixing models based on stable isotopic analysis revealed that crop residues after harvesting,such as Maize(Zea mays)and Naked Oat(Avena chinensis),were only a small fraction of the White-naped Cranes’diet(~19%),and their diet composited mainly natural plants,such as Allium ledebourianum,Potentilla anserina,and P.tanacetifoli.Moreover,more than 20%of the total wetlands in the region were modelled as home range of the cranes.On contrast,less than 10%of croplands and about 1%of the unused uplands were identified as home range.In addition,the entire core habitats were located in natural wetlands.Our findings demonstrated the importance of natural wetlands for the survival of the threatened crane.However,the satellite-derived land cover data showed that croplands increased rapidly in the last decade in this area,at the expense of natural wetlands.With the sharp decrease of White-naped Crane population in China,the conservation of stopover sites becomes imperative.Based on our analysis,we recommend the following management actions:conserving adequate natural wetland area,regulating anthropogenic pressures such as the use of herbicides,expanding the duration and extent of current conservation regulations,establishing a comprehensive monitoring program,and initiating basin-scale ecological restoration,for effective conservation of this threatened species.These integrated conservation strategies for migratory waterbirds are necessary,considering the rapid land-cover changes and agricultural expansion that have been occurring in East Asian-Australasian Flyway,especially in the semi-arid temperate zone.
文摘This paper has examined how the resources of the White Volta River are enhancing food availability for riparian communities in northern Ghana despite climate change and its associated effects on food security. Using participatory methods such as focus group discussions and interviews, data was collected from households and institutions in three riparian communities. The result of the study indicates that, all things been equal, cultivation of food crops along the river bank in the rainy season gives significantly high yields as compared to yields from farms farthest from the river under rain fed agriculture. Higher organic content and moisture retention capacity of river bank soils explains the yield differential and adaptability to climate change. In addition, farmers now irrigate cereal crops which were hitherto, reserved for only rainy season production. However, inappropriate irrigation practices are accelerating erosion and sedimentation of the river and thus, threaten the sustainability of agriculture and food security in the White Volta Basin. The paper therefore, recommends the adoption of IWRM （integrated water resources management） and the participation of local communities, Government and Civil Society organisations for sustaining the productive capacity of the White Volta Basin for enabling adaptation of agriculture to climate change in the riparian communities of the basin.
