Basic Knowledge Base Research Articles

Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends in Agricultural Soil Organic Carbon Mineralization from 2000 to 2022

The change in agricultural soil organic carbon (SOC) at a global scale has a great impact on the soil quality, crop yields, and greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere. Plant-derived C input into soil is an effective strategy to increase the SOC; meanwhile, it promotes SOC mineralization. The SOC dynamics after plant-derived C input have received widespread attention in the past 20 years. This bibliometric study was performed to identify the basic characteristics, research output, and knowledge base as well as to understand the research trends and key topics of agricultural SOC mineralization. We collected data from the Web of Science Core Collection databases, with dates ranging from 2000 to 2022. The parameter calculated from the default indicators of bibliometric software tools was used to indicate the contribution of the journal/author/institution/countries. The activity and attractive index were calculated separately to evaluate the relative effort and impact made by a country. The results showed that: (1) the number of articles increased gradually during 2000–2010 and thereafter sharply increased; (2) Soil Biology & Biochemistry was the most representative journal, and agriculture was the most popular subject category; (3) the most productive institution was the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is based China and cooperates closely with other institutions; (4) although the number of articles from China was the largest, both the cited frequency and activity index were much lower for China than for the USA, which had the highest citation and centrality among countries; and (5) the studies involving agricultural SOC mineralization have primarily investigated the effect of exogenous C and nutrient addition, as well as biotic processes, especially the microbial process. We concluded that there was an increasing trend in research on agricultural SOC mineralization, with a focus on the interaction between SOC and nutrient/microbial communities. The physical processes, such as the association of minerals and occlusion of aggregate and pores, were paid less attention relative to biotic processes despite their importance in SOC mineralization. Through an in-depth analysis of agricultural SOC mineralization research, this study provides a better understanding of development trends that have emerged in this field over the past 22 years. In future studies, more attention should be paid to the physical processes to understand the physical protection mechanism of agricultural SOC mineralization.

Genetic Structure and Diversity of Native Tench (Tinca tinca L. 1758) Populations in Hungary—Establishment of Basic Knowledge Base for a Breeding Program

Tench is a cyprinid fish that has undergone human-induced translocations. The natural populations of the species are on the decline due to habitat loss and spawning grounds degradation. The genetic diversity of seven natural populations was investigated to establish the genetic knowledge base for successful conservation efforts and for selective breeding. Twelve microsatellite markers, the sequencing of a 615 bp section of mtDNA (Cytb) and PCR-RFLP analysis of two nuclear markers (Act) and (RpS7) were used to analyze the genetic variation and structure among 175 individuals. All microsatellite loci were found to have moderate levels of polymorphism. The pairwise Fst values between population pairings were moderate; the populations were aligned to four clusters. The Cytb gene showed 20 haplotypes; 67.1% of individuals were categorized as Eastern, while 32.9% to the Western haplogroup. Analysis of the Act and RpS7 genes showed that the level of hybridization among the two haplogroups is high within the sampled populations. Hungarian Tench populations are genetically less diverse compared to natural populations in Western-Europe, but they still represent valuable genetic resources and Lake Fertő, Lake Kolon and Csörnöc-Herpenyő populations can be optimal candidates for future selective breeding programs.

Urologists' knowledge base and practice patterns in Peyronie's disease. A national survey of members of the italian andrology society.

Aim of our study was to explore the basic knowledge base and diagnostic and therapeutic practice patterns in Peyronie's disease (PD) of a large number of physicians belonging to the Italian Andrology Society (SIA). Our survey is based on two questionnaires which were e-mailed to the members of the SIA. The first questionnaire explored diagnostic and therapeutic practice patterns of SIA physicians, while the second questionnaire focused on their knowledge of the disease, as well as their training and level of experience in the specific field. We then planned to compare our outcomes with similar PD surveys from other countries. The first questionnaire was answered by 142 SIA physicians. The second questionnaire was answered by 83 SIA physicians. Most respondents (74.6%) chose penile ultrasonography as first-line diagnostic approach and 47.1% prefer to perform a color Doppler ultrasound after pharmaco-induced erection. Concerning the therapeutic practice patterns in active stage of the disease, most respondents (99.29%) prefer conservative medical therapy. Additionally, most respondents (64.78%), when failure of conservative treatment had been established, considered surgical treatment necessary, specifically corporoplasty, which may be associated with other techniques. The results of our survey show that, in comparison to their foreign counterparts, Italian SIA uro-andrologists have a more proactive diagnostic approach right from when patients first present. When PD is still in its active stage, SIA uro-andrologists mostly opt for medical therapy. In advanced disease or if conservative treatment fails, our survey indicates a greater preference for surgical treatment. Answers to the theoretical knowledge questions showed that SIA physicians have a good understanding of the disease's etiology, epidemiology, and clinical picture, and of the appropriate indications for treatment.

20-Year History of Performance Measurement in the Local Public Sector: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Although many recent studies have assessed performance in a particular field, the basic principles that should be followed for successful governance are in many cases different or, by contrast, exhibit very similar features. This paper fills the gap in this area and documents the basic knowledge and limits of new proposals for evaluating the performance of local institutions, thus creating, together with the published summaries of the factors affecting performance, the basic knowledge base for further effective direction and development of this area. According to the current trend in the understanding of performance, performance should be seen as a financial and comprehensive criterion that is easily understandable, objective, and comparable. By contrast, the fundamental limit of complex methods of performance evaluation has a low potential for its application in practice, which leads to the so-called encapsulation of science and unnecessary waste of researchers’ efforts to implement their proposals.

Dynamic Updating of the Knowledge Base for a Large-Scale Question Answering System

Today, the knowledge base question answering (KB-QA) system is promising to achieve a large-scale high-quality reply in the e-commerce industry. However, there exist two major challenges to efficiently support large-scale KB-QA systems. On the one hand, it is difficult to serve tens of thousands of online stores (i.e., constrained by the tuning and deployment time), and it would perform poorly if the systems start without a sufficient number of chat records. On the other hand, current KB-QA systems cannot be updated in an efficient way due to the high cost of knowledge base (KB) updating. In this article, we propose an automatic learning scheme for KB-QA systems, called ALKB-QA , using a vector modeling method to address the preceding two main challenges. The ALKB-QA system provides online stores with basic KB templates that are suitable for many common occasions, and this feature enables the ability to deploy chatbots for a large number of online stores in a short time. Then, the KBs are further updated automatically to adapt to their own businesses (meet different specific needs), leading to increased reply accuracy. Our work has three main contributions. First, the proposed ALKB-QA system has a good business model in the e-commerce industry (serving tens of thousands of online stores with low cost), breaking the scalability limitations of existing KB-QA systems. Second, we assess the reply accuracy of the proposed ALKB-QA system using human evaluations, and the results show that it outperforms human annotation-base approaches. Third, we launched our ALKB-QA system as a real-world business application, and it supports tens of thousands of online stores.

A General Outpatient Triage System Based on Dynamic Uncertain Causality Graph

In order to reduce the misdiagnosis caused by outpatient triage error and help triage nurses to improve their triage accuracy, a general outpatient triage system based on the hybrid Dynamic Uncertain Causality Graph (hybrid DUCG) is presented. The hybrid DUCG is a combination of the single-valued DUCG (S-DUCG) and the multivalued DUCG (M-DUCG). In this paper, the M-DUCG is utilized to construct the basic outpatient triage knowledge base. In the knowledge base, each department is modeled as one sub-M-DUCG. It describes the causal relations between the department and its associated clinical features. All the sub-M-DUCGs are compiled into one M-DUCG as the basic outpatient triage knowledge base. The S-DUCG is employed to adjust the basic knowledge base to match the variant triage requirements for various hospitals. To validate the triage system, we constructed a basic triage knowledge base and adjusted it to match the triage requirement of a county-level hospital. Verification experiments were performed based on the adjusted triage knowledge base. The result showed that the triage system has high triage accuracy, and it can effectively assist triage nurses in outpatient triage.

Father's Role in Preconception Health.

As part of the federal multi-agency conference on Paternal Involvement in Pregnancy Outcomes, the existing Fatherhood paradigm was expanded to include a new focus on Men's Preconception Health. This concept grew out of the women's preconception health movement and the maternal and child health (MCH) life course perspective, as well as pioneering research from the child development, public health data and family planning fields. It encourages a new examination of how men's preconception health impacts both reproductive outcomes and men's own subsequent health and development. This essay introduces the concept of men's preconception health and health care; examines its historical development; notes the challenges of its inclusion into fatherhood and reproductive health programs; and situates it within a longer men's reproductive health life course. We then briefly explore six ways men's preconception health and health care can have positive direct and indirect impacts-planned and wanted pregnancies (family planning); enhanced paternal biologic and genetic contributions; improved reproductive health biology for women; improved reproductive health practices and outcomes for women; improved capacity for parenthood and fatherhood (psychological development); and enhanced male health through access to primary health care. Research on men's preconception health and health care is very limited and siloed. We propose a research agenda to advance this topic in three broad domains: increasing the basic epidemiology and risk factor knowledge base; implementing and evaluating men's preconception health/fatherhood interventions (addressing clinical health care, psychological resiliency/maturation, and social determinants of health); and fostering more fatherhood health policy and advocacy research.

Inflammation in AKI: Current Understanding, Key Questions, and Knowledge Gaps.

Inflammation is a complex biologic response that is essential for eliminating microbial pathogens and repairing tissue after injury. AKI associates with intrarenal and systemic inflammation; thus, improved understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the inflammatory response has high potential for identifying effective therapies to prevent or ameliorate AKI. In the past decade, much knowledge has been generated about the fundamental mechanisms of inflammation. Experimental work in small animal models has revealed many details of the inflammatory response that occurs within the kidney after typical causes of AKI, including insights into the molecular signals released by dying cells, the role of pattern recognition receptors, the diverse subtypes of resident and recruited immune cells, and the phased transition from destructive to reparative inflammation. Although this expansion of the basic knowledge base has increased the number of mechanistically relevant targets of intervention, progress in developing therapies that improve AKI outcomes by modulation of inflammation remains slow. In this article, we summarize the most important recent developments in understanding the inflammatory mechanisms of AKI, highlight key limitations of the commonly used animal models and clinical trial designs that may prevent successful clinical application, and suggest priority approaches for research toward clinical translation in this area.

A First Approach towards an Urdu WordNet

This paper reports on a first experiment with developing a lexical knowledge resource for Urdu on the basis of Hindi WordNet. Due to the structural similarity of Urdu and Hindi, we can focus on overcoming the differences in the scriptual systems of the two languages by using transliterators. Various natural language processing tools, among them a computational semantics based on the Urdu ParGram grammar, can use the resulting basic lexical knowledge base for Urdu.

SCIENTIFIC PRIORITIES IN MODERN BREEDING OF VEGETABLE CROPS AND POTATO

Insufficient basic knowledge base of agriculture is the main reason of its world crisis at the turn of XX t h century. The main task of scientific support of agriculture at the XXI century is the transformation of this economic sector that will allows meeting the needs of the human in foods and raw material owing to infinity of knowledge of law of nature.

Proficiency and Retention of Neonatal Resuscitation Skills by Pediatric Residents

The basic knowledge and skill base to resuscitate a newborn infant is taught in the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP). We hypothesize that caregivers will perform below current acceptable standards before the recertification period of two years. This is a prospective descriptive study evaluating performance of pediatric residents' NRP knowledge and skills over time. NRP scores are used as baseline data. Follow-up is performed before the resident's first NICU rotation. Differences in the mean scores are analyzed for degree of retention. Subset score analysis is also performed. Eighty-eight subjects completed both evaluations. Knowledge scores maintained close to passing throughout the academic year. Subset evaluation revealed significant deficits within the intubation lesson. Alarming deficits were seen in skills evaluation starting at initial NRP certification with 39.1% residents having failing scores. Mean scores were below passing for every group on follow-up testing. Subgroup analysis of skills revealed deficits in the initial phases of resuscitation (lessons 1-3). Deterioration of skills is seen shortly after training. It appears that knowledge is generally better retained. Discrepancies between areas of knowledge and skill deterioration indicate that proficiency in one does not necessarily indicate proficiency of the other.

Peripheral Nerve Stimulation in Regional Anesthesia

Peripheral nerve stimulation has a long history in regional anesthesia. Despite the advent of ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blockade, nerve stimulation remains a popular technique used alone or, now, in combination with ultrasound-guided techniques. In light of this evolving utility of nerve stimulation, this is an appropriate time to review the basic concepts and knowledge base of this historically important tool. Electrical nerve stimulation facilitates nerve localization, using threshold current as a surrogate for needle-to-nerve distance. Preferential activation of motor nerves is possible because motor nerve fibers are more readily activated with a shorter duration of current compared with sensory nerves. The association between current and needle-to-nerve distance predicts that less current is needed to evoke a motor response as the needle moves closer to the nerve. Thus, an elicited motor response at or below 0.5 mA is considered a common end point for successful neural blockade. However, current magnitude is neither 100% sensitive nor specific. Independent of technical ability, both the biological environment and the equipment used impact the current-distance relationship. Thus, successful electrical nerve stimulation is dependent on an anesthesiologist with a solid foundation in anatomy and a thorough understanding of electrophysiology.

University of Nevada School of Medicine

University of Nevada School of Medicine

The Impact of Title VII on General and Pediatric Dental Education and Training

The authors describe the impact of the Title VII, Section 747 Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (Title VII) grant program on the development, growth, and expansion of general and pediatric dentistry residency programs in the United States. They first briefly review the legislative history of the Title VII program as it pertains to dental education, followed by a historical overview of dental education in the United States, including a description of the differences between dental and medical education and the routes to professional practice. The authors then present an extensive assessment of the role of the Title VII grant program in building general and pediatric dental training capacity, diversifying the dental workforce, providing outreach and service to underserved and vulnerable populations, stimulating innovations in dental education, and engaging collaborative and interdisciplinary training with medicine. Finally, the authors call for broadening the scope of the Title VII program to allow for predoctoral training (dental student education) and faculty development in general and pediatric dentistry. In doing so, the Title VII program can more effectively address current and future challenges in dental education, dentist workforce, and disparities in oral health and access to care.This article is part of a theme issue of Academic Medicine on the Title VII health professions training programs.

Confocal Imaging of Cell Division

Imaging of subcellular events has been key to recent advances in the basic knowledge base as well as drug discovery for disease states such as cancer. In a snowball effect, advances in imaging have spurred new investigations, which have increased the demand for new technologies. The study of cell division serves as an example of this cycle. Here, application of spinning disk confocal technology to the study of cell division is discussed. While these studies have increased understanding of fundamental mechanisms in several mitotic events, new imaging technologies in the future will unlock more secrets of cell biology.

Pre-registration house officers' views on studying under a reformed medical curriculum in the UK

In 1996 the University of Liverpool introduced a new curriculum based on the recommendations published in Tomorrow's Doctors. This work examines how graduates of that course view their undergraduate curriculum and whether they consider it prepared them well for the pre-registration year. Five focus groups were arranged with a selection of graduates from the first cohort to graduate from the reformed curriculum in order to ascertain their views on the course and how it had prepared them to work as pre-registration house officers (PRHOs). The focus groups were tape-recorded, transcribed and analysed. The PRHOs felt they had been well prepared for the PRHO year, citing the clinical experience of the final year, communication skills classes and the Clinical Skills Resource Centre as having been particularly beneficial. There were concerns about their basic science knowledge base although this had not affected their ability to work as PRHOs. They had criticisms of the way part of their course had been structured but overall they were happy with the content of the course. A reformed medical curriculum in the UK can prepare graduates well to work as junior doctors and can take away some of the anxiety associated with graduation; therefore, to that extent curriculum reform has worked. However, anxiety about undertaking the role of junior doctor seems to have been replaced by anxiety about knowledge base, despite having adequate knowledge to work as PRHOs. Students undertaking a reformed curriculum are wary about being the first people to use their training in the workplace. This factor may need to be considered when further reforms are introduced.

Case-based learning on the web

The National Research Council emphasizes several factors as important in how people learn. The first is to assess the learner's basic assumptions and knowledge base on a particular topic before conveying information. Without this there can be miscommunication. The second is to present one topic in depth rather than cover a range of topics more superficially. This is critical because individuals who learn one area in depth are able to transfer their learning to related areas. The third factor is that for individuals to improve their analytic thinking it is important for them to hear experts discuss their analysis of an issue. Learning consultation psychiatry has relied on discussion of current cases by attending psychiatrists. Interviewing real patients is compelling to trainees. It is also efficient, because it combines clinical care with learning. However, it relies on the flow of patients, and it does not ensure that students will systematically be exposed to the core topics in the field. Moreover, attendings are not expert in all areas so that an in depth discussion and analysis may not always be possible. Case-based learning using the Web is an effective way for students to learn consultation psychiatry. It allows individuals to have their knowledge base assessed as they proceed through the learning exercise. It also allows them to learn a particular topic in depth and to hear experts analyze a case. Moreover, it assures that students are exposed to core topics in the field. The use of the Web allows easy access to this information and presents it in an interactive and engaging manner. This is an efficient way of reaching a large audience. There is an initial labor-intensive investment that pays its return through efficient and easy access of the material. A collaborative effort amongst universities to develop a library of case-based learning materials would be a very cost effective way of transmitting information and enhancing student's learning. A Web-based case developed by Tong, Poncelet and Berger involving headache complaints in a patient with mixed personality disorder and drug-seeking behavior will be presented.

ACCF/AHA/HRS/SCAI Clinical Competence Statement on Physician Knowledge to Optimize Patient Safety and Image Quality in Fluoroscopically Guided Invasive Cardiovascular Procedures

ACCF/AHA/HRS/SCAI Clinical Competence Statement on Physician Knowledge to Optimize Patient Safety and Image Quality in Fluoroscopically Guided Invasive Cardiovascular Procedures

Challenges influencing the future of endodontics. New technologies for endodontic education.

The major challenge of contemporary dental education is teaching students to transfer their acquired knowledge from one setting to another. New technology-based educational tools such as IMPACT, Interactive Multimedia Patient Case Tutor, developed at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, can assist in this educational paradigm shift by teaching students basic science in the context of patient dental problems. The interactivity of technology as used in the IMPACT program links students' basic science knowledge base to the description, understanding and solution of patient problems.

The spatial knowledge of retail decision makers: capturing and interpreting group insight using a composite cognitive map

The paper argues that existing techniques for retail site evaluation ignore the useful "soft" insights of retail executives. It outlines a technique for constructing a composite map of retail decision makers' insights into the location influences affecting store performance. It has two objectives: to show how the method can be used to construct a basic knowledge base by helping to elicit decision makers' spatial knowledge; and to clarify the status of the maps in terms of the process of group decision making. Illustrations are given from current work drawn from interviews with executives of a major multiple superstore retailer in the UK. The paper shows how composite mapping provides a means to reduce the ideas of a group without any loss of detail, using key cognitive constructs as a "glue" to provide a template against which individual maps can be compared and better understood. The interpretative method provides a flexible and expedient means for constructing an organizational knowledge base for site location - the value of which can then be tested for modelling purposes - and as an effective counterweight to normative procedures.