Core Part Research Articles

Multi-Provider IMS Infrastructure With Controlled Redundancy: A Performability Evaluation

In modern telecommunication networks, services are provided through Service Function Chains (SFC), where network resources are implemented by leveraging virtualization and containerization technologies. In particular, the possibility of easily adding or removing network resources has prompted service providers to redefine some concepts including performance and availability. In line with this new trend, we propose a performability study of a multi-provider containerized IP Multimedia Subsystem (cIMS), an SFC-like infrastructure used in the core part of 4G/5G networks to handle multimedia sessions. On the one hand, performance issues are tackled by modeling each cIMS node in terms of a G/G/m queueing system to derive the Call Setup Delay (CSD), a performance metric related to the user-end experience in multimedia communications. On the other hand, availability issues are addressed through the Multi-State System (MSS) formalism, to take into account different performance rates of the system. Then, we devise an algorithm called PE-MUGF (Performability Evaluation through Multidimensional Universal Generating Function) to identify the minimum-redundancy cIMS configuration which meets given performance and availability targets at the same time. Finally, an extensive experimental analysis based on Clearwater, a containerized IMS testbed, allows us to estimate most of system parameters whose robustness is evaluated through a sensitivity analysis.

Commissioning of Pixel Sensor Telescope for Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor Characterization

The Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) have been promisingly demonstrated as a core part of tracking detectors used in many experiments. In order to obtain decent particle tracks generated after high-energy particle collision, it is especially important that the detector must consist of high-performance MAPS. A pixel sensor telescope is a tool employed to investigate the properties of MAPS using high-energy particle test beams. At the Synchrotron Light Research Institute (SLRI), the pixel sensor telescope assembled with five layers of 50-µm thick pixel sensors has been commissioned and tested both in the laboratory with a radioactive source and by a high-energy electron test beam produced at the SLRI Beam Test Facility. With sensor signal threshold ranging from 9.73 to 10.15 DAC and noises between 0.62 and 0.87 DAC, each plane of the pixel sensor telescope can detect particles decaying from the radioactive source. Moreover, the test beam profiles have been measured to be 4.00 - 4.56 mm and 1.15 - 2.29 mm in horizontal and vertical axes, respectively. Correlations between each plane have been observed and confirm the proper operation of the pixel sensor telescope. Consequently, the pixel sensor telescope can be used to characterize the pixel sensor prototype.

A new design method for the vortex hydrogen circulating pump system

Against the backdrop of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality,” the hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle industry are rapidly developing. Within the on-board hydrogen supply system, the hydrogen circulation pump serves as an essential component of the hydrogen fuel cell system. The spiral disk, as a core part of the hydrogen fuel cell system’s vortex hydrogen circulation pump (VHCP), plays a crucial role in determining the performance of the hydrogen circulation system in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. To meet the requirements for high-performance and high-reliability development of the hydrogen circulation pump, the VHCP scheme is adopted as the choice for the hydrogen pump solution. Through the magnetic suspension and no connection shaft structural design, the feasibility of applying the high speed and high flow hydrogen turbine was initially validated. Utilizing Fluent analysis software and high precision performance test bench, a comprehensive three-dimensional numerical simulation of the turbine design under various operating conditions was conducted and performance test verification, demonstrating that the performance meets the required specifications. By conducting research in both strength optimization design and performance requirement, two major technical challenges in turbine pump application were overcome. Combined with the experimental results of the turbine medium, it is concluded that the vortex pump can meet the flow and pressure rise under the premise of low power consumption in the hydrogen circulation system so as to perfectly increase the hydrogen return amount. Based on these findings, recommendations are proposed for the future development direction of hydrogen supply systems in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Analysis of the construction status of art classroom field

With the continuous advancement of education, the improvement of educational environment is also being implemented in an orderly manner. In recent years, the corresponding requirements for the space of art classroom have been put forward in the "Design Code for primary and Secondary Schools" compiled in our country. But so far, many schools have failed to meet the targets set by the policy. The difficulty lies in the fact that although our country has continuously strengthened the quality education and paid attention to the comprehensive development of students, our country is still in the development stage of exam-oriented education at present. As a result, although attention to art courses has increased, it is far from enough, and the funds that schools are willing to allocate to art classrooms are extremely limited. However, as a member of humanities and social sciences, fine arts education has its own unique discipline, which can make students' personality more perfect, enrich their vision, cultivate their sentiments, improve their innovative ability and aesthetic thinking, and promote their all-round development, which is an important part of the implementation of quality education. The construction of art education field is the core part of the continuous development of art education, and art education space has an important impact on students' art learning. Since the pre-Qin period, the construction of art classroom field has its own development rules, and the problems of time and space are also worth exploring. In addition, under the background of modernization and globalization, it is also of great significance for the study of the construction of foreign excellent art classrooms.

Stanje in notranja razmerja v slovenskem naprednem (liberalnem) taboru na pragu 2. svetovne vojne

The article provides an outline of the development of the internal relations and divisions in the Slovenian progressive (liberal) camp in the years just before the Second World War and upon its start. After falling from power in 1935, the progressive camp was weak and internally fragmented. At the same time, the range of groups and ideological orientations found under the “progressive” umbrella was extremely wide as it extended far to the left and right sides of the political spectrum. The youth, in particular, were distinctly ideologically differentiated and radicalised. Some of them were highly susceptible to radical political approaches and moved towards fascism and communism. Especially when viewing the wider ideological camp, it is thus partly justified to posit a process of disintegration. At the same time, at least the core part maintained a consciousness of belonging to a common political camp, which was reflected by renewed connections between parties and groups on the eve of the war.

EpiVECS: exploring spatiotemporal epidemiological data using cluster embedding and interactive visualization

The analysis of data over space and time is a core part of descriptive epidemiology, but the complexity of spatiotemporal data makes this challenging. There is a need for methods that simplify the exploration of such data for tasks such as surveillance and hypothesis generation. In this paper, we use combined clustering and dimensionality reduction methods (hereafter referred to as ‘cluster embedding’ methods) to spatially visualize patterns in epidemiological time-series data. We compare several cluster embedding techniques to see which performs best along a variety of internal cluster validation metrics. We find that methods based on k-means clustering generally perform better than self-organizing maps on real world epidemiological data, with some minor exceptions. We also introduce EpiVECS, a tool which allows the user to perform cluster embedding and explore the results using interactive visualization. EpiVECS is available as a privacy preserving, in-browser open source web application at https://episphere.github.io/epivecs.

Caring Perawat Berhubungan dengan Kesiapan Keluarga Menerima Informasi Kesehatan Terapi Lanjutan

Caring is an important core part, especially in nursing practice and it is believed that caring behavior for clients and working with clients from various environments is the essence of nursing. One other side of nurse caring is the readiness of the patient's family to receive nurse information. This study aims to determine the relationship between caring for nurses and the readiness of the patient's family to receive health information about advanced therapy in the Mecca Room at Muhammadiyah Gresik Hospital. This study used a cross-sectional approach with a population of 41 patients who were treated in the Mecca room at Muhammadiyah Gresik Hospital. Purposive sampling technique with a sample of 37 people. Statistical test using Rank Spearman. The caring behavior of nurses in the Mecca Room at Muhammadiyah Gresik Hospital was mostly good and the readiness of the family to receive health information about further therapy was mostly (64.9%). The results of the Rank Spearman statistical test obtained a p value of 0.00 <α0.05. The correlation coefficient value was 0.720, which means that the level of relationship is strong. There is a significant relationship between nurse caring behavior and family readiness to receive health information on advanced therapy in the Mecca Room, Muhammadiyah Gresik Hospital

Semiconductor Culture in the Global Economy

The use of technology in multiple industries has contributed to the growth of the global economy. As a core part of todays technology, the impact derived from semiconductors is two-sided. While the general public is focused on the advantages of semiconductors, the political-cultural-national tensions it creates are missing. Semiconductor culture is a combination of technology and politics in the context of economic development. The historical semiconductor battles between countries and the current semiconductor battles confirm this view. This paper reviews the Japan-US semiconductor war in the last century, the Japan-South Korea semiconductor war in this century, and the US-China semiconductor war in the last few years. This paper aims to use the semiconductor cases to demonstrate the adverse effects of semiconductor culture in the global economy. Finally, it concludes that semiconductor culture can strain political relations between nations.

Recurrent connectivity supports higher-level visual and semantic object representations in the brain

Visual object recognition has been traditionally conceptualised as a predominantly feedforward process through the ventral visual pathway. While feedforward artificial neural networks (ANNs) can achieve human-level classification on some image-labelling tasks, it’s unclear whether computational models of vision alone can accurately capture the evolving spatiotemporal neural dynamics. Here, we probe these dynamics using a combination of representational similarity and connectivity analyses of fMRI and MEG data recorded during the recognition of familiar, unambiguous objects. Modelling the visual and semantic properties of our stimuli using an artificial neural network as well as a semantic feature model, we find that unique aspects of the neural architecture and connectivity dynamics relate to visual and semantic object properties. Critically, we show that recurrent processing between the anterior and posterior ventral temporal cortex relates to higher-level visual properties prior to semantic object properties, in addition to semantic-related feedback from the frontal lobe to the ventral temporal lobe between 250 and 500 ms after stimulus onset. These results demonstrate the distinct contributions made by semantic object properties in explaining neural activity and connectivity, highlighting it as a core part of object recognition not fully accounted for by current biologically inspired neural networks.

The cancer-associated glycosyltransferase GnT-V (MGAT5) recognizes the N-glycan core via residues outside its catalytic pocket.

N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-V (GnT-V or MGAT5) is a glycosyltransferase involved in cancer metastasis that creates the β1,6-branch on N-glycans of target proteins such as cell adhesion molecules and cell surface receptors. The 3D structure of GnT-V and its catalytic site, which are critical for the interaction with the N-glycan terminal, have already been revealed. However, it remains unclear how GnT-V recognizes the core part of N-glycan or the polypeptide part of the acceptor. Using molecular dynamics simulations and biochemical experiments, we found that several residues outside the catalytic pocket are likely involved in the recognition of the core part of N-glycan. Furthermore, our simulation suggested that UDP binding affects the orientation of the acceptor due to the conformational change at the Manα1,6-Man linkage. These findings provide new insights into how GnT-V recognizes its glycoprotein substrates.

Wearable technology interventions in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death and is associated with multiple medical and psychological comorbidities. Therefore, future strategies to improve COPD management and outcomes are needed for the betterment of patient care. Wearable technology interventions offer considerable promise in improving outcomes, but prior reviews fall short of assessing their role in the COPD population. In this systematic review and meta-analysis we searched ovid-MEDLINE, ovid-EMBASE, CINAHL, CENTRAL, and IEEE databases from inception to April 2023 to identify studies investigating wearable technology interventions in an adult COPD population with prespecified outcomes of interest including physical activity promotion, increasing exercise capacity, exacerbation detection, and quality-of-life. We identified 7396 studies, of which 37 were included in our review. Meta-analysis showed wearable technology interventions significantly increased: the mean daily step count (mean difference (MD) 850 (494–1205) steps/day) and the six-minute walk distance (MD 5.81 m (1.02–10.61 m). However, the impact was short-lived. Furthermore, wearable technology coupled with another facet (such as health coaching or pulmonary rehabilitation) had a greater impact that wearable technology alone. Wearable technology had little impact on quality-of-life measures and had mixed results for exacerbation avoidance and prediction. It is clear that wearable technology interventions may have the potential to form a core part of future COPD management plans, but further work is required to translate this into meaningful clinical benefit.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) in genomic variant interpretation: An innovative education strategy for the growing genetic counselor workforce.

The growth in genomic testing in healthcare requires a highly trained specialist workforce to ensure evidence based clinical germline variant interpretation. Genetic counselors form a core part of the clinical genomics multidisciplinary team (MDT) and represent a growing workforce participating in variant interpretation from data analysis to the patient consultation. Standardized, high-quality variant interpretation training for Genetic Counselors has historically been ad hoc and variable, with existing programs lacking capacity to reach the entire workforce. To address the requirement for scalable variant interpretation training for genomics healthcare professionals (HCPs), two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were developed. We analyzed the data from 17 Genetic counselors, as part of an evaluation cohort completing the first run of these MOOCs. Overall genetic counselors enjoyed the courses, felt they were clinically relevant and would recommend them to colleagues. Common challenges amongst the genetic counseling workforces included utilizing relevant databases and finding time in the workday to complete training. These findings suggest MOOCs could be an acceptable option to ensure a consistent and transferrable high standard of training, complimentary to existing curricula. They also hold the potential to facilitate large-scale education to update the genetic counseling workforce when changes in variant interpretation guidance occur.

The Mla system of diderm Firmicute Veillonella parvula reveals an ancestral transenvelope bridge for phospholipid trafficking

E. coli and most other diderm bacteria (those with two membranes) have an inner membrane enriched in glycerophospholipids (GPLs) and an asymmetric outer membrane (OM) containing GPLs in its inner leaflet and primarily lipopolysaccharides in its outer leaflet. In E. coli, this lipid asymmetry is maintained by the Mla system which consists of six proteins: the OM lipoprotein MlaA extracts GPLs from the outer leaflet, and the periplasmic chaperone MlaC transfers them across the periplasm to the inner membrane complex MlaBDEF. However, GPL trafficking still remains poorly understood, and has only been studied in a handful of model species. Here, we investigate GPL trafficking in Veillonella parvula, a diderm Firmicute with an Mla system that lacks MlaA and MlaC, but contains an elongated MlaD. V. parvula mla mutants display phenotypes characteristic of disrupted lipid asymmetry which can be suppressed by mutations in tamB, supporting that these two systems have opposite GPL trafficking functions across diverse bacterial lineages. Structural modelling and subcellular localisation assays suggest that V. parvula MlaD forms a transenvelope bridge, comprising a typical inner membrane-localised MCE domain and, in addition, an outer membrane ß-barrel. Phylogenomic analyses indicate that this elongated MlaD type is widely distributed across diderm bacteria and likely forms part of the ancestral functional core of the Mla system, which would be composed of MlaEFD only.

Recovery of tungsten from spent selective catalytic reduction catalyst by sulfuric acid precipitation and evaporation crystallization method

AbstractBACKGROUNDSelective catalytic reduction (SCR) can effectively handle NOx from flue gas in coal‐fired power plants. However, as the core part of the SCR method, V2O5–WO3/TiO2 catalyst has a limited operational life in the complex flue gas environment. The recovery of rare metals from spent catalyst would not only bring economic benefits but also solve environmental problems. The process of reducing acid leaching and further roasting‐water leaching could realize the efficient recycling of vanadium, tungsten and titanium.RESULTSAfter reducing acid leaching and roasting‐water leaching to treat spent SCR catalyst, the obtained solution containing tungsten was used as the raw material in this study. The optimal pH value of solution for removal of silicon and aluminum impurities was 9.2–9.5. The best tungsten precipitation conditions were shown as follows: a tungsten concentration of 30 g L−1, a sulfuric acid concentration of 8 mol L−1, reaction temperature of 70 °C and reaction time of 2 h. Under the optimal tungsten precipitation conditions, the tungsten precipitation efficiency can reach 92.53%. Finally, in order to further improve the purity of the crude H2WO4, the crude H2WO4 was fully dissolved in ammonia, followed by filtration and evaporation crystallization to obtain 5(NH4)2O.12WO3.5H2O (APT) crystals with a purity of 93.05 wt%. The crystallization efficiency of APT was 73.37% at 60 °C for 2 h with a rotor speed of 400 rpm.CONCLUSIONThese results indicated that a higher purity of APT crystals can be obtained by the steps of removing silicon and aluminum, precipitation of tungsten by sulfuric acid, ammonia dissolution and evaporation crystallization. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

Assessment and treatment of compulsive exercise in anorexia nervosa – A combined investigation of Compulsive Exercise Activity Therapy (LEAP) and Compulsive Exercise Test subscales

IntroductionCompulsive exercise is a transdiagnostic feature of eating disorders which adversely affects aspects of recovery, such as length of hospitalisation, risk of a chronic outcome, and risk of relapse. CompuLsive Exercise Activity TheraPy (LEAP) aims to reduce compulsive exercise through a cognitive behavioural approach. This study aims to investigate the effect of LEAP on compulsive exercise behaviour using subscales of the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET), a measure of exercise in individuals with eating disorders. Predictive validity of the CET's subscales and its ability to predict eating psychopathology are investigated. MethodThis study used data from a randomized controlled trial of LEAP (1). Linear mixed modelling was used to investigate the effect of LEAP on compulsive exercise behaviour, and the predictive ability of CET subscales on various outcomes. The CET was compared to other exercise measures to assess its superiority in predicting eating psychopathology. ResultsLEAP was superior in reducing the scores of the CET's Avoidance and Rule Driven Behaviour and Exercise Rigidity subscales. All subscales made a contribution to the respective models. The CET was superior to other measures in predicting eating pathology. ConclusionThe results lend credibility to LEAP's ability to reduce core parts of compulsive exercise. The CET has been found to target important aspects of compulsive exercise behaviour, and has was superior to other exercise measures in predicting eating psychopathology.

Peering Through the Digital Window: Assessing Online Disclosure of the Public Procurement Data in Bima City

This article explores the level of "online data disclosure" or "website-based transparency" concerning Open Government and Electronic Public Procurement. It specifically focuses on the availability and accessibility of procurement data on the official public procurement website of the Bima City Government, which can be found at https://lpse.bimakota.go.id/eproc4. The transparency indicator used by researchers to explore this issue is the Municipal Transparency Index (MTI) from Portugal's Transparência e Integridade Associação Cívica (TIAC). The unit of analysis boils down to website-based transparency of public procurement documents and the activities inherent in its management. The researchers used two types of data, namely (i) primary data, obtained directly through in-depth interviews with several informants determined by purposive sampling technique, from the management of the government's electronic procurement system; and (ii) secondary data, obtained through a literature study of official documents, mass media articles, internet news sites, and others. This research is intended to add to the empirical case study on the level of website-based transparency managed by local governments in Indonesia, where this aspect is reflected by data openness in its provision and accessibility, which is an important prerequisite for building transparency and a core part of the Open Government initiative. The official website of the Bima City Government's EPP currently does not show an indication of ideal openness in terms of data availability and accessibility, due to specific constraints in the form of budget limitations, staff competence, and the commitment of political leaders. Corruption allegations against certain elite in the city illustrate the vulnerability of goods and services procurement to the worst maladministration practices or abuse of power.

On specifics of adaptive logging method implementation

Relevancy of this work is based on the fact that having an understanding of why given code behaves the way it does, both during normal execution and when encountering erroneous states, is an invaluable part of a good software design. As software systems become more complex, the demand for solutions, that can give deeper insight into code execution, remains high. The goal of this work is to formalize a software tool able to provide better observability of a program. Main methods used are: analysis of common approaches such as monitoring and logging, formalization of main components and modeling of an example implementation based on the Singleton software pattern. As a result, “severity only” based logging was analysed and core parts of “adaptive logging method” were described in a similar manner. There are two distinct features of this method: log tagging and subsequent introduction of a configuration schema that is capable of adapting to changing requirements during software program execution. Systems utilizing such approach gain the ability to extract more precise information about execution flow and also can focus on particular components that might behave incorrectly. As this switch is designed to happen without restarting the observed program, it should be possible to debug and investigate some issues without the need to try and reproduce from scratch the state of an environment where those have occurred. An example of formal description based on the Singleton software pattern is also presented, describing necessary methods and their signatures required to set up a basic variant of an adaptive logging method. This approach could be utilized by a variety of different applications and programming languages as it is developed in general terms and all required abstractions should be present in multiple environments

We cannot find peace in restlessness. How the neuroscience supports psychotherapeutic practice

In this article, I explore how some of the more recent developments in the neuroscience based understanding of human brain and body functioning both illuminates and underpins aspects of psychotherapeutic practice. Psychotherapists have accumulated much wisdom about people and their relationships, based on observation and fine-tuned feedback from therapy practice. Psychotherapists have always known that relational stress and high levels of arousal impact intimate communication in difficult relational moments – it slows information processing, makes it harder to read facial cues and makes it more likely we become preoccupied with our own affective state, along with a self-defensive impediment to listening. Our increased knowledge of these brain and body states helps to guide the therapist and client to effective action. It is my contention that systemic training needs to include human physiology and anatomy as a core part of learning.

Simultaneously Enhanced Energy Harvesting and Storage Performance Achieved by 3D Mix‐Phase Mose2‐Nise/NF

AbstractAs an energy harvesting device, the newly emerged thermocell has attracted great interest. However, it requires an additional energy storage device to complete a functional recycling system. As the core part of energy harvesting and storage devices, the design of electrodes with both high thermoelectric and electrochemical conversion efficiencies is particularly important. Herein, a high‐performance thermocell and supercapacitor device are constructed by employing the same mix‐phase MoSe2‐NiSe/NF electrode for both energy harvesting and storage. The thermocell exhibits an enhanced Seebeck coefficient of −1.69 mV K−1 and a superior output of 0.58 mW m−2 K−2 for low‐grade heat harvesting. Meanwhile, the supercapacitor device shows a great energy density of 54 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 806 W kg−1 and excellent cycling stability with a 92.8% retention rate after 50 000 cycles. This work offers a universal approach for the rational design of synergistic electrode materials to simultaneously achieve high‐energy harvesting and storage devices and lays a foundation for the recycling system of thermoelectric harvesting, conversion, and storage.

Lanthanide doped NaYF4 core@multi-shell nanoparticles: Synthetic strategy for emission in divergent spectral regions

We present the use of lanthanide doped NaYF4 based core@multiple-shell nanoparticles as optical materials showing merged possibilities of engineered photon management processes. We have successfully synthesized and characterized series of NaYF4 core@shell@shell@shell nanomaterials in which the core parts were doped with NIR absorbing/emitting lanthanides (i.e., Nd3+, Yb3+, and Tm3+) to benefit from the complete separation of peristatic quenching processes connected to the interaction with solvent and/or ligand molecules. Followed by covering with an inert shell, Pr3+ ions were doped for VIS-to-UVC up-conversion in the next layer , and finally covered with yet another un-doped protecting shell. The obtained materials were characterized by the means of morphology, crystal structure and spectroscopic properties, with the emphasis put on the measurements in the UVC and NIR spectral regions. The obtained results showed the interesting possibility of merging within designed nanoparticles architectures both UVC light generation for future therapeutic purposes and NIR emission for deep tissue optical imaging diagnostics.