Environment-related Features Research Articles

Rationalizing the use of common parameters and technological tools to follow up Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae infections in pigs

BackgroundMycoplasma (M.) hyopneumoniae is associated with respiratory disease in pigs and is the primary agent of enzootic pneumonia. Quantification of M. hyopneumoniae-related outcome parameters can be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, in both research and field settings. In addition to well-established methods, technological tools are becoming available to monitor various aspects of relevant animal- and environment-related features, often in real-time. Therefore, this study aimed to assess whether certain parameters, such as animal movement and body temperature using microchips (IMT), correlate with established parameters and whether the currently used parameters can be rationalized.ResultsThe percentage of movement was significantly reduced by M. hyopneumoniae infection in pigs (p < 0.05), where the M. hyopneumoniae-infected group showed a lower percentage of movement (1.9%) when compared to the negative control group (6.9%). On the other hand, macroscopic (MLCL) and microscopic (MLL) lung lesions, respiratory disease score (RDS), M. hyopneumoniae-DNA load, and anti-M. hyopneumoniae antibody levels increased significantly in the M. hyopneumoniae-infected group 28 days post-inoculation (p < 0.05). Moderate (r > 0.30) to very strong correlations (> 0.80) were observed between the abovementioned parameters (p < 0.05), except for IMT. A significant and moderate correlation was reported between IMT and rectal temperature (r = 0.49; p < 0.05). Last, the average daily weight gain and the percentage of air in the lung were not affected by M. hyopneumoniae infection (p > 0.05).ConclusionsM. hyopneumoniae infection significantly reduced the movement of piglets and increased lung lesions, M. hyopneumoniae-DNA load, and anti-M. hyopneumoniae antibody levels; and, good correlations were observed between most parameters, indicating a direct relationship between them. Thus, we suggest that changes in movement might be a reliable indicator of M. hyopneumoniae infection in pigs, and that a selected group of parameters—specifically RDS, MLCL, MLL, M. hyopneumoniae-DNA load, anti-M. hyopneumoniae antibody levels, and movement—are optimal to assess M. hyopneumoniae infection under experimental conditions.

Evaluation of Costumer Complaints Regarding Restaurants Offering Food and Beverage Service in Elazığ: The Case of Electronik Word-of-Mouth

Teknolojinin gelişmesi ve internetin ulaşılabilirliği ile birlikte birçok alanda çeşitli değişimler gerçekleşmiştir. Klasik ağızdan ağıza iletişim de değişim göstererek elektronik ağızdan ağıza iletişim halini almıştır. Tüketiciler bir ürün veya hizmeti satın almadan önce söz konusu ürün veya hizmet ile alakalı risklerden kaçınmak için ürünü veya hizmeti daha önce deneyimleyen tüketicilerin görüşlerine başvurmaktadırlar. Tripadvisor’da tüketicilerin deneyimlerini diğer kişilere aktarabildiği bir web sitesi olduğundan elektronik ağızdan ağıza iletişim ortamı olarak değerlendirilebilir. Çalışmanın amacı; Elazığ ilinde yiyecek içecek hizmeti sunan restoranlara yönelik TripAdvisor web sitesinde yapılan olumsuz yorumların tespit edilerek işletmelere şikayetler ile alakalı çözüm önerileri getirmektir. Çalışmada 48 işletmeye ait 14.12.2012 ile 15.07.2022 tarihleri arasında yer alan toplam 1167 adet yorum içerik analizi yöntemi ile incelenmiştir. Yapılan analiz sonucunda 577 adet şikâyet ifadesi tespit edilmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda en çok şikâyet edilen ana başlıklar sırasıyla, yiyecek içecekle ilgili özellikler, personelle ilgili özellikler, fiyatla ilgili özellikler, hizmet ortamıyla ilgili özellikler, servisle ilgili özellikler ve menüyle ilgili özellikler olmak üzere 6 ana kategori 17 alt kategoriden oluşmaktadır

Predicting Taxi-Calling Demands Using Multi-Feature and Residual Attention Graph Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Networks

Predicting taxi-calling demands at the urban area level is vital to coordinate the supply–demand balance of the urban taxi system. Differing travel patterns, the impact of external data, and the expression of dynamic spatiotemporal demand dependence pose challenges to predicting demand. Here, a framework using residual attention graph convolutional long short-term memory networks (RAGCN-LSTMs) is proposed to predict taxi-calling demands. It consists of a spatial dependence (SD) extractor, which extracts SD features; an external dependence extractor, which extracts traffic environment-related features; a pattern dependence (PD) extractor, which extracts the PD of demands for different zones; and a temporal dependence extractor and predictor, which leverages the abovementioned features into an LSTM model to extract temporal dependence and predict demands. Experiments were conducted on taxi-calling records of Shanghai City. The results showed that the prediction accuracies of the RAGCN-LSTMs model were a mean absolute error of 0.8664, a root mean square error of 1.4965, and a symmetric mean absolute percentage error of 43.11%. It outperformed both classical time-series prediction methods and other deep learning models. Further, to illustrate the advantages of the proposed model, we investigated its predicting performance in various demand densities in multiple urban areas and proved its robustness and superiority.

Environmental Risk Factors for Bipolar Disorders and High-Risk States in Adolescence: A Systematic Review.

Background and objectives: A deeper comprehension of the role that environmental risk factors play in the development of adolescent Bipolar Disorder (BD), as well as in the evolution of high-risk states for BD, may entangle further prevention and treatment advances. The present systematic review is aimed at critically summarizing evidence about the role that environmental risk factors play in the development of BD in adolescence and their interaction with BD high-risk states. Materials and Methods: MEDLINE/Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science datasets were systematically searched until 4 September 2020. Original studies that reported information about the role of environmental risk factors in the development of BD during adolescence, or assessing their influence on the development of psychopathology in high-risk states for BD, were considered for inclusion. Two blind researchers performed title/abstract, full-text screening, and hand-screening of relevant references. The risk of bias was assessed by means of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results: Fourteen studies were included in the review. Negative stressful life events, particularly sexual and physical abuse, but also emotional mistreatment, were associated with more severe psychopathology in adolescents with BD, as well as with higher risk for developing mood disorders in BD offspring. Similar findings were detected for familial environment-related features, such as parental rejection and low perceived care, while no univocal results were found when analyzing familial functioning. Conclusions: The present systematic review confirmed the relevant role that environmental risk factors, particularly negative stressful live events and family-related features, play in the development of BD psychopathology during adolescence. Future studies are expected to clarify possible further environmental factors that may be implicated in the development of BD during youth that may serve as target of prevention and early treatment strategies.

Task relevance determines binding of effect features in action planning

Action planning can be construed as the temporary binding of features of perceptual action effects. While previous research demonstrated binding for task-relevant, body-related effect features, the role of task-irrelevant or environment-related effect features in action planning is less clear. Here, we studied whether task-relevance or body-relatedness determines feature binding in action planning. Participants planned an action A, but before executing it initiated an intermediate action B. Each action relied on a body-related effect feature (index vs. middle finger movement) and an environment-related effect feature (cursor movement towards vs. away from a reference object). In Experiments 1 and 2, both effects were task-relevant. Performance in action B suffered from partial feature overlap with action A compared to full feature repetition or alternation, which is in line with binding of both features while planning action A. Importantly, this cost disappeared when all features were available but only body-related features were task-relevant (Experiment 3). When only the environment-related effect of action A was known in advance, action B benefitted when it aimed at the same (vs. a different) environment-related effect (Experiment 4). Consequently, the present results support the idea that task relevance determines whether binding of body-related and environment-related effect features takes place while the pre-activation of environment-related features without binding them primes feature-overlapping actions.

The Rise of Office Design in High-Performance, Open-Plan Environments

This study aimed to identify key drivers behind workers’ satisfaction, perceived productivity, and health in open-plan offices while at the same time understanding design similarities shared by high-performance workspaces. Results from a dataset comprising a total of 8827 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys conducted in 61 offices in Australia and a detailed analysis of a subset of 18 workspaces (n = 1949) are reported here. Combined, the database-level enquiry and the subset analysis helped identifying critical physical environment-related features with the highest correlation scores for perceived productivity, health, and overall comfort of the work area. Dataset-level analysis revealed large-size associations with spatial comfort, indoor air quality, building image and maintenance, noise distraction and privacy, visual comfort, personal control, and connection to the outdoor environment. All high-performance, open-plan offices presented a human-centered approach to interior design, purposely allocated spaces to support a variety of work-related tasks, and implemented biophilic design principles. These findings point to the importance of interior design in high-performance workspaces, especially in relation to open-plan offices.

A Link Quality Estimation model of Wireless Sensor Networks for Smart Distribution Grid

Recent advances in Micro-electro-mechanical Systems made Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) a viable solution for Smart Distribution Grid communication. However, the transitional and environmentrelated features seriously affect communication link quality in Wireless-Sensor-Network-based smart distribution grid application. In this paper, a novel Link Quality Estimation model is presented to estimate link quality in harsh Distribution Grid environments. By theoretical analysis, background noise fluctuation and signal strength attenuation are considered as main factors affecting link quality. Consequently, Alpha-stable distribution fitting is used for modeling background noise, and Log-distance path loss model is adopted for received signal strength model. In addition, the method of estimating parameters in presented Link Quality Estimation model is introduced along. The experiment result demonstrates that, Link Quality Estimation model is a better and more realistic and accuracy choice.

Effects of Multi-Robot Team Formations on Distributed Area Coverage

This paper examines the problem of distributed coverage of an initially unknown environment using a multi-robot system. Specifically, focus is on a coverage technique for coordinating teams of multiple mobile robots that are deployed and maintained in a certain formation while covering the environment. The technique is analyzed theoretically and experimentally to verify its operation and performance within the Webots robot simulator, as well as on physical robots. Experimental results show that the described coverage technique with robot teams moving in formation can perform comparably with a technique where the robots move individually while covering the environment. The authors also quantify the effect of various parameters of the system, such as the size of the robot teams, the presence of localization, and wheel slip noise, as well as environment related features like the size of the environment and the presence of obstacles and walls on the performance of the area coverage operation.

Effects of Multi-Robot Team Formations on Distributed Area Coverage

This paper examines the problem of distributed coverage of an initially unknown environment using a multi-robot system. Specifically, focus is on a coverage technique for coordinating teams of multiple mobile robots that are deployed and maintained in a certain formation while covering the environment. The technique is analyzed theoretically and experimentally to verify its operation and performance within the Webots robot simulator, as well as on physical robots. Experimental results show that the described coverage technique with robot teams moving in formation can perform comparably with a technique where the robots move individually while covering the environment. The authors also quantify the effect of various parameters of the system, such as the size of the robot teams, the presence of localization, and wheel slip noise, as well as environment related features like the size of the environment and the presence of obstacles and walls on the performance of the area coverage operation.