General Guidance Research Articles

Urine on the Shelves

ABSTRACTFor 15 years, the University of Idaho has conducted chemical testing of excavated materials from historical sites throughout North America. The most common artifacts tested are sealed containers. Some come from current excavations, but most are from repository shelves. The immediate purpose of the archaeochemistry work is twofold: to identify the contents of the containers for researchers and to provide training for students in analytical chemistry. After testing more than 500 items, project personnel have recognized some unexpected outcomes that have implications for institutions housing the artifacts. Specifically, tested materials identified the small, yet consistent, presence of certain artifacts that can have health implications for personnel working with the items. The article concludes with general guidance on identifying and assessing those risks.

Laying the Groundwork for a Fulfilling Career in Pediatric Infectious Diseases: The Transition from Fellowship to Faculty.

There are limited resources for guidance on the transition from fellowship into a new faculty role in pediatric infectious diseases. This review aims to address this gap and provides a framework for a successful transition that is composed of four essential pillars-1) stepping into your role, 2) finding your niche, 3) building your network, and 4) self-care-all of which are supported by strong mentorship/sponsorship and continual re-alignment with one's personal mission statement. In addition to providing general principles and guidance, this review also outlines specific steps that a junior faculty member can take to expand their influence and build a successful, fulfilling career in pediatric infectious diseases.

The problem of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures in today’s conditions

Problem setting. The research is devoted to the analysis of the problem of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures, taking into account the challenges and threats that exist at the current stage. analysis of resent researches and publications. Today, aspects of the development of innovation systems and research infrastructures of the European Union and Ukraine are a topic for research of many foreign and domestic researchers. At the same time, the question of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures in modern conditions remains relevant. Purpose of the research is to analyze the problem of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures, taking into account the challenges and threats that exist at the present stage. Аrticle’s main body. The European framework programs made a significant contribution to the development of effective, open and effective use of national research infrastructures, and developed together with the European Strategic Forum of Research Infrastructures a consistent approach to the development of national investment policies in pan-European research infrastructures, which gave rise to the development of many European research infrastructures. Emphasis is placed on the fact that in order to maintain scientific excellence and competitiveness, it is necessary to ensure constant funding of both existing and new research infrastructure. It is concluded that it is necessary to promote synergy between funding instruments for research infrastructures (both European and national), to coordinate investments in research and innovation, improve access and translate research results for the benefit of society and the economy. Sufficient funding including adequate and sustainable funding models, required across the whole RI lifecycle to address the diversity of needs and the funding gaps, is indispensable for successful RI strategy. A joint effort combining European, national or other funding sources is vital for the healthy development of the pan-European RI ecosystem. For research infrastructures to remain relevant throughout the entire RI lifecycle, scientific excellence is the necessary condition, which becomes, together with adequate human resources, crucial when it comes to long-term persistence in the operational phase. Effective governance and sustainable long-term funding (public and private) are other key elements for ensuring long-term sustainability of research infrastructures at every stage in their lifecycle. All the long-term sustainability elements form a unique set, which should be considered and implemented as a general strategic guidance, and not only for ESFRI initiated Research infrastructures. conclusions and prospects for the development. Necessary from the development of the situation, in our opinion, it was expedient to start the preparation and implementation of the investment road map for the reconstruction of the scientific infrastructure of Ukraine. After all, the level of increasing the sustainability of research infrastructure remains an urgent issue for Europe and the world as a whole, in particular in the context of exiting the crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the economic and political situation.

Tools and resources used to support implementation of workplace healthy food and drink policies: A scoping review of grey literature.

This study aimed to identify and evaluate tools and resources used to support the implementation of workplace healthy food and drink policies, primarily in Australia and New Zealand. A scoping grey literature review included searches of government agencies and non-governmental organisations' websites in six English-speaking countries, public health nutrition intervention databases and Google search engine queries. Paper-based and digital tools were included if they were written in English, referred to within a policy or on a policy's website, and primarily targeting supply-side stakeholders. Tools were evaluated on two domains: 'Features' (summarised descriptively) and 'Usability and Quality' (with inter-rater reliability scores calculated using an intraclass correlation coefficient). Twenty paper-based tools were identified relating to Australian (n = 14) and New Zealand (n = 6) policies, and a further six digital tools were identified from Australia (n = 3) and Canada (n = 3). Target audiences included workplace managers, food providers and suppliers. The paper-based tools focused on general implementation guidance. In contrast, digital tools tended to support specific elements of policy implementation. 'Usability and Quality' scores ranged from 2.9 to 4.5 (out of 5.0) for paper-based tools, and 3.9 to 4.2 for digital tools, with a moderate agreement between reviewer scores (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.523, p = 0.010). A range of tools have been developed to support the implementation of workplace healthy food and drink policies. Understanding the strengths and limitations of current tools will assist in developing improved aids to support policy implementation.

97 Handwriting Speed in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Using the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting

Abstract Background Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common cause of arthritis in children. Common symptoms include pain, joint stiffness, joint swelling, fatigue, and decreased physical function. Over 50% of children have hand or wrist involvement and handwriting is the most commonly reported functional limitation in daily activities. To date there has been limited study of the specific limitations of handwriting in children with JIA. Objectives To better understand handwriting limitations in children with JIA, this pilot study aimed to: (a) describe handwriting speed measured by the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting (DASH), a standardized assessment of handwriting speed; (b) compare the DASH scores with age- and sex-matched normative data; (c) examine the association between DASH scores and active wrist and hand arthritis; and (d) explore associations between DASH scores and grip strength, quality of life, function, and pain. Design/Methods Participants diagnosed with JIA and actively followed by the paediatric rheumatology clinic at a large tertiary care centre underwent physician assessment with active joint count, occupational therapist (OT) assessment including administration of the DASH, and grip strength measurement by a physiotherapist. Participant-reported outcomes included questionnaires on function (Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire [CHAQ]), pain, and quality of life (QOL). Results A total of 12 participants aged 9-15 years (M = 12.7y) completed the study. The mean DASH score was 35th percentile (SD = 23) for all participants, 58th percentile (SD = 14) with active hand/wrist arthritis, 25th percentile (SD = 19) with history of hand/wrist arthritis, and 24th percentile (SD = 25) with no history of hand/wrist arthritis. Grip strength was low overall (M = 18th percentile, SD = 28), and lower in participants with active hand/wrist arthritis (M = 4th percentile, SD = 5) and history of hand/wrist arthritis (M = 5th percentile, SD = 7). DASH scores were negatively associated with grip strength (r = -.31), and positively associated with QOL (r = .41) and pain (r = .43). There was no relationship between the DASH and the CHAQ. Conclusion Handwriting speed difficulties are common in children with JIA and may not relate to arthritis disease activity, pain, or function. Handwriting speed may be used in the clinic as a screen to identify children who may benefit from a full OT handwriting assessment. In the absence of access to OT, general guidance can be provided to schools to support a child with JIA in the classroom.

Correlative CD4 and CD8 T-cell immunodominance in humans and mice: Implications for preclinical testing

Antigen-specific T-cell recognition is restricted by Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules, and differences between CD4 and CD8 immunogenicity in humans and animal species used in preclinical vaccine testing are yet to be fully understood. In this study, we addressed this matter by analyzing experimentally identified epitopes based on published data curated in the Immune Epitopes DataBase (IEDB) database. We first analyzed SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) and nucleoprotein (N), which are two common targets of the immune response and well studied in both human and mouse systems. We observed a weak but statistically significant correlation between human and H-2b mouse T-cell responses (CD8 S specific (r = 0.206, p = 1.37 × 10−13); CD4 S specific (r = 0.118, p = 2.63 × 10−5) and N specific (r = 0.179, p = 2.55 × 10−4)). Due to intrinsic differences in MHC molecules across species, we also investigated the association between the immunodominance of common Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) alleles for which HLA transgenic mice are available, namely, A*02:01, B*07:02, DRB1*01:01, and DRB1*04:01, and found higher significant correlations for both CD8 and CD4 (maximum r = 0.702, p = 1.36 × 10−31 and r = 0.594, p = 3.04−122, respectively). Our results further indicated that some regions are commonly immunogenic between humans and mice (either H-2b or HLA transgenic) but that others are human specific. Finally, we noted a significant correlation between CD8 and CD4 S- (r = 0.258, p = 7.33 × 1021) and N-specific (r = 0.369, p = 2.43 × 1014) responses, suggesting that discrete protein subregions can be simultaneously recognized by T cells. These findings were confirmed in other viral systems, providing general guidance for the use of murine models to test T-cell immunogenicity of viral antigens destined for human use.

TECHNOLOGY FOR DETERMINING THE SAFETY OF AMMUNITION IN ACCORDANCE WITH NATO STANDARDS

September 2023 marks 60 years since NATO countries began implementing the principles of ammunition and explosives safety, which are now described in the AASTP and AOR series of publications. This issue is important and significant because during the preparation and operational process, ammunition is exposed to environmental factors that can change the initial parameters and properties of ammunition.
 Today, NATO member states assess the safety of ammunition on the basis of more than 45 NATO Standards that have been developed and implemented.
 The main guiding documents for determining the safety of ammunition are: Standard AOP- 15 Guidelines for the Assessment of Non-Nuclear Ammunition Safety and Suitability for Use by NATO Forces; Standard AAS3P-01 Evaluation Tests for the Safety and Suitability of Non-Nuclear Ammunition; Standard AASTP-3 NATO Guide to Safety Principles for the Classification of Hazards Associated with Military Ammunition and Explosives; Standard AOP- 62 Ammunition Operational Surveillance, General Guidance.
 The article proposes a technology for determining the safety of ammunition based on NATO standards. The proposed technology for determining the safety of ammunition includes two blocks: an assessment process and a program for determining the safety and suitability for use of ammunition: The presented process of safety and serviceability assessment is a specialized problem-solving process; one stage leads to another, taking into account the guarantees that the ammunition is safe and serviceable.
 The evaluation process also has several distinctive features that make it possible to apply it effectively in practice. It is possible to repeat the evaluation stages as often as necessary to achieve the desired results. The process can be applied at any level of system complexity, from the development of a general design concept to the final detailing of a subsystem or component design. It also involves making management decisions between the ideal and the most practical option. In this way, the assessment process provides results that meet the definition of system safety, ensures that the optimal degree of risk elimination is achieved within acceptable operational efficiency, time and cost. The program of safety and suitability testing developed on the basis of these factors should be introduced to the requirements for assessing safety parameters at the national operational level.
 The developed technology is a clear guideline, a step-by-step instruction for military specialists to determine the level of safety of ammunition and its suitability for use.

Single-cell mass distributions reveal simple rules for achieving steady-state growth.

Microbiologists have watched clear liquid turn cloudy for over 100 years. While the cloudiness of a culture is proportional to its total biomass, growth rates from optical density measurements are challenging to interpret when cells change size. Many bacteria adjust their size at different steady-state growth rates, but also when shifting between starvation and growth. Optical density cannot disentangle how mass is distributed among cells. Here, we use single-cell mass measurements to demonstrate that a population of cells in batch culture achieves a stable mass distribution for only a short period of time. Achieving steady-state growth in rich medium requires low initial biomass concentrations and enough time for individual cell mass accumulation and cell number increase via cell division to balance out. Steady-state growth is important for reliable cell mass distributions and experimental reproducibility. We discuss how mass variation outside of steady-state can impact physiology, ecology, and evolution experiments.

Experimental and numerical studies of droplet self-assembly behaviors on hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterned surface

Self-assembled and well-defined fluid patterns of ink droplet deposition are building blocks for printed electronics and next generation of OLED displays. Using surface energy differences created by hydrophobic/hydrophilic patterned (Alt-Wet) surface to propel/retain liquid during the droplet deposition has renewed interests for high resolution printing. In this study, the droplet deposition and split dynamics on the patterned surface have been visualized experimentally. The numerical simulations have revealed that the contact angle contrast (ΔΘ) of the Alt-Wet surface can be as small as 25° to successfully split a droplet by the hydrophobic stripe, providing large enough Reynolds number (Re) for kinetic energy against droplet internal viscous bonding energy holding droplet together. In addition, the droplet splitting, satelliting, and splashing modes are highly influenced by the Alt-Wet surface pattern geometry that governs the stability of liquid diffusion and pressure distribution during the droplet deposition. The derived energy conservation model has theoretically confirmed the experimental and numerical findings that the droplet deposition dynamics are the function of fluid properties and surface wetting characteristics when given Alt-Wet unit. This systematic study on droplet deposition and self-assemble dynamics can provide general design guidance for high resolution ink patterning for printed flexible electronics and micro-fluidics applications.

CHANNEL CONCENTRATION AND ITS IMPACT ON NEARSHORE WAVE CONDITIONS

Channel concentration is an important wave process in coastal regions. It occurs when a shallow water wave approaches a deep channel at a shallow angle, producing a localized region of increased wave height at the edge of the channel, and the early onset of wave breaking. Channel concentration can occur at dredge channels, so is of particular significance to port entrances and surrounding infrastructure, especially for breakwater heads. It also occurs at natural features such as submarine canyons, particularly where the canyon is perpendicular to the coastline. In contrast to refraction or channel reflection, channel concentration is not well documented in the available literature. While studies show wave concentration as a significant coastal process, there is insufficient information on the process to provide general design guidance for its consideration in harbour projects. As such, there is still the need to use design tools such as physical modelling to ensure the site specific wave conditions are characterised correctly.

Analyzing Wind Effects on Long-Span Bridges: A Viable Numerical Modelling Methodology Using OpenFOAM for Industrial Applications

Aerodynamic performance is of critical importance to the design of long-span bridges. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling offers bridge designers an opportunity to investigate aerodynamic performance for long-span bridges during the design phase as well as during operation of the bridge. It offers distinct advantages when compared with the current standard practice of wind tunnel testing, which can have several limitations. The proposed revisions to the Eurocodes offer CFD as a methodology for wind analysis of bridges. Practicing engineers have long sought a computationally affordable, viable, and robust framework for industrial applications of using CFD to examine wind effects on long-span bridges. To address this gap in the literature and guidance, this paper explicitly presents a framework and demonstrates a workflow of analyzing wind effects on long-span bridges using open-source software, namely FreeCAD, OpenFOAM, and ParaView. Example cases are presented, and detailed configurations and general guidance are discussed during each step. A summary is provided of the validation of this methodology with field data collected from the structural health monitoring (SHM) systems of two long-span bridges.

Clinical guidance for e-cigarette (vaping) cessation: Results from a modified Delphi panel approach

Individuals seek help to stop their use of e-cigarettes from their healthcare practitioners. However, there is a paucity of published work addressing e-cigarette cessation methods empirically, and what evidence that is available is weak. Therefore, we developed an expert informed clinical resource to guide practitioners helping their clients quit using e-cigarettes. We conducted a modified Delphi process between September and December 2021 to reach consensus on clinical recommendations for e-cigarette cessation. Expert and Peer Panel members (n = 28) voted and provided feedback on the recommendations through three rounds of structured surveys, a discussion board, and one intermediate survey. The penultimate knowledge products underwent usability testing and were finalized based on user feedback. The Expert Panel maintained a 100% response rate for rounds 1 and 2 and 96% for round 3; the Peer Panel achieved a 100% response rate for all three rounds of the modified Delphi process. Consensus was reach on 24 recommendations and 2 statements spanning eight domains: severity and dependence; general approaches; treatment approaches; dual use; pharmacotherapy strategies; behavioural therapy strategies; harm reduction; and relapse prevention. Two additional ‘no agreement’ statements that did not reach consensus are included in the guidance resource. The recommendations were also contextualized for the following groups: adults; youth; people who are pregnant, breastfeeding and/or chestfeeding; and people with mental illness and/or substance use issues. The recommendations listed in the resource provide general clinical guidance on e-cigarette cessation to assist healthcare practitioners in the treatment planning process.

Chinese expert consensus on the clinical diagnosis and treatment of Behcet's uveitis (2023)

Behcet's disease is a chronic and recurrent multisystemic inflammatory disease, and its etiology and pathogenesis are not completely clarified. Behcet's uveitis is one of the common types of uveitis with the highest rate of untreatable blindness among various uveitis entities in China. The blindness in patients with Behcet's uveitis is commonly caused by retinal vascular occlusion, retinal atrophy and optic nerve atrophy. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential to preserve and improve visual function in these patients. To provide general guidance and reference in the diagnosis and treatment of Behcet's uveitis, consensus opinions have been developed through an extensive investigation on this disease by the experts in the Uveitis and Ocular Immunology Group of Chinese Ophthalmologist Association and the Ocular Immunology Group of Ophthalmology Society of Chinese Medical Association.

International Consensus Recommendations on the Aesthetic Usage of Ready-to-Use AbobotulinumtoxinA (Alluzience).

Alluzience (abobotulinumtoxinA RTU, Galderma; Lausanne, Switzerland) is the first ready to use (RTU) botulinum toxin-type A liquid solution approved for the treatment of glabellar lines in Europe. In this article, the authors provide consensus recommendations on the aesthetic usage of abobotulinumtoxinA RTU. Members of the International Board on Alluzience (IBA) convened to develop consensus on the treatment of glabellar lines as well as other facial wrinkles based on their own extensive experience. Consensus recommendations were developed to provide practical guidelines for injection of abobotulinumtoxinA RTU. General guidance on proper assessment, treatment planning, and patient education is provided, as well as specific injection guidelines per indication. Indications covered include glabellar lines, crow's feet, horizontal forehead lines, lateral eyebrow lift, lower eyelid wrinkles, bunny lines, drooping nasal tip, perioral wrinkles, drooping mouth corners, masseter hypertrophy, hollow cheek lines, dimpled chin, and platysmal bands. These guidelines provide a practical framework to support routine injection of facial muscles with Alluzience.

Ten Topics to Get Started in Medical Informatics Research.

The vast and heterogeneous data being constantly generated in clinics can provide great wealth for patients and research alike. The quickly evolving field of medical informatics research has contributed numerous concepts, algorithms, and standards to facilitate this development. However, these difficult relationships, complex terminologies, and multiple implementations can present obstacles for people who want to get active in the field. With a particular focus on medical informatics research conducted in Germany, we present in our Viewpoint a set of 10 important topics to improve the overall interdisciplinary communication between different stakeholders (eg, physicians, computational experts, experimentalists, students, patient representatives). This may lower the barriers to entry and offer a starting point for collaborations at different levels. The suggested topics are briefly introduced, then general best practice guidance is given, and further resources for in-depth reading or hands-on tutorials are recommended. In addition, the topics are set to cover current aspects and open research gaps of the medical informatics domain, including data regulations and concepts; data harmonization and processing; and data evaluation, visualization, and dissemination. In addition, we give an example on how these topics can be integrated in a medical informatics curriculum for higher education. By recognizing these topics, readers will be able to (1) set clinical and research data into the context of medical informatics, understanding what is possible to achieve with data or how data should be handled in terms of data privacy and storage; (2) distinguish current interoperability standards and obtain first insights into the processes leading to effective data transfer and analysis; and (3) value the use of newly developed technical approaches to utilize the full potential of clinical data.

Improved brightness of multiarylpyrroles in the near-infrared region via coordination-induced supramolecular system

Organic fluorescent dyes that emit in the near-infrared region offer many benefits in biological imaging; nevertheless, their low fluorescence quantum yield remains problematic. In this study, we synthesized an aggregation-induced emission dye from multiarylpyrroles (MAPs) and continuously increased the fluorescence intensity by coordinating the MAPs with tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF). The coordination between MAPs and BCF improved the fluorescence quantum yields without changing the emission wavelength by increasing the intramolecular interactions and restricting the molecular motion. Moreover, experimental and theoretical calculations verified that the ability to produce reactive oxygen species decreased after coordination, which was beneficial for long-term fluorescence imaging tracking. The coordination between near-infrared dyes and BCF not only provides general guidance for improving the quantum yield but also regulates the charge transfer between the singlet and triplet states, which influences the production of reactive oxygen species.

A Universal Assembly Strategy of All‐Inorganic Non‐Layered Perovskite Single Crystals for High‐Responsivity Photodetectors

AbstractNon‐layered all‐inorganic perovskite single crystals (AIPSCs) have ultralow trap density and exceptional optoelectronic properties, which can be used for developing high‐performance perovskite optoelectronic devices with high efficiency and stability. However, there is a lack of comprehensive insight and universal principles to guide the preparation of high‐quality AIPSCs. Herein, a universal liquid–air interfacial assembly strategy is proposed for synthesizing non‐layered AIPSCs, in virtue of which a series of AIPSCs including whole structural dimensions from 0D to 3D are acquired. Specially, the CsPbI3 AIPSCs exhibit an ultrathin thickness of 40 nm, and the CsPbBr3 AIPSCs show ultra‐narrow PL FWHM of 11 nm. Photodetectors (PDs) based on CsPbBr3 show excellent performance with responsivity up to 120 A W−1 and detectivity exceeding 2 × 1013 Jones. Moreover, vertically integrated heterojunctions of mixed‐dimensions are fabricated, and the 2D/3D heterostructure PDs further display enhanced self‐powered characteristics. This work provides general synthetic guidance toward the synthesis of non‐layered AIPSCs and promotes their application in AIPSCs‐based optoelectronics.

Remedying the environmental impacts of war: Challenges and perspectives for full reparation

AbstractWhile the law of State responsibility, particularly the principle of full reparation, provides general guidance for achieving full reparation, it is not quite obvious what kinds of reparation qualify as “full” and how to actualize full reparation. This article centres on the principles, approaches and methods surrounding full reparation for armed conflict-related environmental damage in the law of State responsibility. It examines how the environment is legally defined as an object of protection under international law, and discusses practical challenges in international compensation for wartime environmental damage. In doing so, it ascertains the underlying objective of full reparation, develops an approach to assessing wartime environmental damage, and draws on experiences of international jurisprudence to quantify compensation for wartime environmental damage.

Mitigation of spatial nonstationarity with vision transformers

Spatial nonstationarity, the location variance of features’ statistical distributions, is ubiquitous in many natural settings. For example, in geological reservoirs rock matrix porosity varies vertically due to geomechanical compaction trends, in mineral deposits grades vary due to sedimentation and concentration processes, in hydrology rainfall varies due to the atmosphere and topography interactions, and in metallurgy crystalline structures vary due to differential cooling. Conventional geostatistical modeling workflows rely on the assumption of stationarity to be able to model spatial features for geostatistical inference. Nevertheless, this is often not a realistic assumption when dealing with nonstationary spatial data and this has motivated a variety of nonstationary spatial modeling workflows such as trend and residual decomposition, cosimulation with secondary features, and spatial segmentation and independent modeling over stationary subdomains. The advent of deep learning technologies has enabled new workflows for modeling spatial relationships. However, there is a paucity of demonstrated best practice and general guidance on mitigation of spatial nonstationarity with deep learning in the geospatial context. We demonstrate the impact of two common types of geostatistical spatial nonstationarity on deep learning model prediction performance and propose the mitigation of such impacts using self-attention (vision transformer) models. We demonstrate the utility of vision transformers for the mitigation of nonstationarity with relative errors as low as 10%, exceeding the performance of alternative deep learning methods such as convolutional neural networks. We establish best practice by demonstrating the ability of self-attention networks for modeling large-scale spatial relationships in the presence of commonly observed geospatial nonstationarity.

Effect of surface polarization and structural deformation on the formation and stabilization of polarons in two-dimensional Ruddlesden–Popper metal halide perovskites

First-principles density-functional theory calculations were performed to reveal the effect of surface polarization and structural deformation on the formation and stabilization of the polaron in two-dimensional Ruddlesden–Popper perovskites. Our results revealed that the orientational distribution of organic cations induces surface polarization. The surface dipole moment can be well featured by the c axis distances between N and the nearest I atoms. Structural deformation and surface dipole moments result in separate real-space distributions of hole and electron polarons. Our results also reveal that the structural deformation of the [PbI6] sublattices and surface polarization are closely related to the reorientation of organic cations and can be effectively modulated by it. This reorientation significantly impacts the stabilization of polarons. Our understandings provide insight into the nature of polarons in two-dimensional Ruddlesden–Popper perovskites and general guidance for the proper selection of organic cations in two-dimensional perovskites for suitable applications in photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices.