High Loss Research Articles

The Influence of Patient-, Site-, and Implant-Related Factors on Marginal Bone Levels of Dental Implants in a Rural Population in China: A Retrospective Study.

Limited research is available on implant treatment outcomes in rural populations. This may be due to the presence of various barriers, such as access to oral health care, resources, health literacy, and education. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of patient-, site-, and implant-related factors on marginal bone levels of dental implants in a rural population in China. A retrospective study was conducted using data from a private dental office. Subjects included in this study received dental implants as part of their routine dental treatment. Information on age, gender, smoking status, diabetes, heart disease, jaw location, restorative type, loading protocol, survival rate, implant length, and diameter was collected. Marginal bone loss was recorded as the largest value at either the mesial or distal aspect on peri-apical radiographs. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed along with linear regression analysis. Overall, 428 implants were placed in 90 subjects over an average follow-up period of 453 days. No implant failures were recorded. The average marginal bone loss was 0.10 mm, with 80.6% of implants showing no marginal bone loss. The extent of marginal bone loss was greater in the mandible (0.13 ± 0.25) than in the maxilla (0.08 ± 0.19). An increase in implant diameter by 1 mm resulted in 0.08 mm of marginal bone loss, indicating wider diameter implants are associated with more bone loss. Age was also positively correlated with marginal bone loss, increasing by 0.002 mm per year. No differences were found for gender, smoking, diabetes, heart disease, restoration type, and immediate loading. Dental implant therapy in a rural Chinese population demonstrated high survival rates and minimal marginal bone loss. Factors such as age, implant location, and diameter influenced bone loss. This study fills a critical gap in understanding implant outcomes specifically within rural settings, highlighting the need for tailored approaches to enhance patient access and care in these communities. Further research is needed to explore these relationships and assess implant outcomes in rural populations.

Soluble polyimides with ultralow dielectric constant and dielectric loss and high colorless transparency based on spirobisindane-bis (aryl ester) diamines

With the emergence of 5G technology, the traditional polyimide with a relatively high dielectric constant (Dk) and dielectric loss (Df) are not suitable the requirements of ultra-high transmission and ultra-low loss. In particular, reducing the Df value of polyimide has become a significant difficulty in science and engineering. Herein, an elaborate design was proposed for the preparation of polyimide with both low Dk and low Df, based on a pair of diamine isomer containing two esters and a spiro-bis-indene structure (p-SBI2EA and m-SBI2EA), and their polymerization with 4,4′-(Hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride (6FDA). The resultant polyimide films showed an exceptional dielectric property, with Dk values of 2.83 and 2.88, and Df values of 0.0043 and 0.0048 for p-SBI2EA-6FDA and m-SBI2EA-6FDA, respectively, at high frequencies (40 GHz). Interestingly, introducing the spirobisindane structure significantly displayed preeminent solubility in both high-boiling-point and low-boiling-point solvents. Furthermore, the PI films exhibited perfect optical performance, with cutoff wavelengths (λcut-off) of 315 and 321 nm, transmittance exceeding 86 % and 89 % at 450 nm, and yellowing indices (YI) as low as 1.72 and 1.63, respectively. The features of the PIs render them auspicious candidate materials for applications in 5G high frequency communication and optical fields.

Titanium Nitride-Gold Nanoislands: Harnessing Electrical and Optical Properties for Enhanced Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensing

Titanium nitride-gold nanoislands (TANIs) are experimentally investigated to explore their electrical and optical properties induced by the incorporation of Au into TiN. A film is first fabricated on a glass substrate using the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique at 300 K, with a thickness of approximately 20 nm (± 2.5 nm) and an Au:TiN ratio of 0 to 0.47. Subsequent thermal annealing provides a nanoisland structure of TiN-Au. Characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the presence of TiN and Au in the fabricated TiN-Au nanoislands. Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements show that the TANIs posses excellent optical properties. Furthermore, numerical evaluations of energy dissipation are conducted to assess carrier transport deterioration due to the inelastic scattering effects in the TANIs and the inclusion of Au in the nanostructure significantly have reduced the dielectric loss tangent at energies greater than 4.5 eV, compensating for high losses and enhancing optical performance. The biosensing capability of TANIs is also demonstrated with the sensing of biotin, such that a strong biotin-phase response relationship is formed with a limit of detection of 0.842 ng/ml. This study contributes valuable insights into the electrical, optical and biosensing properties of TANIs, providing direction for sensing applications, where the optimization of the TANIs structure could bring about advancements in optical performance and pave the way for the potential design of novel plasmonic sensors.

Use of parenteral nutrition in the management of enterocutaneous fistula.

Nutrition plays an integral role in the management of patients with enterocutaneous fistula (ECF), but practice guidelines are often vague because of limited evidence. As a result, clinicians must rely on expert consensus and sound nutrition principles to guide practice. The initial phase of ECF management involves recognition (eg, fistula location and quantifying output) and stabilization (eg, source control and fluid and electrolyte balance). All patients with ECF should be considered at risk of malnutrition because of malabsorption, high gastrointestinal fluid and nutrient losses, and chronic inflammation. Strict bowel rest in conjunction with parenteral nutrition (PN) is typically warranted on initial presentation, but patients can often transition to oral diet or enteral nutrition if ECF output is low (<500 ml/day) and there is good control of ECF drainage at the skin level. Patients with high-output ECF (>500 ml/day) may require PN to meet fluid, electrolyte, and nutrient requirements to support spontaneous or surgical closure of the ECF. Because the healing process can take months, transfer from the inpatient to home setting should be considered when a patient is medically stable. Preparing for discharge home requires stabilization of fluid and electrolyte balance, achievement of glycemic control, containment of ECF output, and patient and/or caregiver training. A long-term PN treatment plan should be developed that incorporates outpatient monitoring, determination of target weight, and desired PN end point. The purpose of this article is to review the optimal use of PN in adult patients with ECF.

IgG-Binding Peptidomimetic Mixed-Charge Polymer-Modified Resins for Chromatographic Purification of Antibodies.

The process of antibody purification using Fc affinity ligands such as protein A, G, and L faces several challenges including high cost, low stability, and loss of antibody activity due to harsh elution conditions. Here, we describe a chromatographic purification of antibodies utilizing a pH-responsive mixed-charge polymer that mimics the IgG-binding peptide (Z34C) derived from the B domain of protein A. The protein A mimetic resins were prepared by modifying the surface of a TOYOPEARL, methacrylate resin with a polymer that mimics the amino acid sequence of Z34C and the functions of histidine and acidic and neutral amino acids using histamine methacrylamide (HisMA), methacrylic acid, and neutral monomers. The therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb), rituximab, was retained on the column at pH 7 and eluted under mildly acidic conditions at pH 5 using a protein A mimetic resin (HisMA20-EEMA) optimized for antibody interaction. The injected antibodies were selectively captured on the column by hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions with the protein A mimetic polymer under neutral conditions and eluted by electrostatic repulsion under acidic conditions. The HisMA20-EEMA column successfully purified mAbs from mixtures with BSA, mouse ascites fluid, and hybridoma cell culture supernatant. In addition, the HisMA20-EEMA column consistently achieved 90% antibody recovery in 100 consecutive purifications from cell culture supernatant. The antibody purification method presented in this study is low cost, highly durable, easy to synthesize, and allows for mild elution conditions. The results demonstrate that the approach of mimicking IgG-binding peptides with mixed-charge polymers is useful for the development of column packing materials for antibody purification.

Radio Front-End for Frequency Agile Microwave Photonic Radars

Recent advancements in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have paved the way for a new era of frequency-agile coherent radar systems. Unlike traditional all-electronic RF radar techniques, fully photonic systems offer superior performance, overcoming bandwidth limitations and noise degradation when operating across S (2–4 GHz), X (8–12 GHz), and K-band (12–40 GHz) frequencies. They also exhibit excellent phase noise performance, even at frequencies exceeding 20 GHz. However, current state-of-the-art PICs still suffer from high processing losses in the optical domain, necessitating careful design of the electrical RF domain. This study delves into the critical challenges of designing RF front-ends for microwave photonic radars, including stability, noise minimization, and intermodulation distortion reduction. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed design, a functional prototype is constructed, achieving a total power gain of 107 dB (radar system at 10 GHz) while minimizing signal noise degradation. Furthermore, a comprehensive demonstration of the RF front-end, encompassing both optical RF signal generation and experimental measurements of a rotor blade’s Doppler fingerprint with 0.5 Hz resolution, validates the proposed system’s performance.

Influence of Winding Configurations and Stator/Rotor Pole Combinations on Field Back-EMF Ripple in Switched Flux Hybrid Excited Machines

Similar to armature back electromotive force (armature back-EMF), the back-EMF also exists in the field winding of hybrid excited machines. However, the existence of field back electromotive force (field back-EMF) is harmful to the safe and stable operation of machine systems, e.g., higher losses, lower efficiency, higher torque ripple, and reduced control performance. This paper systematically investigates the influence of armature/field winding configurations together with stator/rotor pole combinations on the field back-EMF ripple in hybrid excited machines with switched-flux stators. The two-dimensional (2D) time-stepping finite element modeling and prototyping experiments are used for the research. The investigated field and armature coil pitches equal to 1, i.e., non-overlapped windings. The influential factors that are investigated in this paper mainly include the number of layers of field/armature windings, the number of field/armature coils, and the stator/rotor pole combinations. The results show that the field back-EMF’s harmonic order and peak-to-peak value are closely associated with field/armature winding configurations and stator/rotor pole combinations under various conditions. Finally, for validation of the results predicted by the finite element method, a prototype machine is built and tested. Overall, non-overlapped double-layer armature and field windings are recommended for the hybrid excited switched flux machines with various stator/rotor pole combinations to realize relatively lower field back-EMF under different conditions.

Parameter Optimization of Spiral Step Cleaning Device for Ratooning Rice Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics-Discrete Element Method Coupling

Ratooning rice plants have a high moisture content and strong adhesion during harvesting. Traditional cleaning devices are prone to clogging when processing ratooning rice, resulting in a series of problems such as high grain loss rate and high grain impurity rate. In response to the above issues, this article adopts the CFD-DEM coupling method to design a spiral step cleaning device. A detailed analysis was conducted on the influence of the cone angle and thickness of the spiral-stepped skeletons on the flow state, and flow velocity and pressure distribution cloud maps were obtained under different structural parameters. The vortex morphology under different thicknesses of the spiral-stepped skeletons was compared, and the structural parameters of the device were determined. The motion trajectory and distribution of impurity particles under different inlet flow velocities were analyzed using data superposition, and the appropriate inlet flow velocity range was determined. A test bench was built, and a three-factor quadratic regression orthogonal rotation combination experiment was conducted with fan speed, feeding rate, and device inclination angle as experimental factors. The results of the bench test show that the performance index reaches its optimum when the device inclination angle, fan speed, and feeding rate are 2.47°, 2906 r/min, and 4.0 kg/s, respectively. At this time, the grain impurity rate, grain loss rate, and sieve clogging rate are 2.21%, 2.15%, and 3.5%, respectively. Compared to those of traditional cleaning equipment, these value are reduced by 44.5%, 39.6%, and 83.9%, respectively. This study can provide ideas for the design of ratooning rice cleaning devices.

Ultra-tunable dielectric capacitors enhanced by coupling ferroelectric field effect and semiconductor field effect

Tunable ferroelectric film capacitors play an important role in tunable microwave devices and filter systems due to their high dielectric constant, low loss, and high dielectric tunability. However, there is a trade-off between low loss and high tunability, which limits further enhancement of dielectric performance. Here, we propose an ultra-tunable capacitor by designing a Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 (BST)–semiconductor heterostructure. In the tunable capacitor, the BST film is fabricated directly on p-type silicon substrates by magnetron sputtering, and a heterostructure layer is constructed. The coupling effects between the semiconductor depletion layer capacitance and the BST capacitance produce higher capacitance tunability than a traditional sandwich BST capacitor. Based on the coupling effects, a metal–ferroelectric–semiconductor–ferroelectric–metal capacitor is developed, which enables the capacitor to operate under both negative and positive biases, which has an n value (n=Cmax/Cmin) of 90 with 40 V bias voltage and a maximum Q of 1000. The results offer a potential approach to designing high-performance tunable capacitors on silicon with BST film that could build tunable filters for information processing in communication systems.

The Early Youth Engagement (EYE-2) intervention in first-episode psychosis services: pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial and cost-effectiveness evaluation.

Early intervention in psychosis (EIP) services improve outcomes for young people, but approximately 30% disengage. To test whether a new motivational engagement intervention would prolong engagement and whether it was cost-effective. We conducted a multicentre, single-blind, parallel-group, cluster randomised controlled trial involving 20 EIP teams at five UK National Health Service (NHS) sites. Teams were randomised using permuted blocks stratified by NHS trust. Participants were all young people (aged 14-35 years) presenting with a first episode of psychosis between May 2019 and July 2020 (N = 1027). We compared the novel Early Youth Engagement (EYE-2) intervention plus standardised EIP (sEIP) with sEIP alone. The primary outcome was time to disengagement over 12-26 months. Economic outcomes were mental health costs, societal costs and socio-occupational outcomes over 12 months. Assessors were masked to treatment allocation for primary disengagement and cost-effectiveness outcomes. Analysis followed intention-to-treat principles. The trial was registered at ISRCTN51629746. Disengagement was low at 15.9% overall in standardised stand-alone services. The adjusted hazard ratio for EYE-2 + sEIP (n = 652) versus sEIP alone (n = 375) was 1.07 (95% CI 0.76-1.49; P = 0.713). The health economic evaluation indicated lower mental healthcare costs linked to reductions in unplanned mental healthcare with no compromise of clinical outcomes, as well as some evidence for lower societal costs and more days in education, training, employment and stable accommodation in the EYE-2 group. We found no evidence that EYE-2 increased time to disengagement, but there was some evidence for its cost-effectiveness. This is the largest study to date reporting positive engagement, health and cost outcomes in a total EIP population sample. Limitations included high loss to follow-up for secondary outcomes and low completion of societal and socio-occupational data. COVID-19 affected fidelity and implementation. Future engagement research should target engagement to those in greatest need, including in-patients and those with socio-occupational goals.

Perfect Ultraviolet Absorbers via Disordered Polarizonic Metasurfaces for Multiband Camouflage and Stealth Technologies

AbstractAchieving multiband camouflage through the integration of ultraviolet (UV) absorption, visible light camouflage, and infrared signature modulation has long posed a challenge in material science. Leveraging the polarizonic concept, the study demonstrates, for the first time, the broadband camouflage system that adheres to the golden rule by achieving near‐perfect UV absorption (99.96%) across the UV‐A, UV‐B, and UV‐C ranges. This system is also visibly colored to blend with its environment and leaves no thermal signature in the IR. Traditionally, earth‐abundant metals, such as iron, are not considered viable for plasmonic color applications due to their high optical losses and oxidation susceptibility that degrade their optical properties. However, contrary to conventional assumptions, the study introduces a sustainable color palette derived from transparent and grey earth‐abundant materials, offering novel approaches to color, stealth, and energy‐harvesting metasurface‐driven technologies. The simple, cost‐effective, and environmentally friendly co‐sputtering fabrication method highlights the impact of the polarizonic concept and its novel dipolar image interference phenomena on flexible substrates therefore passivating the way for scalable and sustainable solutions in next‐generation camouflage systems with potential applications in UV‐protective coatings, photolithography, and anti‐counterfeiting technologies.

Progressive degradation of acetylated wood by the brown rot fungi Coniophora puteana and Rhodonia placenta

AbstractAcetylation is a wood modification method that reduces the hygroscopicity of wood and increases its resistance to degradation by wood decaying fungi. Even though acetylated wood can have very high decay resistance, the wood material can be degraded and sometimes deacetylated by fungi. This study investigated the degradation and deacetylation of acetylated wood by Coniophora puteana and Rhodonia placenta to better understand the relationship between degradation and deacetylation in two different brown rot fungi. Wood samples were exposed to the fungi in a stacked-sample decay test, followed by acetyl content measurements and FTIR spectroscopy to investigate chemical changes in the samples. The results showed that both fungi could degrade acetylated wood to high mass loss despite a strong reduction in moisture content, but only R. placenta was found to cause preferential deacetylation. The deacetylation was slight and only observed in the early stages of decay in highly acetylated wood. Otherwise, acetyl groups were lost from the samples at the rate of mass loss. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the loss of acetyl groups and revealed some chemical differences between unacetylated and acetylated wood. The spectral data indicated the loss of acetyl groups from lignin, which suggests that the loss of acetyl groups is not only due to the degradation of acetylated carbohydrates. The degradation of acetylated wood required further investigation, but it is clear that extensive deacetylation is not a requirement for brown rot degradation.

Preparation and Electromagnetic-Wave-Absorption Properties of Cement-Based Materials with Graphite Tailings and Steel Fiber

The development of functional building materials that can absorb electromagnetic radiation is important for preventing and controlling electromagnetic pollution in urban areas. In this study, cement-based electromagnetic wave (EMW)-absorbing materials were created using graphite tailings (GTs) as a conductive admixture and steel fiber (SF) as an EMW absorber, which resulted in materials with a wide effective bandwidth and high reflection loss (RL). In particular, a GT–cement matrix with excellent mechanical and electrical properties was obtained. This study explored the influence mechanism of the SF content on the mechanical, electrical, and EMW-absorption properties of cement-based materials under the synergistic effect of GTs and SF. Findings demonstrate that the combination of GTs and SF notably improved the electrical and EMW-absorption characteristics of the cement-based materials. Optimal EMW-absorption properties were observed for a combination of 30% GTs and 6% SF. A developed cement-based EMW-absorbing material with a thickness of 20 mm displayed a minimum RL of −25.78 dB in the frequency range of 0.1–5 GHz, with an effective bandwidth of 0.953 GHz. Thus, the cement-based composite materials developed in this study have excellent EMW-absorption performance, which provides an effective strategy for preventing and controlling electromagnetic pollution in urban spaces.

Design and Parameter Optimization of a Rigid–Flexible Coupled Rod Tooth Threshing Device for Ratoon Rice Based on MBD-DEM

To solve the problem of the high loss rate of threshing devices during the mechanical harvesting of ratoon rice, we propose a method using the principle of rigid–flexible coupling in this paper to reduce losses. Through analysis of the forces and collisions on ratoon rice grains during the threshing process, it has been confirmed that changing the structure and materials of the threshing contact components can effectively reduce grain loss. A rigid–flexible coupling rod tooth was designed, and the overall structural parameters of the device were determined based on force analysis results and dimensional boundary conditions. The MBD-DEM coupling method was used to simulate the threshing process, and the force conditions of the threshing rod teeth and threshing drum were obtained. The influence of the feeding amount and of the flexible body thickness on the crushing of ratoon rice grains was analyzed. In order to obtain the device’s optimal parameter combination, a three-factor quadratic regression orthogonal rotation combination experiment was conducted with drum speed, flexible body thickness, and rod tooth length as experimental factors. The optimization results showed that when the drum speed, flexible body thickness, and rod tooth length were 684 r/min, 3.86 mm, and 72.7 mm, respectively, the crushing rate, entrainment loss rate, and uncleaned rate were 1.260%, 2.132%, and 1.241%, respectively. The bench test showed that it is feasible to use the MBD–DEM coupling method to measure the motion and force of ratoon rice. The rigid–flexible coupling threshing device can reduce the grain crushing rate while ensuring grain cleanliness. Compared with traditional threshing devices, the crushing rate and entrainment loss rate of the rigid–flexible coupling threshing device were reduced by 55.7% and 27.5%, respectively. The research results can provide a reference for the design of threshing devices for ratoon rice harvesters.

PbZrO3-based thin film capacitors with high energy storage efficiency

Antiferroelectric (Pb0.87Sr0.05Ba0.05La0.02)(Zr0.52Sn0.40Ti0.08)O3 thin film capacitors were fabricated for dielectric energy storage. Thin films with excellent crystal quality (FWHM 0.021°) were prepared on (100) SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The out-of-plane lattice constant of the thin film was 4.110 ± 0.001 Å. An average maximum recoverable energy storage density, 88 ± 17 J cm−3 with an efficiency of 85% ± 6% at 1 kHz and 80 ± 15 J cm−3 with an efficiency of 91% ± 4% at 10 kHz, was achieved at room temperature. The capacitor was fatigue resistant up to 106 cycles at an applied electric field of 2 MV cm−1. These properties are linked to a low level of hysteresis and slow polarization saturation. PbZrO3-derived oxide thin film capacitors are promising for high efficiency and low loss dielectric energy storage applications.

Novel Burst-Mode Control for Medium-to-Light Load Operation of Dual-Active-Bridge Converters, Achieving Minimum Backflow Power, Zero-Voltage-Switching, and DC Bias Suppression

The dual-active-bridge (DAB) converter is widely used in many applications such as solid-state transformers, multi-port converters, and on-board chargers. Nevertheless, its efficiency degrades significantly under light-load conditions due to high switching and conduction losses. Since a detailed analysis for burst-mode design has not been presented in the literature, effective burst-mode control for the light-load condition is proposed in this paper. In the proposed burst-mode, the regular duty cycle and the burst duty cycle are optimally coordinated to achieve the zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) condition and the minimum backflow power at the same time. Moreover, DC bias current is effectively eliminated in the proposed burst-mode. The switching loss and conduction loss are simultaneously minimized in the proposed burst-mode control. Therefore, the light-load efficiency is significantly improved. The detailed analysis and design procedure are also presented for both buck- and boost-mode operations to deal with widely varying output voltage ranges. The control mode switching condition is determined for achieving the ZVS condition for the whole load condition; thus, the proposed burst-mode control flowchart is presented. A 4 kW DAB converter prototype is built to verify the proposed method and the experiment results show about a 2% increment in efficiency of the proposed method compared to the conventional burst-mode method.

Is Shunt Quenching Relevant to Minimize Shunt Losses in Perovskite–Silicon Tandem Solar Cells?

One challenge in thin‐film based solar cells, including perovskite‐silicon tandem cells, is the defect‐free deposition of the thin‐film layers. Such defects can result in high local parasitic current losses, that is, local shunt spots. Depending on the nature of the defects, their geometrical distribution can either be microscopic, for example, induced by texture morphology, or macroscopic, for example, induced by particles during processing. Instead of avoiding the defects themselves, so‐called shunt‐quenching methods have been proposed to mitigate the associated efficiency loss. This work investigates the following recently suggested methods: 1) a deliberate current mismatch; and 2) engineering the resistive properties of the intermediate layers between the subcells to electrically isolate the shunt. A comprehensive 3D device simulation study is presented to quantitatively analyze the (in)effectiveness of these methods. It is found that shunt‐quenching by a deliberate current mismatch can only play a minor role in the overall optimization of the current match point. Engineering the resistive properties of the intermediate layers must be generally considered ineffective. It only works for the rather specific case of strong and macroscopically distributed shunts with little cell‐to‐cell variation and only if some further requirements of the cell design are met.

A Review on the Implementation and Effectiveness of Lean Manufacturing Strategies for Industrial and Service Sectors

Ensuring a neat, clean, organized, safe, and productive workplace is essential for every organization. Waste and abnormalities may lead to a high loss of productivity and, consequently, capital, along with a significant compromise to the health and safety of the stakeholders. To overcome such challenges, Lean manufacturing is implemented worldwide. The main aim of this technique is to reduce or eliminate certain types of waste (such as those related to motion, transportation, overproduction, waiting time, etc.) that may contribute to financial loss for the companies. The Lean technique is hybridized with other industrial engineering methods such as DMAIC, Six Sigma, Kanban, etc., depending on the situation. This paper reviews some of the vital work in the last five years on implementing Lean manufacturing for various industrial, commercial, and service setups. It first introduces Lean manufacturing, discusses its implementation procedure and tools and techniques, and presents an analysis of previous attempts made by researchers and engineers using Lean to minimize waste, maximize productivity and efficiency, and enhance quality. The article ends with concluding remarks and highlighting the directions for future research. The novelty of this article lies in the fact that along with a basic introduction and review of the last five years’ literature, it also sheds light on current trends; recent developments; Lean integration with Six-Sigma, Kanban, Kaizen; automation and digital technology interventions to increase the effectiveness of Lean manufacturing; contribution of Lean in sustainable development.

Warmblood fragile foal syndrome: Pregnancy loss in Warmblood mares.

Fragile foal syndrome (FFS) or warmblood FFS Type 1 (WFFS) is a recessive, autosomal, hereditary, genetic defect causing late abortions, stillbirths and non-viable foals. Whether early pregnancy losses occur is unknown. To investigate how WFFS affects pregnancies and whether early pregnancy losses occur in WFFS matings and if there is a difference in pregnancy success between matings where both parents were allele carriers and those where only mare or stallion were WFFS carriers. Retrospective cohort study. Breeding records from a Warmblood stud farm were evaluated (2016-2019) and 2682 cycles of 177 mares analysed. Matings were assigned to four study groups, depending on the WFFS carrier status of the mare and stallion: N/WFFS × N/WFFS (n = 46), N/WFFS (mares) × N/N (n = 511), N/N × N/WFFS (stallions) (n = 191) and N/N × N/N (n = 2149). There were no differences in pregnancy rates between matings with only one WFFS carrier and those with non-carriers. When comparing N/WFFS × N/WFFS matings to those with only one or no WFFS-carrier, there were no increased pregnancy losses in the embryonic phase (day <42). By contrast, the N/WFFS × N/WFFS group had significantly more abortions (53.8%) than the other three study groups (7.9-9.2%; adjusted p < 0.0001). The higher losses were evenly distributed between the early (D42-150: 22.7% losses, n = 5) and late (D150-300: 29.4% losses, n = 5) foetal phase. The live foal rate per pregnancy for N/WFFS × N/WFFS matings was lowest (34.5%) and differed significantly (other groups 81%-84%; adjusted p < 0.0001); the peri- and postnatal mortality was higher (25%) compared with the other study groups (2.6%-3%). Low sample size in N/WWFS × N/WFFS matings, unbalanced study design, outcomes are descriptive, all mares from one stud farm. The mating of two WFFS carriers may lead to increased risks of pregnancy and foal loss.

Buffer Occupancy-Based Congestion Control Protocol for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

Wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) have stringent constraints and need to deliver data packets to the sink node within a predefined limited time. However, due to congestion, buffer overflow occurs and leads to the degradation of the quality-of-service (QoS) parameters of event information. Congestion in WMSNs results in exhausted node energy, degraded network performance, increased transmission delays, and high packet loss. Congestion occurs when the volume of data trying to pass through a network exceeds its capacity. First, the BOCC protocol uses two congestion indicators to detect congestion. One is the buffer occupancy and other is the buffer occupancy change rate. Second, a rate controller is proposed to protect high-priority I-frame packets during congestion. BOCC sends a congestion notification to the source node to reduce congestion in the network. The source node adjusts its data transmission rate after receiving the congestion notification message. In the proposed algorithm, the rate adjustment is made by discarding low-priority P-frame packets from the source nodes. Third, to further improve the performance of the BOCC protocol, the problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem and solved using convex optimization and sequential quadratic programming (SQP) methods. Experimental results based on Raspberry Pi sensor nodes show that the BOCC protocol achieves up to 16% reduction in packet loss and up to 23% reduction in average end-to-end delay compared to state-of-the-art congestion control algorithms.