Important Attributes Research Articles

Value-Focused Assessment of Container on Barge Freight Transportation Readiness

Container on Barge (COB) is a freight transport mode that utilizes barges to transport shipping containers. This mode has been relatively slow to develop in the United States compared to Europe and Asia. This research contributes a comprehensive and practical readiness assessment scorecard based on value-focused thinking for inland waterway ports to evaluate the feasibility of COB development. Based on a comprehensive literature review, the Container on Barge Readiness Assessment Scorecard covers important attributes and provides constructed measurements to assess COB port readiness. Applicability of the scorecard is demonstrated on nine global ports, and implications for engineering managers are presented.

Health-related quality of life of children and adolescents with sickle cell disease: An evolutionary concept analysis

The concept of Health-Related Quality of life (HRQOL) of children and adolescents with Sickle cell disease (SCD) is not clearly understood due to the lack of available studies. This review aimed to elucidate various attributes and related concepts of HRQOL in children and adolescents with SCD using Rodgers' (2000) concept analysis framework. A systematic search was performed to identify studies reporting the attributes, antecedents, consequences, surrogate terms, and related concepts of HRQOL in children and adolescents with SCD. The review included 75 articles, including 70 quantitative, two mixed-methods, and three qualitative studies. These were categorized into attributes, antecedents, consequences, surrogate terms, related concepts, and an exemplar of HRQOL in children and adolescents with SCD. The review identified nine important attributes. It includes multidimensional and dynamic concepts, acknowledging the illness, maintaining emotional balance and self-control, coping with the disease, pain management, stigma and discrimination, treatment burden, palliative care and personal resilience. The antecedents were knowledge and attitude toward the disease, self-efficacy, social support, spirituality and spiritual well-being, disease severity, access to healthcare, environmental factors, and financial considerations. The consequences were independence in personal life, improved physical health outcomes, psychological well-being, family and caregiver well-being, improved family, social and peer relationships and social interactions, improved school performance, and improved overall HRQOL and long-term outcomes. This analysis provides an overview of HRQOL concepts related to children and adolescents with SCD, guiding further research into nursing care and clinical practice.

North India Cancer Risk: A Detailed Review with Focus on Jammu and Kashmir Demographics.

Cancer is a global medical challenge, and research is at its peak to understand the unique mechanisms of cancer cells. The expanding field of epidemiology, including molecular and environmental studies, helps us better understand the distribution of molecular changes and environmental risk factors in the population. In the present review, we aimed to find out the different genes and environmental factors that are associated with different cancers in the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) region of the North Indian population. A Systematic approach of literature survey was used to curate research data based on genetic and environmental epidemiology specifying the J&K region. Of 640 articles found initially and screening of 490 records, 97 studies were included for the final review. It was observed that numerous genes that are strongly linked to various cancer types have been discovered as a result of the rising genotyping trend, which has grown in the demography exponentially over the last few decades. The majority of these genes are related to cell cycle regulation, cell growth signaling, and apoptosis regulation. Additionally, high promoter hypermethylation of various genes which were found to be attributed to the presence of distinct dietary patterns. The most important environmental risk attributes were salt tea consumption and dried pickles. In conclusion, the J&K population possesses many common polymorphisms in various genes with a small effect size that makes individuals more prone to different forms of cancers interacting with different environmental factors. What we can't do is, change the gene sequence or molecular changes which are the main changes for determining the susceptibility of any altered condition but what we can do is lower/ limit the exposure to the environmental factors which is a key element playing with the susceptibility's threshold. Therefore, limiting exposure to environmental factors could be a major step in lowering the risk of disease.

Sonic restoration: acoustic stimulation enhances plant growth-promoting fungi activity.

Ecosystem restoration interventions often utilize visible elements to restore an ecosystem (e.g. replanting native plant communities and reintroducing lost species). However, using acoustic stimulation to help restore ecosystems and promote plant growth has received little attention. Our study aimed to assess the effect of acoustic stimulation on the growth rate and sporulation of the plant growth-promoting fungus Trichoderma harzianum Rifai, 1969. We played a monotone acoustic stimulus (80 dB sound pressure level (SPL) at a peak frequency of 8 kHz and a bandwidth at -10 dB from the peak of 6819 Hz-parameters determined via review and pilot research) over 5 days to T. harzianum to assess whether acoustic stimulation affected the growth rate and sporulation of this fungus (control samples received only ambient sound stimulation less than 30 dB). We show that the acoustic stimulation treatments resulted in increased fungal biomass and enhanced T. harzianum conidia (spore) activity compared to controls. These results indicate that acoustic stimulation influences plant growth-promoting fungal growth and potentially facilitates their functioning (e.g. stimulating sporulation). The mechanism responsible for this phenomenon may be fungal mechanoreceptor stimulation and/or potentially a piezoelectric effect; however, further research is required to confirm this hypothesis. Our novel study highlights the potential of acoustic stimulation to alter important fungal attributes, which could, with further development, be harnessed to aid ecosystem restoration and sustainable agriculture.

Unlimited sampling beyond modulo

Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) act as a bridge between the analog and digital domains. Two important attributes of any ADC are sampling rate and its dynamic range. For bandlimited signals, the sampling should be above the Nyquist rate. It is also desired that the signals' dynamic range should be within that of the ADC's; otherwise, the signal will be clipped. Nonlinear operators such as modulo or companding can be used prior to sampling to avoid clipping. To recover the true signal from the samples of the nonlinear operator, either high sampling rates are required, or strict constraints on the nonlinear operations are imposed, both of which are not desirable in practice. In this paper, we propose a generalized flexible nonlinear operator which is sampling efficient. Moreover, by carefully choosing its parameters, clipping, modulo, and companding can be seen as special cases of it. We show that bandlimited signals are uniquely identified from the nonlinear samples of the proposed operator when sampled above the Nyquist rate. Furthermore, we propose a robust algorithm to recover the true signal from the nonlinear samples. Compared to the existing methods, our approach has a lower mean-squared error for a given sampling rate, noise level, and dynamic range. Our results lead to less constrained hardware design to address the dynamic range issues while operating at the lowest rate possible.

Sleep Disturbances in Health Professional Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Concept Analysis.

The aim is to delineate the concept of sleep disturbances in health professional students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A concept analysis was conducted. A systematic search was conducted for relevant articles published and performed from inception to July 5, 2024. Electronic databases searched included PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Embase and Web of Science. Rodgers' method of evolutionary concept analysis was used. A total of 50 pertinent articles were included in our analysis. Utilising inductive thematic analysis, this study identified attributes, antecedents and consequences of sleep disturbances. Important attributes included insomnia, disrupted sleep patterns, altered sleep duration/nocturnal sleep duration and poor sleep quality. Antecedents encompassed factors such as gender, age/grade levels, physical activity, screen time of digital production, mental health issues, COVID-19-related stressors, financial strain and academic stress. Consequences included both mental and physical health implications. By addressing sleep disturbances and promoting better sleep health among students, we can enhance their learning and performance, which could translate to improved patient care outcomes. Additionally, understanding and mitigating sleep disturbances can contribute to the development of a more resilient and effective health care workforce, capable of providing high-quality care even during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. No patient or public contribution.

Exploring Important Attributes, the Potential Use Cases and Feasibility of Introduction of Measles and Rubella Microarray Patches (MR-MAPs): Insights from Nine Countries.

Background: Microarray patches (MAPs) are innovative, needle-free vaccine delivery systems, suitable for administration by minimally trained health care workers or trained community health workers. Their introduction may transform immunization programmes, particularly for vaccines where high coverage is required for population immunity, such as measles, and where vaccine delivery is challenging, such as in low- and middle-income countries. Recognizing the need to understand how best to tailor these products to reflect country priorities, workshops on measles and rubella MAPs (MR-MAPs) were conducted in multiple regions to collect insights on needs and preferences from relevant stakeholders at country level. Methods: The CAPACITI Innovation Framework was used to structure stakeholder discussions in nine countries in the period from August 2022 to July 2023. The discussions, building on the findings from a situation analysis on the barriers related to measles and rubella vaccine delivery, followed the four-step process outlined in the framework. Results: Key barriers hindering delivery of measles and rubella vaccines across the countries were in the categories of human resource management, service delivery, and demand generation. MR-MAP attributes that stakeholders believed would reduce or eliminate these barriers included ease of preparation and administration, improved thermostability, fewer (ancillary) components, and single-dose presentation. Some attributes such as the site of administration, wear time, and storage volume could exacerbate certain barriers. Based on an understanding of key barriers, product attributes, and underserved populations, stakeholders identified several potential use cases for MR-MAPs: (i) delivery at a fixed health post, (ii) delivery through outreach sessions conducted by health workers, and (iii) administration by community health workers. To enable robust national decision making about the introduction of MR-MAPs and successful implementation, global and national evidence on feasibility and acceptability of MR-MAPs should be generated. To prepare for the potential introduction of MR-MAPs, immunization programmes should evaluate their immunization policies based on their preferred use cases and modify them if needed, for example, to enable community health workers to administer vaccines, along with making programmatic adjustments to waste management and training. Conclusions: MR-MAPs have the potential to reduce key barriers to MR delivery. Yet, their future impact depends on the ability of global stakeholders to steer the development of MR-MAPs to be responsive to country needs and preferences. The generation of evidence to enable robust decision making, timely modification of vaccine policies, and addressing programmatic considerations will be key to successful uptake.

Ecological Innovations in Hotel Companies: A Case Study of Poland

Entrepreneurship is one of the key pillars of the modern market economy. The most important attributes of entrepreneurship include innovation. According to many economists, most of the economic growth of developed countries should now be linked to the application and implementation of innovation. Among many types of innovations, ecological innovations (eco-innovations) deserve special attention. Ecological innovations contribute to the reduction of operating costs, increase in competitive advantage and facilitate entry into new markets. At the same time, they have a positive impact on the natural environment. The examples of eco-innovations are also increasingly often found in hotel companies. The aim of the publication is to discuss the current examples of the most significant ecological innovations in hotel enterprises. The article considers the significant impact of ecological innovations on the activities of this type of enterprises. In order to achieve the objectives of the publication, the Polish hotel market was taken into account. The article presents the following research thesis: Environmental innovations are an increasingly important element influencing the operation of hotel enterprises in Poland. However, there is still little awareness of them among guests. The article was written on the basis of books studies, monographs, magazines and netographic information. Methodology of research carried out for the needs of the work. To identify and analyze ecological innovations in hotels in Poland, as well as for the purposes of achieving the goals of the work, two methods of collecting primary research material were used. The first one is based on the analysis of existing data, including the analysis of guest opinions on the booking portal and literary criticism. The second one consisted of a diagnostic survey in which a non-standardized interview was used as a research technique on a deliberately selected group of hotel owners and managers from all over Poland, who have decided to introduce ecological innovations on the premises of their facilities. Interviews were conducted in January-February 2024. The interview did not take into account objects that temporarily suspended their activity. The results of the research positively verify theses.

Clustering and Interpretation of time-series trajectories of chronic pain using evidential c-means

The most well-known unsupervised classification algorithms allow for the identification of hard or probabilistic partitions. However, when working with complex datasets such as those found in the healthcare domain, it is important to note that these partitions may have limitations, particularly when considering the uncertainty associated with medical data. Indeed, these algorithms do not account for modeling outliers, imprecise, or uncertain observations. In this study, we focused on analyzing time series of barometers attributes related to pain intensity in individuals with chronic pain. Our goal was to identify different typologies of care trajectories, highlighting distinct trajectories of chronic pain through clustering techniques. We propose a soft clustering approach based on feature extraction and selection from sequential data, aiming to improve interpretability and enhance the performance of the clustering procedure. Time series feature extraction and selection effectively handles complex and noisy data, improving interpretability and clustering performance. Evidential soft clustering models data uncertainty and imprecision, providing a better representation of nuances and variations in complex, raw data. The first step involves extracting features from the available time series and selecting the most important attributes. For this purpose, we use a time series feature extractor (Tsfresh) and unsupervised feature selection methods, including unsupervised Random Forest, Laplacian Score, and unsupervised Spectral Feature Selection. The second step involves using the evidential c-means (ECM) clustering algorithm on the extracted attributes. The ECM method, based on belief functions, allows for generating a credal partition that has the ability to model various forms of uncertainty. This partition can then be transformed into a hard partition to study individuals based on this uncertainty criterion. The results reveal the existence of two clusters of chronic pain related to discomfort and well-being, exhibiting excellent separability and compactness. Additionally, an uncertain cluster emerges grouping patients with intermediate characteristics. The interpretability of the determined partitions through descriptive analysis, statistical tests, and repeated measures multinomial regression on clinical and demographic data allowed us to determine the profile of patients in the identified trajectories.

Additional reviews, perceived credibility and consumer online purchasing behavior: a study of university students in China

PurposeThis study explores the link between additional reviews, credibility, and consumers’ online purchasing behavior.Design/methodology/approachWe employ a 2 × 2 between-subjects design to measure subjects’ purchasing behavior with versus without additional reviews and with important versus non-important attributes. A total of 529 valid questionnaires are collected from university students across 30 Chinese provinces.FindingsThe addition of negative reviews to a positive initial review enhances consumers’ perceived credibility of the reviewer and the overall review content. This effect is positively moderated by the attribute importance in additional reviews. Moreover, we find that as the time interval increases, consumers’ perceived credibility gradually increases but eventually decreases after reaching a certain threshold. In addition, the attribute importance in additional reviews negatively moderates the impact of perceived credibility on consumer purchasing behavior.Originality/valueExisting studies on first and subsequent reviews mainly focus on the difference in perceived usefulness between the two. They do not examine how additional reviews affect potential customers’ perceived credibility and their purchase decision-making. This study bridges the gap between the word-of-mouth literature and marketing practices.

Fatty acid composition and sensory properties as descriptors of differentiation of specialty coffees based on spontaneous and induced processing methods

The composition of fatty acids (FA) and sensory properties of specialty coffees from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi, and Rwanda processed by spontaneous methods (i.e., natural, washed, and honey) and induced methods (i.e., anaerobic fermentation and carbonic maceration) were determined. Palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and arachidic acids and 10 important attributes of the coffee such as fragrance/aroma, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, overall, uniformity, clean cup, sweetness, and total score were evaluated. The FA composition and sensory scores following the Specialty Coffee American Association protocols were used to differentiate 19 coffee samples based on the processing method. Principal component analysis (PCA) effectively differentiated coffees processed by spontaneous methods from those processed by induced methods. Notably, Peruvian coffee processed by carbonic maceration exhibited the highest linoleic acid content, while the same coffee processed naturally showed the highest palmitic acid content. All coffee samples scored 10 points for uniformity, clean cup, and sweetness. The highest total scores for the spontaneous processing methods were 88.75 (washed Kenyan) and 87.75 (washed Ethiopian) but ranged from 82.75 to 85.00 for the other coffees. For the best specialty coffees processed by induced methods, scores ranged from 87.25 to 88.00 in seven out of nine coffees. Coffees from different geographical areas processed with innovative methods, such as anaerobic fermentation, carbonic maceration, and high-scoring spontaneously processed coffees, were among the highest qualities.

Stated preferences of adolescents and young adults for sexual and reproductive health services in Africa: a systematic review protocol

BackgroundAdolescence and young adulthood are critical life stages with varied healthcare needs. Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) are often confronted with challenges in their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and...

High-dose chemotherapy for patients with stage III breast cancer with homologous recombination deficiency: a discrete choice experiment among healthcare providers.

High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue (HDCT) is currently under investigation as a potential therapy for patients with stage III HER2-negative breast cancer with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). In addition to survival, the impact on short- and long-term side effects might influence the uptake of HDCT by healthcare professionals. As part of the SUBITO trial, we investigated healthcare professionals' treatment (outcome) preferences for patients with HRD stage III HER2-negative breast cancer and established how healthcare professionals make trade-offs between these treatment outcomes. We conducted a discrete choice experiment in which healthcare professionals were asked to choose repeatedly between scenarios with two treatment options (HDCT or standard of care (SOC)) that varied in outcome with respect to 10-year overall survival (OS), short-term toxicity, long-term cognitive impairment, and premature menopause. We analysed treatment preferences, relative importance, and trade-offs using a multinomial logistic model. Thirty-five of the 151 dedicated breast cancer professionals with extensive experience in treating breast cancer patients completed the survey. The 10-year OS and long-term cognitive impairment were the most important attributes. The results indicate a requirement of 10.4% and 25.1% absolute additional improvement in the 10-year survival rate to justify accepting moderate or severe long-term cognitive impairment as a trade-off, respectively. Therefore, we found in our dataset that healthcare professionals expected a large improvement in 10-year OS to accept moderate to severe cognitive impairment. This information calls for further research into chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment, shared decision-making, and treatment preferences for patients with stage III breast cancer.

An Artificial Neural Network Prediction Model of Depressive Symptoms among Women with Abnormal Papanicolaou Smear Results before and after Diagnostic Procedures.

(1) Background: Cervical screening and additional diagnostic procedures often lead to depression. This research aimed to develop a prediction model for depression in women who received an abnormal Papanicolaou screening test, prior to and following the diagnostic procedures. (2) Methods: The study included women who had a positive Papanicolaou screening test (N = 172) and attended the Clinical Center of Kragujevac in Serbia for additional diagnostic procedures (colposcopy/biopsy/endocervical curettage). Women filled out a sociodemographic survey and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression questionnaire (CES-D scale) before and after diagnostic procedures. A prediction model was built with multilayer perceptron neural networks. (3) Results: A correlation-based filter method of feature selection indicated four variables that correlated with depression both prior to and following the diagnostic procedures-anxiety, depression, worry, and concern about health consequences. In addition, the use of sedatives and a history of both induced and spontaneous abortion correlated with pre-diagnostic depression. Important attributes for predicting post-diagnostic depression were scores for the domains 'Tension/discomfort' and 'Embarrassment' and depression in personal medical history. The accuracy of the pre-diagnostic procedures model was 70.6%, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.668. The model for post-diagnostic depression prediction showed an accuracy of 70.6%, and an AUROC = 0.836. (4) Conclusions: This study helps provide means to predict the occurrence of depression in women with an abnormal Papanicolaou screening result prior to and following diagnostic procedures, which can aid healthcare professionals in successfully providing timely psychological support to those women who are referred to further diagnostics.

Defining of the nasal anthropometry on facial computed tomography in subjects with epilepsy and healthy subjects.

Epilepsy is a frequent chronic and genetic brain disease. In diagnose of genetic and craniofacial disease, the face is one of the gold standard phenotypic features. This study was carried out to determine the angle and linear measurements of face region in Turkish healthy and epilepsy subjects, and to apply a feature selection method to identify the most important attributes that affect epilepsy decision. The retrospective and observational study was conducted with 120 subjects with epilepsy aged between 18 to 60 years (56 males; 64 females) and 60 healthy subjects aged between 18 and 55 years (29 males, 31 females). Pyramidal angle performed from 3 reference points, nasal bone length, the width of piriform aperture, nasofrontal angle, nasolabial angle, distance between glabella and nasion were measured on computed tomography. Also, we used supervised machine learning to learn classification models to detect epilepsy as our dataset has class label where 1 means epilepsy, 2 means healthy. The well-known classification model learning algorithms implemented in Weka (with version 3.8.6) machine learning toolkit were applied. All parameters excluding nasal bone length were higher in epilepsy patients than in healthy subjects. Also, there was a significant difference in nasal pyramidal angle nasal bone, nasal pyramidal angle nasal tip, piriform aperture, and nasal bone lengths between epilepsy and healthy subjects. However, age related changes for healthy subjects were no seen in healthy subjects. In epilepsy subjects there was a significant difference in 6 measurements all nasal pyramidal angles, piriform aperture width, nasofrontal angle, and nasolabial angle. Gender related changes were found in only nasal pyramidal angle nasal root and nasal bone of healthy subjects, in nasal pyramidal angle nasal bone, nasal bone length, nasofrontal angle of epilepsy subjects. We can say epilepsy may affect the some facial parameters and these, although anthropometric measurements are affected by age and gender parameters. Comprehensive knowledge of this region's normal references ranges is essential for planning, proper selection of silicone implants or osteotomy determining the limitations of the surgical field and minimizing the risk of complication and performing aesthetic facial surgery or rhinoplasty in epilepsy patients.

Sorbic acid is an efficient preservative in pea-based meat analogues

The popularity of plant-based alternatives to meat has increased due to advancements in important attributes such as taste. Using adequate processing at elevated temperatures combined with aseptic packaging, especially in combination with storage below the freezing point, microbial hazards in these products are negligible. However, for plant-based alternatives to ham, sausages, spreads, or cheese, for example, on sandwiches, the product must withstand microbial growth in the fridge after breaking the seal of the food packaging, as everything is not typically consumed directly. Currently, there are few preservations methods, but one solution is adding weak acid preservatives, with less inherent health concerns compared to sulfites and nitrite, e.g. carcinogenicity and hypersensitivity. To be fully effective an acidic pH is required. In this study, an approach where sausage-resembling meat analogues with different pHs (4.14–5.56) were prepared without preservatives, with potassium sorbate (2000 mg/kg), or sodium disulfite (200 mg/kg), and thereafter subjected to standardised challenge tests to elucidate the efficacy. Sorbate was the only preservative effective to prevent growth of all tested organisms, Penicillium roqueforti, Pichia fermentans and Listeria monocytogenes. The identified superiority of sorbate compared to other tested preservatives is relevant knowledge when developing preservation strategies for other types of meat analogues.

Ideators’ success in innovation tournaments: Participation, productivity, or pressure?

Success in innovation tournaments depends critically on ideators’ attributes. The authors test three important attributes: participation (i.e., one-shot vs. serial ideators), productivity (number of ideas submitted), and time pressure (approaching deadline). The data come from nine fixed-time innovation tournaments conducted for large corporations. Findings and contributions are as follows: first, while prior research has emphasized fixation or self-selection, we find that a diversity of skills (a) leads to serial participation and (b) favors success. Second, while prior research has led to contradictory results on productivity, we find that the number of prior cumulative ideas submitted within an innovation tournament positively affects success for serial but not one-shot ideators. However, the number of submitted ideas on a single day negatively affects success for all ideators. Third, while prior research has emphasized the importance of deadlines to avoid procrastination, we find that deadlines lead to rushing of ideas with a steeply increasing number of ideas but declining quality. The phenomenon of rushing is highest in the shortest innovation tournaments.

Stakeholder-informed positivity thresholds for disease markers and risk scores: a methodological framework and an application in obstructive lung disease

ObjectivesA positivity threshold is often applied to markers or predicted risks to guide disease management. These thresholds are often decided exclusively by clinical experts despite being sensitive to the preferences of patients and general public as ultimate stakeholders. Study Design and SettingWe propose an analytical framework for quantifying the net benefit (NB) of an evidence-based positivity threshold based on combining preference-sensitive (eg, how individuals weight benefits and harms of treatment) and preference-agnostic (eg, the magnitude of benefit and the risk of harm) parameters. We propose parsimonious choice experiments to elicit preference-sensitive parameters from stakeholders, and targeted evidence synthesis to quantify the value of preference-agnostic parameters. We apply this framework to maintenance of azithromycin therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using a discrete choice experiment to estimate preference weights for attribute level associated with treatment. We identify the positivity threshold on 12-month moderate or severe exacerbation risk that would maximize the NB of treatment in terms of severe exacerbations avoided. ResultsIn the case study, the prevention of moderate and severe exacerbations (benefits) and the risk of hearing loss and gastrointestinal symptoms (harms) emerged as important attributes. Four hundred seventy seven respondents completed the discrete choice experiment survey. Relative to each percent risk of severe exacerbation, preference weights for each percent risk of moderate exacerbation, hearing loss, and gastrointestinal symptoms were 0.395 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.338–0.456), 1.180 (95% CI 1.071–1.201), and 0.253 (95% CI 0.207–0.299), respectively. The optimal threshold that maximized NB was to treat patients with a 12-month risk of moderate or severe exacerbations ≥12%. ConclusionThe proposed methodology can be applied to many contexts where the objective is to devise positivity thresholds that need to incorporate stakeholder preferences. Applying this framework to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pharmacotherapy resulted in a stakeholder-informed treatment threshold that was substantially lower than the implicit thresholds in contemporary guidelines. Plain Language SummaryDoctors often compare disease markers (such as laboratory results) or risk scores for a patient with cut-off values from guidelines to decide which patients need to be treated. For example, guidelines recommend that patients whose 10-year risk of heart attack is more than 10% be given statin pills. However, guidelines that recommend such treatment rules might not consider what matters most to patients (like how much they do not like side effects of the drugs). In this study, we propose a mathematical method where preferences of individuals on the trade-off between treatment benefits and harms can be used to determine the best treatment rule. We apply this method to the choice of antibiotic therapy for patients with lung airway diseases. We find that, given patient and public preferences on treatment benefit and risks, those with a 12% or more risk of experiencing a lung attack should receive antibiotic therapy. This patient-oriented cut-off is significantly lower than the cut-off values currently used by guidelines, which are in the 60%–70% range. We recommend applying this method whenever scientists must make recommendations on treatment rules where patient or public preferences might influence those rules.

Characterization of Key Aroma Compounds of Soy Sauce-like Aroma Produced in Ferment of Soybeans by Bacillus subtilis BJ3-2.

Fermented soybeans are popular among many for their rich soy sauce-like aroma. However, the precise composition of this aroma remains elusive, with key aroma compounds unidentified. In this study, we screened the candidate genes ilvA and serA in BJ3-2 based on previous multi-omics data, and we constructed three mutant strains, BJ3-2-ΔserA, BJ3-2-ΔilvA, and BJ3-2-ΔserAΔilvA, using homologous recombination to fermented soybeans with varying intensities of soy sauce-like aroma. Our objective was to analyze samples that exhibited different aroma intensities resulting from the fermented soybeans of BJ3-2 and its mutant strains, thereby exploring the key flavor compounds influencing soy sauce-like aroma as well analyzing the effects of ilvA and serA on soy sauce-like aroma. We employed quantitative descriptive sensory analysis (QDA), gas chromatography-olfactometry-mass spectrometry (GC-O-MS), relative odor activity value analysis (rOAV), principal component analysis (PCA), orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), and partial least squares regression analysis (PLSR). QDA revealed the predominant soy sauce-like aroma profile of roasted and smoky aromas. GC-MS detected 99 volatile components, predominantly pyrazines and ketones, across the four samples, each showing varying concentrations. Based on rOAV (>1) and GC-O, 12 compounds emerged as primary contributors to soy sauce-like aroma. PCA and OPLS-DA were instrumental in discerning aroma differences among the samples, identifying five compounds with VIP > 1 as key marker compounds influencing soy sauce-like aroma intensity levels. Differential analyses of key aroma compounds indicated that the mutant strains of ilvA and serA affected soy sauce-like aroma mainly by affecting pyrazines. PLSR analysis indicated that roasted and smoky aromas were the two most important sensory attributes of soy sauce-like aroma, with pyrazines associated with roasted aroma and guaiacol associated with smoky aroma. In addition, substances positively correlated with the intensity of soy sauce-like aroma were verified by additional experiments. This study enhances our understanding of the characteristic flavor compounds in soy sauce-like aroma ferments, provides new perspectives for analyzing the molecular mechanisms of soy sauce-like aroma formation, and provides a theoretical framework for the targeted enhancement of soy sauce-like aroma in various foods.

Analysis of Short Fiber Measurements Calculated from the Length Distribution from an HVI Fibrogram

ABSTRACT Cotton fiber length is one of the most important fiber quality attributes, as it has a direct impact on the quality of spun yarn. Of particular interest is information regarding the shorter fibers in the sample, as research has shown that shorter fibers adversely affect yarn quality. In a previous work, some authors proposed a method whereby a complete fiber length distribution can be calculated from the fibrogram produced by the USTER High Volume Instrument (HVI). In this paper, we perform an exploratory analysis on a large set of over 5,000 samples, focusing on short fiber measurements provided by the new method of reconstructing the fiber length distribution from the HVI fibrogram. Overall, the results demonstrate that the short fiber measurements based on the reconstructed distributions of HVI fibrograms reveal structure in the data not present in other short fiber measurements from the HVI or the USTER Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS). Additionally, we show that the new fibrogram-based measurements can detect fiber breakage that occurs as a result of AFIS testing. In short, the results indicate that the length measurements based on the new method offer an improvement over the existing measurement techniques.