Integrative Process Research Articles

Conceptualizing social risk in relation to climate change and assisted ecosystem adaptation.

Realizing positive social and environmental outcomes from assisted ecosystem adaptation requires the management of complex, uncertain, and ambiguous risks. Using assisted coral reef adaptation as a case study, this article presents a conceptual framework that defines social impacts as the physical and cognitive consequences for people of planned intervention and social risks as potential impacts transformed into objects of management through assessment and governance. Reflecting on its multiple uses in the literature, we consider "social risk" in relation to risks to individuals and communities, risks to First Peoples, risks to businesses or project implementation, possibilities for amplified social vulnerability, and risk perceptions. Although much of this article is devoted to bringing clarity to the different ways in which social risk manifests and to the multiple characters of risk and uncertainty, it is apparent that risk governance itself must be an inherently integrative and social process.

Innovative Exercise for Nursing PhD Students: Addressing Biases During Integrative Literature Reviews.

Nursing PhD students face the difficulty of conducting integrative literature reviews that may lead to bias and lack of rigor particularly in the literature search, data evaluation, and data analysis stages. This article describes the development and use of an arts-based learning exercise to identify potential biases and improve on the critical and writing skills of students during the integrative literature review process. The exercise consisted of visits to the university's museum, moderated discussions with nursing faculty and the museum educator, visual analyses of artwork, building art portfolios, and writing assignments. The exercise was modified over 3 years based on student feedback. Students reported the exercise helped in critical and writing skills, in identifying areas of potential bias, and in enhancing the methodological rigor of the review process. Conducting literature reviews is integral in doctoral nursing education and this innovative exercise can facilitate this process. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(X):XXX-XXX.].

Face perception and social cognitive development in early autism: A prospective longitudinal study from 3 months to 7 years of age.

Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is characterized by atypical attention to eyes and faces, but the onset and impact of these atypicalities remain unclear. This prospective longitudinal study examined face perception in infants who develop ASC (N = 22, female = 5, 100% White) compared with typically developing infants (N = 131, female = 65, 55.6% White), tracking social-cognitive and ASC development through age seven. Reduced interest in direct gaze and eyes during infancy correlated with atypical development of adaptive behavior at age four and theory of mind at age seven. Principal component analyses revealed less integrated processing of facial features and eye-gaze information in ASC infants, potentially impacting their childhood social functioning. These findings highlight the intertwined nature of social-cognitive development and ASC.

Ultra-stretchable triboelectric touch pad with sandpaper micro-surfaces for Transformer-assisted gesture recognition

Touch pad based on triboelectric nanogenerator are attracting attention in the field of wearable electronics and human-machine interaction. However, it is still a challenge to realize touch pads combining large-area metamorphic stretchability, high power triboelectric sensing, intelligent free-sliding recognition and availability in extreme environments. Here, we fabricate an ultra-stretchable triboelectric touch pad by integrating liquid metal and high performance hydrogel-based triboelectric sensor arrays, which achieves Transformer-assisted gesture recognition for drone flight direction control. The internal hydrogel electrode has great stretchability, electrical conductivity and anti-freeze properties. Encapsulated in Ecoflex with sandpaper micro-surfaces, it endows high triboelectric power density and pressure sensitivity. With screen-printed liquid metal, the integrated touch pad is fully ultra-stretchable and large-area strain stability. Combining Internet of Things, we build a Transformer-assisted human machine interface. Notably, slide gesture signal peak deviation is reduced by integral processing. The random free-sliding gesture signals are parsed by the Transformer algorithm with 96.83 % accuracy. Multi-threaded signal processing improves the response speed and throughput of the system. The accurate real-time gesture recognition for drone flight direction control in extreme environment is realized. This human machine interface can facilitate development of next generation intelligent remote interactive platforms.

Removal of Ammonia and Colour from Landfill Leachate using Integrated Electrocoagulation-Zeolite Adsorption Processes

The amount of waste generated in Malaysia had increased annually due to both economic and population accelerations. This resulted in an increase in leachate production that contains a high amount of ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and colour, which is a severe problem for both environments as well as for human health. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the potential of Electrocoagulation (EC) – zeolite adsorption for removing NH3-N and colour from landfill leachate. In the experimental works, two batch studies consist of batch EC using aluminium (Al) cylindrical electrode and batch adsorption study using clinoptilolite zeolites adsorbent were conducted using leachate sample collected from Pulau Burung Sanitary Landfill (PBSL). The batch EC experiment was carried out to determine the optimum removal of NH3-N and colour by the effect of current density (7 - 35 mA/mm2), initial pH (5 - 9), electrolysis time (0 - 90 minutes) and inter-electrode distance (5 - 25 mm). An integrated EC - zeolite adsorption was carried out under the optimum condition of 2.0 g/150 mL adsorbent dosage, contact time of 100 minutes and an initial pH value of 8. Based on the experiment, almost 50% of NH3-N and 95% of colour were removed using a single EC under the optimum current density of 14.0 mA/mm2, pH 5, electrolysis time of 75 minutes and 15 mm of inter-electrode distance. A comparison of colour removal between single EC and EC-Zeolite showed the same degradation performance. The interaction of hydrogen ion (H+) with aluminium hydroxide ion (Al (OH)3) produces during EC stabilises small particles forming larger sludge that reduces colour concentration. The removal of NH3-N increased from 50.0% to 93% when EC was integrated with clinoptilolite zeolite adsorption. In conclusion, the results show that both processes can potentially remove colour while the integrated process effectively removes NH3-N from landfill leachate. The proposed treatment helps optimise process performance while minimising the operational cost of the treatment. Thus, the proposed integrated EC – zeolite adsorption processes can be an alternative to landfill leachate treatment which aligns with the 12thMalaysia Plan to reduce pollution and carbon emissions to become a carbon neutral nation as early as 2050.

Efficient Governance for Indian States using Big Data

Big data integration with e-governance offers revolutionary potential to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of state government operations in India. In addition to highlighting important research gaps and outlining complete solutions, this article investigates the role of big data technologies in modernizing e-governance frameworks. Our approach includes a comprehensive assessment of the literature as well as the creation of theoretical frameworks for sentiment analysis, data integration, predictive analytics, and real-time data processing. We suggest cutting-edge uses for these frameworks in disaster management, law enforcement, traffic management, healthcare, and environmental monitoring. The findings of this study have implications for better governance, better decision-making, and better public services. The application of these frameworks in pilot projects in different states, comparative analyses to find best practices, and ongoing technological adaptation to changing governance requirements are some of the future paths that these projects will pursue. The research highlights the importance of implementing big data to achieve an efficient, transparent, and flexible government in India.

Audio–video collaborative JND estimation model for multimedia applications

With the rapid development of the Internet and multimedia technologies, multimedia applications integrating audio and video are becoming increasingly prevalent in both everyday life and professional environments. A critical challenge is to significantly enhance compression efficiency and bandwidth utilization while maintaining high-quality user experiences. To address this challenge, the Just Noticeable Distortion (JND) estimation model, which leverages the perceptual characteristics of the Human Visual System (HVS), is widely used in image and video coding for improved data compression. However, human visual perception is an integrative process that involves both visual and auditory stimuli. Therefore, this paper investigates the influence of audio signals on visual perception and presents a collaborative audio–video JND estimation model tailored for multimedia applications. Specifically, we characterize audio loudness, duration, and energy as temporal perceptual features, while assigning the audio saliency superimposed on the image plane as the spatial perceptual feature. An audio JND adjustment factor is then designed using a segmentation function. Finally, the proposed model combines the video-based JND model with the audio JND adjustment factor to form the audio–video collaborative JND estimation model. Compared with existing JND models, the model presented in this paper achieves the best subjective quality, with an average PSNR value of 26.97 dB. The experimental results confirm that audio significantly impacts human visual perception. The proposed audio–video collaborative JND model effectively enhances the accuracy of JND estimation for multimedia data, thereby improving compression efficiency and maintaining high-quality user experiences.

An incoherent state‐identity approach to African regional disorder

AbstractIn contrast to the conventional literature, which suggests that African disorder underlies religious factors, strategic resources, and ethnic conflicts, this paper offers an analytical account of structural patterns in “State identity.” A new concept model of state identity is proposed through a designed framework for the identity‐building process and is justified by social theories and psychoanalysis. This study argues that historical and traumatic social parameters formed an incoherent state identity due to an interruption in the group‐nation state evolutionary process. No existing study articulates the construction of a self‐identity within the state's integrative process, its development (or interruption thereof) in a sub‐categorical identity, and its causal relation to conflicts; hence, the current study fills that gap.

FEATURES OF ADAPTATION OF CITIZENS OF UKRAINE TO EU COUNTRIES: EMIGRATION CONTEXT

The article examines the essence of the ongoing integration process of Ukrainians into the society of European countries, the peculiarities of the social and personal adaptation of Ukrainian citizens to the EU against the background of forced emigration due to the military conflict in terms of the provisions of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the social field. The main qualities of the social field are considered, such as the autonomy of the field, the mutual influence of agents on each other, the influence and types of capital, in particular economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital, as the basis of inequality and struggle within the field. An analysis of the development of relations between the integration of Ukrainians and European society is carried out, taking into account the main indicators of the capital possessed by both parties.The purpose of the article is to study the integration process of Ukraine in the EU in the context of the development of the leading provisions of P. Bourdieu’s theory of the social field.The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the integrative process of society is an extremely complex multi-level procedure, which affects both numerous social relations, separate relations between a person and the State, the relations of various social formations with each other, as well as internal aspects of the individual, forms a new worldview, initiates a different cultural and psychological composition. The integration of Ukrainians is taking place against the background of complex political, military and psychological events. In general, full-fledged integration requires time and constant efforts, changes in the socio-cultural way of life require new adaptation mechanisms and the necessary qualities for successful assimilation of a new way of life and awareness of oneself as a part of another cultural and social stratum. Absolutely all spheres of human life are subject to change, so it is possible to talk about the formation of a new personality, one that did not exist before.It is clear that all these points are gaining research relevance both at the theoretical level and at the level of socio-political practices and the development of an effective international social policy. The result of the article is a complete structural analysis of the social field, which is formed as a result of the integration process between the citizens of Ukraine and the citizens of the European Union states, the concept of signs of the autonomy of the field, mutual influence and mutual dependence of agents, characteristic of the social field according to the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, is developed, data are given to confirm of these features, as well as a study of the types of capital belonging to Ukrainians and citizens of European society, which determine the interaction of both communities, act as means of struggle for power and position in the society that is being formed. In the article, we come to the conclusion that the field that is created has the characteristics of a social field, since all the characteristics of a social field according to P. Bourdieu are present. It is proposed to conduct further research into the patterns of integration of Ukrainians into the EU taking into account this conceptual framework.

Combined production of biofuel precursors, platform chemicals, and catalyst material from the integral processing of rice bran

This research reports first-time results regarding the complete processing of rice bran through the combination of extraction, processing hydrothermal, sulfonation, and trans-esterification procedures, generating biofuel precursors – fermentable sugars, bio-oil, hydro-char, and methyl esters – platform chemicals, and a catalyst material. Analyzes of XRD, FTIR, BET, SEM, EDS, calorific power, GC, and HPLC were employed for the product characterizations. Concerning the hydrothermal processing, the “temperature” and “biomass/water mass ratio” demonstrated an interesting influence on the results, where the thermal parameter had a greater impact on directing the process to obtain products resulting from the biomass polysaccharides thermal decomposition. At 260 °C, 11.98 and 11.40 g (100 g biomass)−1 of fermentable sugars and platform chemicals were obtained, respectively. At 300 °C, the production of bio-oil and hydro-char were benefited, yielding 10.48 and 30.19 g (100 g biomass)−1 of each component, respectively. The hydro-char-sulfonated catalyst demonstrated an attractive catalytic capacity in esterifying the free fatty acids of the rice bran oil, while simultaneously presenting some difficulty in transesterifying its triglycerides, indicating limitations in the mass transfer of the heterogeneous reaction. Using 4 wt% of catalyst, 90.1 % of the free fatty acids and 60.3 % of the triglycerides contained in the oil were trans-esterified into methyl esters after 6 h, respectively, with no decrease in its catalytic activity being observed after four reuses. This process combination presents an alternative arrangement for the full processing of lignocellulosic and oily biomasses, in addition to representing an approach matchless for the rice bran.

Food process contaminants: formation, occurrence, risk assessment and mitigation strategies - a review.

Thermal treatment of food can lead to the formation of potentially harmful chemicals, known as process contaminants. These are adventitious contaminants that are formed in food during processing and preparation. Various food processing techniques, such as heating, drying, grilling, and fermentation, can generate hazardous chemicals such as acrylamide (AA), advanced glycation end products (AGEs), heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), furan, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), N-nitroso compounds (NOCs), monochloropropane diols (MCPD) and their esters (MCPDE) which can be detrimental to human health. Despite efforts to prevent the formation of these compounds during processing, eliminating them is often challenging due to their unknown formation mechanisms. It is critical to identify the potential harm to human health in processed food and understand the mechanisms by which harmful compounds form during processing, as prolonged exposure to these toxic compounds can lead to health problems. Various mitigation strategies, such as the use of diverse pre- and post-processing treatments, product reformulation, additives, variable process conditions, and novel integrated processing techniques, have been proposed to control these food hazards. In this review, we summarize the formation and occurrence, the potential for harm to human health produced by process contaminants in food, and potential mitigation strategies to minimize their impact.

Modeling and validation of multi-objective optimization for mixed xylene hybrid distillation/crystallization process

Innovative hybrid distillation/crystallization processes offer significant energy saving and cost reduction for the separation of isomer mixtures. Despite of the enormous potential of hybrid separation processes, they are not widely exploited in industrial applications due to the complexity of the design and multi-objective optimization of these highly integrated processes. In this study, the mixed xylene hybrid scheme was first simulated to provide the initial value of non-dominated sorted genetic algorithm-III. The operating parameters were then optimized through the Python-Aspen platform. Coupled with the online monitoring tool, a rigorous melt crystallization experiment was developed to track crystal size distribution (CSD) and crystal shape. By comparing the optimized results with the original ones, the total annual cost and CO2 emissions were, respectively, reduced by 5.35 % and 12.80 %. Through the experimental validation, the accuracy of the simulation-based crystallization CSD prediction method was discussed, and the potential and challenges of this novel method were proposed. This work aims to minimize the total annual cost and CO2 emissions of the mixed xylene hybrid process simultaneously and explore the feasibility of CSD prediction method by extracting two-dimensional crystal size information from online microscopic images.

Simultaneous production of syngas and carbon nanotubes from CO2/CH4 mixture over high-performance NiMo/MgO catalyst

Direct conversion of biogas via the integrative process of dry reforming of methane (DRM) and catalytic methane decomposition (CDM) has received a great attention as a promising green catalytic process for simultaneous production of syngas and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In this work, the effects of reaction temperature of 700–1100 °C and CH4/CO2 ratio of biogas were investigated over NiMo/MgO catalyst in a fixed bed reactor under industrial feed condition of pure biogas. The reaction at 700 °C showed a rapid catalyst deactivation within 3 h due to the formation of amorphous carbon on catalyst surface. At higher temperature of 800–900 °C, the catalyst can perform the excellent performance for producing syngas and carbon nanotubes. Interestingly, the smallest diameter and the highest graphitization of CNTs was obtained at high temperature of 1000 °C, while elevating temperature to 1100 °C leads to agglomeration of Ni particles, resulting in a larger size of CNTs. The reaction temperature exhibits optimum at 800 °C, providing the highest CNTs yield with high graphitization, high syngas purity up to 90.04% with H2/CO ratio of 1.1, and high biogas conversion (XCH4 = 86.44%, XCO2 = 95.62%) with stable performance over 3 h. The typical composition biogas (CH4/CO2 = 1.5) is favorable for the integration process, while the CO2 rich biogas caused a larger grain size of catalyst and a formation of molybdenum oxide nanorods (MoO3). The long-term stability of NiMo/MgO catalyst at 800 °C showed a stable trend (> 20 h). The experimental findings confirm that NiMo/MgO can perform the excellent activity and high stability at the optimum condition, allowing the process to be more promising for practical applications.

On integrals of birth–death processes at random time

In this paper, we consider a time-changed path integral of the homogeneous birth–death process. Here, the time changes according to an inverse stable subordinator. It is shown that its joint distribution with the time-changed birth–death process is governed by a fractional partial differential equation. In a linear case, the explicit expressions for the Laplace transform of their joint generating function, means, variances and covariance are obtained. The limiting behavior of this integral process has been studied. Later, we consider the fractional integrals of linear birth–death processes and their time-changed versions. The mean values of these fractional integrals are obtained and analyzed. In a particular case, it is observed that the time-changed path integral of the linear birth–death process and the fractional integral of time-changed linear birth–death process have equal mean growth.

Automated cardiac vortex ring identification and characterization based on Recurrent All-Pairs Field Transforms and Lagrangian Averaged Vorticity Deviation

Automated identification of cardiac vortices is a formidable task due to the complex nature of blood flow within the heart chambers. This study proposes a novel approach that algorithmically characterizes the identification criteria of these cardiac vortices based on Lagrangian Averaged Vorticity Deviation (LAVD). For this purpose, the Recurrent All-Pairs Field Transforms (RAFT) is employed to assess the optical flow over the Phase Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (PC-MRI), and to construct a continuous blood flow velocity field and reduce errors that arise from the integral process of LAVD. Additionally, Generalized Hough Transform (GHT) is applied for automated depiction of the structure of cardiac vortices. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated and validated by the computation of the acquired cardiac flow data. The results of this comprehensive visual and analytical study show that the evolution of cardiac vortices can be effectively described and displayed, and the RAFT framework for optical flow can synthesize the in-between PC-MRIs with high accuracy. This allows cardiologists to acquire a deeper understanding of intracardiac hemodynamics and its impact on cardiac functional performance.

Scutellarin alleviates renal ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibiting the MAPK pathway and pro-inflammatory macrophage polarization.

Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is an integral process in renal transplantation, which results in compromised graft survival. Macrophages play an important role in both the early inflammatory period and late fibrotic period in response to IRI. In this study, we investigated whether scutellarin (SCU) could protect against renal IRI by regulating macrophage polarization. Mice were given SCU (5-50 mg/kg) by gavage 1 h earlier, followed by a unilateral renal IRI. Renal function and pathological injury were assessed 24 h after reperfusion. The results showed that administration of 50 mg/kg SCU significantly improved renal function and renal pathology in IRI mice. In addition, SCU alleviated IRI-induced apoptosis. Meanwhile, it reduced macrophage infiltration and inhibited pro-inflammatory macrophage polarization. Moreover, in RAW 264.7 cells and primary bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) exposed to SCU, we found that 150 μM SCU inhibited these cells to polarize to an inflammatory phenotype induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). However, SCU has no influence on anti-inflammatory macrophage polarization invivo and invitro induced by in interleukin-4 (IL-4). Finally, we explored the effect of SCU on the activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway both invivo and invitro. We found that SCU suppressed the activation of the MAPK pathway, including the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38. Our results demonstrated that SCU protects the kidney against IRI by inhibiting macrophage infiltration and polarization toward pro-inflammatory phenotype via the MAPK pathway, suggesting that SCU may be therapeutically important in treatment of IRI.

Morphofunctional changes in brain and peripheral blood in aged Wistar rats due to AlCl3 exposure

The purpose of the study: To examine morphofunctional changes of brain and peripheral blood in aged Wistar rats to observe adaptive reactions as a response on AlCl3 exposure. Methods: The work was performed on male Wistar rats, 24 months of age. Animals consumed a solution of AlCl3 100 mg/kg per day for 60 days. Morphological changes of neurons and microglia, mRNA expression levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, microglia activation markers, amyloid-related and hypoxia-related proteins, as well as monocyte and lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood, were examined. Results: AlCl3-treated old rats showed the increasing of hyperchromic neurons in 2 out of 3 examined regions of the hippocampus; morphological features of microglia cells’ dystrophy; the upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine Il-18 and the downregulation of anti-inflammatory cytokine Il-10, as well as App, Bace1, and Hif-1a; the decreasing of percentage of B-cells, general CD3+ lymphocyte population, including CD4+ T-helpers and CD8+ cytotoxic cells, but the increasing of CD4+/CD8+ ratio in peripheral blood. Conclusion: AlCl3-treated aged rats demonstrated systemic maladaptation to AlCl3 impact. Unlike adult rodents, aged ones have the background of inflammaging, as well as elderly people. The exposure of AlCl3 could potentially be a replacement of integral cellular and molecular processes accompanying age-related diseases, presenting in most elderly people, as an enhancer of inflammaging and hypoxia. These conditions make this model of neurodegeneration a reliable one to explore the initial mechanisms of such detrimental process, as well as prove aged rats more suitable subjects to perform future researches in this field.

Multi-band microbolometer in CMOS technology

Multi-spectral imaging enhances the information diversity of the object with complex, expensive, and low integrated components. Here, we demonstrated an antenna-coupled microbolometric detector in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, utilizing SiO2 absorption and L-shaped fractal antenna to achieve multi-band detection from infrared (IR) to terahertz (THz). Experimental results demonstrate that the detector can achieve high sensitivity detection in both THz and IR bands, with the maximum detectivity of 5 (108 cm·Hz1/2/W @305 GHz and 7 (108 cm·Hz1/2/W @8.55 µm, respectively. The presented multi-spectral detector is easily implementable in integrated circuit process, conducive to high-density, low-cost, and high-performance array imaging.

Data acquisition system for a newly-built hard x-ray/soft gamma-ray spectrometer imaging system on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak

A portable hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray spectrometer imaging system (HXS) has been constructed to gather physical information about fast electrons confined in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). The system is installed on the low field side of the mid-plane and provides a viewing field tangential to the toroidal field. The system utilizes a two-dimensional Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe) semiconductor detector with 128 channels, and a data acquisition (DAQ) system has been designed for it. The DAQ system features a highly integrated signal processing system with the capability of high-speed processing and digital transmission of signals from 128 channels. In addition, a related DAQ software has been developed using a modular design approach, facilitating tasks such as data reception, storage, and preliminary processing. HXS, which has been applied during the recent EAST campaign, directly obtains the digital energy spectrum of incident photons. The DAQ system is described in detail in this paper. The hardware components and energy calibration have also been described. Experimental data have been successfully obtained and briefly discussed. More physical research will be reported in future publications.

Integrative Design Process for Regenerative Sustainability: A Framework for Architectural Design Studios

Integrative Design Process for Regenerative Sustainability: A Framework for Architectural Design Studios