Analysis Of Internal Structure Research Articles

Validity and reliability of the Spanish fear-avoidance components scale in breast cancer survivors.

The aim of this study was to carry out a psychometric analysis of the Fear-Avoidance Components Scale (FACS-Sp) in Spanish breast cancer survivors (BCS). A validation study was carried out in 154 BCS. Participants were recruited from the service of Medical Oncology of the University Clinical Hospital Virgen de la Victoria, in Málaga (Spain). A psychometric analysis of internal consistency, internal structure and convergent validity of the FACS-Sp was performed. Cronbach's alpha was calculated for internal consistency. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to determine the internal structure of the FACS-Sp. Convergent validity with the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The internal consistency was high (McDonald's ω =0.91). The Exploratory Factor Analysis yielded one factor explaining the 40.80% of total variance. Convergent validity with the TSK and the PCS was demonstrated. The FACS-Sp has demonstrated to be a valid and reliable measure for assessing pain-related fear avoidance in BCS based on internal consistency, structural validity and convergent validity. Further studies that analyse other measurement properties in different Spanish cancer populations are needed.

Stress-Related Growth Scale-Short Form: A Portuguese validation for cancer patients

Background/ObjectiveCancer can be extremely disruptive, triggering high levels of distress, and at the same time transformative, promoting perceptions of positive life changes and growth. This study aims to analyze the psychometric proprieties of the Stress-Related Growth Scale Short-Form (SRGS-SF) in cancer patients.Method209 Cancer patients heterogeneous in disease stage and diagnosis completed: clinical and sociodemographic information, Distress Thermometer, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Visual-analogue Scale of Perceived Positive Life Changes, and Stress-Related Growth Scale-Short Form.ResultsThe analysis of internal structure pointed to an one-dimensional scale, with high reliability (.92) measured through the McDonald`s omega coefficient. Validity was also evidenced through significant correlations with other variables.ConclusionsThe Portuguese version of the SRGS-SF seems to present the necessary psychometric proprieties to be considered a valid and reliable short tool, to assess perceptions of growth following cancer and contribute to targeted and integrative psycho-oncological interventions.

Supplemental Material for Internal Structure and Invariance Analyses Across Gender of the German-Language Version of the Male Role Norm Inventory-Short Form

Supplemental Material for Internal Structure and Invariance Analyses Across Gender of the German-Language Version of the Male Role Norm Inventory-Short Form

Understanding the Role of Self-Adhesion in Crumpling Behaviors of Sheet Macromolecules.

Understanding the crumpling behavior of two-dimensional (2D) macromolecular sheet materials is of fundamental importance in engineering and technological applications. Among the various properties of these sheets, interfacial adhesion critically contributes to the formation of crumpled structures. Here, we present a coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CG-MD) simulation study to explore the fundamental role of self-adhesion in the crumpling behaviors of macromolecular sheets having varying masses or sizes. By evaluating the potential energy evolution, our results show that the self-adhesion plays a dominant role in the crumpling behavior of the sheets compared to in-plane and out-of-plane stiffnesses. The macromolecular sheets with higher adhesion tend to form a self-folding planar structure at the quasi-equilibrium state of the crumpling and exhibit a lower packing efficiency as evaluated by the fractal dimension of the system. Notably, during the crumpling process, both the radius of gyration Rg and the hydrodynamic radius Rh of the macromolecular sheet can be quantitatively described by the power-law scaling relationships associated with adhesion. The evaluation of the shape descriptors indicates that the overall crumpling behavior of macromolecular sheets can be characterized by three regimes, i.e., the less bent, intermediate, and highly crumpled regimes, dominated by edge-bending, self-adhesion, and further compression, respectively. The internal structural analysis further reveals that the sheet transforms from the initially ordered state to the disordered glassy state upon crumpling, which can be facilitated by greater self-adhesion. Our study provides fundamental insights into the adhesion-dependent structural behavior of macromolecular sheets under crumpling, which is essential for establishing the structure-processing-property relationships for crumpled macromolecular sheets.

Formation and quantitative analysis of internal structure of Si nanoparticles developed via bead-milling

Amorphous silicon nanomaterial is isotropic on the macroscale and can effectively inhibit the expansion/contraction during lithiation/delithiation processes, which remarkably improves the cycle performance of Li-ion batteries. Bead-milling is a simple, cost-effective, and scalable method for manufacturing amorphous and/or crystalline silicon nanoparticles. In this work, the internal structure of Si nanoparticles prepared by bead-milling was found to consist of amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon as well as amorphous silicon oxide. X-ray diffraction patterns and Raman spectra are used to calculate the average crystallite size and estimate the degree of crystallization and amorphization of silicon. The quantitative analysis of amorphous silicon oxide is carried out through x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization and oxygen content measuring. It was found that the average particle size (D50) and the crystallite size were reduced to 91 and 3.7 nm, respectively, from 4.06 μm and 50.6 nm before bead-milling, and the degree of amorphization and oxygen content increased to 85.7% and 7.38%, respectively, from 37.5% and 0.12% before bead-milling. It is demonstrated that the longer the milling time, the smaller the sizes of particles and crystals and the higher the ratio of the amorphous phase. However, it inversely causes side-effects such as the increase in oxidization of Si nanoparticles and the increase in content of ZrO2 impurity.

Validation of the Alcohol Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) in acute psychiatric inpatients.

The aims of this study were to examine the psychometric properties of The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) in psychiatric inpatients, due to the scarcity of screening instruments validated in this population. Patients from Hospital Clínic's psychiatric ward (n=202) completed: ASSIST, Addiction Severity Index (ASI), MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS), and Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST). Reliability and validity evidences based on internal structure (Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses) and on the relation to other variables were obtained. Excellent internal consistency was found for Total Substance Involvement (TSI) (α = .92 and ω = .93) and for Specific Substance Involvement (SSI) scores (α = .88 - .96 and ω = .89 - .95). Analysis of internal structure for tobacco, alcohol and cannabis subscales resulted in unidimensional models with adequate goodness-of-fit indices. ASSIST scores were significantly correlated with those of ASI (r = .795 to r = .953), AUDIT (r = .864), FTND (r = .808), DAST (r = .831), SDS (r = .519) and with "number of diagnoses of abuse/dependence" in MINI-Plus (TSI: r = .857 to r = .862; SSI: r = .646 to r = .834). Receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC) and Mann-Whitney's U test found good discriminative validity evidences. ASSIST scores showed good reliability and there were validity evidences that support its use for identifying risk levels of tobacco, alcohol and other substance use in psychiatric patients.

Image detection and parameterization for different components in cross-sections of radial tires

The internal structure analysis of radial tires is of great significance to improve vehicle safety and during tire research. In order to perform the digital analysis and detection of the internal composition in radial tire cross-sections, a detection method based on digital image processing was proposed. The research was carried out as follows: (a) the distribution detection and parametric analysis of the bead wire, steel belt, and carcass in the tire section were performed by means of digital image processing, connected domain extraction, and Hough transform; (b) using the angle of location distribution and area relationship, the detection data were optimized through coordinate and quantity relationship constraints; (c) a detection system for tire cross-section components was designed using the MATLAB platform. Our experimental results showed that this method displayed a good detection performance, and important practical significance for the research and manufacture of tires.

Formation of a New Cocrystal Methyl‐4‐hydroxybenzoate:Urea and Its Structural and Thermal Properties

AbstractA new cocrystal comprising two pharmaceutically important molecules methyl‐4‐hydroxybenzoate (p‐MHB) (C8H8O3) and carbonyl diamide (urea) [CO(NH2)2] is crystallized together for the first time through restricted solvent evaporation method at ambient conditions. The single crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis shows that the engineered cocrystal p‐MHB:urea (1:1) (C9H12N2O4) crystallizes in monoclinic system with centrosymmetric space group C12/c1. The internal structure analysis shows that the urea molecule with its unique ability forms hydrogen bonding network throughout the cocrystal system. Different orientations of the identified synthons form the networks via supramolecular connections such as C═O⋯H─O and C═O⋯N─H. Correlation between the internal molecular configurations in the unit cell, protruding molecular groups on different growth faces, and attachment energies of different crystal planes is studied. The Hirshfeld surface analysis shows that the higher percentage of overall interactions between the carbon and oxygen atoms at the outer surfaces of the cocrystal induces further incorporation of molecular aggregation and crystal growth. The 2D finger print plots infer that about 90.9% of the overall interactions are mainly due to the H bonds. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis reveals that the grown cocrystal undergoes an observable phase transition at 105.65 °C prior to its melting endotherm that peaks at 110.29 °C.

Evolutionary trace for ductile fracture performance of rubber−cement composites

In order to improve the plasticity of composites, rubber is usually incorporated in cement composites, but the rubber greatly increases complexity in the analysis of internal structures. In this study, X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and digital volume correlation (DVC) were adopted to investigate the internal structure and volumetric strain of rubber−cement composites during fracture. The fracture process of the composites was tracked by in situ XCT loading tests by analyzing the extracted data of rubber particles and cracks. The internal volumetric strains of the samples with different rubber contents at different loading stages were calculated by DVC. The outcomes exhibit that the degree of dispersion of strain and the conductivity to force of samples were improved significantly with the increasing rubber contents.

A Complex Network Approach for Quantitative Characterization and Robustness Analysis of Sandstone Pore Network Structure

The rational characterization and quantitative analysis of the complex internal pore structure of rock is the foundation to solve many underground engineering problems. In this paper, CT imaging technology is used to directly characterize the three-dimensional pore network topology of sandstone with different porosity. Then, in view of the problem, which is difficult to quantify the detailed topological structure of the sandstone pore networks in the previous study, the new complex network theory is used to characterize the pore structure. PageRank algorithm is based on the number of connections between targets as a measure index to rank the targets, so the network degree distribution, average path length, clustering coefficient, and robustness based on PageRank algorithm and permeability-related topological parameters are studied. The research shows that the degree distribution of sandstone pore network satisfies power law distribution, and it can be characterized by scale-free network model. The permeability of rock is inversely proportional to the average path length of sandstone network. The sandstone pore network has strong robustness to random disturbance, while a small number of pores with special topological properties play a key role in the macroscopic permeability of sandstone. This study attempts to provide a new perspective of quantifying the microstructure of the pore network of sandstone and revealing the microscopic structure mechanism of macroscopic permeability of pore rocks.

Comparative study of internal force at lecture building in special region of Yogyakarta between 2D and 3D models with response spectrum method based on SNI 1726-2019

One of the important things in structural planning is structural analysis. Indonesia has earthquake resistance guidelines for building structures starting from SNI 1726-1989 to the latest version, namely SNI 1726-2019. Yogyakarta Special Region is an active and complex seismic area due to tectonic plate collision activity accompanied by local fault activity on the mainland, so it has a high level of seismic activity, therefore structural planning must pay attention to seismic aspects. Not all buildings in the special area of Yogyakarta use the latest earthquake-resistant building structure guidelines, so a review of the structure must be reviewed. In analyzing the structure, there are two models, namely, 2D and 3D structural analysis using structural analysis software to obtain the internal force value. The study of internal force comparison between 2D and 3D models of dynamic response spectrum method according to SNI 1726-2019 is carried out on the 4-floor lecture building structure used to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the two models. The results of the internal force structure analysis show that the value of the internal force with the 2D model is greater than the 3D model due to differences in the distribution of the working load.

Study on the Characteristics and Production Techniques of the Clay Seated Vairocana Buddha Triad of Seonunsa Temple, Gochang(2) - Analysis of Gold Leaf Layers and Internal Structure of the Clay Buddha Statues

In this study, a scientific analysis of the gold leaf layers and internal structure of the Clay Seated Vairocana Buddha Triad in Seonunsa Temple, Gochang (Treasure No. 1752) was conducted. The surface of the Buddha statues is a gold foil, and the gold leaf layer consists of four layers. The gold leaf layer first composed on the molding clay was produced in the order of lacquer-fabrics-lacquer-gold foil. Subsequently, it was confirmed that the work was performed three times in the same way. The composition of the Buddha statues was divided into the head, body or upper body, lower body, and pedestal. The body was made in a cylindrical form by connecting vertically oriented wooden materials, and the head and lower body were also connected to the body in an empty form. Thus, the head, body, and lower body are grafted structures that are connected to a single Bokjang-gong. It was confirmed that the Clay Seated Vairocana Buddha Triad in Seonunsa Temple was made using wood materials for the basic form, after which the detailed form was created with molding clay, and the surface was finished with a process of layering gold foil and substances presumed to be lacquer.

Bacterial crack healing in metakaolin based geopolymer mortars

Geopolymer mortars have emerged as an environmentally friendly binding alternative to conventional cement. However, the gaps in their structure and early cracks reduce their service life. There are various bacterial healing studies in the literature that have been conducted on cemented mortar cracks. Nevertheless, the present study focuses on the healing of metakaolin based geopolymer mortar cracks.For this purpose, mortars with different molarities were prepared with two different endospore forming methods that did not require encapsulation or mixed chemical processes for the bacterial crack repairs on the geopolymer mortars. These mortars were then left in different healing environments with crack damage. The samples were tested using physical, optical and internal structure analyses. As a result, the cracks were improved by reducing the amount of gaps in the samples. The results showed that it is possible to bacterially repair early cracks in new generation ceramic materials with alkali-activated mortars and reduce the amount of gaps.

A User-Friendly Protocol for Mandibular Segmentation of CBCT Images for Superimposition and Internal Structure Analysis.

Background: Since cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) technology has been widely adopted in orthodontics, multiple attempts have been made to devise techniques for mandibular segmentation and 3D superimposition. Unfortunately, as the software utilized in these methods are not specifically designed for orthodontics, complex procedures are often necessary to analyze each case. Thus, this study aimed to establish an orthodontist-friendly protocol for segmenting the mandible from CBCT images that maintains access to the internal anatomic structures. Methods: The “sculpting tool” in the Dolphin 3D Imaging software was used for segmentation. The segmented mandible images were saved as STL files for volume matching in the 3D Slicer to validate the repeatability of the current protocol and were exported as DICOM files for internal structure analysis and voxel-based superimposition. Results: The mandibles of all tested CBCT datasets were successfully segmented. The volume matching analysis showed high consistency between two independent segmentations for each mandible. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis on 20 additional CBCT mandibular segmentations further demonstrated the high consistency of the current protocol. Moreover, all of the anatomical structures for superimposition identified by the American Board of Orthodontics were found in the voxel-based superimposition, demonstrating the ability to conduct precise internal structure analyses with the segmented images. Conclusion: An efficient and precise protocol to segment the mandible while retaining access to the internal structures was developed on the basis of CBCT images.

THE INFLUENCE OF FRICTION STIR WELDED PROCESS PARAMETERS OF AA2519-T62 ON JOINT QUALITY DEFINED BY NON-DESTRUCTIVE LASER AMPLIFIED ULTRASONIC METHOD AND BY MICROSTRUCTURE ANALYSIS

The presented research contains a description of a non-destructive laser ultrasound internal structure analysis of aluminium joints made by friction stir welding. In the research, four selected technological parameter groups were taken into account. Modifications used in different parameter groups included changing tool traverse speeds and also its rotation speeds. The most important goal of this research was to determine the joint quality using a non-destructive laser amplified ultrasound method To verify obtained test results, an additional microstructural analysis was also conducted.

CT scanning of internal crack mechanism and strength behavior of cement-fiber-tailings matrix composites

This paper deals the relationship between compressive strength and internal crack formation (e.g., crack width and volume) of cement-fiber-tailings matrix composites (CFTMC) using an industrial computed tomography system and scanning electron microscopy. Two types of fibers (polypropylene PP and polyacrylonitrile PAN) were used to manufacture CFTMC with a constant cement-to-tailings ratio, solid content and curing time of 1:6, 75 wt% and 14 days, respectively. The results showed that strength gaining of CFTMC increased remarkably with fiber additions which effectively improve its toughness. When compared to samples without fibers, the compressive strength of CFTMC was the highest because of the reduced interconnection between pores and high particle packing density. The internal structure analysis showed that the maximum crack widths of CFTMC increased when the fiber content increased from 0.3 to 0.6 wt%, regardless of fiber type, growing the crack volumes of samples. The failure pattern of all CFTMC samples was mainly tensile, shear and mixed failure (tensile/shear), and a high strength value accompanies with a big volume of crack. At last, the findings of this study may offer a key reference for fiber-reinforced backfills, which can lift their strength, stability and integrity behavior under extreme conditions, such as rock burst, squeezing ground, blast or seismic event.

The Influence of Friction Stir Welded Process Parameters of AA2519- T62 on Joint Quality Defined by Non-destructive Laser Amplified Ultrasonic Method and by Microstructure Analysis

The paper contains the results of a non-destructive laser ultrasound internal structure analysis made on specially prepared friction stir welded joints made of aluminum samples. The process was conducted using four different groups of welding parameters. Different tool rotation speeds and tool traverse speeds were used. The main purpose of the research was to analyze the joint quality using a non-destructive laser amplified ultrasound method. A microstructure analysis was also conducted to compare the results of both tests.

Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer over Staggered ꞌ+ꞌ Shaped Obstacles

The inclusion of complex obstacles within solar channels is the aim of this article. Two obstacles of the form ꞌ+ꞌ interlaced within a two-dimensional and rectangular channel are the subject of our study. The fluid is Newtonian, turbulent, incompressible and has constant properties. The Reynolds number varies from 12,000 to 32,000 with a constant temperature along the upper surface of the channel. The thermal and dynamic analysis of the channel's internal structure has been carefully processed. Different fields of speed and heat, with various profiles of frictions and heat exchange coefficients, have been included in this research. Future work will involve more complex geometries and using nanofluids to assess the optimum conditions for heat transfer enhancements.

Planetary system LHS 1140 revisited with ESPRESSO and TESS

Context. LHS 1140 is an M dwarf known to host two transiting planets at orbital periods of 3.77 and 24.7 days. They were detected with HARPS and Spitzer. The external planet (LHS 1140 b) is a rocky super-Earth that is located in the middle of the habitable zone of this low-mass star. All these properties place this system at the forefront of the habitable exoplanet exploration, and it therefore constitutes a relevant case for further astrobiological studies, including atmospheric observations. Aims. We further characterize this system by improving the physical and orbital properties of the known planets, search for additional planetary-mass components in the system, and explore the possibility of co-orbitals. Methods. We collected 113 new high-precision radial velocity observations with ESPRESSO over a 1.5-yr time span with an average photon-noise precision of 1.07 m s−1. We performed an extensive analysis of the HARPS and ESPRESSO datasets and also analyzed them together with the new TESS photometry. We analyzed the Bayesian evidence of several models with different numbers of planets and orbital configurations. Results. We significantly improve our knowledge of the properties of the known planets LHS 1140 b (Pb ~ 24.7 days) and LHS 1140 c (Pc ~ 3.77 days). We determine new masses with a precision of 6% for LHS 1140 b (6.48 ± 0.46 M⊕) and 9% for LHS 1140 c (mc = 1.78 ± 0.17 M⊕). This reduces the uncertainties relative to previously published values by half. Although both planets have Earth-like bulk compositions, the internal structure analysis suggests that LHS 1140 b might be iron-enriched and LHS 1140 c might be a true Earth twin. In both cases, the water content is compatible to a maximum fraction of 10–12% in mass, which is equivalent to a deep ocean layer of 779 ± 650 km for the habitable-zone planet LHS 1140 b. Our results also provide evidence for a new planet candidate in the system (md = 4.8 ± 1.1M⊕) on a 78.9-day orbital period, which is detected through three independent methods. The analysis also allows us to discard other planets above 0.5 M⊕ for periods shorter than 10 days and above 2 M⊕ for periods up to one year. Finally, our co-orbital analysis discards co-orbital planets in the tadpole and horseshoe configurations of LHS 1140 b down to 1 M⊕ with a 95% confidence level (twice better than with the previous HARPS dataset). Indications for a possible co-orbital signal in LHS 1140 c are detected in both radial velocity (alternatively explained by a high eccentricity) and photometric data (alternatively explained by systematics), however. Conclusions. The new precise measurements of the planet properties of the two transiting planets in LHS 1140 as well as the detection of the planet candidate LHS 1140 d make this system a key target for atmospheric studies of rocky worlds at different stellar irradiations.

Interdisciplinary Science Assessment of Carbon Cycling: Construct Validity Evidence Based on Internal Structure

Growing interest in interdisciplinary (ID) understanding has led to the recent development of four ID assessments, none of which have previously been comprehensively validated. Sources of evidence for the validity of tests include construct validity, such as the internal structure of the test. ID tests may (and should) test both disciplinary (D) and ID understanding, and the internal structure can be examined to determine whether the theoretical relationship among D and ID knowledge is supported by empirical evidence. In this paper, we present an analysis of internal structure of ISACC, an ID assessment of carbon cycling, selected because the developers included both disciplinary and ID items and posited a relationship among these two types of knowledge. Responses from 454 high school and college students were analyzed using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) with the Mplus software for internal structure focusing on dimensionality, as well as functioning by gender and race/ethnicity, and reliability. CFA confirmed that the underlying structure of the ISACC best matches a two-factor path model, supporting the developers’ theoretical hypothesis of the impact of disciplinary understanding on interdisciplinary understanding. No gender effect was found in the factor structure of the ISACC, indicating that females and males have similar performance. Race/ethnicity performance was similar to other science assessments, revealing possible ethnicity bias on the part of the instrument. The reliability coefficients for the two-factor path model were found to be sufficient. This study highlights the importance of the internal structure of test instruments as a source of validity evidence and models a procedure to assess internal structure.