Large Packages Research Articles

Potential environmental impact of reducing the variation of disposable materials used for cataract surgery.

Health care is estimated to be responsible for 5-10% of carbon emissions globally. Determining the CO2 emissions of medical interventions such as cataract surgery could provide opportunities for carbon reduction. The majority of cataract associated emissions are attributed to the procurement of surgical materials. Aim of this study was to analyse the cataract package variability in one country, namely Austria. Austrian Departments of Ophthalmology. Cross-sectional study. The cataract package components of three different Austrian hospitals were weighed and life cycle assessment on each product performed. This data was then extrapolated to the sales figures of the main Austrian cataract package suppliers to estimate the carbon footprint of all cataract packages used in Austria in 2021. There were 55 different cataract package compositions in use with an average weight of 0.7 kg. These compositions differ significantly in weight and composition considering that the smallest package was 57% lighter than the largest package. The size of the surgical drapes also showed considerable variation, with a difference of up to 71%. This is substantial, considering that drapes and covers account for about 53% of the package weight. There was a considerable variation in package composition and product size, which could provide opportunities to save CO2 emissions in cataract surgery. If all Austrian eye departments were to reduce the material quantities and drape sizes to the lower third of the cataract packages used in the Austria in 2021, cataract package associated CO2 emissions could be reduced by 34%.

Development and evaluation of helper dependent adenoviral vectors for inner ear gene delivery

Viral vector gene therapy is an attractive strategy to treat hearing loss. Since hearing loss is due to a variety of pathogenic signaling cascades in distinct cells, viral vectors that can express large or multiple genes in a cell-type specific manner are needed. Helper-dependent adenoviral vectors (HdAd) are safe viral vectors with a large packaging capacity (-36 kb). Despite the potential of HdAd, its use in the inner ear is largely unexplored. Therefore, to evaluate the utility of HdAd for inner ear gene therapy, we created two HdAd vectors that use distinct cellular receptors for transduction: HdAd Serotype Type 5 (HdAd5), the Coxsackie-Adenovirus Receptor (CAR) and a chimeric HdAd 5/35, the human CD46+ receptor (hCD46). We delivered these vectors through the round window (RW) or scala media in CBA/J, C57Bl6/J and hCD46 transgenic mice. Immunostaining in conjunction with confocal microscopy of cochlear sections revealed that multiple cell types were transduced using HdAd5 and HdAd 5/35 in all mouse models. Delivery of HdAd5 via RW in the C57Bl/6 J or CBA/J cochlea resulted in transduced mesenchymal cells of the peri‑lymphatic lining and modiolar region while scala media delivery resulted in transduction of supporting cells and inner hair cells. Hd5/35 transduction was CD46 dependent and RW delivery of HdAd5/35 in the hCD46 mouse model resulted in a similar transduction pattern as HdAd5 in the peri‑lymphatic lining and modiolar region in the cochlea. Our data indicate that HdAd vectors are promising vectors for use in inner ear gene therapy to treat some causes of hearing loss.

Hukum Perlindungan Konsumen: Jajanan Tidak Layak Konsumsi Masih Beredar

The suitability of food for consumers is very important, if you are not careful in choosing food or snacks it can be harmful to your health. There are still many unhealthy snacks circulating in Tulungagung, so people must be more careful in choosing healthy foods to consume. In this case, we make this journal so that consumers can understand and understand the selection of food that is suitable for consumption and it is hoped that consumers will know how dangerous food is that is not suitable if it enters our body. This research was made using qualitative methods. Collecting data using interview and observation techniques. The results of the study are that the majority of food products are considered unfit for consumption because the can packaging is damaged or dented. packaged snacks that have expired but are still displayed by traders/entrepreneurs. Snack products whose trademarks have been engineered by traders. The sales mode that transfers trademarks is carried out by entrepreneurs or traders by buying snack products in large packaging volumes and then repackaging them in smaller volumes at affordable prices.

The Influence Of Snack Portion Size Design On Teens And Young Adults Consumption

This research is motivated by the trend of snacks with a salty or sweet taste which have become part of people's lifestyles, especially among teenagers and young adults. Snacks portion that exceeds the serving size has an unfavorable impact on the body's calorie intake. This study aims to analyze the effect of the size of the snack packaging portion in the form of one serving (individual pack) and family portion (family pack), on the eating patterns of teens and young adults. The population in this study were active students from several universities in Bandung, Indonesia. Data collection was done by distributing questionnaires to respondents. The study was conducted using descriptive statistical calculations and inferential statistics, namely the comparison between respondents' preferences for the choice of snack packaging that is packaged according to the serving sizes and packaged in larger sizes. Teenagers and young adults choose snacks with larger packages, both from the salty and sweet snack groups. Larger packaging sizes dominate purchasing decisions. They consume more snacks if served in larger packages. Consumers prefer large packaging which is more economical because small packaging does not have a visible added value. Individual packaging is only effective when carried or when you want to eat less snack. Based on the conclusions, further research that focuses on increasing the value of single-serving packages, how to pack family-sized snacks (family packs) to increase awareness of snack portions, or how other efforts can be made to change the behavior of eating excess snack portions can be further explored.

Identifying refactoring opportunities for large packages by analyzing maintainability characteristics in Java OSS

The source code of a Java-based software system is often structured into packages. When packages are large, they often carry maintainability quality issues. In the literature, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the specific maintainability issues that occur when packages become too large. Our study fills this gap by performing relationship analysis of package size with respect to internal maintainability characteristics (coupling, cohesion, and complexity) using package-level metrics collected from 111 open-source Java projects provided in Qualitas Corpus. Our results show significantly higher maintainability issues in large packages as indicated by the maintainability metrics. We also report strong relationships of package size with cohesion (represented by the number of connected components in a package) and complexity (measured by the number of internal relationships in a package). Based on these strong associations with package size, we show that these cohesion and complexity metrics can be used to identify large package refactoring opportunities. Furthermore, we also discuss why some maintainability metrics (e.g., coupling metrics) may not be useful for refactoring large packages.Editor’s note: Open Science material was validated by the Journal of Systems and Software Open Science Board.

Economic Activity, Fiscal Space and Types of COVID-19 Containment Measures.

This paper argues that the type of COVID-19 containment measures affects the trade-offs between infection cases, economic activity and sovereign risk. Using local projection methods and a year and a half of high-frequency daily data covering 44 advanced and emerging economies, we find that smart (e.g. testing) as opposed to physical (e.g. lockdown) measures appear to be best placed to tackle these trade-offs. Initial conditions also matter whereby containment measures can be less disruptive when public health response time is fast and public debt is low. We also construct a database of daily fiscal announcements for Euro area countries, and find that sovereign risk is improved under a combination of large support packages and smart measures.

Liquid Metal Based Low Resistance Interconnect Technology

There is an increasing desire for interconnect technologies that provide low contact resistance, shorter electrical path and enable pin count scaling without the need for complex loading mechanisms. Ball grid array (BGA) technologies provide some of these benefits but add the complexity of surface mount challenges, especially on large form factor packages. Furthermore, customers value the flexibility of late and separable attach capability that sockets provide. Sockets, however come with a higher contact resistance and the required compression force drives significant cost and complexity to the loading mechanism. A liquid metal-based socket interconnect technology is introduced that offers BGA like performance with the benefits of a traditional socket. The liquid metal being studied is a gallium based eutectic alloy with a low melting point. The measured contact resistance is the lowest amongst available socket technologies and is equivalent to a permanently soldered down connection. The paper describes a process to manufacture a liquid metal interconnect and electrical characteristics of such an interconnect. This technology is in its infancy with insufficient data on field reliability risks or potential failure mechanisms when used as an interconnect. However, traditional evaluation techniques are less relevant for this novel interconnect and new methodologies are introduced to evaluate this technology.

Rapid automatic nucleic acid purification system based on gas-liquid immiscible phase.

The continuous expansion of nucleic acid detection applications has resulted in constant developments in rapid, low-consumption, and highly automated nucleic acid extraction methods. Nucleic acid extraction using magnetic beads across an immiscible phase interface offers significant simplification and parallelization potential. The gas-liquid immiscible phase valve eliminates the requirement for complicated cassettes and is suitable for automation applications. By analyzing the process of magnetic beads crossing the gas-liquid interface, we utilized a low magnetic field strength to drive large magnetic bead packages to cross the gas-liquid interface, providing a solution of high magnetic bead recovery rate for solid-phase extraction with a low-surfactant system based on gas-liquid immiscible phase valve. The recovery rate of magnetic beads was further improved to 90%-95% and the carryover of the reagents was below 1%. Consequently, a chip and an automatic system were developed to verify the applicability of this method for nucleic acid extraction. The Hepatitis B virus serum standard was used for the extraction test. The extraction of four samples was performed within 7 minutes, with nucleic acid recovery maintained above 80% and good purity. Thus, through analysis and experiments, a fast, highly automated, and low-consumption nucleic acid recovery method was proposed in this study.

Supply Chain Control and Strategies to Reduce Operational Risk in Russian Extractive Industries Along the Northern Sea Route

Russian resource developers operating in remote parts of the Arctic have demonstrated over the past several years that it is feasible to extract natural resources throughout the year, and ship large quantities of raw materials with regular intervals from the Arctic to international markets; this despite very difficult operational conditions in the Arctic during both winter and spring. Several resource extraction projects are currently being implemented or planned. This study examines how the extractive companies have built up enhanced supply chain resilience and transport reliability to mitigate common Arctic risks. The companies have taken control over supply chains and adopted several precautionary and innovative infrastructure and logistics measures designed to prevent or mitigate disruption to these supply chains. Preferred logistical solutions for all of these extraction projects have developed into large package deals, where long-term production and transport of commodities, icebreaking services, and state support are all included. Western sanctions on Russia as a result of the war in Ukraine, will slow down the pace of future Russian projects in the Arctic, at least in the short to medium-term, but the sanctions are likely to increase the future significance of export terminals on the NSR, as the preferred departure points for Russian Arctic commodities on their way to selective market destinations.

СТРАТЕГІЇ ТА ТАКТИКИ ПСИХОЛОГІЇ МАРКЕТИНГОВОЇ ЦІНОВОЇ ПОЛІТИКИ

The article, using the components of economic psychology, considers the schemes of the decisionmaking process of an individual in the consumption of various goods and services. The peculiarities of marketing pricing in the cost and value approaches are revealed. It is determined that marketing pricing in general and specific prices in particular are the most important factors that determine consumer choice and customer behavior. The right marketing pricing strategy and tactics are the key to business success in many cases. The main thing that determines the demand for a product and its price is its qualities, such as relative rarity and innovation. From the point of view of economic psychology, the author presents and discusses the characteristics of buyer behavior that directly affect his or her attitude to the price level of a product or service and his or her reaction to price changes: psychology of the price barrier; psychological aspects of number perception; psychology of regular or traditional prices; psychology of price comparison; psychology of price perception for large packages of goods or sets of goods; psychology of price decomposition and analysis; psychology of fashion prices, etc. The models of consumer behavior and his/her motivation when deciding on the need to buy and, directly, the purchase of goods are considered. It is substantiated that monitoring of these nuances and their use allows the manufacturer to significantly facilitate the process of pricing its goods and make a more accurate calculation of a "fair" price that will not alienate the consumer. The author considers the psychological aspects that should be taken into account when finalizing the price; analyzes the strategies and tactics of marketing pricing. The most common risks that consumers face in the process of making their choice are analyzed: monetary risk; functional risk; physical risk; social risk; psychological risk. An analysis of consumer behavior based on the proposed models and the risks to which consumers are exposed when making a choice shows that many consumers are not ready, and some do not want to be responsible for making a choice and making a decision. It is determined that there are practically no such generalized formulas that can be used to calculate the optimal actions of marketers in terms of pricing technologies, since there are a number of variables that affect customer behavior: product, budget, external environment, brand, customer mood, and much more.

Trimming Mobile Applications for Bandwidth-Challenged Networks in Developing Regions

Despite continuous efforts to build and update mobile network infrastructure, mobile devices in developing regions continue to be constrained by limited bandwidth. Unfortunately, this coincides with a period of unprecedented growth in the sizes of mobile applications. Thus it is becoming prohibitively expensive for users in developing regions to download and update mobile apps critical to their economic and educational development. Unchecked, these trends can further contribute to a large and growing global digital divide. Our goal is to better understand the source of this rapid growth in mobile app code size, whether it is reflective of new functionality, and identify steps that can be taken to make existing mobile apps more friendly to bandwidth constrained mobile networks. We hypothesize that much of this growth in mobile apps is due to poor resource/code management, and do not reflect proportional increases in functionality. Our hypothesis is partially validated by mini-programs, apps with extremely small footprints gaining popularity in Chinese mobile platforms. Here, we use functionally equivalent pairs of mini-programs and Android apps to identify potential sources of “bloat,” i.e., inefficient uses of code or resources that contribute to large package sizes. We analyze a large sample of popular Android apps and quantify instances of code and resource bloat. We develop techniques for automated code and resource trimming, and successfully validate them on a large set of Android apps. We hope our results will lead to continued efforts to streamline mobile apps, making them easier to access and maintain for users in developing regions.

Who has a high level of food literacy, and who does not?: a qualitative study of college students in South Korea.

Unhealthy food choices among young adults are common globally, and the incidence of chronic diseases, such as obesity, is rising. Food literacy (FL) is important for improving and maintaining individual health in a rapidly changing food environment and can form the basis for following a sustainable diet. Therefore, it is essential to improve FL among young adults, particularly college students, who are in the formative years of their lifelong food habits. This study examined the facilitators and barriers of FL and related dietary behavior among college students in South Korea. This study recruited 25 college students with different residence types using convenience and snowball sampling. In-person, telephone, and video interviews were conducted from March to November 2021. The interview data were analyzed using framework analysis based on the socio-ecological model. At the individual level, prior good experiences with food were the most frequently mentioned facilitator. In contrast, the major barriers were a lack of knowledge, financial hardship, irregular schedules, and academic stress. At the interpersonal level, the influences of family and peers, such as early exposure to healthy eating habits and opportunities to have easy accessibility to farms and farming, are major facilitators, but the lack of a sense of community was the major barrier. At the environmental level, the major barriers were unfavorable food environments at home and in neighborhoods, such as the absence of kitchens in housing and large packaging of produce at markets. Many factors affected the students' FL and related healthy eating practices. These findings suggest that a campus-based FL program should be developed by reflecting on these facilitators and barriers.

Selera Penduduk Kota Terhadap Fast Food (Studi Kasus Konsumen 7sevenchicken Malang, Indonesia)

The current era of information technology and globalization brings many changes in people's lives, including changes in life style, especially in consumption patternsso that the concept of serving food instantly emerged, that is practical and efficient in time, taste and affordable prices, namely fast food. The aims of this study are (1) knowing the characteristics of fast-food consumers in Malang, (2) knowing the main factors that are considered the most important by consumers in consuming fast food in Malang, (3) knowing consumer preferences for fast food in Malang. The sampling technique used a combination of accidental sampling and purposive sampling methods to obtain 100 respondents. The analytical method used descriptive analysis and conjoint analysis. Consumers who consume fast food dominated by male gender and the majority are students, they are in the age range of 20 to 24 years old and come from the East Java region. Most consumers have an allowance of Rp1.000.000 to Rp1.500.000 per month. Based on the conjoint analysis, it is known that the main factors that are considered the most important by consumers in making a purchase are the product factor, packaging, facilities and price factor. Consumer preferences choose prices ranging from Rp20.000 to Rp30.000. Regarding to the packaging variable, consumers prefer large packages. The facility which is preferred by consumers is co-working space facility and the product that is most favored by consumers is processed chicken products.

Rwanda

Supported by a large policy package, Rwanda’s economy rebounded in 2021 after contracting in the preceding year due to the COVID-19 shock. However, the country now faces multi-faceted challenges—pandemic scars, headwinds from the war in Ukraine, and climate-related shocks, meanwhile inflationary pressures have increased markedly. Downside risks are significant from the war spillovers, through further pressures on energy, food, and fertilizer prices, global financial tightening, and slowdown in major trading partners, in addition to climate-related shocks. Against this backdrop, the authorities have requested a new Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI) and an arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) to support their efforts in maintaining macroeconomic stability, advancing their reform agenda, including on climate to enhance Rwanda’s resilience to climate-related shocks, and insuring against downside risks. They will cancel the current PCI (expiring in June 2023) upon approval of the new PCI.

Genetic stability of SIV Gag/Tat gene inserted into Del-II in modified vaccinia virus ankara after serial passage of recombinant vector in pCEFs cells

Modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) is an attenuated vaccinia virus with restricted replication in human cells. The virus serves as an ideal vaccine vector suitable for safe use even in immune-compromised individuals. With its inherently large packaging capacity, expression cassettes encoding bulky genes can be inserted into deletion regions within the MVA genome. These deletion sites develop during the process of the attenuation of the virus by passage in Chicken Embryo Fibroblasts (pCEFs). Transgene stability in MVA is important to assure immunogenicity and efficacy. In the present study, we assessed the effect of substantial passage of recombinant MVA vectors on the stability of expression cassette encoding SIV Gag/Tat genes inserted at the Del-II site, as part of generating a vaccine to protect from HIV. Our data indicated that after 15 passages there was a significant loss or mutation of the inserted genes.

Inferring volumetric changes at a shallow lake from subpixel satellite-derived shorelines

• Satellite-Derived Shorelines at Gallocanta Lake from mid-resolution satellite imagery. • SDS with subpixel accuracy leads to an accurate definition of the lake's perimeter. • A large package of SDS to define the three-dimensionality of the shore (1984–2020). • Volume is estimated by modeling the relationship between water surface and elevation. • Efficient RS approach for monitoring water bodies through large periods of time.

Failure analysis of fabrication process in hermetic wafer-level packaging for microbolometer focal plane arrays

Wafer-level hermetic packaging is attractive for microbolometer-based uncooled infrared cameras as it enables low manufacturing cost and high-volume production of the sensors. A large package is designed to accommodate highly sensitive microbolometers with a high pixel count. This paper focuses on the study of failure mechanisms related to fabricating such large hermetic packages at wafer-level. We bonded wafers containing ~12 mm × 12 mm dies using CuSn solid-liquid interdiffusion (SLID) bonding and subsequently analysed the possible causes for failures. A time-dependent cap deflection study was carried out on the successfully bonded dies to evaluate the vacuum condition inside the package. The main causes for failures determined by this study include insufficient bonding pressure, non-uniform electroplating, voids in the sealing frame, and local cracks on the cap wafer with cavity. These factors contribute to a low dicing yield and loss of vacuum. A high dicing yield were obtained by Cu electroplating with 5 mA/cm2 current density, ≥4 MPa bonding pressure, and ≥200 μm cap thickness. In the cap deflection study, 7 out of 19 dies in a wafer maintained high vacuum after 178 days as indicated by limited decline in the cap deflection (~1–6 %), which shows the potential of this wafer-level packaging for obtaining long-term reliability.

Risk assessment of oral exposure to phthalates from coffee samples marketed in Turkey

Although phthalate esters (PAEs) are plasticizers widely utilized nowadays to enhance the flexibility and processability of polymeric materials, their presence and detection in the food environment have become an important concern. In this study, phthalate esters (butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and diisononyl phthalate (DINP)) were detected in 40 coffee samples in single-use or large plastic-based packages of different brands collected from the Turkish market. PAEs exposure and non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks were calculated for females and males aged 15–64, depending on their coffee consumption within 24 h. DBP and DINP exhibited the highest level of migration to coffee samples (<LOD - 15.2 ng mL−1 and <LOD - 64.1 ng mL−1, respectively), while BBP was found below the limit of quantification (LOQ). In non-carcinogenic risk evaluations of PAEs, the data showed that coffee was consumed at levels not considered harmful for all ages and genders (HI<1). The carcinogenic risk factor for BBP was determined at grade C, meaning it was negligible (<10−6) for all age groups. However, carcinogenic risk factors determined for DEHP in males and females aged 15–30 years (in the range of 1.50 ×10−4 and 4.87 ×10−4) and females aged 51–64 years (1.45 ×10−4) were detected at grade A, which exceeded the high-level cancer risk (>10−4) reported by the US EPA. Our research findings showed that almost all age groups over 15 were exposed to PAEs orally from the coffee they frequently consumed, which might lead to an excessive risk of cancer in individuals. Therefore, it was concluded that more comprehensive studies should be conducted based on this study, especially regarding cancer risk.

Win Big with Small: The Influence of Organic Food Packaging Size on Purchase Intention.

People pay much attention to food and health issues, more so these days. Organic food brings its own “organic” aura as soon as it is produced. Despite the many studies on organic food packaging at present, they mainly focus on packaging design, materials, and colors and pay less attention to packaging size. In view of this gap in the literature, this study explores the influence of organic food packaging size on consumer purchase intention. This article conducted two experiments with 755 participants to examine the effect of organic food packaging size on purchase intention. The results show that the packaging size of organic food has a significant influence on consumer purchase intention. Specifically, the small size of organic food packaging (vs. large) can improve consumer purchase intention, and the green perceived value plays an intermediary role (Study 1). In addition, the consumers’ construal level moderates the influence of organic food packaging size on their purchase intention. For consumers with a high construal level, the small size of organic food packaging (vs. large) can improve their purchase intention. For consumers with a low construal level, large packaging size (vs. small) of organic food can improve their purchase intention (Study 2). This study reveals the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions of organic food packaging size on consumer purchase intention and provides practical enlightenment for enterprises in formulating the size of organic food packaging.

POTENTIAL AND POSSIBLE EFFECT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GEORGIAN FINANCIAL MARKETS

POTENTIAL AND POSSIBLE EFFECT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GEORGIAN FINANCIAL MARKETS