Verification Method Research Articles

Risk Prediction Models for Sarcopenia in Dialysis Patients: A Systematic Review

Nowadays, numerous studies have developed risk prediction models for sarcopenia in dialysis patients.However, the quality and performance of these models have not been integrated. The purpose of our study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current risk prediction models for sarcopenia in dialysis patients and to offer a reference for the development of high-quality prediction models. Ten electronic databases were searched from inception to March 8, 2024. Two researchers independently assessed the risk of bias and applicability of the studies, and used Revman, 5.4, software to conduct a meta-analysis of common predictors in the models. A total of 12 studies described 13 risk prediction models for dialysis patients with sarcopenia. In dialysis patients, the prevalence of sarcopenia ranged from 6.60% to 63.73%. The area under curve (AUC) of the 13 models ranged from 0.776 to 0.945. Only six models (AUC ranging from 0.73 to 0.832) were internally validated, while two were externally evaluated (AUC ranging from 0.913 to 0.955). Most studies had a high risk of bias. The most common effective predictors in the models were age, body mass index, muscle circumference, and C-reactive protein. Our study suggests that developing a prediction model for the onset of sarcopenia in dialysis patients requires a rigorous design scheme, and future verification methods will necessitate multicenter external validation.

Using Hydrodynamic Similarity as a Verification Method for Impact Cratering Simulations in the FLAG Hydrocode

Hydrodynamic codes (hydrocodes) are common tools for modeling hypervelocity impacts to provide insight into the physical phenomenon. Hydrocodes can simulate impacts from micrometer to kilometer spatial scales and reach impact velocities difficult to achieve in experimental settings. However, numerical models are approximations, and demonstrating that a numerical method is capable of providing physical results for these models is essential. In this work, we employ a hydrocode verification technique that leverages hydrodynamic similarity, a mathematical property of the conservation equations of fluid mechanics that form the basis for hydrocode models. Using the FLAG hydrocode, we simulate aluminum (Al) and basalt projectiles and targets at spatial scales spanning 7 orders of magnitude (hundreds of micrometers to kilometers). These materials were chosen because Al-6061 is a common material in spacecraft and satellites and basalt is a useful approximation of rocky astronomical bodies. Our results show that hydrodynamic similarity holds for each material model used and across spatial scales. We show that under certain conditions hydrodynamic similarity can apply in the presence of gravity and that similarity does not hold in the presence of strength models. We conclude that the FLAG hydrocode preserves important mathematical properties of fluid dynamics in hypervelocity impacts of Al-6061 and basalt.

Research of Key Technologies on Design and Implementation of Intelligent Pump Station

Abstract With the continuous advancement of technology, intelligent solutions have found widespread applications in various fields, including pump stations in water management projects. This paper focuses on the key technologies involved in intelligent pump station monitoring, control, and operation. The paper takes a pump Station as an example and addresses the problems and current situation in its management. It designs the architecture of an intelligent pump station at three layers: business application, technical methods, and requirements. Solutions are proposed for pump station dispatch and operation, safety management, and engineering maintenance. Finally, by establishing a smart monitoring system based on the five senses and one brain concept and utilizing a dual-factor intelligent verification method in conjunction with digital twin technology. Finally, intelligent management of the pump station is achieved. By exploring these technologies, the paper aims to provide insights into the crucial aspects of designing and implementing intelligent pump stations, thereby facilitating more efficient and intelligent management, control, and operation of water management projects.

Register transfer level hardware design information flow modeling and security verification method

Information flow analysis can effectively model the security behavior and security properties of hardware design. However, the existing gate level information flow analysis methods cannot deal with large-scale designs due to computing power and verification effectiveness, and the register transfer level (RTL) information flow analysis methods require formal languages to rewrite hardware designs. This paper proposes a RTL hardware design information flow modeling and security verification method. Based on the RTL functional model, this method develops an information flow tracking logical model to model security behavior and security properties of RTL hardware designs from the perspective of information flow. This method can be integrated into EDA flows and uses EDA testing and verification tools to capture security property violations and detect security vulnerabilities based on non-interference security policy. The results on experiments with Trust-Hub hardware Trojan benchmarks show that the proposed method can effectively detect hardware Trojans.

Beyond authorship: Analyzing contributions in PLOS ONE and the challenges of appropriate attribution

Abstract Purpose This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of authorship attributions in scientific publications, focusing on the fairness and precision of individual contributions within academic works. Design/methodology/approach The study analyzes 81,823 publications from the journal PLOS ONE, covering the period from January 2018 to June 2023. It examines the authorship attributions within these publications to try and determine the prevalence of inappropriate authorship. It also investigates the demographic and professional profiles of affected authors, exploring trends and potential factors contributing to inaccuracies in authorship. Findings Surprisingly, 9.14% of articles feature at least one author with inappropriate authorship, affecting over 14,000 individuals (2.56% of the sample). Inappropriate authorship is more concentrated in Asia, Africa, and specific European countries like Italy. Established researchers with significant publication records and those affiliated with companies or nonprofits show higher instances of potential monetary authorship. Research limitations Our findings are based on contributions as declared by the authors, which implies a degree of trust in their transparency. However, this reliance on self-reporting may introduce biases or inaccuracies into the dataset. Further research could employ additional verification methods to enhance the reliability of the findings. Practical implications These findings have significant implications for journal publishers, highlighting the necessity for robust control mechanisms to ensure the integrity of authorship attributions. Moreover, researchers must exercise discernment in determining when to acknowledge a contributor and when to include them in the author list. Addressing these issues is crucial for maintaining the credibility and fairness of academic publications. Originality/value This study contributes to an understanding of critical issues within academic authorship, shedding light on the prevalence and impact of inappropriate authorship attributions. By calling for a nuanced approach to ensure accurate credit is given where it is due, the study underscores the importance of upholding ethical standards in scholarly publishing.

Structural Analysis of Servant Leadership Promotes Employee Resilience and Organizational Citizenship Behavior among Employees

This research aims to elucidate the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior mediated by employee resilience. The research employed a descriptive and verificative method with data analysis using Structural Equation Modeling. Primary data were collected through a survey of 398 employees from a state-owned bank in the Batam City region. The findings reveal that employee resilience has a positive and significant effect on the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. The impact of servant leadership on organizational citizenship behavior is more dominant compared to the influence of employee resilience. However, this study has limitations. Organizational citizenship behavior is not solely influenced by servant leadership and employee resilience but is also affected by other factors, necessitating further research. The results of this study also suggest expanding the scope of the analytical unit to provide a broader contribution to the understanding of organizational citizenship behavior.

Mediating role of health literacy in relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life in community-dwelling older adults.

The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating effects of health literacy on the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among community-dwelling older adults. This study used the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Database (KFACD) for secondary data analysis. We selected data from 1,631 people without missing main variable values for analysis. Frailty was determined based on the modified Fried's phenotype [MFP], and HRQOL was measured using the Korean version of the 5-level EuroQol questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L). Health literacy was assessed using the questions on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) used by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To examine the mediating role of health literacy in the relationship between frailty and HRQOL, Baron & Kenny's three-step mediating effect verification method was utilized. The participants had a mean frailty score of 1.37±1.02, health literacy score of 8.56±2.59, and HRQOL score of 0.84±0.10. Frailty was negatively correlated with health literacy (r = -0.27, p < .001) and HRQOL (r = -0.32, p < .001), while health literacy was positively correlated with HRQOL (r = 0.34, p < .001). We observed that health literacy played a partial mediating role in the relationship between frailty and HRQOL. To increase older adults' HRQOL, measures that directly prevent and manage frailty as well as interventions that target the enhancement of health literacy are needed.

Online Signature Biometrics for Mobile Devices.

This paper addresses issues concerning biometric authentication based on handwritten signatures. Our research aimed to check whether a handwritten signature acquired with a mobile device can effectively verify a user's identity. We present a novel online signature verification method using coordinates of points and pressure values at each point collected with a mobile device. Convolutional neural networks are used for signature verification. In this paper, three neural network models are investigated, i.e., two self-made light SigNet and SigNetExt models and the VGG-16 model commonly used in image processing. The convolutional neural networks aim to determine whether the acquired signature sample matches the class declared by the signer. Thus, the scenario of closed set verification is performed. The effectiveness of our method was tested on signatures acquired with mobile phones. We used the subset of the multimodal database, MobiBits, that was captured using a custom-made application and consists of samples acquired from 53 people of diverse ages. The experimental results on accurate data demonstrate that developed architectures of deep neural networks can be successfully used for online handwritten signature verification. We achieved an equal error rate (EER) of 0.63% for random forgeries and 6.66% for skilled forgeries.

Experimental Investigation of Lithium-Ion Batteries Thermal Runaway Propagation Consequences under Different Triggering Modes

In the stage of aircraft development and airworthiness verification, it is necessary to master the influence of lithium-ion battery (LIB) thermal runaway (TR) propagation. In this paper, the battery TR propagation behavior under different trigger positions and modes is studied experimentally, and the calculation and comparison are carried out from the parameters of real-time temperature, voltage, propagation speed, total energy released, and solid ejecta. When the two adjacent cells at the top corner, side, and center of the module are overheated, TR occurs at about 1000 s for the triggered cells, while the whole-overheating trigger mode takes a longer time. The latter’s transmission speed is extremely fast, spreading 2.67 cells per second on average. The heat generated by the solid ejecta of the whole-overheating trigger mode is 82,437 J, which is more destructive. The voltage of the triggered cell fluctuates abnormally in a precursor manner when the internal active substances in the cell undergo a self-generated thermal reaction. This work can provide a reference for the safety and economical design of system installations and the correct setting of airworthiness verification Method of Compliance (MoC) experiments to verify whether the aircraft can bear and contain the adverse effects caused by LIB TR.

Influence of Motivation and Work Environment on Employee Performance

This study aims to analyze the impact of motivation and work environment on employee performance. It employs Descriptive and Verification Methods. The data source utilized in this study consists of a questionnaire administered to employees of a fashion firm located in Bandung. The research has a sample size of 35 respondents. The research employs Descriptive and Verification Methods as its statistical methodologies. The initial step involves employing Correlation Data Analysis, Path Analysis, and Coefficient of Determination Analysis, with assistance from the SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solution) program version 26. After conducting a comprehensive study of the data collected, the Motivation, Work Environment, and Employee Performance at a fashion company in Bandung are categorized as somewhat reasonable. The R Square number indicates that it is 75.5%. Employee Performance is primarily influenced by Motivation and Work Environment, accounting for 75.5% of the overall impact. The remaining 24.5% is attributed to unexplored factors. In addition, Motivation has a lesser impact, accounting for 42.3% of the total influence, in contrast to the Work Environment, which has a total influence of 50.6%. Companies should prioritize creating a conducive work atmosphere while striving to optimize Motivation in a fashion company in Bandung.

Efficient verification of neural networks based on neuron branching and LP abstraction

With the rapid development and wide application of neural networks in various domains including safety-critical systems, it is more and more important to investigate formal methods to provide strict guarantees on their behavior. As formal verification of a neural network has high computational complexity, caused by the nonlinear nature of activation functions such as ReLU, it is vital to improve the efficiency to solve verification problems. In this work, we propose a complete verification method for neural networks by means of neuron branching and linear programming (LP) abstraction. Specifically, the approach of branch and bound is adopted and a branching strategy is developed to divide a complex verification problem into sub-problems with smaller search space. And for each sub-problem, a part of ReLU neurons are abstracted with LP constraints and the others are accurately encoded with mixed integer linear programming (MILP) constraints, and an abstraction strategy is deployed to guide such mixed LP/MILP encoding so that the problem can be solved with reduced complexity. The method is implemented as a tool named BAVerify (Branching and Abstraction based Verification of neural networks), which is evaluated through experiments on benchmark network models and their verification problems. Experimental results show that BAVerify achieves a 43.13% advantage in verification efficiency compared with state-of-the-art complete methods for formal verification of neural networks.

The application of fish species as bioindicator in mesohabitats of streams inserted into the upper Paraná River system, Brazil

The objective of this study was to explore the presence of fish species as potential environmental quality indicators in tributaries belonging to the Paranapanema River basin, Upper Parana River System. We also sought to verify the possible occurrence of species associated with mesohabitats that indicate good or poor environmental quality, using the Indicator Value (IndVal) method for such verification. The sample units were distributed in 28 stretches of streams, and 3,103 individuals were collected, distributed in five orders and 33 species, so that Astyanax bockmanni was the most abundant species. Regarding the potential bioindicator, only a total of 13 species showed that they are possible indicators of at least one environmental variable (significance of p &lt;0.05), so that Phalloceros harpagos and Geophagus brasiliensis were associated with high values of Salinity and Total Solids Dissolved, allowing us to observe, in a cautious way, that these species may be associated to environments with high amount of organic and inorganic particles suspended in water, indicating poor environmental quality.

A Dual Relaxation Method for Neural Network Verification

In the robustness verification of neural networks, formal methods have been used to give deterministic guarantees for neural networks. However, recent studies have found that the verification method of single-neuron relaxation in this field has an inherent convex barrier that affects its verification capability. To address this problem, we propose a new verification method by combining dual-neuron relaxation and linear programming. This method captures the dependencies between different neurons in the same hidden layer by adding a two-neuron joint constraint to the linear programming model, thus overcoming the convex barrier problem caused by relaxation for only a single neuron. Our method avoids the combination of exponential inequality constraints and can be computed in polynomial time. Experimental results show that we can obtain tighter bounds and achieve more accurate verification than single-neuron relaxation methods.

The Influence of Product Quality, Price and Promotion on T-Shirt Purchasing Decisions at Arei Store Bogor

This research aims to determine and analyze the influence of product quality, price and promotion on purchasing decisions, both simultaneously and partially. This research design uses descriptive, verification and path analysis research methods. The sampling technique uses the saturated sampling method. The number of respondents was 100 people. The subjects of this research are consumers of Arei Store Bogor, and the objects of research are product quality, price, promotions and purchasing decisions. The tools used in this analysis are path analysis, multiple correlation analysis, coefficient of determination analysis, and hypothesis testing (F test and t test). The results of the analysis show that partially or simultaneously product quality, price and promotion have a direct and positive influence on purchasing decisions at Arei Store Bogor.

Leveraging dual‐blockchain collaboration for logistics supply chain supervision

AbstractLogistics supply chain (LSC), a chain structure that integrates and coordinates all logistics transactions, has become an essential component of the modern logistics industry. By using blockchain, trusted logistics services enable participants to effectively record and track transactions during the logistics process. Current blockchain‐based LSC features distributed structure and data privacy requirements, hindering the supervision of logistics transactions. Leveraging emerging dual‐blockchain architecture to separate logistics transactions from supervision is a promising direction. However, the dual‐blockchain collaboration restricts supervision due to its cross‐chain privacy and efficiency. To address these issues, a logistics supply chain supervision scheme based on dual‐blockchain collaboration (DBC) is proposed. First, an independent supervision blockchain is constructed to balance the contradiction between distributed structure and supervision requirements. Second, two mechanisms are designed to enhance the privacy and performance of collaborative supervision. The hybrid access control mechanism enables fine‐grained supervision for different participants, and the aggregated transaction verification method supports efficient collaboration for logistics transactions. Security analysis and performance evaluation demonstrate the feasibility of DBC in enhancing the security and supervision of logistics data on the dual‐blockchain architecture. Experimental results show that the cross‐chain supervision overhead of DBC is reduced to of the baseline schemes.

Software Model Checking Distributed Applications: A Hybrid Approach

Developing reliable distributed systems poses many challenges such as concurrency, failure handling, and scalability. It is due to the non-deterministic execution of threads within processes, and communication means. Formal verification methods, such as model checking, have been used to ensure the reliability of safety-critical systems. This technique systematically explores the complete behavior of the system under test (SUT), investigating each reachable state with different thread schedules. Recent software model-checking tools, employing cache and centralization, have been applied to distributed systems. The caching technique can only check one process at a time, while the centralization technique verifies all processes simultaneously. In the centralization technique, two "ArrayByteQueue" buffers are utilized to store communication and process data byte-by-byte. However, during the backtracking process, the read and write operations, involving data insertion and removal from the queue, become resource-intensive. As a consequence, existing interprocess communication (IPC) models encounter computational limitations and experience a rapid state space explosion. To address these challenges, our work proposes the remodeling of IPC models by introducing a request and response tree structure to store communication data. Additionally, we employ pointers to navigate through the data during the backtracking process. Through experimental evaluations, the proposed implementation choices have demonstrated significantly improved performance across various metrics. By incorporating the request and response tree, we enhance the efficiency of storing communication data, while the use of pointers optimizes navigation during backtracking. This remodeling of IPC models shows promise in mitigating computational limitations and state space explosion, thereby enhancing the model-checking process in distributed systems. Our research contributes to advancing the field of model checking in distributed systems and offers potential solutions to the challenges associated with resource-intensive read and write operations during the model-checking process.

The role of high density mapping in cathether ablation of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation - preliminary results

Abstract Introduction Despite technical progress and numerous approaches in ablation strategies, long-term success in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) treatment is still suboptimal. Non-transmural ablation lesions in antral isolation lines, causing late electrical reconnection between pulmonary veins (PVs) and left atrium (LA) could present one of the potenital issues for reduced effectiveness of radiofrequency cathether ablation (RFCA). Potentially, these lesions can be identified with high-density (HD) mapping as low voltage, fragmented electrocardiograms (LFEGMs) representing gaps in antral isolation lines. Purpose To compare the long-term pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) durability of two PVI verification methods (circumferential vs high-density mapping catheter) after catheter ablation of PAF. Methods Thirty-three patients with PAF were prospectively randomized to PVI verification by either circumferential mapping catheter (CM group) or HD mapping catheter (HD group). Patients in both groups underwent PVI according to the CLOSE protocol with PVI verification after a 30 minute waiting period. Additionally, in the HD group antral ablation lines were mapped to search for LFEGMs that were defined as fragmented signals (at least 3 deflections) and/or conduction to the LA during stimulation on the ablation line (10 mA at 1 msec) and/or voltage amplitude above 0.1 mV. If LFEGMs were found, additional ablations were performed until electrical inactivity was confirmed with the HD catheter. To monitor AF reccurence 6-day continuous holter ECG was performed after 3, 6, and 12 months after the initial procedure. Arrhythmia recurrence was defined as any atrial tachyarrhythmia lasting more than 30 seconds. Patients also underwent a mandatory second procedure 12 months after the initial PVI, during which HD re-mapping was performed to test durability of PVI and absence of conducting gaps in antral isolation lines. Results There were 16 patients in the CM group and 17 patients in the HD group. Baseline characteristics (gender, age, body mass index, LA volume index, left ventricular ejection fraction, CHA2DS2VASc score) did not significantly differ between the groups. Procedural characteristic are summarized in Table 1. There were significantly more isolated PVs at the remapping procedure in the HD group compared to the CM group (91.2% (62/68) vs 75.0% (48/64); P=0.021). There were also significantly more patients with all PVs durably isolated in the HD group (82.4% (14/17) vs 37.5% (6/16); P=0.008). However, arrhythmia recurrence rate was similiar between the CM and HD group (43.8% (7/16) vs 35.3% (6/17); P=0.640). Conclusion HD mapping improved PVI durability after 12 months compared to standard CM verification. However, lower number of isolated PVs in the HD group did not have an impact on arrhythmia reccurence.

Influence of the Accounting Information System for Providing Credit on Internal Control of Providing Credit

The research was carried out at the Bandung office of PT. BPR Kerta Raharja employed a quantitative methodology, specifically utilizing a descriptive approach and verification methods such as correlation coefficient, simple regression, and coefficient of determination. The sample size in this study consisted of 10 individuals. The research findings indicate that the Accounting Information System for Providing Credit falls under the category of reasonably excellent, with a score of 3.29. Similarly, the Internal Control for Providing Credit is also classified as quite good, achieving a score of 2.96. The calculation of the independent variable, the Accounting Information System for Providing Credit, and the dependent variable, Internal Control of Providing Credit, yielded a correlation value of r = 0.872. The simple linear regression equation is Y = 19.229 + 0.929X. The coefficient of determination (R2), expressed as a percentage, indicates the magnitude of the relationship. The credit-granting accounting information system (X) has a significant influence of 0.872 or 76.1% on credit-granting internal control (Y). The remaining 23.9% is attributed to other factors not examined in this research.

Influence of Cash Sales Accounting Information Systems on Internal Control of Cash Sales

This study seeks to determine and analyze the impact of variables. The research employed a quantitative methodology, explicitly utilizing a descriptive approach and verification methods such as correlation coefficient, simple linear regression, and coefficient of determination. The study included a population of 30 individuals, and the samples collected encompassed the entire community. According to the research findings on a consumer goods distributor company in Bandung, it can be concluded that the company's cash sales accounting information system (X) is performing well, with a score of 3.25. The internal control of cash sales (Y) is also reported to be entirely satisfactory, with a score of 3.19. The findings of this study indicate a significant correlation (correlation coefficient of 0.862) between the Cash Sales Accounting Information System and Cash Sales Internal Control. The Cash Sales Accounting Information System contributes to 74.3% of the variation in Cash Sales Internal Control (R square contribution). The remaining 25.7% is attributed to unexamined factors such as company policy.

Избыточность лично-возвратного местоимения себя: к вопросу о небанальном грамматическом плеоназме

The article deals with the case of grammatical pleonasm, which involves the verbalization of the verbal position of the actant or localizer by the case forms of the personal reflexive pronoun self, which have a spatial or subject-object meaning. This phenomenon is widespread in modern usage (at least 50 verbs participate in it), in different types of discourse (journalistic, political, advertising, colloquial, literary, educational and scientific), in oral and written speech, but it is not comprehended in terms of “language norm” or “speech error”, although the data of explanatory dictionaries impose a ban on the duplicate use of the pronoun self with some verbs. The article proves the deficiency of such combinations based on the semantic analysis of verbs, as well as by means of grammatical transformation – changing the part of speech or word order, which serve as additional methods of error verification. Based on the analysis of semantics, the list of verbs (50 units) that form pleonastic collocations (55 units) with all members of the case paradigm (Genitive, Accusative, Dative, Ablative and Locative with or without a preposition) of the personal reflexive pronoun self was revealed. Pleonastic control is provoked mainly by transitive verbs with the meaning of “location” and “placement / movement of an object” (integrating it into something, or excluding it, joining it with something, collecting or eliminating), as well as the meaning of “possessing” or “obtaining”. In metaphorical contexts with these verbs, the pronoun self is also redundant. From the point of view of linguistic logic, semantics and existing dictionary stipulations, this phenomenon should be codified as a grammatical pleonasm.