Access Planning Research Articles

A robust solver for wavefunction-based density functional theory calculations* *This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of

A new iterative solver is proposed to efficiently calculate the ground state electronic structure in density functional theory calculations. This algorithm is particularly useful for simulating physical systems considered difficult to converge by standard solvers, in particular metallic systems. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated on various applications.

POS-553 Factors Associated with Unplanned Dialysis Starts in Patients followed by Nephrologists: A Prospective Study

Pre dialysis care in chronic kidney disease patients is well practice in Malaysia. Ideal pre dialysis care requires adequate time for patient education, management of metabolic complications, malnutrition, anaemia, surgical planning and maturation of permanent dialysis vascular access. Many patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) are now managed in specialised multidisciplinary clinics (MDCs), where the primary goal is to transition patients smoothly onto dialysis. However, despite the many benefits that MDCs offer patients, a significant proportion of patients followed in such clinics still initiate dialysis in an unplanned fashion during a hospital admission, rather than electively as outpatients.

Focused Cardiac Assessment in Kidney Care.

Point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) is considered to be a very useful and informative extension of the bedside physical exam. The information obtained from POCUS allows for real time assessment for expedited decision making to improve efficiency in patient care and management. Many programs across the country are now incorporating POCUS into their training schedules to allow their residents, fellows, and faculty to gain competence in the techniques and varied clinical uses of POCUS [1-3]. In nephrology, POCUS has been used at the bedside for access planning, dialysis catheter placement, and to guide kidney biopsies to mention a few applications [4]. There is a wide scope for POCUS in nephrology in addition to kidney and bladder assessment. This includes focused cardiac ultrasound to evaluate the heart for structural and functional abnormalities and lung ultrasound as well. These bedside ultrasound assessments help with point of care management decisions pertaining to volume assessment in acute and chronic kidney disease, adjustment of ultrafiltration goals in dialysis patients, and evaluation of hypotension and dyspnea.

Multiscale Effects of Multimodal Public Facilities Accessibility on Housing Prices Based on MGWR: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

The layout of public service facilities and their accessibility are important factors affecting spatial justice. Previous studies have verified the positive influence of public facilities accessibility on house prices; however, the spatial scale of the impact of various public facilities accessibility on house prices is not yet clear. This study takes transportation analysis zone of Wuhan city as the spatial unit, measure the public facilities accessibility of schools, hospitals, green space, and public transit stations with four kinds of accessibility models such as the nearest distance, real time travel cost, kernel density, and two step floating catchment area (2SFCA), and explores the multiscale effect of public services accessibility on house prices with multiscale geographically weighted regression model. The results show that the differentiated scale effect not only exists among different public facility accessibilities, but also exists in different accessibility models of the same sort of facility. The article also suggests that different facilities should adopt its appropriate accessibility model. This study provides insights into spatial heterogeneity of urban public service facilities accessibility, which will benefit decision making in equal accessibility planning and policy formulation for the layout of urban service facilities.

Reporter genes confer new-to-nature ornamental traits in plants.

This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Connecting Cohorts to Diminish Alzheimer's Disease (CONCORD-AD): A Report of an International Research Collaboration Network.

Longitudinal observational cohort studies are being conducted worldwide to understand cognition, biomarkers, and the health of the aging population better. Cross-cohort comparisons and networks of registries in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) foster scientific exchange, generate insights, and contribute to the evolving clinical science in AD. A scientific working group was convened with invited investigators from established cohort studies in AD, in order to form a research collaboration network as a resource to address important research questions. The Connecting Cohorts to Diminish Alzheimer’s Disease (CONCORD-AD) collaboration network was created to bring together global resources and expertise, to generate insights and improve understanding of the natural history of AD, to inform design of clinical trials in all disease stages, and to plan for optimal patient access to disease-modifying therapies once they become available. The network brings together expertise and data insights from 7 cohorts across Australia, Europe, and North America. Notably, the network includes populations recruited through memory clinics as well as population-based cohorts, representing observations from individuals across the AD spectrum. This report aims to introduce the CONCORD-AD network, providing an overview of the cohorts involved, reporting the common assessments used, and describing the key characteristics of the cohort populations. Cohort study designs and baseline population characteristics are compared, and available cognitive, functional, and neuropsychiatric symptom data, as well as the frequency of biomarker assessments, are summarized. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of cross-cohort studies in AD are discussed.

Energy access during and post-COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan countries: the case of Ethiopia.

The global COVID-19 pandemic causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and has created a catastrophic economic and health crisis around the World. Transportation, manufacturing industries, business and people’s movement came to almost a halt and sharp oil and gas prices reduction were observed. The impact of the pandemic for sub-Saharan countries like Ethiopia, which was already struggling with many economic and social welfare problems, is more evident than in other wealthy nations around the World. In Ethiopia, the general energy access rate is 44% and in healthcare facilities is only about 10%. Therefore, the response for the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging, since activities such as information sharing, communication with health centers, diagnosis and medical treatment require electricity access. This paper aims to assess the impact of the pandemic on energy access plans during and post-pandemic. The paper analyzed, the status of the current COVID-19 outbreak in Ethiopia, the energy access situation in health facilities, and the impacts of COVID-19 on energy access during and post-pandemic periods. Data related to the universal energy access plan of Ethiopia, the impact of energy access on healthcare services and the impact of the pandemic were reviewed for the assessment. The analysis indicates that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopian healthcare facilities and on the overall universal energy access plan is immense and to minimize the global impact short and long-term policy responses are identified and urgently recommended. Furthermore, powering healthcare facilities with microgrids composed of solar panels and battery storage systems could be one cost-effective and sustainable solution for the speedy and effective response of the pandemic challenges.

Market and regulatory frameworks for operational security in decarbonizing electricity systems: from physics to economics

ABSTRACT Grid integration of low-carbon resources comes with new, significant technical challenges for keeping a power system secure. Given a multitude of grid services with varying interactions and risks, the economics of power system security are similarly, if not more, complex. In this paper, we discuss the fundamental relationship between the physical and economic aspects of power system security in low-carbon grids. Specifically, we formulate a physics-informed approach for classifying power system security products and services. The approach yields two critical findings. First, we show that these services, rather than being a homogenous set of public goods, are more preferably regarded as a set of products/services (basket of goods) that have both public and private characteristics. Second, the framework reveals that many new system services are consistent with a common pool resource characterization. This implies an enhanced role for more localized network planning and co-ordination of access and service provision.

Power transport efficiency during O-X-B 2nd harmonic electron cyclotron heating in a helicon linear plasma device 1 1This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The publisher acknowledges the US government license to provide public access under the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

The principal objective of this work is to report on the power coupled to a tungsten target in the prototype-material plasma exposure experiment device during oblique injection of a microwave beam (<70 kW at 28 GHz) into a high-power (∼100 kW at 13.56 MHz) over-dense () deuterium helicon plasma column. The experimental setup, electron heating system, electron heating scheme, and IR thermographic diagnostic for quantifying the power transport is described in detail. It is demonstrated that the power transported to the target can be effectively controlled by adjusting the magnetic field profile. Using this method, heat fluxes up to 22 MW m−2 and power transport efficiencies in the range of 17%–20% have been achieved using 70 kW of microwave power. It is observed that most of the heat flux is confined to a narrow region at the plasma periphery. Ray-tracing calculations are presented which indicate that the power is coupled to the plasma electrons via an O-X-B mode conversion process. Calculations indicate that the microwave power is absorbed in a single pass at the plasma periphery via collisions and in the over-dense region via 2nd harmonic cyclotron resonance of the electron Bernstein wave. The impact of these results is discussed in the context of MPEX.

Management of public policy for celerity up child support proceedings in the peruvian judiciary

The objective of this research is to verify if through the management of public policy it will be possible to comply in a timely manner with the processes of child support in the courts of peace of the judicial districts of the country. For its development, the doctrine was analyzed and field work was conducted through surveys directed to judges of the courts of peace of the Superior Court of Justice of North Lima, due to the good practices that this judicial district has been carrying out and because it obtained the ISO 9001:2015 certification for the implementation of a quality management system in attention to the processes of child support. Regarding the research methodology, this is descriptive and correlational; and the method applied is the inductive and quantitative and qualitative approaches. From the study of the results obtained, it is concluded that there is a process management system for the celerity of processes of child support claims, established in the objectives of the National Plan for Access to Justice for Persons in Condition of Vulnerability 2016-2021, but it is not met, due to various factors related to the insufficiency of economic, technological, material and human resources in the judiciary.

Autonomous Robotic Feature-Based Freeform Fabrication Approach.

Robotic additive manufacturing (AM) has gained much attention for its continuous material deposition capability with continuously changeable building orientations, reducing support structure volume and post-processing complexity. However, the current robotic additive process heavily relies on manual geometric reasoning that identifies additive features, related building orientations, tool approach direction, trajectory generation, and sequencing all features in a non-collision manner. In addition, multi-directional material accumulation cannot ensure the nozzle always stays above the building geometry. Thus, the collision between these two becomes a significant issue that needs to be solved. Hence, the common use of a robotic additive is hindered by the lack of fully autonomous tools based on the abovementioned issues. We present a systematic approach to the robotic AM process that can automate the abovementioned planning procedures in the aspect of collision-free. Typically, input models to robotic AM have diverse information contents and data formats, hindering the feature recognition, extraction, and relations to the robotic motion. Our proposed method integrates the collision-avoidance condition to the model decomposition step. Therefore, the decomposed volumes can be associated with additional constraints, such as accessibility, connectivity, and trajectory planning. This generates an entire workspace for the robotic additive building platform, rotatability, and additive features to determine the entire sequence and avoid potential collisions. This approach classifies the uniqueness of autonomous manufacturing on the robotic AM system to build large and complex metal components that are non-achievable through traditional one-directional AM in a computationally effective manner. This approach also paves the path in constructing an in situ monitoring and closed-loop control on robotic AM to control and enhance the build quality of the robotic metal AM process.

Exploring electron beam induced atomic assembly via reinforcement learning in a molecular dynamics environment * *Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide

Atom-by-atom assembly of functional materials and devices is perceived as one of the ultimate targets of nanotechnology. Recently it has been shown that the beam of a scanning transmission electron microscope can be used for targeted manipulation of individual atoms. However, the process is highly dynamic in nature rendering control difficult. One possible solution is to instead train artificial agents to perform the atomic manipulation in an automated manner without need for human intervention. As a first step to realizing this goal, we explore how artificial agents can be trained for atomic manipulation in a simplified molecular dynamics environment of graphene with Si dopants, using reinforcement learning. We find that it is possible to engineer the reward function of the agent in such a way as to encourage formation of local clusters of dopants under different constraints. This study shows the potential for reinforcement learning in nanoscale fabrication, and crucially, that the dynamics learned by agents encode specific elements of important physics that can be learned.

VR-based training of craniotomy for intracranial aneurysm surgery

PurposeIntracranial aneurysms can be treated micro-surgically. This procedure involves an appropriate head position of the patient and a proper craniotomy. These steps enable a proper access, facilitating the subsequent steps. To train the access planning process, we propose a VR-based training system.MethodWe designed and implemented an immersive VR access simulation, where the user is surrounded by a virtual operating room, including medical equipment and virtual staff. The patient’s head can be positioned via hand rotation and an arbitrary craniotomy contour can be drawn. The chosen access can be evaluated by exposing the aneurysm using a microscopic view.ResultsThe evaluation of the simulation took place in three stages: testing the simulation using the think-aloud method, conducting a survey and examining the precision of drawing the contour. Although there are differences between the virtual interactions and their counterparts in reality, the participants liked the immersion and felt present in the operating room. The calculated surface dice similarity coefficient, Hausdorff distance and feedback of the participants show that the difficulty of drawing the craniotomy is appropriate.ConclusionThe presented training simulation for head positioning and access planning benefits from the immersive environment. Thus, it is an appropriate training for novice neurosurgeons and medical students with the goal to improve anatomical understanding and to become aware of the importance of the right craniotomy hole.

Identifying and addressing differential Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic student experiences at a post-1992 institution

The University of Brighton commissioned a university-wide study to identify some of the factors contributing to the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic degree awarding gap at UK Higher Education Institutions from the perspective of the students that it impacts. An Action Research focus-group approach was used to inform the planning for the institutional 2020–2025 Access and Participation Plan and an application for the Advance HE Race Equality Charter. This project focused on students who were identified as British and/or qualified for home (UK-resident) tuition fees. This paper presents the positive and negative factors identified from the focus groups as having a potential impact on the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic student experience. Findings are separated into two categories, the academic student experience and the non-academic student experience, and the paper highlights those factors which were consistent across the institution's provision. The paper also discusses the multifaceted, whole-institution approach which has been taken in response to these findings and the principles underpinning the actions and interventions. Final remarks share reflections on the learning, both at an institutional and sector-level, and next steps that the University of Brighton intends to take to improve the student experience and address degree awarding gaps.

Collaboration and co-production with Black, Asian and minority ethnic students: working in partnership with our students to inform and deliver access and participation practice

In recent years, the topic of UK-domiciled undergraduate students from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds not accessing, succeeding and progressing as well as their White peers in Higher Education (HE) has gained increased policy and media attention. Institutions are required to address gaps amongst student groups that are underrepresented within HE, including students from BAME backgrounds, through their Office for Students' (OfS) regulated Access and Participation Plan (APP). This paper offers specific examples of how Edge Hill University, a university in North West England, has begun to approach this work in the new regulatory environment. APPs now place an increased emphasis upon research informed practice, student engagement, consultation, and evaluation. This innovative practice article provides a detailed example of genuine collaboration and coproduction with students to develop and deliver APP work, and extends an earlier presentation delivered at the March 2021 Open University Access Participation and Success International Biennial Conference. In this article, the authors outline the development of a new Diversity Access Programme and a BAME Student Advisory Panel. The paper offers a reflective account of how APP leads, Widening Participation (WP) practitioners, evaluators and students can work together effectively in partnership to design and deliver WP initiatives.

The State of Dissemination of Open Research Data in Ukraine and the World: Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose: To determine the current state of development of open science in the paradigm of open research data in Ukraine and the world, as well as to analyze the representation of Ukraine in the world research space, in terms of research data exchange. Design / Method / Research Approach: Methods of synthesis, logical and comparative analysis used to determine the dynamics of the number of research data journals and data files in the world, as well as to quantify the share of research data repositories in Ukraine and the world. Trend and bibliometric analysis were used to determine the share of publications with their open primary data; analysis of their thematic structures; identification of the main scientific clusters of such publications; research of geographic indicators and share of publications by research institutions. Findings: The study found a tendency to increase both the number of data logs and data files in Dryad (open data repository). The results of the analysis of the share of data repositories indexed in re3data (register of research data repositories) show that 51% of the total number are repositories of data from European countries, with Germany leading with 460 repositories, followed by the United Kingdom (302 repositories) and France (116 repositories). Ukraine has only 2 data repositories indexed in re3data. The trend of relevance of data exchange is confirmed by the increase of publications with datasets for the last 10 years (2011-2020) in 5 times. Research institutions and universities are the main sources of research data, which are mainly focused on the fields of knowledge in chemistry (23.3%); biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (13.8%); medicine (12.9%). An analysis of the latest thematic groups formed on the basis of publications with datasets shows that there is a significant correlation between publications with open source data and COVID-19 studies. More than 50% of publications with datasets both in Ukraine and around the world are aimed at achieving the goal of SDG 3 Good Health. Theoretical Implications: It is substantiated that in Ukraine there is a need to implement specific tactical and strategic plans for open science and open access to research data. Practical Implications: The results of the study can be used to support decision-making in the management of research data at the macro and micro levels. Future Research: It should be noted that the righteous bibliometric analysis of the state of the dissemination of data underlying the research results did not include the assessment of quality indicators and compliance with the FAIR principles, because accessibility and reusability are fundamental components of open science, which may be an area for further research. Moreover, it is advisable to investigate the degree of influence of the disclosure of the data underlying the research result on economic indicators, as well as indicators of ratings of higher education, etc. Research Limitations: Since publications with datasets in Scopus-indexed journals became the information base of the analysis for our study, it can be assumed that the dataset did not include publications with datasets published in editions that the Scopus bibliographic database does not cover. Paper type: Theoretical

Mobility and accessibility paradigms in Dutch policies: An empirical analysis

To promote sustainable urban development, transport policies need to change from a car-oriented mobility planning paradigm to an accessibility-based paradigm, integrating land-use and transport policies. This paper uses the concept of planning paradigms to describe the current status of municipal transport planning and problem framing. The dominant transport planning paradigm of 172 Dutch municipalities is determined, based on a conceptual framework with 24 mobility and accessibility planning criteria. Statistical analysis is then conducted to find linkages between the planning paradigm and transport, land-use, and institutional characteristics of the municipalities. We show that the mobility planning paradigm still dominates Dutch municipal transport planning, and the accessibility planning paradigm is mostly found in large cities and highly urban municipalities. However, we do find indications of slow change in the transport planning paradigms in Dutch municipalities, as older policy documents are more (car) mobility focused than newer policy documents. Further research is necessary to examine the evolution of the paradigm shift in municipal transport planning over time and what factors promote the realization of such a paradigm shift.

Extension of the discrete generalized multigroup method using SPH factors

The discrete generalized multigroup (DGM) method provides a way to treat the energy dependence of neutron transport similarly to the standard multigroup approximation. However, DGM uses an orthogonal basis to retain the energy dependence in higher-order terms. Using correction factors similar to traditional Superhomogénéisation (SPH) factors, the DGM method may be extended to produce cross sections that are homogenized over both space and energy. Since some fine-group energy dependence is retained, the resulting homogenized cross sections are more problem-independent than cross sections homogenized by SPH factors alone. In particular, a 44-group set of cross sections is collapsed to approximately a 1% error in the pincell fission densities for a test problem using three DOF per coarse energy group. 22Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Difficulties, Challenges, and the Learning Curve of Avoiding Complications in Lumbar Endoscopic Spine Surgery.

Spinal endoscopy has the stigma of being reserved for only a few surgeons who can figure out how to master the steep learning curve and develop clinical practice settings where endoscopic spine surgery can thrive. In essence, endoscopic treatment of herniated discs specifically and nerve root compression in the lumbar spine in general amounts to replacing traditional open spine surgery protocols with spinal endoscopic surgery techniques. In doing so, the endoscopic spine surgeon must be confident that the degenerative spine's common painful problems can be handled with endoscopic spinal surgery techniques with at least comparable clinical results and complication rates. In this review article, the authors illustrate the difficulties and challenges of the endoscopic lumbar decompression procedure. In addition, they shed light on how to master the learning curve by systematically looking at all sides of the problem, ranging from the ergonomic aspects of the endoscopic platform and its instruments, surgical access planning, challenging clinical scenarios, complications, and sequelae, as well as the training gaps after postgraduate residency and fellowship programs.

Urban expansion and differential accessibility by car and public transport in the Greater Kumasi city-region, Ghana—A geospatial modelling approach

There is a growing recognition of the worsening problems of accessibility in Africa's major urban centres and city-regions. Yet, research assessing differential accessibility in these contexts is limited, partly because of the lack of population and land-use data at granular spatial resolutions. In this paper, we contribute to addressing the existing challenges by presenting a geospatial modelling approach that combines historical urban physical development data extracted from Landsat satellite images, travel time data from Openrouteservice and Google Maps API services, and relevant transport infrastructure data. We apply the approach to analyse place-based (100 m2) accessibility in the Greater Kumasi city-region of Ghana. The analysis reveals a strong co-evolutionary relationship between physical development and geographical accessibility, with an estimated 83% of the emergent physical development located within half-a-kilometre distance of a primary road. First-and-last-mile accessibility in terms of walking time to public transport stations and public transport service routes are quantified. We reveal huge first-and-last-mile accessibility deficits, with an estimated 14% and 33% of the city-region's built-up area having a 5-minute and 10-minute walking time reachability to a public transport station, as a critical node of accessibility. Differential accessibility by car and public transport is analysed, focusing on the city-region's most important functional centre (i.e. CBD). The results show that the CBD is within 15 min and nearly 30 min reach by car and public transport respectively, for only 1% of the city-region's built-up area. This implies that overall accessibility is poor regardless of mode choice, due to congestion. The findings underscore the need for integrative urban development and accessibility planning in the city-region for equitable transport and mobility outcomes.