Separate Measurements Research Articles

Improved MnO2 based electrode performance arising from step by step heat treatment during electrodeposition of MnO2 for determination of paracetamol, 4-aminophenol, and 4-nitrophenol

The design of electrochemical sensors is crucial considering important factors such as efficiency, low cost, biocompatibility, and availability. Manganese oxides are readily available, low-cost, and biocompatible materials, but their low conductivity limits their efficiency as sensors. Today, morphology engineering of manganese oxide has been one of the most common research topics, because manganese oxides’ electrochemical properties are highly dependent on their morphologies. In this study, a method for reducing the charge transfer resistance (Rct) of MnO2-based electrodes was established by the cyclic voltammetry technique accompanied by step-by-step heat treatment to electrodeposition MnO2 nanofilm, which remarkably improved the Rct. Next, the sensing performance of MnO2/FTO for two separate measurements was examined, one for the simultaneous measurement of paracetamol (PAR) and 4-aminophenol (4-APh), and the other for the measurement of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). Under the optimum conditions, the linear ranges of 4-APh, PAR, and 4-NP, were 0.8 to 22.0 µM, 2.0 to 55.0 µM, and 0.1–250 µM, with limits of detection (LOD) of 0.19 µM, 0.60 µM, and 0.01 µM, respectively. It also was unaffected by a 200-fold excess of interferences. In addition, the designed sensor was successfully applied to the analysis of real samples.

Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills

Background. Language development in toddlers can be influenced by social interactions in environments and proximal contexts with mothers and fathers. We present the literature on mothers’ and fathers’ education level and socioeconomic status on the child’s language development; further evidence is needed in the Italian-speaking context. Aims. The study aims to confirm the role of mother and father education level on toddlers’ language skills assessed with direct and indirect measures. Methods and Procedures. Participants were 51 Italian-speaking children aged 33 to 41 months. Children were tested with a lexical test (PinG test) for comprehension and production of nouns and predicates and a morpho-syntactic test for grammar comprehension (PCGO). Parents of the children completed a demographic form and the Italian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates CDI long version. Two series of one-way ANCOVAs were performed to study the role of mothers’ and fathers’ level of education on separate measures of their child’s language. Outcomes and Results. Findings suggest that in most families, mothers’ level of education is higher than fathers’ level of education. There was no significant difference between children of parents with low–middle level of education and children of parents with high level of education for the grammar comprehension tasks (PCGO) and indirect measure of vocabulary production (MacArthur-Bates CDI). However, both mothers’ and fathers’ level of education appears to be significant for the direct measurement of word production. Conclusions and Implications. This study provides new evidence for the role of mothers’ and fathers’ education on the development of word production in children aged 33 to 41 months, contributing to enriching the literature on the Italian context; it lays the groundwork for future research on the social and environmental factors that can affect language development.

Interobserver Reproducibility of Ultrasound Attenuation Imaging Technology in Liver Fat Quantification.

This study aims to investigate the interobserver variability in the quantitative assessment of liver fat content using ultrasound attenuation imaging technology (USAT). This prospective, single-center study included 96 adult patients who were either diagnosed with or suspected of having metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Independent observers, blinded to each other's assessments, evaluated hepatic steatosis visually and through USAT measurements. Separate measurements were taken at five intercostal and subcostal sites, and the median values of these measurements were recorded. The correlation between USAT measurements and visual steatosis grades was examined using Spearman's correlation test. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland-Altman analysis were used to evaluate the interobserver variability of USAT measurements. Interobserver agreement for USAT measurements was excellent for the intercostal examination and good for the subcostal examination (p < 0.001). Body mass index did not significantly affect the level of interobserver agreement. Interobserver variability in Bland-Altman plots of USAT measurements was within the 95% limits of agreement. USAT measurements correlated very strongly with the visual degree of hepatic steatosis, both intercostal and subcostal (p < 0.001). USAT measurements were also significantly different between different visual degrees of hepatic steatosis (p < 0.001). In the assessment of hepatic steatosis, USAT measurements obtained from the intercostal space showed excellent agreement in terms of interobserver reproducibility.

Importance of Orbital Invariance in Quantifying Electron-Hole Separation and Exciton Size.

A fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics is that properties should be independent of representation. In self-consistent field methods such as density functional theory, this manifests as a requirement that properties be invariant with respect to unitary transformations of the occupied molecular orbitals and (separately) the unoccupied molecular orbitals. Various ad hoc measures of excited-state charge separation that are commonly used to analyze time-dependent density-functional calculations violate this requirement, as they are based on incoherent averages of excitation amplitudes rather than expectation values involving coherent superpositions. As a result, these metrics afford markedly different values in various common representations, including canonical molecular orbitals, Boys-localized orbitals, and natural orbitals. Numerical values can be unstable with respect to basis-set expansion and may afford nonsensical results in the presence of extremely diffuse basis functions. In contrast, metrics based on well-defined expectation values are stable, representation-invariant, and physically interpretable. Use of natural transition orbitals improves the stability of the incoherent averages, but numerical values can only be interpreted as expectation value in the absence of superposition. To satisfy this condition, the particle and hole density matrices must each be dominated by a single eigenvector so that the transition density is well described by a single pair of natural transition orbitals. Counterexamples are readily found where this is not the case. Our results suggest that ad hoc charge-transfer diagnostics should be replaced by rigorous expectation values, which are no more expensive to compute.

Assessing Human Iron Kinetics Using Stable Iron Isotopic Techniques.

Stable iron isotope techniques are critical for developing strategies to combat iron deficiency anemia, a leading cause of global disability. There are four primary stable iron isotope methods to assess ferrokinetics in humans. (i) The fecal recovery method applies the principles of a metabolic balance study but offers enhanced accuracy because the amount of iron isotope present in feces can be directly traced back to the labeled dose, distinguishing it from endogenous iron lost in stool from shed intestinal cells. (ii) In the plasma isotope appearance method, plasma samples are collected for several hours after oral dosing to evaluate the rate, quantity, and pattern of iron absorption. Key metrics include the time of peak isotope concentration and the area under the curve. (iii) The erythrocyte iron incorporation method measures iron bioavailability (absorption and erythrocyte iron utilization) from a whole blood sample collected 2 weeks after oral dosing. Simultaneous administration of oral and intravenous tracers allows for separate measurements of iron absorption and iron utilization. These threemethods determine iron absorption by measuring tracer concentrations in feces, serum, or erythrocytes after administration of a tracer. In contrast, (iv) in iron isotope dilution, an innovative new approach, iron of natural composition acts as the tracer, diluting an ad hoc modified isotopic signature obtained via prior isotope administration and equilibration with body iron. This technique enables highly accurate long-term studies of iron absorption, loss, and gain. This review discusses the application of these kinetic methods and their potential to address important questions in hematology andiron biology.

Simultaneous determination of somatic cell count and total plate count in raw milk based on ATP bioluminescence assay

The somatic cell count (SCC) and total plate count (TPC) are essential quality indicators for raw milk. Traditional detection methods require separate measurements and rely on complex, large-scale instruments or cultivation techniques, which are both time-consuming and laborious. To address these challenges, this study developed a novel method for the simultaneous detection of SCC and TPC in the same raw milk sample using the ATP bioluminescence assay. This method utilizes oxy-ethylated iso-nonyl phenol (Neonol-10) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to selectively lyse somatic cells and microorganisms, respectively. This technique is straightforward to operate and can be completed within 2.5 h, with detection ranges of 1 × 10⁴ to 3 × 10⁶ cells/mL for SCC and 1 × 10⁵ to 5 × 10⁷ CFU/mL for TPC. Importantly, this technique meets the requirements of detection standards in China, European Union, Canada, United States, etc. For SCC or TPC in raw milk. Overall, this innovative approach does not rely on expensive equipment or facilities and the stepwise reagent addition procedure can be easily developed into an automated high-throughput system for rapid on-site testing of SCC and TPC in raw milk.

A Distributed Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Method Using Karhunen–Loeve Feature Extraction and an Improved Deep Dictionary

In recent years, the non-invasive load monitoring (NILM) method based on sparse coding has shown promising research prospects. This type of method learns a sparse dictionary for each monitoring target device, and it expresses load decomposition as a problem of signal reconstruction using dictionaries and sparse vectors. The existing NILM methods based on sparse coding have problems such as inability to be applied to multi-state and time-varying devices, single-load characteristics, and poor recognition ability for similar devices in distributed manners. Using the analysis above, this paper focuses on devices with similar features in households and proposes a distributed non-invasive load monitoring method using Karhunen–Loeve (KL) feature extraction and an improved deep dictionary. Firstly, Karhunen–Loeve expansion (KLE) is used to perform subspace expansion on the power waveform of the target device, and a new load feature is extracted by combining singular value decomposition (SVD) dimensionality reduction. Afterwards, the states of all the target devices are modeled as super states, and an improved deep dictionary based on the distance separability measure function (DSM-DDL) is learned for each super state. Among them, the state transition probability matrix and observation probability matrix in the hidden Markov model (HMM) are introduced as the basis for selecting the dictionary order during load decomposition. The KL feature matrix of power observation values and improved depth dictionary are used to discriminate the current super state based on the minimum reconstruction error criterion. The test results based on the UK-DALE dataset show that the KL feature matrix can effectively reduce the load similarity of devices. Combined with DSM-DDL, KL has a certain information acquisition ability and acceptable computational complexity, which can effectively improve the load decomposition accuracy of similar devices, quickly and accurately estimating the working status and power demand of household appliances.

МЕТОДИ ОБЛІКУ З МЕТОЮ СКЛАДАННЯ ФІНАНСОВОЇ ЗВІТНОСТІ: НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙ ТА МІЖНАРОДНИЙ АСПЕКТИ

The article examines accounting methods for the purpose of financial reporting using the example of national and global application of rules and standards. General research methods were used: analysis, synthesis, comparison and grouping, schematic display of results. The research methodology takes into account a generalization of domestic and foreign features of accounting methods and methods for preparing financial statements, scientific analysis of standards of accounting methods, fundamental provisions of economic theory, accounting and reporting. A comparison of accounting approaches according to NP(S)BU 1 "General Requirements for Financial Reporting" and International Financial Reporting Standards IAS 1 "Presentation of Financial Statements" was carried out to assess the state of national accounting methods with world practice. Separate measures are proposed to systematize methods for preparing financial statements. The need to take into account the characteristics and essence of individual species using the modeling method is substantiated, which will allow generating reporting in conditions close to international standards. The results of the study can be useful for further approximation of the conditions and features of the application of accounting and reporting methods according to national to international standards. The study analyzed and summarized the state of regulatory regulation of the application of accounting methods for the preparation of financial statements, taking into account national and international aspects. It has been determined that the accounting method is a system of interrelated methods and techniques for displaying the value of objects. Accounting methods are general scientific and specific, and it is the latter that are the object of regulatory regulation at both the national and international levels. It is noted that national accounting standards should take into account all methods that contribute to the preparation of financial statements close to international standards. For the current state of accounting science and practice, taking into account the achievements of foreign standards of accounting and reporting, the most practical direction of improving methods is the use of the modeling method. The issues of accounting and reporting need further study through the prism of the elements of the accounting method reflected in the accounting policy.

Use of noninvasive measurement of the indocyanine green plasma disappearance rate in patients with septic shock.

Our aim was to analyse the relation between serial values of the indocyanine green plasma disappearance rate (ICG-PDR) with hospital mortality in the first 48 hours of ICU admission in patients with septic shock. A prospective observational study was carried out over 12 months of patients admitted to the ICU with septic shock. Each patient underwent noninvasive determination of ICG-PDR at 24 and 48 hours with the LiMON® module. Follow-up was performed until hospital discharge or exitus. 63 patients. Age 61.1±12.3 years. 60.3% men. SOFA score on admission 8.7±3.3, APACHE II score was 27.9±10.7 points. A total of 44.4% of patients died. The ICG-PDR values in the first 24 hours of ICU admission were lower in nonsurvivors: 10.5 (5.7-13.0)%/min vs. 15.9 (11.4-28.0)%/min, p <0.001. Furthermore, in nonsurvivors, there was no improvement in ICG-PDR between 24 h and 48 h, while in survivors, there was an increase of 25%: 15.9 (11.4-28.0)%/min and 20.9 (18.0-27.0)%/min, p=0.020. The silhouette measure of ICG-PDR cohesion and separation for the clusters analysed (nonsurvivors and survivors) was satisfactory (0.6). ICG-PDR<11.7%/min was related to in-hospital mortality, ICG-PDR> 18%/min to survival, and the interval between 11.7% and 18%/min covered a range of uncertainty. In the two-stage cluster, ICG-PDR, SOFA and APACHE II present satisfactory predictive scores 24 hours after patient admission. ICG-PDR in our setting is a useful clinical prognostic tool and could optimise the decision tree in patients with septic shock.

Flow Evolution and Vertical Accelerations in Wave‐Swash Interactions

AbstractWe report on a laboratory study of wave‐swash interactions, which occur in the very nearshore environment of a beach when the shallow swash flow of a breaking wave interacts with a subsequent wave. Wave‐swash interactions have been observed in the field, hypothesized to be important for nearshore transport processes, and categorized into different qualitative types, but quantitative descriptions of their dynamics have remained elusive. Using consecutive solitary waves with different wave heights and separations, we generate a wide variety of wave‐swash interactions with large flow velocities and vertical accelerations. We find that wave‐swash interactions can be quantitatively characterized in terms of two dimensionless parameters. The first of them corresponds to the wave height ratio for consecutive waves, and the second is a dimensionless measure of the time separation between consecutive wave crests. Using measurements of bed pressure and free‐surface displacement, we estimate the total vertical accelerations and focus on the peak upward‐directed acceleration. We find that wave‐swash interactions can generate vertical accelerations that can easily exceed gravity, despite occurring in very shallow water depths. The large vertical accelerations are upward‐directed and are quickly followed by onshore‐directed horizontal velocities. Together, our findings suggest that wave‐swash interactions are capable of inducing large material suspension events of sediment or solutes in sediment pores, and transporting them onshore. While the data are from a single location making it difficult to generalize the findings across the swash zone, the results clearly demonstrate the importance of large vertical accelerations in wave‐swash interactions.

Mechanical Robustness Analysis of Semiconductors with a Single Needle Probe Card Using Acoustic Emissions

The combination of indentation testing and acoustic emission (AE) is widely used to analyze the fracture toughness of test substrates. In the manufacturing of semiconductor devices this material parameter also plays an important role. During the so-called wafer testing inside a wafer prober small probe tips are pressed onto the chip surface to check its performance. To prevent damaging the chip by that, the fracture toughness and load limit of it has to be defined in a prequalification step. This paper presents a test system that imitates the wafer testing process as close as possible and uses acoustic emission to detect appearing cracks and thereby also the load limit. The frontend of the test setup consists of a modular single needle probe card which can be placed in a wafer prober. Also, the indenter properties (tip diameter, stiffness, etc.) can be adjusted to the probe used later on during productive wafer testing to ensure realistic probing conditions. A piezoelectric sensor and a full strain gauge Wheatstone bridge are implemented close to the single indenter to measure the AEs and the applied contact force respectively. The signal-to-noise-ratios (SNRs) of both sensors are improved with an own analog amplifier module before recording them with an USB oscilloscope. A developed measurement software (LabVIEW) is used to adjust measurement parameters (trigger limit, record length, conversion factors, etc.) and automatically store and separate measurement data from different acoustic events and imprints. To evaluate the result files a second software tool (MATLAB) reads the files out and clusters the recorded events to separate crack signals from electrical and mechanical disturbances. With a prototype first test results are generated and the functionality and accuracy of the measurement concept is proven.

Stress Evolution and Rock Burst Prevention in Triangle Coal Pillars under the Influence of Penetrating Faults: A Case Study

The occurrence of rock bursts due to penetrating faults are frequent in China, thereby limiting the safe production of coal mines. Based on the engineering background of a 501 working face in a TB coal mine, this paper investigates stress and energy evolution during the excavation of this working face due to multiple penetrating faults. Utilizing both theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, this study reveals the rock burst mechanism within the triangular coal pillar influenced by the penetrating faults. Based on the evolution of stress within the triangular coal pillar, a stress index has been devised to categorize both the rock burst danger regions and the levels of rock burst risks associated with the triangular coal pillar. Furthermore, targeted stress relief measures are proposed for various energy accumulation areas within the triangular coal pillar. The results demonstrate that: (1) the superimposed tectonic stress resulting from the T6 and T5 penetrating faults exhibits asymmetric distribution and has an influence range of about 90 m in the triangular coal pillar, reaching a peak value of 11.21 MPa at a distance of 13 m from the fault plane; (2) affected by the barrier effect of penetrating faults, the abutment stress of the working face is concentrated in the triangular coal pillar, and the magnitude of the abutment stress is positively and negatively correlated with the fault plane barrier effect and the width of the triangular coal pillar, respectively; (3) the exponential increase in abutment stress and tectonic stress as the width of the triangular coal pillar decreases leads to a high concentration of static stress, which induces pillar burst under the disturbance of dynamic stress from fault activation; (4) the numerical simulation shows that when the working face is 150 m away from the fault, the static stress and accumulated energy in the triangle coal pillar begins to rise, reaching the peak at 50 m away from the fault, which is consistent with the theoretical analysis; (5) the constructed stress index indicates that the triangular coal pillar exhibits moderate rock burst risks when its width is between 73 to 200 m, and exhibits high rock burst risks when the width is within 0 to 73 m. The energy accumulation pattern of the triangular coal pillar reveals that separate stress relief measures should be implemented within the ranges of 50 to 150 m and 0 to 50 m, respectively, in order to enhance the effectiveness of stress relief. Blasting stress relief measures for the roof and coal are proposed, and the effectiveness of these measures is subsequently verified.

Bicycle Infrastructure Safety Assessment From the Perspective of Urban Development Specialists and Engineers

The safety of bicycle infrastructure is a primary factor influencing bicycle travel. While cyclists’ perspectives on infrastructure safety are extensively studied, they are merely the end users. Decisions on infrastructure design are made by engineers and urban development specialists. Therefore, it is crucial to determine if these professionals’ safety assessments align with those of cyclists. A qualitative survey was conducted with 5 expert engineers and 5 urban development specialists, each having 5 to 20 years of experience in transportation infrastructure planning. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance W was used to assess the compatibility of their opinions. The results showed significant compatibility: W = 0.697 for engineers and W = 0.511 for urban development specialists. Seventeen cycling infrastructure installation schemes were evaluated. Both engineers (M = 10.0, SD = 0.0) and urban development specialists (M = 9.8, SD = 0.44) indicated the DT_2 option as providing the greatest sense of security, where the bicycle path is physically separated from both the carriageway and pedestrian path. The key findings reveal agreement on the safety of straight-street segments of bicycle infrastructure but diverging opinions at intersections zones. Urban development specialists are influenced by existing practices and legal frameworks lacking detailed cycling infrastructure guidelines at intersections. Engineers align more closely with cyclists’ perceptions, emphasising physical separation and speed reduction measures. The study concludes that urban development specialists need to better understand cyclists’ needs and prioritize safer infrastructure solutions.

Identification of malfunctioning quantum devices

We consider the problem of correctly identifying a malfunctioning quantum device that forms part of a network of N such devices, which can be considered as the quantum analog of classical anomaly detection. In the case where the devices in question are sources assumed to prepare identical quantum pure states, with the faulty source producing a different anomalous pure state, we show that the optimal probability of successful identification requires a global quantum measurement. We also put forth several local measurement strategies—both adaptive and nonadaptive—that achieve the same optimal probability of success in the limit where the number of devices to be checked is large. In the case where the faulty device performs a known unitary operation, we show that the use of entangled probes provides an improvement that even allows perfect identification for values of the unitary parameter that surpass a certain threshold. Finally, if the faulty device implements a known qubit channel, we find that the optimal probability for detecting the position of rank-one and rank-two Pauli channels can be achieved by product state inputs and separable measurements for any size of network, whereas for rank-three and general amplitude damping channels, optimal identification requires entanglement with N qubit ancillas. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

A Comparison of Threshold-Free Measures for Assessing the Effectiveness of Educational Interventions

The effectiveness of educational interventions has traditionally been evaluated using effect size measures which focus on a single feature of the distribution of the outcomes under intervention and control conditions: a (standardized) mean difference. Recently there has been increased interest in methods which assess the information contained in the full distributions of outcomes under intervention and control, providing measures of separation from these distributions which do not depend on arbitrary cutoffs, hence which are “threshold-free”. We investigate the statistical relationship between several concepts of this type, and discuss how they can be used to estimate alternative effect size metrics as well as their uncertainties in the context of multilevel models as commonly used for the analysis of educational data. A specific aim of this paper is to investigate how the recently proposed “gain index” relates to other measures of separation including the Area under the Curve (AUC) and the overlapping index. A simulation study, using data with an educationally motivated structure, is presented to compare the different methodologies.

The approach of Norm Balance in predicting pharmacists' intention to collaborate with physicians to improve medication therapy.

Norm Balance is an approach under the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) where subjective norm is weighted by the relative importance of others and self-identity is weighted by the relative importance of self. The relative importance was measured previously by a trade-off measure. In this study, we developed separate measures for the relative importance. The study objectives were to: 1) assess the construct validity of the separate measures; 2) examine the approach of Norm Balance in predicting pharmacists' intention to collaborate with physicians to improve medication therapy; and 3) establish a modified TPB. We selected a random sample of 750 Iowa pharmacists and conducted two surveys. The first survey was to examine intention prediction, and the second survey was to examine behavior prediction by measuring behavior among respondents to the first survey. The relative importance was measured by both the trade-off measure and the separate measures. Exploratory factor analyses were performed for the relative importance of others (separate measures) and subjective norm, and for the relative importance of self (separate measures) and self-identity. Regressions for intention prediction were conducted for TPB with self-identity and the approach of Norm Balance. The same regressions were also conducted for three subgroups according to the median of the relative importance of others (trade-off measure). Moreover, another regression was conducted for behavior prediction. 239 practicing pharmacists responded to the first survey, and 188 responded to the second survey. The separate measures had cross factor loadings, whereas the trade-off measure had low correlations with other constructs. Both regressions for intention prediction explained 75% of the variance, with self-efficacy and attitude being strong predictors. Self-identity was not a predictor in the TPB with self-identify, but self-identity weighted by the relative importance of self was a significant predictor in the approach of Norm Balance. Regression coefficients of subjective norm and self-identify varied across subgroups. The regression for behavior prediction explained 30% of the variance, with intention and self-efficacy being two predictors. The trade-off measure was better than separate measures. The approach of Norm Balance appears to be a better model than the TPB with self-identity to examine pharmacist-physician collaboration.

Characteristics of Selected Bioactive Compounds and Malting Parameters of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Seeds and Malt.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) seeds are an interesting raw material for malting regarding its relatively high bioactive compounds concentration and proven advantageous properties in different food products and dietary supplements. In the first stage of the study, important seeds properties relevant to the malting process including moisture content, seed viability, and water absorption capacity were determined. However, a few parameters determining the seeds' usability for malt preparation, such as germination ability and water sensitivity, are different in comparison to typical malting raw materials such as barley or wheat. However, they make it possible to obtain high-quality hemp malt. In the next stage of research, spectroscopic and chromatographic analyses, including measurements of antioxidant activity and protein separation by SEC-HPLC, were conducted. The results showed that the malting process improved the total antioxidant potential of hemp seeds by 15%, leading to an increase in the concentration of lower molecular weight proteins and oligopeptides-below molecular mass of 10 kDa-responsible for this high antioxidant activity. The processing of hemp seeds reduced the phytate content while increasing phosphate fractions with fewer phosphate groups, which may have a beneficial effect on nutritional value. These results suggest that malting hemp seeds needs optimalization of the process but can increase its nutritional value as a promising raw material in the food industry.

On the correction of spiral trajectories on a preclinical MRI scanner with a high-performance gradient insert.

This study aimed to examine different trajectory correction methods for spiral imaging on a preclinical scanner with high-performance gradients with respect to image quality in a phantom and in vivo. The gold standard method of measuring the trajectories in a separate experiment is compared to an isotropic delay-correction, a correction using the gradient system transfer function (GSTF), and a combination of the two. Three different spiral trajectories, with 96, 16, and three interleaves, are considered. The best image quality is consistently achieved when determining the trajectory in a separate phantom measurement. However, especially for the spiral with 96 interleaves, the other correction methods lead to almost comparable results. Remaining imperfections in the corrected gradient waveforms and trajectories are attributed to asymmetrically occurring undulations in the actual, generated gradients, suggesting that the underlying assumption of linearity is violated. In conclusion, images of sufficient quality can be acquired on preclinical small-animal scannersusing spiral k-space trajectories without the need to carry out separate trajectory measurements each time. Depending on the trajectory, a simple isotropic delay-correction or a GSTF-based correction can provide images of similar quality.

Exploring the correlation between periodontal disease and serum biomarkers in haemodialysis patients

BackgroundPatients undergoing haemodialysis are more susceptible to infectious diseases, including periodontitis. This study aimed to investigate the Correlation between periodontal disease and serum markers in Yemeni haemodialysis patients.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 70 haemodialysis patients. Patient interviews, clinical examinations, and laboratory tests were performed to collect data. Serum levels of albumin, calcium, phosphorus, haemoglobin, ferritin, and creatinine were measured, with separate measurements for cystatin C The association between categorical variables was assessed using the chi-square test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient, considering a significance level of p < 0.05.ResultsSignificant correlations were found between serum biomarkers and periodontal clinical parameters. Phosphorus, creatinine, albumin, ferritin, and creatinine levels correlated significantly with the Plaque Index (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.015, p = 0.018, and p = 0.03). While the Ferritin level showed significant correlations with both the Plaque Index and Miller Classes (r = 0.281, p = 0.018 and r = 0.258, p = 0.031), respectively. The Calcium level showed a significant correlation with the Gingival Index (r = 0.266, p = 0.027). Cystatin C level was statistically correlated with mobility (r = 0.258, p = 0.031). Also, the result showed a significant correlation between Creatinine levels and Periodontitis (r = 0.26, p = 0.03).ConclusionThis study provides evidence of a strong association between periodontal disease and chronic kidney disease in Yemeni haemodialysis patients. The findings emphasize the significance of maintaining good oral health in the care of haemodialysis patients.

Estimating data complexity and drift through a multiscale generalized impurity approach

The quality of machine learning solutions, and of classifier models in general, depend largely on the performance of the chosen algorithm, and on the intrinsic characteristics of the input data. Although work has been extensive on the former of these aspects, the latter has received comparably less attention. In this paper, we introduce the Multiscale Impurity Complexity Analysis (MICA) algorithm for the quantification of class separability and decision-boundary complexity of datasets. MICA is both model and dimensionality-independent and can provide a measure of separability based on regional impurity values. This makes it so that MICA is sensible to both global and local data conditions. We show MICA to be capable of properly describing class separability in a comprehensive set of both synthetic and real datasets and comparing it against other state-of-the-art methods. After establishing the robustness of the proposed method, alternative applications are discussed, including a streaming-data variant of MICA (MICA-S), that can be repurposed into a model-independent method for concept drift detection.