Time Characteristics Research Articles

Evolution of online health-related information seeking in France from 2010 to 2023

Abstract Background Given the rapid ongoing progression of the internet and increase in health information available online since 2010, it is important to understand how these changes impact online health information-seeking behaviour of the population and the way of managing one’s health. This study aims to describe the evolution of the use of internet to seek health-related information as well as the characteristics of online health information seekers. Methods We used data from the French nationally representative surveys Health Barometers. It is a cross-sectional repeated survey of random representative samples of the French population conducted by the French national public health agency since 1992 using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. It serves to measure the evolution of key indicators regarding health-related behaviors, attitudes, and opinions in the general population and includes individuals aged 18-75 years old selected through randomly generated phone numbers. In the 2010, 2014, 2017 and 2023 editions, the same question was asked about the internet use as a source of health information. Evolutions over time were assessed using chi-square tests. Associations with sociodemographic characteristics and health status were evaluated using logistic regression models. Results Although internet access increased steadily during this period, from 72.8% in 2010 to 95.2% in 2023, the use of the internet as a source of health information rose between 2010 and 2014 (from 37.3% to 67.9%), decreased significantly in 2017 (60.3%) and rose again in 2023 at 65.3 %. The study describes the characteristics of the online health information-seekers trough time. Conclusions The past decade was marked by a breakthrough of the use of internet in the general population and the use of internet to seek health information. The analysis of the digital health information-seekers serves the public health authorities in their mission to provide accessible information on public health. Key messages • This study aims to describe the evolution of Online Health-Related Information Seeking in France from 2010 to 2023 and the characteristics of digital health information-seekers. • The analysis of the digital health information-seekers serves the public health authorities in their mission to provide accessible information on public health.

Performance analysis of DC-DC Buck converter with innovative multi-stage PIDn(1+PD) controller using GEO algorithm

Power electronic converters are widely used in various fields of electrical equipment. Due to their fast dynamics and non-linear nature, controlling them requires dealing with various complexities. Therefore, having a well-designed, high-speed, and robust controller is critical to ensure the effective operation of these devices. In a DC-DC converter, steady-state performance with minimum error and fast dynamic response relies on controller design. This paper presents the design of a multi-stage PID controller with an N-filter combined with a one plus proportional derivative (1+PD) controller. This controller illustrates fast tracking reference voltage; additionally, it shows incredible results when the DC-DC converter operates in different modes. The parameters of the proposed controller are effectively determined using the golden eagle optimization (GEO) algorithm. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison between the proposed controller, proportional–integral–derivative (PID), and fractional order PID (FOPID) controllers, as well as different metaheuristic optimization methods in various conditions, has been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller. The behavior of the closed-loop system under different conditions has been thoroughly investigated. The superior time and frequency domain characteristics of the closed-loop system with the PIDn(1+PD) controller highlight its superiority over other controllers. The demonstrated enhancements in settling time, voltage regulation accuracy, and transient response emphasize the potential applicability of the proposed control strategy in real-world power electronics systems, particularly in scenarios requiring high efficiency, stability, and dynamic performance.

Dynamic Response of a Rotor Supported on Hybrid Bearings in Air, Water, and Liquid Nitrogen: Measurements and Comparisons to Predictions

Abstract Modern liquid rocket engine turbopumps implement hybrid bearings, which combine hydrostatic and hydrodynamic fluid film principles, in compact and lightweight units known for their superior reusability, durability, and reliability. This study aims to provide extensive and reliable test data for the purpose of anchoring and benchmarking predictive tools for these bearings. This paper provides comprehensive dynamic response measurements of a rotor weighing 10.40 kg and approximately 60 mm in diameter at the bearing locations. The test rotor is supported on two hybrid journal bearings with a bearing length to bearing diameter ratio of approximately 0.42 and a bearing radial clearance to rotor radius ratio of around 0.0017. The bearings are tested with air, water, and liquid nitrogen, serving as surrogate test fluids for common propellants in liquid rocket engines. Rotor run-up and speed coast-down tests are conducted to measure shaft motion responses. The results clearly demonstrate that the rotordynamic characteristics of the test rotor supported on the hybrid journal bearings largely rely on properties of the test fluids and their feeding conditions. Notably, when air is pressurized into the test bearings, the shaft motion responses differ markedly from those observed with water and liquid nitrogen, primarily due to significantly lower stiffness and damping coefficients. Furthermore, rotor speed coast-down tests for each test fluid exhibit notable differences in coast-down speed over time characteristics, depending on the test fluid properties. The predicted rotor imbalance responses exhibit excellent correlation with the measurement data. The steady increase of demand and growth of the fluid film bearing technology for reusable rocket engines require accurate bearing design tools, the extensive component testing, and the implementation of the technology. The validated and developed bearing predictive models from previous research demonstrate well the characteristics of bearings under various operating fluids conditions. The findings and database presented in this work contribute not only to comprehending the performance of hybrid bearings but also to understanding and enhancing the dynamic characteristics of rotor systems supported on hybrid bearings.

Sociodemographic differences in low back pain: which subgroups of workers are most vulnerable?

BackgroundLow back pain (LBP) is a common health problem in workers that contributes to work disability and reduces quality of life. However, studies examining vulnerable groups in relation to sociodemographic differences in LBP remain scarce. Therefore, the current study investigates which sociodemographic groups of workers are most affected by LBP.MethodsData from the 2018 BIBB/BAuA employment survey were used (N = 16252). Age, education, occupational group, income, working hours, atypical working time, relationship status, and having children were used as sociodemographic predictors. Gender-stratified logistic regression analyses and intersectional classification tree analyses were conducted.ResultsA higher prevalence of LBP was observed for women compared to men. Significant differences in LBP emerged for age, working hours, atypical working time, occupational group and education, with some gender differences in the importance of predictors: Age was a significant predictor mostly in men as compared to women, atypical working hours had a slightly greater effect in women, whereas differences in LBP according to the occupational group were more pronounced for men. Vulnerable groups were found to be women who work in occupations other than professionals or managers, work atypical hours and have an intermediate or low educational level as well as men who work as skilled agricultural workers, craft workers, machine operators, or elementary occupations and are between 35 and 64 years old.ConclusionsThus, workers with certain occupations and lower levels of education, middle-aged men and women with unfavourable working time characteristics are most affected by low back pain. These groups should be focused on to potentially increase healthy working life and prevent work disability.

Spatiotemporal mapping of auditory onsets during speech production.

The human auditory cortex is organized according to the timing and spectral characteristics of speech sounds during speech perception. During listening, the posterior superior temporal gyrus is organized according to onset responses, which segment acoustic boundaries in speech, and sustained responses, which further process phonological content. When we speak, the auditory system is actively processing the sound of our own voice to detect and correct speech errors in real time. This manifests in neural recordings as suppression of auditory responses during speech production compared to perception, but whether this differentially affects onset and sustained temporal profiles is not known. Here we investigated this question using intracranial EEG recorded from seventeen pediatric, adolescent, and adult patients with medication-resistant epilepsy while they performed a reading/listening task. We identified onset and sustained responses to speech in bilateral auditory cortex and observed a selective suppression of onset responses during speech production. We conclude that onset responses provide a temporal landmark during speech perception that is redundant with forward prediction during speech production and are therefore suppressed. Phonological feature tuning in these "onset suppression" electrodes remained stable between perception and production. Notably, auditory onset responses and phonological feature tuning were present in the posterior insula during both speech perception and production, suggesting an anatomically and functionally separate auditory processing zone that we believe to be involved in multisensory integration during speech perception and feedback control.Significance Statement Specific neural populations in the auditory cortex preferentially respond to the onset of speech sounds. These "onset responses" aid in perceiving boundaries in continuous speech. We recorded neural responses from patients with intracranial electrodes during a speaking and listening task to investigate the role of onset responses in speech production. Onset responses were present in the auditory cortex during listening, but absent during speaking. On the other hand, onset responses were observed in the insula during both conditions, suggesting a different functional role for the insula in auditory feedback processing. These findings extend our knowledge of how different parts of the brain involved in feedback control operate during speech production by identifying two functionally and anatomically distinct patterns of activity.

Have a Good Travel Time in Routing: Bibliometric Analysis, Literature Review, and Future Directions

ABSTRACTTravel time serves as a critical factor in routing problems, affecting routing decisions, congestion avoidance, and environmental sustainability. In this study, a thorough bibliometric and network analysis is presented based on 1752 documents collected from Web of Science published in the past three decades. CiteSpace is adopted to generate research clusters for topological analysis that graphically illustrate the publications' evolution over time and identify the current state and the emerging trends of routing problems with travel time focus. The collaboration network explores the cooperation patterns between countries and institutions. Attention toward the time‐dependency, uncertainty, dynamic characteristics of travel time, and the influence of travel speed on emissions, is uncovered through document co‐citation analysis. Furthermore, a comprehensive review of the literature has been conducted from an information quality and evolution perspective. Realistic scenarios such as fuel consumption and traffic conditions are eliciting more attention. Significant emphasis is increasingly placed on the time dependency, reliability, uncertainty, and dynamics of travel time. This study systematically reviews and analyzes relevant research on routing problems with travel time focus, identifying key emerging trends and knowledge gaps, and offering valuable insights for future research.

The influence of the initial moisture content of cedar needles on the time characteristics of the ignition of coal-water suspensions

The results of experimental studies of the influence of the initial moisture content of cedar needles on the time characteristics of ignition of coal-water suspensions based on D-grade thermal coal are presented. Biomass (fallen and freshly cut cedar needles) was used as an additive accelerating the ignition process. An analysis was carried out of the influence of the initial moisture content of the plant additive in the composition of water-soluble suspensions on the ignition delay times. It has been established that the initial moisture content of cedar needles does not have a significant effect on the time characteristics of the fuel ignition process (the difference does not exceed 4%), but the addition of needles leads to a significant reduction in the ignition delay times (the VUS ignites faster on average by 15%).

Chicken Embryo Fibroblast Viability and Trans-Differentiation Potential for Cultured Meat Production Across Passages.

This study was conducted to analyze the viability of primary chicken embryo fibroblasts and the efficiency of adipogenic trans-differentiation for cultured meat production. In isolating chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs) from a heterogeneous cell pool containing chicken satellite cells (CSCs), over 90% of CEFs expressed CD29 and vimentin. The analysis of the proliferative capabilities of CEFs revealed no significant differences in EdU-positive cells (%), cumulative cell number, doubling time, and growth rate from passage 1 to passage 9 (p > 0.05). This indicates that CEFs can be isolated by 2 h of pre-plating and survive stably up to passage 9, and that primary fibroblasts can serve as a valuable cell source for the cultured meat industry. Adipogenic trans-differentiation was induced up to passage 9 of CEFs. As passages increased, lipid accumulation and adipocyte size significantly decreased (p < 0.05). The reduced differentiation rate of primary CEFs with increasing passages poses a major challenge to the cost and efficiency of cultured meat production. Thus, effective cell management and the maintenance of cellular characteristics for a long time are crucial for ensuring stable and efficient cultured fat production in the cultured meat industry.

Multi-level attention graph feature fusion smooth prognostics approach for aircraft engines remaining useful life prediction

In the development of a prognostic and health management system, it is a challenge to mine the degradation characteristics, estimate the RUL reliably and smoothly, and explain the RUL prediction results from the multi-sensor condition monitoring data collected under the non-fixed-length equipment operation cycle and multi-operating conditions. In this paper, a Multi-level Attention Graph feature Fusion Smooth Prognostics Approach (MAGF-SPA) is proposed to achieve accurate, smooth, and interpretable RUL prediction results. In this method, firstly, multivariate time series (MTS) are transformed into graph signals from a purely data-driven perspective. Secondly, the four-level feature extraction strategy, which includes node-level, subgraph-level, cyclical-level, and temporal-level feature extraction, is designed to extract the inherent hidden degradation characteristics of MTS. Finally, a smoothing trick proposed in this paper can optimise the RUL prediction value corresponding to the degradation characteristics in real time. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art on the N-CMAPSS dataset.

Ship detection method based on attention guidance and multi-sample decision making

Single-stage target detection methods have the characteristics of fast training speed and short detection time. However, its feature pyramid network is difficult to suppress the background and noise information of SAR ship images, and the detection head has prediction errors. To address this problem, this paper proposes a detection model based on attention guidance and multi-sample decision for synthetic aperture radar ship detection. Firstly, an attention guidance network is proposed and added to the highest level of the feature pyramid to suppress background and noise interference, thereby improving the representation ability of features. Secondly, a multi-sample decision network is proposed to participate in the prediction of target position. This network alleviates the impact of prediction errors on detection results by increasing the number of samples output in the regression branch. Finally, a novel maximum likelihood loss function is designed. This loss function constructs a maximum likelihood function using the samples output from the multi-sample decision network, which is used to standardize the training of the decision network and further improve the accuracy of target positioning. Taking the RetinaNet network model as the baseline method, compared with the baseline method and the current advanced target detection methods, this method shows the highest detection accuracy on the ship detection dataset SSDD, with AP reaching 52.8%. Compared with the baseline method, the proposed method improves the AP evaluation index 3.4% ∼ 5.7%, and the training parameter Params only increases by 2.03 M, and the frame rate FPS only decreases 0.5Iter/s.

Comparative clinical efficacy of “Figure-8” Banding and double-row anchor suture-bridge fixation in arthroscopic management of tibial intercondylar eminence avulsion fractures

ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to assess and compare the clinical efficacy of “Figure-8” banding and double-row anchor suture-bridge fixation techniques in the arthroscopic management of tibial intercondylar eminence avulsion fractures.MethodA retrospective analysis was conducted on the medical records of 42 patients who underwent arthroscopic surgery for tibial intercondylar eminence fractures at our institution from June 2017 to June 2022. This cohort included 20 cases treated with “Figure-8” banding and 22 cases managed using double-row anchor suture-bridge fixation. Comparative assessments were made regarding operative duration, duration of fracture consolidation, postoperative knee joint range of motion, joint stability as assessed by the Lachman test, Lysholm score, and International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) functional score for both treatment groups.ResultsThe mean follow-up duration was 13.8 months. The analysis indicated that the double-row anchor suture-bridge group had a significantly longer operative duration compared to the “Figure-8” banding group (p < 0.05). Postoperative computed tomography (CT) scans confirmed successful reduction in both groups, with fracture consolidation achieved within an average of three months. Both groups showed significant improvements in postoperative knee range of motion, joint stability, and functional scores compared to preoperative measurements (p < 0.05). During the initial two-month post-surgery, the double-row anchor suture-bridge group demonstrated superior knee joint range of motion and functional scores compared to the “Figure-8” banding group (p < 0.05); however, these differences were not statistically significant beyond three months post-surgery (p > 0.05). By the one-year postoperative mark, joint stability outcomes were comparable between the two treatment groups (p > 0.05).ConclusionBoth “Figure-8” banding and double-row anchor suture-bridge fixation techniques in the arthroscopic management of tibial intercondylar eminence avulsion fractures can achieve precise reduction and stable fixation. In addition, the figure-8 suture group has the characteristics of shorter surgery time and less cost. Notably, early postoperative knee function appears to be superior with double-row anchor suture-bridge fixation compared to “Figure-8” banding.

Droplet Impact on the Superhydrophobic Surface with Singularities.

Reducing the contact time of an impacting droplet is highly desirable in various industrial fields including anti-icing. With the straightforward upscaling advantage, singularities on superhydrophobic surfaces can induce an annular rebound with a limited reduction in contact time. To break this limitation and further reduce contact time, this study focuses on optimizing the singularity number and arrangement. The effects of the singularity number and dimensionless spacing (l* scaled by the droplet diameter) on the dynamic and contact time characteristics of a droplet impacting the superhydrophobic surface are experimentally studied under varying Weber numbers (We). The experimental results indicate that in comparison to the single singularity, two singularities with l* < 1.0 can generate two liquid rings with four lateral liquid subunits due to the impalement at the high We region. Owing to the reduced equivalent diameter of the subunit, increasing We results in a gradually decreased contact time and accordingly breaks the limitation. However, the liquid film cannot be pierced at l* > 1.0 with a limited reduction. Considering the further reducing potential at l* < 1.0, four singularities are explored without a further reduced contact time due to the formed central liquid film. Using an additional central singularity, the central liquid film is pierced promoting its annular rebound. In consequence, five singularities significantly break the limitation in contact time, particularly a 61.7% reduction to the superhydrophobic flat surface at l* < 1.0.

Red Blood Cell Transfusions in Patients with Advanced Cancer Receiving Home Palliative Care.

Background: Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is the standard treatment for anemia in advanced cancer. Nevertheless, guidelines for managing this condition are still not exhaustive. Objective: To investigate frequency, timing, and clinical characteristics associated with RBC transfusions in patients with advanced cancer assisted by at-home oncological care service and to evaluate the association between parameters at the entry and the possibility of receiving RBC transfusions during homecare. Design: Retrospective observational study without medication. Setting/Subjects: Patients with advanced cancer entered in homecare during 2021 living in Bologna (Italy). Measurements: Gender, tumor primary site, oncological therapy, and symptoms at the entry were considered as possible factors in a binary logistic regression for the possibility of receiving at least one RBC transfusion during assistance. Data about transfusions were analyzed, and the transfusion history for each patient from the entry to death was traced. Results: Among the 1108 patients admitted, 179 (16.2%) were given at least one RBC transfusion during homecare. Genitourinary, hematological malignancies, and being still in therapy for advanced cancer are associated with a higher probability of receiving RBC transfusion during assistance (p = 0.017, p < 0.001, and p = 0.032, respectively). Half of the patients (52%) underwent RBC transfusions less than a month before death. Duration of the assistance was correlated with the period from last transfusion to death (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Hematological and genitourinary cancer and being in simultaneous care at the entry were associated with transfusion. Although the appropriateness of this treatment remains to be defined in this population, transfused patients frequently received "late in life" transfusions.

The mechanism of using the geographic information system in detecting unsafe spaces in the municipal areas of big cities (Investigation of unsafe places in the city of Dallas, Texas, USA)

For a long time, identifying the environmental and spatial factors of crime and trying to eliminate these factors or reduce their effects has been known as the most important way to increase safety and prevent the occurrence of anomalies. Because social anomalies, no matter how they happen to humans, have a place and place and time characteristics. Which distinguishes these behaviors from each other. Surveys show that some urban spaces have a higher crime rate due to their physical, social, and economic characteristics; a city is a collection of special mutual narratives that originate from the role and context of its internal institutions. Therefore, without providing a subjective definition, we accept the existence of the city based on objective characteristics, that is, the quality of the structure of the society and its economic and administrative role, not just the population quantity. Also, some thinkers have provided a comprehensible definition of urban space "Urban space is an organized, decorated, and orderly structure for human activities". Part of human actions and activities take place in place and space, and according to Anthony Giddens, "space is a physical set for social interactions". And on the contrary, some spaces prevent and prevent crimes from being committed inside them. On the other hand, research has proven that criminals often make rational choices when committing crimes and look for the simplest, least dangerous, and most suitable opportunities and conditions in place and time to commit crimes.

Smartphone Screen Time Characteristics in People With Suicidal Thoughts: Retrospective Observational Data Analysis Study.

Smartphone-based monitoring in natural settings provides opportunities to monitor mental health behaviors, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors. To date, most suicidal thoughts and behaviors research using smartphones has primarily relied on collecting so-called "active" data, requiring participants to engage by completing surveys. Data collected passively from smartphone sensors and logs may offer an objectively measured representation of an individual's behavior, including smartphone screen time. This study aims to present methods for identifying screen-on bouts and deriving screen time characteristics from passively collected smartphone state logs and to estimate daily smartphone screen time in people with suicidal thinking, providing a more reliable alternative to traditional self-report. Participants (N=126; median age 22, IQR 16-33 years) installed the Beiwe app (Harvard University) on their smartphones, which passively collected phone state logs for up to 6 months after discharge from an inpatient psychiatric unit (adolescents) or emergency department visit (adults). We derived daily screen time measures from these logs, including screen-on time, screen-on bout duration, screen-off bout duration, and screen-on bout count. We estimated the mean of these measures across age subgroups (adults and adolescents), phone operating systems (Android and iOS), and monitoring stages after the discharge (first 4 weeks vs subsequent weeks). We evaluated the sensitivity of daily screen time measures to changes in the parameters of the screen-on bout identification method. Additionally, we estimated the impact of a daylight time change on minute-level screen time using function-on-scalar generalized linear mixed-effects regression. The median monitoring period was 169 (IQR 42-169) days. For adolescents and adults, mean daily screen-on time was 254.6 (95% CI 231.4-277.7) and 271.0 (95% CI 252.2-289.8) minutes, mean daily screen-on bout duration was 4.233 (95% CI 3.565-4.902) and 4.998 (95% CI 4.455-5.541) minutes, mean daily screen-off bout duration was 25.90 (95% CI 20.09-31.71) and 26.90 (95% CI 22.18-31.66) minutes, and mean daily screen-on bout count (natural logarithm transformed) was 4.192 (95% CI 4.041-4.343) and 4.090 (95% CI 3.968-4.213), respectively; there were no significant differences between smartphone operating systems (all P values were >.05). The daily measures were not significantly different for the first 4 weeks compared to the fifth week onward (all P values were >.05), except average screen-on bout in adults (P value = .018). Our sensitivity analysis indicated that in the screen-on bout identification method, the cap on an individual screen-on bout duration has a substantial effect on the resulting daily screen time measures. We observed time windows with a statistically significant effect of daylight time change on screen-on time (based on 95% joint confidence intervals bands), plausibly attributable to sleep time adjustments related to clock changes. Passively collected phone logs offer an alternative to self-report measures for studying smartphone screen time characteristics in people with suicidal thinking. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of this approach, opening doors for further research on the associations between daily screen time, mental health, and other factors.

Influenza-Like Illness in Lesotho From July 2020 to July 2021: Population-Based Participatory Surveillance Results.

Participatory surveillance involves at-risk populations reporting their symptoms using technology. In Lesotho, a landlocked country of 2 million people in Southern Africa, laboratory and case-based COVID-19 surveillance systems were complemented by a participatory surveillance system called "LeCellPHIA" (Lesotho Cell Phone Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment Survey). This report describes the person, place, and time characteristics of influenza-like illness (ILI) in Lesotho from July 15, 2020, to July 15, 2021, and reports the risk ratio of ILI by key demographic variables. LeCellPHIA employed interviewers to call participants weekly to inquire about ILI. The average weekly incidence rate for the year-long period was created using a Quasi-Poisson model, which accounted for overdispersion. To identify factors associated with an increased risk of ILI, we conducted a weekly data analysis by fitting a multilevel Poisson regression model, which accounted for 3 levels of clustering. The overall response rate for the year of data collection was 75%, which resulted in 122,985 weekly reports from 1776 participants. ILI trends from LeCellPHIA mirrored COVID-19 testing data trends, with an epidemic peak in mid to late January 2021. Overall, any ILI symptoms (eg, fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath) were reported at an average weekly rate of 879 per 100,000 (95% CI 782-988) persons at risk. Compared to persons in the youngest age group (15-19 years), all older age groups had an elevated risk of ILI, with the highest risk of ILI in the oldest age group (≥60 years; risk ratio 2.6, 95% CI 1.7-3.8). Weekly data were shared in near real time with the National COVID-19 Secretariat and other stakeholders to monitor ILI trends, identify and respond to increases in reports of ILI, and inform policies and practices designed to reduce COVID-19 transmission in Lesotho. LeCellPHIA, an innovative and cost-effective system, could be replicated in countries where cell phone ownership is high but internet use is not yet high enough for a web- or app-based surveilance system.

Do Smart Loading Zones help reduce traffic congestion? A causal analysis in Pittsburgh

Rising demand for ride-hailing services and e-commerce delivery intensifies competition for urban curbside spaces, leading to uncoordinated travel behavior, increased traffic congestion and social costs. One possible solution to address those issues is Smart Loading Zones (SLZs), equipped with advanced technologies to optimize curbside use. Yet, the real-world impact of SLZs on traffic flow is unclear due to a lack of real-world data and rigorous studies investigating SLZ’s causal effect on traffic speed. With granular speed data and real-world implementations of SLZs from Pittsburgh, PA, this study applies the regression discontinuity design method to rigorously examine the causal impact of SLZs on traffic speed in the downtown network. The results showed that the introduction of SLZs could enhance the traffic speed of the nearby road segments by 4.5%, while controlling for the underlying trend of speed and multiple influential factors such as time, weather, and road characteristics. In addition, SLZs with a short length could statistically improve traffic speed but those with a long length exert no significant effect. These heterogenous effects might be attributed to the weak enforcement at the time of SLZ deployment in Pittsburgh. The results confirmed the overall positive impact of SLZs on improving congestion. However, policies such as effective dimension planning and robust enforcement policies are essential to maximize the benefits of SLZs.

N-n type In2O3@-WO3 heterojunction nanowires: enhanced NO2 gas sensing characteristics for environmental monitoring.

Solvothermal synthesis of 1D n-In2O3@n-WO3 heterojunction nanowires (HNWs) and their NO2 gas sensing characteristics arereported. The n-In2O3@n-WO3 HNWs have been well-characterised using XRD, Raman spectroscopy, XPS, SEM and HRTEManalyses. The NO2 sensing performance of n-In2O3@n-WO3 HNWs showed superior performance compared withpristine WO3 NWs. Due to the distinctive configuration of WO3-In2O3 heterojunctions, the n-In2O3@n-WO3 HNWs demonstrated remarkable sensitivity reaching 182% in response towards 500ppb of NO2 gas at operating temperature of 200°Cwhich is nearly 3.5 times greater than the response observed with pristine WO3 (50%). Moreover, the n-In2O3@n-WO3 HNWs also exhibited fast response (8-13s)/recovery (54-62s) time characteristics. A plausible sensing mechanism has been discussed. The enhancement in sensor characteristics shows that n-In2O3@n-WO3 HNWs could serve as a promising material for high-performance NO2 gas sensors for real-time environmentalmonitoringapplications. This work could provide new understandings of the sensing mechanism of n-In2O3@n-WO3-based heterojunction nanowires, which can be applied to the design of novel n-n type MOS heterojunction materials for the application of low-temperature real-time high-performance NO2 sensors.

Epileptic seizure prediction via multidimensional transformer and recurrent neural network fusion

BackgroundEpilepsy is a prevalent neurological disorder in which seizures cause recurrent episodes of unconsciousness or muscle convulsions, seriously affecting the patient’s work, quality of life, and health and safety. Timely prediction of seizures is critical for patients to take appropriate therapeutic measures. Accurate prediction of seizures remains a challenge due to the complex and variable nature of EEG signals. The study proposes an epileptic seizure model based on a multidimensional Transformer with recurrent neural network(LSTM-GRU) fusion for seizure classification of EEG signals.MethodologyFirstly, a short-time Fourier transform was employed in the extraction of time-frequency features from EEG signals. Second, the extracted time-frequency features are learned using the Multidimensional Transformer model. Then, LSTM and GRU are then used for further learning of the time and frequency characteristics of the EEG signals. Next, the output features of LSTM and GRU are spliced and categorized using the gating mechanism. Subsequently, seizure prediction is conducted.ResultsThe model was tested on two datasets: the Bonn EEG dataset and the CHB-MIT dataset. On the CHB-MIT dataset, the average sensitivity and average specificity of the model were 98.24% and 97.27%, respectively. On the Bonn dataset, the model obtained about 99% and about 98% accuracy on the binary classification task and the tertiary upper classification task, respectively.ConclusionThe findings of the experimental investigation demonstrate that our model is capable of exploiting the temporal and frequency characteristics present within EEG signals.

The impact of milling degree on physicochemical, nutritional, rheological, textural properties, and in vitro digestibility of rice: From brown rice to white rice

The objective of this study was to characterize the rice milling fractions acquired at each stage of a commercial milling system. This characterization included an analysis of color, ash content, dietary fiber, mineral composition, as well as antinutritional compounds like phytic acid, trypsin inhibitor activity, and saponin. Additionally, we investigated in vitro starch and in vitro protein digestibility, along with pasting, cooking, and textural properties.Our findings revealed that milling improved the visual appeal of rice (e.g., volume expansion, weight gain, whiteness) and notably enhanced its starch digestibility. However, milling reduced dietary fiber, mineral content, antinutrients, cooking time, and texture characteristics such as hardness, chewiness, gumminess, springiness, and cohesiveness to varying degrees. Certain parameters, such as dietary fiber, exhibited a gradual change with the duration of milling, while others, such as mineral content and texture, showed significant variation at the initial stage of milling, particularly at the first mill.