Unstructured Approach Research Articles

Predicting lift and drag coefficients during hypersonic Mars reentry using hyStrath

During hypersonic reentry, a spacecraft experiences several different fluid flow regimes, which usually require the application of different software frameworks to simulate the respective regimes. This study aims to evaluate the hyStrath library for predicting aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients of complex three-dimensional (3D) geometries during hypersonic Mars reentry, using flight data of the Viking 1 mission as reference. A range of altitudes (h=30−140 km) and Mach numbers (M=13−24) where flight data is available is considered, covering the rarefied, transitional, and continuum fluid flow regimes. The hyStrath library contains a set of modified solvers and state-of-the-art thermophysical and chemistry models within the framework of OpenFOAM, dedicated to modeling high-enthalpy hypersonic flow problems. Depending on the flow regime, the computational fluid dynamics solver hy2Foam or direct-simulation Monte Carlo solver dsmcFoam+ are employed in the study. Because hyStrath is based on OpenFOAM, it allows the use of an unstructured adaptive mesh refinement approach for arbitrary geometries. We obtain excellent results throughout all investigated flow regimes and Mach numbers with an average deviation of 1.5% and 2% from the measured lift and drag coefficients, respectively. The applicability of the framework for accurately modeling both rarefied and continuum Mars reentry problems of complex 3D geometries such as the Viking capsule is demonstrated.

Social Co-governance of the Safety of Chinese Medicinal Herbs in China

IntroductionIntrinsic toxicities and severe exogenous pollution have adversely affected the safety of Chinese medicinal herbs and clinical effect of traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the means of improving the social co-governance system for the safety of Chinese medicinal herbs. MethodsThis study analysed Chinese legislation to understand the legal attributes of Chinese medicinal herbs and used secondary data to show the seriousness of the safety issues of Chinese medicinal herbs. Then, based on the social co-governance theory, this study used causal analysis to probe the reasons for safety issues of Chinese medicinal herbs and suggest reform proposals to solve the problem. In the study process, an unstructured interview approach was adopted to discuss local protectionism and fragmented governance. ResultsChinese medicinal herbs have the dual attributes of medicines and agricultural products and are affected by intrinsic toxicities and severe exogenous pollution. This is due to an unestablished long-term transdepartmental cooperative governance system and the existence of local protectionism. Furthermore, the role of the public and trade associations in social co-governance has been dysfunctional. ConclusionsChina should construct an improved social co-governance system that includes collaboration between various government departments and the effective participation of trade associations and the public.

Experimental and CFD modeling of a progressive cavity pump (PCP) using overset unstructured mesh part 1: Single-phase flow

Progressive Cavity Pumps (PCP) are integral in industries for transporting high-viscosity fluids due to their efficacy. Nevertheless, their computational modeling via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) poses challenges, primarily attributed to meshing algorithms and computational demands. This research underscores that structured meshes are not imperative for assessing PCP efficiency, given that operational parameters reflect a 10% accuracy when juxtaposed with experimental data. An overset mass conservation model was harnessed to rectify mass conservation errors and the computational burden from interpolation. The overset grid methodology emerged as a favorable technique for PCP modeling, with its applicability critically analyzed. Experimental data comparison revealed that variables like volumetric flow rate, power consumption, and efficiency were accurately depicted with a marginal error of less than 10%. Interestingly, while high-viscosity oils resonated with the Hagen-Poiseuille flow equation in clearance zones, water showcased elevated velocities, inducing a non-linear pressure profile. Analysis of slip components indicated that high-viscosity oils offered superior efficiencies due to augmented slip resistance. Thus, CFD modeling of PCPs across different viscosity spectrums is feasible without mandating operations to enhance mesh quality. This study pioneers in offering insights into PCP dynamics, emphasizing the accuracy and optimization potential of the overset unstructured mesh approach.

Applying water quality standards to pollution from diffuse sources

Water quality standards are instrumental in evaluating the status of water bodies, and in providing protective and restorative endpoints. To date, much of the infrastructure used to implement water quality standards has been directed towards remediating and managing pollution from point source discharges. However, pollution from diffuse sources is the leading cause of water quality impairment, especially by nutrients. Although the effects of nutrient enrichment on streams is well studied, and ecological thresholds identified, those thresholds have not been widely adopted as standards primarily because they are not attainable by point sources. Clearly, a framework for adopting and applying standards to manage pollution from diffuse sources needs to be decoupled from those intended for point sources. This paper argues for a relatively unstructured distributional approach to predict how ecological responses might shift in response to management of diffuse sources. The approach calls for first developing a deterministic model of stressor and response variables, followed by a reformulation as a Bayesian model. In the case here, a structural equation model was developed that linked nutrient enrichment, habitat quality, and chloride and manganese concentrations to an index of macroinvertebrate quality. Results from the Bayesian representation suggest that in landscapes where the drainage network has been highly modified for agricultural production, reduction in total phosphorus alone is expected to have a modest (but non-trivial) effect on macroinvertebrate condition, shifting the distribution of scores up by 1 point. The addition of habitat restoration is likely to shift the distribution upwards by 4 points, an effect size observed in Ohio, USA from other large-scale restoration efforts.

Forms or Free-Text? Measuring Advance Care Planning Activity Using Electronic Health Records.

Advance care planning (ACP) discussions seek to guide future serious illness care. These discussions may be recorded in the electronic health record by documentation in clinical notes, structured forms and directives, and physician orders. Yet, most studies of ACP prevalence have only examined structured electronic health record elements and ignored data existing in notes. We sought to investigate the relative comprehensiveness and accuracy of ACP documentation from structured and unstructured electronic health record data sources. We evaluated structured and unstructured ACP documentation present in the electronic health records of 435 patients with cancer drawn from three separate healthcare systems. We extracted structured ACP documentation by manually annotating written documents and forms scanned into the electronic health record. We coded unstructured ACP documentation using a rule-based natural language processing software that identified ACP keywords within clinical notes and was subsequently reviewed for accuracy. The unstructured approach identified more instances of ACP documentation (238, 54.7% of patients) than the structured ACP approach (187, 42.9% of patients). Additionally, 16.6% of all patients with structured ACP documentation only had documents that were judged as misclassified, incomplete, blank, unavailable, or a duplicate of a previously entered erroneous document. ACP documents scanned into electronic health records represent a limited view of ACP activity. Research and measures of clinical practice with ACP should incorporate information from unstructured data.

Diagnostic accuracy, clinical characteristics, and prognostic differences of patients with acute myocarditis according to inclusion criteria.

The diagnosis of acute myocarditis (AM) is complex due to its heterogeneity and typically is defined by either Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs) or advanced imaging and endomyocardial biopsy, but there is no consensus. We aimed to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of these approaches for AM. Data on ICD 10th Revision(ICD-10) codes corresponding to AM were collected from two hospitals and compared to cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-confirmed or clinically suspected (CS)-AM cases with respect to diagnostic accuracy, clinical characteristics, and all-cause mortality. Next, we performed a review of published AM studies according to inclusion criteria. We identified 291 unique admissions with ICD-10 codes corresponding to AM in the first three diagnostic positions. The positive predictive value of ICD-10 codes for CMR-confirmed or CS-AM was 36%, and patients with CMR-confirmed or CS-AM had a lower all-cause mortality than those with a refuted diagnosis (P=0.019). Using an unstructured approach, patients with CMR-confirmed and CS-AM had similar demographics, comorbidity profiles and survival over a median follow-up of 52 months (P=0.72). Our review of the literature confirmed our findings. Outcomes for patients included in studies using CMR-confirmed criteria were favourable compared to studies with endomyocardial biopsy-confirmed AM cases. ICD-10 codes have poor accuracy in identification of AM cases and should be used with caution in clinical research. There are important differences in management and outcomes of patients according to the selection criteria used to diagnose AM. Potential selection biases must be considered when interpreting AM cohorts and requires standardization of inclusion criteria for AM studies.

An Unstructured Mesh Approach to Nonlinear Noise Reduction for Coupled Systems

An Unstructured Mesh Approach to Nonlinear Noise Reduction for Coupled Systems

Role of Online Community Feedback in Creating the Image of Tourist Destinations

This study investigates the impact of user generated content on online platforms, mainly known as Online Community Feedback (OCF). This study aims to highlight the importance of OCF in developing destination image. Content and feedback given by past visitors are more trustworthy as compare to any other information sources including advertisements by site managers or information from government ministries. Based on this phenomena authors of this paper have categorized and analyzed the feedback and comments of past tourist of Gilgit Baltistan Region of Pakistan. Authors have adopted unstructured approach and manual approach to categorize the feedback into different parameters. Based on those, several recommendations are made to government officials and tourist site managers to bring improvements on the site so that future tourists may choose that place for their next visit. Top 5 places of Pakistan as per tripadvisor.com, were chosen for analysis and study.

A Multi-Enterprise Quality Function Deployment Paradigm with Unstructured Decision-Making in Linguistic Contexts

This paper presents an operational framework of unstructured decision-making approach involving quality function deployment (QFD) in an uncertain linguistic context. Firstly, QFD is extended to the multi-enterprise paradigm in a real-world manufacturing environment. Secondly, hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs), which facilitate the management and handling of information equivocality, are designed to construct a house of quality (HoQ) in the product planning process. The technique of computing with words is applied to bridge the gap between mechanisms of the human brain and machine processes with fuzzy linguistic term sets. Thirdly, a multi-enterprise QFD pattern is formulated as an unstructured decision-making problem for alternative infrastructure project selection in a manufacturing organization. The inter-relationships of cooperative partners are directly matched with a back propagation neural network (BPNN) to construct the multi-enterprise manufacturing network. The resilience of the manufacturing organization is considered by formulating an outranking method on the basis of HFLTSs to decide on infrastructure project alternatives. Finally, a real-world example, namely, the prototype manufacturing of an automatic transmission for a vehicle, is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed decision-making approach.

Protective effect of restorative possibilities on cognitive function and mental health in children and adolescents: A scoping review including the role of physical activity

BackgroundThe exposome approach can be a powerful tool for understanding the intertwining of social, physical, and internal influences that shape mental health and cognitive development throughout childhood. To distil conceptual models for subsequent analyses, the EU-funded project Early Environmental quality and Life-course mental health effects (Equal-Life) has conducted literature reviews on potential mediators linking the exposome to these outcomes. We report on a scoping review and a conceptual model of the role of restorative possibilities and physical activity.MethodsPeer-reviewed studies published since the year 2000 in English, on the association between the exposome and mental health/cognition in children/adolescents, and quantitatively investigating restoration/restorative quality as a mediating variable were considered. Database searches were last updated in December 2022. We used an unstructured expert-driven approach to fill in gaps in the reviewed literature.ResultsFive records of three distinct studies were identified, indicating a scarcity of empirical evidence in this newly developing research area. Not only were these studies few in numbers, but also cross-sectional, lending only tentative support to the idea that perceived restorative quality of adolescent's living environment might mediate the association between greenspace and mental health. Physical activity emerged as a mediator leading to better psychological outcomes in restorative environments. We provide a critical discussion of potential caveats when investigating the restoration mechanism in children and propose a hierarchical model including restoration, physical activity, and relational dynamics between children and their environment, including social context, as well as restorative environments other than nature.ConclusionsIt is justified to further explore the role of restoration and physical activity as mediators in the association between early-life exposome and mental health/cognitive development. It is important to consider the child perspective and specific methodological caveats. Given the evolving conceptual definitions/operationalizations, Equal-Life will attempt to fill in a critical gap in the literature.

MODERNITY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE UMSU FACULTY OF ISLAMIC STUDIES

This study aims to analyze student achievement and innovation, analyze the efficiency of using technology in Islamic religious education learning programs at FAI UMSU, and analyze the readiness of FAI UMSU in the activities of the Go International KKN program. This study uses qualitative research methods with field study designs, and data collection interview techniques with an unstructured approach. The researcher himself acts as a key instrument. Data analysis using approach domain analysis and content analysis and checking the validity of the data using triangulation techniques. The results of the study are 1) the level of achievement and innovation of FAI UMSU students in the field of Islamic religious education learning programs has experienced good development. Student innovation has also experienced maximum development such as being able to create a corpse bath prop that has received IPR, 2) the level of efficiency in the use of technology in Islamic religious education learning programs at FAI UMSU has been utilized to the fullest, and 3) Readiness of FAI UMSU in implementing the KKN program Go International has been well programmed and runs optimally through cooperation in the form of MoUs from several ASEAN-level countries.

Exploring Primary Care Streaming Pathway in Emergency Departments in Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Study.

Due to significant emergency department overcrowding, some hospitals implemented a system of directing certain patients who were deemed not in need of emergency care to other facilities called triage away. Pathways were developed as ways to stream patient from emergency departments to primary healthcare who is presenting with less urgent or nonurgent conditions. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the pathways (process) for streaming patients from emergency department to primary healthcare at three different sites across Western Region of Saudi Arabia and to identify the streaming criteria and guidance. This study used a qualitative observational design. Data were collected through an unstructured observational approach, with an in-depth case study observation involving three emergency departments in the Western Region. Data were collected over three months until data saturated and recorded in the form of filed notes. The results of this study explored that all CTAS-5 were streamed away either (off-site) or (on-site) from emergency department. The average of the sorting/triage cases were around 200 to 250 per shift, and about third to half of them were streamed to Primary Health Centre or Urgent Care Clinic. The total streamed patients were ranging from 50 to 60 per shift, which mean 15-20 case per hour. The study highlighted many factors that influence the practice and decision of streaming. In general, the term "streaming" was not as widely known among emergency clinicians, as was the term "triage." However, streaming was performed as an evidence-based practice, and clinicians routinely acted to direct patients based on hospital policies. Although, in one hospital, some nurses hack the system to manage the flow of patients based on their intuition. In contrast, the nurses in another hospital emphasised the importance of experience and confidence in streaming improvement.

Scalable self attraction and loading calculations for unstructured ocean tide models

Self attraction and earth-loading effects are important for accurately modeling global tides. A common approach of handling this forcing is to expand mass anomalies into spherical harmonics, which are scaled by load Love numbers to account for elastic earth deformation. We investigate two different approaches to perform these calculations for ocean models that employ unstructured meshes and distributed memory parallelization. The first approach leverages a highly efficient spherical harmonics library, but requires all-to-one and one-to-all communications and interpolation operations between the unstructured and a structured mesh. This approach is compared to a parallel algorithm that computes the spherical harmonic transformations directly on the unstructured mesh with an all-reduce communication. Our results show that although the unstructured mesh calculations are more expensive, the scalability of the unstructured mesh approach allows for more efficient spherical harmonics transforms for high-resolution meshes and large processor counts. This methodology enables the efficient inclusion of tidal dynamics large-scale Earth system model simulations.

Automatic unstructured mesh generation approach for simulation of electronic packaging system

Automatic unstructured mesh generation approach for simulation of electronic packaging system

Research fellowship in a Lebanese academic medical center: What does it take to shift from an informal to a formal program?

Research fellowship programs help medical graduates acquire research skills for an academic career. While our institution employed a large number of research fellows, it did not offer them a formal training program. This study aimed to assess the views of fellows and their mentors regarding the current research fellowship program, and to seek their suggestions for a formal training program at our medical center. We conducted a qualitative descriptive study using both focus group discussions and individual interviews with research fellows, and individual interviews with their mentors. We recruited all eligible participants by email. We collected data in person and analyzed it thematically. We followed the consolidated criteria for reporting of qualitative research (COREQ) checklist. A total of 17 research fellows and 17 mentors participated in the study. Participants described the current non-formal program and proposed suggestions for a formal training program. The identification of available vacant positions and the recruitment process followed an unstructured approach, through networking with mentors and previous fellows. Although there is a formal contract, there is no job description, and no definition of roles, responsibilities and rights. Some fellows get the opportunity of being involved in all aspects of research and benefit from a favorable mentor-mentee relationship. Conversely, others struggle with authorship and with the projects allocated to them, some being "non-research" related. Not all fellows end up publishing their projects. Participants provided suggestions to shift into a formal training, including measures to improve on the recruitment process of fellows, defining roles and exposure to all aspects of research. Research fellows are eager to learn, but the currently available program is unstructured. They need a formal training program that meets their expectations, one that offers equitable learning opportunities and benefits to all.

Using virtual reality to educate healthcare professionals on patients’ experience of delirium

Delirium is an acute onset confusion that has fluctuating consciousness symptoms such as hallucinations, mood changes and distractibility. It is experienced by around 2 in 10 patients within the hospital [1]. Amongst these patients, 96% are older adults and their outcomes are consistently worse due to the delirium alone, including increased mortality rates [2]. It can also be extremely frightening and distressing. Hence, the attitudes and knowledge of healthcare professionals surrounding delirium is an important topic to address in order to aid prevention as well as manage delirium. Despite training, delirium is under reported and generally poorly managed. Studies have found that the use of virtual reality in medical education has improved empathy, depth of knowledge, and self-awareness [3]. Using a 360° camera and virtual reality headsets, an in-patient scenario was created whereby the effects of delirium such as hallucinations and disorientation were depicted. The aim of the project was to establish whether virtual reality can be used to improve healthcare professionals understanding and awareness of patients’ experience of delirium. The virtual reality video and the interviews can be found on YouTube. Eight people were recorded using the VR and five of them were interviewed afterwards. The interviews were conducted using an unstructured approach in which the topics of how the virtual reality tool changed their perception of dementia, what they learnt from the tool, and whether they thought the tool was useful, were discussed. Thematic analysis was carried out retrospectively. The thematic analysis of the qualitative data highlighted four key themes amongst the healthcare professionals’ responses. These themes were education, insight, empathy, and future practice. The most common theme was insight, with comments such as ‘having the virtual reality, it breaks that barrier between you and them,’ ‘you realise how just isolated that person is,’ and how the virtual reality made them feel like they are ‘in the room,’ emphasising this theme. The outcome has been to prove concept and highlight the usefulness of virtual reality as a method of educating healthcare professionals. We have been emboldened by the feedback received. We are looking to incorporate the VR film as part of a broader simulation-based training. The training is already being adopted by local clinical teams and our local university partners. 1. Combined NHS (National Health Service). Delirium Training Video (Virtual Reality). 2022. 2. Royal College of Nursing. Delirium | Older people | Royal College of Nursing. The Royal College of Nursing. 2013. 3. Dyer E, Swartzlander BJ, Gugliucci MR. Using virtual reality in medical education to teach empathy. Journal of the Medical Library Association. 2018;106(4):498–500.

A toolset for handling unstructured voronoi grids for MODFLOW

MODFLOW is a modular hydrologic model developed by the United States Geological Service since 1984. The last version, MODFLOW 6, allows the use of finite volume (FV) general unstructured grid approach to solve the groundwater flow equations. The FV method entails constraints that are implicitly satisfied by a Voronoi discretization. In this paper, new versions of the freeware VORO2MESH and TOUGH2Viewer tools are presented for Voronoi grid generation for MODFLOW. Originally developed for the TOUGH family of codes, both software has been improved to also work with MODFLOW. VORO2MESH and TOUGH2Viewer have been applied to two case studies and the results have been compared with analytical solutions. Outcomes have demonstrated that VORO2MESH grids give simulation results very close to locally refined Grids created using the Quadtree approach; furthermore, the simulation activities are substantially enhanced using TOUGH2Viewer.

Leveraging Structure in Software Merge: An Empirical Study

Large-scale software development today relies heavily on version control systems facilitating distributed development of software projects. For the purpose of merging diverging versions of the code base, version control systems employ line-based merge algorithms, which are applicable to all text files. Structured merge algorithms have been proposed as an alternative to unstructured, line-based merging, with the goal of reducing the number of merge conflicts that have to be manually resolved by the developer. By leveraging the structure inherent in source code (i.e., by representing source code files in terms of abstract syntax trees instead of sequences of text lines), these algorithms are able to merge revisions in various situations (e.g., reordering of methods) that would cause conflicts when merged using an unstructured approach. However, merging abstract syntax trees is inherently more complex than merging sequences of text lines, which makes structured merge algorithms computationally more expensive than an unstructured merge. To reduce the runtime cost of structured merge algorithms, semistructured merge as well as combinations of different merge strategies were proposed. As such, we observe a range of increasingly structured merge algorithms, which feature different characteristics in terms of conflict resolution and runtime. The progressively increasing use of structure to avoid merge conflicts or to automate conflict resolution raises a number of questions: How is the correctness of the code resulting from a merge affected when employing structured merge algorithms? Which algorithm strikes the best balance between runtime, conflict resolution potential, and correctness of the merge result? For the first time, we evaluate a whole range of merge algorithms (from unstructured over semistructured to structured as well as combinations) by replaying merge commits in a controlled setting. We employ the test suite of the projects in question as an oracle for the correctness of the resulting code, triangulated by a thorough manual analysis. Using 7727 merge commits from 10 open-source projects, we find that combined strategies appear to be the best of both worlds: They resolve as many conflicts as structured merge at a significantly lower runtime per merge commit. Notably, structured merge strategies do cause more test failures, however, the increase is small.

Qualitative study of the views of people living with cardiovascular disease, and healthcare professionals, towards the use of a digital platform to support cardiovascular disease self-management

ObjectivesThis paper focuses on formative research as part of a broader study to develop and evaluate an innovative digital health platform for the self-management of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The primary...

The ‘Unforgivable’?: Irish Republican Army (IRA) informers and dealing with Northern Ireland conflict legacy, 1969-2021

ABSTRACT The case of Northern Ireland and ex-IRA informers demonstrates the difficulty of dealing with the informer legacy post-conflict. We explain why Sinn Féin and the UK state have dealt with some conflict legacy cases involving informers but not with others. Contemporary political and reputational reasons are an important explanation, but there are also legal considerations and communal pressures at play. Divisions amongst alleged and self-confessed informers further facilitate this unstructured approach to legacy. These difficulties with informers’ legacy are not unique to Northern Ireland. Similar challenges in reconciling former state agents with paramilitaries are evident across other conflicts.