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The heat transfer performance of most cold thermal energy storage (CTES) devices is limited by the low thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCMs) and the increase in the thickness of PCMs. A comparative work was performed to explore the heat transfer performance of CTES systems with a fin structure (Fin-CTES) and a fin–foam structure (Fin–foam-CTES). The heat transfer performance, temperature distribution, and thermal effectiveness of Fin-CTES and Fin–foam-CTES at different inlet temperatures and volume flow rates of heat transfer fluid were investigated and compared. Results demonstrated that the overall heat transfer performance of Fin–foam-CTES is better than that of Fin-CTES. However, compared with the PCM in Fin-CTES, that in Fin–foam-CTES has a greater degree of supercooling, reaching 4.35 °C at the maximum. In the discharging (melting) process, Fin-CTES and Fin–foam-CTES have almost similar heat transfer effectiveness, in which the maximum difference is only 0.0107. That is, the enhanced heat transfer effect of the natural convection of the liquid PCM and the metal foam is basically the same during the discharging process.

How to mathematically describe real-life networks, such as social networks or the World Wide Web, as so-called random graphs? How do particular rules of placing random edges result in graphs that share some of the fundamental empirical properties of real-life networks? This article of Nelly Litvak is based on her lectures of PWN Vakantiecursus 2022. Complex networks, modeled as random graphs Many real-life systems are networks. A network is a set of objects connected by some relationship. For example, a railroad is a col-lection of stations connected by rails. In a social network, people are connected by friendships. The Internet is a network of routers connected by wires. In our brain, neurons are connected if they fire together. A graph is a natural mathematical model for a network of any kind. In a graph, each object is represented as a vertex, and if there is a relationship between two vertices, then there is an edge between them. Undirected edges represent symmetric relations, and we draw them as lines. For example, communications between two Internet routers usually go in both directions. If the relation is not symmetric, we model this using directed edges, and draw them as arrows. For example, if somebody follows you on Twitter, you might not follow back. In Figure 1, we give some examples of networks, directed and undirected. This article is about how to mathematically describe real-life networks, such as social networks or the World Wide Web, using so-called random graphs. Usually in research, and always in this article, the vertices of a random graph are fixed, while the edges are placed at random. This makes sense because relationships be-tween objects often emerge at random, like friendships in a social network. Also, even if a network is not random, such as the Inter-net, its structure is so complicated that it is often useful to describe it through statistical summaries and model it as a random object. A random graph model is in fact a set of rules, according to which the random edges are chosen. Different rules result in different models with different mathematical properties. For example, in one model, edges between all vertex pairs can be equally likely, while other models assign higher probabilities to some vertex pairs. In this article, I will tell about several random graph models that are by now well understood, even classical. My goal is to explain how particular rules of placing random edges result in graphs that share some of the fundamental empirical properties of real-life networks. There are many such properties, but I will address four of them, listed in the next section.

A high equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) active phased array antenna system has been designed and experimentally verified at the 28 GHz band. The phased array employs Gallium Nitride (GaN) based radio frequency front-ends with 31 dBm output power in transmit mode and 3.5 dB noise figure in receive mode. A fully metallic gapwaveguide technology has been employed in order to achieve an efficient heat dissipation per aperture area of the array as well as low-loss array antenna elements that are easily manufactured. The phased array is realized by sub-arraying an 8×8 slot array antenna with horizontal polarization. The presented antenna system is capable of analog beamforming in the range of ±60 degrees in E-plane. The presented high-bandwidth phased array antenna system is a potential candidate for high power and compact size 5G base station antennas for wireless communications requiring high temperature stability at the millimeterwave bands.

Affective reactivity to daily stressors are increased in individuals in the early stages of psychosis. Studies in psychosis patients and healthy individuals at increased psychosis risk show altered neural reactivity to stress in limbic (i.e., hippocampus [HC] and amygdala), prelimbic (i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex [vmPFC] and ventral anterior cingulate cortex [vACC]), and salience areas (i.e., Anterior Insula [AI]). We investigated whether a similar pattern of neural reactivity is present in early psychosis individuals and if brain activity in these regions is associated with daily-life stress reactivity. Twenty-nine early psychosis individuals (11 at-risk mental state and 18 first-episode psychosis) completed the Montreal Imaging Stress Task in conjunction with functional MRI. The study was part of a large-scale randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of an acceptance and commitment therapy-based ecological momentary intervention for early psychosis. All participants also provided experience sampling methodology (ESM) data on momentary affect and stressful activities in their everyday environment. Multilevel regression models were used to estimate if daily-life stress reactivity was moderated by activity in (pre)limbic and salience areas. Task-induced stress was associated with increased activation of the right AI and decreased activation in the vmPFC, vACC, and HC. Task-induced changes in vmPFC and vACC activity were associated with affective stress reactivity, whereas changes in HC and amygdala activity were associated with higher overall stress ratings. These preliminary results suggest region-specific roles in affective and psychotic daily-life stress reactivity in early psychosis. The observed pattern suggests that chronic stress plays a role in neural stress reactivity.

In this position paper, we introduce the concept of socioscientific capital (SSC) to denote students' resources that unequivocally play a part when students learn about and make decisions regarding socioscientific issues (SSIs). Students use a variety of resources when they engage with SSI. Our conceptualization of SSC expands on current conceptualizations to refer to resources related to both the scientific and the non-scientific aspects of SSI, including internal resources (personal experiences, values, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and skills), external resources (family, friends, communities, and media), and meta-level resources (dominant frames and cultures). Aiming to strengthen SSI education, we argue for taking into account how students' resources impact their SSI-related learning and decision-making. To this end, insight into students' SSC is needed and is imperative for teachers. By bringing together literature about SSI education and literature about students' resources, we provide a conceptual view on students' SSC and describe implications for SSI education.

Social media provides customers with great opportunities to share their opinions regarding certain products and services. Comparative text, as an important expression form, deserves further exploration, since it contains considerable comparative information between different products and services. In this study, we review existing research on Comparative Text Mining (CTM) in the past 16 years. Basic concepts related to CTM are first described, and a general research framework is subsequently proposed. We then dive into each component of the research framework, ranging from data acquisition, comparative text identification (CTI), comparative relation extraction (CRE), to potential applications. In addition, we conduct extensive experimental analysis on existing methods for CTI and CRE, and clarify their limitations. Accordingly, we provide corresponding insights, and point out future research directions.

This article proposes a mode-switching-based phase shift control (MS-PSC) for wireless power transfer (WPT) systems, which is able to achieve power regulation, load matching, and wide ZVS operations simultaneously without using additional dc-dc converters. Based on the mode transitions between the full-bridge, mixed-bridge, and half-bridge modes of both the inverter and the rectifier, the MS-PSC method guarantees a wide-range ZVS with minimized circulation of reactive power. Therefore, the system efficiency is improved over a wider power range compared to the conventional triple-phase-shift (TPS) control and the existing hybrid modulation control. The principles of different operating modes are analyzed. Then, the implementation of the proposed MS-PSC method and the mode selection strategy are presented. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed MS-PSC method is validated in a WPT prototype. Experimental results show that the proposed MS-PSC method can achieve a high overall efficiency in a wide power range. Compared with the conventional TPS control, the MS-PSC method further optimizes the efficiency in 10%-63% of the rated power, with efficiency improvements ranging from 1.5% to 6%. As a result, the system efficiency remains at 93.5%-96.1% in the power range of 1-10 kW, with the transformer coupling coefficient k = 0.19.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare characteristics and survival of patients with de novo and metachronous metastatic breast cancer. Methods: Data of patients with metastatic breast cancer were obtained from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Patients were categorized as having de novo metastatic breast cancer (n = 8656) if they had distant metastases at initial presentation, or metachronous metastatic disease (n = 2374) in case they developed metastases within 5 or 10 years after initial breast cancer diagnosis. Clinicopathological characteristics and treatments of these two groups were compared, after which multiple imputation was performed to account for missing data. Overall survival was compared for patients treated with systemic therapy in the metastatic setting, using Kaplan Meier curves and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. The hazard ratio for overall survival of de novo versus metachronous metastases was assessed accounting for time-varying effects. Results: Compared to metachronous patients, patients with de novo metastatic breast cancer were more likely to be ≥ 70 years, to have invasive lobular carcinoma, clinical T3 or T4 tumours, loco-regional lymph node metastases, HER2 positivity, bone only disease and to have received systemic therapy in the metastatic setting. They were less likely to have triple negative tumours and liver or brain metastases. Patients with de novo metastases survived longer (median 34.7 months) than patients with metachronous metastases (median 24.3 months) and the hazard ratio (0.75) varied over time. Conclusions: Differences in clinicopathological characteristics and survival between de novo and metachronous metastatic breast cancer highlight that these are distinct patients groups.

Previous studies have revealed the importance of short-term bed-level change on the long-term development of intertidal ecosystems. One of the recent advancements in the short-term bed dynamics observation is the developments of laser-based surface elevation dynamics (LSED) and acoustic surface elevation dynamics (ASED) sensors. These two sensors are developed to automatically monitor tidally induced bed-level changes, and their measuring windows are during emergent and submerged periods, respectively. So far, there is no direct comparison or joint application of these two sensors. Therefore, in the current study, we first compare their observation precision in both laboratory and field conditions. Results show that both sensors' measurements are in good agreement with the manual measurements in the flume (R20.99) and field (R2 ~0.70), indicating the applicability of each sensor in natural environment. Finally, a coupled system (i.e., combining LSED and ASED) is established in a mangrove wetland and both sensors show good agreement with each other (R2 = 0.69). Results also demonstrate that the coupled observation system can well capture the bed-level change during emergent and submerged conditions, which provides detailed continuous data sets to study the bed-level dynamics within a tidal cycle. Furthermore, large-scale monitoring systems can also be established via mobile network module embedded in the sensor, providing real-time monitoring for bed-level changes, which is valuable to coastal morphological research and vital for detecting deterioration of coastal ecosystems and the services they provide to be able to apply adaptive management.

Random forests and decision trees are increasingly interesting candidates for resource-constrained machine learning models. In order to make the execution of these models efficient under resource limitations, various optimized implementations have been proposed in the literature, usually implementing either native trees or if-else trees. While a certain motivation for the optimization of if-else trees is to benefit the behavior of dedicated instruction caches, in this work we highlight that if-else trees might also strongly depend on data caches. We identify one crucial issue of if-else tree implementations and propose an optimized implementation, which keeps the logic tree structure untouched and thus does not influence the accuracy, but eliminates the need to load comparison values from the data caches. Experimental evaluation of this implementation shows that we can greatly reduce the amount of data cache misses by up to 99%, while not increasing the amount of instruction cache misses in comparison to the state-of-the-art. We additionally highlight various scenarios, where the reduction of data cache misses draws important benefit on the allover execution time.

The growing uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) will likely require management schemes to enable their connection into distribution systems. While most of the existing approaches are developed from the operator's perspective considering EV aggregated demands at the medium-voltage (MV) level, individual users' comfort and the particularities associated with low-voltage (LV) networks need to be considered to holistically assess the EV effects in an integrated MV/LV network. This article proposes a two-level hierarchical optimization framework for the EV charging coordination (EVCC) that maximizes users' satisfaction, while avoiding operational grid issues in the whole distribution system. The framework is tailored for unbalanced distribution systems with high penetration of EVs and introduces a novel index to measure charging priority-based EV user satisfaction. To reduce the computational burden, the EVCC problem is disaggregated into an upper level for MV network operation, and a lower level for LV network and individual EV scheduling, using mixed-integer linear programming models. This framework is later embedded in a dynamic scheduling approach that copes with unexpected EV arrivals. Benefits (increased overall user satisfaction and reduced strain over distribution assets) are demonstrated via case studies in a 459-node three-phase network in which solutions were achieved under a 60-s threshold.

Background: Despite the potential of exhaled breath analysis of volatile organic compounds to diagnose lung cancer, clinical implementation has not been realized, partly due to the lack of validation studies. Research Question: This study addressed two questions. First, can we simultaneously train and validate a prediction model to distinguish patients with non-small cell lung cancer from non-lung cancer subjects based on exhaled breath patterns? Second, does addition of clinical variables to exhaled breath data improve the diagnosis of lung cancer? Study Design and Methods: In this multicenter study, subjects with non-small cell lung cancer and control subjects performed 5 min of tidal breathing through the aeoNose, a handheld electronic nose device. A training cohort was used for developing a prediction model based on breath data, and a blinded cohort was used for validation. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed, including breath data and clinical variables, in which the formula and cutoff value for the probability of lung cancer were applied to the validation data. Results: A total of 376 subjects formed the training set, and 199 subjects formed the validation set. The full training model (including exhaled breath data and clinical parameters from the training set) were combined in a multivariable logistic regression analysis, maintaining a cut off of 16% probability of lung cancer, resulting in a sensitivity of 95%, a specificity of 51%, and a negative predictive value of 94%; the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve was 0.87. Performance of the prediction model on the validation cohort showed corresponding results with a sensitivity of 95%, a specificity of 49%, a negative predictive value of 94%, and an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.86. Interpretation: Combining exhaled breath data and clinical variables in a multicenter, multi-device validation study can adequately distinguish patients with lung cancer from subjects without lung cancer in a noninvasive manner. This study paves the way to implement exhaled breath analysis in the daily practice of diagnosing lung cancer. Clinical Trial Registration: The Netherlands Trial Register; No.: NL7025; URL: https://trialregister.nl/trial/7025

Objective: We evaluate nationwide perioperative outcomes of complex EVAR and assess the volume-outcome association of complex EVAR. Summary of Background Data: Endovascular treatment with fenestrated (FEVAR) or branched (BEVAR) endografts is progressively used for excluding complex aortic aneurysms (complex AAs). It is unclear if a volumeoutcome association exists in endovascular treatment of complex AAs (complex EVAR). Methods: All patients prospectively registered in the Dutch Surgical Aneurysm Audit who underwent complex EVAR (FEVAR or BEVAR) between January 2016 and January 2020 were included. The effect of annual hospital volume on perioperative mortality was examined using multivariable logistic regression analyses. Patients were stratified into quartiles based on annual hospital volume to determine hospital volume categories. Results: We included 694 patients (539 FEVAR patients, 155 BEVAR patients). Perioperative mortality following FEVAR was 4.5% and 5.2% following BEVAR. Postoperative complication rates were 30.1% and 48.7%, respectively. The first quartile hospitals performed

Ethnic profiling is a growing concern for police organizations. However, attempts to reduce possible biases toward certain demographic groups have shown little effect, possibly because of the unpopularity of the topic. This study was set up to explore whether a dedicated VR training may contribute to officers’ knowledge, attitude and willingness to communication about ethnic profiling. This was done by comparing effects of the VR training with that of the same training presented in 2D with a smart phone, and a control condition in which no training content was administered. Although no results were found for attitude and communication, the results do show some consistent results regarding knowledge in favour of VR. In addition, VR proved to result in higher ratings of presence, engagement, and enjoyment, indicating that in addition to providing more persuasive content, another strong advantage of VR as part of a training is the experience it affords.

Biopolymer-based thermoresponsive injectable hydrogels with multifunctional tunable characteristics containing anti-oxidative, biocompatibility, anti-infection, tissue regeneration, and/or anti-bacterial are of abundant interest to proficiently stimulate diabetic wound regeneration and are considered as a potential candidate for diversified biomedical application but the development of such hydrogels remains a challenge. In this study, the Chitosan-CMC-g-PF127 injectable hydrogels are developed using solvent casting. The Curcumin (Cur) Chitosan-CMC-g-PF127 injectable hydrogels possess viscoelastic behavior, good swelling properties, and a controlled release profile. The degree of substitution (% DS), thermal stability, morphological behavior, and crystalline characteristics of the developed injectable hydrogels is confirmed using nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and x-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), respectively. The controlled release of cur-micelles from the hydrogel is evaluated by drug release studies and pharmacokinetic profile (PK) using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Furthermore, compared to cur micelles the Cur-laden injectable hydrogel shows a significant increase in half-life (t1/2) up to 5.92 ± 0.7 h, mean residence time (MRT) was 15.75 ± 0.76 h, and area under the first moment curve (AUMC) is 3195.62 ± 547.99 μg/mL*(h)2 which reveals the controlled release behavior. Cytocompatibility analysis of Chitosan-CMC-g-PF127 hydrogels using 3T3-L1 fibroblasts cells and in vivo toxicity by subcutaneous injection followed by histological examination confirmed good biocompatibility of Cur-micelles loaded hydrogels. The histological results revealed the promising tissue regenerative ability and shows enhancement of fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and collagen deposition, which stimulates the epidermal junction. Interestingly, the Chitosan-CMC-g-PF127 injectable hydrogels ladened Cur exhibited a swift wound repair potential by up-surging the cell migration and proliferation at the site of injury and providing a sustained drug delivery platform for hydrophobic moieties.

In recent years, promising results have been reported with the vibrating intrinsic reverberation chamber (VIRC) combining performance and cost-efficiency for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) measurements. This also makes it a potentially attractive solution for over-the-air (OTA) testing, which is yet to be investigated. Therefore, this article proposes the first systematic and thorough methodology to characterize the VIRC for use in EMC and OTA testing of wireless baseband algorithms of narrow-band single-input single-output channels. This methodology has been developed to measure and estimate the channel first- and second-order temporal and spectral characteristics taking into consideration the effect of different carrier frequencies, rotational speeds of VIRC motors, and loading conditions. It is then applied to a channel setup inside a VIRC for a preliminary investigation before the VIRC itself is fully characterized. It is shown that mounting an absorber in a specific location on the hatch significantly improves the rejection rate of the chi-squared goodness-of-fit test for Rician distribution without increasing the K-factor above -10 dB over the frequency range 755-2740 MHz in the VIRC under investigation. However, the proposed methodology has been devised to be universal to any reverberation chamber, and the obtained results can be used to improve EMC testing due to the better understanding of the unique VIRC environment.

BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) restores perfusion and oxygenation in a patient who does not have spontaneous circulation. The evidence with regard to the effect of extracorporeal CPR on survival with a favorable neurologic outcome in refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is inconclusive. METHODS: In this multicenter, randomized, controlled trial conducted in the Netherlands, we assigned patients with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to receive extracorporeal CPR or conventional CPR (standard advanced cardiac life support). Eligible patients were between 18 and 70 years of age, had received bystander CPR, had an initial ventricular arrhythmia, and did not have a return of spontaneous circulation within 15 minutes after CPR had been initiated. The primary outcome was survival with a favorable neurologic outcome, defined as a Cerebral Performance Category score of 1 or 2 (range, 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating more severe disability) at 30 days. Analyses were performed on an intention-to-treat basis. RESULTS: Of the 160 patients who underwent randomization, 70 were assigned to receive extracorporeal CPR and 64 to receive conventional CPR; 26 patients who did not meet the inclusion criteria at hospital admission were excluded. At 30 days, 14 patients (20%) in the extracorporeal-CPR group were alive with a favorable neurologic outcome, as compared with 10 patients (16%) in the conventional-CPR group (odds ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.5 to 3.5; P = 0.52). The number of serious adverse events per patient was similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, extracorporeal CPR and conventional CPR had similar effects on survival with a favorable neurologic outcome. (Funded by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development and Maquet Cardiopulmonary [Getinge]; INCEPTION ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03101787.).

Clean floors in dairy farms are of vital importance to mitigate risks regarding cow welfare and to avoid ammonia emissions. In modern dairy farms it is common to deploy manure cleaning robots to automate the cleaning task. In the current state-of-the art, robots operate in relative solitude with no coordination or cooperation within the fleet. This paper employs discrete-event simulation to test the effectiveness of different strategies for cooperative, team-based cleaning in dairy farms. Special attention is paid to the impact of various team compositions and robot characteristics on team routing. The results look promising: the minimum cleanliness can be increased by deploying teams while simultaneously reducing the number of cow-robot interactions.

The relatively large ionic radius of the Na ion is one of the primary reasons for the slow diffusion of Na ions compared to that of Li ions in de/intercalation processes in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Interlayer expansion of intercalation hosts is one of the effective techniques for facilitating Na-ion diffusion. For most ionic layered compounds, interlayer expansion relies on intercalation of guest ions. It is important to investigate the role of these ions for material development of SIBs. In this study, alkali-metal ions (Li+, Na+, K+, and Cs+) with different sizes were intercalated into lepidocrocite-type layered titanate by a simple ion-exchange technique to achieve interlayer modulation and those were then evaluated as anode materials for SIBs. By controlling the intercalated alkaline ion species, basal spacings of layered titanates (LTs) in the range of 0.68 to 0.85 nm were obtained. Interestingly, the largest interlayer spacing induced by the large size of Cs did not yield the best performance, while the Na intercalated layered titanate (Na-ILT) demonstrated a superior performance with a specific capacity of 153 mAh g-1 at a current density of 0.1 A g-1. We found that the phenomena can be explained by the high alkaline metal ion concentration and the efficient utilization of the active sites in Na-ILT. The detailed analysis indicates that large intercalating ions like Cs can hamper sodium-ion diffusion although the interlayer spacing is large. Our work suggests that adopting an appropriate interlayer ion species is key to developing highly efficient layered electrode materials for SIBs.

Objective Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) volume is a strong predictor of outcome in patients presenting with acute hemorrhagic stroke. It is necessary to segment the hematoma for ICH volume estimation and for computerized extraction of features, such as spot sign, texture parameters, or extravasated iodine content at dual-energy computed tomography. Manual and semiautomatic segmentation methods to delineate the hematoma are tedious, user dependent, and require trained personnel. This article presents a convolutional neural network to automatically delineate ICH from noncontrast computed tomography scans of the head. Methods A model combining a U-Net architecture with a masked loss function was trained on standard noncontrast computed tomography images that were down sampled to 256 × 256 size. Data augmentation was applied to prevent overfitting, and the loss score was calculated using the soft Dice loss function. The Dice coefficient and the Hausdorff distance were computed to quantitatively evaluate the segmentation performance of the model, together with the sensitivity and specificity to determine the ICH detection accuracy. Results The results demonstrate a median Dice coefficient of 75.9% and Hausdorff distance of 2.65 pixels in segmentation performance, with a detection sensitivity of 77.0% and specificity of 96.2%. Conclusions The proposed masked loss U-Net is accurate in the automatic segmentation of ICH. Future research should focus on increasing the detection sensitivity of the model and comparing its performance with other model architectures.

Introduction Only 5% to 15% of individuals with amputation living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have access to proper prostheses. Mainly, prosthetic costs are too high, and facilities are not within reach. Measurement and production of traditional prosthetic sockets are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and highly dependent on the experience and skills of the personnel involved. Materials and Methods This report describes the workflow to produce low-cost patella tendon bearing transtibial prosthetic sockets. Using computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), transtibial prostheses can be easily produced in rural areas. The size of the residual limb was scanned with a handheld 3D-scanner (Einscanner Pro Plus), and the sockets were printed using fused filament fabrication (FFF) with an Ultimaker S5. The foot was made locally, and the other prosthetic parts were imported. The 3D-printed socket costs US $20 (excluding value-added tax [VAT]). The total material cost of the prosthesis, including the other prosthetic materials, amounts to approximately US $100 (excluding VAT). Assuming the asset cost of the devices, the costs of one local employee, overhead expenses, a profit margin, and the VAT included, a 3D-printed prosthesis could be sold for US $170. Conclusions This report provides a blueprint to produce low-cost 3D-printed transtibial prosthetic sockets. Further research will be conducted to replace the imported prosthetic parts for local products and to automatize the digital design process. Clinical Relevance With this workflow, prosthetic sockets can be produced consistently, which makes it a suitable method in LMICs.

The Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalayas (HKH) mountainous range supplies water to 10 river basins serving eight countries. The present study focuses on the river basins located within the HKH region in Pakistan. The modified Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT+) was used to split the research region into 13 sub-basins. The Mann–Kendall, Sen's slope, innovative polygon trend analysis (IPTA), and innovative trend analysis (ITA) methods were used for the monthly precipitation time series. The Shyok sub-basin (central Karakoram) experienced rising trends for all seasons, while the southwestern Karakoram (Hunza) showed a rising trend only for the winter. The Hindukush Mountain Range feeds five sub-basins (Gilgit, Chitral, Swat, Kabul, and Kurram). The Gilgit and Kurram sub-basins observed an upward trend for all seasons. A falling trend in spring and transition from spring (falling) to summer (rising) was observed for the Swat and Kabul sub-basins. The Chitral sub-basin received rising precipitation in spring, summer, and autumn, whereas no trend was observed during winter. In the southern Himalayas (Kanshi and Jhelum), no trend was observed in winter and autumn and a falling trend in spring and summer. The Kunhar sub-basin (southern Himalaya) showed rising trends in winter, spring, and autumn. In contrast, the Soan sub-basin (eastern Himalaya) has no trend in spring, and other seasons show rising trends. The sub-basin Upper Indus experienced a rising trend for autumn, winter, and summer, while a downward trend was observed in spring. The IPTA and ITA approaches are much more sensitive than the Mann–Kendall method in detecting trends. Although the innovative methods are mostly compatible with each other (90%), the IPTA presents additional information about trend transitions between successive parts of the time series. The results presented in this study are an advancement in the investigations made so far in this region and will help to understand the climate and hydrology of this region.

There is a considerable interest in understanding transient human upper airway aerodynamics, especially in view of assessing the effects of various ventilation therapies. Experimental analyses in a patient-specific manner pose challenges as the upper airway consists of a narrow confined region with complex anatomy. Pressure measurements are feasible, but, for example, PIV experiments require special measures to accommodate for the light refraction by the model. Computational fluid dynamics can bridge the gap between limited experimental data and detailed flow features. This work aims to validate the use of combined lattice Boltzmann method and a large eddy scale model for simulating respiration, and to identify clinical features of the flow and show the clinical potential of the method. Airflow was computationally analyzed during a realistic, transient, breathing profile in an upper airway geometry ranging from nose to trachea, and the resulting pressure calculations were compared against in vitro experiments. Simulations were conducted on meshes containing about 1 billion cells to ensure accuracy and to capture intrinsic flow features. Airway pressures obtained from simulations and in vitro experiments are in good agreement both during inhalation and exhalation. High velocity pharyngeal and laryngeal jets and recirculation in the region of the olfactory cleft are observed. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].

In real-time systems, schedulability analyses provide the required timing guarantees. However, current suspension-aware analyses are limited to Task-Level Fixed-Priority (TFP) scheduling or Earliest-Deadline-First (EDF) scheduling of constrained-deadline self-suspending task systems. In this work, we provide a unifying schedulability analysis for uniprocessor Global EDF-Like (GEL) schedulers of arbitrary-deadline task sets. While analyses for EDF-Like schedulers are rare, many widely used scheduling algorithms can be considered as EDF-Like, for example, EDF, First-In-First-Out (FIFO), Earliest-Quasi-Deadline-First (EQDF), and Suspension-Aware EDF (SAEDF). Therefore, the provided analysis is applicable to those algorithms. It can be applied to TFP scheduling as well. Our analysis is the first suspension-aware schedulability analysis for arbitrary-deadline sporadic real-time task systems under Job-Level Fixed-Priority (JFP) scheduling, such as EDF, and the first unifying suspension-aware schedulability analysis framework that covers a wide range of scheduling algorithms. Through numerical simulations, we show that our analysis improves the state of the art for constrained-deadline EDF scenarios.

The profession of technical communication is undergoing fundamental changes due to automation, digitalization, and globalization. The working practices of technical writers have shifted considerably; communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing are highly relevant today. As a result, technical writers typically work in integrated agile teams. The content of technical writers’ work has changed as well, due to technological advances and a more prominent role of end users in the design process. These developments imply that technical writers need to acquire more and different competencies than before. A recent competence framework for technical communication (TecCOMFrame) is evaluated, and suggestions are made for updating this framework.

This letter describes the design and operation of a novel type of hybrid chamber used for radiated susceptibility tests. This is a semi-anechoic chamber with the possibility to install a vibrating intrinsic reverberation chamber inside. This testing environment can be used for the execution of the radiated susceptibility tests using both the deterministic and stochastic methodologies but without changing the test location, nor moving the device under test with its auxiliary equipment. This allows test engineers to combine the advantages of both reverberation and semi-anechoic chambers with a minimum effort, making it a very practical, cost- and time-efficient solution. The electric field into the reverberation chamber is monitored by eight electric field probes, permitting the closed-loop control of the electric field strength level and an efficient real-time analysis of the performance indicators discussed in this letter.

Mental wellbeing is an increasingly relevant outcome in clinical psychology, and rigorous measurement tools are required to ensure high quality data. This study aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze the factor structure of a popular measurement tool of mental wellbeing, the Mental Health Continuum—Short Form (MHC-SF). The systematic review identified 46 studies which investigated the performance of the MHC-SF, which consistently supported the psychometric properties of the scale. Meta-analytic structural equation modelling (MASEM) was used with data extracted from 26 studies (n = 108,603). MASEM indicated support for the original tripartite structure of the MHC-SF, as well as a hierarchical model and a bifactor model. The hierarchical model (and the nested tripartite model) was supported theoretically and performed similarly across clinical and general populations. The current study demonstrates that the MHC-SF is a valid measure of general mental wellbeing, which taps into concepts of emotional, social, and psychological wellbeing in general and clinical populations. Caution may be required when comparing scores across clinical and non-clinical cohorts.

In this commentary, I scrutinize Coeckelbergh’s criticism of postphenomenology, and question whether postphenomenology indeed tends to neglect the social dimension of technology use (ontic), and must necessarily be conceived as being in opposition to transcendental philosophy (ontological). Second, I suggest that the Wittgensteinian concepts that Coeckelbergh introduces are interesting additions to the concepts used in postphenomenology, but that his use of the term “transcendental” seems up to now primarily to be a rhetorical means enabling him to distance himself from postphenomenology.

In this article, a theoretical model on the cumulation of noise, generated by large numbers of man-made noise (MMN) sources in several types of residential environments, has been developed. The model is based on extensive propagation measurements and verified by earlier field strength measurements. From applying the model it appears that MMN sources, emitting powers that equals mains port conductive disturbance limits in the electromagnetic compatibility standards, do not explain the measured noise field strength values. In contrary, the model indicates that the average source power is significant higher than can be derived from the limit in the standards. That could mean that the average power at the mains port is substantial higher than what generally is assumed. But alternately, the power, delivered by other ports like the ports for dc power, for telecom and for other wiring, is much higher than thought and could indicate a disregarded aspect in the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards.

Increased implementation of power electronics devices as well as high penetration of micro grids and embedded generation with low-supply inertia is resulting in grid stability problems, especially in transient or startup situations. The electromagnetic compatibility of these systems with regards to transients can be difficult to diagnose due to the short time duration and often intermittent nature of events. This letter proposes a multichannel measurement system which is able to measure voltage and current waveforms in multiple locations with synchronization and sample rates in the megahertz range. The overall design, characteristics, as well as applications are showcased in this letter.

Universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands have undergone a stormy process of development since the 1980s. Subsequently, a number of issues related to this growth have emerged and are currently the subject of reflection and discussion, in particular academic drift and recently declining student numbers.

The Image Analysis and Data Fusion (IADF) Technical Committee (TC) of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) has been organizing the annual Data Fusion Contest (DFC) since 2006. The contest promotes the development of methods for extracting geospatial information from large-scale, multisensor, multimodal, and multitemporal data. It aims to propose new problem settings that are challenging to address with existing techniques and to establish new benchmarks for scientific challenges in remote sensing image analysis [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19].

Wildfire management/prediction require accurate mapping of forest fuel load, which depends primarily on trees' diameter, stem volume, and forest structure. Thus, to achieve reliable wildfire risk estimation using remote sensing imagery, this paper aims to establish a link between the estimated vertical forest structures derived from SAR tomography and the quantification of actual forest fuel load. In this context, some novel statistical features are introduced that have potential to indicate fuel load. Based on the results obtained over the tropical forest of Mondah, Gabon, it is expected that these features will be useful for developing predictive models of fuel load.

Recapitulating inherent heterogeneity and complex microarchitectures within confined print volumes for developing implantable constructs that could maintain their structure in vivo has remained challenging. Here, we present a combinational multimaterial and embedded bioprinting approach to fabricate complex tissue constructs that can be implanted postprinting and retain their three-dimensional (3D) shape in vivo. The microfluidics-based single nozzle printhead with computer-controlled pneumatic pressure valves enables laminar flow-based voxelation of up to seven individual bioinks with rapid switching between various bioinks that can solve alignment issues generated during switching multiple nozzles. To improve the spatial organization of various bioinks, printing fidelity with the z-direction, and printing speed, self-healing and biodegradable colloidal gels as support baths are introduced to build complex geometries. Furthermore, the colloidal gels provide suitable microenvironments like native extracellular matrices (ECMs) for achieving cell growths and fast host cell invasion via interconnected microporous networks in vitro and in vivo. Multicompartment microfibers (i.e., solid, core-shell, or donut shape), composed of two different bioink fractions with various lengths or their intravolume space filled by two, four, and six bioink fractions, are successfully printed in the ECM-like support bath. We also print various acellular complex geometries such as pyramids, spirals, and perfusable branched/linear vessels. Successful fabrication of vascularized liver and skeletal muscle tissue constructs show albumin secretion and bundled muscle mimic fibers, respectively. The interconnected microporous networks of colloidal gels result in maintaining printed complex geometries while enabling rapid cell infiltration, in vivo.

Dopant defects in semiconductors can trap charge carriers or ionize to produce charge carriers playing a critical role in electronic transport. Halide perovskites are a technologically important semiconductor family with a large pressure response. Yet, to our knowledge, the effect of high pressures on defects in halide perovskites has not been experimentally investigated. Here, we study the structural, optical, and electronic consequences of compressing the small-bandgap double perovskites Cs2AgTlX6(X = Cl or Br) up to 56 GPa. Mild compression to 1.7 GPa increases the conductivity of Cs2AgTlBr6by ca. 1 order of magnitude and decreases its bandgap from 0.94 to 0.7 eV. Subsequent compression yields complex optoelectronic behavior: The bandgap varies by 1.2 eV and conductivity ranges by a factor of 104. These conductivity changes cannot be explained by the evolving bandgap. Instead, they can be understood as tuning of the bromine vacancy defect with pressure varying between a delocalized shallow defect state with a small ionization energy and a localized deep defect state with a large ionization energy. Activation energy measurements reveal that the shallow-to-deep defect transition occurs near 1.5 GPa, well before the cubic-to-tetragonal phase transition. An analysis of the orbital interactions in Cs2AgTlBr6illustrates how the bromine vacancy weakens the adjacent Tl s-Br p antibonding interaction, driving the shallow-to-deep defect transition. Our orbital analysis leads us to propose that halogen vacancies are most likely to be shallow donors in halide double perovskites that have a conduction band derived from the octahedral metal's s orbitals.

Contains fulltext : 287508.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) BACKGROUND: Pooled analyses of previous randomised studies have suggested that very early treatment with glyceryl trinitrate (also known as nitroglycerin) improves functional outcome in patients with acute ischaemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage, but this finding was not confirmed in a more recent trial (RIGHT-2). We aimed to assess whether patients with presumed acute stroke benefit from glyceryl tr initrate started within 3 h after symptom onset. METHODS: MR ASAP was a phase 3, randomised, open-label, blinded endpoint trial done at six ambulance services serving 18 hospitals in the Netherlands. Eligible participants (aged ≥18 years) had a probable diagnosis of acute stroke (as assessed by a paramedic), a face-arm-speech-time test score of 2 or 3, systolic blood pressure of at least 140 mm Hg, and could start treatment within 3 h of symptom onset. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) by ambulance personnel, using a secure web-based electronic application with random block sizes stratified by ambulance service, to receive either transdermal glyceryl trinitrate 5 mg/day for 24 h plus standard care (glyceryl trinitrate group) or to standard care alone (control group) in the prehospital setting. Informed consent was deferred until after arrival at the hospital. The primary outcome was functional outcome assessed with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 90 days. Safety outcomes included death within 7 days, death within 90 days, and serious adverse events. Analyses were based on modified intention to treat, and treatment effects were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) or common ORs, with adjustment for baseline prognostic factors. We separately analysed the total population and the target population (ie, patients with intracerebral haemorrhage, ischaemic stroke, or transient ischaemic attack). The target sample size was 1400 patients. The trial is registered as ISRCTN99503308. FINDINGS: On June 24, 2021, the MR ASAP trial was prematurely terminated on the advice of the data and safety monitoring board, with recruitment stopped because of safety concerns in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage. Between April 4, 2018, and Feb 12, 2021, 380 patients were randomly allocated to a study group. 325 provided informed consent or died before consent could be obtained, of whom 170 were assigned to the glyceryl trinitrate group and 155 to the control group. These patients were included in the total population. 201 patients (62%) had ischaemic stroke, 34 (10%) transient ischaemic attack, 56 (17%) intracerebral haemorrhage, and 34 (10%) a stroke-mimicking condition. In the total population (n=325), the median mRS score at 90 days was 2 (IQR 1-4) in both the glyceryl trinitrate and control groups (adjusted common OR 0·97 [95% CI 0·65-1·47]). In the target population (n=291), the 90-day mRS score was 2 (2-4) in the glyceryl trinitrate group and 3 (1-4) in the control group (0·92 [0·59-1·43]). In the total population, there were no differences between the two study groups with respect to death within 90 days (adjusted OR 1·07 [0·53-2·14]) or serious adverse events (unadjusted OR 1·23 [0·76-1·99]). In patients with intracerebral haemorrhage, 12 (34%) of 35 patients allocated to glyceryl trinitrate versus two (10%) of 21 allocated to the control group died within 7 days (adjusted OR 5·91 [0·78-44·81]); death within 90 days occurred in 16 (46%) of 35 in the glyceryl trinitrate group and 11 (55%) of 20 in the control group (adjusted OR 0·87 [0·18-4·17]). INTERPRETATION: We found no sign of benefit of transdermal glyceryl trinitrate started within 3 h of symptom onset in the prehospital setting in patients with presumed acute stroke. The signal of potential early harm of glyceryl trinitrate in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage suggests that glyceryl trinitrate should be avoided in this setting. FUNDING: The Collaboration for New Treatments of Acute Stroke consortium, the Brain Foundation Netherlands, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Stryker, Medtronic, Cerenovus, and the Dutch Heart Foundation.

The current study is about students' engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI). We explored the use of sources of knowledge about SSI and attitudes toward SSI among a sample of 1676 Dutch 8- to 16-year-old students. First, we developed a questionnaire that measured students' use of four sources of knowledge about SSI: Social Resources (online media use and talking with parents and friends), In-Class Resources (in-class talk and in-class offline media use), Visit Resources (visiting the zoo or a science museum with parents or school), and Offline Media Resources (engaging with issues or the news via books, magazines, newspapers, or TV). Second, we performed a latent profile analysis to explore students' patterns of use of these sources. This resulted in five profiles: Social Visitors (5.9%), Offline Media Consumers (10.6%), Media Discussers (14.3%), In-Class Users (21.0%), and Non-Users (48.3%). Third, we related these profiles to students' attitudes toward SSI, as measured with the Pupils' Attitudes toward Socioscientific Issues (PASSI) questionnaire. In line with the sources of knowledge profiles, the Non-Users felt and thought most negatively about engagement with SSI, while the Media Discussers showed the most positive attitudes. We believe that our exploration of the profiles adds to the discourse about students' socioscientific capital. Moreover, this study informs teachers about the resources that students may bring into the learning environment and their decision-making about SSI. The study concludes with practical suggestions about stimulating the use of sources of knowledge for certain groups of students and fostering positive attitudes toward engagement with SSI.

Targeted drug delivery (TDD) systems have several advantages, especially with drugs having toxic side effects such as lornoxicam (LX) which shows high hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, especially with long-term use. This work represents an attempt to control magnetic microspheres encapsulating LX and magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) for potential targeted drug delivery of LX. Superparamagnetic nanoparticles were fabricated via the co-precipitation method and together with LX were encapsulated into polycaprolactone (PCL) microspheres through an oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion solvent evaporation method. The effects of changing the amount of drug, MNPs, and volume of the aqueous phase were investigated by preparing several microsphere formulations. Increasing the amount of encapsulated MNPs increased the magnetization of the microspheres without affecting the morphology. Doubling the volume of the aqueous phase resulted in a higher encapsulation efficiency and drug loading; 83.9% and 10.7%, respectively, while increasing the amount of drug had a negative effect on both drug loading and encapsulation efficiency. Drug release from the microspheres was successfully achieved and showed a biphasic nature. A system of four planar coils was then used to magnetically control the movement of a cluster of capsules in a glycerin medium, as a simulation for the targeting process. The microspheres were successfully controlled to move in a U-turn path with sharp corners demonstrating their potential for TDD applications.

We report an avalanche-mode light-emitting transistor (AMLET) in silicon (Si), based on a lateral bipolar junction, which emits light near 760 nm optical wavelength with a record low bandwidth of 38 nm. The AMLET, designed in a CMOS-compatible silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonics platform, is optically confined within a 0.21 μm thick SOI layer, which forms a Fabry-Perot (FP) resonator perpendicular to the Si surface. Light is emitted from the reverse biased emitter-base junction via phonon-assisted hot carrier recombination and, additionally, minority carriers are injected via the forward-biased Base-Collector junction. The combination of injection from collector terminal through a narrow base and FP optical resonance, yields a high optical power efficiency of 4.3×10−6 at VBC = 0.8 V and VEB = 10 V. Our work opens new possibilities in spectralengineering of Si light-emitters, which could boost performance of all-Si optical interconnects and sensors.

This article presents the degradation effects of long-term use of a dual vibrating intrinsic reverberation chamber (dual VIRC) for shielding effectiveness (SE) measurements. At the beginning with a new fresh dual VIRC setup it is possible to achieve a very high dynamic range (DR) but the DR degrades due to long-term use of the dual VIRC. The effect of 10 years use of the dual VIRC on the DR is shown as function of usage time. Also, the effect on the DR of a new dual VIRC with better conductive cloth has been presented.

Liquid metal droplets, such as eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn), are important in many research areas, such as soft electronics, catalysis, and energy storage. Droplet contact on solid surfaces is typically achieved without control over the applied force and without optimizing the wetting properties in different environments (e.g., in air or liquid), resulting in poorly defined contact areas. In this work, we demonstrate the direct manipulation of EGaIn microdroplets using an atomic force microscope (AFM) to generate repeated, on-demand making and breaking of contact on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols. The nanoscale positional control and feedback loop in an AFM allow us to control the contact force at the nanonewton levels and, consequently, tune the droplet contact areas at the micrometer length scale in both air and ethanol. When submerged in ethanol, the droplets are highly non-wetting, resulting in hysteresis-free contact forces and minimal adhesion; as a result, we are able to create reproducible geometric contact areas of between 0.8–4.5 μm2 with the alkanethiolate SAMs in ethanol. In contrast, there is a larger hysteresis in the contact forces and larger adhesion for the same EGaIn droplet in air, which reduced the control over the contact area (4–12 μm2). We demonstrate the usefulness of the technique and of the gained insights in EGaIn contact mechanics by making well-defined molecular tunnelling junctions based on alkanethiolate SAMs with small geometric contact areas of between 4 and 12 μm2 in air, one to two orders of magnitude smaller than previously achieved.

Cloud computing (CC) is a revolution that can provide information technology (IT) as a service. CC offers infrastructure, platform, and software services, as demand peaks and surges. This paper aims to investigate how prospective adopters behave when external factors such as “Coronavirus Pandemic- COVID-19” impact their technology adoption decision-making. The study also explores how a prospective adopter behaves i.e., if his/her intention to adopt any new innovation increases in presence of stronger disruptive factors (COVID-19). This research empirically examines if the intent to adopt secured (online) services impacts actual CC adoption (CCA) in pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 eras. It also provides an idea of how prospective adopters behave when they face disruptions caused by the pandemic situation, and how the holistic relation is reflected in terms of its influence on academic performance. This study has used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with sequential mediation effect of intent to adopt secured online services and CCA on Academic Performance (AP) using a sample of 867 students from 25 different Indian universities in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Using AMOS, a structural equation modelling was conducted to test the research model. The results highlight that there is a significant difference between the influence of perceived usefulness (PU) as well as perceived ease of use (PEOU) on CCA due to COVID-19. The results also provide empirical evidence of gender moderating the relationship of PU as well as PEOU with CCA. This is the first study that provides comparative results from pre-COVID and post-COVID era, this work provides a reference point to practitioners and academicians, especially when evaluating factors before making a final decision regarding any emerging technology’s adoption.

We report on a novel concept to produce ordered beds of spherical particles in a suitable format for liquid chromatography. In this concept, spherical particles are either positioned individually (single-layer column) or stacked (multi-layer column) in micromachined pockets that form an interconnected array of micro-grooves acting as a perfectly ordered chromatographic column. As a first step towards realizing this concept, we report on the breakthrough we realized by obtaining a solution to uniformly fill the micro-groove arrays with spherical particles. We show this can be achieved in a few sweeps using a dedicated rubbing approach wherein a particle suspension is manually rubbed over a silicon chip. In addition, numerical calculations of the dispersion in the newly introduced column format have been carried out and demonstrate the combined advantage of order and reduced flow resistance the newly proposed concept has over the conventional packed bed. For fully-porous particles and a zone retention factor of k’’ = 2, the hmin decreases from hmin = 1.9 for the best possible packed bed column to around hmin =1.0 for the microgroove array, while the interstitial velocity-based separation impedance Ei (a direct measure for the required analysis time) decreases from 1450 to 200. The next steps will focus on the removal of occasional particles remaining on the sides of the micro-pockets, the addition of a cover substrate to seal the column and the subsequent conduction of actual chromatographic separations.

In this work, catalytic membranes were fabricated by blending CoFe2O4 catalysts into polyethersulfone (PES) and then used to treat naproxen with the addition of peroxymonosulfate (PMS). It was found that the addition of PMS results in a decrease in pH, which increases the adsorption of naproxen. This often overlooked phenomenon is demonstrated here to have an important role since the adsorption of naproxen on the polymeric matrix and catalytic particles decreases the degradation efficiency of naproxen. To verify this hypothesis and rule out the decrease in pH after the addition of pH, two ways of controlling the pH of the naproxen solution were compared: adjusting pH before and after the addition of PMS, respectively. Our results indicate that in the batch experiment, adjusting the pH of naproxen solution after adding PMS led to a dramatic 23-fold increase in the kinetic constant of the naproxen oxidation (0.42/min, pH6) compared to when pH was adjusted before adding PMS (0.018/min, pH 6). This enhancement in the overall kinetics was attributed to the elimination of the inhibition caused by MPs adsorption at low pH. In a dead-end cell, the catalytic membranes with 2.0 % of CoFe2O4 achieved quantitative conversion of naproxen, bisphenol A, and atrazine, with values of 98 %, 97 %, and 74 %, respectively, demonstrating the efficacy of this approach to convert multitype of MPs in wastewater streams. In a reusability study, the naproxen removal of the catalytic membranes with 2.0 % of CoFe2O4 decreased by 81 % and 45 % after 5 rounds in the batch experiment and dead-end cell, respectively. However, with a chemical cleaning process between each round, the degradation efficiency can be effectively recovered, proving the negative effects of the adsorption of MPs or their intermediates during the SR-AOPs. Our work demonstrates that pH in SR-AOP-based catalytic membrane processes determined both the reaction rate and the adsorption of MPs or their intermediates on the membrane and its reactive sites. We envision that these results will be valuable in developing efficient catalytic membranes for the treatment of MPs in wastewater streams.

Background: Abdominal symptoms after cholecystectomy may be caused by gallstones in a remnant gallbladder or a long cystic duct stump. Resection of a remnant gallbladder or cystic duct stump is associated with an increased risk of conversion and bile duct or vascular injuries. We prospectively investigated the additional value of robotic assistance and fluorescent bile duct illumination in redo biliary surgery. Methods: In this prospective two-centre observational cohort study, 28 patients were included with an indication for redo biliary surgery because of remnant stones in a remnant gallbladder or long cystic duct stump. Surgery was performed with the da Vinci X® and Xi® robotic system. The biliary tract was visualised in the fluorescence Firefly® mode shortly after intravenous injection of indocyanine green. Results: There were no conversions or perioperative complications, especially no vascular or bile duct injuries. Fluorescence-based illumination of the extrahepatic bile ducts was successful in all cases. Symptoms were resolved in 27 of 28 patients. Ten patients were treated in day care and 13 patients were discharged the day after surgery. Conclusion: Robot-assisted fluorescence-guided surgery for remnant gallbladder or cystic duct stump resection is safe, effective and can be done in day-care setting.

Safety-critical systems are often subjected to transient faults. Since these transient faults may lead to soft errors that cause catastrophic consequences, error-handling must be addressed by design. Full-protection against faults is too costly in terms of resource usage. A common approach to relax the resource demands and limit the impact of errors is to consider (m, k)-constraints, which requires that at least m jobs out of any k consecutive jobs are error-free. To assure (m, k)-compliance, static patterns are widely used to select the job execution modes, i.e., either in an error-free mode at the cost of increased worst-case execution time or in an error-prone mode with the advantage of less execution time. Although static patterns have been shown to be effective in energy-aware designs, resource over-provision is inevitable due to the relatively low rate of error probability. In this work, we propose two dynamic (and adaptive) approaches that allow the scheduler to opportunistically select execution modes based on the error-history of the past jobs and the actual error probability. We firstly propose a Markov chain based solution if the error-probability is known and static and secondly a reinforcement learning-based approach that can handle unknown error probabilities. Experimental evaluations show that our approaches outperform the state-of-the-art in most of the evaluated cases in terms of average utilization for each task and the overall utilization for multitask systems.