Testing the shock protection performance of Type I construction helmets using impactors of different masses

BACKGROUND

Wearing protective helmets is an important prevention strategy to reduce work-related traumatic brain injuries. The existing standardized testing systems are used for quality control and do not provide a quantitative measure of the helmet performance.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the failure characterizations of Type I industrial helmets and develop a generalized approach to quantify the shock absorption performance of Type I industrial helmets based on the existing standardized setups.

METHODS

A representative basic Type I construction helmet model was selected for the study. Top impact tests were performed on the helmets at different drop heights using two different impactor masses (3.6 and 5.0 kg).

RESULTS

When the helmets were impacted with potential impact energies smaller than the critical potential impact energy values, there was a consistent relationship between the peak impact force and the potential impact energy. When the helmets were impacted under potential impact energies greater than the critical potential impact energy values, the peak impact forces increased steeply with increasing potential impact energy.

CONCLUSION

A concept of safety margin for construction helmets based on potential impact energy was introduced to quantify the helmets' shock absorption performance. The proposed method will help helmet manufacturers improve their product quality.

Experimental and Numerical Investigations on Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of Three-Dimensional Overall Jagged Internal Finned Tubes

To satisfy the demand for efficient heat transfer, a novel three-dimensional overall jagged internal finned tube (3D-OJIFT) was fabricated, using the rolling-ploughing/extruding method. The thermal performance of the 3D-OJIFT were studied and compared in experiments and three-dimensional numerical simulations. The RNG k-ε turbulence model is well verified with the experimental results. By analyzing the distributions of velocity, temperature, and turbulence kinetic energy, it was found that the 3D-OJIFT destroyed the development of the velocity and thermal boundary layers, increased the turbulence disturbance, and reduced the temperature gradient, thus improving the heat transfer. The influences of the jagged height and jagged spiral angle of the 3D-OJIFT are discussed. The Nu and f increased as the jagged height of the 3D-OJIFT increased. The Nusselt number of the 3D-OJIFT was 1.67-2.04 times the value for the smooth tube. In addition, the comprehensive heat transfer performance of the 3D-OJIFT improved after increasing the jagged spiral angle. Compared with conventional internal helical-finned tubes and other reinforcement structures reported in the literature, the 3D-OJIFT demonstrated better comprehensive heat transfer performance. Finally, empirical correlations of the 3D-OJIFT were obtained.

Heat-Transfer Properties of Additively Manufactured Aluminum Lattice Structures in Combination with Phase Change Material

Compared to sensible heat storage, latent heat storage provides higher energy density due to the enthalpy difference of the storage medium undergoing a phase change. However, the heat storage capability of phase change materials is opposed by low thermal conductivity. To enable sufficient heat transfer within a latent heat storage unit, phase change materials can be used in combination with a metallic matrix. One approach is the infiltration of phase change materials into additively manufactured metallic lattice structures. In this work, the fabrication of aluminum lattice structures through laser powder bed fusion is described. During fabrication, the cell size and the strut diameter were varied to obtain specimens of different geometries. To obtain the thermal conductivity of the fabricated lattices, measurements were conducted based on the transient plane source method. Additionally, finite element simulations were carried out to evaluate the effect of fabrication and measurement uncertainties. The thermal conductivity of the fabricated lattices was found to be between 3 W/(m·K) and 130 W/(m·K). The numerically and analytically performed calculations provide good estimations of the experimentally obtained data.

Subclinical infection caused by a recombinant vaccine-like strain poses high risks of lumpy skin disease virus transmission

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a transboundary viral infection, affecting cattle with characteristic manifestations involving multiple body systems. A distinctive characteristic of lumpy skin disease is the subclinical disease manifestation wherein animals have viremia and shed the virus through nasal and ocular discharges, while exhibiting no nodules but enlarged lymph nodes that are easily oversighted by inexperienced vets. Further research on the role of subclinically ill animals in the transmission of LSD virus (LSDV) can contribute to the development of more effective tools to control the disease worldwide. Thus, this study aims to determine the potential role of subclinical infection in virus transmission in a non-vector-borne manner. To achieve this, we inoculated animals with the recombinant vaccine-like strain (RVLS) Udmurtiya/2019 to cause clinical and subclinical LSDV infection. After the disease manifestation, we relocated the subclinically ill animals to a new clean facility followed by the introduction of another five animals to determine the role of RVLS-induced subclinical infection in the virus transmission via direct/indirect contact. After the introduction of the naïve animals to the relocated subclinically ill ones in a shared airspace, two introduced animals contracted the virus (clinically and subclinically), showing symptoms of fever, viremia, and seroconversion in one animal, while three other introduced animals remained healthy and PCR-negative until the end of the study. In general, the findings of this study suggest the importance of considering LSDV subclinical infection as a high-risk condition in disease management and outbreak investigations.

Ableism differs by disability, gender and social context: Evidence from vignette experiments

Existing research on prejudice and discrimination towards disabled people (i.e. 'ableism') has conceptualized it as a general attitude, obscuring the role of social context in its manifestation. We aimed to investigate whether and how ableism manifests differently depending on the nature of the disability, the disabled person's gender and the social context of the interaction. A nationally representative sample of 2000 adults read a series of vignettes about issues faced by disabled people (e.g. employment, relationships). Vignettes varied by presence and type of disability and the disabled person's gender. Judgements about how a disabled person was treated showed clear evidence of ableism towards some conditions (e.g. autism) but not others (e.g. a spine disorder). Judgements about the actions of a disabled person were more nuanced. A disability-gender intersectionality effect was observed for judgements about romantic relationships, with physically disabled women penalized compared to men but no gender difference was observed for intellectual disability. No intersectionality or ableism was observed on a vignette about refusing poorly paid work. We find clear evidence that ableism manifests differently depending on the nature of the individual's disability, their gender and the social context, questioning previous conceptualizations of ableism as a general attitude.

Does subjective social status affect pain thresholds? - an experimental examination

Past research regarding the relationship between different constructs of social status and different aspects of pain has yielded divergent results. So far, there are few experimental studies to investigate the causal relationship between social status and pain. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the effect of perceived social status on pain thresholds by experimentally manipulating participants' subjective social status (SSS). 51 female undergraduates were randomly assigned to a low- or high-status condition. Participants' perceived social standing was temporarily elevated (high SSS condition) or reduced (low SSS condition). Before and after experimental manipulation participants' pressure pain thresholds were assessed. The manipulation check confirmed that participants in the low-status condition reported significantly lower SSS than participants in the high-status condition. A linear mixed model revealed a significant group x time interaction for pain thresholds: Whereas participants' pain thresholds in the low SSS condition increased post manipulation, pain thresholds of participants in the high SSS condition decreased post manipulation (β = 0.22; 95% CI, 0.002 to 0.432; p < .05). Findings suggest that SSS may have a causal effect on pain thresholds. This effect could either be due to a change in pain perception or a change in pain expression. Future research is needed to determine the mediating factors.

Cultural influences on the effects of social norm appeals

This study reports on an experimental test of the effects of descriptive and injunctive norm appeals on intentions to prevent food waste in China and the United States (N = 1449), testing the role of cultural context and group orientation in this process. Results showed that the main effects of descriptive and injunctive norm messages on behavioural intentions were mediated by normative perceptions, and cultural context moderated both paths of this mediation. Specifically, with the same message exposure, Chinese participants perceived food waste prevention as more prevalent and socially approved compared to US participants. Normative perceptions interacted with cultural context to influence behavioural intentions, such that both descriptive and injunctive norm perceptions predicted stronger intentions to prevent food waste among Chinese participants compared to Americans. Group orientation yielded a main effect on behavioural intentions, instead of the moderation effects as expected. Findings suggest the need for culturally grounded and contextualized approaches to communication of social norms, as well as building cultural concepts into theories of social norms. This article is part of the theme issue 'Social norm change: drivers and consequences'.

The impact of coercive and assertive communication styles on children's perception of chores: an experimental investigation

Introduction

This article presents the findings of an experimental study aimed at investigating the impact of coercive and assertive communication on children's emotional responses and behavioral tendencies within parent-child interactions.

Methods

The study tested four hypotheses related to children's feelings, personalization bias, the need to express their point of view, and the desire to retreat to their room alone. Short audio stimuli recorded by a female assistant, representing a mother addressing her child, were utilized to create five different communication situations. The experimental procedure involved participants listening to the audio stimuli and answering related questions. The study included 123 participants between the ages of 9 and 13, with an equal gender distribution.

Results

The results of One-Way ANOVA tests indicated significant differences among the four types of communication in terms of unpleasant feelings, personalization bias, listening to a personal point of view, and retreating into a personal room. The findings suggest that coercive communication elicited more negative emotional responses and stronger tendencies toward personalization bias, expressing personal opinions, and seeking solitude compared to assertive communication.

Discussion

The implications of these findings highlight the importance of promoting positive and respectful communication strategies in parent-child relationships to foster children's emotional well-being and healthy behavioral development.

Machine Learning Backpropagation Prediction and Analysis of the Thermal Degradation of Poly (Vinyl Alcohol)

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is crucial for describing polymer materials' thermal behavior as a result of temperature changes. While available TGA data substantiated in the literature significantly focus attention on TGA performed at higher heating rates, this study focuses on the machine learning backpropagation analysis of the thermal degradation of poly (vinyl alcohol), or PVA, at low heating rates, typically 2, 5 and 10 K/min, at temperatures between 25 and 600 °C. Initial TGA analysis showed that a consistent increase in heating rate resulted in an increase in degradation temperature as the resulting thermograms shifted toward a temperature maxima. At degradation temperatures between 205 and 405 °C, significant depths in the characterization of weight losses were reached, which may be attributed to the decomposition and loss of material content. Artificial neural network backpropagation of machine learning algorithms were used for developing mathematical descriptions of the percentage weight loss (output) by these PVA materials as a function of the heating rate (input 1) and degradation temperature (input 2) used in TGA analysis. For all low heating rates, modelling predictions were observably correlated with experiments with a 99.2% correlation coefficient and were used to interpolate TGA data at 3.5 and 7.5 K/min, indicating trends strongly supported by experimental TGA data as well as literature research. Thus, this approach could provide a useful tool for predicting the thermograms of PVA materials at low heating rates and contribute to the development of more advanced PVA/polymer materials for home and industrial applications.

Classifying Motorcyclist Behaviour with XGBoost Based on IMU Data

Human behaviour detection is relevant in many fields. During navigational tasks it is an indicator for environmental conditions. Therefore, monitoring people while they move along the street network provides insights on the environment. This is especially true for motorcyclists, who have to observe aspects such as road surface conditions or traffic very careful. We thus performed an experiment to check whether IMU data is sufficient to classify motorcyclist behaviour as a data source for later spatial and temporal analysis. The classification was done using XGBoost and proved successful for four out of originally five different types of behaviour. A classification accuracy of approximately 80% was achieved. Only overtake manoeuvrers were not identified reliably.

An experimental laboratory-based minority stress paradigm for alcohol research among sexual minority women: A pilot study

BACKGROUND

Sexual minority women (SMW) use alcohol at higher rates and experience greater alcohol-related harms than their heterosexual counterparts. Evidence from observational studies suggests that minority stress (i.e., stress experienced due to marginalization in society) is an important risk factor among SMW, yet there is a lack of experimental evidence to establish a direct causal role of minority stress on alcohol use in this population. We adapted the preexisting personalized guided stress induction paradigm to conduct a pilot study of how minority stress is related to stress response (assessed via subjective measures and salivary cortisol) and mechanisms of alcohol use (craving, demand, and risky decision making) in SMW.

METHODS

Using a within-subjects design (N = 8) cisgender SMW who endorsed high-risk drinking (≥1 heavy drinking episode in the past 30 days) completed three study visits: a script development session and two in-person imagery induction appointments (minority stress and neutral). Analyses examined feasibility and acceptability, stress response, and mechanisms of alcohol use.

RESULTS

The paradigm significantly increased subjective stress response (g = 1.32). Data supported the feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of the paradigm for use with SMW. While the paradigm did not significantly change scores on minority stress and alcohol outcomes measures, effect sizes for craving and minority stress outcomes were in the small-to-medium range (gs = 0.24-0.54).

CONCLUSIONS

The adapted minority stress paradigm appears to be feasible and appropriate for use with SMW to induce stress in laboratory settings. Future research can use this paradigm to understand the causal effects of minority stress on alcohol use and related outcomes.

Mental Workload Classification and Tasks Detection in Multitasking: Deep Learning Insights from EEG Study

While the term task load (TL) refers to external task demands, the amount of work, or the number of tasks to be performed, mental workload (MWL) refers to the individual's effort, mental capacity, or cognitive resources utilized while performing a task. MWL in multitasking scenarios is often closely linked with the quantity of tasks a person is handling within a given timeframe. In this study, we challenge this hypothesis from the perspective of electroencephalography (EEG) using a deep learning approach. We conducted an EEG experiment with 50 participants performing NASA Multi-Attribute Task Battery II (MATB-II) under 4 different task load levels. We designed a convolutional neural network (CNN) to help with two distinct classification tasks. In one setting, the CNN was used to classify EEG segments based on their task load level. In another setting, the same CNN architecture was trained again to detect the presence of individual MATB-II subtasks. Results show that, while the model successfully learns to detect whether a particular subtask is active in a given segment (i.e., to differentiate between different subtasks-related EEG patterns), it struggles to differentiate between the two highest levels of task load (i.e., to distinguish MWL-related EEG patterns). We speculate that the challenge comes from two factors: first, the experiment was designed in a way that these two highest levels differed only in the quantity of work within a given timeframe; and second, the participants' effective adaptation to increased task demands, as evidenced by low error rates. Consequently, this indicates that under such conditions in multitasking, EEG may not reflect distinct enough patterns to differentiate higher levels of task load.

Effect of Resin-Missing Defects on Tensile Behavior of Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composites

This study explores the impact of resin-missing defects on the mechanical properties of composite laminates through experimental and finite element methods. Specimens with varying defect contents (5.3%, 8.0%, 10.7%, 13.3%, and 16.7%) were prepared via Vacuum Assistant Resin Infusion process. Experimental tests were conducted with the assistance of Digital Image Correlation measurements to illustrate the impact of resin-missing defects on failure characteristics. The experimental results indicate that the existence of resin-missing defects altered the stress distribution, increased the local stress, and reduced the tensile strength of the composite laminate. The DIC results indicate that the presence of defects weakens the matrix, leading to premature damage and deterioration. Numerical modeling with a progressive damage analysis method was developed to simulate the failure process and the influence of the resin-missing defects. The simulation results agree well with the experimental results, and the maximum error was 3.06%. The failure modes obtained from finite elements are consistent with the experimental and DIC results. Furthermore, a study was conducted on how the location of resin-missing defects affects the mechanical properties of composite laminates. The findings suggest that defects situated at the edges or on the surface of the material have a more significant impact on the tensile strength.

Experimental and Theoretical Studies on the Shear Performance of Concrete Beams Reinforced with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Stirrups

In this paper, the shear behavior of concrete beams reinforced with FRP stirrups is studied. The shear performances of six concrete beams with a size of 150 mm × 300 mm × 3000 mm under four-point loading up to failure were experimentally analyzed. The critical parameters included the shear span to depth ratio (λ) and stirrup spacing (S). The test results revealed that as λ increased from 1 to 2, 3, and 4, the ultimate shear capacity of the beam decreases by 50.5%, 67.7%, and 69.2%, respectively. Meanwhile, as S increased from 100 mm to 150 mm and 200 mm, the ultimate shear capacity decreased by 16.1% and 44.6%, respectively. A new shear capacity calculation model of concrete beam reinforced with FRP stirrups was also proposed, which further considered the shear capacity of the FRP stirrups on the basis of the shear capacity of an RC beam without stirrups using the strut-and-tie model. Finally, the experiment and calculation results of 56 beam specimens reinforced with FRP stirrups extracted from this paper and previous studies were compared using the calculation models proposed in this paper, in order to evaluate the accuracy of these calculation models.

Americans do not select their doctors based on race

To what extent do Americans racially discriminate against doctors? While a large literature shows that racial biases pervade the American healthcare system, there has been no systematic examination of these biases in terms of who patients select for medical treatment. We examine this question in the context of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, where a wealth of qualitative evidence suggests that discrimination against some historically marginalized communities, particularly Asians, has increased throughout the United States. Conducting a well-powered conjoint experiment with a national sample of 1,498 Americans, we find that respondents do not, on average, discriminate against Asian or doctors from other systematically minoritized groups. We also find no consistent evidence of treatment effect heterogeneity; Americans of all types appear not to care about the racial identity of their doctor, at least in our study. This finding has important implications for the potential limits of American prejudice.

The Live Attenuated Vaccine Strain "ARRIAH" Completely Protects Goats from a Virulent Lineage IV Field Strain of Peste Des Petits Ruminants Virus

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a transboundary viral disease that affects small ruminants, such as goats and sheep, in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, causing substantial damage to livelihoods and disrupting livestock trade. Although Russia is PPR virus (PPRV)-free, controlling PPRV in neighboring countries is the top national priority. Recent PPR outbreaks in Mongolia and other countries in the Middle East caused by a lineage IV virus represent a risk of transboundary emergence in neighboring countries, including China, Kazakhstan, and Russia. In the present study, we assessed the potency and safety of the ARRIAH live attenuated PPRV vaccine (lineage II) in Zaannen and Nubian goat breeds by challenging them with a virulent lineage IV Mongolia/2021 isolate. For comparison, two commercial vaccines of Nigeria75/1 strain were used. The ARRIAH-vaccinated animals showed an increase in body temperature of 1-1.5 °C above the physiological norm, similar to the animals vaccinated with Nigeria75/1 vaccines. In all vaccinated groups, the average rectal temperature never exceeded 39.4-39.7 °C throughout the infection period, and no clinical signs of the disease were observed, demonstrating vaccine efficacy and safety in the current experimental setting. However, the control group (mock vaccinated) challenged with Mongolia/2021 PPRV exhibited moderate-to-severe clinical signs. Overall, the findings of the present study demonstrate that the ARRIAH vaccine strain has a promising protective phenotype compared with Nigeria75/1 vaccines, suggesting its potential as an effective alternative for curbing and controlling PPR in affected countries. Although the ARRIAH vaccine against PPR is not currently endorsed by the World Organization for Animal Health due to its incomplete safety and potency profile, this study is the first step to provide experimentally validated data on the ARRIAH vaccine.

Cli-fi videos can increase charitable donations: experimental evidence from the United Kingdom

Recent research has begun to investigate if climate fiction, or cli-fi, can increase people's support for pro-climate initiatives. Emerging evidence focuses on whether cli-fi stories affect people's self-reported emotions, attitudes, and intentions. Few studies, however, examine the effect of such stories on revealed behavior, and whether the cli-fi story medium, i.e., whether stories are presented in text, audio, or audio-visual format, matters. We investigate the causal effect of cli-fi stories, and the medium through which they are communicated (textual, audio, or audio-visual) on self-reported support for climate policy, individual and collective action intentions, and a revealed measure of charitable donations. In a pre-registered online experiment (n = 1,085 UK adults), participants were randomly assigned to one of 5 conditions - to read scientific information about climate change (scientific information condition), read a story unrelated to the environment (control), read a cli-fi story in which a protagonist took intentional pro-environmental actions (fiction text), listen to the same cli-fi story in audio format (fiction audio), or watch an animation of the cli-fi story (fiction video). When comparing the fiction-text, fact-text, and control conditions, we found that cli-fi stories are not always more effective than alternative climate communications: participants in the fact-text condition reported higher support for climate policies, and intentions of taking individual environmental actions, and negative feelings of sadness, disappointment, and guilt, compared to the text-based control and cli-fi text condition. When comparing the cli-fi media format, we found that cli-fi videos were most effective in increasing pro-environmental charitable donations in an incentivized choice task, and self-reported feelings of happiness, hope, and inspiration. The findings show that scientific information about the climate and climate-fiction have an important place in the climate communications toolkit and can offer distinct pathways to enhance support for policy and behavioral change. Communicators seeking to inspire individual pro-environmental actions can consider telling cli-fi stories in video, which may be more compelling. And communicators seeking to enhance public support for societal changes, via climate policies, may benefit from disseminating scientific information about climate change.

A quantitative model for spatio-temporal dynamics of root gravitropism

Plant organs adapt their morphology according to environmental signals through growth-driven processes called tropisms. While much effort has been directed towards the development of mathematical models describing the tropic dynamics of aerial organs, these cannot provide a good description of roots due to intrinsic physiological differences. Here we present a mathematical model informed by gravitropic experiments on Arabidopsis thaliana roots, assuming a subapical growth profile and apical sensing. The model quantitatively recovers the full spatio-temporal dynamics observed in experiments. An analytical solution of the model enables us to evaluate the gravitropic and proprioceptive sensitivities of roots, while also allowing us to corroborate the requirement for proprioception in describing root dynamics. Lastly, we find that the dynamics are analogous to a damped harmonic oscillator, providing intuition regarding the source of the observed oscillatory behavior and the importance of proprioception for efficient gravitropic control. In all, the model provides not only a quantitative description of root tropic dynamics, but also a mathematical framework for the future investigation of roots in complex media.

[Serum ghrelin changes after bariatric surgery]

OBJECTIVE

To study the effect of bariatric surgery on serum ghrelin in patients with morbid obesity.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We experimentally analyzed serum ghrelin in 96 rats. Of these, 84 rats underwent sleeve gastrectomy, and 12 rats comprised the control group (no surgery). We measured body weight and serum ghrelin using ELISA method after 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 30 days after surgery. Serum ghrelin was studied before and after bariatric surgery in 23 patients with morbid obesity.

RESULTS

Baseline serum ghrelin was lower in larger rats and obese patients compared to normal body weight. We found no decrease in serum ghrelin after resection of fundal ghrelin-releasing part of the stomach.

CONCLUSION

Stomach volume changes after restrictive bariatric surgery (sleeve resection or gastroplication) are accompanied by mild increase in serum ghrelin. This increment is greater after more significant body weight loss after surgery. Similar researches will help to find new treatment strategies for pathological obesity.

Transforming undergraduate laboratory courses with interlinked real-world challenges

Undergraduate laboratory course components often provide training in various techniques without connections to an interlinked real-world scenario. This article emphasizes the benefits of longitudinal integration of research techniques to enhance learning and emphasize societal relevance. An example of a biomedical engineering challenge involving a new pandemic is described.

Framing of national HPV vaccine recommendations and willingness to recommend at ages 9-10

Proactive HPV vaccination at age 9 better prevents infection and improves vaccine series completion. Because national organizations recommend starting the vaccine at different ages, we sought to understand the impact of these recommendation frames. In 2022, we surveyed 2,527 US clinical staff (45% physicians) who provide HPV vaccine for children. We randomized respondents to one of three frames based on HPV vaccine recommendations of national organizations or a no-recommendation control, and assessed willingness to recommend HPV vaccine for children ages 9-10. Respondents also reported perceived benefits of HPV vaccination at ages 9 or 12. Recommending HPV vaccination "at ages 11-12" led to lower willingness to vaccinate at ages 9-10 than control (37% vs. 54%, p < .05). Recommending vaccination "at ages 9-12" led to similar willingness as control. However, "starting at age 9" led to higher willingness than control (63% vs. 54%, p < .05). Results were similar across respondents' training, specialty, or years in practice, or their clinic's rurality or healthcare system membership. More common benefits of recommending at age 9 than 12 were avoiding the topic of sex (24% vs. 10%, OR = 2.78, 95%CI: 2.23, 3.48) and completing the vaccine series before age 13 (56% vs. 47%, OR = 1.44, 95%CI: 1.23, 1.68). Less common benefits for age 9 were having parents ready to talk about HPV vaccine and agreeing to vaccination (both p < .05). An effective way to encourage proactive HPV vaccination is to say that it starts at age 9. Aligning national recommendations to start at age 9 can promote timely vaccination.

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Stress-Strain Characteristics in DP 600 and TRIP 400/700 Steel Sheets

The body constitutes the largest proportion of the total vehicle weight. Recently, increasing efforts have been made towards reducing its weight and improving its crashworthiness. By reducing its weight, fuel consumption will be reduced, and this will also translate into lower CO2 emissions. In terms of safety, vehicle body components use high strength steel which can absorb a substantial amount of impact energy. The present study pays attention to DP 600 and TRIP 400/700 stress-strain characteristics at quasi-static strain rates. The stress-strain characteristics of absorption capacity, stiffness, and deformation resistance force were investigated experimentally by tensile tests, three-point bending tests, and numerical simulations. The results indicate the potential for increasing the absorption capacity, stiffness, and deformation resistance force of the vehicle body's deformable steel components. The present study verified the possibility of replacing physical testing with numerical simulation. A reasonably satisfactory agreement between the experimentally determined stress-strain characteristics and the numerical simulation was achieved, which can reduce the development time of deformable vehicle body components, reduce costs and optimize the selection of materials. The results extend the state of knowledge on the deformation characteristics of high-strength materials and contribute to the optimization of body components in terms of passive safety and weight.

Experimentally testing animal responses to prescribed fire size and severity

Deserts are often highly biodiverse and provide important habitats for many threatened species. Fire is a dominant disturbance in deserts, and prescribed burning is increasingly being used by conservation managers and Indigenous peoples to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change, invasive plants, and land-use change. The size, severity, and patchiness of fires can affect how animals respond to fire. However, there are almost no studies examining such burn characteristics in desert environments, which precludes the use of such information in conservation planning. Using a before-after control-impact approach with 20 sampling sites, we studied the outcomes of 10 prescribed burns of varying size (5-267 ha), severity, and patchiness to identify which variables best predicted changes in small mammal and reptile species richness and abundance. Three of the 13 species showed a clear response to fire. Captures increased for 2 species (1 mammal, 1 reptile) and decreased for 1 species (a reptile) as the proportional area burned around traps increased. Two other mammal species showed weaker positive responses to fire. Total burn size and burn patchiness were not influential predictors for any species. Changes in capture rates occurred only at sites with the largest and most severe burns. No fire-related changes in capture rates were observed where fires were small and very patchy. Our results suggest that there may be thresholds of fire size or fire severity that trigger responses to fire, which has consequences for management programs underpinned by the patch mosaic burning paradigm. The prescribed burns we studied, which are typical in scale and intensity across many desert regions, facilitated the presence of some taxa and are unlikely to have widespread or persistent negative impacts on small mammal or reptile communities in this ecosystem provided that long unburned habitat harboring threatened species is protected.

[Architecture as experience, living differently with the philosophy of John Dewey]

If architecture can be considered an art form, it is at the cost of reconfiguring what we consider to be an aesthetic experience. Thus conceived as processes, not finished objects, refuting the separation between the active creator and the passive spectator and between ideas, actions and affects, the architectural projects accompanied and documented by the urban and architectural experiments laboratory la Preuve par 7 engage a collective, experimental, sensitive and political understanding of their discipline.

Brief report: noise reduction in preschool from a self-regulated learning perspective-implementation of a game-based voice regulation training program

An 8-week voice regulation training program (VRTP) incorporating everyday activities was implemented in an experimental preschool classroom (EG; n = 34), which was compared with a control preschool classroom (CG; n = 31). The VRTP includes songs, games, and conversations aiming to raise children's awareness of noise levels and teach voice modulation skills. Grounded in the theoretical framework of self-regulated learning, the study's objectives were to evaluate the impact of the VRTP on noise levels, children's self-regulation, and pre-literacy skills. Noise levels were assessed weekly using an electronic noise meter before and during the program. The EG preschoolers demonstrated modest but significant improvements over their pre-VRTP levels of voice modulation, behavioral and emotional self-regulated learning, and pre-literacy skills, in contrast with the CG children. The findings provide evidence that young children's self-regulation may be enhanced in preschool, challenging the field of developmental-educational psychology to consider self-regulated learning during early childhood.

Indentation and Detachment in Adhesive Contacts between Soft Elastomer and Rigid Indenter at Simultaneous Motion in Normal and Tangential Direction: Experiments and Simulations

In reported experiments, a steel indenter was pressed into a soft elastomer layer under varying inclination angles and subsequently was detached under various inclination angles too. The processes of indentation and detachment were recorded with a video camera, and the time dependences of the normal and tangential components of the contact force and the contact area, as well as the average contact pressure and average tangential stresses, were measured as functions of the inclination angle. Based on experimental results, a simple theoretical model of the indentation process is proposed, in which tangential and normal contacts are considered independently. Both experimental and theoretical results show that at small indentation angles (when the direction of motion is close to tangential), a mode with elastomer slippage relative to the indenter is observed, which leads to complex dynamic processes-the rearrangement of the contact boundary and the propagation of elastic waves (similar to Schallamach waves). If the angle is close to the normal angle, there is no slipping in the contact plane during the entire indentation (detachment) phase.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Pile Foundation Underpinning Structure System in Urban Overpass

In view of the complexity of the pile foundation underpinning structure system and the stringent requirements of the construction process, this paper briefly describes the necessity of introducing epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive of planting rebar in the design of pile foundation underpinning beam structure to improve the mechanical properties of the reinforced beam new and old concrete joint surfaces and proposes a new type of pile foundation replacement beam system construction method by "chiseling + prestressed reinforcement + epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive". This paper uses an actual pile foundation underpinning project of an urban overpass as a prototype, designs and creates a model structure with a similarity ratio of 1/6, and performs repeated progressive static loading tests to study the load carrying capacity, displacement change, and other properties of the strengthened replacement structure, as well as analyses and distorts the overall working performance and failure mode of them. On this basis, the prototype structure's finite element analysis model was built, and the finite element analysis results were compared with the test results to obtain the mechanical properties and deformation characters of the actual pile foundation underpinning structure system corresponding to the actual underpinning beam load. This paper's study can lay the theoretical and experimental foundation for the smooth development of similar projects.

The Impact of Physician-Patient Gender Match on Healthcare Quality: An Experiment in China

Despite growing evidence of gender disparities in healthcare utilization and health outcomes, there is a lack of understanding of what may drive such differences. Designing and implementing an experiment using the standardized patients' approach, we present novel evidence on the impact of physician-patient gender match on healthcare quality in a primary care setting in China. We find that, compared with female physicians treating female patients, the combination of female physicians treating male patients resulted in a 23.0 percentage-point increase in correct diagnosis and a 19.4 percentage-point increase in correct drug prescriptions. Despite these substantial gains in healthcare quality, there was no significant increase in medical costs and time investment. Our analyses suggest that the gains in healthcare quality were mainly attributed to better physician-patient communications, but not the presence of more clinical information. This paper has policy implications in that improving patient centeredness and incentivizing physicians' efforts in consultation (as opposed to treatment) can lead to significant gains in the quality of healthcare with modest costs, while reducing gender differences in care.

Hematotoxicity Induced by Copper Oxide Nanoparticles and the Attenuating Role of Giloy In Vivo

Background In line with the growing industrial applications of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuONPs) in various fields, concerns about their potentially harmful consequences on the environment, human, and animal health are increasing. Giloy is considered an alternative medicine to treat various ailments. Giloy's potential in helping manage diabetes, alleviating arthritis and joint pain, and addressing skin disorders such as eczema and acne underscores its multifaceted role in traditional medicine. Moreover, it is deemed beneficial for reducing stress and anxiety levels, promoting liver health, and potentially impacting heart health by regulating cholesterol levels. Emerging research also explores its potential in cancer prevention. This study aimed to evaluate the hematotoxicity of CuONPs and the alleviating effect of giloy in adult rats. Materials and methods In this experiment, 28 laboratory rats were used, set to four groups (7/group), as follows: control group without any dose; CuONPs group administered copper oxide nanoparticles at 300 mg/kg/day; CuONPs + giloy group dosed with CuONPs at 300 mg/kg/day plus giloy at 100 mg/kg/day; giloy group treated only with giloy at 100 mg/kg/day. All treatments were given by gastric gavage and continued for 28 uninterrupted days. Results Dosing animals with CuONPs led to significant adverse changes in the examined blood profile. In contrast, when the animals were coadministered with giloy, restoring the disturbed blood levels was observed. Conclusion Copper oxide nanoparticles at a high dose had notable hematotoxicity in laboratory rats and, supplemented with giloy, could reduce this hematological toxicity.

Perspective-taking with affected others to promote climate change mitigation

Prior evidence suggests that perspective-taking may promote pro-environmental behavior, at least for low-cost behaviors or local environmental problems. Climate change, however, requires costly mitigation efforts and is a global problem. Thus, in this study, we examine whether perspective-taking in the context of climate change is effective in promoting mitigation behaviors, including actual and/or costly behaviors, the mechanisms through which perspective-taking works, and if the distance to the person adversely affected by climate change matters for the effect. We conducted an online experiment with a non-student sample from Germany (n = 557), utilizing a 2 × 2 factorial design, to investigate the impact of perspective-taking and distance on three outcome measures: a climate donation, signing a petition, and approval of mitigation policies. We find that perspective-taking does not promote these mitigation behaviors, yet it raises the degree perspective-takers value and - for close others - feel connected with the affected person. Exploratory analysis shows that dispositional perspective-taking and empathic concern are correlated with mitigation behaviors.

Experimental and Numerical Study on Impact Behavior of Hourglass Lattice Sandwich Structures with Gradients

The impact mechanical properties of graded hourglass lattice sandwich structures under impact compression were studied using experiments and numerical simulations. The influence of the gradient distribution on the deformation mode, peak load, and energy absorption capacity of the hourglass lattice sandwich structure under the same impact energy level, different impact masses, and different impact velocities is discussed. The results show that the difference in impact mass and velocity has a significant effect on the impact mechanical properties of the graded hourglass lattice sandwich structure under the same impact energy level. The gradient distribution mode is a factor that requires careful consideration in the design. A reasonable gradient distribution design can control the initial and compression peak loads to achieve similarly low values and improve the load consistency of the hourglass lattice sandwich structure. The total energy absorption of the hourglass lattice sandwich structures with different gradient distributions is the same; however, the energy absorption capacity is different at different deformation stages. When the moving distance is 0.005 m, the gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures with the mass decline distribution can absorb 1 kJ/kg more energy than the gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures with the mass increment distribution. When the moving distance is 0.037 m, the mass decline distribution gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures absorb 1 kJ/kg less energy than the mass increment distribution gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures.

Experimental Investigation of a Plate-Frame Water Gap Membrane Distillation System for Seawater Desalination

This study presented a detailed investigation into the performance of a plate-frame water gap membrane distillation (WGMD) system for the desalination of untreated real seawater. One approach to improving the performance of WGMD is through the proper selection of cooling plate material, which plays a vital role in enhancing the gap vapor condensation process. Hence, the influence of different cooling plate materials was examined and discussed. Furthermore, two different hydrophobic micro-porous polymeric membranes of similar mean pore sizes were utilized in the study. The influence of key operating parameters, including the feed water temperature and flow rate, was examined against the system vapor flux and gained output ratio (GOR). In addition, the used membranes were characterized by means of different techniques in terms of surface morphology, liquid entry pressure, water contact angle, pore size distribution, and porosity. Findings revealed that, at all conditions, the PTFE membrane exhibits superior vapor flux and energy efficiency (GOR), with 9.36% to 14.36% higher flux at a 0.6 to 1.2 L/min feed flow rate when compared to the PVDF membrane. The copper plate, which has the highest thermal conductivity, attained the highest vapor flux, while the acrylic plate, which has an extra-low thermal conductivity, recorded the lowest vapor flux. The increasing order of GOR values for different cooling plates is acrylic < HDPE < copper < aluminum < brass < stainless steel. Results also indicated that increasing the feed temperature increases the vapor flux almost exponentially to a maximum flux value of 30.36 kg/m2hr. The system GOR also improves in a decreasing pattern to a maximum value of 0.4049. Moreover, a long-term test showed that the PTFE membrane, which exhibits superior hydrophobicity, registered better salt rejection stability. The use of copper as a cooling plate material for better system performance is recommended, while cooling plate materials with very low thermal conductivities, such as a low thermally conducting polymer, are discouraged.

The effects of green space on college students' mood

Objective: Less attention has been given to how green space can impact college students' moods. This study aimed to examine whether university students exposed to outdoor and indoor green space-natural and artificial would experience a change in moods compared to students not exposed to green space. Method: Seventy-nine participants were randomly assigned to four different conditions: office without greenery, office with posters of nature, office with green plants, and outside in a garden. The Brunel Mood Scale was used to assess participants' moods before and after spending time in their assigned setting. Results: Results indicated that all participants experienced a decline in tension and fatigue regardless of their assigned setting, yet the decline was less pronounced among participants in the office without greenery. Conclusion: Study findings highlight indoor green space is also conducive to positive moods. Thus, in addition to protecting outside greenery, universities may invest in indoor greenery (e.g., indoor plants, posters/artwork featuring nature) that can be placed in classrooms, libraries, dormitories, and other spaces frequented by students.

Mining knowledge: Nineteenth-century Cornish electrical science and the controversies of clay

Michael Faraday's laboratory experiments have dominated traditional histories of the electrical sciences in 1820s and 1830s Britain. However, as this article demonstrates, in the mining region of Cornwall, Robert Were Fox fashioned a very different approach to the study of electromagnetic phenomena. Here, it was the mine that provided the foremost site of scientific experimentation, with Fox employing these underground locations to measure the Earth's heat and make claims over the existence of subterranean electrical currents. Yet securing philosophical claims cultivated in mines proved challenging for Fox, with metropolitan audiences, including Faraday, loath to give credit to the results of these underground experiments. This article explores how Fox developed a way of modeling his mine experiments, using clay samples, to communicate knowledge from industrial Cornwall to urban centers of elite science. It argues that the mine was an epistemologically complex venue of scientific activity, at once seeming to provide a way of examining nature directly, without recourse to laboratory contrivance, while simultaneously being a place where knowledge claims were hard to verify without access to these physically challenging locations. In exploring Fox's work, this study contributes to a growing literature of spatial investigation that takes the vertical as its unit of analysis.

Gaming disorder and stigma-related judgements of gaming individuals: An online randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The inclusion of gaming disorder (GD) in the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) has generated scholarly debate, including claims about its potential stigmatizing effects on the wider gaming population. The present study aimed to estimate the effect of addiction-based and non-addiction-based conceptualizations of problem gaming on stigma of gamers.

DESIGN

This preregistered experiment involved a 2 (health information: addiction-related or non-addiction-related) × 3 (vignette: problem, regular or casual gamer) randomized, between-subjects design.

SETTING

An international sample of participants was recruited via Prolific in June and July 2021.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants were eligible (n = 1228) if they were aged 35 to 50 years, played video games for no more than 6 hours per week and did not endorse DSM-5 or ICD-11 criteria for GD.

INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR

Participants were provided with an explanation of problem gaming as related to either an addictive disorder (i.e. 'addiction' explanation) or personal choice and lifestyle factors (i.e. 'non-addiction' explanation).

MEASUREMENTS

The Attribution Questionnaire (AQ) and Universal Stigma Scale (USS) assessed stigma toward each gamer vignette. Vignettes described a problem gamer (with features of GD); a regular gamer (frequent gaming; some life interference); and a casual gamer (infrequent gaming; no life interference).

FINDINGS

Problem gamer vignettes (mean [M] = 113.3; 95% CI = 111.5-115.4) received higher AQ stigma ratings than regular (M = 94.0; 95% CI = 91.9-95.9) and casual gamers (M = 80.1; 95% CI = 78.2-82.1). Although significant, the effect of health information type on AQ stigma ratings was negligible (addiction group [M = 97.6; 95% CI = 95.9-99.1], non-addiction group [M = 94.1; 95% CI = 92.6-95.8]). However, the addiction information group scored lower on USS blame and responsibility than the non-addiction information group with at least a small effect (99.1% confidence).

CONCLUSIONS

Framing of problem gaming as an addictive disorder or non-addictive activity appears to have a negligible effect on stigma of different gamers among middle-age adults with minimal gaming experience. The concept of 'gaming addiction' seems unlikely to be an important influence on public stigma of gaming.

Waiting in crowded places: influence of number of pedestrians, waiting time and obstacles

At crowded places, like railway platforms at rush hour, the spatial distribution of waiting pedestrians has a significant influence on performance and level of comfort. However, the choice of waiting places and the resulting spatial distribution of the crowd have rarely been studied. This study investigates the effects of obstacles, number of passengers and waiting time on the distribution of waiting passengers. Laboratory experiments were performed using a mock-up platform with three set-ups: without obstacles, with a narrow and a wide obstacle. Density profiles determine preferred waiting places. While the space usage by waiting passengers is inhomogeneous, the distances between the individuals show surprisingly small variations, regardless of obstacles and number of passengers. This suggests a robust collective optimization of the crowd when searching for waiting positions. In doing so, and without necessity, the participants chose distances to each other extending into the personal zone specified in classical personal-space-concepts. These results indicate necessary refinements of the concept by considering context and collective behaviour. The findings are transformed into floor-fields modelling the space usage by a superposition of attractive or repulsive areas which consider optimization of distances and comfort. This model does not only reproduce the waiting places at platforms but can be adapted for other use cases.

Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Surfaces: Features of Interaction with Liquid Drops

The processes of interaction of liquid droplets with solid surfaces have become of interest to many researchers. The achievements of world science should be used for the development of technologies for spray cooling, metal hardening, inkjet printing, anti-icing surfaces, fire extinguishing, fuel spraying, etc. Collisions of drops with surfaces significantly affect the conditions and characteristics of heat transfer. One of the main areas of research into the interaction of drops with solid surfaces is the modification of the latter. Changes in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties of surfaces give the materials various functional properties-increased heat transfer, resistance to corrosion and biofouling, anti-icing, etc. This review paper describes methods for obtaining hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. The features of the interaction of liquid droplets with such surfaces are considered. The existing and possible applications of modified surfaces are discussed, as well as topical areas of research.

Assessing the Effect of Nonvisual Information Factors in Pandemic-Related Video Communication: Randomized Controlled Between-Subjects Experiment

BACKGROUND

Videos have been an important medium for providing health and risk communication to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health officials, health care professionals, and policy makers have used videos to communicate pandemic-related content to large parts of the population. Evidence regarding the outcomes of such communication, along with their determinants, is however limited.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to test the impact of nonvisual information factors of video communication on 4 outcomes: trust, comprehension, intentions, and behavior.

METHODS

Twelve short health communication videos related to pandemics were produced and shown to a large sample of participants, applying a randomized controlled between-subjects design. Three factors were included in the creation of the videos: the topic (exponential growth, handwashing, and burden of pandemics on the health care system), the source (expert and nonexpert), and a call to action (present or absent). Participants were randomly assigned to 1 video intervention, and 1194 valid replies were collected. The data were analyzed using factorial ANOVA.

RESULTS

The 3 pandemic-related topics did not affect trust, comprehension, intentions, or behavior. Trust was positively influenced by an expert source (2.5%), whereas a nonexpert source instead had a positive effect on the proxy for behavior (5.7%) compared with the expert source. The inclusion of a call to action had a positive effect on both trust (4.1%) and comprehension (15%).

CONCLUSIONS

Trust and comprehension in pandemic-related video communication can be enhanced by using expert sources and by including a call to action, irrespective of the topic being communicated. Intentions and behavior appear to be affected to a small extent by the 3 factors tested in this study.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

RR2-10.2196/34275.

The price of being late: short- and long-term consequences of a delayed migration timing

Choosing the right migration timing is critical for migrants because conditions encountered en route influence movement costs, survival, and, in social migrants, the availability of social information. Depending on lifetime stages, individuals may migrate at different times due to diverging constraints, affecting the composition of migration groups. To examine the consequences of a delayed migration timing, we artificially delayed the migration of juvenile white storks (Ciconia ciconia) and thereby altered their physical and social environment. Using nearly continuous 1 Hz GPS trajectories, we examined their migration behaviour, ranging from sub-second level performance to global long-distance movement, in relation to two control groups. We found that delayed storks experienced suboptimal soaring conditions, but better wind support and thereby achieved higher flight speeds than control storks. Delayed storks had a lower mortality rate than the control storks and wintered closer to the breeding area. In fact, none of the delayed storks reached the traditional African wintering areas. Thus, our results show that juvenile storks can survive migrating at the 'wrong' time. However, this had long-term consequences on migration decisions. We suggest that, when timing their migration, storks balance not just energy and time, but also the availability of social information.

A quasi-experimental study examining the efficacy of multimodal bot screening tools and recommendations to preserve data integrity in online psychological research

Bots are automated software programs that pose an ongoing threat to psychological research by invading online research studies and their increasing sophistication over time. Despite this growing concern, research in this area has been limited to bot detection in existing data sets following an unexpected encounter with bots. The present three-condition, quasi-experimental study aimed to address this gap in the literature by examining the efficacy of three types of bot screening tools across three incentive conditions ($0, $1, and $5). Data were collected from 444 respondents via Twitter advertisements between July and September 2021. The efficacy of five task-based (i.e., anagrams, visual search), question-based (i.e., attention checks, ReCAPTCHA), and data-based (i.e., consistency, metadata) tools was examined with Bonferroni-adjusted univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. In general, study results suggest that bot screening tools function similarly for participants recruited across incentive conditions. Moreover, the present analyses revealed heterogeneity in the efficacy of bot screening tool subtypes. Notably, the present results suggest that the least effective bot screening tools were among the most commonly used tools in existing literature (e.g., ReCAPTCHA). In sum, the study findings revealed highly effective and highly ineffective bot screening tools. Study design and data integrity recommendations for researchers are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic Characteristic Analysis of a Toothed Electromagnetic Spring Based on the Improved Bouc-Wen Model

Electromagnetic spring active isolators have attracted extensive attention in recent years. The standard Bouc-Wen model is widely used to describe hysteretic behavior but cannot accurately describe asymmetric behavior. The standard Bouc-Wen model is improved to better describe the dynamic characteristic of a toothed electromagnetic spring. The hysteresis model of toothed electromagnetic spring is established by adding mass, damping, and asymmetric correction terms with direction. Subsequently, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to identify the parameters of the established model, and the results are compared with those obtained from the experiment. The results show that the current has a significant impact on the dynamic curve. When the current increases from 0.5 A to 2.0 A, the electromagnetic force sharply increases from 49 N to 534 N. Under different excitations and currents, the residual points predicted by the model proposed in this work fall basically in the horizontal band region of -20-20 N (for an applied current of 1.0 A) and -40-80 N (for an application of 4.5 mm/s). Furthermore, the maximum relative error of the model is 12.75%. The R² of the model is higher than 0.98 and the highest value is 0.9993, proving the accuracy of the established model.

Exploring the binding behaviors between nisoldipine and bovine serum albumin as a model protein by the aid of multi-spectroscopic approaches and in silico

Bovine serum albumin (BSA), a model protein was used to evaluate the binding behavior of nisoldipine and human serum albumin by a series of experiments and in silico in this article. The outcomes suggested that nisoldipine and BSA formed the nisoldipine-BSA complex with a molar ratio of 1:1, caused the fluorescence quenching of BSA, which quenching mechanism was attributable to static quenching. The binding constant of the nisoldipine-BSA complex was (1.3-3.0) × 10⁴ M^-1 at 298-310 K, indicating that nisoldipine on BSA protein had a moderate affinity. During the complexation of nisoldipine with BSA, nisoldipine can spontaneously insert into the site II (subdomain III A) of BSA and the distance of energy transfer from donor group in protein to acceptor group in nisoldipine was 3.21 nm, which led to the change in the hydrophobicity of the microenvironment surrounding Trp residues and in the secondary structure of BSA. Additionally, the findings also confirmed that the hydrogen bond and van der Waals force were responsible for forming the nisoldipine-BSA complex and the complexation process was a spontaneous exothermic process.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Do Brief Lab-Based Interventions Decrease Coercive Conflict Within Couples and Parent-Child Dyads?

Coercive conflicts between parents and children and between couples are implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of psychological and physical health problems. Despite its seeming importance to population health, there are no widely available, easy-to-use methods with demonstrated efficacy to engage coercive conflict and reduce it. Identifying and testing potentially efficacious and disseminable micro-interventions (i.e., interventions that can be delivered in under 15 minutes via computer or paraprofessional) for targets with cross-cutting health implications, such as coercive conflict, is the focus of the National Institutes of Health Science of Behavior Change initiative. We experimentally tested four micro-interventions targeting coercive conflict in couple and parent-child dyads in a within-between design. There were mixed but supportive findings for the efficacy of most of the micro-interventions. Attributional reframing, implementation intentions, and evaluative conditioning all reduced coercive conflict as assessed by some but not all measures of observed coercion. No findings indicated any iatrogenic effects. Interpretation bias modification treatment improved at least one measure of coercive conflict for couples, but not for parents and children; additionally, it increased self-reported coercive conflict. Overall, these results are encouraging and suggest that very brief and highly disseminable micro-interventions for coercive conflict are a fruitful direction for inquiry. Optimizing micro-interventions and deploying them across the health care infrastructure could tremendously enhance family functioning and, in turn, health behaviors and health (ClinicalTrials.gov IDs: NCT03163082, NCT03162822).

A laboratory-based examination of a standardized sexual assault script

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Idiographic script-driven imagery is core to both research and treatment related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including among individuals with a history of sexual assault. However, there may be benefit in having alternatives to such idiographic techniques. The current study therefore examined multimodal responding to a standardized audio-recorded narrative of a sexual assault.

DESIGN AND METHOD

In this experiment, 105 women (Mage = 19.09, SD = 2.24) were recruited from the community and randomly assigned to listen to a depiction of sexual assault (trauma condition) or a similar experience without sexual assault (control condition).

RESULTS

As hypothesized, relative to the control group, participants in the trauma condition reported greater (a) increases in anxiety, anger, and disgust from pre- to post- manipulation, and (b) distress across the duration of the recording. In contrast to hypotheses, heart-rate did not differ across groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest listening to a standardized sexual assault narrative, compared to a non-traumatic narrative, effectively increases negative affect. This indicates standardized sexual assault narratives have potential as a traumatic event cue presentation method both for trauma-focused treatment and studying reactions to sexual assault cues.

Combined simulation and experimental study on spectral absorbance of partially disordered MoSe2 nanospheres

It is important to clarify the role and possible applicability of partially disordered structures in photonics, but there is still a lack of an effective method for it. Here, we investigate partially disordered MoSe2 nanospheres experimentally regarding their morphology and absorption spectrum in broadband wavelengths and propose an optical simulation with 3D finite-difference time-domain method to explain the crucial impacts of morphological parameters on optical responses. The experimental spectral absorbance of MoSe2 nanospheres reveals a strong light-absorbing character in broadband wavelengths. The simulated spectral curves coincide with the experimental results by adjusting morphological parameters, i.e., the statistics of size and the number of layer, and the linear correlation coefficient between the simulated and experimental spectral curves is up to 0.94. The disorder plays a key role in the high light-absorption feature, and the feature originates from anti-reflection, defective state absorption, multiple light scattering and coherent diffusion effects. The results not only deepen the understanding of disordered photonics in semiconductor nanostructures, but also provide a simulation approach to optimize experimental designs.

Identification, and Experimental and Bioinformatics Validation of an Immune-Related Prognosis Gene Signature for Low-Grade Glioma Based on mRNAsi

BACKGROUND

Low-grade gliomas (LGGs), which are the second most common intracranial tumor, are diagnosed in seven out of one million people, tending to develop in younger people. Tumor stem cells and immune cells are important in the development of tumorigenesis. However, research on prognostic factors linked to the immune microenvironment and stem cells in LGG patients is limited. We critically need accurate related tools for assessing the risk of LGG patients.

METHODS

In this study, we aimed to identify immune-related genes (IRGs) in LGG based on the mRNAsi score. We employed differentially expressed gene (DEG) methods and weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA). The risk signature was then further established using a lasso Cox regression analysis and a multivariate Cox analysis. Next, we used immunohistochemical sections (HPA) and a survival analysis to identify the hub genes. A nomogram was built to assess the prognosis of patients based on their clinical information and risk scores and was validated using a DCA curve, among other methods.

RESULTS

Four hub genes were obtained: C3AR1 (HR = 0.98, p < 0.001), MSR1 (HR = 1.02, p < 0.001), SLC11A1 (HR = 1.01, p < 0.01), and IL-10 (HR = 1.01, p < 0.001). For LGG patients, we created an immune-related prognostic signature (IPS) based on mRNAsi for estimating risk scores; different risk groups showed significantly different survival rates (p = 3.3 × 10^-16). Then, via an evaluation of the IRG-related signature, we created a nomogram for predicting LGG survival probability.

CONCLUSION

The outcome suggests that, when predicting the prognosis of LGG patients, our nomogram was more effective than the IPS. In this study, four immune-related predictive biomarkers for LGG were identified and proven to be IRGs. Therefore, the development of efficient immunotherapy techniques can be facilitated by the creation of the IPS.

Investigation on the Ductility Capacity of Concrete Columns with High Strength Steel Reinforcement under Eccentric Loading

Ductility-based structural design is currently the mainstream method. In order to analyze the ductility performance of concrete columns with high-strength steel reinforcements under eccentric compression, corresponding experimental studies have been performed. Numerical models were established, and their reliability was verified. Based on the numerical models, the parameter analysis was carried out, where eccentricity, concrete strength, and reinforcement ratio were considered to systematically discuss the ductility of the concrete column section with high-strength steel reinforcement. The results show that the ductility of the section under eccentric compression increases with the strength of the concrete and eccentricity, and decreases with the reinforcement ratio. Finally, a simplified calculation formula capable of quantitatively evaluating the section ductility was proposed.

How does the vaccine approval procedure affect COVID-19 vaccination intentions?

People's willingness to vaccinate is critical to combating the COVID-19 pandemic. We devise a representative experiment to study how the design of the vaccine approval procedure affects trust in newly developed vaccines and consequently public attitudes towards vaccination. Compared to an Emergency Use Authorization, choosing the more thorough Conditional Marketing Authorization approval procedure increases vaccination intentions by 13 percentage points. The effects of the increased duration of the approval procedure are positive and significant only for Emergency Use Authorization. Treatment effects do not differ between relevant subgroups, such as respondents who had (did not have) COVID-19, or between vaccinated and unvaccinated respondents. Increased trust in the vaccine is the key mediator of treatment effects on vaccination intentions.

Modeling Elastomer Compression: Exploring Ten Constitutive Equations

This paper presents the results of research aimed at assessing the effectiveness of ten selected constitutive equations for hyperelastic bodies in numerical modeling of the first compression load cycle of a polyurethane elastomer with a hardness of 90 Sh A depending on the methodology for determining the material constants in the constitutive equations. An analysis was carried out for four variants for determining the constants in the constitutive equations. In three variants, the material constants were determined on the basis of a single material test, i.e., the most popular and available in engineering practice, the uniaxial tensile test (variant I), the biaxial tensile test (variant II) and the tensile test in a plane strain (variant III). In variant IV, the constants in the constitutive equations were determined on the basis of all three above material tests. The accuracy of the obtained results was verified experimentally. It has been shown that, in the case of variant I, the modeling results depend to the greatest extent on the type of constitutive equation used. Therefore, in this case it is very important to choose the right equation. Taking into account all the investigated constitutive equations, the second variant for determining the material constants turned out to be the most advantageous.