Performance measurement

BACKGROUND: Smallholder farmers receive educational interventions on safe pesticide handling by governmental agencies, industries, or nongovernmental organizations to reduce exposure risks. However, existing educational interventions have limited effects on changing behaviors. Targeting psychosocial determinants of behavior change in educational interventions through theory- and evidence-based approaches may enhance their effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: We aim at describing the intervention development and study design of a 3-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial to assess the effects in improving safe pesticide handling and reducing pesticide exposure of (1) an existing educational intervention and (2) a newly developed SMS text messaging intervention based on the Risks, Attitudes, Norms, Abilities, and Self-regulation (RANAS) behavior change approach...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Distal symmetric polyneuropathy (DSP) is a disabling, often painful condition associated with falls and reduced quality of life. Non-Hispanic Black people and people with low income are underrepresented in existing DSP studies; therefore, it is unknown whether data accurately reflect the prevalence, risk factors, and burden of disease in these populations. METHODS: Patients older than 40 years presenting to an outpatient internal medicine clinic predominantly serving Medicaid patients in Flint, Michigan, were enrolled in a cross-sectional study...

In order to realize the prevailing artificial intelligence technology, memristor-implemented in-memory or neuromorphic computing is highly expected to break the bottleneck of von Neumann computers. Although high-performance memristors have been vigorously developed in labs or in industry, systematic computational investigations on memristors are seldom. Hence, it is urgent to provide theoretical or computational support for the exploration of memristor operating mechanisms or the screening of memristor materials...

AIM: The primary aim of this study was to conduct an open pilot clinical trial of a brief mindfulness-based intervention for persistent postconcussion symptoms that occur after mild traumatic brain injury in military service members. For many service members, operational tempo and other time constraints may prevent them from completing a standard mindfulness-based stress reduction course. Thus, this study sought to examine the effectiveness of a five-session intervention called mindfulness-based stress, pain, emotion, and attention regulation (MSPEAR)...

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) allows for the collection of participant-reported outcomes (PROs), including pain, in the normal environment at high resolution and with reduced recall bias. Ecological momentary assessment is an important component in studies of pain, providing detailed information about the frequency, intensity, and degree of interference of individuals' pain. However, there is no universally agreed on standard for summarizing pain measures from repeated PRO assessment using EMA into a single, clinically meaningful measure of pain...

In this study, we employed dielectric spectroscopy to investigate the effect of temperature and pressure on the ion dynamics of phosphonium ionic liquids (ILs) differing by the length of an alkyl chain, [P666, n ][TFSI] ( n = 2, 6, 8, 12). We found that both temperature and pressure dependence of dc-conductivity (σdc ) determined for all examined ILs herein exhibit unique characteristics, unusual for aprotic ILs. Two regions differing by ion self-organization have been identified from the derivative analysis of σdc ( T -1 ) data...

BACKGROUND: Acne is a common disease that is associated with scarring and substantial psychosocial burden. The Global Burden of Skin Disease reported that the burden from acne as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from 188 countries and specifically that it is greatest in Western Europe, high-income North America and Southern Latin America. This paper aimed to identify risk factors for acne scarring specific to the Ecuadorian population in order to adapt the 4-ASRAT tool accordingly...

The success rate of spinal fusion surgery is mainly determined by the fixation strength of the spinal bone anchors. This study explores the use of an L-shaped spinal bone anchor that is intended to establish a macro-shape lock with the posterior cortical layer of the vertebral body, thereby increasing the pull-out resistance of the anchor. The performance of this L-shaped anchor was evaluated in lumbar vertebra phantoms (L1-L5) across four distinct perpendicular orientations (lateral, medial, superior, and inferior)...

Diabetes Mellitus is one of the oldest diseases known to humankind, dating back to ancient Egypt. The disease is a chronic metabolic disorder that heavily burdens healthcare providers worldwide due to the steady increment of patients yearly. Worryingly, diabetes affects not only the aging population but also children. It is prevalent to control this problem, as diabetes can lead to many health complications. As evolution happens, humankind starts integrating computer technology with the healthcare system. The utilization of artificial intelligence assists healthcare to be more efficient in diagnosing diabetes patients, better healthcare delivery, and more patient eccentric...

Hydroponics offers a promising approach to help alleviate pressure on food security for urban residents. It requires minimal space and uses less resources, but management can be complex. Microscale Smart Hydroponics (MSH) systems leverage IoT systems to simplify hydroponics management for home users. Previous work in nutrient management has produced systems that use expensive sensing methods or utilized lower cost methods at the expense of accuracy. This study presents a novel inexpensive nutrient management system for MSH applications that utilises a novel waterproofed, IoT spectroscopy sensor (AS7265x) in a transflective application...

In this paper, a new microstrip triplexer is designed to work at 2.5 GHz, 4.4 GHz and 6 GHz for mid-band 5G applications. All channels are flat with three low group delays (GDs) of 0.84 ns, 0.75 ns and 0.49 ns, respectively. Compared to the previously reported works, the proposed triplexer has the minimum group delay. The designed triplexer has 18.2%, 13.7%, 23.6% fractional bandwidths (FBW%) at 2.5 GHz, 4.4 GHz and 6 GHz, respectively. The obtained insertion losses (ILs) are low at all channels. These features are obtained without a noticeable increase in the overall size...

BACKGROUND: Disability is an important multifaceted construct. A brief, generic self-reported disability questionnaire that promises a broader and more comparable measure of disability than disease-specific instruments does not currently exist. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate such a questionnaire: the Universal Disability Index (UDI). METHODS: An online survey was used to collect general population data. Data were randomly divided into training and validation subsets...

Currently, adeno-associated virus (AAV) is one of the primary gene delivery vectors in gene therapy, facilitating long-term in vivo gene expression. Despite being imperative, it is incredibly challenging to precisely assess AAV particle distribution according to the sedimentation coefficient and identify impurities related to capsid structures. This study performed the systematic methodological validation of quantifying the AAV empty and full capsid ratio. This includes specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, and parameter variables involving the sedimentation velocity analytical ultracentrifugation (SV-AUC) method...

BACKGROUND: Long-term management of intermediate- and high-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) involves thyrotropin (TSH) suppression with thyroid hormone to prevent potential stimulation of TSH receptors on DTC cells, leading to tumor growth. However, the current guidelines recommending TSH suppression are based on low-to-moderate quality evidence. METHODS: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies evaluating the role of TSH suppression in intermediate- and high-risk DTC patients (≥18 years) treated as per regional guideline-based therapy with a follow-up duration of 5 years (PROSPERO #252396)...

OBJECTIVE: Past research has shown that self-reported everyday strategy use and task-specific strategy use are related to associative memory performance in aging. Understudied is the relationship between these types of strategy use, whether they predict associative memory performance, and how this may differ across genders. METHOD: A sample of older adults ( N  = 566, 53% female, ages 60-80) completed this online study. Study measures included 1. Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (MMQ) Strategy Use subscale, a self-report measure of everyday strategy use, 2...

Forward sagittal alignment affects physical performance, is associated with pain and impacts the health-related quality of life of the elderly. Interventions that help seniors to improve sagittal balance are needed to inhibit the progression of pain and disability. A motion-sensing video game (active game) is developed in this study to monitor sitting and standing postures in real-time and facilitate the postural learning process by using optical sensors to measure body movement and a video game to provide visual feedback...

BACKGROUND: Apathy, depression, and anxiety are prevalent neuropsychiatric symptoms experienced by older adults. Early detection, prevention, and intervention may improve outcomes. OBJECTIVE: We aim to demonstrate the feasibility of deploying web-based weekly questionnaires inquiring about the behavioral symptoms of older adults with normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, or early-stage dementia and to demonstrate the feasibility of deploying an in-home technology platform for measuring participant behaviors and their environment...

PURPOSE: Numerous navigation devices for percutaneous, CT-guided interventions exist and are, due to their advantages, increasingly integrated into the clinical workflow. However, effective training methods to ensure safe usage are still lacking. This study compares the potential of an augmented reality (AR) training application with conventional instructions for the Cube Navigation System (CNS), hypothesizing enhanced training with AR, leading to safer clinical usage. METHODS: An AR-tablet app was developed to train users puncturing with CNS...

Traumatic brain injury is a major cause of morbidity in civilian as well as military populations. Computational simulations of injurious events are an important tool to understanding the biomechanics of brain injury and evaluating injury criteria and safety measures. However, these computational models are highly dependent on the material parameters used to represent the brain tissue. Reported material properties of tissue from the cerebrum and cerebellum remain poorly defined at high rates and with respect to anisotropy...

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with multiple comorbidities, including diabetes. Its development is preceded by alterations in the initial phase of carbohydrate metabolism characterized by insulin resistance. This study aims to evaluate the role of intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation characteristic of OSA on the risk of insulin resistance among apneic patients without diabetes. METHODOLOGY: 92 consecutive patients with OSA without evidence of diabetes were recruited...