© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.This paper develops a method for nonlinear regression models estimation that is robust to heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation of errors. Using nonlinear least squares estimation, four popular growth models (Exponential, Gompertz, Verhulst, and Weibull) were computed. Some assumptions on the errors of these models (independence, normality, and homoscedasticity) being violated, the estimates are improved by modeling the residuals using the ETS method. For an application purpose, this approach has been used to predict the daily cumulative number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Africa for the study period, from March 13, 2020, to June 26, 2021. The comparison of the proposed model to the competitors was done using statistical metrics such as MAPE, MAE, RMSE, AIC, BIC, and AICc. The findings revealed that the modified Gompertz model is the most accurate in forecasting the total number of COVID-19 cases in Africa. Moreover, the developed approach will be useful for researchers and policymakers for predicting purpose and for better decision making in different fields of its applications.
Sensory Substitution is a biofeedback intervention whereby at least sensory system is utilised to supplement environmental information which is traditionally gathered by another sense.
To present an evidence-based overview of the feasibility and effectiveness of wearable Sensory Substitution devices on gait outcomes in orthopaedic patient populations.
This Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis was reported according to the PRISMA 2020 statement. PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Web of science and PEDro were searched for relevant published literature. Inclusion criteria limited the search strictly to patients diagnosed with an orthopaedic condition and who were randomly grouped to a Sensory Substitution intervention or conventional therapy/training or an equivalent placebo intervention.
Nine Randomised Controlled Trials and three Crossover Trials investigating the effectiveness of Sensory Substitution supplemented gait training were identified and included participants with a variety of orthopaedic conditiole sizes and large age-ranges. No financial support was provided for this study.
For orthopaedic patient populations to improve gait speed, weight-bearing control, functionality, pain and self-report measures, the authors recommend a Sensory Substitution supplemented gait training programme with negative biofeedback on performance. The intervention should be undertaken for 20 min per day, 3 days per week for 5 weeks. The intervention should coincide with structured analgesia administration to facilitate effective pain management. Limitations of the data included some low sample sizes and large age-ranges. No financial support was provided for this study.The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of social class and lifestyle on the consumption of organic foods in South Korea. Consumer behavior regarding organic foods is influenced by lifestyle, as well as income-level and education. This study provides a new perspective on the socio-economic structure of organic food consumption patterns in urban areas by extracting information from big data. The organic food consumption patterns are then analyzed through visualization of the geographical distribution of organic food stores. In addition, this study estimates the effects of social class and lifestyle variables on the consumption of organic foods based on survey data. This study finds that social class characteristics are factors that influence the consumption of organic foods. However, individual lifestyle plays a more important role in actual buying behavior.
This study aims to explain the interaction of perceived privacy legislation on the relationship between affective commitment and whistle-blowing. Additionally, it seeks to determine the consequences of whistle-blowing on employee careers moderated by perceived supervisor support in government organizations.
A Moderated Regression Analysis was used to analyze survey data from 411 local government employees in West Java, Indonesia.
The result found a positive relationship between affective commitment and whistle-blowing. Perceived privacy legislation also had a significant moderating effect on the correlation between the two variables. Furthermore, whistle-blowing found a positive relationship with career opportunities, moderated by perceived supervisor support.
The finding may contribute to the extension of scientific literature by making privacy legislation a moderator with the potential to increase employee affective commitment to whistle-blowing behavior. It determines the relationship between whistle-blowing on employee careers opportunity moderated by perceived supervisor support. In contrast, previous studies only focused on factors influencing whistle-blowing behavior.
The finding may contribute to the extension of scientific literature by making privacy legislation a moderator with the potential to increase employee affective commitment to whistle-blowing behavior. It determines the relationship between whistle-blowing on employee careers opportunity moderated by perceived supervisor support. In contrast, previous studies only focused on factors influencing whistle-blowing behavior.The spread of e-learning as an alternative to traditional or face-to-face education has faced many problems and challenges in general and ethical and legal challenges in particular. This study aims to measure students' awareness of the safe use of technology and its tools in e-learning that is consistent with ethical and legal standards. The study attempts to reveal the degree of awareness of students of the University of Jordan about electronic crimes related to e-learning and the legal procedures and penalties related to electronic crimes in e-learning. Quantitative research methods were used. A questionnaire was established and distributed to students enrolled in the following online courses Ethics and Human Values, Communication Skills, and National Culture. Analysis of the data revealed that students had a high awareness about cybercrime due to the widespread use of the internet by students as it became an integral part of their daily lives. The degree of awareness of student about legal procedures and penalties related to electronic crimes in e-learning was medium. This indicates students' lack of awareness of the effectiveness of procedures and penalties for electronic crimes that can be applied in e-learning due to the rapid transition in the learning process at the University of Jordan from traditional learning to distance e-learning that was imposed during the Corona pandemic. Based on these findings, the study presented a set of recommendations that could be implemented to increase awareness and maximize the benefit of using e-learning.[This retracts the article DOI 10.1007/s10772-021-09878-0.].Staplers have been widely used in the clinical treatment of gastrointestinal reconstruction. However, the current titanium (Ti) staple will remain in the human body permanently, resulting in some adverse effects. In this study, we developed a type of biodegradable staple for colonic anastomosis using 0.3 mm diameter magnesium (Mg) alloy wires. The wire surface was modified by micro-arc oxidation treatment (MAO) and then coated with poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) to achieve a moderate degradation rate matching the tissue healing process. The results of tensile tests on isolated porcine colon tissue anastomosed by Mg and Ti staples showed that the anastomotic property of Mg staples was almost equal to that of Ti staples. The in vitro degradation tests indicated the dual-layer coating effectively enhanced the corrosion resistance and maintained the tensile force of the coated staple stable after 14-day immersion in the simulated colonic fluid (SCF). Furthermore, 24 beagle dogs were employed to conduct a comparison experiment using Mg-based and clinical Ti staples for 90-day implantation by ent-to-side anastomosis of the colon. The integrated structure of Mg-based staples was observed after 7 days and completely degraded after 90 days. All animals did not have anastomotic leakage and stenosis, and 12 dogs with Mg-based staples fully recovered after 90 days without differences in visceral ion levels and other side effects. The favorable performance makes this Mg-based anastomotic staple an ideal candidate for colon reconstruction.Chemodynamic therapy (CDT), a noninvasive strategy, has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional chemotherapy for treating tumors. However, its therapeutic effect is limited by the amount of H2O2, pH value, the hypoxic environment of tumors, and it has suboptimal tumor-targeting ability. 3-Aminobenzamide chemical structure In this study, tumor cell membrane-camouflaged mesoporous Fe3O4 nanoparticles loaded with perfluoropentane (PFP) and glucose oxidase (GOx) are used as a tumor microenvironment-adaptive nanoplatform (M-mFeP@O2-G), which synergistically enhances the antitumor effect of CDT. Mesoporous Fe3O4 nanoparticles are selected as inducers for photothermal and Fenton reactions and as nanocarriers. GOx depletes glucose within tumor cells for starving the cells, while producing H2O2 for subsequent ·OH generation. Moreover, PFP, which can carry O2, relieves hypoxia in tumor cells and provides O2 for the cascade reaction. Finally, the nanoparticles are camouflaged with osteosarcoma cell membranes, endowing the nanoparticles with homologous targeting and immune escape abilities. Both in vivo and in vitro evaluations reveal high synergistic therapeutic efficacy of M-mFeP@O2-G, with a desirable tumor-inhibition rate (90.50%), which indicates the great potential of this platform for clinical treating cancer.A greater reuse of steel slags would bring considerable benefits both from an environmental and economic point of view. The development of tools and strategies to monitor at different scales resources and waste flows would allow for better resource planning and a more sustainable management on territory. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyse the supply chain that deals with the management of steel slags at meso-level, in order to investigate the state of implementation of industrial symbiosis (IS), its potential and its improvement. A Mass Flow Analysis (MFA) has been implemented, through big data analysis coming from the integration of regional and provincial databases with a careful data processing from questionnaires. This integrated methodology has proved to be a valid tool to monitor the recovery and reuse, the implementation of industrial symbiosis and to plan improvement actions. This paper reports a representation of the current situation regarding the production, recovery and reuse of these materials in production processes for which they are suitable, with a view to their full exploitation, following the principles of circular economy and an analysis of the mutual exchange that occur among steelmaking plants and other business partners in a network of industrial companies. The results showed that most of the steel slags managed at meso-level (Province of Brescia, Italy) is still unfortunately destined for landfill with low percentage of them classified as by-product highlighting as the IS is not adequately applied. Of the slag destined for treatments and recovery processes, almost all of them are Electric Arc Furnace slag, which are mainly reused for hydraulically bound base layers and road sub-bases (about 85% of the total recovered) and as aggregates for the production of cement and bituminous mixes (about 15% of the total recovered). Results shows as further effort should be made in term of policies and strategies to incentivize IS and to increase the recovery.3-Aminobenzamide chemical structure
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