Robotic off-pump hybrid coronary revascularization - a niche area in need for objective data.

Hybrid coronary revascularization (HCR) consists of left internal thoracic artery (LITA) graft to the left anterior descending (LAD) artery and transcatheter revascularization of the non-LAD stenosis in specific settings to achieve complete coronary revascularization. Technique to perform the LITA to LAD graft has ranged from median sternotomy with cardiopulmonary bypass to robotically assisted totally endoscopic coronary bypass surgery using beating heart revascularization.

The Fusion of Eye Movement and Piezoelectric Sensing Technology Assists Ceramic Art Process Optimization and Mechanical Characterization

Ceramic product shape evaluation is an important part of product development, an important method to optimize product shape design, and is of great significance to reasonably locate users’ consumption psychology and promote the development of ceramic product industry. In this paper, we propose an eye-tracking-based evaluation method for ceramic products from the user’s point of view, in view of the fact that there are few studies on ceramic product shape evaluation, and it is mainly led by designers and enterprise leaders subjectively, with low user participation and lack of objective evaluation means and objective data support. In this paper, through the implementation of eye-movement experiments, we obtain and analyze the eye-movement data related to the semantic perception evaluation of product modeling and the overall evaluation of modeling, establish the mapping relationship between user evaluation and eye-movement data, and provide objective data support for modeling evaluation. This paper provides an objective data support for the styling evaluation. This paper provides new ideas for the ceramic product modeling evaluation method, which helps to promote the development of ceramic product industry, improve the brand recognition of enterprises, and help the marketing personnel to make reasonable marketing planning plans. For the semantic perceptual evaluation of ceramic product styling based on eye-tracking, the effectiveness of product styling design concept communication is evaluated. Ceramic products are constantly changing and developing, with new shapes appearing and old shapes being eliminated. Continual innovation and development of ceramics based on inherited traditions can give them a new look and color under the existing modeling style. Compared with other categories, although ceramic modeling has relatively abstract formal characteristics, but it is the extension of the modeling, still has obvious morphological characteristics, and the impact on people’s aesthetic mood.

Power Muirhead Mean Operators for Interval-Valued Linear Diophantine Fuzzy Sets and Their Application in Decision-Making Strategies

It is quite beneficial for every company to have a strong decision-making technique at their disposal. Experts and managers involved in decision-making strategies would particularly benefit from such a technique in order to have a crucial impact on the strategy of their company. This paper considers the interval-valued linear Diophantine fuzzy (IV-LDF) sets and uses their algebraic laws. Furthermore, by using the Muirhead mean (MM) operator and IV-LDF data, the IV-LDF power MM (IV-LDFPMM) and the IV-LDF weighted power MM (IV-LDFWPMM) operators are developed, and some special properties and results demonstrated. The decision-making technique relies on objective data that can be observed. Based on the multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) technique, which is the beneficial part of the decision-making strategy, examples are given to illustrate the development. To demonstrate the advantages of the developed tools, a comparative analysis and geometrical interpretations are also provided.

Applied Research Paradigms

This chapter discusses the research paradigms underpinning this study––i.e. dialectical pluralism (DP) (mixed methods research) and a complex thinking perspective. The chapter also explains the researcher’s scientific and personal paradigm biases and details some strategies utilised for objective data treatment.

A comparative analysis of methods for assessing the environmental security of territories

Annotation. The results of a study on the water quality, bottom sediments and coastal soil based on the level of anthropogenic pollution by heavy metal compounds and organic polutants are presented. The most commonly used integral and complex indicators used to assess the environmental safety of territories have been calculated. A comparative analysis, using the Shannon Biodiversity Index, highlighted the total pollution index (Zc) as the most informative, among those analysed, in terms of the impact of anthropogenic pollution on biota. The results established a methodology for assessing the environmental safety of territories that needs to be improved. By using the Maximum Permissible Exceedance (MPE) indicator, objective data will be available when determining the negative impact of pollution of natural environments on the state of ecosystems.

Making the logic: a methodological experience of digital design process for small urban interventions

The emerging digital design process discourses point to the growing need to connect and manipulate design objective data. One of the challenges is knowing how to relate and operationalize this data accurately using a computational environment. This article investigates digital design processes by developing a design logic for small urban projects using objective data. This work follows the method: (1) defining the project location criteria, according to georeferenced data and the Space Syntax theory; (2) operationalizing the socio-spatial relationships according to the book A Pattern Language; (3) developing a Grasshopper definition for modeling several families of objects. We tested the method in a small urban intervention, in the city of Viçosa (MG), with the purpose of digital fabricating a piece of urban furniture.

Increase in the Prevalence of Online Pornography Use: Objective Data Analysis from the Period Between 2004 and 2016 in Poland

Despite the considerable amount of attention presently devoted to the high accessibility of online pornography, very little formal analyses have been carried out to show how the advent and proliferation of Internet technology has changed the prevalence of pornography use in populations. We conducted a preliminary analysis based on objective website traffic data, representing the changes in the number of (1) Internet users generally and (2) online pornography users specifically, between 2004 and 2016 in Poland. We observed a clear increase in the estimated number of people using online pornography in the analyzed period. The estimated number of general population members viewing pornography on the Internet increased over three times (310%) between October 2004 and October 2016–starting from an estimated 2.76 million in the first period to 8.54 million in the last. At the same time, we did not observe a clear increase in the percentage of Internet users who viewed online pornography in the same time period. Additionally, pornography viewership on the Internet was almost 2 times more prevalent among male (47%) than female Internet users (27%), and most popular in the 18–27 age group. Since our analysis is based on objective data, it does not share the limitations inherent in self-reports. However, our approach also has several important limitations (e.g., the analysis does not include online activity generated on mobile devices and under a private browsing mode); thus, the results should be interpreted with caution.

Initial experience with a homemade “hybrid-tome” for needle-knife precut in patients with difficult biliary cannulation

Background and study aims Current clinical guidelines recommend needle-knife precut (NKP) as the primary and best method for performing a biliary cannulation (BC) when simple techniques fail and the criteria are met for difficult BC (DBC). However, many endoscopists avoid or defer early NKP in favor of alternative, simpler techniques that have not been shown to be either safer or more effective. Our goal is to test a device that provides the needle-knife papillotome (NKPT) with traction capability and which can facilitate the learning and execution of NKP. Patients and methods This was a descriptive bicentric observational study of a personal cohort of patients undergoing early NKP to analyse the efficacy and safety of the technique with a “hybrid-tome” (HT) built using the isolated core of a NKPT and a conventional canulotome. Results Over a 4-year period, we performed 43 NKPs with the HT, achieving BC in one or two steps in all cases. The 100 % technical success was matched by a 95 % clinical success rate. We recorded 11 adverse events (23 %): five hemorrhages, four pancreatitis, and two cholangitis. In addition to the objective data, we confirmed that HT facilitates alignment with the duodenal papilla and the execution of pre-cutting, especially if the papilla is intradiverticular or hidden by folds. Conclusions The HT tested seems to help trained endoscopists to perform NKP, especially in some anatomic situations, which can improve compliance with the guidelines recommended for early NKP in patients with DBC.

Sons al Balcó, a Citizen Science Approach to Map the Soundscape of Catalonia

Sons al Balcó (Catalan for “Sounds of the balcony”) was a project born to study the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown caused on the perception of noise in Catalonia. One of the aims of the project was to combine the research activities—acoustic and image processing, urbanistic analysis and health and annoyance evaluation—with the dynamic collaboration with citizens and other stakeholders to create social and environmental impact, to raise awareness and design tools to improve citizenship development and empowerment. This first year of Sons al Balcó has shown that citizens are willing to participate in initiatives that work with their everyday life, because one year after the lockdown, a new soundscape map of Catalonia has been built with their collaboration and their perceptual impact from their balconies or windows. This has allowed the inclusion of other issues that enhance the final goal of describing and finding relationships between the annoyance caused by noise, and other factors as the environment (urban, suburban, rural) and the landscape, including the soundscape and noise levels in this evaluation. Objective measurements of LAeq have been conducted during the lockdown and in the months afterwards to describe the average noise and its possible link with outdoor activities. During this second collecting campaign, Sons al Balcó managed to gather more than 220 contributions. In this work, we detail the definitions of the metrics that include urbanistic and health-related environmental elements (water, trees, etc.), together with the socio-economic and demographic data that correspond to the answers of the questionnaires, and finally, the information extracted from the audios and the videos sent by the citizens. Preliminary results show encouraging dependencies between perception gathered with the questionnaires and the objective data collected, still in process of analysis, and a clear bias to a worse soundscape in 2021 in comparison to the 2020 campaign.

Creating a new variety of hop by clone selection method

The article presents the results of breeding work for the creation of new high-yielding varieties of bitter-aromatic hops with a high content of alpha-acids carried out in 2004-2020 in the Chuvash Republic on gray forest soils. The work was done by individual clonal selection of the best hop plants from the collection nursery. Seven high-yielding breeding numbers with a high alpha-acid content were selected from the collection nursery. After passing through all the stages of study in each of the appropriate nurseries from seven numbers, two clones were selected to create new varieties. Data were obtained on the parameters of the initial clonal breeding material, depending on weather conditions and the age of plantings. The selected clones (1-17 bitter-aromatic type and 6-26 bitter type) correspond to the specified indicators: collection of raw hops is not less than 4.0 kg from a bush, the duration of the growing period is 100-120 days, the content of alpha acids is not less than 5.0 %. Documentation on clone 1-17 was sent to the State Variety Commission for registration of a new variety Salampi. The variety is characterized by stable performance and quality indicators. The productivity of the variety is 30.0 c/ha (4.0 kg/bush) with a content of alphaacids of 9.3 %. The Podvyazny standard variety has 26.4 c/ha (3.5 kg/bush), the content of alpha-acids is 8.8 %. Testing of clone 6-26 will be continued to obtain complete and objective data.