Modern eminence and concise critique of solar thermal energy and vacuum insulation technologies for sustainable low-carbon infrastructure

A concise critique on harnessing the abundant solar thermal energy and improvement with vacuum insulation for the utilization and conversion is presented. This research implicates that the world is becoming a global solar smart city prompted by increasing daily demand of energy by the global population and land-use. Amongst all the renewable energy resources available, solar thermal energy collectors (STC) are the most copious because it is accessible in both direct and indirect modes with global solar thermal capacity in operation in 2019 was 479 GWth and annual energy yield estimated to be 389 TWh. Hybridization has been found to be the only way of improving the existing performance of (STC) such as hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PVT) with phase-change material (PCM) for energy storage and magneto-thermoelectric generators (MTEGs) and/or vacuum insulated TEG (VTEG) for waste heat energy conversion to electrical power. The concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies were also precisely studied and yet parabolic trough collector, dish sterling and solar tower are amongst the top solar thermal heat energy harvesters and its electrical power generation has also been comprehended. The modern eminence of vacuum insulation technologies on thermal comfort and sound insulation in sustainable low-carbon buildings is presented. The research implicates that there is still a scope of improving the building and construction sector and target to achieve not only zero-energy buildings (ZEB) but generating-energy buildings (GEB). A concise critique on vacuum insulated smart glazed windows is presented and the review implicates that the hybridization with PV and TEG and novelty in the constructional materials of vacuum glazing (VG) and translucent vacuum insulation panel (TVIP) are vital in the realistic move towards the GEB. The future of vacuum insulation is not only limited to GEB but vital applications occur in medical, imaging, mechatronics and manufacturing industries

Protecting eyewitness evidence: Examining the efficacy of a self-administered interview tool

Given the crucial role of eyewitness evidence, statements should be obtained as soon as possible after an incident. This is not always achieved due to demands on police resources. Two studies trace the development of a new tool, the Self-Administered Interview (SAI), designed to elicit a comprehensive initial statement. In Study 1, SAI participants reported more correct details than participants who provided a free recall account, and performed at the same level as participants given a Cognitive Interview. In Study 2, participants viewed a simulated crime and half recorded their statement using the SAI. After a delay of 1 week, all participants completed a free recall test. SAI participants recalled more correct details in the delayed recall task than control participants

Do ResearchGate Scores create ghost academic reputations?

[EN] The academic social network site ResearchGate (RG) has its own indicator, RG Score, for its members. The high profile nature of the site means that the RG Score may be used for recruitment, promotion and other tasks for which researchers are evaluated. In response, this study investigates whether it is reasonable to employ the RG Score as evidence of scholarly reputation. For this, three different author samples were investigated. An outlier sample includes 104 authors with high values. A Nobel sample comprises 73 Nobel winners from Medicine and Physiology, Chemistry, Physics and Economics (from 1975 to 2015). A longitudinal sample includes weekly data on 4 authors with different RG Scores. The results suggest that high RG Scores are built primarily from activity related to asking and answering questions in the site. In particular, it seems impossible to get a high RG Score solely through publications. Within RG it is possible to distinguish between (passive) academics that interact little in the site and active platform users, who can get high RG Scores through engaging with others inside the site (questions, answers, social networks with influential researchers). Thus, RG Scores should not be mistaken for academic reputation indicators.Alberto Martin-Martin enjoys a four-year doctoral fellowship (FPU2013/05863) granted by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura, y Deporte (Spain). Enrique Orduna-Malea holds a postdoctoral fellowship (PAID-10-14), from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain).Orduña Malea, E.; Martín-Martín, A.; Thelwall, M.; Delgado-López-Cózar, E. (2017). Do ResearchGate Scores create ghost academic reputations?. Scientometrics. 112(1):443-460. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2396-9S4434601121Bosman, J. & Kramer, B. (2016). Innovations in scholarly communication—data of the global 2015–2016 survey. Available at: http://zenodo.org/record/49583 #. Accessed December 11, 2016.González-Díaz, C., Iglesias-García, M., & Codina, L. (2015). Presencia de las universidades españolas en las redes sociales digitales científicas: Caso de los estudios de comunicación. El profesional de la información, 24(5), 1699–2407.Goodwin, S., Jeng, W., & He, D. (2014). Changing communication on ResearchGate through interface updates. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 51(1), 1–4.Hicks, D., Wouters, P., Waltman, L., de Rijcke, S., & Rafols, I. (2015). The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics. Nature, 520(7548), 429–431.Hoffmann, C. P., Lutz, C., & Meckel, M. (2015). A relational altmetric? Network centrality on ResearchGate as an indicator of scientific impact. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(4), 765–775.Jiménez-Contreras, E., de Moya Anegón, F., & Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2003). The evolution of research activity in Spain: The impact of the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI). Research Policy, 32(1), 123–142.Jordan, K. (2014a). Academics’ awareness, perceptions and uses of social networking sites: Analysis of a social networking sites survey dataset (December 3, 2014). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2507318 . Accessed December 11, 2016.Jordan, K. (2014b). Academics and their online networks: Exploring the role of academic social networking sites. First Monday, 19(11). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i11.4937 . Accessed December 11, 2016.Jordan, K. (2015). Exploring the ResearchGate score as an academic metric: reflections and implications for practice. Quantifying and Analysing Scholarly Communication on the Web (ASCW’15), 30 June 2015, Oxford. Available at: http://ascw.know-center.tugraz.at/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ASCW15_jordan_response_kraker-lex.pdf . Accessed December 11, 2016.Kadriu, A. (2013). Discovering value in academic social networks: A case study in ResearchGate. Proceedings of the ITI 2013—35th Int. Conf. on Information Technology Interfaces Information Technology Interfaces, pp. 57–62.Kraker, P. & Lex, E. (2015). A critical look at the ResearchGate score as a measure of scientific reputation. Proceedings of the Quantifying and Analysing Scholarly Communication on the Web workshop (ASCW’15), Web Science conference 2015. Available at: http://ascw.know-center.tugraz.at/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ASCW15_kraker-lex-a-critical-look-at-the-researchgate-score_v1-1.pdf . Accessed December 11, 2016.Li, L., He, D., Jeng, W., Goodwin, S. & Zhang, C. (2015). Answer quality characteristics and prediction on an academic Q&A Site: A case study on ResearchGate. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web Companion, pp. 1453–1458.Martín-Martín, A., Orduna-Malea, E., Ayllón, J. M. & Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2016). The counting house: measuring those who count. Presence of Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, Informetrics, Webometrics and Altmetrics in the Google Scholar Citations, ResearcherID, ResearchGate, Mendeley & Twitter. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.02412 . Accessed December 11, 2016.Martín-Martín, A., Orduna-Malea, E. & Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2016). The role of ego in academic profile services: Comparing Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Mendeley, and ResearcherID. Researchgate, Mendeley, and Researcherid. The LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog. Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/03/04/academic-profile-services-many-mirrors-and-faces-for-a-single-ego . Accessed December 11, 2016.Matthews, D. (2016). Do academic social networks share academics’ interests?. Times Higher Education. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/do-academic-social-networks-share-academics-interests . Accessed December 11, 2016.Memon, A. R. (2016). ResearchGate is no longer reliable: leniency towards ghost journals may decrease its impact on the scientific community. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 66(12), 1643–1647.Mikki, S., Zygmuntowska, M., Gjesdal, Ø. L. & Al Ruwehy, H. A. (2015). Digital presence of norwegian scholars on academic network sites-where and who are they?. Plos One 10(11). Available at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0142709 . Accessed December 11, 2016.Nicholas, D., Clark, D., & Herman, E. (2016). ResearchGate: Reputation uncovered. Learned Publishing, 29(3), 173–182.Orduna-Malea, E., Martín-Martín, A., & Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2016). The next bibliometrics: ALMetrics (Author Level Metrics) and the multiple faces of author impact. El profesional de la información, 25(3), 485–496.Ortega, Jose L. (2015). Relationship between altmetric and bibliometric indicators across academic social sites: The case of CSIC’s members. Journal of informetrics, 9(1), 39–49.Ortega, Jose L. (2016). Social network sites for scientists. Cambridge: Chandos.Ovadia, S. (2014). ResearchGate and Academia. edu: Academic social networks. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 33(3), 165–169.Thelwall, M., & Kousha, K. (2015). ResearchGate: Disseminating, communicating, and measuring Scholarship? Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(5), 876–889.Thelwall, M. & Kousha, K. (2017). ResearchGate articles: Age, discipline, audience size and impact. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(2), 468–479.Van Noorden, R. (2014). Online collaboration: Scientists and the social network. Nature, 512(7513), 126–129.Wilsdon, J., Allen, L., Belfiore, E., Campbell, P., Curry, S., Hill, S. et al. (2015). The Metric Tide: Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management. HEFCE. Available at: http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4929.1363 . Accessed December 11, 2016

Granular cell tumors of the urinary bladder

BACKGROUND: Granular cell tumors (GCTs) are extremely rare lesions of the urinary bladder with only nine cases being reported in world literature of which one was malignant. Generally believed to be of neural origin based on histochemical, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural studies; they mostly follow a clinically benign course but are commonly mistaken for malignant tumors since they are solid looking, ulcerated tumors with ill-defined margins. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We herein report two cases of GCTs, one benign and one malignant, presenting with gross hematuria in a 14- and a 47-year-old female, respectively. RESULTS: Histopathology revealed characteristic GCTs with positive immunostaining for neural marker (S-100) and negative immunostaining for epithelial (cytokeratin, Cam 5.2, AE/A13), neuroendocrine (neuron specific enolase, chromogranin A, and synaptophysin) and sarcoma (desmin, vimentin) markers. The benign tumor was successfully managed conservatively with transurethral resection alone while for the malignant tumor, radical cystectomy, hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, anterior vaginectomy, plus lymph node dissection was done. Both cases show long-term disease free survival. CONCLUSION: We recommend careful pathologic assessment for establishing the appropriate diagnosis and either a conservative or aggressive surgical treatment for benign or localized malignant GCT of the urinary bladder, respectively

ResearchGate versus Google Scholar: Which finds more early citations?

ResearchGate has launched its own citation index by extracting citations from documents uploaded to the site and reporting citation counts on article profile pages. Since authors may upload preprints to ResearchGate, it may use these to provide early impact evidence for new papers. This article assesses the whether the number of citations found for recent articles is comparable to other citation indexes using 2675 recently-published library and information science articles. The results show that in March 2017, ResearchGate found less citations than did Google Scholar but more than both Web of Science and Scopus. This held true for the dataset overall and for the six largest journals in it. ResearchGate correlated most strongly with Google Scholar citations, suggesting that ResearchGate is not predominantly tapping a fundamentally different source of data than Google Scholar. Nevertheless, preprint sharing in ResearchGate is substantial enough for authors to take seriously

Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Guinea-Bissau: A Sexually Transmitted Genotype 2 with Parenteral Amplification?

BACKGROUND: Sub-Saharan Africa is the continent with the highest prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Genotype 2 HCV is thought to have originated from West Africa several hundred years ago. Mechanisms of transmission remain poorly understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To delineate mechanisms for HCV transmission in West Africa, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of individuals aged ≥50 years in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Dried blood spots were obtained for HCV serology and PCR amplification. Prevalence of HCV was 4.4% (47/1066) among women and 5.0% (27/544) among men. In multivariate analysis, the independent risk factors for HCV infection were age (baseline: 50–59 y; 60–69 y, adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.67, 95% CI: 0.91–3.06; ≥70 y, AOR: 3.47, 95% CI: 1.89–6.39), belonging to the Papel, Mancanha, Balanta or Mandjako ethnic groups (AOR: 2.45, 95% CI:1.32–4.53), originating from the Biombo, Cacheu or Oio regions north of Bissau (AOR: 4.16, 95% CI: 1.18–14.73) and having bought or sold sexual services (AOR: 3.60, 95% CI: 1.88–6.89). Of 57 isolates that could be genotyped, 56 were genotype 2. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that transmission of HCV genotype 2 in West Africa occurs through sexual intercourse. In specific locations and subpopulations, medical interventions may have amplified transmission parenterally

CD271-selected mesenchymal stem cells from adipose tissue enhance cartilage repair and are less angiogenic than plastic adherent mesenchymal stem cells

CD271 is a marker of bone marrow MSCs with enhanced differentiation capacity for bone or cartilage repair. However, the nature of CD271+ MSCs from adipose tissue (AT) is less well understood. Here, we investigated the differentiation, wound healing and angiogenic capacity of plastic adherent MSCs (PA MSCs) versus CD271+ MSCs from AT. There was no difference in the extent to which PA MSCs and CD271+ MSCs formed osteoblasts, adipocytes or chondrocytes in vitro. In contrast, CD271+ MSCs transplanted into athymic rats significantly enhanced osteochondral wound healing with reduced vascularisation in the repair tissue compared to PA MSCs and control animals; there was little histological evidence of mature articular cartilage formation in all animals. Conditioned medium from CD271+ MSC cultures was less angiogenic than PA MSC conditioned medium, and had little effect on endothelial cell migration or endothelial tubule formation in vitro. The low angiogenic activity of CD271+ MSCs and improved early stage tissue repair of osteochondral lesions when transplanted, along with a comparable differentiation capacity along mesenchymal lineages when induced, suggests that these selected cells are a better candidate than PA MSCs for the repair of cartilaginous tissue

An Open Randomized Comparison of Gatifloxacin versus Cefixime for the Treatment of Uncomplicated Enteric Fever

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of gatifloxacin versus cefixime in the treatment of uncomplicated culture positive enteric fever. DESIGN: A randomized, open-label, active control trial with two parallel arms. SETTING: Emergency Room and Outpatient Clinics in Patan Hospital, Lagankhel, Lalitpur, Nepal. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with clinically diagnosed uncomplicated enteric fever meeting the inclusion criteria. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were allocated to receive one of two drugs, Gatifloxacin or Cefixime. The dosages used were Gatifloxacin 10 mg/kg, given once daily for 7 days, or Cefixime 20 mg/kg/day given in two divided doses for 7 days. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measure was fever clearance time. The secondary outcome measure was overall treatment failure (acute treatment failure and relapse). RESULTS: Randomization was carried out in 390 patients before enrollment was suspended on the advice of the independent data safety monitoring board due to significant differences in both primary and secondary outcome measures in the two arms and the attainment of a priori defined endpoints. Median (95% confidence interval) fever clearance times were 92 hours (84-114 hours) for gatifloxacin recipients and 138 hours (105-164 hours) for cefixime-treated patients (Hazard Ratio[95%CI] = 2.171 [1.545-3.051], p<0.0001). 19 out of 70 (27%) patients who completed the 7 day trial had acute clinical failure in the cefixime group as compared to 1 out of 88 patients (1%) in gatifloxacin group(Odds Ratio [95%CI] = 0.031 [0.004 - 0.237], p<0.001). Overall treatment failure patients (relapsed patients plus acute treatment failure patients plus death) numbered 29. They were determined to be (95% confidence interval) 37.6 % (27.14%-50.2%) in the cefixime group and 3.5% (2.2%-11.5%) in the gatifloxacin group (HR[95%CI] = 0.084 [0.025-0.280], p<0.0001). There was one death in the cefixime group. CONCLUSIONS: Based on this study, gatifloxacin is a better treatment for uncomplicated enteric fever as compared to cefixime. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN75784880

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway activation in bladder cancer

The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is a critical signal transduction pathway that regulates multiple cellular functions. Aberrant activation of this pathway has been identified in a wide range of cancers. Several pathway components including AKT, PI3K and mTOR represent potential therapeutic targets and many small molecule inhibitors are in development or early clinical trials. The complex regulation of the pathway, together with the multiple mechanisms by which it can be activated, make this a highly challenging pathway to target. For successful inhibition, detailed molecular information on individual tumours will be required and it is already clear that different tumour types show distinct combinations of alterations. Recent results have identified alterations in pathway components PIK3CA, PTEN, AKT1 and TSC1 in bladder cancer, some of which are significantly related to tumour phenotype and clinical behaviour. Co-existence of alterations to several PI3K pathway genes in some bladder tumours indicates that these proteins may have functions that are not related solely to the known canonical pathway

Serum Activity of Platelet-Activating Factor Acetylhydrolase Is a Potential Clinical Marker for Leptospirosis Pulmonary Hemorrhage

Pulmonary hemorrhage has been recognized as a major, often lethal, manifestation of severe leptospirosis albeit the pathogenesis remains unclear. The Leptospira interrogans virulent serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae serovar Lai encodes a protein (LA2144), which exhibited the platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) activity in vitro similar to that of human serum with respect to its substrate affinity and specificity and thus designated L-PAF-AH. On the other hand, the primary amino acid sequence of L-PAF-AH is homologous to the α1-subunit of the bovine brain PAF-AH isoform I. The L-PAF-AH was proven to be an intracellular protein, which was encoded unanimously and expressed similarly in either pathogenic or saprophytic leptospires. Mongolian gerbil is an appropriate experimental model to study the PAF-AH level in serum with its basal activity level comparable to that of human while elevated directly associated with the course of pulmonary hemorrhage during severe leptospirosis. Mortality occurred around the peak of pulmonary hemorrhage, along with the transition of the PAF-AH activity level in serum, from the increasing phase to the final decreasing phase. Limited clinical data indicated that the serum activity of PAF-AH was likely to be elevated in the patients infected by L. interrogans serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae, but not in those infected by other less severe serogroups. Although L-PAF-AH might be released into the micro-environment via cell lysis, its PAF-AH activity apparently contributed little to this elevation. Therefore, the change of PAF-AH in serum not only may be influential for pulmonary hemorrhage, but also seems suitable for disease monitoring to ensure prompt clinical treatment, which is critical for reducing the mortality of severe leptospirosis