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CGRP-Loaded Hydrogel Promotes Bone Regeneration in Diabetes-Related Periodontitis through Angiogenesis
No full textUniversity-NGO collaborations for the co-creation and scaling of social innovations
No full textUrban encroachment and the blurring of urban/rural lines have contributed to the decline in ecosystems and their resources in peri-urban areas. This is occurring globally, driven by the capitalisation and commercialisation of food production or the belief that rapid urbanisation is the solution to endemic rural poverty. Social innovation, championed by change makers who contribute to sustaining long term engagement and responsible management of rural areas, are needed to provide sustainable futures. The local embeddedness of these actions, however, often make scaling such initiatives challenging, limiting their reach and impact. This study examines the extent that different university-NGO partnerships can engage in collective action to scale and sustain environmental and social change at the peri-urban interface. We argue that universities can form different stakeholder partnerships to equip NGOs and community actors with resources, networks and structures to co-create rural revitalisation initiatives. In this study, we compare two novel NGO/university collaborative partnerships for rural revitalisation initiatives. These are juxtaposed with a more conventional university-NGO collaboration for community-based action. The first novel case features an incubation-based approach, whereby the university acts as a social innovation incubator to co-create revitalisation programmes with a small NGO while growing the sustainability impact and capacity of the NGO. In the next case, the university works with other universities to form a regional knowledge and incubation platform. Together, they directly incubate the formation of innovative social enterprises and cross-sector collaborations to generate, replicate and translate social innovations to address rural issues. By comparing the outcomes of these three programmes, through questionnaire data, interviews and observation records, we demonstrate the different ways that universities can partner and collaborate with the third sector in the sustained engagement, co-creation and dissemination of social innovations to address rural issues. </p
Assessment of permeance and selectivity of thin-film composite polyamide membranes for diverse applications
No full textThin-film composite polyamide membranes present a diverse range of aqueous-based applications such as the removal of harmful contaminants and the fractionation of precious resources from water and wastewater. However, their separation performance is typically limited by the permeance–selectivity trade-off. Although the trade-offs related to desalination have been well established, other important membrane-based applications have not been adequately studied. Here we establish various performance plots in terms of permeance–water/solute selectivity and permeance–solute/solute selectivity with respect to the removal or fractionation for diverse separation applications. This will help to bridge the gap between material-level membrane performance and system-level demands for potential applications. We also establish a convenient framework for assessing and benchmarking high-performance membranes in various fields and suggest potential strategies for optimizing membrane properties and/or system performance, which could increase the separation efficiency for membrane applications. This Review provides insightful knowledge and information for researchers and engineers involved in membrane technology
A Blockchained Work Package System for Progress Payment and Delay Claims
No full textProgress payment is an effective method for project management in the construction industry, with payments being made according to project milestones. However, stakeholders often dispute the value of the work when delays occur, which can hinder the progress of the project. Existing research on dynamically calculating progress value while considering delay claims within the framework of progress payments is limited. To bridge this gap, this research introduces an innovative blockchained work package system (BC-WPS) for payment management, utilizing smart contracts for the automated execution of progress payments and delay analysis upon work package completion. To this end, this research begins by designing a work package-based delay claims mechanism. It then presents a smart contract-based procedure for executing progress payments and delay claims. Third, a reputation mechanism is proposed to incentivize timely project delivery and encourage collaboration. Finally, the BC-WPS’ effectiveness is validated through real-world projects, indicating it can automate the work package-based payment management process efficiently and securely.</p
Fast-selective electro-driven membrane reactor in fluoride/silica crystallization for microelectronic wastewaters recycling
No full textRapid growth of the microelectronic industry leads to a significant increase in the generation of microelectronic wastewaters containing complex pollutants. Resource recovery technologies offer promising solutions for effective wastewater reuse in the microelectronics sector. However, how to simultaneously achieve high-efficiency crystallization and high crystal purity of ionic resources from complex wastewater remains a challenge. Here, for the first time, we propose an electro-driven membrane reactor (EMR) for the ex-situ crystallization of fluoride/silica from microelectronic wastewaters as high-purity fluorosilicates. This EMR with independent chambers combines a bipolar membrane to produce protons for SiF62- generation from the reaction between fluoride and silica. An internal ultrafiltration membrane is used to reject nanoparticles/organics while providing ion channels for protons and SiF62- migration. Selective recovery of Na2SiF6 from the coexisting ions (Cl-, SO42-, NO3- and PO43-)/nanoparticles (SiO2, Al2O3 and CeO2)/organics (tetramethylammonium hydroxide, isopropyl alcohol, bovine serum albumin, sodium alginate and humic acid) is demonstrated. Over 99.5 % Na2SiF6 purity and 64.5 % crystallization rate are verified under the optimal conditions (voltage of 8 V, UH050 membrane, operation mode Ⅰ, and forward permeate flux of 1 mL min-1). This EMR with the advantages of accurate capture capability may be an innovative strategy for enlarging the scale of pollutant elimination, ionic resources and fresh water recovery from micro-electronic wastewaters.</p
High school makerspace experience and the gender gap in STEM identity and career interest
No full textThe number of makerspaces worldwide has been doubling approximately every 18 months. Educators are excited about what this expansion may bring to STEM education. Past research focused more on STEM skillset preparation and less on the promise that makerspaces may inspire STEM affinity or even help close the STEM gender gap. This study used a U.S. national sample of 15,725 freshmen college students to study the relationship between high school makerspace experience and college STEM identity and STEM career interests. We found that makerspace experiences were associated with a stronger STEM identity and that they effectively closed the gender gap in STEM identity. However, only those males who often participated in makerspace activities increased their STEM career interest, meaning frequent makerspace participation widens the gender gap in STEM career interests. We offer potential explanations and implications from inside and outside of the makerspace environment. </p
Medical Entity-balanced Prompting Network for Brain CT Report Generation
No full textThe automatic generation of brain CT reports has gained widespread attention, given its potential to assist radiologists in diagnosing cranial diseases. However, brain CT scans involve extensive medical entities, such as diverse anatomy regions and lesions, exhibiting highly inconsistent spatial patterns in 3D volumetric space. This leads to biased learning of medical entities in existing methods, resulting in repetitiveness and inaccuracy in generated reports. To this end, we propose a Medical Entity-balanced Prompting Network (MEPNet), which harnesses the large language model (LLM) to fairly interpret various entities for accurate brain CT report generation. By introducing the visual embedding and the learning status of medical entities as enriched clues, our method prompts the LLM to balance the learning of diverse entities, thereby enhancing reports with comprehensive findings. First, to extract visual embedding of entities, we propose Knowledge-driven Joint Attention to explore and distill entity patterns using both explicit and implicit medical knowledge. Then, a Learning Status Scorer is designed to evaluate the learning of entity visual embeddings, resulting in unique learning status for individual entities. Finally, these entity visual embeddings and status are elaborately integrated into multi-modal prompts, to guide the text generation of LLM. This process allows LLM to self-adapt the learning process for biased-fitted entities, thereby covering detailed findings in generated reports. We conduct experiments on two brain CT report generation benchmarks, showing the effectiveness in clinical accuracy and text coherence. Code — https://github.com/YanzhaoShi/MEPNet.</p
High-frequency low-tidal volume ventilation improves long-term success in radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis
Get PDFAims High-frequency low-tidal volume (HFLTV) ventilation may improve catheter stability and enhance procedural success in radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). Long-term findings remained unclear. Methods and results We conducted a meta-analysis that included all studies that directly compared AF patients who underwent RF ablation under HFLTV compared with standard ventilation. Primary outcomes included acute first-pass pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and long-term recurrence of AF/atrial arrhythmias after 12 months. Secondary outcomes included total procedure duration, ablation time, and RF time, with pooled standardized mean difference derived using the inverse variance method. Five cohort studies (publication period: 2019-2024) were identified and included in the meta-analysis (final sample: HFLTV n = 460 vs. standard ventilation n = 705). High-frequency low-tidal volume ventilation was significantly associated with lower risk of AF recurrence after 12 months {pooled odds ratio (OR) = 0.62 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.42-0.92]}, as well as total atrial arrhythmia [OR = 0.59 (95% CI: 0.42-0.81)], with no between-study heterogeneity (I2 = 0%). Acutely, HFLTV was associated with higher probability of first-pass PVI with borderline statistical significance [OR = 1.24 (95% CI: 0.94-1.63)]. Furthermore, HFLTV was associated with significant reductions in total procedure time [-0.71 (95% CI: -1.00 to -0.42), unit in standard deviation], ablation time [-0.83 (95% CI: -1.07 to -0.59)], and total RF time [-0.72 (95% CI: -0.85 to -0.59)] (heterogeneity I2 = 76%). Notably, there was no effect modification by paroxysmal or persistent AF (P > 0.05). All studies reported no major complications in either group. Conclusion High-frequency low-tidal volume ventilation is associated with improved long-term success of arrhythmia control in AF patients who undergo RF catheter ablation, regardless of paroxysmal or persistent status.published_or_final_versio