In order to assess the effect of a health care intervention, it is useful to look at an ensemble of relevant studies. The Cochrane Collaboration's admirable goal is to provide systematic reviews of all relevant clinical studies, in order to establish whether or not there is a conclusive evidence about a specific intervention. This is done mainly by conducting a meta-analysis: a statistical synthesis of results from a series of systematically collected studies. Health practitioners often interpret a significant meta-analysis summary effect as a statement that the treatment effect is consistent across a series of studies. However, the meta-analysis significance may be driven by an effect in only one of the studies. Indeed, in an analysis of two domains of Cochrane reviews we show that in a non-negligible fraction of reviews, the removal of a single study from the meta-analysis of primary endpoints makes the conclusion non-significant. Therefore, reporting the evidence towards replicability of the effect across studies in addition to the significant meta-analysis summary effect will provide credibility to the interpretation that the effect was replicated across studies. We suggest an
The international database community refers to the manipulation of data with inaccuracy and uncertainty using the term fuzzy, which has been translated into Spanish as "borroso" and into French as "flou". Semantically, this term conveys two main ideas: first, the natural concept of ambiguity or vagueness in human reasoning, and second, its connection to fuzzy set theory, fuzzy logic, and possibility theory, as developed by Zadeh between 1965 and 1977. This article explores two key aspects: the attributes of the fuzzy data model GEFRED (GENeralized model for Fuzzy RElational Database) and their implementation in a Relational Database (RDB). The modeling of these attributes was conducted in a Chilian cardboard manufacturing company located in the Maule Region, where the described phenomena involve imprecise and uncertain attributes and values. Specifically, our focus is on the knowledge related to the manufacturing process of coated cardboard, particularly the quality control process for finished products in the company's Conversion Department. The quality of these products, categorized as either stacks or rolls, is characterized using both classical and fuzzy attributes. Classical a
This paper describes a rapid feasibility study of using GPT-4, a large language model (LLM), to (semi)automate data extraction in systematic reviews. Despite the recent surge of interest in LLMs there is still a lack of understanding of how to design LLM-based automation tools and how to robustly evaluate their performance. During the 2023 Evidence Synthesis Hackathon we conducted two feasibility studies. Firstly, to automatically extract study characteristics from human clinical, animal, and social science domain studies. We used two studies from each category for prompt-development; and ten for evaluation. Secondly, we used the LLM to predict Participants, Interventions, Controls and Outcomes (PICOs) labelled within 100 abstracts in the EBM-NLP dataset. Overall, results indicated an accuracy of around 80%, with some variability between domains (82% for human clinical, 80% for animal, and 72% for studies of human social sciences). Causal inference methods and study design were the data extraction items with the most errors. In the PICO study, participants and intervention/control showed high accuracy (>80%), outcomes were more challenging. Evaluation was done manually; scoring
Objectives: This study aims to systematically review the literature on the computational processing of the language of pain, or pain narratives, whether generated by patients or physicians, identifying current trends and challenges. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, a comprehensive literature search was conducted to select relevant studies on the computational processing of the language of pain and answer pre-defined research questions. Data extraction and synthesis were performed to categorize selected studies according to their primary purpose and outcome, patient and pain population, textual data, computational methodology, and outcome targets. Results: Physician-generated language of pain, specifically from clinical notes, was the most used data. Tasks included patient diagnosis and triaging, identification of pain mentions, treatment response prediction, biomedical entity extraction, correlation of linguistic features with clinical states, and lexico-semantic analysis of pain narratives. Only one study included previous linguistic knowledge on pain utterances in their experimental setup. Most studies targeted their outcomes for physicians, either directly as clinical t
Context: The efficient processing of Big Data is a challenging task for SQL and NoSQL Databases, where competent software architecture plays a vital role. The SQL Databases are designed for structuring data and supporting vertical scalability. In contrast, horizontal scalability is backed by NoSQL Databases and can process sizeable unstructured Data efficiently. One can choose the right paradigm according to the organisation's needs; however, making the correct choice can often be challenging. The SQL and NoSQL Databases follow different architectures. Also, the mixed model is followed by each category of NoSQL Databases. Hence, data movement becomes difficult for cloud consumers across multiple cloud service providers (CSPs). In addition, each cloud platform IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and DBaaS also monitors various paradigms. Objective: This systematic literature review (SLR) aims to study the related articles associated with SQL and NoSQL Database software architectures and tackle data portability and Interoperability among various cloud platforms. State of the art presented many performance comparison studies of SQL and NoSQL Databases by observing scaling, performance, availability, co
Nowadays, technology has become dominant in the daily lives of most people around the world. From children to older people, technology is present, helping in the most diverse daily tasks and allowing accessibility. However, many times these people are just end-users, without any incentive to the development of computational thinking (CT). With advances in technologies, the abstraction of coding, programming languages, and the hardware resources involved will become a reality. However, while we have not progressed to this stage, it is necessary to encourage the development of CT teaching from an early age. This work will present state of the art concerning teaching initiatives and tools on programming (e.g., ScratchJr), robotics (e.g., KIBO), and other playful tools (e.g., Happy Maps) for the development of CT in the early ages, specifically filling the gap of CT at the kindergarten level. This survey presents a systematic review of the literature, emphasizing computational and robotic tools used in preschool classes to develop the CT. The systematic review evaluated more than 60 papers from 2010 to December 2020, electing 31 papers and adding three papers from the qualitative stage
Phosphorus (P) is considered to be one of the key elements for life, making it an important element to look for in the abundance analysis of spectra of stellar systems. Yet, there exists only a handful of spectroscopic studies to estimate the P abundances and investigate its trend across a range of metallicities. We have observed full HK band spectra at a spectral resolving power of R=45,000 with IGRINS instrument. Abundances are determined using SME in combination with 1D MARCS stellar atmosphere models. The investigated sample of stars have reliable stellar parameters estimated using optical FIES spectra (GILD; Jönsson et al. in prep.). In order to determine the P abundances from the 16482.92 Angstrom P line, we take special care of the CO($ν=7-4$) blend. We determine the C, N, O abundances from atomic carbon and a range of non-blended molecular lines (CO, CN, OH) which are aplenty in the H band region of K giant stars, assuring an appropriate modelling of the blending CO($ν=7-4$) line. We present [P/Fe] vs [Fe/H] trend for 38 K giant stars in the metallicity range of -1.2 dex $<$ [Fe/H] $<$ 0.4 dex. We find that our trend matches well with the compiled literature sample of
We present a database of parliamentary debates that contains the complete record of parliamentary speeches from Dáil Éireann, the lower house and principal chamber of the Irish parliament, from 1919 to 2013. In addition, the database contains background information on all TDs (Teachta Dála, members of parliament), such as their party affiliations, constituencies and office positions. The current version of the database includes close to 4.5 million speeches from 1,178 TDs. The speeches were downloaded from the official parliament website and further processed and parsed with a Python script. Background information on TDs was collected from the member database of the parliament website. Data on cabinet positions (ministers and junior ministers) was collected from the official website of the government. A record linkage algorithm and human coders were used to match TDs and ministers.
We present the results of processing the effects of the powerful Gamma Ray Burst GRB221009A captured by the charged particle detectors (electrostatic analyzers and solid-state detectors) onboard spacecraft at different points in the heliosphere on October 9, 2022. To follow the GRB221009A propagation through the heliosphere we used the electron and proton flux measurements from solar missions Solar Orbiter and STEREO-A; Earth magnetosphere and the solar wind missions THEMIS and Wind; meteorological satellites POES15, POES19, MetOp3; and MAVEN - a NASA mission orbiting Mars. GRB221009A had a structure of four bursts: less intense Pulse 1 - the triggering impulse - was detected by gamma-ray observatories at 131659 UT (near the Earth); the most intense Pulses 2 and 3 were detected on board all the spacecraft from the list, and Pulse 4 detected in more than 500 s after Pulse 1. Due to their different scientific objectives, the spacecraft, which data was used in this study, were separated by more than 1 AU (Solar Orbiter and MAVEN). This enabled tracking GRB221009A as it was propagating across the heliosphere. STEREO-A was the first to register Pulse 2 and 3 of the GRB, almost 100 secon
High quality vibrational spectra of solid-phase molecules in ice mixtures and for temperatures of astrophysical relevance are needed to interpret infrared observations toward protostars and background stars. Over the last 25 years, the Laboratory for Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory has provided more than 1100 spectra of diverse ice samples. Timely with the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, we have fully upgraded the Leiden Ice Database for Astrochemistry (LIDA) adding recently measured spectra. The goal of this manuscript is to describe what options exist to get access to and work with a large collection of IR spectra, and the UV/vis to mid-infrared refractive index of H2O ice and astronomy-oriented online tools to support the interpretation of IR ice observations. LIDA uses Flask and Bokeh for generating the web pages and graph visualization, respectively, SQL for searching ice analogues within the database and Jmol for 3D molecule visualization. The infrared data in the database are recorded via transmission spectroscopy of ice films condensed on cryogenic substrates. The real UV/vis refractive indices of H2O ice are derived from interference fringes created fro
Background: Evidence synthesis facilitates evidence-based medicine. This task becomes increasingly difficult to accomplished with applying computational solutions, since the medical literature grows at astonishing rates. Objective: This study evaluates an information retrieval-driven workflow, CASMA, to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and reproducibility of systematic reviews. Endometriosis recurrence serves as the ideal case due to its complex and ambiguous literature. Methods: The hybrid approach integrates PRISMA guidelines with fuzzy matching and regular expression (regex) to facilitate semi-automated deduplication and filtered records before manual screening. The workflow synthesised evidence from randomised controlled trials on the efficacy of a subclass of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRH-a). A modified splitting method addressed unit-of-analysis errors in multi-arm trials. Results: The workflow sharply reduced the screening workload, taking only 11 days to fetch and filter 33,444 records. Seven eligible RCTs were synthesized (841 patients). The pooled random-effects model yielded a Risk Ratio (RR) of $0.64$ ($95\%$ CI $0.48$ to $0.86$), demonstrating a $3
Countless traffic accidents often occur because of the inattention of the drivers. Many factors can contribute to distractions while driving, since objects or events to physiological conditions, as drowsiness and fatigue, do not allow the driver to stay attentive. The technological progress allowed the development and application of many solutions to detect the attention in real situations, promoting the interest of the scientific community in these last years. Commonly, these solutions identify the lack of attention and alert the driver, in order to help her/him to recover the attention, avoiding serious accidents and preserving lives. Our work presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of the methods and criteria used to detect attention of drivers at the wheel, focusing on those methods based on images. As results, 50 studies were selected from the literature on drivers' attention detection, in which 22 contain solutions in the desired context. The results of SLR can be used as a resource in the preparation of new research projects in drivers' attention detection.
Clinical trial registries can be used to monitor the production of trial evidence and signal when systematic reviews become out of date. However, this use has been limited to date due to the extensive manual review required to search for and screen relevant trial registrations. Our aim was to evaluate a new method that could partially automate the identification of trial registrations that may be relevant for systematic review updates. We identified 179 systematic reviews of drug interventions for type 2 diabetes, which included 537 clinical trials that had registrations in ClinicalTrials.gov. We tested a matrix factorisation approach that uses a shared latent space to learn how to rank relevant trial registrations for each systematic review, comparing the performance to document similarity to rank relevant trial registrations. The two approaches were tested on a holdout set of the newest trials from the set of type 2 diabetes systematic reviews and an unseen set of 141 clinical trial registrations from 17 updated systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The matrix factorisation approach outperformed the document similarity approach with a median
Machine vision is critical to robotics due to a wide range of applications which rely on input from visual sensors such as autonomous mobile robots and smart production systems. To create the smart homes and systems of tomorrow, an overview about current challenges in the research field would be of use to identify further possible directions, created in a systematic and reproducible manner. In this work a systematic literature review was conducted covering research from the last 10 years. We screened 172 papers from four databases and selected 52 relevant papers. While robustness and computation time were improved greatly, occlusion and lighting variance are still the biggest problems faced. From the number of recent publications, we conclude that the observed field is of relevance and interest to the research community. Further challenges arise in many areas of the field.
Governments' net zero emission target aims at increasing the share of renewable energy sources as well as influencing the behaviours of consumers to support the cost-effective balancing of energy supply and demand. These will be achieved by the advanced information and control infrastructures of smart grids which allow the interoperability among various stakeholders. Under this circumstance, increasing number of consumers produce, store, and consume energy, giving them a new role of prosumers. The integration of prosumers and accommodation of incurred bidirectional flows of energy and information rely on two key factors: flexible structures of energy markets and intelligent operations of power systems. The blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) are innovative technologies to fulfil these two factors, by which the blockchain provides decentralised trading platforms for energy markets and the AI supports the optimal operational control of power systems. This paper attempts to address how to incorporate the blockchain and AI in the smart grids for facilitating prosumers to participate in energy markets. To achieve this objective, first, this paper reviews how policy designs price
The Hypatia Catalog Database (www.hypatiacatalog.com) is the largest database of high resolution stellar abundances for stars within the solar neighborhood. It currently offers 72 elements and species within 5,986 stars, 347 of which host planets. The Hypatia Catalog Database features an interactive table and multiple plotting interfaces that allow easy access and exploration of stellar abundance data and properties within the Hypatia Catalog (Hinkel et al. 2014, 2016, 2017). The Hypatia Catalog is a multidimensional, amalgamate dataset comprised of stellar abundance measurements for FGKM-type stars within 150 pc of the Sun from carefully culled literature sources, currently totaling 161 datasets, that measured both [Fe/H] and at least one other element. In addition to abundances, stellar properties and planetary properties, where applicable, have been made available within the online Hypatia Catalog Database. Data and plots can also be downloaded through the website for use in personal code or presentations, respectively. The Hypatia Catalog and Hypatia Catalog Database will continue to be routinely updated in order to incorporate the most recent stellar abundance data published w
Given the increasing demands in computer programming education and the rapid advancement of large language models (LLMs), LLMs play a critical role in programming education. This study provides a systematic review of selected empirical studies on LLMs in computer programming education, published from 2023 to March 2024. The data for this review were collected from Web of Science (SCI/SSCI), SCOPUS, and EBSCOhost databases, as well as three conference proceedings specialized in computer programming education. In total, 42 studies met the selection criteria and were reviewed using methods, including bibliometric analysis, thematic analysis, and structural topic modeling. This study offers an overview of the current state of LLMs in computer programming education research. It outlines LLMs' applications, benefits, limitations, concerns, and implications for future research and practices, establishing connections between LLMs and their practical use in computer programming education. This review also provides examples and valuable insights for instructional designers, instructors, and learners. Additionally, a conceptual framework is proposed to guide education practitioners in integra
The successful integration of high-temperature superconductors (HTS) into modern technologies requires consistent, accessible, and comprehensive material data, a need that is currently unmet due to the fragmented and incomplete nature of existing resources. This paper introduces a new collaborative, open-access database specifically designed to address this gap by providing standardized data on HTS materials and crucial auxiliary components for HTS applications. The database encompasses extensive data on structural, cryogenic, electrical, magnetic, and superconducting materials, supporting diverse requirements from HTS modelling to magnet design. Developed through collaborative efforts and organized using an ontology-driven data model, this platform is dynamically adaptable, ensuring that it can grow as new materials and data emerge. Key features include user-driven contributions, peer-reviewed data validation, and advanced filtering capabilities for efficient data retrieval. This innovative database, to the knowledge of the authors, being the largest publicly available for material properties of HTS technologies is positioned as a valuable tool for the HTS community, promoting mor
Accurate, non-invasive flow measurement is imperative for efficient water resource management and leak detection in distribution systems. Despite the advent of diverse external sensing technologies, a paucity of consolidated evidence exists regarding their comparative performance, energy efficiency, and applicability in varied operational contexts. The document delineates the protocol for a systematic literature review (SLR) that aims to identify, evaluate, and synthesize the extant evidence on non-invasive flow monitoring techniques for piped networks. Adhering to the Kitchenham methodology, the review will investigate the accuracy, precision, and energy consumption of prevailing solutions, such as ultrasonic and accelerometer-based systems. The analysis will also assess the impact of signal processing and machine learning (ML) algorithms on enhancing system capabilities. The objective of this study is to map the state-of-the-art, identify key research gaps, and provide an empirical foundation to direct future research toward operational deployment.
Commercial application of facial recognition demands robustness to a variety of challenges such as illumination, occlusion, spoofing, disguise, etc. Disguised face recognition is one of the emerging issues for access control systems, such as security checkpoints at the borders. However, the lack of availability of face databases with a variety of disguise addons limits the development of academic research in the area. In this paper, we present a multimodal disguised face dataset to facilitate the disguised face recognition research. The presented database contains 8 facial add-ons and 7 additional combinations of these add-ons to create a variety of disguised face images. Each facial image is captured in visible, visible plus infrared, infrared, and thermal spectra. Specifically, the database contains 100 subjects divided into subset-A (30 subjects, 1 image per modality) and subset-B (70 subjects, 5 plus images per modality). We also present baseline face detection results performed on the proposed database to provide reference results and compare the performance in different modalities. Qualitative and quantitative analysis is performed to evaluate the challenging nature of disgui