Diabetes poses heavy social and economic burdens worldwide. Diabetes management apps show great potential for diabetes self-management. However, the adoption of diabetes management apps by diabetes ...patients is poor. The factors influencing patients' intention to use these apps are unclear. Understanding the patients' behavioral intention is necessary to support the development and promotion of diabetes app use.
This study aimed to identify the determinants of patients' intention to use diabetes management apps based on an integrated theoretical model.
The hypotheses of our research model were developed based on an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). From April 20 to May 20, 2019, adult patients with diabetes across China, who were familiar with diabetes management apps, were surveyed using the Web-based survey tool Sojump. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
A total of 746 participants who met the inclusion criteria completed the survey. The fitness indices suggested that the collected data fit well with the research model. The model explained 62.6% of the variance in performance expectancy and 57.1% of the variance in behavioral intention. Performance expectancy and social influence had the strongest total effects on behavioral intention (β=0.482; P=.001). Performance expectancy (β=0.482; P=.001), social influence (β=0.223; P=.003), facilitating conditions (β=0.17; P=.006), perceived disease threat (β=0.073; P=.005), and perceived privacy risk (β=-0.073; P=.012) had direct effects on behavioral intention. Additionally, social influence, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions had indirect effects on behavioral intention that were mediated by performance expectancy. Social influence had the highest indirect effects among the three constructs (β=0.259; P=.001).
Performance expectancy and social influence are the most important determinants of the intention to use diabetes management apps. Health care technology companies should improve the usefulness of apps and carry out research to provide clinical evidence for the apps' effectiveness, which will benefit the promotion of these apps. Facilitating conditions and perceived privacy risk also have an impact on behavioral intention. Therefore, it is necessary to improve facilitating conditions and provide solid privacy protection. Our study supports the use of UTAUT in explaining patients' intention to use diabetes management apps. Context-related determinants should also be taken into consideration.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Design by analysis based on the elastic-plastic method is becoming increasingly important for modern pressure vessels operating under extreme conditions. The stress-strain curve describing material ...nonlinearity is the primary property that needs to be addressed in this design procedure. Considering that a theoretical model with accuracy and conciseness is always diligently pursued in engineering fields, this study establishes a new stress-strain model of austenitic stainless steel that satisfies such characteristics. The number of parameters required to define this model is decreased compared with the number of parameters in other models, but the accuracy of the former model is still higher than that of the latter. In addition, the empirical parameters used in other models are not needed in the established model, which means that the parameters needed to define this model are determined from the actual strength data of the materials. To verify the advantage of the presented stress-strain model, tensile experiments are conducted on austenitic stainless steel at different temperatures up to 600 °C, and the experimental stress-strain data are used to compare the presented model and other ones. Type 316H austenitic stainless steel is selected as the test material because it is widely used as heat-resistant steel in engineering fields. Results show that the presented model with few parameters is more accurate than other models in describing the experimental stress-strain data. To further verify the presented stress-strain model’s ability and usage convenience, the model is adopted in the elastic-plastic design method of pressure vessels. Simulation of the plastic collapse of a specific vessel under different temperatures is performed, and the limit loads based on different definitions are calculated. Comparison of the limit loads obtained by the experimental stress-strain data reveals that the results of the presented stressstrain model are more accurate than those of the other models. The accuracy and advantage of the presented stress-strain model are thus verified. The model has good engineering application value.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been being one of the most malignant carcinomas featuring high metastatic and recurrence rates. The current OSCC treatment modalities in clinics severely ...deteriorate the quality of life of patients due to the impaired oral and maxillofacial functions. In the present work, we have engineered the single-atom Fe nanocatalysts (SAF NCs) with a NO donor (S-nitrosothiol, SNO) via surface modification to achieve synergistic nanocatalytic NO gas therapy against orthotopic OSCC. Upon near-infrared laser irradiation, the photonic hyperthermia could effectively augment the heterogeneous Fenton catalytic activity, meanwhile trigger the thermal decomposition of the engineered NO donor, thus producing toxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and antitumor therapeutic NO gas at tumor lesion simultaneously, and consequently inducing the apoptotic cell death of tumors via mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. This therapeutic paradigm presents an effective local OSCC therapeutics in a synergistic manner based on the nanocatalytic NO gas therapy, providing a promising antitumor modality with high biocompatibility.
The perovskite-type oxide Li
x
La
(2-x)/3
TiO
3
(LLTO) was prepared by high temperature solid-phase method as an high power and long cycling life negative electrode material for lithium-ion battery. ...Compared to the previously reported LLTO series anode materials, Li
0.2375
La
0.5875
TiO
3
shows higher capacity and cycle stability, which delivers a reversible discharge capacity of 270 mAh g
−1
at a current density of 100 mA g
−1
and retained 258 mAh g
−1
after 1000 cycles. Moreover, excellent rate performance is also shown. It delivers a charge capacity of ca. 241.3, 186.8, 165.2, 145.2 and 246.4 mAh g
−1
, respectively, at the end of each 10 cycles at the current density of 100, 500, 1000, 2000 and back to 100 mA g
−1
. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on a special quasi-random structures (SQS-64) super cell confirm the direct Li
+
migrations between neighboring Li
+
/vacancies. The metallic nature of the Li
0.2375
La
0.5875
TiO
3
is one of the important factors that improve the performance of the sample. Most important of all, the highly active Li
+
, which is ca. 10
–9
cm
2
s
−1
from Cyclic voltammetry/Electro-chemical impedance spectroscopy (CV/EIS) results and ca. 10
–7
cm
2
s
−1
from MD simulations, and the vacancies at 1a/1b sites, which facilitate the migration of two neighboring lithium ions, also greatly contribute to the high performance of the material.
Graphical abstract
(a) The a view of the superimposed Li+ trajectory at 600 K (b) The b view of the superimposed Li+ trajectory at 1200 K of the 2×2×2 SQS-64 demonstrating the lithium ion diffusion mechanism of Li0.2375La0.5875TiO3.
To improve the accuracy and efficiency of 3D LiDAR mapping, real-time cooperative SLAM has been considered to explore large and complex areas. To merge the individual maps from multiple robots, it is ...crucial to identify the common areas and obtain alternative matches between them. However, data transmission, especially in sparse networks with narrow bandwidth and limited range, is a challenging issue for the above problem. Since the distribution manner is suitable for limited communication, we proposed a common framework of 3D real-time distributed cooperative SLAM to fill the community gap. Assuming that each robot can communicate with others, the presented framework consists of four key modules: place recognition, relative pose estimation, distributed graph optimization, and communication. Meanwhile, we developed a complete real-time distributed cooperative SLAM system, called RDC-SLAM, by integrating state-of-the-art components into the framework. For computation and data transmission efficiency, descriptor-based registration is used instead of the conventional point cloud matching. An intensity-based descriptor is developed to perform the place recognition and obtain the alternative matches, while an eigenvalue-based segment descriptor is applied to further refine the relative pose estimations between these alternative matches. A distributed graph optimization method is utilized to obtain the maximum likelihood of multi-trajectory estimation. A communication protocol is also designed to associate data among robots that are easy to deploy and have low network requirements. The RDC-SLAM is validated by real-world experiments and exhibits superior performance concerning accuracy, computation efficiency, and data efficiency.
Liver fibrosis is an abnormal wound repair response caused by a variety of chronic liver injuries, which is characterized by over-deposition of diffuse extracellular matrix (ECM) and anomalous ...hyperplasia of connective tissue, and it may further develop into liver cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer. To date, chronic liver diseases accompanied with liver fibrosis have caused significant morbidity and mortality in the world with increasing tendency. Although early liver fibrosis has been reported to be reversible, the detailed mechanism of reversing liver fibrosis is still unclear and there is lack of an effective treatment for liver fibrosis. Thus, it is still a top priority for the research and development of anti-fibrosis drugs. In recent years, many strategies have emerged as crucial means to inhibit the occurrence and development of liver fibrosis including anti-inflammation and liver protection, inhibition of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation and proliferation, reduction of ECM overproduction and acceleration of ECM degradation. Moreover, gene therapy has been proved to be a promising anti-fibrosis method. Here, we provide an overview of the relevant targets and drugs under development. We aim to classify and summarize their potential roles in treatment of liver fibrosis, and discuss the challenges and development of anti-fibrosis drugs.
•Discuss the ideal focal species from the perspective of habitat preference.•Explore wading birds’ substitute potential to represent broader bird biodiversity.•Consider habitat preference in both ...ecological source selection and resistance surface design.•The EN4 for wading birds is the most cost-effective and potentially fits all birds.•The ES4 exhibits a remarkable overlap with the ECR and PBF.
Focal species play a crucial role in planning ecological networks (ENs). Despite the finding that ENs designed for a specific focal species can yield benefits for associated communities, current practices of applying individual focal species have faced criticism for oversimplifying intricate ecosystems. Besides, the aggregation of ENs for individual species has been demonstrated as ineffective and costly. To improve cost-effectiveness, species with similar habitat preferences are typically conserved using shared strategies. Thus, drawing from the habitat preference of wading birds for blue and green spaces, we hypothesized that an EN for wading birds may benefit co-existing water and forest birds that prefer blue or green spaces. To validate this hypothesis, we conducted our study in the Yangtze River Delta’s Ecological Green Integration Demonstration Zone. We simulated six scenarios S1-S6 to compare the cost-effectiveness of focal species networks, respectively for water, forest, and wading birds in the S2-S4, with the aggregate networks in the S5-S6. During ENs’ construction, we employed the InVEST Habitat Quality model, MSPA, MCR model, and Linkage Mapper Tools. Furthermore, we selected the most cost-effective EN by calculating six ENs’ connectivity-cost ratio (CCr index) and ranked the conservation priority for its sources and corridors. The results showed that the EN4 ranked highest in the CCr index and displayed a high conservation efficiency for all bird species. 93.41% of primary ES4 and 42.46% of secondary ES4 overlapped with the ecological conservation redline and the permanent basic farmland and could be well protected under current statutory planning. Our findings confirm that wading birds are the ideal focal species in EN planning for broader bird conservation in the context of the Yangtze River Delta. The constructed regional EN could contribute to establishing a linkage with the supra-regional EN and the world’s major bird migration flyway. Moreover, our cost-effective approach to bird conservation could provide new insights for targeting focal species from the perspective of habitat preference in multi-species EN planning.
...whether GRI can address the limitations of HbA1c remains uncertain. ...the primary objective of this study was to explore the implications of the GRI at different HbA1c levels and to investigate ...whether their combined use can offer enhanced guidance for clinical glucose management. At each patient visit, we collected age, sex, diabetes duration, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, insulin administration method, daily insulin dosage (U·kg–1·day–1), and CGM data including time in range (TIR, 3.9–10.0 mmol/L), level 1 time below range (TBR) (TBR1, 3.0 mmol/L to <3.9 mmol/L), level 2 TBR (TBR2, <3.0 mmol/L), level 1 Time above range (TAR) (TAR1, >10.0 mmol/L to 13.9 mmol/L), and level 2 TAR (TAR2, >13.9 mmol/L). Intriguingly, MG index did not differ in patients with HbA1c <7% regardless of GRI being ≥55 or <55. ...the TIR in patients with GRI ≥55 was significantly lower than that in patients with GRI <55 (65.5% 59.7%, 68.9% vs. 80.7% 75.4%, 86.6%, P <0.001) for those with HbA1c <7%. ...the assessment of glycemic control has evolved to encompass a broader array of multi-dimensional parameters, and the GRI unquestionably enhances this perspective.
Recently, double perovskite (DP) oxides denoted A2B′B″O6 (A being divalent or trivalent metals, B′ and B″ being heterovalent transition metals) have been attracting much attention owing to their wide ...range of electrical and magnetic properties. Among them, rhenium (Re)-based DP oxides such as A2FeReO6 (A = Ba, Sr, Ca) are a particularly intriguing class due to their high magnetic Curie temperatures, metallic-like, half-metallic, or insulating behaviors, and large carrier spin polarizations. In addition, the Re-based DP compounds with heterovalent transition metals B′ and B″ occupying B sites have a potential to exhibit rich electronic structures and complex magnetic structures owing to the strong interplays between strongly localized 3d electrons and more delocalized 5d electrons with strong spin–orbit coupling. Thus, the involved physics in the Re-based DP compounds is much richer than expected. Therefore, there are many issues related to the couplings among the charge, spin, and orbitals, which need to be addressed in the Re-based DP compounds. In the past decade, much effort has been made to synthesize Re-based DP compounds and to investigate their crystal structures, structural chemistry, and metal–insulator transitions via orbital ordering, cationic ordering, and electrical, magnetic, and magneto-transport properties, leading to rich literature in the experimental and theoretical investigations. This Review focuses on recent advances in Re-based DP oxides, which include their synthesis methods, physical and structural characterizations, and advanced applications of Re-based DP oxides. Theoretical investigations of the electronic and structural aspects of Re-based DP oxides are also summarized. Finally, future perspectives of Re-based DP oxides are also addressed.
1 Evidence supports the positive effects of advanced CC on glucose control, quality of life, and food flexibility. There are currently no standardized nutritional knowledge tools for adults with ...T1DM. ...we aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire, the Nutrition and Advanced Carbohydrate Counting Questionnaire (NACQ), and to investigate its feasibility for use with adults with T1DM. The content domains consisted of three meaningful subscales: (1) healthy eating, (2) advanced CC including calculation of mealtime insulin doses, and (3) the impact of food on blood glucose. In the binary logistic regression analysis, the risk of poor glycemic control (HbA1c ≥7%) for patients with NACQ scores <17.6 was 2.857 times greater than that for patients with NACQ scores ≥17.6 (Odds ratio 2.857, 95% Confidence interval 1.294–6.308, P = 0.009) after adjustment for age, gender, duration of T1DM, and residence.
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