In 2020 Globocan reported nearly 1.4 million new cases of gynaecology cancer worldwide. Cancer related fatigue has been identified as a symptom that can be present for gynaecology cancer patients ...many years after treatment. The current evidence around the management of this symptom suggests that exercise has the most positive outcome. However, some ambiguity remains around the evidence and whether it can address all areas of fatigue effectively. More recently, other interventions such as mindfulness have begun to show a favourable response to the management of symptoms for cancer patients. To date there has been little research that explores the feasibility of using both these interventions together in a gynaecology cancer population. This study aims to explore the feasibility of delivering an intervention that involves mindfulness and mindfulness and exercise and will explore the effect of this on fatigue, sleep, mood and quality of life. This randomised control trial will assess the interventions outcomes using a pre and post design and will also include a qualitative process evaluation. Participants will be randomised into one of 2 groups. One group will undertake mindfulness only and the other group will complete exercise and mindfulness. Both groups will use a mobile application to complete these interventions over 8 weeks. The mobile app will be tailored to reflect the group the participants have drawn during randomisation. Self-reported questionnaire data will be assessed at baseline prior to commencing intervention and at post intervention. Feasibility will be assessed through recruitment, adherence, retention and attrition. Acceptability and participant perspective of participation (process evaluation), will be explored using focus groups. This trial will hope to evidence and demonstrate that combination of two interventions such as mindfulness and exercise will further improve outcomes of fatigue and wellbeing in gynaecology cancer. The results of this study will be used to assess (i) the feasibility to deliver this type of intervention to this population of cancer patients using a digital platform; (ii) assist this group of women diagnosed with cancer to manage fatigue and other symptoms of sleep, mood and impact their quality of life.
Currently, Human Activity Recognition (HAR) applications need a large volume of data to be able to generalize to new users and environments. However, the availability of labeled data is usually ...limited and the process of recording new data is costly and time-consuming. Synthetically increasing datasets using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) has been proposed, outperforming cropping, time-warping, and jittering techniques on raw signals. Incorporating GAN-generated synthetic data into datasets has been demonstrated to improve the accuracy of trained models. Regardless, currently, there is no optimal GAN architecture to generate accelerometry signals, neither a proper evaluation methodology to assess signal quality or accuracy using synthetic data. This work is the first to propose conditional Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks (cWGANs) to generate synthetic HAR accelerometry signals. Furthermore, we calculate quality metrics from the literature and study the impact of synthetic data on a large HAR dataset involving 395 users. Results show that i) cWGAN outperforms original Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (cGANs), being 1D convolutional layers appropriate for generating accelerometry signals, ii) the performance improvement incorporating synthetic data is more significant as the dataset size is smaller, and iii) the quantity of synthetic data required is inversely proportional to the quantity of real data.
•Buchwald-Hartwig amination provided novel polymers.•Low polydispersity of polymers indicates homogeneous nature.•High thermal stability makes polymers compatible with organic electronics ...processing.•Optical properties suggest high transparency of polymeric films.
A novel series of polymers incorporating 10-hexyl-10H-phenothiazine and substituted anilines were synthesized through Buchwald-Hartwig amination polymerization. Comprehensive characterization of the polymers by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA showed remarkable thermal stability. Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) measurements indicated low polydispersity, and average molecular weights, both conducive to film formation. Optical characterization, conducted through UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, highlighted the transparency of the synthesized polymers in the visible region. Additionally, band gap was estimated by the intersection point of absorption and emission spectra. This multifaceted analysis contributes valuable insights into the structural and optical properties of the developed polymeric compounds, demonstrating their potential applications in various fields.
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The use of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) as a feature learning method for Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is becoming more and more common. Unlike conventional machine learning methods, which ...require domain-specific expertise, CNNs can extract features automatically. On the other hand, CNNs require a training phase, making them prone to the cold-start problem. In this work, a case study is presented where the use of a pre-trained CNN feature extractor is evaluated under realistic conditions. The case study consists of two main steps: (1) different topologies and parameters are assessed to identify the best candidate models for HAR, thus obtaining a pre-trained CNN model. The pre-trained model (2) is then employed as feature extractor evaluating its use with a large scale real-world dataset. Two CNN applications were considered: Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and audio based HAR. For the IMU data, balanced accuracy was 91.98% on the UCI-HAR dataset, and 67.51% on the real-world Extrasensory dataset. For the audio data, the balanced accuracy was 92.30% on the DCASE 2017 dataset, and 35.24% on the Extrasensory dataset.
Molecular acceptors are promising alternatives to fullerenes (e.g., PC61/71BM) in the fabrication of high-efficiency bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. While solution-processed polymer–fullerene ...BHJ devices have recently met the 10% efficiency threshold, molecular acceptors have yet to prove comparably efficient with polymer donors. At this point in time, it is important to forge a better understanding of the design parameters that directly impact small-molecule (SM) acceptor performance in BHJ solar cells. In this report, we show that 2-(benzoc1,2,5thiadiazol-4-ylmethylene)malononitrile (BM)-terminated SM acceptors can achieve efficiencies as high as 5.3% in BHJ solar cells with the polymer donor PCE10. Through systematic device optimization and characterization studies, we find that the nonfullerene analogues (FBM, CBM, and CDTBM) all perform comparably well, independent of the molecular structure and electronics of the π-bridge that links the two electron-deficient BM end groups. With estimated electron affinities within range of those of common fullerenes (4.0–4.3 eV), and a wider range of ionization potentials (6.2–5.6 eV), the SM acceptors absorb in the visible spectrum and effectively contribute to the BHJ device photocurrent. BM-substituted SM acceptors are promising alternatives to fullerenes in solution-processed BHJ solar cells.
We leverage the attractive properties of a high χ–low N BCP, i.e., poly(styrene)-block-poly(2-fluoroethylmethyl acrylate) (PS-b-P2FEMA), and illustrate its utility for next-generation ...nanomanufacturing. The synthesis, physical characterization, and thin film self-assembly of a series of lamellar and cylindrical PS-b-P2FEMA BCPs are delineated. PS-b-P2FEMA BCPs with total molecular weights ranging from 7 to 22 kg mol–1 were synthesized by using reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Temperature-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements revealed a large χ value (0.13 at 150 °C) for PS-b-P2FEMA. Solvothermal vapor annealing of PS-b-P2FEMA films produced highly oriented fingerprint patterns in as short as 60 s. Lamellar period sizes ranged from 25.9 down to 14.2 nm with feature sizes as small as 7 nm observed. We also demonstrate the integration feasibility of PS-b-P2FEMA BCPs through alumina hardmask formation using sequential infiltration synthesis. The highly favorable characteristics of the P2FEMA-based BCPs detailed here provide a versatile material option to the current library of available BCPs for sub-10 nm nanolithography.
Poly(isoindigo‐alt‐3,4‐difluorothiophene) (PIID2FT) analogues used as “polymer acceptors” in bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells achieve >7 % efficiency when used in conjunction with the polymer ...donor PBFTAZ (model system; copolymer of benzo1,2‐b:4,5‐b′dithiophene and 5,6‐difluorobenzotriazole). Considering that most efficient polymer‐acceptor alternatives to fullerenes (e.g. PC61BM or its C71 derivative) are based on perylenediimide or naphthalenediimide motifs thus far, branched alkyl‐substituted PIID2FT polymers are particularly promising non‐fullerene candidates for “all‐polymer” BHJ solar cells.
Light work for polymers: Poly(isoindigo‐alt‐3,4‐difluorothiophene) (PIID2FT) analogues can serve as fullerene alternatives in “all‐polymer” bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. Employing PIID2FT with a wide‐band‐gap polymer donor yields efficiencies as high as 7.3%, and some of the best open‐circuit voltage figures (ca. 1.0 V) reported for BHJ solar cells.
Taking the π‐conjugated polymers PBDT2XT (X = H, F) as model systems, the effects of fluorine substitution on main‐chain conformations, packing, and electronic couplings are examined. This ...combination of molecular dynamics simulations and solid‐state NMR shows that a higher propensity for backbone planarity in PBDT2FT leads to more pronounced, yet staggered, chain stacking, which generally leads to higher electronic couplings and binding energy between neighboring chains.
Achieving efficient bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells from blends of solution‐processable small‐molecule (SM) donors and acceptors is proved particularly challenging due to the complexity in ...obtaining a favorable donor–acceptor morphology. In this report, the BHJ device performance pattern of a set of analogous, well‐defined SM donors—DR3TBDTT (DR3), SMPV1, and BTR—used in conjunction with the SM acceptor IDTTBM is examined. Examinations show that the nonfullerene “All‐SM” BHJ solar cells made with DR3 and IDTTBM can achieve power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to ≈4.5% (avg. 4.0%) when the solution‐processing additive 1,8‐diiodooctane (DIO, 0.8% v/v) is used in the blend solutions. The figures of merit of optimized DR3:IDTTBM solar cells contrast with those of “as‐cast” BHJ devices from which only modest PCEs <1% can be achieved. Combining electron energy loss spectrum analyses in scanning transmission electron microscopy mode, carrier transport measurements via “metal‐insulator‐semiconductor carrier extraction” methods, and systematic recombination examinations by light‐dependence and transient photocurrent analyses, it is shown that DIO plays a determining role—establishing a favorable lengthscale for the phase‐separated SM donor–acceptor network and, in turn, improving the balance in hole/electron mobilities and the carrier collection efficiencies overall.
A set of structurally analogous small‐molecule (SM) donors with distinct side‐chain manifolds shows significant differences in their performance patterns in bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ) devices with the nonfullerene SM acceptor IDTTBM. Reducing the lengthscale of the phase‐separated network between donor and acceptor effectively suppresses nongeminate recombination in the BHJ active layers and improves the carrier mobility balance.
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