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This study explores how the size and hybridisation of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) affect the properties of graphene nanoplatelet-filled natural rubber (NR) nanocomposites (GNP-filled NR). Results demonstrate notable enhancements in the thermal properties and electrical conductivity of NR with the addition of GNPs. However, mechanical properties experienced partial enhancement, showing increased modulus by up to 200% and hardness by up to 50%, alongside decreased tensile strength by up to 60% and elongation by up to 70%. The comparative analysis highlights the superior mechanical and thermal properties associated with smaller GNPs. These smaller particles enhanced mechanical properties such as modulus at 100% strain and Shore A hardness, increased the glass transition temperature by up to 10%, and reduced thermal degradation rates by up to 30% due to their superior dispersion and interfacial bonding with NR. Larger GNPs exhibited a 1000% increase in electrical conductivity at 10 × 10 6  Hz due to increased surface area and network formation due to reduced dispersion. Notably, hybrid GNPs contributed significantly to overall property enhancements compared to the single filler system, with up to 80% higher tensile strength, up to 30% higher elongation at break, up to 20% higher glass transition temperature, lower degradation rate at high temperature, attributed to improved dispersion of GNPs and interfacial adhesion with NR. This study highlights the substantial influence of GNP sizes on the performance of NR nanocomposites and the significant effects of hybridisation, providing valuable insights for optimising material properties for advanced applications.

China has approximately 10 million people with epilepsy. There is a vast epilepsy treatment gap in China, mainly driven by deficiencies in health-care delivery and social discrimination resulting from cultural beliefs about epilepsy. WHO's Global Campaign Against Epilepsy project in China showed that it was possible to treat epilepsy in primary care settings, which was a notable milestone. The China Association Against Epilepsy has been a necessary force to stimulate interest in epilepsy care and research by the medical and scientific community. Nearly 20 different anti-seizure medications are now available in China. Non-pharmacological options are also available, but there are still unmet needs for epilepsy management. The Chinese epilepsy research portfolio is varied, but the areas in which there are the most concentrated focus and expertise are epidemiology and clinical research. The challenges for further improvement in delivering care for people with epilepsy in China are primarily related to public health and reducing inequalities within this vast country.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an evolving set of technologies used for solving a wide range of applied issues. The core of AI is machine learning (ML)—a complex of algorithms and methods that address the problems of classification, clustering, and forecasting. The practical application of AI&ML holds promising prospects. Therefore, the researches in this area are intensive. However, the industrial applications of AI and its more intensive use in society are not widespread at the present time. The challenges of widespread AI applications need to be considered from both the AI (internal problems) and the societal (external problems) perspective. This consideration will identify the priority steps for more intensive practical application of AI technologies, their introduction, and involvement in industry and society. The article presents the identification and discussion of the challenges of the employment of AI technologies in the economy and society of resource-based countries. The systematization of AI&ML technologies is implemented based on publications in these areas. This systematization allows for the specification of the organizational, personnel, social and technological limitations. This paper outlines the directions of studies in AI and ML, which will allow us to overcome some of the limitations and achieve expansion of the scope of AI&ML applications.

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the global leading causes of concern due to the rising prevalence and consequence of mortality and disability with a heavy economic burden. The objective of the current study was to analyze the trend in CVD incidence, mortality, and mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) across the world over 28 years. Methods The age-standardized CVD mortality and incidence rates were retrieved from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017 for both genders and different world super regions with available data every year during the period 1990–2017. Additionally, the Human Development Index was sourced from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) database for all countries at the same time interval. The marginal modeling approach was implemented to evaluate the mean trend of CVD incidence, mortality, and MIR for 195 countries and separately for developing and developed countries and also clarify the relationship between the indices and Human Development Index (HDI) from 1990 to 2017. Results The obtained estimates identified that the global mean trend of CVD incidence had an ascending trend until 1996 followed by a descending trend after this year. Nearly all of the countries experienced a significant declining mortality trend from 1990 to 2017. Likewise, the global mean MIR rate had a significant trivial decrement trend with a gentle slope of 0.004 over the time interval. As such, the reduction in incidence and mortality rates for developed countries was significantly faster than developing counterparts in the period 1990–2017 ( p  < 0.05). Nevertheless, the developing nations had a more rather shallow decrease in MIR compared to developed ones. Conclusions Generally, the findings of this study revealed that there was an overall downward trend in CVD incidence and mortality rates, while the survival rate of CVD patients was rather stable. These results send a satisfactory message that global effort for controlling the CVD burden was quite successful. Nonetheless, there is an urgent need for more efforts to improve the survival rate of patients and lower the burden of this disease in some areas with an increasing trend of either incidence or mortality.

We describe the theory and practice of real GDP comparisons across countries and over time. Version 8 of the Penn World Table expands on previous versions in three respects. First, in addition to comparisons of living standards using components of real GDP on the expenditure side, we provide a measure of productive capacity, called real GDP on the output side. Second, growth rates are benchmarked to multiple years of cross-country price data so they are less sensitive to new benchmark data. Third, data on capital stocks and productivity are (re)introduced. Applications including the Balassa-Samuelson effect and development accounting are discussed.

Objective To estimate the global prevalence of hip osteoarthritis (HOA) through a systematic review and meta-analysis, and to determine by regression analysis the respective relationships between age and sex, and sex and prevalence. Methods EMBASE, PubMed, Web of science, CINAHL, and SCOPUS were searched from inception until August 2022. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed the quality of the retrieved literature. Random-effects meta-analysis was performed to derive the pooled prevalence. Variations in the prevalence estimate in different subgroups, including diagnostic methods, region, and patient sex, were examined by subgroup meta-analysis. Meta-regression was used to construct the age-specific prevalence of HOA. Results A total of 31 studies were included in our analysis, involving 326,463 participants. Quality evaluation showed that all studies included in the analysis had a Quality Score of at least 4. The most frequently used method for diagnosing HOA was the Kellgren–Lawrence (K-L) grade classification, accounting for 19/31 (61.3%) studies. The pooled prevalence of HOA diagnosed based on the K-L grade ≥ 2 criterion was 8.55% (95% CI 4.85–13.18) worldwide. The prevalence of HOA was lowest in Africa at 1.20% (95% CI: 0.40–2.38), followed by Asia at 4.26% (95% CI 0.02–14.93) and North America at 7.95% (95% CI 1.98–17.36), and highest in Europe at 12.59% (95% CI 7.17–19.25). There was no statistically significant difference in HOA prevalence between men (9.42%, 95% CI:4.81–15.34) and women at (7.94%, 95% CI: 3.57–13.81). The regression model showed a correlation between age and the prevalence of HOA. Conclusion HOA has high prevalence worldwide and increases with age. The prevalence varies significantly by region but not by patient sex. High-quality epidemiological studies are warranted to more accurately estimate the prevalence of HOA.

In this paper a hybrid combination of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) was used for developing cementitious self-sensing composite with high mechanical, microstructural and durability performances. The mixture of these two nanoparticles with different 1D and 2D geometrical shapes can reduce the percolation threshold to a certain amount which can avoid agglomeration formation and also reinforce the microstructure due to percolation and electron quantum tunneling amplification. In this route, different concentrations of CNT + GNP were dispersed by Pluronic F-127 and tributyl phosphate (TBP) with 3 h sonication at 40 °C and incorporated into the cementitious mortar. Mechanical, microstructural, and durability of the reinforced mortar were investigated by various tests in different hydration periods (7, 28, and 90 days). Additionally, the piezoresistivity behavior of specimens was also evaluated by the four-probe method under flexural and compression cyclic loading. Results demonstrated that hybrid CNT + GNP can significantly improve mechanical and microstructural properties of cementitious composite by filler function, bridging cracks, and increasing hydration rate mechanisms. CNT + GNP intruded specimens also showed higher resistance against climatic cycle tests. Generally, the trend of all results demonstrates an optimal concentration of CNT (0.25%) + GNP (0.25%). Furthermore, increasing CNT + GNP concentration leads to sharp changes in electrical resistivity of reinforced specimens under small variation of strain achieving high gauge factor in both flexural and compression loading modes.

Improving a vehicle driver’s performance decreases the damage caused by, and chances of, road accidents. In recent decades, engineers and researchers have proposed several strategies to model and improve driving monitoring and assistance systems (DMAS). This work presents a comprehensive survey of the literature related to driving processes, the main reasons for road accidents, the methods of their early detection, and state-of-the-art strategies developed to assist drivers for a safe and comfortable driving experience. The studies focused on the three main elements of the driving process, viz. driver, vehicle, and driving environment are analytically reviewed in this work, and a comprehensive framework of DMAS, major research areas, and their interaction is explored. A well-designed DMAS improves the driving experience by continuously monitoring the critical parameters associated with the driver, vehicle, and surroundings by acquiring and processing the data obtained from multiple sensors. A discussion on the challenges associated with the current and future DMAS and their potential solutions is also presented.

Globally, corrosion is the costliest cause of the deterioration of metallic and concrete structures, leading to significant financial losses and unexpected loss of life. Therefore, corrosion monitoring is vital to the assessment of structures’ residual performance and for the identification of pathologies in early stages for the predictive maintenance of facilities. However, the high price tag on available corrosion monitoring systems leads to their exclusive use for structural health monitoring applications, especially for atmospheric corrosion detection in civil structures. In this paper a systematic literature review is provided on the state-of-the-art electrochemical methods and physical methods used so far for corrosion monitoring compatible with low-cost sensors and data acquisition devices for metallic and concrete structures. In addition, special attention is paid to the use of these devices for corrosion monitoring and detection for in situ applications in different industries. This analysis demonstrates the possible applications of low-cost sensors in the corrosion monitoring sector. In addition, this study provides scholars with preferred techniques and the most common microcontrollers, such as Arduino, to overcome the corrosion monitoring difficulties in the construction industry.

Achieving WHO cervical cancer elimination goals will necessitate efforts to increase HPV vaccine access and coverage in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). Although LMICs account for the majority of cervical cancer cases globally, scale-up of HPV vaccine programs and progress toward coverage targets in LMICs has been largely insufficient. Understanding the barriers and facilitators that stakeholders face in the introduction and scale-up of HPV vaccination programs will be pivotal in ensuring that LMICs are equipped to optimize the implementation of HPV vaccination programs. This qualitative study interviewed 13 global stakeholders categorized as either academic partners or global immunization partners to ascertain perspectives regarding factors affecting the introduction and scale-up of HPV vaccination programs in LMICs. Global stakeholders were selected as their perspectives have not been as readily highlighted within the literature despite their key role in HPV vaccination programming. The results of this investigation identified upstream (e.g., financial considerations, vaccine prioritization, global supply, capacity and delivery, and vaccine accessibility, equity, and ethics) and downstream (e.g., vaccine acceptability and hesitancy, communications, advocacy, and social mobilization) determinants that impact program introduction and scale-up and confirmed that strong political commitment and governance are significant in garnering support for HPV vaccines. As LMICs introduce HPV vaccines into their national immunization programs and develop plans for scaling up vaccination efforts, strategic approaches to communications and advocacy will also be needed to successfully meet coverage targets.