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This paper provides an overview and appraisal of the International Design Engineering Annual (IDEA) challenge - a virtually hosted design hackathon run with the aim of generating a design research dataset that can provide insights into design activities at virtually hosted hackathons. The resulting dataset consists of 200+ prototypes with over 1300 connections providing insights into the products, processes and people involved in the design process. The paper also provides recommendations for future deployments of virtual hackathons for design research.
Closing the material loop is fundamental to circular economy (CE). However, significant quantities of resources are currently landfilled. Today, companies realise the importance of take-back for CE but face several barriers in implementing it, lack of knowledge, being one such barrier. To address this, a proposal is presented for the design of a configurator to support companies evaluate different approaches, as well as opportunities and challenges for designing and implementing take-back. The paper presents a conceptual framework for the configurator, based on a systematic literature review.
A spacetime formulation is presented to solve unsteady aerodynamic problems involving large deformation or topological change such as store separation, slat and flap deployment or spoiler deflection. This technique avoids complex CFD meshing methods, such as Chimera, by the use of a finite-volume approach both in space and time, and permits a locally varying real timestep. The use of a central-difference scheme in the time direction can yield non-physical transient solutions as a consequence of information travelling backwards in time. Therefore, an upwind formulation is provided and validated against one-dimensional and two-dimensional test cases. A hybrid formulation (central in space, upwind in time) is also given and unsteady cases are computed for a spoiler and spoiler/flap deployment, with all three formulations compared, demonstrating that the use of an upwind time stencil yields more representative physical solutions and improves the rate of convergence.
Virtual reality has emerged as a unique educational modality for medical trainees. However, incorporation of virtual reality curricula into formal training programmes has been limited. We describe a multi-centre effort to develop, implement, and evaluate the efficacy of a virtual reality curriculum for residents participating in paediatric cardiology rotations.
Methods:
A virtual reality software program (“The Stanford Virtual Heart”) was utilised. Users are placed “inside the heart” and explore non-traditional views of cardiac anatomy. Modules for six common congenital heart lesions were developed, including narrative scripts. A prospective case–control study was performed involving three large paediatric residency programmes. From July 2018 to June 2019, trainees participating in an outpatient cardiology rotation completed a 27-question, validated assessment tool. From July 2019 to February 2020, trainees completed the virtual reality curriculum and assessment tool during their cardiology rotation. Qualitative feedback on the virtual reality experience was also gathered. Intervention and control group performances were compared using univariate analyses.
Results:
There were 80 trainees in the control group and 52 in the intervention group. Trainees in the intervention group achieved higher scores on the assessment (20.4 ± 2.9 versus 18.8 ± 3.8 out of 27 questions answered correctly, p = 0.01). Further analysis showed significant improvement in the intervention group for questions specifically testing visuospatial concepts. In total, 100% of users recommended integration of the programme into the residency curriculum.
Conclusions:
Virtual reality is an effective and well-received adjunct to clinical curricula for residents participating in paediatric cardiology rotations. Our results support continued virtual reality use and expansion to include other trainees.
Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are a frequent cause of morbidity in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), due in part to the presence of central venous access devices (CVADs) required to deliver therapy.
Objective:
To determine the differential risk of bacterial BSI during neutropenia by CVAD type in pediatric patients with AML.
Methods:
We performed a secondary analysis in a cohort of 560 pediatric patients (1,828 chemotherapy courses) receiving frontline AML chemotherapy at 17 US centers. The exposure was CVAD type at course start: tunneled externalized catheter (TEC), peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC), or totally implanted catheter (TIC). The primary outcome was course-specific incident bacterial BSI; secondary outcomes included mucosal barrier injury (MBI)-BSI and non-MBI BSI. Poisson regression was used to compute adjusted rate ratios comparing BSI occurrence during neutropenia by line type, controlling for demographic, clinical, and hospital-level characteristics.
Results:
The rate of BSI did not differ by CVAD type: 11 BSIs per 1,000 neutropenic days for TECs, 13.7 for PICCs, and 10.7 for TICs. After adjustment, there was no statistically significant association between CVAD type and BSI: PICC incident rate ratio [IRR] = 1.00 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75–1.32) and TIC IRR = 0.83 (95% CI, 0.49–1.41) compared to TEC. When MBI and non-MBI were examined separately, results were similar.
Conclusions:
In this large, multicenter cohort of pediatric AML patients, we found no difference in the rate of BSI during neutropenia by CVAD type. This may be due to a risk-profile for BSI that is unique to AML patients.
Understanding how cardiovascular structure and physiology guide management is critically important in paediatric cardiology. However, few validated educational tools are available to assess trainee knowledge. To address this deficit, paediatric cardiologists and fellows from four institutions collaborated to develop a multimedia assessment tool for use with medical students and paediatric residents. This tool was developed in support of a novel 3-dimensional virtual reality curriculum created by our group.
Methods:
Educational domains were identified, and questions were iteratively developed by a group of clinicians from multiple centres to assess understanding of key concepts. To evaluate content validity, content experts completed the assessment and reviewed items, rating item relevance to educational domains using a 4-point Likert scale. An item-level content validity index was calculated for each question, and a scale-level content validity index was calculated for the assessment tool, with scores of ≥0.78 and ≥0.90, respectively, representing excellent content validity.
Results:
The mean content expert assessment score was 92% (range 88–97%). Two questions yielded ≤50% correct content expert answers. The item-level content validity index for 29 out of 32 questions was ≥0.78, and the scale-level content validity index was 0.92. Qualitative feedback included suggestions for future improvement. Questions with ≤50% content expert agreement and item-level content validity index scores <0.78 were removed, yielding a 27-question assessment tool.
Conclusions:
We describe a multi-centre effort to create and validate a multimedia assessment tool which may be implemented within paediatric trainee cardiology curricula. Future efforts may focus on content refinement and expansion to include additional educational domains.
We assessed the feasibility of implementing psychological counseling services (PCS) for mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) integrated within special education settings in urban Bangladesh.
Method
In two special education schools for ASD in Dhaka City, trained female psychologists screened mothers using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). PCS was administered to all the mothers irrespective of a diagnosis of depression. Mothers with a PHQ-9 score >4 who met criteria for a major depressive episode (MDE) based on the DSM-IV Structured Interview Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) were also administered skill-building training through monthly home visits to support ASD care. The level of depression was assessed by the Depression Measurement Scale (DMS), and quality of life (QoL) was measured by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of EQ5D5L scale before and after PCS.
Result
Among 188 mothers enrolled in the study, 81 (43%) received PCS, and 27.1% (22) had MDE. In the first month, 73 sessions were scheduled and 60 completed (85%). In the last month, 53 sessions were scheduled and 52 completed (98%). The mean DMS score decreased from 79.5 ± 23 to 60 ± 20 (p = 0.004), and DMS scores were significantly higher among mothers with MDE (97.8 ± 12.1 v. 69.9 ± 22.1; p < 0.001) compared to those without MDE (72.7 ± 22.6 v. 56.1 ± 18.1; p = 0.003). The mean VAS score improved from 70.3 ± 14.1 to 80.2 ± 13.3 (p = 0.001) between the first and the last session. Changes in DMS were negatively correlated with changes in VAS scores (β: −0.213, 95% CI 0.370 to −0.056).
Conclusion
Within special education schools for ASD in urban Bangladesh, it was feasible to administer an integrated program of PCS for mothers of children with ASD by trained psychologists who were able to screen and intervene to reduce their level of depression and improve their quality of life.
We describe the scientific goals and survey design of the First Large Absorption Survey in H i (FLASH), a wide field survey for 21-cm line absorption in neutral atomic hydrogen (H i) at intermediate cosmological redshifts. FLASH will be carried out with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope and is planned to cover the sky south of
$\delta \approx +40\,\deg$
at frequencies between 711.5 and 999.5 MHz. At redshifts between
$z = 0.4$
and
$1.0$
(look-back times of 4 – 8 Gyr), the H i content of the Universe has been poorly explored due to the difficulty of carrying out radio surveys for faint 21-cm line emission and, at ultra-violet wavelengths, space-borne searches for Damped Lyman-
$\alpha$
absorption in quasar spectra. The ASKAP wide field of view and large spectral bandwidth, in combination with a radio-quiet site, will enable a search for absorption lines in the radio spectra of bright continuum sources over 80% of the sky. This survey is expected to detect at least several hundred intervening 21-cm absorbers and will produce an H i-absorption-selected catalogue of galaxies rich in cool, star-forming gas, some of which may be concealed from optical surveys. Likewise, at least several hundred associated 21-cm absorbers are expected to be detected within the host galaxies of radio sources at
$0.4 < z < 1.0$
, providing valuable kinematical information for models of gas accretion and jet-driven feedback in radio-loud active galactic nuclei. FLASH will also detect OH 18-cm absorbers in diffuse molecular gas, megamaser OH emission, radio recombination lines, and stacked H i emission.
To examine the association between adherence to plant-based diets and mortality.
Design:
Prospective study. We calculated a plant-based diet index (PDI) by assigning positive scores to plant foods and reverse scores to animal foods. We also created a healthful PDI (hPDI) and an unhealthful PDI (uPDI) by further separating the healthy plant foods from less-healthy plant foods.
Setting:
The VA Million Veteran Program.
Participants:
315 919 men and women aged 19–104 years who completed a FFQ at the baseline.
Results:
We documented 31 136 deaths during the follow-up. A higher PDI was significantly associated with lower total mortality (hazard ratio (HR) comparing extreme deciles = 0·75, 95 % CI: 0·71, 0·79, Ptrend < 0·001]. We observed an inverse association between hPDI and total mortality (HR comparing extreme deciles = 0·64, 95 % CI: 0·61, 0·68, Ptrend < 0·001), whereas uPDI was positively associated with total mortality (HR comparing extreme deciles = 1·41, 95 % CI: 1·33, 1·49, Ptrend < 0·001). Similar significant associations of PDI, hPDI and uPDI were also observed for CVD and cancer mortality. The associations between the PDI and total mortality were consistent among African and European American participants, and participants free from CVD and cancer and those who were diagnosed with major chronic disease at baseline.
Conclusions:
A greater adherence to a plant-based diet was associated with substantially lower total mortality in this large population of veterans. These findings support recommending plant-rich dietary patterns for the prevention of major chronic diseases.
Children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds exhibit more behavioural difficulties than those from more affluent families. Influential theoretical models specify family stress and child characteristics as mediating this effect. These accounts, however, have often been based on cross-sectional data or longitudinal analyses that do not capture all potential pathways, and therefore may not provide good policy guidance.
Methods
In a UK representative sample of 2399 children aged 5–15, we tested mediation of the effect of household income on parent and teacher reports of conduct problems (CP) via unhealthy family functioning, poor parental mental health, stressful life events, child physical health and reading ability. We applied cross-lagged longitudinal mediation models which allowed for testing of reciprocal effects whereby the hypothesised mediators were modelled as outcomes as well as predictors of CP.
Results
We found the predicted significant longitudinal effect of income on CP, but no evidence that it was mediated by the child and family factors included in the study. Instead, we found significant indirect paths from income to parental mental health, child physical health and stressful life events that were transmitted via child CP.
Conclusion
The results confirm that income is associated with change in CP but do not support models that suggest this effect is transmitted via unhealthy family functioning, parental mental health, child physical health, stressful life events or reading difficulties. Instead, the results highlight that child CP may be a mediator of social inequalities in family psychosocial functioning.
We present the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen (
${\rm H\small I}$
) emission associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), through the combination of data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Parkes (Murriyang), as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey. These GASKAP-HI pilot observations, for the first time, reveal
${\rm H\small I}$
in the SMC on similar physical scales as other important tracers of the interstellar medium, such as molecular gas and dust. The resultant image cube possesses an rms noise level of 1.1 K (
$1.6\,\mathrm{mJy\ beam}^{-1}$
)
$\mathrm{per}\ 0.98\,\mathrm{km\ s}^{-1}$
spectral channel with an angular resolution of
$30^{\prime\prime}$
(
${\sim}10\,\mathrm{pc}$
). We discuss the calibration scheme and the custom imaging pipeline that utilises a joint deconvolution approach, efficiently distributed across a computing cluster, to accurately recover the emission extending across the entire
${\sim}25\,\mathrm{deg}^2$
field-of-view. We provide an overview of the data products and characterise several aspects including the noise properties as a function of angular resolution and the represented spatial scales by deriving the global transfer function over the full spectral range. A preliminary spatial power spectrum analysis on individual spectral channels reveals that the power law nature of the density distribution extends down to scales of 10 pc. We highlight the scientific potential of these data by comparing the properties of an outflowing high-velocity cloud with previous ASKAP+Parkes
${\rm H\small I}$
test observations.
The inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense has the potential to reduce the use of mineral fertilizers with efficient capacity to promote plant growth and yield. Most studies on the Azospirillum–plant association have been conducted on cereals and annual grasses. More studies are needed in perennial pastures, such as bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) that require substantial nitrogen (N) fertilization to maximize their production potential. Therefore, pastures based on Tifton 85 bermudagrass in association with annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), which were inoculated with A. brasilense and fertilized with increasing amounts of N fertilizer and grazed by lactating Holstein cows were evaluated. Three grazing systems were evaluated: (i) Tifton 85, inoculated + 180 kg N/ha per year; (ii) Tifton 85 + 230 kg N/ha per year; and (iii) Tifton 85 + 280 kg N/ha per year. Forage samples were collected before and after grazing to evaluate the responses of the plants and animals. The forage yields of the systems were 21.0, 20.8 and 22.1 t DM/ha per year and the stocking rates were 3.9, 3.8 and 4.0 animal unit/ha per day, respectively. Crude protein, total digestible nutrients and neutral detergent fibre concentrations were 162, 560 and 667 g/kg, respectively. Inoculation in pastures planted with Tifton 85 bermudagrass in combination with ryegrass (plus 180 kg N/ha per year) had a positive effect, providing forage yield and nutritional value equivalent to those with fertilization with 230 kg N/ha per year.
Racial and ethnic groups in the USA differ in the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Recent research however has not observed consistent racial/ethnic differences in posttraumatic stress in the early aftermath of trauma, suggesting that such differences in chronic PTSD rates may be related to differences in recovery over time.
Methods
As part of the multisite, longitudinal AURORA study, we investigated racial/ethnic differences in PTSD and related outcomes within 3 months after trauma. Participants (n = 930) were recruited from emergency departments across the USA and provided periodic (2 weeks, 8 weeks, and 3 months after trauma) self-report assessments of PTSD, depression, dissociation, anxiety, and resilience. Linear models were completed to investigate racial/ethnic differences in posttraumatic dysfunction with subsequent follow-up models assessing potential effects of prior life stressors.
Results
Racial/ethnic groups did not differ in symptoms over time; however, Black participants showed reduced posttraumatic depression and anxiety symptoms overall compared to Hispanic participants and White participants. Racial/ethnic differences were not attenuated after accounting for differences in sociodemographic factors. However, racial/ethnic differences in depression and anxiety were no longer significant after accounting for greater prior trauma exposure and childhood emotional abuse in White participants.
Conclusions
The present findings suggest prior differences in previous trauma exposure partially mediate the observed racial/ethnic differences in posttraumatic depression and anxiety symptoms following a recent trauma. Our findings further demonstrate that racial/ethnic groups show similar rates of symptom recovery over time. Future work utilizing longer time-scale data is needed to elucidate potential racial/ethnic differences in long-term symptom trajectories.
Psychiatric comorbidities and suicide attempts are highly prevalent in Bipolar Disorders (BD). We examined the associations between childhood maltreatment, psychiatric comorbidities, and suicide attempts, in terms of lifetime prevalence, sequence of onset, and current symptoms.
Methods
We assessed 3,047 individuals with BD for suicide attempts, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and eating disorders. Participants completed a self-report for the assessment of childhood maltreatment. Associations between childhood maltreatment and characteristics of comorbidities (lifetime prevalence, current symptoms, and age at onset) were examined using logistic regressions and network analyses.
Results
Psychiatric comorbidities were frequent with a mean number per individual of 1.23 (SD = 1.4). Most comorbidities occurred prior to the onset of BD. Participants who reported higher levels of childhood maltreatment had more frequent and multiple comorbidities, which were also more currently active at inclusion. Childhood maltreatment did not decrease the age of onset of comorbidities, but was associated with a faster accumulation of comorbidities prior to the onset of BD. Logistic regression and network analyses showed that emotional abuse and sexual abuse might play a prominent role in the lifetime prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities and suicide attempts.
Conclusions
Childhood maltreatment was associated with suicide attempts, and with frequent, multiple, and persistent psychiatric comorbidities that accumulated more rapidly prior to the onset of BD. Hence, childhood maltreatment should be systematically assessed in individuals with BD, in particular when the course of the disorder is characterized by a high comorbid profile or by a high suicidality.
To investigate associations between multimodal analgesia and post-operative pain among patients undergoing transoral robotic surgery for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
Methods
Records of patients who underwent surgery from 5 September 2012 to 30 November 2016 were abstracted. Associations were assessed using multivariable analysis.
Results
A total of 216 patients (mean age of 59.1 years, 89.4 per cent male) underwent transoral robotic surgery (92.6 per cent were human papilloma virus positive, 87.5 per cent had stage T1–T2 tumours, and 82.9 per cent had stage N0–N1 nodes). Gabapentin (n = 86) was not associated with a reduction in severe pain. Ibuprofen (n = 72) was administered less often in patients with severe pain. Gabapentin was not associated with increased post-operative sedation (p = 0.624) and ibuprofen was not associated with increased bleeding (p = 0.221). Post-operative opioid usage was not associated with surgical duration, pharyngotomy, bilateral neck dissections, tumour stage, tumour size, subsite or gabapentin.
Conclusion
Scheduled low-dose gabapentin was not associated with improved pain control or increased respiratory depression. Ibuprofen was not associated with an increased risk of bleeding and may be under-utilised.
Racial disparities in colorectal cancer (CRC) can be addressed through increased adherence to screening guidelines. In real-life encounters, patients may be more willing to follow screening recommendations delivered by a race concordant clinician. The growth of telehealth to deliver care provides an opportunity to explore whether these effects translate to a virtual setting. The primary purpose of this pilot study is to explore the relationships between virtual clinician (VC) characteristics and CRC screening intentions after engagement with a telehealth intervention leveraging technology to deliver tailored CRC prevention messaging.
Methods:
Using a posttest-only design with three factors (VC race-matching, VC gender, intervention type), participants (N = 2267) were randomised to one of eight intervention treatments. Participants self-reported perceptions and behavioral intentions.
Results:
The benefits of matching participants with a racially similar VC trended positive but did not reach statistical significance. Specifically, race-matching positively influenced screening intentions for Black participants but not for Whites (b = 0.29, p = 0.10). Importantly, perceptions of credibility, attractiveness, and message relevance significantly influenced screening intentions and the relationship with race-matching.
Conclusions:
To reduce racial CRC screening disparities, investments are needed to identify patient-focused interventions to address structural barriers to screening. This study suggests that telehealth interventions that match Black patients with a Black VC can enhance perceptions of credibility and message relevance, which may then improve screening intentions. Future research is needed to examine how to increase VC credibility and attractiveness, as well as message relevance without race-matching.
The cosmic evolution of the chemical elements from the Big Bang to the present time is driven by nuclear fusion reactions inside stars and stellar explosions. A cycle of matter recurrently re-processes metal-enriched stellar ejecta into the next generation of stars. The study of cosmic nucleosynthesis and this matter cycle requires the understanding of the physics of nuclear reactions, of the conditions at which the nuclear reactions are activated inside the stars and stellar explosions, of the stellar ejection mechanisms through winds and explosions, and of the transport of the ejecta towards the next cycle, from hot plasma to cold, star-forming gas. Due to the long timescales of stellar evolution, and because of the infrequent occurrence of stellar explosions, observational studies are challenging, as they have biases in time and space as well as different sensitivities related to the various astronomical methods. Here, we describe in detail the astrophysical and nuclear-physical processes involved in creating two radioactive isotopes useful in such studies,
$^{26}\mathrm{Al}$
and
$^{60}\mathrm{Fe}$
. Due to their radioactive lifetime of the order of a million years, these isotopes are suitable to characterise simultaneously the processes of nuclear fusion reactions and of interstellar transport. We describe and discuss the nuclear reactions involved in the production and destruction of
$^{26}\mathrm{Al}$
and
$^{60}\mathrm{Fe}$
, the key characteristics of the stellar sites of their nucleosynthesis and their interstellar journey after ejection from the nucleosynthesis sites. This allows us to connect the theoretical astrophysical aspects to the variety of astronomical messengers presented here, from stardust and cosmic-ray composition measurements, through observation of
$\gamma$
rays produced by radioactivity, to material deposited in deep-sea ocean crusts and to the inferred composition of the first solids that have formed in the Solar System. We show that considering measurements of the isotopic ratio of
$^{26}\mathrm{Al}$
to
$^{60}\mathrm{Fe}$
eliminate some of the unknowns when interpreting astronomical results, and discuss the lessons learned from these two isotopes on cosmic chemical evolution. This review paper has emerged from an ISSI-BJ Team project in 2017–2019, bringing together nuclear physicists, astronomers, and astrophysicists in this inter-disciplinary discussion.
One of the principal systematic constraints on the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) experiment is the accuracy of the foreground calibration model. Recent results have shown that highly accurate models of extended foreground sources, and including models for sources in both the primary beam and its sidelobes, are necessary for reducing foreground power. To improve the accuracy of the source models for the EoR fields observed by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), we conducted the MWA Long Baseline Epoch of Reionisation Survey (LoBES). This survey consists of multi-frequency observations of the main MWA EoR fields and their eight neighbouring fields using the MWA Phase II extended array. We present the results of the first half of this survey centred on the MWA EoR0 observing field (centred at RA (J2000)
$0^\mathrm{h}$
, Dec (J2000)
$-27^{\circ}$
). This half of the survey covers an area of 3 069 degrees
$^2$
, with an average rms of 2.1 mJy beam–1. The resulting catalogue contains a total of 80 824 sources, with 16 separate spectral measurements between 100 and 230 MHz, and spectral modelling for 78
$\%$
of these sources. Over this region we estimate that the catalogue is 90
$\%$
complete at 32 mJy, and 70
$\%$
complete at 10.5 mJy. The overall normalised source counts are found to be in good agreement with previous low-frequency surveys at similar sensitivities. Testing the performance of the new source models we measure lower residual rms values for peeled sources, particularly for extended sources, in a set of MWA Phase I data. The 2-dimensional power spectrum of these data residuals also show improvement on small angular scales—consistent with the better angular resolution of the LoBES catalogue. It is clear that the LoBES sky models improve upon the current sky model used by the Australian MWA EoR group for the EoR0 field.
In this era of spatially resolved observations of planet-forming disks with Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and large ground-based telescopes such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT), Keck, and Subaru, we still lack statistically relevant information on the quantity and composition of the material that is building the planets, such as the total disk gas mass, the ice content of dust, and the state of water in planetesimals. SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) is an infrared space mission concept developed jointly by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and European Space Agency (ESA) to address these questions. The key unique capabilities of SPICA that enable this research are (1) the wide spectral coverage
$10{-}220\,\mu\mathrm{m}$
, (2) the high line detection sensitivity of
$(1{-}2) \times 10^{-19}\,\mathrm{W\,m}^{-2}$
with
$R \sim 2\,000{-}5\,000$
in the far-IR (SAFARI), and
$10^{-20}\,\mathrm{W\,m}^{-2}$
with
$R \sim 29\,000$
in the mid-IR (SPICA Mid-infrared Instrument (SMI), spectrally resolving line profiles), (3) the high far-IR continuum sensitivity of 0.45 mJy (SAFARI), and (4) the observing efficiency for point source surveys. This paper details how mid- to far-IR infrared spectra will be unique in measuring the gas masses and water/ice content of disks and how these quantities evolve during the planet-forming period. These observations will clarify the crucial transition when disks exhaust their primordial gas and further planet formation requires secondary gas produced from planetesimals. The high spectral resolution mid-IR is also unique for determining the location of the snowline dividing the rocky and icy mass reservoirs within the disk and how the divide evolves during the build-up of planetary systems. Infrared spectroscopy (mid- to far-IR) of key solid-state bands is crucial for assessing whether extensive radial mixing, which is part of our Solar System history, is a general process occurring in most planetary systems and whether extrasolar planetesimals are similar to our Solar System comets/asteroids. We demonstrate that the SPICA mission concept would allow us to achieve the above ambitious science goals through large surveys of several hundred disks within
$\sim\!2.5$
months of observing time.