bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The influence of probiotics on gastrointestinal tract infections among children attending childcare: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Ahmad Hafiz H. , Peck Blake , Terry Daniel
Published: November 2021

Current literature related to the impact of probiotics on the incidence of gastrointestinal tract infections (GITIs) has shown mixed results and no systematic review available with pooled analysis exists. Thus, the aim of this systematic review was to provide contemporary evidence regarding the overall and strain-specific influence of probiotics in preventing GITIs among infants and children attending childcare centres. The review shortlisted 18 RCTs after screening through the initial search results of 779 articles. However, only 15 trials were deemed eligible, addressing at least one outcome in the pooled analysis. It is concluded that the supplementation of probiotics (overall effect) may reduce the risk of GITI episode by 26%, with Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, Limosilactobacillus reuteri and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG being specifically potent probiotic strains in reducing GITI episode, duration of infection and absence from childcare respectively. There is insufficient evidence to determine the effect of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 based on the findings of the trials included in this review.
A case of laparoscopically treated broad ligament ectopic pregnancy followed by spontaneous gestation
Authors: Iwai Shinnosuke , Kasahara Yuta , Kishi Hiroshi , Sato Takuma , Kusuhara Atsuko , Okamoto Aikou
Published: November 2021

We present a case of spontaneous pregnancy after laparoscopic surgery for a broad ligament pregnancy. A 34‐year‐old nulliparous woman presented with 6 weeks of amenorrhea. Due to the presence of an empty uterus with a 10 mm right adnexal mass on transvaginal ultrasonography and elevated serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), ectopic pregnancy was suspected. Upon diagnostic laparoscopy, the presence of a 2 cm broad ligament ectopic pregnancy was confirmed. Laparoscopic removal of the gestational tissues was performed. Six months after surgery, a spontaneous pregnancy was established. At the 40th week of gestation, a cesarean section was performed due to arrested labor, resulting in live birth. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of a spontaneous pregnancy occurring after laparoscopic surgery for broad ligament pregnancy. Laparoscopic surgery as a treatment option for broad ligament pregnancy may be useful in early gestational age because it can be completed without complications.
A homozygous missense variant in laminin subunit beta 1 as candidate causal mutation of hemifacial microsomia in Romagnola cattle
Authors: Jacinto Joana G. P. , Häfliger Irene M. , Bernardini Marco , Mandara Maria Teresa , Bianchi Ezio , Bolcato Marilena , Romagnoli Noemi , Gentile Arcangelo , Drögemüller Cord
Published: November 2021

Hemifacial microsomia (HFM) was diagnosed in a 9‐day‐old Romagnola calf. The condition was characterized by microtia of the left ear, anotia of the right ear, asymmetry of the face, and deafness. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed agenesis of the right pinna and both tympanic bullae, asymmetry of the temporal bones and temporomandibular joints, and right pontine meningocele. Brainstem auditory evoked responses confirmed the impaired auditory capacity. At gross post mortem examination, there was agenesis and hypoplasia of the right and the left external ear, respectively. No histological abnormalities were detected in the inner ears. A trio whole‐genome sequencing approach was carried out and identified a private homozygous missense variant in LAMB1 affecting a conserved residue (p.Arg668Cys). Genotyping of 221 Romagnola bulls revealed a carrier prevalence <2%. This represents a report of a LAMB1‐related autosomal recessive inherited disorder in domestic animals and adds LAMB1 to the candidate genes for HFM.
Emergent nationalism in China's sociotechnical networks: How technological affordance and complexity amplify digital nationalism
Authors: Schneider Florian
Published: November 2021

Nationalism today interacts in complicated ways with advanced information and communication systems, regularly leading to unanticipated consequences. Popular online nationalism in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a case in point: In the PRC, digital nationalism has become a central feature of political discourse and decision‐making, at times powerfully shaping the state's policy efforts. This article explores a missing puzzle piece in how state‐led and popular nationalism interact in Chinese politics: the role that advanced information and communication technologies play in such processes. This is a question that is not only relevant to scholars of China but also to anyone interested in the role that digital media and communication play in the formation and spread of contemporary nationalism. How do interactions in complex sociotechnical systems affect nationalism today? To answer this question, the article analyses and traces interaction and feedback loops in Chinese digital environments during Sino‐Japanese disputes over the East China Sea. It shows how the interactions between humans, organisations and technologies create unexpected variations in outcome that resonate through China's internet and create the conditions from which digital nationalism can powerfully emerge to shape legitimation and policy‐making processes.
Pseudomonas syringae activates ZAT18 to inhibit salicylic acid accumulation by repressing EDS1 transcription for bacterial infection
Authors: Gao Yuhan , Li Ze , Yang Chenyu , Li Guangyue , Zeng Hongmei , Li Zhonghai , Zhang Yi , Yang Xiufen
Published: November 2021

Phytopathogens can manipulate plant hormone signaling to counteract immune responses; however, the underlying mechanism is mostly unclear.

Here, we report that Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato (Pst) DC3000 induces expression of C2H2 zinc finger transcription factor ZAT18 in a jasmonic acid (JA)‐signaling‐dependent manner. Biochemical assays further confirmed that ZAT18 is a direct target of MYC2, which is a very important regulator in JA signaling. CRISPR/Cas9‐generated zat18‐cr mutants exhibited enhanced resistance to Pst DC3000, while overexpression of ZAT18 resulted in impaired disease resistance.

Genetic characterization of ZAT18 mutants demonstrated that ZAT18 represses defense responses by inhibiting the accumulation of the key plant immune signaling molecule salicylic acid (SA), which is dependent on its EAR motif. ZAT18 exerted this inhibitory effect by directly repressing the transcription of Enhanced Disease Susceptibility 1 (EDS1), which is the key signaling component of pathogen‐induced SA accumulation. Overexpression of ZAT18 resulted in decreased SA content, while loss of function of ZAT18 showed enhanced SA accumulation upon pathogen infection. Furthermore, enhanced resistance and SA content in zat18‐cr mutants was abolished by the mutation in EDS1.

Our data indicate that pathogens induce ZAT18 expression to repress the transcription of EDS1, further antagonising SA accumulation for bacterial infection.
Proline, a multifaceted signalling molecule in plant responses to abiotic stress: understanding the physiological mechanisms
Authors: Ghosh U. K. , Islam M. N. , Siddiqui M. N. , Cao X. , Khan M. A. R.
Published: November 2021

Abiotic stresses have a detrimental impact on plant growth and productivity and are a major threat to sustainable crop production in rapidly changing environments. Proline, an important amino acid, plays an important role in maintaining the metabolism and growth of plants under abiotic stress conditions. Many insights indicate a positive relationship between proline accumulation and tolerance of plants to various abiotic stresses. Because of its metal chelator properties, it acts as a molecular chaperone, an antioxidative defence molecule that scavenges reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as having signalling behaviour to activate specific gene functions that are crucial for plant recovery from stresses. It also acts as an osmoprotectant, a potential source to acquire nitrogen as well as carbon, and plays a significant role in the flowering and development of plants. Overproduction of proline in plant cells contributes to maintaining cellular homeostasis, water uptake, osmotic adjustment and redox balance to restore the cell structures and mitigate oxidative damage. Many reports reveal that transgenic plants, particularly those overexpressing genes tailored for proline accumulation, exhibit better adaptation to abiotic stresses. Therefore, this review aims to provide a comprehensive update on proline biosynthesis and accumulation in plants and its putative regulatory roles in mediating plant defence against abiotic stresses. Additionally, the current and future directions in research concerning manipulation of proline to induce gene functions that appear promising in genetics and genomics approaches to improve plant adaptive responses under changing climate conditions are also highlighted.
The association between wildfire exposure in pregnancy and foetal gastroschisis: A population‐based cohort study
Authors: Park Bo Young , Boles Ian , Monavvari Samira , Patel Shivani , Alvarez Arriel , Phan Mie , Perez Maria , Yao Ruofan
Published: November 2021

Background

Global climate change has led to an increase in the prevalence and severity of wildfires. Pollutants released into air, soil and groundwater from wildfires may impact embryo development leading to gastroschisis.

Objective

The objective of this study was to determine the association between wildfire exposure before and during pregnancy and the risk of foetal gastroschisis development.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study using The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Linked Birth File linked to The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection data between 2007 and 2010. Pregnancies complicated by foetal gastroschisis were identified by neonatal hospital discharge ICD‐9 code. Pregnancies were considered exposed to wildfire if the mother's primary residence zip code was within 15 miles to the closest edge of a wildfire. The exposure was further stratified by trimester or if exposed within 30 days prior to pregnancy. Multivariable log‐binomial regression analyses were performed to estimate the association between wildfire exposure in each pregnancy epoch and foetal gastroschisis.

Results

Between 2007 and 2010, 844,348 (40%) births were exposed to wildfire in California. Compared with births without wildfire exposure, those with first‐trimester exposure were associated with higher rates of gastroschisis, 7.8 vs. 5.7 per 10,000 births (adjusted relative risk [aRR] 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07, 1.54). Furthermore, those with prepregnancy wildfire exposure were also found to have higher rates of gastroschisis, 12.5 vs. 5.7 per 10,000 births, (aRR 2.17, 95% CI 1.42, 3.52). In contrast, second‐ and third‐trimester wildfire exposures were not associated with foetal gastroschisis.

Conclusions

Wildfire exposure within 30 days before pregnancy was associated with more than two times higher risk of foetal gastroschisis, whereas a 28% higher risk was demonstrated if exposure was in the first trimester.
Responsibility and the recursion problem
Authors: Davies Ben
Published: November 2021

A considerable literature has emerged around the idea of using ‘personal responsibility’ as an allocation criterion in healthcare distribution, where a person's being suitably responsible for their health needs may justify additional conditions on receiving healthcare, and perhaps even limiting access entirely, sometimes known as ‘responsibilisation’. This discussion focuses most prominently, but not exclusively, on ‘luck egalitarianism’, the view that deviations from equality are justified only by suitably free choices. A superficially separate issue in distributive justice concerns the two–way relationship between health and other social goods: deficits in health typically undermine one's abilities to secure advantage in other areas, which in turn often have further negative effects on health. This paper outlines the degree to which this latter relationship between health and other social goods exacerbates an existing problem for proponents of responsibilisation (the ‘harshness objection’) in ways that standard responses to this objection cannot address. Placing significant conditions on healthcare access because of a person's prior responsibility risks trapping them in, or worsening, negative cycles where poor health and associated lack of opportunity reinforce one another, making further poor yet ultimately responsible choices more likely. It ends by considering three possible solutions to this problem.
How do I implement pathogen‐reduced platelets?
Authors: Pham Tho D. , Kadi Wendy , Shu Elaine , Pandey Suchitra , Sussmann Harry , Shan Hua , Virk Mrigender S.
Published: November 2021

Background

Several risk mitigation steps have improved the safety of platelets in regard to bacterial contamination, but this continues to be a concern today. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Guidance issued in December 2018 aims to further limit this risk. The guidance offers multiple pathways for compliance, and hospital blood banks will have to collaborate with blood donor centers to assess various factors before deciding which method is most appropriate for them.

Methods and materials

Our institution considered several factors before moving forward with pathogen reduction technology. This included an assessment of platelet shelf‐life, bacterial testing requirements, the efficacy of low‐yield platelets, and managing a mixed platelet inventory. The decision to transition to pathogen‐reduced platelets was associated with complex collection and processing limitations that resulted in either an increase in platelets that were over‐concentrated or products with a low platelet yield.

Results

Through trials of various collection settings with unique target volumes and target platelet yields, our blood donor center was able to optimize the production. At the hospital end, this transition required a thorough review of low‐yield platelet products and their clinical efficacy. Additionally, this implementation necessitated collaboration with clinical colleagues, comprehensive education, and training.

Conclusions

Pathogen‐reduced platelets would be the most efficient way for our institution to be compliant. This summary may serve as a roadmap for other institutions that are considering which FDA prescribed method to use and provide support for those that have decided on pathogen reduction technology but need to optimize their collections to best utilize low‐yield products.
Reported outcomes and characteristics of objective structured clinical examinations in advanced practice nursing education: a scoping review protocol
Authors: Strobehn Patricia K. , Zabriskie Denise , Chung Catherine E. , Mazzia Faye , Mecham Kelly
Published: November 2021

Objective:

The objective of this scoping review is to identify the outcomes reported from objective structured clinical examinations in advanced practice registered nurse education and to describe their characteristics.

Introduction:

Graduate medical education has used objective structured clinical examinations to assess student health professionals since 1975. Nursing programs have adopted objective structured clinical examinations to assess evidence-based practice and clinical competency of advance practice nursing students, but little is known about the outcomes that are being reported.

Inclusion criteria:

This review will consider evidence on the outcomes and other characteristics of objective structured clinical examinations for students enrolled in graduate-level advanced practice nurse education programs (ie, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists). All types of evidence will be considered, including quantitative and qualitative studies, systematic reviews, as well as text and opinion papers.

Methods:

This review will be conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. A literature search will be conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Nursing and Allied Health, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Sources that are published in English or that could be translated into English will be considered for inclusion. No date limit will be applied. Study selection and data extraction will be conducted by three independent reviewers. Any disagreements will be resolved through discussion. The scoping review findings will be presented in a narrative style and reported using diagrams and extraction tables.
Management of spinal cord injury–related pain using complementary and alternative medicine: a scoping review protocol
Authors: Mashola Mokgadi Kholofelo , Ajidahun Adedayo Tunde , Korkie Elzette , Mothabeng Diphale Joyce
Published: November 2021

Objective:

This scoping review will identify complementary and alternative medicine methods used to manage spinal cord injury–related pain.

Introduction:

Spinal cord injury–related pain is common, with a third of individuals experiencing severe pain. Conventional interventions are well documented, however, pain relief remains elusive for people with spinal cord injuries. Although complementary and alternative medicine is available to alleviate various health problems, little is known about the complementary and alternative medicine methods used to manage pain in people with spinal cord injuries.

Inclusion criteria:

This review will consider all studies on complementary and alternative medicine treatment methods used by adults with spinal cord injury to treat their associated pain. The concept of interest in this study is complementary and alternative medicine. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies, text and opinion papers, as well as systematic reviews will be included in this review.

Methods:

A three-step search strategy, consisting of an initial limited search, a full search, and a screening of the reference lists of all included articles will be undertaken. Key information sources to be searched include CINAHL, Cochrane Library, JBI Evidence Synthesis, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, DynaMed, Natural Medicines, HerbMed, Open Dissertations, and OpenGrey. All titles and abstracts of identified citations will be screened and then uploaded to a reference management program. The full text of studies potentially meeting the inclusion criteria will be assessed in detail, and relevant data will be extracted and reported in tabular format, in line with the objectives and scope of the review.
Development of a Low-Cost Exhaust H2 Measurement Method for In-Use Vehicles
Authors: Guan Mark , Kirchen Patrick , Rogak Steven , Steiche Patrick
Published: November 2021

Port-injected hydrogen (H2) can be used as a partial substitution of diesel fuel in compression-ignition engines to reduce GHG emissions. For port-injected H2 systems, incomplete combustion or valve overlap can result in H2 slip, which increases the brake-specific fuel consumption. In this study, a low-cost method is developed to measure the H2 slip in the exhaust of a heavy-duty truck under real-world operating conditions. The truck is equipped with a 2016 15L Detroit diesel engine converted to run in dual-fuel mode with port-injected H2 ignited by directly injected diesel.

Existing H2 detecting methods used for steady-state laboratory tests either have slow response time or require well-controlled testing environments. To develop a method suitable for transient on-road H2 measurements, we utilized a low-cost semiconductor sensor. The output of the sensor is potentially influenced by temperature, relative humidity (RH), gas flow rate, as well as the sensor’s resistance in the ambient air (R0) and the pre-heating strategy. Firstly, the characteristics of R0 was investigated in controlled benchtop tests, where pre-heating time, gas temperature, and RH were monitored. Then, the sensor was calibrated using a standard gas mixture of H2 and nitrogen. Finally, a Portable Emission Measurement System (PEMS) was developed to control the conditions of the sample gas. The sensor output was recorded using a low-cost Raspberry Pi Data Acquisition (DAQ) system in combination with an analog HAT (Hardware attached on top) module at a frequency of 4Hz.

The results from the benchtop tests show that RH and flow rate both have significant influences on the sensor’s output. To ensure a stable R0, thirty minutes of pre-heating time is required. After calibration, the sensor’s readings are within 15% difference compared with the actual values. Data from the on-road tests demonstrated the applicability of the system for in-use vehicle’s exhaust H2 measurement. It was found from this data that the sensor’s average response time to rising H2 concentrations is 4.5s, but that the response to decreasing concentrations is much slower. The exhaust H2 concentrations, together with the engine operating data, were used to generate H2 emission maps, which provide insight into the relationship between the engine load, engine speed and the H2 slip. With further sensor development and sample gas control, this method can achieve high accuracy and extended application in in-use vehicle’s H2 emission measurements.
Compression Rubber Damper Assessment Through Simulation
Authors: Biyani Mayur , Mittal Jugal , Sharma Pranay , Parekar Vinod
Published: November 2021

Rubber torsional vibration dampers are often used on mid-range engines. Usually, the geometry of a rubber torsional vibration damper is such that the rubber element in it undergoes shear.

However, in the work presented, a compression rubber damper is being proposed, in which the rubber element undergoes compression rather than shear. The proposed compression rubber damper, just like the shear rubber damper, is a tuned damper.

An analytical tool is being used to evaluate the stiffness of compression rubber design and thus evaluate its performance. The rubber geometry, material and plate design are selected through simulations.

The analytical tool demonstrates the functionality of the compression rubber damper paper and focuses on simulation-based product development using ANSYS for FEA and an in-house tool for torsional vibration analysis.
Prediction of Exhaust System Vibration Through Harmonic Analysis & High Cycle Fatigue Life Evaluation
Authors: Saikia Bhaskarjyoti , Kulkarni Girish , Sathe Hrushikesh , Kakde Pravin , Vyas Tanmay , Li Yiran
Published: November 2021

Exhaust system typically experiences vibration during engine operating conditions due to periodic disturbing forces (firing force and inertia force) which are generated from the engine. Natural frequency of the exhaust system gets excited due to the periodic forces causing resonance which often leads to high cycle fatigue (HCF) failure. Turbocharger is a part of exhaust system and it is mounted on the exhaust manifold. The periodic forces are transferred from engine base (Cylinder head and Block) and these forces gets amplified to overhanging components like exhaust system turbocharger. It is an industrywide practice to perform modal analysis to determine the natural frequencies of the system. However, modal analysis cannot predict the intensity with which the system would vibrate. Thus, we need to make some assumptions about the system vibration ‘g’ levels. Based on accuracy of this assumption, we may end up under-designing or over-designing the system. Harmonic analysis enables us to accurately predict the ‘g’ level at turbocharger using experimental cylinder head base excitations. After recording the correlation with experimental data in many cases it was found that this approach further aided in establishing damping constant factor of the exhaust manifold at elevated temperature.

This analysis process has been validated with multiple cases as it has turned out to be a potential approach while doing design risk assessments and optimizing the engine vibration validation efforts. The benefit of prediction of exhaust system vibration level allows us to avoid iterative design process in the early stage of product development thus optimizing the design by taking advantage of shifting the natural frequency of exhaust system to lower source excitation (cylinder head). This saves vast amount of simulation lead time. Another benefit of this process is that the prediction of resonance condition of exhaust system through simulation helps us to estimate the fatigue life against the predicted ‘g’ level.
Demonstration of the Benefits of SAE 30 Stationary Gas Engine Oil in Full Scale Engine Tests
Authors: Schasfoort Thijs , Fard Zoe , Gehrmann Torsten , Hollatz Steffen
Published: November 2021

This paper evaluates the benefits of an SAE 30 monograde stationary gas engine oil (SGEO) in comparison with SAE 40 monograde SGEOs with the focus on two main areas. First, to demonstrate and quantify the positive impact of lower viscosity on the fuel consumption rate, and second to demonstrate the faster lubrication of hard to reach points in the engine during startup. The current industry recognized fuel efficiency test methods for passenger car and on-road diesel engine sectors are not suitable for evaluating the fuel efficiency performance of a gas engine oil because of the significant differences in fuel type, engine operating conditions, and oil formulations. This paper, therefore, describes comparative studies of three different gas engine oils in a modern MAN E3262 E302 gas engine that was carefully adapted and fully instrumented. The performance of each oil with respect to fuel efficiency was assessed in an extensive program comprising endurance testing, stationary tests on various load/speed points and dynamic tests running the engine fired as well as non-fired (motored).

Another part of the test program explores the lubrication of hard to reach points in the engine, e.g. valve guide. The paper describes how the SAE 30 monograde oil results in faster lubrication of these parts during startup in comparison with the SAE 40 oils.
Characterization of a Lightly Loaded Underfloor Catalyzed Gasoline Particulate Filter in a Turbocharged Light Duty Truck
Authors: Bohac Stanislav V. , Ludlam Scott
Published: November 2021

A test program to characterize the benefits and challenges of applying a European series production catalyzed gasoline particulate filter (GPF) to a U.S. Tier 2 turbocharged light duty truck (3.5L Ecoboost Ford F150) in the underfloor location was initiated at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The turbos and underfloor location keep the GPF relatively cool and minimize passive regeneration relative to other configurations. This study characterizes the relatively cool GPF in a lightly loaded state, approximately 0.1 to 0.4 g/L of soot loading, using four test cycles: 60 mph steady state, 4-phase FTP, HWFET, and US06. Measurements include GPF temperature, soot loading, GPF pressure drop, brake thermal efficiency (BTE), CO2, PM mass, elemental carbon (EC), filter-collected organic carbon (OC), CO, THC, and NOx emissions.

The lightly loaded underfloor GPF achieves 85–99% reduction in PM mass, 98.5–100.0% reduction in EC, and 65–91% reduction in filter-collected OC, depending on test cycle. The smallest reductions in PM and EC occur in the US06 cycle due to mild GPF regeneration caused by GPF inlet temperature exceeding 500°C. EC dominates filter-collected OC without a GPF, while OC dominates EC with a GPF. Composite cycle CO, THC, and NOx emissions are reduced by the washcoat on the GPF but the low temperature location of the GPF does not make best use of the catalyzed washcoat. Cycle average pressure drop across the GPF ranged from 1.25 kPa in the 4-phase FTP to 4.64 kPa in the US06 but did not affect BTE or CO2 emissions in a measurable way in any test cycle.
Comparison of Spray Formation of a Multi and a Single Hole Gasoline Direct Injector
Authors: Maliha Malki , Kubach Heiko , Koch T.
Published: November 2021

Direct injection in internal combustion engines is often realized with a multi hole injector which forms a spray pattern consisting of multiple jets with a small distance between their origin. This leads to an interaction of adjacent spray jets. The spray characteristic is significantly influenced by this interaction, and can considerably change the fuel evaporation and with it the emission behavior with varying number of holes or hole nozzle geometry [8]. Experimental investigations, especially if a good optical access to a single jet is necessary, often needs to use a comparable injector with a reduced number of holes. In addition to that, 3D-CFD simulation models can also use a reduction of spray jet number for a partial consideration of fuel mixture to reduce the computing time. For these cases a determination of the correlation between spray formation and reduced nozzle holes is important. In this work the spray patterns of an original 6-hole gasoline DI-injector and, after closing of 5 holes, the resulting 1-hole injector were compared. The fuel mass flow through one hole can change due to a change of hydrodynamic effects inside the nozzle and leads to a correcting factor for the injecting time, to get comparable fuel mass flows. The penetration depth, droplet speed, size and spatial distribution were measured. Additional investigations of the influence of the fuel pressure and fuel temperature were carried out.
Impact of Fuel Injection Pressure on Spray and Combustion Characteristics of OME and Diesel Blends
Authors: LeBlanc Simon , Yu Xiao , Pisciotto Gared , Han Xiaoye , Tjong Jimi , Zheng Ming
Published: November 2021

Emission regulations focus on the simultaneous reduction of NOx and particulate matter emissions, especially for heavy-duty engines. Oxygenated fuels offer significant advantages in reducing particulate emissions while having little effect on NOx emissions. In addition, renewable fuels present a GHG emission advantage to meet the zero-emission requirements of future hydrocarbon fuels. Among the leading contenders, oxymethylene dimethyl ether (OME) fuels have the potential to be used for direct injection applications. OME as a blend with diesel fuel offers a direct means of improving the emissions of current on-road diesel engines without modification.

In this paper, an empirical investigation into spray behavior and engine performance of diesel/OME fuel at 10% by mass has been performed under various fuel injection pressures. Neat diesel fuel was tested as a baseline case. The results are compared to tests under matching conditions using a diesel and OME fuel blend with a focus on spray characteristics, combustion behavior, and engine-out emissions. The physical properties of OME improve the volatility of diesel fuel and can tolerate shorter mixing times without promoting PM production. The PM emissions were found to be reduced by up to 50% and the combustion efficiency was improved at matching NOx levels with OME blending.
Ignition Stability Improvement and Emission Reduction via Multiple Ignition Sites Strategy Under Cold Start and Transient Conditions
Authors: Zhang Xiaoxi , Yu Xiao , Leblanc Simon , Zheng Ming , Tjong Jimi
Published: November 2021

Downsizing, turbocharging, and lean burn strategies offer improved fuel efficiency and engine-out emissions to that of conventional spark ignition engines. However, maintaining engine stability becomes difficult, especially at low load and low speed operation such as cold start conditions. Under cold start operation, the spark timing is retarded to rush catalyst warm-up temperature followed by advancing the spark timing for engine stability. In this sequence, securing ignition while using retarded spark timing is difficult because of the cold cylinder walls and low engine loads. Through previous investigations, the noval multiple ignition sites strategy demonstrated its capability to expend lean burn boundaries beyond traditional single core spark plug and improve cycle to cycle variation. In this work, multisite ignition is tested on a production 4-cylinder direct injection spark ignition engine.

A large number of tests are performed on the engine to investigate the impact of ignition strategy on emissions and stability during catalytic converter warm up period as part of the cold-start operation. Results show that the three-core spark igniter shortens the ignition delay thus providing a wider stable spark timing window for stable engine operation. As a result, the concentration of unburnt fuel in the exhaust gas can be reduced before the catalyst reaches the light-off temperature.
Multiphysics Modeling of Spark Discharges in High Crossflow Ignition Environments
Authors: Subramaniam Vivek , Raj Naveen , Karpatne Anand , Breden Douglas , Raja Laxminarayan
Published: November 2021

In SI engines, the initial stages of flame kernel formation play an important role in determining the overall thermal efficiency and in reducing the cycle-to-cycle variability. Introducing a cross-flow within the spark gap has shown to reduce the combustion fluctuations by shortening this initial ignition period and activating a larger volume of the fuel-air mixture. This work presents a computational study of spark discharges in high cross-flow ignition environments using a high-fidelity, multi-physics equilibrium plasma solver. The numerical framework is designed to simultaneously model chemically reacting fluid flow coupled with electromagnetics, surface ablation physics and external circuit dynamics in a fully coupled manner. The spark channel is simulated in a constant volume combustion chamber under different operating conditions and cross flow velocities. The simulation model is validated by comparing several key parameters associated with the discharge such as the breakdown voltage, dwell current, restrike timing, and spark stretch against experimental measurements.
Influence of Elevated Fuel Temperatures on the Spray Characteristics of Gasoline - Ethanol Blends
Authors: Miganakallu Niranjan , Purushothaman Ashwin Karthik , Atkinson William R. , Peters Nathan , Amaral Tadeu Miguel Malago , Leite Antonio Galdino , Yoshino Fernando Jun , Bunce Michael , Ra Youngchul , Naber Jeffrey D.
Published: November 2021

In this study, the effect of elevated fuel temperatures on the spray characteristics of gasoline-ethanol blends were studied in an optically accessible constant volume spray and combustion vessel. MAHLE SmartHeat® is a fuel heater located directly upstream of the fuel injector. High speed images of the spray injected from a six-hole gasoline direct injection injector typical of a side-injection engine were captured with shadowgraph imaging technique. Two fuel blends, gasoline with 10% ethanol (E10) and 85% ethanol (E85) were investigated at ambient conditions of 1 bar, 45°C and 4 bar, 180°C respectively at an injection pressure of 100 bar. Fuel temperatures were varied from 75 to 250°C. A comparison of the near nozzle and the global spray characteristics was made for the two fuels at those temperatures.

Results showed that flash boiling leads to two primary effects for the two fuel blends: (i) an appreciable increase in spray angle near the exit of the nozzle followed by (ii) a decrease in spray angle downstream of the nozzle due to the interaction of the plumes and the collapsing of the spray. Furthermore, for both fuel blends, upon flash boiling, entrainment and mixing were reduced downstream of the nozzle because of the collapse of the spray. To reduce this effect, nozzle orientations and geometries should be modified.
A Student Experiment About Rainbows: Ray Tracing Through an Acrylic Cylinder
Authors: Kim Minkyung , Kang Wonseok , Kim Jung Bog
Published: November 2021

Nearly everyone, including physics students, finds rainbows to be fascinating and much has been written about them. For example, in a 2020 paper, Kenneth Ford sets forth the basic theory of rainbows created by water droplets at the level of geometric optics and uses a graphical approach to address the question of the relative intensities of the light in the arc of the rainbow and below the arc. However, little has been written about related experiments that students can carry out. In this paper we describe an experiment easily accessible to students that clearly illustrates the principles of rainbow formation. Since experimenting with spheres of either water or other transparent material is difficult, the experiment is carried out with cylinders. The principles are the same. Ivanov and Nikolov have used cylindrical bodies to demonstrate rainbows, but without reference to student activities.
Calculating the Duration of Impact When a Solid Sphere Collides on a Flat Rigid Wall
Authors: Kontomaris Stylianos Vasileios , Malamou Anna
Published: November 2021

Calculating the duration of a motion when the applied net force on the moving body changes with time is usually a challenging task. In most cases, the only example of the duration of a motion when the acceleration is not constant presented to introductory physics students worldwide is the example of harmonic motion. A discussion with respect to the calculation of the duration of motion in more complicated cases is usually avoided due to its mathematical complexity. However, in this paper, a new simplified yet accurate approach is presented for the calculation of the duration of impact when a solid sphere collides on a flat rigid wall. The analysis is based on the calculation of the average stiffness of the sphere. It is important to mention that the percentage difference between the simplified approach and the rigorous mathematical analysis was calculated to be only 2.5%.
Binaural-centered mode-matching method for enhanced reproduction accuracy at listener's both ears in sound field reproduction
Authors: Matsuda Ryo , Otani Makoto
Published: November 2021

This paper proposes a binaural-centered mode-matching (BCMM) method that performs sound field reproduction with two reproduction points, one at each ear. A sound field reproduced by higher-order Ambisonics converges to the target field around a sweet spot whose size is inversely proportional to the frequency when the truncated order of the spherical harmonic expansion is constant. By contrast, BCMM translates the spherical harmonic coefficients on the basis of the addition theorem to realize two reproduction points at both ear positions. The BCMM method thereby avoids degradation of reproduction due to a smaller sweet spot at higher frequencies, as occurs with the conventional method, and thereby, leads to an accurate reproduction at higher frequencies. A comparison of numerical simulations of the binaural signals obtained when rendering with BCMM and conventional methods shows that, compared with the conventional method, the BCMM method improves the reproduction accuracy.
Enhancing low-frequency water-column acoustic reflections in marine multichannel seismic data for seismic oceanography
Authors: Zou Zheguang , Zhang Likun
Published: November 2021

Reflections of low-frequency, broadband airgun signals from ocean water columns have long been collected in modern marine seismic surveys. However, they were barely examined because of their weak amplitude (following from low acoustic impedance contrast in water columns) and the lack of application interests. Nevertheless, in the past decades, a new cross-discipline “seismic oceanography” has developed the interest to use these water-column reflection signals to image the ocean structures. Motivated by seismic oceanography applications, we examined the acoustic multipath structure of marine seismic survey data with a focus on water-column reflections, and developed a two-step matched filtering approach to enhance water-column reflection and suppress the unwanted bubble waves. The approach was applied to process data collected from the Gulf of Mexico and led to an improvement in imaging mesoscale ocean structures when compared with the traditional matched filtering approach. For the specific data we examined, the results reveal a 11.3-dB improvement of signal-to-noise ratio by removing the noise and a 8-dB improvement of signal-to-reverberation ratio by suppressing bubble waves, while not affecting the information of ocean structures embedded in the signals. This study gains insights into features of water-column acoustic reflections and provides better tools for acoustic imaging of mesoscale ocean structures.
The timing of deploying and withholding listening effort, in listeners with normal hearing or with cochlear implants
Authors: Winn Matthew B. , Teece Katherine
Published: November 2021

Speech perception is more effortful when the listener needs to fill in a missing word that was masked or misperceived. However, that effort could come at the cost of hearing the next utterance, as conversational speech is continuous. Speech perception is typically tested one utterance at a time, critically overlooking this problem. The current study measured how effort is deployed in the moments of processing one sentence while balancing the need to continue attending or not attending to later speech. Stimuli included sentences where occasionally noise masked a single word that was recoverable from later context. Sentences were followed by silence or three random digits; participants were tested in blocks where they either ignored the digits or repeated them along with the full sentence. Effort was tracked via pupillometry. Listeners with normal hearing front-loaded effort when anticipating subsequent inattention, and spread effort more shallowly across time when anticipating later attended information. Listeners with cochlear implants did not show this local control over the timing of effort. Both groups showed greatest increase in effort in recovering missing words when listening to a single utterance, suggesting that capacity to exert effort is mediated by (and spread across) local demands of the task.
Speaker tracking across a massive naturalistic audio corpus: Apollo-11
Authors: Chandra Shekar Meena , Hansen John H.
Published: November 2021

Apollo-11 was the first manned space mission to successfully bring astronauts to the moon. More than + 400 mission specialists/support team members were involved whose voice communications were captured using the SoundScriber multi-channel analog system. To ensure mission success, it was necessary for teams to engage, communicate, learn, address and solve problems in a timely manner. Hence, in order to identify each speaker’s role during Apollo missions and analyze group communication, we need to automatically tag and track speakers individually since manual annotation is costly and time consuming on a massive audio corpus. In this study, we focus on a subset of 100 h derived from the 10 000 h of the Fearless Steps Apollo-11 audio data. We use the concept of “Where’s Waldo” to identify all instances of our speakers-of-interest: (i) Three Astronauts; (ii) Flight Director; and (iii) Capsule Communicator. Analyzing the handful of speakers present in the small audio dataset of 100 h can be extended to the complete Apollo mission. This analysis provides an opportunity to recognize team communications, group dynamics, and human engagement/psychology. Identifying these personnel can help pay tribute to the hundreds of notable engineers and scientists who made this scientific accomplishment possible. Sponsored by NSF #2016725
Performing forced alignment with Wav2vec 2.0
Authors: Zhu Jian , Zhang Cong
Published: November 2021

Forced alignment, the task of aligning segmentation of audio speech files with an orthographic or phonetic transcript, is fundamental to many types of speech research. Yet the available toolkits for forced alignment are mostly based on the classic HMM/GMM systems, which are outperformed by neural network-based speech recognition models, especially the large-scale speech pre-trained models in recent years. We propose a method of forced alignment utilizing the pre-trained transformer-based model, Wav2vec 2.0. This model has been pre-trained on massive audio datasets, and is subsequently fine-tuned on 360 h of speech data guided by connectionist temporal classification (CTC) loss. The model has learned to jointly recognize phonemes and perform segmentation with or without orthographic transcriptions. During inference, the hidden states are converted to frame-level alignments through post-processing. Our preliminary analysis shows that the model performs competitively when segmenting the TIMIT benchmark, even without orthographic transcription provided.
Supplemental Material: Flexural strike-slip basins
Authors: Neuharth Derek , al. et
Published: November 2021

Description of the model setup (including governing and rheologic equations) and coupling between codes FastScape and ASPECT in more detail, and supplemental figures with additional information including mapviews of the New Guinea, Yinggehai, and Navassa Basins.
Supplemental Material: Joint earthquake ruptures of the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, California, USA
Authors: Rodriguez Padilla Alba M. , al. et
Published: November 2021

Methods, supplemental figures, and data tables.
Supplemental Material: New insights into organic matter accumulation from high-resolution geochemical analysis of a black shale: Middle and Upper Devonian Horn River Group, Canada
Authors: Zhou Haolin , al. et
Published: November 2021

Geochemical data, organic petrographic analysis, and supplemental figures.
Scattering and absorption cross sections of Schwarzschild–anti-de Sitter black hole with quintessence
Authors: Ramírez Valeria , López L.A. , Pedraza Omar , Ceron V.E.
Published: November 2021

In this paper, we study the scattering and absorption cross sections of a Schwarzschild–anti-de Sitter black hole surrounded by quintessence. The critical values of the cosmological constant and the normalization factor are obtained. We describe the event horizons and the extremal condition of the black hole surrounded by quintessence. The effects of quintessence on the classical and semi-classical scattering cross sections have been estimated. Additionally, the absorption cross section is studied with the sinc approximation in the eikonal limit. We consider the quintessence state parameter in the particular cases ω = –2/3 and –1/2.
Legal Text Mining and Analysis Based on Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Geng Baiyang
Published: November 2021

In recent years, legal society has been an important goal of our country, and it becomes a standard approach to solve disputes through law. In general, there are two ways to protect our rights. Firstly, we can find the applicable legal provisions by reading a large number of relevant cases and analogy. The other way is to employ lawyers who will play a key role in the trial process. However, both the approaches have some difficulties. The first difficulty lies in the need of finding similar cases in a large number of legal documents, and the second difficulty is in choosing an appropriate lawyer. In this work, we aim to build a legal consultation system through the excavation of a large number of judicial documents, and provide help in the process of protecting people’s rights. Our work mainly contains three parts that are designing collection framework, proposing text expression method and improving the method of lawyer recommendation. The experimental results show that our method can obviously improve the usability of legal provisions.