bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Alchemie: Betrügerische Goldmacher und ihre Strategien
Authors: Hollweg Jürgen
Published: March 2023

Die meisten Chemiker, die sich im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit an der Transmutation unedler Metalle in Silber oder Gold versuchten, waren aufrichtige und ehrbare Wissenschaftler. Die grundlegende Materietheorie damals hielt Metallumwandlung für möglich. Die Aussicht auf unermesslichen Reichtum zog allerdings auch Schwindler und Betrüger an.
Laborgeräte: Öfter ohne Büchnertrichter
Authors: Ehrensberger Christian
Published: March 2023

Miniversionen von Filternutschen aus der Produktion können den Büchnertrichter im Labor ersetzen. Filtration, Filterkuchenwäsche und Trocknung in einem einzigen Schritt erleichtern unter anderem ein Scale‐up in die Produktion.
Bilanz BASF 2022: Oberflächentechnik und Wertstoffe
Authors: Bulmahn Maren
Published: March 2023

Der Chemiekonzern BASF hat im Jahr 2022 ungefähr elf Prozent mehr umgesetzt; im vierten Quartal waren es etwa zwei Prozent weniger als im Vergleichsquartal. Die Ausgaben für Energie, Forschung und Entwicklung sind gestiegen, Verkaufspreise ebenso.
Bilanz Novartis 2022: Fürs Immunsystem und gegen Tumoren
Authors: Bulmahn Maren
Published: March 2023

Novartis bleibt dabei, die Generikasparte abspalten zu wollen. Die Umsätze sanken im Jahr 2022.
Bilanz Merck 2022: Medikamente und Halbleiterprodukte
Authors: Bulmahn Maren
Published: March 2023

Beim Konzern Merck trieben neue Medikamente das Umsatzwachstum im Jahr 2022. Im Elektronikbereich setzten Produkte für die Halbleiterindustrie mehr um als im Jahr zuvor. Der Umsatz mit Flüssigkristallen sank.
Chemiegeschichte: "Tracht Prügel für den biederen Ostwald"
Authors: Reschetilowski Wladimir
Published: March 2023

Wilhelm Ostwald war ein außergewöhnlich vielseitiger Gelehrter. Das rief bei seinen Zeitgenossen Bewunderung hervor – aber auch Skepsis. Friedrich Beilstein etwa lästerte in Briefen an Kollegen über ihn in durchaus kurioser Weise.
Report on the meeting of the GDCh Board
Authors: Koch Wolfram
Published: March 2023

For the last meeting of the year 2022, the Board of the German Chemical Society met in Ludwigshafen on December 8th at the invitation of BASF.
Semi‐analytical solution for a simplified 1D chemo‐hydro‐mechanical model in fluid‐saturated viscoelastic clay
Authors: Zheng Xinjiang , Wang Lei , Yang Aiwu , Xu Yongfu
Published: March 2023

In this paper, a simplified chemo‐hydro‐mechanics (CHM) model, in which only solute concentration is considered in the aspect of chemistry, is proposed to reflect the viscoelastic deformation of clay soil. By using the proposed model, the responses of the excess pore‐fluid pressure, solute concentration, and displacement of the viscoelastic clay soil are derived through the Laplace transform method. Then, semi‐analytical solutions, in the time domain, are obtained via the inverse Laplace transform numerically. The influences of viscosity on excess pore‐fluid pressure, solute concentration, and displacement are investigated through an illustrative example. The results show that: (1) the clay soil in low viscosity can be simplified as an elastic model; (2) the higher viscosity not only accelerates the dissipation of excess pore‐fluid pressure, but also slows down the deformation of the clay soil; (3) the viscosity of clay soil poses little impact on the distribution of solute concentration.
Small molecule bio‐signature in childhood intra‐thoracic tuberculosis identified by metabolomics
Authors: Sharma Nupur , Upadhyay Deepti , Gautam Hitender , Sharma Uma , Lodha Rakesh , Kabra Sushil Kumar , Das Bimal Kumar , Kapil Arti , Mohan Anant , Jagannathan Naranamangalam Raghunathan , Guleria Randeep , Singh Urvashi Balbir
Published: March 2023

The diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis (TB) remains a major challenge, hence the evaluation of new tools for improved diagnostics is urgently required. We investigated the serum metabolic profile of children with culture‐confirmed intra‐thoracic TB (ITTB) (n = 23) and compared it with those of non‐TB controls (NTCs) (n = 13) using proton NMR spectroscopy‐based targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches. In targeted metabolic profiling, five metabolites (histidine, glycerophosphocholine, creatine/phosphocreatine, acetate, and choline) differentiated TB children from NTCs. Additionally, seven discriminatory metabolites (N‐α‐acetyl‐lysine, polyunsaturated fatty acids, phenylalanine, lysine, lipids, glutamate + glutamine, and dimethylglycine) were identified in untargeted metabolic profiling. The pathway analysis revealed alterations in six metabolic pathways. The altered metabolites were associated with impaired protein synthesis, hindered anti‐inflammatory and cytoprotective mechanisms, abnormalities in energy generation processes and membrane metabolism, and deregulated fatty acid and lipid metabolisms in children with ITTB. The diagnostic significance of the classification models obtained from significantly distinguishing metabolites showed sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of 78.2%, 84.6%, and 0.86, respectively, in the targeted profiling and 92.3%, 100%, and 0.99, respectively, in the untargeted profiling. Our findings highlight detectable metabolic changes in childhood ITTB; however, further validation is warranted in a large cohort of the pediatric population.
Single‐heartbeat cardiac cine imaging via jointly regularized nonrigid motion‐corrected reconstruction
Authors: Cruz Gastao , Hammernik Kerstin , Kuestner Thomas , Velasco Carlos , Hua Alina , Ismail Tevfik Fehmi , Rueckert Daniel , Botnar Rene Michael , Prieto Claudia
Published: March 2023

The aim of the current study was to develop a novel approach for 2D breath‐hold cardiac cine imaging from a single heartbeat, by combining cardiac motion‐corrected reconstructions and nonrigidly aligned patch‐based regularization. Conventional cardiac cine imaging is obtained via motion‐resolved reconstructions of data acquired over multiple heartbeats. Here, we achieve single‐heartbeat cine imaging by incorporating nonrigid cardiac motion correction into the reconstruction of each cardiac phase, in conjunction with a motion‐aligned patch‐based regularization. The proposed Motion‐Corrected CINE (MC‐CINE) incorporates all acquired data into the reconstruction of each (motion‐corrected) cardiac phase, resulting in a better posed problem than motion‐resolved approaches. MC‐CINE was compared with iterative sensitivity encoding (itSENSE) and Extra‐Dimensional Golden Angle Radial Sparse Parallel (XD‐GRASP) in 14 healthy subjects in terms of image sharpness, reader scoring (range: 1–5) and reader ranking (range: 1–9) of image quality, and single‐slice left ventricular assessment. MC‐CINE was significantly superior to both itSENSE and XD‐GRASP using 20 heartbeats, two heartbeats, and one heartbeat. Iterative SENSE, XD‐GRASP, and MC‐CINE achieved a sharpness of 74%, 74%, and 82% using 20 heartbeats, and 53%, 66%, and 82% with one heartbeat, respectively. The corresponding results for reader scoring were 4.0, 4.7, and 4.9 with 20 heartbeats, and 1.1, 3.0, and 3.9 with one heartbeat. The corresponding results for reader ranking were 5.3, 7.3, and 8.6 with 20 heartbeats, and 1.0, 3.2, and 5.4 with one heartbeat. MC‐CINE using a single heartbeat presented nonsignificant differences in image quality to itSENSE with 20 heartbeats. MC‐CINE and XD‐GRASP at one heartbeat both presented a nonsignificant negative bias of less than 2% in ejection fraction relative to the reference itSENSE. It was concluded that the proposed MC‐CINE significantly improves image quality relative to itSENSE and XD‐GRASP, enabling 2D cine from a single heartbeat.
Circulating and adipose tissue immune cells in tissue‐specific insulin resistance in humans with overweight and obesity
Authors: Trouwborst Inez , Wouters Kristiaan , Jocken Johan W. , Jardon Kelly M. , Gijbels Anouk , Dagnelie Pieter C. , van Greevenbroek Marleen M. J. , van der Kallen Carla J. , Stehouwer Coen D. A. , Schalkwijk Casper G. , Richard Nathalie , Bendik Igor , Afman Lydia A. , Blaak Ellen E. , Goossens Gijs H.
Published: March 2023

Objective

A proinflammatory adipose tissue (AT) microenvironment and systemic low‐grade inflammation may differentially affect tissue‐specific insulin sensitivity. This study investigated the relationships of abdominal subcutaneous AT (aSAT) and circulating immune cells, aSAT gene expression, and circulating inflammatory markers with liver and skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity in people with overweight and obesity.

Methods

Individuals with overweight and obesity from the PERSonalized Glucose Optimization Through Nutritional Intervention (PERSON) Study (n = 219) and the Maastricht Study (replication cohort; n = 1256) underwent a seven‐point oral glucose tolerance test to assess liver and muscle insulin sensitivity, and circulating inflammatory markers were determined. In subgroups, flow cytometry was performed to identify circulating and aSAT immune cells, and aSAT gene expression was evaluated.

Results

The relative abundances of circulating T cells, nonclassical monocytes, and CD56dim CD16+ natural killer cells were inversely associated with liver, but not muscle, insulin sensitivity in the PERSON Study. The inverse association between circulating (classical) monocytes and liver insulin sensitivity was confirmed in the Maastricht Study. In aSAT, immune cell populations were not related to insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, aSAT gene expression of interleukin 6 and CD14 was positively associated with muscle, but not liver, insulin sensitivity.

Conclusions

The present findings demonstrate that circulating immune cell populations and inflammatory gene expression in aSAT show distinct associations with liver and muscle insulin sensitivity.
Effect of sleep restriction on insulin sensitivity and energy metabolism in postmenopausal women: A randomized crossover trial
Authors: Singh Prachi , Beyl Robbie A. , Stephens Jacqueline M. , Noland Robert C. , Richard Allison J. , Boudreau Anik , Hebert R. Caitlin , Ravussin Eric , Broussard Josiane L. , St‐Onge Marie‐Pierre , Marlatt Kara L.
Published: March 2023

Objective

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sleep restriction (SR) on insulin sensitivity and energy metabolism in postmenopausal women.

Methods

In a randomized crossover trial, 14 women underwent four nights of habitual sleep (HS, 100% normal sleep) and SR (60% of HS) while following a eucaloric diet. Outcomes included the following: (1) insulin sensitivity by hyperinsulinemic‐euglycemic clamp, defined as the glucose infusion rate (GIR); (2) resting metabolism and substrate oxidation by indirect calorimetry; and (3) glucose, insulin, and C‐peptide concentrations following a standard meal test.

Results

Nine postmenopausal women (mean [SD], age 59 [4] years, BMI 28.0  [2.6] kg/m2) were analyzed. Accelerometer‐determined total time in bed was 8.4 ± 0.6 hours during HS versus 5.0 ± 0.4 hours during SR (38% reduction, p < 0.0001). SR reduced low‐dose insulin GIR by 20% (HS: 2.55 ± 0.22 vs. SR: 2.03 ± 0.20 mg/kg/min; p = 0.01) and high‐dose insulin GIR by 12% (HS: 10.48 ± 0.72 vs. SR: 9.19 ± 0.72 mg/kg/min; p < 0.001). SR reduced fat oxidation during high‐dose insulin infusion (p < 0.01), and it did not alter resting energy metabolism.

Conclusions

Four nights of SR reduced insulin sensitivity and fat oxidation in postmenopausal women. These findings underscore the role of insufficient sleep in metabolic dysfunction following menopause. Larger trials investigating how sleep disturbances cause metabolic dysfunction during menopause are needed across all stages of menopause.
Public sector audit and influence the investment institutional background during a pandemic
Authors: Bodyako Anna , Ponomareva Svetlana , Pugacheva Anna , Rogulenko Tatyana , Kirillov Victor
Published: March 2023

The study purpose was to assess the impact of public sector audit on investment climate formation under the COVID‐19 pandemic and to develop recommendations to improve its effectiveness. For this purpose, a multistage research project was developed with the participation of auditors from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. The project was based on the primary information obtained in the course of expert interviews. Testing the methodological approach with experts from these countries allowed proving the main study hypotheses, according to which the public sector audit has an indirect positive impact on investment climate formation. Such an audit influences the main impact factors through improving public administration efficiency, the fight against corruption, and the provision of the regulatory framework. During the testing, the main directions for improving public audit for a more favorable investment climate were formulated. The developed methodological approach makes it possible to obtain an expert assessment of the impact of the public audit on investment climate formation. At the same time, partial use of statistical methods makes it possible to replicate the study in the form of an expert interview, which increases its attractiveness for researchers in conditions of shortage of qualified interviewers.
A facile strategy to achieve room‐temperature organic long afterglow from melt processible, new two‐dimensional polyamide doped γ‐polyamide 6
Authors: Cai Peng , Zhang Hefeng , Huang Yifu
Published: March 2023

Organic long afterglow materials can be incorporated into commercial polar polymer in very small amount to significantly reduce cost for application, while gaining excellent mechanical deformability attractively. Their luminescence can be usually enhanced, as the polar polymer can block oxygen diffusion and inhibit inclusion aggregation. However, due to thermal instability of most afterglow materials at high temperature, it is still a great challenge when they are applied for widely used polymer melt in material industry. Herein we report a new afterglow material of doped polymer system by blending a new luminescent, two‐dimensional polyamide sheet (TIB‐3CPBA‐TAPA) with a high‐temperature polyamide 6 (γPA6) melt. The excellent thermal stability of TIB‐3CPBA‐TAPA results from the amide bond‐linked, imidazolium salted and conjugated structure. Interestingly, TIB‐3CPBA‐TAPA/γPA6 is found to emit greenish afterglow luminescence that can last for 4 s at room temperature, only under a loading of 0.1 wt% that harvests the UV exposure efficiently. Different from converting non‐afterglow γ crystal (γPA) into afterglow α crystal (αPA), our facile strategy achieves longer afterglow with a higher melting point (220°C) and a tripled quantum yield (1.8%). In addition, the viscoelasticity of the polymer melt is improved by TIB‐3CPBA‐TAPA with a mechanical toughening effect.
Membrane permeability and antimicrobial peptides: Much more than just making a hole
Authors: Espeche Juan C. , Varas Romina , Maturana Patricia , Cutro Andrea C. , Maffía Paulo C. , Hollmann Axel
Published: March 2023

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are one of the elements of innate immunity that have a crucial role in fighting infections. These molecules are produced by all kinds of cells and can display a wide spectrum of action against bacterial or fungal infections. Bacterial resistance toward broad‐spectrum antibiotics has become a major concern in recent years. In this context, AMPs have emerged as promising alternative therapy in response to this increasing problem because of their ability to inhibit growth and biofilm formation, even in drug‐resistant microorganisms. However, despite the myriad of patents filed related to AMPs, only a small proportion of AMPs have already received certification, either by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or European Medicines Agency (EMA). In order to pave the way of AMPs to certification, a comprehensive knowledge of the mechanism of action of these peptides is essential. Several models have been proposed to explain it and the permeabilization of the bacterial envelope seems to play a key role in most of them. In this review, we describe the different techniques that are generally used to assess the permeabilization induced by AMPs in either in vivo or in vitro systems. Additionally, a comprehensive analysis of the cooperation during the process of binding and permeabilization is included.
Superior electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of phase‐separated polymer blend composites by tuning the localization of nanoparticles for electromagnetic interference shielding applications
Authors: Gebrekrstos Amanuel , Ray Suprakas Sinha
Published: March 2023

The assimilation of highly conductive nanofillers in immiscible polymer blends has shown great potential for various applications. Recent advancements in controlling the location of nanoparticles at the interface of immiscible binary blends have enhanced mechanical and electrical performance of the composites. However, the dispersion, distribution, and localization of the nanoparticles at the interface of immiscible binary blends are considered the principal challenges to determining the mechanical and electrical performance of the composites. This has led to considerable interest in exploiting the location of nanoparticles at the interface of immiscible binary blends for electromagnetic Interference (EMI) shielding applications. This review critically inspects the possible mechanism for locating the nanofillers at the interface and their influence on the electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. Furthermore, numerous strategies, such as covalent modification of nanoparticles, optimizing processing time and sequence of mixing, are highlighted for performance improvement of binary blend nanocomposites. In addition, we reviewed the compatibility of nanoparticles with the polymer matrix at the interface correlation with dispersion and mechanical properties. Finally, some challenges in the development, modification, and location of nanoparticles at the interface of immiscible polymer blend nanocomposites for EMI shielding applications are described.
Scale‐dependent blending of ensemble rainfall nowcasts and numerical weather prediction in the open‐source pysteps library
Authors: Imhoff Ruben O. , De Cruz Lesley , Dewettinck Wout , Brauer Claudia C. , Uijlenhoet Remko , van Heeringen Klaas‐Jan , Velasco‐Forero Carlos , Nerini Daniele , Van Ginderachter Michiel , Weerts Albrecht H.
Published: March 2023

Flash flood early warning requires accurate rainfall forecasts with a high spatial and temporal resolution. As the first few hours ahead are already not sufficiently well captured by the rainfall forecasts of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, radar rainfall nowcasting can provide an alternative. Because this observation‐based method quickly loses skill after the first 2 hr of the forecast, it needs to be combined with NWP forecasts to extend the skillful lead time of short‐term rainfall forecasts, which should increase decision‐making times. We implemented an adaptive scale‐dependent ensemble blending method in the open‐source pysteps library, based on the Short‐Term Ensemble Prediction System scheme. In this implementation, the extrapolation (ensemble) nowcast, (ensemble) NWP, and noise components are combined with skill‐dependent weights that vary per spatial scale level. To constrain the (dis)appearance of rain in the ensemble members to regions around the rainy areas, we have developed a Lagrangian blended probability matching scheme and incremental masking strategy. We describe the implementation details and evaluate the method using three heavy and extreme (July 2021) rainfall events in four Belgian and Dutch catchments. We benchmark the results of the 48‐member blended forecasts against the Belgian NWP forecast, a 48‐member nowcast, and a simple 48‐member linear blending approach. Both on the radar domain and catchment scale, the introduced blending approach predominantly performs similarly or better than only nowcasting (in terms of event‐averaged continuous ranked probability score and critical success index values) and adds value compared with NWP for the first hours of the forecast, although the difference, particularly with the linear blending method, reduces when we focus on catchment‐average cumulative rainfall sums instead of instantaneous rainfall rates. By properly combining observations and NWP forecasts, blending methods such as these are a crucial component of seamless prediction systems.
Formation tracking for interconnected networks with interaction silence and minimum total energy restriction
Authors: Yang Jianye , Dang Hongtao , Yu Zhiwei , Gao Jiuan , Li Junlong
Published: March 2023

The minimum‐energy formation tracking design and analysis problems for interconnected networks with distributed tracking protocols are addressed, where the effects of the total energy restriction and the interaction silence on the formation tracking are discussed, respectively. The key characteristic of this article is that the value of the energy restriction is required to be minimum, while the guaranteed‐cost tracking strategy and the energy‐constraint tracking strategy cannot ensure the minimum property of the total energy restriction. For interconnected networks without the interaction silence, sufficient conditions for minimum‐energy formation tracking are presented, whose effectiveness can be checked by the optimization procedure associated with the generalized eigenvalue method. Then, for interconnected networks with the interaction silence, by constructing the specific constraint associated with the maximum silent rate and two inhibition parameters, sufficient conditions for minimum‐energy formation tracking are proposed. Finally, numerical examples are shown to illustrate the efficacy of main results.
Drawing from Indigenous ontologies and practices to rethink European water policy
Authors: Linton Jamie , Pahl‐Wostl Claudia
Published: March 2023

The purpose of this article is to begin a discussion of how Indigenous ontologies and practices might be brought to bear on water policy and management in Europe. Such a discussion represents an ironic historical shift in the sense that these ontologies and practices have survived and continue to evolve in countries that have been characterized by European colonization (i.e., Australia, Canada, US, New Zealand, countries of Africa and South America, and not excluding the Sámi people of northern Europe). Increasingly research and policy interest has been directed toward the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in water governance in some of these places, especially Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Here, we ask whether they might be a source of inspiration for rethinking the water policy in Europe. We argue that certain elements of Indigenous water knowledge and practices can be drawn from to reform European water policy on the ontological premise that people are part of nature and based on establishing and nurturing moral and legal relationships between water and people based on principles of respect and reciprocity.
A Bayesian approach for two‐stage multivariate Mendelian randomization with mixed outcomes
Authors: Deng Yangqing , Tu Dongsheng , O'Callaghan Chris J , Jonker Derek J , Karapetis Christos S , Shapiro Jeremy , Liu Geoffrey , Xu Wei
Published: March 2023

Many research studies have investigated the relationship between baseline factors or exposures, such as patient demographic and disease characteristics, and study outcomes such as toxicities or quality of life, but results from most of these studies may be problematic because of potential confounding effects (eg, the imbalance in baseline factors or exposures). It is important to study whether the baseline factors or exposures have causal effects on the clinical outcomes, so that clinicians can have better understanding of the diseases and develop personalized medicine. Mendelian randomization (MR) provides an efficient way to estimate the causal effects using genetic instrumental variables to handle confounders, but most of the existing studies focus on a single outcome at a time and ignores the correlation structure of multiple outcomes. Given that clinical outcomes like toxicities and quality of life are usually a mixture of different types of variables, and multiple datasets may be available for such outcomes, it may be much more beneficial to analyze them jointly instead of separately. Some well‐established methods are available for building multivariate models on mixed outcomes, but they do not incorporate MR mechanism to deal with the confounders. To overcome these challenges, we propose a Bayesian‐based two‐stage multivariate MR method for mixed outcomes on multiple datasets, called BMRMO. Using simulation studies and clinical applications on the CO.17 and CO.20 studies, we demonstrate better performance of our approach compared to the commonly used univariate two‐stage method.
Advocating for dog health on national TV
Authors: Shotton Justine
Published: March 2023

BVA's senior vice president Justine Shotton joined TV presenter Clare Balding on the sofa at Crufts to discuss a range of welfare issues, as part of Channel 4's coverage of the international dog show.
On the trail of the Unicorn: a mythical combination of two enviable careers
Authors: Hofstee Wendy
Published: March 2023

Vet and owner of Unicorn Trails Wendy Hofstee explains how she developed a horse‐riding holiday business alongside a successful career in emergency veterinary work.
Facial nerve palsy following parotid gland surgery: A machine learning prediction outcome approach
Authors: Chiesa‐Estomba Carlos M. , González‐García Jose A. , Larruscain Ekhiñe , Sistiaga Suarez Jon A. , Quer Miquel , León Xavier , Martínez‐Ruiz de Apodaca Paula , López‐Mollá Celia , Mayo‐Yanez Miguel , Medela Alfonso
Published: March 2023

Introduction

Machine learning (ML)‐based facial nerve injury (FNI) forecasting grounded on multicentric data has not been released up to now. Three distinct ML models, random forest (RF), K‐nearest neighbor, and artificial neural network (ANN), for the prediction of FNI were evaluated in this mode.

Methods

A retrospective, longitudinal, multicentric study was performed, including patients who went through parotid gland surgery for benign tumors at three different university hospitals.

Results

Seven hundred and thirty‐six patients were included. The most compelling aspects related to risk escalation of FNI were as follows: (1) location, in the mid‐portion of the gland, near to or above the main trunk of the facial nerve and at the top part, over the frontal or the orbital branch of the facial nerve; (2) tumor volume in the anteroposterior axis; (3) the necessity to simultaneously dissect more than one level; and (4) the requirement of an extended resection compared to a lesser extended resection. By contrast, in accordance with the ML analysis, the size of the tumor (>3 cm), as well as gender and age did not result in a determining favor in relation to the risk of FNI.

Discussion

The findings of this research conclude that ML models such as RF and ANN may serve evidence‐based predictions from multicentric data regarding the risk of FNI.

Conclusion

Along with the advent of ML technology, an improvement of the information regarding the potential risks of FNI associated with patients before each procedure may be achieved with the implementation of clinical, radiological, histological, and/or cytological data.
The Bacterial Microbiome of the Coral Skeleton Algal Symbiont Ostreobium Shows Preferential Associations and Signatures of Phylosymbiosis
Authors: Pushpakumara B. L. D. Uthpala , Tandon Kshitij , Willis Anusuya , Verbruggen Heroen
Published: March 2023

Ostreobium, the major algal symbiont of the coral skeleton, remains understudied despite extensive research on the coral holobiont. The enclosed nature of the coral skeleton might reduce the dispersal and exposure of residing bacteria to the outside environment, allowing stronger associations with the algae. Here, we describe the bacterial communities associated with cultured strains of 5 Ostreobium clades using 16S rRNA sequencing. We shed light on their likely physical associations by comparative analysis of three datasets generated to capture (1) all algae associated bacteria, (2) enriched tightly attached and potential intracellular bacteria, and (3) bacteria in spent media. Our data showed that while some bacteria may be loosely attached, some tend to be tightly attached or potentially intracellular. Although colonised with diverse bacteria, Ostreobium preferentially associated with 34 bacterial taxa revealing a core microbiome. These bacteria include known nitrogen cyclers, polysaccharide degraders, sulphate reducers, antimicrobial compound producers, methylotrophs, and vitamin B12 producers. By analysing co-occurrence networks of 16S rRNA datasets from Porites lutea and Paragoniastrea australensis skeleton samples, we show that the Ostreobium-bacterial associations present in the cultures are likely to also occur in their natural environment. Finally, our data show significant congruence between the Ostreobium phylogeny and the community composition of its tightly associated microbiome, largely due to the phylosymbiotic signal originating from the core bacterial taxa. This study offers insight into the Ostreobium microbiome and reveals preferential associations that warrant further testing from functional and evolutionary perspectives.
Brownian Motion in an N-Scale Periodic Potential
Authors: Duncan A. B. , Duong M. H. , Pavliotis G. A.
Published: March 2023

We study the problem of Brownian motion in a multiscale potential. The potential is assumed to have $$N+1$$

N
+
1

scales (i.e. N small scales and one macroscale) and to depend periodically on all the small scales. We show that for nonseparable potentials, i.e. potentials in which the microscales and the macroscale are fully coupled, the homogenized equation is an overdamped Langevin equation with multiplicative noise driven by the free energy, for which the detailed balance condition still holds. This means, in particular, that homogenized dynamics is reversible and that the coarse-grained Fokker–Planck equation is still a Wasserstein gradient flow with respect to the coarse-grained free energy. The calculation of the effective diffusion tensor requires the solution of a system of N coupled Poisson equations.
Digitalization of Multistep Chemistry Exercises with Automated Formative Feedback
Authors: Eitemüller Carolin , Trauten Florian , Striewe Michael , Walpuski Maik
Published: March 2023

For various reasons, students receive less formative feedback at post-secondary institutions compared to secondary school. Considering feedback as one of the most important influencing factors on learning processes, formative feedback is a promising approach to improving students’ performances. In this context, new technologies, such as learning management systems (LMS) or intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), can make a valuable contribution to improving higher education teaching by providing automated and individualized error-specific just-in-time (JIT) feedback. However, the digitalization especially of paper-based open-ended tasks that can be used by LMS is currently still associated with a loss of quality. In this paper, we present an approach that allows us to transfer open-ended paper-based tasks in the field of chemistry into online tasks without losing quality and provide large university courses with automated and individualized error-specific JIT feedback. Results of a study of 238 first-year chemistry students reveal that the automated individualized error-specific JIT feedback had a significant positive influence on students’ performance.
Shifted-windows transformers for the detection of cerebral aneurysms in microsurgery
Authors: Zhou Jinfan , Muirhead William , Williams Simon C. , Stoyanov Danail , Marcus Hani J. , Mazomenos Evangelos B.
Published: March 2023

Purpose

Microsurgical Aneurysm Clipping Surgery (MACS) carries a high risk for intraoperative aneurysm rupture. Automated recognition of instances when the aneurysm is exposed in the surgical video would be a valuable reference point for neuronavigation, indicating phase transitioning and more importantly designating moments of high risk for rupture. This article introduces the MACS dataset containing 16 surgical videos with frame-level expert annotations and proposes a learning methodology for surgical scene understanding identifying video frames with the aneurysm present in the operating microscope’s field-of-view.

Methods

Despite the dataset imbalance (80% no presence, 20% presence) and developed without explicit annotations, we demonstrate the applicability of Transformer-based deep learning architectures (MACSSwin-T, vidMACSSwin-T) to detect the aneurysm and classify MACS frames accordingly. We evaluate the proposed models in multiple-fold cross-validation experiments with independent sets and in an unseen set of 15 images against 10 human experts (neurosurgeons).

Results

Average (across folds) accuracy of 80.8% (range 78.5–82.4%) and 87.1% (range 85.1–91.3%) is obtained for the image- and video-level approach, respectively, demonstrating that the models effectively learn the classification task. Qualitative evaluation of the models’ class activation maps shows these to be localized on the aneurysm’s actual location. Depending on the decision threshold, MACSWin-T achieves 66.7–86.7% accuracy in the unseen images, compared to 82% of human raters, with moderate to strong correlation.

Conclusions

Proposed architectures show robust performance and with an adjusted threshold promoting detection of the underrepresented (aneurysm presence) class, comparable to human expert accuracy. Our work represents the first step towards landmark detection in MACS with the aim to inform surgical teams to attend to high-risk moments, taking precautionary measures to avoid rupturing.
Atmospheric dust intrusions from the peninsular region into the Northern Gulf of California: case study
Authors: Morales-Acuña Enrique , Santamaría-del-Ángel Eduardo , Linero-Cueto Jean
Published: March 2023

Through atmospheric transport, coming from the mainland, an important amount of dust arrives to surface waters of open-ocean regions and many coastal zones. Semi-arid and desert areas tend to act as important sources of dust. The Gulf of California (GC) is one of the most productive marginal seas of the world, and it is surrounded by the semi-arid deserts located in Baja California Peninsula, United States, and Sonora (Mexico). Dust fluxes coming from the BCP during the summer are relevant due to biological impact on the California Gulf. In the northern region of the BCP, meteorological events have not been well studied. These events are known in popular slang as "El Torito". The characterization of a dust event that originated in the Baja California Peninsula (BCP) on June 14, 2016, is presented. Meteorological variables (from North American Regional Reanalysis -NARR), daily sea surface temperature, and aerosol optical thickness (from MODIS) are used to explain the dust event genesis, are used. Results suggest that sea surface temperature fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the BCP generate changes in hydrometeorological variables (wind, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure) that can give rise to dust events. The June 14 dust storm originates in the San Felipe desert and disperses aeolian to the northern Gulf of California, as shown by aerosol optical thickness images and trajectories simulated with the HYSPLIT model, which establishes vertical distributions with predominant heights between 0 and 500 m.
Modeling condensing flows of humid air in transonic nozzles
Authors: Hertwig Tim , Wittmann Tim , Wiśniewski Piotr , Friedrichs Jens
Published: March 2023

The ability to accurately model condensing flows is crucial for understanding such flows in many applications. Condensing flows of pure steam have been studied extensively in the past, and several droplet growth models have been derived. The rationale for the choice of growth models for condensation in humid air is less established. Furthermore, only a few validation cases for condensation in such flows exist. This paper aims to identify existing limitations of common droplet growth laws. The Hertz—Knudsen model is compared to heat-transfer-based models by Gyarmathy and Young, using an Euler—Lagrange approach in Ansys Fluent. For this, an adaption for Young’s growth law is introduced, allowing its application in condensation of different gas mixtures. The numerical model has been validated and applied to flows in nozzles and turbines in previous publications. The accuracy of the droplet growth models is investigated in transonic nozzle test cases. A case with pure steam and a case with humid air at two different humidity values are considered. Finally, the influence of humidity, Knudsen number, and droplet radius on the growth rate of each model is shown analytically. Flows at lower humidity values with longer condensation zones are shown to benefit from the higher sensitivity of the Hertz—Knudsen model to the mass fraction of water vapor in the flow. Heat-transfer-based models tend to overestimate condensation in such flows. However, the ability to empirically adapt the growth model by Young and its applicability in different Knudsen numbers results in good agreement with validation data over a wide range of cases.
Polyketides with potential bioactivities from the mangrove-derived fungus Talaromyces sp. WHUF0362
Authors: Lv Huawei , Su Haibo , Xue Yaxin , Jia Jia , Bi Hongkai , Wang Shoubao , Zhang Jinkun , Zhu Mengdi , Emam Mahmoud , Wang Hong , Hong Kui , Li Xing-Nuo
Published: March 2023

Metabolites of microorganisms have long been considered as potential sources for drug discovery. In this study, five new depsidone derivatives, talaronins A-E (1–5) and three new xanthone derivatives, talaronins F–H (6–8), together with 16 known compounds (9–24), were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the mangrove-derived fungus Talaromyces species WHUF0362. The structures were elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic data and chemical methods including alkaline hydrolysis and Mosher’s method. Compounds 1 and 2 each attached a dimethyl acetal group at the aromatic ring. A putative biogenetic relationship of the isolated metabolites was presented and suggested that the depsidones and the xanthones probably had the same biosynthetic precursors such as chrysophanol or rheochrysidin. The antimicrobial activity assay indicated that compounds 5, 9, 10, and 14 showed potent activity against Helicobacter pylori with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values in the range of 2.42–36.04 μmol/L. While secalonic acid D (19) demonstrated significant antimicrobial activity against four strains of H. pylori with MIC values in the range of 0.20 to 1.57 μmol/L. Furthermore, secalonic acid D (19) exhibited cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines Bel-7402 and HCT-116 with IC50 values of 0.15 and 0.19 μmol/L, respectively. The structure–activity relationship of depsidone derivatives revealed that the presence of the lactone ring and the hydroxyl at C-10 was crucial to the antimicrobial activity against H. pylori. The depsidone derivatives are promising leads to inhibit H. pylori and provide an avenue for further development of novel antibiotics.
Facsimiles and the History of Shakespeare Editing
Authors: Salzman Paul
Published: March 2023

Is a facsimile an edition? In answering this question in relation to Shakespeare, and to early modern writing in general, the author explores the interrelationship between the beginning of the conventional process of collecting and editing Shakespeare's plays and the increasing sophistication of facsimiles. While recent scholarship has offered a detailed account of how Shakespeare was edited in the eighteenth century, the parallel process of the 'exact' reproduction of his texts has been largely ignored. The author will explain how facsimiles moved during the eighteenth and nineteenth century from hand drawn, traced, and type facsimiles to the advent of photographical facsimiles in the mid nineteenth century. Facsimiles can be seen as a barometer of the reverence accorded to the idea of an authentic Shakespeare text, and also of the desire to possess, if not original texts, then reproductions of them.
Decreased antimicrobial prescribing rate following academic detailing of resident physicians in outpatient clinic
Authors: Andrews Shannon L. , Gravely Amy A. , Beaudoin Amanda , Rothenberger Meghan K. , Drekonja Dimitri M.
Published: March 2023

Among 37 internal-medicine resident physicians assigned to our outpatient clinic at Minneapolis Veterans’ Affairs Health Care System (MVAHCS) on July 1, 2017, we designed a pre- and postintervention observational study. Our results show that in-person academic detailing around outpatient antimicrobial selection was associated with a decrease in outpatient antimicrobial prescriptions in a group of high-prescribing resident physicians.
Object transport by a confined active suspension
Authors: Freund Jonathan B.
Published: March 2023

Numerical simulations in two space dimensions are used to examine the dynamics, transport and equilibrium behaviours of a neutrally buoyant circular object immersed in an active suspension within a larger circular container. The continuum model of Gao et al. (Phys. Rev. Fluids, vol. 2, issue 9, 2017, 093302) represents the suspension of non-interacting, immotile, extensor-type microscopic agents that have a direction and strength, and align in response to strain rate. Such a suspension is well known to be unstable above an activity strength threshold, which depends upon the length scale of the confinement. Introducing the object leads to additional phenomenology. It can confine fluid between it and the container wall, which suppresses local suspension activity. However, its motion also correlates strain rates near its surface, which induce a correspondingly correlated active-stress response. Depending on the suspension activity strength, these mechanisms lead to either an attraction toward or a repulsion away from the container wall. In addition, a persistent propagating behaviour is found for modest activity strength, which provides a mechanism for long-range transport. When activity is so weak that the mobility of the object is essential to support suspension instability and sustain flow, all flow terminates when its mobility is diminished as it nears the container wall. If activity strength is scheduled in time, then these mechanisms could be used to perform relatively complex tasks with simple active agents.
El clientelismo en Paraguay: ¿Compra de votos o compra de participación electoral?
Authors: Dosek Tomás
Published: March 2023

El clientelismo en Paraguay es generalizado y socialmente aceptado tanto por los políticos como por la ciudadanía, pero relativamente poco estudiado por la literatura comparada. Este artículo ofrece una descripción cualitativa de los principales actores y lógicas del funcionamiento en los vínculos clientelares entre políticos y la ciudadanía en Paraguay, enfocándose tanto en las relaciones de largo plazo como en las prácticas durante los períodos electorales. El artículo argumenta que el clientelismo en Paraguay está anclado en las estructuras partidarias territoriales, la identificación ciudadana con los principales partidos políticos y en las redes de brokers con vínculos con los vecinos. Durante los períodos electorales los intercambios particularistas se intensifican y culminan con la compra de participación electoral durante el día de las elecciones. El artículo muestra que la parte relacional y electoral del clientelismo en el caso paraguayo son inseparables, condicionando la primera a la segunda. La compra de participación electoral es una práctica que se deriva de relaciones cultivadas a lo largo del tiempo. La investigación está basada en entrevistas a profundidad y trabajo de campo en cuatro ciudades de la zona metropolitana de Asunción.
A note on grid homology in lens spaces: coefficients and computations
Authors: Celoria Daniele
Published: March 2023

We present a combinatorial proof for the existence of the sign-refined grid homology in lens spaces and a self-contained proof that
$\partial _{\mathbb{Z}}^2 = 0$
. We also present a Sage programme that computes
$\widehat{\mathrm{GH}} (L(p,q),K;\mathbb{Z})$
and provide empirical evidence supporting the absence of torsion in these groups.
Fast magneto-acoustic wave turbulence and the Iroshnikov–Kraichnan spectrum
Authors: Galtier Sébastien
Published: March 2023

An analytical theory of wave turbulence is developed for pure compressible magnetohydrodynamics in the small

$\beta$

limit. In contrast to previous works where the multiple scale method was not mentioned and slow magneto-acoustic waves were included, we present here a theory for fast magneto-acoustic waves for which only an asymptotic closure is possible in three dimensions. We introduce the compressible Elsässer fields (canonical variables) and show their linear relationship with the mass density and the compressible velocity. The kinetic equations of wave turbulence for three-wave interactions are obtained and the detailed conservation is shown for the two invariants, energy and momentum (cross-helicity). An exact stationary solution (Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectrum) exists only for the energy. We find a

$k^{-3/2}$

energy spectrum compatible with the Iroshnikov–Kraichnan (IK) phenomenological prediction; this leads to a mass density spectrum with the same scaling. Despite the presence of a relatively strong uniform magnetic field, this turbulence is characterized by an energy spectrum with a power index that is independent of the angular direction; its amplitude, however, shows an angular dependence. We prove the existence of the IK solution using the locality condition, show that the energy flux is positive and hence the cascade direct and find the Kolmogorov constant. This theory offers a plausible explanation for recent observations in the solar wind at small

$\beta$

where isotropic spectra with a

$-3/2$

power-law index are found and associated with fast magneto-acoustic waves. This theory may also be used to explain the IK spectrum often observed near the Sun. Besides, it provides a rigorous theoretical basis for the well-known phenomenological IK spectrum, which coincides with the Zakharov–Sagdeev spectrum for acoustic wave turbulence.
So many variables, but what causes what?
Authors: DE CAT Cécile , UNSWORTH Sharon
Published: March 2023

Paradis’ keynote article provides a comprehensive overview of factors influencing bilingual children’s dual language abilities. It includes the ‘usual suspects’, such as input quantity, and also highlights areas requiring further investigation, such as cognitive abilities. As such, it will no doubt serve as a valuable basis for the field as we move forward. Paradis quite rightly points out that whilst some of these factors may be unidirectionally related to language abilities, suggesting causality, for many others such relations are bi- or multidirectional and as such, caution is required in interpreting them. In order to pinpoint the nature and direction of these relations (currently absent from Figure 1 in the keynote), more complex analytic techniques are needed, as Paradis herself notes: “The relations among attitudes/identity, input and interaction, and perhaps social adjustment and wellbeing, are likely to be complex; therefore, more complex analytic techniques are needed to understand the path(s) between family attitudes about the HL on one hand, and children’s HL outcomes on the other.” (Paradis, 2023: 19). In this commentary, we provide an illustration of how the complex relationships between the variables discussed in Paradis’s keynote article could be conceptualised within a causal inference approach. We offer a modest starting point by summarising key features of causal inference modelling and by illustrating how it might help us better understand what causes what.