bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quality and microbial properties of symbiotic bread produced by straight dough and frozen part‐baking methods
Authors: Majzoobi Mahsa , Aghdam Mohammad Bagher Kamali , Eskandari Mohammad Hadi , Farahnaky Asgar
Published: December 2018

Symbiotic bread was produced by straight dough and frozen part‐baking methods using inulin as a prebiotic (0–7.5% in straight dough method and 5% in frozen part baked bread) and GanedenBC 30 as a probiotic. With addition of inulin, dough water absorption and softening reduced, but dough development time and stability time increased. Inulin prevented excessive moisture loss during bread storage and enhanced crust darkness and crumb firmness while reduced bread volume. Increasing the frozen storage time (up to 56 days) had no effect on bread moisture content, but it reduced volume and increased firmness and crust lightness. Samples produced by straight dough method had acceptable levels of probiotic (7.45, 6.45, and 7.43 log cfu/g, respectively) complying with the WHO recommendation. Frozen storage had no effect on the probiotic content of the samples and it increased to 7.35 log cfu/g (above the minimum recommended level) after re‐baking and storage at room temperature.

Practical applications

Symbiotic foods are products that contain both probiotics (useful bacteria) and prebiotics (carbohydrate source for probiotics). Development of symbiotic bread is required to add variety to the existing types of functional breads and satisfy costumers particularly those avoiding dairy products which are traditionally enriched with probiotics. Part‐baked bread industry is growing rapidly around the world; however, to remain in the market it requires innovation to satisfy consumers' demand for healthy products. This research can find practical application for ordinary and part‐baked bread industry to produce bread with improved health benefits and acceptable quality.
Serum hepatitis B core‐related antigen is an effective tool to categorize patients with HBeAg‐negative chronic hepatitis B
Authors: Loggi Elisabetta , Vukotic Ranka , Conti Fabio , Grandini Elena , Gitto Stefano , Cursaro Carmela , Galli Silvia , Furlini Giuliano , Re Maria Carla , Andreone Pietro
Published: December 2018

The discrimination between active chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and the clinically quiescent infection (CIB) is not always easy, as a significant portion of patients falls in a “grey” zone. Hepatitis B core‐related antigen (HBcrAg) is a now quantifiable serological marker with potential applications in diagnosis and therapy monitoring. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the HBcrAg serum levels in HBeAg‐negative HBV infection, and its ability in identifying the clinical profile, in comparison with HBsAg serum levels. HBcrAg was retrospectively assessed on serum samples from a population of treatment‐naive HBeAg‐negative patients by ChemiLuminescent Enzyme Immunoassay (CLEIA). HBsAg and HBV‐DNA data were collected. Serological data were associated to clinical profile, defined in the subsequent follow‐up of at least 1 year. In the overall population of 160 HBeAg‐negative patients, HBcrAg results weakly correlated with qHBsAg levels (Spearman r = 0.471, P < 0.0001) and correlated closely with HBV‐DNA (Spearman r = 0.746, P < 0.0001). HBcrAg levels were significantly higher in 85 CHB patients relative to 75 CIB carriers. A value of 2.5 logU/mL produced the optimal cut‐off to identify CIB patients, with diagnostic accuracy comparable to HBsAg levels. In long‐term clinical evaluation, a single measurement of HBcrAg at the established cut‐off was optimally consistent with clinical outcome. Conversely, the HBsAg cut‐off performed well in the true quiescent phase and less in more difficult‐to‐categorize patients. In conclusion, single‐point use of HBcrAg serum levels provides an accurate identification of CIB and represents a useful tool for patient classification.
Seizure‐precipitating factors in dogs with idiopathic epilepsy
Authors: Forsgård Johanna A. , Metsähonkala Liisa , Kiviranta Anna‐Mariam , Cizinauskas Sigitas , Junnila Jouni J.T. , Laitinen‐Vapaavuori Outi , Jokinen Tarja S.
Published: December 2018

Background

Stress, sleep deprivation, and infectious diseases are important seizure‐precipitating factors in human epilepsy patients. However, these factors have not been thoroughly studied in epileptic dogs.

Objective

Seizure‐precipitating factors are common in dogs with idiopathic epilepsy and the occurrence of these factors associate with the dogs' signalment, personality, and epilepsy‐related factors.

Animals

Fifty dogs with diagnosed idiopathic epilepsy from the hospital populations of University Veterinary Teaching Hospital of University of Helsinki and Referral Animal Hospital Aisti.

Methods

In a retrospective cross‐sectional observational study, owners were interviewed about their dogs' possible seizure‐precipitating factors according to a predefined questionnaire. The dogs were identified and selected by searching the medical records of the participating animal hospitals.

Results

The prevalence of seizure‐precipitating factors in the study population was 74% (37/50). The most frequently reported factors included stress‐related situations, sleep deprivation, weather, and hormonal factors. In dogs with focal onset seizures, the number of precipitating factors was 1.9 (95% CI 1.1‐3.4) times higher compared to dogs with generalized seizures.

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Seizure‐precipitating factors are common in dogs with idiopathic epilepsy, and the nature of these factors is consistent with those of human patients. Aside from antiepileptic medication, acknowledging and avoiding seizure‐precipitating factors could help veterinarians achieve better treatment outcomes.
On Being (Not) Old: Agency, Self‐care, and Life‐course Aspirations in the United States
Authors: Lamb Sarah
Published: December 2018

This article examines U.S. endeavors to eradicate old age. Drawing on research with older, mostly white, Americans across social classes, I probe how older people engage in “healthy,” “successful” aging as a moral project, health identity, and way of approaching the life course. Moving beyond influential literature on biopolitics and biomedicine that tends to treat medicine, science, and biopolitical governance as overdetermined causal forces, I explore instead how a confluence of factors—including cultural ideologies of personhood and independence, medical interventions, social hierarchies, and individual experiences—together lead to the stigmatization of oldness. Social inequalities also matter, as an ethos of self‐care and individual agency to ward off oldness is most pronounced among the able‐bodied and socioeconomic elite. The aim is to illuminate the convergence of factors that stigmatize oldness in contemporary North America, while highlighting the ways that class profoundly figures in people's varied attempts to not be old.
Glaucoma management in primary care: barriers perceived by optometrists in Scotland
Authors: Bruce Gillian , Tatham Andrew J
Published: December 2018

Purpose

Over the next 10 years, the prevalence of glaucoma in the United Kingdom (UK) is predicted to rise by 22%,(The Way Forward: Glaucoma, The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London, 2017) posing a considerable challenge to already overstretched hospital eye services. To help address this problem, services traditionally offered in hospital such as managing stable glaucoma patients, could be transferred to community optometrists. The aim of this study was to identify whether optometrists in Scotland have an interest in managing primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) in primary care and to assess perceived barriers.

Methods

All optometrists on the NHS Education Scotland (NES) database were invited to participate in an online survey over a 7‐week period. Optometrists were asked if they had an interest in being accredited to manage POAG in the community and a free text question was used to elicit perceived barriers. Responders with an interest in managing POAG were invited to take part in two further rounds of electronic surveying, using a modified Delphi approach, with the aim of reaching a consensus on perceived barriers.

Results

Two hundred and ninety‐nine of 1566 optometrists (19%) responded to the survey. 229 (79%) expressed an interest in managing patients with POAG in primary care. The most commonly perceived barriers after two rounds of Delphi surveying were remuneration (29%), communication with secondary care (18%), perceived ophthalmology resistance (13%), training (11%) and capacity (10%). Multivariate regression revealed fewer years in practice and comfort using and interpreting results of pachymetry were associated with higher odds of interest in managing glaucoma in the community.

Conclusions

Among survey responders, there was significant interest from community optometrists to being accredited to manage POAG in primary care. A collaborative approach between primary and secondary care will be required to address the concerns of community optometrists in any future expansion of their role in glaucoma management.
ERF109 of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) contributes to cold tolerance by directly regulating expression of Prx1 involved in antioxidative process
Authors: Wang Min , Dai Wenshan , Du Juan , Ming Ruhong , Dahro Bachar , Liu Ji‐Hong
Published: December 2018

Ethylene‐responsive factors (ERFs) have been revealed to play essential roles in a variety of physiological and biological processes in higher plants. However, functions and regulatory pathways of most ERFs in cold stress remain largely unclear. Here, we identified PtrERF109 of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) and deciphered its role in cold tolerance. PtrERF109 was drastically up‐regulated by cold, ethylene and dehydration, but repressed by salt. PtrERF109 was localized in the nucleus and displayed transcriptional activity, and the C terminus is required for the activation. Overexpression of PtrERF109 conferred enhanced cold tolerance in transgenic tobacco and lemon plants, whereas VIGS (virus‐induced gene silencing)‐mediated suppression of PtrERF109 in trifoliate orange led to increased cold susceptibility. PtrERF109 overexpression caused extensive transcriptional reprogramming of several suites of stress‐responsive genes. Prx1 encoding class III peroxidase (POD) was one of the antioxidant genes exhibiting the greatest induction. PtrERF109 was shown to directly bind to the promoter of PtrPrx1 (trifoliate orange Prx1 homologue) and positively activated its expression. In addition, the PtrERF109‐overexpressing plants exhibited significantly higher POD activity and accumulated dramatically less H2O2 and were more tolerant to oxidative stress, whereas the VIGS plants exhibited opposite trends, in comparison with wild type. Taken together, these results indicate that PtrERF109 as a positive regulator contributes to imparting cold tolerance by, at least partly, directly regulating the POD‐encoding gene to maintain a robust antioxidant capacity for effectively scavenging the reactive oxygen species. Our findings gain insight into better understanding of transcriptional regulation of antioxidant genes in response to cold stress.
Successful liver transplantation using a whole liver graft with gallbladder agenesis: First report in pediatric liver transplantation
Authors: Pessanha Inês , Alexandrino Henrique , Piedade Cláudia , Cunha Catarina , Gonçalves Isabel , Lopes Maria Francelina , Furtado Emanuel
Published: December 2018

Introduction

Gallbladder agenesis (GA) is a rare congenital condition, occurring in approximately 40/100.000. It is likely due to an embryologic mishap in the development of the gallbladder bud and can be associated with other congenital variations in biliary anatomy. However, the liver likely suffers no functional impairment and can be safely used for transplantation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report describing a pediatric liver transplantation (PLT) using a graft with GA.

Case report

A 10‐year‐old boy with methylmalonic aciduria underwent isolated liver transplant with a deceased graft from a donor with no relevant medical or surgical history and normal laboratory tests. During the back‐table liver preparation procedure, no evidence of gallbladder was found, raising the possibility of a GA, confirmed by intraoperative cholangiography. The liver transplantation procedure was uneventful despite the particularly rare combination of biliary tree anatomic distribution found in the cholangiography. At 1 year of follow‐up, there were no clinical, laboratory, or imagological signs of bile leaks or anastomotic site stricture.

Discussion

The present report highlights the importance of the accurate knowledge of the vasculobiliary anatomic variation, particularly in extremely rare cases, such as GA, and in complex hepatobiliary procedures, such as PLT. In our opinion, grafts with GA should not be discarded for transplantation.
Partisan Attitudes toward Sanctuary Cities: The Asymmetrical Effects of Political Knowledge
Authors: Oskooii Kassra A. R. , Dreier Sarah K. , Collingwood Loren
Published: December 2018

Sanctuary city policies seek to protect undocumented community members from federal detention or deportation. Debates over sanctuary cities have become increasingly prominent and partisan in American politics. Republicans accuse sanctuary cities of enabling crime, while Democrats laud them for protecting communities from rights violations. Despite partisan salience, we have little information about peoples’ substantive knowledge of sanctuary policies or how crucial that knowledge is in shaping partisan attitudes toward those policies. Drawing on a unique survey dataset of sanctuary attitudes, we demonstrate that an absence of political knowledge has asymmetrical effects on sanctuary attitudes along ideological and partisan lines. Knowledge about sanctuary policies increases support for sanctuary cities among liberals/Democrats, whereas conservatives/Republicans do not require substantive knowledge to align their attitudes on sanctuary cities with their ideological predispositions. This finding advances scholarship on the interplay between political knowledge and ideology, and has important immigration‐related policy and advocacy implications.

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Biased Policy and Political Behavior: The Case of Uneven Removal of Elected Mayors in Israel
Authors: Ben‐Bassat Avi , Dahan Momi
Published: December 2018

Unlike the previous literature on mass policy feedback, the present study argues that a negative message embodied in public policy may foster or dampen political participation depending on social group affiliation. The policy change we use to examine the effect of biased policy (a perceived negative message) on political behavior is the removal of elected mayors that were replaced by an appointed committee in a large number of Arab and Jewish municipalities in Israel, which was skewed significantly toward Arab municipalities. We show that Arab voters in intervened municipalities are more likely to show up at the ballot boxes in national elections and they tend to vote more for Arab parties. In contrast, the political participation of Jewish citizens is lower in municipalities with an appointed council without noticeable effect on vote choice.

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Tusalem, Rollin F. 2015. “.” Politics & Policy 43 (): 502‐537. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12125

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Field surveys and revegetation experiments show that simulation of topographical habitat features could improve the chances of successful restoration for the threatened succulent Juttadinteria albata
Authors: Nauyoma LineekelaOmwene T. , Wassenaar Theo D. , Mfune John K. E. , van der Waal Cornelis , Kwembeya Ezekeil G.
Published: December 2018

Species with highly restricted ranges are disproportionately at risk of extinction, particularly where habitat loss occurs as a result of mining. Postmining restoration of rare species populations is considered as an appropriate response to counter such threats, but requires a careful, evidence‐based, and information‐driven approach. The economically important diamond mining at Sendelingsdrif in the southern Namib Desert occurs in the highly diverse Succulent Karoo Biome and threatens a significant part of the population of the narrow endemic succulent plant species Juttadinteria albata. To decrease the inherent risks of restoring such a rare species, we studied the habitat features of premining J. albata populations and experimentally tested whether some features could assist future reintroductions in postmining substrates. Plots where J. albata occurred were mostly south‐ to west‐facing and had among others higher rock cover and steeper slopes than plots where J. albata plants were absent. A revegetation experiment, with J. albata cuttings that were established on postmining substrate mounds, revealed that plants on steeper slopes, facing south to west, grew faster than plants on other slopes and aspects. Slope and aspect are therefore important habitat properties to recreate when restoring J. albata populations. These, and other preferred habitat properties such as higher levels of organic C, should now be tested in larger‐scale field trials. Validation of habitat requirements of J. albata through the revegetation experiment has decreased the risks at least partially and provides additional empirical evidence of the importance of establishing reference conditions to enhance ecological restoration.
Ukraine's unconsidered losses from the annexation of Crimea: What should we account for in the DCFTA forecasts?
Authors: Olekseyuk Zoryana , Schürenberg‐Frosch Hannah
Published: December 2018

In March 2014 Crimea unilaterally declared its independence from Ukraine and joined the Russian Federation. The separation of a part of a state's territory and economy is an interesting matter to examine. The economy of Ukraine has not only shrunk, but also changed its structure as Crimea had a quite distinct production pattern compared to the rest of Ukraine. Moreover, policy measures initialized before the separation may have different effects once applied only to a part of the former economy. This paper proposes a strategy to model the separation of part of an economy and its inclusion into another country and applies this strategy to the case of Crimea, Ukraine, and Russia. Having constructed a model for the new geographical and economic situation, we reinvestigate the possible effects of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and the EU and compare the results for the situation with Crimea as part of Ukraine. We find that the annexation of Crimea leads to severe economic losses for Ukraine which are partly overproportional compared to Crimea's economic size. These negative effects can be compensated by implementing the DCFTA with the EU as we also show in our model results.
Environmental regulation and love for variety
Authors: Echazu Luciana , Heintzelman Martin
Published: December 2018

Using a model of monopolistic competition, we examine the relationship between intra‐industry trade and environmental regulation. The decisions on emission standards set by each country show strong strategic interactions. In closed economies regulations act as strategic substitutes, and in equilibrium there is under‐regulation relative to the cooperative outcome. Trade liberalization may lead to stricter or laxer environmental standards, depending on the consumers’ preference for product variety. In addition, we show that with open trade environmental regulations may act as strategic complements and countries may set environmental standards that are as strict (or stricter) than those in the cooperative outcome.
A stochastic process approach to multilayer neutron detectors
Authors: Anevski Dragi , Hall‐Wilton Richard , Kanaki Kalliopi , Pastukhov Vladimir
Published: December 2018

The sparsity of the isotope Helium‐3, ongoing since 2009, has initiated a new generation of neutron detectors. One particularly promising development line for detectors is the multilayer gaseous detector. In this paper, a stochastic process approach is used to determine the neutron energy from the additional data afforded by the multilayer nature of these novel detectors. The data from a multilayer detector consist of counts of the number of absorbed neutrons along the sequence of the detector's layers, in which the neutron absorption probability is unknown. We study the maximum likelihood estimator for the intensity and absorption probability and show its consistency and asymptotic normality, as the number of incoming neutrons goes to infinity. We combine these results with known results on the relation between the absorption probability and the wavelength to derive an estimator of the wavelength and to show its consistency and asymptotic normality.
An integrative review of impression formation processes for multiracial individuals
Authors: Chen Jacqueline M.
Published: December 2018

In approximately 30 years, up to one in five Americans will be mixed race. How monoracial people perceive multiracials will become a critical aspect of race relations in the United States. This demographic shift highlights the need to broaden social psychological theories and investigations to understand multiracial person perception. This article reviews existing research on how people perceive, and remember mixed‐race people, with attention to how these findings contribute to our understanding of racial categorization, impression formation, and intergroup relations. People categorize multiracial people according to the principles of hypodescent (Black + White = Black), the minority bias (Black + White = not White), and by adopting a novel category (Black + White = Multiracial). The particular categorization of a multiracial target depends on several factors, including availability of target information (ancestry, facial appearance), the accessibility of different racial categories, perceiver motives, and the broader cultural context. Downstream implications of these categorization processes are discussed, and future directions are highlighted. Researchers are encouraged to think about race as a multifaceted concept that includes many components (appearance, identity, ancestry, and perceived) that are not necessarily one‐to‐one, especially for mixed‐race individuals.
Moving towards hybridity in causal explanation: The example of citizen participation
Authors: Richardson Liz , Durose Catherine , Perry Beth
Published: December 2018

The puzzle of causal explanation is a core issue for social science. Searches for causal patterns can be overly mechanistic, seen for example in the desire for the magic bullet in policy, or the lionising of the celebrity policy interventions of the moment. Emphasis in policy interventions on transferable practice is often dismissed as naive for failing to recognise the importance of context, contingency, and complexity. However, a focus on highly context‐specific narratives, drawn from single cases, can be equally problematic and exacerbate rather than help the problem of reification of knowledge. This paper makes a reflective theoretical contribution to the debate on the need to tackle the dilemma of contingency versus certainty in causal explanation in the social sciences. It attempts to address this issue through the lens of a specific concrete puzzle of explanation; that of citizen participation in policy. Citizen participation is a salient policy topic, which demands a thorough understanding of causation. Using extended empirical examples of citizen participation in policy serves to highlight the intractability of different traditions of causal explanation and grounds the need for greater compatibility in approaches. The paper then offers two propositions centring on the notions of transdisciplinarity and hybridity in research practices and methodologies. It concludes with a discussion of more and less desirable forms of hybridity.
Plasma‐based biomaterials for the treatment of cutaneous radiation injury
Authors: Miller Eric D. , Song Feifei , Smith Jason D. , Ayan Ahmet S. , Mo Xiaokui , Weldon Michael , Lu Lanchun , Campbell Phil G. , Bhatt Aashish D. , Chakravarti Arnab , Jacob Naduparambil K.
Published: December 2018

Cutaneous wounds caused by an exposure to high doses of ionizing radiation remain a therapeutic challenge. While new experimental strategies for treatment are being developed, there are currently no off‐the‐shelf therapies for the treatment of cutaneous radiation injury that have been proven to promote repair of the damaged tissues. Plasma‐based biomaterials are biologically active biomaterials made from platelet enriched plasma, which can be made into both solid and semi‐solid forms, are inexpensive, and are available as off‐the‐shelf, nonrefrigerated products. In this study, the use of plasma‐based biomaterials for the mitigation of acute and late toxicity for cutaneous radiation injury was investigated using a mouse model. A 2‐cm diameter circle of the dorsal skin was irradiated with a single dose of 35 Gy followed by topical treatment with plasma‐based biomaterial or vehicle once daily for 5 weeks postirradiation. Weekly imaging demonstrated more complete wound resolution in the plasma‐based biomaterial vs. vehicle group which became statistically significant (p < 0.05) at weeks 12, 13, and 14 postmaximum wound area. Despite more complete wound healing, at 9 and 17 weeks postirradiation, there was no statistically significant difference in collagen deposition or skin thickness between the plasma‐based biomaterial and vehicle groups based on Masson trichrome staining nor was there a statistically significant difference in inflammatory or fibrosis‐related gene expression between the groups. Although significant improvement was not observed for late toxicity, plasma‐based biomaterials were effective at promoting wound closure, thus helping to mitigate acute toxicity.
Effect of Crossfit Training on Jump and Strength
Authors: Yüksel Oğuzhan , Gündüz Bolat , Kayhan Mert
Published: December 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of regular CrossFit training on some force and jump parameters. 32 healthy wrestling men participated in the study, 16 experimental and 16 control groups. For the experimental group, CrossFit training, known as Cindy, was practiced three times a week for 8 weeks. The training consisted of 5 bars, 10 push-ups and 15 squats for 20 minutes. The control group continued the classical wrestling practice. Myotest accelerometric system was used for measurements of participants’ values. For the analysis of the data, repeated measure ANOVA was used. According to the results, as a result of CrossFit training, athletes' squat jump heights increased (Wilks' Lambda = .541, F (1,30) = 25, p = .00). The mean post-training leap values (33.778 ± 5.48) were higher than the pre-training leap values (32.169 ± 4.95) (p <0.05). It can be concluded that Cindy CrossFit studies improve jumping and strength ability.
Nutrition Knowledge Levels of Male Boxers in Junior Category
Authors: Agirbas Ozturk , Keyf Erdil , Aggon Eser , Ozan Murat
Published: December 2018

The purpose of this study is to determine the nutritional habits and nutritional knowledge levels of athletes competing in the boxing junior men category (15-16 years old). The sample of the study consists of athletes within the age group of 15-16 competing in the Turkish High School Junior Men's Boxing Championship. The nutrition level scale was applied to the athletes. The data were analysed using Independent Student T test and one-way variance analysis. The majority of the boxers involved in the study were found to be fed enough, received four fundamental food groups on a balanced basis in their meals, made changes in their diet on the days they do sports, paid attention to their pre-workout and post-workout nutrition, and thought that regular nutrition has a positive effect on performance, in addition, it was found that the scale scores were moderate according to the age of sports, national athlete status, weight, nutrition, eating four fundamental food groups of meals, taking care of nutrition during their days and after training, it was also found that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups, that there was a positive effect on the performance of regular nutrition with the boxers who paid attention to pre-workout nutrition and that the boxers with higher nutritional knowledge were significantly higher than the others, and that the nutritional knowledge levels were also influenced by their family income levels. In this research, it can be said that the nutrition knowledge levels of star men boxers are in moderate level and it can be said that the levels of knowledge, especially those with national athlete status and high sports age, is not different from others, in contrast to expectations.
Preliminary Investigations of the Feasibility of In-Vessel Melt Retention Strategies for a Small Modular Reactor Concept
Authors: Andriolo Lena , Meriot Clément , Bakouta Nikolai
Published: December 2018

The study presented in this paper is part of the technological surveillance performed at the Electricité De France (EDF) Research and Development (R&D) Center, in the Pericles department, and investigates the feasibility of modeling in-vessel melt retention (IVMR) phenomena for small modular reactors (SMR) with the modular accident analysis program version 5 in its EDF proprietary version (MAAP5_EDF), applying conservative hypotheses, such as constant decay heat after corium relocation to the lower head. The study takes advantage of a corium stratification model in the lower head of the vessel, developed by EDF R&D for large-sized prospective pressurized water reactors (PWRs). The analysis is based on a stepwise approach in order to evaluate the impact of various effects during IVMR conditions. First, an analytical calculation is performed in order to establish a reference case to which the MAAP5_EDF code results are compared. In a second step, the impact of the lower head geometry, vessel steel ablation, and subsequent relocation on the heat flux has been analyzed for cases where heat dissipation through radiation is neglected (in first approximation). Finally, the impact of heat losses through radiation as well as the crust formation around the pool has been assessed. The results demonstrate the applicability of the MAAP5_EDF code to SMRs, with heat fluxes lower than 1.1 MW/m2 for relevant cases, and identify modeling improvements.
Neutronic and Thermo-Hydraulic Analyses of Water-Cooled Blanket Based on Pressurized/Supercritical Water Conditions for CFETR
Authors: Cheng Jie , Wu Yingwei , Su G. H. , Qiu Suizheng , Tian Wenxi
Published: December 2018

China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) is a test tokamak reactor being designed in China to bridge the gap between International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and future fusion power plant. As one of the candidates, a water-cooled solid breeder blanket based on pressurized water and supercritical water conditions were proposed. In the concept, multiplying layers separated by three breeding layers were designed and optimized for higher tritium breeding ratio (TBR) and uniform heat distribution. This blanket adopts the Li2TiO3 lithium ceramic pebbles as the breeder, while beryllium pebbles as the neutron multiplier. In this paper, the thermal and fluid dynamic analyses of the optimized blanket on both water conditions were performed by numerical simulation, to discuss thermo-hydraulic performance of the blanket using pressurized water/supercritical water as its coolant. At first, the neutronic analysis was performed and based on the typical outboard equatorial blanket. Then, thermal and fluid dynamic analysis of the 3D model was carried out by CFX with fluid–solid coupling approach. It was found that the blanket can be effectively cooled on both water conditions, certified the feasibility of the blanket design with pressurized/supercritical water conditions. It indicated that supercritical water blanket had smaller safety margin than pressurized water blanket, but supercritical water blanket would lead to higher outlet temperature, thermal conductivity, and heat exchange efficiency also. In addition, the beryllium fraction was considered as one of the dominant factor, which leading a higher TBR in our simulations.
Observation of the Talbot effect with water waves
Authors: Bakman Alexandra , Fishman Shmuel , Fink Mathias , Fort Emmanuel , Wildeman Sander
Published: December 2018

When light is incident upon a diffraction grating, images of the grating appear at periodic intervals behind the grating. This phenomenon and the associated self-imaging distance were named after Talbot, who first observed them in the nineteenth century. A century later, this effect held new surprises with the discovery of sub-images at regular fractional distances of the Talbot length. In this paper, we show that water waves enable one to observe the Talbot effect in a classroom experiment. Quantitative measurements, of for example the Talbot distances, can be performed with an easy-to-use digital Schlieren method.
Thermo-viscous damping of acoustic waves in narrow channels: A comparison of effects in air and water
Authors: Cotterill Philip A. , Nigro David , Abrahams I. David , Garcia-Neefjes Erik , Parnell William J.
Published: December 2018

Recent work in the acoustic metamaterial literature has focused on the design of metasurfaces that are capable of absorbing sound almost perfectly in narrow frequency ranges by coupling resonant effects to visco-thermal damping within their microstructure. Understanding acoustic attenuation mechanisms in narrow, viscous-fluid-filled channels is of fundamental importance in such applications. Motivated by recent work on acoustic propagation in narrow, air-filled channels, a theoretical framework is presented that demonstrates the controlling mechanisms of acoustic propagation in arbitrary Newtonian fluids, focusing on attenuation in air and water. For rigid-walled channels, whose widths are on the order of Stokes's boundary layer thickness, attenuation in air at 10 kHz can be over 200 dB m−1; in water it is less than 37 dB m−1. However, in water, fluid-structure-interaction effects can increase attenuation dramatically to over 77 dB m−1 for a steel-walled channel, with a reduction in phase-speed approaching 70%. For rigid-walled channels, approximate analytical expressions for dispersion relations are presented that are in close agreement with exact solutions over a broad range of frequencies, revealing explicitly the relationship between complex phase-speed, frequency and channel width.
Effect of improving audibility on better-ear glimpsing using non-linear amplification
Authors: Rana Baljeet , Buchholz Jörg M.
Published: December 2018

Better-ear glimpsing (BEG) utilizes interaural level differences (ILDs) to improve speech intelligibility in noise. This spatial benefit is reduced in most hearing-impaired (HI) listeners due to their increased hearing loss at high frequencies. Even though this benefit can be improved by providing increased amplification, the improvement is limited by loudness discomfort. An alternative solution therefore extends ILDs to low frequencies, which has been shown to provide a substantial benefit from BEG. In contrast to previous studies, which only applied linear stimulus manipulations, wide dynamic range compression was applied here to improve the audibility of soft sounds while ensuring loudness comfort for loud sounds. Performance in both speech intelligibility and BEG was measured in 13 HI listeners at three different masker levels and for different interaural stimulus manipulations. The results revealed that at low signal levels, performance substantially improved with increasing masker level, but this improvement was reduced by the compressive behaviour at higher levels. Moreover, artificially extending ILDs by applying infinite (broadband) ILDs provided an extra spatial benefit in speech reception thresholds of up to 5 dB on top of that already provided by natural ILDs and interaural time differences, which increased with increasing signal level.
'Five Deeps' mission to explore mysterious ocean trenches
Authors: Stokstad Erik
Published: December 2018

Crewed sub aims to spot new species and gather rocks.
National Academies urges renewed commitment to fusion
Authors: Cho Adrian
Published: December 2018

U.S. should stick with ITER, build a power plant, panel says.
Breakdowns of the year
Authors: Voosen Paul , Escobar Herton , Enserink Martin
Published: December 2018

What went wrong in the world of science in 2018.
Cascading regime shifts within and across scales
Authors: Rocha Juan C. , Peterson Garry , Bodin Örjan , Levin Simon
Published: December 2018

Cascading effects of regime shifts

The potential for regime shifts and critical transitions in ecological and Earth systems, particularly in a changing climate, has received considerable attention. However, the possibility of interactions between such shifts is poorly understood. Rocha
et al.
used network analysis to explore whether critical transitions in ecosystems can be coupled with each other, even when far apart (see the Perspective by Scheffer and van Nes). They report different types of potential cascading effects, including domino effects and hidden feedbacks, that can be prevalent in different systems. Such cascading effects can couple the dynamics of regime shifts in distant places, which suggests that the interactions between transitions should be borne in mind in future forecasts.

Science
, this issue p.
1379
; see also p.
1357
The strength of long-range ties in population-scale social networks
Authors: Park Patrick S. , Blumenstock Joshua E. , Macy Michael W.
Published: December 2018

The strength of long-range ties

It seems reasonable that we would have the closest, strongest ties with people in our immediate social network and that the ties between networks would be weaker. However, Park
et al.
discovered strong ties that spanned extreme network (not geographic) distances in 11 culturally diverse population-scale networks on four continents—encompassing 56 million Twitter users and 58 million mobile phone subscribers. Although they are fairly rare, strong ties between networks could be important for the spreading of ideas or disease.

Science
, this issue p.
1410
Concise total syntheses of (–)-jorunnamycin A and (–)-jorumycin enabled by asymmetric catalysis
Authors: Welin Eric R. , Ngamnithiporn Aurapat , Klatte Max , Lapointe Guillaume , Pototschnig Gerit M. , McDermott Martina S. J. , Conklin Dylan , Gilmore Christopher D. , Tadross Pamela M. , Haley Christopher K. , Negoro Kenji , Glibstrup Emil , Grünanger Christian U. , Allan Kevin M. , Virgil Scott C. , Slamon Dennis J. , Stoltz Brian M.
Published: December 2018

Journey to jorumycin

Jorumycin is a structurally complex, pentacyclic organic compound produced by a marine mollusk. The success of a similar compound, trabectedin, in treating certain types of cancer has focused attention on exploring jorumycin's pharmaceutical properties. Welin
et al.
developed a succinct route to synthesizing jorumycin and the closely related jorunnamycin A that deliberately diverges from the putative biosynthetic pathway underlying prior chemical syntheses. This route, which hinges on a carefully optimized asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation, can be easily modified to introduce unnatural structural diversity for functional optimization in further drug discovery research.

Science
, this issue p.
270
Homoethanol Production from Glycerol and Gluconate Using Recombinant
Klebsiella oxytoca
Strains
Authors: Tao Weiyi , Wang Yi , Walters Eric , Lin Hui , Li Shuang , Huang He , Kasuga Takao , Fan Zhiliang
Published: December 2018

Gluconate is a biomass-derived degradation product, and glycerol can be obtained as a biodiesel byproduct. Compared to glucose, using them as the sole substrate is accompanied by the production of by-products. Our study shows that through pathway engineering and adoption of a fed-batch culture system, high-yield homoethanol production that usually can be achieved by using glucose as the substrate is achievable using gluconate and glycerol as cosubstrates. The same strategy is expected to be able to achieve homofermentative production of other products, such as lactate and 2,3-butanediol, which can be typically achieved using glucose as the substrate and inexpensive biodiesel-derived glycerol and biomass-derived gluconate as the cosubstrates.
Competition among Nasal Bacteria Suggests a Role for Siderophore-Mediated Interactions in Shaping the Human Nasal Microbiota
Authors: Stubbendieck Reed M. , May Daniel S. , Chevrette Marc G. , Temkin Mia I. , Wendt-Pienkowski Evelyn , Cagnazzo Julian , Carlson Caitlin M. , Gern James E. , Currie Cameron R.
Published: December 2018

Within the nasal cavity, interference competition through antimicrobial production is prevalent. For instance, nasal
Staphylococcus
species strains can inhibit the growth of other bacteria through the production of nonribosomal peptides and ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides. In contrast, bacteria engaging in exploitation competition modify the external environment to prevent competitors from growing, usually by hindering access to or depleting essential nutrients. As the nasal cavity is a nutrient-limited environment, we hypothesized that exploitation competition occurs in this system. We determined that
Corynebacterium propinquum
produces an iron-chelating siderophore, and this iron-sequestering molecule correlates with the ability to inhibit the growth of coagulase-negative staphylococci. Furthermore, we found that the genes required for siderophore production are expressed
in vivo
. Thus, although siderophore production by bacteria is often considered a virulence trait, our work indicates that bacteria may produce siderophores to compete for limited iron in the human nasal cavity.
Whole-Genome Sequencing for Characterization of Capsule Locus and Prediction of Serogroup of Invasive Meningococcal Isolates
Authors: Marjuki Henju , Topaz Nadav , Rodriguez-Rivera Lorraine D. , Ramos Edward , Potts Caelin C. , Chen Alexander , Retchless Adam C. , Doho Gregory H. , Wang Xin
Published: December 2018

Invasive meningococcal disease is mainly caused by
Neisseria meningitidis
serogroups A, B, C, X, W, and Y. The serogroup is typically determined by slide agglutination serogrouping (SASG) and real-time PCR (RT-PCR).
Uveitis and health disparities: results from the National Inpatient Sample
Authors: Chauhan Krati , Scaife Steven , Rosenbaum James T
Published: December 2018

Purpose

Health disparities exist when the prevalence or outcome of the disease are influenced by age, race, sex or income. Health disparities are prevalent in autoimmune diseases. However, there is a lack of national US data regarding health disparities in uveitis. The primary aim of our study is to evaluate health disparities for uveitis in the USA.

Methods

We performed a retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study to ascertain health disparities for uveitis and its complications in the USA using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) for the years 2002–2013. We used the International Classification of Disease, ninth revision, codes to identify uveitis cases and ocular complications. Uveitis was divided into total, infectious and non-infectious uveitis. We collected information on age, sex, race, income quartile and ocular complications. We preformed statistical analysis using SAS V.9.4. A logistic regression model was used to predict the odds of developing uveitis and its complications.

Results

There were a total of 94 143 978 discharges including 15 296 total uveitis, 4538 infectious and 10 758 non-infectious uveitis patients. Compared with the total NIS population, patients with uveitis were younger (mean age 45±18 vs 48±28 years, p value ≤0.0001, African-Americans (23% vs 10%, p value ≤0.0001), in the lowest income quartile (<$38 999; 29% vs 26%, p value ≤0.0001) and were insured by Medicaid (25% vs 20%, p value ≤0.0001).

Conclusion

African-American patients have a higher prevalence of uveitis. Patients insured by Medicare and Medicaid have more frequent ocular complications. This knowledge may guide future research on disparity and shape healthcare decision making.
Sustainability of using the WHO surgical safety checklist: a mixed-methods longitudinal evaluation following a nationwide blended educational implementation strategy in Madagascar
Authors: White Michelle C , Randall Kirsten , Ravelojaona Vaonandianina A , Andriamanjato Hery H , Andean Vanessa , Callahan James , Shrime Mark G , Russ Stephanie , Leather Andrew J M , Sevdalis Nick
Published: December 2018

Background

The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist reduces postoperative complications by up to 50% with the biggest gains in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). However in LMICs, checklist use is sporadic and widespread implementation has hitherto been unsuccessful. In 2015/2016, we partnered with the Madagascar Ministry of Health to undertake nationwide implementation of the checklist. We report a longitudinal evaluation of checklist use at 12–18 months postimplementation.

Methods

Hospitals were identified from the original cohort using purposive sampling. Using a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods design, the primary outcome was self-reported checklist use. Secondary outcomes included use of basic safety processes, assessment of team behaviour, predictors of checklist use, impact on individuals and organisational culture and identification of barriers. Data were collected during 1-day hospital visits using validated questionnaires, WHO Behaviourally Adjusted Rating Scale (WHOBARS) assessment tool and focus groups and analysed using descriptive statistics, multivariate linear regression and thematic analysis.

Results

175 individuals from 14 hospitals participated. 74% reported sustained checklist use after 15 months. Mean WHOBARS scores were high, indicating good team engagement. Sustained checklist use was associated with an improved overall understanding of patient safety but not with WHOBARS, hospital size or surgical volume. 87% reported improved understanding of patient safety and 83% increased job satisfaction. Thematic analysis identified improvements in hospital culture (teamwork and communication, preparation and organisation, trust and confidence) and hospital practice (pulse oximetry, timing of antibiotic prophylaxis, introduction of a surgical count). Lack of time in an emergency and obstructive leadership were the greatest implementation barriers.

Conclusion

74% of participants reported sustained checklist use 12–18 months following nationwide implementation in Madagascar, with associated improvements in job satisfaction, culture and compliance with safety procedures. Further work is required to examine this implementation model in other countries.