bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Espiritualidad como cualidad humana y cualidad humana profunda en el pensamiento de Marià Corbí
Authors: Senra Flávio , De Souza Jonathan Félix
Published: April 2021

El artículo trabaja el concepto de cualidad humana y cualidad humana profunda que, para el epistemólogo catalán Marià Corbí, expresa lo que antes se denominaba espiritualidad. La cualidad humana profunda es una dimensión constitutiva del ser humano, un dato antropológico que no depende de las religiones. El texto demuestra, según la teoría de la epistemología axiológica elaborada por Corbí, que la espiritualidad está asociada a maneras de conocer por antropologías formadas en el periodo preindustrial. Las tradiciones de sabiduría nacieron y se constituyeron a partir de un patrón que ya no se reconoce en las sociedades modernas de conocimiento. La manera de proceder y actuar en las sociedades preindustriales con todas sus creaciones culturales está enmarcada por la idea de sumisión. Por su parte, la cualidad humana profunda tiene que ver con indagación libre y, de esta manera, está asociada a las sociedades modernas de conocimiento, incompatibles con las creencias, con las ortodoxias y con la homogeneidad. Se demuestra el papel del habla y su papel en la comprensión de la percepción de la dimensión relativa a nuestras necesidades y a la dimensión no limitada a nuestras necesidades, la dimensión absoluta. Como seres infundados, la condición de hablantes permite al ser humano crear sus proyectos axiológicos colectivos, repletos de significados de la realidad, valores, interpretación del mundo y formas de supervivencia. El habla, en este contexto, es consecuencia de la necesidad humana de supervivencia, un evento biológico, que permite al animal humano desarrollar su sistema de comunicación sin modificar su programación genética o su morfología. Por fin, se discute la situación del desarrollo de la cualidad humana profunda en las modernas sociedades de conocimiento. Dicha cualidad, para Corbí, suele estar definida por interés incondicional, distanciamento y silenciamento y, además, por la indagación libre, en comunidad y servicio. Todo el acceso a la dimensión absoluta, así como el cultivo de la cualidad humana profunda pasan por el interés incondicional, distanciamento y silenciamento y, además, por la indagación libre, en comunidad y servicio.
Mentorship and workplace support needs of new graduate physiotherapists in rural and remote settings: A qualitative study
Authors: Martin Romany Anne , Mandrusiak Allison , Lu Andric , Forbes Roma
Published: April 2021

Introduction: New graduate physiotherapists working in rural and remote Australia must develop unique skills to work in this setting, while at the same time managing the difficulties typically faced by novice practitioners entering the workforce. Workplace mentorship is commonly used to facilitate this transition, yet little is known about new graduate physiotherapists’ needs in rural and remote settings. This study aimed to explore workplace mentorship in rural and remote Australia from the perspective of new graduate physiotherapists and investigate what new graduates feel they need from mentorship that is specific to rural and remote settings.Methods: A qualitative study with a thematic analytical approach was used. Semi-structured interviews of 12 new graduate physiotherapists working in rural and remote settings were undertaken within the graduates’ first 8 to 10 months of clinical practice. Interviews were audio-recorded between August and November 2019.Results: Three key themes were constructed during the analysis: 1) Mentorship is best when it is frequent and consistent, 2) Initiating mentorship can be challenging and 3) Mentorship needs to be accessible and individualised.Conclusion: There are challenges to mentorship of new graduate physiotherapists in rural and remote areas, including infrequency of mentorship, limited access to mentors and reluctance to request support. Whilst new graduate physiotherapists desire mentorship that is accessible, individualised and, ultimately, similar to what they perceive they would receive in the metropolitan setting, they acknowledge that to suit rural and remote localities, the delivery must be flexible. Mentorship is considered critical to support new graduates entering rural and remote settings.
On musical interval perception for complex tones at very high frequencies
Authors: Gockel Hedwig E. , Carlyon Robert P.
Published: April 2021

Listeners appear able to extract a residue pitch from high-frequency harmonics for which phase locking to the temporal fine structure is weak or absent. The present study investigated musical interval perception for high-frequency harmonic complex tones using the same stimuli as Lau, Mehta, and Oxenham [J. Neurosci. 37, 9013–9021 (2017)]. Nine young musically trained listeners with especially good high-frequency hearing adjusted various musical intervals using harmonic complex tones containing harmonics 6–10. The reference notes had fundamental frequencies (F0s) of 280 or 1400 Hz. Interval matches were possible, albeit markedly worse, even when all harmonic frequencies were above the presumed limit of phase locking. Matches showed significantly larger systematic errors and higher variability, and subjects required more trials to finish a match for the high than for the low F0. Additional absolute pitch judgments from one subject with absolute pitch, for complex tones containing harmonics 1–5 or 6–10 with a wide range of F0s, were perfect when the lowest frequency component was below about 7 kHz, but at least 50% of responses were incorrect when it was 8 kHz or higher. The results are discussed in terms of the possible effects of phase-locking information and familiarity with high-frequency stimuli on pitch.
Lab-grown embryos mix human and monkey cells
Authors: Leslie Mitch
Published: April 2021

Insights from these chimeras could boost efforts to grow replacement human organs in livestock.
Calculation could dim hopes for new physics
Authors: Cho Adrian
Published: April 2021

New prediction of muon's magnetism muddies interpretation of tantalizing measurement.
The dream vaccine
Authors: Cohen Jon
Published: April 2021

Why stop at just SARS-CoV-2? Vaccines in development aim to protect against many coronaviruses at once.
Scientists' lanes and headwinds
Authors: Thorp H. Holden
Published: April 2021

COVID-19 will be remembered for many things, including the pandemic that changed science communication. Much of the effect was positive. Outstanding epidemiologists, virologists, and public health experts became household names as they talked about the pandemic through mainstream media and social platforms. In the rapidly evolving situation, hearing directly from the scientific community was more important than ever. But former president Donald Trump and former vice president Mike Pence did enormous damage in the United States by appointing themselves scientists, logisticians, and chief economists and taking control of the information flow. The vaccine arrived, despite all the bungling, but in the meantime, many lives could have been saved had messages about dangers, challenges, and solutions come through more clearly. We still seem to be learning. Although the Biden administration appears to have a firmer grip on the crisis, it now faces a new surge of infections brought on by the variants and an increase in the number of states loosening restrictions. How can science be better communicated in the future, given what we have seen during the pandemic?
Purinergic P2X7 Receptor Mediates the Elimination of Trichinella spiralis by Activating NF-κB/NLRP3/IL-1β Pathway in Macrophages
Authors: Guan Fei , Jiang Wangfang , Bai Yang , Hou Xiao , Jiang Chunjie , Zhang Chongyang , Jacques Muziazia Lupemba , Liu Wenqi , Lei Jiahui
Published: April 2021

Trichinellosis is one of most neglected foodborne zoonoses worldwide. DuringTrichinella spiralisinfection, the intestinal immune response is the first line of defense and plays a vital role in the host’s resistance.
Quantitative Real-Time PCR Assays for the Detection of Pathogenic
Leptospira
Species in Urine and Blood Samples in Canine Vaccine Clinical Studies: a Rapid Alternative to Classical Culture Methods
Authors: Blanchard Stephanie , Cariou Carine , Bouvet Jérôme , Valfort William , Oberli Frantz , Villard Séverine , Barret-Hilaire Florence , Poulet Hervé , Cupillard Lionel , de Saint-Vis Blandine
Published: April 2021

Leptospirosis is a vaccine-preventable bacterial zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic
Leptospira
species. The efficacy of
Leptospira
canine vaccines is assessed by challenging vaccinated and control dogs with virulent serovars of
Leptospira
, followed by detection of
Leptospira
in blood and urine.
Epstein-Barr Virus Lytic Replication Induces ACE2 Expression and Enhances SARS-CoV-2 Pseudotyped Virus Entry in Epithelial Cells
Authors: Verma Dinesh , Church Trenton Mel , Swaminathan Sankar
Published: April 2021

SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, has caused a pandemic leading to millions of infections and deaths worldwide. Identifying the factors governing susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 is important in order to develop strategies to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Nucleolin Promotes IRES-Driven Translation of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus by Supporting the Assembly of Translation Initiation Complexes
Authors: Han Shichong , Wang Xiaojia , Guan Junyong , Wu Jinen , Zhang Yun , Li Pinghua , Liu Zaixin , Abdullah Sahibzada Waheed , Zhang Zhihui , Jin Ye , Sun Shiqi , Guo Huichen
Published: April 2021

FMDV usurps the cellular translation machinery to initiate viral protein synthesis via a mechanism driven by IRES elements. It allows the virus to shut down bulk cellular translation, while providing an advantage for its own gene expression.
Dependency ratios in healthy ageing
Authors: Wachs Diego , Roman-Urrestarazu Andres , Brayne Carol , Onrubia-Fernández Jorge
Published: April 2021

Although people are living longer, there is no discernible pattern about the quality of life in an increasing lifespan. This restricts our capacity to predict and prepare for the consequences of population ageing. Accordingly, we propose a population ageing indicator that combines demographic and disability prevalence data through a characteristics approach and explore different scenarios to account for uncertainty in life quality projections. Our results, available for 186 countries, show that countries that rank older under conventional chronological ageing measures may rank younger under our qualitative measure. Additionally, we find substantial differences in our projections depending on different health assumptions, demonstrating the risk of using ageing indicators that make implicit assumptions about health characteristics.
Public finance management and data availability for nutrition financing in India
Authors: Kapur Avani , Shukla Ritwik
Published: April 2021

For investments to translate into improved public service delivery, having a strong public finance management (PFM) system that lays out the rules, institutions and processes by which public funds are managed is critical. To enable a better understanding of the nutrition financial landscape, this paper seeks to determine whether the current PFM system in India allows for capturing required nutrition data. It does this by mapping the availability and comparability of data for a set of key nutrition-specific interventions through the budget cycle: from budget formulation, to execution, and finally, evaluation. The study finds significant gaps in data availability including absence of financial data by level of governance, geography and intervention components. These challenges relate to gaps in PFM design in India from weak planning processes, line-item budgeting, unavailability of time costs, inefficient fund release processes, difficulties in estimating target populations and the lack of output costing. These gaps in the PFM system and consequent data issues have several implications which may lead to strained delivery. This in turn impacts quality and the possibility of course correction. Some of these challenges can be overcome by ensuring planning processes are enforced, expanding existing data systems, making more data available in the public domain, using existing research better and using assumptions carefully to cover data gaps.
Spatial dependency of soil chemicals in production systems in the anthropogenic dark earth
Authors: Soares Marcelo Dayron Rodrigues , de Souza Zigomar Menezes , Campos Milton César Costa , Tavares Rose Luiza Moraes , da Cunha José Maurício
Published: April 2021

In general, anthrosols refer to anthropic soils of high fertility, but the concentration of these nutrients may vary according to the occupation of indigenous people in the past or due to current soil use. This study aimed to evaluate the spatial variability of the chemical attributes of the soil in areas of guandu bean production and pasture and to compare with natural forest systems on anthropogenic dark earth (ADE). For this assessment, 88 sampling points were selected in the area with natural forest vegetation and pasture and 90 sampling points in an area of guandu bean production. Soil samples were collected from layers 0.00–0.05, 0.05–0.10, and 0.10–0.20 m. Chemical analyses of the soil were conducted to determine organic matter, pH, aluminium, soil acidity, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, cation-exchange capacity, sum of bases, and base saturation (V%). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and geostatistics to sample range, and sample density was estimated for each attribute. Guandu bean showed high content of soil organic matter in relation to pasture in the superficial layer (0.00–0.05 m). Based on sample density, lower variability and higher spatial continuity were observed for guandu bean in relation to pasture and natural forest in the layers of 0.00–0.05 and 0.05–0.10 m. It was found that the use and continuous management of ADE areas alter the content and distribution of soil fertility and, in some cases, may even improve chemical attributes when compared with areas not used with agricultural crops.
Wood-based biochar for small fruit production in southern Quebec, Canada
Authors: Shang Xuan , Hung Chih-Yu , Husk Barry , Orsat Valérie , Whalen Joann K.
Published: April 2021

The market for small fruits (grapes, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries) is valued at more than $100 million CAD per year in Quebec, Canada. Wood-based biochar is an amendment that improves soil quality, which may boost small fruit growth and production. The objective of this research was to determine if wood-based biochar could increase the yield and quality of grape, blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry in southern Quebec. We evaluated the fruit yield as well as the quality parameters like average fruit weight, fruit firmness, color, juice pH, total soluble solids, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity. Field trials were established on commercial farms with grape, blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry production systems in plots that received wood-based biochar and no biochar in spring (April–May). Small fruits were harvested at their ripening stage for yield and quality evaluation in the fall (July–October). Biochar application did not improve yield and quality parameters of small fruits, except it gave a marginally higher yield of grape (3.7 vs. 4.4 t·ha−1, P = 0.08) and a higher average fruit weight of strawberry (11.9 vs. 13.2 g, P < 0.05). There was no difference in the quality of the fruit from biochar-amended and control plots in the first year of biochar application, possibly because the quality parameters are affected more by weather conditions, handling, and storage than by soil quality. This work suggests that wood-based biochar (<5 t·ha−1) has a limited first-year impact on small fruit yield and quality in southern Quebec, Canada.
Hierarchical-environment-assisted non-Markovian and its effect on thermodynamic properties
Authors: Li Yongwei , Li Lei
Published: April 2021

We consider a microscopic collision model, i.e., a quantum system interacts with a hierarchical environment consisting of an auxiliary system and a reservoir. We show how the non-Markovian character of the system is influenced by the coupling strength of system-auxiliary system and auxiliary system-reservoir, coherence of environment and initial system-environment correlations. And we study the non-Markovianity induced by coherence of environment from the perspective of energy, further the relationship between information backflow and energy flux is obtained. Then we study the effect of non-Markovianity on thermodynamic properties. By studying the entropy change of system especially that from heat exchanges with the environment, we reveal the essence of entropy change between positive and negative values during non-Markovian evolution is due to the contribution of heat flux induced by coherence. And compared with the case of Markovian dynamics, we observe that the entropy production decreases in some specific time intervals under non-Markovian dynamics induced by the coupling strength. And this is different to the case of non-Markovianity caused by initial system-environment correlation, that we show the possibility of positive entropy production during the whole dynamics.
Magnetic hysteresis in the first order adiabatic phase transition of mesoscopic-size Type I superconductors
Authors: Keefe Peter D.
Published: April 2021

Macroscopic and mesoscopic-size Type I superconductors exhibit a first order phase transition in H–T space. For specimens undergoing an adiabatic phase transition, the latent heat is supplied or absorbed by the normal regime. This process, the magneto-caloric effect, proceeds isentropically and for macroscopic-size specimens, through an intermediate state of superconductive and normal phase domains. For mesoscopic-size specimens, the intermediate state is precluded in view the specimen dimension and the range of coherence are commensurate. John Bardeen proposed the appearance of magnetic hysteresis prior to phase nucleation for the phase transition to proceed isentropically. This paper shows Bardeen’s magnetic hysteresis is a consequence of positive interphase boundary surface energy.
Optimized design of silver nanoparticles for broadband and high efficiency light trapping in thin film solar cells
Authors: Wang Zhiye , Wang Shuying , Jiang Yue , Zhou Hua , Tuokedaerhan Kamale , Chen Yanhua , Shen Xiangqian
Published: April 2021

This paper reports a high-efficiency approach to improve the photoelectric-conversion efficiency of thin-film solar cells by plasmonic scattering and local near-field amplification of silver nanoparticles. We employ a three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic model and use the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and rigorously coupled-wave analysis methods to investigate the interaction of light with such a metallic particle. The numerical results show that the absorption and scattering spectra depend upon the properties of the embedded particles and the refractive index of the surrounding material. Strong redshifts and high-order modes are observed in the response spectrum with the increase of the particle size and the refractive index of the surrounding material. With an optimized design having [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] nm, the performance of cell device is improved over a broad spectral range. Moreover, some of the absorption, in the resonance region, is beyond the Yablonovitch limit. The corresponding light-generated photocurrent is increased from 14.2 mA/cm2 to 18.3 mA/cm2, with a 28.9% enhancement compared with conventional cells with antireflective coatings (ARCs).
On singular equations over torsion-free groups
Authors: Edjvet Martin , Howie James
Published: April 2021

We prove a Freiheitssatz for one-relator products of torsion-free groups, where the relator has syllable length at most [Formula: see text]. This result has applications to equations over torsion-free groups: in particular a singular equation of syllable length at most [Formula: see text] over a torsion-free group has a solution in some overgroup.
Sanskrit Parsing Following Indian Theories of Verbal Cognition
Authors: Kulkarni Amba
Published: April 2021

Pāṇini’s grammar is an important milestone in the Indian grammatical tradition. Unlike grammars of other languages, it is almost exhaustive and together with the theories of
śābdabodha
(verbal cognition), this grammar provides a system for language analysis as well as generation. The theories of
śābdabodha
describe three conditions necessary for verbal cognition. They are
ākāṅkṣā
(expectancy),
yogyatā
(meaning congruity), and
sannidhi
(proximity). We examine them from a computational viewpoint and provide appropriate computational models for their representation. Next, we describe the design of a parser following the theories of
śābdabodha
and present three algorithms for solving the constraints imposed by the theories of
śābdabodha
. The first algorithm is modeled as a constraint satisfaction problem, the second one as a vertex-centric graph traversal, and the third one as an edge-centric binary join, each one being an improvement over the previous one.
A Flexible Multichannel EEG Artifact Identification Processor using Depthwise-Separable Convolutional Neural Networks
Authors: Khatwani Mohit , Rashid Hasib-Al , Paneliya Hirenkumar , Horton Mark , Waytowich Nicholas , Hairston W. David , Mohsenin Tinoosh
Published: April 2021

This article presents an energy-efficient and flexible multichannel Electroencephalogram (EEG) artifact identification network and its hardware using depthwise and separable convolutional neural networks. EEG signals are recordings of the brain activities. EEG recordings that are not originated from cerebral activities are termed
artifacts
. Our proposed model does not need expert knowledge for feature extraction or pre-processing of EEG data and has a very efficient architecture implementable on mobile devices. The proposed network can be reconfigured for any number of EEG channel and artifact classes. Experiments were done with the proposed model with the goal of maximizing the identification accuracy while minimizing the weight parameters and required number of operations. Our proposed network achieves 93.14% classification accuracy using an EEG dataset collected by 64-channel BioSemi ActiveTwo headsets, averaged across 17 patients and 10 artifact classes. Our hardware architecture is fully parameterized with number of input channels, filters, depth, and data bit-width. The number of processing engines (PE) in the proposed hardware can vary between 1 to 16, providing different latency, throughput, power, and energy efficiency measurements. We implement our custom hardware architecture on Xilinx FPGA (Artix-7), which on average consumes 1.4 to 4.7 mJ dynamic energy with different PE configurations. Energy consumption is further reduced by 16.7× implementing on application-specified integrated circuit at the post layout level in 65-nm CMOS technology. Our FPGA implementation is 1.7 × to 5.15 × higher in energy efficiency than some previous works. Moreover, our Application-Specified Integrated Circuit implementation is also 8.47 × to 25.79 × higher in energy efficiency compared to previous works. We also demonstrated that the proposed network is reconfigurable to detect artifacts from another EEG dataset collected in our lab by a 14-channel Emotiv EPOC+ headset and achieved 93.5% accuracy for eye blink artifact detection.
The County Fair Cyber Loss Distribution
Authors: Woods Daniel W. , Moore Tyler , Simpson Andrew C.
Published: April 2021

Insurance premiums reflect expectations about the future losses of each insured. Given the dearth of cyber security loss data, market premiums could shed light on the true magnitude of cyber losses despite noise from factors unrelated to losses. To that end, we extract cyber insurance pricing information from the regulatory filings of 26 insurers. We provide empirical observations on how premiums vary by coverage type, amount, and policyholder type and over time. A method usingparticle swarm optimisationand the expected value premium principle is introduced to iterate through candidate parameterised distributions with the goal of reducing error in predicting observed prices. We then aggregate the inferred loss models across 6,828 observed prices from all 26 insurers to derive theCounty Fair Cyber Loss Distribution. We demonstrate its value in decision support by applying it to a theoretical retail firm with annual revenue of $50M. The results suggest that the expected cyber liability loss is $428K and that the firm faces a 2.3% chance of experiencing a cyber liability loss between $100K and $10M each year. The method and resulting estimates could help organisations better manage cyber risk, regardless of whether they purchase insurance.
BloothAir
Authors: Li Kai , Lu Ning , Zheng Jingjing , Zhang Pei , Ni Wei , Tovar Eduardo
Published: April 2021

Thanks to flexible deployment and excellent maneuverability, autonomous drones have been recently considered as an effective means to act as aerial data relays for wireless ground devices with limited or no cellular infrastructure, e.g., smart farming in a remote area. Due to the broadcast nature of wireless channels, data communications between the drones and the ground devices are vulnerable to eavesdropping attacks. This article develops BloothAir, which is a secure multi-hop aerial relay system based on
Bluetooth Low Energy
(
BLE
) connected autonomous drones. For encrypting the BLE communications in BloothAir, a channel-based secret key generation is proposed, where received signal strength at the drones and the ground devices is quantized to generate the secret keys. Moreover, a dynamic programming-based channel quantization scheme is studied to minimize the secret key bit mismatch rate of the drones and the ground devices by recursively adjusting the quantization intervals. To validate the design of BloothAir, we build a multi-hop aerial relay testbed by using the MX400 drone platform and the Gust radio transceiver, which is a new lightweight onboard BLE communicator specially developed for the drone. Extensive real-world experiments demonstrate that the BloothAir system achieves a significantly lower secret key bit mismatch rate than the key generation benchmarks, which use the static quantization intervals. In addition, the high randomness of the generated secret keys is verified by the standard NIST test, thereby effectively protecting the BLE communications in BloothAir from the eavesdropping attacks.
Fake Detect: A Deep Learning Ensemble Model for Fake News Detection
Authors: Aslam Nida , Ullah Khan Irfan , Alotaibi Farah Salem , Aldaej Lama Abdulaziz , Aldubaikil Asma Khaled
Published: April 2021

Pervasive usage and the development of social media networks have provided the platform for the fake news to spread fast among people. Fake news often misleads people and creates wrong society perceptions. The spread of low‐quality news in social media has negatively affected individuals and society. In this study, we proposed an ensemble‐based deep learning model to classify news as fake or real using LIAR dataset. Due to the nature of the dataset attributes, two deep learning models were used. For the textual attribute “statement,” Bi‐LSTM‐GRU‐dense deep learning model was used, while for the remaining attributes, dense deep learning model was used. Experimental results showed that the proposed study achieved an accuracy of 0.898, recall of 0.916, precision of 0.913, and F‐score of 0.914, respectively, using only statement attribute. Moreover, the outcome of the proposed models is remarkable when compared with that of the previous studies for fake news detection using LIAR dataset.
QoS-Based Multicast Routing in Network Function Virtualization-Enabled Software-Defined Mobile Edge Computing Networks
Authors: Sun Shimin , Zhang Xinchao , Huang Wentian , Xu Aixin , Wang Xiaofan , Han Li
Published: April 2021

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) technology brings the unprecedented computing capacity to the edge of mobile network. It provides the cloud and end user swift high-quality services with seamless integration of mobile network and Internet. With powerful capability, virtualized network functions can be allocated to MEC. In this paper, we study QoS guaranteed multicasting routing with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) in MEC. Specifically, data should pass through a service function chain before reaching destinations along a multicast tree with minimal computational cost and meeting QoS requirements. Furthermore, to overcome the problems of traditional IP multicast and software-defined multicasting approaches, we propose an implementable multicast mechanism that delivers data along multicast tree but uses unicast sessions. We finally evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanism based on experimental simulations. The results show that our mechanism outperforms others reported in the literature.
Optimization of Land Saving and Loss Reducing and Slope Stability Variation Patterns in Open-Pit Mine
Authors: Guo Tongsuo , Zhou Wei , Li Zhaolin , Zhang Chuanwei , Cai Qingxiang , Tian Ya , Qin Huairui , Liu Fuming , Jiskani Izhar Mithal , Zhang Dongxu
Published: April 2021

This study presents different land saving and loss reducing schemes. Comprehensively compare the economic benefits of the schemes. It is shown that the optimal scheme can recover tons of coal resources on the south slope, creating significant economic benefits. Numerical simulation was utilized to analyze the changes of slope stability, deformation, and shear strain increment in the process of land saving and loss reducing. Results found that the slope stability decreases rapidly, and the toe of the slope has to be internally discharged in time to compress the slope. Timely follow-up of in-slope rows can improve slope stability. The position of the slope shear exit changes with the increase of the distance of the inner row, and its stability increases gradually. When the distance of the lower inner row exceeds 120 m, the increase of the internal row distance has little influence on the slope stability. When the inner distance exceeds 60 m in the process of internal dumping of upper platform, the position of potential sliding plane gradually changes from the lower dump to the upper and lower dump with the increase of inner dumping distance. It shows that the stability of the dump will be damaged if the upper dump continues to be discharged. Therefore, the distance between the upper and lower dump sites is more important than 60 m. The stability of the south slope is good in the process of mining and internal drainage, and the overall stability of the south slope is controllable, based on slope radar monitoring.
Cytotoxic, Cellular Antioxidant, and Antiglucuronidase Properties of the Ethanol Leaf Extract from Bulbine asphodeloides
Authors: Otang-Mbeng Wilfred , Sagbo Idowu Jonas
Published: April 2021

Bulbine asphodeloides (L.) Spreng (Xanthorrhoeaceae family), popularly known in South Africa as “ibhucu” or “Balsamkopieva,” is a perennial plant traditionally used to treat skin diseases, including sunburns, rough skin, dressing burns, itches, and aging. The present study reports the cytotoxic, cellular antioxidant, and antiglucuronidase properties of the ethanol leaf extract from B. asphodeloides. The cytotoxic effect of the plant extract on human dermal fibroblast (MRHF) cells was evaluated by the bis-Benzamide H 33342 trihydrochloride/propidium iodide (Hoechst 33342/PI) dual-staining method. A validated biological cell-based assay was used to determine the cellular antioxidant activity of the extract. The antiglucuronidase and metal chelating activities were evaluated using standard in vitro methods. Lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced RAW 264.7 cell model was used to determine the anti-inflammatory effect of the plant extract, and the immune-modulatory activity was performed using RAW 264.7 cells. The extract demonstrated no cytotoxic effect towards the MRHF cells at all the tested concentrations. Furthermore, the extract also possessed significant cellular antioxidant and antiglucuronidase activities, but a weak effect of metal chelating activity in a dose-dependent manner. However, the extract showed no significant anti-inflammatory and immune-stimulatory activities. Overall, the results showed that B. asphodeloides may be a useful therapeutic agent for the treatment of skin diseases, therefore supporting its ethnomedicinal usage.
Survey on Botnet Detection Techniques: Classification, Methods, and Evaluation
Authors: Xing Ying , Shu Hui , Zhao Hao , Li Dannong , Guo Li
Published: April 2021

With the continuous evolution of the Internet, as well as the development of the Internet of Things, smart terminals, cloud platforms, and social platforms, botnets showing the characteristics of platform diversification, communication concealment, and control intelligence. This survey analyzes and compares the most important efforts in the botnet detection area in recent years. It studies the mechanism characteristics of botnet architecture, life cycle, and command and control channel and provides a classification of botnet detection techniques. It focuses on the application of advanced technologies such as deep learning, complex network, swarm intelligence, moving target defense (MTD), and software-defined network (SDN) for botnet detection. From the four dimensions of service, intelligence, collaboration, and assistant, a common bot detection evaluation system (CBDES) is proposed, which defines a new global capability measurement standard. Combing with expert scores and objective weights, this survey proposes quantitative evaluation and gives a visual representation for typical detection methods. Finally, the challenges and future trends in the field of botnet detection are summarized.
A Case of Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL) with Reverse Orientation for 10 Years
Authors: AlQahtani Bader S. , Alshamrani Abdulaziz A. , Alsulami Raed E. , Vargas Jose M.
Published: April 2021

Background. Implantable collamer lens (ICL) might rarely cause complications that warrant explantation. Here, we presented a case of inverted ICL that has undergone explantation after a 10-year duration. Case Presentation. A 49-year-old male with past ocular history of ICL implantation 10 years ago presented complaining of progressive decrease of visual acuity in the left eye for a long time. On examination, decreased visual acuity, anterior subcapsular cataract, and low ICL vault were noted. The anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS OCT) showed inverted ICL. The ICL was explanted, and cataract surgery was done. Conclusion. Inverted ICL should be kept in mind as a rare cause of long-term poor visual acuity in patient with a history of ICL surgery.
Isolated Central Epiretinal Membrane: A Rare Complication of Fovea-Sparing Internal Limiting Membrane Peeling Technique
Authors: Chen Yen-Chih , Chen San-Ni
Published: April 2021

Purpose. To report a rare complication presenting as an isolated central epiretinal membrane (ERM) related to fovea-sparing internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling technique. Methods. Five patients who received fovea-sparing ILM peeling were enrolled. Postoperatively, an isolated central ERM developed. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to evaluate the serial anatomic change. Results. Among the five included patients, one patient had high myopia with foveoschisis, two patients had vitreomacular traction, and two patients had proliferative diabetic retinopathy with tractional retinal detachment and a fovea cyst. With an average of 5.80 months, OCT showed the gradual development of the isolated central ERM with severe fovea distortion. Four patients received secondary revision surgery, with improvement of the fovea contour and visual acuity. Conclusion. The fovea-sparing ILM peeling technique may cause a rare but serious complication as the isolated central ERM, which would cause significant fovea distortion as well as visual deterioration. Timely detection and intervention is recommended to prevent further visual loss. This trial is registered with NCT04445142.
Electroacupuncture Improves Pregnancy Outcomes in Rats with Thin Endometrium by Promoting the Expression of Pinopode‐Related Molecules
Authors: Xi Jin , Cheng Jie , Jin Chun-chun , Liu Jing-yu , Shen Zhen-ru , Xia Liang-jun , Li Qian , Shen Jie , Xia You-bing , Xu Bin
Published: April 2021

A thin endometrium affects the success of assisted reproduction due to low endometrial receptivity. Acupuncture improves endometrial receptivity and promotes the formation of pinopodes, the ultrastructure marker implantation window. However, the specific underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, the efficacy of acupuncture treatment and its underlying mechanism were investigated by analyzing pregnancy rate, pinopode formation, and related molecular markers in thin endometrium model rats. Absolute ethanol (95%) was injected into the uteruses of female Sprague‐Dawley rats to construct a thin endometrium model. In this model, acupuncture stimulation at EX‐CA1, SP6, and CV4 ameliorated the pregnancy rate. Significantly increased embryo implantation, endometrial thickness, numbers of glands, and blood vessels were observed in the electroacupuncture (EA) group compared to the model group. The number of pinopodes in the EA group was abundant, with a shape similar to that of the control group. Additionally, significantly higher expression levels of pinopode‐related markers, including integrin αvβ3, homeobox A10 (HOXA10), heparin‐binding EGF‐like growth factor (HBEGF), estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), and progesterone receptor (PR), were observed in the EA group than those in the model group. In conclusion, EA had a positive effect on the endometrial receptivity of thin endometrium model rats by improving pinopode formation through multiple molecular targets.
Factorial Analysis of the Cardiometabolic Risk Influence on Redox Status Components in Adult Population
Authors: Klisic Aleksandra , Kavaric Nebojsa , Vujcic Sanja , Spasojevic-Kalimanovska Vesna , Kotur-Stevuljevic Jelena , Ninic Ana
Published: April 2021

Different byproducts of oxidative stress do not always lead to the same conclusion regarding its relationship with cardiometabolic risk, since controversial results are reported so far. The aim of the current study was to examine prooxidant determinant ((prooxidant‐antioxidant balance (PAB)) and the marker of antioxidant defence capacity (total sulphydryl groups (tSHG)), as well as their ratio (PAB/tSHG) in relation to different cardiometabolic risk factors in the cohort of adult population. Additionally, we aimed to examine the joint effect of various cardiometabolic parameters on these markers, since to our knowledge, there are no studies that investigated that issue. A total of 292 participants underwent anthropometric measurements and venipuncture procedure for cardiometabolic risk factors assessment. Waist‐to‐height ratio (WHtR), body mass index, visceral adiposity index (VAI), and lipid accumulation product (LAP) were calculated. Principal component analysis (PCA) grouped various cardiometabolic risk parameters into different factors. This analysis was used in the subsequent binary logistic regression analysis to estimate the predictive potency of the factors towards the highest PAB and tSHG values. Our results show that triglycerides, VAI, and LAP were positively and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐c) were negatively correlated with tSHG levels and vice versa with PAB/tSHG index, respectively. On the contrary, there were no independent correlations between each cardiometabolic risk factor and PAB. PCA revealed that obesity‐renal function‐related factor (i.e., higher WHtR, but lower urea and creatinine) predicts both high PAB (OR = 1.617, 95% CI (1.204‐2.171), P < 0.01) and low tSHG values (OR = 0.443, 95% CI (0.317‐0.618), P < 0.001), while obesity‐dyslipidemia‐related factor (i.e., lower HDL‐c and higher triglycerides, VAI, and LAP) predicts high tSHG values (OR = 2.433, 95% CI (1.660‐3.566), P < 0.001). In conclusion, unfavorable cardiometabolic profile was associated with higher tSHG values. Further studies are needed to examine whether increased antioxidative capacity might be regarded as a compensatory mechanism due to free radicals’ harmful effects.
Differentially Expressed Long Noncoding RNAs Involved in FUBP1 Promoting Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Proliferation
Authors: Li Xianpeng , Yu Huaixi , Xu Feng , Wu Yifeng , Sheng Jifang
Published: April 2021

Background. Far upstream element‐binding protein 1 (FUBP1) is reported to be involved in cancer development by regulating the transcription of c‐myc gene through binding to far upstream element. Highly expressed FUBP1 was negatively correlated with survival rate of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and could promote the proliferation of HCC cells. However, the downstream mechanism of FUBP1 has not yet been clearly explained. This study is aimed at identifying the expression profiles of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) in HCC cells in response to FUBP1 overexpression and at investigating the possible lncRNAs that participated in cell proliferation process regulated by FUBP1. Methods. The overexpression of FUBP1 was mediated by lentiviral infection on 3 different types of HCC cell lines (MHCC97‐H, MHCC97‐L, and Huh‐7). The expression of target genes was detected by quantitative reverse transcription‐PCR (RT‐PCR) and western blotting assays. Microarray and quantitative RT‐PCR were applied to screen the differentially expressed lncRNAs in HCC cells after FUBP1 overexpression. The Cell Counting Kit‐8 assay was used to confirm the growth vitality of HCC cells. Results. The growth vitality of HCC cells was significantly increased after lentivirus infection. A total of 12 lncRNAs had the same expression trend in the 3 HCC cell lines in response to FUBP1 overexpression, including 3 upregulated lncRNAs and 9 downregulated lncRNAs. Coexpression analysis of dysregulated lncRNAs‐mRNAs network showed that lnc‐LYZ‐2 was the lncRNA most relevant to FUBP1. Inhibition of lnc‐LYZ‐2 could significantly relieve the proproliferation effect of FUBP1 on HCC cells, suggesting that lnc‐LYZ‐2 was partially involved in proproliferation regulation of FUBP1. Conclusions. Our results indicated that FUBP1 induced the abnormal expression of lncRNAs and the FUBP1‐lncRNAs coexpression network in HCC cells, which could provide theoretical and experimental basis for FUBP1‐lncRNAs network involved in HCC development.
Predicting Ovarian/Breast Cancer Pathogenic Risks of Human BRCA1 Gene Variants of Unknown Significance
Authors: Lin Hui-Heng , Xu Hongyan , Hu Hongbo , Ma Zhanzhong , Zhou Jie , Liang Qingyun
Published: April 2021

High‐throughput sequencing is gaining popularity in clinical diagnoses, but more and more novel gene variants with unknown clinical significance are being found, giving difficulties to interpretations of people’s genetic data, precise disease diagnoses, and the making of therapeutic strategies and decisions. In order to solve these issues, it is of critical importance to figure out ways to analyze and interpret such variants. In this work, BRCA1 gene variants with unknown clinical significance were identified from clinical sequencing data, and then, we developed machine learning models so as to predict the pathogenicity for variants with unknown clinical significance. Through performance benchmarking, we found that the optimized random forest model scored 0.85 in area under receiver operating characteristic curve, which outperformed other models. Finally, we applied the best random forest model to predict the pathogenicity of 6321 BRCA1 variants from both sequencing data and ClinVar database. As a result, we obtained the predictive pathogenic risks of BRCA1 variants of unknown significance.
Determining Triaxial Stress Sensitivity of Oil Reservoir Rocks without Fluid Flooding
Authors: Li Zhihang , Hu Xiong
Published: April 2021

The sensitivity of oil reservoir rocks to stress is the basis for oilfield development, which determines the production method employed in the field. Therefore, it is critical to understand the stress sensitivity behavior of oil reservoir rocks in an oilfield. In this paper, a novel method for determining the stress sensitivity of oil reservoir rocks by triaxial stress testing without fluid flooding was proposed. It measures the triaxial stress and strain of the core rock samples, and based on which, the core porosity and permeability under stress can be evaluated by theoretical model. In the model, the pores of the core were assumed to be a bundle of capillaries and the necessary relationship was derived to calculate the changes of porosity and permeability of the core samples caused by the strain. Through comparison with and analysis of experimental results obtained for various rock core samples under different stress and strain conditions, it is observed that the theoretical model match well with that of the experiments. This method provides a new approach for the stress sensitivity analysis of oil reservoirs without fluid flooding.
Pheochromocytoma Presenting as Testicular Pain: An Unusual Case Report
Authors: Patel Jinal K. , Reddy Varun , Stepman Gauthier , Angelo Debra , Frunzi Johnathan
Published: April 2021

Pheochromocytoma (PCC) is a rare catecholamine-secreting tumor that arises from chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla which are derived from the neural crest. This report illustrates a 51-year-old Caucasian male with a history of hypertension diagnosed two years ago who presented to the hospital due to acute onset of right testicular pain of 3-day duration. Laboratory results and imaging revealed a presumptive diagnosis of PCC. The patient had undergone robot-assisted laparoscopic right adrenalectomy 14 days after being diagnosed with PCC due to perioperative management with phenoxybenzamine. The final pathology report revealed a PCC. At follow-up two weeks after discharge, the patient reported complete resolution of his testicular pain.
Job Shop Scheduling Based on Digital Twin Technology: A Survey and an Intelligent Platform
Authors: Yu Haifei , Han Songjian , Yang Dongsheng , Wang Zhiyong , Feng Wei
Published: April 2021

The concept of digital twinning has become a hot topic in the manufacturing industry in recent years. The emerging digital twin technology is an intelligent technology that makes full use of multimodels, big data, and interdisciplinary knowledge, which provides some new approaches for the field of the intelligent manufacturing industry. The job shop scheduling problem has been an important research field in the discrete manufacturing industry. Digital twin technology is adopted to solve the problem of job shop scheduling, which provides the possibility for the intelligent development of workshops. Based on digital twin technology and combined with the actual problem of production line scheduling, we propose a new intelligent scheduling platform to solve the shop scheduling problems above. Meanwhile, based on the prediction and diagnosis of multisource dynamic interference in the workshop production process by big data analysis technology, the corresponding interference strategy is formulated in advance by the scheduling cloud platform. The model simulation experiment of intelligent dispatching cloud platform was carried out, and some enterprises in intelligent manufacturing workshop were taken as examples to verify the superiority of the dispatching cloud platform. Finally, we look forward to the future research direction of intelligent manufacturing based on digital twin technology.