bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Psychosocial Wellbeing Among Rural Migrant Workers in China: Did the 2008 Financial Crisis Worsen Their Vulnerability?
Authors: Hung Jason
Published: December 2019

Background. Since 1980, China has been experiencing the largest migration in human history to urban areas. Rural migrant workers are exposed to disproportionate stress, a sense of marginality, language barriers and low social positions. Stress plays a significant role in the development of psychosocial challenges, including anxiety, hostility and depressive symptoms, as well as diagnosable conditions, including compulsive and post-traumatic stress disorders. This project questions whether rural migrant workers were particularly vulnerable in terms of psychosocial wellbeing after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of the major incidents marking the worst turmoil of the 2008 financial crisis.

Methods. Data from the Rural Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) 2007-08 and 2008-09 datasets were used for analyses. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) -12 scores, categorised as the presence of common mental disorders (CMDs) vs. the absence of CMDs, were chosen as the dependent variable. Socioeconomic status was measured as per hukou status, job nature and working hours, each treated as an independent variable. City, gender, age, ethnicity and educational level were taken into account as confounders. Cross-tabulations and binary logistic regression analyses were run. The software package STATA 14.2 was used for secondary data analysis.

Results. The more educational qualifications rural migrant worker samples received, the more likely they were to be free from CMDs. However, tertiarily-educated rural migrant worker samples enjoyed similar levels of mental wellbeing as their counterparts who had completed elementary school or below. Additionally, there was no statistical evidence to suggest that rural migrant worker samples were more likely to experience CMDs based on their job nature (non-manual vs. manual vs. self-employed vs. family business) or working hours (< 60 hours per week vs. 60-119 hours per week vs. >= 120 hours per week).

Conclusions. The optimal rural migrant workers’ educational level, in terms of maximising their mental wellbeing, was between senior secondary school and post-secondary school level. However, socioeconomic factors, namely, job nature and working hours, were insignificant determinants of mental wellbeing of rural migrant workers. Moreover, there was no evidence suggesting rural migrant workers suffered from a distinct mental wellbeing between 2008 and 2009.
Estimation of the antifungal activity of some preparations against Diaporthe eres under in vitro conditions
Authors: Król Ewa Dorota , Abramczyk Barbara Anna , Zimowska Beata , Zalewska Ewa Dorota
Published: December 2019

Six fungicides from various chemical groups and two natural products, i.e., Biosept Active (grapefruit extract) and Beta-Chikol (chitosan) were tested in vitro against Diaporthe eres isolated from the shoots of fruit trees. The preparations were incorporated in PDA medium to provide final fungicide concentrations of 1, 10, and 100 g cm−3. Biosept Active concentrations of 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1%, and Beta-Chikol concentrations of 1%, 2%, and 2.5%, respectively. The antifungal activity of the preparations was evaluated based on mycelial growth of D. eres strains after 4 and 8 days of culture and changes in the morphological structures of the fungus. The highest antifungal activity was registered for thiophanate-methyl at all tested concentrations, followed by thiram, which showed the same activity but only at 100 g cm−3. Among the preparations of natural origin, Beta-Chikol was more effective against D. eres than Biosept Active. The effects achieved by the former preparation were comparable with those achieved by some of the most effective fungicides tested against D. eres.
La Evaluación de Tecnologías Sanitarias y Evaluaciones Económicas, como herramientas para la toma de decisiones en la atención primaria y la salud pública
Authors: Rojas Giovanni Wladimir , Nunes Altacílio Aparecido
Published: December 2019

Los sistemas de salud se enfrentan al reto de decidir cuáles de las nuevas tecnologías disponibles deben ser utilizadas y estar disponibles con carácter prioritario a través de la cobertura estatal. De esta manera la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ratifica la importancia de la Evaluación de la Tecnologías Sanitarias (ETS), con el objetivo de fortalecer los sistemas de información y la capacidad de investigación en salud. El proceso de la preparación de un informe de ETS, requiere una búsqueda exhaustiva de la evidencia disponible; para su posterior síntesis y presentación a los interesados. Este es un paso crucial para que una tecnología sea considerada para su introducción en un sistema de salud; convirtiéndose en la cuarta y última barrera (Calidad, Seguridad, Eficacia y Costo-Efectividad); para la implementación de nuevas intervenciones en salud. Sin embargo, para determinar mejor el impacto presupuestario de las intervenciones, la ETS se basa en las herramientas proporcionadas por las Evaluaciones Económicas en Salud (EES), que pueden analizar los costos y las consecuencias clínicas del uso de una determinada tecnología particular para unproblema de salud particular en un contexto particular. Esta información resulta vital cuando se consideran principios como la equidad o el costo de oportunidad (lo que se gasta en una intervención no se puede utilizar en otra), y, en última instancia, el limitado presupuesto de salud de los sistemas de salud.
Study of a Container Ship with Breaking Waves at High Froude Number Using URANS and DDES Methods
Authors: Wang Jianhua , Ren Zhen , Wan Decheng
Published: December 2019

The KRISO container ship model is used for numerical simulations to investigate hydrodynamic performance under high speeds. Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) and delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES) approaches are used to resolve the flow field around the ship model. High-resolution Volume of Fluid (VOF) technique in OpenFOAM is used to capture the free surface. The present work focuses on the wave-breaking phenomena of high-speed ships. To study the speed effects on the phenomenon of ship bow wave breaking, three different speeds, i.e., Fn = .26, .35, and .40, are investigated for a fixed ship model in calm water. Predicted resistance and wave patterns under Fn = .26 are validated with available experimental data, and a good agreement is achieved. The breaking wave phenomena can be observed from both URANS and DDES results for Froude numbers greater than .35. And the Fn = .40 case shows more violent breaking bow waves. The process of overturning and breaking of bow wave is more complex in the DDES results, and some small-scale free surface features are also captured. The predicted bow wave is compared with the experiment conducted at the China Ship Scientific Research Center. It shows that the DDES results are more accurate. Wave profiles and vorticity field at several cross sections are presented to illustrate the relationship between bow waves and vortices. It is found that the free surface vorticity dissipates quickly in the URANS simulation, which leads to the difference compared with the DDES results.
A simplified correlation between vertebrate evolution and Paleozoic geomagnetism
Authors: Staub John P
Published: December 2019

Background. Despite a fifty-year failure of paleontologists to find a viable connection between geomagnetic polarity reversals and evolutionary patterns, recent paleobiology databases show that the early appearance, radiation, and diversification of Paleozoic vertebrates tends to occur during periods having frequent collapses of the Earth’s geomagnetic field. The transition time during the collapse of the Earth’s protective magnetic shield can last thousands of years, and the effects on biota are unknown. Solar and cosmic radiation, volcanism, climate alteration, low-frequency electromagnetic fields, depletion of ozone, the stripping of atmospheric oxygen, and increasing production of Carbon14 in the stratosphere have been proposed as possible causes, but previous studies have found no effects.

Methods. Using published databases, we compiled a spreadsheet showing the first appearance of 2104 genera with each genus assigned to one of 8 major taxonomic groups. From Gradstein’s Geologic Time Scale 2012, we delineated 17 Paleozoic zones with either high or low levels of polarity reversals.

Results. From our compilation, 727 Paleozoic vertebrates represent the initial radiation and diversification of individual Paleozoic vertebrate clades. After compensating for sample-size and external geologic and sampling biases, the resulting Pearson’s correlation coefficient between the 727 genera and geomagnetic polarity zones equals 0.8, a result that suggests a strong relationship exists between Paleozoic vertebrates and geomagnetism.

Discussion. The question: is this apparent connection between geomagnetism and the evolution of Paleozoic vertebrate due to environmental or biologic factors. If biologic, why are vertebrates the only biota effected? And after an indeterminate period of time, how do vertebrates become immune to the ongoing effects of polarity reversals?
Evaluating the Emergence and Biochemical Changes of Primed Seeds in Proso Millet (Panicum miliaceum L.)
Authors: Sridevi R. , Manonmani V.
Published: December 2019

The present study aimed in exploring the performance of primed seeds in enhancing the quality of proso millet. The primed seeds along with nonprimed seeds were evaluated for emergence, cell proliferation in radicle cells using scanning electron microscope and biochemical parameters. Seeds primed with Pseudomonas fluorescens 20% possessing higher germination and anatomical changes observed through scanning electron microscope revealed more cell proliferation which was found to show rapid cell elongation and cell division of the radicle when compared to nonprimed seeds. The biochemical causes responsible for higher invigorative effect were identified as enhanced enzyme activity recorded through α-amylase content, dehydrogenase activity, protein content, lipase activity, antioxidative enzymes like catalase activity, peroxidase activity and superoxide dismutase with lower electrical conductivity, free amino acid and free sugars of the seed leachate. It is concluded in this study that primed seeds of Pseudomonas fluorescens 20% performed better than other treatments through their exhibition of higher emergence, more cell proliferation and enhanced biochemical parameters.
SE-LTL Model-checking on Timed GRAFCETS via ε-TPN
Authors: Sogbohossou Médésu , Yehouessi Rodrigue , Djara Tahirou , Aballo Theophile , Vianou Antoine
Published: December 2019

The GRAFCET standard (IEC 60848) is one of the convenient formalisms used to specify the behaviour of the automated systems. Being just a semi-formal language, the usual practice is to go through an unambiguous formalism such as time Petri net (TPN) in order to validate a specification expressed by a GRAFCET model. In this paper, we propose how to perform model-checking on a GRAFCET model translated into a ε-TPN, specifically with State-Event Linear Temporal Logic (SE-LTL). Especially, we provide a way to take into account quantitative time constraints verification by integrating observers in the ε-TPN intermediate model, since TPN state-space abstractions do not allow directly such kind of model-checking.
Bio-preservation of Foods: A Review
Authors: . Vaishali , Jhandai Punit , Jadhav Vijay J. , Gupta Renu
Published: December 2019

Biopreservatives are commonly used in food products to satisfy the increasing demand of consumers with increasing advancement in food and technology. The foods with chemical preservatives are now being neglected by the people and they prefer products which are generally recognized as safe (GRAS). Thus, as a result food industry is using naturally produced preservatives to increase the shelf life of product without any new technology. The most commonly used bio-preservatives are bacteriocins, essential oils, herbs and spices, vinegar, fermentation and sugar and salt. They exhibit growth inhibition of various microorganisms when added at different concentrations so as to preserve food products. These preservatives have been tested under laboratory conditions to know their apt use. This review provides an overview of the importance of bio-preservatives as per the increasing demand of consumers.
Controlling Post-operative Pain Intensity in Patients Undergoing Tibia Fracture Surgery: Pregabalin vs. Clonidine
Authors: Eraghi Amir Sobhani , Daneshmand Seyedehsan , Malakooti Seyed Mohammad
Published: December 2019

Introduction: The goal of this study was to compare the effect of two drugs (pregabalin and clonidine) on pain intensity within 24 hours after surgery in patients undergoing tibia fracture surgery is a step forward to choose the right drug.

Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, 64 candidates for elective tibia fractures were selected based on a randomized table. The patients were divided into two groups of those treated with clonidine (group C) and those treated with pregabalin (group P). Clonidine is given to patients in the first group one hour before surgery at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg and one hour after surgery at a dose of 0,1 mg / kg. Patients in the second group received pregabalin one hour before surgery at a dose of 200 mg and one hour after surgery at a dose of 200 mg orally. Then the variables are 6,12 and 24 hours. Finally, by using SPSS software, qualitative variables were compared according to their percentage using Chi square test, and for quantitative variables, the mean of each group was calculated and t-test was used to compare the means.

Results: The visual analog scale (VAS) scores were significantly lower in the pregabalin group compared with the clonidine group at .7 and 70 hours after surgery. A statistically significant analgesic effect was seen in the clonidine treated group compared with pregabalin.

Conclusion: Our data suggested that pregabalin improves pain relief after surgery, but it has less analgesic effect than clonidine.
A Zn–CO2 Flow Battery Generating Electricity and Methane
Authors: Wang Kai , Wu Yuanyuan , Cao Xuebo , Gu Li , Hu Jing
Published: January 2020

Metal–CO2 batteries represent an economical and efficient CO2 utilization technique, which provides a mechanism combining CO2 reduction with electricity generation instead of electricity input. Existing metal–CO2 batteries generally work in a closed system by recycling CO2. In this study, a flow battery is designed with a hollow fiber of carbon nanotubes (cathode), Zn wire (anode), and 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (electrolyte). The battery can continuously consume CO2 to produce CH4 under ambient conditions and promptly output the gaseous product through the hollow fiber, with a Faradaic efficiency up to 94%. Simultaneously, the battery generates electricity, with an energy density of 288.3 Wh kg−1 (based on the zinc mass) and a stability up to 8 days. The high selectivity and efficiency of the battery is attributed to a water‐shuttling assisted proton mechanism and delicate electrode–electrolyte interplay. Moreover, the Zn anode is electrochemically renewed and the battery assembled with the regenerated Zn anode restores battery performances to the former level. The renewable characteristic implies that, if the regeneration of Zn anode is coupled to excessive renewable energy sources, then the Zn–CO2 flow battery will be promising to accomplish a net reduction of CO2 emission.
Tunable Electromagnetic Wave Absorption of Supramolecular Isomer‐Derived Nanocomposites with Different Morphology
Authors: Miao Peng , Zhou Rui , Chen Kaijie , Liang Jin , Ban Qingfu , Kong Jie
Published: January 2020

Design and fabrication of highly efficient electromagnetic wave absorbing materials are yet challenging tasks, mainly caused by the lack of the in‐depth understanding of structure–property relationship. Herein, significant morphology effect on electromagnetic wave absorption is uncovered by pyrolyzing two isomeric metal–organic frameworks (MOFs: MIL‐101‐Fe and MIL‐88B‐Fe). The resultant pyrolyzed nanocomposites from these two MOFs with different topology under same pyrolysis condition have almost identical chemical composition (i.e., element type, element content, and valence state) and microstructure (i.e., particle size, pore size, and volume). As far as it is known, this work represents the first study on morphology control for superior electromagnetic wave absorption in carbon‐included composite system. Notably, an excellent performance of minimum reflection loss of −59.2 dB with a thickness of 4.32 mm and effective absorption bandwidth of 6.5 GHz with a thickness of 2 mm are achieved by Fe/C‐700@101 (700 represent the pyrolysis temperature; 101 stands for MIL‐101 precursor) and Fe/Fe3C/C‐800@101, respectively. This contribution will shed the light on design of advanced electromagnetic wave absorbers in future, especially from the perspective of fine morphology control.
Self‐assembly of a Sequence‐shuffled Short Peptide Amphiphile Triggered by Metal Ions into Terraced Nanodome‐like Structures
Authors: Singh Ramesh , Mishra Narendra Kumar , Gupta Puneet , Joshi Khashti Ballabh
Published: January 2020

We highlight the structural diversity of strategically designed two short peptide amphiphiles (sPAs) and describe their structure–function relationship studies. The shuffling of two key amino acids, that is, tyrosine and phenylalanine, in a designed sPA lead to a pair of constitutional isomers. Such small and strategic alteration can bring a substantial change in the self‐assembling pattern. Inspired from the naturally occurring metallopeptides, bioactive transition‐metal ions were used for constructing the unusual nanostructures. Use of appropriate metal ions created bigger differences between the properties of these isomers and hence the self‐assembly. Coordination of appropriate transition metal ions modifies the internal nanoscale structures of sPA, thus leading to the formation of vertically stacked terraced layers with decreasing size, which possess a high degree of dimensional regularity. We propose that such metal‐induced terraced nanodome‐like hierarchical self‐assembly may have relevance for specific biotechnology applications.
Choosing the adequate thermodynamic reference state: The evolution of pyrophosphate bioenergetics as an example
Authors: Méndez Eduardo
Published: January 2020

The use of the thermodynamic formalism in the investigation of biochemical reactions constitutes one of the key analysis in bioenergetics, and the first step in such analysis is the selection of the adequate reference state. For biochemistry majors, thermodynamic analysis based on the chemical reference state is used in Physical Chemistry courses, while the biological and biochemical reference states are used in Biochemistry courses. As these definitions are introduced in different courses, it is difficult that students can understand the need to select a reference state as a first step in the energy analysis of a system. The lack of suitable examples in textbooks to illustrate the importance of the adequate selection of the reference state in a thermodynamic analysis, promoted the present analysis of the energetic role of pyrophosphate (PPi) in comparison with adenosine‐triphosphate in different ambient conditions, namely, the early PPi world (better described by the chemical reference state), the enclosed systems like the cells (better described by the biological reference state), and the actual thioester world (better described by the biochemical reference state). This example not only provides a new interesting point of view on the evolution of two biochemical fuels but also represents a biochemical example in which the use of different reference states can illustrate a single process from different points of views.
The role of multilateral development banks in mainstreaming the use of space and geospatial technologies for sustainable development
Authors: Verspieren Quentin
Published: January 2020

The potential of space and geospatial technologies (SGTs) for sustainable development is enormous. In particular, all Sustainable Development Goals can be approached though SGTs utilisation, making it a key area of interest for multilateral development banks (MDBs). This article argues that development banks have the influence and responsibility to mainstream the use of SGTs for sustainable development. It first presents the current utilisation of such technologies before introducing two specific directions MDBs should follow, namely the development of a space infrastructure and the support to the emerging private space sector. The recommendations made in this article are based on a pragmatic analysis of the potential of SGTs and on the actual scope of MDBs' activities. They can be easily implemented, without requiring significant structural or strategic change for any of the major existing MDBs.
Family ownership and environmental performance: The mediation effect of human resource practices
Authors: Dal Maso Lorenzo , Basco Rodrigo , Bassetti Thomas , Lattanzi Nicola
Published: January 2020

Previous literature has found that listed family firms underperform their nonfamily counterparts in terms of environmental performance, but has not explained why this occurs. We address this research gap by hypothesizing that training and development practices (i.e., managerial practices devoted to providing training and development for the workforce) mediate the relationship between family blockholders and environmental performance. Using a sample of 33,901 firm‐year observations from 2002 to 2016 distributed across 56 countries and employing the structural equation model technique, we find that investment in training and development practices explains almost half of the negative relationship between family blockholders and environmental performance. Our study contributes to the agency theory debate on principal–principal problems by explaining why family blockholders could damage other blockholders and minority shareholders.
Cyberbullying detection in social media text based on character‐level convolutional neural network with shortcuts
Authors: Lu Nijia , Wu Guohua , Zhang Zhen , Zheng Yitao , Ren Yizhi , Choo Kim‐Kwang Raymond
Published: January 2020

As people spend increasingly more time on social networks, cyberbullying has become a social problem that needs to be solved by machine learning methods. Our research focuses on textual cyberbullying detection because text is the most common form of social media. However, the content information in social media is short, noisy, and unstructured with incorrect spellings and symbols, and this impacts the performance of some traditional machine learning methods based on vocabulary knowledge. For this reason, we propose a Char‐CNNS (Character‐levelConvolutionalNeuralNetwork withShortcuts) model to identify whether the text in social media contains cyberbullying. We use characters as the smallest unit of learning, enabling the model to overcome spelling errors and intentional obfuscation in real‐world corpora. Shortcuts are utilized to stitch different levels of features to learn more granular bullying signals, and a focal loss function is adopted to overcome the class imbalance problem. We also provide a new ChineseWeibocomment dataset specifically for cyberbullying detection, and experiments are performed on both the Chinese Weibo dataset and the English Tweet dataset. The experimental results show that our approach is competitive with state‐of‐the‐art techniques on cyberbullying detection task.
Development of a novel spindle‐shaped coil‐based wireless power transfer system for frequency splitting elimination
Authors: Wang Meng , Zhou Chuang , Shi Yanyan , Shen Minghui , Feng Jing
Published: January 2020

To eliminate frequency splitting in wireless power transfer, a novel spindle‐shaped coil‐based wireless power transfer system is introduced and designed. Based on the equivalent circuit model, the transmission coefficient and the input impedance are calculated. A comparative analysis is performed between the traditional and the proposed systems. It is found that the frequency splitting is suppressed by utilizing spindle‐shaped transmitting and receiving coils in the proposed system because of the larger mutual inductance between the source coil (load coil) and transmitting coil (receiving coil) and the smaller mutual inductance between the transmitting and the receiving coils in comparison with the traditional system. In the overcoupled region, the transmission coefficient of the proposed system almost remains unchanged and keeps at a high value. The input impedance is characterized with high amplitude and small argument, which is beneficial for efficient power transfer. Experimental setup is established to validate the performance of the proposed wireless power transfer system. The results indicate that the proposed system is superior to the traditional one in eliminating the frequency splitting, which is well consistent with the simulation analysis.
Incremental dynamic analysis and FEMA P695 seismic performance evaluation of a cold‐formed steel–framed building with gravity framing and architectural sheathing
Authors: Leng Jiazhen , Buonopane Stephen G. , Schafer Benjamin W.
Published: January 2020

The objective of this paper is to present incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) and seismic performance evaluation results for a two‐story cold‐formed steel (CFS)–framed building. The archetype building was designed to current U.S. standards and then subjected to full‐scale shake table tests under the U.S. National Science Foundation Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) program. Test results showed that the building's stiffness and capacity were considerably higher than expected and the building suffered only nonstructural damage even at excitations in excess of Maximum Considered Earthquake levels for a high seismic zone. For the archetype building, three‐dimensional finite element models at different modeling fidelity levels were created using OpenSees. The models are subjected to IDA using the far‐field ground motion records prescribed in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) P695. Seismic performance quantification following the FEMA P695 procedure shows that if the modeling fidelity only follows the state‐of‐the‐practice, ie, only includes shear walls, unsafe collapse margin ratios are predicted. State‐of‐the‐art models that account for participation from CFS gravity walls and architectural sheathing have overall performance that are consistent with testing, and IDA results indicate acceptable collapse margin ratios, predicated primarily on large system overstrength. Neglecting the lateral force resistance of the gravity system and nonstructural components, as done in current design, renders a safe design in the studied archetype, but largely divorced from actual system behavior. The modeling protocols established here provide a means to analyze a future suite of CFS‐framed archetype buildings for developing further insight on the seismic response modification coefficients for CFS‐framed buildings.
aTask scheduling approaches in fog computing: A survey
Authors: Hosseinioun Pejman , Kheirabadi Maryam , Kamel Tabbakh Seyed Reza , Ghaemi Reza
Published: January 2020

The advent of the Internet of Things brings a wave of research, technology, and computing. The Internet of Things has brought a concept called the fog computing, which has launched many discussions in the scientific community. In a fog environment, a requested service decomposed into a set of tasks and applied with an optimal approach to schedule these tasks across the fog devices to serve the user requirements is an important challenge. In spite of the task scheduling approaches being a necessity in fog computing, to the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive survey in the field of task scheduling approaches in fog computing. This paper provides a survey to analyze the current research studies in task scheduling approaches in fog computing from 2015 to 2018. Moreover, this paper classifies the task scheduling approaches in two fields: static and dynamic. This study tries to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each study to solve their weaknesses. Providing a survey of the task scheduling approaches in the fog computing, planning a technical taxonomy for the task scheduling approaches, and highlighting the future open issues in the recent topics are the contributions of this study.
A Holistic Client Functioning Profile Comparison of People With Serious Mental Illness
Authors: Schmit Michael K. , Oller Marianna L. , Tapia‐Fuselier Jose L. , Schmit Erika L.
Published: January 2020

Among a sample of 196 participants, small differences in holistic client functioning, as measured by standardized Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment (Lyons & Walton, 1999) and symptom severity scores, emerged across 3 diagnostic categories of serious mental illness (SMI; i.e., depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia). However, sizable variations in symptom severity were evident across diagnoses of SMI, despite study participants receiving a similar configuration and intensity of recovery‐oriented usual‐care services. These results may evidence previous concerns surrounding the transdiagnosis of SMI, overlapping criteria and symptomatology among disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and mental health treatment and service practices in the United States. Implications for counselor practice are discussed.
Microscopic melanoma detection and classification: A framework of pixel‐based fusion and multilevel features reduction
Authors: Rehman Amjad , Khan Muhammad A. , Mehmood Zahid , Saba Tanzila , Sardaraz Muhammad , Rashid Muhammad
Published: January 2020

The numbers of diagnosed patients by melanoma are drastic and contribute more deaths annually among young peoples. An approximately 192,310 new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in 2019, which shows the importance of automated systems for the diagnosis process. Accordingly, this article presents an automated method for skin lesions detection and recognition using pixel‐based seed segmented images fusion and multilevel features reduction. The proposed method involves four key steps: (a) mean‐based function is implemented and fed input to top‐hat and bottom‐hat filters which later fused for contrast stretching, (b) seed region growing and graph‐cut method‐based lesion segmentation and fused both segmented lesions through pixel‐based fusion, (c) multilevel features such as histogram oriented gradient (HOG), speeded up robust features (SURF), and color are extracted and simple concatenation is performed, and (d) finally variance precise entropy‐based features reduction and classification through SVM via cubic kernel function. Two different experiments are performed for the evaluation of this method. The segmentation performance is evaluated on PH2, ISBI2016, and ISIC2017 with an accuracy of 95.86, 94.79, and 94.92%, respectively. The classification performance is evaluated on PH2 and ISBI2016 dataset with an accuracy of 98.20 and 95.42%, respectively. The results of the proposed automated systems are outstanding as compared to the current techniques reported in state of art, which demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.
Broadband stimulated Raman scattering microscopy with wavelength‐scanning detection
Authors: De la Cadena Alejandro , Valensise Carlo M. , Marangoni Marco , Cerullo Giulio , Polli Dario
Published: January 2020

We introduce a high‐sensitivity broadband stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) setup featuring wide spectral coverage (up to 500 cm−1) and high‐frequency resolution (≈20 cm−1). The system combines a narrowband Stokes pulse, obtained by spectral filtering an Yb laser, with a broadband pump pulse generated by a home‐built optical parametric oscillator. A single‐channel lock‐in amplifier connected to a single‐pixel photodiode measures the stimulated Raman loss signal, whose spectrum is scanned rapidly using a galvanometric mirror after the sample. We use the in‐line balanced detection approach to suppress laser fluctuations and achieve close to shot‐noise‐limited sensitivity. The setup is capable of measuring accurately the SRS spectra of several solvents and of obtaining hyperspectral data cubes consisting in the broadband SRS microscopy images of polymer beads test samples as well as of the distribution of different biological substances within plant cell walls.
THE USE OF MASS SPECTROMETRY TO STUDY ZN‐METALLOPROTEASE‐SUBSTRATE INTERACTIONS
Authors: Grasso Giuseppe
Published: January 2020

Zinc metalloproteases (ZnMPs) participate in diverse biological reactions, encompassing the synthesis and degradation of all the major metabolites in living organisms. In particular, ZnMPs have been recognized to play a very important role in controlling the concentration level of several peptides and/or proteins whose homeostasis has to be finely regulated for the correct physiology of cells. Dyshomeostasis of aggregation‐prone proteins causes pathological conditions and the development of several different diseases. For this reason, in recent years, many analytical approaches have been applied for studying the interaction between ZnMPs and their substrates and how environmental factors can affect enzyme activities. In this scenario, mass spectrometric methods occupy a very important role in elucidating different aspects of ZnMPs‐substrates interaction. These range from identification of cleavage sites to quantitation of kinetic parameters. In this work, an overview of all the main achievements regarding the application of mass spectrometric methods to investigating ZnMPs‐substrates interactions is presented. A general experimental protocol is also described which may prove useful to the study of similar interactions. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Mass Spec Rev
Neural network solution of pantograph type differential equations
Authors: Hou Chih‐Chun , Simos Theodore E. , Famelis Ioannis Th.
Published: January 2020

We investigate the approximate solution of pantograph type functional differential equations using neural networks. The methodology is based on the ideas of Lagaris et al, and itis applied to various problems with a proportional delay term subject to initial or boundary conditions. The proposed methodology proves to be very efficient.
Improved MR fingerprinting for relaxation measurement in the presence of semisolid magnetization transfer
Authors: Meng Yuguang , Cheung Jesse , Sun Phillip Zhe
Published: January 2020

Purpose

To characterize and minimize the magnetization transfer (MT) effect in MR fingerprinting (MRF) relaxation measurements with a 2‐pool (2P) MT model of multiple tissue types.

Theory and Methods

Semisolid MT effect in MRF was modeled using 2P Bloch‐McConnell equations. The combinations of MT parameters of multiple tissues (white [WM] and gray matter [GM]) were used to build the MRF dictionary. Both 1‐pool (1P) and 2P models were simulated to characterize the dependence on MT. Relaxations measured using MRF with spin‐echo saturation‐recovery (SR) or inversion‐recovery preparations were compared with conventional SR‐prepared T1 and multiple spin‐echo T2 measurements. The simulations results were validated with phantoms and brain tissue samples.

Results

The MRF signal was different from the 1P and 2P models. 1P MRF produced significantly (P < .05) underestimated T1 in WM (20‐30%) and GM (7‐10%), while 2P MRF measured consistent T1 and T2 in both WM and GM with conventional measurements (pairwise test P > .1; correlated P < .05). Simulations showed that SR‐prepared MRF measuring T1 had much less errors against the variation of the macromolecular fraction. Compared with inversion‐recovery preparation, SR‐prepared MRF produced higher relaxation correlations (R > 0.9) with conventional measurements in both WM and GM across samples, suggesting that SR‐prepared MRF was less sensitive to the compositive effect of multiple MT parameters variations.

Conclusions

2P MRF using a combination of MT parameters for multiple tissue types can measure consistent relaxations with conventional methods. With the 2P models, SR‐prepared MRF would provide an option for robust relaxation measurement under heterogeneous MT.
Addressing heterogeneity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis CLINICAL TRIALS
Authors: Goyal Namita A. , Berry James D. , Windebank Anthony , Staff Nathan P. , Maragakis Nicholas J. , van den Berg Leonard H. , Genge Angela , Miller Robert , Baloh Robert H. , Kern Ralph , Gothelf Yael , Lebovits Chaim , Cudkowicz Merit
Published: January 2020

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder with complex biology and significant clinical heterogeneity. Many preclinical and early phase ALS clinical trials have yielded promising results that could not be replicated in larger phase 3 confirmatory trials. One reason for the lack of reproducibility may be ALS biological and clinical heterogeneity. Therefore, in this review, we explore sources of ALS heterogeneity that may reduce statistical power to evaluate efficacy in ALS trials. We also review efforts to manage clinical heterogeneity, including use of validated disease outcome measures, predictive biomarkers of disease progression, and individual clinical risk stratification. We propose that personalized prognostic models with use of predictive biomarkers may identify patients with ALS for whom a specific therapeutic strategy may be expected to be more successful. Finally, the rapid application of emerging clinical and biomarker strategies may reduce heterogeneity, increase trial efficiency, and, in turn, accelerate ALS drug development.
Two‐dimensional Ti3C2Tx/poly(vinylidene fluoride) metacomposites with weakly negative permittivity
Authors: Zhang Yuliang , Yin Kuan , Sun Kai , Cao Shengjia , Tao Fujun , Wang Binbin , Li Li , Chang Xueting , Huang Liangjun , Fan Runhua
Published: January 2020

In recent years, random metacomposites with tunable negative permittivity have aroused widespread attention because of their distinctive properties and broad potential prospects. It is indicated that an enormously negative permittivity with a large value is not conducive to performance optimizing and impedance matching. In this article, the 2D Mxene Ti3C2Tx was selected as the conductive phase instead of metal and carbon materials to fabricate Ti3C2Tx/poly(vinylidene fluoride) metacomposites. The results of dielectric properties indicated that the conductive Ti3C2Tx networks were formed by Ti3C2Tx contacting with each other near the percolation threshold (ƒc). The as‐obtained metacomposites containing 75 wt% Ti3C2Tx generated percolating phenomenon. Additionally, when the fraction of Ti3C2Tx was below ƒc, the frequency dispersion behaviors of conductivity were in accordance with the Jonscher's power law, which proved that conducting mechanism was dependent on hopping conduction. While above ƒc, the conductivity conformed to the Drude model and Lorentz model, which demonstrated a conductive behavior. Furthermore, the real part of permittivity transformed to negative value at 75 wt%, which can be explained as the existence of the low‐frequency plasma oscillation and electric‐dipole‐induced resonance. The dielectric loss of the metacomposite was also analyzed by the imaginary permittivity spectra. Small negative permittivity values in the range of −550 to −400 were observed, owing to the low free carrier concentration in composites. The appearance of weakly negative permittivity opened up a new direction in negative dielectric materials by 2D layered Ti3C2Tx nanomaterials.
Der richtige Dreh ins Tor
Authors: Thaller Sigrid , Mathelitsch Leopold , Tilp Markus
Published: January 2020

Handball zeichnet sich durch eine Abfolge von langsamen Spielzügen und extrem schnellen Aktionen aus. Wegen der Würfe aus der Hand liegt die Ballgeschwindigkeit deutlich unter der anderer Ballsportarten wie Fußball oder Tennis. Die Wurftechnik, besonders im Sprung, ist eine Abfolge von Drehbewegungen des Oberkörpers und nachfolgenden Armbewegungen. Der Drehwurf gibt dem Ball einen Drall, der ihn nach dem Aufsetzen seitlich hinter dem Tormann ins Tor befördern soll. Würfe in das untere Drittel des Tores haben eine höhere Trefferwahrscheinlichkeit als oben. Die Spieltaktik lässt sich mit künstlichen neuronalen Netzen optimieren.
Lichtspiel mit hängenden Tropfen
Authors: Suhr Wilfried
Published: January 2020

Der Rand von Wassertröpfchen, die sich durch Kondensation von Wasserdampf an der Unterseite einer Frischhaltefolie niedergeschlagen haben, wirkt wie ein Lichtleiter. Dort eintretendes Licht wird durch interne Totalreflexion umgelenkt. Von einer Punktlichtquelle ausgesandtes weißes Licht wird von den Tropfen daher auf eine Weise zurückgestrahlt, die ein farbiges Interferenzmuster entstehen lässt. Die Gründe für sein Erscheinen liefert ein strahlenoptisches Model, indem es die dafür maßgeblichen Lichtwege aufzeigt.
Wenn Licht die Biege macht
Authors: Vollmer Michael , Möllmann Klaus‐Peter
Published: January 2020

Bewegt sich Licht durch zwei Medien mit unterschiedlichem Brechungsindex, so folgt es einer krummen Bahn. Vermischen sich die beiden Medien durch Diffusion, so ändert sich die Krümmung. Das kann Tage dauern, sodass nur Zeitraffervideos diesen Vorgang deutlich vor Augen führen.
Micellization and Adsorption to Carbon Black of Polyisobutylene‐Based Ionic Liquids
Authors: Holbrook Travis P. , Storey Robson F.
Published: January 2020

Ionic liquid‐terminated polyisobutylene (PIB‐IL) dispersants suitable for stabilization of carbonaceous deposits found in automotive lubricating oils were derived by the quaternization of tertiary amines (1‐methyl‐imidazole, pyridine, and isoquinoline) with primary bromide‐terminated PIB. Characterization of PIB intermediate and PIB‐IL dispersants was carried out by nuclear magnetic resonance, gel‐permeation chromatography, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry, and differential scanning calorimetry. PIB‐IL micellization in dodecane and characteristics thereof (hydrodynamic radius, aggregation number, and critical micelle concentration) were investigated by static (SLS) and dynamic light scattering; whereupon, the self‐association of PIB‐IL was found to be highly sensitive to anion hydrophobicity. Qualitative adsorption of PIB‐IL onto carbon black was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared and TGA measurements. Using Langmuir adsorption studies, the affinity for and adsorption to carbon black of PIB‐IL were characterized. PIB‐IL adsorption onto carbon black occurred via cation–π interactions and was identified to be highly dependent on the molar volume of the cation and independent of the anion. From the parameters obtained by the Langmuir adsorption isotherms, the spatial arrangement of PIB‐IL on the carbon black surface was elucidated, in which all adsorbed PIB‐IL were determined to exist in the elongated brush regime. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. 2020, 58, 280–299
Dopant‐Free Back‐Contacted Silicon Solar Cells with an Efficiency of 22.1%
Authors: Wu Weiliang , Lin Wenjie , Zhong Sihua , Paviet-Salomon Bertrand , Despeisse Matthieu , Jeangros Quentin , Liang Zongcun , Boccard Mathieu , Shen Hui , Ballif Christophe
Published: January 2020

Contact recombination at the interface between the selective contact material and electrode interface is one of the most pressing issues limiting most photovoltaic technologies. The results indicate that the high work function of the capping contact metal electrode has a negative influence on MgFx/Mg as the electron‐selective contact. Although the exact mechanism is still unclear, low‐work function metals appear to perform better. The contact stacks devised with these novel insights (1.5 nm MgFx/20 nm Mg/100 nm Al) and MoOx are applied as well to dopant‐free multilayer back‐contact (MLBC) solar cells to achieve an efficiency of 22.1% with an aperture area of 4.5 cm2 by directional evaporation for patterning.
Poly(ethylene oxide) helical conformation and alkali metal cation selectivity studied using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry
Authors: Yin Changna , Fu Jie , Lu Xiuyang
Published: January 2020

Rationale

The poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)–alkali metal cation interaction is widely used in many areas. The conformation of the PEO–alkali metal cation complex has been studied extensively, but the conformational mechanism is still unclear. Simulations have been used to explain the mechanism, but there is a lack of experimental data from long PEO chains to verify the simulation results.

Methods

The relative peak abundance of PEO (iso‐C10H21(OC2H4)nOH (naverage = 7, where n denotes the number of ethylene oxide (EO) units) oligomers complexed to five alkali metal cations (Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+ and Cs+) was studied using positive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS). The ion selectivity of PEO oligomers to alkali metal cations corresponded to the peak abundance in competitive ESI‐MS.

Results

PEO formed its first helix when the number of EO units reached six and the helix played an important role in the ion selectivity of PEO. For larger PEO oligomers with a helix, the ion selectivity of PEO depended on the degree of host–guest matching of the cations and the helix. The highest selectivity of PEO to K+ was due to K+ providing the best shape matching with the helical cavity. For smaller PEO oligomers without a helix, the selectivity was mainly determined by the surface charge density of the cations.

Conclusions

The formational mechanism of the PEO–alkali metal cation complex was predicted. The results gave straightforward evidence to explain the conformational mechanism of the PEO–alkali metal cation complex and provided experimental data for further simulation studies.
Identification of S419 on human serum albumin as a novel biomarker for sarin and cyclosarin exposure
Authors: Fu Feiyan , Liu Haibo , Lu Xiaogang , Zhang Ruihua , Li Liqin , Gao Runli , Xie Jianwei , Wang Hongmei , Pei Chengxin
Published: January 2020

Rationale

Organophosphorus nerve agents are highly toxic because they inhibit acetylcholinesterase activity, thereby causing a series of symptomatic poisoning. Upon entering the body, nerve agents bind active amino acid residues to form phosphonylated adducts. A potentially beneficial method for specific verification of exposure of nerve agents is based on albumin adducts, which have a half‐life of 18 days. This appears to be more effective than the fluoride reactivation method, based on acetylcholinesterase.

Methods

After the exposure of human serum albumin to nine nerve agents, human serum albumin was denatured, reduced, alkylated and digested with trypsin according to standard mass spectrometry‐based proteomics procedures. The phosphonylated peptides of human serum albumin were identified using positive ion electrospray ionization with a quadrupole orbitrap mass spectrometer.

Results

The peptide KVPQVSTPTLVESR showed a good mass spectrometric response to the nine nerve agents. The tendency of sarin and cyclosarin was to bind to S419 on the peptide, while the other nerve agents (tabun, soman and V‐type nerve agents) were shown to bind more readily to K414 on the peptide.

Conclusions

This research revealed a new site, S419, of the tryptic peptide KVPQVSTPTLVEVSR on human albumin to be a valuable biomarker for sarin/cyclosarin exposure, helping to further distinguish sarin and cyclosarin poisoning from that of other nerve agents and providing an important tool for the identification of sarin or cyclosarin in terrorist attacks.