bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
High Pt-mass activity of PtIV1/β-MnO2 surface for low-temperature oxidation of CO under O2-rich conditions
Authors: Nagata Takeshi , Oda Akira , Yamamoto Yuta , Ichihashi Risa , Sawabe Kyoichi , Satsuma Atsushi
Published: April 2022

We successfully developed a PtIV single-atom/β-MnO2 composite metal-oxide surface capable of catalyzing CO oxidation with the record reaction rates of 0.676 and 0.206 molCO h−1 gPt−1 at 25 °C and 0 °C, respectively, under the O2-rich conditions.
Recent progress of metal nanoclusters in electrochemiluminescence
Authors: Cao Yue , Zhou Jia-Lin , Ma Yanwen , Zhou Yang , Zhu Jun-Jie
Published: April 2022

Metal nanoclusters, a third-generation electrochemiluminescence candidate, are demonstrated to show broad prospects in sensing applications.
Effects of nanoaggregation on isoindigo-based fluorophores for near-infrared bioimaging applications
Authors: Sparks Nicholas E. , Dorris Austin , Vijayan Sajith M. , Chandrasiri Indika , Zia Mohammad Farid , Flynt Alex , Hammer Nathan I. , Watkins Davita L.
Published: April 2022

This work provides fascinating insights into NIR fluorophore design and methods to effectively alter the photophysical and morphological properties of the nanoaggregates for bio-imaging purposes.
Hyperispirones A and B, spiro-bridged polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols with anti-angiogenesis activity from Hypericum beanii
Authors: Yang Beiye , Su Jun-Cheng , Huang Lijuan , Lin Shuang , Jin Xiaoqi , Lei Xueping , Hu Zhengxi , Zhang Yonghui
Published: April 2022

Two unprecedented spiro-bridged PPAPs, hyperispirones A and B (1 and 2), were isolated and characterized from the aerial parts of Hypericum beanii.
Design, synthesis, in silico docking, ADMET and anticancer evaluations of thiazolidine-2,4-diones bearing heterocyclic rings as dual VEGFR-2/EGFRT790M tyrosine kinase inhibitors
Authors: Aziz Nada A. A. M. , George Riham F. , El-Adl Khaled , Mahmoud Walaa R.
Published: April 2022

Fourteen recent thiazolidine-2,4-diones bearing furan and/or thiophene heterocyclic rings have been designed, synthesized and assessed for their anticancer activities against four human tumor cell lines HepG2, A549, MCF-7 and HCT-116 targeting both VEGFR-2 and EGFR tyrosine kinases.
Processing-properties-performance triad relationship in a Washingtonia robusta mesoporous carbon materials-based supercapacitor device
Authors: Elisadiki Joyce , Gabookolwe Mavis K. , Onisuru Oluwatayo R. , Meijboom Reinout , Muiva Cosmas , King'ondu Cecil K.
Published: April 2022

Electrode materials processing conditions, electrode properties and supercapacitor device performance show a triad relationship.
Correction: Ultrasensitive fluorescent aptasensor for CRP detection based on the RNase H assisted DNA recycling signal amplification strategy
Authors: Liu Zhongzhi , Luo Dan , Ren Fangling , Ran Fengying , Chen Wei , Zhang Bingqiang , Wang Ceming , Chen Hao , Wei Jian , Chen Qinhua
Published: April 2022

Correction for ‘Ultrasensitive fluorescent aptasensor for CRP detection based on the RNase H assisted DNA recycling signal amplification strategy’ by Zhongzhi Liu et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 11960–11967, https://doi.org/10.1039/C9RA01352K.
Micro-kinetics of pitch polymerization with regards to molecular weight distribution
Authors: Yu Yanzhe , Lu Yonggen , Cheng Xisong , Han Lei , Yang Changling
Published: April 2022

Simulation of pitch polymerization and the molecular ranges of solvent extracts.
Geometrically constrained square pyramidal phosphoranide
Authors: Volodarsky Solomon , Malahov Irina , Bawari Deependra , Diab Mohand , Malik Naveen , Tumanskii Boris , Dobrovetsky Roman
Published: April 2022

Geometrically constrained, square pyramidal phosphoranide was synthesized, and its reactivity study showed that it is both a nucleophile and reductant.
Insights into Zn anode surface chemistry for dendrite-free Zn ion batteries
Authors: Hu Qiang , Hu Jisong , Li Yuanxia , Zhou Xinyi , Ding Shixiang , Zheng Qiaoji , Lin Dunmin , Zhao Jingxin , Xu Bingang
Published: April 2022

The zinc-ophobic tetramethylammonium sulfate electrolyte additive and zinc-ophilic ZnO@Cu artificial layer are used to inhibit Zn corrosion and dendrite growth.
Electronic modulation and surface reconstruction of cactus-like CoB2O4@FeOOH heterojunctions for synergistically triggering oxygen evolution reactions
Authors: Yin Xueli , Cai Run , Dai Xiaoping , Nie Fei , Gan Yonghao , Ye Ying , Ren Ziteng , Liu Yujie , Wu Baoqiang , Cao Yihua , Zhang Xin
Published: April 2022

Cactus-like hierarchical CoB2O4@FeOOH/NF enables the fast mass transfer, abundant accessible active sites and strong synergism induced by Fe–B bond for optimizing electrical conductivity and the generation of CoOOH for triggering OER processes.
Transition from laminar to chaotic natural convection of air saturating a porous square enclosure
Authors: Adjal Saad , Aklouche-Benouaguef Sabiha , Zeghmati Belkacem
Published: April 2022

An unsteady natural convection in a square cavity filled with a saturated air porous medium have been investigated numerically. The lower half of vertical walls are hot and the upper half walls are cold while the horizontal walls are adiabatic. The Darcy-Brinkman and the energy equations are solved numerically using the finite volume method and the TDMA algorithm. Results are analyzed in terms of streamlines, isotherms, averaged Nusselt number, phase portrait, attractors, spectra amplitude, Lyapunov exponents for a Darcy number and a Prandtl number respectively equal to 10–3 and 0.71 and a wide range of Rayleigh number (4 × 106 to 4 × 107). It has been found that, as Rayleigh number increases, the natural convection change from steady state to periodic oscillation state to non-periodic-oscillatory state. The phase portrait and the Lyapunov exponents show that the natural convection evolves to a deterministic chaos following the scenario of that of Ruelle–Takens.
A Rydberg hydrogen beam for studies of stimulated deexcitation
Authors: Wolz Tim , Allemand Maxime , Comparat Daniel , Cras Jules , Killian Carina , Malbrunot Chloé , Parnefjord Gustafsson Fredrik , Simon Martin , Siour Christophe , Widmann Eberhard ,   on behalf of the AEGIS and ASACUSA-CUSP collaboration
Published: April 2022

We present a Rydberg hydrogen beamline developed to commission techniques of stimulated deexcitation for application in antihydrogen experiments at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator. The stimulation of spontaneous decay is a key technology to enhance the number of ground-state anti-atoms available in a beam toward precision spectroscopy and gravity measurements.
Status of the Fermilab Muon g – 2 Experiment
Authors: Girotti Paolo ,   on behalf of the Muon g – 2 (E989) Collaboration
Published: April 2022

The muon anomalous magnetic moment, aμ = (g – 2)/2, is a low-energy observable which can be both measured and computed with very high precision, making it an excellent test of the Standard Model (SM) and a sensitive probe of new physics. Recent efforts improved the precision of both the theoretical prediction and the experimental measurement. On the theory side, the Muon g – 2 Theory Initiative, an international team of more than 130 physicists, reached in 2020 a consensus on the SM prediction for aμ. On the experimental side, the E989 Muon g – 2 Collaboration at Fermilab (FNAL) published in April 2021 a new measurement of aμ from the Run-1 dataset (2018) with 0.46 ppm precision, corroborating the previous Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) measurement and increasing the discrepancy with the SM value to 4.2 standard deviations. In this paper, I will discuss the experimental setup and report on the current status of the experiment.
Elucidating the ρ-meson’s role as intermediate resonance in the time-like electromagnetic pion form factor
Authors: Alkofer Reinhard , Miramontes Ángel S. , Sanchis Alepuz Hèlios
Published: April 2022

Motivated by the planned measurements of the time-like electromagnetic proton form factors an exploratory study of the time-like electromagnetic pion form factor is presented in a formalism which describes mesons as Poincaré-invariant bound states. In the respective quark interaction kernel, beyond the gluon-intermediated interactions for valence-type quarks, non-valence effects are included by allowing the pions to couple back in a self-consistent manner to the quarks. Consequently, the opening of the dominant ρ decay channel, ρ → ππ, and the presence of a multi-particle branch cut, setting in when the two-pion threshold is crossed, are included consistently, first in the correspondingly calculated quark-photon vertex, and then consequently in the time-like electromagnetic pion form factor. The obtained results are in agreement with the available experimental data and provide further evidence for the effcacy of a vector-meson dominance model. Effects of going beyond the here employed isospin-symmetric limit are discussed. Last but not least, an outlook is provided on how to include in Poincaré-covariant Faddeev approaches the effects of intermediate resonances in the calculation of baryon properties.
Neutrino conference turns 50
Authors: Patkós András
Published: April 2022

In February 1972, in the break of a regional meeting of particle physicists held in Budapest Herbert Pietschmann (Vienna), Jan Nilsson (Go¨ teborg) and George Marx (Budapest) discussed the subdued position of weak interactions at international conferences. H. Pietschmann: “For George Marx it was quite obvious that the neglect of neutrino physics at the big international conferences had to be neutralised by a dedicated international conference on neutrino physics. Instead of pushing some international committee, he took the idea in his own hands and organised a Europhysics neutrino conference in Hungary by himself.”
Inhibition of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor Prolyl-Hydroxylase Modulates Platelet Function
Authors: Gu Wei , Qi Jiaqian , Zhang Sixuan , Ding Yangyang , Qiao Jianlin , Han Yue
Published: April 2022

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) involves in redox reactions. Considering the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in platelet function, whether it regulates platelet function remains unclear. Using an inhibitor of HIF prolyl–hydroxylase, IOX-2, we intend to investigate its effect on platelet function. Human platelets were treated with IOX-2 (0, 10, 25, and 50 μM) followed by analysis of platelet aggregation, granule secretion, receptor expression, platelet spreading, or clot retraction. Additionally, IOX-2 (10 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally into mice to measure tail bleeding time and arterial thrombosis. IOX-2 significantly inhibited collagen-related peptide (CRP; 0.25 μg/mL) or thrombin (0.03 U/mL)-induced platelet aggregation and ATP release dose dependently without affecting P-selectin expression and the surface levels of glycoprotein (GP)Ibα, GPVI, or αIIbβ3. In addition, IOX-2-treated platelets presented significantly decreased spreading on fibrinogen or collagen and clot retraction. Moreover, IOX-2 administration into mice significantly impaired the in vivo hemostatic function of platelets and arterial thrombus formation without affecting the number of circulating platelets and coagulation factors (FVIII and FIX). Further, IOX-2 significantly upregulated HIF-1α in platelets, decreased ROS generation, and downregulated NOX1 expression. Finally, IOX-2 increased the phosphorylation level of VASP (Ser157/239), and inhibited the phosphorylation of p38 (Thr180/Tyr182), ERK1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204), AKT (Thr308/Ser473), and PKCδ (Thr505) in CRP- or thrombin-stimulated platelets. In conclusion, inhibition of HIF prolyl-hydroxylase modulates platelet function and arterial thrombus formation, possibly through upregulation of HIF-1α expression and subsequent inhibition of ROS generation, indicating that HIF-1α might be a novel target for the treatment of thrombotic disorders.
Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Mandibular Knife Edge Ridge Using Implant-Supported Removable Prosthesis: A Case Report
Authors: Agnihotri Apurva , Kalra Tarun , Kumar Manjit , Bansal Ajay
Published: April 2022

The prosthodontic management of a patient with long-term edentulism is challenging. Conventional dentures have been the traditional standard of care for the longest time. However, most patients experience difficulty in adapting to their mandibular dentures due to lack of stability and retention. From the past two decades, implant-supported overdentures have been offering numerous advantages over the traditional complete dentures and removable partial dentures with predictably good clinical results. These advantages include increased oral function, decreased bone resorption, decreased prosthesis movement, better aesthetics, and maintenance of occlusal vertical dimension. This article presents a case report of fabrication of two-implant overdenture in mandibular knife edge ridge in the anterior mandible opposing conventional maxillary complete denture.
Usability and Acceptability of Clinical Decision Support Based on the KIIDS-TBI Tool for Children with Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries and Intracranial Injuries
Authors: Greenberg Jacob K. , Otun Ayodamola , Kyaw Pyi Theim , Carpenter Christopher R. , Brownson Ross C. , Kuppermann Nathan , Limbrick David D , Foraker Randi E. , Yen Po-Yin
Published: April 2022

Background The Kids Intracranial Injury Decision Support tool for Traumatic Brain Injury (KIIDS-TBI) tool is a validated risk prediction model for managing children with mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) and intracranial injuries. Electronic clinical decision support (CDS) may facilitate the clinical implementation of this evidence-based guidance.

Objective Our objective was to evaluate the acceptability and usability of an electronic CDS tool for managing children with mTBI and intracranial injuries.

Methods Emergency medicine and neurosurgery physicians (10 each) from 10 hospitals in the United States were recruited to participate in usability testing of a novel CDS prototype in a simulated electronic health record environment. Testing included a think-aloud protocol, an acceptability and usability survey, and a semi-structured interview. The prototype was updated twice during testing to reflect user feedback. Usability problems recorded in the videos were categorized using content analysis. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results Among the 20 participants, most worked at teaching hospitals (80%), freestanding children's hospitals (95%), and level-1 trauma centers (75%). During the two prototype updates, problems with clarity of terminology and navigating through the CDS interface were identified and corrected. Corresponding to these changes, the number of usability problems decreased from 35 in phase 1 to 8 in phase 3 and the number of mistakes made decreased from 18 (phase 1) to 2 (phase 3). Through the survey, participants found the tool easy to use (90%), useful for determining a patient's level of care (95%), and likely to improve resource use (90%) and patient safety (79%). Interview themes related to the CDS's ability to support evidence-based decision-making and improve clinical workflow proposed implementation strategies and potential pitfalls.

Conclusion After iterative evaluation and refinement, the KIIDS-TBI CDS tool was found to be highly usable and useful for aiding the management of children with mTBI and intracranial injuries.
Listening for favorable concert hall conditions
Authors: Piccone Ashley
Published: April 2022

Reverberation time and clarity index should fall within a specific range for piano and violin solos
Universal non-polar switching in carbon-doped transition metal oxides (TMOs) and post TMOs
Authors: Paz de Araujo C. A. , Celinska Jolanta , McWilliams Chris R. , Shifren Lucian , Yeric Greg , Huang X. M. Henry , Suryavanshi Saurabh Vinayak , Rosendale Glen , Afanas’ev Valeri , Marino Eduardo C. , Narayan Dushyant Madhav , Dessau Daniel S.
Published: April 2022

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) and post-TMOs (PTMOs), when doped with carbon, show non-volatile current–voltage characteristics, which are both universal and repeatable. We have shown spectroscopic evidence of the introduction of carbon-based impurity states inside the existing larger bandgap effectively creating a smaller bandgap, which we suggest could be a Mott–Hubbard-like correlation effects. Our findings indicate new insights for yet to be understood unipolar and nonpolar resistive switching in the TMOs and PTMOs. We have shown that device switching is not thermal-energy dependent and have developed an electronic-dominated switching model that allows for the extreme temperature operation (from 1.5 to 423 K) and state retention up to 673 K for a 1 h bake. Importantly, we have optimized the technology in an industrial process and demonstrated integrated 1-transistor/1-resistor arrays up to 1 kbit with 47 nm devices on 300 mm wafers for advanced node CMOS-compatible correlated electron random access memory. These devices are shown to operate with 2 ns write pulses and retain the memory states up to 200 °C for 24 h. The collection of attributes shown, including scalability to state-of-the-art dimensions, non-volatile operation to extreme low and high temperatures, fast write, and reduced stochasticity as compared to filamentary memories, such as resistive random-access memories, shows the potential for a highly capable two-terminal back-end-of-line non-volatile memory.
Numerical investigation on the generation mechanism of aero-heating of rudder shaft from three-dimensional flow separation and vortices
Authors: Lin Mingyue , Yang Fan , Wang Chun
Published: April 2022

The hypersonic flow past a controlled rudder mounted at a gap to the aircraft fuselage is numerically investigated by solving three-dimensional (3D) Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. This paper aims to explain the mechanism of production of extreme thermal environment faced by a rudder shaft from the view of physics of flow in the mounting gap. Simulations are conducted at Mach number of 10, and the gap ratio h/δ varies from 0 to 1.42, where h denotes the gap height and δ represents the thickness of the incoming turbulent boundary layer. Topological theory is utilized to identify the separation types. The formation of vortices is traced by extracting volume streamlines in the 3D space. The results indicate that the types of 3D separation appear in the gap shifts from the coexistence of horseshoe-type and tornado-type separations to only horseshoe-type separation that persists with the increase of h/δ. It is found that high heat flux is generated by the high-momentum fluid transported toward the surface by the horseshoe vortices. The tornado-type vortex prevents the incoming flow from arriving at the rudder shaft, which avoids the generation of high heat flux at the center of the rudder shaft. The rate of local heat transfer increases with h/δ as a result of the shrink and disappearance of the tornado-type vortices, which means that the region of low-speed backflow in front of the rudder is reduced and vanished. This study contributes to a clearer understanding of the flow physics in the complex disturbance area.
Locations and in situ structure of the polymerase complex inside the virion of vesicular stomatitis virus
Authors: Si Zhu , Zhou Kang , Tsao Jun , Luo Ming , Zhou Z. Hong
Published: April 2022

Significance

Unlike fellow nonsegmented negative-strand RNA viruses, exemplified by the devastating Nipah, Ebola, rabies, and measles viruses, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) can be considered beneficial, as it is widely used as a vector for anticancer therapy and vaccine development. In these RNA viruses, transcription and replication of the viral genome depend on an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Here, we determined the in situ structure of the VSV polymerase complex, consisting of a large protein (L) and a phosphoprotein (P), by cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging. Approximately 55 polymerase complexes are packaged in each bullet-shaped virion through flexible interactions with nucleoproteins. Our results provide insights into the mechanism of L packaging during virus assembly and efficient initiation of transcription during infection.
Systems biology approach to functionally assess the
Clostridioides difficile
pangenome reveals genetic diversity with discriminatory power
Authors: Norsigian Charles J. , Danhof Heather A. , Brand Colleen K. , Midani Firas S. , Broddrick Jared T. , Savidge Tor C. , Britton Robert A. , Palsson Bernhard O. , Spinler Jennifer K. , Monk Jonathan M.
Published: April 2022

Significance

Clostridioides difficile
infections are the most common source of hospital-acquired infections and are responsible for an extensive burden on the health care system. Strains of the
C. difficile
species comprise diverse lineages and demonstrate genome variability, with advantageous trait acquisition driving the emergence of endemic lineages. Here, we present a systems biology analysis of
C. difficile
that evaluates strain-specific genotypes and phenotypes to investigate the overall diversity of the species. We develop a strain typing method based on similarity of accessory genomes to identify and contextualize genetic loci capable of discriminating between strain groups.
Maximal vs. explosive knee extensor strength in professional soccer players: inter‐limb asymmetries and relationship with knee function
Authors: Cossich Victor R.A. , Gavilão Ubiratã F. , Goes Rodrigo A. , Perini Jamila A. , Laett Conrado T. , Maffiuletti Nicola A.
Published: April 2022

The main aims of this study were to compare the magnitude of inter‐limb asymmetry (ILA) and the relation with self‐reported knee function between maximal and explosive knee extensor strength outcomes in professional soccer players. Forty‐six male soccer players completed different maximal isokinetic and isometric contractions of the knee extensors for the assessment of maximal strength (peak torque and maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) torque) and explosive strength (early, intermediate, late, and peak rate of torque development (RTD)). Self‐reported knee function was assessed with the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and Lysholm knee scoring scales. Peak torque and MVC torque showed comparable ILAs (8‐9%), both being significantly lower than all RTD ILAs (16% on average; p < 0.001). ILAs for early RTD (21%) and peak RTD (19%) were significantly higher than all the other variables (p < 0.05). Only early and intermediate RTD were significantly correlated – though weakly – with both IKDC (rho = 0.32 for both) and Lysholm (rho = 0.36 and 0.30, respectively) scores. We conclude that explosive knee extensor strength – early RTD in particular – exhibited larger ILAs and better relations with self‐reported knee function than peak torque and MVC torque in professional soccer players. These results confirm the validity and functional relevance of early RTD and the need for its inclusion in routine performance testing for soccer players.

Highlights

Professional soccer players exhibited larger inter‐limb deficits in knee extension strength for explosive actions than for the widely‐used isokinetic test.

Self‐reported knee function was significantly correlated with explosive strength of the knee extensor muscles but not with maximal strength.

The first 50 ms of an explosive knee extension seem to be crucial for self‐perceived sport performance and possibly for injury prevention.
Optimum Conditions and Application of One-Step Fluorescent Cyanoacrylate Fuming Method for Fingermark Development Based on PolyCyano UV
Authors: Li Kang , Li Shuo , Yang Jun
Published: April 2022

Cyanoacrylate fluorescent staining has become a common method for developing latent fingermarks on light-coloured or white objects. The method requires two steps and skilled operation, and the handling process has the risk of damaging the ridge details or even biological samples. To take full advantage of the high-sensitivity fluorescence, recent research efforts on fluorescent cyanoacrylate have aimed to avoid rinsing after staining, add fluorescence to the cyanoacrylate, increase the fluorescence intensity and broaden the fluorescence spectral range. PolyCyano UV is a novel product that can be used to overcome the disadvantages associated with progressing to one-step fuming to directly develop fingermarks. To explore the optimal development conditions and application effects of PolyCyano UV, thermogravimetric differential thermal analysis, fluorescence spectroscopy and control variable analysis are used to determine and analyse the best conditions for using the reagent, including temperature, fluorescence excitation band, relative humidity and fuming concentration. The temperature range of the one-step fuming development method is 212.14 °C–275.16 °C, the wavelength range of the excitation light source is 235–580 nm, the relative humidity is 60%–80%, the concentration of the fume is 1–3 g/m3 and the specific value is related to the surface properties of the object and the aged time of the fingermarks. Additionally, fluorescence spectroscopy shows that the excitation wavelength range of the light source is 235–580 nm. Based on the best fuming condition, many common objects were selected to proceed to the application experiments, which allowed for a comparison with the traditional visualisation method, namely the Cyanobloom reagent + dyeing two-step development method. The comparison showed that latent fingermarks on most non-porous smooth surfaces, especially on light-coloured or white objects, were developed successfully. In addition, a comparative study with the conventional cyanoacrylate glue–fluorescent staining experiments showed that the effect of dyeing afterwards with Rhodamine 6 G is better than the one-step method. The effect of dyeing with BBD is basically the same as that of the one-step method. Key PointsOne-step fluorescent cyanoacrylate fuming can be a promising alternative for fingermarks developing based on PolyCyano UV in forensic science.The optimum application conditions of PolyCyano UV will provide guidance for fingermark examiners.The one-step fuming method based on PolyCyano UV has many advantages over the secondary dyeing method.
Relative importance of climatic and edaphic factors as drivers of plant δ
15
N along a longitudinal transect
Authors: Liu Xianzhao , Wang Tianhao , Su Qing
Published: April 2022

Many studies have shown that climatic and edaphic factors influence the variations in nitrogen isotopes (δ
15
N) in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the relative importance of co-varying climatic and edaphic controls on plant δ
15
N remains somewhat unclear. To address this issue, regional-scale plant (L. chinensis) and soil samples were collected along a longitudinal transect across the temperate grasslands in northern China. The influences of climatic and edaphic factors on the plant δ
15
N were disentangled using the variable importance in projection (VIP) approach. We found that the climatic and edaphic variables explained 52.4% and 31.2%, respectively, of the variation in plant δ
15
N. The mean annual precipitation (MAP), soil N, and mean annual temperature (MAT) were the most important variables, but the soil water content (SWC), aridity index (AI), and soil clay content were also important variables. The soil pH and soil C: N ratios were identified as unimportant variables. Furthermore, a high-performance model for simulating plant δ
15
N values was constructed based on the important variables (VIP > 0.8). Further investigations should focus on the effects of the interaction between the climatic and edaphic variables on the N cycles in the temperate grasslands to provide more reliable predictions of plant δ
15
N.
Thin-film electronics on active substrates: review of materials, technologies and applications
Authors: Catania Federica , de Souza Oliveira Hugo , Lugoda Pasindu , Cantarella Giuseppe , Münzenrieder Niko
Published: April 2022

In the last years, the development of new materials as well as advanced fabrication techniques have enabled the transformation of electronics from bulky rigid structures into unobtrusive soft systems. This gave rise to new thin-film devices realized on previously incompatible and unconventional substrates, such as temperature-sensitive polymers, rough organic materials or fabrics. Consequently, it is now possible to realize thin-film structures on active substrates which provide additional functionality. Examples include stiffness gradients to match mechanical properties, mechanical actuation to realize smart grippers and soft robots, or microfluidic channels for lab-on-chip applications. Composite or microstructured substrates can be designed to have bespoke electrical, mechanical, biological and chemical features making the substrate an active part of a system. Here, the latest developments of smart structures carrying thin-film electronics are reviewed. Whereby the focus lies on soft and flexible systems, designed to fulfill tasks, not achievable by electronics or the substrate alone. After a brief introduction and definition of the requirements and topic areas, the materials for substrates and thin-film devices are covered with an emphasis on their intrinsic properties. Next, the technologies for electronics and substrates fabrication are summarized. Then, the desired properties and design strategies of various active substrate are discussed and benchmarked against the current state-of-the-art. Finally, available demonstrations, and use cases are presented. The review concludes by mapping the available technologies to innovative applications, identifying promising underdeveloped fields of research and potential future progress.
Implicit neural representation for radiation therapy dose distribution
Authors: Vasudevan Varun , Shen Liyue , Huang Charles , Chuang Cynthia , Islam Md Tauhidul , Ren Hongyi , Yang Yong , Dong Peng , Xing Lei
Published: April 2022

Objective. Dose distribution data plays a pivotal role in radiotherapy treatment planning. The data is typically represented using voxel grids, and its size ranges from 106 to 108. A concise representation of the treatment plan is of great value in facilitating treatment planning and downstream applications. This work aims to develop an implicit neural representation of 3D dose distribution data. Approach. Instead of storing the dose values at each voxel, in the proposed approach, the weights of a multilayer perceptron (MLP) are employed to characterize the dosimetric data for plan representation and subsequent applications. We train a coordinate-based MLP with sinusoidal activations to map the voxel spatial coordinates to the corresponding dose values. We identify the best architecture for a given parameter budget and use that to train a model for each patient. The trained MLP is evaluated at each voxel location to reconstruct the dose distribution. We perform extensive experiments on dose distributions of prostate, spine, and head and neck tumor cases to evaluate the quality of the proposed representation. We also study the change in representation quality by varying model size and activation function. Main results. Using coordinate-based MLPs with sinusoidal activations, we can learn implicit representations that achieve a mean-squared error of 10−6 and peak signal-to-noise ratio greater than 50 dB at a target bitrate of ∼1 across all the datasets, with a compression ratio of ∼32. Our results also show that model sizes with a bitrate of 1–2 achieve optimal accuracy. For smaller bitrates, performance starts to drop significantly. Significance. The proposed model provides a low-dimensional, implicit, and continuous representation of 3D dose data. In summary, given a dose distribution, we systematically show how to find a compact model to fit the data accurately. This study lays the groundwork for future applications of neural representations of dose data in radiation oncology.
Analog synaptic devices applied to spiking neural networks for reinforcement learning applications
Authors: Kim Jangsaeng , Lee Soochang , Kim Chul-Heung , Park Byung-Gook , Lee Jong-Ho
Published: April 2022

In this work, we implement hardware-based spiking neural network (SNN) using the thin-film transistor (TFT)-type flash synaptic devices. A hardware-based SNN architecture with synapse arrays and integrate-and-fire (I&F) neuron circuits is presented for executing reinforcement learning (RL). Two problems were used to evaluate the applicability of the proposed hardware-based SNNs to off-chip RL: the Cart Pole balancing problem and the Rush Hour problem. The neural network was trained using a deep Q-learning algorithm. The proposed hardware-based SNNs using the synapse model with measured characteristics successfully solve the two problems and show high performance, implying that the networks are suitable for executing RL. Furthermore, the effect of variations in non-ideal synaptic devices and neurons on the performance was investigated.
Facile fabrication and enhanced photoresponse of CuO/β-Ga2O3 nanostructure photodetector
Authors: Du Shiyu , Yu Naisen , Wu Yunfeng , Lin Xiang , Liu Benkang , Li Haiou
Published: April 2022

CuO/β-Ga2O3 hybrid structures with β-Ga2O3 nanorods coated with CuO nanoparticle layers were successfully synthesized by a multi-cycle dipping and annealing process method. Compared with bare β-Ga2O3 nanorods, the CuO/β-Ga2O3 hybrid structures had greatly enhanced and dramatically broadened responses to light in the range from the near-ultraviolet to visible light. This novel synthetic pathway will provide new possibilities to prepare nanomaterials that integrate oxide heterojunctions for photodetection applications.
A nonlinear optimization method for large shape morphing in 3D printed pneumatic lattice structures
Authors: du Pasquier Cosima , Shea Kristina
Published: April 2022

Shape morphing has been increasingly investigated as a solution to increase the functionality and efficiency of structures. The main criteria to assess the quality of a shape morphing structure in this paper are: accuracy of deformation and range and number of achievable target shapes. The lightweight lattice structures used in this work inherently address the first criteria. The focus of this work is to address accuracy and range by developing a nonlinear optimization method that can handle large shape changes and a variety of target shapes for 2D and 3D overdeterminate lattice structures. The accuracy and deformation range of the method are verified numerically using finite element analysis and experimentally through a modular, 3D printed pneumatic lattice toolkit. The method is shown to replicate desired target shapes with a minimum accuracy of 80.4% for case studies in 2D and 69.1% in 3D. The simulation and the experimental results replicate results from the actuator placement optimization with a minimum accuracy of 92.3% and 76.2% respectively in 2D, and 88.2% and 69.6% in 3D. The impact of varying the size and degree of static overdeterminacy of a structure on its deformation range is evaluated. The proposed optimization method provides designers with more design freedom in terms of the structure type, target shape, and deformation range than shown in similar publications.
Spectral interaction between universes
Authors: Bochniak A. , Sitarz A.
Published: April 2022

We derive a perturbative formula for the direct interaction between two four-dimensional geometries. Based on the spectral action principle we give an explicit potential up to the third order perturbation around the flat vacua. We
present the leading terms of the interaction as polynomials of the invariants of the two metrics and compare the expansion
to the models of bimetric gravity.
Alfvén waves in reversed-field pinch and tokamak ohmic plasmas: nonlinear 3D MHD modeling and comparison with RFX-mod
Authors: Kryzhanovskyy A. , Bonfiglio D. , Cappello S. , Veranda M. , Zuin M.
Published: April 2022

The properties and possible triggering mechanisms of Alfvén waves in the reversed-field pinch (RFP) and circular tokamak configurations are discussed in the framework of nonlinear 3D magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) modeling. Numerical simulations are performed with the SpeCyl code (Cappello and Biskamp 1996 Nucl. Fusion) that solves the equations of the viscoresistive MHD model in cylindrical geometry. Configurations with increasing levels of complexity are analyzed. First, single-wave numerical solutions are compared with analytical ones in the simplest case of a uniform axial magnetic field: an excellent agreement is obtained for both the shear Alfvén wave (SAW) and the compressional Alfvén eigenmodes (CAEs). Then, tokamak and RFP configurations are studied. Phenomena such as phase mixing of SAW, resonant absorption of CAEs and the appearance of the global Alfvén eigenmode are described. Finally, the fully 3D RFP case with typical sawtoothing activity is investigated, showing for the first time in nonlinear RFP simulations the excitation of Alfvén waves by magnetic reconnection events. The modeling results appear to be consistent with the experimental characterization of Alfvénic activity observed in RFX-mod.
Preparation and properties of room-temperature-vulcanized silicone rubber using modified dopamine as a crosslinking agent
Authors: Wang Xiangyu , Zhou Jing , Meng Rui , Zhao Yu , Guo Weihong
Published: April 2022

This paper investigates the modification of dopamine (IDA) and uses it as a crosslinking agent to enhance the mechanical strength and hydrophobicity of room-temperature-vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber. IDA was successfully synthesized with dopamine and 3-isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane. The structure of IDA was verified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. IDA was introduced into the hydroxyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) system to prepare RTV silicone rubber, and dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTDL) was used as the catalyst. A combination of the scanning electron microscope, thermal gravimetric analysis, universal testing machine, and contact angle was used to analyze the morphology and properties of RTV silicone rubber. The results demonstrated that the addition of IDA significantly enhanced the thermal stability and mechanical strength of RTV silicone rubber. The mechanical strength of the novel RTV silicone rubber increased by 221%. Moreover, the IDA modified RTV silicone rubber had better hydrophobicity as compared to the PDMS polymer prepared with the traditional crosslinking agent.
Study on static softening behavior and hot working performance of Fe-0.2C-7Mn steel
Authors: Wang Yang , Wang Weijun , Cen Qiongying , Zhang Mei
Published: April 2022

Static softening behavior and hot working performance of medium Mn steel (Fe-0.2C-7Mn) are studied by 2-step and interrupt hot compression test with a Gleeble-3500 thermal-mechanical simulator. The results show that static softening behavior of the steel exhibits obvious sensitivity to the deformation temperature, inter-pass time and strain rate. But deformation temperature has a more significant effect on the static recrystallization (SRX) grain size than strain rate. 3D hot working processing maps are established, that low temperature and medium strain rate (850 °C ∼ 925 °C and 0.02 s−1 ∼ 0.3 s−1) are the preferred thermal deformation conditions for the test steel. Microstructure observations indicate that both static recovery (SRV) and SRX occur within inter-pass time, and SRV is the predominant mechanism in determining softening fraction. The microstructure is composed of film-like α at room temperature, and most of the nucleation of SRX preferably take place at triple junctions of grains or prior grain boundaries. Besides, high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) migration produce twin boundaries during grain growth and the main nucleation mechanism of the SRX is strain-induced boundary migration. The kinetics model of static softening is established and the experimental values are consistent with predicted ones, which proves the reliability of the model.
Spin pumping from antiferromagnetic insulator spin-orbit-proximitized by adjacent heavy metal: a first-principles Floquet-nonequilibrium Green function study
Authors: Dolui Kapildeb , Suresh Abhin , Nikolić Branislav K
Published: April 2022

Motivated by the recent experiment (Vaidya et al 2020 Science
368 160) on spin pumping from sub-THz radiation-driven uniaxial antiferromagnetic insulator (AFI) MnF2 into heavy metal (HM) Pt hosting strong spin-orbit (SO) coupling, we compute and compare pumped spin currents in Cu/MnF2/Cu and Pt/MnF2/Cu heterostructures. Recent theories of spin pumping by AFI have relied on simplistic Hamiltonians (such as tight-binding) and the scattering approach to quantum transport yielding the so-called interfacial spin mixing conductance (SMC), but the concept of SMC ceases to be applicable when SO coupling is present directly at the interface. In contrast, we use a more general first-principles quantum transport approach which combines noncollinear density functional theory with Floquet-nonequilibrium Green’s functions in order to take into account: SO-proximitized AFI as a new type of quantum material, different from isolated AFI and brought about by AFI hybridization with adjacent HM layer; strong SO coupling at the interface; and evanescent wavefunctions penetrating from Pt or Cu into AFI layer to make its interfacial region conducting rather than insulating as in the isolated AFI. The DC component of pumped spin current

I

D
C

S
z

vs. precession cone angle

θ

l

of the Néel vector
l
of AFI does not follow putative

I

DC

S
z

∝

sin

2

θ

l

, except for very small angles

θ

l

≲

10

°

for which we define an effective SMC from the prefactor and find that it doubles from MnF2/Cu to MnF2/Pt interface. In addition, the angular dependence

I

D
C

S
z

(

θ

l

)

differs for opposite directions of precession of the Néel vector, leading to twice as large SMC for the right-handed than for the left-handed chirality of the precession mode.
Development of Partial Tolerance to the Suppressing Effect of the Positive Allosteric Modulator of the GABAB Receptor, KK-92A, on Alcohol Self-Administration in Rats
Authors: Maccioni Paola , Kaczanowska Katarzyna , McDonald Patricia , Colombo Giancarlo
Published: April 2022

Aims

A recent study reported how acute treatment with KK-92A, a newly synthesized positive allosteric modulator (PAMs) of the GABAB receptor (GABAB PAMs), suppressed a series of alcohol-related behaviors, including operant oral alcohol self-administration, in selectively bred Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) rats. These findings lead to the addition of KK-92A to the long list of GABAB PAMs capable of reducing, after acute treatment, alcohol self-administration in rats. As a further step toward a more complete characterization of the anti-addictive properties of KK-92A, the present study was designed to assess the effect of repeated treatment with the compound on alcohol self-administration.

Methods

sP rats were trained to lever-respond for oral alcohol (15%, v/v) under the fixed ratio 5 (FR5) schedule of reinforcement. Once lever-responding behavior had stabilized, KK-92A (0, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered 30 min prior to 10 consecutive daily self-administration sessions (likewise occurring under the FR5 schedule).

Results

The first injection of KK-92A produced a dose-related suppression in number of lever-responses for alcohol and amount of self-administered alcohol. Magnitude of the suppressing effect of KK-92A decreased over the following two self-administration sessions and then tended to stabilize on continuation of treatment. Statistical significance at post hoc analysis was maintained only by the highest dose tested (20 mg/kg).

Conclusions

These data suggest the development of partial tolerance to the reducing effect of repeatedly administered KK-92A on alcohol self-administration. The agonistic component of the ago-allosteric profile of KK-92A is discussed as the likely key element underlying the observed tolerance.
Characterization of Exposure to Cleaning Agents Among Health Workers in Two Southern African Tertiary Hospitals
Authors: Mwanga H H , Baatjies R , Jeebhay M F
Published: April 2022

Background

Whilst cleaning agents are commonly used in workplaces and homes, health workers (HWs) are at increased risk of exposure to significantly higher concentrations used to prevent healthcare-associated infections. Exposure assessment has been challenging partly because many are used simultaneously resulting in complex airborne exposures with various chemicals requiring different sampling techniques. The main objective of this study was to characterize exposures of HWs to various cleaning agents in two tertiary academic hospitals in Southern Africa.

Methods

A cross-sectional study of HWs was conducted in two tertiary hospitals in South Africa (SAH) and Tanzania (TAH). Exposure assessment involved systematic workplace observations, interviews with key personnel, passive personal environmental sampling for aldehydes (ortho-phthalaldehyde—OPA, glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde), and biomonitoring for chlorhexidine.

Results

Overall, 269 samples were collected from SAH, with 62 (23%) collected from HWs that used OPA on the day of monitoring. OPA was detectable in 6 (2%) of all samples analysed, all of which were collected in the gastrointestinal unit of the SAH. Overall, department, job title, individual HW use of OPA and duration of OPA use were the important predictors of OPA exposure. Formaldehyde was detectable in 103 (38%) samples (GM = 0.0025 ppm; range: <0.0030 to 0.0270). Formaldehyde levels were below the ACGIH TLV-TWA (0.1 ppm). While individual HW use and duration of formaldehyde use were not associated with formaldehyde exposure, working in an ear, nose, and throat ward was positively associated with detectable exposures (P-value = 0.002). Glutaraldehyde was not detected in samples from the SAH. In the preliminary sampling conducted in the TAH, glutaraldehyde was detectable in 8 (73%) of the 11 samples collected (GM = 0.003 ppm; range: <0.002 to 0.028). Glutaraldehyde levels were lower than the ACGIH’s TLV-Ceiling Limit of 0.05 ppm. p-chloroaniline was detectable in 13 (4%) of the 336 urine samples (GM = 0.02 ng/ml range: <1.00 to 25.80).

Conclusion

The study concluded that detectable exposures to OPA were isolated to certain departments and were dependent on the dedicated use of OPA by the HW being monitored. In contrast, low-level formaldehyde exposures were present throughout the hospital. There is a need for more sensitive exposure assessment techniques for chlorhexidine given its widespread use in the health sector.
kmtricks: efficient and flexible construction of Bloom filters for large sequencing data collections
Authors: Lemane Téo , Medvedev Paul , Chikhi Rayan , Peterlongo Pierre
Published: April 2022

When indexing large collections of short-read sequencing data, a common operation that has now been implemented in several tools (Sequence Bloom Trees and variants, BIGSI) is to construct a collection of Bloom filters, one per sample. Each Bloom filter is used to represent a set of k-mers which approximates the desired set of all the non-erroneous k-mers present in the sample. However, this approximation is imperfect, especially in the case of metagenomics data. Erroneous but abundant k-mers are wrongly included, and non-erroneous but low-abundant ones are wrongly discarded. We propose kmtricks, a novel approach for generating Bloom filters from terabase-sized collections of sequencing data. Our main contributions are (i) an efficient method for jointly counting k-mers across multiple samples, including a streamlined Bloom filter construction by directly counting, partitioning and sorting hashes instead of k-mers, which is approximately four times faster than state-of-the-art tools; (ii) a novel technique that takes advantage of joint counting to preserve low-abundant k-mers present in several samples, improving the recovery of non-erroneous k-mers. Our experiments highlight that this technique preserves around 8× more k-mers than the usual yet crude filtering of low-abundance k-mers in a large metagenomics dataset.

Availability and implementation

https://github.com/tlemane/kmtricks.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online.