bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Developing model systems for dinoflagellates in the post‐genomic era
Authors: Ishida Hisatake , John Uwe , Murray Shauna A. , Bhattacharya Debashish , Chan Cheong Xin
Published: September 2023

Dinoflagellates are a diverse group of eukaryotic microbes that are ubiquitous in aquatic environments. Largely photosynthetic, they encompass symbiotic, parasitic, and free‐living lineages with a broad spectrum of trophism. Many free‐living taxa can produce bioactive secondary metabolites such as biotoxins, some of which cause harmful algal blooms. In contrast, most symbiotic species are crucial for sustaining coral reef health. The year 2023 marked a decade since the first genome data of dinoflagellates became available. The growing genome‐scale resources for these taxa are highlighting their remarkable evolutionary and genomic complexities. Here, we discuss the prospect of developing dinoflagellate models using the criteria of accessibility, tractability, resources, research support, and promise. Moving forward in the post‐genomic era, we argue for the development of fit‐to‐purpose models that tailor to specific biological contexts, and that a one‐size‐fits‐all model is inadequate for encapsulating the complex biology, ecology, and evolutionary history of dinoflagellates.
Chlormethiazole as a hypnotic in elderly patients: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors: Al Juburi Marwa , Cramer Holger , Schaefer Martin
Published: September 2023

The study objective was to estimate the efficacy and safety of chlormethiazole in older adults experiencing insomnia (sleep disorder). We therefore systematically searched Medline, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Ovid, ZB MED and PMC through December 2021 for randomized–controlled trials including patients > 60 years old with insomnia treated with chlormethiazole. Standardized mean differences or odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the main outcome parameters: sleep duration, onset of sleep, quality of sleep, adverse events or drop‐out rates compared with placebo and other drugs. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane tool. Eight randomized–controlled trials with 424 patients were included. Chlormethiazole significantly increased the duration of sleep when compared with placebo (standardized mean difference = 0.61; 95% confidence interval = 0.11–1.11; p = 0.02). More patients receiving chlormethiazole had adequate quality of sleep than those receiving other drugs (odds ratio = 1.44; 95% confidence interval = 1.04–1.98; p = 0.03). No differences were found regarding the onset of sleep (standardized mean difference = 1.07; 95% confidence interval = 0.79–1.46; p = 0.65). Drop‐out rates were significantly lower under chlormethiazole treatment when compared with other drugs (odds ratio = 0.51; 95% confidence interval = 0.26–0.99; p = 0.05) and did not differ from placebo treatment (odds ratio = 1.37; 95% confidence interval = 0.23–8.21; p = 0.73). Side‐effects such as “hangover” and daytime drowsiness occurred less frequently during chlormethiazole treatment compared with other drugs in three out of four studies, but differences were not significant (odds ratio = 0.24; 95% confidence interval = 0.04–1.48; p = 0.12). In conclusion, chlormethiazole showed significant effects on the duration and the quality of sleep with better tolerability if compared with other drugs in older adults with insomnia.
Dietary nucleotides can prevent glucocorticoid‐induced telomere attrition in a fast‐growing wild vertebrate
Authors: Casagrande Stefania , Loveland Jasmine L. , Oefele Marlene , Boner Winnie , Lupi Sara , Stier Antoine , Hau Michaela
Published: September 2023

Telomeres are chromosome protectors that shorten during eukaryotic cell replication and in stressful conditions. Developing individuals are susceptible to telomere erosion when their growth is fast and resources are limited. This is critical because the rate of telomere attrition in early life is linked to health and life span of adults. The metabolic telomere attrition hypothesis (MeTA) suggests that telomere dynamics can respond to biochemical signals conveying information about the organism's energetic state. Among these signals are glucocorticoids, hormones that promote catabolic processes, potentially impairing costly telomere maintenance, and nucleotides, which activate anabolic pathways through the cellular enzyme target of rapamycin (TOR), thus preventing telomere attrition. During the energetically demanding growth phase, the regulation of telomeres in response to two contrasting signals – one promoting telomere maintenance and the other attrition – provides an ideal experimental setting to test the MeTA. We studied nestlings of a rapidly developing free‐living passerine, the great tit (Parus major), that either received glucocorticoids (Cort‐chicks), nucleotides (Nuc‐chicks) or a combination of both (NucCort‐chicks), comparing these with controls (Cnt‐chicks). As expected, Cort‐chicks showed telomere attrition, while NucCort‐ and Nuc‐chicks did not. NucCort‐chicks was the only group showing increased expression of a proxy for TOR activation (the gene TELO2), of mitochondrial enzymes linked to ATP production (cytochrome oxidase and ATP‐synthase) and a higher efficiency in aerobically producing ATP. NucCort‐chicks had also a higher expression of telomere maintenance genes (shelterin protein TERF2 and telomerase TERT) and of enzymatic antioxidant genes (glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase). The findings show that nucleotide availability is crucial for preventing telomere erosion during fast growth in stressful environments.
Clostridium butyricum MIYAIRI 588 alleviates periodontal bone loss in mice with diabetes mellitus
Authors: Zhang Yanan , Lu Miao , Zhang Yang , Yuan Xulei , Zhou Mengjiao , Xu Xiaohui , Zhang Tingwei , Song Jinlin
Published: September 2023

The gut microbiota is a bridge linking periodontitis and systemic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus (DM). The probiotic Clostridium butyricum MIYAIRI 588 (CBM588) is reportedly an effective therapeutic approach for gut dysbiosis. Here, in a mouse model, we explored the therapeutic effect of CBM588 on periodontal bone destruction in DM and DM‐associated periodontitis (DMP), as well as the underlying mechanism. Micro‐computed tomography revealed that DM and DMP both aggravated periodontal bone destruction, which was alleviated by intragastric supplementation with CBM588. Moreover, 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolite analysis indicated that CBM588 ameliorated DMP‐triggered dysbiosis and led to reduced oxidative stress associated with elevated 4‐hydroxybenzenemethanol (4‐HBA) in serum. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments found that the metabolite 4‐HBA promoted nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling activation and modulated the polarization of macrophages, thus ameliorating inflammatory bone destruction in DMP. Our study demonstrates the protective effects of CBM588 in DM‐induced mice, with and without ligature‐induced periodontitis. The mechanism involves regulation of the gut microbiota and restoration of the integrity of the gut barrier to alleviate oxidative damage by elevating serum 4‐HBA. This study suggests the possibility of CBM588 as a therapeutic adjuvant for periodontal treatment in diabetes patients.
The madness of unrestrained reason: Reason and madness in Molière's Le misanthrope
Authors: Boysen Benjamin
Published: September 2023

In Molière's celebrated Le misanthrope, the spectator is witness to an immensely funny, albeit profound staging of the limits of rationality. The comedy exhibits how an idealist idea of the pure sovereignty of reason is ridiculous, self‐contradictory, and mad, since the distinction between ideality and reality, the universal and the particular, the social and the individual, is ignored or even dissolved. The comic art of literature steps forth as a joyous purging and corrective of the highly seductive, but essentially delusional appeals from philosophy and idealism to absolutize reason and thus render oneself sovereign. A totalized reason that nonetheless cancels itself and becomes madness.
The torchlight model of mapping in cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) reformulation: A qualitative investigation
Authors: Jefferis Steve , Fantarrow Zara , Johnston Lynne
Published: September 2023

Objectives

Despite the central role of formulation in psychological therapy, there is limited research on how formulations are constructed in clinical practice. In Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), a formulation diagram (or CAT map) is used in transforming the client’s narrative into a psychological understanding of the difficulties. The objective was to build a theoretical model of the processes involved in the early stages of CAT mapping.

Design

A qualitative research design using constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) incorporating Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) methods.

Methods

CAT therapists participated in a role‐play therapy session with an actor (the 'client') and made an initial attempt at formulation by mapping. A video recording then formed the basis for a semi‐structured therapist interview. Following data analysis, a conceptual model and visual metaphor of the early process of CAT mapping was generated.

Results

The Torchlight model conceptualizes the mapping process as a coming together of unique factors brought by client and therapist, alongside the conceptual apparatus of CAT. Each factor brings a unique light to the unfolding process of mapping and intermixes through a dialogical, collaborative process, analogous to coloured lights mixing to form new colours. The model outlines the mapping process itself as an iterative sequence of tasks, achieved through collaboration, within a growing therapeutic relationship.

Conclusions

The model offers an empirical underpinning to existing accounts of CAT mapping, and a potential tool for training.

Practitioner points

The process by which individual CAT reformulation diagrams are started appears to be as unique to the therapist‐client dyad as the contents of the map, on the basis of the findings.

Mapping faithfully enacts the dialogical and developmental theoretical principles underpinning the CAT approach.

The Torchlight model is the first empirically based model of the processes taking place in the creation of CAT reformulation diagrams, in the early stages.
Experiences of receiving cognitive analytic therapy for those with complex secondary care mental health difficulties
Authors: Balmain Nadia , Melia Yvonne , John Christopher , Dent Helen , Smith Karen
Published: September 2023

Objectives

Service users with complex mental health difficulties are more difficult to engage in treatment and drop‐out rates are higher, resulting in poorer clinical outcomes. Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) is widely applied to service users with complex needs and shows promise in terms of engagement and outcomes. The aim of the present study was to examine the ‘lived experience’ of service users who have been retained in a full course of CAT treatment to provide important insights to why CAT seems to be an engaging psychotherapy, to inform future CAT delivery and practice with clients with complex needs.

Method

Semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with six service users aged between 25 and 47 years who had accessed secondary mental health care services and had received an average of 24 sessions of CAT. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Results

The analysis yielded three superordinate themes with subthemes within these. The first superordinate theme referred to changes due to CAT (e.g., insight, tools to cope). The second theme referred to strong emotions evoked by CAT (e.g., feeling frustrated, scared, and upset). The final theme concerned the process of CAT (e.g., endings and therapeutic relationship).

Conclusions

Whilst service users appeared to develop increased insight and acquire skills, there was variance in experiences of sustained and meaningful change post‐therapy. The findings suggest adaptations may be required with these service users such as delivering the sequential diagrammatic reformulation (SDR) in a hopeful way and addressing systemic barriers to ‘exits’ being made.

Practitioner points

Overall, service users with complex mental health difficulties describe benefitting from CAT, identifying improved insight and the acquisition of tools to cope.

However, therapists need to be attuned to the potential fragility of service users and risk of negative affect, particularly during the reformulation phase. Consideration of delivering the SDR in a hopeful way may be therapeutic.

Systemic factors such as service users being pulled to maintain the status quo in their relationships, and lack of support for or resistance to change by important others limit service users from availing of ‘exits’ from problem procedures. This implicates the need for more attention to systemic and possibly multi‐agency working with this group of service users.
Organization‐investor fit: The role of temporal preferences in shaping investor attraction and organizational performance
Authors: Gamache Daniel L. , Busenbark John R. , Steinbach Adam L. , Lee Eric Y. , Matusik James
Published: September 2023

Fit is an essential consideration for organizations, and extensive research has explored its various types. We build on and extend fit research by advancing an important form of fit—organization‐investor (O‐I) fit, which reflects the compatibility between an organization and its investors. We argue that investors tend to be attracted to organizations whose preferences already “fit” their own and, in so doing, provide a relational perspective to the corporate governance literature that often views the relationship between investors and organizational managers as purely transactional. We focus on the fit of one of the most important factors shaping both organizational and investor behavior––temporal preferences. Specifically, we argue that investors are attracted to firms that fit with their temporal preferences and that high O‐I fit leads to better organizational performance. We tested our hypotheses in a longitudinal archival study of S&P 500 firms and supplemented these findings with two experiments. Together, we find strong support for our hypotheses. Our study showcases the critical role of O‐I fit in shaping the makeup of an organization's investors and its subsequent performance, suggesting the value for scholars, managers, and investors to consider the mutual benefits offered by fit in these relationships.
A point cloud filtering method based on anisotropic error model
Authors: Ozendi Mustafa , Akca Devrim , Topan Hüseyin
Published: September 2023

Many modelling applications require 3D meshes that should be generated from filtered/cleaned point clouds. This paper proposes a methodology for filtering of terrestrial laser scanner (TLS)‐derived point clouds, consisting of two main parts: an anisotropic point error model and the subsequent decimation steps for elimination of low‐quality points. The point error model can compute the positional quality of any point in the form of error ellipsoids. It is formulated as a function of the angular/mechanical stability, sensor‐to‐object distance, laser beam's incidence angle and surface reflectivity, which are the most dominant error sources. In a block of several co‐registered point clouds, some parts of the target object are sampled by multiple scans with different positional quality patterns. This situation results in redundant data. The proposed decimation steps removes this redundancy by selecting only the points with the highest positional quality. Finally, the Good, Bad, and the Better algorithm, based on the ray‐tracing concept, was developed to remove the remaining redundancy due to the Moiré effects. The resulting point cloud consists of only the points with the highest positional quality while reducing the number of points by factor 10. This novel approach resulted in final surface meshes that are accurate, contain predefined level of random errors and require almost no manual intervention.
Critical review on bone grafting during immediate implant placement
Authors: Liñares Antonio , Dopico José , Magrin Gabriel , Blanco Juan
Published: September 2023

In the last 20 years, immediate implant placement has been proposed as a predictable protocol to replace failing teeth. The research conducted in preclinical and clinical studies have focused on soft and hard tissue changes following tooth extraction and immediate implant placement. Different approaches for hard and soft tissue grafting together with provisional restorations have been proposed to compensate tissue alterations. This review analyzed some relevant clinical and preclinical literature focusing on the impact of bone grafting procedures on immediate implant placement in terms of hard and soft tissue changes, aesthetic results, and patient‐related outcomes.
Trust and subjective knowledge influence perceived risk of lead exposure
Authors: Goebel Madeline , Wardropper Chloe B.
Published: September 2023

Lead exposure is a persistent environmental hazard that poses risks to human health. But motivating protective action is challenging with this low visibility hazard whose health effects are often subtle and chronic. Higher risk perception is generally associated with taking protective measures, so public health efforts prioritize risk messaging. Yet, little is known about perceptions of lead exposure risk among the U.S. public. Using cross‐sectional data from a national survey of 1035 U.S. residents, we measured the role of trust in government management of lead and subjective knowledge about lead as predictors of perceived risk of lead exposure, controlling for demographic and environmental factors. We also assessed if subjective knowledge moderated the relationship between trust and perceived risk. Our results reveal positive relationships between trust in government management of lead, subjective knowledge about lead, and risk perception, which we attribute in part to the important role government agencies play in secondary prevention, or communicating the risks of environmental lead exposure. We also found that younger people and people living in a house built before lead paint regulations passed in 1978 perceived higher lead risks. Our findings suggest that general communication about lead risks should aim to increase people's subjective knowledge in a consistent and balanced way that improves trust in government messengers.
Treadmill running intensity and post‐exercise increase in plasma cardiac troponin I and T—A pilot study in healthy volunteers
Authors: Nguyen Daniel Khai , Ellingsen Øyvind , Grenne Bjørnar , Fremo Thomas , Hov Gunhild Garmo , Røsbjørgen Ragnhild , Mikkelsen Gustav
Published: September 2023

Background

Plasma concentrations of cardiac troponins increase in healthy individuals after strenuous training, but the response to lower exercise intensities has not been characterized.

Aim

To determine whether exercise at moderate intensity significantly increases plasma cardiac troponins measured with different assays in healthy recreational athletes.

Methods

Twenty‐four self‐reported healthy volunteers were instructed to complete three 60‐min bouts of treadmill running at variable intensities: High‐intensity training (HIT) including a maximal exercise test and an anaerobic threshold test followed by training at 80%–95% of maximum heart rate (HRmax), Moderate‐intensity training (MIT) at 60%–75% of HRmax, and Low‐intensity training (LIT) at 45%–55% of HRmax. Blood samples were collected before and at 2, 4, and 6 h after HIT and 4 h after MIT and LIT. Troponin I and T were measured in plasma samples with assays from Abbot, Siemens, and Roche.

Results

Plasma troponins measured with all assays were significantly increased compared to baseline after HIT but not after LIT. After HIT, the fraction of all participants with one or more values above the assay‐specific 99th percentiles ranged from 13% to 61%. The biomarker criteria for acute myocardial injury were met after HIT for troponin T in 75% of female participants having no clinical evidence of coronary artery disease.

Conclusion

High‐intensity, but not moderate‐ or low‐intensity, training for 60 min induced a potentially clinically significant increase in plasma cardiac troponins in healthy volunteers. Results exceeding the population 99th percentiles were most frequent with the troponin T assay.
Contagious or prosocial? Perceptions of mask‐wearers toward Whites and Asians: A cross‐cultural comparison during the early stage of the COVID‐19 pandemic
Authors: Ko Ahra , Bock Jarrod E. , Ko Junseok , Krems Jaimie Arona
Published: September 2023

The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to a worldwide increase in the use of face masks to prevent viral transmission. However, as mask‐wearing was a new behavior in many countries, there was a limited understanding of how mask‐wearers are perceived and how such perceptions impact one's own mask‐wearing behavior. Mask‐wearers may be seen as contagious or prosocial, and these perceptions may vary based on the race of the mask‐wearer and the country of the observer, particularly given the rise in pandemic‐related anti‐Asian rhetoric in the U.S. In three experiments (N = 579), we investigated these questions, conducting two studies in the United States (May and July 2020), where mask‐wearing was new and anti‐Asian rhetoric has been prevalent, and one study in South Korea (November 2020), where mask‐wearing was relatively common. Results indicate that masked individuals are perceived as less contagious and more prosocial, regardless of target race or participant nation. These perceptions were more pronounced among American political liberals, Americans who are more sensitive to infection transmission (Study 2), and Koreans who self‐perceived a greater vulnerability to infection (Study 3). Especially in the U.S., perceiving the masked target as more prosocial predicted more self‐reported mask‐wearing, while perceiving the masked target as more contagious and less prosocial predicted less mask‐wearing (Study 2). These findings provide insights into social perceptions of masks and race during the pandemic.
Investigating factors in indoor transmission of respiratory disease through agent‐based modeling
Authors: Choi Moongi , Hohl Alexander
Published: September 2023

The transmission of respiratory diseases such as COVID‐19 is exacerbated in densely populated urban areas and crowded indoor settings. Despite the majority of transmissions occurring in such settings, controlling viral spread through individual‐level contacts indoors remains challenging. Experimental studies have investigated the transmission patterns of respiratory behaviors such as coughing or sneezing in controlled spatial environments. However, the effects of dynamic movement and spatial structures have been ignored, making it difficult to apply findings to urban policy and planning. To address this gap, we developed agent‐based simulations to investigate individual virus inhalation patterns across multiple scenarios in a symmetrical and formulaic indoor space. We conducted sensitivity analysis using regression emulator models to identify significant factors for viral transmission. Our results indicate positive associations with viral transmission in descending order of: (1) stay time; (2) encounter frequency; and (3) initial infected population; while negative associations are: (4) mask wearing; (5) distance to infected people; (6) nearest infected people's mask wearing; and (7) distance to entrance. We also found that narrow passages between obstacles increase virus transmission from breathing. Furthermore, we conducted a case study to investigate the potential of reducing the amount of individually inhaled virus by controlling behaviors and spatial environments. Our findings suggest that mask wearing and reduced stay time can substantially reduce transmission risk, while a large number of contacts and high grouping time result in the growth of the infected population at a certain threshold. These results provide guidance for decision makers to formulate guidelines for curbing the spread of respiratory diseases in indoor spaces.
Engineering of substrate specificity in a plant cell‐wall modifying enzyme through alterations of carboxyl‐terminal amino acid residues
Authors: Stratilová Barbora , Šesták Sergej , Stratilová Eva , Vadinová Kristína , Kozmon Stanislav , Hrmova Maria
Published: September 2023

Structural determinants of substrate recognition remain inadequately defined in broad specific cell‐wall modifying enzymes, termed xyloglucan xyloglucosyl transferases (XETs). Here, we investigate the Tropaeolum majus seed TmXET6.3 isoform, a member of the GH16_20 subfamily of the GH16 network. This enzyme recognises xyloglucan (XG)‐derived donors and acceptors, and a wide spectrum of other chiefly saccharide substrates, although it lacks the activity with homogalacturonan (pectin) fragments. We focus on defining the functionality of carboxyl‐terminal residues in TmXET6.3, which extend acceptor binding regions in the GH16_20 subfamily but are absent in the related GH16_21 subfamily. Site‐directed mutagenesis using double to quintuple mutants in the carboxyl‐terminal region – substitutions emulated on barley XETs recognising the XG/penta‐galacturonide acceptor substrate pair – demonstrated that this activity could be gained in TmXET6.3. We demonstrate the roles of semi‐conserved Arg238 and Lys237 residues, introducing a net positive charge in the carboxyl‐terminal region (which complements a negative charge of the acidic penta‐galacturonide) for the transfer of xyloglucan fragments. Experimental data, supported by molecular modelling of TmXET6.3 with the XG oligosaccharide donor and penta‐galacturonide acceptor substrates, indicated that they could be accommodated in the active site. Our findings support the conclusion on the significance of positively charged residues at the carboxyl terminus of TmXET6.3 and suggest that a broad specificity could be engineered via modifications of an acceptor binding site. The definition of substrate specificity in XETs should prove invaluable for defining the structure, dynamics, and function of plant cell walls, and their metabolism; these data could be applicable in various biotechnologies.
Aldehyde perception induces specific molecular responses in Laminaria digitata and affects algal consumption by a specialist grazer
Authors: Xing Qikun , Cabioch Léa , Desrut Antoine , Le Corguillé Gildas , Rousvoal Sylvie , Dartevelle Laurence , Rolland Elodie , Guitton Yann , Potin Philippe , Markov Gabriel V. , Faugeron Sylvain , Leblanc Catherine
Published: September 2023

In the marine environment, distance signaling based on water‐borne cues occurs during interactions between macroalgae and herbivores. In the brown alga Laminaria digitata from North‐Atlantic Brittany, oligoalginates elicitation or grazing was shown to induce chemical and transcriptomic regulations, as well as emission of a wide range of volatile aldehydes, but their biological roles as potential defense or warning signals in response to herbivores remain unknown. In this context, bioassays using the limpet Patella pellucida and L. digitata were carried out for determining the effects of algal transient incubation with 4‐hydroxyhexenal (4‐HHE), 4‐hydroxynonenal (4‐HNE) and dodecadienal on algal consumption by grazers. Simultaneously, we have developed metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches to study algal molecular responses after treatments of L. digitata with these chemical compounds. The results indicated that, unlike the treatment of the plantlets with 4‐HNE or dodecadienal, treatment with 4‐HHE decreases algal consumption by herbivores at 100 ng.ml−1. Moreover, we showed that algal metabolome was significantly modified according to the type of aldehydes, and more specifically the metabolite pathways linked to fatty acid degradation. RNAseq analysis further showed that 4‐HHE at 100 ng.ml−1 can activate the regulation of genes related to oxylipin signaling pathways and specific responses, compared to oligoalginates elicitation. As kelp beds constitute complex ecosystems consisting of habitat and food source for marine herbivores, the algal perception of specific aldehydes leading to targeted molecular regulations could have an important biological role on kelps/grazers interactions.
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Bottoming Cycles for Off-Shore Applications—An Optimization Study
Authors: Persico Giacomo , Sánchez David T. , Alfani Dario , Silva Paolo , Vijgen Rene , Ruggiero Marco , Glos Stefan , Le Pierres Renaud , Schmitz Ulrich , Rubycz Rasmus , Cagnac Albannie , Macadam Scott , Orhon Dominique H.
Published: September 2023

Closed Joule–Brayton thermodynamic cycles working with carbon dioxide in supercritical conditions (sCO2) are presently receiving great attention, for their multiple attractive aspects: high energy conversion efficiency, compact size, flexibility of operation, and integration with energy storage systems. These features make the sCO2 technology interesting for several energy and industrial sectors, including renewable sources and waste heat recovery. A further promising area of application of sCO2 systems is bottoming gas turbines in combined cycles installed in off-shore platforms, where the lack of space complicates the application of steam Rankine cycles. The use of steam implies large-scale components and demands for large space availability for the plant installation; in such context, the combination of gas turbines with sCO2 cycles could open the way for developing novel combined cycles, which could be attractive for all the sectors which might take advantage from the footprint savings, the enhanced flexibility, and the fast dynamics of sCO2 systems. In this work, we investigate the thermodynamic potential of combining sCO2 cycles with an existing gas turbine for off-shore applications. We consider a midsize (25 MW) gas turbine available on the market and perform a series of thermodynamic optimizations of the sCO2 bottoming cycle to maximize the exploitation of the heat discharged by the gas turbine. We analyze four alternative configurations and include realistic technical constraints, evaluated by leveraging on the most recent technical outcomes from ongoing sCO2 research projects. A comparison is also proposed with a state-of-the-art steam Rankine cycle, in terms of system efficiency and footprint of the largest components. This study clarifies the advantages and challenges of applying sCO2 in combination with gas turbines, and it confirms the relevance of sCO2 systems for off-shore applications, calling for further technical studies in the field.
Calculation of Thermodynamic Wetness Loss in Steam Turbines Using Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation
Authors: Hoznedl Michal , Kolovratník Michal , Jun Gukchol
Published: September 2023

In the paper, the behavior of wet steam flow is described in three different steam turbines. The first one is the 1100 MW turbine in the nuclear power plant with the pressurized water reactor. The second one is the 660 MW turbine in the fossil fuel power plant with ultrasupercritical steam parameters at the turbine inlet. The last turbine has a nominal output of 34 MW and operates in the municipal waste-to-energy plant. However, this turbine can often also operate even at 2 MW or higher. In all three turbines in the last stage area passages are made for an optical probe to measure steam wetness and primary droplets size, and for a pneumatic probe to determine the pressures, velocities and flow directions. Based on experimentally obtained data, analyses of thermodynamic wetness loss for all three turbines are performed using numerical flow simulations considering equilibrium and nonequilibrium steam. The condensation model that includes the nucleation rate and droplet growth velocity used in ansyscfx is calibrated based on experimentally obtained data. It is evident that the obtained loss patterns depend fundamentally on the turbine type and operating parameters.
Grain-Scale Study of SAC305 Oligocrystalline Solder Joints: Anisotropic Elasto-Plastic Constitutive Properties of Single Crystals
Authors: Deshpande Abhishek , Bharamgonda Aniket , Jiang Qian , Dasgupta Abhijit
Published: September 2023

This paper focuses on anisotropic elastic-plastic constitutive modeling of SAC (SnAgCu) solder grains because of their importance in modeling the behavior of oligocrystalline (few-grained) micron-scale solder joints that are increasingly common in heterogeneous integration. Such grain-scale anisotropic modeling approach provides more accurate assessment of the mechanical response of solder interconnects in terms of predicting different failure modes, failure sites, and variability in time-to-failure. Anisotropic plasticity is represented using Hill–Ramberg–Osgood (RO) continuum plasticity model, which utilizes Hill's anisotropic plastic potential along with a RO power-law plastic hardening flow rule. Mechanistically motivated empirical scaling factors are proposed to extrapolate the stress–strain response for different grain sizes/shapes and for different coarseness of microstructures within each grain (generated with different cooling rates). This scaling factor can therefore also capture the effects of microstructural coarsening due to isothermal aging. This goal is achieved by first conducting monotonic tensile and shear tests on monocrystalline and oligocrystalline SAC305 solder joints containing grains of various geometries and also intragranular microscale (dendritic and eutectic) structures of various coarseness. The grain structures are characterized for each tested specimen using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). The Hill–RO model constants and the empirical scaling factors are then estimated by matching grain-scale anisotropic elastic-plastic finite element models of each tested specimen to the measured stress–strain behavior, using an inverse-iteration process. Grain shape is seen to influence the sensitivity of the effective stress–strain curves to the applied stress state (i.e., to the orientation of the principal stress directions) relative to (i) the material principal directions and (ii) the geometric principal directions of grains with high aspect ratio. Limitations of the current results and opportunities for future improvements are discussed.
Experimental Study on Airflow Upwash and Control of Thrust Increase Induced by Ceiling Effect on Microrotor
Authors: Nishibe Koichi , Koizumi Yusuke , Sekiguchi Kazuma
Published: September 2023

This study examines the mechanism of thrust increase due to the ceiling effect in near-ceiling flight, which is one of the concerns for the practical application of micro-air vehicles in indoor environments. We also proposed a novel rotor blade shape with a pressure recovery hole as one of the passive control techniques and investigated its effectiveness in controlling the thrust increase. The obtained results showed a rapid thrust increase, with an outward swirling flow between the rotor blade and ceiling, observed with a rectangular blade with an extremely small distance between the upper surface of the rotor blade and ceiling. The rapid thrust increase was caused by a pressure difference between the rotor blade and the lower surface of the ceiling in addition to the rotor blade rotation, which generated an outward swirling flow between the rotor blade and ceiling. In addition to the force generated by the pressure difference between the upper and lower blade surfaces due to their rotation, the negative pressure area created by the rotor blades generates the airflow upwash. For the thrust-control rotor blade, the ratio of the pressure recovery hole to the rotor blade radius was 0.5, which maintained approximately 90% or more of the thrust without the upper wall of the rectangular blade; moreover, the distance between the ceiling and the rotor blade at which the thrust began to increase rapidly became shorter, flight performance was generally maintained in the absence of the ceiling, and the thrust increase amplitude was suppressed.
Diet type and prey preference of predators affect intraguild predation between Amblyseius andersoni and Neoseiulus barkeri
Authors: Chi Yuanming , Li Yujing , Liu Jiting , Fu Xiaotong , Meng Ruixia
Published: September 2023

Amblyseius andersoni and Neoseiulus barkeri, two species of phytoseiid mites that are widely used for the control of small sucking pests, were found to co-occur on Chinese wolfberry in Inner Mongolia. We investigated the possibility of intraguild predation (IGP) between A. andersoni and N. barkeri to explore the interactions and coexistence of these two species. Predation and oviposition of the two predators on heterospecific juveniles were measured and compared with Tetranychus truncatus or Typha pollen as food, or without alternative food. The mortality rate of N. barkeri juveniles was not affected by the diet treatment, but that of A. andersoni juveniles was reduced by the presence of spider mites. The presence of spider mites also increased oviposition by A. andersoni but not by N. barkeri, and the presence of pollen had no influence on the oviposition of the two predators. Thus, according to the IGP criteria for gaining benefits from predation on heterospecific juveniles, it was concluded that IGP between A. andersoni and N. barkeri occurred, with A. andersoni as intraguild predator and N. barkeri as intraguild prey when spider mites were present. In a further choice test in which heterospecific juveniles and T. truncatus juveniles were provided for each predator, female A. andersoni preferred to prey on N. barkeri rather than on spider mites, whereas female N. barkeri preferred to feed on spider mites rather than on A. andersoni. These findings indicate that the higher preference of N. barkeri on T. truncatus might result in its lower predation on the other predator species compared with A. andersoni and, thus, increased the possibility of the coexistence of the two predator species. Therefore, the occurrence of IGP between A. andersoni and N. barkeri appears to be influenced by the availability and type of the diet and the prey preference of the predators.
Three new gall forming Eriophyes species (Acari: Eriophyidae) on rosaceous plants in Iran
Authors: Lotfollahi Parisa , Honarmand Arash , Hashemi-Khabir Zahra , Xue Xiang-Feng
Published: September 2023

During field surveys of eriophyoid species associated with rosaceous plants in Zagros forests of Iran, three new species were discovered and described including Eriophyes cotosarica sp. nov. from Cotoneaster hissaricus Pojark., Eriophyes cratameyeris sp. nov. from Crataegus meyeri Pojark. and Eriophyes pyrusyriaca sp. nov. from Pyrus syriaca Boiss. All species cause galls on their host plant’s leaves. In addition, a list of Eriophyes species found on Rosaceous plants in Iran and a supplementary description of Eriophyes pyri (Pagenstecher, 1857) are provided.
Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva in a cat
Authors: Kamat Tanvi , Kilpatrick Scott
Published: September 2023

A young, female Maine coon cat was referred for investigation of anorexia, anaemia and limited mobility. On CT of the limbs, thorax and abdomen, there was evidence of multiple, mineralised lesions within the muscles of all four limbs. Following a histopathological examination of the incisional biopsies obtained from the lesions, a diagnosis of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) was made. FOP is a rare genetic condition in people, which results in a shorter life span due to progressive ossification of connective tissue. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of FOP observed in a cat in the UK. In this case, an improvement in mobility was observed following diagnosis and supportive management.
Attention-guided Adversarial Attack for Video Object Segmentation
Authors: Yao Rui , Chen Ying , Zhou Yong , Hu Fuyuan , Zhao Jiaqi , Liu Bing , Shao Zhiwen
Published: September 2023

Video Object Segmentation (VOS) methods have made many breakthroughs with the help of the continuous development and advancement of deep learning. However, the deep learning model is vulnerable to malicious adversarial attacks, which mislead the model to make wrong decisions by adding adversarial perturbation that humans cannot perceive to the input image. Threats to deep learning models remind us that video object segmentation methods are also vulnerable to attacks, thereby threatening their security. Therefore, we study adversarial attacks on the VOS task to better identify the vulnerabilities of the VOS method, which in turn provides an opportunity to improve its robustness. In this paper, we propose an attention-guided adversarial attack method, which uses spatial attention blocks to capture features with global dependencies to construct correlations between consecutive video frames, and performs multipath aggregation to effectively integrate spatial-temporal perturbation, thereby guiding the deconvolution network to generate adversarial examples with strong attack capability. Specifically, the class loss function is designed to enable the deconvolution network to better activate noise in other regions and suppress the activation related to the object class based on the enhanced feature map of the object class. At the same time, attentional feature loss is designed to enhance the transferability against attack. The experimental results on the DAVIS dataset show that the proposed attention-guided adversarial attack method can significantly reduce the segmentation accuracy of OSVOS, and the
J
&
F
mean on DAVIS 2016 can reach 73.6% drop rate. The generated adversarial examples are also highly transferable to other video object segmentation models.
Privacy-Enhanced Cooperative Storage Scheme for Contact-Free Sensory Data in AIoT with Efficient Synchronization
Authors: Mei Yaxin , Wang Wenhua , Liang Yuzhu , Liu Qin , Chen Shuhong , Wang Tian
Published: September 2023

The growing popularity of contact-free smart sensing has contributed to the development of the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT). The contact-free sensory data has great potential to mine and analyze the hidden information for AIoT-enabled applications. However, due to the limited storage resource of contact-free smart sensing devices, data is naturally stored in the cloud, which is at risk of privacy leakage. Cloud storage is generally considered insecure. On one hand, the openness of the cloud environment makes the data easy to be attacked, and the complex AIoT environment also makes the data transmission process vulnerable to the third party. On the other hand, the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) is untrusted. In this article, to ensure the security of data from contact-free smart sensing devices, a Cloud-Edge-End cooperative storage scheme is proposed, which takes full advantage of the differences in the cloud, edge, and end. Firstly, the processed sensory data is stored separately in the three layers by utilizing well-designed data partitioning strategy. This scheme can increase the difficulty of privacy leakage in the transmission process and avoid internal and external attacks. Besides, the contact-free sensory data is highly time-dependent. Therefore, combined with the Cloud-Edge-End cooperation model, this article proposes a delta-based data update method and extends it into a hybrid update mode to improve the synchronization efficiency. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed cooperative storage method can resist various security threats in bad situations and outperform other update methods in synchronization efficiency, significantly reducing the synchronization overhead in AIoT.
Manifolds.jl: An Extensible Julia Framework for Data Analysis on Manifolds
Authors: Axen Seth D. , Baran Mateusz , Bergmann Ronny , Rzecki Krzysztof
Published: September 2023

We present the Julia package
Manifolds.jl
, providing a fast and easy-to-use library of Riemannian manifolds and Lie groups. This package enables working with data defined on a Riemannian manifold, such as the circle, the sphere, symmetric positive definite matrices, or one of the models for hyperbolic spaces. We introduce a common interface, available in
ManifoldsBase.jl
, with which new manifolds, applications, and algorithms can be implemented. We demonstrate the utility of
Manifolds.jl
using Bézier splines, an optimization task on manifolds, and principal component analysis on nonlinear data. In a benchmark,
Manifolds.jl
outperforms all comparable packages for low-dimensional manifolds in speed; over Python and Matlab packages, the improvement is often several orders of magnitude, while over C/C++ packages, the improvement is two-fold. For high-dimensional manifolds, it outperforms all packages except for Tensorflow-Riemopt, which is specifically tailored for high-dimensional manifolds.
Contrastive Graph Prompt-tuning for Cross-domain Recommendation
Authors: Yi Zixuan , Ounis Iadh , MacDonald Craig
Published: September 2023

Recommender systems commonly suffer from the long-standing data sparsity problem where insufficient user-item interaction data limits the systems’ ability to make accurate recommendations. This problem can be alleviated using cross-domain recommendation techniques. In particular, in a cross-domain setting, knowledge sharing between domains permits improved effectiveness on the target domain. While recent cross-domain recommendation techniques used a pre-training configuration, we argue that such techniques lead to a low fine-tuning efficiency, especially when using large neural models. In recent language models,
prompts
have been used for parameter-efficient and time-efficient tuning of the models on the downstream tasks—these prompts represent a tunable latent vector that permits to freeze the rest of the language model’s parameters. To address the cross-domain recommendation task in an efficient manner, we propose a novel Personalised Graph Prompt-based Recommendation (PGPRec) framework, which leverages the efficiency benefits from prompt-tuning. In such a framework, we develop personalised and item-wise graph prompts based on relevant items to those items the user has interacted with. In particular, we apply Contrastive Learning to generate the pre-trained embeddings, to allow an increased generalisability in the pre-training stage, and to ensure an effective prompt-tuning stage. To evaluate the effectiveness of our PGPRec framework in a cross-domain setting, we conduct an extensive evaluation with the top-
k
recommendation task and perform a cold-start analysis. The obtained empirical results on four Amazon Review datasets show that our proposed PGPRec framework can reduce up to 74% of the tuned parameters with a competitive performance and achieves an 11.41% improved performance compared to the strongest baseline in a cold-start scenario.