bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A prospective randomized trial of desmopressin in canine mammary carcinoma
Authors: Sorenmo Karin , Durham Amy C. , Evans Brolin , Scavello Heather , Stefanovski Darko
Published: May 2020

Metastatic disease represents a serious and often fatal development in patients with solid tumours, including women with breast cancer and dogs with mammary tumours. Therefore, preventing and treating metastatic disease has remained a priority in cancer research. Desmopressin, a synthetic derivative of vasopressin, traditionally used to treat patients with bleeding disorders, has been proposed as a potential anti‐metastatic agent due to its effect on haemostasis as well as multiple other anti‐proliferative and anti‐angiogenic mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to retest desmopressin in dogs with mammary carcinomas. A prospective randomized study was performed. Twenty‐four dogs with mammary carcinomas were enrolled; 12 dogs received perioperative desmopressin and 12 received placebo. All dogs underwent standard pre‐surgical staging followed by complete resection of all tumours. Intact dogs were spayed. All tumours were graded and classified according to the published guidelines. Follow‐up was performed every 4 months the first year and every 6 months thereafter. Necropsies were requested on all dogs. There was no difference in time to primary metastasis or survival between desmopressin treated dogs and the placebo arm (P= .43 and .73, respectively). The distribution of negative prognostic factors, including tumour grade, stage, and high vs low bioscore (refined flexible bioscoring) category between arms was not statistically different, even though more dogs in the placebo arm had grade 3 tumours and high bioscores. Based on the results of this study, perioperative desmopressin does not prevent metastasis in dogs with mammary carcinomas.
Comparison of 25‐hydroxyvitamin D concentration in chimpanzee dried blood spots and serum
Authors: Moittié Sophie , Graham Peter A. , Barlow Nicola , Dobbs Phillipa , Liptovszky Matyas , Redrobe Sharon , White Kate
Published: May 2020

Background

Dried blood spots (DBS) are used in human medicine to measure total 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (25‐OHD) in the blood. However, this easy and affordable sampling technique has not been evaluated in primates to measure vitamin D concentrations.

Objectives

We aimed to compare 25‐OHD measurements in chimpanzee serum at two different laboratories and determine the precision and accuracy of the DBS method by comparing DBS and serum results.

Methods

Blood samples from 17 captive chimpanzees were collected, and 25‐OHD3 and 25‐OHD2 were measured in serum at two accredited laboratories using liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. The same analytes were measured on DBS cards, and results were compared with that of serum. Data were assessed using the Spearman correlation, Deming regression, and Bland‐Altman analyses.

Results

The correlation coefficient between the two measurements in serum was rs = .51 (P = .04), and the mean bias was −1.25 ± 14.83. When comparing 25‐OHD concentrations measured in DBS and serum at the same laboratory, the rs was 0.7 (P = .002), and the mean bias was 1.42 ± 14.58. Estimated intra‐assay and inter‐assay coefficients of variation for DBS results were 6% and 12.6%, respectively.

Conclusions

Although substantial analytical variability was found in 25‐OHD measurements regardless of the sample type, the identification of both constant and proportional error and wider limits of agreement with the DBS technique makes the interpretation of DBS results challenging, especially for values close to clinical cut‐off points. The DBS and serum methods were not interchangeable, and further studies are needed to validate DBS samples for vitamin D measurements in chimpanzees.
Novel contrast agent Visphere™ is feasible for contrast‐enhanced ultrasonography in dogs
Authors: Lin Lee‐Shuan , Chung Cheng‐Shu
Published: May 2020

Contrast‐enhanced ultrasonography provides a more functional diagnostic image than conventional ultrasonography. This prospective exploratory study compared the novel contrast agent, Visphere™, with commercial contrast agents in five healthy Beagle dogs. Visphere™ has the smallest diameter and highest concentration compared with Sonazoid® and SonoVue®. Each dog received an intravenous injection of Visphere™, Sonazoid®, or SonoVue®. Images were recorded for 300, 600, and 60 s in the heart, liver, and left kidney, respectively. The mean pixel values of the regions of interest for each organ were expressed as time intensity curves (TIC). The agents all improved the visualization of left ventricular endocardial border delineation in the heart, and had similar TICs and clinical useful durations. In contrast, Visphere™ expressed the highest mean pixel value in the liver parenchyma at an early observation time and maintained the intensity until 600 s, like Sonazoid®. The renal evaluation results indicated there were no statistically significant differences in time‐to‐peak for the renal cortex or medulla among the agents. Compared with the other two agents, SonoVue® had the lowest peak enhancement for the renal cortex and medulla. No dogs had any adverse reactions during or after the study. All three agents provided adequate results for left ventricular endocardial border delineation, and Visphere™ may have the same potential as Sonazoid® to detect and characterize hepatic lesions. Visphere™ and Sonazoid® may offer better visualization quality to evaluate renal function. In conclusion, the novel contrast agent, Visphere™, is comparable with commercial agents and could be applied in different major organs in dogs.
World Englishes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Authors: Elyas Tariq , Mahboob Ahmar
Published: May 2020

This special issue highlights the importance of world Englishes research in the Arabic‐speaking and non‐Arabic Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Scrutiny of the world Englishes (WE) research literature suggests that the MENA region is largely understudied and undertheorized, and that there is a lacuna in research with reference to this topic. The use of English in this geopolitical region is diverse, and the spread of English has emerged not merely as a response to political and economic advancements, but also as the need for scientific progress and development, and the need in higher education in the region. As the role of English has been increasingly important in recent decades, official language policies have been based on both economic and political considerations, while various ideologies have also impacted the spread of English in the domain of education.
Teachers' Attitudinal Orientation Towards the Socially Disadvantaged Students and their Education
Authors: Šafránková Anna Petr , Humenská Tereza
Published: May 2020

In the context of education of socially disadvantaged pupils and the perspective of inclusive education, the teacher occupies a significant position. The presented study focuses on the issue of education of socially disadvantaged pupils, respectively its aim is to present results of the research survey focused on the attitudinal orientation of teachers in Pardubice, Liberec and Ústí nad Labem regions (n = 122) towards the socially disadvantaged pupils. Further, its goal is to find out whether there exists a relation between the teacher's attitudinal orientation and the region, his/her age, the length of the teaching experience, his/her experience with socially disadvantaged pupils education and their self-efficacy. In order to achieve research goals the Likert-type questionnaire method was used and as a research tool Teacher self-efficacy. The obtained data were subjected to factor analysis, in order to verify the relation between individual variables ANOVA was used, further Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. It was found out that teachers evaluate the group of socially disadvantaged pupils rather negatively, on the other hand, they evaluate the possibility to reduce or overcome their disadvantage originating from the family environment they come from rather positively and also they perceive the relationship between the school and the socially disadvantaged pupils rather positively. The teachers' attitudinal orientation is not related to the previous experience with the education of socially disadvantaged pupils, the length of their teaching experience and region where the teachers work. On the contrary, the relation between teachers' attitudinal orientation and age and self-efficacy was proved.
Pupil with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Authors: Diallo Karolina
Published: May 2020

Pupil with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Over the past twenty years childhood OCD has received more attention than any other anxiety disorder that occurs in the childhood. The increasing interest and research in this area have led to increasing number of diagnoses of OCD in children and adolescents, which affects both specialists and teachers. Depending on the severity of symptoms OCD has a detrimental effect upon child's school performance, which can lead almost to the impossibility to concentrate on school and associated duties. This article is devoted to the obsessive-compulsive disorder and its specifics in children, focusing on the impact of this disorder on behaviour, experience and performance of the child in the school environment. It mentions how important is the role of the teacher in whose class the pupil with this diagnosis is and it points out that it is necessary to increase teachers' competence to identify children with OCD symptoms, to take the disease into the account, to adapt the course of teaching and to introduce such measures that could help children reduce the anxiety and maintain (or increase) the school performance within and in accordance with the school regulations and curriculum.
Learning of the Teachers in School Projects
Authors: Vojáčková Lenka
Published: May 2020

The article deals with the learning of the teachers in the context of school projects. After introducing the theoretical basis the results of the empirical study which was carried out at one of the secondary schools in Brno are presented. The point out that the teachers in the context of school projects learn both on the individual and collective level. The learning can have a different content line, it can be found in various organisational forms and it is possible to identify a range of "learning interactions". For the learning in the projects itself, there appear three important dimensions: learning practice, the purpose of learning and learning factors.
Data as evidence
Authors: Cahusac Peter
Published: May 2020

In an earlier article, Gordon Drummond summarized ongoing changes in how statistics are being used in experimental physiology. He described the near‐ubiquitous use of the P value, cautioning against declaring an analysis ‘statistically significant’. He mentioned alternative approaches, including Bayesian and likelihood approaches. This article focuses on the latter approach, although I initially take another look at the P value. Then the likelihood approach is introduced with a very artificial example to enable the concept to be grasped easily. Next, a more realistic example is described, with associated calculations. A further example using real categorical data is explained, showing how it relates to and is superior to the oft‐used χ2 test. A final discussion reveals that the likelihood approach, although mathematically and statistically accurate, is poorly supported by literature and training.
Análisis de la gestión del talento en función de sus dimensiones y procesos. Un estudio de casos
Authors: De la Calle-Durán Maria del Carmen , García-Muiña Fernando Enrique , Alonso-Osuna Alvaro
Published: May 2020

La gestión del talento es, hasta la fecha, un campo de estudio ambiguo donde coexisten cuatro vías de enfoque diferenciadas: la primera la considera como un proceso similar a la gestión de personal cualificado; la segunda, básicamente, relaciona la gestión del talento con la planificación y sucesión de empleados; la tercera, defiende el desarrollo del personal de mayor rendimiento; y la cuarta, vincula dicho desarrollo con los puestos clave. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las dimensiones y los procesos de la gestión del talento, y estudiar su relación con dichas vías de enfoque. Para ello, fue realizado un estudio de casos de cuatro empresas que operan en España, lo que nos ha permitido concluir que las vías de enfoque no son excluyentes.
Simulating Thermoelectric Effect and Its Impact on Asymmetric Weld Nugget Growth in Aluminum Resistance Spot Welding
Authors: Deng Lin , Li YongBing , Cai Wayne , Haselhuhn Amberlee S. , Carlson Blair E.
Published: May 2020

Resistance spot welding (RSW) of aluminum–aluminum (Al–Al) is known to be very challenging, with the asymmetric growth of the weld nugget often observed. In this article, a semicoupled electrical–thermal–mechanical finite element analysis (FEA) procedure was established to simulate the RSW of two layers of AA6022-T4 sheets using a specially designed Multi-Ring Domed (MRD) electrodes. Critical to the modeling procedure was the thermoelectric (including the Peltier, Thomson, and Seebeck effects) analyses to simulate the asymmetric nugget growth in the welding stage. Key input parameters such as the Seebeck coefficients and high-temperature flow stress curves were measured. Simulation results, experimentally validated, indicated that the newly developed procedure could successfully predict the asymmetric weld nugget growth. Simulation results also showed the Seebeck effect in the holding stage. The simulations represent the first quantitative investigation of the impact of the thermoelectric effects on resistance spot welding.
Surface Modification of Bacterial Cellulose Sheets With Various Fire Retardants
Authors: Sözen Eser , Gündüz Gökhan , Aydemir Deniz , Can Ahmet
Published: May 2020

This study investigated the effects of various fire retardants including Firetex®, phosphoric acid, and nanoboron nitride on the thermal and morphological properties of bacterial cellulose (BC) sheets. Hestrin and Schramm medium was inoculated with Gluconacetobacter hansenii and the medium with the bacteria was incubated for 14 days. The obtained BC sheets were freeze-dried and then the dried sheets were immersed with Firetex®, phosohoric acid, and nanoboron nitride for a day. The sheets were once again freeze-dried and weight percent gain (WPG) of the sheets was calculated by using wet and dried weights. The morphological characterization, thermal properties, and structural changes of the obtained sheets were also investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The weight percent gain was found to increase 31% for the samples with boron nitride and 1040% for the samples with phosphoric acid after the impregnation. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that the impregnation improved the thermal stability of the BC films. The sheets with nanoboron nitride exhibited the best thermal stability, whereas the sheets with Firetex were determined to have the worst thermal stability. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy showed some changes in the structural properties of the all BC sheets with fire retardants. As a result, it can be said that nanoboron nitride at low temperatures (25–250 °C) and Firetex and phosphoric acid at higher temperatures (600–900 °C) showed better thermal stability.
The Epstein-Barr Virus Major Tegument Protein BNRF1 Is a Common Target of Cytotoxic CD4+T Cells
Authors: Adhikary Dinesh , Damaschke Julia , Mautner Josef , Behrends Uta
Published: May 2020

Epstein-Barr virus is carried by most humans and can cause life-threatening diseases. Virus-specific T cells have been used in different clinical settings with variable success rates. One way to improve immunotherapy is to better suit T cell generation protocols to viral targets available in different diseases. BNRF1 is present in viral particles and therefore likely available as a target for T cells in diseases with virus amplification. Here, we studied healthy Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) carriers for BNRF1 immunogenicity and report our results indicating BNRF1 to be a dominant target of the EBV-specific CD4+T cell response. BNRF1-specific CD4+T cells were found to be cytotoxic and capable of limiting EBV-driven B cell transformationin vitro. The findings of this work contribute to forwarding our understanding of host-virus interactions during health and disease and are expected to find direct application in the generation of specific T cells for immunotherapy.
Supplemental Material: Noble metal nanonugget insolubility in geological sulfide liquids
Authors: Anenburg Michael , Mavrogenes John
Published: May 2020

Detailed experimental and analytical methods, high-resolution versions of Figures 1 and 2, and the LA-ICP-MS data set including the R code used to generate Figure 2.
Supplemental Material: Noble metal nanonugget insolubility in geological sulfide liquids
Authors: Anenburg Michael , Mavrogenes John
Published: May 2020

Detailed experimental and analytical methods, and the LA-ICP-MS data set including the R code used to generate Figure 2.
Supplemental Material: U-Pb detrital zircon ages of Cambrian–Ordovician sandstones from the Taebaeksan Basin, Korea: Provenance variability in platform shelf sequences and paleogeographic implications
Authors: Cho Moonsup , al. et
Published: May 2020

Supplemental figures and tables.
Emergency paediatric critical care in England: describing trends using routine hospital data
Authors: Lewis Kate Marie , Parekh Sanjay M , Ramnarayan Padmanabhan , Gilbert Ruth , Hardelid Pia , Wijlaars Linda
Published: May 2020

Objective

To determine trends in emergency admission rates requiring different levels of critical care in hospitals with and without a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Design

Birth cohort study created from Hospital Episode Statistics.

Setting

National Health Service funded hospitals in England.

Patients

8 577 680 singleton children born between 1 May 2003 and 31 April 2017.

Outcome measures

Using procedure and diagnostic codes, we assigned indicators of high dependency care (eg, non-invasive ventilation) or intensive care (eg, invasive ventilation) to emergency admissions.

Interventions

Children were followed up until their fifth birthday to estimate high dependency and intensive care admission rates in hospitals with and without a PICU. We tested the yearly trend of high dependency and intensive care admissions to hospitals without a PICU using logistic regression models.

Results

Emergency admissions requiring high dependency care in hospitals without a PICU increased from 3.30 (95% CI 3.09 to 3.51) per 10 000 child-years in 2008/2009 to 7.58 (95% CI 7.28 to 7.89) in 2016/2017 and overtook hospitals with a PICU in 2015/2016. The odds of an admission requiring high dependency care to a hospital without a PICU compared with a hospital with a PICU increased by 9% per study year (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.10). The same trend was not present for admissions requiring intensive care (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.03).

Conclusions

Between 2008/2009 and 2016/2017, an increasing proportion of admissions with indicators of high dependency care took place in hospitals without a PICU.
Improving the demand for birth registration: a discrete choice experiment in Ethiopia
Authors: Yihdego Mahari , Amogne Ayanaw , Desta Selamawit , Choi Yoonjoung , Shiferaw Solomon , Seme Assefa , Liu Li , Helleringer Stéphane
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Birth registration remains limited in most low and middle-income countries. We investigated which characteristics of birth registration facilities might determine caregivers’ decisions to register children in Ethiopia.

Methods

We conducted a discrete choice experiment in randomly selected households in Addis Ababa and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region. We interviewed caregivers of children 0–5 years old. We asked participants to make eight choices between pairs of hypothetical registration facilities. These facilities were characterised by six attributes selected through a literature review and consultations with local stakeholders. Levels of these attributes were assigned at random using a fractional design. We analysed the choice data using mixed logit models that account for heterogeneity in preferences across respondents. We calculated respondents’ willingness to pay to access registration facilities with specific attributes. We analysed all data separately by place of residence (urban vs rural).

Results

Seven hundred and five respondents made 5614 choices. They exhibited preferences for registration facilities that charged lower fees for birth certificates, that required shorter waiting time to complete procedures and that were located closer to their residence. Respondents preferred registration facilities that were open on weekends, and where they could complete procedures in a single visit. In urban areas, respondents also favoured registration facilities that remained open for extended hours on weekdays, and where the presence of only one of the parents was required for registration. There was significant heterogeneity between respondents in the utility derived from several attributes of registration facilities. Willingness to pay for access to registration facilities with particular attributes was larger in urban than rural areas.

Conclusion

In these regions of Ethiopia, changes to the operating schedule of registration facilities and to application procedures might help improve registration rates. Discrete choice experiments can help orient initiatives aimed at improving birth registration.
Association between organ damage and mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Murimi-Worstell Irene B , Lin Dora H , Nab Henk , Kan Hong J , Onasanya Oluwadamilola , Tierce Jonothan C , Wang Xia , Desta Barnabas , Alexander G Caleb , Hammond Edward R
Published: May 2020

Objective

At least half of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) develop organ damage as a consequence of autoimmune disease or long-term therapeutic steroid use. This study synthesised evidence on the association between organ damage and mortality in patients with SLE.

Design

Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methods

Electronic searches were performed in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature for observational (cohort, case-control and cross-sectional) studies published between January 2000 and February 2017. Included studies reported HRs or ORs on the association between organ damage (measured by the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI) score) and mortality. Study quality was assessed using the modified Newcastle-Ottawa assessment. Pooled HRs were obtained using the DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the Cochrane Q (Q) and I2statistics.

Results

The search yielded 10 420 articles, from which 21 longitudinal studies were selected. Most studies (85%) were of high quality. For 10 studies evaluating organ damage (SDI) as a continuous variable and reporting HR as a measure of association, a 1-unit increase in SDI was associated with increased mortality; pooled HR was 1.34 (95% CI: 1.24 to 1.44, p<0.001; Q p=0.027, I2=52.1%). Exclusion of one potential outlying study reduced heterogeneity with minimal impact on pooled HR (1.33 (95% CI: 1.25 to 1.42), p<0.001, Q p=0.087, I2=42.0%). The 11 remaining studies, although they could not be aggregated because of their varying patient populations and analyses, consistently demonstrated that greater SDI was associated with increased mortality.

Conclusions

Organ damage in SLE is consistently associated with increased mortality across studies from various countries. Modifying the disease course with effective therapies and steroid-sparing regimens may reduce organ damage, improve outcomes and decrease mortality for patients with SLE.
Nurses’ knowledge of peripherally inserted central catheter maintenance and its influencing factors in Hunan province, China: a cross-sectional survey
Authors: Xu Binbin , Zhang Jinghui , Hou Jianmei , Ma Mengdan , Gong Zhihong , Tang Siyuan
Published: May 2020

Objectives

The present study aimed to assess the level of knowledge on peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) maintenance among nurses in China and to analyse the related factors influencing this variable.

Design

A cross-sectional survey.

Setting

Ninety-one hospitals at three different levels in Hunan Province, China: county hospitals, municipal hospitals and provincial hospitals.

Participants

A total of 4110 registered nurses engaged in clinical work related to intravenous infusion.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Nurses’ knowledge of PICC maintenance was measured by the score of an anonymous, self-reported questionnaire.

Results

The mean score of PICC maintenance among 4110 nurses was 72.86±14.86. 83.5% of the participants exhibited a score of 60 or above, and 34.1% of them exhibited a good grade with a score of 80 or above. The difference in the correct rate among different dimensions was statistically significant (H=17.721, p<0.01). The generalised linear model indicated that the factors influencing the nurses’ PICC maintenance knowledge included gender, age, professional title, work setting and previous history of PICC maintenance training.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the knowledge of PICC maintenance was at a medium level among nurses in Hunan province, China. Multiple steps should be taken to improve the nurses’ PICC maintenance knowledge, including disseminating PICC maintenance knowledge in multiple ways, such as courses, lectures, seminars and new media. Particular attention should be given to populations who responded poorly in this survey, and targeted education for nurses should be distributed based on their performance on specific dimensions, such as the replacement of dressing and needle-free connectors. In addition, the quality of the nurses’ practical performance could be measured in the future.
Association of dietary vitamin K and risk of coronary heart disease in middle-age adults: the Hordaland Health Study Cohort
Authors: Haugsgjerd Teresa R , Egeland Grace M , Nygård Ottar K , Vinknes Kathrine J , Sulo Gerhard , Lysne Vegard , Igland Jannicke , Tell Grethe S
Published: May 2020

Objective

The role of vitamin K in the regulation of vascular calcification is established. However, the association of dietary vitamins K1 and K2 with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) is inconclusive.

Design

Prospective cohort study.

Setting

We followed participants in the community-based Hordaland Health Study from 1997 - 1999 through 2009 to evaluate associations between intake of vitamin K and incident (new onset) CHD. Baseline diet was assessed by a past-year food frequency questionnaire. Energy-adjusted residuals of vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 intakes were categorised into quartiles.

Participants

2987 Norwegian men and women, age 46–49 years.

Methods

Information on incident CHD events was obtained from the nationwide Cardiovascular Disease in Norway (CVDNOR) Project. Multivariable Cox regression estimated HRs and 95% CIs with test for linear trends across quartiles. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, total energy intake, physical activity, smoking and education. A third model further adjusted K1 intake for energy-adjusted fibre and folate, while K2 intake was adjusted for energy-adjusted saturated fatty acids and calcium.

Results

During a median follow-up time of 11 years, we documented 112 incident CHD cases. In the adjusted analyses, there was no association between intake of vitamin K1 and CHD (HRQ4vsQ1 = 0.92 (95% CI 0.54 to 1.57), p for trend 0.64), while there was a lower risk of CHD associated with higher intake of energy-adjusted vitamin K2 (HRQ4vsQ1 = 0.52 (0.29 to 0.94), p for trend 0.03). Further adjustment for potential dietary confounders did not materially change the association for K1, while the association for K2 was slightly attenuated (HRQ4vsQ1 = 0.58 (0.28 to 1.19)).

Conclusions

A higher intake of vitamin K2 was associated with lower risk of CHD, while there was no association between intake of vitamin K1 and CHD.

Trial registration number

NCT03013725
Response of canola, wheat, and pea to foliar phosphorus fertilization at a phosphorus-deficient site in eastern Saskatchewan
Authors: Froese S. , Wiens J.T. , Warkentin T. , Schoenau J.J.
Published: May 2020

Foliar fertilization is a potential strategy to supplement phosphorus (P) requirements when conditions permit. In 2016 and 2017, canola, wheat, and pea were grown in a randomized complete block design trial near Pilger, SK, Canada. Each crop received a total P application of 20 kg P2O5 ha−1, with varying proportions of the P applied as seed-placed monoammonium phosphate (MAP) supplemented with foliar KH2PO4 (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%) applied prior to anthesis. Under field conditions, yield response decreased as the proportion applied as seed-placed MAP decreased. The 100% foliar-applied P treatment in canola was able to maintain significantly higher yield than the unfertilized control in the absence of seed-placed MAP, indicating some uptake and response. Of the crops evaluated, canola was most responsive to P fertilization. Phytate content ranged from 68% to over 90% of total seed P, with the highest proportions found in wheat grain. Foliar P application had limited effect on phytate and grain iron content, but there appeared to be an inverse relationship between seed-placed MAP and grain zinc concentration that was less evident when P was applied in foliar form. In this study, foliar P application was unable to substitute for seed-placed MAP and overall had a marginal effect on grain yield and P uptake as well as seed nutritional value.
$$K^{*}(892)^0$$ meson production in inelastic p+p interactions at 158 $$\text{ Ge }\text{ V }\!/\!c$$ beam momentum measured by NA61/SHINEat the CERN SPS
Authors:   NA61/SHINE Collaboration, Aduszkiewicz A. , Andronov E. V. , Antićić T. , Babkin V. , Baszczyk M. , Bhosale S. , Blondel A. , Bogomilov M. , Brandin A. , Bravar A. , Bryliński W. , Brzychczyk J. , Buryakov M. , Busygina O. , Bzdak A. , Cherif H. , Ćirković M. , Csanad M. , Cybowska J. , Czopowicz T. , Damyanova A. , Davis N. , Deliyergiyev M. , Deveaux M. , Dmitriev A. , Dominik W. , Dorosz P. , Dumarchez J. , Engel R. , Feofilov G. A. , Fields L. , Fodor Z. , Garibov A. , Gaździcki M. , Golosov O. , Golovatyuk V. , Golubeva M. , Grebieszkow K. , Guber F. , Haesler A. , Igolkin S. N. , Ilieva S. , Ivashkin A. , Johnson S. R. , Kadija K. , Kaptur E. , Kargin N. , Kashirin E. , Kiełbowicz M. , Kireyeu V. A. , Klochkov V. , Kolesnikov V. I. , Kolev D. , Korzenev A. , Kovalenko V. N. , Kowalski S. , Koziel M. , Krasnoperov A. , Kucewicz W. , Kuich M. , Kurepin A. , Larsen D. , László A. , Lazareva T. V. , Lewicki M. , Łojek K. , Łysakowski B. , Lyubushkin V. V. , Maćkowiak-Pawłowska M. , Majka Z. , Maksiak B. , Malakhov A. I. , Manić D. , Marcinek A. , Marino A. D. , Marton K. , Mathes H.-J. , Matulewicz T. , Matveev V. , Melkumov G. L. , Merzlaya A. O. , Messerly B. , Mik Ł. , Morozov S. , Mrówczyński S. , Nagai Y. , Naskręt M. , Ozvenchuk V. , Paolone V. , Petukhov O. , Płaneta R. , Podlaski P. , Popov B. A. , Porfy B. , Posiadała-Zezula M. , Prokhorova D. S. , Pszczel D. , Puławski S. , Puzović J. , Ravonel M. , Renfordt R. , Richter-Wąs E. , Röhrich D. , Rondio E. , Roth M. , Rumberger B. T. , Rumyantsev M. , Rustamov A. , Rybczynski M. , Rybicki A. , Sadovsky A. , Schmidt K. , Selyuzhenkov I. , Seryakov A. Yu. , Seyboth P. , Słodkowski M. , Staszel P. , Stefanek G. , Stepaniak J. , Strikhanov M. , Ströbele H. , Šuša T. , Taranenko A. , Tefelska A. , Tefelski D. , Tereshchenko V. , Toia A. , Tsenov R. , Turko L. , Ulrich R. , Unger M. , Valiev F. F. , Veberič D. , Vechernin V. V. , Wickremasinghe A. , Włodarczyk Z. , Wyszyński O. , Zimmerman E. D. , Zwaska R.
Published: May 2020

The measurement of $$K^{*}(892)^0$$K∗(892)0 resonance production via its $$K^{+}\pi ^{-}$$K+π- decay mode in inelastic p+p collisions at beam momentum 158 $$\text{ Ge }\text{ V }\!/\!c$$GeV/c ($$\sqrt{s_{NN}}=17.3$$sNN=17.3 $$\text{ Ge }\text{ V }$$GeV) is presented. The data were recorded by the NA61/SHINE hadron spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The template method was used to extract the $$K^{*}(892)^0$$K∗(892)0 signal and double-differential transverse momentum and rapidity spectra were obtained. The full phase-space mean multiplicity of $$K^{*}(892)^0$$K∗(892)0 mesons was found to be $$(78.44 \pm 0.38 \mathrm {(stat)} \pm 6.0 \mathrm {(sys)) \cdot 10^{-3}}$$(78.44±0.38(stat)±6.0(sys))·10-3. The NA61/SHINEresults are compared with the Epos1.99 and Hadron Resonance Gas models as well as with world data from p+p and nucleus–nucleus collisions.
Quantum speedup in noninertial frames
Authors: Xu Kai , Zhu Han-Jie , Zhang Guo-Feng , Wang Jie-Ci , Liu Wu-Ming
Published: May 2020

We investigate the speedup evolution of the system under the influence of the Unruh effect, where one of the observers (e.g., Bob) is uniformly accelerated. We show that acceleration can be beneficial to the evolution speed of the system, even in the presence of noise. Here two distinct dissipation mechanisms are considered, one where the total system is in a noise channel and the second where only Bob’s qubit is in a noisy channel. Interestingly, for the total system in the amplitude damping channel and depolarizing channel, the evolution speed of the system may increase monotonously with the increase of acceleration, which is in stark contrast to the case where only Bob’s qubit undergoing a noise channel. We find that the reason behind these behaviors are due to the competition mechanism between the Unruh effect and the dissipation effect, illustrated by the analytical formula of quantum speed limit time derived under quasi-inertial frame and strong dissipation regime.
Bifurcation analysis for degenerate problems with mixed regime and absorption
Authors: Alsaedi Ahmed , Rădulescu Vicenţiu D. , Ahmad Bashir
Published: May 2020

We are concerned with the study of a bifurcation problem driven by a degenerate operator of Baouendi–Grushin type. Due to its degenerate structure, this differential operator has a mixed regime. Studying the combined effects generated by the absorption and the reaction terms, we establish the bifurcation behavior in two cases. First, if the absorption nonlinearity is dominating, then the problem admits solutions only for high perturbations of the reaction. In the case when the reaction dominates the absorption term, we prove that the problem admits nontrivial solutions for all the values of the parameter. The analysis developed in this paper is associated with patterns describing transonic flow restricted to subsonic regions.
Three-Dimensional Graphene Oxide-Supported Zinc Oxide Scaffold as a High-Efficiency Adsorbent for Desulfurization
Authors: Liu Yan , Zhang Xiaojun , Yang Meiyan , Guo Bowen , Guo Jixiang , Luo Dan
Published: May 2020

Sulfur oxides are air pollutants derived mainly from the combustion of gasoline. Reducing the sulfur content of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline is of key importance for the prevention and control of atmospheric pollution. We describe herein the fabrication and characterization of a porous, three-dimensional (3D) graphene oxide-supported zinc oxide (GO/ZnO) scaffold as an adsorbent for desulfurization with various model compounds and real FCC gasoline. The uniform and stable dispersion of ZnO nanoparticles on the surface of GO facilitates the specific binding of sulfides. Moreover, GO synergistically adsorbs aryl sulfides via [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] stacking interactions. The GO/ZnO nanosheets were further self-assembled into a 3D porous scaffold that effectively trapped sulfides and inhibited desorption. These scaffolds exhibited excellent desulfurization performance with maximum sulfur capacity up to 29.73[Formula: see text]mg S/g. This work provides a novel perspective on the fabrication of high-efficiency adsorbents for gasoline pretreatment.
Platform business model on state-of-the-art business learning use case
Authors: Mishra Shrutika , Tripathi A. R.
Published: May 2020

The banking and economic services in business and management are fully secured and identified by block chain technologies and have many returns and benefits in the business industry. The digital platform using block chain technology and business models is a good prototype to explore and enhance their business. This paper focused on preliminary background of digital platform and their exploration on business and strategy in the market. We have also discussed about the business model of different ventures and discussed how they are earning money without their assets and its business sway.
Estimating Machine Translation Quality of Any Input Sentence
Authors: Aida Taichi , Yamamoto Kazuhide
Published: May 2020

Current methods of neural machine translation may generate sentences with different levels of quality. Methods for automatically evaluating translation output from machine translation can be broadly classified into two types: a method that uses human post-edited translations for training an evaluation model, and a method that uses a reference translation that is the correct answer during evaluation. On the one hand, it is difficult to prepare post-edited translations because it is necessary to tag each word in comparison with the original translated sentences. On the other hand, users who actually employ the machine translation system do not have a correct reference translation. Therefore, we propose a method that trains the evaluation model without using human post-edited sentences and in the test set, estimates the quality of output sentences without using reference translations. We define some indices and predict the quality of translations with a regression model. For the quality of the translated sentences, we employ the BLEU score calculated from the number of word [Formula: see text]-gram matches between the translated sentence and the reference translation. After that, we compute the correlation between quality scores predicted by our method and BLEU actually computed from references. According to the experimental results, the correlation with BLEU is the highest when XGBoost uses all the indices. Moreover, looking at each index, we find that the sentence log-likelihood and the model uncertainty, which are based on the joint probability of generating the translated sentence, are important in BLEU estimation.
A Study on the Robustness of Pitch-Range Estimation from Brief Speech Segments
Authors: Peng Wenjie , Fu Kaiqi , Zhang Wei , Xie Yanlu , Zhang Jinsong
Published: May 2020

Pitch-range estimation from brief speech segments could bring benefits to many tasks like automatic speech recognition and speaker recognition. To estimate pitch range, previous studies have proposed to utilize deep-learning-based models with spectrum information as input. They demonstrated that such method works and could still achieve reliable estimation results when the speech segment is as brief as 300 ms. In this study, we evaluated the robustness of this method. We take the following scenarios into account: (1) a large number of training speakers; (2) different language backgrounds; and (3) monosyllabic utterances with different tones. Experimental results showed that: (1) The use of a large number of training speakers improved the estimation accuracies. (2) The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) rate evaluated on the L2 speakers is similar to that on the native speakers. (3) Different tonal information will affect the LSTM-based model, but this influence is limited compared to the baseline method which calculates pitch-range targets from the distribution of [Formula: see text]0 values. These experimental results verified the efficiency of the LSTM-based pitch-range estimation method.
Geochronology of the Iberian Pyrite Belt and the Sierra Norte Batholith: lower plate magmatism during supercontinent amalgamation?
Authors: Paslawski Lori E. , Braid James A. , Quesada Cecilio , McFarlane C. M.
Published: May 2020

Protracted magmatism has long been recognized in the exotic South Portuguese Zone of southern Iberia where Early–Late Devonian volcano-sedimentary successions potentially record processes associated with ocean closure and continental collision associated with the formation of Pangaea. Collectively, these rocks represent a bimodal, predominantly submarine volcanic succession with massive sulfides spatially associated with basalts and rhyolites. Volcanic rocks are intruded by the voluminous Sierra Norte Batholith. Although the region hosts some of the world's largest ore deposits, the temporal and genetic relationships between the Iberian Pyrite Belt, the Sierra Norte Batholith and the evolution of the Variscan Orogen remain enigmatic. In an attempt to better understand these complexities, field investigations and targeted geochronology were completed throughout the volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, and the plutonic rocks of the proximal Sierra Norte Batholith. Our results suggest that the emplacement of the pyrite belt was both pre- and syncollisional, and was initiated primarily by lithospheric delamination related to tectonic escape and crustal thinning of the lower plate. In this scenario, protracted magmatism occurred in both subaerial and subaqueous settings from
c.
370 to 338 Ma.
Error Analysis of Some Operations Involved in the Cooley-Tukey Fast Fourier Transform
Authors: Brisebarre Nicolas , Joldeş Mioara , Muller Jean-Michel , Naneş Ana-Maria , Picot Joris
Published: May 2020

We are interested in obtaining error bounds for the classical Cooley-Tukey fast Fourier transform algorithm in floating-point arithmetic, for the 2-norm as well as for the infinity norm. For that purpose, we also give some results on the relative error of the complex multiplication by a root of unity, and on the largest value that can take the real or imaginary part of one term of the fast Fourier transform of a vector
x
, assuming that all terms of
x
have real and imaginary parts less than some value
b
.
Algorithm 1007
Authors: Amos Brandon D. , Easterling David R. , Watson Layne T. , Thacker William I. , Castle Brent S. , Trosset Michael W.
Published: May 2020

QNSTOP consists of serial and parallel (OpenMP) Fortran 2003 codes for the quasi-Newton stochastic optimization method of Castle and Trosset for stochastic search problems. A complete description of QNSTOP for both local search with stochastic objective and global search with “noisy” deterministic objective is given here, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time. For stochastic search problems, some convergence theory exists for particular algorithmic choices and parameter values. Both the parallel driver subroutine, which offers several parallel decomposition strategies, and the serial driver subroutine can be used for local stochastic search or global deterministic search, based on an input switch. Some performance data for computational systems biology problems is given.
Algorithm 1010
Authors: Orellana Alberto Giacomo , Michele Cristiano De
Published: May 2020

Aiming to provide a very accurate, efficient, and robust quartic equation solver for physical applications, we have proposed an algorithm that builds on the previous works of P. Strobach and S. L. Shmakov. It is based on the decomposition of the quartic polynomial into two quadratics, whose coefficients are first accurately estimated by handling carefully numerical errors and afterward refined through the use of the Newton-Raphson method. Our algorithm is very accurate in comparison with other state-of-the-art solvers that can be found in the literature, but (most importantly) it turns out to be very efficient according to our timing tests. A crucial issue for us is the robustness of the algorithm, i.e., its ability to cope with the detrimental effect of round-off errors, no matter what set of quartic coefficients is provided in a practical application. In this respect, we extensively tested our algorithm in comparison to other quartic equation solvers both by considering specific extreme cases and by carrying out a statistical analysis over a very large set of quartics. Our algorithm has also been heavily tested in a physical application, i.e., simulations of hard cylinders, where it proved its absolute reliability as well as its efficiency.
The Case for Custom Storage Backends in Distributed Storage Systems
Authors: Aghayev Abutalib , Weil Sage , Kuchnik Michael , Nelson Mark , Ganger Gregory R. , Amvrosiadis George
Published: May 2020

For a decade, the Ceph distributed file system followed the conventional wisdom of building its storage backend on top of local file systems. This is a preferred choice for most distributed file systems today, because it allows them to benefit from the convenience and maturity of battle-tested code. Ceph’s experience, however, shows that this comes at a high price. First, developing a zero-overhead transaction mechanism is challenging. Second, metadata performance at the local level can significantly affect performance at the distributed level. Third, supporting emerging storage hardware is painstakingly slow.

Ceph addressed these issues with BlueStore, a new backend designed to run directly on raw storage devices. In only two years since its inception, BlueStore outperformed previous established backends and is adopted by 70% of users in production. By running in user space and fully controlling the I/O stack, it has enabled space-efficient metadata and data checksums, fast overwrites of erasure-coded data, inline compression, decreased performance variability, and avoided a series of performance pitfalls of local file systems. Finally, it makes the adoption of backward-incompatible storage hardware possible, an important trait in a changing storage landscape that is learning to embrace hardware diversity.
Structurally Comparative Hinge Loss for Dependency-Based Neural Text Representation
Authors: Wang Kexin , Zhou Yu , Zhang Jiajun , Wang Shaonan , Zong Chengqing
Published: May 2020

Dependency-based graph convolutional networks (DepGCNs) are proven helpful for text representation to handle many natural language tasks. Almost all previous models are trained with cross-entropy (CE) loss, which maximizes the posterior likelihood directly. However, the contribution of dependency structures is not well considered by CE loss. As a result, the performance improvement gained by using the structure information can be narrow due to the failure in learning to rely on this structure information. To face the challenge, we propose the novel structurally comparative hinge (SCH) loss function for DepGCNs. SCH loss aims at enlarging the margin gained by structural representations over non-structural ones. From the perspective of information theory, this is equivalent to improving the conditional mutual information of model decision and structure information given text. Our experimental results on both English and Chinese datasets show that by substituting SCH loss for CE loss on various tasks, for both induced structures and structures from an external parser, performance is improved without additional learnable parameters. Furthermore, the extent to which certain types of examples rely on the dependency structure can be measured directly by the learned margin, which results in better interpretability. In addition, through detailed analysis, we show that this structure margin has a positive correlation with task performance and structure induction of DepGCNs, and SCH loss can help model focus more on the shortest dependency path between entities. We achieve the new state-of-the-art results on TACRED, IMDB, and Zh. Literature datasets, even compared with ensemble and BERT baselines.