bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Multiseasonal probabilistic slope stability analysis of a large area of unsaturated pyroclastic soils
Authors: Cuomo Sabatino , Masi Elena Benedetta , Tofani Veronica , Moscariello Mariagiovanna , Rossi Guglielmo , Matano Fabio 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe analysis of slope stability over large areas is a demanding task for several reasons, such as the need for extensive datasets, the uncertainty of collected data, the difficulty of accounting for site-specific factors, and the considerable computation time required due to the size of investigated areas, which can pose major barriers, particularly in civil protection contexts where rapid analysis and forecasts are essential. However, as the identification of zones of higher failure probability is very useful for stakeholders and decision-makers, the scientific community has attempted to improve capabilities to provide physically based assessments. This study combined a transient seepage analysis of an unsaturated-saturated condition with an infinite slope stability model and probabilistic analysis through the use of a high-computing capacity parallelized platform. Both short- and long-term analyses were performed for a study area, and roles of evapotranspiration, vegetation interception, and the root increment of soil strength were considered. A model was first calibrated based on hourly rainfall data recorded over a 4-day event (December 14–17, 1999) causing destructive landslides to compare the results of model simulations to actual landslide events. Then, the calibrated model was applied for a long-term simulation where daily rainfall data recorded over a 4-year period (January 1, 2005–December 31, 2008) were considered to study the behavior of the area in response to a long period of rainfall. The calibration shows that the model can correctly identify higher failure probability within the time range of the observed landslides as well as the extents and locations of zones computed as the most prone ones. The long-term analysis allowed for the identification of a number of days (9) when the slope factor of safety was lower than 1.2 over a significant number of cells. In all of these cases, zones approaching slope instability were concentrated in specific sectors and catchments of the study area. In addition, some subbasins were found to be the most recurrently prone to possible slope instability. Interestingly, the application of the adopted methodology provided clear indications of both weekly and seasonal fluctuations of overall slope stability conditions. Limitations of the present study and future developments are finally discussed.
The Subject-Dependency of Perceptual Objects
Authors: Skrzypulec Błażej 
Published: October 2020

AbstractEntities that are, in ordinary perceptual situations, veridically presented as objects can be called ‘perceptual objects’. In the philosophical literature, one can find various approaches to the crucial features that distinguish the class of perceptual objects. While these positions differ in many respects, they share an important general feature: they all characterize perceptual objects as largely subject-independent. More specifically, they do not attribute a significant constitutive role to the perceptual relation connecting a fragment of the environment with a perceiving subject. Fragments of the environment are perceptual objects no matter whether they stand in a perceptual relation to any subject, mainly by virtue of having a certain physical structure. I question this common assumption, relying on Green’s (2019) definition of perceptual objects, arguing that a proper theory of perceptual objects should accommodate the constitutive role of perceptual relations. This is because there exist fragments of the environment that are perceptual objects only when they stand in a perceptual relation to a subject.
Housing stratification in Romania: mapping a decade of change
Authors: Soaita Adriana Mihaela , Dewilde Caroline 
Published: October 2020

AbstractGiven increasing economic affluence, improvement in housing conditions and population decline in the last three decades, Romanians should be more likely to experience better housing than ever before, particularly in terms of the availability and affordability of space. But substantial improvement alongside numerous people still suffering poor conditions begs the important question of who has benefited and who has been excluded. Engaging the theoretical framework of diverse economies and drawing on 2007 and 2018 Eurostat-SILC micro-data, we examine the realignment between housing and income stratification across a proposed housing typology that reflects historically enduring arrangements of housing provisions and economic hierarchies. We find that residents’ socioeconomic profiles differ significantly by type of housing (e.g. showing surprising economic prosperity in urban flats and extreme poverty in some rural houses), which positions our typology as an expression of housing stratification. Furthermore, multivariate analyses highlight the increasingly stronger relationship between income and housing consumption over the decade. Of concern, a large share of the population (the bottom 40% of the income distribution) has fallen further into housing disadvantage after controlling for overall improvements in housing conditions. Conversely, the relative distance between middle- and higher-income households has decreased; given the dominance of small dwellings in the housing stock, higher-income groups seem unable to transfer their financial gains into space in their main residence except a minority engaged in the self-provision of ‘villas’. These patterns of housing stratification indicate a move towards a 40%/60% ‘hour-glass’ society if housing continues to remain outside the political agenda.
A method for determining the suitability of schools as evacuation shelters and aid distribution hubs following disasters: case study from Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
Authors: Tsioulou Alexandra , Faure Walker Joanna , Lo Dexter Sumaylo , Yore Rebekah 
Published: October 2020

AbstractDespite the controversy regarding their use, school buildings are often assigned as emergency evacuation shelters, temporary accommodation and aid distribution hubs following disasters. This paper presents a methodology to compare the relative suitability of different school buildings for these purposes by using the analytical hierarchy process to weight criteria based on the combined opinions of relevant experts and combine these with descriptive scores from surveyed buildings. The aggregated weights show that approximately equal weighting should be given to the hard characteristics (hazard at location and physical vulnerability) and soft characteristics (accessibility, communications, living environment, access to supplies). As well as immediate safety, conditions for inhabitation are important so that displaced persons are not discouraged from evacuating to shelters and shelter life is not detrimental to health and well-being. The study allows an optimal selection of school buildings used as shelters before and after a disaster and highlights where most improvement could be made with relatively little time and resources for both individual buildings and the whole study area. This method was applied to Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines, an area exposed to floods, windstorms and earthquakes, but can be adapted for other local contexts and building types. Among the 38 school buildings surveyed, we identified key areas for improvement as being insufficient pedestrian access for evacuation at night and for those with mobility constraints, and a lack of alternate spaces for evacuee activities leading to interference with education.
Why do patients go off track? Examining potential influencing factors for being at risk of psychotherapy treatment failure
Authors: Schilling Viola N. L. S. , Zimmermann Dirk , Rubel Julian A. , Boyle Kaitlyn S. , Lutz Wolfgang 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
Routine outcome monitoring can support clinicians to detect patients who deteriorate [not-on-track (NOT)] early in psychotherapy. Implemented Clinical Support Tools can direct clinicians’ attention towards potential obstacles to a positive treatment outcome and provide suggestions for suitable interventions. However, few studies have compared NOT patients to patients showing expected progress [on-track (OT)] regarding such obstacles. This study aimed to identify domains that have predictive value for NOT trajectories and to compare OT and NOT patients regarding these domains and the items of the underlying scales.

Methods
During treatment, 413 outpatients filled in the Hopkins-Symptom-Checklist-11 (depressive and anxious symptom distress) before every therapy session as a routine outcome measure. Further, the Assessment for Signal Clients, Affective Style Questionnaire, and Outcome Questionnaire-30 were applied every fifth session. These questionnaires measure the following domains, which were investigated as potential obstacles to treatment success: risk/suicidality, therapeutic alliance, motivation, social support and life events, as well as emotion regulation. Two groups (OT and NOT patients) were formed by defining a cut-off (failure boundary) as the 90% confidence interval (upper bound) of the respective patients’ expected recovery curves. In order to differentiate group membership based on the respective problem areas, multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed. Further, OT and NOT patients were compared with regard to the domains’ and items’ cut-offs by performing Pearson chi-square tests and independent samples t-tests.

Results
The life events and motivation scale as well as the risk/suicidality scale proved to be significant predictors of being not-on-track. NOT patients also crossed the cut-off significantly more often on the domains risk/suicidality, social support, and life events. For both OT and NOT patients, the emotion regulation domain’s cut-off was most commonly exceeded.

Conclusion
Life events, motivation, and risk/suicidality seem to be directly linked to treatment failure and should be further investigated for the use in clinical support tools.
Characterisation of road-dust sediment in urban systems: a review of a global challenge
Authors: Haynes Haydn M. , Taylor Kevin G. , Rothwell James , Byrne Patrick 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Purpose
The proportion of people living in urbanised areas is predicted to rise to > 65% by 2050, and therefore, more humans than ever will be exposed to urban environmental pollution. Accumulation of organic and inorganic substances on street and road surfaces is a major global challenge requiring scientifically robust methods of establishing risk that inform management strategies. This aim of this contribution is to critically review the global literature on urban road–deposited sediment contamination with a specific focus on variability in sampling and analytical methods.

Materials and methods
In order to assess the concentration of contaminants in global road-deposited sediment (RDS), a comprehensive search of published RDS studies was completed. We review methodological approaches used in RDS studies to highlight the variability in datasets as a result of sampling technique, grain size fractionation, geochemical and mineralogical characterisation methods and establishing the influence of local geology on contaminant concentrations. We also consider emerging contaminants in RDS, and we provide a workflow diagram which promotes a standardised sampling and analysis regime that we believe can reduce data variability and promote collaboration when it comes to tackling the important issue of RDS contamination.

Results and discussion
Across the literature, Asia (except China) and Africa are underrepresented in RDS studies despite these continents having the largest and fastest growing populations, respectively. The removal of tetraethyl lead from gasoline produced a noticeable decrease in lead concentrations in global RDS, and platinum group element (PGE) concentrations in RDS were consistent with catalytic converter usage. Research into the impact of electric vehicles on non-exhaust emissions suggests other contaminants such as zinc may become more prominent in the future. Most RDS studies consider grain size fractions larger than > 20 μm due to sampling constraints despite RDS < 20 μm being most relevant to human health. The use of chemical extraction methods to establish contaminant geochemistry is popular; however, most extraction procedures are not relevant or specific to minerals identified in RDS through microscopic and spectroscopic investigations.

Conclusions
This review highlights considerable variability in sampling and analytical approach which makes it difficult to identify broad global patterns in RDS contamination. To remove this variability from future RDS research, this review suggests a workflow plan which attempts to improve the comparability between RDS studies. Such comparability is crucial in identifying more discrete RDS trends and informing future emission policy.
Estimation of gender-specific connectional brain templates using joint multi-view cortical morphological network integration
Authors: Chaari Nada , Akdağ Hatice Camgöz , Rekik Islem 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe estimation of a connectional brain template (CBT) integrating a population of brain networks while capturing shared and differential connectional patterns across individuals remains unexplored in gender fingerprinting. This paper presents the first study to estimate gender-specific CBTs using multi-view cortical morphological networks (CMNs) estimated from conventional T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Specifically, each CMN view is derived from a specific cortical attribute (e.g. thickness), encoded in a network quantifying the dissimilarity in morphology between pairs of cortical brain regions. To this aim, we propose Multi-View Clustering and Fusion Network (MVCF-Net), a novel multi-view network fusion method, which can jointly identify consistent and differential clusters of multi-view datasets in order to capture simultaneously similar and distinct connectional traits of samples. Our MVCF-Net method estimates a representative and well-centered CBTs for male and female populations, independently, to eventually identify their fingerprinting regions of interest (ROIs) in four main steps. First, we perform multi-view network clustering model based on manifold optimization which groups CMNs into shared and differential clusters while preserving their alignment across views. Second, for each view, we linearly fuse CMNs belonging to each cluster, producing local CBTs. Third, for each cluster, we non-linearly integrate the local CBTs across views, producing a cluster-specific CBT. Finally, by linearly fusing the cluster-specific centers we estimate a final CBT of the input population. MVCF-Net produced the most centered and representative CBTs for male and female populations and identified the most discriminative ROIs marking gender differences. The most two gender-discriminative ROIs involved the lateral occipital cortex and pars opercularis in the left hemisphere and the middle temporal gyrus and lingual gyrus in the right hemisphere.
Low-density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol Lowering Strategies for Prevention of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease: Focus on siRNA Treatment Targeting PCSK9 (Inclisiran)
Authors: Sinning David , Landmesser Ulf 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Purpose of Review
The aim of low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering therapies is to safely achieve a consistent and long-term reduction in exposure of the vasculature to atherogenic lipoproteins in order to reduce the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular (CV) disease and the associated CV events, such as myocardial infarctions and ischemic strokes. This review summarizes the concept and clinical development of a novel molecular approach to efficiently lower LDL-C, a synthetic small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA)—inclisiran—directed against proprotein convertase subtilisin-kexin type 9 (PCSK9).

Recent Findings
The understanding of genes regulating atherogenic lipoproteins and their causal role in the development of atherosclerotic CV disease has substantially advanced over the past years. This has opened the possibility for development of molecular therapies targeting these atherogenic lipoproteins, in particular by RNA-targeted treatment approaches. The most advanced clinical development program is the siRNA-treatment targeting PCSK9 (inclisiran), involving more than 4000 patients in clinical studies. Phase 1 and 2 studies have identified the dose of 300 mg inclisiran for efficient LDL-C lowering. Most recently, three phase 3 studies demonstrated that a regimen of inclisiran every 6 months was feasible and reduced LDL-C by approximately 50% in patients at high or very high CV risk or with familial hypercholesterolemia. Adverse events were similar in the inclisiran and the placebo groups, except for more frequent transient injection site reactions with inclisiran than with placebo.

Summary
siRNA therapy targeting PCSK9 (inclisiran) applied twice a year efficiently reduced LDL-C by approximately 50% and was safe in recent phase 3 studies. The effects of this treatment on CV outcome are currently further assessed in a large ongoing CV outcome trial.
Clinical Characteristics and Management of 50 Patients with Anti-GAD Ataxia: Gluten-Free Diet Has a Major Impact
Authors: Hadjivassiliou M. , Sarrigiannis P. G. , Shanmugarajah P. D. , Sanders D. S. , Grünewald R. A. , Zis P. , Hoggard N. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe objective of this study is to report the clinical characteristics and treatment of patients with progressive cerebellar ataxia associated with anti-GAD antibodies. We performed a retrospective review of all patients with anti-GAD ataxia managed at the Sheffield Ataxia Centre over the last 25 years. We identified 50 patients (62% females) with anti-GAD ataxia. The prevalence was 2.5% amongst 2000 patients with progressive ataxia of various causes. Mean age at onset was 55 and mean duration 8 years. Gaze-evoked nystagmus was present in 26%, cerebellar dysarthria in 26%, limb ataxia in 44% and gait ataxia in 100%. Nine patients (18%) had severe, 12 (24%) moderate and 29 (58%) mild ataxia. Ninety percent of patients had a history of additional autoimmune diseases. Family history of autoimmune diseases was seen in 52%. Baseline MR spectroscopy of the vermis was abnormal at presentation in 72%. Thirty-five patients (70%) had serological evidence of gluten sensitivity. All 35 went on gluten-free diet (GFD). Eighteen (51%) improved, 13 (37%) stabilised, 3 have started the GFD too recently to draw conclusions and one deteriorated. Mycophenolate was used in 16 patients, 7 (44%) improved, 2 stabilised, 6 have started the medication too recently to draw conclusions and one did not tolerate the drug. There is considerable overlap between anti-GAD ataxia and gluten ataxia. For those patients with both, strict GFD alone can be an effective treatment. Patients with anti-GAD ataxia and no gluten sensitivity respond well to immunosuppression.
Integrated Phenotypic-Genotypic Analysis of Candidate Probiotic Weissella Cibaria Strains Isolated from Dairy Cows in Kuwait
Authors: Patrone Vania , Al-Surrayai Tahani , Romaniello Francesco , Fontana Alessandra , Milani Giovanni , Sagheddu Valeria , Puglisi Edoardo , Callegari Maria Luisa , Al-Mansour Hamad , Kishk Mohamed Waheed , Morelli Lorenzo 
Published: October 2020

AbstractProbiotics represent a possible strategy for controlling intestinal infections in livestock. Members of the Weissella genus are increasingly being studied for health-related applications in animals and humans. Here we investigated the functional properties of two Weissella cibaria strains isolated from cows reared in Kuwait breeding facilities by combining phenotypic with genomic analyses. W. cibaria SP7 and SP19 exhibited good growth in vitro under acidic conditions and in the presence of bile salts compared to the reference probiotic Lacticaseibacillus (formerly Lactobacillus) rhamnosus GG. Both strains were able to adhere to Caco-2 and HT-29 cell lines, as well as to mucin. The cell-free supernatants of the two isolates exhibited inhibitory activity towards Escherichia coli ATCC 25,922 and Salmonella enterica UC3605, which was ultimately due to the low pH of supernatants. W. cibaria SP19 showed a co-aggregation ability similar to that of L. rhamnosus GG when incubated with S. enterica. Whole genome sequencing and analysis revealed that both strains harbored several genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism and general stress responses, indicating bacterial adaptation to the gastrointestinal environment. We also detected genes involved in the adhesion to host epithelial cells or extracellular matrix. No evidence of acquired antibiotic resistance or hemolytic activity was found in either strain. These findings shed light on the potential of W. cibaria for probiotic use in livestock and on the mechanisms underlying host-microbe interaction in the gut. W. cibaria` strain SP19 exhibited the best combination of in vitro probiotic properties and genetic markers, and is a promising candidate for further investigation.
Risk assessment for chemical pollution of dairy effluents from a milk processing plant located in Bechar (Southwest of Algeria)
Authors: Nabbou Nouria , Benyagoub Elhassan , Mellouk Abdelkarim , Benmoussa Youcef 
Published: October 2020

AbstractMilk and dairy products’ production lines generate pollution in the form of food waste. The management of this waste concerns professionals that fit the purpose of this study to assess the chemical risk of the raw liquid effluents that are discharged from a milk processing plant located in Bechar (Southwest of Algeria) by analyzing the main chemical indicator parameters of water pollution following official analytical methods. A total of ten samples were analyzed during the months of February, March and April of the year 2019. The obtained results were interpreted according to the regulatory requirements recommended by the Algerian standard related to threshold limit of physicochemical parameters’ values. The obtained results showed pollution signs revealed by high levels of the organic matters, expressed by significant means related to the following parameters: chemical oxygen demand (COD: 810.33 mg/L), 5 days-biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5: 797.91 mg/L), total suspended solids (TSS: 47.3 mg/L) and turbidity (174.014 NTU) exceeding those required by the national standard, except other physicochemical parameters, such as pH, conductivity, sulfate, nitrate and nitrite contents that did not exceed the threshold of acceptable values. Although these raw effluents present a high organic load expressed by average BOD5/COD ratio equal to 0.985, they constitute organic matters in a dissolved form (average value of the TSS/BOD5 ratio = 0.076). Furthermore, The COD/BOD5 ratio that had an average value equal to 1.015 underlines the biodegradability character of discharged dairy effluents. The high pollution levels which are aggravated by the lack of wastewater treatment can hurt the environment and the biological diversity and, therefore the humans' health. This requires an immediate intervention for a solution, where it is very important that proper wastewater treatment systems should be installed for the environment protection and for the ecological balance. Otherwise, it may constitute a risk to the public health on medium- to long-term by affecting the quality of the underground reservoir known as the main source of supply for the inhabitants of arid and semi-arid areas.