bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An assessment of statistical methods for nonindependent data in ecological meta‐analyses
Authors: Song Chao , Peacor Scott D. , Osenberg Craig W. , Bence James R. 
Published: September 2020

AbstractIn ecological meta‐analyses, nonindependence among observed effect sizes from the same source paper is common. If not accounted for, nonindependence can seriously undermine inferences. We compared the performance of four meta‐analysis methods that attempt to address such nonindependence and the standard random‐effect model that ignores nonindependence. We simulated data with various types of within‐paper nonindependence, and assessed the standard deviation of the estimated mean effect size and Type I error rate of each method. Although all four methods performed substantially better than the standard random‐effects model that assumes independence, there were differences in performance among the methods. A two‐step method that first summarizes the multiple observed effect sizes per paper using a weighted mean and then analyzes the reduced data in a standard random‐effects model, and a robust variance estimation method performed consistently well. A hierarchical model with both random paper and study effects gave precise estimates but had a higher Type I error rates, possibly reflecting limitations of currently available meta‐analysis software. Overall, we advocate the use of the two‐step method with a weighted paper mean and the robust variance estimation method as reliable ways to handle within‐paper nonindependence in ecological meta‐analyses.
The response of lianas to 20 yr of nutrient addition in a Panamanian forest
Authors: Schnitzer Stefan A. , Estrada‐Villegas Sergio , Wright S. Joseph 
Published: September 2020

AbstractOver the past two decades, liana density and basal area have been increasing in many tropical forests, which has profound consequences for forest diversity and functioning. One hypothesis to explain increasing lianas is elevated nutrient deposition in tropical forests resulting from fossil fuels, agricultural fertilizer, and biomass burning. We tested this hypothesis by surveying all lianas ≥1 cm in diameter (n = 3,967) in 32 plots in a fully factorial nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) addition experiment in a mature tropical forest in central Panama. We conducted the nutrient‐addition experiment from 1998 until present and we first censused lianas in 2013 and then again in 2018. After 20 yr of nutrient addition (1998–2018), liana density, basal area, and rarefied species richness did not differ significantly among any of the nutrient‐addition and control treatments. Moreover, nutrient addition in the most recent 5 yr of the experiment did not affect liana relative growth, recruitment, or mortality rates. From 2013 until 2018, liana density, basal area, and species richness increased annually by 1.6%, 1.4%, and 2.4%, respectively. Nutrient addition did not influence these increases. Our findings indicate that nutrient deposition does not explain increasing lianas in this tropical forest. Instead, increases in tree mortality and disturbance, atmospheric carbon dioxide, drought frequency and severity, and hunting pressure may be more likely explanations for the increase in lianas in tropical forests.
Approximate analytic expressions for the electrophoretic mobility of spheroidal particles
Authors: Ohshima Hiroyuki 
Published: September 2020

AbstractApproximate analytic expressions are derived for the electrophoretic mobility of spheroidal particles (prolate and oblate) carrying low zeta potential in an electrolyte solution under an applied tangential or transverse electric field. The present approximation method, which is based on the observation that the electrophoretic mobility of a particle is determined mainly by the distortion of the applied electric field by the presence of the particle. The exact expression for the equilibrium electric potential distribution around the particle, which can be expressed as an infinite sum of spheroidal wave functions, is not needed in the present approximation. The electrophoretic mobility values calculated with these approximate expressions for spheroidal particles with constant surface potential or constant surface charge density are in excellent agreement with the exact numerical results of previous reports with the relative errors less than about 4%.
NZVI©Au magnetic nanocomposite‐based electrochemical magnetoimmunosensing for ultrasensitive detection of troponin‐T cardiac biomarker
Authors: Djebbi Mohamed Amine , Boubakri Saber , Braiek Mohamed , Jaffrezic‐Renault Nicole , Namour Philippe , Amara Abdesslem Ben Haj 
Published: September 2020

AbstractEarly, inexpensive, reliable, and accurate diagnosis of cardiovascular abnormalities has become of crucial importance to prevent and halt their progression. Herein, we report a label‐free electrochemical magnetoimmunosensing for monitoring cardiac diseases through qualitative and quantitative detection of cardiac troponin‐T (Tpn‐T) in aqueous solution. In this context, a nanocomposite of gold nanoparticles coated a magnetic nanoscale zero‐valent iron core (NZVI©Au) is employed as a substrate to facilitate the electron transfer and to bind more primary Tpn‐T antibodies. The immunosensing platform consists of an anti‐cardiac troponin‐T antibody (Tpn‐T‐ab) modified NZVI©Au magnetic membrane attached onto a boron doped diamond (BDD) electrode. Sensing experiments were performed by the imposition of an external magnetic field at the backside of the electrode. The sensor response was performed using impedimetric assays, wherein the increase in the electron transfer resistance (Rct) correlated with an increase in the concentration of Tpn‐T. Linearity was obtained in the range from 1 to 109 fg/mL with a detection limit of 0.354 fg/mL. The proposed platform exhibited high selectivity, high reproducibility, and good stability, while retaining more than 90% of the sensitivity after 2 weeks of storage at 4°C. The determination of Tpn‐T is well compared with previously reported methods and has been successfully tested in serum samples. This encouraging result suggests that the developed sensing strategy provides a high potential for the early assessment of Tpn‐T in point‐of‐care testing applications.
Novel analysis of second law and irreversibility for a solar power plant using heliostat field and molten salt
Authors: Zolfagharnasab Mohammad Hossein , Aghanajafi Cyrus , Kavian Soheil , Heydarian Niloufar , Ahmadi Mohammad Hossein 
Published: September 2020

AbstractNowadays, the low efficiency of solar energy power plant systems brings about uneconomical performance and high‐cost uncompetitive industries compared with the traditional fossil fuel ones. In order to overcome these kinds of issues, in this study, the performance of a solar tower coupled with a Rankine cycle is scrutinized using the first and second laws of thermodynamic. Moreover, a numerical code has been developed in the GNU Octave software environment to calculate the precise value for both energy and exergy losses of each component. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis approach corresponds to the variation of several inner parameters such as direct normal irradiation (DNI), molten salt outlet temperature (MSOT), and the molten salt velocity (MSV), environmental parameters such as wind speed and ambient temperature have been performed. In addition, the overall losses are calculated by considering all possible forms of losses such as convection, conduction, reflection, and emission, and also, the portion of each source of these losses are determined. The obtained results indicate that the maximum exergy loss occurs in the central receiver system (CRS), while the major energy loss occurs in the turbine located in the power block. The sensitivity analysis shows that the rise of DNI significantly increases the exergy%energy efficiency of the cycle and also, the portion of loss related to emission heat transfer would be enhanced. Moreover, the variation of the MSV and MSOT illustrate influencing the performance of the cycle; consequently, the MSOT changes demonstrate a reverse relation with energy and direct relation with exergy efficiency. Accordingly, an optimum value of 650K is calculated for the MSOT as well as an optimum value of 2 m%s for the MSV. The environmental sensitivity analysis indicates that the enhancement of wind speed and ambient temperature has a negative impact on the net output of the cycle, which is not desirable.
Inversion of provenance data and sediment load into spatially varying erosion rates
Authors: De Doncker Fien , Herman Frédéric , Fox Matthew 
Published: September 2020

AbstractSediment fingerprinting methods aim to determine the relative contribution of different source areas in detrital sediments based on natural properties – fingerprints – of the source areas. Here, we use U/Th–Pb age signatures as fingerprints, assuming that the age signal is not altered during erosion–transportation–deposition events, and given that recent technological advances enable precise dating of large amounts of grains. We introduce a formal inversion method that allows to disentangle the amalgamation of source contributions in detrital zircon data and enables to convert this information into an erosion rate map starting from the spatial distribution of zircon age signatures. Relying on the least‐squares method and using prior and covariance information to deal with non‐uniqueness, we show, using synthetic and natural examples, that we are able to retrieve erosion rate patterns of a catchment when the age distribution and zircon fertility for each source area are well known. Moreover, we show that not only zircon age fingerprints but also other tracers such as mineral content can be used. Furthermore, we found that adding data from samples taken at the outlet of tributaries improves the estimation of erosion rate patterns. We conclude that the least squares inverse model applied to detrital data has great potential for investigating erosion rates. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A stable hybrid Roe scheme on triangular grids
Authors: Phongthanapanich Sutthisak 
Published: September 2020

AbstractNumerical shock instability is a common problem for shock‐capturing methods that try to resolve contact and shear waves with minimal diffusion. Most flux‐difference splitting and the AUSM family of schemes produce the carbuncle phenomenon on both structured and unstructured grids. The original Roe scheme is well known to generate shock anomalies and can lead to nonentropic weak solutions to the Euler equations. A simple and robust approach for healing these numerical instabilities is to apply the hybrid technique incorporated with an efficient weighting switch function to control the amount of dissipation in the vicinity of shock waves. This article proposes a simple, robust, and accurate hybrid Roe scheme (Roe+scheme) by hybridizing the Roe scheme and the modified AUSMV+scheme. A new normalized pressure/density‐based weighting switch function is proposed and applied to the scheme to minimize the numerical dissipation and maintain the robustness of the hybridization. The linearized discrete analysis is performed to evaluate the proposed scheme according to the perturbation damping mechanism of an odd–even decoupling problem. The resulting recursive equations indicate that the hybridized mechanism damps all perturbations effectively. Finally, several numerical examples demonstrated that the Roe+scheme provides an accurate, robust, and carbuncle‐free solution on both structured and unstructured triangular grids.
Forecasting mortality rates with the adaptive spatial temporal autoregressive model
Authors: Shi Yanlin 
Published: September 2020

AbstractAccurate forecasts of mortality rates are essential to various types of demographic research such as population projection, and the pricing of insurance products such as pensions and annuities. Recent studies have considered a spatial temporal autoregressive (STAR) model for the mortality surface, where mortality rates for each age depend (temporally) on their historical values as well as (spatiality) on those of neighboring age cohorts. This model has sound statistical properties including cointegrated dependent variables and the existence of closed‐form solutions. Despite its improved forecasting performance over the famous Lee–Carter (LC) model, the constraint that only the effects of the same and neighboring cohorts are significant can be too restrictive. In this study, we adopt a data‐driven adaptive weighted structure and propose the adaptive STAR (ASTAR) model. Retaining all the desirable features of the STAR, our model uniformly outperforms the LC and STAR counterparts in terms of forecasting accuracy, when mortality data for ages 0–100 from the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan over the period 1950–2016 are considered. Two sensitivity tests and additional simulation results also lead to robust conclusions. The proposed ASTAR model could therefore be a widely useful tool for modeling and forecasting mortality rates in other contexts, and may be extended to multipopulation modeling.
Molecular detection, phylogenetic analysis, and antibacterial performance of lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional cheeses, North‐West Iran
Authors: Hajigholizadeh Mehran , Mardani Karim , Moradi Mehran , Jamshidi Abdollah 
Published: September 2020

AbstractLactic acid bacteria (LAB) are candidate probiotic bacteria that can provide health benefits when delivered via functional foods. The purpose of this study was to isolate and characterize LAB from traditional cheeses consumed in north‐west regions of Iran. A number of sixty traditional cheeses samples were collected and initially screened as LAB using biochemical and molecular methods. A fragment of 1,540 bp in size of 16s rRNA gene was amplified from 70 bacterial isolates. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was employed to differentiate LAB isolates. LAB isolates generated three different RFLP patterns using HinfI restriction enzyme. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that LAB isolates belonged to three genera including Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, and Lactococcus. Most of the isolated LAB strains belonged to Enterococcus spp. The antimicrobial performance of eight LAB isolates with different RFLP patterns ranged from 6.72 to 14.00 mm. It was concluded that molecular characterization of LAB strains in traditional cheeses will enhance our understanding of traditional food microbiota and will help to find bacterial strains with probiotic potential with great benefit both in health and industry.
Time of referral to older adult liaison psychiatry service and other factors affecting length of stay in the general hospital
Authors: Mujic Fedza , Cairns Ruth , Das‐Munshi Jayati 
Published: September 2020

AbstractObjectivesTo explore the relationship between social and clinical factors with (1) Time to referral to an older adult liaison psychiatry service, and (2) Length of stay (LOS), in a sample of older adults admitted to an acute general medical hospital receiving liaison psychiatry intervention, in London, United Kingdom, over a 3‐year period.MethodsInformation on patients referred to liaison psychiatry for older adults between January 2013 and December 2015 was collected using structured forms, with clinical diagnoses determined according to International Classification of Mental Disorders‐10. The association of social and clinical factors with the time taken to refer to liaison psychiatry and LOS was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression and zero‐truncated Poisson regression, respectively.ResultsCompared with people who were diagnosed with depression, older adults with psychotic and alcohol use disorders had higher rates of referral to liaison psychiatry (adjusted hazard ratios [aHRs] 1.83 [95% CI: 1.30, 2.59] and aHR 1.69 [95% CI: 1.01, 2.83]) respectively. In adjusted models, LOS was increased in older adults with delusional disorders and shorter in people with alcohol use disorders, personality disorders and learning disabilities, compared to people with depressive diagnoses. Within this cohort, a new definite dementia diagnosis and longer time to refer to liaison psychiatry were both associated with a longer length of general hospital in‐patient stay.ConclusionsIn older adults admitted to general medical hospitals, and needing liaison psychiatry input, timely referral may be associated with a shorter LOS.
Relationship between suicide rate and antidepressant prescription: An ecological study in the People's Republic of China
Authors: Xin Qianqian , Paudel Dhirendra , Li Liping , Zhang Bin , Yin Honglei 
Published: September 2020

AbstractObjectivesThe objective of this study was to estimate the features of suicide rate and its association with antidepressant prescriptions during the past decade in China.MethodsOfficial data on suicides were obtained and stratified by four age groups, gender, urban/rural areas, and regions (East, Central, and West). The annual antidepressant prescriptions were expressed in pills per 100 persons calculated as the volume of prescriptions divided by the total population. Negative binomial regression was carried out to examine the association between suicide and other variables.ResultsSuicide rates in each stratum typically decreased from 2008 to 2015, while annual antidepressant prescriptions were generally increased by the year. The suicide rate increased with age and was greater in adult males than in females; higher in the central area and greater in rural than in urban areas. Suicide rates are negatively associated with antidepressant prescriptions including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (Incidence rate ratio [IRR] 0.983, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.983–0.983), serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (IRR 0.951, 95% CI 0.951–0.951), tricyclic antidepressant (IRR 0.925, 95% CI 0.925–0.925) and total antidepressants (IRR 0.990, 95% CI 0.990–0.990) during 2008–2012.ConclusionSuicide varied among different studied stratum. Suicide rates are negatively associated with antidepressant prescriptions.
Sampling soil water along the pF curve for δ2H and δ18O analysis
Authors: Orlowski Natalie , Breuer Lutz 
Published: September 2020

AbstractSoil water stable isotopes are widely used across disciplines (e.g., hydrology, ecology, soil science, and biogeochemistry). However, the full potential of stables isotopes as a tool for characterizing the origin, flow path, transport processes and residence times of water in different eco‐, hydro‐, and geological compartments has not yet been exploited. This is mainly due to the large variety of different methods for pore water extraction. While recent work has shown that matric potential affects the equilibrium fractionation, little work has examined how different water retention characteristics might affect the sampled water isotopic composition. Here, we present a simple laboratory experiment with two well‐studied standard soils differing in their physico‐chemical properties (e.g., clayey loam and silty sand). Samples were sieved, oven‐dried and spiked with water of known isotopic composition to full saturation. For investigating the effect of water retention characteristics on the extracted water isotopic composition, we used pressure extractors to sample isotopically labelled soil water along the pF curve. After pressure extraction, we further extracted the soil samples via cryogenic vacuum extraction. The null hypothesis guiding our work was that water held at different tensions shows the same isotopic composition. Our results showed that the sampled soil water differed isotopically from the introduced isotopic label over time and sequentially along the pF curve. Our and previous studies suggest caution in interpreting isotope results of extracted soil water and a need to better characterize processes that govern isotope fractionation with respect to soil water retention characteristics. In the future, knowledge about soil water retention characteristics with respect to soil water isotopic composition could be applied to predict soil water fractionation effects under natural and non‐stationary conditions. In this regard, isotope retention characteristics as an analog to water retention characteristics have been proposed as a way forward since matric potential affects the equilibrium fractionation between the bound water and the water vapour.
Mining Impacts Assessment Using the LCA Methodology: Case Study of Afema Gold Mine in Ivory Coast
Authors: Yao Kouadio Assemien François , Yao Blaise Koffi , Belcourt Olivier , Salze David , Lasm Théophile , Lopez-Ferber Miguel , Junqua Guillaume 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
Environmental impact assessment studies are mandatory for major industrial or infrastructure projects in most countries. These studies are usually limited to on-site impacts during exploitation but do not consider indirect impacts generated off-site or those concerning other steps of the project, including dismantling. National regulations in various countries have recently begun to include these neglected impacts to obtain a better appreciation of project trade-offs. Several scientists have highlighted the substantial potential of using the life cycle assessment methodology to increase the level of detail and completeness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies. Even if mining activities are known to produce significant local impacts, their consequences outside an extraction site have not yet been well documented. The implementation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology in the EIA procedure has been carried out in a Au mining project by separating on-site and off-site impacts during the entire life cycle of the mine from prospection to site restoration following the end of exploitation. Mining projects occur over large time periods and require diverse materials and processes. The main difficulty of such analysis is the data collection that needs to be extrapolated for some of the activities. Even with these limitations, the Afema case study highlighted the significant share of off-site impacts (from a spatial perspective) and the major contribution of the exploitation phase of the mine (from a temporal perspective). Operating activities, especially excavation, ore, and waste rock transportation, blasting, ore processing, and tailing treatments, are the main impacts produced during the exploitation phase and are involved in climate change, particulate matter formation, and land destruction. Therefore, this standardized LCA method should be recommended by the regulatory authorities for use in EIA procedures. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:465–479. © 2020 SETAC
KEY POINTS
The LCA method conducted has enabled the evaluation of global impacts (Climate Change, Fossil and Metal Depletion) which are not addressed generally in conventional EIAs but required by new regulations. The study revealed that the operating phase is the most impacting step of the life cycle of a mine. The study highlighted quite significant off-site impacts indicating the relevance to consider all of the background activities as well. The overall effects on Climate Change and Fossil Depletion are mainly caused by background activities, whereas Metal Depletion is caused by foreground activities.