bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Determination of horizon size in state-based peridynamics
Authors: Wang Bingquan , Oterkus Selda , Oterkus Erkan 
Published: June 2020

AbstractPeridynamics is based on integro-differential equations and has a length scale parameter called horizon which gives peridynamics a non-local character. Currently, there are three main peridynamic formulations available in the literature including bond-based peridynamics, ordinary state-based peridynamics and non-ordinary state-based peridynamics. In this study, the optimum horizon size is determined for ordinary state-based peridynamics and non-ordinary state-based peridynamics formulations by using uniform and non-uniform discretisation under dynamic and static conditions. It is shown that the horizon sizes selected as optimum sizes for uniform discretisation can also be used for non-uniform discretisation without introducing significant error to the system. Moreover, a smaller horizon size can be selected for non-ordinary state-based formulation which can yield significant computational advantage. It is also shown that same horizon size can be used for both static and dynamic problems.
Neurotoxicity of Tityus bahiensis (brown scorpion) venom in sympathetic vas deferens preparations and neuronal cells
Authors: Collaço Rita de Cássia , Hyslop Stephen , Rocha Thalita , Dorce Valquiria A. C. , Rowan Edward G. , Antunes Edson 
Published: June 2020

AbstractSystemic scorpion envenomation is characterized by massive neurotransmitter release from peripheral nerves mediated primarily by scorpion venoms neurotoxins. Tityus bahiensis is one of the medically most important species in Brazil, but its venom pharmacology, especially regarding to peripheral nervous system, is poorly understood. Here, we evaluated the T. bahiensis venom activity on autonomic (sympathetic) neurotransmission by using a variety of approaches, including vas deferens twitch-tension recordings, electrophysiological measurements (resting membrane potentials, spontaneous excitatory junctional potentials and whole-cell patch-clamp), calcium imaging and histomorphological analysis. Low concentrations of venom (≤ 3 μg/mL) facilitated the electrically stimulated vas deferens contractions without affecting postsynaptic receptors or damaging the smooth muscle cells. Transient TTX-sensitive sustained contractions and resting membrane depolarization were mediated mainly by massive spontaneous ATP release. High venom concentrations (≥ 10 μg/mL) blocked the muscle contractions and induced membrane depolarization. In neuronal cells (ND7-23wt), the venom increased the peak sodium current, modified the current-voltage relationship by left-shifting the Nav-channel activation curve, thereby facilitating the opening of these channels. The venom also caused a time-dependent increase in neuronal calcium influx. These results indicate that the sympathetic hyperstimulation observed in systemic envenomation is presynaptically driven, probably through the interaction of α- and β-toxins with neuronal sodium channels.
Calling for an exponential escalation scheme in vaccine development for COVID-19
Authors: Wehling Martin 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 as a pandemic calls for rapid development of vaccines.

Methods
Here a proposal of a seamless, adaptive, phase 1–3 trial for accelerated vaccine development is described.

Results
Starting at 10, the number of vaccinated volunteers would exponentially increase by tenfold at an interval of 2 weeks; close surveillance of antibody responses, safety and efficacy is necessary. After only 16 weeks, general vaccination would be feasible if supply meets the demand.

Conclusion
A COVID-19 vaccine would be rapidly available at a slightly increased risk for undetected late side effects or insufficient efficacy if compared with standard vaccine development schemes.
Ante-mortem analysis, electrical, thermal, and ageing testing of state-of-the-art cylindrical lithium-ion cells
Authors: Popp Hartmut , Zhang Ningxin , Jahn Marcus , Arrinda Mikel , Ritz Simon , Faber Matthias , Sauer Dirk Uwe , Azais Philippe , Cendoya Iosu 
Published: June 2020

AbstractThanks to its exceptional performance in terms of high energy and power density as well as long lifespan, the lithium-ion secondary battery is the most relevant electrochemical energy storage technology to meet the requirements for partial or full electrification of vehicles (plug-in hybrids or pure electric vehicles), and thanks to decreasing cost and ongoing technical improvements, it will maintain this role in the near to mid-term future. This study benchmarks eight different (five 21700 and three 18650 format) high-energy cylindrical cells concerning their suitability for automotive applications and aims to give a holistic overview and comparison between them. Therefore, an ante-mortem material analysis, a benchmark of electrical and thermal values as well as a cycle life study were carried out. The results show that even when applying similar concepts like Nickel-rich cathodes with graphite-based anodes, the cells show wide variations in their performance under the same test conditions.
A simple grid-based framework for simulating forest structural trajectories linked to transient forest management scenarios in Fennoscandia
Authors: Majasalmi Titta , Allen Micky , Antón-Fernández Clara , Astrup Rasmus , Bright Ryan M. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractForest structural properties largely govern surface fluxes of moisture, energy, and momentum that strongly affect regional climate and hydrology. Forest structural properties are greatly shaped by forest management activities, especially in the Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, and Finland). Insight into transient developments in forest structure in response to management intervention is therefore essential to understanding the role of forest management in mitigating regional climate change. The aim of this study is to present a simple grid-based framework – the Fennoscandic Forest State Simulator (F2S2) -- for predicting time-dependent forest structural trajectories in a manner compatible with land models employed in offline or asynchronously coupled climate and hydrological research. F2S2 enables the prescription of future regional forest structure as a function of: i) exogenously defined scenarios of forest harvest intensity; ii) forest management intensity; iii) climate forcing. We demonstrate its application when applied as a stand-alone tool for forecasting three alternative future forest states in Norway that differ with respect to background climate forcing, forest harvest intensity (linked to two Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs)), and forest management intensity. F2S2 captures impacts of climate forcing and forest management on general trends in forest structural development over time, and while climate is the main driver of longer-term forest structural dynamics, the role of harvests and other management-driven effects cannot be overlooked. To our knowledge this is the first paper presenting a method to map forest structure in space and time in a way that is compatible with land surface or hydrological models employing sub-grid tiling.
A Prematurity Collaborative Birth Equity Consensus Statement for Mothers and Babies
Authors: Jackson Fleda Mask , Rashied-Henry Kweli , Braveman Paula , Dominguez Tyan Parker , Ramos Diana , Maseru Noble , Darity William , Waddell Lisa , Warne Donald , Legaz Gina , Gupta Rahul , James Arthur 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Introduction
In 2016, March of Dimes (MOD) launched its Prematurity Collaborative to engage a broad cross section of national experts to address persistent and widening racial disparities in preterm birth by achieving equity and demonstrated improvements in preterm birth. African-American and Native American women continue to have disproportionate rates of preterm birth and maternal death. As part of the Collaborative, MOD created the Health Equity Workgroup whose task was the creation of a scientific consensus statement articulating core values and a call to action to achieve equity in preterm birth utilizing health equity and social determinants of health frameworks.

Methods
Health Equity Workgroup members engaged in-person and virtually to discuss key determinant contributors and resolutions for disparate maternal and birth outcomes. Workgroup members then drafted the Birth Equity Consensus Statement that contained value statements and a call to action. The birth equity consensus statement was presented at professional conferences to seek broader support. This article highlights the background and context towards arriving at the core values and call to action, which are the two major components of the consensus statement and presents the core values and call to action themselves.

Results
The result was the creation of a birth equity consensus statement that highlights risks and protections of social determinants based on the prevailing science, and identifies promising solutions for reducing preterm birth and eliminating racial disparities.

Conclusion
The birth equity consensus statement provides a mandate, guiding the work of March of Dimes and the broader MCH community, for equity-based research, practice, and policy advocacy at local, state, and federal levels.

Significance
This field report adds to the current knowledge base on racial and ethnic disparities in birth and maternal health outcomes. Research has documented the science behind eliminating health disparities. Scientists and practitioners should continue to explore in practice how the social determinants of birth and maternal health, which manifest historically and contemporarily, can be addressed.
Education transferring and decentralized reforms: The case of Qatar
Authors: Romanowski Michael H. , Du Xiangyun 
Published: June 2020

AbstractNations transfer educational reform models for the systematic improvement of education. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Gulf Cooperation Council states, which have implemented primarily Western decentralized reform models to overhaul their educational systems. This article reports non-empirical research, written as a conceptual analysis that examines the current situation of the educational reform in Qatar. The theory of education transferring serves as a conceptual framework to scrutinize Qatar’s recent educational change to Project-based Learning. This illustrates the shift from the initial decentralized reform to its current centralized state. Contextual factors that influence decentralization are discussed.
Working toward equitable research practices: the value of highlighting complexity and respecting context
Authors: Siry Christina , Wilmes Sara E. D. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractIn this response paper, we reflect upon the contributions of Gallard Martínez, Pitts, Brkich, and Ramos de Robles (this issue) in their manuscript “How does one recognize contextual mitigating factors (CMFs) as a basis to understand and arrive at better approaches to research designs” and elaborate the ways in which we work toward highlighting the contextual complexities within our own research. Our research focuses on working toward equitable practices for culturally and linguistically diverse children in science education, in order to draw on the many cultural and communicative resources they bring to primary school science investigations. We draw upon our previous and current research projects in this forum contribution to tease-apart CMFs related to issues of equity in teaching science with culturally and linguistically diverse primary school children in our national context in Luxembourg. We conclude with a consideration of how the process of unpacking a diverse array of CMFs relative to our work with students helps us select and employ theoretical lenses and research methodologies that position us to gather rich understandings of the complexities within our research contexts and in our work with children and teachers.
Effects of Individual Mortality Experience on Out-of-Wedlock Fertility in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Krummhörn, Germany
Authors: Pink Katharina E. , Willführ Kai P. , Voland Eckart , Puschmann Paul 
Published: June 2020

AbstractLife history theory predicts that exposure to high mortality in early childhood leads to faster and riskier reproductive strategies. Individuals who grew up in a high mortality regime will not overly wait until they find a suitable partner and form a stable union because premature death would prevent them from reproducing. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine whether women who experienced sibling death during early childhood (0–5 years) reproduced earlier and were at an increased risk of giving birth to an illegitimate child, with illegitimacy serving as a proxy for risky sexual behavior. Furthermore, we investigate whether giving birth out of wedlock is influenced by individual mortality experience or by more promiscuous sexual behavior that is clustered in certain families. Models are fitted on pedigree data from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Krummhörn population in Germany. The results show a relationship between sibling death in early childhood and the risk of reproducing out of wedlock, and reproductive timing. The risk of giving birth out of wedlock is linked to individual mortality experience rather than to family-level effects. In contrast, adjustments in connubial reproductive timing are influenced more by family-level effects than by individual mortality experience.
How are MCPIP1 and cytokines mutually regulated in cancer-related immunity?
Authors: Xu Ruyi , Li Yi , Liu Yang , Qu Jianwei , Cao Wen , Zhang Enfan , He Jingsong , Cai Zhen 
Published: June 2020

AbstractCytokines are secreted by various cell types and act as critical mediators in many physiological processes, including immune response and tumor progression. Cytokines production is precisely and timely regulated by multiple mechanisms at different levels, ranging from transcriptional to post-transcriptional and posttranslational processes. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 induced protein 1 (MCPIP1), a potent immunosuppressive protein, was first described as a transcription factor in monocytes treated with monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and subsequently found to possess intrinsic RNase and deubiquitinase activities. MCPIP1 tightly regulates cytokines expression via various functions. Furthermore, cytokines such as interleukin 1 beta (IL-1B) and MCP-1 and inflammatory cytokines inducer lipopolysaccharide (LPS) strongly induce MCPIP1 expression. Mutually regulated MCPIP1 and cytokines form a complicated network in the tumor environment. In this review, we summarize how MCPIP1 and cytokines reciprocally interact and elucidate the effect of the network formed by these components in cancer-related immunity with aim of exploring potential clinical benefits of their mutual regulation.
Regulation of Uterine Spiral Artery Remodeling: a Review
Authors: Albrecht Eugene D. , Pepe Gerald J. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractExtravillous trophoblast remodeling of the uterine spiral arteries is essential for promoting blood flow to the placenta and fetal development, but little is known about the regulation of this process. A defect in spiral artery remodeling underpins adverse conditions of human pregnancy, notably early-onset preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction, which result in maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Many in vitro studies have been conducted to determine the ability of growth and other factors to stimulate trophoblast cells to migrate across a synthetic membrane. Clinical studies have investigated whether the maternal levels of various factors are altered during abnormal human pregnancy. Animal models have been established to assess the ability of various factors to recapitulate the pathophysiological symptoms of preeclampsia. This review analyzes the results of the in vitro, clinical, and animal studies and describes a nonhuman primate experimental paradigm of defective uterine artery remodeling to study the regulation of vessel remodeling.
Masked Heterogeneity in Aggregation: Incorporating Beliefs and Geographic Information into Consumer Willingness to Pay for State Brands
Authors: Osburn Meagan , Holcomb Rodney B. , Neill Clinton L. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractState marketing programs for food and agricultural products are largely driven by consumers’ desires to purchase in-state products. Evaluations of state marketing programs have largely ignored consumer location and proximity to surrounding states, measures of ethnocentrism, and the presence of other geographic marketing labels. This study examines willingness to pay for own and out-of-state labels for a generic commodity, milk, within an eight-state region. The results show that an aggregate model conceals consumer heterogeneity in marginal willingness to pay values for state brands as compared to a disaggregate model, even when using random parameter logit models.
A Taxonomy of Transparency in Science
Authors: Elliott Kevin C. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractBoth scientists and philosophers of science have recently emphasized the importance of promoting transparency in science. For scientists, transparency is a way to promote reproducibility, progress, and trust in research. For philosophers of science, transparency can help address the value-ladenness of scientific research in a responsible way. Nevertheless, the concept of transparency is a complex one. Scientists can be transparent about many different things, for many different reasons, on behalf of many different stakeholders. This paper proposes a taxonomy that clarifies the major dimensions along which approaches to transparency can vary. By doing so, it provides several insights that philosophers and other science studies scholars can pursue. In particular, it helps address common objections to pursuing transparency in science, it clarifies major forms of transparency, and it suggests avenues for further research on this topic.
Thinking De<=>coloniality through Haitian Indigenous Ecologies
Authors: Pierre Beaudelaine 
Published: June 2020

AbstractI write this essay from a place of thirst, discontent, dream; from being housed in the United States but not at home there; from thinking through this writing in English, a language that is not home; and from wanting to continue making a place that is not home. I think through this inquiry from a place of cohabitation with Western ways of knowing that have purposefully demonized peoples of African descent as less than human; from the tradition of Haitian thinkers and resurgents who emphasize spirituality as crucial to recreating themselves endlessly; and from imagining the unseen, unfelt, and invisible powers that illuminate the process. In this place of feverishness, I sit with Haitian writer and singer Mimerose Beaubrun's monograph Nan Dòmi in order to consider the possibilities and impossibilities that might be realized through a practice of decolonial labor that bridges the known and the unknown, the seen and the unseen, the metaphysical and the material. Taking inspiration from María Lugones's phenomenological approach of decoloniality and Beaubrun's theory of nan dòmi (dream/ing), this essay asks: what in Beaubrun's Nan Dòmi opens decoloniality as a radical onto-epistemological terrain from which to rethink subjectivities, politics, and worlds in uneven and unjust geographies?
Widespread severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) laboratory surveillance program to minimize asymptomatic transmission in high-risk inpatient and congregate living settings
Authors: Jatt Lauren P. , Winnett Alexander , Graber Christopher J. , Vallone John , Beenhouwer David O. , Goetz Matthew Bidwell 
Published: June 2020

AbstractWe describe a widespread laboratory surveillance program for severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at an integrated medical campus that includes a tertiary-care center, a skilled nursing facility, a rehabilitation treatment center, and temporary shelter units. We identified 22 asymptomatic cases of SARS-CoV-2 and implemented infection control measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission in congregate settings.
A radical, novel design for a free-living bryozoan colony:Biselenaria placentula(Reuss, 1867)
Authors: Håkansson Eckart , Zágoršek Kamil 
Published: June 2020

AbstractA series of well-preserved specimens of the little-known Palaeogene speciesBiselenaria placentula(Reuss, 1867) warrant the designation of a new family of free-living cheilostome bryozoans, Biselenariidae n. fam. In contrast to the structural organization of all other free-living, lunulitiform cheilostomes, all zooids are enclosed almost completely by cuticular, exterior walls. Yet, like other lunulitiforms, the colony must be regarded as a highly integrated functional unit, as revealed through the unique, highly complex interior architecture. In creating the new monotypic family, the type speciesBiselenaria placentulais described in detail, while the ambiguous taxonomic status of the only other taxon,B.offaGregory, 1893, is discussed.UUID:http://zoobank.org/6ad8a795-c45e-4619-b2bb-46916585fbd9
DECIDING SOME MALTSEV CONDITIONS IN FINITE IDEMPOTENT ALGEBRAS
Authors: KAZDA ALEXANDR , VALERIOTE MATT 
Published: June 2020

AbstractIn this paper we investigate the computational complexity of deciding if the variety generated by a given finite idempotent algebra satisfies a special type of Maltsev condition that can be specified using a certain kind of finite labelled path. This class of Maltsev conditions includes several well known conditions, such as congruence permutability and having a sequence of n Jónsson terms, for some given n. We show that for such “path defined” Maltsev conditions, the decision problem is polynomial-time solvable.
A reassessment of the age of the fauna from Cumberland Bone Cave, Maryland, (middle Pleistocene) using coupled U-series and electron spin resonance dating (ESR)
Authors: Withnell Charles B. , Joannes-Boyau Renaud , Bell Christopher J. 
Published: June 2020

AbstractThe deposits in Cumberland Bone Cave (Allegany County, Maryland) preserved one of the most taxonomically diverse pre-radiocarbon Pleistocene faunas in the northeastern United States. The site has long been recognized as an important record of Pleistocene life in the region, but numerical age control for the fauna was never developed, and hypotheses for its age have been based upon biochronological assessments of the mammalian fauna. We used fossil teeth and preserved sediment housed in museum collections to obtain the first numerical age assessment of the fauna from Cumberland Bone Cave. Coupled U-series Electron Spin Resonance (US-ESR) was used to date fossil molars of the extinct peccary,Platygonussp. The age estimates of two teeth gave ages of 722 ± 64 and 790 ± 53 ka. Our results are supported by previously unpublished paleomagnetic data generated by the late John Guilday, and by plotting length-width of the first molar (m1) ofOndatra (muskrats) from Cumberland Bone Cave on the chronocline ofOndatra molar evolution in North America. Our age assessments are surprisingly close to the age estimate previously proposed by Charles Repenning, who based his age on a somewhat complicated model of speciation and morphotype evolution among arvicoline rodents.