bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Guidelines for first responders based on results from deploying a mockup radiological dispersal device
Authors: Rojas-Palma Carlos , Steinhäusler Friedrich , Kuča Petr , Češpírová Irena , Ďuran Juraj , Mann Cameron , Sneyers Liesel , Smits Katrien , Bruggeman Michel 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
During the past 7th Security Framework Program the European Commission funded a research project called CATO (CBRN Crisis management, Architectures, Technologies and Operational procedures) to develop a prototype decision support system for crisis management in addition to providing a suite of guidelines for first responders and incident commanders when dealing with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents. In order to derive these guidelines a proof-of-concept experiment was setup during which several passive agent (Stable CsCl) dispersions with improvised explosive devices and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices were carried out. Each dispersion was thoroughly characterised by a number of monitoring devices, including high-volume air samplers and size-segregated air samplers. All environmental and forensic samples were collected by the UK counter terrorism police, following strict labelling and chain-of-custody protocols. The samples were analysed at the Belgian Nuclear Research Center suing the k0 method for instrumental neutron activation technique. A full consequence assessment analysis was carried out assuming that the observed concentration of Cs-133 in samples was Cs-137 instead and use was made of the specific activity of Cs-137. Due to the sensitivity of the information the European Commission classified this research. The resulted reported on in this work have been unclassified and are released to assist emergency planners and first responders to take the necessary precautions. The results indicate that, up to distances of 50 m from ground zero radiation levels will be considerable and therefore live-saving actions must be performed by fire/rescue wearing full protective gear. In addition, low-wind conditions will favor a long airborne residence time and therefore the use of full-face protective gear is a must. In order to protect first responders, a radiation protection specialist is to determine how long people can enter and remain in the contaminated area. The recovery of evidence in the case of a car-bomb will be hard or even impossible due to the high level of radioactive material remaining inside the vehicle.
Aptasensor based on a flower-shaped silver magnetic nanocomposite enables the sensitive and label-free detection of troponin I (cTnI) by SERS
Authors: Alves Raisa Siqueira , Sigoli Fernando Aparecido , Mazali Italo Odone 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is nowadays the leading death cause worldwide. For that reason, the early diagnosis of AMI is of central importance to reduce the risk of death. In this sense, aptamer-based sensors for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS aptasensors) emerged as an interesting alternative for future high-performance diagnostic tools. SERS aptasensors combine the fast, precise, and sensitive nature of SERS measurements with the selectivity of aptamers for specific biological targets. Herein, we report an efficient SERS aptasensor for the detection of cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a gold-standard biomarker for AMI. Our SERS platform comprises a magnetite core with an intermediate silica shell, and a flower-shaped silver layer (Fe3O4@SiO2@Ag) to confer excellent plasmonic properties and ease of collection by magnetism. The branched silver structure combined with magnetic aggregation offers a high near-field amplification to superior SERS performance. Additionally, a tailored DNA aptamer with high specificity for cTnI was anchored to the silver surface to produce the aptasensor with increased sensing capability towards cTnI. With our SERS aptasensor, a cTnI concentration as low as 10 ng ml−1 (10–11 mol l−1) could be detected. This value is ten times lower than the upper threshold of the typical concentration range of cTnI of AMI patients. Hence, our SERS aptasensor holds great promise to be explored in AMI diagnosis.
Challenges and prospects of nanosized silicon anodes in lithium-ion batteries
Authors: Zhao Xiuyun , Lehto Vesa-Pekka 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
Batteries are commonly considered one of the key technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by the transport, power, and industry sectors. We need to remember that not only the production of energy needs to be realized sustainably, but also the technologies for energy storage need to follow the green guidelines to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases effectively. To reach the sustainability goals, we have to make batteries with the performances beyond their present capabilities concerning their lifetime, reliability, and safety. To be commercially viable, the technologies, materials, and chemicals utilized in batteries must support scalability that enables cost-effective large-scale production.
As lithium-ion battery (LIB) is still the prevailing technology of the rechargeable batteries for the next ten years, the most practical approach to obtain batteries with better performance is to develop the chemistry and materials utilized in LIBs—especially in terms of safety and commercialization. To this end, silicon is the most promising candidate to obtain ultra-high performance on the anode side of the cell as silicon gives the highest theoretical capacity of the anode exceeding ten times the one of graphite. By balancing the other components in the cell, it is realistic to increase the overall capacity of the battery by 100%–200%. However, the exploitation of silicon in LIBs is anything else than a simple task due to the severe material-related challenges caused by lithiation/delithiation during battery cycling. The present review makes a comprehensive overview of the latest studies focusing on the utilization of nanosized silicon as the anode material in LIBs.
Optical coronae and iridescence: some simple hands-on activities
Authors: Turner H C , Whitt D P , Kelly T J 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
In this article we put forward a simple idea to demonstrate cloud iridescence. The activity is aimed at upper level primary school children and above, to see that some oft-observed optical phenomena in real life are the result of diffraction through droplets on a surface or in a cloud. We use the example of polar stratospheric clouds which displays the phenomenon of iridescence. A simple hands-on activity is explained whereby spherical droplets in a cloud are modelled by small glass beads suspended in silly-putty and the iridescence effect arises from a non-uniform size distribution of these beads.
Determination of the friction coefficient of an inclined plane using the Doppler effect and smartphones
Authors: Pathak Praveen , Patel Yogita 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
A phone emitting sound of a fixed frequency is sliding on an inclined plane and approaching a second phone kept at the bottom of the plane. The detected frequency versus time data by the second phone are used to calculate the acceleration of the sliding phone. The primary objective of this paper is to calculate the sliding friction between the phone and the plane from the acceleration values. It demonstrates that the sliding friction is constant irrespective of the inclination of the plane. Results are in good agreement with the one obtained from the video analysis.
Investigating family non universal Z′ model via semileptonic

B⃗a1ℓ+ℓ−

decays
Authors: Paracha M Ali 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
The exclusive semileptonic

B
→

a

1

ℓ

+

ℓ

−

decay has been analyzed in the framework of the Standard Model and in the family non-universal

Z

′

model. To see the effects of new

Z

′

gauge boson via

B
→

a

1

ℓ

+

ℓ

−

decay, the observables which we discuss are branching ratios, forward-backward asymmetry, unpolarized and polarized lepton flavor universality ratio. The transition form factors used to compute these physical observables were calculated in the framework of light cone sum rules. It is found that the physical observable which we consider for analysis are sensitive to

Z

′

parameters. It is hoped that in future the measurement of these observables will not only useful to test the SM parameters but also useful to probe the signature of

Z

′

boson at LHC and at circular positron electron collider (CPEC).
Effect of tufting technique on sound insulation of multi-layer glass woven fabrics
Authors: Shen Hao , Yang Yong , Wang Peng , Hong Yan , Legrand Xavier , Yang Xuhong , Wu Jiankun 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
A new idea to influence the sound insulation property of multi-layered woven fabric by the embedded tufting yarns is presented in this paper. The effect of layer number, layer orientation, tufting density and tufting pattern is investigated respectively, in the basis of sound transmission loss (STL) analysis measured by an impedance tube. The experimental results show that the sound insulation can be enhanced by increasing the number of layers or maintaining the same lay-up orientations. Moreover, the effect of tufting yarns on sound insulation is more sensitive in the low-middle frequency range and relatively more complicated. The obtained results can be applied in the part design, the preform engineering, and the positioning of tufting process.
Sparse-view, short-scan, dedicated cone-beam breast computed tomography: image quality assessment
Authors: Tseng Hsin Wu , Karellas Andrew , Vedantham Srinivasan 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of sparse-view acquisition in short-scan trajectories, compared to 360-degrees full-scan acquisition, on image quality measures in dedicated cone-beam breast computed tomography (BCT). Projection data from 30 full-scan (360-degrees; 300 views) BCT exams with calcified lesions were selected from an existing clinical research database. Feldkamp-Davis-Kress (FDK) reconstruction of the full-scan data served as the reference. Projection data corresponding to two short-scan trajectories, 204 and 270-degrees, which correspond to the minimum and maximum angular range achievable in a cone-beam BCT system were selected. Projection data were retrospectively sampled to provide 225, 180, and 168 views for 270-degrees short-scan, and 170 views for 204-degrees short-scan. Short-scans with 180 and 168 views in 270-degrees used non-uniform angular sampling. A fast, iterative, total variation-regularized, statistical reconstruction technique (FIRST) was used for short-scan image reconstruction. Image quality was quantified by variance, signal-difference to noise ratio (SDNR) between adipose and fibroglandular tissues, full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of calcifications in two orthogonal directions, as well as, bias and root-mean-squared-error (RMSE) computed with respect to the reference full-scan FDK reconstruction. The median values of bias (8.6 × 10−4–10.3 × 10−4 cm−1) and RMSE (6.8 × 10−6–9.8 × 10−6 cm−1) in the short-scan reconstructions, computed with the full-scan FDK as the reference were close to, but not zero (P < 0.0001, one-sample median test). The FWHM of the calcifications in the short-scan reconstructions did not differ significantly from the reference FDK reconstruction (P > 0.118), except along the superior-inferior direction for the short-scan reconstruction with 168 views in 270-degrees (P = 0.046). The variance and SDNR from short-scan reconstructions were significantly improved compared to the full-scan FDK reconstruction (P < 0.0001). This study demonstrates the feasibility of the short-scan, sparse-view, compressed sensing-based iterative reconstruction. This study indicates that shorter scan times and reduced radiation dose without sacrificing image quality are potentially feasible.
A neuro-evolution approach to infer a Boolean network from time-series gene expressions
Authors: Barman Shohag , Kwon Yung-Keun 
Published: September 2020

Abstract

Summary
In systems biology, it is challenging to accurately infer a regulatory network from time-series gene expression data, and a variety of methods have been proposed. Most of them were computationally inefficient in inferring very large networks, though, because of the increasing number of candidate regulatory genes. Although a recent approach called GABNI (genetic algorithm-based Boolean network inference) was presented to resolve this problem using a genetic algorithm, there is room for performance improvement because it employed a limited representation model of regulatory functions.
In this regard, we devised a novel genetic algorithm combined with a neural network for the Boolean network inference, where a neural network is used to represent the regulatory function instead of an incomplete Boolean truth table used in the GABNI. In addition, our new method extended the range of the time-step lag parameter value between the regulatory and the target genes for more flexible representation of the regulatory function. Extensive simulations with the gene expression datasets of the artificial and real networks were conducted to compare our method with five well-known existing methods including GABNI. Our proposed method significantly outperformed them in terms of both structural and dynamics accuracy.

Conclusion
Our method can be a promising tool to infer a large-scale Boolean regulatory network from time-series gene expression data.

Availability and implementation
The source code is freely available at https://github.com/kwon-uou/NNBNI.

Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
What can physiological capacity and behavioural choice tell us about thermal adaptation?
Authors: Salachan Paul Vinu , Sørensen Jesper Givskov , Maclean Heidi Joan 
Published: September 2020

AbstractTo date, behavioural responses and their role in thermal adaptation have largely been overlooked in small ectotherms. Here, we measure reproductive output using four adult acclimation temperatures in Drosophila melanogaster and quantify egg-laying at restricted temperatures (thermal capacity) and across a thermal gradient (thermal preference). We demonstrate that different conclusions about insect responses to changing environmental temperatures can be drawn based on whether individuals are temperature restricted or allowed a behavioural choice of temperature. When measuring physiological capacity at forced temperatures, we find an acclimation response to increasing temperatures. In contrast, when measuring behavioural choice, we find limited variation in thermal preference regardless of the acclimation temperature. Although flies are physiologically capable of increased performance at higher temperatures, these benefits might not be realized in heterogeneous environments. Our data serve as an example to illustrate why it is important to understand how behaviour and physiology contribute to thermal biology and, ultimately, the ecology of organisms. To do this, we should consider the behavioural avenues available to the organism when estimating ecologically relevant fitness consequences in varying thermal environments.
Neutral Sphingomyelinase is an Affective Valence-Dependent Regulator of Learning and Memory
Authors: Kalinichenko Liubov S , Abdel-Hafiz Laila , Wang An-Li , Mühle Christiane , Rösel Nadine , Schumacher Fabian , Kleuser Burkhard , Smaga Irena , Frankowska Malgorzata , Filip Malgorzata , Schaller Gerd , Richter-Schmidinger Tanja , Lenz Bernd , Gulbins Erich , Kornhuber Johannes , Oliveira André W C , Barros Marilia , Huston Joseph P , Müller Christian P 
Published: September 2020

AbstractSphingolipids and enzymes of the sphingolipid rheostat determine synaptic appearance and signaling in the brain, but sphingolipid contribution to normal behavioral plasticity is little understood. Here we asked how the sphingolipid rheostat contributes to learning and memory of various dimensions. We investigated the role of these lipids in the mechanisms of two different types of memory, such as appetitively and aversively motivated memory, which are considered to be mediated by different neural mechanisms. We found an association between superior performance in short- and long-term appetitively motivated learning and regionally enhanced neutral sphingomyelinase (NSM) activity. An opposite interaction was observed in an aversively motivated task. A valence-dissociating role of NSM in learning was confirmed in mice with genetically reduced NSM activity. This role may be mediated by the NSM control of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunit expression. In a translational approach, we confirmed a positive association of serum NSM activity with long-term appetitively motivated memory in nonhuman primates and in healthy humans. Altogether, these data suggest a new sphingolipid mechanism of de-novo learning and memory, which is based on NSM activity.
Association Between Hospital Outbreaks and Hand Hygiene: Insights from Electronic Monitoring
Authors: Kovacs-Litman Adam , Muller Matthew P , Powis Jeff E , Ricciuto Dan , McGeer Allison , Williams Victoria , Kiss Alex , Leis Jerome A 
Published: September 2020

Abstract

Background
Hand hygiene (HH) is an important patient safety measure linked to the prevention of health care-associated infection, yet how outbreaks affect HH performance has not been formally evaluated.

Methods
A controlled, interrupted time series was performed across 5 acute-care academic hospitals using group electronic monitoring. This system captures 100% of all hand sanitizer and soap dispenser activations via a wireless signal to a wireless hub; the number of activations is divided by a previously validated estimate of the number of daily HH opportunities per patient bed, multiplied by the hourly census of patients on the unit. Daily HH adherence 60 days prior and 90 days following outbreaks on inpatient units was compared to control units not in outbreaks over the same period, using a Poisson regression model adjusting for correlations within hospitals and units. Predictors of HH improvement were assessed in this multivariate model.

Results
In the 60 days prior to outbreaks, units destined for outbreaks had significantly lower HH adherence compared to control units (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], .90–.93; P &lt; .0001). Following an outbreak, the HH adherence among the outbreak units increased above that of the controls (IRR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02–1.06; P &lt; .0001). Greater improvements were noted for outbreaks on surgical units, for outbreaks involving antibiotic-resistant organisms and enteric pathogens, and in those outbreaks where health-care workers became ill.

Conclusions
Hospital outbreaks tend to occur in units with lower HH adherence and are associated with rapid improvements in HH performance. Group electronic monitoring of HH could be used to develop novel, prospective feedback interventions designed to avert hospital outbreaks.
20 TREATMENT OPTIMIZATION AND PROGNOSTIC FACTORS IN ADVANCED ESOPHAGEAL CANCER
Authors: Jakšić B , Prpić M , Murgić J , Prgomet Sečan A , Zovak M , Tomašić V , Frӧbe A 
Published: September 2020

Abstract

Esophageal cancer is a disease with high mortality due to advanced stage at the time of diagnosis in patients with poor general condition and/or multiple comorbidities which makes them unsuitable for radical treatment. The goal of this clinical trial is finding optimal treatment for this group of patients.

Methods
Hypothesis of this clinical trial is that sequential use of high dose rate intraluminal brachytherapy, external beam radiotherapy and chemotherapy decreases symptoms of disease, improves quality of life and prolongs overall survival in patients with esophageal cancer that are not candidates for radical treatment.
We have included patients with esophageal cancer that are not candidates for radical treatment. Statistical analysis was done only for the patients that have completed planned treatment and not for the intent to treat population. Therefore, statistical analysis was done for 39 patients, 22 in control group and 17 in interventional group.

Results
In a survival analysis adapted for AJCC stage of the disease, addition of sequential chemotherapy improves overall survival statistically significant (P = 0.004). Sequential use of high dose rate intraluminal brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy decreases the degree of: dysphagia (P = 0.001), odynophagia (P = 0.002) and regurgitation (P = 0.008) statistically significant. Decrease of a pain degree is statistically significant only with the use of sequential chemotherapy (P = 0.031). Sequential use of chemotherapy does not improve control over dysphagia (P = 0.872), odynophagia (P = 0.872) and regurgitation (P = 0.872) any further. Patients of female gender have greater improvement of regurgitation score (P = 0.068), pain score (P = 0.09) and quality of life (P = 0.019).

Conclusion
Sequential use of high dose rate intraluminal brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy provides a safe use of high radiotherapy doses with minimal exposure of organs at risk, according to dose-volume histogram analysis. Sequential use of chemotherapy, after high dose rate intraluminal brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy, improves overall survival in patients with esophageal cancer that are not candidates for radical treatment, in comparison to patients who do not receive chemotherapy (P = 0.09).
411 LEARNING CURVES IN MINIMALLY INVASIVE ESOPHAGECTOMY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Authors: Prasad P , Wallace L , Navidi M , Wahed S , Immanuel A , Phillips A 
Published: September 2020

Abstract

Minimally invasive techniques are being increasingly used in the treatment of esophageal cancer. The learning curve for minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) is variable and can have an impact upon training delivered within residency and fellowship programmes. The aims of this review are to critically appraise current literature on the learning curve for MIE, identify what parameter(s) is used to quantify achieving competence and determine if there is evidence of resultant impact on surgical training.

Methods
A search of the major reference databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane) was performed with no time limits up to the date of the search (February 2020). Results were screened in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and study quality assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for cohort studies.

Results
Twenty-one studies comprising 2720 patients were included- 17 studies reported on a combination of thoracoscopic, hybrid and total MIE, 3 studies reported robotic assisted alone and 1 study evaluated robotic assisted and thoracoscopic esophagectomy. 3 studies used a cumulative sum (CUSUM) analysis to define learning, 1 study used CUSUM and another parameter and 17 studies used one or more parameters. Quantification of surgical competence was variable and ranged from 12–80 cases for robotic surgery and 12–60 cases for other modes of MIE. One study reported trainees achieving MIE skills quicker if mentoring surgeons had attained proficiency on the learning curve.

Conclusion
Learning curves in MIE remain ill-defined with limited evidence on impact upon training received by residents and fellows. Additionally, the parameters used to define achievement of surgical competency is heterogenous. As minimally invasive techniques are increasingly adopted, specific standards to help define competence need to be identified and agreed on. This could help in designing training programmes and improve the rate of achieving competency.