bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The evolution of molecular diagnosis using digital polymerase chain reaction to detect cancer via cell‐free DNA and circulating tumor cells
Authors: de Melo‐Silva Alex José , Lucena Jessica Paula , Hueneburg Thomas 
Published: December 2019

AbstractCancer is one of the most important causes of death worldwide. The onset of cancer may be initiated due to a variety of factors such as environment, genetics or even due to personal lifestyle choices. To counteract this tremendous increase, the demand for a new technology has risen. By this means, the use of digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) has been shown to be a promising methodology in the early detection of many types of cancers. Furthermore, several researchers confirmed that the use of tumor cell‐free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumor cells (CTC) in peripheral blood is essential in revealing an early prognosis of such diseases. Besides this, it was established that dPCR might be used in a much more efficient, accurate, and reliable manner to amplify a variety of genetic material up to the identification of mutations in hematological diseases. Therefore, this article demonstrates the differences between conventional PCR and dPCR as a molecular technique to detect the early onset of cancer. Furthermore, CTC and cfDNA were officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration as new biological biomarkers in cancer development and monitoring.
Determination of Metastable Zone Width and Nucleation Induction Period of Palm Oil and its Olein/Stearin in Melting Layer Crystallization
Authors: Lu Chao , Liu Xiaoxue , Xia Yufei , Li Qing , Dang Leping , He Xinyi , Wang Zhanzhong 
Published: December 2019

AbstractMeasurement methods of metastable zone width (MZW) and nucleation induction time for melting layer crystallization of palm oil (PO) and its olein/stearin (POL/PST) were established, and the effects of cooling rate (corresponding to various supercoolings) on MZWs and induction time for melting layer crystallization of PO, POL, and PST were determined. The results indicated that the MZW coherently rose with increasing cooling rates with respect to PO and POL, while it declined with higher cooling rates for PST. The induction period results demonstrated that the nucleation induction periods of PO, PST, and POL decreased with increasing supercoolings, and the lag time for nucleation negatively correlated to the melting point of oils at the same supercooling. These data could offer significant instruction in designing and controlling the melting layer crystallization process for palm oil.
Residence Time Distribution of a Capillary Microreactor Used for Pharmaceutical Synthesis
Authors: Siguemoto Érica S. , Leite Reche Leandro , Gut Jorge A. W. , Palma Mauri S. A. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThe main drivers for application of small‐scale reactors in the pharmaceutical industry are the possibility of rapid synthesis and screening of novel drugs as well as the readiness of the scale‐up. The characterization of fluid flow pattern was performed through step‐up and step‐down residence time distribution experiments using a tracer at six different flow rates. Four single‐parameter models were considered for representing deviations from ideal plug flow and ideal laminar flow in tubes. The model that provided the best results was the axial dispersion model and the Peclet and Reynolds numbers could be well correlated. Obtained Peclet values from 44 to 244 were close toPe > 100, in which axial dispersion can be neglected and the reactor can be considered as plug flow reactor.
A Smart Nanotherapeutic Agent for in vitro and in vivo Reversal of Heavy‐Metal‐Induced Causality: Key Information from Optical Spectroscopy
Authors: Adhikari Aniruddha , Biswas Pritam , Mondal Susmita , Das Monojit , Darbar Soumendra , Hameed Ahmed M. , Alharbi Ahmed , Ahmed Saleh A. , Sankar Bhattacharya Siddhartha , Pal Debasish , Kumar Pal Samir 
Published: December 2019

AbstractHuman exposure to heavy metals can cause a variety of life‐threatening disorders, affecting almost every organ of the body, including the nervous, circulatory, cardiac, excretory, and hepatic systems. The presence of heavy metal (cause) and induced oxidative stress (effect) are both responsible for the observed toxic effects. The conventional and effective way to combat heavy metal overload diseases is through use of metal chelators. However, they possess several side effects and most importantly they fail to manage the entire causality. In this study, we introduce citrate‐functionalized Mn3O4 nanoparticles (C−Mn3O4 NPs) as an efficient chelating agent for treatment of heavy metal overload diseases. By means of UV/Vis absorbance and steady‐state fluorescence spectroscopic techniques we investigated the efficacy of the NPs in chelation of a model heavy metal, lead (Pb). We also explored the retention of antioxidant properties of the Pb‐chelated C−Mn3O4 NPs using a UV/Vis‐assisted DPPH assay. Through CD spectroscopic studies we established that the NPs can reverse the Pb‐induced structural modifications of biological macromolecules. We also studied the in vivo efficacy of NPs in Pb‐intoxicated C57BL/6j mice. The NPs were not only able to mobilize the Pb from various organs through chelation, but also saved the organs from oxidative damage. Thus, the C−Mn3O4 NPs could be an effective nanotherapeutic agent for complete reversal of heavy‐metal‐induced toxicity through chelation of the heavy metal and healing of the associated oxidative stress.
Embedding corporate sustainability: An empirical analysis of the antecedents of organization citizenship behavior
Authors: Testa Francesco , Todaro Niccolò , Gusmerotti Natalia Marzia , Frey Marco 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThe relation between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and the performance of both safety and environmental management systems has led researchers to investigate the drivers of safety‐specific and environmental‐oriented OCB. However, although the management of environmental and safety issues is often fully integrated into organizational and managerial practice, a holistic perspective of the drivers of health, safety, and environmental (HSE)‐oriented OCB is still lacking. Thus, the aim of the present study is to investigate the antecedents of HSE‐related OCB (OCBHSE). Drawing on both the OCB and sustainability literature, data from 135 manager–direct report dyads collected from eight large Italian companies are analyzed, to assess the effect of both situation‐related antecedents (i.e., organizational ambidexterity and leadership style) and person‐related antecedents (i.e., prosocial values) on prosocial and proactive OCBHSE. Organizational ambidexterity emerges as a direct situation‐related antecedent of both prosocial and proactive OCBHSE, whereas management by exception and passive leadership have a negative effect on the OCBHSE in direct reports. Surprisingly, transformational and contingent reward leadership styles do not emerge as significant drivers of OCBHSE. In terms of person‐related antecedents, the results highlight that prosocial values in direct reports significantly influence prosocial but not proactive OCBHSE. Finally, as OCBHSE is conceptualized in the study as a dimension that is complementary to formal HSE management structures, our findings can contribute to the general organizational effort to improve HSE performance.
Full‐torus impurity transport simulation for optimizing plasma discharge operation using a multi‐species impurity powder dropper in the large helical device
Authors: Shoji M. , Kawamura G. , Smirnov R. , Tanaka Y. , Masuzaki S. , Uesugi Y. , Ashikawa N. , Gilson E. , Lunsford R. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThe transport of impurities supplied by a multi‐species impurity powder dropper (IPD) in the large helical device (LHD) is investigated using a three‐dimensional peripheral plasma fluid code (EMC3‐EIRENE) coupled with a dust transport simulation code (DUSTT). The trajectories of impurity powder particles (Boron, Carbon, Iron, and Tungsten) dropped from the IPD and the impurity transport in the peripheral plasma are studied in a full‐torus geometry. The simulation reveals an appropriate size of the impurity powder particles and an optimum operational range of the dust drop rates for investigating the impurity transport without inducing radiation collapse. The simulation also predicts a favourable plasma discharge condition for wall conditioning (boronization) using the IPD in order to deposit boron to high plasma flux and neutral particle density areas in the divertor region in the inboard side of the torus.
FETCH: A cloud‐native searchable encryption scheme enabling efficient pattern search on encrypted data within cloud services
Authors: Chung Shen‐Ming , Shieh Ming‐Der , Chiueh Tzi‐Cker 
Published: December 2019

SummarySearchable encryption (SE) is considered important as it provides both confidentiality and searchability for the data stored in semi‐trusted environments such as cloud. However, it is rarely deployed because most SE schemes are not native to cloud services as they require database modifications. In this paper, we present an SE scheme called Frequency‐Eliminated Trapdoor‐Character Hopping (FETCH) that, based on novel common‐conditioned‐subsequence‐preserving (CCSP) techniques, is able to work natively with off‐the‐shelf databases and supports wildcard‐based pattern search on encrypted data thereof. In fact, with the CCSP techniques, we transform the problem of wildcard SE searching into a problem of subsequence searching, which is solved fast in most databases and thus fits well with cloud services in general. Although in our security analysis, CCSP removes the possibility of obtaining theoretical indistinguishability between indexed items, we show that FETCH does provide adequate confidentiality protection and fares much better than other existing wildcard SE schemes in terms of query performance, storage overhead, and deployment complexity. In particular, FETCH is able to efficiently handle data sets whose size is multiple orders of magnitude larger than those that existing schemes can comfortably support.
Not all urban landscapes are the same: interactions between urban land use and stress in a large herbivorous mammal
Authors: Brunton Elizabeth A. , Clemente Christofer J. , Burnett Scott E. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractUrbanization significantly impacts the health and viability of wildlife populations yet it is not well understood how urban landscapes differ from non‐urban landscapes with regard to their effects on wildlife. This study investigated the physiological response of eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) to land use at a landscape scale. Using fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) we compared stress levels of kangaroo populations in urban and non‐urban environments. We modeled FGM concentrations from 24 kangaroo populations against land use (urban or non‐urban) and other anthropogenic and environmental factors, using a linear modeling approach. We found that land use was a significant predictor of FGM concentrations in eastern grey kangaroos with significant differences in concentrations between urban and non‐urban populations. However, the direction of the relationship differed between northern and southern regions of Australia. In the northern study sites, kangaroos in urban areas had significantly higher FGM levels than their non‐urban counterparts. In contrast, in southern sites, where kangaroos occur in high densities in many urban areas, urban kangaroos had lower FGM concentrations than non‐urban kangaroos. Rainfall and temperature were also significant predictors of FGM and the direction of the relationship was consistent across both regions. These results are consistent with the contrasting abundance and persistence of kangaroo populations within the urban matrix between the two study regions. In the northern region many populations have declined over the last two decades and are fragmented, also occurring at lower densities than in southern sites. Our study indicates that it is the characteristics of urban environments, rather than the urban environment per se, which determines the extent of impacts of urbanization on kangaroos. This research provides insights into how the design of urban landscapes can influence large mammal populations.
Impact of successive rainfall events on the dynamic relationship between vegetation canopies, infiltration, and recharge in engineered urban green infrastructure systems
Authors: Alizadehtazi Bita , Gurian Patrick L. , Montalto Franco A. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractSoil surface crusts have been extensively studied in arid and semi‐arid regions, but not in the context of engineered urban green infrastructure (GI) systems, especially in temperate environments. Raindrop impulses can break up larger soil aggregates into smaller particles, dispersing them from their original position, and contributing to the formation of a crust at the soil surface. Crusts, in turn, can reduce infiltration and increase both runoff and the soil's susceptibility to erosion. Vegetation canopies can help to mitigate crust formation by dissipating some of the drops' kinetic energy, though the extent of protection provided by the plants has not been studied in GI systems. This paper presents laboratory research conducted using a rainfall simulator to determine the ability of artificial vegetation canopies to minimize soil crust formation, in comparison with a bare soil control. The mechanical resistance of the soil surface to penetration was measured after each of the 22 different simulated rain events. Over the experiment, the percent change in penetration resistance increased by 83.5% and 148%, in vegetated and bare soil control boxes, respectively. The bare soil control box also displayed statistically significant (p < .001) increase in the duration of post‐storm ponding, compared with the control vegetated box, suggesting a reduced infiltration rate. These results suggest that vegetation canopies can play a key role in protecting the soils found in GI systems from raindrop impact.
A Miniaturized Carbon Black‐based Electrochemical Sensor for Chlorine Dioxide Detection in Swimming Pool Water
Authors: Tomei Maria Rita , Marcoccio Eleonora , Neagu Daniela , Moscone Danila , Arduini Fabiana 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThe recent trend of using sustainable disinfectants in water treatment sector boosted the employment of chlorine dioxide (ClO2) as green disinfectant. Indeed, this disinfectant is characterised by several attractive features such as the working capability in a wide range of pH and the absence of harmful by‐products. These characteristics confer to chlorine dioxide a prominent position between the disinfectants, thus analytical tools for on‐site detection are needed to customize the water treatment. Herein, we described the development of an innovative and cost‐effective carbon black modified screen‐printed electrode for amperometric quantification of chlorine dioxide in standard solution and in swimming pool water. The carbon black as working electrode nanomodifier allowed for the detection of chlorine dioxide at low applied potential, with linear range of 0.05–20 ppm, and a detection limit of 0.01 ppm. The matrix effect evaluation as well as the recovery study demonstrated the capability of this sensor for a cost‐effective detection of chlorine dioxide in swimming pool water, paving the way for the use of miniaturised electrochemical sensors in water treatment field.
Taking Down Your Shingle? Or Not …
Authors: Maack Stephen C. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractWhat happens with independent evaluation consultants who are age 65 or older? For those interviewed for this chapter, the answer was not just to close their businesses. The chapter discusses why selling a small consulting firm is difficult and, maybe, rare. Solutions derived from the interviews, and summaries of published works on career planning, included gradually phasing out work, refocusing work life activities, and being more selective in what work consultants did. The responses to an exploratory study of seasoned evaluation consultants are placed in a context of recent trends among “retirement age” people, generational shifts in attitudes toward aging, social, and economic changes. The chapter explores psychological and relationship shifts among prospective retirees. It discusses how consulting over a long period may help prepare one for handling transitions as one ages, given the resiliency to have managed challenging business periods. It provides references to resources for consultants to develop individualized work and life solutions as they age.
Independent Evaluation Consulting: An Evolving Field
Authors: Martínez‐Rubin Norma 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThis chapter explores how independent evaluation consulting has evolved since Independent Evaluation Consulting: New Directions for Evaluation was published in 2006. It offers new and seasoned evaluation consultants a retrospective view of environmental changes in the evaluation field that have influenced independent consultants’ business operations. The chapter reviews key changes in the years from 2007 to 2017: the impact of technology, increased focus on data visualization, influx of independent evaluation consultants, and credentialing of evaluators. Included is a summary of interviews with independent evaluation consultants about American Evaluation Association (AEA) efforts supporting the independent evaluation consultant pipeline. Next, a select listing of sessions previously presented at the AEA annual conference appears as a representation of the business‐related topics of interest to independent evaluation consultants—entrepreneurs that blend business with technical and topical expertise. The chapter also briefly discusses implications for evaluation as a discipline and independent evaluation consulting as professional practice.
The impact of economic growth in mortality modelling for selected OECD countries
Authors: Dutton Lydia , Pantelous Athanasios A. , Seklecka Malgorzata 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThe health of a population is affected by social, environmental, and economic factors. Pension providers and consultants, insurance companies, government agencies and individuals in the developed world have a vested interest in understanding how the economic growth will impact on the life expectancy of their population. Therefore, changes in death rates may occur due to climate and economic changes. In this study, we extend a previous study into excess deaths as a result of climate change to also provide a comprehensive investigation of the impact of economic changes using annual female and male data for 5 developed OECD countries. We find that there is strong negative relationship between mortality index, and climate and economic proxies. This model shows to provide better fitting and forecasting results both for females and males, and for all countries studied.
Getting Close
Authors: Bolo Isabel 
Published: December 2019

AbstractYou can’t understand most of the important things from a distance. You have to get close.” These words, from the grandmother of Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, echoed around the first few sessions of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence’s annual All Partners Meeting this fall, which I attended to learn more about how bioethics might contribute to ongoing research in AI. Stevenson has cited distance as a factor contributing to mass incarceration in the United States: we readily mistreat the most vulnerable in society when we don’t witness the punishments we inflict on them. The lesson on proximity stays with me as I think about the growing interest in bioethics in addressing broader societal issues. Could our field also benefit from keeping proximity in mind? Where might bioethics and the ethics of artificial intelligence learn together? One place to start “getting close” is with the individuals and communities that innovation stands to impact.
Storytelling
Authors: Kaebnick Gregory E. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThe November–December issue of the Hastings Center Report features a set of essays on the ethics of writing stories of patient care. The Report regularly features such stories, but some ways of telling them would be plainly unacceptable, and some in bioethics have suggested that the bar for acceptability is very high. Tod Chambers takes that position in this essay set. Drawing on the work of the literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, he proposes that case studies should be “polyphonic”—meaning that they contain “a diversity of voices that are unmediated and distinct.” In effect, he calls for a kind of coauthoring of stories about patients. In a second essay, Arthur Frank also calls for including the patient’s voice, but he builds on Bakhtin’s call for “dialogic” storytelling, in which the author seeks to represent the characters in the story as having their own voices and their own lives: “they can talk back.” A third essay, by Philip Rosoff, is concerned about the problem of harm and patient anonymity, which in the contemporary media environment has become harder to address.
Surgeon General’s Warning: Gender Is Bad for Your Health
Authors: Lindemann Hilde 
Published: December 2019

AbstractGender, most feminists agree, isn’t a fact about people in the same way that height or hair color is. Genders are constructed within and are part of a power system circulating through all of society that sets standards for men’s and women’s identities and places men’s interests above women’s. The system is bad for all of us, but especially for women, genderqueer people, and men of color. Here, I want to point out ways in which it’s bad for our health. I’ll start with abortion, as laws recently passed in a number of states have restricted women’s access to the point where it’s nearly nonexistent.
Medical Crowdfunding for Unproven Medical Treatments: Should Gofundme Become a Gatekeeper?
Authors: Snyder Jeremy , Cohen I. Glenn 
Published: December 2019

AbstractMedical crowdfunding has raised many ethical concerns, among them that it may undermine privacy, widen health inequities, and commodify health care. One motivation for medical crowdfunding has received particular attention among ethicists. Recent studies have shown that many individuals are using crowdfunding to finance access to scientifically unsupported medical treatments. Recently, GoFundMe prohibited campaigns for antivaccination groups on the grounds that they “promote misinformation about vaccines” and for treatment at a German clinic offering unproven cancer treatments due to “the need to make sure people are equipped to make well‐informed decisions.” GoFundMe has not taken any additional actions to regulate the much larger presence of campaigns seeking to fund unproven medical interventions on the platform. In this article, we make the ethical case for intervention by GoFundMe and other crowdfunding platforms.