bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Dual visible‐thermal camera approach facilitates drone surveys of colonial marshbirds
Authors: McKellar Ann E. , Shephard Nicholas G. , Chabot Dominique 
Published: November 2020

AbstractWaterbirds are important indicators of wetland health, and understanding their status and trends is necessary for appropriate management and conservation. However, certain species are challenging to survey due to their sensitivity to disturbance and the difficulty of accessing their breeding habitats. This is especially true for colonially breeding marshbirds, for which a multi‐species survey protocol that maximizes accuracy of counts and minimizes disturbance does not exist. Small drone aircraft have shown promise for conducting accurate and low‐disturbance surveys of colonial waterbirds. However, complex marsh vegetation structures and the cryptic nature of some marshbird nests make them difficult to detect in aerial imagery. We used synchronous high‐resolution visible imagery (0.8–2 cm/pixel) and thermal‐infrared imagery (6–16 cm/pixel) captured from a drone to count nests of five species of marshbirds at eight colonies in Saskatchewan, Canada. We compared counts from the imagery to those obtained from traditional ground‐based surveys, generally considered the most accurate survey method for these species. The two types of imagery proved highly complementary, as heat signatures helped detect and confirm nests not easily spotted in the visible imagery, while the detailed visible imagery allowed species identification. For four species (Western Grebe Aechmophorus occidentalis, Franklin's Gull Leucophaeus pipixcan, Forster's Tern Sterna forsteri, and Black‐crowned Night‐Heron Nycticorax nycticorax), drone‐based counts (range 74–1524 nests per colony) were within 5% of ground‐based counts (range 75–1582), while for smaller Black Tern Chlidonias niger colonies (range 3–7 nests), counts from the two methods were always within one nest of each other. Furthermore, an assessment of flight behavior before, during, and after drone surveys found no significant evidence of disturbance by the drone. Our drone‐borne dual visible‐thermal camera approach proved promising for surveying colonial marshbirds and could potentially be implemented in a range of situations where wildlife subjects are difficult to survey with visible or thermal imagery alone.
Enhanced structure and function of human pluripotent stem cell-derived beta-cells cultured on extracellular matrix
Authors: Singh Reena , Cottle Louise , Loudovaris Thomas , Xiao Di , Yang Pengyi , Thomas Helen E. , Kebede Melkam A. , Thorn Peter 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
The differentiation of human stem cells into insulin secreting beta-like cells holds great promise to treat diabetes. Current protocols drive stem cells through stages of directed differentiation and maturation and produce cells that secrete insulin in response to glucose. Further refinements are now needed to faithfully phenocopy the responses of normal beta cells. A critical factor in normal beta cell behavior is the islet microenvironment which plays a central role in beta cell survival, proliferation, gene expression and secretion. One important influence on native cell responses is the capillary basement membrane. In adult islets, each beta cell makes a point of contact with basement membrane protein secreted by vascular endothelial cells resulting in structural and functional polarization. Interaction with basement membrane proteins triggers local activation of focal adhesions, cell orientation, and targeting of insulin secretion. This study aims to identifying the role of basement membrane proteins on the structure and function of human embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived beta cells. Here, we show that differentiated human stem cells-derived spheroids do contain basement membrane proteins as a diffuse web-like structure. However, the beta-like cells within the spheroid do not polarize in response to this basement membrane. We demonstrate that 2D culture of the differentiated beta cells on to basement membrane proteins enforces cell polarity and favorably alters glucose dependent insulin secretion.
Dialling‐In New Reactivity into the Shono‐Type Anodic Oxidation Reaction
Authors: Jones Alan M. 
Published: November 2020

AbstractThis Personal Account describes the author's groups’ research in the field of electrosynthetic anodic oxidation, beginning with initial trial and error attempts with the Shono oxidation. Early setbacks with complex rotameric amide mixtures, provided the ideal environment for the discovery of the Oxa‐Shono reaction‐Osp2‐Csp3 bond cleavage of esters‐providing two useful products in one‐step: aldehyde selective oxidation level products and a mild de‐esterification method to afford carboxylic acids in the process. The development of the Oxa‐Shono reaction provided the impetus for the discovery of other electrically propelled‐Nsp2‐Csp2 and Nsp2‐Csp3‐bond breaking reactions in bioactive amide and sulfonamide systems. Understanding the voltammetric behaviour of the molecule under study, switching between controlled current‐ or controlled potential‐ electrolysis, and restricting electron flow (the reagent), affords exquisite control over the reaction outcomes in batch and flow. Importantly, this bio‐inspired advance in electrosynthetic dealkylation chemistry mimics the metabolic outcomes observed in nature.
Nanodiagnostics in leishmaniasis: A new frontiers for early elimination
Authors: Gedda Mallikarjuna Rao , Madhukar Prasoon , Shukla Ashish , Mudavath Shyam Lal , Srivastava Onkar Nath , Singh Om Prakash , Sundar Shyam 
Published: November 2020

AbstractVisceral leishmaniasis (VL) is still a major public health concern in developing countries having the highest outbreak and mortality potential. While the treatment of VL has greatly improved in recent times, the current diagnostic tools are limited for use in the post‐elimination setting. Although conventional serological methods of detection are rapid, they can only differentiate between active disease in strict combination with clinical criteria, and thus are not sufficient enough to diagnose relapse patients. Therefore, there is a dire need for a portable, authentic, and reliable assay that does not require large space, specialized instrument facilities, or highly trained laboratory personnel and can be carried out in primary health care settings. Advances in the nanodiagnostic approaches have led to the expansion of new frontiers in the concerned area. The nanosized particles are blessed with an ability to interact one‐on‐one with the biomolecules because of their unique optical and physicochemical properties and high surface area to volume ratio. Biomolecular detection systems based on nanoparticles (NPs) are cost‐effective, rapid, nongel, non‐PCR, and nonculture based that provide fast, one‐step, and reliable results with acceptable sensitivity and specificity. In this review, we discuss different NPs that are being used for the identification of molecular markers and other biomarkers, such as toxins and antigens associated with leishmaniasis. The most promising diagnostic approaches have been included in the article, and the ability of biomolecular recognition, advantages, and disadvantages have been discussed in detail to showcase the enormous potential of nanodiagnostics in human and veterinary medicine.This article is categorized under:
Diagnostic Tools > Diagnostic Nanodevices
Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Infectious Disease
Diagnostic Tools > Biosensing
Assessment of Farmers’ Indigenous Technology Adoptions for Climate Change Adaptation in Nigeria
Authors: Ologeh Idowu , Adesina Francis , Sobanke Victor 
Published: November 2020

AbstractAgriculture has shown a considerable capacity to adapt to climate change. Many adaptations occur autonomously without the need for conscious response by farmers and agricultural planners. However, it is likely that the rate and magnitude of climate change may exceed that of normal change in agriculture that specific technologies and management styles may need to be adopted to avoid the most serious of effects. Thus areas likely to be most vulnerable to climate variability can be spared from its impacts through implementation of appropriate adaptation measures such as development of indigenous technologies.Six hundred farmers from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria were surveyed and they all possess different indigenous adaptation strategies ranging from swamp farming (Oyo State), application of neem seed (Kaduna State), soil erosion control (Enugu State), rainwater harvesting (Taraba State), land improvement (Cross River State) to farmland management (Benue State). They all have simple but profound technologies driving these schemes with much success. These indigenous adaptation techniques are majorly constrained by inadequate financial resources. Indigenous technology adoption is affordable with high revenue potential.
In Search of a Twenty-First Century Education Renaissance after a Global Pandemic
Authors: Reimers Fernando M. 
Published: November 2020

AbstractThe COVID-19 Pandemic renewed interest on the question of what goals should be pursued by schools in a world rapidly changing and uncertain. As education leaders developed strategies to continue to educate during the Pandemic, through alternative education arrangements necessitated by the closure of schools, the question of re-prioritizing curriculum became essential. In addition, the anticipated disruptions and impacts that the Pandemic would cause brought the question of what capacities matter to the fore. This chapter reviews the history of mass education and examines the role of the United Nations and other international organizations advocating for schools to educate the whole child and to cultivate the breath of skills essential to advance individual freedoms and social improvement. The chapter makes the case that the aspiration to cultivate a broad range of competencies is not only necessary to meet the growing demands of civic and economic participation, but also critical to close opportunity gaps.The development of a science of implementation of system level reform to educate the whole child is fundamental to close the growing gap between more ambitious aspirations for schools and the learning opportunities that most children experience and that are at the root of their low levels of knowledge and skills as demonstrated in international comparative assessments.Implementation strategies need to take into account the stage of institutional development of the education system, and align the components and sequence of the reform to the existing capacities and structures, while using the reform to help the system advance towards more complex forms of organization that enable it to achieve more ambitious goals. The chapter makes the case for examining the implementation of large scale reforms in countries at varied stages of educational development in order to overcome the limitations of the current knowledge base that relies excessively on the study of a narrow range of countries at similar levels of development, many of them with stagnant or declining performance of their students in international assessments of knowledge and skills.Effective implementation requires also coherence across the various levels of governance of the education system and good communication and collaboration across a wide spectrum of stakeholders. Such communication can be facilitated by a good theory of mind of how others view reform. A reform can be viewed through five alternative frameworks: cultural, psychological, professional, institutional and political, or through a combination of those, and each reform is based on elements reflecting one or several of those frames. Understanding these frames, can help better understand how others view change, thus facilitating communication and the development of a shared theory of change.The chapter concludes describing the methods of this study and introducing the six large scale reforms examined in the book.
Conclusions. Seven Lessons to Build an Education Renaissance After the Pandemic
Authors: Reimers Fernando M. 
Published: November 2020

AbstractThis chapter draws out seven lessons from the cross-country analysis of the six reforms studied in this chapter. These are:Lesson 1. The power of complex mindsets about education reform.The six reforms all reflect reliance on the worldviews presented in the five frames of reform: cultural, psychological, professional, institutional and political. Those that have been sustained relied on insights from more of these five frames than those that were short lived.Lesson 2. Implementation matters considerably.The chapter discusses how the implementation process in effect recreates a reform, and how the development of an operational strategy defining the details of reform is what in the end most matters to the success of reform. The chapter discusses how the six reforms produced rather distinct operational strategies of seemingly similar components of the reform such as the learning goals for students or teacher professional development. Implementation strategies are also based on implicit theories of how organizations work, and the chapter explains the usefulness of a developmental theory of how organizations evolve to designing strategies that are aligned with the functionings that are possible in a given developmental stage, while also helping the organization evolve towards higher levels of functioning.Lesson 3. The need for operational clarity.People can’t execute what they don’t understand, and a reform must be able to translate goals into clear objectives and reform components into clear tasks which can be widely communicated and understood, as well as tracked to discern improvement and course correct when necessary.Lesson 4. Large scale reform is a journey: Coherence, Completeness and the Five Frames.The chapter explains how using the five dimensional theory of educational change can support coherence and completeness in a reform.Lesson 5. Sequencing, pacing and the importance of first steps.An operational strategy needs to be sequenced attending to ambition of goals, to existing levels of capacity and to institutional stage of development of the system. The first steps in the sequence are consequential because they shape the narrative of reform in ways that have long lasting consequences.Lesson 6. Staying the course.Long policy cycles are essential for reforms to be implemented and to produce results, and those cannot be taken for granted. Coherence, communication and participation can garner support that sustains a reform over time.Lesson 7. Learning from experience to build system level capacity.Most important to the coherent implementation of a reform is to create opportunities for key stakeholders, at various levels of the system, to learn together as a result of implementing components of the reform. Creating feedback loops and processes for making sense of such information is critical to support such learning.
A study on surface morphology and tension in laser powder bed fusion of Ti-6Al-4V
Authors: Khorasani Mahyar , Ghasemi AmirHossein , Awan Umar Shafique , Hadavi Elahe , Leary Martin , Brandt Milan , Littlefair Guy , O’Neil William , Gibson Ian 
Published: November 2020

AbstractWhen reporting surface quality, the roughest surface is a reference for the measurements. In LPBF due to recoil pressure and scan movement, asymmetric surface is shaped, and surface roughness has different values in different measurement orientations. In this research, the influence of the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process parameters on surface tension and roughness of Ti-6AI-4 V parts in three orientations are investigated. To improve the mechanical properties, heat treatment was carried out and added to the designed matrix to generate a comprehensive data set. Taguchi design of experiment was employed to print 25 samples with five process parameters and post-processing. The effect and interaction of the parameters on the formation of surface profile comprising tension, morphology and roughness in various directions have been analysed. The main contribution of this paper is developing a model to approximate the melting pool temperature and surface tension based on the process parameters. Other contributions are an analysis of process parameters to determine the formation and variation of surface tension and roughness and explain the governing mechanisms through rheological phenomena. Results showed that the main driving factors in the variation of surface tension and formation of the surface profile are thermophysical properties of the feedstock, rheology and the temperature of the melting pool. Also, the results showed that while the value of surface tension is the same for each test case, morphology and the value of roughness are different when analysing the surface in perpendicular, parallel and angled directions to laser movement.
Evaluating and Comparing Behavioural and Electrophysiological Estimates of Neural Health in Cochlear Implant Users
Authors: Brochier Tim , Guérit François , Deeks John M. , Garcia Charlotte , Bance Manohar , Carlyon Robert P. 
Published: November 2020

AbstractVariations in neural health along the cochlea can degrade the spectral and temporal representation of sounds conveyed by cochlear implants (CIs). We evaluated and compared one electrophysiological measure and two behavioural measures that have been proposed as estimates of neural health patterns, in order to explore the extent to which the different measures provide converging and consistent neural health estimates. All measures were obtained from the same 11 users of the Cochlear Corporation CI. The two behavioural measures were multipulse integration (MPI) and the polarity effect (PE), both measured on each of seven electrodes per subject. MPI was measured as the difference between thresholds at 80 pps and 1000 pps, and PE as the difference in thresholds between cathodic- and anodic-centred quadraphasic (QP) 80-pps pulse trains. It has been proposed that good neural health corresponds to a large MPI and to a large negative PE (lower thresholds for cathodic than anodic pulses). The electrophysiological measure was the effect of interphase gap (IPG) on the offset of the ECAP amplitude growth function (AGF), which has been correlated with spiral ganglion neuron density in guinea pigs. This ‘IPG offset’ was obtained on the same subset of electrodes used for the behavioural measures. Despite high test–retest reliability, there were no significant correlations between the neural health estimates for either within-subject comparisons across the electrode array, or between-subject comparisons of the means. A phenomenological model of a population of spiral ganglion neurons was then used to investigate physiological mechanisms that might underlie the different neural health estimates. The combined experimental and modelling results provide evidence that PE, MPI and IPG offset may reflect different characteristics of the electrode-neural interface.
Electrical stimulation therapy of the lower esophageal sphincter in GERD patients—a prospective single-center study
Authors: Paireder Matthias , Kristo Ivan , Nikolic Milena , Jomrich Gerd , Steindl Johannes , Rieder Erwin , Asari Reza , Schoppmann Sebastian F. 
Published: November 2020

Summary
Background
Electrical stimulation therapy (EST) of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) for gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) treatment increases LES pressure through chronic stimulation, with a low risk for gastrointestinal side effects and preservation of hiatal anatomy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this novel technique in a high-output specialized reflux center.

Methods
This is a prospective single-center study including GERD patients indicated for anti-reflux therapy who consented to undergo LES-EST. Patients underwent prospective scheduled follow-up visits including interrogation of the stimulation device, clinical examination, and assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL).

Results
Within a 4-year period, 37 LES-EST implantations were performed. The majority of patients were male (54.1%), mean BMI was 25.8 (SD 4.4), and mean age was 54.0 (SD 15.8). The median GERD HRQL composite score was 41 (IQR 21–49). Median total % of pH <4 was 10.1 (IQR 4.4–17.3). Six (16.2%) individuals underwent explantation of the entire system (IPG and leads) due to technical defect (n = 4) or failure of therapy (n = 2). HRQL score improved from 41 (IQR 21–49) to 8.50 (IQR 4.25–20.5, p < 0.001) and 9 (23.7%) patients were on at least occasional PPI treatment.

Conclusion
Due to the low rate of GI side effects and its minimal invasive character preserving the hiatal anatomy, this novel technique might find its place in anti-reflux surgery. However, the considerably high rate of device dysfunction needs further investigation.
Discrete and Conservative Factorizations in Fib(B)
Authors: Cigoli Alan S. , Mantovani Sandra , Metere Giuseppe 
Published: November 2020

AbstractWe focus on the transfer of some known orthogonal factorization systems from$$\mathsf {Cat}$$Catto the 2-category$${\mathsf {Fib}}(B)$$Fib(B)of fibrations over a fixed base categoryB: the internal version of thecomprehensive factorization, and the factorization systems given by (sequence of coidentifiers, discrete morphism) and (sequence of coinverters, conservative morphism) respectively. For the class of fibrewise opfibrations in$${\mathsf {Fib}}(B)$$Fib(B), the construction of the latter two simplify to a single coidentifier (respectively coinverter) followed by an internal discrete opfibration (resp. fibrewise opfibration in groupoids). We show how these results follow from their analogues in$$\mathsf {Cat}$$Cat, providing suitable conditions on a 2-category$${\mathcal {C}}$$C, that allow the transfer of the construction of coinverters and coidentifiers from$${\mathcal {C}}$$C to$${\mathsf {Fib}}_{{\mathcal {C}}}(B)$$FibC(B).
Contextualized mobile game-based learning application for computing education
Authors: Yadav Alok Kumar , Oyelere Solomon Sunday 
Published: November 2020

AbstractThis paper intends to present an overview of a mobile game-based learning application, BaghLearn that develops and upskills programming and algorithmic knowledge by cross-curricular capabilities through a traditional world-based game. The focus of this research was to explore the learning effectiveness of BaghLearn on students. Mixed method research approach was applied to collect, process and analyze the research data in which undergraduate students who had some prior knowledge or had taken algorithm courses were instructed to test the mobile game learning application. This study exhibits the idea of integrating learning with contextual mobile game as an effective approach in understanding the influence of games towards cognitive achievements of students in computing education. In addition, there are no major requirements for the use of this application (can be maintained in resource-constrained contexts such as Nepal), which makes it expressively satisfying and useful for students who are relentlessly using mobile devices. Besides, this study evaluated the influence of BaghLearn towards learning of the design and analysis of algorithm course, which is a compulsory course for most undergraduate computing education program. Furthermore, the study findings can be used as a guideline for developing learning solutions and usability evaluation of such solutions, especially for infrastructure-constrained contexts. Students using the BaghLearn opined that the application is easy to use, supportive and lead to improved learning satisfaction.