bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Stabilising Urea Amine Nitrogen Increases Potato Tuber Yield by Increasing Chlorophyll Content, Reducing Shoot Growth Rate and Increasing Biomass Partitioning to Roots and Tubers
Authors: Wilkinson Sally , Weston Anna Kate , Marks David James 
Published: December 2019

AbstractMuch of the nitrogen in crop fertiliser is degraded before acquisition. Technologies that stabilise urea-nitrogen minimise this. Degradation also specifically reduces the amount of ureic amine that many fertilisers initially contain, which is important because this nitrogen form has unique beneficial effects on plants. To investigate mechanisms whereby urea stabilisation increases potato tuber yield, we compare effects of foliar applications of chemically stabilised and non-stabilised urea against industry-standard fertiliser, on the physiology, form and yield of greenhouse-grown Casablanca under identical nitrogen supply. Stabilised urea is tested on Rooster and Shelford yields in Irish and British field trials. Stabilised amine nitrogen (SAN) increases Casablanca leaf relative chlorophyll content and initially reduces shoot growth rate. When harvested shortly after tuber initiation, SAN-treated plants have increased root to shoot weight ratios and we find tight negative correlations between shoot growth rate and root weight: large roots and slow shoot extension occur predominantly in SAN-treated plants. SAN increases ratios between initiation-stage tuber weight and (a) shoot length and (b) shoot growth rate. At a second harvest at mid-bulking, SAN increases high-grade Casablanca tuber yielding. At this later stage, yield correlates positively with shoot weight. In the field, SAN increases Rooster canopy greenness and marketable yields of both Rooster and Shelford. Yield improvements specific to this N form when stabilised are suggested to occur through increased photosynthesis and early-stage increases in root to shoot weight ratio. This phenotype then supports increased bulking-stage shoot growth and shoot-sourced resource for tuber growth. Stabilising urea amine induces high-yielding phenotypes with improved internal nitrogen utilisation efficiencies.
Estimation of carbon storage of forest biomass for voluntary carbon markets: preliminary results
Authors: Nonini Luca , Fiala Marco 
Published: December 2019

AbstractEstimating the carbon storage of forests is essential to support climate change mitigation and promote the transition into a low-carbon emission economy. To achieve this goal, voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) are essential. VCMs are promoted by a spontaneous demand, not imposed by binding targets, as the regulated ones. In Italy, only in Veneto and Piedmont Regions (Northern Italy), VCMs through forestry activities were carried out. Valle Camonica District (Northern Italy, Lombardy Region) is ready for a local VCM, but carbon storage of its forests was never estimated. The aim of this work was to estimate the total carbon storage (TCS; t C ha−1) of forest biomass of Valle Camonica District, at the stand level, taking into account: (1) aboveground biomass, (2) belowground biomass, (3) deadwood, and (4) litter. We developed a user-friendly model, based on site-specific primary (measured) data, and we applied it to a dataset of 2019 stands extracted from 45 Forest Management Plans. Preliminary results showed that, in 2016, the TCS achieved 76.02 t C ha−1. The aboveground biomass was the most relevant carbon pool (48.86 t C ha−1; 64.27% of TCS). From 2017 to 2029, through multifunctional forest management, the TCS could increase of 2.48 t C ha−1 (+ 3.26%). In the same period, assuming to convert coppices stands to high forests, an additional TCS of 0.78 t C ha−1 (equal to 2.85 t CO2 ha−1) in the aboveground biomass could be achieved without increasing forest areas. The additional carbon could be certified and exchanged on a VCM, contributing to climate change mitigation at a local level.
The Principal Principle and subjective Bayesianism
Authors: Wallmann Christian , Williamson Jon 
Published: December 2019

AbstractThis paper poses a problem for Lewis’ Principal Principle in a subjective Bayesian framework: we show that, where chances inform degrees of belief, subjective Bayesianism fails to validate normal informal standards of what is reasonable. This problem points to a tension between the Principal Principle and the claim that conditional degrees of belief are conditional probabilities. However, one version of objective Bayesianism has a straightforward resolution to this problem, because it avoids this latter claim. The problem, then, offers some support to this version of objective Bayesianism.
Water quality index method in assessing groundwater quality of Palakonda mandal in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, India
Authors: Nadikatla Santhosh Kumar , Mushini Venkata SubbaRao , Mudumba Phani Surya Murali Krishna 
Published: December 2019

AbstractClean, safe and acceptable fresh water is fundamental to the existence of life. There is still a serious problem with adequate availability of fresh and quality of water for human consumption. This study, therefore, assesses the relevance of groundwater in the selected sites of villages of Palakonda mandal in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, India, for consumption, based on different indices of water quality. Groundwater is the principal source for domestic and irrigation purposes in this region. In order to assess the quality of groundwater, 39 groundwater samples were collected during pre- and post-monsoon season from 2013 to 2016. The concentrations of physicochemical parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness (TH), Ca(II), Mg(II), fluoride (F−), chloride (Cl−), dissolved oxygen, total alkalinity and nitrite (NO2−) were analyzed to compute Water Quality Index (WQI). The results of the concentrations were interpreted and compared with WHO (2012) and BIS (2012) standards. Correlation between various parameters was also computed, and the results were presented. The results of WQI computation infer that the groundwater of the selected sites in Palakonda mandal is rated as ‘good’ for human consumption.
Nudging clinical supervisors to provide better in-training assessment reports
Authors: Dory Valérie , Cummings Beth-Ann , Mondou Mélanie , Young Meredith 
Published: December 2019

Introduction In-training assessment reports (ITARs) summarize assessment during a clinical placement to inform decision-making and provide formal feedback to learners. Faculty development is an effective but resource-intensive means of improving the quality of completed ITARs. We examined whether the quality of completed ITARs could be improved by ‘nudges’ from the format of ITAR forms.
Methods Our first intervention consisted of placing the section for narrative comments at the beginning of the form, and using prompts for recommendations (Do more, Keep doing, Do less, Stop doing). In a second intervention, we provided a hyperlink to a detailed assessment rubric and shortened the checklist section. We analyzed a sample of 360 de-identified completed ITARs from six disciplines across the three academic years where the different versions of the ITAR were used. Two raters independently scored the ITARs using the Completed Clinical Evaluation Report Rating (CCERR) scale. We tested for differences between versions of the ITAR forms using a one-way ANOVA for the total CCERR score, and MANOVA for the nine CCERR item scores.
Results Changes to the form structure (nudges) improved the quality of information generated as measured by the CCERR instrument, from a total score of 18.0/45 (SD 2.6) to 18.9/45 (SD 3.1) and 18.8/45 (SD 2.6), p = 0.04. Specifically, comments were more balanced, more detailed, and more actionable compared with the original ITAR.
Discussion Nudge interventions, which are inexpensive and feasible, should be included in multipronged approaches to improve the quality of assessment reports.
Efficacy of School-Based Interventions for Improving Muscular Fitness Outcomes in Adolescent Boys: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Authors: Cox Ashley , Fairclough Stuart J. , Kosteli Maria-Christina , Noonan Robert J. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractBackgroundIt has been reported that boys’ and girls’ physical activity (PA) levels decline throughout adolescence. Boys are at risk of physical inactivity during adolescence; however, in intervention research, they are an under-represented group relative to girls. It is suggested that the school environment may be central to developing interventions that support adolescents in meeting the current PA guidelines. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the efficacy of school-based physical activity interventions for improving muscular fitness (MF) in adolescent males.MethodsThis systematic review and meta-analysis followed the preferred reporting systems for meta-analyses guidelines and was registered on PROSPERO (Registration number: CRD42018091023). Eligible studies were published in English within peer-reviewed articles. Searches were conducted in three databases, with an additional grey literature search in Google Scholar. Studies investigating MF outcomes were included.ResultsThere were 43 data sets identified across 11 studies, from seven countries. Overall methodological quality of the studies was moderate-to-strong. Interventions targeting MF evidenced a small-to-medium effect (g = 0.32, CI 0.17, 0.48,p < 0.00). Subgroup analyses of MF delivery method resulted in small-to-medium effects: upper limb MF measures (g = 0.28, 95% CI − 0.02, 0.58,p = 0.07), lower limb MF measures (g = 0.28, 95% CI 0.09, 0.68,p = 0.03), combined MF activities (g = 0.24, 95% CI − 0.04 to 0.49,p = 0.05), plyometric activities (g = 0.39, 95% CI 0.09, 0.68,p = 0.01), body weight (g = 0.27, 95% CI − 0.10, 0.65,p = 0.15), and traditional MF methods (g = 0.43, 95% CI 0.09, 0.78,p = 0.01).ConclusionsSchool-based interventions which aimed to increase MF outcomes in adolescent boys demonstrated small-to-moderate effects. Traditional and plyometric methods of resistance training appear to be the most effective form of PA delivery in adolescent males. More quality research is required to assess the impact of MF delivered in the school environment to inform future intervention design.
On community structure in complex networks: challenges and opportunities
Authors: Cherifi Hocine , Palla Gergely , Szymanski Boleslaw K. , Lu Xiaoyan 
Published: December 2019

AbstractCommunity structure is one of the most relevant features encountered in numerous real-world applications of networked systems. Despite the tremendous effort of a large interdisciplinary community of scientists working on this subject over the past few decades to characterize, model, and analyze communities, more investigations are needed in order to better understand the impact of community structure and its dynamics on networked systems. Here, we first focus on generative models of communities in complex networks and their role in developing strong foundation for community detection algorithms. We discuss modularity and the use of modularity maximization as the basis for community detection. Then, we follow with an overview of the Stochastic Block Model and its different variants as well as inference of community structures from such models. Next, we focus on time evolving networks, where existing nodes and links can disappear, and in parallel new nodes and links may be introduced. The extraction of communities under such circumstances poses an interesting and non-trivial problem that has gained considerable interest over the last decade. We briefly discuss considerable advances made in this field recently. Finally, we focus on immunization strategies essential for targeting the influential spreaders of epidemics in modular networks. Their main goal is to select and immunize a small proportion of individuals from the whole network to control the diffusion process. Various strategies have emerged over the years suggesting different ways to immunize nodes in networks with overlapping and non-overlapping community structure. We first discuss stochastic strategies that require little or no information about the network topology at the expense of their performance. Then, we introduce deterministic strategies that have proven to be very efficient in controlling the epidemic outbreaks, but require complete knowledge of the network.
Undetectable gadolinium brain retention in individuals with an age‐dependent blood‐brain barrier breakdown in the hippocampus and mild cognitive impairment
Authors: Montagne Axel , Huuskonen Mikko T. , Rajagopal Gautham , Sweeney Melanie D. , Nation Daniel A. , Sepehrband Farshid , D'Orazio Lina M. , Harrington Michael G. , Chui Helena C. , Law Meng , Toga Arthur W. , Zlokovic Berislav V. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractIntroductionBlood‐brain barrier (BBB) breakdown is an early independent biomarker of human cognitive dysfunction, as found using gadolinium (Gd) as a contrast agent. Whether Gd accumulates in brains of individuals with an age‐dependent BBB breakdown and/or mild cognitive impairment remains unclear.MethodsWe analyzed T1‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 52 older participants with BBB breakdown in the hippocampus 19‐28 months after either cyclic or linear Gd agent.ResultsThere was no change in T1‐weighted signal intensity between the baseline contrast MRI and unenhanced MRI on re‐examination in any of the studied 10 brain regions with either Gd agent suggesting undetectable Gd brain retention.DiscussionGd does not accumulate in brains of older individuals with a BBB breakdown in the hippocampus. Thus, Gd agents can be used without risk of brain retention within a ∼2‐year follow‐up to study BBB in the aging human brain in relation to cognition and/or other pathologies.
Apprenticeships as the answer to closing the cyber skills gap
Authors: Thompson Steve 
Published: December 2019

It's become increasingly accepted that the cyber security landscape has become more and more hostile in recent years. Even with the most rose-tinted view of the situation, it's clear that both the volume and sophistication of cyberthreats has continued to climb. Companies have become increasingly aware of the damage that cyber attacks can inflict. But this doesn't always translate into the organisation taking the right action. The focus still tends to fall on the technical aspect of security, overlooking the issue of security skills. Apprenticeships can enable organisations to quickly acquire essential capabilities by upskilling their existing personnel and taking on new candidates to train up. With the cyber landscape getting more hostile, now is the time to explore new options for improving defences, says Steve Thompson of Raytheon Professional Services.
Why it's time for MSPs to sharpen their security focus
Authors: Brown Tim 
Published: December 2019

When huge businesses, government offices and even entire towns fall victim to data breaches, hacks and ransomware, it tends to grab the headlines. What these headlines miss is that smaller businesses are far more vulnerable to these attacks. Last year, a Ponemon Institute study on the state of cyber security found that 70% of small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) experience cyber attack attempts. 1, 2 And despite SMBs facing the same level of threat as big enterprises, over 50% don't know how to protect their businesses. Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are susceptible to cyber attacks because they don't have in-house expertise and they lack the deep pockets that could buy the tools and skills to protect themselves. While SMBs may feel helpless in the face of ever-more-sophisticated cyberthreats, the good news is that these companies are not alone. Just as they rely on their managed service provider (MSP) partners for their IT needs, they can also turn to MSPs to make sure their IT estates are secure. All MSPs have insight and knowledge on security, argues Tim Brown of SolarWinds MSP.
Why enterprises need to adopt ‘need-to-know’ security
Authors: Rangel Aaron 
Published: December 2019

A host of different cyber attacks – including phishing and ransomware, advanced persistent threats conducted by nation-state actors, zero-day exploits and more – are forcing security professionals to bring their ‘A game’ to work every day. In addition to these attacks, information security professionals must manage information in compliance with data privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or else face stiff fines. Massive data breaches and large penalties imposed by regulatory bodies show no signs of abating and continue to make headlines across the world. To thwart new attacks and prevent breaches, you need to develop a new mindset that challenges the status quo and nurtures new ways of thinking, especially when it comes to protecting information assets. Traditional approaches are being rendered ineffective by social engineering attacks, globalisation and the Internet of Things. In the face of these and other challenges, a multipronged approach with a ‘need-to-know’-based security model at the foundation is an effective strategy to secure enterprise information and prevent a breach, explains Aaron Rangel of iManage.
T2 Hypointensity Aids in the Diagnosis of Intracranial Metastatic Adenocarcinoma
Authors: Faiz Khunsa , Botsford Alex , Sinha Namita , Walling Simon , Shankar Jai Jai Shiva 
Published: December 2019

ABSTRACT:Background:The T2 hypointensity has been suggested to be associated with intracranial metastatic adenocarcinomas (IMA). The purpose of our study was to determine the association of T2 hypointensity with IMA.Methods:All patients with pathologically confirmed metastatic brain tumors who had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at our institution in the last 10 years were retrospectively assessed. Qualitative assessment of the lesions on MRI was done by two separate readers who were blinded to the pathological diagnosis. For qualitative assessment, the T2 hypointensity in the lesion was compared with the contralateral normal appearing white matter. Odds ratio, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated.Results:Of 107 patients with intracranial metastasis, only 73 (40 females; 33 males; mean age 61 years) had MRI available for review. Of these, only 46 (25 females; 21 males; mean age 61 years) had pathologically proven IMA. T2 hypointensity was seen in 20% of IMA. The odds ratio of T2 hypointensity in IMA was 3 compared to nonadenocarcinomas but was not statistically significant (p = 0.16). Intralesional hemorrhage was seen in 20. When controlled for hemorrhage, the odds ratio for T2 hypointensity in IMA was 4.7. The specificity, sensitivity, PPV, and NPV for T2 hypointensity to diagnose IMA were 92%, 19%, 81%, and 40%, respectively.Conclusion:T2 hypointensity was seen only in 20% of IMA with an odds ratio of 4.7. T2 hypointensity showed a high specificity and PPV for diagnosis of IMA.
Maintaining Social Stability without Solving Problems: Emotional Repression in the Chinese Petition System
Authors: Hou Rui 
Published: December 2019

AbstractWhat role do emotions play in state repression? Building upon ethnographic observation in one Beijing petition bureau, this paper explores the emotional labour performed by grassroots officials to demobilize social dissent. The petition system serves as an official channel through which the Chinese government receives complaints and grievances from citizens. Notwithstanding its institutional inefficiency in addressing petitioners’ requirements, this system plays a critical role in maintaining social stability. I investigate the process by which frontline petition officials manage petitions. I argue that channelling petitioners’ emotions has become one of these officials’ core functions. Petition officials have developed three types of emotional strategies – emotional defusing, emotional constraint and emotional reshaping – to absorb petitioners’ complaints. This study of emotional repression offers a fresh perspective on the affective dimension of contentious politics and also contributes to the theoretical discussion on how authoritarian regimes deal with dissent.
Dimensions of adversity in association with adolescents’ depression symptoms: Distinct moderating roles of cognitive and autonomic function
Authors: Vaughn-Coaxum Rachel A. , Dhawan Neha , Sheridan Margaret A. , Hart Mackenzie J. , Weisz John R. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractExposure to adverse events is prevalent among youths and robustly associated with risk for depression, particularly during adolescence. The Dimensional Model of Adversity and Psychopathology (DMAP) distinguishes between adverse events that expose youths to deprivation versus threat, positing unique mechanisms of risk (cognitive functioning deficits for deprivation, and altered fear and emotion learning for threat) that may require different approaches to intervention. We examined whether deprivation and threat were distinctly associated with behavioral measures of cognitive processes and autonomic nervous system function in relation to depression symptom severity in a community sample of early adolescents (n= 117; mean age 12.73 years; 54.7% male). Consistent with DMAP, associations between threat and depression symptoms, and between economic deprivation and depression symptoms, were distinctly moderated by physiological and cognitive functions, respectively, at baseline but not follow-up. Under conditions of greater cognitive inhibition, less exposure to deprivation was associated with lower symptom severity. Under conditions of blunted resting-state autonomic response (electrodermal activity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia), greater exposure to threat was associated with higher symptom severity. Our findings support the view that understanding risk for youth depression requires parsing adversity: examining distinct roles played by deprivation and threat, and the associated cognitive and biological processes.
A large ventricular fibroma requiring surgical resection in a symptomatic 3-month-old infant
Authors: Marshall Anderson S. , Dabal Robert J. , Law Mark A. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractCardiac Fibromas are primary cardiac tumours more common in children than in adults. Surgical intervention is often not required except in the case of limited cardiac output or significant arrhythmia burden. We present a symptomatic 3-month-old infant who had successful surgical intervention for a giant right ventricle fibroma found on prenatal imaging.
Professors’ Politics and Their Appeal as Instructors
Authors: Giersch Jason 
Published: December 2019

ABSTRACTAs more universities view students as customers and as more critics accuse universities of political bias, it is important to learn how students respond to professors’ politics. Does a politically active professor make a course more or less appealing? In this experiment, I randomly presented descriptions of course instructors to current university students and asked them to describe their appeal. Subjects expressed greater interest in professors who were politically ambiguous or whose politics matched their own. Conservative professors were more polarizing than liberal professors, and liberal students rejected conservative professors more than they preferred liberal professors. Based on these results, political neutrality is the safest bet for attracting a broad set of students, especially when a professor is conservative.