bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hearing loss mutations alter the functional properties of human P2X2 receptor channels through distinct mechanisms
Authors: George Benjamin , Swartz Kenton J. , Li Mufeng 
Published: October 2019

Significance
In the cochlea, extracellular ATP-activated P2X2 receptor channels play important roles in adaptation to elevated sound, and several hP2X2 mutations cause inherited progressive sensorineural hearing loss. We investigated the functional properties of 3 mutants (V60L, D273Y, and G353R) and show that only the D273Y mutant results in nonfunctional channels. The V60L mutant exhibits constitutive activation and uncoupling between ATP binding and pore opening, while the G353R mutant exhibits altered sensitivity to ATP, inward rectification, and ion selectivity. Our results demonstrate that mutations in P2X2 receptors can cause hearing loss without completely disrupting channel function, highlighting the importance of these channels for protecting hearing.
“Context collapse” on a small island
Authors: Moore Robert 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Commentators and analysts in new media studies have taken inspiration from Goffman’s ‘dramaturgical’ approach to interaction as performance, as well as his concepts of ‘face’ and ‘impression management’. Goffman is specifically invoked in discussions of a particular source of interactional trouble that is seen as generated in and by the structure of mediated communication in digital spaces: so-called “context collapse.” Context collapse represents “a crisis of self-presentation” (Wesch, 2008) that is brought about by the ability of digital platforms like Twitter and Facebook to “flatten multiple audiences into one” (Marwick & boyd, 2010, p. 9). Returning to Goffman’s unpublished PhD dissertation (Goffman, 1953) – based on fieldwork on the remote island of Unst in the Shetlands – presents an opportunity to understand more fully both the online phenomenon of “context collapse” and the promise and limitations of Goffman’s work for the study of interaction in digital environments.
Digital media communication, intellectual property, and the commodification of language
Authors: Park Joseph Sung-Yul 
Published: October 2019

AbstractFocusing on fansubbing, the production of unauthorized subtitles by fans of audiovisual media content, this paper calls for a more serious sociolinguistic analysis of the political economy of digital media communication. It argues that fansubbing’s contentious position within regimes of intellectual property and copyright makes it a useful context for considering the crucial role of language ideology in global capitalism’s expanding reach over communicative activity. Through a critical analysis of Korean discourses about fansubbing, this paper considers how tensions between competing ideological conceptions of fansub work shed light on the process by which regimes of intellectual property incorporate digital media communication as a site for profit. Based on this analysis, the paper argues for the need to look beyond the affordances of digital media in terms of translingual, hybrid, and creative linguistic form, to extend our investigations towards language ideologies as a constitutive element in the political economy.
DNA oligomer binding in competition exhibits cooperativity
Authors: Mohammadi-Kambs Mina , Ott Albrecht 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Binding of two complementary DNA single strands to a double-helix, DNA hybridization, is a sequence specific molecular recognition process that plays important roles in biology and biotechnological applications. In the past much work has been devoted to understand double helix formation, however, DNA binding in complex situations often remains difficult to deal with. Here we use fluorescence anisotropy to assess the binding affinities of DNA oligonucleotide strands that compete for hybridization to the same probe molecule in thermal equilibrium. We find that the ratio of the binding constants in competition can change substantially compared to pairwise assessments. This is a signature of non-trivial interaction among the competitors: the binding microstates of each strand are affected by the presence of the other, but to a different degree. To our knowledge this type of phenomenon is not included in current equilibrium models of oligonucleotide binding. We suggest interactions beyond double helix conformations to cause the observed cooperative behavior. The cooperativity could produce more complex binding phenomena than previously thought.
Data-driven inference of physical devices: theory and implementation
Authors: Buscemi Francesco , Dall’Arno Michele 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Given a physical device as a black box, one can in principle fully reconstruct its input–output transfer function by repeatedly feeding different input probes through the device and performing different measurements on the corresponding outputs. However, for such a complete tomographic reconstruction to work, full knowledge of both input probes and output measurements is required. Such an assumption is not only experimentally demanding, but also logically questionable, as it produces a circular argument in which the characterization of unknown devices appears to require other devices to have been already characterized beforehand. Here, we introduce a method to overcome such limitations present in usual tomographic techniques. We show that, even without any knowledge about the tomographic apparatus, it is still possible to infer the unknown device to a high degree of precision, solely relying on the observed data. This is achieved by employing a criterion that singles out the minimal explanation compatible with the observed data. Our method, that can be seen as a data-driven analog of tomography, is solved analytically and implemented as an algorithm for the learning of qubit channels.
Vegetation, rainfall, and pulsing hydrology in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland
Authors: Ivory Sarah J , McGlue Michael M , Spera Stephanie , Silva Aguinaldo , Bergier Ivan 
Published: October 2019

AbstractWetlands provide valuable ecosystem services and play a central role in global carbon cycling. Changes in rainfall and the flood-pulse are likely to disrupt the processes that maintain these landscapes; further, landscape modification may dramatically alter wetlands and promote terrestrialization. The Pantanal, South America, is the world’s largest wetland due to flooding along the Upper Paraguay River. Predicting how water resources in the Pantanal may change is problematic due to a complex drainage network, resulting in the out-of-phase timing of rainfall and the flood pulse. We use remote sensing data of vegetation and climate to better understand the relationships among the rains, the flood pulse, and vegetation. Although rainfall is regionally synchronous, vegetation responses differ based on position relative to inundated areas. Away from rivers, vegetation greening occurs immediately following rainfall. Along channels, greening may lag rainfall by six months, responding closely to local flood stage. Interannual rainfall variability also impacts vegetation differently near flooded areas, with weaker, lagged responses to rainfall due to local water storage. This work suggests that the importance of flood pulse timing for vegetation productivity in inundated areas means that local conditions in wetlands may be the strongest controls on biogeochemical processes.
Multiscale trends and precipitation extremes in the Central American Midsummer Drought
Authors: Anderson Talia G , Anchukaitis Kevin J , Pons Diego , Taylor Matthew 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the timing and intensity of the Central American Midsummer Drought (MSD) may be changing, while observations from limited meteorological station data and paleoclimate reconstructions show neither significant nor consistent trends in seasonal rainfall. Climate model simulations project robust future drying across the region, but internal variability is expected to dominate until the end of the century. Here we use a high-resolution gridded precipitation dataset to investigate these apparent discrepancies and to quantify the spatiotemporal complexities of the MSD. We detect spatially variable trends in MSD timing, the amount of rainy season precipitation, the number of consecutive and total dry days, and extreme wet events at the local scale. At the regional scale, we find a positive trend in the duration, but not the magnitude of the MSD, which is dominated by spatially heterogeneous trends and interannual variability linked to large-scale modes of ocean-atmosphere circulation. Although the current climate still reflects predominantly internal variability, some Central American communities are already experiencing significant changes in local characteristics of the MSD. A detailed spatiotemporal understanding of MSD trends and variability can contribute to evidence-based adaptation planning and help reduce the vulnerability of Central American communities to both natural rainfall variability and anthropogenic change.
A green infrastructure spatial planning model for evaluating ecosystem service tradeoffs and synergies across three coastal megacities
Authors: Meerow Sara 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
A growing number of cities are investing in green infrastructure to foster urban resilience and sustainability. While these nature-based solutions are often promoted on the basis of their multifunctionality, in practice, most studies and plans focus on a single benefit, such as stormwater management. This represents a missed opportunity to strategically site green infrastructure to leverage social and ecological co-benefits. To address this gap, this paper builds on existing modeling approaches for green infrastructure planning to create a more generalizable tool for comparing spatial tradeoffs and synergistic ‘hotspots’ for multiple desired benefits. I apply the model to three diverse coastal megacities: New York City, Los Angeles (United States), and Manila (Philippines), enabling cross-city comparisons for the first time. Spatial multi-criteria evaluation is used to examine how strategic areas for green infrastructure development across the cities change depending on which benefit is prioritized. GIS layers corresponding to six planning priorities (managing stormwater, reducing social vulnerability, increasing access to green space, improving air quality, reducing the urban heat island effect, and increasing landscape connectivity) are mapped and spatial tradeoffs assessed. Criteria are also weighted to reflect local stakeholders’ desired outcomes as determined through surveys and stakeholder meetings and combined to identify high priority areas for green infrastructure development. To extend the model’s utility as a decision-support tool, an interactive web-based application is developed that allows any user to change the criteria weights and visualize the resulting hotspots in real time. The model empirically illustrates the complexities of planning green infrastructure in different urban contexts, while also demonstrating a flexible approach for more participatory, strategic, and multifunctional planning of green infrastructure in cities around the world.
Escaping from pollution: the effect of air quality on inter-city population mobility in China
Authors: Cui Can , Wang Zhen , He Pan , Yuan Shanfeng , Niu Beibei , Kang Ping , Kang Chaogui 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
China faces severe air pollution issues due to the rapid growth of the economy, causing concerns for human physical and mental health as well as behavioral changes. Such adverse impacts can be mediated by individual avoidance behaviors such as traveling from polluted cities to cleaner ones. This study utilizes smartphone-based location data and instrumental variable regression to try and find out how air quality affects population mobility. Our results confirm that air quality does affect the population outflows of cities. An increase of 100 points in the air quality index will cause a 49.60% increase in population outflow, and a rise of 1 μg m−3 in PM2.5 may cause a 0.47% rise in population outflow. Air pollution incidents can drive people to leave their cities 3 days or a week later by railway or road. The effect is heterogeneous among workdays, weekends and holidays. Our results imply that air quality management can be critical for urban tourism and environmental competitiveness.
Multi-year prediction of European summer drought conditions for the agricultural sector
Authors: Solaraju-Murali Balakrishnan , Caron Louis-Philippe , Gonzalez-Reviriego Nube , Doblas-Reyes Francisco J 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Decadal climate prediction, where climate models are initialized with the contemporaneous state of the Earth system and run for a decade into the future, represents a new source of near-term climate information to better inform decisions and policies across key climate-sensitive sectors. This paper illustrates the potential usefulness of such predictions for building a climate service for agricultural needs. In particular, we assess the forecast quality of multi-model climate predictions in estimating two user-relevant drought indices, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), at multi-annual timescales during European summer. We obtain high skill for predicting five-year average (forecast years 1–5) SPEI across Southern Europe, while for the same forecast period SPI exhibits high and significant skill over Scandinavia and its surrounding regions. In addition, an assessment of the added value of initialized decadal climate information with respect to standard uninitialized climate projections is presented. The model initialization improves the forecast skill over Central Europe, the Balkan region and Southern Scandinavia. Most of the increased skill found with initialization seems to be due to the climate forecast systems ability to improve the extended summer precipitation and potential evapotranspiration forecast, as well as their ability to adequately represent the observed effects of these climate variables on the drought indices.
The aridity Index under global warming
Authors: Greve P , Roderick M L , Ukkola A M , Wada Y 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Aridity is a complex concept that ideally requires a comprehensive assessment of hydroclimatological and hydroecological variables to fully understand anticipated changes. A widely used (offline) impact model to assess projected changes in aridity is the aridity index (AI) (defined as the ratio of potential evaporation to precipitation), summarizing the aridity concept into a single number. Based on the AI, it was shown that aridity will generally increase under conditions of increased CO2 and associated global warming. However, assessing the same climate model output directly suggests a more nuanced response of aridity to global warming, raising the question if the AI provides a good representation of the complex nature of anticipated aridity changes. By systematically comparing projections of the AI against projections for various hydroclimatological and ecohydrological variables, we show that the AI generally provides a rather poor proxy for projected aridity conditions. Direct climate model output is shown to contradict signals of increasing aridity obtained from the AI in at least half of the global land area with robust change. We further show that part of this discrepancy can be related to the parameterization of potential evaporation. Especially the most commonly used potential evaporation model likely leads to an overestimation of future aridity due to incorrect assumptions under increasing atmospheric CO2. Our results show that AI-based approaches do not correctly communicate changes projected by the fully coupled climate models. The solution is to directly analyse the model outputs rather than use a separate offline impact model. We thus urge for a direct and joint assessment of climate model output when assessing future aridity changes rather than using simple index-based impact models that use climate model output as input and are potentially subject to significant biases.
The role of simulation in preventing indoor air pollution: a foregone conclusion?
Authors: Lv Mengqiang , Yang Xudong 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Indoor air pollution has become a broad problem due to various indoor or outdoor pollutant sources and limited ventilation. A performance-based approach, which is built upon accurate modelling and simulation of indoor air pollutant characteristics, has obvious advantages over the prescription-based method to achieve better indoor environment. Moreover, the simulation could play a key role in actively preventing indoor air pollution from happening in the first place. In this study, a mechanistic air quality simulation tool was introduced. To verify the reliability of simulation results, two actual field cases with different levels of complexity and time duration were discussed. One was performed in a full-scale experimental room with a single formaldehyde source of a medium density board, in which indoor formaldehyde concentrations varied naturally. Long-term (more than three years) comparison between the simulation results and measurement were conducted. Another occurred during the decoration process in an actual apartment. The formaldehyde concentration levels were well predicted at the design stage and later verified by the field data. Nevertheless, a lot more efforts are required to make indoor air quality (IAQ) simulation tools readily useful in actual engineering applications.
Prediction of thermal sensation using low-cost infrared array sensors monitoring system
Authors: Wu Yuxin , Liu Hong , Li Baizhan , Kosonen Risto 
Published: October 2019

Abstract
Using skin temperature to predict thermal comfort typically results in higher accuracy of thermal comfort prediction compared to other methods, however, such nonintrusive thermo-graphic cameras with high resolution/accuracy are more expensive compared to the thermistors with single point. Thus, a low-cost (and low resolution) thermal camera MLX90640 was studied in this study to predict individual thermal comfort, and compared with the prediction results from high accuracy thermocouple at single point of somewhere of localized body skin. Results show that the low-cost (low resolution) infrared camera (MLX90640) with accuracy of ± 2 °C and resolution of 32 × 24 pixels is able to be used to predict thermal sensation with a performance better than skin temperature measure system including thermocouples at different points of skin with an accuracy of ±0.15 °C. And the performance of infrared camera (MLX90640) is as good as the performance of environmental air temperature sensor with accuracy of ±0.10 °C. Thus, the usage of low-cost (and low resolution) thermal camera to predict individual thermal comfort worth to be further studied.
Sociopolitical Externalities Impacting Worker Health in Washington State’s Cannabis Industry
Authors: Ehrlich Trecia , Simpson Christopher , Busch Isaksen Tania 
Published: October 2019

Abstract

Objectives
The legalization of the production, sale, and possession of cannabis in Washington State in 2012 not only created the framework for a new legal industry, but also for a new regulated labor sector. In addition to typical occupational health and safety hazards associated with chemical and physical exposures, the transition from an illicit to a regulated workplace, the inconsistency between state and federal law, and the production of a unique psychoactive commodity crop that maintains value in the illicit marketplace creates a unique work environment with workplace concerns that are political, economic, and social in nature.

Methods
We conducted a combination of semistructured key informant interviews targeted toward employers, focus groups that engaged employees, and an online survey with cannabis business owners and employees to identify concerns relating to worker health and safety.

Results
In addition to physical and chemical hazards related to their workplace, workers described health concerns that were a result of social, economic, and political forces facing the transitioning cannabis industry and resulting from an inconsistency between state and federal law. Important themes that emerged from these data included the legal and regulatory environment that the cannabis industry faces, cannabis as an agricultural good, crime, gender, cannabis consumption in the workplace, changing worker demographics, and emerging technologies in this rapidly evolving industry.

Conclusions
The unique sociopolitical challenges for occupational health and safety that we identified among cannabis workers in Washington State are especially relevant as other states and nations follow the example of Washington State in legalizing the widespread commercial cultivation, sale, and use of cannabis. As other states and nations legalize, it will be important for employers, public health practitioners, and regulators to recognize how transitioning from an illicit to a legal marketplace impacts worker health. Further, understanding the challenges that result in transitioning a cannabis workforce may be extrapolated in the future to better understand how transitioning other goods and services from an unregulated to a regulated marketplace may impact worker health.
Postoperative Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis Utilizing Enoxaparin Does Not Increase Bleeding Complications After Abdominal Body Contouring Surgery
Authors: Vasilakis Vasileios , Klein Gabriel M , Trostler Michael , Mukit Muntazim , Marquez Jocellie E , Dagum Alexander B , Pannucci Christopher J , Khan Sami U 
Published: October 2019

Abstract

Background
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) chemoprophylaxis warrants an individualized, risk-stratified approach, and constitutes a relatively controversial topic in plastic surgery.

Objectives
The aim of this study was to determine the safety of a 7-day postoperative enoxaparin regimen for VTE prophylaxis compared with a single preoperative dose of heparin in abdominal body contouring surgery.

Methods
This single-institution pre-post study investigated the safety of a 7-day enoxaparin postoperative regimen in abdominal body contouring procedures performed by a single surgeon from 2007 to 2018. Four procedures were included: traditional panniculectomy, abdominoplasty, fleur-de-lis panniculectomy, and body contouring liposuction. Group I patients received a single dose of 5000 U subcutaneous heparin in the preoperative period, and no postoperative chemical prophylaxis was administered. Group II patients received 40 mg subcutaneous enoxaparin in the immediate preoperative period, then once daily for 7 days postoperatively.

Results
A total of 195 patients were included in the study, 66 in Group I and 129 in Group II. The groups demonstrated statistically similar VTE risk profiles, based on the 2005 Caprini risk-assessment model. There were no statistically significant differences in the 2 primary outcomes: postoperative bleeding and VTE events. Group I patients had higher reoperation rates (22.7% vs 10.1%, P = 0.029), which was secondary to higher rates of revision procedures.

Conclusions
A 7-day postoperative course of once-daily enoxaparin for VTE risk reduction in abdominal body contouring surgery does not significantly increase the risk of bleeding. Implementation of this regimen for postdischarge chemoprophylaxis, when indicated following individualized risk stratification, is appropriate.

Level of Evidence: 4