bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prognostic significance of prenatal ultrasound in fetal arthrogryposis multiplex congenita
Authors: Busack Brit , Ott Claus-Eric , Henrich Wolfgang , Verlohren Stefan 
Published: October 2020

AbstractPurposeFetal arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) describes a heterogeneous disease entity characterized by multiple contractures affecting at least two different body areas. The aim of our study was to identify additional sonographic abnormalities in fetuses with AMC Type I–III associated with an unfavorable prognosis and to describe when those signs were first detected.MethodsThis retrospective study included 41 pregnancies of suspected AMC diagnosed 1999–2017 at our tertiary referral center. The affected pregnancies were divided into the 3 AMC subgroups; the time of detection and outcome were analyzed. Prenatal sonograms, pediatric charts, genetic tests, and autopsy reports were studied.ResultsPregnancy outcome data were verifiable in 34 out of 41 cases; in 27 cases, AMC was confirmed. Hydrops was present in 50% of postnatally deceased fetuses, 53% of cases resulting in termination of pregnancy vs. 0% of the surviving 8 children. Absent stomach filling was found in 67% of the children with neonatal death. After subcategorization, the limb-involvement-only-group, 8% showed hydrops vs. 100% in system anomaly group vs. 70% in neuromuscular dysfunction cohort (p = 0.001). Scoliosis, nuchal edema, and absent stomach filling were significantly indicating for a neurological etiology.ConclusionIn addition to disease-defining sonographic findings, those with prognostic significance were identified. Hydrops, nuchal edema, scoliosis and absent stomach filling were associated with unfavorable outcomes implicating a neuromuscular etiology. This knowledge can help to predict the further course of the disease and support patient counseling.
Hydro-jet propelled colonoscopy: proof of concept in a phantom colon
Authors: Coleman Stuart A. , Pakleppa Markus , Cuschieri Alfred 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
Colonoscopy is a widely used and effective procedure, but it often causes patient discomfort and its execution requires considerable skill and training. We demonstrate an alternative approach to colonoscope propulsion with the potential to minimise patient discomfort by reducing the forces exerted on the colonic wall and mesentery, and to reduce the level of skill required for execution.

Methods
A prototype colonoscopic device is described, consisting of a tethered capsule that is propelled and manoeuvred through a water-filled colon (hydro-colonoscopy) by an array of water jets. As an initial proof of concept, experiments were performed to assess the ability of the device to navigate through a simplified PVA cryogel human colon phantom arranged in various anatomical configurations.

Results
The prototype was capable of successfully navigating through three out of four colon configurations: a simple layout, alpha loop and reverse alpha loop. It was unable to negotiate the fourth configuration involving an “N loop”, but this was attributed to problems with the colon phantom. In the successful test replicates, mean complete insertion (i.e. caecal intubation) time was 4.7 min. Measured pressures, temperatures and forces exerted on the colon appeared to be within a physiologically acceptable range. The results demonstrate the viability of propelling a colonoscope through a colon phantom using hydro-jets.

Conclusions
Results indicate that this approach has the potential to enable rapid and safe caecal intubation. This suggests that further development towards clinical translation is worthwhile.
Does a pretreatment with a dentine hypersensitivity mouth-rinse compensate the pain caused by professional mechanical plaque removal? A single-blind randomized controlled clinical trial
Authors: Derman Sonja H. M. , Lantwin Eva-Maria , Barbe Anna Greta , Noack Michael J. 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Objectives
Pain is affecting acceptance of supportive periodontal therapy and primary periodontitis prevention. Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of a 1-week pre-treatment use of dentinal-hypersensitivity-reducing mouth-rinses (DHM) in periodontal maintenance (SPT) or dental prophylaxis patients.

Material and methods
One hundred fifty-five participants attending for professional mechanical plaque removal (PMPR) were randomly assigned to use a mouth-rinse twice daily for 1 week prior to their next PMPR. Rinses were containing either potassium oxalate (n = 52), arginine (n = 52), or herbal extracts (n = 51). At baseline and reassessment, procedural pain was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) and verbal rating scale (VRS). Self-reported efficacy was documented.

Results
No inter-group differences were estimated between both test groups and the control for baseline and reassessment means (VAS, VRS). In the SPT group, VAS reduction and self-reported efficacy were found (p < 0.05).

Conclusion
The 1-week use of DHM failed to show a predictable effect on discomfort during PMPR overall. Around 20% of the patients showed a quantifiable benefit from both test mouth-rinses, whereas more than 50% reported a subjective pain reduction. Focusing patients undergoing supportive periodontal therapy, quantifiable effects were found for both test groups. From a patient’s point of view, DHM might be a suitable adjunct to enhance procedural comfort, especially in patients with a history of periodontitis.

Clinical relevance
The 1-week use of the dentinal-hypersensitivity-reducing mouth-rinses prior to professional-mechanical-plaque-removal showed to be a suitable adjunct to enhance procedural comfort during instrumentation, especially in patients undergoing supportive periodontal therapy.
Registration number: DRKS00010811
Population trends of common breeding birds in Germany 1990–2018
Authors: Kamp Johannes , Frank Claudia , Trautmann Sven , Busch Malte , Dröschmeister Rainer , Flade Martin , Gerlach Bettina , Karthäuser Johanna , Kunz Friederike , Mitschke Alexander , Schwarz Johannes , Sudfeldt Christoph 
Published: October 2020

AbstractBiodiversity monitoring is important as it allows to prioritize research into the causes of declines and assessing the efficacy of conservation measures. Regional assessments are valuable, because conservation policies and management are often implemented on national and sub-national level. We analyzed data from the German Common Bird Monitoring for 1990–2018. We derived indices of population size using standard log-linear models, based on point counts and route territory mapping at up to 1200 plots annually. We summarized species trends by ecological trait groups. Among the 93 common breeding birds, farmland birds declined strongly, birds of settlements declined. Forest birds initially declined, but recovered after ca. 2010. Wetland birds increased strongly, albeit the number of species with data was low. Consistent declines were found in ground-nesting birds, granivorous and invertebrate (other than insect)-feeding birds. Trends of insectivorous birds were stable on average, but farmland insectivores declined strongly since the year 2000. Long-distance migrants showed more negative trends compared to short-distance migrants and resident species. Species with narrow habitat niche declined disproportionally. Trends over the entire period were more negative in common species in the dataset (with a German breeding population of > 50 K and < 1 M pairs). On the opposite, short-term trends were more negative in less common species (< 50 K pairs). Cold-adapted species showed largely negative, warm-adapted largely positive trends. Multi-species indicators showed no directional change (i.e., a change from decline to increase or vice versa) conditional on the inclusion or omission of single species, but the magnitude of change was affected in groups with low sample size. This suggests that efforts should be made to develop robust monitoring schemes for rarer species that are not covered by the analyses here. We conclude that conservation policies in Germany should aim at halting the worrying declines in ground-nesting, often insectivorous, farmland birds. The recovery of forest and wetland birds is encouraging, but future trends need to be monitored. Ongoing climate change will affect species directly (via their thermal niche) and indirectly (e.g., through more forest disturbance). Conservation strategies will, therefore, need to consider species adaptation to environmental and climate change, e.g., in better protected area connectivity and management.
How a typical West African day in the future-climate compares with current-climate conditions in a convection-permitting and parameterised convection climate model
Authors: Fitzpatrick Rory G. J. , Parker Douglas J. , Marsham John H. , Rowell David P. , Jackson Lawrence S. , Finney Declan , Deva Chetan , Tucker Simon , Stratton Rachael 
Published: October 2020

AbstractCurrent-climate precipitation and temperature extremes have been identified by decision makers in West Africa as among the more impactful weather events causing lasting socioeconomic damage. In this article, we use a plausible future-climate scenario (RCP8.5) for the end of the twenty-first century to explore the relative commonness of such extremes under global warming. The analysis presented considers what a typical day in the future climate will feel like relative to current extrema. Across much of West Africa, we see that the typical future-climate day has maximum and minimum temperatures greater than 99.5% of currently experienced values. This finding exists for most months but is particularly pronounced during the Boreal spring and summer. The typical future precipitation event has a daily rainfall rate greater than 95% of current storms. These findings exist in both a future scenario model run with and without parameterised convection, and for many of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project version 5 ensemble members. Additionally, agronomic monsoon onset is projected to occur later and have greater inter-annual variability in the future. Our findings suggest far more extreme conditions in future climate over West Africa. The projected changes in temperature and precipitation could have serious socioeconomic implications, stressing the need for effective mitigation given the potential lack of adaptation pathways available to decision makers.
Simulation Possibilites of the Post-Mining Goafs Impact on the Deformations Induced by Next Underground Mining Operations with Use of the Cellular Automata Method
Authors: Paweł Sikora 
Published: October 2020

AbstractUnderground mining operations in the area of a rock mass affected by previous exploitation may cause additional deformations to appear on the surface. The size of these deformations can be significant, and their character is often non-linear. The nature of these deformations cannot be justified solely by the impact of current mining operations. At the same time, the predictive method of S. Knothe, widely used in Poland, does not explicitly include these types of phenomena. In the area of intensive and long-term mining exploitation, such as the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, the practical possibility of simulating this occurrence may be helpful in the planning of new mining exploitation under construction objects. Today we are usually limited to numerical modelling methods like finite difference method (FDM). This one base on the principle of mechanical similarity. The theoretical usefulness of method (and its similar) has already been proven many times. The main impediment to its practical application is the lack of recognition of the rock mass in terms of its mechanical properties. The presented method is a new approach to the possibility of modelling the subject phenomenon. The method has not been used in practical forecasting mining area deformation caused by underground deposits mining. It’s characterized by a huge potential for further development.
Surfactant Attenuates Air Embolism-Induced Lung Injury by Suppressing NKCC1 Expression and NF-κB Activation
Authors: Lan Chou-Chin , Wu Yao-Kuang , Peng Chung-Kan , Huang Kun-Lun , Wu Chin-Pyng 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Excessive amounts of air can enter the lungs and cause air embolism (AE)-induced acute lung injury (ALI). Pulmonary AE can occur during diving, aviation, and iatrogenic invasive procedures. AE-induced lung injury presents with severe hypoxia, pulmonary hypertension, microvascular hyper-permeability, and severe inflammatory responses. Pulmonary AE-induced ALI is a serious complication resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Surfactant is abundant in the lungs and its function is to lower surface tension. Earlier studies have explored the beneficial effects of surfactant in ALI; however, none have investigated the role of surfactant in pulmonary AE-induced ALI. Therefore, we conducted this study to determine the effects of surfactant in pulmonary AE-induced ALI. Isolated-perfused rat lungs were used as a model of pulmonary AE. The animals were divided into four groups (n = 6 per group): sham, air embolism (AE), AE + surfactant (0.5 mg/kg), and AE+ surfactant (1 mg/kg). Surfactant pretreatment was administered before the induction of pulmonary AE. Pulmonary AE was induced by the infusion of 0.7 cc air through a pulmonary artery catheter. After induction of air, pulmonary AE was presented with pulmonary edema, pulmonary microvascular hyper-permeability, and lung inflammation with neutrophilic sequestration. Activation of NF-κB was observed, along with increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and Na-K-Cl cotransporter isoform 1 (NKCC1). Surfactant suppressed the activation of NF-κB and decreased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and NKCC1, thereby attenuating AE-induced lung injury. Therefore, AE-induced ALI presented with pulmonary edema, microvascular hyper-permeability, and lung inflammation. Surfactant suppressed the expressions of NF-κB, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and NKCC1, thereby attenuating AE-induced lung injury.
Well-Being and Pluralism
Authors: Mitchell Polly , Alexandrova Anna 
Published: October 2020

AbstractIt is a commonly expressed sentiment that the science and philosophy of well-being would do well to learn from each other. Typically such calls identify mistakes and bad practices on both sides that would be remedied if scientists picked the right bit of philosophy and philosophers picked the right bit of science. We argue that the differences between philosophers and scientists thinking about well-being are more difficult to reconcile than such calls suggest, and that pluralism is central to this task. Pluralism is a stance that explicitly drives towards accommodating and nurturing the richness and diversity of well-being, both as a concept and as an object of inquiry. We show that well-being science manifests a contingent pluralism at the level of methodology, whereas philosophy of well-being has largely rejected pluralism at the conceptual level. Recently, things have begun to change. Within philosophy, conceptual monism is under attack. But so is methodological pluralism within science. We welcome the first development, and bemoan the second. We argue that a joined-up philosophy and science of well-being should recognise the virtues of both conceptual and methodological pluralism. Philosophers should embrace the methodological justification of pluralism that can be found in the well-being sciences, and scientists should embrace the conceptual reasons to be pluralist that can be found in philosophical debate.
Functional Limit Theorems for the Fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck Process
Authors: Gehringer Johann , Li Xue-Mei 
Published: October 2020

AbstractWe prove a functional limit theorem for vector-valued functionals of the fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, providing the foundation for the fluctuation theory of slow/fast systems driven by both long- and short-range-dependent noise. The limit process has both Gaussian and non-Gaussian components. The theorem holds for any$$L^2$$L2functions, whereas for functions with stronger integrability properties the convergence is shown to hold in the Hölder topology, the rough topology for processes in$$C^{\frac{1}{2}+}$$C12+. This leads to a ‘rough creation’ / ‘rough homogenization’ theorem, by which we mean the weak convergence of a family of random smooth curves to a non-Markovian random process with non-differentiable sample paths. In particular, we obtain effective dynamics for the second-order problem and for the kinetic fractional Brownian motion model.
Rethinking the Encounter Between Law and Nature in the Anthropocene: From Biopolitical Sovereignty to Wonder
Authors: De Lucia Vito 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe rise of the idea of the Anthropocene is promoting multiple reflections on its meaning. As we consider entering this new geological epoch, we realize the pervasiveness of humankind’s deconstruction and reconstruction of the Earth, in both geophysical and discursive terms. As the body of the Earth is marked and reshaped, so is its idea. From a hostile territory to be subjugated and exploited through sovereign commands, the Earth is now reframed as a vulnerable domain in need of protection. The mode of sovereignty, which has accompanied human and legal history and practice during modernity and its project of mastery, is no longer useful. Humanity’s control of the Earth is being reimagined and reconfigured along biopolitical coordinates of thought and action. Biopolitics shifts the focus of power, changes its modalities of interventions, and rearticulates its legitimacy on the idea of taking responsibility for the Earth, for nature. A biopolitical re-orientation of law captures the fundamental aim of caring for nature, of fostering its vital possibilities and of enhancing its productive potential. Yet, biopolitics engulfs nature in its entirety under its framework of control, where protection and subjugation, vulnerability and productivity, life and death are constantly entangled in a reciprocal and inevitable relation of indistinguishability. Sovereignty becomes thus a key modality of biopolitical intervention, when nature is recalcitrant, wild, spontaneous, unpredictable, violent, dangerous. Biopolitics, thus, remains caught in an undecidable dilemma, where in order to protect the Earth, it must subjugate it; to save it, it must condemn it. In this respect, biopolitics remains utterly modern, or as argued by Roberto Esposito, modernity has always been biopolitical, insofar as modernity has emerged as a framework for the protection of life against life’s own excesses. But how can we escape the biopolitical reframing and enframing of the Earth and its total subsumption under its matrix of control? How can we rethink the encounter between law and nature without remaining entangled in the aporetic dilemma of biopolitics? An aesthetics of wonder may offer a way.
Creating explorable extended reality environments with semantic annotations
Authors: Flotyński Jakub 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe main element of extended reality (XR) environments is behavior-rich 3D content consisting of objects that act and interact with one another as well as with users. Such actions and interactions constitute the evolution of the content over time. Multiple application domains of XR, e.g., education, training, marketing, merchandising, and design, could benefit from the analysis of 3D content changes based on general or domain knowledge comprehensible to average users or domain experts. Such analysis can be intended, in particular, to monitor, comprehend, examine, and control XR environments as well as users’ skills, experience, interests and preferences, and XR objects’ features. However, it is difficult to achieve as long as XR environments are developed with methods and tools that focus on programming and 3D modeling rather than expressing domain knowledge accompanying content users and objects, and their behavior. The main contribution of this paper is an approach to creating explorable knowledge-based XR environments with semantic annotations. The approach combines description logics with aspect-oriented programming, which enables knowledge representation in an arbitrary domain as well as transformation of available environments with minimal users’ effort. We have implemented the approach using well-established development tools and exemplify it with an explorable immersive car showroom. The approach enables efficient creation of explorable XR environments and knowledge acquisition from XR.
Engaging end-user driven recommender systems: personalization through web augmentation
Authors: Wischenbart Martin , Firmenich Sergio , Rossi Gustavo , Bosetti Gabriela , Kapsammer Elisabeth 
Published: October 2020

AbstractIn the past decades recommender systems have become a powerful tool to improve personalization on the Web. Yet, many popular websites lack such functionality, its implementation usually requires certain technical skills, and, above all, its introduction is beyond the scope and control of end-users. To alleviate these problems, this paper presents a novel tool to empower end-users without programming skills, without any involvement of website providers, to embed personalized recommendations of items into arbitrary websites on client-side. For this we have developed a generic meta-model to capture recommender system configuration parameters in general as well as in a web augmentation context. Thereupon, we have implemented a wizard in the form of an easy-to-use browser plug-in, allowing the generation of so-called user scripts, which are executed in the browser to engage collaborative filtering functionality from a provided external rest service. We discuss functionality and limitations of the approach, and in a study with end-users we assess the usability and show its suitability for combining recommender systems with web augmentation techniques, aiming to empower end-users to implement controllable recommender applications for a more personalized browsing experience.
Accessibility in 360° video players
Authors: Hughes Chris J. , Montagud Mario 
Published: October 2020

AbstractAccessibility is a key requirement for any multimedia tool and application. With the current trend towards immersive experiences, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and 360o video, it becomes key that these environments are adapted to be fully accessible. However, until recently the focus has been mostly on adapting the existing techniques to fit immersive displays, rather than considering new approaches for accessibility designed specifically for these increasingly relevant media experiences.This paper surveys a wide range of 360o video players and examines the features they include for dealing with accessibility, such as Subtitles, Audio Description, Sign Language, User Interfaces and other interaction features, like voice control and support for multi-screen scenarios. These features have been chosen based on guidelines from standardization contributions, like in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the International Communication Union (ITU), and from research contributions for making 360° video consumption experiences accessible. The in-depth analysis has been part of a research effort towards the development of a fully inclusive and accessible 360° video player. The paper concludes by discussing how the newly developed player has gone above and beyond the existing solutions and guidelines, by providing accessibility features that meet the expectations for a widely used immersive medium, like 360° video.