bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ferrochrome Slag Feasibility as a Raw Material in Refractories: Evaluation of Thermo-physical and High Temperature Mechanical Properties
Authors: Karhu Marjaana , Talling Bob , Piotrowska Patrycja , Matas Adams Alba , Sengottuvelan Abirami , Huttunen-Saarivirta Elina , Boccaccini Aldo R. , Lintunen Pertti 
Published: May 2020

AbstractThis paper reports the characteristics of ferrochrome slag and its feasibility as aggregate in refractories aiming to substitute virgin refractory raw materials. Refractory castable specimens were formulated with ferrochrome slag as an aggregate and commercial calcium aluminate cement as a binder. Objective was to prepare refractory specimens with a maximum slag utilization but simultaneously to sustain good properties, comparable to those of virgin raw material refractory products. Mechanical and thermo-physical properties of the cured, dried and sintered specimens were characterized. Cold crushing strengths of best performing ferrochrome slag containing specimens were higher than 90 MPa and compressive strength values measured at 1200 °C were over 9 MPa. Thermal insulation properties were even better than those of commercial refractory reference, showing thermal conductivity values as low as λRT−1000 °C = 1.3 − 0.9 W/m K. The liquid phase formation above 1200 °C limits the ferrochrome slag use for refractory applications. Results suggest ferrochrome slag’s feasibility as an aggregate raw material for refractory materials up to temperatures of 1200 °C in air and up to temperatures of 700 °C in acidic gaseous atmosphere. Possible applications for this kind of novel refractory materials are, e.g., insulating secondary layers or bottom zones in metallurgical processes to substitute virgin refractories. A direct contact to molten metal must be avoided, but they are applicable as, e.g. floorings when exposed only to occasional melt droplets.
Graphic Abstract
Assessment of low-frequency noise from wind turbines under different weather conditions
Authors: Chiu Chun-Hsiang , Lung Shih-Chun Candice 
Published: May 2020

Abstract
Background
Low-frequency (20–200 Hz) noise (LFN) from wind turbines has received much public attention due to potential health concerns. This work tries to estimate the sound power level of wind turbines (LW,A (dB)) at 20–200 Hz, which are not provided by manufacturers but essential for estimating LFN exposure (LAeq) of nearby residents.

Methods
LW,A at 20–200 Hz at three wind farms, each with a different brand of wind turbine (Brands A, B and C, respectively) were estimated using propagation model ISO 9613-2 under different weather conditions (rain, wind speed and wind direction) and validated with LFN monitoring data. The feasibility of using validated LW,A as inputs for ISO 9613-2 to simulate residents’ exposure (LAeq) to LFN were assessed considering interferences from rain, wind speed and wind directions.

Results
The average LW,A at 20–200 Hz ranged between 93.2 and 100.4 dB, 97.8 and 107.2 dB, and 96.5 and 110.4 dB for turbines of Brands A, B, and C, respectively, operating under wind speeds from 2 to 12 m/s. The LW,A at wind speed of 2–8 m/s increased on average by 1.4, 1.9 and 1.7 dB per 1 m/s increase for Brands A, B and C, respectively. The differences in modeled Leq obtained through the input of LW,A into the ISO 9613-2 model and the measured LAeq for the three studied wind farms all fall within 1.5 dB.

Conclusion
This study successfully determined and validated the LW,A of wind turbines of three brands, and subsequent residents’ LFN exposure (with 1.5 dB difference) at three wind farms. Accurately obtaining LFN exposure will serve as the basis for assessing LFN exposure-health relationship. As wind power widely use worldwide, health impact should be assessed based on validated LFN exposure assessment.
Is there an association between serum 25(OH)D3 and mental well-being in patients with type 2 diabetes? Results from a cohort study in primary care
Authors: Samefors Maria , Scragg Robert , Nystrom Fredrik H. , Östgren Carl Johan 
Published: May 2020

Abstract
Purpose
There are limited and inconsistent results on the correlation between vitamin D and mental health in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Thus, our aim was to explore the association between vitamin D and mental well-being in a community-based sample of participants with T2D.

Methods
We analyzed serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) in 698 patients with T2D at the baseline examination. The cohort was reinvestigated after 4 years. Data from SF-36 questionnaires measuring vitality and mental health at baseline and after 4 years were used for analyses.

Results
Serum 25(OH)D3 was inversely associated with poor mental health at baseline (odds ratio (OR) for 10 nmol/l increase in 25(OH)D3, 0.90 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.83–0.96, p = 0.003)) but not at follow-up (p > 0.05). Serum 25(OH)D3 was not associated with vitality at baseline (p > 0.05). At follow-up, there was an inverse association between 25(OH)D3 and low vitality (OR for 10 nmol/l increase in 25(OH)D3, 0.89 (95% CI 0.82–0.97, p = 0.009)) but not after adjustment.

Conclusion
We found an inverse association between 25(OH)D3 and mental health in patients with T2D at baseline. We found no association between 25(OH)D3 and vitality after adjustment. Future studies are needed to determine the association between vitamin D and mental well-being in patients with T2D.
Sexual Motivators and Endorsement of Models Describing Sexual Response of Men Undergoing Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Advanced Prostate Cancer
Authors: Fode Mikkel , Mosholt Karina Søndergaard , Nielsen Torben Kjær , Tolouee Sara , Giraldi Annamaria , Østergren Peter Busch , Azawi Nessn 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) administered against metastatic prostate cancer has significant side effects including sexual dysfunction.

Aim
To assess sexual interest and motivators for sex during ADT and to find out what model of sexuality best describes the sexual experience for men during this treatment.

Methods
A questionnaire was mailed to patients who had received ADT for ≥6 months. Patients were asked to choose all relevant entities from a list of sexual motivators and between models of sexuality described by Masters and Johnson (excitement and physical experiences), Kaplan (sexual desire), and Basson (intimacy and closeness to partner). Erectile function was assessed by the Erection Hardness Scale, and sexual satisfaction was measured on a scale from 0 to 10.

Outcomes
Sexual activity, erectile function, sexual satisfaction, and motivators for sexual interest in the study subjects as well as the proportion of participants who endorsed either of the 3 models of sexuality.

Results
A total of 173 men were invited, and 76 returned the questionnaires (44%). The median age was 76 (range 69–80) years, and the median duration of ADT was 30 months. A total of 62 men had been sexually active before ADT, and of these, 2 were still active. Another 29 were interested in sexual activity. 3 men endorsed the Masters and Johnson model, whereas the remaining participants did not endorse any of the models. The motivators for sexual interest were feeling an emotional connection to the partner (n = 16), sexual desire (n = 10), satisfaction of the partner (n = 8), fear that the partner would leave (n = 4), achieving orgasm (n = 3), and a desire to feel masculine (n = 1). No one was interested in sexual activity to reduce stress or to maintain confidence. Only 1 patient had erections sufficient for penetrative intercourse, and the median sexual satisfaction for the entire group was 0 (interquartile range: 0–5).

Clinical Implications
Sexuality and sexual function should be addressed in men undergoing ADT.

Strengths & Limitations
The main strength of our study is that we are the first to explore both motivators for sexual activity and endorsement of sexual models in men undergoing ADT. The study is limited by the relatively low number of participants and the response rate of 44%.

Conclusion
ADT is detrimental to sexual function. However, many patients maintain an interest in sexual activity, which does not fit our established models. Rather, factors such as keeping an emotional connection with a partner play a role.
Doing being middle-class in the global South: comparative perspectives and conceptual challenges
Authors: Lentz Carola 
Published: May 2020

AbstractLike many key terms in history and the social sciences, ‘middle class’ is at once a category ‘of social and political analysis’ and a category ‘of social and political practice’, in Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper's terms – two aspects that were, and continue to be, entangled in complex ways. Since the end of the eighteenth century, the term ‘middle class’, or the ‘middling sorts’, has been a catchword in political discourse, and it became one long before scholars defined it in any systematic fashion. Once it became a more or less well-established conceptual tool of research, however, it began to take on an academic life of its own, with scholars also using it to describe people who did not invoke this category for their own self-description. But scholarly terms could – and indeed did – also feed back into folk understandings of social stratification. In particular, the recent global popularity of the term ‘middle class’ seems to be at least in part a result of the appropriation of academic categories by policymakers. This article contributes to the discussion on African middle classes by tracing the genealogy of theoretical perspectives on class and by outlining some findings from studies of the history of European and American middle classes as well as recent research on middle classes in the global South. I discuss both the history of scholarly debates on the middle classes and what empirical studies tell us about people's contested self-categorizations, and how their understandings and practices of being middle-class have changed over time. The article argues that future research on the dynamics of African social stratification has much to gain from a regional and historical comparative perspective.
Structures, feelings andsavoir faire: Ghana's middle classes in the making
Authors: Spronk Rachel 
Published: May 2020

AbstractThe concept of ‘middle class’ in African societies has been recognized recently but at the same time it resists clear-cut definition. Rather than seeking clearer classification, I propose to embrace its contested nature as productive, seeing ‘middle class’ not as a category that we can find ‘out there’ and measure, but as a classification-in-the-making. Middle-class status, or a particular idea of the good life, is a position people strive towards, but what this entails depends on context and place. The study of the pursuit of social mobility in Ghana during colonialism, independence and the post-Cold War period – of those who have successfully improved their livelihoods – provides knowledge about the middle class in the making in different eras and under different conditions. I propose a three-pronged approach to study this processual nature: Raymond Williams’ notion of ‘structures of feeling’ helps unravel the shifting affective qualities of the changing political economy, while Sara Ahmed's focus on the ‘feelings of structure’ zooms in on agency as an important tool to analyse how middle-class trajectories unfold over time. Lastly, the availability of advantageous conditions is not enough to stimulate change; one needs thesavoir faireto enact them.
Going up or getting out? Professional insecurity and austerity in the South African health sector
Authors: Hull Elizabeth 
Published: May 2020

AbstractAs a precondition of belonging, professionalism is often a taken-for-granted feature of being middle-class. Yet ethnographic attention to experiences of work reveals that professional identity can be fragile. Drawing on ethnographic research among nurses in KwaZulu-Natal, this article traces the feelings of precarity about work and the ambivalence that pervades ideas of professionalism. This ambiguity arises partly out of a peculiarly South African story in which histories of professionalism are entwined with the repressive apartheid project of separate development. Many of the professionals working as teachers, nurses, lawyers and administrators today were trained in the former ‘homelands’. Practices of professionalism are entangled with those of clientelism inherited from this earlier period of homeland politics. These local histories combine with wider processes of neoliberalism, as conditions of austerity produce structural shifts towards casualization. The article traces these dynamics in the stories of two nurses and considers what may be at stake politically as middle-class trajectories are threatened. Moving away from a view of the middle classes as either democratic or anti-democratic, feelings of ambivalence about work make questions of political allegiance an ambiguous and fraught matter.
Francophone Muslim intellectuals, Islamic associational life and religious authority in Burkina Faso
Authors: Madore Frédérick 
Published: May 2020

AbstractThe attention paid to the security threats hanging over Burkina Faso, while legitimate, has overshadowed the underlying transformations in Islamic associational life since the fall of President Blaise Compaoré in October 2014. This major political upheaval had a significant impact on the participation of Muslims in socio-political debates, the relations between generations and, more widely, the bases upon which religious authority is claimed. This article analyses the competition for religious leadership between Islamic actors in the public sphere in Burkina Faso by focusing mainly on francophone ‘Muslim intellectuals’. First, the study shows the gap between the gerontocracy at the helm of the main Islamic associations and the Burkinabe youth, which widened throughout the 1990s and 2000s and came strongly to the fore after the popular uprising of October 2014. Second, taking advantage of the space left vacant by traditional community leaders during the transition process, some young francophone ‘Muslim intellectuals’ actively sought to portray themselves as the vehicles of a ‘civil Islam’ and strove to promote new forms of civic engagement through religion. Other Muslim organizations have also tried to take advantage of the new political context to strengthen their presence in the socio-political arena.
Autoimmune thyroid diseases after 25 years of universal salt iodisation: an epidemiological study of Chinese adults in areas with different water iodine levels
Authors: Wan Siyuan , Qu Mengying , Wu Huaiyong , Ren Bingxuan , Jiang Wen , Wang Xiaoming , Liu Lixiang , Shen Hongmei 
Published: May 2020

AbstractThe present study aimed to evaluate the status of iodine nutrition and thyroid function in adults, to understand the distribution of thyroid disease in people with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) in different water iodine areas and to explore the relationship between serum iodine, urine iodine and thyroid function in people with AITD. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in areas of Shandong Province with different water iodine levels, and subsequently 1225 adults were enrolled from iodine-deficient (ID), iodine-adequate (IA) and iodine-excess (IE) areas. Urinary iodine, water iodine, salt iodine, serum iodine and thyroid function were measured. According to the urine iodine concentration, the ID and IA areas were defined as iodine sufficient and the IE area as iodine excessive. Urine iodine, serum iodine, free thyroxine (FT4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels were comparatively higher in the IE area. The positive rate of thyroglobulin antibody (19·1 %) and the prevalence of AITD (21·8 %) were higher in the ID areas; the prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism was lowest in the ID areas (7·3 %) and highest in the IE area (16·3 %). Among the AITD population, urinary iodine concentration, free triiodothyronine, FT4 and TSH had a non-linear correlation with serum iodine; abnormal TSH level, serum iodine concentration > 110 µg/l and goitre were risk factors for AITD in adults, especially females. Our data collectively suggest that universal salt iodisation has improved the iodine nutritional status of the population in ID areas in China. Non-step-by-step iodine fortification may induce the transformation of thyroid autoimmune diseases from recessive-to-dominant in susceptible people. Moreover, enhanced monitoring of thyroid function in people with AITD is important.
Compensation of thermal loss in free-electron laser with optimal tapering and pre-bunching
Authors: Bazouband F. 
Published: May 2020

AbstractIncreasing the output power of a long-wavelength free-electron laser (FEL), despite the destroying effects of beam energy spread, is studied using the optimal pre-bunching of the thermal electron beam along with the optimal tapering of the planar wiggler magnetic field. A set of self-consistent coupled nonlinear differential equations in three dimensional that describe the evolution of radiation and electron beam in the interaction zone are solved numerically by the Runge–Kutta method. The axial energy spread is considered and it degrades the FEL performance by reducing the saturation power and increasing the saturation length. To compensate these destroying effects, the optimum function or degree of electron beam pre-bunching and optimum parameters of wiggler tapering are found by the successive runs of the simulation code.
The association of animal and plant protein with successful ageing: a combined analysis of MEDIS and ATTICA epidemiological studies
Authors: Foscolou Alexandra , Critselis Elena , Tyrovolas Stefanos , Chrysohoou Christina , Naumovski Nenad , Sidossis Labros S , Rallidis Loukianos , Matalas Antonia-Leda , Panagiotakos Demosthenes 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Objective:
The aim of the present study was to investigate the differences between the consumption of plant-based v. animal-based protein-rich diets on successful ageing, as well as to identify the optimal combination of dietary protein intake for facilitating successful ageing in people aged >50 years.

Design:
A combined analysis was conducted in older adults of the ATTICA and MEDIS population-based cross-sectional studies. Anthropometrical, clinical and sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle parameters, dietary habits and level of protein intake were derived through standard procedures. Successful ageing was evaluated using the validated Successful Aging Index (SAI) composed of ten health-related social, lifestyle and clinical characteristics.

Setting:
Athens area and twenty Greek islands.

Participants:
A total of 3349 Greek women and men over 50 years old.

Results:
Participants with high consumption of plant proteins were more likely to be male, physically active, with higher daily energy intake, higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet and higher level of SAI (P < 0·001). Participants with ‘Low animal & High plant’ and ‘High animal & High plant’ protein consumption had a 6 and 7 % higher SAI score, respectively, compared with the other participants (P < 0·001). In contrast, ‘Low animal & Low plant’ and ‘High animal & Low plant’ protein intake was negatively associated with SAI as compared to the combination of all other consumption categories (P < 0·02).

Conclusions:
The consumption of a plant-based protein-rich diet seems to be a beneficial nutritional choice that should be promoted and encouraged to older people since it may benefit both individual’s health and prolong successful ageing.
Impacts of Urbanization on Watershed Water Balances Across the Conterminous United States
Authors: Li Cheng , Sun Ge , Caldwell Peter V. , Cohen Erika , Fang Yuan , Zhang Yindan , Oudin Ludovic , Sanchez Georgina M. , Meentemeyer Ross K. 
Published: May 2020

AbstractUrbanization impacts ecosystem functions and services by fundamentally altering the balances between precipitation, water yield (Q), and evapotranspiration (ET) in watersheds. Accurate quantification of future hydrologic impacts is essential for national urban planning and watershed management decision making. We hypothesize that “hydrologic impacts of urbanization are not created equal” as a result of the large spatial variability in climate and land use/land cover change (LULCC). A monthly water balance model was validated and applied to quantify the hydrologic responses of 81,900 12‐digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) watersheds to historical and projected LULC in 2000, 2010, 2050, and 2100 in the conterminous United States (CONUS). Stepwise regression and Geographically Weighted Regression models were used to identify key factors controlling the spatially varied hydrologic impacts across CONUS. Although the simulated impact of future urbanization on mean change in water yield (ΔQ) was small at the national level, significant changes (ΔQ > 50 mm/year) were found in 1,046 and 3,747 watersheds by 2050 and 2100, respectively. Hydrologic responses varied spatially and were more pronounced in the eastern United States. Overall, the impacts of urbanization on water yield were influenced by local climate, previous LULC characteristics, and the magnitude of changes in land use and impervious surfaces. The continued increase in impervious surface, especially in previously urbanized watersheds, and background precipitation contributed most to future ΔQ through both increase in direct runoff and reduction in ET. Effective national‐scale integrated watershed management strategies must consider local climatic and LULC conditions to minimize negative hydrologic impacts of urbanization.
Roles of Magnetospheric Convection on Nonlinear Drift Resonance Between Electrons and ULF Waves
Authors: Li Li , Omura Yoshiharu , Zhou Xu‐Zhi , Zong Qiu‐Gang , Fu Sui‐Yan , Rankin Robert , Degeling Alexander W. 
Published: May 2020

AbstractIn the Earth's inner magnetosphere, charged particles can be accelerated and transported by ultralow frequency (ULF) waves via drift resonance. We investigate the effects of magnetospheric convection on the nonlinear drift resonance process, which provides an inhomogeneity factor S to externally drive the pendulum equation that describes the particle motion in the ULF wave field. The S factor, defined as the ratio of the driving amplitude to the square of the pendulum trapping frequency, is found to vary with magnetic local time and, as a consequence, oscillates quasi‐periodically at the particle drift frequency ωd. To better understand the particle behavior governed by the driven pendulum equation, we carry out simulations to obtain the evolution of electron distribution functions in energy and L‐shell phase space. We find that resonant electrons can remain phase trapped by the low‐m ULF waves under strong convection electric field, whereas for high‐m ULF waves, the electrons trajectories can be significantly modified. More interestingly, the electron drift frequency ωd is close to the nonlinear trapping frequency ωtr for intermediate‐m ULF waves, which corresponds to chaotic motion of resonant electrons. These findings shed new light on the nature of coherent and diffusive particle transport in the inner magnetosphere.