bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of wetting and drying cycles on the durability of bio-cemented soil of expressway slope
Authors: Gowthaman S. , Nakashima K. , Kawasaki S. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractCyclic wet-dry is one of the influential weathering agents which can rapidly alter the mechanical properties of soils, limiting their durability and consistent performance. This study investigates the effect of wet-dry cycles on the mechanical behaviour of bio-cemented soil. Microbial-induced carbonate precipitation-based bio-cementation is an innovative soil improvement method, which is gaining increasing attention as a potential alternative for stabilizing slope surface. As the treated surfaces are exposed to repeated rainfalls and draughts, durability analysis is essential; cyclic wet-dry tests were therefore performed as a credible indicator of durability. The soil obtained from the Hokkaido expressway slope was treated at laboratory to varying cementation levels (% CaCO3) and subjected to 50 subsequent wet-dry cycles. Physical and mechanical changes were monitored using mass loss, shear wave velocities and needle penetration tests during wet-dry cycles. The results showed that the wet-dry cycles deteriorated the physical and mechanical at two stages. The mass and S-wave velocity of specimens significantly dropped after first few cycles and then tended to reach equilibrium. The second stage of notable deterioration was observed between 30 and 50 wet-dry cycles. It is suggested that the erosion of weak and powdery deposition of CaCO3 causes the degradation at the early stage, whereas the degradation in the late stage was attributed to the microstructural deformations of intact carbonate bonds. It was also found that the increase in cementation level decreases the deterioration of bio-cemented soil under wet-dry cycles.
The Role of Mu-Opioids for Reward and Threat Processing in Humans: Bridging the Gap from Preclinical to Clinical Opioid Drug Studies
Authors: Meier Isabell M. , Eikemo Marie , Leknes Siri 
Published: April 2021

AbstractPurpose of ReviewOpioid receptors are widely expressed in the human brain. A number of features commonly associated with drug use disorder, such as difficulties in emotional learning, emotion regulation and anhedonia, have been linked to endogenous opioid signalling. Whereas chronic substance use and misuse are thought to alter the function of the mu-opioid system, the specific mechanisms are not well understood. We argue that understanding exogenous and endogenous opioid effects in the healthy human brain is an essential foundation for bridging preclinical and clinical findings related to opioid misuse. Here, we will examine psychopharmacological evidence to outline the role of the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) system in the processing of threat and reward, and discuss how disruption of these processes by chronic opioid use might alter emotional learning and reward responsiveness.Recent FindingsIn healthy people, studies using opioid antagonist drugs indicate that the brain’s endogenous opioids downregulate fear reactivity and upregulate learning from safety. At the same time, endogenous opioids increase the liking of and motivation to engage with high reward value cues. Studies of acute opioid agonist effects indicate that with non-sedative doses, drugs such as morphine and buprenorphine can mimic endogenous opioid effects on liking and wanting. Disruption of endogenous opioid signalling due to prolonged opioid exposure is associated with some degree of anhedonia to non-drug rewards; however, new results leave open the possibility that this is not directly opioid-mediated.SummaryThe available human psychopharmacological evidence indicates that the healthy mu-opioid system contributes to the regulation of reward and threat processing. Overall, endogenous opioids can subtly increase liking and wanting responses to a wide variety of rewards, from sweet tastes to feelings of being connected to close others. For threat-related processing, human evidence suggests that endogenous opioids inhibit fear conditioning and reduce the sensitivity to aversive stimuli, although inconsistencies remain. The size of effects reported in healthy humans are however modest, clearly indicating that MORs play out their role in close concert with other neurotransmitter systems. Relevant candidate systems for future research include dopamine, serotonin and endocannabinoid signalling. Nevertheless, it is possible that endogenous opioid fine-tuning of reward and threat processing, when unbalanced by e.g. opioid misuse, could over time develop into symptoms associated with opioid use disorder, such as anhedonia and depression/anxiety.
Tsukushi and TSKU genotype in obesity and related metabolic disorders
Authors: Li Y. , Jin L. , Yan J. , Huang Y. , Zhang H. , Zhang R. , Hu C. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Purpose
Whether Tsukushi (TSK) can protect against high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and improve glucose metabolism remains controversial. Serum levels of TSK in the population have not been reported until now. We assessed the association among TSK level, TSKU genotype, and metabolic traits in humans.

Methods
Associations between serum TSK levels and metabolic traits were assessed in 144 Han Chinese individuals. Loci in the TSKU gene region were further genotyped in 11,022 individuals. The association between the loci and serum TSK level was evaluated using the additive genetic model. The association between the loci and their metabolic traits in humans were also verified.

Results
Lower TSK levels were observed in obese subjects than in control subjects (median and interquartile range 17.78:12.07–23.28 vs. 23.81:12.54–34.56, P < 0.05). However, in obese subjects, TSK was positively associated with BMI (β ± SE: 0.63 ± 0.31, P = 0.049), visceral fat area (β ± SE: 12.15 ± 5.94, P = 0.011), and deterioration of glucose metabolism. We found that rs11236956 was associated with TSK level in obese subjects (β 95% CI 0.17, 0.07–0.26; P = 0.0007). There was also a significant association between rs11236956 and metabolic traits in our population.

Conclusions
Our findings showed that serum TSK levels were associated with metabolic disorders in obese subjects. We also identified rs11236956 to be associated with serum TSK levels in obese subjects and with metabolic disorders in the total population.
Algorithm for solving the decision-making problems based on correlation coefficients under cubic intuitionistic fuzzy information: a case study in watershed hydrological system
Authors: Garg Harish , Kaur Gagandeep 
Published: April 2021

AbstractCubic intuitionistic fuzzy sets (CIFSs) are a powerful and relevant medium for expressing imprecise information to solve the decision-making problems. The conspicuous feature of their mathematical concept is that it considers simultaneously the hallmarks of both the intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) and interval-valued IFSs. The present paper is divided into two parts: (i) defining the correlation measures for the CIFSs; (ii) introducing the decision-making algorithm for the CIFS information. Furthermore, few of the fundamental properties of these measures are examined in detail. Based on this, we define a novel algorithm to solve the multi-criteria decision-making process and illustrate numerical examples related to watershed’s hydrological geographical areas, global recruitment problem and so on. A contrastive analysis with several existing studies is also administered to test the effectiveness and verify the proposed method.
The academic wanderer: structure of collaboration network and relation with research performance
Authors: Paraskevopoulos Pavlos , Boldrini Chiara , Passarella Andrea , Conti Marco 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThanks to the widespread availability of large-scale datasets on scholarly outputs, science itself has come under the microscope with the aim of capturing a quantitative understanding of its workings. In this study, we leverage well-established cognitive models coming from anthropology in order to characterise the personal network of collaborations between scientists, i.e., the network considered from the standpoint of each individual researcher (referred to as ego network), in terms of the cognitive investment they devote to the different collaborations. Building upon these models, we study the interplay between the structure of academic collaborations, academic performance, and academic mobility at different career stages. We take into account both purely academic mobility (i.e., the number of affiliation changes) and geographical mobility (i.e., physical relocations to different countries). For our investigation, we rely on a dataset comprising the geo-referenced publications of a group of 81,500 authors extracted from Scopus, one of the biggest repositories of academic knowledge. Our main finding is that there is a clear correlation between the structure of co-authorship ego networks and academic performance indices: the more one publishes and the higher their impact, the larger their collaboration network. However, we observe a capacity bound effect, whereby, beyond a certain point, higher performances become increasingly less correlated with large collaboration networks. We also find that international academic migrants are better at growing their networks than researchers that only migrate within the same country, but the latter seem to be better in exploiting their collaboration to achieve higher impact. High academic mobility does not appear to translate into better academic performance or larger collaboration networks. This shows a different finding with respect to related literature, where scientific productivity is seen as directly linked to mobility. Our results show that, when looking atimpactof research, this is not necessarily the case.
Experimental investigation of the displacement flow mechanism and oil recovery in primary polymer flood operations
Authors: Mahon Ruissein , Oluyemi Gbenga , Oyeneyin Babs , Balogun Yakubu 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Polymer flooding is a mature chemical enhanced oil recovery method employed in oilfields at pilot testing and field scales. Although results from these applications empirically demonstrate the higher displacement efficiency of polymer flooding over waterflooding operations, the fact remains that not all the oil will be recovered. Thus, continued research attention is needed to further understand the displacement flow mechanism of the immiscible process and the rock–fluid interaction propagated by the multiphase flow during polymer flooding operations. In this study, displacement sequence experiments were conducted to investigate the viscosifying effect of polymer solutions on oil recovery in sandpack systems. The history matching technique was employed to estimate relative permeability, fractional flow and saturation profile through the implementation of a Corey-type function. Experimental results showed that in the case of the motor oil being the displaced fluid, the XG 2500 ppm polymer achieved a 47.0% increase in oil recovery compared with the waterflood case, while the XG 1000 ppm polymer achieved a 38.6% increase in oil recovery compared with the waterflood case. Testing with the motor oil being the displaced fluid, the viscosity ratio was 136 for the waterflood case, 18 for the polymer flood case with XG 1000 ppm polymer and 9 for the polymer flood case with XG 2500 ppm polymer. Findings also revealed that for the waterflood cases, the porous media exhibited oil-wet characteristics, while the polymer flood cases demonstrated water-wet characteristics. This paper provides theoretical support for the application of polymer to improve oil recovery by providing insights into the mechanism behind oil displacement.

Graphic abstract

Highlights

The difference in shape of relative permeability curves are indicative of the effect of mobility control of each polymer concentration.

The water-oil systems exhibited oil-wet characteristics, while the polymer-oil systems demonstrated water-wet characteristics.

A large contrast in displacing and displaced fluid viscosities led to viscous fingering and early water breakthrough.
Effect of deficit irrigation and kaolin clay on yield and yield components of pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.)
Authors: Khalili Mikaiel , Nejatzadeh Fatemeh 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis experiment was conducted to determine the effect of kaolin clay application and deficit irrigation on quantitative characteristics of pumpkin in a field located in Siahbaz village of Khoy, Iran. In order to investigate the effect of irrigation and kaolin clay on yield and yield components of (Cucurbita pepo L.), this experimental was considered. An experiment was performed with irrigation at four levels (complete irrigation, deficit irrigation from the shoot stage, deficit irrigation from flowering stage and deficit irrigation from seed filling stage) and three levels of kaolin foliar application (control, 3% kaolin and 6% kaolin) was considered. Analysis of variance showed that deficit irrigation and kaolin had significant effect on number of seeds per fruit, fruit yield, 1000 grain weight, grain and biological yield, harvest index, oil and protein percentage, oil yield and protein yield. Maximum grain weight (294.5 gr), grain yield (807 kg ha−1), oil percentage (46.2) and oil yield (373.3 kg ha−1) were related to complete irrigation treatment. The highest grain weight (257.07 gr), grain yield (733 kg ha−1) and fruit yield (23.8 kg ha−1) were observed in the 3% kaolin. Based on the results, deficit irrigation at seed filling stage was superior to other treatments. Kaolin had no effect on grain yield and could be interrupted once without irrigation. Kaolin used in this experiment under irrigation limitation conditions could partially offset the water-deficit yield due to control treatment. Due to lack of water, yield of untreated plants was lower than kaolin-treated ones.
Recent advances in CRISPR/Cas9 and applications for wheat functional genomics and breeding
Authors: Li Jun , Li Yan , Ma Ligeng 
Published: April 2021

AbstractCommon wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the three major food crops in the world; thus, wheat breeding programs are important for world food security. Characterizing the genes that control important agronomic traits and finding new ways to alter them are necessary to improve wheat breeding. Functional genomics and breeding in polyploid wheat has been greatly accelerated by the advent of several powerful tools, especially CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology, which allows multiplex genome engineering. Here, we describe the development of CRISPR/Cas9, which has revolutionized the field of genome editing. In addition, we emphasize technological breakthroughs (e.g., base editing and prime editing) based on CRISPR/Cas9. We also summarize recent applications and advances in the functional annotation and breeding of wheat, and we introduce the production of CRISPR-edited DNA-free wheat. Combined with other achievements, CRISPR and CRISPR-based genome editing will speed progress in wheat biology and promote sustainable agriculture.
Ende
Authors: Lindsey Kate L. 
Published: April 2021

Ende (ISO639-3 code: kit) is a Pahoturi River language spoken by at least 600 (Eberhard, Simons & Fennig 2019) and as many as 1000 (Dareda 2016) people in Western Province, Papua New Guinea, primarily in the villages of Limol, Malam, and Kinkin, as shown in Figure 1. The Pahoturi River family, which also includes the Agob, Em, Idi, Kawam, and Taeme language varieties, has not yet been demonstrated to be related to any other language family and is thus classified as Papuan due to its geographical location. As with many languages in the region, the name of the language, Ende /ende/ [ʔende], is the Ende word meaning ‘what’.
Judicial authority, legitimacy and the (international) rule of law as essentially contested and interpretive concepts: Introduction to the special issue
Authors: TRAISBACH KNUT 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBeyond setting the stage, the Introduction makes three claims about the conceptual triangle of the rule of law, judicial authority and legitimacy. The first is that all three are essentially contested and interpretive concepts in the sense of Walter B. Gallie and Ronald Dworkin. In their expositions, the contested and interpretative nature of such concepts is nothing to be ‘solved’, rather the formulation of different conceptions and contestation about them are central functions of such concepts. The interpretive and essentially contested nature points us to the relevant ‘actors’ and to conflicts and trade-offs between contested competencies. Thus the second point is that arguments about the rule of law and judicial legitimacy are often a means of questioning or securing the authority of a particular actor or institution in relation to other actors and institutions. The final point is that transposing concepts from the domestic to the supranational is a constructive endeavour because it entails creating new conceptions and substituting old ones as well as legitimising new authorities and delegitimising old ones. Thus, this special issue also cautions against discourses that ultimately are more about legitimation than about legitimacy and more about new ways of ruling than the rule of law.
Hybrid Plasma Simulations of Farley‐Buneman Instabilities in the Auroral E‐Region
Authors: Rojas E. L. , Hysell D. L. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWe implemented a hybrid continuous solver for fluid electrons and kinetic ions. Because the simulation is continuous, numerical noise is not an issue as it is for particle‐in‐cell approaches. Moreover, given that the ion kinetic equation is solved using a characteristic based method, no particle pushes have to be done. Our main goals are to reduce the computational cost of the simulations proposed by Kovalev (Kovalev et al., 2008, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo2628532008) and reproduce the main experimental features of Farley‐Buneman instabilities measured by radars and rockets. The equations were derived from first principles using the approximations that are satisfied in the auroral E‐region. Various tests will be presented to assess numerical accuracy. With the proposed numerical framework, we are able to recover important nonlinear features associated with Farley‐Buneman instabilities: wave turning of dominant modes, and saturation of density irregularities at values consistent with experiments.
Quantification of Ionospheric Perturbations From Lightning Using Overlapping Paths of VLF Signal Propagation
Authors: Gołkowski M. , Renick C. , Cohen M. B. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractLightning induced perturbations of the lower ionosphere are investigated with very low frequency (VLF) remote sensing on a unique overlapping propagation path geometry. The signals from two VLF transmitters (at different frequencies) are observed at a single receiver after propagation through a common channel in the Earth‐ionosphere waveguide. This measurement diversity allows for greater certainty in quantification of perturbations to the ionospheric D region. Changes in amplitude and phase are modeled with the Long Wave Propagation Capability (LWPC) software package to quantify changes in reference height and steepness of the two parameter D region electron density model. Since the nighttime D region profile prior to the perturbation is found to strongly affect the resulting quantification, and is highly variable and generally unknown at nighttime, an error minimization method for identifying the most likely ionospheric disturbance independent of the ambient profile is used. Analysis of 12 large lightning perturbations resulting from discharges with peak currents greater than 160 kA shows that the ionospheric reference height can change by 2–8 km. We investigate both early/fast events (direct ionization and heating from lightning) and lightning‐induced electron precipitation (LEP) events, induced by lightning hundreds of kilometer away. LEP events increase D region electron density while early/fast events can lead to a increase or decrease in electron density. Multi‐point observations along a VLF propagation path are needed to further improve ionospheric perturbation quantification with VLF remote sensing.
Longitudinal Variations of Equatorial Ionospheric Electric Fields Near Sunrise
Authors: Chen Junjie , Wang Wenbin , Lei Jiuhou 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn this work, we carry out a comprehensive modeling study, using the Thermosphere–Ionosphere–Electrodynamics General Circulation Model, to explore the physical processes by which the longitude‐dependent geomagnetic field drives the longitudinal variations of the sunrise enhancement of the zonal electric fields at the dip equator near the June solstice. Numerical experiments and diagnostic analyses of the electrodynamics equation show that the longitudinal differences of the equatorial zonal electric fields near sunrise are primarily associated with the longitudinal variations in the zonal wind dynamo, with those from the meridional wind dynamo contributing secondarily. Furthermore, the longitudinal differences of the wind dynamo near sunrise are mainly related to the longitudinal variations of and conductance, which are caused primarily by the direct influence of the longitudinal structures of magnetic field declination and strength. Meanwhile, the longitudinal variations of neutral winds, which also result in moderate longitudinal variations, play a secondary role in the longitudinal variations of the neutral wind dynamo, while plasma density, which has minor longitudinal differences near sunrise, contributes slightly by modifying the conductance. Overall, the sunrise enhancement in June is more significant at the longitudes where the magnetic field strength and distortion are larger or the magnetic field declination is smaller in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Influence of Arctic Landfast Ice on Seasonal Modulation of the M2 Tide
Authors: Bij de Vaate I. , Vasulkar A. N. , Slobbe D. C. , Verlaan M. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractSeasonal modulation of the M2 tide has been quantified for the entire Arctic Ocean and connected regional seas, using tidal harmonic analysis of water levels derived from Synthetic Aperture Radar altimetry. Results are compared to numerical simulations that model the effect of two limiting cases of seasonal landfast ice cover on the M2 tide. The largest seasonal modulation (up to 0.25 m) is observed along coastlines and in bays. Locally, the presence of landfast ice decreases amplitudes, but in some cases, the opposite effect was observed further afield. In most of the Arctic, winter months experience a later arrival of the tide, except for Hudson Bay where phase advance is observed. Most of the altimeter‐derived seasonal modulation could be explained by the modeled impact of landfast ice. However, particularly in the Hudson Bay system there is a discrepancy between model‐ and altimeter‐derived seasonal modulation. This suggests that other seasonal processes are important. Finally, results suggest that the consequences of variations in Arctic landfast ice are not restricted to the Arctic, but affect tidal water levels on a global scale.