bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Physical activity, diet, and weight loss in patients recruited from primary care settings: An update on obesity management interventions
Authors: de Lannoy Louise , Cowan Theresa , Fernandez Angela , Ross Robert 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBackgroundObesity and related comorbidities are the most common chronic conditions in North America where behavior modification including the adoption of physical activity (PA) and a healthful diet are primary treatment strategies. Patients are more likely to engage in behavior modification if encouraged by their physician; however, behavioral counseling in primary care rarely occurs due to lack of training and resources. A more effective method may be to refer patients from clinical settings to other health professionals.ObjectiveThis systematic review examines the effectiveness of behavior‐based counseling for obesity management among participants referred from clinical settings.MethodsPubMed, CINAHL, and EMBASE were used to identify randomized clinical trials (2014–2020) for weight loss with the following inclusion criteria: trial duration ≥12 months, included a control or usual care group, recruited adults with overweight or obesity from primary care and/or treated in the primary care setting, and the intervention included counseling on PA and diet.ResultsSeventeen studies, encompassing 21 different intervention groups with 6185 unique participants (56% female) met the inclusion criteria. All participants had overweight or obesity, with a body mass index between 28.2 and 41.0 kg/m2. In 11 (52%) of the intervention groups, significant weight loss in the intervention group was observed compared to usual care (mean weight loss: 4.9[2.1] kg vs. 1.0[0.9] kg). In 13 out of 18 interventions (72%) reporting weight loss at two time points, weight regain was observed by 12 months. Statistically significant weight loss was observed in one intervention (of two total) that was longer than 12 months.ConclusionsSustained weight loss regardless of the behavior‐based, intervention strategy remains a challenge for most adults. Given the established benefits of routine PA and a healthful diet, prioritizing the adoption of healthy behaviors regardless of weight loss may be a more effective strategy for ensuring long‐term health benefit.
H2 promoting effect in Cr/PNP‐catalyzed ethylene tetramerization: A density functional theory study
Authors: Yin Fangqian , Zhu Tingchun , Dong Chunhua , Li Bin , Zhang Le 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIt is well known that hydrogen promotes catalyst activity in Cr/PNP‐catalyzed ethylene tetramerization, but the mechanism of this effect is unclear. A density functional theory (DFT) study was conducted to explore this effect, and conformation changes were carefully taken into consideration to build a clear reaction pathway. Three components in the ethylene tetramerization catalytic cycle were examined in detail: the production of 1‐hexene from metallacycloheptane, the production of 1‐octene from metallacyclononane, and the formation of an active centre on the Cr/PNP catalyst. This result indicates that the formation of an active centre on the catalyst becomes more favorable upon the imposition of hydrogen, where hydrogen functions as a second ligand. This easing effect could be the key factor leading to the outperformed Cr/PNP catalyst activity in ethylene tetramerization.
Mitochondrial changes associated with viral infectious diseases in the paediatric population
Authors: Romero‐Cordero Sonia , Noguera‐Julian Antoni , Cardellach Francesc , Fortuny Clàudia , Morén Constanza 
Published: April 2021

SummaryInfectious diseases occur worldwide with great frequency in both adults and children, causing 350,000 deaths in 2017, according to the latest World Health Organization reports. Both infections and their treatments trigger mitochondrial interactions at multiple levels: (i) incorporation of damaged or mutated proteins into the complexes of the electron transport chain; (ii) impact on mitochondrial genome (depletion, deletions and point mutations) and mitochondrial dynamics (fusion and fission); (iii) membrane potential impairment; (iv) apoptotic regulation; and (v) generation of reactive oxygen species, among others. Such alterations may result in serious adverse clinical events with considerable impact on the quality of life of the children and could even cause death. Herein, we use a systematic review to explore the association between mitochondrial alterations in paediatric infections including human immunodeficiency virus, cytomegalovirus, herpes viruses, various forms of hepatitis, adenovirus, T‐cell lymphotropic virus and influenza. We analyse how these paediatric viral infectious processes may cause mitochondrial deterioration in this especially vulnerable population, with consideration for the principal aspects of research and diagnosis leading to improved disease understanding, management and surveillance.
Biomimetic Mechanically Enhanced Carbon Nanotube Fibers by Silk Fibroin Infiltration
Authors: Yin Zhe , Liang Xiaoping , Zhou Ke , Li Shuo , Lu Haojie , Zhang Mingchao , Wang Haomin , Xu Zhiping , Zhang Yingying 
Published: April 2021

AbstractNatural materials, such as silk, nacre, and bone, possess superior mechanical properties which are derived from their unique hierarchical structures. Individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered as one of the strongest materials. However, macroscopic CNT fibers usually have breaking strength far below that of individual CNTs. In this work, by mimicking the structure of natural silk fibers, strong and stiff CNT fibers are prepared by infiltrating silk fibroin (SF) into CNT fibers. There are abundant hydrogen bonds in SF, contributing to the enhanced interactions between neighboring CNTs. Glycerol is selected to promote the formation of β‐sheet conformation in SF, leading to further enhanced strength and modulus. Remarkably, the SF infiltrated CNT fibers show breaking strength of 1023 MPa, toughness of 10.3 MJ m−3, and Young's modulus of 81.3 GPa, which are 250%, 132%, and 442% of the pristine CNT fibers. The structure of the SF and the interactions between CNTs and SF are studied via Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulation. Mimicking the hierarchical structures of natural silk fibers and enhance the interfacial load transfer by infiltrating SF are effective for reinforcing CNT fibers, which may be useful in the design and preparation of other structural materials.
Analysis of INCOSE Systems Engineering journal and international symposium research topics
Authors: Oosthuizen Rudolph , Pretorius Leon 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe pressure on systems engineering is ever‐increasing to support the development and implementation of systems that meet a complex environment's demands. As a growing discipline, systems engineering requires insight into past research to identify opportunities for future growth. Analyzing the bibliometric data on published research provides valuable information on a scientific discipline's past progress and future prospects. Therefore, this paper extracts the research topics published in INCOSE's journal Systems Engineering and the annual international symposium proceedings to analyze their composition and allocation to papers. The implemented process applies natural language processing and topic modeling to extract the main topics from these papers' titles and abstracts. Analyzing these research topics' composition and mapping them to processed articles helps to understand their relative importance. The analysis's output confirms the importance of modeling in systems engineering, as it is the most popular topic. The additional focus of research papers on the systems engineering process, practice, and methodologies also indicates that the field is still growing and evolving. Some important topics to systems engineering, which were not found as prominent topics, are humans' roles in systems, verification and validation, and other specialty fields. This new knowledge about the structure of research into systems engineering can identify future research project opportunities to continue growing the field.
Ultrasound and Doppler findings in pregnant women with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection
Authors: Soto‐Torres E. , Hernandez‐Andrade E. , Huntley E. , Mendez‐Figueroa H. , Blackwell S. C. 
Published: April 2021

ABSTRACTObjectivesTo describe and compare ultrasound and Doppler findings in pregnant women who were positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) with findings in those who were SARS‐CoV‐2‐negative, evaluated during the pandemic period.MethodsIn this retrospective case–control study, we analyzed data from 106 pregnant women who tested positive for SARS‐CoV‐2 at the time of, or within 1 week of, an ultrasound scan between 1 May and 31 August 2020. Scans were either performed for routine fetal evaluation or indicated due to a positive SARS‐CoV‐2 test. Forty‐nine women were symptomatic and 57 were asymptomatic. For comparison, we analyzed data from 103 pregnant women matched for maternal age, parity, body mass index and gestational age at the time of the ultrasound scan. These control women did not report symptoms of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection at the time of the ultrasound scan or at the time of admission for delivery and had a negative SARS‐CoV‐2 test at admission for delivery. Fetal biometry, fetal anatomy, amniotic fluid volume and Doppler parameters, including umbilical and fetal middle cerebral artery pulsatility indices, cerebroplacental ratio and biophysical profile (BPP), were evaluated as indicated. Biometric and Doppler values were converted to Z‐scores for comparison. Our primary outcome, an adverse prenatal composite outcome (APCO) included any one or more of: small‐for‐gestational‐age (SGA) fetus, oligohydramnios, abnormal BPP, abnormal Doppler velocimetry and fetal death. Comorbidities, delivery information and neonatal outcome were compared between the two groups.ResultsEighty‐seven (82.1%) women who were positive for SARS‐CoV‐2 had a body mass index > 25 kg/m2. SARS‐CoV‐2‐positive women had a higher prevalence of diabetes (26/106 (24.5%) vs 13/103 (12.6%); P = 0.03), but not of pre‐eclampsia (21/106 (19.8%) vs 11/103 (10.7%); P = 0.08), compared with controls. The prevalence of APCO was not significantly different between SARS‐CoV‐2‐positive women (19/106 (17.9%)) and controls (9/103 (8.7%)) (P = 0.06). There were no differences between SARS‐CoV‐2‐positive women and controls in the prevalence of SGA fetuses (12/106 (11.3%) vs 6/103 (5.8%); P = 0.17), fetuses with abnormal Doppler evaluation (8/106 (7.5%) vs 2/103 (1.9%); P = 0.08) and fetuses with abnormal BPP (4/106 (3.8%) vs 0/103 (0%); P = 0.14). There were two fetal deaths in women who were positive for SARS‐CoV‐2 and these women had a higher rate of preterm delivery ≤ 35 weeks of gestation (22/106 (20.8%) vs 9/103 (8.7%); odds ratio, 2.73 (95% CI, 1.19–6.3); P = 0.01) compared with controls.ConclusionsThere were no significant differences in abnormal fetal ultrasound and Doppler findings observed between pregnant women who were positive for SARS‐CoV‐2 and controls. However, preterm delivery ≤ 35 weeks was more frequent among SARS‐CoV‐2‐positive women. © 2021 International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Introduction to GeomInt
Authors: Nagel Thomas , Görke Uwe-Jens , Konietzky Heinz , Maßmann Jobst , Nest Mathias , Steeb Holger , Wuttke Frank , Kolditz Olaf 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe use of the subsurface as a source of resources, a storage space and for installing underground municipal or traffic infrastructure has become much more intensive and diverse in recent years. In addition to classical anthropogenic interventions such as mining, oil and gas production or tunnel construction, other forms of underground use have come into the focus of economic, political and scientific research, particularly in connection with the transformation of energy systems.
Code Descriptions
Authors: Bilke Lars , Fischer Thomas , Naumov Dmitri , Pötschke Daniel , Rink Karsten , Sattari Amir Shoarian , Schmidt Patrick , Wang Wenqing , Yoshioka Keita 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe FFS method (see Sect. 10.1007/978-3-030-61909-1_3) was developed to simulate direct shear tests. To provide a tool for the project work and get things easier done a graphical user interface (GUI) was also created. The GUI simply calls all necessary functions by letting the user either fill form fields or choose input files from the working folder. The rock parameters and the conditions of the direct shear test with the normal stress levels and shear displacements have to be selected. If an experiment is simulated the lab results can be selected as a text file so a visual comparison is possible. The geometry has to be loaded as a point cloud or an artificial surface can be generated. With small modifications the code can do multiple executions using artificial surfaces.
Control of Systemic Metabolism by Astrocytes in the Brain
Authors: Le Thuc Ophélia , Gruber Tim , Tschöp Matthias H. , García-Cáceres Cristina 
Published: April 2021

AbstractAstrocytes are specialized glial cells that are embedded in a framework of neurons and act as an interface between neurons and the vasculature in the brain. This privileged, interconnecting position has recently been shown to render these cells crucial in the central control of systemic metabolism by allowing them to sense and convey blood-borne information within the brain and, in turn, critically fine-tune properties of neuronal networks that calibrate energy intake and expenditure. For decades, however, these neuronal networks have largely occupied the limelight regarding the study of energy homeostasis. Accordingly, the aim of this chapter is to summarize the paradigm shift currently taking place in studies of the central control of energy balance occurring over the last years, from a rather “neurocentric” view towards a more holistic perspective in which the role of other cell types, such as astrocytes, is increasingly appreciated. Finally, we will discuss recent cutting-edge methodological approaches emerging in the field that allow for the study of astrocytes, presently or yet to be conceived, which will provide a further and more complete understanding of the central regulation of energy metabolism.
Tax Incentives in Developing Countries: A Case Study—Singapore and Philippines
Authors: Mosquera Valderrama Irma , Balharová Mirka 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe aim of this chapter is twofold. The first aim is to analyse the main features of the tax incentives in developing countries with a case study of two countries, Singapore and the Philippines. Singapore has been regarded in literature as one of the countries that has successfully attracted foreign direct investment; however, it is not yet clear whether this is the result of tax incentives or any other measure. The Philippines is at the time of writing in the process of introducing a comprehensive tax reform program (CTRP) that aims to redesign the tax incentives to become more competitive in the region and to achieve social and economic growth. These countries also belong to the same region (i.e. South East Asia), and therefore, the comparison of the incentives in these countries can also contribute to best practices in the region. Following this comparison, the second aim of this chapter is to evaluate the tax incentives granted in Singapore and the Philippines taking into account a new proposed evaluative framework for tax incentives in light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Tax Expenditure Reporting and Domestic Revenue Mobilization in Africa
Authors: Redonda Agustin , von Haldenwang Christian , Aliu Flurim 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe use of tax expenditures (TEs) is an important fiscal practice that is often overlooked in public spending debates. The fiscal cost as well as the lack of effectiveness of TEs can be significant. This chapter describes the state of TE reporting across the world, focusing on Africa. It begins by explaining in detail what TEs are and what their role in government expenditure is. It proceeds by offering examples of the fiscal cost of these provisions, their (in)effectiveness, and the reasons why they are often hard to remove. The main portion of the chapter focuses on the lack and inconsistency of TE reporting. The chapter provides the first results of the “Global Tax Expenditures Database” (GTED), an ongoing project aiming to increase transparency and boost research in the TE field. The GTED reveals that over 64% of African countries do not provide any information on their TEs, while most of the countries that do report on TEs leave out important information such as the policy objectives and beneficiaries of those provisions. Lastly, using the available data, the chapter reports that, on average, TEs in African countries account for 2.8% of GDP and 17.8% of total tax revenue, and being as high as 7.8% (in Senegal) and 58.4% (in Mauritania), respectively.
Neural Feature Selection for Learning to Rank
Authors: Purpura Alberto , Buchner Karolina , Silvello Gianmaria , Susto Gian Antonio 
Published: April 2021

AbstractLEarning TO Rank (LETOR) is a research area in the field of Information Retrieval (IR) where machine learning models are employed to rank a set of items. In the past few years, neural LETOR approaches have become a competitive alternative to traditional ones like LambdaMART. However, neural architectures performance grew proportionally to their complexity and size. This can be an obstacle for their adoption in large-scale search systems where a model size impacts latency and update time. For this reason, we propose an architecture-agnostic approach based on a neural LETOR model to reduce the size of its input by up to 60% without affecting the system performance. This approach also allows to reduce a LETOR model complexity and, therefore, its training and inference time up to 50%.
Application of Advanced Simulation Methods for the Tolerance Analysis of Mechanical Assemblies
Authors: Bacharoudis Konstantinos , Popov Atanas , Ratchev Svetan 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn the frame of a statistical tolerance analysis of complex assemblies, for example an aircraft wing, the capability to predict accurately and fast specified, very small quantiles of the distribution of the assembly key characteristic becomes crucial. The problem is significantly magnified, when the tolerance synthesis problem is considered in which several tolerance analyses are performed and thus, a reliability analysis problem is nested inside an optimisation one in a fully probabilistic approach. The need to reduce the computational time and accurately estimate the specified probabilities is critical. Therefore, herein, a systematic study on several state of the art simulation methods is performed whilst they are critically evaluated with respect to their efficiency to deal with tolerance analysis problems. It is demonstrated that tolerance analysis problems are characterised by high dimensionality, high non-linearity of the state functions, disconnected failure domains, implicit state functions and small probability estimations. Therefore, the successful implementation of reliability methods becomes a formidable task. Herein, advanced simulation methods are combined with in-house developed assembly models based on the Homogeneous Transformation Matrix method as well as off-the-self Computer Aided Tolerance tools. The main outcome of the work is that by using an appropriate reliability method, computational time can be reduced whilst the probability of defected products can be accurately predicted. Furthermore, the connection of advanced mathematical toolboxes with off-the-self 3D tolerance tools into a process integration framework introduces benefits to successfully deal with the tolerance allocation problem in the future using dedicated and powerful computational tools.
Digital Innovation Hubs for Enhancing the Technology Transfer and Digital Transformation of the European Manufacturing Industry
Authors: Lanz Minna , Latokartano Jyrki , Pieters Roel 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe European manufacturers are dealing with shorter product life-cycles and smaller batch sizes. Especially, the high-value products tend to be fully personalised, which makes the automatisation of the production difficult. However, the trend is that the production needs to be predictable and fully traceable to the process and even to the tool level. This adds pressure to have better data collection methods and also to increase of automation in different levels of production. The emergence of new technologies in the field of robotics allows the utilisation of automation in flexible manner. Within all areas of robotics, the demand for collaborative systems is rising as well. The level of desired collaboration and increased flexibility will only be reached if the systems are developed as whole e.g. perception, reasoning and physical manipulation. However, at the same time there is concerns on how to attract capable personnel to the factories. In order to fully implement and utilise the new robotics technologies the industry needs capable resources. For answering these needs there has been several attempts to build different types of industrial ecosystems to facilitate better the technology and knowledge transfer, and share of expertise. The main aim of the paper is to review recent actions regarding the robotics projects forming industrial ecosystems in the Horizon 2020 framework programme, and then introduce the TRINITY Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) project approach to form an industrial ecosystem in the field of robotics.
Plenoptic Inspection System for Automatic Quality Control of MEMS and Microsystems
Authors: Kirschmann Moritz A. , Pierer Jörg , Steinecker Alexander , Schmid Philipp , Erdmann Arne 
Published: April 2021

AbstractOptical quality control of MEMS and microsystems is challenging as these structures are micro-scale and three dimensional. Here we lay out different optical systems that can be used for 3D optical quality control in general and for such structures in particular. We further investigate one of these technologies – plenoptic cameras and characterize them for the described task, showing advantages and disadvantages. Key advantages are a huge increase in depth of field compared to conventional microscope camera systems allowing for fast acquisition of non-flat systems and secondly the resulting total focus images and depth maps. Finally we conclude that these advantages render plenoptic cameras a valuable technology for the application of quality control.
Application of a Standardized Design Procedure in the Development of Automated Micro-assembly Processes
Authors: Saunders Gordon , Müller Tobias 
Published: April 2021

AbstractAutomated precision assembly of e.g. optical systems requires development efforts in manifold domains, such as part feeding, handling, alignment, bonding and quality control. The use of systematic design procedure enables the rapid and complete development of new applications and use cases using existing equipment. Combined with modular equipment and subsystems, the use of a standardized design process significantly reduces development time and therefore costs. A generic methodology based on the functional decomposition of assembly task requirements and a coherent synthesis of functional process building blocks can be an answer to reduced process ramp-up time, more stable processes and enable concurrent engineering for novel tool and process development.
Live Video Assistance Systems for Assembly Processes
Authors: Kittl Christian , Streibl Markus 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWork processes and assembly processes are increasingly gaining in complexity in the industrial context and demand a wealth of knowledge from assembly employees, as well as from service and maintenance personnel. The article describes a system developed in order to support assembly workers using a live video assistance system in combination with “wearables” - in particular smart glasses - in complex assembly processes by experts and reports findings from an acceptance analysis study.