bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Seasonal upwelling reduces herbivore control of tropical rocky intertidal algal communities
Authors: Sellers Andrew J. , Leung Brian , Altieri Andrew H. , Glanz Jess , Turner Benjamin L. , Torchin Mark E. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractCommunities are shaped by a variety of ecological and environmental processes, each acting at different spatial scales. Seminal research on rocky shores highlighted the effects of consumers as local determinants of primary productivity and community assembly. However, it is now clear that the species interactions shaping communities at local scales are themselves regulated by large‐scale oceanographic processes that generate regional variation in resource availability. Upwelling events deliver nutrient‐rich water to coastal ecosystems, influencing primary productivity and algae–herbivore interactions. Despite the potential for upwelling to alter top‐down control by herbivores, we know relatively little about the coupling between oceanographic processes and herbivory on tropical rocky shores, where herbivore effects on producers are considered to be strong and nutrient levels are considered to be limiting. By replicating seasonal molluscan herbivore exclusion experiments across three regions exposed to varying intensity of seasonal upwelling, separated by hundreds of kilometers along Panama’s Pacific coast, we examine large‐scale environmental determinants of consumer effects and community structure on tropical rocky shores. At sites experiencing seasonal upwelling, grazers strongly limited macroalgal cover when upwelling was absent, leading to dominance by crustose algae. As nutrients increased and surface water cooled during upwelling events, increases in primary productivity temporarily weakened herbivory, allowing foliose, turf and filamentous algae to replace crusts. Meanwhile, grazer effects were persistently strong at sites without seasonal upwelling. Our results confirm that herbivores are key determinants of tropical algal cover, and that the mollusk grazing guild can control initial stages of macroalgal succession. However, our focus on regional oceanographic conditions revealed that bottom‐up processes regulate top‐down control on tropical shorelines. This study expands on the extensive body of work highlighting the influence of upwelling on local ecological processes by demonstrating that nutrient subsidies delivered by upwelling events can weaken herbivory in tropical rocky shores.
A practical guide to selecting models for exploration, inference, and prediction in ecology
Authors: Tredennick Andrew T. , Hooker Giles , Ellner Stephen P. , Adler Peter B. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSelecting among competing statistical models is a core challenge in science. However, the many possible approaches and techniques for model selection, and the conflicting recommendations for their use, can be confusing. We contend that much confusion surrounding statistical model selection results from failing to first clearly specify the purpose of the analysis. We argue that there are three distinct goals for statistical modeling in ecology: data exploration, inference, and prediction. Once the modeling goal is clearly articulated, an appropriate model selection procedure is easier to identify. We review model selection approaches and highlight their strengths and weaknesses relative to each of the three modeling goals. We then present examples of modeling for exploration, inference, and prediction using a time series of butterfly population counts. These show how a model selection approach flows naturally from the modeling goal, leading to different models selected for different purposes, even with exactly the same data set. This review illustrates best practices for ecologists and should serve as a reminder that statistical recipes cannot substitute for critical thinking or for the use of independent data to test hypotheses and validate predictions.
Nest microclimate and limits to egg viability explain avian life‐history variation across latitudinal gradients
Authors: Lundblad Carl G. , Conway Courtney J. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractVariation in life‐history strategies is central to our understanding of population dynamics and how organisms adapt to their environments. Yet we lack consensus regarding the ecological processes that drive variation in traits related to reproduction and survival. For example, we still do not understand the cause of two widespread inter‐ and intraspecific patterns: (1) the ubiquitous positive association between avian clutch size and latitude; and (2) variation in the extent of asynchronous hatching of eggs within a single clutch. Well‐known hypotheses to explain each pattern have largely focused on biotic processes related to food availability and predation risk. However, local adaptation to maintain egg viability could explain both patterns with a single abiotic mechanism. The egg viability hypothesis was initially proposed to explain the cause of asynchronous hatching and suggests that asynchronous hatching results from early incubation onset in response to unfavorable nest microclimatic conditions, which otherwise reduce egg viability. However, allocation of resources to early incubation, prior to clutch completion, may energetically constrain clutch size and help explain the positive association between clutch size and latitude. We measured intraspecific variation in five functionally linked life‐history traits of burrowing owls at five study sites spanning a 1,400‐km latitudinal transect in western North America: clutch size, the timing of incubation onset, the degree of hatching asynchrony, the probability of hatching failure, and nestling survival. We found that most traits varied clinally with latitude, but all the traits were more strongly associated with individual nest microclimates than with latitude, and all varied with nest microclimate in the directions predicted by the egg viability hypothesis. Furthermore, incubation began earlier, hatching asynchrony increased, and clutch size declined across the breeding season. These results suggest that nest microclimate drives an important life‐history trade‐off and that thermal gradients are often sufficient to account for observed biogeographic and seasonal patterns in life‐history strategies. Furthermore, our results reveal a potentially important indirect mechanism by which reproductive success and recruitment could be affected by climate change.
Urinary drug metabolite testing in chronic heart failure patients indicates high levels of adherence with life‐prolonging therapies
Authors: Sweeney Mark , Cole Graham D. , Pabari Punam , Hadjiphilippou Savvas , Tayal Upasana , Mayet Jamil , Chapman Neil , Plymen Carla M. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAimsDespite medical therapy for heart failure (HF) having proven benefits of improving quality of life and survival, many patients remain under‐treated. This may be due to a combination of under‐prescription by medical professionals and poor adherence from patients. In HF, as with many other chronic diseases, adherence to medication can deteriorate over time particularly when symptoms are well controlled. Therefore, detecting and addressing non‐adherence has a crucial role in the management of HF. Significant flaws and inaccuracies exist in the methods currently used to assess adherence such as patient reporting, pill counts, and pharmacy fill records. We aim to use high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC‐MS) to detect metabolites of HF medications in the urine samples of chronic HF patients.Methods and resultsUrine samples were collected from 35 patients in a specialist HF clinic. Patients were included if they had an ejection fraction <45% and were taking at least two disease‐modifying HF medications. They were excluded if they had been admitted to hospital for HF in the 3 months preceding clinic attendance. These samples were sent for HPLC‐MS and tested for all HF medications prescribed for that patient. A high rate of complete adherence of 89% was detected in these patients, with 94% being partially adherent (at least one HF medication detected) to therapy (at least one HF medication detected). This analysis also highlighted that mineralocorticoid antagonists represent both the most under‐prescribed (67%) and poorly adhered (75%) medication class.ConclusionsThis analysis revealed a surprisingly high level of adherence to disease‐modifying therapy in chronic HF patients and highlights that most of our ‘total’ under‐treatment is likely to be from a failure to prescribe rather than a failure to adhere. Testing for metabolites of disease‐modifying HF drugs in urine using HPLC‐MS is feasible and is a useful adjunct to a specialist HF service. At present, the distinction between treatment failure and failure to take treatment is not always clear, which is important because the investigation and potential solutions are different. The former needs initiation of additional therapies and consideration of additional diagnoses, whereas the latter requires strategies to understand reasons underlying poor adherence and collaborative working to improve this: the wrong strategy will be ineffective.
Sex differences in congestive markers in patients hospitalized for acute heart failure
Authors: Espersen Caroline , Campbell Ross T. , Claggett Brian , Lewis Eldrin F. , Groarke John D. , Docherty Kieran F. , Lee Matthew M.Y. , Lindner Moritz , Biering‐Sørensen Tor , Solomon Scott D. , McMurray John J.V. , Platz Elke 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAimsWe sought to examine sex differences in congestion in patients hospitalized for acute heart failure (AHF). Understanding congestive patterns in women and men with AHF may provide insights into sex differences in the presentation and prognosis of AHF patients.Methods and resultsIn a prospective, two‐site study in adults hospitalized for AHF, four‐zone lung ultrasound (LUS) was performed at the time of echocardiography at baseline (LUS1) and, in a subset, pre‐discharge (LUS2). B‐lines on LUS and echocardiographic images were analysed offline, blinded to clinical information and outcomes. Among 349 patients with LUS1 data (median age 74, 59% male, and 87% White), women had higher left ventricular ejection fraction (mean 43% vs. 36%, P < 0.001), higher tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (mean 17 vs. 15 mm, P = 0.021), and higher measures of filling pressures (median E/e′ 20 vs. 16, P < 0.001). B‐line number on LUS1 (median 6 vs. 6, P = 0.69) and admission N‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide levels (median 3932 vs. 3483 pg/mL, P = 0.77) were similar in women and men. In 121 patients with both LUS1 and LUS2 data, there was a similar and significant decrease in B‐lines from baseline to discharge in both women and men. The risk of the composite 90 day outcome increased with higher B‐line number on four‐zone LUS2: unadjusted hazard ratio for each B‐line tertile was 1.86 (95% confidence interval 1.08–3.20, P = 0.025) in women and 1.65 (95% confidence interval 1.03–2.64, P = 0.037) in men (interaction P = 0.72).ConclusionsAmong patients with AHF, echocardiographic markers differed between women and men at baseline, whereas B‐line number on LUS did not. The dynamic changes in B‐lines during a hospitalization for AHF were similar in women and men.
Cu‐Catalyzed C(sp2−H)‐Trifluoromethylation of Aldehyde Hydrazones with Langlois Reagent
Authors: Mehta Jatin , Aryal Puspa , Prakash Reddy V. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe C(sp2−H)‐trifluoromethylation of hydrazones would give access to the α‐trifluoromethylated hydrazones that can serve as intermediates in the synthesis of pharmaceutically interesting fluorinated compounds. Herein, we demonstrate the Cu‐catalyzed C(sp2−H)‐trifluoromethylation of the aldehyde hydrazones using the readily available and cost effective Langlois reagent (sodium trifluoromethanesulfinate). This reaction is broadly applicable to a series of aromatic aldehyde N‐aminomorpholine hydrazones to give the corresponding C(sp2)‐trifluoromethyl hydrazones in moderate to high yields. The reaction generally tolerates a series of electron‐releasing as well as electron‐withdrawing substituents on the aromatic ring.
Distributed pricing‐based resource allocation for dense device‐to‐device communications in beyond 5G networks
Authors: Bahonar Mohammad Hossein , Omidi Mohammad Javad 
Published: March 2021

AbstractConsidering the dramatic increase of data rate demand in beyond fifth generation (5G) networks due to the numerous transmitting nodes, dense device‐to‐device (D2D) communications where multiple D2D pairs can simultaneously reuse a cellular link can be considered as a communication paradigm for future wireless networks. Since distributed methods can be more practical compared to complex centralized schemes, we propose a low‐complexity distributed pricing‐based resource allocation algorithm to allocate power to cellular user equipments (CUEs) and D2D pairs constrained to the minimum quality‐of‐service (QoS) requirements of CUEs and D2D pairs in two phases. The price of each link is set by the base station (BS). CUEs and D2D pairs maximize their rate‐and‐interference‐dependent utility function by adjusting their power in the first phase, while the price of each link is updated at the BS based on the minimum QoS requirements of CUEs and D2D pairs in the second phase. The proposed utility function controls D2D admission, hence it is suitable for dense scenarios. The proposed method is fast due to the closed‐form solution for the first phase power allocation. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for practical dense beyond 5G scenarios by allocating resources to multiple D2D pairs and taking advantage of the spatial reuse gain of D2D pairs. Furthermore, the utility function definition is discussed to illustrate its effectiveness for SE maximization. Finally, the SE of the proposed method is compared to other centralized and distributed algorithms to demonstrate the higher sum‐rate performance of the proposed algorithm.
Genetic testing in dementia‐A medical genetics perspective
Authors: Huq Aamira J. , Sexton Adrienne , Lacaze Paul , Masters Colin L. , Storey Elsdon , Velakoulis Dennis , James Paul A. , Winship Ingrid M. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractObjectiveWhen a genetic cause is suspected in a person with dementia, it creates unique diagnostic and management challenges to the treating clinician. Many clinicians may be unaware of the practicalities surrounding genetic testing for their patients, such as when to test and what tests to use and how to counsel patients and their families. This review was conducted to provide guidance to clinicians caring for patients with dementia regarding clinically relevant genetics.MethodsWe searched PubMed for studies that involved genetics of dementia up to March 2020. Patient file reviews were also conducted to create composite cases.ResultsIn addition to families where a strong Mendelian pattern of family history is seen, people with younger age of onset, especially before the age of 65 years were found to be at an increased risk of harbouring a genetic cause for their dementia. This review discusses some of the most common genetic syndromes, including Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, Parkinson disease dementia/dementia with Lewy bodies and some rarer types of genetic dementias, along with illustrative clinical case studies. This is followed by a brief review of the current genetic technologies and a discussion on the unique genetic counselling issues in dementia.ConclusionsInclusion of genetic testing in the diagnostic pathway in some patients with dementia could potentially reduce the time taken to diagnose the cause of their dementia. Although a definite advantage as an addition to the diagnostic repository, genetic testing has many pros and cons which need to be carefully considered first.
Private coverage mandates, business cycles, and provider treatment intensity
Authors: Richards Michael R. , Tello‐Trillo Sebastian 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the source of multiple large‐scale health insurance expansions affecting various segments of the US population. Although much has been done to quantify the first‐order effects of these policies, less empirical investigation has been devoted to the effects on the supply‐side of health care. We focus on a well‐known ACA initiative (the young adult dependent coverage mandate) to offer novel evidence on two fronts: the policy's heterogeneous effect across different labor markets and the potential for the policy‐induced shift in payer mix to influence provider treatment decisions. First, we show that the federal mandate's direct effect on young adult private insurance take‐up is strongly mitigated by the Great Recession. Second, we demonstrate that providers do not treat young adults more aggressively when more of them hold private coverage. Policymakers should keep these broader considerations and more diffuse risk protection implications in mind when contemplating changes to the law.
Impact of electroosmotic flow on a Casson fluid driven by chemical reaction and convective boundary conditions
Authors: Rajaram Vijayaragavan , Varadharaj Bharathi , Jayavel Prakash 
Published: March 2021

AbstractA numerical and theoretical review of the electroosmosis flow effect on a transient state Casson fluid by natural convection stream past an exponentially accelerated plate is provided in this report. Additionally, porous medium, thermal radiation, magnetic field, electric field, ramped wall temperature and isothermal concentration are taken into consideration. The equation of Poisson–Boltzmann is used to depict the electrical potential profile within the fluid medium linearized by the Debye–Hückel implementation. Using the Laplace transform technique, the analytical solutions of momentum, energy, and concentration equations are determined. The obtained solutions of axial velocity, fluid temperature, and concentration expressions are diagrammatically revealed, and numerical results for the number of Nusselt are also obtained for critical related flow parameters. The natural convection of ramped wall temperature was also compared to the isothermal system. With the increase in Joule heating parameter, mass Grashof number, Prandtl number, and chemical reaction parameter, the velocity has been reduced for both the case of ramped and isothermal wall temperatures (RIWT). The uses of the RIWT are applicable to clean nuclear plant wastewater, food manufacturing, drilling operations, and bioengineering operations.
Field study on flow structures within aquatic vegetation under combined currents and small‐scale waves
Authors: Zhang Yinghao , Lai Xijun , Ma Jingxu , Zhang Qian , Yu Ru , Yao Xin , Deng Huanguang 
Published: March 2021

AbstractField measurements were conducted to study the influence of aquatic vegetation on flow structures in floodplains under combined currents and wind‐driven waves. Wave and turbulent velocities were decomposed from the time series of instantaneous velocity and analysed separately. In the present study, the wind waves were small, leading to the ratios of wave excursion (Ew) to stem spacing (S) for all cases tested here were less than 0.5. This caused the vertical distributions of time‐averaged velocity (Uhoriz) and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) impacted by vegetation similar with the vegetated flow structures under pure current conditions. For emergent vegetation, Uhoriz and TKE distributed uniformly through the entire water column or increased slightly from bed to water surface. Similar distributions were present in the lower part of submerged vegetation. In the upper part of submerged vegetation, Uhoriz and TKE increased rapidly toward water surface and TKE reached its maximum near the top of vegetation. The measured wave orbital velocity (Uw) fitted linear wave theory well through the entire water depth for both the emergent and submerged cases, so that with small Ew/S the wave velocity was not attenuated within vegetation and Uw within canopy can be predicted by the linear wave theory under combined currents and waves. However, wind‐driven waves made the turbulence generated near the top of canopy penetrate a deeper depth into vegetation than predictions under pure current conditions.
The use of dental amalgam and amalgam waste management in Kosova: An environmental policy approach
Authors: Musliu Afete , Beqa Lule , Kastrati Gani 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Dental amalgam from dental clinics in Kosova is an uncontrolled source of mercury. The environmental legislative framework related to its use does not fully provide measures that reduce amalgam use and the release of its waste into the environment. This paper highlights issues related to environmental policy covering mercury amalgam waste management. Existing national regulations on hazardous waste management in Kosova consider the waste from dental health care as hazardous. Currently, however, no regulations restrict the use of dental amalgam or specifically oblige the generators of amalgam to treat or dispose of waste properly, thus leading to inconsistent legislation. New regulations, revised hazardous waste management standards, and new infrastructure for waste treatment and disposal, in compliance with EU regulations, should be developed to create a holistic approach that prevents the adverse effects of amalgam waste. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:1037–1044. © 2021 SETAC
KEY POINTS
Lack of a regulation that prohibits dental amalgam waste discharge into the wastewater despite it is defined as “hazardous waste” by Kosova's Law on Waste. Legislation needs to be expanded, with emphasis on addressing amalgam waste management in the context of eliminating the legislative conflicts and gaps related to the management of hazardous waste in Kosova. Banning the use of mercury amalgam in vulnerable people (children and pregnant women), as well as phasing down and eventually phasing out amalgam use, is not yet an environmental objective for the environmental authorities. The lack of the enforcement of environmental law and a systematic strategy that focuses on a risk-based approach to assessing the priorities for hazardous materials is an additional hindrance to the achievement of the objectives for a less toxic environment.
Mesoscopic fluorescence lifetime imaging: Fundamental principles, clinical applications and future directions
Authors: Alfonso‐Garcia Alba , Bec Julien , Weyers Brent , Marsden Mark , Zhou Xiangnan , Li Cai , Marcu Laura 
Published: March 2021

AbstractFluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm) is an optical spectroscopic imaging technique capable of real‐time assessments of tissue properties in clinical settings. Label‐free FLIm is sensitive to changes in tissue structure and biochemistry resulting from pathological conditions, thus providing optical contrast to identify and monitor the progression of disease. Technical and methodological advances over the last two decades have enabled the development of FLIm instrumentation for real‐time, in situ, mesoscopic imaging compatible with standard clinical workflows. Herein, we review the fundamental working principles of mesoscopic FLIm, discuss the technical characteristics of current clinical FLIm instrumentation, highlight the most commonly used analytical methods to interpret fluorescence lifetime data and discuss the recent applications of FLIm in surgical oncology and cardiovascular diagnostics. Finally, we conclude with an outlook on the future directions of clinical FLIm.