bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Biosurfactant Production by Bacillus tequilensis ZSB10: Structural Characterization, Physicochemical, and Antifungal Properties
Authors: Cortés‐Camargo S. , Acuña‐Avila P.E. , Arrieta‐Báez D. , Montañez‐Barragán B. , Morato A.I. , Sanz‐Martín J.L. , Barragán‐Huerta B.E. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractA new biosurfactant was obtained from a moderately halophilic bacterium identified as Bacillus tequilensis ZSB10 that was isolated from a saline water pond located in Tehuacan‐Cuicatlan valley, Mexico. A kinetic analysis of the bacterial growth of the ZSB10 strain showed a maximum growth at 24 h regardless of the initial pH (5, 7.4, and 9). The best results were found at pH = 7.4 in terms of bacterial growth, besides which the produced biosurfactant showed emulsifying and surfactant properties with an emulsification index (E24) and surface tension change (ΔST) of 54 ± 0% and 26 mN m−1, respectively. Extracted ZSB10 crude biosurfactant had a yield of 106 ± 6 mg L−1, an E24 = 58.4 ± 0.2%, and a ΔST = 26 mN m−1 with a critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 44.82 mg L−1. Also, its structure was characterized by MALDI‐TOF mass spectrometry as a surfactin, iturin A, and fengycin mixture whose main isoform was leu/ile‐7 C15 surfactin [M + Na]+. Finally, the ZSB10 crude biosurfactant showed antifungal activity against Helminthosporium sp., with a 79.3% growth inhibition and an IC50 of 1.37 mg per disc. Therefore, this biosurfactant could be used as biopesticide.
Nitrogen leaching and grey water footprint affected by nitrogen fertilization rate in maize production: a case study of Southwest China
Authors: Yao Zhi , Zhang Wushuai , Chen Yuanxue , Zhang Wei , Liu Dunyi , Gao Xiaopeng , Chen Xinping 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBACKGROUNDEffective nitrogen (N) management measures are required to control environmental problems caused by N fertilizer use in intensive maize production systems. Soil N losses associated with high precipitation and over‐fertilization in maize production can cause substantial environmental problems, whereas there is a lack of quantitative data and effective study countermeasures. A 2‐year field study was conducted in the subtropical maize production system in Southwest China to quantify N leaching under varying N application rates of 0, 90, 180, 270 and 360 kg N ha−1 yr−1.RESULTSThe results indicated that N leaching accounted for 16–38% of N fertilizer input. For farmer practice treatment (360 kg N ha−1 yr−1), N leaching loss was high at 110 kg N ha−1 yr−1and accounted for 31% of the N applied. As an indicator of the ambient water quality pollution, the grey water footprint across all treatments ranged from 376 to 1092 m3 Mg−1, with an average of 695 m3 Mg−1. Reducing N rate to agronomically optimized treatment (180 kg N ha−1 yr−1) significantly decreased N leaching by 77%, and maintained high grain yield of 8.1 Mg ha−1. The grey water footprint was reduced by 52–63% with N rates from 270 or 360 kg N ha−1 yr−1 to 180 kg N ha−1 yr−1.CONCLUSIONNitrogen surplus (applied N rate minus N uptake by maize) resulted in higher soil residual nitrate concentration and consequently high N leaching. High precipitation and low soil pH were the main ecological factors leading to high N leaching. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.
The evaluation of nonisothermal thermoanalytical kinetics is simplified without the description of heat transfers, such as thermal inertia, which is not negligible, as indicated by Vyazovkin
Authors: Šesták Jaroslav 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn the field of thermoanalytical kinetics, which is widely used, basic questions arise regarding a possible description of the effect of heat transfer and subsequent thermal inertia. Current practice still uses a simplified interpretation of directly measured data for an inert sample at a constant temperature rise to describe the studied reaction, which leads to a simplified reaction conversion ratio, which is further used for various mathematical processing. The analysis of the introduced rectangular heat pulses and their indication by DTA clearly shows that the effect of thermal inertia is fundamental and not negligible. This is, after all, known from calorimetry, where the integral constant of inertia has historically been used to calibrate the descending temperature, but it cannot generally be applied to the whole temperature process due to its nonlinearity. In the case of parallel processing, for example by gradually increasing the heating rate, the effect of thermal inertia can be partially compensated for each other which have yet to be confirmed. However, for the kinetic analysis of a single peak, it is necessary to adapt to the effect of the thermal delay due to thermal inertia, which, similarly to the measured enthalpy, is tied to the sample size. Of course, it will be up to the researcher to find a solution that also includes the effect of heat transfer and dissipation, which should become the main principle of thermoanalytical methods of the future, as shown by current examples combining thermal processes with their specific kinetics.
When can the effect of thermal inertia be considered negligible?
Authors: Vyazovkin Sergey 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis paper is a response to Sestak's comments entitled “The evaluation of non‐isothermal thermoanalytical kinetics is simplified without the description of heat transfers, such as thermal inertia, which is not negligible, as indicated by Vyazovkin.” It is stressed that Vyazovkin has never claimed that thermal inertia is generally negligible. Rather, he discussed the conditions, under which its effect on the activation energy can be diminished to the level when it can be neglected. Such conditions are accomplished by diminishing the sample mass and heating rate. The effect of thermal inertia is likely to be brought down to a negligible level by keeping the product of the sample mass and heating rate below 100 mg K min−1 or, better yet, the product of the time constant and heating rate below 2–3 K. The final judgement is to be based on statistical analysis that compares the activation energies derived respectively from the data uncorrected and corrected for thermal inertia. As long as statistical analysis suggests that the difference in the activation energies is statistically insignificant, one can consider the effect of thermal inertia negligible.
Making Smectic Defect Patterns Electrically Reversible and Dynamically Tunable Using In Situ Polymer‐Templated Nematic Liquid Crystals
Authors: Boniello Giuseppe , Vilchez Victoria , Garre Emmanuel , Mondiot Frédéric 
Published: April 2021

AbstractShaping liquid crystals (LCs) into arrays of defect patterns enables the design of composite materials with new stimuli‐responsive properties. Self‐assembled defect assemblies that may arise in layered smectic A (SmA) LCs such as focal conic domains (FCDs), exhibit remarkable optical features and abilities for ordering nanoparticles. However, such SmA defect patterns are essentially electrically irreversible, which currently limits their adjustability in a dynamic way. Here, in situ polymerization of the texture of SmA FCDs allows transferring them into more electrically responsive LC phases, such as nematic, making possible a dynamic switch between different textural and optical states of FCDs in a reversible manner with voltage. Moreover, the method readily enables to program the operating temperature range of the polymer/LC composite from its chemical composition, adapting the system to various potential uses. This approach may increment new applications of SmA defect patterns such as voltage‐tunable privacy layers and may further inspire the design of LC‐based nanostructured composite and hybrid materials with new functions that can be dynamically tuned with voltage.
Selection of within‐run quality control rules for laboratory biomarkers
Authors: Laubender Ruediger Paul , Geistanger Andrea 
Published: April 2021

In order to release correct biomarker results of a laboratory test, it is a regulatory requirement to apply quality control standards for controlling analytical errors. Releasing an incorrect test result might lead to wrong diagnosis or treatment of a patient in medical decision‐making. In laboratory medicine, one of the means to control analytical errors is statistical process control procedures proposed by James O. Westgard and his coworkers nowadays known as “Westgard rules.” To judge their performance for discriminating in‐control from out‐of‐control processes, power curves are used. In this article, we describe functions for the power curves of the within‐run Westgard rules. Based on these power curves, we use a benchmark approach for selecting a quality control procedure out of the set of Westgard rules. It is shown that two graphical procedures proposed by Westgard and his coworkers can be reduced to this benchmark approach. Besides, a commonly used measure in laboratory medicine for describing out‐of‐control processes is critically examined revealing the threat of selecting too optimistic quality control rules.
Compact gauge fields on Causal Dynamical Triangulations: a 2D case study
Authors: Candido Alessandro , Clemente Giuseppe , D’Elia Massimo , Rottoli Federico 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
We discuss the discretization of Yang-Mills theories on Dynamical Triangulations in the compact formulation, with gauge fields living on the links of the dual graph associated with the triangulation, and the numerical investigation of the minimally coupled system by Monte Carlo simulations. We provide, in particular, an explicit construction and implementation of the Markov chain moves for 2D Causal Dynamical Triangulations coupled to either U(1) or SU(2) gauge fields; the results of exploratory numerical simulations on a toroidal geometry are also presented for both cases. We study the critical behavior of gravity-related observables, determining the associated critical indices, which turn out to be independent of the bare gauge coupling: we obtain in particular ν = 0.496(7) for the critical index regulating the divergence of the correlation length of the volume profiles. Gauge observables are also investigated, including holonomies (torelons) and, for the U(1) gauge theory, the winding number and the topological susceptibility. An interesting result is that the critical slowing down of the topological charge, which affects various lattice field theories in the continuum limit, seems to be strongly suppressed (i.e. by orders of magnitude) by the presence of a locally variable geometry: that may suggest possible ways for improvement also in other contexts.
The neural bases of resilient semantic system: evidence of variable neuro-displacement in cognitive systems
Authors: Jung Je Young , Rice Grace E. , Lambon Ralph Matthew A. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to explore an important research goal in cognitive and clinical neuroscience: What are the neurocomputational mechanisms that make cognitive systems “well engineered” and thus resilient across a range of performance demands and to mild levels of perturbation or even damage? A new hypothesis called ‘variable neuro-displacement’ suggests that cognitive systems are formed with dynamic, spare processing capacity, which balances energy consumption against performance requirements and can be resilient to changes in performance demands. Here, we tested this hypothesis by investigating the neural dynamics of the semantic system by manipulating performance demand. The performance demand was manipulated with two levels of task difficulty (easy vs. hard) in two different ways (stimulus type and response timing). We found that the demanding semantic processing increased regional activity in both the domain-specific semantic representational system (anterior temporal lobe) and the parallel executive control networks (prefrontal, posterior temporal, and parietal regions). Functional connectivity between these regions was also increased during demanding semantic processing and these increases were related to better semantic task performance. Our results suggest that semantic cognition is made resilient by flexible, dynamic changes including increased regional activity and functional connectivity across both domain-specific and domain-general systems. It reveals the intrinsic resilience-related mechanisms of semantic cognition, mimicking alterations caused by perturbation or brain damage. Our findings provide a strong implication that the intrinsic mechanisms of a well-engineered semantic system might be attributed to the compensatory functional alterations in the impaired brain.
Material properties and effect of preconditioning of human sclera, optic nerve, and optic nerve sheath
Authors: Park Joseph , Shin Andrew , Jafari Somaye , Demer Joseph L. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe optic nerve (ON) is a recently recognized tractional load on the eye during larger horizontal eye rotations. In order to understand the mechanical behavior of the eye during adduction, it is necessary to characterize material properties of the sclera, ON, and in particular its sheath. We performed tensile loading of specimens taken from fresh postmortem human eyes to characterize the range of variation in their biomechanical properties and determine the effect of preconditioning. We fitted reduced polynomial hyperelastic models to represent the nonlinear tensile behavior of the anterior, equatorial, posterior, and peripapillary sclera, as well as the ON and its sheath. For comparison, we analyzed tangent moduli in low and high strain regions to represent stiffness. Scleral stiffness generally decreased from anterior to posterior ocular regions. The ON had the lowest tangent modulus, but was surrounded by a much stiffer sheath. The low-strain hyperelastic behaviors of adjacent anatomical regions of the ON, ON sheath, and posterior sclera were similar as appropriate to avoid discontinuities at their boundaries. Regional stiffnesses within individual eyes were moderately correlated, implying that mechanical properties in one region of an eye do not reliably reflect properties of another region of that eye, and that potentially pathological combinations could occur in an eye if regional properties are discrepant. Preconditioning modestly stiffened ocular tissues, except peripapillary sclera that softened. The nonlinear mechanical behavior of posterior ocular tissues permits their stresses to match closely at low strains, although progressively increasing strain causes particularly great stress in the peripapillary region.
Comparison of renal region, cerebral and peripheral oxygenation for predicting postoperative renal impairment after CABG
Authors: de Keijzer Ilonka N. , Poterman Marieke , Absalom Anthony R. , Vos Jaap Jan , Mariani Massimo A. , Scheeren Thomas W. L. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractPatients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) are at risk of developing postoperative renal impairment, amongst others caused by renal ischemia and hypoxia. Intra-operative monitoring of renal region tissue oxygenation (SrtO2) might be a useful tool to detect renal hypoxia and predict postoperative renal impairment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the ability of intra-operative SrtO2 to predict postoperative renal impairment, defined as an increase of serum creatinine concentrations of  > 10% from individual baseline, and compare this with the predictive abilities of peripheral and cerebral tissue oxygenation (SptO2 and SctO2, respectively) and renal specific tissue deoxygenation. Forty-one patients undergoing elective CABG were included. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to measure renal region, peripheral (thenar muscle) and cerebral tissue oxygenation during surgery. Renal region specific tissue deoxygenation was defined as a proportionally larger decrease in SrtO2 than SptO2. ROC analyses were used to compare predictive abilities. We did not observe an association between tissue oxygenation measured in the renal region and cerebral oxygenation and postoperative renal impairment in this small retrospective study. In contrast, SptO2 decrease > 10% from baseline was a reasonable predictor with an AUROC of 0.767 (95%CI  0.619 to 0.14; p = 0.010). Tissue oxygenation of the renal region, although non-invasively and continuously available, cannot be used in adults to predict postoperative renal impairment after CABG. Instead, peripheral tissue deoxygenation was able to predict postoperative renal impairment, suggesting that SptO2 provides a better indication of ‘general’ tissue oxygenation status.Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01347827, first submitted April 27, 2011.
On Sinaĭ Billiards on Flat Surfaces with Horns
Authors: Bruin Henk 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWe show that certain billiard flows on planar billiard tables with horns can be modeled as suspension flows over Young towers (Ann. Math. 147:585–650, 1998) with exponential tails. This implies exponential decay of correlations for the billiard map. Because the height function of the suspension flow itself is polynomial when the horns are Torricelli-like trumpets, one can derive Limit Laws for the billiard flow, including Stable Limits if the parameter of the Torricelli trumpet is chosen in (1, 2).
The evolution of life cycle assessment in European policies over three decades
Authors: Sala Serenella , Amadei Andrea Martino , Beylot Antoine , Ardente Fulvio 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Purpose
Life cycle thinking (LCT) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are increasingly considered pivotal concept and method for supporting sustainable transitions. LCA plays a relevant role in decision support, for the ambition of a holistic coverage of environmental dimensions and for the identification of hotspots, possible trade-offs, and burden shifting among life cycle stages or impact categories. These features are also relevant when the decision support is needed in policy domain. With a focus on EU policies, the present study explores the evolution and implementation of life cycle concepts and approaches over three decades.

Methods
Adopting an historical perspective, a review of current European Union (EU) legal acts and communications explicitly mentioning LCT, LCA, life cycle costing (LCC), and environmental footprint (the European Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint PEF/OEF) is performed, considering the timeframe from 1990 to 2020. The documents are categorised by year and according to their types (e.g. regulations, directives, communications) and based on the covered sectors (e.g. waste, energy, buildings). Documents for which life cycle concepts and approaches had a crucial role are identified, and a shortlist of these legal acts and communications is derived.

Results and discussion
Over the years, LCT and life cycle approaches have been increasingly mentioned in policy. From the Ecolabel Regulation of 1992, to the Green Deal in 2019, life cycle considerations are of particular interest in the EU. The present work analysed a total of 159 policies and 167 communications. While in some sectors (e.g. products, vehicles, and waste) life cycle concepts and approaches have been adopted with higher levels of prescriptiveness, implementation in other sectors (e.g. food and agriculture) is only at a preliminary stage. Moreover, life cycle (especially LCT) is frequently addressed and cited only as a general concept and in a rather generic manner. Additionally, more stringent and rigorous methods (LCA, PEF/OEF) are commonly cited only in view of future policy developments, even if a more mature interest in lifecycle is evident in recent policies.

Conclusion
The EU has been a frontrunner in the implementation of LCT/LCA in policies. However, despite a growing trend in this implementation, the development of new stringent and mandatory requirements related to life cycle is still relatively limited. In fact, there are still issues to be solved in the interface between science and policy making (such as verification and market surveillance) to ensure a wider implementation of LCT and LCA.
Do Offenders Deserve Proportionate Punishments?
Authors: Duus-Otterström Göran 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe aim of the paper is to investigate how retributivists should respond to the apparent tension between moral desert and proportionality in punishment. I argue that rather than attempting to show that the term ‘proportionate punishment’ refers to whatever penal treatment the offender morally deserves, retributivists should maintain two things: first, that a punishment is proportionate when it is commensurate to the seriousness of the crime; second, that offenders morally deserve proportionate punishments. This view requires adopting a local theory of desert as opposed to a holistic one. In the second part of the paper, I argue that there are indeed good reasons to adopt a local theory of desert. Once retributivism is seen through the lens of local desert, there is no obvious mistake in saying that offenders morally deserve punishments that are proportionate to the seriousness of their crimes.
Spatially Resolved Forming Mechanisms Detection in Single Point Incremental Forming Using Synchrotron Based Texture Analysis
Authors: Dobecki Mateus , Poeche Alexander , Reimers Walter 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Despite the ongoing success of understanding the deformation states in sheets manufactured by single-point incremental forming (SPIF), the unawareness of the spatially resolved influence of the forming mechanisms on the residual stress states of incrementally formed sheet metal parts impedes their application-optimized use. In this study, a well-founded experimental proof of the occurring forming mechanisms shear, bending and stretching is presented using spatially resolved, high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction-based texture analysis in transmission mode. The measuring method allows even near-surface areas to be examined without any impairment of microstructural influences due to tribological reactions. The depth-resolved texture evolution for different sets of forming parameters offers insights into the forming mechanisms acting in SPIF. Therefore, the forming mechanisms are triggered explicitly by adjusting the vertical step-down increment Δz for groove, plate and truncated cone geometries. The texture analysis reveals that the process parameters and the specimen geometries used lead to characteristic changes in the crystallites’ orientation distribution in the formed parts due to plastic deformation. These forming-induced reorientations of the crystallites could be assigned to the forming mechanisms by means of defined reference states. It was found that for groove, plate and truncated cone geometries, a decreasing magnitude of step-down increments leads to a more pronounced shear deformation, which causes an increasing work hardening especially at the tool contact area of the formed parts. Larger step-down increments, on the other hand, induce a greater bending deformation. The plastic deformation by bending leads to a complex stress field that involves alternating residual tensile stresses on the tool and residual compressive stresses on the tool-averted side incrementally formed sheets. The present study demonstrates the potential of high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction for the spatially resolved forming mechanism research in SPIF. Controlling the residual stress states by optimizing the process parameters necessitates knowledge of the fundamental forming mechanism action.