bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hydrological, geochemical and land use drivers of greenhouse gas dynamics in eleven sub-tropical streams
Authors: Andrews Luke F. , Wadnerkar Praktan D. , White Shane A. , Chen Xiaogang , Correa Rogger E. , Jeffrey Luke C. , Santos Isaac R. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractGreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from freshwater streams are poorly quantified in sub-tropical climates, especially in the southern hemisphere where land use is rapidly changing. Here, we examined the distribution, potential drivers, and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) from eleven Australian freshwater streams with varying catchment land uses yet similar hydrology, geomorphology, and climate. These sub-tropical streams were a source of CO2 (74 ± 39 mmol m−2 day−1), CH4 (0.04 ± 0.06 mmol m−2 day−1), and N2O (4.01 ± 5.98 µmol m−2 day−1) to the atmosphere. CO2 accounted for ~ 97% of all CO2-equivalent emissions with CH4 (~ 1.5%) and N2O (~ 1.5%) playing a minor role. Episodic rainfall events drove changes in stream GHG due to the release of soil NOx (nitrate + nitrite) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Groundwater discharge as traced by radon (222Rn, a natural groundwater tracer) was not an apparent source of CO2 and CH4, but was a source of N2O in both agricultural and forest catchments. Land use played a subtle role on greenhouse gas dynamics. CO2 and CH4 increased with catchment forest cover during the wet period, while N2O and CH4 increased with agricultural catchment area during the dry period. Overall, this study showed how DOC and NOx, land use, and rainfall events interact to drive spatial and temporal dynamics of GHG emissions in sub-tropical streams using multiple linear regression modelling. Increasing intensive agricultural land use will likely decrease regional CO2 and CH4 emissions, but increase N2O.
Abdominal vessel depiction on virtual triphasic spectral detector CT: initial clinical experience
Authors: Lennartz Simon , Laukamp Kai Roman , Tandon Yasmeen , Jordan Michelle , Große Hokamp Nils , Zopfs David , Pennig Lenhard , Obmann Markus , Gilkeson Robert C. , Herrmann Karin A. , Ramaiya Nikhil , Gupta Amit 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate vessel assessment in virtual monoenergetic images (VMI40keV) and virtual-non-contrast images (VNC) derived from venous phase spectral detector computed tomography (SDCT) acquisitions in comparison to arterial phase and true non-contrast (TNC) images.

Methods
Triphasic abdominal SDCT was performed in 25 patients including TNC, arterial and venous phase. VMI40keV and VNC were reconstructed from the venous phase and compared to conventional arterial-phase images (CIart), TNC and conventional venous-phase images (CIven). Vessel contrast and virtual contrast removal were analyzed with region-of-interest-based measurements and in a qualitative assessment.

Results
Quantitative analysis revealed no significant attenuation differences between TNC and VNC in arterial vessels (p-range 0.07–0.47) except for the renal artery (p = 0.011). For venous vessels, significant differences between TNC and VNC were found for all veins (p < 0.001) except the inferior vena cava (p = 0.26), yet these differences remained within a 10 HU range in most patients. No significant attenuation differences were found between CIart/VMI40keV in arterial vessels (p-range 0.06–0.86). Contrast-to-noise ratio provided by VMI40keV and CIart was equivalent for all arterial vessels assessed (p-range 0.14–0.91).
Qualitatively, VMI40keV showed similar enhancement of abdominal and pelvic arteries as CIart and VNC were rated comparable to TNC.

Conclusion
Our study suggests that VNC and VMI40keV derived from single venous-phase SDCT offer comparable assessment of major abdominal vessels as provided by routine triphasic examinations, if no dynamic contrast information is required.
Lower visual field preference for the visuomotor control of limb movements in the human dorsomedial parietal cortex
Authors: Maltempo Teresa , Pitzalis Sabrina , Bellagamba Martina , Di Marco Sara , Fattori Patrizia , Galati Gaspare , Galletti Claudio , Sulpizio Valentina 
Published: March 2021

AbstractVisual cues coming from the lower visual field (VF) play an important role in the visual guidance of upper and lower limb movements. A recently described region situated in the dorsomedial parietal cortex, area hPEc (Pitzalis et al. in NeuroImage 202:116092, 2019), might have a role in integrating visually derived information with somatomotor signals to guide limb interaction with the environment. In macaque, it has been demonstrated that PEc receives visual information mostly from the lower visual field but, to date, there has been no systematic investigation of VF preference in the newly defined human homologue of macaque area PEc (hPEc). Here we examined the VF preferences of hPEc while participants performed a visuomotor task implying spatially directed delayed eye-, hand- and foot-movements towards different spatial locations within the VF. By analyzing data as a function of the different target locations towards which upcoming movements were planned (and then executed), we observed the presence of asymmetry in the vertical dimension of VF in area hPEc, being this area more strongly activated by limb movements directed towards visual targets located in the lower compared to the upper VF. This result confirms the view, first advanced in macaque monkey, that PEc is involved in processing visual information to guide body interaction with the external environment, including locomotion. We also observed a contralateral dominance for the lower VF preference in the foot selective somatomotor cortex anterior to hPEc. This result might reflect the role of this cortex (which includes areas PE and S-I) in providing highly topographically organized signals, likely useful to achieve an appropriate foot posture during locomotion.
Ergebnisse nach gefäßchirurgischer Versorgung von Leistennahtaneurysmen
Authors: Romancik P. , Meyer F. , Hribaschek A. , Redlich U. , Halloul Z. , Tautenhahn J. 
Published: March 2021

Zusammenfassung
Hintergrund
Nahtaneurysmen (NA) sind ein relevanter Aspekt der Sekundärversorgung geworden. Das Ziel der Studie bestand darin, bei Patienten eines zertifizierten Gefäßzentrums das Auftreten von NA im Rahmen einer retrospektiven Fallserie zu untersuchen und selektiv eruierten Referenzen der wissenschaftlichen Literatur gegenüberzustellen.

Patienten und Methode
Über einen definierten Untersuchungszeitraum wurden alle Patienten mit einem Leisten-NA hinsichtlich patientenabhängiger Faktoren (Alter, Geschlechtsverteilung), NA-Größe, chirurgischer Versorgung (Rhaphie ± Patch vs. Interponat) und Ergebnis (Offenheitsrate, NA-Rezidiv, Morbidität, Letalität) charakterisiert.

Ergebnisse
Die meisten NA traten nach Anlage einer aortobifemoralen Prothese (52,3 %) auf. Das durchschnittliche Zeitintervall bis zur NA-Entwicklung betrug 55,4 Monate. Über die Hälfte der NA (n = 44; 51,2 %) wurden primär mittels Interponat versorgt. – Die Aneurysmorrhaphie mit bzw. ohne Patch hat eine signifikant höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit für ein NA-Rezidiv im Vergleich zum Interponat (p = 0,026 bzw. p = 0,006). Der durchschnittliche Durchmesser der Leisten-NA betrug 46,4 mm. Bei den postoperativen Komplikationen waren am häufigsten nicht operationspflichtige Lymphozelen (25,6 %), Hämatome mit notwendiger Ausräumung (8,1 %) und Infektionen mit erforderlicher Explantation des alloplastischen Materials (4,7 %). Die 30-Tage-Letalität betrug 2,3 %. Die notfallmäßig versorgten NA wiesen eine tendenziell höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit einer postoperativen Komplikation (p = 0,09) auf.

Schlussfolgerungen
Nahtaneurysmen sind mit einer Inzidenz von 0,2–15 % keine seltene Komplikation in der Gefäßchirurgie. Die Interponatanlage ist die Therapie der Wahl bei der Versorgung der Leisten-NA. Alle Patienten sollten über die Wichtigkeit einer lebenslangen gefäßchirurgischen Nachsorge aufgeklärt werden.
Assessing unlimited associative learning as a transition marker
Authors: Irvine Elizabeth 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe target paper (building on Ginsburg and Jablonka in JTB 381:55–60, 2015, The evolution of the sensitive soul: Learning and the origins of consciousness, MIT Press, USA, 2019) makes a significant and novel claim: that positive cases of non-human consciousness can be identified via the capacity of unlimited associative learning (UAL). In turn, this claim is generated by a novel methodology, which is that of identifying an evolutionary ‘transition marker’, which is claimed to have theoretical and empirical advantages over other approaches. In this commentary I argue that UAL does not function as a successful transition marker (as defined by the authors), and has internal problems of its own. However, I conclude that it is still a very productive anchor for new research on the evolution of consciousness.
Selective caching: a persistent memory approach for multi-dimensional index structures
Authors: Jibril Muhammad Attahir , Götze Philipp , Broneske David , Sattler Kai-Uwe 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAfter the introduction of Persistent Memory in the form of Intel’s Optane DC Persistent Memory on the market in 2019, it has found its way into manifold applications and systems. As Google and other cloud infrastructure providers are starting to incorporate Persistent Memory into their portfolio, it is only logical that cloud applications have to exploit its inherent properties. Persistent Memory can serve as a DRAM substitute, but guarantees persistence at the cost of compromised read/write performance compared to standard DRAM. These properties particularly affect the performance of index structures, since they are subject to frequent updates and queries. However, adapting each and every index structure to exploit the properties of Persistent Memory is tedious. Hence, we require a general technique that hides this access gap, e.g., by using DRAM caching strategies. To exploit Persistent Memory properties for analytical index structures, we proposeselective caching. It is based on a mixture of dynamic and static caching of tree nodes in DRAM to reach near-DRAM access speeds for index structures. In this paper, we evaluate selective caching on the OLAP-optimized main-memory index structure Elf, because its memory layout allows for an easy caching. Our experiments show that if configured well, selective caching with a suitable replacement strategy can keep pace with pure DRAM storage of Elf while guaranteeing persistence. These results are also reflected when selective caching is used for parallel workloads.
Dealing with multiple experts and non-stationarity in inverse reinforcement learning: an application to real-life problems
Authors: Likmeta Amarildo , Metelli Alberto Maria , Ramponi Giorgia , Tirinzoni Andrea , Giuliani Matteo , Restelli Marcello 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn real-world applications, inferring the intentions of expert agents (e.g., human operators) can be fundamental to understand how possibly conflicting objectives are managed, helping to interpret the demonstrated behavior. In this paper, we discuss how inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) can be employed to retrieve the reward function implicitly optimized by expert agents acting in real applications. Scaling IRL to real-world cases has proved challenging as typically only a fixed dataset of demonstrations is available and further interactions with the environment are not allowed. For this reason, we resort to a class of truly batch model-free IRL algorithms and we present three application scenarios: (1) the high-level decision-making problem in the highway driving scenario, and (2) inferring the user preferences in a social network (Twitter), and (3) the management of the water release in the Como Lake. For each of these scenarios, we provide formalization, experiments and a discussion to interpret the obtained results.
Identifying limits of linear control design validity in nonlinear systems: a continuation-based approach
Authors: Nguyen D. H. , Lowenberg M. H. , Neild S. A. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIt is well known that a linear-based controller is only valid near the point from which the linearised system is obtained. The question remains as to how far one can move away from that point before the linear and nonlinear responses differ significantly, resulting in the controller failing to achieve the desired performance. In this paper, we propose a method to quantify these differences. By appending a harmonic oscillator to the equations of motion, the frequency responses at different operating points of a nonlinear system can be generated using numerical continuation. In the presence of strong nonlinearities, subtle differences exist between the linear and nonlinear frequency responses, and these variations are also reflected in the step responses. A systematic way of comparing the discrepancies between the linear and the nonlinear frequency responses is presented, which can determine whether the controller performs as predicted by linear-based design. We demonstrate the method on a simple fixed-gain Duffing system and a gain-scheduled reduced-order aircraft model with a manoeuvre-demand controller; the latter presents a case where strong nonlinearities exist in the form of multiple attractors. The analysis is then expanded to include actuator rate saturation, which creates a limit-cycle isola, coexisting multiple solutions (corresponding to the so-called flying qualities cliff), and chaotic motions. The proposed method can infer the influence of these additional attractors even when there is no systematic way to detect them. Finally, when severe rate saturation is present, reducing the controller gains can mitigate—but not eliminate—the risk of limit-cycle oscillation.
The (Null) Effects of Happiness on Affective Polarization, Conspiracy Endorsement, and Deep Fake Recognition: Evidence from Five Survey Experiments in Three Countries
Authors: Yu Xudong , Wojcieszak Magdalena , Lee Seungsu , Casas Andreu , Azrout Rachid , Gackowski Tomasz 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAffective polarization is a key concern in America and other democracies. Although past evidence suggests some ways to minimize it, there are no easily applicable interventions that have been found to work in the increasingly polarized climate. This project examines whether irrelevant factors, or incidental happiness more specifically, have the power to reduce affective polarization (i.e., misattribution of affect or “carryover effect”). On the flip side, happiness can minimize systematic processing, thus enhancing beliefs in conspiracy theories and impeding individual ability to recognize deep fakes. Three preregistered survey experiments in the US, Poland, and the Netherlands (totalN = 3611) induced happiness in three distinct ways. Happiness had no effects on affective polarization toward political outgroups and hostility toward various divisive social groups, and also on endorsement of conspiracy theories and beliefs that a deep fake was real. Two additional studies in the US and Poland (totalN = 2220), also induced anger and anxiety, confirming that all these incidental emotions had null effects. These findings, which emerged uniformly in three different countries, among different partisan and ideological groups, and for those for whom the inductions were differently effective, underscore the stability of outgroup attitudes in contemporary America and other countries.
Newcomb’s problem isn’t a choice dilemma
Authors: Li Zhanglyu , Zenker Frank 
Published: March 2021

AbstractNewcomb’s problem involves a decision-maker faced with a choice and a predictor forecasting this choice. The agents’ interaction seems to generate a choice dilemma once the decision-maker seeks to apply two basic principles of rational choice theory (RCT): maximize expected utility (MEU); adopt the dominant strategy (ADS). We review unsuccessful attempts at pacifying the dilemma by excluding Newcomb’s problem as an RCT-application, by restricting MEU and ADS, and by allowing for backward causation. A probability approach shows that Newcomb’s original problem-formulation lacks causal information. This makes it impossible to specify the probability structure of Newcomb’s univocally. Once missing information is added, Newcomb’s problem and RCT re-align, thus explaining Newcomb’s problem as a seeming dilemma. Building on Wolpert and Benford (Synthese 190(9):1637–1646, 2013), we supply additional details and offer a crucial correction to their formal proof.
Meta-analyses on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): a literature review
Authors: Velte Patrick 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis paper addresses quantitative meta-analyses on corporate governance-related determinants and firms’ (non) financial consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Legitimacy theory as our theoretical framework assumes that, through a social contract, a company must fulfil the respective society’s values and expectations and gain legitimacy. We also rely on the business case argument, assuming a positive relationship between CSR and financial outcomes of the firm. This analysis focusses on 54 quantitative meta-analyses on CSR and includes a structured literature review in order to increase our knowledge, which corporate governance variables and proxies of firm’s (non) financial outcome have been heavily included in archival research, and if there is an overall impact of these variables. Prior meta-analyses indicate that board independence, board gender diversity, and board size have a positive impact on CSR performance. Moreover, both CSR performance and environmental performance increase financial performance. This literature review makes a useful contribution to prior studies by summarizing the overall impact of corporate governance variables on CSR and their (non) financial consequences and by deducing recommendations for future research.
Extensions of the distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) to account for cumulative mortality
Authors: Guo Chao-Yu , Huang Xing-Yi , Kuo Pei-Cheng , Chen Yi-Hau 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe effects of meteorological factors on health outcomes have gained popularity due to climate change, resulting in a general rise in temperature and abnormal climatic extremes. Instead of the conventional cross-sectional analysis that focuses on the association between a predictor and the single dependent variable, the distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) has been widely adopted to examine the effect of multiple lag environmental factors health outcome. We propose several novel strategies to model mortality with the effects of distributed lag temperature measures and the delayed effect of mortality. Several attempts are derived by various statistical concepts, such as summation, autoregressive, principal component analysis, baseline adjustment, and modeling the offset in the DLNM. Five strategies are evaluated by simulation studies based on permutation techniques. The longitudinal climate and daily mortality data in Taipei, Taiwan, from 2012 to 2016 were implemented to generate the null distribution. According to simulation results, only one strategy, named MVDLNM, could yield valid type I errors, while the other four strategies demonstrated much more inflated type I errors. With a real-life application, the MVDLNM that incorporates both the current and lag mortalities revealed a more significant association than the conventional model that only fits the current mortality. The results suggest that, in public health or environmental research, not only the exposure may post a delayed effect but also the outcome of interest could provide the lag association signals. The joint modeling of the lag exposure and the delayed outcome enhances the power to discover such a complex association structure. The new approach MVDLNM models lag outcomes within 10 days and lag exposures up to 1 month and provide valid results.
Facing metal stress by multiple strategies: morphophysiological responses of cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L.) grown in hydroponics
Authors: Sorrentino Maria Cristina , Capozzi Fiore , Amitrano Chiara , De Tommaso Gaetano , Arena Carmen , Iuliano Mauro , Giordano Simonetta , Spagnuolo Valeria 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe contamination of environments by heavy metals has become an urgent issue causing undesirable accumulations and severe damages to agricultural crops, especially cadmium and lead which are among the most widespread and dangerous metal pollutants worldwide. The selection of proper species is a crucial step in many plant-based restoration approaches; therefore, the aim of the present work was to check for early morphophysiological responsive traits in three cultivars of Cynara cardunculus (Sardo, Siciliano, and Spagnolo), helping to select the best performing cultivar for phytoremediation. For all three tested cultivars, our results indicate that cardoon displays some morphophysiological traits to face Cd and Pb pollution, particularly at the root morphology level, element uptake ability, and photosynthetic pigment content. Other traits show instead a cultivar-specific behavior; in fact, stomata plasticity, photosynthetic pattern, and antioxidant power provide different responses, but only Spagnolo cv. achieves a successful strategy attaining a real resilience to metal stress. The capacity of Spagnolo plants to modify leaf structural and physiological traits under heavy metal contamination to maintain high photosynthetic efficiency should be considered an elective trait for its use in contaminated environments.
Influence of Direct Splat-Affecting Parameters on the Splat-Type Distribution, Porosity, and Density of Segmentation Cracks in Plasma-Sprayed YSZ Coatings
Authors: Tillmann W. , Khalil O. , Baumann I. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe integrity and properties of ceramic coatings produced by atmospheric plasma spraying are highly controlled by the splat morphology and splat interconnection. In this study, the influence of selected parameters (spray angle, surface velocity of the spray gun, and substrate temperature) on splat morphology and coating microstructure was investigated. A favorite set of spray gun parameters, of which their effects on splat morphology and coating microstructure have been verified by previous experiments, were used to conduct the experiments for the present work. It was found that depositing fully molten particles on a hot substrate increases the fraction of disk-like splats by about 60% at the expense of the fraction of irregular splats. Preheating the substrate also increases the pore count and level of coating porosity, while it does not influence the density of segmentation cracks. In contrast, the surface velocity of the spray gun does not affect the splat morphology while a slow speed decreases the coating porosity and plays a significant role in generating segmentation cracks. Shifting the spray angle by 15° distorts up to 20% of disk-like splats and slightly decreases the porosity level. However, changing the spray angle does not affect the generation of segmentation cracks.