bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Shifting access to pools of shoot water sustains gas exchange and increases stem hydraulic safety during seasonal atmospheric drought
Authors: Bryant Callum , Fuenzalida Tomas I. , Brothers Nigel , Mencuccini Maurizio , Sack Lawren , Binks Oliver , Ball Marilyn C. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractUnderstanding how plants acclimate to drought is crucial for predicting future vulnerability, yet seasonal acclimation of traits that improve drought tolerance in trees remains poorly resolved. We hypothesized that dry season acclimation of leaf and stem traits influencing shoot water storage and hydraulic capacitance would mitigate the drought‐associated risks of reduced gas exchange and hydraulic failure in the mangrove Sonneratia alba. By late dry season, availability of stored water had shifted within leaves and between leaves and stems. While whole shoot capacitance remained stable, the symplastic fraction of leaf water increased 86%, leaf capacitance increased 104% and stem capacitance declined 80%. Despite declining plant water potentials, leaf and whole plant hydraulic conductance remained unchanged, and midday assimilation rates increased. Further, the available leaf water between the minimum water potential observed and that corresponding to 50% loss of stem conductance increased 111%. Shifting availability of pools of water, within and between organs, maintained leaf water available to buffer periods of increased photosynthesis and losses in stem hydraulic conductivity, mitigating risks of carbon depletion and hydraulic failure during atmospheric drought. Seasonal changes in access to tissue and organ water may have an important role in drought acclimation and avoidance.
A three‐dimensional scar assessment tool for keloid scars: Volume, erythema and melanin quantified
Authors: Ruccia Francesca , Zoccali Giovanni , Cooper Lilli , Rosten Claire , Nduka Charles 
Published: May 2021

AbstractBackgroundThere is no non‐invasive objective assessment tool to measure keloid scar characteristics over time. This study aimed to ascertain the ability of the Antera 3D® camera to detect differences in keloid features pre‐ and post‐steroid injection. In order to identify whether those variation could be considered as treatment response predicting factors.MethodsEnrolled patients received three intra‐lesional steroid injections at four‐weekly intervals. Images were taken with the Antera 3D camera 12 and 24 weeks after treatment. Keloids’ colour, volume, and area as well as haemoglobin and melanin average levels and variation have been analysed pre‐ and post‐steroid injection. t Tests and relative risk have been used to analyse the significance and association strength of our finding.ResultsForty patients have been enrolled in the study. Significant changes as been recorded in keloids’ volume and colour after steroid injection (P < 0.05). 53% have recorded a Hb reduction showing no recurrence of pathology, patient who had increase in Hb showed an early recurrence. Melanin variation was significant after steroid injection (P < 0.05) but no correlation has been found with treatment response.ConclusionsThe Antera 3D camera is able to detect differences in the investigated keloid's features helping in two ways: by providing an objective, longitudinal method to monitor and document changes in scar morphology, and through monitoring haemoglobin change, which strongly correlates to both response to treatment and likelihood of recurrence. Allowing clinicians to identify which patients will respond early, in order to change treatment if necessary, limiting morbidity and costs.
Role of pre‐transplant chest high‐resolution computed tomography and serum galactomannan index in predicting post‐transplant invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients
Authors: Sharma Rintu , Singh Charanpreet , Khadwal Alka , Prakash Gaurav , Malhotra Pankaj , Jain Arihant , Jandial Aditya , Suri Vikas , Muthu Valliappan , Prabhakar Nidhi , Gorsi Ujjwal , Chakrabarti Arunaloke , Varma Subhash , Lad Deepesh P. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractIntroductionThe role of pre‐HCT chest high‐resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and serum galactomannan index (GMI) in predicting the post‐allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is debatable.MethodsThis was a single‐center, prospective study from 2014 to 2019. The primary objective was to study if pre‐HCT chest HRCT and serum GMI predicted IPA post‐HCT. The secondary objective was day +100 mortality. All consecutive, consenting patients of ≥12 years of age undergoing allo‐HCT were included and had pre‐HCT chest HRCT and serum GMI. All patients received mold active antifungal prophylaxis. The EORTC/MSG criteria were used for the diagnosis of IPA.ResultsA total of 82 patients with median age 27 years (12‐59 years) were included. The underlying diagnoses included hematological malignancies (79%) and aplastic anemia (21%). Fifteen percent of patients was treated for prior history of probable IPA (>6 weeks before HCT). Pre‐HCT chest HRCT satisfied EORTC clinical criteria in 24% patients. Serum GMI ≥0.5 was seen in 27% of patients. Post‐HCT probable IPA was seen in 24% of patients. There were more patients with pre‐HCT chest HRCT findings satisfying EORTC clinical criteria (45% vs. 18%, P = .014) and GMI ≥0.5 (45% vs. 21%, P = .03) in the group with post‐HCT IPA compared to those without IPA. There was higher day+100 mortality in patients with post‐HCT IPA (55% vs. 18%, P = .001).ConclusionsThe presence of EORTC clinical criteria on pre‐HCT chest HRCT, serum GMI ≥0.5, and prior history of IPA predicted post‐HCT IPA.
Application of an Immersed Boundary Method on an Instrumented Turbine Blade With Large Eddy Simulation
Authors: Ubald Bryn N. , Watson Rob , Cui Jiahuan , Tucker Paul , Shahpar Shahrokh 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Leading edge instrumentation used in compressor and turbine blades for jet-engine test rigs can cause significant obstruction and lead to a marked increase in downstream pressure loss. Typical instrumentation used in such a scenario could be a Kiel-shrouded probe with either a thermocouple or pitot-static tube for temperature/pressure measurement. High fidelity analysis of a coupled blade and probe requires the generation of a high-quality mesh which can take a significant amount of an engineers time. The application of an immersed boundary method (IBM) and large eddy simulation (LES) is shown in this paper to enable the use of an extremely simple mesh to observe the primary flow features generated due to the blade and probe interaction effects, as well as quantify downstream pressure loss to within a high level of accuracy. IBM is utilized to approximately model the probe, while fully resolving the blade itself through a series of LES simulations. This method has shown to be able to capture downstream loss profiles as well as integral quantities compared to both experiment and fully wall-resolved LES without the need to spend a significant amount of time generating the ideal mesh. Additionally, it is also able to capture the turbulence anisotropy surrounding the probe and blade regions.
An Ensemble of Recurrent Neural Networks for Real Time Performance Modeling of Three-Spool Aero-Derivative Gas Turbine Engine
Authors: Ibrahem Ibrahem M. A. , Akhrif Ouassima , Moustapha Hany , Staniszewski Martin 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Gas turbine is a complex system operating in nonstationary operation conditions for which traditional model-based modeling approaches have poor generalization capabilities. To address this, an investigation of a novel data driven neural networks based model approach for a three-spool aero-derivative gas turbine engine (ADGTE) for power generation during its loading and unloading conditions is reported in this paper. For this purpose, a nonlinear autoregressive network with exogenous inputs (NARX) is used to develop this model in matlab environment using operational closed-loop data collected from Siemens (SGT-A65) ADGTE. Inspired by the way biological neural networks process information and by their structure which changes depending on their function, multiple-input single-output (MISO) NARX models with different configurations were used to represent each of the ADGTE output parameters with the same input parameters. First, data preprocessing and estimation of the order of these MISO models were performed. Next, a computer program code was developed to perform a comparative study and to select the best NARX model configuration, which can represent the system dynamics. Usage of a single neural network to represent each of the system output parameters may not be able to provide an accurate prediction for unseen data and as a consequence provides poor generalization. To overcome this problem, an ensemble of MISO NARX models is used to represent each output parameter. The major challenge of the ensemble generation is to decide how to combine results produced by the ensemble's components. In this paper, a novel hybrid dynamic weighting method (HDWM) is proposed. The verification of this method was performed by comparing its performance with three of the most popular basic methods for ensemble integration: basic ensemble method (BEM), median rule, and dynamic weighting method (DWM). Finally, the generated ensembles of MISO NARX models for each output parameter were evaluated using unseen data (testing data). The simulation results based on datasets consisting for experimental data as well as data provided by Siemens high fidelity thermodynamic transient simulation program show improvement in accuracy and robustness by using the proposed modeling approach.
Numerical Simulation of Airborne Salt Particle Behavior in Dry Gauze Method Using Porous Media Model
Authors: Tsubokura Yuta , Noguchi Kyohei , Yagi Tomomi 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Airborne salt accelerates the corrosion of steel materials and, thus, must be quantitatively evaluated for the management of steel structures. In Japan, the dry gauze method, which uses a gauze embedded in a wooden frame, is often used to evaluate the amount of airborne salt. However, its collection efficiency for salt particles has not been verified owing to the complex airflows around the device. Therefore, as a first step to clarify the collection efficiency, the authors simulated the flow field around the collection device using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this study, the gauze was modeled as a porous medium to reduce the computational costs. Wind tunnel tests were performed to obtain the pressure loss coefficients of the gauze, which is necessary for the porous media method. Subsequently, particle tracking was performed in the calculated flow field, and the collection efficiency was evaluated under the condition of a filtration efficiency of 100%. The flow fields around the device were accurately reproduced using the porous media model, which considered both the tangential and normal resistances of the gauze. This result suggests that the tangential resistance must be considered in the porous media model when the porosity of an object is small, even if the thickness is small. The dependence of collection efficiency on wind speed and direction was quantitatively evaluated. The results showed that the collection efficiency was greatly affected by the complicated flow field around the device due to the combination of the gauze and wooden frame.
Development of LSTM networks for predicting viscoplasticity with effects of deformation, strain rate and temperature history
Authors: Benabou Lahouari 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
In this paper, long short-term memory (LSTM) networks are used in an original way to model the behavior of a viscoplastic material solicited under changing loading conditions. The material behavior is dependent on history effects of plasticity which can be visible during strain rate jumps or temperature changes. Due to their architecture and internal state (memory), the LSTM networks have the ability to remember past data to update their current state, unlike the traditional artificial neural networks (ANNs) which fail to capture history effects. Specific LSTM networks are designed and trained to reproduce the complex behavior of a viscoplastic solder alloy subjected to strain rate jumps, temperature changes or loading-unloading cycles. The training datasets are numerically generated using the constitutive viscoplastic law of Anand which is very popular for describing solder alloys. The Anand model serves also as a reference to evaluate the performances of the LSTM networks on new data. It is demonstrated that this class of networks is remarkably well suited for replicating the history plastic effects under all the tested loading conditions.
A Local Approach for Computing Smooth B-Spline Surfaces for Arbitrary Quadrilateral Base Meshes
Authors: Mosbach Dennis , Schladitz Katja , Hamann Bernd , Hagen Hans 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
We present a method for approximating surface data of arbitrary topology by a model of smoothly connected B-spline surfaces. Most of the existing solutions for this problem use constructions with limited degrees-of-freedom or they address smoothness between surfaces in a post-processing step, often leading to undesirable surface behavior in proximity of the boundaries. Our contribution is the design of a local method for the approximation process. We compute a smooth B-spline surface approximation without imposing restrictions on the topology of a quadrilateral base mesh defining the individual B-spline surfaces, the used B-spline knot vectors, or the number of B-spline control points. Exact tangent plane continuity can generally not be achieved for a set of B-spline surfaces for an arbitrary underlying quadrilateral base mesh. Our method generates a set of B-spline surfaces that lead to a nearly tangent plane continuous surface approximation and is watertight, i.e., continuous. The presented examples demonstrate that we can generate B-spline approximations with differences of normal vectors along shared boundary curves of less than one degree. Our approach can also be adapted to locally utilize other approximation methods leading to higher orders of continuity.
Novel Support Device Improves Pedicle Screw Retention
Authors: Ray Lucas J , Sembrano Jonathan N , Nedrelow David S 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Osteoporosis is one of the most challenging diseases facing orthopedic surgery. Implants may exhibit poor bone retention due to the decreased density of osteoporotic bone, leading to mechanical failure. Our study aimed to design a pedicle screw for vertebral implantation that exhibited pullout strengths that were higher than the current industry standard screw. We created three prototypes to address pullout failure with varying numbers of helices and one design that was a two-part hybrid (triple helix and pedicle screw). Each screw was subjected to pull-out testing in foam blocks (n=3). Ultimate pull-out load, ultimate extension, and screw removal energy were determined based on testing results. Based on the results, the two-part assembly demonstrated significantly improved pull-out strength to 102.76 ± 2.52 N (P &gt; 0.0002), ultimate extension to 8.787 ± 0.242 (P &gt; 0.002), and screw removal energy of 2.37 ± 0.03 kJ (P &gt; 0.0003) vs 1.66 ± .08 kJ in the control screw, and the other two screw designs. It is noteworthy that the flexible and stiff helix designs by themselves did not exhibit improved performance, but when combined into a dual-threaded screw the helix features improved performance. The results for the two-part design suggested that there is utility in this design or variations thereof for improving screw-to-bone retention in osteoporotic patients.
Study of the Variation in Knee Joint Muscle Forces at Different Walking Speeds and Effectiveness of Using Knee Braces
Authors: Adhikari Visharath , Ro Paul I 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
A knee assistive device can serve a large number of people to overcome muscle weakness due to aging and perform normal functional activities of the knee joint. The objective of this paper is to study the effectiveness of a knee brace to aid with normal functions and reduce muscle forces at different walking speeds. The study uses two major muscle groups, rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF), for the muscle force study. The Electromyography (EMG) signal was recorded at 3 different walking speeds (slow, normal, fast) under both brace-assisted and normal walking conditions. EMG signals were processed and converted into muscle activation signals and finally used for muscle force calculation. The amount of assistance to each muscle group at different walking speeds was derived and analyzed to see the effectiveness of a knee brace. The knee brace was seen to have provided additional support for motion generation. However, the amount of support is found to be speed-dependent and has a different effect on different muscle groups. At slower speed, the BF muscle was seen to work against the brace, while it was not the case for the RF muscle group.
Visual Feedback System for Otolaryngology Procedures
Authors: Palmiotto Alexis , Kosnik Sabrina , Devine Nick , Eckels Mike , Anon Jack , Piovesan Davide 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
The objective of this project was to design a visual feedback attachment for the Coblator II, tonsil and adenoid removal device. Currently, one device is used to perform both cauterization and ablation, controlled by two pedals outside of the field of view. A device is needed that distinguishes between the two functions visually within the field of view. This will be attached to the tray table that is used during the surgical procedure. It will feature two different colored lights, blue and yellow, and be disposable or have a special cover that is able to be replaced between each patient’s procedure. In addition to this, there will be a slight delay between when the light is initially illuminated and the function begins, as an extra safety precaution.
The Mouth Mouse: An Intuitive Bluetooth Controller of Electronic Systems for Persons with Upper-Limb Impairment
Authors: Manal Kurt , Gillette Benjamin , Lockwood Ira 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Manual dexterity is key to engaging one’s environment and interfacing with technologies for communication and personal computing. Individuals with marginal or no dexterity are faced with obstacles and barriers limiting educational opportunity, workplace productivity, independent living and community participation. We have, developed an effective and intuitive Bluetooth tongue controller (a.k.a. “Mouth Mouse”) designed to give people with severe upper limb impairment effective control of computers, smart phones and tablets. The device is inherently portable requiring no external hardware or supporting software and thus can be used virtually anywhere. Preliminary testing has shown the Mouth Mouse to be an effective computer input device. In this paper we outline key design objectives and present preliminary data demonstrating the efficacy of the Mouth Mouse as a computer input device.
Identifying Motivational Factors Affecting Assist-as-Needed Rehabilitation
Authors: Mosqueda Gissele , Sutton Rachel , Miranda Virgil , Tri Anna , Vangsness Lisa , Yihun Yimesker 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Robot-based, assist-as-needed (AAN) therapeutic devices are one solution to the high costs and increased demand for rehabilitative therapy. Three decades of work have improved the design of robot-based AAN devices; however, the role that humans play in successful AAN rehabilitation has been less well-studied. In this paper, we briefly describe a framework for understanding human engagement with AAN devices. We then test this framework with a small sample of 10 healthy volunteers. We find evidence that task-based (weight) characteristics and physical states (accuracy) inform peoples’ Judgments of Difficulty (JODs). In contrast, volunteers’ engagement with AAN rehabilitation was tentatively informed by the amount of time spent on the last exercise. Together, these results suggest that JODs and task engagement decisions are distinct – but related – constructs that are present during rehabilitation.
Altered Vascular Contractilities Associated with the Applications of Irreversible Electroporation
Authors: Ramirez David A , Upchurch Weston , Iaizzo Paul A 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
As electroporation therapies become more widely used in the cardiac ablation space, there is a critical need to study the potential effects on surrounding tissues: collateral damage. Here we explored methods to study the effects applying electroporative energies on vascular smooth muscle: i.e., loss of vascular function when exposed to energies needed to induce irreversibly electroporative therapy to the myocardium.
Characterizing Hybrid Active/Passive Heating Systems for Thermal Microclimate Control
Authors: Beaudette Eric , Foo Esther , Woelfle Heidi , Molla Md. Tahmidul Islam , Dunne Lucy 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Heating devices offer particular benefits in cold climates and to those with thermoregulatory or vasospastic disorders, like Reynaud’s syndrome. Heating devices can be used to moderate a wearer’s microclimate to alleviate thermal discomfort and pain, especially in the distal extremities where thermal sensitivity is the highest. Applying insulation on top of wearables with heating components can reduce both heat lost to the environment, as well as power needs for maintaining thermal comfort. Here, we evaluated one stitched, heated textile garment with eight textile insulation materials to assess heat propagation (measured by five thermistors on a mannequin hand and one in the surrounding, enclosed environment) and wearability (measured from tests of fabric weight, thickness, flexural rigidity, and permeance). Results find energy conserved by all materials, but wearability drawbacks for some strong insulators. Thicker materials generally had higher insulative properties, and reduced heat propagation to the indirect heating regions, specifically the finger and thumb. Additionally, heat propagation through to the environment was stronger than to the finger and thumb.
Assessing the Complexity of Human Ventricular Anatomy: Computational Placement of Mapping Catheters in Perfusion- Fixed Human Hearts
Authors: Brigham Renee C. , Gasser Rachel L. , Iles Tinen L. , Iaizzo Paul A. 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Human ventricular cardiac anatomy is extremely complex. Access to the ventricular chambers are often necessary for both mapping and treating ventricular arrhythmias. To date, electrophysiologists who perform these catheter ablations typically rely on fluoroscopy and the patient specific electroanatomical maps they generate so to begin to navigate through these complex functional anatomies. However, limited mapping resolutions do not provide often required insights relative to actual anatomical barriers. Hence, such discordances can lead to larger induced lesion sizes and ultimately, poorer patient outcomes. Here we describe both unique anatomic studies and the development of 3D computational models and assessment strategies for investigating human ventricular anatomies as they relate to arrhythmogenic mapping and therapies. A diverse range of fixed human anatomies were used to study and predict relative distances from an inter-chamber. placed balloon catheter to both true endocardial and epicardial surfaces. This work can be used to inform mapping and ablation catheter designs so to determine and optimize the placements of mapping electrodes to ensure both accurate electrical recording and applied ablations.