bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
What is normal, healthy growth? Global health, human biology, and parental perspectives
Authors: Thompson Amanda L. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractObjectivesThe widespread variation seen in human growth globally stands at odds with the global health perspective that young child growth should not vary across populations if nutritional, environmental and care needs are met. This paper: (1) evaluates the idea that a single standard of “healthy” growth characterizes children under age 5, (2) discusses how variation from this standard is viewed in global health, in human biology and by parents, and (3) explores how views of “normal” growth shape biomedical and parental responses.MethodsThis paper reviews the anthropological, public health and clinical literature on the nature of child growth and the applicability of World Health Organization Multicenter Growth Reference Study growth standards across contexts.ResultsThe considerable variability in child growth across contexts makes it unlikely that any one framework, with issues of sample selection and representativeness, can serve as the model of healthy growth. Global health, human biology and parents differ in the emphasis they place on heredity versus environmental context in understanding this variability, but human biologists and parents tend to view a wider range of growth as “normal.” Since both biomedicine and parents base their care decisions on their perceptions of normal, healthy growth, the comparative framework used has important implications for medical treatment and feeding practices.ConclusionsA more nuanced approach that incorporates the biology of growth and its association with health outcomes across contexts is critical to identify patterns of healthy growth and to avoid over‐reliance on a single standard that may pathologize variability.
Influence of surfactants on rheological behaviors of polyacrylonitrile/dimethyl sulfoxide/silicon blending polymer solutions
Authors: Yuan Shuxia , Guo Yue , Ren Xiaodan , Li Dongsheng , Lu Chunxiang 
Published: March 2021

AbstractKH550, KH560, CTAB, and F127 were adopted to modify silicon (Si) to improve the dispersity and stability of Si in the polyacrylonitrile/dimethyl sulfoxide (PAN/DMSO) polymer solutions. The influence of surfactants on rheological behaviors of PAN/DMSO/Si blending polymer solutions was investigated by an advanced solution and melt rotation rheometer. The homogeneity and stability were also studied. The results showed that the surfactants could change the viscosity dependence of blending polymer solutions on shear rate, temperature and storage time by increase the steric hindrance of Si. Among the four solutions, PAN/DMSO/Si blending polymer solution with F127 exhibited the lowest viscosity, activation energy and the smallest structural viscosity index and exhibited the trend close to the Newtonian fluids. Moreover, PAN/DMSO/Si blending polymer solution with F127 exhibited the best dispersity and stability, indicating its best physical properties and machinability.
Study on performances of graphite‐filled polypropylene/polyamide 6 composites manufactured by fused deposition modeling
Authors: Wang Shuzhan , He Hui , Peng Xiaodong , Chen Handong 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe application and development of 3D printing technology are greatly restricted due to the poor performance and single‐function of the manufactured products. Therefore, it is still an important topic to develop 3D printing products with excellent performance and multi‐functions. In this study, a novel graphite‐filled polypropylene/polyamide 6 composite was successfully prepared using fused deposition modeling (FDM, one of the most popular 3D printing technologies). The effects of graphite on printing quality, melt‐crystallization behavior and thermal stability of the composites were studied. In addition, the influence of different printing arrangements on the electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the composite were also studied, and the existing performance regulation mechanisms were deeply explored through the microscopic morphology characterization (graphite sheet orientation and void distribution) and force analysis. This work demonstrates that components with specific performance requirements can be tuned and manufactured using FDM, which further expands the application and development of 3D printing technology in the field of functional composite materials.
The rise of multiple institutional affiliations in academia
Authors: Hottenrott Hanna , Rose Michael E. , Lawson Cornelia 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis study provides the first systematic, international, large‐scale evidence on the extent and nature of multiple institutional affiliations on journal publications. Studying more than 15 million authors and 22 million articles from 40 countries we document that: In 2019, almost one in three articles was (co‐)authored by authors with multiple affiliations and the share of authors with multiple affiliations increased from around 10% to 16% since 1996. The growth of multiple affiliations is prevalent in all fields and it is stronger in high impact journals. About 60% of multiple affiliations are between institutions from within the academic sector. International co‐affiliations, which account for about a quarter of multiple affiliations, most often involve institutions from the United States, China, Germany and the United Kingdom, suggesting a core‐periphery network. Network analysis also reveals a number communities of countries that are more likely to share affiliations. We discuss potential causes and show that the timing of the rise in multiple affiliations can be linked to the introduction of more competitive funding structures such as “excellence initiatives” in a number of countries. We discuss implications for science and science policy.
Network‐based semisupervised clustering
Authors: Frigau Luca , Contu Giulia , Mola Francesco , Conversano Claudio 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSemisupervised clustering extends standard clustering methods to the semisupervised setting, in some cases considering situations when clusters are associated with a given outcome variable that acts as a “noisy surrogate,” that is a good proxy of the unknown clustering structure. In this article, a novel approach to semisupervised clustering associated with an outcome variable named network‐based semisupervised clustering (NeSSC) is introduced. It combines an initialization, a training and an agglomeration phase. In the initialization and training a matrix of pairwise affinity of the instances is estimated by a classifier. In the agglomeration phase the matrix of pairwise affinity is transformed into a complex network, in which a community detection algorithm searches the underlying community structure. Thus, a partition of the instances into clusters highly homogeneous in terms of the outcome is obtained. We consider a particular specification of NeSSC that uses classification or regression trees as classifiers and the Louvain, Label propagation and Walktrap as possible community detection algorithm. NeSSC's stopping criterion and the choice of the optimal partition of the original data are also discussed. Several applications on both real and simulated data are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed semisupervised clustering method and the benefits it provides in terms of improved interpretability of results with respect to three alternative semisupervised clustering methods.
Occupational Exposure to Extremely Low‐Frequency Magnetic Fields and Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Results of a Feasibility Study for a Pooled Analysis of Original Data
Authors: Baaken Dan , Dechent Dagmar , Blettner Maria , Drießen Sarah , Merzenich Hiltrud 
Published: March 2021

Previous meta‐analyses have suggested an increased risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) associated with occupational exposure to extremely low‐frequency magnetic fields (ELF‐MF). However, results should be interpreted with caution since studies were methodologically heterogeneous. Here, we assessed the feasibility of a pooling study to harmonize and re‐analyze available original data. A systematic literature search was conducted. Published epidemiological studies were identified in PubMed and EMF‐Portal from literature databases′ inception dates until January 2019. The characteristics of all studies were described, including exposure metrics, exposure categories, and confounders. A survey among the principal investigators (PI) was carried out to assess their willingness to provide their original data. The statistical power of a pooling study was evaluated. We identified 15 articles published between 1997 and 2019. Studies differed in terms of outcome, study population, exposure assessment, and exposure metrics. Most studies assessed ELF‐MF as average magnetic flux density per working day; however, exposure categories varied widely. The pattern of adjustment for confounders was heterogeneous between studies, with age, sex, and socioeconomic status being most frequent. Eight PI expressed their willingness to provide original data. A relative risk of ≥1.14 for ALS and occupational exposure to ELF‐MF can be detected with a power of more than 80% in a pooled study. The pooling of original data is recommended and could contribute to a better understanding of ELF‐MF in the etiology of ALS based on a large database and reduced heterogeneity due to a standardized analysis protocol with harmonized exposure metrics and exposure categories. Bioelectromagnetics. © 2021 Bioelectromagnetics Society.
Inducible fold‐switching as a mechanism to fibrillate pro‐apoptotic BCL‐2 proteins
Authors: Morris Daniel L. , Tjandra Nico 
Published: March 2021

AbstractNeurodegenerative diseases often are associated with cellular dysregulation that results in premature cell death or apoptosis. A common example is the accumulation of amyloid plaques that promotes the excessive expression of p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase. The increased abundance of this enzyme leads to mass phosphorylation and activation of a protein from the B‐cell lymphoma 2 (BCL‐2) family, BAX. BAX is the central regulatory protein for mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP), a poration process that commits cells to apoptosis by releasing death‐propagating factors from the mitochondria. Recent reports identify a naturally occurring peptide, Humanin (HN), that could block amyloid‐beta‐associated neuronal apoptosis by interacting with BCL‐2 proteins. We recently showed humanin interaction leads to the amyloid‐like fibrillation of BAX and a second BCL‐2 family member, BID. We proposed this as a novel anti‐apoptotic mechanism that inhibits pro‐apoptotic BCL‐2 proteins from initiating MOMP by sequestering them into fibrils, a heretofore unprecedented phenomenon that involves refolding globular BCL‐2 proteins rapidly into fibrils where they undergo significant alpha‐helix to beta‐sheet fold‐switching. Here we seek to further characterize the fibrillation and fold‐switch in conditions that are known to induce amyloid fibrillation.
Revascularisation strategies in patients with significant left main coronary disease during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Authors: Mohamed Mohamed O. , Curzen Nick , de Belder Mark , Goodwin Andrew T. , Spratt James C , Balacumaraswami Lognathen , Deanfield John , Martin Glen P. , Rashid Muhammad , Shoaib Ahmad , Gale Chris P , Kinnaird Tim , Mamas Mamas A. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBackgroundThere are limited data on the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on left main (LM) coronary revascularisation activity, choice of revascularisation strategy, and post‐procedural outcomes.MethodsAll patients with LM disease (≥50% stenosis) undergoing coronary revascularisation in England between January 1, 2017 and August 19, 2020 were included (n = 22,235), stratified by time‐period (pre‐COVID: 01/01/2017–29/2/2020; COVID: 1/3/2020–19/8/2020) and revascularisation strategy (percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) vs. coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Logistic regression models were performed to examine odds ratio (OR) of 1) receipt of CABG (vs. PCI) and 2) in‐hospital and 30‐day postprocedural mortality, in the COVID‐19 period (vs. pre‐COVID).ResultsThere was a decline of 1,354 LM revascularisation procedures between March 1, 2020 and July 31, 2020 compared with previous years' (2017–2019) averages (−48.8%). An increased utilization of PCI over CABG was observed in the COVID period (receipt of CABG vs. PCI: OR 0.46 [0.39, 0.53] compared with 2017), consistent across all age groups. No difference in adjusted in‐hospital or 30‐day mortality was observed between pre‐COVID and COVID periods for both PCI (odds ratio (OR): 0.72 [0.51. 1.02] and 0.83 [0.62, 1.11], respectively) and CABG (OR 0.98 [0.45, 2.14] and 1.51 [0.77, 2.98], respectively) groups.ConclusionLM revascularisation activity has significantly declined during the COVID period, with a shift towards PCI as the preferred strategy. Postprocedural mortality within each revascularisation group was similar in the pre‐COVID and COVID periods, reflecting maintenance in quality of outcomes during the pandemic. Future measures are required to safely restore LM revascularisation activity to pre‐COVID levels.
A comparative study of black‐box optimization heuristics for online tuning of high performance computing I/O accelerators
Authors: Robert Sophie , Zertal Soraya , Vaumourin Grégory , Couvée Philippe 
Published: March 2021

SummaryHigh performance computing (HPC) applications' behaviors rely on highly configurable software environments and hardware devices. Finding their optimal parametrization is a complex task, as the size of their parametric space and the non‐linear behavior of HPC systems make hand‐tuning, theoretical modeling or exhaustive sampling unsuitable in most cases. In this article, we propose an online auto‐tuner that relies on black‐box optimization to find the optimal parametrization of input/output (I/O) accelerators for a given HPC application in a limited number of iterations, without making any assumption on the behavior of the tuned system. As many heuristics are available in the literature, we need to guarantee the quality of the tuning by selecting the most appropriate one. To do so, we provide a comparative study of the efficiency of three heuristics applied to tuning two I/O accelerators developed by the Atos company: a pure software accelerator (small read optimizer) and a mixed hardware‐software one (smart burst buffer). To select the most efficient heuristic for our use case, we define several new metrics to evaluate the quality of an auto‐tuner, in an online and offline settings. We find that genetic algorithms provide a faster convergence rate and a faster computation time but surrogate models provide a better score in terms of both distance to the optimum and trajectory stability. Overall, the obtained results show that auto‐tuning heuristics improve the execution time of applications used conjointly with both SRO and SBB accelerators.
The Contributions of Clinical Pharmacology to HIV Cure Research
Authors: Fletcher Courtney V. , Dyavar Shetty Ravi , Acharya Arpan , Byrareddy Siddappa N. 
Published: March 2021

Combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) can suppress plasma HIV‐RNA to < 50 copies/mL, decrease HIV transmission, reduce mortality, and improve quality of life for people living with HIV. ART cannot, however, eliminate HIV from an infected individual. The primary barrier to cure HIV infection is the multiple reservoir sites, including adipose tissue, bone marrow, central nervous system, liver, lungs, male and female reproductive system, secondary lymph nodes, and gut‐associated lymphoid tissue, established 1 to 2 weeks after acquisition of HIV. Additional challenges include understanding the mechanism(s) by which HIV is maintained at low or undetectable levels and developing treatments that will eradicate or produce a sustained suppression of virus without ART. To date, the most extensive clinical investigations of cure strategies have been the shock‐and‐kill approach using histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) to induce reactivation of latent HIV. Despite evidence for HIV latency reversal, HDACis alone have not decreased the size of the latent reservoir. Clinical pharmacologic explanations for these results include a low inhibitory quotient (i.e., low potency) within the reservoir sites and intrinsic (e.g., sex differences and reservoir size) and extrinsic (physiochemical and pharmacokinetic drug characteristics) factors. We offer an outline of desired clinical pharmacologic attributes for therapeutics intended for clinical HIV cure research and call for research teams to have early and ongoing involvement of clinical pharmacologists. We believe such a collective effort will provide a solid scientific basis and hope for reaching the goal of a cure for HIV infection.
Study on the Regulation of Piracetam Crystallization Behavior
Authors: Xu Ronghui , Xu Tingting , Wang Guosheng 
Published: March 2021

AbstractPowder X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and molecular simulation techniques are used to analyze the crystallization of piracetam under different solvents and different cooling rates. The crystallization of piracetam in methanol system is controlled by thermodynamics, and it is easy to form stable polymorph. The crystallization of piracetam in isopropanol system is controlled by kinetics and forms metastable polymorph. The crystallization of piracetam in the ethanol system is controlled by thermodynamics and kinetics, and the cooling rate affects the formation of the crystal polymorphs, which is easy to be mixed. Dmol3 is used to calculate the energy, electrostatic potential, and frontier orbital energy of piracetam molecules in form II and form III configurations molecules in different systems. The results show that the methanol system is easier to form stable polymorph than the ethanol system.
Optimal wavelets with Binary Phase Shift Keying modulator utilized simulation analysis of 4G/5G OFDM systems
Authors: Simon Judy , Prabakaran N. 
Published: March 2021

SummaryLong‐Term Evolution (LTE) is progressively observed as a promising innovation for serving Internet of Things (IoT) because of high information rate, low dormancy, need services, and so forth. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) meets the LTE needs to extend adaptability and enables cost‐profitable reactions for especially wide transporters. LTE contributes enormous information esteems with low inertness, improved services, and lower costs and takes into consideration range reexamining, on account of the recurrence and transfer speed adaptability. In this exploration work, 4G/5G received OFDM was proposed under binary‐phase shift keying (BPSK) guideline and multi‐equalizer. To diminish the bit error rate (BER), ideal wavelet coefficients are utilized in the transmitter end. Here, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is applied in input signals to choose the ideal wavelet coefficients Binary Firefly (BFF) calculation. At that point, ideal coefficients are accomplished; the balance BPSK is utilized for serial measure. Eventually, the multi‐equalizer such as maximum likelihood (MLE) and minimized mean square error (MMSE) are utilized to decrease BER in the OFDM model. The execution of the proposed strategy is dissected with boundaries BER, symbol error rate (SER), mean square error (MSE), and spectral efficiency. The proposed strategy gives accurate outcomes contrasted with existing methods.
Spring understory herbs flower later in intensively managed forests
Authors: Willems Franziska M. , Scheepens J. F. , Ammer Christian , Block Svenja , Bucharova Anna , Schall Peter , Sehrt Melissa , Bossdorf Oliver 
Published: March 2021

AbstractMany organisms respond to anthropogenic environmental change through shifts in their phenology. In plants, flowering is largely driven by temperature, and therefore affected by climate change. However, on smaller scales climatic conditions are also influenced by other factors, including habitat structure. A group of plants with a particularly distinct phenology are the understory herbs in temperate European forests. In these forests, management alters tree species composition (often replacing deciduous with coniferous species) and homogenizes stand structure, and as a consequence changes light conditions and microclimate. Forest management should thus also affect the phenology of understory herbs. To test this, we recorded the flowering phenology of 16 early‐flowering herbs on 100 forest plots varying in management intensity, from near‐natural to intensely managed forests, in central and southern Germany. We found that in forest stands with a high management intensity, such as Norway spruce plantations, the plants flowered on average about 2 weeks later than in unmanaged forests. This was largely because management also affected microclimate (e.g., spring temperatures of 5.9°C in managed coniferous, 6.7 in managed deciduous, and 7.0°C in unmanaged deciduous plots), which in turn affected phenology, with plants flowering later on colder and moister forest stands (+4.5 d per −1°C and 2.7 d per 10% humidity increase). Among forest characteristics, the percentage of conifers had the greatest influence on microclimate, but also the age, overall crown projection area, structural complexity and spatial distribution of the forest stands. Our study indicates that forest management alters plant phenology, with potential far‐reaching consequences for the ecology and evolution of understorey communities. More generally, our study demonstrates that besides climate change other drivers of environmental change, too, can influence the phenology of organisms.
Predation release of Texas horned lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum) living in small towns
Authors: Mirkin Stephen , Tucker Mary R. , Williams Dean A. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractTexas horned lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum) have a number of ways to avoid predation, including camouflage, sharp cranial horns, flattening of the body, and the ability to squirt blood from the eyes. These characteristics and their relatively low survival rates in the wild suggest these lizards are under high predation pressure. These lizards have been declining in much of their eastern range due to increased urbanization, agriculture, and loss of prey species. However, they can be still be found in some small south Texas towns where they can reach densities that are much higher (~50 lizards/ha) than in natural areas (~4–10 lizards/ha). We hypothesized that one reason for the high densities observed in these towns may be due to reduced predation pressure. We used model Texas horned lizards to test whether predation levels were lower in two south Texas towns than on a nearby ranch. We constructed models from urethane foam, a material that is ideal for preserving marks left behind by predators. Models (n = 126) and control pieces of foam (n = 21) were left in the field for 9 days in each location in early and late summer and subsequent predation marks were categorized by predator taxa. We observed significantly more predation attempts on the models than on controls and significantly fewer attempts in town (n = 1) compared with the ranch (n = 60). On the ranch, avian predation attempts appear to be common especially when the models did not match the color of the soil. Our results suggest that human‐modified environments that have suitable habitat and food resources may provide a refuge for some prey species like horned lizards from predators.