bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Coordination Games with Activation Costs
Authors: Ramirez Stefanny , Bauso Dario 
Published: January 2021

AbstractMotivated by inventory control problems with set-up costs, we consider a coordination game where each player’s dynamics is an inventory model characterized by a controlled input and an uncontrolled output. An activation cost is shared among active players, namely players who control their dynamics at a given time. At each time, each player decides to be active or not depending on its inventory level. The main contribution of this paper is to show that strategies at a Nash equilibrium have a threshold structure on the number of active players. Furthermore, we provide an explicit expression for the lower and upper threshold is given both in the deterministic case, namely when the exogenous signal is known, and in the single-stage game. The relevance of the above results is discussed in the context of inventory control where Nash equilibrium reordering strategies imply that a single retailer reorders only if jointly with a number of other retailers and will reorder to restore a pre-assigned inventory level.
Constructions and bounds on quaternary linear codes with Hermitian hull dimension one
Authors: Mankean Todsapol , Jitman Somphong 
Published: January 2021

AbstractDue to their practical applications, hulls of linear codes have been of interest and extensively studied. In this paper, we focus on constructions and bounds on quaternary linear codes with Hermitian hull dimension one. Optimal $$[n,2]_4$$

[
n
,
2
]

4

codes with Hermitian hull dimension one are constructed for all lengths $$n\ge 3$$

n
≥
3

, such that $$n \equiv 1,2,4 \ (\mathrm{mod}\ 5)$$

n
≡
1
,
2
,
4

(
mod

5
)

. For positive integers $$n \equiv 0,3 \ (\mathrm{mod}\ 5)$$

n
≡
0
,
3

(
mod

5
)

, good lower and upper bounds on the minimum weight of quaternary $$[n,2]_4$$

[
n
,
2
]

4

codes with Hermitian hull dimension one are given.
Sex-Specific Differences in Running Injuries: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression
Authors: Hollander Karsten , Rahlf Anna Lina , Wilke Jan , Edler Christopher , Steib Simon , Junge Astrid , Zech Astrid 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBackgroundRunning is a popular sport with high injury rates. Although risk factors have intensively been investigated, synthesized knowledge about the differences in injury rates of female and male runners is scarce.ObjectiveTo systematically investigate the differences in injury rates and characteristics between female and male runners.MethodsDatabase searches (PubMed, Web of Science, PEDro, SPORTDiscus) were conducted according to PRISMA guidelines using the keywords “running AND injur*”. Prospective studies reporting running related injury rates for both sexes were included. A random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool the risk ratios (RR) for the occurrence of injuries in female vs. male runners. Potential moderators (effect modifiers) were analysed using meta-regression.ResultsAfter removal of duplicates, 12,215 articles were screened. Thirty-eight studies were included and the OR of 31 could be pooled in the quantitative analysis. The overall injury rate was 20.8 (95% CI 19.9–21.7) injuries per 100 female runners and 20.4 (95% CI 19.7–21.1) injuries per 100 male runners. Meta-analysis revealed no differences between sexes for overall injuries reported per 100 runners (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.90–1.10,n = 24) and per hours or athlete exposure (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69–1.27,n = 6). Female sex was associated with a more frequent occurrence of bone stress injury (RR (for males) 0.52, 95% CI 0.36–0.76,n = 5) while male runners had higher risk for Achilles tendinopathies (RR 1. 86, 95% CI 1.25–2.79,n = 2). Meta-regression showed an association between a higher injury risk and competition distances of 10 km and shorter in female runners (RR 1.08, 95% CI 1.00–1.69).ConclusionDifferences between female and male runners in specific injury diagnoses should be considered in the development of individualised and sex-specific prevention and rehabilitation strategies to manage running-related injuries.
A loop enhancement strategy for network robustness
Authors: Chujyo Masaki , Hayashi Yukio 
Published: January 2021

AbstractMany real systems are extremely vulnerable against attacks, since they are scale-free networks as commonly existing topological structure in them. Thus, in order to improve the robustness of connectivity, several edge rewiring methods have been so far proposed by enhancing degree–degree correlations. In fact, onion-like structures with positive degree–degree correlations are optimally robust against attacks. On the other hand, recent studies suggest that the robustness and loops are strongly related to each other. Therefore, we focus on enhancing loops as a new approach for improving the robustness. In this work, we propose edge rewiring methods and evaluate the effect on the robustness by applying to real networks. Our proposed methods are two types of rewirings in preserving degrees or not for investigating the effect of the degree modification on the robustness. Numerical results show that our proposed methods improve the robustness to the level as same or more than the state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, our work shows that the following two points are more important for further improving the robustness. First, the robustness is strongly related to loops more than degree–degree correlations. Second, it significantly improves the robustness by reducing the gap between the maximum and minimum degrees.
Spatio-temporal distribution of reactive nitrogen species in relation to wheat cultivation in Bangladesh
Authors: Biswas J. C. , Hossain M. B. , Maniruzzaman M. , Haque M. M. , Akhter S. , Naher U. A. , Rahman M. M. , Adhya T. K. , Sutton M. A. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractFarmers generally use more nitrogen fertilizer than others for crop production in Bangladesh because of its visible growth symptoms. Such practice is responsible for extra reactive N (Nr) load to the environment, but data are not available. Nitrous oxide (N2O) data were collected from a field trial following static closed-chamber technique, which were used for calibration and validation of DeNitrification and DeComposition model along with soil clay fraction, pH, bulk density and organic carbon contents. The model was well fitted and estimated about 364 g N2O–N ha−1emission in Rajshahi region and only 15 g N2O–N ha−1in Barisal region. District-wise N2O–N emissions varied from < 1–15.96 t season−1. In 2011–2016, N2O–N emissions from wheat fields were about 103–129 t yr−1in Bangladesh. The model estimated nitric oxide (NO), ammonia (NH3) and nitrate (NO3) fluxes varied from 0.012 to 0.447, 7 to 12.5 and 0 to 4.7 kg N ha−1, respectively, under ambient temperature condition. In about 79% yield variabilities were explainable by N2O emission. In dominant wheat growing areas, if sowing is started from 15 to 30 November, N2O emission could be reduced by 8–40% with 5–13% reduction in yields compared to 10 November sowing. In similar areas and same sowing date with 1.5 °C temperature rise, N2O emission may increase by 8–45% and wheat yield might reduce by about 4–8%. Time of seeding and other cultural management in wheat cultivation would be the main avenue for reducing Nr loads to the environment.
Optimization of critical angle, distance and flow rate of secondary fuel injection in DI diesel engine using computational fluid dynamics
Authors: Sonachalam M. , Manieniyan V. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis study presents the optimization of the intake manifold and the optimized flow rate of the acetylene gas which acts as a low reactivity fuel to achieve the superior performance and emission characteristics used in the Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine. Intake manifold is one of the engine components which are an important factor in determining the quality of combustion. A very recent evolution of the RCCI engine using the low temperature combustion technique requires a low reactivity fuel which is injected through the secondary fuel injector. The secondary fuel injector must be designed and optimized to allow the acetylene gas to maximize the engine performance and the amount of acetylene gas in liters per minute required for better combustion. If the secondary fuel injector is mounted apart from the critical point, then the performance of the RCCI engine may be poor and also if the acetylene gas is not supplied properly, there is a risk of poor combustion and also if the acetylene gas is supplied excessively, there is a risk of knocking along with the backfire due to the excess fuel charge accumulation during the combustion process. Physical testing of the secondary fuel injector in the intake manifold with different angles, distance and flow rate of supply of acetylene gas is time and cost consuming process. To mitigate this issue optimization is done through computational fluid dynamics principles comes in handy to minimize time and money. In our study, ANSYS-FLUENT software is used for simulation purposes. Optimization of acetylene gas injector distance is carried out by analyzing the pressure contours at the entrance of the combustion chamber. The optimized flow rate of acetylene gas and the injector inclination is found by analyzing the flow contours of turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent dissipation rate.
A study into crack initiation and growth in peroxide-cured silica-filled polybutadiene rubber vulcanisate under a cyclic loading condition
Authors: Farooq Muhammad , Ansarifar Ali , Bao Xujin 
Published: January 2021

AbstractCrack initiation and propagation in a peroxide-cured polybutadiene rubber reinforced with silanised silica nanofiller were studied under a cyclic loading condition. The fatigue properties of the semi-transparent rubber samples were tested at a constant strain amplitude, test frequency and temperature. Initiation and subsequent growth of cracks in the rubber samples were observed using an optical microscope as a function of the number of cycles until the rubber samples failed, indicating that there are two distinct stages in the fatigue failure of the rubber vulcanisate. The cracks were initiated after the rubber was flexed for about 2817 cycles and then the cracks grew from 500 μm and reached to a critical length of 4.6 mm and followed a further 897 cycles, leading to a catastrophic failure of the rubber samples. Correlation between the rate of crack growth, dc/dn, and the strain energy release rate, T, was investigated using the power law index, and a new expression for the measurement of the cyclic fatigue life of the rubber vulcanisate was proposed.
Question Answering Over Knowledge Base: A Scheme for Integrating Subject and the Identified Relation to Answer Simple Questions
Authors: Buzaaba Happy , Amagasa Toshiyuki 
Published: January 2021

AbstractAnswering natural language question over a knowledge base is an important and challenging task with a wide range of application in natural language processing and information retrieval. Several existing knowledge-based question answering systems exploit complex end-to-end neural network approaches that are computationally expensive and take long to execute when training the neural network. More importantly, such an end-to-end approach makes it difficult to examine the process of query processing. In this study, we decompose the question answering problem in a three-step pipeline of entity detection, entity linking, and relation prediction, and solve each component separately. We explore basic neural network and non-neural network methods for entity detection and relation prediction plus a few heuristics for entity linking. We also introduce a method to identify ambiguity in the data and show that ambiguity in the data bounds the performance of the question answering system. The experiment on the SimpleQuestions benchmark data set shows that a combination of basic LSTMs, GRUs, and non-neural network techniques achieve reasonable performance while providing an opportunity to understand the question answering problem structure.
Effect of Mitochondrial Antioxidant (Mito-TEMPO) on Burn-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction
Authors: Wen Jake J. , Williams Taylor P. , Cummins Claire B. , Colvill Kayla M. , Radhakrishnan Geetha L. , Radhakrishnan Ravi S. 
Published: January 2021

BACKGROUND:
Imbalance of oxidants/antioxidants results in heart failure, contributing to mortality after burn injury. Cardiac mitochondria are a prime source of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and a mitochondrial-specific antioxidant may improve burn-induced cardiomyopathy. We hypothesize that the mitochondrial-specific antioxidant, Triphenylphosphonium chloride (Mito-TEMPO), could protect cardiac function after burn.

STUDY DESIGN:
Male rats had a 60% total body surface area (TBSA) scald burn injury and were treated with/without Mito-TEMPO (7 mg/kg-1, intraperitoneal) and harvested at 24 hours post-burn. Echocardiography (ECHO) was used for measurement of heart function. Masson Trichrome and hematoxylin and eosin (H & E) staining were used for cardiac fibrosis and immune response. Qualitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used for mitochondrial DNA replication and gene expression.

RESULTS:
Burn-induced cardiac dysfunction, fibrosis, and mitochondrial damage were assessed by measurement of mitochondrial function, DNA replication, and DNA-encoded electron transport chain-related gene expression. Mito-TEMPO partially improved the abnormal parameters. Burn-induced cardiac dysfunction was associated with crosstalk between the NFE2L2-ARE pathway, PDE5A-PKG pathway, PARP1-POLG-mtDNA replication pathway, and mitochondrial SIRT signaling.

CONCLUSIONS:
Mito-TEMPO reversed burn-induced cardiac dysfunction by rescuing cardiac mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria-targeted antioxidants may be an effective therapy for burn-induced cardiac dysfunction.
Margin Positivity and Survival Outcomes: A Review of 14,471 Patients with 1-cm to 4-cm Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma
Authors: Khan Zahra F. , Kutlu Onur , Picado Omar , Lew John I. 
Published: January 2021

BACKGROUND:
Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) comprises the majority of thyroid malignancy, but it is associated with excellent long-term survival. Highly prevalent, with increasing incidence, the optimal operative management for patients with 1- to 4-cm PTC remains unclear. This study determined factors that affect clinical outcomes, including survival, in this patient population.

STUDY DESIGN:
Patients with 1- to 4-cm PTC, who underwent thyroidectomy between 2004 and 2016, were identified in the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Factors affecting survival, including margin status, extent of resection, operative volume, and institution type, were studied. Outcomes were estimated by Kaplan-Meier and log rank tests. Cox proportional hazard and binary logistic regression analyses identified factors affecting survival as well as margin positivity.

RESULTS:
Of 14,471 patients with 1- to 4-cm PTC, 2,269 (15.7%) exhibited lymphovascular invasion, 6,925 (47.9%) had multifocality, 14,235 (98.3%) underwent total thyroidectomy, and 2,212 (15.3%) had microscopic margin positivity, which conferred lower survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1.464, p < 0.05), with 30-day and 90-day mortality of 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. Operative volume (odds ratio [OR] 0.979, p < 0.01) and thyroid surgery at an academic center (OR 0.623, p < 0.001) were associated with lower odds of margin positivity.

CONCLUSIONS:
In patients with 1- to 4-cm PTC, margin positivity confers lower survival. Factors associated with lower rate of margin positivity are higher operative volume and referral for treatment at academic center. Because margin positivity is a modifiable risk factor, referral of patients with aggressive features of PTC to high volume academic centers may improve survival.
Diverse floodplain deposits of reworked loess in a monsoon climate (Hanzhong Basin, central China)
Authors: Vandenberghe Jef , Yang Xun , Wang Xianyan , Wang Shejiang , Lu Huayu 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis paper describes an assemblage of diverse floodplain facies of reworked loess (facies b, c) in a Middle Pleistocene monsoonal setting of the Hanzhong Basin, central China. The vertical and lateral sedimentary sequences show changing energy conditions. Apart from the highest energy in the channel facies (facies a), a relatively high energy floodplain environment (facies b) prevailed in waterlogged conditions, with small, laterally migrating (sub)channels. Facies b generally interfingers with aggrading horizontal sheets of overbank deposits in alluvial pools and swamps in a floodplain with much lower energy (facies c), in which phases of stability (soil formation) occasionally interrupted overbank deposition. Reworked loess forms the main part of the floodplain deposits. The paleosols are considered to have been formed under low hydrodynamic conditions in an interglacial environment. These interglacial conditions follow the commonly assumed glacial conditions of channel facies a. The sedimentary successions in the floodplain show a recurrent composition and cyclicity between wet and dry floodplain sedimentation terminated by stability with soil formation. The cyclic rhythm of stacked high- and low-energy floodplain sediments is attributed to varied intensity of different hydrodynamic flooding events that may have been due to changing monsoonal rainfall or simple intrinsic fluvial behavior.
The psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns: a review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and natural experiments
Authors: Prati Gabriele , Mancini Anthony D. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractLockdowns to control the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have had profound effects on everyday life worldwide, but their effect on mental health remains unclear because available meta-analyses and reviews rely mostly on cross-sectional studies. We conducted a rapid review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and natural experiments investigating the relationship between COVID-19 lockdowns and mental health. A total of 25 studies involving 72 004 participants and 58 effect sizes were analyzed. Using a random effects model, we found that lockdowns had small effects on mental health symptoms, g = 0.17, s.e. = 0.05, 95% CI (0.06–0.24), p = 0.001, but the effects on positive psychological functioning, g = −0.12, s.e. = 0.11, 95% CI (−0.33 to 0.09), p = 0.27, were not significant. Multivariate analysis of effect sizes revealed significant and relatively small effect sizes for anxiety and depression, while those for social support, loneliness, general distress, negative affect, and suicide risk were not significant. The results indicated substantial heterogeneity among studies, but meta-regression analyses found no significant moderation effects for mean age, gender, continent, COVID-19 death rate, days of lockdown, publication status or study design. The psychological impact of COVID-19 lockdowns is small in magnitude and highly heterogeneous, suggesting that lockdowns do not have uniformly detrimental effects on mental health and that most people are psychologically resilient to their effects.
Food neophobia in Lebanese children: scale validation and correlates
Authors: El Mouallem Rayane , Malaeb Diana , Akel Marwan , Hallit Souheil , Fadous Khalife Marie-Claude 
Published: January 2021

AbstractObjective:To validate the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS) and determine factors associated with the presence of food neophobia (FN) in a sample of Lebanese children.Design:Cross-sectional study conducted between July and December 2019.Setting:All Lebanese governorates.Participants:Parents of Lebanese children aged 2 to 10 years.Results:Out of 850 questionnaires, 194 were excluded. The mean age of children was 5·34 ± 2·20 years (50·8 % females); 238 (36·4 %) had low neophobia scores (≤37), whereas 219 (33·5 %) and 197 (30·1 %) had, respectively, moderate (between 38 and 41) and severe neophobia scores (≥42). All items of the FNS were extracted except item 8 and yielded a two-factor solution with Eigenvalues > 1 (variance explained = 51·64 %; Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test = 0·746; Bartlett’s sphericity test P < 0·001; αCronbach = 0·739). Children who refused initially to eat vegetables (β = 5·51), fish (β = 4·57), fruits (β = 4·75) or eggs (β = 2·99) and higher parents’ instrumental feeding scores (β = 0·3) were significantly associated with higher neophobia scores, whereas higher parents’ encouragement scores (β = -0·21) were significantly associated with lower neophobia scores in children.Conclusion:FN is common in children. Neophobic children tend to have lower variety in their diets. One of the ways to lower the levels of neophobia is the use of encouragement by the parents. In contrast, offering a reward to children for them to eat a certain food was associated with more signs of avoidance. More studies should be conducted to evaluate awareness levels concerning FN.
Fertile soil for intrapreneurship: impartial institutions and human capital
Authors: Ljunge Martin , Stenkula Mikael 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIntrapreneurs, entrepreneurial employees, constitute an important force behind innovations in the economy. Yet, what factors that promote intrapreneurship at the country level are an underdeveloped research area. This paper provides an important contribution regarding the methodological approach and the broad set of potential explanatory factors studied. Based on machine-learning techniques (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA)), we investigate the influence of over 60 factors capturing institutional, demographic, cultural, and developmental factors. We find that the quality of government measured as impartiality, i.e. that the public institutions treat the citizens in a non-discriminatory fashion and do not favor some groups or individuals, and the level of human capital, measured as the average years of schooling, are the most important factors predicting the level of intrapreneurship across countries. Instrumental variable results support a causal interpretation. The findings emphasize the importance of policy to establish well-functioning and impartial institutions as well as to promote higher education.