bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Comparison of biphasic material properties of equine articular cartilage estimated from stress relaxation and creep indentation tests
Authors: Reuter Thomas , Hurschler Christof 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Mechanical parameters of hard and soft tissues are explicit markers for quantitative tissue characterization. In this study, we present a comparison of biphasic material properties of equine articular cartilage estimated from stress relaxation (ε = 6 %, t = 1000 s) and creep indentation tests (F = 0.1 N, t = 1000 s). A biphasic 3D-FE-based method is used to determine the biomechanical properties of equine articular cartilage. The FE-model computation was optimized by exploiting the axial symmetry and mesh resolution. Parameter identification was executed with the Levenberg- Marquardt-algorithm. Additionally, sensitivity analyses of the calculated biomechanical parameters were performed. Results show that the Young’s modulus E has the largest influence and the Poisson’s ratio of ν ≤ 0.1 is rather insensitive. The R² of the fit results varies between 0.882 and 0.974 (creep model) and between 0.695 and 0.930 (relaxation model). The averaged parameters E and k determined from the creep model yield higher values in comparison to the relaxation model. The differences can be traced back to the experimental settings and to the biphasic material model.
PTT-based Contact-less Blood Pressure Measurement using an RGB-Camera
Authors: Wuerich Carolin , Rademacher Robin , Wiede Christian , Grabmaier Anton 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Commonly used blood pressure measurement devices have noticeable limitations in accuracy, measuring time, comfort or safety. To overcome these limitations, we developed and tested a surrogate-based, non-invasive blood pressure measurement method using an RGB-camera. Our proposed method employs the relation between the pulse transit time (PTT) and blood pressure. Two remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) signals at different distances from the heart are extracted to calculate the temporal delay of the pulse wave. In order to establish the correlation between the PTT values and the blood pressure, a regression model is trained and evaluated. Tests were performed with five subjects, where each subject was recorded fifteen times for 30 seconds. Since the physiological parameters of the cardiac system are different for each person, an individual calibration is required to obtain the systolic and diastolic blood pressure from the PTT values. The calibration results are limited by the small number of samples and the accuracy of the reference system. However, our results show a strong correlation between the PTT values and the blood pressure and we obtained a mean error of 0.18 +/- 5.50 mmHg for the diastolic blood pressure and 0.01 +/- 7.71 mmHg for the systolic pressure, respectively.
KneTex – Improvements to a textile-integrated sensor system for feedback-supported rehabilitation after ACL surgery
Authors: Yavuz Sinan , Schlage N. , Cramer L. , Demmer J. , Mühlen A. , Kitzig A. , Naroska E. , Stockmanns G. 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
After surgery of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), unpredictable effects can occur in the patient’s gait patterns. Thus, patients often experience instability and uncontrolled buckling of the knee joint (“giving way” effect). The “giving way” effect is also difficult to measure due to the uncontrolled and rare occurrence. Within the KneTex project a smart textile-integrated sensor and actuator bandage system is developed to detect instability of the knee joint and actively support the rehabilitation process. Based on the sensor data the calculation of the knee angles as well as a recognition system is implemented. The bandage system can be controlled via a custom app which is developed as part of the project. This paper describes the recent developments and current status of the project. In addition, the results and steps for future work are described as well.
Impact of normalization, standardization and pre-fit on the success rate of fitting in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
Authors: Pfeiffer Norman , Jechow Markus , Wachter Toni , Hofmann Christian , Errachid Abdelhamid , Heuberger Albert 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Fitting the data of an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) typically requires manual estimation of the initial values before regression algorithms such as complex nonlinear least squares (CNLS) can be applied. This makes the success rate of the fitting dependent on the user input. Furthermore, the Randles circuit consists of parameters with substantially differing magnitudes (e.g. capacitors and resistors), which can also strongly affect the success rate of the fitting due to numerical effects. The aim of this work is to investigate methods addressing the described limitations of fitting. Therefore, a Python implementation performing a fit for EIS is benchmarked with an equivalent open source library. The examined implementation optionally includes the normalization of the parameter values, the standardization of the impedances and a pre-fit. Applying the same equivalent circuit without additional signal processing steps and with fixed initial values defined by midpoints of the value ranges, both implementations were able to fit 46.50% of the simulated database with different spectra. Applying the normalization of the parameter values (76.25%) or the same method with additional pre-fit (97.75%) lead to a significant improvement of the success rate. The standardization of impedances did not affect the success rate.
Non-destructive analysis of drug distribution in nonwovens as drug-delivery systems for biomedical applications
Authors: Reske Thomas , Wulf Katharina , Illner Sabine , Eickner Thomas , Grabow Niels , Schmitz Klaus-Peter , Siewert Stefan , Khaimov Valeria 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Analysis of the active ingredient distribution of medical devices is typically performed using Raman spectroscopy, a method that is fast and inexpensive [1]. In addition, it offers the advantage of non-destructive analysis without the need for special sample preparation. Assuming that all components are Raman-active and present in sufficient quantities, their distribution can be well represented. The drug distribution in dexamethasone-loaded polymer nonwovens was investigated in order to draw conclusions on the quality of the fleece batches and to make predictions for the release behavior. In the present study, dexamethasone (DMS), a glucocorticoid was used as the active ingredient. Qualitative and quantitative studies of the content of DMS in polymer films by means of Raman spectroscopy have already been carried out in the working group [2]. A representative square section was examined to describe the distribution of active ingredients. The required number of measurement points (spectra) was determined earlier [2].
Detection of Outdated Structural Priors in the Discrete Cosine Transformation-based Electrical Impedance Tomography Algorithm
Authors: Chen Rongqing , Moeller Knut 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Morphological prior information incorporated with the discrete cosine transformation (DCT) based electrical impedance tomography (EIT) algorithm can improve the interpretability of EIT reconstructions in clinical applications. However, an outdated structural prior can yield a misleading reconstruction compromising the accuracy of the clinical diagnosis and the appropriate treatment decision. In this contribution, we propose a redistribution index scaled between 0 and 1 to quantify the possible error in a DCT-based EIT reconstruction influenced by structural prior information. Two simulation models of different tissue atelectasis and collapsed ratios were investigated. Outdated and updated structural prior information were applied to obtain different EIT reconstructions using this simulated data, with which the redistribution index was calculated and compared. When the difference between prior and reality (the redistribution index) became larger and exceeded a threshold, this was considered as an indicator of an outdated prior information. The evaluation result shows the potential of the redistribution index to detect outdated prior information in a DCT-based EIT algorithm.
Cardiovascular catheter stiffness – a static measurement approach
Authors: Brandt-Wunderlich Christoph , Grabow Niels , Schmitz Klaus-Peter , Siewert Stefan , Schmidt Wolfram 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Catheters are widely used for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes in various medical applications. Along with frictional properties as well as the catheter profile the catheter stiffness mainly affects the deliverability and thus, the handling properties of the catheter. Within this study the bending stiffness of proximal and distal catheter samples was investigated with a custom made test setup. In particular, the influence of the catheter clamping length on the test results is discussed. Bending stiffness was calculated directly from the measured force, deflection and clamping length considering the test setup compliance. Measurements were performed three times at five positions in circumferential direction. Measured bending stiffness ranged from 629 ± 31 Nmm² to 733 ± 58 Nmm² for the proximal samples and from 30 ± 5 Nmm² to 98 ± 30 Nmm² for the distal samples, respectively. Bending stiffness varied depending on the free catheter length and the reaction force measured. The maximum reaction force decreased with increasing free catheter length leading to a higher measurement uncertainty. However, when considering the same free catheter length quantitative results were similar within the group of proximal and distal samples, respectively.
Investigation of an Active Measurement Method to Detect Inertial Cavitation and the Presence of Potential Drug Carriers
Authors: Helmerich Jan , George Benedikt , Rupitsch Stefan J. 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Drug carriers, such as nanoparticles, are capable of releasing pharmaceutically active ingredients, which can be initiated by focused ultrasound via the effect of inertial cavitation. This effect of inertial cavitation is often verified by passive measurement methods that rely on the analysis of emitted acoustic signals caused by the implosion of bubbles. However, a major issue of such methods is their inability to detect the presence of potential drugs in human vessels, complicating the implementation of a closed loop control for future medical therapies. Therefore, this contribution introduces an active measurement method to determine both inertial cavitation and the presence of potential drug carriers in a tissue mimicking phantom
Agency Fluctuations and Identity Transformations in Chinese English-Majors on Their Learning Trajectories
Authors: Lin Qiuming 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
This paper explores agency fluctuations and identity transformations in Chinese English-majors and how they are related to the process of English learning. By tracing a group of students for four years in a Chinese university and conducting qualitative analyses to their oral narrations of learning experiences at different periods, the study has found that most participants started and ended their university life at relatively high levels of agency, with inevitable ups and downs in between. Agency fluctuations in the learners are the result of their identity positioning and repositioning within a complex and ever-changing context. Concordant or conflicting identities may co-exist within an individual learner and keep changing across different situations. Learner identities will cause increase or reduction in their investment in English learning, while their learning experience will in turn reinforce or undermine their identities. The study sheds light on the intricate relationships between agency, identity and language learning and therefore has important implications for English learning and teaching in China.
Linguistic Dimensions of Accentedness, Comprehensibility and Intelligibility: Exploring Listener Effects in American, Moroccan, Turkmen and Chinese Varieties of English
Authors: Wei Mei 
Published: December 2021

AbstractThe present study examines accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility of American English, Moroccan English, Turkmen English, and Chinese English, from the perspectives of three groups of listeners: native speakers of English and Chinese speakers of English with or without international experiences. Of the 145 listeners, 38 had face-to-face interviews. These listener groups were asked to listen to the recordings of the four English varieties and fill in a cloze test. Results indicated that the three listener groups differed significantly in rating comprehensibility of American English, Moroccan English and Chinese English but they did not give Turkmen English statistically different ratings; there were no significant differences in accentedness ratings except for Chinese English; and there were significant differences in the intelligibility scores of the four English varieties. In addition, with respect to seven linguistic variables—speed, clarity, intonation, smoothness and fluency, vocal intensity, pause, vocabulary and grammar, there were significant differences in three listener groups’ rating of six variables in American English except the one of “speed”. By contrast, Chinese English received significantly different ratings only in “proper speed”. No differences were found in the ratings for Moroccan English and Turkmen English. Finally, unlike Chinese listeners without international experiences, native listeners and Chinese listeners with international experiences shared some similarities in correlations between the ratings of accentedness and comprehensibility and those of linguistic variables on Moroccan English, Turkmen English, and Chinese English. However, the results for American English from Chinese listeners without international experiences and native listeners seemed to be more alike. Linguistic variables correlating with accentedness and comprehensibility of American English showed a mixed profile. Qualitative data provided more variant elaborations on the pronunciations and language uses of the speakers.
„Auch die Natur wartet auf die Revolution.“
Authors: Hogh Philip 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
In this article, Herbert Marcuse’s nature-ethical considerations, which have to date been scarcely received, are used to develop perspectives on how the nature-ethical gap in contemporary Critical Theory could be closed. The central idea is that nature is tobe recognized as a subject in its own right without needing to anthropomorphize it in the process. The advocatory ethics of nature, which is outlined here, differs from current sustainability and environmental ethics primarily in that it maintains the tension between an anthropocentric and an ecocentric approach and does not resolve it in one direction. Marcuse’s so-called “liberation of nature” is understood as a means for the “liberation of humans”, but the latter can only succeed if the former is also carried out.
κέλῡφος and καλύπτω
Authors: Merritt Andrew 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Though καλύπτω ‘cover’ is normally and correctly associated with *√ḱel- ‘cover’, the origin of the entire base καλυφ- remains unclear. The basis of clarification consists in an appreciation of the formally resemblant s-stem κέλῡφος, whose meaning ‘sheath, case, shell, husk, pod’ has invited comparison. The author therefore hypothesizes that the bases καλυφ- and κελῡφ- include related layers of nominal material. Starting from an originally adnominal *ḱel-ó- (> OIr. cel ‘death’), the author reconstructs the u-stem substantive *ḱó/él-u- ‘covering’, for which the evidence of Proto-Germanic *χlewa- ‘shelter’ and Greek κολεόν ‘sheath’ is adduced. The element in -φ- is then argued to reflect a nominalized form of *√bʰuhx- ‘become’ qua light verb of an anti-causative periphrasis whose originally acrostatic heavy member *ḱó/él-u- was employed as a predicative instrumental *ḱéluh₁ eventually fossilized as an indeclinable adnominal eligible for use as a First Compound Member (FCM) (> κέλῡφος). By comparison to the allomorphically archaic πόλις ‘city’ (gen. πόληος), the author finally argues for the paradigmatic renewal of *ḱó/él-u- (> > *ḱól-u- : ḱl̥-u̯- : ḱl̥l-éu̯) and the eligibility of its weak stem as first member of a compound from which was formed the *-i̯e/o- present ancestral to καλύπτω.
Chorioamnionitis has no impact on immunohistochemical expression of IL-6 in placental membranes of the late preterm delivery regardless of the membrane status
Authors: Benzon Zdeslav , Kuzmić Prusac Ivana , Zekić Tomaš Sandra , Vulić Marko , Vulić Luka , Benzon Sandra , Stefanovic Vedran 
Published: December 2021

Abstract

Objectives
To compare the immunohistochemical expression of IL-6 in placental membranes of late preterm delivery in women with histologically proven chorioamnionitis with and without preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM).

Methods
Fetal membranes were collected from 60 women who had late preterm delivery with histologic chorioamnionitis with and without PPROM (30 in each group). Immunohistochemistry for IL-6 was performed on formalin fixed and paraffin-embedded sections. The two groups were matched for age, body mass index and parity. SPSS Version 17.0 was used for statistical analysis.

Results
There was no difference in immunohistochemical expression of IL-6 in placental membranes of women with histologic chorioamnionitis regardless of the membrane status.

Conclusions
Chorioamnionitis has no impact on immunohistochemical expression of IL-6 in placental membranes of women with late preterm delivery despite the clinical presentation.
Ein preußischer Postbeamter oder ein postmoderner Provokateur?
Authors: Kroucheva Katerina 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
This article concerns itself with Gérard Genette’s reception in Germanophone literary study. Through an analysis of the rhetorical substrate from which Genette’s terminology draws its specific tension, the article determines that Genette is not only an excessive systematist, but also and simultaneously an author who battles received attempts at order and who foregrounds doubts about the idea of order. In this way, he displays a kinship with such theorists as Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida. The receptions of the rhetorical construction of Genette’s texts and of the particular strategies of structuralism to which that construction refers did not occur synchronously in French, American, Russian, and German literary studies. The article demonstrates that, while German literary theory occasionally discusses Genette’s positioning within the field, there remains a general absence of the recognition that practically all of his books display a definite proximity to deconstruction, and that this proximity plays a central role in Genette’s enire theoretical edifice. This text is, last but not least, a call to read literary-theoretical texts in their aesthetic contexts.
Reliability of Neural Entrainment in the Human Auditory System
Authors: Cabral-Calderin Yuranny , Henry Molly J. 
Published: December 2021

Auditory stimuli are often rhythmic in nature. Brain activity synchronizes with auditory rhythms via neural entrainment, and entrainment seems to be beneficial for auditory perception. However, it is not clear to what extent neural entrainment in the auditory system is reliable over time, which is a necessary prerequisite for targeted intervention. The current study aimed to establish the reliability of neural entrainment over time and to predict individual differences in auditory perception from associated neural activity. Across two different sessions, human listeners (21 females, 17 males) detected silent gaps presented at different phase locations of a 2 Hz frequency-modulated (FM) noise while EEG activity was recorded. As expected, neural activity was entrained by the 2 Hz FM noise. Moreover, gap detection was sinusoidally modulated by the phase of the 2 Hz FM into which the gap fell. Critically, both the strength of neural entrainment as well as the modulation of performance by the stimulus rhythm were highly reliable over sessions. Moreover, gap detection was predictable from pregap neural 2 Hz phase and alpha amplitude. Our results demonstrate that neural entrainment in the auditory system and the resulting behavioral modulation are reliable over time, and both entrained delta and nonentrained alpha oscillatory activity contribute to near-threshold stimulus perception. The latter suggests that improving auditory perception might require simultaneously targeting entrained brain rhythms as well as the alpha rhythm.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTNeural activity synchronizes to the rhythms in sounds via neural entrainment, which seems to be important for successful auditory perception. A natural hypothesis is that improving neural entrainment, for example, via brain stimulation, should benefit perception. However, the extent to which neural entrainment is reliable over time, a necessary prerequisite for targeted intervention, has not been established. Using electroencephalogram recordings, we demonstrate that both neural entrainment to FM sounds and stimulus-induced behavioral modulation are reliable over time. Moreover, moment-by-moment fluctuations in perception are best predicted by entrained delta phase and nonentrained alpha amplitude. This work suggests that improving auditory perception might require simultaneously targeting entrained brain rhythms as well as the alpha rhythm.
BRAIN TUMORS IN INFANCY
Authors: LEIBNER I. WALLACE 
Published: December 2021

Seven cases of brain tumors occurring in infants are presented. Six occurred in males and one was in a female. Three of them arose in the cerebellum while the other four were supratentorial. The tumors included two medulloblastomas, one [See Table II in Source Pdf] spongioblastoma polare, one ependymoma, one astrocytoma and one hemangioblastoma. The seventh case probably was also one of medulloblastoma. One of the proven medulloblastomas was supratentorial, which is unusual so faras location is concerned. The hemangioblastoma arose in the cerebrum. The location of this tumor is also a rare one and to my knowledge, it is the first case of its type reported in an infant in whom full recovery occurred following removal of the tumor.
The diagnosis was unsuspected in four cases. Three of these infants were believed to be suffering from congenital hydrocephalus while the fourth was thought to be afflicted with encephalitis. The ways in which the correct diagnosis might have been made are discussed. Since bizarre clinical patterns are sometimes produced by brain tumors in infants and the diagnosis frequently overlooked, the possibility should be kept in mind by the pediatrician in considering the differential diagnosis of conditions producing signs referable to the nervous system.