bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Chiasmatic lesions on conventional magnetic resonance imaging during the first event of optic neuritis in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein‐associated disease in a Latin American cohort
Authors: Carnero Contentti Edgar , López Pablo A. , Criniti Juan , Pettinicchi Juan Pablo , Cristiano Edgardo , Patrucco Liliana , Bribiesca Contreras Elisa , Gómez‐Figueroa Enrique , Flores‐Rivera José , Correa‐Díaz Edgar Patricio , Toral Granda Ana María , Ortiz Yepez María Angelica , Gualotuña Pachacama Wilson Alfredo , Piedra Andrade Jefferson Santiago , Galleguillos Lorna , Tkachuk Verónica , Nadur Debora , Daccach Marques Vanessa , Soto de Castillo Ibis , Casas Magdalena , Cohen Leila , Alonso Ricardo , Caride Alejandro , Lana‐Peixoto Marco , Rojas Juan Ignacio 
Published: November 2021

AbstractBackground and purposeOptic neuritis (ON) is often the initial symptom of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein‐associated disease (MOGAD). We aimed to compare the frequency and pattern of chiasmatic lesions in MOGAD‐related ON (MOGAD‐ON) and NMOSD‐related ON (NMOSD‐ON) using conventional brain imaging (magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]) in Latin America (LATAM).MethodsWe reviewed the medical records and brain MRI (≤30 days from ON onset) of patients with a first event of MOGAD‐ON and NMOSD‐ON. Patients from Argentina (n = 72), Chile (n = 21), Ecuador (n = 31), Brazil (n = 30), Venezuela (n = 10) and Mexico (n = 82) were included. Antibody status was tested using a cell‐based assay. Demographic, clinical, imaging and prognostic (as measured by the Visual Functional System Score [VFSS] of the Expanded Disability Status Scale) data were compared.ResultsA total of 246 patients (208 NMOSD and 38 MOGAD) were included. No differences were found in gender and ethnicity between the groups. We observed chiasmatic lesions in 66/208 (31.7%) NMOSD‐ON and in 5/38 (13.1%) MOGAD‐ON patients (p = 0.01). Of these patients with chiasmatic lesions, 54/66 (81.8%) and 4/5 had associated longitudinally extensive optic nerve lesions, 45/66 (68%) and 4/5 had bilateral lesions, and 31/66 (47%) and 4/5 showed gadolinium‐enhancing chiasmatic lesions, respectively. A positive correlation was observed between VFSS and presence of bilateral (r = 0,28, p < 0.0001), chiasmatic (r = 0.27, p = 0.0001) and longitudinally extensive lesions (r = 0,25, p = 0.0009) in the NMOSD‐ON group, but no correlations were observed in the MOGAD‐ON group.ConclusionsChiasmatic lesions were significantly more common in NMOSD than in MOGAD during an ON attack in this LATAM cohort. Further studies are needed to assess the generalizability of these results.
Fully automated detection of focal cortical dysplasia: Comparison of MPRAGE and MP2RAGE sequences
Authors: Demerath Theo , Kaller Christoph P. , Heers Marcel , Staack Anke , Schwarzwald Ralf , Kober Tobias , Reisert Marco , Schulze‐Bonhage Andreas , Huppertz Hans‐Jürgen , Urbach Horst 
Published: November 2021

AbstractObjectiveThe detection of focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) in magnetic resonance imaging is challenging. Voxel‐based morphometric analysis and automated FCD detection using an artificial neural network (ANN) integrated into the Morphometric Analysis Program (MAP18) have been shown to facilitate FCD detection. This study aimed to evaluate whether the detection of FCD can be further improved by feeding this approach with magnetization prepared two rapid acquisition gradient echoes (MP2RAGE) instead of magnetization‐prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo (MPRAGE) datasets.MethodsMPRAGE and MP2RAGE datasets were acquired in a consecutive sample of 32 patients with FCD and postprocessed using MAP18. Visual analysis and, if available, histopathology served as the gold standard for assessing the sensitivity and specificity of FCD detection. Out‐of‐sample specificity was evaluated in a cohort of 32 healthy controls.ResultsThe sensitivity and specificity of FCD detection were 82.4% and 62.5% for the MPRAGE and 97.1% and 34.4% for the MP2RAGE sequences, respectively. Median volumes of true‐positive voxel clusters were .16 ml for the MPRAGE and .52 ml for the MP2RAGE sequences compared to .08‐ and .04‐ml volumes of false‐positive clusters. With regard to cluster volumes, FCD detection was substantially improved for the MP2RAGE data when the estimated optimal threshold of .23 ml was applied (sensitivity = 72.9%, specificity = 83.0%). In contrast, the estimated optimal threshold of .37 ml for the MPRAGE data did not improve FCD lesion detection (sensitivity = 42.9%, specificity = 79.5%).SignificanceIn this study, the sensitivity of FCD detection by morphometric analysis and an ANN integrated into MAP18 was higher for MP2RAGE than for MPRAGE sequences. Additional usage of cluster volume information helped to discriminate between true‐ and false‐positive MP2RAGE results.
Great white pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus) fail to use tools flexibly in problem‐solving tasks
Authors: Danel Samara , von Bayern Auguste M. P. , Osiurak François 
Published: November 2021

AbstractAlthough reports of animal tool‐use are phylogenetically widespread, it remains rare in the wild. From the perspective of human evolution, this rarity was first explained by the cognitive demands associated with tool use. Recently, an alternative assumption, “the tools are not often useful” hypothesis, proposes that tool use is rare, because it is seldom more useful than the species’ anatomical adaptations. At the same time, several species that do not use tools in the wild have shown the capacity for tool use in experimental problem‐solving settings, which suggests a certain level of cognitive flexibility. Investigating whether habitually non‐tool‐using species are able to use tools flexibly is crucial to evaluate the predictions of existing theories on the evolution of cognition. In this study, we tested whether great white pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus), morphologically specialized fishers, for whose natural foraging tools are unlikely to be of use, were able to use tools in two problem‐solving situations. In two tasks, the subjects were required to drop tools into an apparatus to gain access to a food reward. In Tool‐use task 1, we tested the capacity of pelicans to show spontaneous tool‐use behaviour. In Tool‐use task 2, we assessed the birds’ tool‐using performance, before and after providing them with different kinds of information about the task's solution, that is experience with the functional features of the apparatus (“platform‐pushing group”) and trial‐and‐error learning of tool‐dropping behaviour (“stone‐nudging group”). All subjects failed in using tools in Tool‐use task 1 and only one individual in the stone‐nudging group learnt to use a tool in the training phase of Tool‐use task 2. Despite previous experience with the functional properties of the task, birds from the platform‐pushing group did not exhibit tool‐use behaviour or increased motivation towards the apparatus and the tools during the test phase. Although pelicans were not inhibited by morphological constraints to carry out the required tool behaviours, whether they lack the cognitive prerequisites for flexible tool‐use remains to be further tested.
Computational crack propagation modeling of welded structures under as‐welded and high frequency mechanical impact (HFMI) treatment conditions
Authors: Ince Ayhan 
Published: November 2021

AbstractThe fatigue damage assessment of welded structures is of critical importance in the design of many engineering structures. The thermomechanical nature of the welding process leads to undesired tensile residual stresses, which results in fatigue performance degradation of welded structures. High‐frequency mechanical impact (HFMI) technique offers significant potentials to induce compressive residual stresses into the welded joints, thus improving fatigue life of welded parts. In this paper, a new crack propagation modeling approach considering effects of residual stress fields and the crack closure based on a modification of the Forman model is proposed to assess fatigue crack propagation performance of welded joints under as‐welded and HFMI treatment conditions. Experimental residual stress and fatigue data sets of 5083‐H321 aluminum, CSA 350W, ASTM A514, S355, and S960 steel welded joints are used to validate the proposed approach. Both predicted and experimental results show that the fatigue life improvement by the HFMI treatment depends on the applied stress level and material type. The fatigue life improvement is greater at the lower stress levels with a factor of more than 10–30 times, and the fatigue life increase becomes less at the higher stress levels with a factor of two to three times depending on the material type of welded joints. The fatigue life improvement by the HFMI is more significant with a higher material yield strength. Compared results showed that the proposed modeling approach provides efficient and accurate life predictions of the welded joints of five different materials under both as‐weld and HFMI conditions. The proposed modeling framework can be used as an effective analysis technique for fatigue crack propagation life of welded structures under pre‐ and post‐weld treatment conditions to account for residual stress fields.
Stock returns and inflation shocks in weaker economic times
Authors: Connolly Robert A. , Stivers Chris , Sun Licheng 
Published: November 2021

AbstractWe show that the concurrent relation between quarterly stock returns and inflation shocks is economically and robustly significant only over weaker economic (WE) times, strongly negative prior to the late 1990s, and strongly positive afterwards. Conversely, in the stronger economic times over our 1981 to 2017 sample, this stock‐inflation relation is relatively much smaller and usually marginally negative. Our evidence suggests a role for two complementary channels. First, we find consistent state‐dependent patterns in how inflation shocks are related to expected economic growth and the equity risk premium, indicating that inflation nonneutrality is stronger over WE times. Second, our findings imply that the inflation signal about the underlying economic state intensifies during WE times, due to the elevated economic‐state uncertainty then. We also contribute by contrasting subjective (survey‐based) versus objective inflation shocks and by evaluating the relation between inflation shocks and forward equity yields.
Plant community responses to experimental climate manipulation in a Welsh ombrotrophic peatland and their palaeoenvironmental context
Authors: Andrews Luke O. , Rowson James G. , Caporn Simon J. M. , Dise Nancy B. , Barton Eleanor , Garrett Ed , Gehrels W. Roland , Gehrels Maria , Kay Martin , Payne Richard J. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractWe test whether vegetation community composition from a 10‐year climate manipulation experiment on a Welsh peat bog resembles vegetation communities during periods of climate change inferred from a peat core. Experimentally warmed and combined warmed and droughted treatments drove significant increases in ericaceous shrubs butSphagnumwas unaffected. Similarly,Calluna vulgarisseeds increase during inferred warmer periods in the palaeoecological record. Experimental short‐term episodic drought (four 4‐week drought treatments) did not affect vegetation. Plant community composition has undergone several abrupt changes throughout the past c. 1500 years, often in response to human disturbance. Only slight changes occurred during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (c. 950–1250 Common Era [CE]) in vegetation and hydrology, while abrupt changes occurred during the Little Ice Age (c. 1300–1850 CE) when water tables were highest, suggesting that these shifts were driven by changes in water table, modulated by climate. A period of water table drawdown c. 1800, synchronous with historical records of increased drainage, corresponds with the development of the present‐day vegetation community. Modern analogues for fossil material, characterized by abundantRhynchospora albaandSphagnum pulchrum, are more common after this event. Vegetation changes due to climate inferred from the palaeo record differ from those observed in the experiments, possibly relating to differences in the importance of drivers of vegetation change over varying timescales. Whereas temperature is frequently identified as the dominant driver of plant community change in experiments, sustained changes in water table appear to be more important in the long‐term record. We find evidence that recent climate change and other anthropogenic stressors (e.g. drainage, heavy metal and nitrogen pollution) may promote the development of novel plant communities without analogues in the fossil record. These communities may be poorer at sequestering carbon and may respond differently to future climate change.
Global increase in wildfire risk due to climate‐driven declines in fuel moisture
Authors: Ellis Todd M. , Bowman David M. J. S. , Jain Piyush , Flannigan Mike D. , Williamson Grant J. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractThere is mounting concern that global wildfire activity is shifting in frequency, intensity, and seasonality in response to climate change. Fuel moisture provides a powerful means of detecting changing fire potential. Here, we use global burned area, weather reanalysis data, and the Canadian fire weather index system to calculate fuel moisture trends for multiscale biogeographic regions across a gradient in vegetation productivity. We quantify the proportion of days in the local fire season between 1979 and 2019, where fuel moisture content is below a critical threshold indicating extreme fire potential. We then associate fuel moisture trends over that period to vegetation productivity and comment on its implications for projected anthropogenic climate change. Overall, there is a strong drying trend across realms, biomes, and the productivity gradient. Even where a wetting trend is observed, this often indicates a trend toward increasing fire activity due to an expected increase in fuel production. The detected trends across the productivity gradient lead us to conclude global fire activity will increase with anthropogenic climate change.
GeoDa, From the Desktop to an Ecosystem for Exploring Spatial Data
Authors: Anselin Luc , Li Xun , Koschinsky Julia 
Published: November 2021

Since its introduction more than 15 years ago, the GeoDa software for the exploration of spatial data has transitioned from a closed source Windows‐only solution to an open source and cross‐platform product that takes on the look and feel of the native operating system. This article reports on the evolution in the functionality and architecture of the software and pays particular attention to its new implementation as a library, libgeoda. This library, through a clearly structured API, can be integrated into other software environments, such as R (rgeoda) and Python (pygeoda). This integration is illustrated with two small empirical examples, investigating local clusters in a historical London cholera data set and among socioeconomic determinants of health in Chicago. A timing experiment demonstrates the competitive performance of GeoDa desktop, libgeoda (C++), rgeoda and pygeoda compared to established solutions in R spdep and Python PySAL, evaluating conditional permutation inference for the Local Moran statistic.
How does machine learning compare to conventional econometrics for transport data sets? A test of ML versus MLE
Authors: Li Weijia (Vivian) , Kockelman Kara M. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractMachine learning (ML) is being used regularly in many different fields. This paper compares traditional econometric methods that have better explanations of data analysis to ML methods, focusing on predicting, understanding and unpacking ML methods which have higher prediction accuracies of four key transport‐planning variables: household vehicle‐miles traveled (continuous variable), household vehicle ownership (count variable), mode choice (categorical variable), and land use change (categorical variable with strong spatial interactions). Here, the results of ten ML methods are compared to methods of ordinary least squares (OLS), multinomial logit (MNL), negative binomial and spatial auto‐regressive (SAR). The U.S.’s 2017 National Household Travel Survey and land use data sets from the Dallas‐Ft. Worth region of Texas are used. Results suggest traditional econometric methods work pretty well on the more continuous responses (VMT and vehicle ownership), but the random forest (RF), gradient boosting decision trees (GBDT), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) methods delivered the best results, though the RF model required 30 to almost 60 times more computing time than XGBoost and GBDT methods. The RF, GBDT, XGBoost, light gradient boosting method (lightGBM), and catboost offer better results than other methods for the two “classification” cases, with lightGBM being the most time‐efficient. Importantly, ML methods captured the plateauing effect modelers may expect when extrapolating covariate effects.
Market segmentation and firm survival
Authors: Lyu Xinjun , Ni Jinlan , Yuan Jia 
Published: November 2021

AbstractUsing the annual data of Chinese manufacturing firms over the period of 1998–2007, this paper applies the Cox proportional hazards model and analyzes the impact of inter‐provincial market segmentation on the exit hazard of firms in China. This study shows that market segmentation increases the risk of enterprises exiting the market in China. Moving from the 10th percentile of the distribution of market segmentation (score of 0.0995) to the 90th percentile (score of 0.7084) would increase the exit probability of firms by 7.5 percentage points. An analysis of the mechanisms involved shows that market segmentation benefits are often outweighed by lower productivity and less incentive to innovate. Our study also demonstrates that inter‐provincial market segmentation facilitates the likelihood that state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) will survive, but not for non‐SOEs in China. A one unit increase in the degree of regional market segmentation will reduce the probability that SOEs withdraw from the market by 19.5% while increasing the probability that non‐SOEs will leave the market by 5.80%.
Gender‐based exclusionary practices in performance appraisal
Authors: Fenech Angel Ellul , Kanji Shireen , Vargha Zsuzsanna 
Published: November 2021

AbstractWe examine how performance appraisal is, following Acker, an organizational process producing inequality. By process we mean that appraisal is an on‐going and relational year‐round practice, enacted through interaction between men and women, rather than a bounded and individualized event. We use Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to analyze how masculine domination guides what is presented as a gender‐neutral organizational practice. We conducted in‐depth interviews at a financial sector organization in Malta with employees, their direct appraisers and higher‐level appraisers. Appraisers measured employees’ tangible (task related) as well as “behavioral” performance. We find that the practice of attributing scores to behavior, and the interaction between men and women, appraisers and appraisees, both reflect and produce women’s inferior status. While women concentrated on tangible targets such as sales, male employees and the appraisers focused on soft targets, specifically on socializing with colleagues, which in practice emerged as the key criterion for the behavioral score. We find that male sociality is an organizing process that literally devalues women through quantified performance scores. Managerial discretion translates employees’ behavior into a lasting organizational record, contributing a formalized component to the gendered hierarchy.
Dental habits and oral health in children and adolescents with bleeding disorders: A single‐institution cross‐sectional study
Authors: Brown Megan C. , Hastie Elizabeth , Shumake Carol , Waters Brittany , Sidonio Robert F. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractIntroductionOral health is an important component of care at haemophilia treatment centres (HTCs). Correlations between oral health and inflammation suggest that proper oral health may improve joint health.AimTo evaluate the dental habits, needs, and oral health status of paediatric patients with bleeding disorders, and identify predicters of poor oral health.MethodsFrom May 2016 to October 2017, consecutive paediatric HTC patients completed a 14‐question survey and were examined by dental professionals. Descriptive analyses, chi‐square tests and logistic regression models identified characteristics associated with four main dental outcomes.ResultsEvaluations from 226 consecutive patients (age 1–20 years) were included. Diagnoses included haemophilia A and B (64%), von Willebrand disease (25%) and other bleeding disorders (13%). Nearly half of patients reported not brushing their teeth twice a day (44%). One‐quarter of patients did not currently have a dentist (27%), and 15% reported specific challenges with access to dental care. Oral screening demonstrated significant pathology: 89% of patients had plaque accumulation, 37% had gingivitis and 8% had lesions suggestive of dental caries. Multivariate analysis revealed that having a primary caregiver with active decay was associated with significantly higher rates of suspicious lesions (OR 4.34, CI 1.41‐13.35) and gingival erythema (OR 3.44, CI 1.63‐7.25) and lower rates of twice daily teeth brushing (OR .17, CI .08‐.37).ConclusionChildren with bleeding disorders commonly have significant dental pathology and report obstacles to dental care, posing the potential risk for morbidity. Primary caregiver dental health is strongly associated with dental pathology in children.
A critical appraisal of research methods and experimental models for studies on root canal preparation
Authors: Hülsmann Michael 
Published: November 2021

AbstractIt is the aim of this review to present a critical overview and summary on the contemporary possibilities, limitations and challenges of research related to root canal preparation. Frequently used research tools and contemporary research designs will be presented and discussed critically focussing on shortcomings and benefits with special regard to clinical relevance and scientific evidence. A plethora of experimental set‐ups for assessing the shaping of root canals have been described in the endodontic literature using a considerable number of techniques and instruments. Nevertheless, it can be stated that scientific evidence demonstrating the clinical impact of many investigated topics is questionable or even missing. Instead of technical, radiographic and geometrical parameters, further research should focus on biological aspects and clinical evidence of the impact of root canal preparation on the outcome of root canal treatment.