bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
BRASSINOSTEROID‐SIGNALING KINASE 1 phosphorylating CALCIUM/CALMODULIN‐DEPENDENT PROTEIN KINASE functions in drought tolerance in maize
Authors: Liu Lei , Xiang Yang , Yan Jingwei , Di Pengcheng , Li Jing , Sun Xiujuan , Han Gaoqiang , Ni Lan , Jiang Mingyi , Yuan Jianhua , Zhang Aying 
Published: April 2021

Summary

Drought stress seriously limits crop productivity. Although studies have been carried out, it is still largely unknown how plants respond to drought stress. Here we find that drought treatment can enhance the phosphorylation activity of brassinosteroid‐signaling kinase 1 (ZmBSK1) in maize (Zea mays).

Our genetic studies reveal that ZmBSK1 positively affects drought tolerance in maize plants. ZmBSK1 localizes in plasma membrane, interacts with calcium/calmodulin (Ca2+/CaM)‐dependent protein kinase (ZmCCaMK), and phosphorylates ZmCCaMK. Ser‐67 is a crucial phosphorylation site of ZmCCaMK by ZmBSK1.

Drought stress enhances not only the interaction between ZmBSK1 and ZmCCaMK but also the phosphorylation of Ser‐67 in ZmCCaMK by ZmBSK1. Furthermore, Ser‐67 phosphorylation in ZmCCaMK regulates its Ca2+/CaM binding, autophosphorylation and transphosphorylation activity, and positively affects its function in drought tolerance in maize.

Our results reveal an important role for ZmBSK1 in drought tolerance and suggest a direct regulatory mode of ZmBSK1 phosphorylating ZmCCaMK.
Can combining two environmental services under a single PES program result in better environmental outcomes and lower costs?
Authors: Ranjan Ram 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis paper develops an integrated framework for modeling payment for ecosystem services (PES) mechanisms that deliver multiple environmental services. Specifically, under a community‐led PES, forest conservation is promoted to deliver carbon and stream water benefits. The upstream community is paid for avoided fuelwood harvesting through a United Nations programme on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) program, whereas additional income is generated from water sales to the downstream communities. A bio‐economic model derives optimal level of fuelwood harvesting, which in conjunction with the changing species composition of forests, streamflow hydrology and fire risks, impacts on the carbon and water generation potential of the PES project. Results indicate that forest conservation outcomes are better when water and carbon services are combined, however overall cost to the program is lower under a carbon‐based PES. Changing species composition of forests creates tradeoffs between water and carbon benefits. Forest fires further challenge the viability of PES schemes through reducing streamflow and carbon sequestration potential.Recommendations for Resource Managers

Linking two or more environmental services under a single payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme could improve forest conservation through making it more attractive to the participating communities.
PES programs that combine multiple environmental services become economically attractive to participating communities through increasing their incomes. For instance, water and carbon driven services complement each other due to the overlapping benefits from improving forest biomass.
However, fire risks can lower the benefits from PES and dissuade community participation.
Similarly, the ecological and hydrological dimensions of PES projects that offer carbon and water benefits need to be understood and incorporated within PES framework design to enhance their durability.
Conservation of mixed forests is more responsive to water‐based PES payments, in comparison to monoculture oak forests, however, mixed forests are also more vulnerable to degradation in absence of cooking fuel subsidies.
Allopurinol for fibromyalgia pain in adults: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Fagundes Aécio C. , de Oliveira Enderson D. , Ferrari Samira G. , dos Santos Lúcia M. M. , Botelho Leonardo M. , Schmidt Sérgio R. G. , Andrade Cristiano F. , Lara Diogo R. , Souza Diogo O. , Schmidt André P. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBackgroundAllopurinol is a potent inhibitor of the enzyme xanthine oxidase used in the treatment of hyperuricemia and gout. Because it is well known that purines exert multiple affects on pain transmission, we hypothesized that the inhibition of xanthine oxidase by allopurinol could be a valid strategy to treat pain in humans. This study aimed to compare the analgesic efficacy of oral allopurinol versus placebo as an adjuvant therapy in patients displaying fibromyalgia.MethodsThis randomized, double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled study included 60 women with the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either oral allopurinol 300 mg (n = 31) or placebo (n = 29) twice daily during 30 days. The patients were submitted to evaluation for pain sensitivity, anxiety, depression, and functional status before treatment, and 15 and 30 days thereafter.ResultsOral administration of allopurinol 300 mg twice daily was ineffective in improving pain scores measured by several tools up to 30 days of treatment (P > 0.05). Additionally, no significant effects of allopurinol over anxiety, depressive symptoms, and functional status of fibromyalgia patients were observed in the present study.ConclusionsAlthough previous findings indicated that allopurinol could present intrinsic analgesic effects in both animals and humans, this study showed no benefit of the use of oral allopurinol as an adjuvant strategy during 30 days in women displaying fibromyalgia. However, considering previous promising results, new prospective studies are still valid to further investigate allopurinol and more selective purine derivatives in the management of pain syndromes.
Burnout, professional fulfillment, and post‐traumatic stress among pediatric solid organ transplant teams
Authors: Cousino Melissa K. , Bogle Carmel , Lim Heang M. , McCormick Amanda D. , Sturza Julie , Fredericks Emily M. , Magee John C. , Blume Elizabeth D. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBackgroundAdverse effects of clinician burnout have been studied across multiple specialties; however, there have been no studies examining rates of burnout among pediatric solid organ transplant teams. This study aimed to measure burnout, work exhaustion, professional fulfillment, and post‐traumatic stress symptoms among clinicians and administrators practicing in this high‐stress field.MethodsThis cross‐sectional study utilized a 50 item web‐based survey that included the Personal Fulfillment Index and the IES‐R. This survey was distributed across four pediatric solid organ transplant centers in North America. Basic demographics, clinician characteristics, and information regarding wellness and self‐care activities were collected. Descriptive and correlational analyses were performed.ResultsOne hundred and thirty five participants completed the survey, 76% were female and 78% were Caucasian. One‐third (34%) of participants endorsed burnout, while 43% reported professional fulfillment. Approximately 15% of respondents endorsed clinically significant levels of post‐traumatic stress symptoms related to patient deaths, with female clinicians more likely to endorse symptoms (p = .01). Nearly 80% of participants reported engaging in self‐care activities outside of work and only 10% of participants reported participation in hospital‐sponsored wellness programs.ConclusionsPediatric solid organ transplant team members exhibited moderate levels of burnout, professional fulfillment, and post‐traumatic stress. Female clinicians were the most likely to experience both work exhaustion and post‐traumatic stress symptoms. Transplant centers are encouraged to consider interventions and programming to improve clinician wellness.
The Question of Iterated Causation
Authors: Kovacs David Mark 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis paper is about what I call the Question of Iterated Causation (QIC): for any instance of causation in which c1…ckcause effect e, what are the causes of c1…ck’s causing of e? In short: what causes instances of causation or, as I will refer to these instances, the “causal goings‐on”? A natural response (which I call “dismissivism”) is that this is a bad question because causal goings‐on aren’t apt to be caused. After rebutting several versions of dismissivism, I consider the view that QIC, though not illegitimate, is easy to answer: the causal goings‐on are apt to be caused but are plainly uncaused (“brutism”). However, I will argue that brutism too has a serious problem: namely, it leads to a highly implausible kind of armchair indeterminism. Next I consider some substantive candidate answers to QIC, none of which, I argue, is particularly promising. The paper’s final conclusion is twofold: QIC is at least as difficult as the more well‐known Question of Iterated Grounding; moreover, the largely overlooked regress problem that it raises gives us at least some defeasible reason to avoid causation in theory‐building.
The Law: “If Men Were Angels”: The Legal Dynamics of Overseeing the Executive Branch
Authors: Selin Jennifer L. , Milazzo Caylie 
Published: April 2021

AbstractOne of the fundamental principles of American governance is that each branch of government has the necessary constitutional means and motives to resist the encroachment of the other branches. Oversight is an important part of this system. In this article, we identify the legal principles that govern legislative and judicial oversight of the executive branch. These legal parameters of oversight influence informal negotiations between the branches over executive information and have important consequences for the exercise of executive power.
What is a Good Calibration Question?
Authors: Hemming Victoria , Hanea Anca M. , Burgman Mark A. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWeighted aggregation of expert judgments based on their performance on calibration questions may improve mathematically aggregated judgments relative to equal weights. However, obtaining validated, relevant calibration questions can be difficult. If so, should analysts settle for equal weights? Or should they use calibration questions that are easier to obtain but less relevant? In this article, we examine what happens to the out‐of‐sample performance of weighted aggregations of the classical model (CM) compared to equal weighted aggregations when the set of calibration questions includes many so‐called “irrelevant” questions, those that might ordinarily be considered to be outside the domain of the questions of interest. We find that performance weighted aggregations outperform equal weights on the combined CM score, but not on statistical accuracy (i.e., calibration). Importantly, there was no appreciable difference in performance when weights were developed on relevant versus irrelevant questions. Experts were unable to adapt their knowledge across vastly different domains, and in‐sample validation did not accurately predict out‐of‐sample performance on irrelevant questions. We suggest that if relevant calibration questions cannot be found, then analysts should use equal weights, and draw on alternative techniques to improve judgments. Our study also indicates limits to the predictive accuracy of performance weighted aggregation, and the degree to which expertise can be adapted across domains. We note limitations in our study and urge further research into the effect of question type on the reliability of performance weighted aggregations.
Plutonium Disposition: Using and Explaining Complex Risk‐Related Methods
Authors: Greenberg Michael , Cox Louis Anthony 
Published: April 2021

AbstractApplying risk assessment and management tools to plutonium disposition is a long‐standing challenge for the U.S. government. The science is complicated, which has helped push risk assessment and management tools in new creative directions. Yet, communicating effectively about increasingly complicated risk‐science issues like plutonium disposition requires careful planning and speakers who can address why specific tools are selected, the past record of applying these tools, why assumptions sometimes are applied instead of reliable data, and how uncertainty is characterized. Speakers addressing risk issues must also overcome obstacles in communication arising from expert–audience differences in knowledge and legal restrictions on disclosing information. This perspective seeks to highlight and illustrate five key risk questions, about probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and performance assessment (PA) in the context of managing plutonium defense nuclear waste: objectives, experience, gaps, transparency, and difficulty of applying and communicating using each tool. While the general public needs to be involved, some issues require a level of expertise that is typically beyond local communities and therefore an expert panel should support community access.
The Role of Budget Constraints in Sequential Elimination Tournaments*
Authors: Arve Malin , Chiappinelli Olga 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWe study how budget constraints affect effort provision in sequential elimination tournaments. Our main result is that the introduction of budget constraints has two opposing effects on the initial effort of the unconstrained contestants, and leads to a non‐monotonicity of this effort. This implies that if the budget asymmetry is not too large, total first‐stage effort from unconstrained contestants is larger than in the case with unconstrained contestants only. We also provide evidence that total first‐stage effort and total effort from unconstrained contestants might be larger in an asymmetric contest.
Site‐specific features of active muscle stiffness and proximal aponeurosis strain in biceps femoris long head
Authors: Miyamoto Naokazu , Hirata Kosuke 
Published: April 2021

Limited information is available on site‐specific features of muscle stiffness and aponeurosis strain of the biceps femoris long head (BFlh) during contractions. Therefore, understanding of the mechanics and etiology of hamstring strain injuries remains difficult. As a first step to gain further insight into them, the present study aimed to identify whether active muscle stiffness and proximal aponeurosis strain during contractions are varied along the long axis of the BFlh. The BFlh muscle shear wave speed (proxy for stiffness) was measured in the proximal, central, and distal sites during 20%, 50%, and 80% of maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC) of knee flexion exerted with the hip and knee joints flexed at 40° and 30°, respectively, using ultrasound shear wave elastography. Further, a segmental strain of the BFlh proximal aponeurosis was assessed in the proximal, central, and distal sites during isometric knee flexion, using B‐mode ultrasonography. The shear wave speed was significantly higher in the distal site than the proximal and central sites at 20% MVC (p ≤ .002, with a large effect size), whereas no significant difference was found between the three sites at 50% and 80% MVC. The BFlh proximal aponeurosis strain showed no significant difference between the proximal, central, and distal sites at any contraction intensity. These findings indicate that site‐specific differences in muscle stiffness and proximal aponeurosis strain are substantially small and that muscle stiffness and proximal aponeurosis strain of the BFlh at moderate‐to‐high contraction intensity is not exceptional in the site where a sprinting‐type hamstring strain typically occurs.
Accuracy of health‐related quality of life in identifying systolic dysfunction in patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy
Authors: Ávila Matheus Ribeiro , Figueiredo Pedro Henrique Scheidt , Lima Vanessa Pereira , Silva Whesley Tanor , Vianna Marcus Vinícius Accetta , Fernandes Laís Helena Carvalho , de Azevedo Alda Cristina Alves , Lima Márcia Maria Oliveira , de Carvalho Bastone Alessandra , do Carmo Pereira Nunes Maria , Mediano Mauro Felippe Felix , da Costa Rocha Manoel Otávio , Costa Henrique Silveira 
Published: April 2021

AbstractObjectiveSystolic dysfunction is a well‐established marker of mortality in patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy (CC). However, its diagnosis is expensive and useful tools for screening these patients are required. The evaluation of the health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) detects the patient’s perception of the disease’s impact. However, its accuracy in identifying patients with CC and systolic dysfunction is unknown. The study aimed to verify the sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of the physical and mental components related to HRQoL in identifying patients with CC and systolic dysfunction.Methods75 patients with CC, aged 49 (95% confidence interval: 47–51) years, were evaluated by echocardiography and Short‐Form of Health Survey (SF‐36) questionnaire. Systolic dysfunction was defined by left ventricular ejection fraction <52% for men and <54% for women and left ventricular diastolic diameter >55 mm.ResultsMost patients (73%) had systolic dysfunction, with lower HRQoL values in the physical functioning, physical role functioning and general health perceptions domains and in the physical component summary. The accuracy of identifying patients with systolic dysfunction by the scores of physical components was 73% and 62% of mental components. The optimal cut‐off point was 46 for physical and 54 for mental components, with respective positive predictive values of 91% and 80%.ConclusionThe evaluation of the HRQoL by the SF‐36, a low‐cost instrument, can be useful in identifying patients with systolic dysfunction, assisting in the screening and risk stratification of patients.
Overlapping and stress‐specific transcriptomic and hormonal responses to flooding and drought in soybean
Authors: Tamang Bishal G. , Li Song , Rajasundaram Dhivyaa , Lamichhane Suman , Fukao Takeshi 
Published: April 2021

SUMMARYFlooding and drought are serious constraints that reduce crop productivity worldwide. Previous studies identified genes conferring tolerance to both water extremes in various plants. However, overlapping responses to flooding and drought at the genome‐scale remain obscure. Here, we defined overlapping and stress‐specific transcriptomic and hormonal responses to submergence, drought and recovery from these stresses in soybean (Glycine max). We performed comparative RNA‐sequencing and hormone profiling, identifying genes, hormones and biological processes that are differentially regulated in an overlapping or stress‐specific manner. Overlapping responses included positive regulation of trehalose and sucrose metabolism and negative regulation of cellulose, tubulin, photosystem II and I, and chlorophyll biosynthesis, facilitating the economization of energy reserves under both submergence and drought. Additional energy‐consuming pathways were restricted in a stress‐specific manner. Downregulation of distinct pathways for energy saving under each stress suggests energy‐consuming processes that are relatively unnecessary for each stress adaptation are turned down. Our newly developed transcriptomic‐response analysis revealed that abscisic acid and ethylene responses were activated in common under both stresses, whereas stimulated auxin response was submergence‐specific. The energy‐saving strategy is the key overlapping mechanism that underpins adaptation to both submergence and drought in soybean. Abscisic acid and ethylene are candidate hormones that coordinate transcriptomic energy‐saving processes under both stresses. Auxin may be a signaling component that distinguishes submergence‐specific regulation of the stress response.
Comparison of Model Predictive Control and Distance Constrained-Adaptive Concurrent Dynamic Programming Algorithms for Extended Range Electric Vehicle Optimal Energy Management
Authors: Kalia Aman V. , Fabien Brian C. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Intelligent energy management of hybrid electric vehicles is feasible with a priori information of route and driving conditions. Model predictive control (MPC) with finite horizon road grade preview has been proposed as a viable predictive energy management approach. We propose that our novel distance constrained-adaptive concurrent dynamic programming (DC-ACDP) approach can provide better energy management than MPC without any road grade information in context of an extended range electric vehicle (EREV). In this article, we have evaluated and compared the MPC and DC-ACDP energy management strategies for a real-world driving scenario. The simulations were conducted for a 160 km drive with road grade variation between +4% and –1%. Results show that the DC-ACDP approach is near-optimal and improves overall energy consumption by a maximum of 4.25%, in comparison to the simple MPC with a finite horizon road grade preview implementation. Additionally, a higher value for energy storage system state of charge (SOC) tracking penalty p2 results in the net energy consumption for MPC to converge toward that of DC-ACDP. A combination of the MPC and DC-ACDP approach is also evaluated with only 1.25% maximum improvement over simple MPC.
Flow Past Spherical Pipeline Inspection Gadgets in an Automated Launching System
Authors: Sekaran Aarthi , Stratton Will 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Pipeline inspection gadgets (PIGs) are routinely used in pipeline maintenance, cleaning, and inspection. A fundamental understanding of the fluid flow around the PIG and consequently its impact on the operation is however still lacking. The surrounding flow and the dynamics of the PIG vary significantly based on the PIG shape and orientation to flow. Previous studies of PIG motion typically employed empirical experimental or reduced numerical data to extrapolate PIG velocities and pressure drops along the pipeline—while this could resolve issues specific to the case being studied, it does not go very far in developing an overall understanding of the dynamics of the system. Our study aims at analyzing a range of configurations for spherical PIGs in a natural gas pipeline to analyze flow patterns around them and determine their impact on PIG motion. Given the nature of the automated launcher analyzed, we carry out unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations of a section of the launcher assembly, including the PIG in its initial position, at different field operating conditions. We simulate this setup for both single and multiple PIGs to determine alterations in the flow for a given launch sequence and outline the limitations of the setup. We then use the results from these simulations to determine the optimum configuration for a successful launch.