bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Constructive Approach About the Existence of Positive Solutions for Minkowski Curvature Problems
Authors: Yang Rui , Lee Jong Kyu , Lee Yong-Hoon 
Published: August 2021

AbstractIn this paper, we give an existence theorem about positive solutions for the Dirichlet boundary value problem of one dimensional Minkowski curvature equations. We apply the theorem to one parameter family of problems to investigate a constructive method for numerical range of parameters where positive solutions exist. Moreover, we establish a nonexistence theorem of positive solutions for the corresponding one parameter family of problems. The coefficient function may be singular at the boundary and nonlinear term satisfies a sublinear growth condition. Main argument for the proof of existence theorem is employed by Krasnoselskii’s theorem of cone expansion and compression. We give a numerical algorithm and various examples to illustrate numerical information about ranges of the existence and nonexistence parameters which have been given only in a theoretical manner so far.
Photocatalytic activity of silica and silica-silver nanocolloids based on photo-induced formation of reactive oxygen species
Authors: Romolini G. , Gambucci M. , Ricciarelli D. , Tarpani L. , Zampini G. , Latterini L. 
Published: August 2021

AbstractSemiconductor nanomaterials are often proposed as photocatalysts for wastewater treatment; silica nanomaterials are still largely unexploited because their photocatalytic performances need improvements, especially under visible light. The present study is a proof-of-concept that amorphous silica colloids once submitted to the proper surface modifications change into an efficient photocatalyst even under low-energy illumination source. For this reason, silica-based colloidal nanomaterials, such as bare (SiO2 NPs), aminated (NH2-SiO2 NPs), and Ag NPs-decorated (Ag-SiO2 NPs) silica, are tested as photocatalysts for the degradation of 9-anthracenecarboxylic acid (9ACA), taken as a model aromatic compound. Interestingly, upon irradiation at 313 nm, NH2-SiO2 NPs induce 9ACA degradation, and the effect is even improved when Ag-SiO2 NPs are used. On the other hand, irradiation at 405 nm activates the plasmon of Ag-SiO2 NPs photocatalyst, providing a faster and more efficient photodegradation. The photodegradation experiments are also performed under white light illumination, employing a low-intensity fluorescent lamp, confirming satisfying efficiencies. The catalytic effect of SiO2-based nanoparticles is thought to originate from photo-excitable surface defects and Ag NP plasmons since the catalytic degradation takes place only when the 9ACA is adsorbed on the surface. In addition, the involvement of reactive oxygen species was demonstrated through a scavenger use, obtaining a yield of 17%. In conclusion, this work shows the applicability of silica-based nanoparticles as photocatalysts through the involvement of silica surface defects, confirming that the silica colloids can act as photocatalysts under irradiation with monochromatic and white light.
Graphic abstract
Silica and Ag-decorated silica colloids photosensitize the formation of Reactive Oxygen Species with 17% efficiencies. ROS are able to oxidase aromatic pollutants chemi-adsorbed on the surface of the colloids. Silica-silver nanocomposites present a photocatalytic activity useful to degrade aromatic compounds.
The Power of Delay: Banking System Structure and Implementation of the Basel Accords
Authors: Mitchell Christopher 
Published: August 2021

AbstractRecent developments in the international banking system, especially the 2007–9 crisis and subsequent wave of postcrisis regulation, have drawn increasing attention to the structural power of banks and banking systems. States need a functioning financial system to ensure the overall health of their economies, so states must shape policy to protect their financial firms. National financial systems may be dominated either by banks or by capital markets. In states where banks dominate provision of capital, states must shape policy to protect their banks because of their structural importance, independent of any lobbying or other direct action on the part of banks to exercise instrumental power. The entangling of structural and instrumental power means studying differences in structural power requires either careful case-study work or cross-national comparison of responses to a common shock. The implementation of the 2011 Basel III Accords provides just such an opportunity. This article offers a quantitative analysis of a new dataset of implementation of Basel III components in the Basel Committee on Banking Stability member states from 2011 to 2019 and demonstrates the structural power of banks in bank-based systems to accelerate implementation of favorable policies and slow implementation of unfavorable ones.
202 W dual-end-pumped Tm:YLF laser with a VBG as an output coupler
Authors: Wei Disheng , Mi Shuyi , Yang Ke , Li Junhui , Tang Jinwen , Yao Baoquan , Dai Tongyu , Duan Xiaoming 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
We demonstrated a 202 W Tm:YLF slab laser using a reflecting volume Bragg grating (VBG) as an output coupler at room temperature. Two kinds of active heat dissipation methods were used for the VBG to suppress the shift of wavelength caused by its increasing temperature. The maximum continuous wave (CW) output power of 202 W using the microchannel cooling was obtained under the total incident pump power of 553 W, the corresponding slope efficiency and optical-to-optical conversion efficiency were 39.7% and 36.5%, respectively. The central wavelength was 1908.5 nm with the linewidth (full width at half maximum) of 0.57 nm. Meanwhile, with the laser output increasing from 30 to 202 W, the total shift was about 1.0 nm, and the wavelength was limited to two water absorption lines near 1908 nm. The beam quality factors M2 were measured to be 2.3 and 4.0 in x and y directions at 202 W.
Understanding short-term transmission dynamics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the patient room
Authors: Wolfensberger Aline , Mang Nora , Gibson Kristen E. , Gontjes Kyle , Cassone Marco , Brugger Silvio D. , Mody Lona , Sax Hugo 
Published: August 2021

AbstractObjective:Little is known about the short-term dynamics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) transmission between patients and their immediate environment. We conducted a real-life microbiological evaluation of environmental MRSA contamination in hospital rooms in relation to recent patient activity.Design:Observational pilot study.Setting:Two hospitals, hospital 1 in Zurich, Switzerland, and hospital 2 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.Patients:Inpatients with MRSA colonization or infection.Methods:At baseline, the groin, axilla, nares, dominant hands of 10 patients and 6 environmental high-touch surfaces in their rooms were sampled. Cultures were then taken of the patient hand and high-touch surfaces 3 more times at 90-minute intervals. After each swabbing, patients’ hands and surfaces were disinfected. Patient activity was assessed by interviews at hospital 1 and analysis of video footage at hospital 2. A contamination pressure score was created by multiplying the number of colonized body sites with the activity level of the patient.Results:In total, 10 patients colonized and/or infected with MRSA were enrolled; 40 hand samples and 240 environmental samples were collected. At baseline, 30% of hands and 20% of high-touch surfaces yielded MRSA. At follow-up intervals, 8 (27%) of 30 patient hands, and 10 (6%) of 180 of environmental sites were positive. Activity of the patient explained 7 of 10 environmental contaminations. Patients with higher contamination pressure score showed a trend toward higher environmental contamination.Conclusion:Environmental MRSA contamination in patient rooms was highly dynamic and was likely driven by the patient’s MRSA body colonization pattern and the patient activity.
Variable duration of viral shedding in cancer patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Authors: Babady N. Esther , Cohen Bevin , McClure Tara , Chow Karin , Caldararo Mario , Jani Krupa , McMillen Tracy , Taur Ying , Shah Monika , Robilotti Elizabeth , Aslam Anoshe , Kamboj Mini 
Published: August 2021

AbstractIn this retrospective study of 105 severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–infected cancer patients with longitudinal nasopharyngeal sampling, the duration of viral shedding and time to attain cycle threshold >30 was longer in patients with hematologic malignancy than in those with solid tumors. These findings have important public health implications.
WHY CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR NEGLIGENCE CANNOT BE INDIRECT
Authors: Greenberg Alexander 
Published: August 2021

AbstractA popular way to try to justify holding defendants criminally responsible for inadvertent negligence is via an indirect or “tracing” approach, namely an approach which traces the inadvertence back to prior culpable action. I argue that this indirect approach to criminal negligence fails because it cannot account for a key feature of how criminal negligence should be (and sometimes is) assessed. Specifically, it cannot account for why, when considering whether a defendant is negligent, what counts as a risk should be assessed relative to the defendant's evidence.
Political Theology in Nineteenth-Century West Africa: Al-Ḥājj ʿUmar, theBayān mā waqaʿa, and the Conquest of the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi
Authors: Syed Amir 
Published: August 2021

AbstractIn 1862, al-Ḥājj ʿUmar Fūtī Tall (d. 1864) conquered a prominent Muslim polity of the Middle Niger valley, the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi. Several months earlier, he had penned a long polemical work,Bayān mā waqaʿa, where he outlined his conflict with Ḥamdallāhi's ruler, Aḥmad III (d. 1862), and presented a legal justification for his eventual conquest. Al-Ḥājj ʿUmar was one of several West African Muslim intellectuals who articulated a new vision of power in the region. These intellectuals linked legitimate political rule with mastery over Islamic knowledge that they claimed only they had. Yet these linkages between religious authority and political power remain understudied. Al-Ḥājj ʿUmar'sBayānoffers one example of political theology in nineteenth-century West Africa. In this article, I trace his arguments and explain how he constructs his authority and claims to sovereignty in this work. In the process, I conceptualize two theoretical frameworks — the ‘political geography of belief’ and the ‘political theology of knowledge’ — to demonstrate how a careful engagement with Arabic sources can help develop new approaches to the study of Muslim communities in African history and beyond.
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty for nasal blockage 21 years after total rhinectomy
Authors: Verdonck J , Van de Perck E , Claes J , Vanderveken O M 
Published: August 2021

AbstractBackgroundTotal rhinectomy is an invasive procedure that significantly impairs the intranasal turbulence, humidification and heating of inspired air. The use of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty for the treatment of sleep-disordered breathing disorders such as primary snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea has diminished over the past years because of the emergence of less invasive procedures and alternative therapeutic options. This clinical record presents the treatment of a long-term side effect of total rhinectomy using uvulopalatopharyngoplasty.Case reportIn 1997, a 62-year-old male underwent total rhinectomy for a nasal schwannoma, followed by rehabilitation with a nasal prosthesis. Twenty-one years later, he presented with severe complaints of nasal blockage and breathing difficulties during both daytime and night-time. Clinical examination revealed no major anomalies besides significant velopharyngeal narrowing. Thus, in 2019, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty was performed to re-establish velopharyngeal patency. Hereafter, the symptoms of nasal blockage disappeared, resulting in an improved quality of life.ConclusionUvulopalatopharyngoplasty may prove useful to treat selected patients with daytime breathing difficulties due to velopharyngeal narrowing.
Coping strategies as a causal mediator of the effect of loss-related memory characteristics and negative loss-related appraisals on symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression
Authors: Smith Kirsten V. , Ehlers Anke 
Published: August 2021

AbstractBackgroundPsychological models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prolonged grief disorder (PGD) make predictions about the role of unhelpful coping strategies in maintaining difficulties by blocking self-correction of negative appraisals and memory integration following stressful life events like bereavement. However, few studies have tested these predictions directly.MethodWe used counterfactually based causal mediation to assess whether unhelpful coping strategies mediated the relationship between (1) loss-related memory characteristics and/or (2) negative grief-related appraisals and symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression using a three-wave longitudinal sample (N = 275). Appraisals and memory characteristics were measured at time point 1, unhelpful coping strategies at T2, and symptom variables at T3. Additionally, multiple mediation analyses within a structural equation modelling (SEM) framework assessed which types of coping strategies differentially mediated symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression.ResultsCoping strategies mediated the relationship between negative appraisals and memory characteristics and symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression after adjusting for demographics and loss characteristics. Sensitivity analyses suggested that these results were most robust for PGD, followed by PTSD and then depression. Multiple mediation analyses suggested that all four subscales (avoidance, proximity seeking, loss rumination and injustice rumination) individually mediated the effect of memory characteristics and appraisals on PGD.ConclusionsThese results suggest that core predictions of the cognitive model for PTSD and the cognitive behavioural model of PGD are useful in predicting symptoms of post-loss mental health problems in the first 12–18 months after loss. Targeting unhelpful coping strategies is likely to reduce symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression.
(Un)Seeing Augustus:Libertas, Divinisation, and theIuvenisof Virgil's FirstEclogue
Authors: Xinyue Bobby 
Published: August 2021

AbstractThis article argues that Virgil's FirstEcloguenaturalises the power discourse of the future Augustan Principate. Throughout the poem, Virgil not only presents theiuvenisas alibertas-restoring benefactor who is treated as a god by his beneficiaries, but even imagines his elevated status as crucial to maintaining social cohesion and civic stability, and idealises the beneficiaries’ dependence on his efficacious authority. The poem thus produces the grammar of the discourse of authoritarianism, subtly articulating what will eventually become the central tenets of Augustan ideology. I suggest that it is precisely this process of naturalisation which has led readers since antiquity to identify theiuvenisof Virgil's FirstEclogueas the future Augustus. However, in this paper I am interested in transcending this question of individual identification to focus instead on how Virgil's poetic anonymisation is no simple pastoral obfuscation, but rather does the hard graft of ‘soft launching’ a new political system.
A review of clinical trials of advance care planning interventions adapted for limited health literacy
Authors: Houlihan Mary Clare K. , Mayahara Masako , Swanson Barbara , Fogg Louis 
Published: August 2021

AbstractObjectivesAdvance care planning is vital for ensuring individuals receive end-of-life care that is consistent with their care preferences and improves patient quality of life and satisfaction with care; however, only 11% of Americans have discussed advance care planning with a healthcare provider. Individuals with limited health literacy are even less likely to participate in advance care planning due to difficulty comprehending complex health information. The purpose of this review was to identify randomized controlled trials designed to address the effects of limited health literacy on advance care planning, evaluate the quality of these studies, and summarize evaluation data to inform future studies.MethodsThis systematic review examined randomized controlled trials published from January 1997 to July 2020 using the PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases. Data were extracted and two reviewers independently evaluated the quality of studies using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tool.ResultsThe database search yielded 253 studies and five studies were included in the final review. Studies were conducted in mostly White patients in outpatient clinics in the United States. Researchers wrote text at lower reading levels, added images to materials, and created videos to enhance communication. Health literacy interventions increased participant knowledge, preference for comfort care, engagement, and care documentation; however, several methodological issues were identified, including baseline differences in treatment and control groups, issues with blinding, lack of valid and reliable outcome measures, and inappropriate statistical analyses.Significance of resultsMore high-quality intervention studies that address the effects of limited health literacy on advance care planning in diverse populations and settings are needed. Future intervention studies should use reliable and valid instruments to measure advance care planning outcomes. Clinicians should use materials appropriate for their patients’ health literacy levels to address their advance care planning needs.
A Study of Magnetic Conjugate Property in a Large Density Irregularity Structure Using Hilbert‐Huang Transform
Authors: Su S.‐Y. , Chao C.‐K. , Sun Y.‐Y. , Tsai L.‐C. , Liu C. H. 
Published: August 2021

AbstractA large density irregularity structure in latitudinal extent was observed by the sun‐synchronous orbiting FORMOSAT‐5 satellite at 720 km topside ionosphere in the South American sector on November 24, 2018 during a magnetically quiet time. The observed density irregularity structure has a latitudinal extent of ∼30° across the dip equator, and a longitudinal width of ∼6°. Unlike previously studied equatorial plasma bubble structures with the airglow images that indicate hemispheric magnetic conjugate similarity, the gross feature of this large density irregularity structure indicates a north‐south hemispheric asymmetry in density variation. We use the Hilbert‐Huang Transform analysis to study the irregularity structure in different scales of density variations. It is found that the amplitude of density variations in the scale sizes from 22.5 to 450 km all indicate the hemispheric asymmetry. However, the spectral property of density variations in the two hemispheres is almost identical to each other. This implies that the density irregularity structure which originates from the same Rayleigh‐Taylor (RT) instability process has preserved the spectral characteristics inside the magnetic flux tube. Therefore, the cause that fails to preserve the magnetic conjugate property in the density irregularity structure comes from the fact that the background ionospheric density distribution has a north‐south hemispherical asymmetry in the beginning of the RT instability process. This hemispheric asymmetrical density distribution is caused by the seasonal variation of density distributions in the two hemispheres and the prevailing inter‐hemispheric neutral wind during solstices in the South American sector.
Relationship Between Atmospheric Teleconnections and the Northern Hemisphere's Circumpolar Vortex
Authors: Bushra Nazla , Rohli Robert V. 
Published: August 2021

AbstractThe Northern Hemispheric circumpolar vortex (NHCPV) is the hemispheric‐scale, middle‐ and upper‐tropospheric wind belt circumnavigating the North Pole. It is delineated by the well‐known polar front jet stream, and it bends poleward at ridges and equatorward at troughs at various amplitudes and positions over time. Previous work assessed the accuracy of representing the NHCPV using a new technique through correlations to air‐sea teleconnections known to be related to broad‐scale, extratropical steering circulation at the monthly scale. Results of that work suggested that the method allows for notable improvements in the calculation of area and circularity of the 500‐hPa manifestation of the NHCPV. Because using monthly averaged data to represent the NHCPV may oversimplify analyses, especially for identifying meteorological impacts, this research employs the same technique for identifying the daily NHCPV. Results suggest that CPV area and circularity are even more closely related to variability in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific/North American pattern, and (especially) Arctic Oscillation (AO) teleconnections, and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation phenomenon at the daily scale than at the monthly scale. A principal components analysis reveals the extent of the interrelationships between the teleconnections and NHCPV area and circularity. Results generally affirm that both the individual teleconnections, especially the NAO and AO, and interdependencies among these teleconnections and others, are strongly related to the NHCPV area and circularity. These findings are important because low‐ and high‐frequency variability in the amplitudes and positions of the undulations in the broad‐scale flow influence weather systems that exert important impacts on society.
Joint Dependence of Longwave Feedback on Surface Temperature and Relative Humidity
Authors: McKim Brett A. , Jeevanjee Nadir , Vallis Geoffrey K. 
Published: August 2021

AbstractVarious studies have suggested that Earth's clear‐sky outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) varies linearly with surface temperature, with a longwave clear‐sky feedback that is, independent of surface temperature and relative humidity. However, this uniformity conflicts with the notion that humidity controls tropical stability (e.g., the “furnace” and “radiator fins” of Pierrehumbert (1995, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1995)052%3C1784:TRFATL%3E2.0.CO;2)). Here, we use a column model to explore the dependence of longwave clear‐sky feedback on both surface temperature and relative humidity. We find that a strong humidity dependence in the feedback emerges above 275 K, which stems from the closing of the O window, and that the furnace and radiator fins are consequences of this dependence. We then clarify that radiator fins are better characterized by tropical variations in clear‐sky feedback than OLR. Finally, we construct a simple model for estimating the all‐sky feedback and find that although clouds lower the magnitude of longwave feedback, the humidity‐dependence persists.