bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
From waste to wealth: upcycling of plastic and lignocellulosic wastes to PHAs
Authors: Abu‐Thabit Nedal Y , Pérez‐Rivero Cristina , Uwaezuoke Onyinye J , Ngwuluka Ndidi C 
Published: October 2021

AbstractOver the past fifty years, environmental pollution from non‐biodegradable petroleum‐based plastics has worsened and become a real threat to marine life and human health. Thus, solutions to plastic pollution are urgently needed for reducing the contamination of soil and water resources. Developing alternative biodegradable plastics derived from renewable resources is an emerging research focus that can alleviate the accumulation of plastic waste in the environment. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising biodegradable biopolymers for replacing plastics derived from fossil fuel resources. The large scale commercialization of PHAs is not yet feasible due to their high production cost, which is largely associated with the feedstock cost. Using readily available carbon sources from underutilized lignocellulosic biomass and non‐recyclable plastic wastes allows for feedstock cost reduction and for the production of value‐added PHA bioplastics, and this significantly contributes to the solution of plastic pollution in a circular economy approach. This review highlights the recent efforts for valorizing plastic and lignocellulosic wastes to produce PHAs through a biotechnological approach using a two‐step methodology. In the first step, plastic (PE, PP, PS, PET) and lignocellulosic (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin) macromolecules are depolymerized and converted to smaller fragments/monomers, which will be utilized for the subsequent bio‐upcycling step via fermentation process to produce PHAs. Pyrolyzed plastic wastes and hydrolysates from lignocellulosic waste biomass will facilitate the transition from linear to circular economy, lower the production cost of PHAs, and contribute to the solution of plastic pollution in a practical, economical, and sustainable approach. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).
Quantifying epifaunal secondary production within tropical macroalgal meadows: Seasonality and sensitivity to canopy structure
Authors: Chen Yi‐Yang , Cooper Paul , Fulton Christopher J. , Fox Rebecca J. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractSecondary production connects primary producers with higher‐order consumers. The response of secondary production to seasonal variation in primary producers can influence trophic flows that underpin key ecosystem functions and services. Within the canopy‐forming macroalgal meadows of Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, we quantified the secondary production generated by Sargassum‐associated epifauna across seasons and seascapes. We found a strong positive correlation between overall epifaunal production and Sargassum canopy size. Variation in epifaunal production was predominantly driven by seasonal changes in Sargassum canopy size. However, these seasonal effects were not uniform across the seascape. Key predictors of spatial and temporal variation in epifaunal production were the presence of invertivorous fish families, as well as daily and monthly fluctuations in sea temperature. Areal estimates of epifaunal productivity were much higher in summer than in winter, due to higher Sargassum canopy size and percent cover in summer. Epifaunal production was estimated to be more sensitive to Sargassum percentage cover than to canopy height. Modeling a 45% reduction in canopy height and percent cover of Sargassum associated with a marine heatwave event revealed a potential 81% drop in the areal rate of secondary production by Sargassum epifauna in this tropical fringing reef ecosystem. Disturbances to Sargassum canopy structure driven by global change can therefore significantly alter the productivity of these tropical macroalgal meadows and their ability to support higher level consumers within the food web, including important fisheries species. Our results highlight the importance of including epifaunal production estimates in predictive modeling when managing macroalgal‐dominated marine ecosystems.
Maxillary abnormality in the medieval Blessed friar Egidio from Laurenzana (Basilicata, southern Italy)
Authors: D'Anastasio Ruggero , Cilli Jacopo , Viciano Joan , Capasso Luigi 
Published: October 2021

AbstractBlessed Egidio was a revered Catholic friar who lived in Basilicata (southern Italy) between the 15th and 16th centuries A.D. His natural mummy is preserved in the Mother Church of Laurenzana, the village where he lived. During the recent restoration and conservation of the relic, palaeopathological analysis was carried out. This revealed osteolytic lesions that affected the maxillary bones, as two injuries that were different in morphology and size that distinctly afflicted the right and left maxillae. The macroscopic and radiographic appearance of the lesion on the right maxilla and its proximity to the right premolar tooth that showed periapical granuloma suggest a diagnosis of an inflammatory odontogenic cyst (radicular cyst). The second lesion, of the left maxilla, was non‐specific and might have been the consequence of an inflammatory process. Odontogenic cysts are common in modern human populations but have been poorly described to date in ancient populations. The case of Blessed Egidio represents a new and rare case diagnosed in the field of palaeopathology.
Mental imagery rotation and graph comprehension of IS‐LM macroeconomic models
Authors: González María Ángeles , Dopico Jesús A. , Campos Alfredo 
Published: October 2021

AbstractThe aim of this study was to determine if the ability to rotate mental imagery influenced the comprehension of graphs in economics. A sample of 140 Business Administration undergraduates familiar with economic analysis using graphs were administered the Measure of the Ability to Rotate Mental Images (MARMI). Moreover, participants completed an ad hoc graph comprehension test consisting of six exercises of increasing difficulty with graphs developing the IS‐LM model described in conventional macroeconomic textbooks. Both the ability to rotate mental imagery and graph complexity (the number of quadrants in each graph) were found to significantly influence the number of correct graph comprehension responses.
Spatial distinction and temporal stability of water microelements in the North Platte River and Lake McConaughy, Nebraska
Authors: Rowles Garrett , Wuellner Melissa R. , Koupal Keith D. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractWater chemistry can vary spatially and temporally within a riverscape (i.e., reservoir, rivers, and tributaries) due to different surficial geologies, groundwater influences, surrounding land use, habitat type (i.e., reservoir or river), and water residence time. Microelemental signatures may be absorbed by calcified structures of fish and have been used to describe their environmental history. The ability to identify this history depends in part on spatial distinction and temporal stability of those water signatures. The objective of this study was to compare trace concentrations of four elements in water collected at nine locations within the North Platte River (n = 4 sites), one tributary of the river (n = 1 site), and Lake McConaughy (n = 4 sites) in July 2017 and from April to September in 2018 to assess spatial distinction and temporal stability of these microelements. Inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry was used to analyze concentrations of Ba:Ca, Mg:Ca, Mn:Ca, and Sr:Ca in each water sample. Spatial distinction and temporal stability of microelements were assessed using a Cochran‐Mantel‐Haenzel test. A Bonferroni correction was applied to account for multiple comparisons per element. No significant spatial distinction was detected among the nine individual sites (df = 3, p = .05–.72) and plots of elements displayed temporal variability at the tributary site and the North Platte River site below the tributary site. However, when individual sites were classified to habitat type (i.e., “river,” “tributary,” or “reservoir”), all four microelements were found to be spatially distinct (df = 3, p < .01). All elemental ratios except Mg:Ca were found to be temporally stable (df = 3, p = .02–.08). This study identified microelements that were spatially distinct between a river, tributary, and reservoir and temporally stable which will allow for accurate assessment of environmental history of fish using hard‐part microchemistry.
Investigation of Co3O4 Activity and Stability in Amidation of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters
Authors: Shirshin Konstantin K. , Esipovich Anton L. , Kanakov Evgeny , Rogozhin Anton E. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractCo3O4 activity in amidation reaction between fatty acid methyl esters and 3‐(Dimethylamino)‐1‐propylamine was investigated for the first time. The catalytic effect was approved by comparison of non‐catalyzed and catalyzed reactions activation energies and connected with the unique structure of Co3O4. Using of Co3O4 allows decreasing of activation energy of amidation reaction up to 1.5 times (from 90 to 59 kJ/mol). During the recycling test no significant decrease in reaction rate and product yield was detected even after 5 cycles. Using various analysis methods (XRD, FTIR, EDS‐SEM) of fresh and spent catalyst it was fixed that Co3O4 has no transformation throughout the synthesis.
Calcium Channel Blockers: The Effect of Glutathione S‐Transferase Enzyme Activity and Molecular Docking Studies
Authors: Türkeş Cüneyt , Kesebir Arzu Öztürk , Demir Yeliz , Küfrevioğlu Ömer İrfan , Beydemir Şükrü 
Published: October 2021

AbstractRecently, as a drug target in cancer treatment, the superfamily of glutathione S‐transferase (GSTs, EC 2.5.1.18) have been invited considerable interest by scientists. In particular, as they are overexpressed in many human cancer cell lines, GSTs can catalyze the conjugation of the cellular nucleophile glutathione (GSH) with a wide range of electrophilic carcinogens toxins and drugs, meanwhile producing oxidative stress. For this purpose, the GST was purified by GSH‐agarose affinity chromatography, and some calcium channel blockers (CCBs), such as amlodipine, cinnarizine, isradipine, nifedipine, and nilvadipine, were assessed for their inhibitory actions against GST. The CCBs demonstrated micromolar levels inhibitory activity towards GST (KIs spanning within the 98.84±0.53 μM–502.70±2.53 μM range). The best GST inhibitory activity was observed for the isradipine. Additionally, molecular docking study was performed for competitive inhibitor nilvadipine on GST to describe the possible interaction with the active site to confirm the inhibitory activity.
A cubic analogue of the Friedlander–Iwaniec spin over primes
Authors: Merikoski Jori 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIn 1998 Friedlander and Iwaniec proved that there are infinitely many primes of the form $$a^2+b^4$$

a
2

+

b
4

. To show this they used the Jacobi symbol to define the spin of Gaussian integers, and one of the key ingredients in the proof was to show that the spin becomes equidistributed along Gaussian primes. To generalize this we define the cubic spin of ideals of $${\mathbb {Z}}[\zeta _{12}]={\mathbb {Z}}[\zeta _3,i]$$

Z

[

ζ
12

]

=
Z

[

ζ
3

,
i
]

by using the cubic residue character on the Eisenstein integers $${\mathbb {Z}}[\zeta _3]$$

Z
[

ζ
3

]

. Our main theorem says that the cubic spin is equidistributed along prime ideals of $${\mathbb {Z}}[\zeta _{12}]$$

Z
[

ζ
12

]

. The proof of this follows closely along the lines of Friedlander and Iwaniec. The main new feature in our case is the infinite unit group, which means that we need to show that the definition of the cubic spin on the ring of integers lifts to a well-defined function on the ideals. We also explain how the cubic spin arises if we consider primes of the form $$a^2+b^6$$

a
2

+

b
6

on the Eisenstein integers.
Forging just dietary futures: bringing mainstream and critical nutrition into conversation
Authors: Nichols Carly , Kampman Halie , van den Bold Mara 
Published: October 2021

AbstractDespite decades of action to reduce global malnutrition, rates of undernutrition remain stubbornly high and rates of overweight, obesity and chronic disease are simultaneously on the rise. Moreover, while volumes of robust research on causes and solutions to malnutrition have been published, and calls for interdisciplinarity are on the rise, researchers taking different epistemological and methodological choices have largely remained disciplinarily siloed. This paper works to open a scholarly conversation between “mainstream” public health nutrition and “critical” nutrition studies. While critical nutrition scholars collectively question aspects of mainstream nutrition approaches, they also chart a different way to approach malnutrition research by focusing on politics, structural conditions, and the diverse ways people make sense of food and malnutrition. In this paper, we highlight the key research agendas and insights within both mainstream and critical nutrition in order to suggest spaces for their potential conversation. We ultimately argue that global public health nutrition interventions might achieve greater success in more equitable ways if they are informed by critical nutrition research. We aim for this intervention to facilitate more substantial crossing of disciplinary boundaries, critical to forging more socially and environmentally just dietary futures in the global South and beyond.
On the consistency of two-phase local/nonlocal piezoelectric integral model
Authors: Ren Yanming , Qing Hai 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIn this paper, we propose general strain- and stress-driven two-phase local/nonlocal piezoelectric integral models, which can distinguish the difference of nonlocal effects on the elastic and piezoelectric behaviors of nanostructures. The nonlocal piezoelectric model is transformed from integral to an equivalent differential form with four constitutive boundary conditions due to the difficulty in solving intergro-differential equations directly. The nonlocal piezoelectric integral models are used to model the static bending of the Euler-Bernoulli piezoelectric beam on the assumption that the nonlocal elastic and piezoelectric parameters are coincident with each other. The governing differential equations as well as constitutive and standard boundary conditions are deduced. It is found that purely strain- and stress-driven nonlocal piezoelectric integral models are ill-posed, because the total number of differential orders for governing equations is less than that of boundary conditions. Meanwhile, the traditional nonlocal piezoelectric differential model would lead to inconsistent bending response for Euler-Bernoulli piezoelectric beam under different boundary and loading conditions. Several nominal variables are introduced to normalize the governing equations and boundary conditions, and the general differential quadrature method (GDQM) is used to obtain the numerical solutions. The results from current models are validated against results in the literature. It is clearly established that a consistent softening and toughening effects can be obtained for static bending of the Euler-Bernoulli beam based on the general strain- and stress-driven local/nonlocal piezoelectric integral models, respectively.
A revision of the rectangular algorithm for a class of DC optimization problems
Authors: Kuno Takahito 
Published: October 2021

AbstractEvery continuously differentiable function can be represented as a difference between a convex function and an additively separable convex function. We show that a DC function with this structure can be optimized using the rectangular algorithm for separable nonconvex optimization, and develop a revision to this algorithm for practical use. We also report some numerical results which indicate the effectiveness of the revision.
Localised Pair Formation in Bosonic Flat-Band Hubbard Models
Authors: Fronk Jacob , Mielke Andreas 
Published: October 2021

AbstractFlat-band systems are ideal model systems to study strong correlations. In a large class of one or two dimensional bosonic systems with a lowest flat-band it has been shown that at a critical density the ground states are Wigner crystals. Under very special conditions it has been shown that pair formation occurs if one adds another particle to the system. The present paper extends this result to a much larger class of lattices and to a much broader region in the parameter space. Further, a lower bound for the energy gap between these pair states and the rest of the spectrum is established. The pair states are dominated by a subspace spanned by states containing a compactly localised pair. Overall, this strongly suggests localised pair formation in the ground states of the broad class of flat-band systems and rigorously proves it for some of the graphs in it, including the inhomogeneous chequerboard chain as well as two novel examples of regular two dimensional graphs. Physically, this means that the Wigner crystal remains intact if one adds a particle to it.
Effortful Bayesian updating: A pupil-dilation study
Authors: Alós-Ferrer Carlos , Jaudas Alexander , Ritschel Alexander 
Published: October 2021

AbstractWhen confronted with new information, rational decision makers should update their beliefs through Bayes’ rule. In economics, however, new information often includes win-loss feedback (profits vs. losses, success vs. failure, upticks vs. downticks). Previous research using a well-established belief-updating paradigm shows that, in this case, reinforcement learning (focusing on past performance) creates high error rates, and increasing monetary incentives fails to elicit higher performance. But do incentives fail to increase effort, or rather does effort fail to increase performance? We use pupil dilation to show that higher incentives do result in increased cognitive effort, but the latter fails to translate into increased performance in this paradigm. The failure amounts to a “reinforcement paradox:” increasing incentives makes win-loss cues more salient, and hence effort is often misallocated in the form of an increased reliance on reinforcement processes. Our study also serves as an example of how pupil-dilation measurements can inform economics.
When scale is surplus
Authors: Gryb Sean , Sloan David 
Published: October 2021

AbstractWe study a long-recognised but under-appreciated symmetry calleddynamical similarityand illustrate its relevance to many important conceptual problems in fundamental physics. Dynamical similarities are general transformations of a system where the unit of Hamilton’s principal function is rescaled, and therefore represent a kind of dynamical scaling symmetry with formal properties that differ from many standard symmetries. To study this symmetry, we develop a general framework for symmetries that distinguishes the observable and surplus structures of a theory by using the minimal freely specifiable initial data for the theory that is necessary to achieve empirical adequacy. This framework is then applied to well-studied examples including Galilean invariance and the symmetries of the Kepler problem. We find that our framework gives a precise dynamical criterion for identifying the observables of those systems, and that those observables agree with epistemic expectations. We then apply our framework to dynamical similarity. First we give a general definition of dynamical similarity. Then we show, with the help of some previous results, how the dynamics of our observables leads to singularity resolution and the emergence of an arrow of time in cosmology.
Analysis of pathogens and antimicrobial treatment in different groups of patients with chronic otitis media
Authors: Kaźmierczak W , Janiak-Kiszka J , Budzyńska A , Nowaczewska M , Kaźmierczak H , Gospodarek-Komkowska E 
Published: October 2021

AbstractObjectiveMicrobial infection plays an important role in exacerbation of chronic otitis media. The aim of this study was to analyse the microbiota in chronic otitis media in the context of local treatment.MethodIn this prospective study, samples for microbiological examination were taken from 119 patients who underwent operation because of chronic otitis media.ResultsThe results were compared between groups depending on the type of operation (none, tympanoplasty or radical), the presence of cholesteatoma or granulomatous tissue or discharge from the ear as a symptom of exacerbation. Antibiotic susceptibility of germs was analysed to define the strategy of treatment. A total of 209 samples were collected from 119 patients with chronic otitis media.ConclusionPseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus were pathogens most frequently identified from the ear in the course of chronic otitis media. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was concerned with major pathology of the middle ear (radical surgery, cholesteatoma or granulomatous tissue, persisting discharge after treatment), whereas Staphylococcus aureus was obtained in dry perforations without other pathology in the middle-ear cavity. Ciprofloxacin was effective against Staphylococcus aureus, but Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were ciprofloxacin resistant.
Asymptomatic superior semicircular canal dehiscence
Authors: Verrecchia L , Edholm K , Pekkari M 
Published: October 2021

AbstractObjectiveTo describe a case of asymptomatic superior semicircular canal dehiscence.MethodClinical case report.ResultsA 50-year-old man presenting with right-sided Ménière´s disease also showed an enhanced response on vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing for the left ear. Unilateral left-sided superior semicircular canal bone dehiscence was clearly visualised on a subsequent temporal bone computed tomography scan. These findings were consistent with superior canal dehiscence syndrome. However, the patient did not complain of any specific superior canal dehiscence syndrome symptoms. Given that vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing may detect asymptomatic forms of superior canal dehiscence, as noted in this case, such testing seems to exhibit reduced specificity for superior canal dehiscence syndrome.ConclusionAn enhanced response on vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing in isolation appears to be a weaker indicator of superior canal dehiscence syndrome, and rather a marker of superior semicircular canal dehiscence.
Some Methodological Issues in Neuroethics: The Case of Responsibility and Psychopathy
Authors: Malatesti Luca , McMillan John 
Published: October 2021

AbstractThere are some distinct methodological challenges, and possible pitfalls, for neuroethics when it evaluates neuroscientific results and links them to issues such as moral or legal responsibility. Some problems emerge in determining the requirements for responsibility. We will show how philosophical proposals in this area need to interact with legal doctrine and practice. Problems can occur when inferring normative implications from neuroscientific results. Other problems arise when it is not recognized that data about brain anatomy or physiology are relevant to the ascription of responsibility only when they are significantly correlated with the psychological capacities contemplated by the legal formulations of responsibility. We will demonstrate this by considering two significant cases concerning psychopathy. Some paradigms that aim at measuring higher-order capacities, such as moral understanding, have limited validity. More robust paradigms for the study of learning in restricted controlled conditions, on the other hand, have limited ecological validity across individuals and context to be of any use for the law.