bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cyclic behavior and deformation mechanism of superelastic SMA U-shaped dampers under in-plane and out-of-plane loadings
Authors: Wang Bin , Zhu Songye , Casciati Fabio , Chen Kaixin , Jiang Huanjun 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
This study systematically investigates the cyclic behavior and deformation mechanism of superelastic shape memory alloy U-shaped dampers (SMA-UDs) that are intended for seismic resilient applications. The study first summarized the experimental investigations of a series of SMA-UD component tests under loadings in two directions (i.e. in-plane and out-of-plane directions). Test results demonstrated that SMA-UDs exhibit excellent self-centering (SC) capability and stable energy dissipation under both loadings. Subsequently, two detailed finite element models were validated through the comparisons with experimental results in terms of global hysteresis loops and deformation shapes. The insights into the SMA-UD behavior under different directional loadings were presented. The influences of different geometric parameters of the SMA-UDs on the deformation mechanism were further highlighted. Parametric studies were carried out to investigate the effects of the existence of adjacent plates and the perpendicular compression on the SMA-UD’s mechanical properties of practical interest in earthquake engineering. Results show that the adjacent plate has a positive role in the deformation mechanism of the SMA-UD under in-plane loading, whereas it has a slight effect on the SMA-UD under out-of-plane loading. The perpendicular compressive deformation undertaken by the SMA-UD itself can deteriorate its SC capability under in-plane loading. The results attained from this research are conducive to the design and applications of the SMA-UDs in engineering practice.
Nonreciprocal absorption characteristics of one-dimensional cylindrical magnetized plasma photonic crystals
Authors: Wang Qian-Yu , Liu Shuang , Gui Di , Zhang Hai-Feng 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
By combining the propagation matrix of planar magnetized plasma photonic crystals with that of the cylindrical non-magnetized medium, the transfer matrix equation of the cylindrical magnetized plasma photonic crystals is obtained. Applying this equation to the cylindrical structure, a quasi-periodic structure conforming to the Pell sequence is designed, which has good nonreciprocal property. Therefore, the absorptance of light propagating forward and backward in this structure are studied respectively. The concept of contrast ratio (D

C
), calculated from the absorption of the forward and backward propagation of electromagnetic waves in the structure, is used to compare the degree of difference between the two. It is found that the nonreciprocal propagation becomes larger with the increase of the azimuth modulus and the relative dielectric constant of the medium, increases first, and then decreases with the increase of the incident angle, but does not change obviously when the plasma collision frequency and the cyclotron frequency of the plasma are getting larger. The absorptance decreases with the increase of azimuth modulus, relative dielectric constant, and plasma cyclotron frequency, and becomes better with the increase of the plasma collision frequency. However, when the incident angle gets larger, the absorptance becomes better at first and then gets worse.
Saturable higher nonlinearity effects on the modulational instabilities in three-core triangular configuration couplers
Authors: Mohanraj P , Sivakumar R 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
This paper demonstrates the possibility to observe the modulational instability (MI) regions due to modified nonlinear saturability over and above other high-order nonlinearities for the triangular configuration of a three-core oppositely directed coupler. In this configuration, two channels are positive-refractive-index material, and one is a negative-index material. The governing equations are the modified coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations, to which we add the higher-order nonlinearity terms and coupling terms. This equation is further modified with the saturable nonlinearity term. In the presence of several nonlinearities, we derive the dispersion relation for the optical coupler under consideration. We use a linear stability analysis to study the modulation stability characteristic gain in both the normal and anomalous group-velocity dispersion regimes. We have widely varied the parameter range of the physical system parameters to accommodate different possibilities. In the normal region, the saturable nonlinearity aids in increasing the bandwidth of the MI region, while in the anomalous regime, the bandwidth reduces. In the normal dispersion case, the simultaneous presence of all nonlinearities in the optical coupler does not provide a suitable scope for pulse propagation. On the other hand, in the anomalous regime, these nonlinearities favor for pulse propagation.
Gridded soil surface nitrogen surplus on grazing and agricultural land: Impact of land use maps
Authors: Kaltenegger Katrin , Erb Karl-Heinz , Matej Sarah , Winiwarter Wilfried 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Excess N application on agricultural land greatly impacts the environment in multiple ways, driven by population growth and improving quality of human diets. Therefore, it is essential to quantify the sources of the emissions of N compounds and their determinants (e.g. biological N fixation (BNF), mineral fertilizer, manure N and N deposition) to develop adequate mitigation measures. Here we aim at comprehensively mapping and quantifying N fluxes on agricultural land to analyze these sources on different scales. As underlying grazing land maps used for such calculations are fairly different in terms of methodology and definition and thus spatial extent and pattern, we investigate how this diversity in grazing land maps affects quantification of N indicators. We compared three different global grazing land maps and analyzed the propagation of differences to discrepancies in N indicators calculated from them. We discovered that (i) area differences propagated to high discrepancies in N surplus mostly in Asia, and to a minor extent also in Europe and Northern Africa. (ii) BNF constitutes an important translator for differences on grazing land to N indicators, while also being a source of further uncertainty, which warrants further scrutiny. (iii) A more inclusive definition of grazing land results in overall less N surplus given the larger areas included but allows to provide a more comprehensive estimate of the influence of human activity on the N cycle. This study is the first to provide an in-depth analysis of the effect of grazing land and agricultural land area differences on various N budget terms and N indicator calculation, highlighting opportunities for further research, and the importance of a comprehensive accounting of N surplus when using an inclusive definition of grazing land.
The impact of chaotic saddles on the synchronization of complex networks of discrete-time units
Authors: Medeiros Everton S , Medrano-T Rene O , Caldas Iberê L , Feudel Ulrike 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
A chaotic saddle is a common nonattracting chaotic set well known for generating finite-time chaotic behavior in low and high-dimensional systems. In general, dynamical systems possessing chaotic saddles in their state-space exhibit irregular behavior with duration lengths following an exponential distribution. However, when these systems are coupled into networks the chaotic saddle plays a role in the long-term dynamics by trapping network trajectories for times that are indefinitely long. This process transforms the network’s high-dimensional state-space by creating an alternative persistent desynchronized state coexisting with the completely synchronized one. Such coexistence threatens the synchronized state with vulnerability to external perturbations. We demonstrate the onset of this phenomenon in complex networks of discrete-time units in which the synchronization manifold is perturbed either in the initial instant of time or in arbitrary states of its asymptotic dynamics. The role of topological asymmetries of Erdös–Rényi and Barabási–Albert graphs are investigated. Besides, the required coupling strength for the occurrence of trapping in the chaotic saddle is unveiled.
New features of doubly transient chaos: complexity of decay
Authors: Károlyi György , Tél Tamás 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn dissipative systems without any driving or positive feedback all motion stops ultimately since the initial kinetic energy is dissipated away during time evolution. If chaos is present, it can only be of transient type. Traditional transient chaos is, however, supported by an infinity of unstable orbits. In the lack of these, chaos in undriven dissipative systems is of another type: it is termed doubly transient chaos as the strength of transient chaos is diminishing in time, and ceases asymptotically. Here we show that a clear view of such dynamics is provided by identifying KAM tori or chaotic regions of the dissipation-free case, and following their time evolution in the dissipative dynamics. The tori often smoothly deform first, but later they become disintegrated and dissolve in a kind of shrinking chaos. We identify different dynamical measures for the characterization of this process which illustrate that the strength of chaos is first diminishing, and after a while disappears, the motion enters the phase of ultimate stopping.
Non-unitary quantum electronics: Novel functions from the edge of the quantum world
Authors: Mannhart J , Boschker H , Bredol P 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Novel categories of electronic devices and quantum materials are obtained by pipelining the unitary evolution of electron quantum states as described by Schrödinger’s equation with non-unitary processes that interrupt the coherent propagation of electrons. These devices and materials reside in the fascinating transition regime between quantum mechanics and classical physics. The devices are designed such that a nonreciprocal unitary state evolution, achieved by means of a broken inversion symmetry, is interrupted by individual inelastic scattering events caused by defects coupled to an environment. Two-terminal non-unitary quantum devices, for example, feature nonreciprocal conductance in linear response. Thus, they are exemptions to Onsager’s reciprocal relation, and they challenge the second law of thermodynamics. Furthermore, materials and metamaterials featuring such functionalities may be realized by embedding such nanostructures into their unit cells.
A Hybrid Evaluation-Optimization Trial to Evaluate an Intervention Targeting the Intersection of Alcohol and Sex in College Students and Simultaneously Test an Additional Component Aimed at Preventing Sexual Violence
Authors: Tanner Amanda E , Guastaferro Kate M , Rulison Kelly L , Wyrick David L , Milroy Jeffrey J , Bhandari Sandesh , Thorpe Shemeka , Ware Samuella , Miller Alicia M , Collins Linda M 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Background
Using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), we previously developed and optimized an online behavioral intervention, itMatters, aimed at reducing the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among first-year college students by targeting the intersection of alcohol use and sexual behaviors.

Purpose
We had two goals: (a) to evaluate the optimized itMatters intervention and (b) to determine whether the candidate sexual violence prevention (SVP) component (included at the request of participating universities) had a detectable effect and therefore should be added to create a new version of itMatters. We also describe the hybrid evaluation-optimization trial we conducted to accomplish these two goals in a single experiment.

Methods
First year college students (N = 3,098) at four universities in the USA were individually randomized in a hybrid evaluation-optimization 2 × 2 factorial trial. Data were analyzed using regression models, with pre-test outcome variables included as covariates in the models. Analyses were conducted separately with (a) immediate post-test scores and (b) 60-day follow-up scores as outcome variables.

Results
Experimental results indicated a significant effect of itMatters on targeted proximal outcomes (norms) and on one distal behavioral outcome (binge drinking). There were no significant effects on other behavioral outcomes, including the intersection of alcohol and sexual behaviors. In addition, there were mixed results (positive short-term effect; no effect at 60-day follow-up) of the SVP component on targeted proximal outcomes (students’ self-efficacy to reduce/prevent sexual violence and perceived effectiveness of protective behavioral strategies).

Conclusions
The hybrid evaluation-optimization trial enabled us to evaluate the individual and combined effectiveness of the optimized itMatters intervention and the SVP component in a single experiment, conserving resources and providing greatly improved efficiency.

Trial Registration
NCT04095065.
Analyzing the costs of developing and operating an integrated health-system specialty pharmacy: The case of a centralized insurance navigation process for specialty clinic patients
Authors: Rim Matthew H , Thomas Karen C , Barrus Stephanie A , Ryther Ashley M K , Clawson Antoine , Ferrara Francesca , Jackson Christopher G 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Purpose
Direct and indirect costs related to the growth of specialty pharmacy services and the insurance navigation process for specialty clinic patients are discussed, and development and implementation of a pharmacy-driven and system-wide prior authorization (PA) processing center within a health system are described.

Summary
Expensive specialty drugs require PA. Due to the concentration of specialists, health systems with multiple specialties experience higher PA burden and resulting care delays. Although clinic staff typically handle PA requests, health-system specialty pharmacies are well positioned to support patients, clinic staff, and physicians by assuming responsibility for the PA process entirely. University of Utah Health established its Pharmacy Ambulatory Clinical Care Center (PAC3) to centralize PA processing for selected specialty and primary care clinics within the health system. In fiscal year 2019, the PAC3 team (10 pharmacy technician and 1.5 pharmacist full-time equivalents) completed over 13,000 PAs. The pharmacy labor cost increase was significant; however, the benefits gained from increased services, quality, and financial strength surpassed all costs associated with the implementation and maintenance of the pharmacy operation. Other tangible benefits included decreased delays in therapy initiation, increased patient satisfaction, increased clinic visits, and increased staff and provider satisfaction and engagement.

Conclusion
Increased PA requests associated with specialty drugs have placed considerable stress and staff burden on specialty clinics within health systems. However, development and implementation of an efficient PA processing infrastructure within a health-system specialty pharmacy may reduce the burden, increase financial strength, and improve the patient experience.
Pick Your President: Why and How Parties Should Seek to Agree on a Presiding Arbitrator
Authors: Leikin Eric , Treichl Clemens 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
It is common wisdom that selecting a suitable presiding arbitrator is vital to securing efficient proceedings and a high-quality award. As a corollary of party autonomy, the parties’ right to choose their arbitrators is subject only to few limitations, yet relatively little guidance exists for parties attempting to jointly choose the arbitral president in a structured and efficient way. This article seeks to expand on the limited guidance available. It begins by briefly examining the underlying legal framework and setting out various objectives that can serve as a yardstick in fashioning a procedure for selecting presiding arbitrators. This general analysis is followed by a proposal of a concrete, standard ‘list’ procedure which is easily adaptable to different arbitration settings and case configurations.
Decreasing Surgical Site Infections in Plastic Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Level 1 Evidence
Authors: ElHawary Hassan , Hintermayer Matthew A , Alam Peter , Brunetti Vanessa C , Janis Jeffrey E 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Background
Although many interventions are implemented to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs) in plastic surgery, their supporting evidence is inconsistent.

Objectives
The goal of this study was to assess the efficacy of methods for decreasing SSIs in plastic surgery.

Methods
A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to compare the effects of SSI prevention methods. All the studies were assessed for quality of evidence according to the GRADE assessment.

Results
Fifty Level 1 randomized controlled trials were included. The most common interventions for preventing SSIs were antibiotic prophylaxis, showering, prepping, draping, and the use of dressings. Current evidence suggests that antibiotic prophylaxis is largely unnecessary and overused in many plastic surgical procedures, with the exception of head and neck oncologic, oral craniofacial, and traumatic hand surgeries.

Conclusions
Efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis in plastic surgery is dependent on surgery type. There is a lack evidence that showering and prepping with chlorohexidine and povidone reduces SSIs.

Level of Evidence: 1
MUFFIN: multi-scale feature fusion for drug–drug interaction prediction
Authors: Chen Yujie , Ma Tengfei , Yang Xixi , Wang Jianmin , Song Bosheng , Zeng Xiangxiang 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Motivation
Adverse drug–drug interactions (DDIs) are crucial for drug research and mainly cause morbidity and mortality. Thus, the identification of potential DDIs is essential for doctors, patients and the society. Existing traditional machine learning models rely heavily on handcraft features and lack generalization. Recently, the deep learning approaches that can automatically learn drug features from the molecular graph or drug-related network have improved the ability of computational models to predict unknown DDIs. However, previous works utilized large labeled data and merely considered the structure or sequence information of drugs without considering the relations or topological information between drug and other biomedical objects (e.g. gene, disease and pathway), or considered knowledge graph (KG) without considering the information from the drug molecular structure.

Results
Accordingly, to effectively explore the joint effect of drug molecular structure and semantic information of drugs in knowledge graph for DDI prediction, we propose a multi-scale feature fusion deep learning model named MUFFIN. MUFFIN can jointly learn the drug representation based on both the drug-self structure information and the KG with rich bio-medical information. In MUFFIN, we designed a bi-level cross strategy that includes cross- and scalar-level components to fuse multi-modal features well. MUFFIN can alleviate the restriction of limited labeled data on deep learning models by crossing the features learned from large-scale KG and drug molecular graph. We evaluated our approach on three datasets and three different tasks including binary-class, multi-class and multi-label DDI prediction tasks. The results showed that MUFFIN outperformed other state-of-the-art baselines.

Availability and implementation
The source code and data are available at https://github.com/xzenglab/MUFFIN.
Use of gene expression profiling to identify candidate genes for pretherapeutic patient classification in acute appendicitis
Authors: Kiss N , Minderjahn M , Reismann J , Svensson J , Wester T , Hauptmann K , Schad M , Kallarackal J , von Bernuth H , Reismann M 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Background
Phlegmonous and gangrenous appendicitis represent independent pathophysiological entities with different clinical courses ranging from spontaneous resolution to septic disease. However, reliable predictive methods for these clinical phenotypes have not yet been established. In an attempt to provide pathophysiological insights into the matter, a genomewide gene expression analysis was undertaken in patients with acute appendicitis.

Methods
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated and, after histological confirmation of PA or GA, analysed for genomewide gene expression profiling using RNA microarray technology and subsequent pathway analysis.

Results
Samples from 29 patients aged 7–17 years were included. Genomewide gene expression analysis was performed on 13 samples of phlegmonous and 16 of gangrenous appendicitis. From a total of 56 666 genes, 3594 were significantly differently expressed. Distinct interaction between T and B cells in the phlegmonous appendicitis group was suggested by overexpression of T cell receptor α and β subunits, CD2, CD3, MHC II, CD40L, and the B cell markers CD72 and CD79, indicating an antiviral mechanism. In the gangrenous appendicitis group, expression of genes delineating antibacterial mechanisms was found.

Conclusion
These results provide evidence for different and independent gene expression in phlegmonous and gangrenous appendicitis in general, but also suggest distinct immunological patterns for the respective entities. In particular, the findings are compatible with previous evidence of spontaneous resolution in phlegmonous and progressive disease in gangrenous appendicitis.
The hedgehog pathway suppresses neuropathogenesis in CD4 T cell-driven inflammation
Authors: Benallegue Nail , Kebir Hania , Kapoor Richa , Crockett Alexis , Li Cen , Cheslow Lara , Abdel-Hakeem Mohamed S , Gesualdi James , Miller Miles C , Wherry E John , Church Molly E , Blanco M Andres , Alvarez Jorge I 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
The concerted actions of the CNS and the immune system are essential to coordinating the outcome of neuroinflammatory responses. Yet, the precise mechanisms involved in this crosstalk and their contribution to the pathophysiology of neuroinflammatory diseases largely elude us. Here, we show that the CNS-endogenous hedgehog pathway, a signal triggered as part of the host response during the inflammatory phase of multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, attenuates the pathogenicity of human and mouse effector CD4 T cells by regulating their production of inflammatory cytokines. Using a murine genetic model, in which the hedgehog signalling is compromised in CD4 T cells, we show that the hedgehog pathway acts on CD4 T cells to suppress the pathogenic hallmarks of autoimmune neuroinflammation, including demyelination and axonal damage, and thus mitigates the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Impairment of hedgehog signalling in CD4 T cells exacerbates brain-brainstem-cerebellum inflammation and leads to the development of atypical disease. Moreover, we present evidence that hedgehog signalling regulates the pathogenic profile of CD4 T cells by limiting their production of the inflammatory cytokines granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interferon-γ and by antagonizing their inflammatory program at the transcriptome level. Likewise, hedgehog signalling attenuates the inflammatory phenotype of human CD4 memory T cells. From a therapeutic point of view, our study underlines the potential of harnessing the hedgehog pathway to counteract ongoing excessive CNS inflammation, as systemic administration of a hedgehog agonist after disease onset effectively halts disease progression and significantly reduces neuroinflammation and the underlying neuropathology. We thus unveil a previously unrecognized role for the hedgehog pathway in regulating pathogenic inflammation within the CNS and propose to exploit its ability to modulate this neuroimmune network as a strategy to limit the progression of ongoing neuroinflammation.