bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Design, synthesis of some novel coumarins and their nanoformulations into lipid-chitosan nanocapsule as unique antimicrobial agents
Authors: Radwan Ibrahim Taha , El-Sherbiny Ibrahim M. , Selim Abdelfattah M. , Metwally Nadia Hanafy 
Published: December 2024

AbstractDeveloping and creating novel antibiotics is one of the most important targets in treating infectious diseases. Novel coumarins were synthesized and characterized using different spectroscopic techniques such as Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Nuclear magnetic resonance1H and 13C and mass spectroscopy (MS). All of the synthesized compounds have been tested for activity and sensitivity against the microbial strains of B. subtilis, S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. typhi, and C. albicans. All compounds showed substantial results against the tested microbes except S. typhi, which was not affected in any way by these coumarins. Exceptional results were shown by compounds 4, 6d, and 8b, which made them the best candidates for loading to the vicinity of nanostructure lipid carrier and coated by chitosan nanocapsule (NLC-Cs). Transmission electron microscope (TEM) confirmed spherical morphology with particles size less than 500 nm. Also, dynamic light scattering (DLS) were utilized to measure the average particle size (between 100 and 200 nm) and the stability assessed by zeta potential were found to be more positive confirming the chitosan encapsulation. Antimicrobial activity assessments were performed for both synthetic compounds and their NLCs analogues. The nanoformulation of 4-NLC-Cs, 6d-NLC-Cs, and 8b-NLC-Cs manifested unique biological results, especially 8b-NLC-Cs, which revealed powerful effects over all the tested organisms including S. typhi. The increasing biological effect of the drugs in their nanoscale form is reflected in the increasing value of inhibition zone diameter and suppressing the value of MIC to reach record levels like 8b-NLC-Cs disclosed MIC = 0.48 and 0.24 µg/ml against S. aureus and C. albicans, respectively, by the mean 8b-NLC-Cs nanoformulation suppressed the MIC by 65 folds of its initial value before nano. In continuation, it was proven that the compounds 4, 6d and 8b were found to make noticeable changes on the DNA-Gyrase levels with reduced IC50 values particularly 8b showed excellent inhibitory effect with IC50 = 4.56 µM. TEM was used to pursue the morphological changes that occur in bacterial cells of P. aeruginosa. The weakness of the cell wall in most bacterial cells treated with nanomaterials, 8b-NLC-Cs, has reached the point of the cell wall rupture and the cell components spilling out of the cells causing necrotic cell death.
An enhanced classification system of various rice plant diseases based on multi-level handcrafted feature extraction technique
Authors: Alsakar Yasmin M. , Sakr Nehal A. , Elmogy Mohammed 
Published: December 2024

AbstractThe rice plant is one of the most significant crops in the world, and it suffers from various diseases. The traditional methods for rice disease detection are complex and time-consuming, mainly depending on the expert’s experience. The explosive growth in image processing, computer vision, and deep learning techniques provides effective and innovative agriculture solutions for automatically detecting and classifying these diseases. Moreover, more information can be extracted from the input images due to different feature extraction techniques. This paper proposes a new system for detecting and classifying rice plant leaf diseases by fusing different features, including color texture with Local Binary Pattern (LBP) and color features with Color Correlogram (CC). The proposed system consists of five stages. First, input images acquire RGB images of rice plants. Second, image preprocessing applies data augmentation to solve imbalanced problems, and logarithmic transformation enhancement to handle illumination problems has been applied. Third, the features extraction stage is responsible for extracting color features using CC and color texture features using multi-level multi-channel local binary pattern (MCLBP). Fourth, the feature fusion stage provides complementary and discriminative information by concatenating the two types of features. Finally, the rice image classification stage has been applied using a one-against-all support vector machine (SVM). The proposed system has been evaluated on three benchmark datasets with six classes: Blast (BL), Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB), Brown Spot (BS), Tungro (TU), Sheath Blight (SB), and Leaf Smut (LS) have been used. Rice Leaf Diseases First Dataset, Second Dataset, and Third Dataset achieved maximum accuracy of 99.53%, 99.4%, and 99.14%, respectively, with processing time from $$100(\pm 17)ms$$. Hence, the proposed system has achieved promising results compared to other state-of-the-art approaches.
The effect of an educational program on the knowledge and practices of diabetic patients regarding sharps waste disposal at home
Authors: Soliman Hossam Mohamed Hassan , El-Zoka Aleya Hanafy , Fetohy Ebtisam Mohamed , Hussein Mohamed Fakhry 
Published: December 2024

AbstractThe disposal of sharp waste generated at home by diabetic patients poses a major public health problem. This study evaluated an educational program designed to improve patients’ knowledge and practices around sharps disposal. A non-equivalent quasi-experimental study was performed at a main diabetic center in Egypt on 100 participants divided into intervention and non-intervention groups. The effect of the interventional program was tested by the evaluation of the improvement in participants’ knowledge and practice after two and four months of the program. Initially, there were no differences in knowledge or practice scores between the groups. After the implementation of the program, there was a noticeable difference in subjects’ knowledge levels and scores between the two groups, with the intervention group significantly outperforming the non-intervention group (p < 0.001). There was a significant improvement in overall practice scores in the intervention group across post-intervention visits, and they registered a score of 14/16, which matches a good practice level, while in the non-intervention group, the score remained unchanged at 4.4/16, which corresponds to a poor practice level (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that educational programs can effectively increase diabetic patients’ knowledge and improve their sharps waste disposal practices.Clinical trial registration number: PACTR202310841894237. Date: 05 October 2023, “retrospectively registered”.
Research on efficient numerical simulation method for integration fracking with production in shale oil reservoir with multi-source data
Authors: Zhan Jie , Ding Xifeng , Liu Hai , Wang Kongjie , Wang Zhipeng , Guo Wenting , Nie Ren-Shi , Ma Xianlin , Zhang Zhenzihao 
Published: December 2024

AbstractHorizontal well hydraulic fracturing technology has significantly enhanced the productivity of shale reservoirs. However, our understanding of the expansion patterns within the complex fracture network and fluid seepage mechanisms under field conditions remains inadequate. Here, this work develops a dynamic geomechanical (DG) model to simulate the complete sequence of operations in hydraulic fracturing. This study utilizes a construction procedure that closely mirrors field practices to establish the DG model. Furthermore, the numerical simulation results of the DG model are calibrated with field data. This work adopts a numerical simulation method that integrates unsteady seepage model for multi-stage fractured horizontal wells with the dilation-recompaction model to develop the DG model. It systematically constructs the geological model of the shale reservoir by utilizing segmented logging data and by segmenting production data. The time series evolution system is developed through an iterative process involving discrete time steps. Results show that the DG model can perform history matching on a multi-stage basis, enabling comprehensive and detailed analysis of the entire reservoir. This process effectively replicates the distribution relationship between each reconstruction zone and the overall productivity. Furthermore, the DG model is capable of accurately simulating the dynamic process of injected high-pressure fluids into the reservoir to fracture the rock and the dynamic evolution law of reservoir properties. Hydraulic fracturing creates a fracture zone that centers on the well’s border and spreads outward radially. The injection volume and failure pressure are significantly correlated with the scale of shale reservoir reconstruction. Following the injection of 790.5 m³ of fracturing fluid in the first stage, the fracture half-length can reach around 148 m, essentially fulfilling the design specifications. Permeability can reach up to 86 mD at this moment, and it can even be maintained at the level of 46 mD during production. In conclusion, the DG model broadens the focus of study on the development of shale reservoirs and lays the groundwork for improving productivity and optimizing hydraulic fracturing design.
Trends in use of antiseizure medication and treatment pattern during the first trimester in the German Embryotox cohort
Authors: Hoeltzenbein Maria , Slimi Sofia , Fietz Anne-Katrin , Dathe Katarina , Schaefer Christof 
Published: December 2024

Abstract
Because of their developmental toxicity, some antiseizure medication (ASM) should be avoided during pregnancy. This may lead to discontinuation or switching of ASM after recognition of pregnancy, but some of these changes may be suboptimal. Trends in ASM use at conception were analyzed in 3,763 pregnancies prospectively ascertained by a teratology information service in Germany between 2000 and 2018. Focusing on women with epilepsy (n = 2,395), changes of treatment pattern during the 1st trimester were evaluated. There was an increase in women using ASMs for non-epilepsy indications from 19% in 2000 to 39% in 2018. Although a shift from non-recommended teratogenic ASMs to recommended ASMs was observed, 13% of women were still receiving non-recommended ASMs in early pregnancy at the end of the study period. Among women with epilepsy, ASM regimen remained unchanged during the 1st trimester in 90%, 6% switched to other ASMs, and only 4% discontinued. Valproate, oxcarbazepine, and topiramate were more likely to be discontinued or switched than other ASMs. This first analysis of treatment pattern in ASM exposed pregnancies in Germany confirms the general trend towards less teratogenic and newer ASMs. However, it remains questionable whether women still using non-recommended ASMs are refractory to lower-risk ASMs or disregard treatment guidelines and risk minimization measures.
Migration routes and adult survival of the critically endangered yellow-breasted bunting Emberiza aureola
Authors: Heim Wieland , Anisimov Yury , Bastardot Marc , Davaasuren Batmunkh , Nakul Gleb , Anisimova Valentina , Batbayar Nyambayar , Beermann Ilka , Aung Thiri Dae We , Damrow Leo , Erdenechimeg Tuvshinjargal , Hahn Steffen , Heim Arend , Heim Ramona Julia , Hölzel Norbert , Kunz Friederike , Levashkin Aleksey , Sander Martha Maria , Sankamethawee Wangworn , Thomas Alexander , Kamp Johannes 
Published: December 2024

AbstractMigratory animals rely on multiple sites during their annual cycles. Deteriorating conditions at any site can have population-level consequences, with long-distance migrants seen as especially susceptible to such changes. Reduced adult survival caused by persecution at non-breeding sites has been suggested a major reason for the catastrophic decline of a formerly abundant, long-distance migratory songbird, the Yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola. However, it is unknown whether the ongoing extinction of this Eurasian species especially in the west of its range could be related to differences in survival or migration routes. We investigated survival rates of populations from both western and eastern parts of the breeding range and successfully tracked the migration of individuals from two eastern populations with light-level geolocators. We found moderate apparent local survival rates in eastern populations, but observed no returning birds in western populations. Our tracking data highlights (1) a joint migration corridor of eastern populations through eastern China, (2) long autumn stopovers likely used for moult and re-fuelling, and (3) very long occurrences at wintering sites. These areas should be given priority for future conservation measures. We call for an increased monitoring of adult survival and breeding output in multiple populations (including western ones) of this critically endangered species to determine (1) the causes for the observed differences in apparent local survival and (2) whether the current survival rates are sufficient to sustain viable breeding populations.
The RepVig framework for designing use-case specific representative vignettes and evaluating triage accuracy of laypeople and symptom assessment applications
Authors: Kopka Marvin , Napierala Hendrik , Privoznik Martin , Sapunova Desislava , Zhang Sizhuo , Feufel Markus A. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractMost studies evaluating symptom-assessment applications (SAAs) rely on a common set of case vignettes that are authored by clinicians and devoid of context, which may be representative of clinical settings but not of situations where patients use SAAs. Assuming the use case of self-triage, we used representative design principles to sample case vignettes from online platforms where patients describe their symptoms to obtain professional advice and compared triage performance of laypeople, SAAs (e.g., WebMD or NHS 111), and Large Language Models (LLMs, e.g., GPT-4 or Claude) on representative versus standard vignettes. We found performance differences in all three groups depending on vignette type: When using representative vignettes, accuracy was higher (OR = 1.52 to 2.00, p < .001 to .03 in binary decisions, i.e., correct or incorrect), safety was higher (OR = 1.81 to 3.41, p < .001 to .002 in binary decisions, i.e., safe or unsafe), and the inclination to overtriage was also higher (OR = 1.80 to 2.66, p < .001 to p = .035 in binary decisions, overtriage or undertriage error). Additionally, we found changed rankings of best-performing SAAs and LLMs. Based on these results, we argue that our representative vignette sampling approach (that we call the RepVig Framework) should replace the practice of using a fixed vignette set as standard for SAA evaluation studies.
Joint interpretation of magnetic, transient electromagnetic, and electric resistivity tomography data for landfill characterization and contamination detection
Authors: Ibraheem Ismael M. , Yogeshwar Pritam , Bergers Rainer , Tezkan Bülent 
Published: December 2024

AbstractGeophysical techniques have become increasingly crucial for characterizing landfills, offering noninvasive methods for subsurface exploration and contamination assessment. In this study, an integrated geophysical approach—utilizing magnetic, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and transient electromagnetic (TEM) surveys—was employed to characterize the Weidenpesch landfill in Cologne, Germany and assess potential groundwater contamination. The results from these methods were consistent, effectively delineating the landfill boundaries and identifying possible contamination. The waste body was distinguished by its relatively low resistivity values with an average value of 1–10 Ω·m in the western and central parts of the landfill and 20–50 Ω·m at its eastern part in contrast with the surrounding high-resistivity gravelly sand layer (several hundreds of Ω·m), and a depth of up to 15 m. The variability in conductivity and magnetic susceptibility across different landfill sections indicated the heterogeneity of buried materials. Additionally, the ERT and TEM data indicate low resistivity values (below 5 Ω·m) at depths of 20–25 m. A correlation with the borehole data suggests that this may represent a contaminated coal/clay layer. Furthermore, repeated TEM measurements revealed significant variation in subsurface conductivity over time, highlighting the need for continuous monitoring. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of an integrated geophysical approach for providing a comprehensive understanding of subsurface landfill conditions, which is essential for informed environmental management and remediation.
Mutational disparities in colorectal cancers of White Americans, Alabama African Americans, And Oklahoma American Indians
Authors: Yamada Hiroshi Y. , Rout Madhusmita , Xu Chao , O’Neill Philip H. , Afaq Farrukh , Morris Katherine T. , Sanghera Dharambir K. , Manne Upender , Rao Chinthalapally V. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractThe high incidence and mortality rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) in Alabama African Americans (AAs) and Oklahoma American Indians (AIs) are recognized as cancer disparities, yet the underlying causes have been poorly demonstrated. By evaluating CRC whole-exome sequencing and mutational profiles, here we report sets of mutated genes whose frequencies differed significantly (p < 0.05) in a race-specific manner. Secondary screening with cancer database identified “survival-critical genes (SCGs)” (i.e., genes whose mutations/alterations are associated with significant differences in the patients’ survival rates) among the differentially mutated genes. Notable SCGs with race-pronounced variants were different from DEGs and their involved pathways included nucleotide catabolism and cell cycle checkpoints for AAs, and extracellular matrix organization for AIs. The inclusion of these SCGs with race-pronounced variants in the clinical CRC next-generation sequencing panels and the development of targeting drugs will serve as refinements for precision medicine to overcome racial disparities in health outcomes of CRC.
A Novel method for quantifying fluctuations in wearable derived daily cardiovascular parameters across the menstrual cycle
Authors: Jasinski Summer R. , Presby David M. , Grosicki Gregory J. , Capodilupo Emily R. , Lee Victoria H. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractCurrently, knowledge of changes in cardiovascular function across the menstrual cycle and how these changes may inform upon underlying health is limited. Utilizing wrist-worn biometric data we developed a novel measure to quantify and investigate the cardiovascular fluctuation (i.e. cardiovascular amplitude) within resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate variability (RMSSD) across 11,590 participants and 45,811 menstrual cycles. Within participants, RHR and RMSSD fluctuated in a regular pattern throughout the menstrual cycle, with population RHRmin and RMSSDmax at cycle day 5, RHRmax at day 26, and RMSSDmin at day 27. Cardiovascular amplitude was attenuated (p < 0.05) in older participants and participants using birth control, suggesting the novel metric may mirror differences in hormonal fluctuations in these cohorts. Longitudinal tracking of cardiovascular amplitude may offer accessible non-invasive monitoring of female physiology and underlying health across the menstrual cycle.
Outliers rejection for robust camera pose estimation using graduated non‐convexity
Authors: Yi Hao , Liu Bo , Zhao Bin , Liu Enhai 
Published: December 2024

AbstractCamera pose estimation plays a crucial role in computer vision, which is widely used in augmented reality, robotics and autonomous driving. However, previous studies have neglected the presence of outliers in measurements, so that even a small percentage of outliers will significantly degrade precision. In order to deal with outliers, this paper proposes using a graduated non‐convexity (GNC) method to suppress outliers in robust camera pose estimation, which serves as the core of GNCPnP. The authors first reformulate the camera pose estimation problem using a non‐convex cost, which is less affected by outliers. Then, to apply a non‐minimum solver to solve the reformulated problem, the authors use the Black‐Rangarajan duality theory to transform it. Finally, to address the dependence of non‐convex optimisation on initial values, the GNC method was customised according to the truncated least squares cost. The results of simulation and real experiments show that GNCPnP can effectively handle the interference of outliers and achieve higher accuracy compared to existing state‐of‐the‐art algorithms. In particular, the camera pose estimation accuracy of GNCPnP in the case of a low percentage of outliers is almost comparable to that of the state‐of‐the‐art algorithm in the case of no outliers.
Beam downtilt reconfigurable linear antenna array for 5G/6G macro base stations
Authors: Chen Li , Liu Weiyang , Lin Huawei , Zhao Yue , Ge Lei 
Published: December 2024

AbstractIn this letter, a beam downtilt reconfigurable linear antenna array is presented for the demand of the electrical downtilt of 5G/6G macro base station antennas. The antenna is capable of fine‐angle beam direction reconfiguration, allowing for improved adaptability in various environmental conditions. A hierarchical network design is employed, which incorporates essential elements such as phase shifter modules, power dividers, and couplers. These fundamental components are used to construct a five‐element reconfigurable feeding network for the antenna array. The designed network ensures stable phase shifts and excellent impedance matching performance. By integrating the feeding network with the antenna elements, the system achieves electronic beam tilt adjustment across four states, enabling the linear array to tilt downward within a range of 6–12° around 3.5 GHz. This design provides enhanced beam control, making it suitable for next‐generation macro base station applications in 5G and 6G networks.
High‐speed serializer timing‐error detection circuit with enhanced verification reliability through floating state prevention
Authors: Lee Jongchan , Chae Joo‐Hyung 
Published: December 2024

AbstractThis article presents a serializer (SER) timing‐error detection circuit that enhances the verification reliability of high‐speed wireline interfaces. A timing mismatch in the SER leads to bit errors during data transmission. To detect the timing error, the proposed design employs a set‐reset latch to self‐latch the detection result, improving the error detection accuracy, unlike the previously reported timing‐error detection design using a D flip‐flop. The prototype transmitter chip, fabricated using a 28‐nm CMOS process, was validated for accurate error detection across wide data rates ranging from 1.25 to 13 Gb/s, ensuring reliable high‐speed operation while efficiently handling timing mismatches across multiple SER stages.