bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Oxidative derivatization of V‐type nerve agents as a tool for their structural elucidation by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
Authors: Shamai Yamin Tamar , Madmon Moran , Prihed Hagit , Blanca Merav , Weissberg Avi 
Published: November 2021

RationaleThe identification of V‐type nerve agents poses an analytical challenge. Their spectra obtained by electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI‐MS) and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS/MS) are dominated by ions originating from the N,N‐dialkylaminoethyl moiety, while ions representative of the alkyl phosphonothiolate part are absent from the spectra or present at negligible abundance. Hence, analogs or isomers with the same amine residue exhibit similar mass spectral patterns, leading to unavoidable ambiguity in their identification.MethodsChemical derivatization was utilized for the structural elucidation of a series of five V‐type nerve agents, including O‐ethyl S‐(2‐diisopropylamino)ethyl methylalkyl phosphonothiolate (VX), O‐isobutyl S‐(2‐diethylamino)ethyl methylalkyl phosphonothiolate (RVX) and O‐ethyl S‐(2‐diethylamino)ethyl methylalkyl phosphonothiolate (VM). The procedure consisted of “in‐vial” oxidation of the tertiary amine group with 3‐chloroperbenzoic acid (m‐CPBA) at ambient temperature followed by liquid chromatography (LC)/Orbitrap‐ESI‐MS/MS analysis with no other sample preparation.ResultsThe generated N‐oxide of the V‐type nerve agents altered the charge distribution occurring during fragmentation and produced informative ESI‐MS/MS spectra characteristic of the alkyl phosphonothiolate structure, enabling a higher degree of certainty in their identification. Moreover, two VX isomers possessing an identical tertiary amine moiety that coeluted at practically the same retention time and displayed high mass spectral similarity were easily differentiated, and their structures elucidated once derivatized.ConclusionsIn contrast to the ESI‐MS/MS spectra of the V‐type nerve agents, which exhibited mostly/only information on the amine‐containing residue, the ESI‐MS/MS spectra of the V‐type nerve agent N‐oxides revealed ions indicative of both the alkyl phosphonothiolate and the amine parts, enabling their reliable structural elucidation.
Lightweight, Thermally Conductive Liquid Metal Elastomer Composite with Independently Controllable Thermal Conductivity and Density
Authors: Krings Ethan J. , Zhang Haipeng , Sarin Suchit , Shield Jeffery E. , Ryu Sangjin , Markvicka Eric J. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractLightweight and elastically deformable soft materials that are thermally conductive are critical for emerging applications in wearable computing, soft robotics, and thermoregulatory garments. To overcome the fundamental heat transport limitations in soft materials, room temperature liquid metal (LM) has been dispersed in elastomer that results in soft and deformable materials with unprecedented thermal conductivity. However, the high density of LMs (>6 g cm−3) and the typically high loading (⩾85 wt%) required to achieve the desired properties contribute to the high density of these elastomer composites, which can be problematic for large‐area, weight‐sensitive applications. Here, the relationship between the properties of the LM filler and elastomer composite is systematically studied. Experiments reveal that a multiphase LM inclusion with a low‐density phase can achieve independent control of the density and thermal conductivity of the elastomer composite. Quantitative design maps of composite density and thermal conductivity are constructed to rationally guide the selection of filler properties and material composition. This new multiphase material architecture provides a method to fine‐tune material composition to independently control material and functional properties of soft materials for large‐area and weight‐sensitive applications.
English Medium Instruction, English‐Enhanced Instruction, or English without Instruction: The Affordances and Constraints of Linguistically Responsive Practices in the Higher Education Classroom
Authors: Chang Sin‐Yi 
Published: November 2021

AbstractThe promotion of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has been a widely adopted institutional response to the forces of globalization in the 21st century. However, while EMI has received much enthusiasm in policy discourse, little research has been conducted to explore whether it effectively addresses the new demands of an increasingly multilingual student body. To fill this gap, in this study I draw on extensive literature on linguistically responsive instruction (LRI) to examine: 1) the practices that are linguistically responsive in higher education EMI classrooms, and 2) the affordances and constraints of such practices. The data for this study – taken from a larger research project that looked into different instructional outcomes of EMI – show that approaches to LRI were manifested in three main ways: technical, facilitative, and sociocultural. To illustrate what these labels mean, a close‐up look into three classroom profiles and interviews conducted with the lecturers of each of these classes are provided. Importantly, the multiple approaches to LRI pointed toward a common concern that centered on students’ English proficiency. While LRI may have helped resolve immediate comprehension issues and low participation in classroom interactions, the increased attention to language in content courses posed a potential threat to the teaching of the subject discipline. This study, therefore, argues that aside from equipping individual lecturers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be linguistically responsive, introducing wider structural changes is also necessary so that different student needs (e.g., linguistic, cultural, academic) can be more sustainably supported.
Women’s Agency in a World of Flux: On Silesian Energy Transition
Authors: Iwińska Katarzyna , Bukowska Xymena 
Published: November 2021

AbstractThe chapter introduces a gender and energy nexus and presents an Upper Silesia case study of the energy transition as viewed locally. The main aim of this text is to explain some of the historical and industrial contexts of the “black gold” region when seen through a gender and ecofeminist lens. We present the recent processes of deindustrialization and decarbonization in Upper Silesia and show how these changes affect people living in an intensive flux. We emphasize the need to overcome the gender inequality in energy transition and to study the situation of women in the region. This chapter also presents some theoretical inspirations which link subsequent chapters—particularly modernization, feminism, and subjectivity/agency. We illustrate here the mosaic image of how women’s and cultural studies are intertwined with environmental and energy issues within shifting structural and economic contexts.
Mouse models of aneuploidy to understand chromosome disorders
Authors: Tosh Justin , Tybulewicz Victor , Fisher Elizabeth M. C. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractAn organism or cell carrying a number of chromosomes that is not a multiple of the haploid count is in a state of aneuploidy. This condition results in significant changes in the level of expression of genes that are gained or lost from the aneuploid chromosome(s) and most cases in humans are not compatible with life. However, a few aneuploidies can lead to live births, typically associated with deleterious phenotypes. We do not understand why phenotypes arise from aneuploid syndromes in humans. Animal models have the potential to provide great insight, but less than a handful of mouse models of aneuploidy have been made, and no ideal system exists in which to study the effects of aneuploidy per se versus those of raised gene dosage. Here, we give an overview of human aneuploid syndromes, the effects on physiology of having an altered number of chromosomes and we present the currently available mouse models of aneuploidy, focusing on models of trisomy 21 (which causes Down syndrome) because this is the most common, and therefore, the most studied autosomal aneuploidy. Finally, we discuss the potential role of carrying an extra chromosome on aneuploid phenotypes, independent of changes in gene dosage, and methods by which this could be investigated further.
A pilot randomized controlled trial comparing THUNDERBEAT to the Maryland LigaSure energy device in laparoscopic left colon surgery
Authors: Milsom Jeffrey W. , Trencheva Koianka , Momose Kota , Peev Miroslav P. , Christos Paul , Shukla Parul J. , Garrett Kelly 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Background
The THUNDERBEAT is a multi-functional energy device which delivers both ultrasonic and bipolar energy, but there are no randomized trials which can provide more rigorous evaluation of the clinical performance of THUNDERBEAT compared to other energy-based devices in colorectal surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical performance of THUNDERBEAT energy device to Maryland LigaSure in patients undergoing left laparoscopic colectomy.

Methods
Prospective randomized trial with two groups: Group 1 THUNDERBEAT and Group 2 LigaSure in a single university hospital. 60 Subjects, male and female, of age 18 years and above undergoing left colectomy for cancer or diverticulitis were included. The primary outcome was dissection time to specimen removal (DTSR) measured in minutes from the start of colon mobilization to specimen removal from the abdominal cavity. Versatility (composite of five variables) was measured by a score system from 1 to 5 (1 being worst and 5 the best), and adjusted/weighted by coefficient of importance with distribution of the importance as follow: hemostasis 0.275, sealing 0.275, cutting 0.2, dissection 0.15, and tissue manipulation 0.1. Other variables were: dryness of surgical field, intraoperative and postoperative complications, and mortality. Follow-up time was 30 days.

Results
60 Patients completed surgery, 31 in Group 1 and 29 in Group 2. There was no difference in the DTSR between the groups, 91 min vs. 77 min (p = 0.214). THUNDERBEAT showed significantly higher score in dissecting and tissue manipulation in segment 3 (omental dissection), and in overall versatility score (p = 0.007) as well as versatility score in Segment 2 (retroperitoneal dissection p = 0.040) and Segment 3 (p = 0.040). No other differences were noted between the groups.

Conclusions
Both energy devices can be employed effectively and safely in dividing soft tissue and sealing mesenteric blood vessels during laparoscopic left colon surgery, with THUNDERBEAT demonstrating some advantages over LigaSure during omental dissection and tissue manipulation.
ClinicalTrial.gov # NCT02628093.
Updated GNSS velocity solution in the Nordic and Baltic countries with a semi-automatic offset detection method
Authors: Lahtinen Sonja , Jivall Lotti , Häkli Pasi , Nordman Maaria 
Published: November 2021

AbstractIn Fennoscandia, the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) causes intraplate deformations that affect the national static reference frames. The GNSS-determined velocities are important data for constraining the GIA models, which are necessary for maintaining the national reference frames. The Nordic Geodetic Commission (NKG) has published a dense and consistent GNSS station velocity solution in 2019, and we present now an update of the solution covering additional 3.5 years of data. Undetected positional offsets are the main factor decreasing the accuracy of the velocity estimates. We developed a method for the semi-automatic offset detection to improve the quality of our solution. The results show that we could correctly detect 74% of the manually determined offsets, and the undetected offsets would have caused a median 0.1 mm/y bias in trend. The method pointed out some otherwise unnoticed offsets and will decrease the need for manual analysis in the future. The updated velocity solution especially improves the velocity estimates of the newly established stations and the quality of the velocity estimates in Baltic countries. The formal uncertainties estimated using the power-law plus white noise model were at a median of 0.06 and 0.15 mm/y for horizontal and vertical velocities, respectively. However, we concluded that the systematic velocity uncertainties due to the reference frame alignment were approximately at the same level.
Diversity, dependence and independence
Authors: Galliani Pietro , Väänänen Jouko 
Published: November 2021

AbstractWe propose a very general, unifying framework for the concepts of dependence and independence. For this purpose, we introduce the notion of diversity rank. By means of this diversity rank we identify total determination with the inability to create more diversity, and independence with the presence of maximum diversity. We show that our theory of dependence and independence covers a variety of dependence concepts, for example the seemingly unrelated concepts of linear dependence in algebra and dependence of variables in logic.
Ecological stoichiometry as a foundation for omics-enabled biogeochemical models of soil organic matter decomposition
Authors: Graham Emily B. , Hofmockel Kirsten S. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractCoupled biogeochemical cycles drive ecosystem ecology by influencing individual-to-community scale behaviors; yet the development of process-based models that accurately capture these dynamics remains elusive. Soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition in particular is influenced by resource stoichiometry that dictates microbial nutrient acquisition (‘ecological stoichiometry’). Despite its basis in biogeochemical modeling, ecological stoichiometry is only implicitly considered in high-resolution microbial investigations and the metabolic models they inform. State-of-science SOM decomposition models in both fields have advanced largely separately, but they agree on a need to move beyond seminal pool-based models. This presents an opportunity and a challenge to maximize the strengths of various models across different scales and environmental contexts. To address this challenge, we contend that ecological stoichiometry provides a framework for merging biogeochemical and microbiological models, as both explicitly consider substrate chemistries that are the basis of ecological stoichiometry as applied to SOM decomposition. We highlight two gaps that limit our understanding of SOM decomposition: (1) understanding how individual microorganisms alter metabolic strategies in response to substrate stoichiometry and (2) translating this knowledge to the scale of biogeochemical models. We suggest iterative information exchange to refine the objectives of high-resolution investigations and to specify limited dynamics for representation in large-scale models, resulting in a new class of omics-enabled biogeochemical models. Assimilating theoretical and modelling frameworks from different scientific domains is the next frontier in SOM decomposition modelling; advancing technologies in the context of stoichiometric theory provides a consistent framework for interpreting molecular data, and further distilling this information into tractable SOM decomposition models.
Bringing physical reasoning into statistical practice in climate-change science
Authors: Shepherd Theodore G. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractThe treatment of uncertainty in climate-change science is dominated by the far-reaching influence of the ‘frequentist’ tradition in statistics, which interprets uncertainty in terms of sampling statistics and emphasizesp-values and statistical significance. This is the normative standard in the journals where most climate-change science is published. Yet a sampling distribution is not always meaningful (there is only one planet Earth). Moreover, scientific statements about climate change are hypotheses, and the frequentist tradition has no way of expressing the uncertainty of a hypothesis. As a result, in climate-change science, there is generally a disconnect between physical reasoning and statistical practice. This paper explores how the frequentist statistical methods used in climate-change science can be embedded within the more general framework of probability theory, which is based on very simple logical principles. In this way, the physical reasoning represented in scientific hypotheses, which underpins climate-change science, can be brought into statistical practice in a transparent and logically rigorous way. The principles are illustrated through three examples of controversial scientific topics: the alleged global warming hiatus, Arctic-midlatitude linkages, and extreme event attribution. These examples show how the principles can be applied, in order to develop better scientific practice.“La théorie des probabilités n’est que le bon sens reduit au calcul.” (Pierre-Simon Laplace,Essai Philosophiques sur les Probabilités, 1819).“It is sometimes considered a paradox that the answer depends not only on the observations but on the question; it should be a platitude.” (Harold Jeffreys,Theory of Probability, 1st edition, 1939).
A phase I study of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor anlotinib combined with platinum/pemetrexed-based chemotherapy in untreated nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer
Authors: Huang Meijuan , Liu Yongmei , Yu Min , Li Yanying , Zhang Yan , Zhu Jiang , Li Li , Lu You 
Published: November 2021

SummaryBackground. Anlotinib hydrochloride is an oral small molecule inhibitor of multiple tyrosine kinases, and it has been approved as a third-line therapy for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in China. This dose-exploration study was designed to investigate the feasibility of anlotinib in combination with other chemotherapy regimens in patients with nonsquamous NSCLC. Methods. This phase I study followed a 3 + 3 dose reduction design with three doses of anlotinib (12 mg, 10 mg, and 8 mg). Anlotinib was given at an initial dose of 12 mg with pemetrexed (500 mg/m2) plus cisplatin (75 mg/m2) or carboplatin (AUC = 5) on 21-day cycles for 4 cycles. The primary goal of the study was to identify the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), and secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results. A total of eight participants were enrolled. Dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) were observed in two patients (pts) at anlotinib 12 mg (grade 3 hand-foot syndrome and grade 3 appetite loss). No DLTs occurred with 10 mg anlotinib, and the MTD was 10 mg. Among seven evaluable pts, four achieved a confirmed partial response (PR), and three had stable disease (SD). With a median follow-up of 10.05 months, the median PFS was 7.00 months (95% CI: 2.76 to NE). Grade 3 treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) included appetite loss (n = 2), hypertension (n = 2), thrombocytopenia (n = 1), diarrhea (n = 1) and hand-foot syndrome (n = 1). No grade 4 or grade 5 TRAEs were observed during the treatment. Conclusion. The feasible dose of anlotinib in combination with platinum/pemetrexed-based chemotherapy as a first-line regimen was 10 mg, which was well tolerated and showed promising antitumor activity in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC.
Education, taxation and the perceived effects of sin good consumption
Authors: Immordino Giovanni , Menichini Anna Maria C. , Romano Maria Grazia 
Published: November 2021

AbstractIn a setting in which an agent has a behavioral bias that causes an underestimation or an overestimation of the health consequences of sin goods consumption, the paper studies how a social planner can affect the demand of such goods through education and taxation. When only optimistic consumers are present, depending on the elasticity of demand of the sin good with respect to taxation, the two instruments can be substitutes or complements. When consumers are heterogeneous, the correcting effect that taxation has on optimistic consumers has unintended distorting effects on both pessimistic and rational ones. In this framework, educational measures, by aligning biased consumers’ perceptions closer to the true probability of health damages, are more effective than taxation.
Asymptotic Dynamics of Young Differential Equations
Authors: Duc Luu Hoang , Hong Phan Thanh 
Published: November 2021

AbstractWe provide a unified analytic approach to study the asymptotic dynamics of Young differential equations, using the framework of random dynamical systems and random attractors. Our method helps to generalize recent results (Duc et al. in J Differ Equ 264:1119–1145, 2018, SIAM J Control Optim 57(4):3046–3071, 2019; Garrido-Atienza et al. in Int J Bifurc Chaos 20(9):2761–2782, 2010) on the existence of the global pullback attractors for the generated random dynamical systems. We also prove sufficient conditions for the attractor to be a singleton, thus the pathwise convergence is in both pullback and forward senses.
Bias and Modality in Conditionals: Experimental Evidence and Theoretical Implications
Authors: Liu Mingya , Rotter Stephanie , Giannakidou Anastasia 
Published: November 2021

AbstractThe concept of bias is familiar to linguists primarily from the literature on questions. Following the work of Giannakidou and Mari (Truth and Veridicality in Grammar and Thought: Modality, Mood, and Propositional Attitudes, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2021), we assume “nonveridical equilibrium” (implying thatpand¬pas equal possibilities) to be the default for epistemic modals, questions and conditionals. The equilibrium of conditionals, as that of questions, can be manipulated to produce bias (i.e., reduced or higherspeaker commitment). In this paper, we focus on three kinds of modal elements in German that create bias in conditionals and questions: the adverbwirklich‘really’, the modal verbsollte‘should’, and conditional connectives such asfalls‘if/in case’. We conducted two experiments collecting participants’ inference about speaker commitment in different manipulations, Experiment 1 onsollte/wirklichinob-questions andwenn-conditionals, and Experiment 2 onsollte/wirklichinwenn/falls/V1-conditionals. Our findings are that bothob-questions andfalls-conditionals express reduced speaker commitment about the modified (antecedent) proposition in comparison towenn-conditionals, which did not differ from V1-conditionals. In addition,sollte/wirklichin the antecedent of conditionals both create negative bias about the antecedent proposition. Our studies are among the first that deal with bias in conditionals (in comparison to questions) and contribute to furthering our understanding of bias.