bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Anterior Spinal Growth Tethering for Skeletally Immature Patients with Scoliosis
Authors: Newton Peter O. , Kluck Dylan G. , Saito Wataru , Yaszay Burt , Bartley Carrie E. , Bastrom Tracey P. 
Published: October 2018

Background:
Anterior spinal growth tethering (ASGT) has been shown to alter spinal growth with the potential to correct scoliosis while maintaining spine flexibility. The purpose of this study was to report the 2 to 4-year outcomes of ASGT in skeletally immature patients with thoracic scoliosis.

Methods:
We conducted a retrospective review of patients with thoracic scoliosis who underwent ASGT with a minimum of 2 years of follow-up. Patient demographics, perioperative data, and radiographic outcomes are reported. A “successful” clinical outcome was defined as a residual curve of <35° and no posterior spinal fusion indicated or performed at latest follow-up.

Results:
Seventeen patients met the inclusion criteria. The etiology was idiopathic for 14 and syndromic for 3. The mean follow-up was 2.5 years (range, 2 to 4 years). Preoperatively, all patients were at Risser stage 0, with a mean age at surgery of 11 ± 2 years (range, 9 to 14 years). There was an average of 6.8 ± 0.5 vertebrae tethered per patient. The average thoracic curve magnitude was 52° ± 10° (range, 40° to 67°) preoperatively, 31° ± 10° immediately postoperatively, 24° ± 17° at 18 months postoperatively, and 27° ± 20° at latest follow-up (51% correction; range, 5% to 118%). Revision surgery was performed in 7 patients: 4 tether removals due to complete correction or overcorrection, 1 lumbar tether added, 1 tether replaced due to breakage, and 1 revised to a posterior spinal fusion. In 3 additional patients, posterior spinal fusion was indicated due to progression. Eight (47%) of the patients had a suspected broken tether. Ten (59%) of the 17 were considered clinically successful.

Conclusions:
Despite most patients having some remaining skeletal growth at the time of review, the results of the current study demonstrate that at mid-term follow-up, ASGT showed a powerful, but variable, ability to modulate spinal growth and did so with little perioperative and early postoperative risk. Fusion was avoided for 13 of the 17 patients. The overall success rate was 59%, with a 41% revision rate. Understanding the parameters leading to success or failure will be critical in advancing a reliable definitive nonfusion treatment for progressive scoliosis in the future.

Level of Evidence:
Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Regularities of the Development of Coastal Processes on Water Reservoirs of Hydroelectric Power Plants of Belarus
Authors: Levkevich V. E. 
Published: October 2018

. According to field observations, currently in the Republic there is an active destruction of the bedrock costs and slopes of more than 80 % of water bodies. The total length of the coasts of reservoirs that are subjected to processing is about 350 km with a maximum regression of more than 40 m. The reasons of activation of process of processing of the coast caused by construction of new reservoirs of power engineering purpose are considered. The length of the coasts of the new reservoirs exposed to abrasion processing will increase in the near future by more than 30 km, which will have some impact on the surrounding areas and objects of the regional economy. As for the channel-type reservoirs, processing of the cost is being expanded only in the near-dam part of the reservoir and reaches 40 % of the coastline. At the same time, the value of this indicator might be up to 70 % of the length of the coasts of the lake-type reservoirs. Having taken this problem into account, it became necessary to generalize the corresponding accumulated factual data and the results of scientific research. Therefore, the results of theoretical studies of the process of processing of coastal slopes of reservoirs of hydroelectric power plants of Belarus presented by the author, along with the updated data, are of practical importance for decision-making in the regulation of engineering activities for coastal protection. The article presents the theoretical issues of the development of abrasion processes in the banks of reservoirs of hydroelectric power plants in Belarus, based on the data of field observations and laboratory studies. On the basis of the law of conservation of mass and taking into account hydrological features of reservoirs, geological structure of relief and granulometric composition of soils forming the bank, balance mathematical models of development of the equilibrium coastline and the profile of the dynamic equilibrium of the banks that are subjected to processing are developed, criteria for the stability of slopes have been obtained.
Return on Investment from Biochar Application
Authors: Sorensen Ronald B. , Lamb Marshall C. 
Published: October 2018

Core Ideas
Biochar application costs range between $2900 and $17,900/ac depending on spreader volume and total mass biochar applied.
Return on investment ranges from $427 to $2590/ac/year for 10 years.
Cost of sequestered CO2 is $18 to $33/ton CO2/year for 10 years depending on efficiency.
Cost effective application of biochar is to pay by mass using the largest spreader available.
Current literature has yet to fully address the cost of biochar application or the return on investment to the grower. The objectives were to identify possible on‐farm spinner spreader equipment, spreader capacity, application expenses, and rate of return needed for growers to broadcast biochar economically. Biochar from red oak (Quercus rubra) processed using fast pyrolysis with a density of 36.5 lb/ft was used in all scenarios. Spinner spreader volumes ranged from 50 to 255 ft3 and a manure spreader with a volume of 720 ft3. Crop response to increased biochar was not consistent, either positive or negative, thus, the return on investment may only be dependent on government, private, or commercial incentives. Possible application cost techniques investigated were by density ($/ft3), by the load ($/load), or by mass ($/ton). The actual cost to purchase and transport biochar to the field location was $290/ton. The estimated total number of loads required to apply biochar ranged from 1 to 66 loads depending on spreader volume and biochar rate. Application expenses ranged from $2900 to $17,926/ac. The most economical and efficient application technique would be to pay by “mass” using the largest volume spreader. Across all spreader volumes and biochar rates, the required payments to achieve a 7% return on investment ranged from $427 to $2589/ac/year for 10 year. This equates to $18 to $33/ton/ac/year of sequestered CO2 over 10 year at 80 and 60% carbon to CO2 efficiency, respectively.
Streaming Potential Coupling Coefficient and Transport Properties of Unsaturated Carbonate Rocks
Authors: Cherubini A. , Garcia B. , Cerepi A. , Revil A. 
Published: October 2018

Core Ideas
Streaming potential coupling coefficient is dependent on saturation in carbonate rocks.
Salinity influences the streaming potential coupling coefficient.
Water relative permeability can be estimated from streaming potential measurements.
Transport properties of carbonate rocks can be modeled using the van Genuchten approach.
We measured the streaming potential coupling coefficient of natural saturated and unsaturated carbonate rocks. Saturation was achieved with NaCl brines with salinities ranging from 2 × 10−3 to 2.0 mol L−1. The magnitude of the coupling coefficient increased with decreasing salinity, similarly to the trend observed for sandstones. The permeability had a low impact on the values of the streaming potential coupling coefficient at high and low salinity. The zeta potential was calculated at full saturation using a modified version of the Helmholtz–Smoluchowski equation that accounts for surface electrical conductivity. Under atmospheric conditions, the magnitude of the zeta potential decreased with the increase in salinity. We also explored the relationships between the streaming potential coupling coefficient and water saturation in three partially saturated limestones using a steady‐state flow experiment. We found good agreement between the van Genuchten approach and experimental data, and fitted both the relative permeability and capillary pressure curves with the same value of the van Genuchten exponent mv. We validated the predictive water relative permeability model described by Revil in water‐wet rocks when the second fluid phase is non‐polar.
Simulating Surface and Subsurface Water Balance Changes Due to Burn Severity
Authors: Atchley Adam L. , Kinoshita Alicia M. , Lopez Sonya R. , Trader Laura , Middleton Richard 
Published: October 2018

Core Ideas
Burn severity data informed a hydrologic model to assess water balance changes.
Loss of vegetation and evapotranspiration exceeded impact of increased runoff.
High burn severity may cause drier site conditions due to increased runoff.
Change in evapotranspiration acts at long timescales while runoff is event based.
Forest fires have a significant impact on hydrology, such as reduced infiltration rates leading to increased flooding. However, post‐fire water balance changes and the competing hydrologic response of increased runoff and evapotranspiration as a function of burn severity are not well understood. Comparing pre‐ and post‐fire water balance changes is challenging because measurements of fire‐disturbed landscapes with the previously undisturbed character are impractical due to non‐repetitive observational conditions. We used a physically based modeling experiment to incorporate burn severity data from the Las Conchas fire to approximate model parameterization to evaluate continuous water balance progression for pre‐ and post‐fire simulations using the same forcing conditions. Fire disturbance decreased evapotranspiration and increased overland flow response to precipitation events. The reduction of evapotranspiration often dominated the new water balance compared with the increase in overland flow, resulting in higher soil moisture. However, this modeling experiment also identified a tipping point where increased overland flow from high burn severity sites eclipses the effect of reduced evapotranspiration on the water balance, causing comparatively drier post‐fire soils. In particular, high burn severity sites approach a threshold that results in larger changes to overland flow than changes in evapotranspiration, potentially moving the site to an overland flow dominated regime. The shifts in water balance components have implications for how site conditions will change under a range of burn severity scenarios.
Detecting trends in freshwater trace element concentrations: methodological issues and data treatment
Authors: Rodríguez-Murillo Juan Carlos , Nirel Pascale , Filella Montserrat 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
Despite the fact that the increased use of elements linked to the Anthropocene is frequently assumed to lead to an increase in the concentrations of the elements in surface waters, temporal trends of trace element (TE) concentrations have rarely been checked. A temporally extended, traceable dataset of TE concentrations in the waters of Lake Geneva, Switzerland (1996–2015) has been used here to explore methodological and data treatment issues that arise when attempting to rigorously determine temporal trends in freshwater TE concentrations. The trace elements studied (Cd, Co, Gd, Mo, Pb, Sb, Sr) have been chosen to cover a wide range of chemical and utilisation conditions. We show that detecting temporal trends from monitoring program data is feasible, even when trends are weak, provided that rigorous data treatment methods are applied. Aspects related to the effect of data quality are discussed in detail. However, ascertaining the statistical significance of any trends calculated remains a difficult issue. With the exception of Co and Sr, that show no significant changes, and Pb, that shows a general decrease, concentrations in lake waters of the trace elements considered have increased significantly, particularly between 2006 and 2015.
Prediction of erosional rates for cohesive sediments in annular flume experiments using artificial neural networks
Authors: Skulovich Olya , Ganal Caroline , Nüßer Leonie K. , Cofalla Catrina , Schuettrumpf Holger , Hollert Henner , Seiler Thomas-Benjamin , Ostfeld Avi 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
Artificial neural network is used to predict development of suspended sediment concentration in annular flume experiments on cohesive sediment erosion. Natural sediment for the experiments was taken from the River Rhine and subjected to a consecutive increase in the bed shear stress. The development of the suspended particulate matter (SPM) was measured and then utilized for artificial neural network training, validation, and testing, including independent testing on new data sets. Several network configurations were examined, in particular, with and without autoregressive input. Additionally, relative importance of auxiliary physical-chemical parameters was analyzed. Artificial neural network with autoregressive input showed very high precision in the SPM prediction for all independent test cases achieving average mean squared error 0.034 and regression value 0.998. It was found that for an abundant training sample, the SPM parameter itself is enough to obtain high quality prediction. At the same time, physical-chemical parameters may provide some improvement to the artificial neural network prediction in cases that comprise values unprecedented in the training sample.
Clean-development-mechanism-based optimal hydropower capacity design
Authors: Hatamkhani Amir , Alizadeh Hosein 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
This paper deals with optimal design of a hydropower project's capacity when an analyst may take into account different economic analysis approaches and considerations including market price method, alternative thermal power plant method, externalities and clean development mechanism (CDM). We formulate the problem using mixed-integer nonlinear programming including an economic objective function and governing hydropower constraints. Due to non-convexity of the program, we employ an effective simulation-optimization approach coupling particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software which we customize for hydropower simulation using scripting capabilities of the software. The developed modelling framework is applied to the Karun II hydropower project in Iran, where we aim CDM-based optimal design of the project and also compare two economic hydropower analysis methods, i.e. market price and alternative thermal plant. Results show how inclusion of externality and CDM can affect the project's design and measures.
Geospatial hazard modeling for the delineation of flash flood-prone zones in Wadi Dahab basin, Egypt
Authors: Abuzied Sara M. , Mansour Basma M. H. 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
This study delineated flash flood hazard zones leading to vast destruction to infrastructure, property, and loss of life. An integrated approach using remote sensing and geographic information systems was applied to reveal flash flood-prone zones. The study approach evaluated topographic, geologic, and hydrologic factors holistically to assess these hazard zones. The morphometric characteristics of Wadi Dahab sub-basins were supported by topographic, geologic, and hydrologic information. Data from Shuttle Radar Terrain Mission and Operational Land Imager imagery were analyzed to characterize hydrological morphometrics, lithology, soil types, and land use. A Natural Resources Conservation Service model was selected to calculate runoff depth at ungauged watersheds. A spatially distributed unit hydrograph was adopted to create the flow time and runoff velocity. The Flashflood Hazard Model was developed by spatial integration of all contributing factors. An analytical hierarchy process was adopted for the logic ranking of the effective factors. The flash flood hazard map classifies Wadi Dahab basin into five relative hazard zones: very high, high, moderate, low, and very low. The highly hazardous zones are distributed at the downstream of Wadi Dahab basin corresponding to steep topography and Precambrian rocks. The hazard map was validated using the flash flood markers defined from field observations.
Analyzing multi-variate water quality signals for water quality monitoring station placement in water distribution systems
Authors: Sankary Nathan , Ostfeld Avi 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
Placing fixed water quality monitoring stations in a water distribution system can greatly improve the security of the system via prompt detection of poor water quality. In the event that a harmful substance is injected into a water distribution system, large populations can be put at risk of exposure to the contaminant. Promptly detecting the presence of a contaminant will reduce the number of people put at risk of exposure. However, to protect against a wide variety of possible contaminants, a water quality monitoring station will need to identify contamination via recognition of anomalous changes in a suite of surrogate water quality indicators (chlorine, pH, etc.). This work attempts to place water quality monitoring stations within the water distribution at locations that best detect contamination events via surrogate water quality signals. Networks of water quality monitoring stations are designed to minimize the population affected prior to contamination event detection, and simultaneously minimize the expected number of false positive detections, under uncertain water quality conditions. Solutions generated in this study are compared to solutions designed via classical detection methods. Results show the sensor networks designed without consideration to detection via surrogate water quality parameters have higher false positive detection rates.
Emergency response in water, sanitation and hygiene to control cholera in post-earthquake Nepal in 2016
Authors: Sekine Kazutaka , Roskosky Mellisa 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAfter the 2015 earthquake in Nepal that killed approximately 9,000 people, the country faced an increased risk of cholera outbreaks due to extensive destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure and massive displacement. The disaster revealed long-standing weaknesses in water and sanitation systems in the country. Anticipating a cholera outbreak in 2016, UNICEF, Johns Hopkins University, and the Group for Technical Assistance partnered to support the Government of Nepal to ensure a safe water supply and improve sanitation and hygiene. This article discusses challenges, gaps, lessons learned and recommendations that were drawn from the authors' experience in cholera prevention and control in post-earthquake Nepal. Challenges identified include lack of regular water quality testing and monitoring, inconsistent use of point-of-use water treatment products, and lack of a fast-track mechanism for rapid response. The article argues for building a resilient water and sanitation system to secure sustainable and equitable access to safe drinking water.
Assessing peri-urban sanitation quality using a theoretically derived composite measure in Lusaka, Zambia
Authors: Tidwell James B. , Chipungu Jenala , Chilengi Roma , Aunger Robert 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
Despite ongoing debates about what constitutes adequate sanitation, there is a lack of sanitation quality measures that are theoretically grounded in ways that allow empirical comparisons of quality across different types of sanitation. The Healthy Sanitation Framework (HSF) was developed to capture universal aspects of sanitation quality from a public health perspective. From this, the Peri-Urban Healthy Toilet Index (PUHTI) was created for measuring on-site, peri-urban sanitation quality. This PUHTI score was used to assess sanitation quality in a peri-urban area in Lusaka, Zambia. The HSF identified five categories for capturing sanitation quality: hygiene, use, sustainability, desirability, and accessibility. A composite index derived from these categories had high reliability and plausible validity, despite barriers to rigorously evaluating validity. Applying the PUHTI tool showed that while 87% of toilets were classified as ‘improved, but shared,’ there were frequent concerns about doors that could not be locked, dirty user interfaces, unhygienic containment, limited emptyability, and lack of handwashing facilities. The HSF allows granular measures of sanitation quality to be developed in any setting using a reproducible and theoretically grounded process. However, lack of a unified basis on which to compare different types of sanitation overall or evidence to compare within narrower categories currently limits comparisons across types of sanitation.
Engaging field staff in strategic asset management
Authors: Bakir Patricia , Raine Cameron 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
Adopting and implementing Strategic Asset Management (SAM) is a prerequisite to improving day-to-day management and long-term utility planning. Field-level employees play a key role in implementation of a SAM program and have to make often burdensome adjustments to their work processes to comply with newly instituted systems. They are not always consulted in planning and technology adoption. They frequently do not receive feedback or recognition for their contribution. Based on a water utility survey, the authors provide insights and recommendations on how to increase field staff commitment to SAM. They will utilize their results to conduct further research directly with field staff on their perceived role and what can be done to improve their adoption of SAM processes.
Remote sensing lake level fluctuations in response to a changing climate
Authors: Mutowo Godfrey 
Published: October 2018

Abstract
Lakes and reservoirs have long been regarded as a solution to the water problems of semi-arid regions, as well as a mitigation measure against the impacts of climate change and climate variability. However, the ability of these lakes to mitigate the impacts of climate change itself has largely been untested. In this study, we tested the utility of remote sensing in monitoring fluctuations in Lake Mutirikwi's surface area. Furthermore, we determined the nature and strength of the relationship between Lake Mutirikwi's surface area and annual rainfall total with a view to understanding the sensitivity of the lake volume to the main input of water in the lake – precipitation. Results of the study show that the volume of the lake fluctuated by between 1% and as much as 90% of the lake's capacity. We also found a significant relationship (r = 0.84, p = 0.002) between the surface area of the lake and the amount of rainfall received in the second half of the rainfall season. We conclude that Lake Mutirikwi is so sensitive to fluctuations in rainfall amounts that it does not offer much mitigation cover in the face of a changing and highly variable climate.