bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Secular–Religious Competition and the Exclusion of Islam from the Public Sphere: Islamic Welfare in Western Europe
Authors: Kortmann Matthias 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThis paper deals in a qualitative discourse analysis with the role of Islamic organizations in welfare delivery in Germany and the Netherlands. Referring to Jonathan Fox's “secular–religious competition perspective”, the paper argues that similar trends of exclusion of Islamic organizations from public social service delivery can be explained with discourses on Islam in these two countries. The analysis, first, shows that in the national competitions between religious and secular ideologies on the public role of religion, different views are dominant (i.e., the support for the Christian majority in Germany and equal treatment of all religions in the Netherlands) which can be traced back to the respective regimes of religious governance. However, and second, when it comes to Islam in particular, in the Netherlands, the perspective of restricting all religions from public sphere prevails which leads to the rather exclusivist view on Islamic welfare that dominates in Germany, too.
Evaluating Resilience: Development and Validation of the Situated Subjective Resilience Questionnaire for Adults (SSRQA)
Authors: Alonso-Tapia Jesús , Garrido-Hernansaiz Helena , Rodríguez-Rey Rocío , Ruiz Díaz Miguel , Nieto Carmen 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAlthough resilience varies depending on the specific type of adverse situation faced by the individual, to date resilience questionnaires do not consider its situational character. This study aims to develop and validate the Situated Subjective Resilience Questionnaire for Adults (SSRQA), which assesses resilience in five different adverse contexts. A total of 584 Spanish adults (including general population and clinical samples individuals) completed the SSRQA and other measures of resilience, optimism, and self-efficacy. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the SSRQA structure fitted the situational model better (χ2/df = 1.90; CFI = .96; TLI = .95; RMSEA = .07) than the non-situational version (χ2/df = 4.99; CFI = .79; TLI = .76; RMSEA = .15). The SSRQA was shown to be reliable (α = .90) and to be significantly and positively correlated with other resilience measures (p < .001) and, to a lower degree, with optimism and self-efficacy (p < .001). Degree of exposure to each adverse situation was negatively correlated with resilience in the face of that situation (p < .05), supporting a vulnerability to stress model. The SSRQA has been demonstrated to be a reliable and valid situated measure for resilience towards different adverse contexts.
Responses of Nitrogen Oxide to High‐Speed Solar Wind Stream in the Polar Middle Atmosphere
Authors: Lee Ji‐Hee , Jee Geonhwa , Kwak Young‐Sil , Hong Sang‐bum , Hwang Heejin , Song In‐Sun , Lee Young‐Sook , Turunen Esa , Lee Dae‐Young 
Published: October 2018

AbstractDuring high‐speed solar wind stream (HSS) events, energetic electrons from the Earth's inner magnetosphere transfer solar wind energy to the high‐latitude upper atmosphere, which may affect chemical compositions in the region. We conduct a study on the production of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the polar middle atmosphere by energetic electron precipitation (EEP) during HSS events in the period of international polar year 2007–2008 northern winter. During this period, the geomagnetic activity was generally quiet and there were no major solar events, which indicates that the EEPs were mostly associated with HSS events. The electron flux immediately increases with the onset of HSS events and remains elevated during the passage of the events. The estimation of the directly produced NOx by EEPs was attempted by using the correlation between NOx and dynamic tracers such as CO and CH4. It was found that the direct effect of EEPs on NOx reaches down to about 55‐km altitude and the amount is estimated to be about 2 ppbv. This result indicates that the variations of polar stratospheric NOx in winter are mostly associated with dynamical processes such as vertical transport and horizontal mixing. We also found that the middle atmospheric O3 depletion during HSS events seems to be related to the EEP‐induced NOx at least in the uppermost stratosphere in the polar region.
Analysis of the Super‐Resolution Effect on Microwave Tomography
Authors: Simonov Nikolai , Jeon Soon‐Ik , Kim Bo‐Ra , Son Seong‐Ho 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThis study investigates the spatial resolution (SR) and super‐resolution effect in microwave tomography in terms of single‐frequency measured data. The applied method is based on our recently proposed concept of average SR (ASR). We apply truncated singular value decomposition to calculate a regularized forward‐modeling matrix and to limit the truncation index by the acceptable level of the imaging noise. A simple relation of the ASR with the truncation index calculates the ASR in the imaging zone. The described method to calculate SR is quite common, and it considers not only the geometrical parameters of the microwave tomography system and object under test but also the noise in the measured data. This method is applicable to the linear and nonlinear considerations of the inverse scattering problem with respect to two‐ or three‐dimensional solutions. In particular, our investigation confirms the conclusion of some other authors that applying nonlinear inverse scattering methods can achieve the super‐resolution imaging even when based on far‐field measured signals only.
Fiber‐Optic Sensing for Environmental Applications: Where We Have Come From and What Is Possible
Authors: Shanafield M. , Banks E. W. , Arkwright J. W. , Hausner M. B. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThe use of fiber‐optic sensors has flourished in many fields over the past 30 years. One particular branch of fiber‐optic sensing, distributed temperature sensing, has become a well‐explored and widely‐accepted tool for a diverse range of environmental applications over the past decade. Peer‐reviewed work on fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing advanced significantly, moving from innovations in instrumentation, deployment techniques, calibration, and analysis methods to applications. However, exciting advancements in other branches of fiber optics, such as fiber Bragg gratings, optical frequency domain reflectometry, and distributed acoustic sensing, have thus far been underutilized in environmental studies and await exploitation by environmental scientists. These additional techniques offer immense possibilities for novel applications in hydrology, hydrogeology, geophysics, and other environment fields where high‐accuracy, high‐frequency, and/or high spatial resolution measurements are needed.
Seasonal Precipitation Forecast Over Morocco
Authors: Tuel A. , Eltahir E. A. B. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractInterannual variability of precipitation is a challenge for water management in semiarid Morocco, where droughts are common and take a heavy toll on agricultural production. The question of forecast potential for winter and spring rainfall is therefore crucial for the country. As an addition to dynamical seasonal predictions, taking the case of the Oum Er Rbia watershed, the present study builds simple statistical forecasting models for Morocco's winter and spring precipitation, making use of oceanic forcing of atmospheric circulation. Previous results on the teleconnections between North Atlantic wintertime circulation and lagged ocean surface temperatures are confirmed. Based on a careful identification and selection of predictors, about 35–40% of interannual variability of precipitation may be robustly predictable with a lead time of 1 month.
Hydrological Drought Instantaneous Propagation Speed Based on the Variable Motion Relationship of Speed‐Time Process
Authors: Wu Jiefeng , Chen Xiaohong , Yao Huaxia , Liu Zhiyong , Zhang Dejian 
Published: October 2018

AbstractIt is difficult to predict and track the propagation of a hydrological drought because it is hard to determine its propagation speed. We propose a useful framework for calculating the hydrological drought instantaneous propagation speed which includes the instantaneous development speed (IDS) and instantaneous recovery speed (IRS). First, the run theory was applied to subdivide the propagation of individual hydrological drought events into the development and recovery stages and to determine the individual propagation times (drought development duration and drought recovery duration). Then the hydrological drought instantaneous propagation speed of each hydrological drought event, including the IDS and IRS, were determined based on the variable motion relationship of speed‐time process commonly applied in physics. Finally, the optimal theoretical values of the IDS and IRS were evaluated using a cross‐validation method. Three hydrometric stations, located at the upstream catchment with less human activities influence, were chosen from different countries (China, the United States, and Germany) to demonstrate the satisfactory performance of this proposed framework. The results indicate that the variable motion relationship of speed‐time process can provide an assessment of the overall hydrological drought propagation and perform well for identifying the propagation time in these study areas. The optimal theoretical values of IDS (or IRS) obtained by the variable motion relationship can simulate the actual drought development duration (or drought recovery duration) of hydrological drought well. The sensitivity of IDS (or IRS) of hydrological drought is correlated with climate, catchment characteristics, and human activities that should be explored to improve hydrological drought propagation prediction.
Effect of Elastic Deformation and Rough Grain Surface on Heat Conduction in Partially Saturated Granular Porous Media
Authors: Ikram Muhammad Fowaz , Askari Roohollah , Hejazi S. Hossein , Sahimi Muhammad 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAccurate prediction of the effective thermal properties of partially saturated rock, soil, and other types of porous media is essential to a wide variety of phenomena and processes in engineering and natural sciences. The effective thermal conductivity of porous media depends strongly on the morphology of the media and the fluid distribution in the pore space, as well as on geomechanical processes such as dilation and microcracking. A precursor to such processes is the deformation of the grains' surface due to the overburden pressure that is dependent on pore‐scale features, such as the surface texture of the grains. We report on the results of the extensive two‐dimensional computer simulations of heat conduction of granular porous media in which the grains have rough, self‐affine fractal surface, and water partially saturates the pore space, and the media are subjected to an external compressive pressure. The Young's modulus of the grains and the fractal dimension of their surface profile dictate the contact area for the deformation. The spatial distribution of the fluids and the resulting saturation is generated by a lattice Boltzmann method, while the conduction process is simulated by a thermal lattice Boltzmann. Two essentially linear dependence of the effective thermal conductivity on the water saturation emerge, separated at a critical water saturation Sc that signals the formation of percolation clusters of water‐filled pores. One interval, below Sc, is dominated by heat conduction through the solid phase, assisted by conducting water globules that bridge the noncontacting grains. The second interval emerges above Sc in which the water‐filled pores create a percolating conductive cluster that dominates heat conduction through the medium. The effect of various factors on the conduction process is studied in detail.
Development of a Fully Coupled Biogeochemical Reactive Transport Model to Simulate Microbial Oxidation of Organic Carbon and Pyrite Under Nitrate‐Reducing Conditions
Authors: Knabe Dustin , Kludt Christoph , Jacques Diederik , Lichtner Peter , Engelhardt Irina 
Published: October 2018

AbstractIn regions with intensive agriculture nitrate is one of the most relevant contaminants in groundwater. Denitrification reduces elevated nitrate concentrations in many aquifers, yet the denitrification potential is limited by the concentration of available electron donors. The aim of this work was to study the denitrification potential and its limitation in natural sediments. A column experiment was conducted using sediments with elevated concentrations of organic carbon (total organic carbon 3,247 mg C/kg) and pyrite (chromium reducible sulfur 150 mg/kg). Groundwater with high nitrate concentration (100 mg/L) was injected. Measurements were taken over 160 days at five different depths including N‐ and S‐isotope analysis for selected samples. A reactive transport model was developed, which couples nitrate reduction with the oxidation of organic carbon (heterotrophic denitrification) and pyrite (autolithotrophic denitrification), and considers also transport and growth of denitrifying microbes. The denitrification pathway showed a temporal sequence from initially heterotrophic to autolithotrophic. However, maximum rates were lower for heterotrophic (11 mmol N/(L*a)) than for autolithotrophic denitrification (48 mmol N/(L*a)). The modeling showed that denitrifying microbes initially preferred highly reactive organic carbon as the electron donor for denitrification but were also able to utilize pyrite. The results show that after 160 days nitrate increased again to 50 mg/L. At this time only 0.5% of the total organic carbon and 46% of the available pyrite was oxidized. This indicates that denitrification rates strongly decrease before the electron donors are depleted either by a low reactivity (total organic carbon) or a diminishing reactive surface possibly due to the presence of coatings (pyrite).
An Automatic Snow Depth Probe for Field Validation Campaigns
Authors: Sturm Matthew , Holmgren Jon 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAn automatic snow depth probe (magnaprobe) patented in 1999 (United States Patent 5,864,059, 1999) and produced commercially by Snow‐Hydro LLC has now been used to obtain more than a million simultaneous snow depths (up to 140 cm) and GPS measurements during a wide range of field validation campaigns. The magnaprobe consists of a ski pole‐like rod housing a magnetostrictive device along which a basket and magnet assembly slides. The rod is inserted to the base of the snow, the basket floats on the snow, and when a button is pushed, the distance between rod tip and basket is measured while a position is acquired. The nature of the substrate beneath the snow controls the snow depth accuracy with errors ranging from near zero for hard bases to +5 cm in soft vegetation. The Wide Area Augmentation System‐enabled GPS provides a position accurate to ±2.5 m. The probe increases the speed with which a depth and position measurement can be obtained by a factor of 10 compared to measuring with a traditional ruler probe and writing down the results. The highest boost in snow depth measurement efficiency occurs when the distance between measuring locations is kept relatively small (<10 m). Magnaprobes have materially improved our ability to evaluate airborne and satellite‐based snow depth products and are likely to see continued heavy use over the next decade as efforts to develop satellite systems for monitoring snow remotely are tested in various field settings.
Experimental optical phase measurement approaching the exact Heisenberg limit
Authors: Daryanoosh Shakib , Slussarenko Sergei , Berry Dominic W. , Wiseman Howard M. , Pryde Geoff J. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThe use of quantum resources can provide measurement precision beyond the shot-noise limit (SNL). The task of ab initio optical phase measurement—the estimation of a completely unknown phase—has been experimentally demonstrated with precision beyond the SNL, and even scaling like the ultimate bound, the Heisenberg limit (HL), but with an overhead factor. However, existing approaches have not been able—even in principle—to achieve the best possible precision, saturating the HL exactly. Here we demonstrate a scheme to achieve true HL phase measurement, using a combination of three techniques: entanglement, multiple samplings of the phase shift, and adaptive measurement. Our experimental demonstration of the scheme uses two photonic qubits, one double passed, so that, for a successful coincidence detection, the number of photon-passes is N = 3. We achieve a precision that is within 4% of the HL. This scheme can be extended to higher N and other physical systems.
Targeting IFNα to tumor by anti-PD-L1 creates feedforward antitumor responses to overcome checkpoint blockade resistance
Authors: Liang Yong , Tang Haidong , Guo Jingya , Qiu Xiangyan , Yang Zecheng , Ren Zhenhua , Sun Zhichen , Bian Yingjie , Xu Lily , Xu Hairong , Shen Jiao , Han Yanfei , Dong Haidong , Peng Hua , Fu Yang-Xin 
Published: October 2018

AbstractMany patients remain unresponsive to intensive PD-1/PD-L1 blockade therapy despite the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. We propose that impaired innate sensing might limit the complete activation of tumor-specific T cells after PD-1/PD-L1 blockade. Local delivery of type I interferons (IFNs) restores antigen presentation, but upregulates PD-L1, dampening subsequent T-cell activation. Therefore, we armed anti-PD-L1 antibody with IFNα (IFNα-anti-PD-L1) to create feedforward responses. Here, we find that a synergistic effect is achieved to overcome both type I IFN and checkpoint blockade therapy resistance with the least side effects in advanced tumors. Intriguingly, PD-L1 expressed in either tumor cells or tumor-associated host cells is sufficient for fusion protein targeting. IFNα-anti-PD-L1 activates IFNAR signaling in host cells, but not in tumor cells to initiate T-cell reactivation. Our data suggest that a next-generation PD-L1 antibody armed with IFNα improves tumor targeting and antigen presentation, while countering innate or T-cell-driven PD-L1 upregulation within tumor.
Alleviating oxygen evolution from Li-excess oxide materials through theory-guided surface protection
Authors: Shin Yongwoo , Kan Wang Hay , Aykol Muratahan , Papp Joseph K. , McCloskey Bryan D. , Chen Guoying , Persson Kristin A. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractLi-excess cathodes comprise one of the most promising avenues for increasing the energy density of current Li-ion technology. However, the first-cycle surface oxygen release in these materials causes cation densification and structural reconstruction of the surface region, leading to encumbered ionic transport and increased impedance. In this work, we use the first principles Density Functional Theory to systematically screen for optimal cation dopants to improve oxygen-retention at the surface. The initial dopant set includes all transition metal, post-transition metal, and metalloid elements. Our screening identifies Os, Sb, Ru, Ir, or Ta as high-ranking dopants considering the combined criteria, and rationalization based on the electronic structure of the top candidates are presented. To validate the theoretical screening, a Ta-doped Li1.3Nb0.3Mn0.4O2 cathode was synthesized and shown to present initial improved electrochemical performance as well as significantly reduced oxygen evolution, as compared with the pristine, un-doped, system.
Identification of browning-related microRNAs and their targets reveals complex miRNA-mediated browning regulatory networks in Luffa cylindrica
Authors: Xu Yuanyuan , Liu Zhe , Lou Lina , Su Xiaojun 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAs a non-coding and endogenous small RNA, MicroRNA (miRNA) takes a vital regulatory role in plant growth and development. Long-term storage and processing of many fruits and vegetables, including Luffa, are subject to influences from browning, a common post-harvest problem that adversely affects flavor, aroma, and nutritional value. The browning regulatory networks mediated by miRNA, however, remain largely unexplored. For a systematic identification of browning-responsive miRNAs and the targets, we built two RNA libraries from Luffa pulps of near-isogenic line, with resistant and sensitive browning characteristics respectively, and then sequenced them using Solexa high-throughput technology. We consequently identified 179 known miRNAs that represent 17 non-conserved miRNA families and 24 conserved families, as well as 84 potential novel miRNAs, among which 16 miRNAs (eight known and eight novel miRNAs) were found to exhibit significant differential expressions and were thus identified as browning-related miRNAs. We then studied those browning-responsive miRNAs and the corresponding targets with RT-qPCR and finally validated their expression patterns. The results revealed that the expression patterns are specific to plant development stages and the miRNAs are identified with 39 target transcripts, which involve in plant development, defense response, transcriptional regulation, and signal transduction. After characterizing these miRNAs and their targets, we propose a browning regulatory network model of miRNA-mediatation in this paper. The findings of the work are helpful for the understanding of miRNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms of browning in Luffa, and will facilitate genetic improvement of pulp characteristics in Luffa.
Comprehensive Analysis of Gene Expression Profiles and DNA Methylome reveals Oas1, Ppie, Polr2g as Pathogenic Target Genes of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Zhang Yan , Zhang Tiancheng , Chen Yunyan 
Published: October 2018

AbstractGestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) has a high incidence of pregnancy, which seriously affects the life quality of pregnant women and fetal health. DNA methylation is one of the most important epigenetic modification that can regulate the gene expression level, and thus affect the occurrence of various diseases. Increasing evidence has shown that gene expression changes caused by DNA methylation play an important role in metabolic diseases. Here we explored the mechanisms and biological processes that affect the occurrence and development of GDM through analyzing the gene expression profiles and DNA methylation data of GDM. We detected 24,577 differential CpG sites mapping to 9339 genes (DMGs, differential methylation gene) and 931 differential expressed genes (DEGs) between normal samples and GDM samples. GO (gene ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway analysis of 326 overlapping genes between DMGs and DEGs showed obvious enrichment in terms related to metabolic disorders and immune responses. We identified Oas1, Ppie, Polr2g as possible pathogenic target genes of GDM by combining protein-protein interaction analysis. Our study provides possible targets for early diagnosis of GDM and information for clinical prevention of abnormal fetal development and type 2 diabetes.