bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Anion Exclusion in Clay Interlayer Nanopores
Authors: Tournassat Christophe , Bourg Ian C. , Holmboe Michael , Sposito Garrison , Steefel Carl I. 
Published: April 2017

AbstractThe aqueous chemistry of water films confined between clay mineral surfaces remains an important unknown in predictions of radioelement migration from radioactive waste repositories. This issue is particularly important in the case of long-lived anionic radioisotopes (129I-, 99TcO4-, 36Cl-) which interact with clay minerals primarily by anion exclusion. For example, models of ion migration in clayey media do not agree as to whether anions are completely or partially excluded from clay interlayer nanopores. In the present study, this key issue was addressed for Cl- using MD simulations for a range of nanopore widths (6 to 15 Å) overlapping the range of average pore widths that exists in engineered clay barriers. The MD simulation results were compared with the predictions of a thermodynamic model (Donnan Equilibrium model) and two pore-scale models based on the Poisson-Boltzmann equation under the assumption that interlayer water behaves as bulk liquid water. The simulations confirmed that anion exclusion from clay interlayers is greater than predicted by the pore-scale models, particularly at the smallest pore size examined. This greater anion exclusion stems from Cl- being more weakly solvated in nano-confined water than it is in bulk liquid water. Anion exclusion predictions based on the Poisson-Boltzmann equation were consistent with the MD simulation results, however, if the predictions included an ion closest approach distance to the clay mineral surface on the order of 2.0 ± 0.8 Å. These findings suggest that clay interlayers approach a state of complete anion exclusion (hence, ideal semi-permeable membrane properties) at a pore width of 4.2 ± 1.5 Å.
Structural and Spectroscopic Characterization of Montmorillonite Intercalated with N-Butylammonium Cations (N = 1-4) — Modeling and Experimental Study
Authors: Scholtzová Eva , Madejová Jana , Jankovič L’Uboš , Tunega Daniel 
Published: April 2017

AbstractA detailed structural characterization of organo-clays is a key in understanding their properties. In this work, mono-, di-, tri-, and tetra-butylammonium (nBA; n = 1–4) cations intercalated in the layered clay mineral montmorillonite (Mnt) have been studied for the first time by combining a theoretical approach based on density functional theory (DFT) and infrared spectroscopy. The DFT calculations revealed the detailed structure and position of nBA cations in the interlayer space. A relation between the basal spacing (d001 parameter) and the cation size and structure was found, and explained with respect to the structure, composition, and size of the organic cations. Hydrogen bonds between -NHx/-CH3/-CH2 groups of the nBA cations and oxygen atoms of the basal planes of the Mnt layers were found to be an important factor for the arrangement and energetic stabilization of cations in the interlayer space. The N-H-O hydrogen bonds are stronger than C-H-O hydrogen bonds and the stabilization decreases with decreased number of bands. Analysis of DFT-calculated vibrational modes helped in understanding a problematic region of the experimental infrared spectra (4000–3000 cm-1), in which assignment of all vibrational modes unambiguously was not possible because of a significant overlap of broad bands.
Molecular Simulation of Cesium Adsorption at the Basal Surface of Phyllosilicate Minerals
Authors: Kerisit Sebastien , Okumura Masahiko , Rosso Kevin M. , Machida Masahiko 
Published: April 2017

AbstractA better understanding of the thermodynamics of radioactive cesium uptake at the surfaces of phyllosilicate minerals is needed to understand the mechanisms of selective adsorption and help guide the development of practical and inexpensive decontamination techniques. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to determine the thermodynamics of Cs+ adsorption at the basal surface of six 2:1 phyllosilicate minerals, namely pyrophyllite, illite, muscovite, phlogopite, celadonite, and margarite. These minerals were selected to isolate the effects of the magnitude of the permanent layer charge (⩽2), its location (tetrahedral vs. octahedral sheet), and the octahedral sheet structure (dioctahedral vs. trioctahedral). Good agreement was obtained with the experiments in terms of the hydration free energy of Cs+ and the structure and thermodynamics of Cs+ adsorption at the muscovite basal surface, for which published data were available for comparison. With the exception of pyrophyllite, which did not exhibit an inner-sphere free energy minimum, all phyllosilicate minerals showed similar behavior with respect to Cs+ adsorption; notably, Cs+ adsorption was predominantly inner-sphere, whereas outer-sphere adsorption was very weak with the simulations predicting the formation of an extended outer-sphere complex. For a given location of the layer charge, the free energy of adsorption as an inner-sphere complex varied linearly with the magnitude of the layer charge. For a given layer charge location and magnitude, adsorption at phlogopite (trioctahedral sheet structure) was much less favorable than at muscovite (dioctahedral sheet structure) due to electrostatic repulsion between adsorbed Cs+ and the H atom of the OH- ion directly below the six-membered siloxane ring cavity. For a given layer charge magnitude and octahedral sheet structure, adsorption to celadonite (octahedral sheet layer charge) was favored over adsorption to muscovite (tetrahedral sheet layer charge) due to the increased distance to the surface K+ ions and the decreased distance to the O atom of the OH- ion directly below the surface cavity.
Comparative Computational Study of NP(V) and U(VI) Adsorption on (110) Edge Surfaces of Montmorillonite
Authors: Kremleva Alena , Krüger Sven 
Published: April 2017

AbstractSorption of U(VI) on clay and related minerals has been inspected experimentally and computationally because of its central role in safety considerations of geological repositories for highly radioactive waste. Np(V), which also has long half-life isotopes, has received considerably less attention. The purpose of the present study was to investigate computationally the adsorption of Np(V) on a clay-mineral surface and to compare it to adsorption of U(VI). As a sample case study, adsorption of Np(V) at the (110) edge surface of the common clay mineral montmorillonite was modeled. The density functional approach and periodic supercell models were applied. Mono- and bidentate adsorption complexes with coordination numbers 4 and 5 were inspected and compared to corresponding U(VI) species. While U(VI) prefers bidentate adsorption complexes with varying coordination numbers, Np(V) is more stable when monodentate-coordinated with a coordination number of four. In line with its smaller hydrolysis constant in aqueous solution, Np(V) shows a lower tendency to form monohydroxides on the mineral surface compared to U(VI). As no experimental geometry parameters are available for Np(V) adsorbed on montmorillonite, the results were compared tentatively to EXAFS data for adsorption at kaolinite and good agreement for the geometry changes due to adsorption was found for the more preferred adsorbed species.
Associations of Child and Adolescent Mastery Motivation and Self-Regulation With Adult Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study of Individuals With Down Syndrome
Authors: Gilmore Linda , Cuskelly Monica 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
This 20-year prospective longitudinal study focuses on the contribution of mastery motivation and self-regulation to adult outcomes for individuals with Down syndrome. In earlier phases of the research, 25 participants completed measures of cognitive ability, mastery motivation and self-regulation in childhood (4 to 6 years) and adolescence (11 to 15 years). In the adult phase reported here, self-determination and adaptive behavior were assessed in 21 of the original participants at age 23 to 26 years. Mastery motivation and self-regulation made unique contributions to adult outcomes, over and above the effects of cognitive ability. The findings provide powerful evidence about the important role of child and adolescent mastery motivation and self-regulation for the adult lives of individuals with Down syndrome.
Correlates of Common Mental Disorders Among Dutch Women Who Have Had an Abortion: A Longitudinal Cohort Study
Authors: van Ditzhuijzen Jenneke , ten Have Margreet , de Graaf Ron , van Nijnatten Carolus H.C.J. , Vollebergh Wilma A.M. 
Published: April 2017

CONTEXTCredible research has not found any evidence that abortion causes mental disorders. It is not known, however, whether abortion‐specific risk indicators and other variables are associated with the incidence or recurrence of mental disorders after abortion.METHODSAs part of a prospective cohort study conducted in the Netherlands, 325 women were interviewed between April 2010 and January 2011, between 20 and 40 days after having an abortion; 264 were followed up an average of 2.7 years later. Associations between selected baseline variables and postabortion incident or recurrent mental disorders among the 199 women at risk were investigated using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses.RESULTSThirty‐two percent of women at risk of an incident or recurrent mental disorder experienced one after the abortion. In multivariate analyses, no abortion‐related variables (e.g., history of multiple abortions, second‐trimester abortion, preabortion decision difficulty or uncertainty, and postabortion negative emotions) were associated with experience of any postabortion incident or recurrent mental disorders. The outcome was positively associated with having conceived within an unstable relationship (odds ratio, 3.0), number of negative life events in the past year (1.4) and having a history of mental disorders (2.4).CONCLUSIONSCorrelates of postabortion mental disorders were variables that have been identified as general risk factors for mental disorders, which supports the idea that abortion does not pose specific risks to future mental health. Future research should investigate in what way unstable relationships, adverse life events and psychiatric history affect postabortion mental health.
Single-Stranded DNA Library Preparation Preferentially Enriches Short Maternal DNA in Maternal Plasma
Authors: Vong Joaquim S L , Tsang Jason C H , Jiang Peiyong , Lee Wing-Shan , Leung Tak Yeung , Chan K C Allen , Chiu Rossa W K , Lo Y M Dennis 
Published: April 2017

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Recent studies have suggested that single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) library preparation can enrich short DNA species from the plasma of healthy individuals, cancer patients, and transplant recipients. Based on previous observations that fetal DNA molecules in the maternal plasma are shorter than maternal DNA molecules, ssDNA library preparation may potentially enrich fetal DNA and provide substantial improvement in noninvasive prenatal testing.

METHODS
We tested this hypothesis by comparing the maternal plasma DNA sequencing results using 2 types of ssDNA library preparation methods and a standard double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) library method using samples from first- and third-trimester pregnancies. We also evaluated the performance of ssDNA and dsDNA library methods in the noninvasive prenatal detection of trisomy 21 from maternal plasma.

RESULTS
Short DNA species were significantly enriched in ssDNA libraries. However, contrary to previous speculation, no significant enrichment was observed in the overall fetal fraction in maternal plasma collected in the first trimester. Our use of an ssDNA library did not reduce the variation in chromosomal representation when compared with a standard dsDNA library in the first-trimester plasma samples. ssDNA libraries also showed inferior performance in the noninvasive prenatal detection of trisomy 21 from maternal plasma. Detailed fetal fraction analysis using size-fractionated Y chromosome sequences and fetal-specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) revealed an unexpected finding that short maternal DNA was preferentially enriched over short fetal DNA in an ssDNA library irrespective of GC content.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings have shown that ssDNA library preparation preferentially enriches short maternally derived DNA in maternal plasma.
Girl Power, transgression and the embodiment of the image: The rise of Enjo-kōsai and hyper-sexual economy in post-bubble Japan
Authors: Reisel Mary 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
Enjo-kōsai, the term attributed to the practice of teenage girls selling dates and sex to older men, became a major controversial issue in Japan in the nineties, followed by political debates and public concerns regarding the nature of the habit and its social and ethical consequences. The article investigates the origin of enjo-kōsai and its development from a trivial subculture game to an actual practice defining sexual conduct and creating rising moral panic all over the country. Drawing on a long ethnographic research including 96 individual interviews and thousands of online surveys, the research explores the ambiguous forms of manipulation and control exercised by the hegemony of the media and fashion magazines in order to promote enjo-kōsai and rebalance the power relations between the teenager girls and their buyers. Based on participants’ testimonies, the study tracks the historical events while following the rise of Girl Power ideologies of empowerment and liberation versus the opposing political pressure that attempted to restore and reinforce traditional images of submissive femininity. It also attempts to contextualize the enjo-kōsai boom within the social changes and economic turbulences that Japan had gone through during the post-bubble decade.
From underground to the palm of your hand: The spatiality and cultural practice of South Korean webtoons
Authors: Bae Keung Yoon ‘Becky’ 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
‘Webtoons’ – online comics – have now been a staple of popular culture in Korea for over a decade. Both profitable and accessible, they have long since overtaken print manhwa in popularity and market size, and the cultural role that they occupy is continuing to grow. Yet in viewing webtoons as a new media form, I feel that we are in danger of eliding the important shifts occurring between manhwa and webtoons, both in terms of the content (layout, serialization format, social relevance) and the sociocultural, physical/digital space that they occupy. In my article, while I will be remarking on changes that occur content-wise, I plan to more specifically focus on media space: the physical space in which print manhwa was read, the relation of space to the sociocultural standing that manhwa occupied, and the changes that occurred with the elimination of that physical space. I plan to argue that the dramatic shift in reading space – from manhwa rental stores (which was the primary space where print manhwa was read) to electronic devices (mobile devices in particular) – is not important merely because the digital facilitates access to the comic material, but because this change of space leads to a change in sociocultural connotations attached to the genre. The mediating space that links the consumer/reader to the material is a key factor that has influenced not only how comics are read, but how comics are viewed as a kind of visual media in cultural hierarchy.
Tokyo subcultural street styles: Japanese subcultural street style as a uniform
Authors: Winge Therèsa M. 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
Japanese subcultural groups create safe and inventive spaces for youth to explore new identities, styles and globalization that are not available to them in other areas of their dominant culture. Japanese youth often join subcultures in the process of rejecting their parents’ generational values and the workforce uniforms commonly associated with adulthood and socio-economic failures of past generations. Accordingly, the Japanese subcultural street styles visually communicate a desire for prolonged childhood and deferred responsibilities of adulthood, while drawing significantly from global stimuli. Using ethnographic methods, it is revealed how many of the elements from Japanese subcultural dress are culturally authenticated from western styles and aesthetics, and their public display communicating the subculture member’s understanding of conspicuous consumption of perceived global ideals − wealth, diversity, authenticity and individuality. While these subcultural street styles function as alternatives to the standard Japanese uniforms (e.g., the business suit or occupational uniform), this dress style also communicates a new and modern identity for Japanese youth. Japanese subcultural street styles are so prescribed that they are, in fact, uniforms.
Multi-layered reconciliations in the imagined Diqiucun in Cape No. 7
Authors: Su Huang-Lan 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
This article thematically examines how Cape No. 7 directed by Wei Tesheng in 2008 has culturally reconstructed and imagined the conception of Diqiucun (literally ‘globalized village’) during the ‘global postmodern’ process. Following Stuart Hall’s understanding of the process, I argue that the film focuses on a thematic context that depicts multi-layered psychological and cultural reconciliations among ethnic conflicts and between past regrets and the present coexistence. Situated in the imagined Diqiucun, Cape No. 7 presents how multi-ethnic groups of people in Hengchun have borne a grudge against Japanese and one another in a multilingual community and thus how they are desperate to seek collective reconciliations and individual accommodation since the end of World War II. Retelling the local histories of the postcolonial repatriation to global listeners through the cooperation of completing an opening concert act, on the one hand, makes the localism visible to the global market; on the other hand, it has piggybacked the film onto a phenomenal accomplishment that satisfies both the local and international audiences with an agreeable closure, or compromise, of the unsuccessful past in multifarious ways.
Development of Underwear with Integrated 12 Channel ECG for Men and Women
Authors: Trummer Stephanie , Ehrmann Andrea , Büsgen Alexander 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases are the most frequent cause of death worldwide. Cases of cardiac arrest can often be attributed to undetected cardiac arrhythmia. Detecting rare episodes of arrhythmia necessitates long-term ECG measurements along days or weeks. However, due to the relatively small number of electrodes used for these ECGs, abnormal episodes can still go unrecognized. This article thus describes the development of underwear with ten inbuilt textile ECG electrodes, allowing for the measurement of long-term 12-lead ECG. As against the constructs of other research groups, the position of electrodes offers the same detection directions as the common 12-lead ECG equipment in hospitals or medical practices. Long-term tests have shown the suitability of the sensory underwear variants for men and women to detect reliable ECG signals without disturbing the patients’ comfort.
Umbilical cord as human cell source for mitral valve tissue engineering – venous vs. arterial cells
Authors: Malischewski Axel , Moreira Ricardo , Hurtado Luis , Gesché Valentine , Schmitz-Rode Thomas , Jockenhoevel Stefan , Mela Petra 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
Around 2% of the population in developed nations are affected by mitral valve disease and available valvular replacements are not designed for the atrioventricular position. Recently our group developed the first tissue-engineered heart valve (TEHV) specifically designed for the mitral position – the TexMi valve. The valve recapitulates the main components of the native valve, i.e. annulus, asymmetric leaflets and the crucial chordae tendineae. In the present study, we evaluated the human umbilical cord as a clinically applicable cell source for the TexMi valve. Valves produced with cells isolated from human umbilical cord veins (HUVs) and human umbilical cord arteries (HUAs) were conditioned for 21 days in custom-made bioreactors and evaluated in terms of extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and mechanical properties. In addition, static cell-laden fibrin discs were molded to investigate cell-mediated tissue contraction and differences in ECM production. HUA and HUV cells were able to deliver functional valves with a rich ECM composed mainly of collagen. Particularly noteworthy was the synthesis of elastin, which has been observed rarely in TEHV. The elastin synthesis was significantly higher in TexMi valves produced with HUV cells and therefore the HUV is considered to be the preferred cell source.
Current Issues of the Formation of the Investment Environment and Potential in Georgia
Authors: Gogiashvili Salome 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
The stage of the formation and establishment of a market economy in Georgia raises the necessity for economic science to solve fundamentally different problems concerning the improvement of the investment environment and investment climate in national economy. After the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the replacement with new relationships has been quite difficult and painful in which foreign investments should play a crucial role. Issues to be discussed include the questions that explore some of the categories and the constraints of the investment climate (potential). All this leads to the relevance of the article and, therefore, determines the purpose of the article. The research process uses general dialectical methods of socio-economic research (description, analysis, systematization, abstraction, synthesis) as well as modern methods of research of economic theory (systemic, institutional, evolutionary). The scientific aim of the research is to highlight the current issues of the investment environment and investment climate in economy, to study the transformation processes taking place in Georgia during the last two decades, to conduct analysis using proper methods, to show the current social and political as well as other important processes, to generalize them and to form proper opinions. Findings based on research suggest that it is possible to speed up the process of economic development of Georgia. However, the situation will remain difficult in the region and the factors causing the recession _ instability in oil prices and the weakening of the national currency against the US dollar will still be present. In conclusion, the opinion can be formed that a stable and predictable legislative process is important for the investment environment. Therefore, all the parties that may undergo the changes should be informed and involved in every project planned by the government; At present, it becomes necessary to further extend the deregulation policy, which should include the development of financial and investment sectors and support of the establishment of appropriate infrastructure, promotion of the further development of microfinance institutions, investment companies and funds, designing the system of investment insurance and stimulation, elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy and artificial barriers, etc.