bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Population pharmacokinetic modeling of vedolizumab for graft‐versus‐host disease prophylaxis in adults with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant
Authors: Waterhouse Timothy , Baron Kyle , Eure Westley , Chen Chunlin , Dirks Nathanael L. , Jansson Johan , Akbari Mona , Mehrotra Shailly 
Published: September 2024

AbstractWe aimed to characterize the population pharmacokinetics (PK) of vedolizumab for acute graft‐versus‐host disease prophylaxis in adults undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo‐HSCT) and assess potential clinically relevant covariates. Dosing, patient characteristics, and PK from a phase 1b, open‐label, dose‐finding study of vedolizumab 75 mg initial dose escalated to 300 mg and a phase 3 study of vedolizumab 300 mg in patients receiving allo‐HSCT were analyzed using a two‐compartment population PK model with linear elimination. Covariates included age, race, weight, sex, albumin, lymphocyte count, GvHD type, and concomitant medications. Weight, albumin, and lymphocyte count were time‐varying covariates. Model selection was driven by goodness‐of‐fit criteria, precision of parameter estimates, and visual predictive checks. In 193 patients undergoing allo‐HSCT, vedolizumab PK were well described by a two‐compartment, linear PK model. Using reference covariate values, final parameter estimates (95% confidence intervals [CI]) were: clearance, 0.148 (0.136, 0.162) L/day; central volume of distribution, 3.12 (3.03, 3.21) L; intercompartmental clearance, 0.500 (0.408, 0.612) L/day; and peripheral volume of distribution, 3.95 (3.52, 4.44) L. Weight and albumin were the most important predictors of vedolizumab PK, with clearance decreasing by ≈20% for low body weight/high albumin and increasing by ≈30% for high body weight/low albumin. There was an inverse relationship between vedolizumab clearance and age, but no detectable effect for lymphocyte count or GvHD type. Post hoc analyses did not detect any relationship between vedolizumab PK and concomitant medications. In summary, the covariates studied did not have a clinically meaningful effect on the PK of vedolizumab.
Design and synthesis of some novel structurally diverse thiochroman derivatives as fungicides against phytopathogenic fungi
Authors: Liu Wenjing , Li Yong , Liang Jun , Li Yi , Zhu Gaofeng , Wang Jianta , Chen Wenzhang , Tang Lei , Fan Lingling 
Published: September 2024

AbstractBACKGROUNDPlant diseases infected by pathogenic fungi have a devastating effect on global agricultural and food industry yields. The development of novel, environmentally friendly, and efficient fungicides is an important technique for preventing and combatting phytopathogenic fungi.RESULTSHerein, 99 thiochroman‐based derivatives containing hydroxyl, sulfoxide, sulfone, carbonyl, double bond, amino, imine, oxime, oxime ester, and amide moieties were synthesized. The antifungal activities of the target compounds against ten typical phytopathogenic fungi were also investigated. The bioassay results illustrated that most of the target compounds exhibited moderate to excellent antifungal effects against the tested fungi in vitro. Among these, thiochroman‐oxime derivatives (12a–12m) exerted a promising inhibition effect, especially against Fusarium solani, Fusarium graminearum, Valsa mali, and Botrytis cinerea strains. Furthermore, the compounds 12f and 12g markedly suppressed the spore germination germ and tube growth. At the same time, they exerted excellent protective effects against potatoes infected by F. solani, making them superior to commercial fungicides Hymexazol and Chlorothalonil. Notably, the compounds 12d and 12f also showed excellent protective effects against cherry tomatoes infected by B. cinerea. Further mechanistic studies revealed that compound 12f exerted an antifungal effect by overtly altering the mycelium structure and remarkably increasing cell membrane permeability. Fortunately, the excellent bioactive compounds showed good safety against human hepatic cell lines (WRL‐68). The preliminary structure–activity relationship analysis revealed that the introduction of hydroxyl or oxime fragments at the thiopyran ring might be significantly beneficial to antifungal activity.CONCLUSIONThis study provides thiochroman compounds that can be used in the development of novel botanical fungicides for the management of phytopathogenic fungi. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.
CLVSim: A comprehensive framework for crewed lunar vehicle simulation—Modeling and applications
Authors: Lan Qingning , Ding Liang , Yang Huaiguang , Richter Lutz , Wang Zhengyin , Gao Haibo , Deng Zongquan 
Published: September 2024

AbstractCrewed lunar vehicles (CLVs) significantly enhance astronauts’ exploration range and efficiency on the moon, paving the way for more comprehensive scientific research. Utilizing computer simulations offers an effective alternative to conducting experiments in low‐gravity conditions if backed up by appropriate model validation. This study introduces a detailed simulation framework CLVSim (Crewed Lunar Vehicle Simulation), including subsystems of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) soft terrain, suspensions, motors, wheels, fenders, and driver. A high‐fidelity instance of CLVSim was modeled and benchmarked based on the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) from the “Apollo” program. Each subsystem was independently modeled and benchmarked based on the information from the Apollo handbook. These subsystems were then integrated to benchmark the overall operation of the CLV with experiment in a simulated lunar environment, with a mean relative error of 8.6%. The mean relative error between simulation and experiment for all subsystems and overall CLV test was less than 10%. Further applications of CLVSim were investigated. For instance, two fender designs were investigated to evaluate their effectiveness in mitigating dust emission from wheels. The vehicles’ performances were examined with four different configurations: a standard CLV on flat terrain, and CLVs with two types of suspension stiffness and torque coordination strategy driveline on rugged terrain. Comparing the maneuverability of CLVs with passive and differential drive to those with stiffer suspensions, there were approximately 9% and 7% savings in steering, respectively. The high fidelity and potential for advanced research of the simulation framework were demonstrated in areas like CLV mechanism design, dust prevention and control strategy design.
Multi‐Objective Route Outlining and Collision Avoidance of Multiple Humanoid Robots in a Cluttered Environment
Authors: Kashyap Abhishek Kumar , Parhi Dayal R. 
Published: September 2024

ABSTRACTIn robotics, navigating a humanoid robot through a cluttered environment is challenging. The present study aims to enhance the footstep and determine optimal paths regarding the robot's route length. The objective function for navigation of multiple humanoid robots is presented to optimize the route length and travel time. A hybrid technique using a probabilistic roadmap (PRM) and firefly algorithm (FA) is presented for humanoid robot navigation in a cluttered environment with static and dynamic obstacles. Sensory information, such as barrier range in the left, right, and front directions, is fed into the PRM framework that allows the humanoid robot to walk steadily with an initial steering angle. It finds the shortest path using the Bellman–Ford algorithm. The FA technique is used for efficient guidance and footstep modification in a cluttered environment to find a smooth and optimized path. To avoid static obstacles, the suggested hybrid technique provides optimum steering angles and ensures the minimum route length by taking the output of PRM as its input. A 3D simulator and a real‐world environment have been used for simulation and experiment in a cluttered environment utilizing the developed model and standalone methods. The humanoid robot achieves the target in all scenarios, but the FA‐tuned PRM technique is advantageous to this purpose, as shown by the convergence curve, route length, and travel duration. Multiple humanoid robot navigation has an additional self‐collision issue, which is eliminated by employing a dining philosopher controller as the base technique. In addition, the proposed controller is evaluated in contrast to the existing technique. The developed strategy ensures effectiveness and efficacy depending on these findings.
Going to the archives: Combining palaeoecological and contemporary data to support river restoration appraisals
Authors: White J. C. , Seddon E. , Hill M. J. , Mathers K. L. , Bridger M. , Hannah D. M. , Wood P. J. 
Published: September 2024

AbstractRiver restoration practices are being increasingly implemented to help offset the global degradation of freshwater ecosystems. The ecological success of such projects is typically determined via post‐project appraisals comparing restored conditions against specified baselines (e.g., pre‐project and/or non‐restored data), but such approaches can overlook broader ecosystem recovery patterns. Using freshwater macroinvertebrate communities, this study examined ecological responses to river restoration that are seldom assessed: (i) sub‐annual temporal trajectories and (ii) palaeoecological versus contemporary community comparisons. Palaeoecological samples contained assemblages that existed prior to major anthropogenic pressures, which were collected from a sinuous palaeochannel that was restored and reconnected during the study; after which contemporary macroinvertebrate samples were collected. The restored channel initially supported an impoverished community, but taxonomic richness and densities were comparable to non‐restored conditions after 13‐months. The freshwater shrimp (Gammarus pulex) and non‐native New Zealand mud snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) proliferated 7‐months post‐restoration, and follow‐up biomonitoring highlighted their dominance prevailed 5‐years later. Such evidence indicates how ecosystem dynamics in the aftermath of restoration can shape longer‐term recovery. Palaeoecological communities exhibited higher biodiversity and conservation values compared with contemporary samples. This highlights that escalating anthropogenic pressures since the mid‐20th Century degraded macroinvertebrate communities, notably constraining marginal‐dwelling and lentic specialists. With palaeochannel reconnections being widely applied worldwide, this study demonstrates the value in collecting palaeoecological data before restoration works to provide valuable baseline information. As the global anthropogenic footprint increasingly degrades suitable “reference” river environments, palaeoecological data can better characterize biodiversity losses and potentially provide target conditions informing effective restoration activities.
Approximate maximum likelihood estimation in cure models using aggregated data, with application to HPV vaccine completion
Authors: Rice John D. , Kempe Allison 
Published: September 2024

Research into vaccine hesitancy is a critical component of the public health enterprise, as rates of communicable diseases preventable by routine childhood immunization have been increasing in recent years. It is therefore important to estimate proportions of “never‐vaccinators” in various subgroups of the population in order to successfully target interventions to improve childhood vaccination rates. However, due to privacy issues, it may be difficult to obtain individual patient data (IPD) needed to perform the appropriate time‐to‐event analyses: state‐level immunization information services may only be willing to share aggregated data with researchers. We propose statistical methodology for the analysis of aggregated survival data that can accommodate a cured fraction based on a polynomial approximation of the mixture cure model log‐likelihood function relying only on summary statistics. We study the performance of the method through simulation studies and apply it to a real‐world data set from a study examining reminder/recall approaches to improve human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination uptake. The proposed methods may be generalized for use when there is interest in fitting complex likelihood‐based models but IPD is unavailable due to data privacy or other concerns.
A Causal Mediation Approach to Account for Interaction of Treatment and Intercurrent Events: Using Hypothetical Strategy
Authors: Wu Kunpeng , Zhang Xiangliang , Zheng Meng , Zhang Jianghui , Chen Wen 
Published: September 2024

ABSTRACTHypothetical strategy is a common strategy for handling intercurrent events (IEs). No current guideline or study considers treatment–IE interaction to target the estimand in any one IE‐handling strategy. Based on the hypothetical strategy, we aimed to (1) assess the performance of three estimators with different considerations for the treatment–IE interaction in a simulation and (2) compare the estimation of these estimators in a real trial. Simulation data were generalized based on realistic clinical trials of Alzheimer's disease. The estimand of interest was the effect of treatment with no IE occurring under the hypothetical strategy. Three estimators, namely, G‐estimation with and without interaction and IE‐ignored estimation, were compared in scenarios where the treatment–IE interaction effect was set as −50% to 50% of the main effect. Bias was the key performance measure. The real case was derived from a randomized trial of methadone maintenance treatment. Only G‐estimation with interaction exhibited unbiased estimations regardless of the existence, direction or magnitude of the treatment–IE interaction in those scenarios. Neglecting the interaction and ignoring the IE would introduce a bias as large as 0.093 and 0.241 (true value, −1.561) if the interaction effect existed. In the real case, compared with G‐estimation with interaction, G‐estimation without interaction and IE‐ignored estimation increased the estimand of interest by 33.55% and 34.36%, respectively. This study highlights the importance of considering treatment–IE interaction in the estimand framework. In practice, it would be better to include the interaction in the estimator by default.
A longitudinal examination of the psychometric properties of the English perceived stress scale‐ four (PSS‐4) in mental health counsellors using item response theory
Authors: Cook Ryan M. , Wind Stefanie A. , Fye Heather J. 
Published: September 2024

AbstractWe examined the longitudinal psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale – 4 items version (PSS‐4) using item response theory with a sample of 361 mental health counsellors. Participants completed the PSS‐4 at three timepoints at six‐month intervals in a one‐year period. There were 290 participants who (80.3%) identified as female, 51 (14.1%) identified as male, eight (2.2%) identified as gender variant/non‐conforming, seven (1.9%) wrote in their own gender identity (e.g., genderqueer, gender expansive), three (0.8%) identified as Transgender male, and two (0.6%) did not respond to the item. The racial and ethnic backgrounds were as follows: White (87.3%), Multiracial (5.5%), Latino or Hispanic or Spanish (2.8%), Black or African American (1.4%), Asian (0.8%), Middle Eastern (0.8%), and five did not respond to the item (1.4%). We found unidimensionality evidence of the PSS‐4 across all three timepoints and response categories were monotonically ordered. We also found that across all timepoints, the average person location was lower than the average item location, suggesting that the PSS‐4 may not be well‐targeted for this sample of mental health counsellors. We observed no significant interactions between timepoints, hours worked per week, and length of employment. Implications of the findings, including a discussion of the utility of the PSS‐4 as a global measure of stress and with mental health counsellors.
Induced Circularly Polarized Luminescence From 0D Quantum Dots by 2D Chiral Nanosheets
Authors: Xiao Yuqi , Shi Aiyan , Yang Guojian , Yu Yang , Nie Quan , Qi Shuyan , Xiang Chaoyu , Zhang Ting 
Published: September 2024

AbstractMaterials with circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) exhibit great application potential in biological scenes such as cell imaging, optical probes, etc. However, most developed materials are non‐aqueous and toxic, which seriously restricts their compatibility with the life systems. Thus, it is necessary to explore a water‐based CPL system with high biocompatibility so that to promote the biologic application process. Herein, a facile and efficient route to achieve the CPL properties of a functional aqueous solution is demonstrated by the combination of 0D quantum dots (QDs) and 2D chiral nanosheets. Benefited by the specific absorption ability of nanosheets for left/right‐handed CPL, the QDs adsorbed onto the surface of nanosheets through hydrogen bond interactions showed apparent CPL features. In addition, this system has a good extensibility as the CPL property can be effectively regulated by changing the kind of emissive QDs. More importantly, this water‐based nano‐composite with facile fabrication process (one‐step mixing) is suitable for the real applications, which is undoubtedly beneficial for the further progress of functional CPL materials.
Flow‐Chemistry Based Green Synthesis of Graphene Oxide at Minutes Timescale
Authors: Yu Xude , Xia Shunkai , Liu Hengyuan , Wu Xingjiang , Xu Jianhong 
Published: September 2024

AbstractGraphene oxide (GO) is broadly investigated in the electrochemical field. However, for industrial applications, it still suffer from high pollution, low efficiency, poor production quality, and safety concerns associated with traditional synthesis methods. Herein, guided by theoretical analyses, a new oxygen‐atom‐transfer (OAT) mechanism for periodate oxidizing graphite is revealed, exhibiting controllable reaction activity, strong orbital interaction, and abundant electron transfer. Moreover, a flow chemistry strategy with high mass/heat transfer rates is designed to enhance interlayer diffusion and reaction dynamics between oxidants and graphite, ensuring the efficient synthesis of GO within several minutes. As a result, both low oxygen‐content GO with large size, and high oxygen‐content GO with adequate active sites can be precisely and safely synthesized. Benefitting from the controllability of oxygen content and lateral size, the as‐prepared GO sheets can be facilely assembled into fiber/film electrodes that present high mechanical flexibility, large electrical conductivity, and outstanding electrochemical performance.
How the Federal Reserve got so huge, and why and how it can shrink
Authors: Nelson Bill 
Published: September 2024

AbstractFollowing the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, the Federal Reserve underwent a significant shift in how it implemented monetary policy, transitioning to an excessive‐reserves framework that it had deemed too radical and rejected just months prior. This shift involved borrowing excessive reserves from banks, deviating from its traditional method of borrowing only the amount banks needed to meet reserve requirements and address clearing needs. Despite initial intentions to revert to the necessary‐reserves framework, subsequent developments, including three rounds of quantitative easing, led to the permanent adoption of the excessive‐reserves approach in January 2019 by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). This decision was a mistake. The framework has not yielded the purported benefits, such as simpler policy implementation, and has required the Fed to be vastly larger than originally anticipated. Advocates of the excessive‐reserves approach argue it aligns with the Friedman rule, but alternatives like a voluntary‐reserve‐requirement regime could achieve similar outcomes without the drawbacks.
‘It's like English is given more emphasis than the topic’: Designing materials in English language teacher education
Authors: Carabantes Luis 
Published: September 2024

AbstractDespite decades of curricular change and the introduction of language pedagogies emphasising meaning and communication, teachers of English in Chilean schools still tend to favour traditional methods and focus largely on discrete language. Using data from stimulated recalls, interviews and observations with preservice teachers, interviews with teacher educators and schoolteachers and analysis of official documents and materials, the article explores the design of materials by a group of Chilean preservice teachers and identifies why one of the main rationales mediating their materials design is subordinating topics, the content‐related themes guiding lessons, such as culture, historical characters and lifestyles, to discrete language. The preservice teachers' beliefs, their mentoring teachers and contradictions within the national curriculum emerged as pivotal factors reinforcing this phenomenon. Data also suggests that the ways in which teacher education standards are adopted by their teacher education programme could reinforce this subordination of topics, notwithstanding the standards' communicative orientation. The article stresses the need to provide more materials development instruction in teacher education, it highlights the need to re‐evaluate how the standardisation of teacher education is adopted by teacher education institutions and shows that researching materials design can illuminate persisting issues in language education.
Recurrent adult urinary tract infection secondary to unrecognized ureterocele urolithiasis
Authors: Wu Katherine , Jing James 
Published: September 2024

AbstractBackgroundA ureterocele is a cystic dilation of the distal ureter, most commonly presenting as a congenital abnormality that may be associated with other renal anomalies. Ureteroceles present in a variety of manifestations in both children and adults, from asymptomatic to significant flank pain with urolithiasis or recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) that often mimic other more common renal pathologies, owing to its challenging clinical diagnosis.Case PresentationWe report the case of a 78‐year‐old female patient who presented with recurrent UTIs and failure to thrive, complicated by a large stone that first presented in the bladder on computed tomography scan and was later found in the distal right ureter.ConclusionThis case underscores the varied and often deceptive clinical presentation of ureterocele, stressing the importance of timely diagnosis to prevent secondary complications.