bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
On the dual nature of lichen‐induced rock surface weathering in contrasting micro‐environments
Authors: Marques Joana , Gonçalves João , Oliveira Cláudia , Favero‐Longo Sergio E. , Paz‐Bermúdez Graciela , Almeida Rubim , Prieto Beatriz 
Published: July 2016

AbstractContradictory evidence from biogeomorphological studies has increased the debate on the extent of lichen contribution to differential rock surface weathering in both natural and cultural settings. This study, undertaken in Côa Valley Archaeological Park, aimed at evaluating the effect of rock surface orientation on the weathering ability of dominant lichens. Hyphal penetration and oxalate formation at the lichen‐rock interface were evaluated as proxies of physical and chemical weathering, respectively. A new protocol of pixel‐based supervised image classification for the analysis of periodic acid‐Schiff stained cross‐sections of colonized schist revealed that hyphal spread of individual species was not influenced by surface orientation. However, hyphal spread was significantly higher in species dominant on northwest facing surfaces. An apparently opposite effect was noticed in terms of calcium oxalate accumulation at the lichen‐rock interface; it was detected by Raman spectroscopy and complementary X‐ray microdiffraction on southeast facing surfaces only. These results suggest that lichen‐induced physical weathering may be most severe on northwest facing surfaces by means of an indirect effect of surface orientation on species abundance, and thus dependent on the species, whereas lichen‐induced chemical weathering is apparently higher on southeast facing surfaces and dependent on micro‐environmental conditions, giving only weak support to the hypothesis that lichens are responsible for the currently observed pattern of rock‐art distribution in Côa Valley. Assumptions about the drivers of open‐air rock‐art distribution patterns elsewhere should also consider the micro‐environmental controls of lichen‐induced weathering, to avoid biased measures of lichen contribution to rock‐art deterioration.
DC Fault Clearing Characteristics of a Bulk Power VSC HVDC Transmission System using DC Circuit Breakers
Authors: KIMURA RYOTA , YOKOYAMA AKIHIKO , SANO KENICHIRO 
Published: July 2016

SUMMARYDevelopment of wind power generation resources is considered in Japan. However, long‐distance transmission lines are necessary to utilize the wind power because most of the wind power resources are distant from load centers. A voltage source converter based high voltage dc transmission (VSC HVDC) system is an option to realize their effective use. A VSC HVDC system equipped with dc circuit breakers has been considered to clear the dc line faults promptly. However, the fault clearing characteristics by the dc circuit breakers have not been analyzed very well for the system with the long distance overhead transmission line. This paper focuses on a fault clearing in the VSC HVDC system with long‐distance overhead line by the dc circuit breaker using a new fault detection method. A 2.4‐GW bipolar VSC HVDC system with 600‐km overhead transmission line is modeled and its operation performance is verified by computer simulations. The simulation results demonstrate the detailed fault clearing characteristics with the long transmission line. Moreover, specifications required for the dc circuit breakers are considered in terms of operation delay, peak current, and absorbed energy.
An Equalization Time Reduction Method Using a Pseudo‐Random Number Sequence for a Cell Voltage Equalization Circuit with an LC Series Circuit
Authors: SATOU DAIKI , HOSHI NOBUKAZU 
Published: July 2016

SUMMARYWhen the cells of energy storage devices such as electric double‐layer capacitors are connected in series, it results in voltage imbalance in each cell because of the nonuniform properties of the individual cells. In a previous research, the authors proposed a novel cell voltage equalization circuit using an LC series circuit, and they examined the effectiveness of this circuit. However, the characteristics of the cell voltage equalization operation depend on each cell voltage difference. Therefore, the proposed circuit has a disadvantage that the equalization time tends to be longer than other cell voltage equalization circuits with a boosting circuit. This paper proposes an equalization time reduction method that uses a pseudo‐random number sequence generated by the linear congruential generators. The proposed method can reduce the average equalization time without adding any other active or passive elements. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through the experimental results. According to the experimental results, the proposed equalization time reduction method reduces the equalization time to 86.5% of the conventional method.
Variable Magnetization Machine in Electrified Vehicle Application
Authors: FUKUSHIGE TAKASHI , KATO TAKASHI , AKATSU KAN , LORENZ ROBERT D. 
Published: July 2016

SUMMARYThis paper describes variable magnetization machines, which are capable of varying the magnetization state (MS) of permanent magnets during operation. A pulse current on the stator windings creates a magnetic field on the rotor; this can be used to manipulate the MS of the rotor magnets. Regulating the MS according to the machine operating condition can reduce machine losses. A proof‐of‐principle machine was designed and fabricated. A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate the torque–speed envelope and efficiency contours of the fabricated machine. A full‐scale machine was then designed with a modified magnetic circuit for application to an electric vehicle and evaluated using finite element analysis. A control strategy for the MS during machine operation is proposed, and the losses during a driving cycle with the strategy were evaluated.
Sulfur versus Dioxygen: Dinuclear (Trisulfido)copper Complexes
Authors: Wern Miriam , Hoppe Tobias , Becker Jonathan , Zahn Stefan , Mollenhauer Doreen , Schindler Siegfried 
Published: July 2016

AbstractInvited for the cover of this issue are the groups of Siegfried Schindler and Doreen Mollenhauer from the Justus‐Liebig University Gießen, Germany. The cover image shows the reaction of a copper(I) complex with elemental sulfur.
A single step protein assay that is both detergent and reducer compatible: The cydex blue assay
Authors: Rabilloud Thierry 
Published: July 2016

Determination of protein concentration is often an absolute prerequisite in preparing samples for biochemical and proteomic analyses. However, current protein assay methods are not compatible with both reducers and detergents, which are however present simultaneously in most denaturing extraction buffers used in proteomics and electrophoresis, and in particular in SDS electrophoresis. It was found that inclusion of cyclodextrins in a Coomassie blue‐based assay made it compatible with detergents, as cyclodextrins complex detergents in a 1:1 molecular ratio. As this type of assay is intrinsically resistant to reducers, a single‐step assay that is both detergent and reducer compatible was developed. Depending on the type and concentration of detergents present in the sample buffer, either beta‐cyclodextrin or alpha‐cyclodextrin can be used, the former being able to complex a wider range of detergents and the latter being able to complex higher amounts of detergents due to its greater solubility in water. Cyclodextrins are used at final concentrations of 2–10 mg/mL in the assay mix. This typically allows to measure samples containing as little as 0.1 mg/mL protein, in the presence of up to 2% detergent and reducers such as 5% mercaptoethanol or 50 mM DTT in a single step with a simple spectrophotometric assay.
Interface transport scheme of a two‐phase flow by the method of characteristics
Authors: Haddad Mireille , Hecht Frédéric , Sayah Toni 
Published: July 2016

SummaryIn this paper, we study an interface transport scheme of a two‐phase flow of an incompressible viscous immiscible fluid. The problem is discretized by the characteristics method in time and finite elements method in space. The interface is captured by the level set function. Appropriate boundary conditions for the problem of mold filling are investigated, a new natural boundary condition under pressure effect for the transport equation is proposed, and an algorithm for computing the solution is presented. Finally, numerical experiments show and validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Spatial GR4J conceptualization of the Tamor glaciated alpine catchment in Eastern Nepal: evaluation of GR4JSG against streamflow and MODIS snow extent
Authors: Nepal Santosh , Chen Jie , Penton David J. , Neumann Luis E. , Zheng Hongxing , Wahid Shahriar 
Published: July 2016

AbstractSnow and glacial melt processes are an important part of the Himalayan water balance. Correct quantification of melt runoff processes is necessary to understand the region's vulnerability to climate change. This paper describes in detail an application of conceptual GR4J hydrological model in the Tamor catchment in Eastern Nepal using typical elevation band and degree‐day factor approaches to model Himalayan snow and glacial melt processes. The model aims to provide a simple model that meets most water planning applications. The paper contributes a model conceptualization (GR4JSG) that enables coarse evaluation of modelled snow extents against remotely sensed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer snow extent. Novel aspects include the glacial store in GR4JSG and examination of how the parameters controlling snow and glacial stores correlate with existing parameters of GR4J. The model is calibrated using a Bayesian Monte Carlo Markov Chain method against observed streamflow for one glaciated catchment with reliable data. Evaluation of the modelled streamflow with observed streamflow gave Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.88 and Percent Bias of <4%. Comparison of the modelled snow extents with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer gaveR2of 0.46, with calibration against streamflow only. The contribution of melt runoff to total discharge from the catchment is 14–16% across different experiments. The model is highly sensitive to rainfall and temperature data, which suffer from known problems and biases, for example because of stations being located predominantly in valleys and at lower elevations. Testing of the model in other Himalayan catchments may reveal additional limitations. © 2016 The Authors.Hydrological Processespublished by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Frequency analysis of nonstationary annual maximum flood series using the time‐varying two‐component mixture distributions
Authors: Yan Lei , Xiong Lihua , Liu Dedi , Hu Tiesong , Xu Chong‐Yu 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThe most popular practice for analysing nonstationarity of flood series is to use a fixed single‐type probability distribution incorporated with the time‐varying moments. However, the type of probability distribution could be both complex because of distinct flood populations and time‐varying under changing environments. To allow the investigation of this complex nature, the time‐varying two‐component mixture distributions (TTMD) method is proposed in this study by considering the time variations of not only the moments of its component distributions but also the weighting coefficients. Having identified the existence of mixed flood populations based on circular statistics, the proposed TTMD was applied to model the annual maximum flood series of two stations in the Weihe River basin, with the model parameters calibrated by the meta‐heuristic maximum likelihood method. The performance of TTMD was evaluated by different diagnostic plots and indexes and compared with stationary single‐type distributions, stationary mixture distributions and time‐varying single‐type distributions. The results highlighted the advantages of TTMD with physically‐based covariates for both stations. Besides, the optimal TTMD models were considered to be capable of settling the issue of nonstationarity and capturing the mixed flood populations satisfactorily. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Impact of the Fukushima accident on marine biota, five years later
Authors: Vives i Batlle Jordi 
Published: July 2016

Abstract
In a previous commentary written in 2011 in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident in Japan, I summarized what was then understood about the effects of accidental radioactive discharges to marine life and forecasted into the future how the marine environment would likely be affected. Since that time, several studies have been conducted on the impact of the accident on marine organisms, and radiation doses arising thereof. I developed a dynamic transfer model for studying the bioaccumulation of Fukushima radionuclides in marine biota and assessed the impact and likelihood of effects to marine life. In the present article, I highlight the lessons learned over the past 5 years. I address whether the environmental consequences in the marine environment are as significant as initially feared and, with respect to the current situation, what remains to be investigated as the radioactivity continues to spread in the marine environment. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016;12:654–658. © 2016 SETAC.
Transplantation of Haploidentical TcRaß-Depleted Hematopoietic Cells Allows for Optimal Timing and Sustained Correction of the Metabolic Defect in Children With Infantile Osteopetrosis
Authors: Pronk Cornelis JH , Turkiewicz Dominik , Vult von Steyern Kristina , Ehinger Mats , Dykes Josefina , Toporski Jacek 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACT

In osteopetrosis, osteoclast dysfunction can lead to deafness, blindness, bone marrow failure, and death. Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is currently the only curative treatment, but outcome remains disappointing. Although a rapid progression toward HCT is detrimental to prevent further progress of disease manifestations, 70% of cases lack an HLA-matched sibling and require alternative stem cell sources. We present two cases of osteopetrosis that successfully received an HCT with haploidentical TcRαβ-depleted cells from one of the parents. These cases showed no further disease progression, had restoration of functional osteoclasts, and illustrate this approach to enable prompt HCT with ready available parental donors and rapid and sustained hematological, including osteoclast, recovery. © 2016 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Diagnostic accuracy of hepatorenal index in the detection and grading of hepatic steatosis
Authors: Chauhan Anil , Sultan Laith R. , Furth Emma E. , Jones Lisa P. , Khungar Vandana , Sehgal Chandra M. 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACTPurposeThe objectives of our study were to assess the accuracy of hepatorenal index (HRI) in detection and grading of hepatic steatosis and to evaluate various factors that can affect the HRI measurement.MethodsForty‐five patients, who had undergone an abdominal sonographic examination within 30 days of liver biopsy, were enrolled. The HRI was calculated as the ratio of the mean brightness levels of the liver and renal parenchymas. The effect of the measurement technique on the HRI was evaluated by using various sizes, depths, and locations of the regions of interest (ROIs) in the liver. The measurements were obtained by two observers. The HRI was compared with the subjective grading of steatosis.ResultsThe optimal HRI cutoff to detect steatosis was 2.01, yielding a sensitivity of 62.5% and specificity of 95.2%. Subjective grading had a sensitivity of 87.5% and specificity of 62.5%. HRIs of the hepatic steatosis group were statistically different from the no‐steatosis group (p < 0.05). However, there was no statistically significant difference between mild steatosis and no‐steatosis groups (p value = 0.72). There was a strong correlation between different HRIs based on variable placements of ROIs, except when the ROIs were positioned randomly. Interclass correlation coefficient for measurements performed by two observers was 0.74 (confidence interval: 0.58–0.86).ConclusionsThe HRI is an effective tool for detecting hepatic steatosis. It provides similar accuracy for different methods of ROI placement (except for random placement) and has good interobserver agreement. It, however, is unable to effectively differentiate between absent and mild steatosis. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 44:580–586, 2016
Optimization of protein–protein docking for predicting Fc–protein interactions
Authors: Agostino Mark , Mancera Ricardo L. , Ramsland Paul A. , Fernández‐Recio Juan 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThe antibody crystallizable fragment (Fc) is recognized by effector proteins as part of the immune system. Pathogens produce proteins that bind Fc in order to subvert or evade the immune response. The structural characterization of the determinants of Fc–protein association is essential to improve our understanding of the immune system at the molecular level and to develop new therapeutic agents. Furthermore, Fc‐binding peptides and proteins are frequently used to purify therapeutic antibodies. Although several structures of Fc–protein complexes are available, numerous others have not yet been determined. Protein–protein docking could be used to investigate Fc–protein complexes; however, improved approaches are necessary to efficiently model such cases. In this study, a docking‐based structural bioinformatics approach is developed for predicting the structures of Fc–protein complexes. Based on the available set of X‐ray structures of Fc–protein complexes, three regions of the Fc, loosely corresponding to three turns within the structure, were defined as containing the essential features for protein recognition and used as restraints to filter the initial docking search. Rescoring the filtered poses with an optimal scoring strategy provided a success rate of approximately 80% of the test cases examined within the top ranked 20 poses, compared to approximately 20% by the initial unrestrained docking. The developed docking protocol provides a significant improvement over the initial unrestrained docking and will be valuable for predicting the structures of currently undetermined Fc–protein complexes, as well as in the design of peptides and proteins that target Fc.
Well‐Defined Poly(ethylene glycol) Hydrogels with Enhanced Mechanical Performance Prepared by Thermally Induced Copper‐Catalyzed Azide–Alkyne Cycloaddition
Authors: Li Ke Wen , Cen Lian , Zhou Chao , Zhang Ao Kai , Yao Fang , Tan Lin Hua , Xu Li Qun , Fu Guo Dong 
Published: July 2016

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)‐based hydrogels have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their good biocompatibility and low cost. However, the PEG‐based hydrogels prepared by traditional methods exhibit a poor machinability due to their disordered network structure. Herein, the preparation of well‐defined PEG‐based hydrogel via a facile thermally induced copper‐catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction is demonstrated. To accomplish this, thermochemically reduced Cu(I) catalyst is adopted to trigger “click” cross‐linking, resulting in a well‐defined PEG network. The as‐synthesized PEG‐based hydrogel exhibits good mechanical performance with a tensile strength of 2.51 MPa, which is higher than the traditional PEG‐based hydrogels prepared from CuSO4/NaSac‐mediated or CuBr/ligand‐catalyzed CuAAC. Moreover, in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo porcine subcutaneous implantation tests demonstrate that the as‐synthesized PEG‐based hydrogel has a good biocompatibility and low toxicity, making it a promising candidate for the applications in biomedical devices and tissue engineering.image
Value‐added quantitative medium‐range rainfall forecasts for the BIMSTEC region
Authors: Joshi Madhu , Kar S. C. 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACT:Daily operational forecasts from the global models run at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), India were assessed for their skill during the southwest monsoon for member countries of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi‐Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). The rainfall forecasts from two models, NCMRWF Global Forecast System (NGFS) and NCMRWF Unified Model (NCUM), were used to carry out the verification study for July and August 2013 and 2014. The skills were analysed in terms of equitable threat score (ETS), Hansen–Kuiper skill score (HKS) and the economic value for various rainfall thresholds. The ETS had a positive value for all of the thresholds up to the Day 10 forecast for both years. The HKS and economic value for binary forecast of Yes rain (prediction that rainfall event will occur) suggest that the model has significant positive skills. Deterministic forecast for four rainfall thresholds show negative skills, suggesting that false alarms increase as forecasts are made for smaller rainfall thresholds. To improve the skill scores, forecasted data were processed using simple bias correction, relative co‐efficient of variance (Rvar) method and the best easy systematic error (BESE) correction method. Correlation of the processed forecasts with model forecasts suggests an improvement using the bias correction and Rvar method but not using the BESE method. Significant improvement in the HKS and economic value of processed forecasts using the bias correction method has been noticed over most parts of the BIMSTEC region, except for the Western Ghats.
Improving road weather model forecasts by adjusting the radiation input
Authors: Karsisto Virve , Nurmi Pertti , Kangas Markku , Hippi Marjo , Fortelius Carl , Niemelä Sami , Järvinen Heikki 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACTConsiderable savings in winter road maintenance and accident costs can be achieved with accurate road weather forecasts. Forecasting road surface freezing time accurately enables the timely start of salting and thus ensures safety on roads. The optimal use of road weather observations is essential for the accuracy of short‐range road condition forecasts. Road weather models incorporate radiation and other atmospheric variables from numerical weather prediction models. In this study, observations were used to correct the forecast radiation and thus improve road weather forecasts for a set of specific sites. Eighteen different configurations of this methodology were tested for 20 road weather stations in Finland during the autumn–winter period 3 October 2013 to 13 January 2014. This study shows that the coupling method has potential to significantly improve road surface temperature forecasts. Two model configurations in particular turned out to be better than the others giving almost equally good road surface temperature forecasts. It was found that the length of the adjustment period using the corrected radiation had only a slight effect on the results. The outcome of this study can be used to improve road weather models and thus achieve more accurate forecasts.