bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rural tourism in Lebanon : what does the market reveal ?
Authors: Ghadban Socrat , Shames Maya , Abou Arrage Jad , Abou Fayyad Amal 
Published: December 2017

Plusieurs types de tourisme ont des aspects communs avec le tourisme rural tels que l’agro-tourisme, le tourisme communautaire et l’écotourisme. Le tourisme local représente un outil important pour générer des revenus au profit des communautés rurales. En revanche, la mauvaise planification et la gestion inefficace peuvent parfois conduire à des résultats indésirables au niveau des destinations rurales, ce qui nuit au patrimoine naturel et culturel. Durant les dix dernières années, le Liban a connu une croissance du tourisme rural. Toutefois, il n’y a pas d’étude scientifique réalisée sur ce marché de la part de l’offre, ni de la part de la demande touristique. Cette étude vise à analyser la demande du tourisme rural afin de mieux gérer et promouvoir ce marché en pleine croissance. Les résultats présentent des preuves sur les besoins, les préférences et les attentes des visiteurs provenant majoritairement des régions urbaines, ainsi que les différents facteurs qui les influencent. La collecte des données a été réalisée en mai 2014, au cours de l’exposition « Travel Lebanon » dédié à promouvoir le tourisme rural au Liban. Un échantillon de 436 individus, en majorité provenant du milieu urbain du Liban, a révélé des éclaircissements importants sur la perception et le comportement des visiteurs potentiels. Les caractéristiques personnelles, en particulier, le revenu et le contexte culturel des visiteurs interrogés ont été identifiés comme les principaux facteurs qui influencent leurs décisions et préférences concernant les différents services du tourisme. Les résultats ont également révélé un manque de conscience des personnes interrogées sur les questions du tourisme durable dans les zones rurales et une perception du visiteur qui est différente de ce qui est actuellement fourni par les acteurs du tourisme.
Votre équipe souffre-t-elle d’infobesite ?
Authors: Bertholet Jean-François , Gaudet Marie-Claude 
Published: December 2017

La surcharge d’information est un des plus grands défis humains et sociaux de notre époque. Parfois appelée infobésité, cette surcharge atteint un seuil critique lorsque nous recevons tellement d’information que nous n’arrivons plus à la traiter adéquatement. Votre équipe a-t-elle atteint ce point ? Faites le test !
Endothelial Dysfunction in Early Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients and Controls Without Previous Cardiovascular Events
Authors: Taraborelli Mara , Sciatti Edoardo , Bonadei Ivano , Terlizzi Vincenzo , Fredi Micaela , Zani Roberta , Cancarini Giovanni , Tincani Angela , Franceschini Franco , Vizzardi Enrico , Cavazzana Ilaria 
Published: December 2017

ObjectiveTo assess the prevalence and risk factors for endothelial dysfunction detected by peripheral artery tonometry in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with early disease without cardiovascular disease and risk factors.MethodsAll the consecutive adult lupus patients, with a disease duration <5 years, seen in our hospital from December 2014 to March 2016 were considered. We excluded patients with any history of cardiovascular disease or risk factors possibly affecting peripheral artery tonometry. Enrolled patients were matched for sex, age, body mass index, and blood pressure with healthy controls with the same exclusion criteria. Patients and controls received a transthoracic Doppler echocardiogram and an evaluation of endothelial function by peripheral artery tonometry.ResultsTwenty patients (100% female) with a median disease duration of 14 months (range 1–58 months), a mean ± SD age of 42 ± 15 years, and a mean ± SD age at diagnosis of 40 ± 16 years were enrolled and matched with 20 controls. Peripheral artery tonometry showed a significantly higher prevalence of endothelial dysfunction (P = 0.003) and vascular stiffness (P = 0.02), while echocardiography detected a significantly higher prevalence of left ventricular concentric remodeling (P = 0.003), grade I diastolic dysfunction (P = 0.047), and subclinical increase of filling pressures (P = 0.039) in lupus patients compared to controls. Among lupus patients, no features were associated with endothelial dysfunction.ConclusionA high rate of endothelial dysfunction and vascular stiffness occurs in early lupus patients without cardiovascular risk factors and disease. Larger studies are needed to confirm our results and to look for patients’ characteristics possibly associated with these abnormalities.
Online self‐tuning mechanism for direct adaptive control of tall building
Authors: Hosseini Amin , Taghikhany Touraj 
Published: December 2017

SummaryThe simple adaptive control (SAC) method is known as a remarkable solution to reduce the negative influence of different uncertainties on active control of building structures during an earthquake. The design parameters of this direct adaptive control algorithm are determined after a large number of sensitivity analyses. Furthermore, the selected parameters will not necessarily lead a controller to the optimum performance of the structure. Herein, an innovative online self‐tuning method is firstly introduced to improve the SAC method and cancel out excessive sensitivity analysis. Accordingly, a fuzzy inference system is designed to select the appropriate SAC method, adjusting parameters online instead of using fixed parameters. To show the efficiency of the introduced method, a 20‐story steel building structure equipped with magnetorheological dampers in each story is considered as a benchmark control. The performance of the designed control system is evaluated in different condition of base excitation with and without uncertainty in the model of the proposed structure. The results from the numerical simulations show that the introduced method has better performance than the SAC method with fixed adjusting parameters. The predominance of the method becomes clearer when an input ground motion to the control system has completely different characteristics than the initial designed seismic excitation.
Self‐Powered Vehicle Emission Testing System Based on Coupling of Triboelectric and Chemoresistive Effects
Authors: Shen Qingqing , Xie Xinkai , Peng Mingfa , Sun Na , Shao Huiyun , Zheng Hechuang , Wen Zhen , Sun Xuhui 
Published: December 2017

AbstractTraditional triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)‐based self‐powered chemical‐sensing systems are demonstrated by measuring the triboelectric effect of the sensing materials altered by the external stimulus. However, the limitations of triboelectric sensing materials and instable outputs caused by ambient environment significantly restrict their practical applications. In this work, a stable and reliable self‐powered chemical‐sensing system is proposed by coupling triboelectric effect and chemoresistive effect. The whole system is constructed as the demo of a self‐powered vehicle emission test system by connecting a vertical contact–separate mode TENG as energy harvester with a series‐connection resistance‐type gas sensor as exhaust detector and the parallel‐connection commercial light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) as alarm. The output voltage of TENG varies with the variable working states of the gas sensor and then directly reflects on the on/off status of the LEDs. The working mechanism can be ascribed to the specific output characteristics of the TENG tuned by the load resistance of the gas sensor, which is responded to the gas environment. This self‐powered sensing system is not affected by working frequency and requires no external power supply, which is favorable to improve the stability and reliability for practical application.
Emerging Nanoclay Composite for Effective Hemostasis
Authors: Long Mei , Zhang Yi , Huang Peng , Chang Shi , Hu Yuehua , Yang Qian , Mao Linfeng , Yang Huaming 
Published: December 2017

AbstractUncontrolled bleeding following trauma is associated with a high risk of death. Here, an emerging kaolinite nanoclay composite (iron oxide‐kaolinite, α‐Fe2O3‐kaolinKAc) is developed, based on the natural hemostat hematitum used in traditional Chinese medicine to effectively control hemorrhage. α‐Fe2O3‐kaolinKAc stops bleeding in ≈183 ± 16 s and exhibits higher hemostatic activity than the related compounds FeOOH‐kaolinKAc (298 ± 14 s), γ‐Fe2O3‐kaolinKAc (212 ± 11 s), and Fe3O4‐kaolinKAc (218 ± 15 s). This rapid effect is attributed to efficient absorption of the fluid in blood, activation of blood platelets, and induction of the coagulation cascade by kaolinite and the aggregation of red blood cells induced by α‐Fe2O3. α‐Fe2O3‐kaolinKAc shows slight hemolysis (<0.11%) as compared to kaolinite (30%), which accelerates wound healing. The biocompatibility, hemostatic activity, and low cost of α‐Fe2O3‐kaolinKAc make it a safe and effective agent for preventing massive blood loss after traumatic injury.
Potential‐Specific Structure at the Hematite–Electrolyte Interface
Authors: McBriarty Martin E. , Stubbs Joanne E. , Eng Peter J. , Rosso Kevin M. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThe atomic‐scale structure of the interface between a transition metal oxide and aqueous electrolyte regulates the interfacial chemical reactions fundamental to (photo)electrochemical energy conversion and electrode degradation. Measurements that probe oxide–electrolyte interfaces in situ provide important details of ion and solvent arrangements, but atomically precise structural models do not exist for common oxide–electrolyte interfaces far from equilibrium. Using a novel cell, the structure of the hematite (α‐Fe2O3) ()–electrolyte interface is measured under controlled electrochemical bias using synchrotron crystal truncation rod X‐ray scattering. At increasingly cathodic potentials, charge‐compensating protonation of surface oxygen groups increases the coverage of specifically bound water while adjacent water layers displace outwardly and became disordered. Returning to open circuit potential leaves the surface in a persistent metastable state. Therefore, the flux of current and ions across the interface is regulated by multiple electrolyte layers whose specific structure and polarization change in response to the applied potential. The study reveals the complex environment underlying the simplified electrical double layer models used to interpret electrochemical measurements and emphasizes the importance of condition‐specific structural characterization for properly understanding catalytic processes at functional transition metal oxide–electrolyte interfaces.
Self‐Standing Porous LiCoO2 Nanosheet Arrays as 3D Cathodes for Flexible Li‐Ion Batteries
Authors: Xue Liang , Savilov Serguei V. , Lunin Valery V. , Xia Hui 
Published: December 2017

AbstractSelf‐standing electrodes are the key to realize flexible Li‐ion batteries. However, fabrication of self‐standing cathodes is still a major challenge. In this work, porous LiCoO2 nanosheet arrays are grown on Au‐coated stainless steel (Au/SS) substrates via a facile “hydrothermal lithiation” method using Co3O4 nanosheet arrays as the template followed by quick annealing in air. The binder‐free and self‐standing LiCoO2 nanosheet arrays represent the 3D cathode and exhibit superior rate capability and cycling stability. In specific, the LiCoO2 nanosheet array electrode can deliver a high reversible capacity of 104.6 mA h g−1 at 10 C rate and achieve a capacity retention of 81.8% at 0.1 C rate after 1000 cycles. By coupling with Li4Ti5O12 nanosheet arrays as anode, an all‐nanosheet array based LiCoO2//Li4Ti5O12 flexible Li‐ion battery is constructed. Benefiting from the 3D nanoarchitectures for both cathode and anode, the flexible LiCoO2//Li4Ti5O12 battery can deliver large specific reversible capacities of 130.7 mA h g−1 at 0.1 C rate and 85.3 mA h g−1 at 10 C rate (based on the weight of cathode material). The full cell device also exhibits good cycling stability with 80.5% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 0.1 C rate, making it promising for the application in flexible Li‐ion batteries.
Motor sequence awareness is impaired in dystonia despite normal performance
Authors: Jaynes Molly J. , Mink Jonathan W. 
Published: December 2017

ObjectiveDystonia is a movement disorder that has been associated with impaired motor learning and sequence recognition. However, despite evidence that patients with dystonia have a reduced sense of agency, it is unclear whether dystonia is specifically associated with impaired recognition of a movement sequence. We have shown previously that performance consistency in the temporal and kinematic domains predicts awareness of underlying motor patterns in a finger‐tapping task. Since movements in dystonia are characterized by high variability, we predicted that subjects with dystonia would have decreased motor sequence awareness.MethodsSubjects with dystonia (n = 20) and healthy control adults (n = 30) performed finger‐tapping sequences with a common motor pattern and changing stimulus‐to‐response mappings. Subjects were said to be “aware” of the motor pattern if they recognized that their fingers moved in the same order during each stimulus‐to‐response remapping.ResultsSubjects with dystonia had decreased motor pattern awareness, but those differences were not due to greater performance variability. Subjects with dystonia tapped sequences as series of discrete movements, rather than as a combined series.InterpretationDystonia is associated with impaired recognition of a repeating movement pattern. This difference may result from a strategy of separating sequential elements and attending to them individually. Ann Neurol 2018;83:52–60
Achilles’ Heel of Lithium–Air Batteries: Lithium Carbonate
Authors: Zhao Zhiwei , Huang Jun , Peng Zhangquan 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThe lithium–air battery (LAB) is envisaged as an ultimate energy storage device because of its highest theoretical specific energy among all known batteries. However, parasitic reactions bring about vexing issues on the efficiency and longevity of the LAB, among which the formation and decomposition of lithium carbonate Li2CO3 is of paramount importance. The discovery of Li2CO3 as the main discharge product in carbonate‐based electrolytes once brought researchers to “the end of the idyll“ in the early 2010s. In the past few years, tremendous efforts have been made to understand the formation and decomposition mechanisms of Li2CO3, as well as to conceive novel chemical/material strategies to suppress the Li2CO3 formation and to facilitate the Li2CO3 decomposition. Moreover, the study on Li2CO3 in LABs is opening up a new research field in energy technology. Considering the rapid development and innumerous emerging issues, it is timely to recapitulate the current understandings, define the ambiguities and the scientific gaps, and discuss topics of high priority for future research, which is the aim of this Minireview.
Influence of crosslinking methods toward poly(vinyl alcohol) properties: Microwave irradiation and conventional heating
Authors: Sonker Amit Kumar , Verma Vivek 
Published: December 2017

ABSTRACTIn this study, crosslinking of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with tartaric acid, as crosslinker, is performed using microwave irradiation. A comparison between the properties of PVA crosslinked using microwave irradiation and conventional heating methods is also discussed. While the water absorption, tensile and thermal properties of PVA crosslinked by either of the methods are comparable, microwave irradiation took only one‐eighth (14 min) of the time compared to conventional heating. In comparison with PVA (42 MPa), the strength of PVA crosslinked with 35% TA increased to 145 and 153 MPa for conventional heating and microwave irradiation, respectively. Water absorption of crosslinked PVA film is successively reduced to less than 30% in comparison with PVA (∼200%). Moreover, the crosslinked films are stable at higher temperatures in comparison with PVA. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46125.
2D or Not 2D? Testing the Utility of 2D Vs. 3D Landmark Data in Geometric Morphometrics of the Sculpin Subfamily Oligocottinae (Pisces; Cottoidea)
Authors: Buser Thaddaeus J. , Sidlauskas Brian L. , Summers Adam P. 
Published: December 2017

ABSTRACTWe contrast 2D vs. 3D landmark‐based geometric morphometrics in the fish subfamily Oligocottinae by using 3D landmarks from CT‐generated models and comparing the morphospace of the 3D landmarks to one based on 2D landmarks from images. The 2D and 3D shape variables capture common patterns across taxa, such that the pairwise Procrustes distances among taxa correspond and the trends captured by principal component analysis are similar in the xy plane. We use the two sets of landmarks to test several ecomorphological hypotheses from the literature. Both 2D and 3D data reject the hypothesis that head shape correlates significantly with the depth at which a species is commonly found. However, in taxa where shape variation in the z‐axis is high, the 2D shape variables show sufficiently strong distortion to influence the outcome of the hypothesis tests regarding the relationship between mouth size and feeding ecology. Only the 3D data support previous studies which showed that large mouth sizes correlate positively with high percentages of elusive prey in the diet. When used to test for morphological divergence, 3D data show no evidence of divergence, while 2D data show that one clade of oligocottines has diverged from all others. This clade shows the greatest degree of z‐axis body depth within Oligocottinae, and we conclude that the inability of the 2D approach to capture this lateral body depth causes the incongruence between 2D and 3D analyses. Anat Rec, 301:806–818, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Myricetin Induces Protective Autophagy by Inhibiting the Phosphorylation of mTOR in HepG2 Cells
Authors: Cao Jianping , Chen Hanwen , Lu Wei , Wu Yihua , Wu Xia , Xia Dajing , Zhu Jiang 
Published: December 2017

ABSTRACTMyricetin, a natural flavonoid present in a variety of fruits and vegetables, has been studied as a promising cancer chemopreventive agent in many cancer models. It has been reported that myricetin could inhibit tumor promotion by inducing cell cycle arrest and promoting apoptotic cell death. At present, autophagy is considered to be closely associated with cancer, functioning as either an anti‐cancer or pro‐cancer mechanism depending on the cancer stage. Till date, the role of myricetin in regulating autophagy has not been reported. In this study, we found that myricetin can induce autophagy by inhibiting mTOR activation in HepG2 cells. Our findings thus provide evidence for further research and application of myricetin as a potential cancer therapeutic agent. Anat Rec, 301:786–795, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Purification of angiotensin‐converting enzyme from human plasma and investigation of the effect of some active ingredients isolated from Nigella sativa L. extract on the enzyme activity
Authors: Basi Zehra , Turkoglu Vedat 
Published: December 2017

AbstractIn the present study, one‐step purification of angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE, peptidyldipeptidase A, EC 3.4.15.1), responsible for regulation of blood pressure, was achieved using affinity chromatography from human plasma. The enzyme was purified 12,860‐fold with a specific activtiy of 5080 EU/mg protein. Optimum temperature and pH were determined for the enzyme as 35–40°C and pH 7.4–7.5, respectively. The purity of ACE was determined by SDS–PAGE and the enzyme showed two bands at 60 and 70 kDa on the gel. The native molecular weight of ACE was found to be 260 kDa by gel filtration chromatography, demonstrating that the enzyme has a heterodimeric structure. Natural fatty acids of Nigella sativa (Ranunculaceae) were isolated by means of column chromatography. The structures of these compounds were determined using NMR and GC‐MS. The results showed that high concentrations of linoleic, oleic and palmitic acids were isolated from the plant. The effect of six fractions (Fr 1–6) on ACE activity was examined. Fraction 3 increased the ACE activity while the other fractions decreased the enzyme activity. The concentrations of the fractions inhibiting the half‐maximum activity of the enzyme were calculated as 1.597 mg/mL for Fr 1, 0.053 mg/mL for Fr 2, 0.527 mg/mL for Fr 4, 0.044 mg/mL for Fr 5 and 0.136 mg/mL for Fr 6 using a Lineweaver–Burk graph.
Association analysis of moodle e‐tests in blended learning educational environment
Authors: Dimić Gabrijela , Predić Bratislav , Rančić Dejan , Petrović Vera , Maček Nemanja , Spalević Petar 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThe paper suggests the implementation of association analysis for improving the process of e‐testing in blended learning environment. The research has been conducted using knowledge tests at the Computer Graphics Moodle Course. In the preprocessing phase, data matrices have been created and prepared for the process of discovering significant relationships and links between students' answers to the questions from preparatory tests and those for testing knowledge, the ways of doing, and achieved results. By implementing Apriori and Predictive Apriori algorithms, a great number of association rules has been discovered. Important and interesting rules have been singled out by implementing objective and subjective assessment measures. The examples of interesting rules, as well as discovered patterns in items' relationships, have also been presented. The contribution of the described case study is visible in providing important feedback which enables the teacher to get a better insight into the concepts of created tests and decide on how to make changes to improve testing.
Operando Spectroscopic Study of Dynamic Structure of Iron Oxide Catalysts during CO2 Hydrogenation
Authors: Zhang Yulong , Fu Donglong , Liu Xianglin , Zhang Zhengpai , Zhang Chao , Shi Bianfang , Xu Jing , Han Yi‐Fan 
Published: December 2017

AbstractUnderstanding of dynamic structure of active sites is of paramount importance for rational design of industrial catalysts. This work revealed the structure evolution of iron active phases for CO2 hydrogenation over iron‐based catalysts. With a combination of operando Raman spectroscopy and X‐ray Diffraction coupled with online gas chromatography, the panoramic structure evolution of iron oxides (α‐Fe2O3 and γ‐Fe2O3) during activation and CO2 hydrogenation were elaborated, that is, α‐Fe2O3 (γ‐Fe2O3)→α‐Fe3O4 (γ‐Fe3O4)→α‐Fe (γ‐Fe)→χ‐Fe5C2 (θ‐Fe3C). Both iron carbides showed high catalytic activities while χ‐Fe5C2 exhibited higher selectivity to lower olefins but weaker chain growth probability than θ‐Fe3C.
Design and Synthesis of Aza‐Bicyclononene Dienophiles for Rapid Fluorogenic Ligations
Authors: Siegl Sebastian J. , Vázquez Arcadio , Dzijak Rastislav , Dračínský Martin , Galeta Juraj , Rampmaier Robert , Klepetářová Blanka , Vrabel Milan 
Published: December 2017

AbstractFluorogenic bioorthogonal reactions enable visualization of biomolecules under native conditions with excellent signal‐to‐noise ratio. Here, we present the design and synthesis of conformationally‐strained aziridine‐fused trans‐cyclooctene (aza‐TCO) dienophiles, which lead to the formation of fluorescent products in tetrazine ligations without the need for attachment of an extra fluorophore moiety. The presented aza‐TCOs adopt the highly strained “half‐chair” conformation, which was predicted computationally and confirmed by NMR measurements and X‐ray crystallography. Kinetic studies revealed that the aza‐TCOs belong to the most reactive dienophiles known to date. The potential of the newly developed aza‐TCO probes for bioimaging applications is demonstrated by protein labeling experiments, imaging of cellular glycoconjugates and peptidoglycan imaging of live bacteria.