bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Increase in marginal sea alkalinity may impact air–sea carbon dioxide exchange and buffer acidification
Authors: Cotovicz Luiz C. , Cahill Bronwyn , Sabbaghzadeh Bita , Lencina‐Avila Jannine M. , Rehder Gregor 
Published: August 2024

AbstractTotal alkalinity (TA) has increased in the Baltic Sea, with implications for atmospheric CO2‐induced acidification and CO2 uptake. We compiled extensive data of TA in surface waters of the Baltic Sea, aiming to (i) identify new tendencies in the relationship between TA and salinity (TA–S relationship), (ii) update the TA trend analysis, (iii) investigate spatial–temporal patterns, and (iv) discuss potential drivers and implications. We observed a progressive decrease in the slopes and increase in the intercepts of the TA–S overtime due to the persistent process of TA enhancement. A weak seasonal pattern was identified, with warmer months presenting lower salinity and TA. Lower rates of TA increase were observed in high salinities (Skagerrak–Kattegat; +1.00 to +2.20 μmol kg−1 yr−1), intermediate trends in low salinities (Gulf of Bothnia; +3.28 to +3.57 μmol kg−1 yr−1), and maximal trends in the Central Baltic Sea (+3.70 to +4.57 μmol kg−1 yr−1) and Bornholm Basin (+4.82 to +5.32 μmol kg−1 yr−1). The increase in the intercept of the TA–S in the Gulf of Bothnia suggests a progressive increase in the external supply of TA, although lower than previously thought. The maximum trend in the Bornholm Basin suggests an increase in external supply from the Southern catchment and/or the accumulation of internal production. The positive TA–phosphorus correlations underscore a significant internal source. The TA increase amplifies the CO2 uptake by 1.8–7.8% during spring/summer and reduces the CO2 outgassing by 3.4–7.7% in autumn/winter. The TA enhancement has the potential to buffer CO2‐induced acidification by 39–60% by 2050.
Coral mucus promotes the carbon metabolic potency of microorganisms in the coral reef ecosystem
Authors: Zhang Xiaoyu , Cheng Keke , Qin Yuke , Li Xinyang , Cai Zhonghua , Yang Bo , Jong Mui‐Choo , Zheng Huina , Xiao Baohua , Zhou Jin 
Published: August 2024

AbstractCoral mucus, teeming with organic matter, releases nutrients and microorganisms, affecting element cycling and microbial communities in coral reefs. While terrestrial ecosystems exhibit well‐studied priming effects from root exudates, the influence of mucus in marine environments, particularly in coral reefs, remains underexplored. We hypothesize that coral mucus, through its nutrients and microbes, stimulates the surrounding microorganisms, regulating carbon metabolism and thus contributing to high coral reef productivity. Initially, natural samples (Acropora pruinosa mucus, seawater, and sediment) were collected for metagenomic assessment of microbial communities and functions. Results showed significant differences in microbial diversity, community structures, co‐occurrence modes, and unique functions among mucus, seawater, and sediment. Subsequent laboratory experiments demonstrated mucus's substantial influence on surrounding microorganisms. Analyses, including 16S rRNA sequencing and Eco‐plate results, revealed that mucus regulates microbial composition and activities. Quantitative gene‐chip analysis showed significant increase in the functional genes related to carbon fixation (e.g., the 3‐hydroxypropionate cycle) and degradation (e.g., pectin and hemicellulose hydrolysis) by 55.81% and 65.48%, respectively. Partial least squares path modeling identified mucus nutrients and microbial community composition as key contributors to carbon metabolic potential. This research confirms that mucus acts as a trigger, reshaping microbial profiles around corals and enhancing carbon utilization efficiency, highlighting its essential role in carbon metabolism and the maintenance of high productivity in coral reef ecosystems.
An Erbium‐Doped Waveguide Amplifier on Thin Film Lithium Niobate with an Output Power Exceeding 100 mW
Authors: Bao Rui , Fang Zhiwei , Liu Jian , Liu Zhaoxiang , Chen Jinming , Wang Min , Wu Rongbo , Zhang Haisu , Cheng Ya 
Published: August 2024

AbstractA high‐power thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) erbium‐doped waveguide amplifier (EDWA) is demonstrated with a maximum on‐chip output power of 113 mW and a gain of 16 dB. The on‐chip integrated EDWA is composed of large mode area (LMA) waveguide structures with a total length of 7 cm and a footprint of 1 × 1 cm2. Segmented LMA waveguides are connected with waveguide tapers to achieve on‐chip mode conversion, which maintains single‐mode propagation all over the EDWA even at the waveguide bends. The design leads to a significant increase in the amplified signal power by orders of magnitude and will open an avenue for applications such as on‐chip high‐power lasers and amplifier systems.
Statins, but not proprotein convertase subtilisin‐kexin type 9 inhibitors, lower chemerin in hypercholesterolemia via low‐density lipoprotein receptor upregulation
Authors: Tan Lunbo , Wang Na , Galema‐Boers Annet M. H. , van Vark‐van der Zee Leonie , van Lennep Jeanine Roeters , Mulder Monique T. , Lu Xifeng , Danser A. H. Jan , Verdonk Koen 
Published: August 2024

AbstractHypercholesterolemia is characterized by elevated low‐density lipoprotein (LDL)‐cholesterol levels and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The adipokine chemerin is an additional risk factor. Here we investigated whether cholesterol‐lowering with statins or proprotein convertase subtilisin‐kexin type 9 inhibitors (PCSK9i) affects chemerin. Both statins and PCKS9i lowered plasma LDL‐cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol in hypercholesterolemic patients, and increased high‐density lipoprotein (HDL)‐cholesterol. Yet, only statins additionally reduced chemerin and high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein (hsCRP). Applying PCSK9i on top of statins did not further reduce chemerin. Around 20% of chemerin occurred in the HDL2/HDL3 fractions, while >75% was free. Statins lowered both HDL‐bound and free chemerin. Pull‐down assays revealed that chemerin binds to the HDL‐component Apolipoprotein A‐I (ApoA‐I). The statins, but not PCSK9i, diminished chemerin secretion from HepG2 cells by upregulating LDL receptor mRNA. Furthermore, chemerin inhibited HDL‐mediated cholesterol efflux via its chemerin chemokine‐like receptor 1 in differentiated macrophages. In conclusion, statins, but not PCSK9i, lower circulating chemerin by directly affecting its release from hepatocytes. Chemerin binds to ApoA‐I and inhibits HDL‐mediated cholesterol efflux. Statins prevent this by lowering HDL‐bound chemerin. Combined with their anti‐inflammatory effect evidenced by hsCRP suppression, this represents a novel cardiovascular protective function of statins that distinguishes them from PCSK9i.
A systematic review and meta‐analysis of Nordic walking for chronic heart failure with low left ventricular ejection fraction
Authors: Dhamayanti Aulia Syavitri , Rahmad Rahmad , Rachmawati Samiah , Waranugraha Yoga 
Published: August 2024

AbstractBackgroundNordic walking (NW) has been reported to be beneficial in various chronic diseases.ObjectiveTo determine whether NW improves function in patients with heart failure (HF) with low left ventricular ejection fraction more than conventional cardiac rehabilitation or usual care.MethodsSystematic literature searches in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science were conducted. According to patient, intervention, comparison, and outcome (PICO) principles, a stepwise selection process was completed to identify eligible studies. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this systematic review and meta‐analysis. Pooled effects were determined using a random effect analysis model for the meta‐analysis.ResultsA total of 282 participants from four RCTs were included. The improvement of peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2) was greater in the NW group than in the control group (mean difference [MD] = 2.18 mL/kg/min; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.35–3.01; p < .01). The improvement of the 6‐minute walk test (6MWT) distance was also greater in the NW group than in the control group (MD = 16.51 meters; 95% CI = 3.23–29.80; p = .01).ConclusionThis systematic review highlights the benefits of NW training in patients with chronic HF, particularly those with systolic dysfunction. Specifically, NW walking was associated with increased peak VO2 and 6MWT improvement compared to conventional cardiac rehabilitation or usual care. These results suggest that NW may be a useful component of cardiac rehabilitation. However, additional larger studies with a wider range of patients are needed.
Jordanian community pharmacists' perceptions and experiences with continuing professional development – A comprehensive analysis
Authors: Alnahar Saja A. , Darwish Rula M. , Al Shabani Mayada M. , Al Qasas Shatha Z. , Bates Ian 
Published: August 2024

AbstractContinuing professional development (CPD) is a process by which healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, can be engaged in life‐long learning and development. In 2018, the Jordanian government issued Regulation No. 46, which addresses the CPD and relicensing cycle requirements. This study aims to investigate Jordanian community pharmacists' experiences and perceptions toward CPDs. The study also discussed factors influencing pharmacists' engagement in CPD activities. An online self‐administered questionnaire was distributed between August and October of 2022 using a range of participant identification and recruitment strategies. The questionnaire was designed for community pharmacists who are currently in practice. Descriptive data analysis was carried out. Of the 425 participating community pharmacists, 270 (63.5%) had a positive attitude toward CPD in terms of considering CPD to be a professional responsibility for all practising pharmacists. Almost 50% of recruited community pharmacists had no preference between theoretical and practical activities. Moreover, carrying out research projects and participating in research groups were the least preferred CPD activities. Evidence indicates that the most influencing factors were feasibility and capacity‐related issues such as time, cost, work burden and requirements and the logistics related to CPD activities. Regulators, professional associations, and legislators are responsible for planning and implementing actions that reduce obstacles and increase facilitators. CPD activities should also be made available through various delivery methods and strategies to guarantee relevance, prevent duplication, and promote pharmacists' involvement.
So, you cannot vent: A deep dive into other explosion protection methods
Authors: Murphy Michelle 
Published: August 2024

AbstractCurrent NFPA standards for managing combustible dust hazards require equipment with an explosion hazard to be protected from the effects of deflagration. These protections include deflagration venting in accordance with NFPA 68, Standard on Explosion Protection by Deflagration Venting, 2023 Edition, or oxidant concentration reduction, combustible concentration reduction, deflagration suppression, or deflagration pressure containment, via NFPA 69, Standard on Explosion Protection Systems, 2024 Edition. It makes sense to choose the simplest and most cost‐effective option based on the inherent design and risk of the operation. Implementation of any one of these protection methods requires an understanding of the method and all the associated requirements. While the basic methods are fairly straightforward, the associated requirements are often less understood. In this paper, the author will introduce the basic methods and take a deep dive into the associated requirements of each method of protection. Based on the author's experience in evaluating protection systems, common misunderstandings will be highlighted, for example, the margin of safety to apply and the operational limits required to be developed and documented for oxidant concentration reduction systems.
A condition‐based maintenance optimization method with oscillating uncertain degradation process
Authors: Li Shuyu , Wen Meilin , Zu Tianpei , Kang Rui 
Published: August 2024

AbstractCondition‐based maintenance (CBM) has gradually gained more attention, and the degradation process has been increasingly applied to maintenance optimization models. The insufficient data and the complex degradation process of the equipment conditions will contribute to epistemic uncertainty. Besides, the implementation of maintenance introduces oscillatory features into the equipment degradation process, deviating from a monotonically decreasing trend, complicating the optimization of CBM. In this article, to simultaneously address the problem of epistemic uncertainty and consider the influence of inspection and maintenance, we establish a new type of degradation model based on uncertainty theory to deal with epistemic uncertainty. Then an uncertain maintenance optimization model is proposed to give an optimal CBM strategy. Finally, a case study is provided to illustrate the proposed CBM optimization method.
Data set diversity in crop row detection based on CNN models for autonomous robot navigation
Authors: Costa Igor Ferreira da , Leite Antonio Candea , Caarls Wouter 
Published: August 2024

AbstractAgricultural automation emerges as a vital tool to increase field efficiency, pest control, and reduce labor burdens. While agricultural mobile robots hold promise for automation, challenges persist, particularly in navigating a plantation environment. Accurate robot localization is already possible, but existing Global Navigation Satellite System with Real‐time Kinematic systems are costly, while also demanding careful and precise mapping. In response, onboard navigation approaches gain traction, leveraging sensors like cameras and light detection and rangings. However, the machine learning methods used in camera‐based systems are highly sensitive to the training data set used. In this paper, we study the effects of data set diversity on a proposed deep learning‐based visual navigation system. Leveraging multiple data sets, we assess the model robustness and adaptability while investigating the effects of data diversity available during the training phase. The system is presented with a range of different camera configurations, hardware, field structures, as well as a simulated environment. The results show that mixing images from different cameras and fields can improve not only system robustness to changing conditions but also its single‐condition performance. Real‐world tests were conducted which show that good results can be achieved with reasonable amounts of data.
LiDAR‐based place recognition for mobile robots in ground/water surface multiple scenes
Authors: Yan Yaxuan , Zhang Haiyang , Zhao Changming , Liu Xuan , Fu Siyuan 
Published: August 2024

AbstractLiDAR‐based 3D place recognition is an essential component of simultaneous localization and mapping systems in multi‐scene robotic applications. However, extracting discriminative and generalizable global descriptors of point clouds is still an open issue due to the insufficient use of the information contained in the LiDAR scans in existing approaches. In this paper, we propose a novel spatial‐temporal point cloud encoding network for multiple scenes, dubbed STM‐Net, to fully fuse the multi‐view spatial information and temporal information of LiDAR point clouds. Specifically, we first develop a spatial feature encoding module consisting of the single‐view transformer and multi‐view transformer. The module learns the correlation both within a single view and between two views by utilizing the multi‐layer range images generated by spherical projection and multi‐layer bird's eye view images generated by top‐down projection. Then in the temporal feature encoding module, we exploit the temporal transformer to mine the temporal information in the sequential point clouds, and a NetVLAD layer is applied to aggregate features and generate sub‐descriptors. Furthermore, we use a GeM pooling layer to fuse more information along the time dimension for the final global descriptors. Extensive experiments conducted on unmanned ground/surface vehicles with different LiDAR configurations indicate that our method (1) achieves superior place recognition performance than state‐of‐the‐art algorithms, (2) generalizes well to diverse sceneries, (3) is robust to viewpoint changes, (4) can operate in real‐time, demonstrating the effectiveness and satisfactory capability of the proposed approach and highlighting its promising applications in multi‐scene place recognition tasks.
Optimizing PID control for enhanced stability of a 16‐DOF biped robot during ditch crossing
Authors: Khan Moh Shahid , Mandava Ravi Kumar , Panchore Vijay 
Published: August 2024

AbstractThe current research article discusses the design of a proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller to obtain the optimal gait planning algorithm for a 16‐degrees‐of‐freedom biped robot while crossing the ditch. The gait planning algorithm integrates an initial posture, position, and desired trajectories of the robot's wrist, hip, and foot. A cubic polynomial trajectory is assigned for wrist, hip, and foot trajectories to generate the motion. The foot and wrist joint angles of the biped robot along the polynomial trajectory are obtained by using the inverse kinematics approach. Moreover, the dynamic balance margin was estimated by using the concept of the zero‐moment point. To enhance the smooth motion of the gait planner and reduce the error between two consecutive joint angles, the authors designed a PID controller for each joint of the biped robot. To design a PID controller, the dynamics of the biped robot are essential, and it was obtained using the Lagrange–Euler formulation. The gains, that is, KP, KD, and KI of the PID controller are tuned with nontraditional optimization algorithms, such as particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE), and compared with modified chaotic invasive weed optimization (MCIWO) algorithms. The result indicates that the MCIWO‐PID controller generates more dynamically balanced gaits when compared with the DE and PSO‐PID controllers.
Nanosilicon Stabilized With Ligands: Effect of High‐Energy Proton Beam on Luminescent Properties
Authors: Aslanov Leonid A. , Zaitsev Vladimir B. , Zakharov Valery N. , Kudryavtsev Igor K. , Senyavin Vladimir M. , Lagov Petr B. , Romanteeva Elena P. 
Published: August 2024

ABSTRACTSilicon nanopowders with nitrogen heterocyclic carbene (NHC) and butyl as stabilizing ligands were synthesized by bottom‐up chemical methods. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to obtain nanoparticle size distribution with 1.8–2.5‐nm average diameter. Optical characteristics (photoluminescence [PL] and infrared [IR] absorption spectra) of samples were investigated as fabricated and on different steps of irradiation by high‐energy 22.5‐MeV protons. The PL spectral changes are slightly different for two cases, but in general, we can see a decrease in luminescence amplitude with fluence growth up to 4·1014 cm−2, mainly for NHC‐stabilized nanosilicon. Main mechanisms of radiation‐induced changes in nanosilicon sample optical properties are discussed by the joint use of PL and IR spectra analysis.
Empowering the helping hands: A positive psychological intervention for enhancing work engagement and reducing stress among preschool social workers in Hong Kong
Authors: Lee Alfred S. Y. , Fung Wing Kai , Chung Kevin Kien Hoa 
Published: August 2024

AbstractThis study explores the efficacy of the Early Advancement in Social‐Emotional Health and Positivity (EASP) programme, designed to enhance personal resources, namely self‐compassion and positivity among preschool social workers, to reduce stress and bolster work engagement. A total of 84 preschool social workers (Mage = 32.47 years, SD = 6.86, range = 22–55; female = 90.48%) participated in a 5‐week randomized control trial. Participants were randomly allocated to either the intervention group (n = 38), which received four online workshops and an online activity, or the wait‐list control group (n = 46), which received the intervention post‐data collection. Self‐compassion, positivity, work engagement, and work stress were measured before and after the intervention. Results from a path analytic model indicated excellent fit with the data, χ2 = 2.08, df = 3, Comparative Fit Index = 1.00, Tucker‐Lewis Index = 1.00, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.00 (90% CI = 0.00–0.16), SRMR = 0.03. The intervention demonstrated direct effects on changes in self‐compassion (β = 0.21, p = 0.04) and positivity (β = 0.28, p = 0.03), with indirect effects on work engagement (β = 0.13, p = 0.02), while no significant impact was observed on work stress (β = −0.09, p = 0.06). These findings underscore the efficacy of positive psychological interventions in fostering work engagement among social workers. Incorporating the EASP programme into ongoing professional development activities is recommended to enhance the job engagement and psychological well‐being of social workers in early childhood education and care sectors.
An explorative Bayesian analysis of functional dependencies in emergency management systems
Authors: Cantelmi Raffaele , Steen Riana , Gravio Giulio Di , Patriarca Riccardo 
Published: August 2024

AbstractThe study of emergency or crisis management practices acquires strategical relevance for resilient decision‐making under uncertainty. The assessment of system resilience is an asset to identify potential design or operational improvements of a complex socio‐technical system, such as an Emergency Management (EM) system. This research aims at analyzing the functional properties of an EM system recurring to a novel integration of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) and Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN). The FRAM is used to model and display the actors and the interactions in the system, while the BBN, dynamically updated when new data becomes available, supports a complementary quantitative assessment. The methodology is iterated in the analysis of an EM procedure, issued by a second‐line Emergency Response organization for Oil and Gas (O&G) operators in Norwegian continental shelf. The results of the study show that the proposed stochastic methodology compensates the drawbacks of traditional FRAM modeling, via the outcomes of BBN quantitative analyses. The findings, contextualized in EM, can be transferred to different socio‐technical contexts, both military and civil ones.