bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The impact of SASA!, a community mobilization intervention, on reported HIV‐related risk behaviours and relationship dynamics in Kampala, Uganda
Authors: Kyegombe Nambusi , Abramsky Tanya , Devries Karen M , Starmann Elizabeth , Michau Lori , Nakuti Janet , Musuya Tina , Heise Lori , Watts Charlotte 
Published: November 2014

IntroductionIntimate partner violence (IPV) violates women's human rights, and it is a serious public health concern associated with increased HIV risk. SASA!, a phased community mobilization intervention, engages communities to prevent IPV and promote gender equity. The SASA! study assessed the community‐level impact of SASA! on reported HIV‐related risk behaviours and relationship dynamics.MethodsData were collected as part of a cluster randomized controlled trial conducted between 2007 and 2012 in eight communities in Kampala. An adjusted cluster‐level intention to treat analysis, compares secondary outcomes in intervention and control communities at follow‐up. The qualitative evaluation explored participants’ subjective experience of SASA!. A total of 82 in‐depth interviews were audio recorded at follow‐up, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsMen in intervention communities were significantly more likely than controls to report a broad range of HIV‐protective behaviours, including higher levels of condom use (aRR 2.03, 95% CI 1.22–3.39), HIV testing (aRR 1.50, 95% CI 1.13–2.00) and fewer concurrent partners (aRR 0.60, 95% CI 0.37–0.97). They were also more likely to report increased joint decision‐making (aRR 1.92, 95% CI 1.27–2.91), greater male participation in household tasks (aRR 1.48, 95% CI 1.09–2.01), more open communication and greater appreciation of their partner's work inside (aRR 1.31, 95% CI 1.04–1.66) and outside (aRR 1.49, 95% CI 1.08–2.06) the home. For women, all outcomes were in the hypothesized direction, but effect sizes were smaller. Only some achieved statistical significance. Women in intervention communities were significantly more likely to report being able to refuse sex with their partners (aRR 1.16, 95% CI 1.00–1.35), joint decision‐making (aRR 1.37, 95% CI 1.06–1.78) and more open communication on a number of indicators. Qualitative interviews suggest that shifts operated through broader improvements in relationships, including increased trust and cooperation, participants’ greater awareness of the connections between HIV and IPV and their resultant desire to improve their relationships. Barriers to change include partial uptake of SASA!, partner resistance, fear and entrenched previous beliefs.ConclusionsSASA! impacted positively on reported HIV‐related risk behaviours and relationship dynamics at a community level, especially among men. Social change programmes focusing on IPV and gender equity could play an important role in HIV prevention efforts.
Crab burrows as conduits for groundwater‐surface water exchange in Bangladesh
Authors: Stahl Mason O. , Tarek M. H. , Yeo Darren C. J. , Badruzzaman A. B. M. , Harvey Charles F. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractGroundwater recharge affects water budgets and groundwater quality on the deltas and floodplains of South and Southeast Asia. Rain and flooding rivers recharge groundwater during the monsoon; irrigated rice fields and surface water bodies recharge aquifers during the dry season. Groundwater throughout the region is severely contaminated by arsenic, and recent research suggests that quantifying and characterizing recharge is important to understand whether recharge flushes or mobilizes arsenic from aquifers. At a field site in Bangladesh, we found that burrows of terrestrial crabs short‐circuit low‐permeability surface sediments, providing the primary conduit for recharge. We combine field observations along with a model that couples isotope and water balances to quantify the effect of crab burrows on aquifer recharge. Given the wide distribution of burrowing crabs and the surficial geology, we suggest that crab burrows provide widespread conduits for groundwater recharge.
Tsunami surges around the Hawaiian Islands from the 1 April 2014 North Chile Mw 8.1 earthquake
Authors: Bai Yefei , Cheung Kwok Fai , Yamazaki Yoshiki , Lay Thorne , Ye Lingling 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe 1 April 2014 Iquique Mw 8.1 earthquake ruptured a segment of the megathrust fault offshore of northern Chile and generated a moderate‐size tsunami across the Pacific. Tide gauges in Hawaii recorded over 1 m of wave height despite the long distance from the source and position away from the main radiated energy lobe. Inversion of global teleseismic body waves combined with forward modeling of the tsunami at four near‐field DART stations arrives iteratively at a self‐consistent finite‐fault model with very compact dimensions. The slip distribution produces a NNE‐SSW trending seafloor uplift patch that enhances the tsunami directionality in the WNW, resulting in good matches to observed DART and tide gauge records around the Hawaiian Islands. The relatively large waves at selected locations in Hawaii can be attributed to a combination of the spatial slip distribution and the resulting short‐period waves that triggered localized resonance over the insular shelves. This event highlights the importance of characterizing detailed slip distributions in analysis or forecasting of tsunamis even for a compact source.
High‐resolution surface analysis for extended‐range downscaling with limited‐area atmospheric models
Authors: Separovic Leo , Husain Syed Zahid , Yu Wei , Fernig David 
Published: November 2014

AbstractHigh‐resolution limited‐area model (LAM) simulations are frequently employed to downscale coarse‐resolution objective analyses over a specified area of the globe using high‐resolution computational grids. When LAMs are integrated over extended time frames, from months to years, they are prone to deviations in land surface variables that can be harmful to the quality of the simulated near‐surface fields. Nudging of the prognostic surface fields toward a reference‐gridded data set is therefore devised in order to prevent the atmospheric model from diverging from the expected values. This paper presents a method to generate high‐resolution analyses of land‐surface variables, such as surface canopy temperature, soil moisture, and snow conditions, to be used for the relaxation of lower boundary conditions in extended‐range LAM simulations. The proposed method is based on performing offline simulations with an external surface model, forced with the near‐surface meteorological fields derived from short‐range forecast, operational analyses, and observed temperatures and humidity. Results show that the outputs of the surface model obtained in the present study have potential to improve the near‐surface atmospheric fields in extended‐range LAM integrations.
Technological change in irrigated agriculture in a semiarid region of Spain
Authors: Philip Jean‐Marc , Sánchez‐Chóliz Julio , Sarasa Cristina 
Published: November 2014

AbstractTechnological change plays a decisive role in irrigated agriculture, which is particularly challenging in semiarid regions. The main objective of this paper is to assess four kinds of alternative technological improvements aimed at dealing with future water availability, especially in the case of extreme events like drought. We evaluate these technologies for a better understanding of what form should be applied in irrigated agriculture in a context of limits on natural resources. We develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, whose production structure distinguishes between rainfed and irrigated crops, and between a variety of irrigated crops. Land use changes are also evaluated. As well as technological change, we consider the Water Framework Directive (EC 2000/60), which establishes water cost recovery as a key goal. Thus, we assess strategies that combine irrigation water pricing strategies and improved technology. Our results show that policy strategies that focus on fostering technical progress can mitigate the long‐term economic effects of downward trends in water supplies, even in drought years. The study also confirms that the absence of price volatility achieved through a water pricing strategy could improve the sustainable use of water.
Model selection on solid ground: Rigorous comparison of nine ways to evaluateBayesian model evidence
Authors: Schöniger Anneli , Wöhling Thomas , Samaniego Luis , Nowak Wolfgang 
Published: November 2014

AbstractBayesian model selection or averaging objectively ranks a number of plausible, competing conceptual models based on Bayes' theorem. It implicitly performs an optimal trade‐off between performance in fitting available data and minimum model complexity. The procedure requires determining Bayesian model evidence (BME), which is the likelihood of the observed data integrated over each model's parameter space. The computation of this integral is highly challenging because it is as high‐dimensional as the number of model parameters. Three classes of techniques to compute BME are available, each with its own challenges and limitations: (1) Exact and fast analytical solutions are limited by strong assumptions. (2) Numerical evaluation quickly becomes unfeasible for expensive models. (3) Approximations known as information criteria (ICs) such as the AIC, BIC, or KIC (Akaike, Bayesian, or Kashyap information criterion, respectively) yield contradicting results with regard to model ranking. Our study features a theory‐based intercomparison of these techniques. We further assess their accuracy in a simplistic synthetic example where for some scenarios an exact analytical solution exists. In more challenging scenarios, we use a brute‐force Monte Carlo integration method as reference. We continue this analysis with a real‐world application of hydrological model selection. This is a first‐time benchmarking of the various methods for BME evaluation against true solutions. Results show that BME values from ICs are often heavily biased and that the choice of approximation method substantially influences the accuracy of model ranking. For reliable model selection, bias‐free numerical methods should be preferred over ICs whenever computationally feasible.
Control of Natural Oscillation Gait for Mechanical Locomotors in Three Dimensional Space
Authors: Zhang Junping , Zhu Lijun , Chen Zhiyong 
Published: November 2014

AbstractA mechanical rectifier system is a class of multi‐segmental mechanical structures whose locomotion results from the rhythmic undulation of segments. For the mechanical rectifier system consisting of multiple links in series, a biologically inspired control design approach has been proposed to study a kind of locomotion gait in natural oscillation on a plane. In this paper, the approach is further developed for more complex multi‐segmental systems moving in three dimensional space. A typical example of this class of systems is the flapping‐wing structure which arises from animal locomotion such as bird flying or ray swimming. Three elemental actions including oscillation, orientation, and locomotion are fully discussed in this paper in terms of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation.
Conversion of Low‐Affinity Peptides to High‐Affinity Peptide Binders by Using a β‐Hairpin Scaffold‐Assisted Approach
Authors: Kim Sunghyun , Kim Daejin , Lee Yonghyun , Jeon Hyungsu , Lee Byung‐Heon , Jon Sangyong 
Published: November 2014

AbstractAffinity maturation of protein‐targeting peptides is generally accomplished by homo‐ or heterodimerization of known peptides. However, applying a heterodimerization approach is difficult because it is not clear a priori what length or type of linker is required for cooperative binding to a target. Thus, an efficient and simple affinity maturation method for converting low‐affinity peptides into high‐affinity peptides would clearly be advantageous for advancing peptide‐based therapeutics. Here, we describe the development of a novel affinity maturation method based on a robust β‐hairpin scaffold and combinatorial phage‐display technology. With this strategy, we were able to increase the affinity of existing peptides by more than four orders of magnitude. Taken together, our data demonstrate that this scaffold‐assisted approach is highly efficient and effective in generating high‐affinity peptides from their low‐affinity counterparts.
One‐Handed Single Helicates of Dinickel(II) Benzenehexapyrrole‐α,ω‐diimine with an Amine Chiral Source
Authors: Eerdun Chaolu , Hisanaga Satoshi , Setsune Jun‐ichiro 
Published: November 2014

AbstractBenzenehexapyrrole‐α,ω‐dialdehyde, composed of a pair of formyltripyrrole units with a 1,3‐phenylene linker, was metallated to give dinuclear single‐stranded helicates. X‐ray studies of the bis‐nickel(II) complex showed a helical C2 form with a pair of helical–metal coordination planes of a 3N+O donor set. The terminal aldehyde was readily converted into the imine by optically active amines, whereby helix‐sense bias was induced. Bis‐nickel(II) and bis‐palladium(II) complexes of the benzenehexapyrrole‐α,ω‐diimines were studied to show that an enantiomer pair of the helical C2 form are interchanged by slow flipping of each coordination plane and fast rotation around the C(benzene)C(pyrrole) bond. The helical screw in the bis‐nickel(II) complexes was biased to one side in more than 95 % diastereoselectivity, which was achieved by using a variety of optically active amines, such as (R)‐1‐cyclohexylethylamine, (S)‐1‐ phenylethylamine, L‐Phe(OEt) (Phe=phenylalanine), and (R)‐valinol. The nickel complexes showed much better diastereoselectivity than the corresponding palladium complexes.
Generation and Screening of Oxime Libraries Addressing the Neuronal GABA Transporter GAT1
Authors: Kern Felix T. , Wanner Klaus T. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe objective of the present study was to transfer the concept of library screening by MS binding assays, so far applied to pseudostatic hydrazine libraries, to static oxime libraries to screen for new potent inhibitors of mGAT1, the most abundant GABA transporter in the central nervous system that represents a validated drug target for the treatment of epilepsy. Library generation was performed by reaction of guvacine derivatives possessing a hydroxylamine functionality with various sets of four aldehydes. After dilution, the libraries were screened by competitive MS binding assays. Deconvolution experiments allowed hits in the most active libraries to be identified, and they were resynthesized for biological evaluation. That way a series of compounds was identified that displayed binding affinities ≥8.00 (pKi) at mGAT1, one of which was found to be the most potent mGAT1 inhibitor known to date in a functional GABA uptake assay with a pIC50 value of 8.27±0.03.
Fine‐needle aspiration biopsy of secondary neoplasms of the thyroid gland: A multi‐institutional study of 62 cases
Authors: Pusztaszeri Marc , Wang He , Cibas Edmund S. , Powers Celeste N. , Bongiovanni Massimo , Ali Syed , Khurana Kamal K. , Michaels Paul J. , Faquin William C. 
Published: November 2014

BACKGROUNDSecondary neoplasms of the thyroid gland (SNTGs) are uncommon, and it is important to recognize them in thyroid fine‐needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB).METHODSThe authors report a cohort of 62 SNTGs from 7 institutions in the United States and Europe. Patients were identified retrospectively by searching through medical records of the respective institutions. All initial diagnoses were rendered by FNAB.RESULTSSNTGs represented 0.16% of all thyroid FNABs and were more frequent among women (ratio of women to men, 1.2:1.0). The mean patient age was of 59 years (range, 7‐84 years), the mean tumor size was 3 cm (range, 0.9‐7 cm), and the mean interval from diagnosis of the primary tumor was 45 months (range, 0‐156 months). Eighty‐seven percent of SNTGs were diagnosed as malignant by FNAB, and there was a specific SNTG diagnosis in 93% of patients. Immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry, which were used in 30% of patients, were useful ancillary studies. Adenocarcinomas (n = 23; 37%) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) (n = 22; 35.5%) represented the majority of SNTGs, followed by lymphoma (n = 5; 8%), melanoma (n = 5; 8%), adenoid cystic carcinoma (n = 3; 5%), and various sarcomas (n = 3; 5%). Adenocarcinomas originated from the kidney (n = 9; 39%), lung (n = 6; 26%), breast (n = 5; 22%), and colon (n = 3; 13%). SCCs originated mostly from the head and neck (n = 13; 59%), followed by lung (n = 3; 13%), esophagus (n = 3; 14%), and unknown primary sites (n = 3; 14%).CONCLUSIONSAdenocarcinomas from the kidney, lung, breast, and colon along with SCCs represent the majority of SNTGs. The current results indicate that FNAB is a sensitive and accurate method for diagnosing SNTG; however, diagnostic difficulties can occur. Knowledge of clinical history and the judicious application of ancillary studies can increase the sensitivity and accuracy of FNAB for detecting SNTGs. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2015;123:19–29. © 2014 American Cancer Society.
A Poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxypyrrole)–Au@WO3‐Based Electrochromic Pseudocapacitor
Authors: Reddy B. Narsimha , Kumar P. Naresh , Deepa Melepurath 
Published: November 2014

AbstractA poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxypyrrole)–gold nanoparticle (Au)–tungsten oxide (PEDOP–Au@WO3) electrochromic supercapacitor electrode capable of optically modulating solar energy while simultaneously storing/releasing energy (in the form of charge) was fabricated for the first time. WO3 fibers, 50 to 200 nm long and 20 to 60 nm wide, were synthesized by a hydrothermal route and were electrophoretically deposited on a conducting substrate. Au nanoparticles and PEDOP were coated over WO3 to yield the PEDOP–Au@WO3 hybrid electrode. The inclusion of Au in the hybrid was confirmed by X‐ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and energy‐dispersive X‐ray analyses. The nanoscale electronic conductivity, coloration efficiency, and transmission contrast of the hybrid were found to be significantly greater than those of pristine WO3 and PEDOP. The hybrid showed a high specific discharge capacitance of 130 F g−1 during coloration, which was four and ten times greater than the capacitance achieved in WO3 or PEDOP, respectively. We also demonstrate the ability of the PEDOP–Au@WO3 hybrid, relative to pristine PEDOP, to perform as a superior counter electrode in a solar cell, which is attributed to a higher work function. The capacitance and redox switching capability of the hybrid decreases insignificantly with cycling, thus establishing the viability of this multifunction hybrid for next‐generation sustainable devices such as electrochromic psuedocapacitors because it can concurrently conserve and store energy.
Advanced Biorefinery based on the Fractionation of Biomass in γ‐Valerolactone and Water
Authors: Fang Wenwen , Sixta Herbert 
Published: November 2014

AbstractWe suggest for the first time the use of γ‐valerolactone (GVL)/H2O as solvent and reaction medium for the fractionation of wood to recover pure cellulose, uniform sugar components from hemicellulose, and a pure lignin fraction. The yield of the pulp residue could reach 40.3 % with a high cellulose purity of 90.3 %.
A lack of response of the financial behaviors of biodiversity conservation nonprofits to changing economic conditions
Authors: Larson Eric R. , Boyer Alison G. , Armsworth Paul R. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe effectiveness of conservation organizations is determined in part by how they adapt to changing conditions. Over the previous decade, economic conditions in the United States (US) showed marked variation including a period of rapid growth followed by a major recession. We examine how biodiversity conservation nonprofits in the US responded to these changes through their financial behaviors, focusing on a sample of 90 biodiversity conservation nonprofits and the largest individual organization (The Nature Conservancy;TNC). For the 90 sampled organizations, an analysis of financial ratios derived from tax return data revealed little response to economic conditions. Similarly, more detailed examination of conservation expenditures and land acquisition practices ofTNCrevealed only one significant relationship with economic conditions:TNCaccepted a greater proportion of conservation easements as donated in more difficult economic conditions. Our results suggest that the financial behaviors ofUSbiodiversity conservation nonprofits are unresponsive to economic conditions.
Aftershock collapse vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete frame structures
Authors: Raghunandan Meera , Liel Abbie B. , Luco Nicolas 
Published: November 2014

SummaryIn a seismically active region, structures may be subjected to multiple earthquakes, due to mainshock–aftershock phenomena or other sequences, leaving no time for repair or retrofit between the events. This study quantifies the aftershock vulnerability of four modern ductile reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings in California by conducting incremental dynamic analysis of nonlinear MDOF analytical models. Based on the nonlinear dynamic analysis results, collapse and damage fragility curves are generated for intact and damaged buildings. If the building is not severely damaged in the mainshock, its collapse capacity is unaffected in the aftershock. However, if the building is extensively damaged in the mainshock, there is a significant reduction in its collapse capacity in the aftershock. For example, if an RC frame experiences 4% or more interstory drift in the mainshock, the median capacity to resist aftershock shaking is reduced by about 40%. The study also evaluates the effectiveness of different measures of physical damage observed in the mainshock‐damaged buildings for predicting the reduction in collapse capacity of the damaged building in subsequent aftershocks. These physical damage indicators for the building are chosen such that they quantify the qualitative red tagging (unsafe for occupation) criteria employed in post‐earthquake evaluation of RC frames. The results indicated that damage indicators related to the drift experienced by the damaged building best predicted the reduced aftershock collapse capacities for these ductile structures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.