bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Current Safety Practices in the Construction Industry: A Case Study Approach
Authors: Tripathi Pooja , Mittal Yash Kumar 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Construction is a hazardous occupation due to the unique and complex nature of the work involved and the repetition of certain field behaviors. Hazardous nature of the construction environment can lead to delays, cost overruns and severe injuries to the workers. Injuries and fatalities in the construction sector are higher than in any other industry. Unsuitable working environments and workers’ behaviors are the two significant reasons for accidental risk on the construction sites. Proper workplace safety management practices are essential while performing hazardous work activities. The conventional safety management practices in construction projects primarily focus on reacting to risks rather than preventing them. Therefore, a proactive approach emphasizing early risk identification and mitigation is crucial for enhancing project success. Risk mitigation and proactive approach like safety planning, monitoring and evaluation through inspection and technology adoption are some factors identified in the literature. This study comprises of a case study approach to understand the current safety practices adopted on building construction project in India. The study aims to highlight the findings by recognizing different types of hazards, occupational injuries, proactive strategies in mitigating accidents on the construction sites and identification of barriers to the limited adoption of safety measures on the construction site. In the process of detailed comparison with the OSHA’s guideline, the findings of the current study indicate that chosen construction site exhibits both positive and negative aspects of safety precautionary measures. Positive and well-organized safety practices are helpful in making strategies for maintaining safety standards on any construction project. Future recommendations include digital technology-oriented safety measures for improving site monitoring and safety management scenarios.
Mesoscale modeling of random chain scission in polyethylene melts
Authors: Anik Arefin Mustafa , Palkar Vaibhav , Luzinov Igor , Kuksenok Olga 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Polyolefins account for more than half of global primary polymer production, however only a small fraction of these polymers are currently being recycled. Fragmentation of polymer chains into shorter chains with a targeted molecular weight distribution with the goal of reusing these fragments in subsequent chemical synthesis can potentially introduce an alternative approach to polyolefins recycling. Herein we develop a mesoscale framework to model degradation of polyethylene melts at a range of high temperatures. We use the dissipative particle dynamics approach with modified segmental repulsive potential to model the process of random scission in melts of linear polymer chains. We characterize the fragmentation process by tracking the time evolution of the distribution of degrees of polymerization of chain fragments. Specifically, we track the weight average and the number average degrees of polymerization and dispersity of polymer fragments as a function of the fraction of bonds broken. Furthermore, we track the number fraction distribution and the weight fraction distribution of polymer fragments with various degrees of polymerization as functions of the fraction of bonds broken for a range of high temperatures. Our results allow one to quantify to what extent the distribution of polymer chain fragments during random scission can be captured by the respective analytical distributions for the range of conversions considered. Understanding the thermal degradation of polyolefins on the mesoscale can result in the development of alternative strategies for recycling a range of thermoplastics.
Navigating complexity: integrating political realities into energy system modelling for effective policy in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Tesfamichael Meron , Fuchs Janina 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
The imperative for rapid low-carbon transformations in social and economic systems has heightened reliance on systems modelling to inform decisions. Energy models are pivotal in shaping viable pathways and guiding interventions, thereby influencing policy agendas and public discourse. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, the utilization of model-based analysis for energy planning and policy remains limited, largely due to deficiencies in existing models. Research indicates that many of these models are ill-equipped to capture the context-specific challenges prevalent in African countries. Despite offering valuable insights, most models lack representation of uncertainties associated with political and governance dynamics. These findings underscore the urgent need to enhance domestic institutions’ modelling capabilities. While technical expertise is crucial, this paper contends that, given the inherently political nature of energy policy decisions, modelers must be cognizant of the political landscape in which problems are modelled and solutions are sought. We assert that energy modellers aiming to influence policies must endeavour to comprehend the underlying political economy at the intersection of energy planning and policymaking. Expanding on this premise, we delineate practical steps that modelling teams can adopt to conduct political economy analysis and grasp the factors influencing energy policymaking. By adhering to these steps, we posit that modelling teams could enhance the relevance, realism, and applicability of policy options proposed through modelling efforts.
Ionogels and eutectogels for stable and long-term EEG and EMG signal acquisition
Authors: Veronica Asmita , Nyein Hnin Yin Yin , Hsing I-Ming 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Neurological injuries and disorders have a significant impact on individuals’ quality of life, often resulting in motor and sensory loss. To assess motor performance and monitor neurological disorders, non-invasive techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) are commonly used. Traditionally employed wet electrodes with conductive gels are limited by lengthy skin preparation time and allergic reactions. Although dry electrodes and hydrogel-based electrodes can mitigate these issues, their applicability for long-term monitoring is limited. Dry electrodes are susceptible to motion artifacts, whereas hydrogel-based electrodes face challenges related to water-induced instability. Recently, ionogels and eutectogels derived from ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents have gained immense popularity due to their non-volatility, ionic conductivity, thermal stability, and tunability. Eutectogels, in particular, exhibit superior biocompatibility. These characteristics make them suitable alternatives for the development of safer, robust, and reliable EEG and EMG electrodes. However, research specifically focused on their application for EEG and EMG signal acquisition remains limited. This article explores the electrode requirements and material advancements in EEG and EMG sensing, with a focus on highlighting the benefits that ionogels and eutectogels offer over conventional materials. It sheds light on the current limitations of these materials and proposes areas for further improvement in this field. The potential of these gel-based materials to achieve a seamless interface for high-quality and long-term electrophysiological signal acquisition is emphasized. Leveraging the unique properties of ionogels and eutectogels holds promise for future advancements in EEG and EMG electrode materials, leading to improved monitoring systems and enhanced patient outcomes.
Shared Rule in Federal Theory and Practice
Authors: Mueller Sean 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis book provides the first ever in-depth treatment of shared rule, a crucial but so far largely neglected dimension of federalism and multilevel governance. The book discusses shared rule’s conceptual evolution and defines three different meanings commonly ascribed to it: shared rule as horizontal cooperation, centralization, or bottom-up influence-seeking. An original expert survey conducted among thirty-eight federalism scholars in eleven countries is used to measure actual as opposed to merely potential regional government influence over national decisions. Drawing on a wide range of literature, from lobbying and political parties to power-sharing and secessionism, the book then investigates the emergence and impact of shared rule thus understood. The evidence presented includes qualitative case studies on Belgium, Canada, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA as well as quantitative, cross-sectional analyses at regional and national level. The book shows that shared rule has the potential to become the holy grail of territorial politics in that it satisfies both those wanting greater unity and uniformity of policy-making and also those desiring greater regional autonomy and recognition of diversity. Building on the conceptual and empirical groundwork laid by the Regional Authority Index, the book thus takes us further and deeper into the mechanics of territorial contestation, cooperation, and cohesion.
Introduction
Authors: Mueller Sean 
Published: June 2024

AbstractSharing lies at the heart of many social activities. This chapter introduces the political notion of shared rule, drawing on literature from federalism, multilevel governance, and power-sharing more generally. Departing from a view on federalism as essentially being about inter-governmental cooperation, it lays out the case for better studying subnational government influence at the central level by applying Hirschman’s ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’ framework. Understood in this way, shared rule both complements and offers an alternative to regional self-rule (autonomy), which is what scholars have mostly focused on. Finally, the chapter distils three specific institutional design recommendations and defines the ontological and methodological priors of the rest of the book.
Regional Consequences
Authors: Mueller Sean 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis chapter investigates the effects of the use of shared rule for the regional level. It combines quantitative analyses using data on federal transfers in the USA and Switzerland with an in-depth investigation of party politics in Belgium. In mono-national states, shared rule has both a remedial and a reinforcing effect on existing inter-regional inequalities. For political minorities in Switzerland and spatially distant states and territories in the USA, relying on shared rule pays off financially. However, shared rule also multiplies the benefits for large Swiss cantons and already wealthy US states. At the same time, where cultural, ideological, and economic cleavages overlap with regional governments as in Belgium, shared rule has a centrifugal effect. Where that is not the case and consequently regional actors are more numerous and diverse, the use of shared rule has a centripetal effect.
National Consequences
Authors: Mueller Sean 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis chapter investigates whether the extent of shared rule has a negative effect, a positive effect, or no effect on a wide range of phenomena at the level of countries. The evidence presented supports the optimistic standpoint. Hence, shared rule properly conceived serves both federal and democratic ends and indeed combines the benefits of both. It adopts the participatory and deliberative strengths of democracy—that is, inclusion and respect for rational argumentation—and applies it to interactions between governments that are themselves the result of democratic processes. At the same time, providing for a central space incentivizes—but of course does not guarantee—governments to work jointly towards the common good whilst respecting regional differences. However, shared rule seems to achieve all that mainly by acting as a complement and safeguard for regional self-rule.
Introduction
Authors: Clark J C D 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
The Introduction begins to substantiate the argument that the Enlightenment was not a phenomenon beginning in the eighteenth century but a term of historical explanation widely propagated, in anglophone societies, only from the mid twentieth. It draws on the methodology for intellectual history established by the Cambridge School, and explores the breakdown in a number of fields of some of the key concepts of modernism: feudalism, scientific revolution, industrial revolution, class. It reviews the aims of the postmodernists Lyotard and Foucault. It shows how different versions of the Enlightenment were constructed by enlisting as its members different selections of participants. It notes the late arrival of synonyms for ‘the Enlightenment’ in languages other than English. And it explains the book’s three-part structure.
Cholera
Authors: McMillen Christian W. 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Cholera is caused by ingesting water contaminated with infected fecal matter. The disease spreads easily. Seven cholera pandemics have traveled the globe, the first starting in India in 1817. It was not until the 1830s that people began to see a link between poverty and cholera. During the 1854 London epidemic, John Snow, through his pioneering epidemiological work, realized the disease was waterborne. Then in 1883 Robert Koch discovered Vibrio cholerae in contaminated water. Since the 1960s, oral rehydration therapy has saved millions of lives, but cholera lives on, primarily in Africa, where lack of health infrastructure and poor sanitation allow it to thrive.
The role of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in the diagnosis of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Chen Becky Biqi , Hamilton Zachary , Hasosah Mohammed , Zetler Peter , Popescu Oana , Bush Jonathan , Katz Rael , Smyth Matthew , Jacobson Kevan 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Objectives
Upper gastrointestinal (UGI) tract involvement is frequently reported in pediatric Crohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Aside from granulomas, most findings are nonspecific. The aims of this study were to review the prevalence of UGI tract findings in pediatric patients with CD or UC at diagnosis and to describe differences in endoscopic and histologic features.

Methods
Patients with CD and UC aged 2 to 17 years diagnosed between 2000 and 2015 who had upper and lower endoscopy at diagnosis were randomly chosen from the BC Children’s Hospital inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) registry. Pathology review of the UGI biopsy specimens was blinded to IBD diagnosis.

Results
Of the 198 patients, 102 with CD and 96 with UC were included, with a mean age of 11.7 years (range, 2.3-17 years). Patients with CD were more likely to have aphthous ulcers (20.4% vs 3.5%, P = .002) and erosions (16.3% vs 3.5%, P =.018), most commonly affecting the antrum. Macroscopically normal UGI endoscopy was present in 60% of patients. Microscopic disease was reported in 100% of patients with CD and 87% of patients with UC. In both groups, nonspecific inflammation was the most common finding. Chronic deep, superficial, and diffuse inflammation were more frequent among patients with CD than UC (42% vs 4%, P &lt; .001; 60% vs 17%, P &lt; .001; 50% vs 34%, P = .04, respectively).

Conclusions
The UGI tract macroscopic changes were common in pediatric IBD, especially in CD. Despite macroscopically normal endoscopy, histologic abnormalities were frequent. Although chronic inflammation was more often reported in patients with CD, aside from granulomas there were no unique histologic abnormalities unique to CD.
Risk factors for second primary cancer in a prospective cohort of endometrial cancer survivors: an Alberta Endometrial Cancer Cohort Study
Authors: Kokts-Porietis Renée L , O’Sullivan Dylan E , Nelson Gregg , Courneya Kerry S , Cook Linda S , Friedenreich Christine M 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
We examined associations between modifiable and nonmodifiable cancer-related risk factors measured at endometrial cancer diagnosis and during early survivorship (~3 years postdiagnosis) with second primary cancer (SPC) risk among 533 endometrial cancer survivors in the Alberta Endometrial Cancer Cohort using Fine and Gray subdistribution hazard models. During a median follow-up of 16.7 years (IQR, 12.2-17.9), 89 (17%) participants developed an SPC; breast (29%), colorectal (13%), and lung (12%) cancers were the most common. Dietary glycemic load before endometrial cancer diagnosis (≥90.4 vs &lt; 90.4 g/day: subhazard ratio [sHR] = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.09-2.69), as well as older age (≥60 vs &lt; 60 years: sHR = 2.48; 95% CI, 1.34-4.62) and alcohol intake (≥2 drinks/week vs none: sHR = 3.81; 95% CI, 1.55-9.31) during early survivorship, were associated with increased SPC risk. Additionally, reductions in alcohol consumption from prediagnosis to early survivorship significantly reduced SPC risk (sHR = 0.34; 95% CI, 0.14-0.82). With 1 in 6 survivors developing an SPC, further investigation of SPC risk factors and targeted surveillance options for high-risk survivors could improve long-term health outcomes in this population. Reductions in dietary glycemic load and alcohol intake from prediagnosis to early survivorship showed promising risk reductions for SPCs and could be important modifiable risk factors to target among endometrial cancer survivors.
This article is part of a Special Collection on Gynecological Cancer.
35b Supporting women in mining: reproductive health, birth outcomes and breastfeeding
Authors: Gendron Courtney , Wilk Nancy 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Research and policies to protect workers from workplace hazards have generally focused on the male experience, and particularly the non-pregnant and non-breastfeeding worker. There are differences in how exposure to workplace hazards affect a woman and the fetus as well as the infant child when breastfeeding. These differences may put them at higher risk of negative health outcomes. Supporting women’s reproductive health is vital to providing decent work and advancing gender equality, and can contribute to increased recruitment and retention of women in the mining industry. Guidance is needed to best support pregnancies, birth outcomes and breastfeeding. Regulated and recommended occupational exposure levels established for the pregnant or breastfeeding employee are rare. Good guidance should include protective and meaningful work re-assignment when required. Based on literature reviews, potential or confirmed reproductive hazards in mining will be presented, including heat stress, metals, noise, vibration, ionizing radiation, ergonomics and shift work. Hazards will be presented along with their potential health outcomes, occupational exposure limits, when available, and control recommendations to mitigate risk. Gaps in information will be highlighted and the need for future research discussed. Protective measures to support women’s reproductive health in mining must include leadership support, training and awareness, written programs and policies, and accessible medical and emergency services. Integrating these elements into company management systems will be discussed.
78 Occupational exposure assessment to inhaled anaesthetics of personnel of human and veterinary surgical theatres
Authors: Salamon Fabiola , Martinelli Andrea , Carrieri Mariella 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Introduction
Desflurane, sevoflurane and isoflurane are halogenated anaesthetics used in human and animal surgery. The airborne dispersion of volatile anaesthetics during surgical procedures gives rise to some unavoidable exposure of the operating room personnel. The aim of this study was to evaluate the exposure to anaesthetics gases of personnel of operating rooms by environmental and biological monitoring.

Methodology
The study was carried out on 176 workers involved in human (n. 167) and animal (n. 9) surgery. Personal exposure was measured using the diffusive air sampler Radiello placed near the breathing zone (only 68 subjects). At the end of the work shift (lasting at least 4 h) a urine sample from each subject was collected to measure the anaesthetic gases concentration. All analysis were performed by HS-GC-MS.

Results
Personal environmental exposure to sevoflurane, desflurane and isoflurane was in the range &lt;0.003-1.214 ppm, 0.035-0.253 ppm and 1.371-5.034 ppm, respectively. Urinary concentrations were in the range &lt;0.1-5.2 µg/L for sevoflurane, &lt;0.1-2.2 µg/L for desflurane and 29.7-40.1 µg/L for isoflurane. The anaesthetic gases exposure of workers in human surgery was low. Higher exposure levels were found for the personnel performing surgery on animals, in particular for isoflurane (used only for animal surgery) where, in some cases, the levels were above 2 ppm (occupational limit value recommended by NIOSH for halogenated anaesthetics). This result, even if is based on few data could be due to the physical characteristics of patients (horses), the quantity of anaesthetics used, surgical procedures and scavenging methods.
245 Detection of human respiratory pathogens in air and surface samples collected in several workplaces and public spaces
Authors: Raynor Peter , Muñoz Angie Quiñonez , Sobhy Nader , Goyal Sagar , Adesina Adepeju , Arnold Susan , Hosseinabadi Majid Bagheri , Li Li , Moshele Puleng , Yang My , Torremorell Montserrat , Olson Bernard , Luqman Muhammad , Krishna Venkatramana , Bistodeau Sarah , Cunningham Scott 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Introduction
The objective of this research was to develop and demonstrate methods to detect and assess viability of human respiratory viruses and bacteria in air and on surfaces in workplaces and public spaces.

Methodology
Air and surface samples were collected in a music classroom, medical clinic, dental clinic, basketball arena, and ice hockey arena. Air samples were taken using Non-Viable Andersen Cascade Impactors and either AGI-30 impingers or SKC BioSamplers. Samples from the impactors were eluted using Eagle’s Minimum Essential Medium (MEM) with supplements. MEM was also the collection liquid for the impingement samplers. Surface samples were taken using gauze dipped into MEM. All samples were analyzed on a Luminex MAGPIX System using a NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel (RPP) + SARS-CoV-2. This permitted multiplex detection for 23 viral and bacterial targets per sample. Virus isolation was performed on positive samples to determine if viable virus was present.

Results
Analyses recovered RNA or DNA from SARS-CoV-2, CoV 229E, CoV OC43, human bocavirus, human metapneumovirus, rhinovirus/enterovirus, and adenovirus. While positive results were found at all sites, more surface samples (47.2%) had positive results than air samples (12.5%). Isolation did not identify viable virus in any of the positive samples. No links were established between virus presence and environmental conditions or general particle concentrations.

Conclusions
Based on the findings from this initial work, future testing will include greater use of surface sampling and settling substrates, higher flow rate air samplers, and reduced emphasis on size-differentiated sampling.