bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A particular epidemiological profile: disparities in access to contraceptive methods in Brazil during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic
Authors: Marcelino Ana C. , da Cunha Pereira Paula , Charles Charles M.’Poca , Bahamondes Luis 
Published: July 2024

AbstractOur objective was to study disparities in access to contraception during the COVID-19 pandemic. We performed a cross-sectional study at the University of Campinas, Brazil using a Google questionnaire applied from December 2021 until February 2022, disseminated via snowball technique. The survey asked about sociodemographic characteristics and contraceptive use, as well as the demand for new methods and difficulties in continuing to use contraceptives during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed 1018 completed questionnaires; in total, 742 (72.9%) were women aged between 20 and 39 years, 746 (73.3%) were White and 602 (59.2%) used contraceptives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, about 23% of respondents changed their method and approximately 20% of respondents looked for new methods. Among the latter, 31.3% reported some difficulty with obtaining guidance on new methods while only 5.3% of the respondents reported some difficulty with continuing their contraceptive. The main difficulty in both cases was the difficulty with getting a healthcare provider appointment. Our results point to a particular epidemiological population, of younger black and biracial women, with lower education and lower income, which suffered health disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic and found difficulties with using contraceptives and accessing family planning services.
PowerAI-Diabetes: Review of glycemic and lipid variability to predict cardiovascular events in Chinese diabetic population
Authors: Lee Sharen , Liu Tong , Chung Cheuk To , Reinhold Johannes , Vassiliou Vassilios S. , Tse Gary 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe aim of this study is to review the predictive value of visit-to-visit variability in glycaemic or lipid tests for forecasting major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in diabetes mellitus. Data from existing studies suggests that such variability is an independent predictor of adverse outcomes in this patient cohort. This understanding is then applied to the development of PowerAI-Diabetes, a Chinese-specific artificial intelligence-enhanced predictive model for predicting the risks of major adverse cardiovascular events and diabetic complications. The model integrates an amalgam of variables including demographics, laboratory and medication information to assess the risk of MACE. Future efforts should focus on the incorporation of treatment effects and non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors, such as social determinants of health variables, to improve the performance of predictive models.
Intelligibility of Natively and Nonnatively Produced English Speech Presented in Noise to a Large Cohort of United States Service Members
Authors: Bieber Rebecca E. , Makashay Matthew J. , Sheffield Benjamin M. , Brungart Douglas S. 
Published: July 2024

Purpose:
A corpus of English matrix sentences produced by 60 native and nonnative speakers of English was developed as part of a multinational coalition task group. This corpus was tested on a large cohort of U.S. Service members in order to examine the effects of talker nativeness, listener nativeness, masker type, and hearing sensitivity on speech recognition performance in this population.

Method:
A total of 1,939 U.S. Service members (ages 18–68 years) completed this closed-set listening task, including 430 women and 110 nonnative English speakers. Stimuli were produced by native and nonnative speakers of English and were presented in speech-shaped noise and multitalker babble. Keyword recognition accuracy and response times were analyzed.

Results:
General(ized) linear mixed-effects regression models found that, on the whole, speech recognition performance was lower for listeners who identified as nonnative speakers of English and when listening to speech produced by nonnative speakers of English. Talker and listener effects were more pronounced when listening in a babble masker than in a speech-shaped noise masker. Response times varied as a function of recognition score, with longest response times found for intermediate levels of performance.

Conclusions:
This study found additive effects of talker and listener nonnativeness when listening to speech in background noise. These effects were present in both accuracy and response time measures. No multiplicative effects of talker and listener language background were found. There was little evidence of a negative interaction between talker nonnativeness and hearing impairment, suggesting that these factors may have redundant effects on speech recognition.

Supplemental Material:

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26060191
An RC snubber design method to achieve optimized switching noise‐loss trade‐off of cascode GaN HEMTs
Authors: Xue Peng , Hoene Eckart , Davari Pooya 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe cascode gallium nitride high electron mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs) are very vulnerable to self‐sustained turn‐off oscillation due to their cascode configuration. This paper presents a design approach for the RC snubber of cascode GaN HEMTs to achieve the optimized noise‐loss trade‐off. At first, an analytical model is proposed to describe the instability of cascode GaN HEMTs‐based test circuits utilizing RC snubber. Based on the model, an analytical approach is proposed to achieve two optimum RC snubber designs S1 and S2. The design S1 can satisfactorily dampen the oscillation with minimum switching losses. The design S2 achieves maximum effective damping on the oscillation at a minimized cost of additional power losses. In the end, the accuracy of the proposed model is validated by the double‐pulse test and good agreement is obtained.
RETRACTED: Interoperable square‐circular coupled coils for wireless electric vehicle battery charging system with different misalignments
Authors: Banothu Charan Singh , Gorantla Srinivasa Rao , Attuluri Rakada Vijay Babu , Evuri Geetha Reddy 
Published: July 2024

AbstractA substantial interest in inductive power transfer (IPT) is due to its straight forwardness and dependability in charging electric vehicle (EV) batteries for researchers. The mutual inductance (MI) plays a critical role in the IPT system as it enables efficient power transfer. Therefore, it is imperative to examine the MI between the two coils that are connected through inductive coupling. This work investigates the MI and efficiency of connected coils in interoperable conditions. The transmitter coil is arranged in the shape of a square (TxS), whereas the reception coil is arranged in the shape of a circle (RxC). A concise and user‐friendly collection of design guidelines for S‐S compensated resonant inductive power transfer (SS‐RIPT) systems the design concepts efficiently mitigate the possibility of systematically and unambiguously setting the specifications for a given load profile. A 3.6‐kW setup has been constructed and validated by finite element analysis and experimental testing, following the design specifications. The availability of suitable testing equipment in the laboratory influenced the choice of a resonance frequency and output voltage for a 3.6 kW system.
A parameter design method of LC filter circuit for closed‐loop dynamic power supply system based on linear power amplifier
Authors: Yang Feixiang , Wang Xueqing , Luo Jin , Duan Qianwen , Ning Zongqi , Mao Yao 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe linear power amplifier (LPA) suffers from low power supply utilization in the DC power supply mode, leading to reduced output efficiency. This paper constructs an efficient power supply mode based on closed‐loop dynamic power supply system (CLDPSs). The CLDPSs can generate a pair of bipolar dynamic power supplies based on a predetermined signal to provide power to LPA, which can maintain a small voltage drop between the power supply and the output of LPA, thereby improving the power supply utilization of LPA. In addition, the study also focuses on the conflicting relationship between the output ripple and the dynamic performance of the CLDPSs, for which a new parametric design of the LC filter circuit is proposed, aiming to achieve a balance between these two aspects. Finally, a voice coil motor driving platform is constructed for experimental testing. The results demonstrate that the output ripple and dynamic performance of the CLDPSs can be balanced. In comparison to the DC power supply mode, the CLDPSs power supply mode can enhance the efficiency of LPA by 2 times while the driving accuracy of voice coil motor is basically unchanged.
Model selection techniques for seafloor scattering statistics in synthetic aperture sonar images of complex seafloors
Authors: Olson Derek R. , Geilhufe Marc 
Published: July 2024

AbstractIn quantitative analysis of seafloor scattering measurements, it is common to model the single‐point probability density function of the scattered intensity or amplitude. For more complex seafloors, the pixel amplitude distribution has previously been modelled with a mixture model consisting of two K distributions, but the environment may have more identifiable scattering mechanisms. Choosing the number of components of a mixture model is a decision that must be made, using a priori information, or using a data driven approach. Several common model selection techniques from the statistics literature are explored (the Akaike, Bayesian, deviance, and Watanabe‐Akaike information criteria) and compared to the authors' choice. Examples are given for synthetic aperture sonar data collected by an autonomous underwater vehicle in a rocky environment off the coast of Bergen, Norway, using the HISAS‐1032 synthetic aperture sonar system. The Bayesian information criterion aligned most closely with the interpretation of both the acoustic images and the plots of the probability of false alarm.
Projection factor and radii of Type II Cepheids
Authors: Wielgórski P. , Pietrzyński G. , Gieren W. , Zgirski B. , Górski M. , Storm J. , Nardetto N. , Kervella P. , Bras G. , Hajdu G. , Hocdé V. , Pilecki B. , Narloch W. , Karczmarek P. , Pych W. , Chini R. , Hodapp K. 
Published: July 2024

Context. Type II Cepheids are old pulsating stars that can be used to trace the distribution of an old stellar population and to measure distances to globular clusters and galaxies within several megaparsecs, and by extension, they can improve our understanding of the cosmic distance scale. One method that can be used to measure the distances of Type II Cepheids relies on period-luminosity relations, which are quite widely explored in the literature. The semi-geometrical Baade-Wesselink technique is another method that allows distances of radially pulsating stars, such as Type II Cepheids, to be measured if the so-called projection factor is known. However, the literature concerning this parameter for Type II Cepheids is limited to just a few pioneering works.
Aims. In determining projection factors for eight nearby short-period Type II Cepheids, also known as BL Her type stars, we aim to calibrate the Baade-Wesselink method for measuring distances for this class of stars.
Methods. Using the surface brightness-colour relation version of the Baade-Wesselink technique, we determined the projection factors and radii of eight nearby BL Her type stars. We adopted accurate distances of target stars from Gaia Data Release 3. Time series photometry in the V and KS bands have been collected with two telescopes located at the RolfChini Cerro Murphy Observatory (former Cerro Armazones Observatory), while spectroscopic data have been obtained within dedicated programmes with instruments hosted by the European Southern Observatory.
Results. The measured projection factors for the stars with good quality data are in the range between 1.21 and 1.36. The typical uncertainty of projection factors is 0.1. The mean value is 1.330 ± 0.058, which gives the uncertainty of ∼4%. The main sources of uncertainty on the p-factors are statistical errors of the Baade-Wesselink fit (related to the dispersion and coverage of light and radial velocity curves) and parallax. In the case of radii, the biggest contribution to the error budget comes from the KS band photometry’s systematic uncertainty and parallax. The determined radii allowed us to construct the period-radius relation for BL Her stars. Our period-radius relation is in good agreement with the previous empirical calibration, while two theoretical calibrations found in the literature agree with our relation within 2σ. We also confirm that BL Her and RR Lyr stars obey an apparent common period-radius relation.
Nova contributions to the chemical evolution of the Milky Way
Authors: Kemp Alex J. , Karakas Amanda I. , Casey Andrew R. , Côté Benoit , Izzard Robert G. , Osborn Zara 
Published: July 2024

Context. The explosive burning that drives nova eruptions results in unique nucleosynthesis that heavily over-produces certain isotopes relative to the solar abundance. However, novae are often ignored when considering the chemical evolution of our Galaxy due to their low ejecta masses. Galactic chemical evolution studies including novae are rare and have previously relied upon simplified treatments for the behaviour of nova populations.
Aims. In this work, we use previously computed synthetic nova populations and the galactic chemical evolution code OMEGA+ to assess the impact that novae have on the evolution of stable elemental and isotopic abundances.
Methods. We combine populations of novae computed using the binary population synthesis code binary_c with the galactic chemical evolution code OMEGA+ and detailed, white dwarf mass-dependent nova yields to model the nucleosynthetic contributions of novae to the evolution of the Milky Way. We consider three different nova yield profiles, each corresponding to a different set of nova yield calculations.
Results. We examine which nova sites contribute most to which isotopes. Despite novae from low-mass white dwarfs (WDs) dominating nova ejecta contributions, we find that novae occurring on massive WDs are still able to contribute significantly to many isotopes, particularly those with high mass numbers. We find that novae can produce up to 35% of the Galactic 13C and 15N mass by the time the model Galaxy reaches [Fe/H] = 0, and earlier in the evolution of the Galaxy (between [Fe/H] = −2 and −1) novae may have been the dominant source of 15N. Predictions for [13C/Fe], [15N/Fe], 12C/13C, and 14N/15N abundances ratios vary by up to 0.2 dex at [Fe/H] = 0 and by up to 0.7 dex in [15N/Fe] and 14N/15N between [Fe/H] = −2 and −1 (corresponding approximately to Galactic ages of 170 Myr and 1 Gyr in our model). The Galactic evolution of other stable isotopes (excluding Li) is not noticeably affected by including novae. For most isotopes, agreement is generally good between the three different yield profiles we consider. Isotopes where agreement is relatively poor include: 3He (especially at high MWD), 7Li, 18O, 18F, and the > 1.3 M⊙ regime of 29Si, 33S, 34S, 35Cl, and 36Ar.
Home country’s economic and political institutions: firms’ ownership decisions in cross-border acquisitions
Authors: Chan Christine M. , Shi Lei , Yi Jingtao 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe influences of a home country’s economic and political institutions on acquirers’ cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) ownership strategies remains unexplored. Acquirers face endogenous uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty that can be resolved in part by acquirers) when transferring headquarters resources to foreign target firms and exogenous uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty that cannot be resolved by acquirers) when there is an unpredictable policy change. We argue that well-developed economic and political institutions in a home country play a market-supporting and constraining role in mitigating endogenous and exogenous uncertainty respectively, enabling acquirers to seek high ownership stakes in CBAs. We also argue that the importance of a home country’s well-developed economic and political institutions for acquirers’ CBA ownership strategic decisions depends on mutual trade dependence between the acquirers’ home country and the target firms’ host countries and also on the economic capabilities of the acquirers developed in different industries and political capabilities developed in different host countries. To test these arguments, we analyze 133,623 CBAs between 2000 and 2020 and find support for the distinct roles played by a home country’s economic and political institutions.
Effects of β-carotene supplementation and age on the oxidative status, production and reproductive performance of grazing ewes
Authors: Ahmed Osman , Hassen Abubeker , Lehloenya Khoboso 
Published: July 2024

Context There is some evidence that physiological stages such as breeding, pregnancy, parturition and lactation may trigger oxidative stress. It has also been observed in several species, including sheep, that age affects their vulnerability to oxidative stress. Aims This study investigated the effects of supplemental β-carotene and age on the oxidative status of grazing ewes around breeding, pregnancy, parturition and early lactation as well as on their production and reproduction performance. Methods Hundred and four ewes were divided into two broad age groups (young = 1–3 years, and old = 4–6 years). Within age groups, ewes of similar age were randomly assigned to four treatment groups (A1, A2, A3, C) by using a completely randomised block design. The young (n = 13) and old (n = 13) sheep in Groups A1, A2 and A3 were daily drenched with 100 mg, 75 mg and 50 mg β-carotene respectively. Group C was unsupplemented (Control). Supplementation lasted 28 days before oestrus synchronisation; 14 days during oestrus synchronisation (CIDR) and hand-mating; 18 days post-hand-mating; 30 days before lambing; and 15 days after lambing. All animals were grazed on Kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum). Six ewes from each group (total = 24) were sampled for blood to measure oxidative and hormonal status during the experiment. Key results Supplemental β-carotene at ≥75 mg/day may act as a pro-oxidant in ruminants under oxidatively stressed conditions such as parturition. Age did not affect the ewes’ oxidative status. The supplemental β-carotene did not affect bodyweight, oestrus parameters, corpus luteum size, conception rate and litter size. Except for a tendency of lambs from supplemented ewes to have heavier weight at 15 days old (P = 0.080), age group and supplemental β-carotene did not affect the lamb mortality rate or weight at birth or 15 days old. Older ewes showed earlier and longer duration of oestrus than did younger ewes. Conclusions Supplementation of grazing ewes with β-carotene should not be ≥75 mg/day, especially at parturition period, because it may work as a pro-oxidant. The older ewes seem to have earlier oestrus with a longer duration than do the younger ones. Implications Caution is urged when administering high doses of β-carotene to ewes during the peri-parturient period.
Design principles of multi-map variation in biological systems
Authors: Poyatos Juan F 
Published: July 2024

Abstract
Complexity in biology is often described using a multi-map hierarchical architecture, where the genotype, representing the encoded information, is mapped to the functional level, known as the phenotype, which is then connected to a latent phenotype we refer to as fitness. This underlying architecture governs the processes driving evolution. Furthermore, natural selection, along with other neutral forces, can, in turn, modify these maps. At each level, variation is observed. Here, I propose the need to establish principles that can aid in understanding the transformation of variation within this multi-map architecture. Specifically, I will introduce three, related to the presence of modulators, constraints, and the modular channeling of variation. By comprehending these design principles in various biological systems, we can gain better insights into the mechanisms underlying these maps and how they ultimately contribute to evolutionary dynamics.
Skyrmion motion induced by spin-waves on magnetic nanotubes
Authors: Abdulrazak Tijjani , Liu 刘 Xuejuan 雪娟 , Wang 王 Zhenyu 振宇 , Cao 曹 Yunshan 云姗 , Yan 严 Peng 鹏 
Published: July 2024

Abstract
We investigate the skyrmion motion driven by spin waves on magnetic nanotubes through micromagnetic simulations. Our key results include demonstrating the stability and enhanced mobility of skyrmions on the edgeless nanotube geometry, which prevents destruction at boundaries — a common issue in planar geometries. We explore the influence of the damping coefficient, amplitude, and frequency of microwaves on skyrmion dynamics, revealing a non-uniform velocity profile characterized by acceleration and deceleration phases. Our results show that the skyrmion Hall effect is significantly modulated on nanotubes compared to planar models, with specific dependencies on the spin-wave parameters. These findings provide insights into skyrmion manipulation for spintronic applications, highlighting the potential for high-speed and efficient information transport in magnonic devices.
Iron-carbon based materials as negative electrode for energy storage devices
Authors: Thi Hang Bui , Thi Lan Nguyen 
Published: July 2024

Abstract
The effect of various carbon nanofibers (CNF) on the electrochemical properties of iron/carbon (Fe/C) composite electrodes has been investigated to find a suitable carbon additive for iron-based battery anode. The structure and characteristics of carbon such as particle size, surface area strongly affected the cycling performance of Fe/C composite electrode. Different types of CNF structures (herringbone and tubular) have been investigated and tubular type exhibited higher discharge capacity. The x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) revealed that iron species are dispersed on carbon surface during cycling, which may improve the electrochemical properties of the Fe/C composite electrodes. The aggregation of iron species into large particles on the carbon surface via dissolution-deposition process during cycling increased the resistance of the Fe/C electrode. This phenomenon caused the reduced redox current and discharge capacity of electrode during cycling. The electrochemical active material type and their particle size also influenced the cycling performance of electrode. When Fe was replaced by Fe2O3, the Fe2O3/C composite electrode provided larger capacity than Fe/C composite electrode. The discharge capacity of nano-Fe2O3/tubular CNF composite electrode was larger than that of micro-Fe2O3/tubular CNF composite electrode.