bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Jaguar predation on domestic horses in the dry forest of northwestern Costa Rica
Authors: Morera Brayan , Montalvo Víctor , Moya Jairo , Obando Javier , Sáenz‐Bolaños Carolina , Fuller Todd K. , Carrillo Eduardo 
Published: July 2024

AbstractDepredation of domestic horses (Equus caballus) by jaguars (Panthera onca) is an example of human–wildlife conflict that has not received much attention. We monitored spatio‐temporal activity and distribution of horses in a 2.64‐km2 fenced area in the dry forest of northwestern Costa Rica in response to 16 jaguar killings of horses during January‐November 2017. We monitored 4 horses (2 males, 2 females) equipped with global positioning system transmitters from February‐September 2018 to identify daily and seasonal patterns of use of cover types and a water source by horses. We then compared these results to the previous locations where jaguars killed horses to identify the circumstances under which horses seemed more vulnerable to jaguar predation. Based on 1,693 locations, horses spent most time in grassland (92%) rather than forest and edge vegetation (8%) and used a core area of 0.74 km2 (kernel density estimation) to 0.86 km2 (minimum convex polygon). Of 16 horse predation events by jaguars, 9 events (56%) occurred in grasslands, 4 in forested areas (25%), and 3 in the forest edge (19%), indicating predation events occurred disproportionately from expected counts based on horse use of vegetation. The predation sites were characterized by a higher proportion of edge and a lower proportion of forest compared to a random points. We suggest that when horses explored areas near the edge of forested areas, the chances of being preyed on by jaguars increased.
Factors influencing moose harvest success and hunter effort in Ontario, Canada
Authors: Luymes Nick W. , Northrup Joseph M. , Patterson Brent R. 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe management of big game harvest is important for maintaining viable populations and providing recreational opportunities to hunters. There are numerous strategies used by management agencies to achieve these goals, but they are complicated by variation in factors that are difficult to control, such as harvest success rates. For harvest management decisions to have the desired effect on big game populations, the mechanisms affecting factors like harvest success rates need to be properly understood. We used Bayesian hierarchical survival models to explore the factors influencing spatial and temporal variation in moose (Alces alces) harvest success rates in Ontario, Canada. We estimated harvest success rates from hunter reports from 59 Wildlife Management Units from 2000–2019. Overall, harvest success rates were primarily influenced by variables under the control of management agencies, such as season length and tag allocations, but they were also affected by external factors like moose density and weather. Season length, while positively related to harvest success for shorter seasons (e.g., <25 days), exhibited limited influence for longer seasons (>25 days). Our results were largely consistent across spatial and temporal scales, with a similarly strong positive effect of moose density and negative effect of tag allocation between management units and across years. This study emphasizes the need for managers to recognize the inherent uncertainty in harvest outcomes beyond their control and the importance of open communication with hunters in achieving effective harvest management, while offering concrete pathways for influencing harvest success.
Nonlinear Melt Rheology of Lamellae Forming Polystyrene‐b‐Poly‐2‐Vinylpyridine Diblock Copolymers
Authors: Heck Matthias , Wilhelm Manfred 
Published: July 2024

AbstractLamellae forming polystyrene‐b‐poly‐2‐vinylpyridine diblock copolymer melts are investigated with linear shear rheology and Fourier transformation rheology (FT rheology) to quantify their nonlinear behavior under oscillatory shear via mechanical higher harmonic contributions such as I3/1(ω1, γ0). The determination of the zero‐shear nonlinearity () by a variation of γ0 is hindered by the increasing domain alignment at increasing γ0. Thus, an approach for determining 3Q0(T) by a variation of the temperature is developed and used. This approach allows obtaining insights on the nonlinear behavior directly at temperature‐dependent phase transitions, such as at the order‐disorder transition temperature TODT of block copolymers. The maximum of 3Q0 is found to be close to TODT. The nonlinearity originating from the connection of the unequal polymer blocks is shown to dominate the overall nonlinearity, and the maximum of 3Q0(T) correlates to domain alignment for T < TODT.
High Dielectric Thermal Conductivity Polyvinylidene Fluoride Composites Based on Surface‐Modified Graphene Nanosheets and Aluminum Nitride
Authors: Zhao Mengen , Wang Haijun , Liu Kun , Wu Yao , Yuan Chunlei 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThis article provides reports on the method of surface functionalization modification of graphene nanosheets (GNPs) and aluminum nitride (AlN) through polydopamine and silane coupling agents, respectively. This modification achieves excellent dielectric performance of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composites by ensuring the uniform dispersion of fillers within the matrix. The synergistic effect between surface‐modified GNPs and AlN is conducive to increasing polar PVDF crystals and promoting interface polarization. The prepared PVDF/GNPs/AlN composites exhibit a dielectric constant as high as 45 with a dielectric loss of only 0.044. Meanwhile, the enhanced interface compatibility of composite materials, to a certain extent, reduces interface thermal resistance and forms an effective thermal conduction network, which enhances the heat dissipation capability of electronic devices and presents potential application in the dielectric energy storage.
About Polycondensation, Disproportionation, and Cyclization of Acetylated Poly(L‐Lactide) Esters
Authors: Kricheldorf Hans R. , Weidner Steffen M. , Meyer Andreas 
Published: July 2024

AbstractL‐lactide (LA) is polymerized with ethyl L‐lactate or trifluoroethanol as initiators (LA/In = 30/1), and the resulting poly(L‐lactide) esters are acetylated with acetic anhydride. The acetylated PLA esters are mixed with SnOct2, dibutyltin bis(4‐chlorophenoxide), or dibutyltin bis(pentafluorophenoxide) in solution and crystallized at 120 °C. The doped crystals are annealed at 140 °C or at 160 °C for 7, 14, and 28 days, and the chemical modifications that occurred in the solid state are monitored by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight (MALDI TOF) mass spectrometry, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. All catalysts promoted polycondensation, while no significant formation of cycles is observed. However, in the presence of SnOct2, disproportionation of chains occurred upon annealing at 120 or 140 °C, and crystallites consisting of extended chains with Mn values ≈3500 – 3600 and low dispersities (Ð < 1.5) are formed.
Impressive insults: How do consumers respond to self‐deprecating advertisements?
Authors: Kale Vaishnavi , Sayin Eda 
Published: July 2024

AbstractMost advertisements highlight a product's positive attributes to attract consumers. Yet, some brands deliberately criticize themselves by employing self‐deprecation within their communications, such as Carlsberg's “Probably not the best beer in the world” campaign. This research examines whether, when, and why consumers react more favorably to self‐deprecating advertisements. In six experiments, we demonstrate that when the self‐deprecated attribute holds less importance to consumers, self‐deprecating (vs. self‐promoting) advertisements enhance brand trust by elevating the brand's social attractiveness and diminishing consumer skepticism. Importantly, self‐deprecation in advertisements also lowers consumers' tendency to avoid them. We empirically rule out several alternative explanations (i.e., consumer engagement, sentiment, nonconformity, and novelty) for these effects. Our research builds on prior studies in impression management and social psychology, contributing to the literature on advertising, self‐deprecation, and consumer skepticism by promoting the strategic use of self‐deprecating advertisements to bolster brand trust and reduce advertising avoidance. We offer actionable insights for managers and practitioners, highlighting how self‐deprecation can effectively address the challenges of building trust in diverse consumer‐facing marketing contexts.
Design, Synthesis, and Theoretical Studies on the Benzoxadiazole and Thienopyrrole Containing Conjugated Random Copolymers for Organic Solar Cell Applications
Authors: Karakurt Oguzhan , Oral Pelin , Hacioglu Serife Ozdemir , Yılmaz Eda Alemdar , Haciefendioğlu Tuğba , Bicer Umran Isil , Ozcelik Egemen , Ozsoy Gonul Hizalan , Yildirim Erol , Toppare Levent Kamil , Cirpan Ali 
Published: July 2024

AbstractIn this study, six different donor‐π‐acceptor1‐π‐donor‐acceptor2 type random co‐polymers containing benzodithiophene as a donor, benzooxadiazole (BO), and thieno[3,4‐c]pyrrole‐4,6‐dione (TPD) as acceptor, have been synthesized and characterized. In addition to the acceptor core ratio at different values, the effect of aromatic bridge structures on the optical, electronic, and photovoltaic properties of six different random co‐polymers is investigated by using thiophene and selenophene structures as aromatic bridge units. To investigate how the acceptor unit ratio and replacement of aromatic bridge units impact the structural, electronic, and optical properties of the polymers, density functional theory (DFT) calculations are carried out for the tetramer models. The open‐circuit voltage (VOC), which is strongly correlated with the HOMO levels of the donor material, is enhanced with the increasing ratio of the TPD moiety. On the other hand, the short‐circuit current (JSC), which is associated with the absorption ability of the donor material, is improved by the increasing ratio of BO moiety with the π‐bridges. BO moiety dominant selenophene π‐bridged co‐polymer (P4) showed the best performance with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.26%, a JSC of 11.44 mA cm2, a VOC of 0.80 V, and a fill factor (FF) of 68.81%.
Biomedical applications of stimuli‐responsive nanomaterials
Authors: Chen Xiaojie , Wu Di , Chen Zhong 
Published: July 2024

AbstractNanomaterials have aroused great interests in drug delivery due to their nanoscale structure, facile modifiability, and multifunctional physicochemical properties. Currently, stimuli‐responsive nanomaterials that can respond to endogenous or exogenous stimulus display strong potentials in biomedical applications. In comparison with conventional nanomaterials, stimuli‐responsive nanomaterials can improve therapeutic efficiency and reduce the toxicity of drugs toward normal tissues through specific targeting and on‐demand drug release at pathological sites. In this review, we summarize the responsive mechanism of a variety of stimulus, including pH, redox, and enzymes within pathological microenvironment, as well as exogenous stimulus such as thermal effect, magnetic field, light, and ultrasound. After that, biomedical applications (e.g., drug delivery, imaging, and theranostics) of stimuli‐responsive nanomaterials in a diverse array of common diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, neurological disorders, inflammation, and bacterial infection, are presented and discussed. Finally, the remaining challenges and outlooks of future research directions for the biomedical applications of stimuli‐responsive nanomaterials are also discussed. We hope that this review can provide valuable guidance for developing stimuli‐responsive nanomaterials and accelerate their biomedical applications in diseases diagnosis and treatment.
The gut microbiota–brain axis in neurological disorders
Authors: You Mingming , Chen Nan , Yang Yuanyuan , Cheng Lingjun , He Hongzhang , Cai Yanhua , Liu Yating , Liu Haiyue , Hong Guolin 
Published: July 2024

AbstractPrevious studies have shown a bidirectional communication between human gut microbiota and the brain, known as the microbiota–gut–brain axis (MGBA). The MGBA influences the host's nervous system development, emotional regulation, and cognitive function through neurotransmitters, immune modulation, and metabolic pathways. Factors like diet, lifestyle, genetics, and environment shape the gut microbiota composition together. Most research have explored how gut microbiota regulates host physiology and its potential in preventing and treating neurological disorders. However, the individual heterogeneity of gut microbiota, strains playing a dominant role in neurological diseases, and the interactions of these microbial metabolites with the central/peripheral nervous systems still need exploration. This review summarizes the potential role of gut microbiota in driving neurodevelopmental disorders (autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder), neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease), and mood disorders (anxiety and depression) in recent years and discusses the current clinical and preclinical gut microbe‐based interventions, including dietary intervention, probiotics, prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation. It also puts forward the current insufficient research on gut microbiota in neurological disorders and provides a framework for further research on neurological disorders.
Reinforcement learning‐based anatomical maps for pancreas subregion and duct segmentation
Authors: Amiri Sepideh , Vrtovec Tomaž , Mustafaev Tamerlan , Deufel Christopher L. , Thomsen Henrik S. , Sillesen Martin Hylleholt , Brandt Erik Gudmann Steuble , Andersen Michael Brun , Müller Christoph Felix , Ibragimov Bulat 
Published: July 2024

AbstractBackgroundThe pancreas is a complex abdominal organ with many anatomical variations, and therefore automated pancreas segmentation from medical images is a challenging application.PurposeIn this paper, we present a framework for segmenting individual pancreatic subregions and the pancreatic duct from three‐dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) images.MethodsA multiagent reinforcement learning (RL) network was used to detect landmarks of the head, neck, body, and tail of the pancreas, and landmarks along the pancreatic duct in a selected target CT image. Using the landmark detection results, an atlas of pancreases was nonrigidly registered to the target image, resulting in anatomical probability maps for the pancreatic subregions and duct. The probability maps were augmented with multilabel 3D U‐Net architectures to obtain the final segmentation results.ResultsTo evaluate the performance of our proposed framework, we computed the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) between the predicted and ground truth manual segmentations on a database of 82 CT images with manually segmented pancreatic subregions and 37 CT images with manually segmented pancreatic ducts. For the four pancreatic subregions, the mean DSC improved from 0.38, 0.44, and 0.39 with standard 3D U‐Net, Attention U‐Net, and shifted windowing (Swin) U‐Net architectures, to 0.51, 0.47, and 0.49, respectively, when utilizing the proposed RL‐based framework. For the pancreatic duct, the RL‐based framework achieved a mean DSC of 0.70, significantly outperforming the standard approaches and existing methods on different datasets.ConclusionsThe resulting accuracy of the proposed RL‐based segmentation framework demonstrates an improvement against segmentation with standard U‐Net architectures.
Design and characterization of a hybrid PET detector with DOI capability
Authors: He Wen , Zhao Yangyang , Zeng Honghao , Huang Wenjie , Yang Hang , Zhao Xin , Wang Qiang , Wang Lu , Niu Ming , Zhang Lei , Ren Qiushi , Gu Zheng 
Published: July 2024

AbstractBackgroundMonolithic or semi‐monolithic detectors are attractive for positron emission tomography (PET) scanners with depth‐of‐interaction (DOI) capability. However, they often require complicated calibrations to determine the interaction positions of gamma photons.PurposeWe introduce a novel hybrid detector design that combines pixelated and semi‐monolithic elements to achieve DOI capability while simplifying the calibrations for positioning.MethodsA prototype detector with eight hybrid lutetium–yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) layers having dimensions of 25.8 × 12.9 × 15 mm3 was constructed. The energy‐weighted and energy‐squared weighted averages were used for estimating the x‐ (pixelated direction) and y‐positions (non‐pixelated direction). Pseudo‐pixels were defined as discrete areas on the flood image based on the crystal look‐up table (LUT). The intrinsic spatial resolutions in the pixelated and non‐pixelated directions were measured. The ratio of the maximum to the sum of the multipixel photon counter (MPPC) signals was used to estimate the DOI positions. The coincidence timing resolution (CTR) was measured using the average and energy‐weighted average of the earliest n time stamps. Two energy windows of 250–700 and 400–600 keV were applied for the measurements.ResultsThe pattern of the flood images showed discrete event clusters, demonstrating that simple calibrations for determining the x‐ and y‐positions of events could be achieved. Under 400–600 keV energy window, the average intrinsic spatial resolutions were 1.15 and 1.34 mm for the pixelated and non‐pixelated directions; the average DOI resolution of the second row of pseudo‐pixels was 5.1 mm in full width at half maximum (FWHM); when using the energy‐weighted average of the earliest four‐time stamps, the best CTR of 350 ps was achieved. Applying a broader energy window of 250–700 keV only slightly degrades the DOI resolution while maintaining the intrinsic resolution; the best CTR degrades to 410 ps.ConclusionsThe proposed hybrid detector concept was verified, and a prototype detector showed high performance for 3D positioning and timing resolution. The novel detector concept shows promise for preclinical and clinical PET scanners with DOI capability.
A theoretical model for brisk walking‐ and running‐induced lower urinary tract symptoms (BRUTS) and the development of the BRUTS‐questionnaire (BRUTS‐Q): A focus group and Delphi study
Authors: Klahsen Olena , Thibault‐Gagnon Stéphanie , McLean Linda 
Published: July 2024

AbstractAimsExisting questionnaires provide limited information on the nature, severity and context surrounding lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) experienced during running, jogging and brisk walking. The aims of this study were to develop a theoretical model of the experience of LUTS by females participating in gait‐based exercise activities and to use this model to generate a questionnaire to evaluate the presence, symptoms and bother associated with LUTS experienced by females during gait‐based activities.MethodsA theoretical model was developed through a review of the literature and refined through a focus group consultation including pelvic health physiotherapists, females who experienced leakage during exercise and academic researchers who studied female LUTS. A draft questionnaire was developed using key constructs identified in the model by the focus group. A new expert panel was recruited, which included physiotherapists, women with self‐reported gait‐induced LUTS and urogynecologists. This panel followed a DELPHI process to evaluate the relevance and completeness of the constructs within the questionnaire.ResultsTwo rounds of consultation were required to reach consensus on the completeness of included constructs as well as the inclusion and wording of questions. The resulting questionnaire contains questions related to five key constructs: physical activity characteristics, symptoms of urgency, urgency urinary incontinence, stress urinary incontinence experienced during exercise and management/mitigation strategies adopted by respondents.ConclusionsThe content validity of the brisk walking‐ and running‐induced lower urinary tracts symptoms questionnaire has been established. The next steps are to ensure that the questionnaire has adequate comprehensibility, followed by adequate measurement properties.
The association between triglyceride ‐glucose index and stress urinary incontinence in adult American women: A population‐based study
Authors: Pu YangPeng , Feng YouGang , Zhao WenCai 
Published: July 2024

AbstractPurposeThis investigation seeks to determine the triglyceride glucose (TyG) index's link to stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in American females of adult age.MethodsThe investigation relied on data acquired via the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted over the period from 2011 to 2018. The independent relationship between TyG index and SUI was tested using multivariate logistic regression analysis. We applied a smooth curve fitting approach to analyze the interrelation of them. In addition, subgroup analysis was conducted and interaction experiments were conducted.ResultsAmong 4459 female participants aged 20 and above, TyG index and SUI demonstrated a favorable correlation. Model 3 indicated that with every single‐unit rise in the TyG index, the incidence of SUI increases by 18% [1.18 (1.01, 1.38)]. In contrast to individuals in the lowest tertile, subjects within the highest tertile of the TyG index exhibited a 68% increase in SUI incidence [1.68 (95% CI: 1.26, 2.23), 0.0004]. By using smooth curve fitting, a nonlinear positive evidence of an interconnection of the TyG index to SUI was identified.ConclusionsWomen exhibiting increased TyG index levels are at a heightened risk of SUI. TyG index displays a stronger correlation than that observed with BMI. According to our findings, the TyG index is viewed as a potential tool for identifying SUI in women, and monitoring the value of TyG index may be helpful for predicting the occurrence of SUI.