bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Nonlinearity between Credit Conditions and Economic Activity on Density Forecasts
Authors: Franta Michal 
Published: November 2015

AbstractThis paper examines the effect of nonlinearities on density forecasting. It focuses on the relationship between credit markets and the rest of the economy. The possible nonlinearity of this relationship is captured by a threshold vector autoregressive model estimated on US data using Bayesian methods. Density forecasts thus account for the uncertainty in all model parameters and possible future regime changes. It is shown that considering nonlinearity can improve the probabilistic assessment of the economic outlook. Moreover, three illustrative examples are discussed to shed some light on the possible practical applicability of density forecasts derived from non‐linear models. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
As‐needed intravenous antihypertensive therapy and blood pressure control
Authors: Lipari Melissa , Moser Lynette R. , Petrovitch Elizabeth A. , Farber Margo , Flack John M. 
Published: November 2015

BACKGROUNDHospitalized patients with elevated blood pressure (BP) in most cases should be treated with intensification of oral regimens, but are often given intravenous (IV) antihypertensives.OBJECTIVETo determine frequency of prescribing and administering episodic IV antihypertensives and outcomes.DESIGNRetrospective review.SETTINGUrban academic hospital.PATIENTSNon–critically ill, hospitalized patients with an IV antihypertensive order for enalaprilat, labetalol, hydralazine, or metoprolol.MEASUREMENTSWe analyzed BP thresholds for ordering and administering IV antihypertensives, the types and frequencies of IV antihypertensives administered, and the effect of IV antihypertensive use on short‐term BP and adverse outcomes. The BP change during hospitalization was contrasted in those receiving IV antihypertensives between those who did and did not receive subsequent intensification of chronic oral antihypertensive regimens.RESULTSTwo hundred forty‐six patients had an episodic IV antihypertensive order. One hundred seventy‐two patients received 458 doses, with 48% receiving a single dose. Over 98% of episodic IV antihypertensive doses were administered for systolic blood pressure (SBP) <200 mm Hg and 84.5% for SBP <180 mm Hg. Within 6 hours of administration, there was a statistically significant decline in average SBP and diastolic BP in patients receiving IV hydralazine and labetolol. After administration of IV antihypertensives, the oral inpatient medication regimen was adjusted in 52% of patients; these patients had a greater reduction in SBP from admission to discharge than patients with no change to their oral regimens. A total of 32.6% of patients receiving treatment experienced a BP reduction of more than 25% within 6 hours.CONCLUSIONSIV antihypertensive drugs are ordered and administered in patients with asymptomatic, uncontrolled BP for levels unassociated with substantive immediate cardiovascular risk, which may cause adverse effects. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2016;11:193–198. © 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine
Development of antimicrobial active packaging materials based on gluten proteins
Authors: Gómez‐Heincke Diana , Martínez Inmaculada , Partal Pedro , Guerrero Antonio , Gallegos Críspulo 
Published: November 2015

AbstractBACKGROUNDThe incorporation of natural biocide agents into protein‐based bioplastics, a source of biodegradable polymeric materials, manufactured by a thermo‐mechanical method is a way to contribute to a sustainable food packaging industry. This study assesses the antimicrobial activity of 10 different biocides incorporated into wheat gluten‐based bioplastics. The effect that formulation, processing, and further thermal treatments exert on the thermo‐mechanical properties, water absorption characteristics and rheological behaviour of these materials is also studied.RESULTSBioplastics containing six of the 10 examined bioactive agents have demonstrated suitable antimicrobial activity at 37 °C after their incorporation into the bioplastic. Moreover, the essential oils are able to create an antimicrobial atmosphere within a Petri dish.CONCLUSIONDepending on the selected biocide, its addition may alter the bioplastics protein network in a different extent, which leads to materials exhibiting less water uptake and different rheological and thermo‐mechanical behaviours. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry
In situ calibration of meteorological sensor in Himalayan high mountain environment
Authors: Merlone Andrea , Roggero Guido , Verza Gian Pietro 
Published: November 2015

ABSTRACTA dedicated facility for in situ calibration of weather stations has been installed in the Everest Pyramid Laboratory/Observatory at an altitude of 5050 m in the Khumbu Valley, on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest. This highest metrology laboratory in the world represents a fruitful collaboration between metrological and environmental sciences. The common goal is the improvement of data quality and the reliability of climate monitoring. High altitude extreme environmental observations are of high scientific relevancy, underlining the advantages of performing in situ instrument calibration to make measurements fully traceable to standards. In establishing such a laboratory in extreme conditions, the involved staff had to face several challenges: weight of the system components for the eventual transport by human porters, modification to ‘off the shelf equipment’, special procedures and optimization of power request, reduced room available, properties of fluids at high altitude and many more.The work and the mission reported are tasks of the MeteoMet project, which are presented here together with the organizations involved. The calibration chamber, the calibration procedure and the results of the first calibration campaign are then presented with full uncertainty analysis.The capabilities achieved, together with the trained staff and dedicated procedures, now allow calibration and checking of the instruments positioned all along the Khumbu Valley, up to the Everest South Col at 8000 m, more frequently, with less difficulties and with reduced loss of time. Future plans include the extension of the calibration capabilities to soil, ice, permafrost and lake water temperature sensors.
Inline quality rating of multi‐crystalline wafers based on photoluminescence images
Authors: Demant Matthias , Rein Stefan , Haunschild Jonas , Strauch Theresa , Höffler Hannes , Broisch Juliane , Wasmer Sven , Sunder Kirsten , Anspach Oliver , Brox Thomas 
Published: November 2015

AbstractThe quality assessment of multi‐crystalline and high‐performance multi‐crystalline silicon wafers during incoming inspection of solar cell production requires a reproducible description of the relevant material defects and a classification scheme that is capable to rate as‐cut wafers from unknown manufacturers. Both needs are addressed in this work. We introduce an image processing framework that allows the various types of crystallization‐related defects visible in photoluminescence images to be detected quantitatively and thus enables a complete wafer description in terms of defects. The importance of different features within this defect characteristic is weighted by predicting the open‐circuit voltage of solar cells with aluminum back‐surface field as well as passivated emitter and rear cells with a stepwise extension of the model. The resulting robust classification scheme is successfully evaluated on a set of 7500 wafers, which represents the whole spectrum of material types and qualities that are currently available at the market. A comparison of defect signatures in high‐performance multi‐crystalline and standard multi‐crystalline silicon materials underlines the relevance of additional features. As a result of this paper, we show that a regularized version of multi‐linear regression models for quality prediction can optimize simpler linear models by adding selected features to the defect characteristic leading to mean absolute prediction errors of 2.2 mV for solar cells with aluminum back‐surface field and 2.9 mV for passivated emitter and rear cells solar cells in a true blind test. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Aminothiazonaphthalic anhydride derivatives as photoinitiators for violet/blue LED‐Induced cationic and radical photopolymerizations and 3D‐Printing resins
Authors: Zhang Jing , Dumur Frédéric , Xiao Pu , Graff Bernadette , Gigmes Didier , Pierre Fouassier Jean , Lalevée Jacques 
Published: November 2015

ABSTRACTThe cations and radicals produced in aminothiazonaphthalic anhydride derivatives (ATNAs) combined with an iodonium salt, N‐vinylcarbazole, amine, or chloro triazine initiate the ring‐opening cationic polymerization of epoxides and the free radical polymerization of acrylates under LEDs at 405 or 455 nm. The photoinitiating ability of these novel photoinitiating systems is higher than that of the well‐known camphorquinone‐based systems. An example of the high reactivity of the new proposed photoinitiator is also provided in resins for 3D‐printing using a LED projector@405 nm. The chemical mechanisms are investigated by steady‐state photolysis, cyclic voltammetry, fluorescence, laser flash photolysis, and electron spin resonance spin‐trapping techniques. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 1189–1196
Blue to light gray electrochromic polymers from dodecyl‐derivatized thiophene Bis‐substituted dibenzothiophene/dibenzofuran
Authors: Lin Kaiwen , Zhao Yao , Ming Shouli , Liu Hongtao , Zhen Shijie , Xu Jingkun , Lu Baoyang 
Published: November 2015

ABSTRACT3‐Dodecylthiophene end‐capped two monomers: 2,8‐bis‐(4‐dodecyl‐thiophen‐2‐yl)‐dibenzothiophene (DBT‐3DTh) and 2,8‐bis‐(4‐dodecyl‐thiophen‐2‐yl)‐dibenzofuran (DBF‐3DTh) were synthesized via Stille coupling reaction. Both monomers exhibited emission peaks at about 400 nm with fluorescence quantum yields ranging from 0.16 to 0.21. The corresponding electroactive polymers poly(2,8‐bis‐(4‐dodecyl‐thiophen‐2‐yl)‐dibenzothiophene) (PDBT‐3DTh) and poly(2,8‐bis‐(4‐dodecyl‐thiophen‐2‐yl)‐dibenzofuran) (PDBF‐3DTh) were obtained by electropolymerization method and displayed good electrochemical stability. Both polymers switched between light gray in the neutral state and blue in the oxidized state. Kinetic investigations showed that PDBT‐3DTh exhibited a maximum optical contrast (ΔT %) of 25.23% at 575 nm with the coloration efficiency (CE) of 196 cm2 C−1. However, the electrochromic properties of PDBF‐3DTh were inferior to PDBT‐3DTh. Further detailed discussions with EDOT and 3‐alkylthiophenes end‐capped DBT/DBF hybrid electrochromic polymers were comparatively studied. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 1468–1478
A low cost, large area light soaking and testing station
Authors: Ogulgonen Guvenc , Kincal Serkan 
Published: November 2015

AbstractTest stations for accelerated aging tests are crucial in the development of commercial solar panel manufacturing technologies. Such test‐beds must provide a reasonably uniform flux whose spectral distribution is an acceptable match to the solar spectrum. This work outlines the detailed design on a low cost test system based on metal‐ halide lamps that can deliver a simulated solar flux of up to 3 suns on a 100 cm by 100 cm square area with an intensity variation of around 15%. A total of 9 metal‐halide lamps, each rated at 1000 W, is placed on top an enclosure which has a sample holding table whose distance to the lamps can be adjusted anywhere between 10 cm and 70 cm. A series of fans, blow ambient air over the panels being tested in order to maintain surface temperatures. The system is complemented by the necessary instrumentation to capture IV curves simultaneously for up to 8 solar devices. A model based design strategy is adopted during the construction of the test station in order to predict and optimize the light distribution as well as the thermal behaviour. Sample IV data from commercial thin film Si solar cells are reported to demonstrate the stability of operation. The cost of the entire system is below $ 20,000, with most of the budget going towards the data acquisition hardware. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
The different paths for renewable energies in Latin American Countries: the relevance of the enabling frameworks and the design of instruments
Authors: Recalde Marina Yesica 
Published: November 2015

The promotion of renewable energy is a priority for the majority of the regions of the world. The key motivation for the promotion of these sources varies according to the countries; in some cases, the aim is to mitigate climate change, in some others is to address the growing energy demand, or to reduce the dependence on imported fossil fuels. To this purpose, governments implement different energy policies, based on a combination of primary and secondary instruments. Nevertheless, the performance of the policy will depend on the policy design and the enabling environment of the policy, e.g., macroeconomic conditions, political and regulatory risk, and financial sources. During the last decades, many Latin American and Caribbean countries have implemented energy policies to promote renewable electricity. Many of these countries have used a similar combination of support instruments (feed‐in laws, targets, auctions, investment subsidies, etc.). However, the results are very dissimilar. In some cases, similar policies, and even the same instruments led to significant increases in renewable energies, while in other cases the impact has been very small. The aim of this study is to review the recent application of energy policies to renewable energies in a group of South American countries and to analyze whether the performance of the policy is due to policy incentives or enabling environment. WIREs Energy Environ 2016, 5:305–326. doi: 10.1002/wene.190This article is categorized under:

Energy and Climate > Economics and Policy
Energy Policy and Planning > Economics and Policy
Energy and Development > Climate and Environment
Modeling calcium regulation of contraction, energetics, signaling, and transcription in the cardiac myocyte
Authors: Winslow Raimond L. , Walker Mark A. , Greenstein Joseph L. 
Published: November 2015

Calcium (Ca2+) plays many important regulatory roles in cardiac muscle cells. In the initial phase of the action potential, influx of Ca2+ through sarcolemmal voltage‐gated L‐type Ca2+ channels (LCCs) acts as a feed‐forward signal that triggers a large release of Ca2+ from the junctional sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). This Ca2+ drives heart muscle contraction and pumping of blood in a process known as excitation–contraction coupling (ECC). Triggered and released Ca2+ also feed back to inactivate LCCs, attenuating the triggered Ca2+ signal once release has been achieved. The process of ECC consumes large amounts of ATP. It is now clear that in a process known as excitation–energetics coupling, Ca2+ signals exert beat‐to‐beat regulation of mitochondrial ATP production that closely couples energy production with demand. This occurs through transport of Ca2+ into mitochondria, where it regulates enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle. In excitation–signaling coupling, Ca2+ activates a number of signaling pathways in a feed‐forward manner. Through effects on their target proteins, these interconnected pathways regulate Ca2+ signals in complex ways to control electrical excitability and contractility of heart muscle. In a process known as excitation–transcription coupling, Ca2+ acting primarily through signal transduction pathways also regulates the process of gene transcription. Because of these diverse and complex roles, experimentally based mechanistic computational models are proving to be very useful for understanding Ca2+ signaling in the cardiac myocyte. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2016, 8:37–67. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1322This article is categorized under:

Biological Mechanisms > Cell Signaling
Analytical and Computational Methods > Computational Methods
Models of Systems Properties and Processes > Mechanistic Models
Systems biology approaches for identifying adverse drug reactions and elucidating their underlying biological mechanisms
Authors: Boland Mary Regina , Jacunski Alexandra , Lorberbaum Tal , Romano Joseph D. , Moskovitch Robert , Tatonetti Nicholas P. 
Published: November 2015

Small molecules are indispensable to modern medical therapy. However, their use may lead to unintended, negative medical outcomes commonly referred to as adverse drug reactions (ADRs). These effects vary widely in mechanism, severity, and populations affected, making ADR prediction and identification important public health concerns. Current methods rely on clinical trials and postmarket surveillance programs to find novel ADRs; however, clinical trials are limited by small sample size, whereas postmarket surveillance methods may be biased and inherently leave patients at risk until sufficient clinical evidence has been gathered. Systems pharmacology, an emerging interdisciplinary field combining network and chemical biology, provides important tools to uncover and understand ADRs and may mitigate the drawbacks of traditional methods. In particular, network analysis allows researchers to integrate heterogeneous data sources and quantify the interactions between biological and chemical entities. Recent work in this area has combined chemical, biological, and large‐scale observational health data to predict ADRs in both individual patients and global populations. In this review, we explore the rapid expansion of systems pharmacology in the study of ADRs. We enumerate the existing methods and strategies and illustrate progress in the field with a model framework that incorporates crucial data elements, such as diet and comorbidities, known to modulate ADR risk. Using this framework, we highlight avenues of research that may currently be underexplored, representing opportunities for future work. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2016, 8:104–122. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1323This article is categorized under:

Biological Mechanisms > Chemical Biology
Analytical and Computational Methods > Computational Methods
Translational, Genomic, and Systems Medicine > Translational Medicine
Controlling the Midfield: Treating Patients With Chronic Pain Using Alternative Payment Models
Authors: Haig Andrew J. 
Published: November 2015

AbstractThe entire American health care system is turning upside down, except for the parts that aren't— yet. For physiatrists who manage pain problems, the future is complex. The usual challenge of treating these devastating and costly problems that cannot be measured physiologically is compounded by the requirement to do so in a health care system that doesn't know what it wants to be yet. Payment, regulation, and the very structure of practice are changing at a pace that is halting and unpredictable. Nonetheless, knowledge about some structures is necessary, and some themes almost certainly emerge. I propose that the role of the pain physiatrist is best understood through a soccer analogy. Whereas the casual spectator of the past might note the goals scored by surgical colleagues and shots missed by primary care partners, sophisticated health care systems of the future will learn that the pain game is won by creating a strong physiatry midfield. Physiatrists can reach to the backfield to help primary care with tough cases, send accurate referrals to surgeons, and reorganize the team when chronic pain complicates the situation. Current and emerging payment structures include insurance from government, employers, or individuals. Although the rules may change, certain trends appear to occur: Individuals will be making more choices, deductibles will increase, narrow groups of practitioners will work together, pricing will become important, and the burden on primary care colleagues will increase. Implications of each of these trends on pain medicine and specific strategy examples are addressed. A general concept emerges that, although procedure‐ and activity‐based practice is still important, pain physiatrists can best prepare for the future by leading programs that create value for their health care system.
Current Regulations Related to Opioid Prescribing
Authors: Webster Lynn R. , Grabois Martin 
Published: November 2015

AbstractIt is the responsibility of medical professionals to do all that is possible to safely alleviate pain. Opioids are frequently prescribed for pain but are associated with the potential for misuse, addiction, diversion, and overdose mortality, and thus they are strictly regulated. To adhere to legitimate practice standards, physicians and other health care providers who prescribe opioids for pain, particularly on a long‐term basis, need current information on federal and state laws, treatment guidelines, and regulatory actions aimed at reducing opioid‐related harm. The number of opioid‐prescribing policies is increasing as federal and state governments increase scrutiny to alleviate opioid‐related problems in society. Failure to adequately comply with opioid‐prescribing laws and policies may put a prescriber at risk for legal or regulatory sanctions. Necessary actions include thorough documentation of prescribing decisions and assessment and follow‐up of patient risk for opioid misuse or addiction. Tools to check for patient adherence to the prescribed regimen include prescription monitoring databases and urine drug screening. This article presents an overview of the legal and regulatory framework surrounding controlled substances law. It further discusses recent actions at the federal and state level to prevent opioid‐related harm.
Assessing and Treating Patients With Neuropathic Pain
Authors: Scholten Paul M. , Harden R. Norman 
Published: November 2015

AbstractNeuropathic pain (NP) is a significant source of suffering, disability, and impairment, as well as an enormous cost to society. Historically, pharmacologic treatment has been limited to drugs approved for other conditions, including anticonvulsants, antidepressants, antiarrhythmics, and opioids, but in the past 2 decades several drugs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for NP. Understanding the underlying pathophysiology and clinical presentation of the various causes of NP states facilitates a rational selection of pharmacologic, interventional, rehabilitative, and psychological options for reducing pain and maximizing function.
How to Maximize Patient Safety When Prescribing Opioids
Authors: Kirpalani Dhiruj 
Published: November 2015

AbstractOpioid prescribing and deaths in the United States have increased exponentially in the past couple of decades. This increase has occurred amidst growing awareness of the lack of long‐term efficacy of opioids, as well as the significant long‐ and short‐term risks associated with these medications. The scope of the opioid epidemic has led to the development of extensive clinical screening and monitoring tools recommended for health care providers who prescribe opioids to patients for chronic nonmalignant pain. The purpose of this review is to summarize the latest guidelines and evidence that will assist in maximizing patient safety while using chronic opioid therapy as part of pain management.