bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Isolating nanocellulose fibrills from bamboo parenchymal cells with high intensity ultrasonication
Authors: Wang Hankun , Zhang Xuexia , Jiang Zehui , Yu Zixuan , Yu Yan 
Published: October 2015

Abstract
The parenchymal cells in bamboo are an attractive source of raw materials due to their low degree of lignification and relatively loose cell wall structures. In this study, nanocellulose fibrils (NCFs) were isolated via a combined process of ultrasonication and chemical pretreatment of parenchymal cells separated from Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) by means of a simple screening approach. As indicators of the fibrillation degree served the morphology, optical properties, and dynamic viscosity of the prepared NCF hydrogel as function of ultrasonication time. The mechanical properties of NCF derived films were also determined. The results show that high-quality NCFs can easily be prepared from bamboo parenchymal cells through the above-mentioned process, with an optimal ultrasonication time of 40 min. The utilization of bamboo processing residues via the ultrasonication route is promising and for energy saving production of high-quality NCFs at large scale.
On the challenges of measuring humor styles: Response to Heintz and Ruch
Authors: Martin Rod A. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractI applaud Heintz and Ruch (this issue) for their efforts at evaluating the construct validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). However, their study has several weaknesses that limit the conclusions that can be drawn. Most importantly, the measures developed by these authors to test the validity of the HSQ have questionable reliability and validity themselves, due to the challenges inherent in measuring humor styles via self-report. These limitations are discussed, and suggestions are provided for further research along these lines.
CFD Modeling of Algae Flash Pyrolysis in the Batch Fluidized Bed Reactor Including Heat Carrier Particles
Authors: Azizi Salar , Mowla Dariush 
Published: October 2015

Abstract
The algae biomass is one of the potential biomass resources for extracting lipid to produce fuel. The off grade or residuals of dehydrated algae particles can be used in pyrolysis reactions to produce fuel or useful chemicals. Due to higher ash contents of algae biomass, pyrolysis process needs an appropriate design of pyrolysis reactor. The heating rate of algae biomass is a key factor for increasing of bio-oil production rate. Instead of heat transfer from reactor walls to the biomass, heated inert particles are added to the conventional fluidized bed reactor to increase heat transfer rate and yield of the bio-oil as called flash pyrolysis. The introduced pyrolysis reaction in the novel heating method of fluidized bed reactor studied numerically. For this purpose, an Eulerian-Eulerian CFD model utilized for modeling of the dehydrated algae pyrolysis in the fluidized bed reactor. The appropriate reaction rate of the algae pyrolysis is based on the heating rate, temperature sensitive activation energy and the reaction selectivity utilized to the algae pyrolysis. In addition, the segregation and density change of the biomass particles investigated in the CFD modeling to analysis mixing of the particles and corresponding heat transfer between the mixed particles. The validation of the CFD model investigated using results of prepared experimental setup.
Modeling and Simulation of a Co-current Rotary Dryer
Authors: Huang Zhi-gang , Weng Yun-xuan , Fu Nan , Fu Zong-qiang , Li Dong , Chen Xiao Dong 
Published: October 2015

Abstract
Mathematical models including mass and energy conservation were developed in order to predict the outlet particles temperature and moisture. As the inlet air temperature increased, the outlet particles temperature increased as well and the outlet particles moisture decreased quickly. The outlet particles temperature and moisture changed a little as a function of the speed of rotation at the low inlet air temperature, while the outlet particles temperature and moisture increased very apparently with the speed of rotation increased at the high inlet air temperature. The error of the simulation results compared to the experimental data showed good accuracy for particles temperature and moisture content. The mathematical model performs well to predict the outlet particles temperature and moisture content.
A unified approach to convergence rates for ℓ1-regularization
and lacking sparsity
Authors: Flemming Jens , Hofmann Bernd , Veselić Ivan 
Published: October 2015

Abstract
In ℓ1-regularization, which is an important tool in signal and image processing, one usually is concerned with signals
and images having a sparse representation in some suitable basis, e.g., in a wavelet basis.
Many results on convergence and convergence rates of sparse approximate solutions to linear ill-posed problems are known, but rate results
for the ℓ1-regularization in case of lacking sparsity had not been published until 2013.
In the last two years, however, two articles appeared providing sufficient conditions for convergence rates in case of non-sparse
but almost sparse solutions.
In the present paper, we suggest a third sufficient condition, which unifies the existing two and,
by the way, also incorporates the well-known restricted isometry property.
A Self-Driven and Adaptive Adjusting Teaching Learning Method for Optimizing Optical Multicast Network Throughput
Authors: Liu Huanlin , Xu Yifan , Chen Yong , Zhang Mingjia 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWith the development of one point to multiple point applications, network resources become scarcer and wavelength channels become more crowded in optical networks. To improve the bandwidth utilization, the multicast routing algorithm based on network coding can greatly increase the resource utilization, but it is most difficult to maximize the network throughput owing to ignoring the differences between the multicast receiving nodes. For making full use of the destination nodes’ receives ability to maximize optical multicast’s network throughput, a new optical multicast routing algorithm based on teaching-learning-based optimization (MR-iTLBO) is proposed in the paper. In order to increase the diversity of learning, a self-driven learning method is adopted in MR-iTLBO algorithm, and the mutation operator of genetic algorithm is introduced to prevent the algorithm into a local optimum. For increasing learner’s learning efficiency, an adaptive learning factor is designed to adjust the learning process. Moreover, the reconfiguration scheme based on probability vector is devised to expand its global search capability in MR-iTLBO algorithm. The simulation results show that performance in terms of network throughput and convergence rate has been improved significantly with respect to the TLBO and the variant TLBO.
“Lex Mahometi”. The Authority of a Pattern of Religious Polemics
Authors: Tischler Matthias M. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to show how Latin-Christian intellectuals, especially from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries onwards, learned not only to use the new term ‘religious law’ (“lex”) within their modes of cultural comparison and othering as a pattern of religious polemics, but also as a means of dis/integrating and historicizing Islam as a new (religious) law and its lawgiver Muḥammad within a whole system of legal thought (natural law, divine law, written law ...) and a religious world order arranged between divine transcendence and human immanence. The paradoxical but enduring consequence of this very productive mistake of comparing incomparable but always personalized conceptions of religion is that Islam found its place within the Occidental system of institutionalized monotheisms.
Fourteenth-Century Portolan Charts. Challenges to our Understanding of Cross-Cultural Relationships in the Mediterranean and Black Sea Regions and of (Knowledge?) Practices of Chart-Makers
Authors: Brentjes Sonja 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis article studies five well-known portolan charts of the fourteenth century, produced at Genoa, Ciutat de Majorca and Venice, with regard to the knowledge their makers used for visualizing physical and human geography in Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and Iraq. It studies four so-called compound images to understand the cultural background of the chosen pictorial and verbal representation instead of analyzing single geographical objects. The results of the analysis strongly suggest that the portolan chart-makers had access to visual material from several cultures around the Mediterranean and Western Asia and that they cooperated creatively with (unknown) members of larger social, economic and cultural networks.
Healthcare workers’ training and information levels over an occupationally acquired Ebola virus disease
Authors: Seeger Florian H. , Wicker Sabine , Rabenau Holger F. , Wolf Timo , Gottschalk René 
Published: October 2015

Abstract

Background: Hundreds of West African healthcare workers (HCW) have become ill with Ebola virus disease (EVD) and died during the recent outbreak. The occurrence of occupational infections in laboratories could be due to the lack of use of personal protective equipment, the failure to implement specific regulations about the use of equipment and how to work with hazardous materials. Our study attempted to assess the information as well as training level of HCW of a German high level isolation unit and their concern over an occupationally acquired EVD.

Methods: During the recent Ebola virus outbreak a survey was conducted among HCWs, using an anonymous questionnaire.

Results: Although 70% of our total study population stated that they have all the information needed to care for Ebola patients, only 18.2% of laboratory workers and 29.4% of the HCW of the virology department felt sufficiently trained. The HCW rated the Internet (64.3%) and the daily press (54.3%) as the most important sources of information. Medical literature (45.7%) and official institutions (40.4%) were rated less often.

Conclusions: Formulated pointedly, the HCW turned to popular science to get the information they need to feel safe. Further in house training regarding practical skills and reference to scientific literature would be a better solution to ensure workplace safety.
The private life of stops: VOT in a real-time corpus of spontaneous Glaswegian
Authors: Stuart-Smith Jane , Sonderegger Morgan , Rathcke Tamara , Macdonald Rachel 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWhile voice onset time (VOT) is known to be sensitive to a range of phonetic and linguistic factors, much less is known about VOT in spontaneous speech, since most studies consider stops in single words, in sentences, and/or in read speech. Scottish English is typically said to show less aspirated voiceless stops than other varieties of English, but there is also variation, ranging from unaspirated stops in vernacular speakers to more aspirated stops in Scottish Standard English; change in the vernacular has also been suggested. This paper presents results from a study which used a fast, semi-automated procedure for analyzing positive VOT, and applied it to stressed syllable-initial stops from a real- and apparent-time corpus of naturally-occurring spontaneous Glaswegian vernacular speech. We confirm significant effects on VOT for place of articulation and local speaking rate, and trends for vowel height and lexical frequency. With respect to time, our results are not consistent with previous work reporting generally shorter VOT in elderly speakers, since our results from models which control for local speech rate show lengthening over real-time in the elderly speakers in our sample. Overall, our findings suggest that VOT in both voiceless and voiced stops is lengthening over the course of the twentieth century in this variety of Scottish English. They also support observations from other studies, both from Scotland and beyond, indicating that gradient shifts along the VOT continuum reflect subtle sociolinguistic control.
A new scintillation proximity assay-based approach for the detection of KRAS mutations
Authors: Lee So-Young , Lim Jae-Cheong , Cho Eun-Ha , Jung Sung-Hee 
Published: October 2015

Abstract
KRAS is very commonly mutated resulting in a constitutively activated protein, which is independent of epidermal growth factor receptor
(EGFR) ligand binding and resistant to anti-EGFR therapy. Although KRAS is frequently studied, there is still no uniform standard for
detecting of KRAS mutations. In this report, a new scintillation proximity assay-based approach is described that determines the
relative affinities of wild-type and mutated KRAS to the anti-KRAS antibody. We performed in vitro experiments using normal
human colonic cells (CCD18Co), KRAS wild type (Caco-2) and KRAS mutant (HCT 116) cell lines to determine the
relative affinities of wild type or mutated KRAS toward an anti-KRAS monoclonal antibody. The process consists of two primary steps:
immunoprecipitation from cell lysate to enrich the KRAS protein and the scintillation proximity assay of the immunoprecipitant to
determine the relative affinity against the antibody. A fixed concentration of cell lysates was purified by the immunoprecipitation
method. The expressions of the KRAS protein in all cell lines was quantitatively confirmed by western blot analysis. For the
scintillation proximity assay, the KRAS standard protein was radiolabeled with 125I by a simple mixing process in the
iodogen tube immediately at room temperature immediately before use. The obtained CPM (count per minute) values of were used to
calculate the KRAS concentration using purified KRAS as the standard. The calculated relative affinities of 7 μg of
Caco-2 and HCT 116 immunoprecipitants for the anti-KRAS antibody were 77 and 0%, respectively. The newly developed
scintillation proximity assay-based strategy determines the relative affinities of wild-type or mutated KRAS towards the anti-KRAS
monoclonal antibody. This determination can help distinguish mutated KRAS from the wild type protein. The new SPA based approach for
detecting KRAS mutations is applicable to many other cancer-related mutations.
The Praise of God and His Name as the Core of the Second Temple Liturgy
Authors: Pajunen Mika S. 
Published: October 2015

Das Lob Gottes wurde schon immer als wichtigstes Element des liturgischen Lebens am 2. Tempel verstanden. Formkritiker haben dieses Moment der liturgischen Praxis vor allem durch die Analyse der Psalmen nachgezeichnet. Demgegenüber erscheint die Rolle der Klage zumindest in der späten Phase des 2. Temepls randständig. Allerdings fehlt ein Bindeglied zwischen der hellenistischen Phase der Liturgie und dem Lob in den Qumran Texten des 1 Jh. v. Chr. Der Blick auf das Motiv der Schöpfung erschließt dieses Bindeglied und erklärt zugleich, warum das Lob als Verpflichtung Gott gegenüber verstanden wurde.Praise of God has always been understood by scholars as a primary element of the liturgical life of the Second Temple period. Form-critics have situated the praises of God in the liturgical practice of the period most of all by analyzing the Psalms now in the MT Psalter. However, at least in the late Second Temple period the role of laments seems to be marginal. Thus far a link has been missing in scholarship between this centrality of praise perceivable in the liturgical practice of the Hellenistic period and the all-encompassing nature of praise in the texts of the Qumran movement from the first century BCE. This is a link that may in part explain why prayer, or during this time more properly praise, came to be seen in early Judaism as an obligation towards God. This question is explored by investigating how the Second Temple liturgy is in many texts from the second century BCE given an explicit basis in the creation, and how such traditions in turn served an important function in the composition of new liturgical texts.La louange de Dieu a toujours été comprise par les exégètes comme un élément essentiel de la vie liturgique de la période du Second Temple. A l’aide de la critique des formes, certains exégètes ont situé les louanges de Dieu dans la pratique liturgique de cette période, en analysant surtout les Psaumes actuellement présents dans le psautier du TM. Le rôle des lamentations, en revanche, semble marginal, au moins dans la période tardive du Second Temple. Jusqu’à présent la recherche n’a pas établi de lien entre la centralité de la louange perceptible dans la pratique liturgique de la période hellénistique et l’importancede la louange dans les textes qumrâniens du premier siècle av. J.-C. Ce lien pourrait expliquer, en partie, pourquoi la prière, ou à plus proprement parler la louange, a été de plus en plus perçue, durant cette période, comme une obligation envers Dieu dans le judaïsme primitif. Cette question est explorée à travers l’analyse de nombreux textes du deuxième siècle av. J.-C. qui montrent comment la liturgie du Second Temple a été basée explicitement sur la Création et comment de telles traditions ont occupé en retour une place importante dans la composition de nouveaux textes liturgiques.
SPME collection and GC-MS analysis of volatiles emitted during the attack of male Polygraphus poligraphus (Coleoptera, Curcolionidae) on Norway spruce
Authors: Rahmani Rizan , Hedenström Erik , Schroeder Martin 
Published: October 2015

Abstract
Tree mortality caused by bark beetles has increased in recent decades in both Europe and North America. In a large recent outbreak in central Sweden the bark beetle Polygraphus poligraphus was often found together with the spruce bark beetle Ips typographus in killed trees. To increase the understanding of the aggregation behavior of P. poligraphus we used solid phase microextraction (SPME) to collect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from single P. poligraphus males, with and without added females, colonizing Norway spruce stem sections and analyzed the sampled compounds by combined gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). High amounts of terpinen-4-ol, a substance found in the hindguts of P. poligraphus males in earlier studies, were released by colonizing males. The emission of both enantiomers of terpinen-4-ol was monitored by GC-MS over time as the males aged in the absence and presence of females. Single males emitted (R)-(–)-terpinen-4-ol for up to 60 days in high enantiomeric purity but the enantiomeric excess (ee) varied between males, and also for the same individual, over time from 96.3% to 99.3% ee. In the presence of females, males also emitted terpinen-4-ol for up to 50 days but now in lower amounts and with lower enantiomeric purity varying from 67.7% ee to 99.3% ee. Small quantities of other volatile compounds were emitted from the colonizing beetles including cis- and trans-4-thujanol, both of which were previously shown to be present in the hindguts of males. In earlier studies frontalin was found to attract P. poligraphus, but in our study it was not identified among emitted compounds from colonizing beetles.
Near-Critical Dynamics in Stimulus-Evoked Activity of the Human Brain and Its Relation to Spontaneous Resting-State Activity
Authors: Arviv Oshrit , Goldstein Abraham , Shriki Oren 
Published: October 2015

In recent years, numerous studies have found that the brain at resting state displays many features characteristic of a critical state. Here we examine whether stimulus-evoked activity can also be regarded as critical. Additionally, we investigate the relation between resting-state activity and stimulus-evoked activity from the perspective of criticality. We found that cortical activity measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG) is near critical and organizes as neuronal avalanches at both resting-state and stimulus-evoked activities. Moreover, a significantly high intrasubject similarity between avalanche size and duration distributions at both cognitive states was found, suggesting that the distributions capture specific features of the individual brain dynamics. When comparing different subjects, a higher intersubject consistency was found for stimulus-evoked activity than for resting state. This was expressed by the distance between avalanche size and duration distributions of different participants and was supported by the spatial spreading of the avalanches involved. During the course of stimulus-evoked activity, time locked to the stimulus onset, we demonstrate fluctuations in the gain of the neuronal system and thus short timescale deviations from the critical state. Nonetheless, the overall near-critical state in stimulus-evoked activity is retained over longer timescales, in close proximity and with a high correlation to spontaneous (not time-locked) resting-state activity. Spatially, the observed fluctuations in gain manifest through anticorrelative activations of brain sites involved, suggesting a switch between task-negative (default mode) and task-positive networks and assigning the changes in excitation–inhibition balance to nodes within these networks. Overall, this study offers a novel outlook on evoked activity through the framework of criticality.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe organization of stimulus-evoked activity and ongoing cortical activity is a topic of high importance. The article addresses several general questions. What is the spatiotemporal organization of stimulus-evoked cortical activity in healthy human subjects? Are there deviations from excitation–inhibition balance during stimulus-evoked activity? What is the relationship between stimulus-evoked activity and ongoing resting-state activity? Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we demonstrate that stimulus-evoked activity in humans follows a critical branching process that produces neuronal avalanches. Additionally, we investigate the spatiotemporal relationship between resting-state activity and stimulus-evoked activity from the perspective of critical dynamics. These analyses reveal new aspects of this complex relationship and offer novel insights into the interplay between excitation and inhibition that were not observed previously using conventional approaches.