bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Benchmark and validation of state-of-the-art muscle recruitment strategies in shoulder modelling
Authors: Lavaill Maxence , Pizzolato Claudio , Bolsterlee Bart , Martelli Saulo , Pivonka Peter 
Published: June 2024

AbstractShoulder muscle forces estimated via modelling are typically indirectly validated against measurements of glenohumeral joint reaction forces (GHJ-RF). This validation study benchmarks the outcomes of several muscle recruitment strategies against public GHJ-RF measurements. Public kinematics, electromyography, and GHJ-RF data from a selected male participant executing a 2.4 kg weight shoulder abduction task up to 92° GHJ elevation were obtained. The Delft Shoulder and Elbow Model was scaled to the participant. Muscle recruitment was solved by 1) minimising muscle activations squared (SO), 2) accounting for dynamic muscle properties (CMC) and 3) constraining muscle excitations to corresponding surface electromyography measurements (CEINMS). Moreover, the spectrum of admissible GHJ-RF in the model was determined via Markov-chain Monte Carlo stochastic sampling. The experimental GHJ-RF was compared to the resultant GHJ-RF of the different muscle recruitment strategies as well as the admissible stochastic range. From 21 to 40 degrees of humeral elevation, the experimental measurement of the GHJ-RF was outside the admissible range of the model (21 to 659% of body weight (%BW)). Joint force RMSE was between 21 (SO) and 24%BW (CEINMS). At high elevation angles, CMC (11%BW) and CEINMS (14%BW) performed better than SO (25%BW). A guide has been proposed to best select muscle recruitment strategies. At high elevation angles, CMC and CEINMS were the two most accurate methods in terms of predicted GHJ-RF. SO performed best at low elevation angles. In addition, stochastic muscle sampling highlighted the lack of consistency between the model and experimental data at low elevation angles.
On an objective, geometrically exact coupling element for a director-based multi-body finite element framework
Authors: Märtins David , Schuster Daniel , Hente Christian , Gebhardt Cristian Guillermo , Rolfes Raimund 
Published: June 2024

AbstractIn multi-body systems, flexible components and couplings between them can be subject to large displacements and rotations. This contribution presents a general objective and geometrically exact node-to-node coupling element that pursues two innovations. Firstly, the coupling element represents a consistent extension to an existing nonlinear mechanical framework. The coupling element is intended to preserve its attributes of objectivity, path independence and adherence to the energy-conserving or energy-dissipative time integration method. Secondly, beside elasticity, inertia and damping properties are also considered. For this purpose, a director-based formulation is employed within a total Lagrangian description. The avoidance of an angle-based representation, along with the additive updating of state variables, results not only in path independence but also in the avoidance of cumulative errors during extended simulations. An objective deformation measure is chosen based on the Green–Lagrange strain tensor. The inertia forces are considered by an arbitrarily shaped continuum located at the centre of the coupled nodes. Damping is considered by using two different objective first-order dissipation functions, which further ensure energy conservation or dissipation. We successfully demonstrate the coupling element within the mechanical framework on using example applications. Firstly, the geometrically exact behaviour is shown compared to a linear deformation measure. Secondly, we numerically show the path independence of the formulation. The dynamic behaviour is demonstrated in a transient analysis of a damped structure. Finally, the modal analysis of a wind turbine shows the application of the coupling element to model the soil–structure interaction.
A Perspective on the Characterization of Early Neural Progenitor Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Targeted Delivery to Neuroblastoma Cells
Authors: Kırbaş Oğuz Kaan , Bozkurt Batuhan Turhan , Yıldırım Melis Rahime , Taşlı Pakize Neslihan , Abdik Hüseyin , Şahin Fikrettin , Avşar Abdik Ezgi 
Published: June 2024

AbstractAs an element of the cellular signaling systems, extracellular vesicles (EVs) exhibit many desirable traits for usage as targeted delivery vehicles. When administered, EVs cause little to no toxic or immune response, stay in circulation for longer periods compared to synthetic carriers, preferentially accumulate in tissues that are the same or similar to their cell-of-origin and can pass through the blood-brain barrier. Combined, these traits make neural EVs a particularly promising tool for delivering drugs to the brain. This study aims to combine tissue and EVs engineering to prepare neural differentiated cells derived EVs that exhibit neural properties, to develop an effective, tissue-homing drug and gene delivery platform for the brain. Early neural differentiated cell-derived EVs were produced with neural characteristics from neural differentiated human neonatal dermal fibroblasts. The EVs carried key neural proteins such as Nestin, Sox2 and Doublecortin. The cellular uptake of early neural differentiated cell-derived EVs was higher compared to non-neural EVs during in vitro uptake assays on neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, eND-EVs were significantly decreased the viability of neuroblastoma cells. In conclusion, this study revealed that early neural differentiated cell-derived EVs have potential as a promising drug carrier for the treatment of various neural disorders.
Graphical Abstract
Impacts of three severe storms on Aegean Sea oceanography (2018–2020)
Authors: Babagolimatikolaei Javad 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis study presents a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of severe storms on the oceanography of the Aegean Sea, with specific focus on storms occurring on 15 November 2018, 14 September 2019, and 7 January 2020. Notable changes in oceanographic variables are observed on the storm day and in the subsequent days, gradually returning to pre-storm conditions. During storms, Aegean Sea surface temperatures were 2–3 °C below average, with cooling particularly evident along the west coast and northern part. Salinity increases of 0.5–1 PSU are observed during storms, with the most significant effects noted on 7 January. Storms consistently led to a decrease in sea level in our study area, with the western coast and north Aegean Sea experiencing levels 6–10 cm lower than the monthly average. Surface currents along the west coast and within latitudes 36–40° are 0.3 to 0.4 m/s stronger than average during storms. Storm-induced changes in the Thracian Sea’s anticyclonic gyre on 5 January reveal a speed increase of 0.3–0.4 m/s. Notably, both temperature and salinity fluxes exhibit significant changes during storms, characterized by a shift from east-to-west transport, contrasting with the west-to-east pattern observed before the storms. This shift is mainly influenced by Ekman transport, which predominantly directs water westward and north-westward when the wind comes from the northeast to southwest. Storms contribute to heightened salinity, increased kinetic energy, and enhanced transport, accompanied by a decrease in temperature, with the most pronounced effects near the surface along vertical layers.
Noether symmetries, group analysis and soliton solutions of a (3+1)-dimensional generalized fifth-order Zakharov–Kuznetsov model with power, dual power laws and dispersed perturbation terms with real-world applications
Authors: Adeyemo Oke Davies , Khalique Chaudry Masood , Migranov Nail G. 
Published: June 2024

AbstractHighly important is a three-dimensional nonlinear partial differential equation because for many physical systems, one can, subject to suitable idealizations, formulate a differential equation that describes how the system changes in time. Thus, this article comprehensively reveals the investigation carried out on a (3+1)-dimensional generalized fifth-order Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation with power-law as well as dual power-law nonlinearities analytically, where the fifth-order term involved is regarded as a dispersion perturbation term. We utilize the well-celebrated Noether’s theorem to comprehensively construct conserved currents of the underlying equation. A detailed Lie group analysis of the understudied model consisting of power-law nonlinearities is further performed. This involves performing reductions of the underlying models using their Lie point symmetries. In consequence, various invariants are found. In addition, the equation reduces to diverse ordinary differential equations using its point symmetries and consequently diverse solutions of interest were achieved. Moreover, we derive some solitary wave solutions by invoking the newly introduced logistic function technique for some particular cases of the equation under consideration. In consequence, we achieve some exponential function solutions. In addition, the physical meaning of the results is put on the front burner by revealing the wave dynamics of these solutions via graphical depictions. Finally, the significance of the robust and detailed findings in the work are further corroborated with various real-world applications.
Invalid Votes as Protest: Compulsory Voting and the Democratic Context in Ecuador
Authors: Carrión-Yaguana Vanessa D. , Carroll Royce 
Published: June 2024

AbstractInvalid votes are pervasive in many democracies and can threaten the legitimacy of elections. While often associated with factors such as choice complexity and disengagement, especially under compulsory voting rules, intentional ballot spoiling can also signal a political protest. We examine the argument that spoiling ballots as protest should occur under compulsory voting where voters perceive limited legitimacy to the electoral process and a lack of viable options. Using municipal elections in Ecuador, a context featuring both compulsory voting and a period of democratic erosion, we examine subnational variation in both spoiled and blank ballots. While factors related to sophistication and choice complexity explain variation in both forms of invalid voting, our results also reveal patterns consistent with the expectation that spoiled ballots reflect a protest of a lack of competition in the political system. Specifically, we find that areas opposed to Rafael Correa’s dominant party had a higher rate of spoiled ballots in the 2014 mayoral elections, a period when party dominance was consolidated and competition weak. This pattern declined in 2019 when the system’s competitiveness increased. A separate analysis of the 2019 elections for the Correa-era participatory governance body suggests continued use of spoiled ballots as protest by opposition voters, but primarily in higher connectivity areas where the online coordination on use of this tactic may have had greater influence. Overall, our study sheds light on factors shaping invalid vote patterns in compulsory systems and highlights spoiled ballots’ potential as a means to signal protest under conditions where some voters would perceive a decline in the legitimacy of democratic institutions.
Population-level norm values by EQ-5D-3L in Hungary - a comparison of survey results from 2022 with those from 2000
Authors: Inotai András , Nagy Dávid , Kaló Zoltán , Vokó Zoltán 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Purpose
Although population norms of the EQ-5D-3L instrument had been available in Hungary since 2000, their evaluation was based on a United Kingdom (UK) value set. Our objective was to estimate the population norms for EQ-5D-3L by using the new Hungarian value set available since 2020, to extend the scope to adolescents, and to compare with norms from 2000.

Methods
A cross sectional EQ-5D-3L survey representative of the Hungarian population was conducted in 2022. The EQ-5D-3L dimensional responses were analyzed by age and sex and compared with the survey from 2000, by estimating population frequencies with their 95% confidence intervals; index values were evaluated by both value sets.

Results
Altogether, 11,910 respondents, aged 12 or more (578 between 12 and 17), completed the EQ-5D-3L. There was a notable improvement in reporting problems for both sexes (age 35–64) regarding the pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression compared to 2000. Below the age 44, both sexes had an EQ-5D-3L index plateau of 0.98, while above the age 55, men tended to have numerically higher index values compared to women, with the difference increasing with older age. Improvement in dimensional responses were also translated to numerically higher index values for both sexes between ages 18 and 74 compared to 2000. Multivariate regression analysis showed that higher educational attainment, lower age, larger household size, and active occupational status were associated with higher index values.

Conclusion
Over the past 22 years, there was a large improvement in HRQoL of the middle-aged to elderly men and women in Hungary.
Rethinking Vision Transformer and Masked Autoencoder in Multimodal Face Anti-Spoofing
Authors: Yu Zitong , Cai Rizhao , Cui Yawen , Liu Xin , Hu Yongjian , Kot Alex C. 
Published: June 2024

AbstractRecently, vision transformer (ViT) based multimodal learning methods have been proposed to improve the robustness of face anti-spoofing (FAS) systems. However, there are still no works to explore the fundamental natures (e.g., modality-aware inputs, suitable multimodal pre-training, and efficient finetuning) in vanilla ViT for multimodal FAS. In this paper, we investigate three key factors (i.e., inputs, pre-training, and finetuning) in ViT for multimodal FAS with RGB, Infrared (IR), and Depth. First, in terms of the ViT inputs, we find that leveraging local feature descriptors (such as histograms of oriented gradients) benefits the ViT on IR modality but not RGB or Depth modalities. Second, in consideration of the task (FAS vs. generic object classification) and modality (multimodal vs. unimodal) gaps, ImageNet pre-trained models might be sub-optimal for the multimodal FAS task. Finally, in observation of the inefficiency on direct finetuning the whole or partial ViT, we design an adaptive multimodal adapter (AMA), which can efficiently aggregate local multimodal features while freezing majority of ViT parameters. To bridge these gaps, we propose the modality-asymmetric masked autoencoder (M$$^{2}$$

2

A$$^{2}$$

2

E) for multimodal FAS self-supervised pre-training without costly annotated labels. Compared with the previous modality-symmetric autoencoder, the proposed M$$^{2}$$

2

A$$^{2}$$

2

E is able to learn more intrinsic task-aware representation and compatible with modality-agnostic (e.g., unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal) downstream settings. Extensive experiments with both unimodal (RGB, Depth, IR) and multimodal (RGB+Depth, RGB+IR, Depth+IR, RGB+Depth+IR) settings conducted on multimodal FAS benchmarks demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed methods. One highlight is that the proposed method is robust under various missing-modality cases where previous multimodal FAS models suffer serious performance drops. We hope these findings and solutions can facilitate the future research for ViT-based multimodal FAS.
Enhancing Microwave Freeze Drying: Exploring Maximum Drying Temperature and Power Input for Improved Energy Efficiency and Uniformity
Authors: Kalinke Isabel , Kulozik Ulrich 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThe pursuit of energy-efficient and uniform processing drives ongoing research in microwave-assisted freeze drying (MWFD). While microwave application is acknowledged for its potential to reduce energy consumption of freeze drying applications, it introduces new challenges to gentle processing, particularly in achieving uniformity of processing due to the inherent uneven microwave field distribution in the drying chamber. This study investigates the impact of maximum drying temperature (Tmax) and microwave power input on energy consumption and uniformity in temperature-controlled MWFD. Experimental results reveal that shorter equilibration times associated with higher Tmax significantly amplify the inhomogeneity of temperature distribution. Further, higher Tmax was associated with a significant reduction in total energy demand of MWFD. Despite noticeable trends, microwave power input did not yield statistically significant differences in energy consumption or uniformity. The limited range of explored values, combined with the temperature-controlled nature of the process, may have rendered a potential influence of microwave power input negligible. This research elucidates the extent of inhomogeneity in MWFD, with implications for achieving uniform, gentle drying. It highlights the critical role of temperature control in MWFD. The study contributes to advancing the understanding of optimal processing in temperature-controlled MWFD.
Compensation or Preservation? Different Roles of Functional Lateralization in Speech Perception of Older Non-musicians and Musicians
Authors: Jin Xinhu , Zhang Lei , Wu Guowei , Wang Xiuyi , Du Yi 
Published: June 2024

AbstractMusical training can counteract age-related decline in speech perception in noisy environments. However, it remains unclear whether older non-musicians and musicians rely on functional compensation or functional preservation to counteract the adverse effects of aging. This study utilized resting-state functional connectivity (FC) to investigate functional lateralization, a fundamental organization feature, in older musicians (OM), older non-musicians (ONM), and young non-musicians (YNM). Results showed that OM outperformed ONM and achieved comparable performance to YNM in speech-in-noise and speech-in-speech tasks. ONM exhibited reduced lateralization than YNM in lateralization index (LI) of intrahemispheric FC (LI_intra) in the cingulo-opercular network (CON) and LI of interhemispheric heterotopic FC (LI_he) in the language network (LAN). Conversely, OM showed higher neural alignment to YNM (i.e., a more similar lateralization pattern) compared to ONM in CON, LAN, frontoparietal network (FPN), dorsal attention network (DAN), and default mode network (DMN), indicating preservation of youth-like lateralization patterns due to musical experience. Furthermore, in ONM, stronger left-lateralized and lower alignment-to-young of LI_intra in the somatomotor network (SMN) and DAN and LI_he in DMN correlated with better speech performance, indicating a functional compensation mechanism. In contrast, stronger right-lateralized LI_intra in FPN and DAN and higher alignment-to-young of LI_he in LAN correlated with better performance in OM, suggesting a functional preservation mechanism. These findings highlight the differential roles of functional preservation and compensation of lateralization in speech perception in noise among elderly individuals with and without musical expertise, offering insights into successful aging theories from the lens of functional lateralization and speech perception.
Pollen-feeding in a giant pelobatid tadpole from the late Oligocene of Enspel, Germany
Authors: Wuttke Michael , Poschmann Markus J. , Wappler Torsten , Bouchal Johannes M. , Geier Christian , Ulrich Silvia , Grímsson Friðgeir 
Published: June 2024

AbstractWe examined the gut contents of a fossil giant pelobatid tadpole from the late Oligocene of Enspel, Germany, and discovered that it contains mainly pollen from spruce (Picea) but also pollen from pine (Pinus), beech (Fagus), and elm (Ulmus). Pollen in the gut of the fossil tadpole and other plant fossil records from this locality suggest that the regional vegetation around Enspel was characterised by mixed conifer and broadleaved forests with a prominent deciduous angiosperm component. Palaeoclimatic estimations indicate that the area endured a fully humid warm temperate climate with a hot to warm summer and a distinct temperature difference between seasons. The pollination period of potential modern analogues of the plant taxa discovered in the gut of the fossil tadpole hints that it was feeding on pollen floating on the water surface of the ancient Enspel Lake during late spring or earliest summer. Comparable analyses from the guts of extant pelobatid tadpoles have shown a broad spectrum of food remains, including whole/or parts of algae, protists, protozoans, macrophytes, rotifers, crustaceans, and pollen. It seems that living pelobatid tadpoles are indiscriminate and opportunistic feeders able to adapt and change their feeding behaviour according to the available food source. The time of origin and evolution of pollen feeding in tadpoles is obscure. Our discovery indicates that pelobatid tadpoles were already feeding on pollen in the late Oligocene, and the amount and purity of pollen filling the gut suggests intentional surface feeding.
Investigating Innovation Diffusion in Gender-Specific Medicine: Insights from Social Network Analysis
Authors: Baum Katharina , Baumann Annika , Batzel Katharina 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThe field of healthcare is characterized by constant innovation, with gender-specific medicine emerging as a new subfield that addresses sex and gender disparities in clinical manifestations, outcomes, treatment, and prevention of disease. Despite its importance, the adoption of gender-specific medicine remains understudied, posing potential risks to patient outcomes due to a lack of awareness of the topic. Building on the Innovation Decision Process Theory, this study examines the spread of information about gender-specific medicine in online networks. The study applies social network analysis to a Twitter dataset reflecting online discussions about the topic to gain insights into its adoption by health professionals and patients online. Results show that the network has a community structure with limited information exchange between sub-communities and that mainly medical experts dominate the discussion. The findings suggest that the adoption of gender-specific medicine might be in its early stages, focused on knowledge exchange. Understanding the diffusion of gender-specific medicine among medical professionals and patients may facilitate its adoption and ultimately improve health outcomes.