bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Clarity tubes as effective citizen science tools for monitoring wastewater treatment works and rivers
Authors: Mark Graham Philip , Pattinson Nicholas B. , Lepheana Ayanda Tsepo , Taylor Robert James (Jim) 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Improved freshwater resource management requires the implementation of widespread, effective, and timely water quality monitoring. Conventional monitoring methods are often inhibited by financial, infrastructural, and human capacity limitations, especially in developing regions. This study aimed to validate the citizen-scientist-operated transparency or clarity tube (hereafter “clarity tube”) for measuring water clarity as a proxy for total suspended solids (TSS) concentration, a critical quality metric in river systems and wastewater treatment works (WWTW) effluent in Southern Africa. Clarity tubes provided a relatively accurate and precise proxy for TSS in riverine lotic systems and WWTW effluent, revealing significant inverse log-linear relationships between clarity and TSS with r2 = 0.715 and 0.503, respectively. We demonstrate that clarity-derived estimates of TSS concentration (TSScde) can be used to estimate WWTW compliance with WWTW effluent TSS concentration regulations. The measurements can then be used to engage with WWTW management, potentially affecting WWTW performance. Overall, these findings demonstrate the usefulness of clarity tubes as low-cost, accessible, and easy-to-use citizen science tools for high spatial and temporal resolution water quality monitoring, not only in rivers in Southern Africa but also in WWTW effluent for estimating compliance, with strong global relevance to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:1463–1472. © 2024 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
Key Points
Clarity tubes provide a relatively accurate and precise proxy for total suspended solids (TSS) in riverine lotic systems and wastewater treatment works (WWTW) effluent, revealing significant inverse log-linear relationships between clarity and TSS. Clarity-derived estimates of TSS concentration (TSScde) can be used to estimate WWTW compliance with WWTW effluent TSS concentration regulations, which can then be used to engage with WWTW management, potentially affecting WWTW performance. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of clarity tubes as low-cost, accessible, and easy-to-use citizen science tools for high spatial and temporal resolution water quality monitoring in rivers in Southern Africa and in WWTW effluent for estimating compliance. Using clarity tubes for river and WWTW monitoring is a decisive step toward achieving significant progress in meeting sustainable development goal (SDG) 6 for ensuring safe access to water and sanitation for all, specifically SDG 6.3.2 and SDG 6b, by involving communities in water and sanitation monitoring and management.
REACHing for divergence?—UK chemical regulation post-Brexit
Authors: Jones Lowenna B. , Burns Charlotte J. 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
On 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom formally exited the European Union (EU; Brexit) and ceased to be subject to EU chemical regulation requirements. Before Brexit, UK chemical policy was regulated largely by the EU. With its large internal market, sophisticated regulatory capability, and stringent regulatory framework, the EU has become the world's leading regulatory state, regularly influencing global industrial decisions and practices. At the time of writing, there has been limited academic analysis of the implications of Brexit for UK chemical regulation. More than two years post-Brexit, we have the opportunity to assess UK chemical regulation and revisit early expectations about regulatory divergence. This article takes the EU's Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as a case study to analyze patterns of post-Brexit regulatory divergence, thereby providing one of the first analyses of the implications of Brexit on UK chemical regulation. Through the analysis and review of key documents and reports (n = 99), this article assesses the extent to which UK and EU regulatory (REACH) regimes are beginning to diverge and discusses the potential implications of any divergence for the United Kingdom. We find that the UK and EU chemical regulatory regimes are now evolving independently and provide clear, empirical evidence of an emerging divergence in regulatory decisions, ambitions, and approaches. The evidence suggests that the United Kingdom is currently unable to keep pace with EU developments, lacking the capacity, expertise, and capability of its EU counterparts, raising the prospect of further divergence in the future. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:1529–1538. © 2024 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
Key Points
The UK and European Union (EU) chemical regulatory regimes are now evolving independently and beginning to diverge in regulatory decisions, ambitions, and approaches. The United Kingdom is currently unable to keep pace with EU chemical regulatory developments, lacking the capacity, expertise, and capability of its EU counterparts. Divergence between UK and EU chemical regulatory regimes risks economic, social, and environmental damage to the United Kingdom, threatening the manufacture and production of chemical goods, trade and market access, and environmental and human health.
Evaluation of water efficiency in agriculture: The case of the Konya closed basin
Authors: Torun Elifnaz , Çakmak Belgin 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe main goal in water efficiency in agriculture is to obtain more products with the same amount of water. In this respect, the use of irrigation performance indicators is important for increasing agricultural water efficiency. This study was conducted to evaluate agricultural water efficiency in the Konya closed basin, which is the region most affected by drought in Turkey. For this purpose, performance indicators selected for evaluating agricultural water efficiency were determined in irrigation associations taken as material for the years 2016–2020.In the research area, the following water use efficiency indicators were determined: annual amount of irrigation water distributed 1.750–517.462 million m3 yr⁻¹ (MCM yr⁻¹), annual amount of irrigation water distributed per unit area 0.529–8.688 MCM ha⁻¹, annual amount of irrigation water distributed per unit irrigated area 0.787–33.909 MCM ha⁻¹ and annual water supply ratio ranging between 0.220 and 52.600. The following agricultural water efficiency performance indicators were determined: income obtained for unit irrigation area, 127–5075 US$ ha⁻¹; income obtained per unit irrigated area, 656–12353 US$ ha⁻¹; income obtained per unit irrigation water taken into the network, 0.104–6.771 US$ m⁻3; and income obtained per unit irrigation water consumed, 0.236–37.358 US$ m⁻3. Correlation analysis was carried out to identify the significance of the relationships between the performance indicators, and the results were discussed.
Adolescents' implicit and explicit attitudes toward their peers with genetic conditions
Authors: Wainstein Tasha , Yeung David , Jennings Lauren ,   GenCOUNSEL Study, Elliott Alison M. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractIntroductionPrevious research has demonstrated that children lacking knowledge about genetic disorders may have harmful attitudes toward people with disabilities, but disability awareness can successfully modify these attitudes. We explored adolescents' implicit and explicit attitudes toward peers with genetic conditions to determine whether improved genetics/genomics literacy can mitigate the impact of ableism in this population.MethodsEnglish‐speaking adolescents (10–18 years) from British Columbia were invited to complete a Disability Attitudes Implicit Association Test (DA‐IAT) and participate in a semi‐structured focus group centering on a fictionalized vignette about an adolescent with Down syndrome. We used pragmatism as an analytical paradigm. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze DA‐IAT and sociodemographic data; phronetic iterative analysis with constant comparison as a coding strategy for transcripts; and interpretive description to develop a conceptual model.ResultsTwenty‐two adolescents completed the DA‐IAT and participated in one of four focus groups. Participants had a statistically significant implicit preference for non‐disabled people (D‐score = 0.72, SD = 0.44; t = 7.18, p < .00001). They demonstrated greater diversity in their explicit attitudes during the focus groups. Although participants articulated a positive attitude toward improved genetics education, results demonstrate their belief that social and personal interactions with disabled peers would be essential to address negative perceptions.ConclusionsThis study lays important groundwork to understand, explain, and influence the negative attitudes of adolescents toward individuals with disabilities. Findings will be used to inform the design of interventions that address biased perceptions of people with genetic disorders, with the goal of reducing prejudices and improving social interactions.
Impact of bisphenol A and analogues eluted from resin‐based dental materials on cellular and molecular processes: An insight on underlying toxicity mechanisms
Authors: Rajkumar Divya Sangeetha , Padmanaban Rajashree 
Published: May 2024

AbstractDental resin systems, used for artificial replacement of teeth and their surrounding structures, have gained popularity due to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recommendation to reduce dental amalgam use in high‐risk populations and medical circumstances. Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine‐disrupting chemical, is an essential monomer within dental resin in the form of various analogues and derivatives. Leaching of monomers from resins results in toxicity, affecting hormone metabolism and causing long‐term health risks. Understanding cellular‐level toxicity profiles of bisphenol derivatives is crucial for conducting toxicity studies in in vivo models. This review provides insights into the unique expression patterns of BPA and its analogues among different cell types and their underlying toxicity mechanisms. Lack of a consistent cell line for toxic effects necessitates exploring various cell lines. Among the individual monomers, BisGMA was found to be the most toxic; however, BisDMA and BADGE generates BPA endogenously and found to elicit severe adverse reactions. In correlating in vitro data with in vivo findings, further research is necessary to classify the elutes as human carcinogens or xenoestrogens. Though the basic mechanisms underlying toxicity were believed to be the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species and a corresponding decline in glutathione levels, several underlying mechanisms were identified to stimulate cellular responses at low concentrations. The review calls for further research to assess the synergistic interactions of co‐monomers and other components in dental resins. The review emphasizes the clinical relevance of these findings, highlighting the necessity for safer dental materials and underscoring the potential health risks associated with current dental resin systems.
GraphEGFR: Multi‐task and transfer learning based on molecular graph attention mechanism and fingerprints improving inhibitor bioactivity prediction for EGFR family proteins on data scarcity
Authors: Boonyarit Bundit , Yamprasert Nattawin , Kaewnuratchadasorn Pawit , Kinchagawat Jiramet , Prommin Chanatkran , Rungrotmongkol Thanyada , Nutanong Sarana 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe proteins within the human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family, members of the tyrosine kinase receptor family, play a pivotal role in the molecular mechanisms driving the development of various tumors. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, key compounds in targeted therapy, encounter challenges in cancer treatment due to emerging drug resistance mutations. Consequently, machine learning has undergone significant evolution to address the challenges of cancer drug discovery related to EGFR family proteins. However, the application of deep learning in this area is hindered by inherent difficulties associated with small‐scale data, particularly the risk of overfitting. Moreover, the design of a model architecture that facilitates learning through multi‐task and transfer learning, coupled with appropriate molecular representation, poses substantial challenges. In this study, we introduce GraphEGFR, a deep learning regression model designed to enhance molecular representation and model architecture for predicting the bioactivity of inhibitors against both wild‐type and mutant EGFR family proteins. GraphEGFR integrates a graph attention mechanism for molecular graphs with deep and convolutional neural networks for molecular fingerprints. We observed that GraphEGFR models employing multi‐task and transfer learning strategies generally achieve predictive performance comparable to existing competitive methods. The integration of molecular graphs and fingerprints adeptly captures relationships between atoms and enables both global and local pattern recognition. We further validated potential multi‐targeted inhibitors for wild‐type and mutant HER1 kinases, exploring key amino acid residues through molecular dynamics simulations to understand molecular interactions. This predictive model offers a robust strategy that could significantly contribute to overcoming the challenges of developing deep learning models for drug discovery with limited data and exploring new frontiers in multi‐targeted kinase drug discovery for EGFR family proteins.
Brain‐to‐brain interface technology: A brief history, current state, and future goals
Authors: Vakilipour Pouya , Fekrvand Saba 
Published: May 2024

AbstractA brain‐to‐brain interface (BBI), defined as a combination of neuroimaging and neurostimulation methods to extract and deliver information between brains directly without the need for the peripheral nervous system, is a budding communication technique. A BBI system is made up of two parts known as the brain–computer interface part, which reads a sender's brain activity and digitalizes it, and the computer–brain interface part, which writes the delivered brain activity to a receiving brain. As with other technologies, BBI systems have gone through an evolutionary process since they first appeared. The BBI systems have been employed for numerous purposes, including rehabilitation for post‐stroke patients, communicating with patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, locked‐in syndrome and speech problems following stroke. Also, it has been proposed that a BBI system could play an important role on future battlefields. This technology was not only employed for communicating between two human brains but also for making a direct communication path among different species through which motor or sensory commands could be sent and received. However, the application of BBI systems has provoked significant challenges to human rights principles due to their ability to access and manipulate human brain information. In this study, we aimed to review the brain–computer interface and computer–brain interface technologies as components of BBI systems, the development of BBI systems, applications of this technology, arising ethical issues and expectations for future use.
CAD‐CAM and heat‐press: Comparison of internal and marginal fit of lithium disilicate copings
Authors: Bella Marcia , Lins Leonardo , Canabarro Antonio 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe aim of this in vitro study is to compare the performance of digital and conventional methods in the manufacture of single copings in terms of the internal and marginal fit. Twenty‐four prefabricated titanium Cone Morse Exact abutments of the lateral anatomical type were used to manufacture 24 lithium disilicate copings in the CAD‐CAM Ceramill (n = 12) and heat‐press (n = 12) systems. The copings were cemented using a self‐adhesive resin cement (RelyX U‐200; 3M ESPE) and then cut vertically. The cement line was photographed using an optical microscope at ×100 and ×200 magnification and then the internal and marginal regions were measured. The mean values of fits, for the CAD‐CAM and heat‐press techniques, respectively, were (μm): angular regions, 81.8 and 75.3; linear regions, 63.1 and 60.1; incisal regions, 171.1 and 114.7; marginal discrepancy, 74.1 and 75.2; and absolute marginal discrepancy, 99.5 and 96.2. MANOVA test showed that there is an effect of the techniques on the regions (p < .05). The effects of laboratories and the interaction between laboratories and techniques on the regions were not statistically significant (p > .05). The techniques evaluated presented clinically acceptable results for the marginal fit. However, the conventional method performed better for the internal fit.Research Highlights
Scientific evidence regarding the methods of making prosthesis can help the dental professional in decision‐making. Digital and conventional methods is both good in the manufacture of single copings in terms of the internal and marginal fit.
Personal, health system, and geosocial disparities in appointment nonadherence at family medicine clinics in southcentral Pennsylvania, United States
Authors: Tuan Wen‐Jan , Weems Ashley , Leong Shou Ling 
Published: May 2024

AbstractBackgroundTo assess the relationship between patients' demographic, health system‐related, and geosocial characteristics and the risk of missed appointments among patients in family medicine practice.MethodsThe study was based on a retrospective cross‐sectional design using electronic health records and neighborhood‐level social determents of health metrics linked by geocoded patients' home address. The study population consisted of patients who had a primary care provider and at least one appointment at 14 family medicine clinics in rural and suburban areas in January–December 2022. Negative binomial regression was utilized to examine the impact of personal, health system, and geosocial effects on the risk of no‐shows and same‐day cancellations.ResultsA total of 258,614 appointments were made from 75,182 patients during the study period, including 7.8% no‐show appointments from 20,256 patients. The analysis revealed that individuals in the ethnic minority groups were 1.24–1.65 times more likely to miss their appointments than their White counterpart. Females and English speakers had 14% lower risk for no‐show. A significant increase (32%–64%) in the odds of no‐shows was found among individuals on Medicaid and uninsured. Persons with prior history of no‐shows or same day cancellations were 6%–27% more likely to miss their appointments. The no‐show risk was also higher among people living in areas experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage.ConclusionThe risk of missed appointments is affected by personal, health system, and geosocial contexts. Future efforts aiming to reduce no‐shows could develop personalized interventions targeting the at‐risk populations identified in the analysis.
Synthesis of Radiolabeled [14C]Rimsulfuron and Stable Isotope Labeled Rimsulfuron‐[M + 3] to Support Crop Metabolism Studies for Reregistration
Authors: Horty Lindsey G. , Martin Timothy 
Published: May 2024

ABSTRACTRimsulfuron is a sulfonylurea herbicide that controls grass and broadleaf weeds in maize, potatoes, fruits, nuts, and other crops. It can also be used as a burndown herbicide to clear invasive weed species along roadsides and other nonagricultural land. Rimsulfuron acts as an acetolactase synthase (ALS) inhibitor, blocking the synthesis of essential amino acids required for plant growth. As is common practice, rimsulfuron has been subject to periodic reviews by regulatory agencies for reregistration since its introduction into the market in the early 1990s. The goal of these reviews is to ensure that the herbicide carries out its intended use without creating adverse side effects to humans and the environment. Since scientific methods are continually evolving and being developed, global regulatory agencies can require additional studies to address data gaps for pesticide renewals. During this reregistration process for rimsulfuron, a new confined rotational crop study was required to address a data gap requested by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Consequently, the corresponding pyridine and pyrimidine radiolabeled [14C]rimsulfuron and [M + 3] stable isotopes of rimsulfuron were synthesized for this study to support the reregistration process.
Recent trends in agriculturally relevant climate in Central America
Authors: Nakamura Jennifer , Seager Richard , Liu Haibo , Cottier Fabien , Puma Michael J. , Wrathall David J. , Katz Brian , de Sherbinin Alex , Adamo Susana B. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThis study examines the climatology and trends in climate in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador over the past four decades, against the background of potential impacts on rainfed agriculture, livelihoods, and migration. The results show that there has been a significant warming of surface temperatures, an earlier start to the monsoon, a drier and longer mid‐summer drought, and a delay in the second peak of precipitation from September to October. These changes have led to an increase in vapour pressure deficit (VPD) in northern Guatemala and along the Pacific coast in winter. High VPD can stress plants and lead to reduced yields. The study also finds that the thresholds that cause a decline in coffee yield have already been reached in El Salvador, but the average VPD has also risen in Guatemala and Honduras over the past 42 years. Maize yields have also been negatively affected with an inverse relationship with daily maximum temperatures during the summer flowering season. Observed changes and trends in these climate factors are believed to have direct implications for crop yields and livelihoods, potentially driving shifts in migration patterns.