bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Room-Temperature Upcycling of Mixed PVC and Polyolefin Waste
Authors: Lercher Johannes , Zhang Wei , Yang Boda , Jackson Benjamin , Zhang Junbo , Camaioni Donald , Kim Sungmin , Wang Huamin , Szanyi Janos , Chen Jingguang , Lee Mal-Soon 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Polyolefins and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) stand out as the most ubiquitous plastic products.1,2 The physical separation and mechanical recycling of mixed waste face significant technical and economic challenges and is, hence, typically uncomplete.3,4 Traditional waste-to-energy methods like incineration and pyrolysis necessitate thorough PVC dechlorination to prevent the release of toxic chlorinated compounds such as dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls.5 Moreover, PVC's flame-retardant properties hinder energy recovery efficiency,6 leading to a substantial portion of PVC ending up in landfills.7 Despite progress in chemical upcycling of PVC under mild conditions, effective dechlorination still demands temperatures ranging from 200 to 250 °C and a two-stage approach to prevent chlorine-derived compounds from deactivating metal active sites.8,9
We present here a strategy for upgrading discarded PVC into liquid iso-alkanes and HCl at room temperature in a single-stage process, catalyzed by (the cost-effective) anhydrous aluminum chloride (AlCl3) and AlCl3-based chloroaluminate ionic liquids. This approach effectively integrates the endothermic dechlorination and C-C bond cleavage with the exothermic alkylation of light isoparaffins (isobutane/isopentane) as co-reagent into a tandem process that ensures kinetic and thermodynamic efficiency. The iso-alkanes are available via refinery processes10 and can be partly recycled from the product stream. This approach presents a novel and cost-effective route to jointly upcycle PVC and isoparaffins, conserving the carbon atoms in both compounds in the final chlorine free isoalkanes. It is also applicable to real-world mixed and contaminated PVC and polyolefin waste streams, offering a superior option for decentralized conversion compatible with existing refinery infrastructure.
Innovation and environmental well-being: Exploring the nexus between industrial development and soil contamination across European regions
Authors: Biggi Gianluca , Iori Martina 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the relationship between industrial development, soil contamination by heavy metals, and the development of remediation technologies across European NUTS3 regions. Despite the recognized human and environmental hazards associated with products or by-products of industrial activities such as heavy metals (especially lead, cadmium, and mercury), the response to these environmental challenges varies significantly across regions. Our analysis proposes a novel approach to assess the complex relationship between human well-being and different types of regional industrialization by considering the local presence of heavy metals in soils and the filing of patents related to heavy metal remediation technologies. Findings show that non-deindustrialized regions demonstrate a proactive approach by significantly innovating in cleaning technologies in response to soil contamination. Conversely, regions experiencing deindustrialization show a limited response, likely due to a loss in industrial and technological capabilities or institutional weaknesses. By linking soil contamination data with technological innovation, this study offers new insights into the regional dynamics of environmental management and the critical role of recent industrial history in influencing technological responses to environmental challenges.
Factors associated with perceived health of school-aged children in rural Rwanda: An opportunity to leverage community health workers to enhance primary healthcare systems linkages
Authors: Manzi Anatole , Nguyen Daniel , Katz Benjamin , Nilingiyimana Theophile , Michel Clara Agyapomaa , Sendarasi Titien , Niyonzima Joseph , Nyiraneza Olive , Bimenyimana Norbert Blaise , Bloom Elizabeth 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Background:
Public schools have considerable potential to reach a significant portion of a given population and can play a central role in improving health across the lifespan. However, little is known about the current health needs of children at schools in rural and limited-resource settings. We sought to assess the perceived health of children and the role of community health workers (CHWs) at public schools in rural Rwanda.
Methods:
We conducted a convergent mixed methods study among teachers and community members to assess the factors associated with the perceived health of students in rural areas of Musanze, Rwanda. Data collection instruments were adapted from the World Health Organization’s Health Promoting School (HPS) framework and the literature. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to explore participants’ perceptions of children’s health. We performed a logistic regression analysis to examine the factors associated with perceived health. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.
Results:
A total of 479 individuals participated in this survey. Of these, 425 (89%) were community members, while 54 (11%) were employed as teachers at Nyabirehe or Rwinzovu public schools. Almost half of respondents 221 (46%) described the overall children’s health as poor. Many factors were associated with perceived children’s health, including having an established leadership team for school-based health promotion (OR = 1.97, 95%CI: 1.01,3,84), and being familiar with school-based health promotion (OR = 4.77, 95%CI: 2.27,10.0). The lack of access to primary care was associated with negative perceptions of children’s health (OR:0.54,95%CI:0.31,0.95). Qualitative results described the CHW as a bridge between communities, schools, and primary healthcare centers. Further, qualitative findings highlighted the structural barriers and needs to be addressed for effective implementation of school-based health promotion.
Conclusion:
This study’s findings revealed gaps in children’s health in rural areas of Musanze. The strong association between school-based CHWs and children's health reflects the vital role CHWs play in linking communities and primary healthcare facilities. This study provides evidence to inform the development of innovative strategies for effectively implementing school-driven interventions to strengthen health promotion in rural and low-resource settings.
3-D investigation of coupled free convection and thermal radiation in interconnected cavities.
Authors: Ghazi Abdullah , Sharma Anil Kumar 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Coupled free convection and thermal radiation heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics on vertical cylinder in interconnected cavities have been investigated numerically in laminar regimes. The study is carried out for varying Rayleigh numbers ranging from (7x103 to 2.5x106) and also for emissivity values between 0 to 1. The effects of various cavity geometries, hole geometries, hole dimensions, and cavity hole arrangements on heat transfer attributes have been evaluated. In this study, the algebraic multi-grid solver of Ansys fluent is used to perform the simulations of the Navier-Stokes equation combined with the energy equation in the computational domain. A thorough grid sensitivity analysis and validation of the numerical methodology used in the simulation are carried out. The results are validated against the published data in the literature. It is found that the circular hole of 15mm radius at 45⁰ orientations on an alternate interconnected cavity exhibits the highest rate of heat transfer. It is seen that as the hole radius is increased, the value of the Nusselt number also increases significantly. However Nusselt number gets saturated beyond 15mm, thereafter no significant increase in the Nusselt number is observed. For a maximum Ra (2.5x105) and hole radius of 15mm at 45⁰ orientations exhibits, the total increment in the rate of heat transfer is ∼110%. Correlations are established to forecast the Nusselt number for vertical annular interconnected cavities as a function of cavity width to cylinder diameter ratio (w/d) and Rayleigh number (Ra), using least square linear regression method.
Fast and high-fidelity dispersive readout of a spin qubit with squeezed microwave and resonator nonlinearity
Authors: Kam Chonfai , Hu Xuedong 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Fast and high-fidelity qubit measurement is crucial for achieving quantum error correction, a fundamental element in the development of universal quantum computing. For electron spin qubits, fast readout stands out as a major obstacle in the pursuit of error correction. In this work, we explore the dispersive measurement of an individual spin in a semiconductor double quantum dot coupled to a nonlinear microwave resonator. By utilizing displaced squeezed vacuum states, we achieve rapid and high-fidelity readout for semiconductor spin qubits. Our findings reveal that introducing modest squeezing and mild nonlinearity can significantly improve both the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the fidelity of qubit-state readout. By properly marching the phases of squeezing, the nonlinear strength, and the local oscillator, the optimal readout time can be reduced to the sub-microsecond range. With current technology parameters ($\kappa\approx 2\chi_s$, $\chi_s/(2\pi)\approx 0.15 \:\mbox{MHz}$), utilizing a displaced squeezed vacuum state with $30$ photons and a modest squeezing parameter $r\approx 0.6$, along with a nonlinear microwave resonator charactered by a strength of $\lambda\approx -1.2 \chi_s$, a readout fidelity of $98\%$ can be attained within a readout time of around $0.6\:\mu\mbox{s}$. Intriguing, by using a positive nonlinear strength of $\lambda\approx 1.2\chi_s$, it is possible to achieve an SNR of approximately $6$ and a readout fidelity of $99.99\%$ at a slightly later time, around $0.9\:\mu\mbox{s}$, while maintaining all other parameters at the same settings.
A text mining to nutritional counseling and instruction provided by registered dietitians
Authors: Komiya Nana , Yoshida Akira , Oshima Shinji , Erana Rey Francis , Libato Girlie , Cormanes Lianne , Inoue Yutaka 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Objective
The study aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of medical records, that specifically focused on nutritional consultations with dietitians within community pharmacies. This was done to gain insights into patient nutrition-related issues, concerns, and responses. That can be used to acquire precise health support information.
Methods
Text mining was used to conduct a quantitative analysis of nutritional consultation records. These records were documented in a Subjective-Objective-Assessment-Plan (SOAP) format, provided by eight dietitians, and involved 136 individuals of varying gender identities (male: 32, female: 101, gender non-response: 3). The consultations took place in a city pharmacy over the period from December 2020 to September 2022.
Results
The frequency analysis revealed that the Subjective-Objective (S/O) items were associated with behaviors such as 'eat', 'exercise', and 'drink', as well as terms associated with health indicators such as 'cholesterol', 'blood pressure', and hemoglobin A1c'. Additionally, S/O items also included words that correlate to specific laboratory values such as 'cholesterol', 'blood pressure', and hemoglobin A1c'. On the other hand, the Assessment-Plan (A/P) items identified words associated with behaviors, such as 'eat', 'diet', and 'exercise’ and with terms that are associated with laboratory values like, 'cholesterol', 'blood glucose', and 'blood pressure'. Furthermore, A/P items included words connected to nutrients, such as 'food', 'vegetables', and 'rehydration'. Through a co-occurrence network analysis, it was observed that certain associations emerged within the S/O terms are blood pressure, 'HDL - TG - LDL', 'quantity - BMI', and 'like - sweet - abstain'. While A/P associations included 'number - test', 'upper limit - potassium', 'oil - type', and 'yogurt - fat'.
Conclusion
The text mining method enabled visually analyzing keywords. It became comprehensively clear that nutritional consultations by dietitians often include assessing the lifestyle and related risk factors for chronic diseases such as hypertension, lipid disorders, and hyperglycemia as shown by the frequent occurrence of words for instance blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose. It may help to determine priorities for action and may be the starting point for deciding which health issues should be prioritized in the information sharing for collaboration among inter-professions in the future.
Allometry of Human Calvaria Bones During Development From Birth to 8 Years of Age
Authors: Schaurich Cristina , Saraco Anthony N. , Tamber Mandeep S. , Heatinger Rainer Guilherme , Dixit Ishan , Claudia Krebs , Steinbok Paul , Oruganti Maanas Hemanth 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Background: Pediatric heads change rapidly in size and shape during growth, especially for children up to eight years old. This project was developed to address the gap around the 3-dimensional growth parameters of the human skull during this period. This study offers novel data on the dynamic changes in the anatomy of the skull in order to provide better guidance for practicing pediatric surgical care. The study used the craniometric points defined on Three Dimensional (3D) Computed Tomography (CT) reconstructions to map skull development in children from 0 to 8 years old.
Results: A total of 364 3D CT scans were analyzed, and 17 statistical geometry models were developed to provide a comprehensive neuroanatomical understanding of the pediatric skull for each age group. This study presents a 3D visualization of the developmental cranial anatomy variations among children from birth to 8 years old, demonstrating the closure of the sutures and fontanelles, changes in cranial size, and the differential growth of the skull bones.
Conclusion: This study delivers seventeen 3D models of children’s skulls with anatomical craniometric features, such as head shape, bone size, and sutures closure time. The 3D visualization of the developmental characteristics of the skull facilitates understanding the characteristics of each age group’s cranial anatomy, which has been relatively unknown to this date. The seventeen models are a landmark dataset for the development of the human skull.
Source appointment and health risk assessment for atmospheric carbonyls in hot tropical city, Vietnam
Authors: Huy Duong Huu , Nguyen Nguyen Thao , Chi Nguyen Doan Thien , Takenaka Norimichi , Hien To Thi 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the spatiotemporal variation, sources and health impacts of the carbonyl compounds (carbonyls) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the third-most populous city in Southeast Asia. Sampling was conducted according to the US.EPA Method TO-11A, from 2012 to 2016 in both the dry and the rainy seasons at twelve sites. The result shows that the carbonyl mixing ratios were high when compared to other cities. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acetone were the most abundant carbonyls together accounting for 89% of the measured carbonyls. The carbonyl mixing ratio in rainy (46.0 ± 32.2 ppb) was about twofold higher than that in dry (23.7 ± 10.3 ppb). An inverse distance weighting method was adopted to map the spatial distribution of carbonyls across the city. The result shows that the carbonyl levels tended to be high in the city center. Three carbonyl sources were resolved by the PCA/APCS method: industrial sources and solvent usage (54%), vehicle exhausts (24%), cooking emissions (11%). Both lifetime cancer risk (LCR) and non-cancer hazard index (HIs) were calculated to estimate the health impacts on the community due to inhalation exposure to current carbonyl levels. The LCR values varied from 5.31×10-6 to 5.75×10-5 for formaldehyde higher than those of 6.61×10-7 to 1.36×10-5 for acetaldehyde, which mostly exceeded the US.EPA recommendation for five age groups. The hazard quotient values were 12.0 to 68.4 for acrolein, 0.44 to 2.84 for acetaldehyde, 0.55 to 1.85 for formaldehyde, and 0.13 to 0.89 for propionaldehyde.
Effects of competition and site conditions on Juniperus virginiana performance and physiology along a stress gradient
Authors: Hamati Samia , Medeiros Juliana S. , Ward David 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

The net effects of competition and facilitation on plants are determined by the interactions of environmental stressors. Juniperus virginiana is a range-expanding species that is native to the eastern United States. J. virginiana can tolerate a wide range of biotic and abiotic conditions. However, their growth rates depend on site quality, including temperature, precipitation, and competition. We tested the stress-gradient hypothesis along a short latitudinal range created by lake-effect snow. We conducted a field experiment at three different sites in northeast Ohio (Geauga, Portage, and Tuscarawas) at increasing distances from Lake Erie. We examined the effects of the site (temperature, precipitation, and soil nutrient differences) and intraspecific competition (zero, one, two, and four competitors) on the growth and performance of J. virginiana saplings. We measured the saplings’ growth (relative growth rate, total biomass, and nitrogen concentration), and water status and gas exchange (midday water potential, assimilation rate, transpiration rate, and stomatal conductance). We found partial support for the stress-gradient hypothesis. J. virginiana at Tuscarawas, which also had the highest soil phosphorus content, had the highest performance and gas-exchange activity. Saplings at the Portage site (intermediate) had the lowest overall performance, which can be related to the site’s poor drainage and low nutrient content. Contrary to our prediction, we found no effect of intraspecific competition on J. virginiana performance at all three sites. Our results suggest the importance of considering the effects of local abiotic conditions, such as soil properties, to understand variation in J. virginiana survival, performance, and encroachment.
The 12th century bronze doors of Barisanus of Trani in Trani, Ravello and Monreale
Authors: Mödlinger Marianne , Asmus Bastian , Fera Martin , Utz Judith , Ghiara Giorgia 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

The bronze and brass doors of the 11th and 12th centuries represent the largest group of medieval monumental bronzes still preserved today. Of the less than 30 that have survived, three, the doors of Trani, Ravello and Monreale, were made by Barisanus of Trani. In this paper we present, for the first time, chemical analyses of the metal parts of all the doors and an in-depth study of their production, showing how a detailed observation of the casting characteristics provides information on the chronological order of the doors studied. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion in art history regarding the chronological order of the construction of the doors. Moreover, the paper demonstrates the potential of scaled orthometric images as a basis for art historical and production-related questions.
Myoelectric Hand Gesture Recognition using Variational Autoencoder and Sensor Fusion
Authors: Currier Keith , FU JIRUI , Bayat Nasrin , Fu Yanjie , Kim Jong-Hwan , Park Joon-Hyuk 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Pattern recognition-based myoelectric control schemes aim to classify surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals generated by skeletal muscles for use in prosthetics or wearable robots. Many factors impact the EMG signal quality and reliability, such as motion artifacts, electrode shift, and reduced conductivity over time, which calls for robust pattern recognition-based myoelectric control schemes. The manifold hypothesis – a breakdown of high-dimensional space to a lower-dimensional representation to explain how the higher-dimensional space operates – provides a framework to discover the representation or manifold of multimodal biological signals. This paper presents a pattern recognition-based myoelectric control scheme that creates compressed latent space representations using a contrastive variational autoencoder (VAE) with an integrated classifier. The VAE model was designed, trained with a secondary dataset of hand gestures, and validated subjectwise as well as for the group. The individual subject data yielded distinct and separable latent spaces with high classification accuracy ranging from 75.1\% to 91.7\%. Further, the model was optimized to improve classification accuracy, reaching 87.45\% to 97.49\%. The model architecture was generalizable across the subjects, and the compressed latent space achieved high performance when the representation was separable and distinct. The proposed VAE model and latent space representation demonstrate its feasibility and utility for use in myoelectric controls.
Prevention of noise-induced hearing loss in children – recommendations for safe listening at events
Authors: Gáborján Anita , Koscsó Gábor , Garai Réka , Tamás László , Vicsi Klára , Hacki Tamás 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Purpose
Events for children are often perceived to be too loud. Our study investigates the loudness of children’s events and its potential risk for noise-induced hearing loss. There are no specific regulations for recreational settings in many countries, including Hungary, therefore this research aims to provide a scientific basis for developing safety categories and noise level limits to protect children's hearing.
Methods
Thirteen events, including twelve specifically organized for children and one large festival with the participation of many children, were randomly selected for this study. Noise levels were measured at 25 points within the auditorium by acoustic engineers. The study involved children aged 3–12 years without any known hearing complaints or symptoms of disease. Otoacoustic emission measurements were performed on 38 children before and after the events to assess the impact on auditory function. Additionally, the subjective perception of loudness was surveyed through questionnaires completed by 51 children and their parents.
Results
Only seven out of 25 measurement points fell within the "safe" category. Ten places (40%) were categorized as "risky," and eight places (32%) as "dangerous." At risky conditions in some children a decrease in the inner ear function was detected after the event, which was significant at 4 and 5 kHz. High noise intensities were reported as uncomfortable or too loud by 80% of the children. Furthermore, the answers to the questionnaire highlighted that children were more sensitive to loudness than their parents. Age-related recommendations were made based on the analysis of results and the present knowledge of noise-induced adverse effects.
Conclusions
High noise intensity at children's events poses a significant risk for noise-induced hearing loss. Our findings highlight the need for monitoring and controlling sound levels at such events. We recommend implementing professional guidelines, public information, education, and warnings to prevent hearing loss in children. Based on the safety limit values ​​of 75dB and 85dB and event duration, we developed a detailed proposal for regulation and information. Our study emphasizes that event organization and listening habits must be adjusted to protect children's hearing effectively.