bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Assessing the effects of Na2SO4 and NaCl on the properties of geopolymer concrete subjected to elevated temperatures
Authors: Yazıcı Nisa , Karagöl Fatma 
Published: April 2024

AbstractSince concrete is exposed to chemical, mechanical, or physical deteriorating effects simultaneously or successively under environmental conditions, this study focused on the durability of geopolymer concretes containing ground blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and fly ash (FA) under the effects of sulfate and salt after elevated temperatures. For this aim, five FA‐based geopolymer concrete mixtures with different GGBFS contents were produced and cured at 90°C for 72 h. First, the produced samples were exposed to 200, 400, 600, and 800°C for 2 h. Then, the samples were put into 5% sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) and 5% sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions for 30 days. The impacts of elevated temperature + Na2SO4 and elevated temperature + NaCl on geopolymer concrete were investigated by compressive strength, mass loss, visual examination, capillary water absorption, x‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR). As a result, although cracking or strength decreases in concrete have been observed after only elevated temperatures, it has exhibited significant resistance to the integrated deterioration influences, has not disintegrated, and maintained its integrity under appropriate mix design and curing conditions. Shortly, the results demonstrated the ability of geopolymer concrete subjected to elevated temperatures with acceptable strength and durability under chemical effects, even if left for a short time.
Experimental and simulative study on seismic performance of stiffener‐plate PEC beam‐column joint
Authors: Chen PingJun , Li Junhua , Wang Weichen , Liu Quan , Yang Yukun 
Published: April 2024

AbstractAn innovative assembled stiffener‐plate PEC beam‐column joint (SP‐PEC) is proposed to improve better constructability. In this paper, 12 PEC beam‐column joint specimens were subjected to quasi‐static cyclic tests. The design parameters included the thickness of the stiffener‐plate (equal‐stiffness thickness at load standard combination, full‐stiffness thickness of the cross‐section, and 120% of full‐stiffness thickness of the cross‐section) and the beam‐column connection with or without the stub beam. The results revealed that the assembled SP‐PEC beam‐column joint exhibited better seismic performance than the conventional PEC beam‐column concrete joint. The strength degradation coefficients of SP‐PEC beam‐column nodes are all greater than 0.92, and the stiffness decreases slowly. The specimens had good bearing capacity, deformation ability, energy dissipation capacity, and stiffness under a reasonable stiffener‐plate thickness. Then, the bearing capacity calculation formulae of the novel joint with certain prediction accuracy were proposed. Besides, the finite element models of the test specimens were established in ABAQUS and validated against the test results. Finally, further investigations of the SP‐PEC joint configuration by finite element analysis and engineering design recommendations for the assembled SP‐PEC beam‐column joint were provided.
Altai Mountains – cradle of hybrids and introgressants: A case study in Veronica subg. Pseudolysimachium (Plantaginaceae)
Authors: Khan Gulzar , Mayland‐Quellhorst Eike , Kosachev Petr A. , Mandáková Terezie , Lysak Martin A. , Albach Dirk C. 
Published: April 2024

AbstractMountains form a diverse mosaic of microhabitats over small distances created by changes in climate, soil, and water availability. A key to adaptation of plants to such microhabitats is genetic variation; however, natural accumulation of genetic variation through mutation is slow and often not sufficient alone. Adaptive introgression via hybridization is an alternative to generate genetic variation. Here, we investigate hybridization and discuss its adaptive role in Veronica subg. Pseudolysimachium at their Altai Mountains distribution. To support our hypotheses of frequent hybridization, we genotyped thousands of SNPs for 233 individuals from 10 species and 7 putative hybrids previously described based on morphology. We employed Bayesian and likelihood statistical models and supported our results by morphometric analysis and genomic in situ hybridization (GISH). The results suggest that almost all the individuals of the putative hybrids are of F1 type. The GISH investigation in one case strongly supports homoploid hybridization (origin of V. ×schmakovii from V. longifolia and V. porphyriana. Divergence times of Altai Veronica species are estimated to be within 1–2 million years ago with high probability of gene flow over that time. Our results also demonstrate that the direction of gene flow is mainly from the locally endemic V. porphyriana. We hypothesize that the large Siberian plains and topographically diverse foreland of the Altai Mountains provide an ideal setting for hybridization with the potential for adaptive introgression of alleles conferring tolerance to cooler climates, to the lowland species migrating into the Altai Mountains.
Factors predicting teachers' implementation of inquiry‐based teaching practices: Analysis of South African TIMSS 2019 data from an ecological perspective
Authors: Ogegbo Ayodele Abosede , Ramnarain Umesh , Krajcik Joseph 
Published: April 2024

AbstractInquiry‐Based Teaching Practice (IBTP) is an essential component of science education, and promoting its implementation is at the heart of various reform efforts. Even though science teachers regard IBTP as an essential pedagogical method, they rarely use it for various reasons. This study utilizes Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework to examine potential factors at various levels of the educational ecosystem that predict the implementation of inquiry‐based teaching practices among Grade 9 science teachers in South Africa. To this end, quantitative data from 537 educators who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 national assessment were utilized. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results revealed that four variables at different socioeconomic levels were perceived to strongly predict teachers' implementation of inquiry teaching practices. These factors include teachers' job satisfaction, instructional resource shortage, and teachers' perception of the significance of various assessment strategies at the mesosystem level as well as teachers' participation in professional development at the exosystem level. Significant correlations exist between some of the predictive variables. Implications for policy are discussed.
Nephroprotective effects of coriander (Coriandrum sativum) leaves aqueous extracts in aristolochic acid‐intoxicated zebrafish embryos
Authors: Tsai Jen‐Ning , Wang Yun‐Hsin , Lin Po‐Ju , Chang Chiung‐Fang , Sun Chiao‐Yin , Chen Yau‐Hung 
Published: April 2024

AbstractCoriander is a notable medicinal plant known for its diverse properties, including anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, analgesic, and anti‐diabetic effects. Despite its recognized health benefits, research on its nephroprotective properties is limited. This study aimed to investigate the potential nephroprotective properties of an aqueous extract derived from coriander leaves using an aristolochic acid‐intoxicated zebrafish model. To assess kidney abnormalities induced by aristolochic acid (AA), we utilized the transgenic line Tg(wt1b:egfp), which expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the kidney. Our previous report indicated that AA exposure leads to acute renal failure in zebrafish characterized by kidney malformation and impaired renal function. However, pretreatment of coriander extract (CE) can mitigate kidney malformations induced by AA. In addition, CE pretreatment reduces the accumulation of red blood cells in the glomerular region. To verify the nephroprotective effects of CE, we analyzed renal function by measuring the glomerular filtration rate in zebrafish embryos. Results indicate that CE partially mitigates renal function impairment caused by AA exposure, suggesting its potential to attenuate AA‐induced renal failure. Mechanistically, pretreatment with CE reduces the expression of proinflammatory and proapoptotic genes induced by AA. This suggests that CE likely alleviates acute renal failure by reducing inflammation and apoptosis. As a result, we regard zebrafish as a valuable model for screening natural compounds that have the potential to alleviate AA‐induced nephrotoxicity.
Global and regional seroprevalence of coxiellosis in small ruminants: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors: Ahaduzzaman Md , Reza Md Moktadir Billah 
Published: April 2024

AbstractBackgroundCoxiellosis is a neglected zoonosis for occupationally exposed people in many parts of the world. Sheep and goats are two important small ruminants that act as reservoirs for human contamination; however, there is a lack of comprehensive data on the epidemiological aspects of coxiellosis in sheep and goats at regional and global levels. The aim of this study was to systematically review the available articles on seroprevalence of coxiellosis in sheep and goats and estimate the overall seroprevalence in different regions.MethodsA systematic search strategy was performed in five electronic repositories for articles published until December 2021. Relevant data were extracted from the selected articles based on the inclusion criteria. A random effect meta‐analysis model was used to analyse the data. Results are presented as the prevalence of seropositivity as a percentage and 95% confidence intervals.ResultsThe global pooled seroprevalence of coxiellosis in sheep was 17.38% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 15.59%–19.17%). Overall, the regional level pooled prevalence estimates in sheep ranged from 15.04% (95% CI: 7.68%–22.40%) to 19.14% (95% CI: 15.51%–22.77%), depending on region. The global pooled seroprevalence of coxiellosis in goats was 22.60% (95% CI: 19.54%–25.66%). Overall, the regional level pooled prevalence estimates in goats ranged from 6.33% (95% CI: 2.96%–9.71%) to 55.13% (95% CI: 49.61%–60.65%), depending on the region. The prevalence estimates also varied significantly in both sheep and goats depending on age, sex, and rearing systems of the animals (p < 0.001).ConclusionSeroprevalence of coxiellosis in both sheep and goats is considerable. Routine monitoring of the sheep and goat populations is needed to prevent spillover infection in other livestock and humans.
Climate change and migration: A review and new framework for analysis
Authors: Daoust Gabrielle , Selby Jan 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThis article presents a new interpretive framework for understanding the implications of climate change for migration, and reviews and reflects on existing evidence and research gaps in light of this framework. Most existing climate‐migration research is heavily environment‐centric, even when acknowledging the importance of contextual or intervening factors. In contrast, the framework proposed here considers five different pathways through which climate change is affecting, or might affect, migration: short‐term shocks, long‐term climatic and related changes, environmental “pull” factors, climate adaptation and mitigation measures, and perceptions and narratives. In reviewing the existing evidence relating to each of these pathways, the paper finds among other things that short‐term shocks may simultaneously increase and reduce migration; that the evidence on long‐term trends provides a weak basis for understanding future dynamics; and that more attention needs to be paid to the other three pathways, by researchers and policymakers alike. Overall, the proposed framework and associated evidence review suggest a different and broader understanding of the migration implications of climate change from that outlined in the IPCC's most recent assessment, or in many existing reviews.This article is categorized under:Climate and Development Knowledge and Action in Development
Emerging roles of RNA‐binding proteins in fatty liver disease
Authors: Adesanya Oluwafolajimi , Das Diptatanu , Kalsotra Auinash 
Published: April 2024

AbstractA rampant and urgent global health issue of the 21st century is the emergence and progression of fatty liver disease (FLD), including alcoholic fatty liver disease and the more heterogenous metabolism‐associated (or non‐alcoholic) fatty liver disease (MAFLD/NAFLD) phenotypes. These conditions manifest as disease spectra, progressing from benign hepatic steatosis to symptomatic steatohepatitis, cirrhosis, and, ultimately, hepatocellular carcinoma. With numerous intricately regulated molecular pathways implicated in its pathophysiology, recent data have emphasized the critical roles of RNA‐binding proteins (RBPs) in the onset and development of FLD. They regulate gene transcription and post‐transcriptional processes, including pre‐mRNA splicing, capping, and polyadenylation, as well as mature mRNA transport, stability, and translation. RBP dysfunction at every point along the mRNA life cycle has been associated with altered lipid metabolism and cellular stress response, resulting in hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. Here, we discuss the current understanding of the role of RBPs in the post‐transcriptional processes associated with FLD and highlight the possible and emerging therapeutic strategies leveraging RBP function for FLD treatment.This article is categorized under:
RNA in Disease and Development > RNA in Disease
Energy Efficiency Impact of Processing in Memory: A Comprehensive Review of Workloads on the UPMEM Architecture
Authors: Falevoz Yann , Legriel Julien 
Published: April 2024

AbstractProcessing-in-Memory (PIM) architectures have emerged as a promising solution for data-intensive applications, providing significant speedup by processing data directly within the memory. However, the impact of PIM on energy efficiency is not well characterized. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of workloads ported to the first PIM product available on the market, namely the UPMEM architecture, and quantify the impact on each workload in terms of energy efficiency. Less than the half of the reviewed papers provide insights on the impact of PIM on energy efficiency, and the evaluation methods differ from one paper to the other. To provide a comprehensive overview, we propose a methodology for estimating energy consumption and efficiency for both the PIM and baseline systems at data center level, enabling a direct comparison of the two systems. Our results show that PIM can provide significant energy savings for data intensive workloads. We also identify key factors that impact the energy efficiency of UPMEM PIM, including the workload characteristics. Overall, this paper provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners looking to optimize energy efficiency in data-intensive applications using UPMEM PIM architecture.
Experiences and Lessons Learned from PHYSICS: A Framework for Cloud Development with FaaS
Authors: Kousiouris George , Patiño Marta , Sánchez Carlos , Tomás Luis 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThe PHYSICS European project aims at developing a set of tools for application developers, system administrators and cloud providers that ease the development, deployment and optimization of resources in Function-as-a Service (FaaS) environments in the cloud. PHYSICS provides a visual development framework for abstracting cloud application development, an optimized platform level FaaS toolkit for the deployment of FaaS applications in the cloud and back-end optimization toolkit for local resource management. In this paper we present the main experiences and lessons learned during the project execution as well as some of the solutions adopted in the project.
Exploring Mapping Strategies for Co-allocated HPC Applications
Authors: Vardas Ioannis , Hunold Sascha , Swartvagher Philippe , Träff Jesper Larsson 
Published: April 2024

AbstractIn modern HPC systems with deep hierarchical architectures, large-scale applications often struggle to efficiently utilize the abundant cores due to the saturation of resources such as memory. Co-allocating multiple applications to share compute nodes can mitigate these issues and increase system throughput. However, co-allocation may harm the performance of individual applications due to resource contention. Past research suggests that topology-aware mappings can improve the performance of parallel applications that do not share resources. In this work, we implement application-oblivious, topology-aware process-to-core mappings via different core enumerations that support the co-allocation of parallel applications. We show that these mappings have a significant impact on the available memory bandwidth. We explore how these process-to-core mappings can affect the individual application duration as well as the makespan of job schedules when they are combined with co-allocation. Our main objective is to assess whether co-allocation with a topology-aware mapping can be a viable alternative to the exclusive node allocation policies that are currently common in HPC clusters.
National Funding of Higher Education from a Non-affirmative Perspective
Authors: Kivistö Jussi , Elo Janne , Uljens Michael 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThis chapter aims to demonstrate that the non-affirmative theory of education offers conceptual tools to analyse the tension between universities´ autonomy and accountability. The autonomy of universities becomes affirmative in character when it is geared towards finding the most functional and efficient ways of reaching externally defined performance targets and thereby to implicitly affirm the norms, values and standards that the performance targets rest upon. At the same time societal accountability measures make visible what is hidden or concealed: governmental objectives in higher education and the instrumental emphasis of universities in attaining those objectives. This exemplifies that the second regulative principle of the non-affirmative theory of education always is tied to the first: the governance of education is always linked with the current idea of the role of education in society at large. The non-affirmative theory of education provides us with a view that makes this relative autonomy visible. The chapter argues that the key aspect for universities and their stakeholders today is to find an appropriate balance between instrumental and institutional approaches, accountability and autonomy as well as affirmative and non-affirmative orientations.
Affirmative and Non-affirmative Dimensions in Quality Assurance: Balancing the Accountability–Improvement Dilemma as a Matter of Trust and Learning
Authors: Hybertsen Ingunn Dahler , Stensaker Bjørn 
Published: April 2024

AbstractToday, given the build-up of national quality assurance systems, ‘quality management’ within higher education institutions requires critical attention. This management operates as a balance between accountability, which is outward oriented, and improvement, which covers internal pedagogical and research activities. This accountability–improvement dilemma has been intensively researched over the years, not least by focusing on how the relationship between national quality assurance agencies and individual higher education institutions can be developed with respect to mutual trust. Applying insights from non-affirmative theory, this chapter investigates external judgements of quality management at the institutional level in the Nordic context. The investigation addresses how external evaluation reports may function as a mediating tool for balancing the accountability–improvement dilemma in quality assurance. Using conceptualisations of educational and pedagogical leadership derived from non-affirmative theory, we analyse how expectations of leadership are expressed in external evaluation reports. The framework comprises dimensions of pedagogical leadership that are (1) to organise learning processes in professional learning communities, (2) to negotiate practices of quality work in the academic community, both within and across institutions, and (3) to protect professional, academic and institutional autonomy. We analyse the alignment between this conceptualisation of and the expectations of leadership expressed in external reports and add (4) trust in quality management as a fourth dimension. Balancing the accountability and improvement dilemma is not only a matter of trust between the institution and the national agencies but also within the academic community. Discussing the importance of mutual trust in quality work can add value to our understanding of pedagogical leadership in non-affirmative education theory.
Rejuvenating ‘on Campus’ Education to Reinforce the Particular Response-Ability of the University
Authors: Masschelein Jan , Simons Maarten 
Published: April 2024

AbstractIn recent years, the effects of climate change, accelerating disparities between the rich and poor, popular discontent, intractable political conflicts, and major population movements in the world have meant that universities have increasingly mobilised to address societal challenges. In this contribution, we assert that to take up their responsibility, universities should sustain their delivery of education as a particular (pedagogical) form requiring a campus since it embodies forces that sustain students’ and academics’ power to study and think. We first sketch how two trends threaten to make the university (as an institution and campus) increasingly irrelevant by calling into being two figures: the independent personalised (vulnerable) learner and the innovative autonomous researcher. These figures require the university merely as a protecting and facilitating infrastructure for their increasingly personalised learning and research trajectories, which have to lead to excellence and employability. In the second step, we explore how to reclaim the university as a particular arrangement of study practices that contributes to the future in a particular way by complicating learning and exposing the ‘learner’ and the ‘researcher’ to practices of public and collective study and common pedagogical infrastructures (embodied in the campus). We propose that these pedagogical infrastructures help students and scholars become ever more sensitive to different worlds and what those worlds have to say, and in this way, increasingly response-able.
Conclusions
Authors: Elo Janne , Uljens Michael 
Published: April 2024

AbstractIn this concluding chapter we aim at tying together the volume. First, we return to and remind of the points of departure from chapter one. Thereafter, we return to each chapter briefly to recapitulate, and point out some of the key points in each one. At the end, we summarise the insights from the volume, pointing out both possibilities and limitations for NAT as a point of departure for approaching multilevel pedagogical leadership in higher education.