bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Screening and assessment of the chitosan-based nanoparticle formation through an ionic gelation method
Authors: Ainurofiq Ahmad , Wiyono Nanang , Vania Febrianti Marzuki Artha , Choiri Syaiful 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
The formation of a chitosan-based nano polymeric system through ionic gelation has been attractive for the past decade due to its cost eco-friendly and high drug loading. However, the formation of chitosan-based nanoparticles is affected by several undefined factors. This work aimed to understand the effect of those factors, namely, chitosan concentration, counter-charge type and concentration, drug solvent, and pH, on nanoparticle formation and screen the most considered factors for chitosan-based nanoparticle formation. A 26-2 fractional factorial design was utilized to assess and screen the most crucial factors in nanoparticle formation. In addition, a mixture of several natural polyphenol compounds was used as a drug model. The nanoparticle formation was measured by size and distribution, zeta potential, drug loading, and encapsulation efficiency. A multiple linear regression model was constructed according to the design, and the contribution was calculated based on the main effect, along with a confidence level of 95% (p=0.05). The results indicated that drug concentration determined the enlargement of particle size and the drug loading, and chitosan contributed to the increase of nanoparticle surface charge. The counter-charge and the solvent concentration affected the particle size distribution. Moreover, the pH system was slightly considered in broadening particle size distribution. The type of counter-charge contributed less to the response. Therefore, the concentration of chitosan, counter-charge, and drug loading were the most crucial factors to achieve lower particle size and higher encapsulation efficiency.
BridgeFinder: Enabling Predictive Optimisation Techniques for High-Level Design of Large Structures in Mechanical Engineering Development
Authors: Kessler Beatrice , Marzbani Hormoz , Jazar Reza , Kessler Jörg 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
In this study, we present BridgeFinder, a novel high-level design optimisation approach tailored to the demands of large-scale construction engineering. This method facilitates predictive design rather than relying on reverse calculations. BridgeFinder integrates SmilesMe, a newly devised notation and abstraction layer, with an evolutionary algorithm leveraging the specially developed Evolution Shape Function for fitness assessment. Our inspiration to develop BridgeFinder stems from MolFinder, a technique used in chemistry to forecast molecular structures. Current algorithm-based optimisation strategies primarily focus on the later stages of construction design, such as CAD/FEM. Alternatively, some methods lack definitive calculation guidance, leading to overly algorithm-driven outcomes that may not always align with the requirements of high-level design in large constructions (e.g., generative design techniques). BridgeFinder aims to bridge this gap, offering refined calculation guidance, thereby generating construction concepts more suited to the high-level phase of large-scale projects. We anticipate that our findings will illuminate new pathways for advancements in construction design methodologies.
BadgerFilm: A new thin film analysis programme (with other useful applications for EPMA)
Authors: Moy A , Fournelle J H 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Characterisation of thin films upon substrates, i.e., thickness and composition determination, can be performed using the non-destructive technique of electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). This technique, first introduced in the 1960’s and refined in the 1990’s, is based on the accurate description of the electron ionisation depth distribution, the so-called ϕ(ρz)-distribution. Using these models, several thin film analysis computer programmes have been developed and distributed. However, these programmes have some limitations: (1) older programmes may not be compatible with modern computer systems; (2) the majority of the programmes are “black boxes” making it difficult to assess the reliability of the quantification results; and (3) commercial programmes can be expensive and this might prevent a lab from acquiring one of them especially when demands for thin film quantification are occasional. And experience has shown that where an EPMA lab is searching for funds and new users/customers, the ability to do thin film characterisation can be valuable. In this article, we present the thin film analysis programme BADGERFILM. The programme is free, open-source and implements documented ϕ(ρz)-models and algorithms. The programme is versatile and can be used to characterise multilayer samples but also bulk samples. BADGERFILM demonstrated excellent quantification results for the films and for the substrates when compared to other EPMA thin film analysis programmes and to other techniques. BADGERFILM can also be employed to calculate mass absorption coefficients from multi-voltage EPMA measurements and can calculate absolute X-ray intensities directly comparable to Monte Carlo simulations.
The Long Way to the Compliance of Data Retention with European Union Law
Authors: Montuori Luigi , Tondi Veronica 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
In Chapter 8 the authors examine the evolution of Italian rules on retention and access to traffic data. After some introductory remarks on the guarantees ensured by Article 15 of the Italian Constitution, protecting the freedom and secrecy of communications, special attention is paid to the evolution of the case law, considering the issues which appear most sensitive, in light of the pronouncements of the Court of Justice. The analysis therefore focuses on the principles of legality and proportionality, the control by an impartial authority and the usability of data acquired in violation of European Union law. The chapter then proceeds to examine the role and decisions of the Italian Supervisory Authority, and, finally, deals with the latest intervention of the Italian legislator on the matter, which raises some doubts on the real consistency with European requirements.
Data Retention and Law Enforcement Access to Personal Data in India
Authors: Degalahal Shweta Reddy 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
In 2017, while affirming the status of the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution, the Supreme Court set forth a threefold test (ie legality, necessity, and proportionality) that must be satisfied to impose any restrictions on the espoused right in the now famously known Puttaswamy judgment. The Court specifically stated the importance of enacting data protection legislation to protect the privacy of the individuals against the legitimate interest of the State. Despite the absence of enactment of such a legislation, there have been fragmented regulations that can be considered as a restriction on the privacy of the individuals such as the ones regarding the data retention and law enforcement access to retained personal data. Chapter 18 identifies the relevant requirements across the fragmented landscape and argues that none of them pass all the three steps of the test laid out in the Puttaswamy judgment.
Agency with judgment
Authors: Pettit Philip 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
When human beings make judgments, they often act intentionally in seeking and scrutinizing evidence and in deciding whether to go along with it. This intentional activity typically leads them to form corresponding beliefs and related attitudes: on–off beliefs most obviously, and by implication scalar beliefs as well. How might the humanoids come to do this, as the genealogy suggests, in the wake of language? They would naturally come to make assertions in that language—on peril of disesteem, careful and truthful assertions—sharing information with one another. Every truthful assertion would constitute a public judgment and presuppose a private or mental counterpart. Recognizing this, the humanoids would learn to make judgments for themselves alone. And as they would often be able gain new information by seeking to answer the questions of others, they would learn to look for such information by asking questions of themselves and seeking to generate answers on their own. In short, they would learn to think in an active, reflective manner.
Rationality with reasoning
Authors: Pettit Philip 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Reasoning requires the subject to move from believing certain propositions to believing propositions they allegedly support because, at least in part, of believing in a supportive, premise–conclusion connection between those propositions. It presupposes a sophisticated ability to conceptualize propositions as objects to make judgments and form beliefs about, but the humanoids would learn to do this by using corresponding sentences in quotation marks as names: ‘p’ supports ‘q’. It also presupposes a conception of the normative connection of support. The humanoids would form such a connection by learning to explain and reinforce an assertion by naming the presumptively persuasive evidence or proposition that prompted it; by recognizing that this would reinforce it only for others who are not subject to distorting effects that block them from being prompted in the normal manner; and by presenting the explanation therefore as one that will work only for those whose functioning is not disrupted in that way. In effect, they will see and present it as one that any functional agent ought to endorse: as one that supports the conclusion for normally functioning agents. With that concept of support in mind they can profitably explore a range of questions together and, after interiorization, on their own. They can master reasoning and come to be able to think, in a particularly rich sense of that term.
Knowledge, Information, and Business Education in the British Atlantic World, 1620–1760
Authors: Talbott Siobhan 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Accurate information is essential to successful business activity. The early modern period saw an increase in printed commercial information, including newspapers, printed exchange rates, and educational texts—part of the ‘print revolution’ that permeated all aspects of the early modern world. Yet, as this book shows, the circulation of information in manuscript and oral form remained central to business activity. Rather than relying on externally produced printed works, commercial agents retained agency in creating and sharing their own business and educational information, which was prioritized and valued over printed material. The spaces in which these agents exchanged information and the increased distances over which knowledge travelled in an expanding commercial world impacted and shaped this information exchange. An increase in volume of information presented challenges as well as benefits, producing conflicting data, giving rise to issues of trust, and increasing the need to identify and deal with misinformation. Prioritizing a wide range of manuscript material held in disparate collections, including merchants’ correspondence, letter-books, notebooks, family papers, exercise books, and ships’ logs, this book explores the ways that knowledge, information, and business education was created, circulated, and used in the early modern British Atlantic world. It offers an alternative way of looking at the exchange of business information in a period dominated by discussions of print, prioritizing manuscript and oral forms of exchange. In doing so, it presents a more holistic account of the ways that networks of knowledge operated in early modern business, centralizing the creation, circulation, and use of business information specifically by those individuals most involved in—and most affected by—its production.
Commercial Education
Authors: Talbott Siobhan 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Commerce in the early modern period was a highly skilled profession. We know much about the increase in formal commercial education, the role of apprenticeships, and the publication of printed didactic texts such as advice books, but we know less about the limitations of these sources of commercial education, and much less about the other ways in which merchants trained for business. Formal learning, which was neither accessible to all nor a prerequisite for commercial success, was augmented by informal knowledge exchange and practical experience. Using manuscript notebooks, exercise books, ships’ logs, and correspondence, this chapter constructs a more holistic picture of how merchants became educated in business. Skills considered include abilities in foreign languages, knowledge of commercial jargon, understanding of weather and climate, and education in mathematics and navigation. This chapter consolidates the argument in Chapter 1 that the ‘print revolution’ did not foster a fundamental shift from manuscript and oral learning to text-based learning. It shows that merchants were not a homogeneous group, but individuals who learned in different ways and through different methods, seeking specific training that benefited their distinct business interests.
Knowledge and Use of Legal Processes
Authors: Talbott Siobhan 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Commercial agents operated in peculiarly complex legal landscapes in the early modern British Atlantic world. As commercial worlds expanded, this complexity increased. This chapter explores how merchants educated themselves about legal processes and considers the information that influenced decisions about whether or not to pursue legal cases. It shows that merchants’ knowledge of ‘the law’ was not embedded in formal legal education, but in practical understandings of the ways in which justice operated in their commercial networks. While some merchants saw law courts as a last resort, others were prolifically litigious, and the context within which business took place was a highly influential factor on whether legal action was pursued. This chapter considers the role of arbitration, the rise in formal marine insurance as a legal mechanism, and the increasing use of legal instruments such as bills of exchange.
The Truth Shall Set You Free
Authors: Kovras Iosif 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
The chapter seeks to explain variations in the success of commissions of inquiry into economic crises, drawing on the comparative experience of the US (1930s), and Iceland (post-2008), considering them the two ‘most different’ cases. They had completely different background conditions, including the historical period (1930s vs 2010s), how the crisis unfolded (slow crisis vs rapid meltdown), the significance of the crisis for the global economy, the institutional setting of the commission (independent vs congressional), and the status of the country in the global financial system (powerful state vs small peripheral state). Yet both reached equally successful conclusions. In 1932, the US Senate mandated the Pecora Commission to identify the causes of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. In addition to analyzing the causes of the crisis, Pecora recommended innovative institutional reforms, resulting in the Glass-Steagall Act; this led to the separation of commercial and investment banking, ultimately protecting markets from a financial crisis for several decades. Iceland set up a similarly successful truth commission after the 2008 crash; its final report revealed the causes of the collapse, its recommendations were embedded in a national legal/regulatory framework, and the report itself became an instant bestseller. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, in-depth interviews with national stakeholders, and archival research, the chapter argues that having politicians with an embedded institutional learning approach is a prerequisite for a successful truth commission that can convert past policy failures into institutional lessons for the future.
Unexpected Politics
Authors: Ramzy Farah 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
This introductory chapter starts by asking what was the impact of the neoliberal shift in higher education in the late 1990s, and the two critical political events that Egypt witnessed, the 2011 revolution and the 2013 coup d’état, on student politics. Detailing the study of various student organizations such as clubs, associations, unions, party sections, and activist groups, through interviews and ethnographic observation, it argues for the necessity of accounting for contemporary student politics beyond its historically familiar and expected forms such as protests for national or regional causes. This chapter builds a theoretical framework to make sense of how being a student in a context of political change produces specific dynamics of politicization, by looking at the way students collectively and individually negotiate the scope of possible political action and the meanings attributed to that action.
Students and the ‘New Republic’
Authors: Ramzy Farah 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
This chapter shifts the perspective away from students to look at the post-2013 regime and examine the evolution of the actors and practices of repression and co-optation in universities. The post-2013 instruments of political control reflect a concomitant depoliticization of repression and politicization of co-optation, a combination rendered possible due to ambivalence within the neoliberal policies and discourses. In universities, the introduction of a private security company in a stark break with historically familiar tools and practices of repression reflects the authoritarian reconfiguration where both old and new practices are part of a new game. Furthermore, a new multidimensional youth policy, fully embracing the neoliberal imperative of the professionalization of youth, amplifies existing intersections between the regime and student organizations, systematizes a counter-revolutionary discourse, and sketches the outlines of a new illusionary authoritarian polity where youth are expected to play the role of juvenile neoliberal subjects.
Semisynthetic simulation for microbiome data analysis
Authors: Sankaran Kris , Kodikara Saritha , Li Jingyi Jessica , Cao Kim-Anh Lê 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
High-throughput sequencing data lie at the heart of modern microbiome research. Effective analysis of these data requires careful preprocessing, modeling, and interpretation to detect subtle signals and avoid spurious associations. In this review, we discuss how simulation can serve as a sandbox to test candidate approaches, creating a setting that mimics real data while providing ground truth. This is particularly valuable for power analysis, methods benchmarking, and reliability analysis. We explain the probability, multivariate analysis, and regression concepts behind modern simulators and how different implementations make trade-offs between generality, faithfulness, and controllability. Recognizing that all simulators only approximate reality, we review methods to evaluate how accurately they reflect key properties. We also present case studies demonstrating the value of simulation in differential abundance testing, dimensionality reduction, network analysis, and data integration. Code for these examples is available in an online tutorial (https://go.wisc.edu/8994yz) that can be easily adapted to new problem settings.
The role of Obinutuzumab in rituximab-refractory membranous nephropathy and minimal change disease
Authors: Chen Zewei , Xu Dechao , Wu Shuangcheng , Liu Wenyu , Wu Jianxiang , Yu Shengqiang , Dai Bing , Mao Zhiguo , Gao Xiang 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Obinutuzumab, a new-generation anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, was originally emerged to overcome resistance to rituximab in B-cell malignancies. There is limited research regarding the use of Obinutuzumab in patients with rituximab-refractory membranous nephropathy (MN) and minimal change disease (MCD).

Methods
A retrospective analysis was performed at Changzheng Hospital from September 2022 to September 2024, and screened patients with rituximab-refractory MN or MCD. Participants were treated because of refractory to rituximab and consented to receive infusions of Obinutuzumab. Primary outcomes were defined as complete remission (CR, proteinuria &lt; 0.3 g/d) or partial remission (PR, proteinuria &lt; 3.5 g/d with a ≥ 50% reduction). Secondary outcome was immunological remission in patients with PLA2R-related MN.

Results
Seven patients with MN and five with MCD were included in the cohort. Among patients with MN, 6 of 7 (86%) achieved at least PR, of whom two patients reached CR with a median time to first remission (either PR or CR) of 8.0 months. Among patients with positive serum anti-phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) antibodies at baseline, all achieved an immunological response. No patients experienced a relapse during the follow-up period. Among patients with MCD, all patients achieved a CR with the median time of 1.0 months. Patients with steroid-dependent or immunosuppressant-dependent were able to taper their medications in the short term without experiencing relapse. No treatment-related severe adverse events were reported.

Conclusions
Our study demonstrated that Obinutuzumab represents a promising alternative therapeutic option for the management of rituximab-refractory MN and MCD.
Comparative Public Attitudes about Drone Strikes: Survey Experiments in Italy, Poland, and Germany
Authors: Alparone Diletta , Kantorowicz Jaroslaw , Klein Graig R 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Research on public attitudes about the use and efficacy of drone strikes primarily focuses on the United States. While there is a burgeoning second generation of public opinion research on drone strikes and drone warfare, in general, our understanding of cross-national public attitudes remains limited, particularly if non-US respondents behave and/or think differently. To address this, we extend Krep’s (2014) and Walsh and Schulzke’s (2018) research and conduct four surveys in three countries (Italy, Poland, and Germany) with 5,485 respondents to investigate how individuals outside the United States interpret ethical, moral, and casualty aversion framing in relation to support for drone strikes. Our results show that in all three countries, like the United States, respondents prefer drone strikes to traditional military operations but that support for drone strikes decreases when prompted with ethical and moral framing. Additional information about casualty aversion and reducing the physical risk to servicemembers’ lives does not significantly influence support for drone strikes compared to traditional military operations.