bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Proton Exchange Membranes from Sulfonated Lignin Nanocomposites for Redox Flow Battery Applications
Authors: dos Santos Fernanda Brito , McMichael Philip Spencer , Whitbeck Alex , Jalaee Adel , Gyenge Elod , Foster E. Johan 
Published: March 2024

AbstractRedox flow batteries (RFBs) are increasingly being considered for a wide range of energy storage applications, and such devices rely on proton exchange membranes (PEMs) to function. PEMs are high‐cost, petroleum‐derived polymers that often possess limited durability, variable electrochemical performance, and are linked to discharge of perfluorinated compounds. Alternative PEMs that utilize biobased materials, including lignin and sulfonated lignin (SL), low‐cost byproducts of the wood pulping process, have struggled to balance electrochemical performance with dimensional stability. Herein, SL nanoparticles are demonstrated for use as a nature‐derived, ion‐conducting PEM material. SL nanoparticles (NanoSLs) can be synthesized for increased surface area, uniformity, and miscibility compared with macrosized lignin, improving proton conductivity. After addition of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) as a structural backbone, membranes with the highest NanoSL concentration demonstrated an ion exchange capacity of 1.26 meq g−1, above that of the commercial PEM Nafion 112 (0.98 meq g−1), along with a conductivity of 80.4 mS cm−1 in situ, above that of many biocomposite PEMs, and a coulombic efficiency (CE), energy efficiency (EE) and voltage efficiency (VE) of 91%, 68% and 78%, respectively at 20 mA cm−2. These nanocomposite PEMs demonstrate the potential for valorization of forest biomass waste streams for high value clean energy applications.
Institutions and carbon emissions: an investigation employing STIRPAT and machine learning methods
Authors: Cooray Arusha , Özmen Ibrahim 
Published: March 2024

AbstractWe employ an extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model combined with the environmental Kuznets curve and machine learning algorithms, including ridge and lasso regression, to investigate the impact of institutions on carbon emissions in a sample of 22 European Union countries over 2002 to 2020. Splitting the sample into two: those with weak and strong institutions, we find that the results differ between the two groups. Our results suggest that changes in institutional quality have a limited impact on carbon emissions. Government effectiveness leads to an increase in emissions in the European Union countries with stronger institutions, whereas voice and accountability lead to a fall in emissions. In the group with weaker institutions, political stability and the control of corruption reduce carbon emissions. Our findings indicate that variables such as population density, urbanization and energy consumption are more important determinants of carbon emissions in the European Union compared to institutional governance. The results suggest the need for coordinated and consistent policies that are aligned with climate targets for the European Union as a whole.
Optimal duration of medical expulsive therapy for lower ureteral stones: a critical evaluation
Authors: Erdoğan Erhan , Şimşek Gamze , Aşık Alper , Yaşar Hikmet , Şahin Cahit , Sarıca Kemal 
Published: March 2024

AbstractTo evaluate the optimal duration of Medical Expulsive Therapy (MET) application for distal ureteric stones on a time period based manner. 89 patients with 5–10 mm distal ureter stones received tamsulosin (0.4 mg) for MET and diclofenac sodium (75 mg) for analgesia. Patients were evaluated once a week for 4 weeks. Radiologic stone passage was evaluated by kidney ureter bladder (KUB) and ultasonography where non-contrast computed tomography (NCCT) was also performed if needed. While 23 cases (28.4%) were SF after first week, 23 were SF (28.4%) after 2 weeks, 9 cases (11.1%) after 3 and lastly 7 cases (8.6%) became SF after four weeks. Nineteen (23.5%) cases were not SF after 4 weeks. A positive relationship was found between the time period elapsed for stone passage and ureteral wall thickness (UWT) along with the degree of hydronephrosis. In addition, mean number of renal colics and emergency department (ED) visits were found to be higher in patients passing stones in the 4th week along with the ones who could not despite MET. SFR for distal ureteric stones sizing 5–10 mm was higher within the first 3 weeks under MET application. Thus, waiting for a longer period of time may result in increased analgesic and unnecessary MET treatment with increased risk of emergency department visits and additional costs as well. We believe that other options could be considered in such cases who are not SF at the end of the first 3 weeks.
Homeostatic regulation of renewing tissue cell populations via crowding control: stability, robustness and quasi-dedifferentiation
Authors: Parigini Cristina , Greulich Philip 
Published: March 2024

AbstractTo maintain renewing epithelial tissues in a healthy, homeostatic state, cell divisions and differentiation need to be tightly regulated. Mechanisms of homeostatic regulation often rely on crowding feedback control: cells are able to sense the cell density in their environment, via various molecular and mechanosensing pathways, and respond by adjusting division, differentiation, and cell state transitions appropriately. Here, we determine, via a mathematically rigorous framework, which general conditions for the crowding feedback regulation (i) must be minimally met, and (ii) are sufficient, to allow the maintenance of homeostasis in renewing tissues. We show that those conditions naturally allow for a degree of robustness toward disruption of regulation. Furthermore, intrinsic to this feedback regulation is that stem cell identity is established collectively by the cell population, not by individual cells, which implies the possibility of ‘quasi-dedifferentiation’, in which cells committed to differentiation may reacquire stem cell properties upon depletion of the stem cell pool. These findings can guide future experimental campaigns to identify specific crowding feedback mechanisms.
Embryonic methionine triggers post-natal developmental programming in Japanese quail
Authors: Ndunguru Sawadi F. , Reda Gebrehaweria K. , Csernus Brigitta , Knop Renáta , Gulyás Gabriella , Szabó Csaba , Czeglédi Levente , Lendvai Ádám Z. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractEmbryonic development is one of the most sensitive and critical stages when maternal effects may influence the offspring’s phenotype. In birds and other oviparous species, embryonic development is confined to the eggs, therefore females must deposit resources into the eggs to prepare the offspring for the prevailing post-natal conditions. However, the mechanisms of such phenotypic adjustments remain poorly understood. We simulated a maternal nutritional transfer by injecting 1 mg of l-methionine solution into Japanese quail eggs before the onset of incubation. The increase in early methionine concentration in eggs activated the insulin/insulin-like signalling and mechanistic target of rapamycin (IIS/mTOR) signalling pathways and affected post-natal developmental trajectories. Chicks from methionine-supplemented eggs had higher expression of liver IGF1 and mTOR genes at hatching but were similar in size, and the phenotypic effects of increased growth became apparent only a week later and remained up to three weeks. Circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and expression of ribosomal protein serine 6 kinase 1 (RPS6K1), the mTOR downstream effector, were elevated only three weeks after hatching. These results show that specific nutritional cues may have phenotypic programming effects by sequentially activating specific nutrient-sensing pathways and achieving transgenerational phenotypic plasticity.
A Note on Internal Partitions: The 5-Regular Case and Beyond
Authors: Bärnkopf Pál , Nagy Zoltán Lóránt , Paulovics Zoltán 
Published: March 2024

AbstractAn internal or friendly partition of a graph is a partition of the vertex set into two nonempty sets so that every vertex has at least as many neighbours in its own class as in the other one. It has been shown that apart from finitely many counterexamples, every 3, 4 or 6-regular graph has an internal partition. In this note we focus on the 5-regular case and show that among the subgraphs of minimum degree at least 3 of 5-regular graphs, there are some which have small intersection. We also discuss the existence of internal partitions in some families of Cayley graphs, notably we determine all 5-regular Abelian Cayley graphs which do not have an internal partition.
Evaluation of night eating syndrome and food addiction in esports players
Authors: Arslan Sedat , Atan Ramazan Mert , Sahin Nursel , Ergul Yasemin 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Purpose
Esports players’ training takes long periods and they sit for a long time during competitions, which increases their risk of obesity and urges them to develop inappropriate eating behaviors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the night-eating syndrome and food addiction in esports players.

Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted with 248 esports players who were members of a university’s esports community. The study data were collected using an online questionnaire consisting of the descriptive information form, Night Eating Questionnaire, and Yale Food Addiction Scale.

Results
The mean age of the sports players participating in the study was 22.19 ± 5.97 years. Of them, 55.6% had a normal body weight, 13.4% were obese, 54.4% played esports for 3 years or more, 13.3% experienced night eating syndrome, and 21.4% experienced food addiction. While the weekly duration of playing esports and skipping meals were associated with night eating syndrome, the weekly duration of playing esports and smoking were associated with food addiction (p < 0.05). Additionally, although there was no statistically significant difference, the risk of food addiction was 2.12 times higher in those with poor perceived sleep quality.

Conclusion
We observed that night eating syndrome was very common in esports players and that these individuals were at risk in terms of food addiction. Since esports has a more sedentary structure than traditional sports, we suggest that esports players should be evaluated in terms of their unhealthy eating behaviors and risk of eating disorders.
Early microvascular coronary endothelial dysfunction precedes pembrolizumab-induced cardiotoxicity. Preventive role of high dose of atorvastatin
Authors: Efentakis Panagiotis , Choustoulaki Angeliki , Kwiatkowski Grzegorz , Varela Aimilia , Kostopoulos Ioannis V. , Tsekenis George , Ntanasis-Stathopoulos Ioannis , Georgoulis Anastasios , Vorgias Constantinos E. , Gakiopoulou Harikleia , Briasoulis Alexandros , Davos Constantinos H. , Kostomitsopoulos Nikolaos , Tsitsilonis Ourania , Dimopoulos Meletios Athanasios , Terpos Evangelos , Chłopicki Stefan , Gavriatopoulou Maria , Andreadou Ioanna 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) exhibit remarkable antitumor activity and immune-related cardiotoxicity of unknown pathomechanism. The aim of the study was to investigate the ICI class-dependent cardiotoxicity in vitro and pembrolizumab’s (Pem’s) cardiotoxicity in vivo, seeking for translational prevention means. Cytotoxicity was investigated in primary cardiomyocytes and splenocytes, incubated with ipilimumab, Pem and avelumab. Pem’s cross-reactivity was assessed by circular dichroism (CD) on biotechnologically produced human and murine PD-1 and in silico. C57BL6/J male mice received IgG4 or Pem for 2 and 5 weeks. Echocardiography, histology, and molecular analyses were performed. Coronary blood flow velocity mapping and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging were conducted at 2 weeks. Human EA.hy926 endothelial cells were incubated with Pem-conditioned media from human mononuclear cells, in presence and absence of statins and viability and molecular signaling were assessed. Atorvastatin (20 mg/kg, daily) was administered in vivo, as prophylaxis. Only Pem exerted immune-related cytotoxicity in vitro. Pem’s cross-reactivity with the murine PD-1 was confirmed by CD and docking. In vivo, Pem initiated coronary endothelial and diastolic dysfunction at 2 weeks and systolic dysfunction at 5 weeks. At 2 weeks, Pem induced ICAM-1 and iNOS expression and intracardiac leukocyte infiltration. At 5 weeks, Pem exacerbated endothelial activation and triggered cardiac inflammation. Pem led to immune-related cytotoxicity in EA.hy926 cells, which was prevented by atorvastatin. Atorvastatin mitigated functional deficits, by inhibiting endothelial dysfunction in vivo. We established for the first time an in vivo model of Pem-induced cardiotoxicity. Coronary endothelial dysfunction precedes Pem-induced cardiotoxicity, whereas atorvastatin emerges as a novel prophylactic therapy.
Temperature has an overriding role compared to photoperiod in regulating the seasonal timing of winter moth egg hatching
Authors: van Dis Natalie E. , Salis Lucia , Visser Marcel E. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractTo accurately predict species’ phenology under climate change, we need to gain a detailed mechanistic understanding of how different environmental cues interact to produce the seasonal timing response. In the winter moth (Operophtera brumata), seasonal timing of egg hatching is strongly affected by ambient temperature and has been under strong climate change-induced selection over the past 25 years. However, it is unclear whether photoperiod received at the egg stage also influences timing of egg hatching. Here, we investigated the relative contribution of photoperiod and temperature in regulating winter moth egg development using two split-brood experiments. We experimentally shifted the photoperiod eggs received by 2–4 weeks compared to the actual calendar date and measured the timing of egg hatching, both at a constant temperature and in combination with two naturally changing temperature treatments – mimicking a cold and a warm year. We found an eight-fold larger effect of temperature compared to photoperiod on egg development time. Moreover, the very small photoperiod effects we found were outweighed by both between- and within-clutch variation in egg development time. Thus, we conclude that photoperiod received at the egg stage does likely not play a substantial role in regulating the seasonal timing of egg hatching in the winter moth. These insights into the regulatory mechanism of seasonal timing could have important implications for predicting insect climate change adaptation, as we might expect different targets of selection depending on the relative contribution of different environmental cues.
Paradox? What paradox?
Authors: Willink R. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis article is a response to the preceding paper by Huang, who considers a recent result of Willink (Measurement: Sensors, 24:100416, 2022) and who describes the result as a paradox. The result implied that a set of information or a “state of knowledge” about a measurand cannot be identified with a unique probability distribution for the measurand, contrary to what seems suggested in the literature surrounding the revision of the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement. The result is restated and viewed in the context of CIPM Recommendation INC-1, which was foundational in the original development of the Guide. It is argued that the result is a proof, not a paradox, and that it will only appear paradoxical to those who have adopted an incorrect premise about probability. The idea of having “information” about the true value of a measurand is discussed and contrasted with the idea of having “belief” about it. The material supports the view that the analysis of measurement uncertainty is to be based on classical statistical principles.
P4HA2 involved in SLUG-associated EMT predicts poor prognosis of patients with KRAS-positive colorectal cancer
Authors: El-Deek Heba El-Deek Mohammed , El-Naggar Maha Salah , Morsy Aiat Morsy Mohamed , Sedik Mayada Fawzy , Osman Heba Ahmed , Ahmed Asmaa M. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis study aimed to examine the immunohistochemical expression of epithelial–mesenchymal transition biomarkers: P4HA2 and SLUG in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) specimens, then to assess their relation to clinicopathological features including KRAS mutations and patients’ survival, and finally to study the correlation between them in CRC. The result of this study showed that SLUG and P4HA2 were significantly higher in association with adverse prognostic factors: presence of lympho-vascular invasion, perineural invasion, higher tumor budding, tumor stage, presence of lymph node metastasis, and presence of distant metastasis. CRC specimens with KRAS mutation were associated with significant higher SLUG and P4HA2 expression. High expression of both SLUG and P4HA2 was significantly unfavorable prognostic indicator as regards overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). In KRAS mutated cases, high P4HA2 expression was the only significant poor prognostic indicator as regarding DFS. In conclusions, our data highlight that both SLUG and P4HA2 expression may serve as potentially important poor prognostic biomarkers in CRC and targeting these molecules may be providing a novel therapeutic strategy. In KRAS mutation group, high P4HA2 expression is the only independent prognostic factor for tumor recurrence, so it can be suggested to be a novel target for therapy.
Incidence of groin hernia repairs in women and parity: a population-based cohort study among women born in Sweden between 1956 and 1983
Authors: Matovu A. , Löfgren J. , Wladis A. , Nordin P. , Sandblom G. , Pettersson H. J. 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Introduction
The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between parity and the incidence rate of groin hernia repair in women.

Method
This study was based on two Swedish national registers, the Medical Birth Register (MBR), and the Swedish Hernia Register (SHR). The cohort constituted of women born between 1956 and 1983. Data on vaginal and cesarean deliveries were retrieved from the MBR. The birth and hernia registers were cross matched to identify hernia repairs carried out after deliveries.

Results
A total of 1,535,379 women were born between 1956 and 1983. Among these, 1,417,237 (92.3%) were registered for at least one birth. The incidence rate for Inguinal Hernia Repair (IHR) and Femoral Hernia Repair (FHR) was 10.7 per 100,000 person-year and 2.6 per 100,000 person-year, respectively. Compared with women registered for one delivery, the incidence rate ratio for IHR was 1.31 (95% Confidence Interval: 1.23–1.40) among women registered for two deliveries, 1.70 (1.58–1.82) among women registered for ≥ 3 deliveries. Additionally, the incidence rate ratios were higher 1.30 (1.14–1.49) and 1.70 (1.49–1.95) for FHR among women with two and  ≥ 3 registered deliveries, respectively.

Conclusion
In the present cohort, higher parity was associated with a higher incidence of inguinal as well as FHRs.
Evaluating the effectiveness of machine learning models for performance forecasting in basketball: a comparative study
Authors: Papageorgiou George , Sarlis Vangelis , Tjortjis Christos 
Published: March 2024

AbstractSports analytics (SA) incorporate machine learning (ML) techniques and models for performance prediction. Researchers have previously evaluated ML models applied on a variety of basketball statistics. This paper aims to benchmark the forecasting performance of 14 ML models, based on 18 advanced basketball statistics and key performance indicators (KPIs). The models were applied on a filtered pool of 90 high-performance players. This study developed individual forecasting scenarios per player and experimented using all 14 models. The models’ performance ranking was developed using a bespoke evaluation metric, called weighted average percentage error (WAPE), formulated from the weighted mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) evaluation results of each forecasted statistic and model. Moreover, we employed a comprehensive forecasting approach to improve KPI's results. Results showed that Tree-based models, namely Extra Trees, Random Forest, and Decision Tree, are the best performers in most of the forecasted performance indicators, with the best performance achieved by Extra Trees with a WAPE of 34.14%. In conclusion, we achieved a 3.6% MAPE improvement for the selected KPI with our approach on unseen data.
Morphological, genetic and ecological divergence in near-cryptic bryophyte species widespread in the Holarctic: the Dicranum acutifolium complex (Dicranales) revisited in the Alps
Authors: Kiebacher Thomas , Szövényi Péter 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThere is mounting evidence that reproductively isolated, but morphologically weakly differentiated species (so-called cryptic species) represent a substantial part of biological diversity, especially in bryophytes. We assessed the evolutionary history and ecological differentiation of a species pair, Dicranum brevifolium and D. septentrionale, which have overlapping ranges in the Holarctic. Despite their morphological similarity, we found similar genetic differentiation as between morphologically well-differentiated Dicranum species. Moreover, we detected gene tree discordance between plastid and nuclear markers, but neither of the two datasets resolved the two as sister species. The signal in trnL–trnF better reflects the morphological and ecological affinities and indicates a close relationship while ITS sequence data resolved the two taxa as phylogenetically distantly related. The discordance is probably unrelated to the ecological differentiation of D. septentrionale to colonise subneutral to alkaline substrates (vs. acidic in D. brevifolium), because this ability is rare in the genus and shared with D. acutifolium. This taxon is the closest relative of D. septentrionale according to the trnL–trnF data and does not share the discordance in ITS. We furthermore demonstrate that beside D. acutifolium, both D. septentrionale and D. brevifolium occur in the Alps but D. brevifolium is most likely rarer. Based on morphological analyses including factor analysis for mixed data of 45 traits we suggest treating the latter two as near-cryptic species and we recommend verifying morphological determinations molecularly.