bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Oil spill risk analysis for the NEOM shoreline
Authors: Mittal H. V. R. , Hammoud Mohamad Abed El Rahman , Carrasco Ana K. , Hoteit Ibrahim , Knio Omar M. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractA risk analysis is conducted considering an array of release sources located around the NEOM shoreline. The sources are selected close to the coast and in neighboring regions of high marine traffic. The evolution of oil spills released by these sources is simulated using the MOHID model, driven by validated, high-resolution met-ocean fields of the Red Sea. For each source, simulations are conducted over a 4-week period, starting from first, tenth and twentieth days of each month, covering five consecutive years. A total of 180 simulations are thus conducted for each source location, adequately reflecting the variability of met-ocean conditions in the region. The risk associated with each source is described in terms of amount of oil beached, and by the time required for the spilled oil to reach the NEOM coast, extending from the Gulf of Aqaba in the North to Duba in the South. To further characterize the impact of individual sources, a finer analysis is performed by segmenting the NEOM shoreline, based on important coastal development and installation sites. For each subregion, source and release event considered, a histogram of the amount of volume beached is generated, also classifying individual events in terms of the corresponding arrival times. In addition, for each subregion considered, an inverse analysis is conducted to identify regions of dependence of the cumulative risk, estimated using the collection of all sources and events considered. The transport of oil around the NEOM shorelines is promoted by chaotic circulations and northwest winds in summer, and a dominant cyclonic eddy in winter. Hence, spills originating from release sources located close to the NEOM shorelines are characterized by large monthly variations in arrival times, ranging from less than a week to more than 2 weeks. Similarly, large variations in the volume fraction of beached oil, ranging from less then 50% to more than 80% are reported. The results of this study provide key information regarding the location of dominant oil spill risk sources, the severity of the potential release events, as well as the time frames within which mitigation actions may need to deployed.
Efficient crystal structure materials as reactive sorbent for the CO2 and CH4 adsorption and storage
Authors: Essehli R. , Aïssa B. , Altamash T. , Lachkar M. , Atilhan M. , El Bali B. , Berdiyorov G. R. , Amhamed A. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe efficient dirubidium cobalt bis(dihydrogendiphosphate) dihydrate compound is successfully synthesized in a solution and used as a reactive sorbent for the CO2and CH4gases adsorption and storage. A crystal of this Rb2Co(H2P2O7)2·2H2O compound has been isolated and characterized by single X-ray diffraction analysis and was found to crystallize in the triclinic system ($$P\overline{1}$$P1¯) with the cell parameters (Å): 6.980(1), 7.370(1), 7.816(1), 81.74(1), 70.35(1), 86.34(1); V = 374.68(9) Å3, Z = 2. The crystal-packing consists of a three-dimensional framework made upon corners and edges sharing of [RbO7], [H2P2O7] and [CoO6] entities, furthermore linked by a network of H-bonds. The UV–Vis spectroscopy revealed usual transitions between the ground state 4T1g and the upper levels 4T2g, 4A2g and 4T1g (P). Moreover, the CO2and CH4gases sorption measurements were successfully performed at two different temperatures (25 and 45 °C) and various pressures ranging from vacuum to 50 bar. Our results show that rate of CO2and CH4capturing was 3.10 mmol/g and 2.35 mmol/g at temperature 25 °C and pressure 50 bar, respectively. This compound showed a clear potential for CO2/CH4adsorption and storage thereby paving the way towards its exploration and adaptation for capturing and collecting carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases from the air, and their conversion into hydrocarbon fuels using existing mature technologies. We have also conducted density functional theory calculations to study the CO2and CH4adsorption properties of Rb2Co(H2P2O7)2·2H2O. The simulation results show enhanced adsorption of both types of molecules on the surface of the material.
Shaking table test on seismic performance of a large-span high-rise building
Authors: Sun Laite , Bai Yu , Lai Zhengcong 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis paper describes investigations in respect of the seismic performance of a large-span high-rise building in a mountainous area. The building consists of a 135 m high shear wall structure and a 174.5 m long steel truss structure, with dampers used to enhance the seismic performance. A 1/40 scale model of the prototype structure was designed, and shaking table tests was conducted. The experiments simulated the wave passage effect and slope amplification effect based on the building site and structural characteristics of the prototype structure. The seismic performance of the prototype structure was analyzed through the damage phenomenon, dynamic characteristics, and dynamic response of the model under earthquake effects. The results show that three seismic waves were delayed by about 0.4 s and amplified by about 1.6 times after passing through the steel frame with viscous dampers, which could effectively simulate the wave passage effect and slope amplification effect in the test. The maximum story drift ratios of the model shear wall structure and steel truss structure were 1/1258 and 1/455 for the SLE and 1/568 and 1/185 for the MCE. The damping devices played a key role in energy dissipation. As a result, this research provides a reference for the seismic design and shaking table testing of large-span high-rise buildings.
A systematic approach for authentication of medicinal Patrinia species using an integration of morphological, chemical and molecular methods
Authors: Wong Kwan-Ho , Zheng Tao , Yue Grace Gar-Lee , Li Man-Ching , Wu Hoi-Yan , Tong Man-Ho , Zhao Xin-Lei , Chen Hu-Biao , Lau Clara Bik-San , Shaw Pang-Chui , Lau David Tai-Wai 
Published: March 2024

AbstractFour common Patrinia species, including P. heterophylla, P. monandra, P. scabiosifolia and P. villosa, have been documented as herbal medicines with various clinical applications, such as anti-cancer, anti-diarrhea and sedative. However, the authentication of medicinal Patrinia species poses a problem, particularly with the processed herbal materials. This study aimed to systematically authenticate the four medicinal Patrinia species in the market using morphological and chemical characterization, as well as DNA markers. We found the species identity authenticated by traditional morphologies were in good agreement with both chemical and molecular results. The four species showed species-specific patterns in chromatographic profiles with distinct chemical markers. We also revealed the power of complete chloroplast genomes in species authentication. The sequences of targeted loci, namely atpB, petA, rpl2-rpl23 and psaI-ycf4, contained informative nucleotides for the species differentiation. Our results also facilitate authentication of medicinal Patrinia species using new DNA barcoding markers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the application of morphology, chemical fingerprinting, complete chloroplast genomes and species-specific Insertion-Deletions (InDels) in differentiating Patrinia species. This study reported on the power of a systematic, multidisciplinary approach in authenticating medicinal Patrinia species.
Changes in total and per-capital ecosystem service value in response to land-use land-cover dynamics in north-central Ethiopia
Authors: Birhane Emiru , Negash Emnet , Getachew Tesfaye , Gebrewahed Hailemariam , Gidey Eskinder , Gebremedhin Mewcha Amha , Mhangara Paidamwoyo 
Published: March 2024

AbstractEcosystems provide a wide range of services crucial for human well-being and decision-making processes at various levels. This study analyzed the major land cover types of north-central Ethiopia and their impact on total and per-capita ecosystem service value (ESV). The ESV was estimated using the benefit-transfer method along the established global and local coefficient values for the periods 1973, 1986, 2001, 2016, and 2024. The findings show that agricultural lands continued to expand at a rate of 563.4 ha year−1, at the expense of forests and grasslands. As a result, the total ESV of the study area declined from $101.4 to $61.03 million and $60.08–$43.69 million, respectively. The ESV per capita was also diminished by $152.4 (37.7%) and $257 (40.6%), respectively. However, land-cover improvement during the period 2001–2016 enhanced the total and per capita ESV in the study area. Therefore, potential future research may be required to develop a valid approach for assessing the robustness and sensitivity of value coefficients for the valuation of the ESV at the landscape level.
Ethno-entomotherapeutic and metabolite profiling of Coridius chinensis (Dallas), a traditional edible insect species of North-East India
Authors: Bonysana Rajkumari , Singh Kabrambam Dasanta , Devi Wahengbam Deepanita , koijam Arunkumar Singh , Kapesa Kokho , Kalita Jatin , Mukherjee Pulok Kumar , Rajashekar Yallappa 
Published: March 2024

AbstractEdible insects possess several health enhancing properties and play an important role in human nutrition. Coridius chinensis is an edible insect that is considered food and claimed as traditional medicine. In the present study, nutritional contents, chemical composition, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties of C. chinensis were analyzed. It was found that the insect sample contains 50.46% moisture, 44.65% protein, 4.45% carbohydrate, 39.42% crude fats, 3.53% ash and 576.11 (Kcal/100 g) energy. Our study highlighted the presence of a significant amount of phenol and flavonoids. The C. chinensis hydro-alcoholic extract showed high antioxidant property and anti-inflammatory activity. GCMS analysis identified 61 volatile compounds. LC–MS analysis of hydroalcoholic extract of C. chinensis revealed the presence of compounds such as etodolac glucuronide, morphine 3-glucuronide, ecgonine, ecgonine methyl ester, sufentanil, and palmitoyl ethanololamide. These findings suggest that C. chinensis species can be employed as a valuable food source with excellent therapeutic properties.
The processing of spatial frequencies through time in visual word recognition
Authors: Bertrand Pilon Clémence , Arguin Martin 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis study examined the temporal profile of spatial frequency processing in a word reading task in 16 normal adult readers. They had to report the word presented in a 200 ms display using a four-alternative forced-choice task (4AFC). The stimuli were made of an additive combination of the signal (i.e. the target word) and of a visual white noise patch wherein the signal-to-noise ratio varied randomly across stimulus duration. Four spatial frequency conditions were defined for the signal component of the stimulus (bandpass Butterworth filters with center frequencies of 1.2, 2.4, 4.8 and 9.6 cycles per degree). In contrast to the coarse-to-fine theory of visual recognition, the results show that the highest spatial frequency range dominates early processing, with a shift toward lower spatial frequencies at later points during stimulus exposure. This pattern interacted in a complex way with the temporal frequency content of signal-to-noise oscillations. The outcome of individual data patterns classification by a machine learning algorithm according to the corresponding spatial frequency band further shows that the most salient spatial frequency signature is obtained when the time dimension within data patterns is recoded into its Fourier transform.
Detection and impact estimation of social bots in the Chilean Twitter network
Authors: Mendoza Marcelo , Providel Eliana , Santos Marcelo , Valenzuela Sebastián 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe rise of bots that mimic human behavior represents one of the most pressing threats to healthy information environments on social media. Many bots are designed to increase the visibility of low-quality content, spread misinformation, and artificially boost the reach of brands and politicians. These bots can also disrupt civic action coordination, such as by flooding a hashtag with spam and undermining political mobilization. Social media platforms have recognized these malicious bots’ risks and implemented strict policies and protocols to block automated accounts. However, effective bot detection methods for Spanish are still in their early stages. Many studies and tools used for Spanish are based on English-language models and lack performance evaluations in Spanish. In response to this need, we have developed a method for detecting bots in Spanish called Botcheck. Botcheck was trained on a collection of Spanish-language accounts annotated in Twibot-20, a large-scale dataset featuring thousands of accounts annotated by humans in various languages. We evaluated Botcheck’s performance on a large set of labeled accounts and found that it outperforms other competitive methods, including deep learning-based methods. As a case study, we used Botcheck to analyze the 2021 Chilean Presidential elections and discovered evidence of bot account intervention during the electoral term. In addition, we conducted an external validation of the accounts detected by Botcheck in the case study and found our method to be highly effective. We have also observed differences in behavior among the bots that are following the social media accounts of official presidential candidates.
Efficacy of an Internet-based self-help intervention with human guidance or automated messages to alleviate loneliness: a three-armed randomized controlled trial
Authors: Seewer Noëmi , Skoko Andrej , Käll Anton , Andersson Gerhard , Luhmann Maike , Berger Thomas , Krieger Tobias 
Published: March 2024

AbstractLoneliness is a prevalent and stigmatized phenomenon associated with adverse (mental) health outcomes. However, evidence-based interventions to alleviate loneliness are scarce. This randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov-ID: NCT04655196) evaluated the efficacy of an internet-based cognitive behavioral self-help intervention (ICBT) to reduce loneliness by comparing two intervention groups with guidance or automated messages against a waitlist control group. Adults (N = 243) suffering from loneliness were recruited from the general public and then randomly assigned (2:2:1) to a 10-week ICBT with human guidance (GU) or automated messages (AM) or to a waitlist control group (WL). Loneliness, assessed with the UCLA-9, was the primary outcome. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and 10 weeks (post) and analyzed using mixed-effects models. The pooled intervention conditions resulted in lower loneliness scores at post-assessment than the WL (Cohen’s d = 0.57, 95% CI [0.25; 0.89]) and reduced depressive symptoms, social anxiety, social avoidance behavior, and rejection sensitivity (d = 0.32–0.52). The GU group had lower loneliness scores at post-assessment than the AM group (d = 0.42, 95% CI [0.13; 0.70]). ICBT effectively alleviated loneliness, and guidance increased the reduction in loneliness compared to automated messages. Alleviating loneliness with ICBT further seems to reduce the overall burden of psychopathological symptoms.
Variability and high temperature reliability of graphene field-effect transistors with thin epitaxial CaF2 insulators
Authors: Illarionov Yu. Yu. , Knobloch T. , Uzlu B. , Banshchikov A. G. , Ivanov I. A. , Sverdlov V. , Otto M. , Stoll S. L. , Vexler M. I. , Waltl M. , Wang Z. , Manna B. , Neumaier D. , Lemme M. C. , Sokolov N. S. , Grasser T. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractGraphene is a promising material for applications as a channel in graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) which may be used as a building block for optoelectronics, high-frequency devices and sensors. However, these devices require gate insulators which ideally should form atomically flat interfaces with graphene and at the same time contain small densities of traps to maintain high device stability. Previously used amorphous oxides, such as SiO2 and Al2O3, however, typically suffer from oxide dangling bonds at the interface, high surface roughness and numerous border oxide traps. In order to address these challenges, here we use 2 nm thick epitaxial CaF2 as a gate insulator in GFETs. By analyzing device-to-device variability for about 200 devices fabricated in two batches, we find that tens of them show similar gate transfer characteristics. Our statistical analysis of the hysteresis up to 175oC has revealed that while an ambient-sensitive counterclockwise hysteresis can be present in some devices, the dominant mechanism is thermally activated charge trapping by border defects in CaF2 which results in the conventional clockwise hysteresis. We demonstrate that both the hysteresis and bias-temperature instabilities in our GFETs with CaF2 are comparable to similar devices with SiO2 and Al2O3. In particular, we achieve a small hysteresis below 0.01 V for equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of about 1 nm at the electric fields up to 15 MV cm−1 and sweep times in the kilosecond range. Thus, our results demonstrate that crystalline CaF2 is a promising insulator for highly-stable GFETs.
Use of automated conversational agents in improving young population mental health: a scoping review
Authors: Balan Raluca , Dobrean Anca , Poetar Costina R. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractAutomated conversational agents (CAs) emerged as a promising solution in mental health interventions among young people. Therefore, the objective of this scoping review is to examine the current state of research into fully automated CAs mediated interventions for the emotional component of mental health among young people. Selected databases were searched in March 2023. Included studies were primary research, reporting on development, feasibility/usability, or evaluation of fully automated CAs as a tool to improve the emotional component of mental health among young population. Twenty-five studies were included (N = 1707). Most automated CAs applications were standalone preventions targeting anxiety and depression. Automated CAs were predominantly AI-based chatbots, using text as the main communication channel. Overall, the results of the current scoping review showed that automated CAs mediated interventions for emotional problems are acceptable, engaging and with high usability. However, the results for clinical efficacy are far less conclusive, since almost half of evaluation studies reported no significant effect on emotional mental health outcomes. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that there is a pressing need to improve the existing automated CAs applications to increase their efficacy as well as conducting more rigorous methodological research in this area.
Visualizing thickness-dependent magnetic textures in few-layer Cr2Ge2Te6
Authors: Vervelaki Andriani , Bagani Kousik , Jetter Daniel , Doan Manh-Ha , Chau Tuan K. , Gross Boris , Christensen Dennis V. , Bøggild Peter , Poggio Martino 
Published: March 2024

AbstractMagnetic ordering in two-dimensional (2D) materials has recently emerged as a promising platform for data storage, computing, and sensing. To advance these developments, it is vital to gain a detailed understanding of how the magnetic order evolves on the nanometer-scale as a function of the number of atomic layers and applied magnetic field. Here, we image few-layer Cr2Ge2Te6 using a combined scanning superconducting quantum interference device and atomic force microscopy probe. Maps of the material’s stray magnetic field as a function of applied magnetic field reveal its magnetization per layer as well as the thickness-dependent magnetic texture. Using a micromagnetic model, we correlate measured stray-field patterns with the underlying magnetization configurations, including labyrinth domains and skyrmionic bubbles. Comparison between real-space images and simulations demonstrates that the layer dependence of the material’s magnetic texture is a result of the thickness-dependent balance between crystalline and shape anisotropy. These findings represent an important step towards 2D spintronic devices with engineered spin configurations and controlled dependence on external magnetic fields.
A unified modelling framework for projecting sectoral greenhouse gas emissions
Authors: Vashold Lukas , Crespo Cuaresma Jesús 
Published: March 2024

AbstractEffectively tackling climate change requires sound knowledge about greenhouse gas emissions and their sources. Currently, there is a lack of comprehensive, sectorally disaggregated, yet comparable projections for greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we project sectoral emissions until 2050 under a business-as-usual scenario for a global sample of countries and five main sectors, using a unified framework and Bayesian methods. We show that, without concerted policy efforts, global emissions increase strongly, and highlight a number of important differences across countries and sectors. Increases in emerging economies are driven by strong output and population growth, with emissions related to the energy sector accounting for most of the projected change. Advanced economies are expected to reduce emissions over the coming decades, although transport emissions often still show upward trends. We compare our results to emission projections published by selected national authorities as well as results from Integrated Assessment Models and highlight some important discrepancies.
Early engagement and co-benefits strengthen cities’ climate commitments
Authors: O’Garra Tanya , Kuz Viktoriya , Deneault Andrew , Orr Christopher , Chan Sander 
Published: March 2024

AbstractCities can lead the way in tackling climate change through robust climate actions (that is, measures taken to limit climate change or its impacts). However, escalating crises due to pandemics, conflict and climate change pose challenges to ambitious and sustained city climate action. Here we use global data on 793 cities from the Carbon Disclosure Project 2021 platform to assess how the COVID-19 crisis has affected cities’ reported climate commitments and actions and the factors associated with these impacts. We find climate actions persist despite funding shortfalls; yet only 43% of cities have implemented green recovery interventions. Co-benefits of climate action (for example, health outcomes) and early engagement on sustainability issues (for example, via climate networks) are associated with sustained climate action and finance during COVID-19 and green recovery interventions. Cities should strengthen sustainability co-benefits and relationships with coalitions of actors to support durable climate commitments during crises.