bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A quantitative microscopic view on the gas‐phase‐dependent phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic ZrO2
Authors: Bekheet Maged F. , Schlicker Lukas , Popescu Radian , Riedel Wiebke , Grünbacher Matthias , Penner Simon , Gurlo Aleksander 
Published: February 2024

AbstractZrO2 is a versatile material with diverse applications, including structural ceramics, sensors, and catalysts. The properties of ZrO2 are largely determined by its crystal structure, which is temperature‐ and atmosphere dependent. Thus, this work focuses on a quantitative analysis of the temperature‐ and gas atmosphere‐dependent phase transformation of tetragonal t‐ZrO2 into monoclinic m‐ZrO2 during heating–cooling cycles from room temperature to 1273 K. Synchrotron‐based in situ X‐ray diffraction (XRD) studies in gas atmospheres of different reduction strengths, namely, 5 vol% H2/Ar, He, CO2, and air, revealed a stabilizing effect of inert and reductive environments, directly yielding different temperature onsets in the phase transformation during cooling (i.e., 435, 510, 710, and 793 K for 5 vol% H2/Ar, He, CO2, and air, respectively). Rietveld refinement shows a direct influence of the atmosphere on grain size, unit cell, and weight fraction of both polymorphs in the product composite matrix. The tetragonal‐to‐monoclinic (t–m) phase transformation is suppressed in the sample heated only up to ∼850 K, independent of the gas atmosphere. The results of ex situ XRD, transmission electron microscopic, electron paramagnetic resonance, and oxygen titration experiments confirmed that the phase transformation is accompanied by a change in the crystallite/particle size and the amount of lattice defects (i.e., oxygen vacancy). Due to the different onset temperatures, a complex interplay between kinetic limitations of phase transformation and grain sintering yields different pathways of the phase transformation and, eventually, very different final crystallite sizes of both t‐ZrO2 and m‐ZrO2.
Sanitizing of stainless steel surfaces in the food industry: Effect of gaseous ozone against pathogens and filamentous fungi
Authors: Berni Elettra , Belloli Matteo , Cigarini Massimo , Brindani Demetrio , Cardoso Claudia Catelani , Mutti Paola , Imperiale Davide 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThe aim of this work was to evaluate the resistance of two pathogenic bacteria (Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serotype Senftenberg), and three airborne food‐spoiling filamentous fungi (Hyphopichia burtonii, Penicillium nordicum, and Aspergillus brasiliensis ATCC 16404) to gaseous ozone on stainless steel. Tests were carried out by exposing inoculated tiles to gaseous ozone in a laboratorial chamber at concentrations up to 50 mg/L and at times up to 180 min (bacteria) or 300 min (filamentous fungi). For bacteria, the resistance to gaseous ozone of L. monocytogenes proved markedly higher than that of S. enterica. Their D‐values increased by seven times (from 27.3 to 200.7 min for the strain of L. monocytogenes studied; from 7.3 to 48.0 min for the Salmonella species studied) when the ozone concentration were reduced from 12 to 4 mg/L. For filamentous fungi, a substantial effect was observed only at 50 mg/L on single‐layered inocula: at these conditions, A. brasiliensis ATCC 16404 proved the most resistant strain to gaseous ozone, its D‐value (134.4 min) being higher than those registered for the tested strains of H. burtonii (9.9 min) and P. nordicum (17.1 min). The results demonstrated that the use of gaseous ozone as a sanitizing agent for environments and working surfaces seems to be a potential alternative to chemical sanitizers against the two pathogens studied, whereas it seemed effective against the three filamentous fungi studied only in limited circumstances.
The status of drug evaluation in older adults in the United Kingdom: Bridging the representation gap
Authors: Walker Lauren E. , Pirmohamed Munir 
Published: February 2024

AbstractOlder adults are persistently underrepresented in clinical drug trials worldwide, despite increasing multiple long‐term conditions and significant prescribing in this demographic. We discuss systemic challenges such as the exclusion of people with comorbid conditions and the lack of assessment for comorbidities as modifiers of treatment effects and highlight the rising trend of polypharmacy, especially among the oldest age groups, which is linked to a significant percentage of unplanned hospitalizations and medication errors. The consequences of these trends prompted the United Kingdom National Overprescribing review, culminating in a set of recommendations for drug development tailored to older adults. Building on this, two critical reports released in April 2023 by the International Longevity Centre (ILC) and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) are discussed. These reports emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion in clinical trials, advocating for ethical frameworks and methodologies that cater to the complex needs of older adults. The development of inclusive criteria, innovative statistical methodologies, and the integration of patient‐reported outcomes are needed to address the persistent barriers to older adult participation in research, suggesting that pragmatic trials, exemplified by the UK's RECOVERY trial during the COVID‐19 pandemic, could pave the way for more inclusive research practices.
Law & Economics at sixty: Mapping the field with bibliometric and machine learning tools
Authors: Kantorowicz‐Reznichenko Elena , Kantorowicz Jaroslaw 
Published: February 2024

AbstractAs the year 2020 marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark paper in the Law & Economics (L&E) field by Ronald Coase—The Problem of Social Cost—we provide a systematic bibliometric analysis of the development of this field over the years. We look at the output and input side of knowledge production in the field of L&E. The former consists of the volume of production and thematic coverage of the field. The latter—input—looks at the producers of knowledge, the institutional and country affiliations of authors, and the intellectual structure of the field. Thus, the “who”, the “where” knowledge is produced as is also that of on “whose” shoulders the field stands. We demonstrate that Law & Economics shifted from more theory driven work to empirical and evidence‐based contributions. Likewise, we show that the Law & Economics field tends to be dominated by authors affiliated with economics departments, and crucially; however, more impactful research seems to be produced by inter‐disciplinary cooperation. The L&E field further resembles the economics domain in terms of co‐authorship patterns, number of citations and lengths of papers. Finally, we look at diversity in the field of L&E and show, for instance, that the share of female scholars has been steadily growing for the last two decades.
Examining attitudes toward public participation across sectors: An experimental study of food assistance
Authors: Amirkhanyan Anna , Roberts Fei , Meier Kenneth J. , Song Miyeon 
Published: February 2024

AbstractPublic views of government are linked to trust, coproduction, regulatory compliance, and political participation. This study focuses on factors shaping public attitudes toward government programs by exploring whether direct participation in governance matters for how the public evaluates the performance of government programs. With an experiment involving governmentally funded food assistance, we randomize the presence of public participation, service providers' sector, and third‐party performance ratings and explore their influence on respondents' assessments of the program. We find that respondents have more confidence in the efficiency, equity, and other aspects of performance when ordinary people play a role in designing and implementing the program. We observe no sector bias among respondents. Individual assessments depend on objective performance information from a credible source. These findings have critical implications for the value people place on engagement in governance and point to the role of publicly available data in shaping public views of government.
LaSap vaccine: Immunotherapy and immunochemotherapy associated with allopurinol in dogs naturally infected with Leishmania infantum
Authors: Clasta Ricardo B. , Rivas Açucena Veleh , Souza Adrieli Barboza , dos Santos Angelo G. V. , Le Quesne Andrés Hernán Mojoli , Gonçalves Ana Alice Maia , Cangussu Alex Sander R. , Giunchetti Rodolfo C. , Viana Kelvinson F. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractCanine visceral leishmaniasis is a parasitic zoonosis that has a profound impact on public health in countries where it is endemic. Chemotherapeutic treatments cannot keep dogs stable for long periods, and the risk of generating parasitic resistance must be considered. Forty‐four symptomatic and naturally infected dogs with Leishmania infantum were tested with two treatment protocols (i) immunotherapy with LaSap vaccine and (ii) immunochemotherapy with LaSap vaccine plus allopurinol. At 90 days after the end of the treatment, it was verified that, although both protocols had generated significant clinical improvements with a greater production of IFN‐γ/IL‐10, in relation to the parasite load, mainly in the skin, the dogs treated only with immunotherapy maintained the same profile. These results indicate that LaSap is a good strategy to control dog parasitism.
‘You don't want to be seen to be struggling’; identifying sociocultural barriers and facilitators for Irish farmers’ mental health help‐seeking
Authors: Firnhaber Joseph , Malone Sandra M. , O'Hagan Anna Donnla , O'Keefe Sinead , McNamara John , O'Connor Siobhan 
Published: February 2024

AbstractFarmers face significant mental health issues, including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. Additionally, rural populations widely endorse stoic values which can be a barrier to farmers’ help‐seeking. In this study, we identified sociocultural barriers and facilitators to Irish farmers’ mental health help‐seeking. We conducted 17 semi‐structured interviews with Irish farmers and three focus groups and one interview with farming stakeholders in Ireland online. Interviews and focus groups followed a conversational, semi‐structured schedule concerning Irish farmers’ help‐seeking beliefs and behaviours, and were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. We identified three central barriers to farmers’ help‐seeking: resilience, pride in being a ‘good farmer’ and help‐seeking stigma. We also identified one central barrier/facilitator: slowly increasing mental health awareness. Across all themes, participants described Irish farmers of all genders, particularly older men, as suffering from a self‐reliant cycle of masculine stoicism. Our findings add to the growing ‘good farmer’ literature by illustrating how farmers’ health practices can be both a source of social capital and a detriment to their own health and help‐seeking.
The Malagasy phrasal comparative
Authors: Potsdam Eric 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThere is no consensus in the literature on the analysis of phrasal comparatives. Both reduced clause analyses, in which the standard phrase contains elided clausal structure, and direct analyses, in which the standard of comparison is a direct complement to the standard marker, have been proposed. This paper argues for a direct analysis of the phrasal comparative in Malagasy, an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Madagascar. Evidence for the direct analysis comes from the lack of overt clausal comparatives, Binding Theory, scope, and Malagasy‐specific characteristics of the standard. The conclusion contributes to the rapidly expanding picture of cross‐linguistic variation in comparative syntax.
Reinforcement Learning Building Control: An Online Approach With Guided Exploration Using Surrogate Models
Authors: Dey Sourav , Henze Gregor P. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
The incorporation of emerging technologies, including solar photovoltaics, electric vehicles, battery energy storage, smart devices, Internet-of-Things devices, and sensors in buildings, desirable control objectives are becoming increasingly complex, calling for advanced controls approaches. Reinforcement learning (RL) is a powerful method for this. RL can adapt and learn from environmental interaction, but it can take a long time to learn and can be unstable initially due to limited environmental knowledge. In our research, we propose an online RL approach for buildings that uses data-driven surrogate models to guide the RL agent during its early training. This helps the controller learn faster and more stably than the traditional direct plug-and-learn online learning approach. In this research, we propose an online approach in buildings with RL where, with the help of data-driven surrogate models, the RL agent is guided during its early exploratory training stage, aiding the controller to learn a near-optimal policy faster and exhibiting more stable training progress than a traditional direct plug-and-learn online learning RL approach. The agents are assisted in their learning and action with information gained from the surrogate models generating multiple artificial trajectories starting from the current state. The research presented an exploration of various surrogate model-assisted training methods and revealed that models focusing on artificial trajectories around rule-based controls yielded the most stable performance. In contrast, models employing random exploration with a one-step look-ahead approach demonstrated superior overall performance.
Undergraduate-level biology students’ application of central dogma to understand COVID mRNA vaccines
Authors: Shahoy Saya , Du Michelle , Mostafa Ola , Parker Aliyah , Martirano Dylan , Owens Melinda T. 
Published: February 2024

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the importance of mRNA vaccines. The mechanism for how such vaccines work is related to the core biology topic of the central dogma, which students often misunderstand despite its importance. Therefore, we wanted to know whether students can apply their biology knowledge of central dogma to the real-world issue of how mRNA COVID vaccines work. Accordingly, we asked college biology students of different expertise levels how the COVID vaccine worked. Later, we cued them by telling them the vaccine contains mRNA and asked them what the mRNA does. We used thematic analysis to find common ideas in their responses. In the uncued condition, fewer than half of the students used central dogma-related ideas to explain what was in the vaccine or how the vaccine worked. Inaccurate ideas were present among all groups of biology students, particularly entering biology majors and non-biology majors, including the idea that the COVID vaccines contain a weakened, dead, or variant form of the COVID virus. After students were cued, many more students in all expertise groups expressed central dogma-related themes, showing that students could apply the knowledge of central dogma if prompted. Advanced biology majors were much more likely to state that the vaccines code for a viral protein, indicating their advanced application of central dogma concepts. These results highlight inaccurate ideas common among students and show changes in the ability to apply knowledge with student expertise level, which could inform future interventions to support student learning about vaccines and central dogma.
Within-species variability of antibiotic interactions in Gram-negative bacteria
Authors: Tang Po-Cheng , Sánchez-Hevia Dione L. , Westhoff Sanne , Fatsis-Kavalopoulos Nikolaos , Andersson Dan I. 
Published: February 2024

ABSTRACT

Treatments with antibiotic combinations are becoming increasingly important even though the supposed clinical benefits of combinations are, in many cases, unclear. Here, we systematically examined how several clinically used antibiotics interact and affect the antimicrobial efficacy against five especially problematic Gram-negative pathogens. A total of 232 bacterial isolates were tested against different pairwise antibiotic combinations spanning five classes, and the ability of all combinations in inhibiting growth was quantified. Descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA), and Spearman’s rank correlation matrix were used to determine the correlations between the different combinations on interaction outcome. Several important conclusions can be drawn from the 696 examined interactions. Firstly, within a species, the interactions are in general conserved but can be isolate-specific for a given antibiotic combination and can range from antagonistic to synergistic. Secondly, additive and antagonistic interactions are the most common observed across species and antibiotics, with 87.1% of isolate-antibiotic combinations being additive, 11.6% antagonistic, and only 0.3% showing synergy. These findings suggest that to achieve the highest precision and efficacy of combination therapy, not only isolate-specific interaction profiling ought to be routinely performed, in particular to avoid using drug combinations that show antagonistic interaction and an expected associated reduction in efficacy, but also discovering rare and potentially valuable synergistic interactions.

IMPORTANCE
Antibiotic combinations are often used to treat bacterial infections, which aim to increase treatment efficacy and reduce resistance evolution. Typically, it is assumed that one specific antibiotic combination has the same effect on different isolates of the same species, i.e., the interaction is conserved. Here, we tested this idea by examining how several clinically used antibiotics interact and affect the antimicrobial efficacy against several bacterial pathogens. Our results show that, even though within a species the interactions are often conserved, there are also isolate-specific differences for a given antibiotic combination that can range from antagonistic to synergistic. These findings suggest that isolate-specific interaction profiling ought to be performed in clinical microbiology routine to avoid using antagonistic drug combinations that might reduce treatment efficacy.
Whole genome sequence of denitrifying bacterium
Stutzerimonas stutzeri
strain NGHE31, collected from an eutrophic wetland in Sunamganj, Bangladesh, following the 2017 flash floods
Authors: Rahman Aura , Akter Sumaiya , Sadique Abdus , Alam Jahidul , Asrafie Shoheli , Tabassum Anika , Hossain Sakib Abrar , Rahman Mohammad Moshiur , Billah Md. Baki , Huq Tahrima Saiha , Uddin Kabir M. , Rahman Md. Mahbubur , Sharmin Ayesha , Hossain Md. Mainul , Alam Sayad Md. Didarul , Hossain Maqsud 
Published: February 2024

ABSTRACT

Here, we report the whole genome sequence of
Stutzerimonas stutzeri
strain NGHE31, isolated from Dekhar Haor, following the 2017 flash flood that resulted in mass die-offs of local wildlife. The predicted genome size is 4,434,670 bp, with 63.97% GC content, 4,035 coding sequences, 3 rRNAs, and 50 tRNAs.
Polymyxin B nonapeptide potentiates the eradication of Gram-negative bacterial persisters
Authors: Kim Sun Ju , Jo Jeongwoo , Kim Jihyeon , Ko Kwan Soo , Lee Wonsik 
Published: February 2024

ABSTRACT

Antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria remain a globally leading cause of bacterial infection-associated mortality, and it is imperative to identify novel therapeutic strategies. Recently, the advantage of using antibacterials selective against Gram-negative bacteria has been demonstrated with polymyxins that specifically target the lipopolysaccharides of Gram-negative bacteria. However, the severe cytotoxicity of polymyxins limits their clinical use. Here, we demonstrate that polymyxin B nonapeptide (PMBN), a polymyxin B derivative without the terminal amino acyl residue, can significantly enhance the effectiveness of commonly used antibiotics against only Gram-negative bacteria and their persister cells. We show that although PMBN itself does not exhibit antibacterial activity or cytotoxicity well above the 100-fold minimum inhibitory concentration of polymyxin B, PMBN can increase the potency of co-treated antibiotics. We also demonstrate that using PMBN in combination with other antibiotics significantly reduces the frequency of resistant mutant formation. Together, this work provides evidence of the utilities of PMBN as a novel potentiator for antibiotics against Gram-negative bacteria and insights for the eradication of bacterial persister cells during antibiotic treatment.

IMPORTANCE
The significance of our study lies in addressing the problem of antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, which continue to be a global cause of mortality associated with bacterial infections. Therefore, identifying innovative therapeutic approaches is an urgent need. Recent research has highlighted the potential of selective antibacterials like polymyxins, which specifically target the lipopolysaccharides of Gram-negative bacteria. However, the clinical use of polymyxins is limited by their severe cytotoxicity. This study unveils the effectiveness of polymyxin B nonapeptide (PMBN) in significantly enhancing the eradication of persister cells in Gram-negative bacteria. Although PMBN itself does not exhibit antibacterial activity or cytotoxicity, it remarkably reduces persister cells during the treatment of antibiotics. Moreover, combining PMBN with other antibiotics reduces the emergence of resistant mutants. Our research emphasizes the utility of PMBN as a novel potentiator to decrease persister cells during antibiotic treatments for Gram-negative bacteria.
Link between glacial striation morphology and induced drag
Authors: Zoet Lucas K. , Smith Lillian , Mixtli Alex , Brooks Jeremy , Hansen Dougal D. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Abrasion acts to smooth glacial terrains and leaves behind linear scratch-like features (striations) on bedrock landscapes. Striations are often used as measures of glacier flow directions, but their morphology can also provide information about the subglacial stress conditions that produced the features. While striations are often abundant in the field, the processes that create them can be opaque and hard to examine in situ because they occur under thick layers of flowing ice. To alleviate that difficulty and provide information for interpretation of the populations of striations that are observed in the field, we conducted a set of laboratory experiments in which a ring of temperate debris-laden ice was slid atop a planar marble bed under various contact force conditions that led to the creation of hundreds of striations. During the experiment, numerous glaciological properties were continuously measured, including the resistive drag. Following the completion of the experiments, the marble beds were extracted, and the striations were measured for length and categorized by morphological type, and a subset was measured using a high-resolution white-light profilometer. These experiments showed that, similar to field observations, type 2 striations were initially the most abundant; however, we found that type 3 striations became the most abundant at large displacements. We found good correlation between the abundance of striations as a function of displacement and measured drag as a function of displacement. When taken together, these results suggest that, in natural settings, ice flow around small roughness elements in glacier beds can “reset” the basal debris field, causing striations to become more abundant in their wake. As roughness is linked to quarrying, abrasion rates may increase in areas of increased quarrying.