bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effective population size of adult and offspring cohorts as a genetic monitoring tool in two stand-forming and wind-pollinated tree species: Fagus sylvatica L. and Picea abies (L.) Karst.
Authors: Liesebach Heike , Eusemann Pascal , Höltken Aki M. , Tröber Ute , Kuchma Oleksandra , Karopka Manuel , Becker Frank , Kätzel Ralf , Fussi Barbara 
Published: February 2024

AbstractGenetic diversity is considered to be a prerequisite for adaptation and adaptability as it is a key element of biological diversity. However, the monitoring of genetic diversity has tended to be ignored in biodiversity monitoring. We report a comprehensive genetic monitoring effort in two dominant forest tree species, which was started with a baseline survey in 12 European beech populations and 10 Norway spruce populations in Germany. The standardized experimental design is based on collecting samples of at least 250 adult trees, and 400 natural regeneration and 400 seed samples and their genotyping with 15–16 high-resolution SSR markers. In addition to commonly used mean values across the markers to quantify genetic diversity, we placed special emphasis on various marker-based, pedigree-based and demographic models for estimating the contemporary effective population size Ne of the different generations. In both beech and spruce, no variation in genetic diversity with mean values across markers was detectable between the studied stands and between age cohorts. We detected that stable allelic diversity in progeny generations is ensured by sufficient gene flow from surrounding forests. However, estimates of effective population size show marked differentiation among populations and among age cohorts. Natural regeneration samples appear to converge on the parent generation, while seed samples show a clear bottleneck effect. The Ne parameter can be used to derive conclusions for sustainable natural regeneration management in forest stands and for seed stand approvals including adequate seed collections for appropriate artificial regenerations.The sibship frequency-based method for Ne estimates is presented as much more robust than the widely used LD estimates, which often fail for samples with too weak relatedness. Despite the distinct kinship structure in our monitoring plots, the contemporary effective population size proves to be an essential parameter for assessing the integrity of the reproductive system.
Investigating EFL teacher candidates’ acceptance and self-perceived self-efficacy of augmented reality
Authors: Okumuş Ayşegül , Savaş Perihan 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThe mixed-methods sequential explanatory design study presented here sought to investigate the acceptance and self-perceived self-efficacy of Augmented Reality technology among English as a Foreign Language teacher candidates. This study’s contribution to the field of AR as an instructional technology lies in that research on the using AR technology in language teacher education are particularly limited. To bridge this research gap, one-group pre-test-post-test design was used in this study, in which ten weeks of AR-enhanced English language teacher training treatment was carried out. To answer the research questions, quantitative data were gathered from 50 volunteers by using the Technology Acceptance Model survey and Self-Efficacy Scale. Qualitative data were received via semi-structured interviews carried out with 12 pre-service teachers. Findings revealed that there was a significant increase in EFL teacher candidates’ levels of AR technology acceptance whereas no significant difference was identified in their self-perceived self-efficacy. The interviewees proposed interpersonal, intrapersonal, technological, and technical factors to explain their low self-efficacy levels. Based on the findings, the paper offers implications and suggestions for researchers, teacher educators, and policymakers. The solutions to increase the level of acceptance and self-perceived self-efficacy levels to use AR among EFL Teacher Candidates include courses on Emergent Technologies (ICT, MALL, CALL, AR), training via seminars, workshops, input sessions through (inter)nationally funded projects, real-life examples, field-specific samples, and hands-on experiences.
Yield optimization of nonedible vegetable oil-based bio-lubricant using design of experiments
Authors: Uppar Rajendra , Dinesha P. , Kumar Shiva 
Published: February 2024

AbstractIn recent years, there has been a focused effort to reduce the harmful effects of synthetic and mineral-based lubricants by emphasizing the use of biodegradable-based lubricants. These lubricants play a crucial role in minimizing friction, ensuring smooth operation of machines, and reducing the likelihood of frequent failures. With petroleum-based reserves depleting worldwide, prices are rising, and environmental damage is increasing. However, biolubricants derived from nonedible vegetable oils offer environmental benefits as they are nontoxic, emit minimal greenhouse gases, and are biodegradable. In this study, biolubricants are synthesized from jatropha and jojoba oil using sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) as catalysts through the transesterification and epoxidation processes. The optimization of influencing parameters is achieved using Taguchi’s orthogonal array, a statistical methodology. By employing design of experiments (DOE), the number of experimental trials is minimized while providing comprehensive details on the impact of control factors such as molar ratio, catalyst concentrations, and temperature. The results obtained from DOE reveal that the best optimized yield for jatropha biolubricant with H2SO4 and HCl catalysts is achieved with a molar ratio of 0.5:1.5, a temperature of 70 °C, and a catalyst concentration of 1.2 ml. The experimental yield for jatropha biolubricant with H2SO4 and HCl catalysts was measured at 226 ml and 238 ml, respectively, while the model predicted yield was 221 ml and 231 ml, respectively. The experimental yield for jojoba biolubricant with H2SO4 and HCl catalysts was recorded at 232 ml and 248 ml respectively, whereas the model predicted yield was 226 ml and 245 ml, respectively. Based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA) results, it is evident that among the three control factors, the molar ratio significantly influences the yield of both jatropha and jojoba biolubricants, as indicated by a p-value of less than 5%. The percentage contribution of the molar ratio in jatropha biolubricant with H2SO4 and HCl catalysts is found to be 98.99% and 97.2%, respectively. Furthermore, the R2 value, which exceeds 90%, signifies a strong relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The deviation between the experimental and regression-predicted equations for the yield remains within 2.5% for all combinations of jatropha and jojoba biolubricants. In conclusion, the study successfully prepared biolubricants from jatropha and jojoba-based non-edible vegetable oils and determined the optimal conditions for their production.
Graphical abstract
FOXM1 promote the growth and metastasis of uveal melanoma cells by regulating CDK2 expression
Authors: Bai Xue , Li Shan , Luo Yan 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Background
Uveal melanoma (UVM) is an aggressive malignant tumor originating from melanocytes in the eye. Here, we screened the possible genes involved in the development and prognosis of UVM, and identified that FOXM1 and MET were associated with the prognosis of UVM patients. Forkhead box protein M1 (FOXM1) is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of cell cycle-related genes that are necessary for DNA duplication. However, the regulatory mechanism of FOXM1 in UVM was still not clear. Here, we investigated the regulation of FOXM1 in the malignant phenotype of UVM cells and its effect on the prognosis of UVM patients.

Methods
UVM gene expression profiles were obtained using GSE22138 data from the gene expression omnibus (GEO). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to construct a key module gene for metastasis, which was strongly correlated with UVM prognosis. The latent biological pathways were identified through gene ontology analysis. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks and hub shared gene authentication were performed. GEPIA and UALCAN databases were used for the analysis of relationship between candidate genes (FOXM1 or MET) and the prognosis of UVM patients. The abundance of FOXM1 was examined by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot. Colony formation and cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assays for cell proliferation, wound healing assay for migration, and transwell invasion analysis for invasion were performed.

Results
GEO database showed the differentially expressed genes between UVM samples with or without metastasis, and a key module gene for metastasis was constructed by WGCNA. The PPI network revealed that seven candidate genes (VEGFA, KRAS, MET, SRC, EZR, FOXM1, and CCNB1) were closely associated with UVM metastasis. GEPIA and UALCAN analyzes suggested that FOXM1 and MET are related to the prognosis of patients with UVM. These experimental results suggested that FOXM1 was highly expressed in UVM cells. FOXM1 deficiency represses the proliferative, migratory, and invasive abilities of UVM cells.

Conclusions
FOXM1 silencing may hinder UVM cell progression, providing a novel theoretical basis and new insights for UVM treatment.
How are the Dietary Needs of Pregnant Incarcerated Women Being Met? A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis
Authors: Capper Tanya S. , Baldwin Adele , Abbott Laura , Briley Annette , Shlafer Rebecca 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Introduction
The number of incarcerated pregnant women is increasing globally. With many having complex health and social backgrounds, incarceration provides opportunities for health interventions, including the chance to have their nutritional needs met. Despite the additional nutritional requirements of pregnancy being well documented, how these are being met within the correctional setting is currently poorly understood.

Methods
A scoping review of the literature was conducted to identify the literature published between January 2010 and April 2023 related to the provision of nutrition for pregnant women in the international prison systems. Sixteen papers met the criteria for inclusion in the review. The relevant key findings were charted and thematically analysed.

Results
Two themes were identified: ‘the inconsistent reality of food provision’ and ‘choice, autonomy and food’. There is a clear disparity in the way in which diet is prioritised and provided to pregnant incarcerated women across several countries.

Discussion
The findings highlight the need for a consistent approach to diet on a macro, global level to ensure the health of women and their infants in context.
Erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular receptor B6 is highly expressed in non-functioning pituitary neuroendocrine tumors and its expression correlates with tumor size
Authors: Rubinfeld Hadara , Cohen Zvi R. , Bendavid Uzi , Fichman-Horn Suzana , Levy-Barda Adva , David Cfir , Melamed Philippa , Shimon Ilan 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Background
Erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular (EPH) receptors are the largest known family of receptor tyrosine kinases characterized in humans. These proteins are involved in tissue organization, synaptic plasticity, vascular development and the progression of various diseases including cancer. The Erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular receptor tyrosine kinase member EphB6 is a pseudokinase which has not attracted an equivalent amount of interest as its enzymatically-active counterparts. The aim of this study was to assess the expression of EphB6 in pituitary tumors.

Methods and Results
Human normal pituitaries and pituitary tumors were examined for EphB6 mRNA expression using real-time PCR and for EphB6 protein by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. EphB6 was highly expressed in non-functioning pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (NF-PitNETs) versus the normal pituitary and GH-secreting PitNETs. EphB6 mRNA expression was correlated with tumor size.

Conclusions
Our results suggest EphB6 aberrant expression in NF-PitNETs. Future studies are warranted to determine the role and significance of EphB6 in NF-PitNETs tumorigenesis.
A Deep Convolutional Encoder–Decoder–Restorer Architecture for Image Deblurring
Authors: Fan Yiqing , Hong Chaoqun , Zeng Guanghui , Liu Lijuan 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThe accuracy of many computer vision tasks is reduced by blurred images, so deblur is important. More details of the image can be captured by a common multi-stage network, but the computational complexity of this method is higher compared with a single-stage network. However, a single-stage network cannot capture multi-scale information well. To tackle the problem, a novel convolutional encoder–decoder–restorer architecture is proposed. In this architecture, a multi-scale input structure is used in the encoder. Improved supervised attention module is inserted into the encoder for enhanced feature acquisition. In decoder, information supplement block is proposed to fuse multi-scale features. Finally, the fused features are used for image recovery in the restorer. In order to optimise the model in multiple domains, the loss function is calculated separately in the spatial and frequency domains. Our method is compared with existing methods on the GOPRO dataset. In addition, to verify the applications of our proposed method, we conduct experiments on the Real image dataset, the VOC2007 dataset and the LFW dataset. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art deblurring methods and improves the accuracy of different vision tasks.
Fluoride transport in Arabidopsis thaliana plants is impaired in Fluoride EXporter (FEX) mutants
Authors: Tausta S. Lori , Fontaine Kathryn , Hillmer Ansel T. , Strobel Scott A. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractFluoride is an environmental toxin prevalent in water, soil, and air. A fluoride transporter called Fluoride EXporter (FEX) has been discovered across all domains of life, including bacteria, single cell eukaryotes, and all plants, that is required for fluoride tolerance. How FEX functions to protect multicellular plants is unknown. In order to distinguish between different models, the dynamic movement of fluoride in wildtype (WT) and fex mutant plants was monitored using [18F]fluoride with positron emission tomography. Significant differences were observed in the washout behavior following initial fluoride uptake between plants with and without a functioning FEX. [18F]Fluoride traveled quickly up the floral stem and into terminal tissues in WT plants. In contrast, the fluoride did not move out of the lower regions of the stem in mutant plants resulting in clearance rates near zero. The roots were not the primary locus of FEX action, nor did FEX direct fluoride to a specific tissue. Fluoride efflux by WT plants was saturated at high fluoride concentrations resulting in a pattern like the fex mutant. The kinetics of fluoride movement suggested that FEX mediates a fluoride transport mechanism throughout the plant where each individual cell benefits from FEX expression.
Observations and modelling of mosquito prevalence within urban areas – A case study from Uppsala, Sweden
Authors: Lindberg Fredrik , Lindström Anders , Stålnacke Ville , Thorsson Sofia , Destouni Georgia 
Published: February 2024

AbstractUrban green–blue infrastructure (GBI) can provide important benefits to urban residents but may also affect mosquito abundance, with associated negative nuisance and infection transmission impacts. This study addresses important knowledge and quantification gaps for the relationships between mosquito prevalence and GBI features within cities. This is done for the city of Uppsala in Sweden as an urban case example, where mosquitos were captured and ambient air temperature and humidity were observed at seven different locations in the summer of 2022. A weighted multi-critera analysis (WMCA) model was developed based on relevant open data and open tools for resolving the mosquito (Culex pipiens) variations based on geographical variables, such as land cover/use, leaf area index, and building and green (vegetation) area fractions, within the city. The results show a clear relationship between mosquito prevalence and green-area fraction (of grass and trees), indicating that urban GBI extension can enhance mosquito prevalence, with possible associated negative impacts. This relationship is supported directly by data, showing significantly higher mosquito prevalence with higher ambient humidity, which in turn is related to larger green-area fraction. The developed WMCA model emerges as a promising tool, e.g., for urban development planning that needs to account for and seek relevant trade-off balances between positive and negative effects of urban GBI changes.
Distinguishing Between Long-Transient and Asymptotic States in a Biological Aggregation Model
Authors: Potts Jonathan R. , Painter Kevin J. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractAggregations are emergent features common to many biological systems. Mathematical models to understand their emergence are consequently widespread, with the aggregation–diffusion equation being a prime example. Here we study the aggregation–diffusion equation with linear diffusion in one spatial dimension. This equation is known to support solutions that involve both single and multiple aggregations. However, numerical evidence suggests that the latter, which we term ‘multi-peaked solutions’ may often be long-transient solutions rather than asymptotic steady states. We develop a novel technique for distinguishing between long transients and asymptotic steady states via an energy minimisation approach. The technique involves first approximating our study equation using a limiting process and a moment closure procedure. We then analyse local minimum energy states of this approximate system, hypothesising that these will correspond to asymptotic patterns in the aggregation–diffusion equation. Finally, we verify our hypotheses through numerical investigation, showing that our approximate analytic technique gives good predictions as to whether a state is asymptotic or transient. Overall, we find that almost all twin-peaked, and by extension multi-peaked, solutions are transient, except for some very special cases. We demonstrate numerically that these transients can be arbitrarily long-lived, depending on the parameters of the system.
Moving beyond reflection and toward disruption in the post-field context of mathematics teacher education
Authors: Nolan Kathleen T. , Bjerke Annette H. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractProspective teachers bring countless stories of success and failure from different mathematics classrooms to their post-field teacher education courses. These reflective stories often glorify school mathematics classrooms and dominant traditions within, instead of confronting the marginalization of diverse groups in school environments. Mathematics teacher educators have a significant role to play in teaching prospective teachers to reflect critically on their field experiences and, in doing so, create spaces for disruption and disruptive pedagogies. Drawing on critical and equity-based theories applied within the fields of mathematics education and teacher education research, we propose a disruptive pedagogy analytical framework that enables us to study the roles and practices of mathematics teacher educators as they conduct their work in these post-field contexts of teacher education. In this paper, we introduce our disruptive pedagogy framework and present the results that followed from using it to analyze data from a research study in which mathematics teacher educators from across Canada and Norway were interviewed. We claim that our analytical framework can be used to identify those disruptive and transformative practices initiated by mathematics teacher educators—practices that are necessary to bring about shifts in inequitable and unjust classroom practices of school mathematics and in becoming a teacher. Unfortunately, however, results reported here point to the need for further shifts and growth toward more explicitly disruptive practices initiated by mathematics teacher educators in the post-field context.
Multi-length Scale Approach to Investigate Cleaning of Food-Derived Deposits Adhered to Hard Surfaces: Mixtures of Starch, Whey Protein, and Lard
Authors: Sáenz-Espinar María José , Arroyo-Camarena Marina , Vicaria José María , Luzón Germán , Ávila-Sierra Alejandro 
Published: February 2024

AbstractFouling, the accumulation of undesirable material on manufacturing equipment surfaces, poses a pervasive challenge in industrial processes. In the food industry, the complex interactions among these compounds can give rise to stubborn deposits that deviate from conventional cleaning protocols. In this work, the forces and removal mechanisms of model fouling agents composed of mixtures of starch, whey protein, and lard deposited on solid surfaces of relevant industrial interest (i.e. stainless steel, aluminium, and PTFE) are investigated using a multi-length scale approach, involving milli-manipulation and a lab-simulated Clean-In-Place (CIP) system. The forces involved in the removal process, the types of failure observed when the deposits are subjected to shear stress (adhesive, mixed, or cohesive), and the performance of the CIP system are systematically analysed as a function of the cleaning treatments applied. For stainless steel surfaces, alkaline treatment seems to facilitate the cleaning of lard and starch deposits, while the whey foulant removal tends to be more effective using hot water under the conditions tested. Hot water is effective for stainless steel and PTFE surfaces, reducing the mechanical shear stress required, while the alkaline treatment demonstrated superior efficacy for aluminium surfaces. These findings emphasise the importance of customising cleaning protocols for CIP optimisation.
Comparative Analysis of Chemical, Microbiological, Sensory and Volatile Compound Profiles in Manouri PDO and Artisanal Manouri Cheeses: A Preliminary Study
Authors: Bintsis Τhomas , Mantzouridou Fani Th. , Lalou Sofia , Alvanoudi Panagiota , Ordoudi Stella A. , Angelidis Apostolos S. , Fletouris Dimitrios 
Published: February 2024

AbstractManouri, a protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese, is one of the most popular whey cheeses produced in Greece. The objective of the current study was to investigate if there are differences between artisanal and industrial Manouri cheeses regarding microbiological quality, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profile and other quality parameters (colour, texture), sensory attributes and spectral characteristics detected by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) that may discriminate the samples. Differences were detected in the population of the dominant microbial groups, especially for lactic acid bacteria (LAB), Enterobacteriaceae and yeast counts. No discrimination was attained from the physicochemical analyses, except for the pH values. A total of 50 VOCs were identified, including ketones, lactones, free fatty acids, aldehydes, esters, alcohols and hydrocarbons. Sensory evaluation was carried out using a quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) panel and a consumer panel. Consumers showed a preference for the artisanal Manouri, and the QDA panel revealed significant differences in 11 out of the 17 sensory attributes. Colour and texture analyses were also performed and showed specific differences in yellowness, as well as in fracturability and hardness. FT-IR spectral analysis demonstrated potential discrimination related to the phospholipid content and profile of artisanal and industrial Manouri.