bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Neuropathy in ARSACS is demyelinating but without typical nerve enlargement in nerve ultrasound
Authors: Kneer Katharina , Straub Stephanie , Wittlinger Julia , Stahl Jan-Hendrik , Winter Natalie , Timmann Dagmar , Schöls Ludger , Synofzik Matthis , Bender Friedemann , Grimm Alexander 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Background
To specify peripheral nerve affection in autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) by correlating high-resolution nerve ultrasound and nerve conduction studies.

Methods
We assessed a cohort of 11 ARSACS patients with standardized nerve conduction studies and high-resolution ultrasound of peripheral nerves and compared nerve ultrasound findings to a healthy control group matched for age, sex, size and weight.

Results
Mean age of patients was 39.0 (± 14.1) years and disease duration at assessment 30.6 (± 12.5) years. All patients presented with a spasticity, ataxia and peripheral neuropathy. Neuropathy appeared to be primarily demyelinating in 9/11 cases and was not classifiable in 2/11 cases due to not evocable potentials. Nerve ultrasound revealed a normal ultrasound pattern sum score (UPSS) in each ARSACS patient and no significant nerve enlargement compared to the control group.

Conclusions
Peripheral neuropathy in ARSACS showed primarily demyelinating rather than axonal characteristics and presented without nerve enlargement. As demyelinating neuropathies do commonly present enlarged nerves we recommend further genetic testing of the SACS gene in patients who present with this combination of demyelinating neuropathy without nerve enlargement. ARSACS cases that initially presented only with neuropathy without spasticity or ataxia and therefore were misdiagnosed as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease are supporting this suggestion.
Longitudinal volumetric changes in amygdala subregions in frontotemporal dementia
Authors: Huang Mengjie , Landin-Romero Ramon , Matis Sophie , Dalton Marshall A. , Piguet Olivier 
Published: January 2024

AbstractAmygdala atrophy has been found in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), yet the specific changes of its subregions across different FTD phenotypes remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the volumetric alterations of the amygdala subregions in FTD phenotypes and how they evolve with disease progression. Patients clinically diagnosed with behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD) (n = 20), semantic dementia (SD) (n = 20), primary nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) (n = 20), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n = 20), and 20 matched healthy controls underwent whole brain structural MRI. The patient groups were followed up annually for up to 3.5 years. Amygdala nuclei were segmented using FreeSurfer, corrected by total intracranial volumes, and grouped into the basolateral, superficial, and centromedial subregions. Linear mixed effects models were applied to identify changes in amygdala subregional volumes over time. At baseline, bvFTD, SD, and AD displayed global amygdala volume reduction, whereas amygdala volume appeared to be preserved in PNFA. Asymmetrical amygdala atrophy (left > right) was most pronounced in SD. Longitudinally, SD and PNFA showed greater rates of annual decline in the right basolateral and superficial subregions compared to bvFTD and AD. The findings provide comprehensive insights into the differential impact of FTD pathology on amygdala subregions, revealing distinct atrophy patterns that evolve over disease progression. The characterization of amygdala subregional involvement in FTD and their potential role as biomarkers carry substantial clinical implications.
On the efficacy of preventive toltrazuril treatments and the diagnosis of Cystoisospora suis infections in intensively raised piglets in farms from southeast Spain
Authors: Deak Georgiana , González-Amador Lola , Goyena Elena , Cârstolovean Andrada-Silvia , Risueño José , Berriatua Eduardo 
Published: January 2024

AbstractThis study investigated the presence and abundance of Cystoisospora suis oocysts in faecal samples from 131 one- to three-week-old pig litters belonging to eight intensively raised, indoor herds in Spain. Seven herds used preventive anticoccidial toltrazuril treatments administered orally or by intramuscular injection, and one did not use preventive anticoccidial treatments. The diagnosis was performed using two oocyst flotation-concentration methods, Bailenger’s method in every herd and the more recent Joachim’s method in four herds. Oocysts were detected in every farm, the proportion of oocyst-positive samples was higher with Bailenger’s technique, and the estimated overall prevalence (95% confidence interval) was 40 (32–49)%, including 47 (29–65)% in non-medicated litters, 52 (38–67)% in orally medicated litters and 28 (16–40)% in intramuscularly medicated litters (p < 0.05). However, mixed logistic regression models indicated that the risk of infection was not significantly associated with preventive anticoccidial treatments (p > 0.05), and increased with age, was higher in herds with partially compared to fully slatted dung floors in farrowing pens and in litters with pigs with diarrhoea (p < 0.05). The median (range) oocysts per gram of faeces (OpG) in infected litters by Bailenger’s method was 623 (35–49048) and mixed negative binomial models revealed no significant association between infection intensity in positive litters and pen’s floor type and piglets age, faecal consistency and treatment status (p > 0.05). The apparent low efficacy of Toltrazuril suggests treatment administration failures, reduced residual efficacy or low susceptibility of C. suis strains in study farms and needs further investigation.
The Cone of $$5\times 5$$ Completely Positive Matrices
Authors: Pfeffer Max , Samper José Alejandro 
Published: January 2024

AbstractWe study the cone of completely positive (cp) matrices for the first interesting case $$n = 5$$

n
=
5

. This is a semialgebraic set for which the polynomial equalities and inequlities that define its boundary can be derived. We characterize the different loci of this boundary and we examine the two open sets with cp-rank 5 or 6. A numerical algorithm is presented that is fast and able to compute the cp-factorization even for matrices in the boundary. With our results, many new example cases can be produced and several insightful numerical experiments are performed that illustrate the difficulty of the cp-factorization problem.
Association between smoking and central sensitization pain: a web-based cross-sectional study
Authors: Chiba Satoko , Yamada Keiko , Kawai Aiko , Hamaoka Saeko , Ikemiya Hiroko , Hara Atsuko , Wakaizumi Kenta , Tabuchi Takahiro , Yamaguchi Keisuke , Kawagoe Izumi , Iseki Masako 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to investigate whether smoking is an independent risk factor for central sensitization syndrome (CSS) in individuals with pain as measured by the Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI).

Methods
In 2020, we conducted an Internet survey targeting 2000 ordinary residents of Japan (aged 20–69 years) who had pain symptoms from October to November 2020. A multiple regression analysis was performed on the association between smoking status (nonsmokers and current smokers; Brinkman index) and CSI values. Moreover, compared to nonsmokers, the relative risk (RR) of the CSI cut-off score of 40 points or higher among current smokers was calculated using a modified Poisson regression model. Covariates included age, sex, body mass index, marital status, equivalized income, exercise habits, history of hypertension, history of hyperlipidemia, history of diabetes, pain chronicity, and Pain Catastrophizing Scale score.

Results
This study analyzed 1,822 individuals (1,041 men and 781 women). Among those experiencing pain, current smoking was associated with the increase in CSI values (β = 0.07). The Brinkman index was also significantly associated with the increase in CSI values (β = 0.06). Current smoking also increased the risk of being over the CSI cut-off score, with a relative risk (RR) of 1.29 (95% confidence intervals, 1.04–1.60). Younger age, being women, experiencing chronic pain, and higher pain catastrophizing thinking were also significantly associated with increased CSS severity, independent of smoking status.

Conclusion
Smoking is an independent risk factor for CSS. This indicates that smoking may be an important factor in the management of central pain disorders.
Distributed mobile CEP for collaborative social computing
Authors: Pérez-Vereda Alejandro , Canal Carlos , Hervás Ramón 
Published: January 2024

AbstractSmartphones have become highly personalized interfaces between people and the technology ecosystem around them. In this sense, they play a key role for a technology shift from the current Internet of Things to a future human-centric paradigm of an Internet of People, automatically adapting smart things and services to the preferences and context of their users. In this paper, we propose the use of Complex Event Processing (CEP) engines deployed in the users’ smartphones granting them context-awareness capabilities in order to react to external stimulus, and enabling them to interact both with smart things and services in the surroundings of the users. With that purpose, we have designed a communication architecture that interconnects CEP engines running on smartphones, providing a framework for building applications for Mobile-based Collaborative Social Computing (MCSC). For that, we make use of previous works of the authors with Digital Avatars, a framework which promotes the use of smartphones for inferring and sharing a unique digital avatar or virtual profile of each user. The resulting framework, which we have called Collaborative CEP, allows to implement complex interactions among users, and between them and the IoT, a common need in Collaborative Social Computing applications. We provide a proof of concept based on the implementation of a Cops and Robbers game to test the expressiveness and correct functioning of the framework, and we evaluate its performance and efficiency.
Image searching in an open photograph archive: search tactics and faced barriers in historical research
Authors: Late Elina , Ruotsalainen Hille , Kumpulainen Sanna 
Published: January 2024

AbstractDuring the last decades, cultural heritage collections have been digitized, for example, for the use of academic scholars. However, earlier studies have mainly focused on the use of textual materials. Thus, little is known about how digitized photographs are used and searched in digital humanities. The aim of this paper is to investigate the applied search tactics and perceived barriers when looking for historical photographs from a digital image archive for research and writing tasks. The case archive of this study contains approximately 160,000 historical wartime photographs that are openly available. The study is based on a qualitative interview and demonstration data of 15 expert users of the image collection searching photographs for research and writing tasks. Critical incident questions yielded a total of 37 detailed real-life search examples and 158 expressed barriers to searching. Results show that expert users apply and combine different tactics (keywords, filtering and browsing) for image searching, and rarely using one tactic only is enough. During searching users face various barriers, most of them focusing on keyword searching due to the shortcomings of image metadata. Barriers were mostly in the context of the collection and tools. Although scholars have benefited from the efforts put into digitizing cultural heritage collections, providing digitized content openly online is not enough if there are no sufficient means for accessing the content. Automatic annotation methods are one option for creating metadata to improve the findability of the images. However, a better understanding of human information interaction with image data is needed to better support digitalization in the humanities in this respect.
Quantum chemical “Aufbau” principles: how to estimate the shape of highly flexible (bio-)polymers? A recursively extendable “chemion picture” of Euler-Hückel-type
Authors: Koch Wolfhard H. G. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
An outline is given of how to split the n-dimensional space of torsion angles occurring in flexible (bio-)polymers (like alkanes, nucleic acids, or proteins, for instance) into n one-dimensional potential curves. Forthcoming applications will focus on the “protein folding problem,” beginning with polyglycine.

Context
In accordance with Euler’s topology rules, molecules are considered to be composed of “vertices” (atoms, ligands, bonding sites, functional groups, and bigger fragments). Following Hückel, each vertex is represented by only one basis function. Starting from the “monofocal” hydrids $$\text {CH}_{4}$$

CH
4

, $$\text {NH}_{3}$$

NH
3

, $$\text {OH}_{2}$$

OH
2

, FH, and $$\text {SiH}_{4}$$

SiH
4

, $$\text {PH}_{3}$$

PH
3

, $$\text {SH}_{2}$$

SH
2

, ClH as anchor units, “chemionic” Hamiltonians (of individual “chemion ensembles” and proportional nuclear charges) are constructed recursively, together with an appropriate basis set for the first five (normal) alkanes and some related oligomers like primary alcohols, alkyl amines, and alkyl chlorides.

Methods
Standard methods (“Restricted Hartree-Fock RHF” and “Full Configuration Interaction FCI”) are used to solve the various stationary Schrödinger equations. Two software packages are indispensable: “SMILES” for integral evaluations over Slater-type orbitals (STO), and “Numerical Recipes” for matrix diagonalizations and inversions. While managing with only two-center repulsion integrals, “implicit multi-center integrations” lead us to the non-empirical fundament of Hoffmann’s “Extended-Hückel Theory.”
High-quality dense ZnO thin films: work function and photo/electrochemical properties
Authors: Krysova H. , Mansfeldova V. , Tarabkova H. , Pisarikova A. , Hubicka Z. , Kavan L. 
Published: January 2024

AbstractCompact ZnO (wurtzite) thin films are prepared on four different substrates by (i) spray pyrolysis or (ii) pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering combined with a radio frequency electron cyclotron wave resonance plasma. Films are characterized by AFM, XRD, Kelvin probe, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and UV photoelectrochemistry. Film morphologies, defect concentrations, crystallite size, and orientation provided specific fingerprints for the electronic structure of ZnO close to the conduction band minimum. Fabricated films are referenced, if relevant, to a model system based on a wurtzite single crystal with either Zn-face or O-face termination. Kelvin probe measurements of the ZnO/air interface distinguished effects of annealing and UV excitation, which are attributed to removal of oxygen vacancies close to the surface. In turn, the work function, at the electrochemical interface, specifically addressed the growth protocol of the ZnO electrodes but not the effects of crystallinity and annealing. Finally, high photocurrents of water oxidation are observed exclusively on virgin films. This effect is then discussed in terms of photocorrosion, and work function changes due to UV light.
Graphical Abstract
Genomic epidemiology and molecular characteristics of blaNDM-1-positive carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa belonging to international high-risk clone ST773 in the Gauteng region, South Africa
Authors: Jung Hyunsul , Pitout Johann D. D. , Matsumura Yasufumi , Strydom Kathy-Anne , Kingsburgh Chanel , Ehlers Marthie M. , Kock Marleen M. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Purpose
The emergence of carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA) harbouring acquired carbapenemase genes (blaVIM, blaIMP and blaNDM) has become a global public health threat. Three CRPA isolates included in the study had an extensively drug-resistant phenotype with susceptibility to colistin only and were positive for the blaNDM-1 gene. The current study aimed to investigate the genomic epidemiology and molecular characteristics of the blaNDM-1-positive CRPA isolates collected from the Gauteng region, South Africa.

Methods
Short read whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed to determine sequence types (STs), genetic relatedness, resistome, virulome and the genetic environment of the blaNDM-1 gene.

Results
The WGS and phylogenetic analyses revealed that the study isolates belonged to an international high-risk clone ST773 and belonged to the same clade with eight blaNDM-1-positive ST773 isolates from Hungary, India, Nigeria, South Korea and USA. The study isolates harboured a wide repertoire of intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) related with mobile genetic elements, porins and efflux pumps, as well as virulence factor genes. The clade-specific ARGs (blaNDM-1, floR2/cmlA9, rmtB4, tetG) were found in a putative integrative and conjugative element (ICE) region similar to ICE6660-like.

Conclusion
As ICE carrying the blaNDM-1 gene can easily spread to other P. aeruginosa isolates and other Gram-negative bacteria, the findings in this study highlight the need for appropriate management strategies and active surveillance of CRPA isolates in the Gauteng region, South Africa.
Capital exploitation and environmental awareness: How they affect the economy and the environment in a dynamic framework
Authors: Grassetti Francesca , Mammana Cristiana , Michetti Elisabetta 
Published: January 2024

AbstractWe present a model in which capital and environmental quality co-evolve over time. To improve the environmental quality, the government intervenes by means of a limitation of the capital use and awareness campaigns. In case of severe degradation of the environment, a restriction on capital use is introduced that is proportional to the damage caused by human activity; at the same time, awareness campaigns are used to increase the public concern about sustainability. By means of a discrete-time dynamical system and considering homogeneous agents, we found that multiple equilibria may exist and that awareness campaigns are a useful tool to push an economy toward sustainable levels of production. The limitation in the use of available capital, however, might be useless or even harmful, deteriorating the level of capital disposable for those countries that are trapped in an equilibrium in which the environmental quality is low.
Bronze Age Stone Anchors as Material Metaphors: Applying Conceptual Blending Theory to Investigate Their Symbolic Value
Authors: Yamasaki Mari 
Published: January 2024

AbstractIn ancient navigation, the safety of a ship depended in no small measure on the stability of her anchors, and this crucial role at sea was not overlooked in the ritual symbolism of maritime communities. Accordingly, there is a general consensus on the fact that the anchors deposited at Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age temples were important carriers of meaning for seafaring groups. Nevertheless, little effort has been made to understand the role of anchors in the conceptual world of the ancient seafarers beyond the fact that they were powerful symbols of maritimity. Borrowed and adapted from linguistics, Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) provides the theoretical framework to use material culture as a source for the investigation of ancient thought processes. In this paper, I apply the perspective of CBT to the anchors found at the Late Cypriot sanctuary of Kition-Kathari, with comparisons to those from Byblos and Ugarit, and I examine the cognitive implications of anchors as material metaphors and investigate how they embody the blending of the mental spaces of the sacred, the city, and the sea.
Temperature Monitoring of Through-Thickness Temperature Gradients in Thermal Barrier Coatings Using Ultrasonic Guided Waves
Authors: Yule Lawrence , Harris Nicholas , Hill Martyn , Zaghari Bahareh 
Published: January 2024

AbstractUltrasonic guided waves offer a promising method of monitoring the online temperature of plate-like structures in extreme environments, such as aero-engine nozzle guide vanes (NGVs), and can provide the resolution, response rate, and robust operation that is required in aerospace. Previous investigations have shown the potential of such a system but the effect of the complex physical environment on wave propagation is yet to be considered. This article uses a numerical approach to investigate how thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) applied to the surface of many components designed for extreme thermal conditions will affect ultrasonic guided wave propagation, and how a system can be employed to monitor through-thickness temperature changes. The top coat/bond coat boundary in NGVs has been shown to be a temperature critical point that is difficult to monitor with traditional temperature sensors, which highlights the potential of ultrasonic guided waves. Differences in application method and layer thickness are considered, and analysis of through-thickness displacement profiles and dispersion curves are used to predict signal response and determine the most suitable mode of operation. Heat transfer simulations (COMSOL) have been used to predict temperature gradients within a TBC, and dispersion curves have been produced from the temperature dependant material properties. Time dependant simulations of wave propagation are in good agreement with dispersion curve predictions of wave velocity for the two lowest order modes in three thicknesses of TBC top coat (100, 250, and 500 $$\upmu \hbox {m}$$

μ
m

). When wave velocity measurements from the simulations are compared to dispersion curves generated at isotropic temperatures, the corresponding temperature represents the average temperature of a gradient system well. Such a measurement system could, in principle, be used in conjunction with surface temperature measurement systems to monitor through-thickness temperature changes.