bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Micro‐irrigation in Niger: The state of the art and the country's need
Authors: Aboubacar Issaka Ousman Gaoh 
Published: October 2023

AbstractAfter its independence in 1960, following the droughts that occurred in particular that of 1973, 1984, and 2005, Niger promoted irrigation to feed its population through state‐led large‐scale projects. Over the years, structural problems, including the fast growing population and the effects of climate change and variability, have rendered the approach less efficient. The 2000s were marked by a change in approach that put producers at the heart. Thus, projects and programs have been initiated with the I3N initiative Nigeriens Feeding Nigeriens as a guiding strategy since 2011 to ensure sustainable agriculture and food security. Most of the projects aimed at the development of small‐scale irrigation through increased financing and new technologies to take advantage of the significant irrigable potential. Despite these efforts, the irrigation sector is yet to meet food security. This article assesses the situation of micro‐irrigation and identifies current needs. The methodology adopted consists of a review of official documentation on irrigation in Niger, data collected during agricultural fairs, such as the Sahel Niger 2020, and the 4th Edition of the Fair of Irrigation and Drainage (SAFID), combined with related literature. Results revealed the existence of an estimated irrigable land potential of 270,000 ha and 10,942,568 ha, depending on the groundwater depth. Drip technology is proving to be in full expansion, with growing interest from start‐ups and the private sector. Technological innovation is dominated by locally made and imported technologies, the emergence of digitalization, and remote irrigation. Currently, micro‐irrigation is a top priority among climate‐smart technologies, in addition to strengthening technologies for access to water resources, technical capacities of producers, particularly advisories, the strengthening of research, the popularization of micro‐irrigation technologies, access to financing and securing land tenure. Other needs persist in terms of strengthening science‐society‐policy interfaces and effective climate services for risk management.
Coral Reefs of the Emirates
Authors: Burt John A. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractCoral reefs represent the most biodiverse ecosystem in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and these habitats support high fisheries productivity, an economic resource sector second only to oil, and a burgeoning ecotourism sector. Corals occur in all seven Emirates, with the highest coral diversity occurring on the east coast along the Sea of Oman and declining along a gradient from the Strait of Hormuz to western Abu Dhabi, reflecting the more extreme environmental conditions towards the southwestern Gulf. Coral reefs of the Emirates are among the most heat tolerant in the world, and as a result have come to represent an important natural asset for international science. However, impacts from coastal development and recent severe marine heat waves have pushed these robust corals past their physiological thresholds, and reefs have become heavily degraded in the past decade across much of the UAE. Active management intervention is needed to conserve and restore the important reef ecosystems to ensure these vibrant habitats are retained for the next generation.
Marine Mammals of the Emirates: Whales, Dolphins, Porpoises and Dugongs
Authors: Natoli Ada , Al Hameli Shamsa 
Published: October 2023

AbstractMarine mammals have always captured the imagination of the people they share their environment with, but few people know that various species populate the waters of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The world’s second largest population of dugongs reside in the Abu Dhabi Emirate, while two species of dolphins (Indian Ocean humpback and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin) and the elusive finless porpoises inhabit Abu Dhabi and Dubai waters. Facing both the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Gulf, the UAE hosts a total of 18 species of marine mammals. These include the biggest animal on Earth, the blue whale, Bryde’s, humpback whales and killer whales, to name a few. However, ecological information about these species is still scarce. With the exponential increase of anthropogenic pressure and effects of climate change on the UAE marine environment, they are facing the risk of disappearing unnoticed. It is imperative to gain a better understanding of their ecology and main threats that affect them to support the implementation of effective conservation measures. Here we review the evolutionary history and adaptation to the water environment of these charismatic group of animals and provide the most up-to-date information on their status in UAE.
Governing the Meta-World Finances
Authors: Mooij Annelieke 
Published: October 2023

AbstractImagine that you live in London and are a fan of musicals. You have grown particularly fond of the musical Hamilton. As a special rendition the musical plays in New York with your favorite star singing the lead. It provides a great way for you to see the musical and catch up with your old classmate who moved to New York. Unfortunately, you live in Europe and you cannot find the time to travel to New York and back. Your option is to buy a ticket to a live screening and have a video call with your friend afterwards. Most people will agree that this is not a real alternative to seeing the musical in real life. Whilst streaming is less expensive and will save you the trouble of travelling, it does not offer the same experience. The videocall with your friend will provide you with some interaction but not on the same level as sitting next to each other at the theatre. In comes the Metaverse to provide you the immersive 3D alternative. Instead of sitting at home or in your local cinema watching the live screen in 2D, the Metaverse will allow you to buy a ticket to a virtual seat in the theatre. Your friend is sitting on the virtual seat next to you, so you both chat before the curtain call. In the break you both have a drink from your own kitchen but with the experience of being in the café of the theatre.
Regulating the Technology (Placement)
Authors: Mooij Annelieke 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThis chapter examines the placement phase of MLFT. This chapter starts in Sect. 5.2 by examining the definition of virtual wallets under the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Section 5.2 examines the definition of entity under this Directive. It concludes that whilst the term entity is broadly formulated it creates risk by excluding the non-custodian wallets. Section 5.3 therefore discusses whether non-custodian wallets should be supervised or remain anonymous. This section concludes that non-custodian wallets should supervise itself. Section 5.4 then continues by discussing how these non-custodian wallets can supervise themselves through smart assets and AI. Section 5.5 then continues by analysing the legal requirements for such a supervisory approach. This approach includes creating a digital legal personality for the digital wallet. The digital legal personality could be used to create an insurance system for such wallets in case of damages. In such a case the insurer would have the power to represent the wallet in legal proceedings. Section 5.6 then continues by discussing how such a system could aid in the prevention of digital scams and how transactions to third-countries should be incorporated. Section 5.7 continues by discussing incorporating smart contracts into the regulatory system. Particular attention is paid to regulating the criminal smart contracts (csc). Section 5.8 provides a conclusion and recommendations.
Integration into the Legal Economy
Authors: Mooij Annelieke 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThis chapter discusses the third phase of MLFT; integration. The integration into the legal economy is difficult to define with the introduction of virtual property. Section 7.2 therefore starts by defining the contours of the economy. After defining the economy, Sect. 7.3 continues by analysing integration through valuable objects in gaming environments. Section 7.4 continues by analysing the MLFT risks of currencies introduced by cities. This chapter ends in Sect. 7.5 with a conclusion and recommendations.
“All Humans Are Strangers—Almost Everywhere”: Reflections on Human Belonging
Authors: Luetz Johannes M. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThis chapter is an attempt to approach interfaith consciousness from the vantage point of personal lived experience. To this end, I give an autoethnographic account of living across cultures, countries and communities comprising diverse faith orientations. These lived experiences have formed and informed my interfaith awareness, which was nurtured over a lifetime of what I call ‘longing for belonging’. I complement this autoethnographic account with biblical reflections on home and homelessness and conclude that my own sense of ‘strangeness’ can lead to a deferential appraisal and appreciation of the perceived ‘foreignness’ of others. This implies extending intellectual hospitality to adherents and proponents of other faiths as a conduit for nurturing and propagating interfaith awareness and practice. The reason is simply this: on the face of it, everybody alive today is a stranger in this world—almost everywhere.
Burns space and holography
Authors: Costello Kevin , Paquette Natalie M. , Sharma Atul 
Published: October 2023

AbstractWe elaborate on various aspects of our top-down celestial holographic duality wherein the semiclassical bulk spacetime is a 4d asymptotically flat, self-dual Kähler geometry known as Burns space. The bulk theory includes an open string sector comprising a 4d WZW model and a closed string sector called “Mabuchi gravity” capturing fluctuations of the Kähler potential. Starting with the type I topological B-model on the twistor space of flat space, we obtain the twistor space of Burns space from the backreaction of a stack ofNcoincident D1 branes, while the chiral algebra is obtained from (a twist of) the brane worldvolume theory. One striking consequence of this duality is that all loop-level scattering amplitudes of the theory on Burns space can be expressed as correlation functions of an explicit 2d chiral algebra.We also present additional large-Nchecks, matching several 2 and 3-point amplitudes and their collinear expansions in the WZW4sector, and the mixed WZW4-Mabuchi sector, of the bulk theory to the corresponding 2 and 3-point vacuum correlators and operator product expansions in the dual chiral algebra. Key features of the duality, along with our main results, are summarized in the introduction.
Benzophenone-3 does not Cause Oxidative Stress or B-esterase Inhibition During Embryo Development of Octopus maya (Voss and Solís Ramírez, 1966)
Authors: Moreno-Ortiz Gissela , Aguilar Letícia , Caamal-Monsreal Claudia , Noreña-Barroso Elsa , Rosas Carlos , Rodríguez-Fuentes Gabriela 
Published: October 2023

AbstractBenzophenone-3 (BP-3) is an active ingredient in sunscreen lotions and personal-care products that protects against the damaging effects of ultraviolet rays. Given its worldwide dissemination, it has been linked with harmful effects on aquatic biota; however, its impact is not fully understood calling for further studies. To understand the impacts on an important economically and ecologically species, we evaluated the toxicity of BP-3 during the embryonic development of Octopus maya. Embryos were exposed to increasing concentrations of up to 500 µg BP-3/L until hatching. Antioxidant enzyme activities, oxidative-stress indicators, and B-esterases activities were measured at different developmental phases (organogenesis, activation, and growth). There were no significant differences between treatments, suggesting the lack of production of toxic metabolites that may be related to a protective chorion, an underdeveloped detoxification system, and the experimental conditions that limited phototoxicity.
Comparing continent ileostomy (CI) conversion to repair/redo IPAA: favorable outcomes
Authors: Ecker Nils Karl Josef , Dinh Christian , Möslein Gabriela , Ecker Karl-Wilhelm 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to compare the outcomes of repair/redo ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (repair/redo-IPAA) with the conversion of IPAA to continent ileostomy (CI) in an effort to prevent the need for a permanent ileostomy (IS) following IPAA failure.

Methods
This research involved a retrospective analysis of surgical records, employing descriptive statistics and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.

Results
Among 57 patients with an IPAA, up to three revisions were necessary due to complications or complete failure. Ultimately, repair/redo-IPAA preserved the IPAA in 14 patients (24.6%), conversion to CI salvaged the pouch in 21 patients (36.8%), and IS was unavoidable in 22 patients (38.6%). The cumulative probability of requiring conversion surgery was calculated to be 54.0% at 20 years, thereby reducing the cumulative risk of IS to 32.3%. The 20-year cumulative probability of pouch salvage by repair/redo IPAA was only 21.9%. However, this rate increased to 67.7% when conversion procedures were considered. Following repair/redo-IPAA, only 8.3% of patients reported evacuation frequencies of ≤ 4 during the day, and 16.7% were evacuation-free at night. In contrast, after conversion to CI, 98.0% of patients reported a maximum of four evacuations in a 24-h period. After undergoing repair/redo IPAA, between half and two-thirds of patients reported experiencing incontinence or soiling, while complete continence was achieved in all patients following conversion to CI. Notably, the majority of patients expressed overall satisfaction with their respective procedures. A positive correlation was identified between very high subjective satisfaction and positive objective surgical outcomes exclusively in patients who underwent conversion to CI.

Conclusion
When complications or failure of IPAA occur, conversion to CI emerges as a highly viable alternative to repair/redo IPAA. This conclusion is supported by the observation that patient satisfaction appears to be closely tied to stable surgical outcomes. To reinforce these findings, further prospective studies are warranted.
Primary progressive aphasia: six questions in search of an answer
Authors: Belder Christopher R. S. , Marshall Charles R. , Jiang Jessica , Mazzeo Salvatore , Chokesuwattanaskul Anthipa , Rohrer Jonathan D. , Volkmer Anna , Hardy Chris J. D. , Warren Jason D. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractHere, we review recent progress in the diagnosis and management of primary progressive aphasia—the language-led dementias. We pose six key unanswered questions that challenge current assumptions and highlight the unresolved difficulties that surround these diseases. How many syndromes of primary progressive aphasia are there—and is syndromic diagnosis even useful? Are these truly ‘language-led’ dementias? How can we diagnose (and track) primary progressive aphasia better? Can brain pathology be predicted in these diseases? What is their core pathophysiology? In addition, how can primary progressive aphasia best be treated? We propose that pathophysiological mechanisms linking proteinopathies to phenotypes may help resolve the clinical complexity of primary progressive aphasia, and may suggest novel diagnostic tools and markers and guide the deployment of effective therapies.
The porosity of felsic pyroclasts: laboratory validation of field-based approaches
Authors: Pisello Alessandro , Kueppers Ulrich , Düffels Kai , Nomikou Paraskevi , Dingwell Donald B. , Perugini Diego 
Published: October 2023

AbstractVolcanic eruptions are driven by magma rising through Earth’s crust. The style of an eruption depends on intrinsic and extrinsic parameters and is commonly a dynamic process. Thorough and holistic investigation of the related products is key to understanding eruptive phenomena and assessment of volcano-specific hazards. Models of such phenomena are constrained by quantification of the dispersal, the grain size distribution, and pyroclast textures. Pyroclast texture may be described in part by measurements of density and porosity, which depend on pyroclast volume determination. Yet volume determination of irregularly shaped pyroclasts cannot be achieved with geometrical laws, instead necessitating the use of alternative methodologies. Here, we test three methodologies to quantify pyroclast volume on a set of clasts collected from the Minoan eruption deposits from Santorini, Greece. We compare (1) a manual method for obtaining the lengths of three orthogonal axes of the pyroclast with a caliper, (2) an optical method to measure the longest and shortest axes of the pyroclast via multiple photographs, and (3) an Archimedean buoyancy-based method. While the optical and manual methods provide almost identical values of pyroclast volume when tested under laboratory conditions, there is a discrepancy between these two methods and the Archimedean method, which produces an overestimation of ca. 13% in volume. This discrepancy has little impact on the subsequent assessment of porosity and density for which the natural variability of values is observed to be broader. We therefore propose using the manual approach in the field as a simple and fast, yet reliable, method to obtain large volumes of quantitative data on the texture of erupted products, and we also provide a correction factor for in-field volume assessment of rhyodacitic pumices.
An analysis of precision: occlusion and perspective geometry’s role in 6D pose estimation
Authors: Choate Jeffrey , Worth Derek , Nykl Scott , Taylor Clark , Borghetti Brett , Schubert Kabban Christine 
Published: October 2023

AbstractAchieving precise 6 degrees of freedom (6D) pose estimation of rigid objects from color images is a critical challenge with wide-ranging applications in robotics and close-contact aircraft operations. This study investigates key techniques in the application of YOLOv5 object detection convolutional neural network (CNN) for 6D pose localization of aircraft using only color imagery. Traditional object detection labeling methods suffer from inaccuracies due to perspective geometry and being limited to visible key points. This research demonstrates that with precise labeling, a CNN can predict object features with near-pixel accuracy, effectively learning the distinct appearance of the object due to perspective distortion with a pinhole camera. Additionally, we highlight the crucial role of knowledge about occluded features. Training the CNN with such knowledge slightly reduces pixel precision, but enables the prediction of 3 times more features, including those that are not initially visible, resulting in an overall better performing 6D system. Notably, we reveal that the data augmentation technique ofscalecan interfere with pixel precision when used during training. These findings are crucial for the entire system, which leverages the Solve Perspective-N-Point (Solve-PnP) algorithm, achieving 6D pose accuracy within 1$$^\circ$$∘and 7 cm at distances ranging from 7.5 to 35 m from the camera. Moreover, this solution operates in real-time, achieving sub-10ms processing times on a desktop PC.
Survival and complication rates of two dental implant systems supporting fixed restorations: 10-year data of a randomized controlled clinical study
Authors: Gadzo Naida , Ioannidis Alexis , Naenni Nadja , Hüsler Jürg , Jung Ronald E. , Thoma Daniel S. 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Objectives
To compare clinical, radiographic, biological and technical long-term outcomes of two types of dental implants over a period of 10 years.

Materials and methods
Ninety-eight implants were placed in 64 patients, randomly allocated to one of two manufacturers (AST and STM). All implants were loaded with fixed restorations. Outcome measures were assessed at implant insertion (Ti), at baseline examination (TL), at 1, 3, 5, 8 and 10 (T10) years. Data analysis included survival, bone level changes, complications and clinical measures.

Results
Re-examination was performed in 43 patients (23 AST and 20 STM) at 10 years. The implant level analysis was based on 37 (AST) and 32 (STM) implants. Survival rates of 100% were obtained for both groups. The median changes of the marginal bone levels between baseline and T10 (the primary endpoint) amounted to a loss of 0.07 mm for group AST and a gain of 0.37 mm for group STM (intergroup p = 0.008).
Technical complications occurred in 27.0% of the implants in group AST and in 15.6% in group STM.
The prevalence of peri-implant mucositis was 29.7% (AST) and 50.1% (STM). The prevalence of peri-implantitis amounted to 0% (AST) and 6.3% (STM).

Conclusions
Irrespective of the implant system used, the survival rates after 10 years were high. Minimal bone level changes were observed, statistically significant but clinically negligible in favor of STM. Technical complications were more frequently encountered in group AST, while group STM had a higher prevalence of peri-implant mucositis.
GaMD simulations as an alternative in the TFE-water mixture description
Authors: Pérez-Trejo Itzel , Dominguez Laura 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Context: 2,2,2-Trifluoroethanol has been widely used to study the structure and dynamic properties of intrinsically disordered proteins. Experimentally, it is known that TFE-water mixtures stabilize secondary structures of IDPs, and therefore, it allows the studying of conformational ensembles of these proteins. In the last decades, molecular dynamic simulations have helped study the IDPs’ conformational ensemble. Unfortunately, conventional MD requires very long simulation times to describe the properties of IDPs. Therefore, a variety of accelerated sampling techniques have been developed and employed. The TFE-water mixture arrangement description through MD has faced substantial difficulties since emulating the TFE nanocrowding at certain TFE:H$$_2$$

2

O ratios (around 15–40% of TFE). In this work, we determine the most suitable conditions that reproduce experimentally reported properties of TFE-water mixtures. We compared the employment of conventional MD and GaMD simulations and various water parameters. Our results show that the combination of parameters that better reproduce the experimental information is the combination of the TIP4PD water model and GaMD simulations. Therefore, these conditions help accurately describe the structural ensemble of IDPs in TFE-water mixtures. Methods: Conventional MD and GaMD simulations were performed under AMBER 18 software. The TFE and water molecules were described using GAFF2 and a variety of water models, such as TIP3P, TIP4P2005, TIP4PD, and TIP5P, respectively. The systems were simulated a 100 ns at 298 K.

Graphical abstract