bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Divergent Strategy for the Synthesis of Indolopyrazines Fused to Benzopyrimidinones and Benzimidazoles: Identification of Antiproliferative Molecules
Authors: Alkubaisi Bilal O. , Sebastian Anusha , Bauer Maximilian , Sultan Shaista , El‐Awady Raafat , Wehbe Ayeh , Yassin Mariam , Vunnam Srinivasulu , El‐Gamal Mohammed I. , Al‐Tel Taleb H. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractDespite the continued efforts and advancements in anti‐cancer drug discovery, cancer is still considered as one of the leading causes of mortality globally. Hence, the discovery of novel chemotherapeutic agents that displayed a prominent effect against cancer is a pressing need. In this study, an expeditious cascade was used to access a pilot library of indolopyrazine fused to imidazole and pyrimidinone heterocyclic scaffolds. The synthetic strategy utilized a cascade reaction that combined Mannich with aza‐Michael addition reactions followed by coupling with a variety of amines. Phenotypic screening of the developed library against HCT116 colon and MCF‐7 breast cancer cell lines identified chemotypes that formed the basis for hit‐to‐lead development of anti‐cancer agents. The intriguing architecture and scope of functional variability of these types of pentacyclic molecules made them appropriate motifs for the development of lead drug candidates.
Effective Photocatalytic Ethanol Reforming into High‐Value‐Added Multicarbon Compound Coupled with H2 Production Over Pt‐S3 Sites at PtSA–ZnIn2S4 Interface
Authors: Wu Shiting , Li Xiaohui , Liu Jiaqi , Wu Hanfeng , Xu Hanshuai , Bai Wangfeng , Mao Liang , Shi Xiaowei 
Published: December 2023

AbstractSelective photocatalytic production of high‐value acetaldehyde concurrently with H2 from bioethanol is an appealing approach to meet the urgent environment and energy issues. However, the difficult ethanol dehydrogenation and insufficient active sites for proton reduction within the catalysts, and the long spatial distance between these two sites always restrict their catalytic activity. Here, guided by the strong metal‐substrate interaction effect, an atomic‐level catalyst design strategy to construct Pt‐S3 single atom on ZnIn2S4 nanosheets (PtSA‐ZIS) is demonstrated. As active center with optimized H adsorption energy to facilitate H2 evolution reaction, the unique Pt single atom also donates electrons to its neighboring S atoms with electron‐enriched sites formed to activate the O─H bond in *CH3CHOH and promote the desorption of *CH3CHO. Thus, the synergy between Pt single atom and ZIS together will reduce the energy barrier for the ethanol oxidization to acetaldehyde, and also narrow the spatial distance for proton mass transfer. These features enable PtSA‐ZIS photocatalyst to produce acetaldehyde with a selectivity of ≈100%, which will spontaneously transform into 1,1‐diethoxyethane via acetalization to avoid volatilization. Meanwhile, a remarkable H2 evolution rate (184.4 µmol h−1) is achieved with a high apparent quantum efficiency of 10.50% at 400 nm.
Smart DNA sensors‐based molecular identification for cancer subtyping
Authors: Gao Yingying , Xiong Mengyi , Gong Chaonan , Wang Bo , Bai Longwei , Zhang Xiao‐Bing 
Published: December 2023

AbstractMolecular subtyping of cancer can greatly help to understand the development of disease and predict tumor behavior. Exploring detection methods for precise subtyping is appealing to prognosis and personalized therapy. During the past decades, DNA‐based biosensors have exhibited great potential in cancer diagnosis due to their structural programmability and functional diversity. Despite the encouraging progress that has been made, there remains an issue in improving the accuracy and sensitivity of cancer subtyping due to the complex process of disease, especially in preclinical or clinical applications. To accelerate the development of DNA sensors in the identification of cancer subtypes, in this review, we summarized their advances in molecular subtyping by analyzing the heterogeneity in categories and levels of biomarkers between cancer subtypes. The strategies toward genomic and proteomic heterogeneity in cells or on the cell surface, as well as the cancer excretions including extracellular vesicles (EVs) and microRNA (miRNAs) in serum, are summarized. Current challenges and the opportunities of DNA‐based sensors in this field are also discussed.
FLight: A lightweight federated learning framework in edge and fog computing
Authors: Zhu Wuji , Goudarzi Mohammad , Buyya Rajkumar 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially latency‐sensitive ones, have been significantly increased. So, cloud computing, as one of the main enablers of the IoT that offers centralized services, cannot solely satisfy the requirements of IoT applications. Edge/fog computing, as a distributed computing paradigm, processes, and stores IoT data at the edge of the network, offering low latency, reduced network traffic, and higher bandwidth. The edge/fog resources are often less powerful compared to cloud, and IoT data is dispersed among many geo‐distributed servers. Hence, Federated Learning (FL), which is a machine learning approach that enables multiple distributed servers to collaborate on building models without exchanging the raw data, is well‐suited to edge/fog computing environments, where data privacy is of paramount importance. Besides, to manage different FL tasks on edge/fog computing environments, a lightweight resource management framework is required to manage different incoming FL tasks while does not incur significant overhead on the system. Accordingly, in this article, we propose a lightweight FL framework, called FLight, to be deployed on a diverse range of devices, ranging from resource‐limited edge/fog devices to powerful cloud servers. FLight is implemented based on the FogBus2 framework, which is a containerized distributed resource management framework. Moreover, FLight integrates both synchronous and asynchronous models of FL. Besides, we propose a lightweight heuristic‐based worker selection algorithm to select a suitable set of available workers to participate in the training step to obtain higher training time efficiency. The obtained results demonstrate the efficiency of the FLight. The worker selection technique reduces the training time of reaching 80% accuracy by 34% compared to sequential training, while asynchronous one helps to improve synchronous FL training time by 64%.
Designing access control security protocol for Industry 4.0 using Blockchain‐as‐a‐Service
Authors: Vangala Anusha , Das Ashok Kumar , Kumar Neeraj , Vijayakumar Pandi , Karuppiah Marimuthu , Park Youngho 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIndustry 4.0 is a revolution of the operations in the industrial manufacturing for increased productivity, trade and commerce. It is heavily reliant on the automation of the processes and equipment along with complex interconnectivity and insightful analysis using machine learning. The interconnectivity of the manufacturing devices from various industrial sites brings with it several security issues related to communication. This article focuses on solving the security issue of access control between such devices and enable seamless secure communication for the proper functioning of the industry. An access control scheme has been proposed that achieves the necessary security features of anonymity, traceability, and forward secrecy. It is also shown that the proposed scheme takes less communication and computational costs, and is strongly resilient against various attacks such as impersonation attack, replay attack, and denial‐of‐service attack as compared to other relevant schemes.
Soybean genetics, genomics, and breeding for improving nutritional value and reducing antinutritional traits in food and feed
Authors: Singer William M. , Lee Yi‐Chen , Shea Zachary , Vieira Caio Canella , Lee Dongho , Li Xiaoying , Cunicelli Mia , Kadam Shaila S. , Khan Mohammad Aamir Waseem , Shannon Grover , Mian M. A. Rouf , Nguyen Henry T. , Zhang Bo 
Published: December 2023

AbstractSoybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is a globally important crop due to its valuable seed composition, versatile feed, food, and industrial end‐uses, and consistent genetic gain. Successful genetic gain in soybean has led to widespread adaptation and increased value for producers, processors, and consumers. Specific focus on the nutritional quality of soybean seed composition for food and feed has further elucidated genetic knowledge and bolstered breeding progress. Seed components are historical and current targets for soybean breeders seeking to improve nutritional quality of soybean. This article reviews genetic and genomic foundations for improvement of nutritionally important traits, such as protein and amino acids, oil and fatty acids, carbohydrates, and specific food‐grade considerations; discusses the application of advanced breeding technology such as CRISPR/Cas9 in creating seed composition variations; and provides future directions and breeding recommendations regarding soybean seed composition traits.
The value of soil temperature data versus soil moisture data for state, parameter, and flux estimation in unsaturated flow model
Authors: Kandala Rajsekhar , Franssen Harrie‐Jan Hendricks , Chaudhuri Abhijit , Sekhar M. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis synthetic study explores the value of near‐surface soil moisture and soil temperature measurements for the estimation of soil moisture and soil temperature profiles, soil hydraulic and thermal parameters, and latent heat and sensible heat fluxes using data assimilation (ensemble Kalman filter) in combination with unsaturated zone flow modeling (HYDRUS‐1D), for 12 United States Department of Agriculture soil textures in a homogeneous and bare soil scenario. The soil moisture profile is estimated with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.04 cm3/cm3 for univariate soil temperature assimilation and 0.01 cm3/cm3 for univariate soil moisture assimilation. Soil temperature assimilation performs better for soils with higher clay content compared to soils with higher sand content. The latent and sensible heat fluxes are estimated with smaller RMSE for univariate soil temperature assimilation compared to univariate soil moisture assimilation for 8 out of 12 soil types. As the climate condition changes from hot semi‐arid to sub‐humid climate, the soil moisture assimilation performs better for high permeable soil but worse for low permeable soil. In summary, the findings suggest that for most soil texture classes, assimilating soil temperature in vadose zone models is skillful to improve latent heat flux, soil moisture profile, and soil hydraulic parameters. Joint assimilation with soil moisture can further enhance the accuracy of the model outputs for all range of soil texture and climate conditions.
Creolizing Science in Mayra Montero’s Palm of Darkness
Authors: Mardorossian Carine M. , Wong Angela Veronica 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThrough a discussion of Mayra Montero’s In the Palm of Darkness, this chapter examines and challenges what Caribbean novelist Wilson Harris identified as “the break which occurred between science and art, science and an imaginative psychological, even magical apprehension of the universe” (41). The novel reveals that it is in the violent subjugation of women that the costs of such a break are most visibly articulated. Montero’s narrative represents an Afro-Caribbean cosmology that is more open to enfolding other realities and knowledges (including a scientific one) in contrast to a Western and hierarchical worldview that defines itself through its dismissal of otherness and alternative epistemologies. At the same time, both approaches are taken to task for the triangulating structures through which they may seek to project their own authority via an erasure of femininity. As such, the novel schematizes a form of “creolizing science” that recognizes usually opposed dimensions of human existence as compatible, creolized forms of knowledge and identity that do not undo difference so much as “enfold the spirit of those who ignore your glory” (In the Palm of Darkness 181).
Monstrous Genealogies: Indo-Caribbean Feminist Reckonings with the Violent Past
Authors: Outar Lisa 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis chapter explores the ways in which three contemporary Indo-Caribbean women writers trouble traditional understandings of teleology, genealogy, and the divide between the “natural” and “unnatural,” revealing the hauntings of characters by intergenerational trauma and secrets and by specters of gendered violence that rupture conventional temporalities. I examine Ingrid Persaud’s 2020 novel Love After Love, Vashti Bowlah’s 2015 short story “The Churile of Sugarcane Valley,” and Krystal M. Ramroop’s 2020 short story “Midnight’s Mischievous Mistress” to show how these writers redirect images of monstrous femininity contained both within patriarchal understandings of gender roles and within Caribbean folklore. I trace Persaud’s engagement with alternate models of powerful femininity to be found in kali mai worship and her offering of examples of cleansing violence via both ritual practices of creolized Indo-Caribbean religion and the erotic application of pain in a dominatrix/submissive relationship. And, following the work of scholars such as Giselle Anatol who explore how that which is repressed and denigrated about womanhood emerges in Caribbean folkloric figures, I examine the reclaiming of such monstrous figures as the churile and the diablesse by Bowlah and Ramroop for their own imaginings of violence’s role in the furthering of feminist visions of justice.
Ukrainian Prison Officers and Their Power
Authors: Symkovych Anton 
Published: December 2023

AbstractFinding research on prison officers that does not emphasise their importance—even centrality—to prisons’ daily operation and to the implementation of prison ambition more generally proves almost impossible. Even so, depending on jurisdiction, uniformed prison staff’s portrayals range from ‘czars and gods’ to disempowered and hectored conductors of penal power that merely flows through them. Power lies at the heart of prison—prisonis about power. In the current chapter, drawing on the case of Ukrainian prison officers, I discuss how officers in the same prison can understand and deploy their power differently. I underscore the limitation of presenting them as a dichotomy of a ‘powerful/powerless’ homogeneous group and explain how cultural legacies, legal and organisational ramifications of the anomic society in transition, and officers’ personal views, priorities, and considerations of legitimacy frame officers’ use of power. I highlight that even in a country where prisoners enjoy limited rights and the state grants staff enormous power, prison officers must inhabit their power carefully and maintain prisoners’ alignment to preserve workable order.
Methodology
Authors: Schauer Gila A. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn this chapter, I first provide background information on the modern foreign language teachers who completed the questionnaire on which the present study about intercultural competence and pragmatics is based. This includes details about their ages, gender identities, native languages, higher education background and L2 teaching experiences, as well as the modern foreign language(s) they were teaching and their teaching contexts. I then provide information on the online survey and its individual items. This is followed by information on the research procedure. The questionnaire that was used in the present study can be found in the Appendix of this chapter.
Results: Components of Intercultural Competence
Authors: Schauer Gila A. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn this chapter, I analyse and discuss the answers that the language teachers gave in questions 2 and 3 of the survey about intercultural competence and pragmatics; these two questions focus on the components of intercultural competence. Question 2 is a multiple-choice question featuring 24 potential components of intercultural competence ranging from ability to produce situationally appropriatelanguage to tolerance, and thus presented a variety of options—representing abilities, knowledge, skills and attitudes or characteristics—from which the teachers could choose. Question 3 is a yes/no question (that also included a don’t know option) and concentrates on the linguistic components of intercultural competence. It included 12 items ranging from acronyms and abbreviations to swear wordsand taboo language.
The Metabolic Theory of Ecology as a Mechanistic Approach
Authors: Martins Gonçalo 
Published: December 2023

AbstractPhilosophy of science has recently given a great deal of attention to the concept of mechanism. However, unlike the biological mechanisms identified in other fields of the life sciences, ecological mechanisms have not been exhaustively examined. The aim of this chapter is to critically analyze the Metabolic Theory of Ecology. This theory is supposed to provide a unification of population, community and ecosystem approaches rooted in the ecophysiology of individual organisms. In this context, metabolism plays a fundamental role as the unifying concept between levels. According to its authors, this is a mechanistic approach to ecology involving decomposability into parts that structure the different levels of ecological organization and into mechanisms that can be characterized by identifying a phenomenon, parts, causing, and organization. I shall first argue that its mechanistic nature needs clarification. I shall then suggest that the theory can explain some phenomena at various levels of ecological organization and can describe some patterns or tendencies in nature, although it is not able to completely elucidate their mechanistic basis, i.e., to explain the mechanisms that produce these patterns.
Causing and Composing Evolution: Lessons from Evo-Devo Mechanisms
Authors: Villegas Cristina 
Published: December 2023

AbstractEvolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) is often vindicated by theoreticians of the field as a mechanistic science that brings a mechanistic perspective into evolutionary biology. Usually, it is also portrayed as stressing the causal role that development plays in the evolutionary process. However, mechanistic studies in evo-devo typically refer to lineage-specific transformations and lack the generality that evolutionary explanations usually aim for. After reviewing the prospects and limits of a mechanistic view of evo-devo and their studies of homology and novelty, in this chapter I propose a way to combine the mechanistic view of evo-devo with the population-level inclination of more classical approaches to evolution. Such a proposal provides a philosophical framework for understanding the causal role of development in evolution both as mechanistic and as generalizable, population-level.
Organisms Need Mechanisms; Mechanisms Need Organisms
Authors: Bechtel William , Bich Leonardo 
Published: December 2023

AbstractAccording to new mechanists, mechanisms explain how specific biological phenomena are produced. New mechanists have had little to say about how mechanisms relate to the organism in which they reside. A key feature of organisms, emphasized by the autonomy tradition, is that organisms maintain themselves. To do this, they rely on mechanisms. But mechanisms must be controlled so that they produce the phenomena for which they are responsible when and in the manner needed by the organism. To account for how they are controlled, we characterize mechanisms as sets of constraints on the flow of free energy. Some constraints are flexible and can be acted on by other mechanisms, control mechanisms, that utilize information procured from the organism and its environment to alter the flexible constraints in other mechanisms so that they produce phenomena appropriate to the circumstances. We further show that control mechanisms in living organisms are organized heterarchically—control is carried out primarily by local controllers that integrate information they acquire as well as that which they procure from other control mechanisms. The result is not a hierarchy of control but an integrated network of control mechanisms that has been crafted over the course of evolution.
Searching for Protein Folding Mechanisms: On the Insoluble Contrast Between Thermodynamic and Kinetic Explanatory Approaches
Authors: Vallejos-Baccelliere Gabriel , Vecchi Davide 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe protein folding problem is one of the foundational problems of biochemistry and it is still considered unsolved. It basically consists of two main questions: what are the factors determining the stability of the protein’s native structure and how does the protein acquire it starting from an unfolded state. Since its first formulation, two main explanatory approaches have dominated the field of protein folding research: a thermodynamic approach focused on energetic features and a kinetic approach focused on the temporal development of protein chains and structural considerations. Although these two approaches are tightly intertwined in biochemical practice and largely agree on which are the parts and activities in which the phenomenon under study should be decomposed to, there nevertheless exist important contrasts that have had repercussions on the development of the field and still engender vigorous debate. We shall analyse the historical development of the field and crucial aspects of current scientific debates. On this basis, we argue that the main sources of disagreement centre on the causal interpretation of thermodynamic and kinetic explanations, on the explanatory relevance assigned to different features of the phenomena under study and on the status of the ontological assumptions concerning the entities under study.
Mechanisms in Chemistry
Authors: Hendry Robin Findlay 
Published: December 2023

AbstractMechanisms are the how of chemical reactions. Substances are individuated by their structures at the molecular scale, so a chemical reaction is just the transformation of reagent structures into product structures. Explaining a chemical reaction must therefore involve different hypotheses about how this might happen: proposing, investigating and sometimes eliminating different possible pathways from reagents to products. One distinctive aspect of mechanisms in chemistry is that they are broken down into a few basic kinds of step involving the breaking and making of bonds between atoms. This is necessary for chemical kinetics, the study of how fast reactions happen, and what affects it. It draws on G.N. Lewis’ identification of the chemical bond as involving shared electrons, which from the 1920s achieved the commensuration of chemistry and physics. The breaking or making of a bond just is the transfer of electrons, so a chemical bond on one side of an equation might be balanced on the other side by the appearance of a corresponding quantity of excess charge. A bond is understood to have been exchanged for a pair of electrons. Since reaction mechanisms rely on identities, doesn’t the establishment of a reaction mechanism explain away the chemical phenomena, showing that they are no more than the movement of charges and masses? In one sense yes: these mechanisms seem to involve a conserved-quantity conception of causation. But in another sense no: the ‘lower-level’ entities can do what they do only when embedded in higher-level organisation or structure. There need be no threat of reduction.