bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The interplay between temporal and seasonal distribution of heavy metals and physiochemical properties in Kaap River
Authors: Maphanga T. , Chidi B. S. , Phungela T. T. , Gqomfa B. , Madonsela B. S. , Malakane K. C. , Lekata S. , Shale K. 
Published: January 2024

AbstractA key aspect of climate change is its impact on river water quality. Most research focuses on the impact of physiochemical parameters on water quality. However, the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns coupled with anthropogenic activities play a significant role in river contamination. Metals are known to have toxic effects and environmental persistence. This study evaluated the heavy metal content of the Kaap River, where mining and agriculture are the primary land use. A 7-year study was conducted to investigate the seasonal relationship between heavy metals and physiochemical parameters (EC and pH). Fe, Al, As, and Mn concentrations were analysed in a laboratory accredited by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS). The Python package Seaborn was used to generate heat maps for improved data visualization. Seasonal and temporal fluctuations had a combinatorial impact on Mn, Fe, and Al levels of the river. However, As levels were unaffected. The pH of the rivers was within the recommended range, despite flow regime, seasonal, and time-dependent fluctuations. Seasonal and temporal variations were also observed for EC, with the highest value of 42.35 mS/m being recorded during the winter of 2022, exceeding the recommended threshold of 30 mS/m. The correlation analysis revealed positive and significant correlations for the EC/pH and Al/Fe combinations and a weak degree of association for other parameters (P < 0.05). A permanent monitoring of water quality is required to ensure sustainable livelihoods and the safety of Kaap River water, which is subject to significant heavy metal fluctuations over time.
Strong convergent algorithm for finding minimum-norm solutions of quasimonotone variational inequalities with fixed point constraint and application
Authors: Mewomo Oluwatosin T. , Ogwo Grace N. , Alakoya Timilehin O. 
Published: January 2024

AbstractThe class of quasimonotone mappings are known to be more general and applicable than the classes of pseudomonotone and monotone mappings. However, only very few results can be found in the literature on quasimonotone variational inequality problems and most of these results are on weak convergent algorithms. In this paper, we study the quasimonotone variational inequality problem (VIP) with constraint of fixed point problem (FPP) of quasi-pseudocontractive mappings. We introduce a new inertial Tseng’s extragradient method with self-adaptive step size for approximating the minimum-norm solutions of the aforementioned problem in the framework of Hilbert spaces. We prove that the sequence generated by the proposed method converges strongly to a common (minimum-norm) solution of the quasimonotone VIP and FPP of quasi-pseudocontractive mappings without the knowledge of the Lipschitz constant of the cost operator. We provide several numerical experiments for the proposed method in comparison with existing methods in the literature. Finally, we applied our result to image restoration problem. Our result improves, extends and generalizes several of the recently announced results in this direction.
Prediction of ball-on-plate friction and wear by ANN with data-driven optimization
Authors: Kovalev Alexander , Tian Yu , Meng Yonggang 
Published: January 2024

AbstractFor training artificial neural network (ANN), big data either generated by machine or measured from experiments are used as input to “learn” the unspecified functions defining the ANN. The experimental data are fed directly into the optimizer allowing training to be performed according to a predefined loss function. To predict sliding friction and wear at mixed lubrication conditions, in this study a specific ANN structure was so designed that deep learning algorithms and data-driven optimization models can be used. Experimental ball-on-plate friction and wear data were analyzed using the specific training procedure to optimize the weights and biases incorporated into the neural layers of the ANN, and only two independent experimental data sets were used during the ANN optimization procedure. After the training procedure, the ANN is capable to predict the contact and hydrodynamic pressure by adapting the output data according to the tribological condition implemented in the optimization algorithm.
Oil-soluble polymer brushes-functionalized nanoMOFs for highly efficient friction and wear reduction
Authors: Liu Jianxi , Qian Yong , Li Dongshen , Wu Wei , Zhang Mengchen , Yan Jie , Li Bin , Zhou Feng 
Published: January 2024

AbstractNanomaterials as lubricating oil additives have attracted significant attention because of their designable composition and structure, suitable mechanical property, and tunable surface functionalities. However, the poor compatibility between nanomaterials and base oil limits their further applications. In this work, we demonstrated oil-soluble poly (lauryl methacrylate) (PLMA) brushes-grafted metal-organic frameworks nanoparticles (nanoMOFs) as lubricating oil additives that can achieve efficient friction reduction and anti-wear performance. Macroinitiators were synthesized by free-radical polymerization, which was coordinatively grafted onto the surface of the UiO-67 nanoparticles. Then, PLMA brushes were grown on the macroinitiator-modified UiO-67 by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization, which greatly improved the lipophilic property of the UiO-67 nanoparticles and significantly enhanced the colloidal stability and long-term dispersity in both non-polar solvent and base oil. By adding UiO-67@PLMA nanoparticles into the 500 SN base oil, coefficient of friction and wear volume reductions of 45.3% and 75.5% were achieved due to their excellent mechanical properties and oil dispersibility. Moreover, the load-carrying capacity of 500 SN was greatly increased from 100 to 500 N by the UiO-67@PLMA additives, and their excellent tribological performance was demonstrated even at a high friction frequency of 65 Hz and high temperature of 120 °C. Our work highlights oil-soluble polymer brushes-functionalized nanoMOFs for highly efficient lubricating additives.
The economic burden of pediatric growth hormone deficiency in Italy: a cost of illness study
Authors: Cappa M. , Pozzobon G. , Orso M. , Maghnie M. , Patti G. , Spandonaro F. , Granato S. , Novelli G. , La Torre D. , Salerno M. , Polistena B. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Purpose
Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is a rare condition with a worldwide prevalence of 1 patient in 4000 to 10,000 live births, placing a significant economic burden on healthcare systems. The aim of this study is to generate evidence on the economic burden of children and adolescents with GHD treated with rhGH and their parents in Italy.

Methods
A cost of illness analysis, adopting the prevalence approach, has been developed, producing evidence on the total annual cost sustained by the Italian National Health System (NHS) and by the society. The study is based on original data collected from a survey conducted among Italian children and adolescents with GHD and their parents.

Results
143 children/adolescents with GHD and their parents participated to the survey, conducted from May to October 2021. Patients had a mean age of 12.2 years (SD: 3.1) and were mostly males (68.5%).
The average direct healthcare cost sustained by the NHS was € 8,497.2 per patient/year; adding the out-of-pocket expenses (co-payments and expenses for private healthcare service), the total expense was € 8,568.6. The indirect costs, assessed with the human capital approach, were € 847.9 per patient/year. The total of direct and indirect cost is € 9,345.1 from the NHS perspective, and € 9,416.5 from a social perspective. The total cost incurred by the Italian NHS for children with GHD (range: 5,708–8,354) was estimated in € 48.5–71.0 million, corresponding to 0.04–0.06% of the total Italian public health expense in the year 2020.

Conclusions
The total annual cost for GHD children is close to € 10,000, and is mainly due to the cost of rhGH treatment. This cost is almost entirely sustained by the NHS, with negligible out-of-pocket expenses.
The economic burden on the Italian NHS for the health care of established GHD children is fourfold higher than the prevalence of the disease in the overall Italian population.
Load balancing of multi-AGV road network based on improved Q-learning algorithm and macroscopic fundamental diagram
Authors: Zhang Xiumei , Li Wensong , Li Hui , Liu Yue , Liu Fang 
Published: January 2024

AbstractTo address the challenges of traffic congestion and suboptimal operational efficiency in the context of large-scale applications like production plants and warehouses that utilize multiple automatic guided vehicles (multi-AGVs), this article proposed using an Improved Q-learning (IQL) algorithm and Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) for the purposes of load balancing and congestion discrimination on road networks. Traditional Q-learning converges slowly, which is why we have proposed the use of an updated Q value of the previous iteration step as the maximum Q value of the next state to reduce the number of Q value comparisons and improve the algorithm’s convergence speed. When calculating the cost of AGV operation, the traditional Q-learning algorithm only considers the evaluation function of a single distance and introduces an improved reward and punishment mechanism to combine the operating distance of AGV and the road network load, which finally equalizes the road network load. MFD is the basic property of road networks and is based on MFD, which is combined with the Markov Chain (MC) model. Road network traffic congestion state discrimination method was proposed to classify the congestion state according to the detected number of vehicles on the road network. The MC model accurately discriminated the range near the critical point. Finally, the scale of the road network and the load factor were changed for several simulations. The findings indicated that the improved algorithm showed a notable ability to achieve equilibrium in the load distribution of the road network. This led to a substantial enhancement in AGV operational efficiency.
Fractional-order fuzzy sliding mode control of uncertain nonlinear MIMO systems using fractional-order reinforcement learning
Authors: Mahmoud Tarek A. , El-Hossainy Mohammad , Abo-Zalam Belal , Shalaby Raafat 
Published: January 2024

AbstractThis paper introduces a novel approach aimed at enhancing the control performance of a specific class of unknown multiple-input and multiple-output nonlinear systems. The proposed method involves the utilization of a fractional-order fuzzy sliding mode controller, which is implemented through online fractional-order reinforcement learning (FOFSMC-FRL). First, the proposed approach leverages two Takagi–Sugeno–Kang (TSK) fuzzy neural network actors. These actors approximate both the equivalent and switch control parts of the sliding mode control. Additionally, a critic TSK fuzzy neural network is employed to approximate the value function of the reinforcement learning process. Second, the FOFSMC-FRL parameters undergo online adaptation using an innovative fractional-order Levenberg–Marquardt learning method. This adaptive mechanism allows the controller to continuously update its parameters based on the system’s behavior, optimizing its control strategy accordingly. Third, the stability and convergence of the proposed approach are rigorously examined using Lyapunov theorem. Notably, the proposed structure offers several key advantages as it does not depend on knowledge of the system dynamics, uncertainty bounds, or disturbance characteristics. Moreover, the chattering phenomenon, often associated with sliding mode control, is effectively eliminated without compromising the system’s robustness. Finally, a comparative simulation study is conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed method over other control methods. Through this comparison, the effectiveness and performance advantages of the approach are validated.
Heat recovery optimization of a shell and tube bundle heat exchanger with continuous helical baffles for air ventilation systems
Authors: Bari Md Ashfaqul , Münsch Manuel , Schöneberger Bastian , Schlagbauer Bernhard , Tiu Andrea Alina , Wierschem Andreas 
Published: January 2024

AbstractWe report a numerical evaluation of the impact of continuous helical baffle on the heat recovery efficiency of counterflow tube bundle heat exchangers. The baffle inclination angle has been varied from $$11^{\circ }$$

11
∘

to $$22^{\circ }$$

22
∘

. Since the fluid flows over the tube bundle at an angle due to helical flow inside the shell, the heat exchanger operates in cross counter mode. Fluent simulations with the k-$$\omega$$
ω
transition shear stress transport turbulence model have been performed to investigate the thermal-hydraulic parameters of the system in terms of heat recovery efficiency, pressure loss, and overall heat transfer rate. Outside air temperature has been varied to mimic cold and warm weather. Pressure loss has been constrained to be less than 250 Pa, conforming to EU guidelines for energy labeling of residential ventilation units. At the maximum volume flow rate of 40 m$$^3$$

3

/h, the device performed with over $$80\%$$

80
%

heat recovery efficiency for the considered temperature difference. Continuous helical baffles helped to improve convective heat transfer by reducing cross flow area and increasing velocity. Smaller angles result in greater pressure loss while having no discernible effect on heat recovery efficiency for the considered geometry. The analysis demonstrates the potential of a compact counterflowing recuperative heat exchanger with continuous helical baffles for decentralized ventilation systems and serves as a basis for further optimization.
Identifying People’s Faces in Smart Banking Systems Using Artificial Neural Networks
Authors: Nosrati Leili , Bidgoli Amir Massoud , Javadi Hamid Haj Seyyed 
Published: January 2024

AbstractDue to the exponential rise of ICT technologies, the digital banking industry has made tremendous advancements in user-friendly, effective, and quick financial transactions. Numerous new banking services, products, and business opportunities have resulted as a result. Smart facial authentication is a cutting-edge technology used in mobile banking. Users can utilize this technology to verify their identification by using the facial recognition feature of the camera on their mobile device. This method makes use of complex algorithms that can analyze a person’s face and extract the distinctive characteristics that can be seen there. The attributes of the images of distinct persons are then categorized using learning algorithms and the K-means clustering method. An artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), and decision tree (DT) computer system are used to authenticate persons. In this inquiry, the face is used. Additionally, the Wild Horse Optimizer (WHO) method has been used to enhance the precision and optimization of machine learning systems by weighting cluster features. Fuzzy logic is used to make decisions about authentication based on the results of machine learning algorithms. The best feature from a broad dataset is selected using a technique based on evolutionary algorithms. The simulation findings for diverse users have a precision of about 99.78% for user authentication of test samples. Notably, the suggested method reduced the FAR, FRR, and ERR errors by 0.23, 1.13, and 1.1, respectively. It has been proven that using people’s image data may enhance the quality of everyday cameras, and it is anticipated that this work will be applied to mobile banking applications to ensure the verification of rightful owners.
Competition reduces structural defense in an invasive thistle in the field
Authors: Lamb Rachel , Keller Joseph , Shea Katriona 
Published: January 2024

AbstractInvasive thistles reduce the productivity of pastures and rangelands because their structural defenses make them unpalatable to grazing livestock. However, plants potentially alter their growth patterns, including their allocation of resources to defense, in response to the presence of competing vegetation. Understanding the effects of competition on the structural defense of problematic pasture weeds can inform management plans that reduce the economic harm caused by these pests. We grew musk thistle (Carduus nutans L., also commonly called nodding thistle) in a fully crossed factorial field experiment in a single abandoned pasture in 2017 with two experimental factors: the level of thistle infestation (1 thistle or 5, resulting in densities of 4 or 20 plants m−2) and the presence or absence of grazing (simulated by weekly trimming of competing vegetation). We assessed the effects of treatments on defense by counting prickles >3-mm long on leaves. Our analysis included leaf age and leaf size as covariates. Competition reduced the number of prickles present on leaves. Regression analysis showed that an increase from, for example, 50 g to 200 g of competing vegetation within 50 by 50 cm study plots reduced the expected average number of prickles on intermediate-aged leaves with average length 25.5 cm by 76.9 prickles per leaf, or 41%. This pattern was similar for leaves of all ages, although the oldest leaves generally had fewer prickles than younger leaves. We did not observe differences in defense structures between plants neighbored by conspecifics and those neighbored by other competitors. Carduus nutans has been previously managed using high densities of grazers, and this practice may be more likely to damage less-defended individuals such as those we observed in our treatments with competition. This finding suggests that maintaining competition in pastures may increase C. nutans vulnerability to grazing.
The Pleistocene footprints are younger than we thought: correcting the radiocarbon dates of Ruppia seeds, Tularosa Basin, New Mexico
Authors: Rachal David M. , Dello-Russo Robert , Cuba Matthew 
Published: January 2024

AbstractPast studies have demonstrated that Ruppia cirrhosa (Ruppia), which typically grows in brackish water, is far too unreliable to serve as the chronological basis for radiocarbon dating because of the hard water effect (HWE). Despite this unreliability, Ruppia seeds have been used to date footprints along the margins of paleo-Lake Otero in southern New Mexico to around 23,000–21,000 cal yr BP. In this study, we employ a modern analog approach using δ13C values and radiocarbon dates from modern Ruppia plants growing in Salt Creek to calculate a maximum limiting age range for the footprints. Those plant samples with higher δ13C values produced greater age discrepancies. This simple relationship can be used to correct for the HWE and demonstrates that the human footprints purported to have been made during the local last glacial maximum could be at least ~7500 yr younger.
The art of Inuit administration: Post-war Canada, cultural diplomacy and northern administration
Authors: Stern Pamela , Arslan Ece 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
In this paper, we expand on existing studies of Canadian Inuit art in the international arena by examining ways in which this new art served domestic purposes, focusing primarily on the 1950s and 1960s. The Canadian government developed and promoted Inuit art as part of its project to transform Inuit from semi-independent hunters into modern Canadian citizens. In this effort, Canada took up and assimilated Inuit art as a genuine Canadian cultural product, presenting it as diplomatic gifts and for other forms of international cultural diplomacy. Previous studies of Canadian Inuit art from that era have noted the ways that the promotion of Canadian Inuit art supported the young nation’s claims to a deep history, while simultaneously marking the country’s distinction from both the United States and the United Kingdom. In the context of the Cold War, the promotion of Canadian Inuit art also asserted Canada as an Arctic power. Labelled as “primitive modernist” fine art, Inuit sculpture and prints provided a stark contrast to the contemporaneous socialist realist art of the Soviet Union and its allies. We argue that the success of the Inuit art program sustained a belief among government officials that their programme to remake Inuit lives and livelihoods would succeed. Inuit art likely deflected attention from the many things that were going wrong with that northern modernisation project.
The societal impact of individual placement and support implementation on employment outcomes for young adults receiving temporary health-related welfare benefits: a difference-in-differences study
Authors: Brinchmann Beate , Wittlund Sina , Lorentzen Thomas , Moe Cathrine , McDaid David , Killackey Eoin , Rinaldi Miles , Mykletun Arnstein 
Published: January 2024

AbstractBackgroundIndividual placement and support (IPS) is an evidence-based practice that helps individuals with mental illness gain and retain employment. IPS was implemented for young adults at a municipality level through a cross-sectoral collaboration between specialist mental healthcare, primary mental healthcare, and the government funded employment service (NAV). We investigated whether IPS implementation had a causal effect on employment outcomes for all young adults in receipt of a temporary health-related rehabilitation (work assessment allowance, WAA) welfare benefit, measured at the societal level compared to municipalities that did not implement IPS.MethodWe used a difference in differences design to estimate the effects of IPS implementation on the outcome of workdays per year using longitudinal registry data. We estimate the average effect of being exposed to IPS implementation during four-years of implementation compared to ten control municipalities without IPS for all WAA recipients.ResultsWe found a significant, positive, causal effect on societal level employment outcomes of 5.6 (p = 0.001, 95% CI 2.7–8.4) increased workdays per year per individual, equivalent to 12.7 years of increased work in the municipality where IPS was implemented compared to municipalities without IPS. Three years after initial exposure to IPS implementation individuals worked, on average, 10.5 more days per year equating to 23.8 years of increased work.ConclusionsImplementing IPS as a cross sectoral collaboration at a municipality level has a significant, positive, causal, societal impact on employment outcomes for all young adults in receipt of a temporary health-related rehabilitation welfare benefit.
Executive action that lasts
Authors: Lowande Kenneth , Poznansky Michael 
Published: January 2024

AbstractUnilateral presidential action is thought to be limited by the ability of successors to easily reverse past decisions. Yet, most executive actions are never formally revoked. We argue that because of presidents’ unique position as chief executive, some actions create outcomes that make policy reversal more difficult or even infeasible. We develop a novel measure of policies with more immutable consequences and analyze the revocation of executive orders issued between 1937 and 2021. We find the degree of outcome immutability reduces the influence of political conditions on policy revocation. We further examine these dynamics in three cases in which presidents have substantial discretion – diplomacy, non-combatant detention, and police militarization. Scholarship has long highlighted the president’s first-mover status relative to other institutional actors as a key source of their power. Collectively, our argument and evidence demonstrate this applies to their relationship with successors.