bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Biodiesel production from Sisymbrium irio as a potential novel biomass waste feedstock using homemade titania catalyst
Authors: Jan Hammad Ahmad , Osman Ahmed I. , Al-Fatesh Ahmed S. , Almutairi Ghzzai , Surina Igor , Al-Otaibi Raja Lafi , Al-Zaqri Nabil , Kumar Rawesh , Rooney David W. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractBiomass waste streams are a possible feedstock for a range of eco-friendly products and a crucial alternative energy source for achieving carbon neutrality; therefore, the efficient management of biomass waste has taken on a greater significance in recent years. Due to its well-comparable physic-chemical properties with fossil diesel, biodiesel is a potential substitute for fossil fuel. This study aimed to synthesize biodiesel from the widely available non-edible seed oil of Sisymbrium irio L. (a member of the Brassicaceae family) via a transesterification procedure over a homemade TiO2 catalyst. At 1:16 oil to methanol ratio, 93% biodiesel yield was obtained over 20 mg catalyst at 60 °C and 60 min. The ASTM methods were used to analyze the fuel properties. The quantitative and qualitative analysis was performed by FT-IR, GC-MS, and NMR spectroscopy. GC-MS study confirms 16 different types of fatty acids of methyl esters. FT-IR analysis showed important peaks that confirm the successful occurrence of biodiesel. 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR showed important peaks for converting triglycerides into corresponding FAMEs. The acid value (0.42 mg KOH/mg/kg), flash point (106 °C), and water content (0.034) of biodiesel are below the specified limit of ASTM D6751 whereas kinetic viscosity (3.72 mm2/s), density (0.874 kg/L), cloud point (− 4.3 °C) and pour point (− 9.6 °C) and high heating value (41.62 MJ/kg) fall within the specified range of ASTM D6751 test limit. The Unsaturation degree and oxidative stability of biodiesel are above ASTM D6751 test limit. The physic-chemical properties of the SIB confirm that it is eco-friendly fuel and a competitive source for manufacturing biodiesel on a commercial scale. Furthermore, the SIB is engine friendly and has good fuel efficacy.
Association of Rahnella victoriana, Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. hoffmannii and Citrobacter braakii with walnut decline
Authors: Hajialigol Mohammadreza , Falahi Charkhabi Nargues , Shahryari Fatemeh , Sarikhani Saadat 
Published: July 2023

AbstractPersian walnut (Juglans regia) has a considerable economic importance worldwide. However, the vigor and vitality of walnut trees were heavily affected by bark canker during the last few years. Irregular longitudinal cankers in the outer bark, stem tissue necrosis, and bleeding with black-colored exudates walnut trees were observed in Kermanshah, Hamedan, Markazi, Alborz, Isfahan, Qom, Semnan, and Razavi Khorasan provinces in western, central and eastern Iran during 2018 and 2019. A total of 150 symptomatic samples were collected from affected walnut trees in order to identify bacteria associated with walnut decline. Two-hundred sixty strains with a metallic green sheen were isolated on EMB-agar medium. The pathogenicity of all strains was proved by inoculating a suspension of the bacterial strains under the bark of immature walnut fruits cv. ‘Hartley’. Ninety-five strains caused necrosis and a dark-colored region in the mesocarp around the inoculation site 14 days post-inoculation. Moreover, 12 representative strains induced necrotic and black-colored tissues in the bark of young green twigs of two-year old walnut seedling cv. ‘Chandler’. The strains were classified into four categories based on conventional phenotypic characters confirmed with the 16S rRNA gene sequences. A phylogenetic tree based on the concatenated sequences of two housekeeping gene fragments, gyrB and infB, indicated that strains including I1, Q6, and S6 were grouped in a cluster with Gibbsiella quercinecans FBR97T as well as strains I2, I5, and KE6 were clustered with Rahnella victoriana FRB 225T. Moreover, strains MR1, MR3, and MR5 were grouped with the Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. hoffmannii DSM 14563T. The phylogenetic analyses based on the partial sequencing of housekeeping genes including fusA, pyrG, and leuS revealed that strains KH1, KH3, and KH7 belong to Citrobacter braakii species. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of C. braakii and E. hormaechei as plant pathogens and R. victoriana associated with walnut decline.
A punctuated equilibrium analysis of the climate evolution of cenozoic exhibits a hierarchy of abrupt transitions
Authors: Rousseau Denis-Didier , Bagniewski Witold , Lucarini Valerio 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe Earth’s climate has experienced numerous critical transitions during its history, which have often been accompanied by massive and rapid changes in the biosphere. Such transitions are evidenced in various proxy records covering different timescales. The goal is then to identify, date, characterize, and rank past critical transitions in terms of importance, thus possibly yielding a more thorough perspective on climatic history. To illustrate such an approach, which is inspired by the punctuated equilibrium perspective on the theory of evolution, we have analyzed 2 key high-resolution datasets: the CENOGRID marine compilation (past 66 Myr), and North Atlantic U1308 record (past 3.3 Myr). By combining recurrence analysis of the individual time series with a multivariate representation of the system based on the theory of the quasi-potential, we identify the key abrupt transitions associated with major regime changes that separate various clusters of climate variability. This allows interpreting the time-evolution of the system as a trajectory taking place in a dynamical landscape, whose multiscale features describe a hierarchy of metastable states and associated tipping points.
Zero-determinant strategy in stochastic Stackelberg asymmetric security game
Authors: Cheng Zhaoyang , Chen Guanpu , Hong Yiguang 
Published: July 2023

AbstractIn a stochastic Stackelberg asymmetric security game, the strong Stackelberg equilibrium (SSE) strategy is a popular option for the defender to get the highest utility against an attacker with the best response (BR) strategy. However, the attacker may be a boundedly rational player, who adopts a combination of the BR strategy and a fixed stubborn one. In such a condition, the SSE strategy may not maintain the defensive performance due to the stubbornness. In this paper, we focus on how the defender can adopt the unilateral-control zero-determinate (ZD) strategy to confront the boundedly rational attacker. At first, we verify the existence of ZD strategies for the defender. We then investigate the performance of the defender’s ZD strategy against a boundedly rational attacker, with a comparison of the SSE strategy. Specifically, when the attacker’s strategy is close to the BR strategy, the ZD strategy admits a bounded loss for the defender compared with the SSE strategy. Conversely, when the attacker’s strategy is close to the stubborn strategy, the ZD strategy can bring higher defensive performance for the defender than the SSE strategy does.
Longitudinal analysis of social isolation effects on finger tapping in the Blursday database
Authors: Gallego Hiroyasu Elisa M. , Laje Rodrigo , Nomura Keishi , Spiousas Ignacio , Hayashi Masamichi J. , Yotsumoto Yuko 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe Blursday database is a collection of data obtained online from a longitudinal study where participants were asked to participate in several behavioral tasks and questionnaires during the COVID-19 pandemic from their homes. In this study, we analyzed the published data to explore (1) the longitudinal changes in temporal cognition observed from the data collected in the home-based setting (2), the effects of the voluntary quarantine measures implemented in Japan on temporal cognition, (3) whether the participant’s temporal cognition is altered by the change in their psychological state or their cognitive abilities, and (4) whether the effects of the quarantine measures depend on the age of the individual. Results show that confinement measures were good predictors for the performance in both spontaneous finger-tapping task and paced finger-tapping task, though these were dependent on the age of the participant. In addition, cognitive scores were good predictors of the performance in the paced finger-tapping task but not the spontaneous finger-tapping task. Overall, this study provides evidence suggesting changes in both psychological, cognitive, and temporal cognition during the pandemic on the Japanese population despite its voluntary measures to deal with the new situation.
Centripetal nuclear shape fluctuations associate with chromatin condensation in early prophase
Authors: Introini Viola , Kidiyoor Gururaj Rao , Porcella Giancarlo , Cicuta Pietro , Cosentino Lagomarsino Marco 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe nucleus plays a central role in several key cellular processes, including chromosome organisation, DNA replication and gene transcription. Recent work suggests an association between nuclear mechanics and cell-cycle progression, but many aspects of this connection remain unexplored. Here, by monitoring nuclear shape fluctuations at different cell cycle stages, we uncover increasing inward fluctuations in late G2 and in early prophase, which are initially transient, but develop into instabilities when approaching the nuclear-envelope breakdown. We demonstrate that such deformations correlate with chromatin condensation by perturbing both the chromatin and the cytoskeletal structures. We propose that the contrasting forces between an extensile stress and centripetal pulling from chromatin condensation could mechanically link chromosome condensation with nuclear-envelope breakdown, two main nuclear processes occurring during mitosis.
Limits of the phonon quasi-particle picture at the cubic-to-tetragonal phase transition in halide perovskites
Authors: Fransson Erik , Rosander Petter , Eriksson Fredrik , Rahm J. Magnus , Tadano Terumasa , Erhart Paul 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe soft modes associated with continuous-order phase transitions are associated with strong anharmonicity. This leads to the overdamped limit where the phonon quasi-particle picture can break down. However, this limit is commonly restricted to a narrow temperature range, making it difficult to observe its signature feature, namely the breakdown of the inverse relationship between the relaxation time and damping. Here we present a physically intuitive picture based on the relaxation times of the mode coordinate and its conjugate momentum, which at the instability approach infinity and the inverse damping factor, respectively. We demonstrate this behavior for the cubic-to-tetragonal phase transition of the inorganic halide perovskite CsPbBr3 via molecular dynamics simulations, and show that the overdamped region extends almost 200 K above the transition temperature. Further, we investigate how the dynamics of these soft phonon modes change when crossing the phase transition.
Emergent governance responses to shocks to critical provisioning systems
Authors: Eakin Hallie , Hamann Ralph , Ziervogel Gina , Shearing Clifford 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe structure and functioning of formal and informal governance arrangements and associated infrastructure prior to major environmental disturbance play a central role in how cities experience and respond to such events. This paper considers how city managers, businesses, and residents responded to two disturbances experienced in the City of Cape Town—a drought-induced water crisis and a pandemic crisis (COVID-19) that followed a year later—and the consequences of these actions for infrastructural assets and governance innovations. Our analysis suggests that efforts aimed at transformative change in these provisioning systems require attention to the existing and potential roles and responsibilities of private and public sector actors, as well as the associated distribution of risks and rewards. Furthermore, polycentric and decentralized governance arrangements, which are often thought to be most flexible in the face of shocks, are not always feasible or desirable to actors with a stake in resource governance.
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Vocabulary Interventions for Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children and Adolescents
Authors: Aldemir Hülya , Solís-Campos Adrián , Saldaña David , Rodríguez-Ortiz Isabel R. 
Published: July 2023

Purpose:
The development of vocabulary size in deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) children and adolescents can be delayed compared to their peers due to lack of access to early language input. Complementary vocabulary interventions are reported in the literature. Our aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention methods for their vocabulary improvement.

Method:
Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we searched five databases for peer-reviewed journal articles in English, published between 2000 and 2022 (inclusive), reporting vocabulary interventions for 2- to 18-year-old DHH children and adolescents without comorbidities. We conducted separate meta-analyses using a random-effects model on receptive oral vocabulary, expressive oral vocabulary, and signed vocabulary. We assessed the methodological quality of each paper. This review is preregistered in PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) with ID CRD42021243479.

Results:

We included 25 group studies in this review out of 1,724 identified records. The quality assessment of the studies revealed risk of bias ranging from some concerns to high risk. Experimental vocabulary instruction produced improvement in receptive oral vocabulary (Hedges's
g
= 1.08, 95% CI [0.25, 1.90],

I
2

= 93.46,
p
= .01), expressive oral vocabulary (Hedges's
g
= 1.00, 95% CI [0.18, 1.83],

I
2

= 96.37,
p
= .02), and signed vocabulary (Hedges's
g
= 1.88, 95% CI [1.09, 2.66],

I
2

= 96.01,
p
< .001) in the experimental groups. Written vocabulary and general vocabulary skills are also reported as a synthesis of results.

Conclusions:

Multisensory and multimodal explicit vocabulary instruction for DHH children and adolescents is helpful in improving vocabulary acquisition with respect to baseline levels. However, its effectiveness must be carefully interpreted due to the lack of proper control groups and details on
treatment as usual
reported in the studies.

Supplemental Material:

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23646357
Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire Into Kannada
Authors: Narasimhan Srirangam Vijayakumar , Sahana Kashyap , Yashaswini Govinda , Divyashree Dhanashekar 
Published: July 2023

Purpose:
As there are no questionnaires to assess the experience and proficiency of bilingual/multilingual Kannada speakers, this study aimed to adapt and validate the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q) into the Kannada language cross-culturally.

Method:
A nonrandomized, prospective cross-sectional design with purposive sampling was used in the study. The cross-cultural adaptation was performed using a standard guideline for developing the questionnaire. The Kannada version of the LEAP-Q (KLEAP-Q) was administered to three groups of participants. Group 1 included 200 bilingual participants (first language [L1]-Kannada, second language [L2]-English), Group 2 included 25 participants with good proficiency in Kannada, and Group 3 consisted of 25 participants with Telugu as L1, English as L2, and Kannada as third language. Responses from the participants were further tabulated and subjected to various statistical analyses to assess the psychometric properties of the questionnaire.

Results:

Results showed a high test–retest reliability for the KLEAP-Q. The factor analysis results yielded eight factors with eigenvalues of more than 1.8 and had a Cronbach's alpha ranging from .61 to .95, signifying a good internal consistency of the KLEAP-Q. Mann–Whitney
U
test revealed significant differences between the speakers with good proficiency and speakers with low proficiency in Kannada, indicating a good known groups discriminant validity.

Conclusion:
As the KLEAP-Q has good reliability and validity, it can be used as a supplementary tool with other objective measures to document the experience and proficiency of Kannada-speaking bilingual individuals.

Supplemental Material:

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23631519
Forecasting patient demand at urgent care clinics using explainable machine learning
Authors: Susnjak Teo , Maddigan Paula 
Published: July 2023

AbstractUrgent care clinics and emergency departments around the world periodically suffer from extended wait times beyond patient expectations due to surges in patient flows. The delays arising from inadequate staffing levels during these periods have been linked with adverse clinical outcomes. Previous research into forecasting patient flows has mostly used statistical techniques. These studies have also predominately focussed on short‐term forecasts, which have limited practicality for the resourcing of medical personnel. This study joins an emerging body of work which seeks to explore the potential of machine learning algorithms to generate accurate forecasts of patient presentations. Our research uses datasets covering 10 years from two large urgent care clinics to develop long‐term patient flow forecasts up to one quarter ahead using a range of state‐of‐the‐art algorithms. A distinctive feature of this study is the use of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) tools like Shapely and LIME that enable an in‐depth analysis of the behaviour of the models, which would otherwise be uninterpretable. These analysis tools enabled us to explore the ability of the models to adapt to the volatility in patient demand during the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdowns and to identify the most impactful variables, resulting in valuable insights into their performance. The results showed that a novel combination of advanced univariate models like Prophet as well as gradient boosting, into an ensemble, delivered the most accurate and consistent solutions on average. This approach generated improvements in the range of 16%–30% over the existing in‐house methods for estimating the daily patient flows 90 days ahead.
An energy‐efficient floating‐point compute SRAM with pipelined in‐memory bit‐parallel exponent and bitwise mantissa processing
Authors: Mai Yangzhan , Wang Mingyu , Zhong Baiqing , Zhang Chuanghao , Zhang Yicong , Yu Zhiyi 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe promise of compute‐in‐memory (CIM) for energy‐efficient deep neural network (DNN) tasks has been demonstrated. However, most previous CIM works typically focus on low‐precision DNN computing. To enable high‐precision DNN computing, this work presents a novel SRAM‐CIM design that fully supports half‐precision floating‐point (FP16) MAC operations. To maximize the energy efficiency, an efficient in‐memory bit‐parallel approach for conducting exponent operations and the bitwise in‐memory booth encoder for reducing mantissa multiplication latency are proposed. Moreover, by enabling the pipeline of exponent and mantissa processing, the hardware utilization is improved with high throughput achieved. The proposed design is analyzed in 40 nm CMOS technology. The evaluation shows that the SRAM‐CIM achieves a frequency of 714 MHz and a peak energy efficiency of 1.53 TFLOPS/W.
The sharpest view on the high-mass star-forming region S255IR
Authors: Fedriani R. , Caratti o Garatti A. , Cesaroni R. , Tan J. C. , Stecklum B. , Moscadelli L. , Koutoulaki M. , Cosentino G. , Whittle M. 
Published: July 2023

Context. Massive stars have an impact on their surroundings from early in their formation until the end of their lives. However, very little is known about their formation. Episodic accretion may play a crucial role in the process, but only a handful of observations have reported such events occurring in massive protostars.
Aims. We aim to investigate the outburst event from the high-mass star-forming region S255IR where the protostar NIRS3 recently underwent an accretion outburst. We follow the evolution of this source both in photometry and morphology of its surroundings.
Methods. We performed near infrared adaptive optics observations on the S255IR central region using the Large Binocular Telescope in the Ks broadband as well as the H2 and Brγ narrow-band filters with an angular resolution of ~07″.06, close to the diffraction limit.
Results. We discovered a new near infrared knot north-east of NIRS3 that we interpret as a jet knot that was ejected during the last accretion outburst and observed in the radio regime as part of a follow-up after the outburst. We measured a mean tangential velocity for this knot of 450 ± 50 km s−1. We analysed the continuum-subtracted images from H2, which traces jet-shocked emission, and Brγ, which traces scattered light from a combination of accretion activity and UV radiation from the central massive protostar. We observed a significant decrease in flux at the location of NIRS3, with K = 13.48 mag being the absolute minimum in the historic series.
Conclusions. Our observations strongly suggest a scenario where the episodic accretion is followed by an episodic ejection response in the near infrared, as was seen in the earlier radio follow-up. The ~2 µm photometry from the past 30 yr suggests that NIRS3 might have undergone another outburst in the late 1980s, making it the first massive protostar with such evidence observed in the near infrared.
Gründe von Menschen ab 60 Jahren in Deutschland, sich nicht
gegen Covid-19 impfen zu lassen
Authors: Hajek André , Kretzler Benedikt , von Rüden Ursula , Orth Boris , König Hans-Helmut 
Published: July 2023

Zusammenfassung
Ziel Darstellung der Gründe von Menschen ab 60 Jahren in
Deutschland, sich nicht gegen Covid-19 impfen zu lassen.
Methoden Daten der Studie „Kommunikation der Corona-Schutzimpfung
in Deutschland“ (CoSiD). Dies ist eine Repräsentativbefragung
der Allgemeinbevölkerung. Datenerhebung war im Juli/August 2021.
Der Fokus wurde in unserer Arbeit auf Individuen ab 60 Jahren gelegt
(n=1 281 Personen).
Ergebnisse Ca. 92% der Personen 60 Jahre und älter waren
bereits gegen Covid-19 geimpft. Unter den älteren Ungeimpften waren
knapp 60% gegen eine Impfung. Wesentliche Gründe bei
älteren (und auch jüngeren) Ungeimpften, sich „eher
nicht impfen“/“auf keinen Fall“ gegen Covid-19
impfen lassen zu wollen, waren: (1) die Impfstoffe sind zu wenig/kurz
erforscht (knapp die Hälfte) sowie (2 und 3) kein
Vertrauen/allgemeine Skepsis bzw. wegen der Nebenwirkungen (jeweils gut
ein Viertel der befragten Gruppe).
Schlussfolgerung Zur Steigerung der Impfrate sind Maßnahmen
notwendig, die diesen drei Argumenten kommunikativ z. B. im Kontext der
ärztlichen Versorgung entgegentreten.
Selen und das humane Mikrobiom
Authors: Stoll Günther 
Published: July 2023

ZusammenfassungStörungen des Mikrobioms sind verbunden mit eingeschränkter
Immunresponse, metabolischen Erkrankungen, Reizdarmsyndrom,
entzündlichen Darmerkrankungen, Autoimmun- und neurologischen
Erkrankungen. Zwischen den gastrointestinalen Mikroorganismen und Selen bestehen
zahlreiche Wechselwirkungen. Das Spurenelement aktiviert die Immunantwort und
fördert die physiologische Entzündungsaktivität mit
funktionaler Downregulation. Es beeinflusst die Zusammensetzung des Mikrobioms.
Bei Selenmangel entzieht dieses seinem Wirt zusätzlich Se, bei
ausreichender Versorgung versorgt das Mikrobiom ihn mit. Eine adäquate
Supplementation trägt zu einer Eubiose bei, wodurch auch die Wirksamkeit
einer tumorreduktiven Chemotherapie unterstützt wird. Die Bestimmung des
Selenspiegels und ggf. Supplementation sind sowohl im Rahmen einer Therapie als
auch routinemäßig bei Vorsorgeuntersuchungen wichtig.Das essenzielle Spurenelement Selen reguliert aufgrund seiner physikochemischen
Sonderstellung in der zellulären Biochemie eine Vielzahl zentraler
Stoffwechselwege. Es bestehen wichtige und teilweise konträr verlaufende
Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem Spurenelement und den gastrointestinalen
Mikroorganismen.