bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Pollen production of downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) along an altitudinal gradient in the European Alps
Authors: Ranpal Surendra , von Bargen Susanne , Gilles Stefanie , Luschkova Daria , Landgraf Maria , Traidl-Hoffmann Claudia , Büttner Carmen , Damialis Athanasios , Jochner-Oette Susanne 
Published: May 2023

AbstractHigh-altitude environments are highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Thus, it is crucial to examine and understand the behaviour of specific plant traits along altitudinal gradients, which offer a real-life laboratory for analysing future impacts of climate change. The available information on how pollen production varies at different altitudes in mountainous areas is limited. In this study, we investigated pollen production of 17 birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) individuals along an altitudinal gradient in the European Alps. We sampled catkins at nine locations in the years 2020–2021 and monitored air temperatures. We investigated how birch pollen, flowers and inflorescences are produced in relation to thermal factors at various elevations. We found that mean pollen production of Betula pubescens Ehrh. varied between 0.4 and 8.3 million pollen grains per catkin. We did not observe any significant relationships between the studied reproductive metrics and altitude. However, minimum temperature of the previous summer was found to be significantly correlated to pollen (rs = 0.504, p = 0.039), flower (rs = 0.613, p = 0.009) and catkin (rs = 0.642, p = 0.005) production per volume unit of crown. Therefore, we suggest that temperature variability even at such small scales is very important for studying the response related to pollen production.
Retrospective study on the trajectories of lower limb volume after outpatient-based complex decongestive therapy in post-operative gynecological cancer patients with lymphedema
Authors: Masui Ayano , Harada Tsuyoshi , Noda Yoshihiro , Soeda Ryo , Kida Hisashi , Tsuji Tetsuya 
Published: May 2023

Abstract

Purpose

To determine the effect of outpatient-based complex decongestive therapy in patients with secondary lower limb lymphedema (LLL) after gynecologic cancer surgery using group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM), and to examine factors predictive of the treatment course.

Methods
This retrospective study included participants who underwent surgery for gynecological cancer with pelvic lymph node dissection and subsequently visited the outpatient clinic for the treatment of stage II LLL according to the International Society of Lymphology. The improvement rate of edema at the initial visit and 3, 6, and 12 months later was assessed by calculating the volume of the lower extremity using the circumferential method. For evaluation of the patterns of treatment course, logistic regression analysis was performed after group estimation by the trend of the treatment course using GBTM.

Results
A total of 148 women (mean age 60.6 years (standard deviation: 13.4 years)) were analyzed. Three improvement trajectories were identified: (1) no response group, with worsening rather than improvement (n = 26); (2) moderate response group, with a slow improvement rate (n = 89); and (3) high response group, with a high improvement rate (n = 33). In addition, adherence to compression therapy at 3 months post-intervention was found to be a predictor in the no response group.

Conclusions
GBTM estimated that there are three patterns of the treatment course in patients with LLL after gynecologic cancer surgery. Adherence to compression therapy at 3 months post-intervention is a predictor of the treatment effectiveness.
Using immersive virtual reality to remotely examine performance differences between dominant and non-dominant hands
Authors: Evans Jack Owen , Tsaneva-Atanasova Krasimira , Buckingham Gavin 
Published: May 2023

AbstractCircle drawing may be a useful task to study upper-limb function in patient populations. However, previous studies rely on expensive and bulky robotics to measure performance. For clinics or hospitals with limited budgets and space, this may be unfeasible. Virtual reality (VR) provides a portable and low-cost tool with integrated motion capture. It offers potentially a more feasible medium by which to assess upper-limb motor function. Prior to use with patient populations, it is important to validate and test the capabilities of VR with healthy users. This study examined whether a VR-based circle drawing task, completed remotely using participant’s own devices, could capture differences between movement kinematics of the dominant and non-dominant hands in healthy individuals. Participants (n = 47) traced the outline of a circle presented on their VR head-mounted displays with each hand, while the positions of the hand-held controllers were continuously recorded. Although there were no differences observed in the size or roundness of circles drawn with each hand, consistent with prior literature our results did show that the circles drawn with the dominant hand were completed faster than those with the non-dominant hand. This provides preliminary evidence that a VR-based circle drawing task may be a feasible method for detecting subtle differences in function in clinical populations.
Experimental evidence that toe-tapping behavior in the green-and-black poison frog (Dendrobates auratus) is related to prey detection
Authors: Schulte Lisa M. , König Yannis 
Published: May 2023

AbstractToe-tapping, the quick movement of the middle toes of the hind legs, has been observed in many frogs and toads, and is usually associated with feeding, calling, or courtship behaviors. While plenty of observations of toe-tapping exist for different species, experimental evidence regarding the stimuli triggering this behavior is almost non-existent. Here, we systematically tested the influence of different stimuli on the toe-tapping behavior in the green-and-black poison frog (Dendrobates auratus, Dendrobatidae) from a captive colony in the Zoo Frankfurt. We found that, compared to a control, both big and small prey animals (crickets and fruit flies) elicited much more toe-tapping behavior, and that toe-tapping was positively correlated to feeding events. Playback advertisement calls in contrast did not trigger toe-tapping. We further showed that also juvenile frogs already toe-tap, but less frequently than adults. Our results support the observation-based data that toe-tapping is associated with hunting behaviors. While the auditory part of courtship does not seem to trigger toe-tapping, experimental evidence regarding visual and/or tactile courtship stimuli is still lacking.
Effects of myocardial sheetlet sliding on left ventricular function
Authors: Zheng Yu , Chan Wei Xuan , Nielles-Vallespin Sonia , Scott Andrew D. , Ferreira Pedro F. , Leo Hwa Liang , Yap Choon Hwai 
Published: May 2023

AbstractLeft ventricle myocardium has a complex micro-architecture, which was revealed to consist of myocyte bundles arranged in a series of laminar sheetlets. Recent imaging studies demonstrated that these sheetlets re-orientated and likely slided over each other during the deformations between systole and diastole, and that sheetlet dynamics were altered during cardiomyopathy. However, the biomechanical effect of sheetlet sliding is not well-understood, which is the focus here. We conducted finite element simulations of the left ventricle (LV) coupled with a windkessel lumped parameter model to study sheetlet sliding, based on cardiac MRI of a healthy human subject, and modifications to account for hypertrophic and dilated geometric changes during cardiomyopathy remodeling. We modeled sheetlet sliding as a reduced shear stiffness in the sheet-normal direction and observed that (1) the diastolic sheetlet orientations must depart from alignment with the LV wall plane in order for sheetlet sliding to have an effect on cardiac function, that (2) sheetlet sliding modestly aided cardiac function of the healthy and dilated hearts, in terms of ejection fraction, stroke volume, and systolic pressure generation, but its effects were amplified during hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and diminished during dilated cardiomyopathy due to both sheetlet angle configuration and geometry, and that (3) where sheetlet sliding aided cardiac function, it increased tissue stresses, particularly in the myofibre direction. We speculate that sheetlet sliding is a tissue architectural adaptation to allow easier deformations of the LV walls so that LV wall stiffness will not hinder function, and to provide a balance between function and tissue stresses. A limitation here is that sheetlet sliding is modeled as a simple reduction in shear stiffness, without consideration of micro-scale sheetlet mechanics and dynamics.
Acoustic prison for single live cell 3D multi-imaging enabled by light-sheet microscopy
Authors: Richard Cynthia , Vargas-Ordaz Erick J. , Cadarso Victor J. , Neild Adrian 
Published: May 2023

AbstractHaving a system capable of obtaining high resolution, quantitative, subcellular information of individual live cells through imaging, while minimizing cell damage, is of great importance in many fields of research. In recent years, optofluidic light-sheet fluorescent microscopy (LSFM) has emerged as a powerful tool providing a low photo-toxic imaging method utilising the fluidic environment offered by microfluidics. Here, the benefits of LSFM were integrated with an acoustic single cell prison for precise single cell handling and 3D multi-imaging in a semi-automated manner. The compact, monolithic, acousto-optofluidic platform employed standing surface acoustic waves (SSAWs) to sequentially trap an individual cell on either side of an imaging region, which gathered planar, cross-sectional images of the cell. A cytoplasmic stain was utilised to not only visualize the cell trajectory throughout the imaging process, but also to verify the cell viability post-acoustic exposure. A mitochondrial stain was also used to better demonstrate the resolution capabilities of the device. Through post-image processing, 3D volumetric images of the cell were reconstructed and the results between the first and second rounds of imaging were directly comparable. Furthermore, the acoustic prison advantageously positions the cells in the upper region of the channel, enabling the ability to accurately compare temporal changes in cell morphology; a capability that can lead to advancements in therapeutics and drug delivery to access responses of cells to stimuli over time.
Oncogenic signaling-mediated regulation of chromatin during tumorigenesis
Authors: Alam Jahangir , Huda Md Nazmul , Tackett Alan J , Miah Sayem 
Published: May 2023

AbstractSignaling pathways play critical roles in executing and controlling important biological processes within cells. Cells/organisms trigger appropriate signal transduction pathways in order to turn on or off intracellular gene expression in response to environmental stimuli. An orchestrated regulation of different signaling pathways across different organs and tissues is the basis of many important biological functions. Presumably, any malfunctions or dysregulation of these signaling pathways contribute to the pathogenesis of disease, particularly cancer. In this review, we discuss how the dysregulation of signaling pathways (TGF-β signaling, Hippo signaling, Wnt signaling, Notch signaling, and PI3K-AKT signaling) modulates chromatin modifications to regulate the epigenome, thereby contributing to tumorigenesis and metastasis.
When don’t we need a new extreme event attribution study?
Authors: Clarke Ben , Otto Friederike , Jones Richard 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe influence of anthropogenic climate change on the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is becoming increasingly well understood. Extreme event attribution studies now exist for hundreds of events over the past few decades. However, there remain large heterogeneities in the number of attribution studies across the world and for different hazards, as well as limited capacity to conduct new studies. In this study, we suggest that there is more information to draw from past attribution studies about recent events. This is because, even though anthropogenic forcing continues to increase, many new events share meteorological characteristics with previously attributed ones. Here, we explore the possibility of using related studies and other lines of existing evidence such as projections and trend analysis to create rapid, low-resource attribution statements. To do this, we discuss the potential use cases for attribution results, including raising awareness of climate risks, preparing adaptation measures and attributing climate loss and damage. Then we discuss the considerations necessary to fulfil these uses in three cases studies, including a heatwave in the UK, a tropical storm in the Caribbean and a drought in East Africa. To conclude, we highlight the regions and hazards for which information can be drawn without new quantitative analysis, and those in which it remains urgent. This could aid prioritisation of limited resources for research into less well understood regions and hazards.
Some Optimal Conditions for the ASCLT
Authors: Berkes István , Hörmann Siegfried 
Published: May 2023

AbstractLet $$X_{1},X_{2},\ldots $$

X
1

,

X
2

,
…

be independent random variables with $${E}X_{k}=0$$

E

X
k

=
0

and $$\sigma _{k}^{\,2}:={E}X_{k}^2<\infty $$

σ

k

2

:
=
E

X

k

2

<
∞

$$(k\ge 1)$$

(
k
≥
1
)

. Set $$S_k=X_1+\cdots +X_k$$

S
k

=

X
1

+
⋯
+

X
k

and assume that $$s_{k}^{\,2}:={E}S_k^2\rightarrow \infty $$

s

k

2

:
=
E

S
k
2

→
∞

. We prove that under the Kolmogorov condition $$\begin{aligned} |X_n|\le L_n, \quad L_n =o(s_n/(\log \log s_n)^{1/2}) \end{aligned}$$

|

X
n

|
≤

L
n

,

L
n

=
o

(

s
n

/

(
log
log

s
n

)

1
/
2

)

we have $$\begin{aligned} \frac{1}{\log s_{n}^{\,2}}\sum _{k=1}^{n}\frac{\sigma _{k+1}^{\,2}}{s_{k}^{\,2}}f\left( \frac{S_{k}}{s_{k}}\right) \rightarrow \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }}\int _{\mathbb {R}}f(x)e^{-x^2/2}\,\textrm{d}x\quad \mathrm {a.s.}\end{aligned}$$

1

log

s

n

2

∑

k
=
1

n

σ

k
+
1

2

s

k

2

f

S
k

s
k

→

1

2
π

∫
R

f

(
x
)

e

-

x
2

/
2

d
x

a
.
s
.

for any almost everywhere continuous function $$f: {\mathbb R} \rightarrow {\mathbb R}$$

f
:
R
→
R

satisfying $$|f(x)|\le e^{\gamma x^2}$$

|
f

(
x
)

|

≤

e

γ

x
2

, $$\gamma <1/2$$

γ
<
1
/
2

. We also show that replacing the o in (1) by O, relation (2) becomes generally false. Finally, in the case when (1) is not assumed, we give an optimal condition for (2) in terms of the remainder term in the Wiener approximation of the partial sum process $$\{S_n, \, n\ge 1\}$$

{

S
n

,

n
≥
1
}

by a Wiener process.
Structural, thermal and energetic properties of Andean-pseudocereal flours with high nutritional values
Authors: Dávalos Juan Z. , Tirado Arminda , Romero Violeta , Cisneros Gregorio , Gamarra Francisco 
Published: May 2023

AbstractStructural, thermal and energetic properties of quinoa, kiwicha and kañiwa native Andean-pseudocereal flours have been studied. Moisture, protein and fat contents and also metallic and semi-metallic levels were, in general, within of the range values reported in the literature. Empirical formulas of quinoa, kiwicha and kañiwa flours have been determined as CH1.87O0.81N0.06S0.0015, CH1.90O0.82N0.05S0.0019 and CH1.76O0.73N0.06S0.0017, respectively. The elemental carbon concentration (Cflour) in organic matter follows the trend, Ckañiwa (45.6%) > Ckiwicha (43.2%) ≈ Cquinoa (43.3%), which reflects the greater structural similarity between the quinoa and kiwicha flours, with respect to kañiwa flour. Regarding thermal and energetic properties: (i) in the temperature range of 261.15–343.15 K, we found no significant differences among the specific heat capacities of the three flours, which are ranged between 1.3 and 1.9 J g−1 K−1; (ii) the organic matter decomposition temperature (Tdec) followed the trend, Tdec,kañiwa (489.8 ± 1.6 K) > Tdec,kiwicha (479.1 ± 1.5 K) ≥ Tdec,quinoa (477.1 ± 1.5 K) indicating a greater thermal stability range of kañiwa flour; (iii) the gelatinization temperatures and also the gelatinization enthalpy of kañiwa flour (4.3 ± 1.6 J g−1) were lower than corresponding thermal gelatinization parameters of quinoa and kiwicha flours; and (iv) the standard massic energy of combustion (− Δcu°) or its associated net calorific value (qNCV) of kañiwa flour (18.77 ± 0.15 kJ g−1 or 4487 ± 36 kcal kg−1) was slightly greater than for kiwicha (18.47 ± 0.11 kJ g−1 or 4415 ± 26 kcal kg−1) and quinoa (18.60 ± 0.16 kJ g−1 or 4445 ± 39 kcal kg−1) flours. Taking into account the associated uncertainties, qNCV trend is similar to the Cflour and Tdec trends. Accordingly, our results indicate a greater range thermal stability and greater net calorific value for kañiwa flour than for kiwicha and quinoa flours.
Neurometabolic changes in a rat pup model of type C hepatic encephalopathy depend on age at liver disease onset
Authors: Simicic Dunja , Rackayova Veronika , Braissant Olivier , Toso Christian , Oldani Graziano , Sessa Dario , McLin Valérie A. , Cudalbu Cristina 
Published: May 2023

AbstractChronic liver disease (CLD) is a serious condition where various toxins present in the blood affect the brain leading to type C hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Both adults and children are impacted, while children may display unique vulnerabilities depending on the affected window of brain development.We aimed to use the advantages of high field proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H MRS) to study longitudinally the neurometabolic and behavioural effects of Bile Duct Ligation (animal model of CLD-induced type C HE) on rats at post-natal day 15 (p15) to get closer to neonatal onset liver disease. Furthermore, we compared two sets of animals (p15 and p21-previously published) to evaluate whether the brain responds differently to CLD according to age onset.We showed for the first time that when CLD was acquired at p15, the rats presented the typical signs of CLD, i.e. rise in plasma bilirubin and ammonium, and developed the characteristic brain metabolic changes associated with type C HE (e.g. glutamine increase and osmolytes decrease). When compared to rats that acquired CLD at p21, p15 rats did not show any significant difference in plasma biochemistry, but displayed a delayed increase in brain glutamine and decrease in total-choline. The changes in neurotransmitters were milder than in p21 rats. Moreover, p15 rats showed an earlier increase in brain lactate and a different antioxidant response. These findings offer tentative pointers as to which neurodevelopmental processes may be impacted and raise the question of whether similar changes might exist in humans but are missed owing to1H MRS methodological limitations in field strength of clinical magnet.
A minimal model for adaptive SIS epidemics
Authors: Achterberg Massimo A. , Sensi Mattia 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe interplay between disease spreading and personal risk perception is of key importance for modelling the spread of infectious diseases. We propose a planar system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to describe the co-evolution of a spreading phenomenon and the average link density in the personal contact network. Contrary to standard epidemic models, we assume that the contact network changes based on the current prevalence of the disease in the population, i.e. the network adapts to the current state of the epidemic. We assume that personal risk perception is described using two functional responses: one for link-breaking and one for link-creation. The focus is on applying the model to epidemics, but we also highlight other possible fields of application. We derive an explicit form for the basic reproduction number and guarantee the existence of at least one endemic equilibrium, for all possible functional responses. Moreover, we show that for all functional responses, limit cycles do not exist. This means that our minimal model is not able to reproduce consequent waves of an epidemic, and more complex disease or behavioural dynamics are required to reproduce epidemic waves.
Explainable AI in radiology: a white paper of the Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology
Authors: Neri Emanuele , Aghakhanyan Gayane , Zerunian Marta , Gandolfo Nicoletta , Grassi Roberto , Miele Vittorio , Giovagnoni Andrea , Laghi Andrea ,   SIRM expert group on Artificial Intelligence
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe term Explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI) groups together the scientific body of knowledge developed while searching for methods to explain the inner logic behind the AI algorithm and the model inference based on knowledge-based interpretability. The xAI is now generally recognized as a core area of AI. A variety of xAI methods currently are available to researchers; nonetheless, the comprehensive classification of the xAI methods is still lacking. In addition, there is no consensus among the researchers with regards to what an explanation exactly is and which are salient properties that must be considered to make it understandable for every end-user. The SIRM introduces an xAI-white paper, which is intended to aid Radiologists, medical practitioners, and scientists in the understanding an emerging field of xAI, the black-box problem behind the success of the AI, the xAI methods to unveil the black-box into a glass-box, the role, and responsibilities of the Radiologists for appropriate use of the AI-technology. Due to the rapidly changing and evolution of AI, a definitive conclusion or solution is far away from being defined. However, one of our greatest responsibilities is to keep up with the change in a critical manner. In fact, ignoring and discrediting the advent of AI a priori will not curb its use but could result in its application without awareness. Therefore, learning and increasing our knowledge about this very important technological change will allow us to put AI at our service and at the service of the patients in a conscious way, pushing this paradigm shift as far as it will benefit us.
The performance of international organizations: a new measure and dataset based on computational text analysis of evaluation reports
Authors: Eckhard Steffen , Jankauskas Vytautas , Leuschner Elena , Burton Ian , Kerl Tilman , Sevastjanova Rita 
Published: May 2023

AbstractInternational organizations (IOs) of the United Nations (UN) system publish around 750 evaluation reports per year, offering insights on their performance across project, program, institutional, and thematic activities. So far, it was not feasible to extract quantitative performance measures from these text-based reports. Using deep learning, this article presents a novel text-based performance metric: We classify individual sentences as containing a negative, positive, or neutral assessment of the evaluated IO activity and then compute the share of positive sentences per report. Content validation yields that the measure adequately reflects the underlying concept of performance; convergent validation finds high correlation with human-provided performance scores by the World Bank; and construct validation shows that our measure has theoretically expected results. Based on this, we present a novel dataset with performance measures for 1,082 evaluated activities implemented by nine UN system IOs and discuss avenues for further research.