bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Enhanced mechanical properties, thermal behavior and foaming ability of PP‐g‐MAH modified PP/BF composites
Authors: Liu Ya , Guan Yanjin , Zhai Jiqiang , Chen Fengjiao , Chu Hongqiang , Hu Guofeng , Lin Jun 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe mechanical properties of fiber‐reinforced polymer composites strongly depend on its interfacial bond strength and fiber content, and their further lightweight is the current urgent demands for industry. Basalt fiber (BF), as an emerging natural and environmental‐friendly material, possess a broad application prospect as it can replace glass fiber. Herein, strong PP/BF composites with excellent heat deflection temperature and enhanced impact performance were successfully prepared, which augmented with the increase of BF content. The effect of PP grafted with maleic anhydride (PP‐g‐MAH) on the interfacial bonding properties between BF and PP was investigated based on the PP/20BF composite system, which was significantly improved due to the reaction of maleic anhydride polar groups with the hydroxyl groups on the BF surface. The incorporation of PP‐g‐MAH led to 24.7%, 46.9%, and 77.2% increase in tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength of PP/20BF composites, respectively. Moreover, the crystallization properties, rheological behavior and thermal stability of the composites were significantly enhanced, which all contributed to the refinement and densification of cellular structure. The cell size was reduced from 36.38 to 13.41 μm after the addition of PP‐g‐MAH with an opening distance of 2 mm, and the cell density was enhanced by nearly one order of magnitude to 6.43 × 107 cells/cm3. The cellular structure further lightens the weight of product and promotes the lightweight development of PP/BF composites.
Extracellular matrix turnover: phytochemicals target and modulate the dual role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in liver fibrosis
Authors: Sabir Usman , Gu Hong‐mei , Zhang Da‐Wei 
Published: July 2023

AbstractExtracellular matrix (ECM) resolution by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is a well‐documented mechanism. MMPs play a dual and complex role in modulating ECM degradation at different stages of liver fibrosis, depending on the timing and levels of their expression. Increased MMP‐1 combats disease progression by cleaving the fibrillar ECM. Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) increase expression of MMP‐2, ‐9, and ‐13 in different chemicals‐induced animal models, which may alleviate or worsen disease progression based on animal models and the stage of liver fibrosis. In the early stage, elevated expression of certain MMPs may damage surrounding tissue and activate HSCs, promoting fibrosis progression. At the later stage, downregulation of MMPs can facilitate ECM accumulation and disease progression. A number of phytochemicals modulate MMP activity and ECM turnover, alleviating disease progression. However, the effects of phytochemicals on the expression of different MMPs are variable and may depend on the disease models and stage, and the dosage, timing and duration of phytochemicals used in each study. Here, we review the most recent advances in the role of MMPs in the effects of phytochemicals on liver fibrogenesis, which indicates that further studies are warranted to confirm and define the potential clinical efficacy of these phytochemicals.
Correlating Optical Microspectroscopy with 4×4 Transfer Matrix Modeling for Characterizing Birefringent Van der Waals Materials
Authors: Schwarz Julian , Niebauer Michael , Koleśnik‐Gray Maria , Szabo Maximilian , Baier Leander , Chava Phanish , Erbe Artur , Krstić Vojislav , Rommel Mathias , Hutzler Andreas 
Published: July 2023

AbstractVan der Waals materials exhibit intriguing properties for future electronic and optoelectronic devices. As those unique features strongly depend on the materials' thickness, it has to be accessed precisely for tailoring the performance of a specific device. In this study, a nondestructive and technologically easily implementable approach for accurate thickness determination of birefringent layered materials is introduced by combining optical reflectance measurements with a modular model comprising a 4×4 transfer matrix method and the optical components relevant to light microspectroscopy. This approach is demonstrated being reliable and precise for thickness determination of anisotropic materials like highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and black phosphorus in a range from atomic layers up to more than 100 nm. As a key feature, the method is well‐suited even for encapsulated layers outperforming state of‐the‐art techniques like atomic force microscopy.
Synthesis and crystal structure of structurally different cadmium selenocyanate and thiocyanate coordination compounds containing 3‐chloropyridine as ligand
Authors: Näther Christian , Jess Inke , Mangelsen Sebastian 
Published: July 2023

AbstractFour compounds with the composition Cd(NCSe)2(3‐ClPy)4 (1), [Cd(NCSe)2(3‐ClPy)2] ⋅ 3‐ClPy (2), Cd(NCSe)2(3‐ClPy)2 (3) and Cd(NCSe)2(3‐ClPy) (4) with 3‐ClPy = 3‐chloropyridine were synthesized. In the structure of 1 discrete complexes are observed, whereas in 2 the Cd cations are linked by pairs of selenocyanato anions into chains and between the chains 3‐chloropyridine solvate molecules are embedded. In compound 3 each two Cd cations are linked by pairs of anionic ligands into dinuclear units, that are further connected into layers by μ‐1,3 single bridging selenocyanate anions. In compound 4, both, octahedrally and tetrahe‐ drally coordinated Cd cations are present, that are linked by μ‐1,3‐ bridging anionic ligands into a three‐.dimensional network.Thermoanalytical investigations prove that compound 1 loses the 3‐chloropyridine ligands stepwise upon heating and transforms into compound 4 via compound 3 as an intermediate. Further investigations show that the thiocyanate analogue Cd(NCS)2(3‐ClPy) 5 that is not reported in the literature can also be prepared. Since no single crystals were available, the structure was solved from PXRD data and refined using the Rietveld method, which revealed that this compound is an isomer of 4. In its crystal structure the Cd cations are linked by μ‐1,3(N,S) and μ‐1,3,3(N,S,S)‐bridging anionic ligands into chains that are further connected via Cd2S2 rings into double chains.
Survey on brachytherapy training among radiation oncology residents in the German-speaking regions of Europe
Authors: Knoth Johannes , Konrad Stefan , Lössl Kristina , Motisi Laura , Mäurer Matthias , Linde Philipp , Lindel Katja , Niehoff Peter , Strnad Vratislav , Sturdza Alina , Corradini Stefanie 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Purpose
This survey aimed to determine the perception of brachytherapy training among residents in the DACH region, consisting of Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Material & Methods
An online questionnaire containing 22 questions related to trainee demographics (n = 5) and to brachytherapy training (n = 17) was sent in two iterations in 11/2019 and 02/2020. The following topics were evaluated: institutional support, barriers to training, extent of training, site-specific training (prostate, gynaecology, breast, gastrointestinal and skin), preferences for further training and outlook on overall development of brachytherapy. The responses were mostly based on a Likert scale of 1 to 5, thereby reflecting strength of opinion. Descriptive statistics were used to describe frequencies.

Results
Among the 108 respondents, approximately 69% of residents considered the ability to perform brachytherapy independently to be important or somewhat important. However, only 31% of respondents reported to have a dedicated brachytherapy training during residency. The major limitation to achieve independence in performing brachytherapy was seen in a low case load in Austria, in the lack of training in Switzerland and in both of them in Germany.

Conclusion
The interest in brachytherapy training among residents in German-speaking countries was generally high, but there is a perceived lack of sufficient case volumes and partially also in formal training opportunities. Fellowships at departments with a high case load as part of a formalised curriculum and dedicated hands-on workshops at national or international conferences might help to overcome these issues.
Measurement of surface tension with free-falling oscillating molten metal droplets: a numerical and experimental investigation
Authors: Fahimi Kiana , Mädler Lutz , Ellendt Nils 
Published: July 2023

AbstractRayleigh’s equation has been widely used to determine surface tension from oscillating droplets. In this study, the use of a drop-on-demand droplet generator is proposed to create free-falling, oscillating, molten metal droplets for this purpose. To examine the applicability of the droplet generator, extensive numerical simulations in three and two-dimensions were performed. The effect of gravity, initial velocity and initial deformation on the frequency and pattern of the droplet oscillation was investigated. The use of this generator enables the creation of thousands of droplets in the course of a single experiment and the droplets have a much shorter exposure time to possible unwanted contaminations, due to a rapid measurement principle. Furthermore, the adjustable nozzle size of the generator provides flexibility in terms of droplet size, which affects the range of validity of Rayleigh’s method. To validate the method, the surface tension of molten copper in an argon atmosphere was determined over a temperature range of 1400–1620 K. The determined linear relation is expressed as σ [mN m−1] = (1307 ± 98) − (0.22 ± 0.015) (T−1356) (T in K).
Longitudinal changes in qualitative aspects of semantic fluency in presymptomatic and prodromal genetic frontotemporal dementia
Authors: Jiskoot Lize C. , van den Berg Esther , Laenen Sascha A. A. M. , Poos Jackie M. , Giannini Lucia A. A. , Satoer Djaina D. , van Hemmen Judy , Pijnenburg Yolande A. L. , Vonk Jet M. J. , Seelaar Harro 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Background
The semantic fluency test is one of the most widely used neuropsychological tests in dementia diagnosis. Research utilizing the qualitative, psycholinguistic information embedded in its output is currently underexplored in presymptomatic and prodromal genetic FTD.

Methods
Presymptomatic MAPT (n = 20) and GRN (n = 43) mutation carriers, and controls (n = 55) underwent up to 6 years of neuropsychological assessment, including the semantic fluency test. Ten mutation carriers became symptomatic (phenoconverters). Total score and five qualitative fluency measures (lexical frequency, age of acquisition, number of clusters, cluster size, number of switches) were calculated. We used multilevel linear regression modeling to investigate longitudinal decline. We assessed the co-correlation of the qualitative measures at each time point with principal component analysis. We explored associations with cognitive decline and grey matter atrophy using partial correlations, and investigated classification abilities using binary logistic regression.

Results
The interrater reliability of the qualitative measures was good (ICC = 0.75–0.90). There was strong co-correlation between lexical frequency and age of acquisition, and between clustering and switching. At least 4 years pre-phenoconversion, GRN phenoconverters had fewer but larger clusters (p < 0.001), and fewer switches (p = 0.004), correlating with lower executive function (r = 0.87–0.98). Fewer switches was predictive of phenoconversion, correctly classifying 90.3%. Starting at least 4 years pre-phenoconversion, MAPT phenoconverters demonstrated an increase in lexical frequency (p = 0.009) and a decline in age of acquisition (p = 0.034), correlating with lower semantic processing (r = 0.90). Smaller cluster size was predictive of phenoconversion, correctly classifying 89.3%. Increase in lexical frequency and decline in age of acquisition were associated with grey matter volume loss of predominantly temporal areas, while decline in the number of clusters, cluster size, and switches correlated with grey matter volume loss of predominantly frontal areas.

Conclusions
Qualitative aspects of semantic fluency could give insight into the underlying mechanisms as to why the “traditional” total score declines in the different FTD mutations. However, the qualitative measures currently demonstrate more fluctuation than the total score, the measure that seems to most reliably deteriorate with time. Replication in a larger sample of FTD phenoconverters is warranted to identify if qualitative measures could be sensitive cognitive biomarkers to identify and track mutation carriers converting to the symptomatic stage of FTD.
Skeletal muscle proteins involved in fatty acid transport influence fatty acid oxidation rates observed during exercise
Authors: Maunder Ed , Rothschild Jeffrey A. , Fritzen Andreas M. , Jordy Andreas B. , Kiens Bente , Brick Matthew J. , Leigh Warren B. , Chang Wee-Leong , Kilding Andrew E. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractSeveral proteins are implicated in transmembrane fatty acid transport. The purpose of this study was to quantify the variation in fatty acid oxidation rates during exercise explained by skeletal muscle proteins involved in fatty acid transport. Seventeen endurance-trained males underwent a (i) fasted, incremental cycling test to estimate peak whole-body fatty acid oxidation rate (PFO), (ii) resting vastus lateralis microbiopsy, and (iii) 2 h of fed-state, moderate-intensity cycling to estimate whole-body fatty acid oxidation during fed-state exercise (FO). Bivariate correlations and stepwise linear regression models of PFO and FO during 0–30 min (early FO) and 90–120 min (late FO) of continuous cycling were constructed using muscle data. To assess the causal role of transmembrane fatty acid transport in fatty acid oxidation rates during exercise, we measured fatty acid oxidation during in vivo exercise and ex vivo contractions in wild-type and CD36 knock-out mice. We observed a novel, positive association between vastus lateralis FATP1 and PFO and replicated work reporting a positive association between FABPpm and PFO. The stepwise linear regression model of PFO retained CD36, FATP1, FATP4, and FABPpm, explaining ~87% of the variation. Models of early and late FO explained ~61 and ~65% of the variation, respectively. FATP1 and FATP4 emerged as contributors to models of PFO and FO. Mice lacking CD36 had impaired whole-body and muscle fatty acid oxidation during exercise and muscle contractions, respectively. These data suggest that substantial variation in fatty acid oxidation rates during exercise can be explained by skeletal muscle proteins involved in fatty acid transport.
Influence of type 2 diabetes and obesity on adipose mesenchymal stem/stromal cell immunoregulation
Authors: Mahmoud Marwa , Abdel-Rasheed Mazen 
Published: July 2023

AbstractType 2 diabetes (T2D), associated with obesity, represents a state of metabolic inflammation and oxidative stress leading to insulin resistance and progressive insulin deficiency. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are adult mesenchymal stem/stromal cells identified within the stromal vascular fraction of adipose tissue. These cells can regulate the immune system and possess anti-inflammatory properties. ASCs are a potential therapeutic modality for inflammatory diseases including T2D. Patient-derived (autologous) rather than allogeneic ASCs may be a relatively safer approach in clinical perspectives, to avoid occasional anti-donor immune responses. However, patient characteristics such as body mass index (BMI), inflammatory status, and disease duration and severity may limit the therapeutic utility of ASCs. The current review presents human ASC (hASC) immunoregulatory mechanisms with special emphasis on those related to T lymphocytes, hASC implications in T2D treatment, and the impact of T2D and obesity on hASC immunoregulatory potential. hASCs can modulate the proliferation, activation, and functions of diverse innate and adaptive immune cells via direct cell-to-cell contact and secretion of paracrine mediators and extracellular vesicles. Preclinical studies recommend the therapeutic potential of hASCs to improve inflammation and metabolic indices in a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced T2D disease model. Discordant data have been reported to unravel intact or detrimentally affected immunomodulatory functions of ASCs, isolated from patients with obesity and/or T2D patients, in vitro and in vivo. Numerous preconditioning strategies have been introduced to potentiate hASC immunomodulation; they are also discussed here as possible options to potentiate the immunoregulatory functions of hASCs isolated from patients with obesity and T2D.
Supporting secure dynamic alert zones using searchable encryption and graph embedding
Authors: Shaham Sina , Ghinita Gabriel , Shahabi Cyrus 
Published: July 2023

AbstractLocation-based alerts have gained increasing popularity in recent years, whether in the context of healthcare (e.g., COVID-19 contact tracing), marketing (e.g., location-based advertising), or public safety. However, serious privacy concerns arise when location data are used in clear in the process. Several solutions employ searchable encryption (SE) to achieve secure alerts directly on encrypted locations. While doing so preserves privacy, the performance overhead incurred is high. We focus on a prominent SE technique in the public-key setting–hidden vector encryption, and propose a graph embedding technique to encode location data in a way that significantly boosts the performance of processing on ciphertexts. We show that the optimal encoding is NP-hard, and we provide three heuristics that obtain significant performance gains: gray optimizer, multi-seed gray optimizer and scaled gray optimizer. Furthermore, we investigate the more challenging case of dynamic alert zones, where the area of interest changes over time. Our extensive experimental evaluation shows that our solutions can significantly improve computational overhead compared to existing baselines.
mHealth Impact on Gait and Dynamic Balance Outcomes in Neurorehabilitation: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Authors: Moreno-Ligero Marta , Lucena-Anton David , Salazar Alejandro , Failde Inmaculada , Moral-Munoz Jose A. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractGait and dynamic balance are two main goals in neurorehabilitation that mHealth systems could address. To analyze the impact of using mHealth systems on gait and dynamic balance outcomes in subjects with neurological disorders. Randomized controlled trials (RCT) published in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and PEDro databases were searched up to April 2023. Studies including adults with neurological disorders, analyzing the effectiveness of mHealth systems on gait and dynamic balance compared with conventional therapy and/or not intervention, were included. The PEDro scale and the Cochrane Collaboration’s 2.0 tool were used for the methodological quality and risk of bias assessment. The Review Manager 5.4 software was used to obtain meta-analyses. 13 RCT were included in the systematic review and 11 in the meta-analyses, involving 528 subjects. A total of 21 mobile applications were identified for gait and balance training, and to enhance physical activity behaviors. There were significant differences in gait parameters, speed by 0.10 s/m (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.07,0.13;p<0.001), cadence by 8.01 steps/min (95%CI=3.30,12.72;p<0.001), affected step length by 8.89 cm (95%CI=4.88,12.90;p<0.001), non-affected step length by 8.08 cm (5%CI=2.64,13.51;p=0.004), and in dynamic balance, Timed Up and Go by -7.15 s (95%CI=-9.30,-4.99;p<0.001), and mobility subscale of Posture Assessment Scale for Stroke by 1.71 points (95%CI=1.38,2.04;p<0.001). Our findings suggested the use of mHealth systems for improving gait in subjects with neurological disorders, but controversial results on dynamics balance recovery were obtained. However, the quality of evidence is insufficient to strongly recommend them, so further research is needed.
Application Level Resource Scheduling for Deep Learning Acceleration on MPSoC
Authors: Gao Cong , Saha Sangeet , Zhu Xuqi , Jing Hongyuan , McDonald-Maier Klaus D. , Zhai Xiaojun 
Published: July 2023

AbstractDeep Neutral Networks (DNNs) have been widely used in many applications, such as self-driving cars, natural language processing (NLP), image classification, visual object recognition, and so on. Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based Multiprocessor System on a Chip (MPSoC) is recently considered one of the popular choices for deploying DNN models. However, the limited resource capacity of MPSoC imposes a challenge for such practical implementation. Recent studies revealed the trade-off between the “resources consumed" vs. the “performance achieved". Taking a cue from these findings, we address the problem of efficient implementation of deep learning into the resource-constrained MPSoC in this paper, where each deep learning network is run with different service levels based on resource usage (where a higher service level implies higher performance with increased resource consumption). To this end, we propose a heuristic-based strategy, Application Wise Level Selector (AWLS), for selecting service levels to maximize the overall performance subject to a given resource bound. AWLS can achieve higher performance within a constrained resource budget under various simulation scenarios. Further, we verify the proposed strategy using an AMD-Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ XCZU9EG SoC. Using a framework designed to deploy multi-DNN on multi-DPUs (Deep Learning Units), it is proved that an optimal solution is achieved from the algorithm, which obtains the highest performance (Frames Per Second) using the same resource budget.
Towards sustainable food production and climate change mitigation: an attributional life cycle assessment comparing industrial and basalt rock dust fertilisers
Authors: Oppon Eunice , Koh S.C. Lenny , Eufrasio Rafael , Nabayiga Hellen , Donkor Frank 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Purpose
Food production is set to double by 2050 to feed the increasing world population. This poses a global challenge to minimise environmental impacts from intensified production and use of chemical fertilisers. The study investigates whether basalt rock dust fertiliser can be an environmentally sustainable close substitute to expensive conventional rock-derived P and K fertilisers.

Method
The study uses the attributional life cycle assessment method to estimate and compare 15 environmental impacts between basalt rock dust fertiliser, a potential source of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), and five widely used industrial P and K fertilisers. In addition, we model hypothetical basalt substitution rates for PK fertilisers to highlight potential ecological savings in terms of carbon capture.

Results
Basalt rock dust fertiliser has minimal embodied environmental impacts across all 15 impact categories, including global warming, compared to industrial P and K fertilisers.

Conclusion
Our results suggest that transitioning to milled basalt as a natural geo-fertiliser to support food production may help address several UN Sustainable Development Goals such as ‘Responsible consumption and production’ and ‘Climate Action and Zero Hunger’.
„Critical Voices“ – Destabilisierungsversuche des Iranischen Regimes durch Kulturschaffende und Menschenrechtsaktivistinnen an Beispielen
Authors: West-Leuer Beate 
Published: July 2023

ZusammenfassungMenschenrechtsaktivist:innen riskieren ihr Leben, um eine internationale Öffentlichkeit auf die massiven Menschenrechtsverletzungen in der Islamischen Republik Iran aufmerksam zu machen. Dieser Beitrag ist eine Referenz an ihren Mut. Um die politische Wirksamkeit dieser Critical Voices einzuordnen, wird auf die Theorie der Critical Juncture rekurriert, die sich mit der Destabilisierung autokratischer Regime beschäftigt. Als Referenz werden das Plädoyer einer Menschenrechtsaktivistin und zwei dokufiktionale Filme herangezogen. Die Filme werden aus psychodynamischer Perspektive interpretiert. So entsteht Identifikation mit und Unterstützung für Dissident:innen, was die politische Bedeutung dieser Critical Voices erhöhen kann.