bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Age-and sex-specific reference intervals of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol. Comparison of two algorithms for the indirect estimation of reference intervals
Authors: Haeckel Rainer , Ammer Tatjana , Wosniok Werner , Krebs Alexander , Torge Antje , Özcürümez Mustafa , Bertram Alexander 
Published: February 2023

Abstract

Objectives
Reference intervals of total cholesterol concentrations in plasma and of their fractions low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-, high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-and non-HDL concentrations are seldom studied with respect to the relevance of age and sex. Therefore, the effect of age and sex on the reference intervals was reinvestigated with 2 indirect procedures.

Methods
As an indirect approach, the truncated minimum chi-square method was applied. All analyses were performed by computer programs available. The script published on the homepage of the German Society of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (DGKL) allows to derive a continuous age dependency of reference intervals together with their confidence and equivalence limits. The results of this approach were compared with those obtained by an indirect method developed more recently, the refineR algorithm.

Results
In the present study, the upper reference limits of total cholesterol varied from 5.1 to 7.8 mmol/L (197–302 mg/dL) depending on various biological variables (as age, sex, inpatients versus outpatients). These upper limits increased with age. Differences between sexes can be neglected except for the age above 80 years. The pattern of reference limits of LDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol paralleled those of total cholesterol. The reference limits of HDL cholesterol were higher in women than in men but were independent of age.

Conclusions
Reference limits for the concentrations of total cholesterol and their fractions LDL-, HDL-and non-HDL concentrations should be stratified for age and sex.
Computational study of propene selectivity and yield in the dehydrogenation of propane via process simulation approach
Authors: Oyegoke Toyese , Dabai Fadimatu N. , Waziri Saidu M. , Uzairu Adamu , Jibril Baba Y. 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
Propene is a vital feedstock in the petrochemical industry with a vast range of applications. And there is a continuous rise in propene demand. To gain insight into how the on-purpose method could help meet the demand in the propene market, we investigated the impact of temperature (T) and pressure (P) on product distribution in terms of product yield and selectivity using the process simulation approach. Existing related studies were deployed to identify possible products that could be evaluated in the simulation. In the study, we used Gibbs minimization (with Gibb’s reactor) to predict the likely products obtained at different T and P. The impact of feed purity on product distribution was also evaluated. The study was aided by using the Aspen HYSYS process simulator, while Design Expert was used to search for the optimum conditions for higher conversion, yield, and selectivity. Results obtained for the modeling and simulation of the process show that operating the production process at a lower pressure would favor higher selectivity within the temperature range of 500–600 °C. In comparison, the one run at a higher pressure was predicted to be only promising, showing better selectivity within the range of 550–650 °C. The feed purity significantly impacts the propene amount, especially for one with sulfur impurity, leading to the formation of smaller olefins and sulfide compounds. Our study reveals the importance of reviewing feed purity before charging them into the dehydrogenation reactor to prevent poisoning, coking, and other activities, which do lead to undesired products like methane and ethylene. A catalyst can also be designed to efficiently dehydrogenate the propane to propene at a lower temperature to prevent side reactions.
Adsorption of trichloroacetic acid from drinking water using polyethylene terephthalate waste carbon and periwinkle shells–based chitosan
Authors: Abioye Babasanmi Oluwole , Okoya Aderonke Adetutu , Akinyele Abimbola Bankole 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
Toxins are formed because of massive anthropogenic activities, polluting freshwater bodies. Most disinfectants used in water purification produce disinfection by-products (DBPs) such as trichloroacetic acid (TCA). TCA is a strong acid, and TCA uptake could harm gastrointestinal tract tissues or result in systemic acidosis. Activated carbons were investigated to remove TCA from drinking water in this study. Elemental and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) and scanning electron microscope methodologies were employed to characterize the surface morphological features of the activated carbons (SEM). Activated carbons’ chemical functional groups were identified through using Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy technique. Using a UV-vis spectrophotometer, the TCA concentrations in water samples were examined at 530 nm. The levels of TCA in raw and conventionally treated water were 0.9900 and 2.8900 mg/L, respectively. The polyethylene terephthalate activated carbon (PETAC), polyethylene terephthalate modified activated carbon (PETMAC), and commercial activated carbon (CAC) gave mean TCA removal efficiencies of 80.80%, 90.90%, and 90.90% for raw water and 95.16%, 96.13%, and 100% for conventionally treated water, respectively. The reusability efficiencies of PETAC and PETMAC were 78.4% and 82.4%, respectively. The PETAC with R
2 = 0.9377 showed that Langmuir model best fit the TCA adsorption in the isotherm models. According to the findings, PETAC was effective at removing TCA from water sources and could be improved by incorporating chitosan.
My Study of Law and Economics. An Educational Journey with Knowledgeable Tour Guides
Authors: Schäfer Hans-Bernd 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
After studies of economics and business administration in Cologne my academic career as an economist started 1968 as a doctoral student and later as a post doc in the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy of the University of Bochum in Germany. The economic theories, with which I worked at the time had no relation to legal or social norms. This changed, after I became a professor of economics in the newly established second law department of the University of Hamburg. It was a model trial of a reformed legal education. My lawyer colleagues propagated a more policy oriented and teleological understanding of the law, legal scholarship, and teaching and demanded the integration of social sciences into the study of the law. I began studying and teaching the classical writings of the American law and economics pioneers and related them to German private law. Gradually I shifted the focus of my academic interest and publications from development studies to the economic study of civil law and became increasingly convinced that “law and economics” corrects a scientific fallacy, which emerged when the two disciplines fell apart. Later I joined -together with my lawyer colleague Claus Ott-the European master program in law and economics, established a doctoral program in law and economics and the Hamburg institute of law and economics. After the merger of the two competing law departments the united faculty took supportive and far reaching decisions to consolidate the institute and make it a center for the study of law and economics. The following pages show in more detail the factors and reasons, which made me a convinced supporter and scholar of the economic approach to law and of institutional economics.
Passive Voice in Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew in the Historical Linguistic Perspective
Authors: Notarius Tania 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
Passive diathesis in Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew is expressed by four morphological categories: Qal passive stem, Niphal stem, Qal passive participle, and impersonal construction. The distribution and functions of these categories are not proportional at different stages of the development of these languages. This paper concentrates on the distribution of Qal passive and Niphal stems. In the language of Ugaritic poetry G passive is the prevailing category; in the language of Ugaritic prose both G passive and N-stem are used to express passivity. In the languages of Classical Biblical Hebrew prose there are examples of Qal passive and Niphal in the passive function, but the situation is essentially different from Ugaritic: in Hebrew the lexical overlap between these stems is broader, and Niphal can be used in impersonal passive constructions. In Late Biblical Hebrew Qal passive is practically out of use. In Qumran Hebrew the Qal passive forms are sporadically attested, apparently as an archaizing retention.
Conversational Aposiopesis in the MT Samuel – Textual Omission or Conversational Ellipsis?
Authors: Toshio Tsumura David 
Published: February 2023

Abstract

Aposiopesis, »the sudden breaking off of what is being said (or written)«, is not simply a rhetorical figure but a linguistic device of the ellipsis of the main clause or the sentence nucleus. The speaker conveys »feelings of haste, urgency, and anxiety«, as in the cases of Hannah (1Sam 1:22) and Tamar (2Sam 13:16). The omitted phrase or clause is usually negative.
Further Examples:
1) 2Sam 23:17 Is it [not] the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?
2) 2Sam 21:1 due to Saul and the bloody house
Textual omission and conversational ellipsis need to be carefully distinguished.
Amazon’s distribution space: constructing a ‘labour fix’ through digital Taylorism and corporate Keynesianism
Authors: Henaway Mostafa 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce corporations in the world and has built a reputation for fast, low-cost service. To rapidly and efficiently move goods from production to consumption, however, Amazon relies on a logistics network that entails significant investments in infrastructure (physical and human) and these investments present a challenge for capital accumulation. In this paper, I examine the labour practices that Amazon employs within its distribution work spaces to address this challenge. The analysis is based on a case study of Amazon’s distribution facilities (fulfilment centres and delivery stations) in Montreal, Quebec. It draws on ethnographic research as a community organizer and semi-structured interviews with workers (present and former), trade union representatives and public policy experts to identify Amazon’s key strategies. Building on past studies on the platform economy, I illustrate how Amazon relies on ‘digital Taylorism’ (Staab & Nachtwey, 2016), involving the use of digital technologies to structure and control the labour process and surveil workers, as a key strategy. However, I further illustrate how Amazon seeks to balance the harmful effects of digital Taylorism with what I term ‘corporate keynesianism’ (i.e., social welfare benefits) to attain a ‘labour fix’, i.e., the steady supply of precarious, compliant labour needed to sustain the logistics machine.
Development of a Novel Laboratory Rotating Surface Erosion Apparatus for Cohesive or Stabilized Soils
Authors: Lin Yunjie , Lin Cheng , Tura Armando 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
Soil surface erosion has been recognized as a major threat to the sustainability of infrastructure, particularly in the context of climate change that can accelerate changes in physicochemical properties of eroding fluids. This study proposes a rotating surface erosion apparatus (RSEA) for soil erosion tests on cohesive/stabilized soils. Compared to other erosion test apparatuses, RSEA possesses some unique features: (1) it enables testing both disturbed and undisturbed in-situ soil specimens while imposing uniform hydraulic shear stress on the specimens, (2) it produces negligible temperature changes in the eroding fluid during the erosion testing, and (3) it accommodates fluids with different physicochemical properties. The computational fluid dynamics analysis was conducted to guide the design of the apparatus. The details of the design and fabrication of this apparatus are presented, followed by the discussions of the calibration and test procedure. In the end, effect of suspension on erosion testing using the proposed RSEA was discussed. Preliminary tests on cemented sands considering different temperature and acidity in eroding fluids were also performed and the results are discussed.
Thermal Triaxial Tests to Evaluate Improvement of Soft Marine Clay through Thermal Consolidation
Authors: Huancollo Hiden Jaime Machaca , Saboya Fernando , Tibana Sérgio , McCartney John Scott , Garske Borges Ricardo 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
This paper presents an experimental study on the thermomechanical behavior of marine clay from the Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil. The aim of the study is to assess the gain in undrained shear strength of reconstituted, normally consolidated (NC) clay specimens after drained thermal consolidation using a thermal triaxial device. The motivation behind performing these tests is that relatively few studies in the literature have focused on understanding the changes in shear strength of NC clays after a heating-cooling cycle, a path encountered in using heat to improve the properties of soft clays. Furthermore, the high-plasticity marine clays evaluated in this study have a pronounced thermal creep different from that observed in previous non-isothermal tests on clays. Consolidated isotropic undrained triaxial compression tests were performed on specimens consolidated to effective stresses of 100 kPa, 200 kPa, and 400 kPa and then sheared conventionally at room temperature as well as after drained heating-cooling cycles with maximum temperatures of 40°C and 55°C. The results were analyzed according to critical state soil mechanics after drained thermal consolidation, which was well suited to explain the improvement in undrained shear strength. The results have potential implications on the development of techniques that can promote thermal improvement of deep-water offshore anchors installed in soft soil.
Experimental Research on the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Remolded Fine-Grained Debris-Flow Deposits
Authors: Ran Yuling , Jiang Yu , He Hongzhi , Zhou Zhenhua 
Published: February 2023

Abstract
To make better use of debris-flow deposits, this paper adopts fine-grained debris-flow deposits (&lt; 2 mm) sampled from Jiangjia Gully to constitute 17 gradation structures and determines the shear strength of the remolded structures at different moisture contents and vertical loads. Furthermore, the role and mechanism of each grain size interval in the remolded soils is discussed in depth. Grey correlation analysis is also introduced to evaluate the degree of influence of each factor on remolded structures. The results indicate that the difference in grain size distribution causes different physical and mechanical characteristics for remolded structures under different external conditions. The correlation degree of each influencing factor on the shear strength of remolded soil is ordered as follows: vertical load &gt; moisture content &gt; structural gradation. At different moisture contents, fine particles exert the greatest effect on the physical and mechanical characteristics of remolded soils, especially variation in the content of fine particles of less than 0.16 mm. At low moisture content, both fine particles and coarse particles facilitate the improvement of shear strength, and the increase in particle content in the range of 0.315–0.16 mm helps to enhance the mechanical properties of remolded structures. At high moisture content, the influence of the variation in intermediate particle content should be considered, especially the increase in particle content in the size range of 0.63–0.315 mm, which helps to improve the shear strength. The change in moisture content affects the cohesion of fine particles in the structures, and the change in vertical load shifts the contact form between particles in the structures, thereby affecting the internal frictional resistance and cohesion of remolded structures. The results obtained from this research are expected to provide a good basis for the reutilization of debris-flow deposits.
A Role for KCNQ Channels on Cell Type-Specific Plasticity in Mouse Auditory Cortex after Peripheral Damage
Authors: Henton Amanda , Zhao Yanjun , Tzounopoulos Thanos 
Published: February 2023

Damage to sensory organs triggers compensatory plasticity mechanisms in sensory cortices. These plasticity mechanisms result in restored cortical responses, despite reduced peripheral input, and contribute to the remarkable recovery of perceptual detection thresholds to sensory stimuli. Overall, peripheral damage is associated with a reduction of cortical GABAergic inhibition; however, less is known about changes in intrinsic properties and the underlying biophysical mechanisms. To study these mechanisms, we used a model of noise-induced peripheral damage in male and female mice. We uncovered a rapid, cell type-specific reduction in the intrinsic excitability of parvalbumin-expressing neurons (PVs) in layer (L) 2/3 of auditory cortex. No changes in the intrinsic excitability of either L2/3 somatostatin-expressing or L2/3 principal neurons (PNs) were observed. The decrease in L2/3 PV excitability was observed 1, but not 7, d after noise exposure, and was evidenced by a hyperpolarization of the resting membrane potential, depolarization of the action potential threshold, and reduction in firing frequency in response to depolarizing current. To uncover the underlying biophysical mechanisms, we recorded potassium currents. We found an increase in KCNQ potassium channel activity in L2/3 PVs of auditory cortex 1 d after noise exposure, associated with a hyperpolarizing shift in the minimal voltage activation of KCNQ channels. This increase contributes to the decreased intrinsic excitability of PVs. Our results highlight cell-type- and channel-specific mechanisms of plasticity after noise-induced hearing loss and will aid in understanding the pathologic processes involved in hearing loss and hearing loss-related disorders, such as tinnitus and hyperacusis.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTNoise-induced damage to the peripheral auditory system triggers central plasticity that compensates for the reduced peripheral input. The mechanisms of this plasticity are not fully understood. In the auditory cortex, this plasticity likely contributes to the recovery of sound-evoked responses and perceptual hearing thresholds. Importantly, other functional aspects of hearing do not recover, and peripheral damage may also lead to maladaptive plasticity-related disorders, such as tinnitus and hyperacusis. Here, after noise-induced peripheral damage, we highlight a rapid, transient, and cell type-specific reduction in the excitability of layer 2/3 parvalbumin-expressing neurons, which is due, at least in part, to increased KCNQ potassium channel activity. These studies may highlight novel strategies for enhancing perceptual recovery after hearing loss and mitigating hyperacusis and tinnitus.
A Novel CCK Receptor GPR173 Mediates Potentiation of GABAergic Inhibition
Authors: He Ling , Shi Heng , Zhang Ge , Peng Yujie , Ghosh Avirup , Zhang Mengfan , Hu Xiaofeng , Liu Chunhua , Shao Yue , Wang Shujie , Chen Lijiang , Sun Wenjian , Su Junfeng , Chen Xi , Zhang Liang , Chan Ying-Shing , Pei Duanqing , Tortorella Micky , Guo Yiping , Yan Hong , He Jufang 
Published: February 2023

Cholecystokinin (CCK) enables excitatory circuit long-term potentiation (LTP). Here, we investigated its involvement in the enhancement of inhibitory synapses. Activation of GABA neurons suppressed neuronal responses in the neocortex to a forthcoming auditory stimulus in mice of both sexes. High-frequency laser stimulation (HFLS) of GABAergic neurons potentiated this suppression. HFLS of CCK interneurons could induce the LTP of their inhibition toward pyramidal neurons. This potentiation was abolished in CCK knock-out mice but intact in mice with both CCK1R and 2R knockout of both sexes. Next, we combined bioinformatics analysis, multiple unbiased cell-based assays, and histology examinations to identify a novel CCK receptor, GPR173. We propose GPR173 as CCK3R, which mediates the relationship between cortical CCK interneuron signaling and inhibitory LTP in the mice of either sex. Thus, GPR173 might represent a promising therapeutic target for brain disorders related to excitation and inhibition imbalance in the cortex.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTCCK, the most abundant and widely distributed neuropeptide in the CNS, colocalizes with many neurotransmitters and modulators. GABA is one of the important inhibitory neurotransmitters, and much evidence shows that CCK may be involved in modulating GABA signaling in many brain areas. However, the role of CCK-GABA neurons in the cortical microcircuits is still unclear. We identified a novel CCK receptor, GPR173, localized in the CCK-GABA synapses and mediated the enhancement of the GABA inhibition effect, which might represent a promising therapeutic target for brain disorders related to excitation and inhibition imbalance in the cortex.
Diabetes in all hospitalized cases in Germany 2015–2019 and impact of the first COVID-19 year 2020
Authors: Auzanneau Marie , Eckert Alexander J , Fritsche Andreas , Heni Martin , Icks Andrea , Mueller-Stierlin Annabel S , Dugic Ana , Risse Alexander , Lanzinger Stefanie , Holl Reinhard W 
Published: February 2023

Objective
To analyze the proportion of diabetes among all hospitalized cases in Germany between 2015 and 2020.

Methods
Using the nationwide Diagnosis-Related-Groups statistics, we identified among all inpatient cases aged ≥ 20 years all types of diabetes in the main or secondary diagnoses based on ICD-10 codes, as well all COVID-19 diagnoses for 2020.

Results
From 2015 to 2019, the proportion of cases with diabetes among all hospitalizations increased from 18.3% (3.01 of 16.45 million) to 18.5% (3.07 of 16.64 million). Although the total number of hospitalizations decreased in 2020, the proportion of cases with diabetes increased to 18.8% (2.73 of 14.50 million). The proportion of COVID-19 diagnosis was higher in cases with diabetes than in those without in all sex and age subgroups. The relative risk (RR) for a COVID-19 diagnosis in cases with vs without diabetes was highest in age group 40–49 years (RR in females: 1.51; in males: 1.41).

Conclusions
The prevalence of diabetes in the hospital is twice as high as the prevalence in the general population and has increased further with the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the increased morbidity in this high-risk patient group. This study provides essential information that should help to better estimate the need for diabetological expertise in inpatient care settings.