bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A systematic review of investment indicators and economic growth in Nigeria
Authors: Abdulkarim Yusuf 
Published: August 2023

AbstractMost developing countries, including Nigeria, are stuck in a vicious cycle of low investment caused by insufficient domestic savings, resulting in inadequate capital formation and a large savings-investment gap. Given the significance of investment in poverty alleviation and economic growth, the study conducted a disaggregated analysis on the impact of various measures of investment on economic growth in Nigeria from 1981 to 2020. Using the conventional and structural break stationarity tests, as well as the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, the epistemological findings confirm a compelling co-integrating relationship among the study variables and show that credit to the private sector, domestic investment, economic liberalization, foreign portfolio investment, and interest rate have a significant positive impact on long-term growth, whereas foreign direct investment, capital expenditure, and inflation rate retarded growth substantially in the long-run. Furthermore, the short-run results revealed that economic liberalization, private-sector credit, and portfolio investment all correlate positively with growth. In contrast, foreign direct investment, infrastructure spending, and inflation rate are profoundly negative. The study therefore advocated for effective fiscal and monetary policy coordination to lower the cost of doing business, incentivize and open up opportunities for domestic and foreign investors, increase infrastructure spending to create jobs, reduce poverty and sustain growth.
A Successful Case of Implementation of Farm Animal Welfare Audits by Large Meat Buyers
Authors: Grandin Temple 
Published: August 2023

AbstractFor many years, the supply chain managers of large supermarkets and restaurant corporations have been conducting animal welfare audits of farms and slaughter plants. Some programs have been more effective than others. This case history describes the early implementation of a highly effective program for auditing animal welfare in slaughter plants. The lessons learned from the implementation of this program in 1999 are still relevant today. There were four major factors that made this welfare auditing program effective. They were: (1) corporate management became motivated to improve conditions in the slaughter plants after they visited plants that had severe animal welfare problems, (2) the welfare standards used to audit the beef and pork plants were simple and easy to understand. They provided clear guidance on conditions that would result in a failed audit, (3) more than one commercial company enforced the same standards at the numerous slaughter plants, and (4) there was an emphasis on repairing existing facilities and improving management instead of buying lots of expensive new equipment. There were only 3 plants out of 75 where expensive renovations were required. This case history will also discuss how veterinarians and management consultants can help food animal supply chain managers implement effective programs that will improve animal welfare. Practical commercial animal welfare assessments will need to be simpler than assessments used for research.Information© The Author 2023
Pride Unveiled: Exploring the Rise, Struggles, and Future of LGBT Tourism in Turkey
Authors: Güliz Coşkun 
Published: August 2023

Summary
For over a decade, Istanbul has hosted the Pride festival, representing a significant milestone for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. The organization of Pride events in Istanbul marked a tremendous stride in attracting LGBT tourists to the city. Although Pride events have also been initiated in some other Muslim countries, such as Lebanon and Kosovo, Istanbul’s Pride was established 11 years prior to these nations. However, in 2014, the Pride festival was abruptly cancelled citing “security” reasons. Subsequently, Turkish municipalities not only prohibited Pride but also banned all LGBT events, encompassing movies, shows, panels, exhibitions, and plays. Consequently, this has resulted in a decline in the availability of gay-friendly hotels and travel agencies. This study aims to review academic literature, statistical reports, and media sources to address questions regarding why Turkey has not become a popular destination among LGBT tourists, the events that precipitated animosity toward this group, and how the conservative government has influenced perceptions regarding the LGBT population in Turkey

Information
© The Author 2023
Effect of SiO2 protective layer on LiNbO3 structured SAW resonators and temperature characteristics study
Authors: Qiang Liu , Wenlong Yang , Chi Chen , Hongyuan Li , Hong Xu 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
In this paper, using LiNbO3 as the piezoelectric substrate, Pt as the electrode and SiO2 as the protective layer, a multi-physics field coupled finite element model was used to investigate the effect of the protective layer thickness on the Rayleigh wave propagation characteristics, and the relationship between the protective layer thickness and the frequency–temperature coefficient TCF and electromechanical coupling coefficient K
2 is established. The frequency characteristics of the device and the microscopic changes of the electrode and substrate structures under high temperature were analyzed experimentally. The results show that no acoustic mode shift occurs when the normalized thickness is less than 31.25%. As the thickness of the protective layer increases, the vibration displacement in the direction of L wave, SH wave and SV wave decreases, and the thickness of the protective layer can be increased appropriately to reduce the interference of SH wave to Rayleigh wave; |TCF| decreases with increasing thickness of the protective layer. Changes in the thickness of the protective layer at different temperatures lead to fluctuations in K
2; the protective layer structure leads to a slight decrease in Q value. As the temperature increases, the fluctuation of the resonant frequency of the SAW resonator increases. The SiO2 protective layer can effectively protect LiNbO3 materials while improving the high-temperature working stability of Pt electrodes.
Glycol 400 assisted preparation of high contact surface TiO2/GO nanocomposites for photocatalytic degradation rhodamine B
Authors: Lu Feitong , Wei Wei , Shi Qiang , Wang Ning , Xiao Yi , Li Zibo 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
TiO2/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites with high contact interface were prepared with glycol 400 (PEG400) served as dispersant. This nanocomposite exhibits improved photocatalytic efficiency in contrast with the nanocomposite prepared without PEG400. In this work, the photocatalytic performance was investigated by observing the degradation rate of Rhodamine B (RhB). And it is found that the mass ratios of GO in nanocomposites plays an important role. When the mass ratio of GO reached 45%, the photocatalytic performance of the nanocomposites reached the highest, which is ∼72%. Moreover, the photocatalytic mechanism was studied through theoretical calculations, which can be summarized as follows: (1) the presence of GO decreases the band gap of TiO2 nanoparticles. (2) GO inhibits the the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pair. (3) GO improves the adsorption capacity of TiO2 nanoparticles for RhB. This work promoted the application of TiO2/GO nanocomposites in wastewater treatment.
Effects of anodization conditions of stainless steel on the formation of ordered nanoporous structures with high aspect ratios
Authors: Osada Yuga , Yanagishita Takashi 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The nanoporous structures obtained by the anodization of stainless steel are functional materials with various potential applications. It has been reported that nanoporous structures can be prepared by the anodization of stainless steel in an electrolyte containing fluoride ions. However, under the reported anodization conditions, the control range of the interpore distance of resulting nanoporous structures was narrow. To expand the application fields of the nanoporous structures obtained by the anodization of stainless steel, it is an important challenge to determine the anodization conditions that can control the interpore distance of nanoporous structures over a wide range. In this study, we investigated the effects of the electrolyte composition on the anodization behavior of stainless steel and the interpore distance of the resulting nanoporous structure. As a result, we found that the maximum voltage for the stable anodization of stainless steel increases when a mixture of ethylene glycol and glycerol containing NH4F is used as the electrolyte. Since the interpore distance of nanoporous structures obtained by the anodization of stainless steel is proportional to the anodization voltage, as the voltage range over which stainless steel can be anodized increased, the range of interpore distances of the nanoporous structures obtained also increased. On the basis of these results, ordered nanoporous structures with a large interpore distance (100 nm), which could not be obtained under the previously reported anodization conditions, were fabricated by the anodization of a stainless steel substrate with a depression pattern formed by Ar ion milling using an alumina mask under optimized anodization conditions. The resulting ordered nanoporous structures with controlled interpore distances are expected to be used in various devices such as capacitors and photocatalysts.
Compressible sponge electrodes by oxidative molecular layer deposition (oMLD) of polyethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT) onto open-cell polyurethane sponges
Authors: Mehregan Mahya , Stalla David , Luebbert Gabe , Baratta Lauren , Brathwaite Katrina G , Wyatt Quinton K , Paranamana Nikhila C , Young Matthias J 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The formation of compressible porous sponge electrodes is appealing to overcome diffusion limitations in porous electrodes for applications including electrochemical energy storage, electrochemical water desalination, and electrocatalysis. Previous work has employed wet chemical synthesis to deliver conductive materials into porous polymer sponge supports, but these approaches struggle to produce functional electrodes due to (1) poor electrical connectivity of the conductive network and (2) mechanical rigidity of the foam after coating. In this work we employ oxidative molecular layer deposition (oMLD) via sequential gas-phase exposures of 3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) and molybdenum pentachloride (MoCl5) oxidant to imbibe polyurethane (PU) sponges with electrically-conductive and redox-active poly(3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) coatings. We analyze the oMLD deposition on compressive PU sponges and modify the reaction conditions to obtain mechanically compressible and electrically conductive sponge electrodes. We specifically identify the importance MoCl5 dose time to enhance the conductivity of the sponges and the importance of EDOT purge time to preserve the mechanical properties of the sponges. Controlling these variables produces an electrically conductive PEDOT network within the sponge support with reduced impact on the sponge’s mechanical properties, offering advantages over wet-chemical synthesis approaches. The compressible, conductive sponges we generate have the potential to be used as compressible electrodes for water desalination, energy storage, and electrocatalysis.
A new type of stable borophene with flat-band-induced magnetism
Authors: Li Zhijian , Xue Yang , Yao Qingzhao , Zhao Bao , Xu Wei , Yang Zhongqin 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Based on first-principles calculations, we propose a new type of thermally and dynamically stable magnetic borophene (B11) with a tetragonal lattice. The magnetism is found coming from spin polarization of one bonding flat band located at the Fermi level. Despite of the ‘anti-molecular’ behavior in the monolayer, the interactions between the p

z
orbitals of the B atoms in the double-octahedron structural unit lead to the formation of the flat bands with localization behaviors. One tight binding model is built to comprehend the magnetic mechanism, which can guide us to tune other nonmagnetic borophene becoming magnetic. Biaxial tensile strain (>2.1%) is found triggering a phase transition from a semimetal to a semiconductor in the B11 monolayer. The mechanism is analyzed based on the orbital-resolved crystal field effect. Our work provides a new route for designing and achieving two-dimensional magnetic materials with light elements.
Performance of an automated registration-based method for longitudinal lesion matching and comparison to inter-reader variability
Authors: Huff Daniel T , Santoro-Fernandes Victor , Chen Song , Chen Meijie , Kashuk Carl , Weisman Amy J , Jeraj Robert , Perk Timothy G 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Objective. Patients with metastatic disease are followed throughout treatment with medical imaging, and accurately assessing changes of individual lesions is critical to properly inform clinical decisions. The goal of this work was to assess the performance of an automated lesion-matching algorithm in comparison to inter-reader variability (IRV) of matching lesions between scans of metastatic cancer patients. Approach. Forty pairs of longitudinal PET/CT and CT scans were collected and organized into four cohorts: lung cancers, head and neck cancers, lymphomas, and advanced cancers. Cases were also divided by cancer burden: low-burden (<10 lesions), intermediate-burden (10–29), and high-burden (30+). Two nuclear medicine physicians conducted independent reviews of each scan-pair and manually matched lesions. Matching differences between readers were assessed to quantify the IRV of lesion matching. The two readers met to form a consensus, which was considered a gold standard and compared against the output of an automated lesion-matching algorithm. IRV and performance of the automated method were quantified using precision, recall, F1-score, and the number of differences. Main results. The performance of the automated method did not differ significantly from IRV for any metric in any cohort (p > 0.05, Wilcoxon paired test). In high-burden cases, the F1-score (median [range]) was 0.89 [0.63, 1.00] between the automated method and reader consensus and 0.93 [0.72, 1.00] between readers. In low-burden cases, F1-scores were 1.00 [0.40, 1.00] and 1.00 [0.40, 1.00], for the automated method and IRV, respectively. Automated matching was significantly more efficient than either reader (p < 0.001). In high-burden cases, median matching time for the readers was 60 and 30 min, respectively, while automated matching took a median of 3.9 min Significance. The automated lesion-matching algorithm was successful in performing lesion matching, meeting the benchmark of IRV. Automated lesion matching can significantly expedite and improve the consistency of longitudinal lesion-matching.
Region of interest focused MRI to synthetic CT translation using regression and segmentation multi-task network
Authors: Kaushik Sandeep S , Bylund Mikael , Cozzini Cristina , Shanbhag Dattesh , Petit Steven F , Wyatt Jonathan J , Menzel Marion I , Pirkl Carolin , Mehta Bhairav , Chauhan Vikas , Chandrasekharan Kesavadas , Jonsson Joakim , Nyholm Tufve , Wiesinger Florian , Menze Bjoern 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Objective. In MR-only clinical workflow, replacing CT with MR image is of advantage for workflow efficiency and reduces radiation to the patient. An important step required to eliminate CT scan from the workflow is to generate the information provided by CT via an MR image. In this work, we aim to demonstrate a method to generate accurate synthetic CT (sCT) from an MR image to suit the radiation therapy (RT) treatment planning workflow. We show the feasibility of the method and make way for a broader clinical evaluation. Approach. We present a machine learning method for sCT generation from zero-echo-time (ZTE) MRI aimed at structural and quantitative accuracies of the image, with a particular focus on the accurate bone density value prediction. The misestimation of bone density in the radiation path could lead to unintended dose delivery to the target volume and results in suboptimal treatment outcome. We propose a loss function that favors a spatially sparse bone region in the image. We harness the ability of the multi-task network to produce correlated outputs as a framework to enable localization of region of interest (RoI) via segmentation, emphasize regression of values within RoI and still retain the overall accuracy via global regression. The network is optimized by a composite loss function that combines a dedicated loss from each task. Main results. We have included 54 brain patient images in this study and tested the sCT images against reference CT on a subset of 20 cases. A pilot dose evaluation was performed on 9 of the 20 test cases to demonstrate the viability of the generated sCT in RT planning. The average quantitative metrics produced by the proposed method over the test set were—(a) mean absolute error (MAE) of 70 ± 8.6 HU; (b) peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 29.4 ± 2.8 dB; structural similarity metric (SSIM) of 0.95 ± 0.02; and (d) Dice coefficient of the body region of 0.984 ± 0. Significance. We demonstrate that the proposed method generates sCT images that resemble visual characteristics of a real CT image and has a quantitative accuracy that suits RT dose planning application. We compare the dose calculation from the proposed sCT and the real CT in a radiation therapy treatment planning setup and show that sCT based planning falls within 0.5% target dose error. The method presented here with an initial dose evaluation makes an encouraging precursor to a broader clinical evaluation of sCT based RT planning on different anatomical regions.
Pair Production of Heavy Charged Gauge Bosons in pp Collisions at LHC
Authors: Ahmed Ijaz , Khaliq Fazal , Ashraf M U , Khurshid Taimoor , Muhammad Jamil 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Two oppositely charged new heavy gauge boson pair production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is presented in this paper. These bosons are known as

W

′

boson due to the reason that it is the heavy version of Standard Model’s weak force carrier, the W boson. The production cross section and decay width in proton-proton (pp) collision at

s

= 8 TeV are calculated for different masses and coupling strengths of

W

′

. Efficiencies for different signal regions and branching ratios for different decay channels are computed. In this study, the pair production (

W

′
+

W

′
−

) is considered in emerging new physics as a result of pp collision at

s

= 8 TeV at the LHC with final state containing two tau (τ) leptons and two neutrinos (each

W

′

decay to τ and its neutrino). The event selection efficiency similar to the CMS experiment is used for the mass of

W

′

to set lower limits for different coupling strengths of

W

′

and, the obtained results are presented in this work. For heavy gauge bosons, when coupling strength is similar to that of Standard Model’s W boson, the mass of

W

′

below 445 GeV are excluded at a confidence level of 95%.
A new chaotic map derived from the Hermite–Kronecker–Brioschi characterization of the Bring-Jerrard quintic form
Authors: Alpar Orcan 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The Bring-Jerrard normal form, achieved by Tschirnhaus transformation of a regular quintic, is a reduced type of the general quintic equation with quartic, cubic and quadratic terms omitted. However, the form itself is an equation opposing the mandatory characteristics of the iterative chaotic maps. Given the form represents the fixed-point equations, it is possible to turn it into a map of iterations. Under specific conditions, the quartic map achieved by transformation from the quintic normal form exhibits chaotic behavior for real numbers. Depending on the system parameters, the new map causes period-doubling until a complete chaos within a very short range. Basically, in this paper, we present a new one-dimensional chaotic map derived from the Hermite–Kronecker–Brioschi characterization of the Bring-Jerrard normal form, which exhibits chaotic behavior for negative initial points. We also included the brief analysis of the Bring-Jerrard generalized case which is the parent system of the chaotic map we proposed in this paper.
A modified Bohr’s quantization rule to estimate the energy levels of relativistic systems
Authors: Amal Felan , T Shivalingaswamy , Kagali B A 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Estimation of quantum energy levels is crucial to understand the physical systems in both non relativistic and relativistic domains. Here we put forward a new method to deduce quantized energy levels of some simple relativistic quantum systems without solving wave equations but using Bohr’s quantization rule along with a few suitable modifications. The results obtained are in good agreement with formal calculations available in the literature.
Synchronizing the consistency relation
Authors: Inomata Keisuke , Lee Hayden , Hu Wayne 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
We study the N-point function of the density contrast to quadratic order in the squeezed limit during the matter-dominated (MD) and radiation-dominated (RD) eras in synchronous gauge.
Since synchronous gauge follows the free-fall frame of observers, the equivalence principle dictates that in the gradient approximation for the long-wavelength mode there is only a single, manifestly time-independent consistency relation for the N-point function. This simple form is dictated by the initial mapping between synchronous and local coordinates, unlike Newtonian gauge and its correspondingly separate dilation and Newtonian consistency relations. Dynamical effects only appear at quadratic order in the squeezed limit and are again characterized by a change in the local background, also known as the separate universe approach. We show that for the 3-point function the compatibility between these squeezed-limit relations and second-order perturbation theory requires both the initial and dynamical contributions to match, as they do in single-field inflation. This clarifies the role of evolution or late-time projection effects in establishing the consistency relation for observable bispectra, which is especially important for radiation acoustic oscillations and for establishing consistency below the matter-radiation equality scale in the MD era. Defining an appropriate angle and time average of these oscillations is also important for making separate universe predictions of spatially varying local observables during the RD era, which can be useful for a wider range of cosmological predictions beyond N-point functions.