bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Phenotypic evolution of agricultural crops
Authors: Milla Rubén 
Published: January 2023

Abstract

Food crops are a vital source of nutrition for humans and domestic animals, with an estimated 4 billion metric tons of food produced per year. Crops do not only provide yields, but their traits also play a significant role in regulating the ecosystem processes of croplands, affecting local biotas, water balance, nutrient and carbon cycling. Domestication has led to significant changes in crop traits, making it important to understand the recent evolution of crops and how they differ from wild plants.

In this paper I review the evidence on how the ecological traits of herbaceous crops have evolved during and after domestication. Loss of seed dispersal mechanisms, increased plant and organ sizes, high rates of consumption by herbivores and fast decomposition of residues by decomposer microbes in the soil, all have evolved independently in domestication processes of different crops.

I also point out types of traits for which we have not identified common responses to domestication, be it because domestication processes of the different crop species are disparate, or because of lack of strong evidence. Those traits include resource acquisition rates of leaves and roots, and whole‐plant growth rates. Then, I discuss research gaps in the field, including how to advance knowledge for those traits that show apparently idiosyncratic responses to domestication.

Finally, I emphasize the importance of understanding the interactions of crops with other organisms and the environment to breed crops that deliver yield and other services required from croplands. To this end, I introduce an ideotype for sustainable agriculture, which might inspire the breeding of multipurpose herbaceous crops, in the same way than the ideotypes of the Green Revolution inspired the breeding of elite varieties to foster yields under conventional agriculture.

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
d‐amino acid auxotrophic Escherichia coli strain for in vivo functional cloning of novel d‐amino acid synthetic enzyme
Authors: Ito Tomokazu , Muto Natsumi , Sakagami Haruna , Tanaka Miho , Hemmi Hisashi , Yoshimura Tohru 
Published: January 2023

Various d‐amino acids have been found in a wide range of organisms, including mammals. Although the physiological functions of various d‐amino acids have been reported or suggested, the molecular basis of these biological functions has been elucidated in only a few cases. The identification of a d‐amino acid biosynthetic enzyme is a critical step in understanding the mechanism of the physiological functions of d‐amino acids. While in vivo functional screening can be a powerful tool for identifying novel metabolic enzymes, none of the existing organisms exhibit growth dependent on d‐amino acid other than d‐Ala and d‐Glu. Here, we report the first organism that exhibits non‐canonical d‐amino acid auxotrophy. We found that an Escherichia coli strain lacking the major d‐Ala and d‐Glu biosynthetic enzymes, alr, dadX, and murI, and expressing the mutated d‐amino acid transaminase (DAAT) gene from Bacillus sp. YM‐1 (MB3000/mdaat+) grew well when supplemented with certain d‐amino acid. A multicopy suppression study with plasmids encoding one of the 51 PLP‐dependent enzymes of E. coli showed that MB3000/mdaat+ could detect weak and moonlighting racemase activity, such from cystathionine β‐lyase (MetC) and a negative regulator of MalT activity/cystathionine β‐lyase (MalY)—these exhibit only a few tenths to a few thousandths of the racemization activity of canonical amino acid racemases. We believe that this unique platform will contribute to further research in this field by identifying novel d‐amino acid‐metabolizing enzymes.
Economic evaluation of fluoride varnish application in preschoolers: A systematic review
Authors: Dhyppolito Izabel Monteiro , Nadanovsky Paulo , Cruz Laís Rueda , de Oliveira Branca Heloisa , dos Santos Ana Paula Pires 
Published: January 2023

AbstractBackgroundFluoride varnish (FV) is a convenient way of professionally applying fluoride in preschoolers. However, its modest anticaries effect highlights the need for economic evaluations.AimTo assess economic evaluations reporting applications of FV to reduce caries incidence in preschoolers.DesignWe included full economic evaluations with preschool participants, in which the intervention was FV and the outcome was related to dentin caries. We searched in CENTRAL; MEDLINE via PubMed; WEB OF SCIENCE; EMBASE; SCOPUS; LILACS; BBO; and BVS Economia em saúde, OpenGrey, and EconoLit. Clinical trial registers, thesis and dissertations, and meeting abstracts were hand searched, as well as 11 dental journals. Risk of bias in the included studies was assessed using the Philips' and Drummond's (full and simplified) tools.ResultsTitles and abstracts of 2871 articles were evaluated, and 200 were read in full. Eight cost‐effectiveness studies were included: five modeling and three within‐trial evaluations. None of the studies gave sufficient information to allow a thorough assessment using the bias tools. We did not combine the results of the studies due to the great heterogeneity among them. Four studies reported that FV in preschool children was a cost‐effective measure, but in one of these studies, sealants and fluoride toothpaste were more cost‐effective measures than the varnish, and three studies used limited data that compromised the generalizability of their results. The other four studies showed a large increase in costs due to the application of varnish and/or low cost‐effectiveness.ConclusionWe did not find convincing overall evidence that applying FV in preschoolers is an anticaries cost‐effective measure. The protocol of this systematic review is available at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/xw5va/).
Trends in incidence rates of childhood type 1 diabetes mellitus: A retrospective study in Isfahan province, Iran
Authors: Hashemipour Mahin , Maracy Mohammadreza , Javanmard Shaghayegh Haghjooy , Zamaneh Farzane , Mostofizadeh Neda , Hovsepian Silva 
Published: January 2023

AbstractAims/IntroductionWe aimed to determine the incidence trend of childhood type 1 diabetes mellitus in Isfahan province over a period of 12 years.Materials and MethodsIn this retrospective study, children aged <20 years at the time of type 1 diabetes mellitus diagnosis, from March 2007 to March 2019, were included. The crude and adjusted incidence rate of type 1 diabetes mellitus is calculated as the number of cases per 100,000 person‐years by the period. The cumulative, age‐ and sex‐specific incidence rates were also calculated. Age‐specific incidence rates were calculated for age and sex groups.ResultsA total of 1,954 (983 boys and 971 girls) cases of type 1 diabetes mellitus were identified. The mean age at diagnosis in all studied populations was 9.89 (standard deviation 4.76). There were no significant differences between the proportion of boys and girls in different years (P = 0.12) and different age groups (P = 0.19). The average annual percent change of incidence rate for the total population, for girls and boys, was 6.9%, 6.7% and 6.3% respectively. The type 1 diabetes mellitus incidence rate had a significant trend to be increased from 2007 to 2019 (P < 0.001,t = 3.6).ConclusionOur findings showed that currently our region is considered a region with a high incidence rate of type 1 diabetes mellitus. Although we have had fluctuations in the incidence rate over the 12 years, the overall trend is increasing.
Nipple eczema: A systematic review and practical recommendations
Authors: Reynaert V. , Gutermuth J. , Wollenberg A. 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThe nipple is the focal point of the human breast and serves important physiological, sexual, and aesthetic purposes. It can be affected by atopic, irritant, and allergic contact eczema, which often reduce the patient's quality of life. The objective of this article is to discuss the different types of nipple eczema and highlight relevant differential diagnoses and treatment options. A systematic search of PubMed was conducted to identify and critically appraise the existing literature on the topic. All articles on nipple eczema were considered eligible, regardless of publication date, language or study design. A final of 33 manuscripts on nipple eczema remained. The scarce literature and the limited number of high‐quality manuscripts impedes provision of structured data on nipple eczema. To securely reach the educative value of this manuscript, the systematic review was combined with a manual databank search and selected manual search of textbooks. The differential diagnosis of nipple eczema encompasses among others nipple psoriasis, nipple candidiasis and Paget's disease. In case of diagnostic uncertainty, swabs or biopsies are indicated. Treatment of nipple eczema needs to rapidly control the signs and symptoms of the disease, since it can have a negative effect on quality of life and can lead to premature arrest of breastfeeding. The key treatment step is starting with topical corticosteroids or calcineurin inhibitors, both of which are considered safe during lactation. Avoidance of provoking factors, such as repetitive friction, chemical agents, or allergens, can help. The use of nipple protection devices can be proposed for nursing women and sometimes adjusting of latch/suck positioning during breastfeeding is needed. Furthermore, patients should be advised to moisturize the nipple intensively and to switch to emollient wash products. Warm water compresses, black tea compresses or commercially available tannin containing topicals can provide comfort.
The association of serum immunoglobulin and complement levels and liver fibrosis and inflammation stage in patients with chronic hepatitis B
Authors: Lian Mingjian , Wang Qianming , Chen Shidong , Yang Yuanyuan , Hong Guolin 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThe utility of measurement of serum immunoglobulin and complement in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the association of serum immunoglobulin and complement levels and liver fibrosis and inflammation stage in CHB patients. A total of 687 patients with CHB who underwent liver biopsy were enrolled. Serum immunoglobulin and complement were measured before liver biopsy, and liver pathological results were recorded. Associations of serum immunoglobulin and complement levels and liver fibrosis and inflammation stage were analysed. C3, C4, IgG and IgG1 had statistically significant differences among different fibrosis and different inflammation groups. Both C3 and C4 negatively correlated with fibrosis and inflammation stage, but IgG and IgG1 showed opposite results. C3, C4, IgG and IgG1 had statistical significance to predict ≥S2, ≥S3 and S4, and also had statistical significance to predict ≥G2, ≥G3 and G4. The area under curve (AUC) of the combination of C3, C4 and IgG (C3 + C4 + IgG) for predicting ≥S2, ≥S3 and S4 was 0.640 (95% CI: 0.603, 0.676), 0.674 (95% CI: 0.638, 0.709) and 0.744 (95% CI: 0.710, 0.776), respectively. The AUC of C3 + C4 + IgG for predicting ≥G2, ≥G3 and G4 was 0.723 (95% CI: 0.688, 0.756), 0.674 (95% CI: 0.638, 0.709) and 0.771 (95% CI: 0.738, 0.802), respectively. C3, C4, IgG and IgG1 are correlated with liver fibrosis and inflammation stage in CHB patients. C3, C4, IgG and IgG1 have diagnostic value for liver fibrosis and inflammation. C3 + C4 + IgG may improve diagnostic accuracy.
“The Volunteering Days is Gone”: All‐Hazard Incarcerated Firefighters and Rural Disinvestment☆
Authors: Purdum J. Carlee 
Published: January 2023

AbstractAfter decades of economic restructuring, many rural communities are struggling to provide adequate fire and emergency services across their communities. Subsequent population loss, the destabilization of local tax‐bases, and an increased demand from work and family have left local fire departments at a loss for personnel and support. In this context, rural Georgia communities look to nearby prisons to provide incarcerated persons to work as local firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to stabilize rural emergency services. In this paper, I examine the narrative accounts that officials who employ, manage, or work alongside incarcerated workers who are trained to respond locally as firefighters and EMTs and ask why incarcerated workers are looked to for this type of work in spite of the challenges associated with the program. Officials describe turning to the state prison system as the only viable option to make their communities and fire departments safe. These findings further illuminate the relationship between racial capitalism, carceral infrastructure, and emergency services as rural communities turn to the false promise of prisons and all‐hazard incarcerated firefighters to keep their communities safe.
Tree-Based Ensemble Learning Models for Wall Temperature Predictions in Post-Critical Heat Flux Flow Regimes at Subcooled and Low-Quality Conditions
Authors: Liu Qingqing , Liu Yang , Burak Adam , Kelly Joseph , Bajorek Stephen , Sun Xiaodong 
Published: January 2023

Abstract
Accurately predicting post-critical heat flux (CHF) heat transfer is an important but challenging task in water-cooled reactor design and safety analysis. Although numerous heat transfer correlations have been developed to predict post-CHF heat transfer, these correlations are only applicable to relatively narrow ranges of flow conditions due to the complex physical nature of the post-CHF heat transfer regimes. In this paper, a large quantity of experimental data is collected and summarized from the literature for steady-state subcooled and low-quality film boiling regimes with water as the working fluid in vertical tubular test sections. A low-quality water film boiling (LWFB) database is consolidated with a total of 22,813 experimental data points, which cover a wide flow range of the system pressure from 0.1 to 9.0 MPa, mass flux from 25 to 2750 kg/m2 s, and inlet subcooling from 1 to 70 °C. Two machine learning (ML) models, based on random forest (RF) and gradient boosted decision tree (GBDT), are trained and validated to predict wall temperatures in post-CHF flow regimes. The trained ML models demonstrate significantly improved accuracies compared to conventional empirical correlations. To further evaluate the performance of these two ML models from a statistical perspective, three criteria are investigated and three metrics are calculated to quantitatively assess the accuracy of these two ML models. For the full LWFB database, the root-mean-square errors between the measured and predicted wall temperatures by the GBDT and RF models are 5.7% and 6.2%, respectively, confirming the accuracy of the two ML models.
Development of a Three-Mobile-Robot System for Cooperative Transportation
Authors: Fan Changxiang , Zeng Fan , Shirafuji Shouhei , Ota Jun 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThe transportation of large-scale objects in a narrow space is a challenging, but useful application for mobile robots. We have developed a three-mobile-robot system to cooperatively lift, support, and transport a large object on a mobile robot system. To facilitate the manipulation involved with loading an object onto the robots, where the robots must maintain firm contact with the object and anchor at its location, we designed an adaptable mechanism for the object-loading platform and a liftable brake to ensure that the robot remains stationary when necessary. Furthermore, each robot is designed to act as an omnidirectional wheel; therefore, all three robots can work as an omnidirectional block when collectively loading an object. The kinematic constraints of the object–robot system and forward kinematics of the robots’ cooperative motion are proposed, and experiments are conducted to confirm the designed mechanisms and confirm that the robots can load an object and cooperatively transport it along the expected trajectory.
Optimised Shear Horizontal Guided Wave Inspection Set-Up for Titanium Welds.
Authors: Peyton Christian , Dixon Steve , Dutton Ben , Vesga Wilson , Edwards Rachel S. 
Published: January 2023

Abstract
The inspection of welds in thin titanium sheets is vital to ensure that all components meet their required criteria. Shear horizontal (SH) guided waves may offer particular benefits for defect detection, especially the fundamental mode (SH0), which is non-dispersive. Electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) are efficient generators of SH waves. However, titanium is traditionally a difficult material to inspect using EMATs. Through finite element analysis and experiments, this work proposes an inspection set-up using a 6 mm wavelength SH0 mode as the incident wave. When the SH0 mode interacts with a defect, reflections occur. The primary reflection is the SH0 mode, but mode conversions occurring at the defect result in the reflection of a mode converted Lamb wave. The Lamb guided wave mode reflected in our work is the S0 mode. The weld inspection approach presented uses both of these guided wave modes. The intention of detecting multiple wave modes is to provide more information about the inspected region, improving the reliability of the results by providing an increased probability of detection and a reduced likelihood of false positives. The results show initial testing and validation of the proposed set-up, highlighting how the SH0 mode reflection is sensitive to the weld quality. The positioning of the transducers sensitive to the S0 mode is also presented, showing the defect size's effect on the angle of reflection.
Non-Destructive Testing of Underwater Concrete Structures Using Remotely Controlled Drones
Authors: Venkatesh Vishnu , Ashish Anthony Jacob , Gupta Sanchit , Sangani Abhijeet , Jhunjhunwala Tanuj , Upadhyay Vineet , Rajagopal Prabhu , Balasubramanian Krishnan 
Published: January 2023

Abstract
Concrete is a fundamental component in civil, commercial, and industrial infrastructure. Periodic inspection is mandated to ensure safe operation during the structure’s lifetime. Recent innovations in inspection technology have enabled rapid characterization of the interior of a concrete specimen with techniques like ground penetrating radar and phased array ultrasonic tomography. A universal limitation of these conventional methods is that they are best documented for in-air application, with comparatively scant literature available for underwater deployment. Visual inspections and diver deployed semi-destructive tests are the main modes of underwater concrete inspection. Underwater, concrete structures encounter harsher conditions and larger weathering effects compared to those above. Underwater inspections sites often have poor visibility, strong currents and debris, making manned inspections risky. Divers also have limited inspection time and depth, decreasing scope and increasing asset downtime. To overcome those limitations, this paper proposes the use of remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) to perform quantitative non-destructive tests on underwater concrete structures. ROVs developed by Planys Technologies are compact, lightweight, and versatile. They are capable of extended inspection times, and operational depths of up to 200 m. These ROVs can be deployed by a crew of 2-3 personnel and are remotely controlled from a safe location above water. One of the most well-known techniques, ultrasonic pulse velocimetry, was adapted for the marine environment. While foundational when compared to the state-of-the-art in-air techniques, it is still capable of providing a quantitative measure of a concrete structure’s integrity. The paper describes experimental results from in-lab and in-field testing, as well as limitations to practical applications.
A Study on the Influence of Wave Scattering in Metamaterial-Based Super-Resolution Imaging of Defects in Materials
Authors: Chandran Loheshwaran , Akbar Ali Mohamed Subair Syed , Saini Abhishek , Fan Zheng , Rajagopal Prabhu 
Published: January 2023

Abstract
Recently there is much interest in metamaterial based super resolution imaging. Several demonstrations have been reported using sources or slits as targets for imaging. However, in the context of non-destructive evaluation, imaging of defects and discontinuities within a sample are of more interest. Such defects, unlike sources or slits, induce wave scattering which could potentially impact image generation. This paper studies the effects of wave scattering by subwavelength spaced defects in holey structured metamaterial based super resolution imaging using numerical (finite element) models. In these models, the ultrasonic waves are assumed to impinge on the defects in a normal incidence through transmission configuration, and a line-scan image at the receiver location is generated based on the captured waves past the metamaterial. The influence of defect position within the specimen sample (object plane) and the receiver location (image plane) with respect to the metamaterial on the output images are investigated. The results show that the defect-induced wave scattering processes produce intensity and spatial artefacts that have a signature on imaging. For various parametric cases, the changes in the output images are quantified and discussed in the context of metamaterial based super resolution imaging in the field of non-destructive evaluation and non-invasive diagnostics.
Magnetic Inspection Platform for Teleoperated Remote Inspections of Complex Geometry
Authors: Jackson William , Zhang Dayi , McMillan Ross , Tabatabaeipour Morteza , Hampson Rory , Gilmour Adam , MacLeod Charles , Dobie Gordon 
Published: January 2023

Abstract
The NDE industry is under constant pressure to increase inspection speeds, while simultaneously reducing costs to keep up with the ever-expanding demands of providing robust inspection for new infrastructure as well as ongoing inspections for currently operating facilities, and the increasing rise in the need for extensions in the planned life of existing plants.
Currently, setting up an automated phased array ultrasonic inspection requires significant manpower, especially on components with complex geometry, this often exposes operators to hazardous environments. This is a particular problem with conventional ultrasonic NDT where operators must regularly exchange probes (an ‘intervention’). Furthermore, inspections are often carried out during planned outages, and the necessary installation time of rigging can represent a significant part of the inspection cost.
To alleviate these challenges, several specialised robotic systems have been developed in industry for performing NDE in areas with well-defined geometries. However, these systems are often limited by a high degree of manual intervention, a lack of general-purpose design, and unsophisticated brute-force data acquisition with little to no data interpretation.
The development of next generation, automated NDE solutions present considerable improvements to the current state of design such as reduced inspection time, greater separation of data capture and analysis, data localization – data are intrinsically encoded with the position they were captured. These benefits lead to a reduction in plant downtime & operator dosage.
The platform presented will achieve these improvements through a set of universal automated deployment tools, implemented through hardware and software advances. By creating a platform consisting of a motorised magnetic base paired with a miniature robotic arm, a very capable and adaptable system is formed. This allows for different sensing modalities with an initial focus on phased array ultrasonics to be delivered accurately and repeatably to the target inspection site. Furthermore, by introducing additional perceptual sensors such as cameras, laser scanners, & a force-torque sensor the system can understand the environment in which it is operating. Through these sensors the user may guide the robot through the plant remotely in a safe and controlled manner. In addition to this these sensors may be used to generate scan paths of critical areas with unknown geometry on the fly as well as adapt the path in a conformable manner.