bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The impacts of building opening characteristics on dust particle deposition indoors
Authors: Mohammed Mohammed Alhaji , Bulama Kyari , Bukar Alhaji Modu , Modu Mala Ali , Usman Audu Alhaji , Lawan Alhaji Kasir , Habib Garba Abba 
Published: May 2023

PurposeThe effects of dust exposure in buildings and its health and comfort consequences continue to concern occupants, particularly those who spend most of their time indoors. This study examines the influence of building opening characteristics on surface dust loading in indoor environments to determine the dust particles' impact on different opening configurations.Design/methodology/approachIndoor Harmattan dust surface loading data were collected from Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria, using model rooms with six different window configurations. A simple mathematical relationship was employed to assess surface dust loading characteristics in the model rooms. The study measured dust thrice between December and February for three days (72 h). The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.FindingsThe results determined the highest average surface dust loading of 12.03 g/m2 in the room with awning windows at an indoor-to-outdoor (I/O) ratio of 0.7. In contrast, the experiment in the room with a closed window recorded the lowest average surface dust loading of 5.24 g/m2 at an I/O ratio of 0.30, which is infiltration. The outcomes further indicate that the average surface dust loading varies with the building opening type and position, as higher surface dust loadings were recorded in locations closer to the openings (doors and windows), reaffirming that the dominant source of the dust particles is outdoors. According to the study, dust incursion due to infiltration accounts for 30% of the outdoor surface loading.Originality/valueThus, Harmattan dust is a serious challenge to the health, productivity and hygiene of building occupants in the study area. The built-environment professionals must use the study's outcome to optimize building openings' designs (shape, size and form) for effective indoor dust control.
Numerical investigation on wheel-rail adhesion under water-lubricated condition during braking
Authors: Yang Yuqi , Wu Bing , Xiao Guanwen , Shen Quan 
Published: May 2023

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a 3D wheel-rail adhesion model under wet condition, which considers the generated surface roughness topography and the traditional braking procedure for high-speed trains.

Design/methodology/approach
Wheel-rail adhesion has an important effect on the braking ability of railway vehicle. Based on the deterministic mixed lubrication approach, the model was solved to get the adhesion characteristics of the train during braking. The elastic deformation was calculated with the discrete convolution and fast Fourier transform method. The simulation results of adhesion coefficient were compared with the experimental values. The wheel-rail adhesion characteristics of train braking at several different initial speeds were investigated. The effects of the time-step length and roughness orientation on the contact load ratio were also discussed.

Findings
The results show that the adhesion coefficient of the numerical model is in good agreement with the experimental results. At the instant of braking, the adhesion coefficient drops to a lower adhesion level, the value of adhesion coefficient is lower than 0.06, especially at a higher speed (200, 300 and 400 km/h).

Originality/value
It can provide a better understanding of the low adhesion phenomenon of train braking under wet condition.

Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-02-2023-0040/
“Striking the right balance”: tensions in municipal risk communication management for preparedness
Authors: Lerøy Sataøen Hogne , Eriksson Mats 
Published: May 2023

PurposeThe aim of the study is to deepen the knowledge about municipalities' risk communication for preparedness. This objective was pursued by analyzing how risk communication functions were organized in municipalities and by scrutinizing tensions in risk communication management.Design/methodology/approachThe study relies on 19 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with communication practitioners in Swedish municipalities. The sample was purposive and included Swedish municipalities varying in number of inhabitants, geographical location, degree of urbanization, size and risk profile.FindingsRisk communication is seen as a sub-field of crisis communication in municipalities' communication management. The task of initiating risk communication activities and campaigns is frequently assigned to the municipalities' safety units or emergency coordinators and is normally not part of communication practitioners' duties. Municipal communication practitioners often face challenges in trying to demonstrate the significance of the practitioners' role in risk communication and other risk-related activities within the municipality. The practitioners' work is characterized by four categories of tensions that are identified as follows: constitutional/legal, organizational, cultural and technological.Practical implicationsThe identified tensions in risk communication are important for reflexive practitioners to consider, and the paper suggests three steps that municipal communication managers can take to handle them.Originality/valueThe study contributes with novel knowledge about municipal communication management in a context of risk communication. The study challenges the existing and dominant risk communication research and offers a more contextual and reflexive understanding of actual risk communication processes in municipalities.
Financial opacity and financial secrecy: lessons for Nepal
Authors: Upadhyay Abhiyan 
Published: May 2023

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the financial opaqueness established through offshore businesses and financial secrecy through the requirements of information exchanges, and their deadly combination for facilitating money-laundering activities and tax evasion. It also puts into light some key recommendations for a country like Nepal that has been struggling to put adequate efforts into understanding financial opacity and secrecy.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper navigates through global issues on layering through opaque corporate structures, and mechanisms required for information exchange so as to figure out solutions and challenges to address them by developing countries like Nepal, with specific actions pertaining to Nepal.

Findings
Understanding financial opacity and secrecy is a prerequisite to tackling financial crimes. While focusing on global solutions and inherent challenges regarding such issues, concerted efforts are required to capacitate a country on contextual matters.

Originality/value
This work is an original work with an analysis of a global issue in an interconnected world with solutions catered to the local contexts of Nepal.
People and places: the potential of city events to facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in the community life
Authors: Šumskienė Eglė , Gevorgianiene Violeta , Mataityte-Dirziene Jurga , Geniene Rasa 
Published: May 2023

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the symbolic meanings of physical places and social spaces for community members with and without disabilities in the process of relocation of people with disabilities into the communities. It particularly focuses on the potential of city events to become places for interacting with each other.Design/methodology/approachThe data was gathered using two methods: drawing ecological maps (indicating places a person visits) and conducting interviews with people with disabilities and other community members. The ecological map is based on the theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1986). Empirical data was gathered in four Lithuanian communities by drawing ecological maps and conducting interviews with community members with disabilities (35) and without disabilities (24).FindingsData shows that two groups occasionally overlap in physical locations but seldom interact socially. However, city events which are rare, but provide a clearer structure for persons with disabilities and are attractive to other community members as well, offer a good starting point for inclusion.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research of community places where people with disabilities live and act could focus on, first, the gender differences in people with disabilities participation; second, on the challenging versus nonchallenging community environments and their role in the people with disabilities learning to live and act as community members and citizens. It is also essential to explore the meaning of privacy in the participation of people with disabilities, and the potential of private and less private places to facilitate their inclusion.Practical implicationsIn the context of the ongoing deinstitutionalization, it is essential to identify the means of and desirable support for people with disabilities for their interaction in cafés, markets, bus stops and street corners, which encompass fewer preconditions for preparation. This implies, that practitioners should consider developing the abilities of people with disabilities to cope with the “chaotic order” of social gatherings. However, community-based citizenship implies not only festive city events but participation in decision-making. Thus, social policy actors should consider including people with disabilities in the community councils, increasing information accessibility and thus implementing the vision of an inclusive community.Originality/valueThe originality and value of the research lies in revealing the “framed” nature of people with disabilities participation. This type of participation is determined by their institutional experience, financial means and whose appearance (“coming in groups”) is frequently noticed by the community members.
Strategy, flexibility and performance: how cost leaders’ lack of structural flexibility negatively impacts nonfinancial performance
Authors: Oglesby Matthew T. , Parnell John A. , Kutz Diane C. 
Published: May 2023

PurposeThis study analyzes strategic flexibility with a two-dimensional approach (structural and decisional flexibility). It also investigates the relationships among competitive strategy, structural flexibility, decisional flexibility, and financial and nonfinancial performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected data from members of 16 chambers of commerce in the United States and used PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modeling) to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings suggest that strategic flexibility impacts financial and nonfinancial performance in different ways. While financial performance is influenced by both the structural and decisional dimensions of strategic flexibility, nonfinancial performance is impacted only by structural flexibility. In addition, the research indicates a negative relationship between cost leadership and structural flexibility and positions structural flexibility as a mediator between cost-leadership and nonfinancial performance.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to strategic flexibility research in the following ways: (1) analyzed the impact on nonfinancial performance; (2) examined structural and decisional elements and (3) identified cost leadership as a potential barrier.
Functions of student code-switching in a Bruneian classroom
Authors: Hamdan Hafizah 
Published: May 2023

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how Bruneian secondary school students employ code-switching in peer interactions. The functions of students' code-switching were analysed using Reyes' (2004) and Appel and Muysken's (2005) typologies.Design/methodology/approachThe data collected are based on audio-recorded group discussions designed to elicit students’ code-switched utterances.FindingsThe results indicate that the students used 11 functions of code-switching: referential, discourse marker, clarification, expressive, quotation imitation, turn accommodation, insistence, emphasis, question shift, situation shift and poetic.Research limitations/implicationsAs the study only focusses on a specific secondary school, results from this school will not represent secondary school students in Brunei.Originality/valueThis paper hopes to provide insight into how students' code-switching can be seen in a positive light. Moreover, understanding how students use code-switching in the classroom is essential for successful knowledge transfer and for cultivating competent bilinguals, which is what the country's education system aims for.
Preventive therapeutic effect of Lactobacillus‐fermented black wolfberry juice on sodium dextran sulfate‐induced ulcerative colitis in mice
Authors: Wei Ruilin , Zhu Chen , Chen Sheng , Wang Jingxin , Zeng Zhikang , Lan Lin , Sun Zaixing , Lei Ji , Li Yufeng 
Published: May 2023

AbstractIn this study, male mice were treated with fermented and unfermented Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus black wolfberry juice (10 mL/kg/day) for 40 days, and their prophylactic effects on ulcerative colitis (UC) induced by dextran sodium sulfate were investigated. The intervention of black wolfberry juice reduced the levels of pro‐inflammatory cytokines and increased the content of anti‐inflammatory cytokines in the serum and colon. In addition, the pathological changes in colon tissue were alleviated, the expression of Bcl‐2 protein in the colon was enhanced, and the intestinal microbiota of the mice was regulated, with an increase in Bacteroidetes and a decrease in Helicobacter. These results suggested that black wolfberry juice had an anti‐UC function and Lactobacillus fermentation enhanced the anti‐inflammatory effect of black wolfberry juice by modulating the intestinal microbiota.
Association between follicle‐stimulating hormone and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Authors: Ge Shengjie , Zheng Yinfeng , Du Linjia , Hu Xiang , Zhou Jingzong , He Zhiying , Gu Xiao , Huang Xiaoyan , Yang Lijuan , Lin Xiuli , Gu Xuejiang 
Published: May 2023

AbstractBackground and AimFollicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) was negatively associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in women older than 55 years old. People with obesity and diabetes had higher prevalence of NAFLD. Thus, we aimed to explore the association between FSH and NAFLD in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).MethodsA total of 583 postmenopausal women with T2DM with an average age of 60.22 ± 6.49 were recruited in this cross‐sectional study through January 2017 to May 2021. Anthropological data, biochemical indexes, and abdominal ultrasound results were retrospectively collected. Abdominal ultrasound was used to diagnose NAFLD. FSH was measured by enzymatic immunochemiluminescence and divided into tertiles for further analysis. The logistic regression was used to assess the association of FSH with prevalent NAFLD. Likelihood ratio tests were used to assess the interactions between groups.ResultsA total of 332 (56.94%) postmenopausal women had NAFLD. Compared with postmenopausal women in the lowest tertile of FSH, postmenopausal women in the highest tertile of FSH had lower prevalence of NAFLD (p < .01). After adjusting for age, diabetes duration, metabolism‐related indicators, and other sex‐related hormones, FSH was inversely associated with NAFLD (odds ratio: 0.411, 95% confidence intervals: 0.260–0.651, p < .001). In subgroup analysis, there were no significant interactions of FSH with strata of metabolic factors on the association of NAFLD.ConclusionFSH was negatively and independently associated with NAFLD in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It might be a potential index for screening and identifying individuals with high risk of NAFLD in postmenopausal women.
Against data individualism: Why a pandemic accord needs to commit to data solidarity
Authors: Kickbusch Ilona , Prainsack Barbara 
Published: May 2023

AbstractAn accord to increase global pandemic preparedness is currently negotiated at the World Health Organisation (WHO). One aspect is conspicuously missing from the draft version: data governance. As the COVID‐19 pandemic has shown, the availability of good quality data, and prudent ways of using this data while preventing other forms of data use that is harmful to people and communities, is literally a matter of life and death. It is of utmost importance for the pandemic accord to include a data governance strategy. We argue that data solidarity provides a suitable foundation for such a data governance strategy in the context of pandemics. It includes instruments to facilitate data use in cases where data use is likely to create benefits for many people without entailing high risks for individuals or communities. Data solidarity also calls to refrain from data use in cases where it would pose unacceptable risks. Finally, data solidarity helps to mitigate harm where it occurs. In sum, data solidarity helps to enhance the benefits from digital practices in health crises without playing out collective interests against the rights and needs of individuals.
The initial age‐associated decline in early T‐cell progenitors reflects fewer pre‐thymic progenitors and altered signals in the bone marrow and thymus microenvironments
Authors: Srinivasan Jayashree , Vasudev Anusha , Shasha Carolyn , Selden Hilary J. , Perez Encarnacion , LaFleur Bonnie , Sinari Shripad A. , Krueger Andreas , Richie Ellen R. , Ehrlich Lauren I. R. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractAge‐related thymus involution results in decreased T‐cell production, contributing to increased susceptibility to pathogens and reduced vaccine responsiveness. Elucidating mechanisms underlying thymus involution will inform strategies to restore thymopoiesis with age. The thymus is colonized by circulating bone marrow (BM)‐derived thymus seeding progenitors (TSPs) that differentiate into early T‐cell progenitors (ETPs). We find that ETP cellularity declines as early as 3 months (3MO) of age in mice. This initial ETP reduction could reflect changes in thymic stromal niches and/or pre‐thymic progenitors. Using a multicongenic progenitor transfer approach, we demonstrate that the number of functional TSP/ETP niches does not diminish with age. Instead, the number of pre‐thymic lymphoid progenitors in the BM and blood is substantially reduced by 3MO, although their intrinsic ability to seed and differentiate in the thymus is maintained. Additionally, Notch signaling in BM lymphoid progenitors and in ETPs diminishes by 3MO, suggesting reduced niche quality in the BM and thymus contribute to the early decline in ETPs. Together, these findings indicate that diminished BM lymphopoiesis and thymic stromal support contribute to an initial reduction in ETPs in young adulthood, setting the stage for progressive age‐associated thymus involution.
MEK inhibitor‐induced paronychia in a paediatric population: A tertiary centre experience
Authors: Palmeiro Ana Gusmão , Silva Leandro , Pimentel Bernardo , Passos João , Moura Cecília , Amaro Cristina 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe cutaneous toxicity of MEK inhibitors may limit treatment adherence. The authors present a retrospective study of 41 paediatric patients with NF‐1 undergoing therapy with selumetinib and propose a treatment algorithm.
Introduction of an electrochemical point‐of‐care assay for quantitative determination of paracetamol in finger‐prick capillary whole blood samples
Authors: Kujala Johanna , Wester Niklas , Lohela Terhi J. , Kurkela Mika , Backman Janne T. , Mikladal Björn , Laurila Tomi , Koskinen Jari , Lilius Tuomas O. , Kalso Eija A. 
Published: May 2023

AimsMeasuring venous plasma paracetamol concentrations is time‐ and resource‐consuming. We aimed to validate a novel electrochemical point‐of‐care (POC) assay for rapid paracetamol concentration determinations.MethodsTwelve healthy volunteers received 1 g oral paracetamol, and its concentrations were analysed 10 times over 12 h for capillary whole blood (POC), venous plasma (high‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC‐MS/MS)), and dried capillary blood (HPLC‐MS/MS).ResultsAt concentrations >30 μM, POC showed upward biases of 20% (95% limits of agreement [LOA] −22 to 62) and 7% (95% LOA −23 to 38) compared with venous plasma and capillary blood HPLC‐MS/MS, respectively. There were no significant differences between mean concentrations for the paracetamol elimination phase.ConclusionsUpward biases in POC compared with venous plasma HPLC‐MS/MS were likely due to higher paracetamol concentrations in capillary blood than in venous plasma and to faulty individual sensors. The novel POC method is a promising tool for paracetamol concentration analysis.
One Step Further Beyond Trilinear Interpolation and Central Differences: Triquadratic Reconstruction and its Analytic Derivatives at the Cost of One Additional Texture Fetch
Authors: Csébfalvi Balázs 
Published: May 2023

AbstractRecently, it has been shown that the quality of GPU‐based trilinear volume resampling can be significantly improved if the six additional trilinear samples evaluated for the gradient estimation also contribute to the reconstruction of the underlying function [Csé19]. Although this improvement increases the approximation order from two to three without any extra cost, the continuity order remains C0. In this paper, we go one step further showing that a C1continuous triquadratic B‐spline reconstruction and its analytic partial derivatives can be evaluated by taking only one more trilinear sample into account. Thus, our method is the first volume‐resampling technique that is nearly as fast as trilinear interpolation combined with on‐the‐fly central differencing, but provides a higher‐quality reconstruction together with a consistent analytic gradient calculation. Furthermore, we show that our fast evaluation scheme can also be adapted to the Mitchell‐Netravali [MN88] notch filter, for which a fast GPU implementation has not been known so far.
Neurosymbolic Models for Computer Graphics
Authors: Ritchie Daniel , Guerrero Paul , Jones R. Kenny , Mitra Niloy J. , Schulz Adriana , Willis Karl D. D. , Wu Jiajun 
Published: May 2023

AbstractProcedural models (i.e. symbolic programs that output visual data) are a historically‐popular method for representing graphics content: vegetation, buildings, textures, etc. They offer many advantages: interpretable design parameters, stochastic variations, high‐quality outputs, compact representation, and more. But they also have some limitations, such as the difficulty of authoring a procedural model from scratch. More recently, AI‐based methods, and especially neural networks, have become popular for creating graphic content. These techniques allow users to directly specify desired properties of the artifact they want to create (via examples, constraints, or objectives), while a search, optimization, or learning algorithm takes care of the details. However, this ease of use comes at a cost, as it's often hard to interpret or manipulate these representations. In this state‐of‐the‐art report, we summarize research on neurosymbolic models in computer graphics: methods that combine the strengths of both AI and symbolic programs to represent, generate, and manipulate visual data. We survey recent work applying these techniques to represent 2D shapes, 3D shapes, and materials & textures. Along the way, we situate each prior work in a unified design space for neurosymbolic models, which helps reveal underexplored areas and opportunities for future research.