bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Learning Chemistry at the University of Sharjah: Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Kawde Abdel-Nasser , Elgamouz Abdelaziz , Shehadi Ihsan 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThis study attempts to analyze the students’ satisfaction with learning chemistry before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Sharjah. Microsoft Forms were used to build the questionnaire and collect the data. The widely used online class applications are Blackboard Ultra, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and WhatsApp Group features. Students had printed textbooks, e-books, and lecture notes posted under Blackboard contents as learning media. The Chemistry laboratories were carried out in a hybrid mode during the pandemic; 30% of the experiments were conducted face-to-face inside the University in an alternate mode, while the remaining 70% were conducted virtually using home-developed videos, McGraw Hill simulation, or Journal of Visual Experiments platforms. Most students experienced challenges implementing the online learning process, so they prefer the usual traditional learning methods. In addition, the assessment of the educational program learning outcomes (PLO) was measured over the last three academic years, 2019, 2020, and 2021. Results of such an assessment indicated that there is a decline in the skill outcomes B, C, and E during the COVID-19 era. The study recommends the adoption of Flex-Hybrid Classrooms, using interactive online class applications like face-to-face learning, as hybrid learning can contribute positively to the quality assurance process of the instructional methodologies. Chemistry Laboratories must be conducted in person to enhance the technical and hands-on experience skills of students. All classes, regardless of delivery mode, should be recorded, as they can contribute positively to the quality assurance process of the instructional methodologies and material deliveries.
Evaluation of the Hybrid Learning Model to Teach Human Physiology Experiments
Authors: Deepika Kamath M. , Qaisar Rizwan , Karim Asima , Elmoselhi Adel , Mussa Bashair M. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, had profound effects on educational activities worldwide. As a crisis response measure, the educational institutes had to shift from onsite to online teaching and adopt online learning platforms to ensure a smooth delivery of educational content. However, the efficacy of such teaching methods for laboratory experiments partly remains elusive. We aim to explore students’ perspectives and experiences toward a hybrid approach in conducting human physiology experiments. We designed a teaching model that combines onsite and online learning to provide hands-on experience to medical students without compromising COVID-19 preventive measures. It is a cross-sectional study among Years 1, 2, and 3 medical students. Data was collected through an online survey via a self-administered electronic questionnaire. Data was analyzed using a two-sample t-test using Graph-Pad Prism version 8.01. Our results indicate that the hybrid model was well-received, and students agreed that the hybrid model was time-saving and allowed them to study at their own pace compared to students who did not agree (p < 0.05). A significantly higher number of students found the hybrid model extremely useful and were satisfied with its content (p < 0.05). They recommended continuing this format in the future. The students opined that providing the recorded videos in advance and clarifying their doubts in the prelab sessions prepared them better for the hands-on experience (p < 0.05). Therefore, we recommend maintaining the hybrid learning methods for time-effectiveness and enhance efficiency of learning.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on an Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program in Istanbul
Authors: Gunay Erkan , Gunay Serkan 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe first case of COVID-19 was reported in March 2020 in Turkey. Following the countrywide restrictions, residency lectures and meetings were suspended. Emergency medicine (EM) residency training was uniquely disturbed because the medical care provided by the hospitals during pandemics was restricted to only emergency admissions. Our hospital is a state-owned Training and Research Academic Centre. Regular scientific conferences and postgraduate training courses are organized by specialty societies and academic staff. We aimed to describe the challenges of residency training during COVID restrictions and reflect the opinions of the emergency medicine residents through an online survey study. Survey results revealed that WhatsApp Group announcements were preferred to email for rapid information distribution. A major challenge during the initial period was following the weekly scientific board meeting guidelines and distributing the updated documents within the department. Adaptation to the online lectures was also challenging. Practical sessions were found to be the most challenging and unattainable by the residents. One-on-one sessions were preferred especially for surgical procedures and ultrasound training. Online courses prepared by the specialty societies were useful for specialty-focused information sharing. WhatsApp is the preferred way for fast information sharing including educational materials and guidelines. Specialty societies are important stakeholders in improving up-to-date materials for distance learning within the EM residency training.
Reusing Alum Sludge as Cement Replacement to Develop Eco-Friendly Concrete Products
Authors: Liu Y. , Zhuge Y. , Duan W. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractAlum sludge is a typical by-product of the water industry. The traditional sludge management method, disposing of sludge in landfill sites, poses a critical environmental and economic concern due to a significant increase in sludge amount and disposal cost. In this paper, the feasibility of reusing sludge as cement replacement is investigated, and the physical performance and microstructure modification of concrete products made with sludge is discussed. The obtained results indicated that a satisfying pozzolanic reactivity of sludge after calcination at high temperatures and grinding to the appropriate size was identified. When 10% cement was replaced with sludge, the reaction degree of sludge was up to 39%, and the obtained concrete blocks exhibited superior mechanical performance. Based on the microstructural analysis, e.g., x-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and advanced nanoindentation method, the high aluminum content in sludge was incorporated into C–(A)–S–H gel; the original “Al-minor” C–(A)–S–H gel in pure cement paste was converted to ‘Al-rich’ C–(A)–S–H gel. Also, sludge promoted the formation of aluminum-bearing hydrates, such as ettringite and calcium aluminate hydrates (C–A–H). Although the Al incorporation had no significant effect on the hardness and modulus of C–(A)–S–H gel, the homogeneous mechanical properties (hardness and modulus measured with nanoindentation) of binder paste degraded with increasing sludge ash content above 10%, attributing to the lower hardness of unreacted sludge than cement clinker and the relatively lower reaction degree. Using sludge in concrete products offers an economical and environmentally friendly way to dispose of sludge and preserve diminishing natural resources. Also, the reduction of cement usage may contribute to achieving carbon neutrality.
Alternative treatment of the quark mass in the heavy quark expansion
Authors: Boushmelev Anastasia , Mannel Thomas , Vos K. Keri 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
The treatment of the quark mass plays an important role when it comes to increasing the precision of the predictions of the heavy quark expansion for inclusive heavy hadron decays. Various short-distance mass schemes have been invented to minimize the uncertainties induced by the quark mass, which needs to be extracted from other, independent observables. We suggest to replace the quark mass directly by an observable such as e.g. the inverse moments of the cross section for e+e− → hadrons. We investigate this alternative strategy and study its impact on the perturbative series.
Operator growth and black hole formation
Authors: Haehl Felix M. , Zhao Ying 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
When two particles collide in an asymptotically AdS spacetime with high enough energy and small enough impact parameter, they can form a black hole. Motivated by dual quantum circuit considerations, we propose a threshold condition for black hole formation. Intuitively the condition can be understood as the onset of overlap of the butterfly cones describing the ballistic spread of the effect of the perturbations on the boundary systems. We verify the correctness of the condition in three bulk dimensions. We describe a six-point correlation function that can diagnose this condition and compute it in two-dimensional CFTs using eikonal resummation.
More or less discrimination? Practical feasibility of fairness auditing of technologies for personnel selection
Authors: Mihaljević Helena , Müller Ivana , Dill Katja , Yollu-Tok Aysel , von Grafenstein Maximilian 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe use of technologies in personnel selection has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, revealing their potential to amplify existing inequalities in recruitment processes. To date, however, there has been a lack of comprehensive assessments of respective discriminatory potentials and no legal or practical standards have been explicitly established for fairness auditing. The current proposal of the Artificial Intelligence Act classifies numerous applications in personnel selection and recruitment as high-risk technologies, and while it requires quality standards to protect the fundamental rights of those involved, particularly during development, it does not provide concrete guidance on how to ensure this, especially once the technologies are commercially available. We argue that comprehensive and reliable auditing of personnel selection technologies must be contextual, that is, embedded in existing processes and based on real data, as well as participative, involving various stakeholders beyond technology vendors and customers, such as advocacy organizations and researchers. We propose an architectural draft that employs a data trustee to provide independent, fiduciary management of personal and corporate data to audit the fairness of technologies used in personnel selection. Drawing on a case study conducted with two state-owned companies in Berlin, Germany, we discuss challenges and approaches related to suitable fairness metrics, operationalization of vague concepts such as migration* and applicable legal foundations that can be utilized to overcome the fairness-privacy-dilemma arising from uncertainties associated with current laws. We highlight issues that require further interdisciplinary research to enable a prototypical implementation of the auditing concept in the mid-term.
Comparative full-field velocimetry of liquid flow within monolithic catalyst carriers via CFD simulations and MRV measurements
Authors: Sadeghi Mehrdad , Ricke Adrian , Pesch Georg R. , Dreher Wolfgang , Thöming Jorg 
Published: July 2023

AbstractIn reaction engineering, reactor performance can be improved in many cases by overcoming transport limitations. This requires detailed analyses of transport phenomena in the catalytic beds. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) velocimetry measurements have been utilized for analyzing mass transport of gas flows within opaque monoliths. Comparisons to full-field computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, however, show significant deviations. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and 3D-printed monoliths including one open-cell foam (OCF) and one honeycomb were used to demonstrate that both operating fluid and monolith morphology influence the achievable signal-to-noise ratio and resolution of NMR data. The velocity profiles measured by NMR in OCF agreed well with full-field CFD simulations with ± 5% deviation. In addition, the similarity between the simulated and experimental velocity fields was quantified by the similarity index, which is 1 for identical images. A mean value of 0.83 was determined for a 10 PPI OCF. Thus, using PEG as the operating fluid and a 10 PPI OCF allows to improve both spatial resolution by 34% and the quality of agreement by 13 percentage points compared to the published results of gas velocimetry within 20 PPI OCF. We further identified and quantified possible sources of deviation between CFD and MRV velocity fields. By limiting our analysis to velocities higher than 45% of the maximum velocity, we could achieve similarity indices of 0.95–0.99.
A population-based comparison of patients with metastatic esophagogastric carcinoma between Japan and the Netherlands
Authors: Pape Marieke , Vissers Pauline A. J. , Kato Ken , Haj Mohammad Nadia , Klarenbeek Bastiaan , van Laarhoven Hanneke W. M. , Matsuda Tomohiro , Verhoeven Rob H. A. 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Purpose
Differences exist between Asian and Western patients with esophagogastric cancer, for example in terms of histological subtype and treatment strategies. This study aimed to compare characteristics and treatment between patients with metastatic esophagogastric cancer from Japan and the Netherlands using nationwide cancer registry data.

Methods
Patients diagnosed with metastatic esophageal or gastric cancer were included from the nationwide national cancer registry of Japan (2016–2019) and the Netherlands (2015–2020). Treatment strategies were analyzed using chi-squared tests.

Results
The proportion of patients with metastatic esophageal (16.0% vs 34.2%) and gastric cancer (14.9% vs 45.2%) were lower in Japan compared to the Netherlands. Japanese patients with metastatic esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) or gastric cancer (GC) were more often male and older compared to Dutch patients. Proportion of patients with metastatic disease who received surgical resection was higher in Japan compared to the Netherlands (EAC 9.3 vs 1.4%, p < 0.001; ESCC 10.7% vs 2.3%, p < 0.001; GC 12.0% vs 3.6% p < 0.001). Proportion of patients who received systemic therapy was also higher (EAC 44.8% vs 30.4%, p < 0.001; ESCC 26.6% vs 12.0%, p < 0.001; GC 50.7% vs 35.8% p < 0.001).

Conclusions
Japanese patients less often presented with metastatic esophagogastric cancer and more often underwent surgical resection or received systemic therapy compared to Dutch patients. Further investigation should elucidate what the deliberations are in both Japan and the Netherlands and if more patients in the Netherlands could benefit from surgical resection or systemic therapy and whether this would translate in better survival and quality of life.
Algebraic Restriction Codes and Their Applications
Authors: Aggarwal Divesh , Döttling Nico , Dujmovic Jesko , Hajiabadi Mohammad , Malavolta Giulio , Obremski Maciej 
Published: July 2023

AbstractConsider the following problem: You have a device that is supposed to compute a linear combination of its inputs, which are taken from some finite field. However, the device may be faulty and compute arbitrary functions of its inputs. Is it possible to encode the inputs in such a way that only linear functions can be evaluated over the encodings? I.e., learning an arbitrary function of the encodings will not reveal more information about the inputs than a linear combination. In this work, we introduce the notion of algebraic restriction codes (AR codes), which constrain adversaries who might compute any function to computing a linear function. Our main result is an information-theoretic construction AR codes that restrict any class of function with a bounded number of output bits to linear functions. Our construction relies on a seed which is not provided to the adversary. While interesting and natural on its own, we show an application of this notion in cryptography. In particular, we show that AR codes lead to the first construction of rate-1 oblivious transfer with statistical sender security from the Decisional Diffie–Hellman assumption, and the first-ever construction that makes black-box use of cryptography. Previously, such protocols were known only from the LWE assumption, using non-black-box cryptographic techniques. We expect our new notion of AR codes to find further applications, e.g., in the context of non-malleability, in the future.
Stakeholder perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 on oncology services: a qualitative study
Authors: Butow Phyllis , Havard Polly E. , Butt Zoe , Juraskova Ilona , Sharpe Louise , Dhillon Haryana , Beatty Lisa , Beale Philip , Cigolini Maria , Kelly Brian , Chan Raymond J. , Kirsten Laura , Best Megan C. , Shaw Joanne 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Background
As COVID-19 spread across the globe, cancer services were required to rapidly pivot to minimise risks without compromising outcomes for patients or staff. The aim of this study was to document changes to oncology services as a result of COVID-19 from the perspectives of both providers and receivers of care during the initial phase of the pandemic.

Methods
Participants were recruited between June and December 2020 through an email invitation via professional or consumer organisations, two hospital-based oncology services and snowballing. Semi-structured interviews focused on health service changes and their impacts, which were then analysed by thematic analysis.

Results
Thirty-two patients, 16 carers and 29 health professionals were recruited. Fifteen patients (n = 47%) had localised disease, and 19 (n = 59%) were currently receiving treatment. Oncology staff included oncologists, palliative care physicians, nurses, allied health and psychosocial practitioners. Four themes arose from the data: safety, increased stress and burnout, communication challenges and quality of cancer care.

Conclusions
There is an ongoing need for cancer-specific information from a single, trusted source to inform medical practitioners and patients/carers. More data are required to inform evidence-based guidelines for cancer care during future pandemics. All stakeholders require ongoing support to avoid stress and burnout.
Changes in How Climate Forces the Vegetation of Southern Africa
Authors: Higgins Steven I. , Conradi Timo , Ongole Shasank , Turpie Jane , Weiss Joshua , Eggli Urs , Slingsby Jasper A. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractGlobal climatic changes are altering ecosystem structure and functioning, yet detecting and forecasting such change is difficult. In this study, we use the concept of a phytoclime—a region where climate favours the growth of similar combinations of plant types—to examine how changes in climate forcing may impact on regional vegetation. We use species distribution data to estimate the parameters of a physiological plant growth model for 5006 vascular plant species common to southern Africa. Plant type suitability surfaces are calculated as the average climatic suitability of locations for all species belonging to a plant type. We calculated plant type suitability surfaces for ten different plant types. The resulting surfaces were used to produce a spatial classification of phytoclimes, which we interpret as regions that can climatically support particular plant type combinations. We use the phytoclime definitions and climatologies from five global circulation models (GCMs) simulating three shared economic pathways (SSPs) to forecast how the climatic forcing underlying the phytoclimes will change. Our analyses forecast that change in phytoclime state will be widespread throughout the region. There were, however, substantial differences in the timing of when changes would occur. The central interior of the region was forecast to change earlier than the arid west and southern coast. These differences in timing were driven by differences in the responses of trees, succulents, C3 and C4 grasses to the GCMs forecast aridification of the region’s central interior. Phytoclime modelling provides an indication of the potential of a region’s climate to support different plant types; it thereby provides forecasts of the potential impacts of climate change on regional vegetation structure and functioning.
A continuum of context in informational privacy transmissions: insights from people with disabilities in Vietnam
Authors: Rohman Abdul , Dang-Pham Duy , Pitaloka Dyah , Erlina Erlina , Prastyani Ade 
Published: July 2023

AbstractThe transmission of informational privacy has become a fertile ground for debate among competing actors affected by the proliferation of information communication technologies. Contexts are among the factors that shape the flow of informational privacy. The existing discussion however has been mainly dominated by perspectives from the Global North and the able-bodied. In response, based on interview data collected from people with disabilities (PwD) living in Vietnam, this study offers the continuum of context in informational privacy transmissions as a concept to illuminate the types, the levels, and the interest of the transmission and the capability of PwD to manage the flow of their informational privacy. The concept has the potential to enrich the existing discussion by providing more nuance and dynamic of informational privacy transmissions situated in the Global South and among groups who have been historically marginalized.
Stemflow infiltration hotspots near-tree stems along a soil depth gradient in a mixed oak–beech forest
Authors: Hemr Ondřej , Vichta Tomáš , Brychtová Martina , Kupec Petr , Žižlavská Nikola , Tomášová Gabriela , Deutscher Jan 
Published: July 2023

AbstractIn an upland forested micro-catchment during the growing season, we tested soil responses to precipitation events as well as soil water content (SWC). We asked ourselves if what is the difference of SWC response to precipitation events depending on the presence and proximity of a tree? The environmental heterogeneity of the small 7.5-ha headwater area was captured by soil probes at specific locations: (i) probe measurements of SWC at 10-, 30-, 60-, and 100-cm depths; (ii) resolution of near-tree (NT) and between-tree (BT) positions; and (iii) resolution of four slope classes. The results revealed significant differences between the hydrological responses of the soil. NT soils had faster infiltration but were also faster to dry out when compared to BT soils, which were less affected by the presence of trees. Water input threshold values, measured as the precipitation amount needed to cause a significant increase in SWC, were also significantly different, with NT positions always lower than BT positions. Total infiltration of the topmost NT and BT soil layers reached 185 and 156 mm during the study period, corresponding to 43% and 36% of the total 434 mm of precipitation, respectively. Infiltration into the deepest horizon was significantly higher in NT soils, where it reached 114 mm (26%) as opposed to 9 mm (2%) in BT soils, and was indicative of significant vertical hydraulic bypass flow in the proximity of trees. These observations contribute to better understanding the hydrological processes, their nonlinearity, and the expansion of conceptual hydrological models.