bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a resource limited setting: Factors associated with difficult surgeries at the National Referral Hospital, Bhutan
Authors: Wangmo Sangay , Dargay Sonam , ChhodenR Sonam 
Published: September 2023

AbstractBackgroundPrediction of difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy may help in making necessary arrangements for optimal intraoperative requirements and postoperative care. This study was conducted to examine the factors associated with and outcomes of difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed at the Bhutan's largest hospital in 2020.MethodsThis was a cross‐sectional study with a convenience sampling method. Data on clinical features, ultrasonography and intraoperative factors of patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy were extracted from their medical records, investigation reports and intraoperative surgery note. Difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy was defined on the basis of the duration of the surgery, injury to bile duct or artery, or conversion to open cholecystectomy. Data were double entered and validated in EpiData 3.1 and analysed in STATA 13.0.ResultsData from 134 patients were extracted. The mean age of the sample was 43 (±SD 13) years. “Difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy” was reported in 83 patients (62%) and easy laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 51 patients (38%). Those patients having simple adhesions up to the body of the gall bladder were 1.6 times more likely to encounter difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy (adjusted PR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.04–2.48, p = 0.034). The majority did not have any post‐operative complications (130 cases, 97%). The indications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy were symptomatic gall stone disease (129, 96%), acalculous cholecystitis (2, 1%) and gall bladder polyp (3, 2%).ConclusionsThe proportion of difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy is high, but the rates of post‐operative complications were minimal with no mortality or injury to bile duct or arteries.
Chiral Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Construction Strategies and Photophysical Properties
Authors: He Tingchao , Cui Yanyan , Li Junzi , Gao Yang 
Published: September 2023

AbstractLead halide perovskite nanocrystals (PeNCs) have attracted intense interest by virtue of their numerous remarkable optoelectronic properties, which render them promising for various optoelectronic applications. Over the past few years, substantial progress has been made in the study of chiral PeNCs, from the sample preparation, spectroscopic characterization to practical applications. In this review, the state‐of‐the‐art progress of the construction strategies and photophysical properties of chiral PeNCs has been summarized. The focus is placed on emerging developments in terms of synthetic methods, chiroptical properties, nonlinear optics, and chiral spintronics in chiral PeNCs. In the end, there is a discussion on the current challenges and future prospects in this versatile, rapidly evolving field.
Nano‐ and Microscale Confinements in DNA‐Scaffolded Enzyme Cascade Reactions
Authors: Kröll Sandra , Burgahn Teresa , Rabe Kersten S. , Franzreb Matthias , Niemeyer Christof M. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractArtificial reconstruction of naturally evolved principles, such as compartmentalization and cascading of multienzyme complexes, offers enormous potential for the development of biocatalytic materials and processes. Due to their unique addressability at the nanoscale, DNA origami nanostructures (DON) have proven to be an exceptionally powerful tool for studying the fundamental processes in biocatalytic cascades. To systematically investigate the diffusion‐reaction network of (co)substrate transfer in enzyme cascades, a model system of stereoselective ketoreductase (KRED) with cofactor regenerating enzyme is assembled in different spatial arrangements on DNA nanostructures and is located in the sphere of microbeads (MB) as a spatially confining nano‐ and microenvironment, respectively. The results, obtained through the use of highly sensitive analytical methods, Western blot‐based quantification of the enzymes, and mass spectrometric (MS) product detection, along with theoretical modeling, provide strong evidence for the presence of two interacting compartments, the diffusion layers around the microbead and the DNA scaffold, which influence the catalytic efficiency of the cascade. It is shown that the microscale compartment exerts a strong influence on the productivity of the cascade, whereas the nanoscale arrangement of enzymes has no influence but can be modulated by the insertion of a diffusion barrier.
Separation and quantitation of valacyclovir enantiomers using stability‐indicating chiral liquid chromatography method with a chiral stationary phase of amylose tris‐(3,5‐dimethylphenylcarbamate)
Authors: Vadagam Niroja , Haridasyam Sharath Babu , Venkatanarayana Muvvala , Lakka Narasimha S. , Chinnakadoori Sanjeeva R. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThe present research developed and validated a new stability‐indicating technique for the stereo‐selectively enantiomers of the antiviral nucleoside analog Valacyclovir hydrochloride (VAL). The chiral separation was performed using normal‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a chiral stationary phase consisting of amylose tris(3‐chloro‐5‐methylphenylcarbamate) and a mobile phase of “n‐hexane, methanol, ethanol, and diethylamine”, flow rate of 0.60 mL/min, column temperature of 30°C, injection volume of 10‐μL, detection wavelength of 254‐nm, and run time of 25‐min. The enantiomers (S‐enantiomer, L‐isomer, R‐enantiomer, and D‐isomer) of Valacyclovir were separated with a resolution of 4.8 and no interference. The validation parameters verified for the proposed method, linearity in a range of 0.1002–24.3486 μg/mL (0.02–4.86%) with a regression coefficient of 0.999, and the accuracy was determined with excellent recoveries ranging from 94.38%–109.97%. The concentrations established for the detection limit and quantitation limit were 0.01% and 0.02%, respectively. The forced degradation experiments were used to assess the stability‐indicating qualities. D‐Valacyclovir impurity was successfully evaluated in release and stability samples of VAL in drug substance and tablet dosage forms using the proposed normal phase chiral HPLC approach.
Tracing the downfall of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
Authors: de Jong Moniek 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThe Nord Stream 2 pipeline, widely considered as one of the most contentious energy infrastructure projects ever built, has garnered substantial scholarly and media attention over the course of its seven‐year existence. This narrative review examines key publications in different scholarly fields. It also tracks the evolution of the project, with the aim of explaining its ultimate demise. This overview relies on a comprehensive range of scholarly research, analyses, and news reports. First, concerns that dominated the debate on Nord Stream 2 are identified in the literature. This is followed by a detailed examination of the pivotal events—including the Polish regulator's decision, the delayed Danish permit, the revised European Union regulation, and the US sanctions—that contributed to the timing of the construction of the pipeline. Ultimately, Moscow's actions in February 2022 dealt a fatal blow to the project, which was further aggravated by sabotage 7 months later. Taken together, these developments ensured that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was never utilized, and it currently remains partially damaged and unused at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Scholars have extensively utilized this project as a lens to explore broader trends, highlighting its significance as a prism for understanding complex (energy) politics.This article is categorized under:
Energy and Power Systems > Energy Infrastructure
Policy and Economics > Security
Policy and Economics > Governance and Regulation
Policy and Economics > Energy Transitions
Generality-Training of a Classifier for Improved Calibration in Unseen Contexts
Authors: Leelar Bhawani Shankar , Kull Meelis 
Published: September 2023

AbstractArtificial neural networks tend to output class probabilities that are miscalibrated, i.e., their reported uncertainty is not a very good indicator of how much we should trust the model. Consequently, methods have been developed to improve the model’s predictive uncertainty, both during training and post-hoc. Even if the model is calibrated on the domain used in training, it typically becomes over-confident when applied on slightly different target domains, e.g. due to perturbations or shifts in the data. The model can be recalibrated for a fixed list of target domains, but its performance can still be poor on unseen target domains. To address this issue, we propose a generality-training procedure that learns a modified head for the neural network to achieve better calibration generalization to new domains while retaining calibration performance on the given domains. This generality-head is trained on multiple domains using a new objective function with increased emphasis on the calibration loss compared to cross-entropy. Such training results in a more general model in the sense of not only better calibration but also better accuracy on unseen domains, as we demonstrate experimentally on multiple datasets. The code and supplementary for the paper is available (https://github.com/bsl-traveller/CaliGen.git).
Adaptively Weighted Audits of Instant-Runoff Voting Elections: AWAIRE
Authors: Ek Alexander , Stark Philip B. , Stuckey Peter J. , Vukcevic Damjan 
Published: September 2023

AbstractAn election audit is risk-limiting if the audit limits (to a pre-specified threshold) the chance that an erroneous electoral outcome will be certified. Extant methods for auditing instant-runoff voting (IRV) elections are either not risk-limiting or require cast vote records (CVRs), the voting system’s electronic record of the votes on each ballot. CVRs are not always available, for instance, in jurisdictions that tabulate IRV contests manually.We develop an RLA method (AWAIRE) that uses adaptively weighted averages of test supermartingales to efficiently audit IRV elections when CVRs are not available. The adaptive weighting ‘learns’ an efficient set of hypotheses to test to confirm the election outcome. When accurate CVRs are available, AWAIRE can use them to increase the efficiency to match the performance of existing methods that require CVRs.We provide an open-source prototype implementation that can handle elections with up to six candidates. Simulations using data from real elections show that AWAIRE is likely to be efficient in practice. We discuss how to extend the computational approach to handle elections with more candidates.Adaptively weighted averages of test supermartingales are a general tool, useful beyond election audits to test collections of hypotheses sequentially while rigorously controlling the familywise error rate.
Coercion Mitigation for Voting Systems with Trackers: A Selene Case Study
Authors: Gjøsteen Kristian , Haines Thomas , Solberg Morten Rotvold 
Published: September 2023

AbstractAn interesting approach to achieving verifiability in voting systems is to make use of tracking numbers. This gives voters a simple way of verifying that their ballot was counted: they can simply look up their ballot/tracker pair on a public bulletin board. It is crucial to understand how trackers affect other security properties, in particular privacy. However, existing privacy definitions are not designed to accommodate tracker-based voting systems. Furthermore, the addition of trackers increases the threat of coercion. There does however exist techniques to mitigate the coercion threat. While the term coercion mitigation has been used in the literature when describing voting systems such as Selene, no formal definition of coercion mitigation seems to exist. In this paper we formally define what coercion mitigation means for tracker-based voting systems. We model Selene in our framework and we prove that Selene provides coercion mitigation, in addition to privacy and verifiability.
A Self-quantified Based Dashboard for Supporting Aged-Workforce in Industry 4.0
Authors: Abril-Jimenez Patricia , Gonzalez-Martinez Sergio , Cabrera-Umpierrez María Fernanda 
Published: September 2023

AbstractWith the new Industry 5.0 future factories can effectively face the aged workforce challenge, making workflows more enriched and flexible and capable to increase work well-being. This paper described how self-quantified worker could be a successful tool to achieve with this with a careful collaborative design. Our vision aims at empowering the aged workers and engage them with the work community based on adapting the factory shop floor routines to their changing needs while they age and support the aged worker to understand and develop his/her own competence.
Innovative Smart Care Space Solutions: Integrating Technology and Universal Design for People with Significant Severe Disabilities
Authors: Lee Kuem Ju , Song Won-Kyung 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThis study aimed to develop and implement smart care spaces (SCS) to improve the quality of life and convenience for individuals with significant severe disabilities. By analyzing Korean and international case studies, the study integrated technology, universal design principles, and stakeholder feedback, along with care robots for daily living assistance. Various areas within the SCS address the unique needs of people with severe disabilities. The first SCS was constructed in the Nuri Hall of the National Rehabilitation Center in Korea as a pilot project. Future plans include continuous improvement and utilization of the space based on user experiences, feedback, and results of usability evaluation to reduce the caregiving burden and promote inclusive environments.
Infection and Inflammation Imaging
Authors: Israel Ora , Estrada-Lobato Enrique , Pascual Thomas Neil 
Published: September 2023

AbstractMost commonly infectious processes in children involve the peripheral skeleton, lungs, kidneys, brain, and heart. Pediatric infections are usually of viral and bacterial origins. Fungal etiology can be found, mainly in children with immunodeficiency. Neonates also have immature immunity and are prone to infections with a less favorable prognosis. Conventional techniques used to evaluate infectious and inflammatory processes in children provide high-resolution images but are limited since only insignificant findings are seen in early disease stages and the differential diagnosis with coexisting pathologies and/or post-treatment changes is challenging. Nuclear Medicine procedures play an important role in diagnosing and monitoring pediatric infections, and inflammatory and granulomatous diseases. Several SPECT radiotracers used in the past for functional imaging of infection and inflammatory processes, such as 67Gallium citrate and 111In-labelled WBCs are not being used anymore routinely in pediatric patients and only rarely in adults, mainly in centers with limited or no access to 99mTc-labelled leukocytes (WBCs) and PET imaging. The value of Nuclear Medicine tests has increased with the implementation of hybrid SPECT/CT, PET/CT, and PET/MRI imaging.
Searching for heavy neutral lepton and lepton number violation through VBS at high-energy muon colliders
Authors: Li Tong , Yao Chang-Yuan , Yuan Man 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
High-energy muon collider can play as an emitter of electroweak gauge bosons and thus leads to substantial vector boson scattering (VBS) processes. In this work, we investigate the production of heavy neutral lepton (HNL) N and lepton number violation (LNV) signature through VBS at high-energy muon colliders. VBS induces LNV processes W±Z/γ → ℓ±N → ℓ±ℓ±W∓ → ℓ±ℓ±$$ q\overline{q} $$
q

q
¯

′ with an on-shell HNL N at μ+μ− colliders. In analogy to neutrinoless double-beta decay with the HNL in t-channel, the LNV signature W+W+ → ℓ+ℓ+ can also happen via VBS at same-sign muon collider. They provide clean and robust LNV signatures to tell the nature of Majorana HNLs and thus have more advantageous benefits than direct μμ annihilation. We analyze the potential of searching for Majorana HNL and obtain the exclusion limits on mixing VℓN. Based on this same-sign lepton signature, we also obtain the sensitivity of muon collider to the Weinberg operator.
Photosynthetic conversion of carbon dioxide from cement production to microalgae biomass
Authors: Dickinson Kathryn E. , Stemmler Kevin , Bermarija Tessa , Tibbetts Sean M. , MacQuarrie Scott P. , Bhatti Shabana , Kozera Catherine , O’Leary Stephen J.B. , McGinn Patrick J. 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Production of microalgae is a potential technology for capturing and recycling carbon dioxide from cement kiln emissions. In this study, a process of selecting a suitable strain that would effectively utilize carbon dioxide and generate biomass was investigated. A down-selection screening method was applied to 28 strains isolated from the area surrounding a commercial cement plant. In laboratory-scale (1 L) continuous-mode chemostats, observed productivity was > 0.9 g L−1 d−1 for most strains studied. Chlorella sorokiniana (strain SMC-14M) appeared to be the most tolerant to cement kiln gas emissions in situ, delivered under control of a pH-stat system, and was down-selected to further investigate growth and biomass production at large-scale (1000 L) cultivation. Results demonstrated little variability in lipid, crude protein, and carbohydrate composition throughout growth between kiln-gas grown algal biomass and biomass produced with laboratory grade CO2. The growth rate at which the maximum quantity of CO2 from the emissions is recycled also produced the maximum amount of the targeted biomass components to increase commercial value of the biomass. An accumulation of some heavy metals throughout its growth demonstrates the necessity to monitor the biomass cultivated with industrial flue gases and to carefully consider the potential applications for this biomass; despite its other attractive nutritional properties.

Key points
• Studied high biomass producing algal strains grown on CO2from cement flue gas.
• Chlorella sorokiniana SMC-14M grew well at large scale, in situ on cement flue gas.
• Demonstrated the resulting commercial potential of the cultured algal biomass.
A very rare case of a thoracobrachialis muscle
Authors: Zielinska Nicol , Karauda Piotr , Węgiel Andrzej , Szewczyk Bartłomiej , Olewnik Łukasz 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThe anterior arm compartment includes the biceps brachii muscle, brachialis muscle, and coracobrachialis muscle, and they are characterized by different morphological variations. During standard anatomical dissection of right upper limb, an variant muscle was found. It originated from the fascia covering the long head of biceps brachii and from the tendon of pectoralis major muscle. It also connected to the brachial fascia. It also demonstrated a long thin tendon which was distally attached to the medial epicondyle of humerus. Knowledge about the morphological variations in this region is clinically important because of their direct correlation with neurovascular structures, which may lead to pathologies such as tingling, muscle weakness, paresthesia, and loss of sensation.
Online physiotherapy for people with axial spondyloarthritis: quantitative and qualitative data from a cohort study
Authors: Paul L. , McDonald M. T. , McConnachie A. , Siebert S. , Coulter E. H. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractLife-long exercise is essential in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) management; however, long-term adherence is challenging. Online exercise programmes are an alternative to face-to-face physiotherapy. (1) To measure adherence to a 12-month, individualised, online physiotherapy programme for people with axSpA, and investigate the effects on disease activity, spinal mobility, work ability, quality of life and function. (2) To investigate associations between programme adherence and outcomes. (3) To explore participants’ views of the programme and factors affecting adherence. Participants were ‘non-exercisers’ recruited from rheumatology outpatient services. Adherence was measured using online diary entries. Outcomes included the BATH indices, health status (EQ5D), Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQOL), exercise capacity (6MWT), Work, Productivity and Activity Impairment in AS (WPAI), Exercise Attitude Questionnaire (EAQ) and Exercise Motivations Inventory-2 (EMI-2) at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Interviews determined views on the intervention and factors affecting adherence. Fifty participants were recruited. Over the 52-week intervention, adherence (five times/week) ranged from 19% (± 30%) to 44% (± 35%). Significant improvements were found in disease activity (BASDAI), spinal mobility (BASMI), 6MWT, AsQoL and EQ5D-VAS at 6 and 12 months. There were no associations between adherence and baseline variables or demographics. Interviews suggested support from others, routine, and feeling the benefit positively affected adherence. Conversely, lack of motivation, life events and symptoms negatively affected adherence. A 12-month online physiotherapy programme significantly improved symptoms in people with axSpA who were not regular exercisers. Adherence reduced over the intervention period. Online exercise programmes may benefit people with axSpA; however, strategies to improve adherence are required.
Treatment of patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) with an electromagnetic field coupled to biorhythmically defined impulse configuration: the MicrocircMODS study
Authors: Werdan Karl , Nuding Sebastian , Kühnert Diethelm , Kolthoum Ramzi , Schott Artjom , Quitter Felix , Wienke Andreas , Sedding Daniel 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
To potentially improve impaired vasomotion of patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), we tested whether an electromagnetic field of low flux density coupled with a biorhythmically defined impulse configuration (Physical Vascular Therapy BEMER®, PVT), in addition to standard care, is safe and feasible and might improve disturbed microcirculatory blood flow and thereby improve global haemodynamics.

Methods
In a prospective, monocentric, one-arm pilot study, 10 MODS patients (APACHE II score 20–35) were included. Patients were treated, in addition to standard care, for 4 days with PVT (3 treatment periods of 8 min each day; day 1: field intensity 10.5 μT; day 2:14 μT, day 3:17.5 μT; day 4:21.0 μT). Primary endpoint was the effect of PVT on sublingual microcirculatory perfusion, documented by microvascular flow index (MFI). Patient safety, adverse events, and outcomes were documented.

Results
An increase in MFI by approximately 25% paralleled 4-day PVT, with the increase starting immediately after the first PVT and lasting over the total 4-day treatment period. Concerning global haemodynamics (secondary endpoints), halving vasopressor use within 24 h, and haemodynamic stabilisation paralleled 4-day PVT with an increase in cardiac index, stroke volume index, and cardiac power index by 30%–50%. No adverse events (AEs) or serious adverse events (SAEs) were classified as causally related to the medical product (PVT) or study. Three patients died within 28 days and one patient between 28 and 180 days.

Conclusion
PVT treatment was feasible and safe and could be performed without obstruction of standard patient care. An increase in microcirculatory blood flow, a rapid reduction in vasopressor use, and an improvement in global haemodynamics paralleled PVT treatment. Findings of this pilot study allowed forming a concept for a randomized trial for further proof.

Graphical abstract