bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Coatings and the environment: a review of problems, progress and prospects
Authors: Adeboye S.A. , Adebowale A.D. , Siyanbola T.O. , Ajanaku K.O. 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
Coatings are surface protection applications providing decorative, functional, or both applications on their applied substrates. Its application on substrates can be ingases, liquids, or solids. The environmental issues stemming from coating application, especially those from petroleum base feedstock, cannot be over-emphasised.This paper is poised to examine the merits of biodegradable synthesised polymeric coatings from a renewable source (plant seed oils).Using seed oil as a feedstock for organic coatings involves functionalising the seed oil to create a reactive site for polymerisation.The use of nanoparticles also helps to fine-tune coatings properties, and sometimes they provide thermal stability, adhesion, chemical resistance, electrical conductivity, anticorrosive, antimicrobial, hydrophobicityproperties, etc.
Background gamma radiation and associated health implications for Ifo-Dagbolu-Ajakaye, Ogun state
Authors: Babarimisa I. O. , Usikalu M. R. , Omeje M. 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
The need for safe habitat in view of the demands of Sustainable Development Goal 3 - sound health and wellbeing, calls for attention to ascertain the level of exposure of gamma radiation to man and the environment. Keeping the levels of specific activities of naturally occurring radionuclides (NORs) within safety limits will help in attaining the Sustainable Development Goal 3-“Good Health and Well-being”. Background gamma dose rates and activity concentrations of NORs: 40K, 238U, and 232Th in an agrarian settlement, Ifo-Dagbolu-Ajakaye, Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, was surveyed using an Ultra-rugged Super-spec RS-125 gamma spectrometer. The respective mean values of the background gamma dose rates and specific activities of 40K, 238U, and 232Th were 14.96 nGyh−1; 31.60, 16.54 and 12.91 Bqkg−1. The values of the specific activities were used to estimate the associated radiological health parameters and the values obtained were lower when compared with their corresponding United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) permissible limits. Hence the levels of the activity concentrations of the studied NORs do not present health hazards to the dwellers in the examined station.
A blob method for inhomogeneous diffusion with applications to multi-agent control and sampling
Authors: Craig Katy , Elamvazhuthi Karthik , Haberland Matt , Turanova Olga 
Published: June 2023

As a counterpoint to classical stochastic particle methods for linear diffusion equations, such as Langevin dynamics for the Fokker-Planck equation, we develop a deterministic particle method for the weighted porous medium equation and prove its convergence on bounded time intervals. This generalizes related work on blob methods for unweighted porous medium equations. From a numerical analysis perspective, our method has several advantages: it is meshfree, preserves the gradient flow structure of the underlying PDE, converges in arbitrary dimension, and captures the correct asymptotic behavior in simulations.

The fact that our method succeeds in capturing the long time behavior of the weighted porous medium equation is significant from the perspective of related problems in quantization. Just as the Fokker-Planck equation provides a way to quantize a probability measure

ρ
¯

\bar {\rho }

by evolving an empirical measure

ρ
N

(
t
)
=

1
N

∑

i
=
1

N

δ

X
i

(
t
)

\rho ^N(t) = \frac {1}{N} \sum _{i=1}^N \delta _{X^i(t)}

according to stochastic Langevin dynamics so that

ρ
N

(
t
)

\rho ^N(t)

flows toward

ρ
¯

\bar {\rho }

, our particle method provides a way to quantize

ρ
¯

\bar {\rho }

according to deterministic particle dynamics approximating the weighted porous medium equation. In this way, our method has natural applications to multi-agent coverage algorithms and sampling probability measures.

A specific case of our method corresponds to confined mean-field dynamics of training a two-layer neural network for a radial basis activation function. From this perspective, our convergence result shows that, in the overparametrized regime and as the variance of the radial basis functions goes to zero, the continuum limit is given by the weighted porous medium equation. This generalizes previous results, which considered the case of a uniform data distribution, to the more general inhomogeneous setting. As a consequence of our convergence result, we identify conditions on the target function and data distribution for which convexity of the energy landscape emerges in the continuum limit.
Unified analysis of finite-size error for periodic Hartree-Fock and second order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory
Authors: Xing Xin , Li Xiaoxu , Lin Lin 
Published: June 2023

Despite decades of practice, finite-size errors in many widely used electronic structure theories for periodic systems remain poorly understood. For periodic systems using a general Monkhorst-Pack grid, there has been no comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the finite-size error in the Hartree-Fock theory (HF) and the second order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), which are the simplest wavefunction based method, and the simplest post-Hartree-Fock method, respectively. Such calculations can be viewed as a multi-dimensional integral discretized with certain trapezoidal rules. Due to the Coulomb singularity, the integrand has many points of discontinuity in general, and standard error analysis based on the Euler-Maclaurin formula gives overly pessimistic results. The lack of analytic understanding of finite-size errors also impedes the development of effective finite-size correction schemes. We propose a unified analysis to obtain sharp convergence rates of finite-size errors for the periodic HF and MP2 theories. Our main technical advancement is a generalization of the result of Lyness [Math. Comp. 30 (1976), pp. 1–23] for obtaining sharp convergence rates of the trapezoidal rule for a class of non-smooth integrands. Our result is applicable to three-dimensional bulk systems as well as low dimensional systems (such as nanowires and 2D materials). Our unified analysis also allows us to prove the effectiveness of the Madelung-constant correction to the Fock exchange energy, and the effectiveness of a recently proposed staggered mesh method for periodic MP2 calculations (see X. Xing, X. Li, and L. Lin [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 17 (2021), pp. 4733–4745]). Our analysis connects the effectiveness of the staggered mesh method with integrands with removable singularities, and suggests a new staggered mesh method for reducing finite-size errors of periodic HF calculations.
Social Worker Working Conditions and Psychological Health: A Longitudinal Study
Authors: Ravalier J M , Allen R , McGowan J 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
Good social work benefits the recipients of the social worker role, social workers themselves, their employing organisations and society more broadly. However, it is difficult to conduct consistently good social work when social workers have been shown to have chronically poor working conditions. This article, therefore, outlines UK social worker working conditions and well-being from 2022, as well as comparing these results to surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018. We, therefore, report a series of cross-sectional surveys, in addition to open-ended questions, to collect data from 533 respondents in 2022, and compare these to findings from similar surveys in previous years. Results demonstrate that working conditions improved slightly between 2018 and 2022, although these conditions are still very poor compared with other occupations. Qualitative analyses suggest that work-load, resources, lack of respect and lack of consistent and good quality reflective supervision are significant issues for respondents. As such, we argue that policy makers and employers need to provide greater support for social worker working conditions and well-being, and that this support would likely negate current high levels of turnover and sickness absence. Additionally, however, for the first time in these surveys, poor pay also emerged as an issue needing attention.
Drug repurposing for COVID-19: current evidence from randomized controlled adaptive platform trials and living systematic reviews
Authors: Augustin Yolanda , Staines Henry M , Velavan Thirumalaisamy P , Kamarulzaman Adeeba , Kremsner Peter G , Krishna Sanjeev 
Published: June 2023

Abstract

Introduction
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in a race to develop effective treatments largely through drug repurposing via adaptive platform trials on a global scale. Drug repurposing trials have focused on potential antiviral therapies aimed at preventing viral replication, anti-inflammatory agents, antithrombotic agents and immune modulators through a number of adaptive platform trials. Living systematic reviews have also enabled evidence synthesis and network meta-analysis as clinical trial data emerge globally.

Sources of data
Recent published literature.

Areas of agreement
Corticosteroids and immunomodulators that antagonize the interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor have been shown to play a critical role in modulating inflammation and improving clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients. Inhaled budesonide reduces the time to recovery in older patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 managed in the community.

Areas of controversy
The clinical benefit of remdesivir remains controversial with conflicting evidence from different trials. Remdesivir led to a reduction in time to clinical recovery in the ACTT-1 trial. However, the World Health Organization SOLIDARITY and DISCOVERY trial did not find a significant benefit on 28-day mortality and clinical recovery.

Growing points
Other treatments currently being investigated include antidiabetic drug empagliflozin, antimalarial drug artesunate, tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib, immunomodulatory drug infliximab, antiviral drug favipiravir, antiparasitic drug ivermectin and antidepressant drug fluvoxamine.

Areas timely for developing research
The timing of therapeutic interventions based on postulated mechanisms of action and the selection of clinically meaningful primary end points remain important considerations in the design and implementation of COVID-19 therapeutic trials.
Leucocyte-derived micro-RNAs as candidate biomarkers in Brugada syndrome
Authors: Steinberg Christian , Gaudreault Nathalie , Papadakis Andreas I , Henry Cyndi , Champagne Jean , Philippon François , O’Hara Gilles , Blier Louis , Plourde Benoit , Nault Isabelle , Roy Karine , Sarrazin Jean-François , Spatz Alan , Bossé Yohan 
Published: June 2023

Abstract

Aims
Risk stratification for sudden cardiac death in patients with Brugada syndrome remains a major challenge. Contemporary risk prediction models have only modest predictive value. The aim of this study was to assess the role of micro-RNAs from peripheral blood as candidate biomarkers in Brugada syndrome.

Methods and results
In this prospective study, Brugada patients and unaffected control individuals were enrolled for analysis of leucocyte-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) levels. Expression levels of 798 different circulating miRNAs were analysed on the NanoString® nCounter platform. All results were cross-validated by using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Micro-RNA expression levels of Brugada patients were compared with clinical data. A total of 21 definite Brugada patients (38% with a history of ventricular arrhythmia or cardiac arrest) and 30 unaffected control individuals were included in the study. Micro-RNA analysis showed a distinct expression profile in Brugada patients with 42 differentially expressed markers (38 up-regulated, 4 down-regulated miRNAs). The symptom status of Brugada patients was associated with a distinct miRNA signature. Micro-RNAs 145-5p and 585-3p were significantly up-regulated in symptomatic Brugada patients (P = 0.04). Incorporating miRNAs 145-5p and 585-3p into a multivariable model demonstrated significantly increased symptom prediction (area under the curve = 0.96; 95% confidence interval: 0.88–1.00).

Conclusion
Brugada patients display a distinct miRNA expression profile compared with unaffected control individuals. There is also evidence that certain miRNAs (miR-145-5p and miR-585-3p) are associated with the symptom status of Brugada patients. The results suggest the principal utility of leucocyte-derived miRNAs as prognostic biomarkers for Brugada syndrome.
Association of bone morphogenetic protein 10 and recurrent atrial fibrillation after catheter ablation
Authors: Hennings Elisa , Aeschbacher Stefanie , Coslovsky Michael , Paladini Rebecca E , Meyre Pascal B , Voellmin Gian , Blum Livia , Kastner Peter , Ziegler André , Conen David , Zuern Christine S , Krisai Philipp , Badertscher Patrick , Sticherling Christian , Osswald Stefan , Knecht Sven , Kühne Michael 
Published: June 2023

Abstract

Aims
Atrial remodelling, defined as a change in atrial structure, promotes atrial fibrillation (AF). Bone morphogenetic protein 10 (BMP10) is an atrial-specific biomarker released to blood during atrial development and structural changes. We aimed to validate whether BMP10 is associated with AF recurrence after catheter ablation (CA) in a large cohort of patients.

Methods and results
We measured baseline BMP10 plasma concentrations in AF patients who underwent a first elective CA in the prospective Swiss-AF-PVI cohort study. The primary outcome was AF recurrence lasting longer than 30 s during a follow-up of 12 months. We constructed multivariable Cox proportional hazard models to determine the association of BMP10 and AF recurrence. A total of 1112 patients with AF (age 61 ± 10 years, 74% male, 60% paroxysmal AF) was included in our analysis. During 12 months of follow-up, 374 patients (34%) experienced AF recurrence. The probability for AF recurrence increased with increasing BMP10 concentration. In an unadjusted Cox proportional hazard model, a per-unit increase in log-transformed BMP10 was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.28 (95% CI 1.43; 3.62, P &lt; 0.001) for AF recurrence. After multivariable adjustment, the HR of BMP10 for AF recurrence was 1.98 (95% CI 1.14; 3.42, P = 0.01), and there was a linear trend across BMP10 quartiles (P = 0.02 for linear trend).

Conclusion
The novel atrial-specific biomarker BMP10 was strongly associated with AF recurrence in patients undergoing CA for AF.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier
NCT03718364; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03718364
When does natural selection take place?
Authors: Vermeij Geerat J 
Published: June 2023

AbstractAlthough many studies of form and function find a correlation between performance and adaptive specialization, others fail to discern such a tight link despite careful monitoring and observation. This inconsistency among studies raises the question of when, how often, and how effectively natural selection and the organism’s own activities operate to maintain or improve the adapted state. I suggest here that most organisms operate well within the limits of their capacities (safety factors) most of the time and that interactions and circumstances that cause natural selection and test the body’s limits come in discrete, intermittent events rather than as continuously present or chronic conditions. Everyday life without such events does not test performance limits and therefore does not usually result in natural selection. This perspective on selection as rare, intermittent testing by ecological agencies suggests that studies of selective processes and activity in the wild should focus on observing and measuring the intensity and frequency of selective events and responses, intense challenges stemming from agencies such as predators, competitors, mating-related rituals, and extreme weather.
The influence of age on the timber properties and grading of Scots pine and larch in Ireland
Authors: Gil-Moreno David , Manso Rubén , O’Ceallaigh Conan , Harte Annette M 
Published: June 2023

AbstractScots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and larch (Larix spp.) are two species that could contribute to diversifying Ireland’s timber supply. However, there is little knowledge about their properties as well as their variation with age. The aim of this study is to investigate the structural properties (modulus of elasticity, strength and density) of Irish-grown Scots pine and larch and the effect of cambial age on timber grading. Structural-sized pieces were used for this purpose, and the timber properties, knots and ring width were measured on 158 and 250 pieces of Scots pine and larch, respectively. Characteristic values of the properties and indicative yields for different strength classes were calculated. The age effect was assessed using an empirical approach, and a novel modelling approach that disaggregates the timber properties at the annual growth ring level. Yields above 90 per cent of C20 were achieved for Scots pine, whereas larch achieved a 100 per cent yield of C24 strength class. The effect of cambial age in the grading properties indicated that older boards increased the characteristic values of a timber population. In Scots pine, the empirical approach showed that the yields increased by up to 26 per cent when using pieces up to 50 years old compared with pieces up to 30 years old. In larch, the use of pieces up to 40 years old increased the yields by up to 16 per cent compared with using pieces up to 30 years old. The results of the modelling approach were consistent with the values obtained in the empirical analysis and can help to make informed decisions regarding rotation lengths for the production of structural timber. Our results found that cambial ages of 40 years in Scots pine produce high yields of structural timber, whereas 30 years are enough for larch.
Thermal insulation and mechanical properties of a specially improved insulation plaster under freezing–thawing and high-temperature conditions
Authors: Ustabas Ilker , Cuce Erdem 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
In this study, the effects of heat preservation and the resistance to environmental conditions of ready-made insulating sludge used in the interior and exterior facades of the buildings were investigated. The insulation consists of lightweight aggregates, boron and steel fiber. Within the scope of the study, 1 L of water was mixed with 1 kg of insulating fluid as a proportion and a composite material was obtained. Thermal conductivity coefficient, resistance to high temperature, changes in ultrasound speed, resistance to frost and compressive strength tests were compared with respect to normal plaster consumption. At the same time, samples of 15 × 15 × 15 cm cube samples taken from fresh concrete were plated to be 1 and 2 cm on each surface, and the extent to which the mortar retained concrete under environmental conditions was investigated. One of the components of the insulating sludge, lightweight aggregate-derived perlite and pumice, was found to provide heat and sound insulation. The presence of boron in the components increased the binding and did not necessitate the use of cement during mortar. It has been observed that the presence of steel fibers minimizes the cracks in the mortar and increases the resistance of the mixture mortar. The unit weight of the insulation plaster mortar is about 0.5 g/cm3 owing to the remarkably lower density of light fine particles. Polymer fibers and boron additives yield a notably low thermal conductivity of 0.13 W/mK.
Could Fact-checks Intervene Directionally Motivated Reasoning and Mitigate Social Divisions? A Case Study in Hong Kong
Authors: Chia Stella C , Lu Fangcao , Gunther Albert C 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
This study examined the effectiveness of fact-checking in reducing misperceptions held by people of two opposing camps in the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong. The experimental design mirrored the political rhetoric in the city’s media and exposed participants to erroneous information in news reports that cast protesters in a negative light or accused the police unfoundedly. We found that directional motivation persistently exerted a profound influence on people’s acceptance of misinformation. Exposure to fact-checks was found to have limited effects in combating the influence of misinformation and mitigating social division. The effects were contingent on the audiences’ attitude strength and fact-checkers. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of fact-checking is subject to the political and media contexts in which misinformation and fact-checks are circulated as well as the implications of those contexts on people’s trust in fact-checks.
3D quantitative assessment for nuclear morphology in osteocytic spheroid with optical clearing technique
Authors: Inagaki Takashi , Kim Jeonghyun , Tomida Kosei , Maeda Eijiro , Matsumoto Takeo 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) cell culture has been attracting attention as a cell culture model that mimics an environment closer to that of a living organism. It is known that there is a close relationship between cell nuclear shape and cellular function, which highlights the importance of cell nucleus shape analysis in the 3D culture. On the other hand, it is difficult to observe the cell nuclei inside the 3D culture models because the penetration depth of the laser light under a microscope is limited. In this study, we adopted an aqueous iodixanol solution to the 3D osteocytic spheroids derived from mouse osteoblast precursor cells to make the spheroids transparent for 3D quantitative analysis. With a custom-made image analysis pipeline in Python, we found that the aspect ratio of the cell nuclei near the surface of the spheroid was significantly greater than that at the center, suggesting that the nuclei on the surface were deformed more than those at the center. The results also quantitatively showed that the orientation of nuclei in the center of the spheroid was randomly distributed, whereas those on the surface of the spheroid were oriented parallel to the surface of the spheroid. Our 3D quantitative method with an optical clearing technique will contribute to the 3D culture models including various organoid models to elucidate the nuclear deformation during the development of the organs.
Insight box Although 3D cell culture has been a powerful tool in the fields of fundamental biology and tissue engineering, it raises the demand for quantification techniques for cell nuclear morphology in the 3D culture model. In this study, we attempted to optically clear a 3D osteocytic spheroid model using iodixanol solution for the nuclear observation inside the spheroid. Moreover, using a custom-made image analysis pipeline in Python, we successfully quantified the nuclear morphology regarding aspect ratio and orientation. Our quantitative method with the optical clearing technique will contribute to the 3D culture models such as various organoid models to elucidate the nuclear deformation during the development of the organs.