bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Groundwater flow reversal between small water bodies and their adjoining aquifers: A numerical experiment
Authors: Steidl Jörg , Gliege Steffen , Semiromi Majid Taie , Lischeid Gunnar 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThe countless kettle holes in the Late Pleistocene landscapes of Northern Europe are hotspots for biodiversity and biogeochemical processes. As a rule, they are hydraulically connected to the shallow groundwater system. The rapid, intensive turnover of carbon, nutrients and pollutants in the kettle holes therefore has a major impact on the quality of the shallow groundwater downstream. As a result of high‐evapotranspiration rates from their riparian vegetation or strong storm events, the process of downstream groundwater flow may stagnate and reverse back towards the kettle hole, making interactions between the groundwater and kettle hole more complex. Furthermore, the highly heterogeneous soil landscape in the catchment contributes to this complexity. Therefore, the present study aims to enhance our understanding of this complicated interaction. To this end, 24 model variants were integrated into HydroGeoSphere, capturing a wide range of uncertainties in quantifying the extent and timing of groundwater flow reversal between a kettle hole and the adjacent aquifer. The findings revealed that the groundwater flow reversal lasted between 1 month and 19 years at most and occurred in a distance of more than 140 m downstream of the kettle hole. Our results demonstrated that the groundwater flow reversal arises especially often in areas where the shallow aquifer possesses low‐hydraulic conductivity. There may also be a recurrent circulating flow between the groundwater and kettle hole, resulting in solute turnover within the kettle hole. This holds particularly true in dry periods with medium to low‐water levels within the kettle hole and a negative water balance. However, shallow groundwater flow reversals are not necessarily a consequence of seasonal effects. In this respect, the properties of the local shallow aquifer by far outweigh the effect of the kettle hole location in the regional flow regime.
Gendered language and board diversity: Evidence from European banks
Authors: Piserà Stefano 
Published: April 2023

AbstractBased on a sample of EU banks covering the period 2007 to 2021, I explore the impact of gendered language on bank board diversity policies. I find that gendered language negatively affects banks' gender diversity practices, especially after the passage of board reforms. Further, I find that rule of law and government efficiency explain the relationship, suggesting that these are useful mechanisms to reduce the negative effect of language gender‐marking orientation on banks' gender diversity practices. However, results do not show a statistically significant effect of board gender diversity on riskiness of banks operating in countries with higher language gender orientation. My study provides a timely contribution to the literature by filling the gap regarding the importance of language gender‐marking orientation in explaining banks' diversity practices and suggesting that regulators and institutions should take stronger actions aimed at reducing such cross‐country heterogeneity. It also provides useful insights for EU regulators following the passage of the mandatory “Women on Boards” Directive in 2022.
B‐type natriuretic peptide in low‐risk pregnancy and pregnancy with congenital heart disease
Authors: Dos Santos Francois , Dennehy Natalie , Steer Philip J. , Johnson Mark R. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractObjectiveTo perform a longitudinal assessment of B‐type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its association with cardiac function in low‐risk pregnant women and in pregnant women with congenital heart disease (CHD).MethodsLongitudinal study in low‐risk pregnancy and pregnancy in women with CHD seen at 10–14, 18–22, and 30–34 weeks of pregnancy for BNP quantification and exercise studies using impedance cardiography (ICG).ResultsForty‐three low‐risk women with longitudinal samples (129 samples, 43 in each trimester) and 30 pregnant women with CHD with convenience samples (first trimester, five samples; second trimester, 20 samples; third trimester, 21 samples) were included. Women with CHD delivered earlier by 6 days (P = 0.002) and their newborns had lower birth weight independent of gestational age (birth weight centile 30.0 vs 55.0, P = 0.005). In low‐risk women, BNP levels were lower in the third trimester (P < 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences in BNP concentrations across trimesters in the CHD group, no differences in BNP concentrations between the two groups, and no significant correlations between BNP concentration in each trimester with cardiac output, stroke volume, or heart rate (at rest/with exercise).ConclusionThis study assessed BNP longitudinally in the first, second and third trimesters in singleton low‐risk pregnancy, and showed that BNP concentration decreased with advancing gestational age, with no participants with levels greater than 40.0 pg/mL in the third trimester. BNP concentrations were similar in women with and without congenital heart disease. We found no correlation between circulating levels of BNP and maternal hemodynamics at rest or with exercise measured by ICG to support its use as a marker of cardiac function.
Three level automatic segmentation of optic disc using LAB color space contours and morphological operation
Authors: Prakash Shree , Kakarla Jagadeesh 
Published: April 2023

AbstractFundus disorders like Glaucoma are a serious health risk that affects people all over the world, lowering their quality of life. Optic disc (OD) segmentation is a crucial step for automatic detection of glaucoma with fundus images. This paper presents an efficient and accurate OD segmentation methodology from eye fundus images. In the proposed methodology, fundus images are transformed from RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) color space to LAB (Luminance, A‐axis, B‐axis) color space. A new image is generated using the luminance, A‐axis component, and image information content. As a pre‐segmentation stage, the unsupervised approach extracts the region of interest containing OD. The adaptive threshold method, followed by morphological operations, extracts the contours of the OD region and removes the spur. Segmentation of OD is a challenging task due to similar intensity levels with neighborhood, vascular occlusion, and retinal atrophy. The proposed work overcomes the challenges by segmentation of the OD at three levels, which enhances the functionality at different illumination conditions. The features are extracted at various levels to determine whether the segmented image contains the OD or not. The efficiency of the proposed methodology demonstrates by applying it to a variety of fundus images from datasets, namely ISBI IDRiD, DRISHTI‐GS, and SYSU. Key performance metrics like Intersection over Union and Dice Coefficient are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology. The proposed methodology achieves Intersection over Union of 0.996, 0.997, and 0.994 on ISBI IDRiD, DRISHTI‐GS, and SYSU datasets, respectively. Similarly, the proposed methodology obtains 0.96, 0.97, and 0.98 Dice Coefficient on the three datasets.
Chemotherapeutic drugs induced female reproductive toxicity and treatment strategies
Authors: Bhardwaj Jitender K. , Bikal Prerna , Sachdeva Som Nath 
Published: April 2023

AbstractIncrease in success of cancer treatment with advancement in the screening, prognosis and diagnosis protocols have significantly improved the rate of cancer survivorship. With the declining cancer mortality, however, the cancer survivors are also subjected to the adverse consequences of chemotherapy, particularly in the female reproductive system. Recent studies have shown the sensitivity of the ovarian tissue to the chemotherapeutic drugs‐induced toxicity. Several in vitro and in vivo studies have assessed the toxic effects of chemotherapeutic drugs. The most frequently used chemotherapeutic drugs such as doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, cisplatin and paclitaxel have been reported to cause ovarian damage, diminution of follicular pool reserve, premature ovarian failure and early menopause, resulting into declining fertility potential among females. The chemotherapy often employs combination of drug regimen to increase the efficacy of the treatment. However, the literature mostly consists of clinical data regarding the gonadotoxicity caused by anticancer drugs but there lacks the understanding of toxicity mechanism. Therefore, understanding of the different toxicity mechanisms will be helpful in development of possible therapeutic interventions for preservation of declining female fertility among cancer survivors. The current review comprehends the underlying mechanisms of female reproductive toxicity induced by the most commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs. In addition, the review also summarizes the recent findings related to the use of various protectants to diminish or at least in managing the toxicity induced by different chemotherapeutic drugs in females.
Ox‐LDL aggravates contrast‐induced injury of renal tubular epithelial cells
Authors: Yang Dingwei , Yang Xueyan , Chen Sha , Lv Meiling , Tan Jin , Yang Dingping 
Published: April 2023

AbstractHypercholesterolemia can aggravate contrast‐induced acute kidney injury, and the exacerbation of renal tubular epithelial cell (RTEC) injury is a major cause. However, the exact mechanisms remain obscure. Mitophagy, a type of autophagy, selectively eliminates damaged mitochondria and reduces mitochondrial oxidative stress, which is strongly implicated in cell homeostasis and acute kidney injury. Oxidized low‐density lipoprotein (Ox‐LDL) is accumulated in hypercholesterolemia and has a cytotoxic effect. This study aimed to determine whether and how ox‐LDL exacerbates contrast‐induced injury in RTECs and to further explore whether PINK1/Parkin‐dependent mitophagy is involved in this process. Iohexol and ox‐LDL were used alone or in combination to treat HK‐2 cells. Rapamycin pretreatment was utilized to enhance mitophagy. Cell viability, apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) were detected by cell counting kit‐8, TUNEL staining, JC‐1 kit and MitoSOX fluorescence, respectively. The expression of mitophagy‐related proteins (including PINK1, Parkin, and so on) and cleaved caspase‐3 was confirmed by western blot. Colocalization of MitoTracker‐labeled mitochondria and LysoTracker‐labeled lysosomes was observed by fluorescence microscopy to evaluate mitophagy. The results of our study showed that ox‐LDL aggravated MMP decline, mtROS release and apoptosis in iohexol‐treated HK‐2 cells, accompanied by a further increased autophagy level. Enhancement of PINK1/Parkin‐dependent mitophagy by rapamycin alleviated apoptosis and mitochondrial injury in HK‐2 cells in response to iohexol under ox‐LDL condition. Therefore, our findings indicate that ox‐LDL aggravates contrast‐induced injury of RTECs by increasing mitochondrial damage and mitochondrial oxidative stress, which may be associated with the relative insufficiency of PINK1/Parkin‐dependent mitophagy.
Refining eligibility criteria of unit selection for myeloablative cord blood transplantation in acute leukemia: Real‐world experience of a referral center
Authors: Sun Zimin , Hu Yu , Ji Yanping , Liu Xueou , Gong Xiaowen , Feng Yahui , Liu Huilan , Zhang Wei , Qi Saibing , Shen Qiujin , Song Kaidi , Geng Liangquan , Yao Wen , Wan Xiang , Tang Baolin , Zhu Xiaoyu , Sun Guangyu , Qiang Ping , Song Zhen , Chen Junren 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThe algorithm for cord blood (CB) unit selection is still somewhat ambiguous. We retrospectively analyzed 620 cases of acute leukemia between 2015 and 2020, who were treated with myeloablative single‐unit umbilical CB transplantation (UCBT). We found that, when human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch was ≤3/10, CD34+ cell dosage <0.83 × 105/kg—considerably lower than prevalent guidelines—was permissible without affecting survival. Moreover, synergy between donor killer‐cell immunoglobulin‐like receptors (KIR) haplotypes‐B and donor‐recipient HLA‐C mismatch protected against relapse‐related mortality. We submit that minimum required CD34+ cell dosage can possibly be relaxed to broaden access to UCBT, and donor KIR genotyping should be considered during unit selection.
The relative contributions of multiarticular snake muscles to movement in different planes
Authors: Tingle Jessica L. , Jurestovsky Derek J. , Astley Henry C. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractMuscles spanning multiple joints play important functional roles in a wide range of systems across tetrapods; however, their fundamental mechanics are poorly understood, particularly the consequences of anatomical position on mechanical advantage. Snakes provide an excellent study system for advancing this topic. They rely on the axial muscles for many activities, including striking, constriction, defensive displays, and locomotion. Moreover, those muscles span from one or a few vertebrae to over 30, and anatomy varies among muscles and among species. We characterized the anatomy of major epaxial muscles in a size series of corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) using diceCT scans, and then took several approaches to calculating contributions of each muscle to force and motion generated during body bending, starting from a highly simplistic model and moving to increasingly complex and realistic models. Only the most realistic model yielded equations that included the consequence of muscle span on torque‐displacement trade‐offs, as well as resolving ambiguities that arose from simpler models. We also tested whether muscle cross‐sectional areas or lever arms (total magnitude or pitch/yaw/roll components) were related to snake mass, longitudinal body region (anterior, middle, posterior), and/or muscle group (semispinalis‐spinalis, multifidus, longissimus dorsi, iliocostalis, and levator costae). Muscle cross‐sectional areas generally scaled with positive allometry, and most lever arms did not depart significantly from geometric similarity (isometry). The levator costae had lower cross‐sectional area than the four epaxial muscles, which did not differ significantly from each other in cross‐sectional area. Lever arm total magnitudes and components differed among muscles. We found some evidence for regional variation, indicating that functional regionalization merits further investigation. Our results contribute to knowledge of snake muscles specifically and multiarticular muscle systems generally, providing a foundation for future comparisons across species and bioinspired multiarticular systems.
A review of solar and solar‐assisted drying of fresh produce: state of the art, drying kinetics, and product qualities
Authors: Boateng Isaac Duah 
Published: April 2023

AbstractGlobal demand exists for high‐quality fresh produce. Nevertheless, the quality of fresh produce is severely impacted by its perishability due to its high moisture content. Therefore, fresh produces are preserved using artificial dryers (hot‐air dryers, catalytic infrared dryers, etc.) driven by electricity or natural fuels. Nonetheless, the exorbitant cost of power has heightened the need for sustainable resources, notably solar energy, for drying. Hence, this article is a review of how solar dryers and solar‐assisted dryers have affected the drying kinetics and quality of fresh produce in the last 5 years. The review showed that solar drying modeling technology (thin‐layer modeling, computational fluid dynamics, adaptive‐network‐based fuzzy interference system, artificial neural network) helps examine fresh produce drying characteristics using various simulation tools before developing any procedure. Solar‐assisted drying shortens drying times and increases drying rates. Besides, the quality of the dried fresh produce (color, aroma, appearance, rehydration, etc.) should always be considered. Hybrid solar drying produces higher drying rates and product quality than other solar dryers. However, energy analysis needs to be done as several studies have recognized energy efficiency and product quality. In addition, fresh produce must be pre‐treated before solar drying to maintain the final product quality. Therefore, future studies should focus on creating other pretreatment techniques to produce the needed chemical and physical changes and enhance mass and heat transfer. Finally, the influence of solar drying on the final products' nutrient retention or loss, functionalities, or sensory characteristics needs further investigation and comparison to other non‐solar drying technologies. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.
CircHECTD1 promoted MIRI‐associated inflammation via inhibiting miR‐138‐5p and upregulating ROCK2
Authors: Yang Ya‐Nan , Luo Yong‐Bai , Xu Gang , Li Kang , Ma Ru‐Lan , Yuan Wei 
Published: April 2023

AbstractMyocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury (MIRI) was often observed after surgeries, causing a lot of suffering to patients. Inflammation and apoptosis were critical determinants during MIRI. We conveyed experiments to reveal the regulatory functions of circHECTD1 in MIRI development. The Rat MIRI model was established and determined by 2,3,5‐triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining. We analyzed cell apoptosis using TUNEL and flow cytometry. Proteins expression was evaluated by western blot. The RNA level was determined by qRT‐PCR. Secreted inflammatory factors were analyzed by ELISA assay. To predict the interaction sequences on circHECTD1, miR‐138‐5p, and ROCK2, bioinformatics analysis was performed. Dual‐luciferase assay was used to confirm these interaction sequences. CircHECTD1 and ROCK2 were upregulated in the rat MIRI model, while miR‐138‐5p was decreased. CircHECTD1 knockdown alleviated H/R‐induced inflammation in H9c2 cells. Direct interaction and regulation of circHECTD1/miR‐138‐5p and miR‐138‐5p/ROCK2 were confirmed by dual‐luciferase assay. CircHECTD1 promoted H/R‐induced inflammation and cell apoptosis by inhibiting miR‐138‐5p. miR‐138‐5p alleviated H/R‐induced inflammation, while ectopic ROCK2 antagonized such effect of miR‐138‐5p. Our research suggested that the circHECTD1‐modulated miR‐138‐5p suppressing is responsible for ROCK2 activation during H/R‐induced inflammatory response, providing a novel insight into MIRI‐associated inflammation.
The role of demand‐based scarcity appeals in promoting cultured meat
Authors: Arango Luis , Chaudhury Srinwanti H. , Septianto Felix 
Published: April 2023

AbstractA significant barrier to the adoption of cultured meat is perceptions of the product as risky. Across three experimental studies, we show that scarcity appeals that are demand‐based constitute an effective strategy for promoting cultured meat because of their negative influence on perceptions of risk. In study 1, we show that a demand‐based scarcity appeal is more effective than a supply‐based scarcity appeal (or no scarcity appeal) for promoting cultured meat and that this effect is mediated by consumer perceptions of risk. In study 2, we show that the effect of the type of scarcity appeals on perceptions of risk is moderated by perceived naturalness. In particular, we show that demand‐based scarcity appeals are especially effective when targeted at consumers who consider cultured meat unnatural. In study 3, we retest our moderated mediation model and show that it is corroborated by employing new stimuli and measures. We contribute to the literature on factors that have a nuanced impact on the acceptance of cultured meat as well as to the academic literature on advertising appeals and social norms. Our findings also offer insights for managers on crafting marketing communications that reduce perceptions of risk associated with cultured meat.
3D simulation of nano/micro cellulose delivery systems for dermic and respiratory applications: Case study of eucalyptus essential oil incorporation
Authors: Morais F. P. , Curto J. M. R. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThe purpose of this work was to design, develop and optimize different combinations of drug delivery systems (DDS) with nanofibrillated (NFC) and microfibrillated (MFC) cellulose‐based materials, as 3D networks, encapsulating eucalyptus essential oil molecules, for dermic and respiratory applications. Experimental and computational approaches were implemented for characterization, modeling studies, and structure porosity optimization. The optimized porous structures were able to retain the desired molecules, resulting in more controlled and uniform release kinetics over time. This methodology allowed for optimizing new bio‐based drug delivery systems with controlled porosity, pore dimension and distribution, retention of therapeutic molecules, and uniformity of the 3D network. The results showed that different drug delivery systems with this 3D matrix released the essential oil molecules, improving its stability and prolonging the exposure time, factors that are important to develop promising drug delivery systems in biomaterials fields. Overall, cellulose‐based structured biomaterials capable of transporting and releasing essential oil components are representatives of innovative materials that will be used in novel applications, in which the exposure time to the therapeutic molecules constitutes a competitive benefit.
Enhanced transverse displacements analysis of transversely cracked beams with a linear variation of width due to axial tensile forces
Authors: Skrinar M. , Imamović D. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThis paper considers the analysis of slender single‐sided transversely cracked beams with a linear variation of width where transverse displacements can occur exclusively due to axial tensile forces. The simplified model where the crack is represented through an internal hinge endowed with a rotational spring that takes into account the cracked cross section's residual stiffness has already established itself as a decent alternative to the detailed 2D or 3D finite element, offering a good ratio between the accuracy of its results against the computational efforts required. The first stage of the presented research proved that the solutions of the bending governing differential equations with directly included axial tensile force are not required. However, the need for enhancement of the model's governing parameters clearly emerged. Thus, the definitions of the moment lever arm and rotational spring stiffness were studied and fittingly updated. In the last stage, the modelling of the considered phenomenon by a newly derived one‐dimensional beam finite element with closed‐forms of the element's stiffness matrix and load vector was executed. At the end of the study, the performance and the quality of the newly obtained solutions were verified through several comparative case studies that complement the derivations.