bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A pilot investigation on the effect of induced saliva flow on digestive parameters in sheep, and a comparison with cattle
Authors: Zhang Xiaoyu , Li Yang , Terranova Melissa , Ortmann Sylvia , Kehraus Saskia , Gerspach Christian , Kreuzer Michael , Clauss Marcus , Hummel Jürgen 
Published: March 2023

AbstractSheep with a relatively low methane yield were observed to have shorter fluid and particle mean retention times (MRT). Because the application of pilocarpine, a saliva stimulant, was successful in reducing retention times in ruminants in previous studies, we applied this substance to sheep, expecting a reduction in MRT and methane yield. Three non‐pregnant sheep (74 ± 10 kg) were fed a hay‐only diet in a 3 × 3 Latin square design with oral doses of 0, 2.5 and 5 mg pilocarpine/kg body weight and day. Measurements included feed and water intake, MRT of liquid and particulate phases in the reticulorumen (RR) and total gastrointestinal tract (GIT), ruminal microbial yield (via urinary purine bases and metabolic faecal nitrogen), total tract methane emission, apparent nutrient digestibility and rumen fluid parameters. Data were investigated for linear and quadratic effects using orthogonal polynomial contrasts. The MRT of liquid and small particles in the RR and total GIT, and the short‐chain fatty acid concentration in rumen fluid, linearly declined with increasing pilocarpine dosage, while no quadratic relationship was detected. Intake of feed DM and water, apparent nutrient digestibility, methane yield and microbial yield were not affected by pilocarpine. When combining the sheep data with that of a similar experiment in cattle, we found that the MRT of the liquid phase was positively associated with estimated NDF digestibility and with methane production per digested NDF, but was not associated with microbial yield or the ratio of acetate to propionate. The ratio between MRT of the particulate and the liquid phase was smaller for sheep than that for cattle, and was not affected by treatment. Differences in this ratio might explain why species reacted differently to the saliva‐inducing agent, which might help to explain the discrepancy between species in the effect of induced saliva flow on digestive parameters.
Leveraging Play for Learning and Development: Incorporating Cultural‐Evolutionary Insights into Early Educational Practices
Authors: Samuelsson Robin 
Published: March 2023

ABSTRACTThere is a renewed scientific interest in the role of childhood in human evolution, pointing to the explorative phase of a human's life history that shapes how children learn and develop. This study presents a synthesis from evolutionary sciences that considers biases in childhood learning through activities in play, exploration, and social interactions. The study argues that childhood education based on this framework diverges from formal education. This framework explains why common misconceptions about childhood learning arise and how to resolve them. Finally, we propose how childhood education can be changed to take advantage of biological biases in learning.
Studying lysine acetylation of citric acid cycle enzymes by genetic code expansion
Authors: Fatema Nour , Fan Chenguang 
Published: March 2023

AbstractLysine acetylation is one of the most abundant post‐translational modifications in nature, affecting many key biological pathways in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It has not been long since technological advances led to understanding of the roles of acetylation in biological processes. Most of those studies were based on proteomic analyses, which have identified thousands of acetylation sites in a wide range of proteins. However, the specific role of individual acetylation event remains largely unclear, mostly due to the existence of multiple acetylation and dynamic changes of acetylation levels. To solve these problems, the genetic code expansion technique has been applied in protein acetylation studies, facilitating the incorporation of acetyllysine into a specific lysine position to generate a site‐specifically acetylated protein. By this method, the effects of acetylation at a specific lysine residue can be characterized with minimal interferences. Here, we summarized the development of the genetic code expansion technique for lysine acetylation and recent studies on lysine acetylation of citrate acid cycle enzymes in bacteria by this approach, providing a practical application of the genetic code expansion technique in protein acetylation studies.
Variations and patterns of C and N stoichiometry in the first five root branch orders across 218 woody plant species
Authors: You Chengming , Li Jihong , Yang Kaijun , Tan Bo , Yin Rui , Li Han , Zhang Li , Cui Xinglei , Liu Sining , Wang Lixia , Liu Yang , Chen Lianghua , Yuan Yaling , Li Jiao , Sardans Jordi , Zhang Jian , Xu Zhenfeng , Peñuelas Josep 
Published: March 2023

Summary
Despite the vital role in carbon (C) sequestration and nutrient retention, variations and patterns in root C and nitrogen (N) stoichiometry of the first five root orders across woody plant species remains unclear.
We compiled a dataset to explore variations and patterns of root C and N stoichiometry in the first five orders of 218 woody plant species.
Across the five orders, root N concentrations were greater in deciduous, broadleaf, and arbuscular mycorrhizal species than in evergreen, coniferous species, and ectomycorrhizal association species, respectively. Contrasting trends were found for root C : N ratios. Most root branch orders showed clear latitudinal and altitudinal trends in root C and N stoichiometry. There were opposite patterns in N concentrations between latitude and altitude. Such variations were mainly driven by plant species, and climatic factors together.
Our results indicate divergent C and N use strategies among plant types and convergence and divergence in the patterns of C and N stoichiometry between latitude and altitude across the first five root orders. These findings provide important data on the root economics spectrum and biogeochemical models to improve understanding and prediction of climate change effects on C and nutrient dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems.
Baseline metrics that may predict future myopia in young children
Authors: Vera‐Diaz Fuensanta A. , Jnawali Ashutosh , Panorgias Athanasios , Bex Peter J. , Kerber Kristen L. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractPurposeWe used baseline data from the PICNIC longitudinal study to investigate structural, functional, behavioural and heritable metrics that may predict future myopia in young children.MethodsCycloplegic refractive error (M) and optical biometry were obtained in 97 young children with functional emmetropia. Children were classified as high risk (HR) or low risk (LR) for myopia based on parental myopia and M. Other metrics included axial length (AXL), axial length/corneal radius (AXL/CR) and refractive centile curves.ResultsBased on the PICNIC criteria, 46 children (26 female) were classified as HR (M = +0.62 ± 0.44 D, AXL = 22.80 ± 0.64 mm) and 51 (27 female) as LR (M = +1.26 ± 0.44 D, AXL = 22.77 ± 0.77 mm). Based on centiles, 49 children were HR, with moderate agreement compared with the PICNIC classification (k = 0.65, p < 0.01). ANCOVA with age as a covariate showed a significant effect for AXL (p < 0.01), with longer AXL and deeper anterior chamber depth (ACD) (p = 0.01) in those at HR (differences AXL = 0.16 mm, ACD = 0.13 mm). Linear regression models showed that central corneal thickness (CCT), ACD, posterior vitreous depth (PVD) (=AXL – CCT – ACD‐lens thickness (LT)), corneal radius (CR) and age significantly predicted M (R = 0.64, p < 0.01). Each 1.00 D decrease in hyperopia was associated with a 0.97 mm elongation in PVD and 0.43 mm increase in CR. The ratio AXL/CR significantly predicted M (R = −0.45, p < 0.01), as did AXL (R = −0.25, p = 0.01), although to a lesser extent.ConclusionsAlthough M and AXL were highly correlated, the classification of pre‐myopic children into HR or LR was significantly different when using each parameter, with AXL/CR being the most predictive metric. At the end of the longitudinal study, we will be able to assess the predictability of each metric.
Identification of the rice Rc gene as a main regulator of seed survival under dry storage conditions
Authors: Prasad C. T. Manjunath , Kodde Jan , Angenent Gerco C. , Hay Fiona R. , McNally Kenneth L. , Groot Steven P. C. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractSeed deterioration during storage results in poor germination, reduced vigour, and non‐uniform seedling emergence. The aging rate depends on storage conditions and genetic factors. This study aims to identify these genetic factors determining the longevity of rice (Oryza sativa L.) seeds stored under experimental aging conditions mimicking long‐term dry storage. Genetic variation for tolerance to aging was studied in 300 Indica rice accessions by storing dry seeds under an elevated partial pressure of oxygen (EPPO) condition. A genome‐wide association analysis identified 11 unique genomic regions for all measured germination parameters after aging, differing from those previously identified in rice under humid experimental aging conditions. The significant single nucleotide polymorphism in the most prominent region was located within the Rc gene, encoding a basic helix‐loop‐helix transcription factor. Storage experiments using near‐isogenic rice lines (SD7‐1D (Rc) and SD7‐1d (rc) with the same allelic variation confirmed the role of the wildtype Rc gene, providing stronger tolerance to dry EPPO aging. In the seed pericarp, a functional Rc gene results in accumulation of proanthocyanidins, an important sub‐class of flavonoids having strong antioxidant activity, which may explain the variation in tolerance to dry EPPO aging.
On being a lonely brain‐in‐a‐vat: Structuralism, solipsism, and the threat from external world skepticism
Authors: Helton Grace 
Published: March 2023

AbstractDavid Chalmers has recently developed a novel strategy of refuting external world skepticism, one he dubs the structuralist solution. In this paper, I make three primary claims: First, structuralism does not vindicate knowledge of other minds, even if it is combined with a functionalist approach to the metaphysics of minds. Second, because structuralism does not vindicate knowledge of other minds, the structuralist solution vindicates far less worldly knowledge than we would hope for from a solution to skepticism. For, solipsism threatens surprisingly vast swathes of worldly knowledge across multiple domains, including at least some knowledge about: political affairs, religious practices, artistic movements, historical events, and cultural trends. Third, the significance of these results exceeds their implications for the structuralist solution; these results suggest that no solution to external world skepticism which does not also solve the problem of other minds will ultimately yield the kind of solution we might have hoped for. Relatedly, these results suggest that the problem of external world skepticism should perhaps be construed as two different problems, since the problem might turn out to require two substantively different solutions, one for knowledge of the kind that is not dependent on other minds and one for knowledge that is.
Analyzing the association of policy narratives with problem tractability in the implementation of EU decisions: Evidence from the phytosanitary policy area
Authors: Schito Marco 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) suggests that narratives can be employed to define and contest policy problems. Yet, few NPF studies have explicitly addressed the narrative portrayal of problem intractability. What role do narratives play in a situation of uncertainty about the causes and solutions of the problem, when strong divergences regarding the values and interests of the policy actors exist? The article anchors the NPF to the literatures on problem definition and implementation to advance two propositions about (a) how differences in the use of narrative elements can be suggestive of the degree of problem (in‐)tractability; and (b) whether other elements of tractability, namely the presence of a valid causal theory, are associated with the usage of narrative strategies. I test the propositions by analyzing media commentaries surrounding the implementation of European decisions to tackle a tree‐killing epidemic in Italy. The findings suggest that narratives can helpfully illustrate the intractability inherent in the policy debate. However, narratives can also develop independently of factors that the implementation literature understands as conducive to lowering intractability, namely knowledge accumulation. The NPF may represent a promising alternative to understand policy implementation processes.
Multicomponent Painlevé ODEs and related nonautonomous KdV stationary hierarchies
Authors: Błaszak Maciej 
Published: March 2023

AbstractFirst, starting from two hierarchies of autonomous Stäckel ordinary differential equations (ODEs), we reconstruct the hierarchy of Korteweg de Vries (KdV) stationary systems. Next, we deform considered autonomous Stäckel systems to nonautonomous Painlevé hierarchies of ODEs. Finally, we reconstruct the related nonautonomous KdV stationary hierarchies from respective Painlevé systems.
Prediction of the sarcopenia in peritoneal dialysis using simple clinical information: A machine learning‐based model
Authors: Wu Jiaying , Lin Shuangxiang , Guan Jichao , Wu Xiujuan , Ding Miaojia , Shen Shuijuan 
Published: March 2023

AbstractIntroductionSarcopenia is associated with significant cardiovascular risk, and death in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). Three tools are used for diagnosing sarcopenia. The evaluation of muscle mass requires dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) or computed tomography (CT), which is labor‐intensive and relatively expensive. This study aimed to use simple clinical information to develop a machine learning (ML)‐based prediction model of PD sarcopenia.MethodsAccording to the newly revised Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS2019), patients were subjected to complete sarcopenia screening, including appendicular skeletal muscle mass, grip strength, and five‐time chair stand time test. Simple clinical information such as general information, dialysis‐related indices, irisin and other laboratory indices, and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) data were collected. All data were randomly split into training (70%) and testing (30%) sets. Difference, correlation, univariate, and multivariate analyses were used to identify core features significantly associated with PD sarcopenia.Result12 core features (C), namely, grip strength, body mass index (BMI), total body water value, irisin, extracellular water/total body water, fat‐free mass index, phase angle, albumin/globulin, blood phosphorus, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and prealbumin were excavated for model construction. Two ML models, the neural network (NN), and support vector machine (SVM) were selected with tenfold cross‐validation to determine the optimal parameter. The C‐SVM model showed a higher area under the curve (AUC) of 0.82 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.67–1.00), with a highest specificity of 0.96, sensitivity of 0.91, positive predictive value (PPV) of 0.96, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.91.ConclusionThe ML model effectively predicted PD sarcopenia and has clinical potential to be used as a convenient sarcopenia screening tool.
What's wrong with rating scales? Psychology's replication and confidence crisis cannot be solved without transparency in data generation
Authors: Uher Jana 
Published: March 2023

AbstractQuantitative explorations of behaviour, psyche and society are common in psychology. This requires methods that justify the attribution of results to the measurands (the entities to be measured, e.g., in individuals) and that make the results' quantitative meaning publicly interpretable (e.g., for decision making). Do rating scales—psychology's primary methods to generate numerical data—meet these criteria? This article summarises selected epistemological and methodological problems of rating scales that arise, amongst others, from the intricacies of language‐based methods and from psychologists' challenges to distinguish their study phenomena from their means of exploring these phenomena. Failure to make this logical distinction entails that disparate scientific activities are conflated, thereby distorting scientific concepts and procedures. Rating scales promote such conflations because they serve both as description of the empirical study system (e.g., behaviours) and as symbolic study system (e.g., data variables), leaving the interpretation of each system and the mapping relations between them to raters' intuitive decisions. Verbal scales, however, have broad semantic fields of meanings, which are context‐sensitive and therefore interpreted differently, and which cannot logically match the quantitative meaning commonly ascribed to the numerical scores derived from them. The ease of using verbal descriptions as means of exploration drew psychologists' attention to the conceptual‐interpretive level, away from their actual study phenomena. This also led them to overlook key elements of data generation and measurement. The pragmatic necessity to analyse rating scores through between‐individual comparisons entailed the erroneous assumption that psychometrics and sample‐level statistics could enable measurement. Improving data analyses, as currently discussed, is therefore insufficient for overcoming psychology's crises of replication, confidence, validity and generalizability. Data generation methods are necessary that make the entire process—from the empirical study phenomena up to the results—fully transparent and traceable. This rigorous analysis of rating scales highlights important steps for future directions.
Plant terpene specialized metabolism: complex networks or simple linear pathways?
Authors: Lanier Emily R. , Andersen Trine Bundgaard , Hamberger Björn 
Published: March 2023

SUMMARYFrom the perspectives of pathway evolution, discovery and engineering of plant specialized metabolism, the nature of the biosynthetic routes represents a critical aspect. Classical models depict biosynthesis typically from an end‐point angle and as linear, for example, connecting central and specialized metabolism. As the number of functionally elucidated routes increased, the enzymatic foundation of complex plant chemistries became increasingly well understood. The perception of linear pathway models has been severely challenged. With a focus on plant terpenoid specialized metabolism, we review here illustrative examples supporting that plants have evolved complex networks driving chemical diversification. The completion of several diterpene, sesquiterpene and monoterpene routes shows complex formation of scaffolds and their subsequent functionalization. These networks show that branch points, including multiple sub‐routes, mean that metabolic grids are the rule rather than the exception. This concept presents significant implications for biotechnological production.
Evolution of slip partitioning in a major continental margin strike-slip fault system during a transition to oblique plate-margin tectonics: Insight into the evolution of the Garlock fault zone, California (USA)
Authors: Andrew Joseph E. , Walker J. Douglas , Rittase William M. 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
The Walker Lane belt and Eastern California shear zone of California, USA, are active, plate boundary–related dextral systems with transtensional and transpressional deformation, respectively. They are separated by the sinistral Garlock fault, creating a complex system without an overall integrated formation and evolution model. We examine the deformation within the eastern segment of the Garlock fault zone over geologic timescales by determining the slip history of faults. We assess the progression of faulting and associated deformation along the WSW-striking Garlock fault zone and how it applies to the overall NNW-directed dextral system. Previous studies found that large synthetic fault strands take up 30% of the slip of the Garlock fault zone and have proposed multiple mechanisms to explore how to accommodate regional NNW-directed shear across the Garlock fault without cutting its trace.
We analyze an unstudied section of faulting in one of the more complex areas of regional deformation via compiled and reinterpreted published geologic data for an analysis of total and incremental slip on the main faults of the eastern Garlock fault zone. We identify geologic offset features to interpret total slip, timing, and deformation evolution. We find that 30% of the total slip of the Garlock zone occurs on strands other than the Garlock fault sensu stricto, with the locus of main slip sidestepping during the evolution of accommodation of throughgoing, regional dextral shear. Our results support ideas of the creation and evolution of the regional dextral system via stress concentration on a sub-Garlock lithospheric anisotropy with a resulting lowering of the plastic yield stress. Our results also show an eastward increase in fault system complexity, which may imply an underappreciated seismic hazard of the eastern Garlock fault zone.
Evaluating emergency department transfers from urgent care centres: insights for paramedic integration with subacute healthcare
Authors: Strum Ryan P , Mowbray Fabrice I , Mondoux Shawn E , Costa Andrew P 
Published: March 2023

ObjectiveParamedics redirecting non-emergent patients from emergency departments (EDs) to urgent care centres is a new and forthcoming strategy to reduce overcrowding and improve primary care integration. Which patients are likely not suitable for paramedic redirection are unknown. To describe and specify patients inappropriate for urgent care centres, we examined associations between patient characteristics and transfer to the ED after patients initially presented to an urgent care centre.MethodsA population-based retrospective cohort study of all adult (≥18 years) visits to an urgent care centre from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2020 in Ontario, Canada. Binary logistic regression was used to determine unadjusted and adjusted associations between patient characteristics and being transferred to an ED using OR and 95% CIs. We calculated the absolute risk difference for the adjusted model.ResultsA total of 1 448 621 urgent care visits were reported, with 63 343 (4.4%) visits transferred to an ED for definitive care. Being 65 years and older (OR 2.29, 95% CI 2.23 to 2.35), scored an emergent Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale of 1 or 2 (OR 14.27, 95% CI 13.45 to 15.12) and higher comorbidity count (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.46 to 1.58) had added odds of association with being transferred out to an ED.ConclusionReadily available patient characteristics were independently associated with interfacility transfers between urgent care centres and the ED. This study can support paramedic redirection protocol development, highlighting which patients may not be best suited for ED redirection.