bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Endophytic Bacillus subtilis H17‐16 effectively inhibits Phytophthora infestans, the pathogen of potato late blight, and its potential application
Authors: Zhang Jiaomei , Huang Xiaoqing , Yang Shidong , Huang Airong , Ren Jie , Luo Xunguang , Feng Shun , Li Peihua , Li Zhengguo , Dong Pan 
Published: August 2023

AbstractBACKGROUNDAs a highly prevalent epidemic disease of potato, late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans poses a serious threat to potato yield and quality. At present, chemical fungicides are mainly used to control potato late blight, but long‐term overuse of chemical fungicides may lead to environmental pollution and human health threats. Endophytes, natural resources for plant diseases control, can promote plant growth, enhance plant resistance, and secrete antifungal substances. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find some beneficial endophytes to control potato late blight.RESULTSWe isolated a strain of Bacillus subtilis H17‐16 from potato healthy roots. It can significantly inhibit mycelial growth, sporangia germination and the pathogenicity of Phytophthora infestans, induce the resistance of potato to late blight, and promote potato growth. In addition, H17‐16 has the ability to produce protease, volatile compounds (VOCs) and form biofilms. After H17‐16 treatment, most of the genes involved in metabolism, virulence and drug resistance of Phytophthora infestans were down‐regulated significantly, and the genes related to ribosome biogenesis were mainly up‐regulated. Moreover, field and postharvest application of H17‐16 can effectively reduce the occurrence of potato late blight, and the combination of H17‐16 with chitosan or chemical fungicides had a better effect than single H17‐16.CONCLUSIONOur results reveal that Bacillus subtilis H17‐16 has great potential as a natural fungicide for controlling potato late blight, laying a theoretical basis for its development as a biological control agent. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.
Cross‐resistance and redundant killing of Vip3Aa resistant populations of Helicoverpa zea on purified Bt proteins and pyramided Bt crops
Authors: Kennedy Haley , Kerns David L , Head Graham P , Yang Fei 
Published: August 2023

AbstractBACKGROUNDPyramiding Bt proteins is a key strategy to delay insect resistance development. However, the durability of pyramided Bt crops for controlling insect pests is threatened by cross‐resistance among Bt proteins, which can ultimately contribute to resistance development. The corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea, is a major agricultural pest of pyramided Bt crops. Previous studies have examined cross‐resistance and redundant killing of Cry resistance in H. zea, but such information is lacking for Vip3Aa resistance in this pest. Here, we evaluated cross‐resistance and redundant killing of Vip3Aa‐resistant H. zea to purified Bt proteins, as well as Bt corn and Bt cotton.RESULTSDiet bioassays demonstrated high susceptibility of Vip3Aa‐resistant H. zea to Cry1Ac, Cry1A.105, and Cry2Ab2 purified proteins. No Vip3Aa‐susceptible, ‐heterozygous, or ‐resistant H. zea could survive on pyramided Bt corn containing Cry1 and/or Cry2 proteins. Complete redundant killing was observed in pyramided Bt corn containing Cry1 and/or Cry2 proteins against Vip3Aa resistance in H. zea. Vip3Aa‐susceptible, ‐heterozygous, and ‐resistant H. zea exhibited survival rates ranging from 0.0% to 22.5% on pyramided Bt cotton with Cry1 and/or Cry2 proteins. Incomplete to complete redundant killing was observed for Vip3Aa‐resistant H. zea on pyramided Bt cotton containing Cry1 and/or Cry2 proteins.CONCLUSIONOur findings indicate that Vip3Aa‐resistant H. zea does not exhibit positive cross‐resistance to Cry1 or Cry2 proteins. In addition, most pyramided Bt crops showed complete or nearly complete redundant killing of Vip3Aa‐resistant H. zea. These results indicate that a pyramiding strategy would often be effective for managing Vip3Aa resistance in regions of the United States where H. zea has not evolved resistance to Cry1 and Cry2 toxins. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.
Adaptive designs for best treatment identification with top‐two Thompson sampling and acceleration
Authors: Wang Jixian , Tiwari Ram 
Published: August 2023

AbstractWe consider outcome adaptive phase II or phase II/III trials to identify the best treatment for further development. Different from many other multi‐arm multi‐stage designs, we borrow approaches for the best arm identification in multi‐armed bandit (MAB) approaches developed for machine learning and adapt them for clinical trial purposes. The best arm identification in MAB focuses on the error rate of identification at the end of the trial, but we are also interested in the cumulative benefit of trial patients, for example, the frequency of patients treated with the best treatment. In particular, we consider Top‐Two Thompson Sampling (TTTS) and propose an acceleration approach for better performance in drug development scenarios in which the sample size is much smaller than that considered in machine learning applications. We also propose a variant of TTTS (TTTS2) which is simpler, easier for implementation, and has comparable performance in small sample settings. An extensive simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach in multiple typical scenarios in drug development.
Compound continuum manipulator for surgery: Efficient static‐based kinematics
Authors: Su Jing , Zhang Gang , Wei Hangxing , Song Rui , Du Fuxin 
Published: August 2023

AbstractBackgroundThe combination of various continuum manipulators is a potential solution to break the bottleneck of continuum manipulators. However, continuum manipulators dissatisfy the constant curvature assumption due to the influence of joints.MethodsIn this paper, a mechanics‐based kinematic model of the compound continuum manipulator is proposed, which indicates that the curvature is non‐constant. The static model of the manipulator is established, and the relationship of the bending angles is obtained. An efficient static‐based Inverse Kinematic Algorithm using Polynomial Curve (IKAPC) of the manipulator is proposed. The polynomial curve is used to fit the end trajectory of the first manipulator.ResultsThe simulation results show that the IKAPC is 354 times faster than the Levenberg‐Marquardt algorithm. The experimental results show that the mechanics‐based model improves the position accuracy by 3.75 times over the constant curvature method.ConclusionThis paper is critical for solving the inverse kinematics of the compound continuum manipulator.
Greening African economy: The role of Chinese investment and trade
Authors: Chen Xi , Liu Binyi , Tawiah Vincent , Zakari Abdulrasheed 
Published: August 2023

AbstractGlobal warming and the rapid depletion of natural assets have made many countries anxious to find green growth strategies, including global partnerships and international business. China has positioned itself as the right partner for sustainable growth and development in Africa through different engagement routes. In this study, we employ fixed effects on a sample of 27 countries over 17 years to examine the impact of China's foreign direct investment and trade on green growth in Africa. Our results show that China's investment and trade affect green growth differently. We find that foreign direct investment and export have a negative impact on green growth. Contrarily, we find importation from China to increase green growth. Our results suggest that the growing presence of China in Africa through direct investment and exportation of natural resources is likely to hamper achieving the Sustainable Development Growth goals. However, countries can harness some benefits from importing sustainable products from China. Our study extends the green growth literature and informs policymakers of the need to pay attention to the effects of growing Chinese‐Africa engagement on attaining sustainable and greener growth. The results are robust to different identification techniques, including two‐stage least square and system generalised method of movement.
From low‐hanging fruit to high‐impact sustainability transformations: unpacking dynamics of intra‐ and interorganizational capability traps
Authors: Struben Jeroen , Kapmeier Florian 
Published: August 2023

AbstractWhy are organizations and markets slow to transform toward sustainability despite the abundant well‐recognized opportunities it provides? An important subset of the phenomena this question addresses involves decision‐makers recognizing the existence of opportunities but failing to undertake ambitious, effective, sufficient, or timely action. Building on existing research on capability traps, market formation, and managing sustainability, we focus on the forces constraining organizations from developing the capabilities and market infrastructures required for sustainability transformations. We characterize types of sustainability initiatives and, using causal loop diagramming, visualize structures that enable and constrain how organizations can navigate individually and collectively worse‐before‐better dynamics resulting from uncertain, nonlinear, and delayed returns. Being under day‐to‐day pressures and deeply intertwined within their environment, organizational actors find it difficult to recognize, undertake, maintain, and coordinate necessary efforts internally and externally. We discuss research implications and directions for future research on avoiding these traps and accelerating sustainability transformations. © 2023 The Authors. System Dynamics Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of System Dynamics Society.
Primary Penile Melanoma and Genital Lichen Sclerosus
Authors: Dear Kate , Kravvas Georgios , Sim Sharmaine , Mastoraki Evanthia , James Mariel , Watchorn Richard , Haider Aiman , Ellery Peter , Freeman Alex , Alnajjar Hussain M. , Muneer Asif , Bunker Christopher B. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Background
There is a well-established association between squamous cell cancer and genital lichen sclerosus (GLSc). Although there have been several reported cases of vulval melanoma (MM) associated with LSc, particularly in the paediatric population, fewer cases of male genital (M) GLSc and penile (Pe)MM have been published.

Objectives
The aim of this study was to explore further the relationship between PeMM and MGLSc by reviewing all the cases managed by our multidisciplinary service over a finite period.

Methods
All patients known to our tertiary urology and male genital dermatology service with a diagnosis of PeMM and where histology was available for review were identified over an 11-year period (2011–2022). The histology was reviewed by two independent, mutually ‘blinded’ histopathologists. Photographs and clinical notes, where available, were retrospectively reviewed by two independent dermatologists for signs or symptoms of LSc.

Results
Eleven patients with PeMM were identified for review. Histopathological examination found evidence of LSc in nine patients, and review of clinical photos corroborated the presence of LSc in three. Overall, features of LSc were present in nine out of eleven cases (82%).

Conclusion
The presence of LSc in 9 out of 11 cases of PeMM is suggestive of a causative relationship between LSc and PeMM. This may be due to chronic melanocytic distress created by chronic inflammation secondary to LSc.
Synergistic Promotion of the Photocatalytic Preparation of Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) from Oxygen by Benzoxazine and Si─O─Ti Bond
Authors: Liu Baoliang , Zhang Wenkai , Zhang Qikun , Guan Yintao , Lu Zaijun 
Published: August 2023

AbstractHydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is considered one of the most important chemical products and has a promising future in photocatalytic preparation, which is green, pollution‐free, and hardly consumes any non‐renewable energy. This study involves the preparation of benzoxazine with Si─O bonds via the Mannich reaction, followed by co‐hydrolysis to produce photocatalysts containing benzoxazine with Si─O─Ti bonds. In this study, a benzoxazine photocatalyst with Si─O─Ti bonds is synthesized and characterized using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The size and elemental distribution of the nanoparticles are confirmed by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The photocatalytic synthesis of H2O2 is tested using the titanium salt detection method, and the rate is found to be 7.28 µmol h−1. Additionally, the catalyst exhibits good hydrolysis resistance and could be reused multiple times. The use of benzoxazine with Si─O─Ti bonds presents a promising experimental and theoretical foundation for the industrial production of H2O2 through photocatalytic synthesis.
Proton Self‐Doped Polyaniline with High Electrochemical Activity for Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries
Authors: Yin Chengjie , Pan Chengling , Pan Yusong , Hu Jinsong , Fang Guozhao 
Published: August 2023

AbstractAqueous zinc‐ion batteries are promising energy storage devices due to their low cost, good ionic conductivity, and high safety. Conductive polyaniline is a promising cathode because of its redox activity, but because the neutral electrolyte protonates only weakly, it displays limited electrochemical activity. A polyaniline cathode is developed with proton self‐doping from manganese metal–organic frameworks (Mn–MOFs) that alleviates the deprotonation and electrochemical activity concerns arising during the charge/discharge process. The MOFs carboxyl group provides protons to prevent deprotonation and allows the polyaniline to reach a high zinc storage redox activity. The proton self‐doped polyaniline cathode has a superior specific capacity (273 mAh g−1 at 0.5 A g−1), a high rate property (154 mAh g−1 at 20 A g−1), and excellent cyclability retention (87% over 4000 cycles at 15 A g−1). This research provides fresh insight into the development of innovative polymers as cathode materials for high‐performance AZIBs.
Exposing the hazards of teaching 19th century genetic science
Authors: McCartney Jason 
Published: August 2023

AbstractScience should provide students an accurate and contemporary education on genetic influence, particularly how it impacts trait variability and developmental norms. Stories involving familial, racial, and sexual differences routinely appear in the popular media and sales of over‐the‐counter genetic tests are mounting. Unfortunately, research suggests genetic curricula in secondary education and university courses have little impact on genetic literacy; instead they appear to amplify genetic essentialism. This position paper reports on genetic essentialism, the impact of three components of science education (teachers, students, curriculum), and critiques existing genetic lessons in two prevalent scientific disciplines, biology and psychology. Two entrenched 19th century genetic paradigms (e.g., Mendelian inheritance and behavioral genetics) are specifically examined. The paper closes with specific recommendations for improving students' genetic literacy including important contemporary genetic science (e.g., epigenetics) and instructional approaches (e.g., learning progression, refutational teaching).
Epidemiology and identification of Eimeria species affecting poultry in East Gojjam Zone, North West Ethiopia
Authors: Cheru Hailehizeb , Tamrat Habtamu , Hailemelekot Mussie , Cassini Rudi , Belayneh Negus 
Published: August 2023

AbstractBackgroundDespite the expansion of modernized poultry farming in Ethiopia, the presence of high prevalence of Eimeria species is the bottleneck in the sector causing high morbidity and mortality rate in poultry.ObjectivesThe objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence and identify Eimeria species and investigate the major risk factors.MethodA cross‐sectional study was conducted from November 2019 to April 2020 in East Gojjam Zone, North West Ethiopia. A total of 384 chickens were used. Both floatation and McMaster coprological techniques were employed. Univariate and multinomial logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio for the associated risk factors. Analysis of variance was used to analyse differences in Eimeria oocyst counts among the groups.ResultsOverall prevalence of Eimeria species in poultry from the study area was 26.5%. Age (OR = 0.25, p = 0.001), management system (OR = 12.44, p = 0.001) and production system (OR = 0.37, p = 0.001) were found significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the risk of Eimeria species in poultry. The mean Eimeria oocyst count was significantly different by age and management system (F = 6.526, p = 0.002), (F = 5.369, p = 0.005), respectively. The mean Eimeria oocyst count was significantly greater in 6–12 weeks (p = 0.004) and <6 weeks of age (p = 0.025). A total of 6 Eimeria species were identified. Eimeria tenella (46.07%), Eimeria necatrix (24.5%) and Eimeria acervulina (8.82%) were the most common Eimeria species encountered.ConclusionThe prevalence of Eimeria species was higher in poultry in North West Ethiopia. Therefore, tailor‐made intervention is required to mitigate risk factors and reduce the prevalence of Eimeria species in poultry from the study area.
Adoption of rainwater harvesting as a sustainable approach to improving the climate resilience of small landholders in Kenya
Authors: Mutschinski Kristin , Coles Neil A. 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThe African Water Vision 2025 emphasized the disadvantages of the rural population in the context of water supply infrastructure, water management, and access. The vision extolled the virtues of providing improved decentralized governance and localized actions to deliver on this agenda. Furthermore, policies and investment should support climate resilience, by strengthening the security and availability of adequate water quality and quantity in rural communities, for example, by mainstreaming the adoption of rainwater harvesting systems. This is reflected in the government policy alignment towards enabling a devolution of responsibilities to regional and local political structures, while addressing concerns linked with water availability, climate change, and its impact on a country's water resources in Kenya. Despite efforts through different strategic plans and policies, there is a perceived gap between the general understanding of the importance of the RWH system at the national level and actions at the operational level in the counties. An absence of formal policy frameworks and coordination of investments has resulted in insufficient adoption and implementation of RWH systems in Kenya to date. This is despite the fact that in some counties, RWH systems are considered a key solution for increasing climate resilience and suggestions for improvement have been formulated by the affected communities. This analysis shows that RWH systems strengthen the resilience of rural populations but are dependent on a well‐formulated governmental structure, which could be improved by refining national policies and investment in RWH systems.
Agnostic Label-Only Membership Inference Attack
Authors: Monreale Anna , Naretto Francesca , Rizzo Simone 
Published: August 2023

AbstractIn recent years we are witnessing the diffusion of AI systems based on powerful Machine Learning models which find application in many critical contexts such as medicine and financial market. In such contexts, it is important to design Trustworthy AI systems while guaranteeing privacy protection. However, some attacks on the privacy of Machine Learning models have been designed to show the threats of exposing such models. Membership Inference is one of the simplest privacy threats faced by Machine Learning models. It is based on the assumption that an adversary, observing the confidence of the model prediction, can infer whether a particular record was used for training the classifier. A variant, called Label-Only attack, exploits the adversary’s knowledge of the training data statistics to infer the record membership without accessing the confidence score of the prediction. In this paper, we propose a variant of the Label-Only attack, called Aloa, which estimates the prediction confidence exploiting a mechanism that is completely agnostic to the input data distributions. In fact, it requires neither statistical knowledge of the data nor the type of variables. Experimental results show better performance of our attack with respect to the competitors.
Bootstrapping the gap in quantum spin systems
Authors: Nancarrow Colin Oscar , Xin Yuan 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
In this work we report on a new bootstrap method for quantum mechanical problems that closely mirrors the setup from conformal field theory (CFT). We use the equations of motion to develop an analogue of the conformal block expansion for matrix elements and impose crossing symmetry in order to place bounds on their values. The method can be applied to any quantum mechanical system with a local Hamiltonian, and we test it on an anharmonic oscillator model as well as the (1 + 1)-dimensional transverse field Ising model (TFIM). For the anharmonic oscillator model we show that a small number of crossing equations provides an accurate solution to the spectrum and matrix elements. For the TFIM we show that the Hamiltonian equations of motion, translational invariance and global symmetry selection rules imposes a rigorous bound on the gap and the matrix elements of TFIM in the thermodynamic limit. The bound improves as we consider larger systems of crossing equations, ruling out more finite-volume solutions. Our method provides a way to probe the low energy spectrum of an infinite lattice from the Hamiltonian rigorously and without approximation.
The catchment area of groomed jets at NNLL
Authors: Pathak Aditya 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Groomed jet observables have a dynamical catchment area which plays a key role in determining the leading nonperturbative power corrections and the impact of the underlying event. Based on field-theoretic arguments, certain moments of the groomed jet radius Rg capture the entirety of the kinematic and grooming parameter dependence of these effects. These moments can be computed perturbatively in the soft drop operator expansion region where these corrections are small, but yet significant to be relevant for precision physics. A precise determination of these moments is thus crucial to faithfully isolate the universal contributions of hadronization and the underlying event. Building on a previously developed effective field theory framework for the doubly differential soft drop groomed jet mass and groomed jet radius measurement, we present here a calculation of these moments at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy including matching into the plain jet mass region. We compare our predictions for these moments against parton-shower Monte Carlo simulations and find good agreement. These results have applications for precision physics with soft drop jet mass such as determination of the strong coupling constant and the top quark mass and for improving hadronization models.
Baby skyrmion in two-component holographic superfluids
Authors: Yao Shunhui , Tian Yu , Yang Peng , Zhang Hongbao 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
In the two-component Ginzburg-Landau theory of superfluidity, a pair of fractional vortices form a composite type of topological defect, usually referred to as a baby skyrmion. In this paper, we initiate the construction of such a baby skyrmion in the holographic model of two-component superfluids. As a result, two types of baby skyrmion configurations are found, where the monopole-type of one is constructed directly by solving the static equations of motion while the dipole-type of one is obtained by resorting to the time evolution method. In addition, we find that the existence of these two types of baby skyrmion depends on the inter-component coupling, reminiscent of the situation in the baby skyrmion model.