bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Gut bacterial alginate degrading enzymes
Authors: Rønne Mette E. , Madsen Mikkel , Tandrup Tobias , Wilkens Casper , Svensson Birte 
Published: April 2023

AbstractAlginates are abundant marine anionic polysaccharides consumed by humans. Thus, over the years some understanding has emerged about alginate utilization by human gut microbiota (HGM). However, insights have been obtained only recently at the molecular level with regard to structure and function of alginate degrading and metabolizing enzymes from HGM. Still, numerous studies report on effects of alginates on bacterial communities from digestive tracts of various, predominantly marine organisms feeding on alginate and some of the involved alginate lyases have been characterized. Other studies describe the beneficial impact on gut microbiota elicited by alginates in animal models, for example, high-fat-diet-fed mice addressing obesity or as feed supplements for livestock. Alginates are depolymerized by a β-elimination reaction catalyzed by polysaccharide lyases (PLs) referred to as alginate lyases (ALs). The ALs are found in 15 of the 42 PL families categorized in the CAZy database. While genome mining has led to prediction of ALs encoded by bacteria of the HGM; currently, only four enzymes from this niche have been characterized biochemically and two crystal structures are reported. Alginates are composed of mannuronate (M) and guluronate (G) residues organized in M-, G-, and MG-blocks, which calls for ALs of complementary specificity to effectively depolymerize alginate to alginate oligosaccharides (AOSs) and monosaccharides. Typically, ALs of different PL families are encoded by genes arranged in clusters denoted as polysaccharide utilization loci. Currently, biochemical and structural analyses of marine bacterial ALs contribute to depicting the mode of action of predicted enzymes from bacteria of the HGM.
Vowel Production in Children and Adults With Down Syndrome: Fundamental and Formant Frequencies of the Corner Vowels
Authors: Vorperian Houri K. , Kent Raymond D. , Lee Yen , Buhr Kevin A. 
Published: April 2023

Purpose:
Atypical vowel production contributes to reduced speech intelligibility in children and adults with Down syndrome (DS). This study compares the acoustic data of the corner vowels /i/, /u/, /æ/, and /ɑ/ from speakers with DS against typically developing/developed (TD) speakers.

Method:

Measurements of the fundamental frequency (
f
o
) and first four formant frequencies (F1–F4) were obtained from single word recordings containing the target vowels from 81 participants with DS (ages 3–54 years) and 293 TD speakers (ages 4–92 years), all native speakers of English. The data were used to construct developmental trajectories and to determine interspeaker and intraspeaker variability.

Results:

Trajectories for DS differed from TD based on age and sex, but the groups were similar with the striking change in
f
o
and F1–F4 frequencies around age 10 years. Findings confirm higher
f
o
in DS, and vowel-specific differences between DS and TD in F1 and F2 frequencies, but not F3 and F4. The measure of F2 differences of front-versus-back vowels was more sensitive of compression than reduced vowel space area/centralization across age and sex. Low vowels had more pronounced F2 compression as related to reduced speech intelligibility. Intraspeaker variability was significantly greater for DS than TD for nearly all frequency values across age.

Discussion:
Vowel production differences between DS and TD are age- and sex-specific, which helps explain contradictory results in previous studies. Increased intraspeaker variability across age in DS confirms the presence of a persisting motor speech disorder. Atypical vowel production in DS is common and related to dysmorphology, delayed development, and disordered motor control.
Recurrent unit augmented memory network for video summarisation
Authors: Su Min , Ma Ran , Zhang Bing , Li Kai 
Published: April 2023

AbstractVideo summarisation can relieve the pressure on video storage, transmission, archiving, and retrieval caused by the explosive growth of online videos in recent years. Most existing supervised video summarisation methods use convolutional neural network (CNN) or recurrent neural network (RNN) to model the temporal dependencies between video frames or video shots. CNN mainly focuses on local information, and RNN loses long‐term information when the input sequence is long, both of which have limited ability to obtain long‐range memory in the video. Therefore, a recurrent unit augmented memory network (RUAMN) for video summarisation is proposed, which effectively utilises the long‐term memory extraction ability of the end‐to‐end memory network (MemN2N) and solves the problem that MemN2N is insensitive to temporal sequence information. At the same time, the proposed RUAMN enhances the process of memory update between multiple computational steps (hops), and finally generates a meaningful video summarisation result. Specifically, the proposed RUAMN is mainly composed of the input module, the global‐and‐local sampling, the memory module and the output module. The input module uses a bidirectional GRU to obtain the forward and backward information of each video frame. Then the global‐and‐local sampling performs global sampling and local sampling on the output sequence of the input module respectively to obtain several shorter sequences, so that the memory modules can capture the fine‐grained relationship features between video frames more effectively. The memory module extracts the long‐term memory information in the feature sequence, and finally the frame‐level importance scores are predicted by the output module. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets, that is, TVSum and SumMe, demonstrate the superiority of our method over several state‐of‐the‐art supervised video summarisation methods.
Development of four‐terminal DC circuit breaker based on commutating path multiplexing
Authors: Gan Zhizheng , Tang Bojin , Yu Zhanqing , Wang Jinshi , Qu Lu , Jia Na , Yan Xin , Guo Mingzhu , Zeng Rong , Huang Yulong 
Published: April 2023

AbstractMulti‐terminal flexible DC power grid plays an important role in large‐scale new energy integration, which usually requires the installation of multi‐terminal DC circuit breaker (MTCB) at the intersection of multiple DC lines. At present, the research on multi‐terminal DC circuit breaker is mostly limited to theoretical simulation calculation, and there are few experimental studies and engineering applications. In this paper, a four‐terminal DC circuit breaker based on commutating path multiplexing is proposed, which combines with the compact natural commutation scheme of hybrid gap, greatly reducing the cost and volume of the circuit breaker. The commutation characteristics of the four‐terminal hybrid DC circuit breaker equivalent prototype at 10‐kV voltage level were tested. On this basis, the equivalent prototype of the circuit breaker test results shows that under 10‐kV voltage level, the four‐terminal circuit breaker topology can achieve breaking of 11 kA in 2.8 ms by the natural commutation method.
Surgical Treatment of Another Sequalae of COVID-19: Post-COVID CTEPH
Authors: Ermerak Nezih Onur , Yildizeli Sehnaz Olgun , Kocakaya Derya , Mutlu Bulent , Ak Koray , Tas Serpil , Yildizeli Bedrettin 
Published: April 2023

AbstractBackground Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still an ongoing entity and every day we face new sequalae of the disease. We hereby present surgical results of patients who are treated for post-COVID chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.Methods Data were collected among patients who underwent pulmonary endarterectomy and had a diagnosis of post-COVID chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. All data were retrospectively reviewed from a prospectively conducted database. Operative mortality was described as death in hospital or within 30 days of surgery.Results Eleven patients (seven males, four females; median age, 52 [22–63] years) were identified. Pulmonary vascular resistance improved significantly from 572 dyn/s/cm−5 (240–1,192) to 240 (195–377) dyn/s/cm−5 (p < 0.005). Significant difference was also detected in median mPAP, as it decreased from 40 mm Hg (24–54) to 24 mm Hg (15–36) following surgery (p < 0.005). Mortality was observed in one patient due to sepsis on the fifth postoperative day. Median time from COVID-19 disease to surgery was 12 months (6–24). Median length of hospital stay of the survivors was 10 days (8–14).Conclusion In the new era of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, hybrid approach including surgery, balloon pulmonary angioplasty, and medical treatment has been recommended. pulmonary endarterectomy is still the only curative treatment when the disease is surgically accessible. We hereby report the first publication of post-COVID chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension patients who were surgically treated. As we see a lot of long-term symptoms and clinical manifestations in patients who had COVID-19, we should always remember chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension in the differential diagnosis.
Simultaneous light emission and detection of an AlGaInP quantum well diode
Authors: Ye Ziqi , Zhang Hao , Gao Xumin , Fu Kang , Zeng Haibo , Liu Yuhuai , Wang Yongjin , Amano Hiroshi 
Published: April 2023

When a quantum well (QW) diode is biased with a forward voltage and illuminated with an external shorter-wavelength light, the device simultaneously emits and detects light, with the injected current and the induced current mixed inside the wells. Separating these superimposed and dynamic electrical signals is useful for the development of multifunctional displays that can simultaneously transmit and receive light signals. By utilizing the unique overlap between the electroluminescence and detection spectra, we establish a wireless optical communication system using two AlGaInP diodes that have identical QW structures. The communication distance is 25 m, with one diode functioning as the transmitter and the other as the receiver. In particular, at the receiver end, the QW diode demonstrates simultaneous light emission and reception ability, and the mixed signals can be efficiently extracted, suggesting great potential for applications from light communication to advanced displays.
Magnetization switching of a nearly compensated ferrimagnet by enhanced spin-orbit torque
Authors: Zhang Xu , Wang Xiaolu , Jiang Qisheng , He Wenqing , Yang Yongqiang , Gong Qianxun , Guo Tengyu , Chen Peng , Zhang Jing , Yu Guoqiang , Han Xiufeng , Wang Kang L. , Wang Yue , Cui Baoshan , Wu Hao 
Published: April 2023

Spin–orbit torques (SOTs) provide an efficient way to electrically manipulate the magnetic order in spintronic devices. Compared with conventional ferromagnetic materials, ferrimagnetic materials have the advantages of antiferromagnetically coupled sublattices and induced ultrafast spin dynamics. In this paper, we study the current-induced magnetization switching in the ferrimagnetic Ta/GdFeCo/MgO system. Robust SOT-induced magnetization switching can be achieved at the magnetic compensation temperature point of around 70 K, where the magnetization is nearly zero and the coercivity can reach almost 3 T. The temperature dependence of the SOT efficiency is quantified by the second harmonic method, and the enhanced SOT efficiency near the magnetic compensation temperature is attributed to the negative exchange coupling between the two sublattices of CoFe and Gd. This work demonstrates the SOT switching of the nearly compensated ferrimagnet, with great potential for future magnetic interaction-free and ultrafast ferrimagnetic applications.
Classifiers, argument expression, and age of acquisition effects in Turkish Sign Language (TİD)
Authors: Sevgi Hande , Gökgöz Kadir 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThis study investigates differences in language production of native, early-learner, and late-learner Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili – TİD) signers in the domain of classifiers. For this study, we conducted a picture-signing task to elicit clauses with classifier constructions from adult Deaf signers of these three groups. The results indicate that there is no significant difference among these three groups with respect to the morphological encoding of thematic roles on verbal roots in classifier constructions. Nonetheless, a difference surfaces in the argument expression patterns among these groups. The data show that the age of exposure to a first linguistic input impacts the argument expression rates as well as which arguments are expressed or left unexpressed. Native signers drop the agent argument more frequently than early-learner and late-learner signers. Early-learner signers, in turn, drop the agent argument more frequently than late-learners. The data further indicate that perspective taking interacts with argument expression and age of acquisition. Overall, signers drop the agent more frequently under a character perspective than an observer perspective, with native and early-learner signers employing this strategy more than late-learner signers.
My ‘Perfect’ Dog: Undesired Dog Behaviours and Owners’ Coping Styles
Authors: Roma Renata , Tardif-Williams Christine , Moore Shannon , Pendry Patricia 
Published: April 2023

Abstract
Research continues to shed light on the benefits associated with dog ownership. However, we know virtually nothing about how undesired dog behaviours impact young people’s behavioural and perceptive experiences with their dogs. Understanding these impacts is important because it can offer a more nuanced understanding of the effects of dog ownership. This exploratory study applied a qualitative methodology to examine young people’s perceptions about their dog’s behavioural issues, along with a focus on young people’s coping styles. Seven participants aged between 17 and 26 years engaged in semi-structured in-depth one-on-one interviews about their experiences with their dogs and their coping strategies in response to undesired dog behaviours. Thematic coding identified the following salient themes in participants’ responses which were subsequently explored in detail: (1) severity of dogs’ behavioural issues, (2) participants’ coping styles, (3) the relationship between the dog’s behavioural issues and the participant, (4) participants’ emotional reactions, (5) participants’ self-evaluation – insights – of their coping styles, and (6) similarities between participants’ coping styles with humans to whom they are close and those used with their dogs. Findings from this study indicate that young people prefer proactive coping styles when coping with undesired behaviours in their dogs. This study’s findings also indicate that the severity of dogs’ behavioural issues is associated with young people’s emotions (e.g., more severe behavioural issues seem to elicit more intense emotions). The significance of these findings for practice in the field of human-animal interactions is discussed.
Foundations of Christian Bioethics: Metaphysical, Conceptual, and Biblical
Authors: Cherry Mark J 
Published: April 2023

AbstractHow can we definitively determine which biomedical choices are morally correct and which engage in seriously wrongful acts? Depending on whom one asks, one is informed that choices such as abortion, euthanasia, and significant body modification involve real moral harm (either as forms of murder or as denying the goodness of the body that God has provided), or that disallowing such “medical care” violates the basic rights of persons (where abortion, active euthanasia, and body modification are appreciated as positive expressions of personal autonomy). Secular bioethics appears no longer able to appreciate what could possibly be wrong with such activities, provided that the individuals involved consent in some fashion. Indeed, many actions that were once openly and easily recognized as sinful have become so commonplace, as well as politically desirable, as to appear as if they were obviously good. As the authors in this issue of Christian Bioethics explore, fully to appreciate the serious moral issues raised by modern medicine requires a foundational orientation to the Christian God.
Finding the Way Towards a Better Medicine: A Review of: Curlin and Tollefsen. 2021.The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN-10: 0268200866.
Authors: Briscoe Joshua 
Published: April 2023

AbstractIn writing The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession, Farr Curlin and Christopher Tollefsen have provided a helpful, accessible resource for clinicians seeking to conscientiously practice medicine in pursuit of health. These authors identify a major threat to such a practice, which they call the provider of services model (PSM), and compare it to a historic way of practicing that they seek to recover, called the Way of Medicine. Throughout the book, they contrast the PSM and the Way in ways that are helpful. However, the process of continual contrasts and the reliance on controversial cases presents several counter-productive drawbacks that weaken their project.
Dictionary learning—from local towards global and adaptive
Authors: Pali Marie-Christine , Schnass Karin 
Published: April 2023

Abstract
This paper studies the convergence behaviour of dictionary learning via the Iterative Thresholding and K-residual Means (ITKrM) algorithm. On one hand, it is proved that ITKrM is a contraction under much more relaxed conditions than previously necessary. On the other hand, it is shown that there seem to exist stable fixed points that do not correspond to the generating dictionary, which can be characterised as very coherent. Based on an analysis of the residuals using these bad dictionaries, replacing coherent atoms with carefully designed replacement candidates is proposed. In experiments on synthetic data, this outperforms random or no replacement and always leads to full dictionary recovery. Finally, the question how to learn dictionaries without knowledge of the correct dictionary size and sparsity level is addressed. Decoupling the replacement strategy of coherent or unused atoms into pruning and adding, and slowly carefully increasing the sparsity level, leads to an adaptive version of ITKrM. In several experiments, this adaptive dictionary learning algorithm is shown to recover a generating dictionary from randomly initialized dictionaries of various sizes on synthetic data and to learn meaningful dictionaries on image data.
Trusts and credit risk: the Quistclose trust and lenders’ risks in loan finance
Authors: Brown Lloyd 
Published: April 2023

Abstract
The article evaluates the case of Barclays Bank Ltd v Quistclose Investments Ltd (1970) in the light of the lenders’ risks when providing loan finance to their commercial customers. A “risk profile” is established which identifies the main risks that may occur during the lending process. Significantly, the article shows that the trust identified by Lord Wilberforce in Quistclose is most important for managing and mitigating the “credit” risk that can often occur on a loan because of the borrower’s default. Quistclose changes the usual “at arm’s length” nature of lending and provides obligations that are of a fiduciary character.
Exercise-Induced Vision Dysfunction Early After Sport-Related Concussion Is Associated With Persistent Postconcussive Symptoms
Authors: Vernau Brian T. , Haider Mohammad N. , Fleming Alexander , Leddy John J. , Willer Barry S. , Storey Eileen P. , Grady Matthew F. , Mannix Rebekah , Meehan William , Master Christina L. 
Published: April 2023

Objective:
The purpose of this study was to determine if exercise-induced vision dysfunction [reduced performance and/or symptom exacerbation on a post-exercise King-Devick (KD) test] in adolescents early after sport-related concussion was associated with increased risk of persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCS, recovery >28 days). We used exercise as a provocative maneuver before the KD test, hypothesizing that concussed adolescents with exercise-induced vision dysfunction would be more likely to develop PPCS.

Design:
Secondary analysis of data from a multi-center, randomized clinical trial comparing KD test performance before and after the Buffalo Concussion Treadmill Test in adolescents within 10 days of sport-related concussion who were randomized to aerobic exercise or placebo stretching program.

Setting:
Three university-associated sports medicine clinical programs.

Participants:
Ninety-nine adolescents with sport-related concussion (exercise group: n = 50, 15.3 ± 1 years, 60% M, 22% with PPCS; stretching group: n = 49, 15.9 ± 1 years, 65% M, 35% with PPCS) tested a mean of 6 ± 2 days from injury.

Independent Variable:
King-Devick test performed immediately before and 2 minutes after Buffalo Concussion Treadmill Test.

Main Outcome Measure:
Persistent post-concussive symptoms.

Results:
Adolescents who demonstrated exercise-induced vision dysfunction upon initial evaluation developed PPCS at a significantly greater rate when compared with adolescents who did not (71% vs 34%, P < 0.001). Exercise-induced vision dysfunction corresponded to a relative risk of 3.13 for PPCS.

Conclusions:
Adolescents with exercise-induced vision dysfunction had a 3-fold greater relative risk of developing PPCS than those without exercise-induced vision dysfunction.
Hormonal Contraceptives Reduce Active Symptomatic Disease but May Increase Intestinal Inflammation in IBD
Authors: Dolovich Casandra , Shafer Leigh Anne , Graff Lesley A. , Vagianos Kathy , Witges Kelcie , Targownik Laura E. , Bernstein Charles N. 
Published: April 2023

Background:
Among women of reproductive age with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we aimed to assess the relationship of hormonal contraceptives (HCs) with IBD-related symptoms, and intestinal inflammation.

Methods:
A nested cohort of women in the longitudinal Manitoba Living with IBD Study, ages 18 to 49, were followed for 1 year, with bi-weekly online surveys. This included a validated measure of disease activity; IBD Symptom Inventory (IBDSI), and stool samples obtained at 3 time-points for assessment of fecal calprotectin (FCAL). Use of HC included oral and vaginal intrauterine devices. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between HC and IBD-related symptoms (IBDSI>14 for Crohn disease, >13 for ulcerative colitis), or inflammation (FCAL>250 ug/g) at any measurement point in the study.

Results:
Of 71 women, 17 (24%) reported taking HC in the 1 year period. Adjusting for age, disease type, disease duration, and smoking status, the odds of having increased IBD-related symptoms (IBDSI) during the year were lower for women using HC compared with women not using HC [adjusted odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI, 0.02-0.90]. Conversely, women using HC were more likely to have inflammation during the year [adjusted odds ratio 5.7, 95% CI, 1.23-43.6].

Conclusions:
HC use among women with IBD was associated with a lower likelihood of IBD-related symptoms but a higher likelihood of experiencing intestinal inflammation (FCAL>250 ug/g) over 1 year. Further work is needed to examine this dichotomous result, potentially examining aspects such as duration of HC use, and the types of HC.