bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Droplet superpropulsion in an energetically constrained insect
Authors: Challita Elio J. , Sehgal Prateek , Krugner Rodrigo , Bhamla M. Saad 
Published: February 2023

AbstractFood consumption and waste elimination are vital functions for living systems. Although how feeding impacts animal form and function has been studied for more than a century since Darwin, how its obligate partner, excretion, controls and constrains animal behavior, size, and energetics remains largely unexplored. Here we study millimeter-scale sharpshooter insects (Cicadellidae) that feed exclusively on a plant’s xylem sap, a nutrient-deficit source (95% water). To eliminate their high-volume excreta, these insects exploit droplet superpropulsion, a phenomenon in which an elastic projectile can achieve higher velocity than the underlying actuator through temporal tuning. We combine coupled-oscillator models, computational fluid dynamics, and biophysical experiments to show that these insects temporally tune the frequency of their anal stylus to the Rayleigh frequency of their surface tension-dominated elastic drops as a single-shot resonance mechanism. Our model predicts that for these tiny insects, the superpropulsion of droplets is energetically cheaper than forming jets, enabling them to survive on an extreme energy-constrained xylem-sap diet. The principles and limits of superpropulsion outlined here can inform designs of energy-efficient self-cleaning structures and soft engines to generate ballistic motions.
Spectral sensitivity near exceptional points as a resource for hardware encryption
Authors: Yang Minye , Zhu Liang , Zhong Qi , El-Ganainy Ramy , Chen Pai-Yen 
Published: February 2023

AbstractThe spectral sensitivity near exceptional points (EPs) has been recently explored as an avenue for building sensors with enhanced sensitivity. However, to date, it is not clear whether this class of sensors does indeed outperform traditional sensors in terms of signal-to-noise ratio. In this work, we investigate the spectral sensitivity associated with EPs under a different lens and propose to utilize it as a resource for hardware security. In particular, we introduce a physically unclonable function (PUF) based on analogue electronic circuits that benefit from the drastic eigenvalues bifurcation near a divergent exceptional point to enhance the stochastic entropy caused by inherent parameter fluctuations in electronic components. This in turn results in a perfect entropy source for the generation of encryption keys encoded in analog electrical signals. This lightweight and robust analog-PUF structure may lead to a variety of unforeseen securities and anti-counterfeiting applications in radio-frequency fingerprinting and wireless communications.
Engineering potent live attenuated coronavirus vaccines by targeted inactivation of the immune evasive viral deubiquitinase
Authors: Myeni Sebenzile K. , Bredenbeek Peter J. , Knaap Robert C. M. , Dalebout Tim J. , Morales Shessy Torres , Sidorov Igor A. , Linger Marissa E. , Oreshkova Nadia , van Zanen-Gerhardt Sophie , Zander Serge A. L. , Enjuanes Luis , Sola Isabel , Snijder Eric J. , Kikkert Marjolein 
Published: February 2023

AbstractCoronaviruses express a papain-like protease (PLpro) that is required for replicase polyprotein maturation and also serves as a deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB). In this study, using a Middle East respiratory syndrome virus (MERS-CoV) PLpro modified virus in which the DUB is selectively inactivated, we show that the PLpro DUB is an important MERS-CoV interferon antagonist and virulence factor. Although the DUB-negative rMERS-CoVMA replicates robustly in the lungs of human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 knock-in (hDPP4 KI) mice, it does not cause clinical symptoms. Interestingly, a single intranasal vaccination with DUB-negative rMERS-CoVMA induces strong and sustained neutralizing antibody responses and sterilizing immunity after a lethal wt virus challenge. The survival of naïve animals also significantly increases when sera from animals vaccinated with the DUB-negative rMERS-CoVMA are passively transferred, prior to receiving a lethal virus dose. These data demonstrate that DUB-negative coronaviruses could be the basis of effective modified live attenuated vaccines.
Hollow-core fibers with reduced surface roughness and ultralow loss in the short-wavelength range
Authors: Osório Jonas H. , Amrani Foued , Delahaye Frédéric , Dhaybi Ali , Vasko Kostiantyn , Melli Federico , Giovanardi Fabio , Vandembroucq Damien , Tessier Gilles , Vincetti Luca , Debord Benoît , Gérôme Frédéric , Benabid Fetah 
Published: February 2023

AbstractWhile optical fibers display excellent performances in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet ranges remain poorly addressed by them. Obtaining better fibers for the short-wavelength range has been restricted, in all fiber optics, by scattering processes. In hollow-core fibers, the scattering loss arises from the core roughness and represents the limiting factor for loss reduction regardless of the cladding confinement power. Here, we report on the reduction of the core surface roughness of hollow-core fibers by modifying their fabrication technique. The effect of the modified process has been quantified and the results showed a root-mean-square surface roughness reduction from 0.40 to 0.15 nm. The improvement in the core surface entailed fibers with ultralow loss at short wavelengths. The results reveal this approach as a promising path for the development of hollow-core fibers with loss that can potentially be orders of magnitude lower than the ones achievable with silica-core counterparts.
Matrix is everywhere: extracellular DNA is a link between biofilm and mineralization in Bacillus cereus planktonic lifestyle
Authors: Ivanova Lyubov A. , Egorov Vladimir V. , Zabrodskaya Yana A. , Shaldzhyan Aram A. , Baranchikov Alexander Ye. , Tsvigun Natalia V. , Lykholay Anna N. , Yapryntsev Alexey D. , Lebedev Dmitry V. , Kulminskaya Anna A. 
Published: February 2023

AbstractTo date, the mechanisms of biomineralization induced by bacterial cells in the context of biofilm formation remain the subject of intensive studies. In this study, we analyzed the influence of the medium components on the induction of CaCO3 precipitation by the Bacillus cereus cells and composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) formed in the submerged culture. While the accumulation of extracellular polysaccharides and amyloids appeared to be independent of the presence of calcium and urea during the growth, the accumulation of extracellular DNA (eDNA), as well as precipitation of calcium carbonate, required the presence of both ingredients in the medium. Removal of eDNA, which was sensitive to treatment by DNase, did not affect other matrix components but resulted in disruption of cell network formation and a sixfold decrease in the precipitate yield. An experiment with a cell-free system confirmed the acceleration of mineral formation after the addition of exogenous salmon sperm DNA. The observed pathway for the formation of CaCO3 minerals in B. cereus planktonic culture included a production of exopolysaccharides and negatively charged eDNA lattice promoting local Ca2+ supersaturation, which, together with an increase in the concentration of carbonate ions due to pH rise, resulted in the formation of an insoluble precipitate of calcium carbonate. Precipitation of amorphous CaCO3 on eDNA matrix was followed by crystal formation via the ACC-vaterite-calcite/aragonite pathway and further formation of larger mineral aggregates in complex with extracellular polymeric substances. Taken together, our data showed that DNA in extracellular matrix is an essential factor for triggering the biomineralization in B. cereus planktonic culture.
An application of advanced oxidation process on industrial crude oily wastewater treatment
Authors: El-Gawad Heba A. , Ebrahiem Ebrahiem Esmail , Ghaly Montaser Y. , Afify Ahmed A. , Mohamed R. M. 
Published: February 2023

AbstractAdvanced oxidation process, via photo-catalytic oxidation process was demonstrated in this study as one of the promising techniques of simulated oily wastewater treatment. Several effective factors such as initial oil concentration, catalyst dose, stirring speed (rpm), pH value and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) dose influencing on the photo-catalytic degradation rate of oily wastewater were investigated. The catalyst used in this work was titanium dioxide (TiO2). The solubility of oil in water was increased using emulsifier. Results indicated that the photo-catalytic oxidation process has a good removal percentage of oil from oily wastewater reached to 98.43% at optimum operating parameters of 1 g/L initial oil concentration, 850 rpm, 8 pH, 3 mL H2O2and 1.5 g/L of TiO2after 40 min of irradiation time. The degradation reaction follows a first order kinetics with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 93.7%. Ultimately, the application of photo-catalytic oxidation processes at these optimum operating parameters on an industrial oily wastewater collected from an effluent stream of Ras Shukair at Red See supplied by Asuit Petrochemical Company was done in Egypt. The results showed that the best oil removal (99%) was achieved after adding 3 mL of H2O2in a reaction time of 40 min compared to without adding H2O2.
Dynamic effects of bilingualism on brain structure map onto general principles of experience-based neuroplasticity
Authors: Korenar M. , Treffers-Daller J. , Pliatsikas C. 
Published: February 2023

AbstractBilingualism has been linked to structural adaptations of subcortical brain regions that are important for controlling multiple languages. However, research on the location and extent of these adaptations has yielded variable patterns, especially as far as the subcortical regions are concerned. Existing literature on bilingualism-induced brain restructuring has so far largely overseen evidence from other domains showing that experience-based structural neuroplasticity often triggers non-linear adaptations which follow expansion-renormalisation trajectories. Here we use generalised additive mixed models to investigate the non-linear effects of quantified bilingual experiences on the basal ganglia and the thalamus in a sample of bilinguals with a wide range of bilingual experiences. Our results revealed that volumes of the bilateral caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens were significantly related to bilingual experiences. Importantly, these followed a non-linear pattern, with increases followed by plateauing in the most experienced bilinguals, suggesting that experience-based volumetric increases are only necessary up to a certain level of bilingual experience. Moreover, the volumes of putamen and thalamus were positively predicted by bilingual experiences. The results offer the first direct evidence that bilingualism, similarly to other cognitively demanding skills, leads to dynamic subcortical structural adaptations which can be nonlinear, in line with expansion-renormalisation models of experience-dependent neuroplasticity.
An efficient mixed attention module
Authors: Sheng Kuang , Chen Pinghua 
Published: February 2023

AbstractRecently, the application of attention mechanisms in convolutional neural networks (CNNs) has become a hot area in computer vision. Most existing methods focus on channel attention or spatial attention. Some mixed attention usually achieves better performance than channel attention or spatial attention with the help of a complex model structure, which increases the complexity of the model. This article proposes an efficient mixed attention that combines channel information with spatial information using learnable broadcast addition to reduce this complexity. In particular, this module can simplify learning and improve performance with fewer parameters. Furthermore, our method uses an excitation method based on the Tanh function to reduce computational resources while maintaining model performance, and it is a lightweight attention module that can be used in arbitrary CNNs to improve performance. Experiments on ImageNet and Cifar confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method. Besides, our method remains highly competitive for object detection tasks and image segmentation tasks.
The Araucaria project: High-precision orbital parallaxes and masses of binary stars
Authors: Gallenne A. , Mérand A. , Kervella P. , Graczyk D. , Pietrzyński G. , Gieren W. , Pilecki B. 
Published: February 2023

Aims. We aim to measure very precise and accurate model-independent masses and distances of detached binary stars. Precise masses at the < 1% level are necessary to test and calibrate stellar interior and evolution models, while precise and independent orbital parallaxes are essential to check for the next Gaia data releases.
Methods. We combined RV measurements with interferometric observations to determine orbital and physical parameters of ten double-lined spectroscopic systems. We report new relative astrometry from VLTI/GRAVITY and, for some systems, new VLT/UVES spectra to determine the radial velocities of each component.
Results. We measured the distance of ten binary systems and the mass of their components with a precision as high as 0.03% (average level 0.2%). They are combined with other stellar parameters (effective temperatures, radii, flux ratios, etc.) to fit stellar isochrones and determine their evolution stage and age. We also compared our orbital parallaxes with Gaia and showed that half of the stars are beyond 1σ with our orbital parallaxes; although, their RUWE is below the frequently used cutoff of 1.4 for reliable Gaia astrometry. By fitting the telluric features in the GRAVITY spectra, we also estimated the accuracy of the wavelength calibration to be ∼0.02% in high and medium spectral resolution modes.
Conclusions. We demonstrate that combining spectroscopic and interferometric observations of binary stars provides extremely precise and accurate dynamical masses and orbital parallaxes. As they are detached binaries, they can be used as benchmark stars to calibrate stellar evolution models and test the Gaia parallaxes.
Astrophysical properties of 15062GaiaDR3 gravity-mode pulsators
Authors: Aerts C. , Molenberghs G. , De Ridder J. 
Published: February 2023

Context.Gravito-inertial asteroseismology came into existence thanks to high-precision CoRoT andKeplerspace photometric light curves. So far, it has given rise to the internal rotation frequency of a few hundred intermediate-mass stars, yet only several tens of these have been weighed, sized, and age-dated with high precision using asteroseismic modelling.Aims.We aim to increase the sample of optimal targets for future gravito-inertial asteroseismology by assessing the properties of 15062 newly foundGaiaDR3 gravity-mode pulsators. We also wish to investigate whether or not there is a connection between their fundamental parameters, the dominant mode, and their spectral line broadening as measured byGaia.Methods.After reclassifying about 22% of the F-type gravity-mode pulsators as B-type according to their effective temperature, we constructed histograms of the fundamental parameters and mode properties of the 15062 newGaiaDR3 pulsators. We compared these histograms with those of 63Keplerbona fide class members. We fit errors-in-variables regression models to couple the effective temperature, luminosity, gravity, and oscillation properties to the twoGaiaDR3 parameters capturing spectral line broadening for a fraction of the pulsators.Results.We find that the selected 15062 gravity-mode pulsators have properties that are fully in line with those of their well-knownKepleranalogues, revealing thatGaiahas a role to play in asteroseismology. The dominantɡ-mode frequency is a significant predictor of the spectral line broadening for the class members for which this quantity has been measured. We show that theGaiavbroadparameter captures the joint effect of time-independent intrinsic and rotational line broadening and time-dependent tangential pulsational broadening.Conclusions.While theGaiamission was not designed to detect non-radial oscillation modes, its multitude of data and homogeneous data treatment allow us to identify a vast number of new gravity-mode pulsators that have fundamental parameters and dominant mode properties in agreement with those of suchKeplerbona fide pulsators. This large new sample ofGaiaDR3 pulsators can be followed up with dedicated high-precision photometric or high-resolution spectroscopic instruments to embark on asteroseismic modelling.
Heating and ionization by non-thermal electrons in the upper atmospheres of water-rich exoplanets
Authors: García Muñoz A. 
Published: February 2023

Context. The long-term evolution of an atmosphere and the remote detectability of its chemical constituents are susceptible to how the atmospheric gas responds to stellar irradiation. The response remains poorly characterized for water and its dissociation products, however, this knowledge is relevant to our understanding of hypothetical water-rich exoplanets.
Aims. Our work investigates the effect of photoelectrons, namely, the non-thermal electrons produced by photoionizing stellar radiation on the heating and ionization of extended atmospheres dominated by the dissociation products of water.
Methods. We used a Monte Carlo model and up-to-date collision cross sections to simulate the slowing down of photoelectrons in O-H mixtures for a range of fractional ionizations and photoelectron energies.
Results. We find that that the fraction of energy of a photoelectron that goes into heating is similar in a pure H gas and in O–H mixtures, except for very low fractional ionizations, whereby the O atom remains an efficient sink of energy. The O–H mixtures will go on to produce more electrons because the O atom is particularly susceptible to ionization. We quantified all that information and present it in a way that can be easily incorporated into photochemical-hydrodynamical models.
Conclusions. Neglecting the role of photoelectrons in models of water-rich atmospheres will result in overestimations of the atmospheric heating and, foreseeably, the mass-loss rates as well. It will also underestimate the rate at which the atmospheric gas becomes ionized, which may have implications for the detection of extended atmospheres with Lyman-α transmission spectroscopy. Our simulations for the small exoplanets π Men c and TRAPPIST-1 b reveal that they respond very differently to irradiation from their host stars, with water remaining in molecular form at lower pressures in the latter case.
Correcting Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope data with atmospheric profiles obtained with an elastic light detecting and ranging system
Authors: Schmuckermaier F. , Gaug M. , Fruck C. , Moralejo A. , Hahn A. , Dominis Prester D. , Dorner D. , Font L. , Mićanović S. , Mirzoyan R. , Paneque D. , Pavletić L. , Sitarek J. , Will M. 
Published: February 2023

Context. We are operating an elastic light detecting and ranging system (LIDAR) for the monitoring of atmospheric conditions during regular observations of the MAGIC telescopes.
Aims. We present and evaluate methods for converting aerosol extinction profiles, obtained with the LIDAR, into corrections of the reconstructed gamma-ray event energy and instrument response functions of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes.
Methods. We assess the performance of these correction schemes with almost seven years of Crab Nebula data obtained with the MAGIC telescopes under various zenith angles and different aerosol extinction scenarios of Cherenkov light.
Results. The methods enable the reconstruction of data taken under nonoptimal atmospheric conditions with aerosol transmissions down to ~0.65 with systematic uncertainties comparable to those for data taken under optimal conditions. For the first time, the correction of data affected by clouds has been included in the assessment. The data can also be corrected when the transmission is lower than 0.65, but the results are less accurate and suffer from larger systematics.
Krankenhauszukunftsgesetz – Voraussetzungen und Chancen gelingender Digitalisierung im deutschen Krankenhauswesen
Authors: Meer Florian , Grau Armin 
Published: February 2023

ZusammenfassungDigitalisierung ist allgegenwärtig im Alltag. Sie begegnet uns Menschen im Privatleben, in der Wirtschaft, im sozialen Bereich und ist ständiger Begleiter der politischen Debatten jeglicher
Ressorts – dies betrifft auch nahezu sämtliche gesundheitspolitischen Themen. Im Kontext der Krankenhauspolitik wird sie ebenso oftmals als wichtiges Ziel der gegenwärtigen Entwicklung des
Krankenhauswesens ausgerufen und das zurecht: Das deutsche Krankenhauswesen ist insbesondere im europäischen Vergleich noch relativ wenig digitalisiert und bietet dementsprechend ein hohes
Potenzial für durch die Politik initiierte Digitalisierungsprozesse.Das 2020 implementierte Krankenhauszukunftsgesetz hatte durch finanzielle Bereitstellung auf Bundes- und Länderebene hatte eben jene Beförderung des digitalen Transformationsprozesses zum
Ziel: Gefördert werden seitdem u. a. Investitionen in Patient*innenportale, IT-Sicherheit, moderne Notfallkapazitäten und E-Health. Bis hierhin kann festgehalten werden, dass das
Krankenhauszukunftsgesetz einen wichtigen Teil zur Digitalisierung im deutschen Krankenhauswesen beigetragen hat. Gleichwohl gilt es, die Effekte des Krankenhauszukunftsgesetzes weiter zu
evaluieren und gleichzeitig andere wichtige Hebel in Form von politischen Reformen zu betätigen, um langfristig eine bedarfsgerechte und an den Patient*innen orientierte
Krankenhausversorgung gewährleisten zu können.Dies inkludiert in besonderem Maße eine reformierte a) Krankenhausfinanzierung, die das bestehende DRG-System um ein nach Versorgungsstufen differenziertes System erlösunabhängiger
Vorhaltepauschalen ergänzt, b) eine Krankenhausplanung, die sich an inhaltlichen Leistungsbereichen orientiert und regionale Krankheitslasten sowie Anfahrtszeiten berücksichtigt und
schließlich c) eine intensivierte sektorenübergreifende Versorgung, um gerade Menschen in urbanen, sozial benachteiligten Regionen und im ländlichen Raum adäquat versorgen zu können.Wird die digitale Transformation im deutschen Krankenhauswesen simultan mit den genannten essenziellen Reformen des Krankenhaus- und Gesundheitswesens gedacht, kann langfristig ein
Krankenhauswesen in Deutschland persistiert werden, das auch weiteren wichtigen Herausforderungen der Zeit begegnen kann und dabei eine bedarfsgerechte Versorgung der Menschen ermöglicht und
die Interessen der Patient*innen wieder mehr in den Fokus rückt.
Nachhaltigkeit im OP – korrelieren Sterilität, Sicherheit und Service auch mit einer ressourcenschonenden Verwendung von Medizinprodukten?
Authors: Egetemeyer Josef , Jacob Sven , Lehmann Ferdinand , Guba Markus , Werner Jens , Börner Nikolaus 
Published: February 2023

ZusammenfassungIn Zeiten einer nie da gewesenen Energiekriese gewinnt Nachhaltigkeit zunehmend an Bedeutung. Diese Entwicklung macht auch vor der Medizin und insbesondere vor dem OP nicht halt, da hier
eine wesentliche Menge an Treibhausgasen produziert wird. Aufgrund dieser Entwicklung stellt sich nun die Frage, ob sich Sterilität, Sicherheit und Service mit einer ressourcenschonenden
Verwendung von Medizinprodukten in Einklang zu bringen sind. Ein Ziel muss hierbei sein, Einwegartikel, die einen hohen Grad an Sterilität bieten, durch sicher wieder aufbereitbare
Mehrwegartikel zu ersetzen. Durch steigende Energiekosten sowie Lieferengpässe bietet die Wiederaufbereitung von Produkten für die Klinik zunehmende Unabhängigkeit. Weiterhin verbessert der
Weg hin zu erneuerbaren Energien bei Mehrwegprodukten den Carbon Footprint zusehends. Die gewonnene Unabhängigkeit der Kliniken bietet auch für die Patienten mehr Sicherheit, da die Gefahr
von nicht zur Verfügung stehenden Materialien verringert wird. Neben dem Ziel der zunehmenden Verwendung von Mehrwegartikeln wird auch das Recyceln von Einwegprodukten eine zunehmende Rolle
spielen. Life Cycle Assessments werden hierbei zunehmend die optimale Auswahl an Produkten steuern. Zusammenfassend bieten diese Optionen also die Möglichkeit, die zunehmende Notwendigkeit
von Nachhaltigkeit im OP umzusetzen.