bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Influences of Dual Air-Swirler Angles on Swirling Injection and Combustion of Kerosene-Air at a Supercritical Pressure
Authors: Wang Danyang , Huang Dongxin , Xu Jianguo , Meng Hua 
Published: January 2025

High-pressure swirling injection and combustion are important phenomena in a modern gas turbine engine as its compression ratio has been significantly increased to improve thermodynamic efficiency. Large eddy simulations are conducted to analyze turbulent flow and combustion of kerosene-air in a dual-air-swirler gas turbine model combustor at a supercritical pressure of 4 MPa, above the critical pressure of kerosene. The present work focuses particularly on effects of the two air swirler angles on flow and combustion dynamics. Numerical results indicate that the inner air swirler exerts strong impact on fuel-air mixing and chemical reactions inside the inner injector, leading to a Y shaped recirculating flow and a V shaped flame at an inner swirler angle of 40°. The precessing vortex core (PVC) is generated by the inner air swirling injection, and detailed analyses reveal that the PVC frequency is controlled mainly by the inner swirl number and the maximum axial velocity from the inner injector. The outer air swirler makes significant impact on the central recirculation structure and turbulent combustion inside the combustion chamber and weakly influences the PVC frequency. For the present supercritical-pressure turbulent combustion in a dual-air-swirler system, it appears that proper combination of the two air swirler angles could avoid chemical reactions deep inside the injector while enhancing fuel-air mixing and combustion in the combustion chamber.
Placement of an elastic, biohybrid patch in a model of right heart failure with pulmonary artery banding
Authors: Hayashi Yasunari , Kim Seungil , Fujii Taro , Pedersen Drake Dalton , Ozeki Takahiro , Jiang Hongbin , D’Amore Antonio , Wagner William R. 
Published: January 2025

IntroductionIn a model of right heart failure secondary to pulmonary artery banding (PAB), a mechanical approach using an elastic, biodegradable epicardial patch with integrated extracellular matrix digest was evaluated for its potential to inhibit disease progression.MethodsAdult male syngeneic Lewis rats aged 6–7 weeks old were used. Biohybrid cardiac patches were generated by co-processing biodegradable poly(ester carbonate urethane) urea (PECUU) and a digest of the porcine cardiac extracellular matrix. Three weeks after PAB, the cardiac patch was attached to the epicardium of the right ventricle (RV). Cardiac function was evaluated using echocardiography and catheterization for 9 weeks after PAB, comparing the patch (n = 7) and sham (n = 10) groups.ResultsNine weeks after PAB, the RV wall was thickened, the RV cavity was enlarged with a reduced left ventricular cavity, and RV wall interstitial fibrosis was increased. However, these effects were diminished in the patch group. Left ventricular ejection fraction in the patch group was higher than in the sham group (p &lt; 0.001), right end-systolic pressure was lower (p = 0.045), and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion improved in the patch group (p = 0.007). In addition, von Willebrand factor expression was significantly greater in the patch group (p = 0.007).ConclusionsThe placement of a degradable, biohybrid patch onto the RV in a right ventricular failure model with fixed afterload improved myocardial output, moderated pressure stress, and was associated with reduced right ventricular fibrosis.
Hispanic-serving HBCUs: towards an anti-colonial meso-relevant theory of organizational identity in sacred spaces of Black education
Authors: Bradley Dwuana , Tillis Gina 
Published: January 2025

IntroductionThis study addresses demographic changes at HBCUs and proposes an anti-colonial organizational framework for Historically Black emerging Hispanic Serving Institutions (HB-eHSIs, also referred to as Hispanic-serving HBCUs) to support both Black and Brown students while preserving the historic mission of HBCUs.MethodsWe use qualitative methodology and rely on 45–60 minute semi-structured interviews with 15 faculty and administrators from three Historically Black emerging HSIs in Texas to develop the proposed organizational framework.ResultsFindings are highlighted through four key tenets, each operationalized based on themes from extant literature and the practices and organizational logics of Black and Brown faculty and staff at HBeHSIs: 1. Tending to white settler colonialism, 2. Tending to fiscal precarity, 3. Tending to sacred spaces, 4. Tending to fallacious notions of essentialism.DiscussionThe proposed framework aims to foster solidarity between Black and Brown students and challenge oppressive systems through a radically inclusive approach to serving both communities. Recommendations include reexamining leadership structures, forming coalitions, and creating consortiums to support HBCUs’ evolving needs and diverse student populations. Findings also emphasize the need for dual federal designation for HB-eHSIs to secure funding and legitimacy.
The atherogenic index of plasma is associated with an increased risk of diabetes in non-obese adults: a cohort study
Authors: Cao Jun , Su Zhaohai , Yang Jiangyong , Zhang Bilong , Jiang Rengui , Lu Weiling , Huang Zhenhua , Xie Zheng 
Published: January 2025

ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the relationship between the atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) and diabetes risk in Chinese non-obese adults. This is important because the incidence of diabetes is significant in non-obese populations, and evidence regarding this association is limited.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study with 82,977 Chinese non-obese adults. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to assess the relationship between baseline AIP levels and diabetes incidence. We also employed cubic spline functions and smooth curve fitting to investigate potential nonlinear relationships. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were conducted to validate our findings.ResultsThe median follow-up duration for these participants was 3.10 years, during which 1,041 subjects (1.25%) were diagnosed with diabetes. Adjusted analyses demonstrated a strong positive association between AIP and the risk of diabetes onset (HR 2.07; 95% CI: 1.63-2.63; p &lt; 0.001). The risk of diabetes increased with higher AIP quartiles, especially between the highest (Q4) and lowest (Q1) quartiles (adjusted HR 1.55; 95% CI: 1.27-1.89). We also identified a nonlinear relationship between AIP and diabetes risk. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses confirmed these findings. Furthermore, E-value analysis indicated that the results were robust against unmeasured confounding variables.ConclusionOur findings highlight a positive, nonlinear association between AIP and diabetes risk in Chinese non-obese adults. Lowering triglycerides (TG) or increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels may help reduce this risk.
Like mother like daughter, the role of low human capital in intergenerational cycles of disadvantage: the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study
Authors: Marphatia Akanksha A. , Wells Jonathan C. K. , Reid Alice M. , Bhalerao Aboli , Yajnik Chittaranjan S. 
Published: January 2025

IntroductionMaternal nutrition promotes maternal and child health. However, most interventions to address undernutrition are only implemented once pregnancy is known, and cannot address broader risk factors preceding conception. Poverty and socio-economic status are considered systemic risk factors, but both economic growth and cash transfers have had limited success improving undernutrition. Another generic risk factor is low human capital, referring to inadequate skills, knowledge and autonomy, and represented by traits such as low educational attainment and women's early marriage. Few studies have evaluated whether maternal human and socio-economic capital at conception are independently associated with maternal and offspring outcomes.MethodsUsing data on 651 mother-child dyads from the prospective Pune Maternal Nutrition Study in rural India, composite markers were generated of “maternal human capital” using maternal marriage age and maternal and husband's education, and 'socio-economic capital' using household wealth and caste. Linear and logistic regression models investigated associations of maternal low/mid human capital, relative to high capital, with her own nutrition and offspring size at birth, postnatal growth, education, age at marriage and reproduction, and cardiometabolic risk at 18 years. Models controlled for socio-economic capital, maternal age and parity.ResultsIndependent of socio-economic capital, and relative to high maternal human capital, low human capital was associated with shorter maternal stature, lower adiposity and folate deficiency but higher vitamin B12 status. In offspring, low maternal human capital was reflected in shorter gestation, smaller birth head girth, being breastfed for longer, poor postnatal growth, less schooling, lower fat mass and insulin secretion at 18 years. Daughters married and had children at an early age.DiscussionSeparating maternal human and socio-economic capital is important for identifying the aspects which are most relevant for future interventions. Low maternal human capital, independent of socio-economic capital, was a systemic risk factor contributing to an intergenerational cycle of disadvantage, perpetuated through undernutrition, low education and daughters' early marriage and reproduction. Future interventions should target maternal and child human capital. Increasing education and delaying girls' marriage may lead to sustained intergenerational improvements across Sustainable Development Goals 1 to 5, relating to poverty, hunger, health, education and gender equality.
Toll-like receptor 4 pathway evolutionary trajectory and functional emergence
Authors: Verma Shailya , Sowdhamini Ramanathan 
Published: January 2025

IntroductionToll-like receptors 4 (TLR4) recognize lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from bacteria as their conventional ligands and undergo downstream signaling to produce cytokines. They mediate the signaling either by the TIRAP-MyD88 complex or by the TRAM-TRIF complex. The MyD88 pathway is common to all other TLRs, whereas the TRAM-TRIF complex is largely exclusive to TLR4. Here we study the TIR domain of TRAM and TRIF ortholog proteins that are crucial for downstream signaling. Our previous work on pan-genome-wide survey, indicates Callorhincus milli to be the ancestral organism with both TRAM and TRIF proteins.MethodsTo gain a deeper insight into the protein function and to compare them with Homo sapiens adaptor proteins, we modeled the docking of the TRAM–TRIF complex of representative organisms across various taxa. These modeling experiments provide insights to ascertain a possible interaction surface and calculate the energetics and electrostatic potential of the complex. Furthermore, this enables us to employ normal mode analysis (NMA) to examine fluctuating, interacting, and other specific residue clusters that could have a role in protein functioning in both C. milli and H. sapiens. We also performed molecular dynamics simulations of these complexes and cross-validated the functionally important residues using network parameters.ResultsWe compared the stoichiometry of TRAM–TRIF complexes and found that the tetrameric models (TRAM and TRIF dimer) were more stable than the trimeric model (TRAM dimer and TRIF monomer). While the critical residues of TIRAP, TRIF, and MyD88 were preserved, we also found that the important residues of TRAM signaling were not conserved in C. milli.DiscussionThis suggests the presence of functional TIRAP–MyD88-mediated TLR4 signaling and TRIF-mediated TLR3 signaling in the ancestral species. The overall biological function of this signaling domain appears to be gradually acquired through the orchestration of several motifs through an evolutionary scale.
Ingested house dust mite favors sensitization to egg white in mice independently of its proteinase activity
Authors: Benedé Sara , Pérez-Rodríguez Leticia , Menchén-Martínez David , Molina Elena , López-Fandiño Rosina 
Published: January 2025

BackgroundIt is well-documented that house dust mite (HDM) exposure can cause tissue damage and activate innate immune responses. However, its role in promoting gastrointestinal sensitization and allergenicity to food proteins has been relatively unexplored.MethodsThis study investigates the immunostimulatory effects of HDM in a murine model of oral sensitization to egg white (EW) in the absence of exogenous adjuvants. Additionally, we examined a proteolytically inactivated form of HDM (iHDM) to assess the contribution of HDM protease activity to its adjuvant potential.ResultsBoth HDM and iHDM enhanced allergic responses to EW proteins via the oral route, evidenced by mast cell degranulation in the intestinal tract upon EW challenge. Notably, only iHDM induced detectable concentrations of serum EW-specific IgE and IgG1 antibodies. Whereas HDM increased intestinal expression of genes encoding tight junction proteins and Th2-inducing alarmins to a greater extent than iHDM, active proteinases were not required for its adjuvant activity, as iHDM preferentially promoted Th2 responses in intestinal lymphoid tissues.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that ingestion of environmental dust may contribute to food allergy development and highlight the complex and context-dependent nature of the adjuvant activity of HDM.
Graph Convolutional Networks for multi-modal robotic martial arts leg pose recognition
Authors: Yao Shun , Ping Yihan , Yue Xiaoyu , Chen He 
Published: January 2025

IntroductionAccurate recognition of martial arts leg poses is essential for applications in sports analytics, rehabilitation, and human-computer interaction. Traditional pose recognition models, relying on sequential or convolutional approaches, often struggle to capture the complex spatial-temporal dependencies inherent in martial arts movements. These methods lack the ability to effectively model the nuanced dynamics of joint interactions and temporal progression, leading to limited generalization in recognizing complex actions.MethodsTo address these challenges, we propose PoseGCN, a Graph Convolutional Network (GCN)-based model that integrates spatial, temporal, and contextual features through a novel framework. PoseGCN leverages spatial-temporal graph encoding to capture joint motion dynamics, an action-specific attention mechanism to assign importance to relevant joints depending on the action context, and a self-supervised pretext task to enhance temporal robustness and continuity. Experimental results on four benchmark datasets—Kinetics-700, Human3.6M, NTU RGB+D, and UTD-MHAD—demonstrate that PoseGCN outperforms existing models, achieving state-of-the-art accuracy and F1 scores.Results and discussionThese findings highlight the model's capacity to generalize across diverse datasets and capture fine-grained pose details, showcasing its potential in advancing complex pose recognition tasks. The proposed framework offers a robust solution for precise action recognition and paves the way for future developments in multi-modal pose analysis.
Undernutrition risk and obesity increase the risk of osteosarcopenia in Mexican adults aged 50 and over: a prospective cohort study
Authors: Omaña-Guzmán Isabel , Kammar-García Ashuin , Gutierrez-Robledo Luis Miguel , Rosas-Carrasco Oscar 
Published: January 2025

IntroductionUndernutrition risk in adults is a common but undiagnosed condition, while obesity is highly prevalent in this population. Osteosarcopenia is the coexistence of sarcopenia and osteopenia/osteoporosis and is related to higher morbidity and mortality. Undernutrition has been identified as an associated factor of osteosarcopenia; however, it is unknown whether undernutrition risk is also related to this condition. On the other hand, obesity has been associated with osteosarcopenia, and several biological mechanisms in the relationship between muscle, bone, and fat have been identified. However, in both cases, there is a lack of longitudinal studies that allow evaluation of whether these conditions precede and increase the risk of osteosarcopenia. Therefore, the objective was to evaluate the association between undernutrition risk and obesity with osteosarcopenia among Mexican community-dwelling adults aged 50 and over.MethodsThis is a secondary longitudinal study from the FraDySMex cohort. We considered data from 2014 and 2015 as baseline evaluations and 2019 as the follow-up evaluation. Undernutrition risk was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment, obesity was assessed based on body fat percentage measured by DXA, and osteosarcopenia was diagnosed according to the FNIH criteria. To evaluate the association of obesity and undernutrition risk, we estimated mixed-effects logistic regression models. The final model was adjusted for sex, age, comorbidity, education, physical activity, and cognitive impairment.ResultsA total of 304 participants with two evaluations (baseline and follow-up) were included in the study. The baseline mean age of participants was 69.6 years (SD 9.1), with ages ranging from 50 to 92 years. Most of the participants were female (83.2%), 40% had between 7 and 12 years of education, and almost half were categorized as sedentary (47.8%) at baseline evaluation. Both undernutrition risk and obesity increased the risk of osteosarcopenia, with an OR of 2.24 (95% CI: 1.20–4.19) and an OR of 2.22 (95% CI: 1.17–4.23), respectively.ConclusionOur findings suggest that undernutrition risk, on the one hand, and obesity, on the other hand, can precede and increase the risk of osteosarcopenia in community-dwelling adults aged 50 and over.
Associations between oxidation balance score and abdominal aortic calcification, and the mediating role of glycohemoglobin: a nationally representative cross-sectional study from NHANES
Authors: Liu Heqian , Wu Yifei , Liu Zhenyu , Ren Hongzhi , Wu Ya , Liu Yong 
Published: January 2025

BackgroundAbdominal aortic calcification (AAC) is prevalent among middle-aged and elderly populations, elevating the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Leveraging data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we conducted a nationally representative cross-sectional study. Our aim was to evaluate whether subjective interventions could influence AAC scores by modifying the antioxidant/pro-oxidant status of individuals and to investigate the role of glycohemoglobin in this relationship.MethodsThe study analyzed data from 1,600 U.S. adults. The study used oxidation balance score (OBS) as an exposure variable derived from 16 dietary and 4 lifestyle factors, as well as glycohemoglobin obtained from blood tests. The main outcome measure was AAC, which was evaluated by dual-energy X-ray absorption and quantified by Kauppila scoring system.ResultsThe mean (SD) age of the 1,600 patients was 56.53 (10.90) years, with a female predominance (50.22%). According to weighted linear regressions not adjusted for covariates, the AAC scores were lower in the third and fourth quartile groups of OBS than in the first quartile group of OBS (Q3: coefficients [coef], −0.92 [95% CI, −1.64 to-0.20], p = 0.017; Q4: coefficients [coef], −0.97 [95% CI, −1.86 ~ −0.08; p &lt; 0.035]). According to the weighted linear regression subgroup analyses, there were no significant OBS-AAC correlations among males (p &gt; 0.05), but there were significant correlations among females (p &lt; 0.05). Smooth fitting curves showed a more significant trend of change in the negative correlation between OBS and AAC scores in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women. In further mediation analyses, glycohemoglobin was identified as a mediator of the relationship between the oxidative balance score and AAC.ConclusionThis study revealed a significant negative correlation between OBS and AAC scores, particularly in postmenopausal women. The negative correlation between OBS and AAC is partly mediated by glycohemoglobin.
Development and cross-validation of predictive equations for fat-free mass estimation by bioelectrical impedance analysis in Brazilian subjects with overweight and obesity
Authors: Masset Kalina Veruska Da Silva Bezerra , Silva Analiza M. , Ferrari Gerson , Cabral Breno Guilherme De Araújo Tinoco , Dantas Paulo Moreira Silva , Da Costa Roberto Fernandes 
Published: January 2025

IntroductionObesity is a public health problem worldwide, and body composition assessment is a very important diagnostic tool. Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) is a fast, non-invasive, relatively low-cost, and user-friendly technique; however, to obtain greater validity of the estimates, the predictive equations used must be population specific. Thus, the objectives of this study were: (1) to test the validity of four BIA equations used for fat-free mass (FFM) estimation and one model for fat mass (FM) estimation in adults with overweight or obesity; (2) develop and cross-validate new equations to estimate FFM to adults with overweight or obesity, and specific for those with obesity.MethodsThe non-probabilistic sample included 269 individuals, 53.2% with overweight and 46.8% with obesity, aged 18–79 years, randomly divided into two groups: development (n = 178) and cross-validation (n = 91), stratified by sex and classification as overweight or obese. The criterion technique was dual-energy-x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), whereas a tetrapolar single-frequency BIA equipment was used as the alternative method. Paired t-test, multiple regression, concordance correlation coefficient, and Bland–Altman analysis were used.ResultsMost existing equations were not valid and new equations were derived: (1) for individuals with overweight or obesity: CCC = 0.982; r2 = 0.95; standard error of estimate (SEE) = 2.50 kg; limits of agreement (LOA) = -5.0 to 4.8; and (2) specific for individuals with obesity: CCC = 0.968; r2 = 0.94; SEE = 2.53 kg; LOA = -5.3 to 5.2. No FFM differences were observed between the new models and the reference method (p &gt; 0.05).ConclusionThe new proposed models provide valid options to estimate FFM in an adult population with overweight/obesity.