bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fabrication of cerium titanate cellulose fiber nanocomposite materials for the removal of methyl orange and methylene blue from polluted water by photocatalytic degradation
Authors: Kotp Yousra H. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractIn this study, cellulose fibers (Cf), extracted from sunflower seed husk, and different molar ratios of cerium titanate (Ce-Ti) NPs were prepared from sunflower seed husk extract by a green biosynthesis approach. Cf and Ce-Ti NPs were reacted via cross-linking reaction to synthesize a novel nanocomposite photocatalyst of Ce-Ti/Cf. Using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) spectroscopy, all manufactured materials were characterized. The results obtained from FTIR and EDX analyses indicated that Cf and its nanocomposites (0.1 Ce-Ti/Cf, 0.3 Ce-Ti/Cf, and 0.5 Ce-Ti/Cf) were successfully prepared by harnessing biomass extract from sunflower seed husk. Furthermore, XRD revealed that the degree of crystallinity of the nanocomposites was enhanced by increasing the molar ratios of the Ce-Ti NPs. The photocatalytic activity of as-fabricated 0.1 Ce-Ti/Cf, 0.3 Ce-Ti/Cf, and 0.5 Ce-Ti/Cf nanocomposite samples was investigated on methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes as model organic compounds found in wastewaters. The effects of dose, contact time, and pH on the photocatalytic activity of the synthesized nanocomposites, the photodegradation kinetic parameters of MB, and MO degradation with/without the addition of H2O2 were also studied. The results revealed that high photodegradation efficiency could be obtained as the ratio of TiO2 in the Ce-Ti nanocomposite formula increases. Moreover, after sunlight irradiation, the adsorption capacity and the dye decomposition ratio significantly increase during the early contact time and reach equilibrium at about 240 and 120 min for 0.5 Ce-Ti/Cf nanocomposite photocatalyst in the absence and presence of hydrogen peroxide, respectively. In light of the obtained results and the practical wastewater treatment study conducted, the prepared photocatalyst from Ce-Ti/Cf nanocomposites could be a promising material for treating dye wastewater especially collected from Egypt.
Comparing Bariatric Surgery Patients Who Desire, Have Undergone, or Have No Desire for Body Contouring Surgery: a 5-Year Prospective Study of Body Image and Mental Health
Authors: Buer Liliana , Kvalem Ingela Lundin , Bårdstu Silje , Mala Tom 
Published: June 2022

Abstract

Purpose
After bariatric surgery, body contouring surgery (BCS) is thought to improve body image, weight loss, and mental health. Many patients desire but do not undergo BCS after bariatric surgery. This patient subset has rarely been studied. The present study compares bariatric surgery patients that, at 5 years after surgery, desires, have undergone or have no desire for BCS regarding pre- and post-surgery body image and mental health, including within-group changes over time.

Materials and Methods
Data were collected from participants (N = 216) pre-bariatric surgery and at 1- and 5-year post-surgery. Health care providers measured body mass index (BMI). All other data were collected via self-report (questionnaires).

Results
At 5-year post-surgery, 30.6% had undergone BCS, 17.1% did not desire it, and 52.3% desired BCS. Patients who subsequently desired BCS scored lower on body satisfaction pre-surgery than the other groups. They also reported less resilience pre-surgery and more depressive symptoms at all times compared to participants with BCS. For five-year post-surgery, patients who desired BCS had lower body satisfaction levels than patients with BCS and were more bothered with excess skin relative to the two other groups. Body satisfaction improved in all three groups from baseline to five years and in most patients with BCS. Mental health improved only in patients with BCS.

Conclusion
This study emphasizes the relevance of identifying participants who desire but have not undergone BCS. The study suggests that BCS is associated with improved body image and mental health.

Graphical abstract
The Need for Objective Physical Activity Measurements in Routine Bariatric Care
Authors: Kuipers Ellen , Timmerman Josien , van Det Marc , Vollenbroek-Hutten Miriam 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to (1) quantify physical behavior through self-reports and sensor-based measures, (2) examine the correlation between self-reported and sensor-based physical activity (PA) and (3) assess whether bariatric patients adhere to PA guidelines.

Methods
A Fitbit accelerometer was used to collect minute-to-minute step count and heart rate data for 14 consecutive days. Total physical activity levels (PAL), moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary behavior (SB) were used to quantify physical behavior. Self-reported PA was assessed with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). To analyze the association between sensor-based and self-reported PA, Spearman’s correlation was used. A minimum of 150 MVPA minutes per week was considered as compliance with the PA guidelines.

Results
Fitbit data of 37 pre- and 18 post-surgery patients was analyzed. Participants averaged 7403 ± 3243 steps/day and spent most of their time sedentary (832 min, IQR: 749 – 879), especially in prolonged periods of ≥ 30 min (525, IQR: 419 – 641). Median MVPA time was 5.6 min/day (IQR: 1.7 – 10.6). Correlations between self-reported and sensor-based MVPA and SB were respectively 0.072 and 0.455. Only 17.1% was objectively adherent to MVPA guidelines ≥ 150 min/week, while 94.3% met the guidelines in case of self-reports.

Conclusion
PA quantification confirmed that bariatric patients are highly sedentary and rarely engage in MVPA, despite a relatively high daily step count. Moreover, bariatric patients are not able to assess MVPA and moderately their SB by self-reports. Our results indicate the need for sensor-based PA monitoring in routine bariatric care.

Graphical abstract
Generalized gamma distribution for biomedical signals denoising
Authors: Adam A. M. , Farouk R. M. , El-Desouky B. S. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractA wide range of signs are acquired from the human body called biomedical signs or biosignals, and they can be at the cell level, organ level, or sub-atomic level. Electroencephalogram is the electrical activity from the cerebrum, the electrocardiogram is the electrical activity from the heart, electrical action from the muscle sound signals referred to as electromyogram, the electroretinogram from the eye, and so on. Studying these signals can be so helpful for doctors, and it can help them examine and predict and cure many diseases.However, these signals are often affected by various types of noise. It is important to denoise the signals to get accurate information from them. The denoising process is solved by proposing an entirely novel family of flexible score functions for blind source separation, based on a family of generalized Gamma densities. To blindly extract the independent source signals, we resort to the popular fast independent component analysis (FastICA) approach; to adaptively estimate the parameters of such score functions, we use an efficient method based on maximum likelihood. The results obtained using generalized Gamma densities in our technique are better than those obtained by other distribution functions.
Metabolic Syndrome and Vascular-Associated Cognitive Impairment: a Focus on Preclinical Investigations
Authors: Jenkins Trisha A. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractPurpose of ReviewMetabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of vascular cognitive impairment or, in the more extreme, vascular dementia. Animal models are used to investigate the relationship between pathology and behaviour. This review summarizes the latest understanding of the role of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in vascular cognitive impairment, the influence of inflammation in this association while also commenting on some of the latest interventions proposed.Recent FindingsModels of vascular cognitive impairment and vascular dementia, whether they develop from an infarct or non-infarct base, demonstrate increased neuroinflammation, reduced neuronal function and deficits in prefrontal and hippocampal-associated cognitive domains. Promising new research shows agents and environmental interventions that inhibit central oxidative stress and inflammation can reverse both pathology and cognitive dysfunction.SummaryWhile preclinical studies suggest that reversal of deficits in vascular cognitive impairment models is possible, replication in patients still needs to be demonstrated.
Cholecystokinin Activation of Cholecystokinin 1 Receptors: a Purkinje Cell Neuroprotective Pathway
Authors: Orr Harry T. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThis is a summary of the virtual presentation given at the 2021 meeting of the Society for Research on the Cerebellum and Ataxias, https://www.meetings.be/SRCA2021/, where the therapeutic potential of the CCK-CCK1R pathway for treating diseases involving Purkinje cell degeneration was presented. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is one of a group of almost 50 genetic diseases characterized by the degeneration of cerebellar Purkinje cells. The SCA1 Pcp2-ATXN1[30Q]D776 mouse model displays ataxia, i.e. Purkinje cell dysfunction, but lacks progressive Purkinje cell degeneration. RNA-seq revealed increased expression of cholecystokinin (CCK) in cerebella of Pcp2-ATXN1[30Q]D776 mice. Importantly, the absence of Cck1 receptor (CCK1R) in Pcp2-ATXN1[30Q]D776 mice conferred a progressive degenerative disease with Purkinje cell loss. Administration of a CCK1R agonist to Pcp2-AXTN1[82Q] mice reduced Purkinje cell pathology and associated deficits in motor performance. In addition, administration of the CCK1R agonist improved motor performance of Pcp2-ATXN2[127Q] SCA2 mice. Furthermore, CCK1R activation corrected mTORC1 signaling and improved the expression of calbindin in the cerebella of AXTN1[82Q] and ATXN2[127Q] mice. These results support the Cck-Cck1R pathway is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of diseases involving Purkinje neuron degeneration.
Internal Instability and Fluidisation of Subgrade Soil under Cyclic Loading
Authors: Indraratna Buddhima , Singh Mandeep , Nguyen Thanh Trung , Rujikiatkamjorn Cholachat , Malisetty Rakesh Sai , Arivalagan Joseph , Nair Lakshmi 
Published: June 2022

AbstractRapid globalisation and the rise in population have substantially increased the demand for rail infrastructure which have been critical in transporting passengers and freight across landmasses for over a century. The surge in demand often leads to the construction of railway lines along with unfavourable soil conditions which result in different forms of substructure challenges such as uneven track deformations, ballast degradation, and subgrade mud pumping. A widespread site investigation along the eastern coast of New South Wales, Australia, indicated the prevalence of mud holes or bog holes along the tracks. The field studies suggest that low-to-medium plasticity soils are highly susceptible to mud pump when subjected to heavy axle loads under impeding drainage conditions. Subsequent laboratory investigations conducted on the remoulded soil samples collected from the sites indicated the sharp rise in cyclic axial strains and excess pore pressures along with the internal redistribution of moisture content as the governing mechanism for mud pumping. Numerical simulations performed using discrete element method coupled with computational fluid dynamics show that at a high hydraulic gradient, there is a substantial loss of soil contact network which leads to the upward migration of soil particles. The role of plastic fines and the inclusion of geosynthetic layer between the ballast and subgrade are also discussed in this paper. It was observed that the addition of 10% of cohesive fines increased the resistance of subgrade soils to mud pumping. On the other hand, geosynthetic inclusions not only assist in dissipating high cyclic excess pore pressures but also inhibit the upward migration of fine particles.
Resisting IP Overexpansion: The Case of Trade Secret Protection of Non-Personal Data
Authors: Fia Tommaso 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThis article analyses how intellectual property rights (IPRs) affect access to non-personal data (NPD). In so doing, it homes in on a quasi-IPR, trade secrecy, and shows how applying it to NPD can lead to the overexpansion of IP protection. The risks of overprotection relate to the perpetuity of trade secret protection and the predominant interventions to correct market failure that scholars advance in order to restrict IPRs and quasi-IPRs. The paper then goes one step further to survey regulatory and interpretive solutions that could help to mitigate the risks of overprotection and make room for creating data access rules. Specifically, it explores two principles deriving from “physical” property theory that can be rejigged for the purpose: thenumerus claususof IPRs and the social function of intellectual property. Conceptualised in a novel fashion, these could steer legislatures and courts towards a restrictive understanding of IP forms and contain the propertisation of new intangibles, such as NPD aggregations.
Intelligent depression detection with asynchronous federated optimization
Authors: Li Jinli , Jiang Ming , Qin Yunbai , Zhang Ran , Ling Sai Ho 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThe growth of population and the various intensive life pressures everyday deepen the competitions among people. Tens of millions of people each year suffer from depression and only a fraction receives adequate treatment. The development of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, and QQ provides more convenient communication and provides a new emotional vent window. People communicate with their friends, sharing their opinions, and shooting videos to reflect their feelings. It provides an opportunity to detect depression in social networks. Although depression detection using social networks has reflected the established connectivity across users, fewer researchers consider the data security and privacy-preserving schemes. Therefore, we advocate the federated learning technique as an efficient and scalable method, where it enables the handling of a massive number of edge devices in parallel. In this study, we conduct the depression analysis on the basis of an online microblog called Weibo. A novel algorithm termed as CNN Asynchronous Federated optimization (CAFed) is proposed based on federated learning to improve the communication cost and convergence rate. It is shown that our proposed method can effectively protect users' privacy under the premise of ensuring the accuracy of prediction. The proposed method converges faster than the Federated Averaging (FedAvg) for non-convex problems. Federated learning techniques can identify quality solutions of mental health problems among Weibo users.
A hybrid quantum image edge detector for the NISQ era
Authors: Geng Alexander , Moghiseh Ali , Redenbach Claudia , Schladitz Katja 
Published: June 2022

AbstractEdges are image locations where the gray value intensity changes suddenly. They are among the most important features to understand and segment an image. Edge detection is a standard task in digital image processing, solved, for example, using filtering techniques. However, the amount of data to be processed grows rapidly and pushes even supercomputers to their limits. Quantum computing promises exponentially lower memory usage in terms of the number of qubits compared to the number of classical bits. In this paper, we propose a hybrid method for quantum edge detection based on the idea of a quantum artificial neuron. Our method can be practically implemented on quantum computers, especially on those of the current noisy intermediate-scale quantum era. We compare six variants of the method to reduce the number of circuits and thus the time required for the quantum edge detection. Taking advantage of the scalability of our method, we can practically detect edges in images considerably larger than reached before.
Trophic competition in a guild of insectivorous semi-aquatic vertebrates in a Pyrenean headwater stream: diet specialisation in the endangered Galemys pyrenaicus
Authors: López-de Sancha Alejandro , Roig Romero , Aymerich Pere , Vila-Gispert Anna , Guasch Helena 
Published: June 2022

AbstractConservation of vulnerable species in headwater streams requires good knowledge of their resource use and how they interact with competitors. In this study, we characterised the macroinvertebrate community of a Pyrenean headwater stream and assessed how it was used as a food resource—above all, in terms of prey electivity and diet overlap—by three semi-aquatic insectivorous vertebrates (Galemys pyrenaicus,Neomys fodiensandCinclus cinclus). With this information, we examined the diet specialisation of the vulnerable Pyrenean desman (G. pyrenaicus) in the stream and analysed its implications for its conservation. There was a clear dietary overlap between these three predators, which resulted in interspecific trophic competition.G. pyrenaicustended to avoid terrestrial prey and focused on abundant and energetically profitable rheophile species, for which it is well adapted. This diet specialisation makes it vulnerable to any decrease in food availability resulting from anthropogenic stressors such as damming, which can reduce habitat quality and prey availability. More research is needed to fully understand prey electivity inG. pyrenaicusand so be able to suggest effective conservation measures for this species.
An assessment of suitable landfill site selection for municipal solid waste management by GIS-based MCDA technique in Siliguri municipal corporation planning area, West Bengal, India
Authors: Roy Debasish , Das Satyajit , Paul Surajit , Paul Surjapada 
Published: June 2022

AbstractIdentification of suitable landfill sites for urban wastes with ease and economic benefits in the metropolitan area is a complex task. Most of the developing countries consider wastelands outside of the urban areas are the ideal places to dispose of urban wastes. Landfill site selection is an essential planning procedure that helps to avoid environmental concerns such as water contamination, public health degradation caused by unsanitary landfills. So, employing a geographic information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), this study was carried out to find an appropriate planning waste dump site. Nine thematic layers were evaluated as key criteria, including elevation, slope, geology, lineament, land value, distance from river, roads, residence, and Land use and land cover (LULC) weights assigned using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) method analysis. The relative relevance of each parameter was calculated using Saaty’s 1 to 9 priority scale. The consistency ratio was used to check the weighting of each parameter, allowing the efficiency of the chosen parameters to be justified. The overlay analysis of all parameters with aid of GIS provides suitable sites that were marked and refined after the comprehensive field visits were performed. According to the findings, in the study area, 35.61% area is very low suitable for landfilling, 32.64% area is low suitable, 19.37% area is moderate suitable, 8.90% area is highly suitable and certainly, 3.48% area is very high suitable by Natural breaks classification. The very high suitable site belongs to Dhadagoch, Gadheaganj, and its surroundings in the study area. Nevertheless, the present study can help urban planners and concerned authorities to better succeed in urban waste management in the Siliguri municipal corporation planning area.
Sexual Function and Mood Disorders Among Menopausal Women: A Systematic Scoping Review
Authors: Rahmani Azam , Afsharnia Elahe , Fedotova Julia , Shahbazi Shirin , Fallahi Arezoo , Allahqoli Leila , Ghanei-Gheshlagh Reza , Abboud Sarah , Alkatout Ibrahim 
Published: June 2022

ABSTRACTBackgroundChanges in sex hormones during menopause may have detrimental effects on a woman’s sexual function and cause mood disorders. The treatment of both conditions is a challenge in gynecology.AimTo review the published literature on sexual function and mood disorders among peri- and postmenopausal women.MethodsThe review is based on the methodological framework of scoping reviews. We searched electronic databases including Medline (PubMed), Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science (WoS). Publications that reported data about the relationship between sexual function and mood disorders among menopausal women were included in the review. The search was not subject to any limitation in terms of time or method.OutcomesThe main outcome measures used for the review were sexual dysfunction and mood disorders.ResultsWe found 106 total records. After a full-text screening we included 19 studies from 1986 to 2020 based on various methodologies; the majority of the studies16 were cross-sectional. Investigations that addressed the symptoms of mood disorders and some domains of sexual function showed a close relationship between sexual dysfunction and mood disorders among menopausal women.Clinical implicationsIn clinical practice, it would be appropriate to screen women for at least one mood disorder or sexual dysfunction. If a woman suffers from either, it will be necessary to assess for a further disorder as well.Strengths & LimitationsThe review was based on a detailed search of the published literature concerning mood disorders and sexual dysfunction among menopausal women compared to women of reproductive age. Despite the clinical importance of the subject, the number of studies eligible for inclusion in the review are rather small. Further investigation of the topic is clearly warranted.ConclusionsWhile the association between sexual dysfunction and mood disorders appears to be bidirectional, future studies will have to investigate the specific mechanisms by which sexual dysfunction could lead to mood disorders (or vice versa). Future studies should specifically address sexual dysfunctions and attitudes of partners, BMI, family support, sleep, and multiparity.