bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the Arguments in the Appeal from Bayer Crop Science of the Decision Made by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority on the Fungicide Infinito with the Active Substances Fluopicolide and Propamocarb
Authors: Sverdrup Line Emilie , Bjørge Christine , Eklo Ole Martin , Grung Merete , Källqvist Torsten , Klingen Ingeborg , Låg Marit , Ropstad Erik 
Published: August 2022

Infinito is a new fungicide containing the two active substances fluopicolide and propamocarb-HCl intended to protect potatoes against the blight pathogen Phytophtora infestans. Fluopicolide is a new active substance in Norway, while propamocarb-HCl is already approved in several products. The risk assessment of Infinito was finalized in a meeting on 29. May 2012 by the Panel on Plant Protection Products of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM).
The main conclusions from the risk assessment of Infinito were:

VKMs opinion is that both fluopicolide and its main metabolite M-01 (2,6- dichlorobenzamid (BAM)) are persistent in Norwegian soils and surface waters.
Fluopicolide and its main metabolite M-01 may accumulate in Norwegian soils.
The metabolite M-01 is highly mobile, while fluopicolide shows lower mobility in both studies and modelling.

Based on the environmental properties pointed out in the risk assessment, The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) turned down the application for use of Infinito in Norway.
The decision made by Mattilsynet has been appealed by the applicant, Bayer Crop Science. No new studies have been presented.
Mattilsynet has asked VKM to consider the arguments in the appeal from Bayer Crop Science on the risk assessment of Infinito. The appeal and arguments were discussed in a meeting in VKMs Panel on Plant Protection Products on 13. December 2013.
The conclusions were as follows:
VKM maintains the previous conclusion on the risk assessment on persistence, accumulation and mobility of fluopicolide and one of the metabolites M-01.
Our conclusion is further strengthened by additional documentation on:

Persistence of M-01 as indicated by data from the National Monitoring program (JOVA) and international studies
Accumulation as related to results from 4 year field studies and model calculations using the Finnish PEC calculator
Mobility of M-01 as identified by FOCUS PELMO, FOCUS PEARL and MACRO simulations using Swedish and Norwegian scenarios in addition to monitoring results from groundwater in Norway

Opinion from EFSA indicating that model simulations and risk of leaching to groundwater from row crops are under-estimated by a factor of six, and should be revised in the new FOCUS scenarios. Half-life calculations based on field studies of mobile substances should be avoided as some of the substances could have escaped to deeper layers and therefore showing artificially high degradation rates.
Risk Assessment of the Fungicide Aviator Xpro EC 225 with the Active Substances Bixafen and Prothioconazole
Authors: Sverdrup Line Emilie , Bjørge Christine , Eklo Ole Martin , Grung Merete , Källqvist Torsten , Klingen Ingeborg , Låg Marit , Ropstad Erik , Øvrebø Steinar 
Published: August 2022

Aviator Xpro EC 225 is a new fungicide for use in cereals, containing the new active substance bixafen and the already approved active substance prothioconazole. Prothioconazole was assessed by the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety in 2006, and is therefore not included in this report.
VKM was requested by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to consider the possible health risk for operators related to the properties of bixafen used in Aviator Xpro EC 225; in particular to evaluate the relevance of the effects of bixafen on liver and coagulation parameters observed in rats and mice, thyroid tumours and reproductive effects observed in rats, and the establishment of NOAELs and reference values. VKM was also asked to evaluate the fate and behaviour of bixafen in the environment, and the ecotoxicological effects and risks related to its use. The risk assessment was finalized in a meeting on May 24. 2013 by VKM’s Scientific Panel on Plant Protection Products.
VKM’s conclusions are as follows:
Health:
VKM concluded that the liver effects reported in sub-chronic and chronic studies in rats, dogs and mice exposed to bixafen, as well as the effects on coagulating parameters, should be considered adverse and of relevance to humans.
It is the opinion of VKM that the thyroid follicular cell tumours reported in female rats exposed to bixafen is not sufficient to suggest that bixafen has a tumour inducing potential.
It is further the opinion of VKM that it cannot be excluded that the reduced pup weight during lactation in the two-generation study is mediated by bixafen via the milk, and that bixafen has a direct effect on the number of stillborn pups in the F1 and F2 generation.
Finally, the pup developmental variants and anomalies reported in the teratogenicity study are considered treatment related, and not as secondary effects related to maternal toxicity.
VKM proposes a NOAEL of 2.0 mg/kg bw/day based on a 2 year feeding study in rats.
VKM support/propose:

ADI: 0.02 mg/kg bw/day
AOEL: 0.13 mg/kg bw/day
ARfD: 0.2 mg/kg bw/day

Risk calculations show minimal risk if personal protective equipment is used.
Environment:
Bixafen is shown to be persistent in soil. VKM considers the results from a field study on a German site and the Finnish PEC calculator to be relevant and concludes that repeated annual applications can cause accumulation in soil under Norwegian conditions. There is also a potential for groundwater contamination from leaching of the metabolite M44.
VKM has concluded that the use of bixafen as an ingredient in Aviator Xpro EC 225 with the proposed application regime in Norway will represent a minimal risk for toxic effects to terrestrial organisms.
The toxicity of bixafen to aquatic organisms is high, and minimal risk of effects in surface waters can be achieved only if risk mitigation measures with bufferzones of 10 m are applied.
Prevalence of Albumin/Total Protein Deficiency and Micronutrients Correlates in Apparently Healthy Children in Southwest Nigeria
Authors: Oladibu Olanike , Kofoworade Olawumi , Ojedokun Samson , Oloyede Taiwo , Alatishe Taiwo , Salawu Afolabi 
Published: August 2022

Aim: To assess the prevalence and pattern of total protein, albumin and micronutrient status among school-age children.
Study Design: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive design.
Methodology: The study was carried out among four hundred pupils aged 6 to 12 years. A semi-structured questionnaire was adopted to obtain relevant data. Each recruited pupil was examined clinically for signs of nutritional deficiencies. Blood samples were collected and microelements levels were estimated using ELISA kits, while total protein and albumin were by spectrophotometry methods. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.
Results: The majority of the study population belongs to the high and middle socioeconomic class. The prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies was 9.5% and 36.5% for Zinc and selenium respectively. While the prevalence of 27% and 15.1% were recorded for albumin and total protein respectively. There were positive correlations between micronutrient (Zn&Se) levels and sociodemographic data and anthropometric data.
Conclusion: The early diagnosis of micronutrient deficiencies, prompt management of protein energy malnutrition and its complications can prevent the development of permanent physical and mental retardation.
Ultranarrow Linewidth Coupling Resonance in Flexible Plasmonic Nanopillar Array for Enhanced Biomolecule Detection
Authors: Chu Shuwen , Liang Yuzhang , Yuan Huizhen , Yu Li , Liu Qiang , Peng Wei 
Published: August 2022

AbstractPlasmonic nanostructures, due to their extremely strong confinement and enhancement of optical field, have emerged as a potential tool in myriad applications, ranging from nano‐laser to surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and biosensing. To break through the restriction of intrinsic losses and radiative damping in metal nanostructures resulting in broad plasmon resonance, a plasmonic nanostructure sensor employing hexagonal nanopillar array on flexible substrate to form the bilayer gold cap‐hole coupling structure is proposed and demonstrated. The sensor is fabricated by the combination of vacuum coating and template transfer, and experimentally exhibits an ultranarrow plasmon resonance coupling mode with a linewidth of 4.5 nm. Such a sharp linewidth resonance originates from the coupling of geometrical‐induced Wood's anomaly (WA) and Fabry–Perot (FP) modes. Benefiting from this ultranarrow resonance, a figure of merit (FOM) of 140.6 and spectroscopic detection noise down to 0.02 nm are demonstrated in the bulk refractive index (RI) sensing. Furthermore, the nanopillar array enables the detection of bovine serum albumin biomolecular with the detection limit of 0.27 µm. The plasmonic array device can be further investigated for more potential practical utility that are valuable and significant for label‐free biomolecular sensing with high sensitivity and high throughput.
Differences of the pyrolytic behaviors and pyrolysis products of coal pitch from different sources
Authors: Zhang Chunyang , Fang Yilin , Zhu Yaming , Chu Hongyu , Hu Chaoshuai , Xu Yunliang , Zhao Xuefei , Bai Yonghui 
Published: August 2022

AbstractCoal pitch was recognized as an important raw material to produce artificial carbon/graphite materials. The pyrolytic process was the essential process during the production of artificial carbon/graphite materials, and the pyrolytic behaviors of coal pitch acted a key role on the quality of derived carbon materials. In order to detailed study on the pyrolytic behaviors of coal pitch, four kinds of coal pitches named as medium coal tar pitch (MP, a kind of high‐temperature coal pitch), medium‐low temperature coal pitch (MLP), coal direct liquefaction pitch (CLP), and coal pyrolytic extraction (CPE) were used as raw materials, and FTIR, TG/DTG‐FTIR combined with curve‐fitted method have been used to determine the pyrolysis characteristics of coal pitches. The microstructure of pyrolysis products from different coal pitches has been analyzed by optical microscope, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectrum, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and N2‐adsorption and desorption (BET method), respectively. What's more, the micro‐strength and resistance of pyrolytic products have been also investigated in this study. In fact, the CLP has the highest aromaticity, and the content of graphite carbon microcrystalline (IG/IAll), the size of carbon microcrystalline (Lc), the specific area (SBET), the micro‐strength, and resistance of its' pyrolytic products were 13.22%, 1.94 nm, 2.909 m2/g, 65%, and 5.22 Ω, respectively. In other words, the molecular structure of coal pitch has key effects on the pyrolysis characteristics of coal pitch, and the aromaticity of coal pitch also has an significant influence on the carbon crystalline, micro‐strength, and resistance of pyrolytic products. The higher aromaticity of coal pitch always meant for the higher content of graphite carbon crystalline and a lower resistance.
Influence of physical aging of ferroelectric vinylidene fluoride copolymer films on their structural and electrophysical characteristics
Authors: Kochervinskii Valentin V. , Gradova Margaret A. , Gradov Oleg V. , Kirakosyan Gayane A. , Kiselev Dmitry A. , Buzin Mikhail I. , Lokshin Boris V. , Korlyukov Alexander A. , Maltsev Alexander A. , Malyshkina Inna A. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractGeneral problems of structural changes which occur at storage of two‐phase crystalline polymers with a metastable structure at room conditions are considered on the example of a vinylidene fluoride ‐ hexafluoropropylene copolymer. The physical aging occurs in flexible‐chain crystalline polymers (polyethylene, fluoropolymers under consideration, etc.), where, due to low glass transition temperatures, the liquid‐like dynamics of amorphous phase chains is realized at room temperature through cooperative micro‐Brownian motions with short relaxation times. Taking into account that covalent‐bound sections of the chains of the amorphous phase can enter the crystallites, the noted mobility may initiate changes in the size of the latter. Such a possibility is proved by the example of the noted copolymer. At low‐temperature crystallization of a vinylidene fluoride ‐ hexafluoropropylene copolymer from a solution the formed α‐phase crystals have little perfection. The size of the crystals increases when the films are stored in room conditions. Because of the crystal polymorphism, at the same time a certain fraction of γ‐phase crystals which are present in initial films undergo a polymorphic transformation γ → α. These processes lead to an increase in crystallinity. Moreover, during such processes additional structuring is observed, which is reduced to the displacement of various kinds of intra‐chain defects into the amorphous phase (and especially into the surface). Since the copolymers under study are ferroelectrics, they were studied by piezo force microscopy. It was found that despite the crystallization predominantly in nonpolar α‐phase, piezo force microscopy revealed a domain structure, which formation mechanism is discussed. The structural changes at physical aging of the films affect the character of the noted domain structure. Thus, it is suggested that the mechanism of the described structural changes is realized through the developed cooperative mobility of the chains in the amorphous phase, which characterizes the processes of rotational diffusion.
Eugenol‐derived Organic Liquids as an In‐Situ CO2 Capturing and Conversion System for Eugenol‐based Polycarbonate Synthesis
Authors: Zeng Xiankui , Chen Qin , Zhao Changbo , Xie Sibo , Xie Haibo , Huang Caijuan 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThe significant development of catalytic biomass conversion has provided a large library of chemicals ready for subsequent upgrading to polymerisable monomers for the design and preparation of sustainable polymers. In this study, hydroxyethylation of eugenol by using green ethylene carbonate as alkylation reagent and cheap tetrabutylammonium iodide ionic liquids as green solvents and catalysts produced 2‐(4‐allyl‐2‐methoxyphenoxy)ethan‐1‐ol with a 85% yield, which could be used to construct an in situ CO2 capture and conversion system by taking the reversible chemistry of alcoholic compounds with CO2 in the presence of superbases, on which α,ω‐diene functionalized carbonate monomers were successfully prepared and were applied in thiol‐ene click and acyclic diene metathesis polymerisation (ADMET), producing a series of poly(thioether carbonate)s and unsaturated aromatic aliphatic polycarbonates with moderate molecular weights and satisfactory thermal properties. The structures of the formed CO2 reversible ILs, the polymerisable monomers and the corresponding polymers were fully characterized by various technologies.
High‐Energy‐Density Chelated Chromium Flow Battery Electrolyte at Neutral pH
Authors: Robb Brian H. , Waters Scott E. , Marshak Michael P. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractHigh‐concentration operation of redox flow batteries (RFBs) is essential for increasing their energy‐storage capacity, but non‐acidic electrolytes struggle to achieve the high concentrations of metal ions dissolved in acid, limiting the development of energy‐dense neutral pH electrolytes. We report neutral pH RFB operation of chromium 1,3‐propylenediaminetetraacetate (CrPDTA) at concentrations of 1.2 M at room temperature and 1.6 M at 40 °C, demonstrating 60% higher negolyte capacity, up to 42.9 Ah L−1, than previously reported for non‐additive‐utilizing solutions of this promising material. With extended full cell cycling, we demonstrate the importance of buffer selection and pH when using the Fumasep E‐620(K) membrane. Finally, we expand the pH operation range of CrPDTA to pH 7, which when cycled at 100 mA cm−2 against a ferrocyanide posolyte demonstrated excellent coulombic efficiencies >99.7% and energy efficiencies >87%, while operating at almost 700 mV more negative than the thermodynamic hydrogen evolution window.
H∞ consensus for Markov jump multi‐agent systems with partly unknown transition probabilities and multiplicative noise
Authors: Wang Jie , Chen Xin 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThis paper focuses on the
consensus control problem about Markov jump multi‐agent systems with partly unknown transition probabilities and multiplicative noise. The transition probabilities of the Markov jumps are considered to be partly unknown, which are more applicable than the traditional assumption in Markov jump systems that all of them must be completely known. Sufficient conditions for
consensus control problem are derived by using less linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a simulation example is provided to show the validity of our results.
Multi‐agent consensus with stopping rules under bounded measurement noise
Authors: Hanada Kenta , Wada Takayuki , Masubuchi Izumi , Asai Toru , Fujisaki Yasumasa 
Published: August 2022

AbstractA multi‐agent consensus protocol is investigated over noisy undirected connected graphs. It is supposed that each agent can know her neighbors' states with bounded noise. A theoretical stopping rule having a probabilistic guarantee is established for the consensus protocol, which explicitly relates the number of iterations with the closeness of the agreement. The stopping rule is derived by utilizing Bernstein inequality that deals with a given noise bound explicitly. The sample complexity with respect to the number of agents is also investigated, where it is shown that the number of iterations required by the proposed stopping rule based on the bound of noise itself is generally smaller than that of the conventional stopping rules that utilize bound of noise variance. The results are demonstrated through numerical examples.
Dynparity: Dynamic disparity adjustment to avoid stereo window violations on stationary stereoscopic displays
Authors: Schröder‐Dering Christoph , Zachmann Gabriel , Weller René 
Published: August 2022

AbstractWe propose a novel method to avoid stereo window violations at screen borders. These occur for objects in front of the zero parallax plane, which appear in front of the (physical) screen, and that are clipped for one eye while still being visible for the other eye. This contradicts other stereo cues, particularly disparity, potentially resulting in eye strain and simulator sickness. In interactive and dynamic virtual environments, where the user controls the camera, for example, via head tracking, it is impossible to avoid stereo window violations completely. We propose Dynparity, a novel rendering method to eliminate the conflict between clipping and negative disparity, by introducing a nonuniform stereoscopic projection. For each vertex in front of the zero parallax plane, we compute the stereoscopic projection such that the parallax approaches zero toward the edge of the screen. Our approach works entirely on the GPU in real‐time and can be easily included in modern game engines. We conducted a user study comparing our method to the standard stereo projection on a large‐screen stereo wall with head tracking. Our results show significantly reduced simulator sickness when using Dynparity compared to the standard stereo rendering.
DNA Stability in Biodosimetry, Pharmacy and DNA Based Data‐Storage: Optimal Storage and Handling Conditions
Authors: Cordsmeier Leo , Hahn Marc Benjamin 
Published: August 2022

AbstractDNA long‐term stability and integrity is of importance for applications in DNA based bio‐dosimetry, data‐storage, pharmaceutical quality‐control, donor insemination and DNA based functional nanomaterials. Standard protocols for these applications involve repeated freeze‐thaw cycles of the DNA, which can cause detrimental damage to the nucleobases, as well as the sugar‐phosphate backbone and therefore the whole molecule. Throughout the literature three hypotheses can be found about the underlying mechanisms occurring during freeze‐thaw cycles. It is hypothesized that DNA single‐strand breaks during freezing can be induced by mechanical stress leading to shearing of the DNA molecule, by acidic pH causing damage through depurination and beta elimination or by the presence of metal ions catalyzing oxidative damageviareactive oxygen species (ROS). Here we test these hypotheses under well defined conditions with plasmid DNA pUC19 in high‐purity buffer (1xPBS) at physiological salt and pH 7.4 conditions, under pH 6 and in the presence of metal ions in combination with the radical scavengers DMSO and Ectoine. The results show for the 2686 bp long plasmid DNA, that neither mechanical stress, nor pH 6 lead to degradation during repeated freeze‐thaw cycles. In contrast, the presence of metal ions (Fe2+) leads to degradation of DNAviathe production of radical species.
Comparative Lifecycle Assessment of Methanol and Urea Produced from Steel Mill Gases
Authors: Gaikwad Ankur , Maga Daniel , Schlüter Stefan 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThe Carbon2Chem® project aims to utilize the process gases of commodity industrial sectors, e.g., steel mills as carbon source for chemicals industrial sector. This article examines the integrated production of steel and chemical considering five different designs for methanol production and two for urea production. The impacts of the integrated production of steel and chemicals (methanol, urea) are compared to the conventional production of steel and respective chemical. Employing Carbon2Chem® technologies in a steelmaking facility in 2030 provides clear advantages in all investigated scenarios for global warming impact, even after taking into account the additional input of natural gas to substitute the steel mill gases in the power plant. Optimizing the demand of external hydrogen is the key to minimizing the global warming impact of the chemicals. When using wind power, total greenhouse gas emissions can be almost halved in the case of methanol and reduced to one‐third in the case of urea.