bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Isolation, Characterization and Acid/Alkaline Tolerance of Lactic Acid Bacteria Present in Fermented Rye, Wheat, Oat and Barley
Authors: Akujobi Ijeoma Chidinma , Ihemeje Austin 
Published: January 2022

Objective: This study determined the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) present in fermented rye, wheat, oat and barley grains, and evaluated their survival in simulated gastric juice and pancreatic juice.
Methods: Samples of rye, wheat, oat and barley grains were fermented for 72 hours at room temperature. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains were isolated using MRS agar and were enumerated. Isolated LAB strains were cultured with MRS broth and the fermentation patterns of the isolated strains were characterized using API 50 CH kit (Biomerieux, France). Each isolated LAB strain was exposed to simulated gastric juice at pH of 2.0 for 80 minutes at 370C, followed by exposure to simulated pancreatic juice at pH of 8.0 for 120 minutes at 370C. Aliquots were taken at 0 minute and 80 minutes at pH of 2.0 and 0 minutes and 120 minutes at pH of 8.0 for enumeration of LAB strains.
Results: The total LAB cell count ranged from 6.6 * 108 ± 11 cfu/ml in the rye sample to 9.5*109 ± 7 cfu/ml in the oat sample. 13 LAB strains were isolated from the four selected cereal grains and were characterized as six strains of Lactobacillus plantarum1, five strains of L. brevis 1 and one strain each of L. collinoides and Leuconostoc citreum. All the isolated LAB strains from the four selected cereals survived in the simulated gastric juice at pH of 2.0 (before and after incubation at 0min and 80a min) and after addition of simulated pancreatic juice at pH of 8.0 (before and after incubation at 80b min and 200 min respectively). The mean viable counts of all the strains ranged from 2.0 *108 in R3 at 80b min to 1.54 * 1010 in B4 at 80b minutes.
Conclusion: LAB associated with fermentation of rye, wheat, oat and barley grains are likely to survive transport through the harsh acidic and alkaline conditions of the GIT.
Chiral Binaphthyl[n]arene Gel: Controlled Gelation Ability and Stepwise Amplification of Circularly Polarized Luminescence
Authors: Sun Zhihong , Zhong Jintian , Tang Hao , Wang Lingyun , Cao Derong 
Published: January 2025

AbstractThe construction of circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials through self‐assembly of chiral macrocycles has garnered significant attention. However, controlling their nanostructure morphology and understanding chirality amplification mechanisms remain challenging. Here, a series of chiral macrocyclic homologs containing varying numbers of binaphthyl units (binaphthyl[n]arene, denoted as n, n = 2–5) are synthesized in a single‐step reaction. All macrocycles exhibited CPL, with stronger chiral amplification observed in smaller homologs, 2 and 3, showing dissymmetry factors (|glum|) of sixfold and 2.75‐fold, respectively, compared to the monomer. These smaller homologs form supramolecular gels in various solvents, while larger ones yield amorphous precipitates. Further enhanced CPL is observed in the gels of 2 and 3, with |glum| reaching up to 3.3 × 10−3, 8.25‐fold and 5.5‐fold, respectively, compared to the monomer. While the gel of 3 remained stable for months, the gel of 2 transformed to microcrystals over days driven by π‐π interactions. The findings illuminate a macrocyclic strategy to control luminophore arrangement by tuning molecular rigidity and flexibility with macrocycle size, offering a route for creating CPL‐active materials with amplified chirality and gels with controlled stability.
Loading of Extracellular Vesicles with Nucleic Acids via Hybridization with Non‐Lamellar Liquid Crystalline Lipid Nanoparticles
Authors: Bader Johannes , Rüedi Pascal , Mantella Valeria , Geisshüsler Silvana , Brigger Finn , Qureshi Bilal Muhammad , Ortega Arroyo Jaime , Montanari Elita , Leroux Jean‐Christophe 
Published: January 2025

AbstractThe translation of cell‐derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) into biogenic gene delivery systems is limited by relatively inefficient loading strategies. In this work, the loading of various nucleic acids into small EVs via their spontaneous hybridization with preloaded non‐lamellar liquid crystalline lipid nanoparticles (LCNPs), forming hybrid EVs (HEVs) is described. It is demonstrated that LCNPs undergo pH‐dependent structural transitions from inverse hexagonal (HII) phases at pH 5 to more disordered non‐lamellar phases, possibly inverse micellar (L2) or sponge (L3) phases, at pH 7.4, which are particularly suitable for inducing a controlled hybridization process with EVs. State‐of‐the‐art single‐particle analysis techniques reveal that LCNPs interact with various EV subpopulations at physiological conditions and that ≈40% of HEVs are loaded with the genetic cargo. Importantly, this study demonstrates that EV membrane proteins remain accessible on HEV surfaces, with their intrinsic enzymatic activity unaffected after the hybridization process. Finally, HEVs show in vitro improved transfection efficiencies compared to unhybridized LCNPs. In summary, this versatile platform holds potential for loading various nucleic acid molecules into native EVs and may help developing EV‐based therapeutics.
A Machine Vision Perspective on Droplet‐Based Microfluidics
Authors: Wang Ji‐Xiang , Wang Hongmei , Lai Huang , Liu Frank X. , Cui Binbin , Yu Wei , Mao Yufeng , Yang Mo , Yao Shuhuai 
Published: January 2025

AbstractMicrofluidic droplets, with their unique properties and broad applications, are essential in in chemical, biological, and materials synthesis research. Despite the flourishing studies on artificial intelligence‐accelerated microfluidics, most research efforts have focused on the upstream design phase of microfluidic systems. Generating user‐desired microfluidic droplets still remains laborious, inefficient, and time‐consuming. To address the long‐standing challenges associated with the accurate and efficient identification, sorting, and analysis of the morphology and generation rate of single and double emulsion droplets, a novel machine vision approach utilizing the deformable detection transformer (DETR) algorithm is proposed. This method enables rapid and precise detection (detection relative error < 4% and precision > 94%) across various scales and scenarios, including real‐world and simulated environments. Microfluidic droplets identification and analysis (MDIA), a web‐based tool powered by Deformable DETR, which supports transfer learning to enhance accuracy in specific user scenarios is developed. MDIA characterizes droplets by diameter, number, frequency, and other parameters. As more training data are added by other users, MDIA's capability and universality expand, contributing to a comprehensive database for droplet microfluidics. The work highlights the potential of artificial intelligence in advancing microfluidic droplet regulation, fabrication, label‐free sorting, and analysis, accelerating biochemical sciences and materials synthesis engineering.
Hospitals serving high concentrations of patients with dementia are associated with lower mortality rates for patients with dementia
Authors: Hoffman Geoffrey J. , Sol Ketlyne , Nguyen Thuy 
Published: January 2025

AbstractINTRODUCTIONWhile hospital‐related spending is substantially higher for ADRD populations, it is unknown whether differences exist in the use of hospital services in those hospitals serving high proportions of patients with dementia.METHODSWe used 2014–2019 Medicare claims to compare hospitals treating high (321 high dementia concentration hospitals [HDCH]) and low (2887 non‐HDCHs) proportions of dementia populations according to finances, utilization, and quality.RESULTSMore than one‐quarter of HDCH patients have dementia. HDCHs are small, treat minoritized patient populations, have low‐profit margins and poor overall performance, but are associated with lower 1‐month mortality risk for dementia populations.DISCUSSIONLarge proportions of patients treated at a subset of small, poorly resourced, and poorly performing US hospitals have dementia. However, unlike at larger, better‐performing hospitals, those treated at HDCHs appear to have lower mortality risk. This may reflect the benefits of specialization or other benefits of treatment at smaller, community hospitals.
Evaluation and management of pediatric refractory constipation: Recommendations from the NASPGHAN neurogastroenterology and motility committee
Authors: Kilgore Alexandra L. , Rogers Boruta Mary K. , Ambartsumyan Lusine , Suarez Roberto Gomez , Patel Dhiren , Wood Richard J. , Darbari Anil , Rodriguez Leonel 
Published: January 2025

AbstractRefractory constipation (RC) in pediatric patients should be recognized as a distinct condition with long‐term impacts on patient and family quality of life. RC requires a more targeted diagnostic evaluation and complex management strategy that may involve management by pediatric neurogastroenterology and motility specialists and multidisciplinary teams including surgeons. Currently, there is a lack of a clear definition, evaluation, and management strategies for RC. This is the first North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition position paper to address pediatric RC regarding its definition, evaluation, and management.
Comparison of Сore‐Shell Colloids of Silver and Gold Nanoparticles Capped by Arabinogalactan
Authors: Aleksandrova Galina P. , Gasilova Ekaterina R 
Published: January 2025

AbstractEcologically friendly green synthesis of plasmonic silver and gold nanoparticles with the help of polysaccharides acting both as reducing and capping agents became popular nowadays due to numerous applications of such nanobiocomposites. However, the formation of their core‐shell structures is not at all clear. The core‐shell structures of Au and Ag nanoparticles (NP) synthesized with the help of Siberian Larch arabinogalactan (ARB) is compared. The series of ARB@AgNP is studied with respect to metal content by light scattering (static, dynamic, and electrophoretic one), transmission electron microscopy, FT‐IR, and UV–vis. spectroscopy. The results are compared with those of ARB@AuNP series (J. Phys. Chem C 2011, 115, 24627). Higher redox potential of Au3+ ions is responsible for formation of thicker shells of oxidized and hydrolyzed ARB surrounding AuNPs and more negative zeta‐potentials of these colloids. Contrary to ARB@AgNP colloids with single spherical AgNP in the core, the ARB@AuNP colloids contained a fraction of AuNP dumbbells responsible for the depolarization of scattered light. The position of a slipping plane at which the zeta‐potentials are determined is attributed to the hydrodynamic radii of colloids (Rh). Thus, the decrease of zeta‐potentials with the metal content is explained by the growth of Rh.
Introduction: History of Inflow Studies in Texas
Authors: Montagna Paul A. , Longley William L. , Gomaa Elizabeth , Brown Jen Corrinne 
Published: January 2025

AbstractInterest in developing freshwater inflow needs or standards for Texas estuaries occurred in three eras over a 50-year period. In 1967, the concept that water is needed for preservation of bays and estuaries was first proposed. In 1975, the first law was enacted to study effects of freshwater inflow on estuaries. In the 1980s, the first detailed freshwater inflow needs studies were completed for all bays based on hydrology, salinity, and fisheries harvest. In 1994, three Texas state agencies cooperated to synthesize all the studies performed in the 1980s into one volume describing the state methodology and recommending new standards. Following major legislative changes in 2007, science and stakeholder teams were formed to recommend inflow regimes for each of the seven bay systems, and by 2014, inflow standards were adopted for all bay systems. Over time, the laws and standards evolved from a species management approach to an ecosystem-based management approach.
Plankton Dynamics in Texas Estuaries
Authors: Quigg Antonietta , Steichen Jamie L. , Beecraft Laura , Wetz Michael S. 
Published: January 2025

AbstractPlankton (phytoplankton, zooplankton) form the base of the food web. Inflow variability modulates plankton concentration, community composition, and productivity in estuaries. This chapter synthesizes data on plankton and their relationship with inflow from individual bay systems along the Texas coast where sufficient data exists. This will be primarily the Trinity-San Jacinto Estuary (also known as Galveston Bay) and Baffin Bay (located in the Upper Laguna Madre complex) with some details for San Antonio Bay, Mission Aransas Estuary, and Nueces-Corpus Christi Bay. In the former two systems, there is a lot of knowledge on key harmful algal bloom-forming taxa. This chapter will also highlight deficiencies in our current knowledge and future data needs. Given the general lack of data on zooplankton in Texas estuaries, this part of chapter is descriptive in nature. We end with providing a synthesis and recommendation for future efforts.
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Budgets for Texas Estuaries
Authors: Marshall Danielle A. , Montagna Paul A. 
Published: January 2025

AbstractProductivity in estuaries is dependent upon nutrient influx and cycling. However, increasing urbanization and socioeconomic activities continue to influence nutrient dynamics and thus estuarine organisms. The western Gulf of Mexico coast lies in a climatic gradient that drives differences in hydrology among Texas estuaries providing a natural experiment to determine how hydrology affects nutrient biogeochemical budgets. One modeling approach is the land-ocean interaction in the coastal zone (LOICZ) guideline. The LOICZ budgets were calculated for all major estuaries in Texas to compare long-term water, salt, and nutrient budgets. The budgets were calculated based on daily averages using various datasets from multiple Texas agencies. Separate nutrient and water budgets were calculated for the Lower Laguna Madre Estuary and the Upper Laguna Madre Estuary. The climatic gradient along the coasts drives the water budgets because precipitation difference is the main factor influencing inflow balance. Inflow balance is the main factor influencing differences in salinity and nutrient concentrations among the estuaries. However, elevated nutrient levels in two estuaries are caused by urbanization, return flows, and agricultural runoff. Draining the adjacent large city of Houston, Texas, USA, the Trinity-San Jacinto Estuary had higher daily average dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) and total phosphorus (TP) levels compared to the other estuaries. These high levels are likely caused by high use of detergents and wastewater return flows that include fecal and urine waste. At the opposite end of the coast, the Upper Laguna Madre Estuary has higher total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) compared to the other estuaries due to its unique features including hypersalinity and low inflow dominated by sewage and agricultural runoff. The Texas budgets are comparable to budgets in estuaries in Asia, South America, and Africa with similar hydrology. This study demonstrates that hydrology controls nutrient transport and altered hydrology can alter the nutrient dynamics. Altered nutrient dynamics can affect biological productivity and water quality in estuaries.
Social and Economic Values of Environmental Flows to the Coast
Authors: Yoskowitz David W. 
Published: January 2025

AbstractEnvironmental flow (EF) has been shown to have a significant economic value and impact. These values are often in the form of ecosystem services (ES). In Texas, science and policy on EF are well advanced, but operationalizing the protection of it is still lacking. Institutional alignment at a state level is part way there, but more work can be done to facilitate transactions for all water, including EF. Socio-behavioral-economic tools can be used for valuing ES provided by EF and determining the true value of water beyond the cost of water infrastructure.
Historical Perspective and Context of Freshwater Inflow Policy and Law in Texas
Authors: Hess Myron J. 
Published: January 2025

AbstractThis chapter provides an overview of water rights management in Texas, emphasizing policy and legal aspects of environmental flow protection, particularly freshwater inflows. It seeks to summarize the regulatory setting in which freshwater inflow science has been, and is being, applied. Rights to use state-owned surface water have been recognized since the 1800s, with regular consideration of environmental flow beginning only in 1985. Because older rights have the first claim to water, that legacy of older, perpetual rights lacking flow protections creates challenges for maintaining adequate flows. In 2007, the Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 3 seeking a comprehensive approach for flow protection. That approach, which remains only partially implemented, includes setting aside for flow protection reasonable amounts of water not already authorized for use, adopting flow standards with flow-protection requirements for new permits and targets for proactive protection efforts, and pursuing proactive strategies for voluntary efforts to move some existing rights to flow protection. It also provides for adaptive management to continue refining those elements. Following an initial flurry of activity through 2014, implementation has largely stalled. Recent developments may lead to renewed activity and a chance to address important shortcomings in flow protection.
Influence of Inflows on Estuary Sediments
Authors: Douglas Audrey R. , Montagna Paul A. , Dellapenna Timothy 
Published: January 2025

AbstractRivers deliver sediments, organic matter/carbon, contaminants, and nutrients from watersheds. Sediments form delta, estuarine, marsh, and wetland habitats. Most of the sediments are derived from weathered rocks that are transported by rivers during floods as both bedload (sand and gravel) and suspended load (silts and clays, i.e., mud). Siliciclastic sand can enter the estuary naturally through four mechanisms, which are: (1) shoreline erosion; (2) inflow from rivers; (3) advection into the bay via the flood tide, through tidal inlets and cuts; and (4) barrier island overwash. River-mouth/saltwater wedge dynamics trap the bedload (coarse fraction) within bayhead deltas of estuaries, with only the suspended load (mud fraction) being delivered to the estuaries under most conditions. Sand entering the bay through the tidal inlets/cuts, are trapped in the flood tidal delta proximal to the bay mouth. Barrier island overwash sands are also trapped proximal to the overwash sites. As a result, the interior of most estuarine sediment is muddy, with sandy shorelines, shoreline shoals, bayhead, and flood tidal deltas. Carbonate sands also form in situ by the abrasion of shells, most notably, oyster shells, forming shell shoals and oyster reef. Over time, the greatest “natural” changes to sediment distribution within estuaries are caused by extreme storms and floods that can deliver the equivalent of decades worth of “average fluvial sediment load” to bays within a few days. Additionally, sediment distributions and loads within estuaries can be altered by anthropogenic activities, including dredging and formation of dredge spoil island, formation of mitigation oyster reefs and wetlands, alterations in shoreline protection, and alteration of bay configurations and size. The carbon content of sediments increases with decreasing inflow and increasing salinity across the state where Sabine Lake averages 1% and Laguna Madre averages 2.5%. The nitrogen content of sediments is generally low, always <0.1%, but can be as high as 0.25% in Laguna Madre. Sedimentation rates generally range from 0.07 to 2.2 cm year−1. There has been sediment compaction and subsidence over time.
The Memoir-Activism Circuit: The Afterlives of Guantánamo Diary in Cultural Memory
Authors: Kennedy Rosanne 
Published: January 2025

AbstractMohamedou Ould Slahi’s internationally celebrated memoir, Guantánamo Diary (2015), written while he was still imprisoned without charge, has been described as the ‘true witness’ of Guantánamo. Translated into multiple languages, it has featured in activist campaigns and has inspired readings, films, podcasts, plays, and panel discussions. As such, the memoir and its remediations have been vital in the remembrance of both everyday life and torture and terror at America’s most infamous post-9/11 prison. To explore the afterlives of Guantánamo Diary, I introduce the memoir-activism circuit, which builds on insights from cultural and collective memory studies and life writing studies, especially intersections of testimony, witnessing, and human rights. To map the remediations of the memoir, its uptake in activism, and the significance of these in the cultural remembrance of Guantánamo, I identify four stages in the circuit: (1) pre-publication memoir advocacy (contesting government secrecy); (2) memoir advocacy (memoir as a medium for making a case); (3) memoir activism (promoting the memoir to seed activism for a cause); (4) memoir in cultural and collective memory (remediating memoir in new cultural forms which may facilitate new cycles of remembrance, remediation, and activism). While these stages will not all be present in other cases of memoir activism, my hope is that this framework will serve as an analytic tool for mapping the place of the literary—and specifically memoir—in both short-term memory activism and longer-term cultural memory, and for tracing the dynamics of memory and forgetting over time.
Missing Mum: Reframing Imprisoned Childhoods in Autobiography and Activism in the Iranian Context
Authors: Mousavi Nafiseh 
Published: January 2025

AbstractThis chapter studies the entanglements of autobiographical writing with activism in the work of Hamed Farmand (1976–), an Iranian child rights activist who lives in the diaspora. Farmand spent five years of his childhood in 1980s Iran without his mother, who was a political prisoner during this period. As an adult, he began reflecting on this experience and writing about his life across different media, which gradually led him to become a child rights activist with a specific focus on the children of imprisoned parents. Farmand’s work, and its rootedness in lived experience, is of special importance in the Iranian context, where most types of activism are criminalised and many children endure the hardships of a tense political atmosphere. This chapter maps out Farmand’s trajectory from autobiographical writing to activism and demonstrates how, in his case, the formation of a child subject through continuous autobiographical practice has created a foundation for activism. Farmand’s case, as the chapter argues, exemplifies a productive practice of reframing a traumatic past into future-oriented activism by way of autobiographical practices.