bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Integral sliding mode based direct power control of isolated DC‐DC converter for improved voltage regulation
Authors: Tiwary Nishit , Naik N Venkata Ramana , Panda Anup Kumar , Lenka Rajesh Kumar , Narendra Ankireddy 
Published: May 2022

AbstractThis article presents an isolated bidirectional DC‐DC dual active bridge (DAB) converter with an integral sliding mode‐based direct power control (SM‐DPC). Maintaining the dc‐link stability and obtaining a robust control for the converter during sudden load change is a significant challenge. The sliding mode control is well known for its robustness, stability, and tracking performance. The sliding surface based on output voltage error is selected, while the proposed method utilizes the equivalent control approach to generate the power reference for the DAB converter. The direct power control provides an easy control method for the DAB converter as the output voltage depends on the transmitted power, governed by the phase shift angle of two H‐bridges of the converter. The proposed method enhances the steady‐state performance and renders a fast transient response under load change and input voltage variation. Moreover, the method avoids complicated converter modeling and utilizes the voltage dynamic equation and power transfer equation for the controller design. The controller performance and effectiveness are validated with experimental results for a 2‐kW DAB converter.
Modified metacognitive therapy for anorexia nervosa: An open trial in an outpatient setting
Authors: Lawson Rachel , Carter Janet D. , Britt Eileen , Knowles Karen , Then Rebecca , Vallance Joanna , Jenkins Louise , Tauamiti Rachel 
Published: May 2022

AbstractObjectiveCurrent evidence indicates treatment for adults with anorexia nervosa (AN) requires improvement given recovery rates are low to moderate, and relapse rates are high. Metacognitive therapy (MCT) is an effective treatment for anxiety and depressive disorders. This study evaluates if MCT can be successfully modified to treat AN in a naturalistic clinical setting.MethodTwenty‐four patients with AN participated in an open trial of modified metacognitive therapy (MCT‐AN). Twelve of the 24 patients (50%) completed treatment. MCT was modified to include components specific to eating disorders. The MCT‐AN was delivered by clinical psychologists who had undertaken training in MCT in a specialist outpatient service. Group and single participant data analyses were undertaken on those who completed treatment.ResultsAs well as statistically significant differences from pre‐ to posttreatment in the group data there were also clinically significant improvements at the individual patient level for eating disorder and depressive symptoms, as well as weight. The mean number of therapy sessions was 18.DiscussionThese findings indicate that MCT‐AN may be a promising intervention in the treatment of AN, warranting further investigation.Public SignificanceTreatment for anorexia nervosa in adults requires improvement. Research indicates that Metacognitive therapy (MCT) is an effective treatment for anxiety and depression and may be applicable to the eating disorders. This small open trial suggests that MCT can be modified successfully to treat patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). The results are preliminary and require further research to provide more evidence on the effectiveness of this treatment for AN.
Beta diversity as a driver of forest biomass across spatial scales
Authors: Reu Jacqueline C. , Catano Christopher P. , Spasojevic Marko J. , Myers Jonathan A. 
Published: May 2022

AbstractDespite the importance of biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships in ecology and conservation, relatively little is known about how BEF relationships change across spatial scales. Theory predicts that change in BEF relationships with increasing spatial scale will depend on variation in species composition across space (β‐diversity), but empirical evidence for this is limited. Moreover, studies have not quantified the direct and indirect role the environment plays in costructuring ecosystem functioning across spatial scales. We used 14 temperate‐forest plots 1.4 ha in size containing 18,323 trees to quantify scale‐dependence between aboveground tree biomass and three components of tree‐species diversity—α‐diversity (average local diversity), γ‐diversity (total diversity), and β‐diversity. Using structural‐equation models, we quantified the direct effects of each diversity component and the environment (soil nutrients and topography), as well as indirect effects of the environment, on tree biomass across 11 spatial extents ranging from 400 to 14,400 m2. Our results show that the relationship between β‐diversity and tree biomass strengthened with increasing spatial extent. Moreover, β‐diversity appeared to be a stronger predictor of biomass than α‐diversity and γ‐diversity at intermediate to large spatial extents. The environment had strong direct and indirect effects on biomass, but, in contrast to diversity, these effects did not strengthen with increasing spatial extent. This study provides some of the first empirical evidence that β‐diversity underpins the scaling of BEF relationships in naturally complex ecosystems.
Evaluation of lake sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding to assess fungal biodiversity in Arctic paleoecosystems
Authors: Seeber Peter Andreas , von Hippel Barbara , Kauserud Hårvard , Löber Ulrike , Stoof‐Leichsenring Kathleen Rosmarie , Herzschuh Ulrike , Epp Laura S. 
Published: May 2022

AbstractFungi are crucial organisms in most ecosystems as they exert ecological key functions and are closely associated with land plants. Fungal community changes may, therefore, help reveal biodiversity changes in past ecosystems. Lake sediments contain the DNA of organisms in the catchment area, which allows reconstructing past biodiversity by using metabarcoding of ancient sedimentary DNA. We re‐evaluated various commonly used metabarcoding primers, and we developed a novel PCR primer combination for fungal metabarcoding to produce a short amplicon, thus accounting for amplification bias due to the degradation of ancient DNA. In silico PCRs showed higher diversity using this new primer combination, compared with previously established fungal metabarcoding primers. We analyzed data from sediment cores from four artic and one boreal lake in Siberia. These cores had been stored for 2–22 years after coring; we, therefore, examined the degradation effects of ancient DNA and storage time‐related bias affecting fungal communities. Amplicon lengths showed considerable variation within and between the major divisions of fungi, for example, amplicons of Basidiomycota were significantly longer than those of Mucoromycota; however, we observed no significant effect of sample age on amplicon length and GC content, suggesting the robustness of our results. We also found no indication of post‐coring fungal growth during storage regarding the proportions of common mold taxa, which would otherwise distort conclusions on past fungal communities. Terrestrial soil fungi, including mycorrhizal fungi and saprotrophs, were predominant in all lakes, whereas typical aquatic taxa were only represented to a negligible extent, which supports the use of lake sedimentary ancient DNA for reconstructing terrestrial communities.
Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation in pain and opioid consumption after spine surgery
Authors: Hamed Rasha , Khedr Eman M. , Haridy Nourelhoda A. , Mohamed Khaled O. , Elsawy Saeid 
Published: May 2022

AbstractBackgroundTranscranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown promising results in alleviating different types of pain. The present study compares the efficacy of three sessions of anodal tDCS applied over primary motor area (M1) or the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) or sham on reducing pain and the total opioid consumption in postoperative spine surgery patients.MaterialsSixty‐seven out of 75 eligible patients for postoperative spine surgery were randomly allocated into one of the three experimental groups. Group A received anodal tDCS applied over M1 cortex, group B over left DLPF cortex (2 mA, 20 min) and group C received sham tDCS, all for 3 consecutive postoperative days. Patients were evaluated using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and adynamic visual analogue scale (DVAS) at baseline, and on each of the treatment days. The total morphine consumption over the 3 postoperative days was assessed.ResultsTwo‐way repeated measures ANOVA showed no statistically significant difference in resting VAS between the three groups. However, there was significant pain improvement (P < 0.001) in DVAS in both active groups (group A and B) compared to the sham group (group C) in the postoperative period, with no significant difference between the active groups. Morphine consumption was significantly reduced in both active groups compared with the sham group, but there was no difference in consumption between the active groups.ConclusionThere was a significant postoperative reduction in morphine consumption and DVAS scores after three sessions of active tDCS.SignificancetDCS is a promising tool for alleviating pain in the field of postoperative spine surgery.
Analysis of parent‐of‐origin effects for secondary phenotypes using case–control mother–child pair data
Authors: Chen Shuyue , Zhang Hong 
Published: May 2022

AbstractThe detection of parent‐of‐origin effects (POEs) has become a research focus in genetic association studies since POEs play an important role in explaining the heritability of many complex human disorders. Genetic association studies are commonly conducted based on case–control designs. Case–control genetic association studies often collect additional information on secondary phenotypes other than the case–control status. Various statistical methods have been proposed to analyze the secondary phenotypes, but no methods are specifically tailored for identifying POEs of offspring genes on the secondary phenotypes. The parental origin information may not be determined unambiguously using the genotypes of the test locus for some families, and ignoring such families would lose considerable information. In this article, we focus on case–control mother–child pair design that has been widely used for studying human early life growth and development, and propose a robust and efficient retrospective likelihood method to detect POEs for the secondary phenotypes using multilocus genotypes. The proposed method fully utilizes the information from multilocus genotypes, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), Mendelian inheritance law, and conditional independence between child genotype and maternal covariate given maternal genotype. Large sample properties, including consistency and asymptotic normality, are established for our proposed statistical method. The finite sample performance of our method are demonstrated through extensive simulation studies and application to the Danish National Birth Cohort data.
Petrogenesis of the early Jurassic Ora batholith in south‐western Cambodia
Authors: Zeng Xiang‐ting , Cong Feng , Zhu Hua‐Ping , Shi Mei‐Feng 
Published: May 2022

The Ora batholith in south‐western Cambodia is situated in the western part of Indochina and east of the Inthanon–Bentong–Raub Palaeo‐Tethys suture and thus bears significant constraints for the equivocal crustal generation of the Palaeo‐Tethys orogenic belt in Mainland South‐east Asia. The Ora batholith consists of monzonitic granite (Group 1), alkali‐feldspar granite (Group 2), and biotite granite (Group 3), and they yield similar Early Jurassic ages of 186.0–199.7 Ma. Group 2 are high‐silica (SiO2 > 75 wt%) rocks with lower TiO2, Al2O3, FeOtot, MgO, CaO, P2O5, Eu, Ba, Sr, P, and Ti contents compared to those of the other two groups. Group 2 and 3 are classified as fractionated‐type granitoids, whereas Group 1 is unfractionated granite as the complementary residual of the fractionated rocks. All groups have positive εHf(t) values from +2.29 to +8.83, suggesting they were cogenetic and derived from partial melting of the lower crust with the addition of asthenospheric mantle material. Integrating with other granitoids in this region, we suggest the Ora granitoids belong to I‐type granitoids. Our petrogenetic and zircon U–Pb age data suggest the Ora granitoids were related to the Early Jurassic post‐collisional magmatism that resulted from crustal thickening and mantle lithospheric delamination due to a denser crustal root than the underlying mantle lithosphere after the Palaeo‐Tethys Ocean closure and collision between the Sibumasu and Indochina terranes. Then the following upwelling of the asthenospheric mantle not only heated and caused partial melting of the lower crust and mantle wedge, but also supplied asthenospheric material to generate the high‐εHf(t) magma.
Discovery of a Mesoproterozoic granite in the northern Alxa Block and its tectonic implication
Authors: Yu Wei , Shao Zhaogang , Niu Manlan , Su He 
Published: May 2022

A Mesoproterozoic granite covering about 5 km2 is firstly recognized in the Zhusileng area, which is located between the northern Alxa Block and the South Gobi microcontinent. New geochronological data from this area provide new insight for understanding the Precambrian crustal evolution of the middle segment of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Based on the crystal shapes, internal textures, and high Th/U ratios, the zircons from this Mesoproterozoic granite are interpreted as magmatic origin. Meanwhile, LA‐ICP‐MS zircon U–Pb dating shows that it was emplaced at 1458 ± 7.5 Ma. Published geochronological data and Sr–Nd isotopic compositions of igneous rocks from the Zhusileng area and its vicinity are also compiled in this study. The Late Palaeozoic granitoids from the Zhusileng area have strongly negative εNd(t) values (−0.1 to −10.8), high (87Sr/86Sr)i (0.69657–0.73423) and old Nd model ages (0.9–1.8 Ga), suggesting the existence of Precambrian microcontinent in the Zhusileng area. Furthermore, the statistical analysis (or isotopic mapping) of Sr–Nd isotopic compositions of Palaeozoic granitoids from the middle segment of the southern CAOB also displays similar εNd(t) values and relatively old Nd model ages along the Hanshan Block, Zhusileng, Tsaggan Uul terrane, and Hutag Uul terrane. Therefore, we propose that those units may share a common basement during Mesoproterozoic to Early Neoproterozoic.
Health Promotion Workforce in South Africa: Direction from the Australian Health Promotion Association
Authors: Boboko Ishmael , Bester Petra , Kruger Iolanthe , Marais Samantha , Marais Frederick 
Published: May 2022

AbstractBackgroundSouth Africa's progress towards forming a health promotion workforce lags behind the health promotion career opportunities and professional standards guided by the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA), from which South Africa can learn valuable lessons.Problem statementDespite the existence of a national health promotion strategy, inconsistencies in health promotion workforce standards are a national reality. In one of the 10 National Health Insurance pilot districts in South Africa, researchers investigated health care workers' experiences of the barriers and enablers for the health promotion workforce.MethodologyA qualitative explorative descriptive design was used. Health care workers (health promoters, n = 8; operational managers, n = 6; senior managers, n = 3) in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District's public health sector were sampled using purposive proportional quota sampling. Data were gathered through semi‐structured individual interviews until data saturation was reached (N = 17). Transcribed interviews were thematically analysed, supported by ATLAS.ti 8.ResultsFive themes and thirteen sub‐themes emerged, and barriers to the health promotion workforce exceeded enablers. Health promotion workforce structure and policies were deficient. Managerial supervision and monitoring were lacking. The health promotion workforce received insufficient resources with limited implementation of health promotion programs. Formal and informal health promotion training was necessary.RecommendationsThe AHPA's proposed Health Promotion Workforce model is considered, focusing on a clear workforce structure, strengthened by managerial buy‐in and efficient monitoring and evaluation. Formal and informal health promotion training and advocacy of the health promotion workforce industry are highlighted. Countries with emerging economies and similar health systems to South Africa might find this article useful.
Interaction between wind speed and net radiation controls reference evapotranspiration variance in the inland river basin of Northwest China
Authors: Ning Tingting , Feng Qi , Li Ruolin , Yang Linshan 
Published: May 2022

AbstractExploring the variance in reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and its dominant influencing factors is important for climate change, hydrological cycles and water management. Temperature (T), wind speed (U2), net radiation (Rn) and actual vapour pressure (ea) are the major climatic input variables in Penman–Monteith equation. Previous studies have successfully applied the total differential method to determine the relative contributions of changes in these variables to variation in ET0 on different timescales. However, the interaction of climatic variables has not been incorporated into this method. Taking the inland river basin of Northwest China as the study area, we extended the total differential method to decompose the ET0 variance into temporal variance and covariance of T, U2, Rn and ea on intra‐annual and annual scales during 1960–2017. The results indicated that the variance in ET0 on the intra‐annual scale was larger than that on the annual scale. Among the four single climatic variables, U2 variance made larger contributions to intra‐annual and annual ET0 variance with relative contributions of 6.8% and 1.1%, respectively. However, the interaction of climatic variables played a dominant role in the variation in ET0. Specifically, on intra‐annual scale, coupled U2 and Rn primarily controlled the ET0 variance (76.1%), followed by coupled Rn and ea (9.6%); but their positive effects were weakened by the negative effects of coupled T and ea (−2.3%). On annual scale, coupled U2 and Rn still governed the variance in ET0 (97.3%), but the effects were also weakened by other groups of interaction effects. Furthermore, ET0 was highly related to NDVI on an intra‐annual scale (R2 = 0.68, p = 0.00), indicating the strong effect of seasonal vegetation dynamics on ET0 variance. This study provides new insights to quantitatively assess the interaction effects of environmental factors on key hydrometeorological variables.
Basel accords and banking inefficiency: Evidence from the Italian local market
Authors: Barra Cristian , Papaccio Anna , Ruggiero Nazzareno 
Published: May 2022

AbstractUsing data for Italy from 1994 to 2015, we appraise the nexus between Basel II and III accords and both the cost and the profit inefficiency of profit‐oriented and mutual cooperative banks. Our analysis further deals with the effects of the regulation in different market structures. To assess the efficiency of the two types of banks under scrutiny, a stochastic frontier approach has been proposed. The evidence reported in this paper indicates that the regulatory framework of the Basel accords had heterogeneous effects on the efficiency of Italian banking institutions. Specifically, Basel II is associated with a contraction in the profit inefficiency and an increase in the cost inefficiency for mutual cooperative banks. On the other hand, Basel III worsened the profit inefficiency, though it is found to reduce the profit inefficiency of mutual cooperative banks, with no significant impact on cost inefficiency. Furthermore, once we control for the degree of market competition, the effects of the regulation are shown to be statistically insignificant. The advent of the 2008 recession and the application of the revenue inefficiency do not alter the main findings. There is also some evidence of spatial effects of the Basel II regulation at the LMA level.
Influence of governance bundles and directors' social capital on cash holding in foreign cross‐listed firms
Authors: Lodh Suman , Nandy Monomita , Kaur Jaskaran 
Published: May 2022

AbstractThis paper provides new evidence on how both governance bundles and directors' social capital together can help to determine cash holdings for foreign cross‐listed firms. Using a large cross‐country sample of 1677 publicly listed firms from 32 countries during the period of 2004–2015, we find a positive relationship between governance bundles and cash holdings for foreign cross‐listed firms with higher directors' social capital. We address potential issue of endogeneity. Therefore, our findings are robust to alternative model specifications and instrumentations and alternative measure of social capital. The findings of our study contribute to the inconclusive decision in the academic literature related to cash holdings, governance bundles, and directors' social capital, especially related to the foreign cross‐listed firms. In addition, the findings can assist the stakeholders of foreign cross‐listed firms to understand the intention of the firms' cash holdings and allow policy makers to identify the need of modification for governance structure by controlling the opportunistic behaviour of the firm manager.
Quantifying the effectiveness of rehabilitation for post‐radical prostatectomy urinary incontinence: Novel pelvic floor function assessment using M‐mode ultrasonography
Authors: Ide Yukimasa , Kikuchi Nobuki , Fukumoto Tetsuya , Takeda Hajime , Okura Takafumi 
Published: May 2022

IntroductionThis study aimed to develop a method for evaluating pelvic floor function using M‐mode ultrasound imaging and quantify the effectiveness of urinary incontinence rehabilitation.Case presentationEight participants aged 66–76 years, with urinary incontinence following radical prostatectomy, underwent pelvic floor muscle training. Using M‐mode ultrasound, we compared bladder base elevation time, length, and speed during pelvic floor muscle contraction. The results showed that four patients recovered urinary continence. Four patients displayed a 38.4%–80.1% reduction in urinary incontinence volume. Bladder elevation time was significantly reduced in all patients. Moreover, elevation speed increased significantly. Bladder base elevation time was 0.1 s in all patients in the acquired urinary continence group.ConclusionsReducing bladder base elevation time to <0.2 s might be essential to achieve urinary continence. An elevation time of ≥0.3 s indicated significant pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.