bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Progesterone supplementation to improve fertility of selected subgroups of lactating cows during the summer and fall
Authors: Roth Zvi , Shiff Omri , Lavon Yaniv , Kalo Dorit , Wolfenson David 
Published: May 2022

AbstractOne major cause of low fertility of cows in the summer is progesterone deficiency. We found that insertion of a controlled intravaginal drug‐releasing (CIDR) device containing progesterone after artificial insemination (AI) increases pregnancy per AI (P/AI) in cows with uterine disease and low body condition score after calving. Here, we treated only these two subgroups, during the summer and autumn. Control (n = 191 AI) and treatment (n = 230 AI) cows were inseminated at estrus and the treated group received a CIDR device on day 5 post‐AI, for 14 days. Overall analysis of data during the summer and autumn indicated no significant differences between treatment and control groups. Analysis of the summer data only indicated a significant effect of treatment: P/AI was higher in CIDR‐treated vs. control groups (34.2% vs. 19.3%; p < .038). Results indicated a 15% increase in P/AI during the summer for CIDR‐treated cows in subgroups that had responded positively to the progesterone treatment.
Reaching the Goal: Superior Navigators in Late Adulthood Provide a Novel Perspective into Successful Cognitive Aging
Authors: Zhou Ruojing , Belge Tuğçe , Wolbers Thomas 
Published: May 2022

AbstractNormal aging is typically associated with declines in navigation and spatial memory abilities. However, increased interindividual variability in performance across various navigation/spatial memory tasks is also evident with advancing age. In this review paper, we shed the spotlight on those older individuals who exhibit exceptional, sometimes even youth‐like navigational/spatial memory abilities. Importantly, we (1) showcase observations from existing studies that demonstrate superior navigation/spatial memory performance in late adulthood, (2) explore possible cognitive correlates and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these preserved spatial abilities, and (3) discuss the potential link between the superior navigators in late adulthood and SuperAgers (older adults with superior episodic memory). In the closing section, given the lack of studies that directly focus on this subpopulation, we highlight several important directions that future studies could look into to better understand the cognitive characteristics of older superior navigators and the factors enabling such successful cognitive aging.
Saturated Output Feedback Control for Robot Manipulators With Joints of Arbitrary Flexibility
Authors: Cheng Xin , Liu Huashan , Zeng Zhen , Lu Wenke 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
This paper proposes a saturated output feedback controller for flexible-joint robot manipulators with joints of arbitrary flexibility. First, under the framework of singular perturbation theory, a saturated flexible compensator is introduced in the dynamics model to enlarge the joint stiffness and achieve a united control for the robot with joints of arbitrary flexibility. Meanwhile, the saturation problem of torque control is also addressed. Second, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) with adaptive high gain that combines the noise filter of EKF with global convergence of high-gain observer is presented to enable the output feedback tracking control without the velocity of the link side or the motor side. Third, explicit but strict stability analyses of the whole system in both full-state feedback and output feedback are given. Finally, simulation comparisons are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Process Capability Indices With Student Mixture Models Applied to Aircraft Engines GD&T
Authors: Croquelois Mathieu , Ferraris Cyprien , Achibi Mohamed , Thiebaut François 
Published: May 2022

AbstractUsually, the process capability indices (PCIs) Cp and Cpk are used to quantify the production quality of Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T). For the most popular PCIs, a strong assumption about normality is required. Many previous works provide information about misleading conclusions when we use usual PCIs without any verification of the dataset normality. In recent industrial developments, many processes increasingly complicate, and GD&T are mostly geometrical specifications. For that reason, most characteristics are not normally distributed. There are two issues when calculating PCIs with nonnormal distributions. First, we have to define PCIs that can deal with all distributions. Second, we need to determine the distribution of the dataset. To do so, we give a short review of the previous work about calculating PCIs with nonnormal distributions. Following that first part, we propose our method for nonnormal distributions. This method uses new PCIs based on the quantile of a standard normal distribution. Then, we consider an estimation method based on a Student mixture model. This allows handling nonnormal distributions, potentially with outliers, and mixture distributions, which are often treated as two different fields and are common in industrial datasets. Finally, we propose some use cases to benchmark our new PCIs and Student mixture model for aircraft engines GD&T applications.
Design and Control of a Foldable and Reconfigurable Multi-Terrain Vehicle With Variable Wheelbase
Authors: Zhang Chenyang , Chen Guangrong , Li Zijia , Qiu Xiaohang , Guo Sheng 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
In many rescue and detection tasks, mobile robots are required to transverse over uneven terrains and enter some dangerous environments that people cannot overcome, such as crevices, pipes, gullies, etc. High mobility/speed and adaptability to complex environment are two important performance indexes for mobile robots. Legged robots are with high environmental adaptability, while wheeled robots are with high mobility. Since existing mobile robots cannot meet these two requirements simultaneously, a flexible, extensible, and reconfigurable multi-terrain vehicle with a varying wheelbase is proposed innovatively. The vehicle body contains two main parts: one middle plate and two side plates, which both have two active wheels and are connected to the same shaft, which has two passive wheels on both sides. Specially, the included angle between one middle plate and two side plates is driven by an active motor, and then the vehicle can behave many forms by adjusting the wheelbase between two pair of active wheels. Under the body configuration, the multi-terrain vehicle can achieve the motions of crossing deep pit, climbing stair, crossing height limiting rod, climbing crevice, and crossing pipe by folding and varying the wheelbase. First, the detailed mechanical structure of multi-terrain vehicle is designed. Second, the kinematics of the multi-terrain vehicle including the inverse and forward solutions of wheelbase and centroid velocity are analyzed. Third, the control scheme combining travel speed controller, turn controller, and wheelbase controller is proposed based on proportional-Integral-derivative algorithm. Finally, many simulations and experiments validate both the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed structure and control of the multi-terrain vehicle.
Self-Presentation and Social Media Usage: A Case Study of Professional Alpine Skiing Athletes During the Winter Olympic Games and World Cup
Authors: Schibblock Vivien , Hinds Joanne , Kopp Martin , Schnitzer Martin 
Published: May 2022

Social media sites are rich communication and marketing tools used by athletes to promote their “brand” and interact with fans. Indeed, the proliferation of social media has led to athletes promoting themselves across multiple platforms. This study examined how the world’s top 10 professional alpine skiing athletes used social media to present themselves and engage with fans during the 2017–18 World Cup and 2018 Winter Olympic Games. The data for the latest Winter Olympic Games in 2022 (organized under changed circumstances because of COVID-19) were not available for this study at the time of finalization. Guided by self-presentation theory, this study used a content analysis to examine how athletes presented themselves in social media photographs. The results demonstrated that athletes employed similar posting patterns across the social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). The posting distribution per athlete and channel was different, as some athletes used the same posts across all channels. Twitter boasted the highest posting frequency. Based on the coded social media posts, athletes’ self-presentation mainly focused on business life content. Thus, they appeared as dressed but posed, a finding that aligns with Goffman’s notion of front-stage performance. This case study extends the literature as it involves an analysis of self-presentation across multiple channels, comparing two international events while using a sample of one sport.
Detrital zircon provenance and transport pathways of Pleistocene-Holocene eolian sediment in the Pampean Plains, Argentina
Authors: Bruner Austin , Leier Andrew L. , Barbeau David L. , Pullen Alex , Fidler Mary Kate , Stubbins Blake 
Published: May 2022

AbstractThe Pampas of Argentina contain a broad distribution of Pleistocene to Holocene loessic sediments and eolian dune deposits. Models describing the sediment provenance of this eolian system have, at times, conflicted. We address the provenance of these deposits through U-Pb detrital-zircon geochronology. Our results indicate broad similarity in age distributions between samples, with a dominant Permian-Triassic mode, and widespread but lesser Cenozoic, Devonian-Mississippian, Ediacaran-Cambrian, and Mesoproterozoic modes. These data are inconsistent with a large contribution of detritus from Patagonia as previously suggested. These data are consistent with very limited contribution of first cycle volcanogenic zircon to the Pampean eolian system, but abundances of older Neogene zircon indicate proto-sources in the Andes. The ríos Desaguadero, Colorado, and Negro contain populations that were likely within the dust production pathways of most of the loess, paleosol, and eolian dune deposits, but the derivation of the zircon ages in these sediments cannot be explained solely by these river systems. One statistical outlier, a loess sample from the Atlantic coast of the Pampa region, indicates quantitative similarity to the age spectra from the ríos Colorado and Negro, consistent with derivation from these subparallel rivers systems during subaerial exposure of the continental shelf under high global ice-volume. Another statistical outlier, a paleosol sample from the Río Paraná delta region, has zircon ages more closely associated with sediments in the Paraná region than in rivers south of the Pampa region. Collectively, these data point to the complexity of the Pampean eolian system and substantial spatial-temporal variation in this Pleistocene–Holocene eolian system.
Diatom evidence for a groundwater divide that limited the extent of Lake Estancia, New Mexico, USA, highstands during the Last Glacial Maximum
Authors: Menking Kirsten M. , Bixby Rebecca J. , Cutler Savannah M. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
A high-resolution time series of diatoms from the Estancia Basin of central New Mexico, USA, reveals decadal to millennial changes in water chemistry during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and suggests that groundwater leakage limited the size of Lake Estancia highstands. Previous work showed that the lake expanded at least five times during the LGM, with each highstand reaching the same elevation; numerical modeling experiments showed that highstands required increases in precipitation of 1.5–2 times that of modern times but also demonstrated that these conditions could have lasted for only a few decades or the lake would have overflowed the basin’s sill. The fact that the lake returned to the same elevation suggests that highstands were climatologically similar. Here we present an alternative scenario, that once the lake reached a particular threshold volume, groundwater leakage prevented further expansion, which means that precipitation increases may have been larger than previously thought. The LGM diatom sequence is dominated by freshwater planktonic species in the Lindavia ocellata complex, the freshwater to brackish littoral species Pseudostaurosira brevistriata, and the brackish to saline benthic species Diploneis cf. smithii, all of which show decadal to centennial oscillations that were likely driven by solar cycles. Canonical correspondence analyses using mineralogical time series as proxies for wetter and drier conditions reveal that diatom assemblages varied with salinity and pH/alkalinity and suggest that groundwater outflow led to variable water chemistry for different highstands of the same magnitude. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling confirms the uniqueness of each highstand in terms of the diatom assemblages. The diatom data presented here are among only a handful of such records for Pleistocene pluvial lakes in the American West and reveal that saline alkaline lakes can yield important information despite valve preservation issues.
Supplemental Material: Mesoproterozoic oxygenation event: From shallow marine to atmosphere
Authors: Xie Baozeng , Tang Dongjie , al. et 
Published: May 2022

<p>Table S1: Geochemical data from Member II and III of the Gaoyuzhuang Formation in the Yanqing and Jixian Sections, North China. Table S2: δ34SCAS, CAS, Mg/Ca, δ18Ocarb, Mn/Sr and I/(Ca+Mg) values of carbonates from the Gaoyuzhuang Formation in the Yanqing Section, North China. Mg/Ca, δ18Ocarb, Mn/Sr and I/(Ca+Mg) data are from Shang et al. (2019). </p>
Supplemental Material: Mesoproterozoic oxygenation event: From shallow marine to atmosphere
Authors: Xie Baozeng , Tang Dongjie , et al.  
Published: May 2022

<p>Table S1: Geochemical data from Member II and III of the Gaoyuzhuang Formation in the Yanqing and Jixian Sections, North China. Table S2: δ34SCAS, CAS, Mg/Ca, δ18Ocarb, Mn/Sr and I/(Ca+Mg) values of carbonates from the Gaoyuzhuang Formation in the Yanqing Section, North China. Mg/Ca, δ18Ocarb, Mn/Sr and I/(Ca+Mg) data are from Shang et al. (2019). </p>
Methods for Reducing Anomalous Losses in ECRH Experiments at Second Resonance Harmonic
Authors: Gusakov E. Z. , Popov A. Yu. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
An approach is analyzed that makes it possible to reduce anomalous absorption in experiments on electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) at the second harmonic of the electron cyclotron resonance. The anomalous absorption is associated with excitation of the low-threshold parametric decay instability of the extraordinary pump wave at the local maximum of the nonmonotonic density profile. The general case is considered, which corresponds to nonlinear excitation of only one localized daughter upper-hybrid wave occurring as a result of the primary decay process. It is shown that, due to rather low instability threshold, it could hardly be completely suppressed in ECRH experiments using megawatt microwave beams. However, an increase in the radius of the pump wave cross section can considerably reduce the corresponding anomalous absorption.
RefractoryMycobacterium genavenseinfection secondary to thymoma-associated endogenous IL-12 inhibitor
Authors: Chen Jessie , Nguyen MaiAnh , Hu Hannah , Cheong Elaine , Sean Riminton D , Reddel Stephen 
Published: May 2022

CaseA 39-year-old man with thymoma-associated acetylcholine receptor antibody myasthenia gravis (MG) presented with fevers, night sweats, abdominal pain and weight loss. Marked splenomegaly and intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy were found. Biopsies confirmed disseminatedMycobacterium genavenseinfection. Despite antimicrobials and reduced immunosuppressive medications, he worsened. We suspected a thymoma-associated cytokine inhibitory antibody. The addition of subcutaneous interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) induced clinical and radiological improvement. His antimicrobials were able to be ceased. MG remained stable. Subsequent testing demonstrated an endogenous interleukin-12 (IL-12) inhibitor, likely inhibiting the IL-12/IFN-γ axis crucial for defence against mycobacterial infections.DiscussionThis case illustrates the autoimmune manifestations that can occur with thymoma. It illustrates the benefit of exogenous IFN-γ in overcoming the immune deficit. In this case, its use did not exacerbate existing autoimmune disease or trigger others. We raise awareness of the need to consider cytokine pathway defects as a contributing factor to refractory atypical infections in patients with thymoma-associated MG.
Sex differences and rehabilitation needs after hospital discharge for COVID-19: an Italian cross-sectional study
Authors: Fugazzaro Stefania , Denti Monica , Mainini Carlotta , Accogli Monia Allisen , Bedogni Ginevra , Ghizzoni Daniele , Bertolini Anna , Esseroukh Otmen , Gualdi Cecilia , Schiavi Margherita , Braglia Luca , Costi Stefania 
Published: May 2022

ObjectivesCOVID-19 can result in persistent symptoms leaving potential rehabilitation needs unmet. This study aims to describe persistent symptoms and health status of individuals hospitalised for COVID-19 according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health domains of impairments, limitations in activity, and participation restrictions.DesignCross-sectional study consisting in a telephone interview 3 months after hospital discharge.SettingThis study was conducted during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Local Health Authority of Reggio Emilia (Italy).ParticipantsAdult individuals discharged from hospital between April and June 2020 after COVID-19. Exclusion criteria: hospitalisation for reasons other than COVID-19, inability to participate in the study, concomitant acute or chronic conditions causing disability.Primary and secondary outcome measuresWe assessed: dyspnoea (Medical Research Council), fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale), mood disturbances (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), limitations in activity (Barthel Index) and participation restrictions (Reintegration to Normal Living Index). We also collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, health status prior to COVID-19, COVID-related clinical manifestations and hospital care pathway up to discharge, rehabilitation interventions, accidental falls and emergency room access.Results149 participants (men, 62%; average age 62 (±11) years) were enrolled, 35 of which (23%) were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) while hospitalised. Three months after hospital discharge, nearly half of the participants still suffered from dyspnoea (44%) or fatigue (39%). Almost all individuals (91.2%) recovered a good level of independence in activity of daily living, but 76% still suffered participation restrictions. Female sex was significantly associated with worse outcomes for all symptoms.ConclusionsIndividuals who had moderate or severe COVID-19 may perceive persistent symptoms which may result in reduced social participation. Sex differences should be monitored, as women may recover more slowly than men.Trial registration numberNCT04438239.
Controlled human infection with Neisseria lactamica in late pregnancy to measure horizontal transmission and microbiome changes in mother–neonate pairs: a single-arm interventional pilot study protocol
Authors: Theodosiou Anastasia A , Laver Jay R , Dale Adam P , Cleary David W , Jones Christine E , Read Robert C 
Published: May 2022

IntroductionInfant upper respiratory microbiota are derived partly from the maternal respiratory tract, and certain microbiota are associated with altered risk of infections and respiratory disease. Neisseria lactamica is a common pharyngeal commensal in young children and is associated with reduced carriage and invasive disease by Neisseria meningitidis. Nasal inoculation with N. lactamica safely and reproducibly reduces N. meningitidis colonisation in healthy adults. We propose nasal inoculation of pregnant women with N. lactamica, to establish if neonatal pharyngeal colonisation occurs after birth, and to characterise microbiome evolution in mother–infant pairs over 1 month post partum.Methods and analysis20 healthy pregnant women will receive nasal inoculation with N. lactamica (wild type strain Y92-1009) at 36–38 weeks gestation. Upper respiratory samples, as well as optional breastmilk, umbilical cord blood and infant venous blood samples, will be collected from mother–infant pairs over 1 month post partum. We will assess safety, N. lactamica colonisation (by targeted PCR) and longitudinal microevolution (by whole genome sequencing), and microbiome evolution (by 16S rRNA gene sequencing).Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the London Central Research Ethics Committee (21/PR/0373). Findings will be published in peer-reviewed open-access journals as soon as possible.Trial registration numberNCT04784845.
Sustaining immediate newborn care processes (delayed cord clamping and early breastfeeding initiation) in the delivery room: a quality improvement study
Authors: Nagendla Pranavi , Manju Ambika , Somasekhara Aradhya Abhishek , Shebannavar Roopa N , Venkatagiri Praveen 
Published: May 2022

BackgroundImmediate newborn care processes like delayed cord clamping (DCC) and early breastfeeding initiation (EBFI) in the delivery room have several benefits including survival. Despite the evidence, the practices have not been widely adopted. We used a point-of-care quality improvement (QI) to implement and sustain these two immediate newborn care processes in our delivery room over a period of 2 years through a series of plan–do–study–act (PDSA) cycles.MethodsAll neonates above 30 weeks of gestation irrespective of the need for resuscitation except Rh-isoimmunisation were eligible for DCC. Neonates >35 weeks not requiring respiratory support or resuscitation were eligible for EBFI. The root causes of gaps in the quality were analysed by fishbone analysis. The key quantitative outcome measure was the percentage of eligible deliveries in which DCC and EBFI were done. Duration of DCC was also recorded in the sustenance phase. This implementation was done through three PDSA cycles and the practices were sustained for 2 years.ResultsA total of 770 deliveries were part of this QI study from October 2018 to December 2020. There was a significant improvement in DCC (median) from a baseline of 25% to 96% over a 2-year period. Sensitisation, making DCC part of pre-birth checklist and recording outcomes on a dashboard daily helped to implement and sustain the processes over 2 years. As a co-process, EBFI improved (median) from a baseline of 50% to 97% without any major intervention in the system.ConclusionsImmediate newborn care processes could be sustained by making them part of pre-birth preparation and dashboard recording by a QI initiative without any additional resources.