bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Excess risk and clusters of symptoms after COVID-19 in a large Norwegian cohort
Authors: Caspersen Ida Henriette , Magnus Per , Trogstad Lill 
Published: February 2022

AbstractPhysical, psychological and cognitive symptoms have been reported as post-acute sequelae for COVID-19 patients but are also common in the general uninfected population. We aimed to calculate the excess risk and identify patterns of 22 symptoms up to 12 months after COVID-19. We followed more than 70,000 adult participants in an ongoing cohort study, the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Infected and non-infected participants registered presence of 22 different symptoms in March 2021. One year after infection, 13 of 22 symptoms were associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, based on relative risks between infected and uninfected subjects. For instance, 17.4% of SARS-CoV-2 infected cohort participants reported fatigue that persist 12 months after infection, compared to new occurrence of fatigue that had lasted less than 12 months in 3.8% of non-infected subjects (excess risk 13.6%). The adjusted relative risk for fatigue was 4.8 (95% CI 3.5–6.7). Two main underlying factors explained 50% of the variance in the 13 symptoms. Brain fog, poor memory, dizziness, heart palpitations, and fatigue had high loadings on the first factor, while shortness-of breath and cough had high loadings on the second factor. Lack of taste and smell showed low to moderate correlation to other symptoms. Anxiety, depression and mood swings were not strongly related to COVID-19. Our results suggest that there are clusters of symptoms after COVID-19 due to different mechanisms and question whether it is meaningful to describe long COVID as one syndrome.
COVID-19 and household water insecurities in vulnerable communities in the Mekong Region
Authors: Lebel Louis , Navy Hap , Siharath Phoummixay , Long Chau Thi Minh , Aung Nilar , Lebel Phimphakan , Hoanh Chu Thai , Lebel Boripat 
Published: February 2022

AbstractAccess to sufficient clean water is important for reducing the risks from COVID-19. It is unclear, however, what influence COVID-19 has had on water insecurities. The objective of this study was to assess the associations between COVID-19 control measures and household water insecurities. A survey of 1559 individuals living in vulnerable communities in five countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) showed that increased needs for clean water to wash hands or facemasks made it more likely a person was water insecure along those dimensions. Water insecurities with respect to handwashing and drinking, in turn, made adoption of the corresponding good practices less likely, whereas in the case of washing facemasks there was no association. Water system infrastructure, environmental conditions such as floods and droughts, as well as gender norms and knowledge, were also important for water insecurities and the adoption of good practices. As domestic water insecurities and COVID-19 control measures are associated with each other, efforts should therefore be directed at identifying and assisting the water insecure at high risk when COVID-19 reaches their communities.
Meditation, Idealism and Materiality: Vivid Visualization in the Buddhist ‘Qizil Yoga Manual’ and the Context of Caves
Authors: O’Brien-Kop Karen 
Published: February 2022

AbstractThis paper examines the topic of Yogācāra idealism through a little studied Buddhist meditation manual, the so-called ‘Yogalehrbuch’ or ‘Qizil Yoga Manual’, a primarily Buddhist Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma text with Mahāyāna Yogācāra strands. What does this unique Central Asian text say about Buddhist meditation practices called yogācāra or yoga? It centres on methods of vivid visualization that are somewhat specific to the Central Asian region of Kucha on the Silk Road. To understand the Manual’s practice and definition of yogic meditation, this paper considers how some of the hyper-real visualizations in the dhātuprayoga section relate the mind to reality and whether Yogācāra meditation can be said to propose idealism as a metaphysical theory about the nature of reality. The paper also asks whether neurocognitive research insights can be useful in understanding what some regard as a ‘hallucination-like’ quality of some visualizations, which destabilise distinctions between appearances and reality. Furthermore, it argues that analyzing the materiality of meditation, particularly the environment of the cave, helps us to better understand the text’s techniques of yogic visualization. The paper concludes that the ‘Qizil Yoga Manual’ facilitates soteriological idealism and suggests that factoring in the material contexts of meditation is useful, both in deciphering the text’s meditation methods and in discussing the metaphysical theory of idealism.
Natural compounds as safe therapeutic options for ulcerative colitis
Authors: Gupta Mukta , Mishra Vijay , Gulati Monica , Kapoor Bhupinder , Kaur Amrinder , Gupta Reena , Tambuwala Murtaza M. 
Published: February 2022

AbstractUlcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease of unknown etiology. Several conventional treatments for UC such as corticosteroids, immunosuppressive agents, tumor necrosis factor antagonist, integrin blockers, and interleukin antagonist, and salicylates are available but are associated with the various limitations and side-effects. None of the above treatments helps to achieve the ultimate goal of the therapy, i.e., maintenance of remission in the long-term. Natural remedies for the treatment of UC show comparatively less side effects as compared to conventional approaches, and affordable. The current review presents details on the role of herbal drugs in the treatment and cure of UC. Google, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus portals have been searched for potentially relevant literature to get the latest developments and updated information related to use of natural drugs in the treatment of UC. Natural products have been used over centuries to treat UC. Some of the essential herbal constituents exhibiting antiulcerogenic activity include gymnemic acid (Gymnema sylvestre), shagoal (Zingiber officinale), catechin (Camellia sinensis), curcumin (Curcuma longa), arctigenin (Arctium lappa), and boswellic acid (Boswellia serrata). Although many plant-derived products have been recommended for UC, further research to understand the exact molecular mechanism is still warranted to establish their usefulness clinically.
The strong program in embodied cognitive science
Authors: Sanches de Oliveira Guilherme 
Published: February 2022

AbstractA popular trend in the sciences of the mind is to understand cognition as embodied, embedded, enactive, ecological, and so on. While some of the work under the label of “embodied cognition” takes for granted key commitments of traditional cognitive science, other projects coincide in treating embodiment as the starting point for an entirely different way of investigating all of cognition. Focusing on the latter, this paper discusses how embodied cognitive science can be made more reflexive and more sensitive to the implications that our views of cognition have for how we understand scientific practice, including our own theorizing about cognition. Inspired by the “strong programme” in the sociology of scientific knowledge, I explore the prospect of an analogously “strong” program in embodied cognitive science. I first draw from Dewey’s transactional notion of “situation” to identify a broad sense in which embodied cognitive science takes cognition, as an embodied phenomenon, to be situated. I then sketch a perspective I call situated reflexivity, which extends the Deweyan analysis to understand scientific practice in the same terms, and thereby illustrates what research in line with a strong program in embodied cognitive science can look like. This move, I propose, has the potential of setting up a new inquiry situation that makes more salient the embodiment of scientific practice and that, through this, can help organize our own embodied cognitive activities as we try to make sense of scientific work, including our own.
Agents of change: temporal flow and feeling oneself act
Authors: Young Nick 
Published: February 2022

AbstractHere, I put forward a new account of how experience gives rise to the belief that time passes. While there is considerable disagreement amongst metaphysicians as to whether time really does pass, it has struck many as a default, ‘common sense’ way of thinking about the world. A popular way of explaining how such a belief arises is to say that it seemsperceptuallyas though time passes. Here I outline some difficulties for this approach, and propose instead that the belief in time passing is elicited by a particular feature ofagentive experience. When we deliberately move our bodies, bring something to mind, or focus our attention, we experience ourselves as thesourcesof these actions. Sensing oneself as a source, I argue, is a unique type of change experience, one which leads us to a belief that time is passing.
Against telic monism in logic
Authors: Commandeur Leon 
Published: February 2022

AbstractTelic monism in logic is the thesis that there is one single philosophically primary goal to logic. A different way to put it is that there is only one canonical application to logic. This thesis is widely present—implicitly or more explicitly—in the literature on the philosophy of logic, yet has not been examined nor argued for extensively. In this paper I will present and critically examine telic monism. One prominent candidate for the canonical application of logic, namely the formal codification of logical consequence in natural language, will be challenged directly. The critique will then be generalized by appealing to a practice-based philosophy of logic. The general argument I put forth here claims that we have no principled reason to assume there to be just one primary goal to logic. Rather, I claim that it is more plausible that there actually is a variety of goals, purposes and applications to logic, without one of them enjoying primacy over the others. If this argument succeeds, at least one of the consequences is that it allows for a kind of logical pluralism that has previously been deemed insignificant, namely logical instrumentalism.
Dynamic S-Box and PWLCM-Based Robust Watermarking Scheme
Authors: Khan Jan Sher , Kayhan Sema Koç , Ahmed Saygin Siddiq , Ahmad Jawad , Siddiqa Hafza Ayesha , Ahmed Fawad , Ghaleb Baraq , Al Dubai Ahmed 
Published: February 2022

AbstractDue to the increased number of cyberattacks, numerous researchers are motivated towards the design of such schemes that can hide digital information in a signal. Watermarking is one of the promising technologies that can protect digital information. However, traditional watermarking schemes are either slow or less secure. In this paper, a dynamic S-Box based efficient watermarking scheme is presented. The original image was extracted at the receiver’s end without any loss of sensitive information. Firstly, the Secure Hash Algorithm is applied to the original image for the generation of the initial condition. Piece Wise Linear Chaotic Map is then used to generate 16 $$\times$$
×
16 dynamic Substitution Box (S-Box). As an additional security feature, the watermark is substituted through dynamic S-Box. Hence, it is hard for the eavesdroppers to attack the proposed scheme due to the dynamic nature of S-Box. Lastly, lifting wavelet transform is applied to the host image and the High Low and High High blocks of host image are replaced with least significant bits and most significant bits of the substituted watermark, respectively. Robustness, efficiency and security of the proposed scheme is verified using Structure Similarity Index, Structure Dissimilarity Index, Structure Content, Mutual Information, energy, entropy, correlation tests and classical attacks analysis.
Influence of chain length of organic modifiers in hydrophobization process on epoxy resin properties
Authors: Morgiante G. , Piłkowski M. , Marczak J. 
Published: February 2022

AbstractResins have been widely used in a variety of industry fields for more than a century, such as coatings, adhesives, or automotive. Their low cost and workability are extremely useful in creating more and more advanced materials due to their chemical structure (Ghaffari et al. in Surf Interfaces 17:100340, 2019). Common problem today is the wetting tendency of various materials which in the end can result in further damage in the structure because of atmospheric conditions. Nowadays, scientists are trying to find better ways to improve the properties of coatings or composites in cases like hydrophobicity or icephobicity. One of the examp les are fluorinated organic compounds with good linking properties to the substrate (Qin et al. in Mater Today Commun 22:100770, 2020). Because o f that, to im prove the properties of a basic epoxy resin, its chain has been modified with hydrophobic compounds with different chain lengths. Influence of modifiers’ molecule size on hydrophobic and ice adhesion properties of obtained epoxy resins has been tested. Chemical composition of prepared coatings was analyzed by FTIR. Moreover, their thermal stability was investigated using TG and DSC measurements. Additionally, wettability of the samples was analyzed with a goniometer. Furthermore, their ice adhesion tests were performed on a dedicated apparatus. As a result, presented work provides a critique overview and concept of promising icephobic and hydrophobic coatings in the industry. Moreover, these products have a high chance to be developed further.
Novel Exosome Biomarker Candidates for Alzheimer’s Disease Unravelled Through Mass Spectrometry Analysis
Authors: Soares Martins Tânia , Marçalo Rui , da Cruz e Silva Cristóvão B. , Trindade Dário , Catita José , Amado Francisco , Melo Tânia , Rosa Ilka Martins , Vogelgsang Jonathan , Wiltfang Jens , da Cruz e Silva Odete A. B. , Henriques Ana Gabriela 
Published: February 2022

AbstractExosomes are small extracellular vesicles (EVs) present in human biofluids that can transport specific disease-associated molecules. Consequently blood-derived exosomes have emerged as important peripheral biomarker sources for a wide range of diseases, among them Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Although there is no effective cure for AD, an accurate diagnosis, relying on easily accessible peripheral biofluids, is still necessary to discriminate this disease from other dementias, test potential therapies and even monitor rate of disease progression. The ultimate goal is to produce a cost-effective and widely available alternative, which can also be employed as a first clinical screen. In this study, EVs with exosome-like characteristics were isolated from serum of Controls and AD cases through precipitation- and column-based methods, followed by mass spectrometry analysis. The resulting proteomes were characterized by Gene Ontology (GO) and multivariate analyses. Although GO terms were similar for exosomes’ proteomes of Controls and ADs, using both methodologies, a clear segregation of disease cases was obtained when using the precipitation-based method. Nine significantly different abundant proteins were identified between Controls and AD cases, representing putative biomarker candidate targets. Among them are AACT and C4BPα, two Aβ-binding proteins, whose exosome levels were further validated in individuals from independent cohorts using antibody-based approaches. The findings discussed represent an important contribution to the identification of novel exosomal biomarker candidates useful as potential blood-based tools for AD diagnosis.
Environmental hazards of land use/land cover dynamics using data observation techniques and GIS: case study of Guyuan watershed, China
Authors: Abd El-Hamid Hazem T. , Caiyong Wei , Yun Zhang , El-Zeiny Ahmed M. 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Agricultural production system is extensively impacted by dynamics of land use. In the present paper, dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) and environmental factors such as digital elevation model (DEM), slope, vegetation cover, soil type, and aspect were assessed to simulate the potential hazard in the watershed area at the southern part of Ningxia, Guyuan. This area was selected due to its wealthy fertile soils; thus, it provides food for multiple regions. Guyuan, Shilitan, and Yangcao cities were chosen as case studies. Multispectral Gaofen (GF) 2 satellite images and SRTM DEM were processed to produce environmental variables to assess the probable risks. In Shilitan watershed, very dense vegetation showed an increase from 14.6 to 22.1% and in Yangcao from 5.65 to 9.46% at 2005 and 2019, respectively, which protects the watershed area from flood and land degradation. However, spare vegetation recorded a decrease during the investigated period in two watershed areas. Hence, soil with little vegetative cover is more vulnerable to erosion, degradation runoff, and inconsequential water retention. DEM analyses showed that higher degree of segmentation leads to more degradation and damage of agricultural lands which adversely affects food security of the city. Results of the present study help policy makers, planners, and other accompanying development workers to apply the best suitable land use management options to protect Guyuan watershed.
Lipid-mediated antimicrobial resistance: a phantom menace or a new hope?
Authors: MacDermott-Opeskin Hugo I. , Gupta Vrinda , O’Mara Megan L. 
Published: February 2022

Abstract The proposition of a post-antimicrobial era is all the more realistic with the continued rise of antimicrobial resistance. The development of new antimicrobials is failing to counter the ever-increasing rates of bacterial antimicrobial resistance. This necessitates novel antimicrobials and drug targets. The bacterial cell membrane is an essential and highly conserved cellular component in bacteria and acts as the primary barrier for entry of antimicrobials into the cell. Although previously under-exploited as an antimicrobial target, the bacterial cell membrane is attractive for the development of novel antimicrobials due to its importance in pathogen viability. Bacterial cell membranes are diverse assemblies of macromolecules built around a central lipid bilayer core. This lipid bilayer governs the overall membrane biophysical properties and function of its membrane-embedded proteins. This mini-review will outline the mechanisms by which the bacterial membrane causes and controls resistance, with a focus on alterations in the membrane lipid composition, chemical modification of constituent lipids, and the efflux of antimicrobials by membrane-embedded efflux systems. Thorough insight into the interplay between membrane-active antimicrobials and lipid-mediated resistance is needed to enable the rational development of new antimicrobials. In particular, the union of computational approaches and experimental techniques for the development of innovative and efficacious membrane-active antimicrobials is explored.
Disentangling the ecosystem service ‘flood regulation’: Mechanisms and relevant ecosystem condition characteristics
Authors: Vári Ágnes , Kozma Zsolt , Pataki Beáta , Jolánkai Zsolt , Kardos Máté , Decsi Bence , Pinke Zsolt , Jolánkai Géza , Pásztor László , Condé Sophie , Sonderegger Gabriele , Czúcz Bálint 
Published: February 2022

AbstractRiverine floods cause increasingly severe damages to human settlements and infrastructure. Ecosystems have a natural capacity to decrease both severity and frequency of floods. Natural flood regulation processes along freshwaters can be attributed to two different mechanisms: flood prevention that takes place in the whole catchment and flood mitigation once the water has accumulated in the stream. These flood regulating mechanisms are not consistently recognized in major ecosystem service (ES) classifications. For a balanced landscape management, it is important to assess the ES flood regulation so that it can account for the different processes at the relevant sites. We reviewed literature, classified them according to these mechanisms, and analysed the influencing ecosystem characteristics. For prevention, vegetation biomass and forest extent were predominant, while for mitigation, the available space for water was decisive. We add some aspects on assessing flood regulation as ES, and suggest also to include flood hazard into calculations.
Morphological and anatomical changes during floral bud development of the trioecious Idesia polycarpa Maxim
Authors: Wang Huimin , Rana Sohel , Li Zhi , Geng Xiaodong , Wang Yanmei , Cai Qifei , Li Shunfu , Sun Jialu , Liu Zhen 
Published: February 2022

AbstractIdesia polycarpa Maxim is described as a dioecious species, in which flowers are female or male, but we have also found individuals with bisexual flowers. The study aimed to provide the theoretical basis for the artificial control on flowering, fruiting, and floral initiation of Idesia polycarpa Maxim species. The morphological and anatomical structure of female, male, and bisexual flowers of I. polycarpa was studied. In this study, the routine paraffin section and morphological observation methods were used. The flowering of I. polycarpa began in late July. Results showed that the short-branch terminal bud was the highest percentage of floral bud position both in the female and male plants compared to the other bud types, and the proportion was 68.6% and 76.3%, respectively. Evidence from floral structural analysis suggests that the female and male flowers of I. polycarpa are unisexual by abortion. The ovary of the male flower stops developing after the ovule primordium initiation. The female, male, and bisexual flowers of I. polycarpa had the same anatomical structure at the beginning of development, but differences emerge in the differentiation stage of the female and male. In the bisexual flowers, females and males develop normally and may produce fruits. The study suggests that the bisexual, male, and female flowers were produced on the separate plants of the same species; therefore, the species is trioecious.
Numerical study of creep effect on purging plug performance under cyclic service
Authors: Tan Fang-guan , Jin Sheng-li , He Zhu , Liang Xiong , Li Ya-wei , Li Jing 
Published: February 2022

AbstractThe service life of the purging plug is one of the fundamental factors that determine the downtime and usage efficiency of the whole ladle. The creep behaviour of the purging plug was thus investigated to identify the possible failure mechanism. At first, the creep parameters of the Norton–Bailey strain hardening rule were inversely identified via the results of the creep test. Then, the thermal-solid coupling model approach was employed to predict the creep behaviour of the purging plug, in which the Norton–Bailey strain hardening rule was applied. The numerical results show that the temperature of the purging plug presents a cyclic trend after the first service period since the preheating temperature is lower than the temperature of molten steel. Furthermore, the distribution of the creep strain intensity in a layered form could also contribute to a gradual spalling of the purging plug end in service. Besides, the creep strain concentration around the slit can be responsible for the clogging of the purging plug.