bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Structural, Optical, Mechanical and Antibacterial Properties of MgO/Poly(Vinyl Acetate)/Poly(Vinyl Chloride) Nanocomposites
Authors: Sayed Adel M. El , Abdelghany A. M. , Abou Elfadl A. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractPolymeric blends and nanocomposites with improved functional properties have attracted attention worldwide for industrial applications. For food packaging applications and carrying purposes, the materials to be used should have UV blocking ability, antibacterial activity, and good mechanical properties. In this study, polyvinyl acetate (PVAc)/polyvinyl chloride (PVC) blends with optimized properties and MgO/PVAc/PVC polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) were prepared by solution casting and evaporation. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the complexation and miscibility between PVAc and PVC and their interaction with MgO nanoparticles (NP). X-ray diffraction and HR-TEM analyses showed the phase purity of MgO NP with a crystallite size of ~ 18.8 nm and their dispersion in the amorphous regions of the blend without affecting the structure of each other. UV–vis-NIR spectroscopy revealed that the band gap of the blend can be tuned by changing the added ratio of each polymer, and loading MgO NP increased the semiconducting behavior of the blend. Various optical constants such as the refractive index, absorption index, and optical dispersion parameters have been evaluated. The blend composition and effects of MgO content on the stress–strain behavior were studied. The addition of MgO to the blend enhanced the tensile modulus and strength. However, there was a corresponding decline in toughness and elongation at break. These results reflect the reinforcing effect of MgO NP, which reduces the flexibility of the polymer chains. The antibacterial activities of MgO/PVAc/PVC PNCs against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans fungi are studied. The improvements in optical, mechanical, and anitmicrobial properties make these nanocomposites suitable for some optical devices and in food packaging applications.
Neuropsychological Assessment of Cognitive Impairment in Kidney Transplantation (NAsKiT) and its related risk factors: a study protocol
Authors: Karakizlis Hristos , Doerr Johanna M. , Becker Anna , Nahrgang Christian , Rainer Lucy , Askevold Ingolf , Liese Juliane , Padberg Winfried , Aly Mostafa , Weimer Rolf , Juenemann Martin 
Published: June 2022

AbstractBackgroundAssociation of cognitive impairment with chronic kidney disease has been reported over the last decade. Individuals show better cognitive performance after kidney transplantation than individuals on dialysis but are more likely to be affected by cognitive impairment than age-matched comparison groups. Better knowledge of the prevalence as well as course and profile of cognitive impairment is important for the design of future studies assessing the clinical impact of cognitive impairment and developing management strategies. The goal of our study is to examine the extent of cognitive impairment before and after transplantation and to derive a distinct profile of cognitive function using standard neurocognitive tests. Furthermore, we aim to assess whether transplantation per se leads to an improvement in cognitive performance.MethodsWe are conducting a prospective single-center cohort study involving 100 kidney transplant individuals. Individuals who are wait-listed to receive a kidney transplantation or have already received one will be included in this study. Individuals will undergo a battery of detailed neurocognitive tests at baseline (in part before surgery), and then 3 and 12 months afterwards. Furthermore, the enrolled patients will complete a validated German version of the Cognitive Failure Questionnaire for self-assessment (s-CFQ) as well as the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale -Deutsche (HADS-D), a self-report screening instrument with two scales that capture anxiety and depression. In addition, a hair sample will be taken at each measurement time point for the determination of hair cortisol levels as a parameter for the cumulative hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity over the previous three months. The primary outcome measure will be (a) the effect of kidney transplantation on the cognitive performance up to 12 months after transplantation and (b) the course of cognitive performance following kidney transplantation over time.DiscussionThe results of our study have potentially important implications for the prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment in kidney transplant individuals. By increasing our knowledge of the neurocognitive profile and assigning the corresponding deficits, it might be possible to create an individualized training program to positively impact cognitive deficits in kidney transplant patients.
Ubiquitous Secure Communication in a Future Internet Architecture
Authors: Krähenbühl Cyrill , Perrig Adrian 
Published: June 2022

AbstractIn a world with increasing simplicity to store, transfer, and analyze large volumes of data, preserving data confidentiality and integrity of Internet traffic by default becomes more and more important. Unfortunately, a large gap exists between low-security opportunistic encryption and trust-on-first-use (TOFU) protocols, and high-security communication, such as TLS using server certificates or DNSSEC. Our goal is to reduce this gap and provide a base layer for authentication and secrecy that is strictly better than TOFU security. We achieve this by integrating the authentication method PILA into the future Internet architecture SCION. This combines PILA’s address-based authentication, which leverages irrefutable cryptographic proof of misbehavior, and the flexibility of SCION’s control-plane PKI and its per-AS independent addressing scheme. In this work, two concrete issues of PILA are addressed: (1) the reliance on the hierarchical RPKI which introduces a single global trust root, i.e., a single point of failure regarding the security of PILA, and (2) the necessity of an out-of-band communication to prevent downgrade attacks, which can incur a latency overhead and might be used as a resource exhaustion attack vector. We describe how PILA in combination with SCION mitigates these issues and analyze the security of the system. Finally, we discuss several interesting use cases including the SSH, TLS, and DNS protocols.
Feeding tube use is associated with severe scoliosis in patients with cerebral palsy and limited ambulatory ability
Authors: Yoo Nicholas , Arand Brian , Shi Junxin , Yang Jingzhen , Noritz Garey , Whitaker Amanda T. 
Published: June 2022

Abstract
Purpose
Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disorder in childhood. Scoliosis is a common complication of CP that can reach clinically severe levels, but predictors for scoliosis in CP are not well understood. Some variables identified in the literature involve the severity of the brain injury and the presence of hip deformity. We aimed to identify associations with developing severe scoliosis in a prospective cohort of patients with cerebral palsy at higher risk for severe curve progression.

Methods
This study reviewed a prospectively collected database at a tertiary children’s hospital. We evaluated a panel of potential associations with severe scoliosis—including age, sex, Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) class, history of hip surgery, epilepsy, and feeding tube presence—in a population of children with limited ambulatory ability defined as GMFCS level IV or V CP. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression with stepwise selection was used for analysis.

Results
Descriptive analysis showed that female sex, higher GMFCS class, history of hip surgery, non-upright seating, pelvic obliquity, presence of epilepsy, and presence of a feeding tube were associated with an increased risk for scoliosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the presence of a feeding tube was associated with severe scoliosis even when controlling for GMFCS and age.

Conclusions
Feeding tube use may stratify risk for severe scoliosis progression in patients with GMFCS IV or V CP.
Investigating functional consistency of mobility-related urban zones via motion-driven embedding vectors and local POI-type distributions
Authors: Crivellari Alessandro , Resch Bernd 
Published: June 2022

AbstractUrban morphology and human mobility are two sides of the complex mixture of elements that implicitly define urban functionality. By leveraging the emerging availability of crowdsourced data, we aim for novel insights on how they relate to each other, which remains a substantial scientific challenge. Specifically, our study focuses on extracting spatial-temporal information from taxi trips in an attempt on grouping urban space based on human mobility, and subsequently assess its potential relationship with urban functional characteristics in terms of local points-of-interest (POI) distribution. Proposing a vector representation of urban areas, constructed via unsupervised machine learning on trip data’s temporal and geographic factors, the underlying idea is to define areas as “related” if they often act as destinations of similar departing regions at similar points in time, regardless of any other explicit information. Hidden relations are mapped within the generated vector space, whereby areas are represented as points and stronger/weaker relatedness is conveyed through relative distances. The mobility-related outcome is then compared with the POI-type distribution across the urban environment, to assess the functional consistency of mobility-based clusters of urban areas. Results indicate a meaningful relationship between spatial-temporal motion patterns and urban distributions of a diverse selection of POI-type categorizations, paving the way to ideally identify homogenous urban functional zones only based on the movement of people. Our data-driven approach is intended to complement traditional urban development studies on providing a novel perspective to urban activity modeling, standing out as a reference for mining information out of mobility and POI data types in the context of urban management and planning.
The impact of oxygen supply flow rates on the distribution of aerosols between the patient and the surgeon during lung intubation
Authors: Lin Tee , Zargar Omid Ali , Hu Ming-Hsuan , Wang Chung-Chun , Hu Shih-Cheng , Leggett Graham 
Published: June 2022

AbstractThe outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a worldwide pandemic. The widespread infection of the medical staff has caused great attention from all quarters of society. There is a particular concern when considering intubation treatment in the emergency operating room, where a significant amount of virus droplets are typically spread within the room, exposing the medical staff to a high risk of infection. Hence, there is currently a pressing need to develop an effective protection mechanism for the medical staff to prevent them from being infected during routine work. In order to understand the spread of droplets and aerosols when different oxygen supply devices are used for intubation therapy, this study uses particle image velocimetry (PIV) technology to analyze the airflow distribution between the medical staff and the patient. In the experiment, a simple version of the respirator was established to reproduce the breathing of human lungs. This model used oil to create smoke as a tracer aerosol, then a high-sensitivity camera was used to record the scattering light from this smoke (which is irradiated by the green laser sheet). Ultimately, after applying post-processing techniques, the airflow distribution is analyzed. PAO aerosol is the primary aerosol source in this experiment, and it is used to quantify the patient’s breathing; the concentration of PAO aerosol was measured at three different points: head, trunk, and feet. In addition, flow field visualization can effectively present the flow field distribution of the entire operating room; also, the results can be mutually verified with the PAO concentration measurement results. Aerosol concentrations were measured for six different oxygen supply devices with various tidal volumes of the artificial respirator, and the results were ranked from high to low concentrations for different oxygen supply devices and their operational oxygen supply flowrates: HFNC (70 l/min) > CPAP (40 l/min) > HFNC (30 l/min) > nasal cannula (15 l/min) > NRM (15 l/min) > VAPOX (28 l/min).
Challenges and Facilitators for Psychosocial Support when Aging and Dying in Place: A Rapid Review of the Literature
Authors: Daudt Helena M. , Spargo Emily L. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractMost seniors in Canada live at home and consistently indicate that they prefer to stay there for as long as possible. Consequently, this desire places increasing pressure on supports such as informal caregivers and community services. The current rapid review set out to examine the psychosocial aspects of aging and dying in place that point to gaps in programs and services to support this preference. We searched PubMed, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar for peer-reviewed entries, and identified 42 articles for analysis, which we charted on a form we created and tested. Lack of attention to the whole person, lack of preparation for the journey ahead, and difficulties establishing collaborative and trusting relationships were, broadly, the challenges identified. A blend of initiatives in the community combined with an integrated palliative approach to care may mitigate some of the challenges that limit options for aging and dying in place.
Abductive Reasoning in Intuitionistic Propositional Logic via Theorem Synthesis
Authors: TARAU PAUL 
Published: June 2022

AbstractWith help of a compact Prolog-based theorem prover for Intuitionistic Propositional Logic, we synthesize minimal assumptions under which a given formula formula becomes a theorem. After applying our synthesis algorithm to cover basic abductive reasoning mechanisms, we synthesize conjunctions of literals that mimic rows of truth tables in classical or intermediate logics and we abduce conditional hypotheses that turn the theorems of classical or intermediate logics into theorems in intuitionistic logic. One step further, we generalize our abductive reasoning mechanism to synthesize more expressive sequent premises using a minimal set of canonical formulas, to which arbitrary formulas in the calculus can be reduced while preserving their provability. Organized as a self-contained literate Prolog program, the paper supports interactive exploration of its content and ensures full replicability of our results.
Why has Precipitation Increased in the Last 120 Years in Norway?
Authors: Konstali K. , Sorteberg A. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractWe use a data set with daily precipitation observations from 55 homogeneity‐tested stations in Norway from 1900 to 2019 available from MET‐Norway. These observations show that precipitation in Norway has increased by 19% since 1900. Notably, over half of the overall increase occurred within the decade of 1980–1990 and is happening across all precipitation rates. To examine possible mechanisms behind the precipitation increase, we use a diagnostic model to separate the effects of changes in vertical velocity, temperature and relative humidity. We use daily vertical velocity, near‐surface temperature and relative humidity from two reanalysis products, ERA‐20C and 20th Century Reanalysis. The model‐based precipitation correlates significantly with the observed precipitation on an annual timescale (r > 0.9), as well as captures the trend in all reanalysis products. The diagnostic model indicates that the variability in vertical velocity chiefly determines the interannual variability and long‐term trend. The trend in vertical velocities contributes to more than 80% of the total modeled trend in precipitation between 1900 and 2019. However, over the last two decades (1995–2015), changes in temperature and relative humidity are the main contributors to the modeled trend in precipitation.
Achievements and Lessons Learned From Successful Small Satellite Missions for Space Weather‐Oriented Research
Authors: Spence Harlan E. , Caspi Amir , Bahcivan Hasan , Nieves‐Chinchilla Jesus , Crowley Geoff , Cutler James , Fish Chad , Jackson David , Jorgensen Therese Moretto , Klumpar David , Li Xinlin , Mason James P. , Paschalidis Nick , Sample John , Smith Sonya , Swenson Charles M. , Woods Thomas N. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractWhen the first CubeSats were launched nearly two decades ago, few people believed that the miniature satellites would likely prove to be a useful scientific tool. Skeptics abounded. However, the last decade has seen the highly successful implementation of space missions that make creative and innovative use of fast‐advancing CubeSat and small satellite technology to carry out important science experiments and missions. Several projects now have used CubeSats to obtain first‐of‐their‐kind observations and findings that have formed the basis for high‐profile engineering and science publications, thereby establishing without doubt the scientific value and broad utility of CubeSats. In this paper, we describe recent achievements and lessons learned from a representative selection of successful CubeSat missions with a space weather focus. We conclude that these missions were successful in part because their limited resources promoted not only mission focus but also appropriate risk‐taking for comparatively high science return. Quantitative analysis of refereed publications from these CubeSat missions and several larger missions reveals that mission outcome metrics compare favorably when publication number is normalized by mission cost or if expressed as a weighted net scientific impact of all mission publications.
Climate Change Shrinks and Fragments Salmon Habitats in a Snow‐Dependent Region
Authors: Tonina Daniele , McKean James A. , Isaak Daniel , Benjankar Rohan M. , Tang Chunling , Chen Qiuwen 
Published: June 2022

AbstractClimate change threatens biodiversity through global alteration of habitats, but efficient conservation responses are often hindered by imprecise downscaling of impacts. Besides thermal effects, warming also drives important ancillary environmental changes, such as when river hydrology evolves in response to climate forcing. Earlier snowmelt runoff and summer flow declines are broadly manifested in snow‐dependent regions and relevant to socioeconomically important cold‐water fishes. Here, we mechanistically quantify how climate‐induced summer flow declines during historical and future periods cause complex local changes in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) habitats for juveniles and spawning adults. Changes consisted of large reductions in useable habitat area and connectivity between the main channel and adjacent off‐channel habitats. These reductions decrease the capacity of freshwater habitats to support historical salmon abundances and could pose risks to population persistence in some areas.
Transient Storage Model Parameter Optimization Using the Simulated Annealing Method
Authors: Tsai C. H. , Rucker D. F. , Brooks S. C. , Ginn T. , Carroll K. C. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractHyporheic exchange in streams is critical to ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling along river corridors, especially for slowly moving or small stream systems. The transient storage model (TSM) has been widely used for modeling of hyporheic exchange. TSM calibration, for hyporheic exchange, is typically used to estimate four parameters, including the mass exchange rate coefficient, the dispersion coefficient, stream cross‐sectional area, and hyporheic zone cross‐sectional area. Prior studies have raised concerns regarding the non‐uniqueness of the inverse problem for the TSM, that is, the occurrence of different parameter vectors resulting in TSM solution that reproduces the observed in‐stream tracer break through curve (BTC) with the same error. This leads to practical non‐identifiability in determining the unknown parameter vector values even when global‐optimal values exist, and the parameter optimization becomes practically non‐unique. To address this problem, we applied the simulated annealing method to calibrate the TSM to BTCs, because it is less susceptible to local minima‐induced non‐identifiability. A hypothetical (or synthetic) tracer test data set with known parameters was developed to demonstrate the capability of the simulated annealing method to find the global minimum parameter vector, and it identified the “hypothetically‐true” global minimum parameter vector even with input data that were modified with up to 10% noise without increasing the number of iterations required for convergence. The simulated annealing TSM was then calibrated using two in‐stream tracer tests conducted in East Fork Poplar Creek, Tennessee. Simulated annealing was determined to be appropriate for quantifying the TSM parameter vector because of its search capability for the global minimum parameter vector.
Tumor regionalization after surgery: Roles of the tumor microenvironment and neutrophil extracellular traps
Authors: Kwak Su-Bin , Kim Sang Jin , Kim Jiyoung , Kang Ye-Lim , Ko Chang Woo , Kim Iljin , Park Jong-Wan 
Published: June 2022

AbstractSurgery is unanimously regarded as the primary strategy to cure solid tumors in the early stages but is not always used in advanced cases. However, tumor surgery must be carefully considered because the risk of metastasis could be increased by the surgical procedure. Tumor surgery may result in a deep wound, which induces many biological responses favoring tumor metastasis. In particular, NETosis, which is the process of forming neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), has received attention as a risk factor for surgery-induced metastasis. To reduce cancer mortality, researchers have made efforts to prevent secondary metastasis after resection of the primary tumor. From this point of view, a better understanding of surgery-induced metastasis might provide new strategies for more effective and safer surgical approaches. In this paper, recent insights into the surgical effects on metastasis will be reviewed. Moreover, in-depth opinions about the effects of NETs on metastasis will be discussed.
Public engagement with air quality data: using health behaviour change theory to support exposure-minimising behaviours
Authors: McCarron Amy , Semple Sean , Braban Christine F. , Swanson Vivien , Gillespie Colin , Price Heather D. 
Published: June 2022

AbstractExposure to air pollution prematurely kills 7 million people globally every year. Policy measures designed to reduce emissions of pollutants, improve ambient air and consequently reduce health impacts, can be effective, but are generally slow to generate change. Individual actions can therefore supplement policy measures and more immediately reduce people’s exposure to air pollution. Air quality indices (AQI) are used globally (though not universally) to translate complex air quality data into a single unitless metric, which can be paired with advice to encourage behaviour change. Here we explore, with reference to health behaviour theories, why these are frequently insufficient to instigate individual change. We examine the health behaviour theoretical steps linking air quality data with reduced air pollution exposure and (consequently) improved public health, arguing that a combination of more ‘personalised’ air quality data and greater public engagement with these data will together better support individual action. Based on this, we present a novel framework, which, when used to shape air quality interventions, has the potential to yield more effective and sustainable interventions to reduce individual exposures and thus reduce the global public health burden of air pollution.