bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Development of a simple evaluation instrument for liquid thickness measurement
Authors: Sei Hirofumi , Yasuda Kazunori , Asayama Rie , Tanaka Kaori , Oba Shiori , Shidahara Mutsumi , Hato Naohito 
Published: January 2022

AbstractSimple methods, such as the line spread test (LST), are often used to evaluate thickened liquids in clinical settings. Although it is desirable for these simple methods to be rapid, even the LST requires approximately 1 min to complete the evaluation. Herein, we aimed to shorten this time by developing a new simple instrument for evaluating thickened liquids considering the fluid engineering perspective with improved funnel design and evaluation methods. A thickened liquid was prepared with a xanthan gum‐based thickening agent and water. Samples with viscosities of approximately 50, 150, 300, and 500 mPa∙s were prepared. For evaluation, 30 ml of the sample was injected manually with the outlet closed. The outlet was then opened to allow the liquid to fall as soon as the evaluation began. The time taken for the water surface of the liquid to move 50 mm from the starting point to the target point was measured eight times using a stopwatch, and the average was taken as the evaluation time. The instrument took 2.22–3.29 s, 3.29–9.16 s, and 9.16–23.14 s to classify mildly thick, moderately thick, and extremely thick samples, respectively. This method enabled extremely thick samples to be evaluated in 23 s, which is 27 s less than the time taken by the conventional funnel method. Verification results showed that this developed evaluation instrument for thickened liquids could perform classification according to the criteria of the Japanese Dysphagia Diet 2013. We aim to improve its design for clinical use in the future.
Changes in renin‐angiotensin‐aldosterone system during cardiac remodeling after mitral valvuloplasty in dogs
Authors: Cheng Chieh‐Jen , Mandour Ahmed S. , Yoshida Tomohiko , Watari Toshihiro , Tanaka Ryou , Matsuura Katsuhiro 
Published: January 2022

AbstractBackgroundInformation regarding changes in renin‐angiotensin‐aldosterone system (RAAS) during cardiac remodeling after mitral valvuloplasty (MVP) in dogs remains lacking.Hypothesis/ObjectivesTo assess the longitudinal effects of MVP on circulating RAAS activity.AnimalsEight client‐owned dogs receiving MVP for myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD).MethodsThis is a cohort study. Plasma renin activity (PRA), angiotensin II (AT2), aldosterone (PAC), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine concentrations, were measured in these dogs before (baseline) and at 3 consecutive monthly follow‐ups (Post‐1M, Post‐2M, Post‐3M). Echocardiography was concomitantly used to assess the process of cardiac recovery after MVP.ResultsThe echocardiography revealed a significant decrease in LVIDDN, LA/Ao, FS, E velocity, E/A, E′ sep, S′ lat, E′ lat, and A′ lat after MVP compared with baseline (P < .05). There was a significant reduction in the PRA (2.45, 3.05, 2.74 vs 8.8 ng/mL/h;P = .002), AT2 (466, 315, 235 vs 1200 pg/mL;P = .009), and PAC (39.88, 47, 54.62 vs 179.5 pg/mL;P = .01), respectively at Post‐1M, Post‐2M, Post‐3M compared to the baseline. Additionally, BUN and creatinine concentrations decreased from Post‐1M. The RAAS variables showed significant, weak to moderate, relationship with selected echocardiographic variables.Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceMitral valvuloplasty contributes to decreased RAAS activity in MMVD dogs, which paralleled the process of cardiac reverse remodeling up to Post‐3M. This information facilitates formulating strategies to optimize clinical outcomes for dogs after MVP.
Post‐filling phase ichthyofaunal community and fishery potential of Chitsuwa Reservoir, a small tropical reservoir in Zimbabwe
Authors: Madzivanzira Takudzwa C. , Mungenge Chipo , Chakandinakira Adroit T. , Rugwete Nyasha , Kavhu Blessing 
Published: January 2022

AbstractMany small reservoirs exist throughout Southern Africa, and with adequate management have the potential to contribute significantly to food security. The fisheries and limnology of the newly created Chitsuwa Reservoir in Zimbabwe were studied with the objective of generating information to support the development, management and sustainable use of fisheries to enhance the socio‐economic status of riparian communities. Based on gill nets of various mesh sizes, it was confirmed that the reservoir is presently inhabited by a fairly diverse fish community comprising ten species belonging to five families (Clarias gariepinus; Coptodon rendalli; Labeo cylindricus; Marcusenius macrolepidotus; Micropterus salmoides; Momyrus longirostris; Oreochromis mossambicus; Oreochromis niloticus; Serranochromis microcephalus; and Tilapia sparrmanii). Oreochromis niloticus dominated the reservoir with respect to both abundance, biomass and catch. The index of relative importance revealed O. niloticus and M. macrolepidotus were the most important species. Results from the Canonical Correspondence Analysis revealed a clear division of the fish species that followed the environmental variables. Although fisheries may benefit from the invasive M. salmoides and the established O. niloticus, their presence in the reservoir is a cause for concern for conserving native congeneric species that risk extirpation through documented mechanisms. The results of the present study suggest sound management of the reservoir is required to raise its potential of supporting the livelihoods of the surrounding communities with a predicted annual fish yield of 61.5 t/year. Management of this reservoir should involve the local communities, empowering them so that they practice sustainable non‐destructive fishing methods.
The usefulness of concepts as a methodological point of reference in applied ethics
Authors: Ahlin Marceta Jesper 
Published: January 2022

AbstractConcepts are central in applied ethics as points of reference for moral deliberation. Applied ethicists generally rely on shared methodological standards for the justification of the use of concepts, such as standards of coherence and of relevance; concepts that are incoherent or irrelevant for the purposes of any particular moral inquiry are not justified as points of reference in that inquiry. This article treats one such standard of justification, namely, the standard of usefulness. According to that standard, concepts are not justified as points of reference if they do not contribute to solving real‐world problems. It is argued that many applied ethicists implicitly rely on the standard of usefulness, which merits the attention of applied ethicists and theorists dedicated to methodological problems in applied ethics.
The clinical value of psycho‐gastroenterological interventions for functional esophageal symptoms
Authors: Hurtte Edward , Rogers Benjamin D. , Richards Cheryl , Gyawali C. Prakash 
Published: January 2022

AbstractBackgroundDisorders of gut–brain interaction (DGBI) are associated with high symptom burden and poor quality of life. We evaluated the clinical value of multimodal therapy with psycho‐gastroenterological interventions in patients with refractory functional symptoms.MethodsOf 80 DGBI patients managed over a 12‐month period, 26 patients undergoing multimodal therapy (median age 60.0 years, 73.1%F) were compared to 54 patients (median age 56.0 years, 68.5%F) managed using conventional approaches. Psycho‐gastroenterological multimodal therapy was individualized and included relaxation training (diaphragmatic breathing, passive muscle relaxation) and gut‐direct hypnotherapy/guided imagery. All patients completed documentation of symptom frequency and severity using a 100 mm visual analog scale (VAS) and assessment of health‐related quality of life (BEST score) before and following therapy. Data were analyzed to determine comparative change in symptom burden between the two cohorts.Key ResultsBaseline demographics and symptom burden were similar between the two treatment subgroups. While patients improved with both multimodal and conventional therapies, BEST score demonstrated greater improvement with multimodal therapy (p = 0.03). Physician perception of symptom burden at baseline and on follow‐up did not correspond to self‐reported questionnaire data. On multivariable analysis, multimodal therapy (OR 7.9, 95% CI 1.8–34.6, p = 0.006) and functional esophageal disorders (OR 17.6, 95% CI 2.6–121.1, p = 0.004) predicted >50% improvement in BEST score, while the presence of psychiatric disease was a negative predictor (OR 0.22, CI 0.05–0.94, p = 0.04).Conclusions & InferencesPsychological intervention using multimodal therapy provides clinical value to the management of functional esophageal symptoms among patients refractory to conventional therapy.
Contextual recipes for adopting private control and trust in public–private partnership governance
Authors: Song Jinbo , Liu Hongyan , Sun Yan , Song Lingchuan 
Published: January 2022

AbstractIn governing public–private partnerships (PPPs), transferring control rights to the private sectors and building trust among partners are recognized as solutions to improve efficiency and adaptability. However, what contexts would fit into the adoption of these solutions remains unclear. Building on the relevant literature on project attributes and project environments, this article divides the context into several crucial factors: asset specificity, project publicness, institutional completeness, market maturity, and regulatory quality. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was conducted on 1378 PPP projects in developing countries to examine the contexts that support the outcomes of private control and trust. Six causal paths created by a mix of contextual conditions are found to be sufficient for the outcomes, to which certain factors make unique contributions. Knowledge of these paths and context configurations can help to match the context to the considered governance solutions, thereby contributing to successful PPP governance.
Public value creation and appropriation mechanisms in public–private partnerships: How does it play a role?
Authors: dos Reis Claudio José Oliveira , Gomes Ricardo Corrêa 
Published: January 2022

AbstractScholars have extensively investigated public value creation and appropriation concerning public services delivered strictly by the government and public–private arrangements, such as public–private partnerships (PPPs). However, such studies often focus on value for money and economic performance criteria. This study examines how public value can be created and appropriated in PPP settings and how public value mechanisms can influence these phenomena. Considering that the literature lacks an integrated and structured analytical framework to assess such phenomena, this conceptual article addresses four mainstream PPP topics regarding public value mechanisms (information sharing, public and private capabilities, risk governance, and stakeholder orientation), which can be associated with PPPs' public value creation (destruction) and appropriation (misappropriation). Thus, this article highlights a need to evaluate PPPs in terms of public value creation beyond the economic performance criteria and fills the literature gap by proposing a public value creation and appropriation framework.
What's in a name? The politics of name changes inside bureaucracy
Authors: Yesilkagit Kutsal , Bezes Philippe , Fleischer Julia 
Published: January 2022

AbstractIn this article, we examine the effects of political change on name changes of units within central government ministries. We expect that changes regarding the policy position of a government will cause changes in the names of ministerial units. To this end we formulate hypotheses combining the politics of structural choice and theories of portfolio allocation to examine the effects of political changes at the cabinet level on the names of intra‐ministerial units. We constructed a dataset containing more than 17,000 observations on name changes of ministerial units between 1980 and 2013 from the central governments of Germany, the Netherlands, and France. We regress a series of generalized estimating equations (GEE) with population averaging models for binary outcomes. Finding variations across the three political‐bureaucratic systems, we overall report positive effects of governmental change and ideological positions on name changes within ministries.
Whole liver transplantation in children under 10 kg: How to minimize the high risks of a still challenging procedure
Authors: Peters Maren , Sturm Ekkehard , Hartleif Steffen , Capobianco Ivan , Radtke Arnold , Müller Markus , Gerbig Ines , Schäfer Jürgen , Königsrainer Alfred , Nadalin Silvio 
Published: January 2022

AbstractBackgroundWhole liver transplantation in infants <10 kg is a rare procedure with moderate outcomes (67%–79% graft survival at 1 year) and high rates of vascular complications (hepatic artery thrombosis 5–26%).MethodsRetrospective single‐center analysis of whole liver transplantation in infants <10 kg and systematic review of the literature focused on survival rates and surgical complications.ResultsBetween January 2005 and December 2020, 175 liver transplantations in 173 children were performed at our center. A total of 92 (53%) children weighed less than 10 kg; 19 (21%) of them underwent WLT and constitute the study population. Median age of the recipients was 10 months (21 days–24 months) and median body weight 6.5 (3.1–9.8) kg. Median age of the donors was 5 (1–84) months and median body weight 6.1 (4–21) kg. Median donor‐to‐recipient body weight ratio was 1.2 (range: 0.6–4.5). Postoperatively, neither hepatic artery nor portal vein thrombosis occurred. A biliary complication occurred in 4 cases: 1 bile leak (early), 3 anastomotic stenoses (1 delayed and 2 late), and 1 non‐anastomotic stenosis (late). Patient survival rate at 1, 5, and 10 years was 100%, 92%, and 92%, respectively. Overall, death‐censored graft survival after 1, 5, and 10 was 100%.ConclusionOur results are excellent in terms of complications and graft and patient survival. This involves not only high‐end surgical performance but also close interdisciplinary perioperative cooperation based on strong standard operating procedures and mainly focused on fluid management, hemostasiology, and strict monitoring of vessel patency.
The Enduring Pertinence of the Basic Principle of Retribution☆
Authors: Geeraets Vincent 
Published: January 2022

AbstractMany philosophers and legal scholars believe that the principle of retribution can be employed as a basis for respecting the offender as a person and for imposing relatively soft sentences. This belief is inspired, at least to a certain extent, by the penal philosophy of Kant and Hegel. My aim in this article is to question this widely held belief, with my contention being that retributivists locate the basis of these normative considerations in the wrong place. It is not the application of the principle of retribution that makes systems of criminal law fair and restrained, but rather the other way around: Only by restricting the application of the principle of retribution in various ways can we arrive at a system of penal law that is reasonable and just. These restrictions themselves are not retributive in nature, but are intended to keep the principle of retribution in check. To substantiate these claims, I discuss the views of an older generation of philosophers and scientists, specifically those of Sidgwick, Durkheim, Malinowski, and Piaget, and hold that these provide a fruitful basis for a better understanding of the principle of retribution. In the second part of the article, I investigate how this alternative understanding relates to the principles of proportionality and mens rea, while also making some clarifying remarks about the issue of moral luck.
Electroceutical treatment of infected chronic wounds in a dog and a cat
Authors: Heald Rachel , Salyer Sarah , Ham Kathleen , Wilgus Traci A. , Subramaniam Vish V. , Prakash Shaurya 
Published: January 2022

AbstractObjectivesTo describe the use of an innovative printed electroceutical dressing (PED) to treat non‐healing, infected chronic wounds in one dog and one cat and report outcomes.AnimalsA 4‐year‐old female spayed Mastiff and a 1‐year‐old female spayed domestic shorthair cat.Study DesignShort case series.MethodsBoth cases had chronic wounds (duration: approximately 1 year for the dog and 6 3/4 months for the cat) that remained open and infected despite various wound management strategies. Both animals were treated with the PED. Observations from the records regarding wound size, antimicrobial susceptibility, and the time to healing were recorded.ResultsAfter 10 days of PED treatment in the dog and 17 days of PED treatment in the cat, the wounds had decreased in size by approximately 4.2 times in the dog and 2.5 times in the cat. Culture of punch biopsies yielded negative results. Wounds were clinically healed at 67 days in the dog and 47 days in the cat. No further treatment of the wounds was required beyond that point.ConclusionApplication of a PED led to closure of two chronic wounds and resolution of their persistent infection.Clinical SignificancePEDs may provide a new treatment modality to mitigate infection and promote healing of chronic wounds.
Safety-Aware Adversarial Inverse Reinforcement Learning for Highway Autonomous Driving
Authors: Li Fangjian , Wagner John , Wang Yue 
Published: January 2022

Abstract
Inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) has been successfully applied in many robotics and autonomous driving studies without the need for hand-tuning a reward function. However, it suffers from safety issues. Compared to the reinforcement learning algorithms, IRL is even more vulnerable to unsafe situations as it can only infer the importance of safety based on expert demonstrations. In this paper, we propose a safety-aware adversarial inverse reinforcement learning (S-AIRL) algorithm. First, the control barrier function is used to guide the training of a safety critic, which leverages the knowledge of system dynamics in the sampling process without training an additional guiding policy. The trained safety critic is then integrated into the discriminator to help discern the generated data and expert demonstrations from the standpoint of safety. Finally, to further enforce the importance of safety, a regulator is introduced in the loss function of the discriminator training to prevent the recovered reward function from assigning high rewards to the risky behaviors. We tested our S-AIRL in the highway autonomous driving scenario. Comparing to the original AIRL algorithm, with the same level of imitation learning performance, the proposed S-AIRL can reduce the collision rate by 32.6%.
Electrical and Optical Characterization Methodologies for Advanced Spark Ignition
Authors: Wang Linyan , Chen Guangyun , Tjong Jimi , Zheng Ming 
Published: January 2022

Abstract
Due to the high transiency and high voltage characteristics of spark ignition (SI), precise measurements are in demand for efficient ignition in future clean combustion engines. The practical challenges of SI systems arise as the gaseous substances vary extensively in density, flow, and temperature. In this paper, a typical transistor coil ignition system with a current management module maintains the transient discharge condition for more credible measurements. Suitable apparatus with field-programmable gate array (FPGA) multi-task control systems are established to effectively control and stabilize the discharge current level and duration. The electrical waveforms and spark plasma patterns are correlated, via concurrent electric probing and shadowgraph imaging, under quiescent and flow conditions. The multi-task FPGA provides synchronization of ignition control and data acquisition. The empirical setup and analyzing methods of this work provide essential guidance for facilitating broader innovations in spark ignition, and for advancing the clean and efficient combustion in automotive and aviation engines.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Machine Learning Technologies in Improving Real-Time Drilling Data Quality
Authors: Al-Gharbi Salem , Al-Majed Abdulaziz , Elkatatny Salaheldin , Abdulraheem Abdulazeez 
Published: January 2022

Abstract
Due to high demand for energy, oil and gas companies started to drill wells in remote environments conducting unconventional operations. In order to maintain safe, fast, and more cost-effective operations, utilizing machine learning (ML) technologies has become a must. The harsh environments of drilling sites and the transmission setups are negatively affecting the drilling data, leading to less than acceptable ML results. For that reason, a big portion of ML development projects was actually spent on improving the data by data-quality experts. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of ML on improving the real-time drilling-data quality and compare it to human expert knowledge. To achieve that, two large real-time drilling datasets were used; one dataset was used to train three different ML techniques: artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), and decision tree (DT); the second dataset was used to evaluate it. The ML results were compared with the results of a real-time drilling-data-quality expert. Despite the complexity of ANN and good results in general, it achieved a relative root-mean-square error (RRMSE) of 2.83%, which was lower than DT and SVM technologies that achieved RRMSE of 0.35% and 0.48%, respectively. The uniqueness of this work is in developing ML that simulates the improvement of drilling-data quality by an expert. This research provides a guide for improving the quality of real-time drilling data.
Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Semispherical Solar Still, Chamber Stepwise Basin, With and Without a Photovoltaic-Powered Electrical Heater
Authors: Aldarabseh Safa M. , Abdallah Salah 
Published: January 2022

Abstract
The world's need for drinkable water is increasing with a growing population. The desalination process using solar energy is the cheapest and most straightforward method that can be used to generate pure water from saline water by utilizing energy from the sun's free heat source. A semispherical and chamber stepwise basin solar still with an inclined glass cover, with and without photovoltaic (PV)-powered electrical heaters as another power source, can increase the rate of evaporation of saline water, thus increasing the productivity of semispherical solar still. In this investigation, a conventional solar still and semispherical solar still with and without PV-powered electrical heaters were invented and worked in parallel with the experimental setup to make a good comparison between these models. The experimental results show that stepped semispherical with PV-powered electrical heater and without PV-powered electrical heater solar stills enhanced the productivity of freshwater from a conventional solar still by 156.6% and 72.5%, respectively. The theoretically simulated model is obtained using mathcad software and is compared with experimental results. Semispherical solar still productivity increases with increased solar intensity and with a PV-powered electrical heater as an additional power source. The theoretical results concluded from the mathematical model are in good agreement with experimental results.