bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cavernous transformation of the portal vein in pancreatic cancer surgery—venous bypass graft first
Authors: Schmidt Thomas , Strobel Oliver , Schneider Martin , Diener Markus K. , Berchtold Christoph , Mihaljevic André L. , Mehrabi Arianeb , Müller-Stich Beat P. , Hackert Thilo , Büchler Markus W.
Published: September 2020

Background

In recent years, several techniques have been introduced to allow safe oncologic resections of cancers of the pancreatic head. While resections of the mesenterico-portal axis became now a part of the routine treatment, patients with a cavernous transformation of the portal vein still pose a surgical challenge and are regularly deemed unresectable.

Objective

Here, we describe a technique of initial venous bypass graft placement between the superior mesenteric vein or its tributaries and the portal vein before the resection of the pancreatic head. This approach avoids uncontrollable bleeding as well as venous congestion of the intestine with a continuous hepatic perfusion and facilitates oncologic resection of pancreatic head cancers. This technique, in combination with previously published resection strategies, enables tumor resection in locally advanced pancreatic head cancers.

Conclusions

Venous bypass graft first operations facilitate and enable the resection of the pancreatic head cancers in patients with a cavernous transformation of the portal vein thus rendering these patients resectable.
Immunohistochemistry as a screening tool for NTRK gene fusions: results of a first Belgian ring trial
Authors: De Winne Koen , Sorber Laure , Lambin Suzan , Siozopoulou Vasiliki , Beniuga Gabriela , Dedeurwaerdere Franceska , D’Haene Nicky , Habran Lionel , Libbrecht Louis , Van Huysse Jacques , Weynand Birgit , Wouters Katrin , Pauwels Patrick , Zwaenepoel Karen
Published: September 2020

A Belgian ring trial for pan-TRK immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining was organised to harmonise pan-TRK IHC staining protocols and interpretation. As a reference method, the VENTANA pan-TRK Assay (clone EPR17341) on the Benchmark Ultra platform was selected. Six samples were selected: 2 negative, 2 fusion positive and 2 samples with wild-type endogenous TRK expression. Each participating laboratory stained the slides using their routine pan-TRK IHC and reported their results. In addition, they were asked to return one TRK-stained slide from each case. The coordinating lab evaluated these slides, compared them with the reference method and scored them. Two clones were used during the ring trial: A7H6R (Cell Signaling) and EPR17341 (Abcam/Ventana). Seven protocols achieved a sufficient performance mark, and three labs were advised to further optimise the protocol. Interpretation of pan-TRK IHC proved to be challenging in cases with physiological TRK expression. In addition, depending on the NTRK fusion partner, the staining can vary strongly in both intensity and staining pattern. Labs using the Ventana ready-to-use system based on the EPR17341 clone and using the recommended protocol settings scored best. However, given some small optimisation, all labs scored well on the technical staining and the succeeding evaluation.
Results of the non-small cell lung cancer part of a phase III, open-label, randomized trial evaluating topical corticosteroid therapy for facial acneiform dermatitis induced by EGFR inhibitors: stepwise rank down from potent corticosteroid (FAEISS study, NCCH-1512)
Authors: Nishino Kazumi , Fujiwara Yutaka , Ohe Yuichiro , Saito Ryota , Miyauchi Eisaku , Kobayashi Tetsu , Nakai Yasuo , Takahashi Toshiaki , Shibata Taro , Hamaguchi Tetsuya , Kikuchi Katsuko , Yamazaki Naoya , Fukuda Haruhiko , Nozawa Keiko , Kiyohara Yoshio
Published: September 2020

Purpose

This FAEISS study was designed to confirm the superior efficacy of reactive topical corticosteroid strategies employing serially ranking-DOWN from very strong steroid levels for the treatment of facial acneiform rash induced by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors (EGFRIs), in comparison with strategies employing serially ranking-UP from weak steroid levels. This article reports the primary results of the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) part of the trial.

Methods

Patients with EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC treated with erlotinib or afatinib were enrolled in the first registration. All patients received preemptive therapy with oral minocycline and heparinoid moisturizer from the initiation of an EGFR inhibitor. Enrolled patients who developed facial acneiform rash within 2 weeks were randomized at second registration to either a ranking-UP (WEAK) group or a ranking-DOWN group. The primary endpoint was incidence of grade ≥ 2 facial acneiform rash over 8 weeks.

Results

Fifty-one patients were enrolled at the first registration and received EGFRIs (n = 30 for afatinib, n = 21 for erlotinib). However, 35 patients did not develop facial acneiform rash within 2 weeks; one patient discontinued preemptive treatment. Fifteen patients (29.4%) were enrolled in the second registration; nine were assigned to the WEAK group and six to the DOWN group. There was no significant difference in the incidence of grade ≥ 2 facial acneiform rash between the WEAK group (one patient, twice) and the DOWN group (one patient, twice; p = 0.8417). No patients developed severe facial acneiform rash within 10 weeks.

Conclusion

In NSCLC patients who received EGFRIs, preemptive therapy of oral minocycline and heparinoid moisturizer reduced facial acneiform rash incidence.

Trial registration

UMIN000024113
Correction to: Genetic diversity and evolutionary history of Korean isolates of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus from 2013–2016
Authors: Yun Mi-ran , Ryou Jungsang , Choi Wooyoung , Lee Joo-Yeon , Park Sun-Whan , Kim Dae-Won
Published: September 2020

Authors would like to correct the 4th author name from “Ju-Yeon Lee” to the correct version “Joo-Yeon Lee”.
Variation in timing of breeding of five woodpeckers in a primeval forest over 45 years: role of food, weather, and climate
Authors: Wesołowski Tomasz , Hebda Grzegorz , Rowiński Patryk
Published: September 2020

Climate warming could lead to ‘mis-matching’ of birds’ breeding times with availability of their invertebrate food resources. Fluctuating spring temperatures could influence variation in the commencement of egg-laying, as well as, in phenology of their resources (e.g., tree bud burst, appearance of folivorous caterpillars). We studied timing of Dendrocopos leucotos, Dendrocoptes medius, Dendrocopos major, Dryobates minor, and Picoides tridactylus breeding in, free of direct human intervention, strictly protected fragments of Białowieża Forest (Poland) in 1975–2019. We related their onset of breeding to inter-year variation in spring weather, trees’ bud burst and timing of folivorous caterpillars’ availability. Individual species initiated breeding at dates differing by a month. In spite of intraseasonal differences in the absolute laying dates, sometimes exceeding three weeks, the sequence of laying by different species within a season was highly repeatable; D. leucotos commenced the first and P. tridactylus the last. Within a species and season, the females commenced laying synchronously; usually 50% of them begun laying ≤ 8 days of each other. All species bred earlier when spring temperatures got higher. Nestling time of D. medius and D. major broadly coincided with ‘caterpillar peaks’, while D. minor young appeared too late. All woodpeckers advanced egg-laying in Białowieża National Park over 45 years but the inter-specific sequence of laying has been retained. These could be responses to strong advance of snow disappearance and to warming of the second half of April. The early recent laying dates remained within the range of earlier recorded ones, the early springs just became more frequent. Thus, the phenological acclimatization could be achieved by plastic behavioural and physiological adjustments. Lack of data on types of food actually used and their seasonal variation hinders mechanistic understanding of how warming would affect the future food supply and breeding performance of birds.
Klimaschutzverfassungsrecht: Klima-Staatszielbestimmungen im Föderalismus
Authors: Härtel Ines
Published: September 2020

Klimaschutz wird zunehmend Aufgabe des Verfassungsrechts in föderaler Gestaltung. Kontrovers
ist dabei die Aufnahme einer Klima-Staatszielbestimmung. Welche Wirkungen ergeben sich für Grundrechte,
welcher Mehrwert entsteht gegenüber der aktuellen Rechtslage? Welche Problematik birgt der “Klimavorrang”
– gerade in Bezug auf Schutzgüterkonflikte? Hier ist auch der Blick auf die Entwicklung des
Verfassungsrechts anderer Staaten aufschlussreich.
Stable roommates with narcissistic, single-peaked, and single-crossing preferences
Authors: Bredereck Robert , Chen Jiehua , Finnendahl Ugo Paavo , Niedermeier Rolf
Published: September 2020

The classicalStable Roommatesproblem is to decide whether there exists a matching of an even number of agents such that no two agents which are not matched to each other would prefer to be with each other rather than with their respectively assigned partners. We investigateStable Roommateswith complete (i.e., every agent can be matched with any other agent) or incomplete preferences, with ties (i.e., two agents are considered of equal value to some agent) or without ties. It is known that in general allowing ties makes the problem NP-complete. We provide algorithms forStable Roommatesthat are, compared to those in the literature, more efficient when the input preferences are complete and have some structural property, such as being narcissistic, single-peaked, and single-crossing. However, when the preferences are incomplete and have ties, we show that being single-peaked and single-crossing does not reduce the computational complexity—Stable Roommatesremains NP-complete.
Assessing uncertainties in the regional projections of precipitation in CORDEX-AFRICA
Authors: Bichet Adeline , Diedhiou Arona , Hingray Benoit , Evin Guillaume , Touré N’Datchoh Evelyne , Browne Klutse Nana Ama , Kouadio Kouakou
Published: September 2020

Over the past decades, large variations of precipitation were observed in Africa, which often led to dramatic consequences for local society and economy. To avoid such disasters in the future, it is crucial to better anticipate the expected changes, especially in the current context of climate change and population growth. To this date, however, projections of precipitation over Africa are still associated with very large uncertainties. To better understand how this uncertainty can be reduced, this study uses an advanced Bayesian analysis of variance (ANOVA) method to characterize, for the first time in the regional climate projections of CORDEX-AFRICA, the different sources of uncertainty associated with the projections of precipitation over Africa.

By 2090, the ensemble mean precipitation is projected to increase over the Horn of Africa from September to May and over the eastern Sahel and Guinea Coast from June to November. It is projected to decrease over the northern coast and southern Africa all year long, over western Sahel from March to August, and over the Sahel and Guinea Coast from March to May. Most of these projections however are not robust, i.e., the magnitude of change is smaller than the associated uncertainty. Over time, the relative contribution of internal variability (excluding interannual variability) to total uncertainty is moderate and quickly falls below 10%. By 2090, it is found that over the Horn of Africa, northern coast, southern Africa, and Sahel, most of the uncertainty results from a large dispersion across the driving Global Climate Models (in particular MIROC, CSIRO, CCCma, and IPSL), whereas over the tropics and parts of eastern Africa, most of the uncertainty results from a large dispersion across Regional Climate Models (in particular CLMcom).
Problem-posing triggers or where do mathematics competition problems come from?
Authors: Kontorovich Igor’
Published: September 2020

Spurred by Kilpatrick’s (1987) “Where do good problems come from?”, this study explores problem-posing triggers of experienced problem posers for mathematics competitions. Triggers are conceived as instances of noticing, where an impulse draws a poser’s attention and “triggers off” a mathematical re-action, one of the outcomes of which is a creation of a problem that gets accepted to some mathematics competition. The data were collected from 26 problem posers residing in nine countries, and who had experience in creating problems for national, regional, and international competitions. Three types of triggers emerged from the analysis: (i) Instances where the participants extracted mathematical phenomena from activities that are replete with modern elementary mathematics. These triggers were described in emotionally loaded terms that resonated with appreciation, surprise, challenge, and feeling of innovation. (ii) Cases where the participants abstracted mathematical phenomena from common everyday-life tasks in which mathematical optimization was beneficial. These situations emphasized participants’ desire to compensate for self-disappointment with an initially made decision and the value of finding a better alternative. (iii) Situations where the participants were asked to pose a problem ‘here and now’. The posers were unanimous in their dislike of such situations. They elaborated on how difficult it is to pose ‘here and now’ and highlighted the low quality of the resulting problems. The findings are situated in the body of knowledge on expert problem posing and educational literature on school students and teachers.
Are Mental Health, Family and Childhood Adversity, Substance Use and Conduct Problems Risk Factors for Offending in Autism?
Authors: Payne Katy-Louise , Maras K. L. , Russell A. J. , Brosnan M. J.
Published: September 2020

Mental health difficulties, family and childhood adversity factors, substance use and conduct problems have all been linked to offending behaviour in the general population. However, no large-scale study with comparison groups has investigated these risk factors in relation to autistic offenders. The current research included 40 autistic offenders, 40 autistic non-offenders, 40 typically developed (TD) offenders and 39 TD non-offenders. Conduct problems risk factors differentiated autistic offenders from both non-offender groups (autistic and TD) and mental health risk factors differentiated autistic offenders from both TD groups (offenders and non-offenders). Further research is required to understand more about the role of both conduct problems risk factors in autistic offenders (e.g., age at onset, frequency of behaviours) and the mental health needs of autistic offenders.
Sorption behavior and hydroxyl accessibility of wood treated with different cyclic N-methylol compounds
Authors: Emmerich Lukas , Altgen Michael , Rautkari Lauri , Militz Holger
Published: September 2020

Cyclic N-methylol compounds such as 1,3-dimethylol-4,5-dihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU) have been used to modify wood and prevent negative effects related to the uptake of moisture. However, the changes in the sorption behavior of wood by treatments with DMDHEU and its derivatives are not fully understood. In the present study, wood blocks were treated with DMDHEU, ether-modified DMDHEU and diethyleneglycolated DMDHEU in order to study the factors that control the changes in moisture uptake in the hygroscopic range (0–95% RH). Dimensional changes of wood blocks during water soaking cycles suggested that the treatments caused a permanent cell wall bulking, whereas the swelling restraint by cross-linking of adjacent cell wall polymers was not permanent. However, the changes in water vapor sorption were not only a result of the cell wall bulking effect that reduced the space in the cell wall to accommodate water. The N-methylol compounds within the wood also provided additional sorption sites, but there was no correlation between absorbed water and accessible OH groups. It was speculated that the co-condensation of the N-methylol compounds with wood polymers had a significant effect on the sorption of the treated wood. At elevated RH, pure resins that were formed by self-condensation took up large quantities of moisture. However, when the N-methylol compounds were heat-cured within the hierarchical structure of wood, the moisture uptake of the treated wood at elevated RH was even lower compared to unmodified wood. Furthermore, the covalent bond formation between wood and resin prolonged the attainment of an equilibrium moisture content.
On the nonsmooth dynamics of towed wheels
Authors: Antali Mate , Stepan Gabor
Published: September 2020

In this paper, a nonsmooth model of towed wheels is analysed; this mechanism can be a part of different kind of vehicles. We focus on the transitions between slipping and rolling in the presence of dry friction. The model leads to a three-dimensional dynamical system with a codimension-2 discontinuity. The systems can be analysed by means of the tools of extended Filippov systems. The essence of the calculation is to find the so-called limit directions, which show the possible directions of slipping-rolling transitions and their properties. By this method, four different scenarios are found. The results are compared to those from the creep models.
Phylogenetic analysis of plant multi-domain SEC14-like phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins and structure–function properties of PATELLIN2
Authors: Montag Karolin , Hornbergs Jannik , Ivanov Rumen , Bauer Petra
Published: September 2020

Key message

SEC14L-PITPs guide membrane recognition and signaling. An increasingly complex modular structure of SEC14L-PITPs evolved in land plants compared to green algae. SEC14/CRAL-TRIO and GOLD domains govern membrane binding specificity.

SEC14-like phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins (SEC14L-PITPs) provide cues for membrane identity by exchanging lipophilic substrates, ultimately governing membrane signaling. Flowering plant SEC14L-PITPs often have modular structure and are associated with cell division, development, and stress responses. Yet, structure–function relationships for biochemical–cellular interactions of SEC14L-PITPs are rather enigmatic. Here, we evaluate the phylogenetic relationships of the SEC14L-PITP superfamily in the green lineage. Compared to green algae, land plants have an extended set of SEC14L-PITPs with increasingly complex modular structure. SEC14-GOLD PITPs, present in land plants but not Chara, diverged to three functional subgroups, represented by the six PATELLIN (PATL) proteins in Arabidopsis. Based on the example of Arabidopsis PATL2, we dissect the functional domains for in vitro binding to phosphoinositides and liposomes and for plant cell membrane association. While the SEC14 domain and its CRAL-TRIO-N-terminal extension serve general membrane attachment of the protein, the C-terminal GOLD domain directs it to the plasma membrane by recognizing specific phosphoinositides. We discuss that the different domains of SEC14L-PITPs integrate developmental and environmental signals to control SEC14L-PITP-mediated membrane identity, important to initiate dynamic membrane events.
Impact of air pollution exposure during various periods of pregnancy on term birth weight: a large-sample, retrospective population-based cohort study
Authors: Shang Li , Huang Liyan , Yang Liren , Leng Longtao , Qi Cuifang , Xie Guilan , Wang Ruiqi , Guo Leqian , Yang Wenfang , Chung Mei Chun
Published: September 2020

Previous studies have suggested that maternal exposure to air pollution might affect term birth weight. However, the conclusions are controversial. Birth data of all term newborns born in Xi’an city of Shaanxi, China, from 2015 to 2018 and whose mother lived in Xi’an during pregnancy were selected form the Birth Registry Database. And the daily air quality data of Xi’an city was collected from Chinese Air Quality Online Monitoring and Analysis Platform. Generalized additive models (GAM) and 2-level binary logistic regression models were used to estimate the effects of air pollution exposure on term birth weight, the risk term low birth weight (TLBW), and macrosomia. Finally, 321521 term newborns were selected, including 4369(1.36%) TLBW infants and 24,960 (7.76%) macrosomia. The average pollution levels of PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 in Xi’an city from 2015 to 2018 were higher than national limits. During the whole pregnancy, maternal exposure to PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and CO all significantly reduced the term birth weight and increased the risk of TLBW. However, NO2 and O3 exposure have significantly increased the term birth weight, and O3 even increased the risk of macrosomia significantly. Those effects were also observed in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. But during the third trimester, high level of air quality index (AQI) and maternal exposure to PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and CO increased the term birth weight and the risk of macrosomia, while O3 exposure was contrary to this effect. The findings suggested that prenatal exposure to air pollution might cause adverse impacts on term birth weight, and the effects varied with trimesters and pollutants, which provides further pieces of evidence for the adverse effects of air pollution exposure in heavy polluted-area on term birth weight.
An investigation on the efficiency of low-cost adsorbents in removing uranium from water samples
Authors: Police Sandeep , Maity Sukanta , Chaudhary Dilip Kumar , Sahu Sanjay Kumar , Vinod Kumar A.
Published: September 2020

The groundwater samples were found to be contaminated with high concentrations of uranium (U) in Punjab state as well as in few other locations of India. U being chemically toxic can deteriorate health when ingested. Hence, there is a need to remove U from contaminated water using an efficient, cheap and user friendly method. A study was initiated to investigate the efficiency of low-cost adsorbents in removing U from water. Seven adsorbents were screened for U removal efficiency, among which fly ash (FA) and tea waste (TW) were found to have better removal efficiency. Solid–liquid contact time and solution pH were optimized to establish conditions for better U removal efficiency. The U adsorption on FA and TW followed pseudo-second-order kinetics with rate constant values 4.63 g/mg/min and 15.63 g/mg/min, respectively. FA and TW had the highest U removal capability at pH 6 and pH 4, respectively. The U sorption data were fitted with Freundlich and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models. The U adsorption on FA and TW is found to be a physical process with mean free energy (E) values less than 8 kJ/mol. Theoretically calculated maximum adsorption capacity values indicate that FA is a better adsorbent as compared to TW, which has been further confirmed experimentally. The U adsorption on both the adsorbents has interference from Ca2+ and no interference from Fe3+ at tested U concentrations. It is also found that FA and TW are effective in decontaminating U from spiked real groundwater samples to below the WHO (Guidelines for drinking water quality, 4th ed, vol 1, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2011) limit.
Parametric study to enhance performance of wastewater treatment process, by reverse osmosis-photovoltaic system
Authors: Jbari Yousra , Abderafi Souad
Published: September 2020

The presence of certain toxic pollutants in water and wastewater such as chlorophenol must be eliminated, as they have negative effects on human health and the environment. Based on the state of the art, the reverse osmosis (RO) coupled with photovoltaic (PV) was chosen for wastewater treatment. The aim of this article is to evaluate the optimal operating conditions of RO-PV system that maximize chlorophenol rejection with minimal energy consumption. Two complementary approaches were followed combining physical models with statistical ones. The physical model used for the simulation is based on the equations of diffusion and matter balance. After demonstrating the reliability of this model, it was used for parametric sensitivity analysis, performing numerical experiments using a program developed under Python. The data obtained were used for operating parameters optimization, using artificial neural network method coupled with the desirability function. The results showed that the optimal values obtained, relating to feed pressure of 9.713 atm, water recovery rate of 40%, operating flow rate of 10−4 m3/s and temperature of 40 °C could remove 91% of chlorophenol with an energy consumption of 0.8 kWh/m3. This consumption allowed us to deduce that photovoltaic solar panel with a peak power of 280 Wp and a battery capacity of 9.22 kWh is sufficient to produce 1 m3/day.
Social influence and unfollowing accelerate the emergence of echo chambers
Authors: Sasahara Kazutoshi , Chen Wen , Peng Hao , Ciampaglia Giovanni Luca , Flammini Alessandro , Menczer Filippo
Published: September 2020

While social media make it easy to connect with and access information from anyone, they also facilitate basic influence and unfriending mechanisms that may lead to segregated and polarized clusters known as “echo chambers.” Here we study the conditions in which such echo chambers emerge by introducing a simple model of information sharing in online social networks with the two ingredients of influence and unfriending. Users can change both their opinions and social connections based on the information to which they are exposed through sharing. The model dynamics show that even with minimal amounts of influence and unfriending, the social network rapidly devolves into segregated, homogeneous communities. These predictions are consistent with empirical data from Twitter. Although our findings suggest that echo chambers are somewhat inevitable given the mechanisms at play in online social media, they also provide insights into possible mitigation strategies.
The COVID-19 pandemic: local to global implications as perceived by urban ecologists
Authors: Douglas Ian , Champion Mark , Clancy Joy , Haley David , Lopes de Souza Marcelo , Morrison Kerry , Scott Alan , Scott Richard , Stark Miriam , Tippett Joanne , Tryjanowski Piotr , Webb Tim
Published: September 2020

The global COVID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone, but in many different ways, stimulating contrasting reactions and responses: opportunities for some, difficulties for many. A simple survey of how individual workers in urban ecology have been coping with COVID-19 constraints found divergent responses to COVID-19 on people’s activities, both within countries and between continents. Many academics felt frustrated at being unable to do fieldwork, but several saw opportunities to change ways of working and review their engagement with the natural world. Some engaging with social groups found new ways of sharing ideas and developing aspirations without face-to-face contact. Practitioners creating and managing urban greenspaces had to devise ways to work and travel while maintaining social distancing. Many feared severe funding impacts from changed local government priorities. Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified issues, such as environmental injustice, disaster preparation and food security, that have been endemic in most countries across the global south in modern times. However, developing and sustaining the strong community spirit shown in many places will speed economic recovery and make cities more resilient against future geophysical and people-made disasters. Significantly, top-down responses and one-size-fits-all solutions, however good the modelling on which they are based, are unlikely to succeed without the insights that local knowledge and community understanding can bring. We all will have to look at disaster preparation in a more comprehensive, caring and consistent way in future.
Numerical simulation of manufacturing process chain for pearlitic and bainitic steel rails
Authors: Milenin Andrij , Zalecki Władysław , Pernach Monika , Rauch Łukasz , Kuziak Roman , Zygmunt Tomasz , Pietrzyk Maciej
Published: September 2020

Computer system for the design of technology of the manufacturing of pearlitic and bainitic rails was presented in this paper. The system consists of the FEM simulation module of thermal–mechanical phenomena and microstructure evolution during hot rolling integrated with the module of phase transformation occurring during cooling. Model parameters were identified based on dilatometric tests. Physical simulations, including Gleeble tests, were used for validation and verification of the models. In the case of pearlitic steels, the process of subsequent immersions of the rail head in the polymer solution was numerically simulated. The objective function in the optimization procedure was composed of minimum interlamellar spacing and maximum hardness. Cooling in the air at a cooling bed was simulated for the bainitic steel rails and mechanical properties were predicted. The obtained results allowed us to formulate technological guidelines for the process of accelerated cooling of rails.
JOINT OPTIMIZATION OF TRANSITION RULES AND THE PREMIUM SCALE IN A BONUS-MALUS SYSTEM
Authors: Ágoston Kolos Csaba , Gyetvai Márton
Published: September 2020

Bonus-malus systems (BMSs) are widely used in actuarial sciences. These systems are applied by insurance companies to distinguish the policyholders by their risks. The most known application of BMS is in automobile third-party liability insurance. In BMS, there are several classes, and the premium of a policyholder depends on the class he/she is assigned to. The classification of policyholders over the periods of the insurance depends on the transition rules. In general, optimization of these systems involves the calculation of an appropriate premium scale considering the number of classes and transition rules as external parameters. Usually, the stationary distribution is used in the optimization process. In this article, we present a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for determining the premium scale and the transition rules. We present two versions of the model, one with the calculation of stationary probabilities and another with the consideration of multiple periods of the insurance. Furthermore, numerical examples will also be given to demonstrate that the MILP technique is suitable for handling existing BMSs.
Opening doors to clinical trial participation among Hispanics: Lessons learned from the Spanish translation of ResearchMatch
Authors: Byrne Loretta M. , Cook Sarah K. , Kennedy Nan , Russell Michael , Jerome Rebecca N. , Tan Jason , Barajas Claudia , Wilkins Consuelo H. , Harris Paul A.
Published: September 2020

Introduction:

Clinical trial participation among US Hispanics remains low, despite a significant effort by research institutions nationwide. ResearchMatch, a national online platform, has matched 113,372 individuals interested in participating in research with studies conducted by 8778 researchers. To increase accessibility to Spanish speakers, we translated the ResearchMatch platform into Spanish by implementing tenets of health literacy and respecting linguistic and cultural diversity across the US Hispanic population. We describe this multiphase process, preliminary results, and lessons learned.

Methods:

Translation of the ResearchMatch site consisted of several activities including: (1) improving the English language site’s reading level, removing jargon, and using plain language; (2) obtaining a professional Spanish translation of the site and incorporating iterative revisions by a panel of bilingual community members from diverse Hispanic backgrounds; (3) technical development and launch; and (4) initial promotion.

Results:

The Spanish language version was launched in August 2018, after 11 months of development. Community input improved the initial translation, and early registration and use by researchers demonstrate the utility of Spanish ResearchMatch in engaging Hispanics. Over 12,500 volunteers in ResearchMatch self-identify as Hispanic (8.5%). From August 2018 to March 2020, 162 volunteers registered through the Spanish language version of ResearchMatch, and over 500 new and existing volunteers have registered a preference to receive messages about studies in Spanish.

Conclusion:

By applying the principles of health literacy and cultural competence, we developed a Spanish language translation of ResearchMatch. Our multiphase approach to translation included key principles of community engagement that should prove informative to other multilingual web-based platforms.
Learning to count: A deep learning framework for graphlet count estimation
Authors: Liu Xutong , Chen Yu-Zhen Janice , Lui John C. S. , Avrachenkov Konstantin
Published: September 2020

Graphlet counting is a widely explored problem in network analysis and has been successfully applied to a variety of applications in many domains, most notatbly bioinformatics, social science, and infrastructure network studies. Efficiently computing graphlet counts remains challenging due to the combinatorial explosion, where a naive enumeration algorithm needs O(Nk) time fork-node graphlets in a network of sizeN. Recently, many works introduced carefully designed combinatorial and sampling methods with encouraging results. However, the existing methods ignore the fact that graphlet counts and the graph structural information are correlated. They always consider a graph as a new input and repeat the tedious counting procedure on a regular basis even if it is similar or exactly isomorphic to previously studied graphs. This provides an opportunity to speed up the graphlet count estimation procedure by exploiting this correlation via learning methods. In this paper, we raise a novel graphlet count learning (GCL) problem: given a set of historical graphs with known graphlet counts, how to learn to estimate/predict graphlet count for unseen graphs coming from the same (or similar) underlying distribution. We develop a deep learning framework which contains twoconvolutional neural networkmodels and a series of datapreprocessing techniquesto solve the GCL problem. Extensive experiments are conducted on three types of synthetic random graphs and three types of real-world graphs for all 3-, 4-, and 5-node graphlets to demonstrate the accuracy, efficiency, and generalizability of our framework. Compared with state-of-the-art exact/sampling methods, our framework shows great potential, which can offer up to two orders of magnitude speedup on synthetic graphs and achieve on par speed on real-world graphs with competitive accuracy.
Explanations of Institutional Change: Reflecting on a “Missing Diagonal”
Authors: GERSCHEWSKI JOHANNES
Published: September 2020

Previous research on institutional change has concentrated on two types of explanations. On one hand, the dualism of path dependency and critical junctures has advanced our understanding of how institutional change occurs due to sudden exogenous shocks. On the other hand, more recent critiques have established a better understanding of endogenous, gradual change. This article is motivated by observations that current research tends to overlook what I call the “missing diagonal.” I argue that we need to disentangle the sources of a cause (exogenous vs. endogenous) from its time horizon (sudden vs. gradual). By cross-tabulating these two dimensions, the proposed typology of institutional change explanations is able to capture complex multilayered as well as sequential arguments of institutional change. The typology urges scholars to be more precise with their social science language of erosion and decay, while serving as a generator for an innovative research agenda on endogenous ruptures.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN ABBEY CHURCH OF ST ALBANS AND THE AISLELESS NAVE OF ITS CRUCIFORM PREDECESSOR: THE MATERIAL EVIDENCE
Authors: Franklin Jill A
Published: September 2020

Within the Romanesque abbey church at St Albans (Hertfordshire), the vestiges of an earlier structure have been identified for the first time. A hitherto unrecorded feature in the transept, noted by the author in 2017, indicates that, at some stage, the nave lacked its existing arcade piers and instead had solid walls. The implications of this are considerable, calling for a thorough reassessment of the building’s history. For now, it is important to record the primary evidence, so as to make it available for further research. This article aims to provide a concise account of the evidence and a summary of what it might mean.

According to the thirteenth-century chronicler, Matthew Paris, the existing church was begun in 1077 and completed in 1088. New evidence indicates, however, that the Romanesque building, with its aisled nave and presbytery, was preceded by a cruciform structure without aisles. The inference is that the existing building contains the fabric of this unaisled predecessor. The obvious conclusion – that it therefore represents the lost Anglo-Saxon abbey church – does not follow without question; as yet, excavation has yielded no conclusive evidence of an earlier church on the site.

The critical diagnostic feature presented here for the first time adds substance to the view that the remodelling of unaisled buildings was not uncommon in the post-Conquest period, including large as well as minor churches, as identified long ago at York Minster and, more recently, at Worksop Priory.
Validation of a life-logging wearable camera method and the 24-h diet recall method for assessing maternal and child dietary diversity
Authors: Bulungu Andrea L. S. , Palla Luigi , Priebe Jan , Forsythe Lora , Katic Pamela , Varley Gwen , Galinda Bernice D. , Sarah Nakimuli , Nambooze Joweria , Wellard Kate , Ferguson Elaine L.
Published: September 2020

Accurate and timely data are essential for identifying populations at risk for undernutrition due to poor-quality diets, for implementing appropriate interventions and for evaluating change. Life-logging wearable cameras (LLWC) have been used to prospectively capture food/beverage consumed by adults in high-income countries. This study aimed to evaluate the concurrent criterion validity, for assessing maternal and child dietary diversity scores (DDS), of a LLWC-based image-assisted recall (IAR) and 24-h recall (24HR). Direct observation was the criterion method. Food/beverage consumption of rural Eastern Ugandan mothers and their 12–23-month-old child (n211) was assessed, for the same day for each method, and the IAR and 24HR DDS were compared with the weighed food record DDS using the Bland–Altman limits of agreement (LOA) method of analysis and Cohen’s κ. The relative bias was low for the 24HR (–0·1801 for mothers; –0·1358 for children) and the IAR (0·1227 for mothers; 0·1104 for children), but the LOA were wide (–1·6615 to 1·3012 and –1·6883 to 1·4167 for mothers and children via 24HR, respectively; –2·1322 to 1·8868 and –1·7130 to 1·4921 for mothers and children via IAR, respectively). Cohen’s κ, for DDS via 24HR and IAR, was 0·68 and 0·59, respectively, for mothers, and 0·60 and 0·59, respectively, for children. Both the 24HR and IAR provide an accurate estimate of median dietary diversity, for mothers and their young child, but non-differential measurement error would attenuate associations between DDS and outcomes, thereby under-estimating the true associations between DDS – where estimated via 24HR or IAR – and outcomes measured.
Depression and memory function – evidence from cross-lagged panel models with unit fixed effects in ELSA and HRS
Authors: Jindra Christoph , Li Chenlu , Tsang Ruby S. M. , Bauermeister Sarah , Gallacher John
Published: September 2020

Background

Individuals with depression are often found to perform worse on cognitive tests and to have an increased risk of dementia. The causes and the direction of these associations are however not well understood. We looked at two specific hypotheses, the aetiological risk factor hypothesis and the reverse causality hypothesis.

Method

We analysed observational data from two cohorts, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and Health and Retirement Study (HRS), using cross-lagged panel models with unit fixed effects. Each model was run once with depression and repeated with cognition as the dependent variable and the other variable as the main explanatory variable. All models were estimated separately for contemporaneous effects and lagged effects up to 8 years in the past. We contrasted the results with models making the random effects assumption.

Results

Evidence from the fixed effects models is mixed. We find no evidence for the reverse causality hypothesis in ELSA and HRS. While there is no evidence for the aetiological risk factors hypothesis in ELSA, results from HRS indicate some effects.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that current levels of cognitive function do not influence future levels of depression. Results in HRS provide some evidence that current levels of depressive symptoms influence future cognition.
Differences in psychiatric care utilization between refugees, non-refugee migrants and Swedish-born youth
Authors: Björkenstam Emma , Helgesson Magnus , Norredam Marie , Sijbrandij Marit , de Montgomery Christopher Jamil , Mittendorfer-Rutz Ellenor
Published: September 2020

Background

The study aimed to examine differences in, and characteristics of psychiatric care utilization in young refugees who came to Sweden as unaccompanied or accompanied minors, compared with that of their non-refugee immigrant and Swedish-born peers.

Methods

This register-linkage cohort study included 746 688 individuals between 19 and 25 years of age in 2009, whereof 32 481 were refugees (2896 unaccompanied and 29 585 accompanied) and 32 151 non-refugee immigrants. Crude and multivariate Cox regression models yielding hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were conducted to investigate subsequent psychiatric care utilization for specific disorders, duration of residence and age at migration.

Results

The adjusted HRs for psychiatric care utilization due to any mental disorder was significantly lower in both non-refugee and refugee immigrants when compared to Swedish-born [aHR: 0.78 (95% CI 0.76–0.81) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.72–0.77, respectively)]. Within the refugee group, unaccompanied had slightly lower adjusted risk estimates than accompanied. This pattern was similar for all specific mental disorders except for higher rates in schizophrenia, reaction to severe stress/adjustment disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychiatric health care utilization was also higher in immigrants with more than 10 years of residency in Sweden entering the country being younger than 6 years of age.

Conclusions

For most mental disorders, psychiatric health care utilization in young refugees and non-refugee immigrants was lower than in their Swedish-born peers; exceptions are schizophrenia and stress-related disorders. Arrival in Sweden before the age of 6 years was associated with higher rates of overall psychiatric care utilization.
Familial coaggregation of major psychiatric disorders in first-degree relatives of individuals with autism spectrum disorder: a nationwide population-based study
Authors: Wang Hohui E. , Cheng Chih-Ming , Bai Ya-Mei , Hsu Ju-Wei , Huang Kai-Lin , Su Tung-Ping , Tsai Shih-Jen , Li Cheng-Ta , Chen Tzeng-Ji , Leventhal Bennett L. , Chen Mu-Hong
Published: September 2020

Background

Family coaggregation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia have been presented in previous studies. The shared genetic and environmental factors among psychiatric disorders remain elusive.

Methods

This nationwide population-based study examined familial coaggregation of major psychiatric disorders in first-degree relatives (FDRs) of individuals with ASD. Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database was used to identify 26 667 individuals with ASD and 67 998 FDRs of individuals with ASD. The cohort was matched in 1:4 ratio to 271 992 controls. The relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of ADHD, ASD, BD, MDD and schizophrenia were assessed among FDRs of individuals with ASD and ASD with intellectual disability (ASD-ID).

Results

FDRs of individuals with ASD have higher RRs of major psychiatric disorders compared with controls: ASD 17.46 (CI 15.50–19.67), ADHD 3.94 (CI 3.72–4.17), schizophrenia 3.05 (CI 2.74–3.40), BD 2.22 (CI 1.98–2.48) and MDD 1.88 (CI 1.76–2.00). Higher RRs of schizophrenia (4.47, CI 3.95–5.06) and ASD (18.54, CI 16.18–21.23) were observed in FDRs of individuals with both ASD-ID, compared with ASD only.

Conclusions

The risk for major psychiatric disorders was consistently elevated across all types of FDRs of individuals with ASD. FDRs of individuals with ASD-ID are at further higher risk for ASD and schizophrenia. Our results provide leads for future investigation of shared etiologic pathways of ASD, ID and major psychiatric disorders and highlight the importance of mental health care delivered to at-risk families for early diagnoses and interventions.
Automated areas of interest analysis for usability studies of tangible screen-based user interfaces using mobile eye tracking
Authors: Batliner M. , Hess S. , Ehrlich-Adám C. , Lohmeyer Q. , Meboldt M.
Published: September 2020

The user's gaze can provide important information for human–machine interaction, but the analysis of manual gaze data is extremely time-consuming, inhibiting wide adoption in usability studies. Existing methods for automated areas of interest (AOI) analysis cannot be applied to tangible products with a screen-based user interface (UI), which have become ubiquitous in everyday life. The objective of this paper is to present and evaluate a method to automatically map the user's gaze to dynamic AOIs on tangible screen-based UIs based on computer vision and deep learning. This paper presents an algorithm forautomated Dynamic AOI Mapping(aDAM), which allows the automated mapping of gaze data recorded with mobile eye tracking to the predefined AOIs on tangible screen-based UIs. The evaluation of the algorithm is performed using two medical devices, which represent two extreme examples of tangible screen-based UIs. The different elements of aDAM are examined for accuracy and robustness, as well as the time saved compared to manual mapping. The break-even point for an analyst's effort for aDAM compared to manual analysis is found to be 8.9 min gaze data time. The accuracy and robustness of both the automated gaze mapping and the screen matching indicate that aDAM can be applied to a wide range of products. aDAM allows, for the first time, automated AOI analysis of tangible screen-based UIs with AOIs that dynamically change over time. The algorithm requires some additional initial input for the setup and training, but analyzed gaze data duration and effort is only determined by computation time and does not require any additional manual work thereafter. The efficiency of the approach has the potential for a broader adoption of mobile eye tracking in usability testing for the development of new products and may contribute to a more data-driven usability engineering process in the future.