bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Applying design in public administration: a literature review to explore the state of the art
Authors: Hermus Margot , Buuren Arwin van , Bekkers Victor
Published: January 2024

The attention for applying design-oriented approaches in public administration has increased significantly. Applying design is seen as a promising way to deal with wicked problems and create more responsive policies and services. We aim to contribute to the debate on the value of design for public administration and the development of the latter into a design science by conducting a systematic literature review into the empirical applications of design. We analyse the goals, processes and outcomes of 92 empirical studies. Based upon this we distil six design approaches, varying from traditional scientific and informational approaches to innovative, user-driven and thus more ‘inspirational’ approaches. The more traditional (science-driven) approaches still dominate the field. The impact of these types of studies is correspondingly low. We argue that further developing and refining the whole range of design approaches can foster both the scientific rigour and the societal relevance of a design-oriented public administration.
Muslim funerals during the pandemic: socially distanced death, burial and bereavement experienced by British-Bangladeshis in London and Edinburgh
Authors: Islam Farjana
Published: January 2024

The chapter aims to explore the challenges faced by British-Bangladeshi Muslims in relation to performing funeral and mourning rituals at familial and communal levels while adhering to the social distancing rules during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave. British-Bangladeshis, most of whom were Muslim, were disproportionality impacted by the COVID-19 infection. Muslim funeral rituals include quick burial, washing and shrouding of the body and a funeral prayer in the presence of a congregation; all of those rituals were difficult to perform in the midst of lockdown. Moreover, the social distancing rules had deterred the traditional face-to-face bereavement support offered by neighbours and relatives. Adopting a qualitative research approach, the article explores the challenges faced by British-Bangladeshi Muslims in performing the end-of-life, burial and bereavement rituals during the first pandemic wave. The chapter concludes by urging innovative and expert-led planning interventions to prepare for similar situations in the future.
The vaccine society
Authors: Taylor Sebastian
Published: January 2024

After clean water, vaccines constitute probably the greatest contribution to human health in history. Yet public faith in immunisation is declining around the world. This chapter argues that an intensive post-war focus on individual freedom, in the context of increasing inequality and collapsing trust between populations and their governments, is critically undermining popular willingness to support the premise of vaccines – that one of our most effective medical technologies, and the freedoms vaccines provide to us all, depends for its efficacy on the societal capability for reciprocity and collective action.
The dead hand of care
Authors: Taylor Sebastian
Published: January 2024

In almost all countries, health is assumed to depend on health care, delivered through systems which combine public and private providers. As the costs of care escalate, healthcare reform has become dominated by an emphasis on expansion of private provision – justified as the liberation of individual care choice from oppressive government monopoly. Using evidence from high-, middle- and low-income countries, this chapter argues that neither public nor private care systems perform conclusively better, and that the preference for privatised systems is ideological. It argues that almost all countries will, in the end, have a mixed system of public and private providers; that public healthcare systems based on universal entitlement offer significant sociological advantages by creating collective inclusion and security; and that excessive emphasis on freedom of choice can create fragmented and poorly governed public–private hybrids, characterised by uncertain and inequitable access. The chapter concludes that the freedoms available through universal healthcare require more, not less, government.
Networked Crime
Authors: David Matthew
Published: January 2024

Digital technologies make access to victims easier. However, what can be afforded digitally can and was often previously afforded by other means, suggesting that what is now achieved online is only old wine in new bottles. A second line of dispute is between those who argue that, by increasing concealment (encryption), the internet also increases the likelihood of anti-social behaviour; and those who suggest digital content is more open to surveillance than face-to-face (‘real-world’) interactions, which might deter deviance. A third line of dispute is between those who suggest digital networks increase scope for transnational regulation, and those who suggest the internet increases the scope for evasion beyond geographical, and therefore legal, constraints. A fourth dimension of dispute is between advocates of ‘real virtuality’, the idea that informational content has real effects in inciting action, and those who argue that blaming media content for human behaviour is fundamentally flawed. Examining these four affordances (access, concealment, evasion and incitement) in relation to four domains of crime (hate, obscenity, corruption and appropriation), this book answers the question: does the digital make a difference? In principle, the answer is no, as digital affordances are symmetrical, but asymmetry (difference) often arises in practice.
Displacement, Human Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health
Authors: Cintra Natalia , Owen David , Riggirozzi Pía
Published: January 2024

Focusing on the flight of women and girls from Venezuela, this book examines the gendered nature of forced displacement across the causes of movement, the circumstances of transit, and the conditions of reception and settlement. It explores the ways in which the failures of protection regimes to be sensitive to displacement’s gendered character affect women and girls, and particularly how this exposes them to risks to their sexual and reproductive health. Highlighting how categorical legal distinctions between ‘refugees’ and ‘migrants’ fail to capture the dynamics of forced migration in Latin America, this book investigates how the operation of this categorical divide generates responsibility and protection gaps in relation to female forced migrants which act as determinants of sexual and reproductive health. Drawing on the voices of displaced women, it argues that a robust political ethics of protection of the forcibly displaced must encompass all necessary fleers and be responsive to the gendered character of forced displacement and particularly to the effective access of women and girls to sexual and reproductive health rights.
Policing Environmental Protest
Authors: Di Ronco Anna
Published: January 2024

This book addresses the policing and social control of eco-justice movements during the COVID-19 pandemic and considers activist practices of resistance at the same time. It is based on an extensive ethnographic fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic in Trento, Italy, where the author focused on two eco-justice groups opposing a high-speed railway and the containment of wild bears.Rooted in critical, green, cultural and sensory approaches within criminology, and enriched with interdisciplinary insights, the book discusses the intensification of policing strategies against eco-justice protesters during the pandemic and their increased exclusion from urban centres. At the same time, it also analyses activist practices of resistance foregrounding their radical and transformative imaginaries, and identifies directions for future critical and green criminological research in the area.
Sex Work and COVID-19 in the New Zealand Media
Authors: Easterbrook-Smith Gwyn
Published: January 2024

New Zealand’s decriminalisation of sex work, and its unusual success in combating COVID-19, have both attracted international attention. Sex Work and COVID-19 in the New Zealand Media uses the lens of news media coverage to consider the pandemic’s impacts on sex workers as well as public perceptions of the industry.
Sex work is a profession that has historically been heavily stigmatised, including as a potential vector of disease. With reference to existing narratives about sex work, both internationally and domestically, the book identifies the ways that these narratives were sometimes drawn on in media, but also frequently challenged, with sex workers instead producing an image of themselves as public health advocates and community members. New Zealand’s legislative approach meant that sex workers were in theory eligible for financial support packages aimed at businesses, but as the book explores, in practice, the ability to access these was often stymied by other marginalisations experienced by sex workers. Using a discourse analysis approach and considering the stigmatisation of sex work in both short- and long-term contexts, the book addresses the impacts of intersectional oppressions on sex workers, and the ways sex work advocacy relate to other social justice movements. It unpicks how New Zealand’s prostitution decriminalisation approach functions under stress, offering valuable information for advocates, activists and scholars alike
The Creation of Poverty and Inequality in India
Authors: Shome Parthasarathi
Published: January 2024

Poverty in India is intimately connected with caste, untouchability, colonialism and indentured servitude, inseparable from the international experience of slavery and race.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and focusing on historical and contemporary practices, this book goes beyond traditional economic approaches to poverty and demonstrates its genesis in exclusion, isolation, domination, and extraction resulting in the removal of human and economic rights. It hypothesizes that poverty and inequality do not represent a static condition but can be attributed to institutions such as slavery and indentured servitude under colonialism through historical evidence from Western countries, and to practices of caste and untouchability in the Indian subcontinent, as evidenced from its ancient texts and modern literature. Their continuing ramifications are manifested in the prevalence of poverty and inequality.
Analysis of data from international and domestic sources reveals the continuation of poverty, and growing income and wealth inequality in India with cross-country comparisons that exhibit similar trends. The condition of the bottom 50 per cent of the population worsens while the top ten per cent benefits on a continuing trend. The Human Development Index, Multidimensional Poverty Index and Happiness Score are used to draw conclusions.
The book points to the inadequacies in prevailing compensatory policies to redress poverty and inequality. It recommends intensification of cash and assets transfers, tax policy reform to reduce inequality, selective expenditure policies in primary health, education and the environment, perceptible enhancement of women’s rights and role, and Dalit (Untouchables’) rights. Using ‘radical humanism’, it proposes compulsory social service by youth in rural and urban sectors, and doing away with caste-based surnames. It urges concerted efforts to push for international financial reparations to counter the historical incidence of colonial transfers.
Sharia and Human Rights Law in the Constitutional Framework of Gulf States
Authors: Polymenopoulou Eleni
Published: January 2024

ABSTRACT: The present article discusses the extent to which the Sharia and human rights are intermingled in the constitutional architecture of Gulf countries, focusing on two main questions: first, the extent to which the constitutional references to the Sharia in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Constitutions coexist—or can coexist—harmoniously with constitutional liberties. Secondly, the extent to which the Sharia plays a role in the interpretation of human rights by judicial entities, and whether such interpretation is in line with international human rights standards. Drawing primarily on the jurisprudence of the Kuwaiti Constitutional Court (including the female Members of Parliament hijab case, the passport retention case, the Ramadan eating ban, and the more recent case on the prohibition of “imitating the opposite sex,” the article suggests that judicial entities in GCC states should strive to align themselves better with their obligations stemming from human rights treaties, especially in relation to the principle of non-discrimination. It further argues that the richness and flexibility of Islamic law can effectively advance the argument of universality and cultural legitimacy of human rights in a spirit of reconciliation, arguably paving the way for a functioning regional human rights body in the Arab region.
The International Criminal Court’s Opportunity to Correct the Erroneous Interpretation of the Mens Rea for Genocide
Authors: Kenny Cóman , Farr Travis
Published: January 2024

ABSTRACT: The destruction of a group by a process of forced conversion or assimilation, wherein the identity of a protected group, be it national, ethnic, racial, or religious, is eradicated and replaced with another identity is not covered by the prevailing definition of the mens rea of the crime of genocide, which requires that a perpetrator intend the physical or biological destruction of a protected group. This article argues that genocide has been inaccurately applied by international courts, based on an incorrect interpretation of the Genocide Convention that has dominated international law for twenty years, and discusses what non-physical/biological destruction of a group looks like in practice. The article proposes that events in Ukraine give the International Criminal Court, which has yet to definitively interpret the crime of genocide, an opportunity to correct this legal error and thereby ensure that genocide offers better protection to groups from destruction.
Beyond the Atlantic: Unifying Racial Policies across the Early French Empire
Authors: Lamotte Mélanie
Published: January 2024

Abstract: Beginning in the early eighteenth century, a coherent body of racial policies emerged across the French Atlantic and Indian Oceans, targeting the socioeconomic status of people of non-European ancestry and restricting their right to marry or have sexual relations with French people. In addition to very specific local circumstances in the colonies, this coherent body of policies emerged because authorities attempted to standardize policies across the two oceans. The circulation of official correspondence and people on a transoceanic scale facilitated these changes. The scope of this standardization and circulation means that we cannot understand the full landscape of French racial discourse and policymaking unless we look at the Atlantic and Indian Oceans together. Yet the current historiography on race in the French colonies remains compartmentalized into smaller geographic units. Little work has been produced on race and racial policies for the French Indian Ocean, and the vast majority of publications on this topic have so far been produced by Atlantic specialists. Considering France's Atlantic and Indian Ocean colonies side by side demonstrates that racial policies in the Atlantic were shaped by developments in the Indian Ocean—and vice versa.
Polarization calibration source for the Polstar spectropolarimeter
Authors: Woodruff Robert A.
Published: January 2024

This paper describes material and configuration trades for the design of a special source that will be used for pre-launch calibrations of Polstar: the polarization calibration source (PCS). The PCS generates a highly polarized imaged beam at the f/# of Polstar. The PCS will be used to calibrate Polstar polarimetrically, photometrically, and spectrally. This paper identifies design approaches that permit the production of highly polarized light to wavelengths as small as 110 nm.
Dual stream fusion network for underwater image enhancement of multi-scale turbidity restoration and multi-path color correction
Authors: Ji Kai , Lei Weimin , Zhang Wei , Chen Xinyi
Published: January 2024

Underwater images frequently experience color distortion and blurred details due to the absorption and scattering of light, which can hinder underwater visual tasks. To address these challenges, we propose a dual-stream fusion network for enhancing underwater images. Our multi-scale turbidity restoration module (MTRM) adopts a two-stage dehazing process from coarse to fine, while employing the SOS boosting strategy and frequency-based dense connections to further improve the performance of the U-Net. The multi-path color correction module (MCCM) utilizes the multi-path residual block as the basic unit to construct RGB enhancement paths. It selectively establishes inter-color channels through attention-based cross connections, which efficiently harness the distinctive features from various color channels. Additionally, non-local spatial and channel attention provide essential correlation information for the final fusion stage. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations conducted on various underwater datasets have demonstrated the excellent performance of our method.
Joint equalization of frequency offset and phase noise using two-stage cascaded extended Kalman filter for discrete spectrum 16/64APSK NFDM systems
Authors: Gao Hongbing , Xu Hengying , Dong Tingting , Yao Donghu , Zhang Yining , Bai Chenglin , Yang Lishan , Li Xusheng , Sun Zukai , Fan Yaxuan
Published: January 2024

For the discrete spectrum nonlinear frequency division multiplexing (DS-NFDM) 16/64 amplitude phase shift keying (APSK) system, the inevitable laser impairments including frequency offset (FO) and carrier phase noise (CPN) would cause different rotations of the received signal constellations. In addition, the combined effect of FO and amplifier spontaneous emission (ASE) noise induces the eigenvalue shift, accordingly the residual channel impairment (RCI) is inevitably yielded. To address the above problems, we deduce the joint impairment model of FO, CPN and RCI, and then propose a joint equalization scheme using two-stage cascaded extended Kalman filter (TSC-EKF) for these impairments. It performs frequency offset compensation in the first stage, subsequently carries out joint equalization of CPN and RCI in the second stage. Meanwhile, the minimum Euclidean distance and phase difference between the received symbols and the ideal 16/64APSK constellations are ingeniously fused to calculate the innovations of TSC-EKF. The effectiveness has been verified by 2 GBaud DS-NFDM 16/64 APSK simulations and DS-NFDM 16APSK transmission experiments. The results demonstrate that when performing the joint equalization of FO, CPN and RCI, the maximum FOE range of TSC-EKF scheme achieves 1.2 and 9.6 times as that of nonlinear frequency domain (NFD) scheme and fast Fourier transform -Like (FFT-Like) scheme, respectively. Furthermore, its maximum LW tolerance reaches 3.3 times as that of the M-th power scheme. Importantly, the complexity of TSC-EKF is 63.4% as that of NFD scheme and on an order of O(N).
On the applicability of the Maxwell Garnett effective medium model to media with a high density of cylindrical pores
Authors: Brandt Julia , Dittrich Guido , Thelen Marc , Renner Hagen , Huber Patrick , Eich Manfred , Petrov Alexander
Published: January 2024

The optical properties of dielectric materials with subwavelength cylindrical pores are commonly described by effective medium models. We compare the Maxwell Garnett and the Bruggeman effective medium models for porous silicon with simulations and experiments for the case of polarization orthogonal to the pore axis. The Maxwell Garnett model matches the results of the simulations even up to very high porosities. An experimental study of the effective permittivity of macroporous and mesoporous silicon is conducted by analyzing the Fabry-Pérot oscillations in the long-wavelength limit. These experimental results are also consistent with the Maxwell Garnett model. We advocate using this model for media with cylindrical pores in the future.
Feedback control of organ size precision is mediated by BMP2-regulated apoptosis in the Drosophila eye
Authors: Navarro Tomas , Iannini Antonella , Neto Marta , Campoy-Lopez Alejandro , Muñoz-García Javier , Pereira Paulo S. , Ares Saúl , Casares Fernando
Published: January 2024

Biological processes are intrinsically noisy, and yet, the result of development—like the species-specific size and shape of organs—is usually remarkably precise. This precision suggests the existence of mechanisms of feedback control that ensure that deviations from a target size are minimized. Still, we have very limited understanding of how these mechanisms operate. Here, we investigate the problem of organ size precision using the Drosophila eye. The size of the adult eye depends on the rates at which eye progenitor cells grow and differentiate. We first find that the progenitor net growth rate results from the balance between their proliferation and apoptosis, with this latter contributing to determining both final eye size and its variability. In turn, apoptosis of progenitor cells is hampered by Dpp, a BMP2/4 signaling molecule transiently produced by early differentiating retinal cells. Our genetic and computational experiments show how the status of retinal differentiation is communicated to progenitors through the differentiation-dependent production of Dpp, which, by adjusting the rate of apoptosis, exerts a feedback control over the net growth of progenitors to reduce final eye size variability.
Radiation necrosis after radiation therapy treatment of brain metastases: A computational approach
Authors: Ocaña-Tienda Beatriz , León-Triana Odelaisy , Pérez-Beteta Julián , Jiménez-Sánchez Juan , Pérez-García Víctor M.
Published: January 2024

Metastasis is the process through which cancer cells break away from a primary tumor, travel through the blood or lymph system, and form new tumors in distant tissues. One of the preferred sites for metastatic dissemination is the brain, affecting more than 20% of all cancer patients. This figure is increasing steadily due to improvements in treatments of primary tumors. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is one of the main treatment options for patients with a small or moderate number of brain metastases (BMs). A frequent adverse event of SRS is radiation necrosis (RN), an inflammatory condition caused by late normal tissue cell death. A major diagnostic problem is that RNs are difficult to distinguish from BM recurrences, due to their similarities on standard magnetic resonance images (MRIs). However, this distinction is key to choosing the best therapeutic approach since RNs resolve often without further interventions, while relapsing BMs may require open brain surgery. Recent research has shown that RNs have a faster growth dynamics than recurrent BMs, providing a way to differentiate the two entities, but no mechanistic explanation has been provided for those observations. In this study, computational frameworks were developed based on mathematical models of increasing complexity, providing mechanistic explanations for the differential growth dynamics of BMs relapse versus RN events and explaining the observed clinical phenomenology. Simulated tumor relapses were found to have growth exponents substantially smaller than the group in which there was inflammation due to damage induced by SRS to normal brain tissue adjacent to the BMs, thus leading to RN. ROC curves with the synthetic data had an optimal threshold that maximized the sensitivity and specificity values for a growth exponent β* = 1.05, very close to that observed in patient datasets.
Spatial and temporal heterogeneity alter the cost of plasticity in Pristionchus pacificus
Authors: Kalirad Ata , Sommer Ralf J.
Published: January 2024

Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of a single genotype to produce distinct phenotypes under different environmental conditions, has become a leading concept in ecology and evolutionary biology, with the most extreme examples being the formation of alternative phenotypes (polyphenisms). However, several aspects associated with phenotypic plasticity remain controversial, such as the existence of associated costs. While already predicted by some of the pioneers of plasticity research, i.e. Schmalhausen and Bradshaw, experimental and theoretical approaches have provided limited support for the costs of plasticity. In experimental studies, one common restriction is the measurement of all relevant parameters over long time periods. Similarly, theoretical studies rarely use modelling approaches that incorporate specific experimentally-derived fitness parameters. Therefore, the existence of the costs of plasticity remains disputed. Here, we provide an integrative approach to understand the cost of adaptive plasticity and its ecological ramifications, by combining laboratory data from the nematode plasticity model system Pristionchus pacificus with a stage-structured population model. Taking advantage of measurements of two isogenic strains grown on two distinct diets, we illustrate how spatial and temporal heterogeneity with regard to the distribution of resources on a metapopulation can alter the outcome of the competition and alleviate the realized cost of plasticity.
A neural network model for the evolution of learning in changing environments
Authors: Kozielska Magdalena , Weissing Franz J.
Published: January 2024

Learning from past experience is an important adaptation and theoretical models may help to understand its evolution. Many of the existing models study simple phenotypes and do not consider the mechanisms underlying learning while the more complex neural network models often make biologically unrealistic assumptions and rarely consider evolutionary questions. Here, we present a novel way of modelling learning using small neural networks and a simple, biology-inspired learning algorithm. Learning affects only part of the network, and it is governed by the difference between expectations and reality. We use this model to study the evolution of learning under various environmental conditions and different scenarios for the trade-off between exploration (learning) and exploitation (foraging). Efficient learning readily evolves in our individual-based simulations. However, in line with previous studies, the evolution of learning is less likely in relatively constant environments, where genetic adaptation alone can lead to efficient foraging, or in short-lived organisms that cannot afford to spend much of their lifetime on exploration. Once learning does evolve, the characteristics of the learning strategy (i.e. the duration of the learning period and the learning rate) and the average performance after learning are surprisingly little affected by the frequency and/or magnitude of environmental change. In contrast, an organism’s lifespan and the distribution of resources in the environment have a clear effect on the evolved learning strategy: a shorter lifespan or a broader resource distribution lead to fewer learning episodes and larger learning rates. Interestingly, a longer learning period does not always lead to better performance, indicating that the evolved neural networks differ in the effectiveness of learning. Overall, however, we show that a biologically inspired, yet relatively simple, learning mechanism can evolve to lead to an efficient adaptation in a changing environment.
Role of workplace bullying and workplace incivility for employee performance: Mediated-moderated mechanism
Authors: Mehmood Shahid , Rasool Maham , Ahmed Masood , Haddad Hossam , Al-Ramahi Nidal Mahmoud
Published: January 2024

Workplace events play a significant role in shaping the performance of employees and organizations. Negative events, in particular, require careful attention due to their severe impact on employee wellbeing and performance. Workplace bullying and incivility are two negative events that can cause significant harm to employees and contribute to poor performance. This study examines the effects of workplace bullying and incivility on employee performance in the presence of perceived psychological wellbeing (PWB), with the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) considered for both independent variables and employee performance (EP). The study focuses on female nurses working in the healthcare sector of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The results of the study indicate that workplace bullying and incivility have adverse effects on employee performance and that PWB mediates these relationships. Moreover, perceived organizational support moderates the relationship between both predictors and the employee performance criterion. In conclusion, the findings of this study highlight the importance of creating a positive and supportive work environment to mitigate the negative effects of workplace bullying and incivility on employee performance.
Comparing carbon footprints of sheep farming systems in semi-arid regions of India: A life cycle assessment study
Authors: Sarkar Srobana , Lal B. , Gautam Priyanka , Bhatt R. S. , Sahoo A.
Published: January 2024

Carbon foot prints (CFs) studies based on life cycle assessment between sheep farming systems and green house gases (GHG) emissions is one of the best indicators to quantify the amount of GHG emissions per kg of product. Therefore, a life cycle assessment (LCA) study was conducted for three different sheep farming systems i.e. intensive system (stall fed only), semi-intensive (grazing with supplementation) and extensive system (grazing only) under semiarid region of India to assess the carbon cost of sheep rearing. The total CFs were estimated to be 16.9, 15.8 and 17.1 kg CO2-eq in intensive, semi-intensive and extensive system of grazing indicating semi-intensive system to be most carbon (C) efficient. For 1kg mutton production in semi-intensive and intensive system, around 30% and 24% CFs were contributed from enteric fermentation and feed respectively, whereas, in extensive system, the contribution of enteric fermentation increased up to 50%. The carbon foot prints analysis gives an insight of carbon inputs used but the amount of CO2 sequestered in soil making LCA a holistic approach for estimating GHG emissions from livestock.
A murine model to evaluate immunotherapy effectiveness for human Fanconi anemia-mutated acute myeloid leukemia
Authors: Huang Tingting , Leung Bernice , Huang Yuyang , Price Laura , Gui Jiang , Lau Bonnie W.
Published: January 2024

Fanconi anemia (FA)-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a secondary AML with very poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options due to increased sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents. PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors upregulate T-cell killing of cancer cells and is a class of promising treatment for FA-AML. Here, we developed a novel FA-AML murine model that allows the study of human AML with a humanized immune system in order to investigate immunotherapeutic treatments in vivo. FA-AML1 cells and non-FA-mutated Kasumi-1 cells were injected into 8–10 week old NSG mice. Once leukemic engraftment was confirmed by HLA-DR expression in the peripheral blood, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMCs) were injected into the mice. One week post-hPBMCs injection, Nivolumab (PD-1 inhibitor) or PBS vehicle control was administered to the mice bi-weekly. In our Nivolumab treated mice, FA-AML1, but not Kasumi-1-engrafted mice, had significantly prolonged overall survival. Both FA-AML1 and Kasumi-1 engrafted mice had decreased spleen weights. Higher leukemic infiltration into vital organs was observed in FA-AML1 engrafted mice compared to Kasumi-1 engrafted mice. In conclusion, our novel humanized murine model of FA-mutated AML is an attractive tool for supporting further studies and clinical trials using PD-1 inhibitors to treat FA-mutated AML.
A prospective cohort study of SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced seroconversion and disease incidence in German healthcare workers before and during the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines
Authors: Gehring Stephan , Kowalzik Frank , Okasha Omar , Engelmann Tobias , Schreiner Daniel , Jensen Christian , Mähringer-Kunz Aline , Hartig-Merkel Wendy , Mai Phuong Tran Thao , Oostvogels Cornelia , Verstraeten Thomas
Published: January 2024

We assessed the seroepidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) before and during the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, in a prospective observational cohort study on healthcare workers (HCWs) in a large tertiary hospital in Mainz, Germany. Antibody status was assessed during six visits between September 2020 and February 2022. Self-reported symptoms were collected using a smartphone application; symptomatic HCWs were tested using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays for SARS-CoV-2. Rates of virologically confirmed and severe COVID-19 were estimated using the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) case definitions, respectively, and were contrasted to background community transmission and circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. A total of 3665 HCWs were enrolled (mean follow-up time: 18 months); 97 met the FDA definition of virologically confirmed COVID-19 (incidence rate (IR) 2.3/1000 person-months (PMs), one severe case). Most cases reported ≥2 symptoms, commonly, cough and anosmia or ageusia. Overall, 263 individuals seroconverted (IR 6.6/1000 PMs—2.9 times the estimated IR of COVID-19), indicating many cases were missed, either due to asymptomatic infections or to an atypical presentation of symptoms. A triphasic trend in anti-SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and seroconversion was observed, with an initial increase following the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, a two-fold decline six months later, and finally a six-fold increase by the end of the study when Omicron was the dominant circulating variant. Despite the increase in infection rates at the end of the study due to the circulation of the Omicron variant, the infection and disease rates observed were lower than the published estimates in HCWs and rates in the general local population. Preferential vaccination of HCWs and the strict monitoring program for SARS-CoV-2 infection are the most likely reasons for the successful control of COVID-19 in this high-risk population.
Rapid and low-cost screening for single and combined effects of drought and heat stress on the morpho-physiological traits of African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum) germplasm
Authors: Opoku Vincent A. , Adu Michael O. , Asare Paul A. , Asante Justice , Hygienus Godswill , Andersen Mathias N.
Published: January 2024

Drought and heat are two stresses that often occur together and may pose significant risks to crops in future climates. However, the combined effects of these two stressors have received less attention than single-stressor investigations. This study used a rapid and straightforward phenotyping method to quantify the variation in 128 African eggplant genotype responses to drought, heat, and the combined effects of heat and drought at the seedling stage. The study found that the morphophysiological traits varied significantly among the 128 eggplants, highlighting variation in response to abiotic stresses. Broad-sense heritability was high (> 0.60) for chlorophyll content, plant biomass and performance index, electrolyte leakage, and total leaf area. Positive and significant relationships existed between biomass and photosynthetic parameters, but a negative association existed between electrolyte leakage and morpho-physiological traits. The plants underwent more significant stress when drought and heat stress were imposed concurrently than under single stresses, with the impact of drought on the plants being more detrimental than heat. There were antagonistic effects on the morphophysiology of the eggplants when heat and drought stress were applied together. Resilient genotypes such as RV100503, RV100501, JAMBA, LOC3, RV100164, RV100169, LOC 3, RV100483, GH5155, RV100430, GH1087, GH1087*, RV100388, RV100387, RV100391 maintained high relative water content, low electrolyte leakage, high Fv/Fm ratio and performance index, and increased biomass production under abiotic stress conditions. The antagonistic interactions between heat and drought observed here may be retained or enhanced during several stress combinations typical of plants’ environments and must be factored into efforts to develop climate change-resilient crops. This paper demonstrates improvised climate chambers for high throughput, reliable, rapid, and cost-effective screening for heat and drought and combined stress tolerance in plants.
Prevalence, knowledge and practices on prevention and management of overweight and obesity among adults in Dodoma City, Tanzania
Authors: Msollo Safiness Simon , Shausi Gosbert Lukenku , Mwanri Akwilina Wendelin
Published: January 2024

Background

Overweight/obesity is increasing leading to high rates of non-communicable diseases. The study aimed to assess the prevalence, knowledge and practices on prevention and management of overweight/obesity among adults in Dodoma region.

Methodology

A cross- sectional research was conducted among 313 randomly selected adults aged 25–65 years. Face to face interviews were conducted to obtain demographic information, knowledge on preventing and managing overweight/obesity using a pre-tested questionnaire. Weight and height were measured following standard procedures and nutrition status was categorized using WHO criteria. Dietary intake was assessed using qualitative 24 hours recall to obtain dietary diversity score. Data was analyzed using the SPSS™ Version 20 to obtain descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results

About 62.6% (n = 196) of the participants were females. The overall prevalence of overweight/obesity was 59.7% (n = 186) of which 28% (n = 88) were overweight and 31.3% (n = 98) obese. Obesity was three times higher among females (41.8% vs 13.7%) than males. Overweight/obesity was positively associated with female sex (Adjusted OR 2.34; 95%CI: 1.235–4.68; p = 0.001), low knowledge (Adjusted OR 2.15; 95%CI: 1.22–3.81; p = 0.008) and negatively associated with dietary diversity score (Adjusted OR 0. 452; 95%CI: 0.199–1.87; p = 0.03). About 76% of respondents reported that overweight/obesity is a result of consuming high energy (38.8%; n = 92) and high fat foods (27%; n = 63). More than half of the respondents reported to be insensitive with kind of foods they consume and for those who were sensitive, 64% do so to avoid diseases. Furthermore, 60% control their weight by doing physical exercises while 18% by both physical exercises and diet management. However, about 43% did not know foods exposing individuals to health problems.

Conclusion and recommendations

High prevalence of overweight/obesity was observed and significantly associated with female sex, low dietary diversity and knowledge on overweight/obesity prevention. This creates a need to improve knowledge on prevention of overweight/obesity.
Nurse-led self-care interventions for older adults with multiple chronic conditions: A protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis
Authors: Choi Heejung , Seomun GyeongAe
Published: January 2024

The importance of self-care interventions is progressively recognized, marked by a rapidly aging population that results in growing demands on costly tertiary and institutional care services, placing substantial pressure on health and social care systems. Against this background, in this study, we will provide evidence for the impact of self-care interventions on health-related quality of life by focusing on interventions led by nurses who can employ integrated approaches. Several databases, including Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane, CINAHL, Embase, and PubMed, will be searched along with gray literature to prevent biased results. There will be no time restrictions, and all literature with English abstracts will be included. Using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication framework, we will evaluate intervention characteristics. The primary outcome will be health-related quality of life, and the secondary outcomes will be symptom burden, physical function, and cost-effectiveness. Pairwise and network meta-analyses will be performed, and network geometry and the surface under the cumulative ranking curve will be used to determine which type of nurse-led self-care intervention is best for health-related quality of life for older adults with multiple chronic conditions. We will secure study quality through PRISMA, AMSTAR 2, RoB 2.0, and the GRADE checklist. To ensure the quality of network meta-analysis, similarity will be checked based on the PICO framework. The consistency of the network meta-analysis results will be checked to ensure transitivity by using the Bayesian hierarchical framework. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022365467).
Intellectual property protection for video games: A MDA framework-based analysis
Authors: Wang Jia
Published: January 2024

The gap between video games and copyright, an intellectual property (IP) right, is that the doctrinal copyright theories cannot explain the nature of the gameplay and game rules. The lack of a theoretical framework addressing the gameplay comprising abstract ideas and specific expressions has caused much confusion and uncertainty in the games industry and among legal practitioners across jurisdictions. This article explores whether the gameplay, a core value of the game, should be protected by copyright, patent or not protected at all. It employs a novel analytical framework based on Hunicke et al.’s theory of mechanic–dynamics–aesthetics, a game-designing theory, to analyse the IP legal nature of the gameplay and game rules. Based on the proposed analytical framework, it conducts a case study of three representative games, from aesthetics to mechanics, to demonstrate that dynamics as the game system consists of expressions of the game designer. Considering the cross-border nature of the development and trade of video games, this article undertakes a comparative study of IP law in the United Kingdom and China. It concludes that dynamics as the game system is expressive and can be protected by copyright.
La renta mínima de inserción desde una perspectiva lexicométrica. Una aproximación al discurso de las personas perceptoras
Authors: Estepa Maestre Francisco , Ferri Fuentevilla Elena , Navarro Ardoy Luis
Published: January 2024

El artículo parte de considerar la importancia que tienen las Rentas Mínimas de Inserción (RMI), como último eslabón dentro del sistema de protección social en la lucha frente a la pobreza. Se presenta un análisis de las RMI a partir de 22 entrevistas realizadas a personas beneficiarias de dicha prestación en tres Centros de Servicios Sociales de Andalucía. Frente a los trabajos existentes, la utilización para los análisis del software Iramuteq permite profundizar en la estructura semántica del discurso y en las temáticas más relevantes y elaborar una tipología mediante el recuento de palabras, a la vez que se complementa con los verbatims de las personas entrevistadas. Los resultados obtenidos reflejan una justificación permanente de la ayuda económica recibida, el “merecimiento” de la prestación de quiénes son los/las perceptoras que realmente la merecen y cuáles no, la familia como red de apoyo principal y las dificultades que tienen de acceso al mundo laboral en una sociedad digitalizada que les genera un nuevo factor de exclusión social. Desde un enfoque de género, se evidencia un marco cognitivo arraigado en donde las mujeres asumen el rol de cuidadora del hogar y la familia y los hombres el de la búsqueda de empleo. En situaciones de vulnerabilidad como las aquí analizadas, las mujeres son las que se implican activamente en la búsqueda de soluciones y en la elaboración de estrategias para la “supervivencia”.
Las bases culturales del punitivismo en España
Authors: Alaminos-Fernández Paloma
Published: January 2024

Durante las últimas décadas la sociedad española ha experimentado profundos cambios, muchos de ellos consecuencia de la revolución en las tecnologías de la comunicación. Son cambios tecnológicos que han redefinido las formas de interacción social, la vida cotidiana así como la percepción del mundo. Sin embargo, a pesar de estos cambios las sociedades conservan inercias culturales fuertes que la anclan al pasado mediante prejuicios profundos. El debate entre la justicia retributiva basada en la punición y la concepción restaurativa fundamentada en la reinserción se mantiene vivo. Un punitivismo alentado por movimientos populistas que encuentran en el castigo y sus expresiones de linchamiento mediático una conexión privilegiada con la sociedad. Este artículo evalúa mediante el análisis de discurso cómo las paremias, refranes y proverbios constituyen un sustrato cultural e ideológico que fomenta y conserva valores tradicionales sobre el castigo y el crimen que perduran en una sociedad supuestamente racional y moderna. Unos valores tradicionales que encuentran un cauce de expresión privilegiado gracias a la relevancia pública alcanzada por las víctimas. Las víctimas, motivadas emocionalmente por el sufrimiento y el dolor, generan movimientos de afinidad y empatía en la sociedad, promoviendo una justicia popular alternativa basada en la tradición cultural.
Goobye Eastern Europe by Jacob Mikanowski, Book Review
Authors: Hardingham Phoebe Grace
Published: January 2024

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The Media Offsprings of the Romanian Revolution: A comparative analysis
Authors: Chapelan Liri-Alienor
Published: January 2024

The Romanian revolution of December 1989 was a political event, a media event and a media-theoretical event. It provoked an impressive amount of speculation on the mere possibility of history under the new mediatic conditions, which reduced its images to a parade of symptoms of the ever-growing tendency of politics towards spectacularization and even self-annihilation. Instead of trying to develop a similarly encompassing theory on the audiovisual representation of the revolutionary fact, the present article concentrates on three different media objects made after 1989: (1) Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujică’s documentary essay Videograms from a Revolution; (2) the YouTube clip December 22, 1989 Romanian Revolution Uncut; and (3) Corneliu Porumboiu’s fiction feature 12:08 East of Bucharest. These objects are analysed transversally and in shifting pairs, with a focus on their concrete audiovisual language, in connection with issues such as discursive and manipulation strategies, historical legitimation attempts and hierarchical media models. The aim is to transform these works into oblique, yet more empirical access points to the implications of the status of the events of December 1989 as the first full-fledged “televised revolution” for the collective memory, as well as for later audiovisual reworkings of that historical moment.
Cruzamentos entre o ficcional e o real: A retrospectiva de Carlos Reichenbach no Doclisboa
Authors: Ramos Guiomar
Published: January 2024

A partir de uma entrevista com a curadora e chefe de programação do festival e da minha experiência nas áreas da pesquisa cinematográfica e de curadoria, discuto a proposta curatorial da retrospectiva integral da obra de Carlos Reichenbach que integrou a 20.ª edição do Festival Internacional de Cinema Doclisboa (2022).