bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Financial inclusion, economic freedom and financial stability in sub‐Saharan Africa
Authors: Frimpong Siaw , Yusuf Mawusi Ayisat , Boateng Ebenezer , Ankomah Kwadwo , Abeka Mac Junior
Published: February 2023

Executive Summary

The study examines the role of economic freedom in the relationship between financial inclusion and stability in sub‐Saharan African economies. By employing the System General Method of Moment and data from 39 sub‐Saharan African countries between 2004 and 2017, the study examines whether economic freedom (i.e., financial and business freedom) conditions the effect of financial inclusion on stability. Results from the study show evidence of a positive impact of financial inclusion on financial stability in sub‐Saharan African economies. Again, the results depict that financial inclusion could better enhance financial stability in economies with a high level of economic freedom (i.e., financial and business freedom). The results suggest that policymakers should allow financial institutions to operate with the level of freedom required to provide services at the lowest possible price. Further, it is recommended that policymakers should ensure that administrative requirements are minimal, bureaucracy costs are lesser, and licensing regulations for startups and expansion of existing firms are friendly. With this, associated increases in business and financial freedom would have promising implications for the relationship between financial inclusion and stability.

Managerial Implications of the Study

This research is very vital for firms in both the financial and nonfinancial. Specifically, managers of firms in the financial sector can embrace the level of financial freedom that would be allowed by the government, to come up with new and inclusive financial products, while putting in measures not to endanger the stability of the financial sector. Managers in the business sector could also take advantage of the business freedom that would be allowed by the government to diversify business operations, increase profitability and avoid causing nonperforming loan problems to banks.

Originality/Value

The study provides the first insight into how economic institutions condition the effect of financial inclusion on financial stability, which has not been previously studied.
A stratified MHD flow of Eyring‐Powell fluid containing gyrotactic microorganisms through a stretching sheet with mixed convection
Authors: Al‐Bossly Afrah , Alduais Fuad S. , Lone Showkat Ahmad , Almusawa Musawa Yahya , Saeed Anwar
Published: February 2023

The aim of this effort is to examine the steady, laminar, and incompressible flow of Eyring‐Powell fluid containing gyrotactic microorganisms through a stratified stretching surface. For stabilizing the distributed nanoparticles through bioconvection, which is tempted by magnetic field and buoyancy forces, the microorganisms’ theory is utilized. The nonlinear system of equations is treated with a semi‐analytical approach. Convergence of series solutions of the nonlinear system is displayed. The variations in momentum, concentration, thermal and motility distributions are exhibited graphically. Sherwood number, skin friction, motile density number, and Nusselt number are exhibited numerically in tabular forms. It has been found that the augmenting the thermal stratification, mass stratification, and motile density stratification factors have retarded the thermal, mass, and motile density of the microbes. Heightening Brownian motion, Schmidt number, and mass stratification parameter boost the Sherwood number, while reduces with thermophoresis constraint. The rise in concentration difference factor and Peclet number intensify the motile density number, while the accelerating values of stratification parameter of motile density and bioconvective Lewis number decline the motile density number.
Dyslipidemia is associated with inflammation and organ involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Huang Saisai , Zhang Zhuoya , Cui Yiyuan , Yao Genhong , Ma Xiaolei , Zhang Huayong
Published: February 2023

Introduction

Disturbed lipid metabolism was observed in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. This study aimed to evaluate the relationships between dyslipidemia and visceral organ involvement, disease severity, inflammatory factors, and drug intake in SLE patients.

Method

Inpatients with SLE (n = 105) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 75) were recruited in this study. Clinical and laboratory data were collected from patient records. The concentrations of tumor necrosis factor receptors superfamily member1A (TNFRSF1A), member1B (TNFRSF1B) and adipokine angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) in plasma were measured by ELISA.

Result

Compared to HC, serum levels of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and apolipoprotein B (ApoB) were significantly increased, while high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) were decreased in SLE patients. Patients with higher disease activity and renal damage suffered from more severe dyslipidemia. Renal functional parameters were closely correlated with serum lipid levels. Inflammatory factors were associated with dyslipidemia. The levels of TNFRSF1A and TNFRSF1B were obviously increased and associated with kidney involvement in SLE patients. Patients with high-dose glucocorticoid intake showed more severe dyslipidemia.

Conclusions

Attention should be paid to the dyslipidemia of SLE. Dyslipidemia is associated with inflammation and organ involvement in SLE. These findings might provide a new strategy for the treatment of SLE.

Key Points• Serum levels of TG, TC, LDL, and ApoB were significantly increased, while HDL and ApoA1 were decreased in SLE patients.• Patients with higher disease activity and renal damage suffered from more severe dyslipidemia. Renal functional parameters and inflammatory factors were closely correlated with serum lipid levels.• Patients with high-dose glucocorticoid intake showed more severe dyslipidemia.• These findings might provide a new strategy for the treatment of SLE.
A split Levenberg-Marquardt method for large-scale sparse problems
Authors: Krejić Nataša , Malaspina Greta , Swaenen Lense
Published: February 2023

We consider large-scale nonlinear least squares problems with sparse residuals, each of them depending on a small number of variables. A decoupling procedure which results in a splitting of the original problems into a sequence of independent problems of smaller sizes is proposed and analysed. The smaller size problems are modified in a way that offsets the error made by disregarding dependencies that allow us to split the original problem. The resulting method is a modification of the Levenberg-Marquardt method with smaller computational costs. Global convergence is proved as well as local linear convergence under suitable assumptions on sparsity. The method is tested on the network localization simulated problems with up to one million variables and its efficiency is demonstrated.
ClaSP: parameter-free time series segmentation
Authors: Ermshaus Arik , Schäfer Patrick , Leser Ulf
Published: February 2023

The study of natural and human-made processes often results in long sequences of temporally-ordered values, aka time series (TS). Such processes often consist of multiple states, e.g. operating modes of a machine, such that state changes in the observed processes result in changes in the distribution of shape of the measured values. Time series segmentation (TSS) tries to find such changes in TS post-hoc to deduce changes in the data-generating process. TSS is typically approached as an unsupervised learning problem aiming at the identification of segments distinguishable by some statistical property. Current algorithms for TSS require domain-dependent hyper-parameters to be set by the user, make assumptions about the TS value distribution or the types of detectable changes which limits their applicability. Common hyper-parameters are the measure of segment homogeneity and the number of change points, which are particularly hard to tune for each data set. We present ClaSP, a novel, highly accurate, hyper-parameter-free and domain-agnostic method for TSS. ClaSP hierarchically splits a TS into two parts. A change point is determined by training a binary TS classifier for each possible split point and selecting the one split that is best at identifying subsequences to be from either of the partitions. ClaSP learns its main two model-parameters from the data using two novel bespoke algorithms. In our experimental evaluation using a benchmark of 107 data sets, we show that ClaSP outperforms the state of the art in terms of accuracy and is fast and scalable. Furthermore, we highlight properties of ClaSP using several real-world case studies.
Challenging Parenting Behaviour and Anxiety Disorders in Emerging Adulthood
Authors: Chan Evie Wai Ting , Wong Kelly Tsz Ching , Clark Laura H.
Published: February 2023

Challenging parenting behaviour (CPB) refers to parental encouragement of behaviours where children push their own limits through engaging them engage in safe risks, such as rough-and-tumble play (Bögels & Phares, 2008). Preliminary evidence suggests that CPB reduces the risk of child anxiety however, little is known about the relationship between CPB and specific forms of anxiety disorders and the factors that influence this relationship. The present study aims to examine current maternal and paternal CPB in relation to symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in emerging adulthood, and to identify whether intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and cognitive avoidance (CA) sequentially mediate this relationship. A sample of 190 UK-based adults (aged 18–25) completed a battery of online self-report measures. Greater maternal CPB, but not paternal CPB, was found to predict lower symptoms of SAD, but not GAD. IU and CA did not sequentially mediate the relationship between CPB and symptoms of GAD or SAD. This study suggests that CPB may be associated with certain forms of anxiety disorders such as SAD, but further investigation is needed to understand the mechanisms between CPB and anxiety in young people.
PhysFormer++: Facial Video-Based Physiological Measurement with SlowFast Temporal Difference Transformer
Authors: Yu Zitong , Shen Yuming , Shi Jingang , Zhao Hengshuang , Cui Yawen , Zhang Jiehua , Torr Philip , Zhao Guoying
Published: February 2023

Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG), which aims at measuring heart activities and physiological signals from facial video without any contact, has great potential in many applications (e.g., remote healthcare and affective computing). Recent deep learning approaches focus on mining subtle rPPG clues using convolutional neural networks with limited spatio-temporal receptive fields, which neglect the long-range spatio-temporal perception and interaction for rPPG modeling. In this paper, we propose two end-to-end video transformer based architectures, namely PhysFormer and PhysFormer++, to adaptively aggregate both local and global spatio-temporal features for rPPG representation enhancement. As key modules in PhysFormer, the temporal difference transformers first enhance the quasi-periodic rPPG features with temporal difference guided global attention, and then refine the local spatio-temporal representation against interference. To better exploit the temporal contextual and periodic rPPG clues, we also extend the PhysFormer to the two-pathway SlowFast based PhysFormer++ with temporal difference periodic and cross-attention transformers. Furthermore, we propose the label distribution learning and a curriculum learning inspired dynamic constraint in frequency domain, which provide elaborate supervisions for PhysFormer and PhysFormer++ and alleviate overfitting. Comprehensive experiments are performed on four benchmark datasets to show our superior performance on both intra- and cross-dataset testings. Unlike most transformer networks needed pretraining from large-scale datasets, the proposed PhysFormer family can be easily trained from scratch on rPPG datasets, which makes it promising as a novel transformer baseline for the rPPG community.
Reform for Sale
Authors: Lefebvre Perrin , Martimort David
Published: February 2023

Lobbying competition is viewed as a delegated common agency game under moral hazard. Several interest groups try to influence a policy-maker who exerts effort to increase the probability that a reform be implemented. With no restriction on the space of contribution schedules, all equilibria perfectly reflect the principals' preferences over alternatives. As a result, lobbying competition reaches efficiency. Unfortunately, such equilibria require that the policy-maker pays an interest group when the latter is hurt by the reform. When payments remain non-negative, inducing effort requires leaving a moral hazard rent to the decision maker. Contributions schedules no longer reflect the principals' preferences, and the unique equilibrium is inefficient. Free-riding across congruent groups arises and the set of groups active at equilibrium is endogenously derived. Allocative efficiency and redistribution of the aggregate surplus are linked altogether and both depend on the set of active principals, as well as on the group size.
Legal Positivism for Legal Officials
Authors: Jiménez Felipe
Published: February 2023

This paper makes a conceptual prescription: it argues that judges and lawyers should adopt a positivist concept of law, on normative grounds. The positivist view, I will argue, is more consistent with reasonable disagreement and majority rule than nonpositivist views, offers a better view of law’s moral standing, and is more consistent with what Dworkin called ‘integrity’ than non-positivism. As the paper explains, this is an argument about what I call the ‘operative’ concept of law. As such, the argument avoids potential problems for conceptual prescription, and shows why even those who adopt non-positivist views about the nature of law might accept it.
Public Health Preparedness in the Era of Weather Modification and Climate Engineering
Authors: Tsagkaris Christos , Papazoglou Andreas S. , Moysidis Dimitrios V. , Loudovikou Anna
Published: February 2023

The use of technological and chemical means aiming to achieve favorable weather conditions or reduce the risk of weather extremes is known as Weather Modification (WM). The United States of America, the People’s Republic of China, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Europe have employed WM in an effort to prevent hurricanes and storms, control precipitations, mitigate deforestation and drought, and enhance agriculture. Recently, the use of WM has been expanded toward decreasing air pollution and creating favorable weather conditions for major political and athletic events. The increasing significance and use of WM call for consideration upon its positive and negative effects on human health, close collaboration among health experts and WM decision makers, and relevant public health emergency contingency planning.
Pshychological Resilience and Percieved Stress Level in Nurses: Experience of Nurses in Turkey
Authors: Çuhadar Döndü , Bahar Aynur , Samancioğlu Bağlama Sevgin , Koçak Hatice Serap , Özkaya Mesut
Published: February 2023

Objective:

To determine the effect of psychological resilience levels of nurses on perceived stress levels in this study.

Methods:

The research was carried out with 153 nurses. Socio-demographic Questionnaire, The Brief Resilience Scale, and Perceived Stress Scale were used as data collection tools.

Results:

The nurses’ total Brief Resilience Scale score average was 17.72 ± 4.48, and the total Perceived Stress Scale score average was 31.74 ± 7.18. There was a negative and moderately significant relationship between the resilience and stress level of the nurses. During the pandemic process, the level of stress that nurses perceive increases as their psychological resilience decreases.

Conclusion:

Psychological resilience and coping with stress are traits that can be improved. It is important to establish strategies to increase the resilience of nurses and improve their ability to cope effectively with stress.
Conversations with friends: ‘friends of the Court’ interventions of the state parties to the European Convention on Human Rights
Authors: Dzehtsiarou Kanstantsin
Published: February 2023

The European Convention on Human Rights allows its Contracting Parties to submit third-party interventions. This paper analyses the reasons for engagement of the states with the European Court of Human Rights beyond what they are strictly expected to do: respond in contentious cases and execute judgments. It is argued here that the states mainly engage with the Court for the purposes of self-interest. This paper fills the gap in the literature by substantiating this claim using empirical methods of content analysis of the case law and research interviews with the governmental representatives. Finally, this paper looks at the impact of third-party interventions on the Court's reasoning and concludes that the Court is aware of the aims of the national governments and bears those aims in mind.
Mantle transition zone-derived eclogite xenolith entrained in a diamondiferous Mesoproterozoic (∼1.1 Ga) kimberlite from the Eastern Dharwar Craton, India: evidence from a coesite, K-omphacite, and majoritic garnet assemblage
Authors: Chatterjee Amitava , Chalapathi Rao N. V. , Pandey Rohit , Pandey Ashutosh
Published: February 2023

Subduction-related kimberlite-borne eclogite xenoliths of the Precambrian age may provide significant information about the evolution and recycling of a subducting crust as exhumed/orogenic eclogites of the pre-Mesoproterozoic time-frame are globally rare. In this paper, we report a kimberlite-borne eclogite xenolith from the diamondiferous Kalyandurg kimberlite cluster of the Eastern Dharwar Craton, India, which contains a plethora of ultra-high-pressure minerals such as coesite, majoritic garnet, and supersilicic K-rich omphacite. The presence of these ultra-high-pressure minerals is confirmed byin situX-ray diffractometry, laser Raman spectra and electron probe microanalysis. The presence of coesite undisputedly pinpoints a subduction origin for the eclogite at ∼2.8 GPa pressure, which corresponds to ∼100 km depth. The geothermobarometric estimations involving garnet–omphacite–kyanite–coesite reveal that such an eclogitic assemblage equilibrated at ∼5–8 GPa (∼175–280 km) pressure during ultra-deep subduction. The textural relationship between omphacite, coarse-grained garnet and majoritic garnet coupled with the laser Raman spectra and geobarometric estimations obtained from the majoritic garnet demonstrate that the majoritic garnet formed at ∼8–19 GPa (∼280–660 km) owing to disassociation of omphacite and coarse-grained garnet to majoritic garnet during increment of pressure up to the mantle transition zone. Thus, the mineralogical and geothermobarometric data suggest that the studied eclogite possibly travelled down to the mantle transition zone before it was rapidly carried up by a pre-Mesoproterozoic mantle plume, and subsequently entrained as a xenolith by the Mesoproterozoic (∼1.1 Ga) kimberlite.
Environmental Clientelism: How Chinese Private Enterprises Lobby under Environmental Crackdowns
Authors: Li Jun , Zhan Jing Vivian
Published: February 2023

China's environmental crackdowns under Xi Jinping have led to a sweeping shutdown of private enterprises. To circumvent this, enterprises have developed different survival strategies including direct lobbying to government officials and indirect lobbying through business associations. Based on comparative case studies of environmental lobbying in Chinese cities, our research finds that larger enterprises, enjoying more economic leverage, tend to lobby directly using their own political connections to sway environmental enforcement. By contrast, smaller enterprises are excluded from these clientelist networks and have to lobby through business associations, the effectiveness of which hinges on the support of large enterprises. Therefore, we argue that although the Chinese government's increasingly stringent environmental policies have shrunk the lobbying (and living) space for private enterprises, the existence of environmental clientelism protects economically powerful and politically connected private enterprises but sacrifices the others in the implementation of environmental policies.
Simplicity of a navigational path. What does that actually mean?
Authors: Kopacz Piotr
Published: February 2023

The understanding and interpretation of simplicty in the context of a navigational path can be ambiguous. Different approaches to path planning are briefly juxtaposed, focusing on their simplicity-based distinctive features. This takes into consideration the response to drift caused by air or water currents and the geometric background. Special attention is paid to the straight-line-based solutions which are preferred by the human convenience and perception, recalling some well-known applications in navigation and including their (dis)advantages. In particular, this refers to the Euclidean simplicity applied at the cost of effectiveness in the standard search and rescue (SAR) patterns in the presence of relatively stronger position-dependent currents.
Multiple random walks on graphs: mixing few to cover many
Authors: Rivera Nicolás , Sauerwald Thomas , Sylvester John
Published: February 2023

Random walks on graphs are an essential primitive for many randomised algorithms and stochastic processes. It is natural to ask how much can be gained by running$k$multiple random walks independently and in parallel. Although the cover time of multiple walks has been investigated for many natural networks, the problem of finding a general characterisation of multiple cover times forworst-casestart vertices (posed by Alon, Avin, Koucký, Kozma, Lotker and Tuttle in 2008) remains an open problem. First, we improve and tighten various bounds on thestationarycover time when$k$random walks start from vertices sampled from the stationary distribution. For example, we prove an unconditional lower bound of$\Omega ((n/k) \log n)$on the stationary cover time, holding for any$n$-vertex graph$G$and any$1 \leq k =o(n\log n )$. Secondly, we establish thestationarycover times of multiple walks on several fundamental networks up to constant factors. Thirdly, we present a framework characterisingworst-casecover times in terms ofstationarycover times and a novel, relaxed notion of mixing time for multiple walks called thepartial mixing time. Roughly speaking, the partial mixing time only requires a specific portion of all random walks to be mixed. Using these new concepts, we can establish (or recover) theworst-casecover times for many networks including expanders, preferential attachment graphs, grids, binary trees and hypercubes.
Asymmetric effects of news through uncertainty
Authors: Forni Mario , Gambetti Luca , Sala Luca
Published: February 2023

Bad news about future economic developments have larger effects than good news. The result is obtained by means of a simple nonlinear approach based on SVAR and SVARX models. We interpret the asymmetry as arising from the uncertainty surrounding economic events whose effects are not perfectly predictable. Uncertainty generates adverse effects on the economy, amplifying the effects of bad news and mitigating the effects of good news.
Dosimetrical assessment of jaw tracking technique in volumetric modulated arc therapy for a sample of patients with lateralised targets
Authors: Diaz Moreno Rogelio Manuel , Almada Maria José , García Andino Albin Ariel , Venencia Carlos Daniel
Published: February 2023

Introduction:

In modulated radiotherapy treatments with the jaw tracking technique (JTT), the collimator jaws can dynamically follow the multileaf collimator apertures and reduce radiation leakage. This reduction protects normal tissue from unwanted doses. Previous research has highlighted the importance of defining which patients will benefit most from JTT. Besides, some authors have expressed their concerns about possible increases in monitor units (MUs). Treatments of patients with peripheral targets and isocentre located in the patient’s midline are of particular interest. The current work assessed the effect of JTT on these cases.

Methods:

JTT plans for thirty-two patients were compared to plans with the static jaws technique. The volumes of normal tissue receiving 5 Gy (V5), 10 Gy (V10) and 20 Gy (V20), mean dose (Dmean), target coverage parameters D95, D2% and Paddick’s conformity index (PCI) were compared. MUs were also registered for comparisons. The decrease in the jaws opening with JTT was correlated to the decrease in dose values in normal tissue.

Results:

Small decreases were observed in D95 and in D2% values, without statistical significance. A 5% average decrease in PCI values was noticed as well as significant decreases in V5, V10 and Dmean values, 9% on average. A 3% decrease in V20 was also observed. The number of MUs decreased by 2%. A significant correlation was found between the reduction of the secondary collimation opening areas and the dose delivered to normal tissue.

Conclusions:

JTT technique improved normal tissue protection in volumetric modulated arc therapy treatments for the patients included in the present study.
Do Survey Questions Spread Conspiracy Beliefs?
Authors: Clifford Scott , Sullivan Brian W.
Published: February 2023

Conspiracy theories and misinformation have become increasingly prominent in politics, and these beliefs have pernicious effects on political behavior. A prominent line of research suggests that these beliefs are promoted by repeated exposure. Yet, as scholars have rushed to understand these beliefs, they have exposed countless respondents to conspiratorial claims, raising the question of whether researchers are contributing to their spread. We investigate this possibility using a pre-registered within-subjects experiment embedded in a panel survey. The results suggest that exposure to a standard conspiracy question causes a significant increase in the likelihood of endorsing that conspiracy a week later. However, this exposure effect does not occur with a question format that offers an alternative, non-conspiratorial explanation for the target event. Thus, we recommend that researchers reduce the likelihood of spreading conspiracy beliefs by adopting a question format that asks respondents to choose between alternative explanations for an event.
CaCO3 Polymorphs as Mineral Catalysts for Prebiotic Phosphorylation of Uridine
Authors: Schaible Micah J. , Castañeda Alma D. , Menor‐Salvan Cesar , Pasek Matthew A. , Burcar Bradley T. , Orlando Thomas M.
Published: February 2023

Establishing plausible routes for the abiotic formation of nucleotides is a challenging problem because the phosphorylation of organic molecules is thermodynamically unfavorable in water, and because common phosphorous‐containing minerals such as apatite are highly insoluble. Reactions of reduced phases such as the meteoritic mineral schreibersite with ammonia containing solutions can form stable amino‐derivatives of phosphates/phosphite, and carbonate‐rich lakes have been suggested as environments where phosphate species and organic molecules could accumulate in significant abundances, thus promoting an ideal environment for abiotic phosphorylation. This work reports the catalytic properties of three CaCO3 polymorphs—calcite, aragonite, and vaterite—on diamidophosphate (DAP)‐induced phosphorylation of the uridine nucleoside during a 24‐hr dry‐down reaction. It is shown that the phosphorylation reaction is accelerated in solutions containing CaCO3 compared to those with no mineral present. For un‐buffered solutions with no mineral present, the primary products formed are uridine monophosphates (UMPs), with yields making up 22.3 ± 3.9% of the total detected species, while solutions containing calcite and aragonite formed primarily UMP dimers (yields of 15.3 ± 1.1% and 14.8 ± 1.3%, respectively). Vaterite showed a strong preference for forming cyclic UMP (cUMP) (26.3 ± 0.3% yield), and no higher order polymers were observed using any carbonate mineral. Reactions containing CaSO4·2H2O (gypsum) showed a preference for forming cUMP, though not as strong as vaterite, while those containing CaCl2 (calcium chloride) and CaWO4 (scheelite) did not yield any phosphorylated products other than UMPs. These results suggest that CaCO3 minerals could have played an important role in facilitating prebiotic phosphorylation in aqueous environments that undergo drying cycles.
A Positive Cooling Feedback for the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth Initiation Due To Weakening of Ocean Ventilation
Authors: Liu Peng , Liu Yonggang , Gu Sifan , Hoffman Paul , Li Sanzhong
Published: February 2023

Ocean ventilation is an important regulator for atmospheric CO2 level (pCO2) by affecting the relative proportion of carbon stored in the atmosphere and deep ocean. Expansion of sea ice during glacial periods slows down ocean ventilation and its effect is expected to be the largest during the Neoproterozoic pre‐snowball stage. Here, our Community Earth System Model version 1.2.2 simulations demonstrate that averaged deep ocean ventilation age almost triples when the climate cools from a warm state with negligible sea ice to one in which the global sea‐ice coverage reaches ∼50% when pCO2 is lowered to 280 ppmv. Further cooling by reducing pCO2 from 280 to 70 ppmv increases the ventilation age from 1900 to 2300 years. This latter small increase in deep‐ocean ventilation age can reduce pCO2 by 48 ppmv, assuming Neoproterozoic organic production was comparable to present level. Therefore, the weakened ocean ventilation constitutes a significant positive feedback to the Late Neoproterozoic climate cooling.
Seafloor Plastic Pollution Is Not Going Anywhere
Authors: Moutinho Sofia
Published: February 2023

The amount of microplastics at the bottom of the Mediterranean is growing as global production increases and plastic breakdown is halted.
The Global Health Benefits of Going Net Zero
Authors: Steinke Kirsten
Published: February 2023

Climate change mitigation plans would also reduce air pollution. That could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the coming decades.
Augmenting hematoma-scavenging capacity of innate immune cells by CDNF reduces brain injury and promotes functional recovery after intracerebral hemorrhage
Authors: Tseng Kuan-Yin , Stratoulias Vassilis , Hu Wei-Fen , Wu Jui-Sheng , Wang Vicki , Chen Yuan-Hao , Seelbach Anna , Huttunen Henri J. , Kulesskaya Natalia , Pang Cheng-Yoong , Chou Jian-Liang , Lindahl Maria , Saarma Mart , Huang Li-Chuan , Airavaara Mikko , Liew Hock-Kean
Published: February 2023

During intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), hematoma formation at the site of blood vessel damage results in local mechanical injury. Subsequently, erythrocytes lyse to release hemoglobin and heme, which act as neurotoxins and induce inflammation and secondary brain injury, resulting in severe neurological deficits. Accelerating hematoma resorption and mitigating hematoma-induced brain edema by modulating immune cells has potential as a novel therapeutic strategy for functional recovery after ICH. Here, we show that intracerebroventricular administration of recombinant human cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (rhCDNF) accelerates hemorrhagic lesion resolution, reduces peri-focal edema, and improves neurological outcomes in an animal model of collagenase-induced ICH. We demonstrate that CDNF acts on microglia/macrophages in the hemorrhagic striatum by promoting scavenger receptor expression, enhancing erythrophagocytosis and increasing anti-inflammatory mediators while suppressing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Administration of rhCDNF results in upregulation of the Nrf2-HO-1 pathway, but alleviation of oxidative stress and unfolded protein responses in the perihematomal area. Finally, we demonstrate that intravenous delivery of rhCDNF has beneficial effects in an animal model of ICH and that systemic application promotes scavenging by the brain’s myeloid cells for the treatment of ICH.
Carbonyl Chalcogenide Cluster-based Polymers
Authors: Shieh Minghuey , LI Yu-Huei
Published: February 2023

Carbonyl chalcogenide metal coordination polymers have drawn much attention in recent decades owing to their fascinating structures, variable bonding modes, and potential applications in material science. While most polymers were constructed by transition metal carbonyls that were further linked by chalcogen atoms or chalcogen-containing ligands, some polymers were built from predesigned chalcogen-containing metal carbonyl clusters that were bridged by organic or inorganic ligands. The significant interactions between electronegative chalcogens and electropositive metal carbonyls along with variable non-classical weak interactions within the frameworks were found to enhance the stability of the resultant supramolecules and polymers under ambient conditions. In addition to some representative metal carbonyl chalcogenide polymers, this chapter will mainly cover carbonyl chalcogenide cluster-based supramolecules and polymers from groups 6 to 8 metals in terms of syntheses, structural features, and their potential applications in the fields of semiconductors, photodegradation, magnetism, catalysis, and adsorption/desorption.
Synthesis and Applications of Organophosphorus Compounds with a PSe Group
Authors: Maekawa Yuuki , Murai Toshiaki
Published: February 2023

This chapter describes the synthesis and applications of four-coordinate pentavalent organophosphorus compounds with a PSe group, including: (i) the addition reaction of secondary phosphine selenides; (ii) Woollins’ reagent as a selenating agent and its derivatizations to the compounds containing phosphorus and selenium atoms; (iii) chiral phosphoroamidites as Lewis base catalysts; and (iv) PSe compounds with a binaphthyl group as a chiral transfer reagent.
Optically Active Derivatives with a Stereogenic Sulfur Center: Synthesis and Applications
Authors: Krasowska Dorota , Pacuła-miszewska Agata. J. , Ścianowski Jacek , Drabowicz Jozef
Published: February 2023

This chapter describes briefly optically active sulfur-containing derivatives whose chirality results from the presence of a stereogenic sulfur atom with different valency and coordination numbers. Thus, it updates the more or less rich literature reports on the most common approaches that have made it possible to isolate them as optically active forms. Their recent synthetic applications are also illustrated.
Chiral Selenium and Tellurium-containing Derivatives: Synthesis and Applications
Authors: Pacuła-Miszewska Agata. J. , Ścianowski Jacek , Krasowska Dorota , Drabowicz Jozef
Published: February 2023

The chapter will present the synthesis and applicability of chiral organoselenium and organotellurium compounds. The sections will be divided according to the utility of particular derivatives as electrophilic and nucleophilic reagents, selenide-based compounds including selenoxides, selenonium salts and ylides, and Se-catalysts. All Te-based compounds will be summarized as a general group of derivatives.
Nucleophilic Chalcogen-containing Reagents
Authors: Tanini Damiano , Capperucci Antonella , Menichetti Stefano
Published: February 2023

Nucleophilic sulfur- and selenium-containing reagents include versatile classes of compounds with broad application in organic and inorganic synthesis. In this chapter, synthetic applications of “unconventional” chalcogen nucleophilic reagents, containing chalcogen–boron, chalcogen–aluminium, chalcogen–silicon, and chalcogen–tin bonds, are reviewed. Focusing on more recent developments, reactions of these species with a variety of electrophilic partners are presented. Particular emphasis is devoted to advances in the field achieved over the last two decades.
The Chemistry of Selenium-catalyzed Redox Processes
Authors: Back Thomas G.
Published: February 2023

The redox properties of selenium enable a diverse range of synthetically useful and often unique reactions. These processes typically require stoichiometric amounts of selenium reagents, but more recent catalytic versions employing appropriate co-oxidants or co-reductants have reduced the cost, improved the atom economy, and minimized the formation of unnecessary selenium-containing waste products. These improvements have resulted in “greener” protocols that in turn have created renewed interest and innovative synthetic applications in the field of selenium chemistry. Furthermore, the careful design of selenium-based catalysts has improved the efficiency of previously known reactions, along with the development of novel regio-, diastereo-, and enantio-selective processes.
Computational Methods to Study Chalcogen Bonds
Authors: Arca Massimiliano , Ciancaleoni Gianluca , Pintus Anna
Published: February 2023

Chalcogen bonds (ChB) are acknowledged to be an influential noncovalent interaction between an electron-deficient chalcogen (donor) and a Lewis base (acceptor). While a general agreement in classifying ChB among σ-hole interactions holds, the relative contribution of covalency, electrostatic, and dispersion factors is still under debate because of the different views that different computational approaches and theoretical models put forward. A comparative analysis of the computational approaches used to describe the nature of ChB is presented along with an overview of the interacting systems investigated as model cases.
The Discovery of Glutathione Peroxidases: Milestones in Understanding the Biological Role of Selenium und Sulfur
Authors: Flohé Leopold
Published: February 2023

With the discovery of glutathione peroxidase (GPx1), the role of glutathione in counteracting oxidative challenge became clear. GPx1 was the first selenoprotein discovered in mammals. It contains a selenocysteine residue integrated into the peptide chain. The phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase (GPx4) also proved to be a selenoprotein. In the cytosol, it inhibits lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis; in the nucleus, it supports protamine compaction; its mitochondrial expression form builds the sheath surrounding the mitochondria in spermatozoa and is essential for male fertility. In the meantime, glutathione peroxidases have grown into a large family of enzymes that work with selenium or with sulfur catalysis. With the growing knowledge that hydroperoxides are not just toxic, but normal intermediates of biosynthetic processes and signaling molecules, glutathione peroxidases had to be re-considered as regulatory proteins in signaling cascades, as modulators of enzyme activities, or as hydrogen peroxide sensors. The extraordinary catalytic efficiency of both the selenium- and sulfur-containing enzymes remained enigmatic for a long time. Recent quantum mechanical approaches revealed a concerted dual attack on the peroxide bond, which explains why their speed of peroxide reduction is orders of magnitude higher than that of any low molecular weight thiol or selenol.
Solar-driven CO2 reduction catalysed by hybrid supramolecular photocathodes and enhanced by ionic liquids
Authors: Miró Roger , Guzmán Hilmar , Godard Cyril , Gual Aitor , Zammillo Federica , Schubert Thomas J. S. , Iliev Boyan , Chiodoni Angelica , Hernández Simelys , de los Bernardos Miriam Díaz
Published: February 2023

New hybrid photocathode assemblies were used in the photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction in the presence of an ionic liquid that acts as both absorbent and electrolyte.
Aldolase and N-heterocyclic carbene gold(i) catalysts: compartmentalization and immobilization on anionic clays for concurrent hybrid catalysis at acidic pH
Authors: Gastaldi Cédric , Hélaine Virgil , Joly Muriel , Gautier Arnaud , Forano Claude , Guérard-Hélaine Christine
Published: February 2023

Limitations to concurrent reactions involving hybrid catalysis, such as acidic pH, elevated temperature and catalyst incompatibilities, were overcome by immobilizing cells harbouring the enzyme, and compartmentalizing catalysts.
Recent advances in quantum dot-based fluorescence-linked immunosorbent assays
Authors: Lv Yanbing , Fan Jinjin , Zhao Man , Wu Ruili , Li Lin Song
Published: February 2023

Quantum dot-based fluorescence-linked immunosorbent assays (QD-FLISAs) have been greatly developed in the field of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and food safety due to their advantages of high sensitivity, high precision and high throughput.
A W‐band dual‐beam low side‐lobe level antenna with shared slotted waveguide arrays
Authors: Wang Jie , Xu Guangyang , Lin Hai , Ge Junxiang
Published: February 2023

A W‐band dual‐beam low side‐lobe level antenna with a shared slotted waveguide radiating layer was designed by the authors. The proposed antenna consists of a symmetrical dual ports feed network layer located on two sides of the antenna, a novel shared symmetrical 4 × 32 slotted waveguide array radiation layer, and a bottom layer. The compact slot distance was adjusted to achieve deflection of the radiation pattern and reduce the radiation grating lobes. Good antenna radiation efficiency and port isolation were obtained by optimising the position of the slots at the radiation layer. A low side‐lobe level (SLL) was obtained using Taylor distribution was used in the design of the offset of each slot. The optimised antenna was fabricated and measured. Based on measurement results, the designed antenna has a 24.8 dBi far‐field gain, −17/–25.5 dB E/H plane side lobe level, and 19.8° beam deflection at 94 GHz. The performances of the two ports were in good agreement with each other, and the measured isolation was above 14.5 dB at 94 GHz.
A data‐driven scheduling approach for integrated electricity‐hydrogen system based on improved DDPG
Authors: Zhao Yaping , Huang Jingsi , Xu Endong , Wang Jianxiao , Xu Xiaoyun
Published: February 2023

The involvement of hydrogen energy systems has been recognised as a promising way to mitigate climate problems. As a kind of efficient multi‐energy complementary system, the hydropower‐photovoltaic‐hydrogen (HPH) system could be an ideal approach to combining hydrogen with an installed renewable energy system to improve the flexibility of energy management and reduce power curtailment. However, the intra‐day scheduling of HPH system brings challenges due to the time‐related nonlinear hydropower generation process, the complex energy conversion process and the uncertain natural resource supply. Faced with these challenges, an improved deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG)‐based data‐driven scheduling algorithm is proposed. In contrast to the prevalent DDPG, two sets of actor‐critic networks are properly designed based on prior knowledge‐based deep neural networks for the considered complex uncertain system to search for near‐optimal policies and approximate actor‐value functions. In addition, customized reward functions are proposed with the consideration of interactions among different energy supplies, which helps to improve convergence speed and stability. Finally, the case study results demonstrate that the proposed system model and the optimal energy management strategy based on the improved DDPG algorithm can guide the electricity‐hydrogen system to achieve rapid response and more reasonable energy management.
Presurgical Perspective and Postsurgical Evaluation of Non-Achilles Tendons of the Ankle and Retinaculum
Authors: Abou Diwan Ralph , Badr Sammy , Boulil Youssef , Demondion Xavier , Maynou Carlos , Cotten Anne
Published: February 2023

The vast majority of non-Achilles ankle tendinopathies are related to overuse. This article discusses the clinical aspect, imaging appearance, and management of tendinopathies of the lateral, medial, and the anterior compartments with a focus on presurgical perspective and postsurgical evaluation.
Krankenhausreform: Gute Ansätze jetzt auch umsetzen
Authors: Ekkernkamp Axel
Published: February 2023

Erst in den kommenden Wochen und Monaten wird sich wohl entscheiden, ob es in der deutschen Kliniklandschaft wirklich zu einer „Revolution“ kommt, wie sie Bundesgesundheitsminister Karl Lauterbach bei der Vorstellung der Reformvorschläge durch eine Expertenkommission verkündet hatte.
Senkrechtstarterin des Jahres 2022: Claudia Luck-Sikorski: Blick über den Tellerrand
Authors: Hohnstein Aileen
Published: February 2023

Das Gesundheitswesen positiv zu formen und zu mehr Versorgungsqualität zu führen, das ist ein Hauptanliegen von Prof. Dr. Claudia Luck-Sikorski. Die Präsidentin der SRH Hochschule für Gesundheit in Gera setzt dafür auf die Akademisierung von Gesundheitsberufen, mehr Forschung und ein förderliches Arbeitsumfeld für Studierende und Mitarbeitende.
Krankenhausreform: Härtetest für schwierige Kompromisse
Authors: Hollmig Luisa-Maria
Published: February 2023

Bund und Länder haben sich zusammengerauft, bis zur Sommerpause soll der Referentenentwurf für Lauterbachs großes Reformvorhaben vorliegen. Doch einige Bundesländer treiben längst eigene Krankenhausplanungen voran. Wie lässt sich das ohne größere Konfllikte miteinander vereinbaren?
Betriebshaftpflichtversicherung: Haftpflicht aus Perspektive der Klinikmanager
Authors: Schaefer Daniel
Published: February 2023

Die Teuerung setzt das Management in der Krankenhauslandschaft stark unter Druck. Bei der Suche nach Optimierungspotenzial rückt daher regelmäßig die Prämie für die Betriebshaftpflichtversicherung als einer der größten wiederkehrenden Einzelposten auf der Ausgabenseite in den Blick. Dabei geht es um mehr als allein die Versicherungsprämie.
Online-Weiterbildung: Konzernweites Lernmanagementsystem
Authors: Jermann Christoph
Published: February 2023

Die Asklepios Kliniken Gruppe hat bereits einige Services von der analogen in die digitale Welt gebracht. 2022 war „ASKnow“ an der Reihe, ein für alle 170 Einrichtungen einheitliches Lernmanagementsystem.
Kurzprogramm Intensivpflege: Per Crashkurs auf die Intensivstation
Authors: Dorner Carola
Published: February 2023

Intensiv Light? Das klingt nach einem Widerspruch. Dass beides zusammengeht, beweist das Kurzprogramm Intensivpflege, in dem Pflegekräfte kurz und intensiv auf die Intensivstationen vorbereitet werden. Pflegekraft Tiana Stickling hat es ausprobiert.
Krebsimmuntherapie personalisieren: Mit dem Mikrobiom in die Zukunft sehen
Authors: Hohnstein Aileen
Published: February 2023

Können schon vor einer Krebstherapie deren Erfolgsaussichten oder auch Nebenwirkungen für Patientinnen und Patienten vorhergesagt werden? Das Unternehmen Biome Diagnostics hat dafür einen Test entwickelt und medizinisch zertifizieren lassen. Durch die Analyse von Darmbakterien und den Einsatz von maschinellem Lernen soll die Krebsbehandlung künftig zielgerichteter und kostengünstiger werden.
Suppression of substrate temperature in DC magnetron sputtering deposition by magnetic mirror-type magnetron cathode
Authors: Motomura Taisei , Takemura Kenshin , Nagase Toshimi , Morita Nobutomo , Tabaru Tatsuo
Published: February 2023

Magnetron sputtering generally increases the temperature of the substrate placed to face the sputtering target above 40 °C because the plasmas are transported through unbalanced magnetic field lines from the sputtering target to the substrate surface. However, by using a magnetic mirror-type magnetron cathode, we were able to suppress the temperature of the substrate temperature to the environmental temperature of less than 40 °C at a target–substrate distance of ≥50 mm with a DC input power of ≤30 W and an Ar gas pressure of ≤0.15 Pa. This was possible because the balanced magnetic field lines confined the plasmas near the sputtering target. By enabling film deposition on low heat-resistant substrates, this deposition technique for suppressing the substrate temperature may have uses in various application fields.