bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CertBench: conclusions from the comparison of certification results derived on system test benches and in the field
Authors: Jassmann Uwe , Frehn Anica , Röttgers Heiko , Santjer Fritz , Mehler Christian , Beißel Thomas , Kaven Lennard , von den Hoff Daniel , Frühmann Richard , Azarian Soroush , Neshati Mohsen , Quistorf Gesa , Zuga Adam , Brennecke Martin , Jersch Torben , Schelenz Ralf
Published: March 2021

This paper presents measurement results of the world wide first successful certification the electrical properties of a wind turbine, solely based upon measurements obtained at a system test bench with HiL-System and grid emulator. For all certification relevant tests the results are compared to field measurements. The impact of the real-time models in the HiL-System as well as the converter-based grid emulator are discussed in this paper. For full converter wind turbine, different requirements for the model depth could be determined depending on the tests. Nevertheless, higher-quality models that reflect the plant behaviour better are recommended to reduce uncertainties within the certification process. This paper also shows that especially for grid failure events grid emulators require real-time impedance control, in order to emulate grid failures properly. Based on these findings, recommendations for the requirements on test bench components are formulated in this paper, in order to contribute to new certification guidelines. Overall, we conclude that based on the experiences made at two different system test benches, the vast majority of certification measurements can be carried out without limitation at such system test benches.
Optimization of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with a supercontinuum source for in vivo motion detection of low reflective outer hair cells in guinea pig cochleae
Authors: Nin Fumiaki , Choi Samuel , Ota Takeru , Qi Zhang , Hibino Hiroshi
Published: March 2021

Sound evokes sub-nanoscale vibration within the sensory epithelium. The epithelium contains not only immotile cells but also contractile outer hair cells (OHCs) that actively shrink and elongate synchronously with the sound. However, the in vivo motion of OHCs has remained undetermined. The aim of this work is to perform high-resolution and -accuracy vibrometry in live guinea pigs with an SC-introduced spectral-domain optical coherence tomography system (SD-OCT). In this study, to reveal the effective contribution of SC source in the recording of the low reflective materials with the short total acquisition time, we compare the performances of the SC-introduced SD-OCT (SCSD-OCT) to that of the conventional SD-OCT. As inanimate comparison objects, we record a mirror, a piezo actuator, and glass windows. For the measurements in biological materials, we use in/ex vivo guinea pig cochleae. Our study achieved the optimization of a SD-OCT system for high-resolution in vivo vibrometry in the cochlear sensory epithelium, termed the organ of Corti, in mammalian cochlea. By introducing a supercontinuum (SC) light source and reducing the total acquisition time, we improve the axial resolution and overcome the difficulty in recording the low reflective material in the presence of biological noise. The high power of the SC source enables the system to achieve a spatial resolution of 1.72 ± 0.00 μm on a mirror and reducing the total acquisition time contributes to the high spatial accuracy of sub-nanoscale vibrometry. Our findings reveal the vibrations at the apical/basal region of OHCs and the extracellular matrix, basilar membrane.
Matroid bases with cardinality constraints on the intersection
Authors: Lendl Stefan , Peis Britta , Timmermans Veerle
Published: March 2021

Given two matroids $$\mathcal {M}_{1} = (E, \mathcal {B}_{1})$$

M
1

=

(
E
,

B
1

)

and $$\mathcal {M}_{2} = (E, \mathcal {B}_{2})$$

M
2

=

(
E
,

B
2

)

on a common ground set E with base sets $$\mathcal {B}_1$$

B
1

and $$\mathcal {B}_2$$

B
2

, some integer $$k \in \mathbb {N}$$

k
∈
N

, and two cost functions $$c_{1}, c_{2} :E \rightarrow \mathbb {R}$$

c
1

,

c
2

:
E
→
R

, we consider the optimization problem to find a basis $$X \in \mathcal {B}_{1}$$

X
∈

B
1

and a basis $$Y \in \mathcal {B}_{2}$$

Y
∈

B
2

minimizing the cost $$\sum _{e\in X} c_1(e)+\sum _{e\in Y} c_2(e)$$

∑

e
∈
X

c
1

(
e
)

+

∑

e
∈
Y

c
2

(
e
)

subject to either a lower bound constraint $$|X \cap Y| \le k$$

|
X
∩
Y
|
≤
k

, an upper bound constraint $$|X \cap Y| \ge k$$

|
X
∩
Y
|
≥
k

, or an equality constraint $$|X \cap Y| = k$$

|
X
∩
Y
|
=
k

on the size of the intersection of the two bases X and Y. The problem with lower bound constraint turns out to be a generalization of the Recoverable Robust Matroid problem under interval uncertainty representation for which the question for a strongly polynomial-time algorithm was left as an open question in Hradovich et al. (J Comb Optim 34(2):554–573, 2017). We show that the two problems with lower and upper bound constraints on the size of the intersection can be reduced to weighted matroid intersection, and thus be solved with a strongly polynomial-time primal-dual algorithm. We also present a strongly polynomial, primal-dual algorithm that computes a minimum cost solution for every feasible size of the intersection k in one run with asymptotic running time equal to one run of Frank’s matroid intersection algorithm. Additionally, we discuss generalizations of the problems from matroids to polymatroids, and from two to three or more matroids. We obtain a strongly polynomial time algorithm for the recoverable robust polymatroid base problem with interval uncertainties.
Quotient-space boundary element methods for scattering at complex screens
Authors: Claeys Xavier , Giacomel Lorenzo , Hiptmair Ralf , Urzúa-Torres Carolina
Published: March 2021

A complex screen is an arrangement of panels that may not be even locally orientable because of junction lines. A comprehensive trace space framework for first-kind variational boundary integral equations on complex screens has been established in Claeys and Hiptmair (Integr Equ Oper Theory 77:167–197, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00020-013-2085-x) for the Helmholtz equation, and in Claeys and Hiptmair (Integr Equ Oper Theory 84:33–68, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00020-015-2242-5) for Maxwell’s equations in frequency domain. The gist is a quotient space perspective that allows to make sense of jumps of traces as factor spaces of multi-trace spaces modulo single-trace spaces without relying on orientation. This paves the way for formulating first-kind boundary integral equations in weak form posed on energy trace spaces. In this article we extend that idea to the Galerkin boundary element (BE) discretization of first-kind boundary integral equations. Instead of trying to approximate jumps directly, the new quotient space boundary element method employs a Galerkin BE approach in multi-trace boundary element spaces. This spawns discrete boundary integral equations with large null spaces comprised of single-trace functions. Yet, since the right-hand-sides of the linear systems of equations are consistent, Krylov subspace iterative solvers like GMRES are not affected by the presence of a kernel and still converge to a solution. This is strikingly confirmed by numerical tests.
The unknown agents of European cooperation, and their future
Authors: Brenninkmeijer Alex
Published: March 2021

Since the Maastricht Treaty, the EU has created 37 agencies and bodies covering nearly every aspect of our daily lives. However, agencies have always played a supporting role, serving national interests as well as those of Brussels, and their pivotal role in bringing those interests together is often overlooked. As agencies have increasingly been used as a solution for addressing the challenges facing Europe, their relationship with the European Commission, the Member States and EU citizens also needs to evolve as a model for European cooperation. A few guiding principles are relevant for this purpose, and have already been set out in a performance audit entitled “Future of EU agencies – Potential for more flexibility and cooperation” for which I had the pleasure to serve as the reporting Member to the European Parliament.
“Listening to the Sounds of the Water”: Bringing Together Local Knowledge and Biophysical Data to Understand Climate-Related Hazard Dynamics
Authors: Pauli Natasha , Williams Mark , Henningsen Savuti , Davies Kevin , Chhom Chanchhaya , van Ogtrop Floris , Hak Sochanny , Boruff Bryan , Neef Andreas
Published: March 2021

Integrating local knowledge and scientific information can aid in co-developing locally relevant approaches for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Communities along the Mekong River have adapted to variability in temperature, rainfall, and flooding patterns over time. Rapid environmental change in the Mekong Basin presents a new set of challenges related to drought, altered seasonal rainfall, more frequent high-flow flood events, and water withdrawals for hydropower and irrigation. We present a multi-method approach to understand how local knowledge of the spatial and temporal patterns of floods, droughts, and rainfall can be integrated with scientific information along a flood-prone section of the lower Mekong River in Kratie Province, Cambodia. Participatory hazard mapping of community members’ knowledge of the movement of floodwaters through the landscape enabled interpretation of flood extent mapping using Synthetic Aperture Radar images from the Sentinel-1A satellite. Seasonal calendars of weather patterns and livelihood activities, together with local indicators of flooding, rainfall, and drought were compared with trends in 35 years of rainfall data, and highlighted “pressure points” at the beginning and end of the rainy season where agriculture may be particularly impacted by climate change. We discuss potential applications of our findings for adaptation and hazard planning.
End-to-end heart sound segmentation using deep convolutional recurrent network
Authors: Chen Yao , Sun Yanan , Lv Jiancheng , Jia Bijue , Huang Xiaoming
Published: March 2021

Heart sound segmentation (HSS) aims to detect the four stages (first sound, systole, second heart sound and diastole) from a heart cycle in a phonocardiogram (PCG), which is an essential step in automatic auscultation analysis. Traditional HSS methods need to manually extract the features before dealing with HSS tasks. These artificial features highly rely on extraction algorithms, which often result in poor performance due to the different operating environments. In addition, the high-dimension and frequency characteristics of audio also challenge the traditional methods in effectively addressing HSS tasks. This paper presents a novel end-to-end method based on convolutional long short-term memory (CLSTM), which directly uses audio recording as input to address HSS tasks. Particularly, the convolutional layers are designed to extract the meaningful features and perform the downsampling, and the LSTM layers are developed to conduct the sequence recognition. Both components collectively improve the robustness and adaptability in processing the HSS tasks. Furthermore, the proposed CLSTM algorithm is easily extended to other complex heart sound annotation tasks, as it does not need to extract the characteristics of corresponding tasks in advance. In addition, the proposed algorithm can also be regarded as a powerful feature extraction tool, which can be integrated into the existing models for HSS. Experimental results on real-world PCG datasets, through comparisons to peer competitors, demonstrate the outstanding performance of the proposed algorithm.
Lockdown and Children’s Well-Being: Experiences of Children in Switzerland, Canada and Estonia
Authors: Stoecklin Daniel , Gervais Christine , Kutsar Dagmar , Heite Catrin
Published: March 2021

This paper addresses the well-being of children in Switzerland, Canada and Estonia, as they experienced the lockdown imposed by governments after the state of international public health emergency, declared by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020. Suspension of school or starting with distance learning, cessation of extracurricular activities, closure of playgrounds, parks, shopping centres and loss of daily contacts with friends completely transformed children’s lives. The surveys conducted by the authors in individual ways, were all inspired by their membership to the Children’s Understandings of Well-Being network and involved the participation of 403 children aged 7–17 years old (229 girls and 174 boys). They present the emerging trends from the children’s narratives focusing on their experience of the lockdown in relation to family life, school life, contacts with friends, and in relation to space, time and self. During the lockdown leisure activities and hobbies, followed by life with friends and school life challenged relational well-being the most, while family life opened up new perspectives and generational solidarity. Staying at home and decreased physical activity impacted on the physical health of children, missing direct contacts with friends and teachers put social relations to test, fear of the virus decreased feeling safe and secure, and the lockdown restricted participation in society. The findings underline the relational nature of their well-being. More in-depth studies are needed to highlight the widening of inequalities and the balance between protection and participation of children.
Determinanten der kommunalen Steuerpolitik
Authors: Person Christian
Published: March 2021

Die eigenverantwortliche Festsetzung der kommunalen Steuersätze stellt ein wichtiges Element der verfassungsrechtlich verbrieften Finanzautonomie kommunaler Gebietskörperschaften dar. Diese Handlungsspielräume werden von den Kommunen unterschiedlich wahrgenommen. Folglich bestehen zwischen den Kommunen erhebliche Divergenzen in der Ausgestaltung ihrer Steuerpolitik. Daher stellt sich die Frage, wie sich diese Diskrepanzen erklären lassen. Sind diese auf sozioökonomische, budgetäre oder parteipolitische Einflussfaktoren zurückzuführen? Zur Klärung dieser Frage wird im Rahmen des Beitrags die kommunale Realsteuerpolitik in sechs Bundesländern zwischen 2004 und 2013 analysiert. Dabei stellen sich vor allem sozioökonomische und budgetäre Einflussfaktoren als erklärungskräftig heraus, wohingegen Parteieneffekte nur vereinzelt festzustellen sind. Dies verdeutlicht, dass der Handlungsspielraum von Parteien auf lokaler Ebene durch den wachsenden fiskalischen Problemdruck zunehmend eingeengt wird. Lediglich bei den Grundsteuern scheinen begrenzte Gestaltungsspielräume zu bestehen, die sich teilweise in parteipolitisch bedingten Differenzen manifestieren. Durch die Identifikation relevanter Determinanten der kommunalen Steuerpolitik leistet der Aufsatz somit einen Beitrag zu einem besseren Verständnis lokaler Haushaltspolitik.
Effect of eccentricity and inner pipe motion on flow instability for flow through annulus
Authors: Dewangan Satish Kumar
Published: March 2021

Present work implements the Energy gradient method (EGM) to study the effect of variation in eccentricity, radius ratio and inner pipe movement on the fully developed flow of Newtonian fluid through an annulus for the flow instability. The formula for the flow stability parameter has been derived considering the eccentricity and radius ratio of the annulus. Results have been plotted for flow stability parameter (K) for annulus of various eccentricity and radius ratio. Further, the relationships for the critical flow parameter have also been obtained. Flow instability is very crucial parameter in oil well drilling process as turbulent flow is desirable for the transportation of rock cuttings to the surface generated during the process.
Succession to the Throne in Early Modern Russia
Authors: Bushkovitch Paul
Published: March 2021

This revisionist history of succession to the throne in early modern Russia, from the Moscow princes of the fifteenth century to Peter the Great, argues that legal primogeniture never existed: the monarch designated an heir that was usually the eldest son only by custom, not by law. Overturning generations of scholarship, Paul Bushkovitch persuasively demonstrates the many paths to succession to the throne, where designation of the heir and occasional elections were part of the relations of the monarch with the ruling elite, and to some extent the larger population. Exploring how the forms of designation evolved over the centuries as Russian culture changed, and in the later seventeenth century made use of Western practices, this study shows how, when Peter the Great finally formalized the custom in 1722 by enshrining the power of the tsar to designate in law, this was not a radical innovation but was in fact consistent with the experience of the previous centuries.
Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following the Earthquake in Iran and Pakistan: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Hosseinnejad Maryam , Yazdi-Feyzabadi Vahid , Hajebi Ahmad , Bahramnejad Ali , Baneshi Reza , Ershad Sarabi Roghayeh , Okhovati Maryam , Zahedi Razieh , Saberi Hossein , Zolala Farzaneh
Published: March 2021

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental disorder following traumatic events. The present study was conducted to understand the prevalence of PTSD after the earthquake in Iran and Pakistan. The review includes all articles published from inception to March 2019. The pooled prevalence for overall PTSD was 55.6% (95% CI: 49.9–61.3). It was 60.2% (95% CI: 54.1–66.3) and 49.2% (95% CI: 39.4–59) for Iranian and Pakistani survivors, respectively. Women experienced higher incidence of PTSD than men. The variation of PTSD based on the clinical interview was lower than the self-report approach. The interval time between the earthquakes and the assessment showed that the prevalence of PTSD decreased over time. The prevalence of PTSD in Iran and Pakistan was higher than the global average, and the rate of the disorder in Iran was higher than in Pakistan. Sex, method of assessment, and time lag between the occurrence of disaster and assessment of PTSD affect the prevalence.
Estimating logit models with small samples
Authors: Rainey Carlisle , McCaskey Kelly
Published: March 2021

In small samples, maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of logit model coefficients have substantial bias away from zero. As a solution, we remind political scientists of Firth's (1993,Biometrika,80, 27–38) penalized maximum likelihood (PML) estimator. Prior research has described and used PML, especially in the context of separation, but its small sample properties remain under-appreciated. The PML estimator eliminates most of the bias and, perhaps more importantly, greatly reduces the variance of the usual ML estimator. Thus, researchers do not face a bias-variance tradeoff when choosing between the ML and PML estimators—the PML estimator has a smaller biasanda smaller variance. We use Monte Carlo simulations and a re-analysis of George and Epstein (1992,American Political Science Review,86, 323–337) to show that the PML estimator offers a substantial improvement in small samples (e.g., 50 observations) and noticeable improvement even in larger samples (e.g., 1000 observations).
RADIO AND THE ROAD: INFRASTRUCTURE, MOBILITY, AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN THE BEGINNINGS OF RADIO RURALE DE KAYES (1980–EARLY 2000s)
Authors: Mbodj-Pouye Aïssatou
Published: March 2021

Mali's first nonstate radio went on air during the authoritarian rule of Moussa Traoré in 1988, challenging the common narrative that ties political and media liberalization together. Negotiations were conducted by Italian NGOs at a time when such organizations had become key political actors in Sahelian countries. The implementation of Radio Rurale de Kayes was part of a wider infrastructural project that notably included a road. This historical account follows the metaphorical and literal association between the radio and the road in order to reflect on mobility and its constraints. Tracing the radio's trajectory from space-making to community-building, it shows how the station managed to sustain itself thanks to its position within an emerging network of associations led by return migrants and because of how it fitted into local infrastructures of mobility, thus calling for a stronger attention to the relation between radio, the audiences it convenes, and space.
DISASTER IN A ‘PLURAL SOCIETY’: CYCLONES, DECOLONIZATION, AND MODERN AFRO-MAURITIAN IDENTITY
Authors: Rouphail Robert M.
Published: March 2021

In February of 1960, the most powerful cyclone in Mauritian history, Carol, made landfall. In its wake, the British colonial state embarked on a reconstruction effort that would reshape the island for decades to come. This study examines how Afro-descendant Creole Mauritians understood Carol at the moment of its landfall and produced social meaning in the reconstruction efforts that followed. It sheds light in particular on the construction ofcités, ‘cyclone-proof’ housing estates meant to permanently shelter those left homeless, at a moment when questions of racial coexistence defined debates over the end of empire. It shows that the building of thecitésand the prospect of home ownership they allowed would become important touchstones in contemporary Afro-Mauritian notions of belonging and permanence in a society structured by racial exclusion. In so doing, this essay emphasizes the importance of the natural world to narratives of diasporic community in the southwest Indian Ocean.
Utility of sleep nasendoscopy versus microlaryngotracheobronchoscopy in the diagnosis of paediatric upper airway obstruction
Authors: Khong G , Sood S , Jones H , Sharma S , De S
Published: March 2021

Objective

To describe the utility of sleep nasendoscopy in determining the level of upper airway obstruction compared to microlaryngotracheobronchoscopy.

Methods

A retrospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary level paediatric hospital. Patients clinically diagnosed with upper airway obstruction warranting surgical intervention (i.e. with obstructive sleep apnoea or laryngomalacia) were included. These patients underwent sleep nasendoscopy in the anaesthetic room; microlaryngotracheobronchoscopy was subsequently performed and findings were compared.

Results

Twenty-seven patients were included in the study. Sleep nasendoscopy was able to induce stridor or stertor, and to detect obstruction at the level of palate and pharynx, including tongue base collapse, that was not observed with microlaryngotracheobronchoscopy. Only 47 per cent of patients who had prolapse or indrawing of arytenoids on sleep nasendoscopy had similar findings on microlaryngotracheobronchoscopy. However, microlaryngotracheobronchoscopy was better in diagnosing shortened aryepiglottic folds.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates the utility of sleep nasendoscopy in determining the level and severity of obstruction by mimicking physiological sleep dynamics of the upper airway.
Looking out from Goa, 1648: Perspectives on a crisis of the Estado da Índia
Authors: SUBRAHMANYAM SANJAY
Published: March 2021

In 1648, the Portuguese Estado da Índia found itself at a crossroads. After nearly five decades of attacks by a variety of adversaries—the Dutch East India Company, the Safavids, the Mughals, the Tokugawa shoguns, and the rulers of Kandy, among others—and in the context of the ‘Restoration’ of the Braganza dynasty in Portugal in 1640 and the separation of Portugal from Spain, a brief respite was offered. This article looks at how the situation was diagnosed by various contemporary authors, both outsiders and consummate insiders, such as the viceroy Dom Filipe de Mascarenhas. It suggests that the heavy constraints placed on the state by external forces as well as by forces of internal dissension compelled it to reinvent itself, a process that eventually began in the 1660s. However, this reinvention was not about simply imitating its great rival, the Dutch East India Company.
Systemic efficacy on Cryptosporidium parvum infection of aminoxanide (RM-5061), a new amino-acid ester thiazolide prodrug of tizoxanide
Authors: Diawara El Hadji , François Arnaud , Stachulski Andrew V. , Razakandrainibe Romy , Costa Damien , Favennec Loïc , Rossignol Jean-François , Gargala Gilles
Published: March 2021

Cryptosporidiosis is a gastrointestinal illness with profuse diarrhoea. Although there are no other Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved alternatives for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis, nitazoxanide (NTZ) can be qualified as partially effective. In immunosuppressed conditions, severe and/or disseminated cryptosporidiosis may occur and patients should be treated parenterally. To achieve the goal of developing parenteral treatment for cryptosporidiosis, the current study was undertaken to investigate the in vitro and in vivo anticryptosporidial activity of aminoxanide. This new l-tert-leucyl thiazolide is a soluble prodrug of tizoxanide (TIZ), the main metabolite of NTZ. Confirming the good efficacy of aminoxanide in Cryptosporidium parvum-infected HCT-8 cells with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 1.55 μm (±0.21), in immunosuppressed C. parvum-infected Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus), a 5-day treatment with a daily intramuscular dose of 100 mg kg−1 aminoxanide resulted in a 72.5% oocyst excretion inhibition, statistically equivalent to 75.5% in gerbils treated with a 4-fold lower oral dose of NTZ. Cryptosporidium parvum-induced intestinal pathology and inflammation were improved. Aminoxanide provides an injectable form of TIZ that NTZ was unable to do and is a promising drug for which optimization of the formulation should be further explored. These results represent a first promising step towards the goal of developing a parenteral treatment for cryptosporidiosis.
Molecular characterization ofCysticercus tenuicollisisolates from sheep in the Nile Delta, Egypt and a review onTaenia hydatigenainfections worldwide
Authors: Abbas Ibrahim , El-Alfy El-Sayed , Janecek-Erfurth Elisabeth , Strube Christina
Published: March 2021

The predator–prey-transmitted cestodeTaenia hydatigenainfects a wide range of definitive and intermediate hosts all over the world. Domestic and sylvatic cycles of transmission are considered as well. The parasite has considerable economic importance, particularly in sheep. Here, the molecular characters ofT. hydatigenacysticerci in sheep from the Nile Delta, Egypt were investigated for the first time. For this purpose, 200 sheep carcasses and their offal were inspected at the municipal abattoir, Dakahlia governorate, Egypt. Cysticerci ofT. hydatigenawere collected and molecularly characterized employing the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene. Cysticerci were found in 42 (21%) sheep, mostly attached to the omenti, mesenteries and livers. After molecular confirmation, nine isolates were sequenced displaying six different haplotypes. Analysis of theT. hydatigena12S rRNA nucleotide sequences deposited in GenBank revealed 55 haplotypes out of 69 isolates, displaying high haplotype (0.797) and low nucleotide (0.00739) diversities. For the Tajima D neutrality index, a negative value (−2.702) was determined, indicating the population expansion of the parasite. Additionally, global data summarized in this study should be useful to set up effective control strategies against this ubiquitous parasite.
Echinococcus granulosus cyst fluid suppresses inflammatory responses by inhibiting TRAF6 signalling in macrophages
Authors: Lin Ke , Zhou Di , Li Min , Meng Jin , He Feiming , Yang Xiaofeng , Dong Dan , Wang Xian , Wu Xiangwei , Chen Xueling , Hou Jun
Published: March 2021

Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato has complex defence mechanisms that protect it from the anti-parasitic immune response for long periods. Echinococcus granulosus cyst fluid (EgCF) is involved in the immune escape. Nevertheless, whether and how EgCF modulates the inflammatory response in macrophages remains poorly understood. Here, real-time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay revealed that EgCF could markedly attenuate the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced production of pro-inflammatory factors including tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-6 but increase the expression of IL-10 at mRNA and protein levels in mouse peritoneal macrophages and RAW 264.7 cells. Mechanically, western blotting and immunofluorescence assay showed that EgCF abolished the activation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and ERK1/2 signalling pathways by LPS stimulation in mouse macrophages. EgCF's anti-inflammatory role was at least partly contributed by promoting proteasomal degradation of the critical adaptor TRAF6. Moreover, the EgCF-promoted anti-inflammatory response and TRAF6 proteasomal degradation were conserved in human THP-1 macrophages. These findings collectively reveal a novel mechanism by which EgCF suppresses inflammatory responses by inhibiting TRAF6 and the downstream activation of NF-κB and MAPK signalling in both human and mouse macrophages, providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the E. granulosus-induced immune evasion.
The role of social innovation policy in social service sector reform: Evidence from Hong Kong
Authors: CHAN CHEE HON , CHUI CHERYL HIU-KWAN , CHANDRA YANTO
Published: March 2021

This article illustrates how the term “social innovation” is used in the public policy domain in Hong Kong in relation to the new public management (NPM) reform of the social service sector, which originated in the early 2000s. Through document reviews and interviews, the role that social innovation policy has played in instigating changes in the contemporary social service field in the post-NPM era is identified. This includes facilitating emergence of “new” forms of social entrepreneurial activities to fill unmet social needs, empowering new actors in entering the social service sector, and reinforcing the government’s position in the NPM reform. Adopting historical institutionalism as the analytical framework, multiple path-dependent characteristics arising from the historical legacies of the incumbent social service environment – such as the longstanding partnership between the state and non-profits – are highlighted. These historical factors have weakened the efficacy of the policy efforts aimed at enacting institutional change. Overall, this article demonstrates how historical context matters in the emergence and framing of social innovation policy. It contributes to the theorisation of the role of social innovation in social service sector development in East Asia.
The foundation and development of International Relations in Brazil
Authors: Milani Carlos R. S.
Published: March 2021

This article aims to contribute to the critical understanding of how International Relations (IR) was built as a social science field within Brazil's modern project. I argue that the foundation and the development of IR in Brazil in the twentieth century is closely associated with foreign policy, on the one hand, and with the national geopolitical thinking, particularly in the aftermath of the Second World War, on the other. In its trajectory, Brazil's IR has been influenced, among others, by the analysis of domestic and systemic determinants of foreign policy, historical interpretations, the study of the components of state power, studies of diplomacy and its contribution to the country's development, the analysis of decision-making processes and to a lesser extent, cognitive approaches. This article is organised around three sections. First, I present a brief history of the geopolitical tradition in Brazil's IR. Second, I discuss IR development in Brazil, stressing the role of diplomats, the key contribution of intellectuals coming from social and human sciences, and finally the emergence of the first generations of IR scholars in the eighties. Third, I analyse the institutionalisation of the field, its quantitative and qualitative growth, presenting some data on its organisation in recent times.
Conflicts over common rights to cattle grazing on common lands and manorial properties in Austrian Galicia (1772–1918)
Authors: Popek Joachim
Published: March 2021

The research presented in this article concerns common rights to cattle grazing on common lands and manorial properties in nineteenth-century Austrian Galicia. The findings – obtained by analysing sources from archives and libraries in what is now Ukraine – shed light on the right of peasants and townspeople to graze cattle, along with the circumstances and sources of mass social antagonisms. The rich archival resources permitted a representative group of sources concerning each type of existing conflict to be chosen. The key research problems addressed in this article are the sources for a variety of disputes and their impact on relations between the main social groups and people’s standard of living, the processes of pauperisation and modernisation, and the consequences of abolishing these common rights.
Internal colonisation in rural Romania: the sale of the state-owned estates at the end of the nineteenth century
Authors: Cepraga Theodor , Suditu Bogdan
Published: March 2021

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Romanian provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia experienced a series of modernising reforms, some of them concerning the agrarian regime. The enforcement of the Organic Statues in the 1830s attempted to reform the political and economic life of the principalities, but it favoured the big landowners, at the expense of the peasantry. The agrarian reform enacted in 1864 put an end to serfdom and granted the right to own land to former corvée peasants. It was soon followed by the appropriation for the newlyweds, a law that offered land to newly married peasants in order to settle them in low populated rural areas. Population growth triggered a new demand for agricultural land because the big landowners still controlled approximately two thirds of the arable land. As a result, in 1881 and 1889 the state passed two laws concerning the sale of public domains to the peasantry, attempting to improve their standard of living. This article focuses on the process of rural colonisation, which took place at the end of the nineteenth century after the sale of state-owned estates to the peasants. Using data extracted from official statistics the article analyses, from a spatial point of view, the creation of a series of new settlements in low populated but fertile regions of the country. Finally, the article investigates how, at that time, this rural colonisation was perceived by peasants, politicians and rural sociologists.
The diffusion of maize in the Cantabrian region and its economic and demographic consequences during the Ancient Regime
Authors: Aragón-Ruano Álvaro
Published: March 2021

The cultivation of maize for human consumption started to spread through the Cantabrian region around the end of the sixteenth century. The adoption of the new crop was encouraged by the advent of the Little Ice Age, and the resulting crisis of subsistence, which forced Cantabrian peasants and farmers to search for alternatives to wheat. The importance of maize increased steadily and by the nineteenth century it had become the most important crop grown in the region. This had a number of economic and demographic consequences. In particular, it allowed peasants to produce a surplus that enabled them to become more involved in local and regional markets, providing an essential profit for otherwise precarious farm economies; and it encouraged such markets to become more integrated and more flexible in character. This article explores these issues by focusing on the case of Gipuzkoa, an area with a large amount of previously unused documentary sources.
The Central Uplands of Buchan – a distinctive agricultural zone in the thirteenth century: fact or fiction?
Authors: Shepherd Colin
Published: March 2021

It can be argued, based upon a limited range of surviving evidence, that the land-locked centre of Buchan formed a distinctive upland zone functioning alongside and interwoven with the surrounding lower lands during the thirteenth century. The area can be characterised as less densely settled and engaged in extensive pastoral farming regimes that contrasted with contemporary arable farming of a more intensive nature on the lower-lying lands. Subsequent demographic and agricultural changes have rendered that former environment invisible and the limited documentary sources of the thirteenth century have compounded its mystery. Although a relatively remote upland area, its economy was at least as successful per capita than the rich grain lands surrounding it. Rather than representing a place of secondary importance, it may well have been instrumental in fuelling Aberdeen’s rich thirteenth-century export trade of sheep products to the Low Countries and, perhaps, shared a symbiotic relationship with the lower, arable lands.
The benefits of preregistration for hypothesis-driven bilingualism research
Authors: Mertzen Daniela , Lago Sol , Vasishth Shravan
Published: March 2021

Preregistration is an open science practice that requires the specification of research hypotheses and analysis plans before the data are inspected. Here, we discuss the benefits of preregistration for hypothesis-driven, confirmatory bilingualism research. Using examples from psycholinguistics and bilingualism, we illustrate how non-peer reviewed preregistrations can serve to implement a clean distinction between hypothesis testing and data exploration. This distinction helps researchers avoid casting post-hoc hypotheses and analyses as confirmatory ones. We argue that, in keeping with current best practices in the experimental sciences, preregistration, along with sharing data and code, should be an integral part of hypothesis-driven bilingualism research.
Global patterns in vision loss burden due to vitamin A deficiency from 1990 to 2017
Authors: Xu Yufeng , Shan Yi , Lin Xiling , Miao Qi , Lou Lixia , Wang Yijie , Ye Juan
Published: March 2021

Objective:

To investigate the vision loss burden due to vitamin A deficiency (VAD) at the global, regional and national levels by year, age, sex and socio-economic status using prevalence and years lived with disability (YLD).

Design:

International, retrospective, comparative burden-of-disease study.

Setting:

Prevalence and YLD data were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017. The association of age-standardised YLD rates and human development index (HDI) was tested by Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses. The Gini coefficient and concentration index (CI) were calculated to demonstrate the trends in between-country inequality in vision loss burden due to VAD.

Participants:

All participants met the GBD inclusion criteria.

Results:

The age-standardised prevalence rate increased by 9·2 %, while the age-standardised YLD rates rose by 10·8 % from 1990 to 2017. Notably, the vision loss burden caused by VAD showed a declining trend since 2014. The vision loss burden was more concentrated in the post-neonatal age group and decreased with increasing age. The age-standardised YLD rates were inversely correlated with HDI (r = –0·2417, P = 0·0084). The CI and Gini coefficients indicated that socio-economic-related and between-country inequality declined from 2000 to 2017. VAD was the eighth leading cause of the age-standardised prevalence rate and ninth leading cause of age-standardised YLD rate among fifteen causes of vision loss in 2017.

Conclusion:

VAD has become one of the significant leading causes of vision loss globally. Efforts to control vision impairment related to VAD are needed, especially for children in countries with lower socio-economic status.
Improving the way healthcare professionals deliver different news to families during pregnancy or at birth: a qualitative study
Authors: Mugweni Esther , Goodliffe Samantha , Jaswal Sabrena , Walker Melita , Emrys-Jones Angela , Adams Cheryll , Kendall Sally
Published: March 2021

Aim:

To explore the lived experience of delivering or receiving news about an unborn or newborn child having a condition associated with a learning disability in order to inform the development of a training intervention for healthcare professionals. We refer to this news as different news.

Background:

How healthcare professionals deliver different news to parents affects the way they adjust to the situation, the wellbeing of their child and their ongoing engagement with services. This is the first study that examined the lived experience of delivering and receiving different news, in order to inform the development of training for healthcare professionals using the Theoretical Domains Framework version 2.

Method:

We conducted qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of 9 different parents with the lived experience of receiving different news and 12 healthcare professionals who delivered different news. It was through these descriptions of the lived experience that barriers and facilitators to effectively delivering different news were identified to inform the training programme. Data analysis was guided by Theoretical Domains Framework version 2 to identify these barriers and facilitators as well as the content of a training intervention.

Findings:

Receiving different news had a significant impact on parents’ emotional and mental wellbeing. They remembered how professionals described their child, the quality of care and emotional support they received. The process had a significant impact on the parent–child relationship and the relationship between the family and healthcare professionals.

Delivering different news was challenging for some healthcare professionals due to lack of training. Future training informed by parents’ experiences should equip professionals to demonstrate empathy, compassion, provide a balanced description of conditions and make referrals for further care and support. This can minimise the negative psychological impact of the news, maximise psychological wellbeing of families and reduce the burden on primary care services.
THE PUZZLE OF RACIAL INEQUALITY IN CUBA, 1980s–2010s
Authors: de la Fuente Alejandro , Bailey Stanley R.
Published: March 2021

Contrasting perspectives on racism and racial inequality collide in contemporary Cuba. On the one hand, government officials argue that Cuba is a racially egalitarian country; though vestiges of historical racism subsist, systematic discrimination does not. On the other hand, social movement actors and organizations denounce that racism and discrimination are systemic and affect large sectors of the Afro-Cuban population. To draw these visions into scholarly dialogue, our analytic strategy consists in the comparative examination of both narratives as well as the empirical bases that sustain them. Using data from the 1981, 2002, and 2012 Cuban Censuses for the first time, as well as various non-census evidentiary sources, both quantitative and qualitative, we examine how racial inequality has evolved in Cuba during the last decades. Our analyses of census data suggest that racial stratification has a limited impact on areas such as education, health care, occupation, and positions of leadership. We find, nonetheless, that an expanding and strikingly racialized private sector is fueling dramatic income inequality by skin color beyond the reach of official census data. Our analysis sheds light on how different data can convey profoundly different pictures of racial inequality in a given context. Moreover, we highlight that significant contradictions can coexist in the lived experiences of racism and racial inequality within a single country context.
Ionized gas kinematics and luminosity profiles of Low-z Lyman Alpha Blobs
Authors: Agüero María P. , Díaz Rubén , Schirmer Mischa
Published: March 2021

This work is focused on the characterization of the Seyfert-2 galaxies hosting very large, ultra-luminous narrow-line regions (NLRs) at redshifts z = 0.2−0.34. With a space density of 4.4 Gcp−3 at z ∼ 0.3, these “Low Redshift Lyman-α Blob” (LAB) host galaxies are amongst the rarest objects in the universe, and represent an exceptional and short-lived phenomenon in the life cycle of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We present the study of GMOS spectra for 13 LAB galaxies covering the rest frame spectral range 3700–6700 Å. Predominantly, the [OIII]λ5007 emission line radial distribution is as widespread as that of the continuum one. The emission line profiles exhibit FWHM between 300–700 Km s−1. In 7 of 13 cases a broad kinematical component is detected with FWHM within the range 600–1100 Km s−1. The exceptionally high [OIII]λ5007 luminosity is responsible for very high equivalent width reaching 1500 Å at the nucleus.
Dark matter bar evolution in triaxial spinning haloes
Authors: Marostica Daniel A. , Machado Rubens E. G.
Published: March 2021

Dark matter bars are structures that may form inside dark matter haloes of barred galaxies. Haloes can depart from sphericity and also be subject to some spin. The latter is known to have profound impacts on the evolution of both stellar and DM bars, such as stronger dynamical instabilities, more violent vertical bucklings and dissolution or impairment of stellar bar growth. On the other hand, dark matter bars of spherical haloes become initially stronger in the presence of spin. In this study, we add spin to triaxial halos in order to quantify and compare the strength of their bars. Using N-body simulations, we find that spin accelerates main instabilities and strengthens the halo bars, although their final strength depends only on triaxiality. The most triaxial halo barely forms a halo bar, showing that flattening opposes to DM bar strengthening and indicating that there is a limit on how flattened the parent structure can be.
From global to local scales in galaxies
Authors: Sánchez Sebastian F. , Lopez Cobá Carlos
Published: March 2021

We summarize here some of the results reviewed recently by Sanchez (2020) comprising the advances in the comprehension of galaxies in the nearby universe based on integral field spectroscopic galaxy surveys. In particular we explore the bimodal distribution of galaxies in terms of the properties of their ionized gas, showing the connection between the star-formation (quenching) process with the presence (absence) of molecular gas and the star-formation efficiency. We show two galaxy examples that illustrates the well known fact that ionization in galaxies (and the processes that produce it), does not happen monolitically at galactic scales. This highlight the importance to explore the spectroscopic properties of galaxies and the evolutionary processes unveiled by them at different spatial scales, from sub-kpc to galaxy wide.
A MUSE study of NGC 7469: Spatially resolved star-formation and AGN-driven outflows
Authors: Robleto-Orús A. C. , Torres-Papaqui J. P. , Longinotti A. L. , Ortega-Minakata R. A. , Sánchez S. F. , Ascasibar Y. , Bellocchi E. , Galbany L. , Chow-Martínez M. , Trejo-Alonso J. J. , Morales-Vargas A. , Romero-Cruz F. J. , Cutiva-Alvarez K. A. , Coziol R.
Published: March 2021

NGC 7469 is a well-known type 1 AGN with a cirumnuclear star formation ring. It has previous detections of X-rays warm absorbers and an infrared biconical outflow. We analysed archival MUSE/VLT observations of this galaxy in order to look for an optical counterpart of these outflows. We report spatially resolved winds in the [O III] λ5007 emission line in two regimes: a high velocity regime possibly associated with the AGN and a slower one associated with the massive star formation of the ring. This slower regime is also detected with Hβ.
Gas flows in a changing-look AGN
Authors: Raimundo Sandra I.
Published: March 2021

The galaxy Mrk 590 is one of the few known ‘changing-look’ Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) to have transitioned between states twice, having just increased its flux after a period of ˜10 years of low activity. In addition to the increase in flux, the optical broad emission lines have reappeared but show a different profile than what was observed before they disappeared. The gas motions in the host galaxy of this changing-look AGN show outflows and dynamical structures able to drive gas to the nucleus, suggesting an interplay between inflow and outflow in the centre of the galaxy.