bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Deep search for glycine conformers in Barnard 5
Authors: Carl Tadeus , Wirström E S , Bergman P , Charnley S B , Chuang Y-L , Kuan Y-J
Published: July 2023

One of the most fundamental hypotheses in astrochemistry and astrobiology states that crucial biotic molecules like glycine (NH2CH2COOH) found in meteorites and comets are inherited from early phases of star formation. Most observational searches for glycine in the interstellar medium have focused on warm high-mass molecular cloud sources. However, recent studies suggest that it might be appropriate to shift the observational focus to cold low-mass sources. We aim to detect glycine towards the so-called methanol hotspot in the Barnard 5 dark cloud. The hotspot is a cold source (Tgas ≈ 7.5 K) with yet high abundances of complex organic molecules (COMs) and water in the gas phase. We carried out deep pointed observations with the Onsala 20 m telescope, targeting several transitions of glycine conformers I and II (Gly-I and Gly-II) in the frequency range 70.2–77.9 GHz. No glycine lines are detected towards the targeted position, but we use a line stacking procedure to derive sensitive abundance upper limits w.r.t. H2 for Gly-I and Gly-II, i.e. ≤(2–5) × 10−10 and ≤(0.7–3) × 10−11, respectively. The obtained Gly-II upper limits are the most stringent for a cold source, while the Gly-I upper limits are mostly on the same order as previously measured limits. The measured abundances w.r.t. H2 of other COMs at the B5 methanol hotspot range from 2 × 10−10 (acetaldehyde) to 2 × 10−8 (methanol). Hence, based on a total glycine upper limit of (2–5) × 10−10, we cannot rule out that glycine is present but undetected.
Rewiring of Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase Localization and Interactions in Plants With Extensive Mitochondrial tRNA Gene Loss
Authors: Warren Jessica M , Broz Amanda K , Martinez-Hottovy Ana , Elowsky Christian , Christensen Alan C , Sloan Daniel B
Published: July 2023

The number of tRNAs encoded in plant mitochondrial genomes varies considerably. Ongoing loss of bacterial-like mitochondrial tRNA genes in many lineages necessitates the import of nuclear-encoded counterparts that share little sequence similarity. Because tRNAs are involved in highly specific molecular interactions, this replacement process raises questions about the identity and trafficking of enzymes necessary for the maturation and function of newly imported tRNAs. In particular, the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) that charge tRNAs are usually divided into distinct classes that specialize on either organellar (mitochondrial and plastid) or nuclear-encoded (cytosolic) tRNAs. Here, we investigate the evolution of aaRS subcellular localization in a plant lineage (Sileneae) that has experienced extensive and rapid mitochondrial tRNA loss. By analyzing full-length mRNA transcripts (PacBio Iso-Seq), we found predicted retargeting of many ancestrally cytosolic aaRSs to the mitochondrion and confirmed these results with colocalization microscopy assays. However, we also found cases where aaRS localization does not appear to change despite functional tRNA replacement, suggesting evolution of novel interactions and charging relationships. Therefore, the history of repeated tRNA replacement in Sileneae mitochondria reveals that differing constraints on tRNA/aaRS interactions may determine which of these alternative coevolutionary paths is used to maintain organellar translation in plant cells.
Cyclosporin-induced hypertension is associated with the up-regulation of Na+-K+-2Cl− cotransporter (NKCC2)
Authors: Capolongo Giovanna , Damiano Sara , Suzumoto Yoko , Zacchia Miriam , Rizzo Maria , Zona Enrica , Pollastro Rosa Maria , Simeoni Mariadelina , Ciarcia Roberto , Trepiccione Francesco , Capasso Giovambattista
Published: July 2023

Background

The use of cyclosporin A (CsA) is hampered by the development of nephrotoxicity including hypertension, which is partially dependent on renal sodium retention. To address this issue, we have investigated in vivo sodium reabsorption in different nephron segments of CsA-treated rats through micropuncture study coupled to expression analyses of sodium transporters. To translate the findings in rats to human, kidney-transplanted patients having CsA treatment were enrolled in the study.

Methods

Adult male Sprague–Dawley rats were treated with CsA (15 mg/kg/day) for 21 days, followed by micropuncture study and expression analyses of sodium transporters. CsA-treated kidney-transplanted patients with resistant hypertension were challenged with 50 mg furosemide.

Results

CsA-treated rats developed hypertension associated with reduced glomerular filtration rate. In vivo microperfusion study demonstrated a significant decrease in rate of absolute fluid reabsorption in the proximal tubule but enhanced sodium reabsorption in the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop (TAL). Expression analyses of sodium transporters at the same nephron segments further revealed a reduction in Na+-H+ exchanger isoform 3 (NHE3) in the renal cortex, while TAL-specific, furosemide-sensitive Na+-K+-2Cl− cotransporter (NKCC2) and NHE3 were significantly upregulated in the inner stripe of outer medulla. CsA-treated patients had a larger excretion of urinary NKCC2 protein at basal condition, and higher diuretic response to furosemide, showing increased FeNa+, FeCl− and FeCa2+ compared with both healthy controls and FK506-treated transplanted patients.

Conclusion

Altogether, these findings suggest that up-regulation of NKCC2 along the TAL facilitates sodium retention and contributes to the development of CsA-induced hypertension.
Fairy and Folk Tales of Bedford Park
Authors: Hewitt Seán
Published: July 2023

Folklore was, for Yeats, ‘at once the Bible, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Book of Common Prayer’. It constituted a sort of primitive, and importantly living, text. It was proof of the primacy of the symbolic, the importance of the anti-rational, and the reality of spiritism. The folk tales collected by Yeats in Fairy and Folk Tales and in later anthologies during the 1890s suggest correlations with things in this world and their parallels in an ‘other’ world, though what constituted this ‘other’ world could be subtly adapted to suit Yeats’s reading audience. This chapter shows how Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, a resolutely Irish book, is clearly presented both to wider metropolitan readership and to a more niche audience of occultists who were looking to Ireland, through a trend for Celticism, for spiritual teaching.
Asias
Authors: Ramazani Jahan
Published: July 2023

Scholarship on Yeats and Asia has usually focused on either his Indian or his Japanese investments—understandably so, given their longevity and depth—but what about the West Asian coordinates that have received less attention? What happens if we pluralize Yeats’s Asias and consider them together—South, East, and West? Is his Asian-facing poetry orientalist, anti-orientalist, or both? And how can his poetry help us rethink the paradigm of orientalism? More significant than Yeats’s partly distortive presuppositions about ‘other’ cultures is that he took Asian cultures seriously: he engaged them, performed them, learned from them, and made poetry and theatre enmeshed with them—reasons to keep him at the centre of discussions of modernism’s global bearings.
Africa
Authors: Suhr-Sytsma Nathan
Published: July 2023

The spirit of the sixteenth-century diplomat, geographer, and writer known as ‘Leo Africanus’ appeared to W. B. Yeats in a seance in 1912 and instructed the poet to write a letter ‘addressed to him as if to Africa’. The historical figure of Leo Africanus was best known for a work likely composed in Arabic but first published in Italian as La Descrittione dell’Africa (1550) and translated into English in the time of Shakespeare as A Geographical Historie of Africa (1600). In an effort to make sense of Yeats’s decade-long communication with ‘Leo’ and its effects on his creative vision, this chapter asks what place Africa occupies in Yeats’s thought and his reception. Whereas most scholars have treated Yeats’s attempt to write ‘as if to Africa’ as an instance of orientalism or Africanism, could it instead be read as a case of what Wendy Laura Belcher terms discursive possession? How has Yeats been read—and how does he continue to be read—by African writers themselves? Considering the Leo Africanus episode, its implications for ‘The Second Coming’, and Yeats’s afterlife in African letters, this chapter engages with debates about where Yeats fits in discourses of coloniality and decolonization, about how to interpret his esoteric and occult interests, and about the global reception of the Irish Literary Revival. If, as W. H. Auden so famously wrote in his elegy for Yeats, ‘he became his admirers’, this chapter contends that Yeats has become not just European, Asian, or American, but also African.
Tradition and Phantasmagoria
Authors: Haughton Hugh
Published: July 2023

In his essay on ‘Dante’, T. S. Eliot claimed magisterially that ‘Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them. There is no third.’ On this reading, if we discount the classical poets, Dante and Shakespeare are the most charged avatars of poetic tradition. This was equally true for W. B. Yeats, a poet with a comparable sense of spiritual belatedness and whose Irish background put him at a fraught angle to European tradition. Though Yeats generally undervalues Shakespearean comedy, the plausibility of the ‘gay’ knowledge he ascribes to Hamlet and Lear partly depends on Shakespeare’s protean commitment to ‘antic’ wit. Dante is a less palpable linguistic presence than Shakespeare in late Yeats, despite the Irish poet’s comparable commitment to a Commedia-like poetry and drama of the afterlife. Nevertheless, the ghost of Dantean verse haunts late poems like ‘Cuchulain Comforted’, written a couple of weeks before the poet’s death.
Among the Victorians
Authors: O'Gorman Francis
Published: July 2023

The values and assumptions of childhood and early youth, the patterns of reading and thought, the tastes and intellectual habits of Yeats cannot be so easily set to one side. For all his differences with so-called ‘Victorianism’, and for all the statement of his differences, Yeats found in some features of his youth assumptions about aesthetics that remained with him. This is not simply a matter of ‘influence’ but of an environment that brings out and confirms pre-existing inclinations and temperaments or provides a set of values that constitutes an intellectual and aesthetic foundation. The Victorian artists and writers among whom Yeats grew up coincided in important ways with exactly that which the young poet, dramatist, and champion of the Irish Literary Revival was coming to believe.
Dance
Authors: Jones Susan
Published: July 2023

This chapter explores Yeats’s apparent shift to a ‘new’ kind of dance for his plays and shows how it had a longer gestation than we might think. It suggests that the later dance style emerged as a natural development of Yeats’s ongoing ideas about the function of the symbol, ceremonial ritual, and a poetics of impersonality. Thus the chapter also considers the development of these three themes and their intersection principally in relation to the choreographic focus of later dance plays such as At the Hawk’s Well (1916), The Only Jealousy of Emer (1919), Fighting the Waves (1928), King of the Great Clock Tower (1934), and A Full Moon in March (1935). Finally, the chapter suggests how Yeats produced an innovative form of theatre that, in spite of his anxieties, found itself in step with debates among contemporary dance practitioners and choreographers of the period.
Tagore, Pound, and World English
Authors: Quinn Justin
Published: July 2023

In 1912 W. B. Yeats was possibly the most distinguished poet of his age. The English language was not yet a global lingua franca, yet its catchment area was vast, and Yeats could make fair claim to being its most famous poet. In the early 1910s, his reputation as a poet of the fin de siècle was indisputable. But such past glory did not guarantee contemporary interest. Yeats was in danger of becoming a museum exhibit. To avoid this, Yeats became a curator, writing memoirs and poems that canonized his friends and associates from the preceding era, while giving himself a new freedom of movement. Linguistic expertise is always linked to power; this chapter shows how Yeats and Ezra Pound suppressed their own cultural prestige, depending on English as a colonial language and later (for our reading of them) on English as a global lingua franca. The chapter raises accompanying questions about the world literature anthology and about how we arrange about ourselves the literature of the planet.
Rites and Rhymes
Authors: Nally Claire
Published: July 2023

This chapter considers the influence of Golden Dawn and Rosicrucian ritual on William Butler Yeats’s early poetry and prose, including The Secret Rose (1897) and The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). Through his creation of the Castle of Heroes, an invented mystery religion, Yeats experimented with ideas of death and rebirth more commonly associated with A Vision (originally published 1925). However, in exploring Yeats’s early work through the lens of ‘continuing bonds’ derived from grief theory, this chapter suggests that early Yeats was engaged in an act of ancestral reclamation, through the intersection of occultism and fairy lore.
Romanticism and Aestheticism
Authors: Armstrong Charles
Published: July 2023

Not only a custodian of a long-lost Romantic movement, Yeats presents himself as a survivor. Although the filthy modern tide may impatiently have sidelined the heritage of Romanticism, Yeats stands forward as witness to the neglected but constant value of that heritage. He is a survivor in much the same sense that he is a survivor of the late nineteenth-century protest against Victorian values. Although it is a powerful presence, Romanticism is no univocal thing in his writings but, rather, interacts in constantly changing ways with other historical tendencies and movements, and this chapter shows how a Decadent and aestheticist inflection was important to Yeats’s relationship to Romanticism.
Self-Making
Authors: Lynch Claire
Published: July 2023

One of the most prolific and, arguably, the most influential Irish autobiographer of the twentieth century, Yeats published a series of major autobiographies between 1915 and 1935. Both in terms of scale and scope, Yeats can be considered a dedicated, if not compulsive, memoirist. It is clear from both his private and published life-writing that Yeats understood his reflections to have artistic and national significance. Yeats wrote memoir because he was preoccupied with a unique sense of responsibility. How was he to present himself, not merely as a singular individual, but also as an agent of Irish history? While many have read Yeats’s poetry for insight into his personality, it is his prose autobiographies, written in a seemingly unending process of editing and redrafting, that best reflect his sense of the self as perpetually in flux.
Yeats and Renaissance Italy
Authors: Longley Edna
Published: July 2023

The focus of this chapter is Renaissance Italy as a model for art, for society, and for relations between the two. Yeats did not speak Italian. The two Italian writers most important to him, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Count Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529), author of Il Libro del Cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier) (1528), he read in translation. Unlike James Joyce and Ezra Pound, Yeats spent comparatively little time in Italy. In May 1907, with Lady Gregory and her son Robert, he visited Ravenna, Urbino, Ferrara, Venice, and Florence. In January–February 1925 he toured southern Italy and Sicily, where he absorbed the Byzantine mosaics in Monreale Cathedral, and completed A Vision. From 1928 to 1930 he wintered in Rapallo, where Pound had settled. But Yeats’s very distance from contemporary Italy, apart from (or exemplified by) his erratic gestures towards Mussolini, may have protected the mythic presence of older ‘Italies’ in his work.
Reading the Late Plays
Authors: Balázs Zsuzsanna
Published: July 2023

This chapter considers the intersections of violence/power and sexual desire in three of Yeats’s late plays—The Cat and the Moon (1926), The King of the Great Clock Tower (1935), and A Full Moon in March (1935)—with a focus on sadomasochism and what has been described as ‘the ritual exchange of power’. It contends that through theatrical representations of sadomasochistic attachments based on reversible power, Yeats’s late drama reveals the systemic failures of normative distributions of power, gender, and sexual roles, and proposes alternatives. It discusses Yeats’s unconventional relationship with sexuality, his increasing interest in corporeality, and the importance of literary representations of sadomasochism. It goes on to evaluate, from a dramaturgical approach, the potentials of the scripts to demonstrate that Yeats’s plays convey crucial messages about power, the body, and difference for contemporary audiences. These plays feature clashes between the unruly forces of seduction and the normative force of power and production. Their protagonists are defiant social outcasts, whose clash with power paradoxically earns them temporary visibility and authority. They fail to meet normative standards of bodily being, which becomes an act of resistance, since the characters representing the power of production (the Saint in The Cat and the Moon, the King in The King of the Great Clock Tower, and the Queen in A Full Moon in March) are obsessed with bodily perfection. These master–slave relationships appear as sadomasochistic mostly due to their reversibility, which also renders them an element of excitement and playfulness.
In situcryo-electron tomography of β-amyloid and tau in post-mortem Alzheimer’s disease brain
Authors: Gilbert Madeleine A. G. , Fatima Nayab , Jenkins Joshua , O’Sullivan Thomas J. , Schertel Andreas , Halfon Yehuda , Morrema Tjado H. J. , Geibel Mirjam , Radford Sheena E. , Hoozemans Jeroen J. M. , Frank René A. W.
Published: July 2023

A defining pathological feature of most neurodegenerative diseases is the assembly of proteins into amyloid that form disease-specific structures. In Alzheimer’s disease (AD) this is characterised by the deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau with AD-specific conformations. Thein situstructure of amyloid in the human brain is unknown. Here, using cryogenic fluorescence microscopy (cryoFM)-targeted cryo-sectioning, cryo-focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (cryoFIB-SEM) liftout and cryo-electron tomography (cryoET), we determined the in-tissue structure of β-amyloid and tau pathology in fresh post-mortem AD donor brain. β-amyloid plaques contained a mixture of fibrils and protofilaments arranged in parallel arrays and lattice-like structures, some of which were branched. Extracellular vesicles, extracellular droplets and open lipid bilayer sheets defined non-amyloid constituents of amyloid plaques. In contrast, tau inclusions were characterised by clusters of unbranched filaments. Subtomogram averaging of filaments within each cluster revealed distinct structures including variably twisted paired helical filaments (PHF) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)-like tau filaments that were situated ∼1 μm apart within two microscopic regions of pathology. Filaments within a cluster were similar to each other, but different between clusters, showing that fibril heterogeneity is spatially organised and influenced by the subcellular tissue environment. Thein situstructural approaches outlined here for targeting specific proteins within human donor tissues have applications to a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases.
Numerical analysis of unstable propagation of three-dimensional parallel hydraulic fractures induced by interferences of adjacent perforation clusters and thermal diffusion
Authors: Wang Yongliang
Published: July 2023

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the unstable propagation of parallel hydraulic fractures induced by interferences of adjacent perforation clusters and thermal diffusion. Fracture propagation in the process of multistage fracturing of a rock mass is deflected owing to various factors. Hydrofracturing of rock masses in deep tight reservoirs involves thermal diffusion, fluid flow and deformation of rock between the rock matrix and fluid in pores and fractures.

Design/methodology/approach

To study the unstable propagation behaviours of three-dimensional (3D) parallel hydraulic fractures induced by the interferences of adjacent perforation clusters and thermal diffusion, a 3D engineering-scale numerical model is established under different fracturing scenarios (sequential, simultaneous and alternate fracturing) and different perforation cluster spacings while considering the thermal-hydro-mechanical coupling effect. Stress disturbance region caused by fracture propagation in a deep tight rock mass is superimposed and overlaid with multiple fractures, resulting in a stress shadow effect and fracture deflection.

Findings

The results show that the size of the stress shadow areas and the interaction between fractures increase with decreasing multiple perforation cluster spacing in horizontal wells. Alternate fracturing can produce more fracture areas and improve the fracturing effect compared with those of sequential and simultaneous fracturing. The larger the temperature gradient between the fracturing fluid and rock matrix, the stronger the thermal diffusion effect, and the effect of thermal diffusion on the fracture propagation is significant.

Originality/value

This study focuses on the behaviours of the unstable dynamic propagation of 3D parallel hydraulic fractures induced by the interferences of adjacent perforation clusters and thermal diffusion. Further, the temperature field affects the fracture deflection requires could be investigated from the mechanisms; this paper is to study the unstable propagation of fractures in single horizontal well, which can provide a basis for fracture propagation and stress field disturbance in multiple horizontal wells.
Investigating teacher talk in EAP and EGP classes: In pursuit of communicative features
Authors: Ghajarieh Amir , Mirzabeigi Nasim
Published: July 2023

Purpose

This study aims to explore the communicative features of teacher talk in English for General Purposes (EGP) vs. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes in Iranian contexts based on the Self-Evaluation Teacher Talk (SETT) framework.

Design/methodology/approach

For the purposes of this study, EAP and EGP classes run by three language instructors and three content instructors were observed and interviews with teacher participants were conducted. The data were analyzed by content analysis, and emerging overarching themes were recorded.

Findings

The findings of this study indicate that the translation of texts into Persian was the dominant theme in classes run by content instructors who were less aware of the communicative features of teacher talk. However, one of the content instructors who was familiar with the communicative features of teacher talk as well as general language instructors were found to be highly aware of the potential of their teacher talk to encourage communication in his classes. The innovative and communicative features in the language/content instructor suggest the importance of teacher agency in bringing change in education at the micro-level. This study has implications for various agencies involved in teaching EAP, EGAP and English for Specific Purposes (ESAP), raising awareness regarding the communicative features of teacher talk as a driving force leading learners and teachers to more communicative opportunities in language classrooms. The findings suggest that teacher talk is an essential component of classroom discourse, shaping students' linguistic and academic development, and that teacher agency is crucial in promoting communicative opportunities in language education. To boost communication, the authors recommend translanguaging with a focus on both communication and optimal use of the mother tongue in EAP classes.

Originality/value

There is little empirical evidence on the communicative aspects of teacher talk in higher education. This study can inspire more parallel research on EAP settings in higher education with a focus on communication and teacher talk features.
Relationships among school principals' work values, organisational climate and organisational adaptation: Taiwan's 2018 TALIS data
Authors: Lin Yi Hua , Chen Chien Chih
Published: July 2023

Purpose

The educational environment in Taiwan's primary and secondary schools is becoming increasingly diverse and complex. This study examined the relationship between primary and secondary school principals' working values, organisational climate and organisational adaptation.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from the third Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), which targeted 401 principals in Taiwan's primary and secondary schools, conducted in 2018 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED). In this study, a structural equation model was constructed.

Findings

The results indicated that primary and secondary school principals generally had positive work values, and their schools' organisational climate and adaptation were positive. In addition, the work values, organisational climate and organisational adaptation models showed good fit for a variety of potential variables. Furthermore, the organisational climate had a mediating effect that strengthened the principals' work values and was a major factor in enhancing organisational adaptation. The results suggest that in addition to principals' positive work values, fostering a cooperative organisational climate—such as the perceived level of support from supervisors and the environment—is essential to enhance schools' organisational adaptation.

Originality/value

The principal's work value has a profound impact on the creation of a school's organisational atmosphere, the cohesion of members' consensus and the organisation's contingency decision-making in response to the external environment. This study adduces more diverse recommendations for the development of school affairs.
Endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage using a tapered endoscopic sheath
Authors: Koizumi Kazuya , Kubota Jun , Masuda Sakue
Published: July 2023

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Educating the Rational Emotions: An Affective Response to Extremism
Authors: D'Olimpio Laura
Published: July 2023

Educating against extremism doesn't just involve seeking to prevent individuals from becoming extremists or radicalized, although that, of course, is a significant concern. There is also an important role for education in teaching the rest of us, the general populace, the best way to react and respond when we learn of a terrorist attack or consider the potential risk of violent extremism in our community, or even worldwide, given we are connected globally via technology. In this article, Laura D'Olimpio argues that educators have a central role to play in teaching young people to respond to the news of violent extremism and the worry about terrorists and terrorism in ways that support our sense of community and personal well‐being. Among the ways in which educators may support such aims is by educating the emotions. There are practical and moral reasons to temper our fearful reactions, and it is in our best interest to educate pupils to avoid allowing fear of terrorists or violent extremism to interfere with their daily lives and actions. D'Olimpio claims that our best response to extremism, both representationally and practically, is to refuse to be terrified. By not being overwhelmed by fear or altering our day‐to‐day activities, we not only better support a well‐functioning democracy and our own happiness or flourishing, but we also disempower rather than empower extremists.
Development and psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the Orofacial Esthetic Scale
Authors: Kostić Milena , Ignjatović Aleksandra , Gligorijević Nikola , Jovanović Marija , Đorđević Nadica S. , Đerlek Amar , Igić Marko
Published: July 2023

Objective

The aim of the study was to develop the Serbian language version of the Orofacial Esthetic Scale questionnaire (OES SERB) and to evaluate its psychometric properties.

Methods

The study included 226 subjects – 110 dental students and 116 patients (the validation sample). The students answered all the questions individually with the help of supervisors, whereas the prosthodontic patients were interviewed by the same trained dentist. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed.

Results

Internal consistency of the OES‐SERB was considered satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha 0.92, inter‐item correlation coefficient ranged between 0.735 and 0.898). The construct validity of the OES was proved using exploratory factor analysis, which confirmed the one‐ dimensional model of the OES‐SERB that assumed 66.549% of the variance. The Bartlett's test of sphericity was 1380.134 (df = 28, p < 0.001) and the Kaiser‐Meyer‐Olkin (KMO) test was 0.900. The total score was statistically significantly different between students and patients (p < 0.001), which confirmed the discriminant validity.

Conclusion

The Serbian version of the OES, adapted to the cultural setting of the Republic of Serbia, has exhibited excellent psychometric properties and has been confirmed as a one‐dimensional tool for self‐assessment of the appearance of the orofacial region.

Clinical Significance

The Serbian version of the OES has good psychometric properties and is a valuable instrument for self‐assessment of the appearance of the orofacial region.
Complement components C3b and C4b as potential reliable site‐specific diagnostic biomarkers for periodontitis
Authors: Huang Ren‐Yeong , Tseng Fang‐Yi , Cheng Chia‐Dan , Van Dyke Thomas E , Sung Cheng‐En , You Jhong‐Jhe , Weng Pei‐Wei , Shieh Yi‐Shing , Cheng Wan‐Chien
Published: July 2023

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the correlation between the expression levels of C3b and C4b in human gingival tissue (GT) and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and disease severity in human periodontitis and to determine whether C3b and C4b are significant site‐specific complementary diagnostic markers for periodontitis.

Background

A variety of biomarkers that have potential for informing diagnoses of periodontitis have been proposed. The complement components C3b and C4b were found to be positively correlated with disease severity. The therapeutic effect of targeting C3b and C4b on inflammatory bone loss in experimental periodontitis models has been studied. However, studies on the diagnostic potential of the gingival C3b and C4b expression levels for periodontitis are scarce.

Methods

The expression levels of C3b and C4b in the GT and GCF were investigated via immunohistochemistry and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. The correlation between the expression levels of C3b and C4b and disease severity with probing depth as well as the clinical attachment level were determined. To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the C3b and C4b expression levels at the periodontitis sites, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, cut‐off point, area under the ROC curve, sensitivity, and specificity were analyzed.

Results

The expression levels of C3b and C4b in human GT and GCF were significantly positively correlated with periodontitis severity. The expression levels of combined C3b + C4b in the GT can significantly differentiate the disease status at the tissue level (p < .0001). Similarly, the expression levels of C3b + C4b in GCF can statistically distinguish periodontitis sites from healthy ones (p < .0001).

Conclusions

Locally deposited C3b and C4b were positively correlated with periodontitis severity and recognized as site‐specific diagnostic biomarkers for clinicopathological features in periodontitis. The association between the C3b and C4b network and periodontitis may be further understood and provide a basis for the development of novel screening as well as diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for periodontitis.
Cyberwarfare and the Weaponization of Information in US–China 21st‐Century Geostrategic Rivalry
Authors: Tan Er‐Win , Sayankina Sofiya
Published: July 2023

Sino–US geostrategic rivalry has carried over into cyberspace and is reflected in how both the United States and China view the internet as a battleground for the propagation of information warfare in their bids to increase global influence at the expense of the other. Both the United States and China have harnessed cyberspace in order to propagate their worldview to a global audience, whilst countering and rebutting the other's information narrative. The flow of information – including the use of cyberspace to inject misinformation, deliberately biased reporting, cover‐ups, and fabricated information – can be seen as a weapon of statecraft in pursuit of global influence and geostrategic objectives. Such ability to shape the information narrative marks a refinement of the use of propaganda, to the extent that private individuals with access to social media can be seen as propaganda tools.
MID-ESM: An Adaptive Median-Based Ensemble of Surrogate Models
Authors: Li Jianji , Zhang Shuai , Liang Pengwei , Lai Xiaonan , Song Xueguan
Published: July 2023

Along with the development of surrogate models, there is a growing need to use surrogate models instead of computationally intensive simulations to estimate real system responses. Compared with individual surrogate models, the ensemble of surrogate models is gradually drawing more attention due to its better applicability and robustness. Thus, this paper proposes an adaptive median-based ensemble of surrogate models (MID-ESMs). At first, construct a reference model using the median of the predicted values of several surrogate models. Then an adaptive weight ensemble strategy is proposed based on the reference model to integrate global trends and local features. Thirty test functions and a practical engineering case are used to evaluate the model performance. In addition, this paper investigates the effect of homoscedasticity noise and test functions of different dimensions on the proposed model. The results demonstrate that MID-ESM has higher accuracy and robustness than individual surrogate models and other ensembles of surrogate models, offering better applicability in engineering problems.
API 570 Section 8: Repair, Alteration and Rerating of Piping Systems
Authors: Matthews Clifford
Published: July 2023

API codes allocate precise meaning to words used to describe (mainly welding) activities that restore piping systems to a safe, code-compliant condition after defects have been found. The terms are allocated not so much to describe the technical nature of activity but more to do with the procedure of the activity, such as
ASME B16.5 Pipe Flanges and Flanged Fittings
Authors: Matthews Clifford
Published: July 2023

This chapter is about becoming familiar with ASME B16.5 Pipe Flanges and Flanged Fittings. ASME B16.5 is a construction code for the design of new flanges and related fittings such as reducers, tees and similar. It is one of the related codes referenced in API 570 and RP 574 and so forms an important (but not particularly large) part of the API 570 examination BoK.
ASME VIII-I Rules for Construction of Pressure Vessels
Authors: Matthews Clifford
Published: July 2023

This chapter explains the role of ASME VIII-I in the API 510 BoK. ASME VIII-I is a construction code for the manufacture and testing of new unfired vessels, i.e. not boilers or fired heat exchangers, and contains no reference to what happens to vessels after they are put into service.
ICP Effectivity Lists and Bodies of Knowledge
Authors: Matthews Clifford
Published: July 2023

The API publish on their website a ‘code Effectivity List’ and BoK for each ICP. These change every few exam cycles, so it’s important to check you are working from the current versions. The two documents have different functions.
Your Learning Options
Authors: Matthews Clifford
Published: July 2023

There are three learning options you can take for passing ICP exams
High quality β-Ga2O3 bulk crystals, grown by edge-defined film-fed growth method: Growth features, structural, and thermal properties
Authors: Bauman Dmitrii A. , Iu. Panov Dmitrii , Spiridonov Vladislav A. , Kremleva Arina V. , Asach Aleksei V. , Tambulatova Ekaterina V. , Sakharov A. V. , Romanov Alexey E.
Published: July 2023

Bulk crystals of β-Ga2O3 were successfully grown by the edge-defined film-fed growth method. The crystalline quality of the obtained crystals was analyzed by the method of x-ray diffractometry. The full width at half maximum of the rocking curve was about 72 arcsec. The optical bandgap was determined by analyzing the optical transmission spectra and amounted to 4.7 eV. The hot disk method was used to obtain the thermal conductivity of the sample along the [001] direction in the temperature range from 30 to 120 °C. The maximum value of thermal conductivity obtained at 30 °C was 9.25 W/(m K).
Parameter dependence of acoustic quantities in a nonlinear internal wave duct
Authors: DeCourcy Brendan J. , Milone Matthew , Lin Ying-Tsong , Siegmann William L.
Published: July 2023

Parameter dependence of acoustic quantities in a nonlinear internal wave duct BJD, Matt Milone, YTL Ocean features with 3-D spatial variability in shallow water can significantly affect acoustic propagation. One example is a curved front modeled with a discontinuous sound speed change over a sloping shelf [Lin and Lynch, JASA-EL (2012)], which has an extension to a continuous sound-speed change. An approach using normal modes and perturbation approximations yields convenient formulas that show how acoustic quantities depend on environmental parameters [DeCourcy et al., ASA, Salt Lake City (2016)]. Another common 3-D example is nonlinear internal waves, with wave fronts that pairwise can produce acoustic ducting, radiating, and scattering effects often observed in field data. The previous approach is applied to this feature, using a well model with two sound-speed jumps for such a duct [Lin et al., (2013)]. Approximate formulas for acoustic wavenumbers and phase speeds are determined in order to estimate sensitivity to changes in environmental parameters. All mode types will be considered (whispering gallery, fully bouncing, and leaky), highlighting differences from those in the single-front example. [Work supported by ONR Grants N00014-14-1-0372 and N00014-11-1-0701.]
A Tri-Objective Method for Bi-Objective Feature Selection in Classification
Authors: Jiao Ruwang , Xue Bing , Zhang Mengjie
Published: July 2023

Minimizing the number of selected features and maximizing the classification performance are two main objectives in feature selection, which can be formulated as a bi-objective optimization problem. Due to the complex interactions between features, a solution (i.e., feature subset) with poor objective values does not mean that all the features it selects are useless, as some of them combined with other complementary features can greatly improve the classification performance. Thus, it is necessary to consider not only the performance of feature subsets in the objective space, but also their differences in the search space, to explore more promising feature combinations. To this end, this paper proposes a tri-objective method for bi-objective feature selection in classification, which solves a bi-objective feature selection problem as a tri-objective problem by considering the diversity (differences) between feature subsets in the search space as the third objective. The selection based on the converted tri-objective method can maintain a balance between minimizing the number of selected features, maximizing the classification performance, and exploring more promising feature subsets. Furthermore, a novel initialization strategy and an offspring reproduction operator are proposed to promote the diversity of feature subsets in the objective space and improve the search ability, respectively. The proposed algorithm is compared with five multiobjective-based feature selection methods, six typical feature selection methods, and two peer methods with diversity as a helper objective. Experimental results on 20 real-world classification datasets suggest that the proposed method outperforms the compared methods in most scenarios.
Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Regional Integration in East Africa
Authors: Ramadhani Lupa
Published: July 2023

This article uses the regional response against the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic as a proxy for measuring the depth of integration in the East African Community (EAC). The article probes actions and decisions of the EAC member states in combating the COVID-19 pandemic as a litmus test of strength of supranational institutions. To achieve this, a review of the integration process has been undertaken to appraise of the level of depth of integration, achievements and challenges. It sets out by surveying the theoretical debate on regional integration and pertinent issues of necessity and resistance to regional integration. Ultimately, it wishes to establish whether the COVID-19 pandemic was an opportunity for deepening regional integration or it has served to expose the institutional and policy limitations eroding the pillars of integration.
SNPeffect 5.0: large-scale structural phenotyping of protein coding variants extracted from next-generation sequencing data using AlphaFold models
Authors: Janssen Kobe , Duran-Romaña Ramon , Bottu Guy , Guharoy Mainak , Botzki Alexander , Rousseau Frederic , Schymkowitz Joost
Published: July 2023

Background

Next-generation sequencing technologies yield large numbers of genetic alterations, of which a subset are missense variants that alter an amino acid in the protein product. These variants can have a potentially destabilizing effect leading to an increased risk of misfolding and aggregation. Multiple software tools exist to predict the effect of single-nucleotide variants on proteins, however, a pipeline integrating these tools while starting from an NGS data output list of variants is lacking.

Results

The previous version SNPeffect 4.0 (De Baets in Nucleic Acids Res 40(D1):D935–D939, 2011) provided an online database containing pre-calculated variant effects and low-throughput custom variant analysis. Here, we built an automated and parallelized pipeline that analyzes the impact of missense variants on the aggregation propensity and structural stability of proteins starting from the Variant Call Format as input. The pipeline incorporates the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database to achieve high coverage for structural stability analyses using the FoldX force field. The effect on aggregation-propensity is analyzed using the established predictors TANGO and WALTZ. The pipeline focuses solely on the human proteome and can be used to analyze proteome stability/damage in a given sample based on sequencing results.

Conclusion

We provide a bioinformatics pipeline that allows structural phenotyping from sequencing data using established stability and aggregation predictors including FoldX, TANGO, and WALTZ; and structural proteome coverage provided by the AlphaFold database. The pipeline and installation guide are freely available for academic users on https://github.com/vibbits/snpeffect and requires a computer cluster.
Uptake of pediatric patient-reported outcome and experience measures and challenges associated with their implementation in Alberta: a mixed-methods study
Authors: Bele Sumedh , Rabi Sarah , Zhang Muning , Ahmed Sadia , Paolucci Elizabeth Oddone , Johnson David W. , Quan Hude , Santana Maria J.
Published: July 2023

Background

Implementing Patient-reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient-reported Experience Measures (PREMs) is an effective way to deliver patient- and family-centered care (PFCC). Although Alberta Health Services (AHS) is Canada's largest and fully integrated health system, PROMs and PREMs are yet to be routinely integrated into the pediatric healthcare system. This study addresses this gap by investigating the current uptake, barriers, and enablers for integrating PROMs and PREMs in Alberta's pediatric healthcare system.

Methods

Pediatric clinicians and academic researchers with experience using PROMs and PREMs were invited to complete a quantitative survey. Additionally, key stakeholders were qualitatively interviewed to understand current challenges in implementing pediatric PROMs and PREMs within AHS. Quantitative data gathered from 22 participants were descriptively analyzed, and qualitative data from 14 participants were thematically analyzed.

Results

Participants identified 33 PROMs and 6 PREMs showing diversity in the types of pediatric PROMs and PREMs currently being used in Alberta and their mode of administration. The qualitatively identified challenges were associated with patients, family caregivers, and clinicians. The absence of system-level support, such as integration within electronic medical records, is considered a significant system-level challenge.

Conclusions

The significant variation in the types of PROMs and PREMs used, the rationale for their use, and their mode of administration demonstrate the diverse and sporadic use of these measures in Alberta. These findings highlight the need for province-wide uniform implementation of pediatric PROMs and PREMs in Alberta. Our results could benefit healthcare organizations in developing evidence-based PROM and PREM implementation strategies in pediatrics.
Predictors of quality of life and mental health in breast cancer survivors in Northern Iran
Authors: Zolfaghary Fatemeh , MashaghiTabari Reza , Dezhman Mobina , Bijani Ali , Kheirkha Farzan , Adib-Rad Hajar
Published: July 2023

Background and purpose

The global incidence of breast cancer is the highest among all cancers and is the primary reason for cancer-related fatalities. Our study aimed to assess the predictors of quality of life (QOL) and mental health in breast cancer survivors in Northern Iran.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was done on 96 female breast cancer survivors between the ages of 20 and 65 and was based on convenience samples. We gathered information through demographic and fertility data, a QOL survey, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). A significance level of P < 0.05 was set for the analysis.

Results

In this study, results showed that 11.5% of women had the optimal quality of life, 31.3% favorable quality of life, and 57.3% undesirable quality of life. The average HADS score was 20.14 ± 3.07, with anxiety scores of 10.21 ± 2.31 and depression scores of 9.93 ± 1.64. On multiple linear regression, marital relationship and the number of children were predictors of quality of life (β=-17.624, p = 0.023 and β=-7.427, p = 0.016, respectively), as well as the husband’s education and having no history of other cancers in the woman, were the most important predictors of HADS (β = 0.763, p = 0.039 and β=-0.528, p = 0.016, respectively).

Conclusion

It is crucial to provide exceptional care to breast cancer patients during treatment and post-recovery. Emotional and psychological support is a fundamental requirement for their well-being.