bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crime Chains
Authors: Bac Mehmet
Published: October 2022

How should law enforcement resources be allocated to minimize the harms from flexible, chain-form trafficking organizations? I show that optimal interventions focus on one target, the feeding source (decapitation) or the revenue-generating tail (amputation). Decapitation dismantles the crime chain under large budgets but induces maximal expansion otherwise, whereas amputation generates a rich set of detection outcomes and limits the chain’s size response. A rule of thumb emerges for authorities to target tail segments under small budgets and high detection contiguity, qualified by chain profitability and enforcement parameters. Real-world interventions fail to coordinate on such efficient targeting. (JEL K42)
Games Played by Teams of Players
Authors: Kim Jeongbin , Palfrey Thomas R. , Zeidel Jeffrey R.
Published: October 2022

We develop a general framework for analyzing games where each player is a team and members of the same team all receive the same payoff. The framework combines noncooperative game theory with collective choice theory, and is developed for both strategic form and extensive form games. We introduce the concept of team equilibrium and identify conditions under which it converges to Nash equilibrium with large teams. We identify conditions on collective choice rules such that team decisions are stochastically optimal: the probability the team chooses an action is increasing in its equilibrium expected payoff. The theory is illustrated with some binary action games. (JEL C72, D71)
Two-way language immersion in Estonia: parents’ expectations, experiences, and assessment of programme performance
Authors: Gusjuk Natalja , Tuul Maire , Õun Tiia
Published: October 2022

Globaliseeruvas ühiskonnas muutub järjest olulisemaks mitme keele õppimine juba koolieelses eas. Pakkumaks eesti ja vene emakeelega lastele võrdseid võimalusi teise keele omandamiseks, avati 2015. aasta sügisel Eestis esimesed kahesuunalise keelekümbluse rühmad. Artikli eesmärk on anda nelja esimese kahesuunalise keelekümbluse rühma laste vanemate kirjalikule küsitlusele tuginedes ülevaade lastevanemate ootustest, kogemustest ja hinnangutest programmi tulemuslikkusele lapsega kodus räägitavast keelest lähtuvalt. Kirjalikus küsitluses osales 54 lapsevanemat, kellest 31-l oli kodune keel eesti keel ning 23-l vene keel. Selgus, et kuigi erineva kodukeelega laste vanemate põhjendused, miks kahesuunalise keelekümbluse kasuks otsustati, olid erinevad, ollakse kodukeelest sõltumata enamasti väga rahul nii lapse arengu kui ka programmiga tervikuna. Samas toodi välja arenguvõimalusi mudeli rakendamisel, näiteks leiti, et rühmas võiks käia ühevanuselised lapsed.

 Summary
Spatial Perspectives on Adopting and Developing the Two-Way Immersion Program in Estonia’s Kindergartens: Resources & Risks
Authors: Brown Kara
Published: October 2022

Ethnic and racial segregation is a common challenge around the world, and resistance to school integration is all too familiar. Exceptions to these patterns thus merit special attention, particularly in contexts where communities have maintained high degrees of separation for generations. In Estonia, where the dominant Russian-speaking minority throughout the Soviet period seldom learned the language, (re)independence in 1991 reversed the ethnic power structure and left most Russian residents with little to no competency in the sole official language of Estonian.
Russian language and speech culture. Workshop
Authors: Kovadlo Lyudmila
Published: October 2022

The textbook is a didactic material for the textbook "Russian language and culture of speech. Theory". Russian Russian vocabulary and stylistics are outlined in the books, which instills the skills of using the norms of Russian speech.
The study of the Russian language in professional educational organizations implementing the educational program of secondary general education has its own characteristics depending on the profile of vocational education, which is expressed through the content of training. When mastering the professions of technical, natural-scientific, socio-economic profiles of vocational education, the Russian language is studied at the basic level of secondary education. When mastering the specialties of secondary vocational education in the humanities, the Russian language is studied in depth as a specialized academic discipline that requires a higher level of language training of students. In this regard, much attention is paid to functional styles of speech, especially the official business style, and the specifics of the use of language units in accordance with the speech situation, which has practical application not only for students of secondary vocational education, but also for a wide range of business people.
The manual contains practical material: tasks of varying complexity; answers to questions and tasks; historical references, as well as historical information on the history of the origin of words related to all parts of speech; entertaining and reference materials that can be useful for reports, abstracts and other independent works.
Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of secondary vocational education of the latest generation.
For students of secondary vocational education, applicants and high school students.
Geosociology of Law
Authors: Ternovaya Lyudmila , Vrazhnova M. , Gol'din G.G.
Published: October 2022

Humanity has stepped into a new era in which, along with the outstanding results of scientific and technological progress, we have to face the threats of powerful geopolitical conflicts. The textbook deals with issues related to the geopolitical and social conditionality of law, reflects those segments of social reality in which a request is formed for the problems arising in these areas to be solved exclusively with the help of law.
Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation.
It is addressed to teachers and students of political, social and legal specialties. Due to the relevance of the issues raised, the book will be able to interest a wide range of readers.
The artistic world of M.A. Sholokhov: a new context of understanding
Authors: Satarova Lyudmila , Styuflyaeva Natal'ya , Shkurat Liliya , Grechushkina Nataliya , Uglova Natal'ya , Nikol'skaya Natal'ya , Golotvina Ol'ga , Grigorova Oksana , Popova Elena
Published: October 2022

The textbook discusses the current problems of modern scholastic studies, due to the new general cultural context that has developed over the past decades. The problem of the identity of the resurgent Cossacks is revealed depending on its adequate perception and development of the historical and cultural heritage of the past, drawing lessons from it. The work of M.A. Sholokhov is presented as part of the Russian world, which arose on the basis of traditional Orthodox Christian values.
Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation.
It is addressed to philology students, university teachers, Cossack and cadet classes, graduate students, undergraduates, students of humanities faculties, teachers of literature, as well as anyone interested in the history and culture of the Cossacks.
Methodology of social science research
Authors: Mihaylov Dmitriy , Petrenko M.S. , Bereznyakov D.V.
Published: October 2022

The textbook is devoted to the general principles of social science research and contains generalized and systematized information on the history and philosophy of science, the problems of the subject and object of social science research, key methods of research of social phenomena.
Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation.
It is intended for the organization of independent work on scientific projects, course and diploma studies of bachelors, undergraduates and postgraduates studying in the areas of training 41.03.04 "Political Science", 39.03.01 "Sociology", 38.03.04 "State and municipal Administration", 41.03.05 "International relations", 41.03.01 "Foreign regional studies", 40.03.01 "Jurisprudence", 41.03.06 "Public Policy and Social Sciences".
Strategic accounting and analysis
Authors: Chepulyanis Anton , Boronenkova Svetlana , Chernenko A. , Istomina N.
Published: October 2022

The textbook discusses the theoretical and methodological foundations of the organization of strategic accounting and analysis. The place of strategic accounting and analysis in the enterprise management system is determined, their goals, tasks and functions are disclosed. The publication describes in detail the special methods and technologies of accounting and analytical support of strategic management, allowing to expand the horizon of management decisions in a dynamic external and internal environment of the company. Special attention is paid to strategic accounting and cost analysis, issues of methodological support for strategic cost formation.
Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation.
For master's degree students, the system of additional professional education, training centers for advanced training, studying in economic areas, as well as for a wide range of readers — scientists, graduate students, teachers of economic universities, accounting workers, analysts, auditors, managers and consultants on strategic business management.
Basics of floristry
Authors: Tundaleva Irina , Bogdanov Aleksey
Published: October 2022

The purpose of this tutorial is to highlight the main postulates of the experience of foreign and domestic floristry for future specialists in this field. The manual describes the specific features of existing styles and trends in floristry, touches on the most key points of floristry technologies. A separate section touches on the tasks of the present time, addressed to specialists engaged in the field of floral business.
Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of secondary vocational education of the latest generation.
For students in institutions of secondary vocational education in the specialty 43.02.05 "Floristry", as well as for employees of organizations performing floral work, including the manufacture of floral products and floral design of objects for various purposes.
Polʹša v russkoj literature postsovetskogo perioda: obzor problemy
Authors: Vorontsova Kristina
Published: October 2022

This article focuses on traditions and innovations in Russian mass culture depicting the art space of Poland after the fall of the USSR. On the material of Russian detective stories, fantasy novels, rock poetry and rap lyrics the author reveals the mosaic image of Poland preserved in the sphere of concepts characteristic of Russian culture of the 90s of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century. This study can be a basis for further research in the context of current Geopolitical and Geocultural events which will have a long-term impact on the perception of Poland by Russian recipients.
Hronotop prazdnika v metasûžete Gogolâ
Authors: Goldenberg Arkadiy
Published: October 2022

The importance of folk holidays, which determine the belonging of Gogol’s work to the traditions of laughter carnival culture, was substantiated by M. Bakhtin in his article Rabelais and Gogol. The scientist interpreted Gogol’s festive chronotopes as a time of unregulated fun, a space of absolute freedom. Modern folklore and ethnographic research has revealed a more complex emotional and structural nature of the folk festival, in which laughter is inseparable from the fear of “people returning from the afterlife”, abundantly represented in Gogol’s prose. The article, in contrast to the concept of M. Bakhtin, focuses on this aspect of Gogol’s chronotope, traces its close connection with the rites of remembrance of the dead, actualizing the central ontological problem of the writer’s creativity – alive and dead soul. The permeability of the boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead in the Evenings, Mirgorod, the first volume of Dead Souls, is due to the dominance of the Christmas chronotope and its calendar modifications. In the second volume of Dead Souls, the Easter chronotope of spring folk holidays, associated with the spiritual awakening of its heroes under the influence of love, comes to the fore. In terms of the popular Christian calendar, Gogol’s metaplot can be interpreted and described as a transition from Svyatki / Christmas to Radunitsa / Easter.
Przestrzeń rosyjskości w literaturze łemkowskiej
Authors: Duć-Fajfer Helena
Published: October 2022

The study attempts to identity the imaginary constructs presented in Lemko literature referred to Russia and Russianness. Social and geopolitical conditions of the formation of the Lemko ethnic identity played a key role in their creation. In the text the hypostases of Russianness, concretizing themselves in the Lemko identity discourse, are singled out: the myth of the righteous tsar – the defender of persecuted Ruthenians and the vision of Russia as a land of prosperity. Personal and textual examples of the impact of these myths are presented. Social utopias built on their basis are described. The consequences of the political interpretation of these mythical and cultural images for the fate of the entire Lemko community are indicated.
Slovo «scena» v paratekste Višnëvogo sada A.P. Čehova. K voprosu o prostranstve realʹno-hudožestvennom i prostranstve realʹno-teatralʹnom v dramaturgičeskom tekste
Authors: Domanskii Yurii
Published: October 2022

The article examines all the uses of the word “scene” in the paratext of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard which allows to make the conclusion about the specifics of the organization of the dramatic space combining real-artistic and real-theatrical elements. As a result, special readers’ ideas about the scene of Chekhov’s comedy are formed. There Ranevskaya’s estate and the theatre stage are bizarrely synthesized, that is, theatricality is explicated preserving the illusion of life-likeness.
Koncept «putʹ-doroga» v russkoj živopisi. Nabroski k teme
Authors: Zlydneva Nataliya
Published: October 2022

The article is devoted to the motive of the road in Russian painting and attempts to outline the difference between the pictorial principle of the motive and its extra-pictorial connotations, separating it from the stereotypes of perception imposed by literary and ideological clichés. Based on the allocation of subject-object relations and valences associated with the motive of the road, a comparison between Russian painting and poetry of the early 20th century (Blok, Akhamatova, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva) is made. By analogy with poetry, visual “rhymes” are also singled out in the syntagma and semantics of the image of the road, which sometimes echoes and contradicts the content implied by an author. The motive is examined on the basis of the works of famous Russian artists of the 19th century (Perov, Surikov, Savrasov, Ivanov, etc.), as well as the Russian historical avant-garde and Soviet Art of the later era (Goncharova, Malevich, Semashkevich, Nissky, etc.). The problematic of the motive in postmodernism (street art), which goes beyond the limits of the Russian tradition, is also outlined.
Online Learning via Offline Greedy Algorithms: Applications in Market Design and Optimization
Authors: Niazadeh Rad , Golrezaei Negin , Wang Joshua , Susan Fransisca , Badanidiyuru Ashwinkumar
Published: October 2022

Motivated by online decision making in time-varying combinatorial environments, we study the problem of transforming offline algorithms to their online counterparts. We focus on offline combinatorial problems that are amenable to a constant factor approximation using a greedy algorithm that is robust to local errors. For such problems, we provide a general framework that efficiently transforms offline robust greedy algorithms to online ones using Blackwell approachability. We show that the resulting online algorithms have [Formula: see text] (approximate) regret under the full information setting. We further introduce a bandit extension of Blackwell approachability that we call Bandit Blackwell approachability. We leverage this notion to transform greedy robust offline algorithms into a [Formula: see text] (approximate) regret in the bandit setting. Demonstrating the flexibility of our framework, we apply our offline-to-online transformation to several problems at the intersection of revenue management, market design, and online optimization, including product ranking optimization in online platforms, reserve price optimization in auctions, and submodular maximization. We also extend our reduction to greedy-like first-order methods used in continuous optimization, such as those used for maximizing continuous strong DR monotone submodular functions subject to convex constraints. We show that our transformation, when applied to these applications, leads to new regret bounds or improves the current known bounds. We complement our theoretical studies by conducting numerical simulations for two of our applications, in both of which we observe that the numerical performance of our transformations outperforms the theoretical guarantees in practical instances.

This paper was accepted by George Shanthikumar, data science.

Funding: R. Niazadeh was supported by research funding from University of Chicago Booth School of Business. N. Golrezaei was supported in part by the Young Investigator Program Award from the Office of Naval Research [N00014-21-1-2776] and the MIT Research Support Award.

Supplemental Material: The Online Appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4558
Programmatic Characteristics of Open Education Initiatives at U.S. Post-Secondary Institutions
Authors: Bull Jonathan , Gibney Michele
Published: October 2022

Although a number of academic research papers showcase the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER) on student success metrics, the literature still lacks a central collection of knowledge identifying programmatic characteristics between 4 year public, 4 year private, and 2 year community colleges that support these OER initiatives in the United States. To address this gap in the literature and provide evidential statistics that suggest common programmatic characteristics, this quantitative study collected 149 survey responses from program managers of OER-related initiatives at institutions of higher education in the United States. While some previous research on this topic has focused on regional adoption or other aspects of OER usage, this research focuses on how these initiatives are started, funded, governed, and assessed. The results of this study build on existing evidence that OER programs tend to be overseen by committees, are more likely to offer incentive payments for faculty, and offer at least some form of program assessment.
Understanding Mathematics Instructors' Perceptions of OER: A Mixed Methods Study
Authors: Freeman Amie , Tang Hengtao , Geary Jade
Published: October 2022

The adoption of open educational resources (OER) in an institutional setting has been shown to reduce the cost of course materials for students, minimize inequities, and allow instructors to customize course materials. This study tapped into instructors’ perspective of limited adoption of OER in a Mathematics department at a land-grant University in the Southeastern United States. A convergent mixed-methods study was conducted to determine how Mathematics instructors used both commercial and open-license course materials, and how OER were perceived within the Mathematics department, as well as to gauge barriers to the adoption of OER. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected by a preliminary survey administered to the Mathematics department and follow-up semi-structured interviews with voluntary participants. The results show that there are numerous barriers that deter Mathematics faculty from the use of OER, including content quality, time concerns, and difficulties customizing content. Additional themes derived from the interviews were that textbook adoption for the lower-level mathematics courses is often determined by a department-level committee, but mathematics instructors have attempted to integrate OER in their teaching. The findings of this study provided practical implications for raising mathematics instructors’ awareness of OER and identifying the action plan for implementing OER in mathematics classrooms.
OER Review: Power, Profit, and Privilege: Problematizing Scholarly Publishing
Authors: Dickson Chelsee
Published: October 2022

The open textbook, Power, profit, and privilege: Problematizing scholarly publishing, centers around contemporary scholarly publishing, academia, and the issues therein, and it serves as a timely examination of the current publishing landscape.
Letter from the Editors
Authors: Baribeau Hilary , Clement Kristina , Peter Sammy
Published: October 2022

A Letter from the Editors
Wavelet attention network for the segmentation of layer structures on OCT images
Authors: Wang Cong , Gan Meng
Published: October 2022

Automatic segmentation of layered tissue is critical for optical coherence tomography (OCT) image analysis. The development of deep learning techniques provides various solutions to this problem, while most existing methods suffer from topological errors such as outlier prediction and label disconnection. The channel attention mechanism is a powerful technique to address these problems due to its simplicity and robustness. However, it relies on global average pooling (GAP), which only calculates the lowest frequency component and leaves other potentially useful information unexplored. In this study, we use the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to extract multi-spectral information and propose the wavelet attention network (WATNet) for tissue layer segmentation. The DWT-based attention mechanism enables multi-spectral analysis with no complex frequency-selection process and can be easily embedded to existing frameworks. Furthermore, the various wavelet bases make the WATNet adaptable to different tasks. Experiments on a self-collected esophageal dataset and two public retinal OCT dataset demonstrated that the WATNet achieved better performance compared to several widely used deep networks, confirming the advantages of the proposed method.
CHOIRBM: An R package for exploratory data analysis and interactive visualization of pain patient body map data
Authors: Cramer Eric , Ziadni Maisa , Scherrer Kristen Hymel , Mackey Sean , Kao Ming-Chih
Published: October 2022

Body maps are commonly used to capture the location of a patient’s pain and thus reflect the extent of pain throughout the body. With increasing electronic capture body map information, there is an emerging need for clinic- and research-ready tools capable of visualizing this data on individual and mass scales. Here we propose CHOIRBM, an extensible and modular R package and companion web application built on the grammar of graphics system. CHOIRBM provides functions that simplify the process of analyzing and plotting patient body map data integrated from the CHOIR Body Map (CBM) at both individual patient and large-dataset levels. CHOIRBM is built on the popular R graphics package, ggplot2, which facilitates further development and addition of functionality by the open-source development community as future requirements arise. The CHOIRBM package is distributed under the terms of the MIT license and is available on CRAN. The development version of the package with the latest functions may be installed from GitHub. Example analysis using CHOIRBM demonstrates the functionality of the modular R package and highlights both the clinical and research utility of efficiently producing CBM visualizations.
Unsupervised machine learning predicts future sexual behaviour and sexually transmitted infections among HIV-positive men who have sex with men
Authors: Andresen Sara , Balakrishna Suraj , Mugglin Catrina , Schmidt Axel J. , Braun Dominique L. , Marzel Alex , Doco Lecompte Thanh , Darling Katharine EA , Roth Jan A. , Schmid Patrick , Bernasconi Enos , Günthard Huldrych F. , Rauch Andri , Kouyos Roger D. , Salazar-Vizcaya Luisa ,   the Swiss HIV Cohort Study
Published: October 2022

Machine learning is increasingly introduced into medical fields, yet there is limited evidence for its benefit over more commonly used statistical methods in epidemiological studies. We introduce an unsupervised machine learning framework for longitudinal features and evaluate it using sexual behaviour data from the last 20 years from over 3’700 participants in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS). We use hierarchical clustering to find subgroups of men who have sex with men in the SHCS with similar sexual behaviour up to May 2017, and apply regression to test whether these clusters enhance predictions of sexual behaviour or sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) after May 2017 beyond what can be predicted with conventional parameters. We find that behavioural clusters enhance model performance according to likelihood ratio test, Akaike information criterion and area under the receiver operator characteristic curve for all outcomes studied, and according to Bayesian information criterion for five out of ten outcomes, with particularly good performance for predicting future sexual behaviour and recurrent STIs. We thus assess a methodology that can be used as an alternative means for creating exposure categories from longitudinal data in epidemiological models, and can contribute to the understanding of time-varying risk factors.
iPiDA-GCN: Identification of piRNA-disease associations based on Graph Convolutional Network
Authors: Hou Jialu , Wei Hang , Liu Bin
Published: October 2022

Motivation

Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) play a critical role in the progression of various diseases. Accurately identifying the associations between piRNAs and diseases is important for diagnosing and prognosticating diseases. Although some computational methods have been proposed to detect piRNA-disease associations, it is challenging for these methods to effectively capture nonlinear and complex relationships between piRNAs and diseases because of the limited training data and insufficient association representation.

Results

With the growth of piRNA-disease association data, it is possible to design a more complex machine learning method to solve this problem. In this study, we propose a computational method called iPiDA-GCN for piRNA-disease association identification based on graph convolutional networks (GCNs). The iPiDA-GCN predictor constructs the graphs based on piRNA sequence information, disease semantic information and known piRNA-disease associations. Two GCNs (Asso-GCN and Sim-GCN) are used to extract the features of both piRNAs and diseases by capturing the association patterns from piRNA-disease interaction network and two similarity networks. GCNs can capture complex network structure information from these networks, and learn discriminative features. Finally, the full connection networks and inner production are utilized as the output module to predict piRNA-disease association scores. Experimental results demonstrate that iPiDA-GCN achieves better performance than the other state-of-the-art methods, benefitted from the discriminative features extracted by Asso-GCN and Sim-GCN. The iPiDA-GCN predictor is able to detect new piRNA-disease associations to reveal the potential pathogenesis at the RNA level. The data and source code are available at http://bliulab.net/iPiDA-GCN/.
A circular RNA Edis-Relish-castor axis regulates neuronal development in Drosophila
Authors: Liu Wei , Liang Weihong , Xiong Xiao-Peng , Li Jian-Liang , Zhou Rui
Published: October 2022

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new group of noncoding/regulatory RNAs that are particularly abundant in the nervous system, however, their physiological functions are underexplored. Here we report that the brain-enriched circular RNAEdis(Ect4-derivedimmunesuppressor) plays an essential role in neuronal development inDrosophila. We show that depletion ofEdis in vivocauses defects in axonal projection patterns of mushroom body (MB) neurons in the brain, as well as impaired locomotor activity and shortened lifespan of adult flies. In addition, we find that thecastorgene, which encodes a transcription factor involved in neurodevelopment, is upregulated inEdisknockdown neurons. Notably,castoroverexpression phenocopiesEdisknockdown, and reducingcastorlevels suppresses the neurodevelopmental phenotypes inEdis-depleted neurons. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis reveals that the transcription factor Relish, which plays a key role in regulating innate immunity signaling, occupies a pair of sites at thecastorpromoter, and that both sites are required for optimalcastorgene activation by either immune challenge orEdisdepletion. Lastly,Relishmutation and/or depletion can rescue both thecastorgene hyperactivation phenotype and neuronal defects inEdisknockdown animals. We conclude that the circular RNAEdisacts through Relish andcastorto regulate neuronal development.
A Prism Vote method for individualized risk prediction of traits in genotype data of Multi-population
Authors: Xia Xiaoxuan , Zhang Yexian , Sun Rui , Wei Yingying , Li Qi , Chong Marc Ka Chun , Wu William Ka Kei , Zee Benny Chung-Ying , Tang Hua , Wang Maggie Haitian
Published: October 2022

Multi-population cohorts offer unprecedented opportunities for profiling disease risk in large samples, however, heterogeneous risk effects underlying complex traits across populations make integrative prediction challenging. In this study, we propose a novel Bayesian probability framework, the Prism Vote (PV), to construct risk predictions in heterogeneous genetic data. The PV views the trait of an individual as a composite risk from subpopulations, in which stratum-specific predictors can be formed in data of more homogeneous genetic structure. Since each individual is described by a composition of subpopulation memberships, the framework enables individualized risk characterization. Simulations demonstrated that the PV framework applied with alternative prediction methods significantly improved prediction accuracy in mixed and admixed populations. The advantage of PV enlarges as genetic heterogeneity and sample size increase. In two real genome-wide association data consists of multiple populations, we showed that the framework considerably enhanced prediction accuracy of the linear mixed model in five-group cross validations. The proposed method offers a new aspect to analyze individual’s disease risk and improve accuracy for predicting complex traits in genotype data.
Effects of wood fiber impulse-cyclone drying process on the UV-accelerated aging properties of wood-plastic composites
Authors: Li Qingde , Chen Feng , Sang Tonghui
Published: October 2022

The impulse-cyclone drying and the silane coupling agent (A187) modification are applied to treat wood fibers under the following conditions: 180°C, 180°C+A187, 200°C+A187, 220°C+A187 and 240°C+ A187. Then, HDPE/wood fiber composites are fabricated with a two-stage plastic extruder, and the effects of impulse-cyclone drying technique on the UV-accelerated aging properties of composites are investigated. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) reveals that the silane coupling agent chemically reacts with the hydroxyl groups on the wood fiber surfaces, the anti-UV aging properties of composites is enhanced. Mechanical test shows that during the 0–3000 h of UV aging process, the mechanical properties of samples tend to increase initially and then decrease within a period of time. After 3000 h of UV aging, the specimen 4 exhibits the least loss of mechanical properties, with flexural modulus, flexural modulus and impact strength of 65.40 Mpa, 2082.08 Mpa and 12.85 Mpa, respectively. The effects of impulse-cyclone drying technique on the UV-accelerated aging properties of composites are investigated through Spectrophotometry and Surface microstructure observation. indicates that the ΔL* and ΔE* values increase greatly at the stage of 0–1000 h aging, which though tend to stabilize after 1000 h. The degree of discoloration changes little for specimen 4,and the number of surface cracks is relatively small, which exhibits the optimal aging resistance. In conclusion, the addition of wood fibers treated by impulse-cyclone drying (220°C) and A187 modification is effective in enhancing the anti-UV aging properties of HDPE/wood fiber composites. Nevertheless, such enhancing effect turns to decline when the temperature of impulse-cyclone drying treatment is excessively high.
A meta-analysis on the effects of IT capability toward agility and performance: New directions for information systems research
Authors: Werder Karl , Richter Janek
Published: October 2022

Information technology (IT) capability is an organizational capability that enables organizations to acquire, deploy, combine, and reconfigure IT resources. As such, it is often investigated in conjunction with organizational agility—an organization’s ability to sense and respond to changes—and organizational performance. Studies on IT capability distinguish between reactive and proactive IT capability and identify varying effects in relation to agility and performance. While reactive IT capability supports and enhances work processes, proactive IT capability supports and enhances business strategies. In the light of the mixed results of prior research, we conduct a meta-analytical investigation into the varying effects that reactive and proactive IT capability have on organizational agility and organizational performance. We identified 6.436 studies from multiple sources that we systematically reduced to include 72 empirical studies in our analysis. Contrary to previous results and widely held opinion, our meta-analysis neither finds support for differences in effect size between reactive (r+ = 0.39, k = 34, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) [0.34, 0.44]) and proactive IT capability (r+ = 0.38, k = 21, 95% CI [0.31, 0.45]) toward agility (z = 0.68, p = 0.25), nor from reactive IT capability (r+ = 0.31, k = 43, 95% CI [0.26, 0.37]) and proactive IT capability (r+ = 0.33, k = 25, 95% CI [0.27, 0.40]) toward performance (z = 1.11, p = 0.13). Given the importance of IT capability, we discuss possible explanations and propose four areas for future research: latency, sequence, configurational, and theoretical multiplicity of IT capability.
In-silico Investigations of quinine and quinidine as potential Inhibitors of AKR1B1 and AKR1B10: Functional and structural characterization
Authors: Ejaz Syeda Abida , Saeed Amna , Birmani Pervez Rashid , Katubi Khadijah Mohammedsalaeh , Elqahtani Zainab Mufarreh , Al-Buriahi M. S. , Ujan Rabail , Siddique Farhan , Ahmed Samia ben , Alrowaili Z. A.
Published: October 2022

The aberrant expression of aldo keto reductases (AKR1B1 & AKR1B10) has been extensively studied in different types of cancer especially the colon cancer but a very few studies have yet been reported regarding the discovery of inhibitors for the treatment of colon cancer by targeting these isozymes. Therefore, there is a need of selective inhibitors of both targets for the eradication of colon cancer. Currently, the study is focused on the exploration of two quinolone compounds i.e., (S)-(6-Methoxyquinolin-4-yl)[(1S,2R,4S,5R)-5-vinylquinuclidin-2-yl]methanol (Quinidine) and (R)-(6-Methoxyquinolin-4-yl)[(1S,2S,4S,5R)-5-vinylquinuclidin-2-yl]methanol (Quinine) as the potential inhibitors of AKR1B1 and AKR1B10 via detailed in-silico approach. The structural properties including vibrational frequencies, dipole moment, polarizability and the optimization energies were estimated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations; where both compounds were found chemically reactive. After that, the optimized structures were used for the molecular docking studies and here quinidine was found more selective towards AKR1B1 and quinine exhibited maximum inhibition of AKR1B10. The results of molecular docking studies were validated by molecular dynamics simulations which provided the deep insight of stability of protein ligand complex. At the end, the ADMET properties were determined to demonstrate the druglikeness properties of both selected compounds. These findings suggested further exploration of both compounds at molecular level using different in-vivo and in-vitro approaches that will lead to the designing of potential inhibitor of AKR1B1/AKR1B10 for curing colon cancer and related malignancies.
Cost-efficient boundary-free surface patterning achieves high effective-throughput of time-lapse microscopy experiments
Authors: Liang Guohao , Yin Hong , Allard Jun , Ding Fangyuan
Published: October 2022

Time-lapse microscopy plays critical roles in the studies of cellular dynamics. However, setting up a time-lapse movie experiments is not only laborious but also with low output, mainly due to the cell-losing problem (i.e., cells moving out of limited field of view), especially in a long-time recording. To overcome this issue, we have designed a cost-efficient way that enables cell patterning on the imaging surfaces without any physical boundaries. Using mouse embryonic stem cells as an example system, we have demonstrated that our boundary-free patterned surface solves the cell-losing problem without disturbing their cellular phenotype. Statistically, the presented system increases the effective-throughput of time-lapse microscopy experiments by an order of magnitude.
Homocysteine thiolactone contributes to the prognostic value of fibrin clot structure/function in coronary artery disease
Authors: Sikora Marta , Skrzydlewski Paweł , Perła-Kaján Joanna , Jakubowski Hieronim
Published: October 2022

Fibrin clot structure/function contributes to cardiovascular disease. We examined sulfur-containing metabolites as determinants of fibrin clot lysis time (CLT) and maximum absorbance (Absmax) in relation to outcomes in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. Effects of B-vitamin/folate therapy on CLT and Absmax were studied. Plasma samples were collected from 1,952 CAD patients randomized in a 2 x 2 factorial design to (i) folic acid, vitamins B12, B6; (ii) folic acid, vitamin B12; (iii) vitamin B6; (iv) placebo for 3.8 years in the Western Norway B-Vitamin Intervention Trial. Clot lysis time (CLT) and maximum absorbance (Absmax) were determined using a validated turbidimetric assay. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and mortality were assessed during a 7-year follow-up. Data were analyzed using bivariate and multiple regression. Survival free of events was studied using Kaplan Mayer plots. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. Baseline urinary homocysteine (uHcy)-thiolactone and plasma cysteine (Cys) were significantly associated with CLT while plasma total Hcy was significantly associated with Absmax, independently of fibrinogen, triglycerides, vitamin E, glomerular filtration rate, body mass index, age, sex plasma creatinine, CRP, HDL-C, ApoA1, and previous diseases. B-vitamins/folate did not affect CLT and Absmax. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed associations of increased baseline CLT and Absmax with worse outcomes. In Cox regression analysis, baseline CLT and Absmax (>cutoff) predicted AMI (CLT: HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.10–2.28; P = 0.013. Absmax: HR 3.22, CI 1.19–8.69; P = 0.021) and mortality (CLT: HR 2.54, 95% CI 1.40–4.63; P = 0.002. Absmax: 2.39, 95% CI 1.17–4.92; P = 0.017). After adjustments for other prognostic biomarkers these associations remained significant. Cys and uHcy-thiolactone, but not tHcy, were significant predictors of AMI in Cox regression models that included CLT. Conclusions uHcy-thiolactone and plasma Cys are novel determinants of CLT, an important predictor of adverse CAD outcomes. CLT and Absmax were not affected by B-vitamin/folate therapy, which could account for the lack of efficacy of such therapy in CAD.

Trial registration: URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov. Identifier: NCT00354081.
Design and optimization of sheller for ginkgo nut: A study about multifunctional ginkgo nut sheller
Authors: Liu Minji , Wang Jiannan , Wang Ni , Xie Huanxiong , Zhang Huijuan , Shen Haiyang , Gao Xuemei
Published: October 2022

At present, ginkgo nut shellers have many problems, such as low shelling rate and high damage rate. To address these problems, a multifunctional ginkgo nut sheller was designed. The equipment had functions for shell breaking, shelling, and separation of shell from the kernel. The influencing factors of the shelling process were analyzed. A three-factor two-level response surface test was conducted, and mathematical models for the response surface were established. The influence of each factor on the operation quality was analyzed, and a combination of parameters was optimized. The experimental results showed that the factors in the order of importance of their influence on shelling rate was as follows: feeding rate, chainplate speed, and shelling gap. The factors in the order of importance of their influence on damage rate was as follows: shelling gap, chainplate speed, and feeding rate. The results of the interaction analysis conducted showed that the interaction between the chainplate speed and shelling gap had the highest significant effect on the shelling rate, followed by the interaction between the feeding rate and chainplate speed. The interaction between the chainplate speed and shelling gap had a significant effect on damage rate. The interaction between the other factors had no significant effect on shelling and damage rates. The optimal combination of parameters was as follows: the feeding rate was 30.2 g/s, the chainplate speed was 0.48 m/s, and the shelling gap was 12.3 mm. The optimal combination was employed, and the validation test resulted in a shelling rate of 98.02% and damage rate of 4.45%. The relative error between the measured and theoretical values was less than 5%, indicating that the models were reliable. This study can provide a reference for subsequent research on shelling equipment of ginkgo nut.
Healthcare claims-based Lyme disease case-finding algorithms in the United States: A systematic literature review
Authors: Nam Young Hee , Willis Sarah J. , Mendelsohn Aaron B. , Forrow Susan , Gessner Bradford D. , Stark James H. , Brown Jeffrey S. , Pugh Sarah
Published: October 2022

Background and objective

Lyme disease (LD) is the fifth most commonly reported notifiable infectious disease in the United States (US) with approximately 35,000 cases reported in 2019 via public health surveillance. However, healthcare claims-based studies estimate that the number of LD cases is >10 times larger than reported through surveillance. To assess the burden of LD using healthcare claims data and the effectiveness of interventions for LD prevention and treatment, it is important to use validated well-performing LD case-finding algorithms (“LD algorithms”). We conducted a systematic literature review to identify LD algorithms used with US healthcare claims data and their validation status.

Methods

We searched PubMed and Embase for articles published in English since January 1, 2000 (search date: February 20, 2021), using the following search terms: (1) “Lyme disease”; and (2) “claim*” or “administrative* data”; and (3) “United States” or “the US*”. We then reviewed the titles, abstracts, full texts, and bibliographies of the articles to select eligible articles, i.e., those describing LD algorithms used with US healthcare claims data.

Results

We identified 15 eligible articles. Of these, seven studies used LD algorithms with LD diagnosis codes only, four studies used LD diagnosis codes and antibiotic dispensing records, and the remaining four studies used serologic test order codes in combination with LD diagnosis codes and antibiotics records. Only one of the studies that provided data on algorithm performance: sensitivity 50% and positive predictive value 5%, and this was based on Lyme disease diagnosis code only.

Conclusions

US claims-based LD case-finding algorithms have used diverse strategies. Only one algorithm was validated, and its performance was poor. Further studies are warranted to assess performance for different algorithm designs and inform efforts to better assess the true burden of LD.
Is there an association between left atrial outpouching structures and recurrence of atrial fibrillation after catheter ablation?
Authors: Celik Erkan , Hokamp Nils Große , Goertz Lukas , Fehske Wolfgang , Nguyen Dinh Quang , Lichtenberg Lutz , Reimer Robert Peter , Maintz David , Düber Christoph , Achenbach Tobias
Published: October 2022

Objective

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of left atrial diverticula (LADs), left sided septal pouches (LSSPs) and middle right pulmonary veins (MRPVs) on recurrent atrial fibrillation (rAF) in patients undergoing laser pulmonary vein isolation procedure (PVI).

Material and methods

This retrospective study enrolled 139 patients with pre-procedural multiple detector computed tomography (MDCT) imaging and 12 months follow-up examination. LADs, LSSPs and MRPV were identified by two radiologists on a dedicated workstation using multiplanar reconstructions and volume rendering technique. Univariate and bivariate regression analyses with patient demographics and cardiovascular risk factors as covariates were performed to reveal independent factors associated with rAF.

Results

LADs were recorded in 41 patients (29%), LSSPs in 20 (14%) and MRPVs in 15 (11%). The right anterosuperior wall of the left atrium was the most prevalent location of LADs (68%). rAF occured in 20 patients, thereof, 15 exhibited an outpouching structure of the left atrium (LAD: 9, LSSP: 2 and MRPV: 3). Presence of an LAD (HR: 2.7, 95%CI: 1.0–8.4, p = 0.04) and permanent AF (HR: 4.8, 95%CI: 1.5–16.3, p = 0.01) were independently associated with rAF.

Conclusions

LAD, LSSP and MRPV were common findings on pre-procedural cardiac computed tomography. LADs were revealed as potential independent risk factor of rAF, which might be considered for treatment planning and post-treatment observation.