bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How are healthcare provider systems preparing for health emergency situations?
Authors: DeVita Timothy , Brett‐Major David , Katz Rebecca
Published: May 2021

Natural disasters, disease outbreaks, famine, and human conflict have strained communities everywhere over the course of human existence. However, modern changes in climate, human mobility, and other factors have increased the global community's vulnerability to widespread emergencies. We are in the midst of a disruptive health event, with the COVID‐19 pandemic testing our health provider systems globally. This study presents a qualitative analysis of published literature, obtained systematically, to examine approaches health providers are taking to prepare for and respond to mass casualty incidents around the globe. The research reveals emerging trends in the weaknesses of systems' disaster responses while highlighting proposed solutions, so that others may better prepare for future disasters. Additionally, the research examines gaps in the literature, to foster more targeted and actionable contributions to the literature.
Brain Arteriovenous Malformations Classifications: A Surgical Point of View
Authors: Sicuri Giovanni Marco , Galante Nicola , Stefini Roberto
Published: May 2021

Brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) classification has been the subject of extensive discussion. The aim of our work was to review the main classification schemes proposed in the literature, which can be summarized in four main groups: (a) traditional schemes oriented to evaluate the operability of AVMs have been joined by (b) specific classifications that evaluate the outcome and the predictability of obliteration of other treatment modalities and (c) others that evaluate the outcome of intracerebral hemorrhages in ruptured AVMs. Eventually, (d) topographical classifications that categorize the subtypes of AVMs located in specific anatomical regions have been drawn. For each classification, we discuss the implications on surgical management.
Free energy and defect C-theorem in free scalar theory
Authors: Nishioka Tatsuma , Sato Yoshiki
Published: May 2021

Abstract

We describe conformal defects of p dimensions in a free scalar theory on a d-dimensional flat space as boundary conditions on the conformally flat space ℍp+1× 𝕊d−p−1. We classify two types of boundary conditions, Dirichlet type and Neumann type, on the boundary of the subspace ℍp+1 which correspond to the types of conformal defects in the free scalar theory. We find Dirichlet boundary conditions always exist while Neumann boundary conditions are allowed only for defects of lower codimensions. Our results match with a recent classification of the non-monodromy defects, showing Neumann boundary conditions are associated with non-trivial defects. We check this observation by calculating the difference of the free energies on ℍp+1× 𝕊d−p−1 between Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. We also examine the defect RG flows from Neumann to Dirichlet boundary conditions and provide more support for a conjectured C-theorem in defect CFTs.
(CO2)n+, (H2O)n+, and (H2O)n+ (CO2) gas cluster ion beam secondary ion mass spectrometry: analysis of lipid extracts, cells, and Alzheimer’s model mouse brain tissue
Authors: Dimovska Nilsson Kelly , Karagianni Anthi , Kaya Ibrahim , Henricsson Marcus , Fletcher John S.
Published: May 2021

This work assesses the potential of new water cluster-based ion beams for improving the capabilities of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) for in situ lipidomics. The effect of water clusters was compared to carbon dioxide clusters, along with the effect of using pure water clusters compared to mixed water and carbon dioxide clusters. A signal increase was found when using pure water clusters. However, when analyzing cells, a more substantial signal increase was found in positive ion mode when the water clusters also contained carbon dioxide, suggesting that additional reactions are in play. The effects of using a water primary ion beam on a more complex sample were investigated by analyzing brain tissue from an Alzheimer’s disease transgenic mouse model. The results indicate that the ToF-SIMS results are approaching those from MALDI as ToF-SIMS was able to image lyso-phosphocholine (LPC) lipids, a lipid class that for a long time has eluded detection during SIMS analyses. Gangliosides, sulfatides, and cholesterol were also imaged.

Graphical abstract
Rapid in vitro differentiation of bacteria by ion mobility spectrometry
Authors: Steppert Isabel , Schönfelder Jessy , Schultz Carolyn , Kuhlmeier Dirk
Published: May 2021

Rapid screening of infected people plays a crucial role in interrupting infection chains. However, the current methods for identification of bacteria are very tedious and labor intense. Fast on-site screening for pathogens based on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) could help to differentiate between healthy and potentially infected subjects. As a first step towards this, the feasibility of differentiating between seven different bacteria including resistant strains was assessed using IMS coupled to multicapillary columns (MCC-IMS). The headspace above bacterial cultures was directly drawn and analyzed by MCC-IMS after 90 min of incubation. A cluster analysis software and statistical methods were applied to select discriminative VOC clusters. As a result, 63 VOC clusters were identified, enabling the differentiation between all investigated bacterial strains using canonical discriminant analysis. These 63 clusters were reduced to 7 discriminative VOC clusters by constructing a hierarchical classification tree. Using this tree, all bacteria including resistant strains could be classified with an AUC of 1.0 by receiver-operating characteristic analysis. In conclusion, MCC-IMS is able to differentiate the tested bacterial species, even the non-resistant and their corresponding resistant strains, based on VOC patterns after 90 min of cultivation. Although this result is very promising, in vivo studies need to be performed to investigate if this technology is able to also classify clinical samples. With a short analysis time of 5 min, MCC-IMS is quite attractive for a rapid screening for possible infections in various locations from hospitals to airports.

Key Points

• Differentiation of bacteria by MCC-IMS is shown after 90-min cultivation.

• Non-resistant and resistant strains can be distinguished.

• Classification of bacteria is possible based on metabolic features.
Prostate minimally invasive procedures: complications and normal vs. abnormal findings on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI)
Authors: Bui Thanh-Lan , Glavis-Bloom Justin , Chahine Chantal , Mehta Raj , Wolfe Taylor , Bhatter Param , Rupasinghe Mark , Carbone Joseph , Haider Masoom A. , Giganti Francesco , Giona Simone , Oto Aytekin , Lee Grace , Houshyar Roozbeh
Published: May 2021

Minimally invasive alternatives to traditional prostate surgery are increasingly utilized to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia and localized prostate cancer in select patients. Advantages of these treatments over prostatectomy include lower risk of complication, shorter length of hospital stay, and a more favorable safety profile. Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) has become a widely accepted imaging modality for evaluation of the prostate gland and provides both anatomical and functional information. As prostate mpMRI and minimally invasive prostate procedure volumes increase, it is important for radiologists to be familiar with normal post-procedure imaging findings and potential complications. This paper reviews the indications, procedural concepts, common post-procedure imaging findings, and potential complications of prostatic artery embolization, prostatic urethral lift, irreversible electroporation, photodynamic therapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound, focal cryotherapy, and focal laser ablation.
Effects of uncomplicated Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty on the central retinal thickness
Authors: Lohmann Tibor , Baumgarten Sabine , Plange Niklas , Walter Peter , Fuest Matthias
Published: May 2021

Purpose

To determine retinal thickness (RT) changes and the incidence of macular edema after uncomplicated Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK-ME) in patients without ME risk factors.

Methods

In this retrospective study, 107 pseudophakic eyes of 74 patients with Fuchs endothelial dystrophy (FED) (79.4%) or bullous keratopathy (BK) (20.6%) underwent DMEK surgery between 2016 and 2019 at the Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University. Patients with intra- or postoperative complications as well as pre-existing risk factors for ME were excluded. Macular spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) measurements were performed before, 1 week, 1 month, and 6 months after surgery. Retinal thickness (RT) was analyzed in the central foveal 1 mm (CSF), parafoveal 3 mm and 6 mm subfield.

Results

Eight eyes (7.5%) developed DMEK-ME 1 month after surgery. Six DMEK-ME eyes (75%) were rebubbled, compared with 31.3% (31 of 99; P = 0.02) of the non DMEK-ME eyes. DMEK-ME eyes had a significantly thicker CSF 1 month after surgery (432.0 ± 97.6 μm) compared with non-DMEK-ME eyes (283.7 ± 22.2 μm; P = 0.01). The other subfields and time points showed no significant RT changes. DMEK-ME significantly impaired BSCVA (0.38 ± 0.92 logMAR) only 1 month after surgery in comparison to the non DMEK-ME eyes (0.23 ± 0.87 logMAR, P = 0.015).

Conclusion

Excluding systemic and surgery-related risk factors, rebubbling increases the risk of DMEK-ME. Performing a CSF scan 1 month after surgery, particularly in rebubbled eyes, efficiently detects DMEK-ME and allows the prompt initiation of treatment, e.g., topical corticosteroid and non-steroidal (NSAID) eye drops.
Cough-Inducing Method Using a Tartaric Acid Nebulizer for Patients with Silent Aspiration
Authors: Ohno Tomohisa , Tanaka Naomi , Fujimori Mariko , Okamoto Keishi , Hagiwara Satoe , Hojo Kyoko , Shigematsu Takashi , Sugi Takafumi , Kanazawa Hideaki , Kunieda Kenjiro , Fujishima Ichiro
Published: May 2021

The tartaric acid nebulizer is a well-known cough test to evaluate cough function. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a cough-inducing method using tartaric acid (CiTA). Patients with dysphagia examined by videofluoroscopic examination of swallowing (VF) at a single institution from May 2017 to August 2017 were included in this retrospective observational study. Although undergoing VF, patients who had aspirated without reflexively coughing or who had coughed insufficiently, were instructed to cough voluntarily. Patients who could not cough voluntarily or had expectorated insufficiently underwent the CiTA method. The rate of cough induction and the effectiveness of expectoration using the CiTA method were evaluated. One hundred fifty-four patients (mean age 69.2 ± 16.8 years) were evaluated. Eighty-seven patients aspirated during VF. Of those patients, 15 were able to expectorate via the cough reflex, 18 were able to expectorate with a voluntary cough, and 12 required suctioning for removal of aspirated material. The remaining 42 patients underwent the CiTA method. Thirty-eight patients (90.4%) could reflexively cough, and 30 (71.4%) could expectorate the aspirated material. This novel method, CiTA, was effective for cough induction in patients with dysphagia, especially for those with silent aspiration.
The equilibrium measure for an anisotropic nonlocal energy
Authors: Carrillo J. A. , Mateu J. , Mora M. G. , Rondi L. , Scardia L. , Verdera J.
Published: May 2021

In this paper we characterise the minimisers of a one-parameter family of nonlocal and anisotropic energies $$I_\alpha $$

I
α

defined on probability measures in $${\mathbb {R}}^n$$

R

n

, with $$n\ge 3$$

n
≥
3

. The energy $$I_\alpha $$

I
α

consists of a purely nonlocal term of convolution type, whose interaction kernel reduces to the Coulomb potential for $$\alpha =0$$

α
=
0

and is anisotropic otherwise, and a quadratic confinement. The two-dimensional case arises in the study of defects in metals and has been solved by the authors by means of complex-analysis techniques. We prove that for $$\alpha \in (-1, n-2]$$

α
∈
(
-
1
,
n
-
2
]

, the minimiser of $$I_\alpha $$

I
α

is unique and is the (normalised) characteristic function of a spheroid. This result is a paradigmatic example of the role of the anisotropy of the kernel on the shape of minimisers. In particular, the phenomenon of loss of dimensionality, observed in dimension $$n=2$$

n
=
2

, does not occur in higher dimension at the value $$\alpha =n-2$$

α
=
n
-
2

corresponding to the sign change of the Fourier transform of the interaction potential.
$$\alpha $$-Dirac-harmonic maps from closed surfaces
Authors: Jost Jürgen , Zhu Jingyong
Published: May 2021

$$\alpha $$α-Dirac-harmonic maps are variations of Dirac-harmonic maps, analogous to$$\alpha $$α-harmonic maps that were introduced by Sacks–Uhlenbeck to attack the existence problem for harmonic maps from closed surfaces. For$$\alpha >1$$α>1, the latter are known to satisfy a Palais–Smale condition, and so, the technique of Sacks–Uhlenbeck consists in constructing$$\alpha $$α-harmonic maps for$$\alpha >1$$α>1and then letting$$\alpha \rightarrow 1$$α→1. The extension of this scheme to Dirac-harmonic maps meets with several difficulties, and in this paper, we start attacking those. We first prove the existence of nontrivial perturbed$$\alpha $$α-Dirac-harmonic maps when the target manifold has nonpositive curvature. The regularity theorem then shows that they are actually smooth if the perturbation function is smooth. By$$\varepsilon $$ε-regularity and suitable perturbations, we can then show that such a sequence of perturbed$$\alpha $$α-Dirac-harmonic maps converges to a smooth coupled$$\alpha $$α-Dirac-harmonic map.
Utility of remission criteria for the renal prognosis of IgA nephropathy
Authors: Matsuzaki Keiichi , Suzuki Hitoshi , Kawamura Tetsuya , Tomino Yasuhiko , Suzuki Yusuke
Published: May 2021

Background

Novel criteria for the remission of Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) based on an opinion survey of Japanese nephrologists and literature review were proposed in 2013. This single-center, longitudinal retrospective cohort study was conducted to validate this criteria.

Methods

Present study included the IgAN patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2005 in the Juntendo University Hospital. Remission of hematuria was defined as three consecutive dipstick test results of ( −) to ( ±) or a red blood cell count < 5 in urinary sediment per high-power field during at least 6 months. Remission of proteinuria was defined as three consecutive dipstick results of ( −) to ( ±) during at least 6 months. We categorized four groups according to the remission status which was assessed 2 years after the renal biopsy. The primary outcome was a 50% increase in the serum creatinine over the baseline. We evaluated the slope of eGFR decline (mL/min/1.73 m2/year) and a decrease in the eGFR of 30% from baseline eGFR as the secondary outcome, respectively.

Results

A total of 74 patients (male: 47.3%, median age: 30 years) were included and were followed for a median of 86.5 months. During the period, forty-one patients achieved neither remission of proteinuria nor hematuria (NR). Twelve patients met the primary study outcome. A survival analysis revealed that the NR had the worst prognosis and the steepest slope of eGFR decline.

Conclusion

Although further validation in a large cohort is necessary, these novel remission criteria for IgAN patients appear to predict the renal prognosis.
The Mediating Effect of Financial Motives in the Association between Entrepreneurial Experience and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Japan
Authors: Honjo Yuji , Ikeuchi Kenta , Nakamura Hiroki
Published: May 2021

This study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial experience and subjective well-being. Using an original survey on subjective well-being, entrepreneurial experience, level of wealth (inferred from observed variables of income, cash, and assets), and personal attributes of 10,001 individuals in Japan, we examine the factors that mediate the association between entrepreneurial experience and subjective well-being. We measure entrepreneurial experience as an individual’s experience in funding, owning, and running a corporation. We consider the mediating effect of the level of wealth on subjective well-being because entrepreneurial well-being is associate with wealth derived from income, cash, and assets. Our results provide no significant evidence that individuals with entrepreneurial experience have higher subjective well-being. However, we find a positive indirect effect of entrepreneurial experience on subjective well-being through wealth and a negative indirect effect through debt. The findings of this study indicate the importance of considering the mediating effect of financial motives in entrepreneurial well-being.
Contrastive Self-supervised Representation Learning Using Synthetic Data
Authors: She Dong-Yu , Xu Kun
Published: May 2021

Learning discriminative representations with deep neural networks often relies on massive labeled data, which is expensive and difficult to obtain in many real scenarios. As an alternative, self-supervised learning that leverages input itself as supervision is strongly preferred for its soaring performance on visual representation learning. This paper introduces a contrastive self-supervised framework for learning generalizable representations on the synthetic data that can be obtained easily with complete controllability. Specifically, we propose to optimize a contrastive learning task and a physical property prediction task simultaneously. Given the synthetic scene, the first task aims to maximize agreement between a pair of synthetic images generated by our proposed view sampling module, while the second task aims to predict three physical property maps, i.e., depth, instance contour maps, and surface normal maps. In addition, a feature-level domain adaptation technique with adversarial training is applied to reduce the domain difference between the realistic and the synthetic data. Experiments demonstrate that our proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance on several visual recognition datasets.
Seasonal variations in temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in a larch forest in the Northern Daxing’an Mountains in Northeast China
Authors: Yang Lin , Zhang Qiuliang , Ma Zhongtao , Jin Huijun , Chang Xiaoli , Marchenko Sergey S. , Spektor Valentin V.
Published: May 2021

Temperature sensitivity of respiration of forest soils is important for its responses to climate warming and for the accurate assessment of soil carbon budget. The sensitivity of temperature (Ti) to soil respiration rate (Rs), and Q10 defined by e10(lnRs−lna)/Ti has been used extensively for indicating the sensitivity of soil respiration. The soil respiration under a larch (Larix gmelinii) forest in the northern Daxing’an Mountains, Northeast China was observed in situ from April to September, 2019 using the dynamic chamber method. Air temperatures (Tair), soil surface temperatures (T0cm), soil temperatures at depths of 5 and 10 cm (T5cm and T10cm, respectively), and soil-surface water vapor concentrations were monitored at the same time. The results show a significant monthly variability in soil respiration rate in the growing season (April–September). The Q10 at the surface and at depths of 5 and 10 cm was estimated at 5.6, 6.3, and 7.2, respectively. The Q10@10 cm over the period of surface soil thawing (Q10@10 cm, thaw = 36.89) were significantly higher than that of the growing season (Q10@10 cm, growth = 3.82). Furthermore, the Rs in the early stage of near-surface soil thawing and in the middle of the growing season is more sensitive to changes in soil temperatures. Soil temperature is thus the dominant factor for season variations in soil respiration, but rainfall is the main controller for short-term fluctuations in respiration. Thus, the higher sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature (Q10) is found in the middle part of the growing season. The monthly and seasonal Q10 values better reflect the responsiveness of soil respiration to changes in hydrometeorology and ground freeze-thaw processes. This study may help assess the stability of the soil carbon pool and strength of carbon fluxes in the larch forested permafrost regions in the northern Daxing’an Mountains.
Sodium and Health Outcomes: Ascertaining Valid Estimates in Research Studies
Authors: Anderson Cheryl A. M. , Delker Erin , Ix Joachim H.
Published: May 2021

Purpose of Review

The dietary reference intake (DRI) for sodium has been highly debated with persuasive and elegant arguments made for both population sodium reduction and for maintenance of the status quo. After the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) report was published, controversy ensued, and by Congressional mandate, the sodium DRIs were updated in 2019. The 2019 DRIs defined adequate intake (AI) levels by age–sex groups that are largely consistent with the DRIs for sodium that were published in 2005. Given the overall similarities between the 2005 and 2019 DRIs, one may wonder how the recently published research on sodium and health outcomes was considered in determining the DRIs, particularly, the recent studies from very large observational cohort studies. We aim to address this concern and outline the major threats to ascertaining valid estimates of the relationship between dietary sodium and health outcomes in observational cohort studies. We use tools from modern epidemiology to demonstrate how unexpected and inconsistent findings in these relationships may emerge. We use directed acyclic graphs to illustrate specific examples in which biases may occur.

Recent Findings

We identified the following key threats to internal validity: poorly defined target intervention, poorly measured sodium exposure, unmeasured or residual confounding, reverse causality, and selection bias. Researchers should consider these threats to internal validity while developing research questions and throughout the research process.

For the DRIs to inform real-world interventions relating to sodium reduction, it is recommended that more specific research questions be asked that can clearly define potential interventions of interest.
Prediction of overt hepatic encephalopathy after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt treatment: a cohort study
Authors: Yang Yang , Fu Sirui , Cao Bin , Hao Kenan , Li Yong , Huang Jianwen , Shi Wenfeng , Duan Chongyang , Bai Xiao , Tang Kai , Yang Shirui , He Xiaofeng , Lu Ligong
Published: May 2021

Background/purpose

Overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) risk should be preoperatively predicted to identify patients suitable for curative transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) instead of palliative treatments.

Methods

A total of 185 patients who underwent TIPS procedure were randomised (130 in the training dataset and 55 in the validation dataset). Clinical factors and imaging characteristics were assessed. Three different models were established by logistic regression analyses based on clinical factors (ModelC), imaging characteristics (ModelI), and a combination of both (ModelCI). Their discrimination, calibration, and decision curves were compared, to identify the best model. Subgroup analysis was performed for the best model.

Results

ModelCI, which contained two clinical factors and two imaging characteristics, was identified as the best model. The areas under the curve of ModelC, ModelI, and ModelCIwere 0.870, 0.963, and 0.978 for the training dataset and 0.831, 0.971, and 0.969 for the validation dataset. The combined model outperformed the clinical and imaging models in terms of calibration and decision curves. The performance of ModelCIwas not influenced by total bilirubin, Child–Pugh stages, model of end-stage liver disease score, or ammonia. The subgroup with a risk score ≥ 0.88 exhibited a higher proportion of overt HE (training dataset: 13.3% vs. 97.4%,p < 0.001; validation dataset: 0.0% vs. 87.5%,p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Our combination model can successfully predict the risk of overt HE post-TIPS. For the low-risk subgroup, TIPS can be performed safely; however, for the high-risk subgroup, it should be considered more carefully.

Graphic abstract
Value-conflicts in the conservation of a native species: a case study based on the endangered white-clawed crayfish in Europe
Authors: Biasetti Pierfrancesco , Ferrante Linda , Bonelli Marco , Manenti Raoul , Scaccini Davide , de Mori Barbara
Published: May 2021

The future of the native European crayfishAustropotamobius pallipesdepends on accurate conservation management. The goal of this paper is to attempt an investigation of the major ethical conflicts that can emerge in the conservation of this endangered crayfish threatened by invasive competitors, introduced diseases, and landscape alteration. To assess this issue, we will employ the Ethical Matrix, in a version explicitly tailored for its use in conservation. The filled Ethical Matrix will highlight several potential conflicts between values such as environmental protection, social and economic interests, animal welfare, cultural and aesthetic value, etc. We will discuss these conflicts, alongside some potential mitigating strategies present in the literature. We will stress in particular the need to take into account the ethical principle of fairness when assessing the economic and recreational value of invasive species, especially concerning the unfair distribution of costs. Moreover, we will assert the importance of conservation ofA. pallipesboth for its existence value and for its role as an umbrella and keystone species. Beyond its focus onA. pallipes, the Ethical Matrix here discussed might also provide insights on the value conflicts relative to analogous in situ conservation efforts involving a native species threatened by invasive alien competitors.

Graphic abstract
Impfstoffe für alle? Dodecin als Impfstoffplattform
Authors: Bourdeaux Florian , Rittner Alexander , Grininger Martin
Published: May 2021

The Corona pandemic has painfully taught us the threat of new pathogens in a globalized world and how vital modern vaccines are. Platform technologies play an important role in the discovery of new vaccines as reducing the time for the development dramatically — time that saves lives. Here, we present the protein Dodecin and how it may be utilized as a versatile platform technology to produce cheap and robust new vaccines for everyone in all parts of the world.
Pilze: vom „Vitamin“- Überproduzenten zum robusten Alleskönner
Authors: Nieland Susanne , Zamani Arief I. , Ng C. Leong , Stahmann K.-Peter
Published: May 2021

Ashbya gosspyii, a fungus overproducing riboflavin, is applied for > 1000 t/a for two decades. Disadvantages of the overproducer are its need of complex nutrients and a weak pH tolerance. An omnipotent anabolism was shown for Phialemonium curvatum isolated from compost by screening for plant oil degradation on mineral salts medium at pH 3. It can be cultivated in plastic vessels > 100 L with minimal sterile technique. Its potential to convert crude palm oil into organic acids is discussed.
The promise of panarchy in managed retreat: converging psychological perspectives and complex adaptive systems theory
Authors: Greenlees Kai , Cornelius Randolph
Published: May 2021

This paper interrogates the nature of climate resilience by adopting “panarchy” as a heuristic model to visualize how small-scale processes such as individual environmental risk perceptions are interrelated with broader social and ecological systems to confer community resilience. Thematic analysis of resident interviews from a pilot study conducted in the Rockaways, New York revealed the foundations of environmental risk perceptions and the ways in which they are both a product of and catalyst for social-ecological system (SES) resilience. The debate around managed retreat necessitates a complex systems perspective to promote equitable and just adaptation and transformation while avoiding unintended consequences which often result from single-scale inquiry. Integrating risk perception in the explicit multi-scalar model of panarchy proposes a new way to think about the complex social, economic, political, and psychological processes converging across space and time to confer community resilience and visualize the complexity inherent in relocation. In other words, connecting climate resilience and managed retreat with psychological processes like risk perception emphasizes the importance of implementing multi-scalar interventions to build community adaptive capacity.
Information criteria and cross validation for Bayesian inference in regular and singular cases
Authors: Watanabe Sumio
Published: May 2021

In data science, an unknown information source is estimated by a predictive distribution defined from a statistical model and a prior. In an older Bayesian framework, it was explained that the Bayesian predictive distribution should be the best on the assumption that a statistical model is convinced to be correct and a prior is given by a subjective belief in a small world. However, such a restricted treatment of Bayesian inference cannot be applied to highly complicated statistical models and learning machines in a large world. In 1980, a new scientific paradigm of Bayesian inference was proposed by Akaike, in which both a model and a prior are candidate systems and they had better be designed by mathematical procedures so that the predictive distribution is the better approximation of unknown information source. Nowadays, Akaike’s proposal is widely accepted in statistics, data science, and machine learning. In this paper, in order to establish a mathematical foundation for developing a measure of a statistical model and a prior, we show the relation among the generalization loss, the information criteria, and the cross-validation loss, then compare them from three different points of view. First, their performances are compared in singular problems where the posterior distribution is far from any normal distribution. Second, they are studied in the case when a leverage sample point is contained in data. And last, their stochastic properties are clarified when they are used for the prior optimization problem. The mathematical and experimental comparison shows the equivalence and the difference among them, which we expect useful in practical applications.
Characterization displacement of multilayered soils using smoothing seismic data, numerical analysis, and probabilistically statistics analysis
Authors: Namdar Abdoullah , Satyam Neelima
Published: May 2021

Differential displacement of soil foundation owing to the seismic excitation has received significant attention for evaluation infrastructure seismic resistance. The multilayered soil interaction requires investigation for the prediction and characterization of multilayered soil differential displacement. In this study, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) filtering method was applied for smoothing acceleration history. The numerical simulation performed using ABAQUS for soil layers interaction assessment. The statistical analysis was also applied for verification accuracy of numerical analysis and to predict the probability of the multilayered soil differential displacement occurrence. The mechanical properties of the soil, the number of soil layers, the location of soil arrangement, the type of seismic loading, and the accuracy of seismic loading were considered for modeling. The hexahedral mesh with a 500 mm size was selected in the numerical simulation. The results reveal the soil layer's interaction influence on differential displacement and flexibility of the multilayered soil. It was observed the nature of seismic loading has a significant influence on the type of soil in minimizing displacement. The soil layer arrangement controls the displacement magnitude and soil layer vibration magnitude. The conversion of the soil differential displacement to soil linear displacement and enhancement of the soil seismic stability occurred because of multilayered soil interaction and the nature of the seismic loading. This study's finding shows the statistical model verified and predicts differential displacement through a suitable application of the statistical model in geotechnical earthquake engineering. The presented method implies the appropriate design of multilayered soil. It can be alternative solutions to predict the differential displacement of multilayered soil by minimizing the number of the modeling through the applied statistical method. It characterized the conversion of the differential displacement to linear displacement by multilayered soil design occurrence.
Automated arrhythmia detection from electrocardiogram signal using stacked restricted Boltzmann machine model
Authors: Pandey Saroj Kumar , Janghel Rekh Ram , Dev Aditya Vikram , Mishra Pankaj Kumar
Published: May 2021

Significant advances in deep learning techniques have made it possible to offer technologically advanced methods to detect cardiac abnormalities. In this study, we have proposed a new deep learning based Restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) model for the classification of arrhythmias from Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. The work is divided into three phases where, in the first phase, signal processing is performed, including the normalization of the heartbeats as well as the segmentation of the heartbeats. In the second phase, the stacked RBM model is implemented which extracts the essential features from the ECG signal. Finally, a SoftMax activation function is used that classifies the ECG signal into four types of heartbeat classes according to ANSI/AAMA standards. This stacked RBM model is offered as three types of experiments, patient independent data classification for multi-class, patient independent data for binary classification, and patient specific classification. The best result was obtained using patient independent binary classification with an overall accuracy of 99.61%. For Patient Independent Multi Class classification, accuracy obtained was 98.61% and for patient specific data, the accuracy was 95.13%. The experimental results shows that the developed RBM model has better performance in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity as compared to work mentioned in the other research papers.

Article highlights

The proposed RBM model is skilled to automatically classify ECG heartbeat according to the ANSI- AAMI standards with accuracy, Recall, specificity.

The performance of the RBM model to correctly classify heartbeat classes was found to be improved.

The model is fully automatic, hence there is no requirement of additional system like feature extraction, feature selection, and classification.
Children and Youth in Premodern Scotland
Authors: Neville Cynthia J , Barclay Katie , Campbell Stuart , Cowan Mairi , Reid Baxter Jamie , Dunnigan Sarah , Frater Anne , MacKinnon Dolly , Parker Heather , Spence Cathryn , Walkling Laura E. , Whiting Nel
Published: May 2021

Children and youth have tended to be under-reported in the historical scholarship. This collection of essays recasts the historical narrative by populating premodern Scottish communities from the thirteenth to the late eighteenth centuries with their lively experiences and voices. By examining medieval and early modern Scottish communities through the lens of age, the collection counters traditional assumptions that young people are peripheral to our understanding of the political, economic, and social contexts of the premodern era. The topics addressed fall into three main sections: theexperience of being a child/adolescent; representations of the young; and the construction of the next generation. The individual essays examine the experience of the young at all levels of society, including princes and princesses, aristocratic and gentry youth, urban young people, rural children, and those who came to Scotland as slaves; they draw on evidence from art, personal correspondence, material culture, song, legal and government records, work and marriage contracts, and literature. Janay Nugent is an Associate Professor of History and a founding member of the Institute for Child and Youth Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada; Elizabeth Ewan is University Research Chair and Professor of History and Scottish Studies at the Centre for Scottish Studies, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Contributors: Katie Barclay, Stuart Campbell, Mairi Cowan, Sarah Dunnigan, Elizabeth Ewan, Anne Frater, Dolly MacKinnon, Cynthia J. Neville, Janay Nugent, Heather Parker, Jamie Reid Baxter, Cathryn R. Spence, Laura E. Walkling, Nel Whiting.
Elite Women in Ascendancy Ireland, 1690-1745
Authors: Wilson Rachel
Published: May 2021

The late seventeenth and early eighteenth century was a period of great social and political change within Ireland, as the Protestant Ascendancy gained control of the country, aided by the English government and aristocracy, with whom the ruling class in Ireland mixed through marriage and travel. The resulting Anglo-Irish elite, with its distinct transnational identity, differed markedly from the preceding Irish elite, but, at the same time, because of its Irish dimension, was very different also from the contemporary English and Scottish upper classes. Women played key roles in this Anglo-Irish elite, and the nature of the Protestant Ascendancy can only be completely understood by considering women's roles fully.

This book provides a thorough examination of the role of women in Ascendancy Ireland. It discusses marriage, family and social life; explores women's roles in economic and political life and in charitable activities; and places Irish elite women of this period in their wider historiographical context. The book is based on extensive original research, including among the papers of aristocratic families in Ireland and Britain, and provides a wealth of detail on elite women's lives in this period.

Rachel Wilson completed her doctorate in modern history at Queen's University, Belfast.
Defending British India against Napoleon
Authors: Das Amita
Published: May 2021

Following Napoleon's defeat of Prussia in 1806 and his treaties with Russia and Persia in 1807, the French threat to Britain's position in India seemed real and strengthening. At the same time, Napoleon's economic warfare with Britain and the success of French privateers in disrupting British trade in the Indian Ocean were having a severe impact. This book, based on extensive original research, relates in detail how Lord Minto, a Cabinet-level politician who was appointed Governor-General of Bengal in 1807, steadily and successfully worked to counter the French threat. It examines how he builta series of buffer alliances with local states on the northwest frontier of India; captured the Indian Ocean islands used as bases by French privateers, notably the Ile de France, now Mauritius; and,in 1811, conquered Java, nominally Dutch but following the incorporation of the Netherlands into the French Empire, effectively French. Besides the details of Lord Minto's career and activities, thebook also provides full background information on a wide range of relevant subjects, including the governance and finances of the East India Company, the various polities of the Indian subcontinent and neighbouring regions, and the political situation in Britain and Europe. Amita Das completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford. Aditya Das completed his doctorate at West VirginiaUniversity.
Familial sleep and autism spectrum disorder: a pilot actigraphy study of sleep quality, quality of life and psychological distress
Authors: Leader Geraldine , Glynn Carmel , Kirkpatrick Bernadette , Chen June L. , O’Súilleabháin Páraic S. , Mannion Arlene
Published: May 2021

Objectives:

Sleep problems are common among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and can have a negative impact on the child’s behaviour and daytime functioning. The current pilot study examined objective measurements of child and parent sleep as factors associated with the stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, social support and quality of life of parents of children with ASD.

Methods:

Participants were nine children with ASD and their parents (nine mothers and three fathers). Participants wore an actigraph for 7 consecutive days and nights. Measures of sleep habits and quality were used to ascertain child and parent sleep. Measures of parenting stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, quality of life and social support were collated.

Results:

Results indicated the emergence of high parental stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Significant correlations were observed between parent depressive symptoms, and both subjective sleep quality and child sleep disruptions.

Conclusions:

The present study found that parental well-being is affected by child sleep problems.
Integration to Inclusion in Hong Kong: Not an Easy Progression
Authors: Westwood Peter
Published: May 2021

This article describes the evolution of inclusive education in Hong Kong, moving from segregation via integration to inclusion. The outside influence of education policies and trends from Britain, Australia, and the United States are identified, and the current situation is described. In particular, obstacles that are encountered on the route to inclusion are compared with those found in other countries. These obstacles include large class size, teachers’ often negative attitudes, parents’ expectations, teachers’ lack of expertise for adapting the curriculum and for providing differentiated teaching, and ongoing conflicts between the notion of ‘inclusive schooling for all’ and the ‘academic standards agenda’.
NOTES ON ORTHOGONAL-COMPLETE METRIC SPACES
Authors: DUNG NGUYEN VAN
Published: May 2021

We prove that the restriction of a given orthogonal-complete metric space to the closure of the orbit induced by the origin point with respect to an orthogonal-preserving and orthogonal-continuous map is a complete metric space. Then we show that many existence results on fixed points in orthogonal-complete metric spaces can be proved by using the corresponding existence results in complete metric spaces.
ENUMERATING NECKLACES WITH TRANSITIONS
Authors: BIANCONI FRANCESCO , BRUGNOLI EMANUELE
Published: May 2021

Necklaces are the equivalence classes of words under the action of the cyclic group. Let a transition in a word be any change between two adjacent letters modulo the word’s length. We present a closed-form solution for the enumeration of necklaces innbeads,kcolours andttransitions. We show that our result provides a more general solution to the problem of counting alternating (proper) colourings of the vertices of a regularn-gon.
EXTENDING RESULTS OF MORGAN AND PARKER ABOUT COMMUTING GRAPHS
Authors: BEIKE NICOLAS F. , CARLETON RACHEL , COSTANZO DAVID G. , HEATH COLIN , LEWIS MARK L. , LU KAIWEN , PEARCE JAMIE D.
Published: May 2021

Morgan and Parker proved that if G is a group with
${\textbf{Z}(G)} = 1$
, then the connected components of the commuting graph of G have diameter at most
$10$
. Parker proved that if, in addition, G is solvable, then the commuting graph of G is disconnected if and only if G is a Frobenius group or a
$2$
-Frobenius group, and if the commuting graph of G is connected, then its diameter is at most
$8$
. We prove that the hypothesis
$Z (G) = 1$
in these results can be replaced with
$G' \cap {\textbf{Z}(G)} = 1$
. We also prove that if G is solvable and
$G/{\textbf{Z}(G)}$
is either a Frobenius group or a
$2$
-Frobenius group, then the commuting graph of G is disconnected.
Effects of supplementing a healthy diet with pecan nuts or extra-virgin olive oil on inflammatory profile of patients with stable coronary artery disease: a randomised clinical trial
Authors: Weschenfelder Camila , Gottschall Catarina B.A. , Markoski Melissa M. , Portal Vera Lúcia , Quadros Alexandre S. de , Bersch-Ferreira Ângela Cristine , Marcadenti Aline
Published: May 2021

The consumption of nuts and extra-virgin olive oil has been associated with suppression of inflammatory pathways that contribute to atherosclerosis, but its role on the modulation of the inflammatory profile in patients with established coronary artery disease (CAD) is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of adding pecan nuts or extra-virgin olive oil to a healthy diet on inflammatory markers in patients with stable CAD. In this randomised clinical trial, 204 patients were enrolled to three study groups: sixty seven to control group (CG: healthy diet), sixty eight to pecan nuts group (PNG: 30 g/d of pecans + healthy diet) and sixty nine to extra-virgin olive oil group (OOG: 30 ml/d of extra-virgin olive oil + healthy diet). High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP, in mg/l), fibrinogen (mg/dl), IL 2, 4, 6, 10 (pg/ml) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ, in pg/ml), IL-6/IL-10, IL-2/IL-4 and IFN-/γIL-4 ratios were evaluated at baseline and after the follow-up (12 weeks). As main results, after adjustment for sex, statin used and relative body weight variation, there were no differences between groups regarding inflammatory markers at the end of the study. IL-6 levels (primary outcome) were reduced in 12 weeks when compared with baseline in all study groups (CG: difference: −0·593 (se = 0·159) pg/dL; PNG: difference: −0·335 (se = 0·143) pg/dl; OOG: IL-6 difference: −0·325 (se = 0·143) pg/dl). In conclusion, there was no significant effect of including pecan nuts or extra virgin olive oil to a healthy diet on inflammatory markers in individuals with CAD.
Ideological and Partisan Bias in the Canadian Public
Authors: Merkley Eric
Published: May 2021

Partisan and affective polarization should have observable consequences in Canada, such as bias in political information search and processing. This article presents the results of three studies that test for partisan and ideological bias using the Digital Democracy Project's study of the 2019 Canadian election. Study 1 uses a conjoint experiment where respondents choose from pairs of hypothetical news stories where the slant of the source and headline are both randomized. Study 2 tests for partisan-motivated responsiveness to elite cues with a policy vignette that manipulates the presence of party elite cues and a motivational prime. Study 3 requires respondents to solve a randomly assigned numeracy task that is either political or nonpolitical in nature. Results suggest that Canadians (1) select politically congenial information, though not sources of such information, (2) follow elite cues when partisan motivation is primed and (3) evaluate evidence in ways that are biased by their ideological beliefs.