bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cost-of-illness study among patients with diabetes mellitus and coping mechanisms in Northern Ghana
Authors: Ziblim Andrew Mpagwuni , Azaare John , Bio Robert Bagngmen , Inusah Abdul-Hanan Saani , Issah Abdul-Nasir , Hushie Martin
Published: January 2025

Introduction

The increasing prevalence of diabetes globally imposes financial burden on individuals, societies and health systems. However, not much is known about the treatment costs of diabetes and the coping mechanisms patients adopt in seeking care in the northern part of Ghana. In this study, we assessed the annual direct, indirect and intangible costs of diabetes mellitus care and related coping mechanisms of patients at the Tamale Teaching Hospital’s Diabetic Clinic.

Methods

This was a descriptive cross-sectional cost-of-illness study conducted between June and August 2023 among 385 patients with diabetes in the Tamale Teaching Hospital of Ghana. Participants were selected by systematic random sampling. Direct medical costs (summation of cost of medications, investigations and admissions) and direct non-medical costs (cost of food and water, and transportation during hospital visits) together made up direct costs per patient per year. Indirect costs (lost wages as a result of illness or hospital visits) were estimated using the human capital approach. Intangible costs were analysed using a 5-point Likert Scale. Cost-coping mechanisms were obtained from the perspectives of the participants.

Results

The mean direct cost per person per year was found to be US$159.70 (95% CI 126.70 to 193.04), with direct medical costs being on average US$186.04 and direct non-medical costs being on average US$15.59, while the mean indirect cost per person per year was US$130.72. Average total cost of illness per person per year was found to be US$290.44 (95% CI 248.64 to 334.70). The study participants often experienced intangible costs such as physical pain, easy fatiguability and diet changes as a result of diabetes and adopted a number of cost-coping mechanisms which included the use of savings, borrowing and reducing medication use.

Conclusion

The costs incurred for care of diabetes mellitus in Northern Ghana are substantial, especially in view of Ghana’s low minimum wage which was US$1.35 in 2023. This results in the adoption of adverse-cost-coping mechanisms that can drive families into further poverty with detrimental effects on the treatment of diabetes.
Research on key technologies of digital twin cloud platform: a case study of rebar thread production line
Authors: Liu Li , Liu ZiJin , Hou Aishan , Qian Xuefei
Published: January 2025

Faced with the problem of the “black box” in the traditional workshop manufacturing industry, this study focuses on the rebar thread production line, and explores the construction and application of the production line cloud platform based on digital twins. First, the overall framework of the production line cloud platform was constructed. Then, the digital twin modeling technology was explored from four perspectives: geometry, physics, behavior, and rules. Additionally, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform was constructed to enable bidirectional mapping between the physical system and the virtual model using data as the driving force. Finally, a digital twin prototyping system for the rebar thread production line with integrated hardware and software was developed, relying on the sawing and cutting head line of a one-dragger. Through actual engineering cases, the proposed theory and technology were tested, verifying their effectiveness and practicability. The study demonstrates the application value of digital twin technology in remote monitoring, health operation and maintenance, quality inspection, and intelligent production, providing a certain reference for the realization of intelligent manufacturing of rebar processing.
Non-singular anisotropic solutions for strange star model in $$f(\mathcal {R},\mathcal {T},\mathcal {R}_{\zeta \gamma }\mathcal {T}^{\zeta \gamma })$$ gravity theory
Authors: Feng Yihu , Naseer Tayyab , Mustafa G. , Maurya S. K.
Published: January 2025

This article focuses on different anisotropic models within the framework of a specific modified $$f(\mathcal {R},\mathcal {T}, \mathcal {R}_{\zeta \gamma }\mathcal {T}^{\zeta \gamma })$$

f
(
R
,
T
,

R

ζ
γ

T

ζ
γ

)

gravity theory. The study adopts a static spherically symmetric spacetime to determine the field equations for two different modified models: (i) $$f(\mathcal {R},\mathcal {T},\mathcal {R}_{\zeta \gamma }\mathcal {T}^{\zeta \gamma })=\mathcal {R}+\eta \mathcal {R}_{\zeta \gamma }\mathcal {T}^{\zeta \gamma }$$

f

(
R
,
T
,

R

ζ
γ

T

ζ
γ

)

=
R
+
η

R

ζ
γ

T

ζ
γ

, and (ii) $$f(\mathcal {R},\mathcal {T},\mathcal {R}_{\zeta \gamma }\mathcal {T}^{\zeta \gamma })=\mathcal {R}(1+\eta \mathcal {R}_{\zeta \gamma }\mathcal {T}^{\zeta \gamma })$$

f

(
R
,
T
,

R

ζ
γ

T

ζ
γ

)

=
R

(
1
+
η

R

ζ
γ

T

ζ
γ

)

, where $$\eta $$
η
is a constant parameter. To address the additional degrees of freedom in the field equations and obtain their corresponding unique solution, the Durgapal-Fuloria spacetime geometry and MIT bag model are utilized. Matching conditions are applied to determine unknown constants within the chosen spacetime geometry. We adopt a certain range of model parameters to analyze the physical characteristics of the developed models in the interior distribution of a particular compact star candidate 4U 1820-30. Energy conditions and some other tests are also implemented to ensure their viability and stability. Additionally, the disappearing radial pressure constraint is employed to find the values of the model parameter, aligning with the observed information of an array of stars. The study concludes that both of our models are well-behaved and satisfy all necessary conditions, and thus we observe them suitable for the modeling of astrophysical objects.
Shadow and strong gravitational lensing of new wormhole solutions supported by embedding Class-I condition
Authors: Molla Niyaz Uddin , Chaudhary Himanshu , Debnath Ujjal , Mustafa G. , Maurya S. K.
Published: January 2025

This study deals with the new class of embedded wormhole solutions in the background of general relativity. Two newly calculated wormhole solutions satisfy all the required properties. The embedded diagrams for both calculated wormhole solutions are provided. All the energy conditions are discussed through their validity regions for the different ranges of involved parameters. In maximum regions, all energy conditions are violated. We investigate the shadow and strong gravitational lensing by the wormhole throat for the two new wormhole models, namely Model-I and Model-II. The present paper considers the wormhole throat to act as a photon sphere. We first derive null geodesics using the Hamilton-Jacobi separation method to investigate the shadow and strong gravitational lensing caused by the wormhole throat. We then numerically obtain the radius of wormhole shadow, strong deflection angle, and various lensing observables by taking the example of supermassive black M87* and Sgr A* in the context of both Model-I and Model-II. Keeping all other parameters fixed, it is observed that the parameters $$\zeta _1$$

ζ
1

and $$\zeta _2$$

ζ
2

for Model-I; and $$\chi _1$$

χ
1

and $$\chi _2$$

χ
2

for Model-II have significant effects on the wormhole shadow and strong gravitational lensing phenomena. Our conclusion is that it is possible to detect relativistic images, such as Einstein rings, produced by wormholes with throat radii of $$r_{th}=3M$$

r

th

=
3
M

. The stability analysis via Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkov equation is included for both wormhole solutions. Additionally, current technology enables us to test hypotheses related to astrophysical wormholes.
Exploring soliton patterns and dynamical analysis of the solitary wave form solutions of the (3+1)-dimensional Wazwaz–Benjamin–Bona–Mahony equation
Authors: Kumar Dharmendra , Saharan Ashwani , Kumar Amit
Published: January 2025

In this work, the dynamical structure for the extended equation is analyzed through unified Riccati equation expansion (UREE) and the Lie isomorphism method for the (3+1)-dimensional Wazwaz–Benjamin–Bona–Mahony (WBBM) equation. This equation represents the unidimensional propagation of short amplitude long waves on the water’s surface in a medium. These employed techniques are the most powerful and effective ways to obtain different sets of new and more generalized exact soliton solutions of the WBBM equation. Furthermore, what distinguishes this study from other studies is that it not only acquires a variety of analytical wave solutions for the studied models but also, demonstrates the interaction phenomena for these results as they propagate over time. Also, shows various meaningful graphs of the processes that provide valuable wisdom for understanding their behavior. The UREE method directly provides various new exact soliton solutions with some novel dynamical properties. We perform a detailed Lie symmetry analysis to governing equation that leaves the system invariant. The Lie group method explores six Lie isomorphism groups to study the WBBM equation. First, we find infinitesimal transformations employing the one-parameter Lie symmetry method. Second, we solve the infinitesimal generator and reduce the order of the equation. Moreover, we illustrate some two-dimensional (2D), three-dimensional (3D), and contour diagrams of the obtained results and compute the exact analytical solution utilizing the used methods. To find novel solutions, the Adomian method is also used, where the Adomian polynomials are utilized to deal with nonlinear terms. Variety of new analytical solutions with different types of dynamical behavior are analyzed by utilizing the computational software like Mathematica. These new analytical exact wave solutions are demonstrated in various dynamical structures of periodic wave soliton, interaction periodic wave and kink wave soliton, lump wave soliton, doubly soliton, multi-wave soliton, kink periodic, parabolic wave, multisoliton, traveling wave, and standing wave-shaped profiles.
Community Support for Aging in Place: A Computational Thematic Analysis of Discussions about Informal Care on Reddit
Authors: Homaeian Leila , Duong Vanessa , Katsuragawa Keiko , Wallace James R.
Published: January 2025

Adult children often help their older parents maintain independence at home, and this informal caregiving can be overwhelming and challenging to balance with other aspects of life. Yet, adult children's requirements tend to be overlooked when designing technologies to foster aging in place. In this work, we use reflexive thematic analysis to study Reddit content to understand the experiences of adult caregivers and the issues that they face in supporting their parents. The pseudonymous data allowed us to explore three research questions: 1) What are the experiences of adult children as informal helpers for elderly parents? 2) How do adult children currently manage their role as informal helpers? and 3) How might digital technology facilitate communication between aging parents and adult children as informal helpers? Our findings lead to a number of design considerations for technologies that support adult children caring for parents who are aging in place, including: building common ground, establishing boundaries, addressing guilt, encouraging in-person communication, community support for adult children, and adapting to changes in role reciprocity.
Designing for those who are Overlooked - Investigating long-term Impacts of Social Robotics for People with Advanced Dementia, Caregivers and Relatives in a Secured Care Environment
Authors: Rass Elisabeth , Unbehaun David , Aal Konstantin , Tandler Jutta , Lenz Gaby , Wulf Volker
Published: January 2025

This paper presents the results of a long-term exploratory study that examined the social and emotional impact of using a social robot with a variety of applications to promote activities for people with advanced dementia and their caregivers. Qualitative data was collected over 10-months in a secured care environment in which we explored the appropriation of a social robot by 23 participants, including 13 PwAD, their family members, and professional caregivers. Our findings indicate that the use of the social robot demonstrated the potential to improve well-being, engagement, and social interaction of PwAD, even demonstrating the ability to create new memories and experiences. We discuss requirements and challenges in integrating social robots into secured care environments to provide a nuanced understanding for future research aiming for appropriate and inclusive care outcomes and socially embedded innovations that address the social actors involved and thus contribute to practical solutions for professional care.
"Dialing it Back:" Shadowbanning, Invisible Digital Labor, and how Marginalized Content Creators Attempt to Mitigate the Impacts of Opaque Platform Governance
Authors: Kojah Sena A. , Zhang Ben Zefeng , Are Carolina , Delmonaco Daniel , Haimson Oliver L.
Published: January 2025

Content creators with marginalized identities are disproportionately affected by shadowbanning on social media platforms, which impacts their economic prospects online. Through a diary study and interviews with eight marginalized content creators who are women, pole dancers, plus size, and/or LGBTQIA+, this paper examines how content creators with marginalized identities experience shadowbanning. We highlight the labor and economic inequalities of shadowbanning, and the resulting invisible online labor that marginalized creators often must perform. We identify three types of invisible labor that marginalized content creators engage in to mitigate shadowbanning and sustain their online presence: mental and emotional labor, misdirected labor, and community labor. We conclude that even though marginalized content creators engaged in cross-platform collaborative labor and personal mental/emotional labor to mitigate the impacts of shadowbanning, it was insufficient to prevent uncertainty and economic precarity created by algorithmic opacity and ambiguity.
Time's Sublimest Target: Practices of Forgetting in HCI and CSCW
Authors: Ankenbauer Sam Addison , Brewer Robin N.
Published: January 2025

In our contemporary moment, there exists a hegemonic design practice and a general social desire to retain information. With the help of sociotechnical platforms and other contemporary technologies, information has changed its temporal and spatial boundaries, creating unbounded, algorithmic, and emergent forms of retention. The consequences of such retention are numerous, ranging from an overabundance of autobiographical information that cannot be fully understood by the individual to the improper use and economization of such information by state and corporation alike. Within this context, this paper investigates a counter-hegemonic practice of forgetting, specifically from the perspective of human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work research, with additional insight drawn from adjacent fields. In doing so, we present forgetting as a significant area of research with HCI and CSCW, a burgeoning and contradictory space that may offer solutions to issues we face within a moment of persistence by default. This paper also explores potential directions for future research and design on forgetting in HCI and CSCW through an investigation of an art piece by Chinese artist Song Dong.
Tomatoes Die: A Design Fiction for Grassroots Climate AI
Authors: Doğan Amelia Lee , Kotut Lindah
Published: January 2025

This design fiction proposes a panel session in the near future having environment and climate advocates share their stories of using artificial intelligence (AI) in their work. This work explores how the development of an embodied river persona, a farming assistant app, and a community hazard mapping tool could pose challenges and aid successes to respective local communities. Our design fiction highlights issues of design and development challenges that local organizations might face in a varied AI development for the environment. We explore questions around incorporating traditional knowledge, ethical participatory design models, and challenges of implementing and sustaining tools. Our work demonstrates how design fiction might be used to imagine AI for the climate challenge that considers people, place, and community.
Understanding the Role of Community Training Centers on Skill-Based Entrepreneurial Training Among Women in Kashmir
Authors: Wani Asra Sakeen , Singh Pushpendra
Published: January 2025

Despite global efforts for women's inclusion in the workforce, challenges persist, especially in conflict-affected areas where socio-political, economic, and cultural norms further impede their economic participation. We situate our work in Kashmir, India, a region with a long history of socio-political unrest. We conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with women from a non-government organization operating community training centers in Kashmir. These training centers have been established, focusing on skill development to encourage women to venture into entrepreneurship. Our findings reveal socio-political and cultural factors influence women's struggles. We emphasize the vital role of these centers and the role of technology in these centers. Finally, we offer socio-technical design recommendations to support women's skill-building and entrepreneurship.
Purpose Mode: Reducing Distraction Through Toggling Attention Capture Damaging Patterns on Social Media Websites
Authors: Lee Hao-Ping , Chiang Yi-Shyuan , Gao Lan , Yang Stephanie , Winter Philipp , Das Sauvik
Published: January 2025

Social media websites thrive on user engagement by employing Attention Capture Damaging Patterns (ACDPs), e.g., infinite scroll, that prey on cognitive vulnerabilities to distract users. Prior work has taxonomized these ACDPs, but we have yet to measure how the presence of ACDPs impacts perceived distraction nor how mechanisms that suppress ACDPs reduce distraction. We conducted a two-week, mixed-methods field study with 29 participants to model how people get distracted when browsing social media websites, and how ACDPs might play a role. In the first week of the study, we sample participants’
in-situ
perceptions of distraction, subjective perceptions of the browsing session (e.g., satisfaction), and the presence/absence of ACDPs. Participants reported feeling distracted 28% of the time, and that subjective perceptions and some ACDPs (e.g., notifications) highly correlated with when they felt distracted. In the second week of the study, participants were given access to Purpose Mode — a browser extension that allows users to “toggle off” ACDPs. Participants reported feeling distracted only 7% of the time and spent 21 fewer daily minutes browsing these websites. We discovered that Purpose Mode empowered users to feel more in control over their social media browsing and made participants feel less irritated and frustrated.
Potential Features Fusion Network for Multimodal Fake News Detection
Authors: Kou Feifei , Wang Bingwei , Li Haisheng , Zhu Chuangying , Shi Lei , Zhang Jiwei , Qi Limei
Published: January 2025

With the popularization of social networks, fake news is also widely and rapidly spreading, which poses a great threat to the Internet. Therefore, how to detect fake news automatically and efficiently has become an urgent problem to be solved. However, the existing approaches mostly focus on the explicit features (images and text) and deep fusions, without considering potential features such as text emotion and image category. To find a solution to this issue, we propose a Potential Features Fusion Network (PFFN), which models the explicit and potential features at the same time. To exploit the potential image features, we introduce a mixture of experts structure to process the news image separately, which can best use the relationships between the news image category and fake news detection. Besides, we also extract emotion features as potential text features and fuse them with explicit text features. Finally, we establish an attention-based feature fusion network to fuse the potential features with the explicit features, which can obtain a multi-modal fusion feature of a piece of news and thus further improve the performance. We make experiments on four public datasets (Weibo16, Weibo19, Twitter, and PolitiFact), the results compared with the baseline approaches demonstrate that our PFFN has a better performance. Our code is available at
https://github.com/Wang-bupt/PFFN
Demanding Labor: Workplace Conditions in On-Demand Transit
Authors: Le Dantec Christopher A. , Wei Meichen
Published: January 2025

Workplaces of all kinds continue to be transformed by computing. One example of these transformations is in public transportation, where transit agencies are experimenting with on-demand transit to address long-standing challenges in delivering first- and last-mile service. On-demand transit shares some features with ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft: riders request service when and where they are. Although rideshare systems have provided a set of interaction idioms and familiar interfaces upon which to model on-demand systems, work settings and labor conditions are very different. These differences matter and the way “disruptive” systems impact the work environment of public transit operators remains under examined. We report on interviews with transit operators from a six-month pilot program. Our findings illustrate how the shift in in-vehicle technologies and service expectations affected work processes, well-being, and safety and we offer insight into the consequences of digital labor in the context of on-demand transit.
Table S7 from Fitness Screens Map State-Specific Glioblastoma Stem Cell Vulnerabilities
Authors: MacLeod Graham , Molaei Fatemeh , Haider Shahan , Almeida Maira P. , Lin Sichun , Kushida Michelle , Sureshkumar Haresh , Bhatti Jasmine K. , Lu Jack Q. , Schramek Daniel , Dirks Peter B. , Angers Stephane
Published: January 2025

DESEQ2 analysis of control vs Ptk2 knockout mouse GBM tumor samples
Table S2 from Fitness Screens Map State-Specific Glioblastoma Stem Cell Vulnerabilities
Authors: MacLeod Graham , Molaei Fatemeh , Haider Shahan , Almeida Maira P. , Lin Sichun , Kushida Michelle , Sureshkumar Haresh , Bhatti Jasmine K. , Lu Jack Q. , Schramek Daniel , Dirks Peter B. , Angers Stephane
Published: January 2025

Sequence of qPCR primers used in this study.
Supplementary Data Figure S2 from Neuroendocrine Differentiation in Prostate Cancer Requires ASCL1
Authors: Rodarte Kathia E. , Nir Heyman Shaked , Guo Lei , Flores Lydia , Savage Trisha K. , Villarreal Juan , Deng Su , Xu Lin , Shah Rajal B. , Oliver Trudy G. , Johnson Jane E.
Published: January 2025

IHC characterization of RPM tumors and histopathology assessment of allografts.
Supplementary Table S7 from Integrating Multisector Molecular Characterization into Personalized Peptide Vaccine Design for Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma
Authors: Johanns Tanner M. , Garfinkle Elizabeth A.R. , Miller Katherine E. , Livingstone Alexandra J. , Roberts Kaleigh F. , Rao Venkata Lakshmi P. , Dowling Joshua L. , Chicoine Michael R. , Dacey Ralph G. , Zipfel Gregory J. , Kim Albert H. , Mardis Elaine R. , Dunn Gavin P.
Published: January 2025

RNA-sequencing pseudo counts generated via Salmon algorithm
Supplementary Table S3 from Integrating Multisector Molecular Characterization into Personalized Peptide Vaccine Design for Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma
Authors: Johanns Tanner M. , Garfinkle Elizabeth A.R. , Miller Katherine E. , Livingstone Alexandra J. , Roberts Kaleigh F. , Rao Venkata Lakshmi P. , Dowling Joshua L. , Chicoine Michael R. , Dacey Ralph G. , Zipfel Gregory J. , Kim Albert H. , Mardis Elaine R. , Dunn Gavin P.
Published: January 2025

pVAC-Seq predicted neoantigens for each subject and each tumor region from whole exome sequencing data
Supplementary Figure S6 from Integrating Multisector Molecular Characterization into Personalized Peptide Vaccine Design for Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma
Authors: Johanns Tanner M. , Garfinkle Elizabeth A.R. , Miller Katherine E. , Livingstone Alexandra J. , Roberts Kaleigh F. , Rao Venkata Lakshmi P. , Dowling Joshua L. , Chicoine Michael R. , Dacey Ralph G. , Zipfel Gregory J. , Kim Albert H. , Mardis Elaine R. , Dunn Gavin P.
Published: January 2025

Immunohistologic images
Práticas de vida no futuro, prospecção semiótica: como o passado se reinscreve no hoje e no amanhã?
Authors: Oliveira Ana Claudia de
Published: January 2025

O artigo visa mostrar a disciplina semiótica na construção que lhe deu Algirdas Julien Greimas com os desdobramentos dos regimes de interação e sentido como correlações entre princípios de narratividades desenvolvidos por Eric Landowski e como essa complexificação do modelo interacional oferece arcabouço teórico e metodológico para elaborar prospecções dos objetos de estudo com descrição, análise e interpretação. Com esse aporte da teoria geral do sentido, o artigo prospecta as práticas de vida instaladas do início do século XX a partir do ponto de vista do movimento artístico do Futurismo e mostra a radical distância do otimismo no mundo regido pela inovação tecnológica que domina o hoje resultando em uma visão desencantada e disfórica da vida social na atualidade que se projeta em um futuro de incertezas nas narrativas de vida.
Dolomites: Domain-Specific Long-Form Methodical
Tasks
Authors: Malaviya Chaitanya , Agrawal Priyanka , Ganchev Kuzman , Srinivasan Pranesh , Huot Fantine , Berant Jonathan , Yatskar Mark , Das Dipanjan , Lapata Mirella , Alberti Chris
Published: January 2025

Experts in various fields routinely perform methodical writing tasks to plan, organize, and report their work. From a clinician writing a differential diagnosis for a patient, to a teacher writing a lesson plan for students, these tasks are pervasive, requiring to methodically generate structured long-form output for a given input. We develop a typology of methodical tasks structured in the form of a task objective, procedure, input, and output, and introduce DoLoMiTes, a novel benchmark with specifications for 519 such tasks elicited from hundreds of experts from across 25 fields. Our benchmark further contains specific instantiations of methodical tasks with concrete input and output examples (1,857 in total) which we obtain by collecting expert revisions of up to 10 model-generated examples of each task. We use these examples to evaluate contemporary language models, highlighting that automating methodical tasks is a challenging long-form generation problem, as it requires performing complex inferences, while drawing upon the given context as well as domain knowledge. Our dataset is available at https://dolomites-benchmark.github.io/.
The Arogbo Ijaw and her Neighbours of the Western Niger Delta of Nigeria
Authors: Okpevra Uwomano Benjamin , Ebike-emiyen Doma Perewolatei
Published: January 2025

This paper examines the intergroup relations between the Arogbo Ijaw and their neighbouring communities in the Western Niger Delta of Nigeria, a topic less explored compared to the Central and Eastern Delta groups. It, therefore, delves into the historical, social, economic, and political interactions that shaped the dynamics between these groups. The study reveals the complexities of coexistence, highlighting both cooperation and conflict. Key factors influencing these relations include resource competition, ethnic identity, and political power struggles. The paper also explores the impact of government policies and external influences on these intergroup dynamics. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, the research provides a modulated understanding of how the Arogbo Ijaw traversed their relationships with neighbouring groups, adapting to changing circumstances over four decades. This study contributes to broader discussions on ethnic relations and conflict resolution in multi-ethnic regions, offering insights into the mechanisms that foster intergroup harmony and discord.
De iure belli ac pacis and Slavery: Connecting Case Law and the Census
Authors: Somos Mark , Cleary Matthew , Dufour Pablo Nicolas , Corredera Edward Jones , Salerno Emanuele
Published: January 2025

This article sheds light on Grotius’s writings on slavery and the polyvalent ways in which his ideas have been interpreted and applied throughout history. The article focuses, in particular, on a tension at the heart of the Grotian theory of natural rights, as articulated in De iure belli ac pacis (ibp). Grotius’s views on slavery have attracted the attention of generations of legal scholars, who debated and explored them in courts of justice, in international disputes, and on the margins of their own copies of Grotius’s magnum opus. Overall, this article shows that despite the rise in popularity of other authors and new ideologies, Grotius’s influence in debates about slavery and abolitionism endured well into the modern age.
Asymmetric Mass Mobilization and the Vincibility of Democracy in Hungary
Authors: Jakli Laura , Greskovits Béla , Wittenberg Jason
Published: January 2025

Using an original dataset of partisan protest events in Hungary ( n = 4836) spanning 1989 to 2011, we argue that left-liberal parties’ neglect in cultivating civil society during the post-communist period had deleterious downstream effects on Hungarian liberal democracy. First, it enabled the growth of an illiberal, right-wing civil society that facilitated Fidesz-KDNP’s 2010 landslide electoral victory. Second, it deprived the left-liberals of mobilization resources that could have been used to carry out contentious collective action to counter Fidesz-KDNP’s early maneuvers at democratic backsliding, in particular their constitutional overhaul. The data allow us to trace patterns in partisan protest over time and across cities, illustrating the dangers of asymmetric mass mobilization (AMM) during the prevention and containment periods.
Exploring the correlations between social support, resilience, well-being, and mental health variables among youth in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir
Authors: Pandey Shreyashee , Rao Priyanka A , Joshi Pooran C , Mahajan Chakraverti
Published: January 2025

Background:

The border areas of Jammu and Kashmir have long been affected by conflict, potentially impacting the mental health of youth. Understanding the relationships between social health factors and mental health outcomes in these regions is crucial for developing effective interventions.

Aim:

This study aims to investigate the correlations between social health factors (social support, resilience, and well-being) and mental health outcomes (stress, anxiety, and depression) among youth living in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

Methods:

A sample of 300 individuals aged 18 to 25 years was recruited, with 150 participants from the Line of Control (LoC) border in Rajouri district and 150 from the International Border (IB) in Jammu district. Participants completed six standardized measures: the Resilience Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). Pearson Correlation was computed with statistical significance at p < .05.

Results:

Significant positive correlations were found between social support, resilience, and well-being in both IB and LoC groups. Depression was positively correlated with anxiety in both groups. However, stress was positively correlated with depression and anxiety only in the LoC group.

Conclusion:

These findings highlight the importance of social health factors in maintaining mental well-being among youth in conflict-affected regions. The study suggests that interventions targeting social support, resilience, and well-being may effectively promote mental health in these areas. Additionally, the results underscore the need for context-specific approaches in addressing mental health challenges in different conflict-affected environments.
A mediocre ruler must rule: Han Fei on rulership
Authors: Kim Sungmoon , Lee Ahyoung
Published: January 2025

This article explores Han Fei’s political theory of rulership by taking a cue from his observation that most rulers are mediocre in their talent or skill. Through various analogies, Han Fei creates the image of a ruler as a paranoid man whose unique political life, defined by the possession of supreme power, puts him in a life of constant fear of usurpation and regicide. While urging the ruler to maintain absolute isolation and complete emotional detachment from all around him, which further exacerbates his anxiety, and to rely on wuwei statecraft based on law, Han Fei, nevertheless, stresses the critical importance of the otherwise mediocre ruler’s political agency – the ability to deliberate public matters, make laws that are best suited in the given context, and exercise political judgment in punishing and rewarding his subjects. This article concludes by highlighting the key difference between Han Fei’s conception of wuwei statecraft and its Confucian counterpart.
Capacity configuration strategy of SOEC- battery based hybrid energy storage system for suppressing fluctuation of wind power
Authors: Wu Xin , Zhang Lixi , Feng Ge , Shang Wenju , Xiong Xingyu
Published: January 2025

Currently, Chinese wind farms are generally equipped with 10% rated capacity lithium-ion battery energy storage system, which often fails to smooth out wind power fluctuation effectively and fulfill the power grid connection standard. The hybrid energy storage system combining with the solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) and lithium-ion battery system can be adopted to suppress the wind power fluctuation. Firstly, the model of the hybrid energy storage system is built and the transient response characteristics is analyzed in Matlab/Simulink environment. Secondly, the capacity configuration strategy of the hybrid energy storage system is developed with the variational mode decomposition method. Thirdly, the coordinated control algorithm of the hybrid energy storage system is proposed considering the state of charge control for the lithium-ion battery system and the transient response characteristics of SOEC. Finally, the presented methods are verified through simulation based on the actual wind farm power data with the 15 MW rated installed capacity of the wind farm in Shandong Province China. The results indicate that the developed methods can suppress the wind power fluctuation and meet up the power grid connection standard successfully. The range of state of charge for the battery system is from 0.497 to 0.512, which is within the boundary conditions. The electric efficiency of the SOEC system is from 0.817 to 0.972, and the power consumption is from 2.968 to 3.461 kWh/Nm3H2 during the hydrogen production, who are all within the threshold values.
Cedrin Mitigates Dyslipidemia, Inflammation, and Oxidative Stress in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetes Mellitus in Rats
Authors: Zhang Haiping , Mei Dan , Li Meina
Published: January 2025

Background

Cedrin is a major bioactive flavonoid compound present in the Cedrus deodara plant and has been reported to have several biological activities. Diabetes mellitus is an endocrine and metabolic disease marked by high blood sugar levels leading to reduced insulin production and/or decreased insulin efficacy. Hyperglycemia leads to chronic health complications and organ dysfunction, specifically affecting the nerves, blood vessels, kidneys, eyes, liver, and heart.

Purpose

The aim of this work is to study the effect of cedrin on glycemic control, hyperlipidemia, liver function markers, and biochemical markers of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in rats.

Methods

The STZ was utilized to initiate diabetes in experimental rats, and after the onset of diabetes, the rats were treated with cedrin for 30 days. After the treatment periods, the experimental rats’ glucose levels, food and water uptake, and body and organ weights were assessed. The biochemical markers, including insulin, hexokinase, glycated hemoglobin, and so on, were investigated using diagnostic kits. The concentrations of oxidative marker levels, inflammatory cytokines, and lipid marker levels were assessed using diagnostic kits.

Results

Cedrin treatment effectively mitigated the glucose level, food and water consumption, organ weights, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) while increasing the body weight and hexokinase levels of the STZ-induced rats. In the STZ-induced rats, the cedrin treatment remarkably elevated the antioxidant levels, reduced oxidative stress biomarkers, and decreased the inflammatory cytokine levels in their serum.

Conclusion

The current study demonstrates that cedrin treatment effectively regulated dyslipidemia, inflammatory response, and oxidative stress in rats with STZ-induced diabetes. Therefore, it can be a potential salutary agent to treat diabetes in the future.
Deep CNN-based semi-supervised learning approach for identifying and segmenting corrosion in hydraulic steel and water resources infrastructure
Authors: Wang Shengyi , Nguyen Hai , Wilson Rebekah , Eick Brian , El-Gohary Nora , Ortiz Carolyn
Published: January 2025

The United States faces significant challenges due to corrosion, with its impact on military and civilian infrastructure incurring over $20 billion in annual maintenance costs. The damage due to corrosion is profound, threatening structural safety, reducing esthetic value, and leading to costly repairs. To mitigate these effects, the Unified Facilities Criteria and Unified Facilities Guidance Specifications advise the use of protective coatings on metal surfaces. Early corrosion detection is crucial for maintaining structural integrity and minimizing maintenance costs. Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and deep learning, including accurate corrosion classification, have significantly revolutionized the detection and management of corrosion. Despite these advancements, automatic corrosion segmentation in civil infrastructure remains challenging due to the scarcity of images and the labor-intensive annotation process. Moreover, existing segmentation methods are unable to manage the complexities that come with high-resolution corrosion images. This paper proposes a novel, semi-supervised, convolutional neural network-based image segmentation method for the automatic identification and segmentation of corrosion on coated steel surfaces, using both unlabeled and labeled corrosion images and leveraging the mean teacher model. The proposed novel method involves three steps: (1) utilizing high-resolution digital microscopy to capture detailed images and dividing them into manageable patches; (2) applying a semi-supervised learning approach, leveraging unlabeled corrosion images for enhanced segmentation precision; and (3) employing a smoothing module to improve the continuity of information. The proposed corrosion detection method has demonstrated promising performance with only 67% labeled data, achieving mean precision, recall, F-1 measure, and intersection over union of 90.0%, 96.2%, 92.7%, and 87.1%, respectively. Even with just 33% labeled data, the method maintains strong performance when compared to fully supervised deep learning models. This demonstrates a substantial data resource saving while ensuring accurate and reliable corrosion detection, which is crucial for infrastructure health monitoring. The successful validation of this approach provides a method that dramatically reduces the amount of visual data required to generate a reliable model.
Leading Through Diversity: A Case Study of Cultural Sensitivity in a UAE Private University
Authors: Hojeij Zeina
Published: January 2025

This case study establishes explicit connections to theories of cultural conflict, such as Ting-Toomey’s Face-Negotiation Theory, which explains how cultural groups manage conflict, and Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, which outlines the progression toward a more inclusive educational environment. The leadership challenges and opportunities in a UAE private university are examined through the lens of these theories, highlighting the essential role leaders play in navigating and leveraging diversity. The analysis is also grounded in Heifetz’s Adaptive Leadership framework, which is instrumental in understanding how educational leaders thrive in multicultural contexts. This theoretical backdrop allows for a detailed exploration of the case, leading to a richer discussion of how cultural conflict can be navigated and inclusive environments nurtured.
Clinical Problem Solving: Two Patients With Gait Instability and Difficulty With Hand Coordination
Authors: Glenn Trevor , Awad Amine , Gheihman Galina , Roy Alexis
Published: January 2025

Subacute-to-chronic gait instability has a broad differential diagnosis. The neurological exam can help elucidate the localization and suggest an underlying etiology of the symptomatology, which can lead to a more focused diagnostic approach. Two patients are described – 1 with a month of worsening difficulty with ambulation that evolved to bilateral hand discoordination and another with 18 months of progressive difficulty with ambulation that also then progressed to involve her bilateral hands. These cases highlight an approach to gait dysfunction with hand discoordination secondary to sensory ataxia. The patients were ultimately diagnosed with copper deficiency myelopathy secondary to zinc excess, and different treatment regimens are discussed.
The acid-leaching process and structural changes of lizardite, chlorite and talc in sulfuric acid medium
Authors: Zhao Dingran , Sun Hongjuan , Peng Tongjiang , Zeng Li , Wu Mengji
Published: January 2025

Trioctahedral phyllosilicate minerals are widely distributed on the Earth’s surface, especially in soil. The mineral–water interfacial reaction of lizardite, chlorite and talc, with various structural properties (tetrahedral sheet, octahedral sheet, 1:1-type and 2:1-type interlayer domain/two-dimensional structural units), was carried out in sulfuric acid solution (1 mol L–1). The mineral samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The dissolution concentration, dissolution rate, dissolution rules and structural changes of the components during the dissolution processes of the various two-dimensional structural units were studied. The results show that the dissolution concentrations of Si and Mg in the sulfuric acid solution decrease in the following order: chlorite > lizardite > talc and lizardite > chlorite > talc. The dissolution rates of Si in chlorite and Mg in lizardite are the greatest, while talc is the most stable compared with lizardite and chlorite. With increasing interfacial reaction time and the dissolution of the ionic components of the minerals, the structure of lizardite is gradually destroyed; the structural destruction of chlorite is more obvious during the early stages of the reaction; and the structure of talc does not significantly change over the course of the entire reaction. By analysing the microtopography of the minerals, it was found that the structural failure of lizardite occurred from the surface to the interior. Chlorite had more structural defects and showed collapse of the layered structure during structural failure. The surface layer of talc decomposed by corrosion into a small lamellae structure attached to the surface, but there was no obvious structural change similar to those of lizardite and chlorite. The relationship between the evolution of composition and structure during the mineral–water interfacial reaction process with the two-dimensional structure layer type provides the mineralogical basis for studying the coupling mechanism of the migration and transformation of materials in key regions of the Earth.
α-Ketoglutarate dehydrogenase is a therapeutic vulnerability in acute myeloid leukemia
Authors: Millman Scott Evan , Chaves-Perez Almudena , Janaki-Raman Sudha , Ho Yu-Jui , Morris IV John P , Narendra Varun , Chen Chi-Chao , Jackson Benjamin T , Yashinskie Jossie J , Mezzadra Riccardo , Devine Tessa I , Barthet Valentin J. A. , Saoi Michelle , Baslan Timour , Tian Sha , Sachs Zohar , Finley Lydia WS , Cross Justin R , Lowe Scott W
Published: January 2025

Perturbations in intermediary metabolism contribute to the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and can produce therapeutically actionable dependencies. Here, we probed whether alpha-ketoglutarate (aKG) metabolism represents a specific vulnerability in AML. Using functional genomics, metabolomics, and mouse models, we identified the aKG dehydrogenase complex, which catalyzes the conversion of aKG to succinyl CoA, as a molecular dependency across multiple models of adverse-risk AML. Inhibition of 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH), the E1 subunit of the aKG dehydrogenase complex, impaired AML progression and drove differentiation. Mechanistically, hindrance of aKG flux through the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle resulted in rapid exhaustion of aspartate pools and blockade of de novo nucleotide biosynthesis, while cellular bioenergetics was largely preserved. Additionally, increased aKG levels following OGDH inhibition impacted the biosynthesis of other critical amino acids. Thus, this work has identified a previously undescribed, functional link between certain TCA cycle components and nucleotide biosynthesis enzymes across AML. This metabolic node may serve as a cancer-specific vulnerability amenable to therapeutic targeting in AML and perhaps in other cancers with similar metabolic wiring.
Decreased expression of LEF1 caused defective decidualization by inhibiting IL-11 expression in patients with adenomyosis
Authors: Duan Jingru , Zhou Xiaowei , Zhu Hanfei , Zhou Mingjuan , Liu Mengyu , Zhou Yan , Li Wenzhu , Xu Bufang , Zhang Aijun
Published: January 2025

Reduced lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 (LEF1) expression in patients with adenomyosis during the mid-secretory phase leads to impaired endometrial receptivity, affecting embryo implantation. This study investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying reduced endometrial receptivity in 25 adenomyosis patients and 25 controls. Functional experiments were conducted using human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs) and TERT-immortalized HESCs(T-HESCs), with final validation performed using a mouse model. Western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analyses revealed that patients with adenomyosis showed a marked decrease in LEF1 expression in the stromal cells of the endometrium during the mid-secretory phase. In vitro experiments demonstrated that LEF1 knockdown in stromal cells led to impaired decidualization. Transcriptome sequencing, dual-luciferase reporter assays, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments showed that LEF1 could bind to the promoter region of interleukin (IL)-11 and promote its transcription, and IL-11 expression was also found to be downregulated in adenomyosis patients. Overexpression of IL-11 rescued the impaired decidualization caused by decreased LEF1 expression. In the in vitro co-culture model, LEF1/IL-11 knockdown led to a reduction in embryo implantation area, which was partially restored upon IL-11 overexpression. In the adenomyosis mouse model, we observed a decrease in LEF1 expression and a reduction in implantation sites compared to control mice, accompanied by impaired decidualization and receptivity. Notably, supplementation with IL-11 restored the number of implantation sites. The decrease in fertility due to reduced endometrial receptivity in adenomyosis patients is a significant clinical issue in assisted reproductive technology. This research provides insights into one potential molecular mechanism underlying this decreased receptivity, with a specific focus on the reduced expression of LEF1 in the endometrial stromal cells during the mid-secretory phase in adenomyosis patients. Our findings offer new perspectives for clinical strategies to improve endometrial receptivity in patients with adenomyosis, potentially enhancing their chances of successful pregnancy.