bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The differential diagnostic value of selected cardiovascular biomarkers in Takotsubo syndrome
Authors: Topf Albert , Mirna Moritz , Paar Vera , Motloch Lukas J. , Grueninger Janine , Dienhart Christiane , Schulze Paul C. , Brandt Mathias C. , Larbig Robert , Hoppe Uta C. , Kretzschmar Daniel , Lichtenauer Michael
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is clinically indistinguishable from an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). In the absence of valid markers for differential diagnosis, coronary angiography has been indispensable.

Methods

In our study, we evaluated the serum levels of sST-2, GDF-15, suPAR and H-FABP in 92 patients with the suspicion of TTS (51 TTS and 41 ACS patients) and 40 gender matched controls (no coronary artery disease or signs of heart failure) at baseline.

Results

H-FABP was significantly higher in ACS patients compared to TTS patients. Even in in propensity score matching for left ventricular ejection fraction, sex and cardiovascular risk factors, differences in the plasma levels of H-FABP in the matched cohort of TTS vs ACS remained statistically significant. Whereas, sST-2 was significantly elevated in TTS patients. H-FABP was superior for prediction of an ACS with even higher accuracy than hs troponin in differential diagnosis (AUC 0.797, p ≤ 0.0001); the optimal cut off for discrimination towards a TTS was calculated as 2.93 ng/ml (sensitivity 70.0%, specificity 82.4%, PPV 75.7%, NPV 77.4%). sST-2 seemed most appropriate for identification of a TTS (AUC 0.653, p = 0.012). The optimal cut off for differential diagnosis was 11018.06 pg/ml (sensitivity 82.0%, specificity 51.2%, PPV 69.4%, NPV 71.9 %).

Conclusion

H-FABP and sST-2 are the most promising markers with better accuracy than preexisting biomarkers in differential diagnosis in our study and therefore, could be crucial for the guidance of treatment in patients with high bleeding risk, advanced renal failure or multimorbidity.

Graphical abstract
UPLC-MS/MS analysis and biological activity of the potato cyst nematode hatching stimulant, solanoeclepin A, in the root exudate of Solanum spp.
Authors: Guerrieri Alessandra , Floková Kristýna , Vlaar Lieke E. , Schilder Mario L. , Kramer Gertjan , Chojnacka Aleksandra , van Dijk Yannick R. , Bouwmeester Harro J. , Dong Lemeng
Published: November 2021

Main conclusion

Solanoeclepin A is a hatching stimulant for potato cyst nematode in very low (pM) concentrations. We report a highly sensitive method for the analysis of SolA in plant root exudates using UHPLC-MS/MS and show that there is considerable natural variation in SolA production in Solanum spp. corresponding with their hatching inducing activity.

Potato cyst nematode (PCN) is a plant root sedentary endoparasite, specialized in the infection of solanaceous species such as potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Earlier reports (Mulder et al. in Hatching agent for the potato cyst nematode, Patent application No. PCT/NL92/00126, 1996; Schenk et al. in Croat Chem Acta 72:593–606, 1999) showed that solanoeclepin A (SolA), a triterpenoid metabolite that was isolated from the root exudate of potato, induces the hatching of PCN. Its low concentration in potato root exudate has hindered progress in fully understanding its hatching inducing activity and exploitation in the control of PCN. To further investigate the role of SolA in hatching of PCN, the establishment of a highly sensitive analytical method is a prerequisite. Here we present the efficient single-step extraction and UHPLC-MS/MS based analysis for rapid determination of SolA in sub-nanomolar concentrations in tomato root exudate. This method was used to analyze SolA production in different tomato cultivars and related solanaceous species, including the trap crop Solanum sisymbriifolium. Hatching assays with PCN, Globodera pallida, with root exudates of tomato genotypes revealed a significant positive correlation between SolA concentration and hatching activity. Our results demonstrate that there is natural variation in SolA production within solanaceous species and that this has an effect on PCN hatching. The analytical method we have developed can potentially be used to support breeding for crop genotypes that induce less hatching and may therefore display reduced infection by PCN.
Stratigraphic reconstruction of the Víti breccia at Krafla volcano (Iceland): insights into pre-eruptive conditions priming explosive eruptions in geothermal areas
Authors: Montanaro Cristian , Mortensen Anette Kærgaard , Weisenberger Tobias B. , Dingwell Donald B. , Scheu Bettina
Published: November 2021

Krafla central volcano in Iceland has experienced numerous basaltic fissure eruptions through its history, the most recent examples being the Mývatn (1724‒1729) and Krafla Fires (1975–1984). The Mývatn Fires opened with a steam-driven eruption that produced the Víti crater. A magmatic intrusion has been inferred as the trigger perturbing the geothermal field hosting Víti, but the cause(s) of the explosive response remain uncertain. Here, we present a detailed stratigraphic reconstruction of the breccia erupted from Víti crater, characterize the lithologies involved in the explosions, reconstruct the pre-eruptive setting, fingerprint the eruption trigger and source depth, and reveal the eruption mechanisms. Our results suggest that the Víti eruption can be classified as a magmatic-hydrothermal type and that it was a complex event with three eruption phases. The injection of rhyolite below a pre-existing convecting hydrothermal system likely triggered the Víti eruption. Heating and pressurization of shallow geothermal fluid initiated disruption of a scoria cone “cap” via an initial series of small explosions involving a pre-existing altered weak zone, with ejection of fragments from at least 60-m depth. This event was superseded by larger, broader, and dominantly shallow explosions (~ 200 m depth) driven by decompression of hydrothermal fluids within highly porous, poorly compacted tuffaceous hyaloclastite. This second phase was triggered when pressurized fluids broke through the scoria cone complex “cap”. At the same time, deep-rooted explosions (~ 1-km depth) began to feed the eruption with large inputs of fragmented rhyolitic juvenile and host rock from a deeper zone. Shallow explosions enlarging the crater dominated the final phase. Our results indicate that at Krafla, as in similar geological contexts, shallow and thin hyaloclastite sequences hosting hot geothermal fluids and capped by low-permeability lithologies (e.g. altered scoria cone complex and/or massive, thick lava flow sequence) are susceptible to explosive failure in the case of shallow magmatic intrusion(s).
A comparison of different soft-computing techniques for the evaluation of handball goalkeepers
Authors: Angulo Eusebio , Romero Francisco P. , López-Gómez Julio A.
Published: November 2021

The efficiency of handball goalkeepers is a good predictor of team ranking in tournaments, but despite this, very few studies have been carried out into the performance characteristics of elite goalkeepers. This paper provides the criteria for evaluating a handball goalkeeper and applies a variety of soft-computing methodologies for estimating their weights. More specifically, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making method, a metaheuristic optimisation algorithm, and statistical and domain-knowledge-based methods were used to evaluate the actions of goalkeepers during the game. Computer experiments were performed for all the proposed methodologies, using data from the 2020 European Men’s Handball Championship, in order to estimate the weights of the indicators. Then, these weights were used to identify the best goalkeeper and identify and rank the top five goalkeepers as determined by the tournament organisers. The results obtained show that using the metaheuristic-based method is extremely helpful in quantifying the expert assessments, which are often challenging to express in a disaggregated form. The other two techniques offer a less optimal but more easily interpretable result for coaches and fans.
On the analysis of non-coding roles in open source development
Authors: Cánovas Izquierdo Javier Luis , Cabot Jordi
Published: November 2021

The role of non-coding contributors in Open Source Software (OSS) is poorly understood. Most of current research around OSS development focuses on the coding aspects of the project (e.g., commits, pull requests or code reviews) while ignoring the potential of other types of contributions. Often, due to the assumption that these other contributions are not significant in number and that, in any case, they are handled by the same people that are also part of the “coding team”. This paper aims to investigate whether this is actually the case by analyzing the frequency and diversity of non-coding contributions in OSS development. As a sample of projects for our study we have taken the 100 most popular projects in the ecosystem of NPM, a package manager for JavaScript. Our results validate the importance of dedicated non-coding contributors in OSS and the diversity of OSS communities as, typically, a contributor specializes in a specific subset of roles. We foresee that projects adopting explicit policies to attract and onboard them could see a positive impact in their long-term sustainability providing they also put in place the right governance strategies to facilitate the migration and collaboration among the different roles. As part of this work, we also provide a replicability package to facilitate further quantitative role-based analysis by other researchers.
MiCADO-Edge: Towards an Application-level Orchestrator for the Cloud-to-Edge Computing Continuum
Authors: Ullah Amjad , Dagdeviren Huseyin , Ariyattu Resmi C. , DesLauriers James , Kiss Tamas , Bowden James
Published: November 2021

Automated deployment and run-time management of microservices-based applications in cloud computing environments is relatively well studied with several mature solutions. However, managing such applications and tasks in the cloud-to-edge continuum is far from trivial, with no robust, production-level solutions currently available. This paper presents our first attempt to extend an application-level cloud orchestration framework called MiCADO to utilise edge and fog worker nodes. The paper illustrates how MiCADO-Edge can automatically deploy complex sets of interconnected microservices in such multi-layered cloud-to-edge environments. Additionally, it shows how monitoring information can be collected from such services and how complex, user- defined run-time management policies can be enforced on application components running at any layer of the architecture. The implemented solution is demonstrated and evaluated using two realistic case studies from the areas of video processing and secure healthcare data analysis.
Assessing Fidelity to and Satisfaction with the “Adolescent Coping with Depression Course” (ACDC) Intervention in a Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Keles Serap , Bringedal Görel , Idsoe Thormod
Published: November 2021

This paper aims at describing the process for assessing the intervention fidelity of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an “Adolescent Coping with Depression Course” (ACDC) and to assess the participants’ satisfaction with the intervention. We applied the comprehensive fidelity model developed by the National Institutes of Health’s Behavior Change Consortium to examine how our intervention met the fidelity requirements under five categories. Data came from a two-arm parallel cluster RCT. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the ACDC intervention using the comprehensive fidelity model indicated that the level of fidelity in this study did not reach 100%. However, it was approaching a high level of treatment fidelity. Participants also expressed high levels of satisfaction (M = 3.65, SD = .95). This analysis is important to show how appropriately the intervention was implemented, areas for improvement to increase its fidelity, and to ensure the internal and external validity of the findings. Trial Registration: ISRCTN registry ISRCTN19700389. Registered 6 October 2015. https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN19700389. Full Protocol: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-0954-y
Evolutionary Quasi-Variational-Hemivariational Inequalities I: Existence and Optimal Control
Authors: Zeng Shengda , Motreanu Dumitru , Khan Akhtar A.
Published: November 2021

We study a nonlinear evolutionary quasi–variational–hemivariational inequality (in short, (QVHVI)) involving a set-valued pseudo-monotone map. The central idea of our approach consists of introducing a parametric variational problem that defines a variational selection associated with (QVHVI). We prove the solvability of the parametric variational problem by employing a surjectivity theorem for the sum of operators, combined with Minty’s formulation and techniques from the nonsmooth analysis. Then, an existence theorem for (QVHVI) is established by using Kluge’s fixed point theorem for set-valued operators. As an application, an abstract optimal control problem for the (QVHVI) is investigated. We prove the existence of solutions for the optimal control problem and the weak sequential compactness of the solution set via the Weierstrass minimization theorem and the Kuratowski-type continuity properties.
A biomimetic sliding–stretching approach to seismic isolation
Authors: Fraternali Fernando , Singh Narinder , Amendola Ada , Benzoni Gianmario , Milton Graeme W.
Published: November 2021

There is growing demand in industrialized and developing countries to provide people and structures with effective earthquake protection. Here, we employ architectured material concepts and a bio-inspired approach to trail-blaze a new path to seismic isolation. We develop a novel seismic isolator whose unit cell is formed by linkages that replicate the bones of human limbs. Deformable tendons connect the limb members to a central post carrying the vertical load, which can slide against the bottom plate of the system. While the displacement capacity of the device depends only on the geometry of the limbs, its vibration period is tuned by dynamically stretching the tendons in the nonlinear stress–strain regime, so as to avoid resonance with seismic excitations. This biomimetic, sliding–stretching isolator can be scaled to seismically protect infrastructure, buildings, artworks and equipment with customized properties and sustainable materials. It does not require heavy industry or expensive materials and is easily assembled from metallic parts and 3D-printed components.
On the infinite Borwein product raised to a positive real power
Authors: Schlosser Michael J. , Zhou Nian Hong
Published: November 2021

In this paper, we study properties of the coefficients appearing in the q-series expansion of $$\prod _{n\ge 1}[(1-q^n)/(1-q^{pn})]^\delta $$

∏

n
≥
1

[

(
1
-

q
n

)

/

(
1
-

q

pn

)

]

δ

, the infinite Borwein product for an arbitrary prime p, raised to an arbitrary positive real power $$\delta $$
δ
. We use the Hardy–Ramanujan–Rademacher circle method to give an asymptotic formula for the coefficients. For $$p=3$$

p
=
3

we give an estimate of their growth which enables us to partially confirm an earlier conjecture of the first author concerning an observed sign pattern of the coefficients when the exponent $$\delta $$
δ
is within a specified range of positive real numbers. We further establish some vanishing and divisibility properties of the coefficients of the cube of the infinite Borwein product. We conclude with an Appendix presenting several new conjectures on precise sign patterns of infinite products raised to a real power which are similar to the conjecture we made in the $$p=3$$

p
=
3

case.
The financialization of rented homes: continuity and change in housing financialization
Authors: Fuller Gregory W.
Published: November 2021

This paper has two purposes: the first is to offer an empirical account of how rented homes have become more entangled in financial markets over the past two decades, particularly through the advent of real estate investment trusts (REITs) and listed real estate operating companies (REOCs). The second is to assess whether conceptualizing this as a process of “rental housing financialization” — distinct from but connected to the broader concepts of “housing financialization” and “financialization” — offers value to the scholarly community.
In Search of Climate Politics
Authors: Paterson Matthew
Published: November 2021

In what ways is climate change political? This book addresses this key - but oddly neglected - question. It argues that in order to answer it we need to understand politics in a three-fold way: as a site of authoritative, public decision-making; as a question of power; and as a conflictual phenomenon. Recurring themes center on de- and re-politicization, and a tension between attempts to simplify climate change to a single problem and its intrinsic complexity. These dynamics are driven by processes of capital accumulation and their associated subjectivities. The book explores these arguments through an analysis of a specific city - Ottawa - which acts as a microcosm of these broader processes. It provides detailed analyses of conflicts over urban planning, transport, and attempts by city government and other institutions to address climate change. The book will be valuable for students and researches looking at the politics of climate change.
Direct Evidence for Geophyte Exploitation in the Wyoming Basin
Authors: Joyce Kaley , Louderback Lisbeth A. , Robinson Erick
Published: November 2021

In the Wyoming Basin, archaeological sites dating from the Early Archaic to Late Prehistoric are often found associated with or adjacent to dense populations of Cymopterus bulbosus (springparsley), a nutritious geophyte that would have been an important food source for prehistoric humans living in the region. Experimental data have shown that the caloric return rates of C. bulbosus were enough to support seasonal exploitation by foragers, yet there has been no direct evidence for the use of this geophyte from the archaeological record. In this study, we examine starch granules from 10 ground stone tools excavated from two stratified, multicomponent archaeological sites in the Wyoming Basin to determine if C. bulbosus was collected and consumed in the past. Taproots of C. bulbosus were collected from two populations in the immediate vicinity of the archaeological sites in order to develop a modern starch reference. Identification of Cymopterus starch granules is based on a systematic study of those reference granules. The presence of Cymopterus starch on the ground stone artifacts suggests that prehistoric foragers were collecting and consuming these geophytes. These findings support previous hypotheses about geophyte use in southern Wyoming and therefore have implications for increasing human populations as well as settlement and subsistence decisions.
Institutions for Protecting Constitutional Democracy: An Analytic Framework, with Special Reference to Electoral Management Bodies
Authors: Tushnet Mark
Published: November 2021

Constitutional theory dating to Montesquieu identified three branches of government, each with a specific function: the legislature enacted general rules, the executive enforced the rules, and the judiciary resolved disputes about the rules’ meaning and application. Every government had to have these branches in some form; that is, the branches were necessary elements in a governance structure. In addition, the branches were exhaustive: that is, taken together they did everything a government could do.
Policy Dialogue: Online Education as Space and Place
Authors: Pursell Carroll , Iiyoshi Toru
Published: November 2021

The rise of online learning over the past few decades has raised fundamental questions about the kinds of “spaces” and “places” this mode of education creates. Do they support meaningful exchanges? Can they advance educational equity, access, and community-building? Are they comparable to in-person classroom experiences? The recent COVID pandemic and the global turn toward virtual learning in response have brought such questions into sharp relief. These were the questions and contextual factors that brought distinguished historian Carroll Pursell and international educational technology authority Toru Iiyoshi together for this policy dialogue. Their conversation takes readers on a wide-ranging discussion about the interplay between education, technology, and society writ large. And they offer insights into the past, present, and likely future of education in an era of accelerating technological change.

Carroll Pursell is the Adeline Barry Davee Distinguished Professor of History (Emeritus) at Case Western Reserve University and Distinguished Honorary Professor of History at the Australian National University. He held faculty positions at the University of California at Santa Barbara and served as the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Lehigh University. Pursell is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and former president of both the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) and the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), which also awarded him its Leonardo da Vinci Medal for outstanding contributions to the history of technology.

Toru Iiyoshi is professor and director at the Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education at Kyoto University. Previously, he was a senior scholar and director of the Knowledge Media Laboratory at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He also served as senior strategist in the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Iiyoshi is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Technology and Education and past recipient of the Outstanding Practice Award in Instructional Development and the Robert M. Gagne Award for Research in Instructional Design from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

HEQPolicy Dialogues are, by design, intended to promote an informal, free exchange of ideas between scholars. At the end of the exchange, we offer a list of references to readers who wish to follow up on sources relevant to the discussion.
Uptake of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination among general hospital staff in Israel
Authors: Myers Vicki , Saban Mor , Ben-Shetrit Shani , Wilf-Miron Rachel
Published: November 2021

Data from all general hospitals in Israel to April 2021 show that the mean hospital rate of staff vaccination was 84.4% for the first dose and 77.1% for the second dose, which are lower than general population rate, with mean 7% who did not complete their vaccinations. Healthcare workers have an important role in influencing the wider community.
Electrophoresis of tightly fitting spheres along a circular cylinder of finite length
Authors: Sherwood J.D. , Ghosal S.
Published: November 2021

Electrophoresis of a tightly fitting sphere of radius

$a$

along the centreline of a liquid-filled circular cylinder of radius

$R$

is studied for a gap width

$h_0=R-a\ll a$

. We assume a Debye length

$\kappa ^{-1}\ll h_0$

, so that surface conductivity is negligible for zeta potentials typically seen in experiments, and the Smoluchowski slip velocity is imposed as a boundary condition at the solid surfaces. The pressure difference between the front and rear of the sphere is determined. If the cylinder has finite length

$L$

, this pressure difference causes an additional volumetric flow of liquid along the cylinder, increasing the electrophoretic velocity of the sphere, and an analytic prediction for this increase is found when

$L\gg R$

. If

$N$

identical, well-spaced spheres are present, the electrophoretic velocity of the spheres increases with

$N$

, in agreement with the experiments of Misiunas & Keyser (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 122, 2019, 214501).
Commentary: The grateful state
Authors: Williams Paul D.
Published: November 2021

This article explores the totemic 2020 Queensland state election, at which a two-term government plagued by a deteriorating economy and widely criticised travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic was returned with an increased majority. The article posits three arguments: that COVID-19 created a new ‘lens’ through which electors evaluated public policy and that allowed voters to frame public health and safety over the more usual measures of economic performance; that Queensland voters drew on their traditional political culture – especially their predilection for strong leadership and state chauvinism – to evaluate the Palaszczuk Labor government’s pandemic management favourably compared with contemporaneous events in Victoria; and that Queensland voters expressed similar confidence in a Labor economic recovery plan that contrasted favourably with the LNP’s economic platform. In sum, this article argues that Queenslanders in 2020 cast a ‘gratitude vote’ for a government they saw as being in control of both public health and economic recovery.
Marketizing Sovereign Prerogatives: How to Sell Citizenship
Authors: Surak Kristin
Published: November 2021

How is a sovereign prerogative brought to market? We know much about how states shape markets and vice versa, but less about the dynamics when states not only set market rules, but are also the sole producer of the good. This article takes up the case of citizenship by investment—“golden passport” programs that offer citizenship in recognition of an investment in a country—to unpack the challenges that appear when states commodify sovereign prerogatives. In these cases, the state holds multiple roles that generate conflicts of interest and a concern for credibility. To address these concerns, states may adopt two strategies: institute a division of labor in issuing the product, and outsource elements of supervision to third-party actors. Empirically, the analysis shows how migration service providers retooled murky discretionary grants of citizenship in peripheral countries into formal citizenship by investment schemes. The conclusion addresses how these strategies apply in markets for other sovereign prerogatives, particularly government debt, and discusses the implications for citizenship and neoliberalism.
The effect of walnut consumption on cardiometabolic profiles of individuals with abnormal glucose homoeostasis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials
Authors: Malmir Hanieh , Larijani Bagher , Esmaillzadeh Ahmad
Published: November 2021

Findings on the effect of walnut consumption on cardiometabolic profiles in individuals with abnormal glucose homoeostasis are conflicting. We summarised earlier data in this regard. A systematic literature search of relevant reports published in Medline/PubMed, ISI web of Science, EMBASE, SCOPUS and Google Scholar up to October 2020 was conducted. Randomised trials that enrolled individuals with abnormal glucose homoeostasis in which the main intervention was walnut consumption were included. Abnormal glucose homoeostasis was defined as a spectrum of impaired glucose tolerance or pre-diabetic status that is associated with insulin resistance. Twelve studies were included in systematic review and eight in meta-analysis. No significant effect of walnut consumption on anthropometric measures, including weighted mean difference (WMD: −0·13; 95 % CI −0·64, 0·39 kg), BMI (–0·08; 95 % CI −0·47, 0·32 kg/m2) and waist circumference (0·01; 95 % CI −0·50, 0·52 cm) was observed. Although walnut intake did not influence on lipid profiles (including TAG, total- and HDL-cholesterol levels), individuals in the intervention group tended to have lower levels of LDL-cholesterol than those in the control group (–0·10; 95 % CI −0·20, 0·01 mmol/l; P = 0·06). Other cardiometabolic factors including markers of glycaemic control (fasting blood glucose and HbA1C levels), blood pressure and stimulus-adjusted response measure (a parameter of endothelial function) were not significantly affected. However, walnut consumption resulted in a significant increase in flow-mediated dilation (FMD) (0·93 %; 95 % CI 0·16, 1·71 %). Summarising earlier evidence, we found that walnut consumption might influence FMD and LDL-cholesterol levels in individuals with abnormal glucose homoeostasis. It did not affect other cardiometabolic profiles in these individuals.
A Distinct Society? Understanding Social Distrust in Quebec
Authors: Bridgman Aengus , Nadeau Rosalie , Stolle Dietlind
Published: November 2021

Following public debates on the topic of trust in Quebec, this article examines the alleged social capital differential between Quebec and the rest of Canada. The literature has found lower levels of generalized trust in Quebec, but explanations offered are diverse and conjectural, with historical, sociological and political factors all in contention. We test contextual and compositional influences, including cohort differences, language and linguistic ability, religion, ethnicity, and neighbourhood-level measures of diversity, using pooled cross-sectional data from the Canadian General Social Survey (2003, 2008 and 2013) linked with precise measures of neighbourhood-level ethnic and linguistic diversity drawn from the Canadian census. We identify those Quebecers who have low levels of trust and those who more closely resemble their counterparts in the rest of Canada. We find that individual linguistic ability and linguistic heterogeneity of the neighbourhood are important correlates of trust and that among francophone populations, social distrust is found most in unilingual homogenous communities.
The Urban-Rural Divide in Canadian Federal Elections, 1896–2019
Authors: Armstrong David A. , Lucas Jack , Taylor Zack
Published: November 2021

Using a new measure of urbanity for every federal electoral district in Canada from 1896 to the present, this article describes the long-term development of the urban-rural divide in Canadian federal elections. We focus on three questions: (1)whenthe urban-rural divide has existed in Canada, identifying three main periods—the 1920s, the 1960s and 1993–present—in which the urban-rural cleavage has been especially important in federal elections; (2)wherethe urban-rural divide has existed, finding that in the postwar period the urban-rural cleavage is a pan-Canadian phenomenon; and (3)how wellurbanity predicts district-level election outcomes. We argue that the urban-rural divide is important for understanding election outcomes during several periods of Canadian political development, and never more so than in recent decades. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for research on urban-rural cleavages, Canadian electoral politics and Canadian political development.
The oldest-known Lestidae (Odonata) from the late Eocene of Tibet: palaeoclimatic implications
Authors: Xia Guoqing , Zheng Daran , Krieg-Jacquier Régis , Fan Qiushuang , Chen Yun , Nel André
Published: November 2021

Terrestrial fossils from the Palaeogene of Tibet could help us to better understand the past climate and environment in this area. We herein report a new late Eocene non-marine fossil site from southern Nima Basin, central Tibet, SW China, including abundant insects and fishes. These fossils are similar to those from the late Eocene (∼39.5–37 Ma) Lunpola–Nima sediment depo-centres in sharing the dominating aquatic bug Aquarius lunpolaensis and cyprinid fishes. Chalcolestes tibetensis sp. nov., the oldest representative of the modern family Lestidae, is described. Lestidae were previously only recorded in Western Europe, and the oldest records were from the uppermost Eocene of France and the UK. The present discovery demonstrates that Lestidae already had a broad distribution during the Eocene and probably originated much earlier. The recent representatives of Chalcolestes occur in the low-altitude ponds or lakes of Western Palaearctic. Together with the other freshwater fossils in this site, this new discovery indicates a humid climate and low altitude for the Nima Basin and nearby basins in the middle part of the Bangong Nujiang suture zone.
Active Technological Similarity and Mutual Fund Performance
Authors: McLemore Ping , Sias Richard , Wan Chi , Yüksel H. Zafer
Published: November 2021

We examine whether superior understanding of technological innovation is a source of mutual fund managers’ ability to garner positive abnormal returns. Consistent with our hypothesis, the inter-quintile annual net Carhart alpha spread for mutual funds sorted on changes in the technological similarity (TS) of their portfolio holdings is 282 basis points. Moreover, because changes in TS are largely orthogonal to other predictors of mutual fund success (e.g., industry concentration, active share, fund R2, and lag fund alpha), changes in TS can be combined with other measures to help identify the best performing funds.
The influence of Standard German on the vowels and diphthongs of West Central Bavarian
Authors: Wolfswinkler Katrin , Harrington Jonathan
Published: November 2021

The spoken accent of children is strongly influenced by those of their peers but how rapidly do they adapt to sound changes in progress? We addressed this issue in an acoustic analysis of child and adult vowels of West Central Bavarian (WCB) that may be subject to an increasing influence by the Standard German (SG) variety. The study was a combination of longitudinal and apparent-time analyses: re-recordings from 20 WCB children in their first, second and third years of primary school at two schools in rural Bavaria were compared with those of 21 WCB adult speakers from the same area. The question was whether the children’s pronunciation diverged from the adults’ pronunciation and increasingly so in their second and third years. Participants produced stressed vowels in isolated mostly trochaic words in which WCB vs. SG differences were expected. Both adult/child and longitudinal changes in the direction of the standard were found in the children’s tendency towards a merger of two open vowels and a collapse of a long/short consonant contrast, neither of which exists in SG. There was some evidence that, unlike the adults, the children were beginning to develop tensity (= tenseness) and rounding contrasts, which occur in SG but not WCB. There were no observed changes to the pattern of opening and closing diphthongs, which differ markedly between the two varieties. The general conclusion is that WCB change is most likely to occur as a consequence of exaggerating phonetic variation that already happens to be in the direction of the standard.
Interactions of the Trypanosoma brucei brucei zinc-finger-domain protein ZC3H28
Authors: Bishola Tshitenge Tania , Clayton Christine
Published: November 2021

In Trypanosoma brucei and related Kinetoplastids, regulation of gene expression occurs mostly post-transcriptionally, and RNA-binding proteins play a critical role in the regulation of mRNA and protein abundance. Trypanosoma brucei ZC3H28 is a 114 KDa cytoplasmic mRNA-binding protein with a single C(x)7C(x)5C(x)sH zinc finger at the C-terminus and numerous proline-, histidine- or glutamine-rich regions. ZC3H28 is essential for normal bloodstream-form trypanosome growth, and when tethered to a reporter mRNA, ZC3H28 increased reporter mRNA and protein levels. Purification of N-terminally tagged ZC3H28 followed by mass spectrometry showed enrichment of ribosomal proteins, various RNA-binding proteins including both poly(A) binding proteins, the translation initiation complex EIF4E4/EIF4G3, and the activator MKT1. Tagged ZC3H28 was preferentially associated with long RNAs that have low complexity sequences in their 3′-untranslated regions; their coding regions also have low ribosome densities. In agreement with the tethering results, after ZC3H28 depletion, the levels of a significant proportion of its bound mRNAs decreased. We suggest that ZC3H28 is implicated in the stabilization of long mRNAs that are poorly translated.
‘A very exclusive experiment in communism’: the radical origins of the Manhattan co-op
Authors: Masterson Jack T.
Published: November 2021

Though it has long been the residence of choice for Manhattan's rich, the co-operative apartment building has an intellectual lineage that originates in pre-Marxian communitarian socialism. In the early nineteenth century, radical philosophers Charles Fourier and Robert Owen first theorized a multifamily dwelling owned in joint stock by its residents that could deliver economies of scale in the production and delivery of household necessities. Using previously untranslated French sources and archival material (New Harmony Working Men's Institute), this article demonstrates how early socialist ideas about housing, domestic labour and ownership evolved into the idea for the New York City co-operative apartment building.
The Ptolemy Painting? Alexander's “right-hand man” and the origins of the Alexander Mosaic
Authors: Thomas Joshua J.
Published: November 2021

This article revisits the origins of the Alexander Mosaic at Pompeii by focusing on the figure standing at Alexander's right hand. The starting point is Andreas Rumpf's suggestion that this “right-hand man” may be the patron of the original painting, who wished to advertise his own role in the represented battle. It is argued that Ptolemy I is perhaps the strongest candidate on historical grounds, and that interesting connections can be drawn between the mosaic and the historian Kleitarchos, who worked at the Ptolemaic court. Circumstantial support for a Ptolemaic connection is supplied by other finds from the House of the Faun, three of which are briefly re-examined.
EMS at 3600 Meters: Exploring Barriers to Emergency Care and Transport in Rural Andean Perú
Authors: Vasa Alison H. , Falkenstein Karen A. , Centrone Wayne A.
Published: November 2021

Background:

Given the demonstrated success of programs that bolster informal Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems in other low- and middle-income counties (LMICs), this study aimed to explore formal and informal systems, practices, customs, and structures for emergency response and medical transport in Colca Valley, Perú while identifying possible opportunities for future intervention.

Methods:

Twenty-two interviews with first responders and community members were conducted in three mountain villages throughout rural Andean Colca Valley of Perú. Subjects were recruited based on profession and experience with medical emergencies in the area. Transcripts were entered into Dedoose, coded, and analyzed to identify themes.

Results:

Providers and community members shared similar perceptions on the most common barriers to emergency care and transport. Challenges experienced equally by both groups were identified as “structural problems,” such as lack of infrastructure, lack of structured care delivery, and unclear protocols.

Incongruities of responses between groups emerged with regard to certain barriers to care. Providers perceived baseline health education and use of home remedies as significant barriers to seeking care, which was not proportionally corroborated by community members. In contrast, 86% of community members cited lack of trust in health providers as a major barrier.

Community members often noted witnessing a high frequency of emergency events, their personal experiences of helping, and the formal utilization of lay providers. When specifically questioned on their willingness to engage in first aid training, all participants were in agreement.

Conclusion:

While structural changes such as increased infrastructure would likely be the most durable improvement, future interventions focused on both empowering community members and improving the relationship between the health center and the community would be beneficial in this community. Additionally, these interview data suggest that a layperson first aid training program would be feasible and well-received.
Sentence encoding for Dialogue Act classification
Authors: Duran Nathan , Battle Steve , Smith Jim
Published: November 2021

In this study, we investigate the process of generating single-sentence representations for the purpose of Dialogue Act (DA) classification, including several aspects of text pre-processing and input representation which are often overlooked or underreported within the literature, for example, the number of words to keep in the vocabulary or input sequences. We assess each of these with respect to two DA-labelled corpora, using a range of supervised models, which represent those most frequently applied to the task. Additionally, we compare context-free word embedding models with that of transfer learning via pre-trained language models, including several based on the transformer architecture, such as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and XLNET, which have thus far not been widely explored for the DA classification task. Our findings indicate that these text pre-processing considerations do have a statistically significant effect on classification accuracy. Notably, we found that viable input sequence lengths, and vocabulary sizes, can be much smaller than is typically used in DA classification experiments, yielding no significant improvements beyond certain thresholds. We also show that in some cases the contextual sentence representations generated by language models do not reliably outperform supervised methods. Though BERT, and its derivative models, do represent a significant improvement over supervised approaches, and much of the previous work on DA classification.
Defeasible Reasoning via Datalog¬
Authors: MAHER MICHAEL J.
Published: November 2021

We address the problem of compiling defeasible theories to Datalog¬ programs. We prove the correctness of this compilation, for the defeasible logic DL(∂||), but the techniques we use apply to many other defeasible logics. Structural properties of DL(∂||) are identified that support efficient implementation and/or approximation of the conclusions of defeasible theories in the logic, compared with other defeasible logics. We also use previously well-studied structural properties of logic programs to adapt to incomplete Datalog¬ implementations.
VeriFly: On-the-fly Assertion Checking via Incrementality
Authors: SANCHEZ-ORDAZ MIGUEL A. , GARCIA-CONTRERAS ISABEL , PEREZ VICTOR , MORALES JOSÉ F. , LOPEZ-GARCIA PEDRO , HERMENEGILDO MANUEL V.
Published: November 2021

Assertion checking is an invaluable programmer’s tool for finding many classes of errors or verifying their absence in dynamic languages such as Prolog. For Prolog programmers, this means being able to have relevant properties, such as modes, types, determinacy, nonfailure, sharing, constraints, and cost, checked and errors flagged without having to actually run the program. Such global static analysis tools are arguably most useful the earlier they are used in the software development cycle, and fast response times are essential for interactive use. Triggering a full and precise semantic analysis of a software project every time a change is made can be prohibitively expensive. This is specially the case when complex properties need to be inferred for large, realistic code bases. In our static analysis and verification framework, this challenge is addressed through a combination of modular and incremental (context- and path-sensitive) analysis that is responsive to program edits, at different levels of granularity. In this tool paper, we present how the combination of this framework within an integrated development environment (IDE) takes advantage of such incrementality to achieve a high level of reactivity when reflecting analysis and verification results back as colorings and tooltips directly on the program text – the tool’s VeriFly mode. The concrete implementation that we describe is Emacs-based and reuses in part off-the-shelf “on-the-fly” syntax checking facilities (flycheck). We believe that similar extensions are also reproducible with low effort in other mature development environments. Our initial experience with the tool shows quite promising results, with low latency times that provide early, continuous, and precise assertion checking and other semantic feedback to programmers during the development process. The tool supports Prolog natively, as well as other languages by semantic transformation into Horn clauses.
“Vote for your Bread and Butter”: Economic Intimidation of Voters in the Gilded Age
Authors: Cohn-Postar Gideon
Published: November 2021

The extent and intensity of electoral and voter fraud that took place during the U.S. Gilded Age is properly infamous. This paper explores a form of voter intimidation that has garnered comparatively little scholarly attention: economic coercion. Absent secrecy at the polls and security at work, bosses forced workingmen to choose between their job or their vote. Economic voter intimidation provoked both a real and rhetorical crisis in the 1870s and 1880s. In real terms, it disrupted hundreds of elections and damaged thousands of workers’ livelihoods. It became a nationwide crisis after 1873, however, because for the first time, employers were coercing white workingmen on a widespread basis. Reports of employers coercing their employees at the polls throughout the nation confirmed the worst fears of many labor leaders and politicians: white wage-workers were insecure possessors of the franchise whose precariousness might threaten democracy itself. Mining previously overlooked accounts of economic voter intimidation in contested congressional election case records, congressional investigations, corporate records, and newspapers, this article argues that employers’ politicized layoff threats and observation of workers at the polls undermined the political equality of even those men whose whiteness had seemingly secured their privilege.
Alternative methods for terminating green manures in organic grain systems
Authors: Pickoff Margaret , Mallory Ellen B. , Molloy Thomas
Published: November 2021

Legume green manures (GM) are a vital source of nitrogen (N) for many organic grain systems. A common practice among organic growers is to undersow clover into a small grain, harvest the grain crop and terminate the clover stand in late fall by moldboard plowing in preparation for a cash crop the following spring. While fall plowing offers excellent clover kill, growers increasingly seek an alternative termination method that reduces tillage intensity and bare winter soil. This study, performed at two sites in Maine, evaluates three clover termination methods for kill efficacy, winter soil cover, spring soil conditions and N uptake and grain yield and protein of a subsequent test crop of hard red spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L., var. Glenn). Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) was intercropped with spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and terminated in late fall by moldboard plowing (PL), skim plowing (SK) or undercutting (UC). A control treatment received no clover and was fall plowed. An additional treatment, winterkilled field peas (WK), was evaluated at one site. SK, UC and WK increased soil cover relative to PL, though UC resulted in low clover kill efficacy in a wet spring and is in need of improved design. Grain yield was higher following red clover compared to the no-clover control at one site, but was unaffected by termination method. At one site, grain crude protein was higher following PL than the other treatments, indicating the possibility for more favorable timing of N availability associated with PL.
PETER OF AUVERGNE'S QUESTION ‘WHETHER ONE IS TO BELIEVE A GOOD ANGEL REVEALING SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT THE ADVENT OF CHRIST OR ANTICHRIST’
Authors: LERNER ROBERT E.
Published: November 2021

This note provides an edition of the Latin text of a quodlibet by the Parisian master Peter of Auvergne concerning the knowledge of angels about the coming of Antichrist. The introduction to the edition argues that this quodlibet was not made in response to Arnald of Villanova's De tempore adventus Antichristi. Rather, it is best understood as a hypothetical inquiry regarding the ability of angels to communicate revelation to human beings.