bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Performance of Open and In-Filled (Geofoam) Trenches in Mitigating Ground-Borne Vibrations Induced by Impact Loading
Authors: Jazebi Majid , Ahmadi Mohammad Mehdi , Saberian Mohammad , Li Jie , Sahebalzamani Parastoo
Published: February 2022

The open or in-filled trenches are often used in engineering practice to mitigate ground vibration induced by different types of vibration sources. A novel approach which is considering the effect of Rayleigh wavelength on the efficiency of open and in-filled trenches coupled with regular specific normalized dimensions was implemented in this study. While impact loading is a very common type of loading (in, e.g., machine foundations, driven pile installation), it was rarely studied in the past. The loading is selected to consist of 12 impact pulses. In this study, it was shown that Rayleigh wavelength controls the effect of trench-normalized dimensions on its performance, and therefore, studying the trench effectiveness based only on its normalized dimensions is a limited assumption. For open trenches, the depth of trench is the key parameter controlling its efficiency, while its width does not have a significant effect except for shallow trenches (normalized width of less than 0.7) in the condition of low Rayleigh wavelength (2.0 m). Also, it was shown that the trench should be installed at a normalized distance of at least 1.0. Furthermore, the numerical results revealed that the effect of the normalized width of the geofoam trench on its efficiency for Rayleigh wavelength $${\lambda }_{R}=2.0 \, \mathrm{m}$$

λ
R

=
2.0

m

was more than that for $${\lambda }_{R}=8.0 \, \mathrm{m}$$

λ
R

=
8.0

m

. Also, several graphs for the design of geofoam trenches under different Rayleigh wavelengths were proposed in this study, which could be useful in practice.
Human in the Loop Fuzzy Pattern Tree Evolution
Authors: Murphy Aidan , Murphy Gráinne , Dias Douglas Mota , Amaral Jorge , Naredo Enrique , Ryan Conor
Published: February 2022

Fuzzy pattern trees evolved using grammatical evolution, a system we call Fuzzy Grammatical Evolution, are shown to be a robust Explainable Artificial Intelligence technique. Experimental results show Fuzzy Grammatical Evolution achieves competitive results when compared against SVM, Random Forest and Logistic Regression on a set of real world benchmark problems. Fuzzy Grammatical Evolution allows for human input throughout the evolutionary process. Regularization methods and double tournament selection were investigated to determine what method was most successful at finding smaller, more interpretable models. A domain expert was recruited to investigate the interpretability of the models found and to give a confidence score for each model. This expert successfully identified overfit models, validating that Fuzzy Grammatical Evolution can be regarded a powerful Explainable Artificial Intelligence technique.
May the Vietnam Response Have Reduced Daily New Cases of COVID-19 in the Country?
Authors: Vu Danh C. , Nguyen Trang H.D. , Ho Thi L.
Published: February 2022

Vietnam, a Southeast Asian country, has documented 1,515 polymerase chain reaction-positive confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases with 35 deaths a year after the first infection recorded in Ha Noi on January 23, 2020. Half of the infected patients are at the age of 21 to 40 y. While numbers of infections in many countries in the region continue to surge, Vietnam is seeing decreases in the number of daily new cases. As a result of COVID-19 trajectory different from the other countries, as of April 23, 2020, Vietnam is no longer under lockdown and is slowly restarting its socioeconomic activities. This report aims to provide a summary of the COVID-19 situation and response to the pandemic in Vietnam.
Consecutive Waves of COVID-19 in Iran: Various Dimensions and Probable Causes
Authors: Heidari Mohammad , Sayfouri Nasrin , Jafari Hamid
Published: February 2022

Objective:

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has somehow affected the lives of 80% of the world’s population. Iran has also experienced numerous outbreaks of this disease. The fifth wave having occurred in August 2021 was one of the most agonizing incidences of the pandemic in the country.

Method:

We reviewed all of publications and govermental statistics about COVID-19 pandemic In Iran between 2019 to 2021.

Results:

The current study discusses the possible dimensions and causes of successive waves of COVID-19 in Iran, namely, the consequences of a significant delay in vaccination administration in due time, the collective overwhelming fallacy toward immunization, the polypharmacy controversy, inadequate community-based participation in risk reduction, and noticeable decrease in the public’s resilience.

Conclusion:

A variety of strategies have been recommended in the article to modify the principal challenges in order to help control the pandemic in the country.
Mapping the landscape of a wide interdisciplinary curriculum: a network analysis of a Korean university and the lessons learnt
Authors: Ryu Hokyoung , Kim Jieun
Published: February 2022

Interdisciplinary programmes have become common in universities and research groups’ curricula. This study conducted a network analysis on a Korean university’s undergraduate curriculum and used several visualisation tools to assess keywords across courses and departments, revealing epistemological distances between the courses/departments and their concepts of study. This data-driven methodology defined the characteristics of close or neighbouring departments, making it possible to implement narrow interdisciplinarity through common subjects within the courses. Interestingly, a further projected network could determine the implicit relations between departments that are not considered close, which would make it possible to implement a wide interdisciplinary curriculum. The data-driven network analysis conducted in this study contributes to searching for new programmes for specific levels of interdisciplinarity on an empirical basis.
FROM CHRONOLOGICAL NETWORKS TO BAYESIAN MODELS: CHRONOLOG AS A FRONT-END TO OXCAL
Authors: Levy E , Piasetzky E , Fantalkin A , Finkelstein I
Published: February 2022

We present a new method for creating an OxCal Bayesian model that bypasses the complex task of writing OxCal code. Our methodology employs the recent ChronoLog software as a graphical front-end for generating OxCal scripts. This approach enables archaeologists to create complex Bayesian models—including termini post and ante quem, duration bounds and synchronisms—with the help of a user-friendly interface. The target audience can be divided into beginners, who might struggle to create chronological models using OxCal directly, and experienced OxCal users, who should find that ChronoLog saves time when coding complex models. Three case-studies from recent publications are presented.
Impact of sarcopenia and myosteatosis on survival outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer undergoing curative-intent treatment
Authors: Ahern Elizabeth , Brown Teresa Ellen , Campbell Louise , Hughes Brett G. M. , Banks Merrilyn , Lin Charles Y. , Kenny Lizbeth M. , Bauer Judith
Published: February 2022

Malnutrition and sarcopenia are prevalent in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Pre-treatment sarcopenia and adverse oncological outcomes in this population are well described. The impact of myosteatosis and post-treatment sarcopenia is less well known. Patients with HNSCC (n = 125) undergoing chemoradiotherapy, radiotherapy alone and/or surgery were assessed for sarcopenia and myosteatosis, using cross-sectional computed tomography (CT) imaging at the third lumbar (L3) vertebra, at baseline and 3 months post-treatment. Outcomes were overall survival (OS) at 12 months and 5 years post-treatment. One hundred and one participants had a CT scan evaluable at one or two time points, of which sixty-seven (66 %) participants were sarcopenic on at least one time point. Reduced muscle attenuation affected 93 % (n = 92) pre-treatment compared with 97 % (n = 90) post-treatment. Five-year OS favoured those without post-treatment sarcopenia (hazard ratio, HR 0·37, 95 % CI 0·16, 0·88, P = 0·06) and those without both post-treatment myosteatosis and sarcopenia (HR 0·33, 95 % CI 0·13, 0·83, P = 0·06). Overall, rates of myosteatosis were high at both pre- and post-treatment time points. Post-treatment sarcopenia was associated with worse 5-year OS, as was post-treatment sarcopenia in those who had myosteatosis. Post-treatment sarcopenia should be evaluated as an independent risk factor for decreased long-term survival post-treatment containing radiotherapy (RT) for HNSCC.
Impunity thick and thin: The International Criminal Court in the search for equality
Authors: Lorca Rocío
Published: February 2022

In discussions of impunity, such as the one surrounding the International Criminal Court, the concept of impunity itself has remained relatively unattended. Examining the concept more closely reveals that we use it in both thin and thick senses, the thin relating to a concern about the values of punishment and the criminal law and the thick to a broader notion of equality, of which crimes being punished (equally) is one aspect, but not the totality of the issue. Only a thick version of impunity captures all that makes it a problem we care greatly about. According to this conception, what makes impunity a problem is primarily a failure to ensure equality before the law. This can show up in two ways. First, when a crime is not prosecuted or punished because the offender belongs to a group of people who are beyond the reach of the law. Second, when a crime is not prosecuted or punished because the victim belongs to a group of people deemed less important in the eyes the law. Institutions and courts of law end impunity, first and foremost, by restoring the experience of equality against privilege and brute power. This sets an important challenge to the International Criminal Court, because while the Court may serve many important values, its current institutional formation and its political context seem to undermine its capacity to contribute to end impunity in the thicker sense.
Exploring global online course participants’ interactions: Value of high-level engagement
Authors: Jin Haeyun , Karatay Yasin , Bordbarjavidi Fatemeh , Yang Junghun , Kochem Timothy , Muhammad Ananda Astrini , Hegelheimer Volker
Published: February 2022

Participation in online courses has become essential for training language professionals in under-resourced contexts with skills in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) (Godwin-Jones, 2014). Most online CALL courses use asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) to facilitate meaningful learning for participants. Although participants’ sustained engagement with ACMC is the target, global realities of participants interfere with their participation levels. This article investigates participants’ engagement profiles in asynchronous online discussions in an 8-week CALL-based global online course developed and implemented by a team at Iowa State University. Using a case study approach, nine focal participants’ engagement profiles have been analyzed in terms of identifying patterns of engagement in the discussion posts and their relation to the types of discussion prompts. Then, social network analysis (SNA) and thematic analysis were employed to investigate patterns of interaction among the participants in the replies. The results indicated that engagement patterns observed in discussion posts overall aligned with the primary goals of prompt types. SNA further identified two participants as social mediators to connect participants with each other. These findings are significant in that they suggest the effectiveness of using ACMC to promote co-construction of knowledge for a global audience. This article also provides implications regarding the design of discussion prompts to help maximize participant engagement with course content.
THE DISSEMINATION OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS IN BRAZIL AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: RUI BARBOSA BETWEEN LAW-MAKING AND POLICY-MAKING
Authors: Bruzzi Curi Luiz Felipe , Cunha Alexandre Mendes
Published: February 2022

Rui Barbosa was a renowned jurist who served as the first finance minister of the Brazilian Republic, established in 1889. Despite his renown as an intellectual, Barbosa faced a severe financial crisis during his ministerial tenure and gained a bad reputation for his economic policy. In the texts produced in this context, he combined different traditions of economic thought from the point of view of the legal expert serving as economic policy-maker. In the field of public finance, while assimilating arguments associated to German state socialism and its North American developments, he was also influenced by French liberal economist Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. Through these international assimilations, Barbosa constructed an assemblage of economic ideas organized not by theoretical affiliations in the contemporary sense but around two main goals: to rationalize and legitimize his policy as finance minister and to influence the legal ordering of the Brazilian fiscal economy.
Rethinking multilingual experience through a Systems Framework of Bilingualism
Authors: Titone Debra A. , Tiv Mehrgol
Published: February 2022

In “The Devil's Dictionary”, Bierce (1911) defined language as “The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.” This satirical definition reflects a core truth – humans communicate using language to accomplish social goals. In this Keynote, we urge cognitive scientists and neuroscientists to more fully embrace sociolinguistic and sociocultural experiences as part of their theoretical and empirical purview. To this end, we review theoretical antecedents of such approaches, and offer a new framework – theSystems Framework of Bilingualism– that we hope will be useful in this regard. We conclude with new questions to nudge our discipline towards a more nuanced, inclusive, and socially-informed scientific understanding of multilingual experience. We hope to engage a wide array of researchers united under the broad umbrella of multilingualism (e.g., researchers in neurocognition, sociolinguistics, and applied scientists).
Posttraumatic growth in palliative care patients and its associations with psychological distress and quality of life
Authors: Bernard Mathieu , Poncin Emmanuelle , Althaus Betty , Borasio Gian Domenico
Published: February 2022

Objectives

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) refers to positive psychological changes resulting from individuals’ inner struggles with traumatic events such as life-threatening illness. Although palliative care patients are confronted with their own mortality, little is known about their PTG experience. This study investigates whether PTG is an empirically relevant concept for palliative patients by assessing the prevalence and areas of growth, and examining associations with psychological distress and quality of life.

Methods

Participants were recruited in Switzerland. Using validated questionnaires, we assessed PTG (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, PTGI), psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and quality of life (McGill-Quality of Life Questionnaire – Revised). We performed descriptive analyses, Spearman correlations, and linear regressions.

Results

Fifty-five patients completed the PTGI, 44% of whom experienced no/low growth, 47% moderate growth, and 9% high/very high growth. Participants experienced the greatest positive changes in terms of appreciating life and relating to others. We found significant negative bivariate correlations between PTG and psychological distress (r = −0.33) and between PTG and depression (r = −0.47). Linear regressions showed that PTG is associated with depression (β = −0.468; p = 0.000), but not with anxiety or quality of life (adjusted R2 = 0.219).

Significance of results

Over half of our patients experienced moderate to very high growth, indicating that PTG is an empirically relevant psychological process in palliative care. PTG is associated with lower levels of depression, possibly as those experiencing growth are more able to process past traumas and build a more positive outlook on one's life and self. By contrast, the relative independence of anxiety and PTG points to the likely coexistence of positive and negative psychological responses to trauma. The lack of association between PTG and quality of life points to the uniqueness of the PTG concept in capturing how people access deeper meaning and greater appreciation of life along the path toward posttraumatic self-reconstruction.
‘Wanted – An Opera’
Authors: Rodmell Paul
Published: February 2022

The title of John Fuller Maitland's article ‘Wanted – An Opera’, in which he argued for the establishment in Britain of a state-supported national opera house, could almost be read as a statement of desire for an operatic work of British origin itself. The perception that composers produced little opera of value in the period of the so-called ‘British Music Renaissance’ has become a trope, despite research in recent years showing the extent of activity, both in terms of composition and performance, during the 20 years either side of 1900.
Empire, Popular Sovereignty, and the Problem of Self-and-Other-Determination
Authors: Valdez Inés
Published: February 2022

This article develops W. E. B. Du Bois’s notion of democratic despotism to illustrate the entanglement of popular sovereignty and empire through an excessive form of western self-determination and theorizes how features of this formation remain today. Democratic despotism implies that, in western democracies at the turn of the twentieth century, popular sovereignty was an impulse to partake of the wealth and resources obtained by empire. Western democracies issued a claim to determine themselves (democratically) and others (despotically), in what I call “self-and-other-determination.” I frame the question of imperial democracy within the literature on empire and racial capitalism and the writings of Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, and Saidiya Hartman to conceptualize how racial affective attachments allow citizens past and present to restrict democratic concern to a limited community, whose wealth relies on the imperial exploitation of racialized others. I discuss the absence of these questions in the literature on self-determination and reflect on the implications of my framework for the contemporary rise of right-wing populism.
Exploring multifunctionality of summer cover crops for organic vegetable farms in the Upper Midwest
Authors: Candelaria-Morales Naomy P. , Grossman Julie , Fernandez Adria , Rogers Mary
Published: February 2022

Intensive vegetable crop rotations can have detrimental effects on soil health, draining soil of organic matter reserves and necessitating nitrogen (N) inputs. In addition, many vegetable crop rotations leave little time or space to integrate beneficial arthropod and pollinator habitat into crop rotations; the lack of habitat may cause declines in beneficial arthropods, which can lead to insufficient pollination services and increased pest pressure. Nine treatments, each containing one to seven species of cover crops, were evaluated for flowering, aboveground biomass production and N content, soil${\rm NO}_3^-$-N contribution after biomass incorporation, and beneficial arthropod visitation. A seven-species mix composed of oat (Avena sativaL.), field pea (Pisum sativumsubsp.ArvenseL.) and five clover species (Trifoliumspp.) added the largest amount of biomass (8747 kg ha−1). Likewise, this mix contributed the most organic N (265.6 kg N ha−1), and increased soil${\rm NO}_3^-$-N after biomass incorporation (10.9 mg${\rm NO}_3^-$-N kg−1of soil). Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentumMoench) and phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifoliaBendth.) monoculture produced most abundant floral resources. Beneficial arthropods observed included pollinators (native, honey and bumblebees), predators (syrphid flies and green lacewings) and parasitoids. Increased floral diversity was associated with abundance of flies in the Syrphidae family. Phacelia monoculture was most attractive for bees in the Apidae and Halictidae family, both of which may provide pollination services. These results highlight floral visitation patterns as an indicator for beneficial insect community support and conservation, especially in summer months, when greater insect reproduction occurs. Summer-planted cover crops are an underexplored rotation option for organic farming systems in the Upper Midwest, and may provide a wide range of ecosystem services including increases in available soil N and beneficial arthropod populations.
Duke Ellington, El Rey del Jazz and the Mexico City Massacre of 1968
Authors: García Corona León F.
Published: February 2022

From September 24 to October 2, 1968, two apparently unrelated events took place in an area of less than two square miles in downtown Mexico City: Duke Ellington performed in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the Mexican army massacred hundreds of protesting students. The student-driven movement of 1968 attracted people from different backgrounds in Mexican society. Their desire for freedom of speech and civil liberties echoed the struggles of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Received as El rey del jazz (the King of Jazz), Ellington's visit to Mexico constituted a musical place of cultural encounters. In this essay, I explore the connections between jazz, cultural diplomacy, race, and social justice. I argue that neither paradoxes nor seeming contradictions account for the fluidity of social activism on both sides of the border and its connections with playing and listening practices of jazz; rather I look at this social phenomenon as an example of an audiotopia, borrowing Josh Kun's term for a musical space of differences where contradictions and conflicts don't cancel each other out—a kind of identificatory contact zone. I do so by setting aside nationalistic approaches to music and viewing jazz as more than an emblem of U.S. national identity; rather, I explore the transnational aspects of the cultural artifacts resulting from these exchanges and the dynamic processes that took place in Ellington's visit with and among Mexicans.
Why IR scholars should care about quantum theory, part I: burdens of proof and uncomfortable facts
Authors: Wendt Alexander
Published: February 2022

How burdens of proof are allocated in science has an important bearing on how new knowledge develops. Usually, the burden is on new theories to prove their worth relative to a default, baseline of knowledge that is considered established and secure. However, in the case of classical vs. quantum social science matters are not that simple because the long-standing classical default has itself already failed to pass crucial tests, which has spurred the search for quantum solutions instead. Part I of this paper, therefore, tries to ‘re-balance’ the burdens of proof with Quantum Mind and Social Science’ critics, by highlighting two significant limits to date of classical thinking about the mind and society: the philosophical problem of finding a place for consciousness in the universe, and the scientific problem of explaining the Kahneman–Tversky anomalies in psychology. Acknowledging these outstanding problems does not equalize the burdens of proof, but it does mean that as we head into the more substantive discussion in Part II there is no secure default position. Just burdens of proof all around.
The strange fate of the morphed ‘rump materialism’: a comment on the vagaries of social science as seen through Alexander Wendt's Quantum Mind and Social Science
Authors: Kratochwil Friedrich
Published: February 2022

In putting Wendt's recent Quantum Mind in a larger context both of his own disciplinary engagement and some larger philosophical issues, I try to avoid a hasty dismissal, since the book seems at first blush to offer a ‘theory of everything’, or an uncritical acceptance, since the desire to know what makes the world hand together has always been part of the knowledge game. As to the first problem, I find it rather odd that Wendt spends little time in justifying his particular take on quantum theory, which is far from uncontroversial. Second, I attempt to understand why he has given up on the profession trying now to solve puzzles in the field by claiming that ‘quantum consciousness theory’ provides us with an ‘ace up the sleeve’. But the fact that wave collapse plays havoc with our traditional notions of cause, location, and mass, does not without further ado entitle us to claim that all or most problems in social science dealing with issues of validity and meaning of our concepts (rather than ‘truth/falsity’, as decided by making existential assertions) have been solved by quantum mechanics.
Parameterizing the Impact of Unresolved Temperature Variability on the Large‐Scale Density Field: 2. Modeling
Authors: Kenigson J. S. , Adcroft A. , Bachman S. D. , Castruccio F. , Grooms I. , Pegion P. , Stanley Z.
Published: February 2022

Ocean circulation models have systematic errors in large‐scale horizontal density gradients due to estimating the grid‐cell‐mean density by applying the nonlinear seawater equation of state to the grid‐cell‐mean water properties. In frontal regions where unresolved subgrid‐scale (SGS) fluctuations are significant, dynamically relevant errors in the representation of current systems can result. A previous study developed a novel and computationally efficient parameterization of the unresolved SGS temperature variance and resulting density correction. This parameterization was empirically validated but not tested in an ocean model. In this study, we implement deterministic and stochastic variants of this parameterization in the pressure‐gradient force term of a coupled ocean‐sea ice configuration of the community Earth system model‐modular ocean model version 6 and perform a suite of hindcast sensitivity experiments to investigate the ocean response. The parameterization leads to coherent changes in the large‐scale ocean circulation and hydrography, particularly in the Nordic Seas and Labrador Sea, which are attributable in large part to changes in the seasonally varying upper‐ocean exchange through Denmark Strait. In addition, the separated Gulf Stream strengthens and shifts equatorward, reducing a common bias in coarse‐resolution ocean models. The ocean response to the deterministic and stochastic variants of the parameterization is qualitatively, albeit not quantitatively, similar, yet qualitative differences are found in various regions.
Asymmetry of Western U.S. River Basin Sensitivity to Seasonally Varying Climate Warming
Authors: Ban Zhaoxin , Lettenmaier Dennis P.
Published: February 2022

Future climate warming over the Western U.S. (WUS) is projected to be greater in summer than winter. Previous model‐based studies of large river basins in the WUS showed much different annual streamflow responses to warming in warm versus cool seasons. However, it remains unclear how the annual streamflow relative responses to seasonal warming (asymmetry) and drivers of the response asymmetry vary across the entire WUS at the catchment‐scale, and how the simulated results compare with observations. Here, we investigate the asymmetry of annual streamflow responses to warm versus cool season warming at the HUC‐8 level across the entire WUS using model simulations and observations. We also examine the asymmetries' relationship with land surface and hydroclimate characteristics, and the primary contributor to the response asymmetry for each HUC‐8 basin. The HUC‐8 level results reveal more complexity than do earlier analyses of much larger river basins. Over 25% of WUS area has annual streamflow increases in response to warming in at least one season (mostly cool season). Annual streamflow is most sensitive to warm season warming in cool, inland basins, especially the northern Columbia River basin and most of the Upper Colorado River Basin, and most sensitive to cool season warming in warm, coastal basins. This bi‐directional pattern is enhanced by vegetation coverage but weakened by long‐term snowpack decline. In coldest basins with short snow‐free seasons, net radiation changes dominate the streamflow response asymmetry. For basins with cold‐to‐intermediate temperatures, vapor pressure deficit changes dominate. For warmest basins, surface resistance changes dominate.
LPMLEn–A Frequency Domain Method to Estimate Vertical Streambed Fluxes and Sediment Thermal Properties in Semi‐Infinite and Bounded Domains
Authors: van Kampen Ricky , Schneidewind Uwe , Anibas Christian , Bertagnoli Andrea , Tonina Daniele , Vandersteen Gerd , Luce Charles , Krause Stefan , van Berkel Matthijs
Published: February 2022

This paper presents the LPMLEn, a new method to estimate vertical flux and thermal diffusivity from streambed temperature time series using the frequency domain. The main advantages of this new method are: (a) the use of multiple frequencies and multiple sensors for the parameter estimation; (b) noise/uncertainty handling in an optimal way; (c) the possibility to estimate the parameters with both semi‐infinite and bounded domain models; and (d) the compensation for temperature drifts in the data known as transients. The capabilities of the LPMLEn are demonstrated using both synthetic and field data, highlighting the advantages of the bounded domain model over the semi‐infinite domain model in the parameter estimation process.
NICU discharge preparation and transition planning: foreword
Authors: Padratzik Heather Cohen , Love Kristin
Published: February 2022

Parents whose babies are admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) need support. Whether their baby’s stay is brief or long, uncomplicated or complex, a NICU stay changes how they care for their infant and how they will parent once they are discharged. While we know a NICU stay is traumatic for most parents, the consequences of a family’s time spent in the NICU do not need to be negative ones. Supportive NICU teams can use the time a family is in the NICU to engage in a well-designed discharge preparation and transition planning program. These programs can have a lasting positive impact on both the infant’s health and the family’s wellbeing.
NICU discharge preparation and transition planning: introduction
Authors: Smith Vincent C.
Published: February 2022

The National Perinatal Association (NPA) coordinated a multidisciplinary work group to develop guidelines and recommendations for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) discharge preparation and thus the transition from NICU to home for infants admitted to the NICU and their families. In this section, we explore the concepts of NICU discharge readiness as well as transition planning and preparation. We describe the process that was used to develop the guidelines and recommendations as well as the timeline for the work. NPA hopes that the readers will find the Interdisciplinary Guidelines and Recommendations for NICU Discharge Preparation and Transition Planning to be beneficial, useful, and pertinent.
Whole-brain opto-fMRI map of mouse VTA dopaminergic activation reflects structural projections with small but significant deviations
Authors: Ioanas Horea-Ioan , Saab Bechara John , Rudin Markus
Published: February 2022

Ascending dopaminergic projections from neurons located in the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) are key to the etiology, dysfunction, and control of motivation, learning, and addiction. Due to the evolutionary conservation of this nucleus and the extensive use of mice as disease models, establishing an assay for VTA dopaminergic signaling in the mouse brain is crucial for the translational investigation of motivational control as well as of neuronal function phenotypes for diseases and interventions. In this article we use optogenetic stimulation directed at VTA dopaminergic neurons in combination with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a method widely used in human deep brain imaging. We present a comprehensive assay producing the first whole-brain opto-fMRI map of dopaminergic activation in the mouse, and show that VTA dopaminergic system function is consistent with its structural VTA projections, diverging only in a few key aspects. While the activation map predominantly highlights target areas according to their relative projection densities (e.g., strong activation of the nucleus accumbens and low activation of the hippocampus), it also includes areas for which a structural connection is not well established (such as the dorsomedial striatum). We further detail the variability of the assay with regard to multiple experimental parameters, including stimulation protocol and implant position, and provide evidence-based recommendations for assay reuse, publishing both reference results and a reference analysis workflow implementation.
Sirt5-mediated desuccinylation of OPTN protects retinal ganglion cells from autophagic flux blockade in diabetic retinopathy
Authors: Zhang Ye , Li Tingting , Cai Xuan , Long Da , Wang Xiangning , Liu Chang , Wu Qiang
Published: February 2022

Retinal neurodegeneration develops early in the course of diabetic retinopathy (DR), and our previous research showed that succinate accumulation results in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) dysfunction in the retinas of rats with DR. Succinate can enhance lysine succinylation, but the succinylation of DR is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the role of the succinylome in DR and identified the key factor in this process. TMT labeling and LC–MS/MS analysis were combined to quantify the differentially succinylated proteins between vitreous humor (VH) samples from DR and non-DR patients. A total of 74 sites in 35 proteins were differentially succinylated between DR and non-DR vitreous humor samples, among which succinylation of the K108 site of optineurin (OPTN K108su) in the defense response was enriched by GO analysis based on the biological process category. Then, using a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat model, R28 cells and primary rat RGCs (rRGCs), we demonstrated that OPTN underwent lysine succinylation in the retinas of rats with DR and that OPTN K108su mediated autophagic flux blockade under high-glucose (HG) conditions. Sirt5 can desuccinylate OPTN K108su, thus protecting RGCs function from high glucose-induced RGCs autophagic flux blockade in the diabetic retina. Overall, desuccinylation of OPTN is an essential adaptive mechanism for ameliorating autophagic flux blockade in RGCs under DR conditions, and targeting the Sirt5-desuccK108-OPTN axis may thus open an avenue for therapeutic intervention in RCGs dysfunction.
Mechanism of the insulator-to-metal transition and superconductivity in the spin liquid candidate NaYbSe2 under pressure
Authors: Xu Yuanji , Sheng Yutao , Yang Yi-feng
Published: February 2022

The quantum spin liquid candidate NaYbSe2 was recently reported to exhibit a Mott transition under pressure. Superconductivity was observed in the high-pressure metallic phase, raising the question concerning its relation with the low-pressure quantum spin liquid ground state. Here we combine the density functional theory and the dynamical mean-field theory to explore the underlying mechanism of the insulator-to-metal transition and superconductivity and establish an overall picture of its electronic phases under pressure. Our results suggest that NaYbSe2 is a charge-transfer insulator at ambient pressure. Upon increasing pressure, however, the system first enters a semi-metallic state with incoherent Kondo scattering against coexisting localized Yb-4f moments, and then turns into a heavy-fermion metal. In between, there may exist a delocalization quantum critical point responsible for the observed non-Fermi liquid region with linear-in-T resistivity. The insulator-to-metal transition is therefore a two-stage process. Superconductivity emerges in the heavy-fermion phase with well-nested Yb-4f Fermi surfaces, suggesting that spin fluctuations may play a role in the Cooper pairing. NaYbSe2 might therefore be the 3rd Yb-based heavy-fermion superconductor with a very “high” Tc than most heavy-fermion superconductors.
Identification and structure of an extracellular contractile injection system from the marine bacterium Algoriphagus machipongonensis
Authors: Xu Jingwei , Ericson Charles F. , Lien Yun-Wei , Rutaganira Florentine U. N. , Eisenstein Fabian , Feldmüller Miki , King Nicole , Pilhofer Martin
Published: February 2022

Contractile injection systems (CISs) are phage tail-like nanomachines, mediating bacterial cell–cell interactions as either type VI secretion systems (T6SSs) or extracellular CISs (eCISs). Bioinformatic studies uncovered a phylogenetic group of hundreds of putative CIS gene clusters that are highly diverse and widespread; however, only four systems have been characterized. Here we studied a putative CIS gene cluster in the marine bacterium Algoriphagus machipongonensis. Using an integrative approach, we show that the system is compatible with an eCIS mode of action. Our cryo-electron microscopy structure revealed several features that differ from those seen in other CISs: a ‘cap adaptor’ located at the distal end, a ‘plug’ exposed to the tube lumen, and a ‘cage’ formed by massive extensions of the baseplate. These elements are conserved in other CISs, and our genetic tools identified that they are required for assembly, cargo loading and function. Furthermore, our atomic model highlights specific evolutionary hotspots and will serve as a framework for understanding and re−engineering CISs.
Direct neutrino-mass measurement with sub-electronvolt sensitivity
Authors:   The KATRIN Collaboration, Aker M. , Beglarian A. , Behrens J. , Berlev A. , Besserer U. , Bieringer B. , Block F. , Bobien S. , Böttcher M. , Bornschein B. , Bornschein L. , Brunst T. , Caldwell T. S. , Carney R. M. D. , La Cascio L. , Chilingaryan S. , Choi W. , Debowski K. , Deffert M. , Descher M. , Díaz Barrero D. , Doe P. J. , Dragoun O. , Drexlin G. , Eitel K. , Ellinger E. , Engel R. , Enomoto S. , Felden A. , Formaggio J. A. , Fränkle F. M. , Franklin G. B. , Friedel F. , Fulst A. , Gauda K. , Gil W. , Glück F. , Grössle R. , Gumbsheimer R. , Gupta V. , Höhn T. , Hannen V. , Haußmann N. , Helbing K. , Hickford S. , Hiller R. , Hillesheimer D. , Hinz D. , Houdy T. , Huber A. , Jansen A. , Karl C. , Kellerer F. , Kellerer J. , Kleifges M. , Klein M. , Köhler C. , Köllenberger L. , Kopmann A. , Korzeczek M. , Kovalík A. , Krasch B. , Krause H. , Kunka N. , Lasserre T. , Le T. L. , Lebeda O. , Lehnert B. , Lokhov A. , Machatschek M. , Malcherek E. , Mark M. , Marsteller A. , Martin E. L. , Melzer C. , Menshikov A. , Mertens S. , Mostafa J. , Müller K. , Neumann H. , Niemes S. , Oelpmann P. , Parno D. S. , Poon A. W. P. , Poyato J. M. L. , Priester F. , Ramachandran S. , Robertson R. G. H. , Rodejohann W. , Röllig M. , Röttele C. , Rodenbeck C. , Ryšavý M. , Sack R. , Saenz A. , Schäfer P. , Schaller née Pollithy A. , Schimpf L. , Schlösser K. , Schlösser M. , Schlüter L. , Schneidewind S. , Schrank M. , Schulz B. , Schwemmer A. , Šefčík M. , Sibille V. , Siegmann D. , Slezák M. , Spanier F. , Steidl M. , Sturm M. , Sun M. , Tcherniakhovski D. , Telle H. H. , Thorne L. A. , Thümmler T. , Titov N. , Tkachev I. , Urban K. , Valerius K. , Vénos D. , Vizcaya Hernández A. P. , Weinheimer C. , Welte S. , Wendel J. , Wilkerson J. F. , Wolf J. , Wüstling S. , Wydra J. , Xu W. , Yen Y.-R. , Zadoroghny S. , Zeller G.
Published: February 2022

Since the discovery of neutrino oscillations, we know that neutrinos have non-zero mass. However, the absolute neutrino-mass scale remains unknown. Here we report the upper limits on effective electron anti-neutrino mass, mν, from the second physics run of the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment. In this experiment, mν is probed via a high-precision measurement of the tritium β-decay spectrum close to its endpoint. This method is independent of any cosmological model and does not rely on assumptions whether the neutrino is a Dirac or Majorana particle. By increasing the source activity and reducing the background with respect to the first physics campaign, we reached a sensitivity on mν of 0.7 eV c–2 at a 90% confidence level (CL). The best fit to the spectral data yields $${{\mbox{}}}{m}_{\nu }^{2}{{\mbox{}}}$$

m

ν

2

 = (0.26 ± 0.34) eV2 c–4, resulting in an upper limit of mν < 0.9 eV c–2 at 90% CL. By combining this result with the first neutrino-mass campaign, we find an upper limit of mν < 0.8 eV c–2 at 90% CL.
Mass Screening of SARS-CoV-2 Variants using Sanger Sequencing Strategy in Hiroshima, Japan
Authors: Ko Ko , Takahashi Kazuaki , Nagashima Shintaro , E Bunthen , Ouoba Serge , Hussain Md Razeen Ashraf , Akita Tomoyuki , Sugiyama Aya , Sakaguchi Takemasa , Tahara Hidetoshi , Ohge Hiroki , Ohdan Hideki , Kubo Tatsuhiko , Ishikawa Nobuhisa , Takafuta Toshiro , Fujii Yoshiki , Mimori Michi , Okada Fumie , Kishita Eisaku , Ariyoshi Kunie , Kuwabara Masao , Tanaka Junko
Published: February 2022

This study aimed to develop the feasible and effective universal screening strategy of the notable SARS-CoV-2 variants by Sanger Sequencing Strategy and then practically applied it for mass screening in Hiroshima, Japan. A total of 734 samples from COVID-19 confirmed cases in Hiroshima were screened for the notable SARS-CoV-2 variants (B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.617.2, B.1.617.1, C.37, B.1.1.529, etc.). The targeted spike region is amplified by nested RT-PCR using in-house designed primer set hCoV-Spike-A and standard amplification protocol. Additionally, randomly selected 96 samples were also amplified using primer sets hCoV-Spike-B and hCoV-Spike-C. The negative amplified samples were repeated for second attempt of amplification by volume-up protocol. Thereafter, the amplified products were assigned for Sanger sequencing using corresponding primers. The positive amplification rate of primer set hCoV-Spike-A, hCoV-Spike-B and hCoV-Spike-C were 87.3%, 83.3% and 93.8% respectively for standard protocol and increased to 99.6%, 95.8% and 96.9% after second attempt by volume-up protocol. The readiness of genome sequences was 96.9%, 100% and 100% respectively. Among 48 mutant isolates, 26 were B.1.1.7 (Alpha), 7 were E484K single mutation and the rest were other types of mutation. Moreover, 5 cluster cases with single mutation at N501S were firstly reported in Hiroshima. This study indicates the reliability and effectiveness of Sanger sequencing to screen large number of samples for the notable SARS-CoV-2 variants. Compared to the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), our method introduces the feasible, universally applicable, and practically useful tool for identification of the emerging variants with less expensive and time consuming especially in those countries where the NGS is not practically available. Our method allows not only to identify the pre-existing variants but also to examine other rare type of mutation or newly emerged variants and is crucial for prevention and control of pandemic.
Stain-free detection of embryo polarization using deep learning
Authors: Shen Cheng , Lamba Adiyant , Zhu Meng , Zhang Ray , Zernicka-Goetz Magdalena , Yang Changhuei
Published: February 2022

Polarization of the mammalian embryo at the right developmental time is critical for its development to term and would be valuable in assessing the potential of human embryos. However, tracking polarization requires invasive fluorescence staining, impermissible in the in vitro fertilization clinic. Here, we report the use of artificial intelligence to detect polarization from unstained time-lapse movies of mouse embryos. We assembled a dataset of bright-field movie frames from 8-cell-stage embryos, side-by-side with corresponding images of fluorescent markers of cell polarization. We then used an ensemble learning model to detect whether any bright-field frame showed an embryo before or after onset of polarization. Our resulting model has an accuracy of 85% for detecting polarization, significantly outperforming human volunteers trained on the same data (61% accuracy). We discovered that our self-learning model focuses upon the angle between cells as one known cue for compaction, which precedes polarization, but it outperforms the use of this cue alone. By compressing three-dimensional time-lapsed image data into two-dimensions, we are able to reduce data to an easily manageable size for deep learning processing. In conclusion, we describe a method for detecting a key developmental feature of embryo development that avoids clinically impermissible fluorescence staining.
A simple yet efficient approach for electrokinetic mixing of viscoelastic fluids in a straight microchannel
Authors: Sasmal C.
Published: February 2022

Many complex fluids such as emulsions, suspensions, biofluids, etc., are routinely encountered in many micro and nanoscale systems. These fluids exhibit non-Newtonian viscoelastic behaviour instead of showing simple Newtonian one. It is often needed to mix such viscoelastic fluids in small-scale micro-systems for further processing and analysis which is often achieved by the application of an external electric field and/or using the electroosmotic flow phenomena. This study proposes a very simple yet efficient  strategy to mix such viscoelastic fluids based on extensive numerical simulations. Our proposed setup consists of a straight microchannel with small patches of constant wall zeta potential, which are present on both the top and bottom walls of the microchannel. This heterogeneous zeta potential on the microchannel wall generates local electro-elastic instability and electro-elastic turbulence once the Weissenberg number exceeds a critical value. These instabilities and turbulence, driven by the interaction between the elastic stresses and the streamline curvature present in the system, ultimately lead to a chaotic and unstable flow field, thereby facilitating the mixing of such viscoelastic fluids. In particular, based on our proposed approach, we show how one can use the rheological properties of fluids and associated fluid-mechanical phenomena for their efficient mixing even in a straight microchannel.
Humans represent the precision and utility of information acquired across fixations
Authors: Stewart Emma E. M. , Ludwig Casimir J. H. , Schütz Alexander C.
Published: February 2022

Our environment contains an abundance of objects which humans interact with daily, gathering visual information using sequences of eye-movements to choose which object is best-suited for a particular task. This process is not trivial, and requires a complex strategy where task affordance defines the search strategy, and the estimated precision of the visual information gathered from each object may be used to track perceptual confidence for object selection. This study addresses the fundamental problem of how such visual information is metacognitively represented and used for subsequent behaviour, and reveals a complex interplay between task affordance, visual information gathering, and metacogntive decision making. People fixate higher-utility objects, and most importantly retain metaknowledge abouthow muchinformation they have gathered about these objects, which is used to guide perceptual report choices. These findings suggest that such metacognitive knowledge is important in situations where decisions are based on information acquired in a temporal sequence.