bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association of proangiogenic and profibrotic serum markers with lung function and quality of life in sarcoidosis
Authors: Biener L. , Kruse J. , Tuleta I. , Pizarro C. , Kreuter M. , Birring S. S. , Nickenig G. , Skowasch D.
Published: February 2021

Background

Sarcoidosis is a systemic inflammatory granulomatous disease, frequently affecting the lung. If left untreated, it may end in lung fibrosis. Proangiogenic and profibrotic vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-2 and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-AB are a known therapeutical target in pulmonary fibrosing diseases, e.g. IPF, but there is no targeted therapy option for pulmonary fibrosis in sarcoidosis.

Objectives

The aim of our study was to determine the association of these markers’ serum levels on lung function and the patients’ quality of life in a long-term follow-up of sarcoidosis patients, to provide further information for finding targeted therapy options for pulmonary sarcoidosis.

Methods

54 patients with sarcoidosis underwent blood sampling, pulmonary function testing and answered the King’s Brief Interstitial Lung Disease (K-BILD) questionnaire at baseline and at three-years follow-up. Serum levels of profibrotic and angiogenic markers were assessed at baseline by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

Between 2015 and 2018, 54 patients with biopsy proven sarcoidosis were enrolled. Throughout the observation period, there was a significant decrease in the diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) [%] (-6.5504 ± 13,39, p = 0.001) and forced expiratory volume in one second predicted (FEV1) [%] (-6.07 ± 12.09, p = 0.001). Patients with greater impairment of forced vital capacity (FVC) did have significantly higher serum levels of VEGF (p = 0.03) and PDGF-AB (p<0.001). The K-BILD questionnaire did not change significantly during follow-up. However, patients with worsening K-BILD scores did have significantly higher serum-levels of PDGF-AB (2.67 pg/ml ± 0.93 vs. 1.88 pg/ml ± 0.60, p = 0.004) at baseline, compared to those with unchanged or increasing K-BILD scores.

Conclusions

Among patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, baseline serum levels of VEGF and PDGF-AB were associated with pulmonary function impairment. Furthermore, PDGF-AB was associated with worsening K-BILD scores. No such association was observed for FGF-2 and TGF-ß1. VEGF and PDGF-AB may be possible prognostic and therapeutic targets in sarcoidosis as a fibrosing ILD beyond IPF.
Dietary saturated fatty acid palmitate promotes cartilage lesions and activates the unfolded protein response pathway in mouse knee joints
Authors: Tan Li , Harper Lindsey R. , Armstrong Alexandra , Carlson Cathy S. , Yammani Raghunatha R.
Published: February 2021

Increased intake of dietary saturated fatty acids has been linked to obesity and the development of Osteoarthritis (OA). However, the mechanism by which these fats promote cartilage degradation and the development of OA is not clearly understood. Here, we report the effects of consumption of common dietary saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, palmitate and oleate, respectively, on body weight, metabolic factors, and knee articular cartilage in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity. Mice fed on a diet rich in saturated or unsaturated fatty acid gained an equal amount of weight; however, mice fed a palmitate diet, but not a control or oleate diet, exhibited more cartilage lesions and increased expression of 1) unfolded protein response (UPR)/endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress markers including BIP, P-IRE1α, XBP1, ATF4, and CHOP; 2) apoptosis markers CC3 and C-PARP; and 3) negative cell survival regulators Nupr1 and TRB3, in knee articular cartilage. Palmitate-induced apoptosis was confirmed by TUNEL staining. Likewise, dietary palmitate was also increased the circulatory levels of classic proinflammatory cytokines, including IL-6 and TNF-α. Taken together, our results demonstrate that increased weight gain is not sufficient for the development of obesity-linked OA and suggest that dietary palmitate promotes UPR/ER stress and cartilage lesions in mouse knee joints. This study validates our previous in vitro findings and suggests that ER stress could be the critical metabolic factor contributing to the development of diet/obesity induced OA.
Sweet chestnut standardized fractions from sustainable circular process and green tea extract: In vitro inhibitory activity against phytopathogenic fungi for innovative applications in green agriculture
Authors: Romani Annalisa , Simone Gabriele , Campo Margherita , Moncini Lorenzo , Bernini Roberta
Published: February 2021

In the present study, the antifungal activities of two commercial tannins-rich dry fractions towards different filamentous fungi of agronomical and food interest were evaluated. In particular, a standardized fraction from sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) wood by-products and a commercial green tea (Camellia sinensis L.) leaf extract were tested at different concentrations (0.1–5.0% and 0.2% w/v respectively). The Sweet Chestnut Wood fraction was produced in an industrial plant through an environmentally and economically sustainable process, involving hot-water extraction and a sequence of membrane filtration steps with different molecular cut-offs for fractionation and concentration of the active principles. The Sweet Chestnut Wood and Green Tea Leaf extracts were characterised via HPLC/DAD/MS quali-quantitative analysis. The first extract showed a polyphenolic content of 20.5% w/w, 100% hydrolysable tannins; the second one showed a polyphenolic content of 87.5% w/w, of which 96.2% epigallocatechin gallate and 3.8% epicatechin gallate. The antifungal activity of the Sweet Chestnut fraction in aqueous solutions was evaluated towards different filamentous fungi, in particular telluric phytopathogens (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici; Fusarium solani; Rhizoctonia solani; Sclerotium rolfsii) and post harvest pathogens (Botrytis cinerea, that can also attack field plants; Penicillium digitatum; Penicillium italicum), and compared to the activity of Green Tea Leaf extract solutions. The experimental results evidenced, for almost all tested fungi, inhibition of the mycelial growth rate in presence of tannins. The lowest inhibitions were observed for B. cinerea (7.5%, to 28.9%) and P. italicum (53.8% in 5.0% w/v Sweet Chestnut extract substrate). A proportional inhibitory effect to tannin concentration was observed for F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici and F. solani (from 33.7% to 56.6%), R. solani (from 29.7% to 68.8%) and P. digitatum (64.7% to 87.0%). The highest effect resulted for S. rolfsii, (5.0% to 100%).
SARS-CoV-2 viral shedding characteristics and potential evidence for the priority for faecal specimen testing in diagnosis
Authors: Yuan Chen , Wang Hongling , Li Kefeng , Tang An , Dai Yaxin , Wu Bing , Zhang Hui , Chen Jiabei , Liu Jienan , Wu Wenjie , Gu Songye , Wang Hai , Xu Haodi , Wu Mingyu , Yu Menglu , Wang Yuchao , Yu Xinwei , He Jialu , Liu Shelan , Zhang Yongli , Tong Zhendong , Yan Jianbo
Published: February 2021

This study aimed to identify the specimen type that has high positivity and its proper sampling time for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing to promote diagnostic efficiency. All SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis in Zhoushan City were followed up for viral shedding in respiratory tract specimens and faecal samples. Positivity was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively by proper statistical approaches with strong testing power. Viral shedding in respiratory tract and faecal specimens was prolonged to 45 and 40 days after the last exposure, respectively. The overall positive rate in respiratory tract specimens was low and relatively unstable, being higher in the early-to-mid stage than in the mid-to-late stage of the disease course. Compared with respiratory tract specimens, faecal samples had a higher viral load, higher overall positive rate, and more stable positivity in different disease courses and varied symptomatic status. Faecal specimens have the potential ability to surpass respiratory tract specimens in virus detection. Testing of faecal specimens in diagnosis, especially for identifying asymptomatic carriers, is recommended. Simultaneously, testing respiratory tract specimens at the early-to-mid stage is better than testing at the mid-to-late stage of the disease course. A relatively small sample size was noted, and statistical approaches were used to address it. Information was missing for both specimen types at different stages of the disease course due to censored data. Our research extends the observed viral shedding in both specimen types and highlights the importance of faecal specimen testing in SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis. Healthcare workers, patients, and the general public may all benefit from our study findings. Disposal of sewage from hospitals and residential areas should be performed cautiously because the virus sheds in faeces and can last for a long time.
Implementing a new clinical pathway in a non-receptive context: Mixed methods evaluation of a new fracture pathway for older people in a hospital Trust in the West Midlands, UK
Authors: Combes Gill , Owen Gareth , Damery Sarah , Flanagan Sarah , Brown Celia , Currie Graeme
Published: February 2021

Objectives

This paper reports a mixed methods evaluation of a new pathway to improve clinical outcomes for older people with fractures treated at a hospital Trust in the West Midlands, UK. The paper focuses specifically on the context surrounding the translation of the new pathway into practice and the way that external and internal factors influenced its adaptation and implementation.

Methods

Quantitative analysis used a controlled Interrupted Time Series (ITS) to estimate the effect of the new pathway on patient complication rate, median length of hospital stay and 30-day mortality by comparing the pre- and post-intervention periods. ITS data were extracted from the UK Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) database and a patient-level control group identified using propensity score matching. Parallel qualitative analysis aimed to examine the context surrounding the new pathway and how external and internal factors might influence its adaption and implementation into clinical practice. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews (n = 16) undertaken with staff and clinical stakeholders within the Trust and were analysed using the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation) model of behaviour.

Results

No statistically significant effects were found for any of the patient outcomes studied in the controlled ITS analysis. Qualitative data suggest that the lack of effectiveness of the new initiative can be explained with reference to the capability, opportunity and motivation of internal Trust stakeholders to engage with the pathway, which created a non-receptive environment within the Trust.

Conclusions

Successfully implementing new care pathways in environments that may be non-receptive to change requires efforts to be put into winning ‘hearts and minds’ within the organisation to ensure engagement from key stakeholders during intervention development. Evidence must be provided internally of the way that a given intervention will alleviate the problematic issues being experienced within the organisation, and external dissemination of results should be avoided until there is evidence of a positive effect within the organisation where the new care pathway is first implemented.
Low contraceptive utilization among young married women is associated with perceived social norms and belief in contraceptive myths in rural Ethiopia
Authors: Dingeta Tariku , Oljira Lemessa , Worku Alemayehu , Berhane Yemane
Published: February 2021

Introduction

Despite the increasingly wider availability of contraceptives and the high levels of unmet need for family planning in rural Ethiopia, contraceptive utilization among young married women is low. Studies on associated factors in Ethiopia so far have been focused on individual factors with little emphasis on socio-cultural factors. This study aimed to assess the association between contraceptive utilization and socio-cultural factors among young married women in Eastern Ethiopia.

Methods

A community-based survey was conducted among young married women aged 14–24 years. A total of 3039 women were interviewed by trained data collectors using a structured questionnaire. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) was used to identify factors associated with contraceptive utilization using multivariable logistic regression analysis.

Results

The current contraceptive prevalence rate was 14.1% (95% CI: 12.8–15.5). Perceived social approval (AOR = 1.90; 95% CI = 1.60–2.30) and perception of friends’ contraceptive practice (AOR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.20–1.54) were significantly and positively associated with contraceptive utilization. On the contrary, increased score of belief in contraceptive myths was significantly and negatively associated with contraceptive use (AOR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.49–0.73). Moreover, recent exposure to family planning information (AOR = 1.67; 95% CI: 1.22–2.28), ever-mother (AOR = 9.68; 95% CI: 4.47–20.90), and secondary and above education level (AOR = 1.90; 95% CI: 1.38–2.70) were significantly associated with higher odds of contraceptive utilization.

Conclusion

Only about one-in-seven young married women were using contraceptive methods. Socio-cultural factors significantly influence young married women’s contraceptive utilization. Interventions to address social norms and pervasive myths and misconceptions could increase the use of contraceptive methods in young married women.
Genetic variation in surfactant protein-A2 alters responses to ozone
Authors: Pederson William P. , Cyphert-Daly Jaime M. , Tighe Robert M. , Que Loretta G. , Ledford Julie G.
Published: February 2021

Background

Increased exposure to Ozone (O3) is associated with adverse health effects in individuals afflicted with respiratory diseases. Surfactant protein-A (SP-A), encoded bySP-A1andSP-A2, is the largest protein component in pulmonary surfactant and is functionally impaired by O3-oxidation.

Objective

We used humanized SP-A2 transgenic mice with allelic variation corresponding to a glutamine (Q) to lysine (K) amino acid substitution at position 223 in the lectin domain to determine the impact of this genetic variation in regards to O3exposure.

Methods

Mice were exposed to 2ppm O3or Filtered Air (FA) for 3 hours and 24 hrs post-challenge pulmonary function tests and other parameters associated with inflammation were assessed in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and lung tissue. Additionally, mouse tracheal epithelial cells were cultured and TEER measurements recorded for each genotype to determine baseline epithelial integrity.

Results

Compared to FA, O3exposure led to significantly increased sensitivity to methacholine challenge in all groups of mice. SP-A2 223Q variant mice were significantly protected from O3-induced AHR compared to SP-A-/-and SP-A2 223K mice. Neutrophilia was observed in all genotypes of mice post O3-exposure, however, SP-A2 223Q mice had a significantly lower percentage of neutrophils compared to SP-A-/-mice. Albumin levels in BAL were unchanged in O3-exposed SP-A2 223Q mice compared to their FA controls, while levels were significantly increased in all other genotypes of O3-exposed mice. SP-A 223Q MTECS has significant higher TEER values than all other genotypes, and WT MTECS has significantly higher TEER than the SP-A KO and SP-A 223K MTECS.

Significance

Taken together, our study suggests that expression of a glutamine (Q) as position 223 in SP-A2, as opposed to expression of lysine (K), is more protective in acute exposures to ozone and results in attenuated O3-induced AHR, neutrophilia, and vascular permeability.
Preliminary validity and reliability evidence of the Brief Antisocial Behavior Scale (B-ABS) in young adults from four countries
Authors: Mezquita Laura , Bravo Adrian J. , Pilatti Angelina , Ortet Generós , Ibáñez Manuel I. ,   Cross-Cultural Addictions Study Team
Published: February 2021

The present research built on the Self-Reported Delinquency interview and the Antisocial Behavior Scale to develop an updated brief instrument to measure antisocial behavior. College students (n = 3188, 67.75% women) from the USA, Argentina, the Netherlands and Spain completed an online survey. Analyses that combined approaches from the Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory were conducted to select the items for the brief version. Findings suggested that a 13-item Brief Antisocial Behavior Scale (B-ABS) fulfilled the high-quality criteria: salient factor loadings, adequate discrimination, variability in response endorsement, adequate fit based on infit/outfit values, nondifferent item functioning across the four participating countries, and Cronbach’s alpha and ordinal omega coefficients higher than .70. The B-ABS scores generally significantly correlated with personality scores, mental health and marijuana outcomes, showing criterion-related validity evidence. Our overall findings suggest that B-ABS adequately assesses antisocial behavior in young adults from different countries/cultures.
A tudásérték meghatározása minőségügyi szempontból, hálózatelemzési módszerekkel (The knowledge value in terms of quality with network analysis methods)
Authors: Csiszér Tamás , Cziráki József
Published: February 2021

A minőségügy egyik kulcsfeladata, hogy azonosítsa az értékteremtés szempontjából kritikus tényezőket, meghatározza ezek értékét, valamint intézkedjen negatív hatásuk megelőzése és csökkentése érdekében. Az értékteremtés sok esetben folyamatokon keresztül történik, amelyek tevékenységekből, elvégzendő feladatokból állnak. Ezekhez megfelelő munkatársak kellenek, akiknek az egyik legfontosabb jellemzője az általuk birtokolt tudás. Mindezek alapján a feladat-tudás-erőforrás kapcsolatrendszer ismerete és kezelése minőségügyi feladat is. A komplex rendszerek elemzésével foglalkozó hálózatkutatás eszközt biztosíthat ehhez, ezért indokolt a minőségügyi területen történő alkalmazhatóságának vizsgálata. Az alkalmazási lehetőségek rendszerezése érdekében a szerzők kategorizálták a minőségügyi hálózatokat az élek (kapcsolatok) és a csúcsok (hálózati pontok) típusai alapján. Ezt követően definiálták a multimodális (több különböző csúcstípusból álló) tudáshálózatot, amely a feladatokból, az erőforrásokból, a tudáselemekből és a közöttük lévő kapcsolatokból épül fel. A hálózat segítségével kategóriákba sorolták a tudáselemeket, valamint a fokszámok alapján meghatározták értéküket. A multimodális hálózatból képzett tudáselem-hálózatban megadták az összefüggő csoportok jelentését, majd megfogalmaztak egy összefüggést a tudáselem-elvesztés kockázatának meghatározására. _______ The aims of quality management are to identify those factors that have significant influence on value production, qualify or quantify them, and make preventive and corrective actions in order to reduce their negative effects. The core elements of value production are processes and tasks, along with workforce having the necessary knowledge to work. For that reason the task-resource-knowledge structure is pertinent to quality management. Network science provides methods to analyze complex systems; therefore it seems reasonable to study the use of tools of network analysis in association with quality management issues. First of all the authors categorized quality networks according to the types of nodes (vertices) and links (edges or arcs). Focusing on knowledge management, they defined the multimodal knowledge network, consisting of tasks, resources, knowledge items and their interconnections. Based on their degree, network nodes can be categorized and their value can be quantified. Derived from the multimodal network knowledge-item network is to be created, where the meaning of cohesive subgroups is defined. Eventually they proposed a formula for determining the risk of knowledge loss.
A hazai kis - és középvállalatok teljesítményét befolyásoló stratégiai orientációk (The effect of strategic orientations on the performance of Hungarian SMEs)
Authors: Nagy Gábor , Berács József
Published: February 2021

A szerzők 300 magyar kis- és középvállalatot (KKV) tartalmazó mintán vizsgálják a különböző stratégiai orientációk teljesítményre gyakorolt hatását. Ismeretes, hogy a gazdasági környezet változása erősítheti (stimulálhatja), illetve korlátozhatja e kapcsolat szorosságát. Az eredmények alapján elmondható, hogy a modellben alkalmazott stratégiai orientációk közül elsősorban a vállalkozói orientáció és mérsékelt módon az ügyfélkapcsolati orientáció hat pozitívan a KKV-k teljesítményére. Megerősítést nyert az a sejtés, hogy a piaci és az innovációra irányuló orientáció akkor értékelődik fel, ha a környezetben turbulens (gyakran előre jelezhetetlen) erők hatnak. / === / The authors examine the effect of different strategic orientations on business performance on a sample of 300 small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in Hungary. It is widely known that the competitive environment might stimulate or hinder the relationship between strategic orientations and business performance. The results show that out of six strategic orientations the entrepreneurial orientation has the strongest effect on SME performance. Customer relationship orientation is also responsible for the performance development of SMEs, although to a lesser extent. Furthermore, it has been reinforced that market and innovation orientation takes its importance if there are turbulent forces in the environment.
Az exportteljesítmények és a hátterükben álló vállalati jellemzők elemzése (Export performance clusters of the Hungarian enterprises)
Authors: Kazainé Ónodi Annamária
Published: February 2021

A tanulmány célja a Magyarországon működő exportáló vállalatok jellemzőinek feltárása volt a 2009-es vállalati versenyképességi felmérés alapján. Több tanulmány vizsgálta a vállalatok exportteljesítményét vállalati méret és tulajdonosi szerkezet szerinti bontásban, az elemzésben a szerző viszont ettől eltérő szemléletmódot alkalmazott. A vállalatok exportteljesítménye áll (exportértékesítés volumene, aránya, exportárbevétel változása, jövedelmezőség), a vállalati csoportképzés, klaszterelemzés középpontjában. Három jól elkülöníthető klasztert sikerült azonosítani: a jelentős exporthányaddal és folyamatos növekedéssel jellemezhető sikeres exportáló vállalatok csoportját, a stagnálással, s gyakran csökkenő exportértékesítéssel jellemezhető vállalatcsoportot, s végül a harmadik klasztert azok a jelenleg még alacsony export-ár bevétellel és alacsony exportaránnyal jellemezhető vállalatok képezték, melyekre a növekedés és a kiugróan magas jövedelmezőség volt a jellemző. Az elemzés egyediségét az adja, hogy a vállalati versenyképességi felmérés adatbázisa lehetővé tette a különböző exportteljesítmények hátterében álló működési jellemzők vizsgálatát, amelynek eredményeit a cikk bemutatja. Fő következtetésként megállapítható, hogy a sikeres exportáló vállalatok csoportja mindegyik jellemző szerint jobb működési jellemzőkkel rendelkezik a másik két csoporthoz viszonyítva. / === / The purpose of the paper is to reveal the main characteristics of the Hungarian export oriented firms. It is based on the Hungarian Competitiveness Research Survey 2009. 85% of enterprises were small or medium size in the sample. The aim of the analysis was to identify main factors and tendencies of the overall export performance. Several papers discussed the export activities of firms according to their size and ownership structure in Hungary. A different method was used here. The overall export performance (measured by volume, change, and share of export revenues, and firm profitability ratios) was put in the centre of cluster analysis. Three different clusters were identified. Firms in the firstcluster had significant export performance and growth rate. The second cluster was the group of stagnating firms and the third one contained those whose export performance was low but signaled growth with excellent profitability ratios. The uniqueness of the paper derived from the Competitiveness Research Survey because it provided an opportunity to analyse the connection between export performance and other management and operational characteristics of enterprises. The paper may induce futher research in exploring main enterprise level factors of export performance of the Hungarian firms.
A marketing-erőforrások hatása a vállalati versenyképességre (The impact of marketing resources to corporate competitiveness)
Authors: Kenesei Zsófia , Gyulavári Tamás
Published: February 2021

A tanulmány a marketing-erőforrások és a vállalatok versenyképessége közötti összefüggéseket elemzi és hasonlítja össze az öt évvel korábbi felmérés eredményeivel. A háromszáz hazai vállalatra kiterjedő kutatás során a szerzők azt állapították meg, hogy a vizsgált marketing-erőforrások mindegyike hatással van a vállalati teljesítményre. Ez annyiban jelent változást az öt évvel korábbi eredményekhez képest, hogy akkor a marketingképességek szerepe még nem volt egyértelmű. Az elemzés során kimutatták, hogy a vállalatok által birtokolt marketing-erőforrások hasonló struktúrát mutatnak, mint korábban. Ezek közül kiemelkedik a marketingfunkcióhoz leginkább köthető piacszervezési dimenzió, amely a legszorosabb összefüggést mutatja a versenyképességgel. A vizsgált vállalatok egy kis csoportjának (12%) sikerült a versenyképes termékkínálat és árak fenntartása mellett e képesség kifejlesztésében és birtoklásában előre lépniük. Körükben a sikeres vállalatok aránya kiemelkedő. --------- The study aimed to analyse the association between marketing resources and corporate competitiveness and it compared the results to the ones of a similar research conducted five years before. Based on the survey of 300 domestic organisations the authors found that all the marketing resources investigated have a significant effect on marketing performance. These results differ from the previous ones only in terms of marketing capabilities, as their role was ambiguous at that time. They revealed the same structure of marketing resources owned by the companies as last time. Among them the most marketing related resource-dimension called market management excels regarding the strength of the association with competitiveness. A small group of the companies investigated (12%) managed to advance in development and possession of this dimension of marketing resources whilst maintaining competitive product supply and price. The proportion of successful companies among them is highly significant
E.L.S.A: E. coli Learning Suboptimal Acclimatization
Authors: Ganju Anish , Kulkarni Radha , Powar Manali , Sreepadmanabh M , Kulkarni Rucha , James Shinto , Khakre Yashna , Adakkattil Ramesh , Shetty Siddhant , Mozumdar Kallol , Harlapur Pradyumna , Raich Shreeya , Mondhe Divya , Dash Shubhankar , Chopra Saloni , Bharadwaj Prajwal , Bhardwaj Kritjgnan , Chawla Prerita , Patel Tushar , Khan Talha
Published: February 2021

Low intrinsic stability has marred the production of psychrophilic proteins in commonly used mesophilic systems. This may lead to a lopsided bias towards the expression of the few psychrophilic proteins which can manage a stable structure at those temperatures. Of the two possible approaches to help counterpoise the expression in favour of most psychrophilic proteins, the approach we have taken is to develop a new psychrophilic host. Rather than characterizing novel strains, we plan on converting a highly characterized system in synthetic biology, E.coli, by introducing genes that confer cold-tolerance to it thereby reducing dependency on regular mesophilic hosts and possibly making it the model system for cold temperature-based systems.
COVID-19 and Caution for Historians: Views from a Place in West Africa
Authors: Konadu Kwasi
Published: February 2021

Using the West African nation of Ghana as an angle to size up the moving target of COVID-19, I want to suggest some dangers in how we approach the pandemic in the lives of West Africans and in the broader African world. Covid-19 is both global and local, and so our perspectives must be attentive to global patterns and local consequences and responses. In tandem, these form the base ingredients for any future history of Covid-19 in African societies as well as around the global, for Africans are amongst the most mobile, most globalizing of all peoples.
Análise Multicritério da Suscetibilidade à Erosão na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio da Batateira, CE
Authors: Agra Rafaela Maria Rodrigues Tavares , Andrade Claudia Daza
Published: February 2021

A bacia hidrográfica do rio da Batateira, localizada no sul cearense, está passando por um processo de erosão acelerado, devido ao uso inadequado do solo na área. Sendo assim, este trabalho objetivou o mapeamento da suscetibilidade à erosão na Bacia da Batateira, visando nortear o uso das terras e auxiliar na tomada de decisão quanto a identificação das áreas essenciais para a preservação do meio ambiente e das medidas de conservação. Foram usadas bases cartográficas da região para obtenção de camadas de informações espaciais (classes de solos, declividade, elevação, geologia, geomorfologia e uso/cobertura do solo) que foram cruzadas em ambiente SIG por meio de análise multicritério, para definir a vulnerabilidade erosiva da bacia. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que mais de 56% da área em estudo apresenta forte suscetibilidade à erosão, marcada pela presença de vegetação florestal com áreas agrícolas, pastagem natural (caatinga), além de agropecuária, declividades acima de 20%.
Carta de Potencial de Erosão Acelerada como Ferramenta para o Ordenamento Territorial
Authors: Galiano Valdir Aparecido , Lorandi Reinaldo , Santos Franciane Mendonça dos , Lollo José Augusto de
Published: February 2021

As atividades antrópicas em conjunto com a falta de planejamento do uso e conservação, podem ocasionar processos de degradação ambiental, como processos erosivos, assoreamento de corpos hídricos, inundações, entre outros, comprometendo a qualidade do meio ambiente, especialmente dos recursos hídricos. O trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar melhores alternativas de intervenção em relação aos processos de erosão acelerada na bacia hidrográfica do Ribeirão das Pedras (São Paulo, Brasil), integrando informações geotécnicas e de outras áreas de conhecimento. A bacia estende-se por 111,47km2, tendo a maior parte de sua área no município de Santa Cruz das Palmeiras e parcelas menores nos municípios de Tambaú, Pirassununga e Porto Ferreira. A metodologia utilizada se baseou em Pejon (1992) e Pejon e Zuquette (2001) para elaborar uma Carta de Escoamento Superficial Potencial e a determinação de índice de erodibilidade dos materiais inconsolidados, associado a outras características geotécnicas, segundo Pejon e Zuquette (1993). Os resultados mostram forte influência dos materiais inconsolidados e dos usos da terra no potencial erosivo, e indicam que tais feitos podem ser amenizados com ações do poder público local e estadual, com políticas adequadas de uso e ocupação.
Avaliação da Incerteza de Dados Batimétricos Coletados por meio de Plataformas Autônomas não Tripuladas
Authors: Ferreira Italo Oliveira , Andrade Laura Coelho de , Souza Larissa Messias de , Silva Arthur Amaral , Santos Felipe Catão Mesquita
Published: February 2021

A hidrografia consiste em uma ciência correlacionada a geografia física, que estuda todos os tipos e variações de corpos aquáticos. Para uma descrição coerente do fundo submerso, comumente utilizam-se embarcações tripuladas equipadas com sistemas de sondagem para a realização de um levantamento hidrográfico. Todavia, a dificuldade de acesso às áreas remotas, ou até mesmo a insegurança existente pelo fato de a localidade oferecer risco aos tripulantes fez com que o uso de veículos autônomos não tripulados se tornasse cada vez mais comum. Nessa conjuntura, sabe-se que os levantamentos hidrográficos conduzidos por essas plataformas, assim como qualquer outro tipo de levantamento, conterão incertezas que irão afetar diretamente os dados batimétricos. Diante disso, este artigo objetiva apresentar uma metodologia para avaliação teórica da Incerteza Propagada Total (IPT) de sistema de sondagem batimétrica embarcados em ASV's (Autonomous Surface Vessel), bem como validar o modelo teórico por meio da confrontação dos resultados obtidos com as incertezas amostrais adquiridas em um levantamento batimétrico realizado na Laguna da Jansen em São Luís-MA. Os resultados evidenciaram que o modelo de incertezas teórico é coerente com as incertezas amostrais obtidas.
Dakwah Gus Miftah dalam Bingkai Media Daring
Authors: Pujiantara Putra
Published: February 2021

This article explores the mass media's framing of the preaching of Miftah Maulana Habiburrahman or better known as Gus Miftah who is considered different by the public because he preaches in a club and a nightclub. This has attracted the attention of several parties such as the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) and some politicians. The focus of this research is to uncover and compare Gus Miftah's coverage by Detik.com and JPNN.com in the framework of Robert N. Entman's framing analysis and qualitative approaches. The results of this study indicate that the two media are framing different news. Detik.com looks more neutral by presenting Gus Miftah's missionary journey and some pro and contra responses. Meanwhile, JPNN.com featured many parties who disagreed with Gus Miftah's preaching that was carried out in nightclubs.Tulisan ini meneroka pembingkaian media massa atas dakwah Miftah Maulana Habiburrahman atau yang lebih dikenal dengan sapaan Gus Miftah yang dianggap berbeda oleh khalayak karena berdakwah di sebuah klub dan tempat hiburan malam. Hal ini mengundang perhatian beberapa pihak seperti Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) dan beberapa kalangan politisi. Fokus penelitian ini menyingkap dan membandingkan pemberitaan Gus Miftah yang dilakukan oleh Detik.com  dan JPNN.com  dalam kerangka analisis framing Robert N. Entman dan pendekatan kualitatif. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kedua media tersebut melakukan pembingkaian berita yang berbeda. Detik.com  terlihat lebih netral dengan menampilkan perjalanan dakwah Gus Miftah dan beberapa tanggapan yang pro dan yang kontra. Sementara itu, JPNN.com  banyak menampilkan pihak-pihak yang tidak setuju dengan dakwah gaya Gus Miftah yang dilakukan di tempat hiburan malam.
Job Discipline, Competency, Environmental Instability, and Work Effectiveness in Gorontalo Province on Employee Quality in Tourism Industry
Authors: RAHMAN Yurni , ISHAK Irmawati D. , HARIS Ikhfan , ALDI B. Elnath , YUNIAWATI Ayi Srie
Published: February 2021

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of work discipline, competency, environmental instability, and work effectiveness on employee Quality in the tourism industry in Gorontalo Province. The number of samples was 283. Data were collected using the nonprobability sampling and accidental sampling and were analyzed using the quantitative descriptive analysis. Based on the SPSS analysis, work discipline had a significant influence on employee Quality in the tourism industry in Gorontalo Province. The competency had a significant influence on employee Quality in the tourism industry in Gorontalo Province. The environmental instability had a significant influence on employee Quality in the tourism industry in Gorontalo Province. The work effectiveness had a significant influence on employee Quality in the tourism industry in Gorontalo Province. The work discipline, competency, environmental instability, and work effectiveness variables simultaneously had a significant influence on employee Quality in the tourism industry in Gorontalo Province
Risk Management in the System of Tourist Business Control
Authors: TSAPOVA Olga Alexandrovna , KADOCHNIKOVA Valeriia Petrovna , KENDYUKH Yevgeniy Ivanovich , GORKOVENKO Lyudmila Alexandrovna , SHARIPOV Ruslan Maratovich , SAULIUS Nefas
Published: February 2021

Any business is at risk, however, tourism business is the most risky, because it differs in latitude, cause of occurrence and other indicators, and all this accumulates into possible negative results which come after they occur. 

Risk management is a planned process in which organizations manage active crises. A crisis is defined as a time of difficulties or danger, and usually this is the time when you need to make difficult or dangerous decisions. By having a plan that describes the crisis management process, organizations can more easily adapt to the crisis.
Analysis of Water Quality in Batujai Reservoir Due to Community and Business Activities in Central Lombok Regency
Authors: SUPARDIONO Supardiono , ARTHANA Wayan , ADNYANA Wayan Sandi , SUYASA Wayan Budiarsa , SUDIPA Nyoman
Published: February 2021

The development of an area must be accompanied by an ever-increasing population growth which will also increase the waste produced. Waste production will put pressure on the environment if it is not managed properly which will eventually end up in water bodies. The increased pollution load is also caused by the habit of people disposing of domestic waste, both liquid waste and solid waste directly into the water. Batujai Reservoir is one of the vital objects for the survival of the people of Central Lombok in particular, and the people of Lombok Island in general. Because of its vital role, the Batujai Reservoir needs to be saved so that the reservoir ecosystem can carry out its functions and benefits in improving the welfare of the people of Central Lombok. There are several community activities that are a source of direct reservoir water pollution (point source) such as fishing activities using floating net cages and disposal of domestic waste by the community which is directly channeled to water bodies. Pollutants collected in the Batujai Reservoir will reduce the water quality of the Batujai Reservoir. This research aims to analyze the water quality of the Batujai Reservoir which is caused by business activities and the community based on Government Regulation Number 82 of 2001 and to determine the water pollution index of the Batujai Reservoir. This study uses a quantitative approach by collecting primary data from direct observations in the field and secondary data based on previous research reports and government reports. The results showed that the average physical parameters were above the water quality standard threshold for class II water quality, the average chemical parameters were above the water quality standard for class III and class IV water quality, while the biological parameters were above the threshold. Water quality limits for class II and class III. The decline in water quality in the Batujai Reservoir is caused by various wastes entering the Batujai Reservoir water bodies. The analysis result with storet system shows that the water quality of Batujai Reservoir is in bad condition or heavily polluted.
Hotel Guests’ Perceptions of Environmentally Friendly Practices in Jordan
Authors: RAWASHDEH Akram Atef , AL-ABABNEH Mukhles Mansour
Published: February 2021

Tourism still generates negative effects on the environment that consequently objected the green practices in hotels; therefore, this study comes to measure the perception of international guests towards green practices in the Jordanian hotels. This study considers the first attempt that linked the tourists' perceptions toward green practices in hotels and their willingness to stay in eco-label hotels in Jordan. The study relied on the quantitative approach to measure the level of those practices as 270 questionnaires were collected during the period from March to September 2019. The questionnaire included questions on 7 eco-label criteria (Green hotel certification, Energy, Water, Waste and Purchasing Management, Community support and Customer education) comprising all areas of hotel operations, and 3 statements to measure hotel guests’ guests’ willingness to stay in eco-label hotel. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS program version 21. The study found a positive but moderate correlation between tourists' perceptions towards environmental practices and their stay in eco-hotels. In addition, the various dimensions of environmental practices were positively related to tourists staying in an environmentally friendly hotel. This is one of the first studies that linked tourists' perceptions towards green practices in the hotels and their willingness to stay in eco-label hotel.
La política de formación de los profesores de educación secundaria baja: Cambios, inercias, ausencias y retos. El caso de la Escuela Normal Superior de México, 1983-2020
Authors: Romero Gonzaga Rosalina
Published: February 2021

El propósito del artículo es analizar los cambios que se han venido gestando en la formación de los profesores de educación secundaria baja, a través de las condiciones académicas, organizativas e institucionales que experimenta una institución formadora. El trabajo presenta los resultados de una investigación realizada en la Escuela Normal Superior de México en relación con los ambientes y circunstancias en las que se desarrolla la vida académica de los formadores de docentes en contextos de periódicas reformas que promueven la transformación y el fortalecimiento de las escuelas normales sin alcanzar los resultados deseados. Se asume que las políticas de formación son fragmentarias e inacabadas producto de la imbricación de arreglos institucionales, prácticas, rutinas y estrategias tradicionales que inciden en el desarrollo y devenir de la institución formadora. Desde esta perspectiva, se exploran las disposiciones de los formadores en estos entornos, así como los horizontes de posibilidad de cambio de una legendaria institución.
Walka o autonomię – Kathi Weeks i feministyczna polityka na rzecz dochodu podstawowego: Przedmowa do tłumaczenia.
Authors: Szlinder Maciej
Published: February 2021

Walka o autonomię – Kathi Weeks i feministyczna polityka na rzecz dochodu podstawowego: Przedmowa do tłumaczenia.
Compact, tamper-resistant archival of fine-grained provenance
Authors: Zheng Nan , Ives Zachary G.
Published: February 2021

Data provenance tools aim to facilitate reproducible data science and auditable data analyses, by tracking the processes and inputs responsible for each result of an analysis.
Fine-grained
provenance further enables sophisticated reasoning about why individual output results appear or fail to appear. However, for reproducibility and auditing, we need a
provenance archival system
that is
tamper-resistant
, and efficiently stores provenance for computations computed over time (i.e., it compresses repeated results). We study this problem, developing solutions for storing fine-grained provenance in relational storage systems while both compressing and protecting it via cryptographic hashes. We experimentally validate our proposed solutions using both scientific and OLAP workloads.
Scalable mining of maximal quasi-cliques
Authors: Guo Guimu , Yan Da , Özsu M. Tamer , Jiang Zhe , Khalil Jalal
Published: February 2021

Given a user-specified minimum degree threshold
γ
, a
γ
-quasiclique is a subgraph
g
=

(V
g
, E
g
)

where each vertex

ν ∈ V
g

connects to at least
γ
fraction of the other vertices (i.e., ⌈
γ
· (|

V
g

|- 1)⌉ vertices) in
g.
Quasi-clique is one of the most natural definitions for dense structures useful in finding communities in social networks and discovering significant biomolecule structures and pathways. However, mining maximal quasi-cliques is notoriously expensive.

In this paper, we design parallel algorithms for mining maximal quasi-cliques on G-thinker, a distributed graph mining framework that decomposes mining into compute-intensive tasks to fully utilize CPU cores. We found that directly using G-thinker results in the straggler problem due to (i) the drastic load imbalance among different tasks and (ii) the difficulty of predicting the task running time. We address these challenges by redesigning G-thinker's execution engine to prioritize long-running tasks for execution, and by utilizing a novel timeout strategy to effectively decompose long-running tasks to improve load balancing. While this system redesign applies to many other expensive dense subgraph mining problems, this paper verifies the idea by adapting the state-of-the-art quasi-clique algorithm, Quick, to our redesigned G-thinker. Extensive experiments verify that our new solution scales well with the number of CPU cores, achieving 201× runtime speedup when mining a graph with 3.77M vertices and 16.5M edges in a 16-node cluster.
Maximizing social welfare in a competitive diffusion model
Authors: Banerjee Prithu , Chen Wei , Lakshmanan Laks V. S.
Published: February 2021

Influence maximization (IM) has garnered a lot of attention in the literature owing to applications such as viral marketing and infection containment. It aims to select a small number of seed users to adopt an item such that adoption propagates to a large number of users in the network. Competitive IM focuses on the propagation of competing items in the network. Existing works on competitive IM have several limitations. (1) They fail to incorporate economic incentives in users' decision making in item adoptions. (2) Majority of the works aim to maximize the adoption of one particular item, and ignore the collective role that different items play. (3) They focus mostly on one aspect of competition - pure competition. To address these concerns we study competitive IM under a utility-driven propagation model called UIC, and study social welfare maximization. The problem in general is not only NP-hard but also NP-hard to approximate within any constant factor. We, therefore, devise instant dependent efficient approximation algorithms for the general case as well as a (1 - 1/
e - ∈
)-approximation algorithm for a restricted setting. Our algorithms outperform different baselines on competitive IM, both in terms of solution quality and running time on large real networks under both synthetic and real utility configurations.
ConnectIt
Authors: Dhulipala Laxman , Hong Changwan , Shun Julian
Published: February 2021

Connected components is a fundamental kernel in graph applications. The fastest existing multicore algorithms for solving graph connectivity are based on some form of edge sampling and/or linking and compressing trees. However, many combinations of these design choices have been left unexplored. In this paper, we design the ConnectIt framework, which provides different sampling strategies as well as various tree linking and compression schemes. ConnectIt enables us to obtain several hundred new variants of connectivity algorithms, most of which extend to computing spanning forest. In addition to static graphs, we also extend ConnectIt to support mixes of insertions and connectivity queries in the concurrent setting.

We present an experimental evaluation of ConnectIt on a 72-core machine, which we believe is the most comprehensive evaluation of parallel connectivity algorithms to date. Compared to a collection of state-of-the-art static multicore algorithms, we obtain an average speedup of 12.4x (2.36x average speedup over the fastest existing implementation for each graph). Using ConnectIt, we are able to compute connectivity on the largest publicly-available graph (with over 3.5 billion vertices and 128 billion edges) in under 10 seconds using a 72-core machine, providing a 3.1x speedup over the fastest existing connectivity result for this graph, in any computational setting. For our incremental algorithms, we show that our algorithms can ingest graph updates at up to several billion edges per second. To guide the user in selecting the best variants in ConnectIt for different situations, we provide a detailed analysis of the different strategies. Finally, we show how the techniques in ConnectIt can be used to speed up two important graph applications: approximate minimum spanning forest and SCAN clustering.