bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association between homologous recombination deficiency status and carboplatin treatment response in early triple-negative breast cancer
Authors: Wang Zheng , Lu Yujie , Han Mengyuan , Li Anqi , Ruan Miao , Tong Yiwei , Yang Cuiyan , Zhang Xiaotian , Zhu Changbin , Wang Chaofu , Shen Kunwei , Dong Lei , Chen Xiaosong
Published: July 2024

Background

The aim of this study was to assess homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) status and its correlation with carboplatin treatment response in early triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients.

Methods

Tumor tissues from 225 consecutive TNBC patients were evaluated with an HRD panel and homologous recombination-related (HRR) gene expression data. HRD positivity was defined as a high HRD score and/or BRCA1/2 pathogenic or likely pathogenic mutation. Clinicopathological factors, neoadjuvant treatment response, and prognosis were analyzed with respect to HRD status in these TNBC patients.

Results

HRD positivity was found in 53.3% of patients and was significantly related to high Ki67 levels (P = 0.001). In patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, HRD positivity (P = 0.005) or a high HRD score (P = 0.003) was significantly associated with a greater pathological complete response (pCR) rate, especially in those treated with carboplatin-containing neoadjuvant regimens (HRD positivity vs. negativity: 50.00% vs. 17.65%, P = 0.040). HRD positivity was associated with favorable distant metastasis-free survival (hazard ratio HR 0.49, 95% confidence interval CI 0.26–0.90, P = 0.022) and overall survival (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.20–0.99, P = 0.049), irrespective of carboplatin treatment.

Conclusion

TNBC patients with high HRDs had high Ki67 levels and BRCA mutations. HRD-positive TNBC patients treated with carboplatin had a higher pCR rate. Patients with HRD positivity had a better prognosis, irrespective of carboplatin treatment, warranting further evaluation.
Climate change distress, entrapment, and suicidal ideation
Authors: Brailovskaia Julia , Teismann Tobias
Published: July 2024

Climate change distress has been shown to be associated with markers of negative mental health. However, it is unclear whether climate change distress is also associated with suicidal ideation and whether this association might be mediated by perceptions of entrapment. On this background, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between climate change distress/impairment, entrapment, and suicidal ideation. Participants were recruited at a university in the Ruhr region in Germany. Overall, 323 participants (68.4% female; Mage=26.14, SDage=8.35, range: 18–63 years) filled out self-report questionnaires on climate change distress/impairment, entrapment, and suicidal ideation online. Climate change distress/impairment was significantly positively associated with suicidal ideation. Entrapment completely mediated the association between climate change distress/impairment and suicidal ideation. Results underlines how stressful and existential climate change is experienced by many young persons. Findings underscore the need to develop and evaluate interventions to target climate change distress/impairment.
Consistent prediction of well paths and geological surfaces
Authors: Vázquez Ariel Almendral , Dahle Pål , Abrahamsen Petter , Sektnan Audun
Published: July 2024

We propose a smooth stochastic process for modeling the vertical well path uncertainty. This process describes the accumulation of measurement errors along the well path. We combine the stochastic process with a stochastic model for surfaces into a consistent framework for simultaneous prediction of well paths and surfaces. We show properties of the proposed stochastic process and provide examples of interaction between wells and surfaces.
Effectiveness of Reading Interventions on Literacy Skills for Chinese Children with and Without Dyslexia: a Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Authors: Ruan Yijun , Maurer Urs , McBride Catherine
Published: July 2024

This meta-analysis synthesizes 49 standardized mean-change differences between control and treatment groups as effect sizes from 28 independent studies, investigating the efficacy of existing reading interventions on literacy skills for Chinese children. Six potentially important moderators were considered in this study. These moderators included intervention outcome, intervention method, intervention timing, participant type, intervention form, and intervention implementer. Overall, the existing reading intervention significantly impacted Chinese children’s literacy achievement (g = 0.68). Different intervention methods showed somehow different effects on literacy outcomes. Specifically, fluency training (g = 1.78) appeared as the most effective intervention method with a large effect. Working memory training (g = 0.80), phonological training (g = 0.69), orthographic training (g = 0.70), and morphological training (g = 0.66) had significant and medium effects on improving literacy skills of Chinese children. In addition, reading intervention improved literacy skills of older children (g = 0.90) and younger children (g = 0.63) comparably. However, children with dyslexia (g = 0.87) seemed to benefit more than typically developing children (g = 0.49) from reading interventions. Reading interventions seemed to have a better effect on word spelling (g = 0.93) than word reading (g = 0.63). Interventions delivered in group (g = 0.78) seemed to be more effective than interventions delivered individually (g = 0.45). Children gained more from interventions administered by researchers (g = 0.85) or combined implementers (g = 1.11) than by parents (g = 0.27). These findings suggest that appropriate reading interventions are effective and essential for improving the literacy outcomes of Chinese children, but the efficacy might be different depending on the intervention methods, children’s literacy status, outcome measures, and intervention settings.
Autopsy rates and the misclassification of suicide and accident deaths
Authors: Schmeckenbecher Jim , Kapusta Nestor Damian , Krausz Reinhard Michael , Emilian Christina Alma
Published: July 2024

Mortality statistics are critical to determine the burden of disease. Certain causes of death are prone to being misclassified on cause of death certificates. This poses a serious risk for public health and safety, as accurate death certificates form the basis for mortality statistics, which in turn are crucial for research, funding allocation and health interventions. This study uses generalised estimating equations and regression modelling to investigate for which cause of death categories suicide and accident deaths are misclassified as. National mortality statistics and autopsy rates from North America and Europe covering the past forty years were analysed to determine the associations between the different causes of death in cross-sectional and longitudinal models. We find that suicides and deaths by accidents are frequently mutually misclassified. We also find that suicides are frequently misclassified as drug use disorder deaths, in contrast to accident deaths, which are not misclassified as drug use disorder deaths. Furthermore, suicides do not seem to be misclassified as undetermined deaths or ill-defined deaths. The frequency of misclassification shows that the quality of death certificates should be improved, and autopsies may be used systematically to control the quality of death certificates.
Test-based patch clustering for automatically-generated patches assessment
Authors: Martinez Matias , Kechagia Maria , Perera Anjana , Petke Justyna , Sarro Federica , Aleti Aldeida
Published: July 2024

Previous studies have shown that Automated Program Repair (apr) techniques suffer from the overfitting problem. Overfitting happens when a patch is run and the test suite does not reveal any error, but the patch actually does not fix the underlying bug or it introduces a new defect that is not covered by the test suite. Therefore, the patches generated by apr tools need to be validated by human programmers, which can be very costly, and prevents apr tool adoption in practice. Our work aims to minimize the number of plausible patches that programmers have to review, thereby reducing the time required to find a correct patch. We introduce a novel light-weight test-based patch clustering approach called xTestCluster, which clusters patches based on their dynamic behavior. xTestCluster is applied after the patch generation phase in order to analyze the generated patches from one or more repair tools and to provide more information about those patches for facilitating patch assessment. The novelty of xTestCluster lies in using information from execution of newly generated test cases to cluster patches generated by multiple APR approaches. A cluster is formed of patches that fail on the same generated test cases. The output from xTestCluster gives developers a) a way of reducing the number of patches to analyze, as they can focus on analyzing a sample of patches from each cluster, b) additional information (new test cases and their results) attached to each patch. After analyzing 902 plausible patches from 21 Java apr tools, our results show that xTestCluster is able to reduce the number of patches to review and analyze with a median of 50%. xTestCluster can save a significant amount of time for developers that have to review the multitude of patches generated by apr tools, and provides them with new test cases that expose the differences in behavior between generated patches. Moreover, xTestCluster can complement other patch assessment techniques that help detect patch misclassifications.
Integrated planning approach for fleet sizing and fleet management of freight railcars
Authors: Hrušovský Martin , Hemmelmayr Vera , Schett Georg , Birkmaier Alexandra , Schlund Sebastian
Published: July 2024

Despite the general support for rail as sustainable and efficient transport mode, its share on modal split remains rather low. One of the reasons for this is the low flexibility and adaptability of rail system to changes in, e.g., demand due to the complex multi-stage planning processes that are partly done manually. In our paper we focus on the fleet planning process for freight railcars and we propose an integrated planning approach consisting of two parts. Firstly, a fleet sizing optimization model is applied to obtain the optimal assignment of railcars to customers’ orders. Within this model, we consider a heterogeneous fleet and take into account substitution between clusters and customers’ preferences. The optimal fleet size is computed on a monthly basis for a planning horizon of multiple years, accounting also for railcar flows between months and years. Secondly, a fleet management model in form of knowledge-based decision support system is applied to help the planner to make changes in the fleet mix by investing into or leasing new railcars, performing revisions and decommissioning of old or unutilized railcars. As also illustrated in the designed real-world case study, the integrated planning approach is able to provide the planner with an overview of possible actions including their direct impact on the fleet mix for a mid-term planning horizon.
A survey on dynamic populations in bio-inspired algorithms
Authors: Farinati Davide , Vanneschi Leonardo
Published: July 2024

Population-Based Bio-Inspired Algorithms (PBBIAs) are computational methods that simulate natural biological processes, such as evolution or social behaviors, to solve optimization problems. Traditionally, PBBIAs use a population of static size, set beforehand through a specific parameter. Nevertheless, for several decades now, the idea of employing populations of dynamic size, capable of adjusting during the course of a single run, has gained ground. Various methods have been introduced, ranging from simpler ones that use a predefined function to determine the population size variation, to more sophisticated methods where the population size in different phases of the evolutionary process depends on the dynamics of the evolution itself and events occurring within the population during the run. The common underlying idea in many of these approaches, is similar: to save a significant amount of computational effort in phases where the evolution is functioning well, and therefore a large population is not needed. This allows for reusing the previously saved computational effort when optimization becomes more challenging, and hence a greater computational effort is required. Numerous past contributions have demonstrated a notable advantage of using dynamically sized populations, often resulting in comparable results to those obtained by the standard PBBIAs but with a significant saving of computational effort. However, despite the numerous successes that have been presented, to date, there is still no comprehensive collection of past contributions on the use of dynamic populations that allows for their categorization and critical analysis. This article aims to bridge this gap by presenting a systematic literature review regarding the use of dynamic populations in PBBIAs, as well as identifying gaps in the research that can lead the path to future works.
Approximating photon trajectories in spherically symmetric spacetimes
Authors: Sultana Joseph
Published: July 2024

In this paper we use the Homotopy analysis method to obtain an analytic approximation for the entire photon trajectory in the Schwarzschild spacetime. This is usually expressed exactly in terms of an elliptic integral. We compare our approximation with other formulae found in the literature, which were specifically obtained for the Schwarzschild solution. Unlike some of these formulae, our approximation can be applied and maintains a good accuracy for emission point close to the event horizon and also for emission angles close to and greater than $$\pi /2$$

π
/
2

. We show that our method can easily be applied to other spherically symmetric solutions such as the Reissner-Nordström solution. Such an approximation would be useful when accurate determination of the light trajectories around compact objects is required without the need to revert to time consuming numerical integration of elliptic integrals.
Disorientation as an Emotional Experience: An Introduction from an Interactionist Perspective
Authors: Cabanas Edgar
Published: July 2024

Disorientation is a versatile, multidisciplinary concept. Whether associated with its spatial meaning or its non-spatial, more metaphorical sense, various disciplines have used disorientation to describe a broad range of philosophical, cultural, and social phenomena in the last decades. However, the focus on the concept from an emotional perspective remains scarce. To expand the current investigation on the topic, the present paper attempts a first approach to conceptualize disorientation as an emotional experience from an interactionist perspective. The paper reviews the previous literature, provides theoretical background and a working definition for the concept, and examines prototypical situations that are potentially disorienting for individuals, emphasizing the social and situated nature of the disorienting experience. The paper also comments on the relationships between disorientation and culture and points out some implications of the concept in mental health and psychological distress. Altogether, the paper argues about the value of disorientation as a powerful construct to gain insight into what, why, and how traumatic and everyday situations as well as current cultural and social challenges impact people emotionally.
Conceptions of career choice and attainment in Portuguese preschool and elementary-school children
Authors: Oliveira Íris M. , Howard Kimberly A. S. , Marques Cátia , Silva Ana Daniela , do Céu Taveira Maria
Published: July 2024

The Conceptions of Career Choice and Attainment (CCCA) model has been supporting research on children’s career reasoning, particularly in the USA. This study examines the applicability of the CCCA model to Portuguese preschool and elementary-school children. The CCCA interview was answered by 101 children (38.6% preschoolers, 61.4% elementary schoolers; Mage = 6.68). Results indicated that elementary schoolers present significantly higher levels of career choice and attainment reasoning than preschoolers. Future studies with middle schoolers are needed to keep investigating the model in Portugal. Studies in other countries would also be useful to encourage collaboration in childhood career development research and practice.
Adjunctive use of netarsudil 0.02% in the treatment of refractory glaucoma: a one year analysis
Authors: Zhou Benjamin , Yan John , Bekerman Vladislav P. , Khouri Albert S.
Published: July 2024

Purpose

This study evaluates the long-term adjunctive use of netarsudil ophthalmic solution 0.02% in lowering IOP in patients with refractory glaucoma.

Methods

This retrospective chart review study was conducted at a tertiary care center. Patients who were prescribed add-on netarsudil therapy and on ≥ 3 topical glaucoma medications from 01/01/2018 to 08/31/2020 were reviewed. 47 patients (69 eyes) met the inclusion criteria. Baseline IOPs prior to the addition of netarsudil were compared to IOPs measured at 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals. Any patients with inadequate follow-up or who had glaucoma surgery after netarsudil initiation were excluded.

Results

Median baseline IOP (± SD) was 21 ± 5.8 mmHg (median of 2 visits prior to initiation of netarsudil). At 3-month follow-up, 64 eyes had a median IOP of 16 ± 6.7 mmHg (p < 0.01). At 6-month follow-up, 56 eyes had a median IOP of 18 ± 4.6 mmHg (p < 0.01). At 12-month follow-up, 44 eyes had a median IOP of 15 ± 6.8 mmHg (p < 0.01). At the conclusion of the study, 64% of eyes reached 1 year follow-up due to several reasons.

Conclusions

Patients with refractory glaucoma showed statistically and clinically significant IOP reductions on netarsudil. IOP reduction was stable long-term with the largest decrease in IOP seen at 12 months. Although some patients will still go on to require further laser or incisional surgery, for most patients netarsudil is an effective treatment for adjunctive use in refractory glaucoma.
The determinants of the financial distress of Italian municipalities: How much is it due to inadequate resources?
Authors: Padovani Emanuele , Porcelli Francesco , Zanardi Alberto
Published: July 2024

The key question addressed in this work is whether financial distress recently experienced by several Italian municipalities can be at least partially imputed to the inadequacy of the financial resources they suffer compared to the needs of their populations and their territories. Starting from a multidimensional definition of financial distress, we investigate this issue by exploiting the variability across municipalities revealed by two different occurrences recently involving the intergovernmental fiscal relations in Italy: on the one hand, the large cuts in vertical transfers carried out by the central government as part of the fiscal consolidation strategy in the period 2014–2015 which affected single municipalities to varying degrees; and, on the other hand, the introduction of a new mechanism of equalization transfers at municipal level which showed how the gap between available financial resources to local needs is differentiated across municipalities. Exploiting these sources of variability across local authorities, the estimation results show that the Italian municipalities which suffer a level of resources lower than that necessary to provide public services at a standard level are, ceteris paribus, more likely to run into financial difficulties. By the same token, large cuts in central government transfers have a statistically significant effect on financial vulnerability at municipal level.
A Psychometric Evaluation of the Couples’ Financial Communication Scale: Findings and Implications from Two Large, Diverse Samples
Authors: Saxey Matthew T. , Lucier-Greer Mallory , Adler-Baeder Francesca , LeBaron-Black Ashley B.
Published: July 2024

Communicating about finances is essential to develop shared meaning and goals within couple relationships. When couples struggle to discuss finances, they can experience poor couple outcomes. For researchers and clinicians to effectively study and promote healthy couple communication patterns regarding finances, a parsimonious, reliable, and valid measure of couples’ financial communication is needed. This study examined the psychometric utility of the 5-item Couples’ Financial Communication Scale (originally developed for the Flourishing Families Project; Day, R. D., Bean, R., Coyne, S., Dyer, J., Harper, J., & Walker, L. (2017). Flourishing families project: Survey of family life [codebook].) using two large, diverse samples—one of emerging adult individuals in a romantic relationship (N = 1,950) and another of dyads in a romantic relationship (N = 1,252; 69.9% beyond emerging adulthood). Similar findings emerged across both samples. Inter-item correlations, skewness, and kurtosis of the five items were within acceptable ranges. The five items loaded onto a latent construct with robust standardized factor loadings (ranging from 0.63 to 0.90) and sound model fit. Cronbach’s alpha revealed sound reliability (α = between 0.85 and 0.89). Multiple tests of measurement equivalence suggest the measure appears to be reasonably useful across theoretically meaningful groups (gender, age, income, marital status, and joint banking behaviors). Couples’ financial communication and couples’ relationship quality were positively correlated with large effect sizes—showing initial evidence of predictive validity. The parsimonious Couples’ Financial Communication Scale has sound evidence of reliability, validity, and measurement equivalence across two diverse samples, which positions it to be a useful measure in future scholarship to assess the degree to which couples engage in ongoing healthy and cooperative financial communication.
International entrepreneurial culture as a booster of early and rapid internationalisation: A comparative study of Born Globals vs non-Born Globals
Authors: Nave Edgar , Ferreira João J. , Veiga Pedro Mota
Published: July 2024

The literature demonstrates how Born Globals (BGs) make recourse to distinctive strategic intangible assets to accelerate their internationalisation processes while, nevertheless, broadly neglecting the role of International Entrepreneurial Culture (IEC) in generating and differentiating BGs despite its relevant role. This study examines the IEC as a driver of the early and rapid internationalisation of BGs and correspondingly seeks to capture the prevailing differences compared to non-Born Globals (non-BGs).

Thus, we empirically tested and validated an IEC scale for a sample of 66 BGs and 102 non-BGs and deployed multivariate analysis techniques to identify the main differences among company profiles. The results reveal how BGs stand out from their peers in terms of autonomy (a dimension of the international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO)), international motivation, and international market orientation. Therefore, concentrating on developing these dimensions may return an effective means of boosting rapid and early internationalisation and thereby stand out from the competition. The remaining IEO dimensions, the international learning orientation and the international networking orientation were not relevant to this differentiating process.

This research has important theoretical and practical implications, encouraging and guiding BG managers to adopt a strategic posture emphasising some particular IEC dimensions to differentiate themselves from their competitors and succeed in their early international involvement.
Verification and Validation for a Digital Twin for Augmenting Current SORA Practices with Air-to-Air Collision Hazards Prediction from Small Uncooperative Flying Objects
Authors: Matalonga Santiago , Black Julie , Riordan James
Published: July 2024

Future autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) missions will take place in highly cluttered urban environments. As a result, the UAV must be able to autonomously evaluate risks and react to unforeseen hazards. The current regulatory framework for missions implements SORA guidelines for hazard detection, but its application to air-to-air collision is limited. This research defined a rigorous verification and validation framework (V&V) for digital twins for use in future autonomous UAV missions. The researchers designed a sentry mission for a UAV to evaluate its capacity to detect small uncooperative flying objects. A digital twin of the DJI M300 vision system was built using a game engine and a V&V framework was developed to assure the quality of results in both virtual and real-world scenarios. The results showed the capability of the digital twin to identify vulnerabilities and worst-case scenarios in UAV mission operations, and how it can assist remote pilots in identifying air-to-air collision hazards. Furthermore, the probability of air-to-air collision was calculated for three sentry patterns, and the results were validated in the field. This research demonstrated the capability to identify vulnerabilities and worst-case scenarios in UAV mission operations. We present how the digital twin of an operational theatre can be exploited to assist remote pilots with the identification of air-to-air collision hazards of small uncooperative objects. Furthermore, we discuss how these results can be used to enhance current SORA-based risk assessment practices.
Examining the Role of Sports Betting Marketing in Youth Problem Gambling
Authors: Di Censo Gianluca , Delfabbro Paul , King Daniel L.
Published: July 2024

Background: Sports betting is becoming increasingly common among young people in the UK and Australia. There is a need to understand how the marketing of sports betting may influence risky and pathological gambling to inform policies aimed at reducing harm. This study examines whether sports betting advertising may predict problem gambling scores among young people, while accounting for non-marketing variables. Methods: We recruited 567 participants (53.1% male) aged 18–24 years from an online research panel. Participants were eligible if they had an active betting account and regularly bet on sports. We conducted a hierarchical regression analysis to examine whether four marketing-related measures (exposure to advertising, ad-driven betting decisions, use of betting inducements, and perceived susceptibility to betting inducements) could predict PGSI scores. We controlled for several demographic, psychological, and behavioural variables, including gender, gambling participation, spend per session, participation in in-play betting, normative beliefs about sports betting, and impulsivity. Results: The study revealed that sports betting marketing was positively associated with PGSI scores after controlling for non-marketing variables. Significant marketing predictors included ad-driven betting decisions and perceived influence from betting inducements. Other significant predictors included participation in non-sports betting gambling activities, spend per session, involvement in in-play betting, and the impulsivity trait of negative urgency. Conclusion: Sports betting marketing appears to be implicated in young people’s gambling problems. Specifically, young people who have gambling problems may be more likely to bet in response to advertising, and betting incentives may contribute to an intensification of their gambling behaviour. This study supports the implementation of regulations and restrictions on advertising as a measure to protect young problem gamblers.
Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability in $$^3$$He Superfluids in Zero-Temperature Limit
Authors: Eltsov V. B. , Hosio J. J. , Krusius M.
Published: July 2024

In rotating $$^3$$

3

He superfluids, the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability of the AB interface has been found to follow the theoretical model above $$0.4 \, T_\textrm{c}$$

0.4

T
c

. A deviation from this dependence has been assumed possible at the lowest temperatures. Our NMR and thermal bolometer measurements down to $$0.2 \, T_\textrm{c}$$

0.2

T
c

show that the critical KH rotation velocity follows the extrapolation from higher temperatures. We interpret this to mean that the KH instability is a bulk phenomenon and is not compromised by interactions with the wall of the rotating container, although weak pinning of the interface to the wall is observed during slow sweeping of the magnetic field. The KH measurement provides the only so far existing determination of the interfacial surface tension at temperatures down to $$0.2 \, T_\textrm{c}$$

0.2

T
c

as a function of pressure.
Unbalanced Optimal Transport and Maximum Mean Discrepancies: Interconnections and Rapid Evaluation
Authors: Lakshmanan Rajmadan , Pichler Alois
Published: July 2024

This contribution presents substantial computational advancements to compare measures even with varying masses. Specifically, we utilize the nonequispaced fast Fourier transform to accelerate the radial kernel convolution in unbalanced optimal transport approximation, built upon the Sinkhorn algorithm. We also present accelerated schemes for maximum mean discrepancies involving kernels. Our approaches reduce the arithmetic operations needed to compute distances from $${{\mathcal {O}}}\left( n^{2}\right) $$

O

n
2

to $${{{\mathcal {O}}}}\left( n \log n \right) $$

O

n
log
n

, opening the door to handle large and high-dimensional datasets efficiently. Furthermore, we establish robust connections between transportation problems, encompassing Wasserstein distance and unbalanced optimal transport, and maximum mean discrepancies. This empowers practitioners with compelling rationale to opt for adaptable distances.
Optimal Relaxed Control for a Decoupled G-FBSDE
Authors: Bouanani Hafida , Kebiri Omar , Hartmann Carsten , Redjil Amel
Published: July 2024

In this paper we study a system of decoupled forward-backward stochastic differential equations driven by a G-Brownian motion (G-FBSDEs) with non-degenerate diffusion. Our objective is to establish the existence of a relaxed optimal control for a non-smooth stochastic optimal control problem. The latter is given in terms of a decoupled G-FBSDE. The cost functional is the solution of the backward stochastic differential equation at the initial time. The key idea to establish existence of a relaxed optimal control is to replace the original control problem by a suitably regularised problem with mollified coefficients, prove the existence of a relaxed control, and then pass to the limit.
What Do Community Doulas Think About the Future of the Doula Workforce?
Authors: Darvish Nika , Gómez Anu Manchikanti , Marshall Cassondra , McDonald Raichal , Rouse LaToshia , Dinsmore Lauren , Hecht Hannah , Berhanu Ruth , Rajan Grace , Sandhu Jaspal
Published: July 2024

Introduction

Expanding access to doula care is a key strategy for improving the perinatal experiences and health outcomes of birthing people of color in the U.S. This study investigates the future of maternal healthcare in the U.S. from the perspective of doulas and highlights emerging technology and other opportunities related to strengthening the doula workforce.

Methods

The study recruited community doulas from 12 unique U.S. states, ensuring at least half of the doulas predominantly served communities of color. Doulas (N = 26) participated in semi-structured, futures-oriented interviews that explored their experiences providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic and utilization of technology. A subset of doulas (n = 8) were engaged in interactive workshops where they envisioned alternative futures for doula care and childbirth. Interviews and workshops were analyzed using the Framework Method.

Results

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened technology use among doulas and increased client accessibility. Social media serves as a unique space for critical community building and client outreach. Doulas reported opportunities to strengthen and mobilize the future workforce: recognizing doula care as a reimbursable service by health insurers, utilizing doula collectives for community practice to decrease burnout, increasing emotional support for doulas, and instilling a chain of learning through mentorship.

Discussion

Futures thinking served as a valuable approach for doulas to illuminate the implications of present-day challenges and empowered doulas to design roadmaps toward better futures for doulas and maternal health. Doulas should be engaged as partners to hold a meaningful decision-making role when discussing policies, employment structures, emerging technology, and other aspects of doulas’ positioning within the healthcare system.
Møller Maps for Dirac Fields in External Backgrounds
Authors: Abram Valentino , Brunetti Romeo
Published: July 2024

In this paper we study the foundations of the algebraic treatment of classical and quantum field theories for Dirac fermions under external backgrounds following the initial contributions already present in various places in the literature. The treatment is restricted to contractible spacetimes of globally hyperbolic nature in dimensions $$d\ge 4$$

d
≥
4

and to external fields modelled with trivial principal bundles. In particular, we construct the classical Møller maps intertwining the configuration spaces of charged and uncharged fermions, and we show some of its properties in the case of a U(1) gauge charge. In the last part, as a first step towards a quantization of the theory, we explore the combination of the classical Møller maps with Hadamard bidistributions and prove that they are involutive isomorphisms (algebraically and topologically) between suitable (formal) algebras of functionals (observables) over the configuration spaces of charged and uncharged Dirac fields.
Reaction mining for reaction systems
Authors: Męski Artur , Koutny Maciej , Mikulski Łukasz , Penczek Wojciech
Published: July 2024

Reaction systems are a formal model for computational processing in which reactions operate on sets of entities (molecules) providing a framework for dealing with qualitative aspects of biochemical systems. This paper is concerned with reaction systems in which entities can have discrete concentrations, and so reactions operate on multisets rather than sets of entities. The resulting framework allows one to deal with quantitative aspects of reaction systems, and a bespoke linear-time temporal logic allows one to express and verify a wide range of key behavioural system properties. In practical applications, a reaction system with discrete concentrations may only be partially specified, and the possibility of an effective automated calculation of the missing details provides an attractive design approach. With this idea in mind, the current paper discusses parametric reaction systems with parameters representing unknown parts of hypothetical reactions. The main result is a method aimed at replacing the parameters in such a way that the resulting reaction system operating in a specified external environment satisfies a given temporal logic formula.This paper provides an encoding of parametric reaction systems in smt, and outlines a synthesis procedure based on bounded model checking for solving the synthesis problem. It also reports on the initial experimental results demonstrating the feasibility of the novel synthesis method.
The CCL2-CCR4 axis promotes Regulatory T cell trafficking to canine glioma tissues
Authors: Panek W. K. , Toedebusch R. G. , Mclaughlin B. E. , Dickinson P. J. , Van Dyke J. E. , Woolard K. D. , Berens M. E. , Lesniak M. S. , Sturges B. K. , Vernau K. M. , Li C. , Miska J. , Toedebusch Christine M.
Published: July 2024

Purpose

Spontaneously occurring glioma in pet dogs is increasingly recognized as a valuable translational model for human glioblastoma. Canine high-grade glioma and human glioblastomas share many molecular similarities, including the accumulation of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs) that inhibit anti-tumor immune responses. Identifying in dog mechanisms responsible for Treg recruitment may afford to target the cellular population driving immunosuppression, the results providing a rationale for translational clinical studies in human patients. Our group has previously identified C-C motif chemokine 2 (CCL2) as a glioma-derived T-reg chemoattractant acting on chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) in a murine orthotopic glioma model. Recently, we demonstrated a robust increase of CCL2 in the brain tissue of canine patients bearing high-grade glioma.

Methods

We performed a series of in vitro experiments using canine Tregs and patient-derived canine glioma cell lines (GSC 1110, GSC 0514, J3T-Bg, G06A) to interrogate the CCL2-CCR4 signaling axis in the canine.

Results

We established a flow cytometry gating strategy for identifying and isolating FOXP3+ Tregs in dogs. The canine CD4 + CD25high T-cell population was highly enriched in FOXP3 and CCR4 expression, indicating they are bona fide Tregs. Canine Treg migration was enhanced by CCL2 or by glioma cell line-derived supernatant. Blockade of the CCL2-CCR4 axis significantly reduced migration of canine Tregs. CCL2 mRNA was expressed in all glioma cell lines, and expression increased when exposed to Tregs but not CD4 + helper T-cells.

Conclusion

Our study validates CCL2-CCR4 as a bi-directional Treg-glioma immunosuppressive and tumor-promoting axis in canine high-grade glioma.
Fluorinated PAMAM-Arginine Carrier Prodrugs for pH-Sensitive Sustained Ibuprofen Delivery
Authors: Romani Carola , Sponchioni Mattia , Volonterio Alessandro
Published: July 2024

Objective

The development of an efficient, multifunctional drug delivery system overcoming different obstacles generally associated with drug formulations, including the poor accumulation of the active principle in the target site and its sustained release for prolonged time.

Methods

Our study proposes the development of a fluorinated poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) carrier prodrug combining drug release boosted in alkaline environments with a possible implementation in 19F MRI applications. In particular, we functionalized the terminal primary amines of PAMAM G2 and G4 through an ad hoc designed fluorinated ibuprofen-arginine Michael acceptor to obtain multifunctional ibuprofen-PAMAM-Arg conjugates.

Results

These carriers demonstrated pH-dependent and sustained ibuprofen release for more than 5 days. This advantage was observed in both weak alkaline and physiological buffer solutions, allowing to overcome the limits associated to the burst release from similar fluorinated Arg-PAMAM dendrimers with ibuprofen physically encapsulated.

Conclusion

These findings, coupled to the high biocompatibility of the system, suggest a potential synergistic biomedical application of our conjugates, serving as vehicles for drug delivery and as 19F magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents.
Manipulation of sward diversity is a more effective management strategy than addition of microbial inoculants in intensively managed grassland
Authors: Ikoyi Israel , Duff Aoife M. , Finn John A. , Wall David P. , Kostic Tanja , Lucic-Mercy Eva , Sessitsch Angela , Brennan Fiona
Published: July 2024

Background and aims

Diversifying grassland sward composition and application of microbial inoculants are potential alternative routes to facilitate enhanced nutrient acquisition by plants, but their relative effects have been rarely tested in grasslands. In a two-year field experiment, we investigated the impact of inoculants and sward types on forage yield, nutrient uptake, and the soil microbiome.

Methods

We implemented a fully factorial experiment with inoculants (eight levels; arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN and Bacillus sp. P5 (P5), applied singly and in combination), and sward types (three levels: grass-only, grass and legume, mixture of grass, legume, and herb) as the two factors.

Results

In both years, there was a very strong effect of sward type, with the grass + legume and grass + legume + herb swards having much higher yields and nutrient uptake (N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu) than grass-only. Generally, there was no effect of the inoculants on yield and nutrient uptake, with limited exceptions involving AMF + P5. The best-performing microbial inoculant increased forage yield by 597 kg/ha/year, while switching from grass-only to one of the other sward types increased forage yield by 3932 kg/ha/year (grass + legume) and 4693 kg/ha/year (grass + legume + herb). The inoculants persisted in plots for > 1 year after application. Inoculants and sward type significantly affected the overall prokaryotic and fungal community structures.

Conclusion

Overall, under controlled field plot conditions, including legumes and herbs in a grass sward proved to be a far better farm-scale management strategy for increasing grassland forage yield and nutrient uptake than the application of microbial inoculants.
How does the subjective well-being of Australian adults with a congenital corpus callosum disorder compare with that of the general Australian population?
Authors: Maxfield Maree , McVilly Keith , Devine Alexandra , Davey Christian , Jordan Helen
Published: July 2024

Purpose

Very little is known about the subjective well-being (SWB) of adults with a congenital corpus callosum disorder (CCD), the extent to which they feel satisfied with their lives, and what might be helpful in improving their SWB and quality of life. This study measured SWB among Australian adults with a CCD and compared the results with normative data for the wider Australian adult population.

Methods

Online surveys were completed independently by 53 Australian adults with a CCD. Data included demographic profiles and answers to questions about satisfaction with life, employing the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and one open ended question. Domains measured included life as a whole, standard of living, health, achieving in life, personal relationships, safety, community connectedness and future security. The PWI results were statistically analysed and means compared with Australian normative data. The qualitative data were analysed using deductive thematic analysis.

Results

Australian adults with a CCD responded with ratings significantly below what might be expected of the adult Australian population in all domains except for standard of living and safety. Quantitative analysis results were supported by qualitative thematic analysis, expressing particular challenges and barriers to feeling satisfaction with life as a whole, personal relationships, achieving in life, health and future security.

Conclusion

Evidence from the PWI and accompanying qualitative responses indicate that SWB of Australian adults with CCD is significantly reduced compared with the general population. Further research is needed to examine the lived experience and explore solutions for support of this community.
Nickel and cobalt incorporated mesoporous HZSM-5 catalysts for biofuel production from bio-oil model compounds
Authors: Karaman Birce Pekmezci
Published: July 2024

Bio-oil obtained through the gasification or pyrolysis of biomass is a renewable energy source with the potential to be used in motor vehicles. However, when the properties of bio-oil are compared to crude oil, bio-oil is observed to have high oxygen content and acidity. The aim of this study is to enhance the physical properties of bio-oil and produce new alternative fuels to crude oil. For this purpose, nickel and cobalt-incorporated mesoporous HZSM-5 catalysts have been synthesized. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption–desorption, Scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectroscopy, Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis. In the study, formic acid, furfural, and hydroxypropanone were used as model components. To enhance catalyst activity, nickel was loaded onto the HZSM-5 catalyst. However, during biofuel production, a significant amount of coke was formed as a by-product. Therefore, cobalt was impregnated to reduce coke formation. In the activity test studies, a conversion in the range of 77–84% was achieved with HZSM-5 catalysts. Nickel addition increased the paraffin and olefin content in the biofuel along with bio-oil conversion. The maximum paraffin selectivity (97%) was provided with the 5Ni@HZSM-5 catalyst. However, the highest biofuel selectivity (77.5%) with the minimum coke formation (4%) was observed with the 5Co-5Ni@HZSM-5. In the study, the regeneration and long-term catalytic activity were also investigated, and the results showed that 5Co-5Ni@HZSM is an attractive catalyst for biofuel production from bio-oil.
The Pineapple as a Means to Develop Scientific Competence in the Spanish High School Diploma of Research
Authors: Pozuelo-Muñoz Jorge , Cascarosa-Salillas Esther , Alonso Esther , Barba Carmen
Published: July 2024

Every three years, the Organisation for European Cooperation and Development evaluates the scientific competence of European students. Recent results have demonstrated that scientific competence in Spain is somewhat underdeveloped, which underscores the need to apply educational methodologies that favour the development of said competence. This paper analysed the extent to which the implementation of the Spanish high school diploma of research favoured the development of the Scientific Competence of students. The students had to develop a research project, co-tutored by a secondary education teacher and a University teacher/researcher. Both professionals offered the guidance necessary to develop a project that concerned the resolution of a problem of interest. Audio and video data were collected during the 18 months of the high school programme. These data were transcribed and analysed using a rubric designed ad hoc. This assessment instrument is a relevant point of this work as long as it can be used as evaluating tool in the Scientific Competence assessment of future studies. The results revealed that the students had to make use of their knowledge of the research topic, strengthen this knowledge, substantiate the research using the scientific literature, design and develop the experimental methodology, collect, analyse and present data, and, finally, disclose these data. The results indicated high levels of development in the three sub-competences that were explored, which concluded in a high development of scientific competence.
Gender homophily and local bias in equity crowdfunding
Authors: Wang Dandan , Prokop Jörg
Published: July 2024

We investigate gender-specific local biases among investors in equity crowdfunding. Based on data from a major German crowdfunding platform, we find that domestic investors favour ventures that are geographically closer to their own place of residence. This bias is particularly evident among female investors, although it is partially offset by gender homophily, whereby female investors favour companies with women in the top management team. Finally, we show that the introduction of the German Small Investor Protection Act may have exacerbated local biases in the German crowdfunding market, particularly with respect to firms with female management. Overall, our results suggest that establishing their companies in close proximity to a large number of potential female crowd investors may help improve female entrepreneurs’ chances of attracting equity crowdfunding investment.