bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
State of the Arts
Authors: Tinius Jonas
Published: August 2023

This is a bold and wide-ranging account of the unique German public theatre system through the prism of a migrant artistic institution in the western post-industrial Ruhr region. State of the Arts analyses how artistic traditions have responded to social change, racism, and cosmopolitan anxieties and recounts how critical contemporary cultural production positions itself in relation to the tumultuous history of German state patronage, difficult heritage, and self-cultivation through the arts. Jonas Tinius' fieldwork with professional actors, directors, cultural policy makers, and activists unravels how they constitute theatre as a site for extra-ordinary ethical conduct and how they grapple with the pervasive German cultural tradition of Bildung, or self-cultivation through the arts. Tinius shows how anthropological methods provide a way to understand the entanglement of cultural policy, institution-building, and subject-formation. An ambitious and interdisciplinary study, the work demonstrates the crucial role of artistic intellectuals in society.
Bifurcation Analysis of Fluid Flows
Authors: Dijkstra Henk A. , Wubs Fred W.
Published: August 2023

A better understanding of the mechanisms leading a fluid system to exhibit turbulent behavior is one of the grand challenges of the physical and mathematical sciences. Over the last few decades, numerical bifurcation methods have been extended and applied to a number of flow problems to identify critical conditions for fluid instabilities to occur. This book provides a state-of-the-art account of these numerical methods, with much attention to modern linear systems solvers and generalized eigenvalue solvers. These methods also have a broad applicability in industrial, environmental and astrophysical flows. The book is a must-have reference for anyone working in scientific fields where fluid flow instabilities play a role. Exercises at the end of each chapter and Python code for the bifurcation analysis of canonical fluid flow problems provide practice material to get to grips with the methods and concepts presented in the book.
A review of extended coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) isolation duration among inpatients in a tertiary-care hospital—Iowa, 2020–2022
Authors: Abosi Oluchi J. , Trannel Alexandra , Schwartzhoff Patrick , Ackman Mark , Zilles Barbara , Marra Alexandre R. , Dains Angelique , Naito Toshio , Salinas Jorge L. , Diekema Daniel J. , Hanna Beth , Murphy Jaime P. , Wellington Melanie , Brust Karen , Kobayashi Takaaki
Published: August 2023

Of the 2,668 patients admitted with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), 4% underwent prolonged isolation for >20 days. Reasons for extended isolation were inconsistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines in 25% of these patients and were questionable in 54% due to an ongoing critically ill condition at day 20 without CDC-defined immunocompromised status.
Political Convergence, Surpluses of Activism, and Genealogy: Examining Iran's Quasi-Revolutionary Situation
Authors: Rivetti Paola , Saeidi Shirin
Published: August 2023

In this intervention, we discuss the ongoing protest movement and the quasi-revolutionary situation in Iran with the goal of offering contextual as well as background analysis. Our objective is to examine the current wave of revolutionary politics in the frame of a longer history, that is, the one of the “unaccomplished” 1979 revolution. We do not argue that the current movement is in continuity with the so-called Islamic revolution; rather, we ask what afterlives of the 1979 revolution and successive waves of mobilizations reverberate within the current situation. We do so from a political transformative vantage point, which we understand as inherently feminist, in that we refuse to recognize any hierarchy between the struggles, the issues, and the demands as expressed by the protesters. Indeed, we understand liberation as a collective project resulting from the intersection of struggles, demands, and issues. Following this line of reasoning, we interrogate the current moment along three thematic axes: the social composition, the prospects for political convergence, and the genealogy, or the ideational connection, of the current struggle with those of the past.
Making a Trade of Preaching: Clergy, Labor, and Political Economy between the Interregnum and Restoration
Authors: Brown Simon
Published: August 2023

Many writers of political economy in the 1660s and 1670s agreed that there were too many clergy and divinity students in England. This surplus of ministers and aspiring clerics, they argued, would better contribute to the public if they worked as productive laborers in agriculture and manufacturing. The question of whether preaching constituted labor had been a contentious theological debate in the late years of the Interregnum, and the proposals advanced by commentators like William Petty and Edward Chamberlayne to put ministers to other work assumed that clergy were comparable to profane professionals who labored for their keep. This article traces how this fraught question continued to confront schemes of political economy that otherwise sought to avoid religious controversy. In the 1670s, Christopher Wase responded to calls to limit clergy and free schools with an innovative survey and arguments drawn from empirical evidence, scriptural exegesis, and economic principles. Wase was one among other contemporaries who assigned a productive place for learning despite its irreducibility to a form of labor. His efforts thereby elevated the status of the clergy on a foundation of economic premises arrived at through engagement in theological debate.
Duality theory for exponential utility-based hedging in the Almgren–Chriss model
Authors: Dolinsky Yan
Published: August 2023

In this paper we obtain a duality result for the exponential utility maximization problem where trading is subject to quadratic transaction costs and the investor is required to liquidate her position at the maturity date. As an application of the duality, we treat utility-based hedging in the Bachelier model. For European contingent claims with a quadratic payoff, we compute the optimal trading strategy explicitly.
LUCRETIUS’ RAZOR ON EPICURUS’ ATOMIC THEORY
Authors: Corrado Alberto
Published: August 2023

This article investigates why Lucretius does not dedicate any section of his poem to atomic size or provide a technical term to describe the concept. This absence is particularly significant because Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus both uses the term μέγεθος to indicate atomic size and contains a passage reporting specifically on this property. First, the article argues that atomic size and shape are causally redundant in Epicurus’ ontology. Second, it demonstrates that the origin of both shape and size is found in the smallest magnitudes in Epicurean physics, the minima. Drawing on these findings, it concludes that, since atomic size violates the law of parsimony, it is a superfluous entity in the Epicurean system. After analysing passages from the De rerum natura, it suggests that the absence of atomic size in Lucretius may be deliberate. Lucretius’ microphysics works perfectly without introducing a philosophical notion of atomic size, and is more economical and efficient than that of Epicurus.
Families with young children in homeless shelters: Developmental contexts of multisystem risks and resources
Authors: Cutuli J. J. , Herbers Janette E. , Vrabic Sarah C. , Baye Omari
Published: August 2023

We apply a multisystem perspective to three aims relevant to resilience for young children in emergency and transitional homeless shelters. We consider profiles of risks and resources before shelter, early childhood program enrollment during shelter, and the likelihood of returning to shelter or having a subsequent child welfare placement. We used longitudinal, city-wide data from multiple sources integrated at the individual level across the lifespan for 8 birth cohorts. Young children (N = 1,281) stayed in family shelters during an 18-month period during a multisystem intervention. Risk factor rates were high as were rates of early childhood program enrollment (66.1% in any program; 42.3% in a high-quality program), which may suggest positive effects of the multisystem intervention. Multilevel latent class analysis revealed four profiles, considering prior shelter stays, prior child welfare placements, prior elevated lead levels, perinatal factors (teenage mother, prenatal care, low maternal education, and poor birth outcomes), demographics, and early childhood program enrollment and quality. One profile with higher rates of child welfare placement before the shelter stay and considerable enrollment in high-quality early childhood programs corresponded to lower rates of subsequent child welfare placement. Profiles did not differ on the likelihood of returning to shelter.
Actin-mediated endocytosis in the E-YSL helps drive epiboly in zebrafish
Authors: Cheng Jackie C. , Miller Andrew L. , Webb Sarah E.
Published: August 2023

In zebrafish, a punctate band of F-actin is reported to develop in the external yolk syncytial layer (E-YSL) during the latter part of epiboly in zebrafish embryos. Here, electron microscopy (EM) and fluorescence confocal microscopy were conducted to investigate dynamic changes in the E-YSL membrane during epiboly. Using scanning EM, we report that the surface of the E-YSL is highly convoluted, consisting of a complex interwoven network of branching membrane surface microvilli-like protrusions. The region of membrane surface protrusions was relatively wide at 30% epiboly but narrowed as epiboly progressed. This narrowing was coincident with the formation of the punctate actin band. We also demonstrated using immunogold transmission EM that actin clusters were localized at the membrane surface mainly within the protrusions as well as in deeper locations of the E-YSL. Furthermore, during the latter part of epiboly, the punctate actin band was coincident with a region of highly dynamic endocytosis. Treatment with cytochalasin B led to the disruption of the punctate actin band and the membrane surface protrusions, as well as the attenuation of endocytosis. Together, our data suggest that, in the E-YSL, the region encompassing the membrane surface protrusions and its associated punctate actin band are likely to be an integral part of the localized endocytosis, which is important for the progression of epiboly in zebrafish embryos.
Anti-Japanism as a strategy for reshaping national identity in post-liberation South Korean fictions (1945–1948)
Authors: Kang Jeonggu
Published: August 2023

This article argues that South Koreans' anti-Japanism in the post-liberation period can be regarded as an ideological construction, which was inevitably required to reshape their national identity, rather than as a reasonable and serious critical consideration of colonial Japan. Anti-Japanism functions as an identification framework in an era when Koreans needed to develop a new discourse which reflects the rapid politico-socio-cultural changes of that period. Under military control of the United States and the Soviet Union, Koreans made Japan the other in a number of ways in order to unite their nation state and national identity, relying specifically on racial difference and hierarchy. First, Korean intellectuals, who once cooperated with colonial Japan in the political sphere or in their ordinary lives, explicitly revealed their anti-Japanese sentiments in their writings right after liberation. Second, after liberation, anti-Japanism emerged from a process that Koreans would exploit, after demarcating the moral difference between themselves and the remaining Japanese migrants, to exclude the Japanese from their community. Finally, anti-Japanism in the post-liberation period can be detected in Koreans' tenacious attitude, as they tacitly restricted the articulation of filial or cultural hybridity with the Japanese people in order to reconfigure their national identity.
Symbolic Time(s) of Violence in Late Socialist Bulgaria
Authors: Ragaru Nadège
Published: August 2023

By introducing Bourdieu's notion of symbolic violence, the author explores the state uses of the cinematic industry—notably through the making of grandiose national epics—in the endeavor to model and, ultimately, to assimilate Muslim minorities during the so-called “Revival Process” (1984–1989) in socialist Bulgaria. Drawing attention to often-neglected aspects of film production, such as the selection of symbolically charged “national landscapes,” shooting locations, and the use of Muslim film extras, she examines the production of a state-sponsored historical master narrative, its widespread dissemination at home and abroad, and the attempt at channeling film reception by national minorities and the majority population. The visual recreation of the alleged Ottoman “forced islamization” of Christians and the blurring of the distinction between fiction and fact, as well as past and present were intended to boost the national pride of the majority, achieve support for anti-minority measures, and win the obedience of minorities.
Researching the European Cold War: Nationalism, (Anti-)Communism and Violence
Authors: Rutar Sabine
Published: August 2023

In her introduction to the themed cluster “Nationalism, (Anti-)Communism and Violence in the European Cold War,” the author contextualizes the issue's research contributions on Greece, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. She introduces the methodological rationale and highlights what binds the three case studies together: They explore how nationalism was woven into Cold War societies. The authors employ, as analytical prisms, both physical and symbolic violence in order to visualize empirically the workings of nationalism in the service of both communism and anti-communism. Hitherto, few scholars have focused on the interconnections between nationalism, (anti-)communism, and violence in Cold War east central and southeastern Europe.
In the Land of Giants: Eco-Mythology and Islamic Authority in the Post-Soviet Tatar Imagination
Authors: Kefeli Agnès
Published: August 2023

At the turn of the twenty-first century, giants occupied the imagination of occultists, neopagans, and nationalist writers. This article explores why those mythical colossi, a product of the pre-modern imagination, folklore, and childhood fantasy are still relevant to modern Tatars. More specifically, it centers on Fäüziyä Bäyrämova, whose fiction stands prominently in environmental public-school curricula. This inquiry provides a literary genealogy of Tatar eco-mythology, while nuancing the previous assumption in literary studies that in its evolution, the gigantic has moved away from enchantment to secularization. Unlike medieval Anglo-Saxon giants who embodied the sins of humanity or represented the uncivilized “other,” Soviet giants were builders and guardians of Tatars’ Islamic sacred geography, threatened by urbanization and secularization. In Bäyrämova's reinterpretation, they reappear not only as guardians of a nationalist cartography, but also as transmitters of Islamic reform and orthopraxy. In both Soviet and post-Soviet contexts, giants emerge as conduits of religious authority.
Experimental Evidence for a Weak Calcic‐Amphibole‐Rich Deep Crust in Orogens
Authors: Wang X. , Zhang J. F. , Tommasi A. , Lopez‐Sanchez M. A. , Jing Z. C. , Shi F. , Liu W. L. , Barou F.
Published: August 2023

Amphibole‐rich rocks constitute significant components of the mid‐ to lower continental crust, particularly in active orogens characterized with thick and hot crusts. Nevertheless, experimental data on their viscosity remain scarce. We conducted axial compression deformation experiments on synthetic amphibolites under temperature and pressure conditions resembling deep sections of overthickened crust. A novel flow law for a calcic‐amphibole‐rich rock (80% amphibole +20% garnet) in the dislocation creep regime is derived from these experiments. Contrary to common assumptions, our results reveal that calcic‐amphibolite is 1‐2 orders of magnitude weaker than plagioclase‐rich amphibolite, granulite, or gabbro. A calcic‐amphibole‐rich, low viscosity deep crust may not only support the “channel flow” model proposed for the Tibetan Plateau but also explain the observed high crustal seismic anisotropy in the region.
Sea Ice Formation, Glacial Melt and the Solubility Pump Boundary Conditions in the Ross Sea
Authors: Loose Brice , Stammerjohn Sharon , Sedwick Peter , Ackley Stephen
Published: August 2023

Seasonal formation of Dense Shelf Water (DSW) in the Ross Sea is a direct precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water, which fills the deep ocean with atmospheric gases in what composes the southern limb of the solubility pump. Measurements of seawater noble gas concentrations during katabatic wind events in two Ross Sea polynyas reveal the physical processes that determine the boundary value properties for DSW. This decomposition reveals 5–6 g kg−1 of glacial meltwater in DSW and sea‐ice production rates of up to 14 m yr−1 within the Terra Nova Bay polynya. Despite winds upwards of 35 m s−1 during the observations, air bubble injection had a minimal contribution to gas exchange, accounting for less than 0.01 μmols kg−1 of argon in seawater. This suggests the slurry of frazil ice and seawater at the polynya surface inhibits air‐sea exchange. Most noteworthy is the revelation that sea‐ice formation and glacial melt contribute significantly to the ventilation of DSW, restoring 10% of the gas deficit for krypton, 24% for argon, and 131% for neon, while diffusive gas exchange contributes the remainder. These measurements reveal a cryogenic component to the solubility pump and demonstrate that while sea ice blocks air‐sea exchange, sea ice formation and glacial melt partially offset this effect via addition of gases. While polynyas are a small surface area, they represent an important ventilation site within the southern‐overturning cell, suggesting that ice processes both enhance and hinder the solubility pump.
Application of the Observation‐Oriented CNOP‐P Sensitivity Analysis Method in Evapotranspiration Simulation and Prediction Over the Tibetan Plateau
Authors: Sun Guodong , Mu Mu , Zhang Qiyu , Ren Qiujie , You Qinglong
Published: August 2023

To improve the ability to accurately simulate and predict evapotranspiration (ET) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), an observation‐oriented sensitivity analysis (SA) method based on a conditional nonlinear optimal parameter perturbation (CNOP‐P) method is employed. With the observation‐oriented CNOP‐P SA method, a sensitive parameter subset among all parameters is first determined through comparison with observations of ET across the TP. Then, the sensitive parameter combination is optimized to evaluate the ET simulation ability and prediction skill over the TP. A traditional one‐at‐a‐time (OAT) method is also employed, and the results are compared with the numerical results obtained with the observation‐oriented CNOP‐P SA method. The results show that the identified parameter combination using the observation‐oriented CNOP‐P SA method is more sensitive than that using the OAT method for the estimation of ET at 13 sites on the TP. The above results demonstrate that it is important to determine the sensitive parameter combination using the observation‐oriented SA method to improve the ET simulation ability and prediction skill over the TP.
Passive Microwave Radiometry at Different Frequency Bands for River Discharge Retrievals
Authors: Brakenridge G. Robert , Nghiem Son V. , Kugler Zsofia
Published: August 2023

The present era of climate change and expanding population requires major improvements in sustained observation of global river discharge. Floods and droughts are affecting food supplies, and suspected long‐term trends require appropriate data for evaluation. Orbital remote sensing can address this observational need. Here we use satellite Ka‐ (36.5 GHz) and L‐band (1–2 GHz) passive microwave radiometry (PMR) to monitor river discharge changes and determine what size rivers can be measured and the frequencies and polarization configurations that yield the most robust results. Selected satellite gauging reaches (SGRs) can be measured at near‐daily intervals from 1998 to present (Ka‐band) and 2010 to present (L‐band). The SGRs are 10–36 km in length; the dynamic proportion of water surface area within each varies with river discharge. Due to contrasting dielectric properties, water and land emit different intensities of microwave radiation; thus emission from a mixed water/land pixel decreases as the proportion of water within the pixel increases. Depending on the river and floodplain morphology, water flow area can be a robust indicator of discharge and the microwave sensors can retrieve daily discharge to ±20%. Instead of spatial resolution, it is the sensor measurement precision, geolocation accuracy, and channel and floodplain morphology that most strongly affect accuracy. Calibration of flow area signals to discharge can be performed using nearby ground stations (even if now discontinued) or by comparison to hydrologic modeling.
Hydrological and Geological Controls for the Depth Distribution of Dissolved Oxygen and Iron in Silicate Catchments
Authors: Osorio‐Leon Ivan , Bouchez Camille , Chatton Eliot , Lavenant Nicolas , Longuevergne Laurent , Le Borgne Tanguy
Published: August 2023

Dissolved Oxygen (DO) plays a key role in reactive processes and microbial dynamics in the critical zone. Recent observations showed that fractures can provide rapid pathways for oxygen penetration in aquifers, triggering unexpected biogeochemical processes. In the shallow subsurface, DO reacts with electron donors, such as Fe2+ coming from mineral dissolution. Yet, little is known about the factors controlling the spatial heterogeneity and distribution of oxygen with depth. Here we present a reduced analytical model describing the coupled evolution of DO and Fe2+ as a function of fluid travel time in silicate catchments. Our model, validated from fully resolved reactive transport simulations, predicts a linear decay of DO with time, followed by a rapid non‐linear increase of Fe2+ concentrations up to a far‐from‐equilibrium steady‐state. The relative effects of geological and hydrological forcings are quantified through a Damköhler number (Da) and a lithological number (Λ). We use this framework to investigate the depth distribution of DO and Fe2+ in two catchments with similar environmental contexts but contrasted hydrochemical properties. We show that hydrochemical differences are explained by small variations in Da but orders of magnitude variations in Λ. Therefore, we demonstrate that the hydrological and geological drivers controlling hydrochemistry in silicate catchments can be discriminated by analyzing jointly the O2 and Fe2+ evolution with depth. These findings provide a new conceptual framework to understand and predict the evolution of DO in modern groundwater, which plays an important role in critical zone processes.
Postoperative cage migration and subsidence following TLIF surgery is not associated with bony fusion
Authors: Rickert Marcus , Fennema Peter , Wehner Diana , Rahim Tamim , Hölper Bernd , Eichler Michael , Makowski Marcus , Meurer Andrea , Brenneis Marco
Published: August 2023

Pseudarthrosis following transforaminal interbody fusion (TLIF) is not infrequent. Although cage migration and subsidence are commonly regarded as evidence of the absence of solid fusion, there is still no evidence of the influence of cage migration and subsidence on fusion. This study aimed to evaluate cage migration and subsidence using computed tomography (CT) DICOM data following lumbar interbody fusion. The effects of cage migration and subsidence on fusion and clinical outcomes were also assessed. A postoperative CT data set of 67 patients treated with monosegmental TLIF was analyzed in terms of cage position. To assess the effects of cage migration and subsidence on fusion, 12-month postoperative CT scans were used to assess fusion status. Clinical evaluation included the visual analog scale for pain and the Oswestry Disability Index. Postoperative cage migration occurred in 85.1% of all patients, and cage subsidence was observed in 58.2%. Radiological signs of pseudarthrosis was observed in 7.5% of the patients Neither cage migration nor subsidence affected the clinical or radiographic outcomes. No correlation was found between clinical and radiographic outcomes. The incidence of cage migration was considerable. However, as cage migration and subsidence were not associated with bony fusion, their clinical significance was considered limited.
Analysis of the characterization of NaOH-treated natural cellulose fibre extracted from banyan aerial roots
Authors: Thandavamoorthy Raja , Devarajan Yuvarajan , Thanappan Subash
Published: August 2023

Natural fibre is renewable and extensively utilized for structural and medicinal applications. The current research concentrates on surface modification for fibre enhancement using an alkaline treatment technique to extract raw fibre from banyan (Ficus benghalensis) aerial root bark. Using a 10% NaOH solution, attempts have been made to improve the crystalline, surface, thermal, physical, and chemical properties of banyan aerial root fibre (BAF). Five samples of BAF were produced by soaking the unprocessed fibre in an alkaline solution for variable amounts of time. On the surface of the treated BAF, a higher concentration of cellulose could be seen. The X-Ray Diffraction test revealed that the crystallinity index improved by 52%, with a crystalline dimension of 51.2 nm. It was observed that the crystalline content is increased in treated Banyan aerial root fiber due to this alkali treatment. The significance of natural fibre characterization is also briefly discussed, and this summary will serve as a resource for future studies on natural fibre composites by other researchers.
Understanding the impact of spinal cord injury on the microbiota of healthy skin and pressure injuries
Authors: Wettstein Reto , Valido Ezra , Buergin Joel , Haumer Alexander , Speck Nicole , Capossela Simona , Stoyanov Jivko , Bertolo Alessandro
Published: August 2023

Pressure injuries (PI) are a common issue among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), especially in the sitting areas of the body. Considering the risk of infections occurring to PI during the wound healing process, the skin microbiome is likely to be a source of bacteria. We investigated the relationship between skin and PI microbiomes, and assessed any correlation with clinically relevant outcomes related to PI. Samples were isolated from SCI patients undergoing reconstructive surgery of PI, severity grades III and IV. DNA samples from skin and PI were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Our results showed disparities in microbiome composition between skin and PI. The skin had lower diversity, while PI showed increased bacterial homogeneity as the severity grade progressed. The skin bacterial composition varied based on its location, influenced by Cutibacterium. Compositional differences were identified between PI grades III and IV, with clusters of bacteria colonizing PI, characterized by Pseudomonas, Proteus and Peptoniphilus. The skin and PI microbiomes were not affected by the level of the SCI. Our study highlights the differences in the microbiome of skin and PI in SCI patients. These findings could be used to target specific bacteria for PI treatment in clinical practice.
OPG/RANK/RANKL axis relation to cardiac iron-overload in children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia
Authors: Sayed Samira Zein , Abd El-Hafez Asmaa Hosni , Abu El-ela Mostafa Ahmed , Mourad Mohamed Aboul-fotouh , Mousa Suzan Omar
Published: August 2023

OPG/RANK/RANKL axis was reportedly involved in initiating various diseases, especially bone and cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to assess the relationship between some OPG, RANK, and RANKL polymorphisms and alleles and iron-overload-induced cardiomyopathy in children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT). This study included 80 TDT children and 80 age and sex-matched controls. Real-time PCR was done for rs207318 polymorphism for the OPG gene and rs1805034, rs1245811, and rs75404003 polymorphisms for the RANK gene, and rs9594782 and rs2277438 polymorphisms for the RANKL gene. Cardiac T2* MRI and ejection fraction (EF) were done to assess the myocardial iron status and cardiac function. In this study, there were no significant differences in frequencies of the studied polymorphisms between cases and controls (p > 0.05 in all). In TDT children, OPG rs2073618 (G > C) had a significant relation to myocardial iron overload (p = 0.02). Its C allele had significantly more frequent normal EF than its G allele (p = 0.04). RANK rs75404403 (C > DEL) had a significant relation to cardiac dysfunction (p = 0.02). Moreover, the C allele of that gene had significantly more frequent affected EF than its DEL allele (p = 0.02). The A allele of RANKL rs2277438 (G > A) had significantly less frequent severe cardiac iron overload than the G allele (p = 0.04). In conclusion, the OPG/ RANK/RANKL genes may act as genetic markers for iron-induced cardiomyopathy in TDT children. Some of the studied genes’ polymorphisms and alleles were significantly related to myocardial iron overload and cardiac dysfunction in TDT children.
Elderly female ultra-marathoners reduced the gap to male ultra-marathoners in Swiss running races
Authors: Knechtle Beat , Witthöft Anja , Valero David , Thuany Mabliny , Nikolaidis Pantelis T. , Scheer Volker , Forte Pedro , Weiss Katja
Published: August 2023

Recent studies showed that female runners reduced the performance gap to male runners in endurance running with increasing age and race distance. However, the investigated samples were generally small. To investigate this further, the present study examined sex differences by age across various race distances (5, 10 km, half-marathon, marathon, and ultra-marathon) using a large dataset of over 1,100,000 race records from Switzerland over two decades (1999–2019). The study explored performance and participation disparities between male and female runners by employing diverse methods, such as descriptive statistics, histograms, scatter and line plots, correlations, and a predictive machine learning model. The results showed that female runners were more prevalent in shorter races (5, 10 km, half-marathon) and outnumbered male runners in 5 km races. However, as the race distance increased, the male-to-female ratio declined. Notably, the performance gap between sexes reduced with age until 70 years, after which it varied depending on the race distance. Among participants over 75 years old, ultra-marathon running exhibited the smallest sex difference in performance. Elderly female ultra-marathoners (75 years and older) displayed a performance difference of less than 4% compared to male ultra-marathoners, which may be attributed to the presence of highly selected outstanding female performers.
Investigating pathogenic SNP of PKCι in HCV-induced hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Khan Naila , Khan Khushbukhat , Badshah Yasmin , Trembley Janeen H. , Ashraf Naeem Mahmood , Shabbir Maria , Danish Lubna , Afsar Tayyaba , Almajwal Ali , Justin Saira , Hasan Zafarul , Razak Suhail
Published: August 2023

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths due to its complexity in diagnosis, chemo-resistance, and aggressive nature. Identifying pathogenic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in protein kinase C iota (PKCι) can be a potential biomarker in the prognosis and treatment of HCC. This study investigated the association between a SNP in PRKCI and the Pakistani population's hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk. Obtained samples were first evaluated for ALT measurements and viral load quantification through reverse transcriptase-PCR. The PKCι nsSNP rs1199520604 was evaluated computationally by multiple consensus bioinformatics tools for predicting its potential deleterious effects. Its association with hepatitis C virus- (HCV) mediated HCC was then investigated through ARMS-PCR (Amplification Refractory Mutation System Polymerase Chain Reaction). SNP analysis of rs1199520604 was performed in 100 cases and 100 controls. Variant rs1199520604’s homozygous T genotype is a risk factor allele for the HCV-induced HCC (odds ratio: 4.13, relative risk: 2.01, P-value < 0.0001). The heterozygous genotype is determined to protect HCV patients from HCC development (P < 0.001). The study highlighted the disease association of variant rs1199520604 with HCV-induced HCC in the Pakistani populations. This variant, after further validation through high-throughput investigation on a larger cohort, has the potential to be translated at the clinical level.
Precise region semantics‐assisted GAN for pose‐guided person image generation
Authors: Liu Ji , Weng Zhenyu , Zhu Yuesheng
Published: August 2023

Generating a realistic person's image from one source pose conditioned on another different target pose is a promising computer vision task. The previous mainstream methods mainly focus on exploring the transformation relationship between the keypoint‐based source pose and the target pose, but rarely investigate the region‐based human semantic information. Some current methods that adopt the parsing map neither consider the precise local pose‐semantic matching issues nor the correspondence between two different poses. In this study, a Region Semantics‐Assisted Generative Adversarial Network (RSA‐GAN) is proposed for the pose‐guided person image generation task. In particular, a regional pose‐guided semantic fusion module is first developed to solve the imprecise match issue between the semantic parsing map from a certain source image and the corresponding keypoints in the source pose. To well align the style of the human in the source image with the target pose, a pose correspondence guided style injection module is designed to learn the correspondence between the source pose and the target pose. In addition, one gated depth‐wise convolutional cross‐attention based style integration module is proposed to distribute the well‐aligned coarse style information together with the precisely matched pose‐guided semantic information towards the target pose. The experimental results indicate that the proposed RSA‐GAN achieves a 23% reduction in LPIPS compared to the method without using the semantic maps and a 6.9% reduction in FID for the method with semantic maps, respectively, and also shows higher realistic qualitative results.
Position‐aware pushing and grasping synergy with deep reinforcement learning in clutter
Authors: Zhao Min , Zuo Guoyu , Yu Shuangyue , Gong Daoxiong , Wang Zihao , Sie Ouattara
Published: August 2023

The positional information of objects is crucial to enable robots to perform grasping and pushing manipulations in clutter. To effectively perform grasping and pushing manipulations, robots need to perceive the position information of objects, including the coordinates and spatial relationship between objects (e.g., proximity, adjacency). The authors propose an end‐to‐end position‐aware deep Q‐learning framework to achieve efficient collaborative pushing and grasping in clutter. Specifically, a pair of conjugate pushing and grasping attention modules are proposed to capture the position information of objects and generate high‐quality affordance maps of operating positions with features of pushing and grasping operations. In addition, the authors propose an object isolation metric and clutter metric based on instance segmentation to measure the spatial relationships between objects in cluttered environments. To further enhance the perception capacity of position information of the objects, the authors associate the change in the object isolation metric and clutter metric in cluttered environment before and after performing the action with reward function. A series of experiments are carried out in simulation and real‐world which indicate that the method improves sample efficiency, task completion rate, grasping success rate and action efficiency compared to state‐of‐the‐art end‐to‐end methods. Noted that the authors’ system can be robustly applied to real‐world use and extended to novel objects. Supplementary material is available at https://youtu.be/NhG\_k5v3NnM}{https://youtu.be/NhG\_k5v3NnM.
Do all gaps in protoplanetary discs host planets?
Authors: Tzouvanou Anastasia , Bitsch Bertram , Pichierri Gabriele
Published: August 2023

Following the assumption that the disc substructures observed in protoplanetary discs originate from the interaction between the disc and the forming planets embedded therein, we aim to test if these putative planets could represent the progenitors of the currently observed giant exoplanets. We performed N-body simulations initially assuming three, four, five, or seven planets. Our model includes pebble and gas accretion, migration, damping of eccentricities and inclinations, disc-planet interaction, and disc evolution. We located the planets in the positions where the gaps in protoplanetary discs have been observed and we evolved the systems for 100 Myr including a few million years of gas disc evolution, while also testing three values of α viscosity. For planetary systems with initially three and four planets, we find that most of the growing planets lie beyond the radial-velocity (RV) detection limit of 5AU and only a small fraction of them migrate into the inner region. We also find that these systems have final eccentricities that are too low to be in agreement with the observed giant planet population. Systems initially consisting of five or seven planets become unstable after ≈40 Kyr of integration time. This clearly shows that not every gap can host a planet. The general outcome of our simulations – eccentricities that are too low – is independent of the disc’s viscosity and surface density. Further observations could either confirm the existence of an undetected population of wide-orbit giants or exclude the presence of such an undetected population to constrain how many planets hide in gaps even further.
How fisheries can support a small island economy in pandemic times: the Seychelles case
Authors: Guillotreau Patrice , Antoine Sharif , Bistoquet Kevin , Chassot Emmanuel , Rassool Karine
Published: August 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has depressed the world economy to a magnitude and timeliness that could hardly be predicted by economists. Because of remoteness and a lack of resources, small island developing states (SIDS) are often considered more vulnerable than others to external shocks such as weatherization or disease. In 2020, the Republic of Seychelles has suffered a 70% collapse of foreign visitors, while tourism represents a key pillar of the economy with two thirds of its Gross Domestic Product and employment. The fishery-related industries have nonetheless resisted to this economic shock and become more prominent, with a foreign-owned tuna fleet supplying the local canning plant, main provider of private jobs and trade in the archipelago. This research attempts to forecast the economic effects of several scenarios affecting both fishing and tourism activities in a small island economy. It shows that fish-related industries can represent a resilient contributor to the domestic economy as long as natural stocks are sustainably managed.
Retrospective taxonomic analysis of avifauna of the Republic of Tatarstan
Authors: Basyyrov Aizat , Leonova Tamila , Rakhimov Ilgizar
Published: August 2023

A retrospective analysis of the dynamics of the species diversity of the avifauna of the Republic of Tatarstan over a period of more than a century - from the end of the 19th century to 2022 has been carried out. Based on the analysis of literature and our own data, in which faunistic lists of different times were presented, an increase in the number of species in the modern territory of the republic was revealed. When comparing data on the status of species and the nature of their presence in the territory, it is revealed that the increase in the number of species occurs due to an increase in very rarely or rarely occurring vagrant species. An analysis of the nature of the stay of species on the territory of the republic showed an increase in the number of nesting species in a number of authors and an almost twofold increase in the number of vagrant species. According to the results of comparing the level of faunistic similarity of ornithological lists, it turns out that the farther the compared faunistic lists are from each other on the time scale, the less similar they are in terms of species diversity.
Comparative analysis of the elemental composition of plant organs of the genus Iris L. (Iridaceae)
Authors: Reut Antonina , Beksheneva Liliya
Published: August 2023

Plants of the genus Iris L. are promising medicinal raw materials with significant biological and pharmacological activity. The aim of this work was a comparative study of the accumulation and transfer of elements through the organs of plants of the genus Iris L. (Iridaceae). The content of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Pb in different parts of I. orientalis, I. pseudacorus, I. sibirica and I. spuria plants was analyzed by atomic absorption. It has been established that in the absence of soil pollution, irises accumulate arsenic in concentrations exceeding the maximum allowable. The accumulation of chromium in the raw material was also above the maximum allowable concentration for a number of study options. The efficiency of element transfers from the soil to the root system varied significantly. Iris rhizomes absorbed nickel most actively. The assimilation ability of the roots is also clearly expressed in relation to Pb, As, Cr, Cu, Mn. Depending on the element, accumulation in leaves is species-specific. The carrying capacity of the peduncle is most pronounced in I. sibirica, the barrier capacity is most pronounced in I. orientalis. Various types of translocations of elements in organs were revealed: acropetal, uniform, basipetal. All studied species are characterized by acropetal distribution of Pb and uniform distribution of Mn. The location of Cd may vary depending on the species. Cu is concentrated in the roots (I. orientalis, I. sibirica, I. spuria) or evenly distributed (I. pseudacorus). The revealed patterns of accumulation and distribution of elements in the organs of plants of the genus Iris make it possible to carry out a prognostic assessment of the quality of raw materials to obtain safe products.
Influence of low-temperature plasma on green algae culture
Authors: Golovin Mikhail L. , Mazina Svetlana E. , Fedorov Anton S. , Yakunin Valery G. , Savinov Vladimir P. , Timoshenko Victor Yu.
Published: August 2023

Influence of low-temperature plasma, which was formed in a high-resource arc-discharge plasma jet in an argon-air mixture, was studied for a community of green algae as Chlorella vulgaris Beyerinck [Beijerinck] and Stichococcus bacillaris Nägeli. It was found that the plasma treatment for 10 minutes led to partial cell death. At the same time, the species of C. vulgaris were less sensitive to the plasma treatment than the species of S. bacillaris. After plasma exposure, the predominant growth of the latter culture was observed in comparison with the control samples. This effect can be explained by an activation of biochemical processes in the algae due to the interaction with radicals in the low-temperature plasma. The results obtained indicate the selectivity of the low-temperature plasma effect on green algae community.
Changes in the value of the Volga-Sviyazhsky area for fish reproduction the largest reservoir in Europe - the Kuibyshev reservoir
Authors: Kuzyuk Arina V. , Galanin Igor F. , Smirnov Andrey A. , Andreeva Tatyana V. , Kuznetsov Vladimir V.
Published: August 2023

To estimate the current significance of the area for fish breeding, the species composition and abundance of young-of-the-year of the coastal zone of the Volga-Sviyazhsky area of the Volga stretch of the Kuibyshev reservoir for 2021, 2022 were considered. The work to assess the species composition and abundance of the young fish was carried out at 7 coastal stations, at depths less than 2 meters. The number of young-of-the-year was calculated per unit of effort of the fingerling seine. Species diversity was assessed using the Shannon-Weaver index. Young of 23 fish species were identified, which confirms the reproduction of these species in the study area. Observational data are compared with earlier materials from 1993-2020. A trend towards an increase in the relative abundance and the species diversity of the young of fish, mainly due to low-value species, was noted. At the same time, in 2022, a relatively high abundance of the young, the main commercial species of the reservoir, the bream, was revealed.
Impact of anthropogenic pollution on the soil near the industrial area of Hrazdan town
Authors: Sukiasyan Astghik , Ledashcheva Tatiana , Vardanyan Vahram , Kirakosyan Armen
Published: August 2023

Identifying the distribution of a number of heavy metals near the industrial area, taking into account the wind rose in the region during the period of operation of the Hrazdan Thermal Power Station and the Hrazdan Cement Plant was investigated in a radius of one km. In a series of experiments, was found a decreased concentration of arsenic and mercury in soil samples by an average of 27% with distance from the industrial area. In that direction, in the soil sample, there is an increase in the concentration of zinc and nickel by an average of 25.5%, as well as an increase in the concentration of copper by 19%. At the same time along the sampling line, the comparative series generally has the following sequence: As<Ni<Co<Cu<Zn<Pb. In the quantitative assessment of soil, contamination was compared to geo-ecological coefficients: the danger level of soil contamination and the total pollution index. Their calculation was based on the values of heavy metals concentration according to Clark and their maximum allowable concentration. Our forthcoming studies will focus on identifying the dose-effect-rose-wind relationship in arable soils with varying degrees of metal contamination as a result of long-term anthropogenic pollution.
Selection of an Ensemble of Atmospheric and Oceanic General Circulation Models of the CMIP-6 Project for estimating possible runoff changes in the Volga and Kama basins
Authors: Sidorova Maria , Alieva Maria , Shtol Ekaterina , Oderkova Aleksandra , Yasinsky Sergey
Published: August 2023

In modern conditions of climate change and increasing pressure on water resources, river forecasting is becoming one of the urgent tasks of rational water use. The main tool for long-term climate characteristics prediction are the Atmospheric and Oceanic General Circulation Models (AOGCM). In this paper, we assessed the quality of a number of climatic characteristics by the CMIP-6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 6) AOGCMs for the Volga and Kama basins in order to access the possibility of their use to river runoff in the 21st century forecasting. A comparison was made of the data produced by the models for the period 1985-2014 and ERA5 reanalysis data (temperature and precipitation) as well as with observational data on river runoff. The reproduction error of the average values, standard deviations, and the coincidence of series trends evaluated. It is shown that the models demonstrate very different quality of the reproduction of water balance characteristics results. When using these models to predict possible changes in river flow in the future, it is necessary to take into account these uncertainties and apply methods to reduce the impact of systematic errors.