bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Squaring the Circle
Authors: Mantilla Giovanni
Published: May 2021

This chapter cites the adoption of Common Article 3 (CA3) as the product of a two-step process characterized by normative pressure and social pressure via forum isolation. It illustrates how the action of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was often hindered by government refusal to admit its services or to show humanitarian restraint in internal violence despite the normative inroads made in 1921. It also mentions a new wave of civil war atrocity that was key for slowly generating a shared interest among a majority of states to include humanitarian protections for internal conflicts in the Geneva Conventions. The chapter shows how intense public and private pressures blocked the dismissal of the idea of humanizing internal conflicts and tamed delegates pushing for high conditions of application. It investigates the early Cold War contest between competing liberal and socialist ideologies that accentuated global political status struggles.
A Winding Road to the Additional Protocols (1950–1968)
Authors: Mantilla Giovanni
Published: May 2021

This chapter traces the events that followed the adoption of Common Article 3 (CA3) in 1949 until 1968. It analyzes formal debates that resurfaced in the United Nations (UN) about revising and developing the international legal rules for armed conflict, which lead to the negotiation of the two Additional Protocols (APs) that complement the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It also explains how the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) rested on its laurels through the extension of CA3 on situations of internal violence that could not be plausibly characterized as armed conflict. The chapter mentions ICRC activities between 1950 and the mid-1960s that reveal persistent efforts to make up for the operation of CA3 in the gray zones. It examines interruption of the reflection of the ICRC by episodes of frustration and abuse that involve concerns about detained persons in diverse internal violent contexts.
Laying the Groundwork
Authors: Heiss Mary Ann
Published: May 2021

This chapter takes the concept of internationalism back to World War I and the League of Nations Mandate System, which undertook the first effort to legitimize global organizational involvement. It clarifies the Anglo-American discord that marked wartime discussion of international involvement in colonial matters. It also cites the US capitulation to the British position that reveals a tendency to lean toward the Western European allies when it came to the idea of international involvement in colonial questions. The chapter discusses the First General Assembly's handling of the nontrust dependent territories, including its initial steps beyond the narrow confines of the Charter. It looks at the proponents of a real UN role in the nontrust dependent territories achieved in 1946 that were a long way from true international accountability.
Fits and Starts
Authors: Heiss Mary Ann
Published: May 2021

This chapter deals with the term of the Committee of Information from 1947 to 1949, which introduced a variety of proposals for accountability. It points out how solid Western state domination of the General Assembly and the states' manipulation of UN procedure prevented much of the proposals for accountability from being accomplished. It details the importance of the Cold War in shaping discussion of the UN role in the nontrust dependent territories as the Soviet bloc worked to use colonialism as a propaganda weapon against the West across UN forums. The chapter outlines proponents of an activist UN role in the Chapter XI territories built on the creation of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Transmission of Information to advance a variety of proposals for accountability. It looks at the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and other international developments that marked the superpower confrontation in Europe.
Organizational Foundations
Authors: Heiss Mary Ann
Published: May 2021

This chapter details the first of the three-year term of the Committee on Information from 1950 to 1952. It elaborates how activists were bypassing the Committee on Information and making their case in the Fourth Committee, where their numerical superiority afforded them power that they could not achieve on the balanced Committee on Information. It also describes the recommendatory nature of activists that allowed the administering states to ignore them without penalty, although the General Assembly had approved a number of measures for accountability by the end of 1952. The chapter highlights proponents of a more robust UN role in the Chapter XI territories that advanced a variety of proposals to effect more uniform treatment of the dependent territories, which eroded administering state authority. It mentions the UN role in the nontrust dependent territories that had expanded beyond the confines set in the Charter.
Introduction
Authors: Golubev Alexey
Published: May 2021

This chapter gives a brief history of and defines the term “elemental materialism” as a culturally rooted recognition of the power of matter and things to shape human bodies and selves, which is a prominent feature in the Soviet system of signification that regulated the production of meanings on a daily basis. The chapter raises the question on the place of elemental materialism in the ideological landscape of late socialism. It explains that a focus on things, on their ability to organize society, communities, and human bodies and selves can account for a more complex understanding of historical change in modern societies in general. The chapter discusses approaches to the study of material objects, and previous studies that have been done for body and material culture. It talks about studies done by Bronislaw Malinowski and Igor Kopytoff, Pierre Bourdieu and Daniel Miller, and Sergei Tretiakov and Viktor Shklovsky. Finally, it discusses materiality as an integral part of the study of Soviet politics.
Conclusions
Authors: Golubev Alexey
Published: May 2021

This chapter summarizes the observations pointed out in the book about the materiality of Soviet objects such as stairwells, weightlifting equipment, and television sets. It concludes that these were created by hybrid social creatures whose practices were influenced not only by ideology and language but also by things around them, and as a result, Soviet artifacts have their politics. The chapter describes elemental materialism as a part of the cultural logic of late socialism. It supplied officials and intellectuals with persistent and routinely reproduced metaphors that assessed people through their mastery of professional equipment, consumption practices, and hobbies. It also influenced the social topography of late socialism. The chapter talks about soviet objects and spaces, and how they interfered in the processes of subjectivation by suggesting forms of selfhood that fell out of the civilizing frameworks of the Soviet enlightenment project. It discusses soviet materiality and how it acquired its historical agency through the bodies of people who were fascinated with various material objects of late socialism and for whom these objects were instrumental in suggesting and objectifying their individual and collective selves. Material objects of late socialism encapsulated different and often conflicting visions of the past, present, and future, structured the social landscape, and suggested various forms of navigating through it. Examining the ways they did so makes it possible to better understand Soviet society as a complex historical phenomenon.
Conclusion
Authors: McLauchlin Théodore
Published: May 2021

This chapter explains desertion in civil wars in terms of the complicated and counterintuitive dynamics of trust and mistrust at the heart of military units in times that tear countries apart. It bridges a long-running theoretical debate about how to understand people's motivations in civil wars. It also elaborates the grand causes of civil wars that matter through the interaction of combatants, which accepts that civil wars are both political and personal. The chapter pays attention to relations among combatants as key mechanisms driving armies forward and suggests a new theoretical extension that goes beyond interactions among armed groups. It focuses on signals, trust, and desertion that proposes arguments about when armed groups are likely to adopt the practices that are important for fostering trust and limiting desertion.
The Business of Leisure, the Leisure of Business
Authors: Gagné Nana Okura
Published: May 2021

This chapter explores the shifting yet resilient meanings and motivations of participating in corporate outings for workers in twenty-first-century Japan. It centers on hostess clubs that show how spaces continue to represent both the culture of care and business relationships in corporate Japan and the mediation of gender ideologies for workers facing the new pressures of neoliberalizing workplaces. It also draws on the participant observation of three hostess clubs in Ginza, such as the expensive Club Ai, the international club Class A, and the midrange Club Sumire. The chapter follows the narratives and experiences of salarymen and hostesses after work in the contexts of increasingly competitive economic conditions. It narrows spheres of corporate welfare and changing norms of gender and family in twenty-first-century Japan.
Escaping the Corporate Shackles
Authors: Gagné Nana Okura
Published: May 2021

This chapter reviews the life stories of individual men that complement their lived experiences with how they reflected and talked about the way they lived. It offers silhouettes that reflect the comprehensive structures and dynamics of individuals, institutions, and ideologies operating in contemporary Japan. It also narrates stories of succeeding through, struggling with, or reacting against the social and economic expectations incumbent with the discourse of salarymen in Japan. The chapter examines the concept of the salaryman as a dominant category under the dominant ideology of companyism, which is discursively decipherable due to its perceived distinction of Japanese nonsalarymen. It presents the glaring disjuncture of nonsalarymen who grasp the key characteristics and organizing idioms of those who are classified as salarymen.
Introduction
Authors: Johnson Rebecca C.
Published: May 2021

This chapter discusses the history of translations in Arabic literature. The book begins with the first translations performed by Lebanese and Egyptian translators under the auspices of British missionary societies in Malta in the 1830s and ends in the first decade of the twentieth century with the translations of British and French sentimental and crime novels published in Cairo. Each connects the purportedly marginal enterprise of translating foreign fiction, performed by well-known and forgotten translators, to the concerns of canonical nahḍa thinkers and the literary and cultural debates in which they participated. These authors developed translation techniques and writing styles that cultivated a new mode of reading that the book calls reading in translation, which required the reader to move comparatively within and among languages and with the awareness of the diverging interpretive frameworks that animated the investments of multiple audiences. Far from being mere bad translators, these authors appear as translation theorists and informed commentators on literary history. Presenting their own work as occurring within an ongoing history of translation rather than deviating from it, these translators contend that the Arabic novel takes translation and cultural transfer as its foundation, as does the European novel. This book takes the implications of these translators' claims seriously, counterpoising them to standard accounts of the novel's supposed travels in translation.
Errant Readers
Authors: Johnson Rebecca C.
Published: May 2021

This chapter discusses serialized translated novels. The Arabic novel made its own proper entry into the Arabic print sphere at this moment as a part of the uncertain reform project of print culture. Novels were published after and alongside a larger body of serialized translated novels that in fact occupied the greater part of the new audience's leisure reading habits. Over the course of the first decades of commercial print from the late 1850s to the late 1870s, serialized translated novels appeared in almost every type of Arabic periodical; for many readers, the word “novel” itself probably referred to these works and not the few original ones produced to compete with them. It was not just news translation that was central to the development of Arabic print culture; the translated novel, which appeared first and most prominently in serialized form, was often identified as part of periodicals' reform projects. At the same time that editors embraced translated fiction as a vehicle for their messages, however, their claim that these works served serious moral purposes was by no means indisputable. These novels' excesses were not always containable by the moral intentions of journal editors, who sometimes resorted to qualifications and elaborate interpretations in order to justify their publication. Print's civilizing reform mission, as uncertain as it was, had a primary object: the modern reading subject. Transforming the public into a reading public, and one that read properly, was the goal of many magazine producers who outlined ideal reading practices and modeled them through novels. And it was likewise a goal with an uncertain outcome.
Coda
Authors: Frost Dennis J.
Published: May 2021

This chapter explores what the future of disability sports is going to look like when the 2020 Games ended and how some in Japan have begun grappling with what has been dubbed the “2021 problem.” It introduces ideas from Japanese scholarship to a broader, English-speaking audience. It also discusses additional insights on the challenges and opportunities ahead for Japan and other countries, as people in societies seek to assure that the impact of the Games proves as lasting and significant as possible. The chapter reviews how Japan experienced a dramatic transformation in the realm of disability sports through 1964 Paralympian Suzaki Katsumi. It elaborates how the decision to host the 1964 Paralympics sparked the establishment of institutions, organizations, competitions, and patterns that laid foundations for the continued development and promotion of Japan's domestic disability sports scene.
Indonesia and the Arab World, Then and Now
Authors: Lücking Mirjam
Published: May 2021

This chapter provides a historical overview of ambivalent encounters between Indonesia and the Arab world through findings that show the relationship between Indonesia and the Middle East. It recounts the Indonesians' earliest encounters with Arab traders in the seventh century, from confrontations with Indo Persian Sufi up to the current democratization process that have been marked by contradictory dynamics. It also explains how Arabs have been acknowledged as teachers of Islam and allies in the postcolonial nonbloc movement. The chapter describes the gloomy counterimage of the Arab world against which Indonesian officials and religious leaders drew the picture of a tolerant, pluralist Indonesian Islam. It mentions the key role of the mobility across the Indian Ocean in the formation of Islamic culture in Indonesia.
Territory, War, and Nation-Building in the South Caucasus
Authors: Goff Krista A.
Published: May 2021

This chapter refers to how World War II and its aftermath were experienced in the Soviet Union and, particularly how geopolitical conflicts intersected with national consciousnesses, relations, and politics in the South Caucasus. It discusses the Soviet leadership that tested the boundaries of its power by fostering national liberation movements among Kurds and Azeris in Iran and advancing territorial claims against Turkey. It also mentions the national actors in Soviet republics that repurposed discourses of national extraterritoriality for their own nation-building, which reignited dormant national disputes in the Caucasus and consolidated transborder alliances and insecurities. The chapter examines how the Bolsheviks created exceptions to the rule by using korenizatsiia policies to exploit cross-border ethnic ties and expand Soviet influence abroad.
Scholars, Politicians, and the Production of Soviet Assimilation Narratives
Authors: Goff Krista A.
Published: May 2021

The chapter focuses on the trajectory of Talysh national identifications and classifications, which was being erased from the public sphere in the Soviet Union. It explores why Talyshes were vulnerable to assimilatory politics and the architecture of Soviet myths of nontitular assimilation. It also argues that theories of Soviet modernity, as well as Talysh ethnonational ties to Iran, are key variables that shaped Talysh experiences in the Soviet Union. The chapter mentions A. A. Isupov, the head of the Administration's Department of the All-Union Census, who invoked an ethnographer's account of Talysh assimilation to explain that the Talysh men were not Talysh but Azerbaijani. It explains how censuses have constitutive power and in the Soviet Union, which played an important role in naturalizing discourses of minority assimilation.
Swords and Oral Culture in the Early Middle Ages
Authors: Neuschel Kristen B.
Published: May 2021

This chapter discusses the relationship between swords and oral culture in the early Middle Ages. It sketches the history of the manufacture of early medieval swords, then looks at evidence of those swords' symbolic lives revealed by archaeological finds, namely grave goods and the reconstruction of rituals that accompanied their deposit. The chapter then considers written evidence of swords, particularly in early wills that record both the bequeathing but also the prior circulation of a sword among allies and kin. Finally, it turns to literature, to Beowulf and its near-contemporary, The Battle of Maldon, to explore the roles those poems ascribe to warriors' (and monsters') swords. Early medieval literature is filled with references to the aesthetic qualities and the mysterious origin of swords and their constituent parts, as well as to their power to strike fear, to wound, and to kill.
Imagination, Improvisation, and Letting Go
Authors: Murphy Keith M.
Published: May 2021

This chapter shows collaboration through the research on face-to-face collaboration, a collaboration with George Marcus as co-organizer of a series of “ethnocharrette” events at the University of California, and the results of collaborations between participants in those events. It explores the different subfields of anthropology that tend to display different general orientations to collaboration and sharing. It also discusses archaeology and biological anthropology wherein collaborative research is more or less treated as a given. The chapter cites the training in linguistic anthropology in which participants share their data order to widen the scope of possible interpretations and analyses beyond what the fieldworker can conjure. It sketches the uncommon figure of a lone anthropologist that dominates the subfield's imaginary, and basic collaborative practices like data sharing.
What’s So Funny ’bout PECE, TAF, and Data Sharing?
Authors: Fortun Mike , Poirier Lindsay , Morgan Alli , Callahan Brian , Fortun Kim
Published: May 2021

This chapter points out different ways involvement with collaborative projects share form, shape, or style, and may be imagined as nested within each other, like matryoshka dolls. It deals with the Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography (PECE), the digital infrastructure that support new collaborative projects in anthropology. It also cites the long-standing collaboration of The Asthma Files (TAF), which is an experimental ethnographic research project that eventually led to the conceptualization and development of PECE. The chapter mentions the Digital Practices in History and Ethnography Interest Group (DPHE-IG) that was organized within the Research Data Alliance (RDA), a global collaboration of individuals and institutions working to make data more easily and openly shareable. It emphasizes how the collaborative form is the experimental form analyzed by Hans-Jorg Rheinberger as essential to a modern scientific style.
Crafting Lissa, an Ethno-Graphic Story
Authors: Hamdy Sherine F. , Nye Coleman
Published: May 2021

This chapter discusses Lissa: A Story about Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution, an inaugural book of the University of Toronto Press that is based on Sherine Hamdy's ethnographic work on organ transplantation in Egypt and Coleman Nye's research on cancer genetics in the United States. It describes Lissa as a graphic work of what the groundbreaking ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch called “ethnofiction.” It also follows two women in Lissa as they grapple with difficult medical decisions in the context of the popular uprisings that began in January 2011. The chapter explores the collaborative dimension of Lissa at the heart of its success in reaching a range of audiences within and beyond anthropology, while also making valuable methodological contributions to the field. It cites Lissa as a unique example of the possibilities of collaborative scholarship to unsettle conventional ideas of authorship, expertise, voice, text, theory, and study.
History and Construction of the Nohkan
Authors: Anno Mariko
Published: May 2021

This chapter examines the development and construction techniques of the nohkan and includes interviews with the nohkan makers. It explains nohkan, also known as fue (flute), as a transverse flute made from a type of bamboo known as Pleioblastus simonii. The chapter discusses how the nohkan is traditionally played in the Noh theater, Kabuki, and some shrine festivals, and is recently seen on concert stages as part of both traditional and non-traditional ensembles. It also describes the nohkan as a unique instrument in both construction and sound that uses a nodo, a thin bamboo tube that disrupts the instrument's natural acoustics. The chapter highlights the performance techniques of the nohkan, which include the creation of shakuhachi-like white noise. It looks at several theories that surround the history and construction of the nohkan in Japan.
AraCust: a Saudi Telecom Tweets corpus for sentiment analysis
Authors: Almuqren Latifah , Cristea Alexandra
Published: May 2021

Comparing Arabic to other languages, Arabic lacks large corpora for Natural Language Processing (Assiri, Emam & Al-Dossari, 2018; Gamal et al., 2019). A number of scholars depended on translation from one language to another to construct their corpus (Rushdi-Saleh et al., 2011). This paper presents how we have constructed, cleaned, pre-processed, and annotated our 20,0000 Gold Standard Corpus (GSC) AraCust, the first Telecom GSC for Arabic Sentiment Analysis (ASA) for Dialectal Arabic (DA). AraCust contains Saudi dialect tweets, processed from a self-collected Arabic tweets dataset and has been annotated for sentiment analysis, i.e.,manually labelled (k=0.60). In addition, we have illustrated AraCust’s power, by performing an exploratory data analysis, to analyse the features that were sourced from the nature of our corpus, to assist with choosing the right ASA methods for it. To evaluate our Golden Standard corpus AraCust, we have first applied a simple experiment, using a supervised classifier, to offer benchmark outcomes for forthcoming works. In addition, we have applied the same supervised classifier on a publicly available Arabic dataset created from Twitter, ASTD (Nabil, Aly & Atiya, 2015). The result shows that our dataset AraCust outperforms the ASTD result with 91% accuracy and 89% F1avg score. The AraCust corpus will be released, together with code useful for its exploration, via GitHub as a part of this submission.
Seminar-case learning model improves clinical teaching: a prospective randomized controlled trial
Authors: Li Peiyuan , Zeng Bin , Chen Xuanmin , Liu Zhifeng , Yang Jing
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this research was to assess whether the efficacy of the seminar-case learning model is superior to the traditional lecture-based learning model in the gastroenterology curriculum for first-year graduate students.

Materials & Methods

This research was a prospective randomized controlled trial that enrolled 92 first-year postgraduate students with a rotation internship in the gastroenterology department. The students were randomly divided into 2 groups and then subjected to an identical version of the curriculum for 8 weeks. The experimental group (n = 50) used the seminar-case learning model, while the control group (n = 42) used the traditional lecture-based learning model. Examinations consisted of a theoretical test and a case analysis test, and anonymous questionnaires were used to assess teaching quality.

Results

All participants completed the examinations and questionnaires. The average theoretical test score of the experimental group was no statistical significance with that of the control group (P = 0.17). The average case analysis test score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The indicators of the experimental group’s feedback were better than those of the control group, such that there were significantly higher learning interest and motivation, a better understanding of diseases and knowledge, improvements in clinical thinking and summary ability, and an active classroom atmosphere in the experimental group (P < 0.05). However, students in the experimental group felt more burdensome.

Conclusion

Compared to the traditional method, the seminar-case learning model showed a higher efficacy. The seminar-case learning model effectively improved students’ outcomes and satisfaction, which helped students narrow the gap between theoretical knowledge and clinical practical application.
Application of Electrical Geophysical Method in Site Selection for Viable Area for Agricultural Practices: A Case Study of Ukpenu-Ibhiese and Iruekpen Edo State-Nigeria
Authors: Isaac Aigbedion , Samuel Salufu
Published: May 2021

Electrical geophysical method was applied, to select viable area with essential soil nutrients for plant’s growth. Conventional soil test analysis was carried out for the purpose of confirmation. A case study was done at Ukpenu-Ibhiese and Iruekpen in Ekpoma. The result of the electrical resistivity geophysical method showed that southwest and northwest of the area has resistivity values that ranged between 80?m to 170?m while the remaining part of the area has values higher than  170?m, ranged from  580?m to 950?m. Values of organic matter, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium,  obtained from the soil test in area with 80?m to 170?m indicated good proportion of essential soil nutrients for plant growth while area with resistivity values that ranged from 580?m to 950?m was deficient in essential soil nutrients for plant growth. The results further proved that soil electrical physical properties thus detected and mapped can be used as a proxy of physical, chemical, and biological features relevant for the appropriate site selection and soils management, based on their resistivity behavior, spatial variability, and time dynamics in the area of study.
Modeling and adaptive controlling of cable‐drogue docking system for autonomous underwater vehicles
Authors: Li Zeyu , Liu Weidong , Li Le , Guo Liwei , Zhang Wenbo
Published: May 2021

In this article, a novel cable‐drogue docking system is proposed between an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and one mobile underwater platform, to increase the docking safety and reduce the negative influences of turbulences around the platform shell on the AUV. The mathematical model of the cable‐drogue system and an radial basis function neural network (RBFNN)‐based Q‐learning proportional‐integral‐differential (PID) controller are developed for the system characteristics analysis and the stabilized control. First, the cable‐drogue's mathematical model is established as a link‐joint‐connected system, whose kinematic and dynamic equations are derived subjected to the hydrodynamic forces on system. One numerical solution procedure is also presented to obtain the motion state of the cable‐drogue system. Next, considering the current interferences on the cable‐drogue system, a cross rudder is added on the drogue to enhance the robustness. An RBFNN‐based Q‐learning PID controller is proposed to improve the control performances, in which the control parameters are adaptively optimized by an Q‐learning neural network. Finally, numerical simulations are made to study the steady‐state and dynamic characteristics of the cable‐drogue system in ocean environment, and to investigate the performances of both the traditional PID controller and the proposed RBFNN‐based Q‐learning PID controller in unknown dynamical system. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the kinematic and dynamic equations of the cable‐drogue system and the proposed controller in this article.
Apoptotic Bodies in the Pancreatic Tumor Cell Culture Media Enable Label‐Free Drug Sensitivity Assessment by Impedance Cytometry
Authors: Honrado Carlos , Adair Sara J. , Moore John H. , Salahi Armita , Bauer Todd W. , Swami Nathan S.
Published: May 2021

The ability to rapidly and sensitively predict drug response and toxicity using in vitro models of patient‐derived tumors is essential for assessing chemotherapy efficacy. Currently, drug sensitivity assessment for solid tumors relies on imaging adherent cells or by flow cytometry of cells lifted from drug‐treated cultures after fluorescent staining for apoptotic markers. Subcellular apoptotic bodies (ABs), including microvesicles that are secreted into the culture media under drug treatment can potentially serve as markers for drug sensitivity, without the need to lift cells under culture. However, their stratification to quantify cell disassembly is challenging due to their compositional diversity, with tailored labeling strategies currently needed for the recognition and cytometry of each AB type. It is shown that the high frequency impedance phase versus size distribution of ABs determined by high‐throughput single‐particle impedance cytometry of supernatants in the media of gemcitabine‐treated pancreatic tumor cultures exhibits phenotypic resemblance to lifted apoptotic cells and enables shape‐based stratification within distinct size ranges, which is not possible by flow cytometry. It is envisioned that this tool can be applied in conjunction with the appropriate pancreatic tumor microenvironment model to assess drug sensitivity and toxicity of patient‐derived tumors, without the need to lift cells from cultures.
Template‐Sacrificed Hot Fusion Construction and Nanoseed Modification of 3D Porous Copper Nanoscaffold Host for Stable‐Cycling Lithium Metal Anodes
Authors: Lin Huinan , Zhang Zewen , Wang Yaoda , Zhang Xiao Li , Tie Zuoxiu , Jin Zhong
Published: May 2021

Lithium (Li) metal anodes have been proposed as a promising candidate for high‐energy‐density electrode materials in secondary batteries. However, the dendrite growth and unstable electrode–electrolyte interfaces during Li plating/stripping are fatal to their practical applications. Herein, the construction of 3D porous Au/Cu nanoscaffold prepared via a convenient template‐sacrificed hot fusion construction method and a nanoseed modification process as an effective Li metal hosting material are proposed. The Au/Cu nanoscaffold can spatially guide uniform deposition of Li metal free from the growth of Li dendrites due to the homogenous Li+ ion flux and negligible nucleation overpotential. Moreover, the Cu skeleton can relieve volume change and stabilize local current density during cycling processes. Benefiting from these advantages, the symmetric cells based on self‐supported Li‐filled Au/Cu (Li‐Au/Cu) nanoscaffold electrodes present highly stable Li plating/stripping for more than 1000 h with a low voltage hysteresis less than 90 mV and a long lifespan over 1300 h at 1.0 mA cm–2 in carbonate‐based electrolytes. Impressively, the Li‐Au/Cu nanoscaffold||LiFePO4 full cells also exhibit exceptional cycling stability and rate performance. This work provides a promising strategy to construct dendrite‐free lithium metal anodes toward high‐performance lithium metal batteries.
Engineering the Deformability of Albumin‐Stabilized Emulsions for Lymph‐Node Vaccine Delivery
Authors: Song Tiantian , Xia Yufei , Du Yiqun , Chen Michael W. , Qing Hong , Ma Guanghui
Published: May 2021

A major challenge in vaccine delivery is to achieve robust lymph‐node (LN) accumulation, which can capitalize on concentrated immunocytes and cytokines in LNs to stimulate the onset and persistence of adaptive immune responses. Previous attempts at developing vaccine delivery systems have focused on the sizes, charges, or surface ligands but not on their deformability. In fact, the LN homing of antigen‐presenting cells depends on deformability to pass through the cellular gaps. Herein, the deformability of albumin‐stabilized emulsions is engineered. Owing to self‐adaptive deformability, the droplets (≈330 nm) can attach to and deform between cells and adjust their sizes to pass through the endothelial gaps (20–100 nm), favoring direct LN transfer (intercellular pathway). Additionally, owing to relatively large sizes, some emulsions can be retained at the administration sites for potent antigen uptake and activation of APCs as well as LN‐targeted delivery of vaccines (intracellular pathway). Compared with solid particles, the dual LN transfer strategy evidently enhances antigen accumulation and activation of LN drainage, potently stimulates cellular immune responses, and increases the survival rate of tumor‐bearing mice. Thus, the deformability of albumin‐stabilized droplets may offer an efficient strategy for potent LN targeting and enhanced vaccinations.
Ex Situ Transfer of Bayesian Neural Networks to Resistive Memory‐Based Inference Hardware
Authors: Dalgaty Thomas , Esmanhotto Eduardo , Castellani Niccolo , Querlioz Damien , Vianello Elisa
Published: May 2021

Neural networks cannot typically be trained locally in edge‐computing systems due to severe energy constraints. It has, therefore, become commonplace to train them “ex situ” and transfer the resulting model to a dedicated inference hardware. Resistive memory arrays are of particular interest for realizing such inference hardware, because they offer an extremely low‐power implementation of the dot‐product operation. However, the transfer of high‐precision software parameters to the imprecise and random conductance states of resistive memories poses significant challenges. Here, it is proposed that Bayesian neural networks can be more suitable for model transfer, because, such as device conductance states, their parameters are described by random variables. The ex situ training of a Bayesian neural network is performed, and then, the resulting software model is transferred in a single programming step to an array of 16 384 resistive memory devices. On an illustrative classification task, it is observed that the transferred decision boundaries and the prediction uncertainties of the software model are well preserved. This work demonstrates that resistive memory‐based Bayesian neural networks are a promising direction in the development of resistive memory compatible edge inference hardware.
Novel deep intronic and frameshift mutations causing a TRIP11‐related disorder
Authors: Qian Yeqing , Hu Gang , Chen Min , Liu Bei , Yan Kai , Zhou Caiyun , Yu Yanqin , Dong Minyue
Published: May 2021

Mutations of the thyroid hormone receptor interactor 11 gene (TRIP11, OMIM: 604505) at 14q32.12 have been associated with the autosomal recessive achondrogenesis type IA (ACG1A, OMIM: 200600) or osteochondrodysplasia (ODCD, OMIM: 184260). In this clinical report of a Chinese family, the mother had two consecutive pregnancies with similar aberrant phenotypes in the fetuses showing severe limb shortening. Whole exome sequencing (WES) of DNA from the second fetus identified a heterozygous frameshift mutation (NM_004239: c.3852delT) of TRIP11. Although this was consistent with the fetal clinical phenotypes, initial review of the WES results implied another novel mutation. To test this, we used high‐precision clinical exome sequencing (HPCES) and found a mutation in Intron 18 of TRIP11 (c.5457+77T>G). Moreover, the sequencing depth of this mutation was only 3× that of WES compared with 161× that by HPCES. To ascertain the pathogenesis of the mutation (c.5457+77T>G), RT‐PCR conducted using the parents' blood samples showed a 77‐bp intronic sequence in the transcripts, which might have encoded for a shortened protein because of early termination due to code shifting. Our study furthers current understanding of deep intron function and provides a novel diagnostic method of deep intragenic mutations in families having two or more consecutive pregnancies with similar aberrant fetal phenotypes.
Enantioselective Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Sanglifehrin A and B and Analogs
Authors: Chang Chia‐Fu , Flaxman Hope A. , Woo Christina M.
Published: May 2021

Sanglifehrin A and B are immunosuppressive macrocyclic natural products endowed with and differentiated by a unique spirocyclic lactam. Herein, we report an enantioselective total synthesis and biological evaluation of sanglifehrin A and B and analogs. Access to the spirocyclic lactam was achieved through convergent assembly of a key pyranone intermediate followed by a stereo‐controlled spirocyclization. The 22‐membered macrocyclic core was synthesized by ring‐closing metathesis in the presence of 2,6‐bis(trifluoromethyl) benzeneboronic acid (BFBB). The spirocyclic lactam and macrocycle fragments were united by a Stille coupling to furnish sanglifehrin A and B. Additional sanglifehrin B analogs with variation at the C40 position were additionally prepared. Biological evaluation revealed that the 2‐CF3 analog of sanglifehrin B exhibited higher anti‐proliferative activity than the natural products sanglifehrin A and B in Jurkat cells. Both natural products induced higher‐order homodimerization of cyclophilin A (CypA), but only sanglifehrin A promoted CypA complexation with inosine‐5′‐monophosphate dehydrogenase 2 (IMPDH2). The synthesis reported herein will enable further evaluation of the spirolactam and its contribution to sanglifehrin‐dependent immunosuppressive activity.
Synthetic Zippers as an Enabling Tool for Engineering of Non‐Ribosomal Peptide Synthetases**
Authors: Bozhueyuek Kenan A. J. , Watzel Jonas , Abbood Nadya , Bode Helge B.
Published: May 2021

Non‐ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are the origin of a wide range of natural products, including many clinically used drugs. Efficient engineering of these often giant biosynthetic machineries to produce novel non‐ribosomal peptides (NRPs) is an ongoing challenge. Here we describe a cloning and co‐expression strategy to functionally combine NRPS fragments of Gram‐negative and ‐positive origin, synthesising novel peptides at titres up to 220 mg L−1. Extending from the recently introduced definition of eXchange Units (XUs), we inserted synthetic zippers (SZs) to split single protein NRPSs into independently expressed and translated polypeptide chains. These synthetic type of NRPS (type S) enables easier access to engineering, overcomes cloning limitations, and provides a simple and rapid approach to building peptide libraries via the combination of different NRPS subunits.
Self‐Assembled Peptide Nano‐Superstructure towards Enzyme Mimicking Hydrolysis
Authors: Chen Yu , Yang Yuqin , Orr Asuka A. , Makam Pandeeswar , Redko Boris , Haimov Elvira , Wang Yannan , Shimon Linda J. W. , Rencus‐Lazar Sigal , Ju Meiting , Tamamis Phanourios , Dong Hao , Gazit Ehud
Published: May 2021

The structural arrangement of amino acid residues in native enzymes underlies their remarkable catalytic properties, thus providing a notable point of reference for designing potent yet simple biomimetic catalysts. Herein, we describe a minimalistic approach to construct a dipeptide‐based nano‐superstructure with enzyme‐like activity. The self‐assembled biocatalyst comprises one peptide as a single building block, readily synthesized from histidine. Through coordination with zinc ion, the peptide self‐assembly procedure allows the formation of supramolecular β‐sheet ordered nanocrystals, which can be used as basic units to further construct higher‐order superstructure. As a result, remarkable hydrolysis activity and enduring stability are demonstrated. Our work exemplifies the use of a bioinspired supramolecular assembly approach to develop next‐generation biocatalysts for biotechnological applications.
Isolation of 1,4‐Diarsinine‐1,4‐diide and 1,4‐Diarsinine Derivatives
Authors: Rottschäfer Dennis , Glodde Timo , Neumann Beate , Stammler Hans‐Georg , Andrada Diego M. , Ghadwal Rajendra S.
Published: May 2021

1,4‐Diarsinine‐1,4‐diide compound [(ADCPh)As]2 (5) (ADCPh={C(DippN)}2CPh, Dipp=2,6‐iPr2C6H3) with a planar C4As2 ring fused between two 1,3‐imidazole scaffolds has been isolated as a red crystalline solid. Compound 5, formally comprising an 8π‐electron C4As2 ring, is antiaromatic and undergoes 2e‐oxidation with AgOTf to form the 6π‐electron aromatic system [(ADCPh)As]2(OTf)2 (6).
A novel magnetically recyclable semi‐dendrimer catalyst‐based ethanolpyridole supported on ferrite nanoparticles (HNPs@Py) for the synthesis of biscoumarin and dihydropyrano[3,2‐c]chromene derivatives
Authors: Afsharnadery Fatemeh , Khosravi Kaveh , Zolfigol Mohammad Ali
Published: May 2021

The novel organic–inorganic nanohybrid magnetic nanoparticles (HNPs@Py) were prepared by a simple method and characterized by FT‐IR, XRD, FE‐SEM, TGA, VSM, EDX, and MAP. The catalytic activity of this new (HNPs@Py) was studied for green synthesis of biscoumarin and 3,4‐dihydropyrano[c]chromene derivatives. The short reaction time, high yields, simple workup, and easy separation of catalyst from the reaction mixture by an external magnetic field are the main advantages of the present protocol.
Silver N‐heterocyclic carbene complexes bearing fluorinated benzyl group: Synthesis, characterization, crystal structure, computational studies, and inhibitory properties against some metabolic enzymes
Authors: Bal Selma , Demirci Özlem , Şen Betül , Taşkın Tok Tuğba , Taslimi Parham , Aktaş Aydın , Gök Yetkin , Aygün Muhittin , Gülçin İlhami
Published: May 2021

A series of the silver N‐heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes have been synthesized from the reactions between benzimidazolium salts bearing fluorinated benzyl group and Ag2O via the deprotonation method. All Ag(I)NHC complexes were characterized by known spectroscopic techniques (1H nuclear magnetic resonance [NMR], 13C NMR, and Fourier transform infrared [FT‐IR]) and elemental analysis. The molecular structures of the two complexes were unambiguously elucidated through single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. Namely, X‐ray studies show that the coordination geometry around the Ag(I) atom in the case of complex 2c is revealed to be almost linear with C–Ag–Cl angle, whereas in complex 2e, it appears as a nonlinear structure. The inhibitory profiles of these new complexes are investigated on some metabolic enzymes. Representatively, the most potent complex against human carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes I and II (hCAs I and II), 2d, was 1.8 times more potent than standard inhibitor acetazolamide against hCAs I and II. On the other hand, complexes 2c and 2b as most potent compounds against both cholinesterase enzymes was around 5 and 1.6 times more potent than tacrine against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), respectively. The most active α‐glucosidase inhibitor 2d had similar activity to acarbose as a standard inhibitor. Furthermore, it confirms its in vitro studies as a result of molecular docking studies for each enzyme with (i) binding energy and inhibition constant values and (ii) the definition of the best conformation and nonbonding interactions of the related complexes (2b, 2c, and 2d) against the different target proteins.
Preparation and characterization of tough and highly resilient nanocomposite hydrogels reinforced by surface‐grafted cellulose nanocrystals
Authors: Li Bengang , Han Yuanfeng , Chen Yurui , Cao Xuzhi , Luo Zhenyang
Published: May 2021

Despite many strong and tough hydrogels have been fabricated according to the energy dissipating mechanism, they usually lack high resilience due to the presence of large hysteresis. Herein, poly (N‐vinylpyrrolidone) grafted cellulose nanocrystal (CNC‐g‐PVP) was used as special multifunctional physical crosslinkers to fabricate tough and highly resilient nanocomposite hydrogels. CNC‐g‐PVP with varying loading was incorporated into chemically crosslinked polyacrylamide (PAM) networks by in‐situ radical polymerization to give PAM/CNC‐g‐PVP nanocomposite hydrogels. Robust cooperative hydrogen bonds existed between the surface‐grafted PVP chains and the PAM matrix, which could rupture to dissipate energy upon deformation and recover instantly on the removal of stress. This unique energy dissipating mechanism led to excellent mechanical performance of the hydrogels. Their tensile elastic modulus, toughness, and compressive strength are 1.4–1.8, 2.1–3.0, and 1.44–2.73 times of pure PAM hydrogel, respectively. Moreover, the hydrogels exhibit low hysteresis, high resilience (ca. 97%) under cyclic tensile loading‐unloading and good recovery of hysteresis (ca. 90%) under cyclic compressive loading‐unloading.
Assessment of Melamine in Different Water Samples with ZnO‐doped Co3O4Nanoparticles on a Glassy Carbon Electrode by Differential Pulse Voltammetry
Authors: Rahman Mohammed M. , Alam M. M. , Asiri Abdullah M. , Uddin Jamal
Published: May 2021

In this investigation, a melamine electrochemical sensor has been developed by using wet‐chemically synthesized low‐dimensional aggregated nanoparticles (NPs) of ZnO‐doped Co3O4as sensing substrate that were decorated onto flat glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The characterization of NPs such as UV‐Vis, FTIR, XRD, XPS, EDS, and FESEM was done for detailed investigations in optical, functional, structural, elemental, and morphological analyses. The ZnO‐doped Co3O4NPs decorated GCE was used as a sensing probe to analyze the target chemical melamine in a phosphate buffer at pH 5.7 by applying differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). It exhibited good performances in terms of sensor analytical parameters such as large linear dynamic range (LDR; 0.15–1.35 mM) of melamine detection, high sensitivity (80.6 μA mM−1 cm−2), low limit of detection (LOD; 0.118±0.005 mM), low limit of quantification (LOQ; 0.393 mM), and fast response time (30 s). Besides this, the good reproducibility (in several hours) and repeatability were investigated under identical conditions. Moreover, it was implemented to measure the long‐time stability, electron mobility, less charge‐transfer resistance, and analyzed diffusion‐controlled process for the oxidation reaction of the NPs assembled working GCE electrode, which showed outstanding chemical sensor performances. For validation, real environmental samples were collected from various water sources and investigated successfully with regard to the reliability of the selective melamine detection with prepared NPs coated sensor probe. Therefore, this approach might be introduced as an alternative route in the sensor technology to detect selectively unsafe chemicals by an electrochemical method with nanostructure‐doped materials for the safety of environmental, ecological, healthcare fields in a broad scale.
COVID‐19 increases challenges for combating domestic violence
Authors: Sutton Halley
Published: May 2021

The COVID‐19 pandemic has increased risk factors for gender‐based violence, according to the American Psychological Association. And in the wake of that finding, a national survey has found that the COVID‐19 pandemic has also increased challenges for agencies looking to serve survivors.