bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Product Market Competition, Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure, and Sustainability Governance: Evidence from Australia
Authors: Li Zhongtian , Jia Jing , Chapple Ellie
Published: January 2025

Synopsis

The research problem

We investigated the relationship between product market competition and the textual characteristics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures. Specifically, we investigated three textual characteristics: tone of optimism, tone of tangibility (matter-of-factness), and readability.

Motivation or theoretical reasoning

On the one hand, the three ways in which CSR disclosure can enhance corporate success in competitive product market situations are as follows: (1) More readable disclosures with more optimistic and matter-of-fact tones help firms attract new customers while enhancing customer loyalty and brand value. (2) Increased market competition is expected to encourage firms to provide more-readable CSR disclosures with optimistic and matter-of-fact tones to enhance their access to external financing at lower costs. (3) CSR disclosure may strengthen a firm’s connections with business stakeholders (e.g., employees and suppliers). These connections are conducive to corporate success in competitive product market situations. On the other hand, it is well established that firms find CSR disclosure to be costly.

The test hypotheses

A significant relationship exists between product market competition and the three textual characteristics of CSR disclosures, namely, tone of optimism, tone of tangibility (matter-of-factness), and readability.

Target population

Our sample comprised 2,018 firm-year observations (2002–2020) of listed firms in Australia.

Findings

Our study found that firms facing an increase in product market competition tend to publish less-readable CSR disclosures with less use of optimism and matter-of-fact tones of language, and vice versa. In practical terms, this indicates that firms fail to leverage CSR disclosure in managing their product market competition, even though CSR disclosure is recognized as an effective marketing and brand strategy. Therefore, our study examined whether or not the CSR committee, as a key sustainability governance mechanism on CSR disclosure, could contribute to mitigating this missed opportunity. We found that the negative relationship between the two variables is attenuated by the presence of a CSR committee and by the CSR committee’s effectiveness. Our study should be of interest to firms, users of CSR disclosures, and regulators.
Green Synthesis of Phosphorus-Doped g-C3N4 as an Advanced Photocatalyst for H2 Evolution
Authors: Duan Huiqin , Fan Jipeng , Liu Chang , Zou Jing , Wang Haitao
Published: January 2025

The advancement of heteroatom-doped photocatalysts represents a promising approach to enhancing the efficiency of photocatalytic hydrogen production. Nonetheless, current doping methods often use toxic and complex processes, along with environmentally harmful materials. For example, traditional sodium dihydrogen phosphate dopants emit toxic fumes at high temperatures. Thus, there is an urgent need to investigate sustainable and direct doping techniques. This study presents the synthesis of phosphorus-doped graphite carbon nitride (P-g-C3N[Formula: see text] through a solvent pre-mixing assisted calcination process, utilizing nontoxic ammonium dihydrogen phosphate as the dopant, the optimal photocatalytic performance was observed at a phosphorus doping concentration of 5[Formula: see text]wt.%, resulting in a hydrogen production rate of 268[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mol/g/h. Notably, the foaming effect resulting from the thermal decomposition of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate significantly enhances the specific surface area of P-g-C3N4, and exhibits superior light absorption capabilities and enhanced photocatalytic activity. The catalyst prepared in this research is both cost-effective and environmentally sustainable, positioning it as a promising candidate for applications in photocatalytic hydrogen production. It provides a new method for the development of clean energy and the solution of environmental pollution problems.
Radius estimates for nearly stable H-hypersurfaces of dimension 2, 3, and 4
Authors: Tinaglia G. , Zhou A.
Published: January 2025

In this paper, we study the geometry of complete constant mean curvature (CMC) hypersurfaces immersed in an [Formula: see text]-dimensional Riemannian manifold [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]) with sectional curvatures uniformly bounded from below. We generalise radius estimates given by Rosenberg [Constant mean curvature surfaces in homogeneously regular 3-manifolds, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 74 (2006) 227–238] ([Formula: see text]) and by Elbert et al. [Stable constant mean curvature hypersurfaces, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 135 (2007) 3359–3366] and Cheng [On constant mean curvature hypersurfaces with finite index, Arch. Math. (Basel) 86 (2006) 365–374] ([Formula: see text]) to nearly stable CMC hypersurfaces immersed in N. We also prove that certain CMC hypersurfaces effectively embedded in [Formula: see text] must be proper.
TEMPERATURE VARIATION, HEALTH, AND PRIVATE MEDICAL COSTS: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA
Authors: ZHANG MINGYANG , WANG WENJIE , HU RUI , CHENG ZHIQIANG , LI JIA , ZHANG XIAOXIAO
Published: January 2025

As heat waves become more frequent and intense around the world, climate change’s effect on human health has aroused widespread concern in society. Using China Family Panel Studies in 2014–2018, this paper empirically examines the health depreciation and medical cost effects of temperature variation. The outcomes demonstrated that the health depreciation effect of temperature variation manifested as impairment of fitness, mental health, and social adaptability. The health depreciation effect of cumulative high temperature is greater, resulting in higher private medical costs. There is a significant nonlinear relationship between temperature bins, spring/summer temperature variability, and medical costs. In addition, there is heterogeneity in the impact of temperature variation on medical costs at the levels of risk, exposure, and vulnerability. This paper enriches research related to the impact of temperature variation on population health depreciation and individual medical costs and provides a scientific basis for a focused, subpopulation, and subregional response to the trend of frequent extreme heat and for promoting public health.
Analyzing Long-Term Rhythm Variations in Mising and Assamese Using Frequency Domain Correlates
Authors: Gogoi Parismita , Sarmah Priyankoo , Prasanna S. R. M.
Published: January 2025

This work explores long-term speech rhythm variations to classify Mising and Assamese, two low-resourced languages from Assam, Northeast India. We study the temporal information of speech rhythm embedded in low-frequency (LF) spectrograms derived from amplitude (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) envelopes. This quantitative frequency domain analysis of rhythm is supported by the idea of rhythm formant analysis (RFA), originally proposed by Gibbon.1 We attempt to make the investigation by extracting features derived from trajectories of first six rhythm formants along with two-dimensional discrete cosine transform-based characterizations of the AM and FM LF spectrograms. The derived features are fed as input to a machine learning tool to contrast rhythms of Assamese and Mising. In this way, an improved methodology for empirically investigating rhythm variation structure without prior annotation of the larger unit of the speech signal is illustrated for two low-resourced languages of Northeast India.
Security Assessment and Generation Improvement Strategies for Large Language Models
Authors: Zhang Yu , Gao Yongbing , Yang Lidong
Published: January 2025

This study evaluates the performance of mainstream large language models (LLMs) in Chinese security generation tasks, examines the potential security risks associated with these models, and proposes strategies for mitigating these risks. To this end, we developed the multidimensional security question answering (MSQA) dataset and the multidimensional security scoring criteria (MSSC). This study compares the performance of three models across six distinct security tasks. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted using GPT-4 and questionnaires, while automatic scoring was implemented using GPT-3.5-Turbo and Llama-3. Experimental results reveal that ERNIE Bot excels in ideology and ethics evaluation, ChatGPT demonstrates strong performance in assessing rumors, false information and privacy security, and Claude performs well in evaluating factual fallacies and social biases. Additionally, the fine-tuned model showed effectiveness in security scoring tasks, and the proposed Security Tips Expert (ST-GPT) successfully mitigates security risks. Despite the promising results, all models exhibit inherent security risks. Based on these findings, we recommend that both domestic and international models adhere to the legal frameworks of their respective jurisdictions, minimize AI hallucinations, continuously expand training corpora, and undergo regular updates and iterations to enhance their reliability and safety.
Low-Resource Language Adaptation Using Two-Stage Regularization for Multilingual ASR
Authors: Kwok Chin Yuen , Yip Jia Qi , Chng Eng Siong
Published: January 2025

A significant portion of the global population speaks multiple languages, including many low-resource languages on which current multilingual ASR models perform poorly. To improve ASR performance on these languages, models are typically fine-tuned on low-resource data with only a small subset of parameters adjusted to prevent overfitting. Traditionally, separate models are fine-tuned for each target language. During inference, a specific model is selected based on the language to be transcribed. However, in applications such as smart home devices, where multilingual users may vary their language use unpredictably, it becomes challenging to pre-select the appropriate model when the language is unknown in advance. To address this, this paper introduces a two-stage regularization-based continual learning method that adapts a single model to transcribe both source and target languages while minimizing overfitting. In the first stage, strong regularization is applied to update all parameters, and in the second, regularization is relaxed to enhance learning capacity. By adapting Whisper, a state-of-the-art speech foundation model that supports MASR, to 10 h of data for each of 2 target languages from Common Voice, the results show that our method can reduce average word error rate in the source and target languages from 18.59% to 15.52%.
NMPC-Based Obstacle Avoidance Trajectory Planning for Bionic Ray-Inspired Amphibious Robots with Dead Zone Compensation
Authors: Wang Yixuan , Wu Qingxiang , Wang Xuebing , Liu Huawang , Fang Yongchun , Sun Ning
Published: January 2025

This paper focuses on a bionic ray-inspired amphibious robot (BRAR), which is modeled through the differential steering approach. A nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) obstacle avoidance method is proposed for trajectory planning. First, a BRAR’s differential drive system is designed, followed by kinematic and dynamic modeling. Subsequently, an NMPC-based obstacle avoidance trajectory planning method is developed to constitute safe trajectories in complex workspaces. Further, a dead zone compensation method is proposed to improve control precision. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through both simulations and experiments. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Early Paleozoic large-scale subduction retreat and slab rollback revealed by mafic arc magmas in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt
Authors: Wu Hailin , Zhu Wenbin , Ge Rongfeng , Zeng Lingsen
Published: January 2025

Early Paleozoic arc magmas are prominent along the northern margin of the Tarim–North China collage in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, yet their petrogenesis and tectonic implications remain unclear. This study focuses on mafic arc rocks from the Kalatashtagh area, NW China, revealing that they formed between 450 and 420 Ma. Whole-rock compositions resemble high-Al arc basalts. Slab traces document that approximately 5% slab-derived sediment melt contributing to a depleted mantle source. Thermodynamic–geochemical modelling indicates that these magmas resulted from 20% melting of garnet lherzolite at about 120 km, followed by fractional crystallization of clinopyroxene, olivine, spinel and plagioclase. These findings, combined with regional data, suggest a continental arc extending over 1500 km along the northern margin of the collage during this period. Geochemical evidence indicates that slab-derived sediment melts predominated over hydrous fluids in the sub-arc mantle wedge. It probably resulted from high slab surface temperatures owing to asthenosphere upwelling induced by slab rollback. The process was also responsible for rifting of marginal terrains and the formation of back-arc basins along the northern margin of the Tarim–North China collage. This retreating-type subduction zone may globally connect to form a girdle, facilitating prolonged dispersal of Gondwana and opening of the Palaeotethys.
Self-Care Practices in the Context of Older Adults Living Independently
Authors: Casey Bridget , Marston Greg , Vyas Dhaval
Published: January 2025

Supporting practices around self-care is crucial for enabling older adults to continue living in their own homes and "ageing in place". While existing assistive technology and research concerning self-care practices have been centered on a medicalized viewpoint, it neglects a holistic perspective of older adults' preferences in self-care. This paper presents a study involving 12 older adults aged 65 and above in a semi-structured interview study, where we aimed to understand participants' practices around self-care. Our findings show that self-care in such cases involves activities across the physical, emotional and psychological, social, leisure and spiritual domains. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the daily self-care practices of older adults including an updated self-care framework identifying key aspects, and a set of design implications for self-care assistive technologies.
Enhancing High-Throughput GPU Random Walks Through Multi-Task Concurrency Orchestration
Authors: Xu Cheng , Li Chao , Hou Xiaofeng , Mei Junyi , Wang Jing , Wang Pengyu , Sun Shixuan , Guo Minyi , Hao Baoping
Published: January 2025

Random walk is a powerful tool for large-scale graph learning, but its high computational demand presents a challenge. While GPUs can accelerate random walk tasks, current frameworks fail to fully utilize GPU parallelism due to memory-to-compute bandwidth imbalance. In this paper, CoWalker, an efficient GPU framework, is proposed to facilitate concurrent execution of random walks for high overall throughput. CoWalker features three novel designs. First, it incorporates a multi-level execution model that effectively orchestrates diverse walk tasks and reduces GPU stalls based on multiple graph characteristics. Second, it collaboratively manages graph data and streaming multiprocessors to minimize memory access interference and maximize core utilization under concurrent tasks. Finally, a multi-dimensional scheduler selects compatible random walk task combinations based on memory footprints to achieve maximum throughput. CoWalker significantly improves throughput over state-of-the-art baselines by mitigating concurrency overheads and effectively harnessing GPU parallelism. Our extensive evaluations on real-world workloads demonstrate that CoWalker achieves 2.75 × higher overall system throughput compared with commercial tools and 1.56 × over the SOTA academic system.
Efficient and Effective Role Player: A Compact Knowledge-grounded Persona-based Dialogue Model Enhanced by LLM Distillation
Authors: Hu Linmei , Zhang Xinyu , Song Dandan , Zhou Changzhi , He Hongyu , Nie Liqiang
Published: January 2025

Incorporating explicit personas into dialogue models is critical for generating responses that fulfill specific user needs and preferences, creating a more personalized and engaging interaction. Early works on persona-based dialogue generation directly concatenate the persona descriptions and dialogue history into relatively small pre-trained language models (PLMs) for response generation, which leads to uninformative and inferior results due to the sparse persona information and the limited model generation capabilities. Recently, large language models (LLMs) have shown their surprising capabilities in language generation. Prompting the LLMs with the persona descriptions for role-playing dialogue generation has also achieved promising results. However, deploying LLMs is challenging for practical applications due to their large scale, spurring efforts to distill the generation capabilities into more concise and compact models through teacher-student learning. In this article, we propose an efficient compact
K
nowledge-grounded
P
ersona-based
D
ialogue model enhanced by LLM
D
istillation (KPDD). Specifically, first, we propose to enrich the annotated persona descriptions by integrating external knowledge graphs (KGs) with a mixed encoding network, coupled with a mixture of experts (MoE) module for both informative and diverse response generation. The mixed encoding network contains multiple layers of modality interaction operations, enabling information from both modalities propagates to the other. Second, to fully exploit the generation capabilities of LLMs, we turn to the distillation technique to improve the generation capabilities of our model, facilitated by a natural language inference (NLI)-based filtering mechanism to extract high-quality information from LLMs. In addition, we employ a curriculum learning strategy to train our model on the high-quality filtered distilled data and progressively on the relatively noisy original data, enhancing its adaptability and performance. Extensive experiments show that KPDD outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in terms of both automatic and human evaluation.
gHyPart: GPU-friendly End-to-End Hypergraph Partitioner
Authors: Wu Zhenlin , Zhao Haosong , Liu Hongyuan , Wen Wujie , Li Jiajia
Published: January 2025

Hypergraph partitioning finds practical applications in various fields, such as high-performance computing and circuit partitioning in VLSI physical design, where high-performance solutions often demand substantial parallelism beyond what existing CPU-based solutions can offer. While GPUs are promising in this regard, their potential in hypergraph partitioning remains unexplored. In this work, we first develop an end-to-end deterministic hypergraph partitioner on GPUs, ported from state-of-the-art multi-threaded CPU work, and identify three major performance challenges by characterizing its performance. We propose the first end-to-end solution,
gHyPart
, to unleash the potentials of hypergraph partitioning on GPUs. To overcome the challenges of GPU thread underutilization due to imbalanced workload, long critical path, and high work complexity due to excessive operations, we redesign GPU algorithms with diverse parallelization strategies thus expanding optimization space; to address the challenge of no one-size-fits-all implementation for various input hypergraphs, we propose a decision tree-based strategy to choose a suitable parallelization strategy for each kernel. Evaluation on 500 hypergraphs shows up to 125.7 × (17.5 × on average), 640.0 × (24.2 × on average), and 171.6 × (1.4 × on average) speedups over two CPU partitioners and our GPU baseline
gHyPart-B
, respectively.
Computing with Hypergeometric-Type Terms
Authors: Tabuguia Bertrand Teguia
Published: January 2025

Take a multiplicative monoid of sequences in which the multiplication is given by Hadamard product. The set of linear combinations of interleaving monoid elements then yields a ring. For hypergeometric sequences, the resulting ring is a subring of the ring of holonomic sequences. We present two algorithms in this setting: one for computing holonomic recurrence equations from hypergeometric-type normal forms and the other for finding products of hypergeometric-type terms. These are newly implemented commands in our Maple package
HyperTypeSeq
, available at https://github.com/T3gu1a/HyperTypeSeq, which we also describe.
The ShowProof Command in
GeoGebra Discovery
: Towards the Automated Ranking of Elementary Geometry Theorems
Authors: Kovács Zoltán , Parisse Bernard , Recio Tomás , Vélez M. Pilar , Yu Jonathan H.
Published: January 2025

We present a new
GeoGebra Discovery
command,
ShowProof
, which provides a certified step-by-step algebraic proof and complexity grade of planar geometry theorems. The output is available in multiple languages and can be exported as plain text to Mathematica or Maple format for further analysis.
A Julia Package for Polyhedral Omega and Applications
Authors: Ayyıldız Tülay , Demirel Deniz Naz , Tapan Ismail , Zafeirakopoulos Zafeirakis
Published: January 2025

This paper introduces a Julia package for tackling linear Diophantine systems and related optimization problems using the Polyhedral Omega algorithm. The package integrates partition analysis and polyhedral geometry to offer efficient solutions. PolyhedralOmega.jl package implements the Polyhedral Omega algorithm, and Optimization.jl provides optimization enhancements.
The tRF-33/IGF1 axis dysregulates mitochondrial homeostasis in HER2-negative breast cancer
Authors: Lou Yuming , Fu Bifei , Liu Lutong , Song Jialu , Zhu Mengying , Xu Chaoyang
Published: January 2025

In this study, we identified differential expression of tRNA fragments in HER2-negative BC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues, observing significant upregulation of an i-tRF type tRF-33-MEF91SS2PMFI0Q (tRF-33) in the tumor tissue. We also found that tRF-33 promoted tumorigenesis in BC cells. We demonstrated for the first time that IGF1 was a target gene of tRF-33 and also showed that the tRF-33/IGF1 axis impaired mitochondrial dynamics, thus affecting mitochondrial homeostasis and promoting HER2-negative BC progression.
The Mechanism of Crack Initiation and Propagation in Fissured Rock Mass Under the Influence of Opening Degree
Authors: Zeng Jiajun , Wang Qiyun , Zeng Qiang , Yang Zhicheng
Published: January 2025

In this paper, a single‐fissure rock‐like specimen with various openings is manually prepared for uniaxial compression fracture testing, and the fracture failure mechanical characteristics and crack initiation failure modes of the rock‐like material under the influence of both the fissure openness and the dip angle are studied. First, the evolution law of peak strength and elastic model of fissured rock mass under the combined influence of fissure dip angle and opening degree was analyzed. Second, the evolution mechanism of the crack initiation mode of fissured rock mass caused by changes in opening degree under different fissure dip angles was explored. Finally, the characteristics of failure modes of fissured rock mass affected by opening degree were analyzed. The research results have a certain guiding significance for exploring the mechanical characteristics and fracture evolution mechanism of rock masses with different opening degrees in geotechnical engineering.
Endoscopic View of the Aorta Through the Oesophagus: An Unusual Complication Post Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair
Authors: Yunus Kushedison , Ahmadzai Hasib , Dunlop Eleanor Noreen , Thomson Andrew
Published: January 2025

We present a case of an 80‐year‐old female who presented with chest pain, vomiting and night sweats a few weeks post thoracic endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (TEVAR). A computed tomography (CT) scan demonstrated a type 1B endoleak for which she underwent a repeat TEVAR. Postoperatively, she developed fever, dysphagia, haematemesis and melaena. CT angiography subsequently confirmed an aorto‐oesophageal fistula (AEF). Gastroscopy was performed to confirm this and found an ovoid oesophageal perforation with visible aortic graft and purulent fluid. Serial endoscopic oesophageal stents were placed and the patient recovered after an oesophageal Ultraflex stent was placed. Unfortunately, however, the patient was found unresponsive at home with black vomitus and in cardiac arrest and passed away 18 months after her initial endoscopic procedure. This case highlights that AEF is a complication following a TEVAR procedure. This can be managed temporarily with oesophageal stent placement and an Ultraflex stent in the longer term. However, oesophageal stent placement is not curative in cases of significant oesophageal perforation as it does not lead to lead to closure of a large defect.
A Case of Radical Resection of Esophageal Basaloid Cell Carcinoma After Hemostasis by Transarterial Embolization
Authors: Sato Keita , Takahashi Koji
Published: January 2025

Esophageal bleeding management typically involves endoscopy but becomes challenging with large or hemorrhagic tumors, especially in cases of rare basal cell carcinoma. This malignancy, with a poorer prognosis than squamous cell carcinoma, often requires definitive surgery. A 78‐year‐old man with severe hematemesis underwent transarterial embolization (TAE) after failed endoscopic hemostasis for a middle thoracic esophageal tumor. Subsequently, he successfully underwent radical tumor resection on the seventh day of hospitalization. While emergency surgery is an option, its invasiveness may be a limitation, especially for patients in poor general condition. TAE is effective for hemostasis and serves as a crucial bridge to radical esophageal tumor resection.
Efficacy of the Protocol for Trauma Team Activation in Taipei: A Retrospective Study
Authors: Chen Wan-Lin , Ou Ju-Chi , Ko Shih-Yu , Li Wen-Ching , Ma Hon-Ping
Published: January 2025

Introduction: Trauma triage is the use of trauma assessment for prioritizing patients for treatment or transport by injury severity. According to Taiwan Public Health Report, accidents and their adverse events were the sixth leading cause of death and accounted for over 7000 casualties in 2009. However, a lack of accuracy in identifying the severity of a patient’s injury and their prehospital information can result in inappropriate triage. This study evaluated the efficacy of field triage guidelines governing trauma team activation in Taipei and explored the characteristics of undertriaged and overtriaged patients.

Methods: This study retrospectively observed all patients with trauma transported to the emergency department of a medical center by Taipei City public ambulance from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2019. A total of 2217 patients were included. The Cribari matrix method was used to assess undertriage and overtriage. A logistic regression was employed to analyze the effect of risk factors in patients with major trauma.

Results: In this study, 320 and 1897 patients with trauma had full and limited trauma team activation, respectively. Among them, 664 patients with trauma were older than 65 years, and most of them were injured in a traffic accident. Among patients with major trauma, 24, 214, and 156 patients were aged < 20, 20–65, and > 65 years, respectively. A logistic regression analysis revealed that patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of less than 13, with systolic blood pressure level of less than 90, and with respiratory rate over 30 breaths per minute was more likely to be appropriately triaged.

Conclusion: The Taipei prehospital field triage guidelines are acceptable but not an ideal tool for identifying patients with major trauma, with an overtriage rate of 48.12% and an undertriage rate of 12.03%. To decrease undertriage or overtriage rates, emergency medical service providers should receive comprehensive training.
Black Shale Lithofacies of the Wufeng–Longmaxi Formation in the Southeast Margin of Chongqing, China
Authors: Liu Junqing , Gong Qisen , Guo Chenye , Du Shuang , Wang Kai , Wu Bin , Xiao Shihong , Wen Lei , Guo Ping , Zhao Zhihui , Zhang Leyi , Lei Ping
Published: January 2025

China’s shale gas has undergone nearly 20 years of exploration; unconventional oil and gas geological evaluation theories and research methods have been greatly enriched, but how to quickly, conveniently, and accurately identify the sweet spots of shale gas is still puzzling many researchers. This study focuses on the black shale of the Wufeng–Longmaxi Formation in the southeastern edge of the Sichuan Basin; lithofacies classification, the relationship between lithofacies and depositional environments, and the correlation between lithofacies and shale gas–bearing capacity are discussed. At last, we have established the lithofacies classification criteria; the Wufeng–Longmaxi Formation deposited eight types of lithofacies, which the paleoenvironment during deposition evolved gradually from anaerobic environment to oxygen‐poor and oxygen‐rich environment. The black high‐carbon and high‐silicon shale lithofacies and the black carbon‐rich and silicon‐rich shale lithofacies are rich in organic matter, and they were deposited in high primary productivity, low terrigenous detritus input, and euxinic environment. The black medium‐carbon medium‐silica shale lithofacies and the black medium‐carbon and high‐silica shale lithofacies contain organic matter, which are deposited in medium primary productivity, middle terrigenous detritus input, and oxygen‐poor and low hydrodynamic environment. The gray–black low‐carbon low‐silicon clay‐rich shale lithofacies, the gray low‐carbon and high‐silicon shale lithofacies, and the gray–white low‐carbon and silicon‐rich shale lithofacies are poor in organic matter, which are deposited in a transitional environment of low primary productivity and oxygen poor–oxygen rich. In the analysis of the relationship between organic matter–rich black shale facies and sedimentary environment, it is shown that the enrichment of organic matter is positively correlated with the oxidation–reduction discrimination indicators Ni/Co, U/Th ratio of ancient oceans, and the evaluation indicators Babio and Ba/Al ratios of primary productivity. Only under the favorable sedimentary geochemical conditions and good preservation conditions can deposit lithofacies sections (zones). Based on the optimization of shale gas dessert section and the drilling of horizontal wells, the optimization of favorable black shale lithofacies types and the classification of shale gas dessert section are the key to shale gas exploration. The shale gas–bearing capacity is closely related to lithofacies. Black carbon‐rich silicon‐rich shale lithofacies and black high‐carbon high‐silicon shale lithofacies have the best gas‐bearing capacity and are favorable lithofacies.
Functional Analysis of Complex Structural and Splice‐Altering Variants in the ARSB Gene Towards the Personalized Antisense‐Based Therapy for Mucopolysaccharidosis Type VI Patients
Authors: Bychkov Igor , Filatova Alexandra , Baydakova Galina , Sikora Nataliya , Garifullina Emiliya , Bykova Anna , Tabakov Vyacheslav , Skretnev Alexandr , Skoblov Mikhail , Zakharova Ekaterina
Published: January 2025

Mucopolysaccharidosis Type VI (MPS VI) is a lysosomal storage disorder associated with biallelic pathogenic variants in the ARSB gene. Herein, we present three patients with biochemical and clinical pictures of MPS VI, for whom routine molecular genetic analysis using Sanger sequencing of ARSB failed to identify one or both causative variants. RNA analysis of patients’ samples revealed alterations of the wild‐type ARSB mRNA isoform in all cases, and one case required further analysis using whole genome sequencing. As a result, we identified one complex structural variant, which is a 52‐kb insertion of the LHFPL2 gene fragment in the ARSB Intron 4, derived from nonallelic homologous recombination and leading to premature transcription termination, a recurrent deep intronic variant leading to pseudoexon activation and an intragenic deletion altering the integrity and splicing of the ARSB Exon 2.

Using a minigene‐based cellular model, we demonstrated that the identified pseudoexon can be efficiently blocked by antisense molecules incorporated into modified U7 small nuclear RNAs and circular RNAs. The same approach was used to block the overlapping polymorphic pseudoexon in the ARSB gene and increase the amount of wild‐type mRNA isoform approximately twofold.
Improving Patient Understanding of Glomerular Disease Terms With ChatGPT
Authors: Abdelgadir Yasir H. , Thongprayoon Charat , Craici Iasmina M. , Cheungpasitporn Wisit , Miao Jing
Published: January 2025

Background: Glomerular disease is complex and difficult for patients to understand, as it involves various pathophysiology, immunology, and pharmacology areas.

Objective: This study explored whether ChatGPT can maintain accuracy while simplifying glomerular disease terms to enhance patient comprehension.

Methods: 67 terms related to glomerular disease were analyzed using GPT‐4 through two distinct queries. One aimed at a general explanation and another tailored for patients with an education level of 8th grade or lower. GPT‐4’s accuracy was scored from 1 (incorrect) to 5 (correct and comprehensive). Its readability was assessed using the Consensus Reading Grade (CRG) Level, which incorporates seven readability indices including the Flesch–Kincaid Grade (FKG) and SMOG indices. Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score, ranging from 0 to 100 with higher scores indicating easier‐to‐read text, was also used to evaluate the readability. A paired t‐test was conducted to assess differences in accuracy and readability levels between different queries.

Results: GPT‐4’s general explanations of glomerular disease terms averaged at a college readability level, indicated by the CRG score of 14.1 and FKG score of 13.9. SMOG index also indicated the topic’s complexity, with a score of 11.8. When tailored for patients at or below an 8th‐grade reading level, readability improved, averaging 9.7 by the CRG score, 8.7 by FKG score, and 7.3 by SMOG score. The FRE score also indicated a further improvement of readability from 31.6 for general explanations to 63.5 for tailored explanations. However, the accuracy in GPT‐4’s tailored explanations was significantly lower than that in general explanations (4.2 ± 0.4 versus 4.7 ± 0.3, p < 0.0001).

Conclusion: While GPT‐4 effectively simplified information about glomerular diseases, it compromised its accuracy in the process. To implement these findings, we suggest pilot studies in clinical settings to assess patient understanding, using feedback from diverse groups to customize content, expanding research to enhance AI accuracy and reduce biases, setting strict ethical guidelines for AI in healthcare, and integrating with health informatics systems to provide tailored educational content to patients. This approach will promote effective and ethical use of AI tools like ChatGPT in patient education, empowering patients to make informed health decisions.
Physicochemical Characterisation and Potential Uses of Oils From the Entrails of Nile Tilapia From Different Farming Sites in Ghana
Authors: Quansar Ekow , Bayor Marcel Tunkumgnen , Anchirinah Janet , Gbedema Stephen Yao , Owusu Frederick William Akuffo , Otu Desmond Asamoah Bruce , Acquah Prince George Jnr , Baninie Kawsar Adam
Published: January 2025

The Nile tilapia, a fish of the Teleost group, is economically valuable due to its ease of cultivation, high growth rates and resistance to environmental conditions and is increasingly used for waste conversion. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiochemical properties and potential applications of oils derived from the entrails of Nile tilapia obtained from four different farming sites in Ghana. The tilapia fish oil (TFO) was extracted by the wet rendering method. The refractive index, fatty acid profile, colour and cholesterol content of the TFO samples (TFS1, TFS2, TFS3 and TFS4) were determined using a refractometer, GC–MS, chromameter and UV spectrophotometer, respectively. More than 65% of fatty acids present in TFS1 to TFS4 were unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs). Oleic acid and its isomer were present in the oils as follows: TFS2 (58.37%), TFS3 (57.28%), TFS1 (43.89%) and TFS4 (41.71%). The following physicochemical properties of TFS1 to TFS4 were determined: vitamin A (0.70–2.15 mg/100 g), vitamin E (0.03–0.009 mg/100 g), acid value (0.27–0.66 mg KOH/g), peroxide value (0.009–4.488 meq/kg), iodine value (77.87–74.62 mg/g), saponification value (247.93–592.27 mg KOH/g), cholesterol content (162.33–438.33 mg/100 mL) and moisture content (1.08%–3.25%). These findings indicate that TFOs have potential applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. However, the differences in physicochemical properties must be considered during product development to ensure optimal quality and marketability of the final product.
On General Sum‐Connectivity Index and Number of Segments of Fixed‐Order Chemical Trees
Authors: Hanif Muzamil , Bhatti Akhlaq A. , Saber Hicham , Attiya Adel A. , Ali Akbar
Published: January 2025

Nowadays, one of the most active areas in mathematical chemistry is the study of the mathematical characteristics associated with molecular descriptors. The primary objective of the current study is to find the largest value of χα of graphs in the class of all fixed‐order chemical trees with a particular number of segments for α > 1, where χα is the general sum‐connectivity index, which is a molecular descriptor introduced about one and a half decades ago. Similar results for general trees are also found.
Camel Brucellosis: Seroprevalence, Associated Risk Factor, and Public Health Perceptions in Arero District of Borena Zone, Southern Ethiopia
Authors: Edema Wario Waji , Hunderra Gemechu Chala , Neja Sultan Abda
Published: January 2025

A cross‐sectional study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and potential risk factors of camel brucellosis and to assess public health awareness of the disease in the selected kebele of Arero District, Borena Zone, Southern Ethiopia. A total of 313 blood samples were collected from selected camels using a systematic random sampling technique. The serum samples underwent initial screening for brucellosis using the rose Bengal plate test (RBPT), with further confirmation through the indirect enzyme‐linked immunosorbent Assay (i‐ELISA). The overall seroprevalence of camel brucellosis was 7.66% using RBPT and 2.24% using i‐ELISA. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses revealed significant associations; female camels (OR = 30.16, p = 0.05) and mixing camels with other animal species (OR = 0.019, p = 0.001 by i‐ELISA) were significantly linked to camel seropositivity for Brucella infection. Assessment of public health perception and awareness from 227 owners indicated limited awareness; most respondents lacked knowledge about brucellosis (94.27%), 82.82% were unaware of raw meat risks, 94.27% did not know about brucellosis being zoonotic, and 18.94% consumed raw milk with blood. The majority (94.71%) practiced bare‐handed calving, with 93.39% handling abortion materials, rarely isolating infected camels. The study found a moderate prevalence of brucellosis among camels in the study areas. Lack of implemented control strategies, combined with local pastoral practices, could potentially contribute to disease spread. Therefore, there should be continuous efforts of the disease control strategy at the animal level, community awareness creation, separation of infected camels from health heard, and avoiding mixing a camel with other animal species.
Supplementary Data from Temozolomide Sensitizes ARID1A-Mutated Cancers to PARP Inhibitors
Authors: Yu Zheng-Cheng , Li Tianhe , Tully Ellen , Huang Peng , Chen Chih-Ning , Oberdoerffer Philipp , Gaillard Stephanie , Shih Ie-Ming , Wang Tian-Li
Published: January 2025

Supplementary Figures
Phase I Trial of TTI-101, a First-in-Class Oral Inhibitor of STAT3, in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors
Authors: Tsimberidou Apostolia M. , Vining David J. , Arora Sukeshi P. , de Achaval Sofia , Larson Jeffrey , Kauh John , Cartwright Carrie , Avritscher Rony , Alibhai Imran , Tweardy David J. , Kaseb Ahmed O.
Published: January 2025

Purpose:

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 is a transcription factor that is essential for the survival and immune sequestration of cancer cells. We conducted a phase I study of TTI-101, a first-in-class, selective small-molecule inhibitor of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, in patients with advanced metastatic cancer.

Patients and Methods:

Patients were treated with TTI-101 orally twice daily in 28-day cycles at four dose levels (DL): 3.2 (DL1), 6.4 (DL2), 12.8 (DL3), and 25.6 (DL4) mg/kg/day (“3+3” design). Three TTI-101 formulations were used in a stepwise manner (NCT03195699).

Results:

Sixty-four patients were treated (median age, 63 years; male sex, 52%; median number of prior therapies, 3). No dose-limiting toxicities or fatal treatment-related adverse events (TRAE) were observed. Diarrhea (mostly grade 1/2) was the only TRAE observed in ≥30% of subjects. Five patients experienced grade 3 TRAEs that resolved. TTI-101 showed linear pharmacokinetics from DL1 to DL3, with the pharmacokinetics plateauing at DL3. The recommended phase II dose is 12.8 mg/kg/day (DL3). Of the 41 patients who were evaluable for response, five (12%) had confirmed partial responses (cPR) and 17 (41%) had stable disease. Three (18%) of the 17 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma had a cPR (median time to treatment failure, 10.6 months). Two other cPRs were noted in one patient with ovarian cancer and one patient with gastric cancer.

Conclusions:

TTI-101 was well tolerated. cPRs were observed across tumor types. The antitumor activity of TTI-101 monotherapy in patients with advanced, metastatic solid tumors is promising. A phase II study of TTI-101 in hepatocellular carcinoma is currently underway.
ctDNA: A Gateway for Personalized Risk Stratification in Surgically Resectable Hepatocellular Cancer
Authors: Pinato David J. , Lombardi Pasquale , D’Alessio Antonio , Torkpour Aria , Fulgenzi Claudia Angela Maria , Brunetti Leonardo
Published: January 2025

Although deemed potentially curative, surgical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with >70% risk of postoperative relapse. Recurrence is uniquely multifactorial in hepatocellular carcinoma, potentially stemming from metachronous reoccurrence of the original tumor or de novo cancerization. ctDNA may improve personalized risk stratification after resection, a setting where adjuvant immunotherapy has failed to provide survival benefit.

See related article by Hu et al., p. XX
Tattoo ink products and pigments 2018-19 upfront the new EUREACH regulation: Danish golden benchmark
Study of 108 studios and 39687 clients tattooed with inks from 109720 ink bottles
Authors: Serup Jørgen Vedelskov , Severin Bjørn Christian , Hammershøy Esben
Published: January 2025

ABSTRACT

Background: The new EU regulation on tattoo inks in force January 2022 in a hitherto unregulated market marks a historical change.

Objective: Mapping of the thousands of tattoo inks de facto used in studios before the new EU regulation and establish a historical reference to tattoo customer exposure, ink toxicology assessment, clinical complications, and the impact on tattooing businesses.

Method: A tattooist-operated electronic system (InkBase) for ink registration required by law is used in Denmark since 2018. A local database in studios refers to a central database. Clients, sessions, ink bottles, brand name, and pigment color index (CI) are registered. Person’s data protection is respected. Tracing harmful inks is possible, with public warning.

Results: Registrations from 108 studios employing about 700 tattooists were collected from March 2018 through 2019. 39687 clients were tattooed in 50604 sessions, using colors from 109720 ink bottles. 10833 were CI-labelled identifying the pigment. 98.1% of inks originated from USA. Detailed statistics on inks and pigments used are provided as a benchmark showing the spontaneous use and preference of “old” tattoo inks before the EU regulation compulsory to member states introduced dramatic restrictions difficult to follow.

Conclusions: Denmark can, having detailed ink registration enforced by law and having a commonly used electronic registration system reporting to a central server, function as an index country in future surveillance of use of tattoo inks in studios, toxicology aspects and the impact of regulatory intervention on the tattooing industry, with a large sample of data collected in 2018-19.

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Targeting P21‐Activated Kinase 2 as a Novel Therapeutic Approach to Mitigate Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction
Authors: Zhang Hongyuan , Xu Honglin , Zhou Fangchao , Azam Tayyiba , Samman Sultan , Binder Pablo , Nguyen Binh , Cartwright Elizabeth J. , Müller Oliver J. , Hille Susanne S. , Pu Fay , Green Darren , Liu Yanrong , Zi Min , Wang Xin
Published: January 2025

Background

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is linked to prolonged endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. P21‐activated kinase 2 (Pak2) facilitates a protective ER stress response. This study explores the mechanism and role of Pak2 in HFpEF pathology.

Methods and Results

The HFpEF mouse model was established using a high‐fat diet combined with the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor Nω‐Nitro‐
l
‐arginine methyl ester (high‐fat diet+Nω‐Nitro‐
l
‐arginine methyl ester). The model exhibited the typical characteristics of HFpEF (cardiac hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction with preserved systolic function, and lung edema) as determined by echocardiography and hemodynamic analysis. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling and dihydroethidium staining results showed that cell death and reactive oxygen species generation were higher in the high‐fat diet+Nω‐Nitro‐
l
‐arginine methyl ester–treated group. Transmission electron microscopy revealed disruption of the ER subcellular structures in the HFpEF mouse model, while western blot analysis confirmed reduced Pak2 phosphorylation and impaired inositol‐requiring enzyme 1/X‐box binding protein 1 splicing ER stress response signaling. Furthermore, H9c2 cells subjected to the palmitic acid–mediated metabolic stress developed temporal changes in unfolded protein response proteins and Pak2 activity. The inositol requiring enzyme 1/X‐box binding protein 1 splicing branch of unfolded protein response was impaired earlier than other branches. Overexpression of Pak2 by adenovirus in H9c2 cells sustained the activation of inositol requiring enzyme 1/X‐box binding protein 1 splicing. Pak2 deficiency in the mouse heart accelerated the HFpEF progression, and this phenomenon occurred as early as 10 weeks in Pak2 cardiomyocyte‐specific knockout mice. Conversely, adeno‐associated virus serotype 9–mediated Pak2 overexpression mitigated HFpEF symptoms, underscoring its protective role against HFpEF progression.

Conclusions

Pak2 prevents HFpEF progression, exerting cardioprotective effects against ER stress. These insights underscore the therapeutic value of Pak2 in HFpEF.