bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An experimental millimeter wave radio over fiber link with double polarization multiplexing
Authors: Badraoui Nada , Berceli Tibor
Published: August 2021

A novel approach, an optical radio over fiber link with double polarization multiplexing is presented. In the two orthogonal polarizations of the optical beam the contents of information to be transmitted are different doubling the link capacity this way. For experimental verification a millimeter wave radio over fiber link with double polarization multiplexing has been developed. To ensure low cross polarization an incoherent approach is used. A high quality signal transmission is achieved by a proper procedure providing high polarization extinction ratio. In the experimental investigations different bit rates and fiber lengths are used. A signal with 12 Gbit/s bit rate is transmitted over a 25 km long link with about 1.10–8 bit error rate. That result is much better than the already published data measured on experimental links.
Belgian population norms for the EQ-5D-5L, 2018
Authors: Van Wilder Lisa , Charafeddine Rana , Beutels Philippe , Bruyndonckx Robin , Cleemput Irina , Demarest Stefaan , De Smedt Delphine , Hens Niel , Scohy Aline , Speybroeck Niko , Van der Heyden Johan , Yokota Renata T. C. , Van Oyen Herman , Bilcke Joke , Devleesschauwer Brecht
Published: August 2021

Purpose

Health-related quality of life outcomes are increasingly used to monitor population health and health inequalities and to assess the (cost-) effectiveness of health interventions. The EQ-5D-5L has been included in the Belgian Health Interview Survey, providing a new source of population-based self-perceived health status information. This study aims to estimate Belgian population norms for the EQ-5D-5L by sex, age, and region and to analyze its association with educational attainment.

Methods

The BHIS 2018 provided EQ-5D-5L data for a nationally representative sample of the Belgian population. The dimension scores and index values were analyzed using logistic and linear regressions, respectively, accounting for the survey design.

Results

More than half of respondents reported problems of pain/discomfort, while over a quarter reported problems of anxiety/depression. The average index value was 0.84. Women reported more problems on all dimensions, but particularly on anxiety/depression and pain/discomfort, resulting in significantly lower index values. Problems with mobility, self-care, and usual activities showed a sharp increase after the age of 80 years. Consequently, index values decreased significantly by age. Lower education was associated with a higher prevalence of problems for all dimensions except anxiety/depression and with a significantly lower index value.

Conclusion

This paper presents the first nationally representative Belgian population norms using the EQ-5D-5L. Inclusion of the EQ-5D in future surveys will allow monitoring over time of self-reported health, disease burden, and health inequalities.
Metal–ligand interactions in complexes of cyclen-based ligands with Bi and Ac
Authors: Kovács Attila , Varga Zoltán
Published: August 2021

The structural and bonding properties of Bi and Ac complexes with cyclen-based chelating ligands have been studied using relativistic DFT calculations in conjunction with TZ2P all-electron basis sets. Besides the parent cyclen ligand, the study has covered its extensions with pyridine-type (Lpy), carboxylate (DOTA, DOTPA), picolinate (MeDO2PA) and phosphonate (DOTMP) pendant arms. The effect of the cyclen ring size has been probed by increasing it from [12]aneN4to [16]aneN4. Additional extensions in the DOTA complexes included the H2O ligand at the 9th coordination site as well as the p-SCN-Bn substituent (a popular linker to the targeting vector). The study focuses on the complex stability, the nature of bonding and the differences between Ac and Bi in the complexes. The metal–ligand interactions have been analysed by the Extended Transition State method combined with Natural Orbitals of Chemical Valence theory and Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules models.
Application of Parallel Difference Tests to Resolve the Axial Activation–Deactivation Profile of Copper–Zinc Oxide Catalyst During Hydrogenation of Methyl Acetate
Authors: Birtill John , Deeley Jon , Bailey Craig
Published: August 2021

The deactivation of a copper–zinc oxide catalyst has been studied in a set of parallel tests which covered a range of space-times with equal flow and variable catalyst quantity, from 1/8th bed to full bed. The activation–deactivation trends over time in different segments of the full catalyst bed have been determined by two alternative parallel difference methods. The relative trends in segmental activity over time were followed by (a) using a pre-determined reaction model, and (b) by referencing the axial conversion profile against the initial profile. The trends estimated by both methods were in broad agreement. The results show that the front segment of the catalyst bed experienced a more rapid process of deactivation than the rest of the catalyst bed. This process is consistent with the known susceptibility of this type of catalyst to deactivation by chlorine and sulfur impurities in the feedstock. The main part of the catalyst bed appeared to undergo a process of activation during the first 150 h, followed by a slow process of deactivation which was more rapid during periods at increased temperature. The slow deactivation is most likely associated with sintering of copper particles. The conversion parallel difference method provides a convenient and rapid tool for segmental analysis of parallel life tests, and is well-suited to resolving the impact of a poison front within a catalyst bed.
Seroprevalence of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus on swine farms in a tropical country of the Middle Americas: the case of Costa Rica
Authors: Meléndez Ronald , Guzmán Mónica , Jiménez Carlos , Piche Marta , Jiménez Emily , León Bernal , Cordero Juan M. , Ramirez-Carvajal Lisbeth , Uribe Alberto , Van Nes Arie , Stegeman Arjan , Vernooij Hans , Romero-Zúñiga Juan José
Published: August 2021

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) causes significant economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Little is known regarding the epidemiology of this infection in tropical countries. To address this problem in Costa Rica, a seroepidemiological study was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, a pilot study was conducted in nine farms with the clinical diagnosis of PRRSV. In total, 265 pig serum samples were collected from animals ranging in age from 1 to 15 weeks of age. This study aimed to establish the duration of maternal immunity in piglets, to identify the period of viremia, and to determine when seroconversion occurs. In the second phase, a cross-sectional serology study was performed on a representative sample of the Costa Rican national herds in the second phase. The twenty-five selected farms represent all provinces and were classified according to herd size (100 to 2000 sows). In each farm, pigs aged 8, 10, and 12 weeks were sampled, as well as gilts based on the pilot study. In total 1281 pigs were sampled across all 25 farms. The aim of the cross-sectional study was to quantify the seroprevalence of PRRSV in Costa Rican pig farms and to describe its geographical distribution in this tropical country. The prevalence of positive farms was 44% (11/25), and these farms were located in six of the seven provinces of Costa Rica. Overall, 58% (344/596) of the pigs were seropositive to PRRSV. The age of the pigs and the ecozone where farms were located were significantly related with PRRSV seroprevalence in animals and herds, respectively.
Conversion mechanism of a continuous pressure arch structure in strip filling mining
Authors: Shao Xiaoping , Wang Long , Li Xin , Fang Zhiyu , Zhao Bingchao , Liu Ershuai , Liu Lang
Published: August 2021

Strip mining is the key technology to solve the problem of coal mining under water, so mastering the law of overburden load transfer in strip mining is the key to safe production in working face. We studied it in the context of the shallow seam No. 3 in the Shanghe Coal Mine (northern Shaanxi Province, China) through similarity simulation and field measurement analysis. A theoretical analysis, based on the concept of pressure arch, allowed the establishment of a continuous arch theoretical model for the strip coal pillars (or filling bodies) of the mine. A similar simulation study on strip filling and staged mining has previously shown that, in a first stage, the overlying strata load is mainly transferred to the remaining strip coal pillars; in a second stage, this load is mainly sustained by the odd-numbered strip coal pillars; finally, in a third stage, this load is mainly sustained by the first-stage strip filling body, while the third-stage filling body is not loaded. Our theoretical analysis showed that, during the first stage, the overlying rock load outside the arch was mainly sustained by the arch structure, while that inside of the arch was sustained by the filling body; in the second stage, the arch structure lost stability during the recovery of the even-numbered coal pillars and the arch axis developed upward, leading to the formation of a new arch with an odd number of coal pillars as the arch foot; in the third stage, after the recovery of the odd-numbered coal pillars, a new arch was formed. The arch foot of the new supporting structure was represented by the first-stage filling body; moreover, the load was mainly borne by the second-stage filling body, ensuring the stability of the overburden rock after mining. The theoretical analysis revealed that the pillar or filling body only bears part of the overburden load in strip filling mining. The pillar (filling body) load in correspondence of working face 3216 during each stage of filling was measured and analyzed, proving a continuous arch structure transformation between the pillar and the filling body. Finally, we verified the reliability of the proposed theoretical model.
A cost of illness study of COVID-19 patients and retrospective modelling of potential cost savings when administering remdesivir during the pandemic “first wave” in a German tertiary care hospital
Authors: Jeck Julia , Jakobs Florian , Kron Anna , Franz Jennifer , Cornely Oliver A. , Kron Florian
Published: August 2021

Purpose

First detected in China in 2019, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has rapidly spread globally. Since then, healthcare systems are exposed to major challenges due to scarce personnel and financial resources. Therefore, this analysis intended to examine treatment costs of COVID-19 inpatients in a German single centre during the first pandemic wave in 2020 from a healthcare payer perspective. Potential cost savings were assessed considering the administration of remdesivir according to the European Medicines Agency label.

Methods

A retrospective medical-chart review was conducted on COVID-19 patients treated at University Hospital Cologne, Germany. Patients were clustered according to an eight-category ordinal scale reflecting different levels of supplemental oxygen. Potential cost savings due to the administration of remdesivir were retrospectively modelled based on a reduced length of stay, as shown in the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial.

Results

105 COVID-19 patients were identified. There was wide variability in the service data with median treatment costs from EUR 900 to EUR 53,000 per patient, depending on major diagnosis categories and clinical severity. No supplemental oxygen was needed in 40 patients (38.1%). Forty-three (41.0%) patients were treated in intensive-care units, and 30 (69.8%) received invasive ventilation. In our model, in-label administration of remdesivir would have resulted in costs savings of EUR 2100 per COVID-19 inpatient (excluding acquisition costs).

Conclusion

We found that COVID-19 inpatients suffer from heterogeneous disease patterns with a variety of incurred G-DRG tariffs and treatment costs. Theoretically shown in the model, financial resources can be saved by the administration of remdesivir in eligible inpatients.
Variational Approach to Regularity of Optimal Transport Maps: General Cost Functions
Authors: Otto Felix , Prod’homme Maxime , Ried Tobias
Published: August 2021

We extend the variational approach to regularity for optimal transport maps initiated by Goldman and the first author to the case of general cost functions. Our main result is an $$\epsilon $$
ϵ
-regularity result for optimal transport maps between Hölder continuous densities slightly more quantitative than the result by De Philippis–Figalli. One of the new contributions is the use of almost-minimality: if the cost is quantitatively close to the Euclidean cost function, a minimizer for the optimal transport problem with general cost is an almost-minimizer for the one with quadratic cost. This further highlights the connection between our variational approach and De Giorgi’s strategy for $$\epsilon $$
ϵ
-regularity of minimal surfaces.
Information Opacity in Biopharmaceutical Innovation Through the Lens of COVID-19
Authors: Paradise Jordan
Published: August 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed myriad and complex challenges for our national health care system spanning preparedness, response, access, costs, infrastructure, coordination, and medical innovation. These challenges implicate federal, state, and local agencies and actors, as well as international collaborative bodies. One constant throughout the pandemic has been the pressing need for safe and effective diagnostics, prophylactic vaccines, and drug treatments to counter the virus.1 Inarguably, significant problems with the multi-faceted system of drug and vaccine innovation and regulation manifested long before the COVID-19 pandemic.2 The pandemic, however, has laid bare the inextricable connections among federal funding, patents, product review and approval mechanisms, and the eventual medical products and resulting costs.
Too Important for the Bureaucrats: Rethinking Risk and Regulatory Presumptions in Times of Crisis
Authors: Toomey James
Published: August 2021

The posture of American regulation of medicine is negative—we assume that a new drug is unsafe and ineffective until it is proven safe and effective.1 This regulatory posture is a heuristic normative principle, a specific instance of the so-called precautionary principle in public health law.2 It is defensible, if debatable, in many ordinary circumstances.3 But like many normative heuristics, this negative posture may compel suboptimal decision-making in emergencies, where context-specific decisions must be made and a range of unique values may apply.
Infected by Bias: Behavioral Science and the Legal Response to COVID-19
Authors: Teichman Doron , Underhill Kristen
Published: August 2021

This Article presents the first comprehensive analysis of the contribution of behavioral science to the legal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the descriptive level, the Article shows how different psychological phenomena such as loss aversion and cultural cognition influenced the way policymakers and the public perceived the pandemic, and how such phenomena affected the design of laws and regulations responding to COVID-19. At the normative level, the Article compares nudges (i.e., choice-preserving, behaviorally informed tools that encourage people to behave as desired) and mandates (i.e., obligations backed by sanctions that dictate to people how they must behave). The Article argues that mandates rather than nudges should serve in most cases as the primary legal tool used to regulate behavior during a pandemic. Nonetheless, this Article highlights ways in which nudges can complement mandates.
A “Passport to Freedom”? COVID-19 and the Re-bordering of the World
Authors: TAZZIOLI Martina
Published: August 2021

This paper argues that COVID-19 has triggered a multiplication of heterogeneous bordering mechanisms that, far from stopping movement as such, have enhanced hierarchies of mobility. In particular, it shows that a confinement continuum has been put in place in the name of the “contain to protect” principle: migrants have been subjected to protracted lockdown measures in the name of their own protection. The piece concludes by interrogating how to rearticulate critique in COVID times in light of the enforcement of discriminatory “passports to freedom” (COVID-19 travel certificates).
Life history parameters of the crocodile shark,Pseudocarcharias kamoharai, in the tropical Atlantic Ocean
Authors: Rosa Daniela , Gago Marco , Fernandez-Carvalho Joana , Coelho Rui
Published: August 2021

The crocodile shark (Pseudocarcharias kamoharai) is a small lamniform shark that is occasionally by-caught in pelagic longline fisheries targeting tunas and swordfish. Due to its biological features, this species is highly vulnerable to overexploitation. However, at present, the crocodile shark is not evaluated for its stock status by any of the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. In this study, the biology of 391 specimens (220 females and 171 males), ranging from 44.2 cm to 101.5 cm fork length (FL), collected from the tropical region of the Atlantic Ocean, was examined. Ages were assigned from growth band counts in vertebral sections, with the modified von Bertalanffy growth model, using a fixed size at birth (L0) at 32 cm FL, producing the best fit:Linf= 105.6 cm FL andk= 0.14 y−1for females;Linf= 94.6 cm FL andk= 0.18 y−1for males. Maturity ogives were fitted to both length- and age-based data. The size (L50) and age (A50) at 50% maturity was estimated at 67.2 cm FL (5 years) and 81.6 cm FL (8 years) for males and females, respectively. Mean uterine fecundity was 3.7 pups per litter with a 1:1 embryonic sex ratio. Further work is needed regarding crocodile shark life-history characteristics, especially because there are no age validation studies of the band pair deposition periodicity. However, the parameters now presented can contribute to future evaluations of this species, which is especially important given its potentially vulnerable life history.
The taxonomic position ofAnoplotaenia dasyuri(Cestoda) as inferred from molecular sequences
Authors: Barton Diane P. , Zhu Xiaocheng , Lee Vanessa , Shamsi Shokoofeh
Published: August 2021

Anoplotaenia dasyuriBeddard, 1911 (Cestoda), from the Tasmanian devil,Sarcophilus harrisii(Boitard, 1842), is a taxonomic enigma, where a combination of morphological features, host type and geographical location have prevented it from being placed within a family and it is consideredincertae sedis, despite its accepted validity. We performed a phylogenetic analysis of threeA. dasyurispecimens collected from three Tasmanian devils using 18S and 28S rRNA sequences.Anoplotaenia dasyuriwas found to have closest affinity with the family Paruterinidae, especially the genusCladotaeniaCohn, 1901. The postulated theory of transfer of an ancestor ofAnoplotaeniaBeddard, 1911 transferring to the Tasmanian devil from an unrelated carnivorous host, such as an accipitriform or other carnivorous bird, is discussed and supported.
Reablement in need of theories of ageing: would theories of successful ageing do?
Authors: Thuesen Jette , Feiring Marte , Doh Daniel , Westendorp Rudi G. J.
Published: August 2021

The reablement approach is becoming a popular social and health-care model in many Western countries, providing support strategies for older people experiencing impairment. Reablement programmes have been criticised for a lack of theories, explicating the understanding of the problem that it is intended to address, i.e. ageing and impairment in old age. We need to discuss the inherent theories in intervention programmes to question taken-for-granted assumptions about not only what works, but also how these assumptions affect the sociocultural models of ageing. Theories on successful ageing have been suggested as underpinning reablement. This article aims to present and discuss theories of successful ageing compared to key principles, components and outcomes in reablement. A medical and epidemiological, a psychological and a sociocultural theoretical approach to successful ageing are included. Contemporary reablement programmes mirror medical and psychological theories of successful ageing, including models of ageing that are associated with continuity, optimisation, selection, individuality and goal orientation. Most reablement programmes do not address sociocultural perspectives on ageing. As older people experience impairment in a pertinent liminality within and between the sociocultural values of the third and fourth age, it is important for reablement programmes and practice to consider the theoretical assumptions and underpinning theories of ageing and how to help older people balance between optimising capacity and accepting losses in their everyday life.
Assortativity and bidegree distributions on Bernoulli random graph superpositions
Authors: Bloznelis Mindaugas , Karjalainen Joona , Leskelä Lasse
Published: August 2021

A probabilistic generative network model with$n$nodes and$m$overlapping layers is obtained as a superposition of$m$mutually independent Bernoulli random graphs of varying size and strength. When$n$and$m$are large and of the same order of magnitude, the model admits a sparse limiting regime with a tunable power-law degree distribution and nonvanishing clustering coefficient. In this article, we prove an asymptotic formula for the joint degree distribution of adjacent nodes. This yields a simple analytical formula for the model assortativity and opens up ways to analyze rank correlation coefficients suitable for random graphs with heavy-tailed degree distributions. We also study the effects of power laws on the asymptotic joint degree distributions.
Party Building as Institutional Bricolage: Asserting Authority at the Business Frontier
Authors: Koss Daniel
Published: August 2021

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is expanding its organizational infrastructure in the private sector, revealing the dynamics of CCP-style institutional change. Party building follows a distinct version of adaptive governance. Hesitant to rely on innovative tools alone, organizers productively tinker with traditional and disparate elements. Grassroots Party organs, sanctified by their venerable history, are redeployed – initially for modest purposes that fall short of their original revolutionary potential. The Party's surge in private-sector firms was triggered by technocrats overhauling Leninist systems to reconnect to Party members; the search for a broader mission came later. To empower CCP organs in companies, organizers use tactical precedents ranging from incentives to negotiations around Party financing, and membership discipline. Combining tactics from different eras, overseas Party building deploys old organizational arrangements to new ends, whereas digitization gives time-worn procedures a second life. The inclination for institutional bricolage is a deeply rooted hallmark of innovation in Chinese statecraft.
Where to Protect? Prioritization and the Responsibility to Protect
Authors: Glanville Luke , Pattison James
Published: August 2021

Given the multiple threats of atrocities in the world at any given time, where should states direct their attention and resources? Despite the rich and extensive literature that has emerged on the responsibility to protect (RtoP), little thought has been given to the question of how states and other international actors should prioritize when faced with multiple situations of ongoing and potential atrocities. As part of the roundtable “The Responsibility to Protect in a Changing World Order: Twenty Years since Its Inception,” in this essay we first demonstrate the importance of questions of prioritization for RtoP. We then delineate some of the issues involved in assessing the issue of prioritization, beginning with what we call the “basic maximization model,” and introducing additional atrocity-specific and response-specific issues that also need to be considered. We also emphasize the importance of considering how the need to address mass atrocities should be weighed against other global responsibilities, such as those concerning global poverty, global health, and climate change. We thereby set an agenda for future discussions.
Trust or Perish? The Responsibility to Protect and Use of Force in a Changing World Order
Authors: Gallagher Adrian , Wheeler Nicholas J.
Published: August 2021

As part of the roundtable, “The Responsibility to Protect in a Changing World Order: Twenty Years since Its Inception,” this essay asks the reader to consider the role that trust, distrust, and ambivalence play in enabling and constraining the use of force under pillar three of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP). Drawing on interdisciplinary studies on trust, it analyzes the 2011 military intervention in Libya for evidence on how trust, distrust, and ambivalence help explain the positions taken by member states on the United Nations Security Council. In so doing, it challenges the mainstream view that the fallout over Libya represents a shift from trust to distrust. We find this binary portrayal problematic for three reasons. First, it fails to take into account the space in between trust and distrust, which we categorize as ambivalence and use to make sense of the position of Russia and China. Second, it is important to recognize the role of bounded trust, as those that voted in favor of going into Libya did so on certain grounds. Third, it overemphasizes the political fallout, as six of the ten elected member states continued to support the intervention. Learning lessons from this case, we conclude that it is highly unlikely that the Security Council will authorize the use of force to fulfill the RtoP anytime soon, which may have detrimental implications for the RtoP as a whole.
Climate Displacement and the Legal Gymnastics of Justice: Is It All Political?
Authors: Simonelli Andrea C.
Published: August 2021

The future for people becoming displaced due to climate processes is still unknown. The effects of climate change are more apparent every day, and those most acutely impacted are still unable to access an appropriate legal remedy for their woes. Two new books evaluate the limits to international legal protections and the application of justice. Climate Change, Disasters, and the Refugee Convention, by Matthew Scott, investigates the assumptions underpinning the dichotomy between refugees and those facing adversity due to climate-induced disasters. Climate Change and People on the Move: International Law and Justice, by Fanny Thornton, goes further by examining how justice is used—and curtailed—by international instruments of protection. Thornton's legal analysis is thorough and thoughtful, but also demonstrative of the limitations of justice when confined by historical precedent and political indifference. With so little still being done to hold industries to account, is it any surprise that the legal system is not yet ready to protect those harmed by carbon pollution? Demanding justice for climate displacees is an indictment of modern Western economics and development; it implicates entire national lifestyles and the institutions and people that support them.
‘Parity with all nations’: The ‘coolie’ trade and the quest for recognition by China and Japan
Authors: Le Moli Ginevra
Published: August 2021

This article explores the quest for sovereign equality by China and Japan as it unfolded in a specific historical moment, the third quarter of the nineteenth century. It does so by focusing on the debate around the ‘coolie trade’, i.e., the traffic of Chinese indentured labourers, which offered an opportunity for non-Western countries such as China and Japan to position themselves with respect to Western conceptions of ‘modernity’ or ‘civilization’ and thereby advance their quest for ‘parity with all nations’. Through a study of the Maria Luz case, decided in the early 1870s by Czar Alexander II and drafted by de Martens, the article sheds light on the different approaches of Japan and China with respect to international law at this critical historical juncture. Specifically, it shows that, although the coolie trade mostly affected China, it was Japan who first managed to reap a parity dividend by firmly condemning the practice, whereas China’s action was steered by the circumstances. Eventually, however, China’s growing interest in Chinese populations abroad paved the way for the establishment of its first permanent diplomatic representations overseas. For both countries, the events encapsulated by the Maria Luz case unveil an important, yet overlooked, moment in their quest for parity with all nations and, more generally, in their engagement with international law.
The distance profile of rooted and unrooted simply generated trees
Authors: Berzunza Ojeda Gabriel , Janson Svante
Published: August 2021

It is well known that the height profile of a critical conditioned Galton–Watson tree with finite offspring variance converges, after a suitable normalisation, to the local time of a standard Brownian excursion. In this work, we study the distance profile, defined as the profile of all distances between pairs of vertices. We show that after a proper rescaling the distance profile converges to a continuous random function that can be described as the density of distances between random points in the Brownian continuum random tree. We show that this limiting function a.s. is Hölder continuous of any order
$\alpha<1$
, and that it is a.e. differentiable. We note that it cannot be differentiable at 0, but leave as open questions whether it is Lipschitz, and whether it is continuously differentiable on the half-line
$(0,\infty)$
. The distance profile is naturally defined also for unrooted trees contrary to the height profile that is designed for rooted trees. This is used in our proof, and we prove the corresponding convergence result for the distance profile of random unrooted simply generated trees. As a minor purpose of the present work, we also formalize the notion of unrooted simply generated trees and include some simple results relating them to rooted simply generated trees, which might be of independent interest.
Cite the Good Cite: Making Citations in Political Science More Transparent
Authors: Grossman Jonathan
Published: August 2021

Political science research aims for greater transparency. Authors are increasingly expected to share their data and methodology so that readers and reviewers can follow their line of argument and replicate their findings. However, citations of books, articles, and other secondary sources in the discipline are still predominantly general, referring to entire works rather than specific parts of them. This article addresses the problem of the overuse of general citations as a disciplinary norm in political science. An analysis of articles published in five top-tier journals in 2019 reveals that only around 10% of the citations in these articles provide detailed source information (e.g., page numbers and location information) and identifies some of the causes for this scarcity. The article calls for more transparent citation norms in the discipline, suggests preliminary steps toward this goal, and proposes solutions for the challenges posed by the increasing use of digital sources.
BLC mini-series: New statistical approaches and research practices for bilingualism research
Authors: Veríssimo João
Published: August 2021

The past decade has witnessed some dramatic methodological changes in the wider disciplines of psycholinguistics, psychology, and experimental linguistics. One such set of changes comprises the development of open and transparent research practices, which have increasingly been adopted in response to concerns that empirical results often fail to replicate and may not generalise across samples and experimental conditions (Gibson & Fedorenko, 2013; Maxwell, Lau, & Howard, 2015; McElreath & Smaldino, 2015; Yarkoni, 2020). Another important set of changes concerns the use of sophisticated statistical techniques, such as mixed-effects models (Baayen, Davidson, & Bates, 2008) and Bayesian analyses (Vasishth, Nicenboim, Beckman, Li & Kong, 2018), which can provide much more information about magnitudes of effects and sources of variation than the more traditional statistical approaches.
Information encoding and transmission profiles of first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) speech
Authors: Bradlow Ann R.
Published: August 2021

Inspired by information theoretic analyses of L1 speech and language, this study proposes that L1 and L2 speech exhibit distinct information encoding and transmission profiles in the temporal domain. Both the number and average duration of acoustic syllables (i.e., intensity peaks in the temporal envelope) were automatically measured from L1 and L2 recordings of standard texts in English, French, and Spanish. Across languages, L2 acoustic syllables were greater in number (more acoustic syllables/text) and longer in duration (fewer acoustic syllables/second). While substantial syllable reduction (fewer acoustic than orthographic syllables) was evident in both L1 and L2 speech, L2 speech generally exhibited less syllable reduction, resulting in low information density (more syllables with less information/syllable). Low L2 information density compounded low L2 speech rate yielding very low L2 information transmission rate (i.e., less information/second). Overall, this cross-language comparison establishes low information transmission rate as a language-general, distinguishing feature of L2 speech.
Improvement of matching fields using coplanar field border method in postmastectomy radiotherapy
Authors: Kongsa Anupong , Chitapanarux Imjai , Watcharawipha Anirut , Huntrakul Lalita , Thongsuk Warit , Klunklin Pitchayaponne
Published: August 2021

Aim:

To propose a new matching method for the supraclavicular (SC) and tangential fields on three-dimensional radiotherapy (3DRT) for postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT).

Methods:

A method of matching coplanar field borders (CFB) between the tangential and SC fields was created in 3DRT. The collimator angle of the medial tangential field was calculated to coplanar the SC field. The proposed method performance was ultimately benchmarked using the half beam block (HBB) and traditional three-field monoisocenter (TTM) methods by dosimetric comparison. The decision score was then employed to clarify the performance among these methods.

Results:

The results show that the TTM method exhibited not only low doses on the organs at risk (OAR) but also on the matching fields. The CFB and HBB produced comparable results, but the ipsilateral lung yielded lesser amounts than the HBB. The decision score indicated a low performance level when using the TTM method, whereas the CBF method exhibited a slightly higher performance score than the HBB.

Findings:

The CFB exhibited good performance in terms of the dose on OARs and at the matching fields. This method offers a comparable level of performance to the HBB. Thus, the CFB offers an alternative method of significant interest in PMRT.
Assessing Crisis Chat Visitors' Capacity to Regulate Thoughts Related to Suicide
Authors: Coohey Carol , Neblett Keri
Published: August 2021

Abstract. Background: Regulation of suicidal thoughts may be defined as a person's beliefs about their capacity to control affective and cognitive processes related to suicide. The inability to regulate suicidal thoughts is related to persistent suicidal thoughts, intentions, attempts, and suicide. Aims: The purpose of this study was to validate a scale that counselors could use to assess chat visitors' capacity to regulate suicidal thoughts. Method: The validity and reliability of the Regulation of Suicidal Thoughts Scale (RSTS) was evaluated using two different samples ( n = 1,162, n = 241). Results: All items correlated with the theoretical construct regulation of suicidal thoughts, and the structural model showed the RSTS predicted perceived certainty to attempt suicide. Construct and criterion validity were inferred from a decrease in visitors' ability to control their thoughts of suicide from pre-chat to post-chat (Cohen's d = 91). Greater regulation in thoughts was also related to less certainty to attempt suicide. Limitations: Additional evidence is needed to validate the RSTS, especially among diverse populations. Conclusion: Counselors could use RSTS pre-chat scores to match counseling skills with specific affective and cognitive processes related to visitors' suicidal thoughts.
Exploration of Decadal Tidal Evolution in Response to Morphological and Sedimentary Changes in the Yangtze Estuary
Authors: Zhu Chunyan , Guo Leicheng , van Maren D. S. , Wang Zheng Bing , He Qing
Published: August 2021

Estuarine tidal dynamics are influenced by changes in morphology and friction. In this work, we quantified changes in tidal damping in the Yangtze Estuary and explored the impact of morphology and friction using a numerical model. In‐depth analyses of tidal data reveal a strong reduction in tidal damping from 1990 to 2010, followed by a slightly enhanced damping from 2010 to 2020 in the South Branch. The reduced tidal damping in the South Branch from 1990 to 2010 is controlled by sediment decline which induces an increase in water depth (erosion), thereby strongly amplifying tides. However, the effective bottom roughness (Manning coefficient) is increased by 60%, which is probably related to the 80% decrease in the suspended sediment concentration (SSC). Such an effect may enhance tidal damping, which counteracts the contribution of water depth increase on amplifying tides by 75%. From 2010 to 2020, the tides in the South Branch became more damped, suggesting a dominance of the decrease in SSC over the morphological changes. In the mouth zone, tidal dissipation is enhanced from 1997 to 2010, which is mainly caused by an overall increase in effective bottom roughness. Local structures dominate the increase in effective bottom roughness; however, fluid mud formation may contribute to a decrease after 2010. Overall, we argue that estuarine morphological and sedimentary changes in response to riverine sediment decline and local engineering works control the tidal evolution in the Yangtze Estuary, which is important for evaluation of human activities and estuarine management.
Spectral Albedo of Dusty Martian H2O Snow and Ice
Authors: Khuller Aditya R. , Christensen Philip R. , Warren Stephen G.
Published: August 2021

Recent evidence of exposed H2O ice on Mars suggests that this ice was deposited as dusty (<∼1% dust) snow. This dusty snow is thought to have been deposited and subsequently buried over the last few million years. On Earth, freshly fallen snow metamorphoses with time into firn and, if deep enough, into glacier ice. While spectral measurements of martian ice have been made, no model of the spectral albedo of dusty martian firn or glacier ice exists at present. Accounting for dust and snow metamorphism is important because both factors reduce the albedo of snow and ice by large amounts. However, the dust content and physical properties of martian H2O ice are poorly constrained. Here, we present a model of the spectral albedo of H2O snow and ice on Mars, which is based on validated terrestrial models. We find that small amounts (<1%) of martian dust can lower the albedo of H2O ice at visible wavelengths from ∼1.0 to ∼0.1. Additionally, our model indicates that dusty (>0.01% dust) firn and glacier ice have a lower albedo than pure dust, making them difficult to distinguish in visible or near‐infrared images commonly used to detect H2O ice on Mars. Observations of excess ice at the Phoenix landing site are matched by 350‐μm snow grains with 0.015% dust, indicating that the snow has not yet metamorphosed into glacier ice. Our model results can be used to characterize orbital observations of martian H2O ice and refine climate‐model predictions of ice stability.
Foraging with the frontal cortex: A cross-species evaluation of reward-guided behavior
Authors: Rudebeck Peter H. , Izquierdo Alicia
Published: August 2021

Efficient foraging is essential to survival and depends on frontal cortex in mammals. Because of its role in psychiatric disorders, frontal cortex and its contributions to reward procurement have been studied extensively in both rodents and non-human primates. How frontal cortex of these animal models compares is a source of intense debate. Here we argue that translating findings from rodents to non-human primates requires an appreciation of both the niche in which each animal forages as well as the similarities in frontal cortex anatomy and function. Consequently, we highlight similarities and differences in behavior and anatomy, before focusing on points of convergence in how parts of frontal cortex contribute to distinct aspects of foraging in rats and macaques, more specifically. In doing so, our aim is to emphasize where translation of frontal cortex function between species is clearer, where there is divergence, and where future work should focus. We finish by highlighting aspects of foraging for which have received less attention but we believe are critical to uncovering how frontal cortex promotes survival in each species.
Network structure of resource use and niche overlap within the endophytic microbiome
Authors: Michalska-Smith Matthew , Song Zewei , Spawn-Lee Seth A , Hansen Zoe A , Johnson Mitch , May Georgiana , Borer Elizabeth T , Seabloom Eric W , Kinkel Linda L
Published: August 2021

Endophytes often have dramatic effects on their host plants. Characterizing the relationships among members of these communities has focused on identifying the effects of single microbes on their host, but has generally overlooked interactions among the myriad microbes in natural communities as well as potential higher-order interactions. Network analyses offer a powerful means for characterizing patterns of interaction among microbial members of the phytobiome that may be crucial to mediating its assembly and function. We sampled twelve endophytic communities, comparing patterns of niche overlap between coexisting bacteria and fungi to evaluate the effect of nutrient supplementation on local and global competitive network structure. We found that, despite differences in the degree distribution, there were few significant differences in the global network structure of niche-overlap networks following persistent nutrient amendment. Likewise, we found idiosyncratic and weak evidence for higher-order interactions regardless of nutrient treatment. This work provides a first-time characterization of niche-overlap network structure in endophytic communities and serves as a framework for higher-resolution analyses of microbial interaction networks as a consequence and a cause of ecological variation in microbiome function.
Somatic genetic rescue of a germline ribosome assembly defect
Authors: Tan Shengjiang , Kermasson Laëtitia , Hilcenko Christine , Kargas Vasileios , Traynor David , Boukerrou Ahmed Z. , Escudero-Urquijo Norberto , Faille Alexandre , Bertrand Alexis , Rossmann Maxim , Goyenechea Beatriz , Jin Li , Moreil Jonathan , Alibeu Olivier , Beaupain Blandine , Bôle-Feysot Christine , Fumagalli Stefano , Kaltenbach Sophie , Martignoles Jean-Alain , Masson Cécile , Nitschké Patrick , Parisot Mélanie , Pouliet Aurore , Radford-Weiss Isabelle , Tores Frédéric , de Villartay Jean-Pierre , Zarhrate Mohammed , Koh Ai Ling , Phua Kong Boo , Reversade Bruno , Bond Peter J. , Bellanné-Chantelot Christine , Callebaut Isabelle , Delhommeau François , Donadieu Jean , Warren Alan J. , Revy Patrick
Published: August 2021

Indirect somatic genetic rescue (SGR) of a germline mutation is thought to be rare in inherited Mendelian disorders. Here, we establish that acquired mutations in the EIF6 gene are a frequent mechanism of SGR in Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS), a leukemia predisposition disorder caused by a germline defect in ribosome assembly. Biallelic mutations in the SBDS or EFL1 genes in SDS impair release of the anti-association factor eIF6 from the 60S ribosomal subunit, a key step in the translational activation of ribosomes. Here, we identify diverse mosaic somatic genetic events (point mutations, interstitial deletion, reciprocal chromosomal translocation) in SDS hematopoietic cells that reduce eIF6 expression or disrupt its interaction with the 60S subunit, thereby conferring a selective advantage over non-modified cells. SDS-related somatic EIF6 missense mutations that reduce eIF6 dosage or eIF6 binding to the 60S subunit suppress the defects in ribosome assembly and protein synthesis across multiple SBDS-deficient species including yeast, Dictyostelium and Drosophila. Our data suggest that SGR is a universal phenomenon that may influence the clinical evolution of diverse Mendelian disorders and support eIF6 suppressor mimics as a therapeutic strategy in SDS.
Translational control by DHX36 binding to 5′UTR G-quadruplex is essential for muscle stem-cell regenerative functions
Authors: Chen Xiaona , Yuan Jie , Xue Guang , Campanario Silvia , Wang Di , Wang Wen , Mou Xi , Liew Shiau Wei , Umar Mubarak Ishaq , Isern Joan , Zhao Yu , He Liangqiang , Li Yuying , Mann Christopher J. , Yu Xiaohua , Wang Lei , Perdiguero Eusebio , Chen Wei , Xue Yuanchao , Nagamine Yoshikuni , Kwok Chun Kit , Sun Hao , Muñoz-Cánoves Pura , Wang Huating
Published: August 2021

Skeletal muscle has a remarkable ability to regenerate owing to its resident stem cells (also called satellite cells, SCs). SCs are normally quiescent; when stimulated by damage, they activate and expand to form new fibers. The mechanisms underlying SC proliferative progression remain poorly understood. Here we show that DHX36, a helicase that unwinds RNA G-quadruplex (rG4) structures, is essential for muscle regeneration by regulating SC expansion. DHX36 (initially named RHAU) is barely expressed at quiescence but is highly induced during SC activation and proliferation. Inducible deletion of Dhx36 in adult SCs causes defective proliferation and muscle regeneration after damage. System-wide mapping in proliferating SCs reveals DHX36 binding predominantly to rG4 structures at various regions of mRNAs, while integrated polysome profiling shows that DHX36 promotes mRNA translation via 5′-untranslated region (UTR) rG4 binding. Furthermore, we demonstrate that DHX36 specifically regulates the translation of Gnai2 mRNA by unwinding its 5′ UTR rG4 structures and identify GNAI2 as a downstream effector of DHX36 for SC expansion. Altogether, our findings uncover DHX36 as an indispensable post-transcriptional regulator of SC function and muscle regeneration acting through binding and unwinding rG4 structures at 5′ UTR of target mRNAs.