bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Theoretical Framework for Fostering Diagnostic Competences with Simulations in Higher Education
Authors: Chernikova Olga , Heitzmann Nicole , Opitz Ansgar , Seidel Tina , Fischer Frank
Published: February 2022

This chapter presents an overview of the theoretical and empirical evidence on the effectiveness of simulation-based learning in higher education for learners in the domains of medical and teacher education. First and foremost, it presents a theoretical framework for fostering diagnostic competences in simulation-based environments. This theoretical framework was utilized to develop the simulations described in this book and contribute to generating further empirical evidence on the effective design of simulation-based learning environments in the context of diagnosis. Moreover, this chapter presents insights from a meta-analytic study supporting the importance of learners’ individual prerequisites as well as the instructional and contextual factors described in the model.
Learning to Diagnose Primary Students’ Mathematical Competence Levels and Misconceptions in Document-Based Simulations
Authors: Wildgans-Lang Angelika , Scheuerer Sarah , Obersteiner Andreas , Fischer Frank , Reiss Kristina
Published: February 2022

Analyzing students’ documents (e.g., their homework) can serve as a basis for diagnosing students’ learning status and thus also for adaptive teaching. When making diagnostic judgments about students’ learning status in mathematics, teachers may benefit from using theoretical models of mathematical competence because such models illustrate what tasks students should have mastered on each level of competence. Based on students’ documents and a model of mathematical competence at the primary level, we developed a simulated learning environment for (1) analyzing and (2) supporting pre-service teachers’ diagnostic processes and results. When working in the simulated environment, pre-service elementary teachers are asked to assess virtual third graders’ learning status by diagnosing their mathematical competence levels as well as their misconceptions (e.g., misconception regarding multiplication) based on the competence model. To do so, pre-service teachers analyze students’ solutions to mathematical problems that they can select from a set of problems varying in content and difficulty. First data analyses suggest that the environment can capture differences in pre-service teachers’ diagnostic processes. A better understanding of these processes can serve as a basis for further developing the learning environment.
Diagnosing Mathematical Argumentation Skills: A Video-Based Simulation for Pre-Service Teachers
Authors: Codreanu Elias , Huber Sina , Reinhold Sarah , Sommerhoff Daniel , Neuhaus Birgit J. , Schmidmaier Ralf , Ufer Stefan , Seidel Tina
Published: February 2022

Mathematical argumentations and proofs cause difficulties for secondary school students (Healy and Hoyles, 2000). Teachers’ diagnostic skills are essential for adapting their teaching to students’ specific needs in order to facilitate students’ understanding of proofs (Südkamp and Praetorius, 2017). We developed a video-based simulation to investigate and promote pre-service teachers’ diagnostic skills. Participants encountered a diagnostic task with short, scripted video clips showing simulated students working on a geometry proof with a teacher. Observing student-teacher interactions served as the basis for the pre-service teacher participants’ diagnoses of students’ individual argumentation skills. This simulation is first used to investigate pre-service teachers’ diagnostic performance and the quality of their diagnoses and diagnostic processes. In a second step, the simulation will be expanded into a learning environment to investigate how pre-service teachers’ diagnostic skills can be supported through different kinds of scaffolds.
Diagnosing 6th Graders’ Understanding of Decimal Fractions: Fostering Mathematics Pre-Service Teachers’ Diagnostic Competences with Simulated One-on-One Interviews
Authors: Marczynski Bernhard , Kaltefleiter Larissa J. , Siebeck Matthias , Wecker Christof , Stürmer Kathleen , Ufer Stefan
Published: February 2022

One-on-one diagnostic interviews with school students have been proposed as learning opportunities to acquire diagnostic competences. Moreover, role-play-based simulations have proved promising to foster interactive competences similar to diagnosis during early phases of teacher and medical education. Thus, we developed a role-play-based simulation of diagnostic interviews on the topic of decimal fractions for mathematics pre-service teachers. During the role-play, participants either take on the role of a sixth grader, a teacher interviewing a sixth grader, or an observer watching the interview. Based on cognitive labs addressing criteria such as authenticity and immersion in the teacher’s diagnostic task in the role-play, we analyze the feasibility of the chosen simulation approach to measure and foster mathematics pre-service teachers’ diagnostic competences.
Approaching Work Stories with a Craft Mindset
Authors: Cleland Silva Tricia , de Tarso Fonseca Silva Paulo
Published: February 2022

This chapter starts with a metaphorical story called “Building a Health Village.” The story was created by the first author and is based on empirical data collected between 2018 and 2019. The data was acquired through formal interviews and two Collaborative Story Craft workshops with health care practitioners and other stakeholders co-creating a digital service platform. The story also draws from informal conversations told to the first author over a period of 15 years in a Nordic welfare state. During this time, she has navigated various social worlds as an immigrant, student, cleaner, teacher, academic researcher, business co-founder, and parent. Both authors applied their work as craft mindset to build questions for those interpreting the story.

The aim of the chapter is to emphasise that stories and narrations change and transform as individuals continuously make sense of their social and material surroundings. Stories are also free floating as they narrate events to different audiences. Like sensemaking and craftwork, narrating and telling stories to make sense of embodied lived experiences never ends or stops cleanly. Rather, stories enter new cycles of purpose and possibilities from different positions, depending on the context and the audience.
Analysing Diagnosis and Evaluation of the “Migration Crisis” at the EU Level
Authors: Stępka Maciej
Published: February 2022

The chapter discusses how human security has structured the discourse on the “migration crisis”, becoming the most prominent logic in the diagnosis and evaluation of the crisis. Here, the European Parliament played the role of the key promotor of human security logic, framing migrants as human referent objects, seeking refuge from structural violence, war and terror. Further, the chapter discusses the prominence of risk logic, which was deployed, predominantly by the European Commission, in reference to movements within the EU and on its borders. Here, migratory flows on the borders are evaluated as carriers of uncertainty and risk connected to unidentifiable and unknown masses of people crossing to the EU. The chapter focuses on the symbolic role of the EU border, discussing how the framing and the type of security logic changes depending on the situation of migrants vis-à-vis the border. Finally, the chapter investigates how both logics, human security and risk, have been intertwining with the narratives of “exceptionality” and definitions of existential threats to migrants as well the Schengen area.
Autoencoders for semivisible jet detection
Authors: Canelli Florencia , de Cosa Annapaola , Le Pottier Luc , Niedziela Jeremi , Pedro Kevin , Pierini Maurizio
Published: February 2022

Abstract

The production of dark matter particles from confining dark sectors may lead to many novel experimental signatures. Depending on the details of the theory, dark quark production in proton-proton collisions could result in semivisible jets of particles: collimated sprays of dark hadrons of which only some are detectable by particle collider experiments. The experimental signature is characterised by the presence of reconstructed missing momentum collinear with the visible components of the jets. This complex topology is sensitive to detector inefficiencies and mis-reconstruction that generate artificial missing momentum. With this work, we propose a signal-agnostic strategy to reject ordinary jets and identify semivisible jets via anomaly detection techniques. A deep neural autoencoder network with jet substructure variables as input proves highly useful for analyzing anomalous jets. The study focuses on the semivisible jet signature; however, the technique can apply to any new physics model that predicts signatures with anomalous jets from non-SM particles.
On the planar free energy of matrix models
Authors: Fiol Bartomeu , Fukelman Alan Rios
Published: February 2022

Abstract

In this work we obtain the planar free energy for the Hermitian one-matrix model with various choices of the potential. We accomplish this by applying an approach that bypasses the usual diagonalization of the matrices and the introduction of the eigenvalue density, to directly zero in the evaluation of the planar free energy. In the first part of the paper, we focus on potentials with finitely many terms. For various choices of potentials, we manage to find closed expressions for the planar free energy, and in some cases determine or bound their radius of convergence as a series in the ’t Hooft coupling. In the second part of the paper we consider specific examples of potentials with infinitely many terms, that arise in the study of $$ \mathcal{N} $$
N
= 2 super Yang-Mills theories on S4, via supersymmetric localization. In particular, we manage to write the planar free energy of two non-conformal examples: SU(N) with Nf < 2N, and $$ \mathcal{N} $$
N
= 2*.
Backus problem in geophysics: a resolution near the dipole in fractional Sobolev spaces
Authors: Kan Toru , Magnanini Rolando , Onodera Michiaki
Published: February 2022

We consider Backus’s problem in geophysics. This consists in reconstructing a harmonic potential outside the Earth when the intensity of the related field is measured on the Earth’s surface. Thus, the boundary condition is (severely) nonlinear. The gravitational case is quite understood. It consists in the local resolution near a monopole, i.e. the potential generated by a point mass. In this paper, we consider the geomagnetic case. This consists in linearizing the field’s intensity near the so-called dipole, a harmonic function which models the solenoidal potential of a magnet. The problem is quite difficult, because the resolving operator related to the linearized problem is generally unbounded. Indeed, existence results for Backus’s problem in this framework are not present in the literature. In this work, we locally solve the geomagnetic version of Backus’s problem in the axially symmetric case. In mathematical terms, we show the existence of harmonic functions in the exterior of a sphere, with given (boundary) field’s intensity sufficiently close to that of a dipole and which have the same axial symmetry of a dipole. We also show that unique solutions can be selected by prescribing the average of the potential on the equatorial circle of the sphere. We obtain those solutions as series of spherical harmonics. The functional framework entails the use of fractional Sobolev Hilbert spaces on the sphere, endowed with a spectral norm. A crucial ingredient is the algebra structure of suitable subspaces.
Ground-state nodal solutions for superlinear perturbations of the Robin eigenvalue problem
Authors: Papageorgiou Nikolaos S. , Rădulescu Vicenţiu D. , Zhang Youpei
Published: February 2022

We consider a perturbed version of the Robin eigenvalue problem for the p-Laplacian. The perturbation is $$(p - 1)$$

(
p
-
1
)

-superlinear. Using the Nehari manifold method, we show that for all parameters $$\lambda < {\hat{\lambda }}_1$$

λ
<

λ
^

1

(= the principal eigenvalue of the differential operator), there exists a ground-state nodal solution of the problem.
125 years of head and neck radiotherapy: could organ-sparing radiotherapy of larynx cancer have prevented World War I?
Authors: Brunner Thomas B. , Wördehoff Herbert , Gawish Ahmed , Busch Uwe
Published: February 2022

Purpose

We aim to recapitulate the rapid development of head and neck radiotherapy in the context of otorhinolaryngology (ORL) medicine starting 125 years ago. This is put into context with the unsuccessful treatment of the laryngeal cancer (LC) of the German emperor Frederick III and its historical consequences.

Methods

The three-step process consisted in the analysis of (1) historical sources of the development of ORL radiotherapy from the discovery of x‑rays and radioactivity until World War I, (2) course and treatment of Frederick’s III LC, (3) political context with a special focus on the escalation towards World War I. Pertinent historical illustrations of technical developments of radiotherapy were summarized in a video.

Results

ORL radiotherapy initiated on 03 February 1896, only 65 days after the discovery of X‑rays. By 1914, organ-sparing LC radiotherapy was established with a predominance of curietherapy over roentgentherapy. Correct diagnosis of Frederick III’s primarily radiocurable cT1a glottic LC was delayed by one year, which resulted in advancement to a fatal pT4 pN1 Mx tumour stage. Historically, his successor, William II, was assumed to have contributed to the causes of World War I.

Conclusion

ORL radiotherapy came only eight years late to treat Frederick III who might have impeded World War I. This illustrates the potential impact of modern curative radiotherapy on the future course of public life beyond the personal fate of the patient himself.
L-DOPA administration shifts the stability-flexibility balance towards attentional capture by distractors during a visual search task
Authors: Riedel P. , Domachowska I. M. , Lee Y. , Neukam P. T. , Tönges L. , Li S. C. , Goschke T. , Smolka M. N.
Published: February 2022

Rationale

The cognitive control dilemma describes the necessity to balance two antagonistic modes of attention: stability and flexibility. Stability refers to goal-directed thought, feeling, or action and flexibility refers to the complementary ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment. Their balance is thought to be maintained by neurotransmitters such as dopamine, most likely in a U-shaped rather than linear manner. However, in humans, studies on the stability-flexibility balance using a dopaminergic agent and/or measurement of brain dopamine are scarce.

Objective

The study aimed to investigate the causal involvement of dopamine in the stability-flexibility balance and the nature of this relationship in humans.

Methods

Distractibility was assessed as the difference in reaction time (RT) between distractor and non-distractor trials in a visual search task. In a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study, 65 healthy participants performed the task under placebo and a dopamine precursor (L-DOPA). Using18F-DOPA-PET, dopamine availability in the striatum was examined at baseline to investigate its relationship to the RT distractor effect and to the L-DOPA-induced change of the RT distractor effect.

Results

There was a pronounced RT distractor effect in the placebo session that increased under L-DOPA. Neither the RT distractor effect in the placebo session nor the magnitude of its L-DOPA-induced increase were related to baseline striatal dopamine.

Conclusions

L-DOPA administration shifted the stability-flexibility balance towards attentional capture by distractors, suggesting causal involvement of dopamine. This finding is consistent with current theories of prefrontal cortex dopamine function. Current data can neither confirm nor falsify the inverted U-shaped function hypothesis with regard to cognitive control.
Boundary regularity and stability for spaces with Ricci bounded below
Authors: Bruè Elia , Naber Aaron , Semola Daniele
Published: February 2022

This paper studies the structure and stability of boundaries in noncollapsed $${{\,\mathrm{RCD}\,}}(K,N)$$

RCD

(
K
,
N
)

spaces, that is, metric-measure spaces $$(X,{\mathsf {d}},{\mathscr {H}}^N)$$

(
X
,
d
,

H

N

)

with Ricci curvature bounded below. Our main structural result is that the boundary $$\partial X$$

∂
X

is homeomorphic to a manifold away from a set of codimension 2, and is $$N-1$$

N
-
1

rectifiable. Along the way, we show effective measure bounds on the boundary and its tubular neighborhoods. These results are new even for Gromov–Hausdorff limits $$(M_i^N,{\mathsf {d}}_{g_i},p_i) \rightarrow (X,{\mathsf {d}},p)$$

(

M
i
N

,

d

g
i

,

p
i

)

→

(
X
,
d
,
p
)

of smooth manifolds with boundary, and require new techniques beyond those needed to prove the analogous statements for the regular set, in particular when it comes to the manifold structure of the boundary $$\partial X$$

∂
X

. The key local result is an $$\varepsilon $$
ε
-regularity theorem, which tells us that if a ball $$B_{2}(p)\subset X$$

B
2

(
p
)

⊂
X

is sufficiently close to a half space $$B_{2}(0)\subset {\mathbb {R}}^N_+$$

B
2

(
0
)

⊂

R

+
N

in the Gromov–Hausdorff sense, then $$B_1(p)$$

B
1

(
p
)

is biHölder to an open set of $${\mathbb {R}}^N_+$$

R

+
N

. In particular, $$\partial X$$

∂
X

is itself homeomorphic to $$B_1(0^{N-1})$$

B
1

(

0

N
-
1

)

near $$B_1(p)$$

B
1

(
p
)

. Further, the boundary $$\partial X$$

∂
X

is $$N-1$$

N
-
1

rectifiable and the boundary measure "Equation missing" is Ahlfors regular on $$B_1(p)$$

B
1

(
p
)

with volume close to the Euclidean volume. Our second collection of results involve the stability of the boundary with respect to noncollapsed mGH convergence $$X_i\rightarrow X$$

X
i

→
X

. Specifically, we show a boundary volume convergence which tells us that the $$N-1$$

N
-
1

Hausdorff measures on the boundaries converge "Equation missing" to the limit Hausdorff measure on $$\partial X$$

∂
X

. We will see that a consequence of this is that if the $$X_i$$

X
i

are boundary free then so is X.
Long-term follow-up of respiratory function in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy
Authors: Teeselink Sjan , Vincenten Sanne C. C. , Voermans Nicol C. , Groothuis Jan T. , Doorduin Jonne , Wijkstra Peter J. , Horlings Corinne G. C. , van Engelen Baziel G. M. , Mul Karlien
Published: February 2022

Objective

To evaluate the 5-year change in respiratory function in patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).

Methods

Genetically confirmed patients with FSHD aged ≥ 18 years were examined twice over five years. Forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) were measured using hand-held spirometry with a face mask. Several clinical outcome measures were correlated to respiratory function.

Results

Ninety-two patients were included (57% male, age 18–75 years). At baseline, the spirometry outcomes of 41 patients showed a restrictive ventilatory pattern (FVC < 80% and FEV1/FVC ≥ 70% of predicted) and of 48 patients at follow-up. The mean FVC decreased from baseline to follow-up from 79.0 to 76.7% predicted (p = 0.021). This decrease was driven by a subgroup of 15 patients who had a deterioration of FVC of > 10% predicted. The subgroup of 15 patients was more severely affected at baseline (p = 0.002 for FSHD clinical score and 0.007 for Ricci score). They developed more frequently spinal and thorax deformities (p < 0.001 for kyphoscoliosis and 0.012 for pectus excavatum) and had a larger decline in axial muscle function (p = 0.020). Only weak correlations were found between the change in FVC% predicted and the change in clinical scores between baseline and follow-up.

Interpretation

Respiratory function remained stable in most patients with FSHD, but a subgroup of patients showed a pronounced deterioration. They showed more severe muscle weakness including the leg muscles at baseline (Ricci score ≥ 6), had spinal and thorax deformities and a relatively fast decline in axial muscle function at follow-up.
Legacy effects of herbivory on treeline dynamics along an elevational gradient
Authors: Mienna Ida M. , Austrheim Gunnar , Klanderud Kari , Bollandsås Ole Martin , Speed James D. M.
Published: February 2022

Treelines are expected to expand into alpine ecosystems with global warming, but herbivory may delay this expansion. This study quantifies long-term effects of temporally varying sheep densities on birch recruitment and growth in the treeline ecotone. We examined treeline ecotone successional trajectories and legacy effects in a replicated experimental setup, where enclosures were present for 14 years with three different sheep densities (0, 25, 80 sheep km−2). Before and after the enclosures were present, the site had an ambient sheep density of 20–25 km−2. We sampled field data 4 years after enclosure removal and compared these to data sampled 8 and 9 years after enclosure erection. We sampled data on birch browsing pressure, birch distribution across life-stages (recruits, saplings, and mature trees), and birch annual radial growth. Fourteen years of increased or decreased sheep density had observable legacy effects depending on birch life-stage. Birch recruit prevalence decreased in areas, where sheep were reintroduced after being absent for 14 years. For the same areas, sapling and mature tree prevalence increased, indicating that these areas have entered alternative successional trajectories compared to areas, where sheep were present the whole time. Birch annual radial growth showed a lag effect of 2 years after enclosure removal, with growth decreasing in areas where sheep had been absent for 14 years and increasing where sheep densities were high. Thus, decadal-scale absences of herbivores can leave legacy effects due to increased numbers of trees that have high resistance to later-introduced herbivore browsing.
Symptoms and risk factors for hospitalization of COVID-19 presented in primary care
Authors: Rabady Susanne , Hoffmann Kathryn , Brose Markus , Lammel Oliver , Poggenburg Stefanie , Redlberger-Fritz Monika , Stiasny Karin , Wendler Maria , Weseslindtner Lukas , Zehetmayer Sonja , Kamenski Gustav
Published: February 2022

Objective

To increase knowledge of discrete symptoms shall help to avoid misinterpretation of test results and to gain better understanding of associations between early symptoms and severe disease to provide additional criteria for targeted early interventions.

Design

Retrospective observational study.

Setting

Austrian GP practices in the year 2020, patients above 18 years were included.

Participants

We recruited 25 practices which included 295 participants with a positive SARS-CoV‑2 test.

Main outcome measures

Data collection comprised basic demographic data, risk factors and the recording of symptoms at several points in time in the course of the illness. Descriptive analyses for possible associations between demographics and symptoms were conducted by means of cross tabulation. Group differences (hospitalized yes/no) were assessed using Fisher’s exact test. The significance level was set to 0.05; due to the observational character of the study, no adjustment for multiplicity was performed.

Results

Only one third of patients report symptoms generally understood to be typical for COVID‑19. Most patients presented with unspecific complaints. We found symptoms indicating complicated disease, depending on when they appear. The number of symptoms may be a predictor for the need of hospital care. More than 50% of patients still experience symptoms 14 days after onset.

Conclusion

Unspecific symptoms are valuable indicators in the detection of early COVID‑19 disease that practitioners and the general public should be aware of also in the interpretation of low sensitivity tests. Monitoring patients using the indicators we identified may help to identify patients who are likely to profit from early intervention.
Cancer-related fatigue: benefits of information booklets to improve patients’ knowledge and empowerment
Authors: Schmidt Martina E. , Milzer Marlena , Weiß Cécile , Reinke Paul , Grapp Miriam , Steindorf Karen
Published: February 2022

Purpose

To investigate cancer patients’ knowledge and attitudes regarding fatigue and the potential benefits and acceptability of a brief information booklet.

Methods

The CARPE DIEM study assessed knowledge and attitudes regarding fatigue in a diverse group of 50 cancer patients before (T0) and about one (T1) and four months (T2) after reading the booklet. At T1, participants additionally rated its usefulness.

Results

At baseline, 37.5% of respondents did not know the term “fatigue” or what it meant. Those who already knew something about fatigue mainly had obtained their information from booklets, books, or articles (63.3%) and/or the internet (46.7%). Overall, knowledge gaps existed, particularly about potential fatigue treatment options and whether fatigue is an indicator of cancer progression. Furthermore, 56.4% felt poorly informed, and 46.1% reported feeling helpless in the face of fatigue. Lower knowledge at baseline was significantly associated with lower education and older age. At T1 and T2, there were significant improvements in several knowledge questions and attitudes. Patient-reported benefits included getting new information about fatigue (91.1%), awareness of not being alone with their problems (89.7%), taking appropriate actions (72.9%), and encouragement to talk about their fatigue with family/friends (55.3%) or with a health professional (52.7%).

Conclusions

Specific gaps were identified in the provision of information and education for cancer patients about fatigue. A low-cost intervention asking to read a brief information booklet was associated with improved knowledge. This could be considered as a first step offered as part of a bundle of further efforts to improve knowledge and care of fatigue.
Limits of density-constrained optimal transport
Authors: Gladbach Peter , Kopfer Eva
Published: February 2022

We consider the problem of dynamic optimal transport with a density constraint. We derive variational limits in terms of$$\Gamma $$Γ-convergence for two singular phenomena. First, for densities constrained near a hyperplane we recover the optimal flow through an infinitesimal permeable membrane. Second, for rapidly oscillating periodic constraints we obtain the optimal flow through a homogenized porous medium.
Addressing Single Nuclear Spins Quantum Memories by a Central Electron Spin
Authors: Vorobyov V. , Javadzade J. , Joliffe M. , Kaiser F. , Wrachtrup J.
Published: February 2022

Nuclei surrounding single electron spins are valuable resources for quantum technology. For application in this area, one is often interested in weakly coupled nuclei with coupling strength on the order of a few 10–100 kHz. In this paper, we compare methods to address single nuclear spins with this type of hyperfine coupling to a single electron spin. To achieve the required spectral resolution, we specifically focus on two methods, namely dynamical decoupling and correlation spectroscopy. We demonstrate spectroscopy of two single nuclear spins and present a method to derive components of their hyperfine coupling tensor from those measurements.
Constraint-based robust planning and scheduling of airport apron operations through simheuristics
Authors: Gök Yagmur S. , Padrón Silvia , Tomasella Maurizio , Guimarans Daniel , Ozturk Cemalettin
Published: February 2022

Scheduling aircraft turnarounds at airports requires the coordination of several organizations, including the airport operator, airlines, and ground service providers. The latter manage the necessary supplies and teams to handle aircraft in between consecutive flights, in an area called the airport ‘apron’. Divergence and conflicting priorities across organizational borders negatively impact the smooth running of operations, and play a major role in departure delays. We provide a novel simulation-optimization approach that allows multiple service providers to build robust plans for their teams independently, whilst supporting overall coordination through central scheduling of all the involved turnaround activities. Simulation is integrated within the optimization process, following simheuristic techniques, which are augmented with an efficient search driving mechanism. Two tailored constraint-based feedback routines are automatically generated from simulation outputs to constrain the search space to solutions more likely to ensure plan robustness. The two simulation components provide constructive feedback on individual routing problems and global turnaround scheduling, respectively. Compared to the state-of-the-art approach for aircraft turnaround scheduling and routing of service teams, our methodology improves the apron’s on-time punctuality, without the need for the involved organizations to share sensitive information. This supports a wider applicability of our approach in a multiple-stakeholder environment.
Non-invasive genetic sampling is one of our most powerful and ethical tools for threatened species population monitoring: a reply to Lavery et al.
Authors: Banks Sam C. , Piggott Maxine P.
Published: February 2022

Noninvasive genetic sampling (genetic tagging) of individuals is one of the most powerful and ethical tools for threatened species population monitoring. A recent review of the threats to Australia’s rock-wallabies (Petrogale spp.) and the methods for their monitoring stated that noninvasive genetic sampling (faecal DNA analysis) is not viable for estimating population size and trends for species in this genus. We feel that it is important to respond as such statements have the potential to stifle the development and application of an important tool for threatened species monitoring and lead to lost opportunities for collection of high-quality data to inform conservation of these species. We take the opportunity to describe the breadth of successful application of noninvasive genetic sampling for monitoring rock wallabies and other mammal taxa, the research and development requirements for successful implementation of noninvasive DNA-based population monitoring and thoughts on why this powerful approach has not been implemented to its full potential in many jurisdictions. We need to be careful not to dismiss one of the most powerful and ethical threatened species monitoring tools due to lack of familiarity with the requirements for its implementation.
The China birth cohort study (CBCS)
Authors: Yue Wentao , Zhang Enjie , Liu Ruixia , Zhang Yue , Wang Chengrong , Gao Shen , Su Shaofei , Gao Xiao , Wu Qingqing , Yang Xiaokui , Papageorghiou Aris T. , Yin Chenghong
Published: February 2022

The China birth cohort study (CBCS) is a prospective longitudinal, mega-cohort study and the first national-based birth cohort study, aiming to establish a birth cohort covering representative geographical areas of the whole of China to investigate risk factors for birth defects and develop strategies for their reduction. Pregnant women who are of Chinese nationality, are 6–13+6 weeks of gestation, plan to attend the routine antenatal examination and deliver in the study site, and give their informed, written consent are eligible to participate in this study. All participants are followed-up through an in-person interview at 20–23+6 weeks and again at 28–33+6 weeks of gestation, and at delivery, respectively. CBCS has been divided into three phases from 20th November 2017 to 31st December 2021, and the first two phases have now been completed on 29th February 2020, enrolling 120 377 eligible pregnant women during this period. During the same period a total of 40 837 participants had been followed up to the end of pregnancy. Study recruitment will continue until December 2021 to achieve the target of 500 000 participants. Meanwhile, biological samples including peripheral blood, amniocytes, cord blood, placenta, or umbilical cord tissue have been collected from participants according to various conditions. The incidence of birth defects in this group is 2.5% and congenital heart disease is the most common type of birth defect seen so far. A website is in the advanced stages of planning, to allow seamless data transfer and facilitate collaboration with groups around the world.
Two water waves in subsurface interaction on a shear flow
Authors: Tyvand Peder A.
Published: February 2022

Two plane-traveling water waves are superposed, with a background shear flow. The horizontal shear flow varies exponentially, with infinite depth. The present idea is to satisfy the two-dimensional vorticity equation for the second-order subsurface interaction between the two waves. The free-surface conditions are linearized, while the remaining (subsurface) nonlinearity has its amplitude set by the product of the two wave amplitudes. The first traveling wave is assumed steady, satisfying the same Helmholtz equation as the shear flow. Thereby, one single frequency enters the model, dictated by the second traveling wave. There are in total four wave components generated by subsurface interactions. Two of these are rotational waves arising from the exact quadratic interactions between the two first-order waves. The two other waves are compensational irrotational waves setup by linearized free-surface conditions, since the rotational waves alone are unable to satisfy these conditions.
A new cyanobacterial species with a protective effect on lettuce grown under salinity stress: Envisaging sustainable agriculture practices
Authors: Brito Ângela , Rocha Mariana , Kaštovský Jan , Vieira Jorge , Vieira Cristina P. , Ramos Vitor , Correia Manuel , Santos Marina , Mota Rita , Roque Jéssica , Pissarra João , Melo Paula , Tamagnini Paula
Published: February 2022

In this work, a new terrestrial cyanobacterial species, Oculatella lusitanica LEGE 161147, was isolated and characterized using a polyphasic approach. Morphologically, O. lusitanica shares characteristics with different Oculatella species (mainly with O. crustae-formantes), lacking distinctive features. However, the phylogeny based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence and the 16S-23S ITS secondary structures support the establishment of this isolate as a new species. O. lusitanica is placed within a clade mainly composed by other Oculatella terrestrial strains; however, it forms a separate lineage. In addition, our species differs from the other Oculatella described so far by lacking the V2 helix within the ITS region. Since cyanobacteria are known to release compounds that promote plant growth and/or increase their tolerance to stresses, the effect of this newly described cyanobacterial species on Lactuca sativa (lettuce) plants development and salinity stress resistance was evaluated. Our results showed that, although the cyanobacterium had no impact on plant growth under the conditions tested, it was able to mitigate the deleterious salinity stress effects on plant size, root and aerial part fresh weight, by eliciting the non-enzymatic antioxidant response system (proline, H2O2 and reduced glutathione). In addition, the microorganism was able to induce a priming effect on lettuce plants by stimulating defensive mechanisms under non-stress conditions, and enhances the activity of nitrogen metabolism-related enzymes glutamate dehydrogenase, glutamine synthetase and nitrate reductase. These results indicate that this native terrestrial cyanobacterial species could be employed as a tool in sustainable agricultural practices.
Molecular dynamics and structure-based virtual screening and identification of natural compounds as Wnt signaling modulators: possible therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Manandhar Suman , Sankhe Runali , Priya Keerthi , Hari Gangadhar , Kumar B. Harish , Mehta Chetan H. , Nayak Usha Y. , Pai K. Sreedhara Ranganath
Published: February 2022

Wnt signaling pathway is an evolutionarily conserved pathway responsible for neurogenesis, axon outgrowth, neuronal polarity, synapse formation, and maintenance. Downregulation of Wnt signaling has been found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Several experimental approaches to activate Wnt signaling pathway have proven to be beneficial in alleviating AD, which is one of the new therapeutic approaches for AD. The current study focuses on the computational structure-based virtual screening followed by the identification of potential phytomolecules targeting different markers of Wnt signaling like WIF1, DKK1, LRP6, GSK-3β, and acetylcholine esterase. Initially, screening of 1924 compounds from the plant-based library of Zinc database was done for the selected five proteins using docking approach followed by MM-GBSA calculations. The top five hit molecules were identified for each protein. Based on docking score, and binding interactions, the top two hit molecules for each protein were selected as promising molecules for the molecular dynamic (MD) simulation study with the five proteins. Therefore, from this in silico based study, we report that Mangiferin could be a potential molecule targeting Wnt signaling pathway modulating the LRP6 activity, Baicalin for AChE activity, Chebulic acid for DKK1, ZINC103539689 for WIF1, and Morin for GSk-3β protein. However, further validation of the activity is warranted based on in vivo and in vitro experiments for better understanding and strong claim. This study provides an in silico approach for the identification of modulators of the Wnt signaling pathway as a new therapeutic approach for AD.

Graphical Abstract
Spirituality and Children’s Coping with Representation of Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Research with Parents
Authors: Pompele Sara , Ghetta Valentina , Veronese Serena , Bucuță Mihaela Dana , Testoni Ines
Published: February 2022

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the related lockdown measures have had intense negative impacts on the psychological well-being of both adults and children. Among such impacts is a significant increase in mortality salience and changes in how people deal with grief and losses. This qualitative research used semi-structured interviews with 23 Italian parents to draw insights on the impact of the pandemic on children aged 5˗15 years with regard to their representation of death and the eventual role that family spirituality/ religiosity played in helping them understand both the concept of dying and possibly the pandemic itself. From the data analysis, four main thematic areas emerged: “Lockdown experience,” “Fears and worries related to COVID-19,” “Emergence of thoughts on the process of dying,” and “Representation of death and the impact of religious beliefs.” The participants highlighted how stressful the lockdown measures have been for their children and the anxiety that their children have experienced because of fears related to the pandemic. The interviews also surfaced how living in a religious family has contributed significantly to shaping children’s representation and understanding of death and sometimes even helped both the parents and their children to face difficult moments such as those caused by the pandemic.
Graph matching beyond perfectly-overlapping Erdős–Rényi random graphs
Authors: Hu Yaofang , Wang Wanjie , Yu Yi
Published: February 2022

Graph matching is a fruitful area in terms of both algorithms and theories. Given two graphs $$G_1 = (V_1, E_1)$$

G
1

=

(

V
1

,

E
1

)

and $$G_2 = (V_2, E_2)$$

G
2

=

(

V
2

,

E
2

)

, where $$V_1$$

V
1

and $$V_2$$

V
2

are the same or largely overlapped upon an unknown permutation $$\pi ^*$$

π
∗

, graph matching is to seek the correct mapping $$\pi ^*$$

π
∗

. In this paper, we exploit the degree information, which was previously used only in noiseless graphs and perfectly-overlapping Erdős–Rényi random graphs matching. We are concerned with graph matching of partially-overlapping graphs and stochastic block models, which are more useful in tackling real-life problems. We propose the edge exploited degree profile graph matching method and two refined variations. We conduct a thorough analysis of our proposed methods’ performances in a range of challenging scenarios, including coauthorship data set and a zebrafish neuron activity data set. Our methods are proved to be numerically superior than the state-of-the-art methods. The algorithms are implemented in the R (A language and environment for statistical computing, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, 2020) package GMPro (GMPro: graph matching with degree profiles, 2020).
Synthesis and inverse virtual screening of new bi-cyclic structures towards cancer-relevant cellular targets
Authors: Crocetti Letizia , Floresta Giuseppe , Nazir Shabnam , Vergelli Claudia , Bhogal Amrit , Biancalani Claudio , Cesari Nicoletta , Giovannoni Maria Paola , Cilibrizzi Agostino
Published: February 2022

We report here synthetic approaches to access new classes of small molecules based on three heterocyclic scaffolds, i.e. 3,7-dihydropyrimido[4,5-d]pyridazine-4,8-dione, 1,8-naphthyridin-4(1H)-one and 4H-pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-one. The bi-cyclic structure 3,7-dihydropyrimido[4,5-d]pyridazine-4,8-dione is a new heterocycle, described here for the first time. In silico methodologies of inverse virtual screening have been used to preliminary analyse the molecules, in order to explore their potential as hits for chemical biology investigations. Our computational study has been conducted with 43 synthetically accessible small molecules towards 31 cellular proteins involved in cancer pathogenesis. Binding energies were quantified using molecular docking calculations, allowing to define the relative affinities of the ligands for the cellular targets. Through this methodology, 16 proteins displayed effective interactions with distinct small molecules within the matrix. In addition, 23 ligands have demonstrated high affinity for at least one cellular protein, using as reference the co-crystallised ligand in the X-ray structure. The evaluation of ADME and drug score for selected hits also highlights that these new molecular series can serve as sources of lead candidates for further structure optimisation and biological studies.
On Measuring and Controlling the Spectral Bias of the Deep Image Prior
Authors: Shi Zenglin , Mettes Pascal , Maji Subhransu , Snoek Cees G. M.
Published: February 2022

The deep image prior showed that a randomly initialized network with a suitable architecture can be trained to solve inverse imaging problems by simply optimizing it’s parameters to reconstruct a single degraded image. However, it suffers from two practical limitations. First, it remains unclear how to control the prior beyond the choice of the network architecture. Second, training requires an oracle stopping criterion as during the optimization the performance degrades after reaching an optimum value. To address these challenges we introduce a frequency-band correspondence measure to characterize the spectral bias of the deep image prior, where low-frequency image signals are learned faster and better than high-frequency counterparts. Based on our observations, we propose techniques to prevent the eventual performance degradation and accelerate convergence. We introduce a Lipschitz-controlled convolution layer and a Gaussian-controlled upsampling layer as plug-in replacements for layers used in the deep architectures. The experiments show that with these changes the performance does not degrade during optimization, relieving us from the need for an oracle stopping criterion. We further outline a stopping criterion to avoid superfluous computation. Finally, we show that our approach obtains favorable results compared to current approaches across various denoising, deblocking, inpainting, super-resolution and detail enhancement tasks. Code is available at https://github.com/shizenglin/Measure-and-Control-Spectral-Bias.
Vegetation and water of lowland spring-wells in Po Plain (Northern Italy): ecological features and management proposals
Authors: Giupponi Luca , Borgonovo Gigliola , Leoni Valeria , Zuccolo Marco , Bischetti Gian Battista
Published: February 2022

Spring-wells (lowland springs, “fontanili”) are elements of Po Plain (Northern Italy) with ecological and historical importance. There, spring-water flows naturally and rises to the surface at a relatively constant temperature, generating unique ecosystems dependent on the groundwater outflow. Despite their importance, they are endangered by degradation processes as the expansion of urban areas and/or the intensification of agriculture, very marked in Po Plain. This research describes four spring-wells of Po Plain from a botanical and ecological perspective through phytosociological relevés and different ecological indexes. Water chemical-physical features are also considered (pH, temperature and ammonium ion, nitrite, nitrate, orthophosphate, chloride and organic matters contents). Plant communities of the spring-well beds show a low number of species (5.8 ± 2.9) but also no exotic species while the vegetation of the banks has a high number of species (32.4 ± 9.8) but several of them are exotic/ornamental. The low value of the Ecological Index of Maturity of the vegetation of the banks (EIM = 4.4 ± 1.5) indicate disturbances, however moderate compared to the surrounding corn fields (EIM ~ 0). All the water samples has high ammonium content (> 0.50 ppm), the water of the spring-well B results the most polluted and both algae and Callitriche obtusangula (rare native species) grow largely in it, while spring-well C has less phosphates and more nitrite and is marked by Equisetum telmateia. Management proposals to protect and enhance the studied spring-wells, as the gradual removal of exotic species and the planting of native species, are discussed.
Reproductive effects of sulfoxaflor in male Sprague Dawley rats
Authors: Mohamed Wafaa H. , Ali Marwa F. , Yahia Doha , Hussein Hassan A.
Published: February 2022

The study objective was to evaluate the potential reproductive toxicity of sulfoxaflor (SFX) insecticide in male Sprague Dawley rats. To attain these objectives, forty male Sprague Dawley rats of 10–12 weeks old were randomly divided into four equal groups; the 1st group was used as a control group; the other three groups were exposed to 25, 100, and 500 mg/kg body weight SFX by oral gavage for 4 weeks. Relative testicular weight, testosterone, FSH, LH, MDA, and GPx levels, sperm viability, sperm morphology, sperm DNA damage, and histopathological changes in testes, epididymis, and seminal vesical of these rats were investigated after 4 weeks. The results showed that SFX exposure resulted in a significant increase in FSH, LH, MDA, and GPx levels as well as the percentage of dead and abnormal sperms and DNA damage in rat sperms. Histopathological examination of testes established testicular degeneration with coagulative necrosis as well as the proliferation of interstitial connective tissue infiltrated with inflammatory cells with congestion of intertubular blood vessels in epididymis and degeneration of lining epithelium of seminal vesicles.