bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Behavior of Slag in Ferromanganese and Silicomanganese Smelting Process
Authors: Lee Young E. , Kolbeinsen Leiv
Published: June 2021

A review of studies by Safarian et al. and Kim show that the smelting reaction at equilibrium for ferromanganese and silicomanganese alloys is defined by the coupled reaction in the carbon-saturated condition

$$ 2\underline{\text{Mn}} + \, \left( {{\text{SiO}}_{ 2} } \right) \, = { 2 }\left( {\text{MnO}} \right) \, + \underline{\text{Si}} $$

2

Mn
̲

+

SiO
2

=
2

MnO

+

Si
̲

. The behavior of slag at equilibrium is described by MnO and SiO2 as dependent variables and by non-reacting species, CaO, MgO, and Al2O3, as independent variables. Its characteristic behaviors are assessed in the pseudobinary system of MnO and SiO2 fixed by non-reacting components with analyses of ferromanganese and silicomanganese slag from one-month smelting operations. The behavior of fluid slag is defined by their melting temperature provided by phase equilibria of slag system. Liquidus of manganese slag systems by Kang et al., Zhao et al., and Roghani et al. is reconstructed in coordinates of MnO and SiO2 at fixed contents of CaO, MgO, and Al2O3. Conditions for fluid smelting slag are examined by referencing characteristic behaviors of smelting slag to liquidus of manganese slag systems to assess the effect of MgO and Al2O3. MgO facilitates fluid silicomanganese slag but would make ferromanganese slag viscous. Al2O3 makes silicomanganese slag fluid at Al2O3 content with 0.41 by weight ratio to SiO2. At higher contents of Al2O3, silicomanganese slag would be viscous with low MnO contents in slag. Al2O3 facilitates the development of fluid ferromanganese slag.
The 2021 Core Content of Medical Toxicology
Authors: Hendrickson Robert G. , Bania Theodore C. , Baum Carl R. , Greenberg Michael I. , Joldersma Kevin B. , Keehbauch Julia N.
Published: June 2021

The Medical Toxicology Subboard approved modifications to the Core Content of Medical Toxicology in March 2021. The document outlines the areas of knowledge considered essential for the practice of medical toxicology. The Core Content provides the organizational framework for the development of the Medical Toxicology Certification and Cognitive Expertise Examinations and serves as a template for the development of curricula for medical toxicology fellowship training programs.
Analysis and prioritization of risk factors in the management of Halal supply chain management
Authors: Sarwar Adnan , Zafar Aqsa , Qadir Alia
Published: June 2021

In the competitive globalized market, risk management is an important aspect of the supply chain, but it becomes crucial to the management of a faith-based supply chain. The halal supply chain is an emerging research era at an early stage. To retain the halalness from procurement to end customer, this research was aimed to identify and prioritize the important risk elements for managing the HSC. For this purpose, a literature review was studied, 42 risk factors, classified into seven dimensions, were categorized with the expert’s opinion. A fuzzy best–worst method was proposed to analyze and prioritize the risk elements. The results indicated production-related risks are highly significant and sustainability-related risks are the least important among risk elements in the Halal supply chain. This research makes a major contribution by compiling a detailed list of risks associated with Halal supply chain management. It may also assist the manager in mitigations of risks for the Halal supply chain on a priority basis.
Complications associated with energy‐based devices during thyroidectomy from 2010–2020
Authors: Lee Esther , Tong Jane Y. , Pasick Luke J. , Benito Daniel A. , Joshi Arjun , Thakkar Punam G. , Goodman Joseph F.
Published: June 2021

Objective

Harmonic Focus (Ethicon, Johnson and Johnson, Cincinnati, OH, USA), LigaSure Small Jaw (Medtronic, Covidien Products, Minneapolis, MN, USA), and Thunderbeat Open Fine Jaw (Olympus, Japan) are electrosurgical instruments used widely in head and neck surgery. The study aims to compare device malfunctions, adverse events to patients, operative injuries, and interventions related to Harmonic, LigaSure, and Thunderbeat use during thyroidectomy.

Methods

The US Food and Drug Administration's Manufacture and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database was queried for adverse events associated with Harmonic, LigaSure, and Thunderbeat from January 2005 to August 2020. Data were extracted from reports pertaining to thyroidectomy.

Results

Of the 620 adverse events extracted, 394 (63.5%) involved Harmonic, 134 (21.6%) LigaSure, and 92 (14.8%) Thunderbeat. The reported device malfunctions most frequently associated with Harmonic was damage to the blade (110 (27.9%)), LigaSure was inappropriate function (47 (43.1%)), Thunderbeat was damage to the tissue or Teflon pad (27 (30.7%)), respectively. Burn injury and incomplete hemostasis were the most commonly reported adverse events. The operative injury reported most frequently when using Harmonic and LigaSure was burn injury. No operator injuries were reported with Thunderbeat use.

Conclusion

The most frequently reported device malfunctions were damage to the blade, inappropriate function, and damage to the tissue or Teflon pad. The most frequently reported adverse events to patients was a burn injury and incomplete hemostasis. Interventions aimed at improving physician education may help reduce adverse events attributed to improper use.
Anytime Monte Carlo
Authors: Murray Lawrence M. , Singh Sumeetpal S. , Lee Anthony
Published: June 2021

Monte Carlo algorithms simulates some prescribed number of samples, taking some random real time to complete the computations necessary. This work considers the converse: to impose a real-time budget on the computation, which results in the number of samples simulated being random. To complicate matters, the real time taken for each simulation may depend on the sample produced, so that the samples themselves are not independent of their number, and a length bias with respect to compute time is apparent. This is especially problematic when a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is used and the final state of the Markov chain—rather than an average over all states—is required, which is the case in parallel tempering implementations of MCMC. The length bias does not diminish with the compute budget in this case. It also occurs in sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithms, which is the focus of this paper. We propose ananytimeframework to address the concern, using a continuous-time Markov jump process to study the progress of the computation in real time. We first show that for any MCMC algorithm, the length bias of the final state’s distribution due to the imposed real-time computing budget can be eliminated by using a multiple chain construction. The utility of this construction is then demonstrated on a large-scale SMC$ {}^2 $implementation, using four billion particles distributed across a cluster of 128 graphics processing units on the Amazon EC2 service. The anytime framework imposes a real-time budget on the MCMC move steps within the SMC$ {}^2 $algorithm, ensuring that all processors are simultaneously ready for the resampling step, demonstrably reducing idleness to due waiting times and providing substantial control over the total compute budget.
Does Learning About Protest Abroad Inform Individuals’ Attitudes About Protest at Home? Experimental Evidence from Egypt
Authors: Brooke Steven , Hassan Mazen
Published: June 2021

The Arab Spring revived interest into how contentious mobilization diffuses across time and space. We evaluate individual-level attitudinal implications of this literature through laboratory experiments with 681 Egyptian college students. Across two separate experiments, primes based on recent protests in Tunisia, Syria and the Sudan reveal a limited ability to shift respondents’ retrospective views of the Arab Spring, the efficacy of protest to achieve political change, Egypt's perceived domestic situation vis-à-vis its neighbours and a personal willingness to assume risk in a computer game-based behavioural extension. Our findings imply the need to continue to improve theorizing and empirically testing key implications from the diffusion literature.
Closing the Gap in Health Care: A Personal Odyssey
Authors: Bell Thaddeus John
Published: June 2021

This narrative provides insight into medical education for Black physicians in South Carolina in the 1960s, during the civil rights movement. It also discusses the many rewards and challenges of being a physician of color, describes what has been done to develop programs that benefit minority communities, and argues that more such programs are needed.
Addressing Racial Inequity in Surgery: Reflections On a Career in Medicine by a Surgeon
Authors: Jacobs Lenworth
Published: June 2021

Racial inequity has influenced both personal and public health in the United States and has impacted enrollment in medical schools and training programs. The effects of racial inequity on training and how it is perceived can differ depending on who is being affected. Recommendations are offered for positive changes through mentoring of individuals, institutional leadership, and structural changes in organizations.
Why a Consideration of Race is Important to Medical School Admissions
Authors: Zisk Nancy L.
Published: June 2021

The tremendous toll that COVID-19 has taken on this country’s minority population is the most recent reminder of the health disparities between people of color and people who classify themselves as white. There are many reasons for these disparities, but one that gets less attention than it deserves is the lack of physicians of color available to treat patients of color.
Racial Inequalities in Health Care: Affirmative Action Programs in Medical Education and Residency Training Programs
Authors: Arnold Jason F.
Published: June 2021

This article argues that because racial inequalities are embedded in American society, as well as in medicine, more evidence-based investigation of the effects and implications of affirmative action is needed. Residency training programs should also seek ways to recruit medical students from underrepresented groups and to create effective mentorship programs.
Racial Myths and Regulatory Responsibility
Authors: Strand Nicolle K.
Published: June 2021

Calls to abolish race as a proxy for biology or genetics in clinical care have reached a fever pitch in the latter half of 2020, including articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, and urgent letters from prominent Senators.
A Just Standard: The Ethical Management of Incidental Findings in Brain Imaging Research
Authors: Graham Mackenzie , Hallowell Nina , Savulescu Julian
Published: June 2021

Neuroimaging research regularly yields “incidental findings”: observations of potential clinical significance in healthy volunteers or patients, but which are unrelated to the purpose or variables of the study.
A place and time for humor: leader humor in Confucian cultures
Authors: Yang Inju , Yeh Chu-Chen Rosa
Published: June 2021

Humor has been positively perceived in general. However, research has shown that a leader should adopt humor with care and only after considering the relevant context, such as cultural differences. This study was undertaken to gain insight into how leader humor is perceived in the predominantly Confucian culture of Taiwan, through a series of in-depth interviews with individuals from throughout the hierarchies of various organizations. Overall, our participants expressed conflicting attitudes toward leader humor in the workplace, depending on the place and time of their leader humor experience. Specifically, leader humor was deemed more effective in informal domains and when a good leader–follower relationship exists. The findings echo the implicit theory of leadership and highlight the need to consider the context when exercising leader humor in Confucian cultures. Implications and future study directions are discussed.
Constitutional functions and institutional responsibility: a functional analysis of the UK constitution
Authors: Horsley Thomas
Published: June 2021

This paper advances a functional analysis of the UK constitution. It explores how the UK constitution discharges three minimum ‘constituting’, ‘legitimating’ and ‘limiting’ functions that citizens living in modern liberal democracies may legitimately expect all constitutions – irrespective of form – to perform. This functional enquiry breaks with dominant trends in the legal scholarship that remain focused on theorising the constitution's underlying political or legal nature or, likewise, identifying its ultimate source of authority. In addition to offering a richer descriptive account of constitutional practice, this paper identifies, normatively, an institutional responsibility for Parliament to discharge the UK constitution's three minimum functions. Recognising that institutional responsibility unlocks fresh insights into two constitutional conundrums: the legitimacy of judicial review and the status of ‘constitutional statutes’. At the same time, it also exposes deficiencies and tensions in relation to the quality of Parliament's institutional performance on matters of minimum constitutional functioning.
Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser on Transnational Governance and the Future of Christendom
Authors: Lockey Brian C.
Published: June 2021

This article considers the writings of Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser within the context of European religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics, amid the perceived Ottoman threat to Christendom. In their fictional works, these authors imagine an overarching authority that might replace the traditional papal power of oversight and deposing in order to regulate temporal sovereigns and foster a unity of Christian princes within Europe. Even as they can be read as reimagining Christendom, their fictional works reflect what Charles Taylor has called the “disenchantment” of sacred spaces within his philosophical history of the emergence of secularity within European cultures.
Knowledge Production, Image Networks, and the Material Significance of Feathers in Late Humanist Heidelberg
Authors: Hanß Stefan , Rublack Ulinka
Published: June 2021

Examining the three volumes of birds assembled by Marcus zum Lamm (1544–1606), a Calvinist lawyer, court official, and church councillor in Heidelberg, this article explores visual and material cultures at a Calvinist court. We argue that Lamm was a pioneer in the production of new ornithological knowledge, an entrepreneur and enthusiast who experimented with colors and the arts in order to develop a means of representation that captured the vibrancy of feathers as a new and hitherto-unexplored feature for the classification of birds.
A New Conceptualization of the Political Left and Right: One Dimension, Multiple Domains
Authors: Joshi Devin K.
Published: June 2021

Scholars of the political left-right divide often see equality as the core issue of contention, with the left seeking greater equality than the right. Though partially agreeing with this consensus, I propose a modified left-right conceptualization that offers three novel contributions. First, while accepting the idea of a single fundamental dimension underlying conflict in global politics, I argue the key issue is not necessarilyequalitybut rather the diffusion or concentration ofpowerwithin and across nations, communities and individuals. Second, given the inescapable complexity of politics, I argue in favour of distinguishing between those who seek to de-concentrate power and broaden inclusion (the left) from those advocating for a concentration of power (the right) in specific issue domains. Third, I illustrate the utility of this “one dimension, multiple domains” theoretical framework through a comparative analysis of eight contemporary political parties across the domains of economic, foreign and social policy.
“A Fundamental Human Right”? Mixed-Race Marriage and the Meaning of Rights in the Postwar British Commonwealth
Authors: Piccini Jon , Money Duncan
Published: June 2021

This article explores the removal or exclusion in the late 1940s of people in interracial marriages from two corners of the newly formed Commonwealth of Nations, Australia and Britain's southern African colonies. The stories of Ruth and Sereste Khama, exiled from colonial Botswana, and those of Chinese refugees threatened with deportation and separation from their white Australian wives, reveal how legal rearticulations in the immediate postwar era created new, if quixotic, points of opposition for ordinary people to make their voices heard. As the British Empire became the Commonwealth, codifying the freedoms of the imperial subject, and ideas of universal human rights “irrespective of race, color, or creed” slowly emerged, and claims of rights long denied seemed to take on a renewed meaning. The sanctity of marriage and family, which played central metaphorical and practical roles for both the British Empire and the United Nations, was a primary motor of contention in both cases, and was mobilized in both metaphorical and practical ways to press for change. Striking similarities between our chosen case studies reveal how ideals of imperial domesticity and loyalty, and the universalism of the new global “family of man,” were simultaneously invoked to undermine discourses of racial purity. Our analysis makes a significant contribution to studies of gender and empire, as well as the history of human rights, an ideal which in the late 1940s was being vernacularized alongside existing forms of claim-making and political organization in local contexts across the world.
Piketty and the Political Origins of Inequality
Authors: Lachmann Richard , Brandon Peter
Published: June 2021

We examine Thomas Piketty's explanations for steady and rising inequality in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the decline of inequality in the half-century after World War I, and the return of high levels of inequality since the 1970s. We specify empirical and conceptual problems with his analysis, which stem from his presentation of causality at a highly general and vague level. That leads him to confuse rather than clarify the causal relations among implacable economic forces, changes in technological innovation and population growth, ideology, and governmental policies and the outcomes that he seeks to explain. We identify social scientists and historians who are able to account for temporal and geographic variations in the political coalitions that propelled egalitarian reforms, and that in their absence cleared the terrain for reactionary anti-egalitarian policies that the rich incited for their narrow benefit. We explain why Piketty's limited conception of ideology is insufficient for explaining how mass opposition to inequality is mobilized. We show that if we want to combine the study of capital in the twenty-first century with that of politics, we need a broader conception of ideology than what Piketty offers, one that will allow us to specify how ideology affects parties, states, voters, and activists.
When Palestinians Became Human Shields: Counterinsurgency, Racialization, and the Great Revolt (1936–1939)
Authors: Anderson Charles
Published: June 2021

This article examines the origins of human shielding—the practice of employing hostages on the battlefield—in Arab Palestine during the Great Revolt in the 1930s. The Palestinian rebellion vexed the British for over three years, and during its second phase (1937–1939), lightly armed rebels beat back the colonial authorities from broad stretches of the country, putting continued colonial control of the territory in serious jeopardy. Britain only defeated the insurgency through a harsh repertoire of collective punishments and “dirty war” tactics. British forces used Palestinians as human shields in a systematic fashion during the revolt's second phase, attempting thereby to stave off the insurgents’ consistent and effective attacks on transportation arteries. Beyond its battlefield rationale, this article contends that human shielding was critically tied to two other dynamic processes. The military's adoption of unauthorized tactics like human shielding was part of a broader pattern of rejecting its institutional subordination to civilian authorities and of seeking direct control over the Palestine government in order to assure its unfettered command over the revolt's suppression. At the same time, the conversion of colonized bodies into literal shields bespoke a process of deepening, corporeal racialization that had profound consequences for the Palestinians, stripping them of any figment of legal rights or protections and signaling the utter disposability of Arab life.
Language and Meaning in Tacitus’ Annals
Authors: Clarke Katherine
Published: June 2021

‘Verbal disharmonies reflect the complexities of history and all that is ambiguous in the behaviour of men. … His theme was savage and sinister, with no place for hope, ease or happiness. … Tacitus took possession of the Latin language, bent it to his will, and pushed to the utter limits all that it knew or promised of energy, gravity, and magnificence.’

(R. Syme, Tacitus, 1958: 347–8, 358)

Sir Ronald Syme, whose appreciation of the greatest of Roman historians remains vivid, insightful and compelling more than sixty years after the publication of his monumental work, thus highlighted one of the most challenging and enriching aspects of our own engagement with this author—the simultaneous difficulty and resonance of his language. Any reader will recognise Syme's characterisation of a Latin language bent to Tacitus’ will. Difficult for students, testing for experienced academics, Tacitus’ Latin defies the morphology of the primer and the syntax of the grammar. Everything we learned from Cicero about Latin forms, balanced clauses, rhetorical crescendos and word-order is thrown by Tacitus into disarray. His use of Latin jars and disrupts. Even the call for variatio is subverted, with a conservative and limited vocabulary in play, involving frequent repetition of key abstract terms, but conversely little pattern or regularity in the syntax of sentences. The ‘verbal disharmonies’ both challenge the reader and enrich the meaning. The highly charged nature of Tacitus’ Latin and its capacity, in his ‘possession’, to encapsulate the political complexities of the period is well established. No word is casually or carelessly chosen; phrasing carries resonance; echoes are significant.
What is the status of nucleic acid contamination in 2019-nCOV vaccination sites? Can it be avoided?
Authors: Li Zhanjie , Zhang Baiyan , Wu Xinhua , Yang Min , Zhang Qi , Xiang Guohua , Chen Yongxin , Zeng Lin , Tayier Dilirena , Zhang Weihong , Song Ninghong
Published: June 2021

This study aimed to investigate the environmental contamination of nucleic acid at 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV) vaccination site and to evaluate the effect of improvement to the vaccination process. Nucleic acid samples were collected from the surface of the objects in 2019-nCOV vaccination point A (used between 15 November 2020 and 25 December 2020) and point B (used after 27 December 2020) in a comprehensive tertiary hospital. Samples were collected from point A before improvement to the vaccination process, and from point B (B1 and B2) after improvement to the vaccination process. The real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction method was used for detection. The positive rate of vaccination room was 47.06% (24/51) at point A. No positive result was found in point B1 both at working hours (0/27) and after terminal disinfection (0/27). In point B2, the positive results were found in vaccine's outer packaging and staff gloves at working hours, with a positive rate of 7.41% (2/27). The positive rate was 0 (0/27) after terminal disinfection in point B2. The nucleic acid contamination in the vaccination room of 2019-nCOV vaccine nucleic acid sampling point is serious, which can be avoided through the improvement and intervention (such as personal protection, vaccination operation and disinfection methods).
OVERCOMING ABSOLUTE AND COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE: A REAPPRAISAL OF THE RELATIVE CHEAPNESS OF FOREIGN COMMODITIES AS THE BASIS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Authors: Meoqui Jorge Morales
Published: June 2021

David Ricardo indicated in his famous numerical example in the Principles that it would be advantageous to Portugal to import English cloth made by 100 men, although it could have been produced locally with the labor of only 90 Portuguese men. As the production of the cloth required less quantity of labor in Portugal, it has been commonly inferred that this country had a production cost advantage over England in cloth making. This inference will be proven wrong here by showing that the English cloth had a lower cost of production than the Portuguese cloth. This finding refutes the widespread belief that Ricardo had formulated a new law, principle, or rule for international specialization, known as “comparative advantage.” He used the same rule for specialization as Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations. Thus, the popular contraposition of Smith’s absolute versus Ricardo’s comparative cost advantage has to be dismissed.
Green Tea Infusion Ameliorates Histological Damages in Testis and Epididymis of Diabetic Rats
Authors: Guimarães-Ervilha Luiz Otávio , Ladeira Luiz Carlos Maia , Carvalho Renner Philipe Rodrigues , Bento Isabela Pereira da Silva , Bastos Daniel Silva Sena , Souza Ana Cláudia Ferreira , Santos Eliziária Cardoso , de Oliveira Leandro Licursi , Maldonado Izabel Regina dos Santos Costa , Machado-Neves Mariana
Published: June 2021

Green tea is a popular drink used for therapeutic purposes to mitigate the consequences of diabetes. In this study, we aimed at evaluating the potential of green tea infusion to ameliorate structural and enzymatic damages caused by hyperglycemia in the testis and epididymis of Wistar rats. For that, nondiabetic and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats (negative control and diabetes control, respectively) received 0.6 mL of water by gavage. Another set of diabetic animals received 100 mg/kg of green tea infusion diluted in 0.6 mL of water/gavage (diabetes + green tea) daily. After 42 days of treatment, the testes and epididymides were removed and processed for histopathological analysis, micromineral determination, and enzymatic assays. The results showed that treatment with green tea infusion preserved the testicular and epididymal histoarchitecture, improving the seminiferous epithelium and the sperm production previously affected by diabetes. Treatment with green tea reduced tissue damages caused by this metabolic condition. Given the severity of hyperglycemia, there was no efficacy of the green tea infusion in maintaining the testosterone levels, antioxidant enzyme activity, and microminerals content. Thus, our findings indicate a protective effect of this infusion on histological parameters, with possible use as a complementary therapy for diabetes.
Returning to “Asia”: Japanese embraces of Sino–Indian friendship, 1953–1962
Authors: Nasser Yasser Ali
Published: June 2021

As the Cold War prompted anxieties throughout Asia about the status of postcolonial state-building and decolonization, the possibility of friendship and cooperation between China and India despite their differing political and economic systems inspired hope and political repercussions far beyond their borders. This paper reveals how Japanese commenters, in their analysis of Sino–Indian friendship and both countries' respective political trajectories, saw the two countries as providing a rubric for a new type of politics. Utilizing an array of published, unpublished, and archival sources, I will study how diverse individuals, from the historian Uehara Senroku to burakumin activist Jiichirō Matsumoto, believed that Sino–Indian friendship, unlike the failed project of Japanese imperialism, could unite “Asia” in its struggle against imperialism amid the Cold War and accelerating decolonization. In following this model, they also believed that Japan could escape American hegemony and become “Asian” again. Japanese analyses of “China–India” as offering an “Asian” recipe for overcoming imperialism and navigating bloc politics help showcase how ideas of Asia continued to serve as a space for contemplating political possibilities during the early Cold War, transforming Japan from the region's former tutor to its pupil.
Understanding producers' perspectives on rotational grazing benefits across US Great Plains
Authors: Wang Tong , Jin Hailong , Kreuter Urs , Teague Richard
Published: June 2021

Experimental findings on rotational grazing (RG) trials have generally differed from producer observations of RG outcomes on commercial scale ranches. Factors such as small plot size, short duration trials and relatively rigid grazing management that lacks responsiveness to the dynamic and complex social-ecological systems in grazing trials could all contribute to this disparity in outcomes. These differences call for a better understanding of producer perceptions of RG benefits. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 4500 producers from the Northern and Southern Great Plains of the USA. Among the 875 respondents, 40.5% reported that they used continuous grazing (CG), 52.7% implemented RG management in an extensive manner, while 6.8% adopted management intensive grazing. Compared with CG users, adopters of RG in its extensive and intensive form reported an average annual increase of grazing season by 7.6 and 39.3 days, respectively. When controlling for producer demographics, ranch management goals and other rancher characteristics, we found soil and climate heterogeneity significantly affected the perceived relative benefits of RGvsCG strategies. Therefore, instead of focusing on whether RG outperforms CGper se, future research could focus on comparison of RG benefits under different management intensity levels and identifying soil and climate conditions where RG benefits are more noticeable.
Erfahrungen von Advanced Practice Nurses mit einem klinischen Weiterbildungsstudiengang im Kontext ihrer beruflichen Entwicklung
Authors: Stürmer Natascha , Frei Irena Anna , Nicca Dunja
Published: June 2021

Zusammenfassung. Hintergrund: Das an der Universität Basel seit 2012 angebotene Diploma of Advanced Studies in Advanced Nursing Practice (DAS ANP-plus) ist ein klinischer Weiterbildungsstudiengang für die noch wenig etablierte Berufsgruppe der Advanced Practice Nurse (APN). In der Berufsbiografie und für die Tätigkeit der APN in der Patientenversorgung spielt der Erwerb klinischer Kompetenzen eine zentrale Rolle. Ziel: Mit der qualitativen Studie wurde exploriert, welche Erfahrungen APNs während und nach einer klinisch ausgerichteten postgradualen Weiterbildung in der Schweiz machten und welche bedeutenden Veränderungen sie dadurch in ihrer Berufsausübung erlebten. Methode: Reflexive thematische Analyse mit konstruktivistischer Orientierung. 14 Absolvent_innen wurden leitfadengestützt unter Einbezug der Berufsbiografie interviewt. Ergebnisse: „Die Vision verfolgen besser pflegen zu wollen“ ist das konstituierende Thema. Die Absolvent_innen scheinen von einer starken Vision getragen zu werden: vom Streben mehr wissen zu wollen, hin zur Umsetzung der Vorstellung ihrer Rolle bis zu innovativen Veränderungen in der Gesundheitsversorgung. Die Vision zu verfolgen ist durch drei Themen geprägt: „Die Herausforderungen als APN Fuß zu fassen“, vor dem Studiengang, „Sicherheit erlangen durch die Stärkung klinischer Kompetenzen“ während dem Studiengang und längerfristig „mit Verbündeten neue Wege in Versorgungssystemen gehen“. Schlussfolgerungen: Durch das DAS ANP-plus werden die klinischen Kompetenzen von APNs gestärkt, dabei nimmt die Supervision in klinischen Alltag eine bedeutende Stellung ein.
NEON Lights a Path for Sustained Ecological Observations
Authors: SanClements Michael , Mabee Paula
Published: June 2021

Resources and data offered by the National Ecological Observatory Network are supporting researchers investigating critical ecosystem changes across the country.
Dissolved Organic Matter Dynamics in Reference and Calcium Silicate‐Treated Watersheds at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH, USA
Authors: LoRusso N. A. , Bailey S. W. , Zeng T. , Montesdeoca M. , Driscoll C. T.
Published: June 2021

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) can serve as an indicator of watershed carbon cycling, and links terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems. The extent DOM is microbially processed before it enters aquatic ecosystems is expected to change with soil depth and landscape position, and as some research suggests, in response to recovery from chronic acidification. Here we examined DOM within freely flowing soil pore water and stream water collected from reference and calcium silicate‐treated watersheds at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (DON) concentrations as well as, absorption and fluorescence properties were analyzed to assess patterns in DOM quantity and quality. Parallel factor analysis was used to identify three predominant fluorescing DOM components (C1‐3). All three components were terrestrial in origin, however C3 exhibited spectral properties previously linked to the microbial processing of humic material. Distinct horizonal patterns emerged between genetic soil horizons. DOC quantity decreased with soil depth, so too did, the plant derived lignin‐like fraction (C2), while the C3 fraction increased. High‐elevation coniferous zones with shallow bedrock contributed to higher DOC concentrations in soil and stream water, while high and low‐elevation mineral soils exhibited greater C3 fractions and fluorescence indicators of microbially processed DOM. This pattern suggests these mineral soils are important organic carbon sinks, due to greater rates of microbial DOM processing. DOC in forest floor solutions, C3 fractions, and indicators of smaller molecular size (E2:E3) were all higher in the calcium silicate‐treated watershed, suggesting greater microbial processing of DOM.
Overtopping‐Induced Failure of Non–Cohesive Homogeneous Fluvial Dikes: Effect of Dike Geometry on Breach Discharge and Widening
Authors: Schmitz V. , Erpicum S. , El kadi Abderrezzak K. , Rifai I. , Archambeau P. , Pirotton M. , Dewals B.
Published: June 2021

Laboratory experiments were conducted to assess the influence of dike geometry on the breaching of non‐cohesive homogeneous fluvial dikes. Both the channel‐side and floodplain‐side dike slopes and the crest length were varied systematically. The time‐evolution of the breach discharge and breach width was monitored. Dikes having a larger volume per unit width lead to a more gradual increase in breach discharge and in breach width during the first stage of breach expansion (i.e., phase of rapid erosion). In contrast, the later stage of gradual breach widening is less influenced by the dike geometry. The breach hydrographs were observed to follow three distinct patterns, which are explained based on the relative magnitude of two characteristic time scales and of a normalized form of the dike unit volume.
Enduring glucocorticoid-evoked exacerbation of synaptic plasticity disruption in male rats modelling early Alzheimer’s disease amyloidosis
Authors: Qi Yingjie , Klyubin Igor , Ondrejcak Tomas , Hu Neng-Wei , Rowan Michael J.
Published: June 2021

Synaptic dysfunction is a likely proximate cause of subtle cognitive impairment in early Alzheimer’s disease. Soluble oligomers are the most synaptotoxic forms of amyloid ß-protein (Aß) and mediate synaptic plasticity disruption in Alzheimer’s disease amyloidosis. Because the presence and extent of cortisol excess in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease predicts the onset of cognitive symptoms we hypothesised that corticosteroids would exacerbate the inhibition of hippocampal synaptic long-term potentiation in a rat model of Alzheimer’s disease amyloidosis. In a longitudinal experimental design using freely behaving pre-plaque McGill-R-Thy1-APP male rats, three injections of corticosterone or the glucocorticoid methylprednisolone profoundly disrupted long-term potentiation induced by strong conditioning stimulation for at least 2 months. The same treatments had a transient or no detectible detrimental effect on synaptic plasticity in wild-type littermates. Moreover, corticosterone-mediated cognitive dysfunction, as assessed in a novel object recognition test, was more persistent in the transgenic animals. Evidence for the involvement of pro-inflammatory mechanisms was provided by the ability of the selective the NOD-leucine rich repeat and pyrin containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome inhibitor Mcc950 to reverse the synaptic plasticity deficit in corticosterone-treated transgenic animals. The marked prolongation of the synaptic plasticity disrupting effects of brief corticosteroid excess substantiates a causal role for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation in early Alzheimer’s disease.
YIV-906 potentiated anti-PD1 action against hepatocellular carcinoma by enhancing adaptive and innate immunity in the tumor microenvironment
Authors: Yang Xiaochen , Lam Wing , Jiang Zaoli , Guan Fulan , Han Xue , Hu Rong , Cai Wei , Cheng William , Liu Shwu-Huey , Cheng Peikwen , Cai Yuping , Rattray Nicholas J. W. , Johnson Caroline H. , Chen Lieping , Cheng Yung-Chi
Published: June 2021

YIV-906 (PHY906) is a standardized botanical cancer drug candidate developed with a systems biology approach—inspired by a traditional Chinese herbal formulation, historically used to treat gastrointestinal symptoms including diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. In combination with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, preclinical and clinical results suggest that YIV-906 has the potential to prolong survival and improve quality of life for cancer patients. Here, we demonstrated that YIV-906 plus anti-PD1 could eradicate all Hepa 1–6 tumors in all tumor bearing mice. YIV-906 was found to have multiple mechanisms of action to enhance adaptive and innate immunity. In combination, YIV-906 reduced PD1 or counteracted PD-L1 induction caused by anti-PD1 which led to higher T-cell activation gene expression of the tumor. In addition, YIV-906 could reduce immune tolerance by modulating IDO activity and reducing monocytic MDSC of the tumor. The combination of anti-PD1 and YIV-906 generated acute inflammation in the tumor microenvironment with more M1-like macrophages. YIV-906 could potentiate the action of interferon gamma (IFNg) to increase M1-like macrophage polarization while inhibiting IL4 action to decrease M2 macrophage polarization. Flavonoids from YIV-906 were responsible for modulating IDO activity and potentiating IFNg action in M1-like macrophage polarization. In conclusion, YIV-906 could act as an immunomodulator and enhance the innate and adaptive immune response and potentiate anti-tumor activity for immunotherapies to treat cancer.
Approximation of the Cox survival regression model by MCMC Bayesian Hierarchical Poisson modelling of factors associated with childhood mortality in Nigeria
Authors: Fagbamigbe A. F. , Salawu M. M. , Abatan S. M. , Ajumobi O.
Published: June 2021

The need for more pragmatic approaches to achieve sustainable development goal on childhood mortality reduction necessitated this study. Simultaneous study of the influence of where the children live and the censoring nature of children survival data is scarce. We identified the compositional and contextual factors associated with under-five (U5M) and infant (INM) mortality in Nigeria from 5 MCMC Bayesian hierarchical Poisson regression models as approximations of the Cox survival regression model. The 2018 DHS data of 33,924 under-five children were used. Life table techniques and the Mlwin 3.05 module for the analysis of hierarchical data were implemented in Stata Version 16. The overall INM rate (INMR) was 70 per 1000 livebirths compared with U5M rate (U5MR) of 131 per 1000 livebirth. The INMR was lowest in Ogun (17 per 1000 live births) and highest in Kaduna (106), Gombe (112) and Kebbi (116) while the lowest U5MR was found in Ogun (29) and highest in Jigawa (212) and Kebbi (248). The risks of INM and U5M were highest among children with none/low maternal education, multiple births, low birthweight, short birth interval, poorer households, when spouses decide on healthcare access, having a big problem getting to a healthcare facility, high community illiteracy level, and from states with a high proportion of the rural population in the fully adjusted model. Compared with the null model, 81% vs 13% and 59% vs 35% of the total variation in INM and U5M were explained by the state- and neighbourhood-level factors respectively. Infant- and under-five mortality in Nigeria is influenced by compositional and contextual factors. The Bayesian hierarchical Poisson regression model used in estimating the factors associated with childhood deaths in Nigeria fitted the survival data.
Neu1 deficiency induces abnormal emotional behavior in zebrafish
Authors: Ikeda Asami , Komamizu Mayu , Hayashi Akito , Yamasaki Chiharu , Okada Keiji , Kawabe Momoko , Komatsu Masaharu , Shiozaki Kazuhiro
Published: June 2021

NEU1 sialidase hydrolyzes sialic acids from glycoconjugates in lysosomes. Deficiency of NEU1 causes sialidosis with symptoms including facial dysmorphism, bone dysplasia, and neurodegeneration. However, the effects of NEU1 deficiency on emotional activity have not been explored. Here, we conducted the behavioral analysis using Neu1-knockout zebrafish (Neu1-KO). Neu1-KO zebrafish showed normal swimming similar to wild-type zebrafish (WT), whereas shoaling was decreased and accompanied by greater inter-fish distance than WT zebrafish. The aggression test showed a reduced aggressive behavior in Neu1-KO zebrafish than in WT zebrafish. In the mirror and 3-chambers test, Neu1-KO zebrafish showed more interest toward the opponent in the mirror and multiple unfamiliar zebrafish, respectively, than WT zebrafish. Furthermore, Neu1-KO zebrafish also showed increased interaction with different fish species, whereas WT zebrafish avoided them. In the black–white preference test, Neu1-KO zebrafish showed an abnormal preference for the white region, whereas WT zebrafish preferred the black region. Neu1-KO zebrafish were characterized by a downregulation of the anxiety-related genes of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and upregulation of lamp1a, an activator of lysosomal exocytosis, with their brains accumulating several sphingoglycolipids. This study revealed that Neu1 deficiency caused abnormal emotional behavior in zebrafish, possibly due to neuronal dysfunction induced by lysosomal exocytosis.
Development of a bioavailable Hg(II) sensing system based on MerR-regulated visual pigment biosynthesis
Authors: Guo Yan , Hui Chang-ye , Liu Lisa , Chen Min-peng , Huang Hong-ying
Published: June 2021

Engineered microorganisms have proven to be a highly effective and robust tool to specifically detect heavy metals in the environment. In this study, a highly specific pigment-based whole-cell biosensor has been investigated for the detection of bioavailable Hg(II) based on an artificial heavy metal resistance operon. The basic working principle of biosensors is based on the violacein biosynthesis under the control of mercury resistance (mer) promoter and mercury resistance regulator (MerR). Engineered biosensor cells have been demonstrated to selectively respond to Hg(II), and the specific response was not influenced by interfering metal ions. The response of violacein could be recognized by the naked eye, and the time required for the maximum response of violacein (5 h) was less than that of enhanced green fluorescence protein (eGFP) (8 h) in the single-signal output constructs. The response of violacein was almost unaffected by the eGFP in a double-promoter controlled dual-signals output construct. However, the response strength of eGFP was significantly decreased in this genetic construct. Exponentially growing violacein-based biosensor detected concentrations as low as 0.39 μM Hg(II) in a colorimetric method, and the linear relationship was observed in the concentration range of 0.78–12.5 μM. Non-growing biosensor cells responded to concentrations as low as 0.006 μM Hg(II) in a colorimetric method and in a Hg(II) containing plate sensitive assay, and the linear relationship was demonstrated in a very narrow concentration range. The developed biosensor was finally validated for the detection of spiked bioavailable Hg(II) in environmental water samples.
Public mobility data enables COVID-19 forecasting and management at local and global scales
Authors: Ilin Cornelia , Annan-Phan Sébastien , Tai Xiao Hui , Mehra Shikhar , Hsiang Solomon , Blumenstock Joshua E.
Published: June 2021

Policymakers everywhere are working to determine the set of restrictions that will effectively contain the spread of COVID-19 without excessively stifling economic activity. We show that publicly available data on human mobility—collected by Google, Facebook, and other providers—can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and forecast the spread of COVID-19. This approach uses simple and transparent statistical models to estimate the effect of NPIs on mobility, and basic machine learning methods to generate 10-day forecasts of COVID-19 cases. An advantage of the approach is that it involves minimal assumptions about disease dynamics, and requires only publicly-available data. We evaluate this approach using local and regional data from China, France, Italy, South Korea, and the United States, as well as national data from 80 countries around the world. We find that NPIs are associated with significant reductions in human mobility, and that changes in mobility can be used to forecast COVID-19 infections.
Medical imaging deep learning with differential privacy
Authors: Ziller Alexander , Usynin Dmitrii , Braren Rickmer , Makowski Marcus , Rueckert Daniel , Kaissis Georgios
Published: June 2021

The successful training of deep learning models for diagnostic deployment in medical imaging applications requires large volumes of data. Such data cannot be procured without consideration for patient privacy, mandated both by legal regulations and ethical requirements of the medical profession. Differential privacy (DP) enables the provision of information-theoretic privacy guarantees to patients and can be implemented in the setting of deep neural network training through the differentially private stochastic gradient descent (DP-SGD) algorithm. We here present deepee, a free-and-open-source framework for differentially private deep learning for use with the PyTorch deep learning framework. Our framework is based on parallelised execution of neural network operations to obtain and modify the per-sample gradients. The process is efficiently abstracted via a data structure maintaining shared memory references to neural network weights to maintain memory efficiency. We furthermore offer specialised data loading procedures and privacy budget accounting based on the Gaussian Differential Privacy framework, as well as automated modification of the user-supplied neural network architectures to ensure DP-conformity of its layers. We benchmark our framework’s computational performance against other open-source DP frameworks and evaluate its application on the paediatric pneumonia dataset, an image classification task and on the Medical Segmentation Decathlon Liver dataset in the task of medical image segmentation. We find that neural network training with rigorous privacy guarantees is possible while maintaining acceptable classification performance and excellent segmentation performance. Our framework compares favourably to related work with respect to memory consumption and computational performance. Our work presents an open-source software framework for differentially private deep learning, which we demonstrate in medical imaging analysis tasks. It serves to further the utilisation of privacy-enhancing techniques in medicine and beyond in order to assist researchers and practitioners in addressing the numerous outstanding challenges towards their widespread implementation.