bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Boom, the Bust, and the Cost of the Cleanup
Authors: McClure Nicholas G. , Simonides Ion G. , Weber Jeremy G.
Published: July 2022

This chapter considers the important question of what happens to wells, and whether the economic incentives are appropriately designed for inducing socially efficient behavior. State governments require operators of oil and gas wells to reclaim well sites at the end of a well's economic life. To encourage and fund proper reclamation, states require operators to set aside money in the form of a bond, which is forfeited to the state if the operator abandons a well without reclaiming it to state standards. The state can then use the money to pay contractors for reclamation. Estimates of the cost of reclaiming shale gas wells suggests that current bonding requirements are too low, especially in Pennsylvania. The chapter uses the relationships between well characteristics and reclamation costs to provide a better estimate of the cost of reclaiming the typical shale gas well in Pennsylvania.
An Economic and Policy Analysis of Shale Gas Well Bonds
Authors: Harleman Max
Published: July 2022

This chapter considers a fundamentally important way governments seek to address the economic impacts of fracking through bonding requirements. It aims to answer the question: how much money should state officials require shale gas well operators to set aside in the form of bonds to achieve a socially desirable outcome? The analysis distinguishes the categories of costs and benefits that state officials should consider when evaluating bonding systems and presents a cost-benefit analysis of bond systems in Pennsylvania. The findings reveal that current bonds are too low and do not match actual reclamation costs. The chapter recommends that state officials set bonds equal to best estimates of reclamation costs, a practice that will prevent significant costs borne by residents and without the loss of many economic benefits.
Conclusion
Authors: Deitrick Sabina E. , Murtazashvili Ilia
Published: July 2022

This concluding chapter pulls together the conclusions of the case studies discussed throughout this book. The shale boom has created many studies on environmental and health impacts, but far less on what happens in local communities in practical terms of governance, planning, and economic impacts. Stepping outside the usual range of outcomes considered in economic studies of boom and bust dynamics—typically employment and earnings—heightens the challenge of understanding a resource boom. Such a broader approach is essential to understand the governance, planning, and economic impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Furthermore, these cases demonstrate the role and importance of local and state officials, civic leaders, and resident stakeholders in challenging—and often untested—conditions. This chapter offers recommendations and the role of continuing research on understanding the practice and impacts of shale gas production in local and state planning and governance.
Is There a “Mediterranean” Growth Model?
Authors: Baccaro Lucio
Published: July 2022

This chapter intends to determine whether the Mediterranean countries—Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain—have a common “growth model” and the features of which, if there is. A growth model can be identified by examining the components of aggregate demand—household consumption, investment, government expenditure, and exports—that account for the greatest contribution to growth in a particular country over the business cycle. The chapter differentiates the debt- and consumption-led growth model, export-led growth model, “balanced” growth model, and the fourth model which is characterized by stagnation due to the absence of a sufficiently powerful driver of growth. By examining data on growth contribution of aggregate demand components, wages, productivity, household debt, and housing prices, the chapter concludes that the Mediterranean growth model is of the consumption-led variety and that at best, the Mediterranean economies can turn themselves into peripheral export-led models.
States’ Performance, Reforms, and Policy Capacity in Southern European Countries
Authors: Capano Giliberto , Lippi Andrea
Published: July 2022

This chapter holds that in Mediterranean countries, the state is considered to play an active interventionist role to compensate for the weaknesses of institutional arrangements or complementarities. As a result, the state is a significant driver of the development of capitalism. The chapter highlights that Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece underwent different trajectories of administrative reform that have produced different outcomes in terms of improvement of the state policy capacities. It examines the states' performance and policy capacity across Southern Europe and presents data from the Worldwide Governance Indicators to show the diachronic evolution of the four countries with respect to two relevant indicators: quality of governance and governance effectiveness. Then it compares the driving factors and performance of administrative reforms in the region. By focusing on the differences in the paths followed by these economies, the chapter aims to push the reasoning a step forward toward a deeper analysis of the destiny of the four states as well as their dividing in terms of varieties of capitalism.
Which Level of Analysis?
Authors: Pérez Sofia A.
Published: July 2022

This chapter provides a global view of how the four main southern states in the Eurozone fared following monetary union. It recognizes that the economic performances of different areas of a currency union cannot be considered independent of each other and points out that once countries adopted a common currency, their economic performance became intimately related to each other. Furthermore, the chapter argues that monetary unions created a very particular set of incentives for banks in the Eurozone core to channel credit to the countries of the Eurozone periphery. It acknowledges that with monetary union, the economies of Southern Europe jointly experienced a similar set of shocks, starting with the sharp rise in foreign demand for financial assets issued by their sovereigns and banks followed by two consecutive sudden stops in financial inflows. The chapter juxtaposes the two types of explanations for the divergence between north and south: the first centering on labor costs and specifically wages, and the second involving financial flows. It also tackles why the financial dynamics it describes are unlikely to have been the consequence of poor banking regulation and oversight in the states of Southern Europe.
Southern European Welfare Systems in Transition
Authors: Guillén Ana M. , Jessoula Matteo , Matsaganis Manos , Branco Rui , Pavolini Emmanuele
Published: July 2022

This chapter examines the idea that a distinct Southern European welfare model exists within European social protection systems. It focuses on the core social protection pillars: pensions, labor market policies, social assistance, health care, social care, and family policies. The chapter looks at the reforms in welfare systems in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. In the early 1980s, Portugal and Greece still presented an underdeveloped social protection system, whereas Spain had a semi-developed one. Only Italy had a relatively mature welfare state, mostly because of the time lag in both full industrialization and political authoritarianism, which lasted until the 1970s in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, in contrast to the 1940s democratic transition in Italy. The discussion provides a comparative assessment of welfare state change in these four Southern European countries. Furthermore, it explores the welfare states' responses to multiple crises. The chapter underscores that although all four countries shared some basic common elements in the past, they followed different paths of development and modernization of their social protection architectures up to the 2007–2008 crisis.
Armed Orders and Ideological Projects in South Asia
Authors: Staniland Paul
Published: July 2022

This chapter begins by introducing unique new data on armed politics in South Asia and using them to illustrate the extraordinary range of armed orders in the subcontinent. Every armed order has substantial representation in the dataset, from pitched total wars to tight alliances to various gradations in between. The chapter then provides a comparative overview of ideological projects across countries and over time within them, showing differences in governments' positions on core political questions. It demonstrates that India is an outlier across the region in its approach to ethno-linguistic minorities, and that Pakistan is unusual in its ambiguities about the relationship between religion and nationalism. In Sri Lanka and Myanmar by contrast, majoritarian religious–linguistic projects emerged that fused language/ethnicity with religion.
Sri Lanka
Authors: Staniland Paul
Published: July 2022

This chapter assesses Sri Lanka's history of armed politics. It begins by providing an overview of nationalist politics during the colonial period, primarily the emerging, but fragmented, contest between “Ceylonese” and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. The chapter then identifies the major shift that occurred after independence and the rise of the Sinhalese nationalist movement as the dominant project driving governments, both as a result of their own initiative and the pressures they faced from the electorate from 1948 until 1972. From the early 1970s onward, electoral competition between Sinhalese parties, while intense and hard-fought, was nevertheless centered on a broad consensus on the Sinhalese language and Buddhist religion as central to “authentic” nationalism. The left–right dimension was not very relevant to armed politics. Finally, the chapter looks at the armed orders that emerged during the Tamil revolt from the mid-1970s until 2009, mapping out the escalation of the conflict into total warfare. It concludes with implications for understanding Sri Lanka's present and future politics.
Foreign-Imposed Regime Change and Civil War
Authors: Downes Alexander B.
Published: July 2022

This chapter considers the relationship between regime change and civil war in target states. It first situates regime change in the literature on the causes of civil war, then briefly recapitulates the arguments for how regime change can cause civil war and outlines specific hypotheses. The chapter also presents quantitative evidence from an analysis of a country–year dataset covering the years 1816 to 2008, which shows that outbreaks of civil conflict are significantly more likely in the years following regime change—particularly leadership regime change. Regime changes that simultaneously promote political institutions in addition to leaders have no overall effect on civil war onset but increase the risk in poor and ethnically diverse countries—that is, where institutional regime changes are likely to fail. The chapter offers evidence from six historical cases that illustrate the two causal mechanisms connecting regime change and civil war.
Introduction
Authors: Mehl Scott
Published: July 2022

This chapter explores the period during which Japanese poets engaged in formal experimentation to a degree unmatched in any other period of comparable length in Japanese history. It takes a look at the close connection between form and translation in the history of modern Japanese poetry. By attending to how literary forms change when writers borrow them from one language and recreate them in another, the chapter unfolds something fundamental about how the implied and explicit values of different literary cultures interact. The chapter then shifts to pose the following fundamental questions about diffusionism: Under what circumstances, if any, can a so-called peripheral culture resist adopting the forms created by a core culture? Is it possible to specify when such resistance would be effective, and when ineffectual? It then considers the phenomenon of modern free-verse poetry in Japanese and how traditional poets and shintaishi poets both attempted to defend their forms against criticisms.
New Styles of Criticism for a New Style of Poetry
Authors: Mehl Scott
Published: July 2022

This chapter highlights the reign of the emperor Meiji in Japan in which translations of poetry in Western languages aimed at a broad public began to appear. It examines the premier of these, Shintaishi shō (New-style poetry collection), an anthology that introduced to Japanese readers such writers as Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Longfellow, while it also trumpeted the creation of a new poetic form: the shintaishi or new-style shi. The compilers of Shintaishi shō claimed that other, extant varieties of Japanese poetry such as the haikai (haiku), the waka, and the chōka were unsuited for expressing the complex thoughts and feelings of modern, up-to-date nineteenth-century Japanese subjects: hence the necessity of inventing a new poetic form. The chapter then displays the anti-translation stance of the waka poet Ikebukuro Kiyokaze, a strident critic of the shintaishi. It also presents another damaging critique of the shintaishi by a prominent Japanese psychologist, Motora Yūjirō, who argued that the repetitive, insistent rhythm of the shintaishi—which, like the chōka, was composed of recurrent fives and sevens—was detrimental to the brains of Japanese readers, which needed rhythmical variety for healthy functioning.
Frenemy Alliances
Authors: Haas Mark L.
Published: July 2022

This chapter begins by defining ideological enemies and discussing why relations among these states tend to be hostile. The two types of ideologies, “divisive” and “unifying,” can produce two sources of ideological enmity. Ideological enmity refers to relations among leaders who view themselves as dedicated to opposing and competing domestic principles and objectives. The first source of ideological enmity occurs when leaders are objectively dedicated to opposing ways of ordering domestic politics in terms of core institutions and values. The second source of ideological enmity occurs when elites are dedicated to objectively similar ideological beliefs but the ideology is a divisive one. The chapter then considers the power and other material conditions that transform an ordinary relationship between ideological enemies into a frenemy one. It identifies and analyzes the conditions when ideological enemies are and are not likely to ally to counter common material threats. The chapter also examines prominent alternative theories of alliance failure.
An Unrealized Frenemy Alliance
Authors: Haas Mark L.
Published: July 2022

This chapter examines the British and French leaders' failure to ally with the Soviet Union in the years leading up to World War II. It begins by discussing the magnitude of the German danger to the Western democracies based on the defining material variables of balance-of-threat theory. The size of this threat reveals the force of the incentives pushing Britain and France to ally with the Soviet Union. The chapter also explores the security overtures to the Soviet Union by British and French officials throughout the 1930s, before explaining why most British and French conservatives and French Radicals (especially after 1935) opposed allying with the Soviets. It then looks at socialists' consistent advocacy for an alliance with the Soviet Union and the ideology-based reasons that facilitated this preference. Finally, the chapter considers alternative explanations for the failure of an Anglo-Franco-Soviet coalition to form as well as these arguments' weaknesses.
A Tipping-Point Frenemy Alliance
Authors: Haas Mark L.
Published: July 2022

This chapter evaluates Sino-American security relations in the 1970s. It first explores the nature of the massive Soviet material threat to China in the 1970s and the latter's limited ability to counter it. The material threat that the Soviet Union posed to China's security beginning in 1968 based on the defining components of balance-of-threat theory—power distributions, offensive capabilities, geographical proximity, and aggressiveness—was very large. Although Sino-Soviet relations had deteriorated in the 1960s from a close alliance in the previous decade to high levels of animosity—especially at the polemical level—this relationship underwent a qualitative leap in hostility beginning in 1968. The chapter then looks at the ideological variables that played key roles in the delay in the formation of a frenemy alliance between China and the United States.
Useful Bullshit
Authors: Diamant Neil J.
Published: July 2022

This book pulls back the curtain on early constitutional conversations between citizens and officials in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Scholars have argued that China, like the former Soviet Union, promulgated constitutions to enhance its domestic and international legitimacy by opening up the constitution-making process to ordinary people, and by granting its citizens political and socioeconomic rights. But what did ordinary officials and people say about their constitutions and rights? Did constitutions contribute to state legitimacy? Over the course of four decades, the PRC government encouraged millions of citizens to pose questions about, and suggest revisions to, the draft of a new constitution. Seizing this opportunity, people asked both straightforward questions like “what is a state?”, but also others that, through implication, harshly criticized the document and the government that sponsored it. They pressed officials to clarify the meaning of words, phrases, and ideas in the constitution, proposing numerous revisions. Despite many considering the document “bullshit,” successive PRC governments have promulgated it, amending the constitution, debating it at length, and even inaugurating a “Constitution Day.” The book deals with all facets of this constitutional discussion, as well as its afterlives in the late 1950s, the Cultural Revolution, and the post-Mao era. It illuminates how the Chinese government understands and makes use of the constitution as a political document, and how a vast array of citizens—police, workers, university students, women, and members of different ethnic and religious groups—have responded.
Officials Read the Draft Constitution
Authors: Diamant Neil J.
Published: July 2022

This chapter examines how the 1954 constitutional discussion provides an unprecedented and unlikely-to-be-repeated opportunity for “constitutional anthropology.” During this discussion period, ordinary officials were not only allowed to offer commentary but encouraged to do so. Officials were asked about constitutional history (“Where did the constitution come from?”), role (“What is a constitution?”), ideological foundations (“Whose interests does the constitution represent?”), and institutional underpinnings (“Who is the premier?” “What does the National People's Congress do?”), and how China's constitution was different from those in capitalist countries. These questions were not easy to answer; even Mao Zedong seemed unclear about how a “president in a capitalist country” was different than the People's Republic of China's state chairman position. Focusing primarily on the Shanghai area, with several other areas sprinkled in, the chapter looks at the state from the inside out, beginning with officials' political and sociocultural concerns, and then to the process by which they got educated about the constitution. The chapter then considers the officials' reactions to two key elements in the constitution that were critical to their work: public order and ideology.
Cross-Border Banking in a Globalized Era
Authors: Morse Julia C.
Published: July 2022

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the link between cross-border banking and domestic policy. Every country in the world relies on bank-to-bank networks for some type of commerce, and it is this near-universal dependence that makes it a uniquely powerful tool of pressure. Countries may be able to forgo foreign investment or sell bonds to domestic markets, but governments cannot afford to be cut off from the global banking community. For this reason, bank networks and operating practices can have profound effects on the domestic policies of states. The chapter describes the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) noncomplier list, which showcases the power of globalized finance. By avoiding sanctions or direct coercive action, the FATF's noncomplier list preserves a veneer of bureaucratic authority and technocratic monitoring that protects it from easy critiques. The book continues furrther to examine the effects and implications of this unofficial market enforcement process.
The Fatf’s Fight Against Illicit Financing
Authors: Morse Julia C.
Published: July 2022

This chapter examines how the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) uses its noncomplier list and unofficial market enforcement to drive compliance improvements. It begins by providing a background on international cooperation to combat illicit financing and highlighting the FATF's two main missions: setting global standards and monitoring compliance. The chapter then discusses how the FATF established itself as a prominent institution through a combination of informational advantages, coercive pressure, and legitimacy improvements; these underlying conditions enhance the power of the noncomplier list. The FATF uses its noncomplier list to signal how banks should evaluate a country's underlying illicit financing risk. Banks restrict lending to listed countries and charge higher premiums for services. This unofficial market enforcement process has been instrumental in transforming domestic politics in listed countries and has ultimately led to significant improvements in compliance. The chapter also develops specific observable implications of the theory presented in the previous chapter, before considering several hypotheses related to the theory's scope conditions.
Fighting Illicit Financing in Southeast Asia
Authors: Morse Julia C.
Published: July 2022

This chapter assesses how the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) noncomplier list has transformed the ways that Thailand and the Philippines fight illicit financing. While the sources of opposition may vary, the case studies illustrate that the FATF noncomplier list is a powerful tool for shifting the politics of compliance. In Thailand, the noncomplier list forced the government to prioritize passing tougher laws on illicit financing. In the Philippines, the government passed almost every major piece of anti-money laundering legislation while on the FATF list or under direct threat of listing. If the case studies showcase the power of unofficial market enforcement, they also highlight some of the potential downsides to this approach. When Thailand was on the FATF noncomplier list, its government was confronting a multitude of political threats as well as natural disasters—serious issues that required substantive responses. Yet the FATF forced Thailand to prioritize passing legislation on combating illicit financing and possibly delayed other important policy programs. In the Philippines, market enforcement may have hurt some of the most vulnerable members of society.
Introduction
Authors: Frederick Samuel
Published: July 2022

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the logic of collecting. Collecting in effect gathers, preserves, and presents the material world in its fragmentariness and alienation. It thus instantiates the condition of things in modernity. To collect is to provide unique access to the world of scattered things by way of a process that ultimately participates in this dispersal. Collecting demands special attention to the procedures by which it is supposedly realized: displacement, decontextualization, denaturalization, and disfigurement. This book therefore reveals how the logic of collecting is inseparable from that of dispersal, not primarily as that which it ostensibly seeks to correct but rather, more critically, as that which it also enacts in and through the process of gathering. From this perspective, collecting's internal contradictions become constitutive of the activity's success. The book looks at the German-language traditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, identifying a set of texts (and one film) that do not prominently feature collecting and that do not in any obvious way mobilize the activity as a structural principle.
The Photographic Instant ( Fischinger )
Authors: Frederick Samuel
Published: July 2022

This chapter discusses a visual work of modernism that illustrates the degree to which collecting as poesis is not limited to the literary realm. At stake is the collectability of the experiential instant, which for Susan Sontag is made possible in the tangible object of the photographic print. The photograph, however, fixes what is essentially fleeting. The moving, cinematic image may instantiate that ephemerality, but it cannot be “held on to” (and therefore cannot be collected) as can the photograph. In closely examining a short film from 1927 by Oskar Fischinger (Walking from Munich to Berlin), the chapter proposes a way in which this dilemma is overcome. For this experiment in cinema is a work on the border between animation and live action that succeeds in making palpable the ephemeral instant—made matter in the single celluloid frame—even as it slips by. The chapter concludes with a brief foray into postmodernism by way of Swiss American musician and artist Christian Marclay's Record without a Cover (1985), in which the materiality of the artwork itself performs ephemerality by storing the medium's own gradual deterioration.
TBX3 regulates the transcription of VEGFA to promote osteoblasts proliferation and microvascular regeneration
Authors: Wu Lichuang , Su Chenxian , Yang Chuanhua , Liu Jinxing , Ye Yiheng
Published: July 2022

Objective

Osteochondral decellularization can promote local vascular regeneration, but the exact mechanism is unknown. The aim of this study is to study osteogenic microvascular regeneration in single cells.

Methods

The scRNA-seq dataset of human periosteal-derived cells (hPDCs) were analyzed by pySCENIC. To examine the role of TBX3 in osteogenesis and vascularization, cell transfection, qRT-PCR, western blot, and CCK-8 cell proliferation assays were performed.

Results

TCF7L2, TBX3, FLI1, NFKB2, and EZH2 were found to be transcription factors (TFs) most closely associated with corresponding cells. The regulatory network of these TFs was then visualized. Our study knocked down the expression of TBX3 in human osteoblast cell lines. In the TBX3 knockdown group, we observed decreased expression of VEGFA, VEGFB, and VEGFC. Moreover, Western blot analysis showed that downregulating TBX3 resulted in a reduction of VEGFA expression. And TBX3 stimulated osteoblast proliferation in CCK-8 assays.

Conclusion

TBX3 regulates VEGFA expression and promotes osteoblast proliferation in skeletal microvasculature formation. The findings provide a theoretical basis for investigating the role of TBX3 in promoting local vascular regeneration.
Evaluación de hongos micorrízicos arbusculares (HMA) en la rehabilitación ecológica de ecosistemas con actividad minera
Authors: Arancibia Rosa , Flores Manuel Esteban , Cabrera Tatiana , Sánchez Beiza Juan , Obando Javier
Published: July 2022

En los ecosistemas forestales nativos, los hongos micorrízicos arbusculares (HMA) cumplen una función de interfase suelo – planta, ayudando a la adaptación de las especies vegetales ante situaciones de estrés. En Chile existe escasa información en el bosque esclerófilo de la zona central, por lo que se propuso identificar y cuantificar las esporas de HMA en suelo rizosférico para las especies Beilschmiedia miersii, Peumus boldus, Citronella mucronata y de un sitio sujeto a rehabilitación ecológica debido a la acción minera, denominado “El Gallo”, presentes en la cordillera de la costa de la región de Valparaíso. Se colectó muestras de la rizósfera de las tres especies y del sitio en rehabilitación y se sometieron a análisis morfométrico; tamizado a 63, 149 y 297 µm y filtrado, con conteo de esporas en 50 g de suelo rizosférico en invierno (agosto de 2019) y verano (enero de 2020). Se identificó los géneros Glomus sp. y Acaulospora sp. y se determinó que la densidad de esporas HMA/ 50 g de suelo en el sitio El Gallo en tamizado a 149 y 297 µm fue menor con respecto de la densidad que presentaron las muestras de suelo rizosférico de las tres especies esclerófilas. Estos resultados establecen un valor de referencia respecto a la densidad de esporas presentes para la gestión de mejoras en la cantidad y diversidad de HMA en un manejo de sucesión de especies del bosque nativo esclerófilo.
Thyroid Dysfunction in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis and its Association with the Severity of Liver Disease: A Cross-sectional Study
Authors: Kolwalkar Rukma Jagannath , Nilajkar Gauri , Naik Samidha , Teles Roma
Published: July 2022

Introduction: There exists a complex relation between the thyroid hormones and liver physiology in health and disease. The liver along with the thyroid gland play a significant role in the conversion of inactive Thyroxine (T4 ) to active Triiodothyronine (T3 ). The most common thyroid hormone profile in cirrhosis of liver is a low total T3 and free T3 , secondary to reduced activity of deiodinase type 1 and increased conversion to rT3 . Aim: To assess the association between the thyroid hormone levels and severity of liver disease, expressed in terms of child pugh score in tertiary care hospital in Goa. Materials and methods: The cross-sectional observational study included hundred patients with liver cirrhosis, admitted at a tertiary care hospital in Goa, from October 2019 to September 2020. The thyroid hormone levels were estimated from an early morning fasting blood sample within 24 hours of admission, once the patient satisfied the inclusion criteria. The Child Turgott Pugh scoring system was used to classify patients as per their severity of liver disease. The data was entered and analysed in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 14.0. Results: There were 95 males and 5 females. The study showed low mean levels of total T4 and free T3 in patients with cirrhosis of liver, which was significantly associated with Child Pugh classes of liver dysfunction. There was an association between levels of free T3 and the classes of Child Pugh score. The difference in the mean levels of TSH, total T3 and free T4 across the Child Pugh classes were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The study showed low free T3 levels in patients with cirrhosis of liver as seen in similar studies done in various settings. Thus, Thyroid Function Tests (TFTs) especially free T3 levels have a considerable potential to be used an independent predictor or a proxy to prognosis in patients with liver cirrhosis.
Assessment of Student’s Learning and Perception towards Case-based Learning Supplemented with Laboratory Reports in Biochemistry: A Cross-sectional Study
Authors: Shah Tejas J , Baria Dipika P , Ramavataram DVSS
Published: July 2022

Introduction: Case-based Learning (CBL) is found to be one of the best approaches to promote students’ learning in Clinical Biochemistry which help them to understand clinical diseases. Moreover, exposure of interpreting Laboratory Reports (LR) in CBL session helps students in learning clinical diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of disease. Aim: To assess students’ learning and perception towards CBL supplemented with LR in Biochemistry and also to compare the performance of students with pretest and post-test on a topic taught by Didactic Lecture (DL) and CBL supplemented with LR. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Biochemistry Department, Smt. B. K. Shah Medical College and Research Centre, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Vadodara, Gujarat, India from November 2019 to April 2020, after prior permission of Institutional Ethics Committee. Total 60 first year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students were enrolled voluntarily and were divided into two groups: Group A (30) and Group B (30) by lottery method. The study process included pretest for all students, DL session for group A and CBL supplemented with LR session for group B on selected topic followed by the post-test after one week. Crossover was done in which group B was exposed to DL and group A was exposed to CBL supplemented with LR. Perception of both groups about CBL supplemented with LR was taken by prevalidated questionnaire based on five-point Likert scale. Data were analysed by Paired and unpaired (independent) t-test. Results: Total 59 students attended teaching sessions, submitted pre and post-test and gave feedback (Response Rate was 98.33%). Out of 59, 24 were males and 35 were females. Statistically significant difference was observed in pre and posttests performance of students for topics taught by CBL with LR method than DL (p<0.0001). All (100%) students felt that CBL supplemented with LR method was very helpful, interesting and improved their interpretation skills. Conclusion: CBL supplemented with LR proved to be a very good student-centric teaching-learning tool in Biochemistry as compared to DL method. Students who were exposed to CBL supplemented with LR had better understanding of Biochemistry and performed better in post-test than those who were exposed to DL method.
Effect of Organic Manures and Mineral Fertilizers on Soil Properties and Yield of Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.)
Authors: Salma Umme , Alam Mohammad Saiful , Khanam Mariam , Solaiman A. R. M. , Zakaria Mohammad , Rahman G. K. M. Mustafizur , Rahman Md. Mizanur
Published: July 2022

Aims: Under the intensive agriculture system, it is crucial to maintain the soil fertility for the sustainability of crop production. Therefore, the study was conducted in the experimental field of the Department of Soil Science of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur to investigate the effect of different manures in combination with synthetic inorganic fertilizers on growth, yield and yield contributing characters of BARI Mistimorich 1 (Capsicum annuum L.), a variety of sweet pepper. Nutrient content of capsicum and soil fertility status were also assessed.

Materials and Methods: The field trial was established following a randomized complete block design (RCBD) having four replicates. Treatments of the field trial included T1= 100% recommended dose of chemical fertilizers (RDCF), T2= 10t/ha cowdung (CD) + IPNS based chemical fertilizers (CF), T3=10t/ha poultry manure (PM) + IPNS based chemical fertilizers (CF) and T4= 10t/ha vermicompost (VC) + IPNS based chemical fertilizers (CF).

Results: Experimental results reveal that application of organic manures in combination with chemical fertilizers produced significantly higher plant height, plant weight, number of branches per plant, number of flowers per plant, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, total yield and nutrient content and uptake in sweet pepper. Organic manures (CD, PM and VC) in combination with chemical fertilizers ensured higher nutrient uptake when compared with the sole application of inorganic fertilizers. Among the treatments, vermicompost treated plots gave the higher yield of sweet pepper and improved the post-harvest soil nutrient status.

Conclusion: Vermicompost was found to be suitable as substitute of other organic manures for the production of capsicum.
Correlation and Path Analysis in Early Maturing Sugarcane: Climate Change and Environmental Impact
Authors: Singh Rajvinder , Kamat D. N. , Kumari Pooja , Zala R. G. , Singh Bansa
Published: July 2022

An investigation was undertaken to identify early maturing sugarcane genotypes for higher sugar yield at the Research Farm of DRPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar during the spring season of 2018, the experiment was carried out in Randomized Block Climate change is expected to have important consequences for sugarcane production in the world, especially in the developing countries because of relatively low adaptive capacity, high vulnerability to natural hazards, and poor forecasting systems and mitigating strategies. Sugarcane production may have been negatively affected and will continue to be considerably affected by increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme environmental conditions due to climate change. Design with three replications. Correlation and path analysis in twelve genotypes of sugarcane for twenty one different morphological and juice quality characters were studied in relation to the checks viz. CoLk94184 and CoSe95422. Analysis of correlation revealed that the character sugar yield had highly positive genotypic correlation with traits number of millable canes at harvest (0.977), followed by cane yield at harvest (0.963). However, it was negatively correlated with purity percentage at the 8th month stage (-0.491), cane diameter at harvest (-0.363), number of internodes at harvest (-0.263), length of internodes at harvest (-0.081) and fibre percentage at harvest (-0.039). The trait cane yield at harvest (0.955**) was found to have a highly significant and positive phenotypic association, followed by single cane weight at harvest (0.820**) and germination percentage at 45 DAP (0.510**).On the other hand, it was found that the traits cane diameter at harvest (-0.236), number of internodes at harvest (-0.151) and length of internodes at harvest (-0.099) had non-significant negative phenotypic associations with sugar yield. Positive direct effect on sugar yield at phenotypic level was exerted maximally by cane yield at harvest (t/ha) (1.51) followed by CCS percentage at 10th month stage (0.29) and pol in juice at 10th month stage (0.21), germination Percentage at 45 DAP (%), cane diameter (cm) and length of internode (cm), whereas at genotypic level maximum positive direct effect was observed in the case of pol percentage in cane at harvest followed by single cane weight (kg) and brix percentage at 10th month.
Growth and Quality Responses to Plant Spacing in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Varieties
Authors: Thakur Taru , Rattan Puja , Sharma Ashutosh
Published: July 2022

The present investigation was conducted during winter season of 2020 at Experimental Farm of Vegetable Sciences, DAV University, Jalandhar to study the growth and quality responses to plant spacing in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) varieties. Experimental material consisted of four varieties (Kufri Pukhraj, Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Badshah, Kufri Chandramukhi) sown at three spacings (70 cm × 20 cm, 60 cm × 20 cm, 50  cm × 20 cm) and laid in Factorial Randomized Block design with three replications. Observations on number of leaves per plant at 30 DAS, number of leaves per plant at 60 DAS, number of leaves per plant at 90 DAS, Plant height (cm) at 30 Days After Sowing (DAS), Plant height (cm) at 60 DAS, Plant height (cm) at 90 DAS, average tuber weight (g), number of tuber plant, marketable tuber yield per plot (kg), unmarketable tuber yield per plot (kg),tuber yield per plot (kg), TSS, ascorbic acid (mg/100g), starch content (%) and dry matter content (%) were recorded. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed significant effect of spacing, varieties and their interaction for all the characters under study. It was observed that plants sown at spacing S1 (70 cm × 20 cm) resulted in superior performance for most of the traits studied. Among cultivars, desirable results were observed in V1 (Kufri Pukhraj). Considering the interaction of varieties and spacing it was concluded that Kufri Pukhraj sown at a spacing of 70 cm × 20 cm can result in superior performance with respect to growth, yield, and quality parameters of potato.
An Overview: Interaction between Microbial Endophytes and Root Exudates
Authors: Vurukonda Sai Shiva Krishna Prasad , Chaudhary Shivani , Bodhankar Shrey
Published: July 2022

Bacterial endophytes of rhizosphere were able to reside in different plant tissues as a microbiome and from there they positively induce plant growth. Endophytic community structure in plant tissues is active and is altered by various biotic and abiotic stresses such as soil parameters, crop locations, plant verities, microbe–microbe interactions and plant–microbe interactions, both at local and larger scales. Root exudates include soluble organic substances, constitutes sugars, amino acids, organic acids, enzymes, and other substances. Apart from these compounds, the root surroundings contains lysates of cells, which released when root cortex cells are subjected mechanical damage, microbial graze, infection, or the natural pores formed in the process of lateral roots emergence. Since root exudates have abundance roles in plant growth promotion at different stages of plant life cycle. In recent times, the nature of compounds released by plant roots could attract group of microorganisms (beneficial) and particularly focus is more attracted towards the endophytic bacteria moved towards root surfaces and their entry into the plant tissues. In view of this hypothesis, the present review has attempted to describe the various functions of root exudates and their interactions with microbial community present with in the plant tissues and their positive effects on plant health.
Impact of Different Tillage Practices and Pre-mix Herbicides on Growth Indices of Wheat Crop
Authors: Singh Vishal , Kumar Rajesh , Kumar Ankit , Singh Kuldeep
Published: July 2022

Growth indices changes from sowing till harvesting of the crop were monitored under the influence of four tillage options (zero tillage no-residue, zero tillage with residue, conventional tillage no-residue and conventional tillage with residue) and four weed management practices (sulfosulfuron + metsulfuron @ (30+2) 32g a.i. ha-1, clodinafop propargyl + metsulfuron methyl @ (60+4) 64 g a.i. ha-1, weed free (30 and60 DAS) and weed check) during rabi season of 2019-20 and 2020-21. Analysis of the two years average data indicated that conventional tillage with residuealong with application of clodinafop propargyl + metsulfuron methyl @ (60+4) 64 g a.i. ha-1resulted in the highest significant values of crop growth rate (CGR)and leaf area duration (LAD) up to 90 DAS after which it declineswhereasrelativegrowth rate (AGR) shows a declining trend from sowing till harvesting.Net assimilation rate (NAR) was found to be unaffected by the treatment during first year of experimentation.However, it was significantly affected during second year of experimentation which declines from sowing to harvesting. No interaction effect was found among different treatments. The overall findings concluded that conventional tillage with residue along with application of clodinafop propargyl + metsulfuron methyl @ (60+4) 64 g a.i. ha-1could be more beneficial in the study area.
Knowledge and Awareness of Digital Dentistry among the Dental Students of Karachi, Pakistan: Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Memon Lubna , Ahsan Zeeshan , Faraz Muhammad , Arif Saman , Kumar Bharat , Haider Irsam
Published: July 2022

Aim: To evaluate Knowledge and Awareness of Digital Dentistry among the Dental Students of Karachi, Pakistan.

Study Design: Descriptive Cross-Sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Different dental colleges in Karachi from 15-06-2021 to 1-07-2021.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted among dental students from 15-06-2021 to 1-07-2021. The survey instrument was a self-administered anonymous questionnaire in the English language. The questionnaire was made up of two parts:

Part I focused on the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, including age, gender, education level, name of college, and study year. Part 2 comprises 17 multiple choice questions regarding the knowledge and awareness of digital dentistry. 192 questionnaires were distributed among the respondents via Messenger and WhatsApp groups through Google form by non-probability convenience sampling to the participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Google form was available only for two weeks and repeated.

Results: A total of 192 questionnaires were given to undergraduate students through email and WhatsApp groups, 180 were counted authentic. Among them 117 (65%) were male and 63 (35%) were female as shown in Fig. 1. The frequency and percentage title of government and private undergraduate students is shown in Table 1. Among all participants, 156 respondents were from government dental colleges and 24 were from private dental colleges. Among all the government college students 145 (80.6%) and private college students 21(11.6%) have not used any form of CAD/CAM in their workplace. About 27 (15%) students know the difference between stained and layered crowns. Among all undergraduate students think that waxes 8(4.3%), metals 21 (11.6%), zirconia 61 (33.8%) and about 90 (50%) respondents think that all of the above materials are used in CAD/CAM. Only 19 (10.6%) government students and 3 (1.6%) private students have ever seen a CAD/CAM machine and the remaining students have not seen or don’t know about a CAD/CAM machine. About 90 students (50%) think that digital dentistry plays an important role in future dentistry and only 9 students think that optical spray is used for making a digital impression. The knowledge of CAD/CAM was limited among pre-clinical years of dental students. Although About 50% of the student think that digital dentistry plays an important role in future dentistry.
Exploring the significance of PAK1 through chromosome conformation signatures in ibrutinib‐resistant chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
Authors: Wu Zijuan , Wang Luqiao , Fan Lei , Tang Hanning , Zuo Xiaoling , Gu Danling , Lu Xueying , Li Yue , Wu Jiazhu , Qin Shuchao , Xia Yi , Zhu Huayuan , Wang Li , Xu Wei , Li Jianyong , Jin Hui
Published: July 2022

Ibrutinib exerts promising anticancer effects in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). However, acquired resistance occurs during treatment, necessitating the exploration of underlying mechanisms. Although three‐dimensional genome organization has been identified as a major player in the development and progression of cancer, including drug resistance, little is known regarding its role in CLL. Therefore, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying ibrutinib resistance through multi‐omics analysis, including high‐throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi‐C) technology. We demonstrated that the therapeutic response to ibrutinib is associated with the expression of p21‐activated kinase 1 (PAK1). PAK1, which was up‐regulated in CLL and associated with patients' survival, was involved in cell proliferation, glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. Furthermore, the PAK1 inhibitor IPA‐3 exerted an anti‐tumour effect and its combination with ibrutinib exhibited a synergistic effect in ibrutinib‐sensitive and ‐resistant cells. These findings suggest the oncogenic role of PAK1 in CLL progression and drug resistance, highlighting PAK1 as a potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in CLL including ibrutinib‐resistant CLL.
Water: An Influential Agent for Lanthanide‐Doped Luminescent Nanoparticles in Nanomedicine
Authors: Labrador‐Páez Lucía , Kostiv Uliana , Widengren Jerker , Liu Haichun
Published: July 2022

Optimization of lanthanide‐doped luminescent nanoparticles for use in nanomedicine has encountered some difficulties due to the specific properties of water as a solvent. In this review, the current challenges for the adaptation of lanthanide‐doped luminescent nanoparticles to aqueous environments, and promising strategies to optimize their colloidal dispersibility and stability in water and physiological buffers, are summarized. Moreover, the possible luminescence de‐excitation paths caused by water molecule vibrations and how they can be prevented under different measurement conditions are discussed. This review also deals with the latest developments in lanthanide‐doped luminescent nanoparticle design for nanomedicine, to increase the depth at which they can be monitored, which is mainly limited by the absorption bands of water. Furthermore, the anomalous temperature dependence of water and the different effects it has on lanthanide‐doped luminescent nanoparticles in the physiological temperature range are commented on. Finally, a critical opinion on the possible next steps in this field is provided.