bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Becoming Balkan Bolsheviks
Authors: Marantzidis Nikos
Published: May 2023

This chapter focuses on the birth and the early years of Greek Communism, set in a framework of the movement's relations with the Balkan Communist parties and with Moscow. It shows that Bolshevization was not just an imposition of norms, attitudes, and policies “from above,” but a more complicated and awkward process involving almost all the Balkan Communists at the same time. The creation of the Balkan Communist Federation (BCF) signaled the first step in the Bolshevization of the Communist parties of the region, which were thought to function not as distinct national parties but first and foremost as an almost unified Balkan revolutionary entity under the Comintern's auspices. Once the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) joined the Comintern, it was integrated into a “Moscowcentric” network of structures, values, institutions, personalities, and activities. This global network shaped the organizational culture and the political identity of the Greek comrades. In this first decade of the party's existence, many internal tensions emerged as some officials fruitlessly attempted to resist the homogenizing pressure of Bolshevization. Moscow and the Comintern, however, leveraged their abundant human, material, and symbolic resources to bring the KKE under their powerful tutelage.
Balkan Communism and the National Question
Authors: Marantzidis Nikos
Published: May 2023

This chapter highlights the dramatic consequences of the interplay between international Communism and nationalism in the Balkans. A pivotal clash between those two forces appeared with the rise of the “Macedonian question.” The Macedonian question is an international controversy regarding the future of the multiethnic Balkan region, which had devastating consequences for the Greek Communist Party. The earlier disagreements about reform and revolution paled in comparison to the issues brought to the fore by the Balkan Communist Federation's decision to support Macedonian independence in 1923–24. Yet, despite the protracted internal crisis and the party's resistance to the Comintern, the Greek Communists complied with the international Communist center's dictates on the Macedonian question.
Becoming Greek Stalinists
Authors: Marantzidis Nikos
Published: May 2023

This chapter discusses the Stalinization process of the Greek party. It shows Stalinization not as an abrupt ideological shift, but as a gradual process unfolding from 1924 onward. This process began with the reestablishment of the Soviet embassy in Athens, which greatly facilitated the Communist Party of Greece's contacts with Moscow. The process intensified with the arrival of the Comintern's “missionaries” from Moscow, but it was also significantly shaped by Georgi Dimitrov's particular role as leader of the Balkan Communist Federation. Because of the multiple stimuli that propelled Stalinization, the process escalated in two different waves, one in the late 1920s and another in the early 1930s. Due to the fact that Moscow's supervision over the Greek party became more stringent, Stalinization went together with a process of de-Balkanization of the Greek party, which resulted in a radical shift on the Macedonian issue policy.
Epilogue
Authors: Marantzidis Nikos
Published: May 2023

This epilogue explores how the highly irregular and violent fate of the Communist Party of Greece's (KKE) top leaders reflected the party's turbulent political life. Long before its military bid for power, the KKE had been transformed from a party rooted in social-democratic traditions into a disciplined Stalinist entity that became completely subservient to Moscow and its obedient organs. International institutions, such as the Balkan Communist Federation, the Moscow center, the Comintern, the Cominform, and the sister parties in the Balkans, all shaped the KKE's leadership, its character, its way of life, and its decision-making mechanisms over the years. Unavoidably, this process was full of internal conflicts: the Greek Communists were pulled apart by centrifugal domestic and international forces emerging from political developments in Greece, the Balkans, the Soviet Union, and the shifting dynamics of the international order. With the approaching end of the Cold War, the Greek Communists experienced their final major crisis in November of 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell. After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, global Communism everywhere received a fatal blow. As for the KKE, it remained loyal to its Marxist–Leninist identity and turbulent Communist past without showing any regrets. Thus, the KKE remained the last Stalinist party in Europe.
Introduction
Authors: Pfeifer Annie
Published: May 2023

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the practice of collecting. Collecting is a conflicted practice, torn between preservation and transformation; it preserves its objects by stripping them from their original context and importing them into a new framework. Thus, the practice of collecting helps in understanding what was “new” about modernism. The chapter explains that the book traces how three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—engaged with collecting as a literary practice that simultaneously reflected their preoccupation with the material world. It establishes a genealogy of collecting in spoliation—the appropriation of the work or property of others. Because it straddles the margins between cultures and disciplines, spolia studies is a useful framework to examine the ways all three authors used collecting and appropriation as a mode of engagement with cultures other than their own.
Trash-Talking in The Arcades Project
Authors: Pfeifer Annie
Published: May 2023

This chapter evaluates ragpicking as a methodology of writing, pairing The Arcades Project (1982) with Agnès Varda's film The Gleaners and I (2001). The unique temporality of gleaning allows Walter Benjamin to reimagine both the text and history as nonlinear, digressive, and open-ended. By repurposing waste, the ragpicker, like the hoarder, questions what merits being saved and by whom. The modernist collector also resembles Benjamin's allegorist in The Origin of German Tragic Drama (1928) who recognizes the arbitrary connection between an object and its meaning and acknowledges the impossibility of completing a collection. Allegory—like collecting—introduces an alternative form of artistic production based on creative curation rather than Romantic notions of creatio ex nihilo. For Benjamin, collecting becomes a type of second-order creation that creates out of existing materials.
Epilogue
Authors: Pfeifer Annie
Published: May 2023

This epilogue explores digital hoarding. One of the dangers of digitization is that it gives the illusion of totality even as the information it presents is filtered and fractured. Since hoarding is so often a textual phenomenon, it seems to act as the material subconscious of the information-saturated age. Meditations on collecting and hoarding invariably lead back to the notion of the text as archive or compilation. The epilogue looks at Italo Calvino's essay on the materiality of garbage and Orhan Pamuk's novel The Museum of Innocence (2009). While writing the novel, Pamuk was simultaneously building a museum to showcase the items in the story. Like Carl Einstein, much of his fascination is wrapped up in a fundamental critique of museums, which, for Kemal, are “the repositories of those things from which Western civilization derives its wealth of knowledge, allowing it to rule the world.”
A Shocking Story
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This chapter discusses the canonization of Clare of Assisi. In his Legend of Saint Clare, Virgin, Thomas of Celano recounted Clare of Assisi's saintly life, describing her birth, her family, her exemplary behavior in her father's home, her meeting with Francis, her entry into religious life, her enclosure at San Damiano and her renown. The hagiographer had at his disposal the depositions of witnesses to Clare of Assisi's canonization process. One of the witnesses made a reference to Clare's washing of the sisters' feet. Clare's humble practice seems to include all the women of the monastery. Thus, the first virtue that Thomas lauded in the young aristocratic woman from Assisi was of course “her holy humility.” The chapter then considers the concept of Franciscan sanctity.
Assisi
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This chapter evaluates the social position of the family of Clare of Assisi. Clare of Assisi's entire canonization process is the expression of a network of family, friends, and neighbors; they were the group of aristocrats whose daughters made up the little militia of San Damiano. San Damiano was thus the female religious manifestation of an identifiable group of Assisi's citizens, united by family ties, marriage alliances, neighborhood proximity, patronage, and a shared culture and ideology. They were the noble families of the upper town, gathered around the cathedral of San Rufino. “Family” or “house” here has a wider meaning, encompassing everyone from the powerful householding couple down to the servants and including men-at-arms, the ladies' companions, poor relatives, clients, and dependents. Within the city, the most powerful lineages occupied the highest political offices at the heart of the commune.
Ritual
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This chapter focuses on the ritual of the mandatum (the “commandment”). Through the papal liturgy, the mandatum was introduced into the Franciscan liturgy, which the sisters followed at San Damiano. By washing her sisters' feet on a Thursday during Lent, in this universe of reversals opened up by the Gospel, Clare of Assisi also fulfilled her office: the liturgical office of the abbess, the office of the abbot, the office of Christ. In washing “the feet of the sisters and of the servants,” Clare compressed the two successive ceremonies of Maundy Thursday, as it was celebrated at Cluny, into the single mandatum of the Franciscan liturgy. This compression is heavy with significance. At Assisi, the poor are no longer kept outside. The servants are part of the community of San Damiano; they have made the same profession as the ladies and will lie by their sides for all eternity.
Inversions
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This chapter assesses the practice of foot-bathing and the kissing of the feet. Foot-bathing was part of the ritual of hospitality in the Hebrew Bible. Meanwhile, in the Middle Ages, the kiss of a foot was sometimes performed as a sign of a vassal's homage to his lord. The chapter then considers the unique status that distinguishes Clare of Assisi from her female companions: because she is the superior, she must also be the servant of the community, and not just the “servant of the Lord.” In Clare's Form of Life, it is clearly stated that the abbess has authority over all the “subject sisters,” who have “renounced their own wills” and are “firmly bound to obey their abbess in all the things they have promised the Lord to observe and which are not against their soul and our profession.” Yet by a reversal, like a counterweight to this obedience and as a kind of institutional version of the washing of feet, the superior is placed below her subordinates.
3. The Paraclete
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This chapter studies the manner in which the idealized Paraclete was to be governed. The ideal female community is formed of “cloistral nuns” and “converts,” but in the “new” sense of convert (religious women of a lesser social and legal status), not in the sense of the converts of Fontevraud. The superior of Peter Abelard's ideal female community should be called deaconess rather than abbess for the same Gospel-inspired reason that led Robert of Arbrissel to refuse the title of abbot. Like the abbess at Fontevraud, the deaconess of the Paraclete should be a mature woman, converted from the world. She should govern surrounded by her six female officers, taking counsel from all or some of the sisters, but making decisions on her own. According to Peter Abelard, the deaconess and the nuns should be freed from all practical tasks for which they were unsuited. The presence of two categories of men was thus essential: “The monks are necessary especially to celebrate mass, the lay monks for heavy work.”
Grandmont II: Conjectures
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This chapter highlights the Rule of Grandmont. What was the reality regarding clerics and converts at Muret and then at Grandmont? The Book on Doctrine reveals no trace of such a division. If the Book on Doctrine does not attest to a distinction of status between clerics and converts, neither does it present the evangelical figures of Martha and Mary in functional opposition. Thus, one can assume that at Muret the existence of clerics and converts corresponded to personal status, but that this distinction was not necessarily static and did not divide the community into two blocks with different functions. At Grandmont, by contrast, the dichotomy between clerics and converts took shape and hardened: the Rule clearly indicates the presence of the two categories. Real power is given to the converts, while insisting that their share is in fact the worse; the Rule places the clerics in a position of undeniable subordination, while trying to persuade them that this is cause for rejoicing.
Mother
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This chapter offers a new interpretation of Francis of Assisi's note to Brother Leo, based on several semantic observations. The key to the entire text lies in two words: sicut mater. Francis does not speak to Leo “like a mother”; he writes to him “as mother.” Indeed, Francis does not write to Leo as if he were his mother, or as a good mother would. He writes to Leo inasmuch as Francis really is his mother. What is a mother for Francis? In his writings, as in the writings about him, the figure of the mother comes up often, but not as a metaphor for tender affection. At the heart of the brotherhood that Francis was usually reluctant to call an “order,” “mother” was the only acceptable term for the one whom Francis preferred to call the “minister” or “servant,” rather than the “superior.” A mother is to a father what a minister is to an abbot. Motherhood is opposed to fatherhood as service is to domination, government to power.
Afterword
Authors: Dalarun Jacques
Published: May 2023

This afterword explores the connection between Francis of Assisi's note to Brother Leo and Michel Foucault's course of 1977–1978, especially the lectures delivered between February 8 and March 1, 1978. At the heart of the vast panorama that Foucault sketches from antiquity to modernity is the way the central and decisive place of the Middle Ages is revealed. The afterword then offers three reflections, concerning three encounters. On the social level, there was an encounter between the Christian pastorate and the feudal system, where the latter played the role of catalyst for pastoral potential. On the governmental level, Francis of Assisi's note to Leo signals another hybridity, between pastorate and motherhood, between pastoral power and maternal government. However, the confrontation between Clare of Assisi's experience and Francis's experience suggests that the governing position implies, to a more or less explicit degree and in a more or less pronounced manner, a reversal of gender. Ultimately, the afterword argues that the lesson of the Middle Ages is that that there is no such thing as a single, ideal form of democracy.
Introduction
Authors: Kane Maeve
Published: May 2023

This chapter traces how Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people bought clothing in ways that reflected and created their national identity over the course of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. It emphasizes that Haudenosaunee people used cross-cultural trade to reinforce their nations' sovereignty and maintain a distinctly Haudenosaunee identity. The chapter first discusses a long view of Haudenosaunee gendered labor from contact with settlers in the seventeenth century through the creation of academic anthropology in the nineteenth century. Focusing on this long view as well as the major changes and continuities in Haudenosaunee communities, the chapter then investigates how Haudenosaunee people used change in some areas of life to preserve their nations in the face of growing colonial pressures. The chapter highlights that Haudenosaunee women have always been essential to their nations, especially when their communities faced the crises that have characterized the settler scholarship of their nations' histories. Addressing Haudenosaunee women's political and domestic work, the chapter analyzes how both Haudenosaunee and European people understood the continuance of Haudenosaunee sovereignty and identity.
Purchased Cloth and the Transformation of Labor in the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Kane Maeve
Published: May 2023

This chapter recounts the travel of an Onondaga woman named Osissijenejo and her husband Nachssasija to Albany. It highlights that Osissijenejo's ability to travel to Albany for trade was made possible through Haudenosaunee military and diplomatic efforts that ensured safety and freedom of movement through Haudenosaunee territories for hunting and trade. As the chapter mentions, Osissijenejo and Nachssasija brought an otter pelt with them that would later go on to England, the Germanies, or Muscovy. In Albany in 1690, the otter pelt could become a shirt, a kettle, lead shot, or fabric. It could be made into garments or consumer luxuries and symbolically charged conduits of power. The chapter then shifts to focus on a Ganounata woman, Pierre Radisson, and Felicité who were transformed and integrated into new communities through the gift of clothing, noting that the transformative power of that clothing was due to its transformation in Haudenosaunee communities by women like Osissijenejo. It stresses that this domestication happened in two parts: first in the purchase of cloth and clothing, and then in its use. The chapter concludes by looking at how Osissijenejo's purchase and reworking of the linen shirt had political meaning and profound impacts on her daily life as well.
Outsourcing the Polity
Authors: McCarthy Gerard
Published: May 2023

This book offers a new account of social outsourcing in post-independence Myanmar, demonstrating how the bankrupt post-socialist junta mediated market reform in the 1990s and 2000s and forced private and non-state actors to take the burden for social welfare. Informed by research during Myanmar's decade of partial civilian rule (2011–2021), the book examines how ideals and practices of non-state welfare can both sustain democratic resistance and undermine social reform over time. Rather than expand government-led social action funded by direct taxation, grassroots activists and democratic leaders after 2011 variously framed government social action as ineffective, undesirable, and even corrosive of civic norms. They instead encouraged citizens to be “self-reliant” and support each other, including during disasters. Powerful tycoons filled the social gap, using public philanthropy to remake their reputations and to defend their ongoing expropriation of land and state assets from potential democratic redistribution. With non-state social actors more important than ever following Myanmar's return to dictatorship in 2021, the book casts new light on the lasting legacies of outsourcing for distributive politics.
Democracy, Freedom, and Morality
Authors: McCarthy Gerard
Published: May 2023

This chapter begins by highlighting how the ideal of “democracy,” as enlisted by ethnic Bamar Buddhist political activists and enacted during the decade of partial civilian rule, framed moral conduct as a prerequisite for individual and societal liberation. The chapter then explores the role of non-state welfare in ideas of liberty and democracy enacted by activists in their work and campaigns ahead of the 2015 election. Practical preferences for delivering aid and redistributing wealth through non-state practices are typically coupled with an ideal of non-state welfare generating and restoring the moral and civic bonds necessary for free, democratic society. By examining attempts to regulate the behavior of youth and businesspeople, especially Muslims, the chapter reveals how ideals and practices of non-state welfare were socially reproduced in ways that also entrenched new hierarchies of belonging. Ideals and practices of non-state social aid thus became a cornerstone of grassroots “democracy” during partial civilian rule, providing a normative justification for an insecure welfare regime and a social basis for minority exclusion.
Self-Reliance and Entitlement
Authors: McCarthy Gerard
Published: May 2023

This chapter explores the politics of self-reliance in post-2011 Myanmar. Informed by case studies of local improvement initiatives and data from the 2016 household survey, the chapter argues that state officials burdened poor communities with an obligation and moral responsibility to prove themselves good “partners” for development. By encouraging community contributions to social improvement in this way, state officials institutionalized a zero-sum conception of entitlement in which access to “rights” was determined not by citizenship but by personal and collective contributions to non-state efforts of social improvement. The chapter begins by probing the historical roots of so-called self-reliant development in Myanmar, arguing that the rise of do-it-yourself projects correlates temporally with the decline in “forced labor” from the early 2000s. It then looks at how local hierarchies of wealth, along with state support for these initiatives, were artfully hidden by community leaders so that they could depict themselves as self-reliant and appeal to more senior state officials for more substantive government aid. The chapter concludes by examining how the persistence of social outsourcing as a primary logic of citizen–state relations throughout the decade of partial civilian rule exacerbated the vulnerability of poor and excluded populations—especially minorities—despite state social expansion.
Conclusion Path-Dependence and Welfare Regime Change
Authors: McCarthy Gerard
Published: May 2023

This concluding chapter examines the practical and ideational appeal of state social outsourcing and how it can ensure the endurance of non-state social provision, even with often inequitable impacts and corrosive civic consequences. In particular, it considers implications of the research in three areas: first, the origins of non-state welfare ideals and institutions; second, why social outsourcing can endure even with regime change; and third, how non-state welfare can paradoxically perpetuate systems that ensnare the poor in precarity and debt while sustaining efforts to contest the autocratic state and reimagine social and political order. Despite regressive outcomes, the chapter looks at how the legacies of social outsourcing have also paradoxically sustained democratic struggle. It notes the role of non-state social providers in supporting resistance efforts against dictatorship after the Myanmar military seized power in February of 2021. Exploring how social outsourcing can shape both the desirability and fiscal potential for greater state role in the welfare mix, the chapter concludes by theorizing the implications of this study for comparative research on welfare and inequality more broadly.
Prediction study of prognostic nutrition index on the quality of life of patients with cervical cancer undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy
Authors: Chen Ying , Huang Bifen , Zheng Jianqing , He Fangjie
Published: May 2023

Objective

To assess the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and quality of life (QOL) of patients with cervical cancer (CC) who underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy and to reveal the effect of PNI on QOL and its prognostic value.

Methods

A total of 138 CC patients who underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University from January 2020 to October 2022 were selected as the study subjects via convenient sampling. According to the PNI cut-off value of 48.8, they were divided into a high-PNI group and a low-PNI group, and the quality of life of the two groups was compared. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw the survival curve, and the Log-Rank test was employed to compare the survival rates of the two groups.

Results

The scores of physical functioning and overall QOL in the high-PNI group were significantly higher than those in the low-PNI group (P < 0.05). The scores of fatigue, nausea and vomiting, pain and diarrhea were higher than those in the low-PNI group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The objective response rates were 96.77% and 81.25% in the high-PNI group and the low-PNI group, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.045). The 1-year survival rates of patients with high PNI and low PNI were 92.55% and 72.56% in the high-PNI group and the low-PNI group, respectively; the difference in survival rates was statistically significant (P = 0.006).

Conclusion

The overall quality of life of CC patients with low PNI receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy is lower than that of patients with high PNI. Low PNI reduces the tolerance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy and the objective response rate, which can be used as a prognostic indicator for cervical cancer patients.
Avaliação da pesquisa contábil: os critérios dos principais periódicos brasileiros
Authors: Ferreira Mônica Aparecida , de Carvalho Hugo Leonardo Menezes , Lemes Sirlei , Farias Manoel Raimundo Santana
Published: May 2023

Considerando a fase de avaliação como importante etapa para o desenvolvimento científico da área e disseminação do conhecimento, este estudo teve como objetivo verificar os critérios estabelecidos pelos principais periódicos de Contabilidade no processo de avaliação das pesquisas desenvolvidas no Brasil. Para tanto, utilizou-se das instruções existentes a respeito do processo de avaliação dos estudos encaminhados nos sítios eletrônicos de todos os periódicos do estrato “A” Qualis/Capes, e um periódico de cada estrato inferior “B1”, “B2”e “B3”, da área de contabilidade. Assim, foi possível identificar os critérios, suas definições e realizar um comparativo entre os periódicos analisados, pelo que se demonstrou a falta de uniformização na transparência dos critérios, objetivos esperados por eles e um isomorfismo avaliativo pela replicação de critérios dos periódicos do estrato “A” Qualis/Capes pelas revistas do estrato “B1”, “B2”e “B3”. Esses resultados indicam, do ponto de vista epistemológico, um estágio ainda pouco maturado de evolução nesse quesito da avaliação, bem como contribui para uma melhor compreensão sobre a forma de ocorrência do processo de avaliação da pesquisa contábil brasileira, sob o enfoque dos critérios estabelecidos e expostos pelos periódicos na sua avaliação.
Comparison of record linkage methods
Authors: Vieira Marcus André Alves Zimmermann , Louise e Silva Karoline
Published: May 2023

Record linkage is an important tool to enhance database integration. This is even more valuable in a scenario with more hefty budget cuts and a growing drop in response rate in traditional surveys. This strategy makes it possible to expand the crossing alternatives with variables not present in the original base. However, there are many different data pairing methods exposed in the literature. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to compare well-known methods of record linkage. The comparison was made in synthetic dataset. To compare the methods, it was adopted a quantitative approach based on the Precision, Recall, and F-Statistics metrics, using two comparison functions: Levenshtein and Jaro-Winkler. Among the six types of classifiers analyzed, the supervised methods had the best results.
Modelling Short-run Dynamics of Macroeconomic Variables on GDP in Ecowas Countries Using Panel Vector Autoregression Model
Authors: Ajao K. , Adenomon M. O.
Published: May 2023

This study implemented Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR) Model to examine short-run dynamic relationships between inflation rate, population and unemployment rate as function of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) counties. To achieve this, secondary data was sourced for Population, Inflation rate, Unemployment rate and GDP from National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria and ECOWAS office Nigeria covering from 1991 to 2020. The study implemented PVAR (1) and PVAR (2) models but only PVAR (2) model fulfilled the stability condition. Results from the analysis PVAR (2) model for GDP shows that GDP, population, inflation rate and unemployment rate at lag 1 are all positively related to GDP but only GDP and population at lag 1 are significant (P<0.05). While at lag 2 for GDP model, inflation rate and unemployment rate are negatively related to GDP though only GDP and population were significant (P<0.05). This study therefore concluded and recommended that in the short run, previous GDP and population data are significant in determining current GDP in ECOWAS countries.
The Carbon Footprint Reduction Related to Domestic Heating Using Thermal Power Plant Waste Heat
Authors: Şeneren Merve , Yiğit Mahnaz Gümrükçüoğlu
Published: May 2023

The carbon emissions created using fossil fuels for energy are the first place the carbon to the environment. Thermal power plants that burn coal or natural gas provide a significant part of this energy. It does not seem possible to avoid thermal power plants in the short term in future policies regarding energy. Thus, using the waste heat of these power plants for domestic heating to reduce carbon emissions for energy production also decreasing the global climate crisis is a critical practice. In terms of reducing the carbon footprint and the adverse effects of thermal power plants these practices are necessary steps.

In this study, two scenarios were created to reduce the carbon footprint of heating based on waste heat from the natural gas thermal power plant in Sakarya. This is considered with the district heating system in houses. For domestic heating, natural gas is used in the first scenario, coal is used in the second scenario, and the carbon footprint is determined. Emissions from the power plant's use of coal and natural gas are also determined. District heating using waste heat and its process and installation cost was also analyzed. As a result, it has been revealed that there will be a carbon reduction of 461,161.2 tons/year CO2e when natural gas is not used for domestic heating and 605,159.6 tons/year CO2e when coal is not used. All this is possible by the use of waste heat. The annual carbon emission of the power plant using natural gas was found to be 1,263,260.8 tons/year CO2e, and the emission value was found to be 9,682,554 tons/year CO2e when coal was used in the power plant. The study results will guide policymakers to reduce the carbon footprint of heating using district heating systems, both in Turkey and developing countries where fossil fuel thermal power plants are used.
Antibacterial Activity of Zea mays Silks and Husks Crude Extract on Biofilm Producing Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria from Urinary Catheters
Authors: Odelola Olanrewaju Samson , Oyetayo Victor Olusegun , Ogundare Ayodele Oluwayemisi , Omoya Funmilola Oluyemi , Ajayi Olugbenga Emmanuel
Published: May 2023

Aims: This study was carried out to investigate the in-vitro antibacterial effect of the crude extracts of Corn (Zea mays) silks and husks on selected biofilm producing multi-drug resistant bacteria isolated from urinary catheter tips.

Study Design:  Experimental design.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) Ondo State, Nigeria.

Methodology: Bacterial isolates from urinary catheter tips were screened for biofilm production. The biofilm producing isolates were subjected to commercial antibiotics and isolates resistant to more than three classes of antibiotics were used for the study. Methanol and distilled water were used as extracting solvents for the corn silks and husks. The antibacterial activity and phytochemical analysis of the extracts were carried out using standard procedures.

Results: The phytochemical analysis of the methanol and aqueous extracts of corn husks and silks revealed the presence of saponins, tannins, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids and cardiac glycosides. The aqueous extract of corn husk showed highest inhibitory effects on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci with zones of inhibition ranging from 14.80 ± 1.89 mm to 24.40 ± 2.51 mm at 200 mg/mL. Proteus mirabilis exhibited resistance against all the extracts.

Conclusion: Findings from this study revealed the antibacterial potential of corn silks and husks extracts at varying concentrations. The potency of aqueous extract of husk at lower concentration (200 mg/mL) suggests its potential use in the treatment of urinary tract bacteria especially Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci.
The Set of Rationale Numbers is Countably Infinite-A Simple Proof
Authors: Wolfinger Bernd E.
Published: May 2023

This research note presents a very simple proof of the interesting fact that the set Q of rationale numbers is still countably infinite as is the set of natural and integer numbers. The proof is based on several innovative ideas and neither relies on Cantor’s well-known diagonalization approach nor on the non-trivial Cantor- Schroeder-Bernstein Theorem.

In addition, we present a new proposal for a simple injective function f: Q\(\to\)Z, which allows one to encode rationals in a highly efficient manner and at the same time it can be understood much more easily (even by non-mathematicians). Moreover, also the inverse function f -1 can be derived in an extremely simple manner. Nevertheless, the growth of length is only logarithmic if we compare the resulting length of f(r=p/q) with the value of p, while the length of q has no impact at all on the length of f (r). Our approach also allows us to introduce a total ordering for the set of rationale numbers in a straight-forward manner.
Comparison of Resuscitation Quality in Simulated Pediatric and Adult Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Authors: Hansen Matthew , Walker-Stevenson Grace , Bahr Nathan , Harrod Tabria , Meckler Garth , Eriksson Carl , Guise Jeanne-Marie
Published: May 2023

Importance

Mortality from pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is high and has not improved in decades, unlike adult mortality. The low frequency of pediatric OHCA and weight-based medication and equipment needs may lead to lower quality of pediatric resuscitation compared with adults.

Objective

To compare the quality of pediatric and adult resuscitation from OHCA in a controlled simulation environment and to evaluate whether teamwork, knowledge, experience, and cognitive load are associated with resuscitation performance.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This cross-sectional in-situ simulation study was conducted between September 2020 and August 2021 in the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, and included engine companies from fire-based emergency services (EMS) agencies.

Exposures

Participating EMS crews completed 4 simulation scenarios presented in random order: (1) adult female with ventricular fibrillation; (2) adult female with pulseless electrical activity; (3) school-aged child with ventricular fibrillation; and (4) infant with pulseless electrical activity. All patients were pulseless on EMS arrival. Data were captured by the research team in real time during the scenarios.

Main outcomes and measures

The primary outcome was defect-free care, which included correct cardiopulmonary resuscitation depth, rate, and compression to ventilation ratio, time to bag-mask ventilation, and time to defibrillation, if applicable. Outcomes were determined by direct observation by an experienced physician. Secondary outcomes included additional time-based interventions and the use of correct medication doses and equipment size. We measured teamwork using the clinical teamwork scale, cognitive load with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration task load index (NASA-TLX), and knowledge using advanced life support resuscitation tests.

Results

Among the 215 clinicians (39 crews) who participated in 156 simulations, 200 (93%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 38.7 (0.6) years. No pediatric shockable scenario was defect free and only 5 pediatric nonshockable scenarios (12.8%) were defect free, while 11 (28.2%) adult shockable scenarios and 27 adult nonshockable scenarios (69.2%) were defect free. The mental demand subscale of the NASA-TLX was higher in the pediatric compared with the adult scenarios (mean [SD] pediatric score, 59.1 [20.7]; mean [SD] adult score, 51.4 [21.1]; P = .01). Teamwork scores were not associated with defect-free care.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this simulation study of OHCA, resuscitation quality was significantly lower for pediatric than adult resuscitation. Mental demand may have been a contributor.
Global Mental Health Services and the Impact of Artificial Intelligence–Powered Large Language Models
Authors: van Heerden Alastair C. , Pozuelo Julia R. , Kohrt Brandon A.
Published: May 2023

This Viewpoint describes ways in which artificial intelligence–powered large language models may be used to improve the delivery of mental health services worldwide.
Enthalpy‐Driven Room‐Temperature Superwetting of Liquid Na–K Alloy as Flexible and Dendrite‐Free Anodes
Authors: Zhao Lingfei , Tao Ying , Lai Wei‐Hong , Hu Zhe , Peng Jian , Lei Yaojie , Cao Yuliang , Chou Shu‐Lei , Wang Yun‐Xiao , Liu Hua Kun , Dou Shi Xue
Published: May 2023

Sodium (Na) metal anodes are promising candidates for various batteries with high energy density and high‐power density, however, the dendrite growth of Na metal is impeding their practical applications. The binary alloy Na–K is in the liquid state at room temperature with a wide composition range, which renders it inherently free from solid dendrite growth. Whereas the application of Na–K alloy is plagued by the lack of a wettable matrix to immobilize the liquid metal. Herein, a facile method is reported to introduce oxygen‐rich functional groups into carbon fiber cloth (O‐CFC), which is initially Na–K phobic yet turns into superwetting after the treatment. The superwetting behavior of the O‐CFC can be attributed to the favorable enthalpy changes as a result of the introduction of O‐rich functional groups. The superwetting property of the O‐CFC exhibits good universality, which can be extended to melting Na and K metals. By adopting the superwetting O‐CFC as a host for liquid Na–K alloy, the liquid metal can be well retained in the matrix and deliver a stable cycling for >1600 h. The concept of enthalpy‐driven wettability regulation can be enlightening for the host material design of other liquid metals and alloys.
Shortening Focal Length of 100‐mm Aperture Flat Lens Based on Improved Sagnac Interferometer and Bifacial Liquid Crystal
Authors: Wen Yifeng , Zhang Qi , He Qiong , Zhang Feifei , Xiong Lingxing , Zhang Fei , Fu Guoquan , Xu Junwen , Pu Mingbo , Luo Xiangang
Published: May 2023

Conventional lens technologies face great challenges in applications requiring large apertures and small f‐numbers, while a liquid crystal (LC) lens based on geometric phase is a potential solution. However, the challenge of manufacturing a large size LC flat lens with high efficiency and high phase gradient still remains. Here, an improved interferometric exposure system is proposed to acquire a large‐size vectorial optical field for photo‐alignment. Bifacial LC layers are applied to reduce the focal length while maintaining a large aperture, high diffraction efficiency, and light weight. LC layers are deposited on both sides of the substrate with the same vector system. Finally, a bifacial LC flat lens with a 10 cm diameter and 88.37% diffraction efficiency is fabricated by using optical elements smaller than 2 in., while the effective focal length is reduced from 91.5 cm to 46 cm comparing to the single side LC lens. This work demonstrates the great advantages of LC‐based flat lenses for flat optical systems with large aperture.
Tailoring the Phonon Polaritons in α‐MoO3 via Proton Irradiation
Authors: Zhang Ya‐Nan , Tang Yuanjun , Qi Liujian , Feng Yanze , Li Mengda , An Junru , Wang Lei , Zhu Huiping , Li Bo , Li Dabing , Li Shaojuan
Published: May 2023

Phonon polaritons (PhPs) provide new prospects for the development of next generation nanophotonic devices due to the high optical confinement, low optical losses, and long lifetime. It is crucial to modulate the PhPs in already discovered materials in order to utilize PhPs efficiently and increase the device operability. In this work, oriented particle trace structures in α‐MoO3 are generated where the dielectric functions are broken by proton irradiation. Those particle trace structures act as in‐plane boundaries, launching and reflecting PhPs. In‐plane needle‐like PhPs in the intermediate state are obtained and finally the switching‐off of PhPs via increasing the irradiation fluences is achieved. Furthermore, the switching‐off PhPs are partly restored to original state by annealing. The method provides an opportunity to manipulate light at the nanoscale and construct in‐plane PhPs reflectors with the potential to be used for polaritonic devices and circuits.
Investigating the Trade‐off between Optical and Mechanical Properties during Constrained Sintering of Mesomorphic Ceramic Films
Authors: Cheng Xinquan , Zhang Wenshi , Chen Shaw H. , Anthamatten Mitchell
Published: May 2023

Robust, transparent, and birefringent inorganic films are demanded for polarization control of high‐power lasers. While single crystals or films obtained via glancing angle deposition exhibit desirable optical properties and laser damage resistance, these methods are limited by cost and scalability. Mesomorphic ceramics as inorganic solids with liquid crystalline superstructure offer appealing transparency and birefringence but lack mechanical robustness due to their high porosity. Here, the effect of sintering on optical and mechanical properties of mesomorphic ceramics is evaluated. Films prepared by blade coating are sintered under varying conditions. Constrained sintering accomplished crystallite growth, densification, and morphological changes including necking as well as cracking while preserving the crystallographic orientation. The extent of sintering as a function of thermal treatment is quantified by morphology, surface area loss, and crystallite growth. Moreover, activation energies for surface diffusion and grain growth are estimated by surface area analysis and X‐ray diffraction peak narrowing, respectively. After sintering, birefringence decreases while Young's modulus and hardness improve as the film densifies. Upon partial sintering, mesomorphic ceramics retain transparency, high birefringence, and enhanced modulus. Laser‐induced damage threshold is measured as well. The reported results represent an important step toward the assembly and sintering of robust waveplates with high laser damage resistance.
Constructing 5‐Methyl‐2,4‐diaryl‐1H‐imidazoles Using Calcium Carbide as Alkyne Source via A3‐Coupling Cyclization
Authors: Liu Lang , Sun Guojin , Zhang Jun
Published: May 2023

Imidazole derivatives are critical building blocks in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, fluorescent materials, and ligands. Despite the development of many strategies, the reliable synthesis of 2,4,5‐substituted imidazoles remains heavily researched. In this study, we present a protocol for synthesizing 2,4,5‐substituted imidazole‐bearing methyl groups using A3‐coupling cyclization with calcium carbide as the acetylene source, reacting with amidines and aldehydes. This methodology is characterized by several features, including the utilization of a solid alkyne source, readily accessible starting materials, and applicability to 34 examples.
Size, fecundity and condition factor changes in endangered delta smelt Hypomesus transpacificus over 10 generations in captivity
Authors: Ellison Luke , Rahman Md Moshiur , Finger Amanda J. , Sandford Marade , Hsueh Chih‐Hsin , Schultz Andrew A. , Hung Tien‐Chieh
Published: May 2023

The once abundant delta smelt Hypomesus transpacificus is now on the verge of extinction. At the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory, a refuge population has been maintained since 2008 as a safeguard against extinction and to breed and provide fish for research. Due to artificial aquaculture operations, it is assumed that the fish are impacted by life in captivity leading to questions about differences between cultured and captive wild fish. This study looked at the differences in fork length (FL), body weight (BW), fecundity (F) and condition factor (K) of cultured and wild (captive) delta smelt over the last 10 generations (2009–2018) to determine if there were any changes of life‐history traits between the two, which may indicate domestication. Results revealed that the cultured population had significantly higher FL, BW, F and K than the wild population. The correlation tests found significant positive relationships between all measured traits except FL and K of wild fish. Significant changes in the measured traits of the cultured population over time were found, whereas none was observed in most wild fish year‐classes. This study demonstrated changes of life‐history traits in a well‐managed fish population over 10 generations in captivity and provides critical information to the coming supplementation plan for the species.
Rashba Band Splitting and Bulk Photovoltaic Effect Induced by Halogen Bonds in Hybrid Layered Perovskites
Authors: Xue Jie , Huang Yuling , Liu Yang , Chen Zhongwei , Sung Herman H.‐Y. , Williams Ian D. , Zhu Zonglong , Mao Lingling , Chen Xihan , Lu Haipeng
Published: May 2023

Non‐covalent interactions play an essential role in directing the self‐assembly of hybrid organic–inorganic crystals. In hybrid halide perovskites, hydrogen bonding has been the paramount non‐covalent interaction. Here, we show another non‐covalent interaction, namely, the halogen bond interaction, that directs a symmetry‐breaking assembly in a new series of two‐dimensional (2D) perovskites (ICH2CH2NH3)2(CH3NH3)n−1PbnI3n+1 (n is the layer thickness, n=1–4). Structural analysis shows that the halogen bond strength varies with the layer thickness. For the odd number (n=1, 3) layered perovskites, stronger halogen interaction leads to centrosymmetric structures, whereas for the n=2 layered perovskites, weaker halogen bonds result in non‐centrosymmetric structures. Transient reflection spectroscopy shows a suppressed radiative recombination rate (k2≈0) and prolonged spin lifetime for n=2 structure, suggesting an enhanced Rashba band splitting effect. The structural asymmetry is further confirmed with a reversible bulk photovoltaic effect. Our work provides a new design strategy to enable hybrid perovskites with emerging properties and functionalities associated with structural asymmetry.