bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Educational efficiency across Spanish regions: a comparative analysis over time
Authors: Cordero José Manuel , Sicilia Gabriela , Simancas Rosa
Published: November 2024

The present study aims to assess the performance of Spanish regional education systems using data from the last waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment dataset (2018 and 2022) to explore how productivity gaps across regions change over time. To do this, we apply a robust version of the base‐group base‐period Luenberger index, which allows us to estimate and compare the performance of schools from different groups (regions in our case), assuming they use different technology of production. Consequently, we can compare the technical and efficiency gaps between regions, to identify the best performers (benchmark) and explain the gaps in terms of efficiency change (catching‐up effect) and technological change. The results show that all Spanish regions have experienced a deterioration in their performance over time, thus confirming the expected negative effect of the school closures caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, there are notable differences in the evolution experienced by the different regions, which allow us to draw several relevant conclusions for the design of educational policies.
Cheap U.S. Dollar Credit: Panacea or Poison? Firm‐Level Evidence from Emerging Markets
Authors: WANG XIAO , WU STEVE PAK YEUNG , YE HAICHUN
Published: November 2024

Using firm‐level data from emerging markets, we find that the dollar debt issuance significantly increases issuers’ risk‐taking. While the dollar debt issuance significantly increases issuers’ investment spending, it reduces their investment efficiency substantially. We also show that macroprudential policies can help mitigate the risk‐taking effect of dollar debt issuance. In addition, we provide evidence that nonissuers exhibit increased risk‐taking when faced with rising intraindustry competition pressure from issuers. Overall, the cross‐sectional risk distributions at the industry level are more tilted toward the downside.
E'jiao and Cubilose Formula Induced Antioxidant Activity and Improved Collagen Expression of Human Skin Fibroblasts During Oxidation Damage
Authors: Tie Hang , Xie Xiao , Zhang Zichen , Zhang Jianling , Xu Liang , Ruan Haihua , Wu Tao , Zhang Hongyang
Published: November 2024

Background

As traditional Chinese medicinal materials, E'jiao and cubilose are rich in various bioactive substances with good antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, and immune‐regulating effects.

Aim

To obtain the optimal ratio of synergistic effect between E'jiao and cubilose.

Methods

The antioxidant capacity of E'jiao and cubilose digestive fluid was evaluated in vitro, as well as the intracellular oxidation balance between HSF cells and 3D whole‐skin model induced by H2O2.

Results

E'jiao, cubilose, and their different ratios of composites had better scavenging ability against free radicals such as DPPH (2,2‐Diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl). Using HSF cells induced by H2O2 as an oxidative damage model, it was found that the combination of E'jiao and cubilose in a ratio of 2:3 significantly enhanced the activities of SOD, GSH‐PX, and CAT enzymes compared to the separate treatments of E'jiao and cubilose, as well as other combination ratios. It effectively reduced the accumulation of reactive oxygen species caused by H2O2 in HSF (Human Skin Fibroblast) cells and protected the integrity of the cells. Further analysis using flow cytometry and a 3D full‐thickness skin model revealed that the combination ratio of 2:3 increased the proportion of H2O2‐treated cells in the S%+G2% phase from 19.1% + 7.4%–22.1% + 28.8%, helping oxidatively damaged cells partially recover their proliferative capacity. It also promoted the expression of collagen I and collagen IV in the 3D full‐thickness skin model, with improvement rates reaching 168.00% and 123.68%, respectively.

Conclusions

These findings indicate that the combination of E'jiao and cubilose in a ratio of 2:3 exhibits good synergistic effects, enhancing the ability of cells to resist oxidative damage, promoting cellular renewal and metabolism, and improving skin antiwrinkle capacity.
Identifying the Needs of Paediatric‐Friendly Care in Emergency Department: A Delphi Study
Authors: Chen Yen‐Ju , Tseng Wei‐Chieh , Liang Jao‐Shwann , Tung Tzu‐Hui , Cheng Su‐Fen , Chen Chi‐Wen
Published: November 2024

Aims

To systematically analyse expert perspectives on paediatric‐friendly care in the emergency department and establish specific indicators.

Background

With an increasing number of children seeking emergency care, nurses must understand the specific needs of paediatric patients and their families.

Design

A two‐round modified Delphi method was used in this study.

Methods

In this study, experts from clinical practice and academia assessed 56 paediatric‐friendly care criteria in the emergency department. Data were collected to establish a consensus and ensure content validity.

Results

Thirty experts completed two survey rounds with response rates of 100% and 93.3%, respectively. In the initial survey, no consensus was reached for eight items. After the items were consolidated, 37 paediatric emergency‐friendly care needs were identified. For each need, the item‐level content validity index exceeded 0.79 for importance and feasibility. The average scale‐level content validity index values were 0.95 and 0.92 for importance and feasibility. These needs were categorised into six dimensions: timely comfort (3 items), emotional care (5 items), frontline safety (11 items), emergency response (10 items), human resources support (5 items) and treatment efficiency (3 items).

Conclusion

Paediatric emergency nurses play a vital role in caring for children, improving soft skills through compassion and training and ensuring a well‐equipped, safe environment in the emergency department.

Relevance of Clinical Practice

This study offers valuable insights for emergency department nurses on the needs of children and their families, emphasising the importance of patient and family education, environmental considerations and the role of certified child life specialists in supporting the emergency healthcare team and ensuring appropriate paediatric care.

Patient/Public Contribution

No direct patient, service user, caregiver or public involvement existed in this study.
Possible rapid reduction of anti‐RBD antibody titre after SARS‐CoV‐2 mRNA vaccination in pregnant women: Multicentre prospective study
Authors: Ohta Mamiko , Kawasaki Kaoru , Yamamoto Rumiko , Ishii Keisuke , Nakano Kazutoshi , Akada Shinobu , Doh Kunihiko , Shimaoka Masao , Ota Hiroshi , Moriuchi Kaori , Shiro Reona , Yo Yoshie , Yoshida Koichiro , Tohda Yuji , Matsumura Noriomi
Published: November 2024

Aim

Pregnant women are at increased risk for severe illness associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) compared to nonpregnant women. The aim of this multicenter prospective study was to assess the current COVID‐19 vaccination status of pregnant women in the southern Osaka district and to compare their antibody titers with those of nonpregnant women.

Methods

Serum antibody titers of anti‐NCP antibodies (antibodies against the SARS‐CoV‐2 nucleocapsid) and anti‐RBD antibodies (the receptor binding domain of the S1 subunit of the spike protein) were evaluated in 753 pregnant women at 34–35 weeks of gestation from October 2021 to March 2022. Anti‐RBD antibody titre was also investigated in 1003 health care workers at Kindai University hospital 3 and 6 months after a second dose of the vaccine from March 2021 to April 2021. 519 (68.9%) pregnant women were vaccinated during pregnancy, of whom 497 (95.8%) received two doses.

Results

The COVID‐19 infection rate calculated from the number of pregnant women with a positive anti‐NCP antibody titre or with confirmed diagnosis was 5.1% (12/234) in the unvaccinated and 3.5% (18/519) in the vaccinated. The estimated half‐life calculated from anti‐RBD antibody titers and the number of days between vaccination and antibody testing was 39.9 days. The antibody titre and half‐life in pregnant women were significantly lower and shorter than in nonpregnant women aged 20–39 years (109.4 days).

Conclusion

Our study showed that pregnant women may have lower vaccine‐acquired COVID‐19 immunity than nonpregnant women.
Influence of the color of 3D‐printed scan aids on the trueness of complete arch digital scans
Authors: Önöral Özay , Çakır Selin
Published: November 2024

Purpose

To determine the influence of using 3D‐printed scan aids in varying colors on the trueness of digital scans.

Materials and Methods

A master cast with five multi‐unit analogues was scanned. The acquired dataset was exported to standard tessellation language (STL) file format to serve as the reference STL. 3D printing of the prototype in five distinct colors (beige [SABEIGE], grey [SAGREY], white [SAWHITE], red [SARED], and blue [SABLUE]) of polylactic acid filament was executed. The experimental STLs of each color group were aligned to the reference STL. RMS values were solely computed for the scan bodies. Based on the centers of the created best‐fit and offset planes, scan bodies were converted into virtual cylinders. Cartesian coordinates of each cylinder were acquired. Subsequently, angular (AD) and linear deviation (LD) values were calculated. LD was further examined separately along the x, y, and z axes. Data were statistically analyzed.

Results

According to the results of one‐way ANOVAs, significant differences were detected among color groups on AD, LD, RMS estimate error, ∆x, ∆y, and ∆z data. The lowest AD and LD values were exhibited by the SAGREY group in all implant sites. The SAGREY group was followed by the SABEIGE, SAWHITE, SARED, and SABLUE groups.

Conclusions

The SAGREY outperformed the other groups in terms of trueness. Although the LD values of all color groups were below the threshold value (<100 µm), only the AD values of the SAGREY, SABEIGE, and SAWHITE groups were clinically acceptable (<0.5°).
Pterygoid implant‐based maxillary full‐arch rehabilitation using an autonomous robot system: A case report
Authors: Lv Haoxin , Wu Hongzhao , Hu Liqun , Song Wenjuan , Gao Yutong , Zhao Mingyu , Mao Yuwei , Xia Shici , Sa Yue
Published: November 2024

Pterygoid implant placement has been proven to be a viable option in full‐arch implant rehabilitation for extremely atrophic maxillae. Nevertheless, the utilization of pterygoid implants remains a challenge for the dentist due to the difficulties of accessing the surgical site and poor visibility. To address these difficulties, digital techniques have been used to enhance the accuracy of pterygoid implant placement. This clinical case describes the application of an autonomous robot system to enhance the precision and efficacy of pterygoid implant placement. The results demonstrated that the integration of automation and real‐time imaging provided by the robot system significantly improved the safety and accuracy of the surgical procedure.
Making Decisions When Outcomes are Irreducible: Shackle's Imagination and Virtual Reality
Authors: Adra Samer
Published: November 2024

This paper addresses the challenge of navigating irreducible outcomes, where predicting future patterns proves futile despite understanding the underlying rules. It advocates for G.L.S. Shackle's imagination‐focused decision approach as a partial solution. Integrating the concept of the extended mind, I argue that modern technological advances such as Virtual Reality (VR) further enhance Shackle's approach, rather than compromising its subjective nature. In light of the challenges in applying reductivist tools to the outcomes of VR, I propose Shackle's framework as a promising framework for integrating such outcomes into decision‐making processes. Via this framework, decision‐makers capitalize on large` gains and hedge against large losses, despite not fully overcoming irreducibility.
Collaborative control framework at isolated signalized intersections under the mixed connected automated vehicles environment
Authors: Liu Chao , Jia Hongfei , Wang Guanfeng , Wu Ruiyi , Tian Jingjing , Gao Heyao
Published: November 2024

This study proposes a collaborative control framework under the mixed traffic environment of connected and automated vehicles and connected human‐driven vehicles, which can simultaneously optimize the signal timing, lane settings, and vehicle trajectories at isolated intersections. Initially, considering the dynamics of traffic demand and incompatible signals, we analyze the vehicle delay of each lane. Based on the delay analysis, the spatiotemporal resource collaborative optimization model of lane setting and signal timing is established to minimize the average delay. Subsequently, in the buffer zone, a graph‐theoretic‐based sorting and platooning model provides a clear and concise representation of the transformation process from the initial state to the target state of vehicles, enabling the platoon formation. Additionally, trajectory optimization is integrated into the collaborative control framework by the optimal control model and car‐following model in the passing zone. Simulation experiments and sensitivity analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in reducing average vehicle delay, improving fuel consumption, and coping with changing traffic demand at intersections.
Converging Roles of the Metal Transporter SMF11 and the Ferric Reductase FRE1 in Iron Homeostasis of Candida albicans
Authors: Patel Naisargi K. , David Marika S. , Yang Shuyi , Garg Ritu , Zhao Hongyu , Cormack Brendan P. , Culotta Valeria C.
Published: November 2024

Pathogenic fungi must appropriately sense the host availability of essential metals such as Fe. In Candida albicans and other yeasts, sensing of Fe involves mitochondrial Fe‐S clusters. Yeast mutants for Fe‐S cluster assembly sense Fe limitation even when Fe is abundant and hyperaccumulate Fe. We observe this same disrupted Fe sensing with C. albicans mutants of SMF11, a NRAMP transporter of divalent metals. Mutants of smf11 hyperaccumulate both Mn and Fe and the elevated Mn is secondary to Fe overload. As with Fe‐S biogenesis mutants, smf11∆/∆ mutants show upregulation of ferric reductases that are normally repressed under high Fe, and Fe import is activated. However, unlike Fe‐S biogenesis mutants, smf11∆/∆ mutants show no defects in mitochondrial Fe‐S enzymes. Intriguingly, this exact condition of disrupted Fe sensing without inhibiting Fe‐S clusters occurs with C. albicans fre1∆/∆ mutants encoding a ferric reductase. Mutants of fre1 and smf11 display similar perturbations in the cell wall, in filamentation and in the ROS burst of morphogenesis, a Fe‐dependent process. As with FRE1, SMF11 is important for virulence in a mouse model for disseminated candidiasis. We propose a model in which FRE1 and SMF11 operate outside the mitochondrial Fe‐S pathway to donate ferrous Fe for Fe sensing.
From modality to millianism
Authors: Salmón Nathan
Published: November 2024

A new argument is offered which proceeds through epistemic possibility (for all S knows, p), cutting a trail from modality to Millianism, the controversial thesis that the semantic content of a proper name is simply its bearer. New definitions are provided for various epistemic modal notions. A surprising theorem about epistemic necessity is proved. A proposition p can be epistemically necessary for a knowing subject S even though p is a posteriori and S does not know p. The identity relation is well‐behaved in metaphysically possible worlds but can go rogue in epistemically possible worlds. Whereas it can be epistemically possible that Lewis Carroll is not Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, this is not epistemically possible in the manner that anti‐Millianism requires.
A consumer‐oriented approach to define breeding targets for molecular breeding
Authors: Ferrão Luis Felipe V. , Azevedo Camila F. , Sims Charles A. , Munoz Patricio R.
Published: November 2024

Flavor is a crucial aspect of the eating experience, reflecting evolving consumer preferences for fruits with enhanced quality. Modern fruit breeding programs prioritize improving quality traits aligned with consumer tastes. However, defining fruit‐quality attributes that significantly impact consumer preference is a current challenge faced by the industry and breeders.

This study proposes a data‐driven approach to statistically model the relationship between fruit‐quality parameters and consumers' overall liking. Our primary hypothesis suggests that the interplay between fruit‐quality attributes and consumer preferences may reach a critical value, serving as new empirical benchmarks for fruit quality.

Using extensive historical datasets accounting for sensory, biochemical, and genomic information described in blueberry, we first demonstrated that multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) could be used to identify specific values of fruit‐quality traits that significantly affect consumer perception by using nonlinear spline regressions on estimating threshold points. We harnessed genomic information and carried out genomic selection (GS) for five fruit‐quality traits evaluated on the original scale and after classified via the MARS approach.

This study provides a pioneering consumer‐centric and data‐driven approach to defining fruit‐quality standards and supporting molecular breeding that has broad applications to breeding programs from any species.
Taxonomic novelty emerges more frequently and independently of functional novelty in historical coral communities
Authors: Cunningham Emer T. , Staples Timothy L. , Butler Ian R. , Lepore Mauro , Markham Summers Hannah , Roff George , Pandolfi John M.
Published: November 2024

Earth's ecological assemblages are rapidly being driven towards unprecedented, novel states. We know little about ecological novelty in our oceans, limiting our ability to detect, contextualise, and manage substantive anthropogenic change. This is especially true for novel states with altered functional compositions. Here, we provide a quantitative assessment of taxonomic and functional ecological novelty in historical coral communities across the east Australian coast, capturing changes in the composition of coral taxa and their traits over the past 1500 years. Taxonomically novel communities emerged more frequently and often unaccompanied by substantial trait compositional change while functional novelty was commonly observed alongside significant genus turnover. Novel coral communities themselves were rare, context‐dependent, and often associated with transitions in dominant genera. Our preliminary trait‐based community classifications complement classical taxonomic methods to uncover a history of ecological change in east Australian coral communities, helping provide important context for their present states and inform future responses under ongoing and intensifying human‐driven change.
Novel Algorithm for Surgical Management of Cervical Ossification of Posterior Longitudinal Ligament: A Retrospective Cohort Study With 2‐Year Follow‐Up
Authors: Cai Zhuyun , Kang Hui , Quan Lei , Ren Yilong , Fang Meng , Tan Yixuan , Zhang Haochen , Zhou Xuhui , Ma Jun
Published: November 2024

Object

With the development of new technologies, the surgical algorithm for ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) in the cervical spine also needs to be updated. The aim of this study is to elucidate a new surgical classification algorithm to guide the choice of surgical approaches for cervical OPLL based on its location and extent. In this algorithm, anterior controllable antedisplacement and fusion (ACAF) will be used as a new surgical option.

Methods

This is a single‐centered, retrospective, cohort study utilizing a novel algorithm based on the following three criteria: (1) the positional relationship between ossification and uncinate process (UP), (2) the K‐line, and (3) the ossification segment for surgical decision‐making. Patients diagnosed with cervical OPLL who received surgical intervention guided by the algorithm were included. Patient demographics, Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores, surgical time, imaging data before and 2 years after surgery, and the occurrence of complications were extracted from the database. Paired t‐test was used for intragroup comparison, and one‐way ANOVA test was used for the intergroup analyses.

Results

Based on this novel algorithm, 15 patients with Type I, 8 patients with Type II a, 2 patients with Type II b1, 5 patients with Type II b2 were included. The decision‐making for the surgical techniques used in each patient followed the recommendation of the novel algorithm. The postoperative JOA scores of all types of patients improved significantly (p < 0.05), and the invasion rates of vertebral canal had also been significantly reduced (p < 0.05). In terms of restoring cervical curvature, patients with Type I (receiving ACAF) and Type II b2 (receiving laminectomy with instrumented fusion) benefited more from surgery (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

A new algorithm guiding the choice of surgical approach for cervical OPLL was validated in a series of 30 patients. Through this analysis, we obtained on their clinical outcomes and complications. ACAF surgery is an ideal choice for Type I patients, with ossification located between UPs, while for patients with ossification exceeding UPs, it is better to perform anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion or posterior surgery.
Impact of the Society for Pediatric Dermatology Mentorship Award Program on Careers in Pediatric Dermatology: Workforce Implications
Authors: Morehead Lauren C. , Duffy Emily K. , Boos Markus D.
Published: November 2024

Extended essays or commentaries providing an opportunity to express personal views and opinions that are meant to enlighten, entertain, and educate readers, and can include articles about medical history, ethics, literature or the arts related to pediatric dermatology. Patient perspectives are also encouraged. Questions on whether a potential submission is appropriate for this section can be addressed to the Editors‐in‐Chief, or the Section Editors, Lucinda Kohn, MD, MHS (lucinda.kohn@cuanschutz.edu) or Neil Prose, MD (prose001@mc.duke.edu).
Genome‐wide association study for powdery mildew resistance in CIMMYT's spring wheat germplasm
Authors: Bhadana Deepa , Kaur Prabhjot , Kaur Ramandeep , Ravat Vikas Kumar , Ashutosh  , Kumar Rahul , Vasistha Neeraj Kumar
Published: November 2024

Powdery mildew (PM), caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt), is a foliar disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum) that adversely affects both grain yield and quality. Growing resistant cultivars offers an effective and environmentally sustainable solution to managing PM. However, relying on the same genetic source of resistance can lead to resistance breakdown as Bgt isolates rapidly evolve. To mitigate this, identifying novel resistance sources is crucial. In this study, 225 diverse wheat genotypes were evaluated at adult plant stage in disease nurseries over the three crop seasons (2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021). Using disease and genotyping data from 12,160 single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, a genome‐wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to identify novel resistance loci. We identified 22 marker loci significantly (at p < 0.005) associated with PM resistance, distributed across 14 wheat chromosomes (1A, 1B, 1D, 2A, 2B, 2D, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5D, 6A, 7A and 7B). Of these, seven loci overlap with previously identified regions, while the remaining 15 loci represent novel regions reported for the first time in this study. The identified SNP markers have significant potential for wheat breeding programmes, as they can accelerate the development of PM‐resistant cultivars through marker‐assisted selection.
Melatonin application enhances salt stress‐induced decreases in minerals, betalains, and phenolic acids in beet (Beta vulgaris L.) cultivars
Authors: Colak Nesrin , Slatnar Ana , Medic Aljaz , Torun Hülya , Kurt‐Celebi Aynur , Dräger Gerald , Djahandideh Jasmin , Esatbeyoglu Tuba , Ayaz Faik Ahmet
Published: November 2024

Melatonin is a potentially active signaling molecule and plays a crucial role in regulating the growth and development of plants under stress conditions, alleviating oxidative damage, enhancing antioxidant defence mechanisms and regulating ion homeostasis. This study examined the effects of exogenous melatonin application on leaf biomass, ion concentrations, betalains, phenolic acid and endogenous melatonin contents comparing red beet (Beta vulgaris L. ‘Ruby Queen’ and ‘Scarlet Supreme’) and white beet (‘Rodeo’ and ‘Ansa’) cultivars under increasing salinity levels of 50, 150, and 250 mM NaCl. Exogenous melatonin increased salinity‐induced reductions in fresh and dry weights and osmotic potential in leaves. Na+ concentrations rose significantly with increasing salinity, but cultivar‐specific decreases were observed in K+ and Ca2+ concentrations. Additionally, melatonin application improved betalain, betanin and neobetanin contents induced by salt stress. Furthermore, melatonin application caused salt stress and cultivar‐specific changes in phenolic acid contents e.g., ferulic acid, sinapic acid, or m‐coumaric acid, in soluble free, ester‐ and glycoside‐conjugated and cell wall‐bound forms. In addition, antioxidant enzyme activities and compound contents increased significantly in the beets and were subsequently lowered in a cultivar‐specific manner by salt stress + melatonin treatment. The current findings indicate that exogenous melatonin improved plant stress tolerance suppressing reactive oxygen species levels, increasing the antioxidant enzyme activities and compound contents and reducing the levels of Na+, maintaining an ionic homeostasis in the selected red and white sugar beet cultivars. It appears that melatonin application may help improve cultivar‐specific salt tolerance by enhancing ion homeostasis and betalain and phenolic acid production levels in beets.
Does succulence in woody plants delay desiccation, and is stored water used to maintain physiological function during drought conditions?
Authors: Guo Bihan , Arndt Stefan K. , Miller Rebecca E. , Szota Christopher , Farrell Claire
Published: November 2024

Succulence is a trait that describes water storage in plant organs and tissues regardless of life form. Plants use the stored water to maintain physiological function and delay desiccation. However, it is unclear whether succulence in leaves, stems and roots of woody plants delays desiccation, whether it provides ‘utilizable water’ to maintain physiological function, or buffers changes in water status in drying soils through capacitance. We conducted a pot dry‐down experiment with nine shrub species to determine whether woody plants with greater leaf, stem, or root succulence have greater shoot utilizable water or capacitance. We also investigated whether greater succulence delays desiccation, represented by cumulative VPD, until evapotranspiration ceased or until utilizable water was exhausted. Greater leaf and stem succulence were strongly related to greater shoot utilizable water and capacitance. However, desiccation time was not delayed in plants with greater total shoot succulence, utilizable water, or capacitance. Instead, woody plants with greater root succulence had longer desiccation times. This suggests that woody plants use aboveground succulence to maintain physiological function and water status during drought, whereas root succulence extends desiccation time. Our study improves the mechanistic understanding of how woody plants use stored water to survive in dryland ecosystems.
Cost‐Effectiveness Analysis of Risky Health Interventions: Moving Beyond Risk Neutrality
Authors: Thoma Johanna
Published: November 2024

Cost‐effectiveness analysis for health interventions is traditionally conducted in a risk‐neutral way, insensitive to risk attitudes in the population, which are potentially non‐neutral. While the standard outcome metric of quality‐adjusted life years (QALYs) aims to be deferential to people's valuations of health states, cost‐effectiveness analysis of risky interventions using the QALY metric is not similarly deferential to people's risk attitudes. I argue that there is no good justification for this practice. Non‐neutral attitudes to risk, especially where they concern individually life‐changing interventions need not be irrational, and so imposing neutrality is not justifiable as a way of debiasing preferences. Many common justifications for deference to health state preferences extend to risk attitudes. But even if reasons for deference do not extend, imposition of risk neutrality as opposed to any other rationally permissible risk attitude is under‐motivated as default practice. Thus, either methods for measuring risk attitudes separately and incorporating them into cost‐effectiveness analysis should be used more widely or a richer set of information should be presented to political decision‐makers and the public to enable them to decide how to take into account the individual risks faced by members of the population, on top of aggregate effects on population health.
Attitudes Toward Prostitution in Norway, Spain, and Germany: Association With the Legal Context and Susceptibility to Persuasion
Authors: Megías Jesús L. , Thon Pia‐Renée , Siebler Frank , Bohner Gerd
Published: November 2024

The social and legal treatment of prostitution varies between countries. We examined attitudes toward prostitution (ATP) and their susceptibility to persuasion in three countries: Norway, where prostitution is illegal; Spain, where prostitution is not explicitly regulated in the law; and Germany, where prostitution is legal. Participants (total N = 579) read arguments in favor of either legalization or abolition of prostitution or no arguments. Then they reported their ATP, judged the consequences of abolishing prostitution and completed measures of feminism, political orientation and sociosexuality. Results showed that, as hypothesized, ATP scores (1) reflected the countries' legislation, being most positive in Germany and least positive in Norway; (2) were affected by arguments only in Spain, where the legal situation is ambiguous; and (3) were meaningfully correlated with other attitudes across countries. These findings highlight the association of legal frameworks with attitudes, suggesting that national legislation can shape social norms and perceptions of prostitution. Additionally, the varying susceptibility to persuasive messages across different legal contexts underscores the role of legal ambiguity in shaping openness to attitudinal change.
Spinoza's authentic solitude
Authors: Soyarslan Sanem
Published: November 2024

In this article, I consider two interpretations of Spinoza's account of the good life in recent literature, which I call the social activist model and the solitary intellectualist model, in order to shed light on his underexamined views on solitude within this context. The former model has gained more support than the latter due to Spinoza's criticism of the solitary life and the importance he ascribes to friendship and living cooperatively with others within his corpus. While I recognize its strengths, I am skeptical as to whether the social activist model appreciates the complexity of Spinoza's account of the good life in the Ethics. For even though Spinoza clearly values friendship, he has a largely pessimistic view of those he calls ordinary people, which bears on the possibility of friendship between the philosopher and ordinary people. Furthermore, intuitive knowledge is unlike reason in that it concerns an asocial and intellectual insight beyond an identification with humanity and imaginative dimensions of ordinary life. It is, thus, conducive to what psychologists James Averill and Louise Sundararajan have called authentic solitude to the extent that it brings about a metaphysical awareness of our ontological status as finite modes of God. Although neither of the aforementioned models offers an entirely accurate representation of Spinoza's understanding of freedom in the Ethics, considering them enables us simultaneously to appreciate the complexity of Spinoza's thought and recognize a problematic tension within it. This tension is due to the gap between, on the one hand, his pessimistic view of ordinary people and his intellectualist portrayal of the philosopher who becomes disconnected from ordinary people as she increases her knowledge of the eternal, and his insistence on the shareability of knowledge and the importance he ascribes to the task of bringing ordinary people to enlightenment, on the other.
Screening for Asylum at Airports: The Implementation of the ‘Manifestly Unfounded’ Filter in France and Germany, 1980–2005
Authors: Langrognet Fabrice
Published: November 2024

This historical paper examines pre‐screening procedures for asylum‐seekers at Western European international airports during the period from the 1980s to the 2000s, with a particular focus on France and Germany as case studies. It highlights the tension between attempts to standardise the application of the ‘manifest unfoundedness’ criterion for asylum claims at the border through intergovernmental harmonisation efforts and the significant variations observed in how this criterion was implemented both between and within Member States of the European Community and later the European Union. By exploring these discrepancies, the paper emphasises the context‐dependent nature of enforcing asylum rules and the influence of local dynamics on the effectiveness of these norms. It begins by providing background on the refugee landscape in the 1980s and the prevalent desire among Western European policy‐makers to reduce the number of asylum‐seekers at the borders. The paper then discusses efforts to harmonise procedures and the adoption of a common, and soon distorted, yardstick pertaining to the ‘manifest unfoundedness’ of asylum claims. Furthermore, the article examines disparities in implementation across countries and within them, shedding light on differences in norms, procedures and institutional dynamics that led to divergent approaches at the local level.
The Wage Stop and Restricting Benefit Income in the United Kingdom: Discretion, Wages and Hardship
Authors: Grover Chris
Published: November 2024

In 2013 the UK government introduced a household benefit cap to restrict the benefit income of its poorest people. Although taking different forms, such restrictions are not new there. Drawing upon files held at the UK's National Archives, this article focuses upon the years 1935 to 1975 during which the main benefit restriction that operated was the wage stop. The wage stop affected claimants categorised as unemployed. As the article demonstrates, those claimants not expected to do wage‐labour, such as lone mothers and sick people, could also have their benefit limited, though not via the wage stop. The article examines these benefit restrictions through notions of discretion. In doing so, it engages with the misconception that the wage stop was wholly discretionary. And through discussion of the main decisions that were embedded in discretion demonstrates how the discretionary potential to mitigate the impact of benefit restrictions, was often constrained by broader state concerns with labour and social discipline. Consequently, the potential positive use of discretion was limited by a desire not to incentivise behaviours and lifestyles deemed problematic. Hence, like the operation of today's benefit cap, wage‐stopped households faced lives marked by poverty, by, for example, poor diets, and inadequate clothing and essential household items.
A narrative orientation for the longitudinal integrated clerkship
Authors: Parkin Nicola , Moore Maxine
Published: November 2024

Background

This paper follows through with findings from a longitudinal integrated curriculum (LIC) programme evaluation, which revealed that (1) experiential perspectives and (2) the integration of learning featured weakly in the programme's structure. On examination, these two areas were seen to be linked because, by granting authority to experience, we are called to follow its lead wherever it may take us.

Methods

Data was collected from students, clinicians and programme administrators using participatory mapping and discussions and analysed through four lenses, one of which was to identify what seemed to be missing or quiet.

Findings

Two features of the LIC model were not explicitly structurally supported in the programme: integration of learning and experiential perspectives.

Discussion

The authors draw on narrative medicine and visual thinking to propose a novel response to the problem, which locates the clinical educator as embodying a narrative orientation to teaching. A narrative orientation affirms the power of human experience, told through stories, to enable integrative, whole‐person, big picture thinking in the medical education curriculum. Teaching ideas are scaffolded through metaphors of form, space and integration.

Conclusion

In pursuit of an authentic integrator of learning in the LIC, we already have within our reach the power to grant human experience the authority to teach us wherever we find it and follow wherever it leads. However, its potential is yet to be realised, and this discussion throws up new questions for practical enquiry: how best to support educators to adopt a narrative orientation.
Assessment of meibomian gland morphology and tear‐film lipid layer using noncontact infrared meibography and meibometry, respectively, and tear‐film osmolarity in healthy dogs
Authors: Ng Alexandra T. J. , Moore Phillip Anthony , Boveland Shannon D.
Published: November 2024

Objective

To further investigate quantitative and qualitative tear‐film dynamics through tear‐film osmolarity, meibometry, meibography, and non‐invasive tear‐film break‐up time and to describe a survey of parameters in normal eyes of healthy non‐brachycephalic dogs.

Animals Studied

Thirty‐two veterinary hospital staff and student owned dogs between 1 and 7 years with no known comorbidities or ocular disease.

Procedure

Complete ophthalmic examination, tear‐film osmolarity (I‐PEN® VET), meibometry (Meibometer MB560), meibography, and non‐invasive tear‐film break‐up time (handheld Ocular Surface Analyzer) were performed. Significance threshold was 0.05. Q‐Q plots and histograms were used to assess normality of measurements. Data were summarized descriptively with mean, standard deviation, median, and interquartile range (IQR). Pearson and Spearman's correlations were used to test for correlations between diagnostics with each other and tear‐film break‐up times.

Results

Thirty‐two dogs (64 eyes) met the inclusion criteria. Mean tear‐film osmolarity level was 293.6 ± 14.1 mOsm/L (IQR 282.5–302.3). Median meibomian lipid level was 30.4 Meibometry Units (MU) (IQR 11.5–59.1). Median percent loss of meibomian glands in the upper eyelids was 25.3% (IQR 13.5–26.8). Median percent loss of meibomian glands in the lower eyelids was 26.0% (IQR 13.5–52.3). Automatic assessment of meibomian gland loss showed that grade 0 was present in 4/128 (3.1%) eyelids, grade 1 in 78/128 (60.9%) eyelids, grade 2 in 30/128 (23.4%) eyelids, and grade 3 in 16/128 (12.5%) eyelids.

Conclusions

Tear‐film osmolarity, meibometry, meibography, and non‐invasive tear break‐up time can easily be incorporated into routine ophthalmic examinations to provide clinical information about meibomian gland morphology and function.
Detection of early renal perfusion changes by contrast‐enhanced ultrasonography in dogs with preclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease
Authors: Kamata Saho , Morita Tomoya , Yamasaki Masahiro
Published: November 2024

Since the prognosis of myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) varies, its characterization is clinically relevant, and renal impairment has been identified as one of its associated factors. Intrarenal Doppler ultrasonography (IRD), an intrarenal hemodynamic assessment method, is useful for predicting cardiac‐ and renal‐related death but cannot detect early changes in dogs with preclinical MMVD. Contrast‐enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS), another intrarenal hemodynamic assessment method, may identify earlier changes; however, renal perfusion evaluations using CEUS have not yet been performed on dogs with MMVD. We hypothesized that CEUS detects changes earlier than IRD in dogs with preclinical MMVD. This prospective, cross‐sectional study examined renal perfusion in dogs without cardiac disease and preclinical MMVD dogs of different American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine stages using CEUS and compared it with IRD indices. Twenty‐three dogs with MMVD (ten stage B1 and thirteen stage B2) and 12 control dogs without cardiac disease were included. The rise times of the renal cortex and medulla were measured from a time‐intensity curve. The rise time of the cortex was longer in dogs with stage B2 MMVD than in control dogs, while that of the medulla was shortened in the right ventricular dysfunction group in stage B2. No changes were observed in IRD indices (the resistance index and venous impedance index). In conclusion, CEUS detected changes in renal perfusion in dogs with preclinical MMVD even when IRD indices remained unchanged, suggesting the utility of CEUS in evaluations of renal perfusion in MMVD dogs.
The local‐international trend of Intercultural Communication through world Englishes and translanguaging
Authors: Fang Fan , Xu Yidie
Published: November 2024

This study investigates how world Englishes (WE) and translanguaging may be combined to enhance intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication. First, this paper reviews WE contributions to Intercultural Communication and explores the potential of translanguaging in facilitating intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication. Second, semi‐structured interviews were conducted to explore the perceptions and practices of WE, translanguaging, and intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication among Chinese university students with the aim to investigate how their experiences of WE and translanguaging enhance intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication within both local and global contexts. The findings revealed the possibility of integrating WE and translanguaging into the promotion of intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication. Such an integration of WE and translanguaging through the intercultural dimensions in English language learning can help enhance linguistic and cultural diversity, and equip individuals with the skills to effectively navigate the multilingual and multicultural world in response to diverse communicative needs.
Argentina’s Global Matrix 4.0 Report Card Results on Physical Activity for Children and Adolescents
Authors: Lobo Pablo , Holgado Micaela , López Laura , Baigún Valeria , De Roia Gabriela Fernanda
Published: November 2024

Background: The objective of the Argentine Global Matrix 4.0 Report Card was to synthesize the available national evidence on topics related to physical activity and health of children and adolescents and, based on that evidence, to assign a grade to some related indicators. Methods: The Report Card working group reviewed and compiled the best available evidence on the indicators developed by Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance. Each of the 12 grades (for 10 core and 2 optional indicators) were based on the percentage of children and adolescents meeting a benchmark established in the Global Matrix grading rubric: These grades could range from A+ (best) to F (worst), or an incomplete was assigned when evidence was insufficient or inadequate for grading. The grades were subsequently reviewed and harmonized by 2 independent Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance reviewers. Results: Overall Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Government, all received a grade of D+. Organized Sport and Physical Activity and Community and Environment each received a grade of C−. Obesity received a grade of C+. Active Play, Active Transportation, Physical Fitness, Family and Peers, School, and Sleep were graded as incomplete. Conclusions: Only half of the indicators were able to be graded, as the other half were inconclusive due to lack of evidence. This leaves a gap and thus a challenge at the national level to improve research, surveillance systems, and policies to promote physical activity during childhood and adolescence.
Metabolically inducing defects in DNA repair sensitizes
BRCA
–wild-type cancer cells to replication stress
Authors: Watanabe Kenji , Yamamoto Tatsuro , Fujita Tomoko , Hino Shinjiro , Hino Yuko , Yamazaki Kanami , Ohashi Yoshimi , Sakuraba Shun , Kono Hidetoshi , Nakao Mitsuyoshi , Ochiai Koji , Dan Shingo , Saitoh Noriko
Published: November 2024

Metabolic reprogramming from oxidative respiration to glycolysis is generally considered to be advantageous for tumor initiation and progression. However, we found that breast cancer cells forced to perform glycolysis acquired a vulnerability to PARP inhibitors. Small-molecule inhibition of mitochondrial respiration—using glyceollin I, metformin, or phenformin—induced overproduction of the oncometabolite lactate, which acidified the extracellular milieu and repressed the expression of homologous recombination (HR)–associated DNA repair genes. These serial events created so-called “BRCAness,” in which cells exhibit an HR deficiency phenotype despite lacking germline mutations in HR genes such as
BRCA1
and
BRCA2
, and, thus, sensitized the cancer cells to clinically available poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors. The increase in lactate repressed HR-associated gene expression by decreasing histone acetylation. These effects were selective to breast cancer cells; normal epithelial cells retained HR proficiency and cell viability. These mechanistic insights into the BRCAness-prone properties of breast cancer cells support the therapeutic utility and cancer cell–specific potential of mitochondria-targeting drugs.