bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Investigating the role of APOE: limitations of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cerebral organoids
Authors: Hernández Damián , Rooney Louise A. , Daniszewski Maciej , Gulluyan Lerna , Liang Helena H. , Cook Anthony L. , Hewitt Alex W. , Pébay Alice
Published: December 2020

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is the most important susceptibility gene for late onset of Alzheimer’s disease, with the presence of APOE-ε4 associated with increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Here, we reprogrammed human fibroblasts from individuals with differentAPOE-εgenotypes into induced pluripotent stem cells, and generated isogenic lines with different APOE profiles. We then differentiated these into cerebral organoids for six months and assessed the suitability of thisin vitrosystem to measure APOE, β amyloid, and Tau phosphorylation levels. We identified intra- and inter-variabilities in the organoids’ cell composition. Using the CRISPR-editedAPOEisogenic lines, we observed more homogenous cerebral organoids, and similar levels of APOE, β amyloid, and Tau between the isogenic lines, with the exception of one site of Tau phosphorylation which was higher in the APOE-ε4/ε4 organoids. These data describe that pathological hallmarks of AD are observed in cerebral organoids, and that their variation is mainly independent of theAPOE-εstatus of the cells, but associated with the high variability of cerebral organoid differentiation. It demonstrates that the batch-to-batch and cell-line-to-cell-line variabilities need to be considered when using cerebral organoids.
Autoradiography and Phosphorimaging
Authors: Green Michael R. , Sambrook Joseph
Published: December 2020

Many of the commonly used techniques in molecular cloning depend on methods to map accurately the distribution of radioactive atoms on two-dimensional (2D) surfaces. Without this ability, methods such as Southern blotting, northern hybridizations, radiolabeled DNA sequencing, and library screening would not have been possible. In the 1970s and 1980s—the pioneering days of molecular cloning—imaging of 2D surfaces was obtained using autoradiography. In this technique, β-particles emitted by radioactive specimens were recorded on X-ray film, producing a latent image that can be converted to a true image by developing and fixing the film. Autoradiography was a lot of fun, but it was also messy. In the impatient excitement of wanting to see how an experiment had turned out, people used to hold the newly developed X-ray films in their metal frames up to the darkroom light. Drips of the final wash would run down their arms, clothes would be stained, and shoes ruined. It is hardly surprising that autoradiography was quickly abandoned when sensitive phosphorimagers came onto the market at the end of the 1990s.
Chartered Cabs
Authors: Debjit Roy
Published: December 2020

The market share of Chartered Cabs is affected by new entrants in Ahmedabad. In addition, their operational costs are soaring due to excessive dry run costs. Due to immense competition, Chartered needs to focus on high service quality delivery and also minimize its operational costs. This case will allow the participants to understand the operational complexities of a cab service provider and also arrive at alternate strategies to minimize costs.
‘Star’ring a ‘new’ sport in India: pro kabaddi league
Authors: Jayakumar Tulsi
Published: December 2020

Learning outcomes

To understand: – the demand and supply side challenges in launching a new product in sports. – Factors, which go into the making of a successful “new” sport. – The role of planning in sport management.

Case overview/synopsis

In July 2017, on the eve of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 5, kabaddi had emerged as one of India’s most important non-cricketing sport. PKL was India’s first men’s professional kabaddi league, introduced by Mashal Sports and Star India in 2014. Kabaddi was an indigenous sport, and India had an unbeaten international track record as world champions. Yet, the sport and its players had never received their due in India. In 2017, while kabaddi’s popularity had increased, leading to sponsorship opportunities, huge player bids, prize money and television viewership, all was not quite hunky-dory. A women’s kabaddi league introduced only the previous year had not been continued, despite an extended format in 2017. The audience profile also did not match that envisaged by Star. As a unique creator of sports content, Star was in an enviable position in India; and so was Kabaddi as a sport. How had Star created a new property around an indigenous sport with rural and rustic associations, transforming it into a snazzy, up-market sport within just three years, even while leagues involving other popular sports failed to create a mark? Could Star sustain this interest? How could kabaddi retain its “star” position within Star’s stable?

Complexity academic level

In an undergraduate or a postgraduate programme in business administration.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 11: Strategy.
Tax avoidance and stock price crash risk: mitigating role of managerial ability
Authors: Garg Mukesh , Khedmati Mehdi , Meng Fanjie , Thoradeniya Prabanga
Published: December 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the quality of management can mitigate the positive association between corporate tax avoidance and firm-specific stock price crash risk (SPCR).

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on data from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), Compustat and ExecuComp and focuses on US-listed firms from 1980 to 2016. The authors employ ordinary least squares (OLS) regression as the baseline methodology and use five measures of tax avoidance and three measures of SPCR. Propensity score matching (PSM) and two-stage least squares methodologies are employed to address endogeneity concerns.

Findings

The authors find that more able managers weaken the positive relationship between tax avoidance and SPCR. The results suggest that the benefits of efficient tax management are more likely in firms with a more able management team as the likelihood of SPCR due to tax avoidance practices is reduced in such firms.

Practical implications

This study has important practical implications for investors who are concerned about firms that engage in tax planning activities that can reduce corporate taxes, but at the same time increase the SPCR. Considering the compelling arguments and the “dark” side of more able managers who may engage in opportunistic behaviour, the study provides useful evidence in support of more able managers.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the SPCR literature by examining the effect of managerial ability on the likelihood of tax avoidance causing SPCR. Able managers are likely to lower the risk faced by investors and are less likely to extract rent and manipulate information. Therefore, the findings of this study have implications for investors by informing them of the negative value implications of tax avoidance and how they can be mitigated by hiring more able managers.
COVID-19 prediction and symptom analysis using wearable sensors and IoT
Authors: R. Karthickraja , R. Kumar , S. Kirubakaran , L. Jegan Antony Marcilin , R. Manikandan
Published: December 2020

Purpose

The purpose of the research work is to focus on the deployment of wearable sensors in addressing symptom Analysis in the Internet of Things (IoT) environment to reduce human interaction in this epidemic circumstances.

Design/methodology/approach

COVID-19 pandemic has distracted the world into an unaccustomed situation in the recent past. The pandemic has pulled us toward data harnessing and focused on the digital framework to monitor the COVID-19 cases seriously, as there is an urge to detect the disease, wearable sensors aided in predicting the incidence of COVID-19. This COVID-19 has initiated many technologies like cloud computing, edge computing, IoT devices, artificial intelligence. The deployment of sensor devices has tremendously increased. Similarly, IoT applications have witnessed many innovations in addressing the COVID-19 crisis. State-of-the-art focuses on IoT factors and symptom features deploying wearable sensors for predicting the COVID-19 cases. The working model incorporates wearable devices, clinical therapy, monitoring the symptom, testing suspected cases and elements of IoT. The present research sermonizes on symptom analysis and risk factors that influence the coronavirus by acknowledging the respiration rate and oxygen saturation (SpO2). Experiments were proposed to carry out with chi-Square distribution with independent measures t-Test.

Findings

IoT devices today play a vital role in analyzing COVID-19 cases effectively. The research work incorporates wearable sensors, human interpretation and Web server, statistical analysis with IoT factors, data management and clinical therapy. The research is initiated with data collection from wearable sensors, data retrieval from the cloud server, pre-processing and categorizing based on age and gender information. IoT devices contribute to tracking and monitoring the patients for prerequisites. The suspected cases are tested based on symptom factors such as temperature, oxygen level (SPO2), respiratory rate variation and continuous investigation, and these demographic factors are taken for analyzed based on the gender and age factors of the collected data with the IoT factors thus presenting a cutting edge construction design in clinical trials.

Originality/value

The contemporary study comprehends 238 data through wearable sensors and transmitted through an IoT gateway to the cloud server. Few data are considered as outliers and discarded for analysis. Only 208 data are contemplated for statistical examination. These filtered data are proclaimed using chi-square distribution with t-test measure correlating the IoT factors. The research also interprets the demographic features that induce IoT factors using alpha and beta parameters showing the equal variance with the degree of freedom (df = 206).
Smartphone-based electrochemical sensor for assessing COVID-19 infected patients
Authors: R. Ganesh Babu , A. Balaji , K. Kavin Kumar , Maurya Sudhanshu , M.N. Saravana Kumar
Published: December 2020

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to highlight the potential of the sensor based smartphone in assessing the covid-19 cases. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a noxious pandemic affecting the respiratory system of the human and leading to the severe acute respiratory syndrome, sometimes causing death. COVID-19 is a highly transmittable disease that spreads from an infected person to others. In this regard, a smart device is required to monitor the COVID-19 infected patients by which widespread pandemic can be reduced.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, an electrochemical sensor-enabled smartphone has been developed to assess the COVID-19 infected patients. The data-enabled smartphone uses the Internet of Things (IoT) to share the details with the other devices. The electrochemical sensor enables the smartphone to evaluate the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of COVID-19 without the nucleic acid and feeds the data into the data server by using a smartphone.

Findings

The obtained result identifies the infected person by using the portable electrochemical sensor-enabled smartphone, and the data is feed into the data server using the IoT. Whenever an infected person moves outside the restricted zone, the data server gives information to the concerned department.

Originality/value

The developed electrochemical sensor-enabled smartphone gives an accuracy of 81% in assessing the COVID-19 cases. Thus, through the developed approach, a COVID-19 infected person can be identified and the spread can be minimized.
Does institutional ownership and internationalization affect corporate social responsibility in emerging economy firms? An empirical evidence from India
Authors: R.L. Manogna , Mishra Aswini Kumar
Published: December 2020

Purpose

The preference of firm corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending is shaped by different groups of owners and the institutional environment in which the firm operates. This paper aims to study the heterogeneity among the controlling groups and firms’ internationalization in influencing the CSR decision in emerging economy firms.

Design Methodology Approach

This paper draws understanding from institutional theory to inspect the propensities of various ownership groups such as lending institutions (LI), domestic mutual funds (MF) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). The empirical analysis was conducted from a sample of 1,594 unique Bombay stock exchange (BSE)-listed non-financial Indian firms during the 2014–2019 period using Tobit panel regression analysis.

Findings

The findings reveal that firms’ CSR activities are impacted differently by ownership share of different types of institutional investors after controlling for firm-level resources and capabilities. Lending institutions, FIIs and MF are supportive of CSR investments by firms along with international investments by the firm. Further, the results show that the CSR spend is positively influenced by the business group affiliation of the firm compared to the unaffiliated group of firms.

Practical Implications

The analysis has implications for both institutional investors and multinational firms. In the merging market context, managers and owners who target long term strategies such as CSR will benefit from increasing shareholdings of creditors (lending institutions). They can also take steps to improve their transparency and corporate governance structure so as to attract foreign institutional investments, thus, in turn, helping the internationalization process of the firm.

Originality Value

This paper considers the role of the diverseness of the ownership institutional investors along with the moderating effect of business group affiliation of the firm and international investments in impacting the CSR spend. This disparity has not been previously studied with the latest data in an emerging economy context.
COVID-19 considerations for SEC cybersecurity guidance, disclosure, enforcement, and parallel proceedings: navigating the new normal
Authors: Leiva Aldo M. , Clark Michel E.
Published: December 2020

Purpose

To examine the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on regulated entities within the context of cybersecurity, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compliance, and parallel proceedings.

Design/methodology/approach

Describes the SEC’s ability to conduct its operations within the telework environment, its commitment and ability to monitor the securities market, its enhanced monitoring of the adverse effects of SEC-regulated companies from COVID-19, its guidance to public companies of disclosure obligations related to cybersecurity risks and incidents, the SEC Office of Compliance and Examinations’s (OCIE’s) focus on broker-dealers’ and investment advisories’ cybersecurity preparedness, the role and activities of the SEC Division of Enforcement’s Cyber Unit, and parallel proceedings on cyberbreaches and incidents by different agencies, branches of government or private litigants.

Findings

SEC-regulated entities face many challenges in trying to maintain their ongoing business operations and infrastructure due to severe financial pressures, the threat of infection to employees and customers, and cybersecurity risks posed by remote operations from hackers and fraudsters. The SEC has reemphasized that its long-standing focus on cybersecurity and resiliency within the securities industry will continue, including ongoing vigilance over companies’ efforts to identify, assess, and address the inherent, heightened cybersecurity risks of teleworking and the resource reallocation that business need to sustain their operations until a safe and effective vaccine is developed for COVID-19.

Originality/value

Expert analysis and guidance from experienced lawyers with expertise in securities, litigation, government enforcement, information technology, data protection, privacy and cybersecurity.
Cryptocurrency – Is It Property?
Authors: Low Gary , Tan Terence
Published: December 2020

Purpose

To address recent cases and the applicable legal principles relating to cryptocurrency, and to contribute to legal thought in this developing area of law.

Design/methodology/approach

This article considers recent cryptocurrency related cases in Singapore, Canada and the United Kingdom, and then considers the implications of the developing law in relation to proper causes of action and issues of practical asset recovery relating to the enforcement of judgments.

Findings

The intangible and highly movable nature of cryptocurrency places a premium on decisive asset recovery. The cases also suggest that injunctions remain a useful and effective debt recovery tool, especially when coupled with quick investigative action to trace cryptocurrency payments. However, the law remains unsettled as to the most appropriate cause of action for a claim in cryptocurrency or how a debt in cryptocurrency can be subject to execution. These issues raise the fundamental question of the nature of cryptocurrency, whether it belongs to an existing category of property, or if it is sui generis.

Practical implications

Cryptocurrency remains relatively novel and usage is increasing but not widespread. Users of cryptocurrency and lawyers involved in transactions or disputes involving cryptocurrency would benefit from a broader understanding of the legal issues

Originality/value

This article provides expert analysis from experienced litigation lawyers familiar with the concepts behind cryptocurrency.
Innovation for hire: a descriptive study of federal acquisitions and contractor R&D
Authors: Hansen Stephen C. , Hermis Judith
Published: December 2020

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which federal acquisitions motivate private-sector partner firms’ investment in innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

Archival, Empirical.

Findings

This study finds that federal acquisitions are positively associated with contractors’ R&D spending but that the intensity of R&D spending is indistinguishable between firms’ government and private sectors (non-government) contracts. This study also develops a novel measure of the intensity of contractor R&D spending on public sector relative to private-sector clients and assesses construct validity of the measure.

Research limitations/implications

Cultivating innovation is an explicit goal of federal procurement. Innovation is critical to addressing the nation’s collective problems. The results should be of interest to scholars and practitioners, particularly acquisition personnel, one of whose responsibilities is to efficiently steward tax revenues to the most productive (contracting) use.

Originality/value

This study is descriptive in nature and helps to illuminate the extent and conditions under which federal acquisition activity motivates investment in innovation by private-sector partners. These results speak to how effectively government contracting motivates private-sector innovation, which clearly has implications for fiscal stewardship. Additionally, private-sector innovation affects stock price formation. Collectively, these results imply that the extent to which acquisitions motivate innovation has material implications on our country’s fiscal health.
The service strategy of customer-intensive services under advertising effects
Authors: Zhan Wentao , Jiang Minghui , Li Chengzhang
Published: December 2020

Purpose

Customer-intensive services refer to the service that a provider needs to invest in customers with high patience and experience. Within a certain rate range, the slower service rate and the longer service time, the higher customer’s utility; however, this may cause queue congestion. And the advertising of service provider will affect the revenue. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of advertising on the optimal price, service rate and the optimal revenue of such service provider at different development stages.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper investigates the service strategies of service provider based on advertising effects. The authors first divide service provider into insufficient customers or sufficient customers according to the development stage, then analyze the impact of advertising at different stages. The authors focus on the formulation of the optimal price, service rate and the optimal revenue of service provider at different stages.

Findings

This paper finds that in the insufficient customers stage, the service provider’s strategy of “small profits but quick turnover” is conducive to quickly accumulating customers. With the development of service provider, the advertising indirectly increases the revenue of service provider by maintaining popularity. The result also shows that with the development of service provider, the initiative of such service market has gradually been mastered by service provider, from “buyer market” to “seller market.”

Originality/value

The finding provides an alternative explanation for the impact of advertising on service provider’s optimal strategies; it also solves the settings of service price and rate of customer-intensive service provider at different development stages. This study is essential to create the optimal revenue and solve supply–demand conflicts (such as doctor–patient conflict) between service provider and customers.
Colourful fused filament fabrication method based on transitioning waste infilling technology with a colour surface model
Authors: Wang Zizhao , Shen Hongyao , Wu Senyang , Fu Jianzhong
Published: December 2020

Purpose

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a common additive manufacturing method that is widely used owing to its low cost, environmental friendliness and safety. Colour models are needed because of their ability to express more information, but high printing quality and efficiency are difficult to achieve with the existing FFF colour printing methods because of the “inertia” of printing. Inertia refers to the feature of the former colour material remaining in the molten cavity when switching colours in colour FFF printing. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new FFF colour printing method to reduce printing material usage and printing time.

Design/methodology/approach

A new FFF colour printing method that uses transitioning waste to construct the part is proposed. Based on the freedom of the colour surface model’s interior space, the internal fill and support of the print model are generated using the transitioning waste to reduce printing material usage and printing time and to achieve environmentally friendly colour printing. The modified elite ant system (EAS) algorithm is used to construct and optimize this method based on the colour surface model.

Findings

A colour printing experiment is performed using a colour-mixing FFF printer platform with a special waste extrusion module. The experimental results show that this method can significantly reduce material and time consumption compared to the commonly used method. The printed part produced by this method also has high surface quality.

Originality/value

A new FFF colour printing method that uses transitioning waste to construct the part is proposed. Based on the freedom of the colour surface model’s interior space, the internal fill and support of the print model are generated using the transitioning waste to reduce printing material usage and printing time and to achieve environmentally friendly colour printing. The modified EAS algorithm is used to construct and optimize this method based on the colour surface model. A special waste extrusion module is developed.
Financial performance analysis of GIC Re
Authors: Mukherjee Tutun , Gorai Pinki , Sen Som Sankar
Published: December 2020

Purpose

This study aims to analyse the following: first, the financial performance of General Insurance Re (GIC Re) using performance ratios (PRs); second, the uniformity of different financial performance indicators of GIC Re; third, the internal growth capacity of GIC Re; and finally, the likelihood of GIC Re going into financial distress.

Design/methodology/approach

As a sample, GIC Re, the lion shareholder in Indian Reinsurance Industry has been considered in the present study. All the necessary data have been extracted from the secondary sources over a time period of 16 years. The financial performance of GIC Re is assessed using five standard ratios, and the uniformity of different financial performance indicators of GIC Re has been examined using Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance (W). To assess the internal growth capacity of GIC Re internal growth rate has been used, and the likelihood of GIC Re going into financial distress is analysed using multivariate discriminant approach, namely, modified Altman’s Z-score model and logit analysis technique, namely, Ohlson’s O-score model.

Findings

The results exhibit that financial performance of GIC Re is somewhat satisfactory over a few considerable areas. However, no notable degree of uniformity has been observed amongst the varied financial performance indicators, namely, performance ratio, expense ratio, return on assets, risk retention ratio and combined ratio of GIC Re. The results also reveal GIC Re is lacking ability of growing internally. Moreover, there remains a significant possibility of GIC Re going into financial distress in the near future and so.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first empirical research studies in India that examines the financial performance of GIC Re from different perspectives.
British sofas and global toxic flows
Authors: Geissler P. Wenzel , Prince Ruth J.
Published: December 2020

Invisible and volatile, persistent and accumulating in the environment, toxic organic substances like Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are used in furniture and electrical appliances. They spread around the world through commodity production and consumption, second‐hand and waste trade, and air and sea currents, as well as in the bodies of migratory animals. Absorbed by and accumulated in living beings, they may interfere with metabolism and behaviour, and damage genetic material. Their flows connect British sofas to African recycling workshops to Chinese metal traders, and tropical waste dumps to arctic seabirds. They are the kind of material that the anthropology of the Anthropocene may attach itself to in seeking critical engagement with scientists, activists, regulators, and producers and consumers.
Radiation as social relation
Authors: HARVEY PENNY
Published: December 2020

A new nuclear power station is currently being built in the Southwest of the UK at Hinkley Point. The construction of the cooling water system for Hinkley Point C is underway but there is controversy over the tunnelling required to install the huge pipes that will run for over 3 kilometres into the Bristol Channel. EDF, the operating company, want to deposit 600,000 tonnes of sediment on the far side of the Channel, at the licensed site for such disposal, the Cardiff Grounds. The Cardiff Grounds are in Wales and there is a public outcry at the prospect of the arrival of this English mud, and the concern that it might carry toxic sediment from the previous, far less regulated material deposits produced over the past 60 years by the adjoining stations at Hinkley Point A (now decommissioned) and Hinkley Point B (currently operational). Earlier disposal of sediment led to protests and a petition that triggered a debate in the Welsh Parliament. EDF have supplied evidence that levels of radiation in the mud are so low as to be not classed as radioactive under UK law. They offer comparisons with naturally occurring radiation: the levels of radiation in the mud would be 10,000 times less than an airline pilot's annual dose, 750 times less than the average dose received by a resident of Pembrokeshire due to naturally occurring radon, equivalent to eating 20 bananas a year. These comparisons do not convince local people. This paper explores the difficulties inherent in producing public trust in radiation measures. Radiation cannot be seen, smelt or felt. It must be detected through instruments, evaluated through calculations and interpreted by experts. Experts are often exasperated by the distinctions that people draw between natural and human‐made radiation. Still, they also miss the point that most people approach radiation as a social, rather than a physical or chemical, relation. The political and social histories through which nuclear imaginaries are produced and reproduced shape understandings of toxicity in ways that lead people to place more trust in correlation than in causality.
The Early Modern Sensorium: The Rosary in Seventeenth‐Century Rome†
Authors: Beaven Lisa
Published: December 2020

My purpose in this article is to explore the relationship between emotion and the senses in relation to the rosary and rosary confraternities in seventeenth‐century Rome, with a particular emphasis on the experience of women.The rosary is well suited to an approach grounded in sensory methodology, as it is defined both as a prayer and as an object. As a object it was always kept close to the body. Praying the rosary was not only tactile (each bead was handled during prayer) but also auditory, as the prayer was said aloud. Scented rosaries were also common, adding an olfactory component to the ritual. The sense of sight was also important: as confraternities of the rosary obtained their own chapels, large altarpieces of the Madonna of the Rosary were commissioned as visual aids to prayer. Artists incorporated haptic and olfactory prompts into these images, knowing that the audience would be praying in front of them. The rosary, therefore, constituted a ‘sensorium’, defined here as the intertwining and interdependence of multiple sense modalities.The complex interaction in the rosary between prayer, bead and the scenes from the mysteries, developed gradually from older tradition of prayer beads, which is summarised here.
Validating impact of pretreatment tumor growth rate on outcome of early‐stage lung cancer treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy
Authors: Atallah Soha , Le Lisa W. , Bezjak Andrea , MacRae Robert , Hope Andrew J. , Pantarotto Jason
Published: December 2020

Background

To assess correlation of pretreatment specific growth rate (SGR) value of 0.43 × 10‐2 with overall and failure‐free survival of patients with early‐stage non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT).

Methods

A retrospective chart review of 160 patients with pathologically confirmed stage I NSCLC treated with SBRT between June 2010 and December 2012 in a large, tertiary cancer institute was undertaken. Both diagnostic and archived planning CT were uploaded to the treatment planning system to determine tumor volume at diagnosis (GTV1) and planning time (GTV2). The time (t) between both CTs was recorded. SGR was calculated using GTV1, GTV2, and t. The median SGR (0.43 × 10‐2) from our previous data was used to group patients into low and high SGR cohorts. Log‐rank test was used to compare overall (OS) and failure‐free survivals (FFS) of SGR groups.

Results

The median time interval between diagnostic and planning CT scans was 87 days. The median OS was 38 and 66 months for high and low SGR cohorts, respectively (P = 0.03). The median FFS was 27 and 55 months for high and low SGR cohorts, respectively (P = 0.005). High SGR (P < 0.05), male gender (P = <0.01), and GTV2 (P = <0.05) were associated with poorer FFS.

Conclusions

High SGR was associated with poorer outcome in patients with early‐stage NSCLC treated with SBRT. SGR can be used in conjunction with other well‐known predictive factors to formulate a practical predictive model to identify subgroups of the patient at higher risk of recurrence after SBRT.
Diet and root surface caries in a cohort of older Japanese
Authors: Yoshihara Akihiro , Suwama Kana , Miyamoto Akane , Watanabe Reiko , Ogawa Hiroshi
Published: December 2020

Objectives

Root surface caries experience tends to increase with age. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to evaluate the relationship between aspects of dietary intake, including milk and sucrose in coffee or tea (SCT), and root surface caries in older Japanese individuals.

Methods

303 community‐dwelling older individuals (age 75 years) were enrolled for analysis. All participants underwent a dental examination at baseline and then annually from 2003 to 2008 (ie six times over a 5‐year period). A disease event was considered to have occurred when root surface caries was detected on a previously sound or nonexposed root surface. Over the observation period, disease events in each year were counted. Dietary habits during the preceding month were evaluated using a brief self‐administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ) in 2003 and 2008. Poisson regression analysis performed crude and adjusted increment‐rate ratios (IRRs) for root surface caries and the intake of milk and SCT.

Results

The adjusted increment‐rate ratio (IRR) of the increment of root surface caries for participants in the highest SCT tertile was 1.72 (95%CI: 1.40‐2.14) compared with the referent group. In addition, for the amount of milk intake, the adjusted IRR in the highest tertile was 0.63 (95% CI: 0.51‐0.78) compared with the referent group.

Conclusions

Much SCT and low milk intake were associated with the increment of root surface caries in community‐dwelling older people in Japan. These findings suggest that to help prevent root surface caries, community‐dwelling older people in Japan should consume adequate amounts of milk daily and limit their intake of SCT.
Differences in management and outcome for colon and rectal carcinoma with synchronous liver metastases: a population‐based cohort study
Authors: Båverud Olsson Lisen , Buchli Christian , Villard Christina , Nilsson Per J.
Published: December 2020

Aim

Surgical treatment of colorectal cancer with synchronous colorectal liver metastases (SCRLM) can follow three different strategies with regard to the timing of liver resection. The aim of this study was to describe the selection of surgical strategy, focusing on differences between colon and rectal cancer with SCRLM, postoperative morbidity/mortality and survival.

Method

This was a retrospective population‐based study of patients with SCRLM registered in the Swedish Colorectal Cancer Registry in the Stockholm/Gotland region during 2010–2017 and treated with surgical resection of the primary tumour and liver metastases (LM). Patients were followed for 5 years or censored at 22 November 2018.

Results

A total of 238 patients met the inclusion criteria during the study period. Patients with rectal cancer were treated with the ‘liver first’ strategy in 70% of cases, whereas the main treatment strategies for colonic tumours were ‘simultaneous resection’ (44%) and ‘primary first’ (37%). Rectal cancer had a superior 5‐year survival rate compared with colon tumours with SCRLM (62 vs. 47%; p = 0.033). There was no difference in survival between treatment strategies irrespective of primary tumour location. Postoperative complications occurred most commonly among rectal tumours treated with simultaneous resection (p = 0.024).

Conclusion

Patients with rectal cancer and SCRLM were more often treated with the ‘liver first’ strategy than patients with colon cancer. Patients with rectal cancer and SCRLM where both primary tumour and LM were operated on had significantly better survival than corresponding patients with colon cancer.
What works for mental health problems in youth? Survey of real‐world experiences of treatments and side effects
Authors: Morgan Amy J. , Ross Anna M. , Yap Marie B. H. , Reavley Nicola J. , Parker Alexandra , Simmons Magenta B. , Scanlan Faye , Jorm Anthony F.
Published: December 2020

Aim

Despite youth being the most common age group for onset of mental disorders, there is less knowledge on the benefits and harms of treatments in young people. In addition, efficacy data from randomized controlled trials may not generalize to how treatment works outside of research settings. This study aimed to investigate young people's perceived effectiveness of different treatments for mental health problems, the professionals who delivered these, and the experience of negative effects.

Methods

We developed a consumer report website where young people who were ever diagnosed with a mental disorder provided ratings on the helpfulness or harmfulness of different types of professionals, mental health treatments (medical, psychological complementary/alternative) and self‐help strategies, and whether they had experienced particular negative effects.

Results

Here, 557 young people aged 12–25 years, who were recruited from English‐speaking, high‐income countries, provided 1258 ratings of treatments. All treatments showed varied perceptions of effectiveness. Medical and psychological treatments were rated moderately helpful on average with low rates of harmfulness. Self‐help strategies were rated as being as helpful as professional treatments. Side effects related to the head or mind (e.g., concentration difficulties, inability to feel emotions, depression and irritability) were the most common across all types of medicines. For psychological treatments, treatment being too expensive and feeling worse at the end of a session were the most commonly reported negative effects.

Conclusions

Study findings may be a useful guide to clinicians, researchers, young people and their families about what is likely to work in real‐world settings.
OPENING DOORS: A TURN TO KNOWLEDGE
Authors: JORDHEIM HELGE , SHAW DAVID GARY
Published: December 2020

Lively debates have taken place about what the history of knowledge can offer that other approaches cannot. In this article we argue that the advantage of the history of knowledge is its capacity to open up new possibilities for historical work and reflection that are deeply infused with interdisciplinary perspectives and tools. This is important because, within both the academy and in society and politics more widely, we are actually within a knowledge turn or moment in which the stakes of delivering and challenging knowledge are unusually high. At the level of events, experiences, and concepts, the knowledge turn needs examination. The articles in this theme issue also show how issues within the theory of history and the theory of knowledge are ripe for deeper understanding, as both explore deeply issues and doubts about such things as historical development and progress and the existence and importance of knowledge itself, its relation to science and humanistic endeavors, as well as its European, Western, and global historical contexts. These articles also advance a knowledge toolkit of great attraction for historians of all subfields: notions like disknowledge, delay, conceptual and logical comparison, media, materiality, information, and networks are dynamic and productive. In the end, we argue that historical knowledge is itself a key concept that is open to present and past, necessarily constructive in orientation, and skeptical in approach without denying that some types of knowing are more powerful than others and that knowledge as a concept and topic strengthens our interdisciplinary historical and cultural work.
Heuristics for flights arrival scheduling at airports
Authors: Ahmadian Mohammad Mahdi , Salehipour Amir
Published: December 2020

We develop an efficient matheuristic algorithm for the aircraft landing problem (ALP). The ALP aims to schedule aircraft landings such that the total deviation from target arrival times is minimized. We propose a relax‐and‐solve (R&S) algorithm that operates by performing a set of “relax” and “solve” iterations. The relax procedure destructs a sequence of aircraft landings, and the solve procedure re‐constructs a complete sequence and schedules the aircraft landings. We compare the proposed algorithm and the state‐of‐the‐art algorithm for the ALP and also the solver CPLEX, and show that our algorithm obtains all best‐known solutions within one minute, even for instances including 500 aircraft. Those characteristics of the algorithm are very important for practical settings. In particular, the typical short time window available for planning the aircraft landings at busy airports demands quick delivery of quality landing schedules (or updating the current schedule), and fast and effective algorithms are therefore paramount.
Zinc‐α2‐glycoprotein relieved seizure‐Induced neuronal glucose uptake impairment via insulin‐like growth factor 1 receptor‐regulated glucose transporter 3 expression
Authors: Peng Wuxue , Liu Xi , Tan Changhong , Zhou Wen , Jiang Jin , Zhou Xuan , Du Juncong , Mo Lijuan , Chen Lifen
Published: December 2020

Glucose hypometabolism is observed in epilepsy and promotes epileptogenesis. Glucose hypometabolism in epilepsy may be attributed to decreased neuronal glucose uptake, but its molecular mechanism remains unclear. Zinc‐α2‐glycoprotein (ZAG) is related to glucose metabolism and is reported to suppress seizures. The anti‐epileptic effect of ZAG may be attributed to its regulation of neuronal glucose metabolism. This study explored the effect of ZAG on neuronal glucose uptake and its molecular mechanism via insulin‐like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R)‐regulated glucose transporter 3 (GLUT‐3) expression. The ZAG level was modulated by lentivirus in primary culture neurons. Neuronal seizure models were induced by Mg2+‐free artificial cerebrospinal fluid. We assessed neuronal glucose uptake by the 2‐NBDG method and Glucose Uptake Colorimetric Assay Kit. IGF1R was activated by IGF1 and blocked by AXL1717. The expression and distribution of IGF1R and GLUT‐3, together with IGF1R phosphorylation, were measured by western blot. The binding between ZAG and IGF1R was determined by coimmunoprecipitation. Neuronal glucose uptake and GLUT‐3 expression were significantly decreased by seizure or ZAG knockdown, whereas ZAG over‐expression or IGF1 treatment reversed this decrease. The effect of ZAG on neuronal glucose uptake and GLUT‐3 expression was blocked by AXL1717. ZAG increased IGF1R distribution and phosphorylation possibly by binding. Additionally, IGF1R increased GLUT‐3 activity by increasing GLUT‐3 expression. In epilepsy/seizure, neuronal glucose uptake suppression may be attributed to a decrease in ZAG, which suppresses neuronal GLUT‐3 expression by regulating the activity of IGF1R. ZAG, IGF1R, and GLUT‐3 may be novel potential therapeutic targets of glucose hypometabolism in epilepsy and seizures.

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Understanding Digital Health Technologies Using Mind Maps
Authors: Seckman Charlotte , Van de Castle Barbara
Published: December 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this project was to explore digital health technologies in the healthcare environment through the use of concept and mind mapping tools in a graduate level informatics practicum course.

Design

This descriptive course evaluation project was conducted at a large university school of nursing during the 2019–2020 academic year and included a convenience sample of 163 doctor of nursing practice students.

Methods

Students completed four major deliverables exploring digital health technologies and data sources using mind maps. Project goals were evaluated using detailed rubrics and data from a course evaluation questionnaire (CEQ) then analyzed using descriptive statistics. Comments from the CEQ and reflection documents were reviewed for themes and validated by two experts.

Findings

The variety and creativity of the mind maps along with student comments indicated their ability to apply critical thinking skills to the specific content and technologies being examined. Overall CEQ mean scores were high (M = 4.35), indicating that the mind mapping deliverables were logical, relevant, appropriate, and meaningful to learning.

Conclusions

Nurse educators and healthcare professionals should consider using mind mapping techniques because this venue allows for expanded understanding of the complexities of the healthcare environment and integration of related digital health technologies.

Clinical Relevance

The recent pandemic highlighted the necessity for new technologies to continue providing patient care services. Mind maps are a fast and economical tool for understanding and prioritizing the needs of an organization as well as a unique teaching strategy to promote critical thinking and sharing of ideas related to digital health technologies.
Comparative retrospective study on transvaginal sonography versus office hysteroscopy in the diagnosis of endometrial pathology among different subgroups
Authors: Tsonis Orestis , Gkrozou Fani , Dimitriou Evangelos , Paschopoulos Minas
Published: December 2020

Background

Transvaginal sonography (TVS) and office hysteroscopy are considered essential diagnostic tool for the gynecologic everyday practice. Through the years equipment developments in both techniques along with cumulative experience gained by the gynecologists result in a disunity among clinicians in choosing optimal diagnostic approach with regards to endometrial pathology.

Aim

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of TVS versus office hysteroscopy (OHSC) in detecting endometrial pathology. Results were compared to available scientific evidence available among similar published studies.

Methods

Comparative Retrospective study performed at the Endoscopic Unit, Department of Gynecology, University Hospital of Ioannina, Greece. A total of 2675 cases were collected for this study from January 1997 until August 2019. All cases recruited underwent a TVS followed by office hysteroscopy (OHSC) for various indications according to the local protocol. Endometrial samples from all cases were obtained and histology confirmed the diagnosis. Sonographic and hysteroscopic results were correlated with histologic reports to assess the diagnostic accuracy of both techniques.

Results

In a total of 2675 cases recruited for this study, 23.2% were postmenopausal while the majority (76.7%) was of reproductive age. The commonest indication for hysteroscopy was abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) accounting for 29.7% of the cases. Overall, TVS demonstrated diagnostic accuracy of 84.7%% in detecting endometrial pathology, compared to 97.3% of OHSC. Sensitivity, specificity, positive prognostic value (PPV) and negative prognostic value (NPV) of TVS detecting endometrial pathology were 84.0, 86.8, 95.3 and 63.0%, respectively. The corresponding values for hysteroscopy were 98.9, 95.1, 98.4 and 93.9%, respectively. Diagnostic value of both techniques was estimated in 6 (six) additional subgroups: total sample with AUB, women of reproductive age, women of reproductive age with AUB, women of reproductive age with infertility issues, postmenopausal women and postmenopausal women suffering from postmenopausal bleeding (PMB). All values were calculated with regards to histologic findings as gold standard technique. All results were correlated with scientific evidence collected from the international literature.

Conclusion

Office hysteroscopy is a more reliable tool in detecting endometrial pathologies compared to TVS regardless of reproductive status or clinical presentation. TVS is likely to orientate and guide specialists on what to expect prior to an hysteroscopic intervention.