bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Would consumers accept CRISPR fruit crops if the benefit has health implications? An application to cranberry products
Authors: Ma Xueying , Gallardo Rosa Karina , Canales Elizabeth , Atucha Amaya , Zalapa Juan , Iorizzo Massimo
Published: January 2024

Cranberry products are perceived as healthy due to their high antioxidant content yet adding sugars to increase their palatability deters consumption. Plant breeding technologies such as gene editing, specifically the clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR), offer a plausible alternative to develop cranberries with desired traits (e.g., lower acidity and increased sweetness). We estimated consumers’ willingness to pay for sugar content, CRISPR, and cranberry flavor intensity for two cranberry products under different health-related information treatments. Respondents stated a discount for regular sugar content favoring reduced sugar products, for CRISPR compared to conventional breeding, and for weak/bland compared to full/intense cranberry flavor. Compensated valuation analysis of products with different attribute levels indicates that consumers were willing to pay a premium for cranberry products with reduced sugar content, CRISPR-bred, and full/intense cranberry flavor relative to products with regular sugar content, conventionally bred, and weak/bland flavor. Information treatments highlighting cranberries’ health benefits and recommendations to limit sugar intake increased consumers’ discounts for regular sugar content, surpassing the discount for CRISPR. This research underscores the importance of the conditions under which breeding technologies might gain public acceptance. This information will benefit the scientific community and industry seeking to use CRISPR to develop improved cranberry cultivars.
Provable observation noise robustness for neural network control systems
Authors: Krish Veena , Mata Andrew , Bak Stanley , Hobbs Kerianne , Rahmati Amir
Published: January 2024

Neural networks are vulnerable to adversarial perturbations: slight changes to inputs that can result in unexpected outputs. In neural network control systems, these inputs are often noisy sensor readings. In such settings, natural sensor noise – or an adversary who can manipulate them – may cause the system to fail. In this paper, we introduce the first technique to provably compute the minimum magnitude of sensor noise that can cause a neural network control system to violate a safety property from a given initial state. Our algorithm constructs a tree of possible successors with increasing noise until a specification is violated. We build on open-loop neural network verification methods to determine the least amount of noise that could change actions at each step of a closed-loop execution. We prove that this method identifies the unsafe trajectory with the least noise that leads to a safety violation. We evaluate our method on four systems: the Cart Pole and LunarLander environments from OpenAI gym, an aircraft collision avoidance system based on a neural network compression of ACAS Xu, and the SafeRL Aircraft Rejoin scenario. Our analysis produces unsafe trajectories where deviations under

$1{\rm{\% }}$

of the sensor noise range make the systems behave erroneously.
Down a Slippery Slope: Lack of Trust, Coercive Threats and Business Tax Resistance in Greece, 1955–1988
Authors: Battilossi Stefano , Pittaki Zoi
Published: January 2024

Over the second half of the 20th century, Greek governments failed to tax business income in line with the country’s level of economic development. This paper uses the “slippery slope” model of tax compliance to explain why the reform of income and corporate taxation in the late 1950s met strong resistance in the business sector. We argue that the negative legacy of interwar reforms, the lack of sustained and credible investment in trust building in coincidence with the postwar reforms, and the intensification of coercive threats in tax enforcement led to an antagonistic tax climate and a degradation of enforced and voluntary compliance. Our qualitative analysis based on original primary sources shows that the arguments publicly voiced by entrepreneurs and their organizations reflected their persistent perception of tax power as unfair, arbitrary and extractive. Using aggregate tax returns data, our quantitative analysis finds evidence of systematic and increasing income underreporting both by unincorporated and incorporated businesses. This vicious circle of non-cooperation and mutual distrust explains why governments got trapped into a persistent low tax capacity equilibrium that still casts a shadow on the Greek economy.
Hypercontractivity on the symmetric group
Authors: Filmus Yuval , Kindler Guy , Lifshitz Noam , Minzer Dor
Published: January 2024

The hypercontractive inequality is a fundamental result in analysis, with many applications throughout discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science, combinatorics and more. So far, variants of this inequality have been proved mainly for product spaces, which raises the question of whether analogous results hold over non-product domains.

We consider the symmetric group,$S_n$, one of the most basic non-product domains, and establish hypercontractive inequalities on it. Our inequalities are most effective for the class ofglobal functionson$S_n$, which are functions whose$2$-norm remains small when restricting$O(1)$coordinates of the input, and assert that low-degree, global functions have smallq-norms, for$q>2$.

As applications, we show the following:

1.

An analog of the level-dinequality on the hypercube, asserting that the mass of a global function on low degrees is very small. We also show how to use this inequality to bound the size of global, product-free sets in the alternating group$A_n$.

2.

Isoperimetric inequalities on the transposition Cayley graph of$S_n$for global functions that are analogous to the KKL theorem and to the small-set expansion property in the Boolean hypercube.

3.

Hypercontractive inequalities on the multi-slice and stability versions of the Kruskal–Katona Theorem in some regimes of parameters.
The INHABIT (synergIstic effect of aNtHocyAnin and proBIoTics in) Inflammatory Bowel Disease trial: a study protocol for a double-blind, randomised, controlled, multi-arm trial
Authors: Cosier Denelle , Lambert Kelly , Batterham Marijka , Sanderson-Smith Martina , Mansfield Kylie J , Charlton Karen
Published: January 2024

Ulcerative Colitis (UC), a type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), is a chronic, relapsing gastrointestinal condition with increasing global prevalence. The gut microbiome profile of people living with UC differs from healthy controls and this may play a role in the pathogenesis and clinical management of UC. Probiotics have been shown to induce remission in UC; however, their impact on the gut microbiome and inflammation is less clear. Anthocyanins, a flavonoid subclass, have shown anti-inflammatory and microbiota-modulating properties; however, this evidence is largely preclinical. To explore the combined effect and clinical significance of anthocyanins and a multi-strain probiotic, a 3-month randomised controlled trial will be conducted in 100 adults with UC. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four groups: anthocyanins (blackcurrant powder) + placebo probiotic, probiotic + placebo fruit powder, anthocyanin + probiotic, or double placebo. The primary outcome is a clinically significant change in the health-related quality-of-life measured with the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire-32. Secondary outcomes include shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the faecal microbiota, faecal calprotectin, symptom severity, and mood and cognitive tests. This research will identify the role of adjuvant anti-inflammatory dietary treatments in adults with UC and elucidate the relationship between the gut microbiome and inflammatory biomarkers in this disease, to help identify targeted individualised microbial therapies. ANZCTR registration ACTRN12623000630617.
Slave labor productivity and wine output: Stellenbosch, 1680–1828
Authors: Fourie Johan , Greyling Jan
Published: January 2024

This paper examines wine output and slave labor productivity in the Dutch and British Cape Colony, leveraging annual tax censuses. We document a substantial increase in wine production, but, despite substantial institutional changes over more than a century, we find surprisingly stable median wine yields. Exploiting the farm-level nature of our data, we observe increasing heterogeneity in wine yields, suggesting that some farmers were able to realize productivity increases. We show that efficient slave labor utilization was a critical driver of productivity enhancement, largely unaffected by external factors.
Displays of anger in Turkish political discourse: a hard choice between cultural norms and political performance of anger
Authors: Akkaraca Kose Melike , Breeze Ruth
Published: January 2024

This paper examines the influence of cultural display rules on how high-status individuals, such as political leaders, publicly express anger. Specifically, it focuses on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been the Turkish leader since 2003. The study aims to understand the extent to which Erdoğan’s expression of anger is influenced by cultural display rules, the religious context stemming from his conservative electoral support, and his position as a long-term populist political leader. Using extended conceptual metaphor theory (ECMT) supported by corpus-assisted discourse analysis, the paper seeks to identify the contextual factors that shape anger expressions (both direct and metaphorical) in the political discourse of a populist leader in a collectivist culture. By comparing the conceptualization of ascribed anger and inscribed anger expressions, the analysis reveals that Erdoğan’s discourse presents two distinct scenarios for expressing anger toward ‘us’ and ‘others’. Additionally, it demonstrates how anger is strategically employed in culture-specific ways to navigate the challenges posed by conflicting contextual factors.
Adhesion and volume filling in one-dimensional population dynamics under Dirichlet boundary condition
Authors: Choi Hyung Jun , Kim Seonghak , Koh Youngwoo
Published: January 2024

We generalize the one-dimensional population model of Anguige & Schmeiser [1] reflecting the cell-to-cell adhesion and volume filling and classify the resulting equation into the six types. Among these types, we fix one that yields a class of advection-diffusion equations of forward-backward-forward type and prove the existence of infinitely many global-in-time weak solutions to the initial-Dirichlet boundary value problem when the maximum value of an initial population density exceeds a certain threshold. Such solutions are extracted from the method of convex integration by Müller & Šverák [12]; they exhibit fine-scale density mixtures over a finite time interval, then become smooth and identical, and decay exponentially and uniformly to zero as time approaches infinity. TE check: Please check the reference citation in abstract.
Divided Attitudes Toward Rectifying Injustice: How Preferences for Indigenous Policies Differ Between the Indigenous and Majority Populations of Norway and Sweden
Authors: Bergmann Fabian
Published: January 2024

Most states acknowledge the significance of Indigenous rights to rectify past injustices. Yet, on the domestic level, the realization of these rights depends on national policies. For democratic societies, questions about public opinion toward Indigenous policies are thus of great interest but remain largely unstudied. To what extent does the ethnic majority support policies conducive to Indigenous rights realization? And how different are the Indigenous population’s policy preferences? I use original experimental data from a vignette study to investigate these questions in the case of the Sámi people in Norway and Sweden. I hypothesize that groups’ attitudes are shaped by policies’ potential to alter the social status hierarchy between the majority and Indigenous populations. The results provide a nuanced picture. The ethnic majority shows significantly less support for policies facilitating Sámi linguistic, self-governance, and territorial rights. While the Sámi have, in general, more positive attitudes toward such policies, their support seems to be less pronounced than the majority’s resistance. Moreover, as attitudes are surprisingly similar when compared between Norway and Sweden, a country’s existing policy context does not appear to be crucial in the formation of these preferences.
Evaluating the Minority Candidate Penalty with a Regression Discontinuity Approach
Authors: White Ariel , Shah Paru , Juenke Eric Gonzalez , Fraga Bernard L.
Published: January 2024

Do parties face an electoral penalty when they nominate candidates of colour? We employ a regression discontinuity design using state legislative election data from 2018, 2019, and 2020 to isolate the effect of nominating a candidate of colour on a party's general election performance. Utilising this approach with real-world data heightens external validity relative to existing racial penalty studies, largely supported by surveys and experiments. We find no evidence that candidates of colour are disadvantaged in state legislative general elections relative to narrowly nominated white candidates from the same party. These findings challenge the leading explanations for the underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minority groups, with implications for candidate selection across the United States.
Phenotypic evaluation of mast cells in bovine mammary tissue and mastitis in the context of fibrosis
Authors: Özgüden-Akkoc Cansel Güzin , Mutlu Ayşe Meriç , Keskin Abdülkadir , Yumuşak Ezgi , Akkoc Ahmet
Published: January 2024

This research paper addresses the hypothesis that mast cells (MCs) contribute to the formation of mammary fibrosis. MCs are important immune regulatory and immune modulatory cells that play major roles in the inflammatory process. Since there is no detailed knowledge, this research study aimed to comparatively investigate the presence, localization, and immunophenotypes of MCs in healthy and mastitic mammary tissues. A total of 264 mammary samples were evaluated for the examination of mast cells and fibrosis. The mean mast cell number in both acute and chronic mastitis samples were very significantly higher than the control group P < 0.001). A 7.9-fold increase in the number of mast cells was found when the chronic mastitis group was compared with the control (healthy) group. Immunohistochemistry revealed presence of all three immune phenotypes in control and mastitic mammary samples (tryptase + (MCT), chymase + (MCC) and both chymase and tryptase + (MCTC). The mean MCT, MCC, and MCTC numbers in the chronic mastitis group were found to be significantly higher than the control (P < 0.001 for all three phenotypes) but did not differ significantly between control and acute mastitis samples. When the mean numbers of MCT, MCC, and MCTC in the control group and chronic mastitis group were compared, a 10.5, 7.8, and a 4.1-fold increase was observed, respectively. The amount of connective tissue was strongly increased in tissues with chronic mastitis and a 3.01-fold increase was detected compared to the control group. A statistically significant relation was also found between the amount of fibrosis and the increased number of total MCs (P < 0.001).
Rethinking Transnational Activism through Regional Perspectives: Reflections, Literatures and Cases
Authors: Davies Thomas , Laqua Daniel , Framke Maria , Richard Anne-Isabelle , Oliart Patricia , Skinner Kate , Requejo de Lamo Pilar , Kramm Robert , Alston Charlotte , Hurst Matthew
Published: January 2024

This collectively authored article argues for a regional turn in the historical study of transnational activism. By considering not only pan-regional movements but also examples of borderland contexts, transregional connections and diasporic understandings of ‘region’, our discussion identifies fresh possibilities for investigating the evolution and functioning of transnational activism. Based on a Royal Historical Society-funded workshop held at and supported by Northumbria University, the article brings together insights from diverse locations and arenas of contestation. The first part considers literatures on three macro-regional settings – South Asia, Western Europe and Latin America – to illustrate the importance of distinctive regional contexts and constructs in shaping transnational activism and its goals. The second part turns to case studies of transnational activism in and beyond Eastern Europe, West Africa, the Caribbean and East Asia. In doing so, it explores very different notions of the regional to identify how transnational activism has both shaped and been shaped by these ideas. Taken together, the two parts highlight the role of regional identities and projects in challenging inequalities and external domination. Our analysis and examples indicate the possibilities of a regionally rooted approach for writing histories of transnational activism.
The ‘Anchoring vi Schema’ and its relation to phrase rhythm in popular music
Authors: Fink Stanley Ralph
Published: January 2024

In order to reveal normative prototypes undergirding various formal sections, this article introduces the ‘Anchoring vi Schema’: a medium length major-mode passage (typically eight or 16 bars) that initiates on an unambiguous hypermetric downbeat (for example, the beginning of a verse or chorus). The Anchoring vi Schema must begin with tonic harmony and deploy submediant harmony at its midpoint – the second most hypermetrically strong beat. The identification of the Anchoring vi Schema enables closer readings of phrase expansion and deletion in popular music. A comparison of the common harmonies used in eight- and 16-measure passages reveals some striking similarities, particularly in terms of where tonic and subdominant chords are likely to occur. Although the endings of formal sections can take a variety of paths – including arriving at various tonal goals within a range of possible times – hypermetrically accented beginnings and midpoints show greater consistency in their organisation.
The effect of masks on infants’ ability to fast-map and generalize new words
Authors: LIU Siying , LI Xun , SUN Renji
Published: January 2024

Young children today are exposed to masks on a regular basis. However, there is limited empirical evidence on how masks may affect word learning. The study explored the effect of masks on infants’ abilities to fast-map and generalize new words. Seventy-two Chinese infants (43 males, Mage = 18.26 months) were taught two novel word-object pairs by a speaker with or without a mask. They then heard the words and had to visually identify the correct objects and also generalize words to a different speaker and objects from the same category. Eye-tracking results indicate that infants looked longer at the target regardless of whether a speaker wore a mask. They also looked longer at the speaker’s eyes than at the mouth only when words were taught through a mask. Thus, fast-mapping and generalization occur in both masked and not masked conditions as infants can flexibly access different visual cues during word-learning.
Processing adjectives in development: Evidence from eye-tracking
Authors: REDOLFI Michela , MELLONI Chiara
Published: January 2024

Combining adjective meaning with the modified noun is particularly challenging for children under three years. Previous research suggests that in processing noun-adjective phrases children may over-rely on noun information, delaying or omitting adjective interpretation. However, the question of whether this difficulty is modulated by semantic differences among (subsective) adjectives is underinvestigated.

A visual-world experiment explores how Italian-learning children (N=38, 2;4–5;3) process noun-adjective phrases and whether their processing strategies adapt based on the adjective class. Our investigation substantiates the proficient integration of noun and adjective semantics by children. Nevertheless, alligning with previous research, a notable asymmetry is evident in the interpretation of nouns and adjectives, the latter being integrated more slowly. Remarkably, by testing toddlers across a wide age range, we observe a developmental trajectory in processing, supporting a continuity approach to children’s development. Moreover, we reveal that children exhibit sensitivity to the distinct interpretations associated with each subsective adjective.
Managed competition in the United States: How well is it promoting equity and efficiency?
Authors: Ellis Randall P. , Hoagland Alex , Acquatella Angelique
Published: January 2024

Managed competition frameworks aim to control healthcare costs and promote access to high-quality health insurance and services through a combination of public policies and market forces. In the United States, managed competition delivery systems are varied and diffused across a patchwork of divided markets and populations. This, coupled with extremely high national health spending per capita, makes a more unified managed competition strategy an appealing alternative to a currently struggling healthcare system. We examine the relative effectiveness of three existing programmes in the U.S. that each rely upon some principles of managed competition: health insurance exchanges instituted by the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid managed care organisations, and Medicare Advantage plans. Although each programme leverages some competitive features, each faces significant hurdles as a candidate for expansion. We highlight these challenges with a survey of academic health economists, and find that provider and insurer consolidation, highly segmented markets, and failing to incentivise competitive efficiencies all dampen the success of existing programmes. Although managed competition for all is a potentially desirable framework for future health reform in the U.S., successful expansion relies on addressing fundamental issues revealed by imperfect existing programmes.
Involuntary tobacco smoke exposures from conception to 18 years increase midlife cardiometabolic disease risk: a 40-year longitudinal study
Authors: Niu Zhongzheng , Mu Lina , Buka Stephen L. , Loucks Eric B. , Wang Meng , Tian Lili , Wen Xiaozhong
Published: January 2024

Few population studies have sufficient follow-up period to examine early-life exposures with later life diseases. A critical question is whether involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke from conception to adulthood increases the risk of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD) in midlife. In the Collaborative Perinatal Project, serum-validated maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSP) was assessed in the 1960s. At a mean age of 39 years, 1623 offspring were followed-up for the age at first physician-diagnoses of any CMDs, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, or hyperlipidemia. Detailed information on their exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in childhood and adolescence was collected with a validated questionnaire. Cox regression was used to examine associations of in utero exposure to MSP and exposure to ETS from birth to 18 years with lifetime incidence of CMD, adjusting for potential confounders. We calculated midlife cumulative incidences of hyperlipidemia (25.2%), hypertension (14.9%), diabetes (3.9%), and heart disease (1.5%). Lifetime risk of hypertension increased by the 2nd -trimester exposure to MSP (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.29, 95% confidence interval: 1.01–1.65), ETS in childhood (1.11, 0.99–1.23) and adolescence (1.22, 1.04–1.44). Lifetime risk of diabetes increased by joint exposures to MSP and ETS in childhood (1.23, 1.01–1.50) or adolescence (1.47, 1.02–2.10). These associations were stronger in males than females, in never-daily smokers than lifetime ever smokers. In conclusion, early-life involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke increases midlife risk of hypertension and diabetes in midlife.
Learning from and Emulating Their Peers: Policy Diffusion in the Courts
Authors: Matthews Abigail A.
Published: January 2024

Many studies of policy diffusion focus on what factors affect a policy’s adoption. Few studies specifically test the mechanism and two of the most common explanations – learning and emulation – have not been tested outside of legislatures. While judicial scholars have applied policy diffusion to several types of laws, we know little about the motivation behind why policies spread from court to court. One unexplored area is the relationship between courts. This short article analyzes the two mechanisms most likely to affect peer institutions: learning and emulation. Using network analysis methods on an original dataset of state supreme court citations from 1960 to 2010, I provide evidence that courts are learning from and not emulating each other, but the mechanism is policy-specific.
Saltwater Intrusion Into a Confined Island Aquifer Driven by Erosion, Changing Recharge, Sea‐Level Rise, and Coastal Flooding
Authors: Stanic S. , LeRoux N. K. , Paldor A. , Mohammed A. A. , Michael H. A. , Kurylyk B. L.
Published: January 2024

Aquifers on small islands are at risk of salinization due to low elevations and limited adaptive capacity, and present risks will be exacerbated by climate change. Most studies addressing small‐island saltwater intrusion (SWI) have focused on homogeneous sandy islands and one or two hydraulic disturbances. We herein investigate SWI dynamics in a layered, confined island aquifer in response to multiple environmental perturbations related to climate change, with two considered in tandem. Our field and modeling work is based on an island aquifer that provides the drinking water supply for an Indigenous community in Atlantic Canada. Observation well data and electrical resistivity profiles were used to calibrate a numerical model (HydroGeoSphere) of coupled groundwater flow and salt transport. The calibrated model was used to simulate the impacts of climate change including sea‐level rise (SLR), storm surge overtopping, changing aquifer recharge, and erosion. Simulated aquifer conditions were resilient to surges because the confining layer prevented deeper saltwater leaching. However, reduced recharge and erosion resulted in saltwater wedge migration of 170 and 110 m, respectively when considered individually, and up to 295 m (i.e., into the wellfield) when considered together. Despite the confining conditions, SLR resulted in wedge migration up to 55 m as the confining pressures were not sufficient to resist wedge movement. This is the first study to harness an integrated, surface‐subsurface hydrologic model to assess effects of coastal erosion and other hydroclimatic stressors on island aquifers, highlighting that climate change can drive extensive salinization of critical groundwater resources.
Exceptional dynamics at exceptional points
Authors: Wan Wenjie
Published: January 2024

Exceptional points (EPs), singularities of non-Hermitian systems, often exhibit exotic behaviors by engineering the balance between the system gain and loss. Now, EPs have been demonstrated to enable unidirectional perfect absorption/reflection at the visible light spectrum.
A cyclin D1 intrinsically disordered domain accesses modified histone motifs to govern gene transcription
Authors: Jiao Xuanmao , Di Sante Gabriele , Casimiro Mathew C. , Tantos Agnes , Ashton Anthony W. , Li Zhiping , Quach Yen , Bhargava Dharmendra , Di Rocco Agnese , Pupo Claudia , Crosariol Marco , Lazar Tamas , Tompa Peter , Wang Chenguang , Yu Zuoren , Zhang Zhao , Aldaaysi Kawthar , Vadlamudi Ratna , Mann Monica , Skordalakes Emmanuel , Kossenkov Andrew , Du Yanming , Pestell Richard G.
Published: January 2024

The essential G1-cyclin, CCND1, is frequently overexpressed in cancer, contributing to tumorigenesis by driving cell-cycle progression. D-type cyclins are rate-limiting regulators of G1-S progression in mammalian cells via their ability to bind and activate CDK4 and CDK6. In addition, cyclin D1 conveys kinase-independent transcriptional functions of cyclin D1. Here we report that cyclin D1 associates with H2BS14 via an intrinsically disordered domain (IDD). The same region of cyclin D1 was necessary for the induction of aneuploidy, induction of the DNA damage response, cyclin D1-mediated recruitment into chromatin, and CIN gene transcription. In response to DNA damage H2BS14 phosphorylation occurs, resulting in co-localization with γH2AX in DNA damage foci. Cyclin D1 ChIP seq and γH2AX ChIP seq revealed ~14% overlap. As the cyclin D1 IDD functioned independently of the CDK activity to drive CIN, the IDD domain may provide a rationale new target to complement CDK-extinction strategies.
Prevalence of sleep disturbances in children and adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic: a meta-analysis and systematic review of epidemiological surveys
Authors: Cai Hong , Chen Pan , Jin Yu , Zhang Qinge , Cheung Teris , Ng Chee H. , Xiang Yu-Tao , Feng Yuan
Published: January 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing widespread lockdown measures have had a negative impact on the mental health of children and adolescents. We thus conducted a meta-analysis of the worldwide prevalence of sleep disturbances in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. We performed a systematic literature search of the major international (PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science) and Chinese (Chinese Nation Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and WANFANG) databases from their commencement dates to 27 December 2022. Altogether, 57 articles covering 206,601 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The overall prevalence of sleep disturbances was 34.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 28–41%). The prevalence of parent-reported sleep disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly higher than that of self-reported (p = 0.005) sleep disturbances. Epidemiological studies jointly conducted across Asia and Europe had a higher prevalence of sleep disturbances compared to those conducted in Asia, Europe, America, Oceania, or South America alone (p < 0.001). Children had a significantly higher prevalence of sleep disturbances compared to adolescents alone or a mixed cohort of children and adolescents (p = 0.022). Meta-regression analyses revealed that mean age (p < 0.001), quality evaluation score (p < 0.001), and percentage of men (p < 0.001) showed negative associations, while time of survey (B = 1.82, z = 34.02, p < 0.001) showed a positive association with the prevalence of sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances were common in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Divergent epigenetic responses to perinatal asphyxia in severe mental disorders
Authors: Wortinger Laura A. , Stavrum Anne-Kristin , Shadrin Alexey A. , Szabo Attila , Rukke Sondre Høeg , Nerland Stener , Smelror Runar Elle , Jørgensen Kjetil Nordbø , Barth Claudia , Andreou Dimitrios , Weibell Melissa A. , Djurovic Srdjan , Andreassen Ole A. , Thoresen Marianne , Ursini Gianluca , Agartz Ingrid , Le Hellard Stephanie
Published: January 2024

Epigenetic modifications influenced by environmental exposures are molecular sources of phenotypic heterogeneity found in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and may contribute to shared etiopathogenetic mechanisms of these two disorders. Newborns who experienced perinatal asphyxia have suffered reduced oxygen delivery to the brain around the time of birth, which increases the risk of later psychiatric diagnosis. This study aimed to investigate DNA methylation in blood cells for associations with a history of perinatal asphyxia, a neurologically harmful condition occurring within the biological environment of birth. We utilized prospective data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway to identify incidents of perinatal asphyxia in 643 individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and 676 healthy controls. We performed an epigenome wide association study to distinguish differentially methylated positions associated with perinatal asphyxia. We found an interaction between methylation and exposure to perinatal asphyxia on case–control status, wherein having a history of perinatal asphyxia was associated with an increase of methylation in healthy controls and a decrease of methylation in patients on 4 regions of DNA important for brain development and function. The differentially methylated regions were observed in genes involved in oligodendrocyte survival and axonal myelination and functional recovery (LINGO3); assembly, maturation and maintenance of the brain (BLCAP;NNAT and NANOS2) and axonal transport processes and neural plasticity (SLC2A14). These findings are consistent with the notion that an opposite epigenetic response to perinatal asphyxia, in patients compared with controls, may contribute to molecular mechanisms of risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Normalized affective responsiveness following deep brain stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle in depression
Authors: Kilian Hannah Marlene , Schiller Bastian , Meyer-Doll Dora Margarete , Heinrichs Markus , Schläpfer Thomas Eduard
Published: January 2024

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the supero-lateral medial forebrain bundle (slMFB) is associated with rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Beyond that, improvements in social functioning have been reported. However, it is unclear whether social skills, the basis of successful social functioning, are systematically altered following slMFB DBS. Therefore, the current study investigated specific social skills (affective empathy, compassion, and theory of mind) in patients with TRD undergoing slMFB DBS in comparison to healthy subjects. 12 patients with TRD and 12 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects (5 females) performed the EmpaToM, a video-based naturalistic paradigm differentiating between affective empathy, compassion, and theory of mind. Patients were assessed before and three months after DBS onset and compared to an age- and gender-matched sample of healthy controls. All data were analyzed using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests. DBS treatment significantly affected patients’ affective responsiveness towards emotional versus neutral situations (i.e. affective empathy): While their affective responsiveness was reduced compared to healthy subjects at baseline, they showed normalized affective responsiveness three months after slMFB DBS onset. No effects occurred in other domains with persisting deficits in compassion and intact socio-cognitive skills. Active slMFB DBS resulted in a normalized affective responsiveness in patients with TRD. This specific effect might represent one factor supporting the resumption of social activities after recovery from chronic depression. Considering the small size of this unique sample as well as the explorative nature of this study, future studies are needed to investigate the robustness of these effects.
Knowledge-guided machine learning can improve carbon cycle quantification in agroecosystems
Authors: Liu Licheng , Zhou Wang , Guan Kaiyu , Peng Bin , Xu Shaoming , Tang Jinyun , Zhu Qing , Till Jessica , Jia Xiaowei , Jiang Chongya , Wang Sheng , Qin Ziqi , Kong Hui , Grant Robert , Mezbahuddin Symon , Kumar Vipin , Jin Zhenong
Published: January 2024

Accurate and cost-effective quantification of the carbon cycle for agroecosystems at decision-relevant scales is critical to mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable food production. However, conventional process-based or data-driven modeling approaches alone have large prediction uncertainties due to the complex biogeochemical processes to model and the lack of observations to constrain many key state and flux variables. Here we propose a Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning (KGML) framework that addresses the above challenges by integrating knowledge embedded in a process-based model, high-resolution remote sensing observations, and machine learning (ML) techniques. Using the U.S. Corn Belt as a testbed, we demonstrate that KGML can outperform conventional process-based and black-box ML models in quantifying carbon cycle dynamics. Our high-resolution approach quantitatively reveals 86% more spatial detail of soil organic carbon changes than conventional coarse-resolution approaches. Moreover, we outline a protocol for improving KGML via various paths, which can be generalized to develop hybrid models to better predict complex earth system dynamics.
Flow-induced periodic chiral structures in an achiral nematic liquid crystal
Authors: Zhang Qing , Wang Weiqiang , Zhou Shuang , Zhang Rui , Bischofberger Irmgard
Published: January 2024

Supramolecular chirality typically originates from either chiral molecular building blocks or external chiral stimuli. Generating chirality in achiral systems in the absence of a chiral input, however, is non-trivial and necessitates spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking. Achiral nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals have been reported to break mirror symmetry under strong surface or geometric constraints. Here we describe a previously unrecognised mechanism for creating chiral structures by subjecting the material to a pressure-driven flow in a microfluidic cell. The chirality arises from a periodic double-twist configuration of the liquid crystal and manifests as a striking stripe pattern. We show that the mirror symmetry breaking is triggered at regions of flow-induced biaxial-splay configurations of the director field, which are unstable to small perturbations and evolve into lower energy structures. The simplicity of this unique pathway to mirror symmetry breaking can shed light on the requirements for forming macroscopic chiral structures.
Practical Hamiltonian learning with unitary dynamics and Gibbs states
Authors: Gu Andi , Cincio Lukasz , Coles Patrick J.
Published: January 2024

We study the problem of learning the parameters for the Hamiltonian of a quantum many-body system, given limited access to the system. In this work, we build upon recent approaches to Hamiltonian learning via derivative estimation. We propose a protocol that improves the scaling dependence of prior works, particularly with respect to parameters relating to the structure of the Hamiltonian (e.g., its locality k). Furthermore, by deriving exact bounds on the performance of our protocol, we are able to provide a precise numerical prescription for theoretically optimal settings of hyperparameters in our learning protocol, such as the maximum evolution time (when learning with unitary dynamics) or minimum temperature (when learning with Gibbs states). Thanks to these improvements, our protocol has practical scaling for large problems: we demonstrate this with a numerical simulation of our protocol on an 80-qubit system.
Efficient and robust estimation of many-qubit Hamiltonians
Authors: Stilck França Daniel , Markovich Liubov A. , Dobrovitski V. V. , Werner Albert H. , Borregaard Johannes
Published: January 2024

Characterizing the interactions and dynamics of quantum mechanical systems is an essential task in developing quantum technologies. We propose an efficient protocol based on the estimation of the time-derivatives of few qubit observables using polynomial interpolation for characterizing the underlying Hamiltonian dynamics and Markovian noise of a multi-qubit device. For finite range dynamics, our protocol exponentially relaxes the necessary time-resolution of the measurements and quadratically reduces the overall sample complexity compared to previous approaches. Furthermore, we show that our protocol can characterize the dynamics of systems with algebraically decaying interactions. The implementation of the protocol requires only the preparation of product states and single-qubit measurements. Furthermore, we improve a shadow tomography method for quantum channels that is of independent interest and discuss the robustness of the protocol to various errors. This protocol can be used to parallelize the learning of the Hamiltonian, rendering it applicable for the characterization of both current and future quantum devices.
Estimating the heritability of SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 severity
Authors: Brown Kathleen LaRow , Ramlall Vijendra , Zietz Michael , Gisladottir Undina , Tatonetti Nicholas P.
Published: January 2024

SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 340 million people, prompting therapeutic research. While genetic studies can highlight potential drug targets, understanding the heritability of SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 severity can contextualize their results. To date, loci from meta-analyses explain 1.2% and 5.8% of variation in susceptibility and severity respectively. Here we estimate the importance of shared environment and additive genetic variation to SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 severity using pedigree data, PCR results, and hospitalization information. The relative importance of genetics and shared environment for susceptibility shifted during the study, with heritability ranging from 33% (95% CI: 20%-46%) to 70% (95% CI: 63%-74%). Heritability was greater for days hospitalized with COVID-19 (41%, 95% CI: 33%-57%) compared to shared environment (33%, 95% CI: 24%-38%). While our estimates suggest these genetic architectures are not fully understood, the shift in susceptibility estimates highlights the challenge of estimation during a pandemic, given environmental fluctuations and vaccine introduction.
Gene drive and genetic sex conversion in the global agricultural pest Ceratitis capitata
Authors: Meccariello Angela , Hou Shibo , Davydova Serafima , Fawcett James Daniel , Siddall Alexandra , Leftwich Philip T. , Krsticevic Flavia , Papathanos Philippos Aris , Windbichler Nikolai
Published: January 2024

Homing-based gene drives are recently proposed interventions promising the area-wide, species-specific genetic control of harmful insect populations. Here we characterise a first set of gene drives in a tephritid agricultural pest species, the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (medfly). Our results show that the medfly is highly amenable to homing-based gene drive strategies. By targeting the medfly transformer gene, we also demonstrate how CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive can be coupled to sex conversion, whereby genetic females are transformed into fertile and harmless XX males. Given this unique malleability of sex determination, we modelled gene drive interventions that couple sex conversion and female sterility and found that such approaches could be effective and tolerant of resistant allele selection in the target population. Our results open the door for developing gene drive strains for the population suppression of the medfly and related tephritid pests by co-targeting female reproduction and shifting the reproductive sex ratio towards males. They demonstrate the untapped potential for gene drives to tackle agricultural pests in an environmentally friendly and economical way.
Uncertainty driven active learning of coarse grained free energy models
Authors: Duschatko Blake R. , Vandermause Jonathan , Molinari Nicola , Kozinsky Boris
Published: January 2024

Coarse graining techniques play an essential role in accelerating molecular simulations of systems with large length and time scales. Theoretically grounded bottom-up models are appealing due to their thermodynamic consistency with the underlying all-atom models. In this direction, machine learning approaches hold great promise to fitting complex many-body data. However, training models may require collection of large amounts of expensive data. Moreover, quantifying trained model accuracy is challenging, especially in cases of non-trivial free energy configurations, where training data may be sparse. We demonstrate a path towards uncertainty-aware models of coarse grained free energy surfaces. Specifically, we show that principled Bayesian model uncertainty allows for efficient data collection through an on-the-fly active learning framework and opens the possibility of adaptive transfer of models across different chemical systems. Uncertainties also characterize models’ accuracy of free energy predictions, even when training is performed only on forces. This work helps pave the way towards efficient autonomous training of reliable and uncertainty aware many-body machine learned coarse grain models.
Accelerating corrosion inhibitor discovery through computational routes: a case of naphthalene 1-thiocarboxamide
Authors: Kumar Dharmendr , K Venkata Muralidhar , Jain Vinay , Rai Beena
Published: January 2024

The conventional approach to the discovery of corrosion inhibitors is time-consuming and requires a significant amount of resources. In the present study, we highlight the use of a first principles DFT-based approach to expedite the rational design and discovery of corrosion inhibitors for mild steel in acidic media. From among various sulfur containing molecules shortlisted based on quantum chemical descriptors, naphthalene 1-thiocarboxamide (NTC) is found to have the lowest ELUMO and Egap, suggesting best corrosion inhibition. Subsequently, explicit adsorption studies reveal strong chemisorption of NTC onto the Fe (001) surface, characterized by a plethora of Fe-C/N/S covalent bonds. DFT Surface coverage studies additionally indicate the formation of a compact monolayer of NTC on the Fe surface. Gravimetric, potentiodynamic polarization, and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy studies, all confirm NTC as a remarkable inhibitor for mild steel in 1 N HCl at both room and elevated (60 °C) temperatures even at merely 1 mM concentration.
Magnetism and fermiology of kagome magnet YMn6Sn4Ge2
Authors: Bhandari Hari , Dally Rebecca L. , Siegfried Peter E. , Regmi Resham B. , Rule Kirrily C. , Chi Songxue , Lynn Jeffrey W. , Mazin I. I. , Ghimire Nirmal J.
Published: January 2024

Kagome lattice magnets are an interesting class of materials as they can host topological properties in their magnetic and electronic structures. YMn6Sn6 is one such compound in which various exotic magnetic and electronic topological properties have been realized. Here, by means of a partial substitution of Sn with an isovalent and slightly smaller atom Ge, we demonstrate the sensitivity of such chemical substitution on the magnetic structure and its influence in the electronic properties. Magnetic structure of YMn6Sn4Ge2 determined by neutron diffraction reveals an incommensurate staggered magnetic spiral with a slightly larger spiral pitch than in YMn6Sn6. This change in magnetic structure influences the Fermi surface enhancing the out-of-plane conductivity. Such a sensitivity to the partial chemical substitution provides a great potential for engineering the magnetic phases and associated electronic properties not only in YMn6Sn6, but also in the large family of 166 rare-earth kagome magnet.
A comprehensive dataset of photonic features on spectral converters for energy harvesting
Authors: Ferreira Rute A. S. , Correia Sandra F. H. , Georgieva Petia , Fu Lianshe , Antunes Mário , André Paulo S.
Published: January 2024

Building integrated photovoltaics is a promising strategy for solar technology, in which luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) stand out. Challenges include the development of materials for sunlight harvesting and conversion, which is an iterative optimization process with several steps: synthesis, processing, and structural and optical characterizations before considering the energy generation figures of merit that requires a prototype fabrication. Thus, simulation models provide a valuable, cost-effective, and time-efficient alternative to experimental implementations, enabling researchers to gain valuable insights for informed decisions. We conducted a literature review on LSCs over the past 47 years from the Web of ScienceTM Core Collection, including published research conducted by our research group, to gather the optical features and identify the material classes that contribute to the performance. The dataset can be further expanded systematically offering a valuable resource for decision-making tools for device design without extensive experimental measurements.