bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Tubulointerstitial nephritis and uveitis syndrome and SARS-CoV-2 infection in an adolescent: just a coincidence in time?
Authors: García-Fernández Sonia , Fernández-Morán Eva , López-Martínez Cecilia , Vivanco-Allende Blanca , Costales-Álvarez Carmen , Ordóñez-Álvarez Flor A.
Published: May 2023

Background

Despite recent well-established kidney tropism of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), usually presenting as acute kidney injury (AKI), there are few published cases with SARS-CoV-2-related tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN). We report an adolescent with TIN and delayed association with uveitis (TINU syndrome), where SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was identified in kidney biopsy.

Case-diagnosis/treatment

A 12-year-old girl was assessed for a mild elevation of serum creatinine detected during the evaluation of systemic manifestations including asthenia, anorexia, abdominal pain, vomiting, and weight loss. Data of incomplete proximal tubular dysfunction (hypophosphatemia and hypouricemia with inappropriate urinary losses, low molecular weight proteinuria, and glucosuria) were also associated. Symptoms had initiated after a febrile respiratory infection with no known infectious cause. After 8 weeks, the patient tested positive in PCR for SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron variant). A subsequent percutaneous kidney biopsy revealed TIN and immunofluorescence staining with confocal microscopy detected the presence of SARS-CoV-2 protein S within the kidney interstitium. Steroid therapy was started with gradual tapering. Ten months after onset of clinical manifestations, as serum creatinine remained slightly elevated and kidney ultrasound showed mild bilateral parenchymal cortical thinning, a second percutaneous kidney biopsy was performed, without demonstrating acute inflammation or chronic changes, but SARS-CoV-2 protein S within the kidney tissue was again detected. At that moment, simultaneous routine ophthalmological examination revealed an asymptomatic bilateral anterior uveitis.

Conclusions

We present a patient who was found to have SARS-CoV-2 in kidney tissue several weeks following onset of TINU syndrome. Although simultaneous infection by SARS-CoV-2 could not be demonstrated at onset of symptoms, since no other etiological cause was identified, we hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2 might have been involved in triggering the patient’s illness.
Effects of exercise mode and intensity on patient-reported outcomes in cancer survivors: a four-arm intervention trial
Authors: Pelzer Fabian , Leisge Kai , Schlüter Kathrin , Schneider Justine , Wiskemann Joachim , Rosenberger Friederike
Published: May 2023

Purpose

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of different exercise modes (aerobic, resistance) and intensity prescriptions (standard, polarized, undulating) on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in cancer survivors.

Methods

107 breast or prostate cancer survivors (52% females, age 58 ± 10 years, 6–52 weeks after primary therapy) performed one out of four training programs, two sessions/week, over 12 weeks: work rate-matched vigorous intensity aerobic training (ATStandard, n = 28) and polarized intensity aerobic training (ATPolarized, n = 26) as well as volume-matched moderate intensity resistance training (RTStandard, n = 26) and daily undulating intensity resistance training (RTUndulating, n = 27). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL, EORTC-QLQ-C30) and cancer-related fatigue (CRF, MFI-20) were assessed at baseline, at the end of intervention and after a 12-week follow-up without further prescribed exercise.

Results

Over the intervention period, HRQoL-function-scales of the EORTC-QLQ-C30 improved over time (p = .007), but no group*time interaction was observed (p = .185). Similarly, CRF values of the MFI-20 improved over time (p = .006), but no group*time interaction was observed (p = .663). When including the follow-up period and pooling the AT and the RT groups, HRQoL-function-scales developed differently between groups (p = .022) with further improvements in RT and a decline in AT. For CRF no significant interaction was found, but univariate analyses showed a non-significant trend of more sustainable effects in RT.

Conclusions

AT and RT with different work rate-/volume-matched intensity prescriptions elicits positive effects on HRQoL and CRF, without one regimen being significantly superior to another over the intervention period. However, RT might result in more sustainable effects compared to AT over a follow-up period without any further exercise prescription.

Clinical trial registration

The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02883699).
MOCOVIDOA: a novel multi-objective coronavirus disease optimization algorithm for solving multi-objective optimization problems
Authors: Khalid Asmaa M. , Hamza Hanaa M. , Mirjalili Seyedali , Hosny Khaid M.
Published: May 2023

A novel multi-objective Coronavirus disease optimization algorithm (MOCOVIDOA) is presented to solve global optimization problems with up to three objective functions. This algorithm used an archive to store non-dominated POSs during the optimization process. Then, a roulette wheel selection mechanism selects the effective archived solutions by simulating the frameshifting technique Coronavirus particles use for replication. We evaluated the efficiency by solving twenty-seven multi-objective (21 benchmarks & 6 real-world engineering design) problems, where the results are compared against five common multi-objective metaheuristics. The comparison uses six evaluation metrics, including IGD, GD, MS, SP, HV, and deltap($$\Delta \mathrm{P}$$ΔP). The obtained results and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test show the superiority of this novel algorithm over the existing algorithms and reveal its applicability in solving multi-objective problems.
A new Covid-19 diagnosis strategy using a modified KNN classifier
Authors: Rabie Asmaa H. , Mohamed Alaa M. , Abo-Elsoud M. A. , Saleh Ahmed I.
Published: May 2023

Covid-19 is a very dangerous disease as a result of the rapid and unprecedented spread of any previous disease. It is truly a crisis that threatens the world since its first appearance in December 2019 until our time. Due to the lack of a vaccine that has proved sufficiently effective so far, the rapid and more accurate diagnosis of this disease is extremely necessary to enable the medical staff to identify infected cases and isolate them from the rest to prevent further loss of life. In this paper, Covid-19 diagnostic strategy (CDS) as a new classification strategy that consists of two basic phases: Feature selection phase (FSP) and diagnosis phase (DP) has been introduced. During the first phase called FSP, the best set of features in laboratory test findings for Covid-19 patients will be selected using enhanced gray wolf optimization (EGWO). EGWO combines both types of selection techniques called wrapper and filter. Accordingly, EGWO includes two stages called filter stage (FS) and wrapper stage (WS). While FS uses many different filter methods, WS uses a wrapper method called binary gray wolf optimization (BGWO). The second phase called DP aims to give fast and more accurate diagnosis using a hybrid diagnosis methodology (HDM) based on the selected features from FSP. In fact, the HDM consists of two phases called weighting patient phase (WP2) and diagnostic patient phase (DP2). WP2 aims to calculate the belonging degree of each patient in the testing dataset to class category using naïve Bayes (NB) as a weight method. On the other hand, K-nearest neighbor (KNN) will be used in DP2 based on the weights of patients in the testing dataset as a new training dataset to give rapid and more accurate detection. The suggested CDS outperforms other strategies according to accuracy, precision, recall (or sensitivity) and F-measure calculations that are equal to 99%, 88%, 90% and 91%, respectively, as showed in experimental results.
Bott–Chern harmonic forms and primitive decompositions on compact almost Kähler manifolds
Authors: Piovani Riccardo , Tardini Nicoletta
Published: May 2023

Let $$(X,J,\omega )$$

(
X
,
J
,
ω
)

be a compact 2n-dimensional almost Kähler manifold. We prove primitive decompositions for Bott–Chern and Aeppli harmonic forms in special bidegrees and show that such bidegrees are optimal. We also show how the spaces of primitive Bott–Chern, Aeppli, Dolbeault and $$\partial $$
∂
-harmonic forms on $$(X,J,\omega )$$

(
X
,
J
,
ω
)

are related.
Investigating rational perfect nonlinear functions
Authors: Bartoli Daniele , Timpanella Marco
Published: May 2023

Perfect nonlinear (PN) functions over a finite field, whose study is also motivated by practical applications to Cryptography, have been the subject of several recent papers where the main problems, such as effective constructions and non-existence results, are considered. So far, all contributions have focused on PN functions represented by polynomials, and their constructions. Unfortunately, for polynomial PN functions, the approach based on Hasse–Weil type bounds applied to function fields can only provide non-existence results in a small degree regime. In this paper, we investigate the non-existence problem of rational perfect nonlinear functions over a finite field. Our approach makes it possible to use deep results about the number of points of algebraic varieties over finite fields. Our main result is that no PN rational functionf/gwith$$f,g\in \mathbb {F}_q[X]$$f,g∈Fq[X]exists when certain mild arithmetical conditions involving the degree off(X) andg(X) are satisfied.
Constrained optimization for addressing spatial heterogeneity in principal component analysis: an application to composite indicators
Authors: Postiglione Paolo , Cartone Alfredo , Andreano M. Simona , Benedetti Roberto
Published: May 2023

Principal component analysis, in its standard version, might not be appropriate for the analysis of spatial data. Particularly, the presence of spatial heterogeneity has been recognized as a possible source of misspecification for the derivation of composite indicators using principal component analysis. In recent times, geographically weighted approach to principal component analysis has been used for the treatment of continuous heterogeneity. However, this technique poses problems for the treatment of discrete heterogeneity and the interpretation of the results. The aim of this paper is to present a new approach to consider spatial heterogeneity in principal component analysis by using simulated annealing algorithm. The proposed method is applied for the definition of a composite indicator of local services for 121 municipalities in the province of Rome.
The digital silver lining of the pandemic: The impact on preservice teachers’ technological knowledge and beliefs
Authors: Brianza Eliana , Schmid Mirjam , Tondeur Jo , Petko Dominik
Published: May 2023

COVID-19 drastically disrupted teaching and learning worldwide and across all educational levels. Technology took on a central role in redefining education under these exceptional circumstances and frequently revealed challenges related to both infrastructure and to teachers’ and learners’ technological skills and readiness. This study aimed to investigate whether the experience of emergency remote education significantly impacted preservice teachers’ knowledge and beliefs for their future teaching with technology. We investigated three cohorts of preservice teachers (pre-lockdown, n = 179; during lockdown, n = 48; post-lockdown, n = 228) and explored differences in their self-reported technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and their technological beliefs. Findings showed positive effects in the post-lockdown cohort, reflected in higher levels of technological knowledge (TK) and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) compared to the pre-lockdown cohort. In addition, unique positive effects on content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) were found in the post-lockdown cohort among preservice teachers with prior teaching experiences. No effects of either cohort or experience emerged for preservice teachers’ technological beliefs. These findings indicate that, despite the challenges related to COVID-19 lockdowns, preservice teachers not only appear to have maintained positive beliefs towards technology but may have even been able to draw benefits from the experience of lockdown. These findings and the positive effects associated with teaching experience are discussed with regard to their implication for teacher education.
Model vs system level testing of autonomous driving systems: a replication and extension study
Authors: Stocco Andrea , Pulfer Brian , Tonella Paolo
Published: May 2023

Offline model-level testing of autonomous driving software is much cheaper, faster, and diversified than in-field, online system-level testing. Hence, researchers have compared empirically model-level vs system-level testing using driving simulators. They reported the general usefulness of simulators at reproducing the same conditions experienced in-field, but also some inadequacy of model-level testing at exposing failures that are observable only in online mode. In this work, we replicate the reference study on model vs system-level testing of autonomous vehicles while acknowledging several assumptions that we had reconsidered. These assumptions are related to several threats to validity affecting the original study that motivated additional analysis and the development of techniques to mitigate them. Moreover, we also extend the replicated study by evaluating the original findings when considering a physical, radio-controlled autonomous vehicle. Our results show that simulator-based testing of autonomous driving systems yields predictions that are close to the ones of real-world datasets when using neural-based translation to mitigate the reality gap induced by the simulation platform. On the other hand, model-level testing failures are in line with those experienced at the system level, both in simulated and physical environments, when considering the pre-failure site, similar-looking images, and accurate labels.
Giant oil discoveries and conflicts
Authors: Chisadza Carolyn , Clance Matthew , Gupta Rangan , Wohar Mark E.
Published: May 2023

This study investigates the effects of oil discoveries on conflict. We propose that the effects from oil discoveries may differ depending on types of conflicts, mainly interstate versus intrastate. Using a measure for oil discoveries for a global panel of countries between 1970 and 2012, we find a positive association between oil discoveries and both conflict types, controlling for other conflict determinants and unobserved heterogeneity. However, we observe that the effects on intrastate conflicts are evident within a year of discovering the oil, while the effects on interstate conflicts only become evident after five years of the discovery. We also find that within intrastate conflicts, the results are mainly driven by the effects on ethnic conflicts. The findings imply that there may be different mechanisms at play for interstate versus intrastate conflicts related to resource discoveries. For example, resource-induced inequality can aggravate already existing tensions between groups in society, which can result in internal conflict soon after discovering the resource. On the other hand, the feasibility of engaging in conflict with a neighbouring resource-rich country depends on fighting capacity and mobilising resources, which can delay interstate conflicts. Overall, we believe the results from this study will provide some further understanding to the dynamics involving natural resources and types of conflict.
Public Awareness, Attitude and Empathy Regarding the Management of Surplus Dairy Calves
Authors: Herrler Mareike , Chagunda Mizeck G. G. , Stroebele-Benschop Nanette
Published: May 2023

Media reports are increasingly drawing attention to animal welfare issues related to surplus calves in dairy farming. Most calves born on conventional or organic dairy farms in Baden-Wuerttemberg (southern Germany) which are not needed for breeding or as replacement heifers are sold at about two to five weeks of age to conventional fattening farms located in northern Germany or other European countries. Associated animal welfare concerns pose an ethical issue, especially for organic dairy farms. In the present study, a representative online survey (N = 918) in south-west Germany is conducted to investigate public’s awareness of issues related to dairy calves and their attitude towards various aspects of calf management. Regression analysis was used to examine whether public’s awareness of animal welfare issues, attitude toward calf management, and empathy with surplus dairy calves are associated with consumption frequency of organic, dairy and beef/veal products. Results indicate that most members of the public are aware of only a few common practices in dairy calf rearing but they are concerned about the well-being of dairy calves and have compassion for these animals. Organic food consumption frequency was linked to participants’ age, income, attitude, and awareness of issues. Consumption frequency of beef/veal products was related to gender, presence of children, attitude, and empathy, whereas dairy product consumption frequency was associated with income, presence of children, and problem awareness. This seems to indicate that members of the public are not aware of the link between dairy and meat industries - or that this awareness is not reflected in their consumption behavior.
Correlation of myocardial strain by CMR-feature tracking with substrate abnormalities detected by electro-anatomical mapping in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy
Authors: Raja Deep Chandh , Samarawickrema Indira , Srinivasan Jaganaathan Raman , Menon SaratKrishna , Das Souvik Kumar , Jain Sanjiv , Tuan Lukah Q. , Desjardins Benoit , Marchlinski Francis E. , Abhayaratna Walter P. , Sanders Prashanthan , Pathak Rajeev K
Published: May 2023

Background

Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) detected by cardiac MRI (CMR) has low correlation with low voltage zones (LVZs) detected by electroanatomical mapping (EAM). We aim to study correlation of myocardial strain by CMR- Feature Tracking (FT) alongside LGE with LVZs detected by EAM.

Methods

Nineteen consecutive CMRs of patients with EAM were analyzed offline by CMR-FT. Peak value of circumferential strain (CS), longitudinal strain (LS), and LGE was measured in each segment of the left ventricle (17-segment model). The percentage of myocardial segments with CS and LS > −17% was determined. Percentage area of LGE-scar was calculated. Global and segment–wise bipolar and unipolar voltage was collected. Percentage area of bipolar LVZ (<1.5 mV) and unipolar LVZ (<8.3 mV) was calculated.

Results

Mean age was 62±11 years. Mean LVEF was 37±13%. Mean global CS was −11.8±5%. Mean global LS was −11.2±4%. LGE-scar was noted in 74% of the patients. Mean percentage area of LGE-scar was 5%. There was significant correlation between percentage abnormality detected by LS with percentage bipolar LVZ (r = +0.5, p = 0.03) and combined percentage CS+LS abnormality with percentage unipolar LVZ (r = +0.5, p = 0.02). Per-unit increase in CS increased the percentage area of unipolar LVZ by 2.09 (p = 0.07) and per-unit increase in LS increased the percentage area of unipolar LVZ by 2.49 (p = 0.06). The concordance rates between CS and LS to localize segments with bipolar/unipolar LVZ were 79% and 95% compared to 63% with LGE.

Conclusions

Myocardial strain detected by CMR-FT has a better correlation with electrical low voltage zones than the conventional LGE.
Chicken pituitary transcriptomic responses to acute heat stress
Authors: Pritchett Elizabeth M. , Van Goor Angelica , Schneider Blair K. , Young Meaghan , Lamont Susan J. , Schmidt Carl J.
Published: May 2023

Background

Poultry production is vulnerable to increasing temperatures in terms of animal welfare and in economic losses. With the predicted increase in global temperature and the number and severity of heat waves, it is important to understand how chickens raised for food respond to heat stress. This knowledge can be used to determine how to select chickens that are adapted to thermal challenge. As neuroendocrine organs, the hypothalamus and pituitary provide systemic regulation of the heat stress response.

Methods and Results

Here we report a transcriptome analysis of the pituitary response to acute heat stress. Chickens were stressed for 2 h at 35 °C (HS) and transcriptomes compared with birds maintained in thermoneutral temperatures (25 °C).

Conclusions

The observations were evaluated in the context of ontology terms and pathways to describe the pituitary response to heat stress. The pituitaries of heat stressed birds exhibited responses to hyperthermia through altered expression of genes coding for chaperones, cell cycle regulators, cholesterol synthesis, transcription factors, along with the secreted peptide hormones, prolactin, and proopiomelanocortin.
SFILES 2.0: an extended text-based flowsheet representation
Authors: Vogel Gabriel , Hirtreiter Edwin , Schulze Balhorn Lukas , Schweidtmann Artur M.
Published: May 2023

SFILES are a text-based notation for chemical process flowsheets. They were originally proposed by d’Anterroches (Process flow sheet generation & design through a group contribution approach) who was inspired by the text-based SMILES notation for molecules. The text-based format has several advantages compared to flowsheet images regarding the storage format, computational accessibility, and eventually for data analysis and processing. However, the original SFILES version cannot describe essential flowsheet configurations unambiguously, such as the distinction between top and bottom products. Neither is it capable of describing the control structure required for the safe and reliable operation of chemical processes. Also, there is no publicly available software for decoding or encoding chemical process topologies to SFILES. We propose the SFILES 2.0 with a complete description of the extended notation and naming conventions. Additionally, we provide open-source software for the automated conversion between flowsheet graphs and SFILES 2.0 strings. This way, we hope to encourage researchers and engineers to publish their flowsheet topologies as SFILES 2.0 strings. The ultimate goal is to set the standards for creating a FAIR database of chemical process flowsheets, which would be of great value for future data analysis and processing.
Fractional Higher Differentiability for Solutions of Stationary Stokes and Navier-Stokes Systems with Orlicz Growth
Authors: Giannetti Flavia , Passarelli di Napoli Antonia , Scheven Christoph
Published: May 2023

We consider weak solutions $(u,\pi ):{\Omega }\to \mathbb {R}^{n}\times \mathbb {R}$
(
u
,
π
)
:
Ω
→

ℝ

n

×
ℝ
to stationary ϕ-Navier-Stokes systems of the type $ \left \{ \begin {array}{ll} -\mathrm {div~} a(x,\mathcal {E} u)+\nabla \pi +[Du]u=f \\ \mathrm {div~} u=0 \end {array} \right . $

−
div

a
(
x
,
E
u
)
+
∇
π
+
[
D
u
]
u
=
f

div

u
=
0

in ${\Omega }\subset \mathbb {R}^{n}$
Ω
⊂

ℝ

n

, and to the corresponding ϕ-Stokes systems, in which the convective term [Du]u does not appear. In the above system, the function a(x,ξ) depends Hölder continuously on x and satisfies growth conditions with respect to the second variable expressed through a Young function ϕ. The notation $\mathcal {E} u$
E
u
is used for the symmetric part of the gradient Du. We prove results on the fractional higher differentiability of both the symmetric part of the gradient $\mathcal {E} u$
E
u
and of the pressure π.
Validating the Teacher Sexuality Education Questionnaire Scales to Assess Educators’ Preparedness to Deliver CSE to Young People with Disabilities
Authors: Carpenter Bradley , Bakaroudis Maria , Hanass-Hancock Jill
Published: May 2023

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is instrumental in ensuring that young people have the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and practice safer sex. Worryingly, CSE is often not available to adolescents and young with disabilities. The Breaking the Silence (BtS) approach to CSE was developed to address this gap and help equip educators to teach CSE to adolescents and young people with disabilities. The TSE-Q was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the BtS approach and monitor changes in educators’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, self-confidence, and preparedness to teach CSE to young people with disabilities. The TSE-Q is aligned with an adapted version of the theory of planned behavior. This is a second validation study of the TSE-Q embedded within a feasibility study for the BtS approach. Fifty educators and support staff from two South African special schools for people with disability participated in a BtS training workshop and completed the TSE-Q before and after the workshop. Additionally, participants were asked to complete an adapted version of Rowe, Oxman, and O’Brien’s validity questionnaire probing content validity, face validity, and ease of use. Baseline data from the TSE-Q was evaluated for reliability, while the validity questionnaire and verbal feedback were used to assess validity. Most scales show good reliability, but knowledge-based scales have lower reliability due to their multidimensionality. The TSE-Q shows good face validity, content validity, and ease of use, but should be done on different days to any intervention/training. Overall, the TSE-Q is a robust questionnaire with good content coverage.
Waste iron as a robust and ecological catalyst for decomposition industrial dyes under UV irradiation
Authors: Ścieżyńska Dominika , Bury Dominika , Jakubczak Michał , Bogacki Jan , Jastrzębska Agnieszka , Marcinowski Piotr
Published: May 2023

In an era of increasing environmental awareness, it is very important to work towards eliminating or at least reducing as many harmful industrial substances as possible. However, the implementation of green chemistry methods for wastewater treatment can be difficult especially due to complexity, the high cost of reagents, and the required long process time. This paper focuses on using waste iron (WI) to remove two kinds of amaranth dye commonly used in industry. To enhance the process, UV irradiation and hydrogen peroxide were used. The novelty of the research was the use of efficient and reusable WI as a heterogeneous catalyst in the process. WI material characteristics was done before and after the process using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Zeta potential, size characterization, circularity, and direct band gap were also determined. As a result of treatment complete decolorization of both dyes was achieved, as well as 99% absorbance removal after 15-min process time. The total organic carbon (TOC) decrease after 60-min process time was in the range from 86.6 to 89.8%. Modified pseudo-second-order reaction reflects obtained results of treatment efficiency. Treatment results, confirmed by WI material characterization, indicate satisfactory stability of the catalyst and good oxidation capacity.
Determining half-life of SARS-CoV-2 antigen in respiratory secretion
Authors: Guang Yang , Hui Liu
Published: May 2023

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is primarily transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets and aerosols. It is also possible for the virus to be transmitted indirectly through environmental contamination. The likelihood of environmental transmission depends on several factors, including the survival time of the virus in respiratory secretions. However, the stability of SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory secretions has not been investigated. In this study, we compared the half-life of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen in respiratory secretion under different conditions. We applied respiratory secretion (5 µL) to glass slides, air-dried the slides for 1 h, and kept them at 24 °C or 4 °C for 10 days. Respiratory secretions were also placed in test tubes (sealed to preserve moisture) and in normal saline for 10 days. The concentration of SARS-CoV-2 antigen in all samples was simultaneously measured using colloidal gold immunochromatography, and the half-life of the antigen was calculated. The half-life of the antigen in the wet (sealed tube) and saline samples at room temperature was 5.0 and 2.92 days, respectively. The half-life of the antigen in the air-dried sample at room temperature and at 4 °C was 2.93 and 11.4 days, respectively. The half-life was longer in respiratory secretions than that in normal saline. The half-life was also longer in respiratory secretions, at a lower temperature, and under wet conditions. Therefore, environmental transmission can also play a significant role in the spread of the virus. Robust prevention and control strategies could be developed based on the half-life of the antigen in respiratory secretions.
How to prevent technostress at the digital workplace: a Delphi study
Authors: Berger Michelle , Schäfer Ricarda , Schmidt Marco , Regal Christian , Gimpel Henner
Published: May 2023

Technostress is a rising issue in the changing world of digital work. Technostress can cause severe adverse outcomes for individuals and organizations. Thus, organizations face the moral, legal, and economic responsibility to prevent employees’ excessive technostress. As technostress develops over time, it is crucial to prevent it throughout the process of its emergence instead of only reacting after adverse outcomes occur. Contextualizing the Theory of Preventive Stress management to technostress, we synthesize and advance existing knowledge on inhibiting technostress. We develop a set of 24 technostress prevention measures from technostress inhibitor literature, other technostress literature, and based on qualitative and quantitative contributions from a Delphi study. Based on expert feedback, we characterize each measure and, where possible, assess its relevance in addressing specific technostressors. Our paper contributes to research by transferring the Theory of Preventive Stress Management into the context of technostress and presenting specific measures to prevent technostress. This offers a complementary view to technostress inhibitors by expanding the theoretical grounding and adding a time perspective through the implementation of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention measures. For practice, we offer a comprehensive and applicable overview of measures organizations can implement to prevent technostress.
Just Transition on air quality governance: a case study of heavy-duty diesel truck protests in Taiwan
Authors: Walther David , Chou Kuei-Tien
Published: May 2023

Just Transitions are gaining attention in environmental research, and most studies have focused on climate change; however, the insights from this work may be usefully applied to the rarely discussed area in just transition studies. This article uses traditional dimensions of environmental and social justice, such as distributive, procedural, recognition, and restorative justice, to understand why heavy-duty diesel truck drivers fought back against stricter air pollution regulations while demanding destigmatization. The protest resulted in policy failure, and Taiwan’s transition to cleaner, newer diesel trucks were halted. This study finds that the key social contextual factor in Taiwan’s transportation industry was the labor relations of license-leasing. The drivers’ protest began with a lack of procedural justice, and communication occurred only after the law was passed. There was insufficient regard for procedural justice, and although the drivers were concerned, the new rule would significantly impact their right to work and life. Furthermore, the drivers felt disrespected and even carried the stigma of creating environmental pollution. The article assumes that the results should be different if the governance mechanism can handle the key factor in a social context and make appropriate arrangements for the four dimensions of Just Transition. This argument may be relevant for other countries looking to transition from older diesel vehicles to cleaner vehicles through Just Transition.
Carbon, cash, cattle and the climate crisis
Authors: Bilotto Franco , Christie-Whitehead Karen Michelle , Malcolm Bill , Harrison Matthew Tom
Published: May 2023

While society increasingly demands emissions abatement from the livestock sector, farmers are concurrently being forced to adapt to an existential climate crisis. Here, we examine how stacking together multiple systems adaptations impacts on the productivity, profitability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of livestock production systems under future climates underpinned by more frequent extreme weather events. Without adaptation, we reveal that soil carbon sequestration (SCS) in 2050 declined by 45–133%, heralding dire ramifications for CO2 removal aspirations associated with SCS in nationally determined contributions. Across adaptation-mitigation bundles examined, mitigation afforded by SCS from deep-rooted legumes was lowest, followed by mitigation from status quo SCS and woody vegetation, and with the greatest mitigation afforded by adoption of enteric methane inhibitor vaccines. Our results (1) underline a compelling need for innovative, disruptive technologies that dissect the strong, positive coupling between productivity and GHG emissions, (2) enable maintenance or additional sequestration of carbon in vegetation and soils under the hotter and drier conditions expected in future, and (3) illustrate the importance of holistically assessing systems to account for pollution swapping, where mitigation of one type of GHG (e.g., enteric methane) can result in increased emissions of another (e.g., CO2). We conclude that transdisciplinary participatory modelling with stakeholders and appropriate bundling of multiple complementary adaptation-mitigation options can simultaneously benefit production, profit, net emissions and emissions intensity.
Epistemic and Non-epistemic Values in Earthquake Engineering
Authors: Zanetti Luca , Chiffi Daniele , Petrini Lorenza
Published: May 2023

The importance of epistemic values in science is universally recognized, whereas the role of non-epistemic values is sometimes considered disputable. It has often been argued that non-epistemic values are more relevant in applied sciences, where the goals are often practical and not merely scientific. In this paper, we present a case study concerning earthquake engineering. So far, the philosophical literature has considered various branches of engineering, but very rarely earthquake engineering. We claim that the assessment of seismic hazard models is sensitive to both epistemic and non-epistemic values. In particular, we argue that the selection and evaluation of these models are justified by epistemic values, even if they may be contingently influenced by non-epistemic values. By contrast, the aggregation of different models into an ensemble is justified by non-epistemic values, even if epistemic values may play an instrumental role in the attainment of these non-epistemic values. A careful consideration of the different epistemic and non-epistemic values at play in the choice of seismic hazard models is thus practically important when alternative models are available and there is uncertainty in the scientific community about which model should be used.
Natural and Pathological Aging Distinctively Impacts the Pheromone Detection System and Social Behavior
Authors: Portalés Adrián , Chamero Pablo , Jurado Sandra
Published: May 2023

Normal aging and many age-related disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease cause deficits in olfaction; however, it is currently unknown how natural and pathological aging impacts the detection of social odors which might contribute to the impoverishment of social behavior at old age further worsening overall health. Analysis of the vomeronasal organ, the main gateway to pheromone-encoded information, indicated that natural and pathological aging distinctively affects the neurogenic ability of the vomeronasal sensory epithelium. Whereas cell proliferation remained majorly preserved in 1-year-old APP/PS1 mice, naturally aged animals exhibited significant deficiencies in the number of mature, proliferative, and progenitor cells. These alterations may support age-related deficits in the recognition of social cues and the display of social behavior. Our findings indicate that aging disrupts the processing of social olfactory cues decreasing social odor exploration, discrimination, and habituation in both wild-type senescent (2-year-old) mice and in 1-year-old double mutant model of Alzheimer’s disease (APP/PS1). Furthermore, social novelty was diminished in 1-year-old APP/PS1 mice, indicating that alterations in the processing of social cues are accelerated during pathological aging. This study reveals fundamental differences in the cellular processes by which natural and pathological aging disrupts the exploration of social information and social behavior.
Fragile Heterosexuality: Do Sexual Minorities also Perceive Heterosexuality as Fragile?
Authors: Borras Guevara Martha Lucia , West Keon
Published: May 2023

Previous evidence shows that heterosexual people perceive heterosexual status to be more fragile than homosexual status. However, research has not yet investigated whether sexual minorities have similar, or diverging, perceptions of the fragility of sexual orientation. With a sample that included 89 heterosexual and 80 sexual minority participants, we investigated the fragility of heterosexuality using a between-participants design in which participants indicated their agreement with gender neutral statements about the fragility of either heterosexual or homosexual status. Contrary to our expectations we found evidence of Fragile Heterosexuality perceptions regardless of participants’ sexual orientation. Additionally, we explored the potential moderating effects of social-dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism and prejudice against gay/lesbian people on this Fragile Heterosexuality effect. For sexual minority participants, high levels of social dominance orientation moderated (i.e., increased) the perceived fragility of heterosexual identity relative to homosexual identity. No other inter-group ideology was a significant moderator. These findings highlight that heterosexuality is perceived as more fragile by both heterosexual and sexual minority individuals. Implications and possible avenues for future research are discussed.
Hardness or Resignation: How Emotional Challenges During Work-Based Education Influence the Professional Becoming of Medical Students and Student Teachers
Authors: Barman Linda , Weurlander Maria , Lindqvist Henrik , Lönn Annalena , Thornberg Robert , Hult Håkan , Seeberger Astrid , Wernersson Annika
Published: May 2023

This paper addresses how emotionally challenging experiences during work-based education may influence the professional becoming of student teachers and medical students. We conducted a qualitative analysis of eight focus group interviews with undergraduates from two universities in Sweden who studied to become either physicians or teachers, and interpreted their experiences through Wenger’s theory of communities of practice. The findings show that students’ ideal view of how to be caring in their aspiring professional role as physician or teacher collided with existing practices, which affected them emotionally. In particular, the students found it challenging when norms and practices differed from their values of professionalism and when the professional culture within practices reflected hardness (physicians) or resignation (teachers). Both medical students and student teachers experienced that professional decision making and legitimacy challenged them emotionally, however in different ways and for different reasons. This study makes visible both general and specific aspects of how students view their future role in the welfare sector and challenging dimensions of professional practice. The findings bring into focus the question of how professional education can support students’ professional becoming in relation to their emotional challenges.
Posttreatment with Ospemifene Attenuates Hypoxia- and Ischemia-Induced Apoptosis in Primary Neuronal Cells via Selective Modulation of Estrogen Receptors
Authors: Pietrzak Bernadeta A. , Wnuk Agnieszka , Przepiórska Karolina , Łach Andrzej , Kajta Małgorzata
Published: May 2023

Stroke and perinatal asphyxia have detrimental effects on neuronal cells, causing millions of deaths worldwide each year. Since currently available therapies are insufficient, there is an urgent need for novel neuroprotective strategies to address the effects of cerebrovascular accidents. One such recent approach is based on the neuroprotective properties of estrogen receptors (ERs). However, activation of ERs by estrogens may contribute to the development of endometriosis or hormone-dependent cancers. Therefore, in this study, we utilized ospemifene, a novel selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) already used in dyspareunia treatment. Here, we demonstrated that posttreatment with ospemifene in primary neocortical cell cultures subjected to 18 h of hypoxia and/or ischemia followed by 6 h of reoxygenation has robust neuroprotective potential. Ospemifene partially reverses hypoxia- and ischemia-induced changes in LDH release, the degree of neurodegeneration, and metabolic activity. The mechanism of the neuroprotective actions of ospemifene involves the inhibition of apoptosis since the compound decreases caspase-3 overactivity during hypoxia and enhances mitochondrial membrane potential during ischemia. Moreover, in both models, ospemifene decreased the levels of the proapoptotic proteins BAX, FAS, FASL, and GSK3β while increasing the level of the antiapoptotic protein BCL2. Silencing of specific ERs showed that the neuroprotective actions of ospemifene are mediated mainly via ESR1 (during hypoxia and ischemia) and GPER1 (during hypoxia), which is supported by ospemifene-evoked increases in ESR1 protein levels in hypoxic and ischemic neurons. The results identify ospemifene as a promising neuroprotectant, which in the future may be used to treat injuries due to brain hypoxia/ischemia.
Group Diagrams for simplified representation of scanpaths
Authors: Schäfer Peter , Rodrigues Nils , Weiskopf Daniel , Storandt Sabine
Published: May 2023

We instrument Group Diagrams (GDs) to reduce clutter in sets of eye-tracking scanpaths. Group Diagrams consist of trajectory subsets that cover, or represent, the whole set of trajectories with respect to some distance measure and an adjustable distance threshold. The original GDs allow for an application of various distance measures. We implement the GD framework and evaluate it on scanpaths that were collected by a former user study on public transit maps. We find that the Fréchet distance is the most appropriate measure to get meaningful results, yet it is flexible enough to cover outliers. We discuss several implementation-specific challenges and improve the scalability of the algorithm. To evaluate our results, we conducted a qualitative study with a group of eye-tracking experts. Finally, we note that our enhancements are also beneficial within the original problem setting, suggesting that our approach might be applicable to various types of input data.

Graphical abstract

Eye tracking on a public transit map of Warsaw. Input scanpaths (left), and simplified Group Diagram (right).
222Rn and CO2 monitoring in soil and indoor atmosphere to understand changes in the gaseous dynamics of Rull cave (Spain)
Authors: Pla Concepción , Ruiz María Candela , Gil-Oncina Sara , García-Martínez Noé , Cañaveras Juan Carlos , Cuezva Soledad , Fernández-Cortés Ángel , Sánchez-Moral Sergio , Benavente David
Published: May 2023

Rull cave is a karstic cave located in Vall d’Ebo (Alicante, Southeast of Spain) developed in massive Miocene conglomerates and Cretaceous limestones. Processes in soil above Rull cave and outdoor atmosphere directly influence the underground environment of the cave. Continuous and discrete monitoring of cave atmosphere and soil (from 2012 to 2022) allows to characterise the spatial distribution and temporal variations of the gaseous concentration (222Rn and CO2) and understand the relationship between the processes which occurred in the 3-component system (soil-cave-atmosphere). Besides the presence of visitors, Rull cave maintains stable values of mean temperature (16.2 °C) and relative humidity (97.6%). In an annual cycle the cave presents two different gaseous stages (stagnation and ventilation). Maximum average values of CO2 and 222Rn concentration are reached within the stagnation stage, in the warmest period of the year. On the contrary, in the ventilation stage (in the coldest months) the cave reaches the lowest concentrations in its inner atmosphere. For the study period, daily average CO2 and 222Rn concentrations are 2008 ppm and 1745 Bq/m3, respectively. Results show that the dynamics of 222Rn and CO2 in the cave air follow different patterns defined by the complex relationships between external and internal factors. Findings from this study provide substantial information about the environmental situation of the cave atmosphere in terms of air quality for visitors and workers.
Effectiveness of a Brief Online Mindfulness-Based Intervention for University Students
Authors: Fagioli Sabrina , Pallini Susanna , Mastandrea Stefano , Barcaccia Barbara
Published: May 2023

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a dramatic increase in Web-based education, lacking face-to-face student–teacher and student–student interaction, and consequently impairing students’ sense of belonging to a community, interoceptive awareness, and academic self-efficacy. This study examined how a brief mindfulness-based intervention in an online university course can be effective in enhancing attention resources, developing a stronger sense of academic self-efficacy, and improving the sense of belonging to a community, which represent critical factors affecting students’ participation in online and blended courses.

Method

Four-hundred and eighty-six participants (Mage 22.88) completed a battery of measures at pre- and post-treatment. One class (experimental group) participated in a brief online mindfulness-based intervention (42%), whereas the other one (control group) did not take part in the intervention (58%). The intervention included breathing meditation at the beginning of class, sharing of experiences, mini-lectures on mindfulness, and daily practice, and lasted for 28 consecutive days.

Results

Participants in the experimental group when compared to controls showed a significant increase in the feeling of influencing the course activities (F = 9.628; p < 0.005), in the self-regulation of attention (F = 19.133; p < 0.001), in academic self-efficacy (F = 9.220; p < 0.005), and, particularly, in their self-efficacy in regulating learning (F = 12.942; p < 0.001). The students’ adherence to the assigned practice could partially explain the effectiveness of the intervention.

Conclusions

This study offers useful clues about the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in the classroom in enhancing sense of belonging to a community, attention grounded in bodily sensations, and academic self-efficacy.

Preregistration

This study is not preregistered.