bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A hospital-based therapeutic food pantry study for people living with cancer in New Orleans
Authors: Luo Ting , Elewonibi Bilikisu , Williams Donna
Published: November 2023

Introduction

Food pantries have the potential to improve health outcomes and quality of life for individuals living with cancer. Gender has been linked to certain cancer symptoms and dietary patterns. Nevertheless, the extent of research on the utilization of food pantries among this population, particularly with regard to gender differences, remains limited. The objective of this study is to explore the demographic characteristics and gender differences in quality of life, as well as the impact of cancer on the lives of individuals who utilize food pantry services.

Methods

Between February 26, 2019 and July 24, 2022, 400 people living with cancer were eligible to participate the University Medical Center New Orleans (UMC) food pantry. Participants were asked to provide demographic information and completed two health assessments related to the challenges in daily activities, nutrition, and mental health.

Results

The study participants had a mean age of 54.1, and the majority of the participants were female. More than half of the participants did not have access to a vehicle or use public transportation to access grocery stores. People living with cancer reported several quality of life issues, with the most prevalent challenges being interference of cancer with work, lack of energy, difficulty affording food, pain, and sleep problems. Additionally, less than half of the patients reported consuming fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, and males were found to be less likely to consume them compared to females.

Discussion

The current study sheds light on the characteristics and quality of life of individuals who utilize UMC food pantry services, as well as the impact of cancer on their lives. The findings reveal a gender disparity in fruit and vegetable consumption, with male individuals living with cancer reporting lower levels of consumption.

Implications for research and practice

Identifying and addressing food insecurity among people living with cancer are necessary. Meanwhile, partnerships with community organizations may be valuable in finding ways to assist cancer survivors in returning to work. Future studies could also focus on encouraging fruit and vegetable consumption, particularly among male individuals living with cancer.
Intraoral medical devices for sustained drug delivery
Authors: Alghanem Suhail , Dziurkowska Ewelina , Ordyniec-Kwaśnica Iwona , Sznitowska Małgorzata
Published: November 2023

Objectives

The oral cavity constitutes an attractive organ for the local and systemic application of drug substances. Oromucosal tablets, gels, or sprays are examples of the formulations applied. Due to the elution through the saliva, the residence time of the formulation at the application site is relatively short. Medical devices placed in the oral cavity, with a reservoir for an active substance, play an important role in solving this problem.

Materials and methods

In this review, we discuss the devices described in the literature that are designed to be used in the oral cavity, highlighting the advantages, disadvantages, and clinical applications of each of them.

Results

Among the intraoral medical devices, special types are personalized 3D-printed devices, iontophoretic devices, and microneedle patches.

Conclusion

We anticipate that with the development of 3D printing and new polymers, the technology of flexible and comfortable devices for prolonged drug delivery in the oral cavity will develop intensively.

Clinical relevance

The presented review is therefore a useful summary of the current technological state, when in fact none of the existing devices has been widely accepted clinically.
A full privacy-preserving distributed batch-based certificate-less aggregate signature authentication scheme for healthcare wearable wireless medical sensor networks (HWMSNs)
Authors: Rabie Osama Bassam J. , Selvarajan Shitharth , Hasanin Tawfiq , Mohammed Gouse Baig , Alshareef Abddulrhman M. , Uddin Mueen
Published: November 2023

The dynamic connectivity and functionality of sensors has revolutionized remote monitoring applications thanks to the combination of IoT and wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Wearable wireless medical sensor nodes allow continuous monitoring by amassing physiological data, which is very useful in healthcare applications. These text data are then sent to doctors via IoT devices so they can make an accurate diagnosis as soon as possible. However, the transmission of medical text data is extremely vulnerable to security and privacy assaults due to the open nature of the underlying communication medium. Therefore, a certificate-less aggregation-based signature system has been proposed as a solution to the issue by using elliptic curve public key cryptography (ECC) which allows for a highly effective technique. The cost of computing has been reduced by 93% due to the incorporation of aggregation technology. The communication cost is 400 bits which is a significant reduction when compared with its counterparts. The results of the security analysis show that the scheme is robust against forging, tampering, and man-in-the-middle attacks. The primary innovation is that the time required for signature verification can be reduced by using point addition and aggregation. In addition, it does away with the reliance on a centralized medical server in order to do verification. By taking a distributed approach, it is able to fully preserve user privacy, proving its superiority.
Female melon fruit flies, Zeugodacus cucurbitae, are attracted to a synthetic chemical blend based on male epicuticular components
Authors: Jacob Vincent , Ramiaranjatovo Gaëlle , Persyn Emma , Machara Aleš , Kyjaková Pavlína , Atiama-Nurbel Toulassi , Pompeiano Antonio , Benelli Giovanni , De Meyer Marc , Vaníčková Lucie
Published: November 2023

The melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is considered to be the most destructive pest of melons and other related cucurbit crops worldwide. Despite the potential of behaviour-based control strategies, little is known about the mechanisms involved in female mate choice. Herein, we investigated the production and chemoreception of cuticular hydrocarbons in both sexes of Z. cucurbitae, and the behavioural responses they induce. We studied the epicuticular composition of virgin males and females, using two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometric detection. Data were interpreted using multivariate factorial analysis. The differentiation of chemical profiles was consistently observed over time. In young individuals, the chemical profiles did not differ between sexes, while sex-specific differences were noted in mature flies. The fly olfactory sensitivity to these compounds was explored using gas chromatography combined with chopped triple electroantennography and electropalpography detectors. This extensive exploration of the pest olfactory sensitivity highlighted three compounds produced by the male. When blended, they induced a robust positive response in unmated naive females in a six-choice olfactometer. The responsiveness of other Tephritidae species (a polyphagous species Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and the cucurbit specialist Dacus demmerezi (Bezzi)) to whole body extracts of Z. cucurbitae was also investigated. Our findings showed that Z. cucurbitae uses species-specific olfactory receptors to detect male produced compounds. In addition, the palps were sensitive to a female-specific component, 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undecane, which the males produce in minute quantities. Overall, this study provides a starting point for a pheromone-based tephritid lure that targets unmated females. The potential implications for pest management are discussed.
Warming, not acidification, favours survival of non-indigenous over native gammarid species
Authors: Martinez Reyes Cindy , Cuthbert Ross N. , Langrehr Louisa , Briski Elizabeta
Published: November 2023

Anthropogenic disturbances, including non-indigenous species (NIS) and climate change, have considerably affected ecosystems and socio-economies globally. Despite the widely acknowledged individual roles of NIS and global warming in biodiversity change, predicting the connection between the two still remains a fundamental challenge and requires urgent attention due to a timely importance for proper conservation management. To improve our understanding of the interaction between climate change and NIS on biological communities, we conducted laboratory experiments to test the temperature and pCO2 tolerance of four gammarid species: two native Baltic Sea species (Gammarus locusta and G. salinus), one Ponto‐Caspian NIS (Pontogammarus maeoticus) and one North American NIS (Gammarus tigrinus). Our results demonstrated that an increase in pCO2 level was not a significant driver of mortality, neither by itself nor in combination with increased temperature, for any of the tested species. However, temperature was significant, and differentially affected the tested species. The most sensitive was the native G. locusta which experienced 100% mortality at 24 °C. The second native species, G. salinus, performed better than G. locusta, but was still significantly more sensitive to temperature increase than either of the NIS. In contrast, NIS performed better than native species with warming, whereby particularly the Ponto-Caspian P. maeoticus did not demonstrate any difference in its performance between the temperature treatments. With the predicted environmental changes in the Baltic Sea, we may expect shifts in distributions of native taxa towards colder areas, while their niches might be filled by NIS, particularly those from the Ponto-Caspian region. Although, northern colder areas may be constrained by lower salinity. Additional studies are needed to confirm our findings across other NIS, habitats and regions to make more general inferences.
Nanoscopic lignin mapping on cellulose nanofibers via scanning transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy
Authors: Morita Kenta , Takenaka Musashi , Tomita Kohei , Ishii Jun , Kawaguchi Hideo , Murakami Daisuke , Amo Hikaru , Fujii Miku , Maruyama Tatsuo , Matsumoto Takuya , Nishino Takashi , Ogino Chiaki
Published: November 2023

Cellulose has been developed as an alternative to petrochemical materials. By comparison with refined nanofibers (RCNFs), lignocellulose nanofibers (LCNFs) show particular promise because it is produced from biomass using only mild pretreatment. The mechanical properties of LCNFs depend on the contained lignin. However, the microscopic location of the lignin contained in LCNFs has not been determined. Thus, we developed two methods to detect and visualize lignin. One uses a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy detector. The other method uses an atomic force microscope (AFM) equipped with a cantilever coated with an aromatic molecule. Both methods revealed that the lignin in LCNFs covers a thin cellulose fiber and is precipitated in a grained structure. In particular, the AFM system was able to determine the nanoscopic location of lignin-rich areas. The present study establishes a strong tool for analyzing the characteristics of lignin-containing materials.

Graphical abstract
Hemicellulose-rich paper-grade pulp as raw material for regenerated fibres in an ionic liquid-based process
Authors: Spönla Elisa , Hannula Simo , Kamppuri Taina , Holopainen-Mantila Ulla , Sulaeva Irina , Potthast Antje , Harlin Ali , Grönqvist Stina , Rahikainen Jenni
Published: November 2023

Hemicellulose-rich pulp raw materials are avoided in the production of man-made cellulosic textile fibres due to hemicellulose reactivity with the currently used industrial solvent systems. Incorporation of hemicelluloses in regenerated fibres could, however, increase the share of used wood biomass and thus improve the environmental footprint of regenerated fibre products. Superbase ionic liquids have shown potential in dissolving and regenerating all the major wood polymers i.e. cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin into regenerated products. In this work, regenerated fibres were spun from hemicellulose-rich softwood and eucalyptus paper-grade pulps and eucalyptus dissolving pulp using a superbase ionic liquid [mTBNH][OAc]. Before dissolution and spinning, intrinsic viscosities of the paper-grade pulps were adjusted either enzymatically or by using a mild acid-treatment to improve dope rheology for dry-jet wet spinning. In fibre spinning, hemicellulose was found to regenerate in high yield and the obtained regenerated fibres had high dry tenacities (5.3 to 15 cN/dtex). The best mechanical properties were measured from fibres with high hemicellulose content (17.3% (w/w)). Pulp pretreatment was found to be critical for achieving good mechanical properties. Acid-pretreatment, which modified both cellulose and hemicellulose, yielded regenerated fibres with better mechanical properties compared to an enzyme-pretreatment which did not alter the hemicellulose structure. Removal of hemicellulose substituents and hydrolysis of hemicellulose backbone in acid-pretreatment may be the key to improved mechanical properties in hemicellulose-containing regenerated fibres. Enzymatic peeling and imaging with a xylan-specific monoclonal antibody (CCRC-M138) suggest that hemicelluloses were enriched to the outermost layers of the regenerated fibres.
The expression characteristics and allelic variation of AnVromindoline-1/3 in Avena nuda L.
Authors: An Jiang-hong , Nan Jin-sheng , Liu Hui-yan , Chai Ming-na , Han Bing , Yang Yan
Published: November 2023

Oat is a worldwide cultivated crop with nutritional, ecological and economic value. The hardness of oat is closely related to the damage to the grain during harvesting, washing, threshing and hulling, and has an important impact on the processing quality and eating quality of oats. Vromindolines are a group of proteins specific to the Avena genus and are responsible for the softness of oat endosperm. Avena nuda is an allohexaploid, and is an important grain and feed crop in China. Vromindolines have been studied in the genus Oat, but have not been reported in Avena nuda. In this study, we performed paraffin sectioning and scanning electron microscopy analysis on oat kernels with different hardness, and the sequence characteristics, allelic variation, expression patterns and subcellular localization of Vromindoline-1 and Vromindoline-3 genes in Avena nuda were also analyzed. The results showed that the cell structure and ultrastructure of soft oat variety grains are significantly different from those of hard oats variety. PCR amplification and sequence analysis showed that the lengths of AnVin-1 and AnVin-3 genes were 444 and 429 bp, respectively, and AnVin-1 existed in the oat A, C and D genomes. Expression analysis in different tissues showed that AnVin-1A, AnVin-1C, AnVin-1D and AnVin-3C were expressed to varying degree in roots, stems and leaves. Expression analysis at the panicle developmental stage showed that the expression levels of these four genes first increased and then decreased, with the highest expression levels at 14 days after pollination. In addition, the expression levels of AnVin-1C and AnVin-3C in soft oat variety were higher than those in hard oats at 14 DAP. Among the single nucleotide polymorphisms among 18 AnVin-1C and 9 AnVin-3C gene sequences, AnVin-1C6 and AnVin-3C2 genes had three haplotypes in a oat natural population. Based on the allelic variation sites of AnVin-1C6, a cleavage amplified polymorphic sequence marker was established, which explained 1.44% of the variation in hardness. The above results of this study indicated that AnVin-1 and AnVin-3 genes were involved in kernel development and might affect kernel firmness.
Rigidity of geometric structures
Authors: Hamenstädt Ursula , Jäckel Frieder
Published: November 2023

Geometric structures on a manifold M arise from a covering of M by charts with values in a homogeneous space G/H, with chart transitions restrictions of elements of G. If M is aspherical, then such geometric structures are given by a homomorphism of the fundamental group of M into G. Rigidity of such structures means that the conjugacy class of the homomorphism can be reconstructed from topological or geometric information on M. We give an overview of such rigidity results, focusing on topological type and length functions.
The Biophilia Reactivity Hypothesis: biophilia as a temperament trait, or more precisely, a domain specific attraction to biodiversity
Authors: Woods Vanessa , Knuth Melinda
Published: November 2023

E.O. Wilson proposed the concept of biophilia as “the innately emotional affiliation of human beings with other living organisms.” While the idea has gained traction in diverse fields, including architecture and horticulture, the few empirical tests of the biophilia hypothesis are either inconclusive or fail to provide support. This paper reviews fundamental flaws in Wilson's biophilia hypothesis and proposes “the Biophilia Reactivity Hypothesis”: biophilia as a temperament trait, a theory that offers a falsifiable version of Wilson’s original concept.
Designing an adaptive and deep learning based control framework for modular production systems
Authors: Panzer Marcel , Gronau Norbert
Published: November 2023

In today’s rapidly changing production landscape with increasingly complex manufacturing processes and shortening product life cycles, a company’s competitiveness depends on its ability to design flexible and resilient production processes. On the shop-floor, in particular, the production control plays a crucial role in coping with disruptions and maintaining system stability and resilience. To address challenges arising from volatile sales markets or other factors, deep learning algorithms have been increasingly applied in production to facilitate fast-paced operations. In particular deep reinforcement learning frequently surpassed conventional and intelligent approaches in terms of performance and computational efficiency and revealed high levels of control adaptability. However, existing approaches were often limited in scope and scenario-specific, which hinders a seamless transition to other control optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a flexible framework that integrates a deep learning based hyper-heuristic into modular production to optimize pre-defined performance indicators. The framework deploys a module recognition and agent experience sharing, enabling a fast initiation of multi-level production systems as well as resilient control strategies. To minimize computational and re-training efforts, a stack of trained policies is utilized to facilitate an efficient reuse of previously trained agents. Benchmark results reveal that our approach outperforms conventional rules in terms of multi-objective optimization. The simulation framework further encourages research in deep-learning-based control approaches to leverage explainability.
GMMSampling: a new model-based, data difficulty-driven resampling method for multi-class imbalanced data
Authors: Naglik Iwo , Lango Mateusz
Published: November 2023

Learning from multi-class imbalanced data has still received limited research attention. Most of the proposed methods focus on the global class imbalance ratio only. In contrast, experimental studies demonstrated that the imbalance ratio itself is not the main difficulty in the imbalanced learning. It is the combination of the imbalance ratio with other data difficulty factors, such as class overlapping or minority class decomposition into various subconcepts, that significantly affects the classification performance. This paper presents GMMSampling—a new resampling method that exploits information about data difficulty factors to clear class overlapping regions from majority class instances and to simultaneously oversample each subconcept of the minority class. The experimental evaluation demonstrated that the proposed method achieves better results in terms of G-mean, balanced accuracy, macro-AP, MCC and F-score than other related methods.
Active learning for data streams: a survey
Authors: Cacciarelli Davide , Kulahci Murat
Published: November 2023

Online active learning is a paradigm in machine learning that aims to select the most informative data points to label from a data stream. The problem of minimizing the cost associated with collecting labeled observations has gained a lot of attention in recent years, particularly in real-world applications where data is only available in an unlabeled form. Annotating each observation can be time-consuming and costly, making it difficult to obtain large amounts of labeled data. To overcome this issue, many active learning strategies have been proposed in the last decades, aiming to select the most informative observations for labeling in order to improve the performance of machine learning models. These approaches can be broadly divided into two categories: static pool-based and stream-based active learning. Pool-based active learning involves selecting a subset of observations from a closed pool of unlabeled data, and it has been the focus of many surveys and literature reviews. However, the growing availability of data streams has led to an increase in the number of approaches that focus on online active learning, which involves continuously selecting and labeling observations as they arrive in a stream. This work aims to provide an overview of the most recently proposed approaches for selecting the most informative observations from data streams in real time. We review the various techniques that have been proposed and discuss their strengths and limitations, as well as the challenges and opportunities that exist in this area of research.
Quantifying the Consistency and Characterizing the Confidence of Coronal Holes Detected by Active Contours Without Edges (ACWE)
Authors: Grajeda Jeremy A. , Boucheron Laura E. , Kirk Michael S. , Leisner Andrew , Arge C. Nick
Published: November 2023

Coronal Holes (CHs) are regions of open magnetic-field lines, resulting in high-speed solar wind. Accurate detection of CHs is vital for space-weather prediction. This paper presents an intramethod ensemble for coronal-hole detection based on the Active Contours Without Edges (ACWE) segmentation algorithm. The purpose of this ensemble is to develop a confidence map that defines, for all ondisk regions of a solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) image, the likelihood that each region belongs to a CH based on that region’s proximity to, and homogeneity with, the core of identified CH regions. By relying on region homogeneity, and not intensity (which can vary due to various factors, including line-of-sight changes and stray light from nearby bright regions), to define the final confidence of any given region, this ensemble is able to provide robust, consistent delineations of the CH regions. Using the metrics of global consistency error (GCE), local consistency error (LCE), intersection over union (IOU), and the structural similarity index measure (SSIM), the method is shown to be robust to different spatial resolutions maintaining a median IOU $>0.75$
>
0.75
and minimum SSIM $>0.93$
>
0.93
even when the segmentation process was performed on an EUV image decimated from $4096\times 4096$
4096
×
4096
pixels down to $512\times 512$
512
×
512
pixels. Furthermore, using the same metrics, the method is shown to be robust across short timescales, producing segmentation with a mean IOU of 0.826 from EUV images taken at a 1-h cadence, and showing a smooth decay in similarity across all metrics as a function of time, indicating self-consistent segmentations even when corrections for exposure time have not been applied to the data. Finally, the accuracy of the segmentations and confidence maps are validated by considering the skewness (i.e., unipolarity) of the underlying magnetic field.
Regularity of Sets Under a Reformulation in a Product Space with Reduced Dimension
Authors: Campoy Rubén
Published: November 2023

Different notions on regularity of sets and of collection of sets play an important role in the analysis of the convergence of projection algorithms in nonconvex scenarios. While some projection algorithms can be applied to feasibility problems defined by finitely many sets, some other require the use of a product space reformulation to construct equivalent problems with two sets. In this work we analyze how some regularity properties are preserved under a reformulation in a product space of reduced dimension. This allows us to establish local linear convergence of parallel projection methods which are constructed through this reformulation.
Meaningfulness and grief: you don’t know what you got till it’s gone
Authors: Matey Jennifer
Published: November 2023

What makes a life meaningful and how do we know when our lives have meaning? This paper draws on the experience of grief to provide answer to these questions. It is argued that grief is a unique kind of transformative experience that gives us access to facts about the depth of meaningfulness and value that even the most seemingly mundane aspects of our day-to-day lives have had which often goes largely unrecognized until the source of that meaning is lost.
Efficient Performance Prediction of End-to-End Autonomous Driving Under Continuous Distribution Shifts Based on Anomaly Detection
Authors: Luan Siyu , Gu Zonghua , Wan Shaohua
Published: November 2023

A Deep Neural Network (DNN)’s prediction may be unreliable outside of its training distribution despite high levels of accuracy obtained during model training. The DNN may experience different degrees of accuracy degradation for different levels of distribution shifts, hence it is important to predict its performance (accuracy) under distribution shifts. In this paper, we consider the end-to-end approach to autonomous driving of using a DNN to map from an input image to the control action such as the steering angle. For each input image with possible perturbations that cause distribution shifts, we design a Performance Prediction Module to compute its anomaly score, and use it to predict the DNN’s expected prediction error, i.e., its expected deviation from the ground truth (optimal) control action, which is not available after deployment. If the expected prediction error is too large, then the DNN’s prediction may no longer be trusted, and remedial actions should be taken to ensure safety. We consider different methods for computing the anomaly score for the input image, including using the reconstruction error of an Autoencoder, or applying an Anomaly Detection algorithm to a hidden layer of the DNN. We present performance evaluation of the different methods in terms of both prediction accuracy and execution time on different hardware platforms, in order to provide a useful reference for the designer to choose among the different methods.
Development of a highly tolerant bacterial consortium for asphaltene biodegradation in soils
Authors: Navas-Cáceres Oscar Daniel , Parada Mayra , Zafra German
Published: November 2023

Asphaltenes are the most polar and heavy fraction of petroleum, and their complex structure and toxicity make them resistant to biodegradation. The ability to tolerate high asphaltene concentrations is crucial to reducing the toxicity-related inhibition of microbial growth and improving their capacity for adaptation, survival, and biodegradation in soils highly contaminated with asphaltenes. This study developed a highly tolerant consortium for efficient asphaltene biodegradation in soils from 22 bacterial isolates obtained from heavy-crude oil-contaminated soils. Isolates corresponded to the Rhodococcus, Bacillus, Stutzerimonas, Cellulosimicrobium, Pseudomonas, and Paenibacillus genera, among others, and used pure asphaltenes and heavy crude oil as the only carbon sources. Surface plate assays were used to evaluate the tolerance of individual isolates to asphaltenes, and the results showed variations in the extension and inhibition rates with maximum tolerance levels at 60,000 mg asphaltenes l−1. Inhibition assays were used to select non-antagonistic bacterial isolates among those showing the highest tolerance levels to asphaltenes. A consortium made up of the five most tolerant and non-antagonistic bacterial isolates was able to degrade up to 83 wt.% out of 10,000 mg asphaltenes kg−1 in the soil after 52 days. Due to its biological compatibility, high asphaltene tolerance, and ability to utilise it as a source of energy, the degrading consortium developed in this work has shown a high potential for soil bioremediation and is a promising candidate for the treatment of aged soil areas contaminated with heavy and extra-heavy crude oil. This would be the first research to assess and consider extreme bacterial tolerance and microbial antagonism between individual degrading microbes, leading to the development of an improved consortium capable of efficiently degrading high amounts of asphaltenes in soil.
On the relationship between oil market and European stock returns
Authors: Magazzino Cosimo , Shahbaz Muhammad , Adamo Massimiliano
Published: November 2023

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between the oil market and European stock market returns using monthly data from May 2007 to April 2022 for 27 European Union member countries. A novel approach is adopted by using the time-varying Granger causality test and the structural vector auto-regression model to examine the causal links. Empirical results reveal strong evidence of time-varying causation between the variables, considering the oil market from both the supply-side and demand-side perspectives. In light of these findings, numerous policy considerations emerge, including refining risk management strategies for investors, reformulating economic and energy policies, the potential impact on monetary policy decisions, the need for ad hoc market regulations, facilitating investor education initiatives, promoting international cooperation, and advancing the transition to sustainable energy sources.
Screening for Coronary Artery Disease in Patients with Diabetes
Authors: Saraste Antti , Knuuti Juhani , Bax Jeroen
Published: November 2023

Purpose of Review

The study aims to describe methods for detecting subclinical coronary artery disease (CAD) and their potential implications in asymptomatic patients with diabetes.

Recent Findings

Imaging tools can assess non-invasively the presence and severity of CAD, based on myocardial ischemia, coronary artery calcium score, and coronary computed tomography coronary angiography. Subclinical CAD is common in the general population ageing 50 to 64 years with any coronary atherosclerosis present in 42.1% and obstructive CAD in 5.2%. In patients with diabetes, an even higher prevalence has been noted. The presence of myocardial ischemia, obstructive CAD, and the extent of coronary atherosclerosis provide powerful risk stratification regarding the risk of cardiovascular events. However, randomized trials evaluating systematic screening in the general population or patients with diabetes have demonstrated only moderate impact on management and no significant impact on patient outcomes.

Despite providing improved risk stratification, systematic screening of CAD is not recommended in patients with diabetes.
Mutant p53 gain-of-function stimulates canonical Wnt signaling via PI3K/AKT pathway in colon cancer
Authors: Alvarado-Ortiz Eduardo , Ortiz-Sánchez Elizabeth , Sarabia-Sánchez Miguel Angel , de la Cruz-López Karen Griselda , García-Carrancá Alejandro , Robles-Flores Martha
Published: November 2023

Aberrant canonical Wnt signaling is a hallmark of colon cancer. The TP53 tumor suppressor gene is altered in many solid tumors, including colorectal cancer, resulting in mutant versions of p53 (mut-p53) that lose their tumor suppressor capacities and acquire new-oncogenic functions (GOFs) critical for disease progression. Although the mechanisms related to mut-p53 GOF have been explored extensively, the relevance of mut-p53 in the canonical Wnt pathway is not well defined. This work investigated the influence of mut-p53 compared to wt-p53 in β-catenin-dependent Wnt signaling. Using the TCGA public data from Pan-Cancer and the GEPIA2 platform, an in silico analysis of wt-p53 versus mut-p53 genotyped colorectal cancer patients showed that TP53 (p53) and CTNNB1 (β-catenin) are significantly overexpressed in colorectal cancer, compared with normal tissue. Using p53 overexpression or p53 knockdown assays of wt-p53 or mut-p53, we found that while wt-p53 antagonizes canonical Wnt signaling, mut-p53 induces the opposite effect, improving the β-catenin-dependent transcriptional activity and colony formation ability of colon cancer cells, which were both decreased by mut-p53 knockdown expression. The mechanism involved in mut-p53-induced activation of canonical Wnt appears to be via AKT-mediated phosphorylation of Ser 552 of β-catenin, which is known to stabilize and enhance its transcriptional activity. We also found that while wt-p53 expression contributes to 5-FU sensitivity in colon cancer cells, the RITA p53 reactivating molecule counteracted the resistance against 5-FU in cells expressing mut-p53. Our results indicate that mut-p53 GOF acts as a positive regulator of canonical Wnt signaling and participates in the induction of resistance to 5-FU in colon cancer cells.

Graphical abstract
Traces of (dis)organised crime in sports gambling: a case study of the 2011 K-League match-fixing scandal
Authors: Tak Minhyeok , Jackson Steven J. , Sam Michael P.
Published: November 2023

Gambling-related match-fixing is a form of corruption that has become a global issue particularly since the start of the new millennium. Research on match-fixing has often emphasised the involvement of mafia-like criminal groups in match-fixing arrangements. By incorporating an activity-centred view of organised crime, this paper examines how, and to what extent, organised crime is involved in betting-related match-fixing with particular focus on the 2011 Korean football scandal. Analysing data from 11 in-depth interviews with government, football and gambling officials and two convicted footballers, this paper traces the relative contributions of external criminal influences and internal vulnerabilities of the football league towards the occurrence of the K-League’s match-fixing cases. The results suggest that illegal betting operators’ exploitation of match-fixing to hedge risks demonstrates the influence of external criminal groups. However, risks were also observed within the football sector (e.g., financial and performance imbalances in the league, normalised betting and inside-trading amongst footballers, close social links with organised mobs, etc.) revealing that, at that time, K-football was not only susceptible to external criminal influences but facilitated the opportunistic structure for match-fixing. Overall, this study highlights that match-fixing is not solely instigated by organised crime groups, but can also be incubated within a sport whose culture, management and ethics are not ready to co-exist with gambling.
Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in stable angina pectoris: a narrative review on current evidence and underlying physiological mechanisms
Authors: Heutinck Joyce M. , de Koning Iris A. , Vromen Tom , Thijssen Dick H. J. , Kemps Hareld M. C.
Published: November 2023

Stable angina pectoris (SAP) is a prevalent condition characterised by a high disease burden. Based on recent evidence, the need for revascularisation in addition to optimal medical treatment to reduce mortality and re-events is heavily debated. These observations may be explained by the fact that revascularisation is targeted at the local flow-limiting coronary artery lesion, while the aetiology of SAP relates to the systemic, inflammatory process of atherosclerosis, causing generalised vascular dysfunction throughout the entire vascular system. Moreover, cardiovascular events are not solely caused by obstructive plaques but are also associated with plaque burden and high-risk plaque features. Therefore, to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events and angina, and thereby improve quality of life, alternative therapeutic approaches to revascularisation should be considered, preferably targeting the cardiovascular system as a whole with a physiological approach. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation fits this description and is a promising strategy as a first-line treatment in addition to optimal medical treatment. In this review, we discuss the role of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in SAP in relation to the underlying physiological mechanisms, we summarise the existing evidence and highlight future directions.
Anaerobic digestion of dairy cattle slurry—long-term effects on crop yields and chemical soil characteristics
Authors: Rittl Tatiana F. , Pommeresche Reidun , Johansen Anders , Steinshamn Håvard , Riley Hugh , Løes Anne-Kristin
Published: November 2023

Renewable energy in the form of biogas can be produced by anaerobic digestion (AD) of animal manure. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on the long-term effects of AD-treated manure on soil characteristics and crop productivity, compared with untreated manure. A field experiment was established in a perennial grass-clover ley in 2011 to study the effects on important soil and crop characteristics when the slurry from a herd of organically managed dairy cows is anaerobically digested. While the rate of manure application affected soil concentrations of extractable nutrients and pH, these variables were unaffected by AD. Soil organic matter (SOM) concentrations decreased in all plots and faster on the plots with high intrinsic SOM. The decrease was similar with application of untreated (non-digested) slurry (US) and anaerobically digested slurry (ADS), and it was not affected by application rates. The general decline may be explained by the initial high SOM content, the long-term effect of drainage, and higher temperatures with climatic change. US and ADS gave similar yields of grass-clover ley (2 cuts/year) and green fodder, on average 0.79 and 0.40 kg DM m−2, respectively. Clover yield was similar in manured treatments and the non-fertilized control. With respect to crop yields and chemical soil characteristics, long-term (10 years) effects of AD in an organic dairy cow farming system seem to be minor. The benefits of extracting energy from the slurry did not compromise grassland productivity or soil quality in the long term.

Graphical Abstract
Enacting everyday democratic pedagogies in a birth-five early years setting
Authors: Whitington Victoria , Sisson Jamie , Shin Anne-Marie
Published: November 2023

The Australian Early Years’ Learning Framework aspires to put democratic participation at the centre of policy and practice by positioning children and families as able, and children as contributing citizens from birth. Examination of current pedagogical efforts to achieve this aspiration are needed to expand knowledge of the supports and challenges experienced in positioning early childhood education settings as democratic learning spaces. This paper contributes to this endeavour by exploring the participatory pedagogies exercised by adults and children to re-imagine mealtimes in an Australian birth-five setting. The research employed relevant aspects of Dewey’s experiential education theory, case study and multiple perspectives to provide a holistic view of participants’ various lived experiences. The paper critically examines elements within early childhood educators’ professional identities and discourses that enabled and constrained one setting’s reimagining and transformation of their micro-everyday practice of mealtime. Findings demonstrated how bringing multiple perspectives into dialogue was significant to participants’ journey in prioritising democracy in mealtime experiences. This research also highlights the importance of recognising the pedagogical role of the physical environment, and the leveraging of positional leadership.
Exploring the Roles of Single Atom in Hydrogen Peroxide Photosynthesis
Authors: He Kelin , Huang Zimo , Chen Chao , Qiu Chuntian , Zhong Yu Lin , Zhang Qitao
Published: November 2023

This comprehensive review provides a deep exploration of the unique roles of single atom catalysts (SACs) in photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production. SACs offer multiple benefits over traditional catalysts such as improved efficiency, selectivity, and flexibility due to their distinct electronic structure and unique properties. The review discusses the critical elements in the design of SACs, including the choice of metal atom, host material, and coordination environment, and how these elements impact the catalytic activity. The role of single atoms in photocatalytic H2O2 production is also analysed, focusing on enhancing light absorption and charge generation, improving the migration and separation of charge carriers, and lowering the energy barrier of adsorption and activation of reactants. Despite these advantages, several challenges, including H2O2 decomposition, stability of SACs, unclear mechanism, and low selectivity, need to be overcome. Looking towards the future, the review suggests promising research directions such as direct utilization of H2O2, high-throughput synthesis and screening, the creation of dual active sites, and employing density functional theory for investigating the mechanisms of SACs in H2O2 photosynthesis. This review provides valuable insights into the potential of single atom catalysts for advancing the field of photocatalytic H2O2 production.
A Selective-Response Hypersensitive Bio-Inspired Strain Sensor Enabled by Hysteresis Effect and Parallel Through-Slits Structures
Authors: Wang Qun , Yao Zhongwen , Zhang Changchao , Song Honglie , Ding Hanliang , Li Bo , Niu Shichao , Huang Xinguan , Chen Chuanhai , Han Zhiwu , Ren Luquan
Published: November 2023

Flexible strain sensors are promising in sensing minuscule mechanical signals, and thereby widely used in various advanced fields. However, the effective integration of hypersensitivity and highly selective response into one flexible strain sensor remains a huge challenge. Herein, inspired by the hysteresis strategy of the scorpion slit receptor, a bio-inspired flexible strain sensor (BFSS) with parallel through-slit arrays is designed and fabricated. Specifically, BFSS consists of conductive monolayer graphene and viscoelastic styrene–isoprene–styrene block copolymer. Under the synergistic effect of the bio-inspired slit structures and flexible viscoelastic materials, BFSS can achieve both hypersensitivity and highly selective frequency response. Remarkably, the BFSS exhibits a high gage factor of 657.36, and a precise identification of vibration frequencies at a resolution of 0.2 Hz through undergoing different morphological changes to high-frequency vibration and low-frequency vibration. Moreover, the BFSS possesses a wide frequency detection range (103 Hz) and stable durability (1000 cycles). It can sense and recognize vibration signals with different characteristics, including the frequency, amplitude, and waveform. This work, which turns the hysteresis effect into a "treasure," can provide new design ideas for sensors for potential applications including human–computer interaction and health monitoring of mechanical equipment.
Professionals’ Experiences with Local Implementation of the Greenlandic Parenting Programme MANU 0–1 Year
Authors: Ingemann Christine , Tjørnhøj-Thomsen Tine , Kvernmo Siv , Berthelsen Dina , Biilmann Vibeke Aviaja Johnsen , Kvist Birgitte Mørk , Lorentzen Jaraq , Nemming Vibe Kjer , Sarkov Rie Mette , Willesen Aininaq , Larsen Christina Viskum Lytken
Published: November 2023

Historically, public health interventions in Greenland are primarily adopted from a Scandinavian context or developed centrally in the capital city instead of building on communities’ local resources and strengths. The aim of this article is to identify implementation determinants from professionals’ perspectives in the implementation of the parenting programmeMeeraq Angajoqqaat Nuannaarneq(MANU, meaning child’s and parent’s happiness) 0–1 Year, at the local level in three of Greenland’s five health regions. The study applied the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Semi-structured interviews with 18 health professionals and six managers in healthcare and with four municipality personnel were held. Additionally, data on staffing from the Board for Health and Prevention was gathered. Professionals agree on the importance of having a universal parenting programme, but it is not a priority to them. Characteristics of the programme were a barrier in implementation in some local contexts, such as professionals experiencing parents being uncomfortable with participating in group sessions. Many professionals felt it was a daunting task to facilitate a group session. MANU was also incompatible with existing workflows. High turnover in the healthcare system makes it difficult to implement and sustain programmes. Professionals found it difficult to apply supervision provided by the MANU team and, at times, did not feel recognised in their efforts. Adaptations were made to MANU to fit local contexts. The identified determinants hindering local implementation link back to MANU’s complexity and inadequate preparatory investigations made into aspects influencing implementation during MANU’s conceptualisation and development. Many of the barriers identified could have been prevented by involving local community perspectives from professionals and families from the outset of MANU.