bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Removal of leftover feed shapes environmental microbiota and limits houseflies-mediated dispersion of pathogenic bacteria in sow breeding farms
Authors: Li Yunke , Chen Yinfeng , Chen Zhaohui , Yang Ying , Wu Zhenlong
Published: March 2024

Background

Intensive swine breeding industry generates a complex environment where several microbial interactions occur and which constitutes a challenge for biosafety. Ad libitum feeding strategies and low levels of management contribute to residual and wasted feed for lactating sows, which provides a source of nutrients and microbial source for houseflies in warm climates. Due to the absence of the all-in/all-out system, the coexistence of sows of two production stages including gestating and lactating sows in the farrowing barn may have potential negative impacts. In this research, we evaluated the effects of lactating sow leftover on the environmental microbiota of the farrowing barn and the contribution of microbial environments to the gestating sow fecal bacterial structure with a 30-day-long treatment of timely removing lactating residual feed.

Results

Houseflies in the farrowing barn mediate the transmission of microorganisms from lactating sow leftover to multiple regions. Leuconostoc, Weissella, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus from the leftover which can produce exopolysaccharides, are more capable of environmental transmission than pathogenic microorganisms including Staphylococcus and Streptococcus and utilize houseflies to achieve spread in environmental regions of the farrowing barn. Leftover removal treatment blocked the microbial transmission chain mediated by houseflies, downregulated the relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria including Escherichia-Shigella and Streptococcus among houseflies, environmental regions and fecal bacteria of gestating sows in the farrowing barn and effectively attenuate the increment of Weissella and RF39 relative abundance in gestating sow feces due to the presence of lactating sows.

Conclusions

Lactating sow leftover is a non-negligible microbial contributor of environment in farrowing barn whose transmission is mediated by houseflies. A 30-day-long treatment of removing lactating sow residual feed cause significant changes in the microbial structure of multiple environmental regions within the farrowing barn via altering the microbiota carried by houseflies. Meanwhile, lactating sow leftover affect the fecal microbial structure of gestating sows in the same farrowing barn, while removal of lactating sow leftover alleviates the contribution of microbial transmission.
Bioactive polyphenolic compounds and antioxidant potentials of two leafy vegetables in Bangladesh: the Momordica charantia and the Ipomoea aquatica
Authors: Abdullah Abu Tareq Mohammad , Rahman Mohammad Mahfuzur , Sharif Miskat , Khan Tanzir Ahmed , Islam Sheikh Nazrul
Published: March 2024

Momordica charantia and Ipomoea aquatica leaves are two green leafy vegetables in Bangladesh that are commonly consumed considering their characteristic taste and abundant availability in nature. The aim of this study was to determine the available bioactive phenolic constituents as well as total flavonoid content (TFC), tannin content (TTC), phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity (TAA) and DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC50) of the ethanolic extracts of M. charantia (MCE) and I. aquatica (IAE). HPLC–DAD and UV–visible spectrophotometer were used to determine the phenolic compounds and antioxidant properties, respectively. In this study, TFC, TTC, TPC, TAA and IC50 values were in the order of IAE (40.73 ± 1.0 mg QE/g) > MCE (34.60 ± 0.46 mg QE/g); MCE (40.93 ± 0.70 mg TAE/g) > IAE (31.13 ± 0.42 mg TAE/g); MCE (27.76 ± 0.58 mg GAE/g) > IAE (21.29 ± 0.43 mg GAE/g); MCE (52.03 ± 0.21 mg AAE/g) > IAE (40.77 ± 0.15 mg AAE/g) and MCE (333.22 ± 67.37 µg/mL) > IAE (560.74 ± 10.25 µg/mL). M. charantia ethanolic extracts contained five hydroxycinnamic acid: ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid, p-coumaric acid, rosmarinic acid and cinnamic acid; five flavonoids: epicatechin, quercetin, catechin, rutin hydrate and myricetin; two hydroxybenzoic acid: gallic acid and vanillic acid; and one phenolic aldehyde: vanillin. Whereas, I. aquatica extracts possessed four hydroxycinnamic acid: chlorogenic acid, p-coumaric acid, trans-ferulic acid and trans-cinnamic acid; four flavonoids: epicatechin, quercetin, catechin, and rutin hydrate; two hydroxybenzoic acid: gallic acid and vanillic acid; and one phenolic aldehyde:vanillin. These underutilised sources of leafy vegetables may be used to develop functional foods by emphasising their remarkable bioactive components.

Graphical Abstract
Effects of professional development program on primary science teachers’ ICT use in China: mediation effects of science teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and instructional practice
Authors: Lv Beibei , Zhou Danhua , Rong Zhenshan , Tian Xuewai , Wang Jingying
Published: March 2024

Faced with international science and technology competition, strengthening information, communication, and technology (ICT) use has become the core goal of science education. Many studies have revealed that teachers’ professional development programs could influence ICT use. However, whether the relationship could be mediated by teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practice remains unclear, especially in the context of China. Based on the Sociocultural Model of Embedded Belief Systems, a hypothesized model from teachers’ professional development to ICT use that meditated by science teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices was constructed. With the Structural Equation Model (SEM) method, 131,134 Chinese primary science teachers were surveyed to detect the interrelationships among the factors in the model. The path analysis revealed that: (1) Science teachers’ professional development has not positively influenced ICT use, while science teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices could significantly influence science teachers’ ICT use; (2) Science teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices not only respectively play a mediating role but also play a chain mediating role in the process of teachers’ professional development influencing ICT use.
Evaluation of expression levels of microRNA processing elements in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss
Authors: Jabbari-Moghaddam Yalda , Shanehbandi Dariush , Asadi Milad , Razi-Soofiyani Saiedeh , Hateftabar Vahideh
Published: March 2024

Background

MicroRNAs have a significant role in the function and development of the hearing system. Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is a complicated disorder with no long-established reason. Since microRNAs play imperative roles in every aspect of the neural system, their dysregulation may contribute to the onset of SSNHL. The current study aimed to assess the expression patterns of microRNA processing elements (DROSHA, DICER, and DGCR-8) as the vital factors in microRNA biology that can affect the expression levels of microRNA. This study assessed DROSHA, DICER, and DGCR-8 mRNA expression levels in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 50 patients with SSNHL and 50 matched controls. After the isolation of PBMC, total RNA was extracted, and the expression levels of DROSHA, DICER, and DGCR-8 genes were evaluated using quantitative real-time PCR.

Results

The results illustrated significant up-regulation of DICER and DGCR-8 genes in SSNHL patients at the mRNA level. Furthermore, despite no significant change in DROSHA level, DICER and DGCR-8 were significantly correlated with SSNHL. However, there was no significant correlation between these gene expressions and the clinicopathological features of patients.

Conclusion

This study verified for the first time that the DGCR_8 and DICER mRNA expression levels were significantly up-regulated in patients with SSNHL, proposing that microRNAs and their processing pathways play key roles in the progression and development of SSNHL.
Proficiency evaluation of shape and WPT radiomics based on machine learning for CT lung cancer prognosis
Authors: Nissar Arooj , Mir A. H.
Published: March 2024

Background

Lung cancer is a fatal disease which has high occurrence and mortality rates, worldwide. Computed tomography imaging is being widely used by clinicians for detection of lung cancer. Radiomics extracted from medical images together with machine learning platform has enabled automated lung cancer diagnosis. Therefore, this study is proposed with the aim to efficiently apply radiomics and ML techniques to classify pulmonary nodules in CT images. Lung Image Data Consortium is utilized which contains 1018 CT lung cancer cases.

Results

Radiomics are extracted using Shape, Gray Level Co-occurrence Method, Gray Level Difference Method, and Gray Level Run Length Matrix along with Wavelet Packet Transform. To select a relevant set of features two techniques, Analysis of variance and Chi-square test, are applied. The classification of nodule into benign or malignant is evaluated by using state-of-art models: Support vector machine, Decision Trees, Ensemble Trees (BOCET, BACET, RUSBOCET), Ensemble Subspace KNN and Ensemble Subspace Discriminant. The results show that, BACET gives best AUROC (92.9%), MGSVM gives best accuracy (90.4%), FGSVM yields the best sensitivity (97.8%), MGSVM gives best precision (94.1%) and RUSBOCET gives best specificity (84%).

Conclusions

The results show that the proposed methodology can be successfully used for the classification of pulmonary nodules based on CT images. The outcome thus can help clinicians to reach better decision, treatments and early diagnosis.
Design and implementation of domestic dual-SIM telesecurity alarm system using voice code recognition
Authors: Okafor Johnpaul Uzozie , Akande Akinyinka Olukunle , Agubor Cosmas Kemdirim
Published: March 2024

Violent crime cases which include, robbery, rape, and homicide are terribly on the rise, and the role of security in combating this menace cannot be overemphasized. This research presents a security device that aims at fighting violent crimes using voice recognition technology. The work also tends to solve the issue of network downtime when the user is out of reach for help in time of attack. In this work, a voice processing unit which comprises the condenser microphone, an amplifier, a shift register, and a timer was designed. The processing unit circuit was incorporated into microcontrollers which create Human-Device interaction and the GSM communication unit which is made up of two GSM modules. The two microcontrollers used in the design are PIC18F4520 and PIC16F873A. The microcontrollers were programmed with C++ using the MPLAB IDE software and the circuit simulation was done using Proteus Design Suite version 8. The result shows that the appropriate authority receives SMS whenever the pre-recorded code is mentioned. The result also shows that during network downtime, the second GSM module sends an SMS to the appropriate authority. Evaluating the performance of this work, it was observed that the device works best in a calm area compared to a noisy area. This work is designed to work in domestic areas like homes, offices, malls, and mainly areas free from so much noise. Therefore, this work has successfully reduced the crime rate in emergencies.
A comprehensive review comparing conventional versus traditional remedies in the treatment of endometriosis with futuristic insights
Authors: Shah Mansi , Dave Bhavarth , Bhagat Shivam , Rao Hetansh , Khadela Avinash , Parikh Nisha
Published: March 2024

Background

A common condition known as endometriosis typically takes place in females in their reproductive age and develops generally in the endometrial lining of females. Chronically, endometriosis has been associated with a reduction in the patient’s quality of life (QOL) which can have a hazardous impact on their social working and functionality. Owing to the involvement of hormones in the development of endometriosis, drugs having the capability to modulate the hormonal concentrations, along with surgical techniques, have been designed to treat endometriosis.

Main body

There are certain drawbacks of the currently existing therapy for endometriosis which include the inability to improve the quality of life of the patient, treatment failures and unresponsiveness from the patient, and adverse effects of the drugs such as weight gain, mood swings, vaginal dryness, etc. Herbal medicines have attracted the attention of various researchers for the development of novel therapeutics against several gynecological disorders, mainly endometriosis. Our present review summarizes the precise pathogenesis of endometriosis along with its conventional therapy and novel developments in herbal medicines wherein we have compiled data from 15 completed clinical trials (conventional therapy: 7, herbal therapy: 8). Additionally, we have included data from four preclinical studies on herbal medicine that showed promising results in treating endometriosis highlighting the necessity for clinical trials to yield more definitive findings. The number of clinical trials carried out to assess the response of herbs in endometriosis is limited which is why additional studies could provide beneficial concrete evidence in the effective treatment of endometriosis and ensure improved patient outcomes.

Conclusion

Conventional therapies possess certain limitations to treat endometriosis due to which the attention of scientists has shifted toward herbal therapy due to its advantages such as improved safety and tolerability in treating endometriosis. However, additional clinical investigations into herbal therapy may prove to be fruitful in the discovery of novel therapeutics to treat endometriosis effectively.
Contralateral Suppression in Adrenal Venous Sampling Predicts Clinical and Biochemical Outcome in Primary Aldosteronism
Authors: Okubo Jessica , Frudit Paula , Cavalcante Aline C B S , Maciel Ana A W , Freitas Thais C , Pilan Bruna , Fagundes Gustavo F C , Queiroz Nara L , Stumpf Matheo A M , Souza Victor C M , Kawahara Eduardo Z , Goldbaum Tatiana S , Pereira Maria Adelaide A , Calsavara Vinicius F , Coelho Fernando M A , Srougi Vitor , Tanno Fabio Y , Chambo Jose L , Bortolotto Luiz A , Drager Luciano F , Fragoso Maria Candida B V , Latronico Ana Claudia , Mendonca Berenice B , Carnevale Francisco C , Almeida Madson Q
Published: March 2024

Context

The role of hormone parameters at adrenal venous sampling (AVS) in predicting clinical and biochemical outcomes remains controversial.

Objective

To investigate the impact of hormone parameters at AVS under cosyntropin stimulation on lateralization and on complete biochemical and clinical outcomes.

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated 150 sequential AVS under cosyntropin infusion. The bilateral successful cannulation rate was 83.3% (n = 140), 47.9% bilateral and 52.1% unilateral. The lateralization index, aldosterone/cortisol ratio (A/C) in the dominant adrenal vein (AV), and relative aldosterone secretion index (RASI = A/C in AV divided by A/C in inferior vena cava) were assessed. The contralateral suppression (CS) percentage was defined by (1 − nondominant RASI) * 100.

Results

A nondominant RASI <0.5 (CS >50%) had 86.84% sensitivity and 92.96% specificity to predict contralateral lateralization. An A/C ratio in dominant AV >5.9 (74.67% sensitivity and 80% specificity) and dominant RASI >4.7 (35.21% sensitivity and 88.06% specificity) had the worst performance to predict ipsilateral lateralization. Complete biochemical and clinical cure was significantly more frequent in the patients with CS >50% [98.41% vs 42.86% (P < .001) and 41.94% vs 0% (P < .001)]. CS correlated with high aldosterone at diagnosis (P < .001) and low postoperative aldosterone levels at 1 month (P = .019). Postoperative biochemical hypoaldosteronism was more frequent in patients with CS >50% (70% vs 16.67%, P = .014). In multivariable analysis, a CS >50% was associated with complete biochemical cure [odds ratio (OR) 125, 95% confidence interval (CI) 11.904-5000; P = .001] and hypertension remission (OR 12.19, 95% CI 2.074-250; P = .023).

Conclusion

A CS >50% was an independent predictor of complete clinical and biochemical cure. Moreover, it can predict unilateral primary aldosteronism and postoperative biochemical hypoaldosteronism. Our findings underscore the usefulness of CS for clinical decision-making.
Serres, the Sea, the Human, and Anthropology
Authors: Lowe Celia
Published: March 2024

With the universal human under suspicion in modern philosophy and in anthropology, where do we stand in the Anthropocene that seems to place the human back at the center of things? Serres uses the marine world to construct his understandings of “human” and “world.” This chapter uses Serres to interpret two films about the ocean and its creatures ethnographically (one, a tale of progress in the biography of mariner Jacques Cousteau, and the other, an exploration of human/animal relationality in an encounter with an octopus). As the world returns to the “human after the human,” it can no longer count on the environment to support its reproductive capacity, longevity, agriculture, or air. Serres’s work points toward a more planetary consciousness and toward an understanding of the human as one element among many in what he calls “the great story of the Universe.”
When War Percolates
Authors: Henig David
Published: March 2024

This chapter introduces Michel Serres as an important theorist of modern warfare and violence. It brings together Serres’s topological perspectives on time, history, and general ecology of pollution. The chapter thus opens new avenues for thinking and writing about the long-lasting socio-environmental effects of wars and their aftermaths. It draws on examples from Henig’s ongoing research on explosive war remains in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina, toxic legacies of the Cold War era military projects, and Serres’s reflections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb explosions. In so doing, the chapter retraces the author’s encounters and resonances with Michel Serres and his thinking with Serres about wastes of war, their unruly temporalities, and insidious planetary effects.
Feeling Safe in a Panbiotic World
Authors: Brown Steven D.
Published: March 2024

How have the practice and “idea” of safety changed as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this chapter, Serres’s work on the foundation and marking out of social relations is used to analyze the shifting porous boundaries between the “soft” semiotic and “hard” social distancing aspects of public safety practices. Serres’s long-standing interest in the manner in which death serves as the “first object” through which the collective collects itself is explored, along with his critique of property relations as “soiling gestures.” This culminates in the idea of “Panbiota,” the necessary global coexistence of all organisms, which is now entirely dependent on human actions but utterly beyond human mastery. Serres’s speculative thoughts on the future of “living together” are discussed. Along the way, different aspects of Serres’s thinking allow for a number of reformulations of what “safety” might be for the Anthropocenic Panbiota.
Michel Serres and Gregory Bateson
Authors: Szakolczai Arpad
Published: March 2024

The connection between the works of Michel Serres and Gregory Bateson is provided by their joint interest in the nature of Nature. Reading Serres and Bateson together is thus not an academic exercise but contribution to a genuine intellectual dialogue that can help reconstruct thinking after the damages done by the mechanicity of “rationalism,” reaching its zenith today, with AI and transhumanism—clear justification for the current importance of anthropology, understood in the broadest possible sense, and the negativity of “critique,” plaguing since centuries any effort to move outside and beyond mechanical and instrumental rationalism. A joint analysis of their works is important as they were among the first to perceive the fundamental unity of our world as “Nature.” It is this recognition that made them among the first modern investigators of the unity of Nature and diagnosts of the ecological crisis.
Missionary Anxieties, Psychopathology, and Decolonization
Authors: Hölzl Richard
Published: March 2024

Richard Hölzl, “Missionary Anxieties, Psychopathology, and Decolonization: A Biographical Approach”: Father John was one of the first African Catholic priests in southern Tanganyika. He was diagnosed with hereditary syphilis in 1947 at the Benedictine mission’s theological seminary at Kigonsera. In the early 1960s, Father John demanded equality in the allocation of funds, decent salaries for African priests, and the handing over of church jurisdiction to Africans. The diagnosis served the mission leadership’s intention to discredit his straightforward claims. The chapter traces Father John’s story, which is much more than an individual psychiatric case. It mirrors the violent practices and the anxieties of missionary colonialism and decolonization and provides a unique vantage point for understanding an individual’s subjective negotiations within and against this painful process.
Mr. Tanka and Voices
Authors: Büschel Hubertus
Published: March 2024

Hubertus Büschel, “Mr. Tanka and Voices: A Cameroonian Patient Writing about Schizophrenia”: In March 1968, Benedict Nta Tanka, a Cameroonian clerk, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. After hearing voices and suffering from frightening dreams, he consulted “healers” and colonial medical doctors. During his first psychiatric consultation and following stays and treatments in several hospitals, he started to write an “autobiography” of his “illness” dream protocols. Tanka’s writings are an example of an African patient in the 1960s writing about his “experiences” of psychiatric phenomena. Important from a patient’s view was German psychiatrist Alexander Boroffka. He treated Tanka at the University of Ibadan, at the end of 1970, part of a World Health Organization (WHO) global field study on schizophrenia, the most “frightening psychiatric illness” during that time. Boroffka and Tanka became part of WHO’s Aro Field Research Unit in Ibadan. Tanka’s self-narratives show how an African patient delivered epistemological material and negotiated, adapted, and resisted WHO official discourses about schizophrenia.
Delirious Words and Social Ambition in French Colonial Madagascar
Authors: Gallien Raphaël
Published: March 2024

Raphaël Gallien, “Delirious Words and Social Ambition in French Colonial Madagascar”: From Madagascar, this chapter examines what the madman can tell us about the colonial situation and its social and political horizons on a daily basis. To do so, this text relies on the itineraries of four Indigenous people, one woman and three men, all interned during the 1920s. Far from considering them as a simple succession of cases, the purpose of this chapter is to identify the common thread that runs through these trajectories: all of them collapse at the moment when the long-awaited social promotion proves unattainable. Their “reason” or, more exactly, “the abandonment of their reason,” seems to be a response to a social and racial immobility imposed by the colonial situation that obstructs any future for indigenous subjects. The madness is then the expression of a desire to belong, to be symbolically capable of competing, be it with the status of the colonizer.
Sickness and Symptoms as Cultural Capacities in Colonial Ideology
Authors: Sadowsky Jonathan
Published: March 2024

Jonathan Sadowsky, “Sickness and Symptoms as Cultural Capacities in Colonial Ideology”: According to the WHO, depression is the greatest contributor to the global health burden. The change is sometimes stark. In Africa, colonial Western observers believed that depression was rare or nonexistent. In the early independence period, some found rates comparable to those in the West. Some are now finding depression to be more prevalent in Africa than in the West. The diagnosis rates cannot be taken at face value because of culturally varying norms of appropriate affect and illness. Cultural difference is not the only reason that counting and comparing depression rates is challenging. Early studies finding low rates in Africa were moored in colonial ideology. This ideology held that depression was not just an illness but a cultural capacity of developed civilizations. Margaret Field and Frantz Fanon, working in vastly different contexts with different theoretical backgrounds, had surprising affinities, showing that alternative views of depression in Africa were possible.
Casting out Anger
Authors: Mahone Sloan
Published: March 2024

Sloan Mahone, “Casting out Anger: Stress, Possession, and the Everyday in Taita, Kenya”: This chapter considers Taita, in Kenya’s Coast Province (now Taita-Taveta county), as a case study, presenting a unique snapshot of a more complicated colonial encounter. For a brief period in the 1950s, the isolated Taita Hills attracted the interests of the colonial government, two anthropologists from Cambridge, and a Canadian psychiatrist and amateur photographer. The cross-section of competing claims about Taita “stress” gives us an opportunity to read into everyday Taita life amid a surge of new economic and political pressures, external interference, and strategies of coping and self-reliance. Government observations that cases of insanity and related outbursts of violence were growing out of control prompted a call to experts and an analytical turn toward local and colonial articulations of the pressures of modern life.
Against Extraction
Authors: Hooley Matt
Published: March 2024

In Against Extraction Matt Hooley traces a modern tradition of Ojibwe invention in Minneapolis and St. Paul from the mid-nineteenth century to the present as that tradition emerges in response to the cultural legacies of US colonialism. Hooley shows how Indigenous literary and visual art modernisms challenge the strictures of everyday life and question the ecological, political, and cultural fantasies that make multivalent US colonialism seem inevitable. Hooley analyzes literature and art by Louise Erdrich, William Whipple Warren, David Treuer, George Morrison, and Gerald Vizenor in relation to histories of Indigenous dispossession and occupation, enslavement and Black life, and environmental harm and care. He shows that historical narratives of these cities are intimately bound up with the violence of colonial systems of extraction and that concepts like Indigeneity and sovereignty extend beyond treaty-granted promises of political control. These works, created in opposition and proximity to the extraction of cultural, political, and territorial resources, demonstrate how Indigenous claims to life and land matter to rethinking and unmaking the social and ecological devastations of the colonial world.
Combined Endoscopic Transorbital and Transmaxillary-Pterygoid Approach for a Recurrent Spheno-Orbital Meningioma: 2-Dimensional Operative Video
Authors: Zoli Matteo , Sollini Giacomo , Rustici Arianna , Carretta Alessandro , Magnani Marcello , Guaraldi Federica , Asioli Sofia , Faustini-Fustini Marco , Pasquini Ernesto , Mazzatenta Diego
Published: March 2024

Spheno-orbital meningiomas are challenging invasive tumors, involving different cranial regions, requiring multiple surgical approaches and often with an unfavorable biological behavior characterized by multiple recurrences and possible escape from standard treatments.
1
We present a case of a 57-year-old woman, already undergone a transcranial approach, an endoscopic transorbital surgery, and a radiosurgical treatment for a spheno-orbital meningioma. She presented a further tumoral recurrence, involving the orbit and the infratemporal and pterygopalatine fossa, and we proposed a combined fully endoscopic multistaged approach. The patient consented to the procedure and to the publication of his/her image. We adopted the endoscopic transorbital and the endoscopic transmaxillary-pterygoid corridors for the different portions of the tumor, followed by radiation therapy with carbon ions, achieving a large tumor resection with no progression at 12-month follow-up and without complications or neurological sequelae. This treatment strategy gave us the possibility to fully manage the tumoral extension with 2 innovative minimally invasive surgical procedures, which resulted well-tolerated and favored the prompt patient recovery and quality-of-life preservation, leaving the meningioma remnant to the external radiation therapy.
2-6
Our case emphasizes the possibilities given by the endoscopic approaches to manage at 360° the multiregional extensions of a spheno-orbital meningioma, demonstrating how such direct and extracranial corridors could allow the surgeon to remove these tumors, with no brain retraction or manipulation and limited functional or neurological sequelae.
7,8
Key considerations to improve the normalization, interpretation and reproducibility of morbidity data in mammalian models of viral disease
Authors: Belser Jessica A. , Kieran Troy J. , Mitchell Zoë A. , Sun Xiangjie , Mayfield Kristin , Tumpey Terrence M. , Spengler Jessica R. , Maines Taronna R.
Published: March 2024

Viral pathogenesis and therapeutic screening studies that utilize small mammalian models rely on the accurate quantification and interpretation of morbidity measurements, such as weight and body temperature, which can vary depending on the model, agent and/or experimental design used. As a result, morbidity-related data are frequently normalized within and across screening studies to aid with their interpretation. However, such data normalization can be performed in a variety of ways, leading to differences in conclusions drawn and making comparisons between studies challenging. Here, we discuss variability in the normalization, interpretation, and presentation of morbidity measurements for four model species frequently used to study a diverse range of human viral pathogens – mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and ferrets. We also analyze findings aggregated from influenza A virus-infected ferrets to contextualize this discussion. We focus on serially collected weight and temperature data to illustrate how the conclusions drawn from this information can vary depending on how raw data are collected, normalized and measured. Taken together, this work supports continued efforts in understanding how normalization affects the interpretation of morbidity data and highlights best practices to improve the interpretation and utility of these findings for extrapolation to public health contexts.
Χαρακτηρισμός εναλλακτικού μεταγράφου της πολυ(Α)-εξειδικευμένης ριβονουκλεάσης, PARN, και διερεύνηση του βιολογικού του ρόλου
Authors: Αντωνόπουλος Διονύσιος
Published: March 2024

Η πολυ(Α) εξειδικευμένη ριβονουκλεάση (PARN) είναι μια αποδενυλάση, ένας τελεστής της αποικοδόμησης του ευκαρυωτικού mRNA που μεσολαβεί στην ρύθμιση της σταθερότητας ποικίλων μη κωδικών RNA. Όπως είναι κοινό για τα περισσότερα γονίδια που κωδικοποιούν για πρωτεΐνες, το γονίδιο της PARN κωδικοποιεί πολλαπλά εναλλακτικά μετάγραφα, τα οποία έχουν ανιχνευθεί από προηγούμες μελέτες αλληλούχισης. Τα εναλλακτικά μετάγραφα της PARN δεν έχουν χαρακτηριστεί βιοχημικά ή μελετηθεί ειδικά. Σε αυτή την εργασία ανιχνεύσαμε την έκφραση ενός εναλλακτικού μεταγράφου της PARN σε κυτταρικές σειρές κακοήθους μεσοθηλιώματος υπεζωκότα (PMM) και ινοβλάστες πνεύμονα, το εναλλακτικό μετάγραφο PARN_v1, συνεκφράζεται με την PARN στις κυτταρικές σειρές μεσοθηλιώματος αλλά όχι στους πνευμονικούς ινοβλάστες. H PARN_v1 εκφράζεται σε επίπεδο mRNA και σε επίπεδο πρωτεΐνης, σε κυτταρικές σειρές που προέρχονται και από τους τρεις υποτύπους κακοήθους μεσοθηλιώματος του υπεζωκότα, ενώ είναι μη ανιχνεύσιμη σε καλοήθη υπεζωκοτικά αθανατοποιημένα κύτταρα. Τα υψηλότερα επίπεδα έκφρασης ανιχνεύθηκαν στους πνευμονικούς ινοβλάστες. Η κωδική περιοχή της PARN_v1 ταυτοποιήθηκε, κλωνοποιήθηκε, υπερεκφράσθηκε και χαρακτηρίστηκε βιοχημικά το πρωτεϊνικό του προϊόν. Η κλωνοποίηση και η ανάλυση αλληλουχίας της έδειξαν ότι σε σύγκριση με το mRNA της PARN η PARN_ν1 υστερεί κατά 83 βάσεων από το 3' άκρο του εξονίου 1, αυτή η περιοχή περιλαμβάνει το αρχικό κωδικόνιο έναρξης του PARN, οδηγώντας έτσι τη μετάφραση της PARN_v1 από ένα καθοδικό κωδικονίου έναρξης που βρίσκεται στο εξόνιο 4. Η πρωτεΐνη που προκύπτει στερείται μιας μεγάλης περιοχής 61aa της αρχικής περιοχής νουκλεάσης PARN, συμπεριλαμβανομένων δύο από τα κύρια καταλυτικά υπολείμματα D28 και D30. Το καθαρισμένο πρωτεινικό προιόν της PARN_ν1 διατηρεί την ικανότητά της να αποαδενυλιώνεται πιθανώς μέσω της στερικής υποκατάστασης των D28 και D30 από D292 και E378 αντίστοιχα. Για να εξεταστεί ο βιολογικός ρόλος της PARN_v1, πραγματοποιήθηκε η σίγησή της στους πνευμονικούς ινοβλάστες και υποβλήθηκε σε φασματομετρία μάζας, αποκαλύπτοντας τον ρόλο του στην κυτταρική προσκόλληση και στις αλληλεπιδράσεις των κυττάρων με την εξωκυττάρια ουσία. Μετά τη διαφοροποίηση των ινοβλαστών σε καρκικικούς ινοβλάστες με την επώασή τους με μέσο κυτταροκαλλιέργειας από κύτταρα καρκίνου του μαστού, αλλά και εξωσωμάτων που προέρχονται από κύτταρα καρκίνου του μαστού, τα επίπεδα PARN_v1 μειώθηκαν σημαντικά και η έκφραση PARN ενεργοποιήθηκε. Τέλος, αναπτύχθηκε ένα πρωτόκολλο απομόνωσης εξωσωμάτων για τη γρήγορη ανίχνευση εξωσωματικών βιοδεικτών RNA στο υπεζωκοτικό υγρό.
How Groups Differ from Individuals in Learning from Experience: Evidence from a Contest Platform
Authors: He Tianyu , Minervini Marco S. , Puranam Phanish
Published: March 2024

We examine how groups differ from individuals in how they tackle two fundamental trade-offs in learning from experience—namely, between exploration and exploitation and between over- and undergeneralization from noisy data (which is also known as the “bias-variance” trade-off in the machine learning literature). Using data from an online contest platform (Kaggle) featuring groups and individuals competing on the same learning task, we found that groups, as expected, not only generate a larger aggregate of alternatives but also explore a more diverse range of these alternatives compared with individuals, even when accounting for the greater number of alternatives. However, we also discovered that this abundance of alternatives may make groups struggle more than individuals at generalizing the feedback they receive into a valid understanding of their task environment. Building on these findings, we theorize about the conditions under which groups may achieve better learning outcomes than individuals. Specifically, we propose a self-limiting nature to the group advantage in learning from experience; the group advantage in generating alternatives may result in potential disadvantages in the evaluation and selection of these alternatives.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15239 .
"Friends, not food": Depictions of Animals in Vegan Picturebooks
Authors: Andrianova Anastassiya
Published: March 2024

Abstract: Like mainstream children's literature, vegan picturebooks teach children fundamental cultural messaging about food, what (or whom) to eat or not to eat. In doing so, many of these books use some iteration of animals as "friends, not food" to recalibrate the human-animal relationship. Such framing of animals as "friends" or "food" is integral to telling the truth about animal use and consumption by humans, but it can also be problematic because it risks reducing ethical veganism to a dietary practice alone, rather than a holistic philosophy and praxis of animal empowerment. To expose the realities of animal consumption, moreover, some vegan picturebooks include graphic depictions of cruelty to animals, which may not be age-appropriate for younger readers. Informed by critical animal studies (CAS) and vegan studies, this paper analyzes two discursive strategies found in popular vegan picturebooks: encouraging empathy through interspecies similarities ("friends") and foregrounding the impact of what we eat on humans, animals, and the environment ("food"). Vegan picturebooks are selected from recommended lists on vegan blogs, and their popularity is qualitatively analyzed based on reader feedback in online customer reviews. The conclusion reflects on the broader influence of vegan picturebooks on younger readers, provides more context for their focus on animals as food, and considers whether a gentler message of interspecies compassion and an aspirational, rather than identity-based, veganism might be more persuasive in spreading veganism, given its potential to reach vegan allies and other non-vegans.
"Our Country Neighbors": Harriet Beecher Stowe's Domestication of Nature
Authors: Kowalski Philip J.
Published: March 2024

Abstract: Any examination of Stowe's children's literature must complicate the nineteenth century's domestic ethic of kindness by analyzing how the building of her mansion Oakholm in 1864 mirrors the tension between domestication and environmental destruction. Stowe attempts to tame a wild landscape by imposing a grand domestic structure, but disciplining the wild implies that an animal's original savage nature should no longer express itself. The theory of recapitulation meant that the atavistic does occasionally emerge, but instead of tolerating a dog for being a dog, Stowe blames it. She tries to domesticate the natural world, but when it does not conform, she punishes it for refusing to adhere to her concept of obedience. This condemnation of the natural world ignites a tension in which sentimentalism is at odds with the reality of a burgeoning scientific reading of nature that sees it as fully engaged with the Darwinian sense of the survival of the fittest.
The Racial Politics of the Alliance Israélite Universelle
Authors: Baron-Bloch Rachel
Published: March 2024

Abstract: Despite the extensive literature on the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), scholars have yet to apply race as an explicit analytic in examining its work across the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and Iran. I argue that the AIU racialized the Beta Israel as subjects in need of aid through overtly physiognomic descriptions, notions of time, and ethnographic descriptions of cultural practices that rest on underlying racial logics. Further, I argue that the AIU was driven by racial notions, anxieties, and aspirations around whiteness. These racial politics come to the fore through a case study of the ethnographic expeditions that the AIU sponsored to the Beta Israel in Ethiopia. The Alliance first sent Joseph Halévy in 1867–1868, and forty years later, dispatched a second expedition led by Rabbi Haim Nahum in 1909. While accounts of the AIU tend towards a paradigm of Orientalism, thinking with race accounts for the role that racial theory played in the development of Alliance policy, emphasizes multidirectional constructions of Blackness and whiteness, reveals analytic connections linking groups within a global racial hierarchy, and highlights continuities with debates around white gatekeeping in the Jewish community that are still unfolding today. Applying race as an explicit analytic thus not only reframes the work of the Alliance, but enables us to rethink Jewish history and historiography more globally.
Third-child Fertility Intention in Morocco: Analysis of Determinants Using a Gender-intersectional Approach
Authors: Engala Moduka Jackson , Drioui Chaimae , Fazouane Abdesselam , Touhtouh Rachid
Published: March 2024

Abstract: Morocco has witnessed profound socio-economic and cultural transformations as a result of urbanization and industrialization. Although access to education and employment is unequal between men and women, the decline in fertility has triggered social mutations ranging from the lessening of the patriarchal system to the empowering of women. Each woman’s experience of gender inequality is different, depending on how her gender intersects with other factors such as disability, social class, age, place of residence, degree of autonomy and so on. These intersections create a unique experience of exclusion and marginalization, which has an impact on the risks and experiences that shape her fertility intentions. The gender-intersectional approach highlights the relationships between women’s social identities well beyond gender and the multidimensional nature of risk and exclusion concepts. Women who belong to a marginalized group such as those with a low level of education or a low wealth quintile, for example, are subject to increased discrimination and exclusion, particularly in terms of access to employment, education or health services. We used data from the latest National Population and Family Health Survey (NPFHS) held in 2018. The results show that the intention of transition to the third child occurs among women who are illiterate, inactive, victims of violence and have little decision-making power regarding their employment opportunities. In terms of spatial analysis, the transition to a third child occurs among women who live in an unequal relationship with their partners. However, this relationship is stronger in rural areas, where the perception and value of children is still high.
Er3+/Yb3+/Ho3+ tri-doped no-core fiber temperature sensor based on fluorescence intensity ratio technology: towards high stability and accurate measurements
Authors: Wang Huifang , Yin Zhiyuan , Song Dianchang , Liu Wei , Zhou Xue , Yan Xin , Zhang Xuenan , Cheng Tonglei
Published: March 2024

In this paper, the green upconversion (UC) fluorescence emission from Er3+/Yb3+/Ho3+ tri-doped tellurite glass is
investigated for temperature sensing. The doping of Ho3+ ions not only enhances the chance of
energy level transition but also avoids the influence of the thermal
effect caused by the proximity of 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 energy levels. The luminescence
characteristics at different Yb3+ and Ho3+ ion concentration doping molar ratios
were investigated, and the strongest luminescence characteristics were
exhibited when the Yb3+ ion concentration was at
5 mol% and Ho3+ at 0.2 mol%. Based on this, a
tri-doped TeO2-ZnO-Bi2O3 (TZB) no-core fiber was fabricated
and connected with multimode fibers (MMFs) to form a temperature
sensor. The temperature sensing performance of the tri-doped TZB
temperature sensor was evaluated in detail over the temperature range
of 255–365 K. The repeatability and stability of the
temperature sensor was experimentally verified. The Er3+/Yb3+/Ho3+ tri-doped sensor can be used for
noninvasive optical temperature sensing in the fields of environmental
monitoring, biological sensing, and industrial process temperature
control, etc.
Automatic detection of quartz glass subsurface defects by laser scattering method based on an ellipsoidal mirror
Authors: Chen Gengyang , Zhang Tengda , Zhang Weixun , Lu Rongsheng
Published: March 2024

With the improvement of quality requirements of optical components, the detection of
subsurface defects of optical components has become a key technology.
The existing detection methods still have some limitations in
detection depth and detection efficiency. In this paper, a defect
scattering light collection method based on ellipsoidal mirror model
is used to analyze the scattering light collection efficiency under
different experimental conditions theoretically, and the favorable
conditions for improving the scattering light collection are proposed.
After simulation verification, the use of ellipsoidal reflectors to
collect scattered light can effectively avoid the impact of surface
defects compared to lenses. At the same time, an experimental system
based on this method is set up to filter the stray light by mean
filtering method. The system detected three scratches (2 μm in
width and 252 nm in depth) on the underside of a piece of
quartz glass. The results show that the system can clearly detect the
subsurface defects of optical components.
Tight focusing of the vector optical field with polarization varying along complex curves of the Poincaré sphere
Authors: Lü Jia-Qi , Li Jin-Song , Guo Ji-Xiang , Zheng Ling-Fei , Liu Shuo
Published: March 2024

Different from the scalar optical field with spatially uniform polarization, the vector optical field exhibits inhomogeneous distribution of polarization on the cross section. Manipulating the variation of polarization in a single optical beam is important to acquire a flexible and controllable focused optical field. Previous studies mainly focused on the vector optical field with its polarization varying along a circular trajectory of the Poincaré sphere. Here, we demonstrate the tight focusing behaviors of the vector optical field with the polarization varying along complex curves of the Poincaré sphere, which is generated by the joint modulation of azimuthal phase and amplitude distributions of orthogonally polarized components. The longitudinal polarization component with a multipolar pattern in rotational symmetry can be achieved with similar distribution of the total focused field. The transverse and longitudinal spin angular momentum distributions in the focal space are discussed. Approximately pure transverse spin angular momentum can be constructed and manipulated in the focal space, which provides the possibility to manipulate the 3D spin flux for the applications of nano and spin photonics.
Optical systems with translational invariance: erratum
Authors: Zhuridov Dmitry
Published: March 2024

Figure 1 is corrected, and the assumptions used for calculating the optical path lengths are revised for the original paper, Appl. Opt. 63, 1506 (2024)10.1364/AO.511270.
Hybrid Photonics: Integration, Design and Devices feature issue: publisher’s note
Authors: Cueff Sébastien , Poon Joyce , Van Thourhout Dries , Vivien Laurent
Published: March 2024

“Invited” was added to the title of a paper
[Opt. Mater.
Express 14, 862
(2024)10.1364/OME.511923] in error.
Viral regulation of organelle membrane contact sites
Authors: Hofstadter William A. , Tsopurashvili Elene , Cristea Ileana M.
Published: March 2024

At the core of organelle functions lies their ability and need to form dynamic organelle–organelle networks that drive intracellular communication and coordination of cellular pathways. These networks are facilitated by membrane contact sites (MCSs) that promote both intra-organelle and inter-organelle communication. Given their multiple functions, MCSs and the proteins that form them are commonly co-opted by viruses during infection to promote viral replication. This Essay discusses mechanisms acquired by diverse human viruses to regulate MCS functions in either proviral processes or host defense. It also examines techniques used for examining MCSs in the context of viral infections.