bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Corporate social responsibility & students’ perceptions: evidence from Indian higher education institutions
Authors: Singh Premendra Kumar , Sunder Raju Ganesh , Mahamuni Pravin Narayan , Singh Elangbam Nixon , Das Bidhu Kanti , Jumle Anand G. , Kashayp Rajeshkumar
Published: September 2023

Background: For many, the understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may sound a rather new topic, but it has been pondered upon by great thinkers of the world for many decades. The initial form of CSR was more of philanthropic which has become more of mandatory norm in Indian context. We believe the future of a nation are the youth of the nation and their perceptions on the matter of CSR are of great importance. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to investigate the many viewpoints that students have about CSR and to determine whether or not socioeconomic characteristics (gender, age, professional experience, and academic degree) influence these views.

Methods: The research methodology comprises of utilization of an accepted scale (PRESOR) for collecting data of perception on CSR. Data was collected using an online questionnaire, distributed to students at Higher Educational Institutes of Northeast India. Responses from 272 students were received out of which we rejected unengaged responses of 25 students, and we continued with responses from 247 students. We have utilized Factor Analysis, Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), t-test for the scrutinizing the collected data.

Results: The perceptions of students show a variety of dimensions, which may be categorised as: (a) value CSR, (b) against CSR, and (c) neutral to CSR. It is also found that the sociodemographic variables have a statistically significant influence on students' notion of CSR.

Conclusions: This study is one of the first investigative works that has utilized modified PRESOR model for examining the perception of CSR in Indian context. The model was found to be fit to be used in Indian context. The study concluded that sociodemographic variables such as Age, Education, Professional Experience influences perception of CSR.
Management of diabetic foot ulcers: a narrative review
Authors: Kim Jahyung , Nomkhondorj Otgonsaikhan , An Chi Young , Choi Ye Chan , Cho Jaeho
Published: September 2023

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are among the most serious complications of diabetes and are a source of reduced quality of life and financial burden for the people involved. For effective DFU management, an evidence-based treatment strategy that considers the patient's clinical context and wound condition is required. This treatment strategy should include conventional practices (surgical debridement, antibiotics, vascular assessment, offloading, and amputation) coordinated by interdisciplinary DFU experts. In addition, several adjuvant therapies can be considered for nonhealing wounds. In this narrative review, we aim to highlight the current trends in DFU management and review the up-to-date guidelines.
Dynamics of Area, Production and Productivity of Cotton Crop in India
Authors: Rajput* Ankita , Raghuwanshi P. S. , Chaturvedi Poonam
Published: September 2023

The present study was conducted with the aim to calculate growth rate and variability in area, production and productivity of cotton crop in India. The data on area, production and productivity was obtained from Agriculture at a glance. The study period was from 1980-2019 which was further divided into four decades and an overall period. Compound annual growth rate and coefficient of variation were used in the analysis. The results showed that positive significant growth in area (1.51 per cent), production (4.74 per cent) and productivity (3.17per cent) was observed in the overall period. Highest variability was found in production (59.57 per cent) followed by productivity (40.74 per cent) and area (21.11) from 1980 to 2019.
Septic pulmonary emboli: a case discussion
Authors: Rowberry Rowena , Mortimore Gerri
Published: September 2023

A septic pulmonary embolus occurs from the embolisation of an infected thrombus – typically from an infected source such as an abscess – that enters the venous circulation, implanting in the lungs, which in turn causes a parenchymal infection. This case discussion gives a candid reflection on the treatment and management of a patient who was a known intravenous drug user, with a past history of a deep vein thrombosis and new presentation of a groin abscess. He was initially reviewed by a trainee advanced clinical practitioner, working out of hours in a hospital setting. This article will reflect on the patient presentation, the clinical examinations and investigations undertaken, which finally led to the diagnosis of septic pulmonary emboli. Although this condition is rare, having a high index of suspicion in patients with known risk factors may lead to early diagnosis and successful treatment.
The provision of aftercare under the Mental Health Act 1983
Authors: Griffith Richard
Published: September 2023

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, discusses a UK Supreme Court decision that clarified which aftercare body was responsible for funding services under the Mental Health Act 1983
Determining what good looks like in patient safety
Authors: Tingle John
Published: September 2023

John Tingle, Lecturer in Law, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, discusses several recently published patient safety reports
The Age of Atlantic Revolution
Authors: Griffin Patrick
Published: September 2023

The Age of Atlantic Revolution was a defining moment in western history. Our understanding of rights, of what makes the individual an individual, of how to define a citizen versus a subject, of what states should or should not do, of how labor, politics, and trade would be organized, of the relationship between the church and the state, and of our attachment to the nation all derive from this period (c. 1750–1850). This book shows that the Age of Atlantic Revolution was rooted in how people in an interconnected world struggled through violence, liberation, and war to reimagine themselves and sovereignty. Tying together the revolutions, crises, and conflicts that undid British North America, transformed France, created Haiti, overturned Latin America, challenged Britain and Europe, vexed Ireland, and marginalized West Africa, the book tells a transnational tale of how empires became nations and how our world came into being.
Pathologies of Motion
Authors: Goodman Kevis
Published: September 2023

This book offers a new account of later eighteenth century medicine, aesthetics, and poetics as overlapping forms of knowledge increasingly worried about the relationship between the geographical mobility of persons displaced from home and the internal motions constituting the physiology and sensibility of their moving bodies. Looking beyond narratives about medicine’s and art’s shared therapeutic or harmonizing function, the book explores the development of aesthetics and poetics in relation to a different—once-central but since underexplored—area eighteenth century environmental medicine: pathology. Pathology (“medical semiotics”) was not diagnosis nor classification but rather an art of reading, offering sophisticated ways of apprehending the multiple conditions and causes (the converging internal, external, remote, proximate, and other forces) present and discernible in and as their embodied effects, not hidden or separate from them. How might literary studies’ understanding of aesthetics and poetics change when these are considered not in terms of medicine’s attempts to accommodate bodies and minds to their historical or natural environments, but in terms of pathology’s grasp of the dislocations opening up between them? This study argues that Enlightenment medicine’s confrontations with the troubled aspects of mobility were continued and developed within later eighteenth-century aesthetic theory and some of the poetics forged at the turn of the next century, including theories of reading. This approach can offer a way of attending to the distinctive historiography carried out within aesthetics and poetics not by reference to external context but by understanding their own intrinsic historical thinking.
The Invention of Scarcity
Authors: Valenze Deborah
Published: September 2023

With the publication of Essay on the Principle of Population and its projection of food shortages in the face of ballooning populations, British theorist Thomas Robert Malthus secured a leading role in modern political and economic thought. This book reveals how canonical readings of Malthus fail to acknowledge his narrow understanding of what constitutes food production. The book returns to the eighteenth-century contexts that generated his arguments, showing how Malthus mobilized a redemptive narrative of British historical development and dismissed the varied ways that people adapted to the challenges of subsistence needs. The book uses history, anthropology, food studies, and animal studies to redirect our attention to the margins of Malthus's essay, where activities such as hunting, gathering, herding, and gardening were rendered extraneous. It demonstrates how Malthus's omissions and his subsequent canonization provided a rationale for colonial imposition of British agricultural models, regardless of environmental diversity. By broadening our conception of human livelihoods, the book suggests pathways to resistance against the hegemony of Malthusian political economy. In doing so, it invites us to imagine a world where monoculture is in retreat and the margins are recentered as spaces of experimentation, nimbleness, and human flourishing.
Rewriting the Agricultural Revolution
Authors: Valenze Deborah
Published: September 2023

This chapter reviews the path of agricultural revolution, considering Thomas Robert Malthus's argument in the Essay on Population. The Malthusian universe depended on culturally circumscribed assumptions that operated as theories of social hierarchies and human history in the eighteenth century. Central to the argument of the Essay on Population was a stark opposition between civilization and a barbaric struggle for existence. This particular tension represented a form of ideological commitment: it implied a narrative pointing in a particular direction, looking forward to modern achievements like the city, technology, and a scientific knowledge base. The chapter presents a diagram of Malthusian reasoning, which simulates many different connections between food production and historical change. It points to a model of connected social and political formations within civilizational development. This emphasis shows that within modernizing European culture, the passage of time conferred benefits upon certain crops and means of production, while marginalizing or even negating others. At the time of the Essay on Population, the privileged place given to sedentary grain cultivation validated changes occurring in the landscape of Britain and areas of western Europe.
In the Herbarium
Authors: Flannery Maura C.
Published: September 2023

Collections of preserved plant specimens, known as herbaria, have existed for nearly five centuries. These pressed and labeled plants have been essential resources for scientists, allowing them to describe and differentiate among species, and to document and research plant characteristics and changes in biodiversity over time. This book tells the history of herbaria from the earliest collections, created by such advocates of the technique as the botanist Luca Ghini in the sixteenth century, to the collections of poets, politicians, and painters, to the digitization of these precious specimens today. It charts the growth of herbaria during the age of exploration, the development of classification systems to organize species, and herbaria’s indispensable role in tracking climate change and molecular evolution. Herbaria also have historical, aesthetic, cultural, and ethnobotanical value—preserved plants can be linked to the indigenous peoples who used them, the collectors who sought them out, the artists who painted them, and the scientists who studied them. Herbaria have played a central role in the history of plant study and continue to do so as a significant resource not only for biologists but for other users as well: gardeners, artists, students, and citizen-scientists.
Manufacturing Consensus
Authors: Woolley Samuel
Published: September 2023

This book is an exploration of modern propaganda and disinformation, with a focus on how social media and other digital communication tools and tactics are leveraged in global attempts to manipulate public opinion. Central ideas and analyses are garnered via qualitative data from eight years of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with the people who make and track online spin campaigns in Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This long-term, comparative, and transnational work informs the book’s core argument: Automation and anonymity are used over social media, chat apps, and other online media with the goal of manufacturing consensus. Digital propagandists use bots, sockpuppets, and partisan nanoinfluencers to create the illusion of popularity for particular ideas or people in an effort to create bandwagon support. These attempts to amplify or suppress certain streams of information can lead to falsely generated social media trends, the silencing of journalists and activists, and the spread of misinformation through online and offline media. In an update to Herman and Chomsky’s “propaganda model,” this book suggests that social media firms have joined—and at least partially usurped—mass broadcast media firms as the gatekeeping tools of the powerful. However, powerful actors are not the only ones creating today’s computational propaganda. In many ways, the ability to propagandize has been democratized—small-scale groups and even individuals have used automated and anonymous technologies in bids to game the flow of information.
The Syriac World
Authors: Briquel Chatonnet Francoise , Debie Muriel
Published: September 2023

Syriac is often referred to as the third main language of Christianity, along with Latin and Greek, and it remains a foundational classical, literary, and religious language throughout the world. Originating in Mesopotamia along the Roman and Parthian frontiers, it was never the language of a powerful state or ethnic group, but with the coming of Christianity it developed into a rich religious and cultural tradition. At the same time that Christianity was making its way through Europe, Syriac missionaries were founding churches from the Mediterranean coast to Persia, converting the Turkic tribes of Central Asia, and building communities in India and China. This book tells the underexplored story of the Syriac world over three thousand years, from its pre-Christian roots in the Aramaic tribes and the ancient Near East to its vibrant expressions in modern diaspora churches. Enhanced with images, songs, poems, and important primary texts, the book shows the importance of Syriac history, theology, and literature in the twenty-first century.
Making the Imperial Nation
Authors: Glickman Gabriel
Published: September 2023

After 1660, English governments aimed to convert scattered overseas dominions into a coordinated territorial powerbase. Stuart monarchs encouraged schemes for expansion in America, Africa, and Asia, sought closer control over existing territories, and endorsed systems of slave labor to boost colonial prosperity. But English power in the world was precarious, and colonial designs were subject to regular defeats and failed experiments. Recovering from its recent Civil Wars, England itself was shaken by repeated unrest and upheaval through the later seventeenth century. Colonial policies, which emerged from a kingdom riven with its own inner tensions, were exported into enclaves overseas.
Making the Imperial Nation reinstates the colonies within the domestic history of Restoration England. It shows how the pursuit of empire raised moral and ideological controversies that ruptured political opinion, created dividing lines between parties and factions, and unsettled many received ideas of English national identity. Overseas ambitions disrupted bonds in Europe and cast new questions over English relations with Scotland and Ireland. Vigorous debates were provoked by contact with non-Christian peoples and by changes brought to cultural tastes and consumer habits at home. England was becoming an imperial nation before it had acquired a secure territorial empire. The pressures of colonization exerted a decisive influence over the wars, revolutions, and party conflicts that destabilized the later Stuart kingdom.
Revolutionary Things
Authors: White Ashli
Published: September 2023

The book brings material culture to bear on a central historical question: What did and did not change during the age of Atlantic revolutions, and why? It argues that everyday objects affected, rather than merely reflected, the contests at the heart of American, French, and Haitian revolutions. Things shaped how people understood equality, freedom, and solidarity, and how they promoted, and thwarted, the realization of these ideals on the ground. This push-and-pull between continuity and change occurred at the level of daily life: the clothes on people’s backs, the plates from which they ate, the maps that guided their movements, and the diversions that amused them. This vantage on the era matters because whether enslaved or free, poor or elite, male or female, late eighteenth-century individuals lived in material worlds. And through their engagement with things, these diverse sectors influenced ideological debates that transcended borders. As people turned to objects to challenge standing hierarchies, they witnessed some success. Yet they also confronted the unique restrictions that things placed on transformation. These bounds were structural—where and of what objects were made—and they were socially constructed, as individuals determined to what extent they were willing to accept certain alterations to their material realities. Revolutionary Things demonstrates that we cannot comprehend the achievements and limitations of this defining moment without taking the consequences of things seriously.
Trees Are Shape Shifters
Authors: Mathews Andrew S.
Published: September 2023

This book explores the Anthropocene predicament through an investigation of landscape history and contemporary climate change politics in Italy. Moving from details of encounters with trees and terracing systems in the Tuscan Apennines, it explores our capacity to project our imaginations from details of plant and landscape form in order to tell larger-scale histories of plant disease, fire, and agrarian change. The morphologies of cultivated chestnut trees and of landscapes bring the past into the present, they bear witness to disasters, and they bring humans into projects of long-term care for trees, terracing systems, hillsides, and drainage systems. Around the world, scientists, activists, and policymakers have tried to persuade ordinary people of the urgency of climate change. Such approaches assume that ordinary people do not have their own ideas about climate and that a shared understanding of climate is necessary for effective climate change policies. Climate change policy in Italy encounters popular knowledge and concern about landscape stability rather than ignorance about climate. Vernacular models of climate/landscape/plant assemblages have inspired largely invisible forms of landscape care, and concerns about air pollution have transformed biomass energy policies in Italy. Attention to tree and landscape form can allow historians and anthropologists to give regional accounts of global environmental change that complement the limitations of global climate change science and policy.
Multi-organ hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia: A case report
Authors: Chen Ying-Ling , Jiang Hong-Yue , Li Dong-Ping , Lin Jiang , Chen Yun , Xu Li-Li , Gao Hong
Published: September 2023

β cells are the main cells responsible for the hypoglycemic function of pancreatic islets, and the insulin secreted by these cells is the only hormone that lowers blood glucose levels in the human body. β cells are regulated by various factors, among which neurotransmitters make an important contribution. This paper discusses the effects of neurotransmitters secreted by various sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves on β cells and summarizes the mechanisms by which various neurotransmitters regulate insulin secretion. Many neurotransmitters do not have a single source and are not only released from nerve terminals but also synthesized by β cells themselves, allowing them to synergistically regulate insulin secretion. Almost all of these neurotransmitters depend on the presence of glucose to function, and their actions are mostly related to the Ca2+ and cAMP concentrations. Although neurotransmitters have been extensively studied, many of their mechanisms remain unclear and require further exploration by researchers.
Design of a curved-target ultrashort throw projector based on predistortion and illumination precorrection
Authors: Cheng Dewen , Liu Yue , Chen Hailong , Chen Chen , Wang Yongtian
Published: September 2023

Ultrashort throw projector (UTP) technology has been a challenging research focus in the fields of large field of view and short-distance projection. In this paper, we propose a design method for a curved-target UTP based on image precorrection. A predistortion method (<1pixel) using a radial basis function is presented to effectively correct irregular distortion. A grayscale precorrection method is used to address uneven illumination distribution. We provide a UTP design example and verify the correction methods using two different curved targets (aspherical and freeform), demonstrating effective distortion correction (<1%) and illumination uniformity (>90%). The structure similarity index measure for the projection images shows close or greater than 0.9 correlation.
Super-resolution imaging based on cascaded microsphere compound lenses
Authors: Wang Jianming , Yang Benrui , Chen Zhiling , Wen Min , Xie Wei , Wang Dong , Qi Mengping , Guo Honhmei , Cao Yurong
Published: September 2023

In this paper, a cascaded microsphere compound lens (CMCL) is introduced, in which a 20-µm-diameter barium titanate glass (BTG) primary microsphere and a 250-nm-diameter or 200-nm-diameter polystyrene (PS) secondary microsphere array constitute CMCL1 and CMCL2, respectively. The field of view (FOV) depends on the size of the BTG microsphere, while the waist of the photon nanojet (PNJ) can be adjusted by the size of the PS microsphere. The narrower the waist of the PNJ, the higher the imaging resolution. In the experiment, a 200-nm-diameter hexagonally close-packed PS nanoparticle array is successfully observed by the CMCL with a high magnification of  ∼11.6× and a FOV of  ∼14µm, while the single BTG microsphere is incapable of observing the array. The point spread function is used to quantify the resolution of the CMCL. A well-designed CMCL can improve the imaging performances of a microsphere-assisted microscope.
Heterodyne dynamic light scattering for the characterization of particle dispersions
Authors: Wu Wenchang , Knoll Matthias Samuel Günter , Giraudet Cédric , Heinrich Rausch Michael , Fröba Andreas Paul
Published: September 2023

Particle self-diffusivities in unimodal and bimodal aqueous dispersions are characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) applying a heterodyne detection scheme. For unimodal dispersions close to infinite dilution, it could be evidenced that pure homodyne conditions cannot be realized, leading to an increasing underestimation of diffusivity with a decreasing concentration. Even for bimodal dispersions and neglecting any local oscillator field, the coherent superposition of scattered light from different particle species hinders a clear assignment of the measured signals and their evaluation for diffusivity. In this case, the impact of a cross term on the determined diffusivities cannot be neglected. The results emphasize that the use of a heterodyne detection scheme in DLS experiments is a key aspect for an accurate determination of particle diffusivities in low-concentrated unimodal and bimodal dispersions.
O-band BDFA achieves 24 dB ultra-wideband signal range effective gain clamping with a maximum float of 0.42 dB
Authors: Wang Dingchen , Pei Li , Zheng Jingjing , Wang Jianshuai , Hou Wenqiang , Zhang Fuhao , Ye Xiao , Li Jing , Ning Tigang
Published: September 2023

Fiber amplifiers are used in transmission systems with gain-clamping techniques to avoid unexpected situations such as sudden changes in incoming power due to unstable factors. The O-band bismuth-doped fiber amplifier (BDFA) has developed rapidly in recent years and has been reported in transmission cases, but its application in clamping is still relatively rare. In past work, we have investigated the clamping effect of a BDFA under a coupler ring cavity under different pumping schemes, while in this work we further improved the structure by replacing the coupler with a circulator to comparatively investigate the limit range of gain stabilization. The experimental results demonstrate that, when the loop loss is 0 dB, the BDFA exhibits nearly identical gain-clamping performance, including flat range and maximum float, with both structures. However, as the loss increases, the circulator structure exhibits a wider gain flatness range than the coupler structure. With pump power of 1 W and VOA loss of 0 dB, the BDFA achieves a maximum gain float of 0.42 dB in the coupler configuration and 0.56 dB in the circulator configuration over an ultra-wide input range of −15dBm to 9 dBm. In addition, the gain flat range under the circulator structure is 3 dB wider than the coupler structure when the VOA loss is 10 dB. Therefore, with the pursuit of a balance between the higher average gain and the widest flat range, it is most advantageous to consider the circulator in the ring cavity. This work gives a valuable reference for the application of the O-band BDFA in gain clamping.
On the error performance and channel capacity of a uniquely decodable coded FSO system over Malaga turbulence with pointing errors
Authors: Li Ya-Tian , Geng Tian-Wen , Gao Shi-Jie
Published: September 2023

Our previous work has proved that the uniquely decodable code (UDC) has the ability of enhancing the throughput of a free space optical communication (FSO) system. This paper quantitatively analyzes the error performance and channel capacity of the UDC-FSO system under Malaga turbulence and pointing errors. We first propose the minimum distance of the superimposed patterns (MDSP) approximation to reveal the universal symbol error rate (SER) for UDC-FSO systems. A closed form expression of SER is further deduced for a special case of 2 TXs. Based on the deduced SER, the upper and lower bounds of bit error rate (BER) can be obtained. Additionally, the discrete channel capacity of the UDC-FSO system is defined and deduced according to different superposition patterns, as well as the channel capacity gain. Both simulation and experiment verify the accuracy of the MDSP and SER’s expressions. It’s also discovered that the channel capacity of the UDC-FSO system is superior to the conventional end-to-end (E2E) link, where maximal channel capacity is limited by the UDC codebooks.
Midwave resonant cavity infrared detectors (RCIDs) with suppressed background noise
Authors: Canedy Chadwick L. , Jackson Eric M. , Espinola Richard L. , Pauli Myron R. , Auxier Jason M. , Kim Chul Soo , Kim Mijin , Nolde Jill A. , Ellis Chase T. , Aifer Edward H. , Vurgaftman Igor , Jayaraman Vijaysekhar , Kolasa Borys , Marsland Robert , Knipfer Benjamin , Meyer Jerry R.
Published: September 2023

We report a resonant cavity infrared detector (RCID) with an InAsSb/InAs superlattice absorber with a thickness of only ≈ 100 nm, a 33-period GaAs/Al0.92Ga0.08As distributed Bragg reflector bottom mirror, and a Ge/SiO2/Ge top mirror. At a low bias voltage of 150 mV, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) reaches 58% at the resonance wavelength λres ≈ 4.6 µm, with linewidth δλ = 19-27 nm. The thermal background current for a realistic system scenario with f/4 optic that views a 300 K scene is estimated by integrating the photocurrent generated by background spanning the entire mid-IR spectral band (3-5 µm). The resulting specific detectivity is a factor of 3 lower than for a state-of-the-art broadband HgCdTe device at 300 K, where dark current dominates the noise. However, at 125 K where the suppression of background noise becomes critical, the estimated specific detectivity D* of 5.5 × 1012 cm Hz½/W is more than 3× higher. This occurs despite a non-optimal absorber cut-off that causes the EQE to decrease rapidly with decreasing temperature, e.g., to 33% at 125 K. The present RCID’s advantage over the broadband device depends critically on its low EQE at non-resonance wavelengths: ≤ 1% in the range 3.9-5.5 µm. Simulations using NRL MULTIBANDS indicate that impact ionization in the bottom contact and absorber layers dominates the dark current at near ambient temperatures. We expect future design modifications to substantially enhance D* throughout the investigated temperature range of 100-300 K.
Tunable in situ near-UV pulses by transient plasmonic resonance in nanocomposites
Authors: Husakou Anton , Babushkin Ihar , Fedotova Olga , Rusetsky Ryhor , Smirnova Tatsiana , Khasanov Oleg , Fedotov Alexander , Sapaev Usman , Apostolova Tzveta
Published: September 2023

We propose a concept for generation of ultrashort pulses based on transient field-induced plasmonic resonance in nanoparticle composites. Photoionization and free-carrier plasma generation change the susceptibility of nanoparticles on a few-femtosecond scale under the action of the pump pulse. This opens a narrow time window when the system is in plasmonic resonance, which is accompanied by a short burst of the local field. During this process, frequency-tunable few-fs pulses can be emitted. This paves a way to ultra-compact yet efficient generation of ultrashort pulses at short wavelengths.
Near-field imaging and spectroscopy of terahertz resonators and metasurfaces [Invited]
Authors: Hale Lucy L. , Siday Thomas , Mitrofanov Oleg
Published: September 2023

Terahertz (THz) metasurfaces have become a key platform for engineering light-matter interaction at THz frequencies. They have evolved from simple metallic resonator arrays into tunable and programmable devices, displaying ultrafast modulation rates and incorporating emerging quantum materials. The electrodynamics which govern metasurface operation can only be directly revealed at the scale of subwavelength individual metasurface elements, through sampling their evanescent fields. It requires near-field spectroscopy and imaging techniques to overcome the diffraction limit and provide spatial resolution down to the nanoscale. Through a series of case studies, this review provides an in-depth overview of recently developed THz near-field microscopy capabilities for research on metamaterials.
Likelihood-ratio test statistic for the finite-sample case in nonlinear ordinary differential equation models
Authors: Tönsing Christian , Steiert Bernhard , Timmer Jens , Kreutz Clemens
Published: September 2023

Likelihood ratios are frequently utilized as basis for statistical tests, for model selection criteria and for assessing parameter and prediction uncertainties, e.g. using the profile likelihood. However, translating these likelihood ratios into p-values or confidence intervals requires the exact form of the test statistic’s distribution. The lack of knowledge about this distribution for nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) models requires an approximation which assumes the so-called asymptotic setting, i.e. a sufficiently large amount of data. Since the amount of data from quantitative molecular biology is typically limited in applications, this finite-sample case regularly occurs for mechanistic models of dynamical systems, e.g. biochemical reaction networks or infectious disease models. Thus, it is unclear whether the standard approach of using statistical thresholds derived for the asymptotic large-sample setting in realistic applications results in valid conclusions. In this study, empirical likelihood ratios for parameters from 19 published nonlinear ODE benchmark models are investigated using a resampling approach for the original data designs. Their distributions are compared to the asymptotic approximation and statistical thresholds are checked for conservativeness. It turns out, that corrections of the likelihood ratios in such finite-sample applications are required in order to avoid anti-conservative results.
Do age, gender, and education modify the effectiveness of app-delivered and tailored self-management support among adults with low back pain?—Secondary analysis of the selfBACK randomised controlled trial
Authors: Bardal Ellen Marie , Sandal Louise Fleng , Nilsen Tom Ivar Lund , Nicholl Barbara I. , Mork Paul Jarle , Søgaard Karen
Published: September 2023

selfBACK is an artificial intelligence based self-management app for low back pain (LBP) recently reported to reduce LBP-related disability. The aim of this study was to examine if age, gender, or education modify the effectiveness of theselfBACK intervention using secondary analysis of theselfBACKrandomized controlled trial. Persons seeking care for LBP were recruited from primary care in Denmark and Norway and an outpatient clinic (Denmark). The intervention group (n = 232) received theselfBACKapp adjunct to usual care. The control group (n = 229) received usual care only. Analyses were stratified by age (18–34, 35–64, ≥65 years), gender (male, female), and education (≤12, >12 years) to investigate differences in effect at three and nine months follow-up on LBP-related disability (Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire [RMDQ]), LBP intensity and pain self-efficacy. Overall, there was no effect modification for any of the sociodemographic factors. However, data on LBP-related disability suggest that the effect of the intervention was somewhat more beneficial in older than in younger participants. The difference between the intervention and control group due to interaction was 2.6 (95% CI: 0.4 to 4.9) RMDQ points for those aged ≥65 years as compared to those aged 35–64 years. In conclusion, age, gender, or education did not influence the effect of theselfBACKintervention on LBP-related disability. However, older participants may have an additional long-term positive effect compared to younger participants.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT03798288.
The effects of different biochars on Caenorhabditis elegans and the underlying transcriptomic mechanisms
Authors: Chen Yixuan , Wang Xinrui , Li Jie , Wang Zhiwen , Song Tingting , Lai Xin , Zhang Guilong , Ruan Weibin
Published: September 2023

Different biochars have diverse properties, with ambiguous effects on soil nematodes. This study investigated how aspen sawdust (ABC), bamboo powder (BBC), maize straw (MBC) and peanut-shell biochars (PBC) affected Caenorhabditis elegans via culture assays and RNA-seq analysis. The results showed that biochars derived from different agricultural materials varied significantly in physicochemical properties, and PBC produced more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to attract C. elegans than ABC, BBC and MBC. Moreover, worms in ABC experienced the worst outcomes, while worms in PBC experienced milder impacts. Nematode body length decreased to 724.6 μm, 784.0 μm and 799.7 μm on average in ABC, BBC and MBC, respectively, compared to the control (1052 μm) and PBC treatments (960 μm). The brood size in ABC, MBC, BBC and PBC decreased 41.1%, 39.4%, 39.2% and 19.1% compared to the control, respectively. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms of biochar-induced developmental effects on C. elegans were explored. Although several differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were different among the four biochars, worm phenotypic changes were mainly related to col genes (col-129; col-140; col-40; col-184), bli-6, sqt-3, perm-2/4, cdk-8, daf-16 and sod-1/2/5, which are associated with cuticle collagen synthesis, eggshell formation in postembryonic growth and rhythmic processes. Our study suggests that different properties of biochars could be crucial to soil nematodes, as well as the worms’ biochemical changes are important for the health in agriculture soil.
MBT3D: Deep learning based multi-object tracker for bumblebee 3D flight path estimation
Authors: Stiemer Luc Nicolas , Thoma Andreas , Braun Carsten
Published: September 2023

This work presents the Multi-Bees-Tracker (MBT3D) algorithm, a Python framework implementing a deep association tracker for Tracking-By-Detection, to address the challenging task of tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group. While tracking algorithms for bumblebees exist, they often come with intensive restrictions, such as the need for sufficient lighting, high contrast between the animal and background, absence of occlusion, significant user input, etc. Tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group is challenging. They suddenly adjust movements and change their appearance during different wing beat states while exhibiting significant similarities in their individual appearance. The MBT3D tracker, developed in this research, is an adaptation of an existing ant tracking algorithm for bumblebee tracking. It incorporates an offline trained appearance descriptor along with a Kalman Filter for appearance and motion matching. Different detector architectures for upstream detections (You Only Look Once (YOLOv5), Faster Region Proposal Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), and RetinaNet) are investigated in a comparative study to optimize performance. The detection models were trained on a dataset containing 11359 labeled bumblebee images. YOLOv5 reaches an Average Precision ofAP= 53, 8%, Faster R-CNN achievesAP= 45, 3% and RetinaNetAP= 38, 4% on the bumblebee validation dataset, which consists of 1323 labeled bumblebee images. The tracker’s appearance model is trained on 144 samples. The tracker (with Faster R-CNN detections) reaches a Multiple Object Tracking AccuracyMOTA= 93, 5% and a Multiple Object Tracking PrecisionMOTP= 75, 6% on a validation dataset containing 2000 images, competing with state-of-the-art computer vision methods. The framework allows reliable tracking of different bumblebees in the same video stream with rarely occurring identity switches (IDS). MBT3D has much lowerIDSthan other commonly used algorithms, with one of the lowest false positive rates, competing with state-of-the-art animal tracking algorithms. The developed framework reconstructs the 3-dimensional (3D) flight paths of the bumblebees by triangulation. It also handles and compares two alternative stereo camera pairs if desired.
Structure-based design of a single-chain triple-disulfide-stabilized fusion-glycoprotein trimer that elicits high-titer neutralizing responses against human metapneumovirus
Authors: Ou Li , Chen Steven J. , Teng I-Ting , Yang Lijuan , Zhang Baoshan , Zhou Tongqing , Biju Andrea , Cheng Cheng , Kong Wing-Pui , Morano Nicholas C. , Stancofski Erik-Stephane D. , Todd John-Paul , Tsybovsky Yaroslav , Wang Shuishu , Zheng Cheng-Yan , Mascola John R. , Shapiro Lawrence , Woodward Ruth A. , Buchholz Ursula J. , Kwong Peter D.
Published: September 2023

The Pneumoviridae family of viruses includes human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The closely related Paramyxoviridae family includes parainfluenza viruses (PIVs). These three viral pathogens cause acute respiratory tract infections with substantial disease burden in the young, the elderly, and the immune-compromised. While promising subunit vaccines are being developed with prefusion-stabilized forms of the fusion glycoproteins (Fs) of RSV and PIVs, for which neutralizing titers elicited by the prefusion (pre-F) conformation of F are much higher than for the postfusion (post-F) conformation, with HMPV, pre-F and post-F immunogens described thus far elicit similar neutralizing responses, and it has been unclear which conformation, pre-F or post-F, would be the most effective HMPV F-vaccine immunogen. Here, we investigate the impact of further stabilizing HMPV F in the pre-F state. We replaced the furin-cleavage site with a flexible linker, creating a single chain F that yielded increased amounts of pre-F stabilized trimers, enabling the generation and assessment of F trimers stabilized by multiple disulfide bonds. Introduced prolines could increase both expression yields and antigenic recognition by the pre-F specific antibody, MPE8. The cryo-EM structure of a triple disulfide-stabilized pre-F trimer with the variable region of antibody MPE8 at 3.25-Å resolution confirmed the formation of designed disulfides and provided structural details on the MPE8 interface. Immunogenicity assessments in naïve mice showed the triple disulfide-stabilized pre-F trimer could elicit high titer neutralization, >10-fold higher than elicited by post-F. Immunogenicity assessments in pre-exposed rhesus macaques showed the triple disulfide-stabilized pre-F could recall high neutralizing titers after a single immunization, with little discrimination in the recall response between pre-F and post-F immunogens. However, the triple disulfide-stabilized pre-F adsorbed HMPV-directed responses from commercially available pooled human immunoglobulin more fully than post-F. Collectively, these results suggest single-chain triple disulfide-stabilized pre-F trimers to be promising HMPV-vaccine antigens.
The impact of antibiotic resistance training programs on knowledge, attitude, and practice reflection among Indian higher education students
Authors: Boban Dona , Kaur Kiranjeet , Greco Stefano , Pradhan Himanshu Shekhar , Joshi Riya , Rakshitha K. , Prakash Jyoti
Published: September 2023

Background and Aim: Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is one of the most pressing public health issues. Resistant pathogens originate from antibiotic misuse and unsustainable socioeconomic patterns. Co-financed by the European Commission, the Erasmus + capacity building project, PREVENT IT | Risk Management and Prevention of ABR, aims to improve the effectiveness of the study programs of Indian universities vis-à-vis ABR. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the ABR training programs on the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) reflection of undergraduate and postgraduate students from five Indian universities.

Materials and Methods: In this multicentric study, the KAP reflection of the students was assessed before (pre) and after (post) the intervention of experiential ABR training. Paired t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the impact of intervention using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software.

Results: A total of 515 students participated in the study. The findings indicate a significant improvement in the knowledge and attitude scores, while a minor change was observed in practice reflection.

Conclusion: The intervention conducted within the framework of the project could set a good practice for the prevention and risk management of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Keywords: health, antibiotic resistance, training, innovations and health, attitude and practice, capacity building, equal access, awareness, increasing life expectancy, international health policy.
Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters and Gait Asymmetry in Patients With Lumbar Disc Herniation, Treated With Microdiscectomy: A Prospective, Observational Study
Authors: Bonab Masoud Amir Rashedi , Sener Suleyman , Colak Tugba Kuru , Amirrashedi Mahsa , Yeldan Ipek , Konya Deniz , Toktas Zafer Orkun
Published: September 2023

Objective: The aim of this study was to emphasize on the interaction of spatial and temporal gait parameters and analyse the gait asymmetry in the patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) before and after microdiscectomy.Methods: This was a prospective, observational study conducted on 59 cases of LDH planned for lumbar microdiscectomy, and healthy control group with 54 participants for analysis was performed prior to surgery and 15 days after surgery. The spatiotemporal gait parameters were measured using a “Win-Track” gait analysis platform system. All the participants walked barefoot for 10 times with their normal walking speed in the same day. The 3 flawless walking data were recorded and the arithmetic means were computed. The gait symmetry index was used to calculate the walking asymmetry. The pain intensity of the patients was recorded shortly before performing the analysis by a visual analogue scale.Results: In the postoperative assessment LDH patients had significantly shorter temporal parameters, longer spatial parameters, faster walking speed, and more cadence than the preoperative assessment (p < 0.05). There were improvements in the asymmetry values of the postoperative gait parameters compared to the preoperative values, but these differences were not significant (p > 0.05). In addition, there was a significant difference in all parameters in terms of gait asymmetry between the postoperative assessment and the healthy controls (p < 0.05).Conclusion: These results can guide the patient-specific evaluating and implementation of gait rehabilitation programs, and design protocols before or after surgery in the LDH patients.
Surgical Outcomes of Symptomatic Intramedullary Spinal Cord Cavernous Malformations: Analysis of Consecutive Cases in a Single Center
Authors: Cai Zheng , Hong Xinjie , Dai Wei , Zhang Zhengwei , Liang Qiang , Ding Xuehua , Sun Wei
Published: September 2023

Objective: Intramedullary spinal cavernous malformations (ISCMs) are rare vascular lesions of the spinal cord with unclear natural history and controversy over treatment. This study aimed to report a series of symptomatic ISCMs underwent microsurgical management to illustrate the natural history, clinical presentation, and surgical outcomes and to evaluate factors associated with hemorrhage events and neurological prognosis.Methods: This single-center retrospective study included 29 consecutive patients with whose demographic, symptomology, imaging, neurological, and surgical data were collected. The risk for hemorrhage events and factors affecting surgical outcomes were retrospectively analyzed.Results: There were 12 female (41.4%) and 17 male patients (58.6%), with an average age of 45.2 years (range, 17–69 years). The mean size of the lesion was 9.7 mm (range, 3–20 mm). Most patients had a bowel or/and bladder dysfunction symptom (n = 11, 37.9%), followed by sensory deficits (n = 5, 17.2%), gait disturbance (n = 5, 17.2%), pain (n = 4, 13.8%), and weakness (n = 4, 13.8%), most (n = 15, 51.7%) with a chronic onset. All patients received total resection without rehemorrhages after surgical resection in follow-up. Sixty-five point five percent patients (n = 19) improved, 13.8% (n = 4) remained stable, 20.7% (n = 6) got worsen. The overall annual hemorrhage risk was 2.1% per patient-year. A total of 27 hemorrhages occurred in the 18 patients, of which rehemorrhage rate increased to 50.0% (n = 9) with a previous history of hemorrhage. Patients with smaller lesion sizes were more likely to have hemorrhage or rehemorrhage events (p = 0.008). Recurrent hemorrhage of the lesions was a risk factor for neurological outcomes (p = 0.016).Conclusion: The risk of rehemorrhage was significantly increased in symptomatic ISCM patients with a previous history of hemorrhage. Rehemorrhage was a risk factor for neurological outcomes. Patients can benefit from microsurgical treatment to avoid rehemorrhage and further neurological deterioration.