bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Democracy
Authors: GÖlz Paul , Kahng Anson , Mackenzie Simon , Procaccia Ariel D.
Published: October 2021

Liquid democracy
is the principle of making collective decisions by letting agents transitively delegate their votes. Despite its significant appeal, it has become apparent that a weakness of liquid democracy is that a small subset of agents may gain massive influence. To address this, we propose to change the current practice by allowing agents to specify multiple delegation options instead of just one. Much like in nature, where—fluid mechanics teaches us—liquid maintains an equal level in connected vessels, we seek to control the flow of votes in a way that balances influence as much as possible. Specifically, we analyze the problem of choosing delegations to approximately minimize the maximum number of votes entrusted to any agent by drawing connections to the literature on confluent flow. We also introduce a random graph model for liquid democracy and use it to demonstrate the benefits of our approach both theoretically and empirically.
VEGFR3 tyrosine kinase inhibition aggravates cisplatin nephrotoxicity
Authors: Black Laurence M. , Farrell Elisa R. , Barwinska Daria , Osis Gunars , Zmijewska Anna A. , Traylor Amie M. , Esman Stephanie K. , Bolisetty Subhashini , Whipple Grace , Kamocka Malgorzata M. , Winfree Seth , Spangler Daryll R. , Khan Shehnaz , Zarjou Abolfazl , El-Achkar Tarek M. , Agarwal Anupam
Published: October 2021

Little is known about injury-associated LA in the kidney and its role in the pathophysiology of acute kidney injury (AKI). Observed exacerbation of cisplatin-induced AKI after LA inhibition was accompanied by increased medullary damage and cell death in the kidney. LA inhibition also upregulated compensatory expression of LA regulatory proteins, including JNK and NF-κB. These data support the premise that LA is induced during AKI and lymphatic expansion is a protective mechanism in cisplatin nephrotoxicity.
A Method for Quantifying Automobile Brake Creep Groan Intensity Based on Friction‐Induced Vibration and Noise
Authors: Zhang Lijun , Wu Jianfeng , Meng Dejian
Published: October 2021

To quantify the intensity of automobile brake creep groan, both experimental and analytical studies are innovatively conducted on the friction‐induced vibration and noise of the disc brake in this paper. Experimentally, three factors, brake disc initial temperature, terrain, and gear position, are comprehensively contemplated to design six different test conditions, based on which a creep groan vehicle road test is conducted. Depending on the subjective evaluation and statistical analysis of the annoyance degree caused by vibration and noise in the starting and braking process under different test conditions, the influence of each factor on creep groan intensity is obtained. By processing the brake caliper and lower suspension arm acceleration and the interior sound pressure signals acquired in the test, the occurrence conditions and transient dynamic characteristics of creep groan are explored. One of the creep groan vibration modes is triggered by the rapid removal of the force exerted on the brake pedal when the vehicle starts at an extremely low speed, which presents intermittent impact and chaotic characteristics. The other vibration mode shows periodic harmonic characteristics, whose energy is concentrated on specific frequencies in the form of frequency doubling. This vibration mode occurs when continuously maintaining a low brake oil pressure or slowly releasing the force exerted on the brake pedal during the vehicle low‐speed starting process, the velocity‐displacement phase‐plane portrait of which shows a stable limit cycle of stick‐slip motion. Analytically, four vibration indexes and four noise indexes are established to evaluate the intensity of creep groan, the validity of which is verified by linear regression analysis. Finally, by combining all effective indexes, multiple linear regression analysis is performed, based on which the mapping relationship between the subjective evaluation of creep groan and effective indexes is obtained. The results demonstrate that the combination of the logarithmic vibration dose value of maximum brake caliper acceleration pulse and the loudness of interior noise can accurately describe the annoying degree caused by creep groan. The regression model can quantify and predict creep groan intensity of the test vehicle under different test conditions, which has guiding significance for engineering applications.
Low-Speed Sensorless Control for the Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors with Sliding Discrete Fourier Transform
Authors: Hou Wenbao , Tan Guojun , Ling Zang
Published: October 2021

An efficient estimation of the rotor position has always been a premise of the reliable operation for the interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM), especially for low-speed conditions because of the small back electromotive force (EMF) and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The commonly used observation method, e.g., sliding mode observer (SMO), is suitable for these surface mounted motors and has no great adaptability to the saliency. In this paper, a novel rotor position (including the real-time position and initial position) estimation method was proposed based on the traditional high-frequency signal injection method. Firstly, high-frequency signals were injected to induce the high-frequency current components which contain the rotor position information. Then, the sliding discrete Fourier transform (SDFT) algorithm was used to extract the amplitudes of the induced current components which could be used to get the real-time and initial rotor positions by a proportional integral (PI) regulator and a polarity identification. Lastly, with the established experiments’ platform, the estimation tests of the rotor position at a low speed have been completed to make verification of the effectiveness of the approach studied in this paper.
Desconfianza
Authors: López Fernando , Rosas Guillermo
Published: October 2021

El sistema de pensiones chileno ha estado en el epicentro del debate público de la última década. La discusión ha apuntado al nivel de las pensiones –que se consideran bajas en relación con las expectativas creadas por los impulsores del sistema y el salario mínimo– así como a diversos aspectos de diseño, como cuánto aportan distintos actores sociales, quiénes debieran administrar las prestaciones y cómo debieran distribuirse los beneficios entre los segmentos de la población (solidaridad inter e intrageneracional). En este artículo nos concentramos en el nivel de confianza que la ciudadanía tiene en instituciones y actores relevantes. Continuar leyendo...
Empleo femenino post pandemia
Authors: Araneda Mauricio
Published: October 2021

El impacto de la pandemia ha puesto una vez más el foco en las desigualdades de género en el mundo del trabajo. La crisis sanitaria ha destruido empleos en un número sin precedentes a nivel mundial y, la peor parte, se la han llevado las mujeres, toda vez que los avances que se habían logrado en su inclusión laboral, retrocedieron años. Las cifras son elocuentes. Según datos de la OIT, a nivel planetario, se perdió 4,2% del empleo de las mujeres, frente al 3% de los hombres, siendo los sectores manufactureros y de servicios los más impactados, donde, justamente, es mayor la representación de las mujeres y donde a menudo trabajan en modalidades informales. Continuar leyendo...
Are Prolonged Ventricular Pauses in Atrial Fibrillation a Marker of Poor Prognosis?
Authors: Stavnem Dorte Marie , Hadad Rakin , Larsen Bjørn Strøier , Nielsen Olav Wendelboe , Aplin Frederiksen Mark , Davidsen Ulla , Højbjerg Søren , Karlsen Finn Michael , Vall-Lamora Maria Helena Domínguez , Rasmusen Hanne Kruuse , Sajadieh Ahmad
Published: October 2021

Background: In patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), the long-term prognosis of long electrocardiographic pauses in the ventricular action is not well studied. Methods: Consecutive Holter recordings in patients with AF (n = 200) between 2009 and 2011 were evaluated, focusing on pauses of at least 2.5 s. Outcomes of interest were all-cause mortality and pacemaker implantation. Results: Forty-three patients (21.5%) had pauses with a mean of 3.2 s and an SD of 0.9 s. After a median follow-up of 99 months (ranging 89–111), 47% (20/43) of the patients with and 45% (70/157) without pauses were deceased. Pauses of ≥2.5 s did not constitute a risk of increased mortality: HR = 0.75 (95% CI: 0.34–1.66); p = 0.48, neither did pauses of ≥3.0 s: HR = 0.43 (95% CI: 0.06–3.20); p = 0.41. Sixteen percent of patients with pauses underwent pacemaker implantation during follow-up. Only pauses in patients referred to Holter due to syncope and/or dizzy spells were associated with an increased risk of pacemaker treatment: HR = 4.7 (95% CI: 1.4–15.9), p = 0.014, adjusted for age, sex, and rate-limiting medication. Conclusion: In patients with AF, prolonged electrocardiographic pauses of ≥2.5 s or ≥3.0 s are not a marker for increased mortality in this real-life clinical study.
Analyzing the relationship between information technology jobs advertised on-line and skills requirements using association rules
Authors: Patacsil Frederick F. , Acosta Michael
Published: October 2021

Online job vacancy sites have become an important source of information about the characteristics of labor market demand. It has become an avenue for job matching by both employers and employees and to study and analyze the labor market. This study proposed a methodology for identifying and analyzing skill-job relationships using frequency word occurrences of skills as a requirement of the job. It employed association rule mining which aims to discover frequent patterns, relationships among a set of items in the database. It collected published job vacancy data to IT job and skills requirements from various job portal websites. The proposed job skill requirements for specific I.T. jobs published online analyzing using the FP-growth algorithm of association rule provide a new dimension in labor market research. The study revealed that skill words are highly related to a certain job requirement. The results of the study could provide insights on the gap between the school acquired skills and actual IT industry skill needs and as the basis for curriculum enhancement and policy-making interventions by the Philippine government in its educational system.
Framework proposal for adaptive mobile intelligent agents
Authors: Ruiz-Ledesma Elena Fabiola , Palma-Orozco Rosaura , Acosta-Gonzaga Elizabeth
Published: October 2021

Intelligent agents are computational entities which have elements that provide them with the ability to perceive and manipulate their environment: sensors and actuators. These are characterized by displaying various properties that adapt and achieve their objectives. Autonomy, learning, collaboration and reasoning are examples of these properties which together make them intelligent artificial entities. This article shows the development of a framework that has made it possible to speed-up the construction of a system of adaptive mobile intelligent agents, called SySAge. The system agents have integrated search and learning techniques for the execution of automated processes focused on solving search, classification and optimization problems. It has been found that through learning, the agents were able to estimate input parameters and apply them in estimating the shortest route in a graph, considering cost and penalty aspects. To determine the choice of search technique, a probabilistic selection was used. The autonomous behavior of each agent was appreciated through the various attempts to solve the search problem and not to focus the information acquired individually on a single agent.
RT-RCT: an online tool for real-time retrieval of connected things
Authors: Fagroud Fatima Zahra , Ben Lahmar El Habib , Toumi Hicham , Baddi Youssef , El Filali Sanaa
Published: October 2021

In recent years, internet of things (IoT) represents a giant and a promoter area in innovation and engineering fields. IoT devices are spread in various fields and offer advanced services which assist their users to monitor and control objects remotely. IoT has a set of special characteristics such as dynamic, variety of data and huge scale which introduces a great challenge in the field of retrieval technologies, more precisely real-time retrieval. This paper addresses the issue of real-time retrieval of connected things and tries to propose an innovative solution which allows the retrieval of these things and their descriptive data. The paper proposes an on-line tool for real-time retrieval of connected things and their descriptive data based on network port scanning technique. The performance of this tool proves to be powerful under normal conditions, however more tests must be implemented in the aim to improve the proposed solution. The tool resulted from this work appears to be promising and can be used as a reference by network administrators and IT security managers for the development of new security mechanisms and security reinforcement.
Improvement of double-layer phosphor structure WLEDS in color homogeneity and luminous flux
Authors: Thi Dieu An Nguyen , That Phung Ton , Nguyen Hoang Nam
Published: October 2021

The concept of the analysis is to put a CaAl2O4:Mn2+ green phosphor layer on top of the YAG:Ce3+ yellow phosphor layer. After that, find the added CaAl2O4:Mn2+ concentration appropriate for the highest luminous flux (LF) and color homogeneity (CH). In this analysis, five equivalent WLEDs were applied but with distinct color temperatures, including 5600 K - 8500 K. The findings showed that CaAl2O4:Mn2+ brings great benefits to increase not only the luminous flux but also the color homogeneity. Especially, the higher the CaAl2O4:Mn2+ concentration, the more the luminous flux released by WLEDs, owing to the risen content of the light of green in WLEDs. Nevertheless, as the CaAl2O4:Mn2+ concentration raised significantly, a small reduction in the color rendering metric (CRI) and color quality scale (CQS) occurred. This is supported by simulation and calculation according to the theory of Monte Carlo. The paper results are the crucial contribution to the manufacture of WLEDs with better optical performance and color homogeneity of remote phosphor configurations.
The novel noise classification techniques found on quadruple threshold statistical detection filter under fix intensity impulse outlier environment
Authors: Patanavijit Vorapoj , Thakulsukanant Kornkamol
Published: October 2021

Because of the enormous necessity of contemporary noise suppressing algorithms, this article proposes the novel noise classification technique found on QTSD filter improved from the TTSD filter. The four thresholds for each auxiliary situations are incorporated into the proposed QTSD framework for dealing with the limitation of the earlier noise classification technique. The mathematical pattern is modeled by each photograph elements and is investigated in contradiction to the 1st threshold for analyzing whether it is non-noise or noise photograph elements. Subsequently, the calculated photograph element is analyzed with the contradiction between the 2nd threshold, which is modeled by using the normal distribution (mean and variance), and is analyzed with the contradiction between the 3rd threshold, which is modeled by using the quartile distribution (median). Finally, the calculated photograph element is investigated in contradiction to the 4th threshold, which is modeled from maximum or minimum value for analyzing whether it is non-noise or noise photograph elements FIIN. For performance evaluation, extensive noisy photographs are made up of nine photographs under FIIN environment distribution, which are synthesized for investigating the proposed noise classification techniques found on QTSD filter in the objective indicators (noise classification, non-noise classification and overall classification correctness). From these results, the proposed noise classification technique can outstandingly produce the higher correctness than the earlier noise classification techniques.
Classifying lymphoma and tuberculosis case reports using machine learning algorithms
Authors: Pholo Moanda Diana , Hamam Yskandar , Khalaf Abdel Baset , Du Chunling
Published: October 2021

Available literature reports several lymphoma cases misdiagnosed as tuberculosis, especially in countries with a heavy TB burden. This frequent misdiagnosis is due to the fact that the two diseases can present with similar symptoms. The present study therefore aims to analyse and explore TB as well as lymphoma case reports using Natural Language Processing tools and evaluate the use of machine learning to differentiate between the two diseases. As a starting point in the study, case reports were collected for each disease using web scraping. Natural language processing tools and text clustering were then used to explore the created dataset. Finally, six machine learning algorithms were trained and tested on the collected data, which contained 765 lymphoma and 546 tuberculosis case reports. Each method was evaluated using various performance metrics. The results indicated that the multi-layer perceptron model achieved the best accuracy (93.1%), recall (91.9%) and precision score (93.7%), thus outperforming other algorithms in terms of correctly classifying the different case reports.
Social impact of renewable energy systems: solar energy system in vulnerable community case study
Authors: Gómez Yeison Alberto Garcés- , Céspedes Vladimir Henao- , Sánchez Diana Marcela Gómez , Trujillo Ángel Andrés López , García Nicolás Toro
Published: October 2021

Photovoltaic lighting systems are unable to reach people with low purchasing power due to high installation costs, so they have traditionally been concentrated in families with high purchasing power and currently do not take into account the social power that this type of system represents. This article analyzes through bibliometric review the effect that lighting can have on human development and how a good lighting system can positively affect a community environment. It is proposed the social design of a photovoltaic lighting system which will be installed in a vulnerable community with resources obtained by the community itself and the whole process of accompaniment achieving a satisfactory impact on the community and achieving integration between the same from community participation. The development of workshops with the children of the community has also been proposed, leading to the training and recognition of alternative energy systems as a strategy of social appropriation.
Performance comparison of TF-IDF and Word2Vec models for emotion text classification
Authors: Cahyani Denis Eka , Patasik Irene
Published: October 2021

Emotion is the human feeling when communicating with other humans or reaction to everyday events. Emotion classification is needed to recognize human emotions from text. This study compare the performance of the TF-IDF and Word2Vec models to represent features in the emotional text classification. We use the support vector machine (SVM) and Multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB) methods for classification of emotional text on commuter line and transjakarta tweet data. The emotion classification in this study has two steps. The first step classifies data that contain emotion or no emotion. The second step classifies data that contain emotions into five types of emotions i.e. happy, angry, sad, scared, and surprised. This study used three scenarios, namely SVM with TF-IDF, SVM with Word2Vec, and MNB with TF-IDF. The SVM with TF-IDF method generate the highest accuracy compared to other methods in the first dan second steps classification, then followed by the MNB with TF-IDF, and the last is SVM with Word2Vec. Then, the evaluation using precision, recall, and F1-measure results that the SVM with TF-IDF provides the best overall method. This study shows TF-IDF modeling has better performance than Word2Vec modeling and this study improves classification performance results compared to previous studies.
Starting of induction motor fed with stand-alone DFIG
Authors: Sharawy M. , Shaltout Adel A. , Rahim Naser Abdel- , Al-Ahmar Mahmoud A. , Youssef O. E. M.
Published: October 2021

This paper presents dynamic simulation and control of stand-alone doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) loaded with 3-phase induction motors (IMs). The study reveals that direct on-line starting of large IMs causes a large voltage sag across the generator terminals as the starting current drawn reaches up to 8-9 times the rated load current. Traditionally, this problem has tackled by oversizing of the generator or employment of special starters, under the pretext of mitigating voltage sag. This work explores ways that the starting current can be reduced economically by applying constant V/f control side by side with indirect field-oriented control (FOC) applied on the rotor side converter of the DFIG. This methodology enables starting of larger IMs and mitigation of voltage sag that occurs during the start-up period. Two different rating of IMs loaded with speed-squared mechanical torque are mainly considered. Simulation results of the system behavior under study confirm the capability of the proposed control.
Analysing admission control for AODV and DSR routing protocol in mobile ad-hoc network
Authors: Aina Folayo , Yousef Sufian , Osanaiye Opeyemi
Published: October 2021

The widespread deployment of mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) in the areas of agriculture, military defence, weather forecasting and disaster control has necessitated the implementation of admission control within a network for a guaranteed quality of service (QoS). Admission control organises traffic flows to ensure the network medium is fairly shared among various nodes in the network. Various admission control algorithms have been proposed in the literature, using different metrics and parameters to achieve different admission control quality. In this work, we propose an Admission control in mobile ad-hoc network routing (ACMANR) using both bandwidth capacity and resource estimation to achieve a good QoS. Furthermore, we analyse the behaviour of two well-known routing protocols in wireless network, ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) and dynamic source routing (DSR), in our proposed admission control algorithm. Simulation results obtained from our proposed admission control algorithm using OPNET show that AODV routing protocol had a better throughput while DSR produced a better delay with lower overhead in MANET. Our proposed approach also shows better performance in terms of throughput and delay when compared with the state-of-the-art admission control routing using AODV and DSR.
Feature selection for improving Indian spoken language identification in utterance duration mismatch condition
Authors: Bakshi Aarti , Kopparapu Sunil Kumar
Published: October 2021

In spoken language identification (SLID) systems, the test data may be of a sufficiently shorter duration than training data, known as duration mismatch condition. Duration normalized features are used to identify a spoken language for nine Indian languages in duration mismatch conditions. Random forest-based importance vectors of 1582 OpenSMILE features are calculated for each utterance in different duration datasets. The feature importance vectors are normalized across each dataset and later across different duration datasets. The optimal number of duration normalized features is selected to maximize SLID system accuracy. Three classifiers, artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF), and their fusion, weights optimized using logistic regression, are used. The speech material comprised utterances, each of 30 sec, extracted from the All India Radio dataset with nine Indian languages. Seven new datasets of smaller utterance durations were generated by carefully splitting each utterance. Experimental results showed that 150 most important duration normalized features were optimal with a relative increase in 18-80% accuracy for mismatch conditions. The accuracy decreased with increased duration mismatch.
Uma “exploração arqueológica” da ideia de vazio como recipiente a partir de Aristóteles, Physica 4.6 213a15-19
Authors: Gomes Gustavo Laet
Published: October 2021

Even though rejecting the notion of void, Aristotle considers it a crucial theme in his discussion about motion. That becomes evident when we find four chapters of Physics 4 dedicated to the discussion and refutation of the void. In this paper, I set on an exploratory search for the reasons that moved Aristotle to discuss the idea of void as a container (ἀγγεῖον) in Phys. 4.6 213a15-19, unearthing a series of terms and notions used by previous thinkers that may have led Aristotle to formulate such conception. Special attention is given to Democritus, who, with his theory of atoms and void, is clearly the main target of Aristotle’s criticism of the void. I conclude that the notion of void as a container is not at all strange to ancient thinkers, and that its reconstitution by Aristotle is everything but trivial and simplistic, inasmuch as the Democritean notion of void he intends to refute is everything but trivial and simplistic.
Du pastorat divin au gouvernement humain Sur la genèse et les limites de la politique dans le Politique de Platon
Authors: Oliveira Richard Romeiro
Published: October 2021

The Statesman can be considered one of the most difficult platonic texts to read. However, if one analyzes the work carefully, it becomes easy to realize that it gives us, through the development of a dialectical research centered on the definition of the political man (πολιτικὸς ἀνήρ), a precious philosophical teaching on the nature of the politics and its inherently human character, teaching that should be taken into account not only for the understanding of the meaning of this particular dialogue but also for the understanding of platonic political theory as a whole. In this article, we will try to understand this aspect of the Statesman by analyzing two parts of the text that are of fundamental importance to its economy: that relating to the myth of Kronos (268d-277c) and that devoted to the theory of the best regime (292d- 303 d).
Natural Sciences and Anthropology in Didymus the Blind’s Commentaries on the Bible: a Possible Aristotelian Influence
Authors: Zambon Marco
Published: October 2021

This paper gathers from Didymus’ exegetical works (in particular from the lessons on the book of Psalms and on the Ecclesiastes) all significant testimonies concerning his knowledge of natural sciences and his anthropological doctrine. Based on these materials I will briefly discuss their possible sources, trying to answer following questions: a) What kind of Aristotelian doctrines can we recognise in Didymus’ statements concerning cosmology, biology and anthropology? b) Is there sufficient evidence to conclude that he had, beside the Organon, also a direct knowledge of other Aristotelian works? c) How important are methods and doctrines coming from Aristotle for Didymus’ exegetical practice?
Turismo acessível para pessoas com deficiências: a produção científica dos periódicos de turismo do Brasil
Authors: Rodrigues Igor Moraes , Valduga Vander
Published: October 2021

O objetivo do trabalho é identificar e analisar as publicações sobre turismo acessível para pessoas com deficiências nos periódicos de turismo do Brasil. Metodologicamente a pesquisa se caracteriza como exploratória e descritiva e foi realizada por meio de pesquisa de estado da arte e pesquisa sistemática com abordagem qualitativa. Foram identificados 25 periódicos brasileiros de turismo para análise dos dados os quais, juntos, somaram um total de 5816 artigos publicados em todos os seus volumes e edições. Desses, apenas 45 artigos abordam o tema em questão. Como resultados foram identificadas 12 temáticas referentes às abordagens dos artigos encontrados, assim como verificou-se uma maior incidência de artigos publicados sobre o tema no ano de 2016 e na Revista Turismo Visão e Ação.  Além disso, verificou-se que a maioria dos artigos aborda apenas um tipo de deficiência assim como a deficiência de uma maneira geral e identificou-se a predominância feminina tanto na autoria quanto na coautoria dos artigos. Apesar da incipiência de estudos sobre o tema foi possível perceber diversas abordagens envolvendo as pessoas com deficiências, demonstrando que o que falta é percebê-las, de fato, como turistas.
Social Vulnerability and Premature Cardiovascular Mortality Among US Counties, 2014 to 2018
Authors: Khan Safi U. , Javed Zulqarnain , Lone Ahmad N. , Dani Sourbha S. , Amin Zahir , Al-Kindi Sadeer G. , Virani Salim S. , Sharma Garima , Blankstein Ron , Blaha Michael J. , Cainzos-Achirica Miguel , Nasir Khurram
Published: October 2021

Background:

Substantial differences exist between United States counties with regards to premature (<65 years of age) cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Whether underlying social vulnerabilities of counties influence premature CVD mortality is uncertain.

Methods:

In this cross-sectional study (2014–2018), we linked county-level CDC/ATSDR SVI (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Social Vulnerability Index) data with county-level CDC WONDER (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiological Research) mortality data. We calculated scores for overall SVI and its 4 subcomponents (ie, socioeconomic status; household composition and disability; minority status and language; and housing type and transportation) using 15 social attributes. Scores were presented as percentile rankings by county, further classified as quartiles on the basis of their distribution among all US counties (1st [least vulnerable] = 0 to 0.25; 4th [most vulnerable = 0.75 to 1.00]). We grouped age-adjusted mortality rates per 100 000 person-years for overall CVD and its subtypes (ischemic heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and heart failure) for nonelderly (<65 years of age) adults across SVI quartiles.

Results:

Overall, the age-adjusted CVD mortality rate per 100 000 person-years was 47.0 (ischemic heart disease, 28.3; stroke, 7.9; hypertension, 8.4; and heart failure, 2.4). The largest concentration of counties with more social vulnerabilities and CVD mortality were clustered across the southwestern and southeastern parts of the United States. The age-adjusted CVD mortality rates increased in a stepwise manner from 1st to 4th SVI quartiles. Counties in the 4th SVI quartile had significantly higher mortality for CVD (rate ratio, 1.84 [95% CI, 1.43–2.36]), ischemic heart disease (1.52 [1.09–2.13]), stroke (2.03 [1.12–3.70]), hypertension (2.71 [1.54–4.75]), and heart failure (3.38 [1.32–8.61]) than those in the 1st SVI quartile. The relative risks varied considerably by demographic characteristics. For example, among all ethnicities/races, non-Hispanic Black adults in the 4th SVI quartile versus the 1st SVI quartile exclusively had significantly higher relative risks of stroke (1.65 [1.07–2.54]) and heart failure (2.42 [1.29–4.55]) mortality. Rural counties with more social vulnerabilities had 2- to 5-fold higher mortality attributable to CVD and subtypes.

Conclusions:

In this analysis, US counties with more social vulnerabilities had higher premature CVD mortality, varied by demographic characteristics and rurality. Focused public health interventions should address the socioeconomic disparities faced by underserved communities to curb the growing burden of premature CVD.
Subtypes of Histopathologically Classical Aldosterone-Producing Adenomas Yield Various Transcriptomic Signaling and Outcomes
Authors: Wu Vin-Cent , Peng Kang-Yung , Kuo Yu-Ping , Liu Hsuan , Tan Bertrand Chin-Ming , Lin Yen-Hung , Lai Tai-Shuan , Chen Yung-Ming , Chueh Jeff S ,   TAIPAI
Published: October 2021

There have been no reports of outcome differences between distinctive subgroups in patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism with histopathologically classical adenomas. The characteristics and incidence of complete clinical success in the patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism could be associated with the concomitant existence of multiple aldosterone-producing micronodules/nodules. Altogether, 74 classical adenomas (mean, 52.9 years and 40 men [54.1%]) were identified among 98 operated patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism. Among them accompanying multiple aldosterone-producing micronodules/nodules (group A) were identified in 38 (51.3%) of the adrenal glands; these patients showed lower likelihood (42.1%) to achieve complete clinical success than that (80.6%) of those with aldosterone-producing adenoma/nodules alone (group B,
P
=0.001). Additionally, group A adenomas were associated with less complete clinical success (odds ratio, 5.53,
P
=0.005) in the multivariable regression analysis. Group A patients also had higher baseline aldosterone production (absolute aldosterone ratio) from the contralateral adrenal gland (
P
=0.039). Based on the patterns of genes with highly differential expressions as uncovered by RNA-seq analysis, Group A adenomas showed distinct transcriptomic profiles in comparison to the gene expressions from Group B adenomas. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that HTR2B-mediated calcium pathway, in terms of
HTR2B
, and
PLCE1
was prominently downregulated in Group A adenomas. There was 51.3% of the patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism with classical group A adenomas. These patients were more likely to have hypertension-persistence after adrenalectomy. The functional signatures of Group A adenomas showed attenuated HTR2B-mediated PLC/IP3/Ca2
+
pathway; this may provide some mechanistic explanation to various clinical outcomes.
Supplementing Existing Societal Risk Models for Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement With Machine Learning for Improved Prediction
Authors: Kilic Arman , Habib Robert H. , Miller James K. , Shahian David M. , Dearani Joseph A. , Dubrawski Artur W.
Published: October 2021

Background

This study evaluated the role of supplementing Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) risk models for surgical aortic valve replacement with machine learning (ML).

Methods and Results

Adults undergoing isolated surgical aortic valve replacement in the STS National Database between 2007 and 2017 were included. ML models for operative mortality and major morbidity were previously developed using extreme gradient boosting. Concordance and discordance in predicted risk between ML and STS models were defined using equal‐size tertile‐based thresholds of risk. Calibration metrics and discriminatory capability were compared between concordant and discordant patients. A total of 243 142 patients were included. Nearly all calibration metrics were improved in cases of concordance. Similarly, concordance indices improved substantially in cases of concordance for all models with the exception of deep sternal wound infection. The greatest improvements in concordant versus discordant cases were in renal failure: ML model (concordance index, 0.660 [95% CI, 0.632–0.687] discordant versus 0.808 [95% CI, 0.794–0.822] concordant) and STS model (concordance index, 0.573 [95% CI, 0.549–0.576] discordant versus 0.797 [95% CI, 0.782–0.811] concordant) (each
P
<0.001). Excluding deep sternal wound infection, the concordance indices ranged from 0.549 to 0.660 for discordant cases and 0.674 to 0.808 for concordant cases.

Conclusions

Supplementing ML models with existing STS models for surgical aortic valve replacement may have an important role in risk prediction and should be explored further. In particular, for the roughly 25% to 50% of patients demonstrating discordance in estimated risk between ML and STS, there appears to be a substantial decline in predictive performance suggesting vulnerability of the existing models in these patient subsets.
Assessing the effect of article processing charges on the geographic diversity of authors using Elsevier’s “Mirror Journal” system
Authors: Smith Audrey C. , Merz Leandra , Borden Jesse B. , Gulick Chris K. , Kshirsagar Akhil R. , Bruna Emilio M.
Published: October 2021

Journals publishing open access (OA) articles often require that authors pay article processing charges (APC). Researchers in the Global South often cite APCs as a major financial obstacle to OA publishing, especially in widely recognized or prestigious outlets. Consequently, it has been hypothesized that authors from the Global South will be underrepresented in journals charging APCs. We tested this hypothesis using more than 37,000 articles from Elsevier’s “Mirror journal” system, in which a hybrid “Parent” journal and its Gold OA “Mirror” share editorial boards and standards for acceptance. Most articles were non-OA; 45% of articles had lead authors based in either the United States or China. After correcting for the effect of this dominance and differences in sample size, we found that OA articles published in Parent and Mirror journals had lead authors with similar Geographic Diversity. However, Author Geographic Diversity of OA articles was significantly lower than that of non-OA articles. Most OA articles were written by authors in high-income countries, and there were no articles in Mirror journals by authors in low-income countries. Our results for Elsevier’s Mirror-Parent system are consistent with the hypothesis that APCs are a barrier to OA publication for scientists from the Global South.
Applied usage and performance of statistical matching in bibliometrics: The comparison of milestone and regular papers with multiple measurements of disruptiveness as an empirical example
Authors: Bittmann Felix , Tekles Alexander , Bornmann Lutz
Published: October 2021

Controlling for confounding factors is one of the central aspects of quantitative research. Although methods such as linear regression models are common, their results can be misleading under certain conditions. We demonstrate how statistical matching can be utilized as an alternative that enables the inspection of post-matching balancing. This contribution serves as an empirical demonstration of matching in bibliometrics and discusses the advantages and potential pitfalls. We propose matching as an easy-to-use approach in bibliometrics to estimate effects and remove bias. To exemplify matching, we use data about papers published in Physical Review E and a selection classified as milestone papers. We analyze whether milestone papers score higher in terms of a proposed class of indicators for measuring disruptiveness than nonmilestone papers. We consider disruption indicators DI1, DI5, DI1n, DI5n, and DEP and test which of the disruption indicators performs best, based on the assumption that milestone papers should have higher disruption indicator values than nonmilestone papers. Four matching algorithms (propensity score matching (PSM), coarsened exact matching (CEM), entropy balancing (EB), and inverse probability weighting (IPTW)) are compared. We find that CEM and EB perform best regarding covariate balancing and DI5 and DEP performing well to evaluate disruptiveness of published papers.
Brood size manipulation reveals cost on the size of the second clutch in the earwig Anisolabis maritime
Authors: Suzuki Seizi
Published: October 2021

There may be a trade-off between the duration of parental care and future reproductive success. Traditionally, studies about the cost of parental care have included the removal of the parent. However, producing a secondary clutch after the failure of the first one is a compensatory behaviour that occurs in cases of brood failure. In this study, attempts were made to detect the cost of maternal care in the earwig, Anisolabis maritima (Dermaptera: Anisolabididae) by either extending the period of care or increasing the brood size to prevent compensation through the brood’s success. The results indicated that manipulation did not change the inter-clutch interval, although my previous study revealed shortening of these intervals after the removal of the clutch in this species. In this study, decreased clutch size manipulation increased the size of the following clutch.
Unruly Visual Art as a Source for Liberal Humanist Resilience
Authors: Elias Willem
Published: October 2021

Visual art does not judge. That was the method advocated by the school of the skeptics of Pyrrho. Since everything was considered doubtful, they did not want to pass judgment on anything, with a view to achieving “ataraxia,” or the peace of mind. Nowadays “stress-resistant” people would say this means that resilience is thrown out of the window. Artwork is open, stated Umberto Eco. All serious interpretations are therefore possible. Contradiction, or at least ambiguity, is an important aspect of art. That is precisely what makes it such an interesting source of resilience. I will take as a case study the discussion that took place in the recent past about sudden unsolicited, inappropriate images painted on walls in Brussels. The artwork by Bonom, Vincent Glowinski, was not part of an urban beautification plan, but raucous protests against the absurd decisions of power and against the hypocrisy of our society.
Association between teachers’ shared book reading strategies and children’s vocabulary development in rural China preschools
Authors: He Kunlei , Bowman Yiran Z
Published: October 2021

Shared book reading is among the most common activities in preschools and is a key teaching practice to improve children’s language and literacy skills. The purpose of this research is to investigate the association between teachers’ shared book reading strategies and preschoolers’ language skills in rural China. We coded shared book reading class videos of 10 village-level kindergarten classrooms and divided teachers’ strategies into two categories – textual and extratextual strategies. This study analyzed the correlation between teachers’ choice of shared book reading strategies and children’s language skills among 10 teachers and 94 children. We found that teachers’ use of textual strategies was a strong predictor of children’s language skills. Implications for teaching skills during shared book reading in rural China preschools are discussed.
The Promise of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2021 and Beyond
Authors: Rakesh Anju , Chandran Nisha
Published: October 2021

We are living through a very volatile period—one induced and disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses world over have recalibrated (and continue to recalibrate) their systems, processes and protocols to suit the new normal(s). How are progressive organisations approaching diversity, equity and inclusion? What are the promises of this universal talent management dimension of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)? This article is an exploration of what DEI holds for the future of organisations, drawing insights from corporate India’s largest diversity analytics exercise—Working Mother and Avtar Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI).
An Interesting Journey of an LGBTQ Professional
Authors: Mehta Jaskiran
Published: October 2021

LGBTQ individuals represent a diverse spectrum of society, and the community has grown in visibility and profile socially and professionally over the past decade, coupled with a more favourable social environment. Organisational mores and policies have evolved to be more supportive, yet challenges remain. This article focuses on the journey of Neha (name changed to protect privacy), the challenges she faced being perceived as LGBTQ at a marquee Indian organisation, and how she overcame them with the collective support of her peers and organisation.
Functional glyco-metagenomics elucidates the role of glycan-related genes in environments
Authors: Takihara Hayato , Miura Nobuaki , Aoki-Kinoshita Kiyoko F. , Okuda Shujiro
Published: October 2021

Background

Glycan-related genes play a fundamental role in various processes for energy acquisition and homeostasis maintenance while adapting to the environment in which the organism exists; however, their role in the microbiome in the environment is unclear.

Methods

Sequence alignment was performed between known glycan-related genes and complete genomes of microorganisms, and optimal parameters for identifying glycan-related genes were determined based on the alignments. Using the constructed scheme (> 90% of identity and > 25 aa of alignment length), glycan-related genes in various environments were identified from 198 different metagenome data.

Results

As a result, we identified 86.73 million glycan-related genes from the metagenome data. Among the 12 environments classified in this study, the percentage of glycan-related genes was high in the human-associated environment, suggesting that these environments utilize glycan metabolism better than other environments. On the other hand, the relative abundances of both glycoside hydrolases and glycosyltransferases surprisingly had a coverage of over 80% in all the environments. These glycoside hydrolases and glycosyltransferases were classified into two groups of (1) general enzyme families identified in various environments and (2) specific enzymes found only in certain environments. The general enzyme families were mostly from genes involved in monosaccharide metabolism, and most of the specific enzymes were polysaccharide degrading enzymes.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that environmental microorganisms could change the composition of their glycan-related genes to adapt the processes involved in acquiring energy from glycans in their environments. Our functional glyco-metagenomics approach has made it possible to clarify the relationship between the environment and genes from the perspective of carbohydrates, and the existence of glycan-related genes that exist specifically in the environment.
Pain measurement in the older people: evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Geriatric Pain Measure (GPM-24) – Polish version
Authors: Puto Grażyna , Repka Iwona , Brzyski Piotr
Published: October 2021

Background

Chronic pain in older people is of particular importance not only with regard to negative subjective experience but also as an indicator of the quality of medical care. Brief scales to assess pain may help health professionals with early recognition and treatment to avoid patient suffering. However, these scales should be adapted to the cultural context to provide valid assessments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Polish translation of the Geriatric Pain Measure – 24 (GPM-24) in older people.

Methods

The study was conducted among 181 people aged 65 and over with chronic (noncancer) pain of varying intensity lasting more than 6 months. Construct validity was assessed using the principal component analysis (PCA) method with oblimin rotation. Criterion validity was evaluated by correlating the scores of the GPM-24 with the scores of the McGill-Melzack questionnaire (MPQ). The reliability of the GPM-24 was estimated in terms of internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients.

Results

The PCA revealed a 6- component structure of the set of items that constituted the GPM-24. Most of these components were defined by items included in the same subscale, similar to the result obtained by the original scale’s authors. There were significant correlations between the GPM-24 and some dimensions of MPQ: affective (rho = 0.25, p = 0.001), present pain intensity (rho = 0.44, p < 0.001), pain rating index total (rho = 0.31, p < 0.001), and number of words chosen (rho = 0.26, p < 0.001). The value of the standardized Cronbach’s alpha equalled 0.89 and thus confirmed the high reliability of the GPM-24.

Conclusions

The Geriatric Pain Measure − 24 is a reliable and valid tool that is recommended for the monitoring and multidimensional assessment of chronic pain in older people in daily practice as well as in clinical trials.

Trial registration

Statutory research “Chronic pain in people over 65 years of age” K/ZDS/005733, conducted in 2015–2018.