bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Zugang 1: Öffentliche Stigmatisierung
Authors: Finzi Jan A.
Published: April 2023

Die öffentliche Wahrnehmung ist zentral für Stigmatisierungsprozesse. Pryor und Reeder stellen diese Öffentliche Stigmatisierung in den Mittelpunkt ihres Models von Stigmatisierungsprozessen. Die Öffentliche Stigmatisierung steht mit allen anderen Arten der Stigmatisierung in Beziehung und ist mit diesen dynamisch verbunden.
One-loop algebras and fixed flow trajectories in adjoint multi-scalar gauge theory
Authors: Flodgren Nadia , Sundborg Bo
Published: April 2023

Abstract

We study the one loop renormalisation of 4d SU(N) Yang-Mills theory with M adjoint representation scalar multiplets related by O(M) symmetry. General M are of field theoretic interest, and the 4d one loop beta function of the gauge coupling g2 vanishes for the case M = 22, which is intriguing for string theory. This case is related to D3 branes of critical bosonic string theory in D = 22 + 4 = 26. An RG fixed point could have provided a definition for a purely bosonic AdS/CFT, but we show that scalar self-couplings λ ruin one-loop conformal invariance in the large N limit. There are real fixed flows (fixed points of λ/g2) only for M ≥ 406, rendering one-loop fixed points of the gauge coupling and scalar couplings incompatible.

We develop and check an algebraic approach to the one-loop renormalisation group which we find to be characterised by a non-associative algebra of marginal couplings. In the large N limit, the resulting RG flows typically suffer from strong coupling in both the ultraviolet and the infrared. Only for M ≥ 406 fine-tuned solutions exist which are weakly coupled in the infrared.
A forgotten fermion: the hypercharge −3/2 doublet, its phenomenology and connections to dark matter
Authors: Coy Rupert
Published: April 2023

Abstract

A weak-doublet with hypercharge −3/2 is one of only a handful of fermions which has a renormalisable interaction with Standard Model fields. This should make it worthy of attention, but it has thus far received little consideration in the literature. In this paper, we perform a thorough investigation of the phenomenology which results from the introduction of this field, F. After expressing the model in terms of its effective field theory at dimension-6, we compute a range of electroweak and leptonic observables, the most stringent of which probe up to MF ~ 300 TeV. The simplicity of this scenario makes it very predictive and allows us to correlate the different processes. We then study how this new fermion can connect the SM to various simple but distinct dark sectors. Some of the most minimal cases of F-mediated dark matter (DM) involve frozen-in keV-scale scalar DM, which may produce x-ray lines, and frozen-out TeV-scale fermionic DM.
A microscopic analogue of the BMS group
Authors: Weiss Daniel Alexander
Published: April 2023

Abstract

We consider a microscopic analogue of the BMS analysis of asymptotic symmetries by analysing universal geometric structures on infinitesimal tangent light cones. Thereby, two natural microscopic symmetry groups arise: a non-trivially represented Lorentz group and a BMS-like group. The latter has a rich mathematical structure, since it contains the former as a non-canonical subgroup, next to infinitely many other Lorentz subgroups. None of those Lorentz subgroups appears to be intrinsically preferred, and hence, the microscopic BMS-like group constitutes a natural symmetry group for infinitesimal tangent light cones. We compare our investigation with the classical BMS analysis and show, that the microscopic BMS-like group is a gauge group for the bundle of null vectors. Motivated by the various applications of the original BMS group, our findings could have interesting implications: they identify a geometric structure that could be suitable for a bulk analysis of gravitational waves, they suggest a possible enlargement of the fundamental gauge group of gravity and they motivate the possibility of an interrelation between the UV structure of gauge theories, gravitational memory effects and BMS-like symmetries. Also, our results imply, that BMS-like groups arise not only as macroscopic, asymptotic symmetry groups in cosmology, but describe also a fundamental and seemingly unknown microscopic symmetry of pseudo-Riemannian geometry.
One-loop Lipatov vertex in QCD with higher ϵ-accuracy
Authors: Fadin Victor S. , Fucilla Michael , Papa Alessandro
Published: April 2023

Abstract

The effective Reggeon-Reggeon-gluon vertex, known as Lipatov vertex, is the key ingredient that allows to develop the BFKL approach in QCD. Within the next-to-leading logarithmic approximation, it is sufficient to know its one-loop corrections, in dimensional regularization (D = 4 + 2ϵ), up to the constant term in the ϵ-expansion. In the next-to-next-to-leading approximation, however, the one-loop Lipatov vertex is needed up to the order ϵ2. In this paper we present the expression for this vertex in dimensional regularization up to the required accuracy.
Infrared-safe flavoured anti-kT jets
Authors: Czakon Michal , Mitov Alexander , Poncelet Rene
Published: April 2023

Abstract

Flavour tagging is technically challenging on the experimental side. However, it suffers from a more fundamental problem from the theoretical point of view, in particular when implemented in fixed-order perturbation theory. It turns out that an infrared-safe definition of a flavoured jet is intricate due to the singularities induced by the emission of flavoured quark-anti-quark pairs of negligible energy. Although this issue has been addressed by a modification of the standard kT jet algorithm, the situation is not entirely satisfactory as most measurements rather use the anti-kT jet algorithm. In this work, we propose a flavour-aware infrared-safe modification of the anti-kT jet algorithm that is easy to implement within perturbative Monte Carlo frameworks and has minor impact on jet phenomenology when flavour tagging is not required. Besides the numerical verification of the infrared safety of the proposed algorithm at next-to-next-to-leading order, we also present results for the hadro-production of a lepton pair in association with a b-jet, and of a top-quark pair decaying into b-jets and leptons.
Identifying quenched jets in heavy ion collisions with machine learning
Authors: Liu Lihan , Velkovska Julia , Wu Yilun , Verweij Marta
Published: April 2023

Abstract

Measurements of jet substructure in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions suggest that the jet showering process is modified by the interaction with the quark-gluon plasma. Modifications of the hard substructure of jets can be explored with modern data-driven techniques. In this study, a machine learning approach to the identification of quenched jets is designed. Jet showering processes are simulated with a jet quenching model Jewel and a non-quenching model Pythia 8. Sequential substructure variables are extracted from the jet clustering history following an angular-ordered sequence and are used in the training of a neural network built on top of a long short-term memory network. We show that this approach successfully identifies the quenching effect in the presence of the large uncorrelated background of soft particles created in heavy-ion collisions.
Entanglement entropy in internal spaces and Ryu-Takayanagi surfaces
Authors: Das Sumit R. , Kaushal Anurag , Mandal Gautam , Nanda Kanhu Kishore , Radwan Mohamed Hany , Trivedi Sandip P.
Published: April 2023

Abstract

We study minimum area surfaces associated with a region, R, of an internal space. For example, for a warped product involving an asymptotically AdS space and an internal space K, the region R lies in K and the surface ends on ∂R. We find that the result of Graham and Karch can be avoided in the presence of warping, and such surfaces can sometimes exist for a general region R. When such a warped product geometry arises in the IR from a higher dimensional asymptotic AdS, we argue that the area of the surface can be related to the entropy arising from entanglement of internal degrees of freedom of the boundary theory. We study several examples, including warped or direct products involving AdS2, or higher dimensional AdS spaces, with the internal space, K = Rm, Sm; Dp brane geometries and their near horizon limits; and several geometries with a UV cut-off. We find that such RT surfaces often exist and can be useful probes of the system, revealing information about finite length correlations, thermodynamics and entanglement. We also make some preliminary observations about the role such surfaces can play in bulk reconstruction, and their relation to subalgebras of observables in the boundary theory.
Virasoro blocks and the reparametrization formalism
Authors: Nguyen Kevin
Published: April 2023

Abstract

An effective theory designed to compute Virasoro identity blocks at large central charge, expressed in terms of the propagation of a reparametrization/shadow mode between bilocal vertices, was recently put forward. In this paper I provide the formal theoretical framework underlying this effective theory by reformulating it in terms of standard concepts: conformal geometry, generating functionals and Feynman diagrams. A key ingredient to this formalism is the bilocal vertex operator, or reparametrized two-point function, which is shown to generate arbitrary stress tensor insertions into a two-point function of reference. I also suggest an extension of the formalism designed to compute generic Virasoro blocks.
Soft-parton contributions to heavy-quark production at low transverse momentum
Authors: Catani Stefano , Devoto Simone , Grazzini Massimiliano , Mazzitelli Javier
Published: April 2023

Abstract

We consider QCD radiative corrections to the production of a heavy-quark pair in hadronic collisions. We present the computation of the soft-parton contributions at low transverse momentum of the heavy-quark pair up to second order in the QCD coupling αS. These results complete the evaluation at the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) of the transverse-momentum resummation formula for this process. Moreover, they give all the ingredients that are needed for the NNLO implementation of the qT subtraction formalism for heavy-quark production. We discuss the details of the computation and we provide a code that can be used to obtain the relevant results in numerical form.
Detection of adulterated meat products by a next-generation sequencing-based metabarcoding analysis within the framework of the operation OPSON X: a cooperative project of the German National Reference Centre for Authentic Food (NRZ-Authent) and the competent German food control authorities
Authors: Kappel Kristina , Gadelmeier Andreas , Denay Grégoire , Gerdes Lars , Graff Andrea , Hagen Margit , Hassel Melanie , Huber Ingrid , Näumann Gabriele , Pavlovic Melanie , Pietsch Klaus , Stumme Barbara , Völkel Inger , Westerdorf Simone , Wöhlke Anne , Hochegger Rupert , Brinks Erik , Franz Charles , Haase llka
Published: April 2023

The German National Reference Centre for Authentic Food (NRZ-Authent) and the competent German food control authorities of the federal states cooperated within the framework of the 10th joint Europol INTERPOL operation OPSON (OPSON X) in the detection of adulterated meat products. A total of 63 meat product samples were collected and analysed by the authorities using standard analytical procedures and subjected to a recently published 16S rDNA metabarcoding analysis. The sequence reads were analysed using 3 bioinformatics data processing strategies. The study aimed to gain additional data on the test samples regarding the authenticity of the declared species and to validate the 16S rDNA metabarcoding method with representative samples. The method was tested not only on 63 test samples, but also on 5 commercial samples from 2 interlaboratory comparison studies and 9 mock mixtures in parallel. The 16S rDNA metabarcoding method was able to detect species that were not target species of the used standard analytical methods, but failed, as shown previously, to detect fallow deer. Otherwise, the qualitative results of the 16S rDNA metabarcoding method were very similar to those of the methods currently in use by the German food control laboratories. Thus, the method has great potential to be used as a screening method for the authentication of mammal and poultry species in meat products.
Operative Therapie von Nävi bei Kindern in einem dermatochirurgischen Zentrum
Authors: Kofler Katrin , Häfner Hans-Martin , Forchhammer Stephan , Kofler Lukas
Published: April 2023

Hintergrund

Im Kindesalter ist die Indikationsstellung zur operativen Therapie und histologischen Diagnostik bei melanozytären Nävi eine große Herausforderung im klinischen Alltag. In der Beratung der Kinder und Eltern nimmt auf der einen Seite der Ausschluss von malignen Befunden, auf der anderen Seite das Risiko für Komplikationen die größte Rolle ein.

Patienten und Methodik

Es wurden 946 Kinder unter 10 Jahren eingeschlossen, die mit der Verdachtsdiagnose eines Melanozytennävus an der Universitätshautklinik Tübingen zwischen 2008 und 2018 operiert wurden. Erfasst wurden der dermatohistopathologische Befund sowie postoperative Komplikationen.

Ergebnisse

Die klinische Diagnose eines melanozytären Nävus wurde in 93,2 % (882/946) der Fälle histologisch bestätigt. Darunter fanden sich 41 Spitz-Nävi und 18 pigmentierte Spindelzelltumoren. Bei 2 Kindern (0,2 %) aus dem Kollektiv wurde die Diagnose eines Melanoms gestellt. Bei weiteren 6,6 % fanden sich nichtmelanozytäre Befunde (u. a. Naevus sebaceus, epidermale Nävi). Die Komplikationsrate war mit 3 % gering. Die häufigste Komplikation war in 1,7 % das Auftreten eines postoperativen Wundinfektes.

Schlussfolgerung

Es ist auch im Kleinkindesalter möglich, kongenitale Nävi unterschiedlicher Größe zu biopsieren oder operativ zu entfernen. Ein wichtiges Instrument hierfür ist die serielle Exzision kongenitaler Nävi. Im untersuchten Kollektiv zeigte sich eine geringe Komplikationsrate. Eine histologische Sicherung ist bei klinisch suspekten oder untypischen Befunden unabdingbar.
Location and motion of vaginal pessaries in situ in women with successful and unsuccessful pessary treatment for pelvic organ prolapse
Authors: Boogaard Lars L. , Triepels Charlotte P. R. , Verhamme Luc M. , van Kuijk Sander M. J. , Donners Judith J. A. E. , Kluivers Kirsten B. , Maal Thomas J. J. , Weemhoff Mirjam , Notten Kim J. B.
Published: April 2023

Introduction and hypothesis

The objective was to compare the location and motion of pessaries between women with pelvic organ prolapse (POP) with a successful (fitting) and unsuccessful (non-fitting) pessary treatment on dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI).

Methods

A cross-sectional exploratory study of 15 women who underwent a mid-sagittal dMRI of the pelvic floor at rest, during contraction and during Valsalva with three different types of pessaries. The coordinates of the pessaries cross section, inferior pubic point (IPP) and sacrococcygeal junction (SCJ) were obtained and the location (position, orientation) and the motion (translation and rotation) were calculated. Differences between the groups and between the pessaries within the groups were compared.

Results

Nine women with a fitting pessary and 6 women with a non-fitting pessary were selected. In the non-fitting group, the pessaries were positioned more caudally and rotated more in clockwise direction and descended more, but not significantly, during Valsalva compared with the fitting group. The Falk pessary was positioned more anteriorly in the fitting group and more cranially in the non-fitting group compared with the ring and ring with support pessary.

Conclusions

A non-fitting pessary was positioned more caudally at rest; on Valsalva, it rotated more clockwise and moved more caudally, suggesting that the dynamic characteristics of the pessary might play an important role in its effectiveness. Findings of this study serve as a basis for the development of new pessary designs.
The impact of corporate sustainability performance on advertising efficiency
Authors: Weinmayer Karl , Garaus Marion , Wagner Udo
Published: April 2023

Over the years several studies have reported a significant waste of advertising budget, a finding which calls for strategies to increase advertising efficiency. While some factors, such as brand extensions or an optimal marketing mix, have already been identified as relevant determinants of advertising efficiency, changes in consumer psychographics have so far been neglected. The current study fills this gap by investigating how the emerging awareness and demand for corporate sustainability serve as a contextual factor leveraging or hindering advertising efficiency. Furthermore, we investigate how advertising efficiency has changed across various industry sectors from 2010 to 2019. A two-step procedure was applied to analyze the secondary data of 1950 observations from 195 US firms in five industry sectors over a period of 10 years. The resulting time series of firm-specific multi-directional efficiency scores confirms that advertising efficiency varies over time, justifying the relevance of a dynamic perspective for analyzing advertising efficiency. Furthermore, in support of our main claim, the investigation of the relationship between advertising efficiency and the environmental, social and governance performance of firms over time using a time-fixed effects panel regression and a three-level hierarchical regression model confirm the significant impact of corporate sustainability performance on advertising efficiency. Interestingly, this effect varies among different industry sectors and not all corporate sustainability activities impact advertising efficiency to the same extent. The results not only emphasize the relevance of corporate sustainability performance in increasing advertising efficiency, but also guide marketers on strategic marketing decisions related to the allocation of advertising budget.
The antifungal effect induced by itraconazole in Candida parapsilosis largely depends on the oxidative stress generated at the mitochondria
Authors: Muñoz-Megías Mª Luz , Sánchez-Fresneda Ruth , Solano Francisco , Maicas Sergi , Martínez-Esparza María , Argüelles Juan-Carlos
Published: April 2023

In Candida parapsilosis, homozygous disruption of the two genes encoding trehalase activity increased the susceptibility to Itraconazole compared with the isogenic parental strain. The fungicidal effect of this azole can largely be counteracted by preincubating growing cells with rotenone and the protonophore 2,4-Dinitrophenol. In turn, measurement of endogenous reactive oxygen species formation by flow cytometry confirmed that Itraconazole clearly induced an internal oxidative stress, which can be significantly abolished in rotenone-exposed cells. Analysis of the antioxidant enzymatic activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase pointed to a moderate decrease of catalase in trehalase-deficient mutant cells compared to the wild type, with an additional increase upon addition of rotenone. These enzymatic changes were imperceptible in the case of superoxide dismutase. Alternative assays with Voriconazole led to a similar profile in the results regarding cell growth and antioxidant activities. Collectively, our data suggest that the antifungal action of Itraconazole on C. parapsilosis is dependent on a functional mitochondrial activity. They also suggest that the central metabolic pathways in pathogenic fungi should be considered as preferential antifungal targets in new research.
Two-Pulse 3D particle tracking with Shake-The-Box
Authors: Novara M. , Schanz D. , Schröder A.
Published: April 2023

This study presents an approach to two-pulse 3D particle tracking using methods developed within the Shake-The-Box (STB, Schanz et al. in Exp Fluids 57:70, 2016) Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) framework. The original STB algorithm requires time-resolved data and reconstructs 3D trajectories using a particle position prediction–correction scheme. However, dual-frame 3D acquisition systems, consisting of a dual-cavity laser and double-frame cameras, remain commonly used for many particle-image-based investigations in a wide range of flow velocities and applications. While such systems can be used to capture short Multi-Pulse particle trajectories (Multi-Pulse STB, MP-STB—Novara et al. in Exp Fluids 57:128, 2016a; Novara et al. in Exp Fluids 60:44, 2019), the most widespread application is still a single-pulse illumination of each of the two available frames. As a consequence, 3D LPT approaches capable of dealing with two-pulse recordings are of high interest for both the scientific community and industry. Several methods based on various evaluation schemes have been developed in the past. In the present study, a Two-Pulse Shake-The-Box approach (TP-STB) is proposed, based on the advanced IPR algorithm presented by Jahn et al. (Exp Fluids 62:179, 2021), in combination with an iterative scheme of reconstruction and tracking, ideally with the help of a predictor gained by Particle Space Correlation. It basically constitutes a lean version of the MP-STB technique, with lower demands on experimental setup and processing time. The performances of TP-STB are assessed by means of comparison with the results from the time-resolved STB algorithm (TR-STB) both concerning synthetic and experimental data. The suitability of the algorithm for the analysis of dual-frame 3D particle imaging datasets is assessed based on the processing of existing images from a tomographic PIV experiment from 2012. The comparison with the results published by Henningsson et al. (J R Soc Interface 12:20150119, 2015) confirms the capability of TP-STB to accurately reconstruct individual particle tracks despite the limited time-resolution information offered by two-frame recordings.
Functional redundant soil fauna and microbial groups and processes were fairly resistant to drought in an agroecosystem
Authors: Watzinger A. , Prommer J. , Spiridon A. , Kisielinska W. , Hood-Nowotny R. , Leitner S. , Wanek W. , Resch C. , Heiling M. , Murer E. , Formayer H. , Wawra A. , Miloczki J.
Published: April 2023

Climate change scenarios predict more frequent and intense drought periods for 2071 to 2100 for many regions of the world including Austria. Current and predicted lower precipitation scenarios were simulated at a lysimeter station containing a fertile and less fertile agricultural soil for 9 years. 13C and 15N-labeled green manure was added in year 8 with the aim to analyze how the predicted precipitation regime affects soil fauna and microbial groups and consequently nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) cycling. Among the investigated mesofauna (collembola and oribatida), the abundance and biodiversity of oribatida was significantly reduced by drought, possibly because they mainly represent K-strategist species with low mobility and consequently the need to adapt to long-term adverse environmental conditions. Microbial community composition and microbial biomass, investigated by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, was indistinguishable between the current and the predicted precipitation scenarios. Nonetheless, soil 13C-CO2 emissions and soil water 15N-NO3 data revealed decelerated mineralization of green manure under reduced precipitation in the first 2 weeks, but no effects were observed on soil C sequestration or on 13C incorporation into microbial PLFAs in the following 1.2 years. We found that over a 1-year time period, decomposition was rather driven by plant residue availability than water limitation of microorganisms in the investigated agroecosystem. In contrast, N2O emissions were significantly reduced under drought, and green manure derived 15N accumulated in the soil under drought, which might necessitate the adjustment of future fertilization regimes. The impacts of reduced precipitation and drought were less pronounced in the more fertile agricultural soil, due to its greater buffering capacity in terms of water storage and organic matter and nutrient availability.
AMFR dysfunction causes autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia in human that is amenable to statin treatment in a preclinical model
Authors: Deng Ruizhi , Medico-Salsench Eva , Nikoncuk Anita , Ramakrishnan Reshmi , Lanko Kristina , Kühn Nikolas A. , van der Linde Herma C. , Lor-Zade Sarah , Albuainain Fatimah , Shi Yuwei , Yousefi Soheil , Capo Ivan , van den Herik Evita Medici , van Slegtenhorst Marjon , van Minkelen Rick , Geeven Geert , Mulder Monique T. , Ruijter George J. G. , Lütjohann Dieter , Jacobs Edwin H. , Houlden Henry , Pagnamenta Alistair T. , Metcalfe Kay , Jackson Adam , Banka Siddharth , De Simone Lenika , Schwaede Abigail , Kuntz Nancy , Palculict Timothy Blake , Abbas Safdar , Umair Muhammad , AlMuhaizea Mohammed , Colak Dilek , AlQudairy Hanan , Alsagob Maysoon , Pereira Catarina , Trunzo Roberta , Karageorgou Vasiliki , Bertoli-Avella Aida M. , Bauer Peter , Bouman Arjan , Hoefsloot Lies H. , van Ham Tjakko J. , Issa Mahmoud , Zaki Maha S. , Gleeson Joseph G. , Willemsen Rob , Kaya Namik , Arold Stefan T. , Maroofian Reza , Sanderson Leslie E. , Barakat Tahsin Stefan
Published: April 2023

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP) are rare, inherited neurodegenerative or neurodevelopmental disorders that mainly present with lower limb spasticity and muscle weakness due to motor neuron dysfunction. Whole genome sequencing identified bi-allelic truncating variants in AMFR, encoding a RING-H2 finger E3 ubiquitin ligase anchored at the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), in two previously genetically unexplained HSP-affected siblings. Subsequently, international collaboration recognized additional HSP-affected individuals with similar bi-allelic truncating AMFR variants, resulting in a cohort of 20 individuals from 8 unrelated, consanguineous families. Variants segregated with a phenotype of mainly pure but also complex HSP consisting of global developmental delay, mild intellectual disability, motor dysfunction, and progressive spasticity. Patient-derived fibroblasts, neural stem cells (NSCs), and in vivo zebrafish modeling were used to investigate pathomechanisms, including initial preclinical therapy assessment. The absence of AMFR disturbs lipid homeostasis, causing lipid droplet accumulation in NSCs and patient-derived fibroblasts which is rescued upon AMFR re-expression. Electron microscopy indicates ER morphology alterations in the absence of AMFR. Similar findings are seen in amfra-/- zebrafish larvae, in addition to altered touch-evoked escape response and defects in motor neuron branching, phenocopying the HSP observed in patients. Interestingly, administration of FDA-approved statins improves touch-evoked escape response and motor neuron branching defects in amfra-/- zebrafish larvae, suggesting potential therapeutic implications. Our genetic and functional studies identify bi-allelic truncating variants in AMFR as a cause of a novel autosomal recessive HSP by altering lipid metabolism, which may potentially be therapeutically modulated using precision medicine with statins.
Routine ICU admission after brain tumor surgery: retrospective validation and critical appraisal of two prediction scores
Authors: Neumann Jan-Oliver , Schmidt Stephanie , Nohman Amin , Jakobs Martin , Unterberg Andreas
Published: April 2023

Background

Routine admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) following brain tumor surgery has been a common practice for many years. Although this practice has been challenged by many authors, it has still not changed widely, mainly due to the lack of reliable data for preoperative risk assessment. Motivated by this dilemma, risk prediction scores for postoperative complications following brain tumor surgery have been developed recently. In order to improve the ICU admission policy at our institution, we assessed the applicability, performance, and safety of the two most appropriate risk prediction scores.

Methods

One thousand consecutive adult patients undergoing elective brain tumor resection within 19 months were included. Patients with craniotomy for other causes, i.e., cerebral aneurysms and microvascular decompression, were excluded. The decision for postoperative ICU-surveillance was made by joint judgment of the operating surgeon and the anesthesiologist. All data and features relevant to the scores were extracted from clinical records and subsequent ICU or neurosurgical floor documentation was inspected for any postoperative adverse events requiring ICU admission. The CranioScore derived by Cinotti et al. (Anesthesiology 129(6):1111–20, 5) and the risk assessment score of Munari et al. (Acta Neurochir (Wien) 164(3):635–641, 15) were calculated and prognostic performance was evaluated by ROC analysis.

Results

In our cohort, both scores showed only a weak prognostic performance: the CranioScore reached a ROC-AUC of 0.65, while Munari et al.’s score achieved a ROC-AUC of 0.67. When applying the recommended decision thresholds for ICU admission, 64% resp. 68% of patients would be classified as in need of ICU surveillance, and the negative predictive value (NPV) would be 91% for both scores. Lowering the thresholds in order to increase patient safety, i.e., 95% NPV, would lead to ICU admission rates of over 85%.

Conclusion

Performance of both scores was limited in our cohort. In practice, neither would achieve a significant reduction in ICU admission rates, whereas the number of patients suffering complications at the neurosurgical ward would increase. In future, better risk assessment measures are needed.
The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
Authors: Franch Xavier , Palomares Cristina , Quer Carme , Chatzipetrou Panagiota , Gorschek Tony
Published: April 2023

Requirements specification is a core activity in the requirements engineering phase of a software development project. Researchers have contributed extensively to the field of requirements specification, but the extent to which their proposals have been adopted in practice remains unclear. We gathered evidence about the state of practice in requirements specification by focussing on the artefacts used in this activity, the application of templates or guidelines, how requirements are structured in the specification document, what tools practitioners use to specify requirements, and what challenges they face. We conducted an interview-based survey study involving 24 practitioners from 12 different Swedish IT companies. We recorded the interviews and analysed these recordings, primarily by using qualitative methods. Natural language constitutes the main specification artefact but is usually accompanied by some other type of instrument. Most requirements specifications use templates or guidelines, although they seldom follow any fixed standard. Requirements are always structured in the document according to the main functionalities of the system or to project areas or system parts. Different types of tools, including MS Office tools, are used, either individually or combined, in the compilation of requirements specifications. We also note that challenges related to the use of natural language (dealing with ambiguity, inconsistency, and incompleteness) are the most frequent challenges that practitioners face in the compilation of requirements specifications. These findings are contextualized in terms of demographic factors related to the individual interviewees, the organization they are affiliated with, and the project they selected to discuss during our interviews. A number of our findings have been previously reported in related studies. These findings show that, in spite of the large number of notations, models and tools proposed from academia for improving requirements specification, practitioners still mainly rely on plain natural language and general-purpose tool support. We expect more empirical studies in this area in order to better understand the reason of this low adoption of research results.
Short-term and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child psychological well-being: a four-wave longitudinal study
Authors: Essler Samuel , Christner Natalie , Paulus Markus
Published: April 2023

As the COVID-19 pandemic further unfolds, it becomes a key theoretical and practical question to identify trajectories of child psychological well-being and to explore risk and resilience factors for developmental adjustment. The current study addressed this research gap by means of an ecological design: A (lockdown)–B (relaxation)–B (relaxation)–A (lockdown). We collected parental reports via online questionnaires over four measurement occasions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany (non-probabilistic sample): from the first lockdown (T1—spring 2020, N = 1769) to the following period of relaxation (T2—summer 2020, n = 873; T3—fall 2020, n = 729) on to the second lockdown (T4—winter 2020/21, n = 748). Key measures at T1–T4 were child emotional and behavioral problems as well as hyperactivity, child emotional and family-related well-being, parental strain, and parent–child relationship quality. We found evidence for quadratic growth models. While child problem behaviors (b = 0.32, p < 0.001) and emotional well-being (b = − 0.33, p < 0.001) improved after the first lockdown during subsequent periods of relaxation before worsening again in the second lockdown, child family-related well-being steadily decreased over all four measurement points (T1–T2: p < 0.001; T2–T3: p = 0.045; T3–T4: p = 0.030). Importantly, parental stress emerged as a strong risk factor (ps < 0.11) and the parent–child relationship quality constituted a resilience factor (p = 0.049) for child psychological well-being. These findings have major implications for policies aiming to further child health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inv3D: a high-resolution 3D invoice dataset for template-guided single-image document unwarping
Authors: Hertlein Felix , Naumann Alexander , Philipp Patrick
Published: April 2023

Numerous business workflows involve printed forms, such as invoices or receipts, which are often manually digitalized to persistently search or store the data. As hardware scanners are costly and inflexible, smartphones are increasingly used for digitalization. Here, processing algorithms need to deal with prevailing environmental factors, such as shadows or crumples. Current state-of-the-art approaches learn supervised image dewarping models based on pairs of raw images and rectification meshes. The available results show promising predictive accuracies for dewarping, but generated errors still lead to sub-optimal information retrieval. In this paper, we explore the potential of improving dewarping models using additional, structured information in the form of invoice templates. We provide two core contributions: (1) a novel dataset, referred to as Inv3D, comprising synthetic and real-world high-resolution invoice images with structural templates, rectification meshes, and a multiplicity of per-pixel supervision signals and (2) a novel image dewarping algorithm, which extends the state-of-the-art approach GeoTr to leverage structural templates using attention. Our extensive evaluation includes an implementation of DewarpNet and shows that exploiting structured templates can improve the performance for image dewarping. We report superior performance for the proposed algorithm on our new benchmark for all metrics, including an improved local distortion of 26.1 %. We made our new dataset and all code publicly available athttps://felixhertlein.github.io/inv3d.
Designing augmented reality for future commercial aviation: a user-requirement analysis with commercial aviation pilots
Authors: Blundell James , Harris Don
Published: April 2023

Augmented reality (AR) capable head-mounted displays (HMDs) have been proposed as technological enablers of several complex future flight concepts, which will bring accompanying pilot situation awareness (SA) and operational safety enhancements. However, relevant aviation design guidance concerning the implementation of modern HMD technologies and AR symbology is sparse. Consequently, the current study describes an SA grounded user-requirements analysis of operational applications for HMD technologies and AR symbology, with the intention of providing inputs for future designs of commercial aviation systems. In addition, insights from the study are relevant for AR design more generally. Endsley’s three-level SA model (1988) was applied as a framework to focus group discussions with eleven aviation subject matter experts. Thematic analysis highlighted multiple operational scenarios where HMD technology and AR may enhance SA, along with the requirements of the technologies to provide these relevant advantages. In future, more detailed user-centred design recommendations should be sought for the specific applications identified within the current study.
Incidence, seasonal pattern, and clinical manifestations of Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis bacteremia; a population-based study
Authors: Nevanlinna Viivi , Huttunen Reetta , Aittoniemi Janne , Luukkaala Tiina , Rantala Sari
Published: April 2023

Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE) is a human pathogen causing severe invasive infections. Population-based studies on SDSE bacteremia are limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence, seasonal pattern, clinical manifestations, and recurrence of SDSE bacteraemia. Records regarding patients aged ≥ 18 years with SDSE bacteremia in the Pirkanmaa health district in August 2015 to July 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 230 SDSE bacteremia episodes were identified, with 217 episodes (involving 211 patients) available for analysis. The mean annual incidence rate of SDSE bacteremia was 16.9/100 000 inhabitants. Most episodes (33%) were detected in the summer (June to August) (p = 0.058). Episodes with bacteremic cellulitis were statistically significantly more common during the summer compared with other seasons (p = 0.008). Cellulitis was the most common presenting clinical manifestation of SDSE bacteremia (68% of all episodes). Risk factors of recurring bacteremia were chronic eczema and/or skin erosion (OR 3.96 [95% CI 1.11–14.1]), heart disease (OR 3.56 [95% CI 1.22–10.4]), diabetes (OR 3.77 [95% CI 1.35–10.5]) and a history of cellulitis. We found a remarkably high incidence of SDSE bacteraemia in the Pirkanmaa health district. Bacteraemic cellulitis, which was the predominant clinical manifestation is more often occurred in the summer. Risk factors of recurring SDSE bacteremia were a history of cellulitis, chronic eczema or skin erosion, diabetes, and heart disease.
Cybersecurity knowledge graphs
Authors: Sikos Leslie F.
Published: April 2023

Cybersecurity knowledge graphs, which represent cyber-knowledge with a graph-based data model, provide holistic approaches for processing massive volumes of complex cybersecurity data derived from diverse sources. They can assist security analysts to obtain cyberthreat intelligence, achieve a high level of cyber-situational awareness, discover new cyber-knowledge, visualize networks, data flow, and attack paths, and understand data correlations by aggregating and fusing data. This paper reviews the most prominent graph-based data models used in this domain, along with knowledge organization systems that define concepts and properties utilized in formal cyber-knowledge representation for both background knowledge and specific expert knowledge about an actual system or attack. It is also discussed how cybersecurity knowledge graphs enable machine learning and facilitate automated reasoning over cyber-knowledge.
Recurrence of arteriovenous malformations of the brain after complete surgical resection. Kuopio University Hospital experience and systematic review of the literature
Authors: Järvelin Patrik , Pekonen Henri , Koivisto Timo , Frösen Juhana
Published: April 2023

Treatment for arteriovenous malformations of the brain (bAVMs) aims to achieve complete removal or occlusion of the lesion in order to eradicate the risk of rupture and subsequent morbidity associated with these lesions. Despite initially successful treatment, bAVMs may carry a risk of recurrence especially in younger patients. We studied the rate of recurrence of surgically treated bAVMs at Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) in 1981–2021. The study population was collected retrospectively from KUH databases and presented a cohort of 135 surgically treated bAVMs with complete occlusion of the lesion. We also performed a systematic literature review on this topic. In our series, 6 out of 135 (4.4%) patients with angiographically confirmed removal of the lesion later developed a recurrent bAVM with a median time to diagnosis of recurrence of 7.46 years. In pediatric patients, the rate was 5 out of 17 (29.4%). bAVM recurrence was associated with age (p = 0.001) and initial hemorrhagic presentation (p = 0.039). Median age of the study population was 37 years (min 0, max 70), and 51/135 (37.8%) of the patients were female. Seventeen (12.6%) of the 135 bAVM patients were considered pediatric (18 years old or younger) at the time of the operation. In the literature review, 79 of 1739 (4.5%) of surgically treated patients later developed a recurrence with a mean delay of 3.1 years until diagnosis of recurrence. Young surgically treated bAVM patients with a hemorrhagic presentation at initial diagnosis are at a relatively high risk of bAVM recurrence. Follow-up imaging should be arranged for these patients in order to prevent rupture from a recurrent bAVM and subsequent morbidity.
Oblique lumbar interbody fusion versus minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion for the treatment of degenerative disease of the lumbar spine: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Wang Yun-lu , Li Xi-yong , Liu Lun , Li Song-feng , Han Peng-fei , Li Xiao-dong
Published: April 2023

This meta-analysis compared the efficacy of oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF) and minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) in the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases. A computer search for the published literature on OLIF and MIS-TLIF for the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases in the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and other databases was performed, from which 522 related articles were retrieved and 13 were finally included. Two reviewers independently extracted data from the included studies and analyzed them using RevMan 5.4. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Cochrane systematic analysis and the Newcastle–Ottawa scale. Meta-analysis showed that the blood loss [95% confidence intervals (CI) (− 121.01, − 54.56), $$P<0.001$$

P
<
0.001

], hospital stay [95% CI (− 1.98, − 0.85), $$P<0.001$$

P
<
0.001

], postoperative fusion rate [95%CI (1.04, 3.60), $$P=0.04$$

P
=
0.04

], postoperative disc height [95% CI (0.50, 3.63), $$P=0.01$$

P
=
0.01

], and postoperative foraminal height [95% CI (0.96, 4.13), $$P=0.002$$

P
=
0.002

] were all better in the OLIF group; however, the complication rates were significantly lower in the MIS-TLIF group [95% CI (1.01, 2.06), $$P=0.04$$

P
=
0.04

]. However, there were no significant differences between the two in terms of surgery time, patient satisfaction, or postoperative functional scores. The OLIF group had the advantages of lower blood loss, a shorter hospital stay, a higher postoperative fusion rate, and better recovery of the disc and foraminal heights, whereas MIS-TLIF had a relatively lower complication rate.
Exaggerated blood pressure response to standing in young-to-middle-age subjects: prevalence and factors involved
Authors: Palatini Paolo , Mos Lucio , Rattazzi Marcello , Ermolao Andrea , Battista Francesca , Vriz Olga , Canevari Mattia , Saladini Francesca
Published: April 2023

Purpose

To investigate the prevalence of orthostatic hypertension and the association of the blood pressure (BP) level, supine BP decline, and white-coat effect with the orthostatic pressor response.

Methods

We studied 1275 young-to-middle-age individuals with stage-1 hypertension. Orthostatic response was assessed three times over a 3 month period. The white-coat effect was assessed at baseline and after 3 months, and was calculated as the difference between office and average 24 h BP. In 660 participants, urinary epinephrine and norepinephrine were also measured.

Results

An orthostatic systolic BP increase ≥ 20 mmHg was observed in 0.6–1.2% of the subjects during the three visits. Using the 20 mmHg cut-off, the prevalence of orthostatic hypertension was 0.6%. An orthostatic BP increase of ≥ 5 mmHg was found in 14.4% of participants. At baseline, the orthostatic response to standing showed an independent negative association with the supine BP level (p < 0.001), the supine BP change from the first to third measurement (p < 0.001), and the white-coat effect (p < 0.001). Similar results were obtained in the 1080 participants assessed at the third visit. Urinary epinephrine showed higher values in the top BP response decile (systolic BP increase ≥ 6 mmHg, p = 0.002 versus rest of the group).

Conclusion

An orthostatic systolic BP reaction ≥ 20 mmHg is rare in young adults. However, even lower BP increases may be clinically relevant. The BP level, the supine BP decline over repeated measurement, and the white-coat effect can influence the estimate of the BP response to standing and should be considered in clinical and pathogenetic studies.
Unmet healthcare needs among the population aged 50+ and their association with health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Quintal Carlota , Moura Ramos Luis , Antunes Micaela , Lourenço Óscar
Published: April 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented levels of subjective unmet healthcare needs (SUN). This study investigates the association between SUN in 2020 and three health outcomes in 2021—mortality, cancer, and self-assessed health (SAH), among adults aged 50 years and older, using data from the regular administration of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and from the two special waves administered in 2020 and 2021 regarding COVID-19. Three types of SUN were surveyed: care foregone due to fear of contracting COVID-19, pre-scheduled care postponed, and inability to get medical appointments or treatments demanded. We resort on the relative risk and the logistic specification to investigate the association between SUN and health outcomes. To avoid simultaneity, 1-year lagged SUN variables are used. We found a negative association between SUN and mortality. This result differs from the (scarce) previous evidence, suggesting that health systems prioritised life-threatening conditions, in the pandemic context. In line with previous studies, we obtained a positive association between SUN and worse health, in the case of cancer, though it is statistically significant only for the global measure of SUN (any reason). The higher chances of reporting cancer among those exposed to SUN might mean delayed cancer diagnosis, confirming that healthcare foregone was truly needed for a timely diagnosis. The association between SUN and poor or fair SAH is positive but not statistically significant, for the period analysed.