bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A study indicates an essential link between a mild deterioration in excretory kidney function and the risk of neutropenia during cancer chemotherapy
Authors: Stryczyńska-Mirocha Adriana , Łącki-Zynzeling Stanisław , Borówka Maciej , Niemir Zofia I. , Kozak Sylwia , Owczarek Aleksander J. , Chudek Jerzy
Published: September 2023

Purpose

Neutropenia, defined as a number of neutrophils in patients’ blood specimen lower than 1500 cells/μm3, is a common adverse event during myelosuppressive oncological chemotherapy, predisposing to febrile neutropenia (FN). Patients with coexisting moderate-to-severe chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of FN, included in the guidelines for the primary prophylaxis of FN. However, this does not include mild kidney function impairment with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 60–89 ml/min/1.73 m2. This prospective study analyzed the risk of neutropenia in patients on chemotherapy without indication for the primary prophylaxis of FN.

Methods

The study enrolled 38 patients starting chemotherapy, including 26 (68.4%) patients aged 65 years or more. The median duration of follow-up was 76 days. The methodology of creatinine assessment enabled the use of the recommended CKD-EPI formula for identifying patients with a mild reduction of glomerular filtration.

Results

Sixteen (42.1%) patients developed at least G2 neutropenia without episodes of FN. Only five (13.1%) patients had eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2, while 15 (62.5%) eGFR < 90 ml/min/1.73 m2. The relative risk of neutropenia in patients with impaired eGFR was over six times higher than in patients with eGFR > 90 ml/min/1.73 m2 (RR = 6.08; 95%CI:1.45–27.29; p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Our observation indicates that even a mild reduction in eGFR is a risk factor for the development of neutropenia and a potential risk factor for FN.
A vectorial problem with thin free boundary
Authors: De Silva Daniela , Tortone Giorgio
Published: September 2023

We consider the vectorial analogue of the thin free boundary problem introduced by Caffarelli et al. (J Eur math Soc 12:1151-1179, 2010) as a realization of a nonlocal version of the classical Bernoulli problem. We study optimal regularity, nondegeneracy, and density properties of local minimizers. Via a blow-up analysis based on a Weiss type monotonicity formula, we show that the free boundary is the union of a “regular” and a “singular” part. Finally we use a viscosity approach to prove $$C^{1,\alpha }$$

C

1
,
α

regularity of the regular part of the free boundary.
Distal fusion level, complications, and reoperations in individuals with cerebral palsy undergoing surgery for scoliosis
Authors: Green-Petersen I. , Magnano L. , Charalampidis A. , Gerdhem P.
Published: September 2023

Purpose

To compare radiological outcome, complications and reoperations in individuals with cerebral palsy and scoliosis fused to the fifth lumbar vertebra (L5), the sacrum, or the ilia.

Methods

208 individuals were identified in the national quality registry Swespine. Lowest level of fusion was L5 in 58, the sacrum in 92, and the ilia in 58 individuals. A subanalysis on 58 matched pairs operated to L5 or the pelvis (sacrum = 42, ilia = 16) with similar pelvic obliquity (± 5°) was performed.

Results

The median (interquartile range) follow-up for the last radiograph was 1.7 (1.7) years and for reoperations 6.0 (5.9) years. Preoperatively, median Cobb angle of the major curve was 65° (23°) in the L5 group, 68° (28°) in the sacrum group, and 78° (25°) in the ilia group (p = 0.006). Preoperative median pelvic obliquity according to Maloney was 16° (19°), 21° (13°), and 27° (28°), respectively (p = 0.004). Immediate postoperative Cobb angles were 28° (18°), 28° (16°), and 32° (25°), respectively (p = 0.11). Immediate postoperative pelvic obliquity was 7° (10°), 7° (8°), and 8° (10°), respectively (p = 0.28). The median change in pelvic obliquity from the first to the last postoperative radiograph was − 5° (7°), − 3° (6°), − 3° (6°), respectively (p = 0.55). 7 (12%), 11 (12%), and 7 (12%) patients required at least one reoperation (p = 1.0), respectively. In the matched analysis, no significant differences in the radiological outcomes were found (all p ≥  0.38).

Conclusions

Maintained curve and pelvic obliquity correction with no significant difference in complication and reoperation rates were found irrespective of distal fusion level.
Estimating surgery, radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer therapy treatment costs for cancer patients by stage at diagnosis
Authors: Wills Lorna , Nagarwalla Diana , Pearson Clare , McPhail Sean , Hinchliffe Rose , Sharpless Ben , Fardus-Reid Fahmina , Ambler Lyndsy , Harrison Samantha , Shelton Jon
Published: September 2023

Background

The increasing burden of cancer has economic implications for the healthcare system in England. However, there is limited evidence on the cost of cancer treatment. We calculated the costs of initial cancer treatment (resection, radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer therapy [SACT]) based on stage at diagnosis.

Methods

Data from England’s National Cancer Registration Dataset were matched to English Hospital, Radiotherapy and SACT data for breast, lung, prostate, colon and rectal cancers diagnosed between 2016 and 2018. Treatment data were matched to National Schedule of Reference Costs data to calculate the cost of each treatment event.

Results

Breast, colon and rectal cancers treated with resection, radiotherapy or SACT had increasing costs with later stage at diagnosis; costs for lung and prostate cancers were lower at stages 1 and 4 compared to stages 2 and 3. In general, surgery and SACT were the most expensive treatments. Radiotherapy and SACT costs showed little change across stages 1–3; radiotherapy costs decreased in stage 4, while SACT costs increased.

Conclusions

This analysis estimates initial treatment costs by stage based on observed data. Future research can build on this to provide more comprehensive costings associated with cancer; this is important for future planning of cancer services.
Prediction of skull fractures in blunt force head traumas using finite element head models
Authors: Lindgren Natalia , Henningsen Mikkel J. , Jacobsen Christina , Villa Chiara , Kleiven Svein , Li Xiaogai
Published: September 2023

Traumatic head injuries remain a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Although skull fractures are one of the most common head injuries, the fundamental mechanics of cranial bone and its impact tolerance are still uncertain. In the present study, a strain-rate-dependent material model for cranial bone has been proposed and implemented in subject-specific Finite Element (FE) head models in order to predict skull fractures in five real-world fall accidents. The subject-specific head models were developed following an established image-registration-based personalization pipeline. Head impact boundary conditions were derived from accident reconstructions using personalized human body models. The simulated fracture lines were compared to those visible in post-mortem CT scans of each subject. In result, the FE models did predict the actual occurrence and extent of skull fractures in all cases. In at least four out of five cases, predicted fracture patterns were comparable to ones from CT scans and autopsy reports. The tensile material model, which was tuned to represent rate-dependent tensile data of cortical skull bone from literature, was able to capture observed linear fractures in blunt indentation loading of a skullcap specimen. The FE model showed to be sensitive to modeling parameters, in particular to the constitutive parameters of the cortical tables. Nevertheless, this study provides a currently lacking strain-rate dependent material model of cranial bone that has the capacity to accurately predict linear fracture patterns. For the first time, a procedure to reconstruct occurrences of skull fractures using computational engineering techniques, capturing the all-in-all fracture initiation, propagation and final pattern, is presented.
A machine learning enhanced multi-start heuristic to efficiently solve a serial-batch scheduling problem
Authors: Uzunoglu Aykut , Gahm Christian , Tuma Axel
Published: September 2023

Serial-batch scheduling problems are widespread in several industries (e.g., the metal processing industry or industrial 3D printing) and consist of two subproblems that must be solved simultaneously: the grouping of jobs into batches and the sequencing of the created batches. This problem’s NP-hard nature prevents optimally solving large-scale problems; therefore, heuristic solution methods are a common choice to effectively tackle the problem. One of the best-performing heuristics in the literature is the ATCS–BATCS(β) heuristic which has three control parameters. To achieve a good solution quality, most appropriate parameters must be determined a priori or within a multi-start approach. As multi-start approaches performing (full) grid searches on the parameters lack efficiency, we propose a machine learning enhanced grid search. To that, Artificial Neural Networks are used to predict the performance of the heuristic given a specific problem instance and specific heuristic parameters. Based on these predictions, we perform a grid search on a smaller set of most promising heuristic parameters. The comparison to the ATCS–BATCS(β) heuristics shows that our approach reaches a very competitive mean solution quality that is only 2.5% lower and that it is computationally much more efficient: computation times can be reduced by 89.2% on average.
Geographical variation in Canarium indicum (Burseraceae) nut characteristics across Vanuatu
Authors: Grant Elektra , Macdonell Paul , Tungon Joseph , Tabi Michael , David May , Kaku Sammy , Page Tony
Published: September 2023

Tropical forests in the Pacific region contain many tree species that bear edible nuts (kernels). Canarium indicum (canarium) is an overstorey tree indigenous to Melanesia that produces commercially valuable kernels due to their pleasant taste and high oil content. This study characterises natural variation in fruit, nut-in-shell (NIS) and kernels of C. indicum across eight islands in Vanuatu. Significant tree-to-tree variation in fruit, NIS and kernel characteristics as well as kernel recovery (kernel:NIS) was found. This variation was largely due to tree-to-tree differences and little of this variation could be attributed to location. There were significant linear correlations among fruit, NIS and kernel traits, including kernel mass with fruit mass (R2 0.57) and kernel mass with NIS mass (R2 0.56). Therefore, trees suitable for cultivation may be screened based on fruit and nut characters before making final selections based on kernel mass. Trees sampled over two fruiting seasons showed that kernel mass and kernel number varied significantly between years for 63.6% and 25.9% of the trees respectively. However, by rank order, those trees that produced larger kernels in the first year of sampling, tended to also produce relatively larger kernels in the subsequent year. The implications of these results for the further domestication of the species for planting in commercial agroforestry systems is explored.
Evaluation of Extracurricular Medical Education in Cardiothoracic Surgery and Cardiology; Students’ Opinion On Current Medical Training
Authors: el Mathari Sulayman , Arrouby Aïmane , Boulidam Noor , Kluin Jolanda
Published: September 2023

Medical students in the Netherlands have a relatively low exposure to cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology. This results in discrepancies between starting levels of medical residents and expected standards in clinical practice. Another side effect is the international decline in interest in a career in these cardiovascular fields. To compensate for this, extracurricular education programs focused on cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology have been set up. This study aims to evaluate the impact and benefits of an extracurricular education program on students' knowledge of cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology and to explore possible factors involved in (academic) career decision making. 66 participants were enrolled in the extracurricular education program VECTOR and were included in a cross-sectional cohort study. All participants scored their familiarity with different aspects of cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology prior to and after the course. Data was analyzed using Linear regression and Wilcoxon Signed Rank testing. Participants demonstrated a significant trend towards improved familiarity with cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology after the program (p = < .001). Significant increased knowledge scores were reported for all specified subdomains after the course with an increase in academic interest in cardiology (p = < .001) and cardiothoracic surgery (p = < .001). Students revealed that clinical responsibilities and a healthy work-life balance were considered most important when deciding upon their future career. This study highlights the benefit of an extracurricular education program in cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology for undergraduates and could possibly aid students in preparing for clinical practice.
The Access to Grammatical Number in Spanish Children and Adults
Authors: Dominguez Alberto , Santos Anthea , Fu Yang
Published: September 2023

In Spanish, the plural form in plural dominant frequency pairs, like “diente/dientes” [tooth/teeth], occurs more frequently than the corresponding singular form. On the other hand, for the singular dominant frequency pairs such as “cometa/cometas” [kite/kites], the singular form is more common than the plural. The recognition of singular forms by adult readers is dependent on the dominance factor, while the identification of plural forms relies on the frequency of the stem. Given that age and reading experience may influence morphological processing of words, we investigate the representation of singulars and plurals in Spanish primary school children in Third Grade (8/9) and Sixth Grade (11/12) and adults through a lexical decision task. Though children’s lexical decisions were twice as slow as adults, the pattern of morphological processing was consistent across ages: dominant plural forms resulted in decision times that were comparable to those of non-dominant singular forms, while recognition of singular-dominant forms was quicker than recognition of plural non-dominant forms. It appears that singulars are accessed and stored in the lexical memory as separate entities, while plurals depend on their morphological closer relatives, in this case, the singular forms.
Measurement of Critical Temperatures, Critical Pressures and Densities of Acetone–Water Solutions for Simulation
Authors: Chen Zhirong , Yao Yang , Yuan Shenfeng , Yin Hong
Published: September 2023

Critical temperature, critical pressure and P–T–ρ–X data of acetone–water solutions with water mole fractions in a range of 0–60% were measured to provide fundamental data for CFD simulations. Critical temperatures were determined via observing critical opalescence in fused quartz capillary tubes. Meanwhile, critical pressures were measured by heating acetone–water solutions to its critical temperature in an autoclave. The standard deviations of critical temperature and critical pressure were 0.55 K and 0.029 MPa, respectively. The results indicate that only one phase exists during mixing of acetone with water. Moreover, P–T–ρ–X data under 15 and 20 MPa in the temperature range of 460–550 K were measured in the autoclave. The relative deviation of density was 0.32%. Volume-translated Peng-Robinson and Soave–Redlich–Kwong state equations were used to illustrate the P–V–T–X relationship of acetone–water solutions, and the Peng–Robinson state equation with an average absolute relative deviation of 1.19% between fitting and experimental densities was found more accurate.
Brain image fusion using the parameter adaptive-pulse coupled neural network (PA-PCNN) and non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT)
Authors: Ibrahim Sa. I. , El-Tawel Gh. S. , Makhlouf M. A.
Published: September 2023

Medical imaging has played an essential role in medicine and disease diagnosis. Medical images from a single modality contain limited data about the organ. On the other hand, images from different modalities contain valuable structural and functio nal data about an organ. Medical image fusion (MIF) strategies integrate complementary information from two medical images captured using distinct modalities. This paper offered a new multimodal MIF approach using the parameter-adaptive pulse-coupled neural networks (PA-PCNN) within the non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT). The NSCT decomposes those images into high- and low-frequency bands. PA-PCNN combines those bands. The fused image was created using the inverse of the NSCT approach. To prove the proposed approach’s performance, we appoint a variety of medical images like computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single-photon emission CT (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET). Our experiments use five fusion metrics to validate the proposed approach’s performance, such as entropy (EN), mutual information (MI), weighted edge information (Q$$^{AB/F}$$

A
B
/
F

), nonlinear correlation information entropy (Q$$_{ncie}$$

ncie

), and average gradient (AG). Outcomes show that the proposed approach achieves high overall performance in visual and objective characteristics when compared with five well-known MIF methods. The average values for EN, MI, Q$$^{AB/F}$$

A
B
/
F

, Q$$_{ncie}$$

ncie

, and AG with the proposed approach are 5.2144,3.1282,.6600,.8071, and 8.9874, respectively.
Strict pseudocontractions and demicontractions, their properties, and applications
Authors: Cegielski Andrzej
Published: September 2023

We give properties of strict pseudocontractions and demicontractions defined on a Hilbert space, which constitute wide classes of operators that arise in iterative methods for solving fixed point problems. In particular, we give necessary and sufficient conditions under which a convex combination and composition of strict pseudocontractions as well as demicontractions that share a common fixed point is again a strict pseudocontraction or a demicontraction, respectively. Moreover, we introduce a generalized relaxation of composition of demicontraction and give its properties. We“ apply these properties to prove the weak convergence of a class of algorithms that is wider than the Douglas–Rachford algorithm and projected Landweber algorithms. We have also presented two numerical examples, where we compare the behavior of the presented methods with the Douglas–Rachford method.
The long and the short of it: Russian predicate adjectives with zero copula
Authors: Nesset Tore , Janda Laura A.
Published: September 2023

The present article presents an empirical investigation of the choice between so-called long (e.g., prostoj ‘simple’) and short (e.g., prost ‘simple’) forms of predicate adjectives in Russian, based on data from the syntactic subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus. The data under scrutiny suggest that short forms represent the dominant option for predicate adjectives. It is proposed that long forms are descriptions of thematic participants in sentences with no complement, while short forms may take complements and describe both participants (thematic and rhematic) and situations. Within the “space of competition” where both long and short forms are well attested, it is argued that the choice of form to some extent depends on subject type, gender/number, and frequency. On the methodological level, the approach adopted in the present study may be extended to other cases of competition in morphosyntax. It is suggested that one should first “peel off” contexts where (nearly) categorical rules are at work, before one undertakes a statistical analysis of the “space of competition”.
Knowledge distillation for efficient standard scanplane detection of fetal ultrasound
Authors: Dapueto Jacopo , Zini Luca , Odone Francesca
Published: September 2023

In clinical practice, ultrasound standard planes (SPs) selection is experience-dependent and it suffers from inter-observer and intra-observer variability. Automatic recognition of SPs can help improve the quality of examinations and make the evaluations more objective. In this paper, we propose a method for the automatic identification of SPs, to be installed onboard a portable ultrasound system with limited computational power. The deep Learning methodology we design is based on the concept of Knowledge Distillation, transferring knowledge from a large and well-performing teacher to a smaller student architecture. To this purpose, we evaluate a set of different potential teachers and students, as well as alternative knowledge distillation techniques, to balance a trade-off between performances and architectural complexity. We report a thorough analysis of fetal ultrasound data, focusing on a benchmark dataset, to the best of our knowledge the only one available to date.

Graphical abstract
Vibration and Audio Measurements in the Monitoring of Basic Oxygen Furnace Steelmaking
Authors: Nissilä Juhani , Pylvänäinen Mika , Visuri Ville-Valtteri , Ruotsalainen Pasi , Laurila Jouni , Rankinen Atte , Palovaara Tuomas , Liedes Toni
Published: September 2023

A basic oxygen furnace (BOF) is the main unit process for refining carbon steel. The aim of this work was to study the use of vibration and audio signal measurements to monitor, predict, and control the BOF process. Vibration and audio data from nearly 300 blows were collected and analyzed together with process variables. We could confirm high correlations between some of the process variables and vibration and audio measurements. Median filtered low-frequency (3–20 Hz) audio as well as X- and Z-direction acceleration root mean square (RMS) time series correlate with the off-gas temperature, although this is much more significant for the audio data. For Y-direction measurements (the upward direction) the correlation is negligible. The low-frequency audio and vibration data are likely related to the rate of decarburization. Median filtered mid-frequency (100–1000 Hz) audio as well as X-, Y-, and Z-direction acceleration RMS time series correlate with the lance height measurement during the interval 20–600 seconds from the beginning of oxygen blow. For the audio data, the correlation was high even without median filtering. We suggest that audio and vibration activity in this frequency range is possibly related to the formation of the metal–slag–gas foam and maybe even to slopping.
O$$^2$$-Bert: Two-Stage Target-Based Sentiment Analysis
Authors: Yan Yan , Zhang Bo-Wen , Ding Guanwen , Li Wenjie , Zhang Jie , Li Jia-Jing , Gao Wenchao
Published: September 2023

Target-based sentiment analysis (TBSA) is one of the most important NLP research topics for widespread applications. However, the task is challenging, especially when the targets contain multiple words or do not exist in the sequences. Conventional approaches cannot accurately extract the (target, sentiment) pairs due to the limitations of the fixed end-to-end architecture design. In this paper, we propose a framework namedO$$^2$$2-Bert, which consists ofOpinion target extraction (OTE-Bert) andOpinion sentiment classification (OSC-Bert) to complete the task in two stages. More specifically, we divide the OTE-Bert into three modules. First, an entity number prediction module predicts the number of entities in a sequence, even in an extreme situation where no entities are contained. Afterwards, with predicted number of entities, an entity starting annotation module is responsible for predicting their starting positions. Finally, an entity length prediction module predicts the lengths of these entities, and thus, accomplishes target extraction. In OSC-Bert, the sentiment polarities of extracted targets from OTE-Bert. According to the characteristics of BERT encoders, our framework can be adapted to short English sequences without domain limitations. For other languages, our approach might work through altering the tokenization. Experimental results on the SemEval 2014-16 benchmarks show that the proposed model achieves competitive performances on both domains (restaurants and laptops) and both tasks (target extraction and sentiment classification), with F1-score as evaluated metrics. Specifically, OTE-Bert achieves 84.63%, 89.20%, 83.16%, and 86.88% F1 scores for target extraction, while OSC-Bert achieves 82.90%, 80.73%, 76.94%, and 83.58% F1 scores for sentiment classification, on the chosen benchmarks. The statistics validate the effectiveness and robustness of our approach and the new “two-stage paradigm”. In future work, we will explore more possibilities of the new paradigm on other NLP tasks.
Baiting Insects with Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids (PAs): A Fieldwork-Oriented Review and Guide to PA-Pharmacophagy
Authors: Boppré Michael , Monzón Julio
Published: September 2023

Since 1890, many observations of danaine butterflies visiting dry plants of several families in the Old and New World tropics have been published. For 50 years, it has been recognised that Danainae, along with various other insects, seek out 1,2-dehydropyrrolizidine ester alkaloids (PAs) independently of and in addition to their nutritive requirements and utilise them to increase their chances for survival and biological fitness. This represents an unusual type of insect-plant relationship (“PA-pharmacophagy”), with remarkable peculiarities but also with gaps in knowledge, many of which can be filled by employing PA-baiting. We review and analyse the history of records on the attraction of adult insects to PAs and unveil the complex background information on PA-chemistry, PA-producing plants (“PA-plants”), and PA-sequestering insects (“PA-insects”) in order to come up with practical tips for successful baiting with PAs (“PA-baiting”). Studying PA-pharmacophagy integrates taxonomy, behaviour, and ecology with evolutionary biology, chemistry, and toxicology. With basic knowledge of PA-chemistry and bearing the general peculiarities of PA-plants and PA-insects in mind, PA-baiting can be conducted easily and successfully to address many questions on the multifaceted ecology of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. We aim to encourage field researchers in the tropics to employ PA-baiting as a valuable research method in this field of integrative biology.
Reflexivity of finite-dimensional sets of operators
Authors: Bračič Janko
Published: September 2023

A non-empty set of operators $$\mathcal {M}$$
M
is reflexive if an operator T is in $$\mathcal {M}$$
M
if and only if $$Tx\in \overline{\mathcal {M} x}$$

T
x
∈

M
x

¯

, for all vectors x. In this paper, we study the reflexivity of finite-dimensional sets of operators. We introduce the class of flat sets of operators and prove several results related to the reflexivity of these sets; in particular, we show that the convex hull of three (or fewer) operators is reflexive.
Multi-temporal Sequential Recommendation Model Based on the Fused Learning Preferences
Authors: Chen Jianxia , Pan Liwei , Dong Shi , Yu Tianci , Xiao Liang , Yao Meihan , Luo Shijie
Published: September 2023

Since sequential recommendation can effectively capture the user’s dynamic interaction pattern according to the user’s historical interaction, it plays one of the important roles in the field of recommendation systems. Nowadays, the sequential recommendation models based on deep learning approaches have achieved good results in reality due to their excellent performance in information retrieval and filtering. However, there are still some challenges that still should be overcome of them. A major disadvantage of them is that they are only considering users’ short-time interests while ignoring their long-term preferences. Moreover, they are incapable of considering the influence of time information in the original interaction sequence, which could be helpful to fully extract various patterns via the different temporal embedding forms. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel model named multi-temporal sequential recommendation model based on the fused learning preference named MTSR-FLP in short. In the proposed framework, this paper adopts an MLP-based state generation module to consider the user’s long-term preferences and the short-time interests simultaneously. In particular, the proposed MTSR-FLP model designs a global representation learning approach to obtain the user’s global preference, and a local representation learning approach to capture the users’ local preference via its historical information. Moreover, the proposed model develops a multiple temporal embedding scheme to encode the positions of user–item interactions of a sequence, in which multiple kernels are utilized for the absolute or relative timestamps to establish unique embedding matrices. Finally, compared with other advanced sequence recommendation models on five public real-world datasets, the experimental results show that the proposed MTSR-FLP model has improved the performance of HR@10 from the 6.68% through 31.10% and NDCG@10 from the 8.60% through 42.54%.
Religiosity and Political Islam: Divergent Influences on Support for Terrorism
Authors: Cubukcu Suat , Cinoglu Huseyin , Ozeren Suleyman
Published: September 2023

This study examines the intricate relationship between religion and attitudes towards terrorist violence, with a specific focus on individual sympathy for al-Qaeda and justification for suicide bombings. While religion has the capacity to promote both harmony and social cohesion, as well as division and conflict, it is crucial to explore the complex and contradictory nature of religious beliefs in relation to individuals’ attitudes towards terrorism. To address this paradox, the study differentiates between religion as a belief and religion as an ideology. Drawing from a subset of the 2011 Pew Global Attitudes Survey, encompassing countries with substantial Muslim populations (Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey), the research investigates how religiosity and political Islam influence public attitudes towards terrorism, considering political and economic grievances in these contexts. Multivariate statistical analysis suggests that religiosity and political Islam exhibit distinct associations with the justification of suicide bombings and support for al-Qaeda, and these dynamics vary across countries. Ultimately, the study underscores the importance of perceiving religiosity not as a threat but as a potential remedy to prevent extremism by fostering an educated and deeper understanding of religious principles.
Financial Literacy and Financial Resilience: Evidence from Italy
Authors: Bottazzi Laura , Oggero Noemi
Published: September 2023

In this paper, we examine financial literacy and financial resilience in Italy. We show that financial literacy is particularly low among the young, women, and the less educated. We also highlight regional differences in financial knowledge, with individuals in Southern Italy performing worse. We find that the lack of financial literacy increases the probability of being unable to face financial shocks and leads to an overaccumulation of debt. Hence, our results support the hypothesis that financial literacy can be considered an enabling factor for financial resilience.
Increasing Equity in the Transnational Allocation of Vaccines Against Emerging Pathogens: A Multi-Modal Approach
Authors: Rutschman Ana Santos
Published: September 2023

This article proposes the adoption of a multi-modal system for allocating vaccine doses during large transnational outbreaks of infectious diseases. The chosen allocative criteria (public health need; country-income level; qualification through funding; and, subsidiarily, a modified lottery system) are adapted from a current embodiment of allocative multi-modality outside the context of public health: the New York City Marathon.
“Death and Taxes”: Why Financial Compensation for Research Participants is an Economic and Legal Risk
Authors: Waltz Margaret , Davis Arlene M. , Fisher Jill A.
Published: September 2023

In the US, research payments are technically taxable income. This article argues that tax liability is a form of possible economic and legal risk of paid research participation. Findings are presented from empirical research on Phase I healthy volunteer trials. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for the informed consent process, as well as for broader ethical issues in whether and how payments for research participation should be regulated.
Enhancing Reciprocity, Equity and Quality of Ethics Review for Multisite Research During Public Health Crises: The Experience of the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition Ethics Working Group
Authors: Rahimzadeh Vasiliki , Ambe Jennyfer , de Vries Jantina
Published: September 2023

In this paper we report findings from a commissioned report to the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition on approaches to streamline multinational REC review/approval during public health emergencies. As currently envisioned in the literature, a system of REC mutual recognition is theoretically possible based on shared procedural REC standards, but raises numerous concerns about perceived inequities and mistrust.
Genomic Data as a National Strategic Resource: Implications for the Genomic Commons and International Data Sharing for Biomedical Research and Innovation
Authors: McKibbin Kyle , Shabani Mahsa
Published: September 2023

This article provides a critical review of new policies in China, the United States, and the European Union that characterize genomic data as a national strategic resource. Specifically, we review policies that regulate human genomic data for economic, national security, or other strategic purposes rather than ethical or individual rights purposes.
In this Together: International Collaborations for Environmental and Human Health
Authors: King Jaime S. , Manning Joanna , Woodward Alistair
Published: September 2023

Climate change exacts a devastating toll on health that is rarely incorporated into the economic calculus of climate action. By aligning health and environmental policy and collaborating across borders, governments and industries can develop powerful initiatives to promote both environmental and human health.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Partnerships of Equitable Vaccine Access
Authors: Halabi Sam , Gostin Lawrence O. , Aneja Kashish , Nardi Francesca , Gottschalk Katie , Monahan John
Published: September 2023

This article highlights and evaluates the role of CEPI and its contribution to global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines through its established partnerships for vaccine development. The article adds to the understanding of how and when such partnerships can work for public health, especially under emergency citations.
Donald Trump’s contribution to the study of politics and the life sciences
Authors: Hibbing John R.
Published: September 2023

If the life sciences are to have much to say about politics, there needs to be a universal element to political orientations. In this essay, I argue that the recent prominence of nativist, law-and-order, populist politicians reveals the nature of this universal element. All social units have to address bedrock dilemmas about how to deal with norm violators and how welcoming to be to outsiders as well as to proponents of new lifestyles. Might differences on these core dilemmas be the universal element of political life? Using the followers of one of the most prominent examples of a nativist political leader—Donald Trump—as an example, I present data showing that Trump’s most earnest followers are different from others—even those who share their general ideological leanings—not on traditional economic or social issues, but rather on the group-based security issues that grow out of the bedrock dilemmas of social life.
Jodhpur and the aeroplane: aviation and diplomacy in an Indian state 1924–1952
Authors: Iqbal Aashique Ahmed
Published: September 2023

This paper is a study of the intersection between aviation and diplomacy in the semi-autonomous Indian state of Jodhpur in the final decades of British colonial rule in India. Jodhpur's Maharaja Umaid Singh established a major international aerodrome, patronized one of India's first flying clubs and collaborated with British authorities to make aviation laws for the Indian states. He would also serve in the Royal Air Force during the war and placed Jodhpur state's aviation resources at the disposal of the king-emperor. This paper argues that Jodhpur was able to leverage its aviation resources to wield substantial influence both within and beyond the British Empire through both war and peace. An analysis of Jodhpur's engagement with aviation diplomacy is also revealing of some of the limitations as well as possibilities for the deployment of science diplomacy frameworks, especially in non-Western contexts.
HYPERBOLIC SPACE AND VIOLETA DINESCU'S MUSICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE ‘WOMAN'S SOUL’
Authors: Teodorescu-Ciocanea Livia
Published: September 2023

This paper proposes an approach to the representation of mental musical space, understood here as a mental ‘hologram’ of a musical structure created while composing or listening to a piece of music. Composers claim to ‘hear’ music in their mind and ‘see’ it in their spatial imagination; normally we see music graphically represented on two-dimensional staves, but we could mentally decode it in a three- or multi-dimensional space, and I argue that Violeta Dinescu's musical vision occupies a non-Euclidean imaginary musical space rather than the Western classical-music template. Dinescu's graphical design suggests a hyperbolic space, distorting the musical parameters accordingly. Two of her works are discussed: Gehen wir zu Grúschenka, for cello with voice ad libitum, and Herzriss – Aus deinem Herzen kannst du die Liebe nicht ausreißen, an opera for solo voice(s), percussion and cello. The first views the behaviour of musical parameters as if in an imaginary hyperbolic space; the latter exemplifies intertextuality in a cultural hyperbolic space. Both are metaphors of the woman's soul.
RELATIVE INTONATION: NON-SYMMETRICAL IMPLICATIONS OF LINEAR AND LOGARITHMIC INTERVALLIC MEASUREMENT
Authors: Pratt Ryan
Published: September 2023

This article investigates intervallic measurement and the tacit limitations engendered by a prevalent symmetrical perspective of measuring intervals. Various numerical and instrumental limitations and further detail of harmonic and melodic structures, such as Farey sequences, are illustrated. This approach distinguishes itself from a perspective of prime limits, explored by Harry Partch and others. A standardisation of ‘microtonal’ notation is not suggested; rather, the restrictions provided by any such standardisation are re-examined through an objective lens of ratios, to harness the generative potential of numbers. An orchestration-led approach to composition is described, where the tuning limitations of instruments are utilised for idiomatic composition. Tuning practices that ‘evade’ the octave are also discussed, including gamelan, mbira and three scales found by Wendy Carlos. The article concludes with a section on the construction of harmonic systems in the absence of instrumental influences.
being-in-blackfeminineflesh
Authors: Imhotep Ra Malika
Published: September 2023

In the Dirty Southern vernacular medium of the twerk video, performances of eroticized Black femininity by digital performance artist BeTTy BuTT and others knead into traumas of ecological dispossession, sexual vulnerability, and patriarchal violence. As an aesthetic survival strategy forged in the Black sexual economies of the contemporary Dirty South, being-in-blackfeminineflesh occasions a critical reappraisal of the performative labors of contemporary Black feminine figures, how our bodyminds witness them, and how we write about them.
The Artist as Burning Building
Authors: Richter Sarah
Published: September 2023

Dozens of theatres emerge in Yve Laris Cohen’s two performances, Conservation and Preservation, including: the theatre of cruelty, theatrical minimalist sculpture, legal theatres, operating theatres, and spectacular disasters. They provide the groundwork for exploring theatrical redundancy, refuse, excess, violence, speech, and the (im)possibility of repair.
(Re)Building a Museum, (Re)Worlding a Nation, (Re)Writing History
Authors: Fakhrkonandeh Alireza
Published: September 2023

The premiere of Hannah Khalil’s A Museum in Baghdad (2019) marks a critical juncture in the history of contemporary British drama. The play is informed by a decolonial dynamic, a longue durée vision, and an evental mode of memory; and renders the museum as a multivalent allegorical space. The complicities of culture, imperialism, and resource extractivism are revealed.
Locksynth: Deriving Synchronization Code for Concurrent Data Structures with ASP
Authors: VARANASI SARAT CHANDRA , MITTAL NEERAJ , GUPTA GOPAL
Published: September 2023

We present Locksynth, a tool that automatically derives synchronization needed for destructive updates to concurrent data structures that involve a constant number of shared heap memory write operations. Locksynth serves as the implementation of our prior work on deriving abstract synchronization code. Designing concurrent data structures involves inferring correct synchronization code starting with a prior understanding of the sequential data structure’s operations. Further, an understanding of shared memory model and the synchronization primitives is also required. The reasoning involved transforming a sequential data structure into its concurrent version can be performed using Answer Set Programming, and we mechanized our approach in previous work. The reasoning involves deduction and abduction that can be succinctly modeled in ASP. We assume that the abstract sequential code of the data structure’s operations is provided, alongside axioms that describe concurrent behavior. This information is used to automatically derive concurrent code for that data structure, such as dictionary operations for linked lists and binary search trees that involve a constant number of destructive update operations. We also are able to infer the correct set of locks (but not code synthesis) for external height-balanced binary search trees that involve left/right tree rotations. Locksynth performs the analyses required to infer correct sets of locks and as a final step, also derives the C++ synchronization code for the synthesized data structures. We also provide a performance analysis of the C++ code synthesized by Locksynth with the hand-crafted versions available from the Synchrobench microbenchmark suite. To the best of our knowledge, our tool is the first to employ ASP as a backend reasoner to perform concurrent data structure synthesis.
Indeterminate Innovation
Authors: Jackson Patrick Thaddeus
Published: September 2023

One of my pet peeves when watching televised sports is when the commentators declare that one or another player or team “has momentum” or that “the momentum has shifted.” Typically, this statement is made shortly after a team or player does something that puts them in a better position to win the game, and the implication seems to be that this change in momentum will carry someone to victory. But there are at least two problems with this all-too-typical sportscaster pronouncement. One is that “momentum” is a mathematically well-defined notion in physics, where it means the mass of an object multiplied by its velocity; linear momentum is also a vector quantity, and has both a magnitude and a direction. It is this complexity that allows momentum and changes in momentum—in conjunction with an account of the various forces at work on the object—to explain the object’s trajectory. A well-kicked football has momentum in the physics sense, but it is quite unclear how the “momentum” of a player or a team might be calculated, to say nothing of the various forces at work on the player or team’s movement through the playing of a game. Hence both the determination of a player or team’s “momentum,” and the use of that “momentum” in explaining or predicting the outcome of a game, necessarily remain at the level of metaphor.
Tough enough für die Pflege?
Authors: Metzenthin Petra , Reinhardt Sören
Published: September 2023

Zusammenfassung: Das Berner Bildungszentrum Pflege hat mit der Kampagne „Tough Enough“ neue Wege beschritten, Interessierte für die Pflegeausbildung anzuziehen. Aussagekräftige Gesichter verschiedener fiktiver Patientinnen und Patienten zierten Busse, Trams und Haltestellen. Sören Reinhardt vom Marketing der Schule erzählt im Interview mehr über die ungewöhnliche Kampagne.
Pflegeassistenz – Quo vadis?
Authors: Gentner Thomas
Published: September 2023

Zusammenfassung: In Baden-Württemberg wurde aktuell ein Gesetzesentwurf für die Reform der Helfer_innen-Ausbildung vorgelegt. Eine Entwicklung, die prinzipiell zu begrüßen ist und eigentlich bundeseinheitlich geregelt sein sollte. Doch welche Stolpersteine gilt es dringend zu beachten, um einen Beitrag hin zur Professionalisierung der Pflege nicht zu versäumen und um den Lernenden und Lehrenden gerecht zu werden?
Simply the best?
Authors: Key Michaela , Feratovic Franziska Tschirky
Published: September 2023

Zusammenfassung: Welche Kandidat_innen passen am besten zu uns? Wer hat das Potenzial, die Ausbildung erfolgreich abzuschließen? Fragen wie diese sind entscheidend für Lehrbetriebe – besonders bei hohen Bewerberzahlen. Um neue Wege bei der Lernendenauswahl zu gehen, haben wir im Universitätsspital Zürich (USZ) das Verfahren genau auf die Versorgungserfordernisse des USZ abgestimmt.
Palliative Care in der Pflegeausbildung
Authors: Künne Edna
Published: September 2023

Zusammenfassung: Bemmann & Klewer haben 2013 eine Studie über Wissen und Einstellungen von Auszubildenden in der Pflege bezüglich Palliative Care durchgeführt. Das Ergebnis verdeutlichte erhebliche Wissensdefizite in diesem Themenfeld. Wegen der wachsenden Bedeutung der Palliative Care ist es interessant, zu erforschen, welches Wissen über und welche Einstellungen zu Palliative Care Auszubildende heute haben.
Young Carers
Authors: Gentner Thomas
Published: September 2023

Zusammenfassung: Young Carers stellen eine vulnerable Gruppe mit einem hohen Bedarf an Patientenedukation dar. Hierbei müssen die Bedürfnisse der Betroffenen in den Blick genommen werden. In diesem Artikel werden bereits bestehende Projekte und Materialien im deutschsprachigen Raum zur Beratung, Schulung und Information von Young Carers und deren Familien erwähnt und Bedarfe skizziert.
Long‐Lived (180 Myr) Ductile Flow Within the Great Slave Lake Shear Zone
Authors: Šilerová D. , Dyck B. , Cutts J. A. , Larson K.
Published: September 2023

The Great Slave Lake shear zone (GSLsz) is a type example for deeply eroded continental transform boundaries located in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Formed during the oblique convergence of the Archean Rae and Slave cratons, the GSLsz has accommodated up to 700 km of dextral shear. Here we present the results of in situ U‐Pb apatite and titanite geochronology from 11 samples that were collected across the strike of the shear zone. Both geochronometers record a near‐continuous history of ductile shear during crustal cooling and exhumation that spans ca. 1920–1740 Ma. By integrating the geochronological data with structural and metamorphic observations across the structure, we propose a tectonic model for the shear zone that consists of three stages. The first stage (ca. 1920–1880 Ma) is characterized by strain accommodation along two coeval fault strands. During the second stage (ca. 1880–1800 Ma), ductile shear ceases along the northernmost fault strand and the locus of strain migrates southwards toward the hinterland of the Rae cratonic margin. In the third stage (ca. 1800–1740 Ma), ductile strain localizes back along the southern of the two original fault strands, after which the present‐day surface level of the shear zone transitions to brittle shear. Our results highlight both the significance of the lateral migration of the zone of active deformation in major crustal shear zones as well as the localization of strain along existing crustal structures.