bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The impact of CO2 emission on health expenditure: lesson learned from ASEAN five countries
Authors: Hamid Edy S , Wibowo Bintang S
Published: May 2023

This study is motivated by the issue of the Green Economy regime. The Green Economy regime promotes economic development while maintaining good environmental stability without destroying nature. Increased CO2 emissions, especially in the 5 ASEAN countries, will impact the surrounding environment, leading to worsening health levels in the long term. This poor level of health resulting from CO2 emissions will increase spending on health. The study aims to empirically analyse and see how the condition of CO2 carbon emissions will affect the health expenditure sector. The analysis of this study is by analysing Time Series data sourced from several websites such as the World Bank and also data from the Ministry of Finance. The methodology uses multiple linear regression models, or the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method, to see how the effect of CO2 carbon emissions on health expenditure. The methodology also uses Panel Data Regression consisting of the Common Effect Model, Fixed Effect Model, and Random Effect Model. The variables used are CO2 emission as an independent variable and current health expenditure per capita as the dependent variable. The results obtained from this study are that increasing CO2 carbon emissions lead to an increase in health expenditures, along with a decrease in the quality of the surrounding environment and will have an impact on public health so that the relationship between CO2 carbon emissions and health expenditures has a positive and significant relationship.
Strengthening society preparedness as a strategy for disaster risk reduction in Indonesia
Authors: Nuryana Mu’man , Erwinsyah Rudy G. , Suradi Suradi
Published: May 2023

Natural disasters in Indonesia place a heavy and extraordinary burden on the affected people. Disaster victims are often unable to cope with the stress and tension of a disaster, so they turn to the government for help. Disasters also create difficult problems for the government to anticipate and deal with. As a result, the effectiveness of government efforts in disaster management varies. In many cases, the government’s response to disasters is slow, ineffective, often chaotic, and misguided. There is a “gap” between what the government is prepared to do in an emergency management situation and what emerges as the expectations of disaster victims. This paper aims to answer the problem on how the things related to community preparedness can be formulated in disaster management policies. We describe this assertion after conducting field research in six selected regencies in 2021. This mixed methods research is descriptive, with data collected through a survey with respondents and interviews with informants using semi-structured questionnaires. We conclude that there is no other way except society must be able to adapt to disasters and be capable of managing disaster risk reduction. This adaptability is manifested in the forms of society’s preparedness for disasters.
Potato cultivation on the west slope of Mount Slamet: millennial farmers perceptions and intentions for conservation-based farming
Authors: Karim A R , Darsono  , Harisudin M , Dharmawan B
Published: May 2023

A comprehension on the millennial farmers’ perceptions about land degradation, and their intentions to perform conservation-based farming is the initial effort in formulating appropriate programs and policies to control land degradation on the Mount Slamet’s western slope, Central Java. This study aims to: 1) explore the perceptions of millennial farmers about land degradation in potato farming and 2) discover the effect of these perceptions on their intention to do pro-environmental farming. The research was conducted in Paguyangan Brebes from January to March 2022 with a total sample of 189 millennial farmers aged 19-39 years. Research data were collected using a questionnaire with a Likert scale of 1-5. The analysis used was descriptive analysis and SEM-PLS through WarpPLS 7.0 software. The results showed that 96.83% of the millennial farmers realized that there had been a phenomenon of land degradation for potato cultivation. The decline in potato production is the strongest indicator of millennial farmers’ perceptions of land degradation conditions (LC) and land degradation risk (RISK). Both are the antecedents of millennial farmers’ intention to perform conservation-based farming (INT) partially. RISK acted as a mediating variable between LC and INT. INT reinforcement can be sought by clarifying the understanding of millennial farmers about the risk of land degradation in potato farming.
Coupling of QD-based PhC nanocavity with two mechanical modes: an approach to tunable optical switching and sensing applications
Authors: Yeasmin Sajia , Barbhuiya Sabur A , Bhattacherjee Aranya B , Banerjee Souri
Published: May 2023

We theoretically study the dynamical change in the amplification of the output probe field spectra of a hybrid optomechanical system consisting of double mechanical modes coupled to a photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity. The PhC cavity is also embedded with a quantum dot (QD) (two-level system) and simultaneously driven by an external pump and a probe field. We show that multiple number of transparency windows that appear can be controlled by the QD-cavity coupling strength and also the Fano profiles are directly measured by the resonant frequency of the mechanical mode. We also show the optical transition from bistability to tristability/multistability by adjusting the switching threshold of the system parameters. These results can also be used to study frequency optical nonreciprocity and all-optical switches in multi-resonator photonic devices.
Influence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) in the synthesis of luminescent NaYF4:Yb,Er upconversion nanoparticles
Authors: Birch Ross , Bruckbauer Jochen , Gajewska Marta , Cios Grzegorz , Pal Robert , MacKenzie Lewis E
Published: May 2023

Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) can be used to produce upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) in an advantageous manner, i.e. at modest temperatures in open-to-air conditions with simple hotplate and flask apparatus. However, the influence of PVP parameters on the formation of UCNPs has not been previously investigated. In this exploratory study, we establish that PVP molecular weight and relative amount of PVP can greatly influence the morphology and diameter of NaYF4:Yb,Er UCNPs produced via the PVP-assisted route. At nominal amounts of PVP, varying the molecular weight of PVP in synthesis between 10,000 g mol−1 (PVP10), 40,000 g mol−1 (PVP40), and 55,000 g mol−1 (PVP55), had minimal effect on UCNP morphology, whereas reducing the quantity of PVP10 and PVP40 in the reaction to 10% of the nominal amount resulted in two notable effects: (1) the generation of a greater range of UCNP diameters and (2) the production of an unexpected sub-population of rhombus-shaped UCNPs. Bulk and individual nanoparticle analysis indicates that all UCNP morphologies were cubic (α-phase) crystal structure and consisted of NaYF4:Yb,Er. Optical emission properties exhibited only modest green and red luminescence emission ratio when PVP parameters were varied. However, separately produced PVP40 NaYF4:Yb,Tm UCNPs exhibited a much more intense and dual-band blue/red emission. This exploratory work demonstrates that tailoring PVP content in synthesis of UCNPs can greatly alter morphology of UCNPs produced and should be carefully considered in experimental design. However, the underlying mechanisms of action of the role PVP plays in this synthesis remain unclear. Ultimately, significant further work is still required to fully elucidate the relevant chemistry to achieve full control of PVP-UCNP synthesis.
Modeling and simulations for 2D materials: a ReaxFF perspective
Authors: Nayir Nadire , Mao Qian , Wang Tao , Kowalik Malgorzata , Zhang Yuwei , Wang Mengyi , Dwivedi Swarit , Jeong Ga-Un , Shin Yun Kyung , van Duin Adri
Published: May 2023

Recent advancements in the field of two-dimensional (2D) materials have led to the discovery of a wide range of 2D materials with intriguing properties. Atomistic-scale simulation methods have played a key role in these discoveries. In this review, we provide an overview of the recent progress in ReaxFF force field developments and applications in modeling the following layered and nonlayered 2D materials: graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, MXenes, hexagonal boron nitrides, groups III-, IV- and V-elemental materials, as well as the mixed dimensional van der Waals heterostructures. We further discuss knowledge gaps and challenges associated with synthesis and characterization of 2D materials. We close this review with an outlook addressing the challenges as well as plans regarding ReaxFF development and possible large-scale simulations, which should be helpful to guide experimental studies in a discovery of new materials and devices.
Wet flashover voltage improvement of the ceramics with dielectric barrier discharge
Authors: HUANG Chengshuo , XIE Xiangqian , ZHOU Yangyang , ZHU Xi , CUI Xinglei , FANG Zhi
Published: May 2023

Surface modification techniques with plasma are widely investigated to improve the surface insulation capability of polymers under dry conditions, while the relationship between treatment method, surface physical and chemical properties, and wet flashover voltage is still unclear for inorganic ceramics. In this work, the surface insulation properties of ceramics under wet conditions are improved using nanosecond-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the precursor. The relationships between PDMS concentration and the water contact angle, dry and wet flashover voltages are obtained to acquire the optimal concentration. The surface charge dissipation test and surface physio-chemical property measurement with SEM, AFM, XPS are carried out to further explore the mechanism of surface insulation enhancement. The results show that film deposition with micron thickness and superhydrophobicity occurs at the PDMS concentration of 1.5%. The dry flashover voltage is increased by 14.6% due to the induction of deep traps, while the wet flashover voltage is increased by 66.7%. The gap between dry-wet flashover voltage is decreased by 62.3% compared with the untreated one due to the self-cleaning effect.
On the computation of general vector-valued modular forms
Authors: Magnusson Tobias , Raum Martin
Published: May 2023

We present and discuss an algorithm and its implementation that is capable of directly determining Fourier expansions of any vector-valued modular form of weight at least

2
2

associated with representations whose kernel is a congruence subgroup. It complements two available algorithms that are limited to inductions of Dirichlet characters and to Weil representations, thus covering further applications like Moonshine or Jacobi forms for congruence subgroups. We examine the calculation of invariants in specific representations via techniques from permutation groups, which greatly aids runtime performance. We explain how a generalization of cusp expansions of classical modular forms enters our implementation. After a heuristic consideration of time complexity, we relate the formulation of our algorithm to the two available ones, to highlight the compromises between level of generality and performance that each them makes.
Perspectives on Help-Receiving in the Workplace: Review and Recommendations
Authors: Scotney Victoria S. , Bonner Cavan V. , Tay Louis
Published: May 2023

Helping behaviors and exchanges have long been studied in organizational research. However, it has generally kept a spotlight on the helper and the promotion of helping behaviors rather than help-receiving. While giving help in the workplace is generally construed as a desirable employee behavior (e.g., organizational citizenship behaviors [OCB]), help-receiving in the workplace can be experienced positively and/or negatively. Nevertheless, receiving help is vital to the safety, performance, and well-being of employees. In conceptualizing help received, researchers should consider questions related to the form, initiator, and source of help, as well as the distinction between the behavior and outcomes of help. Careful consideration of these questions can help increase the precision and contribution of future research and lead to an understanding of the multidimensional nature of help-receiving in the workplace. Many determinants and consequences of help-receiving in the workplace have had mixed results across studies, but differences in the conceptualization and operationalization of help-received can help explain differential relationships to other variables. Understanding key determinants and consequences of help-receiving can move scholarly discussion toward a holistic view of considering both help-giving and help-receiving. Ultimately, helping in the workplace is an interactional phenomenon; to understand it, we need a deeper understanding of recipient experiences. Implications for future organizational research include the need for precise conceptualizations of the form, initiation, source, and outcomes of help, and the need for examining particular helping episodes in detail, as well as the cumulative effects of seeking and receiving help over long periods of time.
Syntax
Authors: Brennan Jonathan R.
Published: May 2023

To “know a language” is to know, in part, the rules by which individual words can be combined to make new meaningful expressions. Theories of syntax aim to specify the mental representations that constitute this knowledge. Evidence from diverse spoken and manual languages indicates that these representations are hierarchically structured and include dependencies between elements that point to a constrained class of rules that are characteristic of human language. Experimental studies show that language users recognize and interpret these representations rapidly, in real time. Debates center on the precise format of these representations and the degree to which they share fundamental and perhaps universal properties across different languages. Theories are constrained by the fact that syntax is acquired without explicit instruction by young children, who show exquisite sensitivity to the usage patterns of their language community while also inducing rules that go beyond the surface patterns of the input they receive. Standing at the intersection of multiple scholarly traditions, syntax has faced historical tensions with adjacent disciplines in the cognitive sciences. Interdisciplinary cross-fertilization is supported by open discussion of methodological practices as well as shared interests in rigorous computational accounts of human language and linguistic diversity.
Constructing Nations in Soviet Central Asia
Authors: Khalid Adeeb
Published: May 2023

The political map of Soviet Central Asia was radically transformed in 1924. The three existing republics of Turkestan, Bukhara, and Khorezm were dissolved and replaced by a series of republics that each bore the name of a national group. This so-called national-territorial delimitation was initiated by Moscow but carried out by Central Asian cadres. The process moved quite fast and was completed in a matter of months. Yet, this process of creating new republics was neither the beginning, nor the end of nation construction in Central Asia. Nation construction is an ongoing process that cannot be conflated with merely the creation of new boundaries.

The idea of the nation had arrived in Central Asia well before the revolution. Central Asian intellectuals had begun to reimagine their communities as nations. The Russian revolution of 1917 transformed the limits of the possible as it heightened national mobilization. Multiple national projects were underway in 1924, and these informed the positions different parties took in the debates of that year, which tended to be quite acrimonious. While authorities in Moscow had to approve the decisions, the debates were driven by Central Asian cadres. The creation of the republics nationalize territory in Soviet Central Asia, but it did not in itself produce fully formed nations. That was a long process facilitated by the existence of the republics and the “passportization” of national identity by the Soviet state. The breakup of the Soviet Union provided another impetus to nation building, as the post-Soviet states have used nationhood as the core of their legitimacy.
Urban Health and Disaster Resilience
Authors: Sanderson David , Patel Ronak , Gleason Kelsey
Published: May 2023

As cities and towns across the world continue to grow to accommodate most of the world’s population increase, so too are they increasingly and often disproportionately exposed to the threat of natural hazards—including those worsened by climate change—such as floods, earthquakes, windstorms, and fires. Efforts that aim to enhance and safeguard urban health are those that seek to build the resilience of people and systems before, during, and after disasters. Yet where these efforts fail or fail to exist, components of vulnerability and urban diversity inform disaster risk. Taking a systems approach is especially essential to recognize the interconnected, complex, and dynamic issues that include and impact on the spectrum of urban health.
Membrane Filtration
Authors: Peter Maryna
Published: May 2023

Membrane systems provide a physical barrier to various contaminants in water and therefore are attractive for different applications. Depending on the type of the membrane and its pore size, membranes might remove microbial contaminants, organic chemicals, or salts. The membrane-based systems for drinking water purification exist at different scales. The costs have decreased considerably since the 1990s, increasing the attractiveness for various needs and affordability levels. Household tabletop filters and filters installed under a sink can be used when public water supply quality is unreliable or in emergencies with locally available buckets or jerry cans. Gravity or solar-driven systems exist for off-grid applications in schools, health care facilities, or small communities. Skid-mounted and container-based desalination units are deployed in emergencies when brackish or saline water sources are the only option. Large-scale membrane-based drinking water treatment plants operate worldwide for municipal drinking water treatment. The modular design and flexibility around the capacity, target contaminants, and available energy sources offer opportunities for membrane-based drinking water treatment in various contexts. Further research and development should focus on mitigating membrane fouling, and reducing energy consumption, costs, and the overall technical complexity of the systems.
Industry and Agency Contracts and Procurement: A European Perspective
Authors: Baumann Ingo , Mey Jan Helge , Pellander Erik
Published: May 2023

The space industry has witnessed a tremendous commercialization wave. Flagged with the (disputable) term “NewSpace,” numerous start-up companies are emerging in the leading space nations as well as in nontraditional space countries. These companies are attracting private investments as never before. In addition to such private financing, strong public market interest in the space sector has enabled a number of leading space start-ups to access large amounts of capital through Special Purpose Acquisition Companies’ initial public offerings (IPOs). One economic consultancy company has predicted that the space economy will grow significantly by 2030—perhaps as much as 74%—with others suggesting even higher estimates.

With such strong economic growth and developments in new business models, there is a need to examine industry practices, particularly in contractual agreements. Such an examination is critical for the oversight of public spending, research and development funding, and space procurement for all public (government) and private stakeholders. The main public stakeholders on European level are the European Union, the European Space Agency, and the national space agencies of the member states, each of which has its dedicated legal frameworks and procedures.
The Geopolitics of Race, Empire, and Expertise at the ICC
Authors: Ba Oumar , Bluen K. Jo , Owiso Owiso
Published: May 2023

With the adoption of the Rome Statute in 1998, the international community created the first permanent international tribunal to hold perpetrators of atrocity crimes—namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression—accountable. Whereas linear and teleological narratives of progress toward a world of justice and accountability would hail such a major step as a culmination of a journey that Nuremberg set in motion, a critical reading of the origins, discourses, and mechanisms of the Rome Statute system shows the fissures and shaky foundations of problematic dispositions of international criminal law and the current international justice ecosystem. The International Criminal Court, through its design, operations, and mechanisms ensures that accountability for powerful states and their citizens are as constricted as possible, leaving room for an unbalanced, two-tiered international legal system eager to criminalize the subaltern, racialized, citizen of the Global South “other.” As the crisis that marked the (short) history of the Court has deepened, efforts to review and reform the institution have addressed some of these challenges, while still evading other subjects.
Process Tracing Methods and International Studies
Authors: Beach Derek
Published: May 2023

Process tracing (PT) is a case study method that enables scholars to study how causal processes (also known as causal mechanisms) play out in real-world cases. Despite the increasing popularity of the method in international studies, there is still considerable disagreement among scholars about how to understand the process actually being traced and how these processes can be studied empirically. This article tries to bring clarity to these disagreements by arguing that there is not one correct variant of PT, but instead several distinct variants of PT methods that differ based on the positions scholars take on what is being traced and how it can be traced. First, some scholars work with simple, abstract (minimalist) process theories, whereas others disaggregate process theories into parts composed of actors engaging in activities. Second, some scholars contend that inferences that assess the difference that a process makes for outcomes can only be made through controlled comparisons of cases. Others posit that we should study processes through the empirical traces left by their operation within cases. Finally, there are scholars who contend that causal processes in international studies involve social actors, meaning that more interpretive methods should be combined with more traditional PT. The article illustrates how different variants of PT have been used in published work within international studies, followed by a discussion of key challenges with using PT methods.
Copper and Copper Alloys at the Time of the Kingdoms of Ghana and Mali
Authors: Garenne-Marot Laurence
Published: May 2023

Copper was a highly prized material in sub-Saharan Africa at the time of the Sahelian kingdoms of Ancient Ghana and Mali. In certain regions, especially those where gold was mined, it was exchanged for gold at rates that would be considered unfair by present-day standards. Together with salt, it was one of the main commodities of the trans-Saharan trade that contributed to the enrichment of these sub-Saharan kingdoms. Salt was the most highly prized product in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it did not leave any direct archaeological trace, whereas copper remains in the archaeological records. Copper may be combined with other metals to form alloys with diverse mechanical and aesthetic properties. Determining the absence or presence or the ubiquity of some of these alloys in time and space and mapping this data has been done for other contexts. Thanks to a significant set of meaningful compositional analyses of archaeological copper-based objects and remains, such undertaking may be done for West African sites dating between the 8th and the 14th centuries ce. The archaeometric data check must take into account additional data, such as the nature of the site (e.g., habitat or sealed context), the dating, the nature of the copper-based material, and the quality of the metal (analytical data), as well as precise references about the source documentation. When the cartographic material is combined with archaeological evidence relating to the places where the metal was processed and consumed, or with written sources referring to historical events or changes in the trade routes, a picture can be drawn of the use, transformation, and circulation of copper and copper alloys over the course of six centuries Studies of what happened with regard to copper and copper alloys contribute to the construction of a finer history of the West African Sahel at the time of the kingdoms of Ghana and Mali. This research considers fluctuation in the value of copper and copper alloys, the increased exploitation of local copper deposits, the importance of secondary production loci, such as the workshops of Tegdaoust where local processing (or dilution!) of brass imported from the north took place, the wealth of copper-based objects in certain sites testifying to a modification of the trans-Saharan routes, and the development of new trading ports.
Risk and Finance
Authors: Ortiz Horacio
Published: May 2023

To study risk in the financial industry, rather than using the concept as an analytic category, anthropological research should instead examine the multiple technical and political meanings it has in the highly standardized procedures used by financial professionals worldwide. One important definition of risk concerns the concept of risk-free, used to qualify the bonds of the most powerful states worldwide, which are expected not to default because of their capacity to find money to pay creditors and their willingness to prioritize them against the rest of the polity. Financial professionals use risk-free bonds as a standard to assess any other activity vying for the funds of the financial industry. If professionals consider the activities riskier according to the risk-free criteria, they will demand these activities pay higher returns, a differential designated as a risk premium. The notion of risk-free thus tends to reproduce a geopolitical order where the most powerful states set the standard of financial value for other financial assets. Another definition of risk includes the mathematical concept of standard deviation, often called volatility, established by considering that prices, returns, or other such financial information have a mathematically “normal” distribution, and hence it makes sense to use probabilistic thinking and tools, such as the calculation of averages and correlations. These methods are combined with a political imaginary of market efficiency established in neoclassical economics, according to which, in efficient markets, maximizing investors seek all available information about assets, so that prices reflect this information and thus function as signals for a socially optimal allocation of resources. In this case, investors should not try to “beat” the market, but accept its prices as signals, and the investment strategy should only seek to minimize volatility. By mathematical construction, the standard deviation of a bundle of series that is not completely correlated is lower than that of one series. According to this view, investment should diversify into as many assets as possible, buying the “whole market.” This is the conceptual foundation of indexed investment, which tends to produce investment portfolios that replicate the market, so that the proportion of each asset in the portfolio supposedly matches its proportion in the “investment universe” of all available assets that pay the risk-free rate of return or a risk premium. This leads to a reproduction of the distribution of money among existing assets and thereby to the reproduction of the social hierarchies that include and exclude social activities from financial industry funding, instituting a small group of powerful states as the global foundation of financial value. In everyday practice, financial professionals thus mobilize standardized definitions of risk, with various ontologies and political meanings, in a way that tends to reproduce current monetary distribution and the global hierarchies that result from it.
Sign Languages
Authors: Hoffmann-Dilloway Erika , Snoddon Kristin
Published: May 2023

Ethnographic studies of sign languages illuminate and complicate the ways in which the category of sign language is differentiated from other categories, including the categories of language and non-language, different types of sign languages, and signed versus spoken languages. These studies also highlight how sign language ideologies emerge in particular contexts, methods, and interpretations of data. An ethics of nonnormative communication is both an object and a mode of inquiry in anthropological and ethnographic studies of sign languages. Rather than pursuing categorical distinctions between codes and modalities, ethnographic studies show that such distinctions hinge on the situated interpretations that people make based on their life experiences, their sensory orientations, and the ideological frameworks that mediate their assessments.
The Language of Medicine in the Romance Languages
Authors: ten Hacken Pius
Published: May 2023

The nature of the object designated by language as used in medical language is quite different from the one used in Romance language. A language such as French or Galician can be said to exist as a speech community or as a norm. The speech community is a way of classifying speakers on the basis of their competence, and the norm regulates what is considered proper use of this competence in the speech community. Medical language is primarily based on the classification of performance in particular contexts. These contexts vary widely, and it is not possible to determine a homogeneous register or genre of medical language. The variation is much more pronounced in medical language than in other specialized languages, in part due to the fact that speaking and writing about medicine ranges from technical discussions in specialized research journals to court proceedings in cases about health insurance and to communication between doctors and patients. To the extent that there is a unifying factor in these varieties, it is rather to be found at the lexical level than at the discourse level.

Medical dictionaries record the vocabulary that is specific to medicine as well as words that have special meanings in a medical context. For French, Spanish, and Italian, large monolingual medical dictionaries have been compiled. Such medical dictionaries are often reworked for other languages. In some cases, American dictionaries have served as a model, resulting especially in South America also in bilingual dictionaries. Apart from medical dictionaries, anatomical atlases also play a role in recording specialized vocabulary.

Medical vocabulary is often characterized by the application of specific word-formation processes. As the language of medicine used to be Latin, which itself had borrowed many terms from Greek, neoclassical word formation and borrowings from Latin and Greek are frequent. The special relationship that persists between Latin and modern Romance languages facilitates the sharing of such words among languages. Although much medical research is now reported on in English, the Latin-based component of the vocabulary remains important, because there is also a significant proportion of Latin and French loanwords in English. This feature of medical language also makes the formation of corresponding words in Romance minority languages such as Ladin less problematic, which in turn supports the use of these languages in communication with patients in the relevant communities.

The use of Romance languages in medical journals is a measure of the resistance to English dominance in the domain. In all major Romance language areas, we find English-only medical journals, especially among those with the greatest impact, alongside journals with a mixture or with only the Romance language. Particularly in the case of Spanish, there are also journals that publish all articles in two languages, translating them into English after acceptance.
Schiller on Aesthetic Education as Radical Ethical-Political Remedy
Authors: Leontiev Kim
Published: May 2023

This paper examines the iconic conception of aesthetic education in the work of Friedrich Schiller, with the aim of elucidating Schiller’s unique innovation of this notion in understanding i) the relationship between aesthetic and ethical value and ii) the transformative possibilities within a collective, social dimension of aesthetic experience. The paper provides an overview of the Kantian origins of Schiller’s aesthetic programme (Section 1). It then considers Schiller’s critique of the perceived failings of the Kantian and Enlightenment republican models of ethical value and political emancipation (Section 2) before turning to his positive alternative aesthetic programme (Section 3). The paper concludes (Section 4) with some evaluation and reflection on Schiller’s original contributions.
Understanding the Accumulation of Health-Related Inequities Over the Life Course Using the Mean Cumulative Count
Authors: LeMasters Katherine , Renson Audrey , Zalla Lauren , Martin Chantel L , Edwards Jessie K
Published: May 2023

Understanding how health inequities develop over time is necessary to inform interventions, but methods for doing so are underutilized. We provide an example of the accumulation of stressful life events using the mean cumulative count (MCC), which estimates the expected number of events per person as a function of time, allowing for censoring and competing events. Data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a nationally representative data set. To compare the MCC with standard practice, we present the proportions of persons experiencing 1, 2, and ≥3 stressful events and the cumulative probability of experiencing at least 1 event by the end of follow-up. Our sample included 6,522 individuals aged 18–33 years who were followed for a median of 14 years. Using the MCC, by age 20 years the expected number of encounters was 56 events per 100 participants for Black non-Hispanic persons, 47 per 100 for White non-Hispanic persons, and 50 per 100 for Hispanic persons. By age 33 years, inequities grew to 117, 99, and 108 events per 100 persons, respectively. The MCC revealed that inequities in stressful events accumulate over the course of early adulthood, partially driven by repeat events; this information was not evident from conventional approaches. This method can be used to identify intervention points for disrupting the accumulation of repeat events to improve health equity.
Deciphering the hormone regulatory mechanisms of storage root initiation in sweet potato: challenges and future prospects
Authors: Mathura Sarah R
Published: May 2023

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is an economically important food crop that is grown primarily for its edible storage roots. Several researchers have consequently been conducting studies to increase sweet potato yield, and an important aspect of this research involves understanding how storage root initiation occurs. Although significant progress has been made, several challenges associated with studying this crop have resulted in lagging progress compared to other crops and thus sweet potato storage root initiation is not clearly understood. This article highlights the most important aspects of the hormone signalling processes during storage root initiation that needs to be investigated further and suggests candidate genes that should be prioritized for further study, based on their importance in storage organ formation in other crops. Lastly, ways of overcoming the challenges associated with studying this crop are suggested.
Antibodies from serum and CSF of multiple sclerosis patients bind to oligodendroglial and neuronal cell-lines
Authors: Nazir Faisal Hayat , Wiberg Anna , Müller Malin , Mangsbo Sara , Burman Joachim
Published: May 2023

Multiple sclerosis is a highly complex and heterogeneous disease. At the onset it often presents as a clinically isolated syndrome. Thereafter relapses are followed by periods of remissions, but eventually, most patients develop secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. It is widely accepted that autoantibodies are important to the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis, but hitherto it has been difficult to identify the target of such autoantibodies. As an alternative strategy, cell-based methods of detecting autoantibodies have been developed. The objective of this study was to explore differences in the binding of antibodies from sera and CSF of multiple sclerosis patients and controls to oligodendroglial and neuronal cell-lines, related to antibody type, immunoglobulin (IgG/IgM), matrix (serum/CSF) and disease course. The oligodendroglial and neuronal cell-lines were expanded in tissue culture flasks and transferred to 96-well plates at a concentration of 50 000 cells/well followed by fixation and blocking with bovine serum albumin. Sera and CSF samples, from healthy controls and multiple sclerosis patients, were incubated with the fixed cells. Epitope binding of immunoglobulins (IgG and IgM) in sera and CSF was detected using biotinylated anti-human IgM and IgG followed by avidin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase. Horseradish peroxidase activity was detected with 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine substrate. Serum from 76 patients and 30 controls as well as CSF from 62 patients and 32 controls were investigated in the study. The binding was similar between clinically isolated syndrome patients and controls, whereas the largest differences were observed between secondary progressive multiple sclerosis patients and controls. Antibodies from multiple sclerosis patients (all disease course combined) bound more to all investigated cell-lines, irrespectively of matrix type, but binding of immunoglobulin G from CSF to human oligodendroglioma cell-line discriminated best between multiple sclerosis patients and controls with a sensitivity of 93% and a specificity of 96%. The cell-based enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was able to discriminate between multiple sclerosis patients and controls with a high degree of accuracy. The disease course was the major determinant for the antibody binding.
Fosmanogepix Therapy of Disseminated Fusarium Infection
Authors: Winston Drew J , Young Patricia A , Schlamm Haran T , Schiller Gary J
Published: May 2023

Invasive Fusarium infections cause high mortality. Fosmanogepix, a first-in-class antifungal agent, has potent activity against Fusarium. A patient with acute leukemia with invasive fusariosis, probably involving the central nervous system and caused by Fusarium lactis resistant to currently available antifungal agents, was cured of her infection with fosmanogepix. Fosmanogepix was well tolerated.
Critically ill patients with acute kidney injury: clinical determinants and post-mortem histology
Authors: Gleeson Patrick James , Crippa Ilaria Alice , Sannier Aurélie , Koopmansch Caroline , Bienfait Lucie , Allard Justine , Sexton Donal J , Fontana Vito , Rorive Sandrine , Vincent Jean-Louis , Creteur Jacques , Taccone Fabio Silvio
Published: May 2023

Background

Acute kidney injury (AKI) requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the intensive care unit (ICU) portends a poor prognosis. We aimed to better characterize predictors of survival and the mechanism of kidney failure in these patients.

Methods

This was a retrospective observational study using clinical and radiological electronic health records, analysed by univariable and multivariable binary logistic regression. Histopathological examination of post-mortem renal tissue was performed.

Results

Among 157 patients with AKI requiring RRT, higher serum creatinine at RRT initiation associated with increased ICU survival [odds ratio (OR) 0.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.17–0.62, P = .001]; however, muscle mass (a marker of frailty) interacted with creatinine (P = .02) and superseded creatinine as a predictor of survival (OR 0.26, 95% CI 0.08–0.82; P = .02). Achieving lower cumulative fluid balance (mL/kg) predicted ICU survival (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00–1.01, P < .001), as supported by sensitivity analyses showing improved ICU survival with the use of furosemide (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.18–0.87, P = .02) and increasing net ultrafiltration (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.95–0.99, P = .02). A urine output of >500 mL/24 h strongly predicted successful liberation from RRT (OR 0.125, 95% CI 0.05–0.35, P < .001). Post-mortem reports were available for 32 patients; clinically unrecognized renal findings were described in 6 patients, 1 of whom had interstitial nephritis. Experimental staining of renal tissue from patients with sepsis-associated AKI (S-AKI) showed glomerular loss of synaptopodin (P = .02).

Conclusions

Confounding of creatinine by muscle mass undermines its use as a marker of AKI severity in clinical studies. Volume management and urine output are key determinants of outcome. Loss of synaptopodin implicates glomerular injury in the pathogenesis of S-AKI.
The Vitamin D Metabolite Ratio (VMR) is a Biomarker of Vitamin D Status That is Not Affected by Acute Changes in Vitamin D Binding Protein
Authors: Dugar Anushree , Hoofnagle Andrew N , Sanchez Amber P , Ward David M , Corey-Bloom Jody , Cheng Jonathan H , Ix Joachim H , Ginsberg Charles
Published: May 2023

Background

25-hydroxyvitamin D[25(OH)D] may be a poor marker of vitamin D status due to variability in levels of vitamin D binding protein (VDBP). The vitamin D metabolite ratio (VMR) is the ratio of 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D[24,25(OH)2D3] to 25(OH)D3 and has been postulated to reflect vitamin D sufficiency independent of variability in VDBP. Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is a procedure that removes plasma, including VDBP, and may lower bound vitamin D metabolite concentrations. Effects of TPE on the VMR are unknown.

Methods

We measured 25(OH)D, free 25(OH)D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D[1,25(OH)2D], 24,25(OH)2D3, and VDBP in persons undergoing TPE, before and after treatment. We used paired t-tests to assess changes in these biomarkers during a TPE procedure.

Results

Study participants (n = 45) had a mean age of 55 ± 16 years; 67% were female; and 76% were white. Compared to pretreatment concentrations, TPE caused a significant decrease in total VDBP by 65% (95%CI 60,70%), as well as all the vitamin D metabolites—25(OH)D by 66% (60%,74%), free 25(OH)D by 31% (24%,39%), 24,25(OH)2D3 by 66% (55%,78%) and 1,25(OH)2D by 68% (60%,76%). In contrast, there was no significant change in the VMR before and after a single TPE treatment, with an observed mean 7% (−3%, 17%) change in VMR.

Conclusions

Changes in VDBP concentration across TPE parallel changes in 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)2D, and 24,25(OH)2D3, suggesting that concentrations of these metabolites reflect underlying VDBP concentrations. The VMR is stable across a TPE session despite a 65% reduction in VDBP. These findings suggest that the VMR is a marker of vitamin D status independent of VDBP levels.
Neuronal motifs reveal backbone structure and influential neurons of neural network in C. elegans
Authors: Liu Jian , Yuan Ye , Zhao Peng , Gu Xiao , Huo Hong , Li Zhaoyu , Fang Tao
Published: May 2023

Neural network elements such as motif, backbone and influential nodes play important roles in neural network computation. Increasing researches have been applying complex network methods in order to identify different essential structures within complex neural networks. However, the distinct properties of synapses that build the neural network are often neglected, such as the difference between chemical synapses and electrical synapses. By separating these distinct synapses, we can identify a novel repertoire of neural motifs and greatly expand neural motif families in neural systems. Based on the expanded motif families, we further propose a novel neural-motif-based algorithm to extract the backbone in the neural network. The backbone circuit we extracted from Caenorhabditis elegans connectome controls an essential motor behaviour in C. elegans. Furthermore, we develop a novel neural-motif-based algorithm to identify influential neurons. Compared with the influential neurons identified using existing methods, the neurons identified in this work provide more information in related to their functions. These methods have been successfully applied to identify a series of network features in C. elegans, providing a biologically interpretable way of exploring the structure of neural network.
ChagasDB: 80 years of publicly available data on the molecular host response to Trypanosoma cruzi infection in a single database
Authors: Brochet Pauline , Mouren Jean-Christophe , Hannouche Laurent , Lopez Fabrice , Ballester Benoit , Cunha-Neto Edecio , Spinelli Lionel , Chevillard Christophe
Published: May 2023

Chagas disease is a parasitical disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi which affects ∼7 million people worldwide. Per year, ∼10 000 people die from this pathology. Indeed, ∼30% of humans develop severe chronic forms, including cardiac, digestive or neurological disorders, for which there is still no treatment. In order to facilitate research on Chagas disease, a manual curation of all papers corresponding to ‘Chagas disease’ referenced on PubMed has been performed. All deregulated molecules in hosts (all mammals, humans, mice or others) following T. cruzi infection were retrieved and included in a database, named ChagasDB. A website has been developed to make this database accessible to all. In this article, we detail the construction of this database, its contents and how to use it.

Database URL https://chagasdb.tagc.univ-amu.fr
CIGAF—a database and interactive platform for insect-associated trichomycete fungi
Authors: Chaudhary Shalini , Wu Yibing , Strongman Doug , Wang Yan
Published: May 2023

Trichomycete fungi are gut symbionts of arthropods living in aquatic habitats. The lack of a central platform with accessible collection records and associated ecological metadata has limited ecological investigations of trichomycetes. We present CIGAF (short for Collections of Insect Gut–Associated Fungi), a trichomycetes-focused digital database with interactive visualization functions enabled by the R Shiny web application. CIGAF curated 3120 collection records of trichomycetes across the globe, spanning from 1929 to 2022. CIGAF allows the exploration of nearly 100 years of field collection data through the web interface, including primary published data such as insect host information, collection site coordinates, descriptions and date of collection. When possible, specimen records are supplemented with climatic measures at collection sites. As a central platform of field collection records, multiple interactive tools allow users to analyze and plot data at various levels. CIGAF provides a comprehensive resource hub to the research community for further studies in mycology, entomology, symbiosis and biogeography.