bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lysosomal positioning regulates Rab10 phosphorylation at LRRK2
+
lysosomes
Authors: Kluss Jillian H. , Beilina Alexandra , Williamson Chad D. , Lewis Patrick A. , Cookson Mark R. , Bonet-Ponce Luis
Published: October 2022

Genetic variation at the
leucine-rich repeat kinase 2
(
LRRK2
) locus contributes to an enhanced risk of familial and sporadic Parkinson’s disease. Previous data have demonstrated that recruitment to various membranes of the endolysosomal system results in LRRK2 activation. However, the mechanism(s) underlying LRRK2 activation at endolysosomal membranes and the cellular consequences of these events are still poorly understood. Here, we directed LRRK2 to lysosomes and early endosomes, triggering both LRRK2 autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of the direct LRRK2 substrates Rab10 and Rab12. However, when directed to the lysosomal membrane, pRab10 was restricted to perinuclear lysosomes, whereas pRab12 was visualized on both peripheral and perinuclear LRRK2
+
lysosomes, suggesting that lysosomal positioning provides additional regulation of LRRK2-dependent Rab phosphorylation. Anterograde transport of lysosomes to the cell periphery by increasing the expression of ARL8B and SKIP or by knockdown of JIP4 blocked the recruitment and phosphorylation of Rab10 by LRRK2. The absence of pRab10 from the lysosomal membrane prevented the formation of a lysosomal tubulation and sorting process we previously named LYTL. Conversely, overexpression of RILP resulted in lysosomal clustering within the perinuclear area and increased LRRK2-dependent Rab10 recruitment and phosphorylation. The regulation of Rab10 phosphorylation in the perinuclear area depends on counteracting phosphatases, as the knockdown of phosphatase PPM1H significantly increased pRab10 signal and lysosomal tubulation in the perinuclear region. Our findings suggest that LRRK2 can be activated at multiple cellular membranes, including lysosomes, and that lysosomal positioning further provides the regulation of some Rab substrates likely via differential phosphatase activity or effector protein presence in nearby cellular compartments.
Marine viral particles reveal an expansive repertoire of phage-parasitizing mobile elements
Authors: Eppley John M. , Biller Steven J. , Luo Elaine , Burger Andrew , DeLong Edward F.
Published: October 2022

Phage satellites are mobile genetic elements that propagate by parasitizing bacteriophage replication. We report here the discovery of abundant and diverse phage satellites that were packaged as concatemeric repeats within naturally occurring bacteriophage particles in seawater. These same phage-parasitizing mobile elements were found integrated in the genomes of dominant co-occurring bacterioplankton species. Like known phage satellites, many marine phage satellites encoded genes for integration, DNA replication, phage interference, and capsid assembly. Many also contained distinctive gene suites indicative of unique virus hijacking, phage immunity, and mobilization mechanisms. Marine phage satellite sequences were widespread in local and global oceanic virioplankton populations, reflecting their ubiquity, abundance, and temporal persistence in marine planktonic communities worldwide. Their gene content and putative life cycles suggest they may impact host-cell phage immunity and defense, lateral gene transfer, bacteriophage-induced cell mortality and cellular host and virus productivity. Given that marine phage satellites cannot be distinguished from bona fide viral particles via commonly used microscopic techniques, their predicted numbers (∼3.2 × 10
26
in the ocean) may influence current estimates of virus densities, production, and virus-induced mortality. In total, the data suggest that marine phage satellites have potential to significantly impact the ecology and evolution of bacteria and their viruses throughout the oceans. We predict that any habitat that harbors bacteriophage will also harbor similar phage satellites, making them a ubiquitous feature of most microbiomes on Earth.
Physiographic Study for Hydrology of Embung Hendrosari Region, Gresik Regency
Authors: Utama Widya , Hafiizh Immaduddin M , Indriani Rista Fitri
Published: October 2022

This study aims to determine physiographic characteristics based on the slope and land use which affect water control in Embung Hendrosari area, Gresik. The data used in this study are DEM data, Landsat 8 image data, and river data. The slope data processing is carried out through slope classification analysis. The Landsat 8 data processing is used for land use classification analysis. The slope classification maps and land use classification maps are used to classify flow coefficients. There are five land classifications obtained in land cover classification map including agriculture, settlements, industrial areas, plantations, and waters. There are 5 classifications obtained on the slope classification map, including flat, sloping, slightly steep, steep and very steep. The flow coefficient analysis is performed from the combination of land use data and slope data. The flow coefficient is influenced by the characteristics of the land cover and the slope of the slope. The average flow coefficient of Embung Hendrosari area is 0.31, which classified as medium flow coefficient. This indicates that 31% of the water is run off on the ground surface and 69% of the water is absorbed below the soil surface. There are changes in land function in Embung Hendrosari area, for example, agriculture area which changed into settlement and/or industry, which will significantly affect the value of the flow coefficient. The change in land use causes more water to run off the surface. This runoff water management requires a water reservoir that can be directed toward reservoir. The results of this study show such an initial step in hydrological engineering by its development, improvement, utilization, and control of water flow by utilizing the function of Hendrosari Gresik reservoir.
Forest cover changes analysis using Landsat Imageries over Pengabuan Watershed in Jambi Province
Authors: Achmad Eva , Fazriyas  , Irawan Bambang , Kusuma Adi Karta
Published: October 2022

The availability of land cover in the form of forest is very important in the watershed system (DAS). The decrease in forest cover and the carbon content stored in a watershed also shows a decline in the quality of the watershed. The research aims to examine changes in land cover that occurred during the last twenty years in the Pengabuan Watershed. Changes in land cover were obtained by classifying Landsat imagery from 1996 to 2017. Classification was carried out using the supervised classification method and visual interpretation and then followed by change detection analysis. The result showed that from 1996 to 2017, secondary dryland forest cover and bare land in the Pengabuan watershed has been declining, the rate of secondary dryland forest decreased by 53.38% (11,186.47 ha / year), the rate of decline in bare land by 1, 26% (264.29 ha / year). Land cover with an increasing area such as settlements at 2.29% (479.24 ha / year), plantation forests at 17.31% (3,626.75 ha / year), dry land agriculture at 1.63% (341, 41 ha / year), plantations at 33.12% (6,940.13 ha / year) and water bodies at 0.30% (62.94 ha / year). Changes in land cover are caused by increased land requirements for various uses and implementation of government policies. Forest cover in Pengabuan Watershed in 2017 only covers 14.1% of the total area of the Pengabuan Watershed (419,114.49 ha). This shows that the minimum coverage of existing forest in this watershed area has not reached 30%. Changes in land use patterns are one factor in causing the decrease of carrying capacity of watersheds. Conversion of forest cover, especially forest areas into plantations, agriculture, bare land and others, has led DAS area vulnerable to the occurrence of floods, erosion, the threat of drought in the dry season, decreased water quality, land productivity and the threat of siltation of the estuary due to sedimentation.
3D Modelling and FEM Analysis on Holed Metal Coin Striking Die Mint Error
Authors: Gavrila C C , Lates M T
Published: October 2022

During last decades, various mints of different countries manufactured a large amount of holed metal coin currency. As main characteristic, these holed metal coins present a central round perforation, which changes some of the initial manufacturing condition, as different coin blank or striking dies model. During the manufacturing process, these coins may encounter some error types which depend by the die dimension, the model flat area size or contour shape. Many pieces wearing these errors were minted and released; in present days these are searched and valuated by collectors. The paper work presents different aspects about the dies damages appeared at the metal holed coin striking process. In the paper beginning part, some particular introductive considerations about the holed metal coins manufactured with cracked dies error are presented; there are presented some examples. Then the simplified blank and the obverse and reverse dies 3D model are introduced, followed by the assembled model which consist in the obverse and reverse negative dies having the coin blank inside them. For these models, the finite element analysis is computed and achieved for different initial inputs. In the last part of the paper work, the analysis results and main conclusions on these are presented.
Development of Wear-Resistant Metal Polymer for Agricultural Machinery
Authors: Tomina A-M V , Yeriomina Ye A , Dašić Predrag
Published: October 2022

The article considers the influence of the content of HB-4 amorphous alloy on the tribological properties of aromatic polyamide phenylone C-2. It was found that the introduction of a dispersed filler in the amount of 10-20 mass.% leads to a positive effect: reduction of abrasion index and roughness during friction on rigid abrasive particles of the original polymer 4,7 and 1,4 times, respectively, reaching minimum values at 20 mass.% of the filler. The improvement in properties occurs due to the fact that the particles of the hard alloy (607–809 HV) strengthen the polymer matrix; as a result, the surface of metal polymers undergoes less deformation. It was found that the effective content of filler for aromatic polyamide is 20 mass.%.
The use of information and communication technologies is the key to improving the efficiency of higher education institutions
Authors: Pysarenko V
Published: October 2022

Information and telecommunication technologies are confidently included in all spheres of human activity. The introduction of information technology is taking place in almost all areas, but the most acute solution to this issue requires the education system, in particular the organization of school management. The dynamics of development of an educational institution depends on the quality of construction of an integrated information automated management system of higher education institutions. The problem of informatization is the main issue around which the whole system of higher education is built. Solving this problem allows to solve the orders of the information society, to train specialists who are able to apply information technology at a modern level in professional activities, in everyday life. It is difficult to imagine a higher education institution that operates without the use of computers and information technology. Thus, the choice of topic is due to the need to study this issue in order to develop new approaches to the introduction of information and communication technologies in the educational process, its improvement and modernization in the general educational system, and on this basis to identify and disseminate positive experience higher education institution.
Tensile testing of samples printed on Delta and Cartesian 3D printer
Authors: Ratiu M , Prichici M A , Anton D M , Negrau D C
Published: October 2022

This paper exposes the initial part of a research consisting in the study of the tensile behavior of the 3D parts printed on two type of 3D printers, one Delta model FLSun QQ-S PRO and other one Cartesian model Tevo Tornado, by using three types of plastic materials, PLA, PLA-CF and PET-G. After a short introduction and a literature review on previous studies reffering to the subject, in the experimental section are exposed the printing parameters selected for printing the samples, toghether with the explanation of the testing procedure. The first set of results obtained is presented, consisting in the values achieved for two parameters, the load sustained by the test specimens at yield and at break, some graphic reprezentation of their variation, respectively a short interpretation of the results. Further tests and analysis will be developed in future work, in order to realize a comparative characterization of the 3D printed parts in function by the printers and materials used.
Design sensitivity analysis in the kinematics of the 4SS-axle guiding mechanism in Chebyshev configuration
Authors: Alexandru C
Published: October 2022

This work deals with the design sensitivity analysis in the kinematics of the vehicle rear axle guided by four points - on four spheres (so called 4SS) in Chebyshev configuration. The study actually continues the research presented in a previous published article, which addressed the effect of variations in geometric parameters on the kinematic behavior of the 4SS guiding mechanism with Panhard bar (that is, one of the 4 bars of the mechanism was arranged transversely, while now all the guide bars of the rear axle are arranged longitudinally). The aim of the research is to identify the geometric parameters with significant influence on the kinematics of the guiding mechanism, in order to simplify the subsequent effective optimization process.
Modelling and simulation of a single-motor bi-axial sun tracking mechanism
Authors: Alexandru C
Published: October 2022

This work deals with the modelling and simulation in a virtual environment of an innovative bi-axial solar tracker, with two degrees of freedom (DOF), at which the both movements (diurnal and elevation/altitudinal) are driven by a single motor (which is a linear actuator). The tracking mechanism is used for increasing the energetic efficiency of a photovoltaic (PV) platform. The proposed solution allows to reduce the cost of the PV system by minimizing the number of motors, but still preserving the tracking accuracy of the platform. The tracking system in study is one of azimuthal type, at which the main revolute axis, that of the diurnal movement, is positioned vertically. The linear actuator used as motor source directly drives the diurnal movement, and also generates the elevation movement by intercalating a mechanical transmission that contains a bevel gear planetary mechanism and a planar rotary cam-follower mechanism. The virtual prototyping package ADAMS of MSC.Software was used for modeling and simulating the proposed tracking mechanism.
Self-Driving robotic car utilizing image processing and machine learning
Authors: Almusawi Husam A , Al-Jabali Mohammed , Khaled Amro M , Péter Korondi , Géza Husi
Published: October 2022

The major goal of this paper is to build and represent a prototype of a fully autonomous car that employs computer vision to detect lanes and traffic signs without human intervention using limited computing capacity. The project contains an embedded system represented by a Raspberry Pi 3 which serves as the image processing and machine learning unit. This method requires a stream of images as input for the computer vision using OpenCV2 library with C++ programming language along with Haar Cascade Classifier for the detection of traffic signs. The Raspberry Pi will send binary signals to the Arduino UNO which is responsible for merging those signals with the ones from the ultrasonic sensor and producing new signals which are sent to the motor driver to control the direction and speed of the dc motors. The system was able to detect the lane and respond to changes in lane direction, as well as to detect traffic signs and give appropriate responses.
Realization of the experimental stand for the identification of angular velocities at the lower limbs
Authors: Alexandru-Constantin Tulică , Ileana-Constanţa Roşca
Published: October 2022

In this paper, we will see how an experimental stand was made to identify biomechanical parameters in human limbs. This experimental stand features two data acquisition boards, namely the Arduino Uno and the orientation (motion) board. The source code is written in the Arduino IDE program, and the data acquisition can be done using the MS Ofice program - the Data Streamer module.
Analysis and evaluation of the risk of non-competitiveness
Authors: Stoenoiu C E , Cristea C , Serban F M
Published: October 2022

The risk of non-competitiveness is a problem that companies face because anticipating changes can improve their market position. The characteristics of the branch often determine particularities at the level of technology evolution, and later, through the appropriate combination of factors, sources, and the effect of progressive changes in technology, there are possibilities to improve the company’s position in the market. The research carried out allowed us to determine an analysis of the risk of non-competitiveness through the evolution of indicators that measure this risk compared to the main competitor and the market average.
Employee competencies in line with Industry 4.0
Authors: Praj Filip , Horváthová Martina , Čambál Miloš
Published: October 2022

This paper deals with determining the necessary competencies of employees in industrial enterprises by the requirements of Industry 4.0. The term Industrial Revolution 4.0 is very frequent and somewhat mysterious for most people, and its content is unknown. It can be said with great certainty that it is already affecting and will affect both production processes, radical changes in their structure, and the advent of groundbreaking technology and communication equipment, but it will undoubtedly affect labour relations. The growth of new forms and methods of work based on automation, and digitisation, also applied in new models of labour relations, is already slowly beginning to threaten jobs in some segments of the economy. There are increasing demands for specific qualifications and skills, particularly in information technology, emphasising digitising processes, data processing and creating communication networks linking objects and people.
Implementation of a global trailer tracking system using a microcontroller
Authors: Niga G A , Moldovanu D , Sîrca Andreea Anamaria , Cărăuşan H
Published: October 2022

This paper underlines the importance of goods transport and mostly, the importance of knowing at all times where the trailers and trucks of a fleet are, in order to manage the fleet properly. The authors have proposed a prototype that connects to the 24 volt power supply of the truck and charges the lithium rechargeable batteries. After disconnecting the trailer, the tracking prototype can be located via SMS on any national or international route, depending on the GSM mounted in the device. The proposed prototype will be tested further and several directions of improvement have been proposed.
The assessment of pedestrian’s head injury risk at the impact with the vehicle’s windshield
Authors: Tolea B A , Beles H , Radu A I , Scurt F , Dragomir G.
Published: October 2022

The goal of this paper, is to establish a pedestrian’s head injury risk, when it impacts a vehicle’s windshield. Hence, three experimental tests were performed, on an experimental test bench. Therefore, we want to determine which area of the windscreen is the most „friendly” in case of car to pedestrian accidents.
Business Models and Usage of Technology: A New Perspective on Business Model Design
Authors: Bojovic Neva , Mangematin Vincent
Published: October 2022

Companies need business models to profit from innovation and technology. However, the success of a certain technology depends on whether and how it is used. Usage is important not only as an indicator of technology adoption, but also as a way for companies to design business models—as a way to create and capture value from technology. Usage is inscribed by the designers in the technology, but users in their ongoing practice can alter the designers’ intentions, which sometimes leads to innovation. Users can also combine different technologies in practice to accomplish a specific usage. In essence, usage is constitutive of technology and its value.

Technology usage-based business modeling is a way to explore business modeling for technology that looks into how different technologies are integrated, either by users or platform actors, into solutions to address specific usage needs. To understand this notion of usage for business model design, one must first understand how value is created and captured from technology. At the same time, it is also important to know different streams of literature that have investigated technology usage: user-centered design, user innovation and lead users, form, function, affordances of technology, and the practice-based view.

While usage-based business modeling has implications for all kinds of technologies, it is of particular importance for emerging, enabling, and embedding technologies, where the value of technology depends on the usage across multiple applications and connectedness between different users.
Time in Health Promotion and Public Health
Authors: Strazdins Lyndall
Published: October 2022

Being physically active and eating fresh foods could reduce the growing burdens of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, obesity, some cancers, diabetes type II, depression, and anxiety. Increasing these health behaviors has been a public health focus for decades, yet over one half of adults around the world remain insufficiently physically active and four in ten are overweight or obese. When people are asked why they don’t exercise more or eat healthy food, the most common reason they give is lack of time. Everyone has 24 hours in a day, so why do so many people say they lack time to be healthy?

Time is a challenging (and intriguing) concept. Usually, time is thought about in terms of hours and minutes which evenly divide a day, and its lack a consequence of misguided priorities. This assumes that all hours are equal and available for use and that every person has agency over their time. Although having sufficient time is fundamental to health (exercising, preparing healthy food, resting, accessing services, and maintaining social bonds all take time), other dimensions such as control, flexibility, intensity, and timing are essential for understanding how time and health are connected. Like income, time is exchanged and given within households, so it can be fruitful to view time as a household resource rather than an individual’s resource. In the labor market, time is exchanged for payment, and this underscores time’s potency as a social and economic resource.

Historically, research on the social determinants of health and health equity have focused on the harms linked to work hours, including the length and timing of the work day and flexible hours. Yet this research missed the importance of time outside the labor market, which alters the health consequence of work hours, delivering only a partial analysis of how time shapes health. Research since the early 2000s is supplying new evidence of the interplay between work, care, and other non-market time, allowing a more accurate insight into how time shapes health and how this relationship connects to social and gender equity. Debates remain, however, and these include the extent to which time pressure and time scarcity are problems of motivation and perception and whether time scarcity is a problem of only the affluent.

There are precedents to address time costs and inequities. A first step for health prevention and health promotion practitioners is to value time in ways comparable to how the field values money. This would mean limiting the time costs of health interventions and services, including the requirement to “find time” outside of work or care roles to be healthy. The field also needs to challenge the idea that the income-poor are time-rich since this is rarely the case if they are caregivers. As well as minimizing time burdens, policies to address the social determinants of time from urban planning, transport systems, and work-hour regulations will be critical to achieving a fairer and healthier world.
The Underground Railroad
Authors: Miller Diane
Published: October 2022

Africans and their descendants enslaved in the western hemisphere resisted their status in several ways. One of the most consequential methods was self-liberation. While many date the Underground Railroad as starting in the 1830s, when railroad terminology became common, enslaved people began escaping from the earliest colonial period. Allies assisted in journeys to freedom, but the Underground Railroad is centered around the enslaved people who resisted their status and asserted their humanity. Fugitives exhibited creativity, determination, courage, and fortitude in their bids for freedom. Together with their allies—white, Black, and Native American—they represented a grassroots resistance movement in which people united across racial, gender, religious, and class lines in hopes of promoting social change. While some participation was serendipitous and fleeting, the Underground Railroad operated through local and regional networks built on trusted circles of extended families and faith communities. These networks ebbed and flowed over time and space. At its root, the Underground Railroad was both a migration story and a resistance movement. African Americans were key participants in this work as self-liberators and as operators helping others to freedom. Their quest for freedom extended to all parts of what became the United States and internationally to Canada, Mexico, Caribbean nations, and beyond.
Understanding the Risk Communication Puzzle for Natural Hazards and Disasters
Authors: Doyle Emma E. H. , Becker Julia S.
Published: October 2022

The study of risk communication has been explored in several diverse contexts, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including psychology, health, media studies, visualization studies, the public understanding of science, and social science. Such diversity creates a puzzle of recommendations to address the many challenges of communicating risk before, during, and after a natural hazard event and disasters.

The history and evolution of risk communication across these diverse contexts is reviewed, followed by a discussion of risk communication particular to natural hazards and disasters. Example models of risk communication in the disaster and natural hazard context are outlined, followed by examples of studies into disaster risk communication from Aotearoa New Zealand, and key best practice principles for communicating risk in these contexts. Considerations are also provided on how science and risk communication can work together more effectively in future in the natural hazard and disaster space.

Such considerations include the importance of scientists, risk managers, and officials communicating to meet a diversity of decision-makers’ needs and understanding the evolution of those needs in a crisis across time demands and forecast horizons. To acquire a better understanding of such needs, participatory approaches to risk assessment and communication present the greatest potential in developing risk communication that is useful, useable, and used. Through partnerships forged at the problem formulation stage, risk assessors and communicators can gain an understanding of the science that needs to be developed to meet decision-needs, while communities and decision-makers can develop a greater understanding of the limitations of the science and risk assessment, leading to stronger and more trusting relationships.

It is critically important to evaluate these partnership programs due to the challenges that can arise (such as resourcing and trust), particularly given risk communication can often occur in an environment subject to power imbalances due to social structures and sociopolitical landscape. There is also often not enough attention paid to the evaluation of the risk communication products themselves, which is problematic because what we think is being communicated may unintentionally mislead due to formatting and display choices. By working in partnership with affected communities to develop decision-relevant communication products using evidence-based product design, work can be done toward communicating risk in the most effective, and ethical, way.
Ecotechnology
Authors: Schwarz Astrid
Published: October 2022

Ecotechnology is both broad and widespread, yet it has never been given a universally shared definition; this remains the case even in the early 21st century. Given that it is used in the natural, engineering, and social sciences, as well as in design studies, in the philosophy and history of technology and in science policy, perhaps this is not surprising. Indeed, it is virtually impossible to come up with an unambiguous definition for ecotechnology: It should be understood rather as an umbrella term that facilitates connections among different scientific fields and science policy and, in so doing, offers a robust trading zone of ideas and concepts. The term is part of a cultural and sociopolitical framework and, as such, wields explanatory power. Ecotechnology approaches argue for the design of ensembles that embed human action within an ecologically functional environment and mediating this relationship by technological means. Related terms, such as ecotechnics, ecotechniques, ecotechnologies, and eco-technology, are used similarly.

In the 1970s, “ecotechnology,” along with other terms, gave a voice to an unease and a concern with sociotechnical transformations. This eventually gave rise to the first global environmental movement expressing a comprehensive eco-cultural critique of society-environment relations. Ecotechnology was part of the language used by activists, as well as by social theorists and natural scientists working in the transdisciplinary field of applied ecology. The concept of ecotechnology helped to both establish and “smooth over” environmental matters of concern in the worlds of economics, science, and policymaking. The process of deliberation about a green modernity is still ongoing and characterizes the search for a constructive intermediation between artificial and natural systems following environmentally benign design principles.

During the 1980s, disciplinary endeavors flourished in the global academic world, lending ecotechnology more and more visibility. Some of these endeavors, such as restoration ecology and ecological engineering, were rooted in the engineering sciences, but mobilized quite different traditions, namely population biology and systems biology. To date, ecotechnology has been replaced by and large by other terms in applied ecology. Another strand of work resulted in the discipline of social ecology, which developed different focal points, most notably critical political economy and a concern with nature-culture issues in the context of cultural ecology. Finally, more recently, ecotechnology has been discussed in several branches of philosophy that offer different narratives about the epistemic and ontological transformations triggered by an “ecologization” of societies and a theoretical turn toward relationality.
Invited Commentary: Use of Epidemiologic Methods to Guide Comprehensive and Equitable Approaches to Policy
Authors: Widome Rachel
Published: October 2022

Despite a dramatic reduction in the prevalence of commercial cigarette smoking in the United States, children are still commonly exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS), which is a cause of various pediatric health problems. Further, SHS exposure is patterned by race and class, exacting an inequitable toll on children from families with lesser social and economic advantage. In this issue of the Journal, Titus et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2023;192(1):25–33) use natural experiment evaluation methods (difference-in-differences) to test whether the recently implemented US Department of Housing and Urban Development policy that forbade smoking in and around New York City Housing Authority buildings affected child respiratory health. The results from their work remind us that policies do not always impact outcomes as we might expect. Given that policy is one of the most potent tools for population health promotion, this work underlines the need for epidemiologists to engage in policy evaluation at all stages of the policy life cycle, in order to discover comprehensive approaches to policy development and implementation that prioritize equity and address structural racism.
Exposure, Susceptibility, and Recovery: A Framework for Examining the Intersection of the Social and Physical Environments and Infectious Disease Risk
Authors: Noppert Grace A , Hegde Sonia T , Kubale John T
Published: October 2022

Despite well-documented evidence that structurally disadvantaged populations are disproportionately affected by infectious diseases, our understanding of the pathways that connect structural disadvantage to the burden of infectious diseases is limited. We propose a conceptual framework to facilitate more rigorous examination and testing of hypothesized mechanisms through which social and environmental factors shape the burden of infectious diseases and lead to persistent inequities. Drawing upon the principles laid out by Link and Phelan in their landmark paper on social conditions (J Health Soc Behav. 1995;(spec no.):80–94), we offer an explication of potential pathways through which structural disadvantage (e.g., racism, sexism, and economic deprivation) operates to produce infectious disease inequities. Specifically, we describe how the social environment affects an individual’s risk of infectious disease by 1) increasing exposure to infectious pathogens and 2) increasing susceptibility to infection. This framework will facilitate both the systematic examination of the ways in which structural disadvantage shapes the burden of infectious disease and the design of interventions that can disrupt these pathways.
Our Experience Using Round Nano-Surface Ergonomix Implants for Breast Reconstruction: A Single-Center Retrospective Study
Authors: Adelson Dana , Singolda Roei , Haran Oriana , Madah Ehab , Barsuk Daphna , Barnea Yoav
Published: October 2022

Background

Round nano-surface Ergonomix (Motiva, Establishment Labs; Alajuela, Costa Rica) implants were developed to address concerns regarding capsular contracture and textured anatomical breasts implants.

Objectives

The authors describe their early experience with Ergonomix implants in breast reconstruction.

Methods

The authors retrospectively reviewed the charts of 212 patients (321 breasts) who underwent breast reconstruction employing round nano-surface Ergonomix implants between June 2017 and December 2020. Patients were followed for at least 12 months postoperatively. Demographics, surgical data, and postoperative surgical outcomes were recorded. Postoperative physical well-being and satisfaction with the breasts and implant were evaluated with Breast-Q questionnaires.

Results

Of 211 patients, 75.4% had surgery due to cancer, and 24.6% underwent prophylactic surgery. Major complications occurred in 21 breasts (6.5%), of which 20 underwent revision operations. Reconstruction failed in 1 case (0.3%). Eleven breasts (3.4%) had minor complications. Immediate breast reconstruction, irradiated breasts, and smokers had higher rates of complications (P = 0.009, 0.02, 0.022, respectively). Rippling was more common in the pre-pectoral implant plane compared with sub-pectoral reconstruction (9% vs 1.2%, P = 0.001). Capsular contracture rate was 0.9% and occurred only in irradiated breasts. Implant malposition (inferiorly and laterally) occurred in 6.5% of the breasts, with no association between implant malposition and implant plane. Early follow-up demonstrated high patient satisfaction with the implant and breasts, and high scores in terms of patients’ physical well-being.

Conclusions

Breast reconstruction employing the round nano-surface Ergonomix implant yielded low complication rates and high patient satisfaction. The transition from macro-textured to nano-surface implants has operative implications requiring a learning curve and surgical adjustments.

Level of Evidence: 4
Analysis of the solution structure parameter α in the relationship between the molar fraction and the freezing points, and hydration parameter h determined from viscosity and density measurements, for sugar alcohols and related sugars in water
Authors: Sato Yukinori
Published: October 2022

The parameter α was obtained from the molar fraction of solute and the freezing points of sugar alcohols and their related sugars in water. For comparison with this parameter, simple measurement of the hydration parameter h was performed using a capillary viscometer and a density meter. This parameter was calculated from the viscosity B coefficient and the partial molar volume of solute. The viscosity B coefficient was more suitable than the partial molar volume for h calculation, as indicated by the determination coefficients of the linear regression lines. h correlated well with α for various compounds, including sugar alcohols in water, supporting the parameters’ theoretical correspondence (α =−h). In addition, the activation energy required for hydration implies that the thermal stability increases with the saccharide molecular weight.
Resting-state functional connectivity in adults with 47,XXX: a 7 Tesla MRI study
Authors: Serrarens Chaira , Kashyap Sriranga , Riveiro-Lago Laura , Otter Maarten , Campforts Bea C M , Stumpel Constance T R M , Jansma Henk , Linden David E J , van Amelsvoort Thérèse A M J , Vingerhoets Claudia
Published: October 2022

Triple X syndrome is a sex chromosomal aneuploidy characterized by the presence of a supernumerary X chromosome, resulting in a karyotype of 47,XXX in affected females. It has been associated with a variable cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric phenotype, but little is known about its effects on brain function. We therefore conducted 7 T resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and compared data of 19 adult individuals with 47,XXX and 21 age-matched healthy control women using independent component analysis and dual regression. Additionally, we examined potential relationships between social cognition and social functioning scores, and IQ, and mean functional connectivity values. The 47,XXX group showed significantly increased functional connectivity of the fronto-parietal resting-state network with the right postcentral gyrus. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) variability was not associated with IQ and social cognition and social functioning deficits in the participants with 47,XXX. We thus observed an effect of a supernumerary X chromosome in adult women on fronto-parietal rsFC. These findings provide additional insight into the role of the X chromosome on functional connectivity of the brain. Further research is needed to understand the clinical implications of altered rsFC in 47,XXX.
Arbitral Activism and Choice of Law under the ICSID Convention
Authors: Clover Alcolea Lucas
Published: October 2022

One of the most controversial debates in international investment law concerns the extent to which investment disputes should be internationalized or localized, that is to say, the extent to which international law or local (domestic) law should be applied to decide a dispute. An additional issue is the extent to which international law prevails over domestic law in the investment law context. The ICSID Convention represents a unique entry point into this dispute given that it explicitly regulates the law applicable in ICSID arbitrations through Article 42. In order to determine the role of international and local law under Article 42 of the ICSID convention, this article adopts a quasi-originalist approach focusing on the intention and understanding of the drafters as its lodestone and looking at the travaux préparatoires of the Convention, as well as other contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous sources in order to establish this. It also notes that the oft-overlooked doctrines of the New International Economic Order are an important part of the context of the ICSID Convention and failure to realize this has led to significant misinterpretation of the Convention. It finds that the dominant view of discarding host State law under Article 42 in favor of international law was neither intended by the drafters of the ICSID Convention nor was it their understanding of it. Instead, it finds that the drafters intended, and understood the ICSID Convention to require, the default application of host state law as part of a complex and nuanced interpretative process which would usually result in an outcome that respected both international and host State law.
Thiazides in chronic kidney disease: “back to the future”
Authors: de la Espriella Rafael , Cobo Marta , Núñez Julio
Published: October 2022

The thiazide class diuretics are first-line agents for managing hypertension either as monotherapy or as a fixed-dose combination with other antihypertensive drugs. However, despite the extensive experience with these drugs for >60 years, there is general reluctance to use these agents in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) because of concerns about their efficacy and safety as kidney function declines. In this issue of Clinical Kidney Journal, Minutolo et al. performed an updated review of the pharmacological properties, efficacy and side effects and randomized controlled trials that tested these drugs in patients with CKD.
Not everything is changing: on the relative neglect and meanings of continuity in communication and social change research
Authors: Driessens Olivier
Published: October 2022

One of the central interests of media and communication research is how technologies and communication media are involved in social and cultural change. Often such studies are rather one-sided because they disregard questions of continuity, which can lead to inadequate analyses and exaggerated claims of change. Three categories of reasons for this bias towards change are identified through a literature review. Crucially, since continuity remains an undervalued concern, we lack sophisticated theorizations and analytical approaches to study it adequately. In response, this article presents a taxonomy of continuity based on a thematic analysis of 74 articles in leading communication journals. The five observed dimensions of continuity offer scholars the vocabulary and a conceptual framework to study continuity more systematically as a complex and multi-dimensional issue. This contribution serves as a starting point towards building a theory of change and continuity, and suggestions for necessary future work are given.
Differences in patterns of progression of secondary mitral regurgitation
Authors: Layoun Habib , Mentias Amgad , Kanaan Christopher , Badwan Osamah , Matta Milad , Kassab Joseph , Gillinov Marc A , Hodges Kevin , Griffin Brian P , Kapadia Samir R , Harb Serge C
Published: October 2022

Aims

Little data exist about the natural history and disease progression of secondary mitral regurgitation (SMR). We sought to study the temporal progression of left-sided volumes and functions in patients who progress to develop severe SMR.

Methods and results

We screened patients with chronic severe SMR who had at least one previous transthoracic echocardiography showing non-severe MR. Unsupervised phenotypic clustering based on baseline and rate of change in left ventricular (LV) and left atrial (LA) volumes, ejection fraction (EF), and MR severity progression identified two different phenotypes. We then compared them in terms of clinical characteristics, mechanistic and anatomical features, management, and outcomes. A total of 257 patients were included. Cluster 1 started with lower EF and LA strain and higher LV and LA volumes compared with Cluster 2, with a slower progression into severe SMR. At the onset of severe MR, Cluster 2 still had higher EF, lower LV volumes, but similar LA volumes and strain, and less proportionate SMR, compared with Cluster 1. They also had higher tenting height and more compensatory leaflet growth. On follow-up, Cluster 1 had more ventricular-directed therapies, whereas Cluster 2 received more mitral valve interventions. While the heart failure burden was higher in Cluster 1, there was no difference in mortality rates.

Conclusion

Based on disease progression, two distinct progression patterns of SMR exist, having different anatomical and mechanistic features with variation in management and outcomes.
Trichinella spiralis-derived extracellular vesicles induce a protective immunity against larval challenge in mice
Authors: Ashour Dalia S , Ibrahim Fatma M Kh , Elshamy Amira M , Zoghroban Hager S
Published: October 2022

Human trichinellosis is a serious disease with no effective treatment till now. Recently, the protective immunity induced by parasite-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) are studied for some parasites such as Echinostoma caproni. The current study aimed to investigate the novel Trichinella spiralis-derived EVs as a potential vaccine candidate for the first time in a mouse model. Trichinella spiralis EVs were isolated and identified using transmission electron microscopy, gel electrophoresis, protein content measurements, and beads-based flow cytometry. Vaccination was done by subcutaneous injection of two doses of 3.5 μg T. spiralis-derived EVs. We observed a significant reduction in T. spiralis adult worm and muscle larval counts in mice immunized with T. spiralis-derived EVs (EVs-Ts group) and controlled inflammatory changes in the intestine and muscles. The EVs-Ts group showed a higher level of IFN- γ, whereas the IL-4 secretion was elevated more in the EVs group (EVs group) and showed a lower level after challenge with T. spiralis infection (EVs-Ts group). This implies a mixed Th1/Th2 immune response with obvious Th1 polarization. Moreover, elevation of serum T. spiralis-specific IgG was reported. In conclusion, this preliminary study provides T. spiralis EVs as a promising candidate for future development of anti-Trichinella vaccine.
Research on performance evaluation of urban low-carbon management: a case study in Foshan
Authors: Shun Lyu
Published: October 2022

For the sustainable development of the Earth and the improvement of human living environment, it is of great importance to establish a scientific urban low-carbon management performance evaluation index system and provide scientific methods for better urban low-carbon management. Based on literature research and questionnaire, this paper establishes the performance evaluation system of urban low-carbon management. Based on the premise of evaluating low-carbon cities, this system measures the management level of low-carbon cities, clarifies the realistic content of urban low-carbon management performance and puts forward some constructive suggestions for improving the performance of urban low-carbon management. This paper makes statistical analysis of the evaluation indicators by issuing questionnaires to professional groups, focuses on the investigation and analysis of the public’s concept of low-carbon city and environmental awareness and then uses scientific entropy method to calculate and draw feasible conclusions and countermeasures, which has innovative significance. In the case study in Foshan, the performance evaluation system indicated that from 2017 to 2021, the performance of urban low-carbon management in Foshan has increased by ~30%.