bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Incidental findings in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans for implant treatment planning: a retrospective study of 404 CBCT scans
Authors: Biel Philippe , Jurt Alice , Chappuis Vivianne , Suter Valerie G. A.
Published: December 2023

Objectives

To investigate the prevalence of incidental findings and need for further dental treatment and analyse the influence of size of field-of-view (FOV) and age in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) for pre-implant planning.

Methods

404 CBCT scans were examined retrospectively for incidental findings and need for further dental treatment. Incidental finding-frequencies and need for further treatment were assessed for different age (< 40 years, 40–60 years, > 60 years) and FOV groups (small, medium, large). Intraexaminer and interexaminer agreements were evaluated.

Results

In 82% of the scans at least one incidental finding was found, with a total of 766 overall. More incidental findings were found in scans with large FOV (98% vs. 72%, OR = 22.39 large vs. small FOV, p < 0.0001) and in scans of patients > 60 years (OR = 5.37 patient’s age > 60 years vs. < 40 years, p = 0.0003). Further dental treatment due to incidental findings was needed in 31%. Scans with large FOV were more likely to entail further treatment (OR = 3.55 large vs. small FOV, p < 0.0001). Partial edentulism and large FOV were identified as risk factors for further treatment (p = 0.0003 and p < 0.0001). Further referral of the patient based on incidental findings was judged as indicated in 5%. Intra- and inter-examiner agreements were excellent (kappa = 0.944/0.805).

Conclusions

A considerable number of incidental findings with need for further dental treatment was found in partially edentulous patients and in patients > 60 years. In pre-implant planning of elderly patients, the selection of large FOV CBCT scans, including dentoalveolar regions not X-rayed recently, help to detect therapeutically relevant incidental findings.
Management of selected waste generated during cable production
Authors: Studziński Waldemar , Gackowska Alicja , Dadzibóg Michał
Published: December 2023

The subject of the research was the recovery of raw materials from waste generated in the production of cable insulation and the management of aluminum sludge. It was found that 49% (w/w) acetophenone, 6.8% (w/w) α-methylstyrene, and 17.2% (w/w) cumyl alcohol can be recovered from waste with a loss on ignition of 95% and used in various industries. A gas chromatograph equipped with a mass spectrometry detector was used to identify the recovered compounds. A waste distillation process was proposed to remove the water layer and obtain a concentrated acetophenone fraction. A method of neutralizing the water fraction and distillation residues is presented. The proposed waste management method is an alternative method to the currently used thermal transformation method. In turn, aluminum sludge was used to produce aluminum sulfate, which was used in the plant’s sewage treatment plant as a coagulant. The effect of this action was a reduction of 67% in the content of total iron, 60% of trivalent iron, and 32% of chemical oxygen demand. The above-mentioned examples of waste management are part of a closed-loop waste management strategy.
Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment: A method to assess the emissions and environmental impacts of agricultural systems and products
Authors: Nemecek Thomas , Roesch Andreas , Bystricky Maria , Jeanneret Philippe , Lansche Jens , Stüssi Martin , Gaillard Gérard
Published: December 2023

Purpose

Agricultural production, which dominates the environmental impacts of the food sector, has specific characteristics that need to be considered in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. Agricultural systems are open, difficult to manage and control, strongly depend on natural resources and their impacts are highly variable and influenced by soil, climate and farm management. A specific framework, efficient methods and tools are thus needed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of agricultural systems.

Methods

We present the Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment (SALCA) concept and method, developed for a detailed and specific analysis of agricultural systems. It comprises rules for the definition of system boundaries, functional unit and allocation, emission models, a life cycle inventory (LCI) database, calculation tools, impact assessment methods and concepts for analysis, interpretation and communication. This paper focuses on emission models for gaseous N, nitrate leaching, P emissions to water, soil erosion, pesticides, heavy metals, emissions from animal production and impact assessment methods for soil quality and biodiversity. The models are calculated at the crop, field, animal group and farm levels and are integrated in a consistent and harmonised framework, which is ensured by exchanging intermediate results between models.

Results and discussion

The SALCA concept has been applied in numerous LCA studies for crops and crop products, cropping systems, animal husbandry systems and animal products, food and feed products, farms and product groups, the agrifood sector and food systems. The SALCA methodology has also been a backbone of the LCI databases ecoinvent, AGRIBALYSE and the World Food LCA database. The strengths of SALCA lie in its comprehensiveness, specificity to agriculture, harmonisation, broad applicability, consistency, comparability, flexibility and modularity. The extensive data demand and the high complexity, however, limit the application of SALCA to experts. The geographical scope is limited to Central and Western Europe, with a special focus on Switzerland. However, due to the modular and flexible design, an adaptation to other contexts is feasible with reasonable effort.

Conclusions

SALCA enables answering a wide range of research questions related to environmental assessment and is applicable to various goals and scopes. A further development would be the inclusion of the social and economic dimensions to perform a full sustainability analysis in the SALCAsustain framework.
Outcomes of Warfarin Home INR Monitoring vs Office-Based Monitoring: a Retrospective Claims-Based Analysis
Authors: Van Beek Andrea , Moeyaert Mariola , Ragheb Bishoy , Price Erika , MacEwan Joanna P. , Ahmed Naseeruddin , Ansell Jack
Published: December 2023

Background

Home INR testing (patient self-testing) is feasible and effective for warfarin patients but little is known about real-world differences in outcomes for patients using PST versus laboratory-based INR monitoring.

Objective

To compare the safety/efficacy of patient self-testing of real-world warfarin therapy versus office/lab-based monitoring of therapy.

Design/Setting/Participants/Exposure

A retrospective claims-based analysis of warfarin patients enrolled in the MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters and Medicare databases between January 1, 2013, and March 30, 2020. Stratification was based on INR testing method: patient self-testing versus testing at physicians’ offices/local laboratory. The probability of adverse events in each cohort was determined after adjusting for demographic and baseline clinical characteristics using a repeated measures analysis.

Main Measures

Rates of all adverse events: deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, bleeding, and stroke. A secondary outcome of interest was emergency department visits.

Key Results

A total of 37,837 patients were included in the analysis: 1592 patients in the patient self-testing group and 36,245 in the office-based therapy group. After adjusting for demographic and baseline clinical characteristics, patients in the office-based group had statistically significantly higher rates of all adverse events (incidence rate ratio [IRR]=2.07, 95% CI [1.82, 2.36]), and specific adverse events including thromboembolism (IRR=4.38, 95% CI [3.29, 5.84]), major bleed (IRR=1.45, 95% CI [1.28, 1.64]), and stroke (IRR=1.30, 95% CI [1.05, 1.61]) than patients in the patient self-testing group. Office-based patients also had a statistically significant higher rate of emergency department visits than patient self-testing patients (IRR = 1.65, 95% CI [1.47, 1.84]).

Conclusions/Relevance

This analysis of real-world claims data shows lower rates of stroke, thromboembolism, and major bleeding, as well as fewer emergency department visits, with patient self-testing compared to office-based/lab INR monitoring. Our finding that PST is safe and effective among current users suggests that more patients may benefit from its use.
Operationalizing ambiguity in sustainability science: embracing the elephant in the room
Authors: Lazurko Anita , Haider L. Jamila , Hertz Tilman , West Simon , McCarthy Daniel D. P.
Published: December 2023

Ambiguity is often recognized as an intrinsic aspect of addressing complex sustainability challenges. Nevertheless, in the practice of transdisciplinary sustainability research, ambiguity is often an ‘elephant in the room’ to be either side-stepped or reduced rather than explicitly mobilized in pursuit of solutions. These responses threaten the salience and legitimacy of sustainability science by masking the pluralism of real-world sustainability challenges and how research renders certain frames visible and invisible. Critical systems thinking (CST) emerged from the efforts of operational researchers to address theoretical and practical aspects of ambiguity. By adapting key concepts, frameworks, and lessons from CST literature and case studies, this paper aims to establish (1) an expansive conceptualization of ambiguity and (2) recommendations for operationalizing ambiguity as a valuable means of addressing sustainability challenges. We conceptualize ambiguity as an emergent feature of the simultaneous and interacting boundary processes associated with being, knowing, and intervening in complex systems, and propose Reflexive Boundary Critique (RBC) as a novel framework to help navigate these boundary processes. Our characterization of ambiguity acknowledges the boundary of a researcher’s subjective orientation and its influence on how ambiguity is exposed and mediated in research (being), characterizes knowledge as produced through the process of making boundary judgments, generating a partial, contextual, and provisional frame (knowing), and situates a researcher as part of the complexity they seek to understand, rendering any boundary process as a form of intervention that reinforces or marginalizes certain frames and, in turn, influences action (intervening). Our recommendations for sustainability scientists to operationalize ambiguity include (1) nurturing the reflexive capacities of transdisciplinary researchers to navigate persistent ambiguity (e.g., using our proposed framework of RBC), and (2) grappling with the potential for and consequences of theoretical incommensurability and discordant pluralism. Our findings can help sustainability scientists give shape to and embrace ambiguity as a fundamental part of rigorous sustainability science.
Loss-guided stability selection
Authors: Werner Tino
Published: December 2023

In modern data analysis, sparse model selection becomes inevitable once the number of predictor variables is very high. It is well-known that model selection procedures like the Lasso or Boosting tend to overfit on real data. The celebrated Stability Selection overcomes these weaknesses by aggregating models, based on subsamples of the training data, followed by choosing a stable predictor set which is usually much sparser than the predictor sets from the raw models. The standard Stability Selection is based on a global criterion, namely the per-family error rate, while additionally requiring expert knowledge to suitably configure the hyperparameters. Model selection depends on the loss function, i.e., predictor sets selected w.r.t. some particular loss function differ from those selected w.r.t. some other loss function. Therefore, we propose a Stability Selection variant which respects the chosen loss function via an additional validation step based on out-of-sample validation data, optionally enhanced with an exhaustive search strategy. Our Stability Selection variants are widely applicable and user-friendly. Moreover, our Stability Selection variants can avoid the issue of severe underfitting, which affects the original Stability Selection for noisy high-dimensional data, so our priority is not to avoid false positives at all costs but to result in a sparse stable model with which one can make predictions. Experiments where we consider both regression and binary classification with Boosting as model selection algorithm reveal a significant precision improvement compared to raw Boosting models while not suffering from any of the mentioned issues of the original Stability Selection.
Specification procedures for multivariate stable-Paretian laws for independent and for conditionally heteroskedastic data
Authors: Meintanis Simos G. , Nolan John P. , Pretorius Charl
Published: December 2023

We consider goodness-of-fit methods for multivariate symmetric and asymmetric stable Paretian random vectors in arbitrary dimension. The methods are based on the empirical characteristic function and are implemented both in the i.i.d. context as well as for innovations in GARCH models. Asymptotic properties of the proposed procedures are discussed, while the finite-sample properties are illustrated by means of an extensive Monte Carlo study. The procedures are also applied to real data from the financial markets.
Liver-Directed Therapy for Neuroendocrine Tumor Metastases in the Era of Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy
Authors: Rabei Rana , Fidelman Nicholas
Published: December 2023

Opinion statement

The treatment of neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN) liver metastases involves a multidisciplinary approach that includes liver-directed therapies (LDT) and systemic treatments, such as peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). LDT has demonstrated efficacy in rapidly reducing tumor bulk, improving symptoms, and delaying disease progression. Interventional radiologists should be consulted prior to switching therapy for patients with progressive or symptomatic neuroendocrine tumor liver metastases. Long-term follow-up data on the safety of Yttrium-90 radioembolization before and after PRRT remain limited. Therefore, a more conservative approach may be to preferentially employ transarterial embolization (TAE) or transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for patients’ somatostatin receptor-avid disease who may be future candidates for PRRT. Notable exceptions where radioembolization may be a preferred treatment strategy may be patients with history of biliary tract instrumentation, asymmetric unilobar disease distribution, and rapidly progressive diffuse liver involvement. Selection of local treatment modality, sequencing, and combination of LDT with systemic therapy require further investigation.
Immunotherapy-Associated Atherosclerosis: A Comprehensive Review of Recent Findings and Implications for Future Research
Authors: Chan Antonia , Torelli Stefan , Cheng Evaline , Batchelder Ryan , Waliany Sarah , Neal Joel , Witteles Ronald , Nguyen Patricia , Cheng Paul , Zhu Han
Published: December 2023

Purpose of the Review

Even as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have transformed the lifespan of many patients, they may also trigger acceleration of long-term cardiovascular disease. Our review aims to examine the current landscape of research on ICI-mediated atherosclerosis and address key questions regarding its pathogenesis and impact on patient management.

Recent Findings

Preclinical mouse models suggest that T cell dysregulation and proatherogenic cytokine production are key contributors to plaque development after checkpoint inhibition. Clinical data also highlight the significant burden of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in patients on immunotherapy, although the value of proactively preventing and treating ASCVD in this population remains an open area of inquiry. Current treatment options include dietary/lifestyle modification and traditional medications to manage hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes risk factors; no current targeted therapies exist.

Early identification of high-risk patients is crucial for effective preventive strategies and timely intervention. Future research should focus on refining screening tools, elucidating targetable mechanisms driving ICI atherosclerosis, and evaluating long-term cardiovascular outcomes in cancer survivors who received immunotherapy. Moreover, close collaboration between oncologists and cardiologists is essential to optimize patient outcomes.
Does the Phrase “Conspiracy Theory” Matter?
Authors: Dentith M R. X. , Husting G. , Orr M.
Published: December 2023

Research on conspiracy theories has proliferated since 2016, in part due to the US election of President Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasingly threatening environmental conditions. In the rush to publication given these concerning social consequences, researchers have increasingly treated as definitive a 2016 paper by Michael Wood (Political Psychology, 37(5), 695–705, 2016) that concludes that the phrase “conspiracy theory” has no negative effect upon people’s willingness to endorse a claim. We revisit Wood’s findings and its (re)uptake in the recent literature. Is the label “conspiracy theory” a pejorative? If so, does it sway or affect people’s belief in specific claims of conspiracy (i.e. particular conspiracy theories), or is the effect one that concerns claims of conspiracy more generally (i.e. all conspiracy theories)? Through an examination of the conceptual and methodological scope of Wood’s work and the results of our similar quasi-experimental design, we argue that it is premature to suggest the label “conspiracy theory” has no impact on the believability of a claim, or that it has no rhetorical power.
Association of physical activity with bleeding events and safety in patients with haemophilia A starting emicizumab prophylaxis: an interim analysis of the TSUBASA study
Authors: Nogami Keiji , Fujii Teruhisa , Sawada Akihiro , Nagao Azusa , Nagae Chiai , Nojima Masanori , Suzuki Nobuaki , Nosaka Daisuke , Shimura Tomomi , Sugao Yoshimasa , Amano Kagehiro
Published: December 2023

Introduction

Little information exists on the relationship between bleeding outcomes and physical activity in patients with haemophilia A (PwHA).

Aim

This interim analysis of the TSUBASA study (UMIN-CTR ID: UMIN000037448) evaluated the association of physical activity with bleeding and safety in PwHA starting emicizumab.

Methods

PwHA without factor VIII inhibitors were recruited. Physical activity and bleed data were obtained using an electronic patient-reported outcome application and wearable activity tracker. Adverse events (AEs) were documented.

Results

At data cut-off (31-May-2021), 107 PwHA were enrolled, with a median (range) age of 35 (0–73) years. Physical activity data were obtained for 74 participants. Of these, 47 (63.5%) recorded a total of 396 exercise events. The most common exercise events were walking (32.4%), cycling (14.9%), and football (5.4%). Two (0.5%) exercise events in the same individual were associated with bleeding (running, weight training).

The safety analysis population consisted of 106 participants treated with emicizumab (median observation period: 241.5 days). Twenty-one (19.8%) participants experienced a total of 39 AEs. Five (4.7%) experienced a serious AE, none of which was emicizumab-related, and three (2.8%) experienced an adverse drug reaction.

Conclusions

PwHA receiving emicizumab in the TSUBASA study experienced minimal bleeding associated with physical activity.

Trial registration

Trial registration: UMIN-CTR ID: UMIN000037448.
Are South African children on track for early learning? Findings from the South African Thrive By Five Index 2021 Survey
Authors: Tredoux Colin , Dawes Andrew , Mattes Frances , Schenk Jan-Christof , Giese Sonja , Leach Grace , van der Berg Servaas , Horler Jessica
Published: December 2023

We report on a national South African multistage cluster sampling survey of early development in 5,222 children aged 50-59 months enrolled in preschool programmes. Children were assessed on the Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM 4&5), the ELOM Social-Emotional Rating Scale, and linear growth (height-for-age), in the last quarter of 2021. ELOM 4&5 is standardised for South Africa and measures development in five domains: Gross Motor, and Fine Motor Development, Numeracy and Mathematics, Cognition and Executive Functioning, and Literacy and Language skills. Cut scores are used to classify children as On Track, Falling Behind, or Falling Far Behind expected developmental standards. Post-survey weights were computed, permitting us to interpret results as representative of children attending early learning programmes. Only 45.7% of the sample were On Track overall. Apart from Literacy and Language (54.7%), no other domain exceeded 50% On Track. Children who were better off socio-economically achieved higher scores (except for Gross Motor Development). Height-for-age measurements revealed a stunting rate of 5.1%, (>8.8% in one province). A mixed linear model analysis showed that age, sex, quintile, growth status, and socio-emotional score were significant predictors of the total ELOM 4&5 score, with growth status and quintile being stronger predictors. The results indicate concerningly poor preparedness for school. Two further surveys prior to 2030 will be undertaken and used to establish the country’s progress toward meeting Sustainable Development Goal 4.2: “all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”.
Personal income tax, redistribution and income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Voto Tewa Papy , Ngepah Nicholas
Published: December 2023

We assess the roles of personal income tax and fiscal redistribution in income inequality for 30 Sub-Saharan Africa economies from 1980 to 2020, employing the dynamic common correlated effect and cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag estimators. Empirical results show that personal income tax positively affects income inequality in the full sample SSA economies. Compared to the full sample, the magnitude of the effect remains positive but smaller for non-least developed countries (countries not classified as least developed countries in our sample). However, personal income tax has a negative effect on income inequality for least developed countries. Additionally, fiscal redistribution increases inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa economies and non-least developed countries, while it lowers inequality for least developed countries. Interestingly, fiscal redistribution reduces the level of the positive impact of personal income tax on inequality over the full sample. The main policy implication of this research is that well-designed redistributive fiscal measures associated with anti-corruption policy and good governance may help policymakers to reduce the positive effect of personal income tax on inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa economies.
Surgical and Radiology Trainees’ Proficiency in Reading Mammograms: the Importance of Education for Cancer Localisation
Authors: Wells J. B. , Lewis S. J. , Barron M. , Trieu P. D.
Published: December 2023

Medical imaging with mammography plays a very important role in screening and diagnosis of breast cancer, Australia’s most common female cancer. The visualisation of cancers on mammograms often forms a diagnosis and guidance for radiologists and breast surgeons, and education platforms that provide real cases in a simulated testing environment have been shown to improve observer performance for radiologists. This study reports on the performance of surgical and radiology trainees in locating breast cancers. An enriched test set of 20 mammography cases (6 cancer and 14 cancer free) was created, and 18 surgical trainees and 32 radiology trainees reviewed the cases via the Breast Screen Reader Assessment Strategy (BREAST) platform and marked any lesions identifiable. Further analysis of performance with high- and low-density cases was undertaken, and standard metrics including sensitivity and specificity. Radiology trainees performed significantly better than surgical trainees in terms of specificity (0.72 vs. 0.35; P < 0.01). No significant differences were observed between the surgical and radiology trainees in sensitivity or lesion sensitivity. Mixed results were obtained with participants regarding breast density, with higher density cases generally having lower performance. The higher specificity of the radiology trainees compared to the surgical trainees likely represents less exposure to negative mammography cases. The use of high-fidelity simulated self-test environments like BREAST is able to benchmark, understand and build strategies for improving cancer education in a safe environment, including identifying challenging scenarios like breast density for enhanced training.
US/CT fusion imaging and virtual navigation to guide lumbar intradiscal oxygen-ozone therapy: a pilot study
Authors: Albano Domenico , Messina Carmelo , Gitto Salvatore , Fusco Stefano , Sconfienza Luca Maria , Bellelli Alberto
Published: December 2023

Purpose

To test the feasibility of US/CT fusion imaging to guide lumbar intradiscal O2/O3 therapy to treat discogenic degenerative low back pain due to lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

Methods

We retrospectively included consecutive patients affected by low back pain and/or sciatica due to LDH resistant to conservative therapies, who underwent to lumbar intradiscal O2/O3 injection under CT/US fusion imaging guidance (Fusion Group) and standard CT guidance (Control Group). For each procedure, we collected procedure operative time, room utilization time, number of CT passes, complications, and O2/O3 intradiscal diffusion adequacy. Technical success was defined as the ability to complete the procedure as initially planned to reach the disc. Technical efficacy was based on O2/O3 intradiscal diffusion adequacy, as demonstrated by the last CT scan.

Results

Six patients (4 males; mean age: 68 ± 15 years) were included in the Fusion group, six (4 males; mean age: 66 ± 12 years) in Control group. No complications were observed in both groups. In Fusion group we found significantly lower room utilization time (30 ± 6 min vs. 46 ± 10 min, p = 0.008), procedure operative time (14 ± 3 min vs. 24 ± 6 min, p = 0.008), and number of CT passes (2 [2,2] vs. 3 [3,3], p = 0.006) than in Control Group, respectively. Technical success and efficacy were 100% in both Groups.

Conclusion

CT/US fusion imaging seems to be a feasible and safe guidance for intradiscal O2/O3 injections, allowing decrease of procedure time and number of CT passes.
Solution of Lane Emden–Fowler equations by Taylor series method
Authors: Chamekh Mourad , Elzaki Tarig M. , Ahmed Shams A.
Published: December 2023

In this paper, a new application of the Taylor series method (TSM) and its properties is used to solve partial differential equation problems with a singular limit value problem. We are particularly interested in applying this method to a certain class of physical problems such as Lane Emden–Fowler partial differential equations. The results obtained show that this analytical technique is very simple and effective compared to other methods.
Status and prospects of surface texturing: design, manufacturing and applications
Authors: Song Jingyu , Huang Hui , Wang Xigui , Shi Weibin
Published: December 2023

In recent years, the requirements for high-quality development in the manufacturing industry and extreme application conditions have increasingly demanded higher equipment performance. The surface and interface condition of components is directly related to the stability, reliability and service life of equipment. The development of high-performance or multi-performance surface texturing is of great significance for the effective improvement of mechanical properties, optical properties, catalytic properties and biological properties of surfaces. This paper summarizes the application of textured surfaces in improving the physical, chemical and biological properties of surfaces; outlines the types of texturing patterns and the design methods; analyzes the main technical methods and their characteristics for the preparation of surface textures in additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing and equal material manufacturing; and makes outlooks on texturing surfaces from the aspects of performance enhancement, pattern design and manufacturing technology in combination with the development trend of textured surfaces’ intelligence and digitization.
Max-linear graphical models with heavy-tailed factors on trees of transitive tournaments
Authors: Asenova Stefka , Segers Johan
Published: December 2023

Graphical models with heavy-tailed factors can be used to model extremal dependence or causality between extreme events. In a Bayesian network, variables are recursively defined in terms of their parents according to a directed acyclic graph (DAG). We focus on max-linear graphical models with respect to a special type of graph, which we call a tree of transitive tournaments. The latter is a block graph combining in a tree-like structure a finite number of transitive tournaments, each of which is a DAG in which every two nodes are connected. We study the limit of the joint tails of the max-linear model conditionally on the event that a given variable exceeds a high threshold. Under a suitable condition, the limiting distribution involves the factorization into independent increments along the shortest trail between two variables, thereby imitating the behaviour of a Markov random field.

We are also interested in the identifiability of the model parameters in the case when some variables are latent and only a subvector is observed. It turns out that the parameters are identifiable under a criterion on the nodes carrying the latent variables which is easy and quick to check.
Transitioning Guerrillas: An Analysis of the Internal Cohesion of the Former FARC in Their Transit from War to Democracy
Authors: Ugarriza Juan E. , Quishpe Rafael C. , Acuña Diana C. , Salazar Mónica A.
Published: December 2023

The emergence of ex-rebels’ political parties after peace accords creates a vehicle for political reintegration, which in turn has positive effects on peace and democracy consolidation after war. However, many of these parties tend to break apart and disappear, elevating the risk of renewed cycles of political violence. In times of war, cohesion plays a pivotal role in maintaining the bonds among members of armed organizations. It empowers them to perform effectively even in the face of challenging conditions and continues to be a critical factor during postconflict transitions. By means of a quantitative analysis of former FARC guerrillas in Colombia, now part of a newly founded legal political party, we test whether ideology, organizational dynamics, or individual perceptions and motivations help to explain their levels of cohesion. Our results show that even if all dimensions add up to the observed cohesion levels, perceptions of internal democracy, and inclusion, are the most relevant. We argue that assistance to former rebels in their organizational reengineering efforts after war will help to reduce the risk of the negative effects of rebel party collapse.
Matsotsi: The Migrant Detective and the Postcolonial State
Authors: Santana Stephanie Bosch
Published: December 2023

Recent work on crime fiction has highlighted the genre’s increasingly transnational focus and the growing number of migrant detectives. Matsotsi, a little-known Nyanja text published in Zambia in the early 1960s, provides a much earlier example of this figure in Sergeant Balala, an Angolan detective fighting to contain the tsotsi menace in Johannesburg, South Africa. Matsotsi, however, does more than point to cross-border detection as a means of elucidating transnational relationships. Shonga and Zulu’s text manipulates the genres of the detective novel and the bildungsroman to tell a story about the relationships among the individual, the state, and the wider region at a key moment in southern African history, when Zambia and Malawi were on the cusp of independence. Although African language writing has often been considered too localized to be used for nationalist purposes, here it is mobilized for the purpose of state-making in a transnational context.
Insecurity and Support for Female Leadership in Conflict States: Evidence from Afghanistan
Authors: Bhatia Jasmine , Monroe Steve L.
Published: December 2023

While women's political inclusion is central to international conflict resolution efforts, public attitudes in conflict states towards women's political inclusion remain understudied. We expect insecurity to depress support for female political leadership in conflicts where women's political inclusion is violently contested. Citizens wanting security through force prefer male leaders because of stereotypes privileging men's military prowess. However, citizens wanting security through reconciliation also favour men for fear that female leadership would provoke more violence. We assess these expectations with experimental and observational data from the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In the survey experiment, priming respondents to think about insecurity decreases support for female leadership, but only among women. In observational data, insecurity correlates with more polarized attitudes towards women's political representation in some regions and greater support for female leaders in others. Insecurity's impact on public support for female leadership in conflict states may be highly heterogeneous.
Engaging with ‘less affluent’ communities for food system transformation: a community food researcher model (FoodSEqual project)
Authors: Pettinger Clare , Hunt Louise , Gardiner Hannah , Garg Paridhi , Howard Lisa , Wagstaff Carol
Published: December 2023

The UK food system is distorted by inequalities in access, failing the people most in need, yet it should provide access to safe, nutritious affordable food for all citizens. Dietary patterns are associated with socio-demographic characteristics, with high levels of diet-related disease mortality attributed to poor dietary habits. Disadvantaged UK communities face urgent public health challenges, yet are often treated as powerless recipients of dietary and health initiatives. The need for food system transformation has been illustrated within recent UK government policy drivers and research funding. The Food Systems Equality project is a research consortium that aims to ‘co-produce healthy and sustainable food systems for disadvantaged communities’. The project focusses on innovating food products, supply chains and policies, placing communities at the centre of the change. Tackling the above issues requires new ways of working. Creative approaches in food research are known to empower a wider range of individuals to share their ‘lived food experience’ narratives, building relationships and corroborating co-production philosophies, thus promoting social justice, and challenging more traditional positivist/reductionist ‘biomedical’ approaches for nutrition and food studies. This review paper critiques the use of community-centric approaches for food system transformation, focusing on one, a community food researcher model(1) as an exemplar, to highlight their utility in advocating with rather than for less affluent communities. The potential for creative methods to lead to more equitable and lasting solutions for food system transformation is appraised, consolidating the need for community-driven systemic change to foster more progressive and inclusive approaches to strengthen social capital. The paper closes with practice insights and critical considerations offering recommendations for readers, researchers, and practitioners, enabling them to better understand and apply similar approaches.
Economic Resilience in the Centre Development Region, Romania. A Methodological Approach to the 2009–2011 Economic Crisis and Post-crisis
Authors: Şerban Paul-Răzvan , Mitrică Bianca
Published: December 2023

Economic resilience consists of the decisions taken by firms in order to face decreasing demand (during an economic crisis) while maintaining a functional economic structure so that they may then return to business as usual after the crisis has passed. In addition, it refers to how the population acts in order to stay in the labour market and maintain their standard of living. The educational structure must fit the needs of firms. This study relies on three datasets at the NUTS V level for the Central Development Region in Romania for the demographic, labour market and educational structure: the situation in 2008, the evolution of the three structures during the crisis period (2009–2011), and the evolution of the above-mentioned structures during the 2012–2019 post-crisis period. The migration of people with a domicile from urban areas to rural areas was associated with a decrease in the number of employees and the unemployed in urban areas (big and medium-sized cities) simultaneously with an increase in the unemployed population in rural areas. The unemployed moved their domiciles from urban areas to peri-urban areas, commuting to the cities. There were people who moved their residence from small cities to big and medium-sized ones. The post-crisis economic recovery was quick and the economic structure remained functional during the crisis.
Perceptions, barriers and enablers on salt reduction in the out-of-home sectors in Malaysia (MySaltOH) from the perspective of street food vendors, caterers and consumers
Authors: Zainal Arifen Zainorain Natasha , Haron Hasnah , Shahar Suzana , Harun Zaliha , Michael Viola , You Yee Xing , Manaf Zahara Abdul , Majid Hazreen Abdul , Chia Yook Chin , He Feng J , Brown Mhairi Karen , MacGregor Graham A
Published: December 2023

Objective:

To explore the perspectives, barriers and enablers on salt reduction in out-of-home sectors in Malaysia among street food vendors, caterers and consumers.

Design:

A qualitative study involving twenty-two focus group discussions and six in-depth interviews was conducted, recorded and transcribed verbatim. An inductive thematic analysis approach was employed to analyse the data.

Setting:

Two in-depth interviews and twenty-two focus group discussions were conducted face-to-face. Four in-depth interviews were conducted online.

Participants:

Focus group discussions were conducted among twenty-three street food vendors, twenty-one caterers and seventy-six consumers of various eateries. In-depth interviews were conducted among two street food vendors and four caterers, individually.

Results:

Consumers and food operators perceived a high-salt intake within Malaysia’s out-of-home food sectors. Food operators emphasised the necessity for a comprehensive salt reduction policy in the out-of-home sector involving all stakeholders. Consumers faced limited awareness and knowledge, counterproductive practices among food operators and challenges in accessing affordable low-Na food products, whereas food operators faced the lack of standardised guidelines and effective enforcement mechanisms and uncooperative consumer practices. Both groups expressed that food quality and price of salt were also the barriers, and they advocated for awareness promotion, enhanced regulation of manufactured food products and stricter enforcement targeting vendors. Consumers also suggested promoting and recognising health-conscious food premises, whereas food operators suggested on knowledge enhancement tailored to them, strategies for gaining consumers acceptance and maintaining food quality.

Conclusions:

These findings provide valuable insights that serve as foundational evidence for developing and implementing salt reduction policies within Malaysia’s out-of-home sectors.
The Cost-of-Living Crisis in the UK and Ireland: on Inflation, Indexation, and One-Off Policy Responses
Authors: Hick Rod , Collins Micheál L.
Published: December 2023

This paper compares social policy responses to the cost-of-living crisis in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland. In seeking to protect citizens from an inflationary shock, a series of fundamental social policy questions arise. What would the aims of support packages be? To what extent should support be universal or targeted? If targeted, did existing policy architectures facilitate or frustrate the targeting of support? As the scale and persistence of the inflationary shock became evident, smaller and near-universal responses gave way to larger support packages with a greater reliance on targeting. Social security systems played an important role in policy responses, though often by passporting one-off payments rather than a strengthening of these core programmes. Passporting led both to improved distributional outcomes vis-à-vis the more universal elements but created new administrative challenges and led to rough justice in some circumstances. The reliance on one-off payments underlined the temporary nature of policy responses.
Histories with Sound: Using Noise and Music to Teach (and Research) the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Authors: Backer Samuel E.
Published: December 2023

In recent years, the history of sound has developed into a rich body of interdisciplinary scholarship. This article explores the benefits of considering sonic evidence alongside a host of other material; teaching and writing histories with—rather than of—sound. In the classroom, this kind of “history with sound” is particularly useful for its ability to cut across lines of scholarly inquiry. This makes sound an especially potent resource when teaching the history of the United States during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. During these years, American society underwent a many-sided process of development difficult to adequately narrativize. The study of sound, with its ability to link numerous trends and dynamics within densely layered events, can help address this issue. Providing insight into the practices and problems of everyday life, such sonic history can reveal the interplay of change and continuity that defined the social experience of the turn-of-the-century United States. Focused on sound in New York, this article provides an overview of the topic’s historiography before examining a series of distinct case studies for classroom use.
Remittance dependence, support for taxation and quality of public services in Africa
Authors: Konte Maty , Ndubuisi Gideon
Published: December 2023

We explore the heterogeneous effect of migrant remittances on citizens' support for taxation using a sample comprising 45,000 individuals from the Afrobarometer survey round 7 [2016–2018] across 34 African countries. To correct for unobserved heterogeneity, we endogenously identify latent classes/subtypes of individuals that share similar patterns on how their support for taxation is affected by their unobserved and observed characteristics, including remittance dependency. We apply the finite multilevel mixture of regressions approach, a supervised machine learning method to detect hidden classes in the data without imposinga prioriassumptions on class membership. Our data are best generated by an econometric model with two classes/subtypes of individuals. In class 1 where more than two-thirds of the citizens belong, we do not find any significant evidence that remittance dependence affects support for taxation. However, in class 2 where the remaining one-third of the citizens belong, we find a significant negative effect of remittance dependence on support for taxation. Furthermore, we find that citizens who have a positive appraisal of the quality of the public service delivery have a lower probability of belonging to the class in which depending on remittance reduces support for taxation. The findings emphasize the need for efficient public services provisioning to counteract the adverse effect of remittances on tax morale.
Association Between Dysmenorrhea and Risk of Epilepsy in East Asian Populations: A Bidirectional Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study
Authors: Ren Yuehan , Zhang Junning , Chen Tong , Chen Jiaqin , Liao Yan , Liu Tingxiu , Yang Liangliang , Liu Chang , Liu Xinmin , Liu Baoqin
Published: December 2023

Dysmenorrhea is associated with epilepsy. Existing evidence is mostly limited to observational studies, which are liable to confounding and bias. This study investigated the causal relevance of dysmenorrhea on epilepsy using Mendelian randomization (MR). We extracted instrumental variants for dysmenorrhea and epilepsy from published genomewide association study data, focusing on individuals of East Asian descent. A comprehensive suite of MR estimations and sensitivity analyses was performed to ensure the robustness of the findings. Each outcome database was analyzed separately in both directions. For dysmenorrhea and epilepsy, 7 and 3 genetic variants respectively were selectively extracted as instrumental variants. The results suggest that dysmenorrhea is causally associated with an elevated risk of epilepsy (inverse variance weighted [IVW]: OR = 1.26; 95% CI [1.07, 1.47]; p = 4.42 × 10−3); conversely, no strong evidence was found to corroborate that epilepsy exerts a causal effect on the incidence of dysmenorrhea (IVW: OR = 1.04; 95% CI [0.82, 1.33]; p = .72). These findings provide novel insights into the causal relationship between dysmenorrhea and epilepsy, which may have implications for clinical decision-making in patients with epilepsy and dysmenorrhea.
Comprehensive Multiomics Analysis of Monozygotic Twin Discordant for Double Outlet Right Ventricle
Authors: Liu Zhen , Li Nana , Pan Xiaoyu , Li Jun , Li Shengli , Li Qintong , Li Ping , Deng Ying , Chen Fang , Jiang Hui , Wang Wei , Mu Dezhi , Yu Ping , Zhu Jun
Published: December 2023

The objective of this study was to understand and measure epigenetic changes associated with the occurrence of CHDs by utilizing the discordant monozygotic twin model. A unique set of monozygotic twins discordant for double-outlet right ventricles (DORVs) was used for this multiomics study. The cardiac and muscle tissue samples from the twins were subjected to whole genome sequencing, whole genome bisulfite sequencing, RNA-sequencing and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Sporadic DORV cases and control fetuses were used for validation. Global hypomethylation status was observed in heart tissue samples from the affected twins. Among 36,228 differentially methylated regions (DMRs), 1097 DMRs involving 1039 genes were located in promoter regions. A total of 419 genes, and lncRNA–mRNA pairs involved 30 genes, and 62 proteins were significantly differentially expressed. Multiple omics integrative analysis revealed that five genes, including BGN, COL1A1, COL3A1, FBLN5, and FLAN, and three pathways, including ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion and TGF-β signaling pathway, exhibited differences at all three levels. This study demonstrates a multiomics profile of discordant twins and explores the possible mechanism of DORV development. Global hypomethylation might be associated with the risk of CHDs. Specific genes and specific pathways, particularly those involving ECM–receptor interaction, focal adhesion and TGF–β signaling, might be involved in the occurrence of CHDs.