bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Meeting the threshold: referralto children’s social care services
Authors: Baginsky Mary , Driscoll Jenny , Purcell Carl , Manthorpe Jill , Hickman Ben
Published: January 2023

This chapter considers the experiences of school staff in relation to information gathering and decision making regarding safeguarding, including making a referral to children’s social care services. It first considers how staff in schools collect and share information regarding children they are concerned about within school. Advice and support available to schools to support this decision making, including through multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASHs), threshold documents, and from local authority education safeguarding leads are discussed in the second section. Then the process of making a referral and the experiences of schools’ staff in doing so are considered. The final section considers schools’ perceptions of rising threshold levels for children’s social care in the context of austerity and increased pressure on children’s social care.
Conclusion
Authors: O’Leary Chris
Published: January 2023

Should we be surprised that, when asked, public employees do indeed state that they are motivated by serving the public interest? After all, the public interest is the dominant language of government, of government agencies and public bodies, of the public sector, of civil servants and politicians, and of the courts. It is an important public sector norm. Furthering the public interest is an important value for public employees. In this book, I have provided a detailed critique of the dominant theory of public employee motivation. I have argued that it fails to explain how public service-motivated employees discern the public interest, and understand whether they are contributing to the public interest. I have set out an expressive account of the role that the public interest plays in the motivation of public actors. In this explanation, what is important is not whether an individual public employee makes a contribution to, or has an impact on, the common good. Indeed, this expressively rational actor is indifferent to whether the public interest is actually furthered. Rather, what motivates this expressively rational actor is confirming – both to themselves and by others – this important aspect of their identity and their values.
COVID-19: policy responses and lived experiences
Authors: Whelan Joe
Published: January 2023

This chapter breaks with the study that underpins the bulk of the book and offers a look at some data that emerged from a separate study conducted to capture experiences of welfare recipiency in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also contrasts welfare responses from across several jurisdictions. With respect to the data, the chapter shows that after an initial period where strong welfare responses were largely welcomed, both publicly and politically, many of the themes seen in earlier chapters of this book remain present and are repeated. However, it also shows that at times of great social and economic crisis, people generally welcome and even expect a strong welfare response. Ultimately, this chapter raises questions about the ‘doing’ of welfare in the face of potential future crises.
The Dynamics of Forgiveness
Authors: Pycroft Aaron , Bartollas Clemens
Published: January 2023

This chapter identifies forgiveness as the starting point of redemption rather than an end point. Forgiveness is the suspension of judgement, which enables the spaces of possibilities where new possibilities can be discussed and energies appropriated.
Actualization
Authors: Pycroft Aaron , Bartollas Clemens
Published: January 2023

Through an examination of idols and icons this chapter continues the discussion of making real and actualizing the virtual through overcoming metaphysical violence
Conclusion
Authors: Pycroft Aaron , Bartollas Clemens
Published: January 2023

You know how it is. You go to write something, a letter, an essay, an article, a book, or you start working with a new and challenging service user. In your mind, you are clear what you are doing, you are excited having glimpsed the possibilities to do good work. Waking up of a morning your crepuscular semi-conscious state has made wonderful connections, you glimpse ‘the thing in itself’ its haecceity, you are up for the challenge. You go to work, make that cup of coffee, sit down with a blank piece of paper or computer screen, talk to colleagues, meet the service users, but then it’s gone! You seem to be dragged in by the complexity of the challenges, with the connections not quite so vivid or obvious – the enargeia is dissipated. Why is this? In part because the reductionist and calculating mind, in needing to try to make sense of the intuition, its content, presentation and acceptability to others, loses the whole picture. This is not helped by working in bureaucratized neoliberal institutions (including universities), where your work is shaped and performance managed, subjected to endless reviews, the demands of file keeping, and supervision. The risk is that despite the importance of the work and our own motivation, as with Brideshead Revisited and Charles Ryder’s sojourn with the army, we are stripped of all enchantment (Waugh, 1964).
The Power of Meaning: Toward a Critical Discursive Sociology of Religion
Authors: Hjelm Titus
Published: January 2023

An increasing number of scholars are resetting their analytical lenses for the study of religion. Instead of starting with a definition of religion to be operationalized, these scholars take the defining process as the object of inquiry instead. How is religion defined in, say, politics or the media? Why is it defined so? What are the consequences of such definitions? How is power exercised in the definition of religion? This chapter discusses the theory and practice of a critical discursive sociology of religion, which seeks to provide tools for answering such questions. It uses the example of the concept of “folk church” as an ideological construction that suppresses alternative understandings of church and state relations in Finland.
The Religion of White Male Ethnonationalism in a Multicultural Reality
Authors: Lundskow George
Published: January 2023

This chapter argues that the dominant religion of the United States was and is White male ethnonationalism, often but not always polished with a Christian veneer. The argument analyzes two historical periods: first, the racial conflict of post-Civil War Reconstruction and Southern faith in the myth of the Lost Cause, which directly configured the racial animus that, second, divided and ultimately destroyed the 20th century labor movement. The social forces of the Civil War and rapid industrialization challenged racial (and gender) hierarchies, and yet, as industrial capital and US global political power expanded, White supremacy justified acquisition and domination as legitimate moral conquests. This required validation that transcends economic interests and exacts willing personal sacrifice from the White servant classes – in other words – religious validation. Consequently, racial and ethnic minorities suffered the brunt of White unity around White ethnonational supremacy, and even lower income Whites faithfully subverted their own class and quality-of-life interests under the religious-like fervor of White supremacy. Today, progressive social change requires two developments: active White resistance to White supremacy, and class unity among the multitude, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or lifestyle. Otherwise, progressive social change may not happen for a very long time.
Towards A Landscape Political Ecology
Authors: Connolly Creighton
Published: January 2023

This chapter will explicate the landscape political ecology framework outlined above, as well as the attendant methodological approach developed alongside it. It is broken into six main sections. The first three provide the conceptual background underpinning the LPE framework developed in this book. The first of these discusses the conceptualisation of landscape from a political ecology framework, before reviewing relevant literature on urban political ecology and how it allows us to understand contemporary processes of urbanisation. The third section identifies the commonalities between these approaches that make create productive synergies when combined into an LPE framework. The subsequent three sections discuss how this approach is useful for understanding extended forms of urbanisation, heritage and infrastructure, respectively, which are the primary themes running throughout the controversies being analysed in Penang.
Integrating Cultural and Natural Heritage on Penang Hill
Authors: Connolly Creighton
Published: January 2023

Chapter 6 evaluates the potential of emergent urban environmental governance initiatives in Penang for achieving more socio-ecologically just forms of urban development, particularly with regards to its forested hillsides. It demonstrates how invocations of Penang's rich natural heritage are often framed alongside urban and cultural heritage in local resistance to ongoing development projects on the island. In particular, the chapter focuses on Penang Hill, which is the most well known of Penang's hills, and is a symbol of the island's history, heritage and identity. In doing so, the chapter seeks to highlight the potential of urban heritage research in contributing to sustainable development initiatives through the integration and conservation of cultural and natural components of heritage landscapes. It also seeks to highlight the integration of cultural and natural forms of heritage and landscape as an important focus for UPE scholarship.
The Pathways of Human Trafficking Flows
Authors: Hupp Williamson Sarah
Published: January 2023

Chapter 3 introduces set-theoretic multi-method research, a method which combines fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) at the comparative level with the comparative historical method of process tracing at the within case level. The advantages of this method for the study of human trafficking are outlined along with the data sources and steps to prepare for analysis. The results of the fsQCA analysis for pathways leading to high human trafficking flows and high emigration flows are outlined and discussed. These pathways confirm the role of the theoretical framework in illuminating the conditions which are associated with explaining the origin of human trafficking flows. Each of the pathways shows unique combinations of conditions such as economic dominance, globalisation, income inequality, gender inequality, corruption, and state fragility. That the solutions leading to high human trafficking flows were identical or similar to several of the seven pathways leading to high emigration flows confirms the link between migration and human trafficking. The chapter concludes by outlining the next steps of exploring case studies from these pathways. With process tracing, historical analysis of countries from three different geographic regions are used to tease out how these pathways emerged over time in Chapters 4 through 6.
Conclusion
Authors: Hupp Williamson Sarah
Published: January 2023

This chapter concludes the book by bringing together the findings at the comparative level and the within-case level. The integrated theoretical framework of institutional anomie theory, migration systems theory, and critical global feminism drew attention to the ways that historical processes of development and social change at a global level have impacted countries globalization and the dominance of the economy. These shifts have resulted in deepening inequalities and increasing rates of migration that work at the local level to make individuals vulnerable to trafficking. The case studies of Cambodia, Bolivia, and Gambia demonstrate the importance of considering how there may be more than one pathway through which human trafficking flows originate. The implications of this research are explored for both researchers and policy makers. Avenues for the future research include exploring the links between policy and individual migration decisions and pathway distinctions such as urban versus rural trafficking, or labour versus sex trafficking. The findings highlight the need for policy to move beyond a law-and-order approach to anti-trafficking efforts, and instead focus on the root factors identified. This includes understanding the migration-trafficking nexus and crafting initiatives that are highly localized and specific.
Using/Abusing the Qur’an in Jocular Literature: Blasphemy, Qur’anophilia, or Familiarity?
Authors: Amin Yasmin
Published: January 2023

Jokes found in the popular and widely circulated nawadir (anecdote) collections make use of partial or full quotations from the Qur’an. Some of these quotations are acknowledged, while others are not identified as such. Medieval theorists recommended quoting from the Qurʾān for serious prose writers, orators, and authors. But such quotations were also used in jokes and anecdotes, some of which were raunchy, sexually explicit or borderline blasphemous and exceeded the recommended limits set by the theorists. This chapter discusses the development of iqtibās (direct quotation from the Qur’an), followed by an examination of a number of anecdotes from medieval sources, focusing on what has been termed as frivolous iqtibās from the Qur’an. The reasons for the use/abuse of the Qur’an are analysed, with a specific focus on its motives, demonstrating that this particular Qur’anic usage was deliberate, albeit very carefully done.
Queering Islam in Performance: Gender and Sexuality in American Muslim Women’s Stand-up Comedy
Authors: Michael Jaclyn A.
Published: January 2023

This chapter evaluates the recent stand-up humour of women, LGTBQ+, and non-binary American Muslim performers for whom gender and sexuality is a prominent theme in their performance material. The analysis identifies several trends in performance with regard to how these voices represent being Muslim in terms of gender, sexuality, and the body. These comics use humour to raise awareness about how patriarchy dehumanizes their experiences, and how narrow definitions of Muslim personhood fail to fully realize the entire global ummah (Muslim community). Their humour insists on the humanity of those who are marginalized, whether that be in terms of race, ability, sexuality, place in the Muslim community, or gender. The ways in which Islamophobia is uniquely gendered also emerges as a theme in this comic material, as Muslim women challenge common and myopic assumptions about the hijab and female sexualities in their jokes.
Comedy as Social Commentary in Little Mosque on the Prairie : Decoding Humour in the First ‘Muslim Sitcom’
Authors: Friesen Jay
Published: January 2023

This chapter focuses on Little Mosque on the Prairie, often dubbed the West's first Muslim sitcom. While this sitcom arguably broke new ground, featuring a large cast of Muslim characters and numerous stories involving Islam, it was also bound to traditional sitcom conventions, known for their relatively predictable and unprogressive comedic style. This contribution investigates whether Little Mosque on the Prairie was a revolutionary and progressive "Muslim" sitcom or whether the series' cultural revisionism was exaggerated and it was a rather unexceptional comedy that happened to feature Muslim characters and themes. The chapter concludes by returning to the question of what would constitute a specifically Muslim type of humour.
Improving LIBS analysis of non-flat heterogeneous samples by signals mapping
Authors: Lednev V. N. , Sdvizhenskii P. A. , Dorohov A. S. , Gudkov S. V. , Pershin S. M.
Published: January 2023

Heterogeneous material analysis by the laser-induced breakdown
spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is challenging in real practice due to
requirements for representative sampling and non-flat surfaces of the
samples. Methods complementary to LIBS (plasma imaging, plasma
acoustics, sample surface color imaging) have been introduced to
improve zinc (Zn) determination in soybean grist material by LIBS. The
detailed statistical study revealed that atomic/ionic lines emission
and other LIBS signals were distributed normally except for acoustics
signals. The correlation between LIBS and complementary signals was
rather poor due to the large variability of the particle properties of
soybean grist material. Still, analyte line normalization on plasma
background emission was rather simple and effective for Zn analysis
but required a few hundred spot samplings for representative Zn
quantification. Non-flat heterogeneous samples (soybean grist pellets)
were analyzed by LIBS mapping but it was demonstrated that the choice
of sampling area is crucial for reliably analyte determination.
Effects of stress, defects, and layer composition on the development of corrosion features on protected silver mirrors
Authors: Folgner Kelsey A. , Nelms Katherine J. , Chu Chung-Tse , Alaan Diana R. , Panetta Christopher J. , Barrie James D.
Published: January 2023

The long-term environmental durability of protected silver mirror coatings is influenced by numerous factors. Here, accelerated environmental exposure testing of model silver mirror coatings illuminated the effects of stress, defects, and layer composition on the extent and mechanisms of corrosion and degradation. Experiments to reduce stress in the highest-stress layers of the mirror coatings revealed that, while stress may affect the extent of corrosion, coating defects and the composition of the mirror layers have the largest influence on corrosion feature development and growth.
Dynamic correction of astigmatism
Authors: Bhowmick Amit K. , Jamali Afsoon , Bryant Douglas , Pintz Sandro , Bos Philip J.
Published: January 2023

For the correction of defocus and astigmatism, mechanical approaches
are well known, but there is a need for a non-mechanical, electrically
tunable optical system that could provide both focus and astigmatism
power correction with an adjustable axis. The optical system presented
here is composed of three liquid-crystal-based tunable cylindrical
lenses that are simple, low cost, and having a compact structure.
Potential applications of the concept device include smart eyeglasses,
virtual reality (VR)/ augmented reality (AR) head-mounted
displays (HMDs), and optical systems subject to thermal or mechanical
distortion. Details of the concept, design method, numerical computer
simulations of the proposed device, as well as characterization of a
prototype, are provided in this work.
Optimal design of a 4  ×  4 MMI thermal optical switch with trapezoidal air trenches
Authors: Shang Yuling , Zhou Jinzhuo , Jiang Hui , He Xiang , Ye Xiaojing , Li Chunquan
Published: January 2023

Optical switches are important in signal routing and switching. In this paper, a thermal optical switch with trapezoidal air trenches is proposed. The proposed structure consists of two cascaded

4

×

4

multimode interference (MMI) couplers. The beam propagation method is used to optimize the dimension and analyze the characteristics. Simulation results show excess loss (EL) and insertion loss (IL) are less than 0.14 dB and 0.22 dB at the wavelength of 1550 nm, respectively. Besides, the extinction ratio (ER) is higher than 21 dB. This design has the advantages of small size, low loss, and high flexibility, which is promising for application to all-optical network routing.
Three-dimensional cerebral vasculature topological parameter extraction of transgenic zebrafish embryos with a filling-enhancement deep learning network
Authors: Chen Chong , Tang YuJun , Tan Yao , Wang LinBo , Li Hui
Published: January 2023

Quantitative analysis of zebrafish cerebral vasculature is essential for the study of vascular development and disease. We developed a method to accurately extract the cerebral vasculature topological parameters of transgenic zebrafish embryos. The intermittent and hollow vascular structures of transgenic zebrafish embryos, obtained from 3D light-sheet imaging, were transformed into continuous solid structures with a filling-enhancement deep learning network. The enhancement enables the extraction of 8 vascular topological parameters accurately. Quantitation of the zebrafish cerebral vasculature vessels with the topological parameters show a developmental pattern transition from 2.5 to 5.5 dpf.
Unraveling the effects of a GeSe BSF layer on the performance of a CuInSe2 thin film solar cell: a computational analysis
Authors: Mondal Bipanko Kumar , Mostaque Shaikh Khaled , Hossain Jaker
Published: January 2023

In this work, a dual-heterojunction (DH) thin film solar cell of notable efficiency has been designed and simulated where p-type CuInSe2 (CIS) has been employed as the base layer in combination with an n-type CdS window and a p + -type GeSe back surface field (BSF) layer. The influences of each layer have been revealed using the SCAPS-1D simulator. While the n-CdS/p-CIS single heterojunction (SH) structure acting alone has been found to be resulted with 24.86% of photoconversion efficiency (PCE) with the JSC = 42.80 mA/cm2, VOC = 0.70 V, and FF = 83.44%, an enhancement to PCE of 30.52% is observed with the corresponding JSC of 44.10 mA/cm2, VOC of 0.86 V, and FF of 80.30% owing to the addition of GeSe as BSF layer in the proposed structure with optimized parameters. Because of the enormous built-in potential of the CIS/GeSe interface, increased VOC mostly contributes to the efficiency enhancement. These findings suggest that the CIS absorber layer with GeSe BSF layer is a promising choice for solar energy harvesting in the near future.
New progress in analyzing Newton’s ring for testing lens surface radius of curvature
Authors: Sun Haiyin
Published: January 2023

Newton’s ring is the most used tool in lens fabrication shops for testing lens surface radius of curvature. An approximate equation (Eq. (6) in this paper) is currently being widely used in optical community to calculate lens surface radius of curvature using Newton’s ring data. In a recently published paper (reference 13 in this paper), it is shown that this approximate equation contains significant errors and two high accurate simple equations (Eqs. (10) and (11) in this paper) are derived to replace this approximate equation. This paper reviews the currently widely used
methods of analyzing Newton’s ring and the new progress (references 13 and 14 in this paper) in the method of analyzing Newton’s ring.
Noise-resilient deep tomographic imaging
Authors: Guo Zhen , Liu Zhiguang , Zhang Qihang , Barbastathis George , Glinsky Michael , Alpert Bradley K. , Levine Zachary
Published: January 2023

X-ray tomography is a non-destructive imaging technique that reveals the interior of an object from its projections at different angles. Under sparse-view and low-photon sampling, regularization priors are required to retrieve a high-fidelity reconstruction. Recently, deep learning has been used in X-ray tomography. The prior learned from training data replaces the general-purpose priors in iterative algorithms, achieving high-quality reconstructions with a neural network. Previous studies typically assume the noise statistics of testing data is acquired a priori from training data, leaving the network susceptible to a change in the noise characteristics under practical imaging conditions. In this work, we propose a noise-resilient deep-reconstruction algorithm for X-ray tomography. By training the network with regularized reconstructions from a conventional algorithm, the learned prior shows strong noise resilience without the need for additional training with noisy examples, and allows us to obtain acceptable reconstructions with fewer photons in testing data.
The advantages of our framework may further enable low-photon tomographic imaging where long acquisition times limit the ability to acquire a large training set.
Cladding-pumped Raman laser with M^2 of 1.3 and 400 µJ first Stokes energy
Authors: Richardson Martin , Roumayah Patrick , Anderson Brian , Pulford Benjamin , Cook Justin
Published: January 2023

Cladding-pumped Raman lasers have often been cited for their potential for brightness enhancement, but so far have never achieved high power and beam quality simultaneously. By utilizing a novel fiber geometry with a larger cladding to core ratio than current high power Raman fiber lasers for brightness enhancement (BE-RFLs), a noise-seeded Raman fiber laser pumped by a 100 ns pulsed laser with record beam quality is achieved with M^2 = 1.3 and 0.4 mJ 1st Stokes output, with an instantaneous brightness enhancement of 60. The results here support the hypothesis that the limiting factor to high beam quality in BE-RFLs is Raman conversion in the pump cladding, rather than higher order core modes as in most conventional fiber lasers.
Machine learning approaches to predict age from accelerometer records of physical activity at biobank scale
Authors: Le Goallec Alan , Collin Sasha , Jabri M’Hamed , Diai Samuel , Vincent Théo , Patel Chirag J.
Published: January 2023

Physical activity improves quality of life and protects against age-related diseases. With age, physical activity tends to decrease, increasing vulnerability to disease in the elderly. In the following, we trained a neural network to predict age from 115,456 one week-long 100Hz wrist accelerometer recordings from the UK Biobank (mean absolute error = 3.7±0.2 years), using a variety of data structures to capture the complexity of real-world activity. We achieved this performance by preprocessing the raw frequency data as 2,271 scalar features, 113 time series, and four images. We defined accelerated aging for a participant as being predicted older than one’s actual age and identified both genetic and environmental exposure factors associated with the new phenotype. We performed a genome wide association on the accelerated aging phenotypes to estimate its heritability (h_g2= 12.3±0.9%) and identified ten single nucleotide polymorphisms in close proximity to genes in a histone and olfactory cluster on chromosome six (e.gHIST1H1C,OR5V1). Similarly, we identified biomarkers (e.g blood pressure), clinical phenotypes (e.g chest pain), diseases (e.g hypertension), environmental (e.g smoking), and socioeconomic (e.g income and education) variables associated with accelerated aging. Physical activity-derived biological age is a complex phenotype associated with both genetic and non-genetic factors.
Pediatric diarrhea patients living in urban areas have a higher incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection
Authors: Adesoji Ayodele T. , Mgbere Osaro , Darkoh Charles
Published: January 2023

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a major cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and an unappreciated contributor to child mortality in low- and middle-income countries where the diagnosis may be difficult. There is little information about the prevalence of CDI among infants, children, and adolescents in Africa. Using a cross-sectional design, seventy-six samples were collected from pediatric patients presenting with diarrhea, including infants (≤ 2 years old), children (2–12 years), and adolescents (13 ≤17 years) from three hospitals between January and December 2019. Demographic data, medical history, and prior antibiotic use were recorded. Toxigenic culture and PCR were used to detect and validate the presence of C. difficile in the samples. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A total of 29 (38.7%), 39 (52.0%) and 7 (9.3%) samples were from infants, children, and adolescents, respectively. The average age of the patients was 4.4 years. Of these samples, 31 (41%) were positive for C. difficile by culture and were verified by PCR amplification of C. difficile-specific genes (tcdA and tcdB). The most positive cases were children (53.3%) and infants (40.0%) with the majority of them residing in urban areas. Forty-nine (66.2%) of the patients had no known antibiotics exposure, whereas 29.0% and 29.7% reported the use of over-the-counter antibiotics at 14 and 90 days, prior to the hospital visit, respectively. CDI is relatively common among children with diarrhea in Northern Nigeria. Therefore, for effective management and treatment, more attention should be given to testing for C. difficile as one of the causative agents of diarrhea.
A Type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation study of an integrated CHW intervention to address maternal healthcare in rural Nepal
Authors: Tiwari Aparna , Thapa Aradhana , Choudhury Nandini , Khatri Rekha , Sapkota Sabitri , Wu Wan-Ju , Halliday Scott , Citrin David , Schwarz Ryan , Maru Duncan , Rayamazi Hari Jung , Paudel Rashmi , Bhatt Laxman Datt , Bhandari Ved , Marasini Nutan , Khadka Sonu , Bogati Bhawana , Saud Sita , Kshetri Yashoda Kumari Bhat , Bhatta Aasha , Magar Kshitiz Rana , Shrestha Ramesh , Kafle Ranjana , Poudel Roshan , Gautam Samiksha , Basnett Indira , Shrestha Goma Niroula , Nirola Isha , Adhikari Samrachana , Thapa Poshan , Kunwar Lal , Maru Sheela
Published: January 2023

Skilled care during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum is essential to prevent adverse maternal health outcomes, yet utilization of care remains low in many resource-limited countries, including Nepal. Community health workers (CHWs) can mitigate health system challenges and geographical barriers to achieving universal health coverage. Gaps remain, however, in understanding whether evidence-based interventions delivered by CHWs, closely aligned with WHO recommendations, are effective in Nepal’s context. We conducted a type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation, mixed-methods study in two rural districts in Nepal to evaluate the effectiveness and the implementation of an evidence-based integrated maternal and child health intervention delivered by CHWs, using a mobile application. The intervention was implemented stepwise over four years (2014–2018), with 65 CHWs enrolling 30,785 families. We performed a mixed-effects Poisson regression to assess institutional birth rate (IBR) pre-and post-intervention. We used the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework to evaluate the implementation during and after the study completion. There was an average 30% increase in IBR post-intervention, adjusting for confounding variables (p<0.0001). Study enrollment showed 35% of families identified as dalit, janjati, or other castes. About 78–89% of postpartum women received at least one CHW-counseled home visit within 60 days of childbirth. Ten (53% of planned) municipalities adopted the intervention during the study period. Implementation fidelity, measured by median counseled home visits, improved with intervention time. The intervention was institutionalized beyond the study period and expanded to four additional hubs, albeit with adjustments in management and supervision. Mechanisms of intervention impact include increased knowledge, timely referrals, and longitudinal CHW interaction. Full-time, supervised, and trained CHWs delivering evidence-based integrated care appears to be effective in improving maternal healthcare in rural Nepal. This study contributes to the growing body of evidence on the role of community health workers in achieving universal health coverage.
Clonorchis sinensis aggravates biliary fibrosis through promoting IL-6 production via toll-like receptor 2-mediated AKT and p38 signal pathways
Authors: Wang Yuru , Zhang Xu , Wang Xiaocen , Zhang Nan , Yu Yanhui , Gong Pengtao , Zhang Xichen , Ma Yeting , Li Xin , Li Jianhua
Published: January 2023

Clonorchis sinensis is an important food-borne zoonotic parasite which has been linked to biliary fibrosis and cholangiocarcinoma. However, the details of the pathogenesis of C. sinensis were unclear. To explore the role and regulatory mechanism of toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) in C. sinensis-induced biliary fibrosis, we established the C. sinensis-infected C57BL/6 mouse model with TLR2-/- and wild type (WT) mice. The mortality rate, liver lesions, TLR2 and TGF-β1 expression, phosphorylation of Smad2/3, AKT, p38, ERK and p65, and cytokine productions were analyzed. Furthermore, similar parameters were examined in mouse biliary epithelial cells (BECs) co-cultured with C. sinensis excretory/secretory proteins (ESPs). The results showed that TLR2 expression was enhanced significantly in C. sinensis-infected WT mice and mouse BECs. C. sinensis-infected TLR2-/- mice exhibited an increased weight and a decreased mortality rate; significantly alleviated liver lesions and biliary fibrosis, reduced numbers of myofibroblasts; decreased expression of TGF-β1 and phosphorylation level of AKT, p38 and Smad2/3; significantly decreased production of IL-6, TNF-α and IL-4, while increased production of IFN-γ compared with C. sinensis-infected WT mice. Furthermore, C. sinensis ESPs could activate TLR2-mediated AKT and p38 pathways to increase the production of IL-6 in mouse BECs. In conclusion, these data indicate that C. sinensis infection activated TGF-β1-Smad2/3 through TLR2-mediated AKT and p38 pathways to promote IL-6 production, which resulted in myofibroblast activation and aggravating biliary fibrosis in mice.
Performance evaluation of the Ortho VITROS SARS-CoV-2 Spike-Specific Quantitative IgG test by comparison with the surrogate virus neutralizing antibody test and clinical assessment
Authors: Takahashi Maika , Saito Kaori , Ai Tomohiko , Nojiri Shuko , Khasawneh Abdullah , Paran Faith Jessica , Horiuchi Yuki , Takei Satomi , Yamamoto Takamasa , Wakita Mitsuru , Hiki Makoto , Miida Takashi , Naito Toshio , Takahashi Kazuhisa , Tabe Yoko
Published: January 2023

Background

Despite the worldwide campaigns of COVID-19 vaccinations, the pandemic is still a major medical and social problem. The Ortho VITROS SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific quantitative IgG (VITROS S-IgG) assay has been developed to assess neutralizing antibody (NT antibody) against SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) antibodies. However, it has not been evaluated in Japan, where the total cases and death toll are lower than the rest of the world.

Methods

The clinical performance of VITROS S-IgG was evaluated by comparing with the NT antibody levels measured by the surrogate virus neutralizing antibody test (sVNT). A total of 332 serum samples from 188 individuals were used. Of these, 219 samples were from 75 COVID-19 patients: 96 samples from 20 severe/critical cases (Group S), and 123 samples from 55 mild/moderate cases (Group M). The remaining 113 samples were from 113 healthcare workers who had received 2 doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine.

Results

VITROS S-IgG showed good correlation with the cPass sVNT assay (Spearman rho = 0.91). Both VITROS S-IgG and cPass sVNT showed significantly higher plateau levels of antibodies in Group S compared to Group M. Regarding the humoral immune responses after BNT162b2 vaccination, individuals who were negative for SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N)-specific antibodies had statistically lower titers of both S-IgG and sVNT compared to individuals with a history of COVID-19 and individuals who were positive for N-specific antibodies without history of COVID-19. In individuals who were positive for N-specific antibodies, S-IgG and sVNT titers were similar to individuals with a history of COVID-19.

Conclusions

Although the automated quantitative immunoassay VITROS S-IgG showed a reasonable correlation with sVNT antibodies, there is some discrepancy between Vitros S-IgG and cPass sVNT in milder cases. Thus, VITROS S-IgG can be a useful diagnostic tool in assessing the immune responses to vaccination and herd immunity. However, careful analysis is necessary to interpret the results.
Neutrophil extracellular traps and phagocytosis in Pythium insidiosum
Authors: Sriwarom Apichaya , Chiewchengchol Direkrit , Saithong Supichcha , Worasilchai Navaporn , Chindamporn Ariya
Published: January 2023

Neutrophils are innate immune cells that play crucial roles in response to extracellular pathogens, including bacteria and fungi. Pythium insidiosum (P insidiosum) is a fungus-like pathogen that causes "pythiosis" in mammals. This study investigated in vitro function of human neutrophils against P. insidiosum. We demonstrated the killing mechanism of neutrophils when incubated with P. insidiosum zoospores (infective stage), such as phagocytosis and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Healthy human neutrophils significantly reduced six strains of live zoospores isolated from different sources compared to the condition without neutrophils (p < 0.001), observed by colony count and trypan blue staining. As our results showed the killing ability of neutrophils, we further investigated the neutrophil killing mechanism when incubating with zoospores. Our study found that only two strains of heat-killed zoospores significantly induced phagocytosis (p < 0.01). Co-culture of heat-killed zoospores and neutrophils demonstrated NET formation, which was detected by immunofluorescence staining using DAPI, anti-myeloperoxidase, and anti-neutrophil elastase and quantitated under the fluorescence microscope. In addition, the level of cell-free DNA released from neutrophils (as a marker of NET production) after incubation with zoospores showed significantly increased levels when compared with unstimulated neutrophils (p < 0.001). Our findings demonstrate that neutrophils revealed the NET formation in response to P. insidiosum zoospores. This study is the first observation of the neutrophil mechanism against P. insidiosum, which could provide a better understanding of some parts of the innate immune response during pythiosis.
Effect of monocular sensitivity on binocular summation of luminance-modulated flicker
Authors: Reena Durai C. Vijay , Hathibelagal Amithavikram R. , Rodriguez-Carmona Marisa , Barbur John L. , Bharadwaj Shrikant R.
Published: January 2023

Binocular summation of luminance contrast signals in the spatial domain has been investigated in many studies, but less attention has been paid to the analogous interactions in the temporal domain. The present study determined the impact of monocular sensitivity on the binocular detection of luminance-modulated flickering stimuli. Binocular summation ratios (BSRs) were determined in 13 visually-normal adults for a range of monocular flicker modulation thresholds (FMTs), generated by changing stimulus size (7’– 60’) and luminance (mesopic and photopic). Monocular and binocular FMTs were measured at the point of regard and in each of the four quadrants at 5° eccentricity for each target size and luminance using the Flicker-Plus test. Monocular and binocular FMT’s increased with decreasing target size for all retinal locations (p<0.001), and were overall larger for mesopic than for photopic condition (p<0.001). BSRs for mesopic (mean±SD: 1.50±0.21) and photopic (1.60±0.24) stimuli were greater than unity (p<0.001), with the latter showing larger estimates than former (p<0.001). BSRs showed no significant trend across target sizes for both luminance conditions (p>0.12). The results demonstrate that the visual system successfully summates inputs from the two eyes to enhance flicker detection, independent of their absolute monocular detection thresholds. These findings may serve as a predictive baseline for further experiments designed to determine how other stimulus properties and interocular differences in monocular thresholds may affect the binocular perception of flicker.
Mother’s perception of size at birth is a weak predictor of low birth weight: Evidence from Nepal Demographic and Health Survey
Authors: Acharya Pawan , Adhikari Suyasha , Adhikari Tara Ballav
Published: January 2023

Birth weight is a consistent predictor of morbidity and survivability in infancy and later life. This study aims to assess the accuracy of the mother’s perception of size at birth to predict low birth weight(LBW). This study used data from Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2016). Information about 5060 mother pairs was obtained from the NDHS dataset. However, birth weight data were available for 3095 children, and therefore they were only included in the further analysis. The predictive accuracy of the mother’s perception of size at birth to predict LBW was measured by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Factors associated with the discordance among the mother’s perception of birth size and birth weight were calculated using multinomial logistic regression analysis. The mother’s perception of birth size had low sensitivity (62%) and positive predictive value (46.7%) but high specificity (90.1%) and negative predictive value (94.4%) to predict the LBW. The overall agreement between birth weight(<2500gram vs > = 2500 grams) and the mother’s perceived size at birth (small vs average or above average) was 86% (Kappa = 0.45, 95%CI: 0.40–0.51), which is composed of a higher share of the agreement to identify non-LBW babies(79%) and a low share to identify LBW babies (7%). Among the five categories of mothers’ perception of size at birth and birth weight, the agreement was 67.2% (Kappa = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.26–0.33). Education status, ethnicity, multiple births, and sex of the newborn child were significantly associated with the discordance between the mother’s perceived size at birth and birth weight. A moderate agreement was found among the mother’s perception of birth size and birth weight. Mothers were more likely to correctly identify non-LBW babies compared to LBW babies based on their perception of size at birth. Efforts should be intensified to promote the practice of weighing the baby at birth.
Exploring rugby coaches perception and implementation of performance analytics
Authors: Callinan Mikaela J. , Connor Jonathan D. , Sinclair Wade H. , Leicht Anthony S.
Published: January 2023

Professional coaches commonly rely on performance analysis and metrics to help make decisions regarding their practices, selection and tactics. However, few studies to date have explored coaches’ perspectives of performance analysts successful integration into the high-performance environment. The aim of this study was to investigate coaches’ philosophies surrounding performance analysis and how they perceived analysts could support and implement these approaches into coaching practices and match preparation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five professional elite level Rugby Union coaches to investigate their perceptions of performance analysis, and the contribution of performance analysts to the high-performance environment. Results revealed three main dimensions, including the role, purpose, and desired attributes of a performance analyst. Firstly, the role of the analyst was described in terms of being an information specialist, who collects, filters, and delivers information to stakeholders, and a generalist, who helps coaches utilise technology. Secondly, the purpose of the analyst was described in terms of providing both accountability and support for coaches and players. Finally, the attributes needed of an analyst included the ability to form a close relationship with coaches, communicate complex information in meaningful ways, and who was proactive, innovative, and creative when tasked with delivering information. The findings highlighted the crucial roles, purposes, and attributes of a performance analyst within high-performance Rugby Union identified by coaches and the importance of the coach-analyst relationship to support these dimensions.
SPNet: Structure preserving network for depth completion
Authors: Li Tao , Luo Songning , Fan Zhiwei , Zhou Qunbing , Hu Ting
Published: January 2023

Depth completion aims to predict a dense depth map from a sparse one. Benefiting from the powerful ability of convolutional neural networks, recent depth completion methods have achieved remarkable performance. However, it is still a challenging problem to well preserve accurate depth structures, such as tiny structures and object boundaries. To tackle this problem, we propose a structure preserving network (SPNet) in this paper. Firstly, an efficient multi-scale gradient extractor (MSGE) is proposed to extract useful multi-scale gradient images, which contain rich structural information that is helpful in recovering accurate depth. The MSGE is constructed based on the proposed semi-fixed depthwise separable convolution. Meanwhile, we adopt a stable gradient MAE loss (LGMAE) to provide additional depth gradient constrain for better structure reconstruction. Moreover, a multi-level feature fusion module (MFFM) is proposed to adaptively fuse the spatial details from low-level encoder and the semantic information from high-level decoder, which will incorporate more structural details into the depth modality. As demonstrated by experiments on NYUv2 and KITTI datasets, our method outperforms some state-of-the-art methods in terms of both quantitative and quantitative evaluations.
Pureness or corruption: Spectres and ghosts between photography and X-rays
Authors: Charvát Martin
Published: January 2023

This article investigates the paradoxical nature of cameraless photography. Born after the invention of early photography, the camera apparatus is clearly a precondition of the idea and practice of cameraless photography (photography made without a camera). Yet, at the same time, cameraless photography is situated as a form of pure photography, giving rise to the idea that the spirit of photography lies somewhere beyond the mediation of the camera. This article approaches the paradoxical nature of cameraless photography in an indirect manner by considering the spectrality of photography: from conceptions of early photography as itself spectral, to the manifestation of spectres in spirit photography, to the decomposition of the spectres by X-rays and radioactivity. Cameraless photography plays a twofold role in this genealogy of photographic spectres: first, it goes against a certain understanding of the spirit of photography as conditioned by the manipulating force of the camera apparatus; second, it proves the existence of spectres by uncovering the ontological convulsions of the world.
A cidadania e o direito a ter direitos no pensamento de Hannah Arendt
Authors: Notari Marcio Bonini
Published: January 2023

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) embora não tenha sistematizado uma Teoria ou Filosofia do Direito, em várias de suas obras, teceu série de considerações acerca dos Direitos Humanos e sobre a igualdade dos cidadãos perante a lei. Nesse sentido que se pode perguntar: qual é a concepção de cidadania na perspectiva arendtiana? Na hipótese a ser desenvolvida, Arendt parte de uma crítica a Declarações de Direitos do Homem e do Cidadão e da política do Estado Nação repensando a lei como forma de garantir o direito a ter direitos, de todo e qualquer cidadão, especialmente, no caso dos apátridas e dos refugiados, os quais foram desprovidos de proteção jurídica.
Tre vie pop al mito di Babilonia oggi: tra diritto e letteratura
Authors: Merla Lara
Published: January 2023

Il presente saggio esamina il ruolo di Babilonia nella musica pop, al fine di fare emergere tre aspetti cruciali del diritto, vale a dire i problemi dell’interpretazione dei testi e del raccordo tra la dimensione sociale e individuale dei concetti di autonomia e libertà. Vengono così considerate tre canzoni: The rivers of Babylon di Dowe e McNaughton (1970), resa poi popolare dal quartetto Boney M. nel 1978; Babylon System di Bob Marley (1979); e Babylon di David Gray (1999). Tra l’astratto stato di libertà, sia pure rivendicato a parole, dalla musica pop delle origini, e un presunto stato concreto di servitù all’establishment dello spettacolo e dell’industria musicale contemporanea, la tesi che si vuole sostenere è che, per una volta, “tertium datur”.