bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mental Health as a Mediator of the Association Between Educational Inequality and Cardiovascular Disease: A Mendelian Randomization Study
Authors: Jones Daniel P. , Wootton Robyn E. , Gill Dipender , Carter Alice R. , Gunnell David , Munafò Marcus R. , Sallis Hannah M.
Published: September 2021

Background

Education is inversely associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Several mediators of this have been established; however, a proportion of the protective effect remains unaccounted for. Mental health is a proposed mediator, but current evidence is mixed and subject to bias from confounding factors and reverse causation. Mendelian randomization is an instrumental variable technique that uses genetic proxies for exposures and mediators to reduce such bias.

Methods and Results

We performed logistic regression and 2‐step Mendelian randomization analyses using UK Biobank data and genetic summary statistics to investigate whether educational attainment affects risk of mental health disorders. We then performed mediation analyses to explore whether mental health disorders mediate the association between educational attainment and cardiovascular risk. Higher levels of educational attainment were associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and CVD in observational analyses (odds ratio [OR], 0.79 [95% CI, 0.77–0.81], 0.76 [95% CI, 0.73–0.79], and 0.75 [95% CI, 0.74–0.76], respectively), and Mendelian randomization analyses provided evidence of causality (OR, 0.72 [95% CI, 0.67–0.77], 0.50 [95% CI, 0.42–0.59], and 0.62 [95% CI, 0.58–0.66], respectively). Both anxiety and depression were associated with CVD in observational analyses (OR, 1.63 [95% CI, 1.49–1.79] and 1.70 [95% CI, 1.59–1.82], respectively) but only depression showed evidence of causality in the Mendelian randomization analyses (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.03–1.15). An estimated 2% of the total protective effect of education on CVD was mediated by depression.

Conclusions

Higher levels of educational attainment protect against mental health disorders, and reduced depression accounts for a small proportion of the total protective effect of education on CVD.
Excessive Hypoxia‐Inducible Factor‐1α Expression Induces Cardiac Rupture via p53‐Dependent Apoptosis After Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Ikeda Masataka , Ide Tomomi , Tadokoro Tomonori , Miyamoto Hiroko Deguchi , Ikeda Soichiro , Okabe Kosuke , Ishikita Akihito , Sato Midori , Abe Ko , Furusawa Shun , Ishimaru Kosei , Matsushima Shouji , Tsutsui Hiroyuki
Published: September 2021

Background

Apoptosis plays a pivotal role in cardiac rupture after myocardial infarction (MI), and p53 is a key molecule in apoptosis during cardiac rupture. Hif‐1α (hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1α), upregulated under hypoxia, is a known p53 inducer. However, the role of Hif‐1α in the regulatory mechanisms underlying p53 upregulation, apoptosis, and cardiac rupture after MI is unclear.

Methods and Results

We induced MI in mice by ligating the left anterior descending artery. Hif‐1α and p53 expressions were upregulated in the border zone at day 5 after MI, accompanied by apoptosis. In rat neonatal cardiomyocytes, treatment with cobalt chloride (500 μmol/L), which mimics severe hypoxia by inhibiting PHD (prolyl hydroxylase domain‐containing protein), increased Hif‐1α and p53, accompanied by myocyte death with caspase‐3 cleavage. Silencing Hif‐1α or p53 inhibited caspase‐3 cleavage, and completely prevented myocyte death under PHD inhibition. In cardiac‐specific Hif‐1α hetero‐knockout mice, expression of p53 and cleavage of caspase‐3 and poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase were reduced, and apoptosis was suppressed on day 5. Furthermore, the cleavage of caspase‐8 and IL‐1β (interleukin‐1β) was also suppressed in hetero knockout mice, accompanied by reduced macrophage infiltration and matrix metalloproteinase/tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase activation. Although there was no intergroup difference in infarct size, the cardiac rupture and survival rates were significantly improved in the hetero knockout mice until day 10 after MI.

Conclusions

Hif‐1α plays a pivotal role in apoptosis, inflammation, and cardiac rupture after MI, in which p53 is a critical mediator, and may be a prospective therapeutic target for preventing cardiac rupture.
Racial Differences in Blood Pressure Control Following Stroke: The REGARDS Study
Authors: Akinyelure Oluwasegun P. , Jaeger Byron C. , Moore Tony L. , Hubbard Demetria , Oparil Suzanne , Howard Virginia J. , Howard George , Buie Joy N. , Magwood Gayenell S. , Adams Robert J. , Bonilha Leonardo , Lackland Daniel T. , Muntner Paul
Published: September 2021

Background and Purpose:

In the general population, Black adults are less likely than White adults to have controlled blood pressure (BP), and when not controlled, they are at greater risk for stroke compared with White adults. High BP is a major modifiable risk factor for recurrent stroke, but few studies have examined racial differences in BP control among stroke survivors.

Methods:

We used data from the REGARDS study (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) to examine disparities in BP control between Black and White adults, with and without a history of stroke. We studied participants taking antihypertensive medication who did and did not experience an adjudicated stroke (n=306 and 7693 participants, respectively) between baseline (2003–2007) and a second study visit (2013–2016). BP control at the second study visit was defined as systolic BP <130 mm Hg and diastolic BP <80 mm Hg except for low-risk adults ≥65 years of age (ie, those without diabetes, chronic kidney disease, history of cardiovascular disease, and with a 10-year predicted atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk <10%) for whom BP control was defined as systolic BP <130 mm Hg.

Results:

Among participants with a history of stroke, 50.3% of White compared with 39.3% of Black participants had controlled BP. Among participants without a history of stroke, 56.0% of White compared with 50.2% of Black participants had controlled BP. After multivariable adjustment, there was a tendency for Black participants to be less likely than White participants to have controlled BP (prevalence ratio, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.59–1.02] for those with a history of stroke and 0.92 [95% CI, 0.88–0.97] for those without a history of stroke).

Conclusions:

There was a lower proportion of controlled BP among Black compared with White adults with or without stroke, with no statistically significant differences after multivariable adjustment.
Long-Term Evolution of Functional Limitations in Stroke Survivors Compared With Stroke-Free Controls: Findings From 15 Years of Follow-Up Across 3 International Surveys of Aging
Authors: Gil-Salcedo Andres , Dugravot Aline , Fayosse Aurore , Jacob Louis , Bloomberg Mikaela , Sabia Séverine , Schnitzler Alexis
Published: September 2021

Background and Purpose:

In the chronic phase 2 to 5 years poststroke, limitations in activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL) initially plateau before steady increasing. However, the impact of age and differences in initial levels of disability on the evolution of these limitations remains unclear. As such, this study aims to evaluate differences in long-term evolution of ADL/IADL limitations between stroke survivors and stroke-free population, and how limitations differ by initial level of disability for stroke survivors.

Methods:

Thirty-three thousand six hundred sixty participants (5610 first-ever stroke cases with no recurrence during follow-up and 28 050 stroke-free controls) aged ≥50 from the Health and Retirement Study, Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing were assessed for number of ADL/IADL limitations during the poststroke chronic phase (for cases) and over follow-up years 1996 to 2018 (for controls). Three thousand seven hundred eighteen stroke cases were additionally categorized by disability level using the modified Rankin Scale score of 1 to 2 years poststroke. Evolution of ADL/IADL limitations was assessed in stroke cases and controls and by modified Rankin Scale score (0–1, 2–3, 4–5) using linear mixed models. Models were stratified by age group (50–74 and ≥75 years) and adjusted for baseline characteristics, health behaviors, BMI, and comorbidities.

Results:

Findings showed relative stability of ADL/IADL limitations during 3 to 6 years poststroke followed by an increase for both populations, which was faster for younger stroke cases, suggesting a differential age-effect (
P
<0.001). Disability level at 1 to 2 years poststroke influenced the evolution of limitations over time, especially for severe disability (modified Rankin Scale score, 4–5) associated with a reduction in limitations at 5 to 6 years poststroke.

Conclusions:

Our findings showed that during the poststroke chronic phase functional limitations first plateau and then increase and the evolution differs by disability severity. These results highlight the importance of adaptive long-term health and social care measures for stroke survivors.
Sequence-Level Training for Non-Autoregressive Neural Machine Translation
Authors: Shao Chenze , Feng Yang , Zhang Jinchao , Meng Fandong , Zhou Jie
Published: September 2021

In recent years, Neural Machine Translation (NMT) has achieved notable results in various translation tasks. However, the word-by-word generation manner determined by the autoregressive mechanism leads to high translation latency of the NMT and restricts its low-latency applications. Non-Autoregressive Neural Machine Translation (NAT) removes the autoregressive mechanism and achieves significant decoding speedup by generating target words independently and simultaneously. Nevertheless, NAT still takes the word-level cross-entropy loss as the training objective, which is not optimal because the output of NAT cannot be properly evaluated due to the multimodality problem. In this article, we propose using sequence-level training objectives to train NAT models, which evaluate the NAT outputs as a whole and correlates well with the real translation quality. First, we propose training NAT models to optimize sequence-level evaluation metrics (e.g., BLEU) based on several novel reinforcement algorithms customized for NAT, which outperform the conventional method by reducing the variance of gradient estimation. Second, we introduce a novel training objective for NAT models, which aims to minimize the Bag-of-N-grams (BoN) difference between the model output and the reference sentence. The BoN training objective is differentiable and can be calculated efficiently without doing any approximations. Finally, we apply a three-stage training strategy to combine these two methods to train the NAT model. We validate our approach on four translation tasks (WMT14 En↔De, WMT16 En↔Ro), which shows that our approach largely outperforms NAT baselines and achieves remarkable performance on all translation tasks. The source code is available at https://github.com/ictnlp/Seq-NAT.
Task-Agnostic Continual Learning Using Online Variational Bayes with Fixed-Point Updates
Authors: Zeno Chen , Golan Itay , Hoffer Elad , Soudry Daniel
Published: September 2021

Catastrophic forgetting is the notorious vulnerability of neural networks to the changes in the data distribution during learning. This phenomenon has long been considered a major obstacle for using learning agents in realistic continual learning settings. A large body of continual learning research assumes that task boundaries are known during training. However, only a few works consider scenarios in which task boundaries are unknown or not well defined: task-agnostic scenarios. The optimal Bayesian solution for this requires an intractable online Bayes update to the weights posterior.

We aim to approximate the online Bayes update as accurately as possible. To do so, we derive novel fixed-point equations for the online variational Bayes optimization problem for multivariate gaussian parametric distributions. By iterating the posterior through these fixed-point equations, we obtain an algorithm (FOO-VB) for continual learning that can handle nonstationary data distribution using a fixed architecture and without using external memory (i.e., without access to previous data). We demonstrate that our method (FOO-VB) outperforms existing methods in task-agnostic scenarios. FOO-VB Pytorch implementation is available at https://github.com/chenzeno/FOO-VB.
Flexible Transmitter Network
Authors: Zhang Shao-Qun , Zhou Zhi-Hua
Published: September 2021

Current neural networks are mostly built on the MP model, which usually formulates the neuron as executing an activation function on the real-valued weighted aggregation of signals received from other neurons. This letter proposes the flexible transmitter (FT) model, a novel bio-plausible neuron model with flexible synaptic plasticity. The FT model employs a pair of parameters to model the neurotransmitters between neurons and puts up a neuron-exclusive variable to record the regulated neurotrophin density. Thus, the FT model can be formulated as a two-variable, two-valued function, taking the commonly used MP neuron model as its particular case. This modeling manner makes the FT model biologically more realistic and capable of handling complicated data, even spatiotemporal data. To exhibit its power and potential, we present the flexible transmitter network (FTNet), which is built on the most common fully connected feedforward architecture taking the FT model as the basic building block. FTNet allows gradient calculation and can be implemented by an improved backpropagation algorithm in the complex-valued domain. Experiments on a broad range of tasks show that FTNet has power and potential in processing spatiotemporal data. This study provides an alternative basic building block in neural networks and exhibits the feasibility of developing artificial neural networks with neuronal plasticity.
Dynamic Spatiotemporal Pattern Recognition with Recurrent Spiking Neural Network
Authors: Shen Jiangrong , Liu Jian K. , Wang Yueming
Published: September 2021

Our real-time actions in everyday life reflect a range of spatiotemporal dynamic brain activity patterns, the consequence of neuronal computation with spikes in the brain. Most existing models with spiking neurons aim at solving static pattern recognition tasks such as image classification. Compared with static features, spatiotemporal patterns are more complex due to their dynamics in both space and time domains. Spatiotemporal pattern recognition based on learning algorithms with spiking neurons therefore remains challenging. We propose an end-to-end recurrent spiking neural network model trained with an algorithm based on spike latency and temporal difference backpropagation. Our model is a cascaded network with three layers of spiking neurons where the input and output layers are the encoder and decoder, respectively. In the hidden layer, the recurrently connected neurons with transmission delays carry out high-dimensional computation to incorporate the spatiotemporal dynamics of the inputs. The test results based on the data sets of spiking activities of the retinal neurons show that the proposed framework can recognize dynamic spatiotemporal patterns much better than using spike counts. Moreover, for 3D trajectories of a human action data set, the proposed framework achieves a test accuracy of 83.6% on average. Rapid recognition is achieved through the learning methodology–based on spike latency and the decoding process using the first spike of the output neurons. Taken together, these results highlight a new model to extract information from activity patterns of neural computation in the brain and provide a novel approach for spike-based neuromorphic computing.
Parametric UMAP Embeddings for Representation and Semisupervised Learning
Authors: Sainburg Tim , McInnes Leland , Gentner Timothy Q.
Published: September 2021

UMAP is a nonparametric graph-based dimensionality reduction algorithm using applied Riemannian geometry and algebraic topology to find low-dimensional embeddings of structured data. The UMAP algorithm consists of two steps: (1) computing a graphical representation of a data set (fuzzy simplicial complex) and (2) through stochastic gradient descent, optimizing a low-dimensional embedding of the graph. Here, we extend the second step of UMAP to a parametric optimization over neural network weights, learning a parametric relationship between data and embedding. We first demonstrate that parametric UMAP performs comparably to its nonparametric counterpart while conferring the benefit of a learned parametric mapping (e.g., fast online embeddings for new data). We then explore UMAP as a regularization, constraining the latent distribution of autoencoders, parametrically varying global structure preservation, and improving classifier accuracy for semisupervised learning by capturing structure in unlabeled data.
A Correspondence Between Normalization Strategies in Artificial and Biological Neural Networks
Authors: Shen Yang , Wang Julia , Navlakha Saket
Published: September 2021

A fundamental challenge at the interface of machine learning and neuroscience is to uncover computational principles that are shared between artificial and biological neural networks. In deep learning, normalization methods such as batch normalization, weight normalization, and their many variants help to stabilize hidden unit activity and accelerate network training, and these methods have been called one of the most important recent innovations for optimizing deep networks. In the brain, homeostatic plasticity represents a set of mechanisms that also stabilize and normalize network activity to lie within certain ranges, and these mechanisms are critical for maintaining normal brain function. In this article, we discuss parallels between artificial and biological normalization methods at four spatial scales: normalization of a single neuron's activity, normalization of synaptic weights of a neuron, normalization of a layer of neurons, and normalization of a network of neurons. We argue that both types of methods are functionally equivalent—that is, both push activation patterns of hidden units toward a homeostatic state, where all neurons are equally used—and we argue that such representations can improve coding capacity, discrimination, and regularization. As a proof of concept, we develop an algorithm, inspired by a neural normalization technique called synaptic scaling, and show that this algorithm performs competitively against existing normalization methods on several data sets. Overall, we hope this bidirectional connection will inspire neuroscientists and machine learners in three ways: to uncover new normalization algorithms based on established neurobiological principles; to help quantify the trade-offs of different homeostatic plasticity mechanisms used in the brain; and to offer insights about how stability may not hinder, but may actually promote, plasticity.
Dead Enough to Bury
Authors: Smith Russell
Published: September 2021

This essay examines the concepts of life and afterlife as they appear across Beckett’s trilogy, through focussing on representations of the act of burial, an act which draws attention to a caesura between biotic and abiotic conceptions of both life and afterlife. As the worlds of the trilogy become progressively less biotic, The Unnamable might be thought of as a laboratory in which the ‘lives’ of its characters are subjected to various biological experiments, experiments which suggest that narrative fiction, like the act of burial, is a kind of prophylactic against the fundamental processual nature of biotic life.
An updated checklist of the mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) present in Algeria, with assessments of doubtful records and problematic species
Authors: MERABTI B. , BOUMAZA M. , OUAKID M.L. , CARVAJAL THADDEUS M. , HARBACH RALPH E.
Published: September 2021

An updated checklist of the mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) of Algeria based on records published from 1903 to 2021 is presented. Fifty-three species belonging to seven genera are known with reasonable confidence to occur in the country, including Aedes (15 species), Anopheles (15), Coquillettidia (2), Culex (14), Culiseta (5), Orthopodomyia (1) and Uranotaenia (1). Two additional species, Culex simpsoni Theobald, 1905 and Uranotaenia balfouri Theobald, 1904, are provisionally regarded as present in Algeria. Published records are listed for each species, with indication of synonymous usage and variant spelling of names where applicable. The type locality of Aedes biskraensis Brunhes, 1999 is restricted to Seriana in Sidi Okba District in Biskra Province. Problematic species and doubtful occurrence records based on apparently misidentified specimens and confused taxonomy are discussed. Notes on taxonomy and medical importance are provided for the more important species.
A Framework for Simulating the Tropical-Cyclone Boundary Layer Using Large-Eddy Simulation and Its Use in Evaluating PBL Parameterizations
Authors: Chen Xiaomin , Bryan George H. , Zhang Jun A. , Cione Joseph J. , Marks Frank D.
Published: September 2021

Boundary layer turbulent processes affect tropical cyclone (TC) structure and intensity change. However, uncertainties in the parameterization of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) under high-wind conditions remain challenging, mostly due to limited observations. This study presents and evaluates a framework of numerical simulation that can be used for a small-domain [O(5 km)] large-eddy simulation (LES) and single-column modeling (SCM) to study the TC boundary layer. The framework builds upon a previous study that uses a few input parameters to represent the TC vortex and adds a simple nudging term for temperature and moisture to account for the complex thermodynamic processes in TCs. The reference thermodynamic profiles at different wind speeds are retrieved from a composite analysis of dropsonde observations of mature hurricanes. Results from LES show that most of the turbulence kinetic energy and vertical momentum flux is associated with resolved processes when horizontal grid spacing is O(10 m). Comparison to observations of turbulence variables such as momentum flux, effective eddy viscosity, and turbulence length scale show that LES produces reasonable results but highlight areas where further observations are necessary. LES results also demonstrate that compared to a classic Ekman-type boundary layer, the TC boundary layer is shallower, develops steady conditions much quicker, and exhibits stronger wind speed near the surface. The utility of this framework is further highlighted by evaluating a first-order PBL parameterization, suggesting that an asymptotic turbulence length scale of 40 m produces a good match to LES results.
The Influence of WENO Schemes on Large-Eddy Simulations of a Neutral Atmospheric Boundary Layer
Authors: Wang Aaron , Pan Ying , Markowski Paul M.
Published: September 2021

This work explores the influence of Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) schemes on Cloud Model 1 (CM1) large-eddy simulations (LES) of a quasi-steady, horizontally homogeneous, fully developed, neutral atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). An advantage of applying WENO schemes to scalar advection in compressible models is the elimination of acoustic waves and associated oscillations of domain-total vertical velocity. Applying WENO schemes to momentum advection in addition to scalar advection yields no further advantage, but has an adverse effect on resolved turbulence within LES. As a tool designed to reduce numerically generated spurious oscillations, WENO schemes also suppress physically realistic instability development in turbulence-resolving simulations. Thus, applying WENO schemes to momentum advection reduces vortex stretching, suppresses the energy cascade, reduces shear-production of resolved Reynolds stress, and eventually amplifies the differences between the surface-layer mean wind profiles in the LES and the mean wind profiles expected in accordance with the filtered law of the wall (LOTW). The role of WENO schemes in adversely influencing surface-layer turbulence has inspired a concept of anti-WENO (AWENO) schemes to enhance instability development in regions where energy-containing turbulent motions are inadequately resolved by LES grids. The success in reproducing the filtered LOTW via AWENO schemes suggests that improving advection schemes is a critical component toward faithfully simulating near-surface turbulence and dealing with other "Terra Incognita" problems.
Competition between baroclinic instability and Ekman transport under varying buoyancy forcings in upwelling systems: An idealized analog to the Southern Ocean.
Authors: Thomsen Soeren , Capet Xavier , Echevin Vincent
Published: September 2021

Coastal upwelling rates are classically determined by the intensity of the upper-ocean offshore Ekman transport. But (sub-)mesoscale turbulence modulates offshore transport, hence the net upwelling rate. Eddy effects generally oppose the Ekman circulation, resulting in so-called “eddy cancellation”, a process well studied in the Southern Ocean. Here we investigate how air-sea heat/buoyancy fluxes modulate eddy cancellation in an idealized upwelling model. We run CROCO simulations with constant winds but varying heat fluxes with and without submesoscale-rich turbulence. Eddy cancellation is consistently evaluated with three different methods that all account for the quasi-isopycnal nature of ocean circulation away from the surface. For zero heat fluxes the release of available potential energy by baroclinic instabilities is strongest and leads, near the coast, to nearly full cancellation of the Ekman cross-shore circulation by eddy effects,i.e., zero net mean upwelling flow. With increasing heat fluxes eddy cancellation is reduced and the transverse flow progressively approaches the classical Ekman circulation. Sensitivity of the eddy circulation to synoptic changes in air-sea heat fluxes is felt down to 125 m depth despite short experiments of tens of days. Mesoscale dynamics dominate the cancellation effect in our simulations which might also hold for the real ocean as the relevant processes act below the surface boundary layer. Although the idealized setting overemphasis the role of eddies and thus studies with more realistic settings should follow, our findings have important implications for the overall understanding of upwelling system dynamics.
Influence of Following, Regular, and Irregular Long Waves on Wind-Wave Growth with Fetch: An Experimental Study
Authors: Villefer Antoine , Benoit Michel , Violeau Damien , Luneau Christopher , Branger Hubert
Published: September 2021

A series of experiments were conducted in a wind-wave tank facility in Marseilles (France) to study the effects of preexisting swell conditions (represented by long mechanically generated waves) on wind-wave growth with fetch. Both monochromatic and irregular (JONSWAP-type) long-wave conditions with different values of wave steepness have been generated in the presence of a constant wind forcing, for several wind velocities. A spectral analysis of temporal wave signals combined with airflow measurements allowed for the study of the evolution of both wave systems with the aim of identifying the interaction mechanisms transportable to prototype scale. In particular, a specific method is used to separate the two wave systems in the measured bimodal spectra. In fetch-limited conditions, pure wind-wave growth is in accordance with anterior experiments, but differs from the prototype scale in terms of energy and frequency variations with fetch. Monochromatic long waves are shown to reduce the energy of the wind-waves significantly, as it was observed in anterior laboratory experiments. The addition of JONSWAP-type long waves instead results in a downshift of the wind-wave peak frequency but no significant energy reduction. Overall, it is observed that the presence of long waves affects the wind-wave energy and frequency variations with fetch. Finally, in the presence of JONSWAP-type long waves, variations of wind-wave energy and peak frequency with fetch appear in close agreement with the wind-wave growth observed at prototype scale both in terms of variations and nondimensional magnitude.
Detecting Differential Rater Functioning in Severity and Centrality: The Dual DRF Facets Model
Authors: Jin Kuan-Yu , Eckes Thomas
Published: September 2021

Performance assessments heavily rely on human ratings. These ratings are typically subject to various forms of error and bias, threatening the assessment outcomes’ validity and fairness. Differential rater functioning (DRF) is a special kind of threat to fairness manifesting itself in unwanted interactions between raters and performance- or construct-irrelevant factors (e.g., examinee gender, rater experience, or time of rating). Most DRF studies have focused on whether raters show differential severity toward known groups of examinees. This study expands the DRF framework and investigates the more complex case of dual DRF effects, where DRF is simultaneously present in rater severity and centrality. Adopting a facets modeling approach, we propose the dual DRF model (DDRFM) for detecting and measuring these effects. In two simulation studies, we found that dual DRF effects (a) negatively affected measurement quality and (b) can reliably be detected and compensated under the DDRFM. Using sample data from a large-scale writing assessment ( N = 1,323), we demonstrate the practical measurement consequences of the dual DRF effects. Findings have implications for researchers and practitioners assessing the psychometric quality of ratings.
Politics or Performance? Leadership Accountability in UN Peacekeeping
Authors: Lundgren Magnus , Oksamytna Kseniya , Bove Vincenzo
Published: September 2021

International organizations face a trade-off between the need to replace poorly performing leaders and the imperative of preserving the loyalty of influential or pivotal member states. This performance-politics dilemma is particularly acute in UN peacekeeping. Leaders of peacekeeping operations are responsible for ensuring that peacekeepers implement mandates, maintain discipline, and stay safe. Yet, if leaders fail to do so, is the UN Secretariat able and willing to replace them? We investigate newly collected data on the tenure of 238 civilian and military leaders in thirty-eight peacekeeping operations, 1978 to 2017. We find that the tenures of civilian leaders are insensitive to performance, but that military leaders in poorly performing missions are more likely to be replaced. We also find evidence that political considerations complicate the UN’s efforts at accountability. Holding mission performance constant, military leaders from countries that are powerful or contribute large numbers of troops stay longer in post.
Mission as conversion
Authors: Carmody Brendan
Published: September 2021

This is a reflection on my experience of being an expatriate Jesuit missionary to Zambia from 1972 to 2005. It traces the development of the notion of mission as it shifts from a narrow denominational conception of conversion to being more ecumenical and inclusive of other religious viewpoints. In reviewing this, the ideal of conversion was seen to mean colonization of the other. To counteract this, another understanding of conversion is proposed where the integrity and distinctiveness of those converted are acknowledged, as is the impartiality of the missionary. This places mission as conversion in a new key and enables the missionary to face today’s multifaith world, rooted in his/her worldview, yet open to the other.
Analysis of physical activity effects on plasma glucose–insulin system dynamics: A mathematical model
Authors: Ntaganda Jean Marie , Minani Froduald , Banzi Wellars , Mpinganzima Lydie , Niyobuhungiro Japhet , Dusabejambo Vincent , Kambutse Immaculate , Rutaganda Eric
Published: September 2021

The main objective of this paper is to understand and analyse the effect of physical activity on plasma glucose and plasma insulin levels through mathematical modelling. Energy for the human body during physical activity is provided by glucose as sugar, while insulin as hormone supports the absorption of this glucose. Furthermore, glucose and insulin are interrelated physiologically by some parameters that we estimate mathematically by using nonlinear optimization and data collected in Rwanda. Research in this direction has been done by, for example Anirban and colleagues, who developed a dynamic model of exercise effect on plasma glucose and insulin levels. As a benchmark, the results of numerical simulation obtained in this paper have been compared with those of Anirban and colleagues to test the efficiency of our mathematical model. We have concluded that the results of those two separate mathematical models are in good accordance and that the proposed mathematical model allows further investigation of the effects of physical activity on the dynamics of the glucose–insulin system. Moreover, we have implemented a particle filtering algorithm for estimation of glucose and insulin in internal parts of the body such as heart and liver by using measurements from peripheral tissues as noisy data because taking blood samples from all parts of the body is practically and clinically impossible.
Edmund Spenser as Promethean poet: critical issues and the role of magic and Platonism in The Faerie Queene
Authors: Russell Jesse
Published: September 2021

One of the key points at which Platonism and magic or what could be called ‘Platonic magic’ is found in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene is in his use of the image of the classical Titan Prometheus. Examining Spenser’s text in light of Renaissance Platonist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s writings on magic, we can see that Prometheus serves as a model for Spenser’s tremendous creative ability as a ‘poet magus’. However, an examination of the Promethean qualities of ‘Two Cantos of Mutabilitie’ also reveals that in the final sections of The Faerie Queene Spenser appears to lose hope in the Promethean power of the poet.
Examining the course of transitions from hospital to home-based palliative care: A mixed methods study
Authors: Saunders Stephanie , Weiss Marianne E , Meaney Chris , Killackey Tieghan , Varenbut Jaymie , Lovrics Emily , Ernecoff Natalie , Hsu Amy T , Stern Maya , Mahtani Ramona , Wentlandt Kirsten , Isenberg Sarina R
Published: September 2021

Background:

Hospital-to-home transitions in palliative care are fraught with challenges. To assess transitions researchers have used patient reported outcome measures and qualitative data to give unique insights into a phenomenon. Few measures examine care setting transitions in palliative care, yet domains identified in other populations are likely relevant for patients receiving palliative care.

Aim:

Gain insight into how patients experience three domains, discharge readiness, transition quality, and discharge-coping, during hospital-to-home transitions.

Design:

Longitudinal, convergent parallel mixed methods study design with two data collection visits: in-hospital before and 3–4 weeks after discharge. Participants completed scales assessing discharge readiness, transition quality, and post discharge-coping. A qualitative interview was conducted at both visits. Data were analyzed separately and integrated using a merged transformative methodology, allowing us to compare and contrast the data.

Setting and participants:

Study was set in two tertiary hospitals in Toronto, Canada. Adult inpatients ( n = 25) and their caregivers ( n = 14) were eligible if they received a palliative care consultation and transitioned to home-based palliative care.

Results:

Results were organized aligning with the scales; finding low discharge readiness (5.8; IQR: 1.9), moderate transition quality (66.7; IQR: 33.33), and poor discharge-coping (5.0; IQR: 2.6), respectively. Positive transitions involved feeling well supported, managing medications, feeling well, and having healthcare needs met. Challenges in transitions were feeling unwell, confusion over medications, unclear healthcare responsibilities, and emotional distress.

Conclusions:

We identified aspects of these three domains that may be targeted to improve transitions through intervention development. Identified discrepancies between the data types should be considered for future research exploration.
The impact of a power mobility device on occupational participation and quality of life for people with chronic diseases: A scoping review
Authors: Kemmis Emma , Ashby Samantha , MacDonald-Wicks Lesley
Published: September 2021

Introduction

The aim was to explore occupational participation and quality of life (QoL) for power mobility device users with chronic disease.

Methods

Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for scoping reviews was used. Six data bases were searched using keywords: wheelchair, scooter, QoL and participation. Data were extracted with coding and thematic analysis performed.

Results

Forty-one articles met the inclusion criteria. An overarching theme of enhanced QoL was identified with subthemes of (i) independence, (ii) enabling participation in instrumental activities of daily living, (iii) enhanced social participation and leisure, (iv) environmental barriers to occupational participation, (vi) power mobility device (PMD) performance concerns impacting occupational participation and (vii) overcoming risk of harm through PMD training.

Conclusion

The scoping review identified a heterogeneity of study designs and outcome measures, which makes comparison between studies difficult. For people with chronic diseases, PMDs improve independence in occupational participation, particularly in IADL, social participation and leisure. Unfortunately, improved QoL was often inferred, without the use of an outcome measure. Areas which impacted occupational participation for PMD users were environmental barriers and a lack of PMD training. Further research is needed to understand the impact of a PMD on QoL and occupational participation for those with chronic disease.
Applicability of traditional storage methods in Indonesia for today’s conservation practice
Authors: Engel Patricia
Published: September 2021

This contribution aims to distil the experience from several conservation projects in Java, Indonesia, into a summary of methods in an attempt to arrive at some suggestions for best practice for the preservation of cultural heritage items in a tropical country. The related projects concerned a museum of contemporary art, traditional puppet theatre materials, a museum of traditional art and an archive.
Short-Term Forecasting of Off-Street Parking Occupancy
Authors: Fokker Elisabeth S. , Koch Thomas , van Leeuwen Marco , Dugundji Elenna R.
Published: September 2021

Information and communication technologies have opened the way to guide recent developments in the field of parking. In this paper these technologies are applied to model a decision support system that gives insight into 6-months ahead parking occupancy forecasts for 57 off-street parking locations in Amsterdam. An effect analysis was conducted into the influence of weather-, event-, parking tariff-, and public transport attributes on parking occupancy. The most influential factors on the parking occupancy were the scheduling of artistic and sports events, the addition of a public transport line, and the weather variables thunderstorm, average wind speed, temperature, precipitation, and sunshine duration. Parking tariffs did not significantly contribute to model performance, which could have been because of the lack of data and time variability in the parking tariffs of the examined parking locations. The forecasting algorithms compared were the seasonal naive model as a benchmark approach, the Box–Jenkins seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average with and without exogenous regressors (SARIMAX and SARIMA, respectively), exponential smoothing models, and the long short-term memory neural network. The SARIMAX model outperformed the other algorithms for the 6-months ahead forecasts according to the lowest root mean square error (RMSE). By including the event factor, the model improved by 24% based on the RMSE. Weather variables improved the predictive performance by 8%. Future studies could focus on the addition of more event variables, extension into an online model, and the impact of spatial–temporal features on parking occupancy.
Comparative Carbon Footprint Assessment of Cross-Border E-Commerce Shipping Options
Authors: Cheah Lynette , Huang Qiuhong
Published: September 2021

In the bid to stay competitive, online shopping platforms often offer a variety of shipping options to meet the preferences of consumers. While faster delivery might be desirable for consumers, this may be detrimental to the environment. Limited studies have evaluated the comparative environmental impact of different shipping options offered by e-commerce platforms. To fill this gap, this study aims to conduct a comparative carbon footprint assessment of the shipping options available in Taobao, a highly popular Chinese online shopping website. The case of cross-border e-commerce is evaluated, where goods are ordered from China to Singapore as the shipment destination. Thereafter, a shipping choice preference survey is conducted to evaluate the impact of carbon labelling on consumers’ shipping preferences. From the perspective of the consumer, when offered a variety of shipping options to choose from, there is always a trade-off between the cost and the speed of delivery. Additional information on the carbon impact of different options could influence consumers’ decision-making. The shipping options from Taobao are referenced to determine the cost, speed, and carbon emission values for the scenarios presented in the survey. Out of 188 survey respondents, slightly more than half (55%) were found to be willing to compromise the speed of delivery for a less carbon-intensive alternative. Given this finding, the study advocates for carbon labelling to be introduced for e-commerce shipping options.
Effect of Geometry and Infill on Strength of 3D Printed Planar Matrices for Matting Applications
Authors: Catenacci Matthew J. , Owens Jeffery R. , Luckarift Heather R.
Published: September 2021

3D (three-dimensional) printing was used as a rapid prototyping tool to determine the influence of cell geometry and infill materials on the physical properties of geometrically patterned matrices while subjected to compressive stress. Matrices of comparable patterns but varied scales and densities were fabricated from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. The test results confirm that some matrices reinforced by infill with sand, gravel, and mixtures of the two show better compressive strength than conventional concrete, and may find application in matting for airfield damage repair. The cell matrix geometry that demonstrated maximum strength (comparable with conventional concrete) was a hexagonal geometry with a relative density to solid plastic of 0.32 infilled with a mixture of sand and gravel. Additional data suggests that at larger scales, maximum strength comparable with conventional concrete could be achieved with even lower relative density.
Exploring the Need to Model Two- and Multiple-Vehicle Crashes Separately
Authors: Kitali Angela E. , Kidando Emmanuel , Asif Raihan Md , Kutela Boniphace , Alluri Priyanka , Sando Thobias
Published: September 2021

Single-vehicle crashes have been shown to differ from two-plus vehicle crashes. Several studies have discussed the issues with modeling single-vehicle and two-plus vehicle crashes together. However, none of the empirical studies have attempted to study two-vehicle (2V) and multiple-vehicle (MV), that is, three-plus crash groups, to understand their correlation and influencing factors. This study first investigated whether there is a need to develop separate safety performance functions for 2V and MV crashes, in addition to single-vehicle crashes. Then, the correlation and influencing factors of 2V and MV were evaluated. Three regression models—a correlated bivariate negative binomial regression (BNR) model, an uncorrelated bivariate negative binomial regression (NR) model, and a univariate negative binomial regression (UNR) model, were developed and compared. The analysis was based on the 2011–2015 crashes that occurred on I-4 in Florida. Findings indicated that the BNR model significantly outperformed the NR and the UNR models. The model results suggest that disaggregating 2V and MV crashes while allowing correlation between the groups for the latent effects in the model best describes the data. Traffic volume, posted speed limit, and median type were found significant in contributing to the occurrence of both 2V and MV crashes. Additional contributing factors for 2V crashes included the presence of interchange influence area, and for MV crashes, the presence of a vertical curve and the presence of a horizontal curve. Study findings could assist transportation officials in implementing specific safety countermeasures for road segments identified as hotspots for 2V and MV crashes.
U.S. Transportation Agencies’ Trends of Using Construction Engineering and Inspection Consultants and In-House Staff
Authors: Al-Haddad Sara , Li Ying , Goodrum Paul M. , Taylor Timothy R.B. , Littlejohn Ray L.
Published: September 2021

State transportation agencies (STA) are relying on needs-based construction, engineering, and inspection (CEI) consultants as a primary solution to their staffing deficits. While other studies have examined the reasons STAs hire CEI consultants at an agency level, prior research has not identified potential patterns between project characteristics and STA staffing choices. A national survey was administered to examine how the use of CEI consultants differs by project type, work type, complexity level, and the authority level of inspectors. A rigorous model-building variety of Chi-squared analyses, Cochran’s Q tests, McNemar tests, and binomial logistic regression models were used to analyze the data. This research found that STAs are more likely to use consultants on projects with utilities, drainage, roadway, and/or grading because they either do not have enough staff in-house or do not have the experience in-house to complete these projects. Additionally, most STAs do not grant senior inspector consultants the same authority level as their in-house counterparts. Generally, this research indicates that socio-economic and political factors have both short- and long-term effects on staffing choices in public transportation projects and studying project characteristics might help shed more light on the effects of these decisions. Specifically, the results indicate a need for both the private and public sectors to collaborate and share knowledge to preserve institutional knowledge within agencies. These results suggest that further research into staffing trends and project characteristics is warranted.