bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cost Comparison for the Installation of Steel Frames vs Wooden Frames on a Traditional Wooden Fishing Boat in South Sulawesi
Authors: Bochary L , Firmansyah M R , Asri S , Sitepu G , Djafar W , Zulkifli  , Djalante A H , Arfah M
Published: July 2020

Traditional wooden fishing boats are still being produced by most of the traditional wooden shipyards in Indonesia specifically in the area of South Sulawesi. Nevertheless, the traditional wooden boat craftsman facing the difficulty of wooden log supply as the main wooden boat material especially for wooden frame construction despite the increasing demand for wooden material for the boat construction. The difficulty to acquire the specific wooden for wooden frame caused by the specific requirements of each wooden frame. They must be in the specific shape according to the specific curvature of each transversal boat section along the boat length. Hence, for the sustainability of wooden boat construction process, alternative material is needed for replacing the certain wooden boat construction component, especially for wooden frames. Fortunately, research relating to the use of alternative material for wooden boat construction have been conducted. The focus of the research is on the use of steel frame to replace the wooden frame on the wooden boat construction. This paper discusses the cost comparison for the fabrication and installation process as well as the material cost of the steel frame to the wooden boat construction with wooden frame to the wooden boat construction. The result shows that the cost for fabricating and installing steel frame is 13% higher to compare to the wooden frame. However, if the total wooden boat construction cost is being considered, the total difference is only 3%.
The Performance of Single and Double Intake Designs of Propeller Flow Cooling System (PFCS)
Authors: Mahmuddin F , Suhardi A , Hariyanto S , Syarifuddin  , Tasrief M
Published: July 2020

In order to save spaces inside a small-sized fishing boat, the high-pressure flow behind propeller is utilized instead of a special cooling pump to cool the main engine. From the previous study, the system is referred to as the Propeller Flow Cooling System (PFCS). As a continuation of the previous study, the present study conducted more experiments in order to compare the performance of a single and a double intake designs of the PVCS with the same cross-sectional area. The designs with circular and elliptical intakes shapes were measured. The experiments were also conducted at the Circulating Water Channel (CWC) facility. The main parameter which was compared in the experiment and analysis was the flow capacity produced by both designs for various propeller revolution (RPM). The experimental results showed that single intake design has a higher flow capacity than the double intake one which was caused by higher flow losses inside the pipe of single intake design mainly due to higher surface friction as well as an additional elbow joint needed in double intake design. This tendency occurred for both circular and elliptical shapes cases.
Implementation of Connected Component Labelling for Calculation Amount of Eggs on the Laying Pullet Cage
Authors: Cirua A A A , Cokrowibowo S , Rustan M F
Published: July 2020

Chicken eggs are one of the commodities that become easily available foodstuffs. The level of egg production in good condition is directly proportional to the capacity of the cage. The process of calculating the amount of egg production becomes a problem for farmers when they want to calculate the amount of egg production in the condition of a chicken coop on a large scale. Smart systems are one form of technological development with the primary goal of producing effective and efficient systems. One area that plays a role in technological development is image processing, eggs are objects with certain color characteristics and pixel scales. In this study, the process of calculating the number of eggs based on color segmentation and selection of pixel scales on eggs and the process of calculating objects using the Connected Component Labeling algorithm of images that have gone through gray-scale and threshold processes and implemented using MATLAB. The trial results show that the object image of an egg is strongly influenced by the size of the image, the intensity of the light, and distance of capturing images. The number of eggs that can be detected in this study depends on the process of segmentation and measurement of the object’s egg scale, in this study it was found that colors other than egg colors and objects that are outside the egg scale will be considered as noise and will not be detected.
Online News Analysis of Majene Public Figure Electability with NLP (Natural Language Processing)
Authors: Sundari  , Cokrowibowo S , Zulkarnaim N
Published: July 2020

Electability is one of the concerns as public figures who will take part in the elections, various things are done to improve their electability. Now, there are many methods to measure electability, one of which is the Natural Language Processing method. In this study, an electability analysis of public figures was conducted on online news to determine the electability level of a public figure. Where information obtained by the public is through online news sites. According to the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Data (APJII) in 2014, internet users in Indonesia will reach 107 million. This number has become one of the potential Public Figures, both institutionally and individually in capturing their masses through new media. 100 million of the masses will be contested by candidates who will compete in the political stage. Therefore, candidates who will advance will carry out digital political imaging. The public figures used in this study are 12 figures who are rumored to be going forward in the 2020 elections based on the online news site MAJENE 2020 ELECTION.
Wireless Sensor Network Implementation for IoT-Based Environmental Security Monitoring
Authors: Hendra A , Palantei E , Syafaruddin  , Hadis M S , Zulkarnaim N , Mansyur M F
Published: July 2020

The use of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology with Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been developed. Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that enables control, communication and collaboration with various hardware devices over computer networks. The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a form of transformation and development of information technology and Internet networks. This article uses IoT-based environmental monitoring networks to monitor environmental safety in real time. The proposed WSN network is structured to allow continuous monitoring of environmental safety and environmental issues, such as: For example, the potential risk of fire or crime in the environment and many others. In practice, the WSN network consists of sensors and local servers connected via the Internet. The generated data comes from several electronic sensors, such as proximity sensors and fire sensors, all of which are connected to the local server via the gateway. A number of interesting experimental results, including the analysis of energy consumption, are discussed in detail.
Design control system of robot-manipulator FANUC M-430iA/4FH
Authors: Nikolov E , Karlova-Sergieva V , Grasiani B
Published: July 2020

Summary: This paper offers the results of the control capabilities of the FANUC M-430iA / 4FH robotic manipulator. Classical and DRC robotic position control systems have been synthesized. Both systems are modelled. Their quality has been researched and comparatively analysed in unloaded, maximum loaded and in operation vibration working modes
Dynamical systems on hypergraphs
Authors: Carletti Timoteo , Fanelli Duccio , Nicoletti Sara
Published: July 2020

Networks are a widely used and efficient paradigm to model real-world systems where basic units interact pairwise. Many body interactions are often at play, and cannot be modelled by resorting to binary exchanges. In this work, we consider a general class of dynamical systems anchored on hypergraphs. Hyperedges of arbitrary size ideally encircle individual units so as to account for multiple, simultaneous interactions. These latter are mediated by a combinatorial Laplacian, that is here introduced and characterised. The formalism of the master stability function is adapted to the present setting. Turing patterns and the synchronisation of non linear (regular and chaotic) oscillators are studied, for a general class of systems evolving on hypergraphs. The response to externally imposed perturbations bears the imprint of the higher order nature of the interactions.
Towards recognizing the light facet of the Higgs boson
Authors: Alves Alexandre , Freitas Felipe F
Published: July 2020

The Higgs boson couplings to bottom and top quarks have been measured and agree well with the Standard Model predictions. Decays to lighter quarks and gluons, however, remain elusive. Observing these decays is essential to complete the picture of the Higgs boson interactions. In this work, we present the perspectives for the 14 TeV LHC to observe the Higgs boson decay to gluon jets assembling convolutional neural networks, trained to recognize abstract jet images constructed embodying particle flow information, and boosted decision trees with kinetic information from Higgs-strahlung

Z
H
→

ℓ

+

ℓ

−

+
g
g

events. We show that this approach might be able to observe Higgs to gluon decays with a significance of around 2.4σ improving significantly previous prospects based on cut-and-count analysis. An upper bound of BR(H → gg)≤1.74 × BR

SM
(H → gg) at 95% confidence level after 3000 fb−1 of data is obtained using these machine learning techniques.
The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms
Authors: Ayto John
Published: July 2020

Over 10,000 entries

What is it to ‘cock a snook’? Where is the land of Nod? Who was first to go the extra mile? Find the answers to these questions (and many more!) in the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms.

This dictionary uncovers the meanings of myriad phrases and sayings that are used daily in the English language, encompassing more than 10,000 figurative expressions, similes, sayings, and proverbs. More than 400 idioms have been added to this new edition, and comprise recently coined and common sayings alike. New additions include ‘back of the net’, ‘drag and drop’, ‘go it alone’, ‘how come?’, ‘if you ask me’, ‘make your skin crawl’, and ‘wind your neck in’.

Illustrative quotations sourced from the Oxford Corpora give contextual examples of the idioms and their standard usage, and many entries include background information on the origins of the idiom in question. An updated thematic index makes for easy navigation, and anyone who is interested in the origins and diversity of English vernacular will have hours of fun browsing this fascinating dictionary.
Introduction: A business civilization
Authors: Friedman Walter A.
Published: July 2020

The Introduction outlines the narrative presented in this VSI. It starts from the premise that the idea of the United States becoming the world’s largest economy would have been unimaginable at the country’s founding. So how did this happen? The growth of business in the United States was neither automatic nor predictable. This makes it even more of a mystery. The chapters look to answer a number of questions in the quest to solve the conundrum which is the exceptional growth of the United States economy in the 20th and the 21st centuries. How did it get to the position we see it in now?
1. Trade and empire
Authors: Friedman Walter A.
Published: July 2020

“Trade and empire” examines the impact of European settlers in America on indigenous trading patterns. Relationships between settlers and native peoples varied, but one factor—disease—radically altered the balance of power. Early English colonies established the first American businesses with chartered companies trading in tobacco, furs, and salted fish. Merchants became more dominant figures in the colonial economy, while the thriving colonial printing industry gave voice to political debates. Benjamin Franklin’s book The Way to Wealth became one of the first manuals of its kind on how to achieve prosperity, holding an enduring place in the American conception of business activity.
2. Commerce in the new nation, 1780–1820
Authors: Friedman Walter A.
Published: July 2020

During a period of dramatic population growth and geographical expansion, farming and agriculture were central to the American economy. “Commerce in the new nation, 1780–1820” looks at the growth of new industries. The new American economy stumbled into a recession nearly as severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s. Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the Treasury, made significant contributions to stabilizing the economy, advocating for the buying of war debts and the foundation of a central bank. New roads, canals, and the invention of the steamboat aided the distribution of goods within America. General merchants found themselves in competition with specialized dealers.
3. Early manufacturers, 1820–1850
Authors: Friedman Walter A.
Published: July 2020

By 1850, America’s gross domestic product was two-thirds that of the United Kingdom and one-fifth that of China. “Early manufacturers, 1820–1850” looks at the development and significance of textiles, firearms, and clocks to the new economy. The establishment of mills and factories allowed the workforce to be united in one place and for working hours to be standardized, though initial long hours led to unrest. Colt firearms and parlor clocks became part of the American identity, while some of the first marketing and sales strategies confirmed them as desirable status symbols. International exhibitions showcased the best of American manufacturing, setting a precedent for future multinationals seeking success abroad.
6. Modern companies, 1910–1930
Authors: Friedman Walter A.
Published: July 2020

“Modern companies, 1910–1930” explores the “second industrial revolution” brought about by electricity and the internal combustion engine. New products included automobiles and soft drinks, with Henry Ford and General Motors splitting the market and Coca-Cola swiftly followed by its rival, Pepsi. Electricity had a transformative effect on manufacturing, allowing factories to run twenty-four hours a day and enabling washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators. This period also saw the emergence of a modern financial system on Wall Street and the rise of door-to-door selling, insurance, and management as a professional science. While these years were volatile and ended with a stock market crash, industries still looked to managers for solutions.
Introduction
Authors: Wright Donald
Published: July 2020

As the Introduction explains, Canada is a unique place. It is extremely large, sparsely populated, and home to many different cultural identities. The Introduction looks at Canada’s recent move to provide homes to refugees from Syria and around the world. Canada’s history is one of colonization, with settlements displacing indigenous groups. The name ‘Canada’ derives from an Iroquoian word for ‘village’ or ‘settlement’. In the early 20th century, thousands of immigrants arrived in Canada. Today, Syrian refugees and other immigrants of different kinds will shape Canada’s future, furthering its reputation for tolerance and multiculturalism and adding to its existing diversity.
4. Rights
Authors: Wright Donald
Published: July 2020

‘Rights’ looks at the issues Canadians fought for in the 20th-century courts and sometimes in the streets. Francophone rights were met by French-language schools, and women mounted protests in Parliament to gain reproductive rights. Canada was the fourth country to legalize same-sex marriage. Attempts by First Nations people to have their hunting and fishing rights recognized met with mixed results and restrictions on the resources they were trying to access. Fundamental labour rights are protected by charters. While Canada is proud of its record on rights, these rights are the result of years of direct action and legal challenges and owe as much to individuals as to legislation.
6. Norths
Authors: Wright Donald
Published: July 2020

‘Norths’ distinguishes between the real northern Canada and its imagined north. The frozen north is a symbol of Canada that appears in songs, art, and literature. The actual north is rich in mineral resources, creating phenomena like the Klondike gold rush of the late 19th century. Other regions are rich in oil and natural gas. Fifty per cent of Canada is permafrost, making its landscape particularly vulnerable to climate change. This intensifies old questions about sovereignty, with the world’s Arctic powers engaged in a new gold rush. With shrinking glaciers appearing in both headlines and literature, the landscapes of the real and the imagined north are changing.
3. Beyond amyloid
Authors: Taylor Kathleen
Published: July 2020

‘Beyond amyloid’ outlines recent challenges to the amyloid cascade hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease. This theory’s enduring popularity has not been matched by success in the clinic. Some people without dementia appear to have high amyloid levels and some brain-injured patients with more amyloid have better outcomes than those with less. One possible explanation is that neurodegeneration begins long before symptoms appear. Other theories include amyloid as the defence rather than cause, and the idea of an immune response to infection causing inflammation in the brain. All this points towards the importance of method and the acknowledgement of the roles played by other parts of the body and lifestyle factors.
6. The future of dementia
Authors: Taylor Kathleen
Published: July 2020

There is still no cure for dementia, but that could change; scientists now have more tools for understanding neurodegeneration, and funding for research is at unprecedented levels. ‘The future of dementia’ explores the challenges facing sufferers and their families, including the lack of a cure or treatment based on the amyloid hypothesis, and economic and psychological demands on carers in an overstretched system dependent on unpaid labour. Our recent history of modern conveniences—cheap food, pollution, and climate change—may create more dementia patients. Making small changes in our lives can reduce our own risk of dementia and help us make life easier for those who already have it.
Empire, decoloniality, and the globalization of world music
Authors: Bohlman Philip V.
Published: July 2020

‘Empire, decoloniality, and the globalization of world music’ takes empire and globalization as points of departure, exploring street music in Romania and wedding music in Kolkata—global music performed locally that collapses the difference between world music and traditional folk music. The globalization of world music has been brought about by the development of modern cities into ‘global cities’, improved recording technologies, easy media access, and the expansion of ethnomusicology. The Rough Guides to World Music provide extensive documentation of the postmodern encounter with world music, and perhaps unintentionally act as a guide to recent trends in ethnomusicology.
French philosophy today
Authors: Gaukroger Stephen , Peden Knox
Published: July 2020

Following the 1968 protests, the once-popular Marxism of Althusser declined in relevance. ‘French philosophy today: competing ambitions’ looks at the careers of Althusser’s pupils and successors. Much of twentieth-century French philosophy was a reckoning with phenomenology, which itself had risen as an alternative to existentialism. Some writers worried that phenomenology, as interpreted by Michael Henry and Emmanuel Levinas, was taking an overly theological turn. French philosophers were ready to move on from the Revolution, but ideas about who conferred power in the absence of a religious authority were as relevant as ever and harked back to the ongoing dialogue between philosophy and Christianity.
1. Zola and the art of fiction
Authors: Nelson Brian
Published: July 2020

‘Zola and the art of fiction’ argues that how Zola wanted to align his work with contemporary scientific discourse, which saw human behaviour as determined by heredity and environment. Zola’s insistence on the ‘scientific’ nature of his work has encouraged people to read his novels on the basis of his theoretical writings (e.g. The Experimental Novel) rather than in terms of the texts themselves. It is still necessary to stress that Zola is above all a narrative artist: a storyteller, a fabulist. It is the lyrical and mythopoeic qualities of his work, and the sheer energy of his writing, that make him one of the great figures in the European novel.
6. The dream machine
Authors: Nelson Brian
Published: July 2020

‘The dream machine’ looks at the role of the 'machine' in the writing of Zola. Many of Zola’s novels are organized round a machine (like the distilling machine in L’Assommoir) or a great central image or entity that functions like a machine (the food markets in The Belly of Paris, the coal mine in Germinal). In The Ladies’ Paradise the ‘machine’ is the department store, inspired by the Bon Marché, Paris’s first such store. A symbol of capitalism, the Second Empire, and the modern city, it is emblematic of consumer culture and contemporary changes in gender attitudes and class relations, representing modernity and ‘progress’. Shopping became a new leisure activity, allowing middle-class women to venture into public spaces and enjoy the new culture of the commodity; but in the process they were themselves commodified. Octave Mouret, the store’s owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. But when he falls in love with his salesgirl Denise Baudu, he discovers that she resists commodification.
9. After the Rougon-Macquart
Authors: Nelson Brian
Published: July 2020

‘After the Rougon-Macquart’ considers the final novel of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, Doctor Pascal. This novel explores the themes of science and religion, renewal and rebirth. The latter theme was of personal significance to Zola, as he had recently fathered two children with his mistress, Jeanne Rozerot. Zola’s later fiction is discussed in the context of the climate of ideas in France in the fin de siècle. The writer’s involvement in the Dreyfus affair brought him glaringly into the public eye, and may indeed have led to his death: he died from carbon monoxide poisoning, suspected to be the result of foul play. His remains were interred in the Panthéon alongside Voltaire, Rousseau, and Victor Hugo.
2. The Soviet planned economy
Authors: Connolly Richard
Published: July 2020

‘The Soviet planned economy’ details the economic, political, and human consequences of the Soviet Union’s fully centralized economic planning. This bold experiment enabled rapid industrialization and urbanization, helped to defeat Nazi Germany, and defined the Soviet Union as one of only two military superpowers. These developments came at a substantial human cost, from the millions who died during the collectivization of farms to the victims of the Chernobyl meltdown. The discovery of oil in Siberia masked systemic problems in a stagnant infrastructure and rendered the socialist experiment dependent on the vagaries of Western markets. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many hoped for a better standard of life.
3. The creation of a market
Authors: Connolly Richard
Published: July 2020

Boris Yeltsin’s government faced a ‘triple transition’—national, political, and economic. ‘The creation of a market’ maps the transition from a centrally planned to a market-based economy, the roots of which were in place by the late 1990s. Privatization was controversial, with the selling of lucrative state-owned assets and the emergence of oligarchs in the so-called ‘Wild East’. Public frustration with inflation, crime, and underemployment meant the government zigzagged on proposed reforms. When Putin came to power after the 1998 financial crisis, he reaffirmed the state’s importance. What would this mean for an economy that had painfully freed itself from some of the state’s inefficiencies over the past decade?
5. The geography of biological diversity
Authors: Lomolino Mark V.
Published: July 2020

How are we to comprehend all of nature’s diversity from the cellular level up through all taxonomic, biological, and ecological levels of organization? “The geography of biological diversity” focuses on the measures and meaning of biological diversity, and the general patterns across the principal geographic dimensions (e.g. latitude, area and isolation) which allow us to visualize it. Hotspots of diversity are concentrated in tropical regions, especially in large, topographically complex and isolated systems. Our exploration of these hotspots, and the patterns governing how rich and which types of species inhabit them, may provide key insights for attempts to conserve biological diversity long into the future.
UglyTrees: a browser-based multispecies coalescent tree visualizer
Authors: Douglas Jordan
Published: July 2020

Visualization is a vital task in phylogenetics and yet there is a deficit in programs which visualize the multispecies coalescent (MSC) model. UglyTrees (UT) is an easy-to-use program for visualizing multiple gene trees embedded within a single species trees. The mapping between gene and species nodes is automatically detected allowing for ready access to the program. UT can scrape the contents of a website for MSC analyses, enabling the sharing of interactive MSC figures through optional parameters in the URL. If a posterior distribution is uploaded, the transitions between MSC states are animated allowing the visual tracking of trees throughout the sequence.

Availability and implementation

UT runs in all major web browsers including mobile devices, and is hosted at www.uglytrees.nz. The MIT-licensed code is available at https://github.com/UglyTrees/uglytrees.github.io.
DysRegSig: an R package for identifying gene dysregulations and building mechanistic signatures in cancer
Authors: Li Quanxue , Dai Wentao , Liu Jixiang , Sang Qingqing , Li Yi-Xue , Li Yuan-Yuan
Published: July 2020

Dysfunctional regulations of gene expression programs relevant to fundamental cell processes can drive carcinogenesis. Therefore, systematically identifying dysregulation events is an effective path for understanding carcinogenesis and provides insightful clues to build predictive signatures with mechanistic interpretability for cancer precision medicine. Here, we implemented a machine learning-based gene dysregulation analysis framework in an R package, DysRegSig, which is capable of exploring gene dysregulations from high-dimensional data and building mechanistic signature based on gene dysregulations. DysRegSig can serve as an easy-to-use tool to facilitate gene dysregulation analysis and follow-up analysis.

Availability and implementation

The source code and user’s guide of DysRegSig are freely available at Github: https://github.com/SCBIT-YYLab/DysRegSig.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Egg-laying site, fecundity and degree of sexual size dimorphism in frogs
Authors: Silva Nelson Rodrigues , Berneck Bianca V M , da Silva Helio R , Haddad Célio F B , Zamudio Kelly R , Mott Tamí , Nali Renato C , Prado Cynthia P A
Published: July 2020

Female fecundity is an important selective force leading to female-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in frogs. Because anurans exhibit diverse reproductive modes, we investigated whether variation in SSD and fecundity are related with oviposition site. We asked whether arboreal breeding species show pronounced female-biased SSD and if, paradoxically, females have lower fecundity because of the costs of carrying oocytes and amplectant males. Conversely, we tested whether species that deposit eggs in concealed sites show less pronounced SSD, because females do not carry males and space limitation may reduce female size and fecundity. Our results showed that, in general, males were approximately 20% smaller than females. However, for species with hidden oviposition sites, males and females exhibited more similar body sizes and arboreal hylids showed more pronounced female-biased SSD. Overall, fecundity was higher in aquatic breeders, as expected, but in hylids, fecundity was smaller in arboreal breeders, which suggests that arboreality may impose restrictions on fecundity. By analysing SSD in a broader and more specific lineage (Hylidae), we found that reproductive microhabitat may also influence female size and fecundity, playing an important role in the evolution of SSD in frogs at different evolutionary scales.
Gambling in children and adolescents
Authors: Emond Alan M , Griffiths Mark D
Published: July 2020

Introduction

Children are susceptible to problems with gambling because of developmental and cognitive immaturities, as well as a sensitivity to peer pressure and marketing.

Sources of data

This review uses recent UK data from the Gambling Commission and from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, and evidence from recent reviews of gambling in children and adolescents.

Areas of agreement

The prevalence of gambling in children worldwide and in the UK is stable, having generally decreased since 2013. Online gambling is increasing in children and young people. A small minority of adolescents who gamble develop a gambling disorder. Adolescents who have problems with gambling tend to have lower self-esteem and a history of hyperactivity and impulsivity, are more likely to have parents who gamble, report less parental supervision and to use more alcohol than their peers.

Areas of controversy

Children’s access to slot machines, the relationship between gaming and gambling, and social media advertizing of gambling targeting children.

Growing points

An increase in online gambling and in-play sports betting by adolescents and the use of skins betting in video gaming.

Areas timely for developing research: impact on young people of betting on e-gaming. How best to protect children from early exposure to gambling in the current internet age.

Implications for clinicians

Need to be aware of the growing and complex phenomenon of gaming and gambling, and implications for the mental health of children and adolescents. The effective management of gambling disorders in children and adolescents requires close working with families.
Effect of smoking on macular function and retinal structure in retinitis pigmentosa
Authors: Oishi Akio , Noda Kazunori , Birtel Johannes , Miyake Masahiro , Sato Atsuyasu , Hasegawa Tomoko , Miyata Manabu , Numa Shogo , Charbel Issa Peter , Tsujikawa Akitaka
Published: July 2020

Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited neurodegenerative disease of the retina. We investigated smoking as a modifiable environmental factor for the progression of this currently untreatable disease. Clinical data, smoking history, macular function and morphology including visual acuity, visual field sensitivity, ellipsoid zone width and central retinal thickness were investigated. Association between pack × years and these parameters were evaluated using generalized estimating equation models to adjust confounding factors such as age and sex. A total of 410 patients with retinitis pigmentosa (≥20 years old; 209 female) were included, 164 had a smoking history. Patients without smoking history revealed a better visual acuity than smokers (0.39 versus 0.57, P = 0.001). The pack × years index was associated with worse visual acuity and thinner central retinal thickness after adjusting for age and sex (P = 0.0047 and 0.0099, respectively). Visual field and ellipsoid zone width showed a non-significant decline with increasing pack × years. This study indicates an association of smoking with worse macular function and structural integrity in retinitis pigmentosa patients, and hence a potential detrimental effect of smoking on the disease course.
Causal Role of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Belief Updating under Uncertainty
Authors: Schulreich Stefan , Schwabe Lars
Published: July 2020

Adaptive performance in uncertain environments depends on the ability to continuously update internal beliefs about environmental states. Recent correlative evidence suggests that a frontoparietal network including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) supports belief updating under uncertainty, but whether the dlPFC serves a “causal” role in this process is currently not clear. To elucidate its contribution, we leveraged transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right dlPFC, while 91 participants performed an incentivized belief-updating task. Participants also underwent a psychosocial stress or control manipulation to investigate the role of stress, which is known to modulate dlPFC functioning. We observed enhanced monetary value updating after anodal tDCS when it was normatively expected from a Bayesian perspective. A model-based analysis indicates that this effect was driven by belief updating. However, we also observed enhanced non-normative value updating, which might have been driven instead by expectancy violation. Enhanced normative and non-normative value updating reflected increased vs. decreased Bayesian rationality, respectively. Furthermore, cortisol increases were associated with enhanced positive, but not with negative, value updating. The present study thereby sheds light on the causal role of the right dlPFC in the remarkable human ability to navigate uncertain environments by continuously updating prior knowledge following new evidence.
Dispersion Pattern of Giant Cicada (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in a Brazilian Coffee Plantation
Authors: Andrade S C , Rossi G D , Martinelli N M
Published: July 2020

The giant cicada Quesada gigas (Olivier, 1790) (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) is a major pest of coffee plants in Brazil. To ensure the rational management and ecological equilibrium, information about the behavior, dispersion, and reproduction of giant cicada is fundamental. The present work was conducted in an area of 97 ha planted with Coffea arabica L. to investigate adult dispersion as well as mating and oviposition behaviors of Q. gigas. A sound trap was placed at a ‘release point’ used for the attraction, marking, and release of adults in the area. The recapture of insects was performed with the same sound trap positioned at 20 points distributed at 100, 250, 400, and 1,000 m from the release point. The highest recapture rates of Q. gigas were observed at 100 m from the release point, and the lowest recapture rates were observed at 1,000 m. The presence of Eucalyptus plants in the area apparently influenced dispersion, as high recapture rates were observed at the sites close to Eucalyptus plants. One copulation of Q. gigas lasted 41.6 ± 0.43 min, and the period of a single oviposition bout was 30.0 ± 0.20 min. Quesada gigas adult longevity in the field was estimated to be 49 d. Both males and females were observed performing multiple matings.
Knowledge and practices regarding antibiotics use
Authors: Bianco Aida , Licata Francesca , Zucco Rossella , Papadopoli Rosa , Pavia Maria
Published: July 2020

Background and objectives

This study aimed to assess the knowledge on antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the antibiotic use among the general public in Southern Italy and to analyze whether sociodemographic characteristics could be associated with poor knowledge and improper practices.

Methodology

From March to November 2019, a face-to-face interview was conducted with adult subjects attending the waiting room of 27 randomly selected general practitioners (GPs) in Southern Italy. The questionnaire covered sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge on antibiotics and AMR and practices regarding the consumption of and self-medication with antibiotics.

Results

The response rate was 89.7%. In the sample, 29.2% thought that antibiotics are effective for viral infections, and 49.5% correctly recognized the definition of AMR. Predictors of good knowledge about antibiotics and AMR were female gender and a higher education level. Almost half of the respondents had used antibiotics in the previous year and 23.6% took antibiotics to treat a common cold and/or fever. Among participants, 25.5% reported to have bought antibiotics without a prescription, and 30.6% were classified as antibiotic self-medication users. Use of antibiotics in the previous 12 months and having taken an antibiotic after a phone consultation with the GP were positively associated with both antibiotic use for a common cold and/or fever and self-medication with antibiotics.

Conclusions and implications

The findings of this study highlighted a considerable antibiotic consumption in the adult population of Southern Italy together with misconceptions regarding the correct indication for antibiotic use that could foster indiscriminate antibiotic use.

Lay Summary

The findings of this study highlighted a considerable antibiotic consumption in the adult Italian population together with misconceptions regarding the correct indication for antibiotic use that could foster indiscriminate antibiotic use. Almost a quarter of the respondents took antibiotics to treat a common cold and/or fever and reported to have bought antibiotics without a prescription.
Culturable diversity of bacterial endophytes associated with medicinal plants of the Western Ghats, India
Authors: Webster Gordon , Mullins Alex J , Cunningham-Oakes Edward , Renganathan Arun , Aswathanarayan Jamuna Bai , Mahenthiralingam Eshwar , Vittal Ravishankar Rai
Published: July 2020

Bacterial endophytes are found in the internal tissues of plants and have intimate associations with their host. However, little is known about the diversity of medicinal plant endophytes (ME) or their capability to produce specialised metabolites that may contribute to therapeutic properties. We isolated 75 bacterial ME from 24 plant species of the Western Ghats, India. Molecular identification by 16S rRNA gene sequencing grouped MEs into 13 bacterial genera, with members of Gammaproteobacteria and Firmicutes being the most abundant. To improve taxonomic identification, 26 selected ME were genome sequenced and average nucleotide identity (ANI) used to identify them to the species-level. This identified multiple species in the most common genus as Bacillus. Similarly, identity of the Enterobacterales was also distinguished within Enterobacter and Serratia by ANI and core-gene analysis. AntiSMASH identified non-ribosomal peptide synthase, lantipeptide and bacteriocin biosynthetic gene clusters (BGC) as the most common BGCs found in the ME genomes. Five of the ME isolates belonging to Bacillus, Serratia and Enterobacter showed antimicrobial activity against the plant pathogen Pectobacterium carotovorum. Using molecular and genomic approaches we have characterised a unique collection of endophytic bacteria from medicinal plants. Their genomes encode multiple specialised metabolite gene clusters and the collection can now be screened for novel bioactive and medicinal metabolites.
Moments of Possibility: Holocaust Postmemory, Subjunctivity and Futurity in Katja Petrowskaja’s Vielleicht Esther (2014) and Robert Menasse’s Die Hauptstadt (2017)
Authors: Roca Lizarazu Maria
Published: July 2020

This article examines subjunctive approaches to history and memory as a novel aesthetic and ethical mode of Holocaust (post-)memory in two prominent examples of contemporary German-Jewish fiction. I argue that Katja Petrowskaja’s Vielleicht Esther (2014) and Robert Menasse’s Die Hauptstadt (2017) develop subjunctive modes of Holocaust (post-)memory as a response to a crisis of witnessing in the post-survivor era. Faced with the dying out of the survivor generation and the increasing institutionalization and hypermediation of Holocaust memories, these two authors invoke the subjunctive to self-reflexively account for their historical positionality and critique monolithic memory discourses (Petrowskaja), while also aiming to (re-)invest a stagnant culture of Holocaust memory with political urgency and futurity (Menasse). Subjunctivity thus emerges as a central yet underexamined mode of contemporary German-Jewish writing which has the potential to transform wider cultures of Holocaust (post-)memory, by moving ‘beyond the traumatic’ (Rigney 2018) in the direction of futurity.
Higher-order discontinuous Galerkin time discretizations for the evolutionary Navier–Stokes equations
Authors: Ahmed Naveed , Matthies Gunar
Published: July 2020

Discontinuous Galerkin methods of higher order are applied as temporal discretizations for the transient Navier–Stokes equations. The spatial discretization based on inf–sup stable pairs of finite element spaces is stabilized using a one-level local projection stabilization method. Optimal error bounds for the velocity with constants independent of the viscosity parameter are obtained for both the semidiscrete case and the fully discrete case. Numerical results support the theoretical predictions.
Accumulation of integrase strand transfer inhibitor resistance mutations confers high-level resistance to dolutegravir in non-B subtype HIV-1 strains from patients failing raltegravir in Uganda
Authors: Ndashimye Emmanuel , Avino Mariano , Olabode Abayomi S , Poon Art F Y , Gibson Richard M , Li Yue , Meadows Adam , Tan Christine , Reyes Paul S , Kityo Cissy M , Kyeyune Fred , Nankya Immaculate , Quiñones-Mateu Miguel E , Arts Eric J
Published: July 2020

Background

Increasing first-line treatment failures in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have led to increased use of integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) such as dolutegravir. However, HIV-1 susceptibility to INSTIs in LMICs, especially with previous raltegravir exposure, is poorly understood due to infrequent reporting of INSTI failures and testing for INSTI drug resistance mutations (DRMs).

Methods

A total of 51 non-subtype B HIV-1 infected patients failing third-line (raltegravir-based) therapy in Uganda were initially selected for the study. DRMs were detected using Sanger and deep sequencing. HIV integrase genes of 13 patients were cloned and replication capacities (RCs) and phenotypic susceptibilities to dolutegravir, raltegravir and elvitegravir were determined with TZM-bl cells. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to determine cross-resistance between INSTIs.

Results

INSTI DRMs were detected in 47% of patients. HIV integrase-recombinant virus carrying one primary INSTI DRM (N155H or Y143R/S) was susceptible to dolutegravir but highly resistant to raltegravir and elvitegravir (>50-fold change). Two patients, one with E138A/G140A/Q148R/G163R and one with E138K/G140A/S147G/Q148K, displayed the highest reported resistance to raltegravir, elvitegravir and even dolutegravir. The former multi-DRM virus had WT RC whereas the latter had lower RCs than WT.

Conclusions

In HIV-1 subtype A- and D-infected patients failing raltegravir and harbouring INSTI DRMs, there is high-level resistance to elvitegravir and raltegravir. More routine monitoring of INSTI treatment may be advised in LMICs, considering that multiple INSTI DRMs may have accumulated during prolonged exposure to raltegravir during virological failure, leading to high-level INSTI resistance, including dolutegravir resistance.
Electronic health record–based disease surveillance systems: A systematic literature review on challenges and solutions
Authors: Aliabadi Ali , Sheikhtaheri Abbas , Ansari Hossein
Published: July 2020

Objective

Disease surveillance systems are expanding using electronic health records (EHRs). However, there are many challenges in this regard. In the present study, the solutions and challenges of implementing EHR-based disease surveillance systems (EHR-DS) have been reviewed.

Materials and Methods

We searched the related keywords in ProQuest, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Scopus. Then, we assessed and selected articles using the inclusion and exclusion criteria and, finally, classified the identified solutions and challenges.

Results

Finally, 50 studies were included, and 52 unique solutions and 47 challenges were organized into 6 main themes (policy and regulatory, technical, management, standardization, financial, and data quality). The results indicate that due to the multifaceted nature of the challenges, the implementation of EHR-DS is not low cost and easy to implement and requires a variety of interventions. On the one hand, the most common challenges include the need to invest significant time and resources; the poor data quality in EHRs; difficulty in analyzing, cleaning, and accessing unstructured data; data privacy and security; and the lack of interoperability standards. On the other hand, the most common solutions are the use of natural language processing and machine learning algorithms for unstructured data; the use of appropriate technical solutions for data retrieval, extraction, identification, and visualization; the collaboration of health and clinical departments to access data; standardizing EHR content for public health; and using a unique health identifier for individuals.

Conclusions

EHR systems have an important role in modernizing disease surveillance systems. However, there are many problems and challenges facing the development and implementation of EHR-DS that need to be appropriately addressed.
The influence of dynamic changes in lipid metabolism on survival outcomes in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors
Authors: Zhang Xingming , Zhang Haoran , Dai Jindong , Liu Zhenhua , Zhu Xudong , Ni Yuchao , Yin Xiaoxue , Sun Guangxi , Zhu Sha , Chen Junru , Zhao Jinge , Wang Jia , Zeng Hao , Shen Pengfei
Published: July 2020

Background

The role of lipid metabolic status in tyrosine kinase inhibitors-treated patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma is insufficient.

Objective

To analyse the influence of dynamic changes of lipid metabolism on survival outcomes in tyrosine kinase inhibitors-treated metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Patients and methods

Serum levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were collected, both before tyrosine kinase inhibitors therapy and at different time points of tyrosine kinase inhibitors treatment duration. Other clinicopathological and survival data were retrospectively reviewed. The clinical outcomes, including tumour response, progression-free survival and overall survival, were analysed. Kaplan–Meier survival curves were plotted and the log-rank test was used to analyse statistical significance.

Results

A total of 127 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, initially treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors as first-line systemic therapy, were included. In the whole cohort, the serum levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol fluctuated but gradually increased during tyrosine kinase inhibitors treatment. In survival analysis, the higher serum level of lipid metabolism, the longer progression-free survival was observed. In terms of overall survival, all post-treatment lipid metabolism, including the percentages of increasing change, were correlated with better survival. Further multivariate analysis showed that patients with five components of treatment-related dysfunction of lipid metabolism had superior survival to those with less than five components. However, lipid metabolism was not correlated with tumour response.

Conclusion

Increasing parameters of lipid metabolism indicated improvement of survival in tyrosine kinase inhibitors-treated metastatic renal cell carcinoma, especially the increasing percentages.