bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Epidemiology of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli other than serotype O157:H7 in England, 2016–2023
Authors: King Grace , Jenkins Claire , Hayden Iain , Rodwell Ella V. , Quinn Orlagh , Godbole Gauri , Douglas Amy , Sawyer Clare , Balasegaram Sooria
Published: January 2025

Introduction. Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections are of public health concern as STEC can cause large national foodborne outbreaks of severe gastrointestinal disease, particularly in the young and elderly. In recent years, the implementation of PCR by diagnostic microbiology laboratories has improved the detection of STEC, and there has been an increase in notifications of cases of non-O157 STEC. However, the extent this increase in caseload can be attributed to the improved detection by PCR, or a true increase in non-O157 STEC infections, is unknown.

Gap Statement. Epidemiological and microbiological data and analyses describing the trends in non-O157 STEC in England since the implementation of PCR are limited.

Aim. Demographic, microbiological and clinical characteristics of non-O157 STEC from 8 years (2016–2023) of laboratory surveillance data were analysed to understand the recent trends in non-O157 serotypes and the incidence of disease in England.

Methodology. All human isolates of STEC non-O157 detected between 2016 and 2023 were extracted from the laboratory surveillance system. Microbiological data were analysed and linked to clinical outcomes.

Results. There was an almost 10-fold increase in diagnoses of non-O157 STEC from 2016 (n=297) to 2023 (n=2341). A total of 9378 isolates of non-O157 STEC were detected, comprising 338 different serotypes, and were linked to 9311 individuals. A higher proportion of non-O157 STEC cases were female (56%) and aged between 20 and 39 years (27%). The most common non-O157 serotypes were O26:H11 (16%), O146:H21 (12%), O91:H14 (11%), O128:H2 (6%), O145:H28 (5%) and O103:H2 (4%). STEC O26:H11 was more frequently reported in under 5s than any other age group (38%), whereas the other common serotypes were more frequently isolated from adults. Stx2a, which has been associated with greater disease severity, was detected in 18% of cases. Where clinical details were available, 27% of non-O157 cases were admitted to the hospital and 6% developed HUS. Cases of STEC O145:H28 reported a higher rate of hospitalisation than other non-O157 STEC cases. The serotypes most likely to be associated with progression to HUS were O26:H11 (9%) and O145:H28 (7%). STEC harbouring stx2f (19%), stx2a (11%) and stx2d (11%) were most frequently isolated from cases with HUS.

Conclusion. The implementation of widespread PCR testing in England has facilitated better surveillance of STEC non-O157, with respect to establishing the true incidence and burden of disease of non-O157 STEC and monitoring the emergence of highly virulent strains.
The Pseudomonas aeruginosa sphBC genes are important for growth in the presence of sphingosine by promoting sphingosine metabolism
Authors: DiGianivittorio Pauline , Hinkel Lauren A. , Mackinder Jacob R. , Schutz Kristin , Klein Eric A. , Wargo Matthew J
Published: January 2025

Sphingoid bases, including sphingosine, are important components of the antimicrobial barrier at epithelial surfaces where they can cause growth inhibition and killing of susceptible bacteria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common opportunistic pathogen that is less susceptible to sphingosine than many Gram-negative bacteria. Here, we determined that the deletion of the sphBCD operon reduced growth in the presence of sphingosine. Using deletion mutants, complementation and growth assays in P. aeruginosa PAO1, we determined that the sphC and sphB genes, encoding a periplasmic oxidase and periplasmic cytochrome c, respectively, were important for growth on sphingosine, while sphD was dispensable under these conditions. Deletion of sphBCD in P. aeruginosa PA14, Pseudomonas protegens Pf-5 and Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf01 also showed reduced growth in the presence of sphingosine. The P. aeruginosa sphBC genes were also important for growth in the presence of two other sphingoid bases, phytosphingosine and sphinganine. In WT P. aeruginosa, sphingosine is metabolized to an unknown non-inhibitory product, as sphingosine concentrations drop in the culture. However, in the absence of sphBC, sphingosine accumulates, pointing to SphC and SphB as having a role in sphingosine metabolism. Finally, the metabolism of sphingosine by WT P. aeruginosa protected susceptible cells from full growth inhibition by sphingosine, pointing to a role for sphingosine metabolism as a public good. This work shows that the metabolism of sphingosine by P. aeruginosa presents a novel pathway by which bacteria can alter host-derived sphingolipids, but it remains an open question whether SphB and SphC act directly on sphingosine.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder secondary to focal brain lesions: from lesions to networks
Authors: Cotovio Goncalo , Descalco Nelson , Caballero-Insaurriaga Jaime , Martins Daniel , Faro Viana Francisco , Fonseca Catarina , Ramos Joao , Maia Ana , Oliveira Jose , Loucao Nuno , Siddiqi Shan H , Fox Michael D , Barahona-Correa J. Bernardo , Oliveira-Maia Albino J
Published: January 2025

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may develop following brain lesions, but lesion distribution and connectivity patterns are unknown. Methods: OCD-associated lesions, identified from systematic literature search, were traced on common brain space and compared to control lesions (N=608). Topography was analyzed using brain atlases, and lesion location networks computed using normative functional connectivity (N=1000). Lesional network maps (LNMs) were contrasted to data from primary OCD. Results: Among 129 case-descriptions of lesional OCD, traced lesions (n=40) were more specifically located in orbitofrontal cortex bilaterally and right temporal pole, and more connected to orbitofrontal cortex and ventral basal ganglia, bilaterally. LNMs overlapped with primary OCD functional peaks from Neurosynth, revealed abnormal functional connectivity in patients with primary OCD (n=54) compared to controls (n=61), and aligned with brain stimulation targets. Conclusions: Lesional OCD has specific patterns of brain lesion topography and functional connectivity, with LNMs associated to brain functional patterns in primary OCD.
Revealing hidden knowledge in amnestic mice
Authors: Santi Andrea , Moore Sharlen , Fogelson Kelly A. , Wang Aaron , Lawlor Jennifer , Amato Jordan , Burke Kali , Lauer Amanda M. , Kuchibhotla Kishore V.
Published: January 2025

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a form of dementia in which memory and cognitive decline is thought to arise from underlying neurodegeneration. These cognitive impairments, however, are transient when they first appear and can fluctuate across disease progression. Here, we investigate the neural mechanisms underlying fluctuations of performance in amnestic mice. We trained APP/PS1+ mice on an auditory go/no-go task that dissociated learning of task contingencies (knowledge) from its more variable expression under reinforcement (performance). APP/PS1+ exhibited significant performance deficits compared to control mice. Using large-scale two-photon imaging of 6,216 excitatory neurons in 8 mice, we found that auditory cortical networks were more suppressed, less selective to the sensory cues, and exhibited aberrant higher-order encoding of reward prediction compared to control mice. A small sub-population of neurons, however, displayed the opposite phenotype, reflecting a potential compensatory mechanism. Volumetric analysis demonstrated that deficits were concentrated near Aβ plaques. Strikingly, we found that these cortical deficits were reversed almost instantaneously on probe (non-reinforced) trials when APP/PS1+ performed as well as control mice, providing neural evidence for intact stimulus-action knowledge despite variable ongoing performance. A biologically-plausible reinforcement learning model recapitulated these results and showed that synaptic weights from sensory-to-decision neurons were preserved (i.e. intact stimulus-action knowledge) despite poor performance that was due to inadequate contextual scaling (i.e. impaired performance). Our results suggest that the amnestic phenotype is transient, contextual, and endogenously reversible, with the underlying neural circuits retaining the underlying stimulus-action associations. Thus, memory deficits commonly observed in amnestic mouse models, and potentially at early stages of dementia in humans, relate more to contextual drivers of performance rather than degeneration of the underlying memory traces.
Ag+-regulated aptamers to thrombin
Authors: Alieva Rugiya , Sokolova Svetlana , Oleynikov Ilya , Novikov Roman , Zatsepin Timofei , Aralov Andrey , Zavyalova Elena
Published: January 2025

Nucleic acid aptamers are artificial recognition elements with high potential in biotechnology. Approaches for aptamer affinity optimization and activity regulation are required for aptamer-based nanodevices. Here thrombin aptamer affinity was increased by a single nucleotide modification with 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-1,N6-ethenoadenine. Whereas a double modification makes the aptamer activity Ag+-dependent.
Bacteroidales T6SS minor Hcp subunits form heteromers recognising effectors
Authors: San-Miguel Sergio G. , Al-Ammari Manal Kamal Saleh , Kowalska Anna , Sauer Uwe , Batista Paulo Ricardo , Sandblad Linda , Uhlin Bernt Eric , Cisneros David A.
Published: January 2025

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a macromolecular protein complex found in Gram-negative bacteria that mediates intercellular antagonism and gut Bacteroidales use this system to increase their competitiveness. Furthermore, T6SS is a recognized gut colonization factor that influences gut biodiversity. Bacteroidales T6SSs are divergent from their well-characterized Pseudomonadota counterparts. One conserved feature in many Bacteroidales T6SSs is the presence of multiple Hcp proteins with low sequence similarity, encoded within the secretion system’s locus and adjacent to variable effector cassettes. Here we provide evidence that in the Bacteroides fragilis T6SS, these Hcp subunits, similar to other protein export systems function as high and low abundance major and minor subunits. First, we showed that these minor Hcp proteins form a network of interactions. Biochemical characterization of one of the minor Hcp complexes formed between Hcp1 and Hcp2 showed that they form hetero-hexamers with variable stoichiometry. Furthermore, we showed that this complex recognizes the secreted effector Bte1. Our results suggest that these minor subunits function as recognition particles for effectors to mediate secretion and that this is a conserved feature in Bacteroidales T6SS. The functionality of these Hcp-effector modules is encoded in a high-synteny region within T6SS loci, and bioinformatic analyses imply that this arrangement participates in establishing effector variability. Exploiting this feature could pave the way for characterizing numerous Bacteroidales effectors with unknown functions through copurification with their cognate Hcps, unlocking new insights into bacterial interactions and into mechanisms of gut biodiversity establishment.
ESRP2–microRNA-122 axis promotes the postnatal onset of liver polyploidization and maturation
Authors: Bangru Sushant , Chen Jackie , Baker Nicholas , Das Diptatanu , Chembazhi Ullas V. , Derham Jessica M. , Chorghade Sandip , Arif Waqar , Alencastro Frances , Duncan Andrew W. , Carstens Russ P. , Kalsotra Auinash
Published: January 2025

Hepatocyte polyploidy and maturity are critical to acquiring specialized liver functions. Multiple intracellular and extracellular factors influence ploidy, but how they cooperate temporally to steer liver polyploidization and maturation or how post-transcriptional mechanisms integrate into these paradigms is unknown. Here, we identified an important regulatory hierarchy in which postnatal activation of epithelial splicing regulatory protein 2 (ESRP2) stimulates processing of liver-specific microRNA (miR-122) to facilitate polyploidization, maturation, and functional competence of hepatocytes. By determining transcriptome-wide protein–RNA interactions in vivo and integrating them with single-cell and bulk hepatocyte RNA-seq data sets, we delineated an ESRP2-driven RNA processing program that drives sequential replacement of fetal-to-adult transcript isoforms. Specifically, ESRP2 binds the primarymiR-122host gene transcript to promote its processing/biogenesis. Combining constitutive and inducible ESRP2 gain- and loss-of-function mouse models withmiR-122rescue experiments, we demonstrated that timed activation of ESRP2 augments themiR-122-driven program of cytokinesis failure, ensuring the proper onset and extent of hepatocyte polyploidization.
Single-cell Rapid Capture Hybridization sequencing to reliably detect isoform usage and coding mutations in targeted genes
Authors: Peng Hongke , Jabbari Jafar S. , Tian Luyi , Wang Changqing , You Yupei , Chua Chong Chyn , Anstee Natasha S. , Amin Noorul , Wei Andrew H. , Davidson Nadia , Roberts Andrew W. , Huang David , Ritchie Matthew E , Thijssen Rachel
Published: January 2025

Single-cell long-read sequencing has transformed our understanding of isoform usage and the mutation heterogeneity between cells. Despite unbiased in-depth analysis, the low sequencing throughput often results in insufficient read coverage thereby limiting our ability to perform mutation calling for specific genes. Here, we developed a single-cell Rapid Capture Hybridization sequencing (scRaCH-seq) method that demonstrated high specificity and efficiency in capturing targeted transcripts using long-read sequencing, allowing an in-depth analysis of mutation status and transcript usage for genes of interest. The method includes creating a probe panel for transcript capture, using barcoded primers for pooling and efficient sequencing via Oxford Nanopore Technologies platforms. scRaCH-seq is applicable to stored and indexed single-cell cDNA which allows analysis to be combined with existing short-read RNA-seq datasets. In our investigation ofBTKandSF3B1genes in samples from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), we detectedSF3B1isoforms and mutations with high sensitivity. Integration with short-read scRNA-seq data revealed significant gene expression differences inSF3B1-mutated CLL cells, though it did not impact the sensitivity of the anti-cancer drug venetoclax. scRaCH-seq's capability to study long-read transcripts of multiple genes makes it a powerful tool for single-cell genomics.
Neural-network-supported basis optimizer for the configuration interaction problem in quantum many-body clusters: Feasibility study and numerical proof
Authors: Bilous Pavlo , Thirion Louis , Menke Henri , Haverkort Maurits W. , Pálffy Adriana , Hansmann Philipp
Published: January 2025

A neural-network approach to optimize the selection of Slater determinants in configuration interaction calculations for condensed-matter quantum many-body systems is developed. We exemplify our algorithm on the discrete version of the single-impurity Anderson model with up to 299 bath sites. Employing a neural network classifier and active learning, our algorithm enhances computational efficiency by iteratively identifying the most relevant Slater determinants for the ground state wave function. We benchmark our results against established methods and investigate the efficiency of our approach compared to another basis truncation scheme without a neural network. Our algorithm demonstrates a substantial improvement in the efficiency of determinant selection, yielding a more compact and computationally manageable basis without compromising accuracy. Given the straightforward application of our neural-network-supported selection scheme to other model Hamiltonians of quantum many-body clusters, our algorithm can significantly advance selective configuration interaction calculations in the context of correlated condensed matter.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Σ+→pℓ+ℓ−
decays within the standard model and beyond
Authors: Roy Arnab , Tandean Jusak , Valencia German
Published: January 2025

Motivated by the LHCb measurement of the hyperon decay mode Σ+→pμ+μ− and prospects for improvement, we revisit the estimates for the rate and muon forward-backward asymmetry within the standard model and beyond. The standard model prediction has a fourfold ambiguity, and we suggest ways to resolve it with other measurements, including possible studies of Σ+→pe+e− in the BESIII and LHCb experiments. We use the recent BESIII measurements of Σ+→pγ and Σ+→Nπ to reduce the uncertainty in the long-distance contribution to Σ+→pμ+μ−. Beyond the standard model, we consider a general effective Hamiltonian at low energy with ten operators whose Wilson coefficients parametrize the new physics. We derive expressions for the Σ+→pμ+μ− rate and the associated muon forward-backward asymmetry in terms of these coefficients. Finally, we present the constraints on these Wilson coefficients that result from both kaon and hyperon decays and emphasize their complementarity.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Renormalization-group consistent treatment of color superconductivity in the NJL model
Authors: Gholami Hosein , Hofmann Marco , Buballa Michael
Published: January 2025

The Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model and specifically its extension to color superconductivity (CSC) is a popular effective model for investigating dense quark matter. However, the reliability of its results is challenged by cutoff artifacts, which emerge if temperature or chemical potential are of the order of the cutoff energy scales. In this work, we generalize an idea from Braun [], which is based on the requirement of renormalization-group (RG) consistency and has successfully been applied to the two-flavor quark-meson-diquark model, to the NJL model for electrically and color-neutral three-flavor color-superconducting quark matter. To this end, we analyze the medium divergences of the model and eliminate them by appropriate counterterms, introducing three different schemes. We show that the RG consistent treatment removes the cutoff artifacts of the conventional regularization and enables the investigation of CSC matter at higher densities by the model. Our studies reveal the emergence of a so-called d-quark superconducting (dSC) phase within the melting pattern of the color-flavor locked phase at high chemical potentials, consistent with earlier Ginzburg-Landau analyses.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Transverse and spatial structure of light to heavy pseudoscalar mesons in light-cone quark model
Authors: Puhan Satyajit , Kaur Navpreet , Dahiya Harleen
Published: January 2025

In this work, we have investigated the transverse and spatial structure of light (π+(ud¯), K+(us¯)) and heavy (ηc(cc¯), ηb(bb¯), B and D) pseudoscalar mesons using the light-cone quark model. The transverse structure of these particles have been studied using the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution (TMDs). The leading twist unpolarized f1(x,k⊥2) TMD has been solved using the quark-quark correlator. We have predicted the average momenta carried by the quark and antiquark of the considered mesons. For a complete description of mesons, we have also computed the leading twist unpolarized H(x,0,−t) generalized parton distribution (GPD). Further, electromagnetic form factors (EMFFs), along with gravitational form factors (GFFs) have been derived by taking the zeroth and first moments of the unpolarized GPD. These EMFFs are found to be compatible with available lattice simulation results. Further, we have also calculated the parton distribution functions (PDFs) for both the quarks and the antiquarks of these mesons. The PDF sum rule has also been verified.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Searching for a dark matter induced galactic axion gradient
Authors: Hardy Edward , Reig Mario , Smirnov Juri
Published: January 2025

An ultralight axion with CP violating interactions with a dark sector and CP preserving interactions with the visible sector can act as a novel portal between dark matter and the Standard Model. In such theories, dark matter sources an axion field extending over the entire galaxy, the gradient of which can be searched for with precise spin precession experiments. A reinterpretation of existing co-magnetometer data already constrains theories that are consistent with astrophysical bounds, and near-future experiments will begin probing well-motivated models. The required interactions can arise from a confining hidden sector without necessitating fine-tuning of the axion’s mass.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
UV completion of neutral triple gauge couplings
Authors: Ellis John , He Hong-Jian , Xiao Rui-Qing , Zeng Shi-Ping , Zheng Jiaming
Published: January 2025

Neutral triple gauge couplings (nTGCs) are a manifestation of new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM), as they are absent in the SM and are first generated by dimension-8 operators in the SM effective field theory (SMEFT). We study the UV completion of nTGCs in a renormalizable model with vectorlike heavy fermions. We compute the one-loop heavy fermion contributions to nTGC vertices by matching them to dimension-8 operators in the low energy limit. Such fermion loops contain either heavy fermions only or mixture of heavy fermions with light SM fermions. We find that their contributions can induce dimension-8 nTGC effective operators containing two SM Higgs-doublet fields, which are formulated with a complete set of 7 dimension-8 operators generating off-shell CP-even nTGCs. We present the results in terms of SMEFT coefficients and in terms of nTGC vertices (form factors) with two on-shell gauge bosons. In the heavy-light mixing case there appear terms that cannot be accommodated by conventional parametrizations of form factors due to extra logarithmic corrections. We further discuss the implications for probing such UV dynamics via nTGCs at high-energy colliders.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Higher derivative scalar-vector-tensor theories from Kaluza-Klein reductions of Horndeski theory
Authors: Mironov S. , Shtennikova A. , Valencia-Villegas M.
Published: January 2025

It was recently pointed out that some precise photon-Galileon couplings in four dimensions (4D)—inspired by a higher dimensional reduction—are enough to obtain a Horndeski theory that is less constrained by the stringent experimental bounds on the speed of gravitational waves. They imply the constancy of the ratio of speed of gravity to light throughout cosmic evolution. This holds even if we include the general scalar potentials G4(π,X) and G5(π). In this paper we go into the details of this 4D luminal extension of Horndeski theory including its scalar sector. We also present the complete action including the general G5(π,X),G6(π,X) scalar potentials. Thus we show all the U(1) gauge invariant vector Galileons in 4D that result from a Kaluza-Klein dimensional reduction from 5D Horndeski. They provide a coupling of a higher derivative vector to scalar modifications of gravity—namely, without inducing Ostrogradsky ghosts and keeping gauge invariance—in the aim to explore more universal couplings of dark energy to other matter, such as vectors and in particular the photon.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Long-range
CCΦ
gates via radio-frequency-induced Förster resonances
Authors: Ashkarin I. N. , Lepoutre S. , Pillet P. , Beterov I. I. , Ryabtsev I. I. , Cheinet P.
Published: January 2025

Registers of trapped neutral atoms, excited to Rydberg states to induce strong long-distance interactions, are extensively studied for direct applications in quantum computing. Here we present a CCΦ quantum phase gate protocol based on radio-frequency-induced Förster resonant interactions in the array of highly excited Rb87 atoms. The extreme controllability of interactions provided by rf field application enables high-fidelity and robust gate performance for a wide range of parameters of the atomic system, as well as it significantly facilitates the experimental implementation of the gate protocol. Taking into account finite Rydberg states lifetimes, we achieve an average theoretical gate fidelity of 99.27% under room-temperature conditions (improved up to 99.65% in a cryogenic environment), thus showing the protocol compatibility with modern quantum error correction techniques.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Fault-tolerant quantum memory using low-depth random circuit codes
Authors: Nelson Jon , Bentsen Gregory , Flammia Steven T. , Gullans Michael J.
Published: January 2025

Low-depth random circuit codes possess many desirable properties for quantum error correction but have so far only been analyzed in the code capacity setting where it is assumed that encoding gates and syndrome measurements are noiseless. In this work, we design a fault-tolerant distillation protocol for preparing encoded states of one-dimensional random circuit codes even when all gates and measurements are subject to noise. This is sufficient for fault-tolerant quantum memory since these encoded states can then be used as ancillas for Steane error correction. We show through numerical simulations that our protocol can correct erasure errors up to an error rate of 2%. In addition, we also extend results in the code capacity setting by developing a maximum likelihood marginal decoder for depolarizing noise similar to work by Darmawan []. As in their work, we formulate the decoding problem as a tensor network contraction and show how to contract the network efficiently by exploiting the low-depth structure. Replacing the tensor network with a so-called “tropical” tensor network, we also show how to perform minimum weight decoding. With these decoders, we are able to numerically estimate the depolarizing error threshold of finite-rate random circuit codes and show that this threshold closely matches the hashing bound even when the decoding is suboptimal.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Complex Ecosystems Lose Stability When Resource Consumption Is Out of Niche
Authors: Liu Yizhou , Hu Jiliang , Lee Hyunseok , Gore Jeff
Published: January 2025

Natural communities display a rich variety of dynamics, including global stability, multistability, periodic oscillations, and chaotic fluctuations in species abundances. While phenomenological models (e.g., generalized Lotka-Volterra dynamics) can replicate these dynamic behaviors, understanding biological reasons behind the phenomena requires modeling mechanistic interactions. In this study, we employ a simple mechanistic framework wherein numerous species compete for various resources. We discover that a broad spectrum of dynamics emerges when species consume resources that minimally contribute to their own growth—a scenario absent in the traditional MacArthur resource-consumer model. As the discrepancy between growth-promoting resources and those predominantly consumed increases, the traditional regime of global stability transitions into a dynamic regime characterized by fluctuating species abundances and the presence of alternative stable states. We pinpoint the onset of instability through random matrix analysis, finding that the critical discrepancy between growth and consumption depends on the ratio of the number of species to the number of resources. By defining growth-promoting resources as the niches of species, we find a clear mechanistic interpretation: Communities lose stability when resource consumption overlaps more with the niche of species with similar resource preferences, indicating consumption outside one’s own niche. Furthermore, we reveal fundamental symmetries of stability in such systems and extend the stability criterion beyond the scope of random matrix analysis. The overlap between consumption and niche effectively captures the diversity and sizes of attraction basins across different attractor types beyond the instability transition. Thus, our framework offers predictive insights and mechanistic explanations for the complex dynamics arising from resource competition.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Quasiprobabilistic Readout Correction of Midcircuit Measurements for Adaptive Feedback via Measurement Randomized Compiling
Authors: Hashim Akel , Carignan-Dugas Arnaud , Chen Larry , Jünger Christian , Fruitwala Neelay , Xu Yilun , Huang Gang , Wallman Joel J. , Siddiqi Irfan
Published: January 2025

Quantum measurements are a fundamental component of quantum computing. However, on present-day quantum computers, measurements can be more error prone than quantum gates and are susceptible to nonunital errors as well as nonlocal correlations due to measurement crosstalk. While readout errors can be mitigated in postprocessing, this is inefficient in the number of qubits due to a combinatorially large number of possible states that need to be characterized. In this work, we show that measurement errors can be tailored into a simple stochastic error model using randomized compiling, enabling the efficient mitigation of readout errors via quasiprobability distributions reconstructed from the measurement of a single preparation state in an exponentially large confusion matrix. We demonstrate the scalability and power of this approach by correcting readout errors without matrix inversion on a large number of different preparation states applied to a register of eight superconducting transmon qubits. Moreover, we show that this method can be extended to midcircuit measurements used for active feedback via quasiprobabilistic error cancellation, and we demonstrate the correction of measurement errors on an ancilla qubit used to detect and actively correct bit-flip errors on an entangled memory qubit. Our approach enables the correction of readout errors on large numbers of qubits and offers a strategy for correcting readout errors in adaptive circuits in which the results of midcircuit measurements are used to perform conditional operations on nonlocal qubits in real time.

Published by the American Physical Society
2025
Deep learning-based detection of players and teams in soccer videos with positioning heatmap generation
Authors: Tanapatpiboon Atitep , Kusakunniran Worapan , Limroongreungrat Weerawat
Published: January 2025

Purpose

This paper uses computer vision to develop a method for collecting football players’ positions during a match. It also compares the differences between various solutions of the existing object detection models to determine discerning differences. Then, an illustration of the obtained information is created as a heatmap.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed method utilizes a dataset of side-view football broadcast footage to detect the players’ positions on the football at any given moment of the football match. Using YOLO object detection, the players of each team are identified and recorded to create valuable illustrations that the coaches can further analyze, training staff, etc. Using three different implementations of YOLO (YOLOv5m6, YOLOv5l-tph and YOLOv5l-tph-plus) the results will be compared to find out the best implementation for this specific task.

Findings

After each YOLO implementation was trained using the same dataset, the results showed that YOLOv5l-tph performed best, achieving a precision of 0.9868. Meanwhile, YOLOv5l-tph-plus placed second, with a precision of 0.9786. Finally, YOLOv5m6 performed worst, with a precision of 0.8214.

Originality/value

In sports, various analytical information can be extracted from games, whether from statistical records or recorded footage. For “sports analytics,” the goal is to provide valuable insights that are otherwise not obtainable through traditional means, such as merely rewatching past footage. In both the past and the present, there have been multiple attempts at using statistical records to predict or quantify various aspects of the games.
Does shared prosperity affect perceived financial well-being among individual consumers?
Authors: Nga Joyce Koe Hwee , Kesumo Aristo
Published: January 2025

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between shared prosperity and financial well-being from the individual grassroot perspective in Malaysia through the mediating influence of technological empowerment and responsible citizenship. The study also incorporates the effects of political stability on developmental policies such as shared prosperity as well as behavioural mindset change on financial well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employed the quantitative survey method using convenience sampling selected based on ethnicity and income levels. The questionnaire was developed for this study based on extant literature and the Malaysian Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV2030) policy document. The instrument was validated and data was then analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling approach.

Findings

The findings suggest that technological empowerment and responsible citizenship serve as mediators in ensuring that shared prosperity translates into financial well-being. Additionally, political stability and behavioural mindset are crucial in supporting SPV2030 and financial well-being, respectively.

Research limitations/implications

The study highlights the need for political awareness and education, as well as the importance of revising legacy policies and enhancing policy feedback mechanisms to support financial well-being.

Practical implications

This study suggests that individuals need to shift their mindset to create opportunities and take risks to improve their financial status and in embracing shared prosperity. It also calls for the integration of more open policy feedback mechanisms and social mobility through technological empowerment.

Social implications

Socially, this study underscores the importance of social cohesion and mobility, facilitated by technological empowerment, in the pursuit of shared prosperity and financial well-being. It also emphasizes the role of education in fostering political awareness necessary for sustaining these efforts.

Originality/value

This is a nascent study, with its focusing on individual grassroots perspectives and its identification of mediators like technological empowerment and responsible citizenship within the context of a developing, multi-ethnic nation. Methodologically, the study contributes a reliable and valid instrument for the further exploration of shared prosperity and financial well-being in literature.
Strategies for E-retailers to cope with supply chain disruption: a hybrid perspective on sourcing and pricing
Authors: Huang He , Xu Yuchen , Wang Youhao , Zhao Ziwei
Published: January 2025

Purpose

In this digital age and risk society, this study aims to explore innovative strategies for E-retailers during supply chain disruptions to construct a more resilient supply chain system.

Design/methodology/approach

Various game theoretical models are constructed to analyze four supply chain scenarios. Meanwhile, sufficient numerical analysis was conducted to observe the impact of key parameters on supply chain strategies.

Findings

Multiple crucial factors exert a comprehensive influence on E-retailers’ decisions on sourcing and pricing, leading to the diversity and complexity of decision-making conditions. First, with the increased probability of disruption, the purchase quantities of the E-retailer from different suppliers are not in a linear changing pattern, and the total purchase quantity is allocated variably between different suppliers. Second, the variation in disruption severity (partial or complete) results in the shift of decisions between single-sourcing and dual-sourcing. Responsive pricing is conducive to increasing the purchase quantity and profits under partial disruption; its advantages are diminished when completely disrupted. Third, higher commission rates usually have a detrimental impact on profit, whereas responsive pricing may mitigate this impact.

Originality/value

Unlike the previous single perspective, this study innovatively explores strategies from the hybrid perspective of sourcing and pricing. By extracting two key factors (disruption probability and severity), it realizes the scientific characterization of supply chain disruptions. These achievements boost theoretical innovation. Concentrating on E-retailers, it avoids the generalization of conclusions and enhances the application value.
Developing a resilient humanitarian value ecosystem: a systematic review on humanitarian financing using topic modelling
Authors: Guan Chong , Tay Huay Ling , Zhao Qitong
Published: January 2025

Purpose

This study systematically reviews the research landscape of humanitarian financing, identifying key themes and pathways to foster a resilient humanitarian value ecosystem.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic review using BERTopic analysed 1,043 academic publications from the Web of Science database to uncover major themes in humanitarian financing literature.

Findings

Six core themes emerged from the study: Disaster Risk and Climate Change Resilience, Refugee Crises and Humanitarian Health Services, Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies, Supply Chain and Logistics Fundraising, Food Security and Nutrition Insecurity and Global Health Challenges and Disease Control. The study highlights the role of financing in addressing short-term needs and promoting long-term systemic resilience, such as disaster preparedness, healthcare systems and food security.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides a comprehensive overview of key research trends in humanitarian financing. However, the reliance on academic literature limits the inclusion of insights from grey literature and practitioner reports. Future studies should adopt broader data sources and interdisciplinary approaches.

Practical implications

Findings underscore the importance of integrating emergency funds with long-term resilience investments, enhancing financial transparency and advocating innovations to optimise humanitarian operations.

Social implications

The study advocates for interdisciplinary approaches and policies connecting disaster risk reduction, healthcare, climate resilience and food security to build a sustainable humanitarian ecosystem.

Originality/value

This review proposes a novel conceptual framework based on a systematic review of literature using BERTopic, offering actionable insights into the role of humanitarian financing in addressing global crises and promoting resilience.
Matching conflict profiles with contractual and relational governance to enhance cooperation in construction projects: evidence from China
Authors: Zhang Lihan , Liu Bo , Ding Tianhuan , Zhang Sujuan , Fu Yongcheng
Published: January 2025

Purpose

Conflicts frequently occur in construction projects. Matching appropriate contractual and relational governance with conflict features to promote cooperation and thus minimize the negative influences of conflict is an issue that deserves attention. Our study classifies conflict types into task, process and relationship conflict and defines their combinations as conflict profiles. By conceptualizing contractual governance as the complexity of contract provisions and the strictness of contract enforcement and relational governance as trust, our study aims to explore the configurational impacts of conflict profiles and these governance mechanisms on parties’ cooperative behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was conducted, and 238 valid questionnaires were received. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis was performed.

Findings

Four configurations produce cooperative behaviors. The combined use of detailed contracts, rigid enforcement and high trust enhances cooperation and such a governance arrangement is not subject to any conflict profile. A relatively low level of conflict requires detailed contracts and high levels of trust. For the conflict profile characterized by high task and process conflict and low relationship conflict, parties can select contractual governance-dominant or relational governance-dominant approaches.

Originality/value

Theoretically, our study reveals the matching relationships between conflict profiles and governance mechanisms, enriching the research on conflict profiles in construction projects and the interrelation between contractual and relational governance. Practically, the findings provide project managers guidance for conflict management and selecting governance mechanisms.
The mediating effect of employee’s ability, motivation, and opportunity to participate (AMO) on the relationship between investment in Lean Six Sigma training and service recovery performance
Authors: Torno Eduardo
Published: January 2025

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine mediating effect of employee’s ability, motivation and opportunity to participate (AMO) between the investment in lean six sigma training and service recovery performance of an IT service support organization. Moreover, this research examines which among the AMO model components significantly and positively influence service recovery performance. This study also intends to analyze the moderating role of manager support and peer support, leading to improved service recovery performance in the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

The research design explored the relationship among the variables as illustrated by the operational framework of the study. This study used a quantitative approach to analyzing data through descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive part focused on demographic information such as age, gender, education, role in the company and tenure. A graphical summary is used to describe and summarize the demographic data and highlight the measures of central tendency, such as the calculation of mean, median and mode, and the measures of dispersion, such as standard deviation and variation. A correlational design enables the research to determine the relationship among the variables, identify the effect through variability, and the coefficient of determination in identifying patterns in providing empirical evidence for the research objectives.

Findings

The findings of the study revealed that investment in lean six sigma training would significantly and positively influence service recovery performance. The result confirmed the previous empirical research on the correlation between lean six sigma initiatives and the economic benefits achieved by the business, with high-cost recovery rates (Swink and Jacobs (2012) and Shafer and Moeller (2012). It supported the research conducted by Al-Ababneh et al. (2021) and Samer et al. (2017) on the impact of the quality program on service recovery performance improvement. The organization may consider investing in human capital and considers the employees as human assets. Investing in human capital is one of the significant investments an organization can make and the organization can also see a bottom-line benefit from strategically designed training activities according to Mello (2019).

Originality/value

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how AMO model affects the relationship between investment in lean six sigma training and service recovery performance.
Quality of higher education mission statements and relevance to SDGs: the case of African business schools
Authors: Akoto Edward , Akoto Eunice V.
Published: January 2025

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the quality of African business schools (ABSs) mission statements (MSs) based on the number and types of elements and the relevance of the elements to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). MSs are ubiquitous in higher education, but research on ABSs MSs quality and relevance to SDG is non-existent.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative approach with content analysis was used to systematically examine ABSs MSs retrieved from institutional websites. The MSs were analyzed based on an adopted ten-element framework of MSs for quality and relevance to sustainability.

Findings

This study revealed that only 39.4% of the MSs of the top 200 ABSs reviewed were publicly accessible via institutional websites. The examined MS shows a moderate quality (number of elements used) that varied partly by the institutional structural characteristics. On sustainability, six elements of the MS framework were found to be conceptually relevant to SDGs 4, 5, 8, 13 and 17. However, the analysis of ABSs MSs revealed a weak contribution to the SDGs.

Research limitations/implications

Data on some ABSs MSs may have been missed because they are inaccessible, and this study did not measure actual but potential contributions to SDGs via MS elements. A qualitative follow-up study with interviews is necessary to assess how institutions implement the MS elements relevant to the SDGs.

Practical implications

Guidelines for developing and enhancing MSs of African higher education institutions are prescribed to ensure quality and relevance to the current societal needs and for sustainable quality education.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the quality of the ABSs MSs and their comparability across Africa. This study is also the first to operationalize a ten-element framework of MSs and conceptualize how MS elements are linked to the SDGs.
Going green in road races: enhancing runners’ green brand loyalty – the roles of green brand positioning, attitude and identification
Authors: Chen Jin-Long
Published: January 2025

Purpose

This study develops a theoretical framework to explore the influence of green brand positioning on green brand loyalty, examining the mediating effects of green brand attitude and identification.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing an empirical approach, the study administers a questionnaire survey to 546 runners at a road race conducted in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Structural equation modeling is employed to validate the research framework.

Findings

The empirical results demonstrate that green brand positioning directly enhances green brand attitude and identification. High green brand attitude and identification lead to favorable green brand loyalty. Thus, the relationship between green brand loyalty and positioning is mediated by green brand attitude and identification.

Practical implications

To foster green brand loyalty, road race organizations can undertake efforts to enhance the brand positioning of their events.

Originality/value

Few studies have assessed green branding from the perspective of sports participants. This study develops a research framework of green brand loyalty through the lens of runners to address this research gap. The findings show that effective market segmentation strategies are crucial for attracting participants in highly competitive event markets. The findings advance the research field by considering green brand positioning, attitude and identification as factors for improving green brand loyalty.