bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crystallization of antimony sulfide films on stainless steel substrates obtained by sequential chemical bath deposition
Authors: Márquez I. G. , Romano-Trujillo R. , Gracia-Jiménez J. M. , Galeazzi R. , Coyopol A. , Silva-González N. R. , Capistrán-Martínez J. , García G. , Nieto-Caballero F. G. , Morales C.
Published: November 2024

Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) films have been typically deposited on glass substrates, however, there are a few reports about its deposition on stainless steel substrates. In this work, Sb2S3 was successfully deposited on stainless steel substrates for the first time using sequential chemical bath deposition (CBD) at 2 °C and thermally treated at 300 °C by 5 min in air. XRD and Raman spectroscopy analysis revealed that the as deposited Sb2S3 films exhibits an amorphous phase while the thermally treated has a polycrystalline nature with an orthorhombic structure. An increase in (002) crystalline plane was favored with the increases in deposition layers and was not observed an increase in the oxide phases. The optical band gap was calculated directly on stainless steel substrates by diffuse reflectance and Kubelka-Munk function, and was found a band gap of 2.36, 1.78, 1.71 and 1.75 eV for amorphous, 1 layer, 2 layers, and 3 layers, respectively. The SEM analysis revealed that the sequential deposition improves the surfaces of the Sb2S3 films on stainless steel substrates, and the atomic ratio measured by EDS is near to 1, however the properties of Sb2S3 films were not strongly affected. Our results suggest that the properties of Sb2S3 films on stainless steel substrates can be used for the development of flexible solar cells.
Noneconomic public value creation by private ventures: scale development and empirical validation in the academic entrepreneurship context
Authors: Greven Andrea , Beule Thorsten , Fischer-Kreer Denise , Brettel Malte
Published: November 2024

Public value as such and contributions to public value by entrepreneurial universities have been of increasing interest to scholars over the past two decades. However, due to the lack of an adequate measurement scale, scholars have yet to link these research streams properly. While public value research acknowledges the multidimensionality of the construct, academic entrepreneurship research has rather approximated it using different unidimensional economic proxies. As a consequence, there is limited scholarly consensus about public value creation through spin-offs and other academic start-ups. To mitigate this issue and complement existing proxies, our study develops and validates a measure of noneconomic public value creation in the academic entrepreneurship context, capturing the subdimensions of social value creation, customer value creation, and efficient value creation. We employ a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The initial item pool incorporates relevant prior literature and insights from multiple pretests. Using two comprehensive surveys of academic entrepreneurs from Germany and Austria, we quantitatively confirm the reliability and validity of the final three-dimensional 11-item scale and its applicability to the intended context. Furthermore, we pave the way for future research by examining how the university entrepreneurial climate relates to public value creation.
Morin Ameliorates Lipopolysaccharides-Induced Sepsis-Associated Encephalopathy and Cognitive Impairment in Albino Mice
Authors: Mohamed Asmaa R. , Fares Nagui H. , Mahmoud Yomna I.
Published: November 2024

Sepsis-associated encephalopathy is a common neurological complication of sepsis that is characterized by neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and apoptosis, which results in cognitive impairments in septic survivors. Despite numerous treatment options for this condition, none of them are definite. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of morin, a flavone known for its neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects, against lipopolysaccharides-induced sepsis-associated encephalopathy in albino mice for 7 days. Mice were divided into 4 groups: Negative control, morin, septic, and septic morin-treated mice. Sepsis was induced by a single injection of lipopolysaccharides (5 mg/kg, intraperitoneally), morin (50 mg/kg b. wt.) was given orally, starting from 5 h after sepsis induction, then daily for 4 other days. Morin ameliorated septic structural and functional alternations as manifested by improving the survival rate, the behavioral functions, in addition to preserving and protecting the brain tissue. This was accompanied with the augmentation of the total antioxidant capacity, as well as the suppression of tissue levels of the lipid peroxidation marker malondialdehyde, apoptosis (cleaved-caspase-3), glial fibrillary acidic protein, and the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor. In conclusion, morin has a promising ameliorative effect to counteract the sepsis-associated encephalopathy via its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects and to prevent the associated cognitive impairments.
Migration-connected networks of Lotka–Volterra and quasi-polynomial systems: modeling and decentralized control
Authors: Márton Lőrinc , Hangos Katalin M. , Magyar Attila
Published: November 2024

This paper introduces a modeling and a control approach for Lotka-Volterra systems that are interconnected through population size-dependent migration flows. First, a control-oriented model is proposed for networks of Lotka-Volterra systems. Based on this model, a decentralized control method is introduced which assures that the states of each Lotka-Volterra system in the network can be driven into a prescribed setpoint regardless of migration. The results have been generalized to quasi-polynomial systems, and networks of Lotka-Volterra systems having interconnections with distributed delay. Simulation experiments are also presented in the paper to show the implementability of the theoretical results.
Media Exposure to Highly Skilled Immigrants and Attitudes Toward Immigration
Authors: Unan Asli
Published: November 2024

Can exposure to successful immigrants in the mass media affect perceptions of immigrants and alter attitudes toward immigration? To address this question, I study the case of Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin, the co-developers of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and children of Turkish immigrants in Germany. I first demonstrate that German media favorably highlighted the Turkish roots and migration history of vaccine developers. Leveraging the quasi-experimental setting with the announcement of the success of the vaccine, I then posit that the wide broadcasting of the vaccine’s success and its developers’ identity should have positive spillover effects on public attitudes towards immigration. Amongst those who were exposed to this announcement, compared to those who were not, there is a 4 percentage-point increase in support of easing immigration opportunities. I suggest that this effect is driven by a change in perceptions and knowledge on issues relating to immigration and integration. These findings imply that promoting successful immigrants in the media has the potential to diminish prejudice; however, it is crucial to address varying biases toward different immigrant groups.
Deep reinforcement learning-based spatio-temporal graph neural network for solving job shop scheduling problem
Authors: Gebreyesus Goytom , Fellek Getu , Farid Ahmed , Hou Sicheng , Fujimura Shigeru , Yoshie Osamu
Published: November 2024

The job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) is a well-known NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem that focuses on assigning tasks to limited resources while adhering to certain constraints. Currently, deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based solutions are being widely used to solve the JSSP by defining the problem structure on disjunctive graphs. Some of the proposed approaches attempt to leverage the structural information of the JSSP to capture the dynamics of the environment without considering the time dependency within the JSSP. However, learning graph representations only from the structural relationship of nodes results in a weak and incomplete representation of these graphs which does not provide an expressive representation of the dynamics in the environment. In this study, unlike existing frameworks, we defined the JSSP as a dynamic graph to explicitly consider the time-varying aspect of the JSSP environment. To this end, we propose a novel DRL framework that captures both the spatial and temporal attributes of the JSSP to construct rich and complete graph representations. Our DRL framework introduces a novel attentive graph isomorphism network (Attentive-GIN)-based spatial block to learn the structural relationship and a temporal block to capture the time dependency. Additionally, we designed a gated fusion block that selectively combines the learned representations from the two blocks. We trained the model using the proximal policy optimization algorithm of reinforcement learning. Experimental results show that our trained model exhibits significant performance enhancement compared to heuristic dispatching rules and learning-based solutions for both randomly generated datasets and public benchmarks.
Euler–Lagrange equation for gradient-type Lagrangian and related conservation laws
Authors: Treanţă Savin , Dragu Marius-Alin
Published: November 2024

Variational calculus with gradient-type variations has often been neglected, although it proves to be suitable for certain concrete problems governed by several evolution variables. These kinds of variations lead to Euler–Lagrange partial differential equations controlled by the right-hand member. In this context, we also introduce anti-trace Euler–Lagrange partial differential equations that are suitable for some innovative ideas. Also, some applications are provided for the theoretical results derived in the paper.
Response of drought to climate extremes in a semi-arid inland river basin in China
Authors: Qu Zhicheng , Yao Shunyu , Liu Dongwei
Published: November 2024

Against the backdrop of global warming, climate extremes and drought events have become more severe, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. This study forecasted the characteristics of climate extremes in the Xilin River Basin (a semi-arid inland river basin) of China for the period of 2021–2100 by employing a multi-model ensemble approach based on three climate Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5) from the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). Furthermore, a linear regression, a wavelet analysis, and the correlation analysis were conducted to explore the response of climate extremes to the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Streamflow Drought Index (SDI), as well as their respective trends during the historical period from 1970 to 2020 and during the future period from 2021 to 2070. The results indicated that extreme high temperatures and extreme precipitation will further intensify under the higher forcing scenarios (SSP5-8.5>SSP2-4.5>SSP1-2.6) in the future. The SPEI trends under the SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5 scenarios were estimated as −0.003/a, −0.004/a, and −0.008/a, respectively, indicating a drier future climate. During the historical period (1970–2020), the SPEI and SDI trends were −0.003/a and −0.016/a, respectively, with significant cycles of 15 and 22 a, and abrupt changes occurring in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The next abrupt change in the SPEI was projected to occur in the 2040s. The SPEI had a significant positive correlation with both summer days (SU) and heavy precipitation days (R10mm), while the SDI was only significantly positively correlated with R10mm. Additionally, the SPEI and SDI exhibited a strong and consistent positive correlation at a cycle of 4–6 a, indicating a robust interdependence between the two indices. These findings have important implications for policy makers, enabling them to improve water resource management of inland river basins in arid and semi-arid areas under future climate uncertainty.
Neuropsychology of sexuality in older adults: bridging gaps in literature and future directions in research
Authors: Taccini Federica , Rossi Margherita , Mannarini Stefania , De Rui Marina , Ceolin Chiara , Volpe Biancarosa , Sarlo Michela , Mapelli Daniela , Sergi Giuseppe , Devita Maria
Published: November 2024

Sexuality is a fundamental part of human existence and it encompasses thoughts, desires, behaviors, relationships, as well as neuropsychological and physiological components. However, sexuality in older adults is under-researched from the neuropsychological and psychophysiological perspectives and is often neglected by healthcare providers in the clinical practice. This article aims to explore the state of the art on the neuropsychology and psychophysiology of older adults’ sexuality, proposing future research directions and emphasizing its significance. By summarizing current knowledge on the sexuality of younger individuals, it was possible to lay the groundwork for formulating research questions about older adults’ sexuality. The implications proposed in this article will potentially impact both the scientific and also the clinical field. In fact, gaining insights on the neuropsychological and psychophysiological aspects of sexuality in healthy older adults can also shed light into those with neurocognitive disorders.
On the distribution of ocean wave crest heights in varying wave conditions
Authors: Vanem Erik , Gramstad Odin , Babanin Alexander , De Bin Riccardo , Trulsen Karsten
Published: November 2024

This paper addresses the statistical distribution of wave crest heights in ocean environments. This is much needed in several engineering applications including risk and reliability assessment of marine and coastal structures and is an important input for design of ocean structures. However, even though crest height distributions have received a lot of attention within both academia and the industry, current state-of-the-art models have notable shortcomings and do not describe the distribution of crest heights well in all sea states. In particular, commonly used models do not accurately describe the upper tail in certain unstable wave conditions. This will be addressed in this paper, which investigates in what sea-state conditions, established crest height distributions describe the data well and under what conditions, these models fail to fit well to the data. A large dataset of crest heights observed in different sea states is analyzed, and various goodness-of-fit tests are applied to determine when the different statistical models are appropriate. Then rejection rates of the various statistical models will be linked to selected sea-state parameters to identify wave conditions where alternative statistical models are needed. Results from this study indicate that the well-known Forristall distribution, which is known to capture second-order effects well, fails to perform well in some sea states. Different variants of the Tayfun–Fedele distribution are also analyzed, and results suggest that this represent a slight improvement. Somewhat surprisingly, sea-state parameters such as significant wave height ($$H_S$$

H
S

), significant wave steepness ($$S_1$$

S
1

), and the Benjamin–Feir index (BFI) do not seem to be very influential on the probability of rejecting these distributions, even though empirical skewness and kurtosis play a significant role. The implications of this for describing the distribution of crest heights well in certain sea-state conditions are discussed.
Classical ensembles of single-qubit quantum variational circuits for classification
Authors: McFarthing Shane , Pillay Anban , Sinayskiy Ilya , Petruccione Francesco
Published: November 2024

The quantum asymptotically universal multi-feature (QAUM) encoding architecture was recently introduced and showed improved expressivity and performance in classifying pulsar stars. The circuit uses generalized trainable layers of parameterized single-qubit rotation gates and single-qubit feature encoding gates. Although the improvement in classification accuracy is promising, the single-qubit nature of this architecture, combined with the circuit depth required for accuracy, limits its applications on NISQ devices due to their low coherence times. This work reports on the design, implementation, and evaluation of ensembles of single-qubit QAUM classifiers using classical bagging and boosting techniques. We demonstrate an improvement in validation accuracy for pulsar star classification. We find that this improvement is not dataset specific as we observe consistent improvements for the MNIST Digits and Wisconsin Cancer datasets. We also observe that the boosting ensemble achieves an acceptable level of accuracy with only a small amount of training, while the bagging ensemble achieves higher overall accuracy with ample training time. This shows that classical ensembles of single-qubit circuits present a new approach for certain classification problems.
Food, energy, and water security sustainability; an asymmetric approach for achieving sustainable development goals
Authors: Aliyu Umar Shuaibu , Cavusoglu Behiye , Hassanie Souad , Abba Sani I. , Sammen Saad Sh. , Kisi Ozgur
Published: November 2024

The world has arguably identified both output and population growth over time. Thus, the demand for agricultural commodities such as biofuels and the prominent challenges associated with sustainable land use, water, and food development all play a significant role in the development process, as all countries strive to achieve the use of different approaches, such as convergence in output per capita, energy use, water availability, and food production, more safely and ecologically. Therefore, this study is led by Access and Neo-Malthusian theories to investigate the effects of food, energy, and water security sustainability for achieving sustainable development goals using annual data covering 1980 to 2020 to estimate the asymmetric autoregressive distributive lag approach. Accordingly, the results revealed that the effects of positive changes in food, energy, and water security on sustainable development differ significantly from those of negative changes. A 1% change in food production, water supply development, or industrial value addition has a significant positive impact on sustainable development; however, a 1% change in energy use and carbon emission, population growth, or depletion of natural resources has substantial adverse effects on sustainable economic development in both the short run and the long run in Nigeria. The findings also revealed that restoring equilibrium convergence to achieve 2030 SDGs requires 16.2% each year. The study recommends adopting innovative systems that control and help manage available human and natural resources in productive sectors and increase value-added and renewable energy production in Nigeria.
Rumor detection using dual embeddings and text-based graph convolutional network
Authors: Pattanaik Barsha , Mandal Sourav , Tripathy Rudra M. , Sekh Arif Ahmed
Published: November 2024

Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have gradually become vital for communication and information exchange. However, this often leads to the spread of unreliable or false information, such as harmful rumors. Currently, graph convolutional networks (GCNs), particularly TextGCN, have shown promise in text classification tasks, including rumor detection. Their success is due to their ability to identify structural patterns in rumors and effectively use neighborhood information. We present a novel rumor detection model using TextGCN, which utilizes a word-document graph to represent rumor texts. This model uses dual embedding from two pre-trained transformer models: generative pre-trained transformers (GPT) and bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT). These embeddings serve as node representations within the graph, enhancing rumor detection. Combining these deep neural networks effectively extracts significant contextual features from rumors. This graph undergoes convolution, and through graph-based learning, the model detects a rumor. We evaluated our model using publicly available rumor datasets, such as PHEME, Twitter15, and Twitter16. It achieved 88.64% accuracy on the PHEME dataset, surpassing similar models, and performed well on Twitter15 and Twitter16 with accuracies of 81.98% and 83.41%, respectively.
Marie-Antoinette's Legacy
Authors: Taylor-Leduc Susan
Published: November 2024

Challenging the established historiography that frames the French picturesque garden movement as an international style, this book contends that the French picturesque gardens from 1775 until 1867 functioned as liminal zones at the epicenter of court patronage systems. Four French consorts - queen Marie-Antoinette and empresses Joséphine Bonaparte, Marie-Louise and Eugénie - constructed their gardens betwixt and between court ritual and personal agency, where they transgressed sociopolitical boundaries in order to perform gender and identity politics. Each patron endorsed embodied strolling, promoting an awareness of the sentient body in artfully contrived sensoria at the Petit Trianon and Malmaison, transforming these places into spaces of shared affectivity. The gardens became living legacies, where female agency, excluded from the garden history canon, created a forum for spatial politics. Beyond the garden gates, the spatial experience of the picturesque influenced the development of cultural fields dedicated to performances of subjectivity, including landscape design, cultural geography and the origination of landscape aesthetics in France.
Perinatal stress and anxiety in Ireland: experiences and support needs
Authors: Looney Eibhlin , Houghton Catherine , Redsell Sarah , Matvienko-Sikar Karen
Published: November 2024

Objectives:

Perinatal stress and anxiety from conception to two years postpartum have important adverse outcomes for women and infants. This study examined (i) women’s perception of sources and experiences of perinatal stress and anxiety, (ii) women’s attitudes to and experiences of available supports, and (iii) women’s preferences for perinatal stress and anxiety supports in Ireland.

Methods:

An online mixed-methods cross-sectional survey was conducted with 700 women in Ireland. Participants were pregnant women (n = 214) or mothers of children ≤ 2 years old (n = 486). Participants completed closed-ended questionnaires on sociodemographic, birth and child factors, and on stress, anxiety, perceived social support, and resilience. Participants completed open-ended questions about experiences of stress and anxiety and the supports available for stress and anxiety during pregnancy and/or postpartum. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and using correlations; qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results:

Quantitative data indicated significant relationships between perinatal stress and/or anxiety and women’s perceived social support, resilience, having a previous mental health disorder diagnosis (both p < 0.001), and experiencing a high-risk pregnancy or pregnancy complications (p < 0.01). Themes developed in qualitative analyses included: ‘perceived responsibilities’; ‘self-care’; ‘care for maternal health and well-being’; ‘social support’; and ‘access to support and information’.

Conclusions:

Women’s stress and anxiety are impacted by multiple diverse factors related to the individual, to interpersonal relationships, to perinatal health and mental health outcomes, and to available services and supports. Development of support-based individual-level interventions and increased peer support, coupled with improvements to service provision is needed to provide better perinatal care for women in Ireland.
Neurodiversity and inclusive social value management practices
Authors: Ratten Vanessa
Published: November 2024

The neurodiversity movement takes a societal view of individual differences by suggesting that people should be respected and not necessarily medically treated based on personal attributes. This commentary article discusses how human differences in intellectual capacities should be considered as another form of diversity with the requirement for medical intervention needing to be considered in terms of overall social change. As a significant portion of the overall workforce could be considered as people with some form of neurological disability this article analyses how co-creation processes occur meaning neurodiverse individuals should be accepted in society regardless of their differences. This article contributes to societal discussions around managing diversity as in society the socio-demographic categories such as age and gender are well established, but newer categories such as neurodiversity are required.
Space Environmental Effects on Multifunctional Radiation Shielding Materials
Authors: Sen Subhayu , O’Dell John Scott , Yan Yongzhe , Heilbronn Lawrence , Ning Haibin , Finckenor Miria , Carrico Meghan , Pillay Selvum
Published: November 2024

The two primary material requirements for a crewed habitat or spacecraft to operate beyond low earth orbit (LEO) include effective radiation shielding against the space radiation and secondary neutron environment and sufficient structural and thermal integrity. In this context it is mandatory to study the effect of long duration space environment on any proposed multifunctional radiation shielding material. In this paper we discuss two radiation shielding composite architectures and their long duration performance in LEO. Samples were flown on NASA's The Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) platform and their structural, optical, and radiation shielding capabilities were characterized pre and post flight. Results showed composite architecture can be key in determining expected damage irrespective of sample placement orientation on the space station. A surface layer with a protective or sacrificial coating can be instrumental in minimizing property degradation even when exposed to orientations with high estimated sun hours and high fluence of atomic oxygen.
The West Pacific Teleconnection Drives the Interannual Variability of Autumn Wildfire Weather in the Western United States After 2000
Authors: Liu Shizuo , Hu Shineng , Seager Richard
Published: November 2024

Wildfires pose a significant threat to human society as severe natural disasters. The western United States (US) is one hotspot that has experienced dramatic influences from autumn wildfires especially after 2000, but what has caused its year‐to‐year variations remains poorly understood. By analyzing observational and atmospheric reanalysis datasets, we found that the West Pacific (WP) pattern centered in the western North Pacific acted as a major climatic factor to the post‐2000 autumn wildfire activity by inducing anomalous high pressure over the western US via teleconnections with increased surface temperature, decreased precipitation, and reduced relative humidity. The WP pattern explains about one‐third of the post‐2000 years‐to‐year variance of the western US autumn wildfires. These effects were found to be much weaker in the 1980–1990s, as the active region of WP‐associated high pressure was confined to the eastern North Pacific. Such eastward shift of the WP teleconnection pattern and its resultant, enhanced influence on the weather conditions of western US autumn wildfire after 2000 are also captured by the sea surface temperature (SST)‐forced atmospheric model simulations with the Community Atmosphere Model version 6 (CAM6). The CAM6 ensemble‐mean changes in the WP teleconnection pattern at 2000 is about half of the observed changes, which implies that external radiative forcing and/or SST changes have played an important role in the WP pattern shift. Our results highlight a pressing need to consider the joint impacts of atmospheric internal variability and externally forced climate changes when studying the interannual variations of wildfire activity.
Crafting Signs for Geoscience’s Future
Authors: Cartier Kimberly
Published: November 2024

Deaf geoscientists are creating the language to communicate their science as well as helping the community grow and thrive.
Hydroacoustic Observations Reveal Drivers of Mixing and Salinization of a Karst Subterranean Estuary During Intense Precipitation
Authors: Ganju Neil K. , Pohlman John W. , Suttles Steven E. , Brankovits David
Published: November 2024

Karst subterranean estuaries within globally ubiquitous carbonate aquifers are coastal groundwater ecosystems that provide an essential water resource for human populations. To understand the drivers of salinization within a coastal aquifer in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), we employed hydroacoustics in flooded caves to observe how oceanic and atmospheric events facilitate mixing between the meteoric lens (fresh‐brackish groundwater) and the saline groundwater on tidal and episodic timescales. Precipitation during Tropical Storm Carlotta increased the flow and salinity of the meteoric lens without evidence for vertical mixing across the halocline. We postulate that vertical migration of haloclines in the conduit relative to those within the rock matrix during precipitation creates lateral density gradients that drive mixing, and ultimately creates a brackish layer within the meteoric lens. These results provide a mechanistic explanation for vertical and lateral exchange in a coastal carbonate aquifer, which has implications for groundwater response to future climatic change.
Satellite Geodesy Uncovers 15 m of Slip on a Detachment Fault Prior to the 2018 Collapse at Anak Krakatau, Indonesia
Authors: Kim Young Cheol , Wauthier Christelle , Walter Thomas R.
Published: November 2024

On 22 December 2018, parts of the Anak Krakatau edifice collapsed, triggering a deadly tsunami. To investigate pre‐collapse surface displacements, we analyzed Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite geodetic data from 2006 to 2018, acquired from ALOS‐1 (2006–2011), COSMO‐SkyMED (2012–2018), and Sentinel‐1 (2014–2018). We identified line‐of‐sight displacements on the southwestern flank throughout the study period. Inversion of COSMO‐SkyMED data revealed a rectangular dislocation with a cumulative slip of 12 m from April 2012 to December 2018. Fixing the fault geometry, we found the optimal slip for time periods corresponding to slip rate changes, ranging from 1.2 to 3.1 m/yr. The slip estimates for ALOS‐1 and Sentinel‐1 data were 0.88 m/yr and 1.1 m/yr, respectively, over their individual time periods. Overall, the detachment fault experienced approximately 15 m of slip from 2006 to 2018 with acceleration and deceleration periods, and a notable acceleration prior to the 2018 collapse.
Propagations From Extreme Integrated Vapor Transport to Extreme Precipitation Events in North America
Authors: Li Xiaodong , Zhao Tongtiegang
Published: November 2024

Extreme integrated vapor transport (IVT) is a crucial driving factor of extreme precipitation events (EPEs). This paper presents a complex network‐based characterization of propagations from extreme IVT to EPEs. Specifically, the propagations are tracked from extreme IVT to EPEs by event synchronization; and then the source zones of extreme IVT contributing to EPEs are identified by two‐layer complex network. A case study is devised for North America based on the daily NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1 from 1948 to 2021. Overall, eight communities of EPEs are identified: the west coast of United States (US) tend to receive substantial EPEs from the Pacific Ocean; the Gulf of Alaska tends to receive oceanic EPEs propagating inland; western Canada typically experiences large amount of out tendencies and the EPEs tend to accumulate in the Baffin Island and Labrador Peninsula; the southeastern US and the northern Great Plains tend to experience northward propagations from Mexico. Along the west coast of North America, the propagations from extreme IVT to EPEs typically originate from the eastern North Pacific between 160°W and 110°W, and make landfalls in 4 days. These propagations are influenced by anomalous cyclonic circulations developing over the Gulf of Alaska forced by eastward Rossby waves. The coincidence rate of these propagations with atmospheric rivers is, respectively, 85.31% in autumn, 91.35% in winter, 73.94% in spring, and 64.52% in summer. Overall, the observed propagations from extreme IVT to EPEs yield insights into the mechanism of atmospheric moisture transport and the predictability of precipitation.
Nitrate Loads From Land to Stream Are Balanced by In‐Stream Nitrate Uptake Across Seasons in a Dryland Stream Network
Authors: Handler Amalia M. , Helton Ashley M. , Grimm Nancy B.
Published: November 2024

Exploring nitrogen dynamics in stream networks is critical for understanding how these systems attenuate nutrient pollution while maintaining ecological productivity. We investigated Oak Creek, a dryland watershed in central Arizona, USA, to elucidate the relationship between terrestrial nitrate (NO3−) loading and stream NO3− uptake, highlighting the influence of land cover and hydrologic connectivity. We conducted four seasonal synoptic sampling campaigns along the 167‐km network combined with stream NO3− uptake experiments (in 370–710‐m reaches) and integrated the data in a mass‐balance model to scale in‐stream uptake and estimate NO3− loading from landscape to the stream network. Stream NO3− concentrations were low throughout the watershed (<5–236 μg N/L) and stream NO3− vertical uptake velocity was high (5.5–18.0 mm/min). During the summer dry (June), summer wet (September), and winter dry (November) seasons, the lower mainstem exhibited higher lateral NO3− loading (10–51 kg N km−2 d−1) than the headwaters and tributaries (<0.001–0.086 kg N km−2 d−1), likely owing to differences in irrigation infrastructure and near‐stream land cover. In contrast, during the winter wet season (February) lateral NO3− loads were higher in the intermittent headwaters and tributaries (0.008–0.479 kg N km−2 d−1), which had flowing surface water only in this season. Despite high lateral NO3− loading in some locations, in‐stream uptake removed >81% of NO3− before reaching the watershed outlet. Our findings highlight that high rates of in‐stream uptake maintain low nitrogen export at the network scale, even with high fluxes from the landscape and seasonal variation in hydrologic connectivity.
High blood pressure in the emergency department as an opportunistic screening tool for detection of hypertension
Authors: Bentzel Sara , Manhem Karin , Öhman Ottilia , Abdulla Karzan , Mourtzinis Georgios
Published: November 2024

Hypertension is the most preventable cause of morbidity and mortality, but many individuals are underdiagnosed and lack treatment control. High blood pressure (BP) in the emergency department (ED) is commonly observed, but mostly used for short-term evaluation. We aimed to study the usefulness of high BP in the ED as a screening tool for undiagnosed hypertension. We used the electronic medical record system to identify all patients that had attended the ED at a university hospital from 2018-01-01 to 2018-03-31 and from 2018-07-01 to 2018-09-30 with an obtained systolic BP ≥ 160 and/or diastolic BP ≥ 100 mmHg measured at the ED. We excluded patients with previously diagnosed hypertension and patients on BP-lowering medication. All patients identified where contacted two years after attending the ED, with a letter of consent and a questionnaire regarding diagnosis of hypertension and current medication. 5424 patients attended the ED during the 6-months-period. 271 patients met the inclusion criteria and were asked to participate. 167 individuals (62%) agreed to participate and responded to the questionnaire. Mean age of participants were 63.1 years and 51% were women. 134 patients (80%) had measured their BP after the ED-visit, and 48 (36%) of those had been diagnosed with hypertension. 96% of patients diagnosed with hypertension were on BP-lowering medication. To follow-up BP ≥ 160/100 mmHg after an ED visit can reveal undiagnosed hypertension in one third of the patients. Given the amount of undiagnosed hypertension, an ED-measured BP might provide an important tool to detect and start treatment of hypertension.
Association of whole blood essential metals with neurodevelopment among preschool children
Authors: Shen Ying , Zhang Wanting , Jin Huyi , Guo Fanjia , Jin Mingjuan , Chen Guangdi
Published: November 2024

Background

Essential metals may play roles in neurodevelopment. The aim was to evaluate the associations of magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) levels with neurodevelopment among preschool children.

Methods

The medical records of eligible children enrolled between January 2019 and July 2022 were retrospectively reviewed for required information. The quantitative measurement of metals was conducted using atomic absorption spectroscopy, while screening of neurodevelopment was performed using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Modified Poisson regression and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) analyses were used to evaluate the prevalence ratio (PR) of their independent and joint associations.

Results

662 (14.8%) children were found to have possible neurodevelopmental delays. Modified Poisson regression showed that Mg, Cu, and Zn levels were independently and negatively associated with the risk of neurodevelopmental delay. The PRs (95% CIs) for per log2 increment of the above metals were 0.35 (0.19–0.62), 0.57 (0.42–0.77), and 0.63 (0.42–0.96). These negative associations were more pronounced in the gross motor and personal-social domains while considering the concrete five domains. BKMR showed a negative association of metal mixture with the risk of neurodevelopmental delay.

Conclusion

Mg, Cu, and Zn were inversely associated with neurodevelopmental delay. Sufficient essential metal levels are important for neurodevelopment.

Impact

Essential metals play a key role in neurodevelopment. The association of essential metal mixture with neurodevelopment is relatively scarce.

Preschool children with possible neurodevelopmental delay are found to have lower Mg, Cu, and Zn levels than their counterparts.

Single Mg, Cu, Zn levels, and elevated essential metal mixture are negatively associated with the risk of possible neurodevelopmental delay.
FATS inhibits the Wnt pathway and induces apoptosis through degradation of MYH9 and enhances sensitivity to paclitaxel in breast cancer
Authors: Song Jin-Xuan , Wang Yue , Hua Zhi-Peng , Huang Yue , Hu Lin-Fei , Tian Meng-Ran , Qiu Li , Liu Hong , Zhang Jun
Published: November 2024

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent and diverse malignancies, and, with global cases increasing, the need for biomarkers to inform individual sensitivity to chemotherapeutics has never been greater. Our retrospective clinical analysis predicted that the expression of the fragile site-associated tumor suppressor (FATS) gene was associated with the sensitivity of breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel. In vitro experiments subsequently demonstrated that FATS significantly increased the inhibitory effects of paclitaxel on breast cancer cells’ migration, growth, and survival. An interaction screen revealed that FATS interacted with MYH9 and promoted its degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, thereby downregulating Wnt signaling. By overexpressing FATS and MYH9, we demonstrated that FATS enhanced paclitaxel-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells by degrading MYH9 to downregulate the Wnt pathway. We also demonstrated in a mouse xenograft model that FATS significantly increased the chemosensitivity of breast cancer cells to paclitaxel in vivo. This study presents a new mechanism by which FATS interacts with MYH9 to suppress the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and induce apoptosis, thus enhancing the sensitivity of breast cancer cells to paclitaxel chemotherapy. The results also propose novel biomarkers for predicting breast cancer sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel. Finally, we provide in vivo evidence that the combination of paclitaxel with IWR-1, a novel Wnt pathway inhibitor, synergistically suppresses breast cancer growth, laying the foundation for future trials with this drug combination. These results therefore provide a number of potential solutions for more precise treatment of patients with breast cancer in the future.
EZH2 inhibition sensitizes retinoic acid-driven senescence in synovial sarcoma
Authors: Mushtaq Muhammad , Liaño-Pons Judit , Wang Jiansheng , Alzrigat Mohammad , Yuan Ye , Ruiz-Pérez María Victoria , Chen Yi , Kashuba Elena , Haglund de Flon Felix , Brodin Bertha , Arsenian-Henriksson Marie
Published: November 2024

Synovial sarcoma (SS) is driven by a unique t(18;X) chromosomal translocation resulting in expression of the SS18-SSX fusion oncoprotein, a transcriptional regulator with both activating and repressing functions. However, the manner in which SS18-SSX contributes to the development of SS is not entirely known. Here, we show that SS18-SSX drives the expression of Preferentially Expressed Antigen in Melanoma (PRAME), which is highly expressed in SS but whose function remains poorly understood. The fusion protein directly binds and activates the PRAME promoter and we found that expression of SS18-SSX and PRAME are positively correlated. We provide evidence that PRAME modulates retinoic acid (RA) signaling, forming a ternary complex with the RA receptor α (RARα) and the Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 (EZH2). Knockdown of PRAME suppressed the response to all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) supporting PRAME’s role in modulating RA-signaling. Notably, we demonstrate that combined pharmacological inhibition of EZH2 and treatment with ATRA reconstituted RA signaling followed by reduced proliferation and induction of cellular senescence. In conclusion, our data provides new insights on the role of the SS18-SSX fusion protein in regulation of PRAME expression and RA signaling, highlighting the therapeutic potential of disrupting the RARα-PRAME-EZH2 complex in SS.
Broad-spectrum inflammasome inhibition by thiomuscimol
Authors: Anderson Marisa J. , den Hartigh Andreas B. , Loomis Wendy P. , Fink Susan L.
Published: November 2024

Inflammasome formation, arising from pathogen or internal activating signals, is a key step in canonical pyroptosis, a gasdermin-mediated inflammatory cell death. Inhibition of pyroptosis has great clinical relevance due to its involvement in many different disease states. Current inhibitors of pyroptosis either only inhibit the final lytic step, which still allows inflammatory signal release, or only inhibit a single inflammasome, which does not account for inherent redundancy in activation of other inflammatory pathways. Here, we show that thiomuscimol, a structural analog of the lysis inhibitor muscimol, exhibits unique inhibitory activity upstream of plasma membrane rupture. We find that thiomuscimol inhibits inflammasome formation, as well as downstream caspase-1 activation, initiated by multiple pyroptotic signals, regardless of whether NLR recruitment of caspase-1 to the inflammasome relies on the ASC adapter protein. The ability of thiomuscimol to block multiple different inflammasomes opens the door for development of therapeutics with increased applications to broadly inhibit pyroptosis in multiple pathological settings.
Web-based pulmonary telehabilitation: a systematic review
Authors: Ayala-Chauvin Manuel , Chicaiza Fernando A. , Acosta-Vargas Patricia , Jadan Janio , Maldonado-Garcés Verónica , Ortiz-Prado Esteban , Acosta-Vargas Gloria , Carrión-Toro Mayra , Santórum Marco , Gonzalez-Rodriguez Mario , Madera Camila , Esparza Wilmer
Published: November 2024

Web-based pulmonary telerehabilitation (WBPTR) can serve as a valuable tool when access to conventional care is limited. This review assesses a series of studies that explore pulmonary telerehabilitation programmes delivered via web-based platforms. The studies involved participants with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Of the 3190 participants, 1697 engaged in WBPTR platforms, while the remaining 1493 comprised the control groups. Sixteen studies were included in the meta-analysis. Web-based pulmonary telerehabilitation led to an increase in daily step count (MD 446.66, 95% CI 96.47 to 796.86), though this did not meet the minimum clinically important difference. Additionally, WBPTR did not yield significant improvements in the six-minute walking test (MD 5.01, 95% CI − 5.19 to 15.21), health-related quality of life as measured by the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (MD − 0.15, 95% CI − 2.24 to 1.95), or the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (MD 0.17, 95% CI − 0.13 to 0.46). Moreover, there was no significant improvement in dyspnoea-related health status, as assessed by the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (MD − 0.01, 95% CI − 0.29 to 0.27) or the modified Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale (MD − 0.14, 95% CI − 0.43 to 0.14). Based on these findings, this review concludes that WBPTR does not offer substantial advantages over traditional care. While slight improvements in exercise performance were observed, no meaningful enhancements were noted in dyspnoea or quality of life metrics. Overall, WBPTR remains a complementary and accessible option for managing and monitoring COPD patients. However, further research and innovation are required to improve its efficacy and adapt it to various clinical environments.
Improved nutritional value of surplus bread and perennial ryegrass via solid-state fermentation with Rhizopus oligosporus
Authors: Sandoval Juan F. , Gallagher Joe , Rodriguez-Garcia Julia , Whiteside Kerry , Bryant David N.
Published: November 2024

Solid-state fermentation (SSF) is a sustainable method to convert food waste and plant biomass into novel foods for human consumption. Surplus bread crusts (BC) have the structural capacity to serve as an SSF scaffold, and their nutritional value could be increased in combination with perennial ryegrass (PRG), a biorefining feedstock with high-quality protein but an unpleasant sensory profile. SSF with Rhizopus oligosporus was investigated with these substrates to determine if the overall nutritional value could be increased. The BC-PRG SSFs were conducted for up to 72 h, over which time the starch content had decreased by up to 89.6%, the total amino acid (AA) content increased by up to 141.9%, and the essential amino acid (EAA) content increased by up to 54.5%. The BC-PRG SSF demonstrated that this process could potentially valorise BC and PRG, both widely available but underexplored substrates, for the production of alternative proteins.
Future land use maps for the Netherlands based on the Dutch One Health Shared Socio-economic Pathways
Authors: Dellar Martha , Geerling Gertjan , Kok Kasper , van Bodegom Peter M. , van der Schrier Gerard , Schrama Maarten , Boelee Eline
Published: November 2024

To enable detailed study of a wide variety of future health challenges, we have created future land use maps for the Netherlands for 2050, based on the Dutch One Health Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs). This was done using the DynaCLUE modelling framework. Future land use is based on altitude, soil properties, groundwater, salinity, flood risk, agricultural land price, distance to transport hubs and climate. We also account for anticipated demand for different land use types, historic land use changes and potential spatial restrictions. These land use maps can be used to model many different health risks to people, animals and the environment, such as disease, water quality and pollution. In addition, the Netherlands can serve as an example for other rapidly urbanising deltas where many of the health risks will be similar.