bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sheffer-Dunkl Sequences Via Umbral Calculus in the Dunkl Context
Authors: Gil Asensi Alejandro , Mínguez Ceniceros Judit , Varona Juan Luis
Published: September 2024

Umbral calculus refers to a series of techniques that can be used to prove some polynomial formulas. Nowadays, it mostly involves the study of Sheffer sequences. In this paper, we focus on a generalization of umbral calculus in a Dunkl context (that we call Dunkl-umbral calculus). Here, the operators of classical umbral calculus are naturally replaced by operators of the Dunkl theory on the real line. In this context we define for the first time Sheffer-Dunkl sequences, $$\{s_{n,\alpha }(x)\}_{n=0}^\infty $$

{

s

n
,
α

(
x
)

}

n
=
0

∞

, and provide some properties and examples. We also connect, via Dunkl-umbral calculus, properties of some polynomials in a Dunkl sense that have appeared in the literature in the recent years, like Bernoulli-Dunkl or Euler-Dunkl polynomials.
How to Support Teacher Learning of Integrated STEM Curriculum Design
Authors: Stevenson Emma , van Driel Jan , Millar Victoria
Published: September 2024

As science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) education continues to be a focus in many schools internationally, STEM teacher learning programs have arisen to support teachers with this integrated approach. Common to STEM teacher programs is teachers creating integrated STEM curriculum; however, missing from this research is how teachers develop the knowledge and skills needed to undertake this curriculum design. Consequently, for those designing STEM teacher programs, the literature provides limited understanding of how to support teachers’ learning of integrated curriculum design. This qualitative study investigated STEM teacher programs at ten Australian universities to identify the learning experiences that are perceived to be most valuable by teachers and teacher educators when learning how to design STEM education curriculum. Analysis of curriculum documents and the experiences of 23 individuals involved in STEM teacher programs (i.e., teacher educators, teachers) highlighted that a range of learning experiences is valuable for supporting teachers to develop the necessary knowledge and skills for STEM education curriculum design. Due to their breadth of learning potential, activities like STEM teaching resource analysis, and immersion in STEM education have a particularly important role to play in supporting teacher learning of the content, integration, and teaching required for STEM curriculum design.
Emotion Regulation is Associated with Increases in Linguistic Measures of Both Psychological Distancing and Abstractness
Authors: Nook Erik C. , Ahn Hayoung E. , Schleider Jessica L. , Somerville Leah H.
Published: September 2024

Emerging research shows that distancing one’s language by reducing the use of “I” and present-tense verbs is associated with more successful emotion regulation. However, construal level theory posits that increasing psychological distance should also shift mental representations to be more abstract. Here, we test whether successful emotion regulation is related to linguistic measures of both abstractness and psychological distance in two emotion regulation experiments reported previously (N1 = 217, N2 = 464). As hypothesized, we found that (i) linguistic measures of psychological distancing and abstractness were highly correlated, (ii) linguistic abstractness increased when people used cognitive reappraisal strategies to regulate their responses to negative images, (iii) instructing participants to distance their language by not using the word “I” increased linguistic abstractness, and (iv) the extent to which people made their language more abstract while regulating correlated with regulation success. These results extend theoretical arguments that psychological distance and abstract construals are strongly connected in the mind. Furthermore, they provide novel evidence that successful cognitive reappraisal is associated with more abstract representations of stimuli and that this cognitive shift can be achieved merely by shifting one’s language.
Children’s and Adolescent’s Use of Context in Judgments of Emotion Intensity
Authors: Leitzke Brian T. , Cochrane Aaron , Stein Andrea G. , DeLap Gwyneth A. , Green C. Shawn , Pollak Seth D.
Published: September 2024

The ability to infer others’ emotions is important for social communication. This study examines three key aspects of emotion perception for which relatively little is currently known: (1) the evaluation of the intensity of portrayed emotion, (2) the role of contextual information in the perception of facial configurations, and (3) developmental differences in how children perceive co-occurring facial and contextual information. Two experiments examined developmental effects on the influence of congruent, incongruent, and neutral situational contexts on participants’ reasoning about others’ emotions, both with and without emotion labels. Experiment 1 revealed that participants interpreted others’ emotions to be of higher intensity when facial movements were congruent with contextual information. This effect was greater for children compared to adolescents and adults. Experiment 2 showed that without verbal emotion category labels, adults relied less on context to scale their intensity judgments, but children showed an opposite pattern; in the absence of labels, children relied more on contextual information than facial information. Making accurate inferences about others’ internal states is a complex learning task given high variability within and across individuals and contexts. These data suggest changes in attention to perceptual information as such learning occurs.
Toward long-term and high-precision multimodal intracranial biomarker monitoring
Authors: Liu Junduo , Yuan Ming , Li Baijun , Long Yunxiang , Zhao Jia , Lin Ting , Xu Feng , Wang Jun , Fang Yunsheng
Published: September 2024

Long-term and high-precision intracranial biomarker monitoring is crucial for the diagnosis, prevention, and prognosis of various diseases. However, existing technologies are associated with several issues of poor measurement accuracy, inability to monitor long-term and inadequate biocompatibility. To address these, minimally invasive implantable ultrasound metagel sensors have been developed for monitoring intracranial pressure, temperature, pH, and blood flow velocity. The sensor can quickly respond to changes in ultrasound frequency for high-precision monitoring of key physiological signals compared to current clinical gold standards. Additionally, the hydrogel exhibits excellent biocompatibility and can degrade almost completely within 18 weeks, without causing hematological disorders or systemic inflammatory responses.
Operating between ports inside and outside emission control areas and its effect on shipping cost
Authors: Li Lingyue , Yang Jing , Zhang Haoran , Liu Di
Published: September 2024

Emission Control Areas (ECAs) have been established to mitigate the environmental impact of maritime transportation, significantly affecting ship operations and costs. While previous studies have examined optimal sailing strategies within ECAs, most have been limited by the inability to provide precise latitude and longitude coordinates for the optimal sailing path. Furthermore, there is limited research on scenarios where ships operate between ports inside and outside ECAs, a common occurrence in global shipping. This study addresses these gaps by investigating the optimal sailing patterns for ships operating between ports located inside and outside ECAs. A mixed integer nonlinear programming model is developed to minimize fuel costs while complying with ECA regulations, determining optimal speeds inside and outside the ECA and latitude and longitude coordinates of ECA entry/exit point. By analyzing 204 routes in the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico ECA, this study reveals that sailing pattern optimization is economically beneficial on over 76% of routes, a higher proportion than scenarios where both ports are within ECAs. Two critical factors influencing optimal sailing pattern selection are identified: the proportion of the sailing distance inside the ECA to the total sailing distance under the original sailing pattern (S) and fuel price ratio inside and outside the ECA. Unlike the scenario where both ports are within ECAs, S emerges as the primary determinant of strategy selection. This finding contributes to the understanding of ship behavior under ECA regulations in more complex routing scenarios and provides valuable insights for both shipping operators and policymakers.
Assemblages in Flight: Flickering Ontologies and Wildness in the Formation of Multispecies Assemblages
Authors: Renshaw Peter , Jackson Kirsty , Tooth Ron
Published: September 2024

In this article, we adopt assemblage as methodology and as a way to foreground the vitality and relational agency of other species as they encounter humans. Research as assemblage is a process of becoming with others, and we experienced that ontological process during three environmental excursions as we became entangled in multispecies assemblages with children, the Crow, the Sea Eagle and the Bee. The production of the three assemblages and the rhizomic networks that formed materially and discursively across time occurred within an affective milieu characterised by sensory attentiveness and attunement to the affective power of coincidence. Analysing the formation and reformation of the assemblages enabled us to identify the phenomenon of “ontological flickering” where the ontological foundation of experience shifted moment by moment and remained playfully unresolved. We also consider how multispecies encounters relate to wildness, understood in Thoreau’s terms as unsettling encounters with otherness. In concluding, we recognise our incomplete becoming with others as co-authors and acknowledge the Crow the Sea Eagle and the Bee as powerful teachers.
Navigating Approaches to “Thinking With”: A Discussion of the Practicalities of Posthuman Research Involving Young Children
Authors: Boileau Elizabeth Y. S.
Published: September 2024

Though there has been a marked increase in research driven by posthumanist theory and inspired by the common worlds research approach, practical approaches to conducting this type of research have not been well documented and shared within the literature. This article explores the process of navigating the planning and conducting of research that aims to think with more-than-human worlds. Three research methods that were applied in a study involving young children in a forest school program are described: (1) non-participant observation, (2) observing the park through “sit spots,” and (3) the use of wearable cameras to film a different perspective. I explore each of these as a way to guide other researchers grappling with the tensions and challenges of conducting posthumanist research. Any combination of these methods could be considered within research that aims to disrupt the dominant anthropocentric lens in early childhood education for sustainability and beyond.
Thinking with Forests as Sentient Societies: Towards a Pedagogy and Ethic of Immanent Care
Authors: Rousell David , Tran Jessica
Published: September 2024

While Indigenous knowledges have long recognised forests as sentient and caring societies, western sciences have only acknowledged that trees communicate, learn and care for one another in recent years. These different ways of coming to know and engage with trees as sentient agents are further complicated by the introduction of digital technologies and automated decision-making into forest ecosystems. This article considers this confluence of forest sentience and digital technologies through a pedagogy and ethic of immanent care as a relational framework for analysis and praxis in environmental education. The authors apply this framework to three key examples along Birrarung Marr, an ancient gathering place and urban parklands in the city of Naarm (Melbourne). These include an immersive theatre-making project exploring forest communication networks with young children; the Melbourne Urban Forest data set, which hosts digital profiles for over 70,000 trees; and the Greenline masterplan which aims to revitalise the north bank of the Birrarung over the next five years. Exploring the ethical and pedagogical contours of these examples leads to propositions for rethinking the role of environmental education in navigating the current confluence of animal, vegetal, fungal and digital life.
What World Is Knocking? Responding to a World in Crisis with Polyphonic Storying
Authors: Molloy Murphy Angela
Published: September 2024

The case has been made — many of the approaches humans employ to address environmental collapse are founded on the very (White, Western, colonial, positivist, capitalist, human supremacist) thinking that advanced planetary degradation in the first place. We know how this story ends. If we continue perpetuating narratives of management, mastery and (White) human supremacy through environmental education (EE) and confront environmental issues accordingly, we will only advance Earth’s demise. Only by countering narratives of human exceptionalism and acknowledging the entangled and deeply relational nature of our existence can we begin to envision worlds of care for all. Reconceptualising EE as a polyphonic storying of relations with the more-than-human “keeps the way open” for humans to reassess our role in the world.
Molecular aspects of milk lipid synthesis and secretion in mammary epithelial cells
Authors: Lalonde Chrissy , Kraft Jana , Zhao Feng-Qi
Published: September 2024

Milk fat is a high-value component of the U.S. dairy market. It is the major energy component of milk and is responsible for many organoleptic and technological characteristics of milk and dairy products. In addition, milk fat is unquestionably distinctive among all dietary fats that humans consume, as it is not only comprised of several hundred different fatty acids (FAs) but also contains a wide and unique array of bioactive lipids. Milk fat is dispersed in milk primarily in the form of fat globules. These cytoplasmic lipid droplets originate from mammary epithelial cells (MECs) and are secreted into the alveolar lumen surrounded by a membrane. Many advances in our knowledge of specific enzymes involved in milk lipid synthesis, the selectivity of the triacylglyceride (TAG) synthesis enzymes for specific FAs, the molecular mechanisms behind the uptake of long-chain FAs into the cells and the milk lipid secretion process have led to an improved understanding of the biology of milk fat synthesis. However, research to provide deeper insights into the mechanism of lipid synthesis in MECs is warranted and might lead to novel strategies to alter milk fat content and quality to benefit the dairy industry and meet dietary recommendations and consumer demands for foods that positively impact health. In this review, we aimed to provide a general overview of our current knowledge of the molecular aspects of milk lipid synthesis in MECs, from the uptake of blood-derived precursors to the intracellular formation of TAG-rich fat droplets secreted into milk as milk fat globules. We also highlight some current gaps in the knowledge that warrant further exploration. Given the importance of dairy food in the human diet, a better understanding of these processes could help develop novel strategies to alter milk fat composition in ways that benefit both human health and dairy producers.
Dynamics of turbulent energy and dissipation in channel flow
Authors: Yin Le , Hwang Yongyun , Vassilicos John Christos
Published: September 2024

The dynamics of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), turbulence dissipation rate (TDR) and turbulence production rate (TPR) are explored in fully developed turbulent channel flow using direct numerical simulations up to

$\textit {Re}_\tau \approx 2000$

with minimal computational box for large-scale structures. Time correlation analysis based on volume-averaged TKE and TDR shows a well-defined average time lag, as in periodic/homogeneous turbulence, which, unlike periodic/homogeneous turbulence, appears to be Reynolds-number-dependent. On the basis of a spatio-temporal correlation analysis, we show that plane-averaged TKE fluctuations in the near-equilibrium region are transported towards both the core and near-wall regions, and are positively correlated with plane-averaged TDR fluctuations there with combined wall-distance and time lags. In the path towards the core region, the wall-distance lag is very close to the time lag multiplied by the friction velocity. The path towards the near-wall region has a wide spread of time lags, which increases with Reynolds number. The spatio-temporal correlation paths both towards the core and towards the wall are reproduced when the reference plane TKE is conditionally averaged on either ejections or sweeps, and are in fact stronger in correlation values in the case of ejections, which are better organised than sweeps. While volume-averaged TPR evidently precedes volume-averaged TKE, a more complex picture of non-local space–time correlations between reference plane TKE and TPR is revealed. A mechanistic model is proposed to elucidate these correlations between TKE and TPR through the interaction between the mean shear and the Reynolds shear stress.
Evanescent and inertial-like waves in rigidly rotating odd viscous liquids
Authors: Kirkinis E. , Olvera de la Cruz M.
Published: September 2024

Three-dimensional non-rotating odd viscous liquids give rise to Taylor columns and support axisymmetric inertial-like waves (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 973, 2023, A30). When an odd viscous liquid is subjected to rigid-body rotation however, there arise in addition a plethora of other phenomena that need to be clarified. In this paper, we show that three-dimensional incompressible or two-dimensional compressible odd viscous liquids, rotating rigidly with angular velocity

$\varOmega$

, give rise to both oscillatory and evanescent inertial-like waves or a combination thereof (which we call of mixed type) that can be non-axisymmetric. By evanescent, we mean that along the radial direction, typically when moving away from a solid boundary, the velocity field decreases exponentially. These waves precess in a prograde or retrograde manner with respect to the rotating frame. The oscillatory and evanescent waves resemble respectively the body and wall-modes observed in (non-odd) rotating Rayleigh–Bénard convection (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 248, 1993, pp. 583–604). We show that the three types of waves (wall, body or mixed) can be classified with respect to pairs of planar wavenumbers

$\kappa$

which are complex, real or a combination, respectively. Experimentally, by observing the precession rate of the patterns, it would be possible to determine the largely unknown values of the odd viscosity coefficients. This formulation recovers as special cases recent studies of equatorial or topological waves in two-dimensional odd viscous liquids which provided examples of the bulk–interface correspondence at frequencies

$\omega <2\varOmega$

. We finally point out that the two- and three-dimensional problems are formally equivalent. Their difference then lies in the way data propagate along characteristic rays in three dimensions, which we demonstrate by classifying the resulting Poincaré–Cartan equations.
Barriers to college student food access: a scoping review examining policies, systems, and the environment
Authors: Landry Matthew J. , Hagedorn-Hatfield Rebecca L. , Zigmont Victoria A.
Published: September 2024

College student food insecurity (FI) is a public health concern. Programming and policies to support students have expanded but utilisation is often limited. The aim of this study was to summarise the barriers to accessing college FI programming guided by the social ecological model (SEM) framework. A scoping review of peer-reviewed literature included an electronic search conducted in MEDLINE, ERIC, and PubMed databases, with a secondary search in Google Scholar. Of the 138 articles identified, 18 articles met eligibility criteria and were included. Articles primarily encompassed organisational (17/18) level barriers, followed by individual (15/18), relationship (15/18), community (9/18), and policy (6/18) levels. Individual barriers included seven themes: Knowledge of Process, Awareness, Limited Time or Schedules, Personal Transportation, Internal Stigma, Perception of Need, and Type of Student. Four relationship barriers were identified: External Stigma, Comparing Need, Limited Availability Causes Negative Perceptions, and Staff. Ten barrier themes comprised the organisational level: Application Process, Operational Process, Location, Hours of Operation, Food Quality, Food Quantity, Food Desirability or Variety of Food, Marketing Materials, Awareness of the Program, and COVID-19 Restrictions. Two barrier themes were identified at the community level, Public Transportation and Awareness of SNAP, while one barrier theme, SNAP Eligibility and Process, encompassed the policy level. Higher education stakeholders should seek to overcome these barriers to the use of food programmes as a means to address the issue of college FI. This review offers recommendations to overcome these barriers at each SEM level.
Maternal dietary practices during pregnancy and obesity of neonates: a machine learning approach towards hierarchical and nested relationships in a Tibet Plateau cohort study
Authors: Tang Xiao , Zhang Bin , Sun Mengzi , Xue Hong , Xu Ruihua , Jian Wenxiu , Sun Xiaomin , Wang Pinhua , Zhaxi Jiangcuo , Wang Xuejun , Wang Liehong , Chen Xinguang , Xia Yankai , Wang Youfa , Peng Wen
Published: September 2024

Studies on obesity and risk factors from a life-course perspective among residents in the Tibet Plateau with recent economic growth and increasing obesity are important and urgently needed. The birth cohort in this area provides a unique opportunity to examine the association between maternal dietary practice and neonatal obesity. The study aims to detect the prevalence of obesity among neonates, associated with maternal diet and other factors, supporting life-course strategies for obesity control. A cohort of pregnant women was enrolled in Tibet Plateau and followed till childbirth. Dietary practice during pregnancy was assessed using the Chinese FFQ – Tibet Plateau version, food items and other variables were associated with the risk for obesity of neonates followed by logistic regression, classification and regression trees (CART) and random forest. Of the total 1226 mother–neonate pairs, 40·5 % were Tibetan and 5·4 % of neonates with obesity. Consuming fruits as a protective factor for obesity of neonates with OR (95 % CI) = 0·61 (0·43, 0·87) from logistic regression; as well as OR = 0·20 (0·12, 0·35) for consuming fruits (≥ weekly) from CART. Removing fruit consumption to avoid overshadowing effects of other factors, the following were influential from CART: maternal education (more than middle school, OR = 0·22 (0·13, 0·37)) and consumption of Tibetan food (daily, OR = 3·44 (2·08, 5·69). Obesity among neonates is prevalent in the study population. Promoting healthy diets during pregnancy and strengthening maternal education should be part of the life-course strategies for obesity control.
A physics-constrained deep learning surrogate model of the runaway electron avalanche growth rate
Authors: Arnaud J.S. , Mark T.B. , McDevitt C.J.
Published: September 2024

A surrogate model of the runaway electron avalanche growth rate in a magnetic fusion plasma is developed. This is accomplished by employing a physics-informed neural network (PINN) to learn the parametric solution of the adjoint to the relativistic Fokker–Planck equation. The resulting PINN is able to evaluate the runaway probability function across a broad range of parameters in the absence of any synthetic or experimental data. This surrogate of the adjoint relativistic Fokker–Planck equation is then used to infer the avalanche growth rate as a function of the electric field, synchrotron radiation and effective charge. Predictions of the avalanche PINN are compared against first principle calculations of the avalanche growth rate with excellent agreement observed across a broad range of parameters.
Verification of successful maintenance by serum drug level during a guided antipsychotic reduction to reach minimum effective dose (GARMED) trial
Authors: Liu Chun-I. , Liu Chih-Min , Chiu Huai-Hsuan , Chuang Chia-Chi , Hwang Tzung-Jeng , Hsieh Ming H. , Chien Yi-Ling , Lin Yi-Ting , Yen Ko , Liu Chen-Chung
Published: September 2024

Background

Inconsistent results regarding the risk of relapse and better subjective outcomes of previous antipsychotic dose reduction trials in patients with remitted psychosis have not been verified using therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). This study examined plasma drug concentrations of a dose-tapering trial which exhibited the potential of successful maintenance under lower antipsychotic dosages.

Methods

A 2-year open-label randomized prospective trial recruited remitted patients to undergo guided antipsychotic tapering. Blood samples were collected at baseline, annually, and after each dose reduction. Plasma aripiprazole/dehydroaripiprazole concentrations were determined using LC–MS/MS. The relationship between the dose and serum drug levels was examined using Spearman's correlation. Divided at 120 ng/mL, relapse rate, global function, quality of life, and psychopathology were compared between high- and low- drug level groups.

Results

A total of 126 blood samples were collected, after excluding13 samples due of non-adherence. The correlation coefficients between dosage and drug level were 0.853 (aripiprazole) and 0.864 (dehydroaripiprazole), and the dose and concentration plots were parallel along the tapering trajectories, except patients with non-adherence. The concentration-to-dose ratio of aripiprazole in this cohort, 17.79 ± 7.23 ng/mL/mg, was higher than that in Caucasian populations. No significant differences were observed in the clinical outcomes between the high- and low-level groups. Remarkably, 12 of 15 patients maintained remission at plasma aripiprazole concentrations of <120 ng/mL.

Conclusions

The lower-than-expected doses reached in our antipsychotic tapering trial were substantiated to provide adequate prophylactic effects by TDM results in a subset of patients treated with aripiprazole, even considering the differences in pharmacogenomics between ethnicities.
The Society of Marie Auxiliatrice
Authors: Meath Gerard
Published: September 2024

It is appropriate that the centenary of the Order and the establishment of an English noviciate should be hailed by such an excellent publication as The Society of Marie Auxiliatrice. Many people are now acquainted with the life of Blessed Marie Thérèse de Soubiran who died an exile from the Order she had founded, and many believe that this last sad phase of her life laid the foundations of that deep and tender charity for the poor and displaced which now marks her Order. This admirable book captures that spirit and lays it before us in a concise letterpress and numerous excellent pictures reproduced in France by the new heliograph process. After a preface containing extracts from the Holy Father's own address to the nuns of the Society on the occasion of the beatification of their foundress we are given a brief history of the Order.
Detachment
Authors: E.B.
Published: September 2024

In that most helpful little book by Fr Bede Jarrett, No Abiding City he gives us the key to what is meant by ‘Detachment‘. We are pilgrims in this world, travellers; ‘here we have no abiding city', and so we must ‘travel light', as the saying goes. There is a great temptation in the modern world to accumulate more and more things—they all seem necessary somehow, and the advertisements in any paper or periodical that we open try to persuade us that we must have this or that—and so perhaps we get it and then persuade ourselves that we cannot possibly do without it.

Or if we are not attached to ‘things', we may become attached to sitting in a special chair, a special way of doing things, a special seat in church. We can become attached to our comforts and our food. In religious life, we can become attached to some devotion, some particular way of singing the Mass, or to some ‘feelings’ we experience when taking Holy Communion or saying some prayer, and then one day the feelings are taken away and we realize that it was the ‘feelings’ to which we were attached and which were so important, and not Holy Communion or prayer.
Unity Work in England
Authors: Todd John M.
Published: September 2024

Have been asked by the Editor of The Life Of The Spirit to write on achievement and prospects in ecumenical work by Catholics in England, and to relate my article specially to what is being done and what could be done in this respect in our universities. To write upon what has already been achieved in this direction would entail the making of a catalogue of individual lectures and talks, of discussion meetings mostly on a small scale, and perhaps of one or two series of theological conversations held over a period of years between Catholic and Anglican scholars. A few books also, in English, on things ecumenical could be added to this catalogue. There is however no movement in England which puts into practice the principles for which the Roman organization Unitas, set up by the Holy See after the war, stands.
The Three Degrees
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: September 2024

Many treatises have been composed to reveal the intricacies of the way to heaven in terms of the ‘three ways’. The division is hoary with age and inescapable in its simplicity. Wherever there is life there must be a beginning, it must grow and develop, and finally it must reach its fulfilment. The beginners, the progressing or proficients and the perfects make the ground plan for the purgative, illuminative and the unitive ways, and for all the other methods of measuring the supernatural growth of a soul in the life of God. But the majority of the treatises, which analyse the stages of the growing Christian, are devoted to one single aspect of Christian life.
Sermon for the Eighth Sunday After Trinity
Authors: Tauler John
Published: September 2024

All works that have been accomplished so far, not only by men, but by all creation, all that will be accomplished until the end of the world, however great and beautiful, are nothing compared with the smallest action of God's grace in a perfect soul, nothing compared with what such a one can do under the impulse and movement of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, just as much as Almighty God surpasses all creatures, just so much are his works infinitely above all deeds, methods, theories, inventions that could be imagined by all men put together.
The Back of Beyond
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: September 2024

No one who has any acquaintance with modern ‘mystical’ I writings which come from the pens of such as Aldous Huxley or Gerald Heard will be unaware of the existence of dangers in the doctrine put forward by The Cloud of Unknowing. This book has become so popular with people who are not specifically Christian and who think they find an identical teaching in Indian and Sufi writings that it is suspect by many devout Catholics who are yet seeking courageously for perfection and would find otherwise much assistance in its pages. It is easy to point to its strong Dionysian origins, reaching this East Anglian spiritual director through the Victorines and stretching back through the Pseudo-Dionysius to Neoplatonic philosophy. So with a careful choice of texts a student could work out a detailed, parallelism between the pagan writings of Plotinus and Proclus and the Christian author of The Cloud.
Military rations: Nutritional, sensorial and technological quality and their effects on military physical exercise in extreme environments
Authors: Vidal Vitor Andre Silva , Jensen Ida-Johanne , Sandbakk Øyvind , Haugnes Pål , Austeen Martin Winge , Gjeldnes Rune , Svihus Birger , Lerfall Jørgen
Published: September 2024

In recent years, many countries have significantly increased military spending, mainly due to geopolitical instability in several regions and the potential risk of armed conflicts spreading worldwide. In this context, understanding the nutritional needs of soldiers in different climates (warm, cold and high altitude) is important and directly impacts the performance and health of soldiers, especially in extreme environments. The amount of liquids, calories, and macro- and micronutrients contained in military rations must be determined considering the type of exercise, duration and environment. Military rations, in addition to being nutritionally adequate, must be practical, sustainable and easy to consume at any temperature and situation. Given these considerations, this study aimed to review scientific knowledge regarding the convenience, sensory attributes and nutritional components of military rations. Furthermore, this review studied the factors influencing soldiers’ appetite, gut microbiota and nutritional needs during training or combat in extreme environments (warm, cold and high altitude). This exploration further advances our understanding of contemporary nutritional strategies for military personnel, contributing to future research and highlighting areas that must be developed.
Dietary insulin index and dietary insulin load in relation to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Motamedi Amir , Alizadeh Shahab , Osati Saeed , Raeisi Tahereh , Homayounfar Reza
Published: September 2024

Objective:

Postprandial hyperinsulinaemia plays a key role in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Diet is a potential factor affecting serum insulin levels. This study aimed to examine the relations of dietary insulin index (DII) and dietary insulin load (DIL) to the risk of NAFLD.

Design:

This study was a cross-sectional study. DII and DIL were calculated using the dietary data obtained from the FFQ. Fatty liver index ≥ 60 and the confirmation of a gastroenterologist were required to diagnose NAFLD.

Setting:

Community-based study.

Participants:

A total of 3158 people (46·7 % male), aged 40·57 ± 8·25 years, participated in this study in Tehran, Iran from April 2016 to December 2019.

Results:

The prevalence of NAFLD was 29·9 % (21·59 % in males and 33·74 % in females). In the fully adjusted model controlled for sex, age, energy intake, BMI, smoking, physical activity and education, DII was significantly associated with the increased risk of NAFLD in males (OR: 2·74, 95 % CI = 1·75, 4·31; P-trend = ≤0·001) and females (OR: 2·26, 95 % CI = 1·39, 3·69; P-trend = 0·005). A significant relationship was also detected between DIL and NAFLD in females (OR: 2·90, 95 % CI = 1·70, 4·93; P-trend ≤0·001) but not in males (OR: 1·33, 95 % CI = 0·84, 2·10; P-trend = 0·13).

Conclusions:

Adherence to a diet with a high DII and DIL may be related to the increased risk of NAFLD. These results may be useful for healthcare providers to design appropriate preventive measures for people at risk of NAFLD.
Determinant of factors associated with water requirement measured using the doubly labelled water method among older Japanese adults
Authors: Watanabe Daiki , Yoshida Tsukasa , Nanri Hinako , Itoi Aya , Goto Chiho , Ishikawa-Takata Kazuko , Ebine Naoyuki , Higaki Yasuki , Miyachi Motohiko , Kimura Misaka , Yamada Yosuke
Published: September 2024

Objective:

Water is an essential nutrient for all organisms and is important for maintaining life and health. We aimed to develop a biomarker-calibrated equation for predicting water turnover (WT) and pre-formed water (PW) using the doubly labelled water (DLW) method.

Design:

Cross-sectional study.

Setting:

General older population from the Kyoto–Kameoka Study, Japan.

Participants:

The 141 participants aged ≥ 65 years were divided into a model developing (n 71) and a validation cohort group (n 70) using a random number generation. WT and PW was measured using the DLW method in May–June of 2012. In developing the cohort, equations for predicting WT and PW were developed by multivariate stepwise regression using all data from the questionnaires in the Kyoto–Kameoka study (including factors such as dietary intake and personal characteristics). WT and PW measured using the DLW method were compared with the estimates from the regression equations developed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and correlation analysis in validation cohort.

Results:

The median WT and PW for 141 participants were 2·81 and 2·28 l/d, respectively. In the multivariate model, WT (R2 = 0·652) and PW (R2 = 0·623) were moderately predicted using variables, such as height, weight and fluid intake from beverages based on questionnaire data. WT (r = 0·527) and PW (r = 0·477) predicted that using this model was positively correlated with the values measured by the DLW method.

Conclusions:

Our results showed factors associated with water requirement and indicated a methodological approach of calibrating the self-reported dietary intake data using biomarkers of water consumption.
The Rapid Response Labor Mechanism of the US–Mexico–Canada Agreement
Authors: Bown Chad P. , Claussen Kathleen
Published: September 2024

The US–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) introduced a new compliance institution for labor rights in trade agreements: the facility-specific Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM). The RRM was developed to tackle one particular thorn in the side of North American integration – labor rights for Mexican workers – as it had had detrimental, long-term political–economic consequences for the US–Mexico trade relationship. This article reviews the unique political–economic moment in the United States and Mexico that prompted the creation of this tool. It describes how the RRM works and the considerable financial and human resources the US and Mexican governments deployed to operationalize it. The article then reports a number of stylized facts on how governments used the RRM during its first three years, largely in the auto sector. It proposes paths of potentially fruitful political–economic research to aid understanding of the full implications of the RRM and concludes with preliminary lessons as well as a discussion on the potential for policymakers to assess facility-specific mechanisms for labor or other issues, such as the environment, in future economic agreements.
Cognitive Function of Climbers: An Exploratory Study of Working Memory and Climbing Performance
Authors: Garrido-Palomino Inmaculada , Giles David , Fryer Simon , González-Montesinos José Luis , España-Romero Vanesa
Published: September 2024

Sport climbing requires a combination of physical and cognitive skills, with working memory (WM) playing a crucial role in performance. This study aimed to investigate the association between WM capacity and climbing ability, while considering potential confounding factors including sex, age, education level, and climbing experience. Additionally, the study compared prefrontal cortex (PFC) hemodynamic responses among different climbing ability groups and sex during WM performance. Twenty-eight climbers participated, with WM assessed using the eCorsi task and PFC hemodynamic responses measured with near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Initial linear regression analyses revealed no association between WM and climbing ability. However, significant associations were found after adjustment for covariates. Specifically, sex (p = .014), sex in conjunction with age (p = .026), sex combined with climbing experience (p = .022), and sex along with education level (p = .038) were identified as significant predictors of differences in WM between Expert and Elite climbers. Additionally, notable differences in PFC hemodynamic responses were observed between Expert and Elite climbers, as well as between sexes during the WM task, providing support for differences in WM capacity. This study contributes to understanding the complex relationship between WM capacity and climbing performance, emphasizing the need to account for influencing factors in assessments.
Black Carbon from Wildfire Smoke Can Double Warming Effects
Authors: Bolakhe Saugat
Published: September 2024

The findings could help climate models be more accurate about warming projections.
Methodological Approaches for Measuring the Association Between Heat Exposure and Health Outcomes: A Comprehensive Global Scoping Review
Authors: Graffy Peter M. , Sunderraj Ashwin , Visa Maxime A. , Miller Corinne H. , Barrett Benjamin W. , Rao Sheetal , Camilleri Sara F. , Harp Ryan D. , Li Chuxuan , Brenneman Anne , Chan Jennifer , Kho Abel , Allen Norrina , Horton Daniel E.
Published: September 2024

Objective: To synthesize the methodologies of studies that evaluate the impacts of heat exposure on morbidity and mortality. Methods: Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched from date of inception until 1 March 2023 for English language literature on heat exposure and health outcomes. Records were collated, deduplicated and screened, and full texts were reviewed for inclusion and data abstraction. Eligibility for inclusion was determined as any article with climate‐related heat exposure and an associated morbidity/mortality outcome. Results: Of 13,136 records initially identified, 237 articles were selected for analysis. The scope of research represented 43 countries, with most studies conducted in China (62), the USA (44), and Australia (16). Across all studies, there were 141 unique climate data sources, no standard threshold for extreme heat, and 200 unique health outcome data sources. The distributed lag non‐linear model (DLNM) was the most common analytic method (48.1% of studies) and had high usage rates in China (68.9%) and the USA (31.8%); Australia frequently used conditional logistic regression (50%). Conditional logistic regression was most prevalent in case‐control studies (5 of 8 studies, 62.5%) and in case‐crossover studies (29 of 70, 41.4%). DLNMs were most common in time series studies (64 of 111, 57.7%) and ecological studies (13 of 20, 65.0%). Conclusions: This review underscores the heterogeneity of methods in heat impact studies across diverse settings and provides a resource for future researchers. Underrepresentation of certain countries, health outcomes, and limited data access were identified as potential barriers.
Intrinsic Organic Carbon Could Contribute to the Unexplained Optical Measurements of Fresh Soot
Authors: Luo Jie , Hu Miao , Zhang Qixing , Li Congcong , Liu Jia , He Hao , Li Kaitao , Sun Yuping
Published: September 2024

Previous modeling studies have not properly explained the measured mass absorption cross section (MAC) at 550 nm, the linear backscattering depolarization ratio (LDR) at 355 and 532 nm, and the scattering matrix of soot at 532 nm. In this work, we attempt to use a black carbon (BC) model with an intrinsic organic carbon (OC) coating to explain the large MAC, large LDR, and measured scattering matrix. Our results show that the bare fractal BC model is not able to explain MAC, LDR, and scattering matrix simultaneously and that the modeling values do not cover the measurement range. This study shows that the modeled LDR and scattering matrix can cover the measurement range if we constrain the MAC of the BC in the measurement range by the intrinsic OC coating when we consider the effects of monomer radius, monomer number, and monomer overlap simultaneously. Therefore, intrinsic OC coating can be a significant source of uncertainty in the optical properties of fresh soot.
Pharmacologic or genetic targeting of peripheral nerves prevents peri-articular traumatic heterotopic ossification
Authors: Zhu Manyu , Yea Ji-Hye , Li Zhao , Qin Qizhi , Xu Mingxin , Xing Xin , Negri Stefano , Archer Mary , Mittal Monisha , Levi Benjamin , James Aaron W.
Published: September 2024

Heterotopic ossification (HO) is a pathological process that commonly arises following severe polytrauma, characterized by the anomalous differentiation of mesenchymal progenitor cells and resulting in the formation of ectopic bone in non-skeletal tissues. This abnormal bone growth contributes to pain and reduced mobility, especially when adjacent to a joint. Our prior observations suggested an essential role of NGF (Nerve Growth Factor)-responsive TrkA (Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase A)-expressing peripheral nerves in regulating abnormal osteochondral differentiation following tendon injury. Here, we utilized a recently developed mouse model of hip arthroplasty-induced HO to further validate the role of peripheral nerve regulation of traumatic HO. Nerve ingrowth was either modulated using a knockin transgenic animals with point mutation in TrkA, or local treatment with an FDA-approved formulation of long acting Bupivacaine which prevents peripheral nerve growth. Results demonstrate exuberant sensory and sympathetic nerve growth within the peri-articular HO site, and that both methods to reduce local innervation significantly reduced heterotopic bone formation. TrkA inhibition led to a 34% reduction in bone volume, while bupivacaine treatment resulted in a 50% decrease. Mechanistically, alterations in TGFβ and FGF signaling activation accompanied both methods of local denervation, and a shift in macrophages from M1 to M2 phenotypes was observed. In sum, these studies reinforce the observations that peripheral nerves play a role in the etiopathogenesis of HO, and that targeting local nerves represents a potential therapeutic approach for disease prevention.
Drug-induced change in transmitter identity is a shared mechanism generating cognitive deficits
Authors: Pratelli Marta , Hakimi Anna M. , Thaker Arth , Jang Hyeonseok , Li Hui-quan , Godavarthi Swetha K. , Lim Byung Kook , Spitzer Nicholas C.
Published: September 2024

Cognitive deficits are long-lasting consequences of drug use, yet the convergent mechanism by which classes of drugs with different pharmacological properties cause similar deficits is unclear. We find that both phencyclidine and methamphetamine, despite differing in their targets in the brain, cause the same glutamatergic neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex of male mice to gain a GABAergic phenotype and decrease expression of their glutamatergic phenotype. Suppressing drug-induced gain of GABA with RNA-interference prevents appearance of memory deficits. Stimulation of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area is necessary and sufficient to produce this gain of GABA. Drug-induced prefrontal hyperactivity drives this change in transmitter identity. Returning prefrontal activity to baseline, chemogenetically or with clozapine, reverses the change in transmitter phenotype and rescues the associated memory deficits. This work reveals a shared and reversible mechanism that regulates the appearance of cognitive deficits upon exposure to different drugs.