bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lifetime assessment for riser systems
Authors: Gaidai Oleg , Wang Fang , Yakimov Vladimir , Sun Jiayao , Balakrishna Rajiv
Published: September 2023

As marine renewable energy technologies developing, there is a growing need for energy transportation systems. During offshore operations, deep sea risers can be subjected to excessive environmental loadings, causing operational risks. In this study, hydrodynamic loads, caused by in situ sea currents, acting on a riser under real-world sea conditions were modelled and examined, with experimental data being used as a calibration tool. Major safety problems for various offshore energy systems being an accurate assessment of excessive riser external loads, under influence of local sea currents, and hence resulting vortex induced vibrations (VIV).

The method outlined in this study may be applied to complex sustainable energy systems, that are exposed to environmental loads, throughout the whole period of their intended service life. Approach advocated in this study offers practical way to estimate failure risks for nonlinear multidimensional dynamic offshore riser systems in an easy yet accurate manner.

With regard to defense technology, risers and umbilicals play an important role for modern submarine operations.
Boosting human capacities: attitudes toward Human Enhancement and vaccination in the context of perceived naturalness and invasiveness
Authors: Döbler Niklas Alexander , Carbon Claus-Christian
Published: September 2023

Vaccinations are instances of Human Enhancement (HE) because, as biotechnologies, they are capable of augmenting the human body’s capacities. We hypothesized that vaccination refusal, as observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, indicates a belief system that also determines attitudes toward HE. Rejection of both may be linked to well-known motives: invasiveness and alleged unnaturalness. We tested the relationship between these two phenomena by conducting two online surveys (N = 314 and N = 300; 81.5%/85.7% vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and 18.5%/14.33% not). We also examined if getting enhanced (vaccinated) can induce a relational change toward the environment. Study 1 suggested that greater willingness to use methods to enhance cognitive abilities was more likely when methods must be infrequently used and were deemed natural and non-invasive. An affirmative attitude toward naturalness correlated negatively with the willingness to use. Interaction effects suggested increased importance of naturalness and invasiveness associated variables for unvaccinated participants. Interacting with vaccination status, affirmative attitudes toward naturalness were negatively associated with attitudes toward vaccinations and HE. Qualifying vaccination as HE did not reliably predict attitude toward vaccination or HE. Getting vaccinated led to psychological relief. We explored predictors of vaccination intention. Study 2 showed that unvaccinated perceived the vaccine as less natural but as invasive as vaccinated participants. Perceived naturalness and invasiveness were decisive for vaccination refusal. Findings suggest that rejecting vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may indicate motives associated with rejecting other HE means and may be a valuable behavioral sample to assess a person’s broader belief system.
Numerical simulation for stress analysis of functionally graded adhesively bonded composite patch repair system
Authors: Khode A. P. , Nimje S. V.
Published: September 2023

Three-dimensional finite element analyses have been carried out for adhesively bonded composite patch repaired an aluminum alloy plate structure with centre circular notch. Presence of defect in the plate causes stress gradients in the bond region which results in reduction of the performance of the patched panel. The patterns of out-of-plane stress components at various interfaces (plate-adhesive-patch) at different angular positions with reference to loading direction are evaluated for mono-modulus adhesive. In the present research work, an attempt has been made to improve the strength of adhesively bonded composite patch repaired system by reducing stress concentration at the critical regions. This has been achieved by smoothening/relieving stresses over the entire bond region by introducing functionally graded adhesive (FGA) material in-lieu of conventional mono-modulus adhesive. Linear material gradation function profile has been used to tailor adhesive layer in the bond region. Effect of material gradation profile with different modulus ratios on out-of-plane stresses at different interfaces of composite patch repaired system have been studied. Numerical simulations based on FE analyses indicates significant reduction in out-of-plane stress levels by which strength of functionally graded composite patch repaired system will be enhanced.
HPC-Atlas: Computationally Constructing a Comprehensive Atlas of Human Protein Complexes
Authors: Pan Yuliang , Li Ruiyi , Li Wengen , Lv Liuzhenghao , Guan Jihong , Zhou Shuigeng
Published: September 2023

A fundamental principle of biology is that proteins tend to form complexes to play important roles in the core functions of cells. For a complete understanding of human cellular functions, it is crucial to have a comprehensive atlas of human protein complexes. Unfortunately, we still lack such a comprehensive atlas of experimentally validated protein complexes, which prevents us from gaining a complete understanding of the compositions and functions of human protein complexes, as well as the underlying biological mechanisms. To fill this gap, we built Human Protein Complexes Atlas (HPC-Atlas), as far as we know, the most accurate and comprehensive atlas of human protein complexes available to date. We integrated two latest protein interaction networks, and developed a novel computational method to identify nearly 9000 protein complexes, including many previously uncharacterized complexes. Compared with the existing methods, our method achieved outstanding performance on both testing and independent datasets. Furthermore, with HPC-Atlas we identified 751 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-affected human protein complexes, and 456 multifunctional proteins that contain many potential moonlighting proteins. These results suggest that HPC-Atlas can serve as not only a computing framework to effectively identify biologically meaningful protein complexes by integrating multiple protein data sources, but also a valuable resource for exploring new biological findings. The HPC-Atlas webserver is freely available at http://www.yulpan.top/HPC-Atlas.
All- and mixed-dielectric grating for Nd:glass-based high-energy pulse compression
Authors: Han Yuxing , Cao Hongchao , Kong Fanyu , Jin Yunxia , Shao Jianda
Published: September 2023

Maximizing the energy-loading performance of gratings is a universal theme in high-energy pulse compression. However, sporadic grating designs strongly restrict the development of high-power laser engineering. This study proposes an all- and mixed-dielectric grating design paradigm for Nd:glass-based pulse compressors. The solution regions are classified according to the line density. High diffraction efficiency solutions are described in more detail based on the dispersion amount and incident angle. Moreover, an energy scaling factor of 7.09 times larger than that of the National Ignition Facility’s Advanced Radiographic Capability (NIF-ARC) is obtained by taking advantage of the low electric field intensity at transverse magnetic polarization and a small incident angle. These results make a pioneering contribution to facilitate future 20–50-petawatt-class ultrafast laser systems.
COMPUTABLE TOPOLOGICAL GROUPS
Authors: KOH HEER TERN , MELNIKOV ALEXANDER G. , NG KENG MENG
Published: September 2023

We investigate what it means for a (Hausdorff, second-countable) topological group to be computable. We compare several potential definitions based on classical notions in the literature. We relate these notions with the well-established definitions of effective presentability for discrete and profinite groups, and compare our results with similar results in computable topology.
Discrete restriction estimates for forms in many variables
Authors: Cook Brian , Hughes Kevin , Palsson Eyvindur
Published: September 2023

We prove discrete restriction estimates for a broad class of hypersurfaces arising in seminal work of Birch. To do so, we use a variant of Bourgain’s arithmetic version of the Tomas–Stein method and Magyar’s decomposition of the Fourier transform of the indicator function of the integer points on a hypersurface.
The “Poetic Chaos” of Gardens and Genres in Colonial Tbilisi
Authors: Manning Paul
Published: September 2023

One summer afternoon in Tbilisi, my friends Elizbari and Malkhazi, both native Tbilisians, and I bought some beer from a local store near Malkhazi's home in the hillside residential Tbilisi neighborhood of K'rts’anisi. For various reasons I can no longer recall, it would not do for us to drink in his home, so we randomly chose a deserted spot nearby: a patch of gravel next to a decrepit building with a large fallen tree, which afforded us a place to sit. Malkhazi surveyed our abject drinking spot, raised his beer in a heroic pose, and proclaimed: “Ortach'alis baghshi mnakhe, vina var!” (In the gardens of Ortachala see me, who I am!).1 We laughed at the absurd poetic reference. It was a famous line from a Persian-style Georgian poem by the noble romantic poet Grigol Orbeliani. It was a mukhambazi, a genre of poetry emblematic of “Old Tbilisi” city poetry associated with a nostalgic Georgian mythology of the nineteenth-century colonial city, centering on the island gardens of Ortachala, the site of drunken feasting of typical Tbilisian street peddlers called kintos (Georgian k'int’o). The stanza goes as such:In the gardens of Ortachala see me, who I am,In a happy-go-lucky feast see me, who I am!A toastmaster with a drinking bowl, see me, who I am!Well in a fistfight see me, who I am!Then you will fall in love with me, say, “You are precious!”
Is There a ‘Constitutional Moment’ in Israel and Hungary?
Authors: Halmai Gábor
Published: September 2023

This article addresses the concept of ‘constitutional moment’ in contemporary Israel, where an illiberal constitutionalisation process is in progress, and in Hungary, where the illiberal constitutional system has been in place since 2010. After discussing the judicial overhaul of the current Israeli government and the widespread protest movement against it, the article raises the question of whether the moment to adopt a written constitution has arrived. In Hungary, where a semi-electoral autocratic constitutional regime has been entrenched, the question is what are the perspectives on a return to a liberal democratic constitution.
Uncovering associations between gender nonconformity, psychosocial factors, and mental health in adolescents: a birth cohort study
Authors: Narita Zui , DeVylder Jordan , Yamasaki Syudo , Ando Shuntaro , Endo Kaori , Miyashita Mitsuhiro , Yamaguchi Satoshi , Usami Satoshi , Stanyon Daniel , Knowles Gemma , Hiraiwa-Hasegawa Mariko , Furukawa Toshiaki A , Kasai Kiyoto , Nishida Atsushi
Published: September 2023

Background

Little information is available on the association between gender nonconformity during adolescence and subsequent mental health. While the distress related to gender nonconformity may be socially produced rather than attributed to individual-level factors, further research is needed to better understand the role of psychosocial factors in this context.

Method

We analyzed data from the Tokyo Teen Cohort, obtained through random sampling of adolescents born between 2002 and 2004. We used inverse probability weighting to examine the association of gender nonconformity at ages 12 and 14 as a time-varying variable with subsequent mental health at age 16, while accounting for time-fixed and time-varying confounders. Furthermore, we used a weighting approach to investigate the mediating role of modifiable psychosocial factors in this association, addressing exposure-mediator and mediator–mediator interactions.

Results

A total of 3171 participants were analyzed. Persistent gender nonconforming behavior at ages 12 and 14 was associated with subsequent depression (β = 2.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.85 to 3.19) and psychotic experiences (β = 0.33, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.52) at age 16. The results remained robust in sensitivity analyses. Approximately 30% of the association between gender nonconformity and depression was consistently mediated by a set of psychosocial factors, namely loneliness, bullying victimization, and relationships with mother, father, and friends.

Conclusions

Persistent gender nonconformity during adolescence is associated with subsequent mental health. Psychosocial factors play a vital mediating role in this association, highlighting the essential need for social intervention and change to reduce stigmatization and ameliorate mental health challenges.
The impact of childhood trauma exposure on social functioning in schizophrenia: the moderated mediation role of oxytocin and oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms
Authors: Goh Kah Kheng , Kanahara Nobuhisa , Chiu Yi-Hang , Lu Mong-Liang
Published: September 2023

Background

Childhood trauma has been linked to increased risk of schizophrenia and social dysfunction, and oxytocin and its receptor gene have been implicated in regulating social behavior. This study investigated the potential role of oxytocin and oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) in mediating the effects of childhood trauma on social functioning in schizophrenia.

Methods

The study consisted of 382 patients with schizophrenia and 178 healthy controls who were assessed using the Taiwanese version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), the Social Functioning Scale (SFS), and plasma oxytocin levels. DNA was extracted to genotype the OXTR and ten single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs2254298, rs237885, rs237887, rs237899, rs53576, rs9840864, rs13316193, rs7632287, rs1042778, and rs237895) were selected.

Results

Patients with schizophrenia showed higher CTQ-SF scores (t = 12.549, p < 0.001), lower SFS scores (t = −46.951, p < 0.001), and lower plasma oxytocin levels (t = −5.448, p < 0.001) compared to healthy controls. The study also found significant differences in OXTR SNPs between both groups, with risk alleles being more prevalent in patients with schizophrenia (t = 2.734, p = 0.006). Results indicated a significant moderated mediation effect, with oxytocin and the OXTR SNPs partially mediating the relationship between childhood trauma exposure and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia (index of mediation = 0.038, 95% CI [0.033–0.044]).

Conclusions

The findings suggest that oxytocin and its receptor gene may be promising targets for interventions aimed at improving social functioning in patients with a history of childhood trauma and schizophrenia. However, further research is needed to fully understand these effects and the potential of oxytocin-based interventions in this population.
Proposing Chinese English as a lingua franca (ChELF)
Authors: Wang Ying
Published: September 2023

Scholarly attention to English in relation to L1 Chinese speakers in China has yielded fruitful research insights and publications, which present us with various names, such as Chinglish, Chinese English, China English and a few more, leading to terminological controversies (e.g. Eaves, 2011; Y. Li, 2018; Zhang, 1997). A review of different theoretical stances illuminates that recent research under different names converges toward an attempt to reflect the role of English as a lingua franca (ELF) for Chinese individuals, given the context of globalisation and digitalisation. The article proposes to address terminological puzzles by adopting the notion of Chinese English as a lingua franca (ChELF) to elucidate the role of ELF and acknowledge Chinese ownership of English, hoping for collaborations among researchers interested in Chinese legitimacy in English creativity emerging in intercultural practices.
Living with 中式英语 Zhongshi Yingyu
Authors: Wei Li
Published: September 2023

I first heard of the term ‘Chinglish’ when I was at Baiduizi (白堆子) Beijing Foreign Languages School in the 1970s, through Janet Adams’ book, From Chinglish to English. The book contained 60 short dialogues in simple American English. It was meant to be teaching us colloquial English, compared to, I suppose, the textbook English written by Chinese teachers. I found the term Chinglish rather odd, and it was an odd thing for us pupils at that particular school to be made aware of, because the school was, quite literally, the only school in China at the time where foreigners were directly teaching Chinese children foreign languages and cultures. Few of these foreign teachers had formal teaching qualifications, and they were not using any textbooks written by Chinese teachers, but in their own ways using material the school compiled specially for the pupils. It was a form of audio-lingual and direct method. The language we were taught was pretty colloquial and we did not, as far as I could tell, speak Chinglish that the examples in Adams’ book illustrated.
Modeling effects of linguistic complexity on L2 processing effort: The case of eye movement in text reading
Authors: Zhang Xiaopeng , Gong Nan
Published: September 2023

This study examined how linguistic complexity features contribute to second language (L2) processing effort by analyzing the Dutch English-L2 learners’ eye movements from GECO and MECO, two eye-tracking corpora. Processing effort was operationalized as reading rate, mean fixation duration, regression rate, skipping rate, and mean saccade amplitude. In Study 1, the lexical, syntactic, and discoursal indices in 272 snippets of a novel in GECO were regressed against these eye-movement measures. The results showed that the one-component partial least square regression (PLS-R) models could explain 11%–37% of the variance in these eye-movement measures and outperformed eight readability formulas (six traditional and two recent cognitively inspired formulas based on the readers’ perception on text difficulty) in predicting L2 processing effort. In Study 2, the eye-tracking data from MECO were used to evaluate whether the findings from Study 1 could be applied more broadly. The results revealed that although the predictability of these PLS-R components decreased, they still performed better than the readability formulas. These findings suggest that the linguistic indices identified can be used to predict L2 text processing effort and provide useful implications for developing systems to assess text difficulty for L2 learners.
Social Isolation of Older Adults, Family, and Formal Caregivers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stories and Solutions Through Participatory Action Research
Authors: MacLeod Ann , Levesque Justine , Ward-Griffin Catherine
Published: September 2023

This participatory action research (PAR) aimed to understand the health implications of guidelines impacting social isolation among frail community-dwelling older adults and their family and formal caregivers during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) of data collected from 10 policy/procedural documents revealed four themes: valuing principles, identifying problem(s), setting priorities, and making recommendations. Interviews with 31 participants from Peterborough, Ontario, also revealed four themes: sacrificing social health, diminishing physical health, draining mental health, and defining supports. Recommendations to decision makers were finalized at a knowledge exchange event involving participants and members of Age-friendly Peterborough. Key findings demonstrate the need for Canadian governments and health and social service agencies to enhance access to technology-based interventions, and educational and financial resources for caregivers. Meaningful communication and collaboration between older adults, caregivers, and decision makers are also needed to reduce the gap between policy and practice when addressing social isolation.
A Rebato: Popular uprisings and the striking of the bells in eighteenth-century Castile
Authors: Hernández Mauro
Published: September 2023

This paper delves into the dynamics of popular revolt in early modern Castile, taking as a viewpoint a revealing feature of these disturbances, the bell-ringing widely known as rebato, an equivalent to the French tocsin. While alarm bells have long been recognised as a prevalent element of popular revolt in Europe from medieval times, they have received limited specific scholarly attention. This study provides an overview of the historical significance of this distinctive sound and examines its material aspects. Subsequently, the paper investigates several instances of bell-ringing during Castilian riots, as reflected in archival sources, and analyses its meaning both for townspeople and the authorities. In attempting to elucidate the reasons behind the aversion this sound provoked among the privileged classes and the authorities, the study explores the political, ritual, and sonic dimensions of the rebato.
Accessory mitral valve tissue: a differential diagnosis of an obstructive mass on the left ventricular outflow tract
Authors: Galindo-Hayashi José M. , Villarreal Enrique G. , Sanchez-Félix Ely R.
Published: September 2023

Accessory mitral valve tissue is a rare congenital cardiac anomaly that is typically discovered incidentally during echocardiographic evaluation prompted by an asymptomatic murmur. This pathology has characteristic echocardiographic elements and is usually associated with other CHD. The decision to perform surgical resection depends on factors such as the degree of obstruction, presence of symptoms, presence of other CHDs, and risk of thrombosis. The researchers hereby present a case of an asymptomatic paediatric patient with accessory mitral valve tissue that produced left ventricular outflow tract obstruction.
“Women”
Authors: Cox Kimberly , Draucker Shannon , Thierauf Doreen , Wiet Victoria
Published: September 2023

This keyword essay on "women" responds to heated debates surrounding the term “pregnant person” in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision and argues for the continued usefulness of “women” to Victorian studies. While “pregnant person” allows institutions and thinkers to signal their recognition that the population requiring reproductive services includes trans men and nonbinary people, the curtailment of reproductive rights is often fueled by misogyny, which cannot be conceptualized without “women” as a category. Here, we are witnessing the reemergence of a field of discursive tension: between the coalitional power of the term “women” as used by feminists, on one hand, and the feminist goal to normalize inclusive language to honor and make visible marginalized experiences, on the other. We want to highlight that, first, such categories need not be mutually exclusive and that, second, the category “women” remains relevant to Victorian studies. We advocate not for the ascendancy of the term “women,” nor its dominance over other, crucial terms such as “trans” and “queer,” but simply for keeping “women” in play. Doing so makes space for strategic forms of coalition, historically precise scholarship, the recognition of trans women's identities, and intersectional analyses.
Cosmopolitanism
Authors: Akhter Yasmin
Published: September 2023

This article argues that the field of Victorian cosmopolitanisms has largely neglected accounts of migrants, exiles, and nomads in explorations of the nineteenth-century cosmopolitan world of empires. A focus on these hypermobile figures draws attention to the ways in which mobility, in all forms, disrupts our understandings of place, home, and world as they are conceived in cosmopolitan thought. These examples of displaced subjectivities reveal how cosmopolitanism travels along space, disregarding borders of region, nation, or empire and conjuring new ideas about how we belong to the world. By thinking about how different cosmopolitanisms contend or coexist with one another, the article reconsiders a question that persistently reappears in debates about cosmopolitanism across time and space: Is it an ideal of sameness and commonality or an orientation toward difference and plurality?
Tolerance
Authors: Engelhardt Nina
Published: September 2023

In this article I argue for the relevance of examining tolerance in Victorian literature in its specificity and particularly as distinct from sympathy. Following a recent reconceptualization of tolerance in philosophy and political theory, I argue for recovering the relevance of its roots in the Latin term tolerare, which means “to suffer,” “to endure,” and suggest that Victorian novels explore the cognitive, emotional, and physical pains involved in tolerance. Victorian studies thus add an important perspective to current discussions of tolerance, while, conversely, a focus on tolerance in Victorian literature reveals an important category as yet overshadowed by the strong focus on sympathy in the field.
Provincial
Authors: Baena Victoria
Published: September 2023

This essay sketches out how “the provinces” became a central (if semi-imagined) geography in nineteenth-century culture, usually opposed to—though ultimately inextricable from—the development of capitalist and colonial modernity. Surveying recent criticism on the Victorian provincial novel, especially its imbrication with broader scales and networks, I suggest that recent scholarship in critical cartography and feminist theory offers a way to reconceptualize the notion of the provincial in (and beyond) Victorian studies. If to be provincial is always to be opposed to some real or imagined center—toggling between countryside, colony, region, and minor capital—we might revise our understanding of the provincial itself as a relational phenomenon, unfolding on multiple scales. Ultimately, I propose the “provincial” as a critical heuristic for the spatial analysis of narrative: one that might offer a more productive means of grasping modernity's uneven production of space beyond city/country, metropole/colony, and even local/global divides.
Trans
Authors: Ferguson Alexis A.
Published: September 2023

“Trans” offers Victorian studies two different but ultimately intertwined methods for studying sex and gender in a historically bounded discipline: nominal, biographical work and theoretical, conceptual work. While biographical accounts tend to evoke historicist concerns of anachronism, the theoretical potential of “trans” is largely untouched in Victorian studies. This Keywords essay argues that such theoretical work is much needed in analyses of Victorian sex and gender, and makes the case for “trans” as historical method.
Rape
Authors: Spampinato Erin , Thierauf Doreen
Published: September 2023

The Victorian period was notorious for its oblique representations of sexual violence. This article argues that rape is a necessary word and concept for Victorian studies and, we contend, a keyword for a growing subfield of literary and cultural scholarship, humanistic rape studies. Without rape as a stable signifier of specific acts, we find ourselves transported back to the nineteenth century, fumbling like Tess Durbeyfield for language that adequately describes what happened. Rape remains an indispensable domain of nineteenth-century literary studies precisely because it is a thoroughly historically contingent phenomenon. It is part of the power of rape, of its current structural pervasiveness, that it is capable of shaping people's expectations to such an extent that it suggests itself as a timeless, eternally recurring fact of life, when it actually amounts to an intensely situated set of behaviors, many of which crystallized into their current forms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, propelled by changing labor conditions, European imperialism, and shifting family and romantic configurations. Literary scholarship, especially in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century studies, has traditionally attempted to tether representations of gender-based violence to “objective,” transhistorical frameworks such as “the law” and psychology, a move we wish to counter here.
Planet
Authors: Morgan Benjamin
Published: September 2023

This essay argues that “planet” has recently become an important concept for scholars of nineteenth-century literature and culture. Whereas concepts such as the “globe” or the “world” portray the Earth as a space subject to surveillance and political power, the concept of the planet emphasizes the alien, nonanthropocentric aspects of the Earth and its history.
Redux
Authors: Hack Daniel
Published: September 2023

How much time has passed since the publication of VLC’s Keywords issue five years ago? This is not a trick question. Students of nineteenth-century British literature and culture are primed to see five years as a long time (“with the length of five long summers”), and events at both national and global scales have encouraged a widespread sense that 2018 is located less in the recent past than on the far side of a divide—in the Before Times. On the other hand, the long view encouraged by a scholarly focus on a period that ended over a century ago may see little or no meaningful time as having passed between 2018 and 2023. Moreover, on a more quotidian level, the very pace of scholarship—the amount of time it typically takes to conceive, research, write, and publish work, even for those without a Casaubonian bone in their bodies—can make five years seem like no time at all (“five summers that flew by,” as Wordsworth might have put it had he been on an academic calendar).
Discretionary foods and drinks in Norwegian children and adolescents’ diet: data from the national dietary survey Ungkost 3
Authors: Paulsen Mari Mohn , Myhre Jannicke Borch , Totland Torunn Holm , Andersen Lene Frost
Published: September 2023

Objective:

This study aimed to identify the amount of discretionary foods and drinks consumed by Norwegian children and adolescents, describe how such products contribute to the intake of total energy and nutrients, and study the distribution in intake of discretionary foods and drinks across different meals. Secondly, the aim was to explore factors associated with those children and adolescents having the highest consumption of discretionary foods and drinks.

Design:

Secondary analysis of data from a national survey of dietary intake among Norwegian children and adolescents.

Setting:

Schools in fifty randomly selected municipalities in Norway.

Participants:

The study population included 636 pupils in 4thgrade (9–11 years) and 687 pupils in 8thgrade (12–14 years).

Results:

Discretionary foods and drinks contributed to about 20 % of the children and adolescents’ total energy intake. These products contributed to about two-thirds of the participants’ intake of added sugar, and limited amounts of dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals. The quartile which had the lowest proportion of their energy intake from discretionary foods and drinks seemed to have a higher intake of whole grains, and fish and seafood.

Conclusions:

Almost all 4thand 8thgraders in Norway consumed discretionary foods and drinks, and these products contributed to a substantial proportion of the total energy intake and limited amounts of nutrients. Those children and adolescents consuming the least discretionary foods and drinks had a higher intake of whole grains, fish and seafood, indicating healthier and more sustainable food habits.
Building the case for a social and behaviour change approach to prevent and respond to the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and armed groups
Authors: Baagø-Rasmussen Line , Atterby Carin , Dutordoir Laurent
Published: September 2023

Over the last decade, social and behaviour change strategies have increasingly been used to address human rights and child protection concerns, including harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation and violent discipline. Social and gender norms have also been recognized as key drivers of child recruitment. Nonetheless, the use of social and behaviour change strategies to prevent and respond to the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict has not yet been systematically explored or applied. Building on academic and practical sources, including findings from studies by the International Committee of the Red Cross and United Nations University, social and behavioural science theory, experiences from the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism on grave violations against children, and academic literature, this article explores how social and behaviour change approaches can inform prevention of and response to the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. The article concludes that social and behaviour change approaches can effectively inform prevention and reintegration efforts and can facilitate responses that bridge the humanitarian, development and peace nexus. Using social and behaviour change approaches can help to reveal why children are recruited from the perspective of key actors and entities across the socio-ecological framework in order to prevent the practice from becoming more accepted.
Passionate humility for global constitutionalism in the aftermath of the Russo-Ukrainian war
Authors: Kurowska Xymena
Published: September 2023

This essay proposes the epistemic ethos of passionate humility for knowledge production about global constitutionalism in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. By employing the conceptual strategy of elucidation, passionate humility can reveal a counter-intuitively counter-hegemonic use of the global constitutionalist triad of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in the Ukrainian resistance against Russia’s war. As an approach to knowledge production, passionate humility addresses epistemic ignorance by retrieving situated non-imperial knowledges while also confronting the ambivalent politics of such knowledges. It therefore hints at how we can both decentre and make use of resources associated with global constitutionalism, without valorizing western elitist discourses, reinscribing the inter-imperial mode of knowledge production or sanitizing vernacular knowledges. Passionate humility does so in three moves: it problematizes hegemonic epistemic frames (either west-centred or Russia-centred); it foregrounds complex social agency, which resists a fixed theoretical or ideological language; and it reveals the contextual deployment of the Occidentalist language of global constitutionalism in the Ukrainian public discourse as a practice of negotiated subjecthood. Such practice can be counter-hegemonic without being inherently progressive.
Structural intervention at one bridge decreases the overall jumping suicide rate in Victoria, Australia
Authors: Dwyer J. , Spittal M. J. , Scurrah K. , Pirkis J. , Bugeja L. , Clapperton A.
Published: September 2023

Aims

There is clear evidence that installing safety barriers is effective in preventing jumping suicides from high-risk bridges with only moderate displacement to other nearby bridges. However, the impact of barriers on jumping suicides across broader geographical areas is not well understood. We examined patterns in jumping suicides across the state of Victoria, Australia, after a safety barrier was installed at the West Gate Bridge which, before the installation of the barrier, was the site of approximately 40% of Victoria’s jumping suicides.

Methods

We used negative binomial regression analyses on Victorian data from 2000 to 2019 to compare rates of jumping suicides at the West Gate Bridge, other bridges and non-bridge jumping locations before, during and after the West Gate Bridge barrier installation. We conducted linear regression analyses to examine whether the distance travelled from the deceased’s usual residence to the location of their jumping suicide changed between the before, during and after barrier installation periods.

Results

After installation of the barrier, there were no jumping suicides at the West Gate Bridge (rate ratio [RR] = 0.00, 95% credible intervals [95% Cr] = 0.00–0.0001) and there was strong evidence that the rate of jumping suicides at all locations declined by 65% (RR = 0.35, 95% Cr = 0.22–0.54). At other bridges, there was also evidence of a reduction (RR = 0.31, 95% Cr = 0.11–0.70), but there was no evidence of a change at non-bridge locations (RR = 0.74, 95% Cr = 0.39–1.30).

Conclusion

After installation of the safety barrier at the West Gate Bridge, jumping suicide in Victoria decreased overall and at other bridges, and did not appear to change at non-bridge locations. Our findings show that when barriers are installed at a site responsible for a disproportionately high number of jumping suicides, they are not only highly effective at the site where the barriers are installed but can also have a prevention impact beyond the immediate locale at similar sites.
A Practical Guide to Dealing with Attrition in Political Science Experiments
Authors: Lo Adeline , Renshon Jonathan , Bassan-Nygate Lotem
Published: September 2023

Despite admonitions to address attrition in experiments – missingness on Y – alongside best practices designed to encourage transparency, most political science researchers all but ignore it. A quantitative literature search of this journal – where we would expect to find the most conscientious reporting of attrition – shows low rates of discussion of the issue. We suspect that there is confusion on the link between when attrition occurs and the type of validity it threatens when present, and limited connection to and guidance on which estimands are threatened by different attrition patterns. This is all exacerbated by limited tools to identify, investigate, and report patterns attrition. We offer the R package – attritevis – to visualize attrition over time, by intervention, and include a step-by-step guide to identifying and addressing attrition that balances post hoc analytical tools with guidance for revising designs to ameliorate problematic attrition.
Assessing the Validity of Prevalence Estimates in Double List Experiments
Authors: Diaz Gustavo
Published: September 2023

Social scientists use list experiments in surveys to estimate the prevalence of sensitive attitudes and behaviors in a population of interest. However, the cumulative evidence suggests that the list experiment estimator is underpowered to capture the extent of sensitivity bias in common applications. The literature suggests double list experiments (DLEs) as an alternative to improve along the bias-variance frontier. This variant of the research design brings the additional burden of justifying the list experiment identification assumptions in both lists, which raises concerns over the validity of DLE estimates. To overcome this difficulty, this paper outlines two statistical tests to detect strategic misreporting that follows from violations to the identification assumptions. I illustrate their implementation with data from a study on support toward anti-immigration organizations in California and explore their properties via simulation.
Recognition probability in legislative bargaining
Authors: Lee Natalie , Sethi Ravideep
Published: September 2023

In legislative bargaining, the proposer is often able to extract a greater proportion of the surplus. However, a higher likelihood of being selected as the proposer can backfire, as it may reduce the probability that the agent is included in a winning coalition. We experimentally test the theoretical prediction of potentially negative returns to recognition probability in two-period legislative bargaining noted in Baron and Ferejohn (1989). We find that higher recognition probability benefits subjects in all treatments, except one in which we automate the second period. It is because proposers often favor the member with the greater recognition probability as a coalition partner, and such tendency varies depending on the proposer’s recognition probability, counter to the theoretical prediction. In all treatments, a vast majority of subjects exhibit a strict preference for higher recognition probability.
ORC-Q
Authors: Gräfe Hendrik , Kauffeld Simone
Published: September 2023

Abstract: Organizational changes as a method for ensuring competitiveness are an integral part of an organization’s daily life. A comprehensive understanding of organizational readiness for change is essential for managing change successfully and in a goal-oriented manner. Yet, established measures for mapping organizational readiness for change are often based on a unidimensional construct definition. Therefore, the goal of this study was to construct and validate a measure of a well-defined organizational readiness for change construct. Based on a systematic development process, the measure was constructed and tested in two samples for its psychometric properties and validity. A five-factor structure aligned with theoretical assumptions was identified that enabled the interpretation of the factors Organizational Valence, Individual Valence, Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Change Behavior, which in turn constitute a second-order factor Organizational Readiness for Change. Further results indicated satisfactory values for the reliability of the measure as well as its convergent, discriminant, criterion, and construct validity. Implications and limitations are discussed and the outlook for potential future research questions is given.
Real-world costs of obesity-related complications over eight years: a US retrospective cohort study in 28,500 individuals
Authors: Pearson-Stuttard Jonathan , Banerji Tania , Capucci Silvia , de Laguiche Elisabeth , Faurby Mads D. , Haase Christiane Lundegaard , Sommer Matthiessen Kasper , Near Aimee M. , Tse Jenny , Zhao Xiaohui , Evans Marc
Published: September 2023

Background

Obesity-related complications (ORCs) are associated with high costs for healthcare systems. We assessed the relationship between comorbidity burden, represented by both number and type of 14 specific ORCs, and total healthcare costs over time in people with obesity in the USA.

Methods

Adults (≥ 18 years old) identified from linked electronic medical records and administrative claims databases, with a body mass index measurement of 30–< 70 kg/m2 between 1 January 2007 and 31 March 2012 (earliest measurement: index date), and with continuous enrolment for ≥ 1 year pre index (baseline year) and ≥ 8 years post index, were included. Individuals were grouped by type and number of ORCs during the pre-index baseline year. The primary outcome was annual total adjusted direct per-person healthcare costs.

Results

Of 28,583 included individuals, 12,686 had no ORCs, 7242 had one ORC, 4180 had two ORCs and 4475 had three or more ORCs in the baseline year. Annual adjusted direct healthcare costs increased with the number of ORCs and over the 8-year follow-up. Outpatient costs were the greatest contributor to baseline annual direct costs, irrespective of the number of ORCs. For specific ORCs, costs generally increased gradually over the follow-up; the largest percentage increases from year 1 to year 8 were observed for chronic kidney disease (+ 78.8%) and type 2 diabetes (+ 47.8%).

Conclusions

In a US real-world setting, the number of ORCs appears to be a cost driver in people with obesity, from the time of initial obesity classification and for at least the following 8 years.
NAD+ exhaustion by CD38 upregulation contributes to blood pressure elevation and vascular damage in hypertension
Authors: Qiu Yumin , Xu Shiyue , Chen Xi , Wu Xing , Zhou Zhe , Zhang Jianning , Tu Qiang , Dong Bing , Liu Zhefu , He Jiang , Zhang Xiaoyu , Liu Shuangshuang , Su Chen , Huang Hui , Xia Wenhao , Tao Jun
Published: September 2023

Hypertension is characterized by endothelial dysfunction and arterial stiffness, which contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is an indispensable cofactor in all living cells that is involved in fundamental biological processes. However, in hypertensive patients, alterations in NAD+ levels and their relation with blood pressure (BP) elevation and vascular damage have not yet been studied. Here we reported that hypertensive patients exhibited lower NAD+ levels, as detected by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), in both peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and aortas, which was parallel to vascular dysfunction. NAD+ boosting therapy with nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) supplement reduced BP and ameliorated vascular dysfunction in hypertensive patients (NCT04903210) and AngII-induced hypertensive mice. Upregulation of CD38 in endothelial cells led to endothelial NAD+ exhaustion by reducing NMN bioavailability. Pro-inflammatory macrophages infiltration and increase in IL-1β generation derived from pro-inflammatory macrophages resulted in higher CD38 expression by activating JAK1-STAT1 signaling pathway. CD38 KO, CD38 inhibitors treatment, or adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated endothelial CD38 knockdown lowered BP and improved vascular dysfunction in AngII-induced hypertensive mice. The present study demonstrated for the first time that endothelial CD38 activation and subsequently accelerated NAD+ degradation due to enhanced macrophage-derived IL-1β production was responsible for BP elevation and vascular damage in hypertension. NAD+ boosting therapy can be used as a novel therapeutic strategy for the management of hypertensive patients.
Elevated concentrations cause upright alpha-synuclein conformation at lipid interfaces
Authors: Roeters Steven J. , Strunge Kris , Pedersen Kasper B. , Golbek Thaddeus W. , Bregnhøj Mikkel , Zhang Yuge , Wang Yin , Dong Mingdong , Nielsen Janni , Otzen Daniel E. , Schiøtt Birgit , Weidner Tobias
Published: September 2023

The amyloid aggregation of α-synuclein (αS), related to Parkinson’s disease, can be catalyzed by lipid membranes. Despite the importance of lipid surfaces, the 3D-structure and orientation of lipid-bound αS is still not known in detail. Here, we report interface-specific vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) experiments that reveal how monomeric αS binds to an anionic lipid interface over a large range of αS-lipid ratios. To interpret the experimental data, we present a frame-selection method ("ViscaSelect”) in which out-of-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations are used to generate structural hypotheses that are compared to experimental amide-I spectra via excitonic spectral calculations. At low and physiological αS concentrations, we derive flat-lying helical structures as previously reported. However, at elevated and potentially disease-related concentrations, a transition to interface-protruding αS structures occurs. Such an upright conformation promotes lateral interactions between αS monomers and may explain how lipid membranes catalyze the formation of αS amyloids at elevated protein concentrations.
Rapid inverse design of metamaterials based on prescribed mechanical behavior through machine learning
Authors: Ha Chan Soo , Yao Desheng , Xu Zhenpeng , Liu Chenang , Liu Han , Elkins Daniel , Kile Matthew , Deshpande Vikram , Kong Zhenyu , Bauchy Mathieu , Zheng Xiaoyu
Published: September 2023

Designing and printing metamaterials with customizable architectures enables the realization of unprecedented mechanical behaviors that transcend those of their constituent materials. These behaviors are recorded in the form of response curves, with stress-strain curves describing their quasi-static footprint. However, existing inverse design approaches are yet matured to capture the full desired behaviors due to challenges stemmed from multiple design objectives, nonlinear behavior, and process-dependent manufacturing errors. Here, we report a rapid inverse design methodology, leveraging generative machine learning and desktop additive manufacturing, which enables the creation of nearly all possible uniaxial compressive stress‒strain curve cases while accounting for process-dependent errors from printing. Results show that mechanical behavior with full tailorability can be achieved with nearly 90% fidelity between target and experimentally measured results. Our approach represents a starting point to inverse design materials that meet prescribed yet complex behaviors and potentially bypasses iterative design-manufacturing cycles.