bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Vulnerability, susceptibility and community preparedness for flood disaster in Banyumas, Indonesia
Authors: Noveles Aditya Indit , Muryani Chatarina , Nugraha Setya
Published: May 2023

Banyumas Subdistrict, Banyumas Regency, which is an area prone to flooding, it is proven that five villages were flooded and dozens of people were evacuated due to the overflowing of the Serayu River so which had an impact on socio-economic conditions. Information on flood hazard and vulnerability data is still in numerical form (table) so it has not been mapped spatially. The objectives of this study were: (1) To analyze the level of flood vulnerability in Banyumas District, Banyumas Regency (2) To analyze the level of flood susceptibility in Banyumas District, Banyumas Regency (3) To analyze the level of community preparedness in dealing with flood disasters in Banyumas District, Banyumas Regency. The research method uses a descriptive approach. The sampling technique used was the saturated sample method and the simple random sample method. Data collection techniques using field observations, interviews, questionnaires, and documentation. The data analysis technique used to determine the level of vulnerability and susceptibility to flooding uses spatial analysis and scoring, to determine the level of community preparedness in dealing with flood disasters using descriptive analysis. The results of the study are: (1) The level of flood vulnerability in Banyumas District is dominated by a high level of vulnerability as many as 18 land units with an area of 1.668,53 Ha (39%). (2) The level of flood susceptibility in Banyumas District is dominated by a moderate level of susceptibility in as many as 10 villages with an area of 2.684,72 Ha (83%) and high susceptibility in as many as 2 villages with an area of 1.342,86 Ha (17%). (3) The level of community preparedness in dealing with flood disasters in Kedunguter Village is ready to face flood disasters.
Assessment moral hazard of crop insurance in Indonesia
Authors: Suryanto  , Rosalia Amelia Choya Tia
Published: May 2023

Moral hazard is crucial issue in insurance not only in developing countries but also in developed countries. This research is to find out the cause of moral hazard on the implementation of crop insurance in Indonesia. To support farmers in risk management and prevent financial losses the Indonesian government subsidizes crop insurance by paying 80% of the premiums. This study asked to farmer as primary data in Karanganyar Regency, Central Java. The result indicates that landholding size, farming experience, age, study experience, income, and farmers’ participation in crop insurance influence the farmers’ production cost. While farming and study experience has no significant influence on production cost. This study found that there is a risk of moral hazard when farmers are covered by crop insurance. This means that farmers will not take the necessary precautions to protect their crops, leading to greater losses.
The impact of climate change on the production of cassava and sweet potato in Indonesia
Authors: Sutrisno J , Agustono  , Fajarningsih R U , Khairiyakh R , Ulfa A N , Nurhidayati I
Published: May 2023

Cassava and sweet potato are important commodities in Indonesia. They have a role as carbohydrate sources and industrial commodities. Climate factors are environmental production factors that are the most difficult to be controlled. However, climate changes that are happening have certainly made the situation worse. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of climate change from climatic factors of temperature, humidity, rainfall, rainy days, and solar exposure on cassava and sweet potato production in Indonesia. This study collected climate factor data from the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency and the Central Statistics Agencies of 34 Indonesian provinces. The study concluded that climatic variables such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, rainy days, and solar exposure affect cassava and sweet potato production at 18% and 26%, respectively. The climatic factors simultaneously significantly affect cassava and sweet potato production. The T-test indicates that temperature, humidity, and rainy days significantly negatively affect cassava production. In contrast, rainfall and solar exposure have a positive impact individually on it. On the other hand, the response of sweet potato production to climate change was different. Temperature and humidity have significant negative effects on sweet potato production, while rainfall and solar exposure have considerable positive effects.
Several variables affecting provincial Air Quality Index (AQI) in Indonesia 2012 – 2019
Authors: Susilo Yuvensius Sri , Putranto Laurensius Farel Dwi
Published: May 2023

The purpose of this study is to determine and analyze several variables that affect the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Indonesia in 2012 – 2019. The data used in this study is secondary data in the form of panel data related to the variables of AQI, circular economy, and digital economy in 34 provinces in Indonesia in the period 2012 – 2019. The secondary data used were retrieved from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and the Provincial Sanitation Office (DKK) in Indonesia. The analytical tool used in this research is static panel data econometrics. The results showed that the circular economy variables in the dimensions of water resource efficiency by industry, waste treatment, and waste production have a significant effect on improving air quality in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the circular economy variables in the dimensions of coal and water resource use efficiency by the population have not been able to support the improvement of air quality in Indonesia. Furthermore, it was found that the variables indicating the application of the digital economy also had a significant effect on improving air quality in Indonesia. The results of this study are expected to be a reference for the community, policy makers, and academics in responding to the importance of maintaining the momentum of economic activity expansion along with maintaining regional air quality through new economic approaches.
The policy plan of ecotourism development of Sakjan Lake for economic empowerment of buffering rural community in the Meru Betiri National Park Jember Indonesia
Authors: Ihsannudin  , Kholiq N , Antriyandarti E
Published: May 2023

Meru Betiri National Park is a conservation area for the biodiversity of flora and fauna. In the implementation, conservation activities should provide economic benefits for the buffer community to build participation in conservation activities. This study aims to find out a policy plan for developing the ecotourism destination of Sakjan Lake in Meru Betiri National Park Jember. The analysis uses the Tinbergen Rule with consideration of endogenous and exogenous variables in achieving the final goal of community empowerment of buffer villages without neglecting the nature conservation in the Meru Betiri National Park. The results show that policy plans consist of zoning changes to the location of Sakjan Lake, maximum protection of natural preservation, tourist safety, community empowerment with a participatory approach, keeping off ecotourism paradoxes and determining a proper strategy for ecotourism development. Ecotourism activities of Sakjan Lake should be directed to the economic improvement of the local community without breaking the regulation related to the existence of Meru Betiri National Park and safety attention for visitors, so that ecotourism activities are not only for income generating but also for nature and environmental conservation.
International Initial Public Offerings
Authors: Muehr Christina Maria , Lindner Thomas
Published: May 2023

An initial public offering (IPO) is the process within which private firms offer their shares to the public by form of a new stock issuance for the first time. IPOs have strong economic significance and performance fluctuations, which affect both firms and public markets. What is more, acquiring capital on a stock exchange outside of the firm’s home country comes with substantial benefits, including access to a greater and more diversified pool of resources and investors, more liquid markets, the opportunity to raise capital at a lower cost of capital, and increased capital retention for future investments. On the contrary, it also introduces multiple challenges, including higher underwriting, professional, and initial listing fees or lower analyst coverage, trading volume, and trading liquidity.

Integrating and building on literature emerging from multiple domains, including international business (IB), accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, management, and economics, international IPO research clusters around seven central themes: corporate governance, upper echelon, social partners, internationalization activities, institutions, technology, and market activities. Each of these themes employs unique theoretical perspectives and findings, which are at the forefront of advancements in international IPO research from its early beginnings and altogether provide a deep understanding with some potential avenues of future enquiries within the field.
African Centered Education
Authors: Shockley Kmt G.
Published: May 2023

African centered education (ACE) is a type of pedagogy and educational practice that centers the needs and interests of Black children and communities by requiring educators to become familiar with the issues, problems, and perspectives that exist within Black communities. Pedagogically, it involves including ideas and practices that come from African cultural groups (such as Ashanti, Zulu, Wolof, etc.) into the educational process. Several theories provide the major constructs upon which ACE is articulated, namely: (a) an understanding that Black people are, in fact, Africans; (b) an understanding that all people identified as being of African descent are Africans with a common aim and destiny, a sentiment called Pan Africanism; (c) the practice of re-Africanization, which relates to adopting aspects of indigenous African cultural practice into one’s life; (d) the adoption of traditional/indigenous African values, such as the ancient concept of Maat, into one’s life; (e) the practice of Black nationalism, which relates to believing that people of African descent constitute a nation that must be built for survival and sustainment; (f) an understanding and belief that educational institutions for Black children must be fully controlled by people of African descent; and (g) an understanding that there is a difference between education—which is the type of knowledge transmission process that Black youth need in order to solve problems and build institutions within their own communities, and schooling—which relates to the culturally mismatched training process that Black children are receiving in schools which prevents them from being able to use their “education” to solve problems and build institutions within their own communities.
Chinese Heritage Language Schools in the United States
Authors: Yuan Shizhan
Published: May 2023

Chinese heritage language (CHL) schools in the United States serve the children of Chinese immigrants whose parents wish them to retain and develop their heritage Chinese language and culture in the United States. Traditionally, the U.S. K–12 school system and education policies adopt a classic assimilation (assimilation without accommodation) education model that maintains a dominant American English (DAE) at school. K–12 schools in the United States are usually reluctant to preserve the heritage languages and cultures of immigrants from other countries. CHL schools in the United States are usually founded by communities of Chinese immigrants to support their children’s learning of Chinese heritage language and culture (also known as CHL children or CHL learners). CHL schools come in different forms: some are Chinese after-school programs that normally operate on weekday afternoons, when CHL students finish their classes in the K–12 schools; others are operated on weekends (weekend CHL schools). Depending on the origins of their founders (such as mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan) as well as the needs of the Chinese community, CHL schools may teach Mandarin or Cantonese as the oral language, and simplified Chinese characters or traditional Chinese characters as the written language. CHL schools also use different course materials, and the curriculum depends on the needs and origins of the CHL learners’ families and communities as well as the origin of their founders.
Defining Chinese Commodities in the Early Modern Era: A Historical and Conceptual Analysis
Authors: Po Ronald C.
Published: May 2023

China gradually became a major political and economic power, starting from the second half of the 20th century. Today, it is an export factory that manufactures almost every imaginable product, from brass buttons and footware to computer chips and motor vehicles. While one could argue that the label “Made in China” seems to be visible and recognizable everywhere in the 21st century, this is not a recent phenomenon. A few centuries prior to the 1970s, China was already tightly connected to the global market. During the early modern era, the ideas, customs, and habits of Chinese culture were already steadily spreading across the globe through the consumption of a series of highly desirable Chinese items. Although historians have studied the global impact of a wide range of goods exported from China since the Ming dynasty, if not earlier, it remains necessary to obtain a more conceptual definition of the term “Chinese commodity” in studies of consumption and material culture. According to one definition, a “Chinese commodity” is a good that originated in and/or was manufactured in China. Yet at the same time, the idea of Chinese commodities has occasionally said more about how the non-Chinese in a foreign market imagined and conceptualized Chinese culture than the actual cultural meaning that was supposed to be connected to China. In other words, this is a multifaceted concept that requires further elaboration since it offers promising perceptions from which to explore and reflect on the interlacing of China and the world, while some of these correlations continue to generate a certain degree of social impact on our physical surroundings and imagination even to the present day.
Education and Social Mobility
Authors: Holmlund Helena , Nybom Martin
Published: May 2023

Family background is a strong determinant of an individual’s educational achievement and labor market success. Using an economics framework, intergenerational persistence in socioeconomic status can be explained by a variety of factors, including parental investment behavior, credit constraints, and the degree of inequality in society. Genetic transmission from parents to children may also play a role. In addition, the skill formation process is governed by dynamics between different stages of a child’s life, such as complementarities between early and late investments or between informal and formal education.

Education policy holds the promise of breaking the strong ties between family background and socioeconomic position by providing publicly accessible education for children of all backgrounds. However, the education system may also perpetuate social inequalities if well-off families are able to protect their children from downward mobility by, for example, moving to neighborhoods with high-quality schools and by providing networks that offer opportunities to succeed.

However, a growing number of studies show that educational interventions can have long-lasting effects on students’ outcomes, in particular for disadvantaged students, and that they can be cost-effective. For example, reducing class size, increasing general education spending, tutoring, and improving teacher quality are policy levers that are shown to be successful in this regard. Shifting from selective to comprehensive school systems is also a policy that enhances equality of opportunity. While the evidence on credit constraints and their role for access to higher education is evolving, but still mostly U.S. focused and largely inconclusive, it is a key domain for shaping social mobility given the life-changing impacts that a university degree can have.
Free Electron Lasers
Authors: Huang Zhirong
Published: May 2023

Free electron lasers (FELs) are coherent radiation sources based on radiation from “free” relativistic electrons rather than electrons bound in atomic and molecular systems. FELs can in principle operate at any arbitrary wavelength, limited only by the energy and quality of the electron beam that is produced by accelerators. Therefore, FELs can be used to fill gaps in regions of the electromagnetic spectrum where no other coherent sources exist and can provide radiation of very high power and extreme brightness. More than 50 FELs have been built around the world, serving a diverse array of scientific fields and applications.

FELs are based on the resonant interaction of a high-quality electron beam with the radiation in a periodic magnetic device called an “undulator” and can have several operating modes. FEL oscillators use optical cavities to trap the radiation so that the field is built up over many amplification passes through the undulator. FELs can also act as linear amplifiers that will magnify external radiation whose central frequency is close to the undulator resonance condition. Without any seed signal, self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) can be used to generate intense coherent radiation starting from electron shot noise and is the most common approach for X-ray FELs. SASE will have limited temporal coherence and pulse stability due to its noisy startup but is very flexible in generating ultrashort X-ray pulses from hundreds of femtoseconds down to hundreds of attoseconds in duration. Various advanced schemes aiming at achieving fully coherent, stable X-ray pulses are proposed and are actively being investigated and developed.
‘Ashura and Azadari
Authors: Schubel Vernon James
Published: May 2023

‘Ashura, the tenth day of the lunar month of Muharram, is among the most significant days in the Muslim devotional calendar, especially for Shi‘i Muslims. On this date, in 680 ce, the Prophet Muhammad’s sole surviving grandson, Imam Husayn, along with numerous members of family and close companions, was killed at Karbala by a military force loyal to the Caliph Yazid ibn Mu‘awiyah. The martyrdom of Imam Husayn is commemorated annually, especially by Twelver Shi‘i Muslims, and has inspired the creation of diverse performative rituals and ceremonies (collectively known as azadari) that allow both for the discursive transmission of religious and ethical teachings and for affective displays of love, grief, and devotion that in many ways define the essence of the piety of Shi‘i Islam.

Immigrant Shi‘i Muslims have carried these practices with them to North America from their countries of origins and adapted them to the new realities of life as minority communities within the United States and Canada. Like other North American Muslims, the Shi‘a exist as part of larger ethnic minority communities, largely from South Asia and the Arab world, surrounded by a majority population of primarily of European descent. They also exist as minority within a Muslim community that is mostly Sunni in terms of its religious identity. While North American Shi‘i Muslims share many ritual practices in common with their Sunni coreligionists, such as the daily prayers (salah), which are performed in Arabic and connect them with the larger ummah, they also maintain their own distinctive ritual practices of mourning for Imam Husayn, which are generally performed in vernacular languages and are specific to particular ethnic, geographic, or linguistic communities. These practices emphasize not only the distinctive qualities of Shi’i piety but also the vibrant ethnic and linguistic diversity of the immigrant Islamic community. While these rituals and narrative commemorating Karbala and Ashura set Shi’ism apart as a unique body of religious thought and practice, their emphasis on universal human values such as courage, self-sacrifice, loyalty, and compassion and a call for social justice provide them with an opportunity to reach out and find common ground with the larger American community.
Spanish and Portuguese Outside Europe
Authors: Clements J. Clancy
Published: May 2023

With their 625 million native speakers, Spanish and Portuguese are the two most widely spoken and most important Ibero-Romance languages in the world. In their colonial expansion, both languages have come into contact with other languages in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. For Portuguese in Brazil, the strong presence of Africans and their descendants over several centuries seems to have contributed to the changes found in varieties and registers of this dialect that are rarely found or are absent in European Portuguese, features such as the variable use of stressed pronouns instead of object clitic pronouns, variable subject–verb agreement, and phrase-final negation. In East Timor Portuguese, the salient features are those found in second- and subsequent language acquisition, such as the use of present-tense or nonfinite verb forms to refer to past situations. Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique exhibits features expected in naturalistic subsequent language acquisition, such as variation in preposition and determiner use and native-language transfer. For Spanish in the Americas, it spans an enormous area and dialectal variation does not adhere to national boundaries. Three general areas are considered: Mexico, the Caribbean (Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico), and Argentina. While overall the grammatical system is relatively homogeneous, there is a pattern of change found in the coastal areas due to the diversity and density of the populations in these areas. The key features that distinguish the three varieties involve the pronunciation of syllable-final /s/ and different pronominal systems. The most significant changes in morphosyntactic structure are found in those areas in which Spanish and Indigenous languages are in contact, two examples of which are Spanish in the Andean region and in Paraguay. In Andean Spanish, the realization of /e, o/ as /i, u/, respectively, and object–verb order are not uncommon, traits present due to Quechua. For its part, Paraguayan Spanish (also called Jopara) is in a diglossic situation with Guarani and exhibits lexical and grammatical features taken from or influenced by Guarani.
Wastewater Reclamation and Recycling
Authors: Kum Soyoon , Rowles Lewis S.
Published: May 2023

Across the globe, freshwater scarcity is increasing due to overuse, climate change, and population growth. Increasing water security requires sufficient water from diverse water resources. Wastewater can be used as a valuable water resource to improve water security because it is ever-present and usually available throughout the year. However, wastewater is a convoluted solution because the sources of wastewater can vary greatly (e.g., domestic sewage, agricultural runoff, waste from livestock activity, and industrial effluent). Different sources of wastewater can have vastly different pollutants, and mainly times, it is a complex mixture. Therefore, wastewater treatment, unlike drinking water treatment, requires a different treatment strategy. Various wastewater sources can be reused through wastewater reclamation and recycling, and the required water quality varies depending on the targeted purpose (e.g., groundwater recharge, potable water usage, irrigation). One potential solution is employing tailored treatment schemes to fit the purpose. Assorted physical, chemical, and biological treatment technologies have been established or developed for wastewater reclamation and recycle. The advancement of wastewater reclamation technologies has focused on the reduction of energy consumption and the targeted removal of emerging contaminants. Beyond technological challenges, context can be important to consider for reuse due to public perception and local water rights. Since the early 1990s, several global wastewater reclamation examples have overcome challenges and proved the applicability of wastewater reclamation systems. These examples showed that wastewater reclamation can be a promising solution to alleviate water shortages. As water scarcity becomes more widespread, strong global initiatives are needed to make substantial progress for water reclamation and reuse.
Politics of Local Community Engagement in Transboundary Water Negotiations
Authors: Espindola Isabela , Villar Pilar
Published: May 2023

The sharing of transboundary water resources, whether surface or groundwater, is a significant challenge, both in theory and practice. Countries in situations of sharing these natural resources are predisposed to interact with each other. These interactions, here called transboundary water interactions, are characterized by the coexistence of cooperation and conflict, which can arise at different governance levels. However, negotiations around transboundary water resources primarily occur between diplomats and high government members from riparian countries and river basin organization (RBO) managers. Transboundary water negotiations are usually considered high-level political discussions, given the complexity and scale of the water challenges. Consequently, decision-making processes incorporate only a limited number of participants, who make decisions capable of impacting the entire population that depend on the shared waters. Over the last 20 years, there has been a need for greater transparency and a participatory process in transboundary water negotiations, especially for local community engagement and collaboration in these processes. Many of the negotiation processes around transboundary water resources need the participation of municipalities and local populations, concomitant with the involvement of RBOs, to carry out decisions to manage transboundary waters in an integrated manner. There are several reasons for this demand, including negotiation effectiveness, contestation prevention, data sharing, ensuring continuing participation and collaboration, and promoting public awareness related to water resources. Discussing social participation, particularly in the management of transboundary water resources, requires attention to the historical context and its constraints. Considering the enormous challenge, the experiences of local community engagement in transboundary water negotiations in South America, especially from the Guarani Aquifer and the La Plata Basin, are good examples for improving this discussion around transboundary water interactions and local community engagement. The La Plata Basin is the second-largest transboundary basin in the continent, shared by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, while the Guarani Aquifer is one of the largest reservoirs of freshwater worldwide, shared by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Even with both having cooperation agreements in place between the riparian states, there are still great difficulties with regard to the participation of local communities in transboundary water negotiations.
Synthesized Age-Period-Cohort Prediction Method: Application to Lung Cancer Mortality in Taiwan
Authors: Su Shih-Yung
Published: May 2023

Age-period-cohort analysis involves 3 temporal factors: age (the length of time from birth to diagnosis), period (the calendar time of diagnosis), and cohort (the calendar time of birth). The application of age-period-cohort analysis in disease forecasting can help researchers and health authorities anticipate future disease burden. In this study, a synthesized age-period-cohort prediction method was proposed based on 4 assumptions: 1) no single model can dominate as the most accurate prediction model in all forecasting scenarios; 2) historical trends will not continue indefinitely; 3) a model with the most accurate forecast for the training data will also be appropriate for forecasting future data; and 4) a model dominated by the stochastic temporal change will be the best-selected model with the robust forecasting. An ensemble of age-period-cohort prediction models was constructed, and Monte Carlo cross-validation was performed to evaluate forecasting accuracy of these models. Data on lung cancer mortality from 1996 to 2015 in Taiwan were used and projected to the year 2035 to illustrate the method. The actual lung cancer mortality rates from 2016 to 2020 were then used to verify the forecasting accuracy.
Metabolite Stability in Archived Neonatal Dried Blood Spots Used for Epidemiologic Research
Authors: He Di , Yan Qi , Uppal Karan , Walker Douglas I , Jones Dean P , Ritz Beate , Heck Julia E
Published: May 2023

Epidemiologic studies of low-frequency exposures or outcomes using metabolomics analyses of neonatal dried blood spots (DBS) often require assembly of samples with substantial differences in duration of storage. Independent assessment of stability of metabolites in archived DBS will enable improved design and interpretation of epidemiologic research utilizing DBS. Neonatal DBS routinely collected and stored as part of the California Genetic Disease Screening Program between 1983 and 2011 were used. The study population included 899 children without cancer before age 6 years, born in California. High-resolution metabolomics with liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry was performed, and the relative ion intensities of common metabolites and selected xenobiotic metabolites of nicotine (cotinine and hydroxycotinine) were evaluated. In total, we detected 26,235 mass spectral features across 2 separate chromatography methods (C18 hydrophobic reversed-phase chromatography and hydrophilic-interaction liquid chromatography). For most of the 39 metabolites related to nutrition and health status, we found no statistically significant annual trends across the years of storage. Nicotine metabolites were captured in the DBS with relatively stable intensities. This study supports the usefulness of DBS stored long-term for epidemiologic studies of the metabolome. -Omics-based information gained from DBS may also provide a valuable tool for assessing prenatal environmental exposures in child health research.
Moving From Traumatic Events to Traumatic Experiences in the Study of Traumatic Psychopathology
Authors: Gradus Jaimie L , Galea Sandro
Published: May 2023

Trauma is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) as an event that includes “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence” (p. 271). The list of traumatic events included in the DSM-5 represents a long history of psychiatry and psychology’s attempts to define trauma and differentiate these events from less severe stressors. In this commentary, we suggest that this strict distinction between traumatic events and stressful events is not useful for public health. The current DSM-5 list of traumatic events may work well for identifying people with the most severe experiences and highest conditional probability of distress who need clinical care. However, the public health field has different priorities. If we think about posttraumatic psychological distress on a population scale, it is not only helping those with the most severe experiences that is needed; rather, public health requires paying attention to all people experiencing distressing stress and trauma reactions. We propose that context is crucial to the development of a population-relevant definition of trauma and provide examples of situations in which stressors have resulted in posttraumatic psychological distress and in which traumatic event reactions have been mitigated by the context in which they occur. We discuss trauma context from an epidemiologic perspective and conclude with recommendations for the field.

This article is part of a Special Collection on Mental Health.
Floral volatiles evoke partially similar responses in both florivores and pollinators and are correlated with non-volatile reward chemicals
Authors: Sasidharan Rohit , Junker Robert R , Eilers Elisabeth J , Müller Caroline
Published: May 2023

Background

Plants often use floral displays to attract mutualists and prevent antagonist attacks. Chemical displays detectable from a distance include attractive or repellent floral volatile organic compounds (FVOCs). Locally, visitors perceive contact chemicals including nutrients but also deterrent or toxic constituents of pollen and nectar. The FVOC and pollen chemical composition can vary intra- and interspecifically. For certain pollinator and florivore species, responses to these compounds are studied in specific plant systems, yet we lack a synthesis of general patterns comparing these two groups and insights into potential correlations between FVOC and pollen chemodiversity.

Scope

We reviewed how FVOCs and non-volatile floral chemical displays, i.e. pollen nutrients and toxins, vary in composition and affect the detection by and behaviour of insect visitors. Moreover, we used meta-analyses to evaluate the detection of and responses to FVOCs by pollinators vs. florivores within the same plant genera. We also tested whether the chemodiversity of FVOCs, pollen nutrients and toxins is correlated, hence mutually informative.

Key Results

According to available data, florivores could detect more FVOCs than pollinators. Frequently tested FVOCs were often reported as pollinator-attractive and florivore-repellent. Among FVOCs tested on both visitor groups, there was a higher number of attractive than repellent compounds. FVOC and pollen toxin richness were negatively correlated, indicating trade-offs, whereas a marginal positive correlation between the amount of pollen protein and toxin richness was observed.

Conclusions

Plants face critical trade-offs, because floral chemicals mediate similar information to both mutualists and antagonists, particularly through attractive FVOCs, with fewer repellent FVOCs. Furthermore, florivores might detect more FVOCs, whose richness is correlated with the chemical richness of rewards. Chemodiversity of FVOCs is potentially informative of reward traits. To gain a better understanding of the ecological processes shaping floral chemical displays, more research is needed on floral antagonists of diverse plant species and on the role of floral chemodiversity in visitor responses.
Why woody plant modularity through time and space must be integrated in fire research?
Authors: Chiminazzo Marco Antonio , Charles-Dominique Tristan , Rossatto Davi Rodrigo , Bombo Aline Bertolosi , Fidelis Alessandra
Published: May 2023

Different ecosystems evolved and are maintained by fire, with their vegetation hosting species with a wide diversity of persistence strategies allowing them to insulate their body and resprout new branches after fire disturbance. Changes in fire regime are predicted due to climate change, either by promoting more frequent and/or severe fires or by reducing the number of fire events due to the limitation of fuel load. Predicting the future of fire-driven ecosystems is a complex task as species’ survival depends on many factors that vary in space and time. Since plants are constantly experiencing new environments as they grow through meristem development, woody plant modularity, modules morpho-physiological aspects and their integration should be considered when investigating species strategies in fire-prone ecosystems: according to their position and their tissue composition, plants’ modules experience fire differently and will contribute differently to other modules and the whole plant survival, with consequences cascading over the overall vegetation structure. Growth modules may hold the key to understanding how fast plants can get protected from fire, ultimately helping us to predict which species will persist across changing fire regimes. We present an empirical example showing how different fire-return intervals translate into distinct pressures on the timing, protection and location of modules, and discuss how these can translate into modifications in the vegetation structure due to climate change.
Use of LetibotulinumtoxinA for Aesthetic Treatment of Asians: A Consensus
Authors: Liu Shuo , Cong Liyao , Pongprutthipan Marisa , Lee Won , Luo Xusong , Han Xuefeng , Li Dan , Moon Hyoung-Jin , Wang Hang
Published: May 2023

Treatment of wrinkles and dynamic lines with botulinum toxin has been a routine practice for years in aesthetic clinical settings. The effective treatment of wrinkles requires a comprehensive understanding of facial expression muscles and their interactions, the mechanism of action of botulinum toxin, and individual patient preferences. The dose adjustment practice and injection technique of physicians are affected by cultural differences; most Asian patients prefer natural-looking results. This article aims to present an expert consensus on the injection sites, doses, and levels of botulinum toxin for various indications in Asians, with the hope of providing guidance to some clinicians. This consensus paper reviews LetibotulinumtoxinA for patient evaluation, dosage, and delivery techniques in Asians from the time LetibotulinumtoxinA was approved up to December 2022. Panelists proposed individualized treatment plans for botulinum toxin type A (BTxA) treatments in 3 areas—wrinkle removal, contour adjustment, and face lifting—for Asians based on their extensive experience and knowledge of facial anatomy. When using a different BTxA, clinicians should start with a conservative dose and carefully individualize the treatment for each patient, and adjust it according to feedback to obtain a higher satisfaction level.

Level of Evidence: 5
O-GlcNAcylation of RAB10 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression
Authors: Lv Zhuo , Ma Guolu , Zhong Zhuo , Xie Xiong , Li Bin , Long De
Published: May 2023

Ras-related protein Rab-10 (RAB10) is involved in tumorigenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we found RAB10, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT), and O-GlcNAcylation were upregulated in HCC. In addition, RAB10 protein level was prominently positively correlated with the expression of OGT. O-GlcNAcylation modification of RAB10 was then investigated. Here we showed that RAB10 interacts directly with OGT in HCC cell lines, Meanwhile, O-GlcNAcylation enhanced RAB10 protein stability. Furthermore, knockdown of OGT suppressed aggressive behaviors of HCC in vitro and in vivo, while elevated RAB10 reversed these. Taken together, these results indicated that OGT mediated O-GlcNAcylation stabilized RAB10, thus accelerating HCC progression.
Midfrontal theta phase underlies evidence accumulation and response thresholding in cognitive control
Authors: Guan Qing , Ma Ling , Chen Yiqi , Luo Yuejia , He Hao
Published: May 2023

Cognitive control involves evidence accumulation and response thresholding, but the neural underpinnings of these 2 processes are poorly understood. Based on recent findings that midfrontal theta phase coordinates the correlation between theta power and reaction time during cognitive control, this study investigated whether and how theta phase would modulate the relationships between theta power and evidence accumulation and response thresholding in human participants when they performed a flanker task. Our results confirmed the modulation of theta phase on the correlations between ongoing midfrontal theta power and reaction time under both conditions. Using hierarchical drift-diffusion regression modeling, we found that in both conditions, theta power was positively associated with boundary separation in phase bins with optimal power–reaction time correlations, whereas the power–boundary correlation decreased to nonsignificance in phase bins with reduced power–reaction time correlations. In contrast, the power–drift rate correlation was not modulated by theta phase, but by cognitive conflict. Drift rate was positively correlated with theta power for the bottom-up processing in the non-conflict condition, whereas it was negatively correlated with theta power for the top-down control to address conflict. These findings suggest that evidence accumulation is likely to be a phase-coordinated continuous process, whereas thresholding may be a phase-specific transient process.
Early intervention with biologic therapy in Crohn´s disease: how early is early?
Authors: Revés Joana , Mascarenhas André , José Temido Maria , Morão Bárbara , Neto Nascimento Catarina , Rita Franco Ana , Mendes Raquel R , Palmela Carolina , Chagas Cristina , Figueiredo Pedro Narra , Glória Luísa , Portela Francisco , Torres Joana
Published: May 2023

Background

Early biologic therapy within the first 18–24 months after diagnosis is associated with improved clinical outcomes in Crohn’s disease [CD]. However, the definition of the best time to initiate biologic therapy remains unclear. We aimed to assess if there is an optimal timing for early biologic therapy initiation.

Methods

This was a multicentre retrospective cohort study including newly diagnosed CD patients who started anti-tumour necrosis factor [TNF] therapy within 24 months from diagnosis. The timing of initiation of biologic therapy was categorised as ≤6, 7–12, 13–18, and 19–24 months. The primary outcome was CD-related complications defined as a composite of progression of Montreal disease behaviour, CD-related hospitalisations, or CD-related intestinal surgeries. Secondary outcomes included clinical, laboratory, endoscopic, and transmural remission.

Results

We included 141 patients where 54%, 26%, 11%, and 9% started biologic therapy at ≤6, 7–12, 13–18, and 19–24 months after diagnosis, respectively. A total of 34 patients [24%] reached the primary outcome: 8% had progression of disease behaviour, 15% were hospitalised, and 9% required surgery. There was no difference in the time to a CD-related complication according to the time of initiation of biologic therapy within the first 24 months. Clinical, endoscopic, and transmural remission was achieved in 85%, 50%, and 29%, respectively, but no differences were found according to the time of initiation of biologic therapy.

Conclusion

Starting anti-TNF therapy within the first 24 months after diagnosis was associated with a low rate of CD-related complications and high rates of clinical and endoscopic remission, although we found no differences with earlier initiation within this window of opportunity.
Patient and Public Involvement in Research: Lessons for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Honap Sailish , Buisson Anne , Danese Silvio , Beaugerie Laurent , Peyrin-Biroulet Laurent
Published: May 2023

Participatory research, also referred to as patient and public involvement, is an approach that involves collaborating with patients affected by the focus of the research, on the design, development and delivery of research to improve outcomes. There are two broad justifications for this: first, that it enhances the quality and relevance of research, and second, that it satisfies the ethical argument for patient inclusion in decisions about them. This synergistic and collaborative effort, which bridges the divide between researchers and participants with the lived condition, is now a mainstream activity and widely accepted as best practice. Although there has been a substantial increase in the literature over the past two decades, little has been published on how participatory research has been used in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] research and little guidance as to how researchers should go about this. With an increasing incidence and prevalence worldwide, combined with declining study enrolment in an era of perennial unmet need, there are a multitude of benefits of participatory research to IBD patients and investigators, including research output that is informed and relevant to the real world. A key example of participatory research in IBD is the I-CARE study, a large-scale, pan-European observational study assessing the safety of advanced therapies, which had significant patient involvement throughout the study. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the benefits and challenges of participatory research and discuss opportunities of building strategic alliances between IBD patients, healthcare providers and academics to strengthen research outcomes.
Genome-Wide Discovery of Structural Variants Reveals Distinct Variant Dynamics for Two Closely Related Monilinia Species
Authors: Durak Muhammed R , Ozkilinc Hilal
Published: May 2023

Structural variants (SVs) are variants with sizes bigger than 50 bp and capable of changing the size, copy number, location, orientation, and sequence content of genomic DNA. Although these variants have been proven to be extensive and involved in many evolutionary processes along the tree of life, there is still insufficient information on many fungal plant pathogens. In this study, the extent of SVs, as well as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), has been determined for two prominent species of the Monilinia genus (the causal agents of brown rot disease in pome and stone fruits): Monilinia fructicola and Monilinia laxa for the first time. The genomes of M. fructicola were found to be more variant-rich in contrast to M. laxa based on the reference-based variant calling (with a total number of 266.618 and 190.599 SNPs and 1,540 and 918 SVs, respectively). The extent, as well as distribution of SVs, presented high conservation within the species and high diversity between the species. Investigation of potential functional effects of characterized variants revealed high potential relevance of SVs. Moreover, the detailed characterization of copy number variations (CNVs) for each isolate revealed that around 0.67% of M. fructicola genomes and 2.06% of M. laxa genomes are copy number variables. The variant catalog as well as distinct variant dynamics within and between the species presented in this study opens doors for many further research questions.
Associations Between Circulating Levels of Myostatin and Plasma β-Amyloid 42/40 in a Biracial Cohort of Older Adults
Authors: McNeish Brendan L , Miljkovic Iva , Zhu Xiaonan , Cawthon Peggy M , Newman Anne B , Goodpaster Bret , Yaffe Kristine , Rosano Caterina
Published: May 2023

Background

Myostatin, a cytokine produced by skeletal muscle, may influence Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis, but sparse evidence exists in humans. We assessed the association between circulating levels of myostatin at Year 1 and plasma levels of β-amyloid 42/40 at Year 2, a marker of AD pathology, in a biracial cohort of older adults.

Methods

We studied 403 community-dwelling older adults enrolled in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study from Memphis, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, PA. Mean age was 73.8 ± 3 years; 54% were female; and 52% were Black. Serum myostatin levels were measured at Year 1, plasma β-amyloid 42/40 levels in Year 2 (higher ratio indicating lower amyloid load). Multivariable linear regression analyses tested the association of serum myostatin with plasma levels of β-amyloid 42/40 adjusted for computed-tomography-derived thigh muscle cross-sectional area, demographics, APOe4 allele, and risk factors for dementia. We tested for 2-way.interactions between myostatin and race or sex; results were stratified by race and sex.

Results

In multivariable models, myostatin was positively associated with plasma levels of β-amyloid 42/40 (standardized regression coefficient: 0.145, p = .004). Results were significant for white men and women (0.279, p = .009, and 0.221, p = .035, respectively) but not for Black men or women; interactions by race and gender were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Higher serum myostatin was associated with lower amyloid burden, independently of APOe4 alleles, muscle area and other established risk factors for dementia. The role of myostatin in AD pathogenesis and the influence of race should be further investigated.