bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Electrohydrodynamic printed nanoparticle-based resistive temperature sensor
Authors: Kamal Waqas , Rahman Khalid , Ahmad Salman , Shakeel Muhammad , Ali Taimoor
Published: November 2022

Temperature sensors based on the principle of a change of resistance are fabricated on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates using a silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)-based ink using a bespoke drop-on-demand (DoD) electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printer. Two sensors consisting of either a single or double layer of silver were deposited using EHD printing and were found to exhibit an internal resistance of a few hundred ohms for the double-layer sensor compared to 1 kΩ for the single-layer sensor. The achieved pattern width was almost half the size of nozzle internal diameter (160 μm), and printed without treatment of substrate and nozzle. The sensors were characterized over a temperature range of 20 °C–110 °C. Both sensors showed a linear behavior with low hysteresis within the temperature ranges considered in this study and are found to recover the nominal resistance value with good reproducibility. The double-layer sensor showed high sensitivity with a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of 3.4 × 10−3

∘

C

−
1

, which is an order of magnitude larger than that observed for the single-layered sensor with a TCR of 8.41 × 10−4

∘

C

−
1

. The sensors were also tested in a controlled humid environment and results are presented on the dependence of the internal resistance on the level of humidity. The proposed flexible printed sensors are promising for temperature monitoring systems and wearable technologies.
Perseverative Cognition as a Mediator Between Perceived Stress and Sleep Disturbance: A Structural Equation Modeling Meta-analysis (meta-SEM)
Authors: Zagaria Andrea , Ottaviani Cristina , Lombardo Caterina , Ballesio Andrea
Published: November 2022

Background

According to the perseverative cognition (PC) hypothesis, the repetitive chronic activation of the cognitive representations of stressors are associated with a concomitant prolonged and sustained physiological stress response, including sleep disruption.

Purpose

We conducted a systematic review and structural equation modeling meta-analysis (meta-SEM) on PC as mediator of the association between perceived stress and subjective sleep disturbance (i.e., difficulties falling asleep or maintaining sleep).

Methods

PubMed, Scopus, Medline, CINAHL, and PsycInfo were searched up to September 2021. To test mediation, only longitudinal studies assessing the predictor (perceived stress) at T0, the mediator (PC) at T1, and the outcome (sleep disturbance) at T2, were eligible.

Results

Findings on 3,733 individuals (k = 8) showed a significant component effect of perceived stress on PC (β = 0.340, p < .001), which in turn was related to sleep disturbance (β = 0.258, p < .001). The direct effect of stress on sleep disturbance was significant (β = 0.133, p < .001). Lastly, the indirect effect between stress and sleep disturbance via PC supported the mediation hypothesis (β = 0.09, 95% CI 0.078–0.100). The mediation path remained significant (β = 0.03, 95% CI 0.020–0.036) after adjusting for baseline sleep disturbance. Further leave-one-out sensitivity and control analyses confirmed that all direct and indirect effects were not driven by any single study included in the meta-analysis, as well as their robustness when controlling for sex and age, respectively.

Conclusions

Overall, results of this meta-analysis indicate that PC may be one of the mechanisms explaining how perceived stressful experiences lead to subjective sleep disturbance.
Multiculturalism, Ethnicity, and Prisons: Russia, Georgia, and Estonia
Authors: Curro Costanza , Pallot Judith , Zeveleva Olga
Published: November 2022

Ethnic difference and ethnic identity constructions are examined in prison settings. While a vast academic literature examines prisons as sites of ethnic and racial identity constructions in the United States and Europe, studies of Soviet and post-Soviet prisons have not been included in this scholarly dialogue. Thus, ethnic identity negotiations in prisons in the former Soviet Union are examined. Soviet legacies in policies and practices toward ethnic and religious difference in prison services and the contrasting trajectories away from the Soviet penal model in different jurisdictions after 1991 are considered. Examination of Russia focuses on Muslim prisoners and official and popular responses to moral panic about “prison jihad.” Subsequent analysis turns to elements of Soviet legacies in two other post-Soviet countries: Georgia and Estonia. New trends and reforms unique to each case (including the architectural and spatial organization of incarceration) are identified, the role of prison subcultures is discussed, and analysis is provided as to how these prison systems reflect or refract overall trends of ethnic discrimination and marginalization in each country.
Cerebral Palsy From a Developmental Psychology Perspective
Authors: Lidzba Karen
Published: November 2022

Cerebral palsy (CP) is defined as non-progressive damage to the brain at or around birth, which leads to varying symptoms depending on the extent and location of damage. The leading symptom is sensory-motor impairment of varying expression, but additional perceptual, cognitive, and socio-emotional symptoms are common. CP can be divided into four types, with bilateral spastic being by far the most frequent, followed by the unilateral spastic, the dyskinetic, and the ataxic variants. The intellectual, linguistic, and cognitive profile of CP is extremely variant, but all qualities correlate more or less with CP type and motor impairment. Early diagnosis is important since early intervention may promote all developmental dimensions. Generally, individuals with unilateral spastic CP have the best (almost normal) intellectual, linguistic, and cognitive outcomes, while those with bilateral spastic CP fare the worst. Language perception is often an individual strength, while language expression, and particularly speech, may be heavily impaired. Attention and executive functions are often impaired as compared to typically developing controls, even in those children with normal intellectual functioning. The same holds true for visual perceptual functions, which are impaired in almost half of all children and adolescents with CP. The potential neuropsychological dysfunctions are a risk factor for arithmetic functions and literacy. Obstacles to participate in society are high for individuals with CP and heavily dependent on their motor, language, intellectual, and cognitive functions. However, quality of life is good for most children and adolescents, and they develop a sound self-concept. On the other side, bully experience is more common than amongst typically developing children and is associated with behavior problems and executive dysfunction. The development of children and adolescents with CP is determined by a complex interplay between physical, intellectual, and neuropsychological functions.
Williams Syndrome
Authors: Atkinson Janette
Published: November 2022

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a rare condition resulting from the deletion of approximately 25 genes on one copy of chromosome 7. As well as physical manifestations, most individuals with WS have a distinctive psychological profile including marked difficulties in visuospatial cognition, relatively fluent speech, and good face recognition, and a “hypersocial” personality including intense attention to faces and readiness to approach and engage with strangers. However, they show wide individual variations in cognitive and social abilities, from severe intellectual disability to normal range IQ scores. Many individuals with WS are prone to anxiety and obsessions and some meet the criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A number of features of the WS profile are consistent with a deficit in function of the dorsal cortical stream, and anomalies in dorsal stream structures, as well as other specific features of brain structure and function which have been identified in the brains of individuals with WS. A number of specific genes within the deletion have been characterized, and links between gene expression, neural structure, and behavior have been suggested, but understanding of these links remains very partial and uncertain. Individuals with WS display a friendly and engaging personality. However, their social and cognitive difficulties mean that specialist support is needed in their education and integration within the community so that people with WS can achieve a degree of independent living while optimizing their well-being.
Language and Social Cognition
Authors: Maass Anne , Cervone Carmen , Ozdemir Ilayda
Published: November 2022

Language and social cognition are closely intertwined, as originally predicted by Whorf. On the one side, social cognition is affected by structural differences between languages in vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, and, on the other side, by the specific linguistic choices that speakers make. The four most prominent language features that have been found to affect social cognition are grammatical gender, pronoun drop, word classes, and word order. Grammatical gender, although a largely arbitrary feature of nouns in grammatical-gender language, is projected onto objects and determines which social groups will come to mind. For instance, generic masculine terms tend to activate primarily male exemplars while making women invisible. Pronoun drop allows speakers to describe actions without specifying who is performing the action and is strongly linked to collectivism (vs. individualism). Different word classes (verbs, adjectives, nouns) carry metalinguistic information above and beyond specific semantic content of any specific word, as in the case of verbs that uniquely communicate agency. Finally, the order in which they are arranged affects attention and conveys social information about the relative status, power, and responsibility of the protagonists mentioned. Together, these subtle language tools tend to fulfill a wide range of functions in social cognition: they drive attention to specific protagonists or social categories, while making others invisible; they guide social categorization; they influence the perception of individuals or groups on different dimensions such as agency, power, status, masculinity, and importance; they affect causal attributions; they maintain or change stereotypes; they communicate ingroup enhancement and outgroup derogation; and they maintain broad cultural views such as collectivism vs. individualism.
Haydn at the Herschels
Authors: Steinicke Wolfgang
Published: November 2022

The real-life meeting of two iconic figures who have withstood the tides of history makes for a tantalizing prospect. But did it ever happen? Wolfgang Steinicke examines the facts of a visit to the Slough residence of William Herschel by none other than composer Joseph Haydn.
Predicting drug–target binding affinity through molecule representation block based on multi-head attention and skip connection
Authors: Zhang Li , Wang Chun-Chun , Chen Xing
Published: November 2022

Exiting computational models for drug–target binding affinity prediction have much room for improvement in prediction accuracy, robustness and generalization ability. Most deep learning models lack interpretability analysis and few studies provide application examples. Based on these observations, we presented a novel model named Molecule Representation Block-based Drug-Target binding Affinity prediction (MRBDTA). MRBDTA is composed of embedding and positional encoding, molecule representation block and interaction learning module. The advantages of MRBDTA are reflected in three aspects: (i) developing Trans block to extract molecule features through improving the encoder of transformer, (ii) introducing skip connection at encoder level in Trans block and (iii) enhancing the ability to capture interaction sites between proteins and drugs. The test results on two benchmark datasets manifest that MRBDTA achieves the best performance compared with 11 state-of-the-art models. Besides, through replacing Trans block with single Trans encoder and removing skip connection in Trans block, we verified that Trans block and skip connection could effectively improve the prediction accuracy and reliability of MRBDTA. Then, relying on multi-head attention mechanism, we performed interpretability analysis to illustrate that MRBDTA can correctly capture part of interaction sites between proteins and drugs. In case studies, we firstly employed MRBDTA to predict binding affinities between Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) replication-related proteins. Secondly, we compared true binding affinities between 3C-like proteinase and 185 drugs with those predicted by MRBDTA. The final results of case studies reveal reliable performance of MRBDTA in drug design for SARS-CoV-2.
Porechop_ABI: discovering unknown adapters in Oxford Nanopore Technology sequencing reads for downstream trimming
Authors: Bonenfant Quentin , Noé Laurent , Touzet Hélène
Published: November 2022

Motivation

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing has become very popular over the past few years and offers a cost-effective solution for many genomic and transcriptomic projects. One distinctive feature of the technology is that the protocol includes the ligation of adapters to both ends of each fragment. Those adapters should then be removed before downstream analyses, either during the basecalling step or by explicit trimming. This basic task may be tricky when the definition of the adapter sequence is not well documented.

Results

We have developed a new method to scan a set of ONT reads to see if it contains adapters, without any prior knowledge on the sequence of the potential adapters, and then trim out those adapters. The algorithm is based on approximate k-mers and is able to discover adapter sequences based on their frequency alone. The method was successfully tested on a variety of ONT datasets with different flowcells, sequencing kits and basecallers.

Availability and implementation

The resulting software, named Porechop_ABI, is open-source and is available at https://github.com/bonsai-team/Porechop_ABI.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics advances online.
DxFormer: a decoupled automatic diagnostic system based on decoder–encoder transformer with dense symptom representations
Authors: Chen Wei , Zhong Cheng , Peng Jiajie , Wei Zhongyu
Published: November 2022

Motivation

Symptom-based automatic diagnostic system queries the patient’s potential symptoms through continuous interaction with the patient and makes predictions about possible diseases. A few studies use reinforcement learning (RL) to learn the optimal policy from the joint action space of symptoms and diseases. However, existing RL (or Non-RL) methods focus on disease diagnosis while ignoring the importance of symptom inquiry. Although these systems have achieved considerable diagnostic accuracy, they are still far below its performance upper bound due to few turns of interaction with patients and insufficient performance of symptom inquiry. To address this problem, we propose a new automatic diagnostic framework called DxFormer, which decouples symptom inquiry and disease diagnosis, so that these two modules can be independently optimized. The transition from symptom inquiry to disease diagnosis is parametrically determined by the stopping criteria. In DxFormer, we treat each symptom as a token, and formalize the symptom inquiry and disease diagnosis to a language generation model and a sequence classification model, respectively. We use the inverted version of Transformer, i.e. the decoder–encoder structure, to learn the representation of symptoms by jointly optimizing the reinforce reward and cross-entropy loss.

Results

We conduct experiments on three real-world medical dialogue datasets, and the experimental results verify the feasibility of increasing diagnostic accuracy by improving symptom recall. Our model overcomes the shortcomings of previous RL-based methods. By decoupling symptom query from the process of diagnosis, DxFormer greatly improves the symptom recall and achieves the state-of-the-art diagnostic accuracy.

Availability and implementation

Both code and data are available at https://github.com/lemuria-wchen/DxFormer.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
AlphaPulldown—a python package for protein–protein interaction screens using AlphaFold-Multimer
Authors: Yu Dingquan , Chojnowski Grzegorz , Rosenthal Maria , Kosinski Jan
Published: November 2022

The artificial intelligence-based structure prediction program AlphaFold-Multimer enabled structural modelling of protein complexes with unprecedented accuracy. Increasingly, AlphaFold-Multimer is also used to discover new protein–protein interactions (PPIs). Here, we present AlphaPulldown, a Python package that streamlines PPI screens and high-throughput modelling of higher-order oligomers using AlphaFold-Multimer. It provides a convenient command-line interface, a variety of confidence scores and a graphical analysis tool.

Availability and implementation

AlphaPulldown is freely available at https://www.embl-hamburg.de/AlphaPulldown.

Supplementary information

Supplementary note is available at Bioinformatics online.
University–School Partnerships: Successes and Challenges in Designing and Implementing Strategies to Promote Racial Equity
Authors: Jones Tiffany M , Malorni Angela , Lea Charles H , McCowan Kristin , Spencer Michael S
Published: November 2022

Research–practice partnerships play an important role in critically examining racial disparities in schools, as well as supporting the immediate adoption of practice improvement. This article outlines the results of a multisite case study with students, teachers, and administrators across two racially and ethnically diverse middle schools in the Pacific Northwest. Using a multisite case study approach (N = 2), authors explored practice challenges and successes in four phases of the research–practice partnership: (1) building the partnership, (2) designing the study, (3) data analysis, and (4) translating the data into action for racial justice. Data sources include field notes, observations, teacher and administrator interviews, and student focus groups. A cross-case synthesis analytical approach was used. Linking these perspectives offers an ecological approach to identifying, understanding, and interrupting racism in schools. Article concludes by discussing the importance of research–practice partnerships for racial justice in schools and the powerful role that student and teacher voices can play in the process.
Nur77-Tempo mice reveal T cell steady state antigen recognition
Authors: Elliot Thomas A E , Jennings Emma K , Lecky David A J , Rouvray Sophie , Mackie Gillian M , Scarfe Lisa , Sheriff Lozan , Ono Masahiro , Maslowski Kendle M , Bending David
Published: November 2022

In lymphocytes, Nr4a gene expression is specifically regulated by antigen receptor signalling, making them ideal targets for use as distal T cell receptor (TCR) reporters. Nr4a3-Timer of cell kinetics and activity (Tocky) mice are a ground-breaking tool to report TCR-driven Nr4a3 expression using Fluorescent Timer protein (FT). FT undergoes a time-dependent shift in its emission spectrum following translation, allowing for the temporal reporting of transcriptional events. Our recent work suggested that Nr4a1/Nur77 may be a more sensitive gene to distal TCR signals compared to Nr4a3, so we, therefore, generated Nur77-Timer-rapidly-expressed-in-lymphocytes (Tempo) mice that express FT under the regulation of Nur77. We validated the ability of Nur77-Tempo mice to report TCR and B cell receptor signals and investigated the signals regulating Nur77-FT expression. We found that Nur77-FT was sensitive to low-strength TCR signals, and its brightness was graded in response to TCR signal strength. Nur77-FT detected positive selection signals in the thymus, and analysis of FT expression revealed that positive selection signals are often persistent in nature, with most thymic Treg expressing FT Blue. We found that active TCR signals in the spleen are low frequency, but CD69+ lymphoid T cells are enriched for FT Blue+ Red+ T cells, suggesting frequent TCR signalling. In non-lymphoid tissue, we saw a dissociation of FT protein from CD69 expression, indicating that tissue residency is not associated with tonic TCR signals. Nur77-Tempo mice, therefore, combine the temporal dynamics from the Tocky innovation with increased sensitivity of Nr4a1 to lower TCR signal strengths.
Persistence with long-term PCSK9 inhibitor treatment and its effectiveness in familial hypercholesterolaemia: data from the SAFEHEART study
Authors: Alonso Rodrigo , Arroyo-Olivares Raquel , Muñiz-Grijalvo Ovidio , Díaz-Díaz Jose Luis , Muñoz-Torrero Juan Sanchez , Romero Manuel J , de Andrés Raimundo , Zambón Daniel , Mañas María Dolores , Fuentes-Jiménez Francisco , Aguado Rocío , Alvarez-Baños Pilar , Arrieta Francisco , Gonzalez-Bustos Pablo , Cepeda José , Martin-Ordiales Mercedes , Mosquera Daniel , Michan Alfredo , de Isla Leopoldo Perez , Argueso Rosa , Mata Pedro
Published: November 2022

Aims

Most heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) patients require intensive lipid-lowering therapy (LLT) including PCSK9 inhibitors (PCSK9is) to reach current low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goals. Persistence with chronic treatment is important to reduce the burden of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We analysed persistence, efficacy, and impact on quality of life (QoL) of PCSK9i in FH patients in clinical practice setting.

Methods and results

Spanish Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Cohort Study (SAFEHEART) is an open, prospective study in genetically defined FH patients in Spain. Patients ≥18 years of age (n = 696, 46% females) on stable LLT treated with PCSK9i were analysed. Median LDL-C at starting PCSK9i was 145 mg/dL [interquartile range (IQR), 123–177], 3.8 mmol/L (IQR 3.2–4.6). After a median follow up of 3.7 years (IQR 2.3–4.8), 27 patients (4%) discontinued PCSK9i treatment: 5 temporarily (0.7%) and 22 permanently (3.2%). Persistence with PCSK9i was 96.1% in the whole period. Median LDL-C levels and % LDL-C reduction attained after 1 year of treatment and in the last follow-up visit were 63 mg/dL (IQR 43–88), 1.6 mmol/L (IQR 1.1–2.23); 61 mg/dL (IQR 44–82), 1.6 mmol/L (IQR 1.1–2.1); 57.6% (IQR 39.5–69); and 58% (IQR 44–68), respectively. 2016 and 2019 ESC/EAS LDL-C goals were attained by 77 and 48% of patients, respectively, at the last follow-up visit (P < 0.001). Mean QoL score increased slightly in the first year and remained stable.

Conclusion

Long-term persistence with PCSK9i in FH patients is very high, with a good QoL. Effectiveness in LDL-C reduction and LDL-C goal achievement dramatically improved with PCSK9i in this high-risk population in clinical practice setting.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT02693548.
Reduction in blood pressure for people with isolated diastolic hypertension and cardiovascular outcomes
Authors: Suzuki Yuta , Kaneko Hidehiro , Yano Yuichiro , Okada Akira , Matsuoka Satoshi , Fujiu Katsuhito , Michihata Nobuaki , Jo Taisuke , Takeda Norifumi , Morita Hiroyuki , Node Koichi , Yasunaga Hideo , Komuro Issei
Published: November 2022

Aims

Isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) is a largely underrated risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is currently unclear whether a reduction in blood pressure (BP) is associated with CVD events among adults with IDH. We aimed to elucidate the relationship between BP reduction and incident CVD in individuals with IDH.

Methods and results

We retrospectively analysed the data of 71 297 individuals with IDH. Isolated diastolic hypertension was defined as systolic BP of < 140 mmHg and diastolic BP (DBP) of ≥90 mmHg (median age, 48 years; 83.1% men; median DBP, 92 mmHg). None of the participants took BP-lowering medications or had a history of CVD at baseline. Blood pressure was measured at baseline and 1-year follow-up, and participants were categorized into two groups based on DBP at 1 year (≥90 or < 90 mmHg). The primary outcome was a composite endpoint that included myocardial infarction, stroke, and all-cause death. Over a mean follow-up period of 1100 ± 859 days, 1317 composite CVD endpoints were recorded. Participants with DBP of < 90 mmHg at 1 year were at a lower risk of composite CVD events [hazard ratio (HR): 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.67–0.83] than those with DBP of ≥90 mmHg at 1 year. A reduction in DBP per 5 mmHg during the 1-year follow-up was associated with a lower composite CVD event risk (HR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.89–0.95). The results remained consistent across a multitude of sensitivity analyses.

Conclusion

Our analysis of a large-scale epidemiological dataset demonstrated a relationship of reduction in DBP with a reduced risk for CVD events in individuals with IDH.
European public mental health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Wilson Naomi , McDaid Shari , Wieber Frank , Lindert Jutta
Published: November 2022

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic increased multiple risk factors for mental health. Evidence-based, intersectoral public mental health responses are therefore critical. The primary aim of this study was to collate public mental health responses from across Europe.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey in March 2021. Participants were public and mental health professionals from across Europe. We developed an online instrument exploring five domains: changes in mental health supports during the pandemic; mental health support for vulnerable groups; multi-sectoral and service-user involvement; published mental health response plans; and perceived quality of overall country response.

Results

Fifty-two individuals from 20 European nations responded. Reported changes in mental health supports included an increase in online mental health supports (n = 18); but no change in long-term mental health funding (n = 13); and a decrease in access to early interventions (n = 9). Responses indicated mental health support for vulnerable groups was limited, as was multi-sectoral and service-user involvement. Few national mental health response plans existed (n = 9) and 48% of respondents felt their countries mental health response had been ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

Conclusions

Our results give insights into the changes in mental health support at a country level across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic. They indicate countries were not prepared to respond and people with existing vulnerabilities were often neglected in response planning. To be prepared for future pandemics and environmental disasters Public Mental Health preparedness plans are highly needed. These must be developed cross-departmentally, and through the meaningful inclusion of vulnerable groups.
A synthetic genetic array screen for interactions with the RNA helicase DED1 during cell stress in budding yeast
Authors: Carey Sara B , List Hannah M , Siby Ashwin , Guerra Paolo , Bolger Timothy A
Published: November 2022

During cellular stress it is essential for cells to alter their gene expression to adapt and survive. Gene expression is regulated at multiple levels, but translation regulation is both a method for rapid changes to the proteome and, as one of the most energy-intensive cellular processes, a way to efficiently redirect cellular resources during stress conditions. Despite this ideal positioning, many of the specifics of how translation is regulated, positively or negatively, during various types of cellular stress remain poorly understood. To further assess this regulation, we examined the essential translation factor Ded1, an RNA helicase that has been previously shown to play important roles in the translational response to cellular stress. In particular, ded1 mutants display an increased resistance to growth inhibition and translation repression induced by the TOR pathway inhibitor, rapamycin, suggesting that normal stress responses are partially defective in these mutants. To gain further insight into Ded1 translational regulation during stress, synthetic genetic array analysis was conducted in the presence of rapamycin with a ded1 mutant and a library of nonessential genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to identify positive and negative genetic interactions in an unbiased manner. Here, we report the results of this screen and subsequent network mapping and Gene Ontology-term analysis. Hundreds of candidate interactions were identified, which fell into expected categories, such as ribosomal proteins and amino acid biosynthesis, as well as unexpected ones, including membrane trafficking, sporulation, and protein glycosylation. Therefore, these results provide several specific directions for further comprehensive studies.
Validation of a Measure of Role Overload and Gains for End-of-Life Dementia Caregivers
Authors: Turner Shelbie G , Epps Fayron , Li Minghui , Leggett Amanda N , Hu Mengyao
Published: November 2022

Objectives

Caregiving stress process models suggest that heterogeneous contexts differentially contribute to caregivers’ experiences of role overload and gains. End-of-life (EOL) caregivers, especially EOL dementia caregivers, facing unique challenges and care tasks, may experience role overload and gains in different ways than other caregivers. This study evaluates measurement invariance of role overload and gains between EOL caregivers and non-EOL caregivers and between EOL dementia and EOL non-dementia caregivers.

Methods

We utilized role gains and overload data from 1,859 family caregivers who participated in Round 7 of the National Study of Caregiving. We ran confirmatory factor analyses to investigate the factorial structure across all caregivers and then examined the structure’s configural, metric, and scalar invariance between (a) EOL caregivers and non-EOL caregivers and (b) EOL dementia and EOL non-dementia caregivers.

Results

Across the entire sample, the two-factor overload and gains model had good fit (χ 2(19) = 121.37, p < .0001; RMSEA = .053, 90% CI = [.044, .062]; CFI = .954; TLI = .932). Tests of invariance comparing EOL caregivers to non-EOL caregivers and EOL dementia caregivers to EOL non-dementia caregivers maintained configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance. Latent mean comparisons revealed that EOL caregivers had higher role overload (p = .0002), but no different role gains (p = .45), than non-EOL caregivers. Likewise, EOL dementia caregivers had higher role overload (p = .05), but no different role gains (p = .42), than EOL non-dementia caregivers.

Discussion

Results offer both a deeper theoretical understanding of end-of-life dementia caregivers’ experiences of role overload and gains, and a practical tool to measure those experiences.
Caregiving for Foreign-Born Older Adults With Dementia
Authors: Garcia Marc A , Diminich Erica D , Lu Peiyi , Arévalo Sandra P , Sayed Linda , Abdelrahim Randa , Ajrouch Kristine J
Published: November 2022

Objectives

This study examines how nativity, dementia classification, and age of migration (AOM) of older foreign-born (FB) adults are associated with caregiver psychological well-being and care burden.

Methods

We used linked data from Round 1 and Round 5 of the National Health and Aging Trends Study and Round 5 of the National Study of Caregiving for a sample of nondementia caregivers (n = 941), dementia caregivers (n = 533), and matched care recipients. Ordinary least squares regression models were estimated, adjusting for caregiver characteristics.

Results

Relative to nondementia caregivers, dementia caregivers were more likely to provide care for an older FB adult (8.69% vs. 26.70%), reported more assistance with caregiving activities, worse quality of relationship with care recipients, and higher care burden than nondementia caregivers. In adjusted models, interactions of nativity status × dementia and AOM × dementia revealed that overall, caregivers of older FB adults with dementia who migrated in late life (50+) reported lower psychological well-being than those caring for older FB older adults who migrated at (20–49 years) and (0–19 years). Moderating effects of AOM on the link between dementia caregiving and care burden were not observed.

Discussion

Age of migration of older FB adults with probable dementia may have unique effects on the caregiver’s psychological well-being. Our results underscore the importance of considering sociocultural factors of FB adults beyond nativity and the need for research to develop culturally appropriate interventions to enhance psychological well-being and reduce the care burden among dementia caregivers.
Data standardization of plant–pollinator interactions
Authors: Salim José A , Saraiva Antonio M , Zermoglio Paula F , Agostini Kayna , Wolowski Marina , Drucker Debora P , Soares Filipi M , Bergamo Pedro J , Varassin Isabela G , Freitas Leandro , Maués Márcia M , Rech Andre R , Veiga Allan K , Acosta Andre L , Araujo Andréa C , Nogueira Anselmo , Blochtein Betina , Freitas Breno M , Albertini Bruno C , Maia-Silva Camila , Nunes Carlos E P , Pires Carmen S S , dos Santos Charles F , Queiroz Elisa P , Cartolano Etienne A , de Oliveira Favízia F , Amorim Felipe W , Fontúrbel Francisco E , da Silva Gleycon V , Consolaro Hélder , Alves-dos-Santos Isabel , Machado Isabel C , Silva Juliana S , Aleixo Kátia P , Carvalheiro Luísa G , Rocca Márcia A , Pinheiro Mardiore , Hrncir Michael , Streher Nathália S , Ferreira Patricia A , de Albuquerque Patricia M C , Maruyama Pietro K , Borges Rafael C , Giannini Tereza C , Brito Vinícius L G
Published: November 2022

Background

Animal pollination is an important ecosystem function and service, ensuring both the integrity of natural systems and human well-being. Although many knowledge shortfalls remain, some high-quality data sets on biological interactions are now available. The development and adoption of standards for biodiversity data and metadata has promoted great advances in biological data sharing and aggregation, supporting large-scale studies and science-based public policies. However, these standards are currently not suitable to fully support interaction data sharing.

Results

Here we present a vocabulary of terms and a data model for sharing plant–pollinator interactions data based on the Darwin Core standard. The vocabulary introduces 48 new terms targeting several aspects of plant–pollinator interactions and can be used to capture information from different approaches and scales. Additionally, we provide solutions for data serialization using RDF, XML, and DwC-Archives and recommendations of existing controlled vocabularies for some of the terms. Our contribution supports open access to standardized data on plant–pollinator interactions.

Conclusions

The adoption of the vocabulary would facilitate data sharing to support studies ranging from the spatial and temporal distribution of interactions to the taxonomic, phenological, functional, and phylogenetic aspects of plant–pollinator interactions. We expect to fill data and knowledge gaps, thus further enabling scientific research on the ecology and evolution of plant–pollinator communities, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and the development of public policies. The proposed data model is flexible and can be adapted for sharing other types of interactions data by developing discipline-specific vocabularies of terms.
Making Common Fund data more findable: catalyzing a data ecosystem
Authors: Charbonneau Amanda L , Brady Arthur , Czajkowski Karl , Aluvathingal Jain , Canchi Saranya , Carter Robert , Chard Kyle , Clarke Daniel J B , Crabtree Jonathan , Creasy Heather H , D'Arcy Mike , Felix Victor , Giglio Michelle , Gingrich Alicia , Harris Rayna M , Hodges Theresa K , Ifeonu Olukemi , Jeon Minji , Kropiwnicki Eryk , Lim Marisa C W , Liming R Lee , Lumian Jessica , Mahurkar Anup A , Mandal Meisha , Munro James B , Nadendla Suvarna , Richter Rudyard , Romano Cia , Rocca-Serra Philippe , Schor Michael , Schuler Robert E , Tangmunarunkit Hongsuda , Waldrop Alex , Williams Cris , Word Karen , Sansone Susanna-Assunta , Ma'ayan Avi , Wagner Rick , Foster Ian , Kesselman Carl , Brown C Titus , White Owen
Published: November 2022

The Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE) has created a flexible system of data federation that enables researchers to discover datasets from across the US National Institutes of Health Common Fund without requiring that data owners move, reformat, or rehost those data. This system is centered on a catalog that integrates detailed descriptions of biomedical datasets from individual Common Fund Programs’ Data Coordination Centers (DCCs) into a uniform metadata model that can then be indexed and searched from a centralized portal. This Crosscut Metadata Model (C2M2) supports the wide variety of data types and metadata terms used by individual DCCs and can readily describe nearly all forms of biomedical research data. We detail its use to ingest and index data from 11 DCCs.
How not to manage crises in the European Union
Authors: Sottilotta Cecilia Emma
Published: November 2022

The process of European integration has often been used as either a model or an anti-model for other regional integration experiences. This article discusses the European Union's shortcomings in crisis management, arguing that valuable ‘how not to’ lessons can be drawn by dissecting the initial stages of the eurozone crisis and the COVID–19 pandemic as ‘moments of truth’. The main policy mistakes committed at the onset of both crises are explored devoting special attention to the role played by the hiatus between research and policy, as well as the inadequacies, biases and hubris of academic analyses. Ideally, comprehensive reforms would be required to equip the EU with the competences and tools needed for effective crisis management. The article concludes that, in the absence of such comprehensive reforms, the only option left to policy-makers engaging in crisis management will be to seek a pragmatic middle ground between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism on a case-by-case basis.
How not to sanction
Authors: Drezner Daniel W.
Published: November 2022

In the past century economic sanctions have emerged as a prominent ‘off the shelf’ tool of diplomacy. This article examines two of the most high-profile failures in the history of economic sanctions: the United Nations sanctions against Iraq between the two Gulf wars, and the Trump administration's re-imposition of sanctions on Iran beginning in 2018. The technology of economic statecraft changed considerably between these two cases, indicating significant policy learning. In both instances, however, the sanctions imposed crippling costs on the target state without any observable concessions. In neither case was the primary goal achieved, and the negative policy externalities were considerable. An autopsy of these failures reveals three cautionary warnings. First, the recipe for sanctions success is not merely a function of the ability to impose costs on the target state. Second, an underappreciated impediment to the successful use of economic statecraft is a failure to articulate clear and consistent demands. Third, tight linkages between scholars and policy-makers can lead to improved policies in the short term, but long-term political imperatives within great powers can pervert such successes.
How not to deal with a rising China: a US perspective
Authors: Nye Joseph S.
Published: November 2022

Will China displace the United States as the world's leading power by the centenary of Communist rule in 2049? The outcome will depend on many unknowns including what the two countries do over the next three decades. US leaders are likely to rely on their mental maps of how the world works. The primary sources of their mental maps tend to come from historical analogies and from international relations theories. Both are highly imperfect representations of reality. Historical metaphors and analogies are rife in the debate over how to understand the current rise of China, but three are particularly salient: a Thucydides trap; a new Cold War; and 1914 sleepwalkers. This article discusses the merits and demerits of relying on each of these analogies in turn, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of prior mental maps that guided US policy-makers during the post-Cold War era. Chinese elites expect to replace the US as the leading global power by 2049. How should the US respond? Two prevalent historical analogies are misleading: a Thucydides trap about power transition, and a new Cold War that ignores the three-dimensional nature of US–China interdependence. More promising is the cautionary narrative of sleepwalking into the First World War. A successful strategy must lay out conditions for a cooperative rivalry starting with a careful net assessment of power resources and the formulation of feasible goals.
How not to war
Authors: Carvin Stephanie
Published: November 2022

While the Cold War seemingly ended the prospect of nuclear annihilation, in the West it also brought about renewed belief in the utility of force. A warming international political environment and developments in precision technology (as demonstrated by the 1990–91 Gulf War) appeared to create a permissive environment in which western states, particularly the United States, armed with smart weapons, international resolutions and a capacity to engage anywhere and whenever they want to—and all at a low cost—could bring about improvements in some of the most desperate and war-torn places on the planet. Nations who possessed a large, technologically precise and sophisticated hammer could suddenly view world problems as convenient, easily fixed nails. The end result of this vision, however, has been disaster—resulting in flawed intervention after failed intervention, including Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Indeed, these supposedly ‘easy wars’ have become ‘forever wars’. The question is: why has the West continually failed to learn this lesson? This article explores how the chaos that ensues in the wake of ‘easy war’ conflicts has reinforced a tendency within Washington policy-circles to utilize weapons that are more automated and/or remove individuals from the battlefield entirely. The lesson that technology cannot conquer the ‘fog of war’ to create costless victory or replace the hard work of politics and diplomacy is never learned. And even as President Joe Biden's administration begins to pivot towards Russia and Asia, it is likely that this tendency will endure.
How not to interfere in another country's domestic politics
Authors: Istomin Igor
Published: November 2022

Foreign interference poses an increasing threat in the current tensions among major powers, given pervasive expectations regarding its strategic effects and low costs. Transborder operations seeking to undermine a government or reinforce it against opposition emerge as a safer alternative to forcible coercion. Such operations incorporate assistance to political groups and individuals within a target state aiming to reorient its foreign policy, weaken its capabilities or promote one's ideology. However, this article exposes their deficiencies. It indicates the low chances of proxies to establish their rule, the difficulties in converting such accomplishments into benefits for an interfering state, and the emotional grievances from unfulfilled expectations. By delegating responsibilities, an interfering state loosens its operational control. The article strongly warns against targeting major powers as they are hard to subvert and supply proxies with opportunities to defect. The record of Soviet assistance to the Chinese Communists reveals the negative repercussions of the seemingly successful interference. It is a rare instance where interference targeting a major power produced a change in its government. For several years the People's Republic of China remained a military ally and ideological disciple to Moscow, but these accomplishments were unsustainable. Soviet leverage dissipated as the Chinese Communists consolidated their rule, while disagreements over standing and past wrongs precipitated the breakdown of cooperation. Although the recent debates on interference emphasize anxiety over the technological transformations, this article focuses on fundamental political limitations, ensuring applicability of its lessons in spite of potential changes in means employed by interfering states.
Effect of learning parameters on the performance of the U-Net architecture for cell nuclei segmentation from microscopic cell images
Authors: Jena Biswajit , Digdarshi Dishant , Paul Sudip , Nayak Gopal K , Saxena Sanjay
Published: November 2022

Nuclei segmentation of cells is the preliminary and essential step of pathological image analysis. However, robust and accurate cell nuclei segmentation is challenging due to the enormous variability of staining, cell sizes, morphologies, cell adhesion or overlapping of the nucleus. The automation process to find the cell’s nuclei is a giant leap in this direction and has an important step toward bioimage analysis using software tools. This article extensively analyzes deep U-Net architecture and has been applied to the Data Science Bowl dataset to segment the cell nuclei. The dataset undergoes various preprocessing tasks such as resizing, intensity normalization and data augmentation prior to segmentation. The complete dataset then undergoes the rigorous training and validation process to find the optimized hyperparameters and then the optimized model selection. The mean (m) ± standard deviation (SD) of Intersection over Union (IoU) and F1-score (Dice score) have been calculated along with accuracy during the training and validation process, respectively. The optimized U-Net model results in a training IoU of 0.94 ± 0.16 (m ± SD), an F1-score of 0.94 ± 0.17 (m ± SD), a training accuracy of 95.54 and validation accuracy of 95.45. With this model, we applied a completely independent test cohort of the dataset and obtained the mean IOU of 0.93, F1-score of 0.9311, and mean accuracy of 94.12, respectively to measure the segmentation performance.
Exploring the influence of focused ion beam processing and scanning electron microscopy imaging on solid-state electrolytes
Authors: Ding Ziming , Tang Yushu , Chakravadhanula Venkata Sai Kiran , Ma Qianli , Tietz Frank , Dai Yuting , Scherer Torsten , Kübel Christian
Published: November 2022

Performing reliable preparation of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples is the necessary basis for a meaningful investigation by ex situ and even more so by in situ TEM techniques, but it is challenging using materials that are sensitive to electron beam irradiation. Focused ion beam is currently the most commonly employed technique for a targeted preparation, but the structural modifications induced during focused ion beam preparation are not fully understood for a number of materials. Here, we have investigated the impact of both the electron and the Ga+ ion beam on insulating solid-state electrolytes (lithium phosphorus oxynitride, Na-β"-alumina solid electrolyte and Na3.4Si2.4Zr2P0.6O12 (NaSICON)) and observed significant lithium/sodium whisker growth induced by both the electron and ion beam already at fairly low dose, leading to a significant change in the chemical composition. The metal whisker growth is presumably mainly due to surface charging, which can be reduced by coating with a gold layer or preparation under cryogenic conditions as efficient approaches to stabilize the solid electrolyte for scanning electron microscopy imaging and TEM sample preparation. Details on the different preparation approaches, the acceleration voltage dependence and the induced chemical and morphological changes are reported.