bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Neurodiversity: What Can the Software Industry Gain from It?
Authors: El-Deeb Ahmed
Published: October 2023

Did you know that Steve Jobs was diagnosed with Dyslexia, a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading, writing and spelling. For a young schooler this could have set the end of anything remarkable for young Steve, but to humanity's amazement, he grew to become one of the most successful and innovative persons in history. Not only Steve, but Elon Musk as well revealed that he has Asperger syndrome, a form of Autism spectrum. What does this tell the rest of us? It tells us that there is a potential place for Neurodiversity; not as charity but as success factor. Neurodiversity is a term first coined by the Austrian sociologist Judy Singer that refers to the fact that human brains have neurological variations in how it functions and perceive the world. Instances include, but not limited to ADHD, Autism, or Dyslexia. However, the workforce has recently started to see neurodiversity not as a pathological case, but rather as difference in mental abilities. Neurodivergent people are not sick or incapable; they just posses different mental abilities; and workforce can gain from them. This paper illustrates key characteristics that the software industry can benefit from by employing more neurodivergent engineers.
An Interview with Gail Murphy - 2023 SIGSOFT Awardee
Authors: Soldani Jacopo
Published: October 2023

Gail Murphy received the 2023 SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award for pioneering contributions to recommenders for software engineering and program comprehension that have impacted both theory and practice. She received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in 1996 (USA), and she is now a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Vice-President of Research & Innovation at the University of British Columbia (Canada). Her research interests are in improving the productivity of software developers and knowledge workers by giving them tools to identify, manage and coordinate the information that really matters for their work.
Summary of the Fourth International Workshop on Deep Learning for Testing and Testing for Deep Learning (DeepTest 2023)
Authors: Biagiola Matteo , Cardozo Nicolás , Shin Donghwan , Khomh Foutse , Stocco Andrea , Riccio Vincenzo
Published: October 2023

Deep Learning (DL) techniques help software developers thanks to their ability to learn from historical information which is useful in several program analysis and testing tasks (e.g., malware detection, fuzz testing, bug-finding, and type-checking). DL-based software systems are also increasingly adopted in safety-critical domains, such as autonomous driving, medical diagnosis, and aircraft collision avoidance systems. In particular, testing the correctness and reliability of DL-based systems is paramount, since a failure of such systems would cause a significant safety risk for the involved people and/or environment. The 4th International Workshop on Deep Learning for Testing and Testing for Deep Learning (DeepTest 2023) was co-located with the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), with the goal of targeting research at the intersection of software engineering and deep learning and devise novel approaches and tools to ensure the interpretability and dependability of software systems that depends on DL components.
Report of the Fourth International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2023)
Authors: Arcaini Paolo , Miranskyy Andriy
Published: October 2023

The Fourth International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2023), co-located with the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023), was held on May 14, 2023 in a hybrid manner in Melbourne, Australia, and online. This report presents the workshop structure, the keynote speech, and the themes of the presented papers.
Software Engineering Education for the Next Generation:SEENG 2023 Workshop Report
Authors: Krusche Stephan , Bell Jonathan , Tenbergen Bastian
Published: October 2023

The 5th International Workshop on Software Engineering Education for the Next Generation was held on May 16, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. The workshop was part of the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering. It specifically supported the general theme of "Educating the Next Generation of Software Engineers". Building on its predecessors, the workshop used a highly interactive format, structured around eight short paper presentations to generate discussion topics, an activity to select the most interesting topics, and structured breakout sessions. This enabled the participants to discuss the most interesting topics in detail. Participants presented the results of the breakout sessions using mind maps.
A Survey on Searchable Symmetric Encryption
Authors: Li Feng , Ma Jianfeng , Miao Yinbin , Liu Ximeng , Ning Jianting , Deng Robert H.
Published: October 2023

Outsourcing data to the cloud has become prevalent, so Searchable Symmetric Encryption (SSE), one of the methods for protecting outsourced data, has arisen widespread interest. Moreover, many novel technologies and theories have emerged, especially for the attacks on SSE and privacy-preserving. But most surveys related to SSE concentrate on one aspect (e.g., single keyword search, fuzzy keyword search) or lack in-depth analysis. Therefore, we revisit the existing work and conduct a comprehensive analysis and summary. We provide an overview of state-of-the-art in SSE and focus on the privacy it can protect. Generally, (1) we study the work of the past few decades and classify SSE based on query expressiveness. Meanwhile, we summarize the existing schemes and analyze their performance on efficiency, storage space, index structures, and so on.; (2) we complement the gap in the privacy of SSE and introduce in detail the attacks and the related defenses; (3) we discuss the open issues and challenges in existing schemes and future research directions. We desire that our work will help novices to grasp and understand SSE comprehensively. We expect it can inspire the SSE community to discover more crucial leakages and design more efficient and secure constructions.
Robots’ “Woohoo” and “Argh” Can Enhance Users’ Emotional and Social Perceptions: An Exploratory Study on Non-lexical Vocalizations and Non-linguistic Sounds
Authors: Liu Xiaozhen , Dong Jiayuan , Jeon Myounghoon
Published: October 2023

As robots have become more pervasive in our everyday life, social aspects of robots have attracted researchers’ attention. Because emotions play a crucial role in social interactions, research has been conducted on conveying emotions via speech. Our study sought to investigate the synchronization of multimodal interaction in human-robot interaction (HRI). We conducted a within-subjects exploratory study with 40 participants to investigate the effects of non-speech sounds (natural voice, synthesized voice, musical sound, and no sound) and basic emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) on user perception with emotional body gestures of an anthropomorphic robot (Pepper). While listening to a fairytale with the participant, a humanoid robot responded to the story with recorded emotional non-speech sounds and gestures. Participants showed significantly higher emotion recognition accuracy from the natural voice than from other sounds. The confusion matrix showed that happiness and sadness had the highest emotion recognition accuracy, which is in line with previous research. The natural voice also induced higher trust, naturalness, and preference compared to other sounds. Interestingly, the musical sound mostly showed lower perception ratings, even compared to no sound. Results are discussed with design guidelines for emotional cues from social robots and future research directions.
FormatFuzzer
: Effective Fuzzing of Binary File Formats
Authors: Dutra Rafael , Gopinath Rahul , Zeller Andreas
Published: October 2023

Effective fuzzing of programs that process structured binary inputs, such as multimedia files, is a challenging task, since those programs expect a very specific input format. Existing fuzzers, however, are mostly
format-agnostic,
which makes them versatile, but also ineffective when a specific format is required.

We present
FormatFuzzer
, a generator for
format-specific fuzzers
.
FormatFuzzer
takes as input a
binary template
(a format specification used by the 010 Editor) and compiles it into C++ code that acts as
parser,
mutator,
and highly efficient
generator
of inputs conforming to the rules of the language.

The resulting format-specific fuzzer can be used as a standalone producer or mutator in black-box settings, where no guidance from the program is available. In addition, by providing mutable
decision seeds,
it can be easily
integrated
with arbitrary
format-agnostic fuzzers
such as AFL to make them format-aware. In our evaluation on complex formats such as MP4 or ZIP,
FormatFuzzer
showed to be a highly effective producer of valid inputs that also detected previously unknown memory errors in
ffmpeg
and
timidity
.
Sparsity-guided Discriminative Feature Encoding for Robust Keypoint Detection
Authors: Xie Yurui , Guan Ling
Published: October 2023

Existing handcrafted keypoint detectors typically focus on designing specific local structures manually while ignoring whether they have enough flexibility to explore diverse visual patterns in an image. Despite the advancement of learning-based approaches in the past few years, most of them still rely on the availability of the outputs of handcrafted detectors as a part of training. In fact, such dependence limits their ability to discover various visual information. Recently, semi-handcrafted methods based on sparse coding have emerged as a promising paradigm to alleviate the above issue. However, the visual relationships between feature points have not been considered in the encoding stage, which may weaken the discriminative capability of feature representations for keypoint recognition. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel sparsity-guided discriminative feature representation (SDFR) method that attempts to explore the intrinsic correlations of keypoint candidates, thus ensuring the validity of characterizing distinctive and diverse structural information. Specifically, we first incorporate an affinity constraint into the feature representation objective, which jointly encodes all the patches in an image while highlighting the similarities and differences between them. Meanwhile, a smoother sparsity regularization with the Frobenius norm is leveraged to further preserve the similarity relationships of patch representations. Due to the differentiable property of this sparsity, SDFR is computationally feasible and effective for representing dense patches. Finally, we treat the SDFR model as multiple optimization sub-problems and introduce an iterative solver. During comprehensive evaluations on five challenging benchmarks, the proposed method achieves favorable performances compared with the state of the art in the literature.
Rethinking Person Re-Identification via Semantic-based Pretraining
Authors: Xiang Suncheng , Qian Dahong , Gao Jingsheng , Zhang Zirui , Liu Ting , Fu Yuzhuo
Published: October 2023

Pretraining is a dominant paradigm in computer vision. Generally, supervised ImageNet pretraining is commonly used to initialize the backbones of person re-identification (Re-ID) models. However, recent works show a surprising result that CNN-based pretraining on ImageNet has limited impacts on Re-ID system due to the large domain gap between ImageNet and person Re-ID data. To seek an alternative to traditional pretraining, here we investigate semantic-based pretraining as another method to utilize additional textual data against ImageNet pretraining. Specifically, we manually construct a diversified
FineGPR-C
caption dataset for the first time on person Re-ID events. Based on it, a pure semantic-based pretraining approach named VTBR is proposed to adopt dense captions to learn visual representations with fewer images. We train convolutional neural networks from scratch on the captions of
FineGPR-C
dataset, and then transfer them to downstream Re-ID tasks. Comprehensive experiments conducted on benchmark datasets show that our VTBR can achieve competitive performance compared with ImageNet pretraining—despite using up to 1.4× fewer images, revealing its potential in Re-ID pretraining. Our source code is also publicly available at
https://github.com/JeremyXSC/VTBR
.
Thermodynamically Spontaneous Reactions and Use of Acetaldehyde as Fuel in Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells
Authors: Ikuma Yasuro , Niwa Koichi , Imamura Tetsuya
Published: October 2023

A set of fuel cells was fabricated using a cation exchange membrane (CEM), and ethanol and acetaldehyde were used as fuels for the cells. Spontaneous reactions in the fuel cells were studied under various conditions such as excess oxygen at the cathode and at higher temperatures without application of an external voltage and without forcing an external current. When acetaldehyde was used as a fuel, the current in the circuit and the concentration of acetic acid (product of the fuel cells) were not influenced by the experimental conditions. On the other hand, when ethanol was used as a fuel, the current in the circuit and the concentration of acetic acid were influenced by the experimental conditions. It was thus concluded that ethanol is oxidized directly to acetic acid without oxidation to acetaldehyde and then to acetic acid. The calculated ΔG for possible half reactions in direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) with CEM and AEM (anion exchange membrane) suggests that a reliable AEM should be developed for the further development of DEFCs.
BaCo0.4Fe0.4Zr0.1Y0.1O3−σ
Cathode Performance for Proton Conducting Solid Oxide Fuel Cells with BaZr0.8−xCexY0.1Yb0.1O3−δ
Electrolytes
Authors: Li Wenhao , Sozal Md Shariful Islam , Drozd Vadym , Durygin Andriy , Cheng Zhe
Published: October 2023

BaCo0.4Fe0.4Zr0.1Y0.1O3−σ
(BCFZY) is a proton, oxygen-ion, and electron-hole conducting cathode material for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells. Its electrode reaction mechanism in air with moisture is not well understood. In this study, three types of symmetrical cells with the same BCFZY cathode were fabricated over three related proton conducting electrolytes: BaZr0.8−xCexY0.1Yb0.1O3−δ
(x = 0.1, 0.4, and 0.7). The cathode shows similar performance over three different electrolytes in dry air but different responses to moisture introduction. The differences are hypothesized to relate to the mutual diffusion at the cathode/electrolyte interface. Such a hypothesis is supported by different techniques such as XRD Rietveld refinement of BCFZY cathode in mixtures with different electrolytes after firing, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) line scanning for element concentration distribution at the cathode/electrolyte interface, as well as electrochemical test for a related BaCoFeO-type cathode with Zr replaced by Ce.
Gold Nanoparticles and Surfactant-Based Electrochemical Sensing Platform for the Detection and Electroanalysis of the Anticancer Drug Oxoplatin
Authors: Zahid Anum , Shah Afzal , Munir Shamsa
Published: October 2023

In the current work surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) is purposely modified with a suitable modifier to enhance its sensing characteristics. A composite of surfactant 1-(2, 4-initrophenyl)-dodecanoylthiourea (DAN) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was employed as modified for the sensitive detection of oxoplatin (OXP), an extensively used anticancer drug. It enters into water bodies through improper handling in underdeveloped countries where drug disposal precautions are not fully respected. The designed platform (DAN/AuNPs/GCE) displays remarkable sensitivity 6.35 μA nM−1 and senses OXP with LOD of 14.5 pM under optimized conditions. The sensor was characterized by electrochemical techniques mainly cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and square wave voltammetry. The response of OXP was also examined in the artificial serum sample. The modified electrode was found to have extraordinary discrimination ability for the selected drug even in the presence of a 100-fold higher concentration of several interfering agents and displayed remarkable repeatability and reproducibility with RSD up to 3%. The role of the electrode modifier in enhancing the concentration of OXP near the transducer surface and consequently intensifying the oxidation signal of OXP was validated from experimental and computational studies.
Electrochemical-Thermal Modeling of Large-Format, Thin-Film, Lithium-Ion Batteries with Cocurrent and Countercurrent Tab Connections Using a Reduced-Order Model
Authors: Verbrugge Mark W. , Baker Daniel R.
Published: October 2023

We derive and implement a new reduced-order model for the simulation of large-format, thin-film batteries with cocurrent and countercurrent tab connections. We employ the multi-site, multi-reaction (MSMR) framework to describe the solid phase thermodynamics as well as irreversible phenomena associated with diffusion and electrochemical reactions for a graphite negative and a spinel manganese oxide positive. The calculations are streamlined by using the reduced-order electrochemical model for a porous electrode derived by means of a perturbation analysis, which we term ROM1. For discharge rates less than 1 C, where the 1 C rate corresponds to the current needed to fully discharge the cell in 1 h, ROM1 yields accurate results for traction-battery electrodes. We employ ROM1 in the cell energy balance, with the overall results allowing one to clarify the current and temperature distributions within the cell during discharge and isolate and identify the different heat sources. The governing partial differential equations are coupled and nonlinear in part due to the temperature dependence of the physicochemical properties. We show how cocurrent tab locations yield higher cell energy densities, while countercurrent tab locations yield more uniform current and temperature distributions. Sensitivity analyses underscore the flexibility of the approach. Overall, the equation system and open-source (Python) software enables an efficient and rational tool for cell design and integration.
Elongation of very long chain fatty acids-3 (Elovl3) is activated by ZHX2 and is a regulator of cell cycle progression
Authors: Creasy Kate Townsend , Ren Hui , Jiang Jieyun , Peterson Martha L. , Spear Brett T.
Published: October 2023

Numerous targets of the transcription factor Zhx2 are dysregulated in liver disease. We show that the elongase Elovl3 is a novel Zhx2 target. Elovl3 and Zhx2 expression change during liver regeneration, which is associated with changes in very long chain fatty acids. Forced Elovl3 expression reduces cell growth and blocks cell cycle progression. This suggests that Elovl3 may account, at least in part, for the relationship between Zhx2 and proliferation during liver development and disease.
BPIFB1 loss alters airway mucus properties and diminishes mucociliary clearance
Authors: Donoghue Lauren J. , Markovetz Matthew R. , Morrison Cameron B. , Chen Gang , McFadden Kathryn M. , Sadritabrizi Taraneh , Gutay Mark I. , Kato Takafumi , Rogers Troy D. , Snead Jazmin Y. , Livraghi-Butrico Alessandra , Button Brian , Ehre Camille , Grubb Barbara R. , Hill David B. , Kelada Samir N. P.
Published: October 2023

BPIFB1, also known as LPLUNC1, was found to regulate mucociliary clearance (MCC), a key aspect of host defense in the airway. Loss of this protein was also associated with altered biophysical and biochemical properties of mucus that have been previously linked to impaired MCC.
Sex-Specific Immune Responses to Seasonal Influenza Vaccination in Diabetic Individuals: Implications for Vaccine Efficacy
Authors: Sengupta Anirban , Al-Otaibi Noha , Hinkula Jorma
Published: October 2023

Seasonal influenza vaccination has different implications on the immune response depending on the comorbidities. Diabetes is one such critical disease that increases the patient’s susceptibility to influenza and suppresses vaccine efficacy and immunity. The sex of the individuals also plays a definitive role in the immune responses to both the vaccine and the infection. This study aims to understand the efficacy of the seasonal vaccine against influenza in diabetic groups and undergoing immune mechanisms in different sexes (females and males). In this study, we are reporting about a switching of the immune response of the infected and vaccinated diabetic females towards stronger Th1/Th17 responses with suppressed humoral immunity. They show increased cDC1, enhanced proinflammatory activities within T cells, CD8T activation, Th17 proliferation, and the majority of IgG2 antibody subtypes with reduced neutralization potential. Males with diabetes exhibit enhanced humoral Th2-immunity than the nondiabetic group. They exhibit higher cDC2, and DEC205 levels within them with an increase in plasma B lymphocytes, higher IgG1 subtypes in plasma cells, and influenza-hemagglutinin-specific IgG titer with stronger virus neutralization potential. Males with diabetes recovered better than the females as observed from the changes in their body weight. This study highlights the critical immune mechanisms and sex-specific swapping of their preferred immune response pathways against influenza after vaccination during diabetes. We propose a need for a sex-specific customized vaccine regimen to be implemented against influenza for individuals having diabetes to exploit the manifested strength and weakness in their protective immunity.
Milky Disease: A Review of Discovery, Pathogens, and Detection Methods in Crabs
Authors: Tan Yabing , Zhou Sihan , Cen Xinyi , Wang Xinran , Zhao Yingying , Li Yingdong , Wei Hua , Li Xiaodong
Published: October 2023

As an important economic crustacean in China, the crab has been a popular focus in aquaculture in recent years due to its high production and economic value. The epidemic of milky disease has severely damaged the crab farming industry, resulting in heavy economic losses and hindering the sustainable development of high-quality crab farming. The disease is characterized by severe emulsification of all tissues and the presence of large amounts of opaque, milky fluid in the body, with a high infection rate and high mortality. Determining the cause of the disease, its life cycle, transmission routes, and detection methods will help to provide direction for the prevention and control of crab milky disease. This article aims to review the discovery, main pathogens, and pathologies of milky disease, along with the currently established detection methods. We have also attempt to classify the control measures for the prevention and control of milky disease in crabs.
Coping Strategies of Social Service Clients over the Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Research on Social Workers in Poland
Authors: Lenart-Kłoś Katarzyna , Szyszka Małgorzata , Zaborowska Agnieszka
Published: October 2023

This paper aims to establish strategies of coping with COVID-19 pandemic adopted by the clients of social assistance from the perspective of social workers. The qualitative research among Polish social workers and family assistants was conducted from September to November 2021. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with social work professionals, groups of social assistance clients’ behaviours were identified and classified into the theoretical models of reactions to social change by Merton and Giddens. The following types of behaviour have been selected and categorized into four groups of reactions when dealing with social workers in a pandemic situation: coolheaded calculation, defiance, confusion, and adaptation. At the same time, reactions to the situation of social change were categorized into one of the strategies of active or passive behaviour: innovation, contestation, retreat, and acceptance. In addition, we discussed the impact of clients’ coping strategies on social workers and established three attitudes of the surveyed social workers: adapting to the pandemic situation and customer behaviour, assuming the role of an emotional buffer and informant, and expecting support from superiors and coworkers. Knowing the behaviour of social assistance clients in a challenging situation makes it possible to adopt tailor-made measures.
Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Attenuate S100-Induced Autoimmune Hepatitis via Modulating Th1 and Th17 Cell Responses in Mice
Authors: Wei Xiaofeng , Cheng Xinhong , Luo Yang , Li Xun
Published: October 2023

Currently, the first-line treatment for autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is still the combination of glucocorticoids or immunosuppressants. However, hormone and immunosuppressive therapy can cause serious side effects, such as Cushing syndrome and bone marrow suppression. Previous studies reported on the applicability and safety of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to ameliorate liver inflammation and fibrosis. However, the characteristics of MSCs sources directly contribute to the different conclusions on the mechanisms underlying MSC-mediated immunoregulation. Bone marrow-derived MSCs can exert an immunosuppression effect to ameliorate the S100-induced AIH model by inhibiting several proinflammatory cytokines and upregulating of PD-L1 in liver tissue. It is not clear whether human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (hUC-MSCs) could directly inhibit liver inflammation and ultimately alleviate the dysfunction of hepatocytes in the AIH model. First, hUC-MSCs were extracted from umbilical cord tissue, and the basic biological properties and multilineage differentiation potential were examined. Second, 1 × 106 hUC-MSCs were administered intravenously to AIH mice. At the peak of the disease, serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase and pathologic damage to liver tissue were measured to evaluate liver function and degree of inflammation. We also observed that the infiltration of CD4+ T cells in the liver was significantly reduced. Furthermore, the frequency of the splenic IFNγ- and IL-17A- producing CD4+ T cells were also significantly decreased, while we only observed an increasing trend in Treg cells in liver tissue. Third, an RNA sequencing analysis of liver tissue was performed, which showed that in the UC-MSC-treated group, the transcriptional profiles of inflammation-related signaling pathways were significantly negatively regulated compared to those of phosphate-buffered saline-treated mice. Collectively, these findings indicated the potential of hUC-MSC to suppress immune responses in immune anomaly mediated liver disease, thus offering a potential clinical option to improve AIH.
Delineating a Role for Methionine Metabolism in Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Liu Shiyu , Locasale Jason W.
Published: October 2023

Advances in mass spectrometry allow for broader applications of metabolomics in research and clinical applications. In a recent issue of Nature Metabolism, Vande Voorde and colleagues utilized metabolite profiling to investigate the metabolism of colorectal cancer in mouse models, organoids, and patients. This study underscores the utility of metabolomics in distinguishing colorectal cancer, offering potential for its use in precision medicine. It also revealed a pivotal role for adenosylhomocysteinase in the methionine cycle and highlighted its potential as a therapeutic target.
Integrating Clinical Cancer and PTM Proteomics Data Identifies a Mechanism of ACK1 Kinase Activation
Authors: Balasooriya Eranga R. , Madhusanka Deshan , López-Palacios Tania P. , Eastmond Riley J. , Jayatunge Dasun , Owen Jake J. , Gashler Jack S. , Egbert Christina M. , Bulathsinghalage Chanaka , Liu Lu , Piccolo Stephen R. , Andersen Joshua L.
Published: October 2023

Beyond the most common oncogenes activated by mutation (mut-drivers), there likely exists a variety of low-frequency mut-drivers, each of which is a possible frontier for targeted therapy. To identify new and understudied mut-drivers, we developed a machine learning (ML) model that integrates curated clinical cancer data and posttranslational modification (PTM) proteomics databases. We applied the approach to 62,746 patient cancers spanning 84 cancer types and predicted 3,964 oncogenic mutations across 1,148 genes, many of which disrupt PTMs of known and unknown function. The list of putative mut-drivers includes established drivers and others with poorly understood roles in cancer. This ML model is available as a web application. As a case study, we focused the approach on nonreceptor tyrosine kinases (NRTK) and found a recurrent mutation in activated CDC42 kinase-1 (ACK1) that disrupts the Mig6 homology region (MHR) and ubiquitin-association (UBA) domains on the ACK1 C-terminus. By studying these domains in cultured cells, we found that disruption of the MHR domain helps activate the kinase while disruption of the UBA increases kinase stability by blocking its lysosomal degradation. This ACK1 mutation is analogous to lymphoma-associated mutations in its sister kinase, TNK1, which also disrupt a C-terminal inhibitory motif and UBA domain. This study establishes a mut-driver discovery tool for the research community and identifies a mechanism of ACK1 hyperactivation shared among ACK family kinases.

Implications:

This research identifies a potentially targetable activating mutation in ACK1 and other possible oncogenic mutations, including PTM-disrupting mutations, for further study.
Supplementary Figure 1 from Impact of Eliminating Cost-Sharing by Medicare Beneficiaries for Follow-Up Colonoscopy After a Positive Stool-based Colorectal Cancer Screening Test
Authors: Fendrick A. Mark , Lieberman David , Chen Jing Voon , Vahdat Vahab , Ozbay A. Burak , Limburg Paul J.
Published: October 2023

Figure S1. Incremental LYG, incremental total screening and treatment costs, and ICERs by additional scenarios compared with the base-case scenario.
Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex Oscillatory Power Indexes Treatment-Resistance to Multiple Therapies in Major Depressive Disorder
Authors: Prentice Amourie , Barreiros Ana Rita , van der Vinne Nikita , Stuiver Sven , van Dijk Hanneke , van Waarde Jeroen Antonius , Korgaonkar Mayuresh , Sack Alexander T. , Arns Martijn
Published: October 2023

Introduction: High rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) activity is proposed as a nonspecific prognostic marker for treatment response in major depressive disorder, independent of treatment modality. However, other studies report a negative association between baseline high rACC activation and treatment response. Interestingly, these contradictory findings were also found when focusing on oscillatory markers, specifically rACC-theta power. An explanation could be that rACC-theta activity dynamically changes according to number of previous treatment attempts and thus is mediated by level of treatment-resistance. Methods: Primarily, we analyzed differences in rACC- and frontal-theta activity in large national cross-sectional samples representing various levels of treatment-resistance and resistance to multimodal treatments in depressed patients (psychotherapy [n = 175], antidepressant medication [AD; n = 106], repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation [rTMS; n = 196], and electroconvulsive therapy [ECT; n = 41]), and the respective difference between remitters and non-remitters. For exploratory purposes, we also investigated other frequency bands (delta, alpha, beta, gamma). Results: rACC-theta activity was higher (p < 0.001) in the more resistant rTMS and ECT patients relative to the less resistant psychotherapy and AD patients (psychotherapy-rTMS: d = 0.315; AD-rTMS: d = 0.320; psychotherapy-ECT: d = 1.031; AD-ECT: d = 1.034), with no difference between psychotherapy and AD patients. This association was even more pronounced after controlling for frontal-theta. Post hoc analyses also yielded effects for delta, beta, and gamma bands. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that by factoring in degree of treatment-resistance during interpretation of the rACC-theta biomarker, its usefulness in treatment selection and prognosis could potentially be improved substantially in future real-world practice. Future research should however also investigate specificity of the theta band.
Evidence for the Clinical Association between Demodex and Rosacea: A Review
Authors: Wei Fen , Li Li , Kong Yi , Yan Xiaofeng , Varghese Kevin J. , Zhang Song , Jiang Jian , Chai Bao , Chen Hongxiang
Published: October 2023

Background: Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory dermatological condition in humans, and its pathogenesis remains unclear. However, the development of rosacea is suspected to be related to Demodex, a microscopic commensal organism that resides in or near hair follicles and sebaceous glands. Although Demodex is known to be a host-specific, obligate commensal organism, it is currently difficult to be cultured in vitro to parasitize and infect other animal hosts. Therefore, direct evidence for a pathogenic role of Demodex in rosacea is currently lacking. Summary: As circumstantial evidence, non-invasive skin-detecting techniques have shown abnormally elevated numbers of Demodex in rosacea patients. Increased cytokine levels such as IL-10, IL-8, and IL-12p70 have been observed in human sebocytes following the Demodex challenge, and acaricides have been found to be effective in rosacea therapy, all point to a close relationship between Demodex and rosacea. Based on these findings, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to summarize the current state of knowledge, research insights, and clinical treatment recommendations for Demodex-associated rosacea, with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.
Coinvestigación con NNA: una revisión sistemática de literatura según las directrices Prisma
Authors:   Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, López-Ordosgoitia Rocío , Giraldo-Cadavid Diana Alexandra ,   Universidad del Valle, Colombia, Aristizábal-García Diana Marcela ,   Universidad de San Buenaventura, Colombia, Lafaurie-Molina Andrea ,   Universidad del Norte, Colombia
Published: October 2023

Se realiza una revisión que examina la participación de niños, niñas y adolescentes como coinvestigadores. El estudio se apoya en la declaración para revisión sistemática de literatura Prisma y analiza las producciones científicas entre 2019 y 2022. Los artículos revisados revelan tendencias en los roles y las denominaciones que se asignan a los niños, niñas y adolescentes en la investigación, así como metodologías participativas que los reconocen como sujetos de derechos y expertos de su entorno, capaces de participar en la co-construcción de conocimiento con los adultos investigadores. También se identifican desafíos metodológicos, éticos y políticos que enfatizan la necesidad de una reflexión crítica sobre el propósito y las implicaciones de la participación infantil, las dinámicas de poder involucradas y el reconocimiento de las capacidades y perspectivas de los niños, niñas y adolescentes.
Impaired Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Energetics Following Anthracycline Therapy for Breast Cancer
Authors: Gamble David T. , Ross James , Khan Hilal , Unger Andreas , Cheyne Lesley , Rudd Amelia , Saunders Fiona , Srivanasan Janaki , Kamya Sylvia , Horgan Graham , Hannah Andrew , Baliga Santosh , Tocchetti Carlo Gabriele , Urquhart Gordon , Linke Wolfgang A. , Masannat Yazan , Mustafa Ahmed , Fuller Mairi , Elsberger Beatrix , Sharma Ravi , Dawson Dana
Published: October 2023

Background:

Anthracycline-related cardiac toxicity is a recognized consequence of cancer therapies. We assess resting cardiac and skeletal muscle energetics and myocyte, sarcomere, and mitochondrial integrity in patients with breast cancer receiving epirubicin.

Methods:

In a prospective, mechanistic, observational, longitudinal study, we investigated chemotherapy-naive patients with breast cancer receiving epirubicin versus sex- and age-matched healthy controls. Resting energetic status of cardiac and skeletal muscle (phosphocreatine/gamma ATP and inorganic phosphate [Pi]/phosphocreatine, respectively) was assessed with
31
P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Cardiac function and tissue characterization (magnetic resonance imaging and 2D-echocardiography), cardiac biomarkers (serum NT-pro-BNP and high-sensitivity troponin I), and structural assessments of skeletal muscle biopsies were obtained. All study assessments were performed before and after chemotherapy.

Results:

Twenty-five female patients with breast cancer (median age, 53 years) received a mean epirubicin dose of 304 mg/m
2
, and 25 age/sex-matched controls were recruited. Despite comparable baseline cardiac and skeletal muscle energetics with the healthy controls, after chemotherapy, patients with breast cancer showed a reduction in cardiac phosphocreatine/gamma ATP ratio (2.0±0.7 versus 1.1±0.5;
P
=0.001) and an increase in skeletal muscle Pi/phosphocreatine ratio (0.1±0.1 versus 0.2±0.1;
P
=0.022). This occurred in the context of increases in left ventricular end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes (
P
=0.009 and
P
=0.008, respectively), T1 and T2 mapping (
P
=0.001 and
P
=0.028, respectively) but with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction, mass and global longitudinal strain, and no change in cardiac biomarkers. There was preservation of the mitochondrial copy number in skeletal muscle biopsies but a significant increase in areas of skeletal muscle degradation (
P
=0.001) in patients with breast cancer following chemotherapy. Patients with breast cancer demonstrated a reduction in skeletal muscle sarcomere number from the prechemotherapy stage compared with healthy controls (
P
=0.013).

Conclusions:

Contemporary doses of epirubicin for breast cancer treatment result in a significant reduction of cardiac and skeletal muscle high-energy
31
P-metabolism alongside structural skeletal muscle changes.

REGISTRATION:

URL:
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov
; Unique identifier: NCT04467411
Impact of Calcium Eccentricity on the Safety and Effectiveness of Coronary Intravascular Lithotripsy: Pooled Analysis From the Disrupt CAD Studies
Authors: Ali Ziad A. , Kereiakes Dean J. , Hill Jonathan M. , Saito Shigeru , Di Mario Carlo , Honton Benjamin , Gonzalo Nieves , Riley Robert F. , Maehara Akiko , Matsumura Mitsuaki , Shin Doosup , Stone Gregg W. , Shlofmitz Richard A.
Published: October 2023

BACKGROUND:

Coronary intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) safely facilitates successful stent implantation in severely calcified lesions. This analysis sought to determine the relative impact of lesion calcium eccentricity on the safety and effectiveness of IVL using high-resolution optical coherence tomography imaging.

METHODS:

Individual patient-level data (n=262) were pooled from 4 distinct international prospective studies (Disrupt CAD I, II, III, and IV) and analyzed by an independent optical coherence tomography core laboratory. IVL performance in eccentric versus concentric calcification was analyzed by dividing calcified lesions into quartiles (≤180° [most eccentric], 181°–270°, 271°–359°, and 360° [concentric]) by maximum continuous calcium arc.

RESULTS:

In the 230 patients with clear imaging field on optical coherence tomography, there were no differences in preprocedure minimum lumen area, diameter stenosis, or maximum calcium thickness. The calcium length and volume index increased progressively with increasing mean and maximum continuous calcium arc (ie, concentricity). Conversely, the minimum calcium thickness decreased progressively with increasing concentricity. Post-procedure, the number of calcium fractures, fracture depth, and fracture width increased with increasing concentricity, with a 4-fold increase in the number of fractures in lesions with 360° of calcium arc compared with ≤180°. This increase in IVL-induced calcium fracture with increasing calcium burden and concentricity facilitated stent expansion and luminal gain such that there were no significant differences across quartiles.

CONCLUSIONS:

IVL induced calcium fractures proportional to the magnitude of coronary artery calcium, including in eccentric calcium, leading to consistent improvements in stent expansion and luminal gain in both eccentric and concentric calcified coronary lesions.
SKILLS MISMATCH IN TRANSITION TO INDUSTRY 4.0 IN THE CONTEXT OF LARGE-SCALE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES IN TÜRKİYE
Authors: KOCA Didem , KARAGÖL Erdal Tanas
Published: October 2023

The present study addressed skills mismatch in the context of large-scale manufacturing industries adopting Industry 4.0 technologies in Türkiye. In this qualitative study, we held face-to-face interviews with 41 participants consisting of senior managers, human resources directors, and experts implementing the Industry 4.0 process of 19 large-scale manufacturing companies operating in seven provinces of Türkiye (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Izmit, Kayseri, Bursa, and Gaziantep). The findings demonstrated four main categories where we discussed the reasons for skills mismatch in the companies in the transition to Industry 4.0: difficulties in labor supply, difficulties in retaining the labor force, labor force’s Adaptation to Industry 4.0, and the emergence of novel business models.
Blood alcohol concentration in the clinical laboratory: a narrative review of the preanalytical phase in diagnostic and forensic testing
Authors: Ialongo Cristiano
Published: October 2023

The analysis of blood alcohol concentration (BAC), a pivotal toxicological test, concerns acute alcohol intoxication (AAI) and driving under the influence (DUI). As such, BAC presents an organizational challenge for clinical laboratories, with unique complexities due to the need for forensic defensibility as part of the diagnostic process. Unfortunately, a significant number of scientific investigations dealing with the subject present discrepancies that make it difficult to identify optimal practices in sample collection, transportation, handling, and preparation. This review provides a systematic analysis of the preanalytical phase of BAC that aims to identify and explain the chemical, physiological, and pharmacological mechanisms underlying controllable operational factors. Nevertheless, it seeks evidence for the necessity to separate preanalytical processes for diagnostic and forensic BAC testing. In this regard, the main finding of this review is that no literature evidence supports the necessity to differentiate preanalytical procedures for AAI and DUI, except for the traceability throughout the chain of custody. In fact, adhering to correct preanalytical procedures provided by official bodies such as European federation of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine for routine phlebotomy ensures both diagnostic accuracy and forensic defensibility of BAC. This is shown to depend on the capability of modern pre-evacuated sterile collection tubes to control major factors influencing BAC, namely non-enzymatic oxidation and microbial contamination. While certain restrictions become obsolete with such devices, as the use of sodium fluoride (NaF) for specific preservation of forensic BAC, this review reinforces the recommendation to use non-alcoholic disinfectants as a means to achieve “error-proof” procedures in challenging operational environments like the emergency department.
Interdependence of “What” and “When” in the Brain
Authors: Ten Oever Sanne , Martin Andrea E.
Published: October 2023

From a brain's-eye-view, when a stimulus occurs and what it is are interrelated aspects of interpreting the perceptual world. Yet in practice, the putative perceptual inferences about sensory content and timing are often dichotomized and not investigated as an integrated process. We here argue that neural temporal dynamics can influence what is perceived, and in turn, stimulus content can influence the time at which perception is achieved. This computational principle results from the highly interdependent relationship of what and when in the environment. Both brain processes and perceptual events display strong temporal variability that is not always modeled; we argue that understanding—and, minimally, modeling—this temporal variability is key for theories of how the brain generates unified and consistent neural representations and that we ignore temporal variability in our analysis practice at the peril of both data interpretation and theory-building. Here, we review what and when interactions in the brain, demonstrate via simulations how temporal variability can result in misguided interpretations and conclusions, and outline how to integrate and synthesize what and when in theories and models of brain computation.
Attentional Modulation in Early Visual Cortex: A Focused Reanalysis of Steady-state Visual Evoked Potential Studies
Authors: Adamian Nika , Andersen Søren K.
Published: October 2023

Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) are a powerful tool for investigating selective attention. Here, we conducted a combined reanalysis of multiple studies employing this technique in a variety of attentional experiments to, first, establish benchmark effect sizes of attention on amplitude and phase of SSVEPs and, second, harness the power of a large data set to test more specific hypotheses. Data of eight published SSVEP studies were combined, in which human participants (n = 135 in total) attended to flickering random dot stimuli based on their defining features (e.g., location, color, luminance, or orientation) or feature conjunctions. The reanalysis established that, in all the studies, attention reliably enhanced amplitudes, with color-based attention providing the strongest effect. In addition, the latency of SSVEPs elicited by attended stimuli was reduced by ∼4 msec. Next, we investigated the modulation of SSVEP amplitudes in a subset of studies where two different features were attended concurrently. Although most models assume that attentional effects of multiple features are combined additively, our results suggest that neuronal enhancement provided by concurrent attention is better described by multiplicative integration. Finally, we used the combined data set to demonstrate that the increase in trial-averaged SSVEP amplitudes with attention cannot be explained by increased synchronization of single-trial phases. Contrary to the prediction of the phase-locking account, the variance across trials of complex Fourier coefficients increases with attention, which is more consistent with boosting of a largely phase-locked signal embedded in non-phase-locked noise.
Reward Accelerates the Preparation of Goal-directed Actions under Conflict
Authors: Adkins Tyler J. , Lee Taraz G.
Published: October 2023

Our goals sometimes conflict with our prepotent habitual responses, which often leads to impaired performance on a variety of tasks. People are better at exerting cognitive control to overcome prepotent and automatic responses when they are motivated by the prospect of reward. The standard experimental paradigms used to study this phenomenon examine free RTs that allow participants to select a variety of response strategies including delaying response initiation to avoid committing errors. However, this approach makes it difficult to determine which control processes are affected by reward. Does reward lead to improved performance via the inhibition of prepotent responses or the facilitation of goal-directed processing? Here, we use a forced-response paradigm to fix response initiation and systematically vary the time available for the cognitive processing necessary for response preparation. Using a probabilistic model that dissociates the preparation of habitual and goal-directed responses, we obtain evidence across multiple experiments (n = 87 people) that reward selectively accelerates the preparation of goal-directed actions in the context of conflict.