bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Investigation of parameters and morphology of coated WC tool while machining X-750 using NSGA-II
Authors: Bohat Manjeet , Sharma Neeraj
Published: May 2023

Nickel-based superalloys have numerous applications in automobile, aerospace, turbine blades, nuclear, oil refinery etc, due to their excellent properties like strength, wear resistance, corrosion resistance and higher creep strength. Because of these properties, modern manufacturing industries need help with the machining of nickel-based superalloys, i.e. hard-to-machine materials. In the present research, Ni-based X-750 alloy is machined with turning operation by a conventional lathe machine using a TiAlN PVD coated tungsten carbide tool at different rotational speed (TRS), depth of cut (DoC) and feed (F) values as input parameters whereas material removal rate (MRR) and tool wear (TW) are the responses of the study. The design of experiments (DoE) is prepared by response surface methodology-based Box-Behnken Design. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to investigate the percentage contribution of each machining parameter on responses. Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) simultaneously optimizes the developed empirical models of MRR and TW. The predicted solutions suggested by NSGA-II are the best solution, and confirmation experiments are conducted on randomly selected parametric settings from these solutions. The optimized set presented by NSGA-II is TRS: 900RPM; DoC: 0.06 mm; F: 0.1 mm rev−1, and the maximum relative error in the case of MRR and TW is in the permissible limit. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) are used to investigate the morphology of tool insert before and after machining at optimized value TRS: 900 RPM; DoC: 0.1 mm; F: 0.06 mm rev−1, and it shows the wear marks on the tool, and the Energy dispersive spectroscopy confirms the presence of coating and WC. SEM is used to investigate the morphology of chips formed at different optimized parametric settings.
Robust trajectory tracking controller for an octocopter UAV
Authors: Dixit Abhishek , Agrawal Pooja , Misra Ajay
Published: May 2023

This work proposes an Input-Output linearization (IOL) trajectory tracking controller for an actuated octocopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The underactuated octocopter dynamics is converted into actuated one using the differential flat outputs. The proposed controller for actuated octocopter UAV is robustified using α Uncertainty and Disturbance Estimator (αUDE). The Lyapunov theory is used to ascertain closed-loop stability in achieving the desired trajectory. A comparative study is carried out to show the better performance of the proposed controller. Results show the efficacy of the proposed controller in handling the effects of slow as well as fast varying disturbances, parametric uncertainties, and measurement noise. The quantitative analysis based on performance indices and root mean square error validated the results.
Infinite sumsets in sets with positive density
Authors: Kra Bryna , Moreira Joel , Richter Florian , Robertson Donald
Published: May 2023

Motivated by questions asked by Erdős, we prove that any set

A
⊂

N

A\subset \mathbb {N}

with positive upper density contains, for any

k
∈

N

k\in \mathbb {N}

, a sumset

B
1

+
⋯
+

B
k

B_1+\cdots +B_k

, where

B
1

B_1

, …,

B
k

⊂

N

B_k\subset \mathbb {N}

are infinite. Our proof uses ergodic theory and relies on structural results for measure preserving systems. Our techniques are new, even for the previously known case of

k
=
2

k=2

.
Singularities of generic linkage via Frobenius powers
Authors: Li Jiamin
Published: May 2023

Let

I
I

be an equidimensional ideal of a ring polynomial

R
R

over

C

\mathbb {C}

and let

J
J

be its generic linkage. We prove that there is a uniform bound of the difference between the F-pure thresholds of

I
p

I_p

and

J
p

J_p

via the generalized Frobenius powers of ideals. This provides evidence that the F-pure threshold of an equidimensional ideal

I
I

is less than that of its generic linkage. As a corollary we recover a result on log canonical thresholds of generic linkage by Niu.
A topological characterisation of Haar null convex sets
Authors: Ravasini Davide
Published: May 2023

In

R

d

\mathbb {R}^d

, a closed, convex set has zero Lebesgue measure if and only its interior is empty. More generally, in separable, reflexive Banach spaces, closed and convex sets are Haar null if and only if their interior is empty. We extend this facts by showing that a closed, convex set in a separable Banach space is Haar null if and only if its weak

∗

^*

closure in the second dual has empty interior with respect to the norm topology. It then follows that, in the metric space of all nonempty, closed, convex and bounded subsets of a separable Banach space, converging sequences of Haar null sets have Haar null limits.
Uniform tail-ends estimates of the Navier-Stokes equations on unbounded channel-like domains
Authors: Wang Bixiang
Published: May 2023

This paper deals with the asymptotic compactness of the solutions of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations defined in unbounded channel-like domains. In order to overcome the non-compactness of Sobolev embeddings in unbounded domains, we establish the uniform tail-ends estimates of solutions by showing all the solutions are uniformly small outside a sufficiently large bounded domain for all large time and bounded initial data, which implies the asymptotic compactness and hence the existence of global attractors in the natural energy space. The uniform tail-ends estimates are derived by the scalar stream function of the Navier-Stokes equations which is distinct from the reaction-diffusion equation due to the divergence free condition.
Attention-based cross domain graph neural network for prediction of drug–drug interactions
Authors: Yu Hui , Li KangKang , Dong WenMin , Song ShuangHong , Gao Chen , Shi JianYu
Published: May 2023

Drug–drug interactions (DDI) may lead to adverse reactions in human body and accurate prediction of DDI can mitigate the medical risk. Currently, most of computer-aided DDI prediction methods construct models based on drug-associated features or DDI network, ignoring the potential information contained in drug-related biological entities such as targets and genes. Besides, existing DDI network-based models could not make effective predictions for drugs without any known DDI records. To address the above limitations, we propose an attention-based cross domain graph neural network (ACDGNN) for DDI prediction, which considers the drug-related different entities and propagate information through cross domain operation. Different from the existing methods, ACDGNN not only considers rich information contained in drug-related biomedical entities in biological heterogeneous network, but also adopts cross-domain transformation to eliminate heterogeneity between different types of entities. ACDGNN can be used in the prediction of DDIs in both transductive and inductive setting. By conducting experiments on real-world dataset, we compare the performance of ACDGNN with several state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results show that ACDGNN can effectively predict DDIs and outperform the comparison models.
CMGN: a conditional molecular generation net to design target-specific molecules with desired properties
Authors: Yang Minjian , Sun Hanyu , Liu Xue , Xue Xi , Deng Yafeng , Wang Xiaojian
Published: May 2023

The rational design of chemical entities with desired properties for a specific target is a long-standing challenge in drug design. Generative neural networks have emerged as a powerful approach to sample novel molecules with specific properties, termed as inverse drug design. However, generating molecules with biological activity against certain targets and predefined drug properties still remains challenging. Here, we propose a conditional molecular generation net (CMGN), the backbone of which is a bidirectional and autoregressive transformer. CMGN applies large-scale pretraining for molecular understanding and navigates the chemical space for specified targets by fine-tuning with corresponding datasets. Additionally, fragments and properties were trained to recover molecules to learn the structure–properties relationships. Our model crisscrosses the chemical space for specific targets and properties that control fragment-growth processes. Case studies demonstrated the advantages and utility of our model in fragment-to-lead processes and multi-objective lead optimization. The results presented in this paper illustrate that CMGN has the potential to accelerate the drug discovery process.
ODNA: identification of organellar DNA by machine learning
Authors: Martin Roman , Nguyen Minh Kien , Lowack Nick , Heider Dominik
Published: May 2023

Motivation

Identifying organellar DNA, such as mitochondrial or plastid sequences, inside a whole genome assembly, remains challenging and requires biological background knowledge. To address this, we developed ODNA based on genome annotation and machine learning to fulfill.

Results

ODNA is a software that classifies organellar DNA sequences within a genome assembly by machine learning based on a predefined genome annotation workflow. We trained our model with 829 769 DNA sequences from 405 genome assemblies and achieved high predictive performance (e.g. matthew's correlation coefficient of 0.61 for mitochondria and 0.73 for chloroplasts) on independent validation data, thus outperforming existing approaches significantly.

Availability and implementation

Our software ODNA is freely accessible as a web service at https://odna.mathematik.uni-marburg.de and can also be run in a docker container. The source code can be found at https://gitlab.com/mosga/odna and the processed data at Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7506483).
Epidemiology and association with outcomes of polypharmacy in patients undergoing surgery: retrospective, population-based cohort study
Authors: Jónsdóttir Freyja , Blöndal Anna B , Guðmundsson Aðalsteinn , Bates Ian , Stevenson Jennifer M , Sigurðsson Martin I
Published: May 2023

Background

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of preoperative polypharmacy and the incidence of postoperative polypharmacy/hyper-polypharmacy in surgical patients and their association with adverse outcomes.

Methods

This was a retrospective, population-based cohort study among patients older than or equal to 18 years undergoing surgery at a university hospital between 2005 and 2018. Patients were categorized based on the number of medications: non-polypharmacy (fewer than 5); polypharmacy (5–9); and hyper-polypharmacy (greater than or equal to 10). The 30-day mortality, prolonged hospitalization (greater than or equal to 10 days), and incidence of readmission were compared between medication-use categories.

Results

Among 55 997 patients, the prevalence of preoperative polypharmacy was 32.3 per cent (95 per cent c.i. 33.5 to 34.3) and the prevalence of hyper-polypharmacy was 25.5 per cent (95 per cent c.i. 25.2 to 25.9). Thirty-day mortality was higher for patients exposed to preoperative hyper-polypharmacy (2.3 per cent) and preoperative polypharmacy (0.8 per cent) compared with those exposed to non-polypharmacy (0.6 per cent) (P < 0.001). The hazards ratio (HR) of long-term mortality was higher for patients exposed to hyper-polypharmacy (HR 1.32 (95 per cent c.i. 1.25 to 1.40)) and polypharmacy (HR 1.07 (95 per cent c.i. 1.01 to 1.14)) after adjustment for patient and procedural variables. The incidence of longer hospitalization (greater than or equal to 10 days) was higher for hyper-polypharmacy (11.3 per cent) and polypharmacy (6.3 per cent) compared with non-polypharmacy (4.1 per cent) (P < 0.001). The 30-day incidence of readmission was higher for patients exposed to hyper-polypharmacy (10.2 per cent) compared with polypharmacy (6.1 per cent) and non-polypharmacy (4.8 per cent) (P < 0.001). Among patients not exposed to polypharmacy, the incidence of new postoperative polypharmacy/hyper-polypharmacy was 33.4 per cent (95 per cent c.i. 32.8 to 34.1), and, for patients exposed to preoperative polypharmacy, the incidence of postoperative hyper-polypharmacy was 16.3 per cent (95 per cent c.i. 16.0 to 16.7).

Conclusion

Preoperative polypharmacy and new postoperative polypharmacy/hyper-polypharmacy are common and associated with adverse outcomes. This highlights the need for increased emphasis on optimizing medication usage throughout the perioperative interval.

Registration number

NCT04805151 (http://clinicaltrials.gov).
Retracted and Replaced: Altered microstructure of the contralesional ventral premotor cortex and motor output after stroke
Authors: Wróbel Paweł P , Guder Stephanie , Feldheim Jan F , Graterol Pérez José A , Frey Benedikt M , Choe Chi-un , Bönstrup Marlene , Cheng Bastian , Rathi Yogesh , Pasternak Ofer , Thomalla Götz , Gerloff Christian , Shenton Martha E , Schulz Robert
Published: May 2023

This article has been retracted and replaced. Please see https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcae149 for details. The replacement article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcae115
Transformation
Authors: Brown Alan
Published: May 2023

Professor Alan Brown FBCS explores the link between AI, trust, identity and banking.
Isolated left hepatic vein draining into the coronary sinus: a rare anomaly encountered during mitral valve surgery
Authors: Suzuki Akiyo , Uchida Hiroaki , Ozawa Hideki , Katsumata Takahiro
Published: May 2023

A left hepatic vein draining into the coronary sinus is an extremely rare congenital abnormality as a solitary cardiovascular malformation. We encountered the anomaly during the mitral valve surgery in a 72-year-old woman. The operation was successfully carried out using an additional suction directly in the left hepatic vein.
The role of endosonography in cardiology: case series and literature review
Authors: Elhakim Abdelrahman , Karkour Kawther , Sauter Philip , Rode Michael , Elhakim Mohamed , Radke Peter W , Saad Mohammed
Published: May 2023

Aims

Endosonography (EUS) is the diagnostic tool with the highest resolution for the local staging of gastrointestinal tumours and, due to the detailed visualization of the wall layers, is recommended in current guidelines for cancer management. In addition, an endoscope has an ultrasound tip design and balloon insufflation control design, and a 120° bending mechanism to deflect the endoscope tip. These advantages could be beneficial and valuable while investigating the cardiovascular structures during routine gastrointestinal procedures using this diagnostic tool.

Methods and results

We present six cases of incidentally diagnosed cardiac pathologies (pulmonary thromboembolism of the main pulmonary artery, patent foramen oval with right to left shunt under Valsalva, left atrial appendage thrombus, aortic dissection, moderate aortic valve stenosis, mitral and aortic valve endocarditis) during routine gastrointestinal endosonographic procedures. These diagnoses influenced changes in management strategies in four cases.

Conclusion

The introduction of EUS in cardiovascular medicine allows for a real-time high-resolution assessment of cardiovascular structures and allows early detection of silent cardiac pathologies during routine gastrointestinal procedures. It is the diagnostic tool with the highest resolution for accurate definition of variable gastrointestinal anatomy. Thus, help for accurate definitions of cardiovascular anatomy and pathology, which could influence optimal management strategies with improved safety, efficacy, and economic outcomes.
Rethinking International Law: A TWAIL Retrospective
Authors: Anghie Antony
Published: May 2023

This EJIL Foreword is a personal retrospective of the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) movement. It provides an account of the origins of TWAIL and the political and intellectual context in which it emerged during the 1990s. It outlines some of the key themes and concerns of TWAIL – including ‘colonial continuities’, ‘capitalism, imperialism and political economy’, and ‘TWAIL and History’. It argues that the distinction between the ‘First’ and ‘Third’ Worlds continues to be relevant by examining the operation of this distinction in various fields of international law, such as the use of force, international migration law and human rights. The Foreword then outlines two of the author’s current research projects on themes that have been of major interest to TWAIL scholars: first, human rights and their relationship to imperialism; and second, race and reparations. The Foreword concludes by arguing that ‘Third World Approaches to International Law’ are relevant, not simply for the ‘third world’, but for the entire globe; it urges us to consider TWAIL as a cosmopolitan project.
Insulin resistance drives cognitive impairment in hypertensive pre-diabetic frail elders: the CENTENNIAL study
Authors: Mone Pasquale , De Gennaro Stefano , Moriello Divina , Frullone Salvatore , D’Amelio Rosa , Ferrante Mario Nicola Vittorio , Marro Anna , Santulli Gaetano
Published: May 2023

Aims

Pre-diabetes is a condition that confers an increased cardiovascular risk. Frailty is very common in hypertensive patients, and insulin resistance has been linked to frailty in older adults with diabetes. On these grounds, our aim was to evaluate the association between insulin resistance and cognitive impairment in hypertensive and pre-diabetic and frail older adults.

Methods and results

We studied consecutive pre-diabetic and hypertensive elders with frailty presenting at the Avellino local health authority of the Italian Ministry of Health (ASL AV) from March 2021 to March 2022. All of them fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: a previous diagnosis of hypertension with no clinical or laboratory evidence of secondary causes, a confirmed diagnosis of pre-diabetes, age >65 years, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) Score <26, and frailty. We enrolled 178 frail patients, of which 141 successfully completed the study. We observed a strong inverse correlation (r = −0.807; P < 0.001) between MoCA Score and Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR). The results were confirmed by a linear regression analysis using MoCA Score as dependent variable, after adjusting for several potential confounders.

Conclusion

Taken together, our data highlight for the first time the association between insulin resistance and global cognitive function in frail elders with hypertension and pre-diabetes.
On aging and age-specific effects of spontaneous mutations
Authors: Shenoi Vinesh N , Mital Avani , Brengdahl Martin I , Abson Katie , Henderson Gina , Maxwell Melody , Berger David , Friberg Urban
Published: May 2023

Evolutionary theory assumes that mutations that cause aging either have beneficial early-life effects that gradually become deleterious with advancing age (antagonistic pleiotropy [AP]) or that they only have deleterious effects at old age (mutation accumulation [MA]). Mechanistically, aging is predicted to result from damage accumulating in the soma. While this scenario is compatible with AP, it is not immediately obvious how damage would accumulate under MA. In a modified version of the MA theory, it has been suggested that mutations with weakly deleterious effects at young age can also contribute to aging, if they generate damage that gradually accumulates with age. Mutations with increasing deleterious effects have recently gained support from theoretical work and studies of large-effect mutations. Here we address if spontaneous mutations also have negative effects that increase with age. We accumulate mutations with early-life effects in Drosophila melanogaster across 27 generations and compare their relative effects on fecundity early and late in life. Our mutation accumulation lines on average have substantially lower early-life fecundity compared to controls. These effects were further maintained throughout life, but they did not increase with age. Our results suggest that most spontaneous mutations do not contribute to damage accumulation and aging.
Comparative transcriptomics and genomics from continuous axenic media growth identifiesCoxiella burnetiiintracellular survival strategies
Authors: Yadav Archana , Brewer Melissa N , Elshahed Mostafa S , Shaw Edward I
Published: May 2023

Coxiella burnetii (Cb) is an obligate intracellular pathogen in nature and the causative agent of acute Q fever as well as chronic diseases. In an effort to identify genes and proteins crucial to their normal intracellular growth lifestyle, we applied a ‘reverse evolution’ approach where the avirulent Nine Mile Phase II strain of Cb was grown for 67 passages in chemically defined ACCM-D media and gene expression patterns and genome integrity from various passages was compared to passage number one following intracellular growth. Transcriptomic analysis identified a marked downregulation of the structural components of the type 4B secretion system (T4BSS), the general secretory (Sec) pathway, as well as 14 out of 118 previously identified genes encoding effector proteins. Additional downregulated pathogenicity determinants genes included several chaperones, LPS, and peptidoglycan biosynthesis. A general marked downregulation of central metabolic pathways was also observed, which was balanced by a marked upregulation of genes encoding transporters. This pattern reflected the richness of the media and diminishing anabolic, and ATP-generation needs. Finally, genomic sequencing and comparative genomic analysis demonstrated an extremely low level of mutation across passages, despite the observed Cb gene expression changes following acclimation to axenic media.
Evo-Devo Mechanobiology: The Missing Link
Authors: Loffet Elise A , Durel John F , Nerurkar Nandan L
Published: May 2023

Synopsis

While the modern framework of evolutionary development (evo-devo) has been decidedly genetic, historic analyses have also considered the importance of mechanics in the evolution of form. With the aid of recent technological advancements in both quantifying and perturbing changes in the molecular and mechanical effectors of organismal shape, how molecular and genetic cues regulate the biophysical aspects of morphogenesis is becoming increasingly well studied. As a result, this is an opportune time to consider how the tissue-scale mechanics that underlie morphogenesis are acted upon through evolution to establish morphological diversity. Such a focus will enable a field of evo-devo mechanobiology that will serve to better elucidate the opaque relations between genes and forms by articulating intermediary physical mechanisms. Here, we review how the evolution of shape is measured and related to genetics, how recent strides have been made in the dissection of developmental tissue mechanics, and how we expect these areas to coalesce in evo-devo studies in the future.
Compensatory mortality explains rodent resilience to an invasive predator
Authors: McCampbell Marina E , Hunter Margaret E , Stechly John V , Leist Kaitlyn N , Hart Kristen , McCleery Robert A
Published: May 2023

Invasive Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in the Everglades of Florida, United States, have drastically reduced populations of mammals, yet populations of some rodents appear unaffected by the invasion. To understand this pattern, we radio-tagged cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) in areas of high and low python occurrence densities (hereafter occurrence) and quantified the effects of python occurrence, seasonality, and sex on their survival and cause-specific mortality. Cotton rat survival was not influenced by difference in python occurrence (hazard ratio = 1.32, 95% CI = 0.77–2.26, P = 0.30). However, cotton rats were at greater risk from mortalities caused by mammals in areas of low python occurrence. In areas with elevated python occurrence, we attributed most cotton rat mortalities to birds of prey (48.6%) and reptiles (non-python = 24.3%, python = 16.2%). Where python occurrence was relatively low, we attributed cotton rat mortalities to native reptilian (28.6%), avian (35.7%), and mammalian predators (35.7%) with no python-related deaths. In total, pythons were responsible for 11.8% of all cotton rat mortalities. Finding no difference in the survival of cotton rats, despite differences in the causative agents of mortality, suggests that predation pressure from an invasive predator was compensatory for cotton rat population dynamics. This type of compensatory mortality is common for small mammals and helps explain why mammal communities in python-invaded portions of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem are increasingly dominated by cotton rats and other rodents.
The ICJ judgment on Nicaragua v Colombia (2022): applying an established jurisdictional test or a problematic invention?
Authors: Ganesan Pranav , Guardiola Laia Roxane
Published: May 2023

In April 2022, the ICJ pronounced its judgments on the merits in Alleged Violations of Sovereign Rights and Maritime Spaces in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v Colombia). While the judgment makes interesting contributions to the law of the sea jurisprudence, the Court’s problematic finding on jurisdiction ratione temporis is the subject of this paper. Applying what it refers to as ‘continuity’ and ‘connexity’ criteria, it found that Colombia’s withdrawal from the Pact of Bogotá would not prevent it from considering facts submitted by Nicaragua which arose after the Pact ceased to be in force for Colombia. An in-depth analysis of the jurisprudence the judgment referred to reveals that the Court was building on convoluted cases, some of which have conflated questions of jurisdiction and admissibility. Based on the Court’s jurisprudence, this paper argues for a more systematic approach to dealing with preliminary issues arising from new claims and submissions.
Coups and the End of Mass-Killing Episodes
Authors: Uzonyi Gary , Wells Matthew S
Published: May 2023

Why do mass-killing episodes end? Most attention is paid to international tools for ending atrocities. Instead, we consider how domestic politics alter the duration of killing by focusing on how divisions within the regime may lead to coups during the violence. Coups help shift regime preferences and undermine capacity to continue killings. We find support for this argument by statistically analyzing the relationship between coups and the end of each mass-killing episode from 1946 to 2013. We explore each mechanism quantitatively, and buttress these results with a series of examples illustrating the mechanisms at work.
Joint physical custody in Germany: legal framework and results of the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) study
Authors: Helms Tobias , Steinbach Anja , Augustijn Lara
Published: May 2023

Only since a landmark decision by the Federal Court of Justice on 1 February 2017 has it been clear that family courts in Germany can order symmetric joint physical custody against the will of one parent. The prerequisite is that this solution is in the child’s best interests. This article analyses which criteria have been used by courts to order this physical custody arrangement since the decision. It also presents the results of the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) study, which the authors conducted in Germany by interviewing a total of 1,554 families to investigate the living conditions of children cared for in joint physical custody care arrangements. Joint physical custody children were compared to children growing up in sole physical custody arrangements. Results show that joint physical custody can be a good solution for parents who succeed in keeping interparental conflict away from their children and reach an amicable agreement on the care of their children after separation. However, the advantages of joint physical custody were more apparent for children in the age group of 7–14 years than for younger children in the age group of 2–6 years. Furthermore, asymmetric joint physical custody seemed to have more positive effects on children’s well-being than symmetric joint physical custody.
Revisiting the Dragonfly galaxy – I. High-resolution ALMA and VLA observations of the radio hotspots in a hyper-luminous infrared galaxy at z = 1.92
Authors: Zhong Yuxing , Inoue Akio K , Sugahara Yuma , Morokuma-Matsui Kana , Komugi Shinya , Kaneko Hiroyuki , Fudamoto Yoshinobu
Published: May 2023

Radio-loud active galactic nuclei (RLAGNs) are rare among AGN populations. Lacking high-resolution and high-frequency observations, their structure and evolution stages are not well understood at high redshifts. In this work, we report Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array 237 GHz continuum observation at 0.023 arcsec resolution and Very Large Array (VLA) 44 GHz continuum observation at 0.08 arcsec resolution of the radio continuum emission from a high-redshift radio and hyper-luminous infrared galaxy at z = 1.92. The new observations confirm the South-East (SE) and North-West (NW) hotspots identified by previous low-resolution VLA observations at 4.7 and 8.2 GHz and identify a radio core undetected in all previous observations. The SE hotspot has a higher flux density than the NW one does by a factor of 6, suggesting that there can be a Doppler boosting effect in the SE one. In this scenario, we estimate the advance speed of the jet head, ranging from ∼0.1c to 0.3c, which yields a mildly relativistic case. The projected linear distance between the two hotspots is ∼13 kpc, yielding a linear size (≤20 kpc) of a compact-steep-spectrum (CSS) source. Combined with new high-frequency (νobs ≥ 44 GHz) and archived low-frequency observations (νobs ≤ 8.2 GHz), we find that injection spectra of both NW and SE hotspots can be fitted with a continuous injection (CI) model. Based on the CI model, the synchrotron ages of NW and SE hotspots have an order of 105 yr, consistent with the order of magnitude 103–105 yr observed in CSS sources associated with radio AGNs at an early evolution stage. The CI model also favours the scenario in which the double hotspots have experienced a quiescent phase, suggesting that this RLAGN may have transient or intermittent activities.
Testing the cosmological principle: on the time dilation of distant sources
Authors: Oayda Oliver T , Lewis Geraint F
Published: May 2023

We present a novel test of the cosmological principle: the idea that, on sufficiently large scales, the Universe should appear homogeneous and isotropic to observers comoving with the Hubble flow. This is a fundamental assumption in modern cosmology, underpinning the use of the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric as part of the concordance ΛCDM paradigm. However, the observed dipole imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is interpreted as our departure from the Hubble flow, and such a proper motion will induce a directionally-dependent time dilation over the sky. We illustrate the feasibility of detection of this ‘time dilation dipole’ and sketch the practical steps involved in its extraction from a catalogue of sources with intrinsic time-scales. In essence, whilst the scale of this dilation is small, being of the order of 0.1 per cent, it will in principle be detectable in large-scale surveys of variable cosmological sources, such as quasars and supernovae. The degree of alignment of the time dilation dipole with the kinematic dipole derived from the CMB will provide a new assessment of the cosmological principle and address the tension in dipole measures from other observations.
Growing evidence for high-energy neutrinos originating in radio blazars
Authors: Plavin A V , Kovalev Y Y , Kovalev Yu A , Troitsky S V
Published: May 2023

Evidence for bright-radio blazars being high-energy neutrino sources was found in recent years. However, specifics of how and where these particles get produced still need to be determined. In this paper, we add 14 new IceCube events from 2020–2022 to update our analysis of the neutrino-blazars connection. We test and refine earlier findings by utilizing the total of 71 track-like high-energy IceCube events from 2009–2022. We correlate them with the complete sample of 3412 extragalactic radio sources selected by their compact radio emission. We demonstrate that neutrinos are statistically associated with radio-bright blazars with a post-trial p-value of 3 · 10−4. In addition to this statistical study, we confirm previous individual neutrino-blazar associations, find and discuss several new ones. Notably, PKS 1741 − 038 was selected earlier and had a second neutrino detected from its direction in 2022; PKS 0735 + 168 has experienced a major flare across the whole electromagnetic spectrum coincidently with a neutrino arrival from that direction in 2021.
The late time optical evolution of twelve core-collapse supernovae: detection of normal stellar winds
Authors: Rizzo Smith M , Kochanek C S , Neustadt J M M
Published: May 2023

We analyse the late time evolution of 12 supernovae (SNe) occurring over the last ∼41 yr, including nine Type IIP/L, two IIb, and one Ib/c, using UBVR optical data from the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and difference imaging. We see late time (5–42 yr) emission from nine of the eleven Type II SNe (eight Type IIP/L, one IIb). We consider radioactive decay, circumstellar medium (CSM) interactions, pulsar/engine driven emission, dust echoes, and shock perturbed binary companions as possible sources of emission. The observed emission is most naturally explained as CSM interactions with the normal stellar winds of red supergiants with mass-loss rates in the range −7.9 ≲ log10(M⊙ yr−1) ≲ −4.8. We also place constraints on the presence of any shock heated binary companion to the Type Ib/c SN 2012fh and provide progenitor photometry for the Type IIb SN 2011dh, the only one of the six SNe with pre-explosion LBT observations where the SN has faded sufficiently to allow the measurement. The results are consistent with measurements from pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope images.
GSK-3484862 targets DNMT1 for degradation in cells
Authors: Chen Qin , Liu Bigang , Zeng Yang , Hwang Jee Won , Dai Nan , Corrêa Ivan R , Estecio Marcos R , Zhang Xing , Santos Margarida A , Chen Taiping , Cheng Xiaodong
Published: May 2023

Maintenance of genomic methylation patterns at DNA replication forks by DNMT1 is the key to faithful mitotic inheritance. DNMT1 is often overexpressed in cancer cells and the DNA hypomethylating agents azacytidine and decitabine are currently used in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. However, the toxicity of these cytidine analogs and their ineffectiveness in treating solid tumors have limited wider clinical use. GSK-3484862 is a newly-developed, dicyanopyridine containing, non-nucleoside DNMT1-selective inhibitor with low cellular toxicity. Here, we show that GSK-3484862 targets DNMT1 for protein degradation in both cancer cell lines and murine embryonic stem cells (mESCs). DNMT1 depletion was rapid, taking effect within hours following GSK-3484862 treatment, leading to global hypomethylation. Inhibitor-induced DNMT1 degradation was proteasome-dependent, with no discernible loss of DNMT1 mRNA. In mESCs, GSK-3484862-induced Dnmt1 degradation requires the Dnmt1 accessory factor Uhrf1 and its E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. We also show that Dnmt1 depletion and DNA hypomethylation induced by the compound are reversible after its removal. Together, these results indicate that this DNMT1-selective degrader/inhibitor will be a valuable tool for dissecting coordinated events linking DNA methylation to gene expression and identifying downstream effectors that ultimately regulate cellular response to altered DNA methylation patterns in a tissue/cell-specific manner.
Separating weak integrated information theory into inspired and aspirational approaches
Authors: Leung Angus , Tsuchiya Naotsugu
Published: May 2023

Mediano et al. (The strength of weak integrated information theory. Trends Cogn Sci 2022;26: 646–55.) separate out strong and weak flavours of the integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness. They describe ‘strong IIT’ as attempting to derive a universal formula for consciousness and ‘weak IIT’ as searching for empirically measurable correlates of aspects of consciousness. We put forward that their overall notion of ‘weak IIT’ may be too weak. Rather, it should be separated out to distinguish ‘aspirational-IIT’, which aims to empirically test IIT by making trade-offs to its proposed measures, and ‘IIT-inspired’ approaches, which adopt high-level ideas of IIT while dropping the mathematical framework it reaches through its introspective, first-principles approach to consciousness.
E-cigarette Price Impacts legal and Black-Market Cigarette Purchasing Under a Hypothetical Reduced-Nicotine Cigarette Standard
Authors: Dolan Sean B , Bradley Melissa K , Johnson Matthew W
Published: May 2023

Introduction

The Tobacco Control Act gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to establish a reduced-nicotine content standard in combusted cigarettes. This future potential regulation may pose a significant public health benefit; however, black markets may arise to meet demand for normal-nicotine content cigarettes among smokers unwilling to transition to or use an alternative product.

Aims and Methods

We determined the behavioral-economic substitutability of illicit normal-nicotine content cigarettes and e-cigarettes for reduced-nicotine content cigarettes in a hypothetical reduced-nicotine regulatory market. Adult cigarette smokers were recruited online to complete hypothetical cigarette purchasing tasks for usual-brand cigarettes, reduced-nicotine content cigarettes, and illicit normal-nicotine content cigarettes, as well as a cross-commodity task in which reduced-nicotine content cigarettes were available across multiple prices and illicit cigarettes were concurrently available for $12/pack. Participants completed two three-item cross-commodity purchasing tasks in which e-cigarettes were available for $4/pod or $12/pod alongside reduced-nicotine content cigarettes and illicit cigarettes.

Results

Usual-brand cigarette purchasing was greater than illicit normal-nicotine content cigarettes and less than reduced-nicotine content cigarettes. In the cross-commodity purchasing tasks, illicit cigarettes and e-cigarettes both served as economic substitutes for reduced-nicotine content cigarettes; however, when e-cigarettes were available for $4/pod, they were purchased at greater levels than illicit cigarettes and resulted in greater reductions in reduced-nicotine content cigarettes purchasing than when available for $12/pod.

Conclusions

These data suggest that some smokers are willing to engage in illicit cigarette purchasing in a reduced-nicotine regulatory environment, but e-cigarette availability at lower prices may reduce black-market engagement and shift behavior away from combusted cigarette use.

Implications

E-cigarettes available at low, but not high, prices were stronger substitutes for legal, reduced-nicotine content cigarettes than illegal, normal-nicotine content cigarettes in a hypothetical reduced-nicotine tobacco market. Our findings suggest the availability of relatively inexpensive e-cigarettes may reduce illicit cigarette purchasing and combusted cigarette use under a reduced-nicotine cigarette standard.
Non-pharmacological Interventions for Tobacco Cessation in India: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis
Authors: Krishnamoorthy Yuvaraj , Elangovan Venmathi , Rajaa Sathish
Published: May 2023

Introduction

Non-pharmacological management of tobacco cessation has been reported to yield a high level of abstinence from tobacco usage. However, it is unclear which type of non-pharmacological intervention to be adopted in national tobacco control program. Hence, we undertook this review to identify the best non-pharmacological tobacco cessation therapies for tobacco cessation.

Aims and Methods

Systematic literature search was performed in EMBASE, SCOPUS, PubMed Central, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and Clinicaltrials.gov from 1964 until September 2022. Randomized controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of non-pharmacological intervention for tobacco cessation in India were eligible for inclusion. Comparative intervention effect estimates obtained from network meta-analyses were represented as pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

21 studies were eligible for the analysis. More than half of the studies had high risk of bias. E-Health intervention had the highest OR (pooled OR = 9.90; 95% CI: 2.01 to 48.86) in terms of tobacco cessation rate followed by group counseling (pooled OR = 3.61; 95% CI: 1.48 to 8.78) and individual counseling (pooled OR = 3.43; 95% CI: 1.43 to 8.25). Brief advice or self-help intervention or comparison between each of these interventions against each other (both direct and indirect network) did not yield any significant results.

Conclusions

E-Health intervention was the best intervention followed by group intervention and individual face-to-face counseling intervention for tobacco cessation in India. Nonetheless, more high-quality large-scale RCTs either individual or by combining the e-Health, individual, or group counseling interventions are required to provide conclusive evidence and subsequent adoption into the national health programs in India.

Implications

This study would aid the policymakers, clinicians, and public health researchers in choosing the right tobacco cessation therapy to be offered across various levels of the healthcare delivery system, including major health facilities providing drug therapy (ie, concurrently with pharmacological treatment for tobacco cessation) in India. The study findings can be adopted by the national tobacco control program to decide the appropriate intervention package and identify the areas of focus to perform tobacco-related research in the country.
Change of Plans: Overview of Bacterial Taxonomy, Recent Changes of Medical Importance, and Potential Areas of Impact
Authors: Prinzi Andrea M , Moore Nicholas M
Published: May 2023

The process of bacterial nomenclature change has evolved in complexity over time and continues to be an iterative process that is not without challenges. The importance and feasibility of such changes varies between basic researchers, clinical microbiologists, and clinicians. In recent years, clinically-relevant changes have been made across gram-positive and gram-negative organism groups, as well as the mycobacteria. Updated clinical laboratory accreditation requirements state that clinical laboratories must update their reporting practices in the case of clinically-relevant nomenclature changes. These updates may significantly impact various sectors of healthcare including antimicrobial stewardship, laboratory protocols, and infection prevention procedures and policies. While regularly updating bacterial nomenclature aims to improve the accuracy and consistency of our microbial language, the potential impact of such changes must be considered.
Firm-Level Exposure to Epidemic Diseases: COVID-19, SARS, and H1N1
Authors: Hassan Tarek A , Hollander Stephan , van Lent Laurence , Schwedeler Markus , Tahoun Ahmed
Published: May 2023

We construct text-based measures of the primary concerns listed firms associated with the spread of COVID-19 and other epidemic diseases. We identify which firms perceive to lose or gain from a given epidemic and textually decompose the epidemic’s effect on the firm’s demand and supply. We find that the effects of COVID-19 manifest as a simultaneous shock to demand and supply, with both shocks affecting firms’ market valuations in equal measure on average. By contrast, demand-related impacts appear more important in accounting for the observed collapse in firm-level investment during the COVID-19 crisis.

Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online
Turning the Spotlight on Apathy: Identification and Treatment in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
Authors: Lyngstad Siv Hege , Lyne John Paul , Ihler Henrik Myhre , van der Meer Lisette , Færden Ann , Melle Ingrid
Published: May 2023

Among negative symptoms, apathy is central to the impairments in real-life functioning in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Thus, optimizing treatment for apathy appears key to improve outcomes. In treatment research, however, negative symptoms are typically studied as a unifactorial construct. We, therefore, aim to shed necessary light on the status of apathy identification and treatment in SSD.
University students’ diurnal learning-directed behavior is strongly influenced by school start times with implications for grades
Authors: Yeo Sing Chen , Yabuki Hana , Charoenthammanon Rachel S , Gooley Joshua J
Published: May 2023

Study Objectives

School start times impose constraints on sleep–wake timing that may influence academic achievement. We used large university archived datasets to test the hypothesis that larger differences in timing of students’ diurnal learning behavior on school days relative to non-school days would be associated with lower grades.

Methods

Diurnal learning-directed behavior was examined in 33 645 university students by analyzing their learning management system (LMS) login rhythm. We tested the associations between the phase-difference in students’ behavioral rhythm on school days versus non-school days with grade point average, LMS-login phase on non-school days (LMS-login chronotype), and school start time. We also tested the chronotype-dependent effects of school start times on diurnal behavior to determine whether students obtained better course grades when their first class of the day was in synch with their LMS-login chronotype.

Results

Students whose LMS-login rhythm was more than 2 hours earlier on school days had significantly lower grades than their peers. The change in LMS-login phase was larger in students with a later LMS-login chronotype and for earlier school start times. Minimal changes in LMS-login phase and higher course grades were observed when students’ first class of the day was aligned with their LMS-login chronotype.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate that school start times have a profound impact on students’ diurnal learning behavior with implications for grades. Universities can potentially improve learning by starting school later to minimize differences in diurnal learning behavior between school days and non-school days.
Low-complexity model predictive control of a four-level active neutral point clamped inverter without weighting factors
Authors: Xiang Chaoqun , Fan Ziyin , Jiang Songyang , Zhang Xinan , Cheng Shu
Published: May 2023

The four-level active neutral point clamped (ANPC) inverter has become increasingly widely used in the renewable energy industry since it offers one more voltage level without increasing the total number of active switches compared to the three-level ANPC inverter. The model predictive current control (MPCC) is a promising control method for multi-level inverters. However, the conventional MPCC suffers from high computational complexity and tedious weighting factor tuning in multi-level inverter applications. A low-complexity MPCC without weighting factors for a four-level ANPC inverter is proposed in this paper. The computational burden and voltage vector candidate set are reduced according to the relationship between voltage vector and neutral point voltage balance. The proposed MPCC shows excellent steady-state and dynamics performances while ensuring the neutral point voltage balancing. The efficacy of the proposed MPCC is verified by simulation and experimental results.