bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Microstructure evolution from silicon core to surface in electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon
Authors: Peng Jinyue , Yang Yuxuan , Zhang Yang , Xue Xinlu , Lu Bochen , Qin Rong , Wu Haijun
Published: March 2024

Large-size electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon is an important material in the semiconductor industry with broad application prospects. However, electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon has extremely high requirements for production technology and currently faces challenges such as carbon impurity breakdown, microstructure and composition nonuniformity and a lack of methods for preparing large-size mirror-like polycrystalline silicon samples. This paper innovatively uses physical methods such as wire cutting, mechanical grinding and ion thinning polishing to prepare large-size polycrystalline silicon samples that are clean, smooth, free from wear and have clear crystal defects. The material was characterized at both macroscopic and microscopic levels using metallographic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with backscattered electron diffraction (EBSD) techniques and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). The crystal structure changes from single crystal silicon core to the surface of the bulk in the large-size polycrystalline silicon samples were revealed, providing a technical basis for optimizing and improving production processes.
A Robust Network for Multi-Label Abdominal Organs Segmentation
Authors: Le Huu Sy , Huynh Kha Tu
Published: March 2024

The paper proposes a robust and efficient model designed for multi-label abdominal organ segmentation, featuring a substantially reduced number of parameters. The model focuses on the effectiveness of edge guidance in segmentation and leverages a 3D-Unet architecture with deep supervision, incorporating the robust deep thinking gate (DTG) architecture. Our DTG-incorporated model architecture excels in both efficiency and effectiveness, demonstrating notable enhancements in multi-label abdominal organ segmentation performance. A comprehensive evaluation of the model employed on two datasets of MRI scan of BTCV and FLARE 2022, comparing its performance against state-of-the-art counterparts. The outcomes revealed that the proposed model achieved the highest dice score in the esophagus (0.795), gallbladder (0.945), and pancreas (0.87) while maintaining a most significantly reduced parameter count (13.3 million parameters count). This achievement underscores the model’s efficiency and its suitability for seamless integration into real-world applications, offering promising prospects for enhanced medical image analysis.
Mesozoic rifting in SW Gondwana and break-up of the Southern South Atlantic Ocean
Authors: Lovecchio Juan Pablo , Abdelmalak Mansour M. , Planke Sverre , Silio Ofelia , Rohais Sébastien , Arismendi Sebastián , Vera Emilio Rojas , Kulhanek Denise K. , Bolatti Néstor , Ramos Victor A.
Published: March 2024

The opening of the South Atlantic Ocean in the Early Cretaceous was only the final stage of the complex rifting process of SW Gondwana. In this contribution, we reassess the chronology of Mesozoic basin formation in southern South America and Africa and integrate it in the long-term rifting and break-up history of SW Gondwana. During the Triassic, after the Gondwanides orogeny, plate-scale instabilities produced intracontinental rifting in Africa, and retro-arc extension on the SW-margin of Gondwana. This process was followed and accentuated by the impingement of the Karoo plume in the Early Jurassic, which triggered rifting in East Africa and ultimately produced the break-up of Eastern from Western Gondwana in the Middle Jurassic.

Retro-arc extension continued to affect the palaeo-Pacific margin, with emplacement of the Chon Aike magmatic province in the Patagonian retro-arc during the Early–Middle Jurassic. By the Late Jurassic, retro-arc rifting reached a point of oceanic crust accretion, with the establishment of the Rocas Verdes back-arc basin in southern Patagonia, together with the formation of the Weddell Sea further south, between the South American plate and Antarctica. The core of the Late Paleozoic Gondwanides orogen, between southern South America and Africa, was subjected to oblique rifting at this time and produced the Outeniqua and Rawson/Valdés basins. This area was the
locus
of extension and oceanization in the Early Cretaceous associated with a rotation of the stress field from NE–SW to east–west extension.

The formation of the South Atlantic Ocean resulted from lithospheric extension and was accompanied by extensive intrusive magmatism and extrusive flood basalts identified as seaward dipping reflectors, which were emplaced diachronically from south to north, along different segments along both conjugate margins. These volcanic rocks form the South Atlantic Large Igneous Province. The chronology of the South Atlantic opening and the magmatic sources and processes associated with the formation of seaward dipping reflectors remain interpretative as they have only been studied on seismic data but are still undrilled; hence, scientific drilling will be key to unravel many of these unknowns.
Opinion Mining on Social Media Text Using Optimized Deep Belief Networks
Authors: Vadivu S. Vinayaga , Nagaraj P. , Murugan B. S.
Published: March 2024

In the digital world, most people spend their leisure and precious time on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter. Instagram, and so on. Moreover, users post their views of products, services, political parties on their social sites. This information is viewed by many other users and brands. With the aid of these posts and tweets, the emotions, polarities of users are extracted to obtain the opinion about products or services. To analyze these posts sentiment analysis or opinion mining techniques are applied. Subsequently, this field rapidly attracts many researchers to conduct their research work due to the availability of an enormous number of data on social media networks. Further, this method can also be used to analyze the text to extract the sentiments which are classified as moderate, neutral, low extreme, and high extreme. However, the extraction of sentiment is an arduous one from the social media datasets, since it includes formal and informal texts, emojis, symbols. Hence to extract the feature vector from the accessed social media datasets and to perform accurate classification to group the texts based on the appropriate sentiments we proposed a novel method known as, Deep Belief Network-based Dynamic Grouping-based Cooperative optimization method DBN based DGCO. Exploiting this method the data are preprocessed to attain the required format of text and henceforth the feature vectors are extracted by the ICS algorithm. Furthermore, the extracted datasets are classified and grouped into moderate, neutral, low extreme, and high extreme with DBN based DGCO method. For experimental analysis, we have taken two social media datasets and analyzed the performance of the proposed method in terms of performance metrics such as accuracy/precision, recall, F1 Score, and ROC with HEMOS, WOA-SITO, PDCNN, and NB-LSVC state-of-art works. The acquired accuracy/precision, recall, and F1 Score, of our proposed ICS-DBN-DGCO method, are 89%, 80%, 98.2%, respectively.
Communicating Study Design Trade-offs in Software Engineering
Authors: Robillard Martin P. , Arya Deeksha M. , Ernst Neil A. , Guo Jin L. C. , Lamothe Maxime , Nassif Mathieu , Novielli Nicole , Serebrenik Alexander , Steinmacher Igor , Stol Klaas-Jan
Published: March 2024

Reflecting on the limitations of a study is a crucial part of the research process. In software engineering studies, this reflection is typically conveyed through discussions of study limitations or threats to validity. In current practice, such discussions seldom provide sufficient insight to understand the rationale for decisions taken before and during the study, and their implications. We revisit the practice of discussing study limitations and threats to validity and identify its weaknesses. We propose to refocus this practice of self-reflection to a discussion centered on the notion of
trade-offs
. We argue that documenting trade-offs allows researchers to clarify how the benefits of their study design decisions outweigh the costs of possible alternatives. We present guidelines for reporting trade-offs in a way that promotes a fair and dispassionate assessment of researchers’ work.
Learning Scene Representations for Human-assistive Displays Using Self-attention Networks
Authors: Ruiz-Serra Jaime , White Jack , Petrie Stephen , Kameneva Tatiana , McCarthy Chris
Published: March 2024

Video-see-through (VST) augmented reality (AR) is widely used to present novel augmentative visual experiences by processing video frames for viewers. Among VST AR systems, assistive vision displays aim to compensate for low vision or blindness, presenting enhanced visual information to support activities of daily living for the vision impaired/deprived. Despite progress, current assistive displays suffer from a visual information bottleneck, limiting their functional outcomes compared to healthy vision. This motivates the exploration of methods to selectively enhance and augment salient visual information. Traditionally, vision processing pipelines for assistive displays rely on hand-crafted, single-modality filters, lacking adaptability to time-varying and environment-dependent needs. This article proposes the use of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) and Self-attention (SA) networks as a means to learn vision processing pipelines for assistive displays. SA networks selectively attend to task-relevant features, offering a more parameter—and compute-efficient approach to RL-based task learning. We assess the feasibility of using SA networks in a simulation-trained model to generate relevant representations of real-world states for navigation with prosthetic vision displays. We explore two prosthetic vision applications, vision-to-auditory encoding, and retinal prostheses, using simulated phosphene visualisations. This article introduces SA-px, a general-purpose vision processing pipeline using self-attention networks, and SA-phos, a display-specific formulation targeting low-resolution assistive displays. We present novel scene visualisations derived from SA image patches importance rankings to support mobility with prosthetic vision devices. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of self-attention networks to the task of learning vision processing pipelines for prosthetic vision or assistive displays.
Invisible Black-Box Backdoor Attack against Deep Cross-Modal Hashing Retrieval
Authors: Wang Tianshi , Li Fengling , Zhu Lei , Li Jingjing , Zhang Zheng , Shen Heng Tao
Published: March 2024

Deep cross-modal hashing has promoted the field of multi-modal retrieval due to its excellent efficiency and storage, but its vulnerability to backdoor attacks is rarely studied. Notably, current deep cross-modal hashing methods inevitably require large-scale training data, resulting in poisoned samples with imperceptible triggers that can easily be camouflaged into the training data to bury backdoors in the victim model. Nevertheless, existing backdoor attacks focus on the uni-modal vision domain, while the multi-modal gap and hash quantization weaken their attack performance. In addressing the aforementioned challenges, we undertake an invisible black-box backdoor attack against deep cross-modal hashing retrieval in this article. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt in this research field. Specifically, we develop a flexible trigger generator to generate the attacker’s specified triggers, which learns the sample semantics of the non-poisoned modality to bridge the cross-modal attack gap. Then, we devise an input-aware injection network, which embeds the generated triggers into benign samples in the form of sample-specific stealth and realizes cross-modal semantic interaction between triggers and poisoned samples. Owing to the knowledge-agnostic of victim models, we enable any cross-modal hashing knockoff to facilitate the black-box backdoor attack and alleviate the attack weakening of hash quantization. Moreover, we propose a confusing perturbation and mask strategy to induce the high-performance victim models to focus on imperceptible triggers in poisoned samples. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our method has a state-of-the-art attack performance against deep cross-modal hashing retrieval. Besides, we investigate the influences of transferable attacks, few-shot poisoning, multi-modal poisoning, perceptibility, and potential defenses on backdoor attacks. Our codes and datasets are available at https://github.com/tswang0116/IB3A.
TransVAE-PAM: A Combined Transformer and DAG-based Approach for Enhanced Fake News Detection in Indian Context
Authors: Tufchi Shivani , Ahmed Tanveer , Yadav Ashima , Agrawal Krishna Kant , Vidyarthi Ankit
Published: March 2024

In this study, we introduce a novel method, “TransVAE-PAM”, for the classification of fake news articles, tailored specifically for the Indian context. The approach capitalizes on state-of-the-art contextual and sentence transformer-based embedding models to generate article embeddings. Furthermore, we also try to address the issue of compact model size. In this respect, we employ a Variational Autoencoder (VAE) and
β
-VAE to reduce the dimensions of the embeddings, thereby yielding compact latent representations. To capture the thematic essence or important topics in the news articles, we use the Pachinko Allocation Model (PAM) model, a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based approach, to generate meaningful topics. These two facets of representation - the reduced-dimension embeddings from the VAE and the extracted topics from the PAM model - are fused together to create a feature set. This representation is subsequently channeled into five different methods for fake news classification. Furthermore, we use eight distinct transformer-based architectures to test the embedding generation. To validate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have conducted extensive experimentation on a proprietary dataset. The dataset is sourced from “Times of India” and other online media. Considering the size of the dataset, large-scale experiments are conducted on an NVIDIA supercomputer. Through this comprehensive numerical investigation, we have achieved an accuracy of 96.2% and an F1 score of 96% using the DistilBERT transformer architecture. By complementing the method via topic modeling, we record a performance improvement with the accuracy and F1 score both at 97%. These results indicate a promising direction toward leveraging the combination of advanced topic models into existing classification schemes to enhance research on fake news detection.
Multi-Scenario and Multi-Task Aware Feature Interaction for Recommendation System
Authors: Song Derun , Yang Enneng , Guo Guibing , Shen Li , Jiang Linying , Wang Xingwei
Published: March 2024

Multi-scenario and multi-task recommendation can use various feedback behaviors of users in different scenarios to learn users’ preferences and then make recommendations, which has attracted attention. However, the existing work ignores feature interactions and the fact that a pair of feature interactions will have differing levels of importance under different scenario-task pairs, leading to sub-optimal user preference learning. In this article, we propose a
M
ulti-scenario and
M
ulti-task aware
F
eature
I
nteraction model, dubbed
MMFI
, to explicitly model feature interactions and learn the importance of feature interaction pairs in different scenarios and tasks. Specifically, MMFI first incorporates a pairwise feature interaction unit and a scenario-task interaction unit to effectively capture the interaction of feature pairs and scenario-task pairs. Then MMFI designs a scenario-task aware attention layer for learning the importance of feature interactions from coarse-grained to fine-grained, improving the model’s performance on various scenario-task pairs. More specifically, this attention layer consists of three modules: a fully shared bottom module, a partially shared middle module, and a specific output module. Finally, MMFI adapts two sparsity-aware functions to remove some useless feature interactions. Extensive experiments on two public datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over the existing multi-task recommendation, multi-scenario recommendation, and multi-scenario & multi-task recommendation models.
In utero exposure to maternal diabetes exacerbates dietary sodium intake-induced endothelial dysfunction by activating cyclooxygenase 2-derived prostanoids
Authors: Costa Rafael M. , Cerqueira Débora Malta , Francis Lydia , Bruder-Nascimento Ariane , Alves Juliano V. , Sims-Lucas Sunder , Ho Jacqueline , Bruder-Nascimento Thiago
Published: March 2024

Using a unique mouse model of prenatal exposure to maternal type 1 diabetes, our study demonstrates the novel observation that prenatal exposure to maternal diabetes results in a predisposition to high-salt (HS) dietary-induced vascular dysfunction and inflammation in adulthood. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that in utero exposure to maternal diabetes and HS intake induces vascular oxidative stress, cyclooxygenase-derived prostaglandin E2, and inflammation.
Logging Response Mechanism and Content Evaluation of Laumontite-Bearing Glutenite Reservoir: A Case Study of Lower Urho Formation of Permian of the Junggar Basin
Authors: Jun Jia , Kunlin Xue , Liping Ni , Yang Luo , Yuchao Liu
Published: March 2024

The Urho Formation in the Lower Permian System at the Junggar Basin in China commonly develops zeolite cements. The presence of zeolite minerals in various states of occurrence and uneven distribution in glutenite reservoirs makes it indeterminate to interpret the well logging response characteristics such as acoustic, resistivity, radioactivity, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). This poses significant challenges for the evaluation of well loggings in glutenite reservoirs containing laumontite and the determination of oil and gas reserves. In this study, through petrophysics experiments such as whole-rock X-ray diffraction, conventional petrophysical properties, mercury injection, and electron microprobe analysis, the characteristics of glutenite reservoirs containing laumontite and the well logging response mechanisms were analyzed from the perspectives of mineral composition of rocks, geochemical characteristics, and principle of loggings. A multimineral optimization method was used to calculate the laumontite content. The results indicate that in the study area, the cementation of zeolite minerals dominated by laumontite suppresses the pore development in the reservoir, which is a crucial factor in the formation of complex pore structures and low-porosity low-permeability reservoirs. Since laumontite exhibits a water-bearing framework structure with numerous micropores and crystal water, the laumontite-bearing glutenite reservoirs are characterized by low natural gamma radiation, low density, high neutron porosity, and high electrical resistivity. The acoustic interval transit time shows no significant differences, while the NMR T2 spectrum exhibits a short relaxation time.
Graph Crypto‐Stego System for Securing Graph Data Using Association Schemes
Authors: Sabharwal Anuradha , Yadav Pooja , Kumar Kamal
Published: March 2024

Cryptography has recently become a critical area to research and advance in order to transmit information safely and securely among various entities, especially when the transmitted data is classified as crucial or important. This is due to the increase in the use of the Internet and other novel communication technology. Many businesses now outsource sensitive data to a third party because of the rise of cloud computing and storage. Currently, the key problem is to encrypt the data such that it may be stored on an unreliable server without sacrificing the ability to use it effectively. In this paper, we propose a graph encryption scheme by using cryptography and steganography. Data is encrypted using association schemes over finite abelian groups and then hiding the encrypted data behind randomly chosen cover image. We implemented and evaluated the efficiency of our constructions experimentally. We provide experimental results, statistical analysis, error analysis, and key analysis that demonstrates the appropriateness and efficiency of the proposed technique.
Multiple Solutions of a Nonlocal Problem with Nonlinear Boundary Conditions
Authors: Liu Jie , Miao Qing
Published: March 2024

In this article, we consider a class of nonlocal p(x)‐Laplace equations with nonlinear boundary conditions. When the nonlinear boundary involves critical exponents, using the concentration compactness principle, mountain pass lemma, and fountain theorem, we can prove the existence and multiplicity of solutions.
The Core Might Change Anyhow We Define It: The Instability of Key Actors in Longitudinal Social Network Data
Authors: Pethes Róbert , Bodor-Eranus Eliza , Takács Károly , Kovács Levente
Published: March 2024

Central actors or opinion leaders are in the right structural position to spread relevant information or convince others about adopting an innovation or behaviour change. Who is a central actor or opinion leader might be conceptualised in various ways. Widely accepted centrality measures do not take into account that those in central positions in the social network may change over time. A longitudinal comparison of the set and importance of opinion leaders is problematic with these measures and therefore needs a novel approach. In this study, we investigate ways to compare the stability of the set of central actors over time. Using longitudinal survey data from primary schools (where the members of the social networks do not change much over time) on advice-seeking and friendship networks, we find a relatively poor stability of who is in the central positions anyhow we define centrality. We propose the application of combined indices in order to achieve more efficient targeting results. Our results suggest that because opinion leaders may change over time, researchers should be careful about relying on simple centrality indices from cross-sectional data to gain and interpret information (for example, in the design of prevention programs, network-based interventions or infection control) and must rely on more diverse structural information instead.
Online Identification of Aerodynamic Parameters of Experimental Rockets Based on Unscented Kalman Filtering
Authors: Tang Xiaobin , Jiang Zhenyu
Published: March 2024

Online identification of aerodynamic parameters of experimental rockets was completed based on unscented Kalman filtering (UKF). Numerical simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation, and flight tests were conducted. The identification error of aerodynamic force in numerical simulation and HIL simulation is within 2%. For flight test data, trajectory reconstruction was performed using the identified aerodynamic forces, and the results showed that the identification results were more accurate than the interpolation table calculation results. The flight test identification results show that the identification method can complete parameter online identification under the conditions of limited performance of onboard computers, real sensor errors, and servo response. The approximate linear correlation between α and δe and the reason for their formation from the moment balance were analyzed. It was pointed out that when the recognition sampling period is long, this phenomenon will affect the identification of parameters, and a solution is proposed.
Attention-Based Learning for Predicting Drug-Drug Interactions in Knowledge Graph Embedding Based on Multisource Fusion Information
Authors: Li Yu , You Zhu-Hong , Wang Shu-Min , Mi Cheng-Gang , Wang Mei-Neng , Huang Yu-An , Yi Hai-Cheng
Published: March 2024

Drug combinations can reduce drug resistance and side effects and enable the improvement of disease treatment efficacy. Therefore, how to effectively identify drug-drug interactions (DDIs) is a challenging problem. Currently, there exist several approaches that leverage advanced representation learning and graph-based techniques for DDIs prediction. While these methods have demonstrated promising results, a limited number of approaches effectively utilize the potential of knowledge graphs (KGs), which provide information on drug attributes and multirelation among entities. In this work, we introduce a novel attention-based KGs representation learning framework. To encode drug SMILES sequence, a pretrained model is used, while molecular structure information is mapped as the initialization of nodes within the KG using a message-passing neural network. Additionally, the knowledge-aware graph attention network is employed to capture the drug and its topological neighbor representation in the KG representation module. To prevent the oversmoothing problem, the residual layer is used in the DDI prediction module. Comprehensive experiments on several datasets have demonstrated that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms on the DDI prediction task across a range of evaluation metrics. It achieves an accuracy of 0.924 and an AUC of 0.9705 on the KEGG dataset and attains an ACC of 0.9777 and an AUC of 0.9959 on the OGB-biokg dataset. These experimental findings affirm that our approach is a dependable model for predicting the association of drugs.
Advancements in Synthesis Strategies and Optoelectronic Applications of Bio-Based Photosensitive Polyimides
Authors: Yu Guangning , Ma Qiwen , Chang Hai-Yang , Zheng Rongrong , Wang Cheng , Guo Li-Ying
Published: March 2024

With the rapid development of information, energy, and materials industries in China, the demand for high-performance polymers is gradually increasing. Photosensitive polyimide (PSPI) has emerged as an ideal choice for high-performance optoelectronic materials due to its outstanding thermal stability, mechanical strength, and low dielectric constant. In particular, bio-based photosensitive polyimide prepared from bio-based chemicals, as a green polymer material, not only reflects the advantages of environmental protection and resource efficiency but also contributes to carbon neutrality. However, how to improve the photolithography efficiency while maintaining the thermodynamic performance and environmental friendliness and how to balance the pros and cons of low-molecular-weight matrixes are still challenges in the research. This review systematically summarizes the synthesis and performance characteristics of photosensitive polyimides, bio-based polyimide, and bio-based photosensitive polyimides and further explores the future application prospects of bio-based polyimides in the field of high-performance optoelectronic materials.
I Was Merely a Brick in the Game: A Qualitative Study on Registered Nurses’ Reasons for Quitting Their Jobs in Hospitals
Authors: Bäckström Josefin , Pöder Ulrika , Karlsson Ann-Christin
Published: March 2024

The aim was to explore why registered nurses (RNs) in Sweden choose to quit their jobs in hospitals, also in relation to experienced patient safety. Previous research has shown that nurse turnover, especially in hospital settings, is a serious challenge for society and health care globally. Insufficient staffing of RNs is linked to poorer patient outcomes and a general patient safety at risk. It is, therefore, important to continually explore how nurses describe their reasons for quitting their jobs. The study was conducted using a qualitative descriptive design, based on 11 semistructured interviews with RNs. The analysis generated four categories describing the results: Feeling that the profession is not valued; Psychological and physical symptoms related to work; An insufficient and unsupportive organization; and Unsatisfying leadership and teamwork. Specifically, the RNs participating in this study described a range of reasons for quitting, where the feeling of not being valued and treated as a respected and autonomous profession was a common thread throughout the results. RNs experienced that, overall, the insufficient work conditions, also resulting in lower patient safety, ultimately led to their decision to quit. The findings highlight the crucial need for employers to develop working conditions for RNs, to make sure that the profession is valued according to professional standards and provide the potential for autonomous nursing practice. To reduce nurse turnover, and instead attract and retain nurses, leadership and management in nursing need to be adjusted to meet the demands of a modern academic profession.
The Dark and Gloomy Brain: Grey Matter Volume Alterations in Major Depressive Disorder–Fine-Grained Meta-Analyses
Authors: Romeo Zaira , Biondi Margherita , Oltedal Leif , Spironelli Chiara
Published: March 2024

Background. While the brain correlates of major depressive disorder (MDD) have been extensively studied, there is no consensus conclusion so far. Various meta-analyses tried to determine the most consistent findings, but the results are often discordant for grey matter volume (GMV) atrophy and hypertrophy. Applying rigorous and stringent inclusion criteria and controlling for confounding factors, such as the presence of anxiety comorbidity, we carried out two novel meta-analyses on the existing literature to unveil MDD signatures. Methods. A systematic literature search was performed up to January 2023. Seventy-three studies on MDD patients reporting GMV abnormalities were included in the first meta-analysis, for a total of 6167 patients and 6237 healthy controls (HC). To test the effects of anxiety comorbidity, we conducted a second meta-analysis, by adding to the original pure MDD sample a new cohort of MDD patients with comorbid anxiety disorders (308 patients and 342 HC). An activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis and a coordinate-based mapping approach separate for atrophy and hypertrophy were used to identify common brain structural alterations among patients. Results. The pure MDD sample exhibited atrophy in the left insula, as well as hypertrophy in the bilateral amygdala and parahippocampal gyri. When we added patients with comorbid anxiety to the original sample, bilateral insula atrophy emerged, whereas the hypertrophy results were not replicated. Conclusions. Our findings revealed important structural alterations in pure MDD patients, particularly in the insula and amygdala, which play key roles in sensory input integration and in emotional processing, respectively. Additionally, the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus hypertrophy may be related to MDD functional overactivation to emotional stimuli, rumination, and overactive self-referential thinking. Conversely, the presence of anxiety comorbidity revealed separate effects which were not seen in the pure MDD sample, underscoring the importance of strict inclusion criteria for investigations of disorder-specific effects.
Response Rate and Molecular Correlates to Encorafenib and Binimetinib in BRAF-V600E Mutant High-Grade Glioma
Authors: Schreck Karisa C. , Strowd Roy E. , Nabors Louis B. , Ellingson Benjamin M. , Chang Michael , Tan Sze K. , Abdullaev Zied , Turakulov Rust , Aldape Kenneth , Danda Neeraja , Desideri Serena , Fisher Joy , Iacoboni Michaella , Surakus Trisha , Rudek Michelle A. , Bettegowda Chetan , Grossman Stuart A. , Ye Xiaobu
Published: March 2024

Purpose:

Although fewer than 5% of high-grade gliomas (HGG) are BRAF-V600E mutated, these tumors are notable as BRAF-targeted therapy shows efficacy for some populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate response to the combination of encorafenib with binimetinib in adults with recurrent BRAF-V600–mutated HGG.

Patients and Methods:

In this phase 2, open-label, Adult Brain Tumor Consortium (ABTC) trial (NCT03973918), encorafenib and binimetinib were administered at their FDA-approved doses continuously in 28-day cycles. Eligible patients were required to have HGG or glioblastoma with a BRAF-V600E alteration that was recurrent following at least one line of therapy, including radiotherapy.

Results:

Five patients enrolled between January 2020 and administrative termination in November 2021 (due to closure of the ABTC). Enrolled patients received treatment for 2 to 40 months; currently one patient remains on treatment. Centrally determined radiographic response rate was 60%, with one complete response and two partial responses. Methylation profiling revealed that all tumors cluster most closely with anaplastic pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA). Transcriptional profile for MAPK-response signature was similar across all tumors at baseline and did not correlate with response in this small population. Circulating tumor DNA measured in plasma samples before treatment, during response, and upon progression showed feasibility of detection for the BRAF-V600E alteration. No new safety signal was detected.

Conclusions:

Encorafenib and binimetinib exhibit positive tumor responses in patients with recurrent BRAF-V600E mutant HGG in this small series, warranting therapeutic consideration. Although toxicity remains a concern for BRAF-targeted therapies, no new safety signal was observed in these patients.
Objetividade na encruzilhada: giro decolonial e epistemologia de Exu no fazer jornalístico
Authors: Zanetti Lucas Arantes
Published: March 2024

This article reflects on the epistemology of objectivity in journalism from a decolonial standpoint, specifically considering Exu's cosmology within the context of neoliberal and algorithmic infocracy. Objectivity has been taught as a central principle of journalistic practice, allowing journalism to legitimize itself as a pillar of modernity. However, we argue that the positivist epistemology underlying journalism perpetuates the production of knowledge based on colonial, patriarchal, and whiteness foundations. Although alternative epistemologies have been explored in the field of journalism, they are still scarce in academia, classrooms, and newsrooms. We propose deepening the dialogue with decolonial theories of journalism and contributing to the debate on Exu's epistemology in communication. The positivist philosophy of objectivity has been instrumental in maintaining power structures, reproducing violence, and suppressing marginalized voices. By analyzing the limitations of objectivity and embracing Exu's epistemology, this article fosters critical reflections on journalistic communication and encourages a decolonial shift in knowledge production.
Cibercultura e movimentos de trabalhadoras rurais: Uma contextualização da comunicação alternativa realizada pela “Marcha das Margaridas” no Facebook
Authors: Monteiro Everson Umada , Lima Míriam do Carmo , Tassoulas Stephanie Jimenes
Published: March 2024

O artigo apresenta uma revisão sobre a luta das mulheres trabalhadoras rurais brasileiras e o uso das tecnologias da informação e comunicação para a defesa e a reivindicação de seus direitos. Foi apresentado um histórico dos movimentos, desde a redemocratização até a busca pelos direitos sociais, políticos e econômicos. Em seguida, foi discutida as relações da cibercultura com os movimentos sociais a partir das perspectivas de autores como Lévy (2001), Lemos (2015) e Martins (2021). Por fim, foi apresentado as características da comunicação popular e alternativa, e, para exemplificar, foi realizado uma análise descritiva do perfil do Facebook da “Marcha das Margaridas”, no qual foi observado a articulação do movimento no ano de 2021, durante a pandemia de COVID-19. Conclui-se que o uso do perfil permitiu a realização de uma comunicação horizontal, que proporcionou um espaço de educação não convencional e que parte da vivência das mulheres do campo, baseado nos ideais de Paulo Freire para uma educação emancipatória.
Construindo critérios de lematização para a Língua de Sinais Brasileira
Authors: Martins Antonielle Cantarelli , De Martino José Mario , Marques Janice Gonçalves Temoteo , Martins Francielle Cantarelli
Published: March 2024

Resumo: A construção de dicionários, glossários e bancos lexicais de línguas de sinais, tanto impressos quanto online, requer decisões lexicográficas complexas. Um ponto crítico é a lematização, ou seja, o conjunto de critérios para definir quais grupos de sinais formam um lexema. Empregando o Dicionário da Língua de Sinais do Brasil: A Libras em suas mãos (Capovilla, Raphael, Temoteo e Martins, 2017) como corpus de análise, este estudo propõe critérios de lematização específicos para Libras nos níveis fonético-fonológico, morfológico e semântico. O estudo almeja oferecer subsídios para construção de corpora lematizados da Libras. O emprego de lematização favorece a anotação por glosa, bem como a organização das unidades lexicais e sistemas de busca, além de possibilitar avanços significativos na descrição quantitativa e qualitativa do núcleo lexical da Libras.
Termos do mercado financeiro: um estudo do corpus DANTEStocks
Authors: Rodrigues Roana , Felippo Ariani Di , Roman Norton Trevisan , Semcovici Pedro , Souza Jackson Wilke da Cruz , Pardo Thiago Alexandre Salgueiro
Published: March 2024

In this article we present the procedures for term extraction and validation in the domain of the Brazilian financial market based on the DANTEStocks corpus. We adopted as theoretical framework the Communicative Theory of Terminology, which asserts that terms and their properties can only be identified and described within their natural occurrence context. We employe lexical features to extract term candidates, resulting in a list of 527 candidates. These terms were subsequently analyzed and validated by experts, leading to a final list of 380 terms. Additionally, we made a comparison with other glossaries in Economics domain, revealing the absence of many financial market terms. Considering the significance of terminological studies for Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, the constructed terminological list facilitates the identification and differentiation (including quantification) of domain-specific terms (financial market) from general language words.
A flauta transversal, a clarineta e o piston na obra musical do padre José Maria Xavier
Authors: Neto Adhemar Campos
Published: March 2024

O padre José Maria Xavier (1819-1887), nascido em São João d’El Rey – Minas Gerais, é um importante e reconhecido compositor brasileiro de música religiosa do século XIX. Observa-se em algumas obras do mestre Xavier a utilização de um modelo de escrita para o trio de instrumentos de sopro: a flauta transversal, a clarineta e o piston executando, simultaneamente, uma mesma melodia e de forma específica entre eles. Essa forma de escrita tornou-se o objeto da pesquisa de mestrado. O trabalho teve como objetivo o estudo da reprodução desse modelo na obra do compositor como parte de seu processo composicional. Foram pesquisados manuscritos originais do autor, fotografias e instrumentos antigos em corporações musicais, além de obras de compositores anteriores e contemporâneos a ele. Identifica-se os modelos de flauta, clarineta e piston usados na época e constata-se a predominância do trio de sopros como protagonistas na condução das linhas melódicas apresentadas em blocos, duos ou solos, distintamente de compositores anteriores, e percebe-se nos contemporâneos estratégias semelhantes ao padre José Maria Xavier em relação ao uso do trio de instrumentos de sopro em suas obras. O trabalho proporcionou o conhecimento sobre o aspecto composicional do padre José Maria Xavier proposto como o objetivo da pesquisa e agregou mais informações e entendimento sobre o autor e a sua obra.
Registro, análise e implicações interpretativas de uma ponta lítica bifacial pedunculada encontrada no conchífero monumental do Sambaqui de Cabeçuda, município de Laguna, Santa Catarina
Authors: Moreno João Carlos , Mingatos Gabriela Sartori , Okumura Mercedes
Published: March 2024

Esta nota de pesquisa apresenta uma ponta lítica bifacial pedunculada encontrada no Sambaqui de Cabeçuda (município de Laguna, Santa Catarina), sendo uma publicação inédita para o sítio, além de um registro incomum para sambaquis. Trata-se de um achado fortuito registrado apenas em catálogo de coleções por Pedro Augusto Mentz Ribeiro no ano de 1969, porém jamais publicado. A ponta foi produzida a partir de duas etapas de façonagem bifacial, sendo a primeira de retiradas paralelas transpassantes, e outra de retiradas convergentes não transpassantes. A finalização da peça ocorreu por retoques bifaciais, e a mesma apresenta corpo triangular e pedúnculo de base reta, mas com delineamento irregular e assimétrico. A única técnica de lascamento identificada foi a percussão. Este tipo de artefato é incomum no conjunto de artefatos geralmente associados à cultura sambaquieira. A presença dessa ponta no sítio Sambaqui da Cabeçuda não pode ser associada diretamente aos grupos que construíram e ocuparam o conchífero monumental a partir de ~4500 anos atrás, sendo provavelmente um produto de grupos caçadores-coletores vindos do interior que passaram pelo local em busca de recursos. A falta de contexto estratigráfico da peça não permite inferir se esta passagem é anterior ou contemporânea a ocupação do Sambaqui.
Los músicos de Bahía y Jama Coaque: una aproximación a su rol social.
Authors: Reyes-Giraldo Génesis
Published: March 2024

Durante el período de Desarrollo Regional ecuatoriano, las sociedades que habitaron las zonas costeras, manifestaron en su arte cerámico, identidades y roles dentro de sus grupos sociales. Una de estas personificaciones es la representación de músicos, cuyas características son parte esencial de la iconografía precolombina ya que permite entender a profundidad acerca del fenómeno musical presente en estas poblaciones. El trabajo a continuación pretende analizar a dichos personajes catalogados como músicos, representados en el arte cerámico de las culturas Bahía (500 a.C. – 650 d.C.) y Jama Coaque (350 a.C.- 1532 d.C); su vez, se busca identificar simbologías que permitan inferir en el rol social que cumplieron. Para ello se empleó el análisis iconográfico a 115 figurillas cerámicas ubicadas en la reserva arqueológica del Museo Arqueológico y de Arte Contemporáneo (MAAC), de los cuales se obtuvieron datos cuantitativos comparativos que permitieron identificar semejanzas, recurrencias y diferencias entre ambas sociedades. Se logró distinguir dos tipos de músicos en la cultura Bahía y hasta 3 tipos en Jama Coaque mediante la observación de rasgos y simbolismos en sus representaciones. Los roles asociados a estos personajes estuvieron presentes tanto en la cotidianeidad como en la manifestación religiosa y sagrada, lo que llevó a sugerir un salto en la expresión artística no solo en sus representaciones sino también en la identidad del músico como parte del grupo social.
Associations of Proteomics With Hypertension and Systolic Blood Pressure: KORA S4/F4/FF4 and KORA Age1/Age2 Cohort Studies
Authors: Lin Jie-sheng , Petrera Agnese , Hauck Stefanie M. , Müller Christian L. , Peters Annette , Thorand Barbara
Published: March 2024

BACKGROUND:

Hypertension, a complex condition, is primarily defined based on blood pressure readings without involving its pathophysiological mechanisms. We aimed to identify biomarkers through a proteomic approach, thereby enhancing the future definition of hypertension with insights into its molecular mechanisms.

METHODS:

The discovery analysis included 1560 participants, aged 55 to 74 years at baseline, from the KORA (Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) S4/F4/FF4 cohort study, with 3332 observations over a median of 13.4 years of follow-up. Generalized estimating equations were used to estimate the associations of 233 plasma proteins with hypertension and systolic blood pressure (SBP). For validation, proteins significantly associated with hypertension or SBP in the discovery analysis were validated in the KORA Age1/Age2 cohort study (1024 participants, 1810 observations). A 2-sample Mendelian randomization analysis was conducted to infer causalities of validated proteins with SBP.

RESULTS:

Discovery analysis identified 49 proteins associated with hypertension and 99 associated with SBP. Validation in the KORA Age1/Age2 study replicated 7 proteins associated with hypertension and 23 associated with SBP. Three proteins, NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide), KIM1 (kidney injury molecule 1), and OPG (osteoprotegerin), consistently showed positive associations with both outcomes. Five proteins demonstrated potential causal associations with SBP in Mendelian randomization analysis, including NT-proBNP and OPG.

CONCLUSIONS:

We identified and validated 7 hypertension-associated and 23 SBP-associated proteins across 2 cohort studies. KIM1, NT-proBNP, and OPG demonstrated robust associations, and OPG was identified for the first time as associated with blood pressure. For NT-proBNP (protective) and OPG, causal associations with SBP were suggested.
Temporal Ordering of Biomarkers in Dutch-Type Hereditary Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy
Authors: Koemans Emma A. , Rasing Ingeborg , Voigt Sabine , van Harten Thijs W. , van der Zwet Reinier G.J. , Kaushik Kanishk , Schipper Manon R. , van der Weerd Nelleke , van Zwet Erik W. , van Etten Ellis S. , van Osch Matthias J.P. , Kuiperij Bea , Verbeek Marcel M. , Terwindt Gisela M. , Greenberg Steven M. , van Walderveen Marianne A.A. , Wermer Marieke J.H.
Published: March 2024

BACKGROUND:

The temporal ordering of biomarkers for cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is important for their use in trials and for the understanding of the pathological cascade of CAA. We investigated the presence and abnormality of the most common biomarkers in the largest (pre)symptomatic Dutch-type hereditary CAA (D-CAA) cohort to date.

METHODS:

We included cross-sectional data from participants with (pre)symptomatic D-CAA and controls without CAA. We investigated CAA-related cerebral small vessel disease markers on 3T-MRI, cerebrovascular reactivity with functional 7T-MRI (fMRI) and amyloid-β
40
and amyloid-β
42
levels in cerebrospinal fluid. We calculated frequencies and plotted biomarker abnormality according to age to form scatterplots.

RESULTS:

We included 68 participants with D-CAA (59% presymptomatic, mean age, 50 [range, 26–75] years; 53% women), 53 controls (mean age, 51 years; 42% women) for cerebrospinal fluid analysis and 36 controls (mean age, 53 years; 100% women) for fMRI analysis. Decreased cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-β
40
and amyloid-β
42
levels were the earliest biomarkers present: all D-CAA participants had lower levels of amyloid-β
40
and amyloid-β
42
compared with controls (youngest participant 30 years). Markers of nonhemorrhagic injury (>20 enlarged perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale and white matter hyperintensities Fazekas score, ≥2, present in 83% [n=54]) and markers of impaired cerebrovascular reactivity (abnormal BOLD amplitude, time to peak and time to baseline, present in 56% [n=38]) were present from the age of 30 years. Finally, markers of hemorrhagic injury were present in 64% (n=41) and only appeared after the age of 41 years (first microbleeds and macrobleeds followed by cortical superficial siderosis).

CONCLUSIONS:

Our results suggest that amyloid biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid are the first to become abnormal in CAA, followed by MRI biomarkers for cerebrovascular reactivity and nonhemorrhagic injury and lastly hemorrhagic injury. This temporal ordering probably reflects the pathological stages of CAA and should be taken into account when future therapeutic trials targeting specific stages are designed.