bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Improvements and comparison of VLBI INT2 and INT3 session performance
Authors: Schartner Matthias , Plötz Christian , Soja Benedikt
Published: April 2022

One of the core products of VLBI is the rapid determination of the Earth rotation parameter, expressed through dUT1. Multiple so-called Intensive observing programs exist that are observing dUT1 on a regular basis. Within this work, a detailed overview over the last five years of the VLBI Intensive observing programs INT2 and INT3 is provided. INT2 sessions are typically observed with a single baseline using a recording rate of $${256}\,\hbox {Mbps}$$

256

Mbps

while INT3 sessions are multi-baseline Intensives with up to five stations and a recording rate of $${1}\,\hbox {Gbps}$$

1

Gbps

. The median dUT1 precision estimated from INT2 sessions is $${10.5}\,{\mu }\hbox {s}$$

10.5

μ
s

while it is $${5.9}\,\mu \hbox {s}$$

5.9

μ
s

for INT3 sessions. The best performing INT2 baseline is between station MK-VLBA and WETTZELL with a median dUT1 formal error of $${6.4}\,\mu \hbox {s}$$

6.4

μ
s

and showing only a small bias of $${-2.5}\,\mu \hbox {s}$$

-
2.5

μ
s

w.r.t. the JPL EOP2 series. Starting in 2019, the scheduling strategy of the INT3 sessions was significantly changed, leading to a reduction in the estimated average dUT1 formal errors by 25 % for 4-station sessions and 45 % for 5-stations sessions. Mid-2020, the same change was performed for INT2 sessions, leading to a reduction in the average dUT1 mean formal error of up to 44 % for the baseline between MK-VLBA and WETTZELL. It is further revealed that the precision of single-baseline INT3 analysis is not significantly better than its INT2 counterpart, although a four-times higher data-rate is used. The reason for this is differences in scheduling optimization. On average, the mean formal error of the best single-baseline INT3 analysis is 50 % higher compared to utilizing the whole network. Besides analyzing dUT1 formal errors, the latency of the dUT1 results is compared for three analysis centers. For INT3 sessions, results are typically available within 24 hours, while it takes two to three days for INT2 sessions, due to observations occurring on weekends. Overall, this work provides detailed insight into the INT2 and INT3 session performances while revealing a strong positive trend in the precision of dUT1 measurements over the last years due to changes in the scheduling strategy.
Mediolateral/lateral episiotomy with operative vaginal delivery and the risk reduction of obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASI): A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Okeahialam Nicola Adanna , Wong Ka Woon , Jha Swati , Sultan Abdul H. , Thakar Ranee
Published: April 2022

Introduction and hypothesis

OASI complicates approximately 6% of vaginal deliveries. This risk is increased with operative vaginal deliveries (OVDs), particularly forceps. However, there is conflicting evidence supporting the use of mediolateral/lateral episiotomy (MLE/LE) with OVD. The aim of this study was to assess whether MLE/LE affects the incidence of OASI in OVD.

Methods

Electronic searches were performed in OVID Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library. Randomised and non-randomised observational studies investigating the risk of OASI in OVD with/without MLE/LE were eligible for inclusion. Pooled odds ratios (OR) were calculated using Revman 5.3. Risk of bias of was assessed using the Cochrane RoB2 and ROBINS-I tool. The quality of evidence was assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE).

Results

A total of 703,977 patients from 31 studies were pooled for meta-analysis. MLE/LE significantly reduced the rate of OASI in OVD (OR 0.60 [95% CI 0.42–0.84]). On sub-group analysis, MLE/LE significantly reduced the rate in nulliparous ventouse (OR 0.51 [95% CI 0.42–0.84]) and forceps deliveries (OR 0.32 [95% CI 0.29–0.61]). In multiparous women, although the incidence of OASI was lower when a ventouse or forceps delivery was performed with an MLE/LE, this was not statistically significant. Heterogeneity remained significant across all studies (I2 > 50). The quality of all evidence was downgraded to “very low” because of the critical risk of bias across many studies.

Conclusions

MLE/LE may reduce the incidence of OASI in OVDs, particularly in nulliparous ventouse or forceps deliveries. This information will be useful in aiding clinical decision-making and counselling in the antenatal period and during labour.
Telemedicine in Surgical Care in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: A Scoping Review
Authors: Owolabi Eyitayo Omolara , Mac Quene Tamlyn , Louw Johnelize , Davies Justine I. , Chu Kathryn M.
Published: April 2022

Background

Access to timely and quality surgical care is limited in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). Telemedicine, defined as the remote provision of health care using information, communication and telecommunication platforms have the potential to address some of the barriers to surgical care. However, synthesis of evidence on telemedicine use in surgical care in LMICs is lacking.

Aim

To describe the current state of evidence on the use and distribution of telemedicine for surgical care in LMICs.

Methods

This was a scoping review of published and relevant grey literature on telemedicine use for surgical care in LMICs, following the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews guideline. PubMed‐Medline, Web of Science, Scopus and African Journals Online databases were searched using a comprehensive search strategy from 1 January 2010 to 28 February 2021.

Results

A total of 178 articles from 53 (38.7%) LMICs across 11 surgical specialties were included. The number of published articles increased from 2 in 2010 to 44 in 2020. The highest number of studies was from the World Health Organization Western Pacific region (n = 73; 41.0%) and of these, most were from China (n = 69; 94.5%). The most common telemedicine platforms used were telephone call (n = 71, 39.9%), video chat (n = 42, 23.6%) and WhatsApp/WeChat (n = 31, 17.4%). Telemedicine was mostly used for post‐operative follow‐up (n = 71, 39.9%), patient education (n = 32, 18.0%), provider training (n = 28, 15.7%) and provider‐provider consultation (n = 16, 9.0%). Less than a third (n = 51, 29.1%) of the studies used a randomised controlled trial design, and only 23 (12.9%) reported effects on clinical outcomes.

Conclusion

Telemedicine use for surgical care is emerging in LMICs, especially for post‐operative visits. Basic platforms such as telephone calls and 2‐way texting were successfully used for post‐operative follow‐up and education. In addition, file sharing and video chatting options were added when a physical assessment was required. Telephone calls and 2‐way texting platforms should be leveraged to reduce loss to follow‐up of surgical patients in LMICs and their use for pre‐operative visits should be further explored. Despite these telemedicine potentials, there remains an uneven adoption across several LMICs. Also, up to two‐thirds of the studies were of low‐to‐moderate quality with only a few focusing on clinical effectiveness. There is a need to further adopt, develop, and validate telemedicine use for surgical care in LMICs, particularly its impact on clinical outcomes.
Inter-annual variability of land surface fluxes across vineyards: the role of climate, phenology, and irrigation management
Authors: Bambach N. , Kustas W. , Alfieri J. , Gao F. , Prueger J. , Hipps L. , McKee L. , Castro S. J. , Alsina M. M. , McElrone A. J.
Published: April 2022

Irrigation and other agricultural management practices play a key role in land surface fluxes and their interactions with atmospheric processes. California’s Central Valley agricultural productivity is strongly linked to water availability associated with conveyance infrastructure and groundwater, but greater scrutiny over agricultural water use requires better practices particularly during extended and severe drought conditions. The future of irrigated agriculture in California is expected to be characterized neither by perpetual scarcity nor by widespread abundance. Thus, further advancing irrigation technologies and improving management practices will be key for California’s agriculture sustainability. In this study, we present micrometeorological observations from the Grape Remote Sensing Atmospheric Profile and Evapotranspiration eXperiment (GRAPEX) project. Daily, seasonal, and inter-seasonal surface flux patterns and relationships across five vineyards over three distinct California wine production regions were investigated. Vineyard actual evapotranspiration showed significant differences at the sub-daily and daily scale when comparisons across wine production regions and varieties were performed. Water use in vineyards in the Central Valley was about 70% greater in comparison to the vineyards at the North Coast area due to canopy size, atmospheric demand, and irrigation inputs. Inter-annual variability of surface fluxes was also significant, even though, overall weather conditions (i.e., air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, wind speed, and solar radiation) were not significantly different. Thus, not only irrigation but also other management practices played a key role in seasonal water use, and given these differences, we conclude that further advancing ground-based techniques to quantify crop water use at an operational scale will be key to facing California’s agriculture present and future water challenges.
Predictive urinary RNA biomarkers of kidney injury after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy
Authors: Tawfick Ahmed , Matboli Marwa , Shamloul Sara , Agwa Sara H. A. , Saad Maha , Shaker Hassan , Selim Mohamed M. Yassin , Salim Mohamed S. , Radwan A. , Shorbagy A. A. , Mousa Waleed
Published: April 2022

Background

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is considered one of the best choices for the treatment of various kinds of urinary tract calculi, although it might cause acute kidney injury.

Objective

To measure the urinary long non-coding RNA-messenger RNA (LncRNA-mRNA) panel before and after ESWL to evaluate post-ESWL renal injury in a reliable and non-invasive method.

Patients and methods

The study included 60 patients with renal stones treated with ESWL and 30 healthy volunteers. Voided urine samples were obtained before, 2 h, and 1 day after ESWL. We measured the urinary level of LncRNA (SBF2-AS1, FENDRR-19) and mRNA (GBP1, NLRP3) by real-time qPCR and compared the results with serum creatinine and eGFR.

Results

LncRNA (SBF2-AS1, FENDRR-19) and mRNA (GBP1, NLRP3) levels were higher in patients with renal stones when compared with healthy volunteers. They showed a statistically significant increase in the level of LncRNA-mRNA panel in baseline and after ESWL treatment.

Conclusion

LncRNA (SBF2-AS1, FENDRR-19) and mRNA (GBP1, NLRP3) levels were significantly elevated following ESWL treatment, highlighting the usefulness of urinary biomarkers in identifying patients at higher risk of developing renal injury after ESWL treatment.
Perinatal outcomes of women with Müllerian anomalies
Authors: Wang Si , Wang Kana , Hu Qing , Liao Hua , Wang Xiaodong , Yu Haiyan
Published: April 2022

Purpose

To investigate the perinatal outcomes of singleton pregnant women with Müllerian anomalies (MuAs).

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was conducted on singleton pregnant women with MuAs who delivered at the West China Second University Hospital between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2020.

Results

Four hundred fifty-seven cases of MuAs were identified, with an incidence of 0.40%. The most common anomaly was a septate uterus (38.7%). Compared to the control group, the MuAs group had significantly higher incidences of perinatal complications, including preterm deliveries (PTDs) (27.4 vs. 9.8%, P < 0.001), preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) (29.1 vs. 22.5%, P = 0.001), malpresentation (34.4 vs. 5.6%, P < 0.001), abruptio placentae (4.6 vs. 1.2%, P < 0.001), placental accreta/increta (19.7 vs. 11.8%, P < 0.001), and uterine rupture (2.8 vs. 1.6%, P = 0.035). The rates of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF–ET), foetal growth restriction (FGR), and low birth weight were also significantly higher in the MuAs group (8.3 vs. 4.5%, P < 0.001; 2.6 vs. 0.9%, P = 0.001; 3.1 vs. 1.7%, P = 0.033, respectively). In the MuAs group, the incidence of PPROM was high in cases with unicornuate uterus (31.5%), and malpresentation was as high as 42.4 and 37.0% in cases with septate and didelphys uteri, respectively.

Conclusion

The data suggest that pregnancy with MuAs may increase adverse perinatal outcomes, which calls for intensive supervision during pregnancy and delivery to reduce maternal and foetal complications. Individualized considerations should be emphasized according to the different categories of MuAs in pregnancies.
Last-use opacity: a strong safety property for transactional memory with prerelease support
Authors: Siek Konrad , Wojciechowski Paweł T.
Published: April 2022

Transaction Memory (TM) is a concurrency control abstraction that allows the programmer to specify blocks of code to be executed atomically as transactions. However, since transactional code can contain just about any operation attention must be paid to the state of shared variables at any given time. E.g., contrary to a database transaction, if a TM transaction reads a stale value it may execute dangerous operations, like attempt to divide by zero, access an illegal memory address, or enter an infinite loop. Thus serializability is insufficient, and stronger safety properties are required in TM, which regulate what values can be read, even by transactions that abort. Hence, a number of TM safety properties were developed, including opacity, and TMS1 and TMS2. However, such strong properties preclude using prerelease as a technique for optimizing TM, because they virtually forbid reading from live transactions. On the other hand, properties that do allow prerelease are either not strong enough to prevent any of the problems mentioned above (recoverability), or add additional conditions on transactions that prerelease variables that limit their applicability (elastic opacity, live opacity, virtual world consistency). This paper introduces last-use opacity and strong last-use opacity, a pair of new TM safety properties meant to be a compromise between strong properties like opacity and minimal ones like serializability. The properties eliminate all but a small class of benign inconsistent views and pose no stringent conditions on transactions.
Implementation of Pediatric Flexible-Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing: A Systematic Review and Recommendations for Future Research
Authors: Zang Jana , Kiehn Saskia , Flügel Till , Koseki Jana-Christiane , Nießen Almut , Kim Susan Hyoungeun , Pflug Christina , Nienstedt Julie Cläre
Published: April 2022

Background

Although pediatric flexible-endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) has developed into a standard in dysphagia diagnostics, there are no valid protocols and procedures for children available to date.

Objective

This systematic PROSPERO-registered review aimed to identify implementation protocols for pediatric FEES described in research studies, and to analyze them in detail concerning procedural steps, equipment, and reported outcome.

Methods

Included were all studies reporting a pediatric FEES protocol for children aged 0–18 years, if they described at least two criteria defined in advance. The databases MEDLINE and CINHAL were searched systematically from January 2000 to February 2021. Risk of bias for included studies was assessed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) quality assessment tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies. A narrative synthesis of the FEES protocols was conducted and the results compared in tabular form.

Results

In total 22 studies were included, reporting on FEES in 1547 infants, children, and adolescents with a wide range of diagnoses. It was possible to identify protocols related to all age groups in general as well as to particular groups such as breastfed or bottle-fed infants. None of the included studies demonstrated a good methodological quality; all studies had missing data. Uniform implementation for sub-groups could not be determined. The reported outcome of FEES examinations could not be compared.

Discussion

None of the included studies showed good methodological quality and a significant amount of data were missing; the review still offers a systematic basis for future research to close the serious gap in the area of pediatric FEES. A proposal is made for a minimum requirement for pediatric FEES protocols in scientific studies.
Stabilization of arbitrary structures in a doubly degenerate reaction-diffusion system modeling bacterial motion on a nutrient-poor agar
Authors: Winkler Michael
Published: April 2022

A no-flux initial-boundary value problem for the doubly degenrate parabolic system $$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{l} u_t = \nabla \cdot \big ( uv\nabla u\big ) + \ell uv, \\ v_t = \Delta v - uv, \end{array} \right. \qquad \qquad (\star ) \end{aligned}$$

u
t

=
∇
·

(

u
v
∇
u

)

+
ℓ
u
v
,

v
t

=
Δ
v
-
u
v
,

(
⋆
)

is considered in a smoothly bounded convex domain $$\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^n$$

Ω
⊂

R

n

, with $$n\ge 1$$

n
≥
1

and $$\ell \ge 0$$

ℓ
≥
0

. The first of the main results asserts that for nonnegative initial data $$(u_0,v_0)\in (L^\infty (\Omega ))^2$$

(

u
0

,

v
0

)

∈

(

L
∞

(
Ω
)

)

2

with $$u_0\not \equiv 0$$

u
0

≢
0

, $$v_0\not \equiv 0$$

v
0

≢
0

and $$\sqrt{v_0}\in W^{1,2}(\Omega )$$

v
0

∈

W

1
,
2

(
Ω
)

, there exists a global weak solution (u, v) which, inter alia, belongs to $$C^0(\overline{\Omega }\times (0,\infty )) \times C^{2,1}(\overline{\Omega }\times (0,\infty ))$$

C
0

(

Ω
¯

×

(
0
,
∞
)

)

×

C

2
,
1

(

Ω
¯

×

(
0
,
∞
)

)

and satisfies $$\sup _{t>0} \Vert u(\cdot ,t)\Vert _{L^p(\Omega )}<\infty $$

sup

t
>
0

‖
u

(
·
,
t
)

‖

L
p

(
Ω
)

<
∞

for all $$p\in [1,p_0)$$

p
∈
[
1
,

p
0

)

with $$p_0:=\frac{n}{(n-2)_+}$$

p
0

:
=

n

(
n
-
2
)

+

. It is next seen that for each of these solutions one can find $$u_\infty \in \bigcap _{p\in [1,p_0)} L^p(\Omega )$$

u
∞

∈

⋂

p
∈
[
1
,

p
0

)

L
p

(
Ω
)

such that, within an appropriate topological setting, $$(u(\cdot ,t),v(\cdot ,t))$$

(
u
(
·
,
t
)
,
v
(
·
,
t
)
)

approaches the equilibrium $$(u_\infty ,0)$$

(

u
∞

,
0
)

in the large time limit. Finally, in the case $$n\le 5$$

n
≤
5

a result ensuring a certain stability property of any member in the uncountably large family of steady states $$(u_0,0)$$

(

u
0

,
0
)

, with arbitrary and suitably regular $$u_0:\Omega \rightarrow [0,\infty )$$

u
0

:
Ω
→

[
0
,
∞
)

, is derived. This provides some rigorous evidence for the appropriateness of ($$\star $$
⋆
) to model the emergence of a strikingly large variety of stable structures observed in experiments on bacterial motion in nutrient-poor environments. Essential parts of the analysis rely on the use of an apparently novel class of functional inequalities to suitably cope with the doubly degenerate diffusion mechanism in ($$\star $$
⋆
).
Patients’ and Psychologists’ Preferences for Feedback Reports on Expected Mental Health Treatment Outcomes: A Discrete-Choice Experiment
Authors: Hilhorst Loes , Stappen Jip van der , Lokkerbol Joran , Hiligsmann Mickaël , Risseeuw Anna H. , Tiemens Bea G.
Published: April 2022

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on routine outcome monitoring (ROM) to provide feedback on patient progress during mental health treatment, with some systems also predicting the expected treatment outcome. The aim of this study was to elicit patients’ and psychologists’ preferences regarding how ROM system-generated feedback reports should display predicted treatment outcomes. In a discrete-choice experiment, participants were asked 12–13 times to choose between two ways of displaying an expected treatment outcome. The choices varied in four different attributes: representation, outcome, predictors, and advice. A conditional logistic regression was used to estimate participants’ preferences. A total of 104 participants (68 patients and 36 psychologists) completed the questionnaire. Participants preferred feedback reports on expected treatment outcome that included: (a) both text and images, (b) a continuous outcome or an outcome that is expressed in terms of a probability, (c) specific predictors, and (d) specific advice. For both patients and psychologists, specific predictors appeared to be most important, specific advice was second most important, a continuous outcome or a probability was third most important, and feedback that includes both text and images was fourth in importance. The ranking in importance of both the attributes and the attribute levels was identical for patients and psychologists. This suggests that, as long as the report is understandable to the patient, psychologists and patients can use the same ROM feedback report, eliminating the need for ROM administrators to develop different versions.
Value of the 21-gene expression assay in predicting locoregional recurrence rates in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis
Authors: Davey Matthew G. , Cleere Eoin F. , O’Donnell John P. , Gaisor Sara , Lowery Aoife J. , Kerin Michael J.
Published: April 2022

Purpose

The Oncotype DX© 21-gene Recurrence Score (RS) estimates the risk of distant disease recurrence in early-stage estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative (ER+/HER2− ) breast cancer. Using RS to estimate risk of locoregional recurrence (LRR) is less conclusive. We aimed to perform network meta-analysis (NMA) evaluating the RS in estimating LRR in ER+/HER2− breast cancer.

Methods

A NMA was performed according to PRISMA-NMA guidelines. Analysis was performed using R packages and Shiny.

Results

16 studies with 21,037 patients were included (mean age: 55.1 years (range: 22–96)). The mean RS was 17.1 and mean follow-up was 66.4 months. Using traditional RS cut-offs, 49.7% of patients had RS < 18 (3944/7935), 33.8% had RS 18–30 (2680/7935), and 16.5% had RS > 30 (1311/7935). Patients with RS 18–30 (risk ratio (RR): 1.76, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.32–2.37) and RS > 30 (RR: 3.45, 95% CI: 2.63–4.53) were significantly more likely to experience LRR than those with RS < 18. Using TAILORx cut-offs, 16.2% of patients had RS < 11 (1974/12,208), 65.8% had RS 11–25 (8036/12,208), and 18.0% with RS > 30 (2198/12,208). LRR rates were similar for patients with RS 11–25 (RR: 1.120, 95% CI: 0.520–2.410); however, those with RS > 25 had an increased risk of LRR (RR: 2.490, 95% CI: 0.680–9.390) compared to those with RS < 11. There was a stepwise increase in LRR rates when applying traditional and TAILORx cut-offs (both P < 0.050).

Conclusion

RS testing accurately estimates LRR risk for patients being treated for early-stage ER+/HER2− breast cancer. Future prospective, randomized studies may validate the predictive value of RS in estimating LRR.
The Association between exposure to COVID-19, internalizing symptoms, and Dispositional Mindfulness in Adolescents: a longitudinal pre- and during-pandemic study
Authors: Royuela-Colomer Estíbaliz , Fernández-González Liria , Orue Izaskun , Calvete Esther
Published: April 2022

This study examined the association between contact with COVID-19 and internalizing symptoms in Spanish adolescents, and the moderation and mediation roles of dispositional mindfulness. Adolescents (N = 383; 58% female; Mage = 15.62, SD = 1.32) completed measures of dispositional mindfulness (MAAS-A) and internalizing symptoms (DASS-21), other stressors different from COVID-19, and contact with COVID-19 twice, in October 2019 and 2020. Three profiles emerged according to their contact with COVID-19: (1) little/no contact, (2) knowing someone close (outside home) who was infected, hospitalized, or died, and (3) being or someone at home being infected and/or hospitalized. Compared to little/no contact, both contact profiles predicted dispositional mindfulness and anxiety; and profile 2 predicted stress. Dispositional mindfulness mediated the association between both contact profiles and depression and stress. This study suggests that contact with COVID-19 predicts increased internalizing symptoms in adolescents, which could be partially explained by the decrease in mindfulness levels.
Rational planning strategies of urban structure, metro, and car use for reducing transport carbon dioxide emissions in developing cities
Authors: Yang Liu , Wang Yuanqing , Lian Yujun , Dong Xin , Liu Jianhong , Liu Yuanyuan , Wu Zhouhao
Published: April 2022

Understanding transport carbon dioxide (CO2) emission impact factors’ effects is important for the rational planning strategy making in reducing the emissions. This study determines transport emission impact factors’ heterogeneous effects and proposes urban and transport planning strategies in typical developing cities. Quantile regression is applied to overcome the insufficiency of factors’ mean effects and to avoid the biased estimations when the outcome variable is non-normally distributed and heteroscedastic. It is found that, from the low emitters at the 10th quantile to the high emitters at the 90th quantile, transport emissions’ increasing rates are 8.8 times and 79.6 times that of car availability and home-to-center/subcenter distance (HCD/HSD), respectively. When commute distance reaches 5.8 km or farther, and car availability percentage is 41.2% or greater, the effects that metro services have on reducing emissions decrease by 37.8%. Polycentric and satellite city forms can greatly reduce emission increases, which are caused by HCD growth when HCD is more than 10–15 km. According to these findings, the following planning strategies are recommended, including limiting oil-fueled car use to about 40% among the urban residents, forming employment and life circles within a 5–6 km radius, allocating better public transit services around metro stations, providing high service levels of bicycle lanes, pedestrian streets, and greenways to attract more transfers to metros, controlling urban radius within 10–15 km under the monocentric pattern, and fostering polycentric structures and satellite cities when city continuously sprawls. This study can provide empirical evidence and reference value globally.
Linkage map construction using limited parental genotypic information
Authors: Cuevas Hugo E. , Vermerris Wilfred
Published: April 2022

Genetic linkage maps based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) represent an essential tool for a variety of genomic analyses. Today, next-generation sequencing (NGS) enables rapid genotyping of different mapping populations based on thousands of SNPs and the construction of highly saturated linkage maps. Nevertheless, missing data in the genotyping of the parental lines creates a bottleneck that determines the number of SNPs that can be used for the linkage map. As a proof of concept, a highly saturated genetic linkage map was constructed using the imputed genotypic data of a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population and the limited genotypic information of its parental lines. Two ABH genotype files were created from a pseudo-parental genotypic data set that includes all the SNPs present in the RIL population. In the first ABH file pseudo-parental 1 was considered parental A, while in the second pseudo-parental 1 was considered parental B. These two duplicate ABH genotype files were merged by chromosome and subjected to linkage map analysis. Since the ABH data were duplicated, two mirrored linkage groups were generated per chromosome. The correct linkage map was identified and selected based on the partial genotypic data of the parental lines. This strategy was effective for constructing a highly saturated linkage map of 33,421 SNPs based on the genotyping of 205 RILs and a limited number of 100 SNPs present in the parental lines. This strategy enables the use of all the NGS SNP data obtained from a low-coverage sequencing experiment in the mapping population.
SAMPL7 protein-ligand challenge: A community-wide evaluation of computational methods against fragment screening and pose-prediction
Authors: Grosjean Harold , Işık Mehtap , Aimon Anthony , Mobley David , Chodera John , von Delft Frank , Biggin Philip C
Published: April 2022

A novel crystallographic fragment screening data set was generated and used in the SAMPL7 challenge for protein-ligands. The SAMPL challenges prospectively assess the predictive power of methods involved in computer-aided drug design. Application of various methods to fragment molecules are now widely used in the search for new drugs. However, there is little in the way of systematic validation specifically for fragment-based approaches. We have performed a large crystallographic high-throughput fragment screen against the therapeutically relevant second bromodomain of the Pleckstrin-homology domain interacting protein (PHIP2) that revealed 52 different fragments bound across 4 distinct sites, 47 of which were bound to the pharmacologically relevant acetylated lysine (Kac) binding site. These data were used to assess computational screening, binding pose prediction and follow-up enumeration. All submissions performed randomly for screening. Pose prediction success rates (defined as less than 2 Å root mean squared deviation against heavy atom crystal positions) ranged between 0 and 25% and only a very few follow-up compounds were deemed viable candidates from a medicinal-chemistry perspective based on a common molecular descriptors analysis. The tight deadlines imposed during the challenge led to a small number of submissions suggesting that the accuracy of rapidly responsive workflows remains limited. In addition, the application of these methods to reproduce crystallographic fragment data still appears to be very challenging. The results show that there is room for improvement in the development of computational tools particularly when applied to fragment-based drug design.
Meta-interpretive learning as metarule specialisation
Authors: Patsantzis S. , Muggleton S. H.
Published: April 2022

In Meta-interpretive learning (MIL) the metarules, second-order datalog clauses acting as inductive bias, are manually defined by the user. In this work we show that second-order metarules for MIL can be learned by MIL. We define a generality ordering of metarules by $$\theta$$
θ
-subsumption and show that user-defined sort metarules are derivable by specialisation of the most-general matrix metarules in a language class; and that these matrix metarules are in turn derivable by specialisation of third-order punch metarules with variables quantified over the set of atoms and for which only an upper bound on their number of literals need be user-defined. We show that the cardinality of a metarule language is polynomial in the number of literals in punch metarules. We re-frame MIL as metarule specialisation by resolution. We modify the MIL metarule specialisation operator to return new metarules rather than first-order clauses and prove the correctness of the new operator. We implement the new operator as TOIL, a sub-system of the MIL system Louise. Our experiments show that as user-defined sort metarules are progressively replaced by sort metarules learned by TOIL, Louise’s predictive accuracy and training times are maintained. We conclude that automatically derived metarules can replace user-defined metarules.
Hyperbolic trees for efficient routing computation
Authors: Heszberger Zalán
Published: April 2022

Complex system theory is increasingly applied to develop control protocols for distributed computational and networking resources. The paper deals with the important subproblem of finding complex connected structures having excellent navigability properties using limited computational resources. Recently, the two-dimensional hyperbolic space turned out to be an efficient geometry for generative models of complex networks. The networks generated using the hyperbolic metric space share their basic structural properties (like small diameter or scale-free degree distribution) with several real networks. In the paper, a new model is proposed for generating navigation trees for complex networks embedded in the two-dimensional hyperbolic plane. The generative model is not based on known hyperbolic network models: the trees are not inferred from the existing links of any network; they are generated from scratch instead and based purely on the hyperbolic coordinates of nodes. We show that these hyperbolic trees have scale-free degree distributions and are present to a large extent both in synthetic hyperbolic complex networks and real ones (Internet autonomous system topology, US flight network) embedded in the hyperbolic plane. As the main result, we show that routing on the generated hyperbolic trees is optimal in terms of total memory usage of forwarding tables.
Intelligence and scientific expertise
Authors: Barrotta Pierluigi , Gronda Roberto
Published: April 2022

In this article we develop a pragmatist-inspired notion of intelligence that should lead to a better understanding of the notion of scientific expertise. The notion of intelligence is drawn from Dewey and is therefore used here in its technical sense. Our thesis is that scientific knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient condition for scientific expertise; intelligence should also be added. Conceived of as the capacity to apply general knowledge to particulars, we reach the conclusion that intelligence is a necessary requirement for scientific experts in the wake of Dewey’s logic of inquiry. In particular, we argue that an all-important task that scientific experts are asked to accomplish, and which puts their expertise to the test, is to transform indeterminate situations into problematic situations, and that such a goal can only be achieved if scientific experts succeed in paying attention to all the contingent and precarious aspects that make the situation they face unique.
Johnston versus Johnston
Authors: Kowalczyk Kacper
Published: April 2022

Personites are like continuant people but shorter-lived. Johnston argues that personites do not exist since otherwise personites would have the same moral status as persons, which is untenable. I argue that Johnston’s arguments fail. To do that I propose an alternative way to understand intrinsicness and I clarify the meaning of reductionism about persons. I also argue that a plausible ethical theory is possible even if personites have the same moral status as persons. My arguments draw on Johnston’s earlier debate with Parfit about personal identity and the place of ordinary concerns in a naturalistic world. I also describe an important but metaphysics-free problem that arises from Johnston’s discussion.
Skilled performance in Contact Improvisation: the importance of interkinaesthetic sense of agency
Authors: Deans Catherine , Pini Sarah
Published: April 2022

In exploring skilled performance in Contact Improvisation (CI), we utilize an enactive ethnographic methodology combined with an interdisciplinary approach to examine the question of how skill develops in CI. We suggest this involves the development of subtleties of awareness of intra- and interkinaesthetic attunement, and a capacity for interkinaesthetic negative capability—an embodied interpersonal ‘not knowing yet’—including an ease with being off balance and waiting for the next shift or movement to arise, literally a ‘playing with’ balance, falling, nearly falling, momentum and gravity. We draw on insights from an interdisciplinary approach, including from a developmental perspective concerning the experience of dyadic interpersonal embodied skill development in both infancy and CI. Building on Ravn and Høffding’s (2021) definition of expertise in improvisation as an “oscillatory process of assuming and relinquishing agency” we propose that a key aspect of expertise in CI involves oscillation between levels and processes of interkinaesthetic sense of agency. These interdisciplinary insights also elucidate limitations within current conceptualisations of sense of agency, including the relationship between sense of agency and sense of control.
Limits to evidential pluralism: multi-method large-N qualitative analysis and the primacy of mechanistic studies
Authors: Runhardt Rosa W.
Published: April 2022

Evidential pluralists, like Federica Russo and Jon Williamson, argue that causal claims should be corroborated by establishing both the existence of a suitable correlation and a suitable mechanism complex. At first glance, this fits well with mixed method research in the social sciences, which often involves a pluralist combination of statistical and mechanistic evidence. However, statistical evidence concerns a population of cases, while mechanistic evidence is found in individual case studies. How should researchers combine such general statistical evidence and specific mechanistic evidence? This article discusses a very recent answer to this question, ‘multi-method large-N qualitative analysis’ or multi-method LNQA, popular in political science and international relations studies of rare events like democratic transitions and cease-fire agreements. Multi-method LNQA combines a comprehensive study of all (or most) relevant event cases with statistical analysis, in an attempt to solve the issues of generalization faced by other types of qualitative research, such as selection bias and lack of representativeness. I will argue that the kind of general causal claim that multi-method LNQA is after, however, is crucially different from the average treatment effect found in statistical analysis and can in fact only be supported with mechanistic evidence. I conclude from this that mixed method research, and thereby evidential pluralism, may be inappropriate in this context.
Non-contrast-enhanced silent magnetic resonance angiography for assessing cerebral aneurysms after PulseRider treatment
Authors: Suzuki Tomoaki , Hasegawa Hitoshi , Ando Kazuhiro , Shibuya Kohei , Takahashi Haruhiko , Saito Shoji , Oishi Makoto , Fujii Yukihiko
Published: April 2022

Purpose

Conventional time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) failed to depict clear visualization of coiled cerebral aneurysms with PulseRider due to metal-induced susceptibility artifacts. Our aim was to overcome the metal artifact using a novel imaging technique of non-contrast-enhanced ultrashort echo-time magnetic resonance angiography (UTE-MRA).

Materials and methods

Five unruptured intracranial aneurysms were treated using PulseRider and the patients underwent silent MRA (UTE-MRA). The images were compared with TOF-MRA and digital subtraction angiography (DSA).

Results

Silent MRA can visualize the residual cavity of the coiled aneurysms, which was not well visualized and rather defective when using TOF-MRA. While a segment of the proximal marker composed of stainless steel was poorly visualized, the other parts of the parent artery and the arteries of bifurcation, including the aneurysmal neck, were clearly visualized, equivalent to that of DSA.

Conclusions

UTE-MRA achieves better visualization of cerebral aneurysms after PulseRider treatment than TOF-MRA.
On an Involution in the Class of Non-negative Hermitian Matrix Measures on a Compact Interval
Authors: Fritzsche Bernd , Kirstein Bernd , Mädler Conrad
Published: April 2022

We study a particular involution in the class $${\mathcal {M}^\succcurlyeq _{q}({[\alpha ,\beta ]})}$$

M

q
≽

(

[
α
,
β
]

)

of all Non-negative Hermitian $${q\times q}$$

q
×
q

 measures on a compact interval $${[\alpha ,\beta ]}$$

[
α
,
β
]

of $$\mathbb {R}$$
R
. Several connections to the matricial version of the Hausdorff moment problem on $${[\alpha ,\beta ]}$$

[
α
,
β
]

are investigated in terms of $${[\alpha ,\beta ]}$$

[
α
,
β
]

-Stieltjes transforms as well as in the language of matricial Hausdorff moment sequences and associated matricial canonical moments.
A study on spatial variation of water flow at confluence connected to non-orthogonal channels
Authors: Jeong Yong-Wook , Jeong Woochang
Published: April 2022

Most studies on the flood flow characteristics at a confluence focus on channels connected orthogonally or at right angle, but studies on non-orthogonally connected channels remain limited. In this study, hydraulic-model experiments and numerical simulations are conducted to analyze the spatial variation of water flow in and around a confluence connected to non-orthogonal channels. Comparison of the measured and simulated water depth distributions in and around the confluence indicates that the results are in relatively good agreement. In the experiment where the angle between two upstream channels is 45°, the water flow pattern in and around the confluence corresponds approximately to Type I proposed by (Mignot et al. J Hydraul Res 46:723–738, 2008). However, it was found that there is no any flow type to correspond to the water flow pattern measured in the case of the angle of 135°. For analyzing the variation of the water depth in and around the confluence with inflow, numerical simulation is performed by setting the inflow ratio of the two inlet channels to one, three, and six, respectively.
Evaluation of the adsorption efficiency of carcinogenic PAHs on microplastic (polyester) fibers—preliminary results
Authors: Wiśniowska Ewa , Włodarczyk-Makuła Maria
Published: April 2022

Paper presents the results of investigations on sorption capacity of selected carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on microplastics fibers. Accumulation of organic micropollutants such as PAHs is indicated as one of the important problems in the case of microplastics present in surface water, including sea water. Concentrations of the micropollutants can reach even several mg/kg of microplastics. An unrecognized problem are sorption capacities of microfibers towards PAHs. Recent research works indicate that microfibers are commonly present in sewage sludge. Content of the fibers in this waste material can reach over 23000 particles per 1 kg of sludge dry matter. The fibers mainly come from cloth washing. It is obvious that the adsorption capacity of the fibers can affect the concentration of PAHs in sewage sludge. The aim of the study was to evaluate sorption capacities of polyester fibers towards PAHs. Adsorption of PAHs were provided under static conditions. After 24 h of adsorption 1255 μg/g of carcinogenic PAHs was adsorbed onto the polyster fibers. Amount of 6-ring PAHs was equal to 154 μg/g, whereas 5- i 4- ring ones, 562 and 539 μg/g, respectively. The results have confirmed that hydrophobic PAHs can be adsorbed onto polystyrene fibers and as a result cumulate in sewage sludge.
A comparative biodistribution study of polymeric and lipid-based nanoparticles
Authors: Åslund Andreas K. O. , Vandebriel Rob J. , Caputo Fanny , de Jong Wim H. , Delmaar Christiaan , Hyldbakk Astrid , Rustique Emilie , Schmid Ruth , Snipstad Sofie , Texier Isabelle , Vernstad Kai , Borgos Sven Even F.
Published: April 2022

Biodistribution of nanoencapsulated bioactive compounds is primarily determined by the size, shape, chemical composition and surface properties of the encapsulating nanoparticle, and, thus, less dependent on the physicochemical properties of the active pharmaceutical ingredient encapsulated. In the current work, we aimed to investigate the impact of formulation type on biodistribution profile for two clinically relevant nanoformulations. We performed a comparative study of biodistribution in healthy rats at several dose levels and durations up to 14-day post-injection. The studied nanoformulations were nanostructured lipid carriers incorporating the fluorescent dye IR780-oleyl, and polymeric nanoparticles containing the anticancer agent cabazitaxel. The biodistribution was approximated by quantification of the cargo in blood and relevant organs. Several clear and systematic differences in biodistribution were observed, with the most pronounced being a much higher (more than 50-fold) measured concentration ratio between cabazitaxel in all organs vs. blood, as compared to IR780-oleyl. Normalized dose linearity largely showed opposite trends between the two compounds after injection. Cabazitaxel showed a higher brain accumulation than IR780-oleyl with increasing dose injected. Interestingly, cabazitaxel showed a notable and prolonged accumulation in lung tissue compared to other organs. The latter observations could warrant further studies towards a possible therapeutic indication within lung and conceivably brain cancer for nanoformulations of this highly antineoplastic compound, for which off-target toxicity is currently dose-limiting in the clinic.

Graphical abstract
Research and practice of intelligent coal mine technology systems in China
Authors: Wang Guofa , Ren Huaiwei , Zhao Guorui , Zhang Desheng , Wen Zhiguo , Meng Lingyu , Gong Shixin
Published: April 2022

This study considered the role of coal as China’s basic energy source and examines the development of the coal industry. We focused on the intelligent development of coal mines, and introduced the “Chinese mode” of intelligent mining in underground coal mines, which uses complete sets of technical equipment to propose classification and grading standards. In view of the basic characteristics and technical requirements of intelligent coal mine systems, we established a digital logic model and propose an information entity and knowledge map construction method. This involves an active information push strategy based on a knowledge demand model and an intelligent portfolio modeling and distribution method for collaborative control of coal mines. The top-level architecture of 5G+ intelligent coal mine systems combines intelligent applications such as autonomous intelligent mining, human–machine collaborative rapid tunneling, unmanned auxiliary transportation, closed-loop safety control, lean collaborative operation, and intelligent ecology. Progress in intelligent mining technology was described in terms of a dynamic modified geological model, underground 5G network and positioning technology, intelligent control of the mining height and straightness of the longwall working face, and intelligent mining equipment. The development of intelligent coal mines was analyzed in terms of its imbalances, bottlenecks, and the compatibility of large-scale systems. Implementation ideas for promoting the development of intelligent coal mines were proposed, such as establishing construction standards and technical specifications, implementing classification and grading standards according to mining policy, accelerating key technology research, and building a new management and control model.
Interlocking complementarities between job design and labour contracts
Authors: Cattani Luca , Dughera Stefano , Landini Fabio
Published: April 2022

In this paper, we study the existence of interlocking complementarities between job design and labour contract at the firm level. Using a formal model, we show that firms face two organizational equilibria: one in which job designs with high routine task intensity are matched with a large use of non-standard contracts; and the other in which low routine task intensity combines with a small use of non-standard contracts. These complementarities exist because while non-standard contracts allow firm to adjust to external shocks, they also provide little incentive to invest in firm-specific knowledge. We test this prediction using linked-employer-employee data from the Emilia-Romagna region. The evidence is consistent with our theory: the use of non-standard contracts is positively associated with routine task intensity at the firm level. This result holds controlling for a wide range of firm-specific and contextual covariates and it is robust to alternative estimation methods (OLS, panel and IV).