bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The International Commonality of Idiosyncratic Variances
Authors: Bekaert Geert , Wang Xue , Zhang Xiaoyan
Published: May 2024

We document strong global commonality in country idiosyncratic return variances across 23 developed markets, which is stronger than international return commonality. The global common factor of idiosyncratic return variances is highly correlated with that of idiosyncratic cash flow variances and is also significantly related to variables capturing aggregate discount rate variation and the conditional market variance. Furthermore, aggregate idiosyncratic return and cash flow variances are mostly but not always countercyclical.

This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance.

Funding: X. Zhang acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72350710220] and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation [Grant IS23127].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.01398 .
Working Around the Clock: Temporal Distance, Intrafirm Communication, and Time Shifting of the Employee Workday
Authors: Chauvin Jasmina , Choudhury Prithwiraj , Fang Tommy Pan
Published: May 2024

This paper examines the effects of temporal distance generated by time zone separation on communication in geographically distributed organizations. We build on prior research, which highlights time zone separation as a significant challenge, but argue that employees may time shift—move work-related communication to outside of regular business hours—to counteract temporal distance. We propose a theory in which employees’ tendency to time shift depends on the demands of their tasks and collaborative relationships and individuals’ ability to supply work outside of regular business hours. Analyzing communication-level data from 12,038 employees of a large multinational firm and using cities’ shifts to/from daylight saving time for identification, we find that temporal distance leads to sizable but smaller than expected reductions in volumes of rich, synchronous communication between employees. Consistent with our arguments, increased temporal distance significantly increases time shifting of work-related communication, especially among workers whose jobs are nonroutine and interactions in strong collaborative relationships. We further document that female employees and employees based in countries with stricter legal work hour limits engage in significantly less time-shifted communication. Our study improves understanding of a ubiquitous source of collaboration friction. It also sheds light on a potential source of inequities in workplace outcomes stemming from differences in individuals’ ability to work outside of regular business hours.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.17558 .
The conflict in Northern Ireland
Authors: Hyslop Jon , Jackson Jonathan
Published: May 2024

War is the most destructive of human actions, leaving a legacy of hatred, violence, and destruction which can often take decades to rebuild. The victims of war are endless, from those directly involved in the chaos, to the generations that follow and attempt to rebuild their shattered lives. Many experiences of the victims of war remain largely undiagnosed or even recognized, producing feelings of shame and fear that create the conditions for new conflicts to emerge. Academia is more than just analyzing data; it is the creation of a space in which to allow the recording of stories and reflections of those involved in major historical episodes. The piece hopes to provide an opportunity for just one military voice from the complex and chaotic period of “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland to speak and share their reflections to help understand the human cost of war.
Confronting Rural Localism: The Good Roads Movement in Quebec's Eastern Townships, 1897–1920
Authors: Little J.I.
Published: May 2024

Abstract: The Good Roads Movement originated in the United States in the early 1890s, expanding to Ontario then Quebec soon afterward. Fostered by urban interests, its original aim was to convince rural municipalities to replace seasonal dirt roads with "permanent" roads constructed either with gravel or crushed stone. The promise to farmers was that their lives would be improved by greater access to markets, churches, and schools, as well as by less wear and tear on their horses and vehicles, among other benefits. Reformers claimed that the chief obstacle they faced was the long-entrenched system of seasonal statute labour, which they wished to replace with a more centralized system of contractors under the supervision of municipal overseers. But rural ratepayers in the Eastern Townships, as elsewhere in North America, resisted paying a money tax as well as surrendering direct control over their neighbourhood roads. Many rural municipalities adhered to statute labour until the rise of the automobile shortly before the First World War motivated the provincial government to begin shifting its focus toward the construction of hard-surface routes for the use of mostly urban motorists and tourists. Abstract: Le mouvement Good Roads trouve son origine aux États-Unis au début des années 1890 et se répand rapidement en Ontario puis au Québec. Encouragé par des intérêts urbains, son objectif initial était de convaincre les municipalités rurales de remplacer les chemins de terre saisonniers par des routes « permanentes » construites avec du gravier ou de la pierre concassée. La promesse faite aux agriculteurs était que leur vie serait améliorée par un meilleur accès aux marchés, aux églises et aux écoles, ainsi que par une moindre usure de leurs chevaux et de leurs véhicules, parmi d'autres avantages. Les réformateurs soutiennent que le principal obstacle auquel ils sont confrontés tient au système bien ancré du travail statuaire saisonnier, qu'ils souhaitent remplacer par un système plus centralisé constitué de contractants sous la supervision des surveillants municipaux. Cependant, les contribuables ruraux des Cantons de l'Est, comme ailleurs en Amérique du Nord, résistent au paiement d'une taxe monétaire et à l'abandon du contrôle direct sur les routes de leur voisinage. De nombreuses municipalités rurales ont adhéré au travail statuaire jusqu'à ce que l'essor de l'automobile, peu avant la Première Guerre mondiale, incite le gouvernement provincial à commencer à s'orienter sur la construction de routes à revêtement dur à l'usage des automobilistes et des touristes principalement urbains.
Stopped Inside Time: Re-ordering Everyday Pandemic Temporalities
Authors: Damsholt Tine
Published: May 2024

Abstract: During the first Danish lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, the usual order of everyday time became destabilized. Everyday rhythms and the quotidian "here-and-now" were transformed, and the near past surfaced as a utopian future many wished to return to, while people tried to re-order everyday time in narratives and sequences by means of new routines and materialities, and within ambiguous and affective moods. Using empirical material of over sixty-five student diaries and essays written during the Danish pandemic situation, the objective is to analytically open the complexity of temporal practices as they are performed in everyday life.
Influences of excitation signals on terahertz antenna radiation characteristics
Authors: Tang Jiangmei , Wang Shaomeng , Gong Yubin
Published: May 2024

This work focuses on the influences of excitation signals on the radiation characteristics (directivity, bandwidth, and gain) of electronics-based antennas by utilizing the CST Studio Suite software. Today, terahertz (THz) waves have attracted intense attention due to their significant advantages: high penetration, low quantum energy, high-frequency bandwidth, spectral fingerprints, and transients, etc. As a type of THz radiation source and a core element of communication systems, THz antennas have essential application value. However, there are challenges for THz antenna technology, such as low radiation efficiency, high fabrication difficulty, high cost, and complex tests. Previous studies have achieved expected radiation performance for electronics-based THz antennas, mainly by changing the materials and the structure. As passive devices, antennas require excitation signals to operate, which may affect the radiation characteristics. This work takes the THz dipole antenna as the primary example to study the influences, while patch and horn THz antennas are built as auxiliary examples. The research results demonstrate that different excitation signals have significant influences on the antenna’s radiation characteristics (bandwidth and gain). This work can thus help to achieve the desired antenna radiation goals to improve the controllability and practicality of antennas, making antennas suitable for various application scenarios and requirements.
Contraband detection of millimeter wave image for postal security checks using a spatial transformer-feature fusion network
Authors: Xu Li-Min , Pan Zi-Xiang , Wu Heng , Di Jiang-Lei , Qin Yu-Wen
Published: May 2024

The image resolution and contraband object detection accuracy are the two key factors for security checks based on millimeter wave imaging techniques. In this paper, a homemade real-time millimeter imaging system for small package security inspection is used to obtain about 400 raw images of envelopes containing multi-contraband objects like guns and knives. After pre-processing, spatial transformer-feature fusion (ST-FF) adapted single-shot multi-box detector (SSD) networks are used to detect the contraband objects of postal packages. The experiments reveal that the spatial-transformed-feature fusion deep learning networks demonstrate better mean average precision (mAP) performance than traditional single networks in detecting contraband objects of different scales, orientations, and distortions, and prove the great potential for security checks based on millimeter wave imaging.
Design of a temperature sensor based on a valley photonic crystal Mach–Zehnder interferometer
Authors: Bai Jie , Fei Hongming , Lin Han , Wang Ying , Zhang Mingda , Liu Xin , Cao Binzhao , Tian Yuan , Xiao Liantuan
Published: May 2024

With the development of photonics device integration technology, Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) are widely applied as sensors because they are extremely sensitive to environmental parameters. Conventional MZI sensors are generally large and unsuitable for high-density integration. MZIs based on photonic crystals (PCs) can significantly improve compactness and are suitable for integration. However, PC MZIs experience substantial optical loss due to scattering. Based on the spin-valley locking effect that can achieve defect-immune unidirectional transmission of topological edge states in valley photonic crystals (VPCs), we propose an MZI sensor based on a VPC structure and apply it in temperature sensing for what we believe is the first time. The interference peaks redshift with an increase in the temperature, which allows accurate sensing of the temperature shift with a high sensitivity of 0.06 nm/K in the temperature range of 100 K–750 K. The ultracompact device has a small footprint of 9.26×7.99µm2 and a high forward transmittance of 0.88. The design is suitable for the current complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication technique. Thus, it will find broad applications in integrated photonics, optical communication, and integrated temperature sensing.
Angular dispersion and diffraction imaging analysis in a light wave oblique incident two-dimensional crossed grating
Authors: Zhang Kai , Wei Guimei , Lu Wen , Xia Xiongping
Published: May 2024

Based on the vector diffraction theory, the angular dispersion and diffraction imaging are analyzed in parallel light oblique incident two-dimensional crossed gratings. The results show that the angular dispersion presents a kind of increase-decrease-increase oscillatory change, and the maximum value of diffractive polar angle dispersion and total dispersion present an abrupt point. The angular dispersion is limited by the light wave incidence angle and two-dimensional gratings crossed angle. In addition, some obvious pincushion distortion has been formed in some cases. The angular dispersion increases with the increase of grating crossed angle in the permissible range, leading to enhancement of the diffraction imaging distortion. The results imply that there is an inherent relationship between the angular dispersion and the diffraction imaging in parallel light oblique incident crossed gratings.
PLTP in situ measurement method of Wolter-I type mandrel
Authors: Wu Kaiji , Ding Fei , Wu Dongxu , Huang Yuejia , Qiao Zheng , Wang Bo
Published: May 2024

Wolter-I type grazing incidence focusing mirrors are widely used for imaging applications in the field of x-ray astronomy. In an electroforming replication process, the accuracy of a mirror is directly determined by the mandrel. A portable long trace profiler (PLTP) is developed and implemented to measure the generatrix error of the Wolter-I type mandrels on an ultra-precision machine tool. The measurement accuracy is confirmed via optical flat measurement experiment. Two PLTP in situ measurement methods, pentaprism scanning and direct scanning, are studied. The comparison of the methods and the corresponding measurement errors are analyzed and discussed. The necessity of PLTP measurement in evaluating optical performance is illustrated through three-dimensional ray tracing.
Experimental neodymium-doped microlaser with theoretical analysis of the thermo-optic effect
Authors: Fan Huibo , Chen Xinrui , Fan Huili , Wang Arui , Chang Ruijuan
Published: May 2024

Ultralow-threshold laser emission from a neodymium-doped silica toroidal microcavity is theoretically analyzed and experimentally demonstrated, along with the detailed analysis and compensation of the thermo-optic effect in this microlaser system. The threshold power and slope efficiency of microlaser emission are derived based on coupled-mode theory and analytic formulas, associated with the demonstration of their dependence on neodymium ion concentration and the quality factor of the microtoroid. In the experiment, a single-mode laser and multi-mode laser with threshold power as low as 1.6 µW at the wavelength of 1064 nm band are obtained via changing the coupling condition of the cavity-tapered fiber system, resonant pump wavelength, and pump power, respectively. The single-mode laser emission at the 910 nm band is also realized with the threshold power of about 108.5 µW. Furthermore, considering the potential application, non-resonant pumping for the laser emission at the 1064 nm band is characterized with threshold power of 137 µW due to the influence of the thermo-optic effect and low slope efficiency of non-resonant pumping. By coating UV-glue with a negative thermo-optic coefficient on the microtoroid surface, the compensation of the thermo-optic effect of the microtoroid is analyzed theoretically, which on the other hand can also be used for the potential application of high-sensitivity temperature sensing with sensitivity of −0.138nm/∘C.
Radial quadrature method for evaluating the beam shape coefficients of the Laguerre–Gaussian beam
Authors: Wang Mengyang , Tang Siqi , Shen Jianqi
Published: May 2024

Calculation of the beam shape coefficients (BSCs) is crucial in analyzing the interaction between the shaped beam and spherical particle. In this paper, the radial quadrature method is used to formulate the BSCs of the Laguerre–Gaussian beam. The expressions of the BSCs for the Laguerre–Gaussian beam are obtained in terms of integrals, infinite series, and FS. It is proved that the FS expressions of the BSCs are the same as those achieved in the FS technique. The validity of the BSCs is numerically checked in the BSC calculation and the beam’s reconstruction. It is concluded that the infinite series expressions of the radial quadrature BSCs are efficient and reliable.
Real-time measurement of pump beam polarization through the transmitted light intensity in a polarized alkali metal vapor cell
Authors: Duan Lihong , Ma Lele , Hu Zeyi , Cai Ze , Gao Hang
Published: May 2024

A laser beam with left-/right-handed circular polarization is generally used to create the oriented atomic spins for precision measurements in a spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) co-magnetometer. The fluctuation of laser polarization interferes with the spin polarization of alkali metal atoms, leading to the system performance degradation. Here, we report a method for real-time polarization state measurement by using the transmitted light intensity of the pump beam passing through the vapor cell. Based on the principle of circular dichroism, the optical absorption model of polarized alkali metal atoms is established. The simulation results of the transmittance of the pump laser with different polarization states through the alkali metal vapor cell are given and verified by experiments. The experimental results show that the circularly polarized beam has the weakest absorption, while the linearly polarized laser beam is absorbed the strongest. The achieved measurement accuracy stands at an impressive 98.83 %. This work provides a simple and easy-to-use way to measure the polarization state of the laser beam used in the vapor cell devices, particularly the microfabricated prototypes with limited space.
Optical integrated reconfigurable mode generator-multiplexer for radio-frequency orbital angular momentum
Authors: Feng Yuanhua , Gao Shecheng , Zhang Jiajie , Kashi Amir Abbas , van Elzakker Gijs , Zhang Xuebing , Oldenbeuving Ruud , Koonen Ton
Published: May 2024

Radio-frequency orbital angular momentum (RF-OAM) mode multiplexing has received increasing attention in next-generation (6G) wireless communication as a new spatial multiplexing dimension to further extend data capacity. In particular, the circular antenna array (CAA) based RF-OAM generation using photonic methods is a promising approach due to its flexible reconfigurability, low propagation loss, high operating bandwidth, and high pattern quality. However, most current reports focus either on the bulk optics-based implementations or on band-limited delay line-based approaches. In this paper, we present a novel phased array-based integrated photonic RF-OAM generator-multiplexer for a four-antenna CAA system supporting three RF-OAM modes at 16 GHz for both fast mode switching and mode multiplexing. It consists of a specially designed interleaved optical filter and a four-element phased array based on cascaded phase shifters. By changing the pair of wavelengths used, the output RF-OAM modes can be quickly switched between fundamental mode and ±1 modes. A bandwidth of 1 GHz was experimentally demonstrated. Mode multiplexing can be achieved when all three wavelength pairs are loaded.
In vivo biological safety investigation of Yb-CALGO femtosecond laser dental surgery
Authors: Pu Tao , Wang Jue , Wang Weizhe , Jing Bingshuai , Han Qi , Li Chenghao , Liang Houkun
Published: May 2024

While lasers have found their successful applications in various clinical specialties, in clinical dental practice, traditional mechanical drills are still predominantly utilized. Although erbium-doped lasers have been demonstrated for dental therapy, their clinical performance is still not satisfactory due to the long pulse width, low peak power, and small repetition rate. To attain a smaller thermal diffusion thus better biological safety and surgical precision, as well as more rapid ablation, the advancement of femtosecond laser techniques has opened another route of dental surgery; however, no biological safety investigation has been reported. Here, we present a systematic study of dental ablation by a Yb:CaAlGdO4 regenerative amplifier with a central wavelength of 1040 nm and pulse width of 160 fs. The in vivo experiment of dental surgery investigating the inflammatory response has been reported, for the first time to the best of our knowledge. It is demonstrated that dental surgery by Yb:CaAlGdO4 femtosecond laser ablation has better biological safety compared to the turbine drilling, thanks to its non-contact and ultrafast heat dissipation nature.
Generation of sub-10-fs deep and extreme ultraviolet pulses for time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
Authors: Karashima Shutaro , Chen Chih-Jen , Suzuki Toshinori
Published: May 2024

We present a light source capable of generating sub-10-fs deep UV (DUV) and extreme UV (EUV) pulses for use in time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The fundamental output of a Ti:sapphire laser was compressed using the multi-plate method and mixed with the uncompressed second harmonic in a filamentation four-wave mixing process to generate sub-10-fs DUV pulses. Sub-10-fs EUV pulses were generated via high-order harmonic generation driven by the second harmonic pulses that were compressed using Ar gas and chirped mirrors. The minimum cross correlation time between 267 and 57 nm (corresponding to 21.7 eV) was measured to be 10.6 ± 0.4 fs.
Multiple-view 3D digital image correlation based on pseudo-overlapped imaging
Authors: Chen Zhenning , Li Xiaowen , Li Hao
Published: May 2024

The restriction of the field of view (FOV) enlargement and spatial resolution increase during optical monitoring was investigated. Traditional optical instruments usually have a fixed FOV in one test; thus, they have low accuracy for small samples under large motions/deformations. To improve the spatial resolution in a relatively large FOV of an optical instrument, a multiple-view 3D digital image correlation (3D-DIC) method based on pseudo-overlapped imaging is proposed. Using a set of optical components, pseudo-overlapped imaging can image two FOVs with the same camera, which converts one pair of cameras to four virtual cameras. Each virtual camera has the same whole pixels. Therefore, compared with the conventional 3D-DIC system, the proposed method simultaneously enlarges FOVs and increases spatial resolutions by two times. The efficiency, accuracy, and feasibility of the technique were validated through experiments.
Special attribute-based cross-modal interactive fusion network for RGBT tracking
Authors: SHAO XIAOQIANG , Li Hao , Lu Zhiyue , Bo Ma , qian Liu ming , ZeHui HAN
Published: May 2024

Due to the strong robustness of RGBT object tracking, which is less susceptible to the effects of illumination and occlusion, it has been widely used in the fields of video surveillance and automated driving. In this paper, an effective tracking network is constructed by fully interacting with both modal information using challenging attributes in infrared and visible images. The network consists of three parts: the special attribute fusion(SAF) module, the common attribute fusion(CAF) module, and the cross-modal interaction(CMI) module. The SAF module enables the network to extract unique challeng attribute information from two modalities, fully leveraging the advantages of different modal information. The CAF module extracts features from attributes matched in both modalities, and adaptively aggregates them, assigning corresponding weights to each challenging attribute to enhance the tracker's adaptability. The CMI module facilitates modal interaction between the infrared and visible image modalities, integrating common modal information with the specific modal information of each, thereby enhancing the network's robustness. The proposed network is tested on GTOT, RGBT234, and LasHer datasets, respectively. The results show that our tracker outperforms other trackers, proving the superiority of our method.
Single-cell and single-nucleus RNA-sequencing from paired normal-adenocarcinoma lung samples provide both common and discordant biological insights
Authors: Renaut Sébastien , Saavedra Armero Victoria , Boudreau Dominique K. , Gaudreault Nathalie , Desmeules Patrice , Thériault Sébastien , Mathieu Patrick , Joubert Philippe , Bossé Yohan
Published: May 2024

Whether single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) captures the same biological information as single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) remains uncertain and likely to be context-dependent. Herein, a head-to-head comparison was performed in matched normal-adenocarcinoma human lung samples to assess biological insights derived from scRNA-seq versus snRNA-seq and better understand the cellular transition that occurs from normal to tumoral tissue. Here, the transcriptome of 160,621 cells/nuclei was obtained. In non-tumor lung, cell type proportions varied widely between scRNA-seq and snRNA-seq with a predominance of immune cells in the former (81.5%) and epithelial cells (69.9%) in the later. Similar results were observed in adenocarcinomas, in addition to an overall increase in cell type heterogeneity and a greater prevalence of copy number variants in cells of epithelial origin, which suggests malignant assignment. The cell type transition that occurs from normal lung tissue to adenocarcinoma was not always concordant whether cells or nuclei were examined. As expected, large differential expression of the whole-cell and nuclear transcriptome was observed, but cell-type specific changes of paired normal and tumor lung samples revealed a set of common genes in the cells and nuclei involved in cancer-related pathways. In addition, we showed that the ligand-receptor interactome landscape of lung adenocarcinoma was largely different whether cells or nuclei were evaluated. Immune cell depletion in fresh specimens partly mitigated the difference in cell type composition observed between cells and nuclei. However, the extra manipulations affected cell viability and amplified the transcriptional signatures associated with stress responses. In conclusion, research applications focussing on mapping the immune landscape of lung adenocarcinoma benefit from scRNA-seq in fresh samples, whereas snRNA-seq of frozen samples provide a low-cost alternative to profile more epithelial and cancer cells, and yield cell type proportions that more closely match tissue content.
Analytic optimization of Plasmodium falciparum marker gene haplotype recovery from amplicon deep sequencing of complex mixtures
Authors: Lapp Zena , Freedman Elizabeth , Huang Kathie , Markwalter Christine F. , Obala Andrew A. , Prudhomme-O’Meara Wendy , Taylor Steve M.
Published: May 2024

Molecular epidemiologic studies of malaria parasites and other pathogens commonly employ amplicon deep sequencing (AmpSeq) of marker genes derived from dried blood spots (DBS) to answer public health questions related to topics such as transmission and drug resistance. As these methods are increasingly employed to inform direct public health action, it is important to rigorously evaluate the risk of false positive and false negative haplotypes derived from clinically-relevant sample types. We performed a control experiment evaluating haplotype recovery from AmpSeq of 5 marker genes (ama1,csp,msp7,sera2, andtrap) from DBS containing mixtures of DNA from 1 to 10 knownP.falciparumreference strains across 3 parasite densities in triplicate (n = 270 samples). While false positive haplotypes were present across all parasite densities and mixtures, we optimized censoring criteria to remove 83% (148/179) of false positives while removing only 8% (67/859) of true positives. Post-censoring, the median pairwise Jaccard distance between replicates was 0.83. We failed to recover 35% (477/1365) of haplotypes expected to be present in the sample. Haplotypes were more likely to be missed in low-density samples with <1.5 genomes/μL (OR: 3.88, CI: 1.82–8.27, vs. high-density samples with ≥75 genomes/μL) and in samples with lower read depth (OR per 10,000 reads: 0.61, CI: 0.54–0.69). Furthermore, minority haplotypes within a sample were more likely to be missed than dominant haplotypes (OR per 0.01 increase in proportion: 0.96, CI: 0.96–0.97). Finally, in clinical samples the percent concordance across markers for multiplicity of infection ranged from 40%-80%. Taken together, our observations indicate that, with sufficient read depth, the majority of haplotypes can be successfully recovered from DBS while limiting the false positive rate.
Understanding how neglected tropical diseases programs in five Asia-Pacific countries adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study
Authors: Jaworski Alison , Craig Adam T. , Dyer Clare E. F. , Goncalves Julio , Neuendorf Nalisa , Newland Jamee , Kelly-Hanku Angela , Pomat William , MacLaren David , Vaz Nery Susana
Published: May 2024

Background

Following the COVID-19 pandemic declaration, the World Health Organization recommended suspending neglected tropical diseases (NTD) control activities as part of sweeping strategies to minimise COVID-19 transmission. Understanding how NTD programs were impacted and resumed operations will inform contingency planning for future emergencies. This is the first study that documents how South-East Asian and Pacific NTD programs addressed challenges experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology/Principal findings

Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 NTD Program Coordinators and related personnel from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu. Constructivist grounded theory methods were drawn on to generate an explanation of factors that enabled or hindered NTD program operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted NTD programs in all countries. Some programs implemented novel strategies by partnering with services deemed essential or used new communications technology to continue (albeit scaled-back) NTD activities. Strong relationships to initiate cross-program integration, sufficient resources to implement adapted activities, and dedicated administrative systems were key enabling factors for recommencement. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued, exacerbating health resources scarcity, programs faced funding shortages and participants needed to find efficiencies through greater integration and activity prioritisation within their NTD units. Emphasising community-led approaches to restore trust and engagement was critical after widespread social anxiety and disconnection.

Conclusions/Significance

Sustaining effective NTD programs during a global emergency goes beyond managing immediate activity disruptions and requires attention to how NTD programs can be better ensconced within wider health programs, administrative, and social systems. This study underscores the importance of pre-emergency planning that reinforces NTD control programs as a critical service at all health systems levels, accompanied by governance arrangements that increase NTD staff control over their operations and strategies to maintain strong community relationships. Ensuring NTD units are supported via appropriate funding, personnel, and bureaucratic resources is also required.
Web-based program for sexual and reproductive health education of immigrant women: A scoping review protocol
Authors: Kim Suhyun , Jang Aeri
Published: May 2024

Developing web-based education sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programs for immigrant women is crucial. This scoping review aims to provide basic data for developing more advanced programs by examining web-based educational program literature. This review considers web-based SRH education programs for adult immigrant women and focuses on their characteristics, instructional strategies, and outcome evaluations. Data will be extracted following the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) and Kirkpatrick level and summarized to show future-oriented results while documenting web-based approach evidence for educating immigrant women on SRH. It is expected to provide information for web-based education programs to meet the MISP and develop various evaluation methods. As such, the findings can be used to determine the direction and level of SRH education.
Juglone triggers apoptosis of non-small cell lung cancer through the reactive oxygen species -mediated PI3K/Akt pathway
Authors: Zhong Jian , Hua Yongzhi , Zou Shuting , Wang Bo
Published: May 2024

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and oxidative stress plays a crucial role in its development. Juglone, a naturally occurring naphthoquinone inJ.mandshurica, exhibits significant cytotoxic activity against various cancer cell lines. However, whether the anticancer activity of juglone is associated with oxidative stress remains unexplored. In this study, mouse Lewis lung cancer (LLC) and human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells were used to explore the anticancer mechanisms of juglone. Juglone inhibited LLC and A549 cells viability, with IC50 values of 10.78 μM and 9.47 μM, respectively, for 24 h, and substantially suppressed the migration and invasion of these two lung cancer cells. Additionally, juglone arrested the cell cycle, induced apoptosis, increased the cleavage of caspase 3 and the protein expression of Bax and Cyt c, and decreased the protein expression of Bcl-2 and caspase-3. Furthermore, juglone treatment considerably increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, but suppressed glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities. It also inhibited the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway, which was attenuated by 1,3-diCQA (an activator of PI3K/Akt). Moreover, N-acetylcysteine (a ROS scavenger) partially reversed the positive effects of juglone in terms of migration, invasion, ROS production, apoptosis, and PI3K/Akt pathway-associated protein expression. Finally, in tumor-bearing nude mouse models, juglone inhibited tumor growth without any apparent toxicity and significantly induced apoptosis in NSCLC cells. Collectively, our findings suggest that juglone triggers apoptosis via the ROS-mediated PI3K/Akt pathway. Therefore, juglone may serve as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of NSCLC.
Network impact of a single-time-point microbial sample
Authors: Ezra Shir , Bashan Amir
Published: May 2024

The human microbiome plays a crucial role in determining our well-being and can significantly influence human health. The individualized nature of the microbiome may reveal host-specific information about the health state of the subject. In particular, the microbiome is an ecosystem shaped by a tangled network of species-species and host-species interactions. Thus, analysis of the ecological balance of microbial communities can provide insights into these underlying interrelations. However, traditional methods for network analysis require many samples, while in practice only a single-time-point microbial sample is available in clinical screening. Recently, a method for the analysis of a single-time-point sample, which evaluates its ‘network impact’ with respect to a reference cohort, has been applied to analyze microbial samples from women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. Here, we introduce different variations of the network impact approach and systematically study their performance using simulated ‘samples’ fabricated via the Generalized Lotka-Volttera model of ecological dynamics. We show that the network impact of a single sample captures the effect of the interactions between the species, and thus can be applied to anomaly detection of shuffled samples, which are ‘normal’ in terms of species abundance but ‘abnormal’ in terms of species-species interrelations. In addition, we demonstrate the use of the network impact in binary and multiclass classifications, where the reference cohorts have similar abundance profiles but different species-species interactions. Individualized analysis of the human microbiome has the potential to improve diagnosis and personalized treatments.
Untargeted metabolomics reveals the effects of pre-analytic storage on serum metabolite profiles from healthy cats
Authors: Barko Patrick C. , Jambhekar Anisha , Swanson Kelly S. , Ridgway Marcella D. , Williams David A.
Published: May 2024

Untargeted metabolomics investigations have characterized metabolic disturbances associated with various diseases in domestic cats. However, the pre-analytic stability of serum metabolites in the species is unknown. Our objective was to compare serum metabolomes from healthy cats stored at -20°C for up to 12 months to samples stored at -80°C. Serum samples from 8 adult, healthy cats were stored at -20°C for 6 months, -20°C for 12 months, or -80°C for 12 months. Untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to generate serum metabolite profiles containing relative abundances of 733 serum metabolites that were compared among storage conditions. Unsupervised analysis with principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering of Euclidian distances revealed separation of samples from individual cats regardless of storage condition. Linear mixed-effects models identified 75 metabolites that differed significantly among storage conditions. Intraclass correlation analysis (ICC) classified most serum metabolites as having excellent (ICC ≥ 0.9; 33%) or moderate (ICC 0.75–0.89; 33%) stability, whereas 13% had poor stability (ICC < 0.5). Biochemicals that varied significantly among storage conditions and classified with poor stability included glutathione metabolites, amino acids, gamma-glutamyl amino acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The benzoate; glycine, serine and threonine; tryptophan; chemical (xenobiotics); acetylated peptide, and primary bile acid sub pathways were enriched among highly stable metabolites, whereas the monohydroxy fatty acid, polyunsaturated fatty, and monoacylglycerol sub-pathways were enriched among unstable metabolites. Our findings suggest that serum metabolome profiles are representative of the cat of origin, regardless of storage condition. However, changes in specific serum metabolites, especially glutathione, gamma-glutamyl amino acid, and fatty acid metabolites were consistent with increased sample oxidation during storage at -20°C compared with -80°C. By investigating the pre-analytic stability of serum metabolites, this investigation provides valuable insights that could aid other investigators in planning and interpreting studies of serum metabolomes in cats.
GTExome: Modeling commonly expressed missense mutations in the human genome
Authors: Hoffman Jill , Tan Henry , Sandoval-Cooper Clara , de Villiers Kaelyn , Reed Scott M.
Published: May 2024

A web application, GTExome, is described that quickly identifies, classifies, and models missense mutations in commonly expressed human proteins. GTExome can be used to categorize genomic mutation data with tissue specific expression data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. Commonly expressed missense mutations in proteins from a wide range of tissue types can be selected and assessed for modeling suitability. Information about the consequences of each mutation is provided to the user including if disulfide bonds, hydrogen bonds, or salt bridges are broken, buried prolines introduced, buried charges are created or lost, charge is swapped, a buried glycine is replaced, or if the residue that would be removed is a proline in the cis configuration. Also, if the mutation site is in a binding pocket the number of pockets and their volumes are reported. The user can assess this information and then select from available experimental or computationally predicted structures of native proteins to create, visualize, and download a model of the mutated protein using Fast and Accurate Side-chain Protein Repacking (FASPR). For AlphaFold modeled proteins, confidence scores for native proteins are provided. Using this tool, we explored a set of 9,666 common missense mutations from a variety of tissues from GTEx and show that most mutations can be modeled using this tool to facilitate studies of protein-protein and protein-drug interactions. The open-source tool is freely available at https://pharmacogenomics.clas.ucdenver.edu/gtexome/.
Attitudes of women towards intimate partner violence in Guyana: A cross-sectional analytical study
Authors: Joseph Gary , Vidaletti Luis Paulo , Husbands Cona , Edwards Lisa , James Michelle K. , Branas Charles C. , Morrison Christopher N.
Published: May 2024

Background

To assess the attitudes of women towards intimate partner violence (IPV) in Guyana.

Methods

We used national data from the publicly available Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted in Guyana in 2019 for women aged 15 to 49 years. The prevalence of women who agreed that a husband is justified in beating his wife was analyzed. Respondent reasons included if she: “goes out without telling him”, “neglects the children”, “argues with him”, “refuses sex with him”, “burns the food”, “has another partner”, “stays out late/partying”, “refuses to cook or clean”, “overspends”, and/or “he doesn’t have access to her cellphone”. Descriptive analyses were carried for all the variables. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with these 10 respondent reasons, separately and in combination.

Results

The overall prevalence of women’s attitudes justifying IPV against women if there was a ‘yes’ response to any of the 10 reasons was 17.9% (95%CI: 16.6–19.3%), and varied from 2.7% if she “goes out without telling him”, “burns the food”, or “overspends” to 10.0% if she “has another partner”. This prevalence ranged from 10.2% in urban areas to 19.3% in rural areas (p<0.001), and from 16.1% in coastal to 30.1% in interior areas (p<0.001). Similarly, 25.9% of women from the poorest household agreed that a husband has the right in beating his wife for any of the 10 reasons compared to 11.6% of the richest women (11.6%) (p<0.001). Rural place of residence, ethnicity, geographic region, level of education, wealth quintile, ever used of a computer, and frequency of listening to the radio were significant factors associated with women’s attitudes justifying IPV against women (p<0.05).

Conclusion

Over one-sixth of the respondents agreed that a husband was justified in committing IPV against women in Guyana. Public health programs focusing on geographic locations, ethnicity, and economic status must be implemented to change attitudes justifying IPV and reduce this significant public health challenge.
Insights into the effects of Friedreich ataxia on the left ventricle using T1 mapping and late gadolinium enhancement
Authors: Peverill Roger E. , Lin Kimberly Y. , Fogel Mark A. , Cheung Michael M. H. , Moir W. Stuart , Corben Louise A. , Cahoon Glenn , Delatycki Martin B.
Published: May 2024

Background

The left ventricular (LV) changes which occur in Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) are incompletely understood.

Methods

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging was performed using a 1.5T scanner in subjects with FRDA who are homozygous for an expansion of an intron 1 GAA repeat in the FXN gene. Standard measurements were performed of LV mass (LVM), LV end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) and LV ejection fraction (LVEF). Native T1 relaxation time and the extracellular volume fraction (ECV) were utilised as markers of left ventricular (LV) diffuse myocardial fibrosis and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was utilised as a marker of LV replacement fibrosis. FRDA genetic severity was assessed using the shorter FXN GAA repeat length (GAA1).

Results

There were 93 subjects with FRDA (63 adults, 30 children, 54% males), 9 of whom had a reduced LVEF (<55%). A LVEDV below the normal range was present in 39%, a LVM above the normal range in 22%, and an increased LVM/LVEDV ratio in 89% subjects. In adults with a normal LVEF, there was an independent positive correlation of LVM with GAA1, and a negative correlation with age, but no similar relationships were seen in children. GAA1 was positively correlated with native T1 time in both adults and children, and with ECV in adults, all these associations independent of LVM and LVEDV. LGE was present in 21% of subjects, including both adults and children, and subjects with and without a reduced LVEF. None of GAA1, LVM or LVEDV were predictors of LGE.

Conclusion

An association between diffuse interstitial LV myocardial fibrosis and genetic severity in FRDA was present independently of FRDA-related LV structural changes. Localised replacement fibrosis was found in a minority of subjects with FRDA and was not associated with LV structural change or FRDA genetic severity in subjects with a normal LVEF.
Assessing hypoxic respiratory failure in mechanically ventilated neonates: A comparative study of oxygen saturation index and oxygenation index
Authors: Bui-Binh-Bao Son , Nguyen Thi Dao , Hoang Mai Linh , Do Ho Tinh Tam , Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh
Published: May 2024

Objective

To investigate the correlation between oxygen saturation index (OSI) and oxygenation index (OI) for evaluating the blood oxygenation status in neonates with respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation support and to assess the predictive capability of OSI in determining clinically relevant OI cutoffs.

Methods

A prospective study was conducted on neonates who received invasive mechanical ventilation at the neonatal intensive care unit of tertiary hospital in Vietnam. Bland-Altman analysis was utilized to evaluate the agreement between OSI and OI.

Results

A total of 123 neonates, including both term and preterm infants, were included in the study. A high agreement rate of 94.3% within the 95% limits of agreement (between OI and OSI), with a narrow similarity value of 3.3 (95% CI: -5.1 to 11.8) and high correlation coefficient (r = 0.791, p<0.001) was observed. The OSI cut-off value for predicting an OI of >15 was determined to be 7.45, with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 87.4% (AUC 0.955; 95% CI: 0.922–0.989, p < 0.05). Similarly, an OSI cutoff value of 9.9 corresponded to an OI of 25, displaying a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 87.4% (AUC 0.92). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for OSI exhibited statistically significant results (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

The findings demonstrate a strong correlation between OSI and OI in neonates with respiratory failure. Furthermore, OSI, as a non-invasive method, can serve as a substitute for OI to evaluate the severity of hypoxic respiratory failure and lung injury in neonates.