bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
NmRF: identification of multispecies RNA 2’-O-methylation modification sites from RNA sequences
Authors: Ao Chunyan , Zou Quan , Yu Liang
Published: October 2021

2'-O-methylation (Nm) is a post-transcriptional modification of RNA that is catalyzed by 2'-O-methyltransferase and involves replacing the H on the 2′-hydroxyl group with a methyl group. The 2'-O-methylation modification site is detected in a variety of RNA types (miRNA, tRNA, mRNA, etc.), plays an important role in biological processes and is associated with different diseases. There are few functional mechanisms developed at present, and traditional high-throughput experiments are time-consuming and expensive to explore functional mechanisms. For a deeper understanding of relevant biological mechanisms, it is necessary to develop efficient and accurate recognition tools based on machine learning. Based on this, we constructed a predictor called NmRF based on optimal mixed features and random forest classifier to identify 2'-O-methylation modification sites. The predictor can identify modification sites of multiple species at the same time. To obtain a better prediction model, a two-step strategy is adopted; that is, the optimal hybrid feature set is obtained by combining the light gradient boosting algorithm and incremental feature selection strategy. In 10-fold cross-validation, the accuracies of Homo sapiens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were 89.069 and 93.885%, and the AUC were 0.9498 and 0.9832, respectively. The rigorous 10-fold cross-validation and independent tests confirm that the proposed method is significantly better than existing tools. A user-friendly web server is accessible at http://lab.malab.cn/∼acy/NmRF.
The micro–meso–macro architecture of a proposed collaborative emergent strategy for the hydrogen market
Authors: Tranfield John
Published: October 2021

In 2018, an intergovernmental climate-change panel concluded that, to maintain a global temperature increases of <1.5oC, net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions would be required by 2050. Since then, >110 countries have pledged net-zero carbon ambitions by 2050 and hydrogen has been identified at national levels as key to achieving this. Governments have pledged >US$ 70 billion to further advance hydrogen infrastructure and technology, with an additional investigation on >200 proposed hydrogen-based projects expecting completion before 2030, totalling a value of US$ 300 billion. Reaching these aggressive targets will require a disciplined cohesion of collaborative strategies to develop an integrated macro infrastructure system. This article discusses the current infancy of the hydrogen market, introduces and defines a new ‘collaborative emergent strategy’ based on the emergent strategy concept by Mintzberg and Waters, and links its developmental viability through a staged micro–meso–macro architecture. Successful strategic business case studies and current market opportunities across multiple industries are reviewed as they all vie for a strategic early market position.
High-Throughput CRISPR–Cas13 SARS-CoV-2 Test
Authors: Manning Brendan J , Khan Wahab A , Peña Jennifer M , Fiore Elizabeth S , Boisvert Heike , Tudino Marisa C , Barney Rachael E , Wilson Mary K , Singh Subha , Mowatt Joel A , Thompson Hannah J , Tsongalis Gregory J , Blake William J
Published: October 2021

Background

The ability to control the spread of COVID-19 continues to be hampered by a lack of rapid, scalable, and easily deployable diagnostic solutions.

Methods

We developed a diagnostic method based on CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) that can deliver sensitive, specific, and high-throughput detection of Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The assay utilizes SHERLOCK (Specific High-sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter unLOCKing) for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and may be performed directly on a swab or saliva sample without nucleic acid extraction. The assay uses a 384-well format and provides results in <1 hour.

Results

Assay performance was evaluated with 105 (55 negative, 50 positive) remnant SARS-CoV-2 specimens previously tested using Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorized assays and retested with a modified version of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quantitative PCR with reverse transcription (RT–qPCR) assay. When combined with magnetic bead-based extraction, the high-throughput SHERLOCK SARS-CoV-2 assay was 100% concordant (n = 60) with the CDC RT–qPCR. When used with direct sample addition the high-throughput assay was also 100% concordant with the CDC RT–qPCR direct method (n = 45). With direct saliva sample addition, the negative and positive percentage agreements were 100% (15/15, 95% CI: 81.8–100%) and 88% (15/17, 95% CI: 63.6–98.5%), respectively, compared with results from a collaborating clinical laboratory.

Conclusions

This high-throughput assay identifies SARS-CoV-2 from patient samples with or without nucleic acid extraction with high concordance to RT–qPCR methods. This test enables high complexity laboratories to rapidly increase their testing capacities with simple equipment.
On the importance of representative datasets in ECG-based artificial intelligence
Authors: Gumpfer N , Wegener S , Prim J , Gruen D , Hannig J , Keller T , Guckert M
Published: October 2021

Background/Introduction

ECG-based artificial intelligence (AI) is an emerging field in digital cardiology. Training on diseased records vs. healthy controls is common practice. We aimed to evaluate if such an approach can lead to unwanted behaviour in real-world settings and thus unnecessarily reduce diagnostic precision of the developed AI model.

Purpose

Several studies have shown that deep neural networks are able to exceed performance of medical experts. However, when these models are applied to different cohorts, results vary strongly. We hypothesise that this is because the datasets used for training were not representative for the target population.

Methods

Based on the public ECG database PTB-XL we sampled three distinct subsets of n=150 records representing ECG groups labelled for diagnoses 'old myocardial infarction' (M), 'normal ECG' (N), or 'other cardiac abnormality' (O). These groups were combined to three datasets ([M, N] (n=300), [M, O] (n=300), [M, N, O] (n=450)), representing different approaches to data sampling. On each dataset, we trained a separate but equally structured deep neural network using 100-fold bootstrapping. The diagnostic performance of each model was validated on unseen data from all datasets with sensitivity, specificity and area under the receiver operator characteristic curve.

Results

Evaluation of the three differently trained models shows best diagnostic performance on the M vs. N records and worst on the M vs. O records. However, in the out-of-dataset setting, the best-performing model (trained on [M, N]) shows weaker performance on the [M, N, O] and [M, O] datasets. Sensitivity for the same model remained equal, as identical M records were used throughout corresponding bootstrapping folds. Detailed results are presented in Table 1.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that the model trained on a dataset including only diseased records vs. healthy controls [M, N] learned to recognise healthy (N) instead of diseased (M) records, which explains why it performed poorly on datasets including records showing other cardiac abnormalities (O). Such behaviour is a common problem in AI and requires special attention in dataset sampling. For small cohorts, it is tempting to increase the amount of training data by using healthy controls. However, we have shown that this can be a poor option, since classifiers can more easily rely on features that are not actually related to the target disease. Training and validation of classifiers should therefore be performed on representative datasets that are as close as possible to the target population.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: Public Institution(s). Main funding source(s): Forschungscampus Mittelhessen, Flexi Funds Table 1
Greater Inclusion of Asian Americans in Aging Research on Family Caregiving for Better Understanding of Racial Health Inequities
Authors: Yellow Horse Aggie J , Patterson Sarah E
Published: October 2021

With the substantial demographic changes in racial composition in the United States since 1965, research on racial health inequities must build upon the Black-White binary to assess the complex ways “race” affects health and aging. Considering variation in the prevalence and meanings of aging across racialized groups requires concerted efforts to expand and disaggregate samples. Aligned with the goals of the intersectionality framework, we argue that greater inclusion of Asian Americans is critical to advance both theoretical and methodological considerations that enable us to investigate the lived experiences of Asian Americans. Using caregiving as an example, we discuss how systemic, cultural, and interpersonal marginalization from racism and other oppressive systems intertwine with “race” to produce the race effects. Greater inclusion of Asian Americans helps further provide the opportunity to conceptualize culture as dynamic and interacting with structure to produce different racial patterns. Meaningful inclusion of Asian Americans in research requires more systemic effort to collect accurate, reliable, and quality data for Asian Americans that can be disaggregated by other important axes of stratification.
Undermining the Role of Women in the Economy: The Interplay Between Paid Work and Unpaid Care Work in India
Authors: Vyas Neha
Published: October 2021

Women are overrepresented in informal employment in the Indian labour market. They also devote more time to unpaid care work than men do. The poor working conditions of women are attributable to this double burden of work. Due to the lack of regulatory measures to protect the interest of informal women workers along with rigid gender norms, women’s participation in paid work is drastically reduced. As far as unpaid care work is concerned, feminist economists have been striving to make such work visible for a long time now. There have been some developments in labour statistics, with time use surveys quantifying women’s paid and unpaid contributions to the economy. This article delves into the examination of unpaid care work in India with the help of the Indian government’s recent Time Use Survey. It attempts to study the connection between paid work and unpaid care work and its implications for the working conditions of women in India. Finally, it evaluates the ‘right to work’ as a possible solution by using the example of employment guarantee schemes in India.
Going beyond Security Community and Balance of Power: South America's Hybrid Regional Security Governance
Authors: Villa Rafael Duarte , Chagas-Bastos Fabrício H , Braga Camila de Macedo
Published: October 2021

Regional security in South America cannot be explained simply by considering balance of power or security-community governance mechanisms. In this article, we present and discuss a hybrid security-governance approach for talking about governance security in the Americas, particularly, South America. We hypothesize that there exists a new security-governance configuration in which the traditional governance mechanisms—balance of power and security community—are not mutually exclusive, but overlap and coexist, leading to the emergence of a regional hybrid security architecture. Beyond explaining the reasons and causes for the overlap between security community and balance of power, we show the hybrid nature of regional security governance and point out how taking the hybridity conceptual approach fills the gaps within current research. We first offer a critique of two leading approaches to thinking about security in the Americas (balancing and security communities). Next, we show how the overlapping configurations in South America's regional security governance happen, testing Adler and Greve's (2009, “When Security Community Meets Balance of Power: Overlapping Regional Mechanisms of Security Governance.” Review of International Studies 35[S1]: 59–84) framework against historical evidence. Last, we provide evidence of a hybrid security governance in the region. We complement our analysis with qualitative data from interviews with scholars, political, diplomatic, and military actors conducted in various countries across the region. Our contribution is a significant step toward understanding how security-governance formations come about in non-Western regions of the world, privileging its specificities. More importantly, we offer a novel angle to escape straitjacket hypotheses to security governance grounded in Western hegemonic ideal types, which have focus either on balance of power or on security-community models.
N klA Case Report on a IV-degree Thermal Crush Injury of Right Upper Arm: The Application of Functional Prosthesis Implantation Technology
Authors: Wang Xue-Xin , Wang Hong-Shu , Xiao Shi-Chu , Wang Chun-Yang , Ji Shi-Zhao , Chai Yi-Min , Wen Gen
Published: October 2021

Severe IV-degree thermal crush injury of limbs involved the subcutaneous fascia, muscle and bone, which may lead to amputation and has a great impact on the patient’s quality of life. We can repair wounds with pedicle flaps or even free flaps, However, there are still huge challenges in bone defect of extremities and functional reconstruction. In recent years, with the development of functional prostheses, we have reconstructed limb functions in many patients helping them to complete their daily lives. We report a case where the right upper arm was injured by thermal crush, leading severe burns to the skin, fascia, muscle and bone. We applied a pedicled latissimus dorsi flap and a free anterolateral thigh flap to repair the wound, and realized the function of limb salvage and movement of the right upper arm by implanting 3D printed scapula, upper arm, and elbow joint prostheses. This case illustrates that IV-degree burns involving bones have new technologies to repair and achieve mobility now.
Beyond the Acute Phase: Understanding Relationships Among Cardiorespiratory Response to Exercises, Physical Activity Levels, and Quality of Life in Children After Burn Injuries
Authors: Elnaggar Ragab K , Osailan Ahmad M , Mahmoud Waleed S , Alqahtani Bader A , Azab Alshimaa R
Published: October 2021

The long-term cardiorespiratory function in burn-injured children can be jeopardized due to complications brought on by the injury. This study sought to assess the cardiorespiratory responses to maximal exercise in children who sustained a burn injury and explore the relationships among cardiorespiratory response, physical activity levels (PALs), and health-related quality of life (HRQL). Forty-five burn-injured children (age: 13.89 ± 2.43 years; duration since burn injury: 3.13 ± 0.93 years) and 52 age- and gender-matched healthy children (14.15 ± 2.27 years) participated in this study. Both cohorts were evaluated for the maximal exercise capacity (defined by peak oxygen uptake [VO2peak], maximum heart rate [HRmax], minute ventilation [VE], ventilatory equivalent [VEq], respiratory rate [RR], and respiratory exchange ratio [RER]), PALs, and HRQL. The burn-injured children had significantly lower VO2peak (P = .0001) and VE (P = .003) and higher VEq (P < .0001) and RR (P = .007) than their healthy controls, indicating less-efficient cardiorespiratory capacity. However, the HRmax (P = .092) and RER (P = .251) were similar. The burn-injured children reported significantly lower PALs (P = .014) and HRQL (P < .0001). The PALs (r [95% CI] = .411 [0.132–0.624]; P = .005) and HRQL (r [95% CI] = .536 [0.284–0.712]; P = .0001) were significantly correlated with the cardiorespiratory capacity represented by VO2peak in burn-injured group. The variations in VO2peak explained ~17% and 28.7% of the variations in PALs and HRQL, respectively. In conclusion, the cardiorespiratory efficiency of the burn-injured children may remain limited, even up to a few years following the injury. The limited cardiorespiratory capacity accounts in part for the reduced PALs and HRQL.
Thaler strikes again, down under: artificial intelligence systems as inventors not ruled out (yet)
Authors: Jenkins Georgia
Published: October 2021

Thaler v Commissioner of Patents [2021] FCA 879, Federal Court of Australia, 30 July 2021

The Federal Court of Australia finds a patent application was correctly lodged despite naming an artificial intelligence system as its inventor.
Setting Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Breakpoints: A Primer for Pediatric Infectious Diseases Specialists on the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute Approach
Authors: Pierce Virginia M , Mathers Amy J
Published: October 2021

Breakpoints are the values used by clinical microbiology laboratories to interpret the results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and classify isolates as susceptible or resistant. Whether the breakpoints applied by laboratories accurately predict the likelihood of successful treatment with a particular antimicrobial is an issue of critical importance to quality clinical care. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets breakpoints, and globally, breakpoints are also set by 2 standards development organizations, the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST); individual laboratories may choose which breakpoints to implement. Many CLSI breakpoints are recognized by FDA, facilitating their incorporation into widely used commercial AST devices. The CLSI Subcommittee on AST’s consensus approach to establishing (and as needed, revising) breakpoints involves integration of currently available microbiological, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic, and clinical data. Here, an overview of the CLSI process for establishing breakpoints is provided.
Significance of boost radiotherapy in early invasive ductal breast cancer with ductal carcinoma in situ component under negative surgical margins
Authors: Shimizu Naoko , Myojin Miyako , Tamura Motoshi , Nishiyama Noriaki , Yamashiro Katsushige , Yuyama Yuichi , Okazaki Yutaka , Suzuki Yasuhiro , Takahashi Masato
Published: October 2021

We hypothesize that there is a risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) in surgical margin-free invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) in the presence of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) component affecting surgical margins in early stage. From 1990 to 2014, 343 patients with IDC in which the DCIS component constitute have received radiotherapy (RT) following breast-conserving surgery (BCS). All patients received whole breast irradiation with a prescribed dose of 50 Gy in 20 fractions (four times a week). This one-arm cohort with boost RT (253 patients) was compared for IBTR with a non-cohort group receiving no boost RT because of freedom from positive margins (90 patients). Median observation months were 98 (boost group) vs 119 (no boost group), respectively. The 15-year local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) rates were 98.5% and 85.6% in the boost and no boost groups, respectively (Cox proportional hazards model univariate analysis; p = 0.013, HR 0.13). Similarly, for other background factors, there was a significant difference in the LRFS between age groups. The 15-year LRFS rate was 91.8% in patients aged 45 years or younger and 94.6% in patients older than 46 years (p = 0.031, HR 0.21), respectively. Only these two factors were independently significant in Cox proportional hazards model multivariate analysis. IBTR risk in margin-free IDC with DCIS component was independently decreased by boost RT in the cohort setting. Tumor size, extensive intraductal component (EIC), boost dose, the presence of lymph node (LN) metastasis and hormonal therapy were not IBTR risk factors in this study.
Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro:Gloria Anzaldúa’s Response to 9/11
Authors: Simmons Caitlin
Published: October 2021

“Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Gloria Anzaldúa’s response to 9/11” examines Gloria Anzaldúa’s experimental dissertation—a collection of essays, poetry, and art—that she intermittently edited until her untimely passing in 2004. Published and edited in 2015 with annotations by multicultural scholar, AnaLouise Keating, Anzaldúa’s final text has not received its fair share of scholarly attention, as most is paid to Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). This article focuses specifically on the first chapter from Luz en lo Oscuro titled “Let us be the healing of the wound,” which responds directly to the events of 9/11. Anzaldúa’s postnational imaginary, her reflection on Azteca goddesses, and the bilingual nature of her writing set the essay radically apart from the canon of post-9/11 literature in English. Anzaldúa’s post-structuralist philosophy of conocimiento—“the potential of knowing within, an awareness and intelligence not grasped by logical thought” (117)—rejects the theory that atrocity is “beyond words,” and instead “voices” critiques and complaints that embrace the value of shared vulnerability. “Let us be the healing of the wound,” therefore, should also be read in light of Judith Butler’s Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (2004), which similarly situates the attacks of 9/11 not in relationship to silencing (via trauma theory) but to the historical precarity of excluded populations in a global community—populations living often in national borderland contexts with long-standing legacies of colonialism and slavery that render their lives both precarious and disposable. As this article indicates, Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro deserves more scholarly attention as Anzaldúa’s last work and also as an important text in the post-9/11 canon.
Comparing different closure relations for cosmic ray hydrodynamics
Authors: Thomas T , Pfrommer C
Published: October 2021

Cosmic ray (CR) hydrodynamics is a (re-)emerging field of high interest due to the importance of CRs for the dynamical evolution of the interstellar, the circumgalactic, and the intracluster medium. In these environments, CRs with GeV energies can influence large-scale dynamics by regulating star formation, driving galactic winds, or altering the pressure balance of galactic haloes. Recent efforts have moved the focus of the community from a one-moment description of CR transport towards a two-moment model as this allows for a more accurate description of the microphysics impacting the CR population. Like all hydrodynamical theories, these two-moment methods require a closure relation for a consistent and closed set of evolution equations. The goal of this paper is to quantify the impact of different closure relations on the resulting solutions. To this end, we review the common P1 and M1 closure relations, derive a new four-moment H1 description for CR transport, and describe how to incorporate CR scattering by Alfvén waves into these three hydrodynamical models. While there are significant differences in the transport properties of radiation in the P1 and M1 approximations in comparison to more accurate radiative transfer simulations using the discrete ordinates approximation, we only find small differences between the three hydrodynamical CR transport models in the free-streaming limit when we neglect CR scattering. Most importantly, for realistic applications in the interstellar, circumgalactic, or intracluster medium where CR scattering is frequent, these differences vanish and all presented hydrodynamical models produce the same results.
Lymphatic Dysfunction Detected by Multi-lymphosome Indocyanine Green Lymphography and Lymphatic Ultrasound
Authors: Hara Hisako , Mihara Makoto
Published: October 2021

Investigation into the cause of lower extremity edema is essential for successful treatment; however, it is sometimes difficult to diagnose. In this case report, we present a patient with bilateral lower extremity edema in whom abnormalities were detected with multi-lymphosome indocyanine green (ICG) lymphography and lymphatic ultrasound. An 87-year-old woman underwent total hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy for uterine cancer when she was 55 years old. Ten years ago, she was prescribed with a diuretic agent for bilateral edema of the lower extremities; however, the edema did not subside. Conventional general examination, including blood tests, electrocardiography, echocardiography, duplex ultrasound for the legs, and lymphoscintigraphy, did not show any significant abnormalities that may occur with lower limb edema. We performed multi-lymphosome ICG lymphography by injecting ICG in the first web space of the foot, the lateral ankle, and the lateral thigh. This helped us detect lymphatic dysfunction in both lower extremities. Additionally, we performed lymphatic ultrasound and found dilated lymphatic vessels in both lower limbs, indicating lymphatic accumulation within these vessels. Injecting ICG into multiple lymphosomes appears to be useful in diagnosing the causes of lower extremity edema as well as evaluating the lymphatic function of those lymphosomes. Furthermore, lymphatic ultrasound can be used to scan the whole lower extremity because it does not rely on the flow of a contrast agent to produce an image. We believe that combining these diagnostic examinations will make it possible to diagnose patients who have previously been misdiagnosed due to insufficient screening measures.
Nasal prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection by intranasal influenza-based boost vaccination
Authors: Zhou Runhong , Wang Pui , Wong Yik-Chun , Xu Haoran , Lau Siu-Ying , Liu Li , Mok Bobo Wing-Yee , Peng Qiaoli , Liu Na , Woo Kin-Fai , Deng Shaofeng , Tam Rachel Chun-Yee , Huang Haode , Zhang Anna Jinxia , Zhou Dongyan , Zhou Biao , Chan Chun-Yin , Du Zhenglong , Yang Dawei , Au Ka-Kit , Yuen Kwok-Yung , Chen Honglin , Chen Zhiwei
Published: October 2021

Background

Vaccines in emergency use are efficacious against COVID-19, yet vaccine-induced prevention against nasal SARS-CoV-2 infection remains suboptimal.

Methods

Since mucosal immunity is critical for nasal prevention, we investigated an intramuscular PD1-based receptor-binding domain (RBD) DNA vaccine (PD1-RBD-DNA) and intranasal live attenuated influenza-based vaccines (LAIV-CA4-RBD and LAIV-HK68-RBD) against SARS-CoV-2.

Findings

Substantially higher systemic and mucosal immune responses, including bronchoalveolar lavage IgA/IgG and lung polyfunctional memory CD8 T cells, were induced by the heterologous PD1-RBD-DNA/LAIV-HK68-RBD as compared with other regimens. When vaccinated animals were challenged at the memory phase, prevention of robust SARS-CoV-2 infection in nasal turbinate was achieved primarily by the heterologous regimen besides consistent protection in lungs. The regimen-induced antibodies cross-neutralized variants of concerns. Furthermore, LAIV-CA4-RBD could boost the BioNTech vaccine for improved mucosal immunity.

Interpretation

Our results demonstrated that intranasal influenza-based boost vaccination is required for inducing mucosal and systemic immunity for effective SARS-CoV-2 prevention in both upper and lower respiratory systems.

Funding

This study was supported by the Research Grants Council Collaborative Research Fund (C7156-20G, C1134-20G and C5110-20G), General Research Fund (17107019) and Health and Medical Research Fund (19181052 and 19181012) in Hong Kong; Outbreak Response to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations; Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JSGG20200225151410198); the Health@InnoHK, Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong; and National Program on Key Research Project of China (2020YFC0860600, 2020YFA0707500 and 2020YFA0707504); and donations from the Friends of Hope Education Fund. Z.C.’s team was also partly supported by the Theme-Based Research Scheme (T11-706/18-N).
Interpreting old texts with new tools: digital multimodal composition for a high school reading assignment
Authors: Higgs Jennifer M. , Kim Grace MyHyun
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Research on nonschool settings suggests young people benefit from digital multimodal composition. Less is known about how digital composing can support students as they interpret required literary class texts. To understand the potential benefits and challenges of digitally composing for literary analysis, design interviews with two high school students were conducted to examine their processes as they designed digital multimodal compositions to interpret Anglo-Saxon poems. Grounded in the social semiotic theory of multimodality, this study aims to examine how students engaged in literary analysis and interpretive digital composition within secondary ELA.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative classroom data were collected through digital means over a six-week period: a whole-class student survey, focal student semistructured design interviews, emails, field notes, analytic memos and student-created digital artifacts.

Findings

Students’ print-based literary engagements and digital multimodal composition processes were mutually shaped. Additionally, digital multimodal composition offered entry points into challenging print-based literary texts, resulting in understandings enacted across multiple forms of mediation.

Research limitations/implications

The study focused on one cycle of multimodal composition. Additional studies of students’ digital multimodal composition processes in ELA classrooms over time could be beneficial to the field.

Practical implications

The study identifies an approach to digital multimodal composition that may help teachers address and integrate core disciplinary objectives.

Originality/value

This study contributes to scholarship concerned with how “new” technologies and “old” literacies co-exist in contexts requiring students to engage in expanded communication modes alongside specific academic literacies.
RNN-based multispectral satellite image processing for remote sensing applications
Authors: Marri Venkata Dasu , P. Veera Narayana Reddy , S. Chandra Mohan Reddy
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Image classification is a fundamental form of digital image processing in which pixels are labeled into one of the object classes present in the image. Multispectral image classification is a challenging task due to complexities associated with the images captured by satellites. Accurate image classification is highly essential in remote sensing applications. However, existing machine learning and deep learning–based classification methods could not provide desired accuracy. The purpose of this paper is to classify the objects in the satellite image with greater accuracy.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper proposes a deep learning-based automated method for classifying multispectral images. The central issue of this work is that data sets collected from public databases are first divided into a number of patches and their features are extracted. The features extracted from patches are then concatenated before a classification method is used to classify the objects in the image.

Findings

The performance of proposed modified velocity-based colliding bodies optimization method is compared with existing methods in terms of type-1 measures such as sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, net present value, F1 Score and Matthews correlation coefficient and type 2 measures such as false discovery rate and false positive rate. The statistical results obtained from the proposed method show better performance than existing methods.

Originality/value

In this work, multispectral image classification accuracy is improved with an optimization algorithm called modified velocity-based colliding bodies optimization.
Analyzing procurement fraud in the US Navy
Authors: Rendon Juanita M. , Rendon Rene G.
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze an ongoing fraud case in the US Navy involving the procurement of ship-husbanding services. The fraud acts will be analyzed from three perspectives–contract life cycle, internal controls and fraud schemes.

Design/methodology/approach

A data search was conducted to collect publicly available documents issued by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). A content analysis was used to analyze the fraud acts by aligning them with the contracting phase, internal control component and fraud scheme category.

Findings

The majority of the fraud occurred in the contracting phases of contract administration, followed by procurement planning and then source selection. The majority of the fraud occurred because of internal control component weaknesses in the control environment followed by information and communications. The majority of the fraud was aligned with the fraud scheme of collusion, followed by billing, cost and pricing.

Research limitations/implications

Because this is an ongoing investigation, additional DOJ information will become available and provide additional insight on the contracting phase, internal control component and fraud scheme.

Practical implications

The analysis suggests that the Navy’s lack of trained personnel, capable processes and effective internal controls result in the increased vulnerability to procurement fraud in its husbanding support services program.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze fraud through the lens of auditability theory, specifically by the contracting phase and internal control component. Public agencies can enhance fraud detection and deterrence efforts by understanding how weaknesses in contracting processes and internal controls may increase an organization’s vulnerabilities for fraudulent activities.
Litigations with the home State and internationalization
Authors: Fernàndez-Méndez Laura , García-Canal Esteban , García-García Raquel
Published: October 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate whether Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can be driven by the creative compliance knowledge that firms gather in their home country through litigations with the government.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on the knowledge-based view and organizational learning theory to argue that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between experience in litigating with the home State and a firm’s level of FDI. The authors test this hypothesis using negative binomial regressions on a sample of Spanish listed firms for the period between 1986 and 2008.

Findings

The findings of this study confirm the hypothesized inverted U-shaped relationship between a firm’s experience in litigating with the home State and its FDI levels. Firms seem to face an exploration–exploitation dilemma regarding their compliance with domestic regulation. Once they have accumulated a certain amount of creative compliance knowledge, it would be better for them to exploit it both domestically and internationally in the form of creative compliance routines, instead of continuing to push the limits of regulation.

Originality/value

Firms willing to explore the gray areas of the law are usually forced to litigate with the State. As a result, they develop creative compliance knowledge that they can incorporate into their legal routines and capabilities so that they can later exploit it in foreign countries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that attempts to understand the influence of creative compliance knowledge on a firm’s international investments.
Review of analysis techniques in mental health research with consumer instruments – a guide for researchers
Authors: Badu Eric , O’Brien Anthony Paul , Mitchell Rebecca
Published: October 2021

Purpose

This integrative review aimed to identify and synthesis literature on analysis techniques and methodological approaches used to analyse consumer measures in mental health research.

Design/methodology/approach

The review included papers published up to January 2020 across seven databases: CINAHL, Web of Science, Medline, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Scopus and Google Scholar. Data search and extraction was conducted according to the recommended guidelines for conducting review by Cochrane and Joanna Briggs Institute. Mixed method synthesis was used to integrate both qualitative and quantitative data into a single synthesis.

Findings

The initial search yielded a total of 2,282 papers. A total of 32 papers were included in the synthesis. Most of the included papers (25/32; 78.12%) focused on psychometric properties, whereas 14% (5/32) targeted analysis techniques, and 6.3% (2/32) addressed methodological justification. The measurement models (e.g. psychometric properties) were analysed through validity and reliability testing as part of instrument development and adaptation. The structural models were analysed using techniques such as structural equation modelling, multivariable regression models, intraclass correlation coefficient and partial least squares–structural equation modelling.

Practical implications

Although consumer-reported instruments are analysed using techniques involving linear, hierarchical and longitudinal effects, no attempt has been given to procedures that applied complex data mining or machine learning. Consumer researchers, clinicians and quality management are encouraged to apply rigorous analysis techniques to critically evaluate consumer outcome measures.

Originality/value

This review provides evidence on the analysis techniques in mental health research to inform the training of mental health professionals, students and quality assessment practitioners.
Trust, leadership and conflict: the impact of HR practices during family firm M&As
Authors: Lind Stella Charlotte , Lattuch Frank
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Effective leadership can be success-critical in mergers and acquisitions. The purpose of this study is to present what human resource (HR) practice can offer if such leadership is absent and puts the success of the merger or acquisition at risk.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on a recent merger, this paper clarifies the interplay between trust, leadership and conflict.

Findings

HR can take an active role in supporting top management during major organizational change by avoiding a leadership vacuum; effectively communicating promises by the new owner; and offering support in interfamilial conflicts during the integration phase.

Originality/value

Supporting a smooth exit for the target owner, assisting the owning family in their communication activities and taking conflicts within the family seriously, all help to effectively merge two family firms.
Update of recent findings in genetic hair disorders
Authors: Hayashi Ryota , Shimomura Yutaka
Published: October 2021

Genetic hair disorders, although unusual, are not very rare, and dermatologists often have opportunities to see patients. Significant advances in molecular genetics have led to identifying many causative genes for genetic hair disorders, including the recently identified causative genes, such as LSS and C3ORF52. Many patients have been detected with autosomal recessive woolly hair/hypotrichosis in the Japanese population caused by founder mutations in the LIPH gene. Additionally, many patients with genetic hair disorders caused by other genes have been reported in East Asia including Japan. Understanding genetic hair disorders is essential for dermatologists, and the findings obtained from analyzing these diseases will contribute to revealing the mechanisms of hair follicle morphogenesis and development in humans.
Personality, spatiotemporal ecological variation and resident/explorer movement syndromes in the sleepy lizard
Authors: Michelangeli Marcus , Payne Eric , Spiegel Orr , Sinn David L. , Leu Stephan T. , Gardner Michael G. , Sih Andrew
Published: October 2021

Individual variation in movement is profoundly important for fitness and offers key insights into the spatial and temporal dynamics of populations and communities. Nonetheless, individual variation in fine‐scale movement behaviours is rarely examined even though animal tracking devices offer the long‐term, high‐resolution, repeatable data in natural conditions that are ideal for studying this variation. Furthermore, of the few studies that consider individual variation in movement, even fewer also consider the internal traits and environmental factors that drive movement behaviour which are necessary for contextualising individual differences in movement patterns.

In this study, we GPS tracked a free‐ranging population of sleepy lizards Tiliqua rugosa, each Austral spring over 5 years to examine consistent among‐individual variation in movement patterns, as well as how these differences were mediated by key internal and ecological factors.

We found that individuals consistently differed in a suite of weekly movement traits, and that these traits strongly covaried among‐individuals, forming movement syndromes. Lizards fell on a primary movement continuum, from ‘residents’ that spent extended periods of time residing within smaller core areas of their home range, to ‘explorers’ that moved greater distances and explored vaster areas of the environment.

Importantly, we also found that these consistent differences in lizard movement were related to two ecologically important animal personality traits (boldness and aggression), their sex, key features of the environment (including food availability, and a key water resource), habitat type and seasonal variation (cool/moist vs. hot/drier) in environmental conditions.

Broadly, these movement specialisations likely reflect variation in life‐history tactics including foraging and mating tactics that ultimately underlie key differences in space use. Such information can be used to connect phenotypic population structure to key ecological and evolutionary processes, for example social networks and disease‐transmission pathways, further highlighting the value of examining individual variation in movement behaviour.
Multi‐year drought alters plant species composition more than productivity across northern temperate grasslands
Authors: Batbaatar Amgaa , Carlyle Cameron N. , Bork Edward W. , Chang Scott X. , Cahill James F.
Published: October 2021

The occurrence of multi‐year drought is predicted to increase globally with climate change. However, it is unclear whether drought effects on ecosystems are progressive through time.

Here, we experimentally reduced growing season precipitation (GSP) by 45% at seven North American temperate grasslands for four consecutive years to determine the following: (a) whether the effects of reduced precipitation on plant community structure and biomass components (shoot, root, litter) are compounding over time; (b) whether prior year climatic and soil conditions influence subsequent drought impacts on plant community structure and biomass components; and (c) whether the effects of reduced precipitation on individual ecosystem components are related to one another.

Across the seven field sites, we observed neither consistent nor progressive effects of reduced precipitation on any biomass component during the experiment, despite having extreme drought conditions imposed for four consecutive years. Relative to the ambient treatment, above‐ground net primary productivity (ANPP) declined in response to drought during the early years of the experiment but increased above the ambient treatment in the fourth year, while root and litter biomass were stable across the sites throughout the study. Similarly, graminoid cover decreased initially but recovered by the final year of the experiment, contributing to observed differences in species composition between treatments across sites. Compositional changes were not associated with any declines in species richness or evenness. Divergent responses among years were not driven by lag effects based on prior year climatic and soil conditions. Furthermore, precipitation effects on ecosystem components were largely independent as we found only two positive links: between ANPP and plant species richness, and between species evenness and composition.

Synthesis. Overall, our results suggest that these northern grasslands are relatively resistant to short‐term multi‐year drought in the context of supporting plant diversity and biomass production.
Biodiversity–productivity relationships in a natural grassland community vary under diversity loss scenarios
Authors: Pan Qingmin , Symstad Amy J. , Bai Yongfei , Huang Jianhui , Wu Jianguo , Naeem Shahid , Chen Dima , Tian Dashuan , Wang Qibing , Han Xingguo
Published: October 2021

Understanding the biodiversity–productivity relationship and underlying mechanisms in natural ecosystems under realistic diversity loss scenarios remains a major challenge for ecologists despite its importance for predicting impacts of rapid loss of biodiversity worldwide. Here we report the results of a plant functional group (PFG) removal experiment conducted on the Mongolian Plateau, the largest remaining natural grassland in the world.

Our results demonstrated that the biodiversity–productivity relationship varied among positive linear, neutral and unimodal forms under different PFG loss patterns. Moreover, the form of this relationship with the same PFG loss pattern sometimes changed through time.

The abundance of the remaining PFG(s) before removal and their compensation following the loss of other PFGs were two major mechanisms affecting the biodiversity–productivity relationship under diversity loss scenarios. The abundance effect promoted positive responses of productivity to biodiversity, but the compensation effect caused several biodiversity–productivity relationships, hinging on its direction (positive or negative) and strength. As indicated by the values of the compensation index, negative, zero and partial compensations contributed to the positive relationships, while full compensation resulted in a neutral relationship. Overcompensation at intermediate PFG richness levels created a unimodal curve in our system, but it could also lead to a negative linear relationship.

Synthesis. Our experiment provides a vivid picture of how the form of the biodiversity–productivity relationship varies among different diversity loss patterns in a natural ecosystem. We argue that compensation by the remaining species, which is not revealed by synthesized biodiversity experiments, plays a critical role in shaping the form of this relationship when diversity is lost from existing systems. The direction and strength of compensation are highly dependent on extirpation scenarios. Thus, impacts of biodiversity loss on natural ecosystems are likely more complex than predicted by the canonical positive saturating curve obtained from the synthesized biodiversity experiments. We suggest that models forecasting the consequences of biodiversity declines on natural ecosystems should take into account diversity loss patterns and the ensuing compensation.
Reconsidering Sentencing Principles in Cases of Civil Disobedience: Cuadrilla Bowland Ltd and Others v Persons Unknown and Others
Authors: Chow Pok Yin S.
Published: October 2021

Common law courts have struggled to offer a consistent basis for sentencing in cases concerning civil disobedience. This case note examines the recent Court of Appeal decision Cuadrilla Bowland Ltd v Persons Unknown, concerning individuals convicted of contempt for defying injunction orders to refrain from continuing their direct‐action protests at a fracking site run by an oil company, with a view to immobilising its business operations. The note observes that the Court here offered a more coherent basis for sentencing principles concerning acts of civil disobedience and breaches of injunction orders. The rationales offered transcend traditional distinctions, relied on by some courts, between direct and indirect disobedience and between civil disobedience and contempt, which have brought about considerable analytical difficulties. The judgment further signifies a paradigm shift in the Court's approach to cases of civil disobedience – from emphasising ‘law and order’ to focussing on a ‘balance of rights’.