bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Role of general practitioner-led rural community hospitals in Sweden: a qualitative study
Authors: Hedman Mante , Wennberg Patrik , Sjöström Malin , Brännström Margareta
Published: February 2025

Objective

To explore rural general practitioners’ (GPs’) experiences of providing care in rural community hospitals (CHs) in northern Sweden.

Design

An interview study, using qualitative content analysis.

Setting

The study was conducted in Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties in Sweden and included eight rural CHs.

Participants

Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2018 with 15 rural GPs.

Results

Two themes were identified: ‘Being the hub in the patient’s healthcare pathway’ and ‘Offering person-centred care far from hospital’. CHs are suitable for elderly, multimorbid and end-of-life patients, emphasising proximity, familiarity and discharge planning. They serve as primary care and intermediate hospital care hubs, collaborating with general hospitals and municipal caregivers. The rural GPs interviewed, as generalists, value holistic hospital patient care, and benefit from longitudinal patient knowledge. They highlighted these advantages and the cost-effectiveness of the CH model, arguing that it should be extended to urban regions. The rural GPs described their work situation as stimulating, but role conflicts in tight-knit communities, geographical distances and limited medical resources pose rural-specific ethical dilemmas.

Conclusions

Rural GPs value the holistic generalist perspective of CH care and emphasise the high-quality care that the CH setting enables them to provide. Despite rural-specific ethical dilemmas, they value the CH model and are concerned about its closures.
Social and geographical disparities in adverse birth outcomes in Alaska: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Smith M Luke , Vertigan Theresa , Athauda Nelsha , Hahn Micah
Published: February 2025

Introduction

Preterm birth (PTB) affects 1 in 10 births in the USA and is associated with near-term and long-term health consequences. This study assesses social and geographical disparities in adverse birth outcomes and associated risk factors in Alaska.

Methods

We examined birth records for 218 222 singleton live births in Alaska between 2000 and 2020. We described the distribution of PTB, very PTB, and low birth weight by geographical region, assessed risk factors for adverse birth outcomes, investigated how racial and ethnic differences in birth outcomes may be related to behavioural and social risk factors, and investigated how the unique transportation network in the state may affect adverse birth outcomes.

Results

There was an increased risk of PTB among births to mothers over 35 years of age (adjusted OR, AOR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.20, 1.33), with prepregnancy diabetes (AOR: 3.42; 95% CI: 3.00, 3.90) or hypertension (AOR: 2.28; 95% CI: 2.08, 2.51), who used tobacco during pregnancy (AOR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.27, 1.40), and who received <11 prenatal care visits (AOR: 2.66; 95% CI: 2.56, 2.77). Racial disparities in PTB persisted after adjustment for behavioural and healthcare-related risk factors. Nearly 40% of births took place outside the mother’s community of residence, and there was an increased risk of PTB associated with travelling for birth.

Conclusions

PTB continues to be a persistent issue in Alaska, particularly among non-white mothers. Our findings regarding prenatal care utilisation, pre-existing health conditions, and tobacco use during pregnancy can support public health interventions to decrease the risk of adverse birth outcomes.
Sepsis beyond bundles: contextualising paediatric care in resource-limited settings through situational analysis
Authors: Ratner Leah , Warling Allysa , Owusu Sheila Agyeiwaa , Martyn-Dickens Charles , Nettey Gustav , Otchere Emma , Uluer Ahmet , Cagnina R. Elaine , Appiah John Adabie , Kotoh- Mortty Maame Fremah , Martey Eugene
Published: February 2025

Background

Paediatric sepsis remains a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where healthcare resources are often limited. Paediatric sepsis bundles, which include prompt administration of antibiotics, fluid resuscitation and continuous organ function monitoring, are crucial for improving outcomes, especially when initiated within the first ‘golden hour’ of sepsis recognition. These bundles, adapted from adult sepsis care protocols through the Surviving Sepsis Campaign, are increasingly emphasised in global sepsis management guidelines. However, the implementation of these protocols in LMICs is challenged by resource limitations and systemic barriers.

Methods

This situational analysis, conducted at two hospitals in Ghana—a tertiary facility and a district (secondary) facility—maps the availability of critical resources for paediatric sepsis care through a structured environmental scan using survey methodology. We assess staffing levels, access to medications, airway support and diagnostic capabilities. Methods were conceptualised through inner and outer settings of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and reported through the Donabedian model for healthcare quality.

Results

This study compared paediatric care at a tertiary hospital (Komfo Anokye Teaching Hosptial (KATH)) and a district hospital (Presbyterian Hospital, Agogo (PreHA)) in Ghana, highlighting KATH’s emergency and intensive care unit (ICU) services, specialised staff and broader respiratory support. PreHA, although without a paediatric-specific ICU, leveraged research funding to enhance clinical care capacity. Both hospitals experienced regular power outages but had reliable generators, and while they offered basic medications and treatments, resource limitations, including out-of-pocket costs for families, impacted access to essential medications and laboratory tests.

Conclusion

Concerns around resource availability, compounded by structural determinants such as financial barriers and historical underfunding hypothesised to be rooted in colonialism, highlight the need for context-sensitive adaptations of paediatric sepsis bundles. Our findings underscore the importance of a participatory approach to guideline adaptation and resource distribution, incorporating local expertise and addressing structural inequities to improve paediatric sepsis outcomes in Ghana. Future qualitative research will explore pre- and peri-hospital barriers to care and inform more effective, contextually appropriate interventions.
Targeted oxygenation in the respiratory care of premature infants at delivery—effects on outcome: a randomised controlled trial (Torpido 3060) study protocol
Authors: Oei Ju Lee , Travadi Javeed , Kirby Adrienne , Marschner Ian , Yeung Carbo , Cruz Melinda , Wright Ian , Hague Wendy , Davis Peter , Ghadge Alpana , Simes John , Keech Anthony , Lui Kei , Osborn David , Tarnow Mordi William
Published: February 2025

Introduction

The safest oxygen levels needed for preterm infant respiratory support at birth are uncertain. We aimed to compare the outcomes of infants up to 286weeks gestation who had respiratory care initiated at birth with fractional inspired oxygen (FiO2) 0.3 or 0.6, which was adjusted to meet specific oxygen saturations (SpO2).

Methods

This randomised controlled phase III trial was stratified by (1) site, (2) gestation and (3) multiplicity. Infants between 23+0 to 28+6 weeks gestation were randomised to initial respiratory support with FiO20.3 or 0.6, adjusted to meet common SpO2targets for the first 10 min.

Primary outcome

Survival to 36 weeks gestation without documented brain injury.

Assessments

FiO2, SpO2and heart rate were recorded each minute from delivery for 10 min. Assessments were obtained at baseline, 36 weeks, discharge and at 2 years corrected gestation, along with a parent questionnaire.

Statistical analysis plan

Assuming 32% of infants would die or survive with brain injury by 36 weeks, 735 infants per arm (1470 total) were needed to detect a risk difference of 8% (25% relative risk reduction), with 10% non-adherence to protocol, 85% β and 5% α.

Ethics

Approved by the John Hunter Human Research Ethics Committee (2019/ETH/3837) for waiver of consent for all Australian sites for randomised allocation and primary outcome.

Conclusion

Recruitment started in 2018 and was achieved on 30 September 2024. The Data and Safety Committee review found no major safety concerns at 50% recruitment.

Trial registration number

ACTRN 12618000879268.
Problem with the existing reporting standards for adverse event and medical error research
Authors: Carpenter Christopher R , Griffey Richard T. , Rutjes Anne W S , Unbeck Maria , Adler Lee M , Stockwell David C , Classen David
Published: February 2025

The Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research (EQUATOR) Network indexes over 600 reporting guidelines designed to improve the reproducibility of manuscripts across medical fields and study designs. Although several such reporting guidelines touch on adverse events that may occur in the context of a study, there is a large body of research whose primary focus is on adverse events, near-misses and medical errors that do not currently have a dedicated reporting guideline to help set reporting standards and facilitate comparisons across studies. As part of the process prescribed by EQUATOR for developing such a reporting guideline, we performed a needs assessment, evaluating whether existing standards address key features of a proposed reporting guideline in development, entitledStandard Elements in Studies of Adverse Events and Medical Error(SESAME). We evaluated 12 EQUATOR reporting guidelines for the presence of eight key features of SESAME. Five of the 12 failed to include any of these key features. None of the remaining seven incorporated more than four of the eight SESAME key components, confirming the need for a dedicated reporting guideline for studies of adverse events and medical errors.
Acetyltransferase NAT10 inhibits T-cell immunity and promotes nasopharyngeal carcinoma progression through DDX5/HMGB1 axis
Authors: Xie Haijing , Zhang Kaiwen , Yin Haimeng , Zhang Siyu , Pan Si , Wu Rui , Han Yumo , Xu Yi , Jiang Weihong , You Bo
Published: February 2025

Background

Immunosuppression significantly contributes to treatment failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Messenger RNA (mRNA) modifications such as methylation and acetylation play crucial roles in immunosuppression. However, N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C), the only acetylation modification event has rarely been studied in NPC.

Methods

First, clinical tissue samples and nude mouse models were used to explore the expression of N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10) in NPC and its influence on it. Second, The Cancer Genome Atlas immune database and transgenic mouse peripheral blood immune cell panel were used to verify the immune cells mainly affected by NAT10. Then, NAT10 ac4C acetylation modification and expression of significantly upregulated transcription factors were explored by acetylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequence binding to RNA sequencing. Then, the downstream regulatory genes of CCAAT enhancer binding protein γ (CEBPG), dead box helicase 5 (DDX5) and helicase-like transcription factors (HLTF) were analyzed by luciferase report and chromatin Immunoprecipitation. Finally, the effect of inhibition of NAT10 on anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) treatment sensitivity was verified by animal models.

Results

In this study, we aimed to explore the role of NAT10, the enzyme responsible for ac4C modification, in NPC progression and patient prognosis. Elevated NAT10 promoted NPC progression and correlated with poor prognosis in patients with NPC. NAT10-mediated ac4C modification ofCEBPG,DDX5, andHLTFmRNA improved their stability and translation efficiency, with the NAT10/ac4C/DDX5 axis upregulating high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and inhibiting CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Inhibition of NAT10 increased the sensitivity to PD-1 therapy. Additionally, HLTF was found to transcriptionally regulate NAT10, indicating the formation of an HLTF-NAT10 positive feedback loop.

Conclusions

Our study elucidates the mechanism by which theNAT10/DDX5/HMGB1axis promotes the immunosuppression of NPC by promoting T-cell dysfunction. In addition, NAT10 knockdown can enhance anti-PD-1 treatment sensitivity as a combination therapy for NPC.
Parental knowledge, attitudes, satisfaction and decisional conflict regarding whole genome sequencing in the Genomic Medicine Service: a multisite survey study in England
Authors: Patel Ria , Friedrich Bettina , Sanderson Saskia C , Ellard Holly , Lewis Celine
Published: February 2025

Background

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) for paediatric rare disease diagnosis is now available as a first-line test for certain clinical indications in the Genomic Medicine Service in England. The aim of this study was to assess decisional conflict regarding WGS at the time of consent as well as parental knowledge, attitudes and satisfaction.

Methods

We conducted a multisite quantitative survey including validated measures. Surveys were sent out across seven National Health Service Trusts in England to parents of children offered WGS, within 4 weeks of their appointment.

Results

374/1366 survey responses were included in the final dataset. Parents were highly satisfied with their WGS appointment (mean=24.47/28), had low decisional conflict (mean=20.09/100) and felt they had received enough information and support to make an informed decision (83.9%). Parents had positive attitudes towards WGS (mean=18.17/20), and those who had discussed WGS with a genetic counsellor or genomic associate had significantly more positive attitudes than those seen by genetic consultants (p<0.001). Most parents (84.3%) strongly agreed (27.2%) or agreed (67.1%) that they had a clear understanding of what a genomic test is. Parents whose child’s condition was reported as more serious (p=0.0011) felt less conflicted about their decision.

Conclusions

The parents in this study had low decisional conflict and most felt they had made an informed decision. Further research after parents receive WGS results to assess whether any, and if so who, regrets their decision, is important.
Effect of vitamin A on adult lung function: a triangulation of evidence approach
Authors: Mongey Róisín , van der Plaat Diana A , Shaheen Seif O , Portas Laura , Potts James , Hind Matthew David , Minelli Cosetta
Published: February 2025

Background

Vitamin A, an essential micronutrient obtained through the diet, plays a crucial role in lung development and contributes to lung regeneration. We aimed to investigate its effect on adult lung function using triangulation of evidence from both observational and genetic data.

Methods

Using data on 150 000 individuals from UK Biobank and correcting for measurement error (generalised structural equation modelling), we first investigated the association of dietary vitamin A intake (total vitamin A, carotene and retinol) with lung function (forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)/FVC)). We then assessed the causality of these associations using Mendelian randomisation (MR), and we investigated the effects on adult lung function of 39 genes related to vitamin A, and their interaction with vitamin A intake.

Findings

Our observational analysis suggests a positive association between carotene intake and FVC only (13.3 mL per 100 µg/day; p=2.9×10−9), with stronger associations in smokers, but no association of retinol intake with FVC or FEV1/FVC. The MR similarly shows a beneficial effect of serum beta-carotene on FVC only, with no effect of serum retinol on FVC nor FEV1/FVC. Nine of the vitamin A-related genes were associated with adult lung function, six of which have not been previously identified in genome-wide studies and three (NCOA2, RDH10, RXRB) in any type of genetic study of lung function. Five genes showed possible gene-vitamin A intake interactions.

Interpretation

Our triangulation study provides convincing evidence for a causal effect of vitamin A, carotene in particular, on adult lung function, suggesting a beneficial effect of a carotene-rich diet on adult lung health.
How are exercise professionals described within academic literature? A narrative review
Authors: Shivgulam Madeline E. , Tiemstra Abigail R. , Hebert Brooke J. , Fowles Jonathon R. , O'Brien Myles W. , Nagpal Taniya S.
Published: February 2025

There is growing interest to include exercise into healthcare for the prevention, treatment, and management of chronic disease. However, what defines an “exercise professional” to fulfil these roles and responsibilities is not clear across Canada. While exercise science often integrates exercise professionals within academic studies to assist exercise-based research, exploring how exercise professionals are involved in these contexts may contribute to developing a clearer understanding of how these professionals may be characterized. The purpose of this narrative review was to summarize how exercise professionals are described in research and identify the components that inform their unique roles. A keyword search of “exercise professional” was performed in multiple databases, including Medline, SportDiscus, and Web of Science to identify peer-reviewed studies that included “exercise professionals”. Fifteen studies were included, and two independent reviewers performed a reflexive thematic analysis to derive three themes that represent how exercise professionals were described: (1) job title; (2) roles/duties (e.g., fitness testing, motivational interviewing), and (3) education/qualifications/credentials. Common occupations involved in research included exercise physiologists, kinesiologists, and personal trainers. Exercise professionals were responsible for interacting with clinical and non-clinical populations in a variety of contexts. Similarly, qualifications varied, with some studies specifying further training to work with special populations (e.g., patients who have cancer). By identifying these discrepancies, this study highlights the need to develop consistent definitions and roles to promote recognition and integration of exercise professionals in both clinical and community settings.
Investigation of the effects of liquid medium and electrical parameters on hydraulic-electric pulsed discharge rock-breaking
Authors: Liu Weiji , Zhou Xin , He Ling , Zhu XiaoHua
Published: February 2025

The hydraulic-electric pulsed discharge（HEPD） rock-breaking technology can generate plasma channels in liquid media and shock waves from the plasma channels to break rocks. Since the HEPD rock-breaking technology involves a multi-physical field coupling rock-breaking mechanism that is difficult to describe, the theoretical modeling of this technology is less studied. In this paper, we analyze the HEPD rock-breaking process by combining numerical models and experiments and establish a multi-physics numerical HEPD simulation model, which realizes the whole process of HPED rock-breaking from the five-field coupling. The obtained numerical simulations and indoor experiments show that the HEPD process is divided into three phases: the breakdown channel formation phase, the plasma channel formation phase, and the plasma shockwave bursting phase. With the increase of liquid medium conductivity, the rock's maximum penetration depth decreases, the rock's maximum damage depth increases, and the trend of rock crushing pits appears to decrease. The larger the liquid medium breakdown energy consumption, the faster the electric breakdown in the liquid medium is generated, which reduces the breakdown delay. When the liquid medium conductivity increases from 0.0125S/m to 5S/m, the liquid medium breakdown energy consumption increases by 13.87% and the breakdown delay decreases by 13.74%.
Etiology of leaf blight of Chinese brush (Baccharis conferta Kunth) in Mexico
Authors: Solano-Báez Alma Rosa , Victoria-Arellano Alfonso Daniel , Trejo-Espino José Luis , Trejo-Tapia Gabriela , Flores-Moctezuma Hilda Elizabet , Márquez-Licona Guillermo
Published: February 2025

Bacchiaris conferta Kunth, a native plant used in traditional Mexican medicine, is now considered an important source for drug discovery and development, as it produces metabolites of pharmacological interest. In May 2022, leaf blight symptoms were observed in B. conferta plants growing in the Iztaccihuatl–Popocatepetl National Park. The disease incidence was 80%, while the severity was 12%. Diseased samples were collected to isolate the fungi associated with the disease . The recovered isolates were categorized by morphotypes, and a single isolate was randomly selected to be culturally and molecularly characterized, as well as to demonstrate its pathogenicity. According to the findings, the organisms responsible for leaf blight in wild B. conferta plants are Arcopilus cupreus (L.M. Ames) X. Wei Wang & Samson and Lophodermium pini-excelsae S. Ahmad. This is the first report of Arcopilus cupreus and Lophodermium pini-excelsae causing leaf blight in B. conferta plants.
Carbonated Mantle Lithosphere from the Western Canadian Cordillera
Authors: Peterson Nils D. , Barrett Natasha , Russell James Kelly
Published: February 2025

Carbonated mantle is a significant source for many alkaline magmas, yet carbonate minerals are rarely preserved in samples of mantle lithosphere. Here, we report the first occurrence of mantle-equilibrated (“primary”) carbonate within spinel peridotite xenoliths from the Pacific Coast Ranges of North America. The xenoliths are hosted in a 19 Ma basanite dyke at Mt. Preston, British Columbia near the boundary between the Intermontane and Coast Belts of the Canadian Cordillera. Magnesian calcite (X_Ca ~0.90) occurs in all samples as: i) intergranular grains in textural equilibrium with surrounding minerals, ii) inclusions within mantle silicates; and as iii) intergranular or fracture-filling veins. Sulphides (pentlandite and chalcopyrite) occur in association with carbonate. Two-pyroxene geothermometry on carbonate-bearing mantle xenoliths return temperatures of ~815 to 1120 °C, corresponding to depths of ~32 to 55 km on a model geotherm for warm, thin Cordillera-style lithosphere. C–O isotopic compositions of the xenoliths vary as δ^13C = -3 to -6 ‰, and δ^18O = 10 to 12 ‰. Collectively, the textural, geochemical and isotopic evidence suggest that a carbonate melt with associated monosulphide solution metasomatized and enriched previously depleted mantle lithosphere. The metasomatic fluids sourced from the subduction of oceanic crust beneath North America during Coast Plutonic Belt magmatism when Mt. Preston was in an arc to back arc position. The host basanite dyke contains magmatic groundmass calcite (δ^18O = 14±0.2‰, δ^13C = -4±0.2‰, ^87Sr/86Sr = 0.704018) indicating a high intrinsic P_CO2 that inhibited thermal decomposition of mantle carbonate within the xenoliths during ascent.
Ratchet effects revisited: power effects and systematic bias in natural resource management
Authors: Rosenfeld Jordan S.
Published: February 2025

Regulatory ratchets arise when governance appears to be effective, but actually masks a steady loss of natural capital. This occurs when biases in environmental impact assessment (EIA) systematically underestimate the true impact of large developments, generated by statistical convention fixing α at 0.05 (Type 1 error or false positive rate; i.e., the probability of concluding that a development will have an impact when there is none) while β, the false negative rate (failing to detect a true impact, or Type 2 error), is often fixed at 0.2. This asymmetry (β > α) generates a higher likelihood of mistakenly permitting development than mistakenly preventing it. Beyond statistical bias in EIA, routine environmental regulations are often ineffective due to low compliance, inadequate thresholds, and broad exemptions, which tend to cryptically institutionalize net loss. Measuring bias and inefficiency of environmental regulation is foundational to correcting regulatory ratchets and identifying pathways towards no net loss. Like net loss from major developments, cumulative net loss from inadequate routine environmental protections also needs to be estimated and offset by active habitat restoration; this should be delivered as a core program of resource management agencies, with the goal of fully integrating the mitigation hierarchy into routine natural resource governance.
Control and sorting of inhomogeneous dielectric core–shell nanoparticles using two counter-propagating plane waves
Authors: Abraham-Ekeroth Ricardo Martín , Lester Marcelo , Torrent Dani
Published: February 2025

Many typical nanoscale structures consist of dielectric nanoparticles with an inevitable oxide-generated coating around them. Depending on the fabrication techniques and the intended purposes, these coatings may not be homogeneous, and their distortion can cause advantages or disadvantages in the applications of such systems. Based on finite element simulations, inhomogeneous core–shell nanoparticle systems are numerically studied when illuminated with two counter-propagating plane waves in the optical range. It is found that the electromagnetic field distortions caused by the inhomogeneous system under Mie resonance conditions allow the system to exhibit controllable one-directional impulsion and rotation, which mainly depends on the offset between the core and shell. The overall geometry and composition of the system also dictate the type of resonance being excited. Overall, this “photonic thruster” effect consisting of an accelerating and spinning projectile would provide stability to particle movement and additionally establish a method to distinguish inhomogeneous from homogeneous particles. The method can be scaled to a wide range of nanoscale dielectric particles. Thus, the results are useful for detecting defects in nanosystems with a simple concept and may open avenues for improving nanoparticle synthesis methods.
Exploring nonlinear optical properties of single δ-doped quantum wells: influences of position-dependent mass, temperature, and hydrostatic pressure
Authors: Sayrac M. , Acıkgoz L. , Tuzemen A. T. , Mora-Ramos M. E. , Ungan F.
Published: February 2025

This study investigates the multifaceted impact of position-dependent effective mass, temperature, and hydrostatic pressure on the electronic and optical properties of single-doped quantum wells, with a particular emphasis on varying doping levels. Utilizing effective mass and parabolic band approximations, calculations were meticulously conducted via the diagonalization method, employing a trigonometric orthonormal function basis to elucidate the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the confined electron potential. The obtained results unveil substantial alterations in electron energies, state transitions, and absorption spectra consequent to fluctuations in doping levels, temperature, and pressure. These findings provide profound insights into the intricate interplay between semiconductor characteristics and external stimuli, laying a foundation for the optimization of laser and optoelectronic devices through the tailored engineering of material properties. This comprehensive understanding not only advances fundamental knowledge in semiconductor physics but also paves the way for the development of innovative materials with customized optical functionalities, thus driving progress in a wide array of technological applications.
ADB Distinguished Speaker Lecture: The Complementarity Between Cities and State Capacity
Authors: Glaeser Edward L.
Published: February 2025

Public capacity complements urban density because externalities abound in cities and urban scale makes it possible to share infrastructure that needs to be managed. Yet, urban governments face limitations that are not experienced by private sector entities. A city cannot just stop policing if it decides it is bad at policing. Typically, public compensation and personnel policies are highly regulated either by law or by union contracts. City governments do, however, have one great advantage over private entities: a greater ability to learn from their peers. City governments do similar things throughout the world, while companies frequently specialize. Private companies have strong incentives to hide the trade secrets that make them more productive, cities do not. As individual cities do not have an incentive to make it easier for other governments to learn from them, multinational entities like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank could enable that learning. Since climate-change-related crises are relatively rare events, city-to-city learning seems particularly important for adapting to climate change.
Inhomogeneous transformations in a gauged twistor formulation of a massive particle
Authors: Deguchi Shinichi , Okano Satoshi
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we show that the mass-shell constraints in the gauged twistor formulation of a massive particle given in [Deguchi and Okano, Phys. Rev. D 93, 045016 (2016) [Erratum 93, 089906(E) (2016)]] are incorporated in an action automatically by extending the local [Formula: see text] transformation to its inhomogeneous extension denoted by [Formula: see text]. Therefore, it turns out that all the necessary constraints are incorporated into an action by virtue of the local [Formula: see text] symmetry of the system.
Centrum: Model-based Database Auto-tuning with Minimal Distributional Assumptions
Authors: Lai Yuanhao , Zheng Pengfei , Ji Chenpeng , Li Yan , Zhang Songhan , Zhang Rutao , Wang Zhengang , Du Yunfei
Published: February 2025

Gaussian Process (GP)-based Bayesian optimization (BO), i.e., GP-BO, emerges as a prevailing model-based framework for DBMS (Database Management System) auto-tuning. However, recent work shows GP-BO-based DBMS auto-tuners are significantly outperformed by auto-tuners based on SMAC, which features random forest surrogate models; such results motivate us to rethink and investigate the limitations of GP-BO in auto-tuner design. We find that the fundamental assumptions of GP-BO are widely violated when modeling and optimizing DBMS performance, while tree-ensemble-BOs (e.g., SMAC) can avoid the assumption pitfalls and deliver improved tuning efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, we argue that existing tree-ensemble-BOs restrict further advancement in DBMS auto-tuning. First, existing tree-ensemble-BOs can only achieve distribution-free point estimates, but still impose unrealistic distributional assumptions on uncertainty (interval) estimates, which can compromise surrogate modeling and distort the acquisition function. Second, recent advances in (ensemble) gradient boosting, which can further enhance surrogate modeling against vanilla GP and random forest counterparts, have rarely been applied in optimizing DBMS auto-tuners.

To address these issues, we propose a novel model-based DBMS auto-tuner,
Centrum
. Centrum achieves and improves distribution-free point and interval estimation in surrogate modeling with a two-phase learning procedure of stochastic gradient boosting ensembles (SGBE). Moreover, Centrum adopts a generalized SGBE-estimated locally-adaptive conformal prediction to facilitate a distribution-free interval (uncertainty) estimation and acquisition function. To our knowledge, Centrum is the first auto-tuner that realizes distribution-freeness to stress and enhance BO's practicality in DBMS auto-tuning, and the first to seamlessly fuse gradient boosting ensembles and conformal inference in BO. Extensive physical and simulation experiments on two DBMSs and three workloads show that Centrum outperforms 21 state-of-the-art (SOTA) DBMS auto-tuners based on BO with GP, random forest, gradient boosting, OOB (Out-Of-Bag) conformal ensemble and other surrogates, as well as that based on reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms.
Practical DB-OS Co-Design with Privileged Kernel Bypass
Authors: Zhou Xinjing , Leis Viktor , Hu Jinming , Yu Xiangyao , Stonebraker Michael
Published: February 2025

This paper revisits the longstanding challenge of coordinating database systems with general-purpose OS interfaces, such as POSIX, which often lack tailored support for DB requirements. Existing approaches to this DB-OS co-design struggle with limited design space, security risks, and compatibility issues. To overcome these hurdles, we propose a new co-design approach leveraging virtualization to elevate the privilege level of DB processes. Our method enables database systems to fully exploit hardware capabilities via virtualization, while minimizing the need for extensive modifications to the host OS kernel, thereby maintaining compatibility. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through two novel virtual memory mechanisms tailored for database workloads: (1) an efficient snapshotting mechanism that captures memory snapshots at millisecond intervals for in-memory databases and HTAP workloads, and (2) a streamlined in-kernel buffer pool design. We introduce
Libdbos
, a lightweight guest kernel implementing these mechanisms. Our evaluations highlight significant improvements in latency and efficiency compared to existing snapshotting and buffer pool designs, underscoring the potential of the approach.
Randomized Sketches for Quantile in LSM-tree based Store
Authors: Chen Ziling , Song Shaoxu
Published: February 2025

Quantiles are costly to compute exactly but can be efficiently estimated by quantile sketches. Extensive works on summarizing streaming data, such as KLL sketch, focus on minimizing the cost in memory to provide certain error guarantees. For the problem of quantile estimation of values in LSM-tree based stores, streaming methods have an expensive I/O cost linear to data size N. Since disk components (chunks and SSTables) in the LSM-tree are immutable once flushed, quantile sketches can be pre-computed as a type of statistics to reduce I/O cost and accelerate queries. Unfortunately, to provide deterministic additive εN error guarantees on queried data, all pre-computed deterministic sketches of queried chunks each with size N_c should provide εN_c error guarantee, resulting in no improvement in the linear I/O cost. In this study, we propose pre-computing randomized sketches which provide randomized additive error guarantees. Our major technical contributions include (1) randomized sketches for data chunks constructed in flush events, which are proved to be optimal and achieve an I/O cost proportional to √(N), (2) hierarchical randomized sketches for SSTables constructed in compaction events, that further improve the asymptotic I/O cost, (3) the KLL sketch summarizing proposed pre-computed sketches is proved to be more accurate than that summarizing streaming data, and proved to achieve sublinear I/O cost while achieving the same memory complexity as in the streaming settings. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed techniques. The approach is deployed in an LSM-tree based time-series database Apache IoTDB.
MKCRec: Meta-relation guided Knowledge Coupling for Paper Recommendation
Authors: Zhang Chengde , Zhang Zihan , Huang Jiaying , Liu Yan , Jin Dawei , Xiao Xia , Shen Zuwu
Published: February 2025

With the surge of academic papers, it has become a common practice to recommend papers based on authors’ research interests. Existing methods focus on leveraging author-paper research interactions to mine authors’ research interests with coauthorship networks. However, sparse research interactions would pose a huge challenge to distinguish research interests of authors. Fortunately, inter-dependent knowledge across papers provides rich potential heterogeneous connections for author-paper interactions, offering much insights for learning authors’ research interests. Therefore, we propose a meta-relation guided knowledge coupling approach for paper recommendation. Specifically, we construct a meta-relation-guided heterogeneous graph architecture to depict the numerous inter-dependencies among authors and papers, thereby exploring complex author-paper interactions. First, a meta-relation-aware heterogeneous graph encoder is developed to extract relational structure which maintains the relation-specific representation of authors’ research interest and papers’ research relatedness. Then, a cross-meta-path attention network is designed to aggregate the characteristics of different meta-relations and obtain research features of authors and papers. Finally, a self-supervised data augmentation architecture is constructed to mine and preserve local and global graph structure information, acquiring papers with high relevance to author’s research interests through training loss. Numerous experiments are conducted on two real academic datasets, effectively demonstrating the superiority of our proposed model and validating its effectiveness in paper recommendation.
DrWASI
: LLM-assisted Differential Testing for WebAssembly System Interface Implementations
Authors: Zhang Yixuan , He Ningyu , Gao Jianting , Cao Shangtong , Liu Kaibo , Wang Haoyu , Ma Yun , Huang Gang , Liu Xuanzhe
Published: February 2025

WebAssembly (Wasm) is an emerging binary format that serves as a compilation target for over 40 programming languages. Wasm runtimes provide execution environments that enhance portability by abstracting away operating systems and hardware details. A key component in these runtimes is the WebAssembly System Interface (WASI), which manages interactions with operating systems, like file operations. Considering the critical role of Wasm runtimes, the community has aimed to detect their implementation bugs. However, no work has focused on WASI-specific bugs that can affect the original functionalities of running Wasm binaries and cause unexpected results. To fill the void, we present
DrWASI
, the first general-purpose differential testing framework for WASI implementations. Our approach uses a large language model to generate seeds and applies variant and environment mutation strategies to expand and enrich the test case corpus. We then perform differential testing across major Wasm runtimes. By leveraging dynamic and static information collected during and after the execution,
DrWASI
can identify bugs. Our evaluation shows that
DrWASI
uncovered
33
unique bugs, with all confirmed and
7
fixed by developers. This research represents a pioneering step in exploring a promising yet under-explored area of the Wasm ecosystem, providing valuable insights for stakeholders.
CSM: A Code Style Model for Computing Educators
Authors: Kirk Diana , Luxton-Reilly Andrew , Tempero Ewan
Published: February 2025

Objectives
Code style is an important aspect of text-based programming because programs written with good style are considered easier to understand and change and so improve the maintainability of the delivered software product. However teaching code style is complicated by the existence of many style guides and standards that contain inconsistent, low-level advice. The objective of the study is to support educators in helping students understand the nature of these inconsistencies by highlighting the rationale behind rules and their contextual nature.

Participants
Seventy members of local and national computing science education (CSE) groups contributed in the exploratory phase. Fifty-two members of the ACM SIGCSE members mailing list and the Australasian Chapter contributed in the evaluation and refinement phases. These mailing lists represent a large, global population of CSE educators.

Study Methods
We created, evaluated and refined an abstract code style model (
CSM
) comprising a
Definition
and eight
Principles
for code style. For
CSM
creation, we took an exploratory approach based on an examination of the existing literature on code quality and style. To evaluate the level of community endorsement for the model, we analysed quantitative and qualitative data from an international survey questionnaire. We refined the
CSM
based on an analysis of the qualitative survey data.

Findings
Analysis of the data from the survey indicated a strong level of support for the
CSM
. Quantitative data revealed a general agreement with the
Principles
, with responses for five
Principles
achieving a minimum of 84 percent agreement and all
Principles
achieving a minimum of 66 percent agreement. Qualitative data contained very few comments that voiced dissatisfaction with a basic aspect of the model. We found that barriers to developing a community-wide
CSM
were the strongly-held beliefs about style held by some and the abstract nature of the
CSM
.

Conclusions
The creation of an abstract set of
Principles
for code style is generally perceived by the community to be worthwhile and important and our approach has high levels of endorsement. A validated version of the
CSM
has been created.
Koli Calling 2024: Call for Participation
Authors: Leinonen Juho
Published: February 2025

We warmly invite you to attend the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling 2024), taking place from November 14-17, 2024, in the beautiful Koli National Park in Eastern Finland.
Choosing the Right Ontology to Describe Research Data in the Energy Domain
Authors: Steinert Alexandro , Ferenz Stephan , Niesse Astrid
Published: February 2025

As in all disciplines, increasing the FAIRness (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) of research data and software is a goal in energy research. In order to achieve this, it is important to identify the most appropriate ontology for the description of research data and software. However, despite the importance of this task, it still presents a significant challenge. While there are some comparisons of ontologies, a gap exists in assessing their usefulness according to ontology metadata. This paper fills this gap by defining 21 criteria sorted into four categories to help researchers choose ontologies in the energy domain. The criteria are used to compare eight ontologies for energy research to showcase their use and analyze the ontologies. The analysis reveals the Open Energy Ontology (OEO) as the top-ranked ontology. This underscores the importance of metadata comparison in ontology selection and highlights the benefits of incorporating metadata criteria into ontology terminology services to support researchers.
How Satisfactory Can Deep Reinforcement Learning Methods Simulate Electricity Market Dynamics? Benchmarking via Bi-Level Optimization
Authors: Harder Nick , Mitridati Lesia , Pourahmadi Farzaneh , Weidlich Anke , Kazempour Jalal
Published: February 2025

Various factors make electricity markets increasingly complex, making their analysis challenging. This complexity demands advanced analytical tools to manage and understand market dynamics. This paper explores the application of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and bi-level optimization models to analyze and simulate electricity markets. We introduce a bi-level optimization framework incorporating realistic market constraints, such as non-convex operational characteristics and binary decision variables, to establish an upper-bound benchmark for evaluating the performance of DRL algorithms. The results confirm that DRL methods do not reach the theoretical upper bounds set by the bi-level models, thereby confirming the effectiveness of the proposed model in providing a clear performance target for DRL. This benchmarking approach demonstrates DRL's current capabilities and limitations in complex market environments but also aids in developing more effective DRL strategies by providing clear, quantifiable targets for improvement. The proposed method can also identify the information gap cost since DRL methods operate under more realistic conditions than optimization techniques, given that they don't need to assume complete knowledge about the system. This study thus provides a foundation for future research to enhance market understanding and possibly its efficiency in the face of increasing complexity in the electricity market. Our methodology's effectiveness is further validated through a large-scale case study involving 150 power plants, demonstrating its scalability and applicability to real-world scenarios.
Power-Dependent Price Profiles - Defining Grid- and Market-Oriented Incentives for Building Energy Management Systems
Authors: Riedel Tobias , Hauschke Carl , Schmeck Hartmut
Published: February 2025

In order to consider the grid- and market-oriented situation of the energy system and provide corresponding price signals for building energy management systems (BEMS), we propose time- and power-dependent price profiles. Those incentive signals are meant to allow the optimization of BEMS towards dynamic prices while providing a clear incentive to limit power during grid congestion. We evaluate those signals with a generic battery optimizer that is capable of optimizing towards them. Simulations show that those time- and power-dependent grid signals can reduce peak loads in distribution grids while at the same time allowing more market orientation than volumetric dynamic grid fees.
Enabling Moral Agency in Distributed Energy Management: An Ethics Score for Negotiations in Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Stomberg Malte , Tröschel Martin
Published: February 2025

Intelligent and autonomous agents have gained increased recognition as a solution for the efficient and reliable operation of distributed and digitalised power systems. In multi-agent systems, agents use negotiation to coordinate their behaviour, letting them exchange information and make informed control decisions according to a shared goal. However, as power systems are socio-technical systems, too, the agents' autonomous decisions directly or indirectly impact the welfare of human beings. Thus, the question of moral agency arises: How can the agents' decision-making, and the resulting behaviour of the overall system, be aligned with moral values and ethical principles? Unfortunately, this important question is often overlooked in the current state of the art. In this paper, we therefore introduce an ethics score to be used within agent-based power systems in order to enable explicit moral agency in distributed power management. As a showcase, we extend the multi-agent system WINZENT in such a way that all agents are able to include the ethics score as a notion of goodness and fairness in their decision-making without impacting the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the agent-based control. We demonstrate the feasibility of the concept in a case study of a future urban distribution grid modelled after the city of Bremerhaven, Germany, and discuss strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach.
Analysing and Predicting Extreme Frequency Deviations: A Case Study in the Balearic Power Grid
Authors: Sharfeddine Zakariea , Pütz Sebastian , Tamhane Vedang , Hagenmeyer Veit , Schäfer Benjamin
Published: February 2025

Maintaining the power grid stability requires a balance between the generation and demand across various timescales. The power grid frequency reflects this balance and hence plays an important role in stabilizing and controlling power grids. Large imbalances and hence frequency deviations represent a threat to power grid stability. Therefore, understanding such extreme deviations and having a prior warning would be very valuable for power grid operation. In this paper we analyze extreme frequency deviations and develop a decision-support tool to predict and mitigate such events, demonstrated using data from the Balearic power grid. We inspect the frequency and durations of extreme deviations and identify specific fast ramps as precursors. We develop an interpretable machine learning model that is intended to warn before extreme frequency deviations and provide insights into its reasoning by using SHapely Additive exPlanations (SHAP).