bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Oleaginous yeasts for biochemicals, biofuels and food from lignocellulose‐hydrolysate and crude glycerol
Authors: Passoth Volkmar , Brandenburg Jule , Chmielarz Mikołaj , Martín‐Hernández Giselle C. , Nagaraj Yashaswini , Müller Bettina , Blomqvist Johanna
Published: January 2023

Microbial lipids produced from lignocellulose and crude glycerol (CG) can serve as sustainable alternatives to vegetable oils, whose production is, in many cases, accompanied by monocultures, land use changes or rain forest clearings. Our projects aim to understand the physiology of microbial lipid production by oleaginous yeasts, optimise the production and establish novel applications of microbial lipid compounds. We have established methods for fermentation and intracellular lipid quantification. Following the kinetics of lipid accumulation in different strains, we found high variability in lipid formation even between very closely related oleaginous yeast strains on both, wheat straw hydrolysate and CG. For example, on complete wheat straw hydrolysate, we saw that one Rhodotorula glutinis strain, when starting assimilating D‐xylosealso assimilated the accumulated lipids, while a Rhodotorula babjevae strain could accumulate lipids on D‐xylose. Two strains (Rhodotorula toruloides CBS 14 and R. glutinis CBS 3044) were found to be the best out of 27 tested to accumulate lipids on CG. Interestingly, the presence of hemicellulose hydrolysate stimulated glycerol assimilation in both strains. Apart from microbial oil, R. toruloides also produces carotenoids. The first attempts of extraction using the classical acetone‐based method showed that β‐carotene is the major carotenoid. However, there are indications that there are also substantial amounts of torulene and torularhodin, which have a very high potential as antioxidants.
Interdisciplinarity, Team Science, and the Next Generation of Researchers: The Children’s Drawings of Gods Project Experience
Authors: Darbellay Frédéric
Published: January 2023

Based on an analysis of the research projectDrawings of Gods: A multicultural and interdisciplinary approach to children’s representations of supernatural agentsalso known as (Children’s Drawings of Gods), this work aims to study the epistemological and methodological issues that arise when several disciplinary approaches are convened for the processing, analysis, and interpretation of a corpus of digitized children’s drawings. This work shows how the interdisciplinary process is set up, with its points of convergence, its potentialities, but also its difficulties with regard to the various epistemic and cultural horizons involved. The success of such an interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international project relies on mutual consideration and respect for the diversity of objects, disciplines, and approaches in a spirit of team collaboration. This negotiated sharing of values, practices, and epistemological horizons calls for capacities for openness and creative dialogue between researchers. Further, it requires the researchers to go beyond their disciplinary centres to engage in hybrid configurations or even transgressive knowledge.
Humanness and Non-Humanness in Children’s Drawings of God: A Case Study from French-Speaking Switzerland
Authors: Dessart Grégory , Brandt Pierre-Yves
Published: January 2023

Past research on children’s concepts of God has suggested a developmental tendency moving from anthropomorphic to non-anthropomorphic representations. Besides replication, we tested a model ofde-anthropomorphization.Methods. We collected drawings of God (N = 532) from 5- to 17-year-old children in French-speaking Switzerland and constructed a model of anthropomorphism andde-anthropomorphization. Age, gender, and religiosity (i.e., schooling) were utilized as predictor variables in logistic regression analyses.Results. Consistent with past research, both age and religious schooling facilitated the occurrence of non-anthropomorphic God representations. Analyses on de-anthropomorphization revealed that age had a positive effect on most strategies (with one exception), and that schooling did not play a significant role in that regard, neither did gender.Discussion. The current findings move beyond binary oppositions concerning anthropomorphic God figures, which appear to be conceptually much more complex than previously anticipated. Theoretical as well as practical implications are discussed.
Greening Film Festivals
Authors: de Valck Marijke , Zielinski Ger
Published: January 2023

In this chapter we seize the momentum of the pandemic crisis and its disruption of the film festival world to consider festivals’ stake in the climate and ecological crisis. We will delineate three layers of concern that need to be considered holistically when taking on the challenge of greening film festivals. The first layer tackles the context of festival operations, namely, all arrangements and preparations required to organize festival events. The second layer addresses the emergent discourse of environmentalist media studies, which urges festival scholars to consider critically the consequences of the virtualization of film festivals. The third layer puts the “eco” back into “ecosystem.” The phrase “festival ecosystem” itself is becoming popular in the discourse on film festivals. We think that the time is right to bring what we are calling the festival ecosystem back into a more literal relationship with “environmental media,” media infrastructure and its material relations to the biological environment. This will entail a rethinking of how that ecosystem can be made to work in balance with our planetary needs regarding its natural resources and include acknowledging there are the limits to widespread festival mechanisms that are rooted in logics of growth and abundance.
Stopping the Flow: Film Circulation in the Festival Ecosystem at a Moment of Disruption
Authors: Loist Skadi
Published: January 2023

Due to the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to reassess film culture and the film industry as we have known it so far. The postponement and cancellation of major spring festivals in 2020 had a far-reverberating knock-on effect throughout the festival circuit and highlighted the entanglement of events and industry mechanisms based on regular rhythms, networks, and cascades. The canceled festival premieres left filmmakers, producers, and sales agents in limbo: subsequent festival participations, coordinated national distribution strategies, and theatrical releases were already being planned. Without a premiere, the entire circuit was disrupted. The value chain, based on the hierarchically structured sequence of certain festivals and markets, came to a standstill. With the usual windowed sequence unable to start, it was unclear what further distribution chains should look like. The disruption of the usual festival circulation structures has thus served as an accelerator for structural and cultural shifts. This article looks at the impact of this disruption on various stakeholders within the industry, thinking through the mechanisms of the festival ecosystem while highlighting the specific problems faced by different players and the resulting renegotiation of strategies and power dynamics, accounting for new emerging structures.
Scarcity, Ubiquity, and the Film Festival After Covid
Authors: Kredell Brendan
Published: January 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic rages on as I write this piece, and the first-order problem confronting many film festivals during the pandemic is existential: how can they continue to operate in a universe of extreme uncertainty, financial and otherwise? But for those festivals that can adequately solve that problem, a separate question awaits: how will film festivals respond to the transformational changes wrought by the pandemic as we emerge in a post-Covid world? A similar challenge confronts scholars of festivals, forced now to consider the applicability of existing models and methods for understanding the cultural work of film festivals in the wake of the pandemic. Such efforts at this juncture are, of course, highly speculative. Nonetheless, I contend here that there is history to guide us in such speculation, and with this essay, I offer some preliminary considerations on how the system “film festivals” might look in the wake of the coronavirus.
Correction to: The Global Greyfields Transition: Why Urban Redevelopment in Low-Density, Car-Based Middle Suburbs Needs a New Model
Authors: Newton Peter W. , Newman Peter W.G. , Glackin Stephen , Thomson Giles
Published: January 2023

This book was inadvertently published without updating the below correction:
Improved deep depth estimation for environments with sparse visual cues
Authors: Joswig Niclas , Autiosalo Juuso , Ruotsalainen Laura
Published: January 2023

Most deep learning-based depth estimation models that learn scene structure self-supervised from monocular video base their estimation on visual cues such as vanishing points. In the established depth estimation benchmarks depicting, for example, street navigation or indoor offices, these cues can be found consistently, which enables neural networks to predict depth maps from single images. In this work, we are addressing the challenge of depth estimation from a real-world bird’s-eye perspective in an industry environment which contains, conditioned by its special geometry, a minimal amount of visual cues and, hence, requires incorporation of the temporal domain for structure from motion estimation. To enable the system to incorporate structure from motion from pixel translation when facing context-sparse, i.e., visual cue sparse, scenery, we propose a novel architecture built upon the structure from motion learner, which uses temporal pairs of jointly unrotated and stacked images for depth prediction. In order to increase the overall performance and to avoid blurred depth edges that lie in between the edges of the two input images, we integrate a geometric consistency loss into our pipeline. We assess the model’s ability to learn structure from motion by introducing a novel industry dataset whose perspective, orthogonal to the floor, contains only minimal visual cues. Through the evaluation with ground truth depth, we show that our proposed method outperforms the state of the art in difficult context-sparse environments.
On the causality between household and government spending on education: evidence from a panel of 40 countries
Authors: Naurin Abida , Pourpourides Panayiotis M.
Published: January 2023

This paper sheds light on an important causality which is of primary interest for policy makers, at both country level and broad institutional level, though it is largely ignored in the literature. Using panel data from a diversified group of countries and after controlling for various factors and endogeneities within the context of multivariate models, we present evidence that an increase in the intensity of government spending on education leads to an overall increase in the intensity of household spending on education of a roughly equal magnitude, within a span of two years. Specifically, a 1% increase in the intensity of government spending on education induces a contemporaneous increase in the intensity of household spending on education of 3%, followed by a correction of 2% the subsequent year. We further find that the reverse causality does not hold. Our mediation analysis within our set of variables suggests that the causality is only direct, and that there is no statistically significant distinction between low- and high-income countries.
Drug-eluting Microspheres Compared to Conventional Transarterial Chemoembolization as First Line Treatment for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Single-center Retrospective Cost-utility Analysis
Authors: Andreozzi G. , Lorenzoni V. , Bargellini I. , Cioni R. , Turchetti G.
Published: January 2023

Purpose

To assess the cost-utility of initial treatment with drug-eluting microspheres (DEM) transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) versus conventional (C)-TACE in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma considering the perspective of a Local Healthcare Authority in Italy.

Materials and Methods

The economic evaluation is based on a retrospective single-center study and individual patients’ data whose details have been previously reported. The impact of initial treatment with DEM-TACE or C-TACE on disease progression, mortality, and direct health costs over a lifetime horizon were simulated and compared in terms of incremental cost-utility ratio expressed as costs per quality adjusted life years (QALY). Costs included direct health costs related to the first chemoembolization procedure and all subsequent follow-up costs associated with health care resources used for disease management. Probabilistic (PSA) sensitivity analysis was used to assess the robustness of the results.

Results

A total of 101 patients in each treatment group were considered. All over the time-horizon median costs were €3,145.14 and €2,158.32 in the DEM-TACE and C-TACE group, respectively (p < 0.001); while mean costs were € 24,619 and € 17,001, respectively (p < 0.001). The ICUR was 6,461.86 €/QALY when using median costs derived from the study population as input for the health-economic evaluation and 49,932.15 €/QALY when the mean costs were considered. Results from PSA highlighted that using median costs DEM-TACE was always cost-effective, while using mean costs, it was preferable only 24.7% of times.

Conclusions

The higher prices of DEMs are counterbalanced by the positive impact on QALY.
Atypical local brain connectivity in pediatric autism spectrum disorder? A coordinate-based meta-analysis of regional homogeneity studies
Authors: Liloia Donato , Manuello Jordi , Costa Tommaso , Keller Roberto , Nani Andrea , Cauda Franco
Published: January 2023

Despite decades of massive neuroimaging research, the comprehensive characterization of short-range functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains a major challenge for scientific advances and clinical translation. From the theoretical point of view, it has been suggested a generalized local over-connectivity that would characterize ASD. This stance is known as the general local over-connectivity theory. However, there is little empirical evidence supporting such hypothesis, especially with regard to pediatric individuals with ASD (age $$\le$$
≤
18 years old). To explore this issue, we performed a coordinate-based meta-analysis of regional homogeneity studies to identify significant changes of local connectivity. Our analyses revealed local functional under-connectivity patterns in the bilateral posterior cingulate cortex and superior frontal gyrus (key components of the default mode network) and in the bilateral paracentral lobule (a part of the sensorimotor network). We also performed a functional association analysis of the identified areas, whose dysfunction is clinically consistent with the well-known deficits affecting individuals with ASD. Importantly, we did not find relevant clusters of local hyper-connectivity, which is contrary to the hypothesis that ASD may be characterized by generalized local over-connectivity. If confirmed, our result will provide a valuable insight into the understanding of the complex ASD pathophysiology.
Efgartigimod improved health-related quality of life in generalized myasthenia gravis: results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study (ADAPT)
Authors: Saccà Francesco , Barnett Carolina , Vu Tuan , Peric Stojan , Phillips Glenn A. , Zhao Sihui , Qi Cynthia Z. , Gelinas Deborah , Chiroli Silvia , Verschuuren Jan J. G. M.
Published: January 2023

There are substantial disease and health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) burdens for many patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), especially for those whose disease symptoms are not well controlled. HRQoL measures such as the Myasthenia Gravis Quality of Life 15-item revised (MG-QOL15r) and EuroQoL 5-Dimensions 5-Levels (EQ-5D-5L) are vital for evaluating the clinical benefit of therapeutic interventions in patients with MG, as they assess the burden of disease and the effectiveness of treatment, as perceived by patients. The phase 3 ADAPT study (NCT03669588) demonstrated that efgartigimod—a novel neonatal Fc receptor inhibitor—was well tolerated and that acetylcholine receptor antibody–positive (AChR-Ab+) participants who received efgartigimod had statistically significant improvements in MG-specific clinical scale scores. The ancillary data reported here, which cover an additional treatment cycle, show that these participants had similar significant improvements in HRQoL measures, the MG-QOL15r and EQ-5D-5L utility and visual analog scales, and that these improvements were maintained in the second treatment cycle. Positive effects on HRQoL were rapid, seen as early as the first week of treatment in both treatment cycles, and maintained for up to 4 weeks in the follow-up–only portion of treatment cycles. The pattern of improvements in HRQoL paralleled changes in immunoglobulin G level, and correlational analyses show that improvements were consistent across HRQoL measures and with clinical efficacy measures in the ADAPT study. The substantial and durable improvements in HRQoL end points in this study demonstrate the broader benefit of treatment with efgartigimod beyond relief of immediate signs and symptoms of gMG.
The Financial and Environmental Consequences of Renewable Energy Exclusion Zones
Authors: Delafield Gemma , Smith Greg S. , Day Brett , Holland Robert , Lovett Andrew
Published: January 2023

As countries decarbonise, the competition for land between energy generation, nature conservation and food production will likely increase. To counter this, modelling, and sometimes energy policies, use exclusion zones to restrict energy deployment from land deemed as important to society. This paper applies the spatially-explicit ADVENT-NEV model to Great Britain to determine the cost imposed on the energy system when either environmental or food production exclusion zones are applied. Results show that exclusion zones impose a cost of up to £0.63 billion (B), £19.17 B and £1.33 B for the solar, wind, and bioenergy pathways. These costs give an indication of the value being placed on protecting these areas of land. When multiple exclusions are imposed on bioenergy, the high pathway is infeasible indicating a more flexible approach may be needed to meet net zero ambitions. The model also shows how the value of ecosystem services changes when exclusion zones are applied, highlighting how some exclusions increase non-market costs whereas others decrease them. In several cases exclusion zones are shown to increase social costs, the opposite of their intended use. For these exclusions to be justifiable, the unobserved values missing from the model must be as large as these increases.
Exploring Inductive Reasoning, Scientific Reasoning and Science Motivation, and Their Role in Predicting STEM Achievement Across Grade Levels
Authors: Van Vo De , Csapó Benő
Published: January 2023

This study aims to investigate the patterns of students’ performance in inductive reasoning, scientific reasoning and science motivation at different grade levels. We also examined the interaction of these variables with parental factors in predicting students’ STEM achievement. A cross-sectional study assessed 726 participants from the 6th, 8th, 10th and 11th grades in 6 secondary schools. The findings showed that students in the upper grades achieved higher scores on reasoning tests than their counterparts in the lower-grade cohorts, but their motivation toward learning science decreased slightly across the grade cohorts. Although the students performed better on an inductive reasoning test, the developmental patterns were comparable for the results on 2 cognitive tests across grade levels. Generally, we found that inductive reasoning and scientific reasoning were closely tied and that both had a significant effect on STEM achievement, while parents’ education impacted positively on both STEM performance and parental involvement in their children’s schooling. However, parental involvement and science motivation had a minor—and different—influence on students’ STEM achievement in the individual grade cohorts. The implications for enhancing students’ STEM performance are further discussed accordingly.
On the Probabilistic Representation of the Free Effective Resistance of Infinite Graphs
Authors: Weihrauch Tobias , Bachmann Stefan
Published: January 2023

We completely characterize when the free effective resistance of an infinite graph whose vertices have finite degrees can be expressed in terms of simple hitting probabilities of the random walk on the graph.
Probabilistic urban cascading multi-hazard risk assessment methodology for ground shaking and post-earthquake fires
Authors: Nishino Tomoaki
Published: January 2023

A probabilistic methodology is presented for assessing cascading multi-hazard risk for ground shaking and post-earthquake fires at a regional scale. The proposed methodology focuses on direct economic losses to buildings caused by the combined effect of ground shaking and post-earthquake fires and evaluates the exceedance probability of the regional shaking–fire losses in a predefined future time period by comprehensively considering the effects of various uncertain factors on the losses via Monte Carlo simulations. Probabilistic seismic risk assessments are extended by integrating post-earthquake fire models with seismic activity models, ground motion prediction equations, and seismic fragility functions. The fire models include post-earthquake ignition models, a weather model, a physics-based urban fire spread model, and a fire brigade response model. This integrated modeling enables the incorporation of the following uncertain factors with causal relationships into the assessments: earthquake occurrence, ground motion intensity distribution, damage to buildings resulting from ground shaking, post-earthquake ignition occurrence and occupant firefighting, weather condition, fire brigade response time including time to detection, and damage to buildings resulting from post-earthquake urban fire spread. To demonstrate the methodology, a realistic case study is conducted for a historical urban area with closely spaced wooden buildings in Kyoto, Japan, focusing on possible large earthquakes along major active faults. Contrary to conventional single-hazard approaches, the results highlight the impact of multi-hazard consideration on risk assessments. This indicates that the methodology can be a useful tool for more appropriately understanding earthquake risk and promoting risk-informed decision-making in urban communities for risk reduction.
What we see is what we do: a practical Peripheral Vision-Based HMM framework for gaze-enhanced recognition of actions in a medical procedural task
Authors: Wang Felix S. , Kreiner Thomas , Lutz Alexander , Lohmeyer Quentin , Meboldt Mirko
Published: January 2023

Deep learning models have shown remarkable performances in egocentric video-based action recognition (EAR), but rely heavily on a large quantity of training data. In specific applications with only limited data available, eye movement data may provide additional valuable sensory information to achieve accurate classification performances. However, little is known about the effectiveness of gaze data as a modality for egocentric action recognition. We, therefore, propose the new Peripheral Vision-Based HMM (PVHMM) classification framework, which utilizes context-rich and object-related gaze features for the detection of human action sequences. Gaze information is quantified using two features, the object-of-interest hit and the object–gaze distance, and human action recognition is achieved by employing a hidden Markov model. The classification performance of the framework is tested and validated on a safety-critical medical device handling task sequence involving seven distinct action classes, using 43 mobile eye tracking recordings. The robustness of the approach is evaluated using the addition of Gaussian noise. Finally, the results are then compared to the performance of a VGG-16 model. The gaze-enhanced PVHMM achieves high classification performances in the investigated medical procedure task, surpassing the purely image-based classification model. Consequently, this gaze-enhanced EAR approach shows the potential for the implementation in action sequence-dependent real-world applications, such as surgical training, performance assessment, or medical procedural tasks.
Diagnosing and Handling Common Violations of Missing at Random
Authors: Ji Feng , Rabe-Hesketh Sophia , Skrondal Anders
Published: January 2023

Ignorable likelihood (IL) approaches are often used to handle missing data when estimating a multivariate model, such as a structural equation model. In this case, the likelihood is based on all available data, and no model is specified for the missing data mechanism. Inference proceeds via maximum likelihood or Bayesian methods, including multiple imputation without auxiliary variables. Such IL approaches are valid under a missing at random (MAR) assumption. Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal (Ignoring non-ignorable missingness. Presidential Address at the International Meeting of the Psychometric Society, Beijing, China, 2015; Psychometrika, 2023) consider a violation of MAR where a variable A can affect missingness of another variable B also when A is not observed. They show that this case can be handled by discarding more data before proceeding with IL approaches. This data-deletion approach is similar to the sequential estimation of Mohan et al. (in: Advances in neural information processing systems, 2013) based on their ordered factorization theorem but is preferable for parametric models. Which kind of data-deletion or ordered factorization to employ depends on the nature of the MAR violation. In this article, we therefore propose two diagnostic tests, a likelihood-ratio test for a heteroscedastic regression model and a kernel conditional independence test. We also develop a test-based estimator that first uses diagnostic tests to determine which MAR violation appears to be present and then proceeds with the corresponding data-deletion estimator. Simulations show that the test-based estimator outperforms IL when the missing data problem is severe and performs similarly otherwise.
Effect of Vacuum Impregnation and High Hydrostatic Pressure Treatments on Shelf Life, Physicochemical, and Sensory Properties of Seabream Fillets
Authors: Bou Ricard , Guerrero Luis , López Mariló , Claret Anna , López-Mas Laura , Castellari Massimo
Published: January 2023

Marination is commonly used to preserve fish, which, in combination with other non-thermal technologies, such as vacuum impregnation and high hydrostatic pressure, may help to preserve freshness and extend shelf life. In addition, marination may mask changes in physicochemical properties and the sensory attributes of fish resulting from intense pressurization treatments. In this study, we evaluated the effects of vacuum impregnation (50 mbar for 5 min) alone or in combination with a moderate pressurization treatment (250 MPa for 6 min) on the physicochemical properties, microbiological and oxidative stability, and sensory properties of refrigerated seabream fillets. Compared to conventional marination, vacuum impregnation alone had no effect on the aforementioned properties, except for a higher perception of lemon aroma (0.9 vs. 1.6). However, vacuum impregnation with pressurization reduced the total viable mesophilic aerobic bacteria to counts below 4 log colony forming units (CFU)/g after 16 days of storage at ≤ 2 °C, compared to 6 log CFU/g with conventional marination. Additionally, the color and texture were affected by the pressurization treatment. However, color was more susceptible, and at the beginning of storage, lightness was higher in the pressurized samples than in the control (52 vs. 78). Regardless, this whitening effect and other minor changes in texture and sensory properties compared to conventional marination with vacuum impregnation with pressurization can be considered of little relevance considering the increase in shelf life, the lack of lipid oxidation (maintained at low and similar levels as those of the non-pressurized samples), and the intrinsic whitening effects of certain marinades.
Digitally Deprived Children in Europe
Authors: Ayllón Sara , Holmarsdottir Halla , Lado Samuel
Published: January 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the need for internet connectivity and technological devices across the population, but especially among school-aged children. For a large proportion of pupils, access to a connected computer nowadays makes the difference between being able to keep up with their educational development and falling badly behind. This paper provides a detailed account of the digitally deprived children in Europe, according to the latest available wave of the European Union – Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We find that 5.4% of school-aged children in Europe are digitally deprived and that differences are large across countries. Children that cohabit with low-educated parents, in poverty or in severe material deprivation are those most affected.
Disease X vaccine production and supply chains: risk assessing healthcare systems operating with artificial intelligence and industry 4.0
Authors: Radanliev Petar , De Roure David
Published: January 2023

Objective

The objective of this theoretical paper is to identify conceptual solutions for securing, predicting, and improving vaccine production and supply chains.

Method

The case study, action research, and review method is used with secondary data – publicly available open access data.

Results

A set of six algorithmic solutions is presented for resolving vaccine production and supply chain bottlenecks. A different set of algorithmic solutions is presented for forecasting risks during a Disease X event. A new conceptual framework is designed to integrate the emerging solutions in vaccine production and supply chains. The framework is constructed to improve the state-of-the-art by intersecting the previously isolated disciplines of edge computing; cyber-risk analytics; healthcare systems, and AI algorithms.

Conclusion

For healthcare systems to cope better during a disease X event than during Covid-19, we need multiple highly specific AI algorithms, targeted for solving specific problems. The proposed framework would reduce production and supply chain risk and complexity in a Disease X event.
Investigating the roles of different extracted parameters from satellite images in improving the accuracy of daily reference evapotranspiration estimation
Authors: Talebi Hamed , Samadianfard Saeed , Kamran Khalil Valizadeh
Published: January 2023

Agricultural water management, crop modeling, and irrigation scheduling are all dependent on the accurate estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ET0). A satellite image can also compensate for the lack of reliable weather information. So, in this study, stochastic gradient descent (SGD) has been implemented for optimizing multilayer perceptron (MLP) and developing SGD-MLP to estimate daily ET0 in Tabriz (semi-arid climate) and Babolsar (humid climate) stations, Iran, using extracted data from satellite images. The estimated ET0 values were compared to the determined ET0 based on the FAO-Penman–Monteith equation. Based on satellite image data collected from 2003 to 2021, the database was constructed. During the development of the abovementioned models, data from 2003 to 2016 (70%) were used for training purposes, and residual data (30%) were used for testing purposes. Additionally, the input variables, including land surface temperature (LST) day and night, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), leaf area index (LAI), and a fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) from MODIS sensor, were utilized to estimate the daily ET0. Thus, there are three studied models; first is based on the LST, second on the vegetation indices, and third on the combination of the LST and the vegetation indices. Additionally, four performance indexes, including the coefficient of determination (R2), the root-mean-square error (RMSE), Willmott’s index of agreement (WI), and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, were utilized in order to measure the implemented model’s accuracy. According to the obtained results, the SGD-MLP-3 with input parameters of LSTday&night, LSTmean, LAI, NDVI, and FPAR gave the most accurate results with RMSE and WI values of as 0.417 mm/day, 0.973, for Tabriz and 0.754 mm/day, 0.922 for Babolsar stations, respectively. Conclusively, LST of daytime, nighttime, and average may be suggested as the most influential parameter for ET0 estimation.
Stressful life events, general cognitive performance, and financial capacity in healthy older adults and Alzheimer’s disease patients
Authors: Giannouli Vaitsa , Tsolaki Magda
Published: January 2023

Background

The influence of stressful life events on general cognition and for the first time on financial capacity performance of patients with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and in healthy controls (HC) is assessed.

Methods

A total of 268 participants (122 patients and 146 HCs with similar demographics) were examined with a number of neuropsychological tests, including Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), and Legal Capacity for Property Law Transactions Assessment Scale (LCPLTAS) for measuring financial capacity. The life change unit (LCU) method was also used.

Results

HCs reported more stressful events than AD patients before the onset of the disease as the LCU load was higher for them (51.80 vs. 27.50), but in both groups the level of LCU load was far below 100, which is the threshold suggested for the induction of a psychosomatic disorder. The most frequently reported life event for AD patients was increased family arguments (n = 45/122), followed by increase in responsibilities (n = 32/122) and financial difficulties (n = 29/122), while the HC group reported problems within the family (n = 56/146), change in health status (n = 32/146), and a death of a beloved family member (n = 27/146). Regressions indicate no causal role for recent life events in the etiopathogenesis of AD, but an influence only of MMSE and diagnosis on financial capacity.

Conclusions

Stressful life events do not seem to be important in financial capacity and relevant vulnerability to financial exploitation for either HCs or AD patients; therefore clinicians should not consider them per se as a possible aggravating factor for financial deficits.
A Scoping Review of the Essential Components of Emergency Medical Response Systems for Mass Casualty Incidents
Authors: Usoro Agnes , Mehmood Amber , Rapaport Sarah , Ezeigwe Angelica K. , Adeyeye Adebisi , Akinlade Oluwafunmilayo , Dias Jennifer , Barnett Daniel J. , Hsu Edbert B. , Tower Craig , Razzak Junaid
Published: January 2023

Objective:

Emergency medical (EM) response systems require extensive coordination, particularly during mass casualty incidents (MCIs). The recognition of preparedness gaps and contextual priorities to MCI response capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can be better understood through the components of EM reponse systems. This study aims to delineate essential components and provide a framework for effective emergency medical response to MCIs.

Methods:

A scoping review was conducted using 4 databases. Title and abstract screening was followed by full-text review. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes pertaining to the essential components and integration of EM response systems.

Results:

Of 20,456 screened citations, 181 articles were included in the analysis. Seven major and 40 sub-themes emerged from the content analysis as the essential components and supportive elements of MCI medical response. The essential components of MCI response were integrated into a framework demonstrating interrelated connections between essential and supportive elements.

Conclusions:

Definitions of essential components of EM response to MCIs vary considerably. Most literature pertaining to MCI response originates from high income countries with far fewer reports from LMICs. Integration of essential components is needed in different geopolitical and economic contexts to ensure an effective MCI emergency medical response.
“Witch-hunt in Washington”: Ronald Prain, Robert F. Kennedy, the McClellan Committee, and the Investigation of International Business in the Cold War
Authors: Mollan Simon
Published: January 2023

In February 1956, Ronald Prain–chairman of the Rhodesian Selection Trust group of mining companies, and a significant figure in postwar international business—was subpoenaed and appeared before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation of the U.S. Senate Committee of Government Operations as it sought to determine whether British international business was exporting copper to the Soviet Union. Following the seemingly contrived nature of the proceedings, and because of a hostile interrogation by Robert F. Kennedy, Prain was later to describe his appearance as a “witch-hunt”—a conscious reference to the political paranoia of the period. Using a microhistorical approach, this article examines how Prain understood and narrated his role in an event to which he was a minor actor, drawn into a larger narrative of the political and economic conflict of the Cold War. It evaluates the historical veracity of Prain’s testimony and discusses the limits of memoir and archival sources. It discusses the implications of the event to the historiography of international business, in particular with reference to debates about the “nationality of the company” and the decline of the “Free-Standing Company.” And by examining one personal experience in a wider context, the article also shows that the history of international business and its relationship to the politics of the Cold War should not be seen as remote, monolithic, impersonal, or abstract but as individually lived and suffused with emotion, memory, and personal meaning.
The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot Aftermath: CSR in Action and Woke-washing
Authors: Hollingsworth Keith
Published: January 2023

After the murder of George Floyd, businesses across the United States stepped up with pledges and commitments to lessen systematic racism, reflecting a commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). But are these actions really concerned with social uplift? Or a form of woke-washing? This was not the first time corporate America reacted to racial upheaval and violence. In this paper, the author examines the reaction of the Atlanta business community to the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot. At that time, Atlanta’s business elite effectively usurped municipal and state authority to manage the aftermath of the horrific events. They were determined to protect the reputation of Atlanta as progressive and a place of relative racial harmony. How do we consider their actions in the context of CSR and woke-washing? The businesses sought mainly to protect their economic future rather than truly uplifting society or improving racial relations. Still, their actions impacted Atlanta positively for many decades to come, leading to better outcomes during the Civil Rights era and beyond.
On some properties of distributions possessing a bathtub-shaped failure rate average
Authors: Khan Ruhul Ali , Bhattacharyya Dhrubasish , Mitra Murari
Published: January 2023

The life distribution of a device subject to shocks governed by a homogeneous Poisson process is shown to have a bathtub failure rate average (BFRA) when the probabilities
$\bar{P}_k$
of surviving k shocks possess the corresponding discrete property. We prove closure under the formation of weak limits for BFRA distributions and explore related moment convergence issues within the BFRA family. Similar results for increasing and decreasing failure rate average distributions are obtained either independently or as consequences of our results. We also establish some results outlining the positions of various non-monotonic ageing classes such as bathtub failure rate, increasing initially then decreasing mean residual life, new worse then better than used in expectation, and increasing initially then decreasing mean time to failure in the hierarchy. Finally, an open problem is posed and a partial solution provided.
Effects of dietary plant protein sources intake on growth, digestive enzyme activity, edible tissue nutritional status and intestinal health of the omnivorous Redclaw crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus
Authors: Jiang Zongzheng , Qian Dunwei , Liang Zhenye , Jia Yongyi , Xu Chang , Li Erchao
Published: January 2023

For the omnivorous Cherax quadricarinatus crayfish, plant raw materials can be good alternatives to dietary fish meal (FM). A 56-d feeding trial was conducted in C. quadricarinatus (11·70 (se 0·13) g). Diet with 100 % FM as the protein source was the control. Seven experimental diets were formulated by replacing 75 or 100 % of FM with soyabean meal (SM75, SM100) or cottonseed meal (CM75 and CM100), and a mixture of SM and CM (protein content is 1:1) replacing 50, 75 or 100 % of FM (SC50, SC75 and SC100). Crayfish fed the CM100 and SC100 showed significantly lower weight gain (WG), specific growth rate, trypsin and pepsin activities compared with the control diet. Crayfish in CM100 group showed significantly higher GPx, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase activities and malondialdehyde content than the control. SM100 and CM100 diets can cause slight separation of the peritrophic membrane from the intestinal folds. The pepsin activity of crayfish in SC50 was significantly higher than those in other experimental diets. The highest WG and muscle arginine content were also found in crayfish fed SC50. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Unclassified Enterobacteriaceae and Candidatus Bacilloplasma was significantly higher, but Actinobacteriota was significantly lower in SM100, CM100 and SC100 than in control. Microbiota functional prediction indicated that the relative abundance of ‘cell motility’ pathway in crayfish fed CM100 was significantly decreased compared with the control. In conclusion, only half of the FM can be effectively substituted with a mixture of SM and CM (protein content is 1:1) for C. quadricarinatus.
Coinfection rates of avian blood parasites increase with latitude in parapatric host species
Authors: Starkloff Naima C. , Galen Spencer C.
Published: January 2023

Animals are frequently coinfected with multiple parasites concurrently, and advances in our sampling of these complex intra-host parasite communities have revealed important ecological impacts on their hosts. However, the spatial distributions and environmental determinants of parasite coinfection remain infrequently studied. Here, we investigated the drivers of haemosporidian blood parasite coinfection in the Bicknell's thrush (Catharus bicknelli) and grey-cheeked thrush (Catharus minimus), parapatric sister species that occur across a broad latitudinal range in northern North America. Using 298 samples from across the distributions of these species, we found high overall infection (86%) and coinfection (41%) rates within host populations. Coinfection rates within populations were highly variable across sampling sites, ranging from 7 to 75%. Latitude was a more important predictor of coinfection frequency than host species identity, with coinfections becoming more abundant at higher latitudes. The 2 host species exhibited similar parasite faunas, and an analysis of the co-occurrence patterns among haemosporidians showed that host species identity was largely not a factor in structuring which parasites were found within coinfections. To our knowledge, this is the first study to illustrate a reverse latitudinal gradient in coinfection frequency in a eukaryotic parasite system. Further work is necessary to determine whether vector ecology or some other factor is the primary proximate driver of this pattern.
The International Context of Democratic Backsliding: Rethinking the Role of Third Wave “Prodemocracy” Global Actors
Authors: Samuels David J.
Published: January 2023

We know much about “how democracies die”: elites and masses become polarized, and norms of mutual toleration, forbearance, and institutional restraint erode. But why do elites feel free to undermine these guardrails of democracy? What are the sources of backsliding? Answers to these questions have focused on the impact of economic and cultural change, and on autocratic meddling. I consider another potential source of backsliding around the world: the impact of the reconfiguration of global politics after the Cold War and 9/11 on politics in the main prodemocratic actors that Samuel Huntington highlighted in his book The Third Wave: the United States, the European Union, and the Vatican. Today, the international context gives leaders in these global powers relatively weaker incentives to stand up for democracy, even in the face of aggressive meddling from Russia and China. Changes in international politics has left democracy with weaker ideational support in the global arena, potentially facilitating backsliding.
Do people like to discuss politics? A study of citizens’ political talk culture
Authors: Schmitt-Beck Rüdiger , Neumann Manuel
Published: January 2023

As deliberative democracy is gaining practical momentum, the question arises whether citizens’ attitudes toward everyday political talk are congruent with this ‘talk-centric’ vision of democratic governance. Drawing on a unique survey we examine how German citizens view the practice of discussing politics in everyday life, and what determines these attitudes. We find that only a minority appreciates talking about politics. To explain these views, we combine Fishbein and Ajzen’s Expectancy-Value Model of attitudes toward behaviors with perspectives from research on interpersonal communication. Individuals’ interest in politics emerges as the only relevant political disposition for attitudes toward everyday political talk. Its impact is surpassed and conditioned by conflict orientations and other enduring psychological dispositions, as well as contextual circumstances like the closeness of social ties and the amount of disagreement experienced during conversations. The beneficial effect of political interest dwindles under adverse interpersonal conditions. The social dimension of everyday political talk thus appears to outweigh its political dimension.
Detecting Permafrost Active Layer Thickness Change From Nonlinear Baseflow Recession
Authors: Cooper M. G. , Zhou T. , Bennett K. E. , Bolton W. R. , Coon E. T. , Fleming S. W. , Rowland J. C. , Schwenk J.
Published: January 2023

Permafrost underlies about one fifth of the global land area and affects ground stability, freshwater runoff, soil chemistry, and surface‐atmosphere gas exchange. The depth of thawed ground overlying permafrost (active layer thickness) has broadly increased across the Arctic in recent decades, coincident with a period of increased streamflow, especially the lowest flows (baseflow). Mechanistic links between active layer thickness and baseflow have recently been explored using linear reservoir theory, but most watersheds behave as nonlinear reservoirs. We derive theoretical nonlinear relationships between long‐term average saturated soil thickness (proxy for active layer thickness) and long‐term average baseflow. When applied to 38 years of daily streamflow data for the Kuparuk River basin on the North Slope of Alaska, the theory predicts increased  cm a−1 between 1983 and 2020 ( cm total). The rate of increase nearly doubled to  cm a−1 between 1990 and 2020, during which time local field measurements from Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring sites indicate the active layer increased  cm a−1. The predicted rate of increase more than doubled again between 2002 and 2020, outpacing a near doubling of observed active layer thickening, consistent with trends in terrestrial water storage inferred from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite gravimetry and Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications climate reanalysis. Overall, hydrologic change is accelerating in the Kuparuk River basin, and we provide a theoretical framework for estimating basin‐scale changes in active layer water storage from streamflow measurements.