bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Disparities in Race and Ethnicity Reporting and Representation for Clinical Trials in Stroke: 2010 to 2020
Authors: Nanavati Hely D. , Andrabi Mudasir , Arevalo Yurany A. , Liu Evan , Shen Jeffrey , Lin Chen
Published: March 2024

Background

Racial and ethnic minority groups are at a higher stroke risk and have poor poststroke outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of race reporting and proportions of race and ethnicity representation in stroke‐related clinical trials.

Methods and Results

This is a descriptive study of stroke‐related clinical trials completed between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2020, and registered on
ClinicalTrials.gov
. Trials conducted in the United States, related to stroke and enrolling participants ≥18 years, were considered eligible. Trials were reviewed for availability of published results, data on race and ethnicity distribution, and trial characteristics. Overall, 60.1% of published trials reported race or ethnicity of participants, with a 2.6‐fold increase in reporting between 2010 and 2020. White patients represented 65.0% of the participants, followed by 24.8% Black, 2.4% Asian or Pacific Islander, and <1% Native American and multiracial participants; 9.0% were of Hispanic ethnicity. These trends remained consistent throughout the study period, except in 2018, when a higher proportion of Black participants (53.1%) was enrolled compared with White participants (35.8%). Trials with the National Institutes of Health/federal funding had higher enrollment of Black (28.1%) and Hispanic (13.8%) participants compared with other funding sources. Behavioral intervention trials had the most diverse enrollment with equal enrollment of Black and White participants (41.1%) and 14.5% Hispanic participants.

Conclusions

Despite the increase in race and ethnicity reporting between 2010 and 2020, the representation of racial and ethnic minority groups remains low in stroke trials. Funding initiatives may influence diversity efforts in trial enrollment.
A Systematic Review of Computational Approaches to Deciphering Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot Scripts
Authors: Braović Maja , Krstinić Damir , Štula Maja , Ivanda Antonia
Published: March 2024

This article provides a detailed insight into computational approaches for deciphering Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot scripts, namely, the Archanes script and the Archanes formula, Phaistos Disk, Cretan hieroglyphic (including the Malia Altar Stone and Arkalochori Axe), Linear A, Linear B, Cypro-Minoan, and Cypriot scripts. The unique contributions of this article are threefold: (1) a thorough review of major Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot scripts and inscriptions, digital data and corpora associated with them, existing computational decipherment methods developed in order to decipher them, and possible links to other scripts and languages; (2) the definition of 15 major challenges that can be encountered in computational decipherments of ancient scripts; and (3) an outline of a computational model that could possibly be used to simulate traditional decipherment processes of ancient scripts based on palaeography and epigraphy. In the context of this article the term decipherment denotes the process of discovery of the language and/or the set of symbols behind an unknown script, and the meaning behind it.
Expert Authority Politics in the Marine Biodiversity Complex
Authors: Langlet Arne , Vadrot Alice
Published: March 2024

The negotiations for a new instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of high-seas marine biodiversity (marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction; BBNJ) finally concluded after difficult negotiations. The BBNJ negotiations had to address a regime complex of sectoral and regional organizations regulating different aspects of marine biodiversity and a political struggle about the epistemologies that ought to inform marine biodiversity governance, which is driven by limited, unequally distributed, and contested knowledge. However, to be implemented, the new BBNJ Agreement will have to be equipped with expert authority to be able to address these challenges and make competent statements about the state of high-seas marine biodiversity. We address a gap in empirical work on expert authority in the regime complex by analyzing state references to the expertise of different international organizations in the BBNJ negotiations. Combining collaborative event ethnography and social network analysis, we show that states strategically and politically refer to the expertise of international organizations, and we coin the term authority shopping to describe this behavior.
Plastic Politics of Delay: How Political Corporate Social Responsibility Discourses Produce and Reinforce Inequality in Plastic Waste Governance
Authors: Vandenberg Jessica
Published: March 2024

As the global plastics pollution crisis grows in severity and complexity, diverse solutions are being proposed across the public and private sectors. Notably, multinational corporations (MNCs) from the petrochemical and consumer goods sectors have become increasingly involved. From providing recycling infrastructure to directly participating in drafting action plans and policies, MNCs are engaging as political actors in plastics waste governance, influencing discourses and actions globally, a process referred to as political corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this article, I examine Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste initiative as a case study of this process. I evaluate how Coca-Cola frames the problems of plastics waste, their solutions, and the roles that Coca-Cola asserts within this complex, transboundary environmental governance issue. Borrowing from literature on corporate climate delay tactics, I demonstrate how the initiative implements discourses and practices of delayed action, hindering comprehensive governance strategies. Through this analysis, I argue that political CSR actions can exacerbate the global plastics pollution crisis through ineffective and inequitable waste governance approaches that perpetuate uneven plastics pollution burdens.
Obtaining Lower Query Complexities Through Lightweight Zeroth-Order Proximal Gradient Algorithms
Authors: Gu Bin , Wei Xiyuan , Zhang Hualin , Chang Yi , Huang Heng
Published: March 2024

Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization is one key technique for machine learning problems where gradient calculation is expensive or impossible. Several variance, reduced ZO proximal algorithms have been proposed to speed up ZO optimization for nonsmooth problems, and all of them opted for the coordinated ZO estimator against the random ZO estimator when approximating the true gradient, since the former is more accurate. While the random ZO estimator introduces a larger error and makes convergence analysis more challenging compared to coordinated ZO estimator, it requires only O(1) computation, which is significantly less than O(d) computation of the coordinated ZO estimator, with d being dimension of the problem space. To take advantage of the computationally efficient nature of the random ZO estimator, we first propose a ZO objective decrease (ZOOD) property that can incorporate two different types of errors in the upper bound of convergence rate. Next, we propose two generic reduction frameworks for ZO optimization, which can automatically derive the convergence results for convex and nonconvex problems, respectively, as long as the convergence rate for the inner solver satisfies the ZOOD property. With the application of two reduction frameworks on our proposed ZOR-ProxSVRG and ZOR-ProxSAGA, two variance-reduced ZO proximal algorithms with fully random ZO estimators, we improve the state-of-the-art function query complexities from Omindn1/2ε2,dε3 to O˜n+dε2 under d>n12 for nonconvex problems, and from Odε2 to O˜nlog1ε+dε for convex problems. Finally, we conduct experiments to verify the superiority of our proposed methods.
Frequency Propagation: Multimechanism Learning in Nonlinear Physical Networks
Authors: Anisetti Vidyesh Rao , Kandala Ananth , Scellier Benjamin , Schwarz J. M.
Published: March 2024

We introduce frequency propagation, a learning algorithm for nonlinear physical networks. In a resistive electrical circuit with variable resistors, an activation current is applied at a set of input nodes at one frequency and an error current is applied at a set of output nodes at another frequency. The voltage response of the circuit to these boundary currents is the superposition of an activation signal and an error signal whose coefficients can be read in different frequencies of the frequency domain. Each conductance is updated proportionally to the product of the two coefficients. The learning rule is local and proved to perform gradient descent on a loss function. We argue that frequency propagation is an instance of a multimechanism learning strategy for physical networks, be it resistive, elastic, or flow networks. Multimechanism learning strategies incorporate at least two physical quantities, potentially governed by independent physical mechanisms, to act as activation and error signals in the training process. Locally available information about these two signals is then used to update the trainable parameters to perform gradient descent. We demonstrate how earlier work implementing learning via chemical signaling in flow networks (Anisetti, Scellier, et al., 2023) also falls under the rubric of multimechanism learning.
Column Row Convolutional Neural Network: Reducing Parameters for Efficient Image Processing
Authors: Im Seongil , Jeong Jae-Seung , Lee Junseo , Shin Changhwan , Cho Jeong Ho , Ju Hyunsu
Published: March 2024

Recent advancements in deep learning have achieved significant progress by increasing the number of parameters in a given model. However, this comes at the cost of computing resources, prompting researchers to explore model compression techniques that reduce the number of parameters while maintaining or even improving performance. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been recognized as more efficient and effective than fully connected (FC) networks. We propose a column row convolutional neural network (CRCNN) in this letter that applies 1D convolution to image data, significantly reducing the number of learning parameters and operational steps. The CRCNN uses column and row local receptive fields to perform data abstraction, concatenating each direction's feature before connecting it to an FC layer. Experimental results demonstrate that the CRCNN maintains comparable accuracy while reducing the number of parameters and compared to prior work. Moreover, the CRCNN is employed for one-class anomaly detection, demonstrating its feasibility for various applications.
New Nabataean Inscription from al-CUlā
Authors: al-Theeb Solaiman , al-Hishan Madallah
Published: March 2024

This article focused on a Nabataean inscription found in al-cUlā province, northwest of Saudi Arabia.

The importance of this inscription, which consists of five lines, lies in the appearance of the noun, singular, masculine, emphatic “wklwƆ” for the first time in Nabataean inscriptions. Its historical significance lies in the period it was written, which was during the thirty-ninth year of the rule of alḥrtt, the King of the Nabateans, one year before his death.
Quality characteristics and storage stability of pork patties added with drone pupae (Apis mellifera) powder
Authors: Choi N.Y. , Park S.H. , Park Y.H. , Park G.T. , Oh S.H. , Kim Y.A. , Jang S.Y. , Kim Y.J. , Ahn K.S. , Choi J.S.
Published: March 2024

In this study, the quality characteristics and functionality of pork patties added with drone pupae powder (DP) were investigated. Pork patties were prepared by adding 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 % of DP and stored in a refrigerator for 7 days. As the content of DP increased, moisture decreased while protein, fat, and carbohydrate contents increased compared to those in the control group. Cooking Loss (CL) showed a decreasing tendency compared to the control group. Total microbial count (TMC) showed a significant difference according to the storage period (). Treatment groups with the addition of DP showed lower TMC values than the control group, indicating that DP could inhibit microorganisms. The addition of 3% DP inhibited lipid oxidation (TBARS) and protein deterioration (VBN). The group to which 3% of DP was added showed the highest antioxidant activity (DPPH). These results suggest that DP has a positive effect on the storage properties of pork patties. In conclusion, the addition of 3% of DP lead to the best quality characteristics and storage stability, suggesting that it can be used as an additive in meat product manufacturing.
Eliza Orme’s Ambitions
Authors: Howsam Leslie
Published: March 2024

Why are some figures hidden from history? Eliza Orme, despite becoming the first woman in Britain to earn a university degree in Law in 1888, leading both a political organization and a labour investigation in 1892, and participating actively in the women’s suffrage movement into the early twentieth century, is one such figure.

Framed as a ‘research memoir’, Eliza Orme’s Ambitions fills out earlier scant accounts of this intriguing life, while speculating about why it has been overlooked. Established historian Leslie Howsam shapes the story around her own persistent curiosity in the context of a transformed research landscape, where important letters and explosive newspaper accounts have only recently come to light. These materials show how Orme’s career ambitions brought her into conflict with the male-dominated legal community of her time, while her political ambitions were cut short by disputes with other women activists whose notions of political strategy she repudiated. In public, Orme was a formidable debater for the causes she supported and against opponents whose strategies—even for women’s suffrage—she repudiated. In private, she was generous, warm, and witty, close to friends, family, and her female partner. Howsam’s account of uncovering Orme’s professional and personal trajectory will appeal to academic and non-academic readers interested in the progress and setbacks women experienced in the late-Victorian and Edwardian decades.
2. Before Law
Authors: Howsam Leslie
Published: March 2024

This chapter covers the first twenty-three years of Eliza Orme’s life, the years before she declared her intention to study and practice law. Her parents were well-off and well-connected, acquainted with Dante Gabriel Rosetti, John Stuart Mill, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, and other luminaries. At the age of nineteen she began to study the sciences and mathematics at University College London, and had a sojourn as a teacher of chemistry in a country village. It was only later that she moved to law and political science, sitting in on some of the first classes that were open to women students. Her instructors included William Alexander Hunter, John Elliott Cairnes, and Leonard Courtney, all of whom shared her commitment to the goals of the Liberal Party. At the instigation of John Stuart Mill, who admired her practical good sense, Orme became co-secretary of the London Committee for Women’s Suffrage.
3. The Commitment to Law
Authors: Howsam Leslie
Published: March 2024

In her early twenties, Eliza Orme decided to enter the legal profession, enlisting the help of Helen Taylor, the stepdaughter and assistant of John Stuart Mill. Orme’s award-winning performance in her university courses attracted the attention of other mentors, some of whom tried to help her secure a position, not in one of the Inns of Court (which remained unthinkable) but by working as a junior in a barrister’s chambers. That was unsuccessful. Later, guided by another mentor, she established her own chambers in Chancery Lane, the legal district, and began working there with Mary Ellen Richardson. They were conveyancers and patent agents, and both were directors of the Nineteenth-Century Building Society (an organization for financing real estate transactions). Some of their legal work was legitimate because unregulated, while the more lucrative, regulated, opportunities came about when senior barristers paid for Orme and her associates to prepare legal documents which would appear under the official (male) signature. In an enthusiastic letter to Taylor, Orme described their chambers as ‘a miniature Girton’.

There is evidence of discrimination and challenges, including a fellow-student who sought to appropriate a scholarship she had earned and a newspaper column speculating on the matrimonial ambitions of someone who had led her class in Roman Law. To counter this, Howsam offers a letter from an American woman lawyer describing Eliza Orme and Reina Emily Lawrence working together in a busy, well-appointed office: ‘a fine chaos’. Orme persisted through the challenges and prospered, along with Richardson, Lawrence and other women colleagues. The chapter ends with Leslie Howsam’s informed speculations about the level of Orme’s commitment to legal practice—was that the extent of her ambition, or was it a step on the way to exercising her passionate interest in contemporary politics?
4. Private Life
Authors: Howsam Leslie
Published: March 2024

This chapter opens with an analysis of the sole surviving photograph of Eliza Orme, and a description of the circumstances by which Leslie Howsam acquired a copy after many years of research without access to a visual image. It covers Eliza’s family and childhood, including the three London houses where the family lived, and corrects a much-quoted error about her mother’s early life. The two most significant of Eliza’s friends and colleagues are the philosopher Samuel Alexander (whose correspondence with Orme, only recently discovered by Howsam, reveals the frivolous side of her personality) and the lawyer-turned-local-politician Reina Lawrence (whose professional partnership with Orme might also have been an intimate one). Notable among her many connections were the politician/editor William Alexander Hunter, the novelist George Gissing, and the politician Charles Dilke. Orme’s life overlapped repeatedly with that of Hunter, although the connection has to be inferred because no direct correspondence has apparently survived. Whereas Gissing referred in his letters and diaries to Orme’s practical assistance with the breakdown of his marriage (but he apparently destroyed all her many letters to him, and may not have known or cared about her public achievements). In the case of Dilke, there is direct evidence of her political support for his radical ideas and his Liberal candidacy, and tantalizing but ambiguous evidence of her assistance at a crucial moment of scandal in Dilke’s career.

As an adult Orme lived with her younger sister Beatrice and one of her brothers; she stayed in touch with a wide family connection of siblings, nieces, and nephews, but she left her estate to Beatrice Orme and Reina Lawrence. The narrative returns to Orme’s retirement and last years in chapter 7.
5. Public Figure
Authors: Howsam Leslie
Published: March 2024

Continuing to trace Eliza Orme’s public life from the date of her 1888 LL.B. degree when she was forty years of age, this chapter shows how her public persona was shaped by a commitment to the Liberal Party of William Ewart Gladstone. Crucially, Gladstone and other Liberals opposed women’s suffrage, a circumstance that created difficulties not only for Orme personally, but also for the Women’s Liberal Federation of which she was a founding member. The chapter begins with a newspaper profile of Orme from 1892 that reveals how differently she was seen by allies and antagonists. For allies she was a ‘quick-witted champion, with a convenient appetite for combat’ in debate, while the antagonists saw her as an ‘arch-villain’ and ‘malignant schemer’ prepared to undermine the Federation’s objectives. The latter group, led by Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle, held views of feminist political strategy that came into conflict with Orme’s legally-inflected approaches. Leslie Howsam’s recent discovery of this and other important new evidence is woven into Orme’s story.

Sections include: ‘Public Engagement and the Campaign for Irish Home Rule’ (this included editing the a political newspaper, the Women’s Gazette & Weekly News); ‘The Women’s Liberal Federation Splits over the Question of Suffrage’ (a little-known story involving duelling strategies and dirty tricks); ‘Factory Inspection and the Royal Commission’ (Orme’s role as Senior Lady Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Commission on Labour of 1892-3, including her reports on the work of women as barmaids and in the iron industry); and ‘Prison Committee’ (an 1894 political appointment to a government committee investigating the conditions of prisons for women). The chapter concludes by characterizing Orme as ‘An Independent Single Professional Woman in Public Life’ and speculates on the reasons for her relative historical obscurity in the light of what was clearly a period of well-publicized activity. One of these was the dispute with Lady Carlisle, which put her, apparently, on the wrong side of history. Another was the accident of Orme’s longevity. By the time she died in 1937, there was no one to write her obituary, and a new generation of independent, single, and professional women was taking advantage of opportunities that she had missed.
7. Last years
Authors: Howsam Leslie
Published: March 2024

Eliza Orme lived for two decades after she retired from public life about 1903. This chapter gathers the scanty evidence for what happened during that time, including the breakup of her household and her move to an institutional setting. Direct evidence of this period is scanty, and the narrative depends on her last letter to Samuel Alexander, supplemented by census records and a death certificate. A section on ‘Contemporaneities’ collects information about what her contemporaries were doing during this period of obscurity, and how the causes with which she was associated fared as time passed. ‘Retirement’ speculates on Orme’s ultimate motivations, in the context of her ‘unthinkable’ ambitions and changing social norms.
8. Who was Eliza Orme?
Authors: Howsam Leslie
Published: March 2024

The closing chapter draws together the threads of evidence in the context of Leslie Howsam’s memories of a prolonged investigation and her informed speculation about Eliza Orme’s ambitions. It describes Howsam’s return, after retirement and during the Covid pandemic, to the study of Orme in the dual context of a transformed (digital) research environment and a renewed academic interest in women’s professional lives. One such thread is ‘Loyalty, logic, and strategy: the case of Charles Dilke’s divorce scandal’, where the strong circumstantial evidence of Orme’s professional involvement is discussed. Another is ‘Speculation: Eliza’s thwarted ambition’ which adduces the argument that Orme might have been aiming for election as part of the first cohort of women members of Parliament. Turning to the questions of identity that have framed the book as a whole, the following sections ask: ‘Who was Eliza to her friends and family?’, ‘Who was Miss Orme to lawyers (then and now)?’ and ‘Who was she to posterity?’.

The chapter concludes that Eliza Orme was an independent single professional woman in public life; she described herself as ‘hopelessly practical’ while aiming to do first one, and then another unthinkable job for a woman of her time, initially to be a lawyer, and perhaps also to be a politician, on equal terms with men.
Research on the Differences of Climatic Characteristics of Different Levels of Gale Disasters in Northern Xinjiang
Authors: Hu Fan , Liu Chenliang , Hu Ming , Xie Xiaofeng , Lv Xinsheng
Published: March 2024

Disaster damage index and disaster grades are constructed by using multi index method on the basis of overall consideration, based on the disaster data of 671 wind disasters taking place in 38 counties (cities) in Northern Xinjiang from 1980 to 2019, and by selecting six disaster factors including the death toll, the number of collapsed houses, the number of collapsed sheds, the number of damaged green houses, the number of livestock deaths and the affected area caused by each wind disaster event. The results show that in space, wind disasters are the most frequent in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and Altay Prefecture, and the losses caused by wind disasters are the most severe along Tianshan Mountain in Northern Xinjiang and Altay Prefecture. In terms of time, wind disasters in Northern Xinjiang are mainly concentrated in spring and summer (from March to August), of which April and May are the months with the highest frequency. In recent 40 years, the occurrence times and extent of harm of wind disasters in Northern Xinjiang have shown a linear growth trend; the occurrence times of wind disasters at various grades and the extent of harm have increased significantly during the years around 2000; it is found, upon examination, there was a sudden change of climate in the late 1990s, and the increase rate is inversely proportional to the grade of wind disaster. Therefore, the wind disasters in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Altay Prefecture and the area along Tianshan Mountain in Northern Xinjiang from April to May each year are the areas in Northern Xinjiang with the highest wind disaster risk. The study can provide scientific basis for wind disaster prevention and control in Northern Xinjiang.
The Relative Importance of Antarctic Sea Ice Loss within the Response to Greenhouse Warming
Authors: Hay Stephanie , Kushner Paul J.
Published: March 2024

The response to Antarctic sea ice loss within a coupled modeling framework is examined in comparison to the response to Arctic sea ice loss and within the context of general greenhouse warming. Sea ice loss responses are found to be linear (particularly in response to Antarctic or global sea ice loss) with respect to the degree of imposed perturbation and additive when perturbations are applied in hemispheres separately and concurrently. Globally, and in the tropical Pacific in particular, Antarctic sea ice loss plays a relatively larger role than Arctic sea ice loss in both the atmosphere and the ocean, within the parameters of our experiments. The pattern of response to Antarctic sea ice loss is also found to more closely resemble that of greenhouse warming, again particularly in the tropics. An extension to multiparameter pattern scaling is developed to include a scaling factor for Antarctic change in addition to those for tropical warming and Arctic sea ice loss. The decomposition is applied to the modeled response to Antarctic sea ice loss to break it down into component partial responses that scale with Antarctic, tropical, and Arctic changes. This reveals the aspects of the response that are directly related to Antarctic change, such as an equatorward intensification of tropical precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere, and those that are modified via the induced changes in the tropics and Arctic, such as Northern Hemisphere temperature change. With this, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the role of each of these changes for the development of physical mechanisms of the response.
Forecasting High Wind Events in the HRRR Model over Wyoming and Colorado. Part I: Evaluation of Wind Speeds and Gusts
Authors: Collins Ethan , Lebo Zachary J. , Cox Robert , Hammer Christopher , Brothers Matthew , Geerts Bart , Capella Robert , McCorkle Sarah
Published: March 2024

Strong wind events cause significant societal damage ranging from loss of property and disruption of commerce to loss of life. Over portions of the United States, the strongest winds occur in the cold season and may be driven by interactions with the terrain (downslope winds, gap flow, and mountain wave activity). In the first part of this two-part series, we evaluate the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model wind speed and gust forecasts for the 2016–22 winter months over Wyoming and Colorado, an area prone to downslope windstorms and gap flows due to its complex topography. The HRRR model exhibits a positive bias for low wind speeds/gusts and a large negative bias for strong wind speeds/gusts. In general, the model misses many strong wind events, but when it does predict strong winds, there is a high false alarm probability. An analysis of proxies for surface winds is conducted. Specifically, 700- and 850-mb (1 mb = 1 hPa) geopotential height gradients are found to be good proxies for strong wind speeds and gusts at two wind-prone locations in Wyoming. Given the good agreement between low-level height gradients and surface wind speeds yet a strong negative bias for strong wind speeds and gusts, there is a potential shortcoming in the boundary layer physics in the HRRR model with regard to predicting strong winds over complex terrain, which is the focus of the second part of this two-part study. Last, the sites with the largest strong wind speed bias are found to mostly sit on the leeward side of high mountains, suggesting that the HRRR model performs poorly in the prediction of downslope windstorms.

Significance Statement

We investigate the performance of the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model with respect to strong wintertime wind speeds and gusts over the complex terrain of Wyoming and Colorado. We show that the overall performance of the HRRR model is low with regard to strong wind speed and wind gust forecasts across the investigated winter seasons, with a large negative bias in predicted strong wind speeds and gusts and a small positive bias for weak wind speeds and gusts. The largest biases are found to be on the leeward side of high mountains, indicating poor prediction of downslope winds. This study also utilizes National Weather Service forecasting metrics to understand their performance with respect to strong wind forecasts, and we find that they provide skill in forecasting these events.
Unveiling the Black Box in Retail Firms’ Supply Chain Labor Standards Performance: A Theory of Supply Chain Labor Compliance Integration
Authors: Jayasinghe Mevan , Cao Yinyin
Published: March 2024

Prior work shows limited success in retail firms’ efforts to create socially responsible supply chains by enforcing suppliers’ compliance with labor standards, partly due to conflicting sourcing demands exerted on the supplier by siloed functional units within the retail firm. To ensure the substantive adoption of labor standards throughout its supply chain, we argue that the retail firm must improve their degree of “supply chain labor compliance integration” by minimizing cross-functional tensions in human capital, identities, processes and goals. We define supply chain labor compliance integration, identify its determinant organizational practices that reduce cross-functional tensions, and explain the mechanisms by which it improves the retail firm’s supply chain labor standards performance. This work offers theoretical and practical insights on the retail firm’s capacity for managing socially responsible supply chains, and more broadly, on how systematically minimizing intra-organizational tensions arising in the pursuit of competing organizational priorities is a prerequisite for their simultaneous execution in inter-organizational business exchanges.
More Options, but Less Willing to Cast a Valid Vote: Evidence From Electoral Reform in Chile
Authors: Cox Loreto , Le Foulon Carmen
Published: March 2024

How do large-magnitude proportional systems affect invalid voting? We evaluate a Chilean electoral system reform that introduced proportionality. Voting is voluntary, and legislative and presidential elections are held concurrently. We compare the invalid votes between different types of elections before and after the reform using various difference-in-differences strategies. We find that invalid voting increased in legislative compared to presidential elections (pre-trends were parallel). The increase in invalid voting is greater in post-reform districts with higher magnitude and is not due to pre-reform district characteristics. The results of heterogeneity analyses and a survey experiment suggest the mechanism behind these findings is the cognitive burden associated with a longer ballot. This research highlights an understudied aspect of electoral systems: higher district magnitudes may be demobilizing in terms of valid voting for citizens who are more vulnerable to cognitive burden, even among those motivated enough to vote in the first-order election.
Case Report: Cefepime Induced Neurotoxicity Following a Change in Infusion Time
Authors: Stratton Kendall , Davis Kelly W.
Published: March 2024

Purpose: Cefepime is an antibiotic associated with cefepime induced neurotoxicity (CIN), particularly in those with reduced renal function, or in cases of inappropriate medication dosing. This report describes a case of CIN associated with a change in infusion duration from 180 to30 minutes, which to the best of our knowledge has not been previously reported in the literature. Summary: A 73-year old male was treated with extended infusion cefepime over 180 minutes while hospitalized with recurrent pneumonia. On discharge, cefepime was continued as outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) administered over 30 minutes. The patient began to experience symptoms of neurotoxicity after 1 day of receiving OPAT, which subsequently led to a readmission as neurological symptoms worsened. Cefepime was discontinued and symptoms resolved within 48 hours. Renal function was stable throughout treatment and no other causes for neurotoxicity were noted. Conclusion: This is a unique case of CIN secondary to shortened infusion time, which is clinically relevant, particularly during transitions of care. Further investigation, including more widespread use of therapeutic drug monitoring will be beneficial to further elucidate the relationship between infusion time and CIN development.
What Makes Their Relations Tick?
Authors: Guite John Thanglalsang
Published: March 2024

India and Myanmar have not always enjoyed a comfortable relation with each other ever since their independence from colonial rule. When the Burmese military suppresses the voice of civil rights movements within its sovereign territory, India, as its democratic neighbour, voices concern through verbal actions and nothing more and when non-state actors from the Northeast Indian states act against established Indian authorities on Indian soil, New Delhi talks tough with Myanmar, such that insurgents from Northeast India seeks asylum in Myanmar, and when India accuses Myanmar of such accusations and misunderstandings tend to occur, where both countries blame each other for their problems, not to mention the maelstrom of problems related to drug flow, illegal human migration, and illegal trade that occurs between the porous borders of both these sovereign Asian countries. Amidst such problems and misconceptions in their relations of the past and also the present, what are the factors that keep a thaw in their relations?
The Health Service Model for Promoting Good Death in Critically Ill End-of-Life Patients in the Emergency Department: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Sirivarawuth Tidarat , Utriyaprasit Ketsarin , Ratinthorn Ameporn , Tankumpuan Thitipong , Viwatwongkasem Chukiat
Published: March 2024

Good death is one of the important outcomes of end-of-life care service delivery. The initial management of critically ill patients in the Emergency Department (ED) for promoting good death often challenging since it requires a focus on human dignity and equity at the end of life. A qualitative approach was used included eight bereaved family members who loss of their loved one in the ED and 25 emergency staff, including 11 emergency physicians and 14 emergency nurses of a super tertiary hospital in Thailand. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted from February to August 2021. All the interviews were transcribed verbatim for content analysis. The result identified four distinct scenarios and seven core themes of end-of-life patient characteristics in the ED. To promote a good death in the ED, health care provider should consider the unique service deliver for each critically end-of-life patients and their family members.
Evaluating health systems’ efficiency towards universal health coverage: A data envelopment analysis
Authors: Eze Paul , Idemili Chidumebi Judith , Lawani Lucky Osaheni
Published: March 2024

To estimate the technical efficiency of health systems toward achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in 191 countries. We applied an output-oriented data envelopment analysis approach to estimate the technical efficiency of the health systems, including the UHC index (a summary measure that captures both service coverage and financial protection) as the output variable and per capita health expenditure, doctors, nurses, and hospital bed density as input variables. We used a Tobit simple-censored regression with bootstrap analysis to observe the socioeconomic and environmental factors associated with efficiency estimates. The global UHC index improved from the 2019 estimates, ranged from 48.4 (Somalia) to 94.8 (Canada), with a mean of 76.9 (std. dev.: ±12.0). Approximately 78.5% (150 of 191) of the studied countries were inefficient (ϕ < 1.0) with respect to using health system resources toward achieving UHC. By improving health system efficiency, low-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income, and high-income countries can improve their UHC indices by 4.6%, 5.5%, 6.8%, and 4.1%, respectively, by using their current resource levels. The percentage of health expenditure spent on primary health care (PHC), governance quality, and the passage of UHC legislation significantly influenced efficiency estimates. Our findings suggests health systems inefficiency toward achieving UHC persists across countries, regardless of their income classifications and WHO regions, as well as indicating that using current level of resources, most countries could boost their progress toward UHC by improving their health system efficiency by increasing investments in PHC, improving health system governance, and where applicable, enacting/implementing UHC legislation.
Lower subjective socioeconomic status is associated with self-dehumanization rather than other-dehumanization: the mediating role of belief in a just world / El nivel socioeconómico subjetivo bajo no está vinculado con la deshumanización del otro sino del yo: el rol mediador de la creencia en un mundo justo
Authors: Jiang Zhaocai , Liu Jin
Published: March 2024

Previous studies relating socioeconomic status (SES) to dehumanization mainly focused on how low- and high-SES groups were dehumanized (i.e., as the target of dehumanization). However, studies considering the associations between perceiver’s subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) and self- as well as other-dehumanization are scarce. Furthermore, belief in a just world (BJW) is thought to be linked in these associations. Thus, the main goal of this research is to examine direct and indirect associations of individuals’ SSS and self- or other-dehumanization via BJW among 583 college students. We found SSS predicted self-dehumanization negatively. Nevertheless, the predictive effect of SSS for other-dehumanization was not significant. Additionally, BJW mediated the relationship between SSS and dehumanization. Our findings broaden the domain of dehumanization by providing evidence on the role of individuals’ SSS in the perception of their own and others’ humanity. Moreover, in light of the harm of self-dehumanization, future studies should attach importance to the role of self-dehumanization of lower-status individuals in hindering their upward social mobility.
Comparing clinical outcomes of hybrid coronary revascularization with open coronary artery bypass in patients with multi-vessels lesions
Authors: Lin Ji , Li Guang , Ji Yuan , Xu Yi , Liu Shuo , Qu Zheng , Li Ping , You Bin
Published: March 2024

Objectives

Hybrid coronary revascularization (HCR) involves the use of minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) to treat the left anterior descending artery (LAD), and percutaneous coronary intervention to treat non-LAD vessels. We reported the results of a comparative analysis between HCR and off-pump CABG via sternotomy (OPCABG).

Methods

Data were retrospectively collated from patients who underwent HCR or OPCABG for multivessel coronary artery disease between 2011 and 2022. Propensity score-based matching was performed to reduce the selection bias. The Comparisons of cardiac-related death, major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), and repeat revascularization were performed by Kaplan-Meier analysis or the Fine-Gray test.

Results

After matching, the baseline characteristics were well-balanced between the two groups with 91 patients per group. There was no significant difference in operative mortality rate (1.1% for HCR vs2.2% for OPCABG, p = 1.000). However, patients undergoing HCR required a significantly lower rate of blood product transfusions ( p < .001) and experienced significantly fewer pulmonary complications than OPCABG patients ( p < .001). At 10 years, the incidences of cardiac-related death, MACCE and repeat revascularization did not differ significantly between the two groups (9.5% vs11.5%, p = .277; 4.7% vs12.3%, p = .361; 1.2% vs2.5%, p = .914, respectively).

Conclusions

For patients with multi-vessel lesions, HCR was comparable to OPCABG in long-term outcomes such as cardiac-related death, MACCE, and the durability of grafts. Additionally, HCR was better than OPCABG in perioperative outcomes. HCR may be an alternative therapy for OPCABG in patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease.
Hepatitis B virus and cytomegalovirus coinfection in an older patient: a case report
Authors: Liu Huimin , Wang Jiaqi , Chen Wenting , Jiang Li , Mao Qing
Published: March 2024

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection involving the skin is relatively rare. We herein report a case involving a man in his late 70s with positive hepatitis B surface antigen who presented with multiform skin lesions, including a papuloid rash, papular urticaria, and purpura. The patient had taken no antiviral drugs for nearly 13 years but had recently developed severe liver injury. Laboratory examination revealed positive CMV immunoglobulin M, CMV polymerase chain reaction result of 1.09 × 102 copies/mL, and a slightly decreased CD4+ cell count; however, the CD8+ T-cell count was within the normal range. A skin biopsy was performed in the region of the papular eruption on the left inner thigh, and the pathologic findings were consistent with CMV infection. After admission, the patient began a combination of antiviral therapy for hepatitis B virus and CMV. After 3 weeks of treatment, the patient was discharged with skin lesions, and his liver function recovered.
Knee Joint Line Obliquity With Adaptational Hip and Ankle Joint Orientation After Medial Open Wedge High Tibial Osteotomy
Authors: Jun June-Bum , Lee Sung-Sahn , Oh Juyong , Lee Dae-Hee
Published: March 2024

Background:

Time-dependent postoperative changes in knee joint line obliquity (KJLO) and subsequent adaptational changes in the hip and ankle joints have not been fully proven after medial open wedge high tibial osteotomy (MOWHTO).

Purpose:

To investigate the serial postoperative changes in KJLO and subsequent adaptational changes in the hip and ankle joints over time after MOWHTO.

Study design:

Case series, Level of evidence, 4.

Methods:

A total of 92 patients who underwent MOWHTO between April 2015 and December 2020 were evaluated. Radiographic parameters, including KJLO, ankle joint line obliquity (ALO), hip abduction angle (HAA), joint line convergence angle, weightbearing line ratio, and hip-knee-ankle angle, were analyzed in time sequence (preoperatively and 3, 6, 12, and 24 months postoperatively). Repeated-measures analysis of variance and post hoc analysis were used to demonstrate alterations and the statistical significance of KJLO and other related radiographic parameters over time.

Results:

The mean KJLO values were –1.9°, –2.1°, –2.7°, and –3.2° at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months postoperatively, respectively, indicating that there was consistent increase in valgus tilting of KJLO from 6 to 24 months ( P < .001 for both 6-12 months and 12-24 months). ALO and HAA showed significant changes from 6 to 12 months (ALO, P < .001; HAA, P = .002), but not between 12 and 24 months (ALO: –3.0°, –2.7°, –1.9°, and −1.6°; HAA: –0.8°, –0.9°, –1.5°, and −1.8° at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively). The mean joint line convergence angle, weightbearing line ratio, and hip-knee-ankle angle did not change significantly from 3 months to 24 months postoperatively.

Conclusion:

There was a consistent increase in valgus tilting of the postoperative KJLO from 6 to 24 months after MOWHTO. The adaptive ALO and HAA significantly changed between 6 and 12 months and were maintained until 24 months after MOWHTO. It is necessary to consider the adaptive change when hip or ankle surgery is planned within this period.
Peacekeeping operations and shadow economy growth in host countries
Authors: Blanton Robert G , Peksen Dursun
Published: March 2024

While a great deal of scholarship has been devoted to peacekeeping operations (PKOs), relatively few works have examined their economic effects. Toward better understanding this area of inquiry, we examine the impact of PKOs on the growth of the shadow economies of host countries. We posit that the conflict cessation brought about by peacekeeping missions, as well as their stimulative economic effects, will reduce the growth of the shadow sector. However, these impacts may not be sustainable after the conclusion of the mission. Testing these linkages across 145 countries for over 40 years, we find significant support for these dynamics.
Using combination of albumin to fibrinogen ratio and prognostic nutritional index model for predicting disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Zhao Hongshuai , Huang Zikun , Wang Shiqian , Fu Peng , Fu Biqi , Guo Yang , Li Junming , Luo Qing
Published: March 2024

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is chronic autoimmune disease with multiple organ damage and is associated with poor prognosis and high mortality. Identification of universal biomarkers to predict SLE activity is challenging due to the heterogeneity of the disease. This study aimed to identify the indicators that are sensitive and specific to predict activity of SLE.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 108 patients with SLE. Patients were categorized into SLE with activity and without activity groups on the basis of SLE disease activity index. We analyzed the potential of routine and novel indicators in predicting the SLE activity using receiver operating characteristic curves and multivariate logistic regression. The Spearman method was used to understand the correlation between albumin to fibrinogen ratio (AFR), prognostic nutritional index (PNI), AFR-PNI model and disease activity.

Results: SLE with activity group had higher ESR, CRP, D-dimer, fibrinogen, CRP to albumin ratio, positive rate of anti-dsDNA and ANUA, and lower C3, total bilirubin, total protein, albumin, albumin/globulin, creatinine, high density liptein cholesterol, hemoglobin, hematocrit, lymphocyte count, positive rate of anti-SSA, AFR, PNI than SLE without activity. A further established model based on combination of AFR and PNI (AFR-PNI model) showed prominent value in distinguishing SLE with activity patients from SLE without activity patients. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity of AFR-PNI model + anti-dsDNA combination model were superior to AFR-PNI model. AFR and PNI were risk factors for SLE activity. Moreover, AFR+PNI model correlated with disease activity and AFR-PNI model was associated with fever, pleurisy, pericarditis, renal involvement.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that predictive model based on combination of AFR and PNI may be useful markers to identify active SLE in clinical practice.