bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Influence of the reflectivity of a crystal on the angular distribution of diffracted transition radiation of relativistic electrons
Authors: Berdnichenko A.V. , Budko A.V. , Kolodochkin V.V. , Takabayashi Y. , Vnukov I.E.
Published: May 2024

The influence of the angular profile of crystal reflectivity on the assessment of the divergence of a beam of relativistic electrons is studied through measurements of the angular distribution of diffracted transition radiation. The results show that, when the angular distribution of reflectivity is taken into account, the obtained divergence values are close to the true values. Failure to take this effect into account leads to systematic errors in determining the horizontal divergence. The magnitude of the error depends on the beam divergence and is inversely proportional to the square of the energy of the reflected photons.
Surface-modified injectable poly(ethylene-glycol) diacrylate-based cryogels for localized gene delivery
Authors: Dalal Neha , Dandia Hiren , Ingle Arvind , Tayalia Prakriti
Published: May 2024

Lentiviral transduction is widely used in research, has shown promise in clinical trials involving gene therapy and has been approved for CAR-T cell immunotherapy. However, most modifications are done ex vivo and rely on systemic administration of large numbers of transduced cells for clinical applications. A novel approach utilizing in situ biomaterial-based gene delivery can reduce off-target side effects while enhancing effectiveness of the manipulation process. In this study, poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA)-based scaffolds were developed to enable in situ lentivirus-mediated transduction. Compared to other widely popular biomaterials, PEGDA stands out due to its robustness and cost-effectiveness. These scaffolds, prepared via cryogelation, are capable of flowing through surgical needles in both in vitro and in vivo conditions, and promptly regain their original shape. Modification with poly(L-lysine) (PLL) enables lentivirus immobilization while interconnected macroporous structure allows cell infiltration into these matrices, thereby facilitating cell-virus interaction over a large surface area for efficient transduction. Notably, these preformed injectable scaffolds demonstrate hemocompatibility, cell viability and minimally inflammatory response as shown by our in vitro and in vivo studies involving histology and immunophenotyping of infiltrating cells. This study marks the first instance of using preformed injectable scaffolds for delivery of lentivectors, which offers a non-invasive and localized approach for delivery of factors enabling in situ lentiviral transduction suitable for both tissue engineering and immunotherapeutic applications.
Gyrokinetic simulations of the kinetic electron effects on the electrostatic instabilities on the ITER baseline scenario
Authors: ZHANG 张 Debing 德兵 , ZHAO 赵 Pengfei 鹏飞 , XU 徐 Yingfeng 颖峰 , YE 叶 Lei 磊 , ZHANG 张 Xianmei 先梅
Published: May 2024

The linear and nonlinear simulations are carried out using the gyrokinetic code NLT for the electrostatic instabilities in the core region of a deuterium plasma based on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) baseline scenario. The kinetic electron effects on the linear frequency and nonlinear transport are studied by adopting the adiabatic electron model and the fully drift-kinetic electron model in the NLT code, respectively. The linear simulations focus on the dependence of linear frequency on the plasma parameters, such as the ion and electron temperature gradients

, the density gradient

and the ion–electron temperature ratio

. Here,

is the major radius, and

and

denote the electron and ion temperatures, respectively.

is the gradient scale length, with

denoting the density, the ion and electron temperatures, respectively. In the kinetic electron model, the ion temperature gradient (ITG) instability and the trapped electron mode (TEM) dominate in the small and large

region, respectively, where

is the poloidal wavenumber. The TEM-dominant region becomes wider by increasing (decreasing)

(

) or by decreasing

. For the nominal parameters of the ITER baseline scenario, the maximum growth rate of dominant ITG instability in the kinetic electron model is about three times larger than that in the adiabatic electron model. The normalized linear frequency depends on the value of

, rather than the value of

or

, in both the adiabatic and kinetic electron models. The nonlinear simulation results show that the ion heat diffusivity in the kinetic electron model is quite a lot larger than that in the adiabatic electron model, the radial structure is finer and the time oscillation is more rapid. In addition, the magnitude of the fluctuated potential at the saturated stage peaks in the ITG-dominated region, and contributions from the TEM (dominating in the higher

region) to the nonlinear transport can be neglected. In the adiabatic electron model, the zonal radial electric field is found to be mainly driven by the turbulent energy flux, and the contribution of turbulent poloidal Reynolds stress is quite small due to the toroidal shielding effect. However, in the kinetic electron model, the turbulent energy flux is not strong enough to drive the zonal radial electric field in the nonlinear saturated stage. The kinetic electron effects on the mechanism of the turbulence-driven zonal radial electric field should be further investigated.
A modular optically pumped magnetometer system
Authors: Coussens T , Gialopsou A , Abel C , Bason M G , James T M , Evans W , Woodley M T M , Nightingale D , Nicolau D , Page L , Oručević F , Krüger P
Published: May 2024

To address the demands in healthcare and industrial settings for spatially resolved magnetic imaging, we present a modular optically pumped magnetometer (OPM) system comprising a multi-sensor array of highly sensitive quantum magnetometers. This system is designed and built to facilitate fast prototyping and testing of new measurement schemes by enabling quick reconfiguration of the self-contained laser and sensor modules as well as allowing for the construction of various array layouts with a shared light source. The modularity of this system facilitates the development of methods for managing high-density arrays for magnetic imaging. The magnetometer sensitivity and bandwidth are first characterised in both individual channel and differential gradiometer configurations before testing in a real-world magnetoencephalography environment by measuring alpha rhythms from the brain of a human participant. We demonstrate the OPM system in a first-order axial gradiometer configuration with a magnetic field gradient sensitivity of

10

fT

/

cm

/

Hz

at a baseline of 4.5 cm. Single-channel operation achieved a sensitivity of

65

fT

/

Hz

. Bandwidths exceeding

200

Hz

were achieved for two independent modules. The system’s increased temporal resolution allows for the measurement of spinal cord signals, which we demonstrate by using phantom signal trials and comparing with an existing commercial sensor.
Comparative performance evaluation of voltage gate-spin orbit torque MTJ-based digital logic circuits with 45 nm CMOS technology
Authors: Jangra Payal , Duhan Manoj
Published: May 2024

The development of advanced logic systems relies on low-power, compact devices with incredibly fast computational speeds. Voltage gate spin–orbit Torque Magnetic Tunnel Junction has emerged as a prominent solution, meeting these requirements and playing a crucial role in the design of digital circuits. This paper concentrates on the design, implementation, and performance evaluation of gates (AND, OR, XOR) and combinational circuits (2 × 1 Mux, subtractor, and adder) based on VgSOT MTJ. The performance characteristics of these circuits have been evaluated, and comprehensive comparisons have been made with conventional 45 nm CMOS and SOT/STT-based circuit designs. In this paper, based on the latency performance analysis, it has been established that the logic gates and combinational circuits utilizing VgSOT exhibit superior performance of approximately 96% compared to CMOS counterparts. Similarly, latency performance improvement of 44% and 75%, respectively, is seen for VgSOT-based logic gates and combinational circuits over SOT and STT-based circuits. Analysis of power consumption in VgSOT-based logic gates has revealed a remarkable power efficiency of ∼98% over CMOS- and SOT/STT-based circuit implementations. Implementing VgSOT MTJ-based design brings about notable improvements in the performance of different logic designs.
Politics and African American Literature
Authors: Patterson Robert J.
Published: May 2024

As a result of American civic institutions excluding and marginalizing African Americans, African Americans found alternative ways to shape their political landscapes within the United States. Because elected officials wield a significant amount of power over people’s access to education, healthcare, housing, safety networks, and employment, the inability of Black people to participate fully in electoral politics has curtailed their ability to shape society. Historically, from the United States’ founding to the contemporary period, Black people’s second-class status in American society—that slavery made possible and that Jim Crow extended—required them to use their available platforms to shape political landscapes, even as they fought for mainstream political inclusion. In this context, African American literature in particular, and Black cultural production more generally, adopted an outsized role in persuading public opinion on matters important to Black political progress. A survey of African American literature from its beginning until the contemporary period captures how African Americans viewed, understood, and influenced conversations that affected and reflected their abilities to enjoy the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship. That is, African American literature does politics by offering ideas about politics and by shaping broader political debates and discussions. African American literature has thus remained an important resource for investigating how Black writers, activists, and cultural influencers used literature to express political perspectives, influence readers’ political behaviors, and alter or exert pressure on extant political discourses. African American literature’s roles as a repository for Black political thinking and shaper of Black political actions require more expansive views of politics and political behavior that trouble direct political action, for example, voting, picketing, and serving as an elected official, as the primary and most important ways to “do politics.” African American literature has functioned to exert political power to reshape the very contexts that would deny its political power.
Afghanistan in Victorian Literature
Authors: Aslami Zarena
Published: May 2024

Afghanistan appears infrequently in Victorian literature. However, when it does appear, whether as detail or as the setting of stories that characters tell within the framing story, it is highly charged with affect and meaning. For Victorian writers, references to Afghanistan had to be carefully managed because of the conflicted feelings the public had toward two wars that the British empire conducted in Afghanistan, wars that were unprovoked, traumatic, and did not definitively gain their stated objectives. The ideological necessity of viewing Afghans as both sovereign allies, preventing the incursions of other empires on British holdings in India, and savage others, to be dominated, led not only to powerfully charged references to this country in Victorian literature. It also finds expression in 20th- and 21st-century postcolonial scholarship, including the formidable work of Edward Said. Within this field, scholarship also tends to reference Afghanistan as mere detail and to evacuate it of historical content. Returning to Victorian literature allows us to fill in the content, that is, to understand this generic quality of Afghanistan—detail or narrated, but not direct, setting—as the result not of historical insignificance but of powerful Victorian ambivalence.
Women in Global African Diasporas
Authors: Patterson Tiffany
Published: May 2024

Global African diasporas are communities of African-descended peoples scattered across the world by slave trades and migrations. Slavery and other forms of bonded labor were sanctioned by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In the Mediterranean region, Africans from the Sudan were sold as slaves into the Middle East and Egypt as early as the 7th century. In the Indian Ocean region, Africans established contact with South Asians as soldiers, sailors, merchants, musicians, and explorers but were also part of a slave trade from countries on the east coast of Africa including Ethiopia (Abyssinia), Kenya, and Mozambique. Slaves were sold to Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka as well as the Pacific region—as far as China—to work as domestics in the homes of the wealthy, as soldiers, and as concubines.

An Atlantic trade in African slavery developed from the 16th to the 19th centuries carrying more than twelve million Africans across the Atlantic for a growing plantation economy in the Americas. These Africans came from the Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, Windward Coast, and the Congo in southwest Africa, a region controlled by the Portuguese. Transported on slave ships from Europe, African women, men, and children were carried across the Atlantic to labor on sugar, rice, coffee, and cotton plantations. Women were also sexually exploited, producing more laboring bodies and introducing color hierarchies throughout the Americas.

Once free of slave systems, African-descended women used their labor to build their communities and support their families. Though they faced discrimination, many became artists, cultural workers, and activists in movements for justice and freedom. Women developed political and social organizations in support of education and human rights issues and achieved economic power. They also became political and cultural leaders and continued to challenge discriminatory systems based on race, color, class, and gender.
Marriage across Africa
Authors: Jean-Baptiste Rachel , Burrill Emily , Warchol Abigail
Published: May 2024

Marriage has been a foundational but contested and fluid practice that demarcated biological and social reproduction in sub-Saharan African societies across time and space. Through marital and marriage-like arrangements, African societies have redrawn the distribution of economic resources and labor; gender roles and sexuality; rights to and of children; the contours of slavery and freedom; generational hierarchies; jurisprudence and the law; health and medicine; belief and religion; and politics and governance. Indeed, to talk about marriage is to lay at the heart of important social, cultural, political, and economic transformations in African history. Yet what is a “marriage?” At the most fundamental level, a marriage is a union between two people, forged through culturally and socially sanctioned ritual. But a marriage always involves many more people than the two who are married to one another, particularly in polygynous societies where men may marry multiple women, a few historical cases of polyandrous practices, and even in monogamous practices. Marriage sets up certain kinds of mutual expectations between many people grounded in rights and obligations, but these are almost always negotiated and often held in tension. Marriage consolidates resources, including labor and kin, and most societies invest considerable energy into gatekeeping and managing this resource consolidation through laws, regulations, and sociocultural mores. African peoples, in their relationships as husbands, wives, lovers, uncles, aunts, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, grandchildren, influencers, and political leaders, have debated this question in efforts to establish pathways to well-being and stability.
Women in Togo
Authors: Goeh-Akue Adovi Michel , Tchintchan Soalinane
Published: May 2024

Throughout Togo, male hegemony was and remains the norm. Colonization did not produce any palpable change in favor of women. Rather, colonial authorities confined women to their roles of wife and housekeeper by excluding them from European economic and political activities. And yet, the reality is that women played a crucial role in the country’s social, economic, and political transformations. They stood alongside nationalists during the struggle for independence (1946–1960) and as members of the National Women’s League of Togo (l’Union nationale des femmes du Togo, or UNFT). They provided significant support for the national party (1969–1991) and had an equally strong presence in the opposition movement as the country began democratizing in 1990. Above all, they are known for their dynamism in business. As store owners and stall keepers, they run wholesale and retail operations alike. Meanwhile, efforts are being made to improve their status and condition. Family and individual law gives them certain rights, and positive steps have been taken regarding women’s education. Political authorities also increasingly promote women. Since 2010, the massive market fires in Lomé and Kara in January 2013 have proven to be the biggest blow to both the image of Togolese women and their economic ascension.
Women in Burkina Faso
Authors: Gomez-Perez Muriel , Yameogo Bertin
Published: May 2024

The women of Burkina Faso face a highly complex situation. Nationally and locally, men continue to dominate political life, despite the emergence of protective female figures during the precolonial period, the public role played by a handful of female leaders since the 19th century, and the adoption of gender quota legislation on January 22, 2020. Meanwhile, women’s social and economic progress remains precarious, with major disparities persisting between rural and urban areas and between poorer and wealthier households. For instance, although access to education has expanded since the late 1980s, widespread school closures instituted since 2016 in response to jihadist attacks have prevented countless girls from pursuing their studies. Marriage continues to constitute a key social institution to the point of becoming a source of intense competition between women since the economic crisis of the 1990s. Although rates of female genital mutilation remain significant, they have fallen considerably since the turn of the 21st century. As for family decisions regarding women’s access to and management of land, they continue to reflect a rigidly patriarchal outlook. Although the role of women in migration tends to be overlooked in favor of a decidedly male focus, they have nevertheless represented a central component of internal migratory flows since the early 20th century. Since the 1990s, they have displayed growing autonomy in the labor market, alongside flexibility in matters of agricultural production and land management. Finally, Burkinabe women have found subtle ways of taking their place within different religious traditions. Starting in the 1950s within Catholic missionary orders and especially in the 1990s within the Muslim community and the Assemblies of God, women of various ages have even gained prominence and, in some cases, emerged as opinion leaders.
Habshis and Sidis in India
Authors: Ali Omar H.
Published: May 2024

Africans and their descendants in India are variously referred to as “Habshi” and “Sidi,” as in much of South Asia. The Afro–South Asian communities that formed in India have origins that date back at least two millennia. There is evidence from at least the 1st century ce of systematic trade between Ethiopia and India. Over the course of the following two millennia, tens of thousands of Africans would arrive in a range of capacities in different parts of South Asia—India, Pakistan, Bengal, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. Prior to the 20th century, most Africans were taken as slaves via the Indian Ocean slave trade, serving as soldiers in the case of men and, in smaller numbers, domestic workers and concubines in the case of women. Many, however, came on their own volition as merchants, sailors, scholars, or explorers, while still others worked as mercenaries or as musicians—sometimes both, as with the African Cavalry Guards of the Nizam of Hyderabad, in what is now the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Some Habshis and Sidis rose to significant positions of authority through the military and as court officials, such as Malik Ambar, the 17th-century general and regent minister of Ahmednagar in India’s Deccan. Others became rulers of their own dynasties, such as the Nawabs of Janjira along the western coast of India. Most people of African descent in the region, however, lived their lives like most South Asians, poor and politically marginalized, yet with their own creativity and community. The contributions of Africans and their descendants—in terms of their labor, languages, religion, art, music, dance, cuisine, and stories—form part of the complex, vibrant, and overlapping cultures and societies that comprise India and the region as a whole.
Business in the Civil War: Trade, Markets, and Industry
Authors: Wilson Mark R.
Published: May 2024

The Civil War disrupted domestic and international trade. Union strategy included a considerable focus on economic warfare, especially in the form of a naval blockade of Southern ports. Because the war lasted four years, its outcome was affected deeply by the success or failure of Union and Confederate economic mobilizations of capital, industry, and labor. On the home fronts, many businesses, large and small, confronted new challenges to their normal operations and supply chains. Generally speaking, businesses in the South suffered more than their Northern counterparts. Forced to deal with the consequences of the blockade, high inflation, and Union advances, many Southern farmers, merchants, and manufacturers struggled to keep afloat, especially after 1862. In the North, there was more wartime prosperity, thanks to a smoother economic mobilization and the Union’s ability to continue internal and international trade. But there was no single uniform experience: at the levels of specific industries and individual firms, the impact of the war varied widely. Clearly, the single biggest economic change—and political and social change, as well—was the end of slavery. Beyond that, the Civil War’s effects on long-run economic and industrial development were more complex and uncertain. The conflict’s heavy costs in blood and treasure harmed the North as well as the South, but many industries came out of the war in a strong enough position to allow the United States to continue on its path to becoming the world’s largest and most prosperous national economy by the end of the 19th century.
Devotional Images of the Virgin Mary in Spain
Authors: Doval Trueba María del Mar
Published: May 2024

Jesus’s mother occupies a prominent place not only on the altars of churches throughout Spain but also in museums, which are full of masterpieces, in different supports, alluding to the Marian theme. The leading role of the Queen of Heaven has inspired many artists, throughout history and to this day, to develop work related to Mary. The iconography has evolved throughout history, but the theme is still alive. In Spain, devotion to the Virgin Mary is deeply rooted and is present in the vast majority of festivities and traditions that populate the calendar. Hundreds of municipalities celebrate their patron-saint festivities in her honor, including Holy Week, in which a host of image makers, embroiderers, sculptors, painters, and silversmiths combine their talents to show all the greatness of their art in images that move when brought into the streets, leading the faithful to the most absolute devotion. It is not surprising that many varied themes are used in her representation. The most common theme usually refers to the Seven Joys of Mary: Annunciation, Nativity of Jesus, Adoration of the Magi, Resurrection of Jesus, Ascension of Jesus, Pentecost (Descent of the Holy Spirit), and, finally, Coronation of the Virgin. The Coronation theme is possibly the least abundant from an iconographic perspective, but it has provided important examples from very early on. The Pope John Paul II based a good part of his pontificate on Mary, even dedicating to her one of his encyclicals, and she is one of the pillars of the presence of Catholic worship in Spanish society.
Athletics, Sports, and Muslims in North America
Authors: Fink Steven
Published: May 2024

Many North American Muslims love sports because they are enthralled by the chance to compete and by the pleasure that pervades play. From professional Muslim athletes to participants in Muslim basketball leagues or mosque athletic activities, Muslims throughout North America have enjoyed sports’ intrinsic delights and physical fitness rewards. Additionally, sports have promoted two other important functions for North American Muslims. First, especially in mosques and other local contexts, sports have promoted the strengthening of both personal piety and Islamic fellowship. A basketball game at a mosque might strengthen a Muslim’s desire to attend the Friday prayer service at the mosque; an annual Muslim Sports Day might strengthen bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood among a diverse gathering of athletically inclined Muslim participants. Second, in contexts such as Muslim basketball leagues in which non-Muslims play alongside Muslims and through the accomplishments of professional Muslim boxers, basketball players, football players, and Olympians, sports have possessed the potential to overturn non-Muslims’ negative perceptions of Islam and Muslims. Considering both of these functions, sports have played a role within North American Muslim dawah, a concept that connotes both drawing Muslims to deeper devotion and giving non-Muslims a favorable impression of Islam. In line with the word’s etymological basis in an Arabic root containing the meaning “to invite,” dawah in the athletic setting serves as an invitation for Muslims to pour themselves into pious practices alongside fellow Muslims as ardently as they might dive on the floor to grab a loose ball or push themselves in the training room in hopes of enjoying victory in an upcoming game. At the same time, sports-based dawah invites non-Muslims to recognize Muslims as full-fledged North American teammates, seeking to improve myriad aspects of North American society.
graffiti
Authors: DiBiasie-Sammons Jacqueline
Published: May 2024

Graffiti are informal, unofficial writings or drawings on surfaces not first produced for writing purposes, such as walls, pavement stones, rocks, and ceramics. Graffiti elucidate a great deal about life in the ancient world including topics such as social history, literacy, linguistic variation, sexuality, religious practices, and the use of space in ancient cities. These texts were composed in a variety of media: typically, they were scratched into the physical support, but paint, charcoal, and chalk were used as well. Graffiti have been found in many cities of the Greco-Roman world and in a variety of spaces including houses, tombs, religious spaces, and public areas. Since the texts were often inscribed or written on delicate surfaces such as wall plaster, only a small portion of the thousands that were once inscribed survive to the present.
CPADS: a web tool for comprehensive pancancer analysis of drug sensitivity
Authors: Li Kexin , Yang Hong , Lin Anqi , Xie Jiayi , Wang Haitao , Zhou Jianguo , Carr Shamus R , Liu Zaoqu , Li Xiaohua , Zhang Jian , Cheng Quan , Schrump David S , Luo Peng , Wei Ting
Published: May 2024

Drug therapy is vital in cancer treatment. Accurate analysis of drug sensitivity for specific cancers can guide healthcare professionals in prescribing drugs, leading to improved patient survival and quality of life. However, there is a lack of web-based tools that offer comprehensive visualization and analysis of pancancer drug sensitivity. We gathered cancer drug sensitivity data from publicly available databases (GEO, TCGA and GDSC) and developed a web tool called Comprehensive Pancancer Analysis of Drug Sensitivity (CPADS) using Shiny. CPADS currently includes transcriptomic data from over 29 000 samples, encompassing 44 types of cancer, 288 drugs and more than 9000 gene perturbations. It allows easy execution of various analyses related to cancer drug sensitivity. With its large sample size and diverse drug range, CPADS offers a range of analysis methods, such as differential gene expression, gene correlation, pathway analysis, drug analysis and gene perturbation analysis. Additionally, it provides several visualization approaches. CPADS significantly aids physicians and researchers in exploring primary and secondary drug resistance at both gene and pathway levels. The integration of drug resistance and gene perturbation data also presents novel perspectives for identifying pivotal genes influencing drug resistance. Access CPADS at https://smuonco.shinyapps.io/CPADS/ or https://robinl-lab.com/CPADS.
Cross-modal plasticity in children with cochlear implant: converging evidence from EEG and functional near-infrared spectroscopy
Authors: Deroche Mickael L D , Wolfe Jace , Neumann Sara , Manning Jacy , Hanna Lindsay , Towler Will , Wilson Caleb , Bien Alexander G , Miller Sharon , Schafer Erin , Gemignani Jessica , Alemi Razieh , Muthuraman Muthuraman , Koirala Nabin , Gracco Vincent L
Published: May 2024

Over the first years of life, the brain undergoes substantial organization in response to environmental stimulation. In a silent world, it may promote vision by (i) recruiting resources from the auditory cortex and (ii) making the visual cortex more efficient. It is unclear when such changes occur and how adaptive they are, questions that children with cochlear implants can help address. Here, we examined 7–18 years old children: 50 had cochlear implants, with delayed or age-appropriate language abilities, and 25 had typical hearing and language. High-density electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy were used to evaluate cortical responses to a low-level visual task. Evidence for a ‘weaker visual cortex response’ and ‘less synchronized or less inhibitory activity of auditory association areas’ in the implanted children with language delays suggests that cross-modal reorganization can be maladaptive and does not necessarily strengthen the dominant visual sense.
Omega-3 fatty acids mitigate isotretinoin-induced cheilitis
Authors: Siripanich Chawalpat , Ching Chow Yan , Ali Faisal R
Published: May 2024

While isotretinoin is an effective treatment for severe acne vulgaris, isotretinoin-induced cheilitis is one of the most troubling side-effects of the treatment. In an excellent review, which briefly covers the treatments for isotretinoin-induced cheilitis, Narayanan and Rogge overlooked the utility of omega-3 fatty acids (O3FAs). O3FAs, a cluster of long-chain and very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids that the human body cannot synthesize intrinsically, have demonstrated efficacy in improving specific conditions characterized by inflammation, dryness and moisture loss.
Dermatopathology
Authors: Yoo Li Jie Helena , Stefanovic Nicholas , McGrath Sally , Orr Emily , Ryan Stephanie L , Ryan Cliona , Roche Muireann
Published: May 2024

A 33-year-old woman presented with a 2-year history of coalescing reticular macular erythema on her bilateral chest and abdomen, which occurred after radiotherapy to her right chest for BRCA1-related breast carcinoma.
Health Care Personnel Workdays Lost and Direct Health Care Salary Costs Incurred due to COVID-19 Infection in the Age of Widespread Vaccine Availability
Authors: Townsend Liam , Gillespie Paddy , McGrath Jonathan , Kenny Claire ,   PRECISE Study Steering Group, Doherty Lorraine , Domegan Lisa , Conlon Niall , Martin Greg , de Gascun Cillian , Gallagher Joan , Keogan Mary , Noonan Noirin , O’Farrelly Cliona , Byrne David , Bergin Colm , Fleming Catherine
Published: May 2024

Background

Vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can mitigate the burden of health care worker (HCW) infection. We investigate the burden of HCW illness and its associated direct health care personnel costs in the setting of widespread vaccine availability and explore factors influencing these outcomes.

Methods

This multicenter prospective study followed HCWs over an 8-month period from January to August 2023. Data recorded included incident COVID-19 infection, symptom burden, workdays missed, and vaccine history. Workdays lost due to illness were used to calculate direct health care personnel costs due to COVID-19 infection. Univariate analysis and multivariable regression investigated the factors associated with workdays lost and direct health care personnel.

Results

In total, 1218 participants were enrolled and followed for 8 months, with 266 incidents of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, 1191 workdays lost, and health care personnel costs of €397 974. Multivariable regression revealed that workdays lost were associated with incomplete primary COVID-19 vaccination course. Being unvaccinated, older age, and male were associated with increased health care personnel costs.

Conclusions

Health care workdays lost remain a significant issue and are associated with health care system burden despite vaccine availability. These can be mitigated via targeted implementation of vaccine programs. Seasonal variation in health care workdays lost should inform workforce planning to accommodate surge periods.
In COVID Times: Scholars of Health and Medicine Meet Disaster Studies
Authors: Knowles Scott Gabriel
Published: May 2024

This essay builds on the exciting trove of disaster social science research surfacing since the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It tracks the ways that both practitioners of medicine and public health, and their social science analogues, have approached the pandemic, explicitly considering the ways they reached for new concepts to explain the temporal phenomena presented by COVID-19 and its global course. The essay highlights a series of interviews conducted in the first two years of the pandemic as part of the COVIDCalls podcast. COVID is the moment for a scholarly convergence that was missed after September 11, and again after Hurricane Katrina, and should not be missed again. Accordingly, this essay explores themes where medicine/health studies and disaster studies seem to offer great help to one another in making sense of our COVID times: the origins of disaster, disasters in combination, and the end of a disaster.
Investigating the effects of species niche shifts on the potential distribution of Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) by using global occurrence data
Authors: Yuan Xuejiao , Zhang Yuanyuan , Hu Luyi , Sang Weiguo , Yang Zheng
Published: May 2024

Invasive species may occupy quite different environments in their invaded areas to native ones, which may intensively interfere with predicting potential distribution through ecological niche modeling (ENM). Here, we take the tomato leafminer Tuta absoluta Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), a tomato pest, as an example to investigate this topic. We analyzed niche expansion, stability, unfilling, and Schoener’s D by principal component analysis (PCA) ordination method to examine its realized niche shifts and to explore how ENM approaches are affected by niche shifts. We used 5 datasets: Asian, African, European, South American, and global occurrence records in this study. Results showed that high niche unfilling for the species’ invaded areas in Asia (20%), Africa (12%), and Europe (37%), possibly due to T. absoluta being in the early stages of invasion. High niche expansion was observed in Asia (38%) and Europe (19%), implying that some European and Asian populations had reached new climatic areas. African niche had the most niche stability (94%) and was equivalent to the native one in climate space (PCA ordination method), but the n-dimensional climate space framework showed that they were different. When projecting the native model to Asia and Europe, the native model performed poorly, implying that the niche shifts affected the transferability of the native model. ENM based on global data outperformed than other models, and our results suggested that T. absoluta has a large potential distribution in Asia, Mexico, South Europe, the United States, and Australia. Meanwhile, we recommend updating ENMs based on the species’ invasion stage.
Phase separation of SPIN1 through its IDR facilitates histone methylation readout and tumorigenesis
Authors: Wang Yukun , Chen Yuhan , Li Mengyao , Wang Jiayue , Jiang Yuhan , Xie Rong , Zhang Yifeng , Li Zhihua , Yan Zhenzhen , Wu Chen
Published: May 2024

Spindlin1 (SPIN1) is a unique multivalent histone modification reader that plays a role in ribosomal RNA transcription, chromosome segregation, and tumorigenesis. However, the function of the extended N-terminal region of SPIN1 remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that SPIN1 can form phase-separated and liquid-like condensates both in vitro and in vivo through its N-terminal intrinsically disordered region (IDR). The phase separation of SPIN1 recruits the histone methyltransferase MLL1 to the same condensates and enriches the H3K4 methylation marks. This process also facilitates the binding of SPIN1 to H3K4me3 and activates tumorigenesis-related genes. Moreover, SPIN1-IDR enhances the genome-wide chromatin binding of SPIN1 and facilitates its localization to genes associated with the MAPK signaling pathway. These findings provide new insights into the biological function of the IDR in regulating SPIN1 activity and reveal a previously unrecognized role of SPIN1-IDR in histone methylation readout. Our study uncovers the crucial role of appropriate biophysical properties of SPIN1 in facilitating gene expression and links phase separation to tumorigenesis, which provides a new perspective for understanding the function of SPIN1.
Bronchoalveolar Lavage and Oleic Acid Two-hit Model for Inducing Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Swine Models
Authors: Russo Christopher , Evans Andrew , Sullivan Cameron , Wands Kayla , Hudson Arlene , Bedocs Peter
Published: May 2024

Introduction

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a widespread and often fatal clinical syndrome marked by the acute onset of pulmonary edema and inflammatory-mediated disruptions in alveolar-capillary permeability resulting in impaired gas exchange and tissue oxygenation with subsequent acute respiratory failure that accounts for 10.4% of all intensive care unit admissions worldwide and boasts a mortality rate of 38.5%. The current treatment for ARDS remains largely supportive. This is largely because of the many challenges of achieving a stable and sustainable animal model that recreates the pathophysiology of ARDS experimentally in a controlled setting to allow research to elucidate potential treatments of ARDS moving forward.

Materials and Methods

The bronchoalveolar lavage and oleic acid models are currently the 2 most frequently used experimental models in inducing ARDS in animal models. This study demonstrated that combining them into a “two-hit model” can produce sustained ARDS in swine models per the Horowitz index (PaO2/FiO2 ratio of ≤300 mmHg). Additionally, expected changes in pH, pCO2, lung compliance, cytokines, and tissue histopathology were observed and add to our confidence and reliability that the “two-hit model” produces symptomatic ARDS in a manner very similar to that observed in humans.

Results and Conclusions

In conclusion, we demonstrated a viable animal model of human ARDS that is maintained for a prolonged period, suitable for continuous monitoring of the progression, and evaluation of potential future treatments and procedures to reduce patient morbidity and mortality. To carry out this two-hit model, lung injury was induced through a combination of bronchoalveolar lavage and oleic acid administration and the disease process of ARDS is subsequently tracked through clinically relevant parameters such as respiratory mechanics, cytokine response, aretrial blood gas (ABG) changes, and observation of postmortem histopathologic changes. This promising new model has the capacity to successfully replicate human ARDS which is a well-known and notoriously multifactorial pathogenic process to reproduce experimentally for an extended period of time. The “two-hit model” is a viable and appropriate model for the research of novel treatments for ARDS.
The Successful Use of Bilateral 2-Level Ultrasound-Guided Stellate Ganglion Block to Improve Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms: A Retrospective Analysis of 23 Patients
Authors: Mulvaney Sean W , Lynch James H , Rae Olmsted Kristine L , Mahadevan Sanjay , Dineen Kyle J
Published: May 2024

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to determine whether performing ultrasound-guided, bilateral stellate ganglion blocks (SGBs; performed on subsequent days) improved traumatic brain injury (TBI) symptoms.

Methods

A retrospective chart review was conducted for the time period between August 2022 and February 2023 to identify patients who received bilateral, 2-level (C6 and C4) SGBs for PTSD symptoms but who also had a history of TBI. Neurobehavioral Symptoms Inventory (NSI) scores were collected at baseline, 1 week, and 1 month post-treatment in 14 males and 9 females.

Results

Out of 23 patients, 22 showed improvement in their NSI scores. NSI baseline average score was 42.7; the average score at 1 week post-treatment was 18.8; 1 month post-treatment was 20.1. This represents a 53% improvement in the NSI score between baseline and 1 month.

Conclusion

The use of bilateral, 2-level SGBs may be indicated in treating patients with PTSD symptoms with concomitant diagnoses of mild-to-moderate TBI.
Viability of Structured Gait Retraining for Improving Clinical Outcomes Following Running-related Injury in Active Duty Service Members
Authors: Leugers Kelly , Mathews Sara , Anderson Rhoda , Reilly Nicholas , Haltiwanger Henry , Gonnella Maria , Goss Don
Published: May 2024

Introduction

All branches of the U.S. Military have a running component of their physical readiness testing battery. Running-related musculoskeletal injuries affect 20 to 40% of DoD Service Members each year. Running form has not historically been addressed with military running-related injuries. To assess the utility of a structured gait retaining protocol designed to treat the onset of running-related pain and/or injury by correcting identified biomechanical risk factors for injury and improve clinical outcomes.

Study Design

Case series.

Materials and Methods

A total of 160 Active Duty Service Members (ADSMs) with running-related lower-body musculoskeletal injuries were referred by a physical therapist for a multisession gait retraining program termed “Run with CLASS” (Cadence, Lean, Alignment, Soft-landing, Strike). Run with CLASS utilized various drills to emphasize impact progression, proximal strengthening, and proprioception and spatial awareness.

Results

Results revealed that the implemented gait retraining protocol significantly improved running parameters following lower-body injury as evidenced by increased cadence, improved functional assessment scores, and a marked transition from predominantly heel strike to forefoot strike patterns during running.

Conclusions

A 3-week supervised gait retraining program focused on the gait retraining program termed “Run with CLASS” (Cadence, Lean, Alignment, Soft-landing, Strike) was successful in altering biomechanics of self-selected running gait by increasing cadence and transitioning ADSMs to a forefoot foot strike. Additionally, ADSMs reported significant improvements on the self-reported functional scores on the University of Wisconsin Running Injury and Recovery Index and Single Assessment Numerical Evaluation.

Level of Evidence

4
Overview of Robotic Surgery in the U.S. Military: From Conception to Utilization, and Future Applications
Authors: Wahlstedt Eric R , Kronstedt Shane M , Saffati Gal , Hinojosa-Gonzalez David E , Mucher Zachary R
Published: May 2024

This column explores the inception, challenges, and prospects of robotic surgery in the military. It highlights the military’s role in developing early prototypes, current utilization, training struggles, partnerships with civilian organizations, and potential future applications. The military’s influence on the evolving landscape of robotic surgery is emphasized.
Incident Rate Limitations in Retrospective Observational Military Cancer Research
Authors: Sayers David R , DeStefano Christin B
Published: May 2024

The unique jobs, exposures, and deployments in the military generate questions regarding cancer risks; however, incidence rates alone from retrospective observational studies provide limited information. Incorporating screening rates, staging, and mortality rates allows a more comprehensive perspective regarding cancer risk in the military.
Do No Harm in Global Health Engagement
Authors: Shinwari Sayed Alam , Currie Carolyn , Kumpf Joshua , Zuerlein Scott , Riley Kevin
Published: May 2024

This manuscript examines the principle of “Do No Harm” in DoD Global Health Engagement (GHE) efforts. It highlights the potential positive and negative consequences of health investments and explores how unintentional harm is addressed in a global health context. The manuscript also discusses the involvement of the U.S. military in global health and the concept of dual loyalty faced by military GHE practitioners. The goal is to understand the challenges of doing no harm and identify methods to mitigate or avoid unintended negative consequences in DoD GHE activities.
Modelling the BAO feature in bispectrum
Authors: Behera Jayashree , Rezaie Mehdi , Samushia Lado , Ereza Julia
Published: May 2024

We investigate how well a simple leading order perturbation theory model of the bispectrum can fit the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the measured bispectrum monopole of galaxies. Previous works showed that perturbative models of the galaxy bispectrum start failing at the wavenumbers of k ∼ 0.1 h Mpc−1. We show that when the BAO feature in the bispectrum is separated, it can be successfully modelled up to much higher wavenumbers. We validate our modelling on GLAM simulations that were run with and without the BAO feature in the initial conditions. We also quantify the amount of systematic error due to BAO template being offset from the true cosmology. We find that the systematic errors do not exceed 0.3 per cent for reasonable deviations of up to 3 per cent from the true value of the sound horizon.