bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Development of model-based simulation and optimization software for electron beam melting and refining
Authors: Koleva E , Koleva L , Tsonevska Ts
Published: February 2023

In this paper the development of a software for electron beam melting and refining (EBMR) of different materials is presented. It has the following functional characteristics: simulation of the temperature distributions in the cast ingots, investigation and optimization of the form of the liquid pool during the process of EBMR and estimation of the inclusion refining rates, depending on the EBMR process parameters. The temperature distributions in the cast ingots are simulated by the implementation of quasi steady-state two-dimensional heat model and three-dimensional time-dependent thermal model for different refined metals. Empirical models are estimated, integrated in the developed software and used for the investigation of the molten pool geometry parameters, the content of impurities after the electron beam refining process, refining rate, overall inclusion removal efficiency and the material losses. The influence of EBMR process parameters such as electron beam power, casting velocity, refining time, and electron beam radius are considered. Multicriterial optimization software functions can be implemented for solving concrete technological requirements for each practical use-case.
3-D analysis of electron beam shape at target plane through parametric variation of an indirectly heated cathode-based electron gun
Authors: Goel V , Roy A , Maiti N
Published: February 2023

In this paper, a detailed 3-D analysis of the electron beam shape at the target plane of high power (60 kW, 60 kV, 1 A) 2700-bent indirectly heated cathode-based electron gun has been successfully carried out. This work will help analyse individual electron beam trajectories in the actual 3-D plane to ensure optimum electron beam bending and focusing at the target plane. Moreover, due to the presence of an additional electrode in an indirectly heated cathode-based electron gun i.e., a filament which is resistively heated and an indirectly heated solid cathode (heated through electron bombardment), this analysis becomes even more imperative. The work carried out in this paper will ensure better performance, characterization, and optimization of the 2700-bent indirectly heated cathode-based electron gun. Rigorous simulation work has been carried out by performing 3-D electrostatic, electromagnetic, and particle tracking simulations using CST Studio Particle Tracking Module. Adaptive mesh refinement has been utilized to ensure high accuracy of the results obtained. An optimum filament-solid cathode interspacing was found, using strip-shaped filament by providing a higher negative potential to the grid cup. It led to a well-focused 2700-bent electron beam, exhibiting minimum electron beam emittance at the target plane.
PDMS-based porous membrane for medical applications: design, development, and fabrication
Authors: Keshtiban Mohsen Mashhadi , Zand Mahdi Moghimi , Ebadi Amirali , Azizi Zahra
Published: February 2023

Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) is one of the most popular microfluidic chips and possesses various industrial, biomedical, and pharmaceutical applications. So far, many types of OoCs with different applications have been fabricated, most of which contain porous membranes useful as cell culture substrates. One of the challenging parts of OoC’s chips is porous membrane fabrication, making it a complex and sensitive process, which is an issue in microfluidic design. These membranes are made of various materials, the same as biocompatible polymer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Besides OoC, these PDMS membranes can be applied in diagnosis, cell separating, trapping, and sorting. In the present study, a new approach has been presented to design and fabricate an efficient porous membrane in terms of time and cost. The fabrication method has fewer steps than previous techniques and employs more conventional approaches. The presented method for membrane fabrication is functional and a novel way to continue producing this product with a single mold and peeling off the membrane on each try. Merely one sacrificial layer (polyvinyl alcohol) and an O2 plasma surface treatment have been used for fabrication. Surface modification and sacrificial layer on the mold ease the peeling of the PDMS membrane. Transferring process of the membrane to the OoC device is explained, and a filtration test is presented to show the functionality of the PDMS membranes. Cell viability is investigated by MTT assay to ensure the PDMS porous membranes are suitable for microfluidic devices. Also, cell adhesion, cell count, and confluency are analyzed, showing almost the same results for the PDMS membranes and the control samples.
Efficacy of Biochar-biofertilizer-vermicompost Treatment on Theobroma cacao and Rhizosphere Soil Microbial Population
Authors: Gonzales K K M P , Gestiada E C , Aggangan N S
Published: February 2023

The study investigated the effects of a novel biochar-biofertilizer-vermicompost formulation on the rhizosphere soil microbial community and growth of mature T. cacao trees planted in three farms in the provinces of Batangas (Lipa) and Laguna (Liliw and Magdalena), Philippines. Cacao trees were amended with MYKORICH® (MR) without or with 15% bamboo biochar (15% BB) and vermicompost. In the three years span of the experiment, stem diameter increments of BB-treated cacao in Magdalena and Lipa were 5% and 19% higher than the control (56.09 mm and 49.08 mm), respectively, whereas MR and MR + BB-treated trees in Liliw were 34-35% higher relative to control. Soil microbial analysis showed that mycorrhizal spore counts in BB-amended soils were 133% (Liliw), 262% (Magdalena) and 109% (Lipa) higher than the control. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria obtained from MR + BB-amended soils in Liliw were 216% higher than control, and 81% higher relative to control in BB-treated soils in Lipa. Soil nitrogen and potassium contents of the three cacao farms also improved by 26-85%. With the significant effect of bamboo biochar and mycorrhizal fertilizer, alone or in combination, on the growth of cacao, the microbial community and nutrient status of the cacao rhizosphere soil, this technology would be beneficial to cacao farmers and to almost all crops in an agroforest ecosystem.
Assessing Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Services from Forest Area in Bayas Jaya Village, Lampung Province
Authors: Abidin Z. , Efendi I. , Gultom D.T.
Published: February 2023

One of the important functions of the forest is to provide water to the community. Improvement of water services from forest areas requires the community’s participation. This study aims at (1) identifying the community’s willingness to pay for improved water services and (2) determining factors affecting the community’s willingness to pay. This study is located in Bayas Jaya Villages and the upland area of Kedondong Sub-District, Pesawaran District, Lampung Province. The study interviewed 75 farmers of 3 water services management, i.e.: (1) independent, (2) PAMSIMAS, and (3) PDAM. Each management water service was represented by 25 members who were randomly selected. Objective one is analyzed using descriptive analysis, and objective two is analyzed using a regression analysis model. The study suggests that, on average community received 10,6m3 per day, which is far higher than their daily consumed, i.e., 460 l per day. However, water surplus is not optimized as they are drained to the local sewer. Further, 56% of the community is willing to pay should water services be improved. The average willingness to pay is Rp 440,357.14 annually per family. Factors affecting the community’s willingness to pay, include (1) the PDAM model, (2) the PAMSIMAS model, (3) age, and (4) daily water discharge to family.
Transfeminism(s)
Authors: Coleman Daniel
Published: February 2023

Transfeminism(s) as both forms of social activism and intellectual inquiry generate ever-evolving frameworks and theoretical provocations that continue to ask critical questions about who the subjects of feminism are and what struggles are supported by purported feminist logics. Transfeminism has evolved to include genders that exist outside of the cisheterosexist binary and white supremacist logics of personhood to whom certain people can recur to garner their “subjectivity.” Transfeminism aims to account for other excluded classes of people and genders including transmen, trans nonbinary and genderqueer folks, and intersex people bringing back some of what the legal framework of intersectionality aimed to account for with the discrimination against Black women in workplace situations. It has also expanded its definitional logic and framework capacities such that it does not engage in merely additive logics of feminism that might mirror diversity and inclusion initiatives in institutions. Instead, its capaciousness, particularly in its activist iterations globally, has been mobilized to account for extrajudicial organizing around queer and trans bodies and medical needs, abolition, transicide, nonnormative sex practices for queer and trans folks such as liberated sex practices like asexuality, kink, and BDSM, queer and trans sex work, disability needs, immigrant and migrant demands, bodily autonomy, and other forms of material and bodily precarity produced by multiple forms of marginalization for queer and trans people whose needs do not exist at the center of mainstream heteronormative, homonormative, or transnormative politics. When fully accounted for in its materialist foundations in activism globally and in its historical genealogy in the aforementioned legacies in organic intellectuals and career academics, transfeminism has the pedagogical potential to participate in liberatory practices for those who most need them in institutional spaces through which we move, in community organizations, and the most intimate spaces of kinship formations toward other modes of living.
Media and the Management of Cultural Diversity in Cameroon: The Case of the Anglophone Crisis
Authors: Kunock Afu Isaiah
Published: February 2023

Media can play a crucial role in dousing tensions and maintaining peaceful coexistence among culturally diverse peoples. However, the role of media is yet to be fully comprehended in the ongoing sociopolitical crisis in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon since 2016, arising from two distinct colonial heritages. Mindful that Cameroon has not experienced threats of separation stemming from cultural diversity prior to this time, the Cameroon radio and television (CRTV) is challenged as to how to report this crisis in a manner that will result in containment and management, promoting unity in diversity. The theory of framing was used to analyze interviews with key informants, CRTV news content, and documentaries.

Therefore, the question of how state television uses frames in this sociocultural and political crisis involving two cultural entities brought together by history is at the heart of this study. The state through mainstream media uses news frames that promote national unity in cultural diversity in contrast to separation advocated for by separatists through social media.
Employee Work Experiences, Feelings, and Morality
Authors: Ilies Remus , Aw Sherry
Published: February 2023

Since the late 1990s, organizational psychology has gone through an “affective revolution,” producing a large body of work demonstrating how emotions and feelings are part and parcel of organizational life that have far-reaching effects on employees’ attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors. This stream of research has been particularly important in providing new insights into the origins of (im)moral behavior in the workplace—while (im)moral behavior was traditionally thought to be a result of personality, i.e., individuals with certain traits would be predisposed to engage in deviant behaviors, organizational psychologists now know that employees’ daily emotions too may facilitate (or inhibit) moral behavior. It is therefore important to have a comprehensive understanding of not only how and why emotions may influence moral behavior, but also the antecedents and predictors of these affective states, such as employees’ experiences of workplace events.

Further, emotions may be studied not only as broad, diffuse states of positive and negative affect but also as discrete emotions (e.g., anger, happiness, anxiety, and guilt). Particularly relevant to the discussion of moral behaviors are the moral emotions of empathy and compassion, guilt, shame, and gratitude. Examining these discrete emotions (as opposed to broad positive and negative affective states) would allow for a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how the individual discrete emotions may influence (or be influenced by) employees’ moral cognitions—moral disengagement and moral licensing, and subsequently their moral behaviors (counterproductive work behaviors and organizational citizenship behaviors). For instance, while gratitude is often thought of as a self-transcendent, moral emotion that encourages prosocial and ethical behaviors, it is possible that under specific situations, feelings of gratitude may instead facilitate moral disengagement or moral licensing strategies, and free employees to perform unethical behaviors instead. Similarly, guilt, shame, and compassion too may have complex relationships with the moral cognitions and behaviors. Finally, while much of emotions research involves within-individual, fluctuating emotional and psychological states, it would be remiss to neglect these relationships within the context of individual differences (e.g., propensity to feel guilt and shame, empathy).
Scene Perception and Understanding
Authors: Greene Michelle R.
Published: February 2023

A visual scene is a visual depiction of a real-world environment that supports human activity. The human visual system has evolved through viewing scenes, so studying scene perception allows researchers to understand how the visual system responds to the stimuli it was optimized for. Visual cognition research has established that scenes form a natural kind that is separate from both object recognition and event cognition. Visual scenes have their own category structure as well as unique neural substrates. Visual scene understanding is highly contextual, and observers use regularities among objects and between objects and scenes to leverage scene and object recognition and visual search. In this way, scene understanding forms an interface between pure visual processing and other cognitive processes. A hallmark of human scene understanding is that it can be performed incredibly rapidly—scenes can be easily understood with tens of milliseconds of exposure, even when masked, and neural correlates of scene understanding emerge before 250 ms after stimulus onset. Memory for visual scenes, though outstanding, is biased toward expanding scene representations in space and time. In all, scene understanding is a core component of human cognition that forms an interface between the mind and the world.
Career Change Teachers: Caveat and Opportunities in Workforce Planning for Schools
Authors: Dadvand Babak , Dawborn-Gundlach Merryn , van Driel Jan , Speldewinde Chris
Published: February 2023

Teacher shortage has emerged as a significant policy concern in post-pandemic times, prompting governments to attract more individuals into the teaching profession, including those with career experiences outside schools and the education sector. The term “career change teachers” refers to those who enter teaching often later in life after spending some time in other professions. Career change teachers have qualities that make them particularly attractive candidates for teaching, including a strong sense of purpose and a commitment to care, up-to-date content knowledge, practical skills that can make learning more engaging and meaningful for students, and a broad set of organizational skills from their previous career or careers. Various incentives from governments throughout the world and a growing number of alternative pathways into teaching that combine intensive studies with teaching duties have offered more flexibility for individuals to undertake their Initial Teacher Education (ITE) mid-career. However, front-focused policy solutions that prioritize teacher recruitment over teacher retention tend not to address the revolving door of admission and attrition. Loss of investment occurs when new teachers, including career changers, leave the profession prematurely because they are not adequately supported during their transition into study and teaching. A retention-focused workforce planning strategy is needed, one that addresses the structural and education system-level contributors to high teacher turnover. Such a strategy will have implications for the types of support provided to career change teachers in their transition into ITE and teaching.
West Africa and the Middle East since 1900
Authors: Coates Oliver
Published: February 2023

West Africa has long-standing economic, religious, cultural, and military ties to the Middle East and North Africa. Historical links between the two regions include centuries of pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, educational travel to Al-Azhar University in Egypt, and trading and religious links with the Arabian Peninsula and Maghreb. The years from 1900 to c. 2020 can be divided into three periods: the colonial era until 1960, the years of pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism from 1956 to around 1979, and the intensification of political and religious contact after 1979, with Saudi Arabia and Iran playing prominent roles. In the 21st century, trading relations have intensified and diversified, involving new interventions by Turkey, the Gulf States, and Morocco, while Middle East and North African actors, both state and nonstate, were closely implicated in the destabilization of the Sahel in the 2010s, including providing military, intelligence, and ideological support to West African states and terrorist groups.

Since 1900, significant issues and ideas affecting interactions between the Middle East and West Africa included pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism, Salafi and Wahhabi thought, spanning far beyond jihadist ideas to incorporate social and political critique, and new formulations of shiʾi Muslim identity following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Importantly, Africans actively appropriated and developed these ideas for diverse ends, mounting their own interpretations of the Middle East, ranging from ʿulema settling in Mecca to shiʾa students in Iran, Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, and the search of West African Jews for recognition by Israel.
Indigenous Religion of Hawaiʻi
Authors: Brown Marie Alohalani
Published: February 2023

Hawaiian religion is a nature religion in that the island environment is the matrix of traditional Hawaiian beliefs and belief-related practices. For this reason, nature as a whole is considered sacred. Creation chants in the form of genealogies establish the Hawaiian people as the younger relatives of these other-than-human entities termed “akua” that comprise and populate this island world. There are countless akua, thus making it impossible to know all their names and functions. To address this issue, a prayer acknowledges and honors these innumerable akua and the existence and vastness of the potentially significantly unknown. Hawaiian religion is practice driven. While a great number of deities are recognized and honored, not all of them are actively worshipped. Practitioners focus their attention on the akua who are in one way or another relevant to their occupation or craft. In addition to the belief in nature deities, Hawaiian religion is informed by other foundational concepts such as kino lau (the forms a deity may assume or the forms with which a deity is symbolically associated), ʻaumākua (ancestral deities), mana (a complex concept broadly related to “power”), and kapu (prohibition) related to the sacred. These concepts are inextricably intertwined in Hawaiian religion. In an earlier time in Hawaiʻi’s history, this religion regulated nearly every aspect of life—familial, societal, political, and economic. Thus, Hawaiian religion and Hawaiian culture are nearly indistinguishable.
The Putumayo Atrocities
Authors: Mitchell Angus
Published: February 2023

The Putumayo atrocities allude to an outrage that made international headlines between 1909 and 1913. The evolving press story drew public attention to the extreme exploitation of people and environment by a British-owned extractive rubber company in a contested region of the northwest/Upper Amazon bordering Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. The scandal contributed to the demise of the “boom” in the extractive rubber industry in the Amazon. Claims of atrocities were brought initially to the attention of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society (ASAPS) in London. Humanitarian pressure triggered a series of official investigations undertaken by the governments of Britain, Peru, the United States, and the Vatican. The British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, dispatched the consul general in Brazil, Roger Casement, to investigate. Casement made two separate journeys into the region in 1910 and 1911. In 1912, a British government Blue Book was published containing his reports and oral testimony gathered from British-Caribbean subjects recruited by the company to act as overseers. This was followed by a parliamentary select committee inquiry held in London that ran from October 1912 to April 1913. The US government organized their own commission of inquiry and published their own report. Despite the acreage of text produced, the efforts to help the rainforest communities proved too little too late. By the time the investigations had been undertaken, and the reports published, the main Indigenous communities living across the territory had been largely worked to death, displaced, or hunted down. In July 1914, an amendment to the Slavery Bill was passed in the British Houses of Parliament requiring transnational companies to assume humane responsibility and care for their workforce in whatever territories they operated. However, as Europe collapsed toward war, the legislation was never enshrined into international law, and this remains one of the unrealized goals of international labor relations to this day. Nevertheless, the Putumayo atrocities endure as the most closely documented and described incidents of the last years of the Amazon rubber boom and allow for consideration of the unfathomable human cost in a particularly vicious moment of untrammeled international colonial capitalism in South America.
Nominal Ellipsis in Chinese
Authors: Li Audrey Yen-hui , Wei Ting-chi
Published: February 2023

Chinese prominently allows its subjects and objects (arguments) or parts of arguments to be omitted (labeled as nominal ellipsis). This partially contributes to the widespread perception that Chinese is a discourse-oriented or topic-prominent language and that discourse/context or pragmatics are responsible for leaving elements unsaid and for interpreting them; what will be understood from context can be omitted. This article emphasizes the fact that, even though context can be a factor, the acceptability of nominal ellipsis and the different interpretive possibilities for null subjects and null objects must follow grammatical constraints. Such restrictions are not predicted or accommodated by approaches that analyze null subjects and null objects in the same way or by a deletion mechanism applying to the Phonological Form (PF-deletion). Available proposals that treat null subjects and null objects differently are evaluated and it will be shown that null subjects and null objects can be distinguished without stipulations. A null subject can be an empty pronoun but not a null object. A null object is a placeholder that is empty in content. Such an empty element is also responsible for the fact that noun phrases restrict their subparts that can be missing. Missing contents are filled via copying of lexical materials at the Logical Form (LF-copying).
In planta evidence that the HAK transporter OsHAK2 is involved in Na+ transport in rice
Authors: Morita Shigeto , Tamba Natsumi , Shibasaka Mineo , Sasano Shizuka , Kadoike Taiju , Urase Yasuyo , Maruyama Masamitsu , Fukuoka Aguri , Yanai Junta , Masumura Takehiro , Ogihara Yasunari , Satoh Shigeru , Tanaka Kunisuke , Katsuhara Maki , Nakayama Hideki
Published: February 2023

HAK family transporters primarily function as K+ transporters and play major roles in K+ uptake and translocation in plants, whereas several HAK transporters exhibit Na+ transport activity. OsHAK2, a rice HAK transporter, was shown to mediate Na+ transport in Escherichia coli in a previous study. In this study, we investigated whether OsHAK2 is involved in Na+ transport in the rice plant. Overexpression of OsHAK2 increased Na+ translocation from the roots to the shoots of transgenic rice. It also increased both root and whole-plant Na+ content, and enhanced shoot length under low Na+ and K+ conditions. Meanwhile, OsHAK2 overexpression increased salt sensitivity under a long-term salt stress condition, indicating that OsHAK2 is not involved in salt tolerance, unlike in the case of ZmHAK4 in maize. These results suggest that OsHAK2 is permeable to Na+ and contributes to shoot growth in rice plants under low Na+ and K+ conditions.
Identification of genes responsible for absorbing palladium ion in Escherichia coli
Authors: Matsumoto Takuya , Tanaka Yoshitaka , Kamino Mizuho , Yamada Ryosuke , Konishi Yasuhiro , Ogino Hiroyasu
Published: February 2023

The capability of Escherichia coli BW25113 to adsorb palladium (Pd) ions in a single-gene-knockout library was investigated using high-throughput screening. The results revealed that compared to BW25113, nine strains promoted Pd ion adsorption, whereas 22 strains repressed. Although further studies are required because of the first screening results, our results will provide a new perspective for improving the biosorption.
Comparison of long- and short-read metagenomic assembly for low-abundance species and resistance genes
Authors: Yorki Sosie , Shea Terrance , Cuomo Christina A , Walker Bruce J , LaRocque Regina C , Manson Abigail L , Earl Ashlee M , Worby Colin J
Published: February 2023

Recent technological and computational advances have made metagenomic assembly a viable approach to achieving high-resolution views of complex microbial communities. In previous benchmarking, short-read (SR) metagenomic assemblers had the highest accuracy, long-read (LR) assemblers generated the most contiguous sequences and hybrid (HY) assemblers balanced length and accuracy. However, no assessments have specifically compared the performance of these assemblers on low-abundance species, which include clinically relevant organisms in the gut. We generated semi-synthetic LR and SR datasets by spiking small and increasing amounts of Escherichia coli isolate reads into fecal metagenomes and, using different assemblers, examined E. coli contigs and the presence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). For ARG assembly, although SR assemblers recovered more ARGs with high accuracy, even at low coverages, LR assemblies allowed for the placement of ARGs within longer, E. coli-specific contigs, thus pinpointing their taxonomic origin. HY assemblies identified resistance genes with high accuracy and had lower contiguity than LR assemblies. Each assembler type’s strengths were maintained even when our isolate was spiked in with a competing strain, which fragmented and reduced the accuracy of all assemblies. For strain characterization and determining gene context, LR assembly is optimal, while for base-accurate gene identification, SR assemblers outperform other options. HY assembly offers contiguity and base accuracy, but requires generating data on multiple platforms, and may suffer high misassembly rates when strain diversity exists. Our results highlight the trade-offs associated with each approach for recovering low-abundance taxa, and that the optimal approach is goal-dependent.
The repertoire of copy number alteration signatures in human cancer
Authors: Tao Ziyu , Wang Shixiang , Wu Chenxu , Wu Tao , Zhao Xiangyu , Ning Wei , Wang Guangshuai , Wang Jinyu , Chen Jing , Diao Kaixuan , Chen Fuxiang , Liu Xue-Song
Published: February 2023

Copy number alterations (CNAs) are a predominant source of genetic alterations in human cancer and play an important role in cancer progression. However comprehensive understanding of the mutational processes and signatures of CNA is still lacking. Here we developed a mechanism-agnostic method to categorize CNA based on various fragment properties, which reflect the consequences of mutagenic processes and can be extracted from different types of data, including whole genome sequencing (WGS) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. The 14 signatures of CNA have been extracted from 2778 pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes WGS samples, and further validated with 10 851 the cancer genome atlas SNP array dataset. Novel patterns of CNA have been revealed through this study. The activities of some CNA signatures consistently predict cancer patients’ prognosis. This study provides a repertoire for understanding the signatures of CNA in cancer, with potential implications for cancer prognosis, evolution and etiology.
Antireflux surgery versus medical management of gastro-oesophageal reflux after lung transplantation
Authors: Razia Deepika , Mittal Sumeet K , Fournier Sarah , Walia Rajat , Smith Michael A , Bremner Ross M , Huang Jasmine L
Published: February 2023

OBJECTIVES

Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease after lung transplantation may be associated with chronic lung allograft dysfunction. Aspiration may continue on medical management of reflux, but antireflux surgery potentially reduces all reflux. We compared outcomes between medical and surgical management of reflux in lung recipients.

METHODS

Lung recipients with an elevated DeMeester score (≥14.72) on post-transplant reflux testing between 2015 and 2020 were included. Patients were divided into 2 groups: group A (underwent surgery) and group B (medically managed). Endpoints were pulmonary function, allograft dysfunction-free survival and overall survival. Further analysis included subgroups: A1 (early surgery, <6 months) and A2 (late surgery, >6 months), and B1 (DeMeester <29.9) and B2 (DeMeester ≥30).

RESULTS

A total of 186 included subjects were divided into groups A [n = 46 (A1, n = 36; A2, n = 10)] and B [n = 140 (B1, n = 78; B2, n = 62)]. Compared to medically managed patients, patients who underwent surgery had a higher prevalence of hiatal hernia (P < 0.001) and a lower prevalence of oesophageal motility disorders (P = 0.036). Recipients who underwent surgery had superior pulmonary function at 5 years compared to group B (P < 0.05) and longer allograft dysfunction-free survival than subgroup B2 (P = 0.028). Furthermore, early surgery was associated with longer survival than late surgery (P = 0.021).

CONCLUSIONS

Antireflux surgery in recipients with reflux improved long-term allograft function, and early surgery showed a survival benefit. Allograft dysfunction-free survival of lung recipients who underwent surgery was significantly better than that of medically managed patients with DeMeester ≥30. We present an algorithm for appropriate selection of candidates for antireflux surgery after lung transplantation.
Impractical Criticism
Authors: Jones Ewan
Published: February 2023

On 25 October 2017, the Daily Telegraph falsely accused an undergraduate student of demanding that the University of Cambridge ‘drop male authors’. This essay takes the polemics around this episode as jumping-off point for a wider discussion of pedagogical method. It argues that the defamiliarizing procedures of practical criticism, which have been the subject of much ideological critique, can be extended and amended in a manner that reveals implicit bias, re-habituates cognitive routine, and restores the body to critical response. It concludes with one instance of such pedagogical method.
Genome assembly of Musa beccarii shows extensive chromosomal rearrangements and genome expansion during evolution of Musaceae genomes
Authors: Wang Zheng-Feng , Rouard Mathieu , Droc Gaetan , Heslop-Harrison Pat (J S) , Ge Xue-Jun
Published: February 2023

Background

Musa beccarii (Musaceae) is a banana species native to Borneo, sometimes grown as an ornamental plant. The basic chromosome number of Musa species is x = 7, 10, or 11; however, M. beccarii has a basic chromosome number of x = 9 (2n = 2x = 18), which is the same basic chromosome number of species in the sister genera Ensete and Musella. Musa beccarii is in the section Callimusa, which is sister to the section Musa. We generated a high-quality chromosome-scale genome assembly of M. beccarii to better understand the evolution and diversity of genomes within the family Musaceae.

Findings

The M. beccarii genome was assembled by long-read and Hi-C sequencing, and genes were annotated using both long Iso-seq and short RNA-seq reads. The size of M. beccarii was the largest among all known Musaceae assemblies (∼570 Mbp) due to the expansion of transposable elements and increased 45S ribosomal DNA sites. By synteny analysis, we detected extensive genome-wide chromosome fusions and fissions between M. beccarii and the other Musa and Ensete species, far beyond those expected from differences in chromosome number. Within Musaceae, M. beccarii showed a reduced number of terpenoid synthase genes, which are related to chemical defense, and enrichment in lipid metabolism genes linked to the physical defense of the cell wall. Furthermore, type III polyketide synthase was the most abundant biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) in M. beccarii. BGCs were not conserved in Musaceae genomes.

Conclusions

The genome assembly of M. beccarii is the first chromosome-scale genome assembly in the Callimusa section in Musa, which provides an important genetic resource that aids our understanding of the evolution of Musaceae genomes and enhances our knowledge of the pangenome.
Maximum norm a posteriori error estimates for convection–diffusion problems
Authors: Demlow Alan , Franz Sebastian , Kopteva Natalia
Published: February 2023

We prove residual-type a posteriori error estimates in the maximum norm for a linear scalar elliptic convection–diffusion problem that may be singularly perturbed. Similar error analysis in the energy norm by Verfürth indicates that a dual norm of the convective derivative of the error must be added to the natural energy norm in order for the natural residual estimator to be reliable and efficient. We show that the situation is similar for the maximum norm. In particular, we define a mesh-dependent weighted seminorm of the convective error, which functions as a maximum-norm counterpart to the dual norm used in the energy norm setting. The total error is then defined as the sum of this seminorm, the maximum norm of the error and data oscillation. The natural maximum norm residual error estimator is shown to be equivalent to this total error notion, with constant independent of singular perturbation parameters. These estimates are proved under the assumption that certain natural estimates hold for the Green’s function for the problem at hand. Numerical experiments confirm that our estimators effectively capture the maximum-norm error behavior for singularly perturbed problems, and can effectively drive adaptive refinement in order to capture layer phenomena.
A Mixing Property for the Action of SL(3,ℤ) × SL(3,ℤ) on the Stone–Čech Boundary of SL(3,ℤ)
Authors: Bassi J , Rădulescu F
Published: February 2023

By analogy with the construction of the Furstenberg boundary, the Stone–Čech boundary of $\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z})$ is a fibered space over products of projective matrices. The proximal behaviour on this space is exploited to show that the preimages of certain sequences have accumulation points that belong to specific regions, defined in terms of flags. We show that the $\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z})\times \textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z})$-quasi-invariant Radon measures supported on these regions are tempered. Thus, every quasi-invariant Radon boundary measure for $\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z})$ is an orthogonal sum of a tempered measure and a measure having matrix coefficients belonging to a certain ideal $c^{\prime}_0 ((\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}) \times \textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}))$, slightly larger than $c_0 ((\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}) \times \textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}))$. Hence, the left–right representation of $C^*(\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}) \times \textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}))$ in the Calkin algebra of $\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z})$ factors through $C^*_{c^{\prime}_0} (\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}) \times \textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z}))$ and the centralizer of every infinite subgroup of $\textrm {SL}(3,\mathbb {Z})$ is amenable.
Curved Versions of the Ovsienko–Redou Operators
Authors: Case Jeffrey S , Lin Yueh-Ju , Yuan Wei
Published: February 2023

We construct a family of conformally covariant bidifferential operators on pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. Our construction is analogous to the construction of Graham–Jenne–Mason–Sparling of conformally covariant differential operators via tangential powers of the Laplacian in the Fefferman–Graham ambient space. In fact, we completely classify the tangential bidifferential operators on the ambient space, which are expressed purely in terms of the ambient Laplacian. This gives a curved analogue of the classification, due to Ovsienko–Redou and Clerc, of conformally invariant bidifferential operators on the sphere. As an application, we construct a large class of formally self-adjoint conformally invariant differential operators.
Managing re-identification risks while providing access to the All of Us research program
Authors: Xia Weiyi , Basford Melissa , Carroll Robert , Clayton Ellen Wright , Harris Paul , Kantacioglu Murat , Liu Yongtai , Nyemba Steve , Vorobeychik Yevgeniy , Wan Zhiyu , Malin Bradley A
Published: February 2023

Objective

The All of Us Research Program makes individual-level data available to researchers while protecting the participants’ privacy. This article describes the protections embedded in the multistep access process, with a particular focus on how the data was transformed to meet generally accepted re-identification risk levels.

Methods

At the time of the study, the resource consisted of 329 084 participants. Systematic amendments were applied to the data to mitigate re-identification risk (eg, generalization of geographic regions, suppression of public events, and randomization of dates). We computed the re-identification risk for each participant using a state-of-the-art adversarial model specifically assuming that it is known that someone is a participant in the program. We confirmed the expected risk is no greater than 0.09, a threshold that is consistent with guidelines from various US state and federal agencies. We further investigated how risk varied as a function of participant demographics.

Results

The results indicated that 95th percentile of the re-identification risk of all the participants is below current thresholds. At the same time, we observed that risk levels were higher for certain race, ethnic, and genders.

Conclusions

While the re-identification risk was sufficiently low, this does not imply that the system is devoid of risk. Rather, All of Us uses a multipronged data protection strategy that includes strong authentication practices, active monitoring of data misuse, and penalization mechanisms for users who violate terms of service.
Analysis of runs of homozygosity of cattle living in different climate zones
Authors: Falchi Laura , Cesarani Alberto , Mastrangelo Salvatore , Senczuk Gabriele , Portolano Baldassare , Pilla Fabio , Macciotta Nicolò P P
Published: February 2023

Aim of this study was to analyze the distribution and characteristics of runs of homozygosity in Bos taurus taurus and Bos taurus indicus breeds, as well as their crosses, farmed all around the world. With this aim in view, we used single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) genotypes for 3,263 cattle belonging to 204 different breeds. After quality control, 23,311 SNPs were retained for the analysis. Animals were divided into seven different groups: 1) continental taurus, 2) temperate taurus, 3) temperate indicus, 4) temperate composite, 5) tropical taurus, 6) tropical indicus, and 7) tropical composite. The climatic zones were created according to the latitude of the breeds’ country of origin: i) continental, latitude ≥ 45°; ii) temperate, 45°< Latitude >23.26°; iii) tropics, latitude ≤ 23.26°. Runs of homozygosity were computed as 15 SNPs spanning in at least 2 Mb; number of ROH per animal (nROH), average ROH length (meanMb), and ROH-based inbreeding coefficients (FROH) were also computed. Temperate indicus showed the largest nROH, whereas Temperate taurus the lowest value. Moreover, the largest meanMb was observed for Temperate taurus, whereas the lowest value for Tropics indicus. Temperate indicus breeds showed the largest FROH values. Genes mapped in the identified ROH were reported to be associated with the environmental adaptation, disease resistance, coat color determinism, and production traits. Results of the present study confirmed that runs of homozygosity could be used to identify genomic signatures due to both artificial and natural selection.
Prevalence of Suicide by Self-immolation Among Children in Southern Iran
Authors: Shahriarirad Reza , Ranjbar Keivan , Erfani Amirhossein , Modarresi Mahboobeh-Sadat , Koranishiraz Amirhossein , Kamali Morvarid , Zardosht Mitra , Mohammadi Ali Akbar
Published: February 2023

Self-immolation is considered among the most rigorous acts of suicide. Lately, this act has increased in children. We evaluated the frequency of self-immolation among children in the largest burn referral center in southern Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2014 to the end of 2018 at a tertiary referral burn and plastic surgery healthcare center in southern Iran. Subjects were pediatric self-immolation burn patients registered as outpatients or inpatients. The patients’ parents were contacted regarding any incomplete information. Among 913 children admitted due to burn injuries, 14 (1.55%) were admitted with an impression of suicidal self-immolation. Among self-immolation patients, the ages ranged from 11 to 15 years (mean: 13.64 ± 1.33), and the average burnt percentage of total body surface area was 67.07 ± 31.19%. The male-to-female ratio was 1:1, and the majority were from urban areas (57.1%). The most frequent cause of burn injury was fire (92.9%). There was no history of family mental illness or suicide among the patients, and only one of the patients had an underlying disease of intellectual disability. The mortality percentage was 64.3%. The percentage of childhood suicidal attempts by burn injuries was alarmingly high among children aged from 11 to 15. While contrary to many reports, we reported this phenomenon to be relatively similar between genders, and also between urban and rural patients. Compared with accidental burn injuries, the self-immolation group had significantly higher age and burn percentage, and were more frequently caused by fire, occurred outdoors, and resulted in mortality.
Use of menopausal hormone therapy and ovarian cancer risk in a French cohort study
Authors: Fournier Agnès , Cairat Manon , Severi Gianluca , Gunter Marc J , Rinaldi Sabina , Dossus Laure
Published: February 2023

Background

Epidemiological studies have found that menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) use is associated with an increased ovarian cancer risk. However, whether different MHT types confer the same level of risk is unclear. We estimated the associations between different MHT types and the risk of ovarian cancer in a prospective cohort.

Methods

The study population included 75 606 postmenopausal women from the E3N cohort. Exposure to MHT was identified from self-reports in biennial questionnaires between 1992 and 2004 and from drug claim data matched to the cohort between 2004 and 2014. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of ovarian cancer were estimated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models with MHT as a time-varying exposure. Tests of statistical significance were 2-sided.

Results

Over an average 15.3 years follow-up, 416 ovarian cancers were diagnosed. Hazard ratios of ovarian cancer associated with ever use of estrogens combined with progesterone or dydrogesterone and ever use of estrogens combined with other progestagen were equal to 1.28 (95% CI = 1.04 to 1.57) and 0.81 (95% CI = 0.65 to 1.00), respectively (Phomogeneity = .003), compared with never use. The hazard ratio for unopposed estrogen use was 1.09 (95% CI = 0.82 to 1.46). We found no trend according to duration of use or time since last use except for estrogens combined with progesterone or dydrogesterone, which showed decreasing risk with increasing time since last use.

Conclusion

Different MHT types may impact ovarian cancer risk differentially. The possibility that MHT containing progestagens other than progesterone or dydrogesterone may confer some protection should be evaluated in other epidemiological studies.
Call to action: overcoming enrollment disparities in cancer clinical trials with modernized eligibility criteria
Authors: Riner Andrea N , Freudenberger Devon C , Herremans Kelly M , Vudatha Vignesh , Neal Daniel W , George Thomas J , Trevino Jose G
Published: February 2023

Traditional clinical trial eligibility criteria restrict study populations, perpetuating enrollment disparities. We aimed to assess implementation of modernized eligibility criteria guidelines among pancreatic cancer (PC) clinical trials. Interventional PC trials in the United States since January 1, 2014, were identified via clinicaltrials.gov with December 31, 2017, as the transition for pre- and postguidance eras. Trials were assessed for guideline compliance and compared using Fisher exact test. In total, 198 trials were identified: 86 (43.4%) were pre- and 112 (56.6%) postguidance era. Improvements were seen in allowing patients with history of HIV (8.6% vs 43.8%; P < .0001), prior cancer (57.0% vs 72.3%; P = .034), or concurrent and/or stable cancer (2.1% vs 31.1%; P < .0001) to participate. Most (>95%) trials were compliant with laboratory reference ranges, QT interval corrected for heart rate (QTc) cutoffs, and rationalizing excluding prior therapies both pre- and postguidance eras. However, overall compliance with modernized criteria remains poor. We advocate for stakeholders to update protocols and scrutinize traditionally restrictive eligibility criteria.
Rivals’ Exit and Vertical Merger Evaluation
Authors: Donna Javier D , Pereira Pedro
Published: February 2023

We discuss a subset of vertical mergers, where the exercise of market power and the efficiencies enabled by a vertical merger reduce rivals’ profits, making rivals’ exit a potentially serious concern. Rivals’ exit can fundamentally alter the welfare analysis of vertical mergers due to the reduction in product variety to consumers and the reduction in the number of competitors that would otherwise exert downward pricing pressure. An exit-inducing vertical merger might reduce welfare even if it is a welfare-enhancing merger absent exit. We present a theoretical framework to analyze vertical mergers that focuses on the possibility and consequences of exit, discuss the antitrust implications for merger evaluation, and provide examples. We argue that the possibility of rivals’ exit should be an integral part of the analysis of vertical mergers.