bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Energy potentials and water requirements from perennial grasses on abandoned land in the former Soviet Union
Authors: Næss Jan Sandstad , Iordan Cristina Maria , Muri Helene , Cherubini Francesco
Published: March 2022

A ramp-up of bioenergy supply is vital in most climate change mitigation scenarios. Using abandoned land to produce perennial grasses is a promising option for near-term bioenergy deployment with minimal trade-offs to food production and the environment. The former Soviet Union (fSU) experienced substantial agricultural abandonment following its dissolution, but bioenergy potentials on these areas and their water requirements are still unclear. We integrate a regional land cover dataset tailored towards cropland abandonment, an agro-ecological crop yield model, and a dataset of sustainable agricultural irrigation expansion potentials to quantify bioenergy potentials and water requirements on abandoned land in the fSU. Rain-fed bioenergy potentials are 3.5 EJ yr−1 from 25 Mha of abandoned land, with land-sparing measures for nature conservation. Irrigation can be sustainably deployed on 7–18 Mha of abandoned land depending on water reservoir size, thereby increasing bioenergy potentials with rain-fed production elsewhere to 5.2–7.1 EJ yr−1. This requires recultivating 29–33 Mha combined with 30–63 billion m3 yr−1 of blue water withdrawals. Rain-fed productive abandoned land equals 26%–61% of the projected regional fSU land use for dedicated bioenergy crops in 2050 for 2 °C future scenarios. Sustainable irrigation can bring productive areas up to 30%–80% of the projected fSU land requirements. Unraveling the complex interactions between land availability for bioenergy and water use at local levels is instrumental to ensure a sustainable bioenergy deployment.
Climate change challenges efficiency of inter-basin water transfers in alleviating water stress
Authors: Duan Kai , Caldwell Peter V , Sun Ge , McNulty Steven G , Qin Yue , Chen Xiaohong , Liu Ning
Published: March 2022

Inter-basin water transfer (IBT) is widely used to mitigate water shortage at the cost of compromising water availability in water-exporting regions. Yet, we do not know how efficient are the IBTs in alleviating inter-regional water stress in a changing climate and water supply-demand context. From a socio-hydrological perspective, we here quantify the efficiency of more than 200 IBTs across the United States by a Stress Relief Index that measures the impact of water redistribution on the overall water stress level. Based on the assumption that an IBT-induced increase and reduction in water availability would respectively constitute a positive and negative impact on regional water security, we show that 29% of the IBTs could be considered socially inefficient by 2010 as they shift water stress from water-receiving to water-exporting and downstream regions. Future stress escalations induced by growing population, declining runoff, and increasing demands for energy production and irrigation will alter IBT efficiency disproportionately. The inefficient IBTs would amount to 32% and 35% by the end of the 21st century under the scenarios of representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP8.5, with 7 ∼ 16 IBTs reaching a tipping point that their role in the water system could switch from alleviating to aggravating the overall water stress. Our results indicate that the evolving climatic and socioeconomic status can largely affect transfer efficiency, highlighting the need of basin-level adaptation strategies for sustainable use of the IBTs.
Production of Gummy Confection using Seeds Gum from Durio zibethinus Seeds
Authors: Kai K Y , Zubairi S I , Shaiful Hisham I H , Ying M Y , Lynn G V , Lani N N , Fazial F F , Nurzahim Z
Published: March 2022

Durian is the most popular seasonal fruit in Malaysia. Only one-third of durian is edible, whereas the seeds are thrown away. This waste is potential of value-added such as seed gum. In this research, durian seed gum has been used to replace commonly used mammalian gelatine as gelling agent in making gummy confection. Several formulations consisting different compositions of gelling agent durian seed gum: fish gelatine (100:0; 75:25; 50:50; 25:75; 0:100) have been used. Experimental design was divided into two stages, preliminary and the main research. Preliminary research was conducted to produce gum extract from durian seed using different solvents. The main research was to determine the best formulation on making of gummy confection with the presence of gelatine, sucrose, glucose syrup, ascorbic acid, and pineapple juice as gel stabilizer and flavour enhancer. Selected formulation (durian seed gum: fish gelatine; 75:25) based on texture analysis and sensory test were being compared to commercial gummy confection in the market. Again, prepared gummy confection using composite durian seed gum and gelatine has better properties in terms of hardness, texture, gumminess, and overall sensory acceptance compared to individual durian seed gum and individual gelatine confection. Hence, prepared gummy candy showed good potential in the development of various types of gummy confections using waste materials, preserving nutritional values of durian origin, as well as rejecting the halal issues and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) disease regarding mammalian gelatine.
Structural Equation Model (SEM) Correlation Between Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Work Method and Risk Towards Cost Of Safety On Low-Cost Apartments Project
Authors: Hadwiansyah R , Latief Y
Published: March 2022

Cost of safety is a fundamental aspect that is inevitable to be considered during the construction cost planning phase. The cost of safety estimation is determined based on several factors, including WBS (work breakdown structure), work method, risk and other contributing factors. This estimation is critical in construction, specifically for high rise building constructions. In a case where there is a lack of a suitable methodology in estimating the cost of safety, may incur inaccuracy and uncertainty in determining the actual cost of safety. Besides the mentioned factors, this study will use Structural Equation Model – Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) in determining the construct model cost of safety, for the case of the build of low-cost apartment building (Rusunawa).
A remark on inverse problems for nonlinear magnetic Schrödinger equations on complex manifolds
Authors: Krupchyk Katya , Uhlmann Gunther , Yan Lili
Published: March 2022

We show that the knowledge of the Dirichlet–to–Neumann map for a nonlinear magnetic Schrödinger operator on the boundary of a compact complex manifold, equipped with a Kähler metric and admitting sufficiently many global holomorphic functions, determines the nonlinear magnetic and electric potentials uniquely.
Riesz-type criteria for the Riemann hypothesis
Authors: Agarwal Archit , Garg Meghali , Maji Bibekananda
Published: March 2022

In 1916, Riesz proved that the Riemann Hypothesis is equivalent to the bound
<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="sigma-summation Underscript n equals 1 Overscript normal infinity Endscripts StartFraction mu left-parenthesis n right-parenthesis Over n squared EndFraction exp left-parenthesis minus StartFraction x Over n squared EndFraction right-parenthesis equals upper O Subscript epsilon Baseline left-parenthesis x Superscript negative three fourths plus epsilon Baseline right-parenthesis">

∑

n
=
1

∞

μ
(
n
)

n
2

exp
⁡

(
−

x

n
2

)

=

O

ϵ

(

x

−

3
4

+
ϵ

)

\sum _{n=1}^\infty \frac {\mu (n)}{n^2} \exp \left ( - \frac {x}{n^2} \right ) = O_{\epsilon } \left ( x^{-\frac {3}{4} + \epsilon } \right )

, as

x
→
∞

x \rightarrow \infty

, for any

ϵ
>
0

\epsilon >0

. Around the same time, Hardy and Littlewood gave another equivalent criterion for the Riemann Hypothesis while correcting an identity of Ramanujan. In the present paper, we establish a one-variable generalization of the identity of Hardy and Littlewood and as an application, we provide Riesz-type criteria for the Riemann Hypothesis. In particular, we obtain the bound given by Riesz as well as the bound of Hardy and Littlewood.
Instability of the Smith index under joins and applications to embeddability
Authors: Parsa Salman
Published: March 2022

We say a

d
d

-dimensional simplicial complex embeds into double dimension if it embeds into the Euclidean space of dimension

2
d

2d

. For instance, a graph is planar iff it embeds into double dimension. We study the conditions under which the join of two simplicial complexes embeds into double dimension. Quite unexpectedly, we show that there exist complexes which do not embed into double dimension, however their join embeds into the respective double dimension. We further derive conditions, in terms of the van Kampen obstructions of the two complexes, under which the join will not be embeddable into the double dimension.

Our main tool in this study is the definition of the van Kampen obstruction as a Smith class. We determine the Smith classes of the join of two

Z

p

\mathbb {Z}_p

-complexes in terms of the Smith classes of the factors. We show that in general the Smith index is not stable under joins. This allows us to prove our embeddability results.
Invariance of the Gibbs measures for periodic generalized Korteweg-de Vries equations
Authors: Chapouto Andreia , Kishimoto Nobu
Published: March 2022

In this paper, we study the Gibbs measures for periodic generalized Korteweg-de Vries equations (gKdV) with quartic or higher nonlinearities. In order to bypass the analytical ill-posedness of the equation in the Sobolev support of the Gibbs measures, we establish deterministic well-posedness of the gauged gKdV equations within the framework of the Fourier-Lebesgue spaces. Our argument relies on bilinear and trilinear Strichartz estimates adapted to the Fourier-Lebesgue setting. Then, following Bourgain’s invariant measure argument, we construct almost sure global-in-time dynamics and show invariance of the Gibbs measures for the gauged equations. These results can be brought back to the ungauged side by inverting the gauge transformation and exploiting the invariance of the Gibbs measures under spatial translations. We thus complete the program initiated by Bourgain [Comm. Math. Phys. 166 (1994), pp 1–26] on the invariance of the Gibbs measures for periodic gKdV equations.
Identification of defined structural elements within TOR2 kinase required for TOR complex 2 assembly and function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Tsverov Jennifer , Yegorov Kristina , Powers Ted
Published: March 2022

Two TOR kinase paralogues, TOR1 and TOR2, assemble preferentially into two complexes, TORC1 and TORC2. Chimeric TOR genes were constructed as a “sensitized” system for probing the importance of quaternary interactions in TORC2. This approach should be generally applicable to the study of paralogues in other systems.
Proportionality in the Age of Populism
Authors: Cohen-Eliya Moshe , Porat Iddo
Published: March 2022

The European-based proportionality doctrine seems to be in vogue in American constitutional scholarship. Recently, the Harvard Law Review has devoted its Foreword by Jamal Greene, to this doctrine. In a provocative and bold article, titled “Rights as Trumps?,” Greene argued that proportionality analysis should be openly adopted in the United States as a more sophisticated and up-to-date doctrine than the rights-as-trumps categorical approach. Current constitutional adjudication, he contended, requires a nuanced and factually based analysis of the sort afforded by proportionality. We argue, contrary to this argument, that proportionality may not be the best doctrinal candidate in the United States, taking into consideration the populist shift in the United States. We wish to make a more general point about the use of proportionality in the new global age of populism. The rise of populism, and the increasing signs of democratic backsliding across the globe, require the employment of a more categorical approach that better serves the purpose of red lining and enhances the democratic process.
A Novel Application of the Hemostatic Net in Aesthetic Breast Surgery: A Preliminary Report
Authors: Goddard Naveen Virin , Pacifico Marc D , Campiglio Gianluca , Waterhouse Norman
Published: March 2022

Background

Obtaining optimum breast aesthetics can be challenging in secondary aesthetic breast surgery, particularly with poor-quality skin, when downsizing implants, and in cases where patients will not accept additional mastopexy scars. Most techniques described in these cases rely on internal suturing and capsulorrhaphy, which can lack precision in tailoring the skin over the internal pocket.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to present the authors’ experience with utilizing the hemostatic net to help address a range of challenging breast cases in their practices.

Methods

A multicentre retrospective analysis of patients undergoing aesthetic and reconstructive breast surgery between 2019 and 2021 was conducted. A database was established to record patient demographics, indications for surgery, surgical technique, and complications. Following capsulorrhaphy, the hemostatic net was applied in as many rows as required with monofilament sutures and removed 3 to 7 days postoperatively.

Results

Twenty-four women (aged 23-67 years) underwent aesthetic or reconstructive breast surgery with the hemostatic net. This approach optimized stabilization of the inframammary fold and redraping of lax skin or irregularities in the skin envelope. At follow-up review, only 1 instance of the net failing to successfully redrape the skin was seen.

Conclusions

The application of the hemostatic net is an option for patients who might otherwise require mastopexy but refuse to accept the scars. The technique has now been extended to primary cases where implant malposition or skin tailoring issues are anticipated, thus securing its place as a part of the surgical armamentarium.

Level of Evidence: 4
Identification of miRNA–disease associations via deep forest ensemble learning based on autoencoder
Authors: Liu Wei , Lin Hui , Huang Li , Peng Li , Tang Ting , Zhao Qi , Yang Li
Published: March 2022

Increasing evidences show that the occurrence of human complex diseases is closely related to microRNA (miRNA) variation and imbalance. For this reason, predicting disease-related miRNAs is essential for the diagnosis and treatment of complex human diseases. Although some current computational methods can effectively predict potential disease-related miRNAs, the accuracy of prediction should be further improved. In our study, a new computational method via deep forest ensemble learning based on autoencoder (DFELMDA) is proposed to predict miRNA–disease associations. Specifically, a new feature representation strategy is proposed to obtain different types of feature representations (from miRNA and disease) for each miRNA–disease association. Then, two types of low-dimensional feature representations are extracted by two deep autoencoders for predicting miRNA–disease associations. Finally, two prediction scores of the miRNA–disease associations are obtained by the deep random forest and combined to determine the final results. DFELMDA is compared with several classical methods on the The Human microRNA Disease Database (HMDD) dataset. Results reveal that the performance of this method is superior. The area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values obtained by DFELMDA through 5-fold and 10-fold cross-validation are 0.9552 and 0.9560, respectively. In addition, case studies on colon, breast and lung tumors of different disease types further demonstrate the excellent ability of DFELMDA to predict disease-associated miRNA–disease. Performance analysis shows that DFELMDA can be used as an effective computational tool for predicting miRNA–disease associations.
Characterizing the stabilization effects of stabilizers in protein–protein systems with end-point binding free energy calculations
Authors: Tang Rongfan , Chen Pengcheng , Wang Zhe , Wang Lingling , Hao Haiping , Hou Tingjun , Sun Huiyong
Published: March 2022

Drug design targeting protein–protein interactions (PPIs) associated with the development of diseases has been one of the most important therapeutic strategies. Besides interrupting the PPIs with PPI inhibitors/blockers, increasing evidence shows that stabilizing the interaction between two interacting proteins may also benefit the therapy, such as the development of various types of molecular glues/stabilizers that mostly work by stabilizing the two interacting proteins to regulate the downstream biological effects. However, characterizing the stabilization effect of a stabilizer is usually hard or too complicated for traditional experiments since it involves ternary interactions [protein–protein–stabilizer (PPS) interaction]. Thus, developing reliable computational strategies will facilitate the discovery/design of molecular glues or PPI stabilizers. Here, by fully analyzing the energetic features of the binary interactions in the PPS ternary complex, we systematically investigated the performance of molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (MM/PBSA) and molecular mechanics generalized Born surface area (MM/GBSA) methods on characterizing the stabilization effects of stabilizers in 14-3-3 systems. The results show that both MM/PBSA and MM/GBSA are powerful tools in distinguishing the stabilizers from the decoys (with area under the curves of 0.90–0.93 for all tested cases) and are reasonable for ranking protein–peptide interactions in the presence or absence of stabilizers as well (with the average Pearson correlation coefficient of ~0.6 at a relatively high dielectric constant for both methods). Moreover, to give a detailed picture of the stabilization effects, the stabilization mechanism is also analyzed from the structural and energetic points of view for individual systems containing strong or weak stabilizers. This study demonstrates a potential strategy to accelerate the discovery of PPI stabilizers.
In vitro investigation of mammalian peri-implantation embryogenesis
Authors: Quan Yujun , Wang Xiaoxiao , Li Lei
Published: March 2022

The embryos attach and invade the uterus, establishing the connection with their mother in peri-implantation development. During this period, the pluripotent epiblast cells of the embryo undergo symmetry breaking, cell lineage allocation, and morphogenetic remodeling, accompanied by the dramatic changes of transcriptomic, epigenomic, and signaling pathways, and preparing the stage for their differentiation and gastrulation. The progress in mouse genetics and stem cell biology has advanced the knowledge of these transformations, which are still largely hindered by the hard accessibility of natural embryos. To gain insight into mammalian peri-implantation development, much effort has been made in the field. Recently, advances in the prolonged in vitro culture of blastocysts, the derivation of multiple pluripotent stem cells, and the construction of stem cell-based embryo-like models have opened novel avenues to investigate peri-implantation development in mammals, especially humans. Combining with other emerging new technologies, these new models will substantially promote the comprehension of mammalian peri-implantation development, thus accelerating the progress of reproductive and regenerative medicine.
Various tests of left neglect are associated with distinct territories of hypoperfusion in acute stroke
Authors: Stein Colin , Bunker Lisa , Chu Brian , Leigh Richard , Faria Andreia , Hillis Argye E.
Published: March 2022

Hemispatial neglect is among the most disabling consequences of right hemisphere stroke. However, there is no consensus on the optimal assessments to identify neglect. We hypothesized that different tests for neglect given the same day (i) detect distinct aspects and types of neglect, (ii) are sensitive to different cognitive functions (beyond spatially specific processing) and (iii) are associated with distinct regions of hypoperfusion. We examined data from 135 participants with acute, right-hemispheric ischaemic stroke who received an MRI and neglect testing within 48 h of acute infarct in a cross-sectional study. The volume of infarct was calculated on diffusion-weighted imaging. We also scored severity and location of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery hyperintense vessels in six areas (anterior cerebral artery territory, posterior cerebral artery territory and four within the middle cerebral artery territory) to estimate the volume and location of hypoperfusion in acute stroke. Neglect tests included gap detection, scene copy, line bisection, line cancellation, oral reading and picture description. We found strong correlations between tests that evaluated viewer-centred processing, as well as strong correlations between tests that evaluated stimulus-centred processing. The error rate on different tests was associated with hypoperfusion in different vascular territories, even after controlling for the volume of an infarct. Our results confirm that it is essential to administer a battery of different tests of hemispatial neglect to capture various deficits in attention and spatially specific processing that underlies neglect. Our results also show the potential usefulness of hyperintense vessel ratings as an indication of dysfunction beyond the infarct, as the ratings (and not infarct volume) were highly associated with many clinical deficits. Finally, results underscore that diverse types of neglect are clinically important in acute stroke, as they reflect different areas of hypoperfused tissue, which may be salvageable in the absence of infarct in those areas. As such, neglect batteries may be useful for detecting patients with cortical hypoperfusion who are candidates for reperfusion therapies.
Mapping cerebral atrophic trajectory from amnestic mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Wei Xiaotong , Du Xiaotong , Xie Yingying , Suo Xinjun , He Xiaoxi , Ding Hao , Zhang Yu , Ji Yi , Chai Chao , Liang Meng , Yu Chunshui , Liu Yong , Qin Wen ,   the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
Published: March 2022

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients suffer progressive cerebral atrophy before dementia onset. However, the region-specific atrophic processes and the influences of age and apolipoprotein E (APOE) on atrophic trajectory are still unclear. By mapping the region-specific nonlinear atrophic trajectory of whole cerebrum from amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) to AD based on longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging data from Alzheimer’s disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database, we unraveled a quadratic accelerated atrophic trajectory of 68 cerebral regions from aMCI to AD, especially in the superior temporal pole, caudate, and hippocampus. Besides, interaction analyses demonstrated that APOE ε4 carriers had faster atrophic rates than noncarriers in 8 regions, including the caudate, hippocampus, insula, etc.; younger patients progressed faster than older patients in 32 regions, especially for the superior temporal pole, hippocampus, and superior temporal gyrus; and 15 regions demonstrated complex interaction among age, APOE, and disease progression, including the caudate, hippocampus, etc. (P < 0.05/68, Bonferroni correction). Finally, Cox proportional hazards regression model based on the identified region-specific biomarkers could effectively predict the time to AD conversion within 10 years. In summary, cerebral atrophic trajectory mapping could help a comprehensive understanding of AD development and offer potential biomarkers for predicting AD conversion.
Extended, standard, or De-escalation antiplatelet therapy for patients with coronary artery disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention? A trial-sequential, bivariate, influential, and network meta-analysis
Authors: Ullah Waqas , Zahid Salman , Sandhyavenu Harigopal , Faisaluddin Mohammed , Khalil Fouad , Pasha Ahmad K , Alraies M Chadi , Cuisset Thomas , Rao Sunil V , Sabouret Pierre , Savage Michael P , Fischman David L
Published: March 2022

Aims

The relative safety and efficacy of de-escalation, extended duration (ED) (>12-months), and standard dual antiplatelet therapy for 12-months (DAPT-12) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains controversial.

Methods and results

Online databases were queried to identify relevant randomized control trials (RCTs). ED-DAPT, high-potency (HP) DAPT, shorter duration (SD) DAPT, and low-dose (LD) DAPT were compared with DAPT-12. A trial sequential, bivariate, influential, and frequentist network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed to determine the pooled estimates. A total of 30 RCTs comprising 81 208 (40 839 experimental, 40 369 control arm) patients with CAD were included in the quantitative analysis. On NMA, compared with DAPT-12, all types of de-escalation, HP-DAPT-12, and ED-DAPT strategies had a statistically non-significant difference in the incidence of MACE at a median follow-up of 1-year. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the incidence of stroke, stent thrombosis, target lesion revascularization (TLR), target vessel revascularization (TVR), and all-cause mortality between DAPT-12 and all other strategies. The network estimates showed a significantly lower incidence of major bleeding with DAPT for 3-months followed by P2Y12-inhibitor monotherapy (RR 0.62, 95% CI 0.45–0.84), while a higher risk of bleeding with HP-DAPT for 12 months (RR 1.55, 95% CI 1.16–2.06). The net clinical benefit and rankograms also favoured DAPT-3 (P2Y12) and discouraged the use of HP-DAPT-12 and ED-DAPT. A subgroup analysis of 19 RCTs restricted to patients who presented with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) mirrored the findings of pooled analysis. A sensitivity analysis revealed no influence of any individual study or individual strategy on net ischemic estimates. The trial sequential analysis (TSA) illustrated a consistently non-significant difference at the interim analysis of trials, reaching the futility area for MACE, while the cumulative Z-values line surpassed the monitoring boundary as well as the required information size for major bleeding favouring de-escalation strategy.

Conclusion

DAPT for three months followed by ticagrelor-only and use of aspirin + clopidogrel after a short period of high potency DAPT appears to be a safe strategy for treating post-PCI patients. However, given the methodological limitations and inclusion of a small number of trials in novel de-escalation strategies, these findings need validation by future large scale RCTs.
Social Class and (Un)Ethical Behaviour: Causal and Correlational Evidence
Authors: Gsottbauer Elisabeth , Müller Daniel , Müller Samuel , Trautmann Stefan T , Zudenkova Galina
Published: March 2022

Are individuals of higher socio-economic status less ethical than those of lower status? Highly popularised research findings claim that this is the case. This paper provides evidence against this claim, based on data from two large survey experiments with more than 11,000 participants. We prime social status in two heterogeneous samples of the German population and then elicit ethical behaviour in an incentivised experimental task. Thus, our data allows us to study both correlation (using demographic data) and causality (using the priming). Our study rejects the claim that higher social status individuals are less ethical on both accounts.
Co-creating with families and healthcare professionals: shaping a context-sensitive health promotion intervention ‘Face-it’
Authors: Timm Anne , Maindal Helle Terkildsen , Hillersdal Line
Published: March 2022

Participatory methodologies have become imperative when developing health promotion programmes. However, the concrete adoption of co-creation and its implications for intervention development are less reported. This article aims to convey how fidelity and adaptation were balanced in a structured intervention design by co-creating intervention components with various stakeholders. The intervention was part of the Face-it programme, which was initiated to prevent diabetes and increase the quality of life in women with prior diabetes during pregnancy by supporting the entire family’s health practices. We relied on participatory methods, e.g. workshops using design games, role play and family interviews, as well as ethnographic fieldwork. Stakeholders comprised women with prior gestational diabetes mellitus and their families as intervention receivers and healthcare professionals, e.g. obstetricians, midwives and health visitors as potential intervention deliverers to shape intervention content. We used Bammer’s stakeholder participation spectrum in research to describe how different stakeholders were engaged and with what implications for the intervention components. This article shows how an iterative co-creation process was (i) achieved through diverse involvement practices across stakeholder groups; and (ii) upheld both premises of the structured design (fidelity) and flexibility (adaptation) in developing intervention content and delivery. When adopting co-creation as a strategy for intervention development, we recommend using various engagement practices according to the role of stakeholders in the intervention and available resources to create ownership and sustainable intervention content.
Sugar signal mediates flavonoid biosynthesis in tea leaves
Authors: Lv Yi-Qing , Li Da , Wu Liang-Yu , Zhu Yu-Meng , Ye Ying , Zheng Xin-Qiang , Lu Jian-Liang , Liang Yue-Rong , Li Qing-Sheng , Ye Jian-Hui
Published: March 2022

Sugar metabolism and flavonoid biosynthesis vary with the development of tea leaves. In order to understand the regulatory mechanisms underlying the associations between them, a comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of naturally growing tea leaves at different stages of maturity was carried out. Based on weighted gene coexpression network analysis, the key gene modules (Modules 2 and 3) related to the varying relationship between sugar metabolism and flavonoid biosynthesis as well as the corresponding hub genes were obtained. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) enrichment analysis showed that the transcription factors (TFs) in Modules 2 and 3 were mainly enriched in the pathway of plant hormone signal transduction. An in vitro study showed that the transcriptional levels of ERF1B-like TF for hexokinase inhibitor and sucrose treatments were upregulated, being respectively 28.1- and 30.2-fold higher than in the control, suggesting that ERF1B-like TFs participate in the sugar-induced regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis. The results of yeast one-hybrid and dual-luciferase assays demonstrated that CsF3′H, encoding flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase, was the target flavonoid biosynthetic gene for CsERF1B-like TF. Our study identified the potential key regulators participating in the metabolism of sugars and flavonoids, providing new insights into the crosstalk between sugar metabolism and flavonoid biosynthesis in tea plants.
Role of female-predominant MYB39-bHLH13 complex in sexually dimorphic accumulation of taxol in Taxus media
Authors: Yu Chunna , Huang Jiefang , Wu Qicong , Zhang Chengchao , Li Xiao-lin , Xu Xinyun , Feng Shangguo , Zhan Xiaori , Chen Zhehao , Wang Huizhong , Shen Chenjia
Published: March 2022

Taxus trees are major natural sources for the extraction of taxol, an anti-cancer agent used worldwide. Taxus media is a dioecious woody tree with high taxol yield. However, the sexually dimorphic accumulation of taxoids in T. media is largely unknown. Our study revealed high accumulation of taxoids in female T. media trees using a UPLC–MS/MS method. Thereafter, many differential metabolites and genes between female and male T. media trees were identified using metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses, respectively. Most of the taxol-related genes were predominantly expressed in female trees. A female-specific R2R3-MYB transcription factor gene, TmMYB39, was identified. Furthermore, bimolecular fluorescence complementation and yeast two-hybrid assays suggested the potential interaction between TmMYB39 and TmbHLH13. Several taxol biosynthesis-related promoter sequences were isolated and used for the screening of MYB recognition elements. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay indicated that TmMYB39 could bind to the promoters of the GGPPS, T10OH, T13OH, and TBT genes. Interaction between TmMYB39 and TmbHLH13 transactivated the expression of the GGPPS and T10OH genes. TmMYB39 might function in the transcriptional regulation of taxol biosynthesis through an MYB-bHLH module. Our results give a potential explanation for the sexually dimorphic biosynthesis of taxol in T. media.
Molecular mechanisms underlying multi-level defense responses of horticultural crops to fungal pathogens
Authors: Xu Xiaodi , Chen Yong , Li Boqiang , Zhang Zhanquan , Qin Guozheng , Chen Tong , Tian Shiping
Published: March 2022

The horticultural industry helps to enrich and improve the human diet while contributing to growth of the agricultural economy. However, fungal diseases of horticultural crops frequently occur during pre- and postharvest periods, reducing yields and crop quality and causing huge economic losses and wasted food. Outcomes of fungal diseases depend on both horticultural plant defense responses and fungal pathogenicity. Plant defense responses are highly sophisticated and are generally divided into preformed and induced defense responses. Preformed defense responses include both physical barriers and phytochemicals, which are the first line of protection. Induced defense responses, which include innate immunity (pattern-triggered immunity and effector-triggered immunity), local defense responses, and systemic defense signaling, are triggered to counterstrike fungal pathogens. Therefore, to develop regulatory strategies for horticultural plant resistance, a comprehensive understanding of defense responses and their underlying mechanisms is critical. Recently, integrated multi-omics analyses, CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing, high-throughput sequencing, and data mining have greatly contributed to identification and functional determination of novel phytochemicals, regulatory factors, and signaling molecules and their signaling pathways in plant resistance. In this review, research progress on defense responses of horticultural crops to fungal pathogens and novel regulatory strategies to regulate induction of plant resistance are summarized, and then the problems, challenges, and future research directions are examined.
Large thrombus in transit in a COVID-19 patient
Authors: Bleiziffer Sabine , Zabel Reinhard , Gummert Jan F , Deutsch Marcus-André
Published: March 2022

The course of COVID-19 patients may be complicated by thromboembolic events. We report on a 48-year-old female COVID-19 patient who underwent surgical removal of a large intracardiac thrombus. As per our centre protocol, critically ill COVID-19 patients are anticoagulated by the direct thrombin inhibitor Argatroban with close monitoring of anti-IIa activity. An intra-atrial thrombus formation fixed in a patent foramen ovale but also large mobile portions in both atria was diagnosed 4 days after weaning and removal of the jugular and femoral extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cannulas. The thrombus was removed surgically via median sternotomy and on cardiopulmonary bypass. The thrombus had a bizarre appearance with several finger-like appendices, and histological analysis revealed a mixed picture of acute and chronic thrombus portions. This case highlights the risk of life-threatening thrombus formation in COVID-19 patients despite therapeutic thrombin inhibition.
Street Art, the Discontinuity Thesis, and the Artworld
Authors: Bicknell Jeanette
Published: March 2022

The topic of this article is the relationship of street art to both the street (or “the street”) and the artworld. I take it as significant that philosophers have turned their attention to “street art” and not, say, “urban outdoor art” or “site-specific art in urban settings.” The “street” in street art seems to imply more than a location or geographic modifier. I consider the further significance of the “street” in street art, and the view, argued or assumed, of the street when philosophers discuss street art. My second target in this article is what I have called the “discontinuity thesis.” This is the idea, defended or assumed in some of the most important philosophical writing about street art, that street art represents a radical break with the artworld and is “antithetical” to it. I argue that the discontinuity thesis is mistaken, and that to understand the larger institutional context of street art we must examine the sociology of artworlds. Street art has followed a familiar process and pioneering street artists are best seen as “mavericks” in Howard Becker’s sense. I argue that seeing street artists in this way can help better understand and appreciate their work.
The Fictional Road Not Taken: A Weak Anti-realist Theory of Fiction
Authors: Alward Peter
Published: March 2022

Nathan Salmon has defended what might be called “weak modal anti-realism”—the view that possible-object names can refer to possible objects that neither exist nor are otherwise real. But rather than adopting a similar view in the fictional case, he instead defends fictional creationism—the view that fictional characters are existent but abstract entities created by authors of fiction. In this paper, I first argue that if weak modal antirealism is defensible then weak fictional antirealism is defensible as well. Second, I argue that there is no reason to prefer fictional creationism over weak fictional antirealism but there is very good reason to prefer the latter over the former. And third, I defend weak fictional antirealism against the charge that it cannot provide a satisfactory account of statements that prima facie involve reference to or quantification over fictional characters.
Genetic variation in PLAG1 is associated with early fertility in Australian Brahman cattle
Authors: Engle Bailey N , Hayes Ben J
Published: March 2022

Variation in the genome region coding for PLAG1 has well-documented associations with skeletal growth and age at puberty in cattle. However, the influence of PLAG1 on other economically important traits such as cow stayability has not yet been explored. Here we investigate the effect of PLAG1 variation on early and later in life female fertility, as well as size and growth, in a well-phenotyped Australian Brahman herd. Yearly pregnancy and productivity records were collected from 2,839 genotyped Brahman cows and used to generate fertility, growth, and weight phenotypes. A variant on chromosome 14 in PLAG1 (NC_037341.1:g.23338890G>T, rs109815800) was previously determined to be a putative causative mutation associated with variation in cattle stature. The imputed PLAG1 genotype at this variant was isolated for each animal and the effect of PLAG1 genotype on each trait was estimated using linear modeling. Regardless of how heifer fertility was measured, there was a significant (P < 0.05) and desirable relationship between the additive effects of PLAG1 genotype and successful heifer fertility. Heifers with two copies of the alternate allele (TT) conceived earlier and had higher pregnancy and calving rates. However, the effects of PLAG1 genotype on fertility began to diminish as cows aged and did not significantly influence stayability at later ages. While there was no effect of genotype on growth, PLAG1 had a negative effect on mature cow weight (P < 0.01), where females with two copies of the alternate allele (TT) were significantly smaller than those with either one or none. Selection emphasis on improved Brahman heifer fertility will likely increase the frequency of the T allele of rs109815800, which may also increase herd profitability and long-term sustainability through improved reproductive efficiency and reduced mature cow size.
Investing in Private Evidence: The Effect of Adversarial Discovery
Authors: Guerra Alice , Parisi Francesco
Published: March 2022

Much of the conventional wisdom of evidence law rests on the premise that the amount of evidence available in any given case is exogenously determined. With the advent of evidence technology (e.g. dashcams, black-box technology, digital data storage, surveillance cameras), the availability of evidence is substantially controlled by individuals. In this article, we show that evidence rules play an important role in determining individuals’ decisions to invest in private evidence. We compare the evidence rules adopted in the USA and Europe and analyze their relative impact on the voluntary adoption of evidence technology. We find that by making private evidence not discoverable, more rather than less evidence would be made available to courts.
Health Economics Research in Cancer Treatment: Current Challenges and Future Directions
Authors: Yu James B , Schrag Deborah , Robin Yabroff K
Published: March 2022

The National Cancer Institute Division of Cancer Control and Population Science hosted a virtual conference on the Future of Cancer Health Economics Research and included a presentation from a workgroup that considered current challenges and future directions in health economics research centered on cancer treatment.

The workgroup identified 3 broad categories of focus: data limitations, opportunities for training for clinicians and health economists interested in collaboration, and the need for prospective economic study of cancer treatment. Within these areas of focus, the workgroup recommended the following: improvement of the availability of key economic measures in data available to researchers, creation of more comprehensive datasets robust to insurance type or coverage, development of cancer care health economics research-focused symposia, instituting clear mechanisms to support integration of economic analyses alongside clinical trials, development of standardized methods to measure the cost of cancer care to health-care systems and patients, and development of standardized evaluations that include measures of social determinants of health.
Confronting the ‘Non-Market Economy’ Treatment: The Evolving World Trade Organization Jurisprudence on Anti-Dumping and China’s Recent Practices
Authors: Zhou Weihuan , Qu Xiaomeng
Published: March 2022

This article offers one of the first comprehensive reviews of the evolution of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s jurisprudence on anti-dumping (AD), focusing on the systemic issue of what flexibility the WTO AD Agreement provides for Member states to tackle market distortions caused by government intervention. This review is undertaken in the context of the longstanding AD practices of some major WTO Members in treating China as a non-market economy (NME). It argues that while WTO tribunals have created flexibilities for AD authorities to address such distortions, they have left some critical issues open for future consideration. The flexibilities and loopholes in the case law can be used by all WTO Members and have been increasingly utilized by China in its own AD practices. Thus, the current law has arguably ‘multilateralized’ the NME treatment under the general framework of the WTO and may incentivize tit-for-tat use of AD.
Bilaterally symmetrical ganglion and subchondral cysts of the knee: a case report
Authors: Chitnavis Jai , Maghsoudi Daniel , Grewal Harshvir
Published: March 2022

A 49-year-old patient, with a maternal history of arthritis, presented with an extra-capsular lump of the left knee. Following magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and excision biopsy, the lump proved to be a benign ganglion cyst. The scan had also shown focal subchondral cyst formation and articular cartilage wear in the medial femoral condyle and patella, with no other abnormality. Four years later, she presented with identical symptoms and signs in the right knee. MRI scan confirmed a symmetrical pattern of ganglion and subchondral cyst location and size. Although both ganglion and subchondral cysts of the knee are common, their development is poorly understood and this combination of cyst formation and chondral wear has not been previously documented. Symmetry of end-stage knee osteoarthritis (OA) is recognized by clinicians. We speculate that OA of the knee begins asymptomatically with point-specific loss of articular cartilage, typically reflecting an inherent and bilateral vulnerability to degeneration.
Joinpoint Regression Methods of Aggregate Outcomes for Complex Survey Data
Authors: Liu Benmei , Kim Hyune-Ju , Feuer Eric J , Graubard Barry I
Published: March 2022

Joinpoint regression can model trends in time-specific estimates from aggregated data. These methods have been developed mainly for nonsurvey data such as cancer registry data assuming that the time-specific estimates are uncorrelated from time point to time point. This independence assumption can be violated for trends in time-specific estimates from complex survey samples due to using the same primary sampling units across time and, therefore, the full variance–covariance matrix of the time-specific estimates should be incorporated into the regression model fitting. This article extends these joinpoint methods for analyzing complex survey data within the National Cancer Institute’s Joinpoint software and empirically compares the extended method to existing methods for analyses of time trends in three surveys.
Predicting the potential distribution of a previously undetected cryptic invasive synanthropic Asian house rat (Rattus tanezumi) in South Africa
Authors: Ringani G V , Julius R S , Chimimba C T , Pirk C W W , Zengeya T A
Published: March 2022

Three species of Rattus, Norway rat (R. norvergicus), black rat (R. rattus) and Asian house rat (R. tanezumi) are currently known to occur in South Africa. The latter two species are cryptic and form part of the Rattus rattus species complex. Historically, R. norvegicus has been reported to occur along the coast and in urban centres, R. rattus is widespread in most urban areas, except in the drier areas, while R. tanezumi was only recorded to occur in the country (and Africa) ca. 15 years ago, and its distribution remains unknown. The aim of this study was to predict the potential distribution of R. tanezumi in South Africa and assess how it overlaps with that of R. norvegicus and R. rattus using species distribution modelling. Rattus tanezumi was predicted to mainly occur in most inland urban areas and along the coast. The distribution of R. rattus was as expected, in contrast, the predicted range of R. norvegicus was not restricted to the coast but also included inland urban areas. All three species showed broad potential distributional ranges that overlapped extensively indicating that their establishment and spread may be influenced by similar factors such as proximity to urban areas and a wet and moderate climate. These results allow insights into assessing their risk of establishment and for formulating appropriate intervention strategies for their management and control.
Change in social networks: Some dynamic extensions of Social Epistemic Logic
Authors: FernÁndez GonzÁlez SaÚl
Published: March 2022

We propose dynamic extensions to the framework of Social Epistemic Logic introduced in Logic in the Community (Seligman et al., pp. 178–188, 2011). One of them introduces a notion of a semi-public announcement made by an aware agent and only transmitted to this agent’s social connections. Another extension along the epistemic dimension of the framework contains separate ‘sending’ and ‘reading’ modalities that allow for a more realistic asynchronous spreading of messages in a social network. Finally, we briefly discuss an extension along the ‘social’ dimension of the framework, which introduces an operator to break links within an epistemic social network based on information at the agent’s disposal. Completeness and decidability results are provided.