bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Trivariate Geometric Classification of Decision Boundaries for Mixtures of Regressions
Authors: Antonazzo Filippo , Ingrassia Salvatore
Published: December 2023

Mixtures of regressions play a prominent role in regression analysis when it is known the population of interest is divided into homogeneous and disjoint groups. This typically consists in partitioning the observational space into several regions through particular hypersurfaces called decision boundaries. A geometrical analysis of these surfaces allows to highlight properties of the used classifier. In particular, a geometrical classification of decision boundaries for the three most used mixtures of regressions (with fixed covariates, with concomitant variables and random covariates) was provided in case of one and two covariates, under Gaussian assumptions and in presence of only one real response variable. This work aims to extend these results to a more complex setting where three independent variables are considered.
Supervised Classification via Neural Networks for Replicated Point Patterns
Authors: Pawlasová Kateřina , Karafiátová Iva , Dvořák Jiří
Published: December 2023

A spatial point pattern is a collection of points observed in a bounded region of $${\bf{\mathbb{R}}}^d$$, $$d \ge 2$$. Individual points represent, e.g., observed locations of cell nuclei in a tissue (d = 2) or centers of undesirable air bubbles in industrial materials (d = 3). The main goal of this paper is to show the possibility of solving the supervised classification task for point patterns via neural networks with general input space. To predict the class membership for a newly observed pattern, we compute an empirical estimate of a selected functional characteristic (e.g., the pair correlation function). Then, we consider this estimated function to be a functional variable that enters the input layer of the network. A short simulation example illustrates the performance of the proposed classifier in the situation where the observed patterns are generated from two models with different spatial interactions. In addition, the proposed classifier is compared with convolutional neural networks (with point patterns represented by binary images) and kernel regression. Kernel regression classifiers for point patterns have been studied in our previous work, and we consider them a benchmark in this setting.
Penalized Model-Based Functional Clustering: A Regularization Approach via Shrinkage Methods
Authors: Pronello Nicola , Ignaccolo Rosaria , Ippoliti Luigi , Fontanella Sara
Published: December 2023

With the advance of modern technology, and with data being recorded continuously, functional data analysis has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. Working in a mixture model-based framework, we develop a flexible functional clustering technique achieving dimensionality reduction schemes through aL1penalization. The proposed procedure results in an integrated modelling approach where shrinkage techniques are applied to enable sparse solutions in both the means and the covariance matrices of the mixture components, while preserving the underlying clustering structure. This leads to an entirely data-driven methodology suitable for simultaneous dimensionality reduction and clustering. Preliminary experimental results, both from simulation and real data, show that the proposed methodology is worth considering within the framework of functional clustering.
Clustering Validation in the Context of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis: An Empirical Study
Authors: Silva Osvaldo , Sousa Áurea , Bacelar-Nicolau Helena
Published: December 2023

The evaluation of clustering structures is a crucial step in cluster analysis. This study presents the main results of the hierarchical cluster analysis of variables concerning a real dataset in the context of Higher Education. The goal of this research is to find a typology of some relevant items taking into account both the homogeneity and the isolation of the clusters. Two similarity measures, namely the standard affinity coefficient and Spearman’s correlation coefficient, were used, and combined with three probabilistic (AVL, AVB and AV1) aggregation criteria, from a parametric family in the scope of the VL (Validity Link) methodology. The best partitions were selected based on some validation indices, namely the global STAT levels statistics and the measures P(I2, Σ) and γ, adapted to the case of similarity coefficients. In order to evaluate the clusters and identify their most representative elements, the Mann and Whitney U statistics and the silhouette plot were also used.
A Proposal for Formalization and Definition of Anomalies in Dynamical Systems
Authors: Spoor Jan Michael , Weber Jens , Ovtcharova Jivka
Published: December 2023

Although many scientists strongly focus on anomaly detection in different applications and domains, there currently exists no universally accepted definition of anomalies and outliers. Using an approach based on control theory and dynamical systems, as well as a definition for anomalies as described by philosophy of science, the authors propose a generalized framework viewing anomalies as key drivers of progress for a better understanding of the dynamical systems around us. By mathematically defining anomalies and delimiting deviations within expectations from completely unforeseen instances, this paper aims to be a contribution to set up a universally accepted definition of anomalies and outliers.
A Review on Official Survey Item Classification for Mixed-Mode Effects Adjustment
Authors: Ashofteh Afshin , Campos Pedro
Published: December 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a direct impact on the development, production, and dissemination of official statistics. This situation led National Statistics Institutes (NSIs) to make methodological and practical choices for survey collection without the need for the direct contact of interviewing staff (i.e. remote survey data collection). Mixing telephone interviews (CATI) and computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) with direct contact of interviewing constitute a new way for data collection at the time COVID-19 crisis. This paper presents a literature review to summarize the role of statistical classification and design weights to control cover-age errors and non-response bias in mixed-mode questionnaire design. We identified 289 research articles with a computerized search over two databases, Scopus and Web of Science. It was found that, although employing mixed-mode surveys could be considered as a substitution of traditional face-to-face interviews (CAPI), proper statistical classification of survey items and responders is important to control the nonresponse rates and coverage error risk.
Climate-Smart Technologies for Empowerment of Women Farmers in Africa
Authors: Adeola Ogechi , Evans Olaniyi , Ngare Innocent
Published: December 2023

Given the constraints women experience in adopting climate-smart technologies in Africa, it is crucial to conduct more rigorous research to understand the nature of these constraints and develop appropriate interventions. This chapter aims to explore the use of climate-smart technologies to empower women farmers in Africa. It emphasises the need for technologies that can enhance agricultural productivity and food security while benefiting women. Climate-smart agricultural practices, including those that address land degradation and desertification, can be adopted by women in African countries. Moreover, these practices can also be extended to improve timber production, enhance food security, and reduce the vulnerability of crops and livestock to the effects of climate change. This chapter underscores the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in developing and implementing climate-smart technologies to enhance the resilience of women farmers in Africa and promote sustainable agriculture.
From Uji to Being-Time (and Back): Translating Dōgen into Philosophy
Authors: Steineck Raji C.
Published: December 2023

I seek to show that the declared aim of Dōgen’s writings, which were often edited versions of ritualised verbal teachings, was to guide disciples on the Buddha Way—a practical path to salvation that was clearly defined and delimited by an authoritative tradition. Dōgen, therefore, tried to preclude rather than foster the open-ended discussion of fundamental problems of human life that is otherwise usually associated with the concept of philosophy. Hence, Dōgen speaks a language of persuasion that is guided by aims and rules of discourse different from those of philosophy. This, or so I argue, is an aspect that is often lost when Dōgen’s thoughts are transferred into philosophical debates. The result is, in many instances, a rather facile alignment with the recipient’s own preconceptions. To substantiate my hypothesis, I start from factual observations concerning the modern philosophical reception of Dōgen’s teachings on time in Japan and the Anglophone world, focusing on the semantic shifts occurring in interpretations by prominent authors such as Tanabe Hajime, Ōmori Shōzō, Rein Raud, and others. I then turn to the theory of translation to analyse the seminal factors at play in this observed process of transformative reception. Finally, I reflect on how conceiving of the transfer of Dōgen’s thought into philosophical discourse as a process of translation can help to build interpretations that are both hermeneutically sound and philosophically interesting.
‘Nothing about us without us’. Including Lived Experiences of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Policy and Service Design
Authors: Anderson Sian , Bigby Christine
Published: December 2023

The rights of people with disabilities to be included in the design of policy and services are asserted in international treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability and increasingly reflected in disability policies across the world. Approaches to facilitating the inclusion of lived experiences and the perspectives of people with disabilities include consultative, advisory or governance bodies, as well as co-design of projects, advocacy work of Disabled Person’s Organisations and self-advocacy groups. The success of these various approaches depends on their power to influence policy and services, the way they operate and the methods they use to support the participation of people with disabilities. This chapter reviews evidence about different approaches to tapping into the expertise people with disabilities have from their lived experiences of disability, and considers the types of practices most effective for working together with people with disabilities and some of the unresolved issues that support workers, managers and policy makers must grapple with to further the rights of people so that there is ‘nothing about us without us’.
Organisational Culture in Disability Accommodation Services
Authors: Humphreys Lincoln
Published: December 2023

Culture refers to shared beliefs, values, basic assumptions, norms, and patterns of behaviour that influence how staff think, feel, and act. It exists at multiple levels within organisations (e.g., whole of organisation, senior managers, frontline service) and it enables and constrains what staff do. Most research on culture in disability organisations has occurred at the service level. Culture can account for poor practice and abuse of people with intellectual disabilities living in supported accommodation services. Conversely, it can contribute to good quality support and quality of life outcomes. This chapter explains what is culture, how it influences staff behaviour, the characteristics of culture in good and poor quality services, and how to change culture.
General gravitational charges on null hypersurfaces
Authors: Odak Gloria , Rignon-Bret Antoine , Speziale Simone
Published: December 2023

Abstract

We perform a detailed study of the covariance properties of the symplectic potential of general relativity on a null hypersurface, and of the different polarizations that can be used to study conservative as well as leaky boundary conditions. This allows us to identify a one-parameter family of covariant symplectic potentials. We compute the charges and fluxes for the most general phase space with arbitrary variations. We study five symmetry groups that arise when different restrictions on the variations are included. Requiring stationarity as in the original Wald-Zoupas prescription selects a unique member of the family of symplectic potentials, the one of Chandrasekaran, Flanagan and Prabhu. The associated charges are all conserved on non-expanding horizons, but not on flat spacetime. We show that it is possible to require a weaker notion of stationarity which selects another symplectic potential, again in a unique way, and whose charges are conserved on both non-expanding horizons and flat light-cones. Furthermore, the flux of future-pointing diffeomorphisms at leading-order around an outgoing flat light-cone is positive and reproduces a tidal heating plus a memory term. We also study the conformal conservative boundary conditions suggested by the alternative polarization and identify under which conditions they define a non-ambiguous variational principle. Our results have applications for dynamical notions of entropy, and are useful to clarify the interplay between different boundary conditions, charge prescriptions, and symmetry groups that can be associated with a null boundary.
Unveiling the role of ABI3 and hub senescence-related genes in macrophage senescence for atherosclerotic plaque progression
Authors: Fu Yajuan , Zhang Juan , Liu Qiujun , Yang Lan , Wu Qianqian , Yang Xiaomin , Wang Lexin , Ding Ning , Xiong Jiantuan , Gao Yujing , Ma Shengchao , Jiang Yideng
Published: December 2023

Background

Atherosclerosis, characterized by abnormal arterial lipid deposition, is an age-dependent inflammatory disease and contributes to elevated morbidity and mortality. Senescent foamy macrophages are considered to be deleterious at all stages of atherosclerosis, while the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to explore the senescence-related genes in macrophages diagnosis for atherosclerotic plaque progression.

Methods

The atherosclerosis-related datasets were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and cellular senescence-associated genes were acquired from the CellAge database. R package Limma was used to screen out the differentially expressed senescence-related genes (DE-SRGs), and then three machine learning algorithms were applied to determine the hub DE-SRGs. Next, we established a nomogram model to further confirm the clinical significance of hub DE-SRGs. Finally, we validated the expression of hub SRG ABI3 by Sc-RNA seq analysis and explored the underlying mechanism of ABI3 in THP-1-derived macrophages and mouse atherosclerotic lesions.

Results

A total of 15 DE-SRGs were identified in macrophage-rich plaques, with five hub DE-SRGs (ABI3, CAV1, NINJ1, Nox4 and YAP1) were further screened using three machine learning algorithms. Subsequently, a nomogram predictive model confirmed the high validity of the five hub DE-SRGs for evaluating atherosclerotic plaque progression. Further, the ABI3 expression was upregulated in macrophages of advanced plaques and senescent THP-1-derived macrophages, which was consistent with the bioinformatics analysis. ABI3 knockdown abolished macrophage senescence, and the NF-κB signaling pathway contributed to ABI3-mediated macrophage senescence.

Conclusion

We identified five cellular senescence-associated genes for atherogenesis progression and unveiled that ABI3 might promote macrophage senescence via activation of the NF-κB pathway in atherogenesis progression, which proposes new preventive and therapeutic strategies of senolytic agents for atherosclerosis.
Partitions, multiple zeta values and the q-bracket
Authors: Bachmann Henrik , van Ittersum Jan-Willem
Published: December 2023

We provide a framework for relating certainq-series defined by sums over partitions to multiple zeta values. In particular, we introduce a space of polynomial functions on partitions for which the associatedq-series areq-analogues of multiple zeta values. By explicitly describing the (regularized) multiple zeta values one obtains as$$q\rightarrow 1$$q→1, we extend previous results known in this area. Using this together with the fact that other families of functions on partitions, such as shifted symmetric functions, are elements in our space will then give relations among (q-analogues of) multiple zeta values. Conversely, we will show that relations among multiple zeta values can be ‘lifted’ to the world of functions on partitions, which provides new examples of functions for which the associatedq-series are quasimodular.
A global climatology of tropical easterly waves
Authors: Hollis Margaret A. , McCrary Rachel R. , Stachnik Justin P. , Lewis-Merritt Carrie , Martin Elinor R.
Published: December 2023

Tropical easterly waves (TEWs) are westward-propagating off-equatorial waves that are typically convectively coupled. TEWs make significant contributions to the annual rainfall in many regions of the tropics, and often seed tropical cyclones. Climatologies of TEWs exist regionally and hemispherically, however, none exist at the global scale. The climatology in this study is the first attempt to study TEWs globally, applying a combination of the TRACK algorithm and objective criteria to all basins to identify TEW activity at both 850 and 700 hPa. In addition to areas of TEW activity in previously studied regions such as the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Ocean basins, this study has identified TEW activity in every other tropical ocean basin in both hemispheres. On average across the globe, the methods employed tracked 380 waves per year at 850 hPa and 638 waves per year at 700 hPa. There were no significant linear trends globally or hemispherically over the 41 years analyzed, but large interannual variability. Despite the variety of regions the TEWs occur in, the distribution of average speeds agrees with studies using other data and tracking methods, with averages between 7.5–8 m s−1 depending on the level and hemisphere. TEW activity shows a strong preference to the warm season, with approximately double the number of TEWs occurring in the warm season compared to the cold season, a pattern that is observed in both the northern and southern hemispheres. This database is publicly available to enable further work in understanding TEW behavior and predictability globally.
MMS hotspots: a cross-sectional comparison of U.S. counties with and without Mohs micrographic surgery
Authors: Sharma Ajay Nair , Peterman Nicholas , Juhasz Margit , Shive Melissa
Published: December 2023

Healthcare access greatly impacts skin cancer diagnosis and mortality rates. Recognition of current disparities in Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) access can assist future policy and clinical decisions to correct them. For the years 2014–2018, the CPT codes for MMS (17,311 and 17,313) were counted on a per county level across the United States per the Medicare Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Prescriber Database. Any county with 0 MMS CPT codes recorded were classified as “without MMS cases.” MMS “hotspots” were identified as counties that possessed a high average number of MMS cases compared to the national average, while also being surrounded by counties that possessed a low average number of MMS cases compared to the national average. Three thousand eighty-four counties in the United States were analyzed; 785 (25%) counties were designated as “with MMS cases” and 2301 (75%) “without MMS cases.” There were no significant differences in age, ethnicity distribution, or cost per enrollee between the two designations. 74% of counties with MMS cases were considered urban, while only 25% of those without cases were urban (p < 0.01). The median household income was markedly higher in counties with MMS cases ($71,428 vs. $58,913, p < 0.01). With respect to education, more individuals in counties with MMS cases possessed their General Education Development (GED) (89% vs. 86%, p < 0.01) or a college degree (30% vs. 19%, p < 0.01). Forty-nine counties were considered MMS “hotspots.” The density of MMS procedures varies greatly based on geography, maintaining the urban–rural disparity matched by the distribution of MMS surgeons. Additionally, there remains a wide income and educational gap between counties with and without MMS. Identifying MMS hotspots may facilitate further investigation into potential surgical access disparities.
Composition of the rumen archaeal community of growing camels fed different concentrate levels
Authors: Rabee Alaa Emara , Askar Ahmed R.
Published: December 2023

Understanding the rumen fermentation and methanogenic community in camels fed intensively is critical for optimizing rumen fermentation, improving feed efficiency, and lowering methane emissions. Using Illumina MiSeq sequencing, quantitative real-time PCR, and high-performance liquid chromatography, this study evaluates the influence of different concentrate supplement levels in the diet on rumen fermentation as well as the diversity and structure of the rumen methanogenic community for growing dromedary camels. Twelve growing camels were divided into three groups and given three levels of concentrate supplement, 0.7% (C1), 1% (C2), and 1.3% (C3) based on their body weight. All animals were fed alfalfa hay ad libitum. The levels of total volatile fatty acid, rumen ammonia, and methanogen copy number were unaffected by the supplementation level. Increasing the concentrate supplement level increased the proportion of propionic acid while decreasing the proportion of acetic acid. Increasing the level of concentrate in the diet had no effect on alpha diversity metrics or beta diversity of rumen methanogens. Methanobrevibacter and Methanosphaera predominated the methanogenic community and were declined as concentrate supplement level increased. This study sheds new light on the effect of concentrate supplement level in growing camels’ diet on rumen fermentation and methanogenic community, which could help in the development of a strategy that aimed to reduce methane emissions and enhance feed efficiency.
Exploring the impact of authentic learning activities on school students’ epistemic beliefs in the social sciences and humanities
Authors: Nachtigall Valentina , Firstein Angelina
Published: December 2023

The present two studies investigated whether students’ development of epistemic beliefs about the educational sciences (study A; N = 152) and linguistics (study B; N = 150) can be affected by authentic learning activities in an out-of-school lab (OSL). OSLs aim to engage students in authentic activities that attempt to simulate the ways how scientists gather new knowledge, making an impact on students’ epistemic beliefs likely. To test this assumption, the two (quasi-)experimental studies each compared a highly authentic with a less authentic activity and assessed students’ epistemic beliefs before and after the students’ visit to the OSL. We also analyzed how students’ epistemic beliefs relate to their perceived authenticity of the learning activity, their situational interest, and their knowledge acquisition. The findings suggest that authentic activities in OSLs have no effect on students’ epistemic beliefs, as students in both conditions either developed more sophisticated beliefs (study A) or changed their beliefs in the less authentic condition only (study B). Correlational analyses further show that students’ epistemic beliefs about the texture of knowledge are negatively associated with both their perceived authenticity of the learning activity (studies A and B) and their situational interest (study A only). In contrast, students’ epistemic beliefs about the variability of knowledge are positively correlated with their perceived authenticity and their knowledge acquisition (both in study A only). The findings are discussed in light of previous research on both students’ epistemic beliefs and authentic learning in OSLs.
Academic engagement and management of personalised active learning in higher education digital ecosystems
Authors: Alé-Ruiz Rafael , Martínez-Abad Fernando , del Moral-Marcos María Teresa
Published: December 2023

The flexible, changing, and uncertain nature of present-day society requires its citizens have new personal, professional, and social competences which exceed the traditional knowledge-based, academic skills imparted in higher education. This study aims to identify those factors associated with active methodologies that predict university students’ learning achievements in a digital ecosystem and thus, optimize the learning-teaching process. The teaching management tool Learning Analytics in Higher Education (LAHE) has been applied to a 200-student non-probabilistic incidental sample spread over 5 different university courses, enabling a personalized learning-teaching process tailored to the needs of each group and /or student. Based on a pre-experimental design without a control group, an analysis through decision trees based on educational data mining has been undertaken on the predictive potential of the active methodologies employed, and their effects on students’ learning achievements. The criterion variable of the study was the final exam grade, and the explanatory variables included student characteristics, indicators of the teaching–learning process and non-cognitive factors. Results show that factors associated with active methodologies correctly predict a significant portion of the learning achieved by students. More specifically, the factors that have the greatest impact on learning are those related to academic engagement and to a student continuous learning process.
A encoder-decoder deblurring network combined with high-frequency a priori
Authors: Wang Meihua , Xu Jiajie , Ke Fanhui , Liao Lei
Published: December 2023

Convolutional neural network based methods have been proposed to address blind deblurring. Aiming at the difficulty of reconstructing high-frequency features of images with existing network models, this paper proposes a two-stage convolution-based encoder-decoder for fusing high-frequency a prior. In the first stage, both blurred and high-frequency images are input, and the image features extracted by the network and the high-frequency features are fused. In the second stage, the fused features are further refined and recovered as potentially clear images, and the reconstruction ability of the model for high-frequency features is enhanced. In addition, this paper proposes a deep feature reorganization module that integrates multi-layer semantic information in the encoder-decoder and targets the encoder semantics to further enhance the feature characterization capability of the model. Comprehensive experimental results show that our method achieves 0.9085 structural similarity index (SSIM) and 30.66db peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) on the GoPro dataset. Meanwhile, our method achieves 0.8514 SSIM and 27.39db PSNR on the Lai dataset.
Explainable artificial intelligence for the automated assessment of the retinal vascular tortuosity
Authors: Hervella Álvaro S. , Ramos Lucía , Rouco José , Novo Jorge , Ortega Marcos
Published: December 2023

Retinal vascular tortuosity is an excessive bending and twisting of the blood vessels in the retina that is associated with numerous health conditions. We propose a novel methodology for the automated assessment of the retinal vascular tortuosity from color fundus images. Our methodology takes into consideration several anatomical factors to weigh the importance of each individual blood vessel. First, we use deep neural networks to produce a robust extraction of the different anatomical structures. Then, the weighting coefficients that are required for the integration of the different anatomical factors are adjusted using evolutionary computation. Finally, the proposed methodology also provides visual representations that explain the contribution of each individual blood vessel to the predicted tortuosity, hence allowing us to understand the decisions of the model. We validate our proposal in a dataset of color fundus images providing a consensus ground truth as well as the annotations of five clinical experts. Our proposal outperforms previous automated methods and offers a performance that is comparable to that of the clinical experts. Therefore, our methodology demonstrates to be a viable alternative for the assessment of the retinal vascular tortuosity. This could facilitate the use of this biomarker in clinical practice and medical research.

Graphical abstract
Women’s underrepresentation in business-to-business sales: Reasons, contingencies, and solutions
Authors: Lanzrath Aline Isabelle , Homburg Christian , Ruhnau Robin-Christopher M.
Published: December 2023

Sales faces the second-largest gender gap of any corporate function, with women’s underrepresentation even more pronounced in business-to-business (B2B) sales and at higher hierarchical levels. Concurrently, the call for a more gender-diverse sales force is gaining momentum for social and economic reasons, moving the question of how to attract and promote women in B2B sales to the top of sales managers’ agenda. Using an inductive approach, we uncover male-centricity of communication and job structures in B2B sales as the underlying reasons deterring women from entering and advancing in B2B sales. Specifically, male-centricity implies a misfit between B2B sales and women’s self-conception and needs. By deriving contingencies of these relationships, we offer solutions to women’s underrepresentation in B2B sales by showing, for example, which sales positions are less prone to signal or create a misfit to women and what gender-inclusive resources sales departments can provide and saleswomen can build.
Emerging strategies and developments in oxygen reduction reaction using high-performance platinum-based electrocatalysts
Authors: Ali Asad , Laaksonen Aatto , Huang Guo , Hussain Shahid , Luo Shuiping , Chen Wen , Shen Pei Kang , Zhu Jinliang , Ji Xiaoyan
Published: December 2023

The global practical implementation of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) heavily relies on the advancement of highly effective platinum (Pt)-based electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). To achieve high ORR performance, electrocatalysts with highly accessible reactive surfaces are needed to promote the uncovering of active positions for easy mass transportation. In this critical review, we introduce different approaches for the emerging development of effective ORR electrocatalysts, which offer high activity and durability. The strategies, including morphological engineering, geometric configuration modification via supporting materials, alloys regulation, core-shell, and confinement engineering of single atom electrocatalysts (SAEs), are discussed in line with the goals and requirements of ORR performance enhancement. We review the ongoing development of Pt electrocatalysts based on the syntheses, nanoarchitecture, electrochemical performances, and stability. We eventually explore the obstacles and research directions on further developing more effective electrocatalysts.
Developing policy-ready digital dashboards of geospatial access to emergency obstetric care: a survey of policymakers and researchers in sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Wang Jia , Wong Kerry L. M. , Olubodun Tope , Gwacham-Anisiobi Uchenna , Ogunyemi Olakunmi , Afolabi Bosede B. , Macharia Peter M. , Makanga Prestige Tatenda , Abejirinde Ibukun-Oluwa Omolade , Beňová Lenka , Banke-Thomas Aduragbemi
Published: December 2023

Background

Dashboards are increasingly being used in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to support health policymaking and governance. However, their use has been mostly limited to routine care, not emergency services like emergency obstetric care (EmOC). To ensure a fit-for-purpose dashboard, we conducted an online survey with policymakers and researchers to understand key considerations needed for developing a policy-ready dashboard of geospatial access to EmOC in SSA.

Methods

Questionnaires targeting both stakeholder groups were pre-tested and disseminated in English, French, and Portuguese across SSA. We collected data on participants’ awareness of concern areas for geographic accessibility of EmOC and existing technological resources used for planning of EmOC services, the dynamic dashboard features preferences, and the dashboard's potential to tackle lack of geographic access to EmOC. Questions were asked as multiple-choice, Likert-scale, or open-ended. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise findings using frequencies or proportions. Free-text responses were recoded into themes where applicable.

Results

Among the 206 participants (88 policymakers and 118 researchers), 90% reported that rural areas and 23% that urban areas in their countries were affected by issues of geographic accessibility to EmOC. Five percent of policymakers and 38% of researchers were aware of the use of maps of EmOC facilities to guide planning of EmOC facility location. Regarding dashboard design, most visual components such as location of EmOC facilities had almost universal desirability; however, there were some exceptions. Nearly 70% of policymakers considered the socio-economic status of the population and households relevant to the dashboard. The desirability for a heatmap showing travel time to care was lower among policymakers (53%) than researchers (72%). Nearly 90% of participants considered three to four data updates per year or less frequent updates adequate for the dashboard. The potential usability of a dynamic dashboard was high amongst both policymakers (60%) and researchers (82%).

Conclusion

This study provides key considerations for developing a policy-ready dashboard for EmOC geographical accessibility in SSA. Efforts should now be targeted at establishing robust estimation of geographical accessibility metrics, integrated with existing health system data, and developing and maintaining the dashboard with up-to-date data to maximise impact in these settings.
Brittleness index evaluation of gas-bearing sandstone under triaxial compression conditions
Authors: Wang Jun , Du Jiahui , Li Wenpu , Chen Xianhui , Zhang Huan , Wang Tao , Li Zhu , Hao Ruiqing
Published: December 2023

Brittleness is a critical property in gas-bearing rock excavation and reservoir fracturing. This paper analyzes the three types of brittleness indices in detail, proposes new indices, and conducts relevant conventional triaxial tests for analysis. A stress–strain curve-based brittleness index would be appropriate for the evaluation of brittleness if the parameters represented unique and certain stress–strain curves. Therefore, a new brittleness index is proposed. It consists of two components: the stress variation index and the strain variation index, which reflects the strain ratio of the stress drop and the relationship between elastic and post-peak strains, combining the stress variation and strain variation in the pre- and post-peak phases. Triaxial compression tests of sandstone under different confining pressures and gas pressures were conducted, and specific stress and strain parameters were collected. Based on the comparison and analysis of various brittleness indices, it is found that the newly proposed brittleness index can be a good measure of the brittle evolution of sandstones under different confining pressures and gas pressures, and it can provide a more accurate estimate of rock brittleness than the existing indices. The index is also used to further investigate the relationship between rock brittleness and confining and gas pressures. This has important implications for the assessment of rock brittleness in practical engineering.
First report of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium in pet reptiles in private household of Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Khan Hajrah A. , Neyaz Leena A. , Organji Sameer R. , Neyaz Marwah Sobhan , Almalki Meshal H. K. , Elbanna Khaled , Abulreesh Hussein H.
Published: December 2023

Pet reptiles are gaining popularity among Saudi citizens but owners lack public health-associated awareness. Generally, the pet shops do not properly guide about reptile handling and health precautions. This study features molecular characterization of Salmonella isolates from pet reptiles to detect potential human pathogenic serovars. Previously identified five Salmonella sp. isolates from pet reptiles in private households were subjected to PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene followed by Sanger sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Sequencing confirmed all five isolates as Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium. Different strains shared a common ancestor but were divided into different clades in various host species (snakes and lizards). All reptiles could be a potential source of zoonotic Salmonella spp. and multidrug resistance (MDR) of Salmonella can further worsen the situation. The feed, confined shared living spaces of multiple animals, environmental conditions, and pets’ interaction with wild animals could enhance the probability of Salmonella spp. occurrence in pet reptiles. This study necessitates the pet owners’ awareness regarding Salmonella spp. transmission routes and associated human health repercussions while keeping pet reptiles.
The well-living paradigm: reimagining quality of life in our turbulent world
Authors: Hosseini S. A. Hamed
Published: December 2023

This article introduces the concept of ‘well-living’ as a transformative framework for reimagining quality of life in the face of current global socio-ecological challenges. Through a reflexive theoretical meta-analysis, it critically examines mainstream and reformist well-being discourses while drawing inspiration from transformative perspectives found in recent post-capitalist and indigenous movements. ‘Well-living’ is portrayed as both a civilizational endeavor and a multifaceted imperative, encompassing dimensions of creativity, liveability, conviviality, and alterity across various scales from individual to international contexts. Central to the ‘well-living’ paradigm are nine key qualities, including harmonious coexistence, aspirational foresight and purposefulness, solidarity, autonomy, authenticity, and integrity, thereby promoting an integrated approach to living in balance with oneself, others, and the natural world. Embracing ‘well-living’ as a goal and process can empower individuals and communities to challenge prevailing global capitalist paradigms, re-establish connections with the interconnected web of life, and strive for a more just, regenerative, and diverse world, accommodating multiple perspectives. Lastly, employing a 'commonist' perspective, the article outlines essential institutional and legislative-policy changes required to actualize the vision of 'well-living.'
The Chertsey Tiles, the Crusades, and Global Textile Motifs
Authors: Luyster Amanda
Published: December 2023

While visual cultures mingled comfortably along the silk roads and on the shores of the Mediterranean, medieval England has sometimes been viewed – by both medieval and more recent writers – as isolated. In this Element the author introduces new evidence to show that this understanding of medieval England's visual relationship to the rest of the world demands revision. An international team led by the author has completed a digital reconstruction of the so-called Chertsey combat tiles (sophisticated pictorial floor tiles made c. 1250, England), including both images and lost Latin texts. Grounded in the discoveries made while completing this reconstruction, the author proposes new conclusions regarding the historical circumstances within which the Chertsey tiles were commissioned and their significant connections with global textile traditions.
The Rise, Fall, and Influence of the Tea Party Insurgency
Authors: Rafail Patrick , McCarthy John D.
Published: December 2023

Emerging in 2009, the Tea Party movement had an immediate and profound impact on American politics and society. This book draws on a decade's worth of original, extensive data collection to understand why the Tea Party emerged, where it was active, and why it disappeared so quickly. Patrick Rafail and John McCarthy link the Tea Party's rise to prominence following the economic collapse that came to be known as the Great Recession. Paying special attention to the importance of space and time in shaping the Tea Party's activities, Rafail and McCarthy identify and explain the movement's disappearance from the political stage. Even though grassroots Tea Party activism largely ceased by 2014, they demonstrate the movement's effect on the Republican Party and American democracy that continues today.
Monitoring the State or the Market
Authors: Tanzi Vito
Published: December 2023

Many economists argue that economic analysis should avoid the distributional consequences of policies. In democratic countries, however, the political power of individuals inevitably reflects their wealth and income. You cannot have a democracy when income and wealth distributions are greatly uneven. Monitoring the State or the Market explains that absolute income equality is not consistent with a market economy, yet neither is large inequality. This study provides a broad survey of major social and economic developments over the past two centuries, beginning with the Industrial Revolution and laissez faire and ending with neoliberalism and market fundamentalism. It explains how each of these periods initially brought moderation and accompanying benefits, showing that some countries, such as those in Scandinavia, have demonstrated that it is possible to have low Gini coefficients (low inequality), while preserving economic freedom and prosperity.
Global Forces, Rural Radicalism, and the Dual Transformation of Urban and Rural Protest in Africa
Authors: Mampilly Zachariah Cherian
Published: December 2023

Studies of protest in contemporary Africa often fail to address three related dynamics. First, rural radicalism has long been more central to African political struggles, even urban ones, than is commonly recognized. Second, the ongoing transformation of rural political economies links them to those of urban areas and has changed struggles over land and resources. Finally, these changes have reduced the power of traditional authorities and increased the appeal of nonviolent protest, as well as shifting protest toward a more national mode in which rural populations are increasingly central. Mampilly elaborates on these propositions, which are derived from brief examinations of both historical and contemporary examples of rural protest across Africa, before applying them to a deep analysis of LUCHA, a social movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Statewide Patient Load Balancing Work of Washington State’s Medical Operations Coordination Center
Authors: Mitchell Steven H. , Taylor Mark J. , Paulsen Maria , Morris Stephen C.
Published: December 2023

Objectives:

Load balancing of constrained healthcare resources has become a critical aspect of assuring access to care during periods of pandemic related surge. These impacts include patient surges, staffing shortages, and limited access to specialty resources. This research focuses on the creation and work of a novel statewide coordination center, the Washington Medical Coordination Center (WMCC), whose primary goal is the load balancing of patients across the healthcare continuum of Washington State.

Methods:

This article discusses the origins, development, and operations of the WMCC including key partners, cooperative agreements, and structure necessary to create a patient load balancing system on a statewide level.

Results:

As of April 21, 2022, the WMCC received 3821 requests from Washington State hospitals. Nearly 90% were received during the pandemic surge. Nearly 75% originated from rural hospitals that are most often limited in their ability to transfer patients when referral centers are also overwhelmed.

Conclusions:

The WMCC served as an effective tool to carry out patient load balancing activities during the COVID-19 pandemic surge in Washington State. It (the WMCC) has been shown to be an equity enhancing, cost effective means of managing healthcare surge events across a broad geographic region.
A Glocal History of Post-independence Singapore’s First Sex Education Curriculum, 1966-1973
Authors: Goh Benjamin
Published: December 2023

Most studies of sex education center on local Anglo-Euro-American contexts, tracing the origin of sex education to a coordinated response to the spread of venereal diseases. These neglect the circumstances in which sex education developed in the developing world between the 1950s and 1980s: a growing collective anxiety about rising birth rates that culminated in the adoption of population control measures. This paper examines the “glocal” history of population-centered sex education in the developing world in the 1960s and 1970s, through the case study of Singapore. Examining the emergence of the first sex education curriculum in post-independence Singapore between 1966 and 1973, I argue that population-centered sex education that emerged in Singapore was intimately connected with global population politics. Analysis of how the policy was formulated shows that the Singapore state reacted to both domestic and global concerns. In connecting local developments to global contexts, this paper gestures toward the possibilities of studying the global history of population-centered sex education.
Comprehending non-canonical and indirect speech acts in German
Authors: TROTZKE ANDREAS , REIMER LAURA
Published: December 2023

In this paper, we compare the comprehension of the speech act meaning of non-canonical speech acts (i.e., rhetorical questions and surprise-disapproval questions) with the comprehension of indirect speech acts (i.e., indirect requests). Both speech act types are ‘mixed’ in the sense that they involve secondary and primary illocutionary forces, but our hypothesis is that they differ in their degree of how salient their primary illocutionary force is: On the one hand, the primary illocution is signaled by non-contextual cues (non-canonical speech acts); on the other hand, it is derived via pragmatic inferencing (indirect speech acts). We thus expect their comprehension processes to be different. We conducted a judgment experiment to test whether both speech act types differ regarding how accurate the primary illocutionary force is identified and regarding how fast that force can be identified. Our results suggest that non-canonical speech acts and indirect speech acts are indeed two distinct pragmatic and psychological phenomena: While non-canonical speech acts are more accurately identified with their primary illocutionary force than indirect speech acts, participants need more time to perform this identification for non-canonical speech acts than for indirect speech acts. Our findings shed new light on the mapping between linguistic form and illocutionary force and on the pragmatic typology of speech acts in general.