bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Use of apixaban in children awaiting heart transplantation
Authors: Benvenuto Victor , Hartje‐Dunn Christina , Vo Linda , Hellinger Amy , Esteso Paul , Fynn‐Thompson Francis , VanderPluym Christina
Published: October 2023

Background

The use of apixaban in the pediatric cardiac population is expanding. We describe our apixaban dosing and monitoring strategy in children and young adults awaiting heart transplantation, along with outcomes related to bleeding and thrombosis during wait‐list and early post‐transplant periods.

Methods

This study is a retrospective, single‐center analysis of all patients receiving apixaban while awaiting cardiac transplantation. Weight‐based dosing was monitored with peak drug‐specific anti‐Xa chromogenic analysis. Significant post‐operative bleeding defined by chest tube output or need for surgical intervention.

Results

From September 2020 to December 2022, 19 patients, median age 13.5 years (6.1, 15.8 years), weighing 48.9 kg (15.4, 67.6) received apixaban while awaiting transplant. Indication for apixaban was prophylaxis (n = 18, 3 with ventricular assist devices) and treatment of thrombus (n = 1). There were no clinically relevant non‐major or major bleeding, nor thrombotic events while awaiting transplant. The median time from last apixaban dose to arrival in the operating room was 23.2 h (15.6–33.8), with median random apixaban level of 37 ng/mL (28.3, 59), 6.3 h (4.8, 8.4) prior to arrival in the operating room. In this study, 32% of patients had significant post‐operative bleeding based on chest tube output post‐transplant or need for intervention. No patients meeting criteria for significant post‐operative bleeding were thought to be attributable to apixaban.

Conclusions

Careful use of apixaban can be safe and effective while awaiting heart transplant. There was no appreciable increase in peri‐operative bleeding. The use of apixaban is promising in providing safe, predictable and efficacious anticoagulation while avoiding additional patient stressors.
Reading literature in the Digital Age: Connecting students to texts orally and aurally
Authors: Costabile‐Heming Carol Anne , Halverson Rachel J.
Published: October 2023

Writers and literature enjoy a prominent position in the culture and society of the German‐speaking world. Today, German‐speaking authors actively cultivate an online presence through publishers’ websites, personal webpages, blogs, and online forums. In this way, the Internet has transformed the literary reading experience of yore into a four‐skill media extravaganza. This engenders unrivaled access to the aural, textual, and visual environment in which literary texts reside, a multisensory world in which our students thrive. This essay proposes that audio and video files can fill the gap between how students read and how literature typically has been taught. By analyzing recordings of authors reading their work, performing their work, and being interviewed about their work available in online databases, radio podcasts, and video segments, students learn to access literary texts aurally. This expanded context can revitalize literature for the contemporary language classroom. Following a theoretical introduction about reading in the Digital Age, we present strategies for implementation in sample lesson plans. Our approach exemplifies how combining authorial voices with texts elevates reading to a multimedia experience that increases both listening and reading comprehension.
Contextualizing DEIA in the German language classroom: Terminology and history, DDGC and recent developments, and practices and resources
Authors: Tarnawska Senel Magda
Published: October 2023

This paper takes a closer look at diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the context of German Studies and the language classroom in the United States. The first part of the article examines the terminology, provides a general history of DEI/DEIA in higher education in the United States, and traces the development of DEI practices and language to include accessibility, belonging, and anti‐racism. The second part of the article focuses on the scholarly collective Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum and its self‐reflective and self‐critical stance toward our field, solidarity efforts to create networks of tangible support and empowerment, and its foregrounding of activism. This leads to a discussion of the intersections between current political events and classroom practices. Finally, the last section details three DEIA practices in the classroom—positionality, social justice framework, and antiracism—as well as resources for their implementation. It also points to new promising developments, for example, new outcomes and assessments for the language and culture classroom and pedagogy of care.
A Comparison of Critical Speed and Critical Power in Runners Using Stryd Running Power
Authors: van Rassel Cody R. , Sales Kate M. , Ajayi Oluwatimilehin O. , Nagai Koki , MacInnis Martin J.
Published: October 2023

Purpose: Although running traditionally relies on critical speed (CS) as an indicator of critical intensity, portable inertial measurement units offer a potential solution for estimating running mechanical power to assess critical power (CP) in runners. The purpose of this study was to determine whether CS and CP differ when assessed using the Stryd device, a portable inertial measurement unit, and if 2 running bouts are sufficient to determine CS and CP. Methods: On an outdoor running track, 10 trained runners (, 59.0 [4.2] mL·kg−1·min−1) performed 3 running time trials (TT) between 1200 and 4400 m on separate days. CS and CP were derived from 2-parameter hyperbolic speed–time and power–time models, respectively, using 2 (CS2TT and CP2TT) and 3 (CS3TT and CP3TT) TTs. Subsequently, runners performed constant-intensity running for 800 m at their calculated CS3TT and CP3TT. Results: Running at the calculated CS3TT speed (3.88 [0.44] m·s−1) elicited an average Stryd running power (271 [28] W) not different from the calculated CP3TT (270 [28]; P = .940; d = 0.02), with excellent agreement between the 2 values (intraclass correlation coefficient = .980). The CS2TT (3.97 [0.42] m·s−1) was not higher than CS3TT (3.89 [0.44] m·s−1; P = .178; d = 0.46); however, CP2TT (278 [29] W) was greater than CP3TT (P = .041; d = 0.75). Conclusion: The running intensities at CS and CP were similar, supporting the use of running power (Stryd) as a metric of aerobic fitness and exercise prescription, and 2 trials provided a reasonable, albeit higher, estimate of CS and CP.
Group-based parent training programme for children with neurological conditions: a feasibility study
Authors: Parikh Nimmi , Faulkner Alexandra , Hadji-Michael Maria , Heyman Isobel , Murphy Tara , McAllister Eve
Published: October 2023

Objective and design

This study aimed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a parent training programme for parents of children with neurological conditions and behaviours that challenge.

Setting

Child and adolescent mental health service within a specialist children’s hospital.

Participants

Parents of 31 children with neurological conditions and behaviours that challenge.

Interventions

Parents attended a 6-week evidence-based behavioural parenting programme delivered in a group format, either face-to-face or remote.

Main outcome measures

Feasibility was determined by attendance rates. Effectiveness was analysed primarily using parent-reported measures of child behaviour (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Paediatric Quality of Life and Goal-Based Outcomes). Secondary measures of parental well-being were also reported (Brief Parental Self-Efficacy Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale Short Form and Parental Sense of Competence). Paired t-tests or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were conducted to analyse differences preintervention and postintervention.

Results

The attendance rates for the face-to-face and remote groups were 80% and 79%, respectively. Medium to large effect sizes were reported for most measures of child behaviour and parental well-being. There were statistically significant improvements found postintervention in children’s behaviour (p=0.014), quality of life (p<0.001), goal-based outcomes (p<0.001), parental self-efficacy (p<0.001) and parental anxiety (p=0.030). Anecdotal feedback showed that parents indicated the group format was acceptable.

Conclusions

The group parenting intervention for parents of children with heterogeneous neurological conditions and behaviours that challenge appears feasible and effective in improving child behaviour and parental well-being.
Physical performance and body composition reference values for modern US Marine Corps women
Authors: Potter Adam W , Looney David P , Tharion William J , Nindl Lyndsey J , Pazmino Angie , Soto Lara D , Arcidiacono Danielle M , Friedl Karl E
Published: October 2023

Women’s roles in the US military have progressively changed over the past several decades. Previously women were barred from combat roles. Recent change in policy allow women into combat roles in the Marine Corps, and this has led to women being trained for combat specialties.

Objectives

This observational cross-sectional study describes body composition and performance values for modern Marine Corps women.

Methods

Volunteers were 736 Marine women who were assessed for body composition and physical performance; (age 29.5±7.3 (18–56) years; height 163.6±6.8 (131.0–186.1) cm; body mass 68.3±9.2 (42.0–105.3) kg; years in the military 8.9±6.8 (0.5–37) years-in-service). Body composition measures were obtained using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and single-frequency bioelectrical impedance analyses. Performance measures were obtained from official physical and combat fitness test scores (PFT; CFT) as well as from data on measured countermovement jumps (CMJ) on a calibrated force platform.

Results

Mean body composition metrics for Marine women were: 47.5±5.7 fat free mass (FFM) (kg), 30.1%±6.4% body fat (%BF), 2.6±0.3 bone mineral content (kg), and 25.5±2.8 body mass index (kg/m2); performance metrics included 43.4±3.2 maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max; mL.kg.min), 22.4±7.1 CMJ height (cm) and 2575±565.2 CMJ peak power (W). Data showed strong correlations (r) (≥0.70) between PFT and VO2max scores (0.75), and moderate correlations (≥0.50) between CFT and VO2max scores (0.57), CFT and PFT scores (0.60), FFM and CMJ peak power (W) (0.68), and %BF to VO2max (−0.52), PFT (−0.54), CMJ-Ht (−0.52) and CMJ relative power (W/kg) (−0.54).

Conclusion

Modern Marine women are both lean and physically high performing. Body composition is a poor predictor of general physical performance.
Effects of pharmacist-led interventions on glycaemic control, adherence, disease management and health-related quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes: a protocol for a network meta-analysis
Authors: Weng Yiqing , Miao Binghui , Hong Dongsheng , Zhang Mengdie , Wang Beijia , Zhao Qingwei , Wang Hongmei
Published: October 2023

Introduction

The increase in the number of patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is in need of effective management interventions. However, research to date has been limited to the evaluation of the outcomes of community pharmacists alone. Therefore, the aim of the study protocol is to compare the effects of clinical pharmacist-led intervention strategies for the management of T2DM in the outpatient settings.

Method and analysis

The study will collect and analyse data applying standard Cochrane methodological procedures. A search for eligible studies and ongoing trials will be conducted using PubMed, Embase, Medline (via Ovid), EBSCO (via Ovid), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) Journals (via Ovid), ProQuest Health and Medical Complete, and ClinicalTrials.gov (clinicaltrials.gov) from database inception to December 2023. Clinical and health outcomes will be measured using both glycaemic control related indicators (eg, glycated haemoglobin, fasting blood glucose, postprandial glucose) and general indicators (eg, adherence, disease management and health-related quality of life). The meta-analysis will conduct pairwise meta-analysis using random effects models and network meta-analysis (NMA) employing the Bayesian hierarchical model. The visualisation and statistical analysis will be carried out using RevMan, R Studio and ADDIS. Additionally, we will evaluate the certainty of the evidence by using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system.

Ethics and dissemination

There will be no primary data collection from NMA participants, and there is no requirement for formal ethical review. Our aim is to present the results of this NMA in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, at conferences, and in the mainstream media.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42022355368.
Emotional intelligence, workplace conflict and job burn-out among critical care physicians: a mediation analysis with a cross-sectional study design in Egypt
Authors: Kasemy Zeinab A , Sharif Asmaa Fady , Bahgat Nadia M , Abdelsattar Shimaa , Abdel Latif Asmaa A
Published: October 2023

Objectives

This study aimed to examine the association between the effect of emotional intelligence on job burn-out and the mediating effect of workplace conflict management among critical care physicians.

Design and setting

A cross-sectional study design was deployed.

Participants

The studied sample comprised 144 critical care physicians working at two Egyptian tertiary care public hospitals.

Measures

The participants’ responses to three questionnaires were studied, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire and the Conflict Management Formative Questionnaire, in addition to assessing coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) levels.

Results

Among the anaesthesiologists and critical care specialists examined, burn-out was reported by 63.9% of them. The findings of this study indicated that emotional intelligence played a notable role in predicting job burn-out, with a negative impact. Further analysis revealed that workplace conflict management acted as a mediator between emotional intelligence and the three components of job burn-out. Additionally, age and years of experience were found to have a negative correlation with burn-out and a positive correlation with conflict management. Furthermore, CoQ10 levels showed a negative correlation with burn-out, while displaying positive correlations with emotional intelligence and conflict management.

Conclusion

Conflict management acted as a mediator in reducing burn-out by demonstrating a significant negative relationship between emotional intelligence and burn-out. Initial findings indicated that possessing good emotional intelligence and conflict management skills had a positive influence on the immune system, as evidenced by higher CoQ10 levels. However, burn-out had the opposite effect, depleting the body’s CoQ10 stores and negatively impacting immune-protective mechanisms. Therefore, it is crucial to implement emotional management educational programmes and update educational policies and pedagogical practices to enhance the emotional capabilities of healthcare providers, especially in demanding fields like critical care, to effectively address conflicts.
Determining call-to-entry rate and recruitment barriers in clinical studies for community clinics serving low-income populations: a cohort study
Authors: Vaughan Elizabeth M , Virani Salim , Al Rifai Mahmoud , Cardenas, Victor J , Johnston Craig A , Porterfield Laura , Santiago Delgado Zuleica , Samson Susan L , Schick Vanessa , Naik Aanand D
Published: October 2023

Background

Recruitment for clinical studies is challenging. To overcome barriers, investigators have previously established call-to-entry rates to assist in planning. However, rates specific to low-income minority populations are needed to account for additional barriers to enrolment these individuals face.

Objective

To obtain a call-to-entry rate in a low-income uninsured Hispanic population with chronic disease.

Methods

We used data from four of our randomised clinical studies to determine the call-to-entry rate for individuals (n=1075) with or at risk for type 2 diabetes: participants needed/potential participants contacted=recruitment rate (yield). Research staff contacted potential participants to enrol in a study that evaluated 6 month diabetes programmes at community clinics from 2015 to 2020. We recorded call-to-entry rates, reasons for declining the study, show rates, and attrition.

Results

The call-to-entry rate was 14.5%. Forty per cent of potential participants could not be contacted, and 30.6%, 19.1%, and 5.4% respondedyes,no, andmaybe, respectively. No show percentages were 54% foryesand 91.4% formayberesponders. The majority (61.6%) declined due to inability to attend; reasons to decline included work (43%), eligibility (18%), transportation (10%), out of town (9%), did not think they needed the programme (7%) and other/unknown (14%). Being a physician predicted inability to reach participants (adjusted OR 2.91, 95% CI 1.73 to 4.90). Attrition was 6.8%.

Conclusions

We described a call-to-entry rate and detailed recruitment data, including reasons to decline the study. This valuable information can assist investigators in study planning and overcoming enrolment barriers in low-income populations. Telehealth-based or strategies that limit transportation needs may increase participant involvement.

Trial registration number

NCT03394456.
Clinical and imaging outcomes of 100 patients with cerebrospinal fluid-venous fistulas treated by transvenous embolization
Authors: Brinjikji Waleed , Madhavan Ajay , Garza Ivan , Whealy Mark , Kissoon Narayan , Mark Ian , Morris Pearse P , Verdoorn Jared , Benson John C , Atkinson John L D , Kobeissi Hassan , Cutsforth-Gregory Jeremy K
Published: October 2023

Background

Cerebrospinal fluid-venous fistulas (CSFVF) are a common cause of spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH). Transvenous embolization has emerged as a reliable treatment option. We review the clinical presentation, imaging, and clinical outcomes of 100 consecutive CSFVF patients who underwent embolization over 2 years.

Methods

Baseline clinical characteristics, imaging findings (including Bern SIH score), technical outcomes, and long-term imaging and clinical outcomes were collected. All patients had at least 3 months of clinical follow-up and had baseline MRI. 99/100 patients underwent follow-up imaging at ≥3 months post-treatment.

Results

100 patients were included. Mean imaging and clinical follow-up duration was 8.3±7.7 months and 15.0±6.8 months, respectively. The mean duration of symptoms before embolization was 40.9±52 months. Mean baseline Bern SIH score was 5.9±3.3. The most common baseline symptoms were headache (96 patients), tinnitus (55 patients), and cognitive dysfunction (44 patients). Technical success rate was 100%. Mean post-treatment Bern SIH score was 0.9±1.6 (P<0.0001). Following treatment, 95% of patients reported significant improvement or resolution in symptoms (58 patients reporting resolution and 37 reporting improvement). 5 patients reported no improvement. There were no major procedural or periprocedural complications. 10 patients had minor procedural complications that did not result in any change in management (Onyx emboli, venous perforation). 19 patients had rebound intracranial hypertension requiring acetazolamide therapy. 7 patients had recurrent fistula at the initially treated level.

Conclusions

Transvenous embolization of CSFVF in SIH patients is safe and effective with a 95% treatment response, significant improvement in imaging outcomes, and a very low rate of complications.
Including the term ‘tobacco-free nicotine’ in the nicotine addiction warning label mandated by the US Food and Drug Administration alters risk perceptions and use intentions
Authors: Morean Meghan Elizabeth , Gueorguieva Ralitza , O'Malley Stephanie , Krishnan-Sarin Suchitra
Published: October 2023

Background

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a warning label on nicotine e-cigarettes and pouches: ‘This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical’. Some brands marketing synthetic nicotine products have modified the warning (‘This product contains tobacco-free nicotine (TFN)…’). The public health impact of altering the warning is unknown, so we examined its impact on risk perceptions and use intentions.

Methods

1000 participants completed an anonymous online survey. Participants viewed the black-and-white FDA and TFN-modified warning labels in isolation, in a randomised order and reported on perceived addictiveness and, secondarily, use intentions. Participants then selected which label conveyed the most harm overall. Generalised estimating equations (GEEs) were used to evaluate the impact of label type and participant characteristics on perceived addictiveness and, secondarily, use intentions. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate relationships between participant characteristics and choosing which label conveyed the most harm.

Results

Overall, the TFN-modified label was associated with lower addictiveness ratings but not increased use intentions. Where significant interactions between label type and participant characteristics emerged, TFN-modified labelling was associated with disproportionately reduced risk perceptions or increased use intentions among vulnerable populations (eg, underage individuals, racially minoritised groups). 25.5% of participants selected the TFN-modified label as conveying the most harm, with younger individuals (<21 years) significantly less likely to choose the TFN-modified label.

Conclusions

Modifying the FDA-mandated nicotine warning label to include ‘tobacco-free nicotine’ may negatively impact public health, so the FDA should enforce inclusion of its original required warning label.
Spatio-temporal Dual Graph Neural Networks for Travel Time Estimation
Authors: Jin Guangyin , Yan Huan , Li Fuxian , Huang Jincai , Li Yong
Published: October 2023

Travel time estimation is one of the core tasks for the development of intelligent transportation systems. Most previous works model the road segments or intersections separately by learning their spatio-temporal characteristics to estimate travel time. However, due to the continuous alternations of the road segments and intersections in a path, the dynamic features are supposed to be coupled and interactive. Therefore, modeling one of them limits further improvement in accuracy of estimating travel time. To address the above problems, a novel graph-based deep learning framework for travel time estimation is proposed in this article, namely, Spatio-temporal Dual Graph Neural Networks (STDGNN). Specifically, we first establish the node-wise and edge-wise graphs to, respectively, characterize the adjacency relations of intersections and that of road segments. To extract the joint spatio-temporal correlations of the intersections and road segments, we adopt the spatio-temporal dual graph learning approach that incorporates multiple spatial-temporal dual graph learning modules with multi-scale network architectures for capturing multi-level spatial-temporal information from the dual graph. Finally, we employ the multi-task learning approach to estimate the travel time of a given whole route, each road segment and intersection simultaneously. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate our proposed model on three real-world trajectory datasets, and the experimental results show that STDGNN significantly outperforms several state-of-art baselines.
Helping or Hindering: Inclusive Design of Automated Task Prompting for Workers with Cognitive Disabilities
Authors: Philips Gavin R. , Huang Morris , Bodine Cathy
Published: October 2023

Of the ∼8.8 million working-age adults with cognitive disabilities in the United States, only 28.6% are employed, contributing to a poverty rate (26.1%) for people with cognitive disabilities (PwCDs) that is more than twice that for people without disabilities. PwCDs who are employed are often still marginalized via reduced hours and pay, largely due to their more limited capability to perform work efficiently and independently. As evidence, warehouse and shelf stocking jobs that serve as employment for a significant percentage of PwCDs, often require frequent intervention from a job coach in the workplace, impacting the pay and self-esteem of these workers. This study's objective was to remove barriers to employment for PwCD through inclusive design of technology supports in warehouse and similar settings. Specifically, a nonlinear context-aware prompting system (NCAPS) was developed, iteratively refined, and tested. In a pilot crossover study, subjects with cognitive disabilities participated in simulated work sessions, picking orders in a small warehouse environment using the NCAPS and industry standard paper tickets. Their performance was assessed in terms of errors and productivity, and their insights and perspectives were gathered. The resulting NCAPS prevented or corrected all errors for all but one participant. It also increased productivity for participants with the poorest baseline (paper ticket) performance, but decreased productivity for those with high baseline performance. No significant difference was observed in system usability scale (SUS) scores between methods. Topics emerging from user input highlighted the need for technological supports for PwCD to be simple and flexible in operation, and reliable to maintain user trust. By prioritizing robustness and intuitiveness, flexible technology supports can be developed to empower workers with a broad range of abilities, including those with temporary and situational impairments. Such tools would reduce barriers to employment, including stigma, discrimination, and other barriers to equity.
A Systematic Analysis of Problems in Open Collaborative Data Engineering
Authors: Heltweg Philip , Riehle Dirk
Published: October 2023

Collaborative workflows are common in open-source software development. They reduce individual costs and improve the quality of work results. Open data shares many characteristics with open-source software, as it can be used, modified, and redistributed by anyone, for free. However, in contrast to open-source software engineering, collaborative data engineering on open data lacks a shared understanding of processes, methods, and tools.

This article presents a systematic literature review of collaboration processes, methods, and tools in data engineering as performed by open data users. An additional interview study with practitioners confirms and enhances the findings and strengthens the resulting insights.

We find an ecosystem with heterogeneous participants and no standardized processes, methods, and tools. Participants face a variety of technical and social challenges during their work. Our work provides a structured overview of collaboration systems in open collaborative data engineering, enabling further research. Additionally, we contribute preliminary guidelines for successful open collaborative data engineering projects and recommendations to increase its adoption for open data ecosystems.
Exploring the Landscape of Recommender Systems Evaluation: Practices and Perspectives
Authors: Bauer Christine , Zangerle Eva , Said Alan
Published: October 2023

Recommender systems research and practice are fast-developing topics with growing adoption in a wide variety of information access scenarios. In this article, we present an overview of research specifically focused on the evaluation of recommender systems. We perform a systematic literature review, in which we analyze 57 papers spanning six years (2017–2022). Focusing on the processes surrounding evaluation, we dial in on the methods applied, the datasets utilized, and the metrics used. Our study shows that the predominant experiment type in research on the evaluation of recommender systems is offline experimentation and that online evaluations are primarily used in combination with other experimentation methods, e.g., an offline experiment. Furthermore, we find that only a few datasets (MovieLens, Amazon review dataset) are widely used, while many datasets are used in only a few papers each. We observe a similar scenario when analyzing the employed performance metrics—a few metrics are widely used (precision, normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain, and Recall), while many others are used in only a few papers. Overall, our review indicates that beyond-accuracy qualities are rarely assessed. Our analysis shows that the research community working on evaluation has focused on the development of evaluation in a rather narrow scope, with the majority of experiments focusing on a few metrics, datasets, and methods.
Mountain Gazelle Optimizer with Deep Learning Driven Satirical News Classification on Low-resource Language Corpus
Authors: Al-Onazi Badriyya B. , Alotaibi Faiz , Hassan Abdulkhaleq Q A , Panigrahi Bhawani Sankar , Kartheeban K. , Sheikh Tariq Hussain , Vyas Sonali , De Albuquerque Victor Hugo C.
Published: October 2023

The development of satirical and fake news on digital platforms has source of major concern about the spread of misinformation and its control on society. As part of the Arabic language, fake news detection (FND) shows particular problems because of language difficulties and the scarcity of labeled data. FND on Arabic corpus utilizing deep learning (DL) contains leveraging advanced neural network (NN) techniques and methods to automatically recognize and classify deceptive data in the Arabic language text. This procedure is vital in combating the spread of disinformation and misinformation, promoting media literacy, and make sure the credibility of data sources for the Arabic-speaking community. Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are common selections for FND because of their capability for learning hierarchical features and model sequential data from the text. In this view, this study develops a Mountain Gazelle Optimizer with Deep Learning-Driven Fake News Classification on Arabic Corpus (MGODL-FNCAC) technique. The presented MGODL-FNCAC approach aims to increase the performance of the fake news classification on the Arabic corpus. Primarily, the MGODL-FNCAC technique involves different stages of pre-processing to make the input data compatible for classification. For fake news detection, the MGODL-FNCAC technique applies the deep belief network (DBN) model. At last, the MGO approach can be used for the better hyperparameter tuning of the DBN approach, which supports in enhancing the overall training process and detection rate. The simulation outcomes of the MGODL-FNCAC technique can be examined on Arabic corpus data. The extensive outcomes exhibit the importance of the MGODL-FNCAC system over other methodologies with maximum accuracy of 97.68% and 95.14% on Covid19Fakes and Satirical dataset, respectively.
Intrinsic Image Decomposition via Ordinal Shading
Authors: Careaga Chris , Aksoy Yağız
Published: October 2023

Intrinsic decomposition is a fundamental mid-level vision problem that plays a crucial role in various inverse rendering and computational photography pipelines. Generating highly accurate intrinsic decompositions is an inherently under-constrained task that requires precisely estimating continuous-valued shading and albedo. In this work, we achieve high-resolution intrinsic decomposition by breaking the problem into two parts. First, we present a dense ordinal shading formulation using a shift- and scale-invariant loss in order to estimate ordinal shading cues without restricting the predictions to obey the intrinsic model. We then combine low- and high-resolution ordinal estimations using a second network to generate a shading estimate with both global coherency and local details. We encourage the model to learn an accurate decomposition by computing losses on the estimated shading as well as the albedo implied by the intrinsic model. We develop a straightforward method for generating dense pseudo ground truth using our model’s predictions and multi-illumination data, enabling generalization to in-the-wild imagery. We present exhaustive qualitative and quantitative analysis of our predicted intrinsic components against state-of-the-art methods. Finally, we demonstrate the real-world applicability of our estimations by performing otherwise difficult editing tasks such as recoloring and relighting.
Vocoder Detection of Spoofing Speech Based on GAN Fingerprints and Domain Generalization
Authors: Li Fan , Chen Yanxiang , Liu Haiyang , Zhao Zuxing , Yao Yuanzhi , Liao Xin
Published: October 2023

As an important part of the text-to-speech (TTS) system, vocoders convert acoustic features into speech waveforms. The difference in vocoders is key to producing different types of forged speech in the TTS system. With the rapid development of general adversarial networks (GANs), an increasing number of GAN vocoders have been proposed. Detectors often encounter vocoders of unknown types, which leads to a decline in the generalization performance of models. However, existing studies lack research on detection generalization based on GAN vocoders. To solve this problem, this study proposes vocoder detection of spoofed speech based on GAN fingerprints and domain generalization. The framework can widen the distance between real speech and forged speech in feature space, improving the detection model’s performance. Specifically, we utilize a fingerprint extractor based on an autoencoder to extract GAN fingerprints from vocoders. We then weight them to the forged speech for subsequent classification to learn the forged speech features with high differentiation. Subsequently, domain generalization is used to further improve the generalization ability of the model for unseen forgery types. We achieve domain generalization using domain-adversarial learning and asymmetric triplet loss to learn a better generalized feature space in which real speech is compact and forged speech synthesized by different vocoders is dispersed. Finally, to optimize the training process, curriculum learning is used to dynamically adjust the contributions of the samples with different difficulties in the training process. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves the most advanced detection results among four GAN vocoders. The code is available at
https://github.com/multimedia-infomation-security/GAN-Vocoder-detection
.
Sniffer Faster R-CNN ++: An Efficient Camera-LiDAR Object Detector with Proposal Refinement on Fused Candidates
Authors: Dhakal Sudip , Carrillo Dominic , Qu Deyuan , Yang Qing , Fu Song
Published: October 2023

In this article, we present Sniffer Faster R-CNN++, an efficient camera-LiDAR late fusion network for low complexity and accurate object detection in autonomous driving scenarios. The proposed detection network architecture operates on output candidates of any three-dimensional (3D) detector and proposals from regional proposal network of any 2D detector to generate final prediction results. In comparison to the single modality object detection approaches, fusion-based methods in many instances suffer from dissimilar data integration difficulties. On the one hand, fusion-based network models are complicated in nature and, on the other hand, they require large computational overhead and resources, processing pipelines for training and inference specially, the early fusion and deep fusion approaches. As such, we devise a late fusion network that in-cooperates pre-trained, single-modality detectors without change, performing association only at the detection level. In addition to this, lidar-based method fail to detect distant object due to its sparse nature so we devise proposal refinement algorithm to jointly optimize detection candidates and assist detection for distant objects. Extensive experiments on both the 3D and 2D detection benchmark of challenging KITTI dataset illustrate that our proposed network architecture significantly improves the detection accuracy, accelerating the detection speed.
Daily Load-Follow Operation in LEU+-Loaded APR1400 Using Mode-K+ Control Logic
Authors: Khalefih Husam , Jeong Yunseok , Kim Yonghee
Published: October 2023

This study evaluates the efficacy of the mode-K+ control logic for daily load-follow operation (DLFO) in a two-batch LEU+ fuel-loaded APR1400 reactor with an accident tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding. The objective is to assess the performance of the control strategy under various operational conditions including high burnup. The simulation results showcase a robust control for both reactor power and the ASI of the equilibrium core by utilizing a manganese absorber for the partial strength control element assembly (PSCEA) instead of the weak Inconel absorber in the standard design, particularly under high burnup conditions. The simulation employs a two-step method, where cross sections are generated using the SERPENT2 Monte Carlo code, and the whole core 3D simulation is conducted using the KANT in-house diffusion code. The results demonstrate successful power and ASI control within the desired limits throughout the whole operational period.
Nanoemulsion: An Emerging Novel Technology for Improving the Bioavailability of Drugs
Authors: Preeti  , Sambhakar Sharda , Malik Rohit , Bhatia Saurabh , Al Harrasi Ahmed , Rani Chanchal , Saharan Renu , Kumar Suresh , Geeta  , Sehrawat Renu
Published: October 2023

The pharmaceutical sector has made considerable strides recently, emphasizing improving drug delivery methods to increase the bioavailability of various drugs. When used as a medication delivery method, nanoemulsions have multiple benefits. Their small droplet size, which is generally between 20 and 200 nanometers, creates a significant interfacial area for drug dissolution, improving the solubility and bioavailability of drugs that are weakly water-soluble. Additionally, nanoemulsions are a flexible platform for drug administration across various therapeutic areas since they can encapsulate hydrophilic and hydrophobic medicines. Nanoemulsion can be formulated in multiple dosage forms, for example, gels, creams, foams, aerosols, and sprays by using low-cost standard operative processes and also be taken orally, topically, topically, intravenously, intrapulmonary, intranasally, and intraocularly. The article explores nanoemulsion formulation and production methods, emphasizing the role of surfactants and cosurfactants in creating stable formulations. In order to customize nanoemulsions to particular medication delivery requirements, the choice of components and production techniques is crucial in assuring the stability and efficacy of the finished product. Nanoemulsions are a cutting-edge technology with a lot of potential for improving medication bioavailability in a variety of therapeutic contexts. They are a useful tool in the creation of innovative pharmaceutical formulations due to their capacity to enhance drug solubility, stability, and delivery. Nanoemulsions are positioned to play a crucial role in boosting medication delivery and enhancing patient outcomes as this field of study continues to advance.
Double Trouble: A Case of Gallstone Ileus as a Result of Multiple Obstructive Gallstones
Authors: Kularatna Malsha , Falconer Fransiska
Published: October 2023

Gallstone ileus is a rare condition. It accounts for approximately 1% of small bowel obstruction and is more prevalent in the elderly population. It is usually present in relatively comorbid patients posing further operative challenges. The following report investigates the management of two large gallstones resulting in two different points of obstruction. Is double trouble doubly hard to manage?
Hemodynamic Response in Ascending Aorta Surgery Patients during Moderate Intensity Resistance Training
Authors: Gottlieb Rikke , Arnskov Kasper , Henriksen Marius , Prescott Eva , Rasmusen Hanne , Dall Christian Have
Published: October 2023

Background. In patients undergoing ascending aortic surgery (AAS), postsurgical physical exercise with a safe and effective exercise prescription is recommended. Resistance training is associated with blood pressure (BP) elevations that may increase the risk of new aortic dissection or rupture. However, the acute hemodynamic response to resistance training for this patient group is unknown. Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate peak systolic BP (SBP) increases in AAS patients during moderate intensity resistance training. Methods. SBP was measured continuously beat-to-beat with a noninvasive method during three sets of leg presses at moderate intensity. A 15-repetition maximum strength test was performed to estimate the maximal amount of resistance a participant could manage 15 times consecutively (equivalent to approximately 60–65% of their maximum strength). Results. The study had 48 participants in total, i.e., 24 cases and 24 controls. Both groups consisted of 10 females (42%) and 14 males (58%). The case group had a mean age of 60.0 (SD ± 11.9) years and a mean of 16.3 months since surgery (minimum 4.4 and maximum 39.6 months). 22 of the 24 cases received antihypertensive medication. The median baseline BP was 119/74 mmHg among cases and 120/73 mmHg among controls. During the first set of leg presses, the median peak SBP was 152 mmHg, in the second set 154 mmHg, and in the third set 165 mmHg. Corresponding values in controls were 170 mmHg, 181 mmHg, and 179 mmHg. The highest peak SBP registered in an AAS patient was 190 mmHg and in any healthy control was 287 mmHg. Conclusion. The findings indicate that AAS patients in control of their BP have the endurance to perform 3 sets of resistance training at moderate intensity as their SBP increases with a maximum of 39% from the baseline compared to the 51% increase in the control group.
Evaluating the Utility of a New Pathogenicity Predictor for Pediatric Cardiomyopathy
Authors: Rippert Alyssa L. , Trackman Sarah , Burstein Danielle , Gaynor J. William , Griffis Heather , Seymour Christine , Ahrens-Nicklas Rebecca
Published: October 2023

Pediatric cardiomyopathy (CM) has significant childhood morbidity and mortality which is caused by both genetic and environmental factors. Previous research has focused on identifying genetic variants in pediatric CM for diagnostic purposes, but not for risk stratification. The current study was modeled after previous work which showed an association between CardioBoost-classified disease-causing variants and an increased risk for severe clinical outcomes in adults with CM to assess if the same association is true in pediatric CM. This was a retrospective, single-center cohort study that evaluated outcomes in pediatric CM patients who were evaluated by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). CardioBoost (CB) scores were generated for these patients, and scores were categorized as ≤0.1, 0.1-0.9, and ≥0.9. Composite endpoint was freedom from a major adverse cardiac event (MACE). 104 patients were included in the final analysis. 32 (31%) had DCM, 45 (43%) had HCM, and 27 (26%) had other CM. There was no significant association between CB score and clinical outcome in pediatric CM patients. Overall, this study highlights the continued deficits in variant interpretation for pediatric CM. We recommend using caution when applying this tool to stratify clinical outcomes in the pediatric population.
METTL16 Inhibits the Malignant Progression of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer through the lncRNA MALAT1/β‐Catenin Axis
Authors: Li Changshu , Liu Ji , Lyu Yuanyuan , Ling Shizhang , Luo Yonghong
Published: October 2023

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) ranks third in the incidence of gynecological malignancies. m6A methylation as RNA modification plays a crucial role in the evolution, migration, and invasion of various tumors. However, the role of m6A methylation in ovarian cancer (OC) only recently has begun to be appreciated. Therefore, we used various bioinformatic methods to screen the public GEO datasets of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) for m6A methylation‐related regulators. We identified methyltransferase 16 (METTL16) that was dramatically downregulated in EOC as such a regulator. We also identified metastasis‐associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), a known target lncRNA of METTL16, in these five GEO datasets. RT‐qPCR and immunohistochemical staining confirmed that compared with the normal ovarian tissues and cells, METTL16 was significantly downregulated, while lncRNA MALAT1 was significantly upregulated, in 30 EOC tissues of our own validation cohorts and EOC cell lines, revealing a negative correlation between METTL16 and lncRNA MALAT1. Moreover, our analysis unveiled a correlation between downregulated METTL16 and the known adverse prognostic factors of EOC patients in our own cohorts. The CCK‐8, EdU, scratch wound healing, and transwell invasion assays revealed that METTL16 significantly suppressed the proliferating, migrating, and invading abilities of OC cells. The inhibitory effects of METTL16 on the in vivo tumor growth of EOC cells were measured by subcutaneous tumor formation assay in mice. Furthermore, the RIP, RNA stability assay, western blotting, and cytoimmunofluorescence staining showed that METTL16 hindered the growth of EOC cells through promoting the degradation of MALAT1 by binding that, in turn, upregulates β‐catenin protein and promotes nuclear transport of β‐catenin protein in EOC cells. This study suggests that METTL16 acts as a tumor suppressor gene of EOC by achieving its inhibitory function on the malignant progression of EOC through the METTL16/MALAT1/β‐catenin axis that are new targets for EOC diagnosis and therapy.
Financing Municipal Water and Sanitation Services in Nairobi's Informal Settlements
Authors: Coville Aidan , Galiani Sebastian , Gertler Paul , Yoshida Susumu
Published: October 2023

We test two ways to improve revenue collection efficiency for water and sanitation utilities: (i) face-to-face engagement between utility staff and customers and (ii) contract enforcement for service disconnection due to nonpayment in the form of transparent and credible disconnection notices. Engagement has no effect, while enforcement significantly increases payment. We find no effect on access to water, perceptions of the utility, relationships between tenants and property owners, or on tenant mental well-being nine months after the intervention. These results suggest that transparent contract enforcement was effective at improving revenue collection efficiency without incurring significant observed social or political costs.
Migrants, Trade and Market Access
Authors: Bonadio Barthélémy
Published: October 2023

Migrants shape market access: they reduce international trade frictions and they affect the geographical location of demand. This paper incorporates both effects in a model of inter- and intra-national trade and migration calibrated to US states. It estimates the elasticity of exports and imports to migrants and shows that reducing US migrant population shares to 1980s levels would increase import (export) trade costs by 7% (2.5%) and decrease US natives' real wages by more than 2%. States with higher exposure to migrant consumer demand than to migrant labor competition would suffer more, as would states with higher export and import exposure.
International Technology Licensing, Intellectual Property Rights, and Tax Havens
Authors: Santacreu Ana Maria
Published: October 2023

This paper investigates the determinants of international technology licensing using data for 50 countries during 1996-2012. A multi-country model of innovation yields a dynamic structural gravity equation for royalty payments as a function of fundamentals, including imperfect intellectual property protection and differences in corporate taxation. The gravity equation is estimated with nonlinear methods. Model's fundamentals account for about 60% of the variation in royalty payments. A quantitative analysis sheds light on the impact of global taxation reforms on international technology licensing and innovation. The findings highlight the role of taxation in shaping cross-border technology flows and the consequences of profit-shifting.