bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pharmacometrics-Based Considerations for the Design of a Pharmacogenomic Clinical Trial Assessing Irinotecan Safety
Authors: Minichmayr Iris K. , Karlsson Mats O. , Jönsson Siv
Published: March 2021

Purpose

Pharmacometric models provide useful tools to aid the rational design of clinical trials. This study evaluates study design-, drug-, and patient-related features as well as analysis methods for their influence on the power to demonstrate a benefit of pharmacogenomics (PGx)-based dosing regarding myelotoxicity.

Methods

Two pharmacokinetic and one myelosuppression model were assembled to predict concentrations of irinotecan and its metabolite SN-38 given different UGT1A1 genotypes (poor metabolizers: CLSN-38: -36%) and neutropenia following conventional versus PGx-based dosing (350 versus 245 mg/m2 (-30%)). Study power was assessed given diverse scenarios (n = 50–400 patients/arm, parallel/crossover, varying magnitude of CLSN-38, exposure-response relationship, inter-individual variability) and using model-based data analysis versus conventional statistical testing.

Results

The magnitude of CLSN-38 reduction in poor metabolizers and the myelosuppressive potency of SN-38 markedly influenced the power to show a difference in grade 4 neutropenia (<0.5·109 cells/L) after PGx-based versus standard dosing. To achieve >80% power with traditional statistical analysis (χ2/McNemar’s test, α = 0.05), 220/100 patients per treatment arm/sequence (parallel/crossover study) were required. The model-based analysis resulted in considerably smaller total sample sizes (n = 100/15 given parallel/crossover design) to obtain the same statistical power.

Conclusions

The presented findings may help to avoid unfeasible trials and to rationalize the design of pharmacogenetic studies.
A Semi-Automatic Method to Measure the Rotation of Sunspots
Authors: Brown Daniel , Walker Andrew
Published: March 2021

Sunspots have been observed to undergo rotation about their umbral centre. This is typically a slow rotation, with even the fastest sunspot rotations only reaching angular velocities of a few degrees per hour. This rotation may inject magnetic energy into the Sun’s atmosphere, which can be stored in the coronal magnetic field and later released in eruptive events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. To usefully investigate rotating sunspots long periods of data need to be analysed, often of the order of several days, to build up a bulk rotation profile for the sunspot over time. This article outlines a semi-automated approach for analysing series of solar continuum data to extract the rotation profile of a sunspot as it transits across the solar disc. Moving towards an automated approach is vital for generating large, unbiased statistical samples of rotating sunspots in order to understand their contribution to solar activity. Existing methods typically focus on sunspots near disc centre for short time periods, neglecting much of the rotation history of the sunspot. The method is tested on six sunspots observed in continuum data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). These have been chosen to test the method for a range of different types of sunspots, including well-behaved sunspots, shape-changing sunspots, fast rotators, non-rotators, and interacting sunspots. The rotation profiles are compared by eye to animations of the sunspot from the data and are in acceptable visual agreement with the observed bulk rotation of the sunspot for all of the cases, except for the one which contains two sunspots in a shared penumbra. The method is also tested against sunspot rotations in active region (AR) 11158 that have been reported in the literature. While the results compare to some degree, the method outlined in this article reports lower rotations than those reported in the literature. Some of this discrepancy can be attributed to selection bias by the approaches in the literature, where only features that undergo larger rotation are tracked in sunspots that exhibit non-uniform rotation. The method also provides uncertainties on the calculated rotation profile which can be broken down to allow the principal sources of error to be identified. For the test sunspots in this article, the dominant source of uncertainty is the resolution of the SDO/HMI instrument.
Using the electron spin resonance to detect the functional centers in materials for sensor devices
Authors: D’Arienzo Massimiliano , Morazzoni Franca , Ruffo Riccardo , Scotti Roberto
Published: March 2021

The paper reports and comments the results of several electron spin resonance investigations, performed on semiconductor oxides for gas sensing. The main aspects, related to the comparison between spectroscopic and electric data, are concerning on (i) the role of the oxide defects in interacting with the gas atmosphere; (ii) the origin of the sensing enhancement, which follows the doping of the oxide by transition metal ions; and (iii) the effects of different particle morphology and of the controlled particle shape on the sensing functionality. The electron spin resonance results have been associated, when possible, to those deriving from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, in order to investigate the electronic configuration of the transition metal centers. Special emphasis has been deserved to the oxide synthesis procedures, in several cases well related to the electrical response. The data have been drawn from several studies, performed in different time periods, and have been compared to suggest a possible common interpretation of the sensing mechanism, based on either electronic or morphological properties.
Evaluating the Pharmacoeconomic Impact of Nutrient Supplementation Post-operatively on Patients Receiving Roux-Y Gastric Bypass vs. Biliopancreatic Diversion with Duodenal Switch
Authors: van Vollenstee Fiona A. , van der Merwe Maria T.
Published: March 2021

Background

Without the needed medical support, bariatric surgery can be associated with post-operative malnutrition and associated nutrient deficiencies. We aimed to evaluate the cost difference of perioperative infusion requirements and TPN between GBP and BPD-DS.

Methods

All patients undergoing GBP or BPD-DS procedures between August 2015 and June 2018 were included. Information was collected to standardize the nutritional information into two categories: (1) oral supplementation and standard intravenous infusions, as predicted costs forming part of preoperative quote and (2) infusions prescribed for malnutrition, based on blood biochemistry, caterized as unexpected costs.

Results

A total of 573 patients over 3 years (GBP 60%, BPD-DS 40%) were included in the analysis. The average predicted costs from oral supplementation for both surgery groups and prophylactic infusions for BPD-DS were GBP (46.90USD) vs. BPD-DS (154.13 USD) (p-value = NS). Unexpected costs for infusions to correct nutritional deficiencies were GBP (199.14 USD) vs. BPD-DS (127.29 USD) (p-value = NS). TPN incidence rate was GBP (2.1%) and BPD-DS (12.7%) (p-value < 0.001) and admission rate per patient was GBP (0.9) and BPD-DS (0.63) (p-value < 0.05). Costs for acquiring TPN were GBP (153.58 USD) vs. BPD-DS (268.76 USD). Total unexpected costs were GBP (352.72 USD) vs. BPD-DS (396.05 USD) (p-value = NS).

Conclusion

Nutrient deficiencies are known to occur within both GBP and BPD-DS surgeries, even up to 3 years. The admission rate/patient, requiring TPN, was higher in the GBP group, indicating that BPD-DS surgery can be efficient and cost-effective with holistic and multitherapeutic post-surgery care. BPD-DS procedures should be reserved for centers with a comprehensive and experienced multidisciplinary team enforcing stringent follow-up regimes.
Mathematical optimization in classification and regression trees
Authors: Carrizosa Emilio , Molero-Río Cristina , Romero Morales Dolores
Published: March 2021

Classification and regression trees, as well as their variants, are off-the-shelf methods in Machine Learning. In this paper, we review recent contributions within the Continuous Optimization and the Mixed-Integer Linear Optimization paradigms to develop novel formulations in this research area. We compare those in terms of the nature of the decision variables and the constraints required, as well as the optimization algorithms proposed. We illustrate how these powerful formulations enhance the flexibility of tree models, being better suited to incorporate desirable properties such as cost-sensitivity, explainability, and fairness, and to deal with complex data, such as functional data.
Grant Review Feedback: Appropriateness and Usefulness
Authors: Gallo Stephen A. , Schmaling Karen B. , Thompson Lisa A. , Glisson Scott R.
Published: March 2021

The primary goal of the peer review of research grant proposals is to evaluate their quality for the funding agency. An important secondary goal is to provide constructive feedback to applicants for their resubmissions. However, little is known about whether review feedback achieves this goal. In this paper, we present a multi-methods analysis of responses from grant applicants regarding their perceptions of the effectiveness and appropriateness of peer review feedback they received from grant submissions. Overall, 56–60% of applicants determined the feedback to be appropriate (fair, well-written, and well-informed), although their judgments were more favorable if their recent application was funded. Importantly, independent of funding success, women found the feedback better written than men, and more white applicants found the feedback to be fair than non-white applicants. Also, perceptions of a variety of biases were specifically reported in respondents’ feedback. Less than 40% of applicants found the feedback to be very useful in informing their research and improving grantsmanship and future submissions. Further, negative perceptions of the appropriateness of review feedback were positively correlated with more negative perceptions of feedback usefulness. Importantly, respondents suggested that highly competitive funding pay-lines and poor inter-panel reliability limited the usefulness of review feedback. Overall, these results suggest that more effort is needed to ensure that appropriate and useful feedback is provided to all applicants, bolstering the equity of the review process and likely improving the quality of resubmitted proposals.
An appraisal of geohydrological status and assessment of groundwater quality of Indpur Block, Bankura District, West Bengal, India
Authors: Palmajumder Moumita , Chaudhuri Susanta , Das Vikas K. , Nag Sisir K.
Published: March 2021

The present work aimed to evaluate the overall hydro-geological status of Indpur block, Bankura district, West Bengal, India. Despite of having adequate annual precipitation, south-western districts of the state of West Bengal, India, are considered to be a significantly water-stressed area of the state. This is because of unfavorable geological setting near to subsurface occurrence of impervious lithology and inundated nature of surface drainage pattern. The study was carried out both in pre- and post-monsoon seasons of 2019 to obtain an updated current status on concentration and spatiotemporal fluctuations of controlling ions of the subsurface water. Estimation of major physicochemical parameters and specific qualitative chemical characterization of groundwater were rated through field and laboratory studies. Water samples were collected from twenty-two equidistantly scattered tube wells in the block. Seasonal variations of water table elevation heads and subsurface shift of predominant recharge zones of the block were also demarked. Drinking, domestic and irrigation suitability of the block water were measured by the estimation of parameters such as Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Magnesium Adsorption Ratio (MAR), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Permeability Index (PI), Total Hardness (TH) and Kelly’s ratio (KR) and piper trilinear plots. Sustainable non-availability of groundwater seems to be the major problem of the studied area, which intern resulted in overexploitation, mostly for cultivation practices causing considerable depletion of its suitability as drinking and irrigation. Further, results show that suitability of the water both for domestic and irrigation of the studied area may be termed as ‘good’ to ‘moderate’ with a few exceptions on a local scale. Judging by every parameter, it can be stated that groundwater of Indpur block is not much suitable for drinking purposes.
LIMES: A Framework for Link Discovery on the Semantic Web
Authors: Ngonga Ngomo Axel-Cyrille , Sherif Mohamed Ahmed , Georgala Kleanthi , Hassan Mofeed Mohamed , Dreßler Kevin , Lyko Klaus , Obraczka Daniel , Soru Tommaso
Published: March 2021

The Linked Data paradigm builds upon the backbone of distributed knowledge bases connected by typed links. The mere volume of current knowledge bases as well as their sheer number pose two major challenges when aiming to support the computation of links across and within them. The first is that tools for link discovery have to be time-efficient when they compute links. Secondly, these tools have to produce links of high quality to serve the applications built upon Linked Data well. Solutions to the second problem build upon efficient computational approaches developed to solve the first and combine these with dedicated machine learning techniques. The current version of theLimesframework is the product of seven years of research on these two challenges. A series of machine learning techniques and efficient computation approaches were developed and integrated into this framework to address the link discovery problem. The framework combines these diverse algorithms within a generic and extensible architecture. In this article, we give an overview of version 1.7.4 of the open-source release of the framework. In particular, we focus on an overview of the architecture of the framework, an intuition of its inner workings and a brief overview of the approaches it contains. Some descriptions of the applications within which the framework was used complete the paper. Our framework is open-source and available under a GNU license athttps://github.com/dice-group/LIMEStogether with a user manual and a developer manual.
DFOS Applications to Geo-Engineering Monitoring
Authors: Shi Bin , Zhang Dan , Zhu Honghu , Zhang Chengcheng , Gu Kai , Sang Hongwei , Han Heming , Sun Mengya , Liu Jie
Published: March 2021

Optical fiber sensing technology has developed rapidly since the 1980s with the development of the optical fiber and fiber optical communication technology. It is a new type of sensing technology that uses light as a carrier and optical fiber as a medium to sense and transmit external signals (measurands). Distributed fiber optical sensors (DFOS) can continuously measure the external physical parameters distributed along the geometric path of the optical fiber. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution and change information of the measured physical parameters over time can be obtained. This technology has unmatched advantages over traditional point-wise and electrical measurement monitoring technologies. This paper summarizes the state-of-the-art research of the application of the distributed optical fiber sensing technology in geo-engineering in the past 10 years, mainly including the advantages of DFOS, the challenges in geo-engineering monitoring, related fundamental theoretical issues, sensing performance of the optical sensing cables, distributed optical fiber monitoring system for geo-engineering, and applications of optical fiber sensing technology in geo-engineering.
Livestock farmers’ working conditions in agroecological farming systems. A review
Authors: Duval Julie , Cournut Sylvie , Hostiou Nathalie
Published: March 2021

The livestock farming sector is under stress as fewer and fewer people are willing or able to become livestock farmers. Contributing to the decline in attractiveness of the profession are, among other factors, agricultural crises, higher consumer expectations, and difficult working conditions. Agroecology is a sustainable solution that can maintain livestock production and provide positive contributions to society without negatively affecting the environment. Moreover, in its search for social sustainability, agroecological farming could offer better working conditions to farmers and thus contribute to a sustainable future for the livestock farming sector. Here, we review research on livestock farmers’ working conditions in agroecological farming systems. This paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of the available research findings and the dimensions used to describe farmers’ working conditions. The major findings are the following: (i) relatively little published research is available; (ii) it is difficult to compare findings across studies as different dimensions are used to study working conditions and, in certain cases, detailed descriptions of the farming systems are not provided; (iii) certain dimensions were rarely addressed, such as farmers’ health, or work organization; and (iv) in general, farmers’ work is addressed as a component of environmental and economic analyses of the performance of agroecological livestock farming systems, using most often indicators on labor productivity and/or efficiency. Comprehensive multidimensional approaches to study working conditions are lacking, as are studies on the interactions and trade-offs between dimensions (e.g., workload, fulfillment, work organization). To study livestock farmers’ working conditions in agroecological farming systems, we recommend to use a comprehensive approach assessing different dimensions contributing to working conditions, combined with the description of farmers’ activities and work environment.
On establishing qualitative theory to nonlinear boundary value problem of fractional differential equations
Authors: Ali Amjad , Khan Nabeela , Israr Seema
Published: March 2021

In this article, we study a class of nonlinear fractional differential equation for the existence and uniqueness of a positive solution and the Hyers–Ulam-type stability. To proceed this work, we utilize the tools of fixed point theory and nonlinear analysis to investigate the concern theory. We convert fractional differential equation into an integral alternative form with the help of the Greens function. Using the desired function, we studied the existence of a positive solution and uniqueness for proposed class of fractional differential equation. In next section of this work, the author presents stability analysis for considered problem and developed the conditions for Ulam’s type stabilities. Furthermore, we also provided two examples to illustrate our main work.
Surface modification of YS-20 with polydopamine for improving the tribological properties of polyimide composites
Authors: Wu Liangfei , Zhang Zhaozhu , Yang Mingming , Yuan Junya , Li Peilong , Chen Zujun , Men Xuehu
Published: March 2021

Recently, great effort has been devoted to prepare various reinforce fillers to improve polymer performances, but ignoring the importance of raw polymer powders which are indispensable parts of hot-pressed polymer composites. Herein, we engineer raw polyimide (PI) powders with the assistance of polydopamine (PDA) in aqueous solutions. After the modification, polymer powders change from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, which makes it is possible to further modification of polymer powders in liquid phase. During the curing process of modified polymer powders, the partial dehydration of the catechol groups and crosslinking of PDA via C-O-C bonds are confirmed. Based on the features of PDA, a non-destructive mixing method is utilized to realize homogeneous dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in polymer matrix. In comparison with ball milling method, this way can preserve the integrated innate structure of MWCNTs effectively. Besides, by taking full advantage of the reducing and metal-coordination capability of PDA, Cu2+ is successfully loaded onto the surfaces of polymer powders. The related characterizations demonstrate that Cu2+in situ converts to metallic copper rather than copper oxide during the hot pressing process. The tribological properties of corresponding polymer composites are also studied. These results indicate that modifying polymer powders with PDA is multi-profit and presents practical application prospect.
Estimated glucose disposal rate as a candidate biomarker for thrombotic biomarkers in T1D: a pooled analysis
Authors: O’Mahoney L. L. , Kietsiriroje N. , Pearson S. , West D. J. , Holmes M. , Ajjan R. A. , Campbell M. D.
Published: March 2021

Purpose

To determine the utility of estimated glucose disposal rate (eGDR) as a candidate biomarker for thrombotic biomarkers in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Methods

We reanalysed baseline pretreatment data in a subset of patients with T1D from two previous RCTs, consisting of a panel of thrombotic markers, including fibrinogen, tissue factor (TF) activity, and plasminogen-activator inhibitor (PAI)-1, and TNFα, and clinical factors (age, T1D duration, HbA1c, insulin requirements, BMI, blood pressure, and eGDR). We employed univariate linear regression models to investigate associations between clinical parameters and eGDR with thrombotic biomarkers.

Results

Thirty-two patients were included [mean ± SD age 31 ± 7 years, HbA1c of 58 ± 9 mmol/mol (7.5 ± 0.8%), eGDR 7.73 ± 2.61]. eGDR negatively associated with fibrinogen (P < 0.001), PAI-1 concentrations (P = 0.005), and TF activity (P = 0.020), but not TNFα levels (P = 0.881). We identified 2 clusters of patients displaying significantly different characteristics; 56% (n = 18) were categorised as ‘higher-risk’, eliciting significantly higher fibrinogen (+ 1514 ± 594 μg/mL; P < 0.001), TF activity (+ 59.23 ± 9.42 pmol/mL; P < 0.001), and PAI-1 (+ 8.48 ± 1.58 pmol/dL; P < 0.001), HbA1c concentrations (+ 14.20 ± 1.04 mmol/mol; P < 0.001), age (+ 7 ± 3 years; P < 0.001), duration of diabetes (15 ± 2 years; P < 0.001), BMI (+ 7.66 ± 2.61 kg/m2; P < 0.001), and lower mean eGDR (− 3.98 ± 1.07; P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Compared to BMI and insulin requirements, classical surrogates of insulin resistance, eGDR is a suitable and superior thrombotic risk indicator in T1D.

Trial registration

ISRCTN4081115; registered 27 June 2017.
Caratteristiche clinico-patologiche, gestione clinica e prognosi dell’insulinoma maligno: studio multicentrico italiano
Authors: Veltroni Alessio , Cosaro Elisa , Davì Maria Vittoria
Published: March 2021

Sommario

L’insulinoma maligno è un tumore neuroendocrino pancreatico estremamente raro ed è associato a una severa sindrome ipoglicemica che impatta negativamente sulla qualità di vita e sulla sopravvivenza dei pazienti affetti. La gestione terapeutica dell’insulinoma maligno è complessa sia per il controllo delle crisi ipoglicemiche, sia per il controllo della crescita tumorale. La sindrome ipoglicemica rappresenta una sfida terapeutica per l’endocrinologo in quanto spesso non è responsiva alla terapia medica sintomatica, in particolare al diazossido utilizzato in monoterapia o associato agli analoghi della somatostatina. Everolimus ha un ruolo nel trattamento delle crisi ipoglicemiche refrattarie da insulinoma maligno sia per l’azione di inibizione del rilascio di insulina che di insulino-resistenza. La chirurgia con approccio curativo dell’insulinoma maligno è raramente perseguibile a causa della diffusione metastatica, mentre la chirurgia a scopo didebulkingpuò essere presa in considerazione in casi selezionati sia per il controllo sintomatico sia perché può aumentare l’efficacia delle terapie sistemiche o locoregionali. La terapia radiometabolica con analoghi caldi della somatostatina rappresenta un’opzione terapeutica nei pazienti con tumori a elevata espressione dei recettori della somatostatina sia per il controllo della sintomatologia che della crescita tumorale, sebbene l’esperienza negli insulinomi maligni sia piuttosto scarsa. Data la rarità della malattia, sono disponibili in letteratura solo descrizioni di singoli casi o studi condotti su casistiche limitate; pertanto, è difficile stabilire la sequenza terapeutica più efficace in questi casi. Recentemente è stato condotto uno studio multicentrico italiano, in 13 centri di riferimento, focalizzato sulle caratteristiche clinico-patologiche, sulle modalità di trattamento e sui fattori prognostici che condizionano decorso ed esito dell’insulinoma maligno allo scopo di individuare una strategia terapeutica mirata basata su criteri razionali ed evidenze cliniche. In questa rassegna verranno descritti i principali risultati dello studio che comprende una casistica tra le più ampie finora pubblicate.
Nanocellulose-Graphene Hybrids: Advanced Functional Materials as Multifunctional Sensing Platform
Authors: Brakat Abdelrahman , Zhu Hongwei
Published: March 2021

Naturally derived nanocellulose with unique physiochemical properties and giant potentials as renewable smart nanomaterials opens up endless novel advanced functional materials for multi-sensing applications. However, integrating inorganic functional two-dimensional carbon materials such as graphene has realized hybrid organic–inorganic nanocomposite materials with precisely tailored properties and multi-sensing abilities. Altogether, the affinity, stability, dispersibility, modification, and functionalization are some of the key merits permitting their synergistic interfacial interactions, which exhibited highly advanced multifunctional hybrid nanocomposites with desirable properties. Moreover, the high performance of such hybrids could be achievable through green and straightforward approaches. In this context, the review covered the most advanced nanocellulose-graphene hybrids, focusing on their synthetization, functionalization, fabrication, and multi-sensing applications. These hybrid films exhibited great potentials as a multifunctional sensing platform for numerous mechanical, environmental, and human bio-signals detections, mimicking, and in-situ monitoring.
Flow-aware synthesis: A generic motion model for video frame interpolation
Authors: Xing Jinbo , Hu Wenbo , Zhang Yuechen , Wong Tien-Tsin
Published: March 2021

A popular and challenging task in video research, frame interpolation aims to increase the frame rate of video. Most existing methods employ a fixed motion model, e.g., linear, quadratic, or cubic, to estimate the intermediate warping field. However, such fixed motion models cannot well represent the complicated non-linear motions in the real world or rendered animations. Instead, we present an adaptive flow prediction module to better approximate the complex motions in video. Furthermore, interpolating just one intermediate frame between consecutive input frames may be insufficient for complicated non-linear motions. To enable multi-frame interpolation, we introduce the time as a control variable when interpolating frames between original ones in our generic adaptive flow prediction module. Qualitative and quantitative experimental results show that our method can produce high-quality results and outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods on popular public datasets.
Modeling for the study of thermophysical properties of metallic nanoparticles
Authors: Jaiswal Ratan Lal , Pandey Brijesh Kumar
Published: March 2021

Successful description and explanation of thermophysical properties at the nano level is a task of great challenge even yet today. Although great effort has been made by pioneer workers and scientists in this field but still the exact model for the prediction and explanation of these properties is lagging. In the current work, we have proposed a new model to calculate the thermophysical properties like specific heat, melting enthalpy, and melting entropy of nanomaterials, which are calculated with the help of a cohesive energy model including shape effect in addition to structure of materials at the nano level. The relaxation factor due to the dangling bond at the surface of nanoparticles is taken under consideration. The obtained results using this model is fully consistent with the available experimental findings for the above said thermophysical properties for silver (Ag), copper (Cu), Palladium (Pd), Aluminium (Al), and Indium (In). This encouraging idea has also been used to predict the nature of variation of above mentioned important thermodynamic properties of other materials at their nano level.
Load-Sharing Reliability Models with Different Component Sensitivities to Other Components’ Working States
Authors: Rychlik Tomasz , Spizzichino Fabio
Published: March 2021

We study the distributions of component and system lifetimes under the time-homogeneous load-sharing model, where the multivariate conditional hazard rates of working components depend only on the set of failed components, and not on their failure moments or the time elapsed from the start of system operation. Then we analyze its time-heterogeneous extension, in which the distributions of consecutive failure times, single component lifetimes, and system lifetimes coincide with mixtures of distributions of generalized order statistics. Finally we focus on some specific forms of the time-nonhomogeneous load-sharing model.
Can Coherent Predictions be Contradictory?
Authors: Burdzy Krzysztof , Pal Soumik
Published: March 2021

We prove the sharp bound for the probability that two experts who have access to different information, represented by different $\sigma$-fields, will give radically different estimates of the probability of an event. This is relevant when one combines predictions from various experts in a common probability space to obtain an aggregated forecast. The optimizer for the bound is explicitly described. This paper was originally titled ‘Contradictory predictions’.
Normal approximation for mixtures of normal distributions and the evolution of phenotypic traits
Authors: Bartoszek Krzysztof , Erhardsson Torkel
Published: March 2021

Explicit bounds are given for the Kolmogorov and Wasserstein distances between a mixture of normal distributions, by which we mean that the conditional distribution given some$\sigma$-algebra is normal, and a normal distribution with properly chosen parameter values. The bounds depend only on the first two moments of the first two conditional moments given the$\sigma$-algebra. The proof is based on Stein’s method. As an application, we consider the Yule–Ornstein–Uhlenbeck model, used in the field of phylogenetic comparative methods. We obtain bounds for both distances between the distribution of the average value of a phenotypic trait overnrelated species, and a normal distribution. The bounds imply and extend earlier limit theorems by Bartoszek and Sagitov.
Surge Capacity Crisis and Mitigation Plan in Trauma Setting Based on Real-Time National Trauma Registry Data
Authors: Al-Thani Hassan , Frazier Tim , Hertelendy Attila J , Asim Mohammad , El-Menyar Ayman
Published: March 2021

Background:

The objective of this study was to assess the current breaking point of crisis surge capacity of trauma services in Qatar and to develop a mitigation plan.

Methods:

The study utilized real-time data from the National Trauma Registry. Data was explored cumulatively by weeks, months and a year’s interval and all trauma admissions within this time frame were considered as 1 ‘Disaster Incident.’

Results:

A total of 2479 trauma patients were included in the study over 1 year. The mean age of patients was 31.5 ± 15.9 and 84% were males. The number of patients who sustained severe trauma which necessitated Level 1 activation was 16%. The emergency medical services (EMS) surge attained crisis of operational capacity at 5 months of disaster incident for priority 1 cases. Bed capacity at the floor was the first to reach operational crisis followed by the ICU and operating room. The gap in the surge for surgical interventions was specific to the specialty and surgery type which reached operational crisis at 3 months.

Conclusion:

The study highlights the surge capacity and capability of the healthcare system at a Level 1 trauma center. The identified gaps in surge capacity require several key components of healthcare resources to be addressed across the continuum of care.
What Do You Mean by Community Resilience? More Assets or Better Prepared?
Authors: Wei Jianwen , Han Ziqiang , Han Yang , Gong Zepeng
Published: March 2021

Objectives:

Understanding people’s perception of community resilience to disaster is important. This study explores the correlations of household livelihood assets, the adopted household disaster preparedness activities, and individuals’ assessment of community resilience.

Methods:

The data was collected in 2018 by surveying a group of survivors affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. The CART (Community Advancing Resilience Toolkit) was used to measure individuals’ perception of community resilience, while the livelihood assets included financial, physical, natural, human, and social capitals owned by the family, and the preparedness contained 13 activities. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were used to test our hypotheses.

Results:

Social capital is consistently and positively associated with the overall individuals’ perceived community resilience, while the natural, human, and financial capitals’ effects are not significant. The awareness and participation preparedness activities are positively correlated with the perceived community resilience, but the material preparedness activities are not.

Conclusions:

Social capital and disaster preparedness activities are critical in building community resilience. Community resilience can be achieved by making the community more connected and by providing disaster preparedness interventions.
Decay of streaks and rolls in plane Couette–Poiseuille flow
Authors: Liu T. , Semin B. , Klotz L. , Godoy-Diana R. , Wesfreid J.E. , Mullin T.
Published: March 2021

We report the results of an experimental investigation into the decay of turbulence in plane Couette–Poiseuille flow using ‘quench’ experiments where the flow laminarises after a sudden reduction in Reynolds number

$Re$

. Specifically, we study the velocity field in the streamwise–spanwise plane. We show that the spanwise velocity containing rolls decays faster than the streamwise velocity, which displays elongated regions of higher or lower velocity called streaks. At final Reynolds numbers above

$425$

, the decay of streaks displays two stages: first a slow decay when rolls are present and secondly a more rapid decay of streaks alone. The difference in behaviour results from the regeneration of streaks by rolls, called the lift-up effect. We define the turbulent fraction as the portion of the flow containing turbulence and this is estimated by thresholding the spanwise velocity component. It decreases linearly with time in the whole range of final

$Re$

. The corresponding decay slope increases linearly with final

$Re$

. The extrapolated value at which this decay slope vanishes is

$Re_{a_z}\approx 656\pm 10$

, close to

$Re_g\approx 670$

at which turbulence is self-sustained. The decay of the energy computed from the spanwise velocity component is found to be exponential. The corresponding decay rate increases linearly with

$Re$

, with an extrapolated vanishing value at

$Re_{A_z}\approx 688\pm 10$

. This value is also close to the value at which the turbulence is self-sustained, showing that valuable information on the transition can be obtained over a wide range of

$Re$

.
A Commentary on the African Commission's General Comment on the Right to Freedom of Movement and Residence under Article 12(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Authors: Adeola Romola , Viljoen Frans , Muhindo Trésor Makunya
Published: March 2021

In 2019, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted General Comment No 5 on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: The Right to Freedom of Movement and Residence (Article 12(1)). In this general comment, the commission elaborated on the right to freedom of movement and residence within state borders. This issue, while explicit in international human rights law, is a challenge within various jurisdictions, including in Africa. This article provides a background to and commentary on General Comment No 5, leveraging on the insight of the authors, who participated in its drafting. Unlike the UN Human Rights Committee's earlier general comment, General Comment No 5 provides detailed guidance on the internal dimension of the right to free movement and residence. As “soft law”, its persuasive force depends on a number of factors, including its use at the domestic level, its visibility and its integration into regional human rights jurisprudence.
The outcomes of endoscopic approach for attic cholesteatoma: underwater continuous drilling versus traditional intermittent drilling
Authors: Wang D , Zhao X , Li W , Li X , Zhu R , Wang W
Published: March 2021

Objective

This study aimed to analyse the differences between underwater continuous drilling and traditional intermittent drilling for attic cholesteatoma.

Methods

The clinical data of 61 patients with attic cholesteatoma who underwent an endoscopic approach procedure were analysed. Forty patients underwent underwater continuous drilling (group A), and 21 patients underwent traditional intermittent drilling (group B).

Results

The operation time was 64.61 ± 12.90 minutes in group A and 79.60 ± 16.81 minutes in group B (p< 0.05). The anaesthesia time was 102.69 ± 17.93 minutes in group A and 119.82 ± 19.28 minutes in group B (p< 0.05). The dry ear time, the hearing improvement rate and the post-operative complications were no different in the two groups.

Conclusion

Group A and group B had no differences in surgical outcome or hearing recovery. However, treatment in the former group resulted in a significantly shortened operation and anaesthesia time.
De novotranscriptome reveals blood coagulation/antithrombin factors and infection mechanisms inAngiostrongylus cantonensisadult worms
Authors: de Mattos Pereira Leandro , de Jezuz Milene Pereira Guimarães , Rangel Amaranta Ramos , Baldasso Bruna Dalcin , Zaluski Amanda Bungi , Graeff-Teixeira Carlos , Morassutti Alessandra Loureiro
Published: March 2021

Angiostrongylus cantonensisis the main aetiological agent of eosinophilic meningoencephalitis in humans. Several outbreaks have been documented around the world, cementing its status as an emerging global public health concern. As a result, new strategies for the diagnosis, prophylaxis and treatment of cerebral angiostrongyliasis are urgently needed. In this study, we report on thede novoassembly of theA. cantonensistranscriptome, its full functional annotation and a reconstruction of complete metabolic pathways. All results are available at AngiostrongylusDB (http://angiostrongylus.lad.pucrs.br/admin/welcome). The aim of this study was to identify the active genes and metabolic pathways involved in the mechanisms of infection and survival insideRattus norvegicus. Among 389 metabolic mapped pathways, the blood coagulation/antithrombin pathways of heparan sulphate/heparin are highlighted. Moreover, we identified genes codified to GP63 (leishmanolysin), CALR (calreticulin), ACE (peptidyl-dipeptidase A), myoglobin and vWD (von Willebrand factor type D domain protein) involved in the infection invasion and survival of the parasite. The large dataset of functional annotations provided and the full-length transcripts identified in this research may facilitate future functional genomics studies and provides a basis for the development of new techniques for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cerebral angiostrongyliasis.
Experimentally imposed circadian misalignment alters the neural response to monetary rewards and response inhibition in healthy adolescents
Authors: Hasler Brant P. , Soehner Adriane M. , Wallace Meredith L. , Logan Ryan W. , Ngari Wambui , Forbes Erika E. , Buysse Daniel J. , Clark Duncan B.
Published: March 2021

Background

Sleep and circadian timing shifts later during adolescence, conflicting with early school start times, and resulting in circadian misalignment. Although circadian misalignment has been linked to depression, substance use, and altered reward function, a paucity of experimental studies precludes the determination of causality. Here we tested, for the first time, whether experimentally-imposed circadian misalignment alters the neural response to monetary reward and/or response inhibition.

Methods

Healthy adolescents (n = 25, ages 13–17) completed two in-lab sleep schedules in counterbalanced order: An ‘aligned’ condition based on typical summer sleep-wake times (0000–0930) and a ‘misaligned’ condition mimicking earlier school year sleep-wake times (2000–0530). Participants completed morning and afternoon functional magnetic resonance imaging scans during each condition, including monetary reward (morning only) and response inhibition (morning and afternoon) tasks. Total sleep time and circadian phase were assessed via actigraphy and salivary melatonin, respectively.

Results

Bilateral ventral striatal (VS) activation during reward outcome was lower during the Misaligned condition after accounting for the prior night's total sleep time. Bilateral VS activation during reward anticipation was lower during the Misaligned condition, including after accounting for covariates, but did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Right inferior frontal gyrus activation during response inhibition was lower during the Misaligned condition, before and after accounting for total sleep time and vigilant attention, but only during the morning scan.

Conclusions

Our findings provide novel experimental evidence that circadian misalignment analogous to that resulting from school schedules may have measurable impacts on healthy adolescents' reward processing and inhibition of prepotent responses.
How party platforms on immigration become policy
Authors: Böhmelt Tobias , Ezrow Lawrence
Published: March 2021

We focus on one of the most salient policy issues of our time, immigration, and evaluate whether the salience of immigration in governing parties’ manifestos translates into actual legislative activity on immigration. We contend that democratic policymakers have genuine incentives to do so. Furthermore, we argue that the country context matters for pledge fulfillment, and we find that the migration salience of governing parties’ manifestos more strongly translates into policy activity when the level of immigration restrictions is higher and when countries’ economies perform well. This research has important implications for our understanding of the relationships between economic performance, democratic representation and immigration policy making.
Germination, early development, and creativity in the acquisition of the Yucatec Maya deictic system
Authors: ESPINOSA OCHOA Mary Rosa
Published: March 2021

The Yucatec Maya language has a highly complex deictic system with interesting typological differences that in addition to demonstratives and locative adverbs also includes ostensive evidentials and modal adverbs. Given that deictic words are among the first that children produce, the aim of this study is to identify the early acquisition that Yucatec Mayan children follow to map out each deictic form. Deictic words taken from spontaneous, longitudinal, transversal corpora and Gaskins's (1990) field work annotations were labeled and analyzed. The results show that children begin by uttering protoforms mapped with prototypical functions of locative and modal adverbs, but the functions of both demonstratives and ostensive evidentials are expressed mostly with the same protoform, which is similar to the deictic organizations of other languages. When children become productive, they overextend functions, which demonstrates a reanalysis of the system before acquisition is complete.
The effects of input and output modalities on language switching between Chinese and English
Authors: Wong Wai Leung , Maurer Urs
Published: March 2021

Language control is important for bilinguals to produce words in the right language. While most previous studies investigated language control using visual stimuli with vocal responses, language control regarding auditory stimuli and manual responses was rarely examined. In the present study, an alternating language switching paradigm was used to investigate language control mechanism under two input modalities (visual and auditory) and two output modalities (manual and vocal) by measuring switch costs in both error percentage and reaction time (RT) in forty-eight Cantonese–English early bilinguals. Results showed that higher switch costs in RT were found with auditory stimuli than visual stimuli, possibly due to shorter preparation time with auditory stimuli. In addition, switch costs in RT and error percentage could be obtained not only in speaking, but also in handwriting. Therefore, language control mechanisms, such as inhibition of the non-target language, may be shared between speaking and handwriting.
Language of instruction affects language interference in the third language
Authors: Tomoschuk Brendan , Duyck Wouter , Hartsuiker Robert J. , Ferreira Victor S. , Gollan Tamar H.
Published: March 2021

Applied linguistic work claims that multilinguals’ non-native languages interfere with one another based on similarities in cognitive factors like proficiency or age of acquisition. Two experiments explored how trilinguals regulate control of native- and non-native-language words. Experiment 1 tested 46 Dutch–English–French trilinguals in a monitoring task. Participants decided if phonemes were present in the target language name of a picture, phonemes of non-target language translations resulted in longer response times and more false alarms compared to phonemes not present in any translation (Colomé, 2001). The second language (English) interfered more than the first (Dutch) when trilinguals monitored in their third language (French). In Experiment 2, 95 bilinguals learned an artificial language to explore the possibility that the language from which a bilingual learns a third language provides practice managing known-language interference. Language of instruction modulated results, suggesting that learning conditions may reduce interference effects previously attributed to cognitive factors.
Nonlinearities in bilingual visual word recognition: An introduction to generalized additive modeling
Authors: Miwa Koji , Baayen Harald
Published: March 2021

This paper introduces the generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) and the quantile generalized additive mixed model (QGAMM) through reanalyses of bilinguals’ lexical decision data from Dijkstra et al. (2010) and Miwa et al. (2014). We illustrate how regression splines can be used to test for nonlinear effects of cross-language similarity in form as well as for controlling experimental trial effects. We further illustrate the tensor product smooth for a nonlinear interaction between cross-language semantic similarity and word frequency. Finally, we show how the QGAMM helps clarify whether the effect of a particular predictor is constant across distributions of RTs.
Populism and Religion in Brazil: The View from Education Policy
Authors: Segatto Catarina Ianni , Alves Mário Aquino , Pineda Andrea
Published: March 2021

This article is a case study of Brazil, a country where Catholic-based organizations have historically played a key role in providing education and welfare services. Since the 1980s, these organizations have supported progressive changes at both the national and subnational levels. Nevertheless, the influence of religion on education policy has shifted in the last few decades. Pentecostal and Neopentecostal groups have gained prominence through representatives in the National Congress, and, in 2018, formed a coalition enabling the election of a right-wing populist President. We analyse the trajectory of religious groups’ influence on Brazil’s education policy over time (colonization to the 1980s, the 1980s to the beginning of the 2000s, and the 2000s until now) through a qualitative-historical analysis of primary and secondary data. This article argues that both Catholic and Protestant groups have influenced progressive changes in Brazil’s education policy, but they also share conservative ideas impeding further advances.