bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Propranolol Suppresses Proliferation and Migration of HUVECs through Regulation of the miR‐206/VEGFA Axis
Authors: Zhang Ting , Qian Yingying , Yuan Chunyu , Wu Yafen , Qian Hua , Lu Hui , Hu Cui , Li Wei
Published: October 2021

Propranolol has been used in the first‐line therapy of infantile hemangioma (IH) for a number of years; however, the mechanisms through which propranolol regulates IH are not yet fully understood. In the present study, microRNA (miRNA/miR) sequencing analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) treated with propranolol. Cell viability and apoptosis were detected using CCK‐8 assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Cell migration was assessed using wound healing, Transwell, and tube formation assays. Methylation‐specific PCR was then used to investigate the promoter methylation status. The levels of oxidative stress indicators, including superoxide dismutase, glutathione, and malondialdehyde were also detected. Finally, cell cycle analysis was performed using flow cytometry and western blotting. It was observed that propranolol induced the upregulation of miR‐206 in HUVECs, which was caused by demethylation of the miR‐206 promoter. Moreover, propranolol significantly inhibited the proliferation of HUVECs by inducing apoptosis, while these phenomena were reversed by miR‐206 antagomir. VEGFA was found to be a target gene of miR‐206. In addition, propranolol notably inhibited the migration and induced G1 arrest of the HUVECs, whereas these results were eliminated by miR‐206 antagomir. Collectively, the findings of the present study demonstrated that propranolol may inhibit the proliferation and migration in HUVECs via modulating the miR‐206/VEGFA axis. These findings suggest a novel mechanism through which propranolol suppresses the progression of IH.
Development and Validation of Prediction Model for High Ovarian Response in In Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer: A Longitudinal Study
Authors: Tan Xinsha , Xi Honglin , Yang Jing , Wang Wenfeng
Published: October 2021

Objective. To develop and validate a prediction model for high ovarian response in in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) cycles. Methods. Totally, 480 eligible outpatients with infertility who underwent IVF-ET were selected and randomly divided into the training set for developing the prediction model and the testing set for validating the model. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were carried out to explore the predictive factors of high ovarian response, and then, the prediction model was constructed. Nomogram was plotted for visualizing the model. Area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve, Hosmer-Lemeshow test and calibration curve were used to evaluate the performance of the prediction model. Results. Antral follicle count (AFC), anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) at menstrual cycle day 3 (MC3), and progesterone (P) level on human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) day were identified as the independent predictors of high ovarian response. The value of area under the curve (AUC) for our multivariate model reached 0.958 (95% CI: 0.936-0.981) with the sensitivity of 0.916 (95% CI: 0.863-0.953) and the specificity of 0.911 (95% CI: 0.858-0.949), suggesting the good discrimination of the prediction model. The Hosmer-Lemeshow test and the calibration curve both suggested model’s good calibration. Conclusion. The developed prediction model had good discrimination and accuracy via internal validation, which could help clinicians efficiently identify patients with high ovarian response, thereby improving the pregnancy rates and clinical outcomes in IVF-ET cycles. However, the conclusion needs to be confirmed by more related studies.
A Wavelet‐Based Learning Model Enhances Molecular Prognosis in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
Authors: Tang Binhua , Chen Yu , Wang Yuqi , Nie Jiafei
Published: October 2021

Genome‐wide omics technology boosts deep interrogation into the clinical prognosis and inherent mechanism of pancreatic oncology. Classic LASSO methods coequally treat all candidates, ignoring individual characteristics, thus frequently deteriorating performance with comparatively more predictors. Here, we propose a wavelet‐based deep learning method in variable selection and prognosis formulation for PAAD with small samples and multisource information. With the genomic, epigenomic, and clinical cohort information from The Cancer Genome Atlas, the constructed five‐molecule model is validated via Kaplan‐Meier survival estimate, rendering significant prognosis capability on high‐ and low‐risk subcohorts (p value < 0.0001), together with three predictors manifesting the individual prognosis significance (p value: 0.0012~0.024). Moreover, the performance of the prognosis model has been benchmarked against the traditional LASSO and wavelet‐based methods in the 3‐ and 5‐year prediction AUC items, respectively. Specifically, the proposed model with discrete stationary wavelet base (bior1.5) overwhelmingly outperformed traditional LASSO and wavelet‐based methods (AUC: 0.787 vs. 0.782 and 0.721 for the 3‐year case; AUC: 0.937 vs. 0.802 and 0.859 for the 5‐year case). Thus, the proposed model provides a more accurate perspective, but with less predictor burden for clinical prognosis in the pancreatic carcinoma study.
Hyperosmotic Stress Induces a Specific Pattern for Stress Granule Formation in Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Authors: Salloum-Asfar Salam , Engelke Rudolf , Mousa Hanaa , Goswami Neha , Thompson I. Richard , Palangi Freshteh , Kamal Kamal , Al-Noubi Muna N. , Schmidt Frank , Abdulla Sara A. , Emara Mohamed M.
Published: October 2021

Stress granules (SGs) are assemblies of selective messenger RNAs (mRNAs), translation factors, and RNA-binding proteins in small untranslated messenger ribonucleoprotein (mRNP) complexes in the cytoplasm. Evidence indicates that different types of cells have shown different mechanisms to respond to stress and the formation of SGs. In the present work, we investigated how human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs/IMR90-1) overcome hyperosmotic stress compared to a cell line that does not harbor pluripotent characteristics (SH-SY5Y cell line). Gradient concentrations of NaCl showed a different pattern of SG formation between hiPSCs/IMR90-1 and the nonpluripotent cell line SH-SY5Y. Other pluripotent stem cell lines (hiPSCs/CRTD5 and hESCs/H9 (human embryonic stem cell line)) as well as nonpluripotent cell lines (BHK-21 and MCF-7) were used to confirm this phenomenon. Moreover, the formation of hyperosmotic SGs in hiPSCs/IMR90-1 was independent of eIF2α phosphorylation and was associated with low apoptosis levels. In addition, a comprehensive proteomics analysis was performed to identify proteins involved in regulating this specific pattern of hyperosmotic SG formation in hiPSCs/IMR90-1. We found possible implications of microtubule organization on the response to hyperosmotic stress in hiPSCs/IMR90-1. We have also unveiled a reduced expression of tubulin that may protect cells against hyperosmolarity stress while inhibiting SG formation without affecting stem cell self-renewal and pluripotency. Our observations may provide a possible cellular mechanism to better understand SG dynamics in pluripotent stem cells.
ALK5 i II Accelerates Induction of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells toward Schwann Cells through a Non-Smad Signaling Pathway
Authors: Sawai Seiji , Kishida Tsunao , Kotani Shin-ichiro , Tsuchida Shinji , Oda Ryo , Fujiwara Hiroyoshi , Takahashi Kenji , Mazda Osam , Sowa Yoshihiro
Published: October 2021

Schwann cells (SCs) are likely to be a vital component of cell-based therapies for nerve regeneration. There are various methods for inducing SC-like cells (SCLCs) from adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), but their phenotypic and functional characteristics remain unsatisfactory. Here, we report a novel efficient procedure to induce SCLCs by culturing ADSCs with ALK5 inhibitor (ALK5 i) II, a specific inhibitor of activin-like kinase 5 (ALK5) (transforming growth factor-β receptor 1 (TGFβR1)) that is also known as Repsox. The resultant cells that we named “modified SCLCs (mSCLCs)” expressed SC-specific genes more strongly than conventional SCLCs (cSCLCs) and displayed a neurosupportive capacity in vitro, similarly to genuine SCs. Regarding the mechanism of the mSCLC induction by ALK5 i II, knockdown of Smad2 and Smad3, key proteins in the TGFβ/Smad signaling pathway, did not induce SC markers. Meanwhile, expression of multipotent stem cell markers such as Sex-determining region Y- (SRY-) box 2 (Sox2) was upregulated during induction. These findings imply that ALK5 i II exerts its effect via the non-Smad pathway and following upregulation of undifferentiated cell-related genes such as Sox2. The procedure described here results in highly efficient induction of ADSCs into transgene-free and highly functional SCLCs. This approach might be applicable to regeneration therapy for peripheral nerve injury.
Analysis and Intervention of Factors Affecting Abnormal Postpartum Glucose Tolerance and Gestational Recurrence in Gestational Diabetes
Authors: Li Linhong , Shi Gang , Zhang Xiuping , Wang Hongling , He Sujuan
Published: October 2021

ObjectiveTo investigate the influencing factors of abnormal postpartum glucose tolerance and pregnancy recurrence in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to develop reasonable interventions to prevent postpartum glucose tolerance and recurrence of pregnancy. Methods. Retrospective analysis of clinical data of 238 GDM patients during pregnancy, including age, body mass index (BMI) before and after pregnancy, regular exercise during pregnancy, insulin use, family history of diabetes, fasting blood glucose (FPG) during pregnancy, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) 2 h time value, blood lipid index, and whether pregnant again. At the same time, the women were followed up by telephone or home visits to understand and guide the patient’s diet and exercise. The clinical characteristics of the two groups of patients were compared. According to the OGTT test, the recovery of glucose tolerance in pregnant women 6–8 weeks postpartum was divided into the normal postpartum glucose tolerance group and the abnormal group. Logistic multivariate analysis was used to find the influencing factors of postpartum glucose tolerance and recurrence of pregnancy. Results. Between 238 patients of followed-up, 150 pregnant women had abnormal postpartum glucose tolerance, accounting for 63.03%. There were 115 repregnants, of whom 37 (32.17%) had a recurrence of postpartum glucose tolerance. Pre and postpregnancy BMI, insulin use during pregnancy, family history of diabetes, FPG during pregnancy, OGTT 2 h values, and triglyceride (TG) were independent risk factors for abnormal postpartum diabetes and recurrence of pregnancy in GDM patients. Conclusions. Patients with GDM are at high risk of postpartum abnormal glucose tolerance and pregnancy recurrence, which may be influenced by the pregnant woman’s prepregnancy and postpartum BMI, insulin use during pregnancy, family history of diabetes, FPG, OGGT 2 h values during pregnancy, and TG levels. Therefore, health education for pregnant women should be strengthened in the clinic, with guidance on proper diet for weight control, increased exercise, and regular blood glucose screening and monitoring for those at risk.
A Multitask Learning Model with Multiperspective Attention and Its Application in Recommendation
Authors: Wang Yingshuai , Zhang Dezheng , Wulamu Aziguli
Published: October 2021

Training models to predict click and order targets at the same time. For better user satisfaction and business effectiveness, multitask learning is one of the most important methods in e‐commerce. Some existing researches model user representation based on historical behaviour sequence to capture user interests. It is often the case that user interests may change from their past routines. However, multi‐perspective attention has broad horizon, which covers different characteristics of human reasoning, emotions, perception, attention, and memory. In this paper, we attempt to introduce the multi‐perspective attention and sequence behaviour into multitask learning. Our proposed method offers better understanding of user interest and decision. To achieve more flexible parameter sharing and maintaining the special feature advantage of each task, we improve the attention mechanism at the view of expert interactive. To the best of our knowledge, we firstly propose the implicit interaction mode, the explicit hard interaction mode, the explicit soft interaction mode, and the data fusion mode in multitask learning. We do experiments on public data and lab medical data. The results show that our model consistently achieves remarkable improvements to the state‐of‐the‐art method.
Study on Smart Home Energy Management System Based on Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Ma Yunlong , Chen Xiao , Wang Liming , Yang Jianlan
Published: October 2021

With the increase of household electricity consumption and the introduction of distributed new energy sources, more attention has been paid to the issue of optimizing the cost of electricity purchase for household customers. An effective way to deal with these problems is through home energy management system (HEMS). In this paper, a model of home energy management is presented to optimize the home energy mix. The operation of home electricity consumption devices, distributed generation systems, and energy storage devices, as well as the charging and discharging of electric vehicles, are all considered. HEMS is a self‐regulating system that can accommodate fluctuations in tariffs and home electricity consumption. The structure and the optimal scheduling algorithm of HEMS are introduced. The smart grid and demand response, smart home, new energy generation, energy storage, and other related technologies are discussed. Furthermore, the optimal scheduling of power consumption devices and energy sources in the HEMS and future development directions are explained and analyzed. A framework of HEMS is presented on the basis of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The framework adopts a local information management terminal as the core of data storage and scheduling in the home. Based on the timely purchase of electricity from the grid and the generation of electricity in combination with PV systems, an optimized simulation model for the scheduling of a new home energy management system is established. In addition, the application prospects of artificial intelligence in the HEMS are overviewed.
Director Networks and Cost of Equity Capital: Based on “Busy Director Hypothesis” Analysis
Authors: Qiu Sai , Sun Xin
Published: October 2021

This paper uses the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share-listed companies from 2008 to 2018 to construct the director networks as an indicator to explore the relationship between the company’s director networks and the cost of equity capital and the influence of nature of property rights and the ownership structure on the aforementioned relationship. The research results demonstrate that director networks cannot effectively reduce the cost of equity capital. This conclusion verifies the “busy director hypothesis.” With the increase in the director networks centrality, the increase in the cost of equity capital in non-state-owned listed companies is more significant compared with state-owned listed companies; equity concentration plays a significant negative regulatory role in the director networks centrality and affects the cost of equity capital. Compared with the networks centrality of independent director, the networks centrality of nonindependent director has a stronger negative effect on the cost of equity capital. This article broadens the perspective of corporate governance research and provides new ideas for listed companies to make financing decisions.
DEMLP: DeepWalk Embedding in MLP for miRNA‐Disease Association Prediction
Authors: Wang Xun , Wang Fuyu , Wang Xinzeng , Qiao Sibo , Zhuang Yu
Published: October 2021

miRNAs significantly affect multifarious biological processes involving human disease. Biological experiments always need enormous financial support and time cost. Taking expense and difficulty into consideration, to predict the potential miRNA‐disease associations, a lot of high‐efficiency computational methods by computer have been developed, based on a network generated by miRNA‐disease association dataset. However, there exist many challenges. Firstly, the association between miRNAs and diseases is intricate. These methods should consider the influence of the neighborhoods of each node from the network. Secondly, how to measure whether there is an association between two nodes of the network is also an important problem. In our study, we innovatively integrate graph node embedding with a multilayer perceptron and propose a method DEMLP. To begin with, we construct a miRNA‐disease network by miRNA‐disease adjacency matrix (MDA). Then, low‐dimensional embedding representation vectors of nodes are learned from the miRNA‐disease network by DeepWalk. Finally, we use these low‐dimensional embedding representation vectors as input to train the multilayer perceptron. Experiments show that our proposed method that only utilized the miRNA–disease association information can effectively predict miRNA‐disease associations. To evaluate the effectiveness of DEMLP in a miRNA‐disease network from HMDD v3.2, we apply fivefold crossvalidation in our study. The ROC‐AUC computed result value of DEMLP is 0.943, and the PR‐AUC value of DEMLP is 0.937. Compared with other state‐of‐the‐art methods, our method shows good performance using only the miRNA‐disease interaction network.
Retinal Vascular Response to Hyperoxia in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus without Diabetic Retinopathy
Authors: Safi Hamid , Nourinia Ramin , Safi Sare , Hadian Ehsan , Kheiri Bahareh , Ahmadieh Hamid
Published: October 2021

Purpose. To evaluate the retinal vascular response to hyperoxia in patients with diabetes at the preclinical stage of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and to quantify the changes in comparison with normal subjects using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Methods. In this prospective study, 40 eyes of 20 participants comprising 10 diabetic patients with no diabetic retinopathy (NDR) and 10 normal subjects were recruited. OCTA images were acquired in the resting position and were repeated after a hyperoxic challenge using a nasal mask connected to a reservoir bag supplying 100% oxygen at the rate of 15 L per minute for 5 minutes. The changes of mean parafoveal vessel density (VD) in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP), the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) size, and the outer retina flow index were compared between two conditions in each group and between the two study groups. The statistical significance of differences in the means was evaluated using Student’s t-test for unpaired samples with consideration of the generalized estimating equations (GEE) for intereye correlation. Results. At baseline, the mean parafoveal VD of SCP and DCP were significantly lower in the NDR participants compared to the healthy subjects (P < 0.001 and P = 0.006, respectively). After induction of the hyperoxic challenge in healthy participants, mean parafoveal VD reduced at both the SCP and DCP, but reached a statistical significance only in DCP (P = 0.006). However, following induction of hyperoxic challenge in patients with NDR, no significant decline was noticed in mean parafoveal VD of SCP and DCP. The degree of change in mean parafoveal VD of DCP was statistically significantly more pronounced in healthy subjects compared to the NDR group (P = 0.034). The change in FAZ size and the outer retina flow index were comparable between the two study groups. Conclusion. Retinal capillary layers responded differently to hyperoxia-induced challenge, and in normal subjects, the autoregulatory mechanism was mostly effective in the parafoveal DCP. Retinal vascular reactivity was impaired in SCP and DCP at the preclinical stage of DR. OCTA as a noninvasive modality was able to quantify the retinal vascular response to the hyperoxic challenge.
Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) Treated with Snake Antivenom
Authors: Salem Waleed , Abdelrahim Mohamed Gafar , Al Majmaie Layth , Dahdaha Mohammed , Al-Bakri Faten , Elmoheen Amr
Published: October 2021

Cardiac complications following snakebites are uncommon but fatal. Here, we discuss a case of a snakebite that led to acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Forty-five-year-old male presented to the emergency room with snakebite on the right middle finger. He was given symptomatic treatment and admitted for observation. His vital signs and initial investigations were normal except for the white blood count that was high. During observation, he developed vomiting and bradycardia. He was diagnosed with a right bundle branch block on ECG. The patient developed chest pain after a few hours and was diagnosed with AMI on ECG. The toxicology team started antivenom therapy. His troponin kept rising initially but later started coming down without percutaneous intervention (PCI). He was treated successfully with antivenom therapy and discharged.
Potential lncRNA Biomarkers for HBV‐Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma Diagnosis Revealed by Analysis on Coexpression Network
Authors: Nong Shunqiang , Chen Xiaohao , Wang Zechen , Xu Guidan , Wei Wujun , Peng Bin , Zhou Lü , Wei Liuzhi , Zhao Jingjie , Wei Qiuju , Deng Yibin , Meng Lingzhang
Published: October 2021

Background. Increasing evidence demonstrated that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) could affect inflammatory tumor immune microenvironment by modulating gene expression and could be used as a biomarker for HBC‐related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but still needs further research. The aim of the present study was to determine an lncRNA signature for the diagnosis of HBV‐related HCC. Methods. HBV‐related HCC expression profiles (GSE55092, GSE19665, and GSE84402) were abstracted from the GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) data resource, and R package limma and RobustRankAggreg were employed to identify common differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Using machine learning, optimal diagnostic lncRNA molecular markers for HBV‐related HCC were identified. The expression of candidate lncRNAs was cross‐validated in GSE121248, and an ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve of lncRNA biomarkers was carried out. Additionally, a coexpression network and functional annotation was built, after which a PPI (protein‐protein interaction) network along with module analysis were conducted with the Cytoscape open source software. Result. A total of 38 DElncRNAs and 543 DEmRNAs were identified with a fold change larger than 2.0 and a P value < 0.05. By machine learning, AL356056.2, AL445524.1, TRIM52‐AS1, AC093642.1, EHMT2‐AS1, AC003991.1, AC008040.1, LINC00844, and LINC01018 were screened out as optional diagnostic lncRNA biosignatures for HBV‐related HCC. The AUC (areas under the curve) of the SVM (support vector machine) model and random forest model were 0.957 and 0.904, respectively, and the specificity and sensitivity were 95.7 and 100% and 94.3 and 86.5%, respectively. The results of functional enrichment analysis showed that the integrated coexpressed DEmRNAs shared common cascades in the p53 signaling pathway, retinol metabolism, PI3K‐Akt signaling cascade, and chemical carcinogenesis. The integrated DEmRNA PPI network complex was found to be comprised of 87 nodes, and two vital modules with a high degree were selected with the MCODE app. Conclusion. The present study identified nine potential diagnostic biomarkers for HBV‐related HCC, all of which could potentially modulated gene expression related to inflammatory conditions in the tumor immune microenvironment. The functional annotation of the target DEmRNAs yielded novel evidence in evaluating the precise functions of lncRNA in HBV‐related HCC.
THE FUTURE OF PSYCHOLOGY IS IMPORTANT NOT TO EXPECT, BUT TO DO To the 90th anniversary of the birth of Evgeny Aleksandrovich Kl
Authors: Leonova Anna B. , Noskova Olga G.
Published: October 2021

Relevance. June 11, 2020 marked the 90th anniversary of Evgeny Klimov (11.06.1930–31.05.2014) birth, Doctor of Psychology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, President of the Russian Academy of Education (1994– 2003), Dean of the Faculty of Psychology Lomonosov Moscow State University. Goal. The introductory note is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of E.A. Klimov (1930–2014). Fragments of memoirs about the personality of the scientist by his students and colleagues are presented. The contours of his scientific contribution to the development of Russian psychology, his activities as a science organizer and teacher are outlined. Results. The authors prepared for publication the scientist’s manuscript, his speech to the participants of the student conference at Moscow University in 2002. In the text of E.A. Klimov presented the main ideas for the successful professional development of young psychologists, among them: the idea of the social significance of the profession; focus on business, and not on your career; assistance in improving the psychological culture of the people; the desire to separate new scientific knowledge from the redesignation of traditional knowledge with new words; development of methods of empirical research, including methods of analysis of unique cases; the conditions for the progressive development of psychology are indicated;
EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES TOWARD ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: RESISTANCE VS READINESS
Authors: Stroh Wladimir A.
Published: October 2021

Relevance. The article discusses the prospects for research paradigms shift in the study of employee attitudes towards organizational change. The transition from the traditional economy of production and consumption of material goods to the economy of knowledge, then to the economy of impressions, and in the very near future — to the digital economy, which took place during the last decades, and marks the full-scale deployment of the fourth industrial revolution, forces modern organizations to constantly change. The systemic nature of an organization assumes that transformations in any of its areas of activity are reflected in all other components. The leadership of every organization needs to be able to manage the process of change. At the heart of the change process are, first of all, changes in the interactions among employees of the organization. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to trace how traditional ideas about the basic principles of organizational change management are changing. As a replacement for the traditional vector of management efforts aimed at timely diagnosis and subsequent overcoming of staff resistance to the changes being introduced, there comes an understanding of the possibility of identifying and supporting the psychological readiness of employees for organizational changes. Results. The growing concept of Positive Organizational Scholarship abandons the traditional interpretation of the relationship between change and resistance that needs to be overcome. It focuses on the positive perception by employees of organizational changes, on creating such conditions when change becomes a way for employees to unleash their potential, self-actualization and personal growth. The indicated change in research paradigms is traced in the article on the material of a number of empirical studies carried out with the participation and under the scientific guidance of the author. The studies were initially devoted to the study of socio-psychological factors of personnel resistance to organizational changes, and then to the identification of socio-psychological prerequisites for the formation of psychological readiness of employees for organizational changes. These studies were accompanied by the development and testing of appropriate methodological tools.
Trusted intermediaries: Macmillan, Kennedy and their ambassadors
Authors: Troath Sian
Published: October 2021

Studying trust at the international level is one of the greatest challenges for trust studies. In this article I seek to expand on work which has sought to study trust between states in a way which avoids anthropomorphising the state, and retains the salience of interpersonal trust. To do this, I consider trust between states as existing in a web of relationships, from relationships between government figures, to military personnel, to members of society. In this article I demonstrate the value of incorporating actors beyond leaders in the most minimal sense: through including boundary spanners, those whose relationships and interactions span across boundaries, whether those boundaries be state borders or segments of government and society. Furthermore, I seek to begin a process of categorising the types of roles that boundary spanners can play in the development of trust between states. To illustrate their impact, I deploy a multidimensional approach to trust which is used to assess the relationship between leaders, and the impact of intermediary figures on both trust between the leaders, and in the relationships developed between the intermediary and their respective leader. One case study is used to exemplify the utility of this approach: the relationship between Harold Macmillan and John F. Kennedy and their respective official ambassadors David Ormsby-Gore and David Bruce.
User Experience Methods in Research and Practice
Authors: Lanius Candice , Weber Ryan , Robinson Joy
Published: October 2021

User experience (UX) researchers in technical communication (TC) and beyond still need a clear picture of the methods used to measure and evaluate UX. This article charts current UX methods through a systematic literature review of recent publications (2016–2018) and a survey of 52 UX practitioners in academia and industry. Our results indicate that contemporary UX research favors mixed methods, and that usability testing is especially popular in both published research and our survey results. This article presents these findings as a snapshot of contemporary research methods for UX.
“There’s So Much That We’re Doing”: How Florida College System Institutions Address Basic Needs Insecurity Among Students
Authors: Nix Amanda N. , Bertrand Jones Tamara , Daniels Hollie , Hu Pei , Hu Shouping
Published: October 2021

Research Question: A sizable portion of college students experience food and housing insecurity, which poses a roadblock to fully and successfully engaging in higher education. In light of these complex challenges, we ask: How do Florida College System (FCS) institutions meet the basic needs of their students? Methods: To answer the question at hand, we conducted an embedded single case study of the FCS. Between 2014 and 2019, researchers traveled to 21 Florida colleges on one or more occasions to speak with college presidents, administrators, faculty members, advisors, academic support staff, and students. In total, we gathered data from 1,379 people through 213 focus group sessions and 20 individual interviews. Results: From these data emerged evidence of the extensive services and support programs provided by FCS institutions, ranging from food and housing assistance to clothing, transportation, and childcare. Such initiatives aim to meet the chronic, daily needs of students and their families, as well as acute needs that arise out of local disasters and crises. Contributions: The findings of this study contribute to the literature on the mission of community colleges. While these support programs address needs traditionally considered non-academic, participants suggest that they are essential to fostering student success. By meeting students’ physiological and safety needs, institutions can better accomplish their academic goals of remediation, transfer, vocational training, and contract education, particularly among students who have been traditionally excluded from higher education. The findings also highlight the importance of acknowledging the needs of students’ families when providing support.
Multiple Identities in Faith-based Organizations: Exploring Status and Value Homophily in Idealized Partnerships
Authors: Fu Jiawei Sophia , Cooper Katherine R.
Published: October 2021

Research suggests that organizations tend to collaborate with others that share similar ascribed status, but focuses less on the role of value homophily. To advance a fuller understanding of how organizations select partners, this study examines the roles of—and relationship between—status and value homophily in interorganizational collaboration (IOC). Specifically, it examines the influence of value homophily (i.e., similar service, staff, and organizational identity) on three forms of status homophily ( attribute-based, geography-based, and institutional) in nonprofit collaborative aspirations. Survey data from 141 U.S. faith-based organizations (FBOs) revealed the differential impact of organizational and service religiosity on FBOs’ collaboration preferences. Specifically, findings suggest that organizational religiosity makes FBOs more restrictive, but service religiosity makes FBOs less restrictive in ideal partner selection. The results suggest theoretical contributions to communication research on IOC and social networks, as well as implications for navigating multifaceted organizational identities and cross-sector partnerships.
Community Diversity and Donor Control: An Empirical Analysis of Contributions to Donor-Advised Funds at Community Foundations
Authors: Qu Heng , Paarlberg Laurie E.
Published: October 2021

This study examines the relationship between community ethnic-racial diversity and contributions to donor-advised funds (DAFs) held by community foundations. Unlike general contributions, DAFs allow donors to retain advisory control over their fund distribution based on individual preferences. In contrast to prior research that generally finds that diversity dampens private provision of public goods, we show that greater ethnic-racial diversity is significantly associated with higher levels of contributions to DAFs at community foundations but not with general contributions. The findings contribute to the literature on diversity and public goods provision and have practical implications for the policy role of private philanthropy.
Cop Wisdom and the Democratic Consequences of Citizen–State Interactions
Authors: Federman Peter Stanley
Published: October 2021

The existing literature on citizen–state interactions lacks variation, and new research must be conducted to better understand the consequences of such interactions. Using the theoretical frame of cop wisdom, defined as strategies that citizens change or adapt based on the circumstances of their previous interactions with police, interactions between individuals and police officers are interrogated utilizing the 2015 Police-Public Contact Survey. The existence of cop wisdom within these encounters is demonstrated, along with findings that consider the impact of race, class, and citizenship on aggressive behavior in police–citizen encounters.
The Enclosure of the Ejidos of Bogotá: Imperial Wars and the End of Common Lands in Colonial New Granada
Authors: Castro Benavides Constanza
Published: October 2021

The article analyses the enclosure of the ejidos of the city of Bogotá in the second half of the 18th century, one century before the liberal government definitively abolished common property in Colombia. It shows how, as the land demand increased with population and economic growth, not only landowners but also the Crown sought to increase their income at the expense of common lands. Unlike the classic enclosures in England, the Cabildo kept control over the ejidos of Bogotá. By furthering the private use of municipal ejidos without expropriating Cabildos, the Crown sought to activate the agrarian economy safeguarding, at the same time, the local financial structure that sustained the empire. Emphasizing the fiscal nature of municipal ejidos, this article shows how imperial dynamics transformed land use on both sides of the Atlantic and explores the specificities of common-land enclosures in some of the Spanish colonies.
The role of migration and demographic change in small island futures
Authors: Speelman Laurens H. , Nicholls Robert J. , Safra de Campos Ricardo
Published: October 2021

Low-lying atoll islands are especially threatened by anticipated sea-level rise, and migration is often mentioned as a potential response of these island societies. Further, small island states are developing population, economic and adaptation policies to plan the future. Policies, such as raising of islands or land reclamation, require a long-term vision on populations and migration. However, population and migration systems in small island settings are poorly understood. To address this deficiency requires an approach that considers changing environmental and socio-economic factors and individual migration decision-making. This article introduces the conceptual model of migration and explores migration within one small island nation, the Maldives, as an example. Agent-based simulations of internal migration from 1985–2014 are used as a basis to explore a range of potential demographic futures up to 2050. The simulations consider a set of consistent demographic, environmental, policy and international migration narratives, which describe a range of key uncertainties. The capital island Malé has experienced significant population growth over the last decades, growing from around 67,000 to 153,000 inhabitants from 2000 to 2014, and comprising about 38 percent of the national population in 2014. In all future narratives, which consider possible demographic, governance, environmental and globalization changes, the growth of Malé continues while many other islands are effectively abandoned. The analysis suggests that migration in the Maldives has a strong inertia, and radical change to the environmental and/or socio-economic drivers would be needed for existing trends to change. Findings from this study may have implications for national development and planning for climate change more widely in island nations.
To Quote or Not to Quote? Categorizing Quotations in the Epistle to the Hebrews
Authors: Cooper Mark
Published: October 2021

An overview of the appendices in NA28 and UBS5 reveals that the editors agreed regarding the number of quotations in Hebrews on 37 occasions. They disagreed, however, as to whether an intertext was a quotation or an allusion on nine occasions. The compilers of these lists did not provide a basis for their conclusions, and inability to agree on the number of intertexts could be due to multiple reasons. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to develop a set of criteria by which to identify quotations in Hebrews. Auctor’s quotations were determined to possess four characteristics: (1) introductory formula, (2) a recognizable source, (3) verbal correspondence with the hypotext and (4) syntactical tension. These four characteristics were then utilized to assess the nine disputed intertexts between NA28 and UBS5. By assessing the nine intertexts for the presence of the criteria, four out of the nine were determined to be quotations, whereas five were deemed to be allusions.
Contribution of the generalized nonunique inverses to the minimum-energy control theory: The inverse model control investigation
Authors: Feliks Tomasz , Hunek Wojciech P , Krok Marek
Published: October 2021

The innovative analytical approach to the minimum-energy design problem of the inverse model control (IMC) state-space structures is presented in this work. Following the recent papers, it should be concluded that the optimal behavior of the IMC strategy cannot longer be associated with the application of the well-known Moore–Penrose minimum-norm inverse. However, the minimum-energy IMC-oriented scheme has only be obtained through heuristic methods. Nevertheless, in the recent authors’ work, it has been proven for the first time that such an issue can be considered in an analytical manner. Yet, the obtained results have only been valid for the second-order state-space systems. Therefore, the motivation instance proposed in the manuscript, confirming the possibility of extending such paradigm to higher-order plants, will certainly contribute to the introduction of the new unified minimum-energy IMC theory canon. Since the nonunique σ and H inverses can successfully be employed in the robustification of the discussed control strategy, they can also be helpful in the case of our essential considerations. Thus, from now on the yet unexplored research area can now be investigated in the analytical manner, what has never been seen before in the modern IMC-originated control theory and practice. The predefined methodology clearly fills the gap in the analytical control design procedures and opens a new chapter in the knowledge related to the well-known and broadly accepted multivariable control canons.
A novel nonsingular integral terminal sliding mode control scheme in epilepsy treatment
Authors: Qian Moshu , Zhang Zhen , Zhong Guanghua , Bo Cuimei
Published: October 2021

In this paper, a closed-loop brain stimulation control problem is investigated using the nonsingular integral terminal sliding mode (NITSM) control approach. First, the thalamocortical model of epilepsy seizure is given, which is composed of the cortical PY-IN subnetwork and the subcortical RE-TC subsystem. Then, a nonsingular integral terminal sliding mode surface is designed utilizing the derived output tracking error, and the stability of the sliding mode dynamics is proved by Lyapunov approach. Furthermore, a disturbance observer (DOB) based NITSM controller design approach is proposed for the established thalamocortical model, and the reachability of the closed-loop control system under the designed controller is analyzed using Lyapunov theory. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the designed control scheme.
Coal mine personnel positioning algorithm based on improved adaptive unscented Kalman filter with wireless channel fading and unknown noise statistics
Authors: Bai Xingzhen , Xu Hongxiang , Li Jing , Gao Xuehui , Qin Feiyu , Zheng Xinlei
Published: October 2021

This paper is concerned with the problem of personnel localization in the complex coal mine environment with wireless channel fading and unknown noise statistics. Considering the random channel fading caused by signal fluctuation and transmission fault, an improved adaptive unscented Kalman filter (IAUKF) algorithm is proposed. The mean and error covariances of noise are estimated adaptively by adopting the improved Sage–Husa noise estimation method. In order to save energy and improve energy utilization, the multi-sensor clustering is performed to divide the spatial distribution of sensors into multiple clusters. The sensors in the same cluster can communicate with each other to maintain the consistency of estimation. The simulation results show that the IAUKF algorithm is better than extended Kalman filter (EKF), unscented Kalman filter (UKF), and improved unscented Kalman filter (IUKF) algorithms.
Robust finite-time consensus subject to unknown communication time delays based on delay-dependent criteria
Authors: Sharifi Maryam
Published: October 2021

In this paper, robust finite-time consensus of a group of nonlinear multi-agent systems in the presence of communication time delays is considered. In particular, appropriate delay-dependent strategies which are less conservative are suggested. Sufficient conditions for finite-time consensus in the presence of deterministic and stochastic disturbances are presented. The communication delays don’t need to be time invariant, uniform, symmetric, or even known. The only required condition is that all delays satisfy a known upper bound. The consensus algorithm is appropriate for agents with partial access to neighbor agents’ signals. The Lyapunov–Razumikhin theorem for finite-time convergence is used to prove the results. Simulation results on a group of mobile robot manipulators as the agents of the system are presented.
An uncommon cause of vertigo: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder
Authors: Lin Kuan-Ling , Yang Ching-Yu , Su Wen-Ko
Published: October 2021

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an uncommon antibody-mediated disease of the central nervous system. Its classic presentation includes long segments of spinal cord inflammation, optic neuritis with or without intractable vomiting, and hiccups. Here, we described a case of a 39-year-old woman with an atypical presentation of vertigo, which was finally diagnosed as NMOSD by a positive serum aquaporin-4 antibody.
Cheating at the Top: Trait Dominance Explains Dishonesty More Consistently Than Social Power
Authors: Kim Kyoo-Hwa , Guinote Ana
Published: October 2021

Power has long been associated with dishonesty. Here, we examined the contributions of personal and structural factors associated with power. Across five studies ( N = 1,366), we tested the hypothesis that being dominant, more than having power and felt prestige, predicts dishonesty in incentivized tasks, moral disengagement, and breaking of Covid-19 containment rules. Dominance and dishonesty were positively associated (Study 1). Furthermore, dominance contributed to the positive relationship between occupational power and dishonesty in natural settings (Studies 2 and 5). Different types of power had inconsistent effects on dishonesty (Studies 3 and 4). Prestige was unrelated to dishonesty. Dominant individuals were overrepresented at the top, suggesting that the association between power and dishonesty may derive from self-selection processes, rather than power itself.
In the Mindset of Opportunity: Proactive Mindset, Perceived Opportunities, and Role Attitudes
Authors: Benson-Greenwald Tessa M. , Diekman Amanda B.
Published: October 2021

Perceiving roles as fulfilling goals offers motivational benefits to students, and yet the features of individuals or contexts that align with seeing such role opportunities have not been studied systematically. The current research investigated how these goal affordances are related to proactive mindset or a person’s belief that they can shape their contexts. Three studies examined how variation in proactivity aligns with perceiving more communal and agentic goal opportunities in roles. Study 1 found that highly proactive college students (vs. less proactive students) tended to perceive their future careers as fulfilling communal and agentic goals, which predicted positive career attitudes. Study 2 replicated this association, while ruling out behavioral flexibility as accounting for the proactivity–positivity relationship. Study 3 experimentally tested whether growth-oriented contexts foster proactivity. Proactive mindset aligns with more expansive views of roles as fulfilling fundamental motives. These views, in turn, carry positive implications for one’s future career attitudes.