bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Herb Users' Nondisclosure of Complementary-Alternative Medicine Use to Health Care Providers
Authors:   , Obiora Justice Echezona
Published: January 2025

Various forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are increasingly being used in the United States and globally over time. Among CAM, natural products, including herbal medicines, are the most used type. However, the increase in the use of CAM has gone on with minimal or without a corresponding increase in the rate of disclosure of use to the health care providers. The theories of care-seeking behavior and the behavioral model of health services use guided most of the study. Data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed to determine the health factors that affect the nondisclosure of herbal medicine usage by respondents (N = 423) who used herbs as their first choice of CAM therapy. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a binary logistic model. About one quarter of herb users did not disclose their use of herbs to the health care provider. Nondisclosures were likely to be associated with herb users who also used homeopathy and those who used herbs to treat diseases that are usually short-term. The nondisclosure rate of the use of CAM, including herbal therapy, remains a recurring concern. As part of the practical implications, the study creates and supports the awareness of health factors associated with CAM and herbal medicine use nondisclosure issues that inform health professionals about mitigating the problem and improving health practice and medical consultations.
Low-Power Biopotential Signal Acquisition System for Biomedical Applications
Authors:   , Tasneem Nishat Tarannum
Published: January 2025

The key requirements of a reliable neural signal recording system include low power to support long-term monitoring, low noise, minimum tissue damage, and wireless transmission. The neural spikes are also detected and sorted on-chip/off-chip to implement closed-loop neuromodulation in a high channel count setup. All these features together constitute an empirical neural recording system for neuroscience research. In this prospectus, we propose to develop a neural signal acquisition system with wireless transmission and feature extraction. We start by designing a prototype entirely built with commercial-off-the-shelf components, which includes recording and wireless transmission of synthetic neural data and feature extraction. We then conduct the CMOS implementation of the low-power multi-channel neural signal recording read-out circuit, which enables the in-vivo recording with a small form factor. Another direction of this thesis is to design a self-powered motion tracking read-out circuit for wearable sensors. As the wearable industry continues to advance, the need for self-powered medical devices is growing significantly. In this line of research, we propose a self-powered motion sensor based on reverse electrowetting-on-dielectric (REWOD) with low-power integrated electronics for remotely monitoring health conditions. We design the low-power read-out circuit for a wide range of input charges, which is generated from the REWOD sensor.
Experiences of Divine Grace in Mainline Protestants: A Consensual Qualitative Approach
Authors:   , Hodge Adam Scott
Published: January 2025

The empirical study of grace, a relational virtue nestled within the fields of positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality, has had a relatively slow start. Since research on experiences of grace is in the beginning stages, the purpose of the current study was to provide rich, context-based, qualitative data to describe (a) mainline Protestants' experiences of, and beliefs about, grace (e.g., common grace, justifying/saving grace, sanctifying grace, accepting grace), (b) how mainline Protestant Christians experience the interplay between divine grace and forgiveness (i.e., self-forgiveness, other-forgiveness), and (c) how mainline Protestant Christians experience the interplay between divine grace and humility. Interviews were conducted with 28 community adults who were affiliated with a mainline Protestant church. Results indicated that mainline Protestant Christians have varying beliefs about divine grace and how it is related to both the present moment and the afterlife. Divine grace was often defined as, or associated with, other relational virtues (e.g., forgiveness, love), and participants occasionally defined grace as a gift. Divine grace was further described as being instrumental in mainline Protestant Christians' experiences of (a) self-forgiveness, (b) other-forgiveness, (c) acknowledgement of personal weaknesses and limitations, and (d) connecting with others who are different. I conclude by discussing my findings in light of the present literature on divine grace.
Prediction is Not Enough: Towards the Development of a Multi-Faceted, Theoretical Model of Aggression and Violence
Authors:   , Cohn Jonathan Reed
Published: January 2025

Violence and aggression continue to be both public health and economic concerns. The field of violence prediction has undergone a series of changes in an attempt to best assess risk including using unstructured clinical judgment, actuarial measures, and structured professional judgment. Although prediction has become more accurate with improved measures, a new generation has recently emerged with an emphasis on understanding violence, as opposed to merely predicting it, to shift the focus towards violence prevention. In addition to the creation of measures, researchers have sought to identify specific risk factors for aggression and violence including static and dynamic risk factors. Despite research demonstrating associations between neuropsychological and social-cognitive factors, violence risk measures continue to omit these variables. The current study developed a multi-faceted, theoretical model of aggression including social-cognitive, neuropsychological, personality, and psychiatric factors. A community, male sample (N = 1,192) collected through Amazon's MTurk responded to a series of self-report measures and neuropsychological tasks. Utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM), I created a model predicting aggression. Several important paths were significant including from entity theory to aggression, mediated by hostile attribution bias, schizotypy to aggression, mediated by both hostile attribution bias and disinhibition, substance use to aggression mediated by disinhibition, and psychopathy to aggression directly. This model provides a framework for future research that focuses on process factors of violence and aggression.
Temperature Change and Its Consequences for the Physiology of the Eurythermic Sheepshead Minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus)
Authors:   , Reynolds Amanda Caroline
Published: January 2025

The estuarine sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) is the most eurythermic fish species, with a thermal tolerance window between 0.6°C and 45.1°C. However, little is known about the physiological mechanisms that allow this species to survive this temperature range. In order to understand how sheepshead minnow physiology is affected by temperature acclimation and acute changes in temperature, I conducted research on this species using a multi-level approach. I began at the organismal level, and examined the effects of these temperature changes on the sheepshead minnow's metabolic rate and swimming performance. The next chapter investigated the effects of changing temperatures on cardiac function (i.e., tissue/organ specific effects). In the final chapter, I conducted research at the sub-cellular level, and determined how mitochondrial bioenergetics / function is impacted by changing temperatures. This research shows that while sheepshead minnows are able to sustain heart function and mitochondrial respiration over a broad range of temperatures; they also display a plastic temperature response which is associated with the downregulation of standard metabolic rate and cardiac remodeling to maintain force generation. Collectively, these physiological responses may contribute to the sheepshead minnow's ability to maintain physiological and organismal function across a large temperature range.
Occupational Stress and Burnout among American Pastoral Musicians
Authors:   , Behel Kensley
Published: January 2025

Occupational burnout is a concern to the health and longevity of clergy and musician careers. However, no known study has assessed occupational burnout among pastoral musicians. A literature review revealed pastoral musicians anecdotally experienced multi-tasking, workplace politics, inequality of workload, competing liturgical styles, lack of job security, lack of financial security, and lack of rest, among other indicators of burnout. Therefore, the aims of this paper were to: (1) describe pastoral musicians as a population; (2) identify the prevalence rate of burnout among pastoral musicians; (3) investigate the relationship between pastoral musicians' burnout and religious coping; and (4) investigate the relationships between pastoral musicians' burnout and depression, anxiety, and stress. In 2021, an online questionnaire was designed to assess burnout among pastoral musicians. Dissemination techniques included emails to members of the Hymn Society of North America and via social media to collect data from pastoral music directors in the United States of America. The survey yielded n = 1,050 respondents: 83.8% experienced one or more symptoms of burnout (41.3% with low efficacy; 12.4% with high emotional exhaustion; 21.3% with high cynicism; 8.8% with burnout). Ineffectiveness was positively correlated with negative religious coping. Emotional exhaustion and cynicism were positively correlated with negative religious coping. COVID-19 affected 91.3% (n = 936) of pastoral musicians. This study contributed quantitative and qualitative analysis to pastoral musician research. Findings demonstrate burnout is prevalent among American pastoral musicians.
Tibetan and Western Musical Elements in the Piano Suite "Tibetan Sketches" by Bingyuan Cui
Authors:   , Jiang Tingyue
Published: January 2025

As one of the few piano works with Tibetan folk characteristics, the piano suite Tibetan Sketches composed by Bingyuan Cui presents a vivid depiction of the Tibetan people with colorful sound and considerable imagination. As a Tibetan, I have been greatly honored to research and perform this work and incorporate my understanding into this dissertation. The composer took into account Western composition techniques as well as Eastern music, combining religious and folk musical elements of Chinese ethnic minorities with Western piano techniques to create a wonderful work. This dissertation introduces the characteristics of Tibetan music and analyzes the work, then explores the use of Tibetan elements and the varied styles in the three movements of Tibetan Sketches. Cui uses a large number of Tibetan elements in this work, closely related to the local Tibetan music style in melodies, decorations, harmonies, tone color changes, and performance techniques. Based on the historical background and influence of Western music on the development of Chinese music and some other aspects, a brief description is given of the Eastern and Western music styles in the work. This dissertation introduces my own performance and learning experience when I studied this work, communications and an interview with the composer are also taken into account.
Southeast Denton Neighborhood Needs Assessment for Program Evaluation and Development
Authors:   , Bell K. D.
Published: January 2025

The intersection of race and space in one neighborhood in Denton, Texas, a college town situated within the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, reflects the lack of economic opportunities caused by a legacy of racial spatialization. SED, formally known as Solomon Hill, was once a predominately Black enclave; however, the city's population growth has fueled the expansion of the downtown area into neighborhood, transforming it into a hotspot for new investment. As the city rebrands itself in the name of urban entrepreneurialism, SED has become part of revitalization plans that include portraying the neighborhood as part of a cultural district, a tech hub, and an arts district. In order to understand the neighborhood today, we need to first examine its history; therefore, I provide a brief history of racial segregation in SED and examine the power structures that reinforced its marginalization. I then explain how the aforesaid transformation of SED as a cultural district, tech hub, and arts district and the expansion of downtown area into SED is a byproduct of the city's urban entrepreneurialism. Lastly, I discuss the function of the MLK Jr. Recreation Center, and their goals for connecting with the community through program evaluation and development centered around social cohesion, community partnership, and organizational partnership. The purpose of this research project is to understand how a minority-based neighborhood formed out of a legacy of structural racism, create resources that challenge gentrification and establish social cohesion utilizing a strong community asset such as the MLK Jr. Recreation Center. While this project will not bring immediate change, the goal is to lay the foundation for navigating program evaluation and development in gentrifying neighborhoods.
Emotion Regulation in Bipolar Disorder: A Meta-Analytic Review
Authors:   , Potts Anabel Faye
Published: January 2025

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental illness characterized by dramatically differing mood states and marked costs for the individual and society, making it important to find factors associated with the condition. Deficits in emotion regulation have been found across a wide range of mental health disorders and may represent an important risk factor for BD. Literature in this area has large methodological inconsistencies and many conclusions are mixed. Therefore, the current study sought to conduct a meta-analytic review of literature related to emotion regulation in BD. Results suggest that people with BD broadly report more frequent use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and less frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies than healthy controls. Of these strategies, the largest effect sizes were found for risk-taking, rumination, impulsivity, catastrophizing, and self-blame. Comparisons to other clinical groups suggest that emotion regulation in BD is largely similar to major depressive disorder and less severely impaired than borderline personality disorder. Moderator analyses of BD samples in different mood states suggest mood state plays a limited role in emotion regulation strategy usage, although some maladaptive strategies may be more common in samples with depressive symptoms. Among emotion regulation strategies, increased positive rumination and suppression may be uniquely characteristic of BD. Findings of this review support the importance of targeting emotion regulation in assessment and treatment of BD. Notably, psychotherapeutic interventions focused on emotion regulation, such as cognitive therapies, may be a key factor in reducing BD risk and episode recurrence.
Złotnictwo francuskie fundacji Julii z Druckich-Lubeckich Pusłowskiej w zbiorach krakowskiego klasztoru Zgromadzenia Zmartwychwstania Pana Naszego Jezusa Chrystusa
Authors: Myśliński Michał
Published: January 2025

The monastery of the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which has existed in Kraków since 1884, has several works of extremely high artistic quality in its goldsmith collection, both Polish and foreign. Among them, French works deserve special attention, funded by Ksawery Pusłowski (20 September 1806 – 9 January 1874) and his wife Julia Pusłowska (1820 – 18 April 1888), and above all, a chalice, a ciborium and a monstrance, made in 1874 and commemorating the late Ksawery Pusłowski. Two of the works constitute a set made in the extremely appreciated and popular Parisian goldsmith’s workshop of Placide Poussielgue-Rusand (1824-1889) in the 19th century. The work of the same manufacturer is a magnificent, elegant, high-class artistic monstrance with a very extensive iconographic programme relating to religious, personal and political content in the Polish context. Placide Poussielgue-Rusand presented a model of this monstrance at the Crystal Palace in London at the World Exhibition in 1851 and received a medal for it; the popularity of the monstrance model meant that the goldsmith company offered it for over 40 years in nine material versions, and the detailed decoration depended on the resources and will of the customer.
Szept modlitwy w obrazie zapisany. O modlitwie za umierających i modlitwie nieustającej
Authors: Ryba Grażyna
Published: January 2025

On the sidelines of fashionable trends and loud artistic provocations, there are those artists who do not always cultivate traditional artistic techniques but record their own personal confession of faith in paintings, giving the universal signs present in Christian culture the mark of a personal experience. The aim of the article is to show artists in whose work the creative process sometimes turns into a kind of prayer, and the transposition of motifs taken from nature or culture becomes an equivalent of emotional states that can be understood in the context of the biography of the author of a given work. Their paintings are a specific prayerful reflection of dramatic events or a calm, ongoing contemplation of nature leading to knowledge of the Absolute. The concept of prayer appears in the titles of their works, in their own comments, or it is implied through the use of an individual or commonly known language of symbols. Among this type of works, a special example is the artistic representation of the prayer for the dying, present in the work of many artists and moving the recipient through its personal dramatic character, as well as prayerful self-reflection, sometimes taking the form of a diary of spiritual life. The article presents the works of Tadeusz Wiktor, Małgorzata Kręcka-Rozenkranz, Tadeusz Boruta, Gustaw Zemła and Grzegorz Frydryk.
Miejsca święte wg św. Jana od Krzyża w obrazach ręką ludzką uczynionych. Myśli na kanwie twórczości Juliana Jończyka, Agnieszki Dacy i Łukasza Murzyna
Authors: Stano Bernadeta
Published: January 2025

The works of St. John of the Cross feature three types of holy places: places where God reveals himself, those where someone has experienced God’s special graces, and natural landscapes that encourage contemplation. In this article, I have looked at the motif of place understood and shaped in this way in the work of three Kraków artists: the late member of the 2nd Kraków Group, painter, performer and installation artist Julian Jończyk, as well as contemporary artists: painter Agnieszka Daca and a representative of media art in the broadest sense, Łukasz Murzyn. Their art is often born out of religious inspiration, but it does not directly illustrate biblical scenes; rather, it depicts a world of subjective emotions that relate to the experience of everyday life – sometimes as difficult to comprehend as the revelations shared by the Church-recognised saints. Daca sets herself the daunting task of imagining and reconstructing places described very enigmatically in hagiographic texts, while Jończyk and Murzyn create spaces of encounter between the contemporary artist and the Other(s) from the Sacrum.
From Interaction to Prediction: A Multi-Interactive Attention-Based Approach to Product Rating Prediction
Authors: Yu Li , Gong Wei , Zhang Dongsong , Ding Yu , Fu Zhe
Published: January 2025

Despite increasing research on product rating prediction, very few studies have considered user-item interaction relationships at multiple levels. To address this critical limitation, we propose a novel rating prediction method based on multi-interaction attention (RPMIA) by learning user-item interaction relationships at three levels simultaneously from online consumer reviews for predicting product ratings with reasonable interpretability. Specifically, RPMIA first deploys a multihead cross-attention mechanism to capture the interaction between contexts of items and users. Then, it uses a bilayer gate-based mechanism to extract the aspects of items and users and a self-attention mechanism to learn their interaction at the aspect level. Finally, the aspects of users and items are coupled together to form meaningful user-item aspect pairs via a joint attention. A multitask predictor that integrates a factorization machine and a feedforward neural network is designed to generate a rating prediction. We empirically evaluated RPMIA with seven real-world data sets. The results demonstrate that RPMIA outperforms the state-of-the-art methods consistently and significantly. We also conduct a user study to assess the interpretability of the RPMIA method.

History: Accepted by Ram Ramesh, Area Editor for Data Science & Machine Learning.

Funding: The research is supported by Beijing Social Science Foundation [24XCB012], Suzhou Key Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Social Governance Technologies [SZS2023007], and Smart Social Governance Technology and Innovative Application Platform [YZCXPT2023101].

Supplemental Material: The software that supports the findings of this study is available within the paper and its Supplemental Information ( https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/suppl/10.1287/ijoc.2023.0131 ) as well as from the IJOC GitHub software repository ( https://github.com/INFORMSJoC/2023.0131 ). The complete IJOC Software and Data Repository is available at https://informsjoc.github.io/ .
Sometimes, Always, Never: Regulatory Clarity and the Development of Digital Financing
Authors: Ran Zhenkai , Rau P. Raghavendra , Ziegler Tania
Published: January 2025

This study examines how the level of detail in legal regulations impacts crowdfunding. We find that clear, explicit regulations significantly boost crowdfunding volumes in a global sample of digital finance. Using proxies to measure regulatory detail in three types of countries—countries that sometimes, always, or never had regulation—in a series of difference-in-difference regressions, we show a significant positive relation between regulatory clarity and the level of debt crowdfunding. There is little effect on the level of equity crowdfunding. Clear regulations appear to encourage the creation of new crowdfunding platforms rather than concentrating activity in existing ones.

This paper was accepted by Will Cong, finance.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01538 .
The Effect of Functional Diversity on Team Creativity: Behavioral and fNIRS Evidence
Authors: Chen Yasheng , Presslee Adam , Yang Sue
Published: January 2025

Variation in functional expertise is an important decision that managers face when designing teams tasked with being creative. We develop theory that predicts that functional diversity has countervailing effects on team creativity through its positive (negative) effect on the uniqueness (usefulness) of the proposals generated. We conduct an experiment where functionally homogeneous or heterogeneous two-person teams are tasked with proposing a creative use for an unused university space. We measure the uniqueness, usefulness, and overall creativity of team proposals. We also use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging technology to investigate the underlying team cognitive processes. Measured outcomes and fNIRS data support our predictions. Combining conventional experiment and advanced neuroimaging techniques, our study informs theory and practice by providing evidence of how functional diversity affects team creativity.

This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting.

Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NA) [Grant 72172132] and CPA Ontario’s Centre for Sustainability Reporting and Performance Management (NA).

Supplemental Material: The online supplemental appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.02157 .
Strategic Responses to Innovation Shocks: Evidence from the Video Game Industry
Authors: Argyres Nicholas , Bigelow Lyda , Nickerson Jackson , Ozalp Hakan , Yilmaz Erdem Dogukan
Published: January 2025

A major concern of the strategy and innovation literature on platforms has been how complementors are affected by and respond to innovations in platform characteristics. We contribute to this research by examining how complementors choose their homing strategies in response to a platform innovation shock. We theorize that comparative adjustment and opportunity costs can predict these choices, and we test our predictions using data on complementor responses to the introduction of Generation 6 video game consoles. Consistent with our predictions, we find that complementors’ choices of whether to develop games for a single console, multiple consoles sequentially, or multiple consoles simultaneously depend on proxies for their comparative adjustment and opportunity costs of adopting each of these strategies.

Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2023.0104 .
Promotion of microfracture-mediated cartilage repair by the intra-articular injection of Mg2+
Authors: Chen Zhian , Zhou Tianhua , Yin Zhengbo , Duan Peiya , Zhang Ying , Feng Yujiao , Shi Rongmao , Xu Yongqing , Pang Rongqing , Tan Hongbo
Published: January 2025

Aims

Magnesium ions (Mg2+) play an important role in promoting cartilage repair in cartilage lesions. However, no research has focused on the role of Mg2+ combined with microfracture (MFX) in hyaline-like cartilage repair mediated by cartilage injury. This study aimed to investigate the beneficial effects of the combination of MFX and Mg2+ in cartilage repair.

Methods

A total of 60 rabbits were classified into five groups (n = 12 each): sham, MFX, and three different doses of Mg2+ treatment groups (0.05, 0.5, and 5 mol/L). Bone cartilage defects were created in the trochlear groove cartilage of rabbits. MFX surgery was performed after osteochondral defects. Mg2+ was injected into knee joints immediately and two and four weeks after surgery. At six and 12 weeks after surgery, the rabbits were killed. Cartilage damage was detected by gross observation, micro-CT, and histological analysis. The expression levels of related genes were detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).

Results

The histological results showed that the 0.5 mol/L Mg2+ group had deeper positive staining in haematoxylin-eosin (H&E), safranin O, Alcian blue, and type II collagen staining. The new cartilage coverage in the injury area was more complete, and the regeneration of hyaline cartilage was higher. The RT-qPCR results showed that sirtuin 1/bone morphogenetic protein-2/sex-determining region Y box 9 (SIRT1/BMP-2/SOX-9) and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) messenger RNA levels were up-regulated after Mg2+ injection.

Conclusion

MFX combined with Mg2+ treatment has a positive effect on cartilage repair. The Mg2+ injection dose of 0.5 mol/L is most effective in enhancing microfracture-mediated cartilage repair.

Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2025;14(1):20–32.
Complete analysis of the reduced aberration Luneburg lens
Authors: Padilla-Ortiz A. L. , Pisano E. , Chávez-Cerda S. , Gómez-Correa J. E.
Published: January 2025

The modified Luneburg lens, otherwise known as the Gutman lens, is a
gradient-index spherical lens whose focus occurs inside the lens in
the stigmatic case (aberration-free). When the focus is set to lie
outside the lens, spherical aberration is introduced. Recently, a
scaled version of Gutman’s equation has been proposed to minimize this
aberration and the corresponding lens was referred to as the reduced
aberration acoustic Luneburg lens. The minimization process was based
on numerical optimization methods. The term “acoustic” is used since
it was originally designed with dimensions suitable for propagating
acoustic waves. However, this lens is general enough to be analyzed in
terms of its maximum radius, allowing it to be scaled to any size and
capable of propagating any wavelength. In other words, this lens can
be more broadly referred to as the reduced aberration Luneburg lens
(RALL). In this paper, we present the complete formalism of the RALL,
conducting a detailed and comprehensive analysis of its performance.
Establishing the physical characteristics of the proposed scaled
Gutman’s equation, we perform an aberration analysis using ray tracing
based on the Fermat’s invariants. Our analysis reveals that the RALL
is essentially a Gutman lens with a larger radius. The reduction of
spherical aberration is due to the fact that the rays impinge on a
trimmed anterior effective area of the lens. In any optical system it
is common that the major contribution for spherical aberration comes
from rays at the periphery.
Three-dimensional characterization of EUV mask blank defects with photoemission electron microscopy assisted by neural network transfer learning
Authors: Li Jiawei , Li Bochao , Zhao Zhenlong , Xie Zhuo , Song Xiaowei , Lin Jingquan
Published: January 2025

Information on the type and morphology of an extreme ultraviolet mask blank defect is of vital importance for mask blank repair and defect compensation. This study introduces an approach for defect type identification and three-dimensional (3D) morphology reconstruction based on photoemission electron microscopy. With the assistance of the neural network transfer learning method, the defect type can be precisely identified, and average error rates of 1.37% and 1.39% were achieved for the morphology parameters of bump and pit defects, respectively. Moreover, both defect-type identification and morphology-parameter reconstruction of phase defects are highly robust. This paper proposes a new, to the best of our knowledge, method for the type identification and 3D morphology characterization of phase defects, providing fundamental data for mask repair.
Infrared search and track system based on image-spectrum collaborative detection with improved recognition capability
Authors: Gu Luo , Yang Qiujie , Wang Xiang , Lin Yue , Mao Zhiyuan , He Zhiping
Published: January 2025

Long-range detection and recognition of small targets has been a significant issue in areas of industry and business. One kind of small targets detecting technology is based on the conventional well-known infrared search and track (IRST) operated by optical imaging, making the recognition capability difficult to be further enhanced within the limited load. To deal with the contradiction, the image-spectrum collaborative detecting strategy is proposed to detect and recognize the remote small targets, and a freeform surface-based IRST system operating by image-spectrum collaborative detecting is presented and demonstrated in this paper. Principles and advantages of the proposed IRST system are elaborated on the basis of comparison with the conventional one. In terms of the target recognition capability, the proposed IRST system calculation is performed based on broadband radiation transfer. An optical system of the proposed IRST system combining an imaging channel and spectrum-measuring channel is provided in which both the channels share one off-axis three-mirror fore optics. An imaging channel with a diagonal field of view (FOV) of 3.52° is obtained based on the freeform surfaces at first, and then a spectrum-measuring channel with a narrow FOV is designed based on the dynamic Fourier transform spectrometer with necessary collimating and converging elements. Under the guidance of the direction information from the imaging channel, the spectrum-measuring channel is initiated to recognize the dynamic and small targets by accurately measuring the characteristic spectrum which is referred to as the object’s fingerprint. Finally, the proposed IRST system is demonstrated by the detection experiment. The presented detecting strategy and system in this paper show a great potential in solving the problem of detecting and recognizing the dynamic and small targets in a longer range.
The 30-year evolution of oral cholera vaccines: A case study of a collaborative network alternative innovation model
Authors: Large Kaitlin , Ruiz Adrian Alonso , Slovenski Iulia , Vieira Marcela , Moon Suerie
Published: January 2025

Cholera outbreaks have been rapidly increasing around the world. While long-term cholera prevention and control measures rely on improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene, oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) are used for prevention and control in the short-to-medium term. OCVs lack the market incentives available in other more profitable disease areas. The development of OCVs was made possible through an alternative innovation model, which sustained innovation across multiple generations of the product for more than three decades. To examine how this alternative innovation model worked, we conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders related to the development of several OCVs, including “Dukoral”, “Shanchol”, and “Euvichol-Plus”, as well as additional cholera vaccines currently under development. Interview data was analyzed thematically according to the resources used by organizations (including funding, knowledge, relationships, and manufacturing), and the practices they implemented during each stage of the R&D process (including knowledge management and intellectual property strategies, approaches to transparency, and global access strategies). Next, we created participatory network maps to illustrate the structure of the relationships between stakeholders and how these evolved over time. We found that a core group of stakeholders were able to influence policies to promote the use of OCVs, and successfully develop, finance, and obtain WHO Prequalification for safe, effective, and affordable OCVs for global procurement and distribution. The evolution of OCVs demonstrates how a collaborative network innovation model can successfully develop new pharmaceutical products that are affordable and well-suited for use in context. This model could be applied to other areas of pharmaceutical innovation, such as pandemic preparedness, for more equitable outcomes for global public health.
Towards culturally inclusive healthcare in Peru: Mapping epistemic concepts in contemporary Indigenous Amazonian medicine—Traditional healers’ perspectives
Authors: Berlowitz Ilana , Pesantes Maria Amalia , Cárdenas Palacios Cynthia , Martin-Soelch Chantal , Wolf Ursula , Maake Caroline
Published: January 2025

Peru is among Latin American countries with the largest Indigenous population, yet ethnical health disparities persist, particularly in the Amazon region which comprises 60% of the national territory. Healthcare models that include Indigenous medicine and traditional healers present an important avenue for addressing such inequalities, as they increase cultural adequacy of services, healthcare access, and acknowledge Indigenous Rights for their perspectives to be represented in public healthcare. Understanding the underlying epistemologies of Indigenous medicine is a prerequisite for this purpose. Thus, in order to support Indigenous Organizations and governmental initiatives to develop more inclusive healthcare approaches, the current study investigated key epistemic concepts in Indigenous-Amazonian medicine from the perspective of traditional healers. We conducted systematic in-depth interviews (semi-structured) with a sample of 13 healers of three Peruvian-Amazonian regions (Loreto, Ucayali, San Martín). Data was analysed using manifest qualitative content analysis. Our findings point to an intricate medical system based on a sophisticated understanding of health, illness, and treatment. Indigenous healers described multifactorial aetiology concepts, complex interactions between material and spirit-related aspects of body and nature, diagnosis, and treatment. These often involved carefully designed applications of ‘teacher plants’, a concept at the heart of this medical system. Furthermore, while the healers considered traditional and biomedicine as complementary systems, they identified the lack of recognition of traditional healers as a primary barrier for collaboration. Indeed, preconceptions and stigma on Indigenous medicine along with a paucity of research, still represent an impediment to countries’ ability to respond to Indigenous peoples’ health-related expectations and needs, thus maintaining existing inequalities. This work offers a significant contribution to the understanding of Indigenous-Amazonian medicine and perspectives of traditional healers, relevant for Peru and adjacent countries sharing Amazonian territory and cultures. Our findings also highlight Amazonian healers’ unique expertise around the therapeutic applications of psychoactives, from which the current revival of clinical scientific interest in psychedelic-assisted therapies may have a great deal to learn.
Effect of family support and work resources in the relationship of economic constraints and work volition: Evidence from China
Authors: Hai Lu , Wang Yang , Shu Man , Zhang Mengxiao , Wang Yijiao
Published: January 2025

Background

As the pace of economic development slows, college students are facing an increasingly challenging employment landscape. For instance, the expansion of higher education has led to a swell in the number of job seekers, which has in turn intensified competition. Given the limited job opportunities, it’s understandable that many college students are developing a pessimistic employment mindset. Therefore, it’s crucial to explore how objective factors influence their work aspirations. But few studies have explored the role of mediating factors between the two, such as family and resource factors. Thus, this study examines the effects of family support and work resources between the relationship between economic constraints and work volition.

Methods

The study examined 1249 Chinese undergraduate students as participants ((714 men and 535 women; Mage = 19.32, SD = 1.50), using the questionnaire with the Wenjuanxing online survey tool. The questionnaire were collected between August, 2022 and December, 2022. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used to conducted a comprehensive analysis of the collected data, and investigate the relationships among latent variables and assess the goodness of fit of the observed indicators on their associated latent constructs. Additionally, we evaluated all the hypothesized direct and indirect effects.

Results

The results showed the direct and indirect relationships among economic constraints, family support, work resources and work volition. Economic constraints can directly predict work volition. Moreover, economic constraints have a significant negative impact on work volition via two mediators: family support and work resources. On the one hand, economic constraints negatively affect work volition through family support and work resource separately. On the other hand, economic constraints negatively predict family support and work resource, thus negatively impact work volition.

Contribution

The current study has established the independent mediating and chain-mediated effects of family support and work resources on the relationship between economic constraints and work volition. This deeper understanding of internal mechanisms provides valuable insights that can inform strategies for enhancing individual’s work volition, particularly from the perspectives of economic constraints, family support, and work volition.
Explainable human-centered traits from head motion and facial expression dynamics
Authors: Madan Surbhi , Gahalawat Monika , Guha Tanaya , Goecke Roland , Subramanian Ramanathan
Published: January 2025

We explore the efficacy of multimodal behavioral cues for explainable prediction of personality and interview-specific traits. We utilize elementary head-motion units named kinemes, atomic facial movements termed action units and speech features to estimate these human-centered traits. Empirical results confirm that kinemes and action units enable discovery of multiple trait-specific behaviors while also enabling explainability in support of the predictions. For fusing cues, we explore decision and feature-level fusion, and an additive attention-based fusion strategy which quantifies the relative importance of the three modalities for trait prediction. Examining various long-short term memory (LSTM) architectures for classification and regression on the MIT Interview and First Impressions Candidate Screening (FICS) datasets, we note that: (1) Multimodal approaches outperform unimodal counterparts, achieving the highest PCC of 0.98 for Excited-Friendly traits in MIT and 0.57 for Extraversion in FICS; (2) Efficient trait predictions and plausible explanations are achieved with both unimodal and multimodal approaches, and (3) Following the thin-slice approach, effective trait prediction is achieved even from two-second behavioral snippets. Our implementation code is available at: https://github.com/deepsurbhi8/Explainable_Human_Traits_Prediction.
Exploring the impact of Brownian motion on novel closed-form solutions of the extended Kairat-II equation
Authors: Aldwoah Khaled , Mustafa Alaa , Aljaaidi Tariq , Mohamed Khidir , Alsulami Amer , Hassan Mohammed
Published: January 2025

This work considers a stochastic form of an extended version of the Kairat-II equation by adding Browning motion into the deterministic equation. Two analytical approaches are utilized to derive analytical solutions of the modified equation. The first method is the modified Tanh technique linked with the Riccati equation, which is implemented to extract some closed-form solutions in the form of tangent and cotangent functions. The second technique is the Sardar sub-equation method (SSEM) which is used to attain several analytical solutions in the form of trigonometric and hyperbolic functions. Solutions selected randomly from the large families of solutions with suggested techniques are visualized in 3D and 2D scenarios. From the simulations an intriguing observation is made: the solutions generated through the modified tanh method exhibit a singular nature, with some of hybrid waves among them. On contrary to this, solutions derived through the SSEM, tend to be mostly non-singular in nature. The varying influence of the noise intensity revealed that the high amplitude and high energy regions of the waves are more vulnerable to the induced noise as compared to lower energy regions, which are relatively robust. This study introduces novel approaches by incorporating Brownian motion into the extended Kairat-II equation, providing new insights into the behavior of stochastic integrable systems that have not been previously explored.
Effects of antioxidant nutrients on muscle mass, strength and function in COPD patients: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors: He Qinman , Yang Pan , Wang Ye , Xu Wanmei , Feng Yi , Xie Fei , Xu Guixiang
Published: January 2025

Aim

To comprehensively investigate the effects of antioxidant nutrients on muscle mass, strength and function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were comprehensively searched from the inception to January 3, 2024. The quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was measured using the Jadad scale. Weighted mean differences (WMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used as the effect size for measurement data. Further, subgroup analysis was conducted based on whether patients participated in lung rehabilitation plans while receiving nutritional interventions. Sensitivity analysis was performed on all outcomes.

Results

A total of 12 studies involving 595 patients with COPD were included, with 11 studies had high quality, and one study had low quality. For muscle mass, patients receiving antioxidant nutrients had a significantly increased lean body mass index compared with those not receiving antioxidant nutrients (pooled WMD: 0.903, 95% CI: 0.264, 1.541, P = 0.006). For patients who did not participate in lung rehabilitation plan while receiving nutritional interventions, antioxidant nutrients brought about a significantly higher lean body mass index (pooled WMD: 1.360, 95% CI: 0.560, 2.160, P = 0.001). For muscle strength, patients in the antioxidant nutrient intervention group had significantly higher hand grip strength (HGS) than those in the non-antioxidant nutrient intervention group (pooled WMD: 1.976, 95% CI: 1.337, 2.615, P < 0.001). Patients receiving antioxidant nutrients had significantly greater inspiratory muscle strength (MIP) than those not receiving antioxidant nutrients (pooled WMD: 8.127, 95% CI: 2.677, 13.577, P = 0.003).

Conclusion

Antioxidant nutrient intervention significantly improved HGS, MIP and lean body mass index in COPD. Clinicians should consider increasing food intake or supplementation rich in antioxidants in the treatment plan of patients with COPD.
A study of association between maternal tetanus toxoid immunization and neonatal mortality in the context of Bangladesh
Authors: Naha Sujan Kumar , Arpon Md. Efty Islam , Siddique Rifa Tasfia , Ripa Farjana Rahman , Hasan Mohammad Nayeem , Uddin Md. Jamal
Published: January 2025

Background

Maternal tetanus toxoid (MTT) vaccination during pregnancy remains an important factor for reducing infant mortality globally, especially in developing nations, including Bangladesh. Despite commendable progress in reducing child mortality through widespread MTT vaccination during pregnancy, the issue still exists. This analysis explores the impact of MTT vaccination on neonatal mortality in Bangladesh and identifies associated factors.

Methods

This research utilizes data from the 2019 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). The dataset consists of 23,402 cases; among them, 587 cases resulted in infant death. The outcome variable was infant mortality, which was binary. The independent variables identified as potential contributors to the cause of death included tetanus toxoid vaccination status, mode of delivery (cesarean section or not), and mother’s education level, among others. The Poisson model was employed to analyze the data.

Results

The analyses showed that the neonatal mortality rate was 2.51%. Notably, 45.90% of mothers received the MTT vaccination during pregnancy. Among them, 23.07% received a single dose, and 22.82% took adequate doses (receiving more than two doses) and adhered to WHO guidelines. The adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) was 1.36, which indicates that there was a 36% higher risk of neonatal mortality for those children whose mothers did not take TT (IRR = 1.36, p = 0.081). We also found that women from middle-class households (IRR = 1.58, 95% CI = 0.98, 2.54) and women with higher parity (IRR = 1.96, 95% CI = 0.95, 4.03) also had a higher risk of newborn fatalities. A comparable trend has been observed regarding the correlation between the number of tetanus doses administered and neonatal mortality, where it also emphasizes the importance of receiving adequate doses (a minimum of 2 doses of tetanus vaccine) to mitigate neonatal mortality (adjusted IRR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.29, 1.01) in comparison to no doses received.

Conclusion

Administering a minimum of one maternal tetanus dose significantly lowers the risk of neonatal mortality. Other than Maternal Tetanus Toxoid vaccination, the analyses underscore various contributors to neonatal mortality, encompassing maternal healthcare, delivery procedures, socio-economic status, and education. Targeted interventions addressing these factors have the potential to efficiently decrease neonatal mortality rates and improve overall maternal and child health.