bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Causal inference in survival analysis under deterministic missingness of confounders in register data
Authors: Ciocănea‐Teodorescu Iuliana , Goetghebeur Els , Waernbaum Ingeborg , Schön Staffan , Gabriel Erin E.
Published: March 2023

Long‐term register data offer unique opportunities to explore causal effects of treatments on time‐to‐event outcomes, in well‐characterized populations with minimum loss of follow‐up. However, the structure of the data may pose methodological challenges. Motivated by the Swedish Renal Registry and estimation of survival differences for renal replacement therapies, we focus on the particular case when an important confounder is not recorded in the early period of the register, so that the entry date to the register deterministically predicts confounder missingness. In addition, an evolving composition of the treatment arms populations, and suspected improved survival outcomes in later periods lead to informative administrative censoring, unless the entry date is appropriately accounted for. We investigate different consequences of these issues on causal effect estimation following multiple imputation of the missing covariate data. We analyse the performance of different combinations of imputation models and estimation methods for the population average survival. We further evaluate the sensitivity of our results to the nature of censoring and misspecification of fitted models. We find that an imputation model including the cumulative baseline hazard, event indicator, covariates and interactions between the cumulative baseline hazard and covariates, followed by regression standardization, leads to the best estimation results overall, in simulations. Standardization has two advantages over inverse probability of treatment weighting here: it can directly account for the informative censoring by including the entry date as a covariate in the outcome model, and allows for straightforward variance computation using readily available software.
Isolation and Characterization of Fractionated Cellulose from Madhuca indica
Authors: Roat Priyanka , Hada Sonal , Chechani Bhawna , Prasher Parteek , Singh Rawat Devendra , Kumar Yadav Dinesh , Kumar Sanjay , Kumari Neetu
Published: March 2023

The present study proposes valorization of Mahua (Madhuca indica) seed cake for the isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) to provide a sustainable and low‐cost precursor material to produce nano biomaterials aiming a sustainable conversion of waste material to value‐added products. The raw material was subjected to bleaching and alkali treatment to obtain cellulose, followed by acid hydrolysis for the isolation of CNC. The resultant nanocrystals were characterized for structural changes using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). FTIR results showed progressive removal of non‐cellulosic components such as hemicellulose and lignin. This rendered CNCs with a 35 % yield along with higher crystallinity index of 85 % as determined by XRD. Thermo gravimetric analysis revealed that isolated CNCs have higher thermal stability (>200 °C). SEM images showed that the CNCs exhibit ultrafine microfibers like structures.
Fabricating Superhydrophobic Protective Films with Enhanced Self‐Cleaning and Anti‐Corrosion Properties through Multiple Anodic Oxidations on Aluminum Alloys
Authors: Liu Enhong , Zhou Yuqin , Zhao Shuang , Hao Jiashuo , Hu Yang , Su Yuyu , Han Jianhua
Published: March 2023

The development of aluminum (Al) alloys with superb anti‐corrosion and self‐cleaning properties for prolonging the working life and reducing maintenance cost is a hot topic of concern. Since anodic oxidation has been proven to be an effective technique to prepare micro or nanostructures on Al alloys surface, this study proposes a novel and scalable multiple anodic oxidations method with gradient current densities for fabricating hierarchical micro‐nanostructure film with appropriate roughness on Al alloys, while the SiO2‐silane film reduced the surface free energy and enhanced the surface chemical inert state. As expected, the surface of Al alloys modified with the multiple anodic oxidations and SiO2‐silane film has the most substantial hydrophobic properties, with contact angle up to 166°, rolling angle as low as 3.17° and excellent non‐sticking effect of water droplets. This method enables the Al alloys surface to have excellent self‐cleaning performance and corrosion resistance with protection efficiency up to 98.81 %. This multiple anodic oxidations method has a wide range of references for the modulation of micro‐nanostructure on Al alloys surface and other metallic substrates to assemble superhydrophobic protective films.
Evaluating the Anti‐Gastric Ulcer Activity ofAegle marmelos: A Brief Review
Authors: Zaib Sumera , Javed Hira , Ogaly Hanan A. , Khan Imtiaz
Published: March 2023

Gastric ulcer is a deep hole in the stomach wall that penetrates the entire mucosa. About 10 % of the world population suffers from gastrointestinal tract disorders frequently known as gastric ulcers. Synthetic drugs are used to prevent gastric ulcers by suppressing the formation of gastric acid or stopping bacterial infections, however, these synthetic drugs have a number of harmful effects. Therefore, drug candidates with improved potency and minimal toxicity are crucial for the treatment and management of gastric ulcers. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in the medicinal potential of plants and their ability to treat gastric ulcers. There is an urgent need for herbal remedies to treat ulcers, andAegle marmelospresents a better option due to scientifically proven antibacterial and antiulcer properties. In this context,A. marmeloshighlights various benefits including anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It is well known that every component ofA. marmeloshas therapeutic and medical use. The two main causes of stomach ulcers areHelicobacter pyloriand NSAIDs.A. marmelosshows strong antioxidant and antiulcer effects and guard againstH. pylori‐caused ulcers on the stomach mucosa by inhibiting secretory factors and activating antioxidant processes.
Impact of Hydrogen‐Bond Surrogate Model on Helix Stabilization and Development of Protein‐Protein Interaction Inhibitors
Authors: Pal Sunit
Published: March 2023

Protein‐protein interactions (PPIs) involved in several diseases are predominantly mediated through short helical peptides. Unlike small molecules, due to the extended surface, the chemically constrained peptides with proper helical conformation can modulate the PPIs and thus contribute to the future drug developments. Several model systems have been introduced in the past to induce the helical structure in short peptides. Incorporating the unnatural constraints by various protocols has been excellent in biasing helical conformation and improving the proteolytic stability and the cell permeability of peptides. Hydrogen‐bond surrogate (HBS) is one of such well‐known protocols to mimic helical surfaces in numerous peptide sequences. Unlike ‘Stapled’ peptides, HBS‐model replaces the main‐chain i+4→i hydrogen bonding interaction with a covalent surrogate and retains the side‐chain functionality intact, which is beneficial for targeting multi‐faced PPIs. This review focuses on the chemistry behind the development of the HBS‐stabilized peptides, its biophysical characterizations, and numerous biological applications. Furthermore, this review will provide a broad overview of the HBS‐model to attract chemical biologists to target multifaced ‘difficult’ PPIs.
Nanoscale Organization of TRAIL Trimers using DNA Origami to Promote Clustering of Death Receptor and Cancer Cell Apoptosis
Authors: Ma Nana , Cheng Keman , Feng Qingqing , Liu Guangna , Liang Jie , Ma Xiaotu , Chen Zhiqiang , Lu Yichao , Wang Xinwei , He Wei , Xu Hu , Wu Shan , Zou Jiajia , Shi Quanwei , Nie Guangjun , Zhao Xiao
Published: March 2023

Through inducing death receptor (DR) clustering to activate downstream signaling, tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) trimers trigger apoptosis of tumor cells. However, the poor agonistic activity of current TRAIL‐based therapeutics limits their antitumor efficiency. The nanoscale spatial organization of TRAIL trimers at different interligand distances is still challenging, which is essential for the understanding of interaction pattern between TRAIL and DR. In this study, a flat rectangular DNA origami is employed as display scaffold, and an “engraving‐printing” strategy is developed to rapidly decorate three TRAIL monomers onto its surface to form DNA‐TRAIL3 trimer (DNA origami with surface decoration of three TRAIL monomers). With the spatial addressability of DNA origami, the interligand distances are precisely controlled from 15 to 60 nm. Through comparing the receptor affinity, agonistic activity and cytotoxicity of these DNA‐TRAIL3 trimers, it is found that ≈40 nm is the critical interligand distance of DNA‐TRAIL3 trimers to induce death receptor clustering and the resulting apoptosis.Finally, a hypothetical “active unit” model is proposed for the DR5 clustering induced by DNA‐TRAIL3 trimers.
Narrow Directed Black Phosphorus Nanoribbons Produced by A Reformative Mechanical Exfoliation Approach
Authors: Hu Bei , Zhang Teng , Wang Kunchan , Wang Long , Zhang Yanming , Gao Shengguang , Ye Xiaowo , Zhou Qingping , Jiang Shenghao , Li Xinyue , Shi Fangyuan , Chen Changxin
Published: March 2023

Black phosphorus nanoribbons (PNRs) are ideal candidates for constructing electronic and optoelectronic devices owing to their unique structure and high bandgap tunability. However, the preparation of high‐quality narrow PNRs aligned along the same direction is very challenging. Here, a reformative mechanical exfoliation approach combining tape and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) exfoliations to fabricate high‐quality, narrow, and directed PNRs with smooth edges for the first time is developed. In this method, partially‐exfoliated PNRs are first formed on thick black phosphorus (BP) flakes via the tape exfoliation and further peeled off to obtain separated PNRs via the PDMS exfoliation. The prepared PNRs have widths from a dozen to hundreds of nanometers (down to 15 nm) and a mean length of 18 µm. It is found that the PNRs can align along a same direction and the length directions of directed PNRs are along the zigzag direction. The formation of PNRs is attributed to that the BP prefers to be unzipped along the zigzag direction and has an appropriate magnitude of interaction force with the PDMS substrate. The fabricated PNR/MoS2 heterojunction diode and PNR field‐effect transistor exhibit good device performance. This work provides a new pathway to achieve high‐quality, narrow, and directed PNRs for electronic and optoelectronic applications.
An Azo‐Based Electrode for All‐Around High‐Performance Flexible Supercapacitors
Authors: Zhang Haoxiang , Du Minyong , Xing Xinxin , Wang Hui , Wang Kai , Liu Shengzhong (Frank)
Published: March 2023

The photo‐rechargeable supercapacitor enables the self‐powering of flexible wearable electronics. However, flexible wearable electronics require supercapacitors not only with excellent flexibility but also with high energy density. P‐diaminoazobenzene (P‐Azo) as a new type of organic electrode material with NN is directly connected to the benzene ring and forms a large π‐conjugated system, which makes it have a lower lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level, is beneficial to transfer of electrons, and increases the conductivity of organic molecules. In addition, NN can realize the transfer of two electrons, which makes P‐Azo have a higher energy density. Asymmetric flexible supercapacitors are fabricated by assembling P‐Azo, activated carbon, and an adhesive electrolyte, with 425.2 mW h cm−2 (55.19 Wh kg−1) energy density at a power density of 80 mW cm−2 (10.38 W kg−1), and 90.7% capacitance retention after 80 000 cycles of bending. In this work, supercapacitors and perovskite submodules are coupled to prepare a photo‐rechargeable supercapacitor to achieve a 7% overall energy‐conversion efficiency. Therefore, this supercapacitor paves a practical route for powering future wearable electronics.
Rational Regulation of Organic Spacer Cations for Quasi‐2D Perovskite Solar Cells
Authors: Lai Hongtao , Xu Zhiyuan , Shao Zhihui , Cui Bing , Tian Binqiang , Wang Huanhuan , Fu Qiang
Published: March 2023

Quasi‐two‐dimensional perovskite solar cells (quasi‐2D PSCs) have drawn significant attention and are rapidly developing owing to the impressive stability of the materials and devices. However, there are no reliable guidelines for designing and selecting suitable organic spacer cations to achieve high power conversion efficiency (PCE) in quasi‐2D PSCs. Herein, the effects of the spacer cations with different substituents, i.e., benzylamine (PMA), 4‐methoxybenzylamine (p‐MeOPMA), and 4‐fluorobenzylamine (p‐FPMA), on the optoelectronic properties and device performance of quasi‐2D perovskites are systematically investigated. It is found that the spacer cations with different substituents mainly affect the crystal growth and film quality of quasi‐2D perovskites. Interestingly, quasi‐2D perovskites based on p‐MeOPMA or p‐FPMA exhibit poor crystallinity and crystal orientation, while quasi‐2D perovskite based on the unsubstituted PMA shows improved crystallinity and crystal orientation, which enables suppressed trap densities and efficient charge transport. The PMA‐based quasi‐2D perovskite (nominal n = 3) solar cell exhibits the highest PCE of 13.58%. These results demonstrate that the rational regulation of organic spacer cations plays a crucial role in improving the crystallinity and crystal orientation of perovskite films and elucidate key guiding rules for organic spacer cations for high‐performance quasi‐2D PSCs.
Sex, Fertility, Pregnancy, and Parenthood with a Chronic Disease or Other Health Disturbance
Authors: van Lunsen Rik H. W.
Published: March 2023

In sexology and sexual medicine, it is common knowledge that nearly every chronic disease and cancer treatment may have extensive sexual consequences. This chapter will deal with relevant sexual aspects of the common chronic diseases that predated women’s pregnancies or that developed during pregnancy.

The chapter will start with the complexities of childwish and fertility when there is a chronic disease, with the accompanying ambivalence, insecurities, and risks. It is followed by a general view of sexual consequences and implications of chronic disease. After that, the chapter will address the sexual aspects of ten rather common specific conditions relevant in midwifery practice: breast cancer, chronic bowel disease, cervical cancer, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatic diseases, asthma, HIV, congenital heart disease, and chronic kidney diseases.

This chapter is part of ‘Midwifery and Sexuality’, a Springer Nature open-access textbook for midwives and related healthcare professionals.
Sexual Aspects of Pregnancy and the Postpartum in Non-Mainstream Orientation
Authors: Højgaard Astrid Ditte , Dahl Bente
Published: March 2023

In some parts of the World, one can barely imagine that a woman could have a sexual relationship with another woman. However, in other countries, same-sex marriage has become accepted and legalised.

As a logical part of that social and legal development, lesbian couples can decide on pregnancy and motherhood. This chapter will deal with relevant aspects of sexuality and reproductive options in lesbian couples who have decided to start a family with their own children. At first, some information is shared on the prevalence of lesbianism and lesbian motherhood and then on the marital and reproductive rights of women with a non-mainstream orientation.

In the next part, the chapter will pay attention to the phase of decision, conception, and beyond. It will also make recommendations on providing good care to the lesbian couple, especially concerning sexuality. Those lessons are relevant for everyone, especially for HCPs in cultures where people have not yet developed a greater degree of acceptance (and respect) for lesbian women.

This chapter is part of ‘Midwifery and Sexuality’, a Springer Nature open-access textbook for midwives and related healthcare professionals.
The Health Benefits of Sexual Expression
Authors: Gianotten Woet L.
Published: March 2023

The desired conception is not the only benefit of sexual intercourse. There are many more benefits of sexuality. That is part of the reasons to include attention to sexuality and intimacy in good care. (1) Sexuality is, for many people, highly relevant to their general quality of life. (2) Properly addressing sexuality and intimacy appears to improve the contact between the healthcare professional and the couple. (3) Sexual activities have direct physical and mental health benefits. This chapter concentrates on those health benefits.

For some people, the idea of having sex for better health can seem a strange fact. Whereas some might consider it nothing more than just another transient media trend, others might consider it an attractive idea. Though it is an infrequent research topic, there is gradually more information about the various health benefits of sexual expression. This chapter will focus on those health benefits, especially regarding fertility and pregnancy.

This chapter is part of ‘Midwifery and Sexuality’, a Springer Nature open-access textbook for midwives and related healthcare professionals.
Sexual Aspects of Getting Pregnant (Conception and Preconception)
Authors: Gianotten Woet L.
Published: March 2023

Whereas the start of trying to become pregnant tends to be pleasurable for many couples, that pleasure easily can get lost when it takes longer than the couple had expected. One of the explanations for that is a higher age when starting this process, combined with the idea of the malleability of life that gradually developed in many high-income countries. ‘Still not being pregnant’ can be a real blow to a couple’s identity, one of the reasons behind decreased sexual desire and ‘conception inefficiency’. Usually, that has nothing to do with infertility but with poor logistics in the area between sexual pleasure, couple pleasure, couple expectations and ‘good conception sex’. This chapter will explain the road to such conception inefficiency and offer relevant elements of ‘good conception sex’ and information for the HCP towards preventing the couple from getting into this downward inefficiency.

From the principle of ‘chain care’, the focus of good care should also be on the future. After all, most couples plan a pregnancy more or less to reach happy parenthood and happy couplehood. So this chapter includes sexuality in pre-conception care, a completely new approach with ideas on preventing sexual disturbances in the conception phase but also already in the last stage of pregnancy and post-partum.

This chapter is part of ‘Midwifery and Sexuality’, a Springer Nature open-access textbook for midwives and related healthcare professionals.
Sexual Aspects of Labour and Birth
Authors: Gianotten Woet L.
Published: March 2023

Childbirth can be experienced in many different ways. The physiological delivery is, for some women, painful and devastating. For other women, however, it can be an overwhelming sensual or nearly erotic experience that closely can resemble an orgasm. After all, delivery, orgasm and breastfeeding are similar processes, all strongly associated with oxytocin. That makes oxytocin one of the potential factors when couples look for a way to influence labour proactively. The chapter will pay attention to various aspects of physical—sexual stimuli that could affect the start of labour and its continuation. It will also describe several ways of dealing with pain and how the culture and the medical culture influence those processes. The first delivery is not only a physical process but also a significant life event, influencing the bonding between the partners towards parenthood. This chapter also looks into the partner’s role and how to navigate through this process optimally.

This chapter is part of ‘Midwifery and Sexuality’, a Springer Nature open-access textbook for midwives and related healthcare professionals.
Surrogate-assisted Multi-objective Optimization via Genetic Programming Based Symbolic Regression
Authors: Yang Kaifeng , Affenzeller Michael
Published: March 2023

Surrogate-assisted optimization algorithms are a commonly used technique to solve expensive-evaluation problems, in which a regression model is built to replace an expensive function. In some acquisition functions, the only requirement for a regression model is the predictions. However, some other acquisition functions also require a regression model to estimate the “uncertainty” of the prediction, instead of merely providing predictions. Unfortunately, very few statistical modeling techniques can achieve this, such as Kriging/Gaussian processes, and recently proposed genetic programming-based (GP-based) symbolic regression with Kriging (GP2). Another method is to use a bootstrapping technique in GP-based symbolic regression to estimate prediction and its corresponding uncertainty. This paper proposes to use GP-based symbolic regression and its variants to solve multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs), which are under the framework of a surrogate-assisted multi-objective optimization algorithm (SMOA). Kriging and random forest are also compared with GP-based symbolic regression and GP2. Experiment results demonstrate that the surrogate models using the GP2 strategy can improve SMOA’s performance.
The Prism-Net Search Space Representation for Multi-objective Building Spatial Design
Authors: Pereverdieva Ksenia , Emmerich Michael , Deutz André , Ezendam Tessa , Bäck Thomas , Hofmeyer Hèrm
Published: March 2023

A building spatial design (BSD) determines external and internal walls and ceilings of a building. The design space has a hierarchical structure, in which decisions on the existence or non-existence of spatial components determine the existence of variables related to these spaces, such as sizing and angles. In the optimization of BSDs it is envisioned to optimize various performance indicators from multiple disciplines in concert, such as structural, functional, thermal, and daylight performance. Existing representations of design spaces suffer from severe limitations, such as only representing orthogonal designs or representing the structures in parametric superstructure, allowing only for limited design variations. This paper proposes prism nets - a new way of representing the search space of BSDs based on triangulations defining space filling collections of triangular prisms that can be combined via coloring parameters to spaces. Prism nets can accommodate for non-orthogonal designs and are flexible in terms of topological variations. We follow the guidelines for representation and operator design proposed in the framework of metric-based evolutionary algorithms. The main contribution of the paper is a detailed discussion of the search space representation and corresponding mutation operators. Moreover, a proof of concept example demonstrates the integration into multi-objective evolutionary algorithms and provides first results on a simple, but reproducible, benchmark problem.
Ravulizumab pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis
Authors: Vu Tuan , Ortiz Stephan , Katsuno Masahisa , Annane Djillali , Mantegazza Renato , Beasley Kathleen N. , Aguzzi Rasha , Howard James F.
Published: March 2023

Introduction

The terminal complement C5 inhibitor ravulizumab has a long elimination half-life, allowing maintenance dosing every 8 weeks. In the 26-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled period (RCP) of the CHAMPION MG study, ravulizumab provided rapid and sustained efficacy and was well tolerated in adults with anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive (AChR Ab+) generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG). This analysis evaluated the pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD), and potential immunogenicity of ravulizumab in adults with AChR Ab+ gMG.

Methods

Data were analyzed from 86 patients who received ravulizumab in the CHAMPION MG RCP. Ravulizumab dosing was weight-based: initial loading dose of 2400/2700/3000 mg on Day 1 and maintenance doses of 3000/3300/3600 mg on Day 15 and then every 8 weeks. PK parameters were estimated from serum ravulizumab concentrations determined pre- and post-dose; PD effects of ravulizumab on serum free C5 concentrations were measured; and immunogenicity was assessed using anti-drug antibody and neutralizing-antibody assays.

Results

Target serum ravulizumab concentrations (> 175 µg/mL) were achieved immediately after the first ravulizumab dose (within 30 min of infusion completion) and maintained throughout the 26-week treatment period irrespective of patient body weight. Following the final maintenance dose, mean Cmax was 1548 µg/mL and Ctrough 587 µg/mL; no meaningful differences were noted among body-weight categories. Inhibition of serum free C5 was immediate, complete (< 0.5 μg/mL), and sustained throughout treatment in all patients. No treatment-emergent anti-drug antibodies were observed.

Conclusions

PK/PD evidence supports the use of ravulizumab every 8 weeks for immediate, complete, and sustained inhibition of terminal complement C5 in adults with AChR Ab+ gMG.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03920293 (April 18, 2019).
Significance of CD80 as a Prognostic and Immunotherapeutic Biomarker in Lung Adenocarcinoma
Authors: Feng Wei , He Ziyi , Shi Liang , Zhu Zheng , Ma Haitao
Published: March 2023

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the primary cause of death among pulmonary cancer patients. Upregulation of CD80 may interact with cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) to promote tumor progression and provide a potential target for biological antitumor therapy. However, the role of CD80 in LUAD is still unclear. To investigate the function of CD80 in LUAD, we collected transcriptomic data from 594 lung samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas of America (TCGA) database, along with the corresponding clinical information. We systematically explored the role of CD80 in LUAD using bioinformatics methods, including GO enrichment analysis, KEGG pathway analysis, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), co-expression analysis, and the CIBERSORT algorithm. Finally, we investigated the differences between the two subgroups of CD80 expression in terms of some drug sensitivity, using the pRRophetic package to screen small molecular drugs for therapeutic use. A predictive model based on CD80 for LUAD patients was successfully constructed. In addition, we discovered that the CD80-based prediction model was an independent prognostic factor. Co-expression analysis revealed 10 CD80-related genes, including oncogenes and immune-related genes. Functional analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes in patients with high CD80 expression were mainly located in immune-related signaling pathways. CD80 expression was also associated with immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoints. Highly expressing patients were more sensitive to several drugs, such as rapamycin, paclitaxel, crizotinib, and bortezomib. Finally, we found evidence that 15 different small molecular drugs may benefit the treatment of LUAD patients. This study found that elevated CD80 pairs could improve the prognosis of LUAD patients. CD80 is likely to be a potential as a prognostic and therapeutic target. The future use of small molecular drugs in combination with immune checkpoint blockade to enhance antitumor therapy and improve prognosis for LUAD patients is promising.
Comparing Maltreatment Experiences for Young People with Child Protection or Dual System Involvement
Authors: Eastman Andrea Lane , Herz Denise C. , Palmer Lindsey , McCroskey Jacquelyn
Published: March 2023

This study examined how single and multiple types of maltreatment allegations differed for young people with child protective services (CPS) only and dual system (i.e., CPS and juvenile delinquency court petition) involvement by gender and race and ethnicity. Allegation types were documented for young people with CPS only or dual system involvement using linked CPS and Probation records for Los Angeles County for a cohort of children born between 1998 and 2001 with a history of at least one CPS maltreatment investigation between birth and age 18. The CPS only and dual system groups were compared using chi-square tests, and a generalized linear model was constructed to assess the relationship between key variables and dual system involvement. Two thirds of young people with dual system involvement (68.2%) experienced two or more allegation types, compared with less than half of young people with CPS involvement only (46.0%). More than three quarters of girls (77.1%) and Black young people (75.3%) with dual system involvement experienced multiple types of maltreatment. 11% of young people with only CPS involvement experienced sexual abuse with another maltreatment type, compared to 22.7% of young people with dual system involvement and 38.6% of girls with dual system involvement.The findings highlight the complex CPS histories of young people with dual system involvement, especially among girls and Black young people. These findings should facilitate discussion of gender-responsive services for young people with traumatic sexual experiences, given the frequency of sexual abuse allegations among girls with dual system involvement.
Digital transformation initiatives in higher education institutions: A multivocal literature review
Authors: Fernández Antonio , Gómez Beatriz , Binjaku Kleona , Meçe Elinda Kajo
Published: March 2023

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are involved in an evolution to a new model of university called digital university. This model implies not only adopting new technologies but also developing an organizational strategic transformation which includes information, processes, human aspects, and more. Because an organization’s digital maturity correlates with the scope of its digital transformation efforts, this study aims to identify digital transformation initiatives (DTI) taken by HEIs, defining the new processes and technologies used to implement them. The main motivation is to have a real and clear vision of how universities are transforming themselves, discovering the most relevant DTI that they have applied and if they are doing it through an integrated plan aligned with a digital strategy, as recommended by experts. We conducted a Multivocal Literature Review, as methodology research, to include both academic and grey literature in the analysis. Main results show that the DTI implemented are primarily focused on providing a quality and competitive education (24% of 184 DTI from 39 different universities analyzed). Emerging technologies most frequently used are advanced analytics (23%), cloud (20%) and artificial intelligence (16% of total DTI). We conclude that HEIs are in the first steps to digital maturity as only 1 in 4 have a digital strategy and 56% have launched isolated DTI that are not integrated in a plan and do not have a high strategic return value to the organization.
Acaricide residues in beeswax. Implications in honey, brood and honeybee
Authors: Albero Beatriz , Miguel Esther , García-Valcárcel Ana I.
Published: March 2023

For beekeeping to be sustainable, the management of colonies for the production of bee products must be economically viable without endangering the lives of bees, and must include acceptable practices such as the treatment of hives with appropriate products. Occasionally, the use of acaricides to treat the hives against varroosis is uncontrolled and can accumulate in the hives, putting the colonies at risk. In this work, a screening of seven acaricides was carried out in different apiaries in Andalusia (Spain). Their distribution in beeswax, brood, honey, and bees from colonies in different surroundings was evaluated at different times. It was found that beeswax was highly contaminated but honey, brood and bees had acceptable levels, below their respective MRL or LD50, after a certain period following varrocide treatments. Acaricides banned for their use against Varroa, such as chlorfenvinphos, cypermethrin and especially acrinathrin, were found in the hives analysed.
SDGs in corporate responsibility reporting: a longitudinal investigation of institutional determinants and financial performance
Authors: Galeazzo Ambra , Miandar Toloue , Carraro Michela
Published: March 2023

Companies play a central role in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); as such, they face institutional pressures to increase their engagement with SDGs. However, given the complexity of SDGs, it is unclear whether these pressures lead firms to adopt engagement approaches that address a few goals or the whole set of 17, and if that choice has any subsequent effect on financial performance. To shed light on these issues, this research draws on the neo-institutional theory to investigate whether two institutional determinants—industry type and country of origin—affect SDG engagement and whether such engagement improves financial performance. Based on a content analysis and a regression analysis on high-reputation companies (the 100 most sustainable firms in the world) over the period 2017–2020, we find that the institutional pressures associated with industry type and country-of-origin positively impact any engagement approach to SDGs. However, we establish that companies’ financial performance only generally improves when engaging with either the whole set of SDGs or a specific subset of the most frequently cited. This study provides important theoretical and practical contributions that illuminate firms’ institutional and financial rationales for adopting SDGs.
TCM2Vec: a detached feature extraction deep learning approach of traditional Chinese medicine for formula efficacy prediction
Authors: Gao Wanqing , Cheng Ning , Xin Guojiang , Khantong Sommai , Ding Changsong
Published: March 2023

In current era, the intelligent development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has attracted more and more attention. As the main carrier of clinical medication, formulas use synergies of active substances to enhance efficacy and reduce side effects. Related studies show that there is a nonlinear relationship between the efficacy of formulas and herbs. Deep learning is an effective technique for fitting nonlinear relationships. However, it is not good for using deep learning model directly due to ignoring the characteristics of formulas. In this paper, we propose a detached feature extraction approach (TCM2Vec) based on deep learning for better feature extraction and efficacy prediction. We build two detached encoders, one of it uses cross-feature-based unsupervised pre-training model (FMh2v) to extract the relationship features of herbal medicines for initializing, while the other one simulates multi-dimensional characteristics of medicines by normal distribution. Then we integrate relationships and medicinal characteristics for deep feature extraction. We processed 31,114 unlabeled formulas for pre-training and two classification tasks in-domain for predicting and fine-tuning. One of tasks is multi-classed with 1036 formulas, other one is multi-labelled with 1,723 formulas. For labelled formulas, different feature extraction models based on detached encoder are trained to predict efficacy. Compared with the no pre-training, CBOW and BERT baseline models, FMh2v leads to performance gains. Moreover, the detached encoder offers large positive effects in different models which for efficacy prediction, where ACC increased by 5.80% on average and F1 increased by 12.06% on average. Overall, the proposed feature extraction is an effective method for obtaining characteristic representation of TCM formulas, and provides reference for the adaptability of artificial intelligence technology in the domain of TCM.
Application of decomposition techniques in a wildfire suppression optimization model
Authors: Rodríguez-Veiga Jorge , Penas David R. , González-Rueda Ángel M. , Ginzo-Villamayor María José
Published: March 2023

Resource assignment and scheduling models provides an automatic and fast decision support system for wildfire suppression logistics. However, this process generates challenging optimization problems in many real-world cases, and the computational time becomes a critical issue, especially in realistic-size instances. Thus, to overcome that limitation, this work studies and applies a set of decomposition techniques such as augmented Lagrangian, branch and price, and Benders decomposition’s to a wildfire suppression model. Moreover, a reformulation strategy, inspired by Benders’ decomposition, is also introduced and demonstrated. Finally, a numerical study comparing the behavior of the proposals using different problem sizes is conducted.
From Learner-Centered Education (LCE) to Emancipatory Learner-Centered Education (ELCE): A comparative case study of language education for adult migrants in four European countries
Authors: Gravani Maria N. , Slade Bonnie , Brown Maria , Jõgi Larissa , Borg Carmel
Published: March 2023

This article discusses the findings of qualitative case-study research that looks at pedagogical contexts of adult education programs for migrants in Cyprus, Scotland, Malta, and Estonia. The goal of this research is to understand how Learner-Centered Education (LCE) is promoted within a human-rights framework and implemented as an approach to emancipatory social change. The findings show significant discrepancies in the implementation of LCE. Differences emerged between educational interventions that influence the language-learning and assimilation-integration processes of adults with migrant backgrounds. Informed by these findings, this article builds a case for Emancipatory Learner-Centered Education (ELCE)—a pedagogical approach that goes beyond course adaptations, to engage migrants in consciousness-raising and confidence-building, while fostering communal action between migrants and adult educators.
Nikolai I. Zhinkin: Form of mythical consciousness
Authors: Zhinkin Nikolai I. , Plotnikov Nikolaj
Published: March 2023

Nikolai Zhinkin’s review of Ernst Cassirer is so far the earliest document of the discussion in Russia about Cassirer’s conception of myth and his theory of symbolic forms. The text is published from Zhinkin’s archive. Zhinkin here notes a reorientation of Neo-Kantianism that reveals its hidden relativism and stands as a symptom of its downfall.
A Review and Outlook on Predictive Cruise Control of Vehicles and Typical Applications Under Cloud Control System
Authors: Gao Bolin , Wan Keke , Chen Qien , Wang Zhou , Li Rui , Jiang Yu , Mei Run , Luo Yinghui , Li Keqiang
Published: March 2023

With the application of mobile communication technology in the automotive industry, intelligent connected vehicles equipped with communication and sensing devices have been rapidly promoted. The road and traffic information perceived by intelligent vehicles has important potential application value, especially for improving the energy-saving and safe-driving of vehicles as well as the efficient operation of traffic. Therefore, a type of vehicle control technology called predictive cruise control (PCC) has become a hot research topic. It fully taps the perceived or predicted environmental information to carry out predictive cruise control of vehicles and improves the comprehensive performance of the vehicle-road system. Most existing reviews focus on the economical driving of vehicles, but few scholars have conducted a comprehensive survey of PCC from theory to the status quo. In this paper, the methods and advances of PCC technologies are reviewed comprehensively by investigating the global literature, and typical applications under a cloud control system (CCS) are proposed. Firstly, the methodology of PCC is generally introduced. Then according to typical scenarios, the PCC-related research is deeply surveyed, including freeway and urban traffic scenarios involving traditional vehicles, new energy vehicles, intelligent vehicles, and multi-vehicle platoons. Finally, the general architecture and three typical applications of the cloud control system (CCS) on PCC are briefly introduced, and the prospect and future trends of PCC are proposed.
Reciprocal associations between parenthood and mental well-being – a prospective analysis from age 16 to 52 years
Authors: Grundström Jenna , Kiviruusu Olli , Konttinen Hanna , Berg Noora
Published: March 2023

Objective

The present study examines the bidirectional nature of the associations between parenthood and mental well-being using 36-year longitudinal data.

Background

Mental well-being can affect if and when one becomes a parent (selection hypothesis), and the characteristics of parenthood can affect mental well-being (causation hypothesis). However, life course research has infrequently studied these hypotheses in parallel. Previous studies have also typically only focused on one aspect of parenthood (e.g., having children) and on the negative aspects of the mental well-being construct.

Method

The participants in the Finnish ‘Stress, Development and Mental Health (TAM)’ cohort study were followed up at ages 16, 22, 32, 42, and 52 (N = 1160). The measures of parenthood (having children, timing of parenthood, and number of children) and mental well-being at ages 16 and 52 (depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and meaningfulness) were based on self-report.

Results

For men, higher self-esteem in adolescence was associated with having children, and having children was associated with higher self-esteem in middle age. For women, depressive symptoms at age 16 were associated with becoming a parent at age 24 or younger. For both genders, having children was associated with a higher sense of meaningfulness in middle age.

Conclusion

Studied within the life course perspective, our results indicate that parenthood has a positive effect on mental well-being in mid-adulthood even when accounting for selection effects.
Radiation dosimetry and pharmacokinetics of the tau PET tracer florzolotau (18F) in healthy Japanese subjects
Authors: Miyamoto Masaomi , Okuyama Chio , Kagawa Shinya , Kusano Kuninori , Takahashi Masaaki , Takahata Keisuke , Jang Ming-Kuei , Yamauchi Hiroshi
Published: March 2023

Objective

Abnormal aggregation of tau in the brain is a major contributing factor in various neurodegenerative diseases. Florzolotau (18F) (florzolotau, APN-1607, PM-PBB3) has been shown to be a probe for tau fibrils in an animal model and patients with Alzheimer’s disease and those with non-Alzheimer’s disease tauopathies. The objective of this study is to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and radiation dose following a single intravenous administration of florzolotau in healthy Japanese subjects.

Methods

Three healthy male Japanese subjects aged between 20 and 64 were enrolled in this study. Subjects were determined to be eligible based on the screening assessments at the study site. Subjects received a single intravenous dose of 195.0 ± 0.5 MBq of florzolotau and underwent the whole-body PET scan 10 times in total to calculate absorbed doses to major organs/tissues and effective dose. Radioactivities in whole blood and urine were also measured for pharmacokinetic evaluation. Absorbed doses to major organs/tissues and effective dose were estimated using the medical internal radiation dose (MIRD) method. Vital signs, electrocardiography (ECG), and blood tests were done for safety evaluation.

Results

The intravenous injection of florzolotau was well tolerated. There were no adverse events or clinically detectable pharmacologic effects related to the tracer in any subjects. No significant changes in vital signs and ECG were observed. The highest mean initial uptake at 15 min after injection was in the liver (29.0 ± 4.0%ID), intestine (4.69 ± 1.65%ID), and brain (2.13 ± 0.18%ID). The highest absorbed dose was 508 μGy/MBq of the gallbladder wall, followed by the liver of 79.4 μGy/MBq, the pancreas of 42.5 μGy/MBq, and the upper large intestine of 34.2 μGy/MBq. The effective dose was calculated as 19.7 μSv/MBq according to the tissue weighting factor reported by ICRP-103.

Conclusion

Florzolotau intravenous injection was well tolerated in healthy male Japanese subjects. The effective dose was determined as 3.61 mSv when 185 MBq florzolotau was given.
Assessing Ecosystem State Space Models: Identifiability and Estimation
Authors: Smith J. W. , Johnson L. R. , Thomas R. Q.
Published: March 2023

Hierarchical probability models are being used more often than non-hierarchical deterministic process models in environmental prediction and forecasting, and Bayesian approaches to fitting such models are becoming increasingly popular. In particular, models describing ecosystem dynamics with multiple states that are autoregressive at each step in time can be treated as statistical state space models (SSMs). In this paper, we examine this subset of ecosystem models, embed a process-based ecosystem model into an SSM, and give closed form Gibbs sampling updates for latent states and process precision parameters when process and observation errors are normally distributed. Here, we use simulated data from an example model (DALECev) and study the effects changing the temporal resolution of observations on the states (observation data gaps), the temporal resolution of the state process (model time step), and the level of aggregation of observations on fluxes (measurements of transfer rates on the state process). We show that parameter estimates become unreliable as temporal gaps between observed state data increase. To improve parameter estimates, we introduce a method of tuning the time resolution of the latent states while still using higher-frequency driver information and show that this helps to improve estimates. Further, we show that data cloning is a suitable method for assessing parameter identifiability in this class of models. Overall, our study helps inform the application of state space models to ecological forecasting applications where (1) data are not available for all states and transfers at the operational time step for the ecosystem model and (2) process uncertainty estimation is desired.
Overlying main roof breaking characteristic and its effect on the stability of gob-side entry
Authors: Xu Jiahui , Li Guichen , Gomah Mohamed Elgharib , Chen Bengang , Sun Changlun , Rong Haoyu , Zhang Quan
Published: March 2023

In this study, to figure out the deformation mechanism, a particle flow model was used to simulate the deformation of surrounding rock in a deeply buried entry. The fracture evolution, stress, and porosity of surrounding rock in the process of the main roof breaking, meanwhile, the displacement after entry being excavated were recorded and analyzed in the simulation. The results show that the main roof breaking is different from the ideally elastic–plastic simply supported beam for it has two more plastic zones on both sides of the beam and its support points tend to move. In addition, the stress reduction zone in the coal seam is about 10 m where the coal body and surrounding rock are almost completely broken and porosity is surprisingly increasing from 0.01 to 0.39 in coal and 0.23 in the main roof. The displacement concentrated on the ribs of entry, especially on the coal pillar. The continuous and large deformation that appears in the stress reduction zone results from the nearly completely broken state of the surrounding rock. The tradeoff between the stress reduction and the broken state of the surrounding rock should be considered when choosing the location of the gob-side entry.