bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
68Ga-pentixafor PET/CT Is a Supplementary Method for Primary Aldosteronism Subtyping Compared with Adrenal Vein Sampling
Authors: Yi Tieci , Lu Difei , Cui Yonggang , Zhang Zheng , Yang Xing , Zhang Jianhua , Qiu Lin , Weng Haoyu , Liu Lin , Duan Xiaojiang , Zhao Guangyu , Ma Wei , Gao Ying , Fan Yan
Published: December 2024

Purpose

To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of 68Ga-pentixafor positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in primary aldosteronism (PA) subtyping and lateralization of aldosterone secretion in PA patients.

Procedures

37 patients who were diagnosed with PA, were prospectively enrolled in the study, and underwent adrenal vein sampling (AVS) after 68Ga-pentixafor PET/CT was conducted. Lateralization index (LI), defined as aldosterone/cortisol ratio in the dominant side to the contralateral adrenal vein when bilateral adrenal vein catheterization succeeded, and the aldosterone/cortisol ratio in the left adrenal vein to IVC (LAV/IVC) when the catheterization of right adrenal vein failed, were applied to determine lateralization side. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 21.0.

Results

The female proportion of all patients with PA was 32.4% (12/37), and the mean age was 51.3 ± 10.9 years. Patients with bilateral adrenal mass accounted for 54.1% (20/37), and 10 of them (27.0%) had adrenal hyperplasia or adrenal nodules ≤ 1.0 cm. In all 37 patients, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 68Ga-pentixafor PET/CT in distinguishing lateralization by visualization were 89.3%, 77.8% and 86.5%, respectively. The area under the ROC curve for detecting positive lateralization based on the value of 68Ga-pentixafor SUVmax was 0.750 (95%CI 0.578–0.922, p = 0.026). The optimum SUVmax cut-off value was 6.86, with the sensitivity of 78.6%, specificity of 66.7%, and accuracy of 78.4%. Defining SUV ratio as SUVmax/SUV of contralateral adrenal gland, the area under the ROC curve for identifying lateralization based on the SUV ratio was 0.710 (95%CI 0.500–0.921, p = 0.061). The optimum SUV ratio cut-off was 2.40, with the sensitivity of 60.7%, specificity of 88.9%, and accuracy of 67.6%. The consistency of 68Ga-pentixafor PET/CT with AVS was of no significant difference between patients with bilateral adrenal lesions (80.0%, 16/20) and unilateral lesion (94.1%, 16/17; p = 0.737), and no significance was revealed in the consistency between patients with adrenal hyperplasia or adrenal lesion of diameter ≤ 1 cm (81.8%, 9/11) and those with adrenal lesions > 1 cm (88.5%, 23/26; p = 0.884).

Conclusions

68Ga-pentixafor PET/CT showed at least 80% consistency for the lateralization in patients with PA compared with AVS, even in those presented with bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. Visual analysis exhibited better diagnostic efficacy compared with SUVmax or SUVmax/SUV of the contralateral adrenal gland.( ChiCTR2300073049. Registered 30 June 2023. Retrospectively registered)
Tuning the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni-Ti Compositionally Complex Alloys Manufactured by Means of L-DED
Authors: Gerdt L. , Hilhorst A. , Müller M. , Heidowitzsch M. , Kaspar J. , Lopez E. , Zimmermann M. , Jacques P. J.
Published: December 2024

In the current study, a combinatorial high-throughput screening approach based on CALPHAD simulations and experimental validation has been utilized to explore a Co2CrFeNi2-Al-Ti CCA-system. This technique, introduced by Kaspar et al. (High Entropy Alloys Mater. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44210-023-00023-x), allows to perform an accelerated alloy development within a wide compositional range and automated fabrication of graded components with varying chemical composition and microstructure. Extended by semi-automated analytical characterization of the produced samples, this approach enables to design novel compositionally complex alloys (CCAs) with promising properties for specific requirements. In our current work, a multiphase design of L12 γ′-strengthened Co2CrFeNi2-Al-Ti CCAs partially tolerating the disordered BCC-A2 or ordered B2 phases in the alloy microstructure has been utilized. The samples with three different chemical compositions were manufactured by means of laser directed energy deposition (L-DED). By subsequent two-step heat treatment, different phase compositions and microstructures have been realized with a main objective to achieve a high volume fraction of L12 γ′ precipitations. Mechanical properties of investigated alloys were characterized by means of tensile tests. Depending on chemical and phase composition of the alloys, the ultimate tensile strength varied in the range of 1060-1150 MPa. The formation of BCC-B2 phase led to decreased yield to tensile strength and showed a detrimental effect on ductility of investigated alloys.
Ammonium Sensing Patch with Ultrawide Linear Range and Eliminated Interference for Universal Body Fluids Analysis
Authors: Huang Mingli , Ma Xiaohao , Wu Zongze , Li Jirong , Shi Yuqing , Yang Teng , Xu Jiarun , Wang Shuhan , Lv Kongpeng , Lin Yuanjing
Published: December 2024

Ammonium level in body fluids serves as one of the critical biomarkers for healthcare, especially those relative to liver diseases. The continuous and real-time monitoring in both invasive and non-invasive manners is highly desired, while the ammonium concentrations vary largely in different body fluids. Besides, the sensing reliability based on ion-selective biosensors can be significantly interfered by potassium ions. To tackle these challenges, a flexible and biocompatible sensing patch for wireless ammonium level sensing was reported with an ultrawide linear range for universal body fluids including blood, tears, saliva, sweat and urine. The as-prepared biocompatible sensors deliver a reliable sensitivity of 58.7 mV decade−1 in the range of 1–100 mM and a desirable selectivity coefficient of 0.11 in the interference of potassium ions, attributed to the cross-calibration within the sensors array. The sensor’s biocompatibility was validated by the cell growth on the sensor surface (> 80%), hemolysis rates (< 5%), negligible cellular inflammatory responses and weight changes of the mice with implanted sensors. Such biocompatible sensors with ultrawide linear range and desirable selectivity open up new possibility of highly compatible biomarker analysis via different body fluids in versatile approaches.
How Digital Twins Impact Responsiveness: A Dynamic Fit Approach to Information Processing for High-Involvement Product Demand Management
Authors: Oehlschläger Dominik , Glas Andreas H. , Eßig Michael
Published: December 2024

In an era of rapidly evolving customer demands and technological advancements, organisations face mounting pressure to enhance their responsiveness. Digital Twins offer novel capabilities by providing comprehensive transparency on customer demands through dynamic and interactive links between real-world entities and their digital counterparts. As a result, Digital Twins have the potential to enable organisations to respond more swiftly and effectively to fluctuating customer demands across volume, process, and product dimensions. However, Digital Twins still lack empirical explorations and theoretical embedment, leading to conceptual ambiguity. Through a case study approach, the study integrates Digital Twins into the framework of Organisational Information Processing Theory (OIPT). Empirical evidence proposes that Digital Twins offer a spectrum of capabilities rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. The findings further emphasise the need for aligning Digital Twin sophistication levels with Information Processing Needs and Constraints, highlighting that the dynamic interplay between Digital Twin advancements, Information Processing Constraints, and Information Processing Capabilities creates a dynamic cycle of adaptation and optimisation. On the whole, the study presents four key implications: (1) Awareness about the versatile application areas of Digital Twins is created. (2) The positive impact of Digital Twins on volume, process, and product responsiveness is outlined. (3) The concept of Information Processing Constraints is introduced to OIPT. And (4) a dynamic cycle of aligning Digital Twin sophistication with Information Processing Capabilities and Constraints is suggested. Therefore, the study contributes not only to a deeper understanding of Digital Twins in demand management but also proposes a new dynamic fit perspective on OIPT.
Religiöse Vielfalt und Judentum im islamischen Religionsunterricht: Empirische Befunde und Potenziale zur Antisemitismusprävention
Authors: Güzel Selcen
Published: December 2024

Der Beitrag befasst sich aus islamisch religionspädagogischer Perspektive mit religiöser Vielfalt und Judentum im islamischen Religionsunterricht/Islam-Unterricht und seinen Potenzialen zur Antisemitismusprävention. Dazu wird ausgehend von den Haltungen muslimischer Schüler*innen gegenüber religiöser Vielfalt erörtert, inwieweit der islamische Religionsunterricht – vor dem Hintergrund grundsätzlich wachsender Vielfaltskonflikte und antisemitischer Vorfälle an Schulen – die Pluralitätsfähigkeit als Orientierungskompetenz fördern kann. Daran anschließend werden religionspädagogische Perspektiven und didaktische Handlungsmöglichkeiten skizziert, wie menschenfeindliche Haltungen im islamischen Religionsunterricht konstruktiv-kritisch aufgegriffen werden können. Der Beitrag basiert auf einer empirischen Studie, in der die Einstellungen von Schüler*innen aus dem bayerischen Schulversuch zum Islam-Unterricht untersucht wurden. Dazu wurden 30 qualitative Interviews mit muslimischen Schüler*innen aus dem schulischen Islam- und Ethik-Unterricht geführt und inhaltsanalytisch ausgewertet.
Heterogeneous many-core optimization for Monte Carlo path-tracing on new generation Sunway HPC system
Authors: Wang Xinjie , Ma Guanghao , Song Jiaying , Geng Mingyao , Hu Wenhui , Duan Xi , Wang Zhigang , Xu Jiali , Jin Xiaogang , Li Fang , Chen Dexun , Yu Maoxue
Published: December 2024

We present swRender, a new parallel rendering pipeline based on the new Sunway many-core architecture (SW26010P) for the Monte Carlo path-tracing algorithm. Previous parallel rendering schemes are unsuitable for our task due to issues such as vast differences in hardware architectures and bottlenecks in I/O communication efficiency. To that end, we create a new two-level parallel tile rendering framework to fully utilize the Sunway computing resources, a practical tile-grouping load-balancing method to maintain the framework’s stability, and a novel many-core acceleration optimization to improve the rendering performance at the pixel level. Our method achieves (1) an average speedup of 16x in multiple benchmarks when compared to the baseline path-tracing model on the Sunway architecture, and (2) an average speedup of 2x when compared to state-of-the-art CPU, co-processor, and GPU-based parallel rendering approaches. Moreover, we scale swRender to run on 15 million cores and obtain high scalable parallel efficiency of 92%.
“I have always found the whole area a minefield”: Wikidata, historical lives, and knowledge infrastructure
Authors: Baker James , Mahal Ammandeep K.
Published: December 2024

The rise of Wikidata represents a quiet revolution in knowledge infrastructure. This paper enquires into this knowledge base as an infrastructure and considers the implications of its centrality within our contemporary knowledge ecosystem. Rather than read Wikidata at scale, we employ of a narrow frame through which to explore the ideologies Wikidata has adopted and reproduces. This frame is Beyond Notability, a knowledge base that seeks to document women’s work in archaeology, history, and heritage between 1870 and 1950 through original archival research. Beyond Notability draws on and responds to the Wikidata data model, and this paper emerges from our experiences interacting with Wikidata to produce linked data biography. In foregrounding the tensions between historically specific phenomena and classificatory logics, our work stresses the value of using practice-based ontology development to investigate large-scale knowledge infrastructures at a time when the fabric of knowledge is at stake.
VAGen: waterbody segmentation with prompting for visual in-context learning
Authors: Zhao Jiapei , Yabuki Nobuyoshi , Fukuda Tomohiro
Published: December 2024

Effective water management and flood prevention are critical challenges encountered by both urban and rural areas, necessitating precise and prompt monitoring of waterbodies. As a fundamental step in the monitoring process, waterbody segmentation involves precisely delineating waterbody boundaries from imagery. Previous research using satellite images often lacks the resolution and contextual detail needed for local-scale analysis. In response to these challenges, this study seeks to address them by leveraging common natural images that are more easily accessible and provide higher resolution and more contextual information compared to satellite images. However, the segmentation of waterbodies from ordinary images faces several obstacles, including variations in lighting, occlusions from objects like trees and buildings, and reflections on the water surface, all of which can mislead algorithms. Additionally, the diverse shapes and textures of waterbodies, alongside complex backgrounds, further complicate this task. While large-scale vision models have typically been leveraged for their generalizability across various downstream tasks that are pre-trained on large datasets, their application to waterbody segmentation from ground-level images remains underexplored. Hence, this research proposed the Visual Aquatic Generalist (VAGen) as a countermeasure. Being a lightweight model for waterbody segmentation inspired by visual In-Context Learning (ICL) and Visual Prompting (VP), VAGen refines large visual models by innovatively adding learnable perturbations to enhance the quality of prompts in ICL. As demonstrated by the experimental results, VAGen demonstrated a significant increase in the mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) metric, showing a 22.38% enhancement when compared to the baseline model that lacked the integration of learnable prompts. Moreover, VAGen surpassed the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) task-specific models designed for waterbody segmentation by 6.20%. The performance evaluation and analysis of VAGen indicated its capacity to substantially reduce the number of trainable parameters and computational overhead, and proved its feasibility to be deployed on cost-limited devices including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and mobile computing platforms. This study thereby makes a valuable contribution to the field of computer vision, offering practical solutions for engineering applications related to urban flood monitoring, agricultural water resource management, and environmental conservation efforts.
Potential of co-application of microbial enriched winery solid waste compost and inorganic fertilizers to enhance maize growth and yield parameters
Authors: Masowa Manare Maxson , Babalola Olubukola Oluranti , Mulidzi Azwimbavhi Reckson , Kutu Funso Raphael
Published: December 2024

The present study was conducted to assess the effects of co-application of winery solid waste compost (WWC) and synthetic nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers (SF) on maize growth and yield parameters. The field experiment was conducted during the 2017/18 and 2018/19 summer cropping seasons. The WWCs (microbially inoculated and uninoculated) and SF were combined at ratios: 0:0, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, and 100:0 (wt/wt) to attain the amount of N and P supplied by the predicted rates of compost. The optimum SF rate (90 kg/ha P and 200 kg/ha N) for maize was used as a positive control. The non-significant (p ≤ 0.05) effect of compost type on growth and yield parameters indicated that the microbial inoculation during compost production has no effect on compost quality. Compared with control, WWC-SF combination (50:50) improved grain weight per cob by 18.6% in 2017/18. The increase in the measured yield parameters was quantitatively higher in treatment with the 50:50 WWC-SF mix ratio than in other treatments. Significant and positive correlations exist between growth and yield parameters. In conclusion, the study findings suggest that the combined application of WWC and SF has great potential to enhance the maize growth and yield attributes.
Enhancing performance and reducing carbon emissions in sprayed concrete using green silica-lignin admixture and recycled aggregates
Authors: Dong Weijian , Kong Fanyu , He Ting , Liu Mengke , Wu Jingang , Zhang Lilong
Published: December 2024

The substitution of low-carbon and carbon-negative materials is an important pathway and a fundamental means of reducing carbon emissions in the construction sector. This work utilized the pulping wastewater (black liquor (BL)) produced from rice straw alkaline-oxygen cooking to synthesize a green concrete silica-lignin (SL) admixture through acid regulation. This novel admixture was employed to replace conventional high-carbon alkali powder, and its integration with recycled aggregates significantly enhanced the performance of sprayed concrete. The results show that the addition of the silica-lignin admixture increased the slump and compressive strength of sprayed concrete by 46.3% and 28.5%, respectively, while reducing the rebound ratio by 67.3%. Moreover, the use of recycled aggregates effectively reduces the global warming potential (GWP) of sprayed concrete production. When the substitution rate of recycled aggregates reaches 50%, carbon emissions are reduced by 44.7%, to only 183 kgCO2eq/m3. The sprayed concrete with added silica-lignin admixture not only exhibited increased compressive strength but also contributed to a reduction in CO2 emissions, decreased the amount of concrete used in building structures, and achieved the goal of carbon reduction. This work provides valuable insights for advancing sustainable practices in the construction industry.
A novel approach to refining mesoscale geometric modeling for segregation in concrete
Authors: Ren Qifan , Pacheco João , de Brito Jorge , Wang Yao , Hu Jianhua
Published: December 2024

Segregation results in worse mechanical and durability performance of concrete. Therefore, an accurate modelling of segregation is required for reliable mesoscale modelling. In this context, this paper presents a method to develop the geometric mesoscale modelling of concrete taking into account segregation. In this method, coarse aggregate particles are generated as ellipsoids of random geometry and are randomly placed within concrete. The specimen is stratified in different numbers of layers ($$NoL$$

NoL

) that represent different segregation conditions. The geometric models of four concrete mix designs are generated and the relevant key parameters, e.g. aggregate distribution are analysed and validated. In addition, the segregation level of generated models is classified based on the volumetric index and the correspondence between segregation level and the value of $$NoL$$

NoL

is presented. The results show that 1) The generated geometric models with $$NoL$$

NoL

ranging from 1 to 10 align well with real segregation in concrete and can accurately represent the majority of segregation cases resulting from various experimental factors; 2) The $$NoL$$

NoL

reflects the segregation level: more layers indicate a more heterogeneous mesostructure; 3) The larger aggregates of the generated models tend to settle at the bottom, while smaller aggregates rise toward the top, leading to uneven vertical distribution, especially as the $$NoL$$

NoL

increases; 4) the mix 1 with low aggregate content can represent the construction material with large segregation, while the mix 2 is inverse.
MPT: a large-scale multiphytoplankton tracking benchmark
Authors: Yu Yang , Li Yuezun , Sun Xin , Dong Junyu
Published: December 2024

Phytoplankton are crucial for aquatic ecosystems and provide valuable insights into ocean environments and changes in ecosystems. Traditional phytoplankton monitoring methods are often complex and lack timely analysis capabilities. Thus, deep learning algorithms offer a promising approach for automated phytoplankton monitoring. However, the lack of large-scale, high-quality training datasets presents a major bottleneck in advancing phytoplankton tracking. Herein, we propose a challenging benchmark dataset called multiple phytoplankton tracking (MPT), which covers diverse background information and motion variations during observation. The dataset includes 27 phytoplankton and zooplankton species, 14 different backgrounds to simulate diverse and complex underwater environments, and 140 videos. To enable accurate real-time phytoplankton observation, we introduce the deviation-corrected multiscale feature fusion tracker (DSFT), a multiobject tracking method designed to overcome key issues such as focus shifts during tracking and the loss of critical information on small targets when computing frame-to-frame similarity. To enhance efficiency, we incorporate an additional feature extractor that predicts residuals from the output of the standard feature extractor; this enables multiscale frame-to-frame similarity comparisons based on features from different extractor layers. Extensive experiments conducted on the MPT dataset validated its effectiveness and demonstrated the superior performance of the DSFT method in tracking phytoplankton, providing an effective solution for phytoplankton monitoring.
How interfacial tension enhances drag in turbulent Taylor–Couette flow with neutrally buoyant and equally viscous droplets
Authors: Su Jinghong , Zhang Yi-Bao , Wang Cheng , Yi Lei , Xu Fan , Fan Yaning , Wang Junwu , Sun Chao
Published: December 2024

The presence of dispersed-phase droplets can result in a notable increase in a system's drag. However, our understanding of the mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains limited. In this study, we use three-dimensional direct numerical simulations with a modified multi-marker volume-of-fluid method to investigate liquid–liquid two-phase turbulence in a Taylor–Couette geometry. The dispersed phase has the same density and viscosity as the continuous phase. The Reynolds number

$Re\equiv r_i\omega _i d/\nu$

is fixed at 5200, the volume fraction of the dispersed phase is up to

$40\,\%$

, and the Weber number

$We\equiv \rho u^2_\tau d/\sigma$

is approximately 8. It is found that the increase in the system's drag originates from the contribution of interfacial tension. Specifically, droplets experience significant deformation and stretching in the streamwise direction due to shear near the inner cylinder. Consequently, the rear end of the droplets lags behind the fore head. This causes opposing interfacial tension effects on the fore head and rear end of the droplets. For the fore head of the droplets, the effect of interfacial tension appears to act against the flow direction. For the rear end, the effect appears to act in the flow direction. The increase in the system's drag is attributed primarily to the effect of interfacial tension on the fore head of the droplets which leads to the hindering effect of the droplets on the surrounding continuous phase. This hindering effect disrupts the formation of high-speed streaks, favouring the formation of low-speed ones, which are generally associated with higher viscous stress and drag of the system. This study provides new insights into the mechanism of drag enhancement reported in our previous experiments.
The relationship between innovation and organizational performance: A meta-analysis
Authors: Katebi Ali , Hosseinkhah Eghdam Hadi , Baseri Hamideh , Salehi Amir Masoud
Published: December 2024

This meta-analytic study aims to assess the relationship between innovation and organizational performance. Examining studies published from 2012 to 2021 using a specific protocol resulted in selecting 180 effect sizes from 143 studies. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Software (CMA2) (2.2.064) software facilitated data analysis. Findings reveal a positive and significant relationship between innovation and organizational performance. Moderating analysis identifies country, continent, year of publication, and innovation type as moderating variables. Additionally, recent years exhibit a noteworthy convergence in the relationship trend between innovation and organizational performance. Enhancing organizational performance remains a critical concern. The study’s outcomes offer valuable insights for managers, especially in international organizations to improve the planning and management of innovation and performance in their various branches and projects in different continents and countries.
INTRODUCTION: CLIMATE SUSTAINABILITY – EVIDENCE AND POLICY
Authors: Bhattacharjee Arnab , McCrorie J. Roderick , Pabst Adrian
Published: December 2024

Last year saw yet another year of weather extremes. The Copernicus Climate Change Service run by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission (Copernicus, 2024) measured 2023 as being globally the warmest year since records began in 1850. This was by a large margin (0.17 per cent) over the previous record in 2016, with global surface air temperature at nearly 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. While last year’s observations embodied an El Niño effect, which every few years sees temperatures affected by warmer waters coming to the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, changes and anomalies consistently observed over the last few years across the globe are becoming more pronounced. What is commonly labelled “climate change” is turning into a global climate emergency. No economy or society are immune to its effects. Today, we see the global average temperature at over 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, a rise that has been extraordinarily rapid on a planetary timescale, and one that has been primarily caused through our (humans) burning fossil fuels. Nearly a decade has passed since the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in 2015, COP21, where 196 nations adopted The Paris Agreement – a legally binding international treaty on climate change. Its goal was to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and to pursue efforts “to limit the increase to 1.5°C”.
“The Public Practice of Humanity”: How Antislavery Writing Matters Now
Authors: Yothers Brian
Published: December 2024

Henry David Thoreau and Frances E. W. Harper offer a historical model for the public humanities grounded in racial justice and moral education. For both Thoreau and Harper, the “public practice of humanity” that Thoreau identifies in “A Plea for Captain John Brown” inescapably means taking the side of justice, creating a “liberation humanities” that is analogous to the “preferential option for the poor” in twentieth-century theologies of liberation. Both authors use a mix of theologically informed moral reasoning and wit and irony to further the cause of justice, and both are concerned with the ways in which literary form and public advocacy can coalesce.
How Scientific Ignorance and Social Invisibility Shape the Issue of Occupational Health in France as a Nonproblem
Authors: Henry Emmanuel , Counil Emilie
Published: December 2024

Rather than leading to the emergence of a problem, some processes contribute to limiting their scope and impeding agenda-setting. These “nonproblems” are situations that could have led to social mobilizations or public intervention but end up neither being publicized nor subject to strong policy. We use occupational health in France to illustrate these mechanisms. The social invisibility of work-related ill-health is linked to the joint contribution of two processes. Firstly, from the perspective of research on ignorance and undone science, scientific knowledge is under-developed compared to other public health issues. And even available knowledge is rarely used by policy-makers. Secondly, policies use underestimated numbers from the occupational diseases compensation system. This specific configuration of knowledge/ignorance and official counting plays a central role in the production of occupational health issues as a nonproblem. Their invisibility contributes to the production of inertia and public inaction that characterize public policy in this field.
Can Powerful Dictators Escape ‘The Market as Prison’? The Case of Pension Privatisation in Pinochet's Chile
Authors: Schiappacasse Ignacio , Sánchez-Ancochea Diego
Published: December 2024

The central role of economic elites in shaping public policy in Latin America has become increasingly clear. Yet most of the recent literature on the subject focuses on democratic contexts. This paper analyses pension privatisation in Chile as a case study for improving our understanding of business–state interaction in authoritarian contexts. Globally, the 1981 pension reform carried out during the Pinochet dictatorship became an example for pension privatisation elsewhere. Analysis of the policy-making process, based on novel empirical material, shows that from 1973 financial groups accumulated growing power which enabled them to first (a) defeat their opponents within the economic elite, (b) overpower their rivals within the state and, finally, (c) force Pinochet into passing pension privatisation legislation. Our results stress the need to include the study of different actors’ power resources – along with ideological issues and the regime structure – in attempts to understand the outcome of policy processes in authoritarian contexts.
Early twentieth-century recordings in higher music education: a preliminary analysis of the students’ views
Authors: Zicari Massimo , Biasutti Michele
Published: December 2024

This article examines how classical music students understand early twentieth-century recordings in higher music education. A qualitative research method was chosen to investigate the beliefs and self-reported practices of 16 students enrolled in a European conservatoire, whose attitudes were considered through the administration of a semi-structured questionnaire and an interview. Their responses identified seven main themes: (1) beliefs, (2) sources, (3) self-reported practices, (4) repertoires/performers, (5) educational implications, (6) limits and (7) benefits.

Results show how much students value early twentieth-century recordings – especially when it comes to analysing the performance practices of the past and developing new interpretations – and how articulate their responses can be with regard to specific stylistic and technical issues. However, possibly due to informal learning strategies and the lack of curricular teaching activities focusing on listening to and analysing recorded interpretations, some responses highlighted a misrepresentation of our recent musical past and the need for a more structured curricular activity. This last should benefit from a vast body of scholarly literature whose relevance is still underestimated among music practitioners.
Collaborative relations and irresponsible purity: Herbert Mehrtens’ transformation of the historiography of science, medicine, technology and National Socialism
Authors: Walker Mark
Published: December 2024

Argument

By breaking decisively with the predominantly apologetic and hagiographic literature on science during National Socialism and employing compelling terms such as “irresponsible purity” and “collaborative relations,” Herbert Mehrtens profoundly influenced both his contemporaries and the subsequent generation of historians working in this field.
Poincaré and counter-modernism
Authors: Gray Jeremy
Published: December 2024

Argument

It would have been easy for a less imaginative historian of mathematics than Herbert Mehrtens to have portrayed the work of Hilbert, Hausdorff, and other modernists as pioneers, and those who did not subscribe to their program as people who failed, were not good enough to make the turn, and were eventually and convincingly left behind. That he did not do so is not only because this would have been a shallow, selective view of the facts: it is incompatible with his Foucauldian approach to the relations between knowledge and power. Instead, he defined what I see as the most intriguing category of actor in his Moderne—Sprache—Mathematik (1990), the Gegenmoderner, or counter-moderns. The three men who characterize this position are Felix Klein, Henri Poincaré, and Luitzen Brouwer, and each merits a section in the book.

Of the three, Poincaré is the hardest to contain within that category. The range of his work, the nature of his influence, and the shifting standards by which mathematical significance has been evaluated by mathematicians, historians of mathematics, and society at large, all contribute to the problem. After thirty years, the methodological presumptions and aspirations of historians of mathematics have also changed, and I shall suggest that one way to appreciate the richness of Mehrtens’ book, to gain insight into what is meant by mathematical modernism, and to acknowledge a generation of work by other historians since 1990, is to re-examine aspects of Poincaré’s life and work and scholarship about him. Prodded by remarks by Leo Corry, Moritz Epple, and David Rowe, I shall suggest that the simple but useful dichotomy modern/counter-modern must be seen as a way into a more complicated situation, one in which different aspects of mathematics, specifically applied mathematics and the relationship of mathematics to contemporary physics, require fresh accounts of the role of modern mathematics in society.
The emergence and the failure of an East-West-German project (1988/89) on the “history of mathematics during the Nazi period”
Authors: Siegmund-Schultze Reinhard
Published: December 2024

Argument

In the decade between 1983 and 1993, Herbert Mehrtens in West Berlin and I in East Berlin communicated closely about our parallel work on mathematics under the National Socialist (NS) regime. For a short period (1988–89), we worked on a joint book on this topic. We agreed that the book should be based primarily on empirical historical material, using a theoretical approach largely guided by Mehrtens’ work on social systems in mathematics (Mehrtens1981, 1987a). However, parallel work for his habilitation thesis on modernity in mathematics increasingly captivated Mehrtens’ interests. This, together with ongoing resistance among older mathematicians and the insecurities of our individual careers during times of considerable political change, particularly in East Germany, led to the failure of our joint project.

This paper aims at reconstructing—mostly by drawing on correspondence—parts of the dialogue between Mehrtens and me at the time. Our dialogue was influenced by our different upbringing and socialization in the two parts of Germany, and by different, though complementary, views about the combination of empirical and theoretical approaches to the historiography of mathematics.

In the epilogue, I describe how my later work in the decades from the 1990s on the history of mathematics profited much from Mehrtens’ early theoretical and empirical work but was less influenced by his book on modernity. That later work of mine was, however, mostly done at a time when Mehrtens had largely left the field and considered himself increasingly as a “cultural scientist” (Kulturwissenschaftler).
Group A streptococcal infections in Alberta, Canada 2018–2023
Authors: Tyrrell Gregory J. , Croxen Matthew , McCullough Emily , Li Vincent , Golden Alyssa R. , Martin Irene
Published: December 2024

Group A streptococcal or Streptococcus pyogenes infections have been increasing post-COVID-19 pandemic. We describe the epidemiology of S. pyogenes pharyngitis and invasive disease in Alberta, Canada 2018–2023. Positive pharyngitis specimens were identified from throat swabs collected from pharyngitis patients. Invasive S. pyogenes was defined as the isolation of S. pyogenes from a normally sterile site or severe skin infection. S. pyogenes isolates were emm typed. Pharyngitis and invasive disease displayed seasonal trends preceding the COVID-19 pandemic followed by a sharp decrease during COVID-19 intervention measures. After the lifting of interventions, rates of pharyngitis and invasive disease rose. There were 182 983 positive pharyngitis specimens between 2018 and 2023 for a positivity rate of 17.6%. The highest rates occurred in the 0–9 age group in 2023 (41.5%). Invasive disease increased in 2022–2023 driven by emm1 and 12 types. M1UK strain was the most frequent M1 type associated with invasive disease (59% of M1 isolates sequenced). Notably, out of 182 983 pharyngitis cases, there were 111 cases of invasive S. pyogenes detected for an invasive disease rate of 0.06%. This descriptive epidemiology of S. pyogenes pharyngitis and invasive S. pyogenes disease highlights the rapid increase in cases of S. pyogenes occurring in western Canada and illustrates the critical need for a vaccine.
Combination of FSH and testosterone could enhance activation of primordial follicles and growth of activated follicles in 1-day-old mice ovaries in vitro cultured for 12 days
Authors: Torkzadeh Tahoura , Asadi Zahra , Jafari Atrabi Mohammad , Khodadi Maryam , Eivazkhani Farideh , Hajiaghalou Samira , Akbarinejad Vahid , Fathi Rouhollah
Published: December 2024

Treatment with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and testosterone (T2) and their combination have been observed to be influential on ovarian follicles of 1-day-old mice ovaries cultured for 8 days. Given that extension of the culture period could positively impact the development of follicles in cultured ovaries, the present study was conducted to evaluate the main and interaction effects of FSH by T2 on the development of ovarian follicles in 1-day-old mice ovaries cultured for 12 days. One-day-old mice ovaries were initially cultured with base medium for 4 days; thereafter, different hormonal treatments were added to the culture media, and the culture was continued for 8 additional days until day 12. Ovaries were collected for histological and molecular assessments on day 12. The greatest activation of primordial follicles and progression of activated follicles to the preantral stage was detected in ovaries treated with the combination of FSH and T2 (P < 0.05). This positive effect on the morphology of ovarian follicles was accompanied by upregulation of Pi3k, Gdf9, Bmp15, Cx37 and Fshr in the ovaries cultured with the combination of FSH and T2 (P < 0.05). Nonetheless, treatment with FSH and T2 led to a diminished proportion of intact follicles (P < 0.05), even though Bax/Bcl2 gene expression ratio, as an apoptotic index, was less in hormone-treated ovaries (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the combination of FSH and T2 could improve the activation of primordial follicles and the growth of activated follicles towards the preantral stage. This positive effect of FSH plus T2 appeared to be at least partly mediated through the upregulation of Pi3k and oocyte-derived growth factors including Gdf9 and Bmp15.
Exposure to climate shocks, poverty and household well-being
Authors: Becchetti Leonardo , Mancini Sara , Savastano Sara
Published: December 2024

We evaluate the impact of climate shocks on the well-being of farmer households in a Small Island Developing State in the Pacific, the Solomon Islands. We find that both subjective (self-assessed exposure to climate shocks) and objective (number of past dry spells) indicators of environmental stress significantly reduce the quality of life among households. Household well-being is more severely affected for farmers living in poor dwellings (e.g., those with thatched roofs signaling shelters less resistant to environmental shocks), with below median income or durable assets, living in isolated areas and not being members of agricultural associations. Furthermore, households affected by climate shocks experience a significantly higher proportion of nutritional problems. These findings support the hypothesis of a strong correlation between climate shocks, household well-being and nutritional status, advocating for the relevance of global climate adaptation policies such as loss and damage funds, as well as prevention strategies.
Calibrating Confidence: Civic Education and the Relationship between Objective Political Knowledge and Political Knowledge Confidence
Authors: Jansa Joshua M. , Ringsmuth Eve M. , Smith Alex P.
Published: December 2024

The concept of political knowledge is foundational to American politics, but we know little about the extent to which its two dimensions—objective knowledge and knowledge confidence—covary over time as citizens learn about the American political system. We employ a two-wave survey to study whether individuals gain both objective knowledge and knowledge confidence such that they calibrate over time when exposed to civic education coursework. We find students gain both objective knowledge and knowledge confidence over the semester and that, on average, the gap between them shrinks after taking Introduction to American Government. However, we also see evidence that a student’s initial levels of knowledge shape growth in these two concepts and whether they become more closely aligned over the semester. The results shed light on the relationship between what individuals know about politics and what they think they know, and the role of civic education in shaping an active and informed electorate.
Property in the sharing economy: paradox, disruption, and institutional design
Authors: Zhu Sally
Published: December 2024

This special issue aims to unravel the deeply intertwined dialectics between property and sharing. We do so by examining the paradoxes thrown up as legal forms of property interact with the emergent economic activity of sharing, and investigating how these may be resolved by designing institutional frameworks to better align their values. These paradoxes are sometimes productive, driving property and sharing forward to produce new configurations of use and privilege; sometimes disruptive, as sharing throws new light on how property orders economic and social relations by pushing against the boundaries of established property forms. But they are always revealing.
Sharing whiteness
Authors: Dyal-Chand Rashmi
Published: December 2024

What would the ‘sharing economy’ look like if platform providers optimised for racial and other forms of diversity? This article considers that question. Following the Introduction, Part 2 of this article reviews the widespread nature of race and other forms of discrimination in platform technologies. Part 3 uses core strands of property theory to analyse the ways in which racial privilege translates into property entitlements. Part 4 discusses a range of reforms within property law that can contribute to eliminating the value – and ultimately the fact – of whiteness as a property entitlement in the platform economy.
Striving Towards ‘The Good Life’: What Environmental Litigation in India Can Tell Us About Climate Litigation in the Global South
Authors: Kumar Parul
Published: December 2024

The Supreme Court of India's judgment in Vedanta Ltd v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others, affirming the closure of Vedanta's copper smelting plant in Tuticorin in southern India, concludes a long and contentious chain of litigation. The plant's troubled history and the ensuing litigation reflect contestations between economic development, environmental and social devastation, human well-being, and corporate responsibility, which are often characteristic of environmental litigation in the global south. This article analyzes the significance of the Indian Supreme Court's reliance on established constitutional rights principles as well as settled environmental jurisprudence, and highlights the relevance of this judicial pronouncement for climate litigation in the global south.
The effect of active exoskeleton support with different lumbar-to-hip support ratios on spinal musculoskeletal loading and lumbar kinematics during lifting
Authors: Brouwer Niels P. , Tabasi Ali , Hu Feng , Kingma Idsart , van Dijk Wietse , Mohamed Refai Mohamed Irfan , van der Kooij Herman , van Dieën Jaap H.
Published: December 2024

While active back-support exoskeletons can reduce mechanical loading of the spine, current designs include only one pair of actuated hip joints combined with a rigid structure between the pelvis and trunk attachments, restricting lumbar flexion and consequently intended lifting behavior. This study presents a novel active exoskeleton including actuated lumbar and hip joints as well as subject-specific exoskeleton control based on a real-time active low-back moment estimation. We evaluated the effect of exoskeleton support with different lumbar-to-hip (L/H) support ratios on spine loading, lumbar kinematics, and back muscle electromyography (EMG). Eight healthy males lifted 15 kg loads using three techniques without exoskeleton (NOEXO) and with exoskeleton: minimal impedance mode (MINIMP), L/H support ratio in line with a typical L/H net moment ratio (R0.8), lower (R0.5) and higher (R2.0) L/H support ratio than R0.8, and a mechanically fixed lumbar joint (LF; simulating hip joint-only exoskeleton designs).

EMG-driven musculoskeletal model results indicated that R0.8 and R0.5 yielded significant reductions in spinal loading (4–11%, p < .004) across techniques when compared to MINIMP, through reducing active moments (14–30%) while not affecting lumbar flexion and passive moments. R2.0 and LF significantly reduced spinal loading (8–17%, p < .001; 22–26%, p < .001, respectively), however significantly restricted lumbar flexion (3–18%, 24–27%, respectively) and the associated passive moments.

An L/H support ratio in line with a typical L/H net moment ratio reduces spinal loading, while allowing normal lifting behavior. High L/H support ratios (e.g., in hip joint-only exoskeleton designs) yield reductions in spinal loading, however, restrict lifting behavior, typically perceived as hindrance.
Grenzen überwinden: Kultursensitiv angepasste Interpersonelle Psychotherapie für schutzsuchende ukrainische Kinder und Jugendliche in Deutschland
Authors: Zietlow Anna-Lena , Harder Florian , Buse Judith , Brakemeier Eva-Lotta
Published: December 2024

Zusammenfassung: Theoretischer Hintergrund: Studien weisen auf eine hohe Prävalenz psychischer Belastungen bei in Deutschland schutzsuchenden ukrainischen Kindern und Jugendlichen hin, darunter insbesondere depressive Störungen, Angststörungen und Posttraumatische Belastungsstörungen. Die Interpersonelle Psychotherapie (IPT) hat sich in vielen Studien als wirksam für die Behandlung insbesondere depressiver Störungen erwiesen. Fragestellung: Es soll die Durchführbarkeit und Wirksamkeit einer kultursensitiven Adaption der IPT für schutzsuchende ukrainische Kinder und Jugendliche zwischen 8 – 17 Jahren untersucht werden. Methode: Die kultursensitive Adaption erfolgt mittels Fokusgruppen und Expert_innenbefragungen. Für die Durchführbarkeits- und Wirksamkeitsüberprüfung werden Prä-Post-Vergleiche der primären und sekundären Outcomes gerechnet. Ergebnisse: Die Studie läuft noch bis Ende des Jahres 2024. Diskussion und Schlussfolgerung: Bei positiver Evaluation ist die Dissemination des Angebots sowie Adaption an andere Sprach- und Kulturgruppen angedacht.