bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Towards advance care planning in pediatrics: a qualitative study on envisioning the future as parents of a seriously ill child
Authors: Fahner Jurrianne C. , Thölking Thessa W. , Rietjens Judith A. C. , van der Heide Agnes , van Delden Johannes J. M. , Kars Marijke C. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractAdvance care planning enables parents to discuss goals and preferences for future care and treatment of their seriously ill child. Although clinicians report parental factors as common barriers for advance care planning, parental views on reflecting on their child’s future have had limited exploration. A clear understanding of their perspectives might help clinicians to implement advance care planning tailored to parental needs. This interpretive qualitative study using thematic analysis aims to identify how parents envision the future when caring for their seriously ill child. Single interviews and two focus groups were attended by 20 parents of 17 seriously ill children. Parents reported to focus on the near future of their child. However, their actions and deeper thoughts showed perspectives towards a further future. Future perspectives initial focused on practical, disease-related themes, but more existential elaborations, reflecting underlying life values, were also identified. Parents needed acknowledgement of their challenging situation, care tasks, and expertise as a precondition for sharing their deepest thoughts regarding the future of their child.Conclusion: When envisioning the future of their seriously ill child, parents tend to stay in the near future, whereas they value the opportunity to share further thoughts within a compassionate relationship with clinicians.

What is Known:• Parents prefer open and honest information about their child’s illness and prognosis and they value the concept of advance care planning, while they emphasize the need for an individualized approach.• Health care professionals see parental factors like unease and emotional burden as key barriers for advance care planning.

What is New:• When envisioning the future of their seriously ill child, parents tended to stay close to the near future initially, with a focus on disease-related, practical themes. Ongoing conversations uncovered deeper, value-based elaborations towards the future. To engage parents in advance care planning, the future needs to be discussed in relation to the present and the past.• There is “no sharing without caring”. Parents who felt cared for and acknowledged in their challenging context by clinicians, were open to share their perspectives on the future of their seriously ill child. To share deeper motives and values underlying goals and preferences for future care and treatment, parents need a stimulating attitude of listening and encouragement from clinicians to express their feelings.
Biological evaluation of novel thiomaltol-based organometallic complexes as topoisomerase IIα inhibitors
Authors: Legina Maria S. , Nogueira Juan J. , Kandioller Wolfgang , Jakupec Michael A. , González Leticia , Keppler Bernhard K. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractTopoisomerase IIα (topo2α) is an essential nuclear enzyme involved in DNA replication, transcription, recombination, chromosome condensation, and highly expressed in many tumors. Thus, topo2α-targeting has become a very efficient and well-established anticancer strategy. Herein, we investigate the cytotoxic and DNA-damaging activity of thiomaltol-containing ruthenium-, osmium-, rhodium- and iridium-based organometallic complexes in human mammary carcinoma cell lines by means of several biological assays, including knockdown of topo2α expression levels by RNA interference. Results suggest that inhibition of topo2α is a key process in the cytotoxic mechanism for some of the compounds, whereas direct induction of DNA double-strand breaks or other DNA damage is mostly rather minor. In addition, molecular modeling studies performed for two of the compounds (with Ru(II) as the metal center) evinces that these complexes are able to access the DNA-binding pocket of the enzyme, where the hydrophilic environment favors the interaction with highly polar complexes. These findings substantiate the potential of these compounds for application as antitumor metallopharmaceuticals.Graphic abstract
Is mesh always necessary in every small umbilical hernia repair? Comparison of standardized primary sutured versus patch repair: retrospective cohort study
Authors: Mitura K. , Skolimowska-Rzewuska M. , Rzewuska A. , Wyrzykowska D. 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Purpose
A retrospective analysis was carried out to compare the results of patch repair using ready-made, synthetic mesh (PR) and sutured repair (SR) based on standard protocols. The accumulated recurrence rate was accepted as the primary outcome. Pain at rest and during exercise, cosmetic effect and treatment satisfaction were chosen as the secondary endpoints.

Methods
Adult patients after elective, open surgical repair of a single, primary umbilical hernia < 2 cm in diameter were included. Patients with incarceration or strangulation, after previous umbilical hernia repair or other abdominal surgical interventions were excluded. In the SR group, single-layer sutures were placed using the short-stitch technique. In PR group, a 6.3-mm ready-made Parietene Ventral Patch (Medtronic) was used.

Results
161 patients (104 in PR and 57 in SR groups) were included in the study (22 months follow-up). Nine recurrences were observed [six in PR (5.8%) and three in SR group (5.2%)]. In PR group, three patients (2.9%) reported complaints at rest and none in SR group, while 18 patients (17.3%) in PR group reported pain during exercises and 7 (12.3%) in SR group.

Conclusion
For the smallest umbilical hernias, the use of dense fascia suturing (short-stitch technique) may be an effective alternative to patch repair techniques in patients with no additional risk factors for recurrence. The mesh patch repair method is associated with a significantly higher risk of postsurgical pain. Diastasis recti is a factor favoring umbilical hernia recurrence after both pure tissue repair and patch repair.
Pieri Type Rules and GL(2|2) Tensor Products
Authors: Heidersdorf Thorsten , Weissauer Rainer 
Published: March 2020

AbstractWe derive a closed formula for the tensor product of a family of mixed tensors using Deligne’s interpolating category $\underline {Rep}(GL_{0})$

R
e
p

̲

(
G

L

0

)
. We use this formula to compute the tensor product of a family of irreducible GL(n|n)-representations. This includes the tensor product of any two maximal atypical irreducible representations of GL(2|2).
From ‘Whodunit’ to ‘How’: Detective Stories and Auditability in Qualitative Business Ethics Research
Authors: Nair Lakshmi Balachandran 
Published: March 2020

AbstractEthical considerations in today’s businesses are manifold and range from human rights issues and the well-being of employees to income inequality and environmental sustainability. Regardless of the specific topic being investigated, an integral part of business ethics research consists of deeply comprehending the personal meanings, intentions, behaviors, judgements, and attitudes that people possess. To this end, researchers are often encouraged to use more qualitative methods to understand the dynamic and fuzzy field of business ethics, which involves collecting in-depth information in real time. Qualitative methods in business ethics research, however, raise the two-fold responsibility of not only conducting such investigations fairly and appropriately, but also clearly communicating the research processes and outcomes to readers. Especially leading journals in the field such asJournal of Business Ethicshave a responsibility to conduct their business (i.e., the business of high standard publishing) ethically, by making sure that their content represents clear and honest communications of research concerning a wide range of business systems. Unfortunately, the question of how to effectively facilitate transparent insight into the research process of qualitative business ethics studies is still unresolved. Both the lack of a clear communication of methods and results and the iterative nature of qualitative methods often make it difficult for the readers to properly assess a qualitative business ethics study and understand its results. We propose the use of narratives to remedy this situation. Specifically, we suggest a new classification of audits, named second-party audits, to facilitate a better understanding of research procedures ex-post for the readers. To illustrate this new narrative-based reconceptualization of audits, we use Agatha Christie’s detective novelThe Murder on the Linksas a frame of reference.
Landscape genetics of northern crested newt Triturus cristatus populations in a contrasting natural and human-impacted boreal forest
Authors: Haugen Hanne , Linløkken Arne , Østbye Kjartan , Heggenes Jan 
Published: March 2020

AbstractAmong vertebrates, amphibians currently have the highest proportion of threatened species worldwide, mainly through loss of habitat, leading to increased population isolation. Smaller amphibian populations may lose more genetic diversity, and become more dependent on immigration for survival. Investigations of landscape factors and patterns mediating migration and population genetic differentiation are fundamental for knowledge-based conservation. The pond-breeding northern crested newt (Triturus cristatus) populations are decreasing throughout Europe, and are a conservation concern. Using microsatellites, we studied the genetic structure of the northern crested newt in a boreal forest ecosystem containing two contrasting landscapes, one subject to recent change and habitat loss by clear-cutting and roadbuilding, and one with little anthropogenic disturbance. Newts from 12 breeding ponds were analyzed for 13 microsatellites and 7 landscape and spatial variables. With a Maximum-likelihood population-effects model we investigated important landscape factors potentially explaining genetic patterns. Results indicate that intervening landscape factors between breeding ponds, explain the genetic differentiation in addition to an isolation-by-distance effect. Geographic distance, gravel roads, and south/south-west facing slopes reduced landscape permeability and increased genetic differentiation for these newts. The effect was opposite for streams, presumably being more favorable for newt dispersal. Populations within or bordering on old growth forest had a higher allelic richness than populations in managed forest outside these areas. Old growth forest areas may be important source habitats in the conservation of northern crested newt populations.
Competition in the quality of higher education: the impact of student mobility
Authors: Demange Gabrielle , Fenge Robert , Uebelmesser Silke 
Published: March 2020

AbstractIn the last years, there has been a shift toward more private financing of higher education in many countries. At the same time, student mobility has substantially increased. This paper analyzes in a two-region model the impact of student mobility on region-specific higher education quality with private funding. Individuals decide whether and where to study based on their individual ability and the implemented quality. We show that mobility of students affects educational quality in very different ways depending on the probability of return migration. With full return migration, quality is optimally provided which is in stark contrast to the underprovision result in the case of tax financing. On the contrary, low return migration and thus more competition for students countervail the efficient provision of quality and result in too little differentiated levels or too high symmetric levels. This is in line with the overprovision result with tax financing.
Making Sense of Material Culture Transformation: A Critical Long-Term Perspective from Jomon- and Yayoi-Period Japan
Authors: Mizoguchi Koji 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThis JWPFocuspaper argues that material culture transformation can be understood as the transformation of the way human beings and material culture mutually open up their potentialities. Such opening up/becoming takes place in the domains of their encounter, which often take the form of human communications. In communication, human beings and material culture mutually mediate/intervene/transform their modes of existence as the former cope with various uncertainties and risks that the world generates and that communication differentiates. Drawing upon the theory of communication developed by the social systems theorist, Niklas Luhmann, the paper will elucidate and elaborate this perspective through an examination of the long-term transformation of the mode of such mutual opening up/becoming by human beings and the material culture of their potentialities that took place in the Jomon and the Yayoi periods of Japan between 13000 Cal BC and AD 250/300.
Influence of adaptive thresholding on peaks detection in audio data
Authors: Maka Tomasz 
Published: March 2020

AbstractMany audio analysis systems employ peak picking procedure to produce the final decision. A typical scheme uses a thresholding function to minimise detection errors where its form depends on the structure of the input signal. The paper covers the problem of an adaptive thresholding function estimation. Using the genetic algorithm to optimise the components of the thresholding function we have determined the level of importance of individual local statistics on the final function representation. The proposed method has been used to tune the peak detection procedure to identify the change points in an audio signal. In the result of the heuristic configuration, the best accuracy of segment boundaries have been obtained for thresholding function built on top of two local statistics of the detection function and constant value. Finally, as an example, a comparison with the state–of–the–art scheme for audio segmentation was performed.
Serial and large investors in initial coin offerings
Authors: Boreiko Dmitri , Risteski Dimche 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThis study is the first to provide systematic evidence regarding investor behaviour in initial coin offerings (ICOs), their investment patterns and their role in the success of campaigns. Using hand-collected data on 472 public token sales over the period of 2013–2017, we advance the ICO literature by demonstrating that some contributors often invest in more than one campaign, and such serial investors contribute earlier. However, they are not more informed and fail to pick better-quality ICOs. Only large serial investors invest more in campaigns that raise more funds, attract more contributors, are more likely to reach their hard caps, and distribute tokens that are listed on crypto exchange. Our findings raise the question of whether regulatory or industry self-regulation agreements on information provision measures are needed to protect smaller retail ICO investors that exhibit naïve reinforcement learning behaviour.
IDA4D: Ionospheric Data Assimilation for the ICON Mission
Authors: Bust G. S. , Immel T. J. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThe Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission makes measurements in near-Earth space that provide knowledge of the state of the ionosphere. From the vantage of 575 km altitude in a circular, 27° inclination orbit, it retrieves altitude profiles of the ionospheric density peak in both day and night, characterizing the abundance of oxygen ions in the main ionospheric F-layer. Further, it continuously measures plasma densities and velocities in the immediate vicinity of the observatory. These measurements provide key knowledge required for ICON’s investigations and will be regularly provided data products. They also represent an enhancement to a larger set of ionospheric measurements that are regularly obtained by extant networks. The benefit of this enhancement is realized by ingestion of ICON’s observations into assimilative models developed to provide a realistic state of the ionospheric plasma density as informed by disparate observations. ICON uses the Ionospheric Data Assimilation Four-Dimensional (IDA4D) model for this task and this report demonstrates the assimilation of simulated ICON ionospheric products into this model. The model captures observations in a 3-dimensional tomographic grid, with a temporal component that maintains “memory” of the observations in particular locales between updates, provided by ICON or other sources. The model therefore provides a unifying framework for viewing ICON measurements as part of an integrated whole-ionospheric assimilation.
Measuring Complex Morphological Traits with 3D Photogrammetry: A Case Study with Deer Antlers
Authors: Tsuboi Masahito , Kopperud Bjørn Tore , Syrowatka Christine , Grabowski Mark , Voje Kjetil L. , Pélabon Christophe , Hansen Thomas F. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThe increasing availability of 3D-imaging technology provides new opportunities for measuring morphology. Photogrammetry enables easy 3D-data acquisition compared to conventional methods and here we assess its accuracy for measuring the size of deer antlers, a complex morphological structure. Using a proprietary photogrammetry software, we generated 3D images of antlers for 92 individuals from 29 species of cervids that vary widely in antler size and shape and used these to measure antler volume. By repeating the process, we found that the relative error averaged 8.5% of object size. Errors in converting arbitrary voxel units into real volumetric units accounted for 70% of the measurement variance and can therefore be reduced by replicating the conversion. We applied the method to clay models of known volume and found no indication of bias. The estimation was robust against variation in imaging device, distance and operator, but approximately 40 images per specimen were necessary to achieve good precision. We used the method to show that conventional measures of main-beam length are relatively poor estimators of antler volume. Using loose antlers of known weight, we also showed that the volume may be a relatively poor predictor of antler weight due to variation in bone density across species. We conclude that photogrammetry can be an efficient and accurate tool for measuring antlers, and likely many other complex morphological traits.
Four Dimensions of the Cardiac Myocyte Epigenome: from Fetal to Adult Heart
Authors: Rommel Carolin , Hein Lutz 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Purpose of Review
Development, physiological growth and the response of the heart to injury are accompanied by changes of the transcriptome and epigenome of cardiac myocytes. Recently, cell sorting and next generation sequencing techniques have been applied to determine cardiac myocyte-specific transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms. This review provides a comprehensive overview of studies analysing the transcriptome and epigenome of cardiac myocytes in mouse and human hearts during development, physiological growth and disease.

Recent Findings
Adult cardiac myocytes express > 12,600 genes, and their expression levels correlate positively with active histone marks and inversely with gene body DNA methylation. DNA methylation accompanied the perinatal switch in sarcomere or metabolic isoform gene expression in cardiac myocytes, but remained rather stable in heart disease. DNA methylation and histone marks identified > 100,000 cis-regulatory regions in the cardiac myocyte epigenome with a dynamic spectrum of transcription factor binding sites. The ETS-related transcription factor ETV1 was identified as an atrial-specific element involved in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation.

Summary
Thus, dynamic development of the atrial vs. ventricular cardiac myocyte epigenome provides a basis to identify location and time-dependent mechanisms of epigenetic control to shape pathological gene expression during heart disease. Identifying the four dimensions of the cardiac myocyte epigenome, atrial vs. ventricular location, time during development and growth, and disease-specific signals, may ultimately lead to new treatment strategies for heart disease.
More toilet infrastructures do not nullify open defecation: a perspective from squatter settlements in megacity Mumbai
Authors: Biswas Rathin , Arya Kavi , Deshpande Shankar 
Published: March 2020

AbstractSanitation problems faced by the humanity are tightly coupled with the ever-growing water problems. Better sanitation infrastructures ensure sustainable solutions to the health and water issues faced by the majority of the urban population on the planet. In this study, we investigated sanitation status for squatter settlements in Mumbai, a major global megacity. We observe that capacity building in terms of adequate toilet infrastructure alone cannot eliminate open defecation. There is a huge need for more toilet blocks in Mumbai’s wards, even after considering unusable public and community toilets into account, since 71–99% out of 8417 toilets are not in good condition. We contend that the normal perception regarding more toilet infrastructures and its alleviating effect on open defecation is not always directly correlated and is an emerging as well as a complex urban issue. We corroborate the need for addressing associated governance issues along with capacity building, which will help stakeholders to identify the prevailing sanitation scenario towards further policy amendments. Further, effectively identifying the trends and processes entangled in the urban sanitation issues can ensure a more sustainable resource utilization situation and a better standard of living for the urban poor.
Baseline frailty status and outcomes important for shared decision-making in older adults receiving transcatheter aortic valve implantation, a prospective observational study
Authors: Skaar Elisabeth , Øksnes Anja , Eide Leslie Sofia Pareja , Norekvål Tone Merete , Ranhoff Anette Hylen , Nordrehaug Jan Erik , Forman Daniel Edward , Schoenenberger Andreas W. , Hufthammer Karl Ove , Kuiper Karel Kier-Jan , Bleie Øyvind , Packer Erik Jerome Stene , Langørgen Jørund , Haaverstad Rune , Schaufel Margrethe Aase 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Aims
The objective of this study was to examine baseline frailty status (including cognitive deficits) and important clinical outcomes, to inform shared decision-making in older adults receiving transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

Methods and results
We conducted a prospective, observational study of 82 TAVI patients, recruited 2013 to 2015, with 2-year follow-up. Mean age was 83 years (standard deviation (SD) 4.7). Eighteen percent of the patients were frail, as assessed with an 8-item frailty scale. Fifteen patients (18%) had a Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) score below 24 points at baseline, indicating cognitive impairment or dementia and five patients had an MMSE below 20 points. Mean New York Heart Association (NYHA) class at baseline and 6 months was 2.5 (SD 0.6) and 1.4 (SD 0.6), (p < 0.001). There was no change in mean Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living (NEADL) scale between baseline and 6 months, 54.2 (SD 11.5) and 54.5 (SD 10.3) points, respectively, mean difference 0.3 (p = 0.7). At 2 years, six patients (7%) had died, four (5%, n = 79) lived in a nursing home, four (5%) suffered from disabling stroke, and six (7%) contracted infective endocarditis.

Conclusions
TAVI patients had improvement in symptoms and maintenance of activity of daily living at 6 months. They had low mortality and most patients lived in their own home 2 years after TAVI. Complications like death, stroke, and endocarditis occurred. Some patients had cognitive impairment before the procedure which might influence decision-making. Our findings may be used to develop pre-TAVI decision aids.