bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Automatic Assessment of Human Gastric Motility and Emptying from Dynamic 3D Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Lu Kun-Han , Liu Zhongming , Jaffey Deborah , Wo John , Mosier Kristine , Cao Jiayue , Wang Xiaokai , Powley Terry L 
Published: December 2020

AbstractBackgroundTime-sequenced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the stomach is an emerging technique for non-invasive assessment of gastric emptying and motility. However, an automated and systematic image processing pipeline for analyzing dynamic 3D (i.e., 4D) gastric MRI data is not yet available. This study introduces an MRI protocol for imaging the stomach with high spatiotemporal isotropic resolution and provides an integrated pipeline for assessing gastric emptying and motility simultaneously.MethodsDiet contrast-enhanced MRI images were acquired from seventeen healthy humans after they consumed a naturalistic contrast meal. An automated image processing pipeline was developed to correct for respiratory motion, to segment and compartmentalize the lumen-enhanced stomach, to quantify total gastric and compartmental emptying, and to compute and visualize gastric motility on the surface of the stomach.Key ResultsThe gastric segmentation reached an accuracy of 91.10±0.43% with the Type-I error and Type-II error being 0.11±0.01% and 0.22±0.01%, respectively. Gastric volume decreased 34.64±2.8% over 1 hour where the emptying followed a linear-exponential pattern. The gastric motility showed peristaltic patterns with a median = 4 wave-fronts (range 3 - 6) and a mean frequency of 3.09±0.07 cycles per minute (CPM). Further, the contractile amplitude was stronger in the antrum than in the corpus (antrum vs. corpus: 5.18±0.24 vs. 3.30±0.16 mm; p < .001).Conclusions & InferencesThe automated, streamlined software can process dynamic 3D MRI images and produce comprehensive and personalized profiles of gastric motility and emptying. This software will facilitate the application of MRI for monitoring gastric dynamics in research and clinical settings.
Unbiased integration of single cell multi-omics data
Authors: Dou Jinzhuang , Liang Shaoheng , Mohanty Vakul , Cheng Xuesen , Kim Sangbae , Choi Jongsu , Li Yumei , Rezvani Katayoun , Chen Rui , Chen Ken 
Published: December 2020

AbstractAcquiring accurate single-cell multiomics profiles often requires performing unbiasedin silicointegration of data matrices generated by different single-cell technologies from the same biological sample. However, both the rows and the columns can represent different entities in different data matrices, making such integration a computational challenge that has only been solved approximately by existing approaches. Here, we present bindSC, a single-cell data integration tool that realizes simultaneous alignment of the rows and the columns between data matrices without making approximations. Using datasets produced by multiomics technologies as gold standard, we show that bindSC generates accurate multimodal co-embeddings that are substantially more accurate than those generated by existing approaches. Particularly, bindSC effectively integrated single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and single cell chromatin accessibility sequencing (scATAC-seq) data towards discovering key regulatory elements in cancer cell-lines and mouse cells. It achieved accurate integration of both common and rare cell types (<0.25% abundance) in a novel mouse retina cell atlas generated using the 10x Genomics Multiome ATAC+RNA kit. Further, it achieves unbiased integration of scRNA-seq and 10x Visium spatial transcriptomics data derived from mouse brain cortex samples. Lastly, it demonstrated efficacy in delineating immune cell types via integrating single-cell RNA and protein data. Thus, bindSC, available athttps://github.com/KChen-lab/bindSC, can be applied in a broad variety of context to accelerate discovery of complex cellular and biological identities and associated molecular underpinnings in diseases and developing organisms.
HiddenVis: a Hidden State Visualization Toolkit to Visualize and Interpret Deep Learning Models for Time Series Data
Authors: Yan Jingquan , Rong Ruichen , Xiao Guanghua , Zhan Xiaowei 
Published: December 2020

AbstractAccelerometers provide continuous measurements of human movements. Utilizing their data exhibits great potential for monitoring or predicting human health outcomes. In this direction, researchers are active in developing machine-learning algorithms. However, compared to understanding deep learning models, visualizing and interpreting such models is equally important but has been less well-developed. To address these limitations, we constructed an online software tool to visualize the hidden states inferred from the deep learning models and to compare different cohorts based on outcome-associated temporal profiles. We demonstrated the utility of the model using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dataset. Using this tool, we discovered that two time periods of daily activity contribute to significant differences in 5-year mortalities. To disseminate the software to the broader community for the analysis of accelerometer data, we provide the work as open-source code athttps://github.com/jyan97/HiddenVis.
Linking functional traits with tree growth and forest productivity inQuercus ilexforests along a climatic gradient
Authors: Zarzosa Pablo Salazar , Herraiz Aurelio Diaz , Olmo Manuel , Ruiz-Benito Paloma , Barrón Vidal , Bastias Cristina C. , de la Riva Enrique G. , Villar Rafael 
Published: December 2020

AbstractPlant functional traits are highly adaptable to changes in climatic factors and nutrient availability. However, the intraspecific plant response to abiotic factors and the overall effect on plant growth and productivity is still under debate. We studied forest productivity for 30Quercus ilexsubspballotaforests in Spain along a broad climatic gradient of aridity (mean annual precipitation from 321 to 1582 mm). We used linear mixed models to quantify the effect of climatic and edaphic factors on functional traits, and to study the effect of functional traits and abiotic factors on the relative growth rate (RGR) of adult trees. Then we used piecewise structural equation models (SEMs) to determine the causal effect of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on forest productivity. Our results showed that forest productivity is positively affected by forest biomass and RGR, which are mainly affected by functional traits and tree biomass, respectively. In conclusion, intraspecific variability of functional traits have a significant effect on plant biomass and growth, which ultimately explain forest productivity inQuercus ilex.
Lkb1 is a master regulator of VSMC fate and function in mice
Authors: Cai Zhaohua , Song Ping , You Shaojin , Liu Zhixue , Zhao Fujie , Mu Jing , Zheng Xiaoxu , Ding Ye , Xiao Lei , Ramprasath Tharmarajan , Qiu Yu , He Ben , Zou Ming-Hui 
Published: December 2020

AbstractAcquisition and maintenance of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) fate are important for vascular development and homeostasis; however, little is known about the key determinant for VSMC fate and vascular homeostasis. We found that VSMC-specificLkb1ablation inLkb1flox/flox;Tagln-Cremice caused severe vascular abnormalities and embryonic lethality. VSMC-specific deletion ofLkb1in tamoxifen-inducibleLkb1flox/flox;Myh11-Cre/ERT2mice progressively induced aortic/arterial dilation, aneurysm, rupture, and premature death. Single-cell RNA sequencing and imaging-based lineage tracing showed thatLkb1-deficient VSMCs underwent dynamic transcriptional reprogramming and transformed gradually from early modulated VSMCs to fibroblast-like, chondrocyte-like, and even osteocyte-like cells. VSMC transformation followed by extracellular matrix remodeling and inflammatory cell infiltration contributed to the arterial aneurysm formation in tamoxifen-inducedLkb1flox/flox;Myh11-Cre/ERT2mice. Finally, we found that VSMC-specificLkb1ablation resulted in decreased vascular contractility, hypotension, and impaired responses to angiotensin II and vessel injuryin vivo. Lkb1is therefore a key determinant of mouse VSMC fate that prevents VSMC reprogramming and sustains vascular homeostasis. Our findings have important implications for understanding the pathogenesis of aortic aneurysm.
Access to credit and maize productivity in Mali
Authors: Diamoutene Abdoul Karim , Jatoe John Baptist D. 
Published: December 2020

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of access to credit on maize productivity in Mali, by identifying the determinants of credit market participation and maize yield, and then estimating the impact of credit on maize yield.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes the impact of credit on maize productivity using data from the World Bank 2014 Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) on Mali, and the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model.FindingsThe results suggest a positive effect of credit on maize yield in Mali. Farm size, production shocks and the female gender exert negative effects on credit market participation, unlike education, intercropping with cotton, male family labor and fertilizer use which show positive effects. Farm size has a negative effect on maize yield, but both male family labor, and fertilizer use exert positive effects. Although the use of credit improves agricultural yields, the results show a greater potential effect for rationed producers, than credit users.Research limitations/implicationsThese results suggest that implementing a credit strategy that allows those currently excluded from the credit market, to participate, could substantially increase productivity and maize production output in furtherance of the country's food security strategy. Gender-based targeting is needed to bridge the gender gap in access to credit.Originality/valueAs far as the authors are aware, this study is the first to explore the credit-farm productivity links in Mali, while addressing selection bias.
Corruption and corporate risk-taking: evidence from emerging markets
Authors: Tran Quoc Trung 
Published: December 2020

PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between corruption and corporate risk-taking in emerging markets where corruption is considered as “public enemy number one.”Design/methodology/approachThe study measures corruption based on Corruption Control Index annually published by World Bank and examines how corruption affects corporate risk-taking in emerging markets covered in MSCI Emerging Market Index.FindingsWith a sample of 75,338 observations from 8,326 firms across 20 emerging stock markets during the period 2005–2016, the author finds that corruption negatively affects corporate risk-taking. Robustness checks with a reduced sample without China and India, alternatives of corruption measures, various measures of risk-taking and Generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator also show consistent results. Moreover, additional analysis shows that information disclosure mitigates the effect of corruption on risk-taking.Originality/valueThe extant literature implies that corruption may decrease corporate risk-taking behavior through two channels including operational cost and debt financing cost.
The role of power-addiction and maladaptive denial in the US federal COVID-19 response
Authors: Weidner II C. Ken , Nelson Lisa A.T. 
Published: December 2020

PurposeGiven the substantial resources of the United States, the failure of the American federal response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been both tragic and avoidable. The authors frame this response as an artifact of power-addiction among administration officials and examine the US federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of maladaptive denial by government officials, including President Trump.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use qualitative research methods for this study by analyzing key events, public statements by administration officials from multiple credible media reports and US federal government websites. The authors analyzed these data using Weidner and Purohit's (2009) model describing maladaptive denial in organizations and power-addiction among leaders.FindingsThe authors' analysis identifies maladaptive denial – and the concomitant power-addiction – as significantly contributing to the Trump administration's failed response to COVID-19. Maladaptive denial and power-addiction characterized Trump as a candidate and for the three years of his presidency preceding the COVID-19 crisis. Whatever normative “guardrails” or checks and balances existed in the American system to restrict the administration's behavior before the crisis were ill-equipped to significantly prevent or alter the failed federal response to the pandemic.Originality/valueThe article applies the model of maladaptive denial in organizations (Weidner and Purohit, 2009) to the public sector, and explores the lengths to which power-addicted leaders and regimes can violate the public's trust in institutions in a crisis, even in the US, a liberal democracy characterized by freedom of political expression. While organizations and change initiatives may fail for a variety of reasons, this case revealed the extent to which maladaptive denial can permeate a government – or any organization – and its response to a crisis.
RAM assessment of the repairable industrial structure with genuine human-mistake working conditions with generalized fuzzy numbers
Authors: Dhiman Pooja , Kumar Amit 
Published: December 2020

PurposeThe present paper investigated a skim milk powder production plant with genuine human mistake for analyzing its performance in terms of its reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) indices along with mean time between failure (MTBF) and expected number of failure (ENOF).Design/methodology/approachIn the proposed work, the generalized fuzzy lambda–tau methodology has been used to carry out the analysis of the repairable structure using the improved arithmetic operations for generalized fuzzy numbers by considering the degree of confidence levels.FindingsRAM indices along with MTBF and ENOF are obtained to increase the quality of skim milk powder manufacturing structures of a dairy plant with genuine human-mistake working conditions.Originality/valueIn the present paper, a mathematical model for a complex industrial system based on fuzzy has been developed. Finally, the results are more realistic and comprehensive for the decision-maker for farther application.
The crisis of Neoliberal project of aging during the COVID-19 pandemic: from compulsory activity to mandatory isolation
Authors: Bogdanova Elena , Grigoryeva Irina 
Published: December 2020

Purpose
This paper aims to consider how the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic questions the neoliberal project of ageing, based on a notion of a healthy, active, working older person. A long-term struggle to include older people has been (temporarily) replaced with a struggle to exclude them. This seems to be one of the most sensitive sore spots of the coronavirus crisis and one of the most serious challenges to social policy and welfare systems the world over. The purpose of this paper is to consider where the concepts of ageing and the action on ageing were at right before the crisis and what their further development may look like.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a critical overview of main conceptions based on the neoliberal project of ageing.

Findings
The main principle of the neoliberal project of ageing, which had been formed on the crossroad of social theory and policy through decades, became vulnerable in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. The new forced ageing reveals its repressive nature through ensuring seniors’ safety from exposure, their removal from work and isolation. The theory now faces new challenges of meshing a neoliberal actor – active, independent and productive – with an older person in isolation, who needs safeguarding, of re-conceptualizing social exclusion of seniors in a situation where exclusion is equated with safety, of resolving a dilemma between isolation and respect of human rights and of keeping progress in anti-ageism.

Research limitations/implications
This paper presents an overview of the main conceptions, underlying the neoliberal project of ageing. It aims to designate the vulnerabilities of the project, which were revealed under the situation of pandemic. Further development of the discussion needs detailed analysis of theoretical conceptions of ageing.

Practical implications
Theoretical debate reflects policy of ageing. Discussion of theoretical problems of ageism, social exclusion, safeguarding of the elderly and compulsion are necessary for improvement of social policy of ageing.

Social implications
When the neoliberal project of ageing comes into collision with the reality with the reality, the authors recognize it as a crisis. It moves the society, and especially the elderly, to the situation of uncertainty. This paper calls for discussion and search for a new balance among the generations in a society.

Originality/value
This paper relies upon the current debate on neoliberal project of ageing and responds immediately to the situation of pandemic. Now conceptual problems in theories of ageing and policy projects became visible, and the authors suppose it is time to initiate this discussion.
An analysis of the representation of cultural content in English coursebooks
Authors: Dahmardeh Mahdi , Kim Sung-Do 
Published: December 2020

PurposeThe aim of this article was to understand about cultural representation in these coursebooks and if it is reflected the status of English as a lingua franca.Design/methodology/approachThis article is a report on a case study in the form of content analysis of different categories of culture represented in English language coursebooks used in schools of Iran. In order to do so, references to source, target, international and universal cultures were classified into four aspects: perspectives, products, practices and persons.FindingsGenerally, the findings suggested that despite the high frequency of cultural elements, the representation favoured the source culture, while the target, international and universal cultures were heavily under-represented.Research limitations/implicationsApart from the valuable contributions of the study, the implications of the study are that despite the high frequency of cultural elements, the representation favoured the source culture, while the target, international and universal cultures were heavily under-represented. Therefore, the imbalance in the content of materials on different cultures needs to be redressed. While the main concern of this investigation is the frequency of appearance, which replicates the extent of source, target, international and universal cultures represented in the coursebooks, the impact of the materials, affected by how the cultural elements are used and perceived by teachers and pupils, is beyond the scope of the present study; hence, future studies in this area are deeply encouraged, and it is recommended for further research.Practical implicationsThe implications for resolving the imbalance in cultural representation are also being explained.Originality/valueBearing in mind the importance of coursebooks as well as the role of culture in teaching the English language, this article aims at understanding about cultural representation within the newly developed Iranian English language coursebooks for schools, an issue that has never been studied by Iranian scholars with respect to the newly published materials.
Gender pay gap in Vietnam: a propensity score matching analysis
Authors: Obermann Gabriel , Hoang Oanh Nguyen , Hong Ngoc Nguyen 
Published: December 2020

PurposeThis paper investigates the extent, the determinants and the change in the gender pay gap in Vietnam in the period 2010–2016 in order to provide suggestions for policy adjustment to narrow gender pay inequality more effectively.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the propensity score matching (PSM) method to examine inequality in pay between female and male earners sharing identical characteristics. The analysis is conducted for both the full sample and various characteristic-based subsamples. This procedure is conducted for 2010 and 2016 separately to discover the change in gap and inequality during this period.FindingsThe matching results based on the data sets taken from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) 2010 and 2016 affirm that gender income inequality in Vietnam, though persisted, decreased significantly in 2016 compared to 2010, and was insignificant in many subsamples in 2016. In addition to the observable determinants including educational level, occupation, economic sector and industry, unobservable factors are proved to also play an important role in creating the gender pay gap in Vietnam.Practical implicationsThe research findings suggest that policies aimed at mitigating gender pay inequality should take into account both observable characteristics and unobservable factors such as unobservable gender differences that affect wages and gender discrimination in pay.Originality/valueThis is the first study using a matching technique to investigate gender wage gap in Vietnam. With up-to-date data, longer research period and the superiority of the method used in dealing with sample selection bias, the results obtained are more robust, more detailed and reliable.
Access to basic services during the transition from MDGs to SDGs: more rhetoric than reality in a Bangladesh slum
Authors: Haque Md. Nazmul , Saroar Mustafa , Fattah Md. Abdul , Morshed Syed Riad , Fatema Nuzhat 
Published: December 2020

Purpose
This paper aims to assess the progress in the provision of basic services in urban slums in Bangladesh during the transition period of millennium development goals (MDGs) to sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Design/methodology/approach
The study used a mixed method of research. The empirical part of the research was conducted in three Blocks of Rupsha slum in Khulna city. Randomly selected 120 households were interviewed through a structured questionnaire; three focus group discussion sessions (FGDs) were also conducted. Progress in the slum residents’ access to basic services during the transition from MDGs to SDGs is tacked based on primary data. The User Satisfaction Index (USI) and Network Analysis tools in ArcGIS are used to identify the gaps in service provision.

Findings
Findings show that a very significant proportion of families (56.67%) encounter an acute level of difficulties to gain smooth access to water services. About 89% of respondents have only access to a common or shared toilet facility where one common toilet is used by 20–25 persons. About 31% of families are unable to send their children to primary school even after four years of the adoption of SDGs. Achievements in most indicators of basic services in the slum are in general lower than the national level. Moreover, there exists spatial variability within the same slum. After four years of the transition from MDGs to SDGs, most of the services are poorly satisfying the residents of the Rupsha slum, and water service provision is in worse condition. The findings of this study have unveiled that while achievement in target areas is appreciable at the macro level, at the micro-level; however, good achievement in the provision of few basic services in the low-income settlement is more rhetoric than reality. Therefore, a lot more work needs to be done during the SDG phase to give the slum residents a decent quality of life as they have missed the MDGs’ train.

Originality/value
Study single-out works need to be done during the SDGs phase to give the slum residents a decent quality of life as they have missed the MDGs’ train.