bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
functionInk: An efficient method to detect functional groups in multidimensional networks reveals the hidden structure of ecological communities
Authors: Pascual‐García Alberto , Bell Thomas 
Published: February 2020

Abstract

Complex networks have been useful to link experimental data with mechanistic models, and have become widely used across many scientific disciplines. Recently, the increasing amount and complexity of data, particularly in biology, has prompted the development of multidimensional networks, where dimensions reflect the multiple qualitative properties of nodes, links or both. As a consequence, traditional quantities computed in single dimensional networks should be adapted to incorporate this new information. A particularly important problem is the detection of communities, namely sets of nodes sharing certain properties, which reduces the complexity of the networks, hence facilitating its interpretation.

In this work, we propose an operative definition of ‘function’ for the nodes in multidimensional networks. We exploit this definition to show that it is possible to detect two types of communities: (a) modules, which are communities more densely connected within their members than with nodes belonging to other communities, and (b) guilds, which are sets of nodes connected with the same neighbours, even if they are not connected themselves. We provide two quantities to optimally detect both types of communities, whose relative values reflect their importance in the network.

The flexibility of the method allowed us to analyse different ecological examples encompassing mutualistic, trophic and microbial networks. We showed that by considering both metrics we were able to obtain deeper ecological insights about how these different ecological communities were structured. The method mapped pools of species with properties that were known in advance, such as plants and pollinators. Other types of communities found, when contrasted with external data, turned out to be ecologically meaningful, allowing us to identify species with important functional roles or the influence of environmental variables. Furthermore, we found that the method was sensitive to community‐level topological properties like nestedness.

In ecology there is often a need to identify groupings including trophic levels, guilds, functional groups or ecotypes. The method is therefore important in providing an objective means of distinguishing modules and guilds. The method we developed, functionInk (functional linkage), is computationally efficient at handling large multidimensional networks since it does not require optimization procedures or tests of robustness. The method is available at: https://github.com/apascualgarcia/functionInk.
Outcomes after percutaneous dilatation tracheostomy: Patients view 6 years after the procedure
Authors: Modalsli Lena , Liknes Kristin , Flaatten Hans 
Published: February 2020

BackgroundPercutaneous dilatational tracheostomy have been performed increasingly since its introduction in 1985, and is today one of the most commonly performed operative procedures in intensive care units. The aim of this study was to document patient‐reported outcomes from percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy after hospital discharge.MethodsThis study is based on retrospective extraction of data from the databases in the ICU at Haukeland University Hospital from 2004 to 2016. Patients alive by April 2018 and with a code for dilatation tracheostomy were sent a questionnaire about their experiences with having a tracheostomy performed. The occurrence of problems and their relations were registered.ResultsOf 5769 admitted patients, 900 patients ≥ 15 years (15.7%) had a percutaneous dilatation tracheostomy performed. The median time from admission to follow‐up was 6.1 years, and the 30 days mortality in those who received a tracheostomy was 315/900 (35%). Of the 441 survivors contacted, 181 answered the questionnaire and a total of 293 problems were reported. The majority of these problems were reported as no or moderate in 115 patients (78.3%). The presence of any problem was significantly associated with occurrence for other problems; however, there were no significant differences related to the elapsed time since the ICU stay. Pain and difficulties with breathing were the two single factors most often related to occurrence of other problems.ConclusionAlthough self‐reported problems after percutaneous tracheostomy occurring after hospital discharge were often reported, most (78.3%) were considered by the patients to be moderate.
Prophylactic use of acid suppressants in adult acutely ill hospitalised patients: A systematic review with meta‐analysis and trial sequential analysis
Authors: Marker Søren , Barbateskovic Marija , Perner Anders , Wetterslev Jørn , Jakobsen Janus C. , Krag Mette , Granholm Anders , Anthon Carl T. , Møller Morten H. 
Published: February 2020

BackgroundAcutely ill patients are at risk of stress‐related gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and prophylactic acid suppressants are frequently used. In this systematic review, we assessed the effects of stress ulcer prophylaxis (SUP) with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or histamine‐2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs) versus placebo or no prophylaxis in acutely ill hospitalised patients.MethodsWe conducted the review according to the PRISMA statement, the Cochrane Handbook and GRADE, using conventional meta‐analysis and trial sequential analysis (TSA). The primary outcomes were all‐cause mortality, clinically important GI bleeding and serious adverse events (SAEs). The primary analyses included overall low risk of bias trials.ResultsWe included 65 comparisons from 62 trials (n = 9713); 43 comparisons were from intensive care units. Only three trials (n = 3596) had overall low risk of bias. We did not find an effect on all‐cause mortality (RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.14; TSA‐adjusted CI 0.90 to 1.18; high certainty). The rate of clinically important GI bleeding was lower with SUP (RR 0.62, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.89; TSA‐adjusted CI 0.14 to 2.81; moderate certainty). We did not find a difference in pneumonia rates (moderate certainty). Effects on SAEs, Clostridium difficile enteritis, myocardial ischaemia and health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) were inconclusive due to sparse data. Analyses of all trials regardless of risk of bias were consistent with the primary analyses.ConclusionsWe did not observe a difference in all‐cause mortality or pneumonia with SUP. The incidence of clinically important GI bleeding was reduced with SUP, whereas any effects on SAEs, myocardial ischaemia, Clostridium difficile enteritis and HRQoL were inconclusive.Study registrationPROSPERO registration number CRD42017055676; published study protocol: Marker, et al 2017 in Systematic Reviews.
Monitoring or colluding: the role of venture capital investors in the IPO process
Authors: Liu Qigui , Tang Jinghua , Tian Gary 
Published: February 2020

AbstractWe argue and provide evidence that instead of playing a monitoring role, venture capital (VC) investors collude with controlling shareholders in the IPO process of Chinese non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs). We show that VC‐backed IPOs’ applications are more likely to be approved by regulators, especially in firms with excess control rights, but have worse post‐IPO performance. Through investing in firms with excess control rights, VC investors are able to make higher exit returns. We further document that VC investors’ role in the IPO process is stronger when they have political connections, hold higher ownership, and when they make pre‐IPO investment.
Share‐pledging and the cost of debt
Authors: Puleo Michael , McDonald Michael , Kozlowski Steven 
Published: February 2020

AbstractWe examine how corporate insiders pledging their equity stakes to collateralise personal loans influences firm cost of debt. Pledging enables managers to diversify personal holdings, potentially increasing risk‐taking incentives. However, exposure to contingent risks creates potentially stronger risk‐reducing incentives. Using hand‐collected data with OLS, difference‐in‐differences, and instrumental variables models, we find significant decreases in yield spreads associated with executive share‐pledging. Reductions in spreads surrounding share‐pledge disclosures suggest investors update their risk assessment to reflect pledging managers’ risk‐taking incentives. Consistent with risk‐reducing incentives, firms with share‐pledging executives subsequently reduce leverage.
Research productivity of Australian accounting academics
Authors: Bond David , Clout Victoria J. , Czernkowski Robert M. J. , Wright Anna 
Published: February 2020

AbstractIn recent decades, substantial changes have impacted the global academy, such as the increasing use of key performance metrics for academics. This study provides recent evidence of Australian accounting academics’ performance in publishing in A/A* journals during the period 2010–2018. We find that the top 25 percent of Australian academics produce approximately 60 percent of published journal articles through an analysis of the A/A* Australian Business Deans′ Council (ABDC) accounting journal listing. The majority of published Australian co‐authored research output in the sample is in A ranked journals (80 percent), with only 20 percent observed in A* ranked journals.
Trade credit and cost stickiness
Authors: Costa Mabel D. , Habib Ahsan 
Published: February 2020

AbstractUsing a large sample of US data, we examine the relation between trade credit and cost behaviour and further investigate the moderating effects on this relation of agency problem, product market competition, and customer concentration. We find that firms using high levels of trade credit exhibit lower cost stickiness and this is prevalent in the high agency problem sub‐sample. In addition, in a non‐competitive market, where the agency problem arises owing to lack of competition, trade credit plays an external monitoring role by attenuating cost stickiness. However, high customer concentration curtails this monitoring ability.
Qualitative and quantitative comparison of Thiel and phenol‐based soft‐embalmed cadavers for surgery training
Authors: Venne Gabriel , Zec Michelle L. , Welte Lauren , Noel Geoffroy P. J. C. 
Published: February 2020

AbstractIntroductionSurgical skills training has traditionally been limited to formalin embalming that does not provide a realistic model. The aim of this study was to qualitatively and quantitatively compare Thiel and phenol‐based soft‐embalming techniques: qualitatively in a surgical training setup, and quantitatively by comparing the mechanical and histomorphometric properties of skin specimens embalmed using each method.Materials and MethodsThirty‐four participants were involved in surgical workshops comparing Thiel and phenol‐based embalmed bodies. Participants were asked to evaluate the utility of the different models for surgical skills training. In parallel, tensile elasticity evaluation was performed on skin flaps from six fresh‐frozen cadavers. Flaps were divided into three groups for each specimen: fresh‐frozen, Thiel, and phenol‐based embalmed and compared together at 1 month or 1 year after embalming. A histological investigation of the skin structural properties was performed for each embalming type using haematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome.ResultsAll participants rated the phenol‐based specimens consistently better or equivalent to Thiel for the evaluated parameters. Quantitatively, there were statistically significant differences for the tensile elasticity between the embalming techniques (p < .05). There were no significant differences for the tensile elasticity between phenol‐based embalmed skin and fresh state (p = .30), and no significant difference between embalming time was reported (p = .47). Histologically, the integrity of the skin was better preserved with the phenol‐based technique.ConclusionPhenol‐based embalming provides as realistic or better of a model as Thiel embalming for surgical training skills and was generally preferred over Thiel model. The phenol‐based embalming better preserved the integrity of the skin.
Site Fight! Toward the Abolition of Immigrant Detention on Tacoma’s Tar Pits (and Everywhere Else)
Authors: Ybarra Megan 
Published: February 2020

AbstractThis paper theorises the spatialisation of White supremacy through the siting and expansion of a US immigrant detention centre, the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC). This case reveals the spatial relationship between the detention centre’s displacement with the Seattle‐Tacoma region’s increasing wealth, highlighting the role of detention and incarceration in the spatialisation of White supremacy. If White advantage maps onto whiteness as property, then White supremacy maps onto interlocking systems of settler colonialism and racial capitalism that dispossess people of colour of land and turns their bodies into devalued pollution sinks, where the less‐than‐citizen is forced to live on Tar Pits that they cannot even call “home”. Since 2014, detained immigrants’ activism has fuelled conversations about the punitive nature of administrative immigrant detention, racial profiling, and the city’s responsibility to enforce health, safety and environmental regulations for all residents. Through the stories of detainees, deportees and their co‐conspirators, this site fight illustrates how abolition ecologies call for tearing down toxic detention centres. Beyond rejecting White supremacist logics in immigration enforcement, abolitionists make freedom as a place together.
A positive nitrite test was an independent risk factor for invasive bacterial infections in infants under 90 days of age with fever without source
Authors: Velasco Roberto , Gomez Borja , de la Torre Mercedes , Benito Javier , Mintegi Santiago 
Published: February 2020

AbstractAimThis study analysed the association between a positive nitrite dipstick test and an invasive bacterial infection (IBI) in infants younger than 90 days of age with fever without source (FWS).MethodsWe performed a secondary analysis of data from a prospective multicentre study of infants up to 90 days of age with FWS undergoing care in 19 paediatric EDs between October 2011 and September 2013. Invasive bacterial infection was defined as a positive blood or cerebrospinal fluid culture.ResultsThe dipstick urinalysis was positive for nitrite or leucocyte esterase in 766 (22.5%) of the 3401 infants we studied, and 270 (35.2%) had a dipstick test that was just positive for nitrite. Overall, 107 were diagnosed with an IBI (3.1%). The IBI prevalence was 2.2% among patients with a normal urine dipstick, 4.4% if they had positive leucocyte esterase test results, 8.3% where the nitrite test was positive and 10.6% when both tests were positive. After multivariate analysis, a positive nitrite test remained an independent risk factor for IBI (odds ratio 2.7, 95% confidence interval 1.4‐4.9).ConclusionIn infants under 90 days of age with FWS, a positive nitrite urine dipstick test was an independent risk factor for IBI.
Phosphorylation of GATA4 at serine 105 is required for left ventricular remodelling process in angiotensin II‐induced hypertension in rats
Authors: Jurado Acosta Alicia , Rysä Jaana , Szabo Zoltan , Moilanen Anne‐Mari , Serpi Raisa , Ruskoaho Heikki 
Published: February 2020

AbstractIn this study, we investigated whether local intramyocardial GATA4 overexpression affects the left ventricular (LV) remodelling process and the importance of phosphorylation at serine 105 (S105) for the actions of GATA4 in an angiotensin II (AngII)‐induced hypertension rat model. Adenoviral constructs overexpressing wild‐type GATA4 or GATA4 mutated at S105 were delivered into the anterior LV free wall. AngII (33.3 µg/kg/h) was administered via subcutaneously implanted minipumps. Cardiac function and structure were examined by echocardiography, followed by histological immunostainings of LV sections and gene expression measurements by RT‐qPCR. The effects of GATA4 on cultured neonatal rat ventricular fibroblasts were evaluated. In AngII‐induced hypertension, GATA4 overexpression repressed fibrotic gene expression, reversed the hypertrophic adult‐to‐foetal isoform switch of myofibrillar genes and prevented apoptosis, whereas histological fibrosis was not affected. Overexpression of GATA4 mutated at S105 resulted in LV chamber dilatation, cardiac dysfunction and had minor effects on expression of myocardial remodelling genes. Fibrotic gene expression in cardiac fibroblasts was differently affected by overexpression of wild‐type or mutated GATA4. Our results indicate that GATA4 reduces AngII‐induced responses by interfering with pro‐fibrotic and hypertrophic gene expressions. GATA4 actions on LV remodelling and fibroblasts are dependent on phosphorylation site S105.
Not the doctor’s business: Privacy, personal responsibility and data rights in medical settings
Authors: Véliz Carissa 
Published: February 2020

AbstractThis paper argues that assessing personal responsibility in healthcare settings for the allocation of medical resources would be too privacy‐invasive to be morally justifiable. In addition to being an inappropriate and moralizing intrusion into the private lives of patients, it would put patients’ sensitive data at risk, making data subjects vulnerable to a variety of privacy‐related harms. Even though we allow privacy‐invasive investigations to take place in legal trials, the justice and healthcare systems are not analogous. The duty of doctors and healthcare professionals is to help patients as best they can—not to judge them. Patients should not be forced into giving up any more personal information than what is strictly necessary to receive an adequate treatment, and their medical data should only be used for appropriate purposes. Medical ethics codes should reflect these data rights. When a doctor asks personal questions that are irrelevant to diagnose or treat a patient, the appropriate response from the patient is: ‘none of your business’.
Metaphysics to the rescue?: Four‐dimensionalism and the twinning argument against conceptionism
Authors: Lee Chunghyoung 
Published: February 2020

AbstractThe view that human beings begin to exist at fertilization (namely conceptionism) faces a serious challenge from the twinning argument, that identical twins coming from the same zygote must be numerically distinct from the zygote and so did not exist at fertilization. Recently, some philosophers have claimed that the twinning argument rests on a particular metaphysical theory of persistence, namely endurantism, on which a human being, for example, is wholly present at every moment of her existence. And we can easily refute the argument, they claim, by employing perdurantism or exdurantism, according to which a human being is a temporally extended entity with temporal parts or a momentarily existing stage who has other momentarily existing stages as counterparts. I argue that such claims are mistaken. The twinning argument does not rest on endurantism and can be formulated in terms of perdurantism to provide a good reason for perdurantists to reject conceptionism. And exdurantism does not have any advantage in defending conceptionism either, for it already concedes more than what the twinning argument aims to show.
On the empirical choice of the time window for restricted mean survival time
Authors: Tian Lu , Jin Hua , Uno Hajime , Lu Ying , Huang Bo , Anderson Keaven M. , Wei LJ 
Published: February 2020

AbstractThe t‐year mean survival or restricted mean survival time (RMST) has been used as an appealing summary of the survival distribution within a time window [0, t]. RMST is the patient's life expectancy until time t and can be estimated nonparametrically by the area under the Kaplan‐Meier curve up to t. In a comparative study, the difference or ratio of two RMSTs has been utilized to quantify the between‐group‐difference as a clinically interpretable alternative summary to the hazard ratio. The choice of the time window [0, t] may be prespecified at the design stage of the study based on clinical considerations. On the other hand, after the survival data have been collected, the choice of time point t could be data‐dependent. The standard inferential procedures for the corresponding RMST, which is also data‐dependent, ignore this subtle yet important issue. In this paper, we clarify how to make inference about a random “parameter.” Moreover, we demonstrate that under a rather mild condition on the censoring distribution, one can make inference about the RMST up to t, where t is less than or even equal to the largest follow‐up time (either observed or censored) in the study. This finding reduces the subjectivity of the choice of t empirically. The proposal is illustrated with the survival data from a primary biliary cirrhosis study, and its finite sample properties are investigated via an extensive simulation study.
Myocardial ischaemia reperfusion injury and cardioprotection in the presence of sensory neuropathy: Therapeutic options
Authors: Bencsik Péter , Gömöri Kamilla , Szabados Tamara , Sántha Péter , Helyes Zsuzsanna , Jancsó Gábor , Ferdinandy Péter , Görbe Anikó 
Published: February 2020

During the last decades, mortality from acute myocardial infarction has been dramatically reduced. However, the incidence of post‐infarction heart failure is still increasing. Cardioprotection by ischaemic conditioning had been discovered more than three decades ago. Its clinical translation, however, is still an unmet need. This is mainly due to the disrupted cardioprotective signalling pathways in the presence of different cardiovascular risk factors, co‐morbidities and the medication being taken. Sensory neuropathy is one of the co‐morbidities that has been shown to interfere with cardioprotection. In the present review, we summarize the diverse aetiology of sensory neuropathies and the mechanisms by which these neuropathies may interfere with ischaemic heart disease and cardioprotective signalling. Finally, we suggest future therapeutic options targeting both ischaemic heart and sensory neuropathy simultaneously.LINKED ARTICLESThis article is part of a themed issue on Risk factors, comorbidities, and comedications in cardioprotection. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v177.23/issuetoc