bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Face-to-Face Communication in Organizations
Authors: Battiston Diego , Blanes i Vidal Jordi , Kirchmaier Tom 
Published: September 2020

AbstractCommunication is integral to organizations and yet field evidence on the relation between communication and worker productivity remains scarce. We argue that a core role of communication is to transmit information that helps co-workers do their job better. We build a simple model in which workers choose the amount of communication by trading off this benefit against the time cost incurred by the sender, and use it to derive a set of empirical predictions. We then exploit a natural experiment in an organization where problems arrive and must be sequentially dealt with by two workers. For exogenous reasons, the first worker can sometimes communicate face-to-face with their colleague. Consistently with the predictions of our model, we find that: (1) the second worker works faster (at the cost of the first worker having less time to deal with incoming problems) when face-to-face communication is possible, (2) this effect is stronger when the second worker is busier and for homogenous and closely located teams, and (3) the (career) incentives of workers determine how much they communicate with their colleagues. We also find that workers partially internalise social outcomes in their communication decisions. Our findings illustrate how workers in teams adjust the amount of mutual communication to its costs and benefits.
A chronology of global air quality
Authors: Fowler David , Brimblecombe Peter , Burrows John , Heal Mathew R. , Grennfelt Peringe , Stevenson David S. , Jowett Alan , Nemitz Eiko , Coyle Mhairi , Liu Xuejun , Chang Yunhua , Fuller Gary W. , Sutton Mark A. , Klimont Zbigniew , Unsworth Mike H. , Vieno Massimo 
Published: September 2020

Air pollution has been recognized as a threat to human health since the time of Hippocrates,ca400 BC. Successive written accounts of air pollution occur in different countries through the following two millennia until measurements, from the eighteenth century onwards, show the growing scale of poor air quality in urban centres and close to industry, and the chemical characteristics of the gases and particulate matter. The industrial revolution accelerated both the magnitude of emissions of the primary pollutants and the geographical spread of contributing countries as highly polluted cities became the defining issue, culminating with the great smog of London in 1952. Europe and North America dominated emissions and suffered the majority of adverse effects until the latter decades of the twentieth century, by which time the transboundary issues of acid rain, forest decline and ground-level ozone became the main environmental and political air quality issues. As controls on emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides (SO2and NOx) began to take effect in Europe and North America, emissions in East and South Asia grew strongly and dominated global emissions by the early years of the twenty-first century. The effects of air quality on human health had also returned to the top of the priorities by 2000 as new epidemiological evidence emerged. By this time, extensive networks of surface measurements and satellite remote sensing provided global measurements of both primary and secondary pollutants. Global emissions of SO2and NOxpeaked, respectively, inca1990 and 2018 and have since declined to 2020 as a result of widespread emission controls. By contrast, with a lack of actions to abate ammonia, global emissions have continued to grow.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Air quality, past present and future’.
Environmental impacts of nitrogen emissions in China and the role of policies in emission reduction
Authors: Liu X. J. , Xu W. , Du E. Z. , Tang A. H. , Zhang Y. , Zhang Y. Y.  , Wen Z. , Hao T. X. , Pan Y. P. , Zhang L. , Gu B. J.  , Zhao Y. , Shen J. L. , Zhou F. , Gao Z. L. , Feng Z. Z.  , Chang Y. H. , Goulding K. , Collett J. L.  , Vitousek P. M. , Zhang F. S.  
Published: September 2020

Atmospheric reactive nitrogen (Nr) has been a cause of serious environmental pollution in China. Historically, China used too little Nrin its agriculture to feed its population. However, with the rapid increase in N fertilizer use for food production and fossil fuel consumption for energy supply over the last four decades, increasing gaseous Nrspecies (e.g. NH3and NOx) have been emitted to the atmosphere and then deposited as wet and dry deposition, with adverse impacts on air, water and soil quality as well as plant biodiversity and human health. This paper reviews the issues associated with this in a holistic way. The emissions, deposition, impacts, actions and regulations for the mitigation of atmospheric Nrare discussed systematically. Both NH3and NOxmake major contributions to environmental pollution but especially to the formation of secondary fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which impacts human health and light scattering (haze). In addition, atmospheric deposition of NH3and NOxcauses adverse impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems due to acidification and eutrophication. Regulations and practices introduced by China that meet the urgent need to reduce Nremissions are explained and resulting effects on emissions are discussed. Recommendations for improving future N management for achieving ‘win-win’ outcomes for Chinese agricultural production and food supply, and human and environmental health, are described.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Air quality, past present and future’.
On the changes in surface ozone over the twenty-first century: sensitivity to changes in surface temperature and chemical mechanisms
Authors: Archibald Alex T. , Turnock Steven T. , Griffiths Paul T. , Cox Tony , Derwent Richard G. , Knote Christoph , Shin Matthew 
Published: September 2020

In this study, we show using a state-of-the-art Earth system model, UKESM1, that emissions and climate scenario depending, there could be large changes in surface ozone by the end of the twenty-first century, with unprecedentedly large increases over South and East Asia. We also show that statistical modelling of the trends in future ozone works well in reproducing the model output between 1900 and 2050. However, beyond 2050, and especially under large climate change scenarios, the statistical model results are in poorer agreement with the fully interactive Earth system model output. This suggests that additional processes occurring in the Earth system model such as changes in the production of ozone at higher temperatures or changes in the influx of ozone from the stratosphere, which are not captured by the statistical model, have a first order impact on the evolution of surface ozone over the twenty-first century. We show in a series of idealized box model simulations, with two different chemical schemes, that changes in temperature lead to diverging responses between the schemes. This points at the chemical mechanisms as being a source of uncertainty in the response of ozone to changes in temperature, and so climate, in the future. This underscores the need for more work to be performed to better understand the response of ozone to changes in temperature and constrain how well this relationship is simulated in models.
This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Air quality, past present and future’.
Lower air pollution during COVID-19 lock-down: improving models and methods estimating ozone impacts on crops
Authors: Dentener Frank , Emberson Lisa , Galmarini Stefano , Cappelli Giovanni , Irimescu Anisoara , Mihailescu Denis , Van Dingenen Rita , van den Berg Maurits 
Published: September 2020

We suggest that the unprecedented and unintended decrease of emissions of air pollutants during the COVID-19 lock-down in 2020 could lead to declining seasonal ozone concentrations and positive impacts on crop yields. An initial assessment of the potential effects of COVID-19 emission reductions was made using a set of six scenarios that variously assumed annual European and global emission reductions of 30% and 50% for the energy, industry, road transport and international shipping sectors, and 80% for the aviation sector. The greatest ozone reductions during the growing season reached up to 12  ppb over crop growing regions in Asia and up to 6 ppb in North America and Europe for the 50% global reduction scenario. In Europe, ozone responses are more sensitive to emission declines in other continents, international shipping and aviation than to emissions changes within Europe. We demonstrate that for wheat the overall magnitude of ozone precursor emission changes could lead to yield improvements between 2% and 8%. The expected magnitude of ozone precursor emission reductions during the Northern Hemisphere growing season in 2020 presents an opportunity to test and improve crop models and experimentally based exposure response relationships of ozone impacts on crops, under real-world conditions.
This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Air quality, past present and future’.
Evidence for non-Mendelian inheritance in spastic paraplegia 7
Authors: Estiar Mehrdad A , Yu Eric , Salem Ikhlass Haj , Ross Jay P. , Mufti Kheireddin , Akçimen Fulya , Leveille Etienne , Spiegelman Dan , Ruskey Jennifer A. , Asayesh Farnaz , Dagher Alain , Yoon Grace , Tarnopolsky Mark , Boycott Kym M. , Dupre Nicolas , Dion Patrick A. , Suchowersky Oksana , Trempe Jean-Francois , Rouleau Guy A. , Gan-Or Ziv 
Published: September 2020

AbstractHereditary spastic paraplegia is a group of rare motor neuron diseases considered to be inherited in a classical monogenic Mendelian manner. Although the typical inheritance of spastic paraplegia type 7 is autosomal recessive, several reports have suggested that SPG7 variants may also cause autosomal dominant HSP. We aimed to conduct an exome-wide genetic analysis on a large Canadian cohort of hereditary spastic paraplegia patients and controls to examine the association of SPG7 and hereditary spastic paraplegia. In total, 585 hereditary spastic paraplegia patients from 372 families and 1,175 controls, including 580 unrelated individuals, were analyzed for the presence of SPG7 variants. Whole exome sequencing was performed on 400 hereditary spastic paraplegia patients (291 index cases) and all 1,175 controls. After excluding 38 biallelic hereditary spastic paraplegia type 7 patients, the frequency of heterozygous pathogenic/likely pathogenic SPG7 variant carriers (4.8%) among hereditary spastic paraplegia unrelated index cases who underwent WES, was significantly higher than among unrelated controls (1.7%; OR=2.88, 95%CI=1.24-6.66, p=0.009). The heterozygous SPG7 p.(Ala510Val) variant was found in 3.7% of index cases vs. 0.85% in unrelated controls (OR=4.42, 95%CI=1.49-13.07, p=0.005). We identified four heterozygous SPG7 variant carriers with an additional pathogenic variant in genes known to cause hereditary spastic paraplegia, compared to zero in controls (OR=19.58, 95%CI=1.05-365.13, p=0.0031; Fisher’s Exact test with Haldane-Anscombe correction), indicating potential digenic inheritance. We further identified four families with heterozygous variants in SPG7 and SPG7-interacting genes (CACNA1A, AFG3L2 and MORC2). Out of these, there is especially compelling evidence for epistasis between SPG7 and AFG3L2. The p.(Ile705Thr) variant in AFG3L2 is located at the interface between hexamer subunits, in a hotspot of mutations associated with spinocerebellar ataxia type 28 that affect its proteolytic function. Our results provide evidence for complex inheritance in SPG7-associated hereditary spastic paraplegia, which may include recessive and possibly dominant and digenic/epistasis forms of inheritance.
Influence of COVID-19 confinement measures on appendectomies in Germany – administrative claims data analysis of 9,797 patients
Authors: Maneck Matthias , Günster Christian , Meyer Hans-Joachim , Heidecke Claus-Dieter , Rolle Udo 
Published: September 2020

AbstractPurposeCOVID 19 pandemic had multiple influences on the social, industrial and medical situation in all affected countries. Measures of obligatory medical confinement were suspensions of scheduled non-emergent surgical procedures and outpatients’ clinics as well as overall access restrictions to hospitals and medical practices.The aim of this retrospective study was to assess if the obligatory confinement (lockdown) had an effect on the number of appendectomies (during and after the period of lockdown).MethodsThis retrospective study was based on anonymized nationwide administrative claims data of the German Local General Sickness Fund (AOK). Patients admitted for disease of the appendix (ICD-10: K35-K38) or abdominal and pelvic pain (ICD-10: R10) who undergone an appendectomy (OPS: 5-470) were included. The study period included six weeks of German lockdown (16.03.-26.04.2020) as well as six weeks before (03.02.-15.03.2020) and after (27.04.-07.06.2020). These periods were compared to the respective in 2019.ResultsOverall number of appendectomies was significantly reduced during the lockdown time in 2020 compared to 2019. This decrease affects only appendectomies due to acute simple and non-acute appendicitis. Numbers for appendectomies in acute complex appendicitis remained unchanged. Female patients and in the age group 1-18 years showed the strongest decrease in number of cases.ConclusionThe lockdown in Germany resulted in a decreased number of appendectomies. This affected mainly appendectomies in simple acute and non-acute appendicitis, but not complicated acute appendicitis. The study gives no evidence, that the confinement measures resulted in a deterioration of medical care for appendicitis.Authors contributionsMM performed study conception, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the manuscript. CG performed study conception, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the manuscript, critical revision of manuscript.HJM performed study conception and critical revision of manuscript.CDH performed study conception and critical revision of manuscript.UR performed study conception, drafting the manuscript and critical revision of manuscript
Each patient is a research biorepository: Informatics-enabled research on surplus clinical specimens via the Living BioBank
Authors: Alekseyenko Alexander V. , Hamidi Bashir , Faith Trevor D. , Crandall Keith A. , Powers Jennifer G. , Metts Christopher L. , Madory James E. , Carroll Steven L. , Obeid Jihad S. , Lenert Leslie A. 
Published: September 2020

SummaryThe ability to analyze human specimens is the pillar of modern-day translational research. To enhance the research availability of relevant clinical specimens, we developed the Living BioBank (LBB) solution, which allows for just-in-time capture and delivery of phenotyped surplus laboratory medicine specimens. The LBB is a system-of-systems integrating research feasibility databases in i2b2, a real time clinical data warehouse, and an informatics system for institutional research services management (SPARC). LBB delivers de-identified clinical data and laboratory specimens. We further present an extension to our solution, the Living µBiome Bank, that allows the user to request and receive phenotyped specimen microbiome data. We discuss the details of the implementation of the LBB system and the necessary regulatory oversight for this solution. The conducted institutional focus group of translational investigators indicates an overall positive sentiment towards potential scientific results generated with the use of LBB. Reference implementation of LBB is available at https://LivingBioBank.musc.edu.
Predict multicategory causes of death in lung cancer patients using clinicopathologic factors
Authors: Deng Fei , Zhou Haijun , Lin Yong , Heim John , Shen Lanlan , Li Yuan , Zhang Lanjing 
Published: September 2020

AbstractBackgroundRandom forest model is a recently developed machine-learning algorithm, and superior to other machine learning and regression models for its classification function and better accuracy. But it is rarely used for predicting causes of death in lung cancer patients. On the other hand, specific causes of death in lung cancer patients are poorly classified or predicted, largely due to its categorical nature (versus binary death/survival).MethodsWe therefore tuned and employed a random forest algorithm (Stata, version 15) to classify and predict specific causes of death in lung cancer patients, using the surveillance, epidemiology and end results-18 and several clinicopathological factors. The lung cancer diagnosed during 2004 were included for the completeness in their follow-up and death causes. The patients were randomly divided into training and validation sets (1:1 match). We also compared the accuracies of the final random forest and multinomial regression models.ResultsWe identified and randomly selected 40,000 lung cancers for the analyses, including 20,000 cases for either set. The causes of death were, in descending ranking order, were lung cancer (72.45 %), other causes or alive (14.38%), non-lung cancer (6.87%), cardiovascular disease (5.35%), and infection (0.95%). We found more 250 iterations and the 10 variables produced the best prediction, whose best accuracy was 69.8% (error-rate 30.2%). The final random forest model with 300 iterations and 10 variables reached an accuracy higher than that of multinomial regression model (69.8% vs 64.6%). The top-10 most important factors in the random-forest model were sex, chemotherapy status, age (65+ vs <65 years), radiotherapy status, nodal status, T category, histology type and laterality, which were also independently associated with 5-category causes of death.ConclusionWe optimized a random forest model of machine learning to predict the specific cause of death in lung cancer patients using a set of clinicopathologic factors. The model also appears more accurate than multinomial regression model.
The effect of mobile applications for menstrual cycle or fertility trackers on women’s health: protocol for a systematic review
Authors: Nomura-Sakata Andrea I. , Mogrovejo-Navas Cinthya I. , Navarro-Grau Alejandra , Zafra-Tanaka Jessica Hanae 
Published: September 2020

AbstractBackgroundNowadays the use of smartphones and the development of health-related mobile applications has increased worldwide. Menstrual cycle tracking applications (MCTAs) have become especially popular among women because of their practicality in recording menstrual cycles, characteristics of bleeding and prediction of cycle stages. There are various studies regarding the use of MCTAs for different aspects of women’s health such as estimating a fertility window for both conception and contraception, help register last menstrual period for calculation of gestational age, record pre-menstrual symptoms, among others. However, effects of MCTAs have not been analyzed in a systematic review.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of mobile applications for menstrual cycle or fertility trackers on women’s health.MethodsA systematic review will be conducted, starting with a search in PubMed, CENTRAL and Scopus using search terms related to mobile applications and menstrual or fertility tracking. Only randomized controlled trials will be screened with a sample of child-bearing aged women that use menstrual or fertility tracking mobile applications. Selected studies will be fully analyzed and the results will be recorded on a spread sheet. Study selection and data extraction will be conducted by two reviewers independently and the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for RCT will be used for assessment of risk of bias. Discrepancies will be reviewed with a third reviewer.ConclusionCurrently, there is a lack of information on the effects of using MCTAs on women’s health. This systematic review aims to provide an analysis on the outcomes of the usage of these applications and evaluate any potential effects.Conflicts of interestAll authors declare to have no conflicts of interest.
Quantitative, Epitope-specific, Serological Screening of COVID-19 Patients Using a Novel Multiplexed Array-based Immunoassay Platform
Authors: Blackburn JM , Anuar ND , Tan TM , Nel AJM , Smith M , Ellan K , Bahrin NIS , Rosli NSM , Badri NH , Rahman TNA , Anwar A , Zain RM 
Published: September 2020

AbstractFollowing the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in late 2019, a large number of antibody tests were developed for use in seroprevalence studies aimed at determining the extent of current or previous SARS-CoV-2 virus infections in a given population. The vast majority of these tests are qualitative and use a single target for antibody detection, incorporating either full-length or truncated versions of the nucleocapsid (N) or spike (S) proteins from SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, mono-epitope tests – whether qualitative or quantitative - are unable to localise antibody binding or characterise the distribution and titres of epitope recognition by anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within an individual or across a population. However, it seems plausible that if such information were available, it may correlate with the presence of potent, high-titre, neutralising antibodies that afford protection again imminent re-infection, as well as with the likelihood of developing a memory B-cell response that would provide more durable protection. We have developed a novel, quantitative, multi-antigen, multiplexed, array-based immunoassay platform, ‘ImmuSAFE COVID+’ (ImmuSAFE) comprising 6 functionally validated domains or regions of the N protein of SARS-CoV-2 expressed using Sengenics’ KREX technology. This array platform enables determination of both the position and breadth of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses following natural infection or vaccination. To validate our platform, 100 serum samples (confirmed sero-positive COVID-19 cases, n=50; pre-pandemic HIV positive controls, n=50) were tested for IgG seropositivity to the N antigen, yielding 100% specificity and 100% sensitivity. All 50 cases showed positive antibody reactivity towards at least one N protein epitope, whilst all 50 controls showed antibody reactivity below threshold values. Broad variation was also observed in the magnitude and breadth of antibodies present, represented as an Epitope Coverage score (EPC). A positive correlation was observed between increasing age and EPC values, with individuals under 40 years old having a mean EPC score of 3.1, whilst individuals above the age of 60 had a mean EPC of 5.1. This finding may have broad implications for the natural history of COVID-19 disease in different individuals.
The association between influenza vaccination and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, severe illness, and death: a systematic review of the literature
Authors: Del Riccio Marco , Lorini Chiara , Bonaccorsi Guglielmo , Paget John , Caini Saverio 
Published: September 2020

AbstractWe reviewed the association between seasonal influenza vaccination and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection or complicated illness or poor outcome (e.g. severe disease, need for hospitalization or ventilatory support, or death) among COVID-19 patients. None of the studies that were reviewed (n=12) found a significant increase in the risk of infection or in the illness severity or lethality, while some reported significantly inverse associations. Our findings support measures aimed at raising influenza vaccination coverage in the coming months.