bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Interventions Addressing Timely Access to Surgical Care in Low‐Income and Low‐Middle‐Income Countries as Outlined by the LANCET Commission 2030 Global Surgery Goals: A Systematic Review
Authors: Binda Catherine , Zivkovic Irena , Duffy Damian , Blair Geoffrey , Baird Robert 
Published: May 2021

AbstractBackgroundIn 2015, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery published six global surgery goals, one of which was to provide 80% of the world's population with timely access to the Bellwether Surgical procedures. Little is known about the prevalence or efficacy of subsequent interventions implemented in under‐resourced countries to increase timely access to Bellwether surgical procedures.MethodsA systematic review of articles and grey literature published in MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases was conducted. Two independent reviewers evaluated 1923 captured abstracts using explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. Following a thematic analysis, two reviewers conducted data extraction on the eleven manuscripts included in the final review.ResultsThe studied innovations, sparse in number, centred on improved educational resources, the development of orthopaedic devices, and models for assessing surgical access disparity. Eight papers were centred around timely access to caesarean sections, three around open fracture reduction, and three around laparotomy; all focused on adult populations. Five papers addressed innovations in West Africa, two in East Africa, two in South Asia, and one in Southeast Asia. Common outcome metrics were not used to assess improvements to timely surgical access.ConclusionsFew published interventions have been implemented since the publication of the 2015 Lancet Commission on Global Surgery goals that have or will longitudinally increase the availability of timely surgical access in Low and Middle‐Income Countries (LMIC). Tangible outcome measures in existing literature are lacking. An up‐scaling and wider adoption of successful strategies is necessary and possible.
Atraumatic femoral head necrosis: a biomechanical, histological and radiological examination compared to primary hip osteoarthritis
Authors: Hofmann Alexander , Fischer Benjamin , Schleifenbaum Stefan , Kurz Sascha , Edel Melanie , Borte Gudrun , Lehmann Gabriele , Roth Andreas 
Published: May 2021

Abstract
Introduction
Atraumatic necrosis of the femoral head (AFHN) is a common disease with an incidence of 5000–7000 middle-aged adults in Germany. There is no uniform consensus in the literature regarding the configuration of the bone in AFHN. The clinical picture of our patients varies from very hard bone, especially in idiopathic findings, and rather soft bone in cortisone-induced necrosis. A better understanding of the underlying process could be decisive for establishing a morphology-dependent approach. The aim of this study is the closer examination of the condition of the bone in the AFHN compared to the primary hip osteo arthritis (PHOA).

Materials and methods
The preparations were obtained as part of elective endoprosthetic treatment of the hip joint. Immediately after sample collection, thin-slice CT of the preserved femoral heads was performed to determine the exact density of the bone in the necrosis zone. Reconstruction was done in 0.8–1 mm layers in two directions, coronary and axial, starting from the femoral neck axis. Density of the femoral heads was determined by grey value analysis. The value in Hounsfield units per sample head was averaged from three individual measurements to minimize fluctuations. For biomechanical and histomorphological evaluation, the samples were extracted in the load bearing zone perpendicular to the surface of the femoral head. Group-dependent statistical evaluation was performed using single factor variance analysis (ANOVA).

Results
A total of 41 patients with a mean age of 64.44 years were included. The mean bone density of the AFHN samples, at 1.432 g/cm3, was about 7% higher than in the PHOA group with a mean value of 1.350 g/cm3 (p = 0.040). The biomechanical testing in the AFHN group showed a 22% higher—but not significant—mean compressive strength (20.397 MPa) than in the PHOA group (16.733 MPa). On the basis of histological analysis, no differentiation between AFHN and PHOA samples was possible.

Conclusions
The present study (NCT, evidence level II) shows that AFHN has a very well detectable higher bone density compared to PHOA. However, neither biomechanical stress tests nor histomorphological evaluation did show any significant difference between the groups. The results allow the conclusion that there is no “soft” necrosis at all in the AFHN group.
Navigating metastatic colorectal treatment options in the USA: a survey of patient acceptance of skin toxicities associated with Vectibix
Authors: Sangaré Laura , Divita Alecia , Rehn Marko , McNamara Michelle , Lowe Kimberly A. 
Published: May 2021

Abstract

Purpose
To understand the extent to which metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients receive education on the prevention and management associated with skin rash following Vectibix treatment. Furthermore, to investigate how this adverse event affects a patient’s quality of life (QoL) and influences their treatment decisions.

Methods
A cross-sectional survey was administered to 200 mCRC patients (100 Vectibix users and 100 Vectibix non-users). After excluding respondents who had used cetuximab, 61 Vectibix users and 56 Vectibix non-users remained.

Results
Most Vectibix users (79%) experienced a skin rash in response to treatment of which 65% considered the rash moderate, 27% mild, and 8% severe. Vectibix users generally felt they were adequately informed about the rash (83%), with the most common messages received related to sun protection. However, sunscreen was used by only 42% of patients prior to rash and 60% of patients following the appearance of rash. The use of oral antibiotics was low prior to rash (21%) and following rash (46%). Among patients experiencing a rash within the past week (n=16), 75% reported the rash had a large negative impact on their QoL based on the Dermatology Life Quality Index.

Conclusion
There was a disconnect between patients feeling they were adequately informed and use of prevention and management strategies such as sun protection. This suggests a gap in patient education and adoption currently exists on management strategies both prior to and following the appearance of rash. Given the negative impact that skin toxicity has on the patient’s quality of life, it is essential that patients receive and subsequently utilize all information that can minimize rash severity.
The stray sheep of cyberspace a.k.a. the actors who claim they break the law for the greater good
Authors: Pawlicka Aleksandra , Choraś Michał , Pawlicki Marek 
Published: May 2021

AbstractThe development of cyberspace has brought about innumerable advantages for the mankind. However, it also came with several serious drawbacks; as cyberspace evolves, so does cybercrime. Since the birth of cyberspace, individuals, groups and whole nations have been engaging in computer-related offences of various significance and impact, trying to exploit systems’ vulnerabilities, disseminate malicious software and steal data or funds. The concept of a hacker has entered the collective consciousness and become an intrinsic element of popular culture. However, there are hackers, or rather, cyberspace actors, who challenge this common view. This paper presents three types of such people, namely hacktivists, members of cyber militias and Internet trolls. Although they all use the Internet to break the laws or rules, their internal motivations are not always utterly sinister; actually, some of them firmly believe that their actions are for the greater good. This paper is structured as follows: Firstly, the general profile of a hacker is presented. Then, the state of the art is outlined, concerning other papers dealing with the motivations behind cyber threat actors. Following that, the three aforementioned groups of cyberspace actors are contrasted with the profile of a ‘typical’ hacker. Then, the profiles of a typical representative for each of the group and their motivations are indicated, followed by the final conclusions.
Penalty alternating direction methods for mixed-integer optimal control with combinatorial constraints
Authors: Göttlich Simone , Hante Falk M. , Potschka Andreas , Schewe Lars 
Published: May 2021

AbstractWe consider mixed-integer optimal control problems with combinatorial constraints that couple over time such as minimum dwell times. We analyze a lifting and decomposition approach into a mixed-integer optimal control problem without combinatorial constraints and a mixed-integer problem for the combinatorial constraints in the control space. Both problems can be solved very efficiently with existing methods such as outer convexification with sum-up-rounding strategies and mixed-integer linear programming techniques. The coupling is handled using a penalty-approach. We provide an exactness result for the penalty which yields a solution approach that convergences to partial minima. We compare the quality of these dedicated points with those of other heuristics amongst an academic example and also for the optimization of electric transmission lines with switching of the network topology for flow reallocation in order to satisfy demands.
A New Assessment of Bicycle Helmets: The Brain Injury Mitigation Effects of New Technologies in Oblique Impacts
Authors: Abayazid Fady , Ding Ke , Zimmerman Karl , Stigson Helena , Ghajari Mazdak 
Published: May 2021

AbstractNew helmet technologies have been developed to improve the mitigation of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in bicycle accidents. However, their effectiveness under oblique impacts, which produce more strains in the brain in comparison with vertical impacts adopted by helmet standards, is still unclear. Here we used a new method to assess the brain injury prevention effects of 27 bicycle helmets in oblique impacts, including helmets fitted with a friction-reducing layer (MIPS), a shearing pad (SPIN), a wavy cellular liner (WaveCel), an airbag helmet (Hövding) and a number of conventional helmets. We tested whether helmets fitted with the new technologies can provide better brain protection than conventional helmets. Each helmeted headform was dropped onto a 45° inclined anvil at 6.3 m/s at three locations, with each impact location producing a dominant head rotation about one anatomical axes of the head. A detailed computational model of TBI was used to determine strain distribution across the brain and in key anatomical regions, the corpus callosum and sulci. Our results show that, in comparison with conventional helmets, the majority of helmets incorporating new technologies significantly reduced peak rotational acceleration and velocity and maximal strain in corpus callosum and sulci. Only one helmet with MIPS significantly increased strain in the corpus collosum. The helmets fitted with MIPS and WaveCel were more effective in reducing strain in impacts producing sagittal rotations and a helmet fitted with SPIN in coronal rotations. The airbag helmet was effective in reducing brain strain in all impacts, however, peak rotational velocity and brain strain heavily depended on the analysis time. These results suggest that incorporating different impact locations in future oblique impact test methods and designing helmet technologies for the mitigation of head rotation in different planes are key to reducing brain injuries in bicycle accidents.
Benefiting from Wrongdoing and Moral Protest
Authors: Lindstad Sigurd 
Published: May 2021

AbstractSome normative theorists believe that there is a principled moral reason not to retain benefits realized by injustice or wrongdoing. However, critics have argued that this idea is implausible. One purported problem is that the idea lacks an obvious rationale and that attempts to provide one have been unconvincing. This paper articulates and defends the idea that the principled reason in question has an expressive quality: it gets its reason-giving force from the symbolic aptness of such an act as an expressive response to wrongdoing. The paper thus argues that at least in a certain subset of cases, renouncing benefits realized by injustice amounts to a powerful and uniquely apt expression of protest against the disrespect for the victim that is implied by the wrongdoer’s actions. The paper shows how this idea can inform the question of reparations for slavery and its aftermath in the United States. Lastly it develops an important objection to the argument presented and gives an account of how this objection can be met.
The persistence of family firms: How does performance threshold affect family firm exit?
Authors: Symeonidou Noni , DeTienne Dawn R. , Chirico Francesco 
Published: May 2021

AbstractResearch on family firms provides mixed evidence of the effect of family ownership on firm performance and exit outcomes. Drawing on threshold theory and the socioemotional wealth perspective, we argue that family firms have lower performance thresholds than non-family firms, reducing the likelihood of firm exit. Using a longitudinal dataset of 1191 firms over the period 2008–2011, we find support for this contention, suggesting that performance threshold is an important, yet poorly studied, construct for understanding exits of family versus non-family firms.Plain English SummaryWhy firms with similar economic performance make different exit decisions? We find evidence that family firms have lower “performance thresholds” than non-family firms, reducing family firms’ likelihood of exit. Using a longitudinal dataset, we examine differences in performance threshold between family and non-family firms and help clarify why some firms persist with their ventures even though their performance may indicate they should exit the market. Our theory and related findings suggest that nonfinancial attributes such as identity, the ability to exercise family influence, and to hand the business down to future generations may affect family firms’ attitudes toward exit decisions. Our study contributes to sharpening our understanding of exit in family firms while motivating future work on exit strategies in family firms and other contexts.
Comparative analyses of sooty mould communities from Brazil and Central Europe
Authors: Flessa Fabienne , Harjes Janno , Cáceres Marcela E. S. , Rambold Gerhard 
Published: May 2021

AbstractTo gain an insight into fungal sooty mould communities on leaves of trees and shrubs in the tropics and in temperate regions, 47 biofilms of the Mata Atlântica rainforest relic and the Caatinga vegetation in the state of Sergipe, Northeast Brazil, and from Central European colline and alpine zones were compared. The four sampling sites clearly differed in composition of their epiphyllous fungal communities. The fungal OTUs from all sites belonged mainly to the Ascomycota, with Dothideomycetes being the dominant class. The core community group consisted of a few site-specific representatives in co-occurrence with the ubiquitousMycosphaerella tassianaandAureobasidium pullulans. Most species of the core community were dark pigmented and were accompanied by facultative unpigmented or lightly pigmented species. Among the cultivable fungal species, the proportion of melanised species was significantly more abundant in samples from the two European sites, which supports the theory of thermal melanism. The identity of the host plant had a stronger impact on fungal community composition than the presence of sap-feeding insects.
Access to justice in State aid: how recent legal developments are opening ways to challenge Commission State aid decisions that may breach EU environmental law
Authors: Delarue Juliette , Bechtel Sebastian D. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractAccess to justice in State aid matters is very limited. In particular, the admissibility test before the Court of Justice of the EU excludes private parties who are not market operators. The recent CJEU ruling in the Hinkley Point C case and the findings of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee call into question the adequacy of the current system. The findings demand an opening for non-market actors, including non-governmental organisations, to allege breaches of EU environmental law by the beneficiary of a State aid measure and consequently, the incompatibility of the aid measure with the internal market.
Delayed maturity does not offset negative impact afflicted by ectoparasitism in salmon
Authors: Vollset Knut Wiik , Krkosek Martin 
Published: May 2021

AbstractThe negative effects of parasitism on host population dynamics may be mediated by plastic compensatory life-history changes in hosts. Theory predicts that hosts should shift their life-history towards early reproduction in response to virulent pathogens to maximize reproduction before death. However, for sublethal infections that affect growth, hosts whose fecundity is correlated with body size are predicted to shift towards delayed reproduction associated with larger body size and higher fecundity. This has been observed in Atlantic salmon and parasitic sea lice, via mark-recapture studies that recover mature fish from paired groups of control and parasiticide-treated smolts. We investigated whether such louse-induced changes to age at maturity can offset some of the negative effect of mortality on population growth rate in salmon using a structured population matrix model. Model results show that delayed maturity can partially compensate for reduced survival. However, this only occurs when marine survival is moderate to poor and growth conditions at sea are good. Also, the impact of delayed maturity on population growth when parameterizing the model with empirical data is negligible compared with effects of direct mortality. Our model thus suggests that management that works on minimizing the effect of sea lice from fish farms on wild salmon should focus mainly on correctly quantifying the effect of parasite-induced mortality during the smolt stage if the goal is to maximize population growth rate.
An overstability analysis of vertically vibrated suspension of active swimmers subjected to thermal stratification
Authors: Kumar Virendra , Srikanth K. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractThe present article focuses on the analytical approach to discuss the thermo–vibrational convection in a suspension of the active (gyrotactic) swimmers. The onset of instability criterion is investigated for the stationary and oscillatory modes of convection in a shallow fluid layer with no–slip and rigid–free walls. The eigenvalue problem is tackled by Galerkin scheme to get the desired stability diagram and the correlation between the critical Rayleigh numbers. The overstability in suspension is possible when the unstable density gradient of the gyrotactic particles is opposed by the density variation due to thermo–vibrational influence. The suspension is destabilized due to gyrotactic up–swimming while the increase in Péclet number stabilizes the system. The stabilizing influence of vertical vibration is considerably affected due to thermal gradient which destabilizes the suspension. An interesting result of this study is the influence of thermo–vibrational parameter which is associated with applied thermal and vibrational properties. We reported that the destabilizing nature of thermo–vibrational parameter becomes thermally or vibrationally governed when the suspension is heated or cooled from below. When compared to the rigid–rigid boundaries, the displayed profiles for rigid–free walls yielded less stableness in the suspension.
Functional observer-based feedback controller for ball balancing table
Authors: Hamdoun Meriem , Abdallah Mohamed Ben , Ayadi Mounir , Rotella Frédéric , Zambettakis Irène 
Published: May 2021

AbstractThe two degree of freedom ball balancing table (BBT) is a well-known didactic tool used to evaluate the effectiveness and performances of many control algorithms for dynamic systems. The present paper proposes to control the ball position of the BBT system via a linear feedback controller based on a functional observer. The parameters of the linear functional observer are determined by applying the direct method which requires neither a Sylvester equation resolution nor canonical transformations. The use of a digital controller has motivated the elaboration of the equations in the discrete time case. In this work, the BBT is tested in real-time to evaluate the proposed controller performances when stabilizing a ball on a reference point. This paper is a continuity of the previous work [12], in which only simulation results have been carried out.
Tracking red deer population size using deterministic cohort analysis
Authors: Donini Valerio , Corlatti Luca , Pedrotti Luca 
Published: May 2021

AbstractReliable and cost-effective monitoring tools to track population size over time are of key importance for wildlife management and conservation. Deterministic cohort analysis may be used to this aim, especially in hunted populations, but it requires that all mortality events are recorded and that individual age at death is known exactly. In this study, we investigated the reliability of cohort analysis as a relative index to track over-time variation in red deer (Cervus elaphus) abundance, in the absence of exact information about natural mortality and age. Visual tooth inspection was used to age 18,390 individuals found dead or hunted between 1982 and 2020 within the Trentino sector of the Stelvio National Park and the Val di Sole hunting district (Central Italian Alps). Temporal trend of reconstructed population size was checked using spring spotlight counts as a benchmark, through the Buishand range test and a linear model. Our results showed a significant and positive relationship between reconstructed population size and spring spotlight counts between 1982 and 2013, suggesting that cohort analysis could reliably track red deer population trend up to 7 years in the past. With a relative error of  +  1.1 (SD  =  1.5) years in the estimation of age, and fairly stable hunting pressure, our results support the use of deterministic cohort analysis as a relative index of abundance for monitoring red deer over time, even in the absence of exact information about natural mortality. Under violation of assumptions, however, the performance of deterministic reconstruction should be carefully inspected at the management scale.