bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Extensive Horizontal Gene Transfer within and between Species of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcus
Authors: Smith Joshua T , Andam Cheryl P 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
Members of the gram-positive bacterial genus Staphylococcus have historically been classified into coagulase-positive Staphylococcus (CoPS) and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) based on the diagnostic presentation of the coagulase protein. Previous studies have noted the importance of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and recombination in the more well-known CoPS species Staphylococcus aureus, yet little is known of the contributions of these processes in CoNS evolution. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships, genomic characteristics, and frequencies of HGT in CoNS, which are now being recognized as major opportunistic pathogens of humans. We compiled a data set of 1,876 publicly available named CoNS genomes. These can be delineated into 55 species based on allele differences in 462 core genes and variation in accessory gene content. CoNS species are a reservoir of transferrable genes associated with resistance to diverse classes of antimicrobials. We also identified nine types of the mobile genetic element SCCmec, which carries the methicillin resistance determinant mecA. Other frequently transferred genes included those associated with resistance to heavy metals, surface-associated proteins related to virulence and biofilm formation, type VII secretion system, iron capture, recombination, and metabolic enzymes. The highest frequencies of receipt and donation of recombined DNA fragments were observed in Staphylococcus capitis, Staphylococcus caprae, Staphylococcus hominis, Staphylococcus haemolyticus, and members of the Saprophyticus species group. The variable rates of recombination and biases in transfer partners imply that certain CoNS species function as hubs of gene flow and major reservoir of genetic diversity for the entire genus.
Genome-Wide Association and Selective Sweep Studies Reveal the Complex Genetic Architecture of DMI Fungicide Resistance inCercospora beticola
Authors: Spanner Rebecca , Taliadoros Demetris , Richards Jonathan , Rivera-Varas Viviana , Neubauer Jonathan , Natwick Mari , Hamilton Olivia , Vaghefi Niloofar , Pethybridge Sarah , Secor Gary A , Friesen Timothy L , Stukenbrock Eva H , Bolton Melvin D 
Published: September 2021

AbstractThe rapid and widespread evolution of fungicide resistance remains a challenge for crop disease management. The demethylation inhibitor (DMI) class of fungicides is a widely used chemistry for managing disease, but there has been a gradual decline in efficacy in many crop pathosystems. Reliance on DMI fungicides has increased resistance in populations of the plant pathogenic fungus Cercospora beticola worldwide. To better understand the genetic and evolutionary basis for DMI resistance in C. beticola, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and selective sweep analysis were conducted for the first time in this species. We performed whole-genome resequencing of 190 C. beticola isolates infecting sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris). All isolates were phenotyped for sensitivity to the DMI tetraconazole. Intragenic markers on chromosomes 1, 4, and 9 were significantly associated with DMI fungicide resistance, including a polyketide synthase gene and the gene encoding the DMI target CbCYP51. Haplotype analysis of CbCYP51 identified a synonymous mutation (E170) and nonsynonymous mutations (L144F, I387M, and Y464S) associated with DMI resistance. Genome-wide scans of selection showed that several of the GWAS mutations for fungicide resistance resided in regions that have recently undergone a selective sweep. Using radial plate growth on selected media as a fitness proxy, we did not find a trade-off associated with DMI fungicide resistance. Taken together, we show that population genomic data from a crop pathogen can allow the identification of mutations conferring fungicide resistance and inform about their origins in the pathogen population.
The birth and development of the Italian automotive industry (1894–2015) and the Turin car cluster
Authors: Enrietti Aldo , Geuna Aldo , Nava Consuelo R , Patrucco Pier Paolo 
Published: September 2021

AbstractThis paper describes the early genesis and later evolution of the Italian automotive industry employing the traditional agglomeration approach combined with Klepper’s spinoff theory. It highlights the key role played by the Turin car cluster from the late 19th century. We provide the first comprehensive database of Italian automobile companies from 1894 until 2015, based on original archival research. We use historical analysis and econometric models to identify the factors contributing to the creation and success of the automotive industry in Turin. More specifically, we investigate agglomeration economies and the part played by spinoffs and institutional factors with a special emphasis on the role of local education. Our model confirms the existence of a spinoff effect and, especially, the positive effect of inherited technical skills embedded in pilots. We find support for positive agglomeration effects at the regional level, technological complementarities with aeronautics, a metropolitan cluster effect, and importance of local education. Basic and technical education seem to be particularly important initial institutional preconditions for further technical learning and scientific advancement and would make an interesting research topic.
Pollution in Environmental Law: Comparative Corpus Analysis
Authors: Reimerink Arianne 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
Environmental Law has been mostly ignored in terminological knowledge bases (TKBs) on the environment. EcoLexicon, a multilingual and multimodal TKB on the environment, has recently begun to include information on this transversal domain. In this study, comparative corpus analysis is carried out in Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al. 2014) to analyse the differences between Environmental Law and Environmental Science from the theoretical and methodological perspective of Frame-Based Terminology (Faber 2012, 2015). More specifically, the focus is on multidimensionality: how concepts change their behaviour according to the context in which they participate. The results show that different facets of the Pollution frame are highlighted and its participants change in the Environmental Law domain as compared to Environmental Science. Finally, the complex multidimensional nature of the Pollution frame is represented in EcoLexicon with a combination of graphical and linguistic expression in conceptual networks and definitions.
Impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on the professional practice and personal well-being of community pharmacy teams in the UK
Authors: Bhamra Sukvinder Kaur , Parmar Jasmin , Heinrich Michael 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Objectives
Community pharmacy teams (CPTs) were at the frontline of dealing with patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to explore the impact on professional practice and personal well-being of CPTs, in the UK.

Methods
A 25-item survey was designed including a range of open and closed questions. The survey was piloted before being published online via SurveyMonkey and distributed using social media platforms. A combination of opportunity and snowball sampling was employed to recruit participants who worked in community pharmacy (CP) during the pandemic.

Results
In total 758 participants (75% completion rate) including pharmacists, owners, managers, technicians, dispensers, healthcare assistants and pre-registration pharmacists took part. Increased workloads and working hours coupled with staff shortages compromised professional practice (n = 257, 35%). Some of the key challenges of working in CP during the pandemic included: a fear of contracting and passing the virus to others (n = 578, 78%), patients stockpiling medicines (n = 530, 71%) and doctors’ surgeries being closed (n = 517, 70%) The impact on emotional well-being (n = 433, 76%) included stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness; physically (n = 322, 56%) it affected sleep, pain and weight. The effects of the pandemic left 45% (n = 258/569) of participants reconsidering their future in CP as they felt demotivated, unsupported and undervalued.

Conclusion
Despite the enhanced pressures and lack of initial recognition CPTs played a vital role in caring for the population during the pandemic. Resources to better support pharmacy teams in the future not only rely on more funding for better provisions but also investing in CPTs’ well-being.
Nationality, Protection, and ‘the Country of His Nationality’ as the Country of Reference for the Purposes of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
Authors: Fripp Eric 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees assumes States to be dominant actors in the international system, important in the refugee law context as potential sources of risk and/or of protection. In the refugee definition at article 1A(2), the nationality (or absence of nationality) of the individual is a central consideration. Entitlement to protection turns in significant part upon whether an individual is ‘outside the country of his nationality’ and ‘unable or … unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country’ for relevant reason. The phrase ‘the country of his nationality’ is clarified later, in the second paragraph of that article 1A(2), as meaning each country of nationality, where an individual possesses more than one nationality. In contrast, an individual ‘not having a nationality’ is assessed by reference to inability or unwillingness, for qualifying reason, ‘to return to’ a country defined by past residence, not nationality – ‘the country of his former habitual residence’.
This article examines the underlying significance of States to international refugee law as potential sources both of threat and of protection, and considers the article 1A(2) definition in the case of persons with a nationality, resting on the individual’s position as regards ‘the country of his nationality’. In doing so, it identifies particular national approaches that have treated the concept either as including countries of which an individual is not a national, but to which there is some presumed or real relationship, or as inapplicable to a State of nationality that does not provide a particular level of protection. It then considers the interpretation of the article 1A(2) definition in the case of individuals possessing multiple nationality and, in particular, whether the definition requires that a well-founded fear of persecution for relevant reason must relate directly to every country of nationality before a right to international protection arises.
Consistency of anchor-based spectral clustering
Authors: de Kergorlay Henry-Louis , Higham Desmond J 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
Anchor-based techniques reduce the computational complexity of spectral clustering algorithms. Although empirical tests have shown promising results, there is currently a lack of theoretical support for the anchoring approach. We define a specific anchor-based algorithm and show that it is amenable to rigorous analysis, as well as being effective in practice. We establish the theoretical consistency of the method in an asymptotic setting where data is sampled from an underlying continuous probability distribution. In particular, we provide sharp asymptotic conditions for the number of nearest neighbors in the algorithm, which ensure that the anchor-based method can recover with high probability disjoint clusters that are mutually separated by a positive distance. We illustrate the performance of the algorithm on synthetic data and explain how the theoretical convergence analysis can be used to inform the practical choice of parameter scalings. We also test the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm on two large scale real data sets. We find that the algorithm offers clear advantages over standard spectral clustering. We also find that it is competitive with the state-of-the-art LSC method of Chen and Cai (Twenty-Fifth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2011), while having the added benefit of a consistency guarantee.
Improving service use through prediction modelling: a case study of a mathematics support centre
Authors: Howard Emma , Cronin Anthony 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
In higher education, student learning support centres are examples of walk-in services with nonstationary demand. For many centres, the major expenditure is tutor wages; thus, optimizing tutor numbers and ensuring value for money in this area are key. In University College Dublin, the mathematics support centre (MSC) has developed a software system, which electronically records the time each student enters the queue, their start time with a tutor and time spent with a tutor. In this paper, we show how data analysis of 25,702 student visits and tutor timetable data, spanning 6 years, is used to identify busy and quiet periods. Prediction modelling is then used to estimate the waiting time for future MSC visitors. Subsequently, we discuss how this is used for staffing optimization, i.e. to ensure there is sufficient coverage for busy times and no resource wastage during quieter periods. The analysis described resulted in the MSC reducing the number of queue abandonments and releasing funds from overstaffed hours to increase opening hours. The methods used are easily adapted for any busy walk-in service, and the code and data referenced are freely available: https://github.com/ehoward1/Math-Support-Centre-.
Iterative learning control for consensus of second-order multi-agent systems with interval uncertain topologies
Authors: Wang Liming , Zhang Guoshan 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
This paper is devoted to the robust consensus tracking problem of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with the interval uncertain topologies. For the second-order MASs including one leader agent and multiple follower agents, a control protocol is proposed by combining the iterative learning control scheme with the sliding mode control method. By analyzing the convergence of sliding mode variables, the consensus conditions including the unknown eigenvalues and the undetermined weight coefficient are obtained. In order to deal with the difficulties of weight coefficient design caused by the unknown eigenvalues of graphs, a min-max optimization problem is formulated based on the fastest convergence of the λ-norm of sliding mode variables, then the optimal weight coefficient is obtained by solving the min-max optimization problem. Moreover, for the undirected and directed interval uncertain graphs, two algorithms about the optimal weight coefficients are proposed, respectively. Finally, three numerical simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
A self-adaptive theta scheme using discontinuity aware quadrature for solving conservation laws
Authors: Arbogast Todd , Huang Chieh-Sen 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
We present a discontinuity aware quadrature (DAQ) rule and use it to develop implicit self-adaptive theta (SATh) schemes for the approximation of scalar hyperbolic conservation laws. Our SATh schemes require the solution of a system of two equations, one controlling the cell averages of the solution at the time levels, and the other controlling the space-time averages of the solution. These quantities are used within the DAQ rule to approximate the time integral of the hyperbolic flux function accurately, even when the solution may be discontinuous somewhere over the time interval. The result is a finite volume scheme using the theta time stepping method, with theta defined implicitly (or self-adaptively). Two schemes are developed, self-adaptive theta upstream weighted (SATh-up) for a monotone flux function using simple upstream stabilization, and self-adaptive theta Lax–Friedrichs (SATh-LF) using the Lax–Friedrichs numerical flux. We prove that DAQ is accurate to second order when there is a discontinuity in the solution and third order when it is smooth. We prove that SATh-up is unconditionally stable, provided that theta is set to be at least 1/2 (which means that SATh can be only first order accurate in general). We also prove that SATh-up satisfies the maximum principle, and is total variation diminishing under appropriate monotonicity and boundary conditions. General flux functions require the SATh-LF scheme, so we assess its accuracy through numerical examples in one and two space dimensions. These results suggest that SATh-LF is also stable and satisfies the maximum principle (at least at reasonable Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy numbers). Compared to the solutions of finite volume schemes using Crank–Nicolson and backward Euler time stepping, SATh-LF solutions often approach the accuracy of the former, but without oscillation, and they are numerically less diffuse than the latter.
Non-globally Generated Bundles on Curves
Authors: Kopper John , Mandal Sayanta 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
We describe the locus of stable bundles on a smooth genus $g$ curve that fail to be globally generated. For each rank $r$ and degree $d$ with $rg&lt;d&lt;r(2g-1)$, we exhibit a component of the expected dimension. We show, moreover, that no component has larger dimension and give an explicit description of those families of smaller dimension than expected. For large-enough degrees, we show that the locus is irreducible.
Beyond counting intended pregnancies among young women to understanding their associated factors in sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Bain Luchuo Engelbert , Ahinkorah Bright Opoku , Seidu Abdul-Aziz , Budu Eugene , Okyere Joshua , Kongnyuy Eugene 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Background
In this article we report the prevalence and determinants of intended or wanted pregnancies among young women 15–24 y of age in selected sub-Saharan African countries.

Methods
This cross-sectional study used pooled data from current Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2019 in 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The sample size comprised 14 257 young women (15–24 y of age). Multivariable binary logistic regression models were used to present the results as adjusted odds ratios.

Results
The prevalence of intended pregnancies was 67.7%, with the highest and lowest prevalence in Gambia (89.9%) and Namibia (37.7%), respectively. Intended pregnancy was lower among young women who had knowledge of modern contraceptives, those with a secondary/higher education and those with four or more births. Lower odds of intended pregnancy were observed among young women in the richer wealth quintile and those who lived in southern Africa.

Conclusions
To reduce intended pregnancies in sub-Saharan African countries such as Gambia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, there is a need for government and non-governmental organisations to recalibrate current and past interventions such as investment in increasing formal education for women and poverty alleviation programmes, as well as augmenting job creation, including skill-building. These interventions have to be sensitive to the cultural realities of each setting, especially with regards to early marriages and womanhood.
A starter’s guide to learning and teaching how to coproduce healthcare services
Authors: Johnson Julie K , Batalden Paul , Foster Tina , Arvidsson Charlotte , Batalden Maren , Forcino Rachel , Gäre Boel Andersson 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Background
There has been insufficient attention paid to the role of learning in co-production—both how service users and professional service providers learn to co-produce effectively and how the lessons of co-production are captured at a service level.

Objective
We aimed to develop and test a curriculum to support healthcare professionals’ interest in learning how to co-produce health and healthcare services with patients.

Methods
We developed a co-production curriculum that was tested iteratively in multiple in-person and virtual teaching sessions and short courses. We conducted a formative evaluation of the co-production curriculum and teaching tools to tailor the curriculum.

Results
Several theories underpin our approach to learning and teaching how to co-produce healthcare services. The co-production curriculum is grounded in systems theory and shares elements of educational theories, namely, the postmodern curriculum matrix, the actor network theory and situated learning in communities of practice. Learning participants valued the sense of community, the experiential learning environment, and the practical methods to support their exploration of co-production.

Conclusion
This paper summarizes the educational theories that underpin our efforts to develop and implement the curriculum, reports on a formative assessment conducted with learners, and makes recommendations for creating an environment for learning how health professionals can co-produce health and healthcare with patients.
Multicenter Evaluation of a New, Fully Automated Androstenedione Electrochemiluminescence Immunoassay: Precision Analysis, Method Comparison, and Determination of Reference Ranges
Authors: Obermayer-Pietsch Barbara , de Ramon Marta , Reichmuth Claudia , Bendig Garnet , Hutzler Stefan , Taibon Judith , Rank Christopher M , Findeisen Peter 
Published: September 2021

AbstractBackgroundAndrostenedione (ASD) levels can aid diagnosis of hyperandrogenism together with other clinical/laboratory findings. We evaluated performance of the new, automated Elecsys® ASD assay vs an ASD isotope dilution-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (ID-LC-MS/MS) reference measurement procedure and determined reference ranges.MethodsRepeatability/intermediate precision were assessed using 3 control levels and 5 human serum pools (n = 75 each; Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute EP05-A3). Method comparisons vs commercially available immunoassays [IMMULITE ASD (Siemens) and LIAISON ASD (DiaSorin)] and an ID-LC-MS/MS measurement procedure method were conducted using 421 serum samples; Passing–Bablok regression and Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated. Reference ranges and distribution of values associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) were determined in five clinical cohorts using samples from several sites/vendors.ResultsRepeatability/intermediate precision coefficients of variation across all sites were 2.01% to 3.91% and 2.43% to 4.30%, respectively (mean ASD: 7.80–34.7 nmol/L). The Elecsys ASD assay showed poor agreement with IMMULITE ASD (slope = 0.459; r = 0.856; n = 320), fair agreement with LIAISON ASD (slope = 0.625; r = 0.984; n = 327), and very good agreement with ID-LC-MS/MS (slope = 1.040; r = 0.996; n = 332). Reference ranges (2.5th–97.5th percentiles) were: children (≤8 years; n = 140), &lt;0.525 to 1.81 nmol/L; males (≥18 years; n = 138), 0.979 to 5.32 nmol/L; and postmenopausal females (n = 140), 0.654 to 3.74 nmol/L. Reference range (5th–95th percentiles) for females with fertile cycle (≥18 years; n = 84) was 1.71 to 4.58 nmol/L. The distribution of values (2.5th–97.5th percentiles) in females with PCOS (n = 125) was 2.26 to 12.1 nmol/L.ConclusionsElecsys ASD assay demonstrated excellent precision and very good agreement with ID-LC-MS/MS. Reference ranges were established to support results interpretation in routine practice.