bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Biotic Deterioration and Homogenization: Why It Matters
Authors: Hessen Dag O. 
Published: October 2024

AbstractGlobally, locally, and regionally, there are different patterns of biotic diversity and community composition reflecting past evolutionary history shaped by differences in niches, productivity, climate, and other ambient factors, as well as migration barriers. Historically, humans have impacted and eroded these biotic patterns, notably by the impact of agriculture in a wide sense, but to an increasing extent also by logging, overharvesting, spreading of species, urbanization, and climate change. Besides causing (in most cases) a declining diversity, it also implies a biotic homogenization where ecosystem communities become spatially more similar, often by replacement of locally adopted specialist species with more widespread generalist species. Besides discussing these drivers of biotic degradation and homogenization, I also discuss why and how it matters both from a biocentric and anthropocentric point of view, how biotic and cultural homogenization are integrated via agricultural impacts, loss of habitats that also are home to indigenous people as well as by travel, trade, and consumption. In fact, the global cultural homogenization towards western consumerism is the overarching cause of biotic homogenization, biodiversity loss as well as climate change. Finally, solutions are discussed. There are local and regional means to counteract biotic losses and homogenization by retaining and restoring landscape elements, yet globally these trends can only be countered through systemic societal changes.
Exploring Twitter discourse with BERTopic: topic modeling of tweets related to the major German parties during the 2021 German federal election
Authors: Hellwig Nils Constantin , Fehle Jakob , Bink Markus , Schmidt Thomas , Wolff Christian 
Published: October 2024

AbstractWe present a study in the context of computational social science that explores the topics debated in the context of the 2021 German Federal Election by using the topic modeling technique BERTopic. The corpus consists of German language tweets posted by political party accounts of the major German parties, as well as tweets by the general public mentioning the party accounts. We examined the textual content of the tweets but also included the text in images that were posted into the analysis by extracting the text using optical character recognition (OCR). Our results show that the most frequently discussed topics are party-oriented policies (including call-to-action content), climate policy and financial policy, with these topics being discussed in tweets by both, the political party accounts and tweets by accounts mentioning them. In addition, we observed that some topics were discussed consistently throughout the year, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate policy or digitization, while other topics, such as the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan or Israel were debated to a greater extent at limited time frames during the election year.
Exploring crisis management measures taken by school leaders at the unpredictable crisis – case COVID-19
Authors: Peltola Jussi-Pekka , Lindfors Eila , Luukka Emilia 
Published: October 2024

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic was an unpredictable crisis for schools. Schools transitioned their teaching from classrooms to teaching online. The holistic safety of the schools’ was under a serious threat. Various measures of crisis management aimed at upholding holistic school safety, which includes physical, social, psychological and pedagogical safety.This review employs both narrative review method and thematic analysis to investigate the crisis management measures that school leaders undertook during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in terms of holistic school safety while modifying key operations of the school. In addition, the stressors and resources of school leaders’ were examined. The non-systematic, explorative search for literature conducted between autumn 2020 and spring 2021 yielded a total of 10 articles.School leaders’ crisis management measures to maintain holistic school safety in 2020 comprised running the organization, supporting teachers, and supporting students. Extensive measures to limit physical contact posed a threat to psychological, social and pedagogical safety. School leaders worked in a stressful situation. Flexibility and human-centered approach were necessary to cope.In future crises, predicting consequences at every level is important when preparing plans and considering leaders’ tasks as part of crisis management plans to ensure holistic school safety. In crisis situations, priority must be given to tackling the primary threat, but the overall impact of measures on school safety must be taken into account.
Crafting Subverses: A Narrative Analysis of the Experience of Losing a Parent through Intimate Partner Homicide
Authors: Marinkovic Chavez Katitza , Joy Kathryn , Frederick John , Eastwood Oliver , Morrice Hannah , Sakthiakumaran Ashwini , Vasileva Mira , Kurdi Zain , Houghton Claire , Devaney John , Humphreys Cathy , Alisic Eva 
Published: October 2024

Abstract
Purpose
Losing a parent due to intimate partner homicide is a traumatic experience, exacerbated by homicide and the associated grief being a taboo in many western cultures. This study investigated the experiences of young people and adults bereaved by parental intimate partner homicide during childhood, to gain a better understanding of how they make sense of and share their personal story after such a loss.

Methods
Within the context of a larger study, we conducted twelve semi-structured interviews with people with lived experience of such deaths in Australia and used narrative analysis to interpret the data.

Results
Participants were frequently confronted with imposed narratives (i.e., from family, practitioners, peers) about the homicide, their parents, and their own identities, leading to a deep sense of loneliness and feeling misunderstood, powerless, and silenced. In various ways, participants resisted imposed narratives and took control over their stories. This process was difficult but could lead to improved and more authentic relationships with oneself, family, and others. In this way, participants used their experiences to transform themselves and others, sometimes by becoming advocates or practitioners supporting others with similar experiences.

Conclusions
We named this process of taking control of one’s story “crafting subverses.” It involved making sense of and sharing experiences of trauma and grief for personal healing and social justice. Helping children craft their “subverses” may be an important aspect of gaining a deeper understanding of how to support them. Provision of carefully tailored peer mentoring, professional support and opportunities to influence programs and policy appear key to better support systems for those bereaved due to parental intimate partner homicide.
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life Satisfaction: Does Social Belonging Matter as a Mechanism and are There Differences by Age?
Authors: Handschuh Philipp , Kroh Jacqueline , Nester Markus 
Published: October 2024

AbstractThe effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on life satisfaction has been a topic of worldwide research, mostly indicating a drop in individual’s life satisfaction with some differences between subgroups. However, literature on related mechanisms is scarce. This study examines whether the sense of social belonging is a mechanism that explains pandemic-related changes in life satisfaction across different age groups. Using a rich longitudinal data set of the adult cohort of the German National Educational Panel Study and employing fixed effects panel regression models, we show that the COVID-19 pandemic is, on average, negatively associated with individual life satisfaction and social belonging. Yet, mediation and sensitivity analysis questions the general importance of social belonging as a relevant mechanism irrespective of individuals’ age. The results also suggest that the negative effects of the pandemic on social belonging were indeed significant for individuals with average or high pre-pandemic social belonging, while individuals with low pre-pandemic social belonging experienced an increase in their sense of social belonging. This leads to an expanded discussion of which groups of people are most affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and what other mechanisms can be hypothesized to explain this negative impact on people's life satisfaction.
Leveraging Uncertainty as a Means of Facilitating Sensemaking Within a Digital Wildfire Curriculum
Authors: Conrath Brandin , Farris Amy Voss , McDonald Scott 
Published: October 2024

AbstractThe changing landscape of geoscience learning has initiated growing interest in engaging science learners with climate data. One approach to teaching climate is the application of broadly accessible digital science curricula, which often include data tools such as visualizations, data representations, and simulations embedded within digital science curricula. We are specifically interested in how students and teachers grapple with scientific uncertainty in digital curricula. Our paper therefore examines how a 7th grade science class and their teacher leverage moments of uncertainty in their work within a digital geohazard curriculum to learn about wildfire risk and impact. We analyzed episodes of learners’ interactions, and those included scientific uncertainty related to key ideas about wildfires. We also attend to how the teacher orchestrates across class members’ ideas and the representations they were using. Our findings suggest that the digital curriculum elicited important sensemaking about wildfires and climate, including the interpretation of trends (Episode 1), working with simulations as a means of scientific investigation (Episode 2), and making meaning across disparate climate maps (Episode 3). Importantly, our analysis highlights the imperative work of the teacher in creating and leveraging productive sensemaking around the climate representations and simulations, yet outside of the predetermined curriculum. Our findings illustrate that maximizing students’ learning about climate in digital science curricula demands attention beyond teachers’ ad hoc adaptation, and rather, the intentional design of tools that support sensemaking about uncertainty as a dialogic process that is negotiated in response to students’ ideas.
Health-related quality of life dynamics: modeling insights from immunotherapy
Authors: Hasgul Zeynep , Spanjaart Anne , Javed Sumreen , Akhavan Ali , Kersten Marie José , Jalali Mohammad S. 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Background
Understanding health-related quality of life (HRQoL) dynamics is essential for assessing and improving treatment experiences; however, clinical and observational studies struggle to capture their full complexity. We use simulation modeling and the case of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy—a type of cancer immunotherapy that can prolong survival, but carries life-threatening risks—to study HRQoL dynamics.

Methods
We developed an exploratory system dynamics model with mathematical equations and parameter values informed by literature and expert insights. We refined its feedback structure and evaluated its dynamic behavior through iterative interviews. Model simulated HRQoL from treatment approval through six months post-infusion. Two strategies—reducing the delay to infusion and enhancing social support—were incorporated into the model. To dynamically evaluate the effect of these strategies, we developed four metrics: post-treatment HRQoL decline, recovery time to pre-treatment HRQoL, post-treatment HRQoL peak, and durability of the peak.

Results
Model captures key interactions within HRQoL, providing a nuanced analysis of its continuous temporal dynamics, particularly physical well-being, psychological well-being, tumor burden, receipt and efficacy of treatment, side effects, and their management. Model analysis shows reducing infusion delays enhanced HRQoL across all four metrics. While enhanced social support improved the first three metrics for patients who received treatment, it did not change durability of the peak.

Conclusions
Simulation modeling can help explore the effects of strategies on HRQoL while also demonstrating the dynamic interactions between its key components, offering a powerful tool to investigate aspects of HRQoL that are difficult to assess in real-world settings.
Strictly Positive Fragments of the Provability Logic of Heyting Arithmetic
Authors: de Almeida Borges Ana , Joosten Joost J. 
Published: October 2024

AbstractWe determine the strictly positive fragment $$\textsf{QPL}^+(\textsf{HA})$$

QPL
+

(
HA
)

of the quantified provability logic $$\textsf{QPL}(\textsf{HA})$$

QPL
(
HA
)

of Heyting Arithmetic. We show that $$\textsf{QPL}^+(\textsf{HA})$$

QPL
+

(
HA
)

is decidable and that it coincides with $$\textsf{QPL}^+(\textsf{PA})$$

QPL
+

(
PA
)

, which is the strictly positive fragment of the quantified provability logic of of Peano Arithmetic. This positively resolves a previous conjecture of the authors described in [14]. On our way to proving these results, we carve out the strictly positive fragment $$\textsf{PL}^+(\textsf{HA})$$

PL
+

(
HA
)

of the provability logic $$\textsf{PL}(\textsf{HA})$$

PL
(
HA
)

of Heyting Arithmetic, provide a simple axiomatization, and prove it to be sound and complete for two types of arithmetical interpretations. The simple fragments presented in this paper should be contrasted with a recent result by Mojtahedi [43], where an axiomatization for $$\textsf{PL}(\textsf{HA})$$

PL
(
HA
)

is provided. This axiomatization, although decidable, is of considerable complexity.
Patterns of a sexually selected trait are not predictable across urban and non-urban populations of a songbird, the dark-eyed junco
Authors: Diamant Eleanor S. , Kang Martin , Yeh Pamela J. 
Published: October 2024

Abstract
Urbanization can result in novel selective pressures that can cause phenotypic differences amongst urban-tolerant species across urban and non-urban habitats. Here, we compared the size of the white tail patch (“tail white”), a sexual signaling trait, in two urban populations of dark-eyed juncos in comparison to neighboring non-urban populations. Contrary to our expectations, urban phenotypes did not differ from local wildlands in San Diego and Los Angeles counties in similar directions. While the San Diego population showed lower tail white compared to its neighboring wildland population, the Los Angeles population did not. The tail white of the Los Angeles population was not statistically different from that of the San Diego population, suggesting that urban populations may share similar environmental conditions yet face different selective clines due to urbanization. There were, however, differences between wildland populations. Differences in evolutionary histories, environmental conditions, and selective pressures within and outside urban areas may affect how urbanization facilitates population differentiation, even across urban populations of the same species.
Design and implementation of an integrated OWC and RF network slicing-based architecture over hybrid LiFi and 5G networks
Authors: Khadmaoui-Bichouna Mohamed , Escolar Antonio Matencio , Alcaraz-Calero Jose M. , Wang Qi 
Published: October 2024

Abstract
Radio frequency (RF) systems tend to become congested and overused due to the increasing number of users, devices and the multiple technologies involved in their deployment. This leads to the downgrading of quality of service (QoS) further caused by interference with different signals. Optical Wireless communications (OWC) are emerging as a feasible alternative as they offer unlicensed, interference-free spectrum by using the frequency range located in the visible and invisible light spectrum. Its applications can be found in various fields such as healthcare, education, finance and industry 4.0. Moreover, it enhances the security and privacy of communications. Nevertheless, the limited spectrum in OWC also requires optimised resource allocation to support the QoS of different applications or users whilst lacking established infrastructure to manage this. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel 5G-LiFi framework able to ensure QoS requirements by introducing network slicing in Light Fidelity (LiFi) networks integrated with 5G infrastructure. This paper has developed and deployed a 5G-LiFi architecture capable of providing network slicing capabilities over the LiFi segment of the hybrid network. It allows a full control over the network traffic and tailored, improved QoS capabilities. The proposed solution has been empirically validated and evaluated in a realistic testbed employing real-world LiFi and 5G network equipment, and yielded promising results in terms of bandwidth, delay, jitter and packet loss. This work concludes that the use of heterogeneous networks integrating OWC with RF is a suitable solution and it can lead to a better use and exploitation of the different spectrums, improving the QoS offered to end-users.
From source to sink: part 2—seasonal dispersion of microplastics discharged in the NW Mediterranean Sea by the Rhone River in southern France
Authors: Weiss Lisa , Estournel Claude , Marsaleix Patrick , Mikolajczak Guillaume , Constant Mel , Ghiglione Jean-François , Ludwig Wolfgang 
Published: October 2024

Abstract
As the largest individual contributor of freshwater inflow to the basin, the Rhone River is likely to be one of the main sources of microplastics (MPs) to the Mediterranean Sea. In order to predict the fate of MPs discharged by the Rhone River, an innovative 3D Lagrangian dispersion of its particles associated with vertical velocities was modeled in Mediterranean ocean currents. Through winter and summer scenarios, the seasonal variability of transfers and the corresponding accumulation areas were depicted in the Northwestern Basin according to hydrodynamic conditions on the continental shelf of the Gulf of Lion and to the frontal dynamics from the Pyrenees to the North Balearic fronts. Our results indicated that MP transfers were driven by mesoscale and sub-mesoscale structures, resulting in steep concentration gradients across fronts during summer, while winter energetic mixing favored a more efficient and homogeneous spreading. After a year of drift, high MP retention (up to 50%) occurred in the coastal zone of the Gulf of Lion near the river mouth, with a large contribution of sinking MPs and an increase in stranding during the highest freshwater inflows of the winter season. Conversely, up to 60% of the floating MPs were exported to the Algerian Basin and then to the Eastern Mediterranean. This west-to-east transfer led to significant stranding on the islands, prevailing on the northern coasts of the Balearic Islands in winter (6% of floating inputs) and on the western coasts of Corsica and Sardinia in summer (13%). The southern Mediterranean coasts, from Algeria to Tunisia, represented also a major sink for floating debris with stranding ranging from 9 to 35% of MPs discharged in winter and in summer, respectively. We estimated that 3.5 to 5 t of the Rhone MPs remained in the surface layer at the end of the year, with high concentrations in the Ionian Sea.

Graphical abstract
Seasonal distribution of floating and sinking MPs discharged by the Rhone River into the surface and bottom layers of the Mediterranean Sea.
White matter integrity and motor function: a link between cerebral myelination and longitudinal changes in gait speed in aging
Authors: Gong Zhaoyuan , Faulkner Mary E. , Akhonda Mohammad A. B. S. , Guo Alex , Bae Jonghyun , Laporte John P. , Church Sarah , D’Agostino Jarod , Bergeron Jan , Bergeron Christopher M. , Ferrucci Luigi , Bouhrara Mustapha 
Published: October 2024

AbstractGait speed is a robust health biomarker in older adults, correlating with the risk of physical and cognitive impairments, including dementia. Myelination plays a crucial role in neurotransmission and consequently affects various functions, yet the connection between myelination and motor functions such as gait speed is not well understood. Understanding this link could offer insights into diagnosing and treating neurodegenerative diseases that impair mobility. This study analyzed 437 longitudinal observations from 138 cognitively unimpaired adults, aged 22 to 94 years, to investigate the relationship between myelin content and changes in gait speed over an average of 6.42 years. Myelin content was quantified using a novel multicomponent magnetic resonance relaxometry method, and both usual and rapid gait speeds (UGS, RGS) were measured following standard protocols. Adjusting for covariates, we found a significant fixed effect of myelin content on UGS and RGS. Longitudinally, lower myelin content was linked to a greater decline in UGS, particularly in brain regions associated with motor planning. These results suggest that changes in UGS may serve as a reliable marker of neurodegeneration, particularly in cognitively unimpaired adults. Interestingly, the relationship between myelin content and changes in RGS was only observed in a limited number of brain regions, although the reason for such local susceptibility remains unknown. These findings enhance our understanding of the critical role of myelination in gait performance in unimpaired adults and provide evidence of the interconnection between myelin content and motor function impairment.
Fifty shades of green and blue: autopsy findings after administration of xenobiotics
Authors: Baumgarten J. , Greb I. , Holz F. , Nieß C. , Petzel-Witt S. , Birngruber Christoph G. 
Published: October 2024

AbstractUnusual findings during an autopsy may come from peculiarities in the position, shape, size, weight, consistency, smell or color of organs. The following study was triggered by an autopsy case in which an unusual blue-green discoloration of organs, which changed during the autopsy, was noticed. A review of the local autopsy database, selected cases including the antemortem clinical documentation and the literature has been performed to clarify the etiology of these conspicuous discolorations and to evaluate their diagnostic value. The study showed that certain xenobiotics may lead to such discoloration. After systemic administration of methylene blue, darkening blue-green discoloration of organs, especially the brain and heart, can be observed. In addition, the systemic administration of toluidine blue also appears to be capable of causing such discoloration. Beyond that, drugs (like Rohypnol®) or other foreign substances (like detergents) containing warning colors, i.e. indigocarmin (E132) or Brilliant Blue FCF (E133) may cause discolorations of the upper gastrointestinal tract or the urinary bladder respectively. A blue-green, possibly darkening discoloration of organs during autopsy may point towards an antemortem administration of certain xenobiotics. The affected organs give an indication of the possible route of application and the type of substance. A differentiated interpretation of the etiology of such conspicuous discolorations at autopsy should only be made considering the (medical) history and, if necessary, complementary (toxicological) examinations.