bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Long-term recurrent exposure to excessive heat in the east Mediterranean and climate resilience development – a case study in Israel
Authors: Shafran-Nathan Rakefet , Broday David M. 
Published: October 2024

AbstractThis work studies long-term trends of observed meteorological parameters and of exposure to excessive heat over 74 years in Israel (1950–2023). We report an increasing trend of recurring exposure of the Israeli population to excessive heat during most of the summer noon hours, with the heat index often above the physiologically no-risk threshold. Specifically, since the beginning of the millennium, a significant increase in summertime decadal means of ambient noontime temperature (Ta), absolute humidity (AH), and heat index (HI) is evident relative to the 1950’s (Ta: 0.06 °C/year, AH: 0.06 g/m3year, HI: 0.09 °C/year). The experienced increase summertime thermal discomfort by the Israeli population results from the significant and synergistic increase in co-exposure to ambient temperature and humidity. Indeed, long-term satellite data (Landsat 1984–2021) of the east Mediterranean Sea Surface Temperature (SST) reveal a significant change (SST: 0.05 °C/year), which elucidates the corresponding increase in the absolute humidity. Leishmaniasis is a climate-related vector-borne infectious disease. However, the 1956–2017 leishmaniasis incidence rates in Israel do not correlate with the significant increase in the ambient temperature and heat index, representing development of climate resilience in terms of administrated prevention measures (namely, systematic adaptation) to this climate-related disease.
Circulating tumor DNA predicts recurrence and survival in patients with resectable gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer
Authors: Iden Cecilie Riis , Mustafa Salah Mohammad , Øgaard Nadia , Henriksen Tenna , Jensen Sarah Østrup , Ahlborn Lise Barlebo , Egebjerg Kristian , Baeksgaard Lene , Garbyal Rajendra Singh , Nedergaard Mette Kjølhede , Achiam Michael Patrick , Andersen Claus Lindbjerg , Mau-Sørensen Morten 
Published: October 2024

Abstract
Background
Gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer represents a significant global health challenge, with high recurrence rates and poor survival outcomes. This study investigates circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a biomarker for assessing recurrence risk in patients with resectable gastric and GEJ adenocarcinomas (AC).

Methods
Patients with resectable gastric and GEJ AC, undergoing perioperative chemotherapy and surgery, were prospectively enrolled. Serial plasma samples were collected at baseline, after one cycle of chemotherapy, after preoperative chemotherapy, and after surgery. ctDNA was assessed by a ddPCR test (TriMeth), which targets the gastrointestinal cancer-specific methylation patterns of the genes C9orf50, KCNQ5, and CLIP4.

Results
ctDNA analysis was performed on 229 plasma samples from 86 patients. At baseline, ctDNA was detected in 56% of patients, which decreased to 37% following one cycle of chemotherapy, 25% after preoperative chemotherapy and 15% after surgical resection. The presence of ctDNA after one cycle of chemotherapy was associated with reduced recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 2.54, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.33–4.85, p = 0.005) and overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.23, 95% CI 1.07–4.62, p = 0.032). Similarly, ctDNA after surgery was associated with significantly shorter RFS (HR = 6.22, 95% CI 2.39–16.2, p < 0.001) and OS (HR = 6.37, 95% CI 2.10–19.3, p = 0.001). Multivariable regression analysis confirmed ctDNA after surgery as an independent prognostic factor (p < 0.001).

Conclusion
ctDNA analysis has the potential to identify patients at elevated risk of recurrence, thus providing personalized treatment strategies for patients with resectable gastric and GEJ cancer. Further validation in larger cohorts and ctDNA-guided interventions are needed for future clinical use.
Estimating the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in the older population using health screening data in Japan
Authors: Kobayashi Arisa , Hirano Keita , Okuda Tadahisa , Ikenoue Tatsuyoshi , Yokoo Takashi , Fukuma Shingo 
Published: October 2024

Abstract
Background
In aging societies, the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is expected to increase but may be underestimated because many asymptomatic patients remain undiagnosed. This study aimed to estimate the CKD prevalence among the general older population in Japan.

Methods
This cross-sectional study used health screening data from the Japan Health Insurance Association collected between April 2014 and March 2023. Data from older people aged 65–90 years who underwent renal function screening for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urine protein tests were analyzed. CKD was defined as eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or proteinuria ≥ 1 + . Inverse probability weighting was used to account for the selection bias. The variables used for weighting were age, sex, insurance status, and the number of previous screenings.

Results
Among 2.98 million older individuals, 588,809 (19.7%) had undergone screening (median [IQR] age, 69.9 [67.9–76.2] years, 337,862 women [57.4%]). Regarding the weighted CKD prevalence, 25.3% of the individuals aged 65–90 years had CKD; 11.8% of those aged 65–75 years and 34.6% of those aged 75 years and over showed an increase in prevalence with age. Among the patients with CKD, over half exhibited mild renal dysfunction without proteinuria. Hypertension and diabetes were common comorbidities in older patients with CKD.

Conclusions
This cross-sectional study revealed that the weighted prevalence of CKD in the older population aged 65–90 years was high (one in four individuals), indicating that it increases with age. Further studies are required to examine the clinical significance of these findings.
Enhancing DevSecOps practice with Large Language Models and Security Chaos Engineering
Authors: Bedoya Martin , Palacios Sara , Díaz-López Daniel , Laverde Estefania , Nespoli Pantaleone 
Published: October 2024

AbstractRecently, the DevSecOps practice has improved companies’ agile production of secure software, reducing problems and improving return on investment. However, overreliance on security tools and traditional security techniques can facilitate the implementation of vulnerabilities in different stages of the software lifecycle.. Thus, this paper proposes the integration of a Large Language Model to help automate threat discovery at the design stage and Security Chaos Engineering to support the identification of security flaws that may be undetected by security tools. A specific use case is described to demonstrate how our proposal can be applied to a retail company that has the business need to produce rapidly secure software.
An empirical tool for predicting the presence or absence of coseismic displacements at GNSS stations
Authors: Gómez Demián D. , Bevis Michael G. , Caccamise Dana J. , Griffith W. Ashley , Heck Jacob M. , Smalley Robert 
Published: October 2024

AbstractUnmodeled displacements in GNSS times series, induced by instrumental artifacts or geophysical events, create significant biases in station trajectory parameters that can propagate into the reference frame itself. While non-tectonic ‘jumps’, such as equipment changes, affect only a specific GNSS station, seismically-induced displacements can affect large numbers of sites, severely threatening the frame’s stability. Manually reviewing individual GNSS time series for such effects is highly impractical because there can be thousands of GNSS stations in a frame, and the total number of earthquakes Mw ≥ 6.0 since GPS became fully operational is + 5100. To avoid this time-consuming task, automated methods rely on empirical power-law functions to determine which earthquake-station pairs require coseismic displacement parameters. Still, ‘conservative’ power-law functions tend to add coseismic offsets to stations that do not need them, which can also threaten the stability of the frame. In this work, we present an empirical formulation that was obtained using 809 global seismic events to fit power-law parameters that do not overestimate the region of influence of earthquakes. Our method is based on a two-level selection process: level 1 is isotropic and only considers the epicentral distance between the stations and the earthquake, and level 2 uses the geophysical parameters of the earthquake to predict a ‘tighter’ displacement pattern to select which stations require coseismic trajectory parameters. We applied our level 2 method to a database of ~ 4700 event-station pairs and showed that it removed ~ 55% of the total pairs, all of which had been falsely selected by level 1.
Evolution of performance in the water and sewage sector in Brazil: a robust directional Benefit-of-the-Doubt assessment of municipalities from Santa Catarina state
Authors: May Andréia , Fries Carlos Ernani , Vilarinho Hermilio , Camanho Ana S. 
Published: October 2024

AbstractThe water supply and sewage sector (WSS) is essential for promoting health and providing the population with drinking water and the adequate disposal of effluents. Assessing the evolution of performance in WSS allows for highlighting the best and worst results achieved, identifying benchmarks, and pinpointing sources of improvement for water services. Brazil has a large population and immense freshwater reserves that are unevenly distributed throughout the territory. This situation emanates a challenge that requires the efficient management of water resources. This study develops a composite indicator framework based on the robust Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) approach to estimate the performance of municipalities of the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina from 2009 to 2021, considering financial, operational, and quality dimensions associated with the provision of WSS services. Subsequently, the Global Malmquist Index (GMI) is applied to assess the performance evolution of the municipalities over time. The BoD results enable the quantification of the relative contribution of each sub-indicator to the performance score, allowing the assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each municipality. The GMI results show an average performance loss of 3.3% in Santa Catarina state and considerable variability among municipalities, with scores ranging from losses of 54.2% to gains of 109.3% in the period analysed.
Race and ethnicity and self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination in breast cancer patient interactions with providers in the Pathways Study
Authors: Bitsie Kevin R. , Pearson Thomas A. , Kwan Marilyn L. , Yaghjyan Lusine , Scarton Lisa , Shariff-Marco Salma , Kushi Lawrence H. , Cheng Ting-Yuan David 
Published: October 2024

Abstract

Purpose
To examine the association of race and ethnicity groups with self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination in patient-provider interactions during the diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer.

Methods
We analyzed data from the Pathways Study, a prospective cohort of women diagnosed with breast cancer from 2006–2013 in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Health Care System. Racial/ethnic discrimination in patient-provider interactions was assessed with two questions from the Interpersonal Processes of Care survey at baseline and 6-months and 24-months post-diagnosis. Logistic regression was performed to compare women who self-identified as racial or ethnic minorities with Non-Hispanic White (NHW) women. Covariates included age at diagnosis, country of origin, education level, income, marital status, and medical provider’s race/ethnicity.

Results
Our sample included 1836 participants: 1350 NHW women and 486 women (87 Black, 208 Asian American, 153 Hispanic, 38 American Indian/Alaskan Native/Pacific Islander [AIANPI]) from racial or ethnic minority groups. In multivariate analysis, minority women were more likely to report racial/ethnic discrimination in patient-provider interactions than NHW women (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 4.73; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.45–6.50). Specifically, Black women were most likely to self-report racial/ethnic discrimination in patient-provider interactions (aOR: 9.65; 95% CI 5.92–15.70), followed by Asian (aOR: 5.39; 95% CI 3.46–8.40), Hispanic (aOR: 2.55; 95% CI 1.54–4.14), and AIANPI (aOR: 1.74; 95% CI 0.58–4.25) women, compared with NHW women.

Conclusion
Racial/ethnic discrimination was more likely self-reported from minority women diagnosed with breast cancer. Additional studies are needed to understand the mechanisms and impact of racial/ethnic discrimination in patient-provider interactions on disparities.
Perception-based constraint solving for sudoku images
Authors: Mulamba Maxime , Mandi Jayanta , Mahmutoğulları Ali İrfan , Guns Tias 
Published: October 2024

AbstractWe consider the problem of perception-based constraint solving, where part of the problem specification is provided indirectly through an image provided by a user. As a pedagogical example, we use the complete image of a Sudoku grid. While the rules of the puzzle are assumed to be known, the image must be interpreted by a neural network to extract the values in the grid. In this paper, we investigate (1) a hybrid modeling approach combining machine learning and constraint solving for joint inference, knowing that blank cells need to be both predicted as being blank and filled-in to obtain a full solution; (2) the effect of classifier calibration on joint inference; and (3) how to deal with cases where the constraints of the reasoning system are not satisfied. More specifically, in the case of handwritten user errors in the image, a naive approach fails to obtain a feasible solution even if the interpretation is correct. Our framework identifies human mistakes by using a constraint solver and helps the user to correct these mistakes. We evaluate the performance of the proposed techniques on images taken through the Sudoku Assistant Android app, among other datasets. Our experiments show that (1) joint inference can correct classifier mistakes, (2) overall calibration improves the solution quality on all datasets, and (3) estimating and discriminating between user-written and original visual input while reasoning makes for a more robust system, even in the presence of user errors.
Quality in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care: Progress, Persistent Challenges, and Recommendations for the Future
Authors: Størksen Ingunn , Lenes Ragnhild , ten Braak Dieuwer , McClelland Megan , Golinkoff Roberta Michnick 
Published: October 2024

AbstractIn Norway, children aged one to five years can attend subsidized and publicly regulated Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers. These centers focus on holistic child development through play, care, and learning. Therefore, Norway should be capable of providing young children with the best possible ECEC environment, thereby laying a solid foundation for their future school success. However, Norwegian 15-year-old students score at or below the average in mathematics, reading, and science compared to students in other OECD countries, and average scores are declining OECD (PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The state of learning and equity in education, 2023). Several factors may contribute to Norwegian students’ average or below-average school performance, e.g., pedagogical weaknesses that were present even before school, in ECEC. An OECD report from 2015 pointed out several challenges in the Norwegian ECEC quality (Early childhood education and care policy review Norway, 2015), related to factors such as structural standards, monitoring of process quality, lack of independence of inspections, lack of understanding regarding monitoring, and insufficient monitoring practices. In this paper, we present: (1) Norwegian policy initiatives implemented in response to the OECD report, and (2) Research conducted after the OECD report on the quality levels of Norwegian ECEC, along with findings from interventions designed to improve quality. Based on this, we discuss the progress since the 2015 OECD report and highlight continuing challenges and important next steps to secure high ECEC quality in Norway for all children. We find that several policy initiatives have been implemented but observed ECEC quality levels after the 2015 report are still in the medium to low range.
Understanding and effectively mitigating code review anxiety
Authors: Lee Carol S. , Hicks Catherine M. 
Published: October 2024

AbstractAnxiety about giving and receiving code reviews has been documented as a common occurrence that leads to developers avoiding code reviews by procrastinating and limiting their cognitive engagement with them. This avoidance not only increases anxiety in the long term, but also prevents developers, their teams, and their organizations from accessing the technical and sociocognitive benefits of effective and efficient code reviews. However, software research has not yet empirically examined code review anxiety, and from this, tractable intervention targets and strategies for mitigating code review anxiety. In this study, we present an empirical framework for understanding the factors maintaining and exacerbating code review anxiety. Utilizing a randomized waitlist control trial, we also tested the effectiveness of a novel single-session cognitive-behavioral workshop intervention. Our results show evidence that positive impact can be obtained from a brief intervention and suggest code review anxiety can be successfully mitigated by targeting developers’ cost bias, anxiety self-efficacy, and self-compassion.
The social impacts of circular economy: disclosing epistemological stances and methodological practices
Authors: Iofrida Nathalie , Spada Emanuele , Gulisano Giovanni , De Luca Anna Irene , Falcone Giacomo 
Published: October 2024

AbstractThe essence of circular economy is about closing the loop of material flows by reducing, reusing, recovering and recycling, ensuring the economic prosperity without any detriment for the environment. However, few information is available about the contribution of circular systems to the social dimension of sustainability (such as well-being, quality of life), how these aspects are evaluated and why they are deemed as important. The purpose of this study is to review those scientific studies that dealt with the social sustainability evaluations of circular systems to highlight new aspects: not only which are the most applied methodologies, which impact categories and indicators are mostly taken into account, but, above all, which is the most diffused epistemological position underlying the evaluation of social aspects of circularity. This last aspect is often disregarded but of utmost importance because it shapes the approaches and procedures choice, and legitimate and justify the insights provided: indeed, they can be the most diverse when dealing with social sciences, which are multiparadigmatic sciences. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have so far emerged that directly investigate the epistemological basis of social impacts within the circular economy. A systematic and hermeneutic review of the scientific literature has been led through a two steps method. The first step, dedicated to search and acquisition, consisted in a standardized replicable process called Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). In a second phase, a hermeneutic review has been conducted on the selected publications. Among the 42 studies reviewed, 7 papers were framed within the post-positivism paradigms, while 83,3% were based on interpretivist paradigms, showing how it is difficult to find consensus on standardized quantification methods for social impacts in circular economy studies. The most recurring qualitative methods relied on personal interpretations, perceptions or observations.
Critical Review of Physical-Mechanical Principles in Geostructure-Soil Interface Mechanics
Authors: Pham Tuan A. , Nadimi Sadegh , Sutman Melis 
Published: October 2024

AbstractDue to the relatively different mechanical and physical properties of soils and structures, the interface plays a critical role in the transfer of stress and strain between them. The stability and safety of geotechnical structures are thus greatly influenced by the behavior at the soil–structure interface. It is therefore important to focus on the unique characteristics that set the interface apart from other geomaterials while examining the interface behaviour. Understanding the physical mechanism and modelling principles of these interfaces becomes a crucial step for the secure design and investigation of soil-structure interaction (SSI) issues. Moreover, to deal with this soil-environment interaction problem, the classical soil mechanics formulation must be progressively generalised in order to incorporate the effects of new phenomena and new variables on SSI behaviour. Considering the variety of energy geostructures that are emerging nowadays, it is crucial to comprehend the thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behaviour of the interface. The objective of this study is to fill this information gap as concisely as possible. A critical review is provided along with the state-of-the-art information on the thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of the soil-structure interface, including testing tools and measurement methods, basic principles and deformation mechanisms, constitutive models, as well as their applications in numerical simulations. This study explains how loading influences the mechanisms at the interface and critically examines the effects of boundary conditions, soil properties, environmental factors, and structure type on the THM behaviour of interface zones between soils and structural elements. The validity and reliability of the interface shear stress-displacement models are also covered in this paper. Lastly, the trends and recent advancements are also recommended for the interface research.
When will Two Agents Agree on a Quantum Measurement Outcome? Intersubjective Agreement in QBism
Authors: Schack Rüdiger 
Published: October 2024

AbstractIn the QBist approach to quantum mechanics, a measurement is an action an agent takes on the world external to herself. A measurement device is an extension of the agent and both measurement outcomes and their probabilities are personal to the agent. According to QBism, nothing in the quantum formalism implies that the quantum state assignments of two agents or their respective measurement outcomes need to be mutually consistent. Recently, Khrennikov has claimed that QBism’s personalist theory of quantum measurement is invalidated by Ozawa’s so-called intersubjectivity theorem. Here, following Stacey, we refute Khrennikov’s claim by showing that it is not Ozawa’s mathematical theorem but an additional assumption made by Khrennikov that QBism is incompatible with. We then address the question of intersubjective agreement in QBism more generally. Even though there is never a necessity for two agents to agree on their respective measurement outcomes, a QBist agent can strive to create conditions under which she would expect another agent’s reported measurement outcome to agree with hers. It turns out that the assumptions of Ozawa’s theorem provide an example for just such a condition.