bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Early Detection of Malignant and Premalignant Peripheral Nerve Tumors Using Cell-Free DNA Fragmentomics
Authors: Sundby R. Taylor , Szymanski Jeffrey J. , Pan Alexander C. , Jones Paul A. , Mahmood Sana Z. , Reid Olivia H. , Srihari Divya , Armstrong Amy E. , Chamberlain Stacey , Burgic Sanita , Weekley Kara , Murray Béga , Patel Sneh , Qaium Faridi , Lucas Andrea N. , Fagan Margaret , Dufek Anne , Meyer Christian F. , Collins Natalie B. , Pratilas Christine A. , Dombi Eva , Gross Andrea M. , Kim AeRang , Chrisinger John S.A. , Dehner Carina A. , Widemann Brigitte C. , Hirbe Angela C. , Chaudhuri Aadel A. , Shern Jack F. 
Published: August 2024

Abstract

Purpose:
Early detection of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)–associated peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNST) informs clinical decision-making, enabling early definitive treatment and potentially averting deadly outcomes. In this study, we describe a cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragmentomic approach that distinguishes nonmalignant, premalignant, and malignant forms of PNST in the cancer predisposition syndrome, NF1.

Experimental Design:
cfDNA was isolated from plasma samples of a novel cohort of 101 patients with NF1 and 21 healthy controls and underwent whole-genome sequencing. We investigated diagnosis-specific signatures of copy-number alterations with in silico size selection as well as fragment profiles. Fragmentomics were analyzed using complementary feature types: bin-wise fragment size ratios, end motifs, and fragment non-negative matrix factorization signatures.

Results:
The novel cohort of patients with NF1 validated that our previous cfDNA copy-number alteration–based approach identifies malignant PNST (MPNST) but cannot distinguish between benign and premalignant states. Fragmentomic methods were able to differentiate premalignant states including atypical neurofibromas (AN). Fragmentomics also adjudicated AN cases suspicious for MPNST, correctly diagnosing samples noninvasively, which could have informed clinical management.

Conclusions:
Novel cfDNA fragmentomic signatures distinguish AN from benign plexiform neurofibromas and MPNST, enabling more precise clinical diagnosis and management. This study pioneers the early detection of malignant and premalignant PNST in NF1 and provides a blueprint for decentralizing noninvasive cancer surveillance in hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes.
An Engineered Self-biomineralized Oncolytic Adenovirus Induces Effective Antitumor Immunity and Synergizes With Immune Checkpoint Blockade
Authors: Wang Shibing , Yang Xue , Ma Ying-Yu , Wu Junjie , Jin Ketao , Zhao Ruibo , Zou Hai , Mou Xiaozhou 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Oncolytic adenoviruses (oADV) are promising cancer treatment agents. However, in vivo hepatic sequestration and the host immunologic response against the agents limit the therapeutic potential of oADVs. In this study, we present a combined method with a rational design for improving oADV infection efficiency, immunogenicity, and treatment efficacy by self-biomineralization. We integrated the biomimetic nucleopeptide W6p into the capsid of oADV using reverse genetics, allowing calcium phosphate mineralization to be biologically induced on the surface of oADV under physiologic conditions, resulting in a mineral exterior. This self-biomineralized, modified oADV (oADV-W6-CaP) enhanced infection efficiency and therapeutic efficacy in coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR)–negative cancer cells wherein protecting them against neutralization by preexisting neutralizing antibodies. In subcutaneous mouse tumor models, systemic injection of oADV-W6-CaP demonstrated improved antitumor effectiveness, which was associated with increased T-cell infiltration and CD8+ T-cell activation. In addition, the anticancer immune response elicited by oADV-W6-CaP was dependent on CD8+ T cells, which mediated long-term immunologic memory and systemic antitumor immunity against the same tumor. Finally, the addition of PD1 or CD47 inhibition boosted the anticancer effects of oADV-W6-CaP and increased the rate of complete tumor clearance in tumor-bearing animals. The self-biomineralized oADV shifted the suppressive tumor microenvironment from a “cold” to “hot” state and synergized with immune checkpoint blockade to exert outstanding tumoricidal effects, demonstrating promising potential for cancer immunotherapy.
Test-retest reliability of EEG microstate metrics for evaluating noise reductions in simultaneous EEG-fMRI
Authors: Kuroda Toshikazu , Kobler Reinmar J. , Ogawa Takeshi , Tsutsumi Mizuki , Kishi Tomohiko , Kawanabe Motoaki 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Simultaneous electroencephalography-functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) has potential for elucidating brain activities but suffers from severe noise/artifacts in EEG. While several countermeasures have been developed, it remains difficult to evaluate noise reductions in the absence of ground truth in EEG. We introduce a new evaluation method which takes advantage of high test-retest reliability of EEG microstate metrics. We assumed, if the reliability is high for a pair of EEG recorded outside an MR scanner on two different days, then it should also be high for a pair of EEG recorded inside and outside the scanner on the same day if MR-induced noise is absent. Thus, noise should be removed in a way that the reliability increases. Accordingly, we obtained EEG both inside and outside the scanner on two different days. Using ICC as an index, we examined test-retest reliability for 1) a pair of EEG outside the scanner across the days, 2) a pair of EEG inside and outside the scanner on the same day, and 3) a pair of EEG inside the scanner across the days. MR-induced noise, BCG artifact in particular, was reduced with joint decorrelation with varying thresholds. We obtained moderately high reliability in all the three pairs (ICCs &gt; 0.5), suggesting sufficient noise reductions. Taking these steps, the quality of EEG improved as assessed with its traces, power spectra density, and microstate templates in resting state as well as event-related potentials in a visual oddball task. We discuss advantages and limitations of this new evaluation method.
Startle together, shout in chorus: collective bursts of alarm calls in a social rodent, the Harting’s vole (Microtus hartingi)
Authors: Volodin Ilya A. , Rutovskaya Marina V. , Golenishchev Fedor N. , Volodina Elena V. 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
We investigate the acoustic structure of alarm calls in a highly social rodent, the Harting’s vole (Microtus hartingi) and describe the phenomenon of collective shouting of bursts of alarm calls which could be produced in synchronized series. The alarm calls of Harting’s voles were recorded using an automatic device from 10 different family groups, containing from 4 to 15 potential callers, released to outdoor enclosures. Natural predators and humans served as call-eliciting stimuli. We reveal acoustic differences between urgent alarm calls, evoked by close-vicinity predators and identified from recordings by their calls and by rustle noise from the caller’s escape to burrow, and other alarm calls. We also reveal acoustic parameters between alarm calls produced in bursts and other alarm calls (produced in individual series or by a few non-synchronized callers). We discuss why the alarm calls of Harting’s voles are unusually high-frequency (about 17 kHz on average in the maximum fundamental frequency) among other vole species producing high-frequency alarms. Adaptive significance of producing the collective synchronized bursts of alarm calls by Harting’s voles remains unclear without direct observations of vocal vigilance in this species under natural conditions.
Pragmatism as a Compatible Theoretical Lens for Mixed Methods Research in Prehospital Care
Authors: Emond Kate , Bish Melanie , Mnatzaganian George 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
This study extends on work investigating the increased application of mixed methods research in prehospital care. The complexity and diversity of the prehospital environment warrants flexibility and applicability to guide the research process, yet little attention has focused on the theoretical lens used in prehospital research when using mixed methods research. Pragmatism’s characteristics of human inquiry, problem solving, and action align with a clinical reasoning approach, supporting the prehospital researchers epistemological understanding of the world. Through further exploration of this alignment, this article proposes pragmatism as a compatible theoretical lens for mixed methods in prehospital research.
Language Islands Worldwide – Theoretical and Methodological Issues
Authors: Rosenberg Peter 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
What can we learn from language island research? Answers drawn from German language island research refer to linguistics, ethnology and language politics. German language islands in Russia and Brazil are on the way to language shift. The varieties of these communities display varying degrees of decomposition and simplification in terms of morphology. Regular and irregular morphology are developing differently. How could these differences be explained? What is the impact of language contact? To what extent does variation within language change depend on the distinctiveness of this linguistic community? The contribution is about comparative language island research, relating linguistic results to the ethnographic background and the conditions of language politics.
Sandawe
Authors: Eaton Helen 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The Sandawe language community in Tanzania is surrounded by languages from different African language families, yet retains a special distinctiveness in this context by virtue of its unusual phonology and its status as a relic of the original inhabitants of the area. It is also noteworthy how long the Sandawe situation has endured and how this has been possible. This paper examines the reasons for the Sandawe community’s situation and its continued survival. The description of the Sandawe situation takes in its history and the question of its linguistic classification. The sociocultural features of the community and the typological features of the language are then considered, particularly in comparison with the surrounding communities and their languages, as well as possibly related languages in southern Africa. Finally, the status of Sandawe as a linguistic island is discussed, with reference to different definitions of the concept.
Miini – A Lonely Bantu Outpost in the Vast North
Authors: Nurse Derek , Vianello Alessandra 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The article deals with Miini, spoken in the town of Brava. Some regard it as a northern Swahili dialect, others view it as a closely related language. The town and its speech form have existed for probably a millennium. During most of that period it flourished, surrounded by a community or communities speaking southern Somali dialects. When the Somali central government collapsed in 1991 it was invaded and occupied by the Habr Gidir clan, part of the larger Hawiye group. Most inhabitants who could left. It is currently severely endangered, having been largely replaced by Somali. It is treated under these headings: geography and population; history; political, socio-cultural, and economic context; linguistics; regularity/complexity/stability; contact phenomena; sociolinguistics; language variation; language use and attitudes, language and education; networks.
Temi – A Survivor in Difficult Sea
Authors: Nurse Derek , Derungs Christine 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
This article treats the Bantu language Temi, sometimes called Gitemi or Sonjo. The Temi language island is 125 kilometres from the nearest Bantu community and completely surrounded by historically hostile Maasai communities. As far as we know, Maasai were preceded by other non-Bantu communities for most of the last millennium. Community and language are both in good shape: in 1928 the population was 2,500, at Tanzanian independence in the 1960s it was 5,000, and now it is over 30,000. It is treated under these headings: geography and population; history; political, sociocultural, and economic context; linguistics; regularity/complexity/stability; contact phenomena; sociolinguistics; language use and attitudes; networks.
Le berbère zénaga de Mauritanie
Authors: Taine-Cheikh Catherine 
Published: August 2024

Résumé
Il existe, dans le sud-ouest de la Mauritanie, un îlot de locuteurs parlant une variété de berbère appelée le zénaga. Dans cet îlot, devenu entièrement bilingue, la pratique de l’arabe ḥassāniyya est devenue beaucoup plus courante que celle du berbère et ne cesse de se renforcer. L’article comporte trois parties après l’introduction. La première, consacrée à la situation actuelle des zénagophones, précise leur territoire, leur nombre, les valeurs qu’ils attribuent aux langues qu’ils parlent et ce qu’elles représentent par rapport à leur identité culturelle. La seconde porte sur l’histoire de la région et plus particulièrement celle des populations berbérophones, présentes au Sahara ouest-africain depuis le néolithique, qui connurent leur heure de gloire au XIe siècle avec l’épisode almoravide et un enclavement très progressif après l’arrivée des Bäni Ḥassān. La dernière partie propose une étude linguistique qui permet de situer le zénaga par rapport aux autres parlers berbères, de le comparer avec le parler tetserret qui lui est le plus proche et d’évaluer les effets du contact avec les langues voisines.
The Anii Language
Authors: Morton Deborah 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The Anii language of Togo and Benin is surrounded by essentially unrelated languages because the ancestors of the current speakers migrated into their modern territory within the last few centuries. This paper presents what is known about the cultural history and current social context of the Anii people and argues that Anii is a progressive language island despite a social situation that is different from that of many traditional language islands. The analysis of Anii linguistic structures (including comparisons with related languages and the presentation of relevant dialect differences) provides further support for the analysis of Anii as a language island. Much of the data, particularly the comparative analyses, presented here have never been previously available to scholars. This paper thus sheds new light on a little-known language with a complicated history that is not yet well understood, as well as potentially expanding the definition of the term ‘language island’.
A Language Island in a Sea of Sand
Authors: Schiattarella Valentina 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The Siwi language is spoken in the Siwa oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert. It is the easternmost place where a Berber variety (Afro-Asiatic) is spoken. Siwi is not the only language spoken in the oasis, as the entire population speaks at least one variety (Bedouin and/or Egyptian) of Arabic. Siwi speakers can be firmly differentiated from Egyptians or Bedouins settled in the oasis not only because of their language, but also because of an entire set of customs and traditions that contribute to creating their identity. Though recent factors brought by modernity are levelling the gap between Siwa and the other communities, and Arabic influence on the language is increasing, this article discusses some distinctive historical, socio-cultural and linguistic features of Siwa.
Korandje as a Songhay Language Island
Authors: Souag Lameen 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Among the many language islands produced by the expansion of Songhay out of the middle Niger valley, Korandje stands out for its geographical isolation and linguistic divergence. Confined since perhaps 1200 CE to a single Algerian oasis well over a thousand kilometres from any other Songhay-speaking community, its speakers have extensively reshaped their language and identity under the influence of North African norms, while nevertheless keeping the former clearly distinct. Yet, following the socioeconomic and political changes of the 20th century, the survival of Korandje is now in doubt, as speakers increasingly adopt speech norms and linguistic ideologies negotiated outside the oasis.
Jesuit-Chinese Interaction and Collaboration in Chinese Sources
Authors: Han Qijin 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Over recent decades, studies on the Jesuits’ activities in China and elsewhere have been considerably facilitated by collated and published correspondence written in Western languages. In order to broaden this scholarly discussion by including more sources from the Chinese side, this article makes a modest contribution by translating and analyzing two letters from Zhu Shi 祝石 (1602–after 1689), a remnant of the Ming dynasty and a Chinese Catholic, to Lodovico Buglio (1606–1682) and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688), two Jesuit missionaries at the Manchu court. Transcriptions of the two letters are found in the collected works of Zhu, Zhi hao hao xue lu 知好好學錄 (Records of knowing how to appreciate good learning; n.d.). Noteworthy subjects reflected in the letters include, among others, Zhu’s involvement in the translation and revision of Buglio’s Chaoxingxue yao 超性學要 (Essentials of transcendental nature studies; 1654–1677), a contemporary explanation of the obstacles facing evangelism in China, and Verbiest’s cannon-casting activities during the Revolt of the Three Feudatories (or the San-Fan War; 1673–ca. 1681). A close examination of these two letters not only broadens the understanding of the social networks of the two missionaries and provides supplementary historical details, but also calls attention to the value of correspondence between Chinese literati and the missionaries.
Sulfur Manufacturing at Hot Springs in Early Modern Chinese Borderlands
Authors: Huang Fei 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
This article examines sulfur manufacturing and refining methods in the early modern Chinese borderlands in the context of global trade and tribute networks. The increasing demands for high-quality sulfur, crucial for gunpowder and mineral drugs, facilitated the further development of sulfur-production and -refining techniques. Constrained by limited local sulfur deposits, sulfur production in China proper relied primarily on domestic pyrite ores or pyritic nodules in coal mines, alongside imports from the Ryukyu Islands. This article focuses on case studies of various local practices in the natural sulfuric hot springs region of China’s borderlands, particularly in Yunnan and Taiwan from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. It examines alternative methods of sulfur manufacturing that utilized geothermal resources at hot springs for various local and regional military and medical demands in global contexts.
The Salt-Making Festival at Shiogama: a Research Note
Authors: von Falkenhausen Lothar 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
This is a brief report on a yearly festival at a Shintō shrine in northern Japan, during which salt is produced by a traditional technique: sea water is filtered through layers of salt-saturated kelp in order to increase its salinity. The procedure, which lasts three days, is being kept alive as communal memory and for educational purposes. The successive steps are described as witnessed by the author in 2003.
The Death Penalty in Chinese Law
Authors: von Senger Harro 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The starting point of this paper is an outline of the Chinese perspective on the status of the death penalty in international law. According to Article 1 of the Chinese Constitution of 4 December 1982 (revised 2018), the People’s Republic of China is led by the Chinese Communist Party and guided by Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and the contributions of other Chinese leaders. Therefore, in the second part of the contribution the relationship between Sino-Marxist ideology and the death penalty is discussed. The third part is dedicated to the death penalty in Chinese legal history. The topic of the fourth part is the death penalty under the PRC’s law. In the fifth part, a few aspects of the death penalty considered negative by legal scholars in the PRC are discussed. Finally, it is noted that the death penalty has been abolished in certain regions of the PRC.
Not all the nuances and details concerning the death penalty in the PRC could be discussed here, with some simplification proving inevitable.
A Sinification of Western Music: the Chapters on Clefs in the Lülü zuanyao (c.1680) and the Lülü zhengyi (1713)
Authors: Theobald Ulrich 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
In the late seventeenth century, two treatises on Western music were written at the Qing court that conveyed the basics of the Western practice of harmony and musical notation to a Chinese audience. These were the Lülü zuanyao (Essentials of the pitch-pipes) by Tomás Pereira SJ and the far better-known Lülü zhengyi xubian (Supplement to the true principles of the pitch-pipes) by Teodorico Pedrini SJ. The former has often been mistaken for an extract from the latter. This article uses the example of the three clefs to show that the two texts describe their application in very different ways and in their own words. It will be seen that the Lülü zhengyi, which was written later, is far more adapted to the Chinese world of thought.
Grace and Disgrace in the Kangxi Emperor’s Court: a Review of the Eulogium Europeorum doctorum of 1711
Authors: de Saldanha Antonio Vasconcelos 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
This text focuses on the eulogium of the Europeorum doctorum, a significant tribute from the Imperial Board of Mathematics to the three generations of Jesuit missionaries who served the imperial court of China. The eulogium, produced in 1711, coincided with the imperial gift to the Jesuit’s “Portuguese Church” of three calligraphic compositions of religious inspiration commemorating the inauguration of the new church of the Portuguese mission in Beijing (Nantang 南堂). This event holds great importance in the context of Jesuit history and Chinese-European relations, and the presentation we now make of the Chinese version of the original eulogium allows a comparison with the already revealed Vatican Latin version, confirming this concession as a product of the “system of honors” similar to others that came in line as exceptional expressions of courtly favor toward the Jesuits living and working in the imperial court in the Kangxi Emperor’s reign.
18. Lion Rangers’ use of SMART for lion conservation in Kunene
Authors: Brassine Mathilde 
Published: August 2024

SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) is a set of software and analysis tools used to enable rapid collection and transfer of patrol data, in order to assess Ranger activities in the field and monitor wildlife movements on an ongoing basis. In north-west Namibia, a small population of desert-adapted
lions continues to survive alongside livestock farmers and communities living in conservancies, often resulting in human- lion conflict in a context where livelihoods are already strained due to prolonged drought in the region, as well as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognising the urgent need to mitigate this conflict, in 2017 the MEFT drew up a strategy on a way forward in the form of the Human Lion Conflict Management Plan for North West Namibia. The formation of the Lion Rangers Programme is part of this strategy. The SMART system was first implemented into the programme in September 2021. This chapter discusses how the SMART system supports decision-making regarding lion conservation and management at a community-level.