bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Disparate Pathways for Extrachromosomal DNA Biogenesis and Genomic DNA Repair
Authors: Rose John C. , Belk Julia A. , Wong Ivy Tsz-Lo , Luebeck Jens , Horn Hudson T. , Daniel Bence , Jones Matthew G. , Yost Kathryn E. , Hung King L. , Kolahi Kevin S. , Curtis Ellis J. , Kuo Calvin J. , Bafna Vineet , Mischel Paul S. , Chang Howard Y. 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Oncogene amplification on extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) is a pervasive driver event in cancer, yet our understanding of how ecDNA forms is limited. In this study, we couple a CRISPR-based method for ecDNA induction with extensive characterization of newly formed ecDNAs to examine their biogenesis. We find that DNA circularization is efficient, irrespective of 3D genome context, with the formation of 800 kb, 1 Mb, and 1.8 Mb ecDNAs reaching or exceeding 15%. We show nonhomologous end joining and microhomology-mediated end joining both contribute to ecDNA formation, whereas inhibition of DNA-PK catalytic subunit and ATM have opposing impacts on ecDNA formation. ecDNA and the corresponding chromosomal excision scar can form at significantly different rates and respond differently to DNA-PK catalytic subunit and ATM inhibition. Taken together, our results support a model of ecDNA formation in which double-strand break ends dissociate from their legitimate ligation partners prior to joining of illegitimate ends to form the ecDNA and excision scar.

Significance:
Our study harnesses a CRISPR-based method to examine ecDNA biogenesis, uncovering efficient circularization between double-strand breaks. ecDNAs and their corresponding chromosomal scars can form via nonhomologous end joining or microhomology-mediated end joining, but the ecDNA and scar formation processes are distinct. Based on our findings, we establish a mechanistic model of excisional ecDNA formation.
Multiple Secularities in Africa – An Introduction
Authors: Burchardt Marian , Echtler Magnus , Wilkens Katharina 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Raising timely and urgent questions about the forms, scope and boundaries of religious authority and practice, this article offers novel ways for the study of secularities and secularisms in contemporary African societies. In recent scholarly debates on secularity, Africa has been marginal. Part of the reason, it was suggested was that African ways of being in, and knowing, the world lay outside the religious-secular divide. We contest such positions. Secularism was clearly part of modernists colonial ideologies that called for the eradication of African beliefs described as backward and irrational. We find that the colonial encounter had a powerful historical impact, essentializing and othering African societies as marked by holistic indigenous cultures rather than differentiated religions. We suggest that the complex interplay of different African and European cultures has simultaneously shaped the social construction and historical development of multiple secularities. We propose that the concept of multiple secularities provides creative avenues to rethink religion, political authority and belonging. We consider secularities as contested arrangements of religious and other spheres whose dynamics include processes of de-differentiation and de-secularization.
‘The True and Scientific Religion’
Authors: Bachmann Judith 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
A scientific worldview is taken to be a dominant factor of European secularity but peculiarly absent in Africa. Taking cues from the multiple secularities and global religious history approaches, the article uses global entanglements as a critical analytical tool to investigate the formation of our present, shared conditions, without essentializing cultural European/African differences. The core question is: Why, how and under which circumstances do people adapt global regimes of secularity, in this case particularly: global debates on religion and science? The article analyzes three lecture-transcripts, delivered by the West African intellectual John Augustus Abayomi Cole and printed in the West African newspaper Lagos Standard. In the context of Christian intellectuals in late nineteenth century West Africa, these lectures discussed African religion as congruent with science. This argument was possible through Abayomi Cole’s adaptation of esotericism, specifically its claim to true religion and science. Thereby, Abayomi Cole tried to negotiate independence from European missionary oversight.
Forty Years of Cooperation in South Asia: A Legal Appraisal of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (saarc)
Authors: Tino Elisa 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Last August marked the 40th anniversary of the start of interstate cooperation in South Asia which has been characterised by few lights and many shadows over the years. saarc has not been able to smooth out tensions between its Member States, rather it has fallen victim to them, nor has it contributed realistically to the economic and social development of the region. This paper aims to offer an in-depth analysis of saarc in a legal perspective. In particular, its Charter, its secondary law, and its practice will be investigated through the lens of the theoretical framework of international institutional law in order to ascertain if saarc meets the requirements that are commonly believed to characterise international organizations.
Constructing African Union Law and Rethinking Supranationalism in African Integration: What Lessons from the European Union?
Authors: Maluwa Tiyanjana 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
This Article examines the development and scope of African Union (AU) law and its role as a facilitator of and contributor to regional integration in Africa. The Article addresses several interlinked questions relating, but not limited, to the sources and foundations of AU law, the role of AU policy organs in the making of AU law, the extent to which EU law presents a comparative framework or useful precedent for analysing and understanding AU law, and the role of supranationalism in the economic and political integration of its member states and in the development of AU law. The Article argues that it is necessary to amend the AU Constitutive Act and other relevant AU legal instruments to enhance the supranational authority and legislative powers of the AU. It concludes that AU supranationalism needs to be rethought, but it need not uncritically mimic the EU’s approach to supranationalism in every respect.
‘You’re in or You’re out:’ Ethos of Change in the Lives of De-radicalized Youth in the Kenyan Urban Margins
Authors: Badurdeen Fathima A. , Ndenyele Wilson O. 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Notoriously placed, ghettos and slums are perceived as locations for violence, drug abuse, violent gang operations, and other vices. In Kenya, the origin of violent radicalization and extremism has centered on urban margins, some of which are characterized as ghettos or slums due to the complex dynamics of communal interactions and spatial settings. This study draws on ethnographic data to analyze the lives of youth in two urban margins of Kenya whose lived realities were tied to their radicalization, deradicalization, engagement, and disengagement in violent extremism for the Al-Shabaab network. Using empirical data, the article probes the central research question: How do youth make meanings of violent radicalization, de-radicalization, engagement, and disengagement from their lived realities of these urban margins? A critical empirical assessment of this new ethos of change as a result of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) and development actors’ work in these urban margins reveals a continuum of mixed reactions from ‘feeling good’ to ‘feeling worse’ as young people grapple with new identities, new stigmas, and new realities in reintegrating back into their communities.
A Provincial Legacy of Autocracy: Shandong’s Luoyuan Academy in and beyond the Yongzheng Reign
Authors: Knorr Daniel 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
In 1733 the Yongzheng emperor ordered the establishment of academies (shuyuan 書院) in every provincial capital. To a certain extent, this edict constituted an intellectual component of the emperor’s autocratic approach to governance, as it facilitated greater control over a type of educational institution that had in the past operated with autonomy from the court. Using the history of Shandong’s Luoyuan Academy as a case study, this article demonstrates how the management of academies and hence the provincial operation of autocracy hinged on the participation of a range of local actors. Rather than simply restricting local agency, this characteristic Yongzheng policy depended on it. This perspective raises questions about the degree of rupture between eighteenth- and nineteenth-century state-building and demonstrates a need to define concepts like ‘autocracy’ and ‘centralization’ more precisely with reference to Yongzheng-era governance.
Sustainable Memory Ecology, Entangled Environments, and Multimateriality in a Post-Digital Age: A Case Study of MemoryBytes
Authors: Parui Avishek , Raj Merin Simi 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
This article examines the interdisciplinary and epistemological possibilities in memory studies amidst the complex systems of sustainable memory ecology, entangled environments, and multimateriality prevalent in our post-digital age. This study situates the ontology and experience of memory through post-digital and posthumanist frameworks whereby the human/non-human and embedded/extended emerge as environmental entanglements that are part of everyday experiential and ecological realities which are often already augmented in quality. Likewise, we unpack the idea of materiality in the contemporary world and posit that a theory of multimateriality – asymmetric compounds of constructs, components, and affects – illustrates the modality of post-digital memory networks. Subsequently, the article attempts to offer a conceptual framework that draws on cognitive theory’s 4E model of cognition – embedded, embodied, extended, enactive – and a memory-ecology which is emergent as well as connective in quality. The key themes of this study are as follows:
How can the concept of sustainable memory ecology correspond to interdisciplinary interpretative possibilities of preservation and reconstruction in a post-digital world?
How can memory studies connect with cognitive theory to offer an original collaborative and epistemic apparatus using embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive engagements with environment and materiality in post-digital conditions?
How do such collaborations anticipate the future of memory through a new order of post-digital memory ecology?
Through its theoretical and conceptual convergences, and with a case study of the 2022 Augmented-Reality (ar) App and phygital exhibition MemoryBytes, our article offers an original framework for memory studies’ interdisciplinary engagements with the changing notions of ecology, sustainability, and materiality in today’s post-digital world.
Thriving among Pakistani physicians: A qualitative study
Authors: Sohail Malik Muhammad , Nawaz Kinza , Doolittle Benjamin 
Published: August 2024

Objective Burnout among physicians negatively impacts the quality of patient care and provider’s mental health. While many studies have evaluated burnout, factors associated with physician thriving are not well-defined. This study involved a qualitative exploration of thriving and career satisfaction among physicians in Pakistan. Methods A snowball sampling technique was used to recruit participants who completed a measure of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and burnout between December 2022 and February 2023. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore factors associated with burnout and thriving. Participants were physicians working in public and private hospitals in North Punjab. Results Twenty-four physicians were interviewed. Six themes emerged that might help to explain factors involved in thriving: patient’s affirmation, serving humanity, social support, spiritual connection, occupational prestige, and activities outside of work. Two themes were identified as challenges to thriving: excessive workload and lack of resources. Conclusion Improving the well-being of primary care practitioners requires a multi-modal approach, which includes cultivating intrinsic virtues, such as resilience and spiritual resources, as well as improving social support and the workplace environment.
Feasibility of a Novel Surface-Guided Setup Technique to Reproduce Neck Curvature Using two Regions of Interest
Authors: Li Guang , Yu Victoria , Ryan Kaitlyn , Gil Mary , Biancia Cesar Della 
Published: August 2024

Purpose To improve the setup reproducibility of neck curvature using real-time optical surface imaging (OSI) guidance on 2 regions of interest (ROIs) to infer cervical spine (c-spine) curvature for surface-guided radiotherapy (SGRT) of head-and-neck (HN) and c-spine cancer. Methods A novel SGRT setup approach was designed to reproduce neck curvature with 2 ROIs: upper-chest ROI and open-face ROI. It was hypothesized that the neck curvature could be reproduced if both ROIs were aligned within ±3 mm/2˚ tolerance. This was tested prospectively in 7 volunteers using real-time 3D-OSI guidance and lateral 2D-photography verification after the 3D and 2D references were captured from the initial conventional setup. Real-time SGRT was performed to align chest-ROI and face-ROI, and the longitudinal distance between them was adjustable using a head-support slider. Verification of neck curvature anteriorly and posteriorly was achieved by overlaying edge-extracted lateral pictures. Retrospectively, the relationship between anterior surface and spinal canal alignment was checked in 11 patients using their simulation CT (simCT) and setup cone-beam CT (CBCT). After the anterior surface was rigidly aligned, the spinal canal alignment was checked and quantified using the mean-distance-to-agreement (MDA) and DICE similarity index, and surface-to-spine correlation was calculated. Results The reproducibility of neck curvatures using the 2xROI SGRT setup is verified and the mean neck-outline-matching difference is within ±2 mm in lateral photographic overlays. The chest-ROI alignment takes 110 ± 58 s and the face-ROI takes 60 ± 35 s. When the anterior body surface is aligned (MDA = 1.1 ± 0.6 mm, DICE = 0.96 ± 0.02,) the internal spinal canal is also aligned (MDA = 1.0 ± 0.3 mm, DICE = 0.84 ± 0.04) in 11 patients. The surface-to-spine correlation is c = 0.90 (MDA) and c = 0.85 (DICE). Conclusion This study demonstrates the feasibility of the novel 2-ROI SGRT setup technique to achieve reproducible neck and c-spine curvature regardless of neck visibility and availability as ROI. Staff training is needed to adopt this unconventional SGRT technique to improve patient setup.
TikTok is an effective platform for bicycle safety injury prevention education
Authors: Witte Michelina M , McEvoy Joey M , Hotz Gillian A 
Published: August 2024

Social media is an efficient way to spread information, given its widespread daily use by the general population. While it has been shown that public health information can be rapidly disseminated, whether the newer social media platform, TikTok, is effective for this purpose has yet to be explored. The goal of this study is to determine the effectiveness of TikTok for the public health topic of injury prevention, specifically with regards to bicycling-related safety education. The TikTok account “iBikeSafe” was created to disseminate injury prevention information related to bicycle safety. Data collected was both qualitative (video classification, comment categorization) and quantitative (likes, views, comments). Performance data was compared between TikTok and another video-sharing social media platform (YouTube). Posts that were didactic (or educational) in nature yielded more views, likes, and comments than posts that were fun or casual in nature. Almost half (46%) of comments made by users on iBikeSafe’s TikTok videos were made to constructively further the discussion and to educate others with accurate injury prevention information. Five of the six videos that were adapted from the iBikeSafe YouTube channel for use on TikTok garnered exponentially more views on TikTok (from 118% to 2057%) than on YouTube, despite having less followers/subscribers (759 TikTok vs 977 YouTube) and being in existence for less time (11 months vs 8 years). TikTok is an effective platform for injury prevention education. Didactic posts best provide users with the ability to engage with content and to discuss takeaways, while fun posts keep users active within the platform. Both educational and fun types of videos play an integral role in the effective use of this platform for bicycle safety education. Consideration should be taken into account for the appropriate ratio of didactic versus fun posts for information dissemination in any public health educational campaign making use of this platform.
Empowering Agricultural Workers Through Community Health Worker-Led Pesticide Safety Workshops in Washington State
Authors: Ponce-González Ileana María , Arias Griselda , Diaz Elmer , Parchman Michael L. 
Published: August 2024

Background It is difficult to reach migrant or refugee agricultural workers about pesticide exposure prevention. Here, we describe a community health worker (CHW)-led pesticide exposure prevention workshop and the impact of this program among migrant and refugee workers in Washington state. Methods A focus group of migrants and refugees participated in the development of a CHW-led Spanish language pesticide exposure prevention mobile phone app and workshop. Pre- and post-workshop surveys assessed pesticide training, knowledge, and characteristics. Results Community health workers facilitated 28 workshops attended by 263 participants from 49 agricultural communities. Approximately 79% of participants reported no prior pesticide training. Significant improvements were observed in the proportion familiar with illnesses associated with pesticides, knowledge about pesticide definition, ability to correctly identify the content of pesticide labels, and the correct method to wash fruits and vegetables. Conclusions Community health workers are effective in addressing the gaps in pesticide safety education and awareness among migrant and refugee communities. Further work is needed to assess how to better integrate a mobile phone app into this training and subsequent use of the knowledge.
Canine hyper-sociability structural variants associated with altered three-dimensional chromatin state
Authors: Tandon Dhriti , Kubinyi Enikő , Sándor Sára , Faughnan Hannah , Miklósi Ádám , vonHoldt Bridgett M. 
Published: August 2024

AbstractStrong selection on complex traits can lead to skewed trait means and reduced trait variability in populations. An example of this phenomenon can be evidenced in allele frequency changes and skewed trait distributions driven by persistent human-directed selective pressures in domesticated species. Dog domestication is linked to several genomic variants; however, the functional impacts of these variants may not always be straightforward when found in non-coding regions of the genome. Four polymorphic transposable elements (TE) found within non-coding sites along a 5 Mb region on canine CFA6 have evolved due to directional selection associated with heightened human-directed hyper-sociability in domesticated dogs. We found that the polymorphic TE in intron 17 of the canine GTF2I gene, which was previously reported to be negatively correlated with canid human-directed hyper-sociability, is associated with altered chromatin looping and hence distinct cis-regulatory landscapes. We reported supporting evidence of an E2F1-DNA binding peak concordant with the altered loop and higher expression of GTF2I exon 18, indicative of alternative splicing. Globally, we discovered differences in pathways regulating the extra-cellular matrix with respect to TE copy number. Overall, we reported evidence suggesting an intriguing molecular convergence between the emergence of hypersocial behaviors in dogs and the same genes that, when hemizygous, produce human Williams Beuren Syndrome characterized by cranio-facial defects and heightened social behaviors. Our results additionally emphasize the often-overlooked potential role of chromatin architecture in social evolution.
Learning curve of ultrasound-guided percutaneous central venous port placement in children
Authors: Jeon Ho Jong , Ihn Kyong , Ho In Geol 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Background
Although percutaneous central venous port (CVP) placement can be quickly performed using minimally invasive surgery, short- and long-term complications can occur. Beginner pediatric surgeons must overcome learning curves influencing operative time and complication rates. However, few studies have been conducted on the learning curve of ultrasound-guided percutaneous CVP placement. This study analyzed the progress, results, complications, and learning curve of ultrasound-guided percutaneous CVP placement in children performed by a single beginner pediatric surgeon.

Methods
Data from 30 children who underwent ultrasound-guided percutaneous CVP placement were reviewed. The patient characteristics, procedure indications, access veins, operator positions, operative times, and complication rates were analyzed.

Results
Cumulative sum analysis revealed two stages in the learning curve: stage 1 (initial 15 cases) and stage 2 (subsequent cases). There was a correlation between the number of cases and operative time (Pearson correlation = -0.499, p = 0.005); the operative time was significantly longer in the first than in the second stage (p = 0.007). Although surgical complications occurred more frequently in the early (26.7%) than in the late stage, it was not significantly different between the two stages (p = 0.1). During the study period, the operative time was significantly reduced owing to the change in the operator’s position from the patient’s right side to the patient’s head (p = 0.005).

Conclusions
Ultrasound-guided percutaneous CVP placement was a safe surgery that allowed a beginner pediatric surgeon to overcome the learning curve after only 15 cases and involved a relatively small number of complications compared with other pediatric surgeries. Additionally, the suitable position of the operator affected the surgical outcomes.