bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Harnessing wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) in Africa: a historic turning point towards strengthening the pandemic control
Authors: Manirambona Emery , Lucero-Prisno Don Eliseo , Shomuyiwa Deborah Oluwaseun , Denkyira Salomey Asaah , Okesanya Olalekan John , Haruna Usman Abubakar , Salamah Hazem Mohamed , Musa Shuaibu Saidu , Nkeshimana Menelas , Ekpenyong Aniekan Michael 
Published: March 2024

AbstractCurbing infectious diseases has been a significant challenge worldwide, with existing conventional surveillance systems presenting gaps in providing timely and spatial information, which undermines prevention and control. This has propelled the use of Wastewater-Based surveillance (WBS), a valuable tool for infectious disease surveillance able to detect early infectious diseases among asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, symptomatic, and post-symptomatic individuals. Despite the global attention and the contribution of WBS in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic, its use in the African continent is still stunted, which may hamper the early detection, monitoring, prevention, and response to outbreaks. Africa can benefit from WBS, deemed to be quick, cost-effective, providing timely data to ensure early report of the presence of a high-consequence infectious pathogen and devise timely protective measures at a population-level perspective. In addition, considering its inclusivity in providing an overall burden of infectious agents representing the population even in areas with limited resources, wastewater surveillance is important in tackling health disparities. Therefore, it is crucial to overcome challenges related to implementing surveillance in Africa. This can be achieved by providing adequate investments for surveillance efforts, establishing modern infrastructure to enhance wastewater drainage, enhancing the healthcare workforce through training, improving healthcare infrastructure and equipment, and utilising digital health solutions. Collaborative efforts on both local and global scales are crucial for developing effective health policies, and a robust research capacity within the continent is crucial.
A high degree of phosphorus sediment saturation in a shallow reservoir system
Authors: Young Taylor , Hargiss Christina L. M. , Daigh Aaron , Norland Jack , Richardson Laurie 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis study sought to establish the degree of phosphorus saturation in sediment within a shallow reservoir that has a history of being hypereutrophic with documented harmful cyanobacteria blooms. Five sites were chosen within the Des Lacs Reservoir System for sediment sampling. At each site a transect with five sampling points had sediment sampled at the 0–15 cm and 15–30 cm depth from the sediment–water interface line. The degree of phosphorus saturation was determined by measuring the amount of solution nitric acid extractable phosphorus adsorbed on the sediments using increasing phosphorus concentrations. Adsorption at low phosphorus concentrations indicates low phosphorus saturation while adsorption at only high concentrations indicates high phosphorus saturation. Sediment soil texture, organic matter, and carbon content was analyzed. Sediment within the lakes were measured to contain a mean total phosphorus concentration of 641 mg/kg (174 mg/kg standard deviation) with sediments being at more than 95% of their phosphorus saturation. With a high degree of phosphorus saturation, sediments are unable to readily sequester P from the water column and will internally load phosphorus which can sustain hypereutrophic conditions and cyanobacteria blooms. The high phosphorus sediment saturation is unique compared to other lakes and reservoirs which have lower phosphorus sediment saturation (20–70%) and some ability to sequester phosphorus. Nearly saturated sediment means there is a high risk of continued hypereutrophic conditions and cyanobacteria blooms in the reservoir and solutions such as reducing external phosphorus loading will be less effective.
Diverse retinal-kidney phenotypes associated with NPHP1 homozygous whole-gene deletions in patients with kidney failure
Authors: Esson Gavin , Logan Ian , Wood Katrina , Browning Andrew C. , Sayer John A. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractA precise diagnosis in medicine allows appropriate disease-specific management. Kidney failure of unknown aetiology remains a frequent diagnostic label within the haemodialysis unit and kidney transplant clinic, accounting for 15–20% of these patients. Approximately 10% of such cases may have an underlying monogenic cause of kidney failure. Modern genetic approaches can provide a precise diagnosis for patients and their families. A search for extra-renal disease manifestations is also important as this may point to a specific genetic diagnosis. Here, we present two patients where molecular genetic testing was performed because of kidney failure of unknown aetiology and associated retinal phenotypes. The first patient reached kidney failure at 16 years of age but only presented with a retinal phenotype at 59 years of age and was found to have evidence of rod-cone dystrophy. The second patient presented with childhood kidney failure at the age of 15 years and developed visual difficulties and photophobia at the age of 32 years and was diagnosed with cone dystrophy. In both cases, genetic tests were performed which revealed a homozygous whole-gene deletion of NPHP1-encoding nephrocystin-1, providing the unifying diagnosis of Senior-Løken syndrome type 1. We conclude that reviewing kidney and extra-renal phenotypes together with targeted genetic testing was informative in these cases of kidney failure of unknown aetiology and associated retinal phenotypes. The involvement of an interdisciplinary team is advisable when managing such patients and allows referral to other relevant specialities. The long time lag and lack of diagnostic clarity and clinical evaluation in our cases should encourage genetic investigations for every young patient with unexplained kidney failure. For these and similar patients, a more timely genetic diagnosis would allow for improved management, a risk assessment of kidney disease in relatives, and the earlier identification of extra-renal disease manifestations.
Nutritional values of ready-to-eat snacks available in the Indian E-market—a comparative study based on the health star rating system
Authors: Alhalabi Baidaa , Joseph Alex , Venkatasubramanian Padma 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Background
The popularity of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods has increased globally, especially among children, because they are readily available, convenient, tasty, and have attractive packaging designs. The number of packaged foods, drinks, and snacks has risen in the Indian market, and the presence of less-healthy packaged products is a significant cause of overweight and diseases related to diet. The Health Star Rating (HSR) System, initiated by the Australian and New Zealand governments, was designed to rank these packaged products based on fat, sugar, energy, salt, and other nutritional compositions. The study assessed the nutritional value of RTE snacks currently available in the Indian e-market using the HSR system.

Methods
This comparative study analyzed the nutritional values of RTE snacks from November 2022 to February 2023. The data were extracted from the Indian e-market, namely Amazon Fresh, Flipkart Grocery, and Big Basket, using specific keywords. The HSR system has been used to evaluate and compare the healthiness of RTE snacks, using a star rating scale of 0.5 stars = bad to 5 stars = excellent. The study assessed 294 RTE products, including chips, cocoa-based snacks, and baked snacks, with a price range of INR 50 and below.

Results
The findings revealed that the mean HSR was low (1.46) stars [SD 0.63] out of (5) stars for the studied products, with significant concerns about high levels of energy, sugar, sodium, and saturated fat. Additionally, the study observed a limited utilization of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes (FVNL) in the market products.

Conclusion
The study highlights the unhealthiness of snack products available in the Indian e-market due to high levels of sugar, salt, and fat. These snacks also lack FVNL as nutritious ingredients. The data extracted can underscore public health concerns, highlight the importance of consumer awareness, and help snack manufacturers develop healthier snacks for society.
Indigeneity, land and labour in Paraguay
Authors: Ioris Antonio A. R. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis article is focused on the politics of indigeneity, which is an increasingly important concept and a central area of dispute in a globalised world. Indigeneity encapsulates the friction between ethnicity and class identities, which cannot be understood without a full consideration of differences and relationships between landowners, other economic sectors, non-indigenous workers and indigenous people. The text specifically deals with the circumstances of Paraguay, whose process of nation building is directly related to longitudinal attacks on its indigenous peoples and the unresolved problems of land, labour and rights. The case study investigates the long-term tendencies of Paraguayan society, in particular, the ongoing expansion of agribusiness and land grabbing in the northeast of the country that tragically affect the Paĩ Tavyterã indigenous people. The discussion is based on qualitative, engaged research over several years, which considered the indigenous population as co-investigators and active socio-political players. The conclusion is that, despite the fact that Paraguay is a major exporter of primary commodities, the prevailing geographical force is the accumulation of multiple forms of social, ecological and even economic degradation. Against those perverse trends, the important reaction of the Paĩ Tavyterã, as well as of other indigenous peoples, and their struggle to recover their land and socio-ecological relations greatly complicate national politics and challenge the hegemony of export-oriented agribusiness.
Variability in microplastic color preference and intake among selected marine and freshwater fish and crustaceans
Authors: Horie Yoshifumi , Mitsunaga Kensuke , Yamaji Kazuyo , Hirokawa Soichi , Uaciquete Dorcas , Ríos Juan Manuel , Yap Chee Kong , Okamura Hideo 
Published: March 2024

AbstractPlastic pollution is considered a pervasive global environmental challenge. Colored microplastics are prevalent in aquatic environments and the gastrointestinal tracts of wild-captured fish and crustaceans. Fish are thought to employ color vision to detect microplastics, prompting our investigation into microplastic ingestion patterns in three marine fish species, Chrysiptera cyanea, Hypoatherina tsurugae, and Plotosus japonicus, and three freshwater fish species, Rhodeus ocellatus, Pseudorasbora parva, and Misgurnus anguillicaudatus. Microplastics in red, blue, yellow, green, and gray were introduced to these species, and their ingestion was observed over a 4 h period under light conditions. Additionally, as crustaceans play an important role in connecting producers (phytoplankton) and consumers (fish) in natural ecosystems, we assessed a freshwater crustacean, Neocaridina denticulata. The crustacean did not ingest microplastics, and only 14% of P. parva individuals ingested microplastics (a proportion lower than that observed in the other fish species). Notably, C. cyanea, P. japonicus, and R. ocellatus exhibited color preferences in microplastic ingestion, with C. cyanea favoring red, P. japonicus preferring blue and gray, and R. ocellatus favoring red and yellow. Conversely, H. tsurugae, P. parva, and M. anguillicaudatus did not exhibit such color preferences. These findings suggest that certain fish use color vision to recognize and selectively ingest microplastics, with color preference being species-specific. Overall, this study provides new insights into microplastic ingestion by fish, potentially informing future toxicological assessments of microplastics in marine and freshwater fish and crustaceans intendan consumption.
Heavy-traffic queue length behavior in a switch under Markovian arrivals
Authors: Mou Shancong , Maguluri Siva Theja 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis paper studies the input-queued switch operating under the MaxWeight algorithm when the arrivals are according to a Markovian process. We exactly characterize the heavy-traffic scaled mean sum queue length in the heavy-traffic limit, and show that it is within a factor of less than 2 from a universal lower bound. Moreover, we obtain lower and upper bounds that are applicable in all traffic regimes and become tight in the heavy-traffic regime.We obtain these results by generalizing the drift method recently developed for the case of independent and identically distributed arrivals to the case of Markovian arrivals. We illustrate this generalization by first obtaining the heavy-traffic mean queue length and its distribution in a single-server queue under Markovian arrivals and then applying it to the case of an input-queued switch.The key idea is to exploit the geometric mixing of finite-state Markov chains, and to work with a time horizon that is chosen so that the error due to mixing depends on the heavy-traffic parameter.
Public Returns on Public Investment: Moderna’s Violation of the Social Contract
Authors: Sarpatwari Ameet 
Published: March 2024

AbstractIn January 2023, Moderna announced its intent to increase the price of the COVID-19 vaccine it co-developed with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by 400%. The federal government should pressure Moderna to change course and resume buying doses for all Americans, leveraging its purchasing power to obtain a fair price.
If Left Unchecked: Lessons Learned from Unfettered U.S. Government Support of the NIH-Moderna Vaccine
Authors: Ramachandran Reshma 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe NIH-Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine’s steep price increase raises concerns that this will be the new anchor for continued price hikes and underscores the need for upstream government intervention to enable greater accountability and stewardship of public biomedical research investment.
The Metaphysics of Meaning: Aquinas and the Meaning of Life
Authors: Gardner Patrick Xavier 
Published: March 2024

AbstractWhile ‘the meaning of life’ has grown in prominence as a topic of philosophical inquiry, few Thomists have addressed it. Joshua Hochschild has recently offered a plausible explanation, arguing that ‘the meaning of life’ is a late modern ‘invention’, at home in a conceptual framework both philosophically problematic and incompatible with the principles of St. Thomas’ thought. He, therefore, counsels Catholic intellectuals to avoid the question of life’s meaning. I argue in contrast that St. Thomas offers the kind of metaphysical perspective that originally made ‘the meaning of life’ intelligible. First, I show that closer attention to the context in which the phrase emerges (that of German Romanticism) can clarify why much of the modern discourse on ‘the meaning of life’ succumbs to Hochschild’s critique. I then show that, even in the writings of its earliest modern proponents, we find compelling reasons to hold that ‘the meaning of life’ was always more at home within a Christian conceptual framework. Finally, I argue that St. Thomas’ account of providence and divine art in particular explain the purposefulness and significance of the world, such that Thomists who appeal to these notions are well positioned to address the question of life’s meaning in contemporary philosophical debates.
Educational intervention based on the extended parallel process model improves adherence to diabetic diet and glycaemic control indices: a randomised, double-blind, controlled, factorial field trial
Authors: Dehghan Tayebe , Mohsenpour Mohammad Ali , Karimi Masoud , Mehrabi Manoosh , Zare Morteza , Akbarzadeh Marzieh , Kohansal Atefeh , Fathi Fatemeh , Sohrabi Zahra 
Published: March 2024

AbstractNutritional education is pivotal in the medical nutritional therapy of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The extended parallel process model (EPPM) is a health education method for inducing desirable health behaviours. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of nutritional education based on the EPPM in T2DM patients on knowledge, attitude, practice, anthropometric indices, glycaemic factors, lipid profile and adherence to the diabetic diet. A randomised, double-blind, controlled, factorial field trial was designed for T2DM patients aged 30–59 years (n88). Participants were randomly allocated into four groups to receive EPPM-based nutritional education through gain framed message (GFM), loss framed message (LFM), their combination (G\LFM) or usual diabetic education in the control group (CG). Participants were assessed before and after the study duration. After 3 months of intervention, eighty participants finished the study. The EPPM-based intervention increased participants’ knowledge, behavioural intention, perceived sensitivity, severity, self-efficacy (P< 0·001 for all) and response efficacy (P= 0·029) in comparison with CG. GFM (P= 0·004) and G\FLM (P= 0·034) reduced carbohydrate intake and LFM (P= 0·034) and G\LFM (P= 0·047) decreased fat intake. Between-group analysis indicated interventions reduced weight (P= 0·046), BMI (P= 0·038), fasting blood sugar (P= 0·030), 2-hour postprandial blood glucose (P= 0·027) and TAG (P= 0·002) in comparison with the CG. Results were NS for protein intake, waist and hip circumference, waist:hip ratio, HbA1c, total cholesterol, LDL and HDL. Nutritional education based on EPPM could increase the knowledge and awareness of T2DM patients. Also, it could be beneficial for blood glucose amendment. Further investigations are recommended.
LUCAN'S SILVAE IN THE VITA VACCAE: A PREDECESSOR OF STATIUS’ OCCASIONAL POEMS?
Authors: Lóio Ana 
Published: March 2024

AbstractAn anonymous biography of Lucan known as the Life of Vacca attributes to the poet the composition of a work called Siluae. This information has been accepted by scholars with regard to both Lucan and Statius, thus transforming Lucan into a predecessor of Statius’ Siluae. This article seeks to demonstrate that neither the manuscript tradition of Lucan's biography nor alleged references to Lucan's Siluae in Statius’ collection substantiate the affirmation that Lucan composed a work called Siluae. It is argued that the Life of Vacca is most probably late and its very long catalogue of works (mostly problematic or otherwise unknown) aggrandizes Lucan in response to the need for a commendatory biography of the poet when he became a school author. Pomponio Leto is responsible for perpetuating the mention of Lucan's Siluae by including it in his influential biography of Lucan (the first to reach the printed press). It is further argued that the circumstances of the tradition of Statius’ Siluae explain Leto's acceptance of Lucan's work of the same title. Leto was working on a commentary on the recently rediscovered Siluae, which explains his inclusion of a work called Siluae in his biography of Lucan, a great poet who had preceded Statius. Finally, this article deconstructs the theories that find references to Lucan's Siluae in Statius’ Siluae or that justify Statius’ silence about Lucan's Siluae with its political motifs.
Relationships between functional alpha and beta diversities of flea parasites and their small mammalian hosts
Authors: Krasnov Boris R. , Khokhlova Irina S. , López Berrizbeitia M. Fernanda , Matthee Sonja , Sanchez Juliana P. , Shenbrot Georgy I. , van der Mescht Luther 
Published: March 2024

AbstractWe studied the relationships between functional alpha and beta diversities of fleas and their small mammalian hosts in 4 biogeographic realms (the Afrotropics, the Nearctic, the Neotropics and the Palearctic), considering 3 components of alpha diversity (functional richness, divergence and regularity). We asked whether (a) flea alpha and beta diversities are driven by host alpha and beta diversities; (b) the variation in the off-host environment affects variation in flea alpha and beta diversities; and (c) the pattern of the relationship between flea and host alpha or beta diversities differs between geographic realms. We analysed alpha diversity using modified phylogenetic generalized least squares and beta diversity using modified phylogenetic generalized dissimilarity modelling. In all realms, flea functional richness and regularity increased with an increase in host functional richness and regularity, respectively, whereas flea functional divergence correlated positively with host functional divergence in the Nearctic only. Environmental effects on the components of flea alpha diversity were found only in the Holarctic realms. Host functional beta diversity was invariantly the best predictor of flea functional beta diversity in all realms, whereas the effects of environmental variables on flea functional beta diversity were much weaker and differed between realms. We conclude that flea functional diversity is mostly driven by host functional diversity, whereas the environmental effects on flea functional diversity vary (a) geographically and (b) between components of functional alpha diversity.
A case of Carvajal syndrome presenting with dilated cardiomyopathy
Authors: Arıcı Sule , Akalın Figen , Geckinli Bilgen Bilge 
Published: March 2024

AbstractObjectives:Carvajal syndrome is a very rare autosomal recessive cardiocutaneous disorder caused by a desmosomal mutation in exon 24 of the desmoplakin gene. It manifests with woolly hair, epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. We herein present a patient with heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy who was diagnosed with Carvajal syndrome because of dermatologic manifestations.Case Presentation:A seven-year-old girl was referred to our clinic due to decompensated heart failure and clinical deterioration. The patient had severe weakness, tachycardia, and tachypnea. She had a complaint of getting tired quickly for three weeks, and she had shortness of breath and abdominal pain for the last two days. She had hepatomegaly and woolly hair. Mild keratoderma was present on the soles of her feet. Echocardiography demonstrated biventricular dilatation, significantly impaired left ventricular systolic function (ejection fraction 22%), and moderate to severe mitral and tricuspid regurgitation. Molecular genetic evaluation was performed because of cutaneous and cardiac findings, which demonstrated a desmoplakin gene mutation. Homozygous mutation c.4297C > T (p.Gln1433*) was identified in desmoplakin gene, and the diagnosis of Carvajal syndrome was confirmed.Conclusions:Syndromic types of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy such as Carvajal syndrome are rare diseases. Awareness about cutaneous manifestations and genetic evaluation would help diagnosis and prevention of sudden death. Genetic counselling is needed in familial cases.