bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Informal Concentration of Powers in Illiberal Constitutionalism: The Case of Hungary
Authors: Pozsár-Szentmiklósy Zoltán 
Published: March 2024

AbstractClassic and new concepts of the separation of powers doctrine focus on the control of central political power. Institutional checks and balances are classic legal instruments of this control, especially the activity of independent state organs. In those countries where the political system is dominated by a populist government, the institutional checks and balances and independent institutions are under constant pressure. In a consolidated political system that has already departed from liberal constitutionalism and where constitutional institutions do function only in a formal sense (illiberal constitutionalism), institutional checks and balances lose their significance. However, in addition to the exercise of powers by independent branches of government, other legal institutions or actions can also have a significant impact on relations between branches of government, even informally. Therefore, the system of checks and balances can be described as a multi-layered structure with formal (classical) and informal elements. The article analyses in detail, how the use of informal constitutional amendments and national referendums—as additional institutions belonging to the complex system of separation of powers—instead of controlling the central political power, has contributed to the informal concentration of government power in Hungary in recent years.
The Efficacy of Ganoderma lucidum Extracts on Treating Endometrial Cancer: A Network Pharmacology Approach
Authors: Shi Min 
Published: March 2024

AbstractGanoderma lucidum(GL) is a prominent medicinal mushroom in traditional Chinese medicine, known for its potent antitumor properties. This study aimed to illustrate the efficacy of GL extracts (GLE) on treating endometrial cancer (EC) and explore the underlying mechanisms via network pharmacology and experimental validation. Network pharmacological analysis was conducted to explore the therapeutic efficacy and mechanisms of GL on EC. In vitro experimental validation was performed on human endometrial cancer cell lines HEC-1-A and KLE. Network pharmacology revealed that key targets of GL against EC were primarily associated with the Rap1 signaling pathway. In in vitro experiments, GLE or GGTI-298 (a GTPase inhibitor) treatment inhibited cell proliferation and migration, promoted cell apoptosis, increased caspase-3 level, and arrested cell cycle in G1 phase in HEC-1-A and KLE cells. GLE increased the protein expression of Rap1-GTP, p-AKT, and p-ERK2 in HEC-1-A and KLE cells. Moreover, GGTI-298 enhanced the effects of GLE on suppressing the malignant progression of EC cells and on activating Rap1 signaling pathway. GLE inhibited the malignant progression of EC cells probably via activating the Rap1 signaling pathway.
It is Good for Us to Be Here: Joseph Ratzinger’s Christocentric Doctrine of Creation in Response to Anti-Natalism
Authors: Kaethler Andrew T. J. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis paper sets out Joseph Ratzinger’s Christocentric theology of creation as a counter to the increasingly popular naturalist movement anti-natalism. Paradoxically, anti-natalism is parasitic on the doctrine of creation and yet, at the same time, denies creation, for, as Ratzinger argues, the doctrine of creation affirms both the human person and the natural world within which she lives; creation is necessary for self-acceptance. Furthermore, creation and redemption go together. It is with and through the human person, not without, that the natural world is brought to its proper end.
The protective effects of Gamma-linolenic acid against indomethacin-induced gastric ulcer in rats
Authors: Rahimi Kaveh , Ezzati Givi Masoumeh , Rezaie Anahita , Hekmatmanesh Mohammad , Shaker Ardakani Yasamin 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe primary goal of the investigation was to analyse the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) on rats with indomethacin (IND)-induced gastric ulcers. Thirty rats were divided into five groups: Control, IND (50 mg/kg, p.o.), IND pretreated with GLA 100 mg/kg (p.o. for 14 d), IND pretreated with GLA 150 mg/kg (p.o. for 14 d) and IND pretreated with omeprazole (20 mg/kg, p.o. for 14 d). The stomach tissues were examined to calculate the ulcer index and pH and analyse biochemical markers (prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), cyclooxygenase 1 (COX1), TNF-1, IL-6 and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM1)) and oxidative stress parameters (malondialdehyde: (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH) and CAT (catalase)) as well as undergo histopathological assessment. GLA 100 and 150 mg/kg showed a protective effect against IND-induced gastric damage. It reduced levels of COX1, TNF-1, IL-6 and ICAM and increased PGE2 levels. GLA also normalised antioxidant function by modulating MDA, SOD, GSH and CAT. GLA intervention protects against IND-induced gastric ulcers by restoring oxidant/antioxidant balance and reducing inflammation.
Trimethylamine N-oxide, choline and its metabolites are associated with the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors: Ma Rong , Shi Guangying , Li Yanfang , Shi Han 
Published: March 2024

AbstractIt is inconclusive whether trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and choline and related metabolites, namely trimethylamine (TMA), l-carnitine, betaine and dimethylglycine (DMG), are associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Our objective was to investigate these potential associations. Additionally, we sought to determine the mediating role of TMAO. In this 1:1 age- and sex-matched case–control study, a total of 150 pairs comprising NAFLD cases and healthy controls were identified. According to the fully adjusted model, after the highest tertile was compared with the lowest tertile, the plasma TMAO concentration (OR = 2·02 (95 % CI 1·04, 3·92); P trend = 0·003), l-carnitine concentration (OR = 1·79 (1·01, 3·17); P trend = 0·020) and DMG concentration (OR = 1·81 (1·00, 3·28); P trend = 0·014) were significantly positively associated with NAFLD incidence. However, a significantly negative association was found for plasma betaine (OR = 0. 50 (0·28, 0·88); P trend = 0·001). The restricted cubic splines model consistently indicated positive dose–response relationships between exposure to TMAO, l-carnitine, and DMG and NAFLD risk, with a negative association being observed for betaine. The corresponding AUC increased significantly from 0·685 (0·626, 0·745) in the traditional risk factor model to 0·769 (0·716, 0·822) when TMAO and its precursors were included (l-carnitine, betaine and choline) (P = 0·032). Mediation analyses revealed that 14·7 and 18·6 % of the excess NAFLD risk associated with l-carnitine and DMG, respectively, was mediated by TMAO (the P values for the mediating effects were 0·021 and 0·036, respectively). These results suggest that a higher concentration of TMAO is associated with increased NAFLD risk among Chinese adults and provide evidence of the possible mediating role of TMAO.
The effects of intranasal oxytocin on the efficacy of psychotherapy for major depressive disorder: a pilot randomized controlled trial
Authors: Ellenbogen Mark A. , Cardoso Christopher , Serravalle Lisa , Vadaga Kiran , Joober Ridha 
Published: March 2024

AbstractBackgroundAlthough both pharmacotherapy and psychological treatments are considered to be efficacious in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), one third of patients do not respond to treatment and many experience residual symptoms post-treatment. In this double-blind placebo-controlled randomized control trial (RCT), we assessed whether intranasal oxytocin (OT) augments the therapeutic efficacy of psychotherapy for MDD and improves the therapeutic alliance.MethodsTwenty-three volunteers (12 female) with MDD underwent 16 sessions of interpersonal therapy. Prior to each session, volunteers self-administered 24 International Units of intranasal OT (n = 12; Syntocinon) or placebo (n = 11). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology at pre- and post-treatment, and at a six month follow-up.ResultsMultilevel modeling found a significant effect of OT on the negative slope of depressive symptoms over time (p < 0.05), with medium-large effect sizes at post-treatment (Cohen's d = 0.75) and follow-up (Cohen's d = 0.82). Drug intervention also predicted the intercept when examining the weekly ratings of the therapeutic alliance (p < 0.05), such that volunteers receiving OT, relative to placebo, reported improved therapeutic alliance at session 1. The agreement of goals between therapists and participants, a facet of the therapeutic alliance, mediated the relationship between drug intervention and clinical outcome.ConclusionIn this pilot study, the administration of intranasal OT, relative to placebo, improved the therapeutic alliance at the beginning of therapy and therapeutic efficacy of psychotherapy in persons with MDD. Future RCTs should attempt to replicate these findings in larger samples with different therapeutic modalities (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02405715).
A Democratic Reckoning?
Authors: Pineda Erin R. 
Published: March 2024

“‘Defund’ has failed.”“It's a bad slogan. Most people don't support defunding the police.”“Who is the leader? The movement needs a Martin Luther King.”“The protests were so big but nothing was accomplished.”
These are some of the skeptical questions, impatient dismissals, and anguished disappointments that I have often heard over the past two years (and more) from people taking stock of the Movement for Black Lives. While some of these retorts and rebukes come from political corners that, one has reason to suspect, are neither inclined to take the movement seriously nor invested in its success, others come from a place of despair. In the wake of the historic George Floyd uprisings of 2020, as a right-wing backlash gained speed and as hope gave way to disappointment, some laid the charge of failure at the feet of the movement: it had the wrong aims, the wrong organizational structure, the wrong tactics, the wrong message.
Intrinsic post-retirement work motivation in formal Chilean workers at retirement age: a qualitative study
Authors: Galkutė Milda , Herrera M. Soledad 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
The unstable employment trajectories and low wages of Chilean workers mean that the amount of savings accrued in pension funds are often insufficient to cope with the high costs of living in the country, compelling many older adults to remain in the labour market. Although financial need seems to be an important reason for post-retirement work in Chile, a national survey revealed that a majority of older workers would like to remain employed even if there were no economic need. Hence, this research aims at exploring the intrinsic work motivation of older Chilean adults beyond retirement age. This qualitative study is the second phase of mixed-methods research to analyse the factors influencing post-retirement work in Chile. A total of 32 in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with older workers in the formal labour market who were legally entitled to retire but continued being economically active in Santiago, Chile. The data are analysed using thematic analysis. We identify three main emerging themes, namely the meaning that work gives to life, future projects and post-retirement orientations, and work as the primary source of social interaction. The findings of this study provide valuable insight into intrinsic work motivation, highlighting important gender and occupational differences. It makes a significant contribution not only to the literature but also potentially to national policy makers as well as employers, indicating the need to adjust the labour market to the ageing workforce.
What Does It Mean to Be Human Today?
Authors: Harzheim Julia Alessandra 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
With the progress of artificial intelligence, the digitalization of the lifeworld, and the reduction of the mind to neuronal processes, the human being appears more and more as a product of data and algorithms. Thus, we conceive ourselves “in the image of our machines,” and conversely, we elevate our machines and our brains to new subjects. At the same time, demands for an enhancement of human nature culminate in transhumanist visions of taking human evolution to a new stage. Against this self-reification of the human being, the present book defends a humanism of embodiment: our corporeality, vitality, and embodied freedom are the foundations of a self-determined existence, which uses the new technologies only as means instead of submitting to them. The book offers an array of interventions directed against a reductionist naturalism in various areas of science and society. As an alternative, it offers an embodied and enactive account of the human person: we are neither pure minds nor brains, but primarily embodied, living beings in relation with others. This general concept is applied to issues such as artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism and enhancement, virtual reality, neuroscience, embodied freedom, psychiatry, and finally to the accelerating dynamics of current society which lead to an increasing disembodiment of our everyday life. The book thus applies cutting-edge concepts of embodiment and enactivism to current scientific, technological, and cultural tendencies that will crucially influence our society’s development in the twenty-first century.
RADU GROUPS ACTING ON TREES ARE CCR
Authors: SEMAL LANCELOT 
Published: March 2024

AbstractWe classify the irreducible unitary representations of closed simple groups of automorphisms of trees acting
$2$
-transitively on the boundary and whose local action at every vertex contains the alternating group. As an application, we confirm Claudio Nebbia’s CCR conjecture on trees for
$(d_0,d_1)$
-semi-regular trees such that
$d_0,d_1\in \Theta $
, where
$\Theta $
is an asymptotically dense set of positive integers.
Empire of Impartiality: Managing Indebtedness to Foreigners in Eighteenth-Century China
Authors: Zhang Meng 
Published: March 2024

AbstractRecent scholarship highlights the role of commercial credit, often backed by the power of the state, in creating conditions of subordination in the expansion of European empires. Less attention has been paid to how such indebtedness was understood and handled by the counterpart states, thereby missing the opportunity to appreciate other modes of interaction between private credit and imperial construction. This article investigates the framework under which the eighteenth-century Qing empire dealt with accusations brought against indebted Chinese merchants by external parties. I stress the importance of bringing Sino-Western and intra-Asian cases into a single analytic frame to reflect the Qing empire’s comprehensive approach to the maritime frontier. In these cases, the Qing emperor intervened to help foreigners recover their funds and even assumed unbound liability as a last resort. Buttressing such practices was a foundational principle of the Qing imperial formation: that the emperor’s claim to universal sovereignty rested upon his utmost impartiality toward the ‘inner and outer’ – a contrasting pair based on shifting relativity rather than fixed territoriality. This study highlights the importance of understanding the different modes of mutual constitution between how an empire imagined and managed different groups of people it ruled over or encountered and the practical parameters of its political economy in global history.
Contractor states and globalization of the market for naval artillery technology (1500–1750)
Authors: Cossart Brice 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis article reflects on the dynamics that underlay the circulation of military technology during the early modern phase of globalization. The debate on the development and transfer of gunpowder weaponry has been dominated by a grid of analysis which implicitly puts value on sovereign production and direct state control over the resources used for war. Focusing on the transfer of naval artillery between Europe and Asia, the article argues for the need to expand the scope of analysis of the contractor state, so far centred on Europe, and study the potential world-scale of the market for naval resources and services in the period between 1500 and 1750. It also highlights the need to replace the reading of technological transfers centred on nation-states by a more fluid and transnational vision which articulates the demand stemming from both states and non-state actors and the rise of regional clusters specialized in providing naval technology with competitive levels of prices, in an age of increasingly interconnected maritime economies. Therefore, the article aims to show why naval artillery, despite being a protagonist of old imperialistic narratives, is still a relevant object of study for the agenda of global history.
Exploring Hematological and Biochemical Disparities in Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Females: A Cross-Sectional Twin Study in a Ghanaian Population
Authors: Banyeh Moses , Mayeem Benjamin N. , Woli Moses Kofi , Kolekang Augusta S. , Dagungong Clement Binwatin , Bure David , Wemegah Romarick Kofi , Azindow Mikail Ihsan , Yakubu Suleman , Seidu Musah , Baba Mohammed Madde , Essoun Elisha , Owireduwaa Nancy 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThere are sex-dependent differences in hematological and biochemical variables in adulthood attributed to the predominant effects of testosterone in males and estrogen in females. The Twin Testosterone Transfer (TTT) hypothesis proposes that opposite-sex females may develop male-typical traits due to exposure to relatively higher levels of prenatal testosterone than same-sex females. Additionally, prenatal testosterone exposure has been suggested as a correlate of current circulating testosterone levels. Consequently, opposite-sex females might exhibit male-typical patterns in their hematological and biochemical variables. Despite this hypothesis, routine laboratory investigations assign the same reference range to all females. Our cross-sectional study, conducted in Tamale from January to September 2022, included 40 twins, comprising 10 opposite-sex (OS) males (25%), 10 OS females (25%), and 20 same-sex (SS) females (50%), all aged between 18 and 27 years. Fasting venous blood samples were collected and analyzed using automated hematology and biochemistry laboratory analyzers. Results indicated that levels of hemoglobin, serum creatinine, gamma-glutamyl transferase, total protein, globulins, and total testosterone were significantly higher in OS males than OS females. Conversely, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were significantly higher in OS females than OS males. Unexpectedly, levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and total testosterone were significantly higher in SS females than OS females. Contrary to expectations, opposite-sex females did not exhibit male-typical patterns in their hematological and biochemical variables. This suggests that the TTT effect may not occur or may not be strong enough to markedly affect hematological and biochemical variables in OS females.
The Process We Call Earth: Relationships Between Dynamic Feedbacks and the Search for Gaiasignatures in a New Paradigm of Earthlikeness
Authors: Wong Michael L. , Duckett Marissa , Hernandez Emilia S. , Rajaei Vahab , Smith Kayla J. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractStandard notions of an “Earthlike” planet rely solely on physical and material properties, like planetary mass, radius, and surface temperature. Here, we introduce a novel, relational perspective on what defines “Earthlikeness.” In our process‐based framework, rocky planets are local pockets of free energy that have the potential to drive the emergence of dynamically persistent systems that coevolve with one another. Examples of dynamically persistent planetary phenomena include magnetic dynamos, mantle convection, tectonic regimes, deep volatile cycles, global climate feedbacks, biogeochemical cycles, and the biosphere. When two or more processes couple to one another such that they gain causal efficacy over one another's persistence, some degree of planetary‐scale homeostasis may emerge. In astrobiology, Earthlike exoplanets are often considered to be priority targets for the search for life elsewhere. We suggest that a process‐based framework for Earthlikeness has the potential to widen our search space and inspire novel planetary‐scale biosignatures, or “Gaiasignatures,” that may be essential for detecting exoplanetary biospheres. Additionally, a process‐based view of life can influence the development of agnostic biosignatures at all scales. In contrast to the dominant scientific perspective, which has tended to engender a materialistic worldview, relational ontologies may contribute to our scientific understanding of Earth as a network of dynamically persistent systems, humanity as an integral part of nature, and the search for life in the universe.
Impact of MJO Propagation Speed on Active Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity Periods
Authors: Hansen Kurt A. , Janiga Matthew A. , Majumdar Sharanya J. , Kirtman Benjamin P. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO) is often used for subseasonal forecasting of tropical cyclone (TC) activity. However, TC activity still has considerable variability even given the state of the MJO. This study evaluates the connection between MJO propagation speed with Atlantic TC activity and possible physical mechanisms guiding this relation. We find the Atlantic sees the highest accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) during MJO phase 2. However, the odds of above average ACE in the Atlantic is greatest during slow MJO propagation. We find that slow propagation of the MJO results in lower vertical wind shear anomalies over the Caribbean and main development region compared with typical MJO propagation. Typical MJO propagation produces an amplified height pattern and lower height anomalies along the region of the tropical upper tropospheric trough which is known to impede Atlantic TC activity. Slow MJO propagation sees weaker height anomalies over the Atlantic.