bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Complementary and Inducible creERT2 Mouse Models for Functional Evaluation of Endothelial Cell Subtypes in the Bone Marrow
Authors: Poulos Michael G. , Ramalingam Pradeep , Winiarski Agatha , Gutkin Michael C. , Katsnelson Lizabeth , Carter Cody , Pibouin-Fragner Laurence , Eichmann Anne , Thomas Jean-Leon , Miquerol Lucile , Butler Jason M. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractIn the adult bone marrow (BM), endothelial cells (ECs) are an integral component of the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-supportive niche, which modulates HSC activity by producing secreted and membrane-bound paracrine signals. Within the BM, distinct vascular arteriole, transitional, and sinusoidal EC subtypes display unique paracrine expression profiles and create anatomically-discrete microenvironments. However, the relative contributions of vascular endothelial subtypes in supporting hematopoiesis is unclear. Moreover, constitutive expression and off-target activity of currently available endothelial-specific and endothelial-subtype-specific murine cre lines potentially confound data analysis and interpretation. To address this, we describe two tamoxifen-inducible cre-expressing lines, Vegfr3-creERT2 and Cx40-creERT2, that efficiently label sinusoidal/transitional and arteriole endothelium respectively in adult marrow, without off-target activity in hematopoietic or perivascular cells. Utilizing an established mouse model in which cre-dependent recombination constitutively-activates MAPK signaling within adult endothelium, we identify arteriole ECs as the driver of MAPK-mediated hematopoietic dysfunction. These results define complementary tamoxifen-inducible creERT2-expressing mouse lines that label functionally-discrete and non-overlapping sinusoidal/transitional and arteriole EC populations in the adult BM, providing a robust toolset to investigate the differential contributions of vascular subtypes in maintaining hematopoietic homeostasis.
Graphical Abstract
Further study on oil/water relative permeability ratio model and waterflooding performance prediction model for high water cut oilfields sustainable development
Authors: Yang Renfeng 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe accuracy of predicting waterflooding performance is crucial in determining the scale of investment for oilfield development. However, existing common waterflooding prediction models often relies on assumptions that may not apply universally or lack theoretical derivation through statistical analysis. This has led to unsatisfactory prediction accuracy and multiple potential solutions. To address these limitations, it is proposed to incorporate the oil/water relative permeability ratio model into the derivation process of waterflooding prediction models. Initially, an evaluation of prevalent oil/water relative permeability ratio models is conducted, along with an analysis of their primary constraints. Additionally, the applicability of the analytical relative permeability model is thoroughly examined. Building upon the analytical relative permeability model and a modified Welge equation, a new waterflooding model is formulated, encompassing all pertinent physical coefficients. Notably, this model aligns seamlessly with the commonly used Arps’ decline curve, while extending its applicability to a broader range of conditions. Moreover, it can be simplified to generate typical water drive curves under suitable circumstances. The semi-log relationship between oil/water relative permeability ratio and water saturation is further simplified into a linear relationship or a multi-term formula. Compared with the traditional waterflooding model, the new model proposed in this research has a wider application range and can be applied to oilfield at high water cut. At the same time, the new model clarifies the coefficient of waterflooding curve A and the physical meaning of parameter 7.5 in Tong’s chart method for the first time. The new model proposed in this research further enriches the connotation of waterflooding theory and has certain application significance.
Dietary habits, traveling and the living situation potentially influence the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection: results from healthcare workers participating in the RisCoin Study
Authors: Wratil Paul R. , Le Thi Thu Giang , Osterman Andreas , Badell Irina , Huber Melanie , Zhelyazkova Ana , Wichert Sven P. , Litwin Anna , Hörmansdorfer Stefan , Strobl Frances , Grote Veit , Jebrini Tarek , Török Helga P. , Hornung Veit , Choukér Alexander , Koletzko Berthold , Adorjan Kristina , Koletzko Sibylle , Keppler Oliver T. ,   the RisCoin study group
Published: March 2024

Abstract
Purpose
To explore occupational and non-occupational risk and protective factors for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods
Serum specimens and questionnaire data were obtained between October 7 and December 16, 2021 from COVID-19-vaccinated HCWs at a quaternary care hospital in Munich, Germany, and were analyzed in the RisCoin Study.

Results
Of 3,696 participants evaluated, 6.6% have had COVID-19 at least once. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified working in patient care occupations (7.3% had COVID-19, 95% CI 6.4–8.3, Pr = 0.0002), especially as nurses, to be a potential occupation-related COVID-19 risk factor. Non-occupational factors significantly associated with high rates of the disease were contacts to COVID-19 cases in the community (12.8% had COVID-19, 95% CI 10.3–15.8, Pr < 0.0001), being obese (9.9% had COVID-19, 95% CI 7.1–13.5, Pr = 0.0014), and frequent traveling abroad (9.4% had COVID-19, 95% CI 7.1–12.3, Pr = 0.0088). On the contrary, receiving the basic COVID-19 immunization early during the pandemic (5.9% had COVID-19, 95% CI 5.1–6.8, Pr < 0.0001), regular smoking (3.6% had COVID-19, 95% CI 2.1–6.0, Pr = 0.0088), living with the elderly (3.0% had COVID-19, 95% CI 1.0–8.0, Pr = 0.0475), and frequent consumption of ready-to-eat meals (2.6% had COVID-19, 95% CI 1.1–5.4, Pr = 0.0045) were non-occupational factors potentially protecting study participants against COVID-19.

Conclusion
The newly discovered associations between the living situation, traveling as well as dietary habits and altered COVID-19 risk can potentially help refine containment measures and, furthermore, contribute to new mechanistic insights that may aid the protection of risk groups and vulnerable individuals.
Can We Measure the Structural Dimension of Social Capital with Digital Footprint Data?—An Assessment of the Convergent Validity of an Indicator Extracted from Digital Footprint Data
Authors: Weiler Michael , Jansen Nora , Hinz Oliver 
Published: March 2024

AbstractNetwork analytical metrics often seek to capture the structural dimension of social capital, but such data collections using traditional social research tools often suffer from biases like interviewer effects and are usually only suitable to study small groups of participants. Digital sources of social relations might offer great potential for facilitating such measures though, because they digitally store unprecedented amounts of relational data, free from the limitations associated with self-reported data. This study therefore compares individual node degrees collected through a contact diary (i.e., overall-social capital), and a counterpart extracted from digital footprint data from the social media network, Facebook (i.e., social media network-social capital). The findings suggest that researchers conducting empirical studies involving the concept thus should not ignore social media network-social capital as a practical alternative measure of overall-social capital; it provides a sound approximation but only after controlling for other influential factors. In particular, our results highlight that the usability of the digital social capital metric is conditional on the three-way interaction between the variables gender, age, and social media network-social capital. Thus, the evidence from our study, in turn, also intimates that individuals act heterogeneously in the digital sphere with respect to their networking behaviour.
Quantum transfer learning for acceptability judgements
Authors: Buonaiuto Giuseppe , Guarasci Raffaele , Minutolo Aniello , De Pietro Giuseppe , Esposito Massimo 
Published: March 2024

AbstractHybrid quantum-classical classifiers promise to positively impact critical aspects of natural language processing tasks, particularly classification-related ones. Among the possibilities currently investigated, quantum transfer learning, i.e., using a quantum circuit for fine-tuning pre-trained classical models for a specific task, is attracting significant attention as a potential platform for proving quantum advantage. This work shows potential advantages, in terms of both performance and expressiveness, of quantum transfer learning algorithms trained on embedding vectors extracted from a large language model to perform classification on a classical linguistics task—acceptability judgements. Acceptability judgement is the ability to determine whether a sentence is considered natural and well-formed by a native speaker. The approach has been tested on sentences extracted from ItaCoLa, a corpus that collects Italian sentences labeled with their acceptability judgement. The evaluation phase shows results for the quantum transfer learning pipeline comparable to state-of-the-art classical transfer learning algorithms, proving current quantum computers’ capabilities to tackle NLP tasks for ready-to-use applications. Furthermore, a qualitative linguistic analysis, aided by explainable AI methods, reveals the capabilities of quantum transfer learning algorithms to correctly classify complex and more structured sentences, compared to their classical counterpart. This finding sets the ground for a quantifiable quantum advantage in NLP in the near future.
Distributed quantum neural networks via partitioned features encoding
Authors: Kawase Yoshiaki 
Published: March 2024

AbstractQuantum neural networks are expected to be a promising application in near-term quantum computing, but face challenges such as vanishing gradients during optimization and limited expressibility by a limited number of qubits and shallow circuits. To mitigate these challenges, an approach using distributed quantum neural networks has been proposed to make a prediction by approximating outputs of a large circuit using multiple small circuits. However, the approximation of a large circuit requires an exponential number of small circuit evaluations. Here, we instead propose to distribute partitioned features over multiple small quantum neural networks and use the ensemble of their expectation values to generate predictions. To verify our distributed approach, we demonstrate ten class classification of the Semeion and MNIST handwritten digit datasets. The results of the Semeion dataset imply that while our distributed approach may outperform a single quantum neural network in classification performance, excessive partitioning reduces performance. Nevertheless, for the MNIST dataset, we succeeded in ten class classification with exceeding 96% accuracy. Our proposed method not only achieved highly accurate predictions for a large dataset but also reduced the hardware requirements for each quantum neural network compared to a large single quantum neural network. Our results highlight distributed quantum neural networks as a promising direction for practical quantum machine learning algorithms compatible with near-term quantum devices. We hope that our approach is useful for exploring quantum machine learning applications.
Production preference barriers and lowland-appropriate strategies of sustaining local food systems in drought-affected southern Ethiopia
Authors: Tora Thomas Toma 
Published: March 2024

AbstractA key element of food systems that look for significant inputs to ensure food security is food production. The production process is adversely affected by impermanent climates, particularly in places where droughts occur recurrently. In southern Ethiopia’s drought-prone Gamo lowlands, this study explores lowland-friendly strategies and challenges to food production choices. A cross-sectional survey design centered on households was utilized. Primary and secondary sources of data were used in the data collection process. The study’s primary data sources were the survey participants. The main methods used for gathering data were field observations, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the data analysis. Numerous obstacles stand in the way of food production preference, according to the results of the household-level study. The most often mentioned ones were low professional support, rising production input costs, inadequate professional support, and traditional agriculture methods. The methods that were found included improving access to basic production resources like farmland and oxen as well as managing production costs to a reasonable level in order to alleviate these constraints. Furthermore, it was discovered that reevaluating the trends in production that are transitioning from food crops to cash crops is a major problem in the Gamo lowland environment. With growers paying less attention to valuable food sources—root crops in particular—the move toward cash crops is one that should be closely monitored. As a result, it is advised that local food systems need to be sustainable in view of changing climate and a growing populace.
Political contributions by American inventors: evidence from 30,000 cases
Authors: Short Nicholas 
Published: March 2024

AbstractPolitical scientists know surprisingly little about the political behavior of inventors, or those who produce new technologies. I therefore merged US patent and campaign contribution (DIME) data to reveal the donation behavior of 30,603 American inventors from 1980 through 2014. Analysis of the data produces three major findings. First, the Democratic Party has made significant inroads among American inventors, but these gains increasingly come from only a few regions and flow to a relatively small number of candidates. Second, deeper geographic trends explain most of the change in aggregate donation patterns. Third, inventors do not strategically donate to candidates outside their own district and, since 2006, inventors increasingly contribute to relatively centrist employer PACs with weak ties to the Democratic Party. These findings suggest that the interaction between market-oriented policy and American electoral institutions may inhibit the formation of broad cross-regional coalitions to support the knowledge economy.
Reconciling Hegel with the Dialectic: On Islam and the Fate of Muslims in Hegel's Philosophy of History
Authors: Yigit Emir , El Nabolsy Zeyad 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe absence of Islam from recent scholarship on Hegel's account of world religions is puzzling. In the first part of the article, we argue that Hegel's neglect of Islam in his systematic account of religious phenomena is not accidental and that he did not think of Islam as a determinate religion. Its size and believers aside, we suggest that it is not possible to assign any determinacy to Islam as a world-historical phenomenon under Hegel's rubric, because such determinacy that applies to other religions would be in conflict with what Hegel takes to be Islam's emphasis on the negative moment of truth, its revolutionary tendencies, and its lack of any novel conceptual content as a response to Christianity. In the second part of the article, we point out how one could respond to Hegel's characterization of Islam when it is mentioned in relation to other religious traditions. First, we argue that Hegel overemphasizes the significance of Islam qua religion in explaining the history of Muslim peoples. More than that, Hegel does not see that the history of Islamic philosophy and science can be characterized by sublation and that it can be integrated into conceptual developments in the West on these terms. However, our critique of Hegel's Eurocentrism does not remain at this level, for in the third part of the article we argue for the significance of considering the response of Muslim philosophers to Hegel. In particular, we look at the responses by Mohammed al-Khosht and Mahmoud Haider, respectively. We conclude that Hegel's exclusion of Islam from any involvement in the history of the Concept indicates an undialectical commitment on his part and that to this extent being Hegelian today requires that we rectify this oversight.
Being Your Best Self: Authenticity, Morality, and Gender Norms
Authors: Bell Rowan 
Published: March 2024

AbstractTrans and gender-nonconforming people sometimes say that certain gender norms are authentic for them. For example, a trans man might say that abiding by norms of masculinity tracks who he really is. Authenticity is sometimes taken to appeal to an essential, pre-social “inner self.” It is also sometimes understood as a moral notion. Authenticity claims about gender norms therefore appear inimical to two key commitments in feminist philosophy: that all gender norms are socially constructed, and that many domains of gender norms are both morally and prudentially bad. I argue that that this apparent tension is illusory. Concordant with existing trans narratives of authenticity, I articulate an existentialist view that understands authenticity as a socially embedded, constructive project undertaken in a non-ideal social world, rather than a reflective uncovering of a pre-given, essential self. I then show that authenticity and morality can come apart; what is authentic for someone need not be either morally good or good for them. I conclude that the authenticity of gender norms does not cut against the feminist commitments that I identify. This conclusion enables a theoretical space that is both respectful of trans experience and critical of dominant gender norms, an important liberatory goal.
Doubling Down: Will Large Increases in the NIH Budget Promote More Meaningful Medical Innovation?
Authors: Sampat Bhaven N. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractKesselheim proposes doubling the NIH’s budget to promote clinically meaningful pharmaceutical innovation. Since the effects of a previous doubling (from 1998-2003) were mixed, I argue that policymakers should couple future budget growth with investments in experimentation and evaluation.
The determinants of winery visitors for local wine and non-wine products in the Northern Appalachian states
Authors: Yang Shang-Ho , Ujiie Kiyokazu , Woods Timothy , Ho Shuay-Tsyr 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe development and expansion of wineries in Appalachian states in the United States over the past 20 years has received attention, while the study of non-wine product consumption in wineries has been very limited. Wineries increasingly include these non-wine products as complementary products in their marketing portfolio. This study analyzes the determinants of wine and non-wine spending among winery visitors in selected Northern Appalachian states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. We develop a market segmentation model and a random utility theory with an interval regression model. Results from 1,609 participants show that wine knowledge has a positive effect on local wine spending, and spending on non-wine products should not be underestimated for its overall contribution to the winery business. Our results suggest that wineries have the potential to boost store sales associated with non-wine products. Diversifying the product lines in wineries to include more non-wine products would be a useful marketing strategy.
Prosody of focus in Turkish Sign Language
Authors: Karabüklü Serpil , Gürer Aslı 
Published: March 2024

AbstractProsodic realization of focus has been a widely investigated topic across languages and modalities. Simultaneous focus strategies are intriguing to see how they interact regarding their functional and temporal alignment. We explored the multichannel (manual and nonmanual) realization of focus in Turkish Sign Language. We elicited data with focus type, syntactic roles and movement type variables from 20 signers. The results revealed the focus is encoded via increased duration in manual signs, and nonmanuals do not necessarily accompany focused signs. With a multichanneled structure, sign languages use two available channels or opt for one to express focushood.
Farming then fighting: agricultural idle time and armed conflict
Authors: DiGiuseppe Matthew , Haer Roos , RezaeeDaryakenari Babak 
Published: March 2024

AbstractPolicymakers and scholars have long proposed that willingness to participate in armed conflict is influenced by citizens' income-earning opportunities. Testing this opportunity cost mechanism has led to mixed results. One reason for this might be the fact that current proxies can also serve as indicators to test grievance-based theories. In this study, we construct a more suitable measure. We use crop calendars and crop location data to build an index of agricultural idle time for first administration units on the African continent from 1990 to 2017. We test the explanatory power of this measure by examining its relationship with armed conflict. Our results show that agricultural idle time increases the probability of observing armed conflict by more than 20 percent.
THE BRONZE HARVESTER: RAVAGING AND PLUNDERING IN GREEK WARFARE
Authors: Lindberg Nicholas 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThis article argues that the purpose of ravaging in Greek warfare was not to goad the enemy into fighting or to cause systematic economic harm but to facilitate plundering. The cereal harvest was commonly chosen as a time for invasion, because it maximized the amount of plunder an invading force could expect to find in the enemy countryside. While ravagers were unlikely to cause permanent economic harm to a community as a whole, they could imperil the livelihoods of individual farmers, both directly through theft and destruction and indirectly by preventing farmers from processing the harvest in a timely fashion. This explains the consistent fear of plundering and ravaging present in our sources.
Canid attacks on sea turtles along the Northeastern Brazilian Coast
Authors: Almeida Isadora Campos de , Messenger Rafaelle Monteiro Nunes , Gomes Fabiola Fonseca Almeida , Sousa Davi Emanuel Ribeiro de , Alves Rodolfo de França , Almeida Isis Chagas de , Vergara Parente Jociery Einhardt , Assis Daniel Alvares Silveira de , Borges João Carlos Gomes 
Published: March 2024

Abstract
The aim of the present study was to report canid attacks on sea turtles in northeastern Brazil. The study was conducted on the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin coastline between March 2010 and October 2019. Injured-stranded sea turtles or carcasses were recorded through systematic beach monitoring. The specimens were submitted for clinical or postmortem assessments, providing evidence for the identification of injuries caused by canids. In the study period, 9841 stranded sea turtles were recorded, with the diagnosis of canid attacks in 55 (0.55%) events. Lepidochelys olivacea was the species with the largest number of events (90.90%), followed by Chelonia mydas (7.27%), and Caretta caretta (1.81%). The attacked sea turtles were clinically healthy, with a good body score and no apparent diseases; most were in the reproductive stage. The injuries were mainly found on the front flippers, with considerable loss of musculature affecting the brachial plexus, with the rupture of large blood vessels, and in some cases, exposure of the humerus or oesophagus. Thus, these events hampered the reproductive cycle, limiting the egg-laying process and preventing the hatching of hundreds of new turtles. Therefore, mitigating measures should be implemented, addressing the consequences of abandoning pets and their unsupervised presence on beaches.