bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Factors associated with severe infection in rheumatoid arthritis patients: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Embaby Aya , Maged Lobna A. , Abdel-Hamid Hoda M. , El Hadidi Khaled T. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Purpose
This aimed to identify the factors associated with severe/critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Methods
Two-hundred RA patients diagnosed according to the American College of Rheumatology/ European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) classification criteria with proven COVID-19 infection were recruited and categorized according to the world health organization (WHO) COVID-19 severity grading into 2 groups: patients with mild/moderate COVID-19 (n = 164) and patients with severe/critical COVID-19 (n = 36). Comparison between both groups was done to identify the risk factors associated with severe/critical infection. Incidence of RA disease activity flare defined as increase in clinical disease activity index (CDAI) more than 10 points following infection was calculated.

Results
Multivariate analysis identified history of previous serious infection, age > 60 years, and diabetes as factors positively associated, whereas COVID-19 vaccination was negatively associated with severe/critical infection. Following COVID-19 infection, the number of patients with severe/critical COVID-19 who had high RA disease activity and the incidence of flares was significantly higher in comparison to patients with mild/moderate COVID-19 (P < 0.001 and 0.003; respectively).

Conclusion
Age > 60 years, diabetes, and history of previous serious infections are risk factors for severe/critical COVID-19, while vaccination has a protective role in RA patients. Infection particularly when severe is associated with risk of disease flare.
Progress on Transition Metal Ions Dissolution Suppression Strategies in Prussian Blue Analogs for Aqueous Sodium-/Potassium-Ion Batteries
Authors: Shu Wenli , Li Junxian , Zhang Guangwan , Meng Jiashen , Wang Xuanpeng , Mai Liqiang 
Published: February 2024

AbstractAqueous sodium-ion batteries (ASIBs) and aqueous potassium-ion batteries (APIBs) present significant potential for large-scale energy storage due to their cost-effectiveness, safety, and environmental compatibility. Nonetheless, the intricate energy storage mechanisms in aqueous electrolytes place stringent requirements on the host materials. Prussian blue analogs (PBAs), with their open three-dimensional framework and facile synthesis, stand out as leading candidates for aqueous energy storage. However, PBAs possess a swift capacity fade and limited cycle longevity, for their structural integrity is compromised by the pronounced dissolution of transition metal (TM) ions in the aqueous milieu. This manuscript provides an exhaustive review of the recent advancements concerning PBAs in ASIBs and APIBs. The dissolution mechanisms of TM ions in PBAs, informed by their structural attributes and redox processes, are thoroughly examined. Moreover, this study delves into innovative design tactics to alleviate the dissolution issue of TM ions. In conclusion, the paper consolidates various strategies for suppressing the dissolution of TM ions in PBAs and posits avenues for prospective exploration of high-safety aqueous sodium-/potassium-ion batteries.
The Characteristics of the Influenza Virus Epidemic Around the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic Period in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai
Authors: Zhang Ge , Zhang Anran , Zhang Li , Zhu Aiqin , Li Zhongjie , Zhu Weiping , Hu Wenbiao , Ye Chuchu 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Objectives
The concurrent impact of COVID-19 and influenza on disease burden is a topic of great concern. This discussion delves into the epidemiological characteristics of seasonal influenza activity in Shanghai within the context of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.

Methods
From 2017 to 2023, a total of 11,081 patients having influenza-like illness (ILI) were included in this study for influenza virus detection. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays were conducted according to standardised protocols to identify the types and subtypes of influenza viruses. The positivity rate of the influenza virus among the sampled ILI cases served as a surrogate measure for estimating various influenza seasonal characteristics, such as periodicity, duration, peak occurrences, and the prevalent subtypes or lineages. Epidemiological aspects across different years and age groups were subjected to comprehensive analysis. For categorical variables, the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was employed, as deemed appropriate.

Results
A total of 1553 (14.0%) tested positive for influenza virus pathogens. The highest positivity rate for influenza was observed in adults aged 25–59 years (18.8%), while the lowest rate was recorded in children under 5 years (3.8%). The influenza circulation patterns in Shanghai were characterised: (1) 2 years exhibited semiannual periodicity (2017–2018, 2022–2023); (2) 3 years displayed annual periodicity (2018–2019, 2019–2020, and 2021–2022); and (3) during 2020–2021, epidemic periodicities of seasonal influenza viruses disappeared. In terms of influenza subtypes, four subtypes were identified during 2017–2018. In 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, A/H3N2, A/H1N1, and B/Victoria were circulating. Notably, one case of B/Victoria was detected in 2020–2021. The epidemic period of 2021–2022 was attributed to B/Victoria, and during 2022–2023, the influenza A virus was the dominant circulating strain.

Conclusions
The seasonal epidemic period and the predominant subtype/lineage of influenza viruses around the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic period in Shanghai city are complex. This underscores the necessity for vigilant influenza control strategies amidst the backdrop of other respiratory virus pandemics.
New Insights on Non-integrability and Dynamics in a Simple Quadratic Differential System
Authors: Qu Jingjia , Yang Shuangling 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This study focuses on the integrability and qualitative behaviors of a quadratic differential system

$$\dot{x}=a+yz,\quad\dot{y}=-y + x^{2},\quad\dot{z}=b-4x.$$

x
˙

=
a
+
y
z
,

y
˙

=
-
y
+

x
2

,

z
˙

=
b
-
4
x
.

We provide some new perspectives on the system and reveal its diverse properties, including non-integrability in the sense of absence of first integrals, bifurcations of co-dimension one or two, Jacobi instability and dynamics at infinity.
Removal of arsenic(V) using pure zeolite (PZ) and activated dithizone zeolite (ADZ) from aqueous liquids: application to green analytical chemistry
Authors: Nassar Hossam F. , Mohamed Mahmoud A. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThe primary aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the efficiency of pure zeolite and activated dithizone zeolite for arsenic(V) removal from aqueous solutions. The analytical eco-scale and analytical greenness for sample preparation results confirm that the proposed method is environmentally friendly. Zeolite adsorbents were characterized and tested for their ability to adsorb arsenic(V) from wastewater. Our study delved into arsenic(V) sorption behavior on pristine and activated zeolites. Through steady-state experiments using pure zeolite and activated dithizone zeolite, we examined the sorption of arsenic from aqueous solutions. We optimized operational parameters, including pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, and arsenic(V) concentration. Our findings revealed that the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isothermal models were highly influential in fitting the experimental data, resulting in statistically significant outcomes. This study highlights the potential of zeolites as outstanding adsorbents for removing arsenic(V) from aqueous solutions. The calculated maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) of pure zeolite and activated dithizone zeolite was 18.2 and 21.1(mg/g), respectively, with R2 = 0.999. According to Freundlich’s linear model, the experimental isothermal data indicated that activated dithizone zeolite has a higher value of kf constant and a lower value of the 1/n constant than that obtained for pure zeolite. These results imply favorable adsorption of arsenic(V) on activated dithizone zeolite.
Graphical abstract
Plaguing Segregations: Paradigms of Rule at The Cape of Good Hope
Authors: Pavlich George 
Published: February 2024

AbstractPower, while fundamental to sociality, might be exercised with haphazard ferocity or more judiciously in legally constrained ways. Such constraint requires us first to understand how ruling paradigms work, and the effects of their powers, before entertaining suitable forms of legal limitation. Transposing Kuhn’s famous concept, this paper examines a ruling paradigm of biopolitical sovereignty at the Cape of Good Hope through two examples: the 1891 census’ racialized categorizations of the “population”; and a racialized segregation responding to the 1901 bubonic plague. Prefiguring apartheid, both examples indicate how colonial laws authorized discretionary biopowers and yet exempted themselves from monitoring how officials demarcated and governed racialized population groups. The paper touches on the growing maladroitness of positivist ideas about a sovereign “rule of law” in regulating arbitrary biopolitical forces. It concludes by briefly indicating the promise of legal pluralism and Indigenous legalities to check capricious biopowers while pursuing legitimate life-affirming forces.
Is the COVID-19 Pandemic a Critical Juncture? Insight from the Study of “New” Multilingual Governance Techniques
Authors: Tremblay Arjun 
Published: February 2024

AbstractIs the COVID-19 pandemic a critical juncture? An emerging social scientific scholarship on the COVID-19 pandemic has set out to study its effects on a range of social, political, and economic phenomena. Some of this scholarship theorizes that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of those rarest and most impactful moments in time, what historical institutionalists would call a “critical juncture”. This article tests a COVID-19 critical juncture hypothesis by conducting a theory-infirming case study of recent multilingual developments in the United States. Process tracing of federal and state multilingual trajectories reveal that two of the hypothesis’ observable implications are absent: there is no evidence of radical institutional change and ostensibly “new” multilingual pathways were in fact established prior to the pandemic. In light of this evidence, the article concludes by discussing alternative understandings of COVID-19’s effects and this might mean for the study of the pandemic moving forward.
‘We opened the door [too] much’: The challenging desecuritisation of Colombian refugees in Ecuador
Authors: García García Gabriela Patricia 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThis article explores the analytical trajectory of desecuritisation strategies in the Global South through the case of Colombian refugees in Ecuador (2005–12). It maps desecuritisation strategies and their enabling and constraining factors against the backdrop of an entrenched infiltration discourse and an emerging rights-based discourse. The analysis of speeches, interviews, and policies demonstrates that governmental elites set in motion more transformative strategies when regional identity and emigration are raised in the political agenda. However, critical developments such as bilateral tensions and the lack of audience support sway desecuritisation towards more managerial strategies and ultimately, to resecuritisation. Shifting the empirical application of desecuritisation to this South American setting reveals the transformational capacity of desecuritisation strategies and reiterates the decisive role of the audience.
Enhanced heat transfer and reduced flow reversals in turbulent thermal convection with an obstructed centre
Authors: Li Yi-Zhen , Chen Xin , Xi Heng-Dong 
Published: February 2024

We report an experimental study about the effect of an obstructed centre on heat transport and flow reversal by inserting an adiabatic cylinder at the centre of a quasi-two-dimensional Rayleigh–Bénard convection cell. The experiments are carried out in a Rayleigh number (

$Ra$

) range of

$2\times 10^7 \leq Ra \leq 2\times 10^9$

and at a Prandtl number (

$Pr$

) of

$5.7$

. It is found that for low

$Ra$

, the obstructed centre leads to a heat transfer enhancement of up to 21

$\%$

, while as

$Ra$

increases, the magnitude of the heat transfer enhancement decreases and the heat transfer efficiency (

$Nu$

) eventually converges to that of the unobstructed normal cell. Particle image velocimetry measurements show that the heat transfer enhancement originates from the change in flow topology due to the presence of the cylindrical obstruction. In the low-

$Ra$

regime the presence of the obstruction promotes the transition of the flow topology from the four-roll state to the abnormal single-roll state then to the normal single-roll state with increasing obstruction size. While in the high-

$Ra$

regime, the flow is always in the single-roll state regardless of the obstruction size, although the flow becomes more coherent with the size of the obstruction. We also found that in the presence of the cylindrical obstruction, the stability of the corner vortices is significantly reduced, leading to a large reduction in the frequency of flow reversals.
Active flow control for bluff body drag reduction using reinforcement learning with partial measurements
Authors: Xia Chengwei , Zhang Junjie , Kerrigan Eric C. , Rigas Georgios 
Published: February 2024

Active flow control for drag reduction with reinforcement learning (RL) is performed in the wake of a two-dimensional square bluff body at laminar regimes with vortex shedding. Controllers parametrised by neural networks are trained to drive two blowing and suction jets that manipulate the unsteady flow. The RL with full observability (sensors in the wake) discovers successfully a control policy that reduces the drag by suppressing the vortex shedding in the wake. However, a non-negligible performance degradation ($\sim$50 % less drag reduction) is observed when the controller is trained with partial measurements (sensors on the body). To mitigate this effect, we propose an energy-efficient, dynamic, maximum entropy RL control scheme. First, an energy-efficiency-based reward function is proposed to optimise the energy consumption of the controller while maximising drag reduction. Second, the controller is trained with an augmented state consisting of both current and past measurements and actions, which can be formulated as a nonlinear autoregressive exogenous model, to alleviate the partial observability problem. Third, maximum entropy RL algorithms (soft actor critic and truncated quantile critics) that promote exploration and exploitation in a sample-efficient way are used, and discover near-optimal policies in the challenging case of partial measurements. Stabilisation of the vortex shedding is achieved in the near wake using only surface pressure measurements on the rear of the body, resulting in drag reduction similar to that in the case with wake sensors. The proposed approach opens new avenues for dynamic flow control using partial measurements for realistic configurations.
Human Beings and Ethics in the Thought of Herbert McCabe
Authors: Hewitt Simon 
Published: February 2024

AbstractCartesian pictures of the human self and act-centred understandings of ethics dominate modern thought. Throughout his work, Herbert McCabe challenges these, and as such remains an important resource for philosophical and theological ethics. This paper lays out McCabe’s philosophical anthropology, showing how he draws on Wittgenstein to revive a Thomist account of the human person. It then shows how this anthropology feeds into a philosophical ethics, focused on human flourishing and the possibility of life being meaningful. This, in turn, underwrites a theological ethics, according to which the human person flourishes ultimately through graced participation in the divine life. The paper concludes with a discussion of McCabe’s account of faith as participation in the divine self-knowledge.
Spatial-temporal distribution pattern and driving factors of agricultural carbon sinks in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from the perspective of carbon neutrality
Authors: Liu Hongjian , Liu Yajing , Zhang Ge 
Published: February 2024

AbstractDeveloping policies to reduce carbon emissions in agriculture is crucial for achieving the ‘dual carbon’ goal. Therefore, scientifically analysing the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of agricultural carbon sinks and their driving factors holds paramount importance for the coordinated and integrated development of regional agriculture and the realization of sustainable development. Based on the perspective of carbon cycle in agricultural production, the measurement system of agricultural net carbon sink was established from the perspective of carbon sink/carbon source, this study conducted an analysis of the temporal and spatial variation characteristics as well as driving mechanisms of agricultural net carbon sinks. The findings are as follows: (1) The agricultural net carbon sink exhibited an increasing trend from 2009 to 2020, with favourable intensity and level. (2) Agricultural land use and livestock and poultry production constituted the primary sources of agricultural carbon emissions. Notably, agricultural carbon emissions demonstrated a decreasing trend during the study period. (3) The net agricultural carbon sink displayed local spatial aggregation, indicating significant regional differences. (4) Factors such as rural economic level, urbanization level and agricultural employment significantly promoted the net carbon sink. In contrast, the rural industrial structure, technical level and crop seeding had inhibitory effects. Therefore, it is imperative to promote the reduction of agricultural carbon emissions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. This entails accelerating the construction of new agriculture and rural areas, facilitating industrial upgrading, promoting the development of low-carbon-sink regions into high-carbon-sink regions and actively fostering the coordinated and integrated development of regional agriculture.
Bringing Dance to Older Adults: Program Experts’ Perspectives on the Role of Community Dance Classes to Support Older Adults
Authors: Paglione Vanessa , Morrison Lindsay , McDonough Meghan H. , Downie Andrea , Kenny Sarah J. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractBackground:Dancing offers several health and wellness benefits for older adults: it may promote physical literacy (PL) and positively influence the aging process. Yet, limited research considers the perspectives of those with experience working with older adults and in community dance programming.Objective:The purpose of this study was to understand program experts’ perspectives on how older adult community dance can promote PL and contribute to age-friendly cities and community initiatives.Methods and Findings:Four themes were identified from semi-structured interviews with five program experts: (1) expert instructors tailor classes to participants’ needs and interests; (2) the heart of what draws us to dancing: authentic experience and social connection; (3) elitist, ableist, and gendered assumptions of dance prevent social inclusion of older adults in dancing spaces; and (4) collaboration across sectors is needed to offer accessible, sustainable, and valued dance programming.Discussion:Recommendations for developing and implementing older adult community dance programming are described.
Partnership with the University of São Paulo Panel of Twins: A Four-City Tour and More / Twin Research Reviews: Twin Research on Binge Eating; Twins’ Physical Outcomes Linked to Different Diets; Working Conditions and Sickness Absence in Swedish Twins; Facial Morphology Differences in Monozygotic Twins / Human Interest and Importance: Michigan Family Forced to Adopt Their Own Twins; Ethics of Hiring a Surrogate to Bear Twins; Twin Survivors of the Israel-Hamas War; Twin Pregnancy with Double Uterus; Three Twin Pairs on Same Women’s Soccer Team
Authors: Segal Nancy L. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThis article begins with an overview of twin research in Brazil, initiated by the University of São Paulo Panel of Twins. I met with many new research collaborators and students while on a fall 2023 four-city lecture tour in that country. A meeting with a world-famous surgeon who recently separated craniopagus conjoined twin pairs is also described. This overview is followed by summaries of twin research on binge eating, twins’ physical outcomes linked to different diets, working conditions and sickness absence in Swedish Twins and facial morphology differences in monozygotic twins. The final section of this article provides a sampling of human interest stories with important implications. They include a Michigan family forced to adopt their own twins, ethical issues surrounding the hiring of a surrogate to bear twins; twin survivors of the Israel-Hamas war, a twin pregnancy with a double uterus, and three twin pairs on the same women’s soccer team.
Spatiotemporal Variations and Postseismic Relaxation Process Around Mt. Fuji, Japan, During and After the 2011 Tohoku‐Oki Earthquake
Authors: Kakiuchi Y. , Nimiya H. , Tsuji T. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractTo monitor the volcanoes at a high spatiotemporal resolution, we introduce the singular value decomposition‐based Wiener filter and the three‐component waveforms in ambient noise velocity monitoring. The continuous ambient noise data from 63 stations around Mt. Fuji and Mt. Hakone, Japan, during the January‐September 2011 were analyzed to estimate the seismic velocity variations at a 1‐day temporal resolution, allowing us to distinguish the velocity drops caused by the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku‐oki and the Mw 6.0 East Shizuoka earthquake. The velocity drop during the Tohoku‐oki earthquake was large in volcanic areas and was larger around Mt. Hakone than Mt. Fuji. This difference is possibly due to the existence of fluid‐ and gas‐rich zones at shallower depths and a higher crack density around Mt. Hakone. In addition, the velocity drop at Mt. Fuji during the Tohoku‐oki and the East Shizuoka earthquake was the same level, despite larger static stress changes beneath Mt. Fuji during the East Shizuoka earthquake. We interpret this inconsistency between the velocity drops and static stress changes to arise from incomplete recovery of the generated cracks during the Tohoku‐oki earthquake when the East Shizuoka earthquake occurred. This study also investigates the spatial variations in recovery speed and recovery amount, finding slow recovery speeds in the volcanic areas and fault areas, possibly due to larger crack densities in the crust. Furthermore, we observe the lowest velocity recovery amount in the volcanic areas, which is likely attributed to the maintained increase in pore pressure due to the volcanic gas bubbles.