bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
First investigation of blood parasites of bats in Burkina Faso detects Hepatocystis parasites and infections with diverse Trypanosoma spp.
Authors: Thiombiano Noel Gabiliga , Boungou Magloire , Chabi Bertrand Adéchègoun Mèschac , Oueda Adama , Werb Oskar , Schaer Juliane 
Published: October 2023

AbstractBats are hosts to a large diversity of eukaryotic protozoan blood parasites that comprise species of Trypanosoma and different haemosporidian parasite taxa and bats have played an important role in the evolutionary history of both parasite groups. However, bats in several geographical areas have not been investigated, including in Burkina Faso, where no information about malaria parasites and trypanosomes of bats exists to date.In this study, we collected data on the prevalence and the phylogenetic relationships of protozoan blood parasites in nine different bat species in Burkina Faso. Hepatocystis parasites were detected in two species of epauletted fruit bats, and a relatively high diversity of trypanosome parasites was identified in five bat species. The phylogenetic analyses recovered the trypanosome parasites of the bat species Rhinolophus alcyone and Nycteris hispida as close relatives of T. livingstonei, the trypanosome infections in Scotophilus leucogaster as closely related to the species T. vespertilionis and the trypanosomes from Pipistrellus nanulus and Epomophorus gambianus might present the species T. dionisii. These findings of the first investigation in Burkina Faso present a first snapshot of the diversity of protozoan blood parasites in bats in this country.
Early investigations of the Permo-Carboniferous glaciation of South Africa
Authors: Pfaffl Fritz A. , Dullo Wolf-Christian 
Published: October 2023

AbstractA.G. Bain (1797–1864) was probably the first to describe the deposits of the Permo-Carboniferous glaciation of South Africa in 1844, but still attributed their formation to a volcanic origin. It was not until P.C. Sutherland (1822–1908) in 1868 and 1870 that the series was recognised as a glacial formation. J. E. Dunn (1844–1937) named this deposit the Dwyka Series or Dwyka Conglomerate after the Dwyka River near Prince Albert in South Africa in 1886. This series contains scratched boulders and varved sediments, and the basement is characterised by rounded boulders and striated surfaces as evidence of glaciation.
Graphical abstract
Alleviation effects of epigallocatechin-3-gallate against acute kidney injury following severe burns
Authors: Xu Hongyan , Pang Yichao , Sun Wei , Luo Yi 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Background
Burn patients often face a high risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) after severe burn injuries, meanwhile epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been proven to be effective in alleviating organ injury.

Methods
This study used the classical burn model in rats. Thirty model rats were randomly divided into a Burn group, a Burn + placebo group, a Burn + EGCG (50 mg/kg) group, and ten non-model rats as Sham group. The urinary excretion of the rats was subsequently monitored for a period of 48 h. After 48 h of different treatments, rat serum and kidneys were taken for the further verification. The efficacy of EGCG was assessed in pathological sections, biochemical indexes, and at the molecular level.

Results
Pathological sections were compared between the Burn group and Burn + placebo group. The rats in the Burn + EGCG group had less kidney damage. Moreover, the EGCG group maintained significantly elevated urine volumes, biochemical indexes manifested that EGCG could reduce serum creatinine (Cr) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) level and inhibit the oxidation-related enzyme malondialdehyde (MDA) level, meanwhile the superoxide dismutase (SOD) level was increased. The molecular level showed that EGCG significantly reduced the mRNA expression levels of the inflammation-related molecules interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α).

Conclusion
The research indicated that EGCG had an alleviating effect on kidney injury in severely burned rats, and its alleviating effects were related to improving kidney functions, alleviating oxidative stress, and inhibiting the expression of inflammatory factors.
From Kernel Methods to Neural Networks: A Unifying Variational Formulation
Authors: Unser Michael 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe minimization of a data-fidelity term and an additive regularization functional gives rise to a powerful framework for supervised learning. In this paper, we present a unifying regularization functional that depends on an operator $$\textrm{L}$$
L
and on a generic Radon-domain norm. We establish the existence of a minimizer and give the parametric form of the solution(s) under very mild assumptions. When the norm is Hilbertian, the proposed formulation yields a solution that involves radial-basis functions and is compatible with the classical methods of machine learning. By contrast, for the total-variation norm, the solution takes the form of a two-layer neural network with an activation function that is determined by the regularization operator. In particular, we retrieve the popular ReLU networks by letting the operator be the Laplacian. We also characterize the solution for the intermediate regularization norms $$\Vert \cdot \Vert =\Vert \cdot \Vert _{L_p}$$

‖
·
‖

=

‖
·
‖

L
p

with $$p\in (1,2]$$

p
∈
(
1
,
2
]

. Our framework offers guarantees of universal approximation for a broad family of regularization operators or, equivalently, for a wide variety of shallow neural networks, including the cases (such as ReLU) where the activation function is increasing polynomially. It also explains the favorable role of bias and skip connections in neural architectures.
Digit Ratio (2D:4D; Right-Left 2D:4D) and Multiple Phenotypes for Same-Sex Attraction: The BBC Internet Study Revisited
Authors: Manning John T. , Fink Bernhard , Trivers Robert 
Published: October 2023

AbstractSame-sex attraction may be linked to low prenatal androgen (in men) and high prenatal androgen (in women). Digit ratio (2D:4D) is thought to be a negative correlate of prenatal androgen and right-left 2D:4D (Dr-l) to reflect lateralized differences in sensitivity to prenatal androgen. Lower 2D:4D has been reported for lesbians compared to heterosexuals, but links to high 2D:4D in gay men are less clear. The largest study thus far (the BBC Internet study) found no significant difference between the 2D:4D of lesbians and heterosexual women but a higher 2D:4D in gay men compared to heterosexual men. Here we consider the possibility that low and high prenatal androgen is associated with same-sex attraction in men (n = 108,779) and women (n = 87,742), resulting in more than two phenotypes. We examined the associations between 2D:4D, Dr-l, and same-sex attraction scores in the BBC Internet study. In contrast to the earlier report, which considered sexual orientation in categories, there were positive linear associations in men (right and left 2D:4D, but not Dr-l) and negative linear associations in women (right 2D:4D and Dr-l, but not left 2D:4D). There were no curvilinear relationships for right and left 2D:4D. However, Dr-l showed a U-shaped association with same-sex attraction in men. Thus, (1) high prenatal androgen may be implicated in female homosexuality, while both low and high prenatal androgen may be implicated in male homosexuality, and (2) large side differences in sensitivity to androgen may be associated with elevated same-sex attraction in men.
Reinforcement learning with model-based feedforward inputs for robotic table tennis
Authors: Ma Hao , Büchler Dieter , Schölkopf Bernhard , Muehlebach Michael 
Published: October 2023

AbstractWe rethink the traditional reinforcement learning approach, which is based on optimizing over feedback policies, and propose a new framework that optimizes over feedforward inputs instead. This not only mitigates the risk of destabilizing the system during training but also reduces the bulk of the learning to a supervised learning task. As a result, efficient and well-understood supervised learning techniques can be applied and are tuned using a validation data set. The labels are generated with a variant of iterative learning control, which also includes prior knowledge about the underlying dynamics. Our framework is applied for intercepting and returning ping-pong balls that are played to a four-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm in real-world experiments. The robot arm is driven by pneumatic artificial muscles, which makes the control and learning tasks challenging. We highlight the potential of our framework by comparing it to a reinforcement learning approach that optimizes over feedback policies. We find that our framework achieves a higher success rate for the returns ($$100\%$$

100
%

vs. $$96\%$$

96
%

, on 107 consecutive trials, see https://youtu.be/kR9jowEH7PY) while requiring only about one tenth of the samples during training. We also find that our approach is able to deal with a variant of different incoming trajectories.
Temporal changes in boreal vegetation under 70 years of conservation
Authors: Maliniemi Tuija , Huusko Karoliina , Muurinen Lauralotta , Grytnes John-Arvid , Tukiainen Helena , Virtanen Risto , Alahuhta Janne 
Published: October 2023

AbstractBiodiversity conservation through protected areas (PAs) is often based on the idea that biodiversity is relatively static. This assumption is increasingly being challenged as species and communities shift their distributions in response to changing environmental conditions. Empirical evidence on the performance of PAs over decades is still sparse or lacking from several environments, although it is needed to understand species dynamics, support modelling of PA performance, assist PA management and ultimately, to achieve global biodiversity conservation goals. In 2021, we resurveyed vegetation of five boreal habitat types (heath forests, paludified forests, sun-exposed sites, mires and eulittoral sites) in Rokua National Park in Finland, where one of the conservation targets is to preserve the flora characteristic of the area. The study sites were originally surveyed in 1945-49, just before the National Park was established. Study sites have also remained free from the disturbances (forest fires and reindeer grazing) typical of boreal regions. We show that the compositional similarity of plant communities between habitat types has increased over time and is associated with the increase of forest species in several habitat types and the loss of many habitat-specific species. Drivers of change were most often linked to ongoing succession (understory closure) and changes in moisture conditions. Our results suggest that without natural disturbance or appropriate management efforts, the original conservation targets may be compromised over the decades. Our study demonstrates that resurvey of historical vegetation data can be effectively used to estimate long-term PA performance, helping to fill in missing temporal evidence.
Elevational changes in canopy Collembola community composition are primarily driven by species turnover on Changbai Mountain, northeastern China
Authors: Wu Yunga , Xie Zhijing , Wan Zhuoma , Ji Qiao-Qiao , Yang Jingjing , Chen Ting-Wen , Wu Donghui , Scheu Stefan 
Published: October 2023

AbstractForest canopies harbor extraordinary biodiversity, with Collembola being one of the most abundant arthropod taxa. However, much of the research on canopy biodiversity has focused on tropical and subtropical regions, leaving a gap in our understanding of canopy communities in temperate and boreal forests. Studying canopy Collembola along elevational gradients can be particularly informative because several environmental factors change with elevation, and these changes may mirror those seen along latitudinal gradients. To better understand and conserve canopy Collembola diversity along elevational gradients, natural forests are of particular interest. In this study, we used canopy fogging to sample canopy Collembola at four elevation sites (800–1700 m a.s.l.) on Changbai Mountain, northeastern China, representing three natural forest types. We examined changes in species richness, abundance and composition of canopy Collembola, and partitioned beta diversity into nestedness and turnover to identify processes driving changes in community composition. We identified 53 morphospecies among 10,191 individuals, with Entomobryidae and Hypogastruridae being the dominant families. The highest abundance and species richness were observed at 1400 m and remained at similar levels at 1700 m, indicating an increasing pattern with elevation. Species turnover was the main driver of changes in community composition with elevation. Our results provide insights into the shift of canopy Collembola communities across an elevational gradient in temperate boreal forests.
Evaluation of the international Ki67 working group cut point recommendations for early breast cancer: comparison with 21-gene assay results in a large integrated health care system
Authors: Shim Veronica C. , Baker Robin J. , Jing Wen , Puentes Roisin , Agersborg Sally S. , Lee Thomas K. , GoreaI Wamda , Achacoso Ninah , Lee Catherine , Villasenor Marvella , Lin Amy , Kapali Malathy , Habel Laurel A. 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Purpose
The International Ki67 Working Group (IKWG) has developed training for immunohistochemistry (IHC) scoring reproducibility and recommends cut points of ≤ 5% and ≥ 30% for prognosis in ER+, HER2−, stage I/II breast cancer. We examined scoring reproducibility following IKWG training and evaluated these cut points for selecting patients for further testing with the 21-gene Recurrence Score (RS) assay.

Methods
We included 307 women aged 50+ years with node-negative, ER+PR+HER2− breast cancer and with available RS results. Slides from the diagnostic biopsy were stained for Ki67 and scored using digital image analysis (IA). Two IHC pathologists underwent IKWG training and visually scored slides, blinded to each other and IA readings. Interobserver reproducibility was examined using intraclass correlation (ICC) and Kappa statistics.

Results
Depending on reader, 8.8–16.0% of our cohort had Ki67 ≤ 5% and 11.4–22.5% had scores ≥ 30%. The ICC for Ki67 scores by the two pathologists was 0.82 (95% CI 0.78–0.85); it was 0.79 (95% CI 0.74–0.83) for pathologist 1 and IA and 0.76 (95% CI 0.71–0.80) for pathologist 2 and IA. For Ki67 scores ≤ 5%, the percentages with RS < 26 were 92.6%, 91.8%, and 90.9% for pathologist 1, pathologist 2, and IA, respectively. For Ki67 scores ≥ 30%, the percentages with RS ≥ 26 were 41.5%, 51.4%, and 27.5%, respectively.

Conclusion
The IKWG’s Ki67 training resulted in moderate to strong reproducibility across readers but cut points had only moderate overlap with RS cut points, especially for Ki67 ≥ 30% and RS ≥ 26; thus, their clinical utility for a 21-gene assay testing pathway remains unclear.
A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Entrepreneurs’ Gender on their Access to Bank Finance
Authors: Malmström Malin , Burkhard Barbara , Sirén Charlotta , Shepherd Dean , Wincent Joakim 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThis meta-analysis of 31 studies over 20 years advances our understanding of the gender gap in entrepreneurial bank finance. Findings from previous research on the relationship between entrepreneurs’ gender and bank financing are mixed, which suggests the need to pay particular attention to entrepreneurs’ social context. In this study, we develop a model of how social gender norms explain variation in women entrepreneurs’ (vis-à-vis men entrepreneurs’) access to bank finance. Specifically, we theorize how women’s formal (their nations’ political ideologies) and informal (women’s empowerment) social standing within their societies influence gender discrimination in entrepreneurial bank financing. Consistent with most previous studies, our baseline results show that women entrepreneurs’ business loan applications are rejected to a greater extent than men entrepreneurs’ loan applications. Women entrepreneurs also pay higher interest rates on loans than men entrepreneurs. Further, in societies dominated by a conservative (rather than a liberal) political ideology, the positive relationship between women entrepreneurs and loan interest rates is more positive. Interestingly, gender discrimination in loan rejection and interest rates is magnified in societies with greater women’s empowerment. Taking a social gender-norm perspective, our analysis establishes a gender gap in entrepreneurial bank finance, and we outline an agenda for further research.
Value of stent boost imaging in decision making after coronary stenting
Authors: Mansour Hossam M. , Mohamed Ahmed M. , Ibrahim Soliman G. , Ibrahim Ayman M. , Mohamed Ramadan G. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractBackground: Several studies reported the comparability of digital stent enhancement techniques (including stent boost imaging) in detecting suboptimal results of coronary stenting with Intra Vascular Ultrasound and optical coherence tomography. Aims: to assess results of stent deployment and determine the incidence of suboptimal results requiring changing final decision using stent boost imaging. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 120 patients eligible for PCI were recruited during a period of one year (January 2021 to 2022) using DES. Results: Suboptimal results were found in 38% of the PCI cases with stents (angiography guided). Importantly it was found that improper lesion preparation in our practice could not help improving stent optimization. Also, angiography guided PCI has significant incidence of suboptimal results. Digital stent enhancement techniques like stent boost have significant and important value in better decision making. After adjusting for age and sex, six factors were identified as independent predictors for final decision change (stent length, LAD/RCA affection, proximal segment affection, calcification, and optical coherence tomography. Conclusion: This study has confirmed the utility of stent boost for the optimization of PCI in daily practice. Stent Boost is a simple and costless technique that provides an accurate assessment of a deployed stent without extending the procedure time and without more risk. It appears to be useful for the immediate evaluation of stent expansion and optimization of PCI by additional post-dilatation, when appropriate. Future studies are needed to determine whether Stent Boost data will correlate with adverse long-term clinical outcomes in patients undergoing PCI.
β-Irradiation in the presence of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium ionic liquids causes covalent cellulose derivatization with simultaneous nitrogen incorporation
Authors: Jusner Paul , Sulaeva Irina , Schiehser Sonja , Potthast Karin , Tischer Alexander , Barbini Stefano , Potthast Antje , Rosenau Thomas 
Published: October 2023

Abstractβ-Irradiation (“e-beaming”) as well as swelling in ionic liquids, each process by itself, are common pretreatments in biorefinery scenarios. A combination of both, such as occurs with β-irradiation of biomass that was insufficiently washed and still contains traces of ionic liquids, causes covalent derivatization of the contained cellulose and incorporation of nitrogen. The nitrogen uptake occurred only in the presence of the ionic liquid and correlated linearly with both the irradiation dose and the concentration of the contained ionic liquid. The presence of other wood constituents during β-irradiation decreased nitrogen uptake, but did not prevent it. The derivatization of cellulose did not depend on the degree of crystallinity, but appeared to depend on the content of oxidized groups (carbonyl functionalities), also with a linear correlation. Future work must now clarify the mechanism of this reaction and the influence of other wood constituents, and address the possible potential of e-beaming in the presence of imidazolium ionic liquids for cellulose chemistry.
Real Property Transactions in the Network Society: Platform Real Estate, Housing Hactivism, and the Re-scaling of Public and Private Power
Authors: Roark M. L. , Fox O’Mahony L. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractTechnology is rapidly transforming the landscape of land ownership and housing transactions, creating new types of consumer risk and new regulatory challenges. As markets, legal systems, and housing consumers navigate the new opportunities and risks of “platform real estate” (or “PropTech”), the underlying land laws, policies, and practices that produce the material context and legal framework for real property transactions, and against which consumer risk and regulation must be understood, require “re-scaling.” In this article, we offer a theoretical framework for this re-scaling project, drawing on our earlier work to develop Resilient Property Theory (RPT) for analysing complex, large-scale property questions using methods that—in a departure from liberal property theories—pay attention to the public role of the state. Against a backdrop in which narratives of private property law defined real property transactions as “private realm” activities, while consumer law and policy provided the vehicle for state-backed regulation of specifically defined transactions based on a risk-based approach, this article brings the state back into view to reflect on new configurations of risk in consumer housing transactions. In the de-materialized realm of the “network society,” networks, platforms, and innovations are recalibrating housing transactions. In this data-driven world, land transactions are financialized, depersonalized, and increasingly remote from the materiality of land and the consumption of housing. As new capabilities in digital land transaction systems reach back into the underlying law of ownership, official (state), insider (global capital markets), and outsider (social movement activists) networks have evolved to leverage their relative positionality. This article uses techniques developed in RPT to examine the re-scaling of risk in real property and housing transactions through digital network technologies. We consider the implications of resilience needs in the network society in relation to the public sovereignty of the state, the private sovereignty of land ownership, and practices of resistance to public and private sovereignty through “housing hacktivism.” Finally, we argue that conceptions of consumer vulnerability and risk and embedded ideas about the relationships between private property law and consumer law and policy in real property transactions must evolve to take account of these effects.
Working from Home During Covid-19 Pandemic and Changes to Fertility Intentions Among Parents
Authors: Kurowska Anna , Matysiak Anna , Osiewalska Beata 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic and related massive spread of home based work led to substantial changes in the conditions for combining work and childbearing. On the one hand, working from home helped parents to accommodate increased childcare needs during the pandemic. On the other hand, it led to acute experiences of blurred boundaries between work and family life during childcare and school closures. Therefore, the direction of the impact of working from home on fertility intentions during the pandemic is not unequivocal. In this paper, we investigate how working from home was related to change in fertility intentions of mothers and fathers during the pandemic and discuss the complex mechanisms behind these relationships. With the use of unique Familydemic Survey data from a representative sample of parents in Poland, we estimate multinomial logit regressions by gender and consider a set of potential moderators, including financial well-being, gender relations, and occupational characteristics. We find evidence for an overall negative relationship between home based work and fertility intentions for mothers, but we also uncover some positive moderating effects. In particular, we shed light on the unobvious moderating role of gendered division of unpaid labor from before the pandemic.