bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ultrathin H‐MXM as An “Ion Freeway” for High‐Performance Osmotic Energy Conversion
Authors: Dong Qizheng , Liu Jun , Wang Yuting , He Jianwei , Zhai Jin , Fan Xia 
Published: February 2024

AbstractNanofluidic membranes are currently being explored as potential candidates for osmotic energy harvesting. However, the development of high‐performance nanofluidic membranes remains a challenge. In this study, the ultrathin MXene membrane (H‐MXM) is prepared by ultrathin slicing and realize the ion horizontal transportation. The H‐MXM membrane, with a thickness of only 3 µm and straight subnanometer channels, exhibits ultrafast ion transport capabilities resembling an “ion freeway”. By mixing artificial seawater and river water, a power output of 93.6 W m−2 is obtained. Just as cell membranes have an ultrathin thickness that allows for excellent penetration, this straight nanofluidic membrane also possesses an ultrathin structure. This unique feature helps to shorten the ion transport path, leading to an increased ion transport rate and improveS performance in osmotic energy conversion.
Effect of Nitrogen‐Added Shielding Gas on Microstructure Evolution of Welded Joints by Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Process in Duplex Stainless Steel 2205
Authors: Rodriguez‐Vargas Bryan Ramiro , Stornelli Giulia , Miranda Pérez Argelia Fabiola , Di Schino Andrea 
Published: February 2024

Duplex stainless steels (DSS), due to their high corrosion resistance, primarily attributed to their austenite‐ferrite duplex microstructure, are widely used in industrial sector such as petrolchimical and gas natural industries. Maintaining this microstructure is crucial during manufacturing processes, including welding which presents the challenge of minimizing ferritization in the heat‐affected zone (HAZ) or weld zone (WZ), as it can significantly reduce their corrosion resistance. This work aims to describe the influence of nitrogen gas in the Ar–N2 shielding atmosphere when depositing beads on 2205 DSS plates, using a gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process. It is observed that at low nitrogen load (98%Ar–2%N2), the austenite content reaches 49% in WZ and 29% in HAZ. When the nitrogen percentage is increased (50%Ar–50%N2), the austenite content rises to 67% and 37%, respectively. The joint is evaluated macro‐ and microstructurally to observe the atmosphere impact on weld bead geometry and microstructural development. Additionally, hardness is assessed throughout the weld bead. The work demonstrates that, with a 50%Ar–50%N2 shielding gas mixture, it is possible to limit the formation of ferrite in the WZ and HAZ of DSS during the welding process, without altering the microhardness trend of the welded joint.
Licochalcone A induces endoplasmic reticulum stress‐mediated apoptosis of endometrial cancer cells via upregulation of GRP78 expression
Authors: Wu Min‐Hua , Hsieh Yi‐Hsien , Lin Chia‐Liang , Ying Tsung‐Ho , Hsia Shih‐Min , Hsieh Shu‐Ching , Lee Chien‐Hsing , Lin Chu‐Liang 
Published: February 2024

AbstractLicochalcone A (LicA), a natural compound extracted from licorice root, has been shown to exert a variety of anticancer activities. Whether LicA has such effects on endometrial cancer (EMC) is unclear. This study aims to investigate the antitumor effects of LicA on EMC. Our results show that LicA significantly reduced the viability and induced apoptosis of EMC cells and EMC‐7 cells from EMC patients. LicA was also found to induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, leading to increased expression of ER‐related proteins (GRP78/PERK/IRE1α/CHOP) in EMC cell lines. Suppression of GRP78 expression in human EMC cells treated with LicA significantly attenuated the effects of LicA, resulting in reduced ER‐stress mediated cell apoptosis and decreased expression of ER‐ and apoptosis‐related proteins. Our findings demonstrate that LicA induces apoptosis in EMC cells through the GRP78‐mediated ER‐stress pathway, emphasizing the potential of LicA as an anticancer therapy for EMC.
Vasculogenic mimicry regulates immune infiltration and mutational status of the tumor microenvironment in breast cancer to influence tumor prognosis
Authors: Zheng Shurong , Guo Guilong , Yang Zhi , Lu Yiqiao , Lu Kangkang , Fu Weida , Huang Qidi 
Published: February 2024

AbstractBackgroundVasculogenic mimicry (VM) refers to the direct formation of microcirculatory ducts by invasive malignant tumors via cellular phenotypic transformation. However, there is a lack of VM‐based biomarkers for breast cancer.MethodsWe obtained transcriptomic expression data, single cell sequencing data, and clinical data of patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA) database and GEO database, performed single cell analysis to obtain specific type annotations of breast cancer cells and analyzed their spatial expression analysis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and gene ontology (GO) analyses as well as Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) analyses were performed to clarify the biological pathways and tumor functional enrichment relationships of the major expressed genes of VM in the breast cancer bulk data specimens. VM biomarkers were constructed. Meanwhile, the relationship between VM scores and tumor immune infiltration in breast cancer was analyzed using MCPcounter and ssGSEA methods. In addition, we assessed the specific relationship between NDRG1, a key VM gene in breast cancer, and tumor colonization, adhesion and invasion by biological experiments in breast cancer cell lines.ResultsThe main cell types of breast cancer (BRCA) samples were annotated by single cell transcriptome analysis. Most of the VM‐high group was present in epithelial cells, whereas the VM‐low group was present in immune and stromal cells. Multiple tumor pathways such as TGFβ p53 and MAPK were closely associated with VM‐mediated breast cancer infiltration and invasion. A prognostic model of breast cancer based on VM key genes was constituted. Prognostic stratification of breast cancer was successfully achieved for the TCGA‐BRCA and GSE58812 datasets. Through immune infiltration analysis, we found that differential expression of VM markers was associated with multiple immune cell regulation. In MDA‐MB‐231 and MDA‐MB‐453 cell lines, we found that the NDRG1 gene significantly promoted colony formation of breast cancer cells.ConclusionOur constructed VM‐related gene‐based model of breast cancer biology holds promise for prognostic prediction and patient stratification of breast cancer. This may provide a potentially clinically valuable aid in promoting a deeper understanding of the biological regulation of VM in breast cancer and exploring the specific mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis and breast cancer development.
Learning about America's Racial Issues: Beginning Difficult Conversations through Read‐Alouds
Authors: Urbani Jacquelyn M. , Monroe‐Speed Candace , Doshi Bhavya 
Published: February 2024

AbstractMultiple racial issues in America have been brought to the forefront by the recent deaths of African Americans, yet many teachers feel unprepared to engage with students around issues of race. Their discomfort is likely because traditional textbooks omitted the experiences of non‐dominant, marginalized groups, thereby denying readers an opportunity for a rich, multifaceted understanding of historical events. Education has also become politicized, resulting in educational gag orders and book bans. This article recommends using read‐alouds with children's literature to begin the complex conversations and learning around America's racial history and how it has led to contemporary situations. Using the book Let the Children March, we provide examples of how to prepare for discussion and instruction that recognizes the varied experiences of diverse Americans and honors their contributions to our democracy.
Comparing programming languages for data analytics: Accuracy of estimation in Python and R
Authors: Hill Chelsey , Du Lanqing , Johnson Marina , McCullough B. D. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractSeveral open‐source programming languages, particularly R and Python, are utilized in industry and academia for statistical data analysis, data mining, and machine learning. While most commercial software programs and programming languages provide a single way to deliver a statistical procedure, open‐source programming languages have multiple libraries and packages offering many ways to complete the same analysis, often with varying results. Applying the same statistical method across these different libraries and packages can lead to entirely different solutions due to the differences in their implementations. Therefore, reliability and accuracy should be essential considerations when making library and package usage decisions while conducting statistical analysis using open source programming languages. Instead, most users take this for granted, assuming that their chosen libraries and packages produce accurate results for their statistical analysis. To this extent, this study assesses the estimation accuracy and reliability of Python and R's various libraries and packages by evaluating the univariate summary statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and linear regression procedures using benchmarking data from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). Further, experimental results are presented comparing machine learning methods for classification and regression. The libraries and packages assessed in this study include the stats package in R and Pandas, Statistics, NumPy, statsmodels, SciPy, statsmodels, scikit‐learn, and pingouin in Python. The results show that the stats package in R and statsmodels library in Python are reliable for univariate summary statistics. In contrast, Python's scikit‐learn library produces the most accurate results and is recommended for ANOVA. Among the libraries and packages assessed for linear regression, the results demonstrated that the stats package in R is more reliable, accurate, and flexible; thus, it is recommended for linear regression analysis. Further, we present results and recommendations for machine learning using R and Python.This article is categorized under:
Algorithmic Development > Statistics
Application Areas > Data Mining Software Tools
Towards a Human Rights Centred Criminology
Authors: Weber Leanne , Marmo Marinella 
Published: February 2024

AbstractHuman rights undertakings by governments seldom translate seamlessly into human rights compliance. In the worst-case scenario, governments may have little or no intention of upholding human rights standards to which they have publicly committed and can use their ratification of international instruments and domestic implementation as a veneer to obscure or legitimise continuing abuses. Even in the best-case scenario, local implementation of international human rights agreements may be patchy, overlook the needs of diverse population groups or give rise to unforeseen consequences. In this opening chapter, the editors set out the variety of ways in which applied, theoretically informed criminological research can help to identify systemic human rights abuses and advance a critical human rights agenda and introduce readers to the critiques and strategies set out in the substantive chapters.
Fighting Illiteracy and Political Enlightenment: Soviet Educational Policies in the 1920s
Authors: Toimbek Diana 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThis chapter explores how the education system in early Soviet Kazakhstan reflected the policies intended to develop Soviet citizenry. The methodology is archival research on analyzing primary sources of protocols, decrees, and acts in the educational sphere. I argue that the main political and socio-economic initiatives driven by the Soviet administration in the 1920s shaped the ideas expressed in the educational policy documents. Moreover, by placing the Marxist-Leninist philosophy through ideological indoctrination and “political enlightenment” of mass consciousness in educational establishments, the early Soviet educational initiatives left a lasting and profound legacy in legitimizing the Communist Party’s right to rule and training citizens loyal to the new regime.
Religion and Spirituality in Public Schools of Post-Soviet Uzbekistan
Authors: Khalilova Zilola 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThe paper highlights the policy and strategies for teaching religion within public education in Uzbekistan. The chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the place of teaching religion and the broader debates and set of legislative initiatives surrounding how religious subjects are being introduced into schools. I argue that religious education in public schools in Uzbekistan introduces religious doctrine and morality as a secular-modernized concept, and as a marker of national-cultural character. Evidently, the introduction of religious education in Uzbekistan reveals the intricate dynamics and challenges associated with the role of Islam, external influences from moderate and radical religious circles, and the perceived potential for radicalization, which should be examined in terms of both subjective perseptions and measurable data.
Exploring STEM Teacher Educators’ Gender Awareness and Understanding of Gender-responsive Pedagogies in Kazakhstan
Authors: Almukhambetova Ainur 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThis qualitative interview-based study aims to fill the niche in global scholarly research on the major hindrances of women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by exploring STEM teacher educators’ gender awareness and understanding of gender-responsive pedagogies in Kazakhstan. Twenty-two teacher educators from five teacher training universities participated in the study. The study is framed by the 4Rs framework (based on Fraser’s social justice theory), which uses the concepts of recognition, redistribution, representation, and reconciliation with respect to socio-economic and cultural processes that marginalize women from educational and employment opportunities. The study’s results offer some important insights into tensions in STEM teacher education that might have an influence on the educational and career pathways of women in STEM in the Central Asian context.
Medium of Instruction, National Identity and Attitudes Towards Gender Roles in Kazakhstan
Authors: Nam Alexandra 
Published: February 2024

AbstractIn Kazakhstan, most educational institutions provide instruction in Kazakh or Russian. This research uses the concepts of civic and ethnic nationalism (Smith, National Identity, University of Nevada Press, 1991) and gendered nationalism (Yuval-Davis and Anthias, Women-Nation-State, St. Martin’s Press, 1989) to look at the differences in national identity and attitudes toward gender roles between university students studying in Kazakh-medium and Russian-medium groups. Mixed-methods design of the study allowed the collection of complementary data on the topic. Around 102 ethnic Kazakh university students in Astana completed a survey (56 and 46 students from Kazakh-medium and Russian-medium groups, respectively). Twenty-four survey respondents were interviewed in-depth for complementary qualitative data on students’ experiences of encountering narratives of national identity and gender in school and university classrooms. The study found that students studying in the Kazakh language reported higher knowledge of the Kazakh language, a stronger sense of national identity, and more traditional attitudes towards gender roles than students studying in the Russian language. These findings were likewise reflected in students’ experiences of encountering narratives of national identity and gender in school and university classrooms, suggesting the pivotal role education plays in forming national identity and gender roles.
Access to Education and Labour Market Participation of Ethnic Minorities in Kazakhstan: The Case of Uzbeks
Authors: Tolesh Fariza 
Published: February 2024

AbstractMinority language rights have been a sensitive matter in Kazakhstan for some time. While much research has been conducted on the situation of Slavic ethnic groups, scholars have overlooked the experiences of ethnic Uzbeks in accessing education and employment in the Kazakhstani labour market. This study seeks to fill that gap by conducting 20 interviews with ethnic Uzbeks and using descriptive statistics within the 4Rs framework to gain insights into ethnic Uzbek experiences in the Kazakhstani system. Churchill’s typology is employed to analyse policy responses to the linguistic and educational needs of ethnic Uzbeks. The study’s findings demonstrate that, despite some level of discrimination, ethnic Uzbeks in Kazakhstan face no insurmountable barriers to accessing education and professional development. However, the use of the Uzbek language appears to be declining among this population, indicating a substantial language shift, whereby a community uses less of their traditional language in favour of a dominant or majority language. It is possible that the government’s language policies, which prioritise the use of Kazakh and Russian, are contributing to this assimilation trend.
Null energy condition violation during inflation and pulsar timing array observations
Authors: Ye Gen , Zhu Mian , Cai Yong 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Recently, evidence of stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) signals observed by pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations, has prompted investigations into their origins. We explore the compatibility of a proposed inflationary scenario, incorporating an intermediate null energy condition (NEC)-violating phase, with the PTA observations. The NEC violation potentially amplifies the primordial tensor power spectrum, offering a promising explanation for PTA observations. Numerical analyses, primarily focused on NANOGrav’s 15-year results, reveal the model’s compatibility with PTA data. Notably, the model predicts a nearly scale-invariant GW spectrum in the mHz frequency range, which sets our scenario apart from other interpretations predicting a red primordial GW spectrum on smaller scales.
N4-acetylcytidine modifies primary microRNAs for processing in cancer cells
Authors: Zhang Hailong , Lu Runhui , Huang Jiayi , Li Lian , Cao Yingting , Huang Caihu , Chen Ran , Wang Yanli , Huang Jian , Zhao Xian , Yu Jianxiu 
Published: February 2024

AbstractN4 acetylcytidine (ac4C) modification mainly occurs on tRNA, rRNA, and mRNA, playing an important role in the expression of genetic information. However, it is still unclear whether microRNAs have undergone ac4C modification and their potential physiological and pathological functions. In this study, we identified that NAT10/THUMPD1 acetylates primary microRNAs (pri-miRNAs) with ac4C modification. Knockdown of NAT10 suppresses and augments the expression levels of mature miRNAs and pri-miRNAs, respectively. Molecular mechanism studies found that pri-miRNA ac4C promotes the processing of pri-miRNA into precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA) by enhancing the interaction of pri-miRNA and DGCR8, thereby increasing the biogenesis of mature miRNA. Knockdown of NAT10 attenuates the oncogenic characters of lung cancer cells by regulating miRNA production in cancers. Moreover, NAT10 is highly expressed in various clinical cancers and negatively correlated with poor prognosis. Thus, our results reveal that NAT10 plays a crucial role in cancer initiation and progression by modulating pri-miRNA ac4C to affect miRNA production, which would provide an attractive therapeutic strategy for cancers.
Horizontal migration of zooplankton in lake–wetland interfaces. Can temperature-driven surface exchange flows modulate its patterns?
Authors: Pereira Joana Luísa , Lopes Ana Sofia , Silva Júlia , Vidal Tânia , Abrantes Nelson , Santos Daniela , Brito Moisés , Ferreira Rui M. L. , Gonçalves Fernando J. M. , Ricardo Ana Margarida 
Published: February 2024

AbstractLake ecology can be affected by exchange flows driven by horizontal temperature gradients in lake–wetland interfaces. In this work, we investigate the hypothesis that thermally driven flows modulate the horizontal migration patterns of freshwater zooplankters. A 48-h field campaign in a shallow lake (Lake Vela, Quiaios, Portugal) was carried out to test this hypothesis. Thermal differences between the littoral and limnetic areas were measured along two transects featuring a Schoenoplectus lacustris and a Myriophyllum aquaticum stand in the littoral. In parallel, the physiochemistry and chlorophyll a, as a proxy for food availability differences between the littoral and the limnetic zones, were monitored. Zooplankton samples were collected for assessing overall and group-specific number-density differences. The diel period (day or night) and the site (littoral or limnetic zone) did not interact significantly to modulate the variation patterns for the studied physiochemical variables, indicating that these parameters should not explain horizontal zooplankton distribution patterns. The expected patterns for zooplankton diel horizontal migration as driven by the presence of visual predators were occasionally confirmed by our limnetic versus littoral abundance records through time, depending on the transect. Group-specific abundance patterns indicate particular features: copepods always preferred the littoral over the limnetic zone regardless of the diel period; chydorids always preferred the littoral zone regardless of the macrophyte stand involved; bosminids tended to preferentially concentrate in the limnetic zone. No consistent relationship was identified between the expected flow direction due to temperature differences and zooplankton abundance changes, although it occasionally occurred through the dataset.
Families of relatively exact Lagrangians, free loop spaces and generalised homology
Authors: Porcelli Noah W. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractWe prove that (under appropriate orientation conditions, depending on R) a Hamiltonian isotopy $$\psi ^1$$

ψ
1

of a symplectic manifold $$(M, \omega )$$

(
M
,
ω
)

fixing a relatively exact Lagrangian L setwise must act trivially on $$R_*(L)$$

R

∗

(
L
)

, where $$R_*$$

R

∗

is some generalised homology theory. We use a strategy inspired by that of Hu et al. (Geom Topol 15:1617–1650, 2011), who proved an analogous result over $${\mathbb {Z}}/2$$

Z
/
2

and over $${\mathbb {Z}}$$
Z
under stronger orientation assumptions. However the differences in our approaches let us deduce that if L is a homotopy sphere, $$\psi ^1|_L$$

ψ
1

|

L

is homotopic to the identity. Our technical set-up differs from both theirs and that of Cohen et al. (in: Algebraic topology, Springer, Berlin, 2019) and Cohen (in: The Floer memorial volume, Birkhäuser, Basel). We also prove (under similar conditions) that $$\psi ^1|_L$$

ψ
1

|

L

acts trivially on $$R_*({\mathcal {L}}L)$$

R

∗

(
L
L
)

, where $${\mathcal {L}}L$$

L
L

is the free loop space of L. From this we deduce that when L is a surface or a $$K(\pi , 1)$$

K
(
π
,
1
)

, $$\psi ^1|_L$$

ψ
1

|

L

is homotopic to the identity. Using methods of Lalonde and McDuff (Topology 42:309–347, 2003), we also show that given a family of Lagrangians all of which are Hamiltonian isotopic to L over a sphere or a torus, the associated fibre bundle cohomologically splits over $${\mathbb {Z}}/2$$

Z
/
2

.