bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Immunotherapy-Associated Atherosclerosis: A Comprehensive Review of Recent Findings and Implications for Future Research
Authors: Chan Antonia , Torelli Stefan , Cheng Evaline , Batchelder Ryan , Waliany Sarah , Neal Joel , Witteles Ronald , Nguyen Patricia , Cheng Paul , Zhu Han 
Published: December 2023

AbstractPurpose of the ReviewEven as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have transformed the lifespan of many patients, they may also trigger acceleration of long-term cardiovascular disease. Our review aims to examine the current landscape of research on ICI-mediated atherosclerosis and address key questions regarding its pathogenesis and impact on patient management.Recent FindingsPreclinical mouse models suggest that T cell dysregulation and proatherogenic cytokine production are key contributors to plaque development after checkpoint inhibition. Clinical data also highlight the significant burden of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in patients on immunotherapy, although the value of proactively preventing and treating ASCVD in this population remains an open area of inquiry. Current treatment options include dietary/lifestyle modification and traditional medications to manage hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes risk factors; no current targeted therapies exist.SummaryEarly identification of high-risk patients is crucial for effective preventive strategies and timely intervention. Future research should focus on refining screening tools, elucidating targetable mechanisms driving ICI atherosclerosis, and evaluating long-term cardiovascular outcomes in cancer survivors who received immunotherapy. Moreover, close collaboration between oncologists and cardiologists is essential to optimize patient outcomes.
Does the Phrase “Conspiracy Theory” Matter?
Authors: Dentith M R. X. , Husting G. , Orr M. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractResearch on conspiracy theories has proliferated since 2016, in part due to the US election of President Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasingly threatening environmental conditions. In the rush to publication given these concerning social consequences, researchers have increasingly treated as definitive a 2016 paper by Michael Wood (Political Psychology, 37(5), 695–705, 2016) that concludes that the phrase “conspiracy theory” has no negative effect upon people’s willingness to endorse a claim. We revisit Wood’s findings and its (re)uptake in the recent literature. Is the label “conspiracy theory” a pejorative? If so, does it sway or affect people’s belief in specific claims of conspiracy (i.e. particular conspiracy theories), or is the effect one that concerns claims of conspiracy more generally (i.e. all conspiracy theories)? Through an examination of the conceptual and methodological scope of Wood’s work and the results of our similar quasi-experimental design, we argue that it is premature to suggest the label “conspiracy theory” has no impact on the believability of a claim, or that it has no rhetorical power.
Association of physical activity with bleeding events and safety in patients with haemophilia A starting emicizumab prophylaxis: an interim analysis of the TSUBASA study
Authors: Nogami Keiji , Fujii Teruhisa , Sawada Akihiro , Nagao Azusa , Nagae Chiai , Nojima Masanori , Suzuki Nobuaki , Nosaka Daisuke , Shimura Tomomi , Sugao Yoshimasa , Amano Kagehiro 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
Introduction
Little information exists on the relationship between bleeding outcomes and physical activity in patients with haemophilia A (PwHA).

Aim
This interim analysis of the TSUBASA study (UMIN-CTR ID: UMIN000037448) evaluated the association of physical activity with bleeding and safety in PwHA starting emicizumab.

Methods
PwHA without factor VIII inhibitors were recruited. Physical activity and bleed data were obtained using an electronic patient-reported outcome application and wearable activity tracker. Adverse events (AEs) were documented.

Results
At data cut-off (31-May-2021), 107 PwHA were enrolled, with a median (range) age of 35 (0–73) years. Physical activity data were obtained for 74 participants. Of these, 47 (63.5%) recorded a total of 396 exercise events. The most common exercise events were walking (32.4%), cycling (14.9%), and football (5.4%). Two (0.5%) exercise events in the same individual were associated with bleeding (running, weight training).
The safety analysis population consisted of 106 participants treated with emicizumab (median observation period: 241.5 days). Twenty-one (19.8%) participants experienced a total of 39 AEs. Five (4.7%) experienced a serious AE, none of which was emicizumab-related, and three (2.8%) experienced an adverse drug reaction.

Conclusions
PwHA receiving emicizumab in the TSUBASA study experienced minimal bleeding associated with physical activity.

Trial registration
Trial registration: UMIN-CTR ID: UMIN000037448.
Are South African children on track for early learning? Findings from the South African Thrive By Five Index 2021 Survey
Authors: Tredoux Colin , Dawes Andrew , Mattes Frances , Schenk Jan-Christof , Giese Sonja , Leach Grace , van der Berg Servaas , Horler Jessica 
Published: December 2023

AbstractWe report on a national South African multistage cluster sampling survey of early development in 5,222 children aged 50-59 months enrolled in preschool programmes. Children were assessed on the Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM 4&5), the ELOM Social-Emotional Rating Scale, and linear growth (height-for-age), in the last quarter of 2021. ELOM 4&5 is standardised for South Africa and measures development in five domains: Gross Motor, and Fine Motor Development, Numeracy and Mathematics, Cognition and Executive Functioning, and Literacy and Language skills. Cut scores are used to classify children as On Track, Falling Behind, or Falling Far Behind expected developmental standards. Post-survey weights were computed, permitting us to interpret results as representative of children attending early learning programmes. Only 45.7% of the sample were On Track overall. Apart from Literacy and Language (54.7%), no other domain exceeded 50% On Track. Children who were better off socio-economically achieved higher scores (except for Gross Motor Development). Height-for-age measurements revealed a stunting rate of 5.1%, (>8.8% in one province). A mixed linear model analysis showed that age, sex, quintile, growth status, and socio-emotional score were significant predictors of the total ELOM 4&5 score, with growth status and quintile being stronger predictors. The results indicate concerningly poor preparedness for school. Two further surveys prior to 2030 will be undertaken and used to establish the country’s progress toward meeting Sustainable Development Goal 4.2: “all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”.
Personal income tax, redistribution and income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Voto Tewa Papy , Ngepah Nicholas 
Published: December 2023

AbstractWe assess the roles of personal income tax and fiscal redistribution in income inequality for 30 Sub-Saharan Africa economies from 1980 to 2020, employing the dynamic common correlated effect and cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag estimators. Empirical results show that personal income tax positively affects income inequality in the full sample SSA economies. Compared to the full sample, the magnitude of the effect remains positive but smaller for non-least developed countries (countries not classified as least developed countries in our sample). However, personal income tax has a negative effect on income inequality for least developed countries. Additionally, fiscal redistribution increases inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa economies and non-least developed countries, while it lowers inequality for least developed countries. Interestingly, fiscal redistribution reduces the level of the positive impact of personal income tax on inequality over the full sample. The main policy implication of this research is that well-designed redistributive fiscal measures associated with anti-corruption policy and good governance may help policymakers to reduce the positive effect of personal income tax on inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa economies.
Surgical and Radiology Trainees’ Proficiency in Reading Mammograms: the Importance of Education for Cancer Localisation
Authors: Wells J. B. , Lewis S. J. , Barron M. , Trieu P. D. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractMedical imaging with mammography plays a very important role in screening and diagnosis of breast cancer, Australia’s most common female cancer. The visualisation of cancers on mammograms often forms a diagnosis and guidance for radiologists and breast surgeons, and education platforms that provide real cases in a simulated testing environment have been shown to improve observer performance for radiologists. This study reports on the performance of surgical and radiology trainees in locating breast cancers. An enriched test set of 20 mammography cases (6 cancer and 14 cancer free) was created, and 18 surgical trainees and 32 radiology trainees reviewed the cases via the Breast Screen Reader Assessment Strategy (BREAST) platform and marked any lesions identifiable. Further analysis of performance with high- and low-density cases was undertaken, and standard metrics including sensitivity and specificity. Radiology trainees performed significantly better than surgical trainees in terms of specificity (0.72 vs. 0.35; P < 0.01). No significant differences were observed between the surgical and radiology trainees in sensitivity or lesion sensitivity. Mixed results were obtained with participants regarding breast density, with higher density cases generally having lower performance. The higher specificity of the radiology trainees compared to the surgical trainees likely represents less exposure to negative mammography cases. The use of high-fidelity simulated self-test environments like BREAST is able to benchmark, understand and build strategies for improving cancer education in a safe environment, including identifying challenging scenarios like breast density for enhanced training.
US/CT fusion imaging and virtual navigation to guide lumbar intradiscal oxygen-ozone therapy: a pilot study
Authors: Albano Domenico , Messina Carmelo , Gitto Salvatore , Fusco Stefano , Sconfienza Luca Maria , Bellelli Alberto 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
Purpose
To test the feasibility of US/CT fusion imaging to guide lumbar intradiscal O2/O3 therapy to treat discogenic degenerative low back pain due to lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

Methods
We retrospectively included consecutive patients affected by low back pain and/or sciatica due to LDH resistant to conservative therapies, who underwent to lumbar intradiscal O2/O3 injection under CT/US fusion imaging guidance (Fusion Group) and standard CT guidance (Control Group). For each procedure, we collected procedure operative time, room utilization time, number of CT passes, complications, and O2/O3 intradiscal diffusion adequacy. Technical success was defined as the ability to complete the procedure as initially planned to reach the disc. Technical efficacy was based on O2/O3 intradiscal diffusion adequacy, as demonstrated by the last CT scan.

Results
Six patients (4 males; mean age: 68 ± 15 years) were included in the Fusion group, six (4 males; mean age: 66 ± 12 years) in Control group. No complications were observed in both groups. In Fusion group we found significantly lower room utilization time (30 ± 6 min vs. 46 ± 10 min, p = 0.008), procedure operative time (14 ± 3 min vs. 24 ± 6 min, p = 0.008), and number of CT passes (2 [2,2] vs. 3 [3,3], p = 0.006) than in Control Group, respectively. Technical success and efficacy were 100% in both Groups.

Conclusion
CT/US fusion imaging seems to be a feasible and safe guidance for intradiscal O2/O3 injections, allowing decrease of procedure time and number of CT passes.
Solution of Lane Emden–Fowler equations by Taylor series method
Authors: Chamekh Mourad , Elzaki Tarig M. , Ahmed Shams A. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn this paper, a new application of the Taylor series method (TSM) and its properties is used to solve partial differential equation problems with a singular limit value problem. We are particularly interested in applying this method to a certain class of physical problems such as Lane Emden–Fowler partial differential equations. The results obtained show that this analytical technique is very simple and effective compared to other methods.
Status and prospects of surface texturing: design, manufacturing and applications
Authors: Song Jingyu , Huang Hui , Wang Xigui , Shi Weibin 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn recent years, the requirements for high-quality development in the manufacturing industry and extreme application conditions have increasingly demanded higher equipment performance. The surface and interface condition of components is directly related to the stability, reliability and service life of equipment. The development of high-performance or multi-performance surface texturing is of great significance for the effective improvement of mechanical properties, optical properties, catalytic properties and biological properties of surfaces. This paper summarizes the application of textured surfaces in improving the physical, chemical and biological properties of surfaces; outlines the types of texturing patterns and the design methods; analyzes the main technical methods and their characteristics for the preparation of surface textures in additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing and equal material manufacturing; and makes outlooks on texturing surfaces from the aspects of performance enhancement, pattern design and manufacturing technology in combination with the development trend of textured surfaces’ intelligence and digitization.
Max-linear graphical models with heavy-tailed factors on trees of transitive tournaments
Authors: Asenova Stefka , Segers Johan 
Published: December 2023

AbstractGraphical models with heavy-tailed factors can be used to model extremal dependence or causality between extreme events. In a Bayesian network, variables are recursively defined in terms of their parents according to a directed acyclic graph (DAG). We focus on max-linear graphical models with respect to a special type of graph, which we call a tree of transitive tournaments. The latter is a block graph combining in a tree-like structure a finite number of transitive tournaments, each of which is a DAG in which every two nodes are connected. We study the limit of the joint tails of the max-linear model conditionally on the event that a given variable exceeds a high threshold. Under a suitable condition, the limiting distribution involves the factorization into independent increments along the shortest trail between two variables, thereby imitating the behaviour of a Markov random field.We are also interested in the identifiability of the model parameters in the case when some variables are latent and only a subvector is observed. It turns out that the parameters are identifiable under a criterion on the nodes carrying the latent variables which is easy and quick to check.
Transitioning Guerrillas: An Analysis of the Internal Cohesion of the Former FARC in Their Transit from War to Democracy
Authors: Ugarriza Juan E. , Quishpe Rafael C. , Acuña Diana C. , Salazar Mónica A. 
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACTThe emergence of ex-rebels’ political parties after peace accords creates a vehicle for political reintegration, which in turn has positive effects on peace and democracy consolidation after war. However, many of these parties tend to break apart and disappear, elevating the risk of renewed cycles of political violence. In times of war, cohesion plays a pivotal role in maintaining the bonds among members of armed organizations. It empowers them to perform effectively even in the face of challenging conditions and continues to be a critical factor during postconflict transitions. By means of a quantitative analysis of former FARC guerrillas in Colombia, now part of a newly founded legal political party, we test whether ideology, organizational dynamics, or individual perceptions and motivations help to explain their levels of cohesion. Our results show that even if all dimensions add up to the observed cohesion levels, perceptions of internal democracy, and inclusion, are the most relevant. We argue that assistance to former rebels in their organizational reengineering efforts after war will help to reduce the risk of the negative effects of rebel party collapse.
Matsotsi: The Migrant Detective and the Postcolonial State
Authors: Santana Stephanie Bosch 
Published: December 2023

AbstractRecent work on crime fiction has highlighted the genre’s increasingly transnational focus and the growing number of migrant detectives. Matsotsi, a little-known Nyanja text published in Zambia in the early 1960s, provides a much earlier example of this figure in Sergeant Balala, an Angolan detective fighting to contain the tsotsi menace in Johannesburg, South Africa. Matsotsi, however, does more than point to cross-border detection as a means of elucidating transnational relationships. Shonga and Zulu’s text manipulates the genres of the detective novel and the bildungsroman to tell a story about the relationships among the individual, the state, and the wider region at a key moment in southern African history, when Zambia and Malawi were on the cusp of independence. Although African language writing has often been considered too localized to be used for nationalist purposes, here it is mobilized for the purpose of state-making in a transnational context.
Insecurity and Support for Female Leadership in Conflict States: Evidence from Afghanistan
Authors: Bhatia Jasmine , Monroe Steve L. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractWhile women's political inclusion is central to international conflict resolution efforts, public attitudes in conflict states towards women's political inclusion remain understudied. We expect insecurity to depress support for female political leadership in conflicts where women's political inclusion is violently contested. Citizens wanting security through force prefer male leaders because of stereotypes privileging men's military prowess. However, citizens wanting security through reconciliation also favour men for fear that female leadership would provoke more violence. We assess these expectations with experimental and observational data from the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In the survey experiment, priming respondents to think about insecurity decreases support for female leadership, but only among women. In observational data, insecurity correlates with more polarized attitudes towards women's political representation in some regions and greater support for female leaders in others. Insecurity's impact on public support for female leadership in conflict states may be highly heterogeneous.
Perceptions, barriers and enablers on salt reduction in the out-of-home sectors in Malaysia (MySaltOH) from the perspective of street food vendors, caterers and consumers
Authors: Zainal Arifen Zainorain Natasha , Haron Hasnah , Shahar Suzana , Harun Zaliha , Michael Viola , You Yee Xing , Manaf Zahara Abdul , Majid Hazreen Abdul , Chia Yook Chin , He Feng J , Brown Mhairi Karen , MacGregor Graham A 
Published: December 2023

Abstract

Objective:
To explore the perspectives, barriers and enablers on salt reduction in out-of-home sectors in Malaysia among street food vendors, caterers and consumers.

Design:
A qualitative study involving twenty-two focus group discussions and six in-depth interviews was conducted, recorded and transcribed verbatim. An inductive thematic analysis approach was employed to analyse the data.

Setting:
Two in-depth interviews and twenty-two focus group discussions were conducted face-to-face. Four in-depth interviews were conducted online.

Participants:
Focus group discussions were conducted among twenty-three street food vendors, twenty-one caterers and seventy-six consumers of various eateries. In-depth interviews were conducted among two street food vendors and four caterers, individually.

Results:
Consumers and food operators perceived a high-salt intake within Malaysia’s out-of-home food sectors. Food operators emphasised the necessity for a comprehensive salt reduction policy in the out-of-home sector involving all stakeholders. Consumers faced limited awareness and knowledge, counterproductive practices among food operators and challenges in accessing affordable low-Na food products, whereas food operators faced the lack of standardised guidelines and effective enforcement mechanisms and uncooperative consumer practices. Both groups expressed that food quality and price of salt were also the barriers, and they advocated for awareness promotion, enhanced regulation of manufactured food products and stricter enforcement targeting vendors. Consumers also suggested promoting and recognising health-conscious food premises, whereas food operators suggested on knowledge enhancement tailored to them, strategies for gaining consumers acceptance and maintaining food quality.

Conclusions:
These findings provide valuable insights that serve as foundational evidence for developing and implementing salt reduction policies within Malaysia’s out-of-home sectors.
Histories with Sound: Using Noise and Music to Teach (and Research) the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Authors: Backer Samuel E. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn recent years, the history of sound has developed into a rich body of interdisciplinary scholarship. This article explores the benefits of considering sonic evidence alongside a host of other material; teaching and writing histories with—rather than of—sound. In the classroom, this kind of “history with sound” is particularly useful for its ability to cut across lines of scholarly inquiry. This makes sound an especially potent resource when teaching the history of the United States during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. During these years, American society underwent a many-sided process of development difficult to adequately narrativize. The study of sound, with its ability to link numerous trends and dynamics within densely layered events, can help address this issue. Providing insight into the practices and problems of everyday life, such sonic history can reveal the interplay of change and continuity that defined the social experience of the turn-of-the-century United States. Focused on sound in New York, this article provides an overview of the topic’s historiography before examining a series of distinct case studies for classroom use.