bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ranking resilience: assessing the impact of scientific performance and the expansion of the Times Higher Education Word University Rankings on the position of Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Slovak universities
Authors: Tóth Barbara , Motahari-Nezhad Hossein , Horseman Nicki , Berek László , Kovács Levente , Hölgyesi Áron , Péntek Márta , Mirjalili Seyedali , Gulácsi László , Zrubka Zsombor 
Published: February 2024

AbstractUniversity rankings are gaining importance worldwide. While the top-ranked universities are the subject of numerous academic publications, very little literature is available on universities in the lower two-thirds of the ranking list. In this study, we analysed the sensitivity of year to year changes in position in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) of universities from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia using hypothetical scenarios of potential changes in their research outputs. A regression model was developed that quantifies the effect of the inclusion of institutions that are new to ranking as well as dropouts on the ranking list. We also developed a method to allow customized sensitivity analysis of the subsequent year's rank from an institution's projected research output, given its current rank and research output, assuming that other ranking indicators remain unchanged over 1–2 years. It should be noted that most universities in the region have ranked below 800, and while research output has been increasing, it was observed that ranks worsened for most universities from these four countries. The Field-Weighted Citation Impact and the total volume of publications had the highest effect on rankings, while the proportion of Scimago Q1 publications did not have a consistent effect on the projected next year's ranks. In most universities, the growth in research performance indicators were below the level that would be required to offset the rank changes due to the inclusion of new entrants in ranking. The findings of this research suggest that universities have to consider complex strategies to improve their ranking focusing on other activities than research such as reputation, internationalization, or industry income. With due caution, our results might be generalized to most of the universities below 800 in the THE. The rank prediction tool presented in this article is available online at https://hecon.uni-obuda.hu/en/rank-calculator/.
Serpentirhabdias mexicanus n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae), a parasitic lungworm of the nauyaca viper Bothrops asper (Serpentes: Viperidae) in the Mexican Neotropics
Authors: Velázquez-Brito Andrés , García-Prieto Luis , Garduño-Montes de Oca Uriel , Sosa-Jiménez Víctor Manuel , Vera-Chávez Mirna Crizel , León-Règagnon Virginia 
Published: February 2024

AbstractSerpentirhabdias mexicanusn. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae) is described from the lung of the nauyaca viper Bothrops asper in Puebla State, central Mexico. This new species is the fifth of the genus described having onchia. Among the species included in this group, the new species is morphologically closest to S. viperidicus and S. atroxi. However, it differs from both species mainly by having only one excretory gland (compared to two present in S. viperidicus and S. atroxi). In addition, S. mexicanusn. sp. can be separated of S. viperidicus by tail length, shape of vulval lips, geographic distribution and host species and from S. atroxi by body length, number of papillae in the cephalic region, as well as the host species and geographic distribution. In the present study, we propose the new species based on morphological, host spectrum and genetic evidence. Phylogenetic analysis indicated Serpentirhabdias as a monophyletic group, with two subgroups that are congruent with the presence/absence of onchia in the esophagostome, host association and other relevant morphological characters.
HSCNet++: Hierarchical Scene Coordinate Classification and Regression for Visual Localization with Transformer
Authors: Wang Shuzhe , Laskar Zakaria , Melekhov Iaroslav , Li Xiaotian , Zhao Yi , Tolias Giorgos , Kannala Juho 
Published: February 2024

AbstractVisual localization is critical to many applications in computer vision and robotics. To address single-image RGB localization, state-of-the-art feature-based methods match local descriptors between a query image and a pre-built 3D model. Recently, deep neural networks have been exploited to regress the mapping between raw pixels and 3D coordinates in the scene, and thus the matching is implicitly performed by the forward pass through the network. However, in a large and ambiguous environment, learning such a regression task directly can be difficult for a single network. In this work, we present a new hierarchical scene coordinate network to predict pixel scene coordinates in a coarse-to-fine manner from a single RGB image. The proposed method, which is an extension of HSCNet, allows us to train compact models which scale robustly to large environments. It sets a new state-of-the-art for single-image localization on the 7-Scenes, 12-Scenes, Cambridge Landmarks datasets, and the combined indoor scenes.
Deep Learning Based Prediction of Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns Using Echocardiograms
Authors: Ragnarsdottir Hanna , Ozkan Ece , Michel Holger , Chin-Cheong Kieran , Manduchi Laura , Wellmann Sven , Vogt Julia E. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractPulmonary hypertension (PH) in newborns and infants is a complex condition associated with several pulmonary, cardiac, and systemic diseases contributing to morbidity and mortality. Thus, accurate and early detection of PH and the classification of its severity is crucial for appropriate and successful management. Using echocardiography, the primary diagnostic tool in pediatrics, human assessment is both time-consuming and expertise-demanding, raising the need for an automated approach. Little effort has been directed towards automatic assessment of PH using echocardiography, and the few proposed methods only focus on binary PH classification on the adult population. In this work, we present an explainable multi-view video-based deep learning approach to predict and classify the severity of PH for a cohort of 270 newborns using echocardiograms. We use spatio-temporal convolutional architectures for the prediction of PH from each view, and aggregate the predictions of the different views using majority voting. Our results show a mean F1-score of 0.84 for severity prediction and 0.92 for binary detection using 10-fold cross-validation and 0.63 for severity prediction and 0.78 for binary detection on the held-out test set. We complement our predictions with saliency maps and show that the learned model focuses on clinically relevant cardiac structures, motivating its usage in clinical practice. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work for an automated assessment of PH in newborns using echocardiograms.
A holistic approach to environmentally sustainable computing
Authors: Pazienza Andrea , Baselli Giovanni , Vinci Daniele Carlo , Trussoni Maria Vittoria 
Published: February 2024

AbstractPlacing sustainability at the core of computing practices, the industry is poised to pioneer positive changes and create a cleaner and more sustainable world for future generations. The environmentally sustainable computing (ESC) framework is introduced in this paper as an innovative solution to revolutionize sustainability practices across various computing domains and cover multiple aspects of sustainable information technology (IT). The ESC framework includes the entire lifecycle of computing systems, including critical stages such as design, development, monitoring, refactoring, and regulatory compliance. Through the adoption of the ESC framework, academia and industry stakeholders can gain a powerful tool to evaluate and measure sustainability factors across different computing domains and can integrate eco-friendly computing principles and patterns throughout their products and services. This can significantly reduce their carbon footprint while complying with environmental regulations. In addition to presenting the ESC framework, the paper showcases real-world use cases. The first involves a leading Italian bank, emphasizing the significance of monitoring and compliance in achieving sustainable solutions within carbon-aware computing. The second use case explores resource efficiency optimization in Kubernetes clusters, illustrating how the ESC framework aligns with cloud infrastructure management trends.
In Vitro Influence of Specific Bacteroidales Strains on Gut and Liver Health Related to Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease
Authors: Garcia-Morena Diego , Fernandez-Cantos Maria Victoria , Escalera Silvia Lopez , Lok Johnson , Iannone Valeria , Cancellieri Pierluca , Maathuis Willem , Panagiotou Gianni , Aranzamendi Carmen , Aidy Sahar El , Kolehmainen Marjukka , El-Nezami Hani , Wellejus Anja , Kuipers Oscar P. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractMetabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) has become a major health risk and a serious worldwide issue. MAFLD typically arises from aberrant lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and inflammation. However, subjacent causes are multifactorial. The gut has been proposed as a major factor in health and disease, and over the last decade, bacterial strains with potentially beneficial effects on the host have been identified. In vitro cell models have been commonly used as an early step before in vivo drug assessment and can confer complementary advantages in gut and liver health research. In this study, several selected strains of the order Bacteroidales were used in a three-cell line in vitro analysis (HT-29, Caco-2, and HepG2 cell lines) to investigate their potential as new-generation probiotics and microbiota therapeutics. Antimicrobial activity, a potentially useful trait, was studied, and the results showed that Bacteroidales can be a source of either wide- or narrow-spectrum antimicrobials targeting other closely related strains. Moreover, Bacteroides sp. 4_1_36 induced a significant decrease in gut permeability, as evidenced by the high TEER values in the Caco-2 monolayer assay, as well as a reduction in free fatty acid accumulation and improved fatty acid clearance in a steatosis HepG2 model. These results suggest that Bacteroidales may spearhead the next generation of probiotics to prevent or diminish MAFLD.
Making it Short: Shortening the Comprehensive Inventory of Mindfulness Experiences Using Ant Colony Optimization
Authors: Karl Johannes A. , Ribeiro Leticia , Bergomi Claudia , Fischer Ronald , Dunne Simon , Medvedev Oleg N. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Objectives
The Comprehensive Inventory of Mindfulness Experiences (CHIME) comprises 37 items over eight domains and was validated in German and English languages using Rasch methodology. However, the length of the scale might limit its application due to the response burden it places on participants, especially in studies that examine additional constructs. This study aimed to develop a short but comprehensive CHIME version using cutting-edge methodology.

Method
Ant colony optimization was applied to optimize and reduce item content of individual CHIME facets and create 24-item (CHIME-S) and 16-item (CHIME-XS) versions. We used data collected in New Zealand (n = 512), and in the USA, which included two independent samples (n = 605 and n = 210). The construct validity of the newly developed CHIME-S and CHIME-XS was established by correlating its scores with measures of mindfulness, affect, and distress.

Results
Overall, the ant-colony algorithm identified a stable solution which included 3 best fitting items per facet CHIME short form (CHIME-S) and the 2 best-fitting items CHIME-XS (16 items). This solution was successfully replicated across all samples and the scale demonstrated acceptable confirmatory factor analysis fit and good internal consistency, and correlated with measures of mindfulness, distress, and affect in expected directions.

Conclusions
The CHIME-S and CHIME-XS are reliable and valid short-scale versions that can be used for assessment of total mindfulness and its facets in a comprehensive way. Future research efforts are invited to validate the CHIME-S and CHIME-XS across different cultures and sample populations, aiming at establishing robustness of the measure.
Association between inflammatory bowel disease and frailty: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study
Authors: Feng Jingyi , Chen Xi , Cai Wenjing , Zhou Xueying , Zhang Xuefang 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Background
An association has been identified between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and frailty; however, the causal nature of this connection remains uncertain. We consequently conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to explore this particular association.

Methods
We acquired distinct datasets for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and frailty from the published genome-wide association studies (GWAS) database, meticulously selecting instrumental variables (IVs). Subsequently, we employed a bidirection MR to examine the causal relationship between IBD (including CD and UC) and frailty. We utilized statistical methods, with a primary emphasis on inverse-variance weighted (IVW), accompanied by a series of sensitivity analyses to confirm heterogeneity and pleiotropy influenced the outcomes of the MR.

Results
We found positive causal effects of genetically increased frailty risk on IBD (OR: 1.015, 95% CI 1.005–1.025, P = 0.004). Furthermore, when scrutinizing specific IBD subtypes, both Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) demonstrated an increased predisposition to frailty (OR: 1.018, 95% CI 1.01–1.027, P < 0.05) and (OR = 1.016, 95% CI 1.005–1.027, P < 0.05). Nevertheless, despite the consistent trends observed in the weighted median and MR-Egger regression analyses for both conditions, statistical significance remained elusive. Notably, the results of the inverse MR analysis did not establish an association between frailty and an elevated risk of IBD development.

Conclusions
Our research indicates that IBD, encompassing both CD and UC, may augment the propensity for frailty. Clinical practitioners must prioritize early frailty assessment in individuals afflicted with inflammatory bowel disease, inclusive of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, facilitating proactive measures and timely interventions. However, our findings do not provide evidence supporting a causal effect of frailty on IBD (including CD and UC). Consequently, further studies are essential to explore the intricate mechanisms that clarify the effect of frailty on IBD.
Social Meritocracy and Unjust Social Hierarchies: Three Proposals to Limit Meritocracy’s Erosion of Social Cooperation
Authors: Ziliotti Elena 
Published: February 2024

AbstractA well-functioned society depends on its ability to nurture, attract, and deploy talents in critical sectors. However, the implementation of some meritocratic principles to allocate positions often leads to unjust social hierarchies. Is there, then, a solution to meritocracy’s dysfunctional hierarchical effects? This paper attempts to answer this by drawing on the real-world cases of Singapore and the USA to investigate the relationship of toxic social hierarchies with meritocracy. It proposes three solutions to curb the unjustifiable social stratifications and the erosion of social cooperation often associated with social meritocracy. These reflections could help to shed light on the grounds for the ongoing debates on social hierarchies and provide valuable insights into how to weigh up existing socio-political structures.
Seeing with Different Eyes. The Module Life & Science of the Elite-Master Program Biomedical Neuroscience
Authors: Schumm Moritz , Teufel Daniel , Brunnhuber Michael , Wijnen-Meijer Marjo , Berberat Pascal O. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractFrom its beginnings in 2018, the international elite-master program Biomedical Neuroscience of TUM School of Medicine and Health at Technical University of Munich was guided by two convictions: First, excellent research depends not only on the mediation of scientific knowledge and skills, but also on a multifaceted understanding of science itself. Second, teaching must recognize and support not only student’s growing expertise but also their personal and professional development. To this end, the module Life & Science was designed. It gives students the opportunity to explore neuroscience from different angles to deepen the epistemological, sociological, and cultural understanding of their chosen profession.
Efficient Top-k Frequent Itemset Mining on Massive Data
Authors: Wan Xiaolong , Han Xixian 
Published: February 2024

AbstractTop-k frequent itemset mining (top-k FIM) plays an important role in many practical applications. It reports the k itemsets with the highest supports. Rather than the subtle minimum support threshold specified in FIM, top-k FIM only needs the more understandable parameter of the result number. The existing algorithms require at least two passes of scan on the table, and incur high execution cost on massive data. This paper develops a prefix-partitioning-based PTF algorithm to mine top-k frequent itemsets efficiently, where each prefix-based partition keeps the transactions sharing the same prefix item. PTF can skip most of the partitions directly which cannot generate any top-k frequent itemsets. Vertical mining is developed to process the partitions of vertical representation with the high-support-first principle, and only a small fraction of the items are involved in the processing of the partitions. Two improvements are proposed to reduce execution cost further. Hybrid vertical storage mode maintains the prefix-based partitions adaptively and the candidate pruning reduces the number of the explored candidates. The extensive experimental results show that, on massive data, PTF can achieve up to 1348.53 times speedup ratio and involve up to 355.31 times less I/O cost compared with the state-of-the-art algorithms.
DGS1 improves rice disease resistance by elevating pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity
Authors: Wang Yu , Zheng Chuan , Peng You-liang , Chen Qian 
Published: February 2024

AbstractRice yield and disease resistance are two crucial factors in determining the suitability of a gene for agricultural breeding. Decreased grain size1 (DGS1), encoding an RING-type E3 ligase, has been found to have a positive effect on rice yield by regulating rice grain number and 1000-grain weight. However, the role of DGS1 in rice blast resistance is still unknown. In this study, we report that DGS1 enhances disease resistance by improving PTI responses, including stronger ROS burst and MAPK activation, and also increased expression of defense-related genes. Furthermore, DGS1 works in conjunction with ubiquitin conjugating enzyme OsUBC45 as an E2–E3 pair to facilitate the ubiquitin-dependent degradation of OsGSK3 and OsPIP2;1, thereby influencing rice yield and immunity, respectively. Therefore, the DGS1-OsUBC45 module has the potential in facilitating rice agricultural breeding.
Intersections of ultracold atomic polarons and nuclear clusters: how is a chart of nuclides modified in dilute neutron matter?
Authors: Tajima Hiroyuki , Moriya Hajime , Horiuchi Wataru , Nakano Eiji , Iida Kei 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Neutron star observations, as well as experiments on neutron-rich nuclei, used to motivate one to look at degenerate nuclear matter from its extreme, namely, pure neutron matter. As an important next step, impurities and clusters in dilute neutron matter have attracted special attention. In this paper, we review in-medium properties of these objects on the basis of the physics of polarons, which have been recently realized in ultracold atomic experiments. We discuss how such atomic and nuclear systems are related to each other in terms of polarons. In addition to the interdisciplinary understanding of in-medium nuclear clusters, it is shown that the quasiparticle energy of a single proton in neutron matter is associated with the symmetry energy, implying a novel route toward the nuclear equation of state from the neutron-rich side.
Structure–activity relationships over Ru/NiAl2O4 catalysts in anisole demethoxylation: spectroscopic and kinetic studies
Authors: Li Lingxiao , Guo Zhiruo , Liu Xiaohui , Shakouri Mohsen , Hu Yongfeng , Guo Yong , Wang Yanqin 
Published: February 2024

AbstractDemethoxylation was kinetically and spectroscopically studied over three catalysts with different Ru0/Ruδ+ ratios. In-situ spectroscopic tests demonstrated that the synergy between Ru0 and Ruδ+ was crucial, and Ru0 was in charge of H2 activation and adsorption of aromatic ring while Ruδ+ adsorbed with O in methoxyl. A Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model was proposed, and ratio of Ru0/Ruδ+ was the key in deciding the rate-determining step (RDS): i) desorption of toluene was RDS over catalyst with high Ru0 ratio; ii) dissociation of H2 was RDS over Ruδ+ enriched catalyst; iii) demethoxylation was rate-determined by CO water–gas shift (WGS) when Ru0/Ruδ+ approached ~ 1. The best performance was obtained over Ru/NiAl2O4-200, which effectively enabled both C-O bond activation and rapid recovery of adsorption sites for aromatic rings. Finally, in-situ DRIFT studies on methoxy decomposition and CO-WGS unraveled that the electronic composition of Ru was more stable in Ru/NiAl2O4-200 which contributes to its excellence.
Changes in the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as predictive values for metastatic gastric cancer patients with PD-1 inhibitors
Authors: Gou Miaomiao , Zhang Yong , Wang Zhikuan , Qian Niansong 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Background
The combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy can improve the survival of metastatic gastric cancer (MGC) patients based on checkmate 649 and Orential 16. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the pretreatment period can be used as a prognostic indicator in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to treat different cancers. However, no study has yet explored the relationships between NLR changes during PD-1 treatment and patient survival.

Method
First, we enrolled patients diagnosed with MGC under anti-PD-1-based treatments from October 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2020 at the Chinese PLA General Hospital. These patients were stratified regarding their baseline NLR and variants of NLR. Then we explored the association between relative NLR changes and other clinical features with the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients treated with immunotherapy using multivariate Cox analysis.

Results
A total of 137 patients were enrolled in the present study. We categorized patients into decreased (ΔNLR < 0) and increased (ΔNLR ≥ 0) post-treatment NLR groups. The median OS and PFS were 12.3 months and 7.8 months for patients with ΔNLR < 0, respectively, compared to 7.5 months and 4.3 months for patients with ΔNLR ≥ 0 (both p < 0.05). The ORR was 41.8% in the ΔNLR < 0 group, higher than the ΔNLR ≥ 0 group (ORR = 24.3%). Patients with both NLR ≥ 3.23 and ΔNLR ≥ 0 had a significantly increased risk of death (HR: 2.349, 95% CI: 1.701 – 3.243, p < 0.001) and disease progression (HR: 2.297, 95% CI: 1.666 – 3.167, p < 0.001) compared to patients with NLR < 3.23 and ΔNLR < 0. Patients with either NLR ≥ 3.23 or ΔNLR ≥ 0 showed an intermediate risk of death (HR: 2.626, 95% CI: 1.660 – 4.155, p < 0.001) and progression (HR: 2.554, 95% CI: 1.590 – 4.101, p < 0.001). The ORR (50.0%) and DCR (91.2%) was higher in the NLR < 3.23 and ΔNLR < 0 group compared to other combination groups (both p < 0.05).

Conclusion
The combination of NLR changes after anti-PD-1 treatment with the baseline NLR was significantly correlated with patient survival and could be used to categorize patients into high- and low-risk groups. Finally, prospectively designed clinical trials are required to substantiate our current findings.