bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Nowcasting Reported COVID-19 Hospitalizations Using De-Identified, Aggregated Medical Insurance Claims Data
Authors: Shen Xueda , Rumack Aaron , Wilder Bryan , Tibshirani Ryan J. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractWe propose, implement, and evaluate a method for nowcasting the daily number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations, at the level of individual US states, based on de-identified, aggregated medical insurance claims data. Our analysis proceeds under a hypothetical scenario in which, during the Delta wave, states only report data on the first day of each month, and on this day, report COVID-19 hospitalization counts for each day in the previous month. In this hypothetical scenario (just as in reality), medical insurance claims data continues to be available daily. At the beginning of each month, we train a regression model, using all data available thus far, to predict hospitalization counts from medical insurance claims. We then use this model to nowcast the (unseen) values of COVID-19 hospitalization counts from medical insurance claims, at each day in the following month. Our analysis uses properly-versioned data, which would have been available in real-time at the time predictions are produced (instead of using data that would have only been available in hindsight). In spite of the difficulties inherent to real-time estimation (e.g., latency and backfill) and the complex dynamics behind COVID-19 hospitalizations themselves, we find altogether that medical insurance claims can be an accurate predictor of hospitalization reports, with mean absolute errors typically around 0.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, i.e., proportion of variance explained around 75%. Perhaps more importantly, we find that nowcasts made using medical insurance claims are able to qualitatively capture the dynamics (upswings and downswings) of hospitalization waves, which are key features that inform public health decision-making.
Impaired activation of the prefrontal executive network during working memory processing in multiple sclerosis
Authors: Rossi Chiara , Vidaurre Diego , Costers Lars , D’hooghe Marie B , Akbarian Fahimeh , D’haeseleer Miguel , Woolrich Mark , Nagels Guy , Schependom Jeroen Van 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn multiple sclerosis (MS), working memory (WM) impairment occurs soon after disease onset and significantly affects the patient’s quality of life. Functional imaging research in MS aims to investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of WM impairment. In this context, we utilized a data-driven technique, the time delay embedded- hidden Markov model (TDE-HMM), to extract spectrally defined functional networks in magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data acquired during a WM visual-verbal n-back task. We observed that two networks show an altered activation in RR-MS patients. First, the activation of an early theta prefrontal network linked to stimulus encoding and attentional control significantly decreased in RR-MS compared to HC. This diminished activation correlated with reduced accuracy in task performance in the MS group, suggesting an impaired encoding and learning process. Secondly, a frontoparietal network characterized by beta coupling is activated between 300 and 600 ms after stimulus onset; this resembles the characteristic event-related P300, a cognitive marker extensively explored in EEG studies. The activation of this network is amplified in patients treated with benzodiazepine, in line with the well-known benzodiazepine-induced beta enhancement. Altogether, the TDE-HMM technique extracted task-relevant functional networks showing disease-specific and treatment- related alterations, revealing potential new markers to assess and track WM impairment in MS.HighlightsWe decomposed the brain dynamics underlying a WM n-back task in data-driven, spectrally defined whole-brain networks in both healthy controls and people with relapsing-remitting-MS (pwMS).PwMS showed a significantly decreased activation of an early theta prefrontal network linked to stimulus encoding and attentional control.The weaker activation of this prefrontal theta network is correlated with worse task performance.A beta frontoparietal network with a P300-like temporal evolution was significantly modulated by the use of benzodiazepines.The model distinguished disease-induced and treatment-induced dynamic network alterations.
Rationally designed modular STAT-activating scaffolds enforce cell-intrinsic transcriptional programs augmenting the anti-tumor potency of CAR T cells
Authors: Saxby Christopher P , Ishida Taylor K , Rosser James M , Curtis Benjamin C , Baldwin Michael L , Spurrell Cailyn H , Giles Justin , Valdez Ardizon , Gustafson Joshua , Johnson Adam J , Appelbaum Jacob S , Jensen Michael C 
Published: December 2023

AbstractChimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-expressing T cells can mediate anti-tumor responses in a variety of preclinical models and clinical settings, however, strategies to enhance anti-tumor potency is the subject of intense investigation. Signals emanating from gamma-c cytokine receptors modulate the transcriptional state of activated T cells impacting proliferation, survival, differentiation, and effector functioning through the STAT family of transcription factors. Design of ligand-independent cell-intrinsic cytokine STAT activation scaffolds is a conceptually attractive strategy to provide CAR T cells with a surrogate for exogenous cytokine support. Here, we designed a series of ligand-autonomous STAT inducer (LASI) scaffolds comprised of an extracellular identification tag, a homodimerizing transmembrane domain, and a membrane proximal IL7R Box1 domain followed by STAT5 and/or STAT3 docking sequences derived from IL7R and IL21R, respectively. We constructed LASI scaffolds having STAT5 (LASI-5), STAT3 (LASI-3), and combined STAT5 and STAT3 (LASI-5+3) docking domains and then interrogated their impact in primary human CD8+anti-CD19 (4-1BB:zeta) CAR T cells. While LASI-5 expression had limited effects on CAR T cells, LASI-3 transcriptional programming was found to be indispensable to achieving anti-tumor functional enhancement associated with limited terminal differentiation, heightened T cell proliferation in response to antigen, and dampened expression of exhaustion-associated genes. Moreover, CAR T cells supplemented with LASI-3 or 5+3 displayed superior potency against human leukemia tumors in NSG mice. LASI-5+3 mediated the highest magnitude of CAR T cell engraftmentin vivothat evolved into a fatal lymphoproliferative syndrome. However, the same efficacy enhancement was achieved with LASI-3 without the lymphoproliferative complication. Our findings provide a rationale for utilization of constitutively expressed LASI-3 to enhance the anti-tumor potency of CAR T cells, the need to regulate the activity of LASI-5+3, and a generalizable scaffold design for studying additional combinations of STAT family transcription factors.
Assessing the Ability of GPT to Generate Illness Scripts: An Evaluation Study
Authors: Yanagita Yasutaka , Yokokawa Daiki , Fukuzawa Fumitoshi , Uchida Shun , Uehara Takanori , Ikusaka Masatomi 
Published: December 2023

AbstractBackgroundIllness scripts, which are structured summaries of clinical knowledge concerning diseases, are crucial in disease prediction and problem representation during clinical reasoning. Clinicians iteratively enhance their illness scripts through their clinical practice. Because illness scripts are unique to each physician, no systematic summary of specific examples of illness scripts has been reported.ObjectiveGenerative artificial intelligence (AI) stands out as an educational aid in continuing medical education. The effortless creation of a typical illness script by generative AI could enhance the comprehension of disease concepts and increase diagnostic accuracy. This study investigated whether generative AI possesses the capability to generate illness scripts.MethodsWe used ChatGPT, a generative AI, to create illness scripts for 184 diseases based on the diseases and conditions integral to the National Model Core Curriculum for undergraduate medical education (2022 revised edition) and primary care specialist training in Japan. Three physicians applied a three-tier grading scale: “A” if the content of each disease’s illness script proves sufficient for training medical students, “B” if it is partially lacking but acceptable, and “C” if it is deficient in multiple respects. Moreover, any identified deficiencies in the illness scripts were discussed during the evaluation process.ResultsLeveraging ChatGPT, we successfully generated each component of the illness script for 184 diseases without any omission. The illness scripts received “A,” “B,” and “C” ratings of 56.0% (103/184), 28.3% (52/184), and 15.8% (29/184), respectively.ConclusionUseful illness scripts were seamlessly and instantaneously created by ChatGPT using prompts appropriate for medical students. The technology-driven illness script is a valuable tool for introducing medical students to disease conceptualization.
Nitrogen availability and TOR signalling are important for preventing catastrophic mitosis in fission yeast
Authors: Zemlianski Viacheslav , Marešová Anna , Princová Jarmila , Holič Roman , Häsler Robert , del Río Manuel José Ramos , Lhoste Laurane , Zarechyntsava Maryia , Převorovský Martin 
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACTMitosis is a critical stage in the cell cycle, controlled by a vast network of regulators responding to multiple internal and external factors. The fission yeastSchizosaccharomyces pombemay demonstrate catastrophic mitotic phenotypes due to mutations or drug treatments. One of the factors provoking catastrophic mitosis is a disturbed lipid metabolism, resulting from e.g. mutations in acetyl-CoA/biotin carboxylase (cut6), in fatty acid synthase (fas2/lsd1), or in the transcriptional regulator of lipid metabolism (cbf11) genes, as well as treatment with inhibitors of fatty acid synthesis. It was previously shown that mitotic fidelity in lipid metabolism mutants can be partially rescued by ammonium chloride. In this study we demonstrate that mitotic fidelity can be improved by multiple good nitrogen sources. Moreover, this rescue is not limited to lipid metabolism disturbances but also applies to a number of unrelated mitotic mutants. Interestingly, the rescue is not achieved by restoring the lipid metabolism state, but rather indirectly. We found that the TOR regulatory network plays a major role in mediating such rescue, highlighting a novel role for TOR in mitotic fidelity.
Climate Change and Phenological Monitoring of the Indigenous Godello Variety in a Territory of Heroic Viticulture and Biosphere Reserve
Authors: Fernandez-Conde Mª Eva , Bisarya Dipti , Taglinao Liwayway Perlado , Cortiñas J. Antonio 
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACTAn evaluation of the phenological behaviour of the indigenous Godello variety of vineyard was conducted within the Souto Chao plot in the year 2023. This plot is located in a wine-growing region holding a Designation of Origin (Ribeira Sacra DO) located in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula. A similar study had been conducted in 2017 and 2018, focusing on the same Godello variety within the identical plot involving the same plant as the current study.The assessment utilized the BBCH scale, a system proposed byBiologische Bundesanstalt für Land und Forstwirtschaft, Bundessortenamt und CHemische Industrie.The average duration of the vegetative cycle in the initial two years under examination was 167 days (161 and 174 days in 2017 and 2018, respectively), while in 2023 it was 164 days. In these three years studies during 2017, 2018 and 2023, the longest phenological phase was of 79 days when majority of the berries were touching).The primary objective of this study is to ascertain the nature and extent of changes in the crop’s phenology within the timeframe between the initial two years analysed (2017 and 2018) and the present year, 2023.
Coupling Cell Size Regulation and Proliferation Dynamics ofC. glutamicumReveals Cell Division Based on Surface Area
Authors: Nieto César , Täuber Sarah , Blöbaum Luisa , Vahdat Zahra , Grünberger Alexander , Singh Abhyudai 
Published: December 2023

AbstractSingle cells actively coordinate growth and division to regulate their size, yet how this size homeostasis at the single-cell level propagates over multiple generations to impact clonal expansion remains fundamentally unexplored. Classicaltimermodels for cell proliferation (where the duration of the cell cycle is an independent variable) predict that the stochastic variation in colony size will increase monotonically over time. In stark contrast, implementing size control according toadderstrategy (where on average a fixed size added from cell birth to division) leads to colony size variations that eventually decay to zero. While these results assume a fixed size of the colony-initiating progenitor cell, further analysis reveals that the magnitude of the intercolony variation in population number is sensitive to heterogeneity in the initial cell size. We validate these predictions by tracking the growth of isogenic microcolonies ofCorynebacterium glutamicumin microfluidic chambers. Approximating their cell shape to a capsule, we observe that the degree of random variability in cell size is different depending on whether the cell size is quantified as per length, surface area, or volume, but size control remains an adder regardless of these size metrics. A comparison of the observed variability in the colony population with the predictions suggests that proliferation matches better with a cell division based on the cell surface. In summary, our integrated mathematical-experimental approach bridges the paradigms of single-cell size regulation and clonal expansion at the population levels. This innovative approach provides elucidation of the mechanisms of size homeostasis from the stochastic dynamics of colony size for rod-shaped microbes.
Neural entrainment to both target and distracting speech causally contributes to speech perception in a multi-speaker scenario
Authors: Erkens Jules , Marx Mathieu , Zoefel Benedikt 
Published: December 2023

AbstractSegregating important stimuli from distractors is crucial for successful speech perception. Neural activity aligned to speech, also termed “neural entrainment”, is thought to be instrumental for this purpose. However, the relative contribution of neural entrainment to target and distractors in speech perception remained unclear. In this study, we used transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to manipulate entrainment to two simultaneously presented sequences of rhythmic speech while participants attended to one of them. A random temporal relationship between speech streams allowed us to disentangle effects of tACS on target and distractor processing, and to examine their combined effect on a behavioural measure of speech perception. We found that the phase relation between tACS and both target and distracting speech modulated word report accuracy, and to a similar degree. The phasic modulation of target processing correlated with that of the distractor across subjects, and their combined effect on speech perception was stronger than each of the two alone. In contrast to our expectation, the tACS phases leading to most accurate perception were uncorrelated between target and distracting speech modulations. Together, our results suggest that entrainment to target and distracting speech jointly and causally contributes to speech perception. They also demonstrate how effect sizes might be increased in future work and for technological or clinical applications.Significance statementSynchronising neural activity to moments of important information in speech is beneficial for its perception. Successful speech perception is a consequence of both target processing and the suppression of potential distractors; so far, it has remained unclear whether brain-speech synchronisation plays a more important role for either of these two tasks. We used transcranial brain stimulation (tACS) in a multi-speaker scenario to independently manipulate synchronisation to target- or distracting speech, respectively. We found that both manipulations led to changes in speech perception that were of comparable magnitude, and their combined effect was stronger than either of them alone. These results give an insight into the cortical processing of competing speech streams and how brain-speech synchronisation causally contributes to their perception. Our findings also have implications for practical applicability of brain stimulation protocols, showing how they could be used and made more effective in improving speech perception. This approach could have potential for medical application such as additional support in hearing aids.
Effect of climate change on reference evapotranspiration at the subnational scale: case study of Egypt
Authors: Ads Abdelhamid , Pingale Santosh Murlidhar , Khare Deepak 
Published: December 2023

PurposeThis study’s fundamental objective is to assess climate change impact on reference evapotranspiration (ETo) patterns in Egypt under the latest shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) of climate change scenarios. Additionally, the study considered the change in the future solar radiation and actual vapor pressure and predicted them from historical data, as these factors significantly impact changes in the ETo.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models to analyze reference ETo. Six models are used, and an ArcGIS tool is created to calculate the monthly average ETo for historical and future periods. The tool considers changes in actual vapor pressure and solar radiation, which are the primary factors influencing ETo.FindingsThe research reveals that monthly reference ETo in Egypt follows a distinct pattern, with the highest values concentrated in the southern region during summer and the lowest values in the northern part during winter. This disparity is primarily driven by mean air temperature, which is significantly higher in the southern areas. Looking ahead to the near future (2020–2040), the data shows that Aswan, in the south, continues to have the highest annual ETo, while Kafr ash Shaykh, in the north, maintains the lowest. This pattern remains consistent in the subsequent period (2040–2060). Additionally, the study identifies variations in ETo , with the most significant variability occurring in Shamal Sina under the SSP585 scenario and the least variability in Aswan under the SSP370 scenario for the 2020–2040 time frame.Originality/valueThis study’s originality lies in its focused analysis of climate change effects on ETo, incorporating crucial factors like actual vapor pressure and solar radiation. Its significance becomes evident as it projects ETo patterns into the near and distant future, providing indispensable insights for long-term planning and tailored adaptation strategies. As a result, this research serves as a valuable resource for policymakers and researchers in need of in-depth, region-specific climate change impact assessments.
Analysis of project complexity factors and their interdependencies in metro rail projects
Authors: Sruthilaya Dara , Vilventhan Aneetha , Gopal P.R.C. 
Published: December 2023

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the interdependence of project complexity factors (PCFs) in metro rail projects using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL). The study provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of project complexities factors and their relationships. The results of the study facilitate effective project planning, proactive risk management and informed decision-making by stakeholders.Design/methodology/approach This study employs a case-based method for identifying PCFs and a DEMATEL method for analyzing the interdependence of complexity factors in metro rail projects. Initially, PCFs were identified through an extensive literature review. To validate and refine these factors, semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirty experienced professionals, each having 5–20 years of experience in roles such as project management, engineering, and planning. Further, elevated and underground metro rail projects were purposefully selected as cases, for identifying the similarities and differences in PCFs. A questionnaire survey was conducted with various technical experts in metro rail projects. These experts rated the impact of PCFs on a five-point Likert scale, for the evaluation of the interdependence of PCFs. The DEMATEL technique was used to analyze the interdependencies of the PCFs.Findings Metro rail projects are influenced by project complexity, which significantly impacts their performance. The analysis reveals that “design problems with existing structures,” “change in design or construction” and “land acquisition” are the key factors contributing to project complexity.Originality/value The study of project complexity in metro rail projects is limited because most of the studies have studies on examining complexity in mega projects. The existing literature lacks adequate attention in identifying project complexity and its effects on metro rail project performance. This research aims to bridge this gap by examining project complexity and interdependencies in metro rail projects.
Orienting privacy literacy toward social change
Authors: Kumar Priya C. 
Published: December 2023

Purpose
This article advocates that privacy literacy research and praxis mobilize people toward changing the technological and social conditions that discipline subjects toward advancing institutional, rather than community, goals.

Design/methodology/approach
This article analyzes theory and prior work on datafication, privacy, data literacy, privacy literacy and critical literacy to provide a vision for future privacy literacy research and praxis.

Findings
This article (1) explains why privacy is a valuable rallying point around which people can resist datafication, (2) locates privacy literacy within data literacy, (3) identifies three ways that current research and praxis have conceptualized privacy literacy (i.e. as knowledge, as a process of critical thinking and as a practice of enacting information flows) and offers a shared purpose to animate privacy literacy research and praxis toward social change and (4) explains how critical literacy can help privacy literacy scholars and practitioners orient their research and praxis toward changing the conditions that create privacy concerns.

Originality/value
This article uniquely synthesizes existing scholarship on data literacy, privacy literacy and critical literacy to provide a vision for how privacy literacy research and praxis can go beyond improving individual understanding and toward enacting social change.