bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Equity ownership concentration’s impact on corporate internal control: the moderating effects of female directors and board compensation
Authors: Ong Tze San , Zhou Jing , Teh Boon Heng , Di Vaio Assunta 
Published: August 2023

AbstractBy promoting diversity in equity ownership concentration, strengthening female representation on boards, aligning pay with sustainability goals, and implementing strong internal control processes, companies can integrate sustainable practices into their operations, improve their sustainability performance, and attain long-term environmental and societal health. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between ownership concentration and internal control through the sustainability lens, specifically focusing on the moderating effects of female directors and board compensation. Data from a sample of 1609 A-share listed businesses in Shanghai and Shenzhen between 2012 and 2021 were analyzed. The findings from the fixed effects model revealed the following: ownership concentration negatively affects internal control; the number of female directors positively influences internal control; female directors actively moderate the relationship between ownership concentration and internal control; and board compensation enhances the effectiveness of internal control. These insights provide valuable data for businesses to enhance their internal control systems, appoint key personnel, and advance their sustainability goals. This study suggests that linking board characteristics to corporate internal control can lead to strengthened sustainable objectives. It also incentivizes directors to prioritize and integrate sustainability concerns in their decision-making. Furthermore, by ensuring that compensation reflects sustainability performance, firms can cultivate a sustainability-based culture and drive effective internal controls that support sustainable practices, ultimately contributing to long-term environmental and social well-being.
Differences in both expression and protein activity contribute to the distinct functions of AINTEGUMENTA compared with AINTEGUMENTA-LIKE 5 and AINTEGUMENTA-LIKE 7
Authors: Krizek Beth A. , Iorio Caitlin Boling , Higgins Kevin , Han Han 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThree members of the Arabidopsis AINTEGUMENTA-LIKE/PLETHORA (AIL/PLT) transcription factor family, AIL5/PLT5, AIL6/PLT3, and AIL7/PLT7, exhibit partially overlapping roles with AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) during flower development. Loss of ANT function alone results in smaller floral organs and female sterility indicating that some ANT functions cannot be provided by these related transcription factors. Previously, we showed that expression of AIL6 at the same levels and spatial pattern as ANT could largely rescue the defects of ant mutants. This suggested that the functional differences between ANT and AIL6 were primarily a consequence of expression differences. Here, we investigated the functional differences between ANT and both AIL5 and AIL7 by expressing these two AILs under the control of the ANT promoter. We found that only ANT:gAIL5 lines with much higher amounts of AIL5 mRNA as compared with ANT could compensate for loss of ANT function. ANT:gAIL7 lines with AIL7 mRNA levels similar to those of ANT were able to rescue some but not all aspects of the ant mutant phenotype. Thus, expression differences alone cannot explain the functional differences between ANT and these two related proteins. Studies in yeast show that AIL5 and AIL7 have lower transcriptional activation activities as compared with ANT and AIL6 when bound to the consensus ANT DNA binding site. Our results suggest that differences in both expression and protein activity contribute to the functional specificity of ANT compared with AIL5 and AIL7.
DNA methylation age acceleration contributes to the development and prediction of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors: Xia Mingfeng , Li Wenran , Lin Huandong , Zeng Hailuan , Ma Shuai , Wu Qi , Ma Hui , Li Xiaoming , Pan Baishen , Gao Jian , Hu Yu , Liu Yun , Wang Sijia , Gao Xin 
Published: August 2023

AbstractNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is prevalent in the aging society. Despite body weight reduction, the prevalence of NAFLD has been increasing with aging for unknown reasons. Here, we investigate the association of DNA methylation age acceleration, a hallmark of aging, with risk of NAFLD. Genome-wide DNA methylation profiles were measured in 95 participants who developed type 2 diabetes during 4-year follow-up, and 356 randomly sampled participants from Shanghai Changfeng Study. DNA methylation age was calculated using the Horvath’s method, and liver fat content (LFC) was measured using a quantitative ultrasound method. Subjects with highest tertile of DNA methylation age acceleration (≥ 9.5 years) had significantly higher LFC (7.2% vs 3.1%, P = 0.008) but lower body fat percentage (29.7% vs 33.0%, P = 0.032) than those with lowest tertile of DNA methylation age acceleration (< 4.0 years). After adjustment for age, sex, alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, BMI, waist circumference, and different type blood cell counts, the risk of NAFLD was still significantly increased in the highest tertile group (OR, 4.55; 95% CI, 1.06–19.61). Even in subjects with similar LFC at baseline, DNA methylation age acceleration was associated with higher increase in LFC (4.0 ± 10.7% vs 0.9 ± 9.5%, P = 0.004) after a median of 4-year follow-up. Further analysis found that 6 CpGs of Horvath age predictors were associated with longitudinal changes in LFC after multivariate adjustment and located on genes that might lead to fat redistribution from peripheral adipose to liver. Combination of the key CpG methylation related to liver fat content with conventional risk factors improves the performance for NAFLD prediction.
Graphical Abstract
Long-Term Outcome of Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy (LSG) on Weight Loss in Patients with Obesity: a 5-Year and 11-Year Follow-Up Study
Authors: Masry Mohamed Abdul Moneim El , Fiky Mostafa Abdel Megeed El 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Background
Bariatric surgery is the most efficient treatment for patients with clinically severe obesity who have failed to obtain satisfactory weight loss through lifestyle modification and medical treatments. This study aimed to present our long-term laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) efficacy in terms of weight loss and obesity-related complications resolution.

Patients and Methods
This is a retrospective study that was based on prospectively collected data from patients undergoing LSG by the same surgeon from July 2011 to the end of August 2022. The LSG-associated short-term (at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year postoperatively) and long-term (at 5 years and 11 years postoperatively) weight loss, and the short-term (6 months postoperatively) and long-term (5 and 11 years postoperatively) rates of obesity-related complications were assessed.

Results
This study included 892 patients who underwent LSG over 11 years. At the 1-year follow-up, data on 860 patients were available, while at the 5-year and 11-year follow-ups, data on 193 patients and 48 patients, respectively, were available. The mean EBWL% was 84.57 ± 18.41%, 64.22 ± 15.53%, and 66.01 ± 8.66% at the 1-year, 5-year, and 11-year follow-ups, respectively.

Conclusion
This study adds new evidence concerning the short-term efficacy of LSG. The long-term assessment showed relatively sustainable weight loss and obesity-related complications resolution, with a regression of the short-term gains that was still far from the baseline burden.

Graphical Abstract
Emergency department crowding increases 10-day mortality for non-critical patients: a retrospective observational study
Authors: Eidstø Anna , Ylä-Mattila Jari , Tuominen Jalmari , Huhtala Heini , Palomäki Ari , Koivistoinen Teemu 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThe current evidence suggests that higher levels of crowding in the Emergency Department (ED) have a negative impact on patient outcomes, including mortality. However, only limited data are available about the association between crowding and mortality, especially for patients discharged from the ED. The primary objective of this study was to establish the association between ED crowding and overall 10-day mortality for non-critical patients. The secondary objective was to perform a subgroup analysis of mortality risk separately for both admitted and discharged patients. An observational single-centre retrospective study was conducted in the Tampere University Hospital ED from January 2018 to February 2020. The ED Occupancy Ratio (EDOR) was used to describe the level of crowding and it was calculated both at patient’s arrival and at the maximum point during the stay in the ED. Age, gender, Emergency Medical Service transport, triage acuity, and shift were considered as confounding factors in the analyses. A total of 103,196 ED visits were included. The overall 10-day mortality rate was 1.0% (n = 1022). After controlling for confounding factors, the highest quartile of crowding was identified as an independent risk factor for 10-day mortality. The results were essentially similar whether using the EDOR at arrival (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.07–1.61, p = 0.009) or the maximum EDOR (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.04–1.56, p = 0.020). A more precise, mortality-associated threshold of crowding was identified at EDOR 0.9. The subgroup analysis did not yield any statistically significant findings. The risk for 10-day mortality increased among non-critical ED patients treated during the highest EDOR quartile.
Survival with primary lung cancer in Northern Ireland: 1991–1992
Authors: MacKenzie Gilbert 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Lung cancer is a major cause of death in Western countries, but survival had never been studied in Northern Ireland (NI) on a population basis prior to this study.

Aims
The primary aims were to describe the survival of patients with primary lung cancer, evaluate the effect of treatment, identify patient characteristics influencing survival and treatment and describe current trends in survival.

Methods
A population-based study identified all incident cases of primary lung cancer in NI during 1991–2 and followed them for 21 months. Their clinical notes were traced and relevant details abstracted. Survival status was monitored via the Registrar General’s Office, and ascertainment is thought to be near-complete. Appropriate statistical methods were used to analyse the survival data.

Results
Some 855 incident cases were studied. Their 1-year survival was 24.5% with a median survival time of 4.7 months. Surgical patients had the best 1-year survival, 76.8%; however, adjustment suggested that about half of the benefit could be attributed to case-mix factors. Factors influencing treatment allocation were also identified, and a screening test showed the discordance between ‘model’ and ‘medic’: 210 patients were misclassified. Finally, the current trend in 1-year survival observed in the Republic of Ireland was best in the British Isles.

Conclusions
Overall, survival remains poor. The better survival of surgical patients is due, in part, to their superior case-mix profiles. Survival with other therapies is less good suggesting that the criteria for treatment might be relaxed with advantage using a treatment model to aid decision-making.
Monitoring temporal changes in coastal mangroves to understand the impacts of climate change: Red Sea, Egypt
Authors: Moustafa Abdelraouf A , Abdelfath Amira , Arnous Mohamed O. , Afifi Ayman M , Guerriero Giulia , Green David R. 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThis paper focuses on the current state of mangroves in Egypt, analyses how climate change is affecting mangrove forests and suggests a conservation strategy to safeguard this valuable maritime resource. Mangroves in Egypt are primarily found in regions around the Red Sea, making them popular for ecotourism across the globe. A crucial breeding and feeding ground for many commercial fishery species, mangroves are a maritime habitat that is both economically and environmentally significant and a variety of living things call them home. Mangroves are one of the most threatened tropical and subtropical ecoregions in the world. These threats come from both natural and human sources, including oil spills, human waste runoff, herbicide use, and coastal development, all of which have the potential to harm the environment. Mangrove habitats are immediately impacted by salinity changes and rising sea levels brought on by climate change. This is unfortunate as mangroves are one of the most important global carbon sinks, and their loss due to climate change may accelerate sea level rise and ocean acidification, which will cause the extinction of numerous commercial fish species. A conservation strategy should be implemented to safeguard the mangroves around the Egyptian Red Sea by using mitigation techniques, creating marine protected zones near the mangroves, and consulting the owners of the mangrove stalks. Analysis of multi-temporal satellite imagery is one of the most significant methods to assist decision-makers and environmental planners in obtaining high-precision information about environmental and climatic changes. Analysis of satellite imagery is a valuable way to detect, monitor, assess and map the environmental, human, and natural activities that are threatening the growth of the mangrove forest ecosystem. Change detection analyses using satellite imagery were conducted to evaluate the effects of rapid coastal sustainable development, including human urban and tourism activities; the decline and destruction of large areas of the mangrove forest for animal feeding along camel trade roads; and the threat of natural impacts such as flash flooding, coastal and soil erosion or human impacts such as established desalination plants and other human activities along the coastal zone of the Egyptian Red Sea.
Inhibition of high level E2F in a RB1 proficient MYCN overexpressing chicken retinoblastoma model normalizes neoplastic behaviour
Authors: Zhang Hanzhao , Konjusha Dardan , Rafati Nima , Tararuk Tatsiana , Hallböök Finn 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Purpose
Retinoblastoma, a childhood cancer, is most frequently caused by bi-allelic inactivation of RB1 gene. However, other oncogenic mutations such as MYCN amplification can induce retinoblastoma with proficient RB1. Previously, we established RB1-proficient MYCN-overexpressing retinoblastoma models both in human organoids and chicken. Here, we investigate the regulatory events in MYCN-induced retinoblastoma carcinogenesis based on the model in chicken.

Methods
MYCN transformed retinal cells in culture were obtained from in vivo MYCN electroporated chicken embryo retina. The expression profiles were analysed by RNA sequencing. Chemical treatments, qRT-PCR, flow cytometry, immunohisto- and immunocytochemistry and western blot were applied to study the properties and function of these cells.

Results
The expression profile of MYCN-transformed retinal cells in culture showed cone photoreceptor progenitor signature and robustly increased levels of E2Fs. This expression profile was consistently observed in long-term culture. Chemical treatments confirmed RB1 proficiency in these cells. The cells were insensitive to p53 activation but inhibition of E2f efficiently induced cell cycle arrest followed by apoptosis.

Conclusion
In conclusion, with proficient RB1, MYCN-induced high level of E2F expression dysregulates the cell cycle and contributes to retinoblastoma carcinogenesis. The increased level of E2f renders the cells to adopt a similar mechanistic phenotype to a RB1-deficient tumour.
Erich Auerbach und die DVjs: Eine Beziehungsgeschichte (1925–1951)
Authors: Dubbels Elke 
Published: August 2023

ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag untersucht die Geschichte der Beziehung Erich Auerbachs zur DVjs, in der sich Wissenschaft und Politik kreuzen. Auerbach hat der DVjs eine wichtige Bedeutung in der frühen Phase seiner Karriere beigemessen und speziell zu Rothacker ein besonderes Verhältnis aufgebaut. Dies geht aus seinen Briefen an die Herausgeber der Zeitschrift hervor, die im Zentrum der Untersuchung stehen. Als Rothacker anfing, für den Nationalsozialismus Partei zu ergreifen, kehrte Auerbach der DVjs den Rücken. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg gehörte er dann zu den emigrierten Wissenschaftler*innen, um deren Mitarbeit die Zeitschrift warb. Die Auswirkungen der politischen Umbrüche 1933/45 auf die DVjs lassen sich an der Beziehung, in der Auerbach zu ihr stand, exemplarisch vor Augen führen.
Interplay of transport vesicles during plant-fungal pathogen interaction
Authors: Abubakar Yakubu Saddeeq , Sadiq Idris Zubair , Aarti Aarti , Wang Zonghua , Zheng Wenhui 
Published: August 2023

AbstractVesicle trafficking is an essential cellular process upon which many physiological processes of eukaryotic cells rely. It is usually the ‘language’ of communication among the components of the endomembrane system within a cell, between cells and between a cell and its external environment. Generally, cells have the potential to internalize membrane-bound vesicles from external sources by endocytosis. Plants constantly interact with both mutualistic and pathogenic microbes. A large part of this interaction involves the exchange of transport vesicles between the plant cells and the microbes. Usually, in a pathogenic interaction, the pathogen releases vesicles containing bioactive molecules that can modulate the host immunity when absorbed by the host cells. In response to this attack, the host cells similarly mobilize some vesicles containing pathogenesis-related compounds to the pathogen infection site to destroy the pathogen, prevent it from penetrating the host cell or annul its influence. In fact, vesicle trafficking is involved in nearly all the strategies of phytopathogen attack subsequent plant immune responses. However, this field of plant-pathogen interaction is still at its infancy when narrowed down to plant-fungal pathogen interaction in relation to exchange of transport vesicles. Herein, we summarized some recent and novel findings unveiling the involvement of transport vesicles as a crosstalk in plant-fungal phytopathogen interaction, discussed their significance and identified some knowledge gaps to direct future research in the field. The roles of vesicles trafficking in the development of both organisms are also established.
Presentation attack detection: an analysis of spoofing in the wild (SiW) dataset using deep learning models
Authors: Thapa Niraj , Chaudhari Meenal , Roy Kaushik 
Published: August 2023

AbstractPresentation attacks are executed to attain illegitimate access to the system. They are categorized by their mode of action as a print attack, replay attack, and spoof attack, and by their media of action as iris, biometrics, fingerprint, and face. Though there has been a rise in computational algorithms and models to detect presentation attack, generalization across different datasets remain an essential aspect of performance measure. In this paper, we present presentation attack detection (PAD) and presentation attack types of classification (PATC) models based on convolutional neural networks (CNN). We utilize the different attacks presented on the Spoofing in the wild (SiW) dataset to build these models. The PAD-CNN model is developed with a minimal footprint to optimize training time. High-performing models such as Mobilenet and Inceptionv3 are also used in this research work. In this study, we perform an independent test on images extracted from videos of both seen and unseen subjects. Overall, PAD-CNN performed better or on par with Mobilenet and Inceptionv3, even with less training time. Furthermore, these models were also trained to classify the types of presentation attacks with good results. The benchmarking of these models were done on two different datasets, NUAA photo imposter database and Replay-attack database utilizing transfer learning. Together, these results suggest the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed presentation attack detection models based on CNN on the SiW dataset.
Hyperactivity of platelets and increased megakaryopoiesis in COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome
Authors: Wang Lingna , Liu Huicong , Liu Jiaqing , Yuan Haitao , Wu Chen , Li Xiyang , Xu Kaikai , Hong Jiang , Wu Guoyan , Zhu Fangfang 
Published: August 2023

AbstractThe Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2-induced Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused an overwhelming influence on public health because of its high morbidity and mortality. Critical-illness cases often manifest as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Previous evidence has suggested platelets and thrombotic events as key mediators of SARS-CoV-2-associated ARDS. However, how the balance of platelet regeneration from the hematopoietic system is changed in ARDS remains elusive. Here, we reported a more severe inflammation condition and hyperactivity of platelets in COVID-19 ARDS patients compared with those infected but without ARDS. Analysis of peripheral blood revealed an increased proportion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), common myeloid progenitors (CMPs), megakaryocyte-erythrocyte progenitors (MEPs), and megakaryocyte progenitors (MkPs) in ARDS patients, suggesting a megakaryocytic-differentiation tendency. Finally, we found altered gene expression pattern in HSCs in COVID-19 ARDS patients. Surprisingly, genes representing platelet-primed HSCs were downregulated, indicating these cells are being stimulated to differentiate. Taken together, our findings shed light on the response of the hematopoietic system to replenish platelets that were excessively consumed in COVID-19 ARDS, providing a mechanism for disease progression and further therapeutic development.
Graphical Abstract
Shunning from the Jehovah’s Witness Community: Is It Legal?
Authors: Grendele Windy A. , Flax Maya , Bapir-Tardy Savin 
Published: August 2023

AbstractDrawing on a qualitative study conducted with both individuals who have been shunned from the Jehovah’s Witnesses community and those who were in a position to shun others, the authors identify areas of development within the Serious Crime Act 2015 and propose that there is scope to interpret the law broadly to include instances of people shunned from the Jehovah’s Witnesses community.