bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Expression of CD13 and CD26 on extracellular vesicles in canine seminal plasma: preliminary results
Authors: Troisi Alessandro , Schrank Magdalena , Bellezza Ilaria , Fallarino Francesca , Pastore Sara , Verstegen John P. , Pieramati Camillo , Di Michele Alessandro , Talesa Vincenzo Nicola , Martìnez Barbitta Marcelo , Orlandi Riccardo , Polisca Angela 
Published: September 2023

AbstractCanine seminal plasma is a complex fluid containing proteins, peptides, enzymes, hormones as well as extracellular vesicles that are involved in many physiological and pathological processes including reproduction. We examined the expression of the extracellular vesicles surface antigens Aminopeptidase-N (CD13) and Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (CD26) by flow cytometry. For this study, third fraction of the ejaculate, from fertile adult male German Shepherd dogs, was manually collected twice, two days apart. FACS analyses revealed that CD13 and CD26 are co-expressed on the 69.3 ± 3.7% of extracellular vesicles and only a 2.0 ± 0.5% of extracellular vesicles express CD26 alone. On the other hand, 28.6 ± 3.6% of seminal EVs express CD13 alone. Our results agree with the hypothesis that CD26 needs to be co-expressed with other signal-transducing molecules, while CD13, can perform functions independently of the presence or co-expression of CD26. The results obtained in normal fertile dogs could represent physiological expression of these enzymes. Therefore, it would be interesting to carry out further studies to evaluate the expression of CD13 and CD26 on extracellular vesicles as biomarker for prostate pathological condition in dogs.
Pleistocene-dated genomic divergence of avocado trees supports cryptic diversity in the Colombian germplasm
Authors: Berdugo-Cely Jhon A. , Cortés Andrés J. , López-Hernández Felipe , Delgadillo-Durán Paola , Cerón-Souza Ivania , Reyes-Herrera Paula H. , Navas-Arboleda Alejandro A. , Yockteng Roxana 
Published: September 2023

AbstractGenomic characterization of ex situ plant collections optimizes the utilization of genetic resources by identifying redundancies among accessions, capturing cryptic variation, establishing reference collections, and ultimately assisting pre-breeding and breeding efforts. Yet, the integration of evolutionary genomic analyses is often lacking when studying the biodiversity of crop gene pools. Such is the case in the avocado, Persea americana Mill., an iconic American fruit tree crop that has seen an unprecedented expansion worldwide because of its nutritional properties. However, given a very restricted number of commercial clones, avocado plantations are becoming more vulnerable to diseases and climate change. Therefore, exploring new sources of evolutionary novelty and genetic diversity beyond the commercial varieties derived from traditional genetic pools in Mexico and Central America is imperative. To fill this gap, we aimed to characterize the genomic diversity of Colombian avocado trees. Specifically, we constructed reduced representation genomic libraries to genotype by sequencing 144 accessions from the Colombian National genebank and 240 materials from local commercial orchards in the Colombian northwest Andes. We merged the resulting reads with available sequences of reference genotypes from known avocado groups (also named as races), Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian, to discover 4931 SNPs. We then analyzed the population structure and phylogenetic diversity, and reconstructed evolutionary scenarios, possibly leading to new genetic groups in Colombian germplasm. We detected demographic stratification despite evidence of intergroup gene flow. Besides the classical three avocado groups, we found an exclusive Colombian group with a possible genetic substructure related to the geographical origin (Andean and Caribbean). Phylogenetic and ABC demographic modeling suggested that the Colombian group evolved in the Pleistocene before human agriculture started, and its closest relative from the three recognized races would be the West Indian group. We conclude that northwest South America offers a cryptic source of allelic novelty capable of boosting avocado pre-breeding strategies to select rootstock candidates well adapted to specific eco-geographical regions in Colombia and abroad.
Hair disorders associated with post-COVID-19 infection in females: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Awad Nehal El Hendawy Ali , Obaid Zakaria M. , Zaky Mohamed S. , Elsaie Mohamed L. 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) currently named SARS-CoV-2 is a contagious disease caused by a coronavirus. The virus may infect the hair follicles directly or indirectly through systemic changes in the immune or hormonal systems.

Aims
In the current study we aimed to determine the prevalence of hair disorders in females infected with COVID-19.

Methods
Data was collected using a questionnaire covering four main domains: personal data, past medical history, COVID-19 history and treatment, and existence of any hair problems and their management. No identifier or sensitive data were collected. Those complaining of hair loss were subjected to complete general and local hair examination using trichoscopy to confirm hair loss.

Results
Hair problems were reported in 307 (61.4%) of COVID-19-infected female subjects. A total of 68.1% patients reported that hair loss existed and increased after COVID-19; 29.6% reported their hair problems only post-COVID-19 while 2.3% had hair shedding issues during infection only. The main reported hair problems were telogen effluvium (60.8%), increased gray hair (13.8%), seborrheic dermatitis (5.6%) trichotillomania (3.6%), and alopecia areata (2.2%).

Conclusion
In conclusion, we reported prevalence of post-COVID hair fall that was confirmed by trichoscopy and which affected approximately 61.4% of infected females.
The Utility of Preclinical Models in Understanding the Bone Health of Transgender Individuals Undergoing Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy
Authors: Venkatesh Varun S. , Nie Tian , Zajac Jeffrey D. , Grossmann Mathis , Davey Rachel A. 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Purpose of Review
To summarise the evidence regarding the effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) on bone health in transgender people, to identify key knowledge gaps and how these gaps can be addressed using preclinical rodent models.

Recent Findings
Sex hormones play a critical role in bone physiology, yet there is a paucity of research regarding the effects of GAHT on bone microstructure and fracture risk in transgender individuals. The controlled clinical studies required to yield fracture data are unethical to conduct making clinically translatable preclinical research of the utmost importance. Novel genetic and surgical preclinical models have yielded significant mechanistic insight into the roles of sex steroids on skeletal integrity.

Summary
Preclinical models of GAHT have the potential inform clinical approaches to preserve skeletal integrity and prevent fractures in transgender people undergoing GAHT. This review highlights the key considerations required to ensure the information gained from preclinical models of GAHT are informative.
Heap-Based Optimizer Algorithm with Chaotic Search for Nonlinear Programming Problem Global Solution
Authors: Rizk-Allah Rizk M. , Eldesoky Islam M. , Aboali Ekram A. , Nasr Sarah M. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractIn this paper, a heap-based optimizer algorithm with chaotic search has been presented for the global solution of nonlinear programming problems. Heap-based optimizer (HBO) is a modern human social behavior-influenced algorithm that has been presented as an effective method to solve nonlinear programming problems. One of the difficulties that faces HBO is that it falls into locally optimal solutions and does not reach the global solution. To recompense the disadvantages of such modern algorithm, we integrate a heap-based optimizer with a chaotic search to reach the global optimization for nonlinear programming problems. The proposed algorithm displays the advantages of both modern techniques. The robustness of the proposed algorithm is inspected on a wide scale of different 42 problems including unimodal, multi-modal test problems, and CEC-C06 2019 benchmark problems. The comprehensive results have shown that the proposed algorithm effectively deals with nonlinear programming problems compared with 11 highly cited algorithms in addressing the tasks of optimization. As well as the rapid performance of the proposed algorithm in treating nonlinear programming problems has been proved as the proposed algorithm has taken less time to find the global solution.
Observing effective classroom management in early instruction in primary school: rating instrument construction and its link to teacher knowledge
Authors: König Johannes , Glutsch Nina , Weyers Jonas , Casale Gino , Hanke Petra , Knips Chantal , Pohl Thorsten , Waschewski Tina , Becker-Mrotzek Michael , Schabmann Alfred , Träuble Birgit 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThis study presents a novel standardized rating instrument for observing and measuring effective classroom management (ECM) as part of the teaching and learning environments in primary school. The instrument comprises eight high-inferent items on organizational aspects (lack of disruptions/discipline problems, withitness, effective time use, clear rules, clear routines, appreciation) and instructional aspects (structuring, goal clarity). It was applied in second grade classrooms of German primary school teachers (n = 35) providing early reading and writing instruction. Pairs of trained raters (student teachers) observed one to three lessons in each classroom over 3–4 months, reaching acceptable interrater agreement. The instrument showed acceptable internal consistency. Factor analyses revealed structures with good to acceptable fit indices, with confirming the differentiation into organizational and instructional ECM aspects. Correlations between observed ECM and facets of teacher knowledge (that were directly assessed by using paper–pencil tests) provide divergent and convergent validity evidence: Whereas no significant correlations could be found between pedagogical content knowledge for early reading and writing instruction and ECM, findings show significant correlations between general pedagogical knowledge and the ECM. The added value of the study is therefore to provide a novel instrument that can be applied in future empirical research on primary school classroom management.
Resetting Archaeological Interpretations of Precontact Indigenous Agriculture: Maize Isotopic Evidence from Three Ancestral Mohawk Iroquoian Villages
Authors: Hart John P. , Winchell-Sweeney Susan 
Published: September 2023

AbstractArchaeologists working in eastern North America typically refer to precontact and early postcontact Native American maize-based agriculture as shifting or swidden. Based on a comparison with European agriculture, it is generally posited that the lack of plows, draft animals, and animal manure fertilization resulted in the rapid depletion of soil nitrogen. This required Indigenous farmers to move their fields frequently. In Northern Iroquoia, depletion of soil fertility is frequently cited as one reason why villages were moved to new locations every 20 to 40 years. Recent analysis of δ15N ratios of maize macrobotanical remains from Northern Iroquoia, however, suggests that Iroquoian farmers were able to maintain soil nitrogen in their maize fields. An expanded analysis of maize kernel δ15N ratios from three ancestral Mohawk villages indicates that farmers from those villages maintained soil nitrogen throughout the occupational spans of their villages. It further suggests that precontact Iroquoian agronomy was consistent with contemporary conservation agriculture practices.
The effects of Veganuary on meal choices in workplace cafeterias: an interrupted time series analysis
Authors: McPhedran Robert , Zhuo Shi , Zamperetti Letizia , Gold Natalie 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Meat-based food production has a detrimental impact on the environment and health. In response, Veganuary (an international non-profit organisation) encourages people to go vegan each January. We investigated the effects of a Veganuary campaign in workplace cafeterias which increased the availability and salience of plant-based products. We conducted an interrupted time series analysis on a large dataset from a UK catering company, which comprised 2,255,404 meals sold between 2016 and 2022, with Veganuary activity starting from 2019. Analysis indicated that Veganuary activity had a positive effect on sales of vegan products in 2020, 2021 and 2022, estimated at an initial increase of 86–113% in the proportion of weekly sales (relative to the baseline, depending on year). The effects of the 2020 and 2021 campaigns were still present – at approximately one third of their initial magnitude – one year following the campaigns. There was a positive effect on vegetarian products in 2019, 2021 and 2022; initial effects were smaller – 23–79% – due to higher levels of pre-campaign consumption. The effects of the 2019 and 2021 campaigns endured, with a small impact present after one year for 2019 and six months for 2021.
Nation branding and feminist diplomacy after crisis: France’s response to SEA allegations in Central African Republic
Authors: Holmes Georgina , White Sabrina 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThis article makes the case that gender and racial analyses of the constitutive interplay between nation branding and diplomacy advance understandings of how liberal states use feminist agendas in response to political crises. Adopting a feminist post-colonial approach and drawing on a discourse analysis of French diplomatic speeches made in the UN Security Council between July 2011 and December 2019, the article examines how male and female diplomats address France’s accountability failures when French peacekeepers sexually abused children in Central African Republic in 2014–15, widely known as the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, or SEA crisis. Operating as embodied brand ambassadors, diplomats use affective and performative strategies to progress through the political crisis life cycle quickly and re-establish France’s ontological security. It is contended that while feminist foreign policy and feminist diplomacy serve as short-term solutions to reputational damage, France’s longer-term nation-branding project, which follows a masculine, white-supremacist neoliberal logic, stabilises the grand narrative of the middle power and its projected image as a legitimate strategic leader in global governance. Yet in attempting to control the narrative on the SEA crisis, French diplomats downplay the global crisis of accountability surrounding sexual exploitation and abuse and silence the personal crises of SEA survivors.
Periodic solutions of four-order degenerate differential equations with finite delay in vector-valued function spaces
Authors: Bu Shangquan , Cai Gang 
Published: September 2023

In this paper, we mainly investigate the well-posedness of the four-order degenerate differential equation (

$P_4$

):

$(Mu)''''(t) + \alpha (Lu)'''(t) + (Lu)''(t)$

$=\beta Au(t) + \gamma Bu'(t) + Gu'_t + Fu_t + f(t),\,( t\in [0,\,2\pi ])$

in periodic Lebesgue–Bochner spaces

$L^p(\mathbb {T}; X)$

and periodic Besov spaces

$B_{p,q}^s\;(\mathbb {T}; X)$

, where

$A$

,

$B$

,

$L$

and

$M$

are closed linear operators on a Banach space

$X$

such that

$D(A)\cap D(B)\subset D(M)\cap D(L)$

and

$\alpha,\,\beta,\,\gamma \in \mathbb {C}$

,

$G$

and

$F$

are bounded linear operators from

$L^p([-2\pi,\,0];X)$

(respectively

$B_{p,q}^s([-2\pi,\,0];X)$

) into

$X$

,

$u_t(\cdot ) = u(t+\cdot )$

and

$u'_t(\cdot ) = u'(t+\cdot )$

are defined on

$[-2\pi,\,0]$

for

$t\in [0,\, 2\pi ]$

. We completely characterize the well-posedness of (

$P_4$

) in the above two function spaces by using known operator-valued Fourier multiplier theorems.
Depression is associated with reduced outcome sensitivity in a dual valence, magnitude learning task
Authors: Pulcu Erdem , Lin Wanjun , Han Sungwon , Browning Michael 
Published: September 2023

AbstractBackgroundLearning from rewarded and punished choices is perturbed in depressed patients, suggesting that abnormal reinforcement learning may be a cognitive mechanism of the illness. However, previous studies have disagreed about whether this behavior is produced by alterations in the rate of learning or sensitivity to experienced outcomes. This previous work has generally assessed learning in response to binary outcomes of one valence, rather than to both rewarding and punishing continuous outcomes.MethodsA novel drifting reward and punishment magnitude reinforcement-learning task was administered to patients with current (n = 40) and remitted depression (n = 39), and healthy volunteers (n = 40) to capture potential differences in learning behavior. Standard questionnaires were administered to measure self-reported depressive symptom severity, trait and state anxiety and level of anhedonic symptoms.ResultsOur findings demonstrate that patients with current depression adjust their learning behaviors to a lesser degree in response to trial-by-trial variations in reward and loss magnitudes than the other groups. Computational modeling revealed that this behavioral signature of current depressive state is better accounted for by reduced reward and punishment sensitivity (all p < 0.031), rather than a change in learning rate (p = 0.708). However, between-group differences were not related to self-reported symptom severity or comorbid anxiety disorders in the current depression group.ConclusionThese findings suggest that current depression is associated with reduced outcome sensitivity rather than altered learning rate. Previous findings reported in this domain mainly from binary learning tasks seem to generalize to learning from continuous outcomes.
Working memory, L2 proficiency, and task complexity: Independent and interactive effects on L2 written performance
Authors: Manchón Rosa Maria , McBride Sophie , Mellado Martínez María Dolores , Vasylets Olena 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThis study examined the independent effects of working memory (WM) and the interactive effects of WM/L2 proficiency and WM/task complexity on L2 written performance. The study followed a within–between-participant factorial design, with two levels of task complexity as the within-participant variable and L2 proficiency and WM as between-participants variables. The outcome measure was L2 writing performance as measured by CAF indices. Two groups of undergraduate students from a degree in English studies were invited to complete the simple and complex version of the “Fire-Chief” task. Task complexity was operationalized in terms of reasoning demands, and tasks were counterbalanced to avoid unwanted order effects. Participants also completed the Oxford Placement Test and a working memory test (n-back). Regarding independent effects, results show that WM did not have an effect on L2 writing performance. In contrast, L2 proficiency was the variable most connected to various dimensions of the text produced. As for interactive effects, no significant interaction between WM, proficiency, or task complexity was found. In contrast, L2 proficiency emerged as the sole significant predictor of L2 writing performance at both levels of task complexity.
Immunogenicity and safety of COVID-19 vaccines among people living with HIV: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Zhao Tianyu , Yang Zongxing , Wu Yuxia , Yang Jin 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Available data suggest that the immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines might decrease in the immunocompromised population, but data on vaccine immunogenicity and safety among people living with HIV (PLWH) are still lacking. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to compare the immunogenicity and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in PLWH with healthy controls. We comprehensively searched the following databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE. The risk ratio (RR) of seroconversion after the first and second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine was separately pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Seroconversion rate was lower among PLWH compared with healthy individuals after the first (RR = 0.77, 95% conﬁdent interval (CI) 0.64–0.92) and second doses (RR = 0.97, 95%CI 0.95–0.99). The risk of total adverse reactions among PLWH is similar to the risk in the healthy group, after the first (RR = 0.87, 95%CI 0.70–1.10) and second (RR = 0.83, 95%CI 0.65–1.07) doses. This study demonstrates that the immunogenicity and safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in fully vaccinated HIV-infected patients were generally satisfactory. A second dose was related to seroconversion enhancement. Therefore, we considered that a booster dose may provide better seroprotection for PLWH. On the basis of a conventional two-dose regimen for COVID-19 vaccines, the booster dose is very necessary.
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF APPARATUS-INDUCED DISPERSION FOR DENSITY-DEPENDENT SOLUTE TRANSPORT IN POROUS MEDIA
Authors: ZHANG H. , BARRY D. A. , SEYMOUR B. , HOCKING G. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThe effects of apparatus-induced dispersion on nonuniform, density-dependent flow in a cylindrical soil column were investigated using a finite-element model. To validate the model, the results with an analytical solution and laboratory column test data were analysed. The model simulations confirmed that flow nonuniformities induced by the apparatus are dissipated within the column when the distance to the apparatus outlet exceeds
$3R/2$
, where R represents the radius of the cylindrical column. Furthermore, the simulations revealed that convergent flow in the vicinity of the outlet introduces additional hydrodynamic dispersion in the soil column apparatus. However, this effect is minimal in the region where the column height exceeds
$3R/2$
. Additionally, it is found that an increase in the solution density gradient during the solute breakthrough period led to a decrease in flow velocity, which stabilized the flow and ultimately reduced dispersive mixing. Overall, this study provides insights into the behaviour of apparatus-induced dispersion in nonuniform, density-dependent flow within a cylindrical soil column, shedding light on the dynamics and mitigation of flow nonuniformities and dispersive mixing phenomena.