bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Majority versus proportionality?
Authors: Krumm Thomas , Regalia Marta 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThe study of electoral system reform is often focused on consolidated democracies. This special issue on electoral reforms in the Mediterranean region selects both consolidated democracies and moderate authoritarian systems. It analyses reforms under the aspects of how they deal with the dilemma between improving ‘governability’ by majoritarian instruments versus increasing proportionality of representation. While governability also depends on other factors, public debates are frequently structured along this dichotomy, which also affects the outcome of the reform process. The Mediterranean focus reflects the higher degree of reform activities in this policy area (for instance compared to the Nordic countries), which helps to focus on drivers, scope, direction, and vested interests of electoral reforms.
Total impact of oxidative stress genes on cardiovascular events—a 7-year follow-up study
Authors: Racis Milena , Stanisławska-Sachadyn Anna , Sobiczewski Wojciech , Wirtwein Marcin , Krzemiński Michał , Rynkiewicz Andrzej , Wasąg Bartosz , Jaguszewski Miłosz , Gruchała Marcin 
Published: January 2023

AbstractCardiovascular (CV) events are the number one cause of lifetime disability and deaths worldwide. It is well known that traditional risk factors do not fully correlate with clinical outcomes; therefore, searching for other markers that would explain CV events’ occurrence seems essential. Of importance, one of the main factors at the origin of CV events is oxidative stress, causing inflammation and atherosclerotic plaque instability. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate eight carefully selected genetic polymorphisms related to oxidative stress as risk modifiers for CV events. A cohort of 1020 patients with coronary atherosclerosis was analysed in a 7-year follow-up observational study. The following end points were assessed: CV death, myocardial infarction (MI) and a combined end point of CV death/MI/stroke. Our results show that single polymorphisms are not significant cardiovascular disease risk factors, but genetic risk score (GRS), defined as the accumulation of our eight studied polymorphisms, was significantly associated with the three. Specifically, low GRS was associated with a higher risk of CV death, MI and CV death/MI/stroke. In conclusion, when regarding CV events, GRS investigated here can become clinically meaningful and undoubtedly adds to the knowledge in stratifying the risk of CV events.
An alternative numerical approach for an improved ecological model of interconnected lakes with a fixed pollutant
Authors: Yönet Nilay , Gürbüz Burcu , Gökçe Aytül 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThere is currently an undeniable demand for solutions to environmental issues, especially water pollution. Water is essential for life and lakes constitute a big portion of water sources. In this study, we introduce a modified numerical approach to a dynamic ecological model focused on a lake pollution problem. The model includes three connected lakes with certain parameters and unknown functions such as pollution quantities and lake volumes. First, a preliminary mathematical analysis of the variables of each lake is presented taking into account the system components and parameters. Then, we present our numerical approach considering a series expansion to approximate the problem with the help of the truncated Taylor series. We describe a convergent technique, and finally, demonstrate the numerical simulations of the approach for the different unknowns with appropriate parameters. According to the results, the application of our alternative approach to the lake pollution problem is successful in terms of producing highly accurate information outputs about pollutant quantities a better approximation than the previously studied numerical approaches for the unknown functions of time. Furthermore, it is applicable to other similar ecological and environmental dynamic systems, and to related fields.
Gut microbiota disturbances and protein-energy wasting in chronic kidney disease: a narrative review
Authors: Martín-del-Campo Fabiola , Avesani Carla Maria , Stenvinkel Peter , Lindholm Bengt , Cueto-Manzano Alfonso M. , Cortés-Sanabria Laura 
Published: January 2023

AbstractProtein-energy wasting (PEW) is common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and lower quality of life. It is a complex syndrome, in which inflammation and retention of uremic toxins are two main factors. Causes of inflammation and uremic toxin retention in CKD are multiple; however, gut dysbiosis plays an important role, serving as a link between those entities and PEW. Besides, there are several pathways by which microbiota may influence PEW, e.g., through effects on appetite mediated by microbiota-derived proteins and hormonal changes, or by impacting skeletal muscle via a gut-muscle axis. Hence, microbiota disturbances may influence PEW independently of its relationship with local and systemic inflammation. A better understanding of the complex interrelationships between microbiota and the host may help to explain how changes in the gut affect distant organs and systems of the body and could potentially lead to the development of new strategies targeting the microbiota to improve nutrition and clinical outcomes in CKD patients. In this review, we describe possible interactions of gut microbiota with nutrient metabolism, energy balance, hunger/satiety signals and muscle depletion, all of which are strongly related to PEW in CKD patients.
Graphical abstract
NRSTRNet: A Novel Network for Noise-Robust Scene Text Recognition
Authors: Yue Hongwei , Huang Yufeng , Vong Chi-Man , Jin Yingying , Zeng Zhiqiang , Yu Mingqi , Chen Chuangquan 
Published: January 2023

AbstractScene text recognition (STR) has been widely applied in industrial and commercial fields. However, existing methods still face challenges when processing text images with defects such as low contrast, blur, low resolution, and insufficient illumination. These defects are common in actual situations because of diverse text backgrounds in natural scenes and limitations in shooting conditions. To address these challenges, we propose a novel network for noise-robust scene text recognition (NRSTRNet), which comprehensively suppresses the noise in the three critical steps of STR. Specifically, in the text feature extraction stage, NRSTRNet enhances the text-related features through the channel and spatial dimensions and disregards some disturbances from the non-text area, reducing the noise and redundancy in the input image. In the context encoding stage, fine-grained feature coding is proposed to effectively reduce the influence of previous noisy temporal features on current temporal features while simultaneously reducing the impact of partial noise on the overall encoding by sharing contextual feature encoding parameters. In the decoding stage, a self-attention module is added to enhance the connections between different temporal features, thereby leveraging the global information to obtain noise-resistant features. Through these approaches, NRSTRNet can enhance the local semantic information while considering the global semantic information. Experimental results show that the proposed NRSTRNet can improve the ability to characterize text images, enhance stability under the influence of noise, and achieve superior accuracy in text recognition. As a result, our model outperforms SOTA STR models on irregular text recognition benchmarks by 2% on average, and it is exceptionally robust when applied to noisy images.
Optimal consumption, investment, and insurance under state-dependent risk aversion
Authors: Steffensen Mogens , Søe Julie Bjørner 
Published: January 2023

AbstractWe formalize a consumption–investment–insurance problem with the distinction of a state-dependent relative risk aversion. The state dependence refers to the state of the finite state Markov chain that also formalizes insurable risks such as health and lifetime uncertainty. We derive and analyze the implicit solution to the problem, compare it with special cases in the literature, and illustrate the range of results in a disability model where the relative risk aversion is preserved, decreases, or increases upon disability.
Civilisation on Pause – Introduction to special issue ‘China's Global Capital and the Coronavirus: Views from Comparative Law and Regulation’
Authors: Erie Matthew 
Published: January 2023

AbstractPandemics have a history of interrupting civilisations. From the Greeks and Romans to the British Empire, pandemics have eroded political authority and caused economic instability. The twenty-first century has been hailed as the ‘Asian century’, with China's ascent as central to a reconfiguration of global capital and power. The COVID-19 pandemic, that began in 2019 and still rages as of this writing, started in China and was exacerbated by initial repression by the local government authorities before the central government could implement appropriate disaster response. Since then, COVID-19 has been one of the most devastating pandemics in the history of globalisation. Its mortality has been coupled with regulatory responses which at times have been debilitating to national economies, no less is this true for China's own regulatory response which has been anomalous across the world. This Special Issue explores the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Chinese overseas direct investment and the concomitant forms of capital (symbolic, social, and political). It features collaborative research and writing by early career experts from throughout the world, as part of the ‘China, Law and Development’ project, based at the University of Oxford. It examines how China, its trade partners, and transnational orders have responded to the pandemic through law and regulation across an array of fields: dispute resolution, legal services, immigration law and policy, digital surveillance, global health governance, and democratic fragility.
Effectiveness of a decade of treatments to reduce invasive buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare)
Authors: Li Yue M. , Munson Seth M. , Lin Ya-Ching , Grissom Perry 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThe invasion of nonnative grasses threatens biodiversity and ecosystem function globally through competition with native plant species and increases to wildfire frequency and intensity. Management actions to reduce buffelgrass [Pennisetum ciliare (L.) Link], an invasive warm-season perennial bunchgrass, are widely implemented, with chemical and mechanical treatments extending over two decades within Saguaro National Park in the Sonoran Desert of North America. We assessed how the effectiveness of treatments to reduce P. ciliare cover spanning from 2011 to 2020 were influenced by stage of invasion, treatment type and intensity, and environmental conditions. An increase in treatment effectiveness was largely explained by high initial cover of P. ciliare, an indicator of a late invasion stage and associated with high treatment intensity. Treatments had potential to be effective in patches as small as 0.3-m2P. ciliare canopy per 400-m−2 area (<0.001% canopy cover) across treatment types and environmental gradients. Chemical treatments had higher or equal effectiveness compared with mechanical treatments, and greater reductions in P. ciliare were associated with shorter average years of treatment interruptions, or gaps, and to a lesser degree, total years of treatment. In many cases, P. ciliare was reduced with as little as 2 yr of treatment, but more than 3 average years of treatment gap could result in reduced treatment effectiveness. There was generally higher treatment effectiveness on shallow slopes, north- and east-facing aspects, and on higher elevations within one district of the park. Our findings highlight that resource-intensive treatments in all but the smallest patches of P. ciliare have largely been effective. Further opportunities for improvement include more frequent surveillance, limiting treatment gaps to ≤3 yr in areas of low P. ciliare cover, and comparison of treated with untreated areas.
What happened among Japanese children from school closure due to COVID-19 after school re-opening? Changes in sleep habits and dietary intake
Authors: Sugimoto Minami , Murakami Kentaro , Sasaki Satoshi 
Published: January 2023

Abstract
The present study aimed to (1) examine the changes in sleep habits and dietary intake among school-aged children after the school re-opening from a 3-month closure (without school lunch) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) examine whether the changes differ between those with different temporal patterns of sleep and eating during school closure, namely, ‘Very early’, ‘Early’, ‘Late’ and ‘Very late’. The latter patterns were characterised by later timings of wake up, breakfast and lunch. Questionnaires were answered twice by 4084 children (aged 8–15 years), themselves and/or their parents: first in June 2020 (for assessing lifestyle during school closure) and second, from July 2020 to February 2021 (for assessing lifestyle after school opening). After school re-opening, the participants’ wake-up time became an hour earlier (95 % CI 1⋅0, 1⋅1) and sleep duration got 0⋅94 h shorter (95 % CI 0⋅91, 0⋅97) than during school closure. An increase in dietary intake was observed for thiamine, vitamin B6, potassium, fruits and dairy products, and a decrease was observed for sugars (as foods) and confectioneries and sweetened beverages, despite small effect sizes (Cohen's d: 0⋅20–0⋅30). Significant changes in wake-up time, sleep duration and sweetened beverage intake were observed among children with the latter temporal patterns. Thus, children wake up earlier and sleep for shorter durations after school re-opening than during school closure; however, changes in dietary intake were generally insignificant. Dietary intake among school-aged children in Japan during school closure (without school lunch) might not be worse than that during school days with universal school lunch.
The truth about gluten!
Authors: Raju Suneil A. , Rej Anupam , Sanders David S. 
Published: January 2023

AbstractWheat was first cultivated in the Fertile Crescent (South Western Asia) with a farming expansion that lasted from around 9000 BC to 4000 BC. Whilst humans have been exposed to wheat for around the last 10 000 years, humans have existed for greater than 2·5 million years. Therefore, wheat (and thereby gluten) are relatively new introductions to our diet! By the end of the 20th century, global wheat output had expanded by 5-fold, with a corresponding increase in the prevalence of gluten-related disorders. Coeliac disease (CD) is a state of heightened immunological responsiveness to ingested gluten in genetically susceptible individuals. CD now affects 1 % or more of all adults, for which the management is a strict lifelong gluten-free diet (GFD). However, there is a growing body of evidence to show that a far greater proportion of individuals without CD are self-initiating a GFD. This includes individuals initiating a GFD as a lifestyle choice, people with irritable bowel-type symptoms and those diagnosed with non-coeliac gluten (or wheat) sensitivity. Despite a greater recognition of gluten-related disorders, gaps still remain in our understanding of both their aetiology and management. This article explores the role of the gluten-free diet in gluten-related disorders, along with current uncertainties.
Making the Public Work: Geography, Externalities, and Preferences for Mass Transit
Authors: Holland Alisha C. 
Published: January 2023

AbstractIn much of the world, public transportation infrastructure is sorely needed. Political economy models suggest that provision lags because uneven access and use of public transit fragments political coalitions. Yet, traditional survey techniques tell us little about who supports valence issues, such as mass transit. I instead adopt a novel survey approach from economics designed to elicit preference intensity. I then sample households at different distances from a subway project in Bogotá, Colombia. Contra conventional expectations, I find little evidence that local geography shapes preferences. Those who use public transit the least and pay the most for its construction—the upper class—are its strongest supporters. An experiment and focus groups suggest that middle- and upper-class groups want others to take public transportation to reduce congestion and shorten their commutes. One implication is that a growing middle class might help to strengthen urban public goods provision.
Common challenges in cochlear implant surgery performed under local anaesthesia and how to overcome them: the experience of UK surgeons
Authors: Abrar R , Stapleton E 
Published: January 2023

AbstractBackgroundCochlear implantation performed under local anaesthesia is an increasingly accepted technique worldwide, though the literature to date includes only single-surgeon and single-centre experiences. This study explored the national experience of UK surgeons using this challenging surgical technique, with the goal of providing consensus recommendations.MethodsA qualitative analysis was conducted of semi-structured interviews with 10 UK-based cochlear implantation surgeons, focusing on common challenges, how to overcome them and candidate selection.ResultsCochlear implantation under local anaesthesia can potentially be offered to all eligible adult patients with favourable anatomy. A posterior tympanotomy and round window approach is recommended. Common challenges and recommendations are explored thematically: managing patient, surgeon and staff expectations; optimising communication; patient comfort and position; minimising pain and vertigo; and safe use of sedation.ConclusionThis is the first study of national experience of cochlear implantation performed under local anaesthesia. Key themes, including refinements to surgical technique and optimising patient comfort and communication, have been explored in depth.
Why the Jesus as mother tradition undermines the symbolic argument against women's ordination
Authors: Hibshman Grace 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThe symbolic argument against women's ordination supposes that the theological significance of Christ's sex is his saving relationship to the Church, which takes the form of that of a bridegroom and his bride. It infers that a male priest alone is fit to represent Christ in his capacity as the Saviour of the Church, and thus that only men should be ordained. Since the emergence of the symbolic argument, however, scholars have rediscovered a long tradition of understanding Christ's saving relationship to the Church in maternal terms. While remaining neutral on whether women ultimately ought to be ordained or not, I argue that the kind of reasoning in the symbolic argument, if updated with the Jesus as Mother tradition, would suggest that it is fitting for a female priest to represent Jesus as Mother, just as it is fitting for a male priest to represent Christ the Bridegroom. Other critics of the symbolic argument tend to contest what is seen as its ‘literalist’ or ‘essentialist’ or overly gendered-valanced assumptions about priestly representation. I show that even if we grant to the symbolic argument more gendered and ‘essentialist’ views on each of the major points of disagreement in these debates, women might still be fit to represent Christ because of the maternal ways that Christ has traditionally been thought to relate to the Church. As a result, the symbolic argument may be repurposed to support women's ordination rather than undermine it.
A homogenised model for the motion of evaporating fronts in porous media
Authors: Luckins Ellen K. , Breward Christopher J. W. , Griffiths Ian M. , Please Colin P. 
Published: January 2023

AbstractEvaporation within porous media is both a multiscale and interface-driven process, since the phase change at the evaporating interfaces within the pores generates a vapour flow and depends on the transport of vapour through the porous medium. While homogenised models of flow and chemical transport in porous media allow multiscale processes to be modelled efficiently, it is not clear how the multiscale effects impact the interface conditions required for these homogenised models. In this paper, we derive a homogenised model, including effective interface conditions, for the motion of an evaporation front through a porous medium, using a combined homogenisation and boundary layer analysis. This analysis extends previous work for a purely diffusive problem to include both gas flow and the advective–diffusive transport of material. We investigate the effect that different microscale models describing the chemistry of the evaporation have on the homogenised interface conditions. In particular, we identify a new effective parameter,$\mathcal{L}$, the average microscale interface length, which modifies the effective evaporation rate in the homogenised model. Like the effective diffusivity and permeability of a porous medium,$\mathcal{L}$may be found by solving a periodic cell problem on the microscale. We also show that the different microscale models of the interface chemistry result in fundamentally different fine-scale behaviour at, and near, the interface.
Strain Localization: Analog Modeling and Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility
Authors: Roxerová Zuzana , Machek Matěj , Kusbach Vladimír K. , Vávrová Anna 
Published: January 2023

AbstractThe majority of the strain in Earth crust and upper mantle is localized to the high strain zones developed at ductile‐to‐brittle condition at kilometer‐to‐micrometer scale. Therefore, they represent the key to understanding the deformation evolution of the lithosphere. The finite strain pattern recorded within these zones has been therefore a subject of research in geology. The methods studying rock magnetism such as the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) are frequently used techniques to characterize and quantify deformation and flow record in rocks. Numerous sedimentary, subsolidus and submagmatic deformation zones exhibit typical evolution of the AMS ellipsoid across the strain gradient suggesting indirect not straightforward correlation between AMS and strain ellipsoids. To document spatiotemporal and internal fabric evolution during strain localization, pure shear, simple shear, and shear zone (SZ) analog experiments were performed using shear‐thinning thixotropic material of plaster of Paris. The experimental results closely resemble the record from natural SZs in sedimentary rock systems but also in subsolidus SZs and submagmatic mushy systems. The magnetic fabric evolution across deformation zones is interpreted to be associated with the intersection and transposition of preexisting primary fabric with shear fabrics and evolution of synkinematic subfabrics. Their development is attributed to localization of deformation at microscale due to the self‐organized slip of anisometric particles forming microshear planes reflecting the symmetry of deformation. The experimental results when confronted with the natural examples implies that the localization and partitioning of deformation is one of the most important factors for the interpretation of AMS in deformation zones.