bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Organizational Resilience Among Health Organizations in Israel
Authors: Velner Tamir , Rubinstein Zohar , Adini Bruria 
Published: June 2023

Introduction:Health Organizations (HOs) worldwide are vital to any nation’s capacity to withstand crises. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the HOs’ awareness of the importance of Organizational Resilience to ensure Operational Continuity during crises.This study aimed to identify the main elements affecting HOs’ resilience, to enable their application in long-term processes of capacity building.Method:A cross-sectional study examining the level of organizational resilience in HOs was performed, in a general hospital (group A) and one region of Emergency Medical Services–EMS (group B). A structured questionnaire, consisting of 29 items, was developed, validated, and subsequently used to assess organizational resilience. The questionnaire encompassed: ethos, organizational culture, leadership and human capital, situational awareness, adaptability, organizational performance, and learning ability.Results:The respondents included 225 participants from the hospital and 214 from the EMS. Both HOs presented a high level of organizational resilience (average score among hospital and EMS personnel was 3.79 versus 3.91 respectively).In a multivariate linear regression test, the factors found to predict the organizational resilience (in both organizations) were education (academic/non-academic), gender (male/female), and two age groups (20-30 & 31-40).These factors explained 11% of the organizational resilience. Other factors such as profession or seniority at work, were found to be non-significant.Conclusion:As the operational continuity of health organizations is vital during crises, the developed evaluation tool contributes to the capacity of managers and policymakers to continuously monitor the level of organizational resilience. In line with the factors identified as predictors of organizational resilience, health managers should focus on educational interventions to increase their organization’s resilience. It is recommended that follow-up studies be initiated to examine additional variables that may predict the level of organizational resilience.
Targeted Review and Amalgamation of Unmapped Major Trauma and Ambulance Data in Ireland: TRAUMA Study
Authors: Donnelly Nora-Ann , Brent Louise , Masterson Siobhan , Deasy Conor , Moran Brid , Willis David , Boland Fiona , Hennelly David , Hickey Anne , Doyle Frank 
Published: June 2023

Introduction:The trauma care system in Ireland is being re-configured to have major trauma centers for severe injuries and other sites for less severe injuries. This is to ensure patients are brought quickly to the most appropriate hospital to manage their injuries. The National Ambulance Service (NAS) electronic Patient Care Record (ePCR) records what happens to patients before they reach the hospital and the Major Trauma Audit (MTA) captures data on patients’ hospital treatment. These datasets are currently separate and if they could be joined, they would inform important decisions on which hospitals to take patients. This study aims to investigate joining these datasets to create a seamless database of the patient journey from roadside to recovery.Method:Proof of Concept–The ePCR and MTA datasets will be linked on a once-off basis. The combined anonymized dataset will then be analyzed to identify pre-hospital characteristics that determine the need to bypass smaller hospitals and bring patients to a larger major trauma center or trauma unit.Stakeholder input for ongoing dataset combination and utilization–A stakeholder consultation process will explore the best way to make a GDPR-compliant combination of datasets on an on-going basis, including geo-location data and the inclusion of patient reported outcome measures. This will incorporate the requirements of the Data Protection Commissioner, National Office of Clinical Audit, patients, clinicians, NAS, HSE and other stakeholders.Geospatial implications of major trauma services–Once ongoing data combination is approved, we will determine geospatial implications of the trauma network for prehospital care configuration and the patient journey.Results:Study results will inform prehospital service configuration to ensure safe and equitable patient management.Conclusion:The data arising from this study will capture the full trauma patient journey. This data is essential to inform policy and practice for trauma care in Ireland.
Docimological Analysis of Written Acute Medicine Examinations at a Medicine School
Authors: GHazali Hanene , Salah Naouel Ben , Chermiti Ines , Bakir Amira , Garfa Amel Ben , Dhokar Rahma , Tagougui Amira , Souissi Sami 
Published: June 2023

Introduction:The docimology or "science of examinations" is a scientific discipline devoted to the study of the examination in all its dimensions. The main objective is the development of standards guaranteeing valid, reliable and objective tests. It was adopted within a Medical School in 2007.Our aim was to analyze results of docimological survey results of written acute medicine examinations through a global approach, by discipline and by item.Method:This was a retrospective study analyzing the notes of acute medicine examinations (January and May sessions) of Second Cycle Medical Studies 3). We have calculated docimological parameters allowing three levels of assessment: global, by discipline, and items analysis.Results:We analyzed 407 scripts, 99 questions and 6,919 pieces of data. The overall success rate was 97.6%. Highest success rates were found in Medical resuscitation (87%). The lowest rate was found in emergency medicine (53%). The difficulty index for the January session was 0.53 and 0.61 for the May session. For the January session: 24% of questions were easy, 14% of questions were difficult and 61% were of acceptable difficulty. For the May session: 40% of questions were easy, 6% of questions were difficult and 54% were of acceptable difficulty. The discrimination index was 0.27 for the January session and 0.24 for the May session. Discrimination was very good in 18% of items and good in 25%. Useless and bad discrimination items were about 35% for both sessions. Average Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.84, showing good internal-consistency.Conclusion:Overall, acute medical examinations have joined docimological recommendations and had an acceptable internal consistency and a good level of difficulty and discrimination. However, some weaknesses had been revealed specially for the discipline with low weighting. A reflection on the integration of questions would make up for these weaknesses. This would ensure better assessment and training.
Digital Psychological Support Systems for Post-Disaster Reconstruction in Japan: Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of the me-fullness® Application
Authors: Okuyama Junko , Seto Shuji , Motokawa Tomonori , Kato Tomomi 
Published: June 2023

Introduction:Asia is one of the regions most affected by natural disasters such as major typhoons. In Japan, recovery from natural disasters is said to take more than 10 years, and local government officials are primarily responsible for this recovery. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of the me-fullness® smartphone application in maintaining the well-being of local government employees involved in recovery efforts.Method:We conducted a survey of 35 employees of the town of Shichigahama, one of the areas affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale–21 Items (DASS-21) were used as survey instruments. 22 of the 35 employees used the me-fullness application on their smartphones for one month. During the month the application was in use, there was a heavy rain warning and an election for the House of Counselors, which the Shichigahama town employees had to cope with in parallel with the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.Results:The percentage of insomnia indicated by an AIS score of four or higher was 53.5% (7/13) before and 30.8% (4/13) after the use of the me-fullness application. The percentage of stress was 38.5% (5/13) before and 7.7% (1/13) after the use of the me-fullness application.Conclusion:This study showed that the me-fullness® application could improve the sleep and stress of local government employees and maintain their well-being for a long time during the recovery efforts.
Potential for Shoreline Recession to Accelerate Discharge of Groundwater Pollutants to Coastal Waters
Authors: Rakhimbekova Sabina , Power Christopher , O’Carroll Denis M. , Robinson Clare E. 
Published: June 2023

AbstractDischarge of groundwater‐derived pollutants to inland and marine coastal waters is influenced by the transport and reactive processes occurring in nearshore aquifers. The effect of shoreline change on these processes and subsequent discharge of pollutants to coastal waters is unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of shoreline recession (landward movement of the mean shoreline) on the transport of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in a nearshore aquifer and their discharge to coastal waters. Field investigations were conducted on a permeable unconfined nearshore aquifer on Lake Huron, Canada, in years coinciding with historically low and high lake water levels. At the site, a septic system‐derived nutrient‐rich (N and P) groundwater plume is moving toward the lake and the mean shoreline position moved ∼30 m landward between sampling years due coastal erosion and mean lake water level increase. Data indicate PO4‐P fluxes to the lake were higher following shoreline recession due to shortened travel pathways. In contrast, NO3‐N fluxes were governed by the specific geochemical conditions near the sediment‐water interface, which are not only a function of the shoreline position. Further, findings show shoreline recession may modify mineral phases that tend to sequester pollutants (e.g., iron oxides) near the sediment‐water interface and this may possibly mediate release of sediment‐bound pollutants. The findings provide new insights into potential impacts of shoreline change on chemical discharge to coastal waters as needed to inform long‐term water quality predictions and management.
Comparative Solar Minima Using the McIntosh Archive
Authors: Hewins Ian M. , Gibson Sarah E. , Webb David F. , McFadden Robert H. , Kuchar Thomas A. , Emery Barbara A. 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe McIntosh Archive consists of four solar cycles (SC20–23) of synoptic maps of solar features (magnetic polarities, coronal holes, filaments, sunspots, plage) that were produced by Patrick McIntosh and his cartographers. In this paper we present the full Archive for the first time and find a hemispheric pattern of coronal hole polarity reflecting the Hale sunspot polarity pattern. In addition, we present a supplemental set of related maps created for the 2019–2020 solar minimum in support of the Whole Heliosphere and Planetary Interactions (WHPI) interval. To facilitate this addition, we cross calibrate EUV and He‐I 10,830 Å coronal holes and study differences between the WHPI solar minimum and the earlier minima in the main Archive. We find, first, that the visibility of coronal holes in EUV introduces a bias toward larger counts of low‐latitude coronal holes near solar minimum. However, the estimated lifetimes (in Carrington Rotations) of coronal hole complexes are unaffected by this fragmentation, and we find the longest‐lived low‐latitude coronal holes occurred during the 2008–2009 solar minimum, with 2019–2020 solar minimum lifetimes not far behind. In this way, we consider the large‐scale organization of solar magnetic fields between solar minima and study each solar minimum in the context of its solar cycle.
Structural and mechanistic insights into the DNA glycosylase AAG-mediated base excision in nucleosome
Authors: Zheng Lvqin , Tsai Bin , Gao Ning 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe engagement of a DNA glycosylase with a damaged DNA base marks the initiation of base excision repair. Nucleosome-based packaging of eukaryotic genome obstructs DNA accessibility, and how DNA glycosylases locate the substrate site on nucleosomes is currently unclear. Here, we report cryo-electron microscopy structures of nucleosomes bearing a deoxyinosine (DI) in various geometric positions and structures of them in complex with the DNA glycosylase AAG. The apo nucleosome structures show that the presence of a DI alone perturbs nucleosomal DNA globally, leading to a general weakening of the interface between DNA and the histone core and greater flexibility for the exit/entry of the nucleosomal DNA. AAG makes use of this nucleosomal plasticity and imposes further local deformation of the DNA through formation of the stable enzyme–substrate complex. Mechanistically, local distortion augmentation, translation/rotational register shift and partial opening of the nucleosome are employed by AAG to cope with substrate sites in fully exposed, occluded and completely buried positions, respectively. Our findings reveal the molecular basis for the DI-induced modification on the structural dynamics of the nucleosome and elucidate how the DNA glycosylase AAG accesses damaged sites on the nucleosome with different solution accessibility.
Detailed characterization of neural selectivity in free viewing primates
Authors: Yates Jacob L. , Coop Shanna H. , Sarch Gabriel H. , Wu Ruei-Jr , Butts Daniel A. , Rucci Michele , Mitchell Jude F. 
Published: June 2023

AbstractFixation constraints in visual tasks are ubiquitous in visual and cognitive neuroscience. Despite its widespread use, fixation requires trained subjects, is limited by the accuracy of fixational eye movements, and ignores the role of eye movements in shaping visual input. To overcome these limitations, we developed a suite of hardware and software tools to study vision during natural behavior in untrained subjects. We measured visual receptive fields and tuning properties from multiple cortical areas of marmoset monkeys who freely viewed full-field noise stimuli. The resulting receptive fields and tuning curves from primary visual cortex (V1) and area MT match reported selectivity from the literature which was measured using conventional approaches. We then combined free viewing with high-resolution eye tracking to make the first detailed 2D spatiotemporal measurements of foveal receptive fields in V1. These findings demonstrate the power of free viewing to characterize neural responses in untrained animals while simultaneously studying the dynamics of natural behavior.
Sources of variability in seagrass fatty acid profiles and the need of identifying reliable warming descriptors
Authors: Pansini Arianna , Beca-Carretero Pedro , González Maria J. , La Manna Gabriella , Medina Isabel , Ceccherelli Giulia 
Published: June 2023

AbstractGlobal warming is expected to have inexorable and profound effects on marine ecosystems, particularly in foundation species such as seagrasses. Identifying responses to warming and comparing populations across natural temperature gradients can inform how future warming will impact the structure and function of ecosystems. Here, we investigated how thermal environment, intra-shoot and spatial variability modulate biochemical responses of the Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica. Through a space-for-time substitution study, Fatty acid (FA) profiles on the second and fifth leaf of the shoots were quantified at eight sites in Sardinia along a natural sea surface temperature (SST) summer gradient (about 4 °C). Higher mean SST were related to a decrease in the leaf total fatty acid content (LTFA), a reduction in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), omega-3/omega-6 PUFA and PUFA/saturated fatty acids (SFA) ratios and an increase in SFA, monounsaturated fatty acids and carbon elongation index (CEI, C18:2 n-6/C16:2 n-6) ratio. Results also revealed that FA profiles were strongly influenced by leaf age, independently of SST and spatial variability within sites. Overall, this study evidenced that the sensitive response of P. oceanica FA profiles to intra-shoot and spatial variability must not be overlooked when considering their response to temperature changes.
Analysis of MT-ATP8 gene variants reported in patients by modeling in silico and in yeast model organism
Authors: Panja Chiranjit , Niedzwiecka Katarzyna , Baranowska Emilia , Poznanski Jaroslaw , Kucharczyk Roza 
Published: June 2023

AbstractDefects in ATP synthase functioning due to the substitutions in its two mitochondrially encoded subunits a and 8 lead to untreatable mitochondrial diseases. Defining the character of variants in genes encoding these subunits is challenging due to their low frequency, heteroplasmy of mitochondrial DNA in patients’ cells and polymorphisms of mitochondrial genome. We successfully used yeast S. cerevisiae as a model to study the effects of variants in MT-ATP6 gene and our research led to understand how eight amino acid residues substitutions impact the proton translocation through the channel formed by subunit a and c-ring of ATP synthase at the molecular level. Here we applied this approach to study the effects of the m.8403T>C variant in MT-ATP8 gene. The biochemical data from yeast mitochondria indicate that equivalent mutation is not detrimental for the yeast enzyme functioning. The structural analysis of substitutions in subunit 8 introduced by m.8403T>C and five other variants in MT-ATP8 provides indications about the role of subunit 8 in the membrane domain of ATP synthase and potential structural consequences of substitutions in this subunit.
Preverbal infants produce more protophones with artificial objects compared to natural objects
Authors: Gibson Violet , Somogyi Eszter , Nomikou Iris , Taylor Derry , López Beatriz , Mulenga Innocent Chitalu , Davila-Ross Marina 
Published: June 2023

AbstractProtophones are considered to be precursors of speech. These vocalizations have been notably discussed in relation to toys and their importance for developing language skills. However, little is known about how natural objects, compared to artificial objects, may affect protophone production, an approach that could additionally help reconstruct how language evolved. In the current study, we examined protophone production in 58 infants (4–18 months) while interacting with their caregivers when using natural objects, household items, and toys. The infants were recorded in their home environment, in a rural area in Zambia. The results showed that the infants produced significantly fewer protophones when using natural objects than when using household items or toys. Importantly, this pattern was found only for the younger preverbal infants, and there was no indication in the data that the level of caregiver responsiveness differed with regard to the object type. Furthermore, the infants of the present work selected primarily the household items when exposed to both natural objects and household items. These findings suggest that natural objects are less likely to promote protophone production and, consequently, language skill development than artificial objects in preverbal infants, who seem to favor the latter, perhaps due to their features designed for specific functional purposes. Furthermore, these findings provide empirical evidence that the use of complex tools in social interactions may have helped to promote the evolution of language among hominins.
Design, synthesis, in vitro anti-α-glucosidase evaluations, and computational studies of new phthalimide-phenoxy-1,2,3-triazole-N-phenyl (or benzyl) acetamides as potential anti-diabetic agents
Authors: Emadi Mehdi , Halimi Mohammad , Moazzam Ali , Hosseini Samanesadat , Mojtabavi Somayeh , Faramarzi Mohammad Ali , Ghadimi Reza , Moghadamnia Ali Akbar , Nasli-Esfahani Ensieh , Mohammadi-Khanaposhtani Maryam , Mahdavi Mohammad 
Published: June 2023

AbstractAn important target in the treatment of type 2 diabetes is α-glucosidase. Inhibition of this enzyme led to delay in glucose absorption and decrease in postprandial hyperglycemia. A new series of phthalimide-phenoxy-1,2,3-triazole-N-phenyl (or benzyl) acetamides 11a–n were designed based on the reported potent α-glucosidase inhibitors. These compounds were synthesized and screened for their in vitro inhibitory activity against the latter enzyme. The majority of the evaluated compounds displayed high inhibition effects (IC50 values in the range of 45.26 ± 0.03–491.68 ± 0.11 µM) as compared to the positive control acarbose (IC50 value = 750.1 ± 0.23 µM). Among this series, compounds 11j and 11i represented the most potent α-glucosidase inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 45.26 ± 0.03 and 46.25 ± 0.89 µM. Kinetic analysis revealed that the compound 11j is a competitive inhibitor with a Ki of 50.4 µM. Furthermore, the binding interactions of the most potent compounds in α-glucosidase active site were studied through molecular docking and molecular dynamics. The latter studies confirmed the obtained results through in vitro experiments. Furthermore, in silico pharmacokinetic study of the most potent compounds was also performed.
Deep learning for deterioration prediction of COVID-19 patients based on time-series of three vital signs
Authors: Mehrdad Sarmad , Shamout Farah E. , Wang Yao , Atashzar S. Farokh 
Published: June 2023

AbstractUnrecognized deterioration of COVID-19 patients can lead to high morbidity and mortality. Most existing deterioration prediction models require a large number of clinical information, typically collected in hospital settings, such as medical images or comprehensive laboratory tests. This is infeasible for telehealth solutions and highlights a gap in deterioration prediction models based on minimal data, which can be recorded at a large scale in any clinic, nursing home, or even at the patient’s home. In this study, we develop and compare two prognostic models that predict if a patient will experience deterioration in the forthcoming 3 to 24 h. The models sequentially process routine triadic vital signs: (a) oxygen saturation, (b) heart rate, and (c) temperature. These models are also provided with basic patient information, including sex, age, vaccination status, vaccination date, and status of obesity, hypertension, or diabetes. The difference between the two models is the way that the temporal dynamics of the vital signs are processed. Model #1 utilizes a temporally-dilated version of the Long-Short Term Memory model (LSTM) for temporal processes, and Model #2 utilizes a residual temporal convolutional network (TCN) for this purpose. We train and evaluate the models using data collected from 37,006 COVID-19 patients at NYU Langone Health in New York, USA. The convolution-based model outperforms the LSTM based model, achieving a high AUROC of 0.8844–0.9336 for 3 to 24 h deterioration prediction on a held-out test set. We also conduct occlusion experiments to evaluate the importance of each input feature, which reveals the significance of continuously monitoring the variation of the vital signs. Our results show the prospect for accurate deterioration forecast using a minimum feature set that can be relatively easily obtained using wearable devices and self-reported patient information.