bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of Zn addition and natural aging on the microstructure and mechanical properties of secondary AlSi7Cu2 alloys
Authors: Scampone G , Gursoy O , Brutti S , Timelli G 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
The effect of different Zn contents on the microstructure of a secondary AlSi7Cu2 alloy has been studied. The mechanical properties of the alloy during natural aging has been investigated too. The Zn additions range from 0.7 to 8 wt.%, and the tensile testing has been carried out at the as-cast condition and after 3, 7, 12 and 21 days of natural aging. Metallographic and image analysis techniques have been used to characterize the microstructural changes of the alloy. The results indicate that the alloy is strengthened as a function of the aging time and Zn addition. Both yield stress and elongation to fracture tend to stabilize over long aging times, independently of Zn level. The steady-state tensile properties are achieved earlier by increasing the Zn content. Furthermore, high Zn contents promote the formation of eutectic structure and the precipitation of needle-like Fe-rich compounds, which decrease the ductility of the material.
Retrospective, Observational Studies for Estimating Vaccine Effects on the Secondary Attack Rate of SARS-CoV-2
Authors: Bannick Marlena S , Gao Fei , Brown Elizabeth R , Janes Holly E 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are highly efficacious at preventing symptomatic infection, severe disease, and death. Most of the evidence that COVID-19 vaccines also reduce transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is based on retrospective, observational studies. Specifically, an increasing number of studies are evaluating vaccine effectiveness against the secondary attack rate of SARS-CoV-2 using data available in existing health-care databases or contact-tracing databases. Since these types of databases were designed for clinical diagnosis or management of COVID-19, they are limited in their ability to provide accurate information on infection, infection timing, and transmission events. We highlight challenges with using existing databases to identify transmission units and confirm potential SARS-CoV-2 transmission events. We discuss the impact of common diagnostic testing strategies, including event-prompted and infrequent testing, and illustrate their potential biases in estimating vaccine effectiveness against the secondary attack rate of SARS-CoV-2. We articulate the need for prospective observational studies of vaccine effectiveness against the SARS-CoV-2 secondary attack rate, and we provide design and reporting considerations for studies using retrospective databases.
Choosing Spanish arbitration law to apply the group of companies doctrine
Authors: Mirambell Fargas Miquel 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This note revisits the status of the Group of Companies doctrine’s application under Spanish arbitration law. It starts with analysing the judgments in ThyssenKrupp AG et al. v Ros Casares Group to develop further questions yet left unresolved. Particularly, what is the scope of extending the effects of an international arbitration agreement and what is the state of party autonomy in regulating the application of the GoC-doctrine, for example, by expressly choosing the applicable law thereto. The latter will determine both the legal standard required to establish implied consent as well as the margin of discretion of decision-makers.
Opposite-sex associations are linked with annual fitness, but sociality is stable over lifetime
Authors: Dunning Jamie , Burke Terry , Hoi Hang Chan Alex , Ying Janet Chik Heung , Evans Tim , Schroeder Julia 
Published: March 2023

AbstractAnimal sociality, an individual’s propensity to associate with others, has fitness consequences through mate choice, for example, directly, by increasing the pool of prospective partners, and indirectly through increased survival, and individuals benefit from both. Annually, fitness consequences are realized through increased mating success and subsequent fecundity. However, it remains unknown whether these consequences translate to lifetime fitness. Here, we quantified social associations and their link to fitness annually and over lifetime, using a multi-generational, genetic pedigree. We used social network analysis to calculate variables representing different aspects of an individual’s sociality. Sociality showed high within-individual repeatability. We found that birds with more opposite-sex associates had higher annual fitness than those with fewer, but this did not translate to lifetime fitness. Instead, for lifetime fitness, we found evidence for stabilizing selection on opposite-sex sociality, and sociality in general, suggesting that reported benefits are only short-lived in a wild population, and that selection favors an average sociality.
Defining the phenotypic spectrum of sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease MV2K: the kuru plaque type
Authors: Baiardi Simone , Mammana Angela , Dellavalle Sofia , Rossi Marcello , Redaelli Veronica , Colaizzo Elisa , Di Fede Giuseppe , Ladogana Anna , Capellari Sabina , Parchi Piero 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe current classification of sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease identifies six major subtypes mainly defined by the combination of the genotype at polymorphic codon 129 (methionine/M or valine/V) of the prion protein gene and the type (1 or 2) of misfolded prion protein accumulating in the brain (e.g. MM1, MM2, MV1, MV2, etc.).Here, we systematically characterized the clinical and histo-molecular features associated with the third prevalent subtype, the MV2 subtype with kuru plaques (MV2K), in the most extensive series collected to date. We evaluated neurological histories, cerebrospinal biomarkers, brain MRI and EEG results in 126 patients. The histo-molecular assessment included misfolded prion protein typing, standard histologic staining and immunohistochemistry for prion protein in several brain areas. We also investigated the prevalence and topographic extent of coexisting MV2-cortical features, the number of cerebellar kuru plaques and their effect on clinical phenotype.Systematic regional typing revealed a western blot profile of misfolded prion protein comprising a doublet of 19 and 20 kDa unglycosylated fragments, with the former more prominent in neocortices and the latter in the deep grey nuclei. The 20/19 kDa fragment ratio positively correlated with the number of cerebellar kuru plaques. The mean disease duration was exceedingly longer than in the typical MM1 subtype (18.0 versus 3.4 months). Disease duration correlated positively with the severity of pathologic change and the number of cerebellar kuru plaques. At the onset and early stages, patients manifested prominent, often mixed, cerebellar symptoms and memory loss, variably associated with behavioural/psychiatric and sleep disturbances. The cerebrospinal fluid prion real-time quaking-induced conversion assay was positive in 97.3% of cases, while 14-3-3 protein and total-tau positive tests were 52.6 and 75.9%. Brain diffusion-weighted MRI showed hyperintensity of the striatum, cerebral cortex and thalamus in 81.4, 49.3 and 33.8% of cases, and a typical profile in 92.2%. Mixed histotypes (MV2K + MV2-cortical) showed an abnormal cortical signal more frequently than the pure MV2K (64.7 versus 16.7%, P = 0.007). EEG revealed periodic sharp-wave complexes in only 8.7% of participants.These results further establish MV2K as the most common ‘atypical’ subtype of sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, showing a clinical course that often challenges the early diagnosis. The plaque-type aggregation of the misfolded prion protein accounts for most of the atypical clinical features. Nonetheless, our data strongly suggest that the consistent use of the real-time quaking-induced conversion assay and brain diffusion-weighted MRI allows an accurate early clinical diagnosis in most patients.
Relationship between the interlimb transfer of a visuomotor learning task and interhemispheric inhibition in healthy humans
Authors: Paparella Giulia , De Riggi Martina , Cannavacciuolo Antonio , Colella Donato , Costa Davide , Birreci Daniele , Passaretti Massimiliano , Angelini Luca , Guerra Andrea , Berardelli Alfredo , Bologna Matteo 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
The “interlimb transfer” phenomenon consists of improved performance of the trained and untrained contralateral limbs after unilateral motor practice. We here assessed whether a visuomotor learning task can be transferred from one hemisphere to the other, whether this occurs symmetrically, and the cortical neurophysiological correlates of this phenomenon, focusing on interhemispheric connectivity measures. We enrolled 33 healthy subjects (age range: 24–73 years). Participants underwent two randomized sessions, which investigated the transfer from the dominant to the nondominant hand and vice versa. Measures of cortical and intracortical excitability and interhemispheric inhibition were assessed through transcranial magnetic stimulation before and after a visuomotor task. The execution of the visuomotor task led to an improvement in motor performance with the dominant and nondominant hands and induced a decrease in intracortical inhibition in the trained hemisphere. Participants were also able to transfer the visuomotor learned skill. The interlimb transfer, however, only occurred from the dominant to the nondominant hand and positively correlated with individual learning-related changes in interhemispheric inhibition. We here demonstrated that the “interlimb transfer” of a visuomotor task occurs asymmetrically and relates to the modulation of specific inhibitory interhemispheric connections. The study results have pathophysiological, clinical, and neuro-rehabilitative implications.
Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) Infection Controlled by Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation and EBV-Specific T Cells
Authors: Meedt Elisabeth , Weber Daniela , Bonifacius Agnes , Eiz-Vesper Britta , Maecker-Kolhoff Britta , Delecluse Susanne , Delecluse Henri-Jacques , Lorenz Myriam , Schwarz Klaus , Meedt Stefan T , Braess Jan , Herr Wolfgang , Holler Ernst , Edinger Matthias , Wolff Daniel 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
We report sustained remission of chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in a 27-year-old female patient treated with third-party EBV-specific T cells followed by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The viremia cleared after administration of anti-T-lymphocyte globulin for graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis. Subsequent expansion of EBV-infected host T cells was controlled by transfusion of donor-derived EBV-specific T cells.
Near Real-Time Social Distance Estimation In London
Authors: Walsh James , Kesa Oluwafunmilola , Wang Andrew , Ilas Mihai , O’Hara Patrick , Giles Oscar , Dhir Neil , Girolami Mark , Damoulas Theodoros 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
To mitigate the current COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers at the Greater London Authority, the regional governance body of London, UK, are reliant upon prompt, accurate and actionable estimations of lockdown and social distancing policy adherence. Transport for London, the local transportation department, reports they implemented over 700 interventions such as greater signage and expansion of pedestrian zoning at the height of the pandemic’s first wave with our platform providing key data for those decisions. Large well-defined heterogeneous compositions of pedestrian footfall and physical proximity are difficult to acquire, yet necessary to monitor city-wide activity (busyness) and consequently discern actionable policy decisions. To meet this challenge, we leverage our existing large-scale data processing urban air quality machine learning infrastructure to process over 900 camera feeds in near real-time to generate new estimates of social distancing adherence, group detection and camera stability. In this work, we describe our development and deployment of a computer vision and machine learning pipeline. It provides near immediate sampling and contextualization of activity and physical distancing on the streets of London via live traffic camera feeds. We introduce a platform for inspecting, calibrating and improving upon existing methods, describe the active deployment on real-time feeds and provide analysis over an 18 month period.
Providing an Approach for Early Prediction of Fall in Human Activities Based on Wearable Sensor Data and the Use of Deep Learning Algorithms
Authors: Keramati Hatkeposhti Rahman , Yadollahzadeh-Tabari Meisam , Golsorkhtabariamiri Mehdi 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Falling is one of the major health concerns, and its early detection is very important. The goal of this study is an early prediction of impending falls using wearable sensors data. The SisFall data set has been used along with two deep learning models (CNN and a combination model named Conv_Lstm). Also, a dynamic sampling method is offered to improve the accuracy of the models by increasing the equilibrium rate between the samples of the majority and minority classes. To fulfill the main idea of this paper, we present a future prediction strategy. Then, by defining a time variable ‘T’, the system replaces and labels the state of the next T s instead of considering the current state only. This leads to predicting falling states at the beginning moments of balance disturbance. The results of the experiments show that the Conv_Lstm model was able to predict the fall in 78% of cases and an average of 340 ms before the accident. Also, for the Sensitivity criterion, a value of 95.18% has been obtained. A post-processing module based on the median filter was implemented, which could increase the accuracy of predictions to 95%.
Cooperation and the Organisation of Production and Markets: A Critical Survey
Authors: Konzelmann Suzanne J 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThis critical survey examines the role of cooperation in production and exchange, the relationship between the organisation of production and markets, and, more generally, the nature and functioning of productive systems. It traces ideas about the relationship between markets, industrial organisation, and power, from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to the early neo-classical economists, before turning to the evolution of liberal economic thinking that accompanied the emergence and growth of large organisations with market power. This is then confronted with Alfred Marshall’s methodological and theoretical contributions to both economics and industrial organisation and development, and his attempt to reconcile the neo-classical economic dilemma of increasing returns in production and competition in markets. During the inter-war years, and especially after his death in 1924, Marshall’s ideas were strongly challenged—and ultimately abandoned—by neo-classical economists. However, this debate re-emerged nearly a half century later, when the Fordist mass production model faced growing competition from more cooperative forms of industrial organisation. Based on solid empirical research into contemporary industrial districts and localised productive systems, there was a re-discovery of the importance of cooperation in production, and an acknowledgement of the significance of Marshall’s earlier contributions. Inspired by these developments, Frank Wilkinson’s ‘productive systems’ approach brings together the threads running through Smith’s, Marx’s, and Marshall’s analysis of the dynamics of cooperation in production and exchange, to explore the implications of the mutual and conflicting interests inherent to production, industrial organisation, and economic development.
Chromosome-level genome assembly of Phrynocephalus forsythii using third-generation DNA sequencing and Hi-C analysis
Authors: Qi Yue , Zhao Wei , Zhao Yangyang , Niu Chenkai , Cao Shuhui , Zhang Yingmei 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Phrynocephalus forsythii is a viviparous sand lizard that is endemic to the Tarim Basin with a broad altitudinal range of 872–3,100 m. Such variation in altitude and ecological variables can offer an opportunity to uncover genetic mechanisms of ectothermic adaptation to extreme environments at high- and low-altitude. Furthermore, the evolutionary relationship of karyotype with two different chromosome numbers (2n = 46 or 2n = 48) in the Chinese Phrynocephalus is unclear. In this study, a chromosome-level reference genome of P. forsythii was assembled. The genome assembly size was 1.82 Gb with a contig N50 length of 46.22 Mb, 20,194 protein-coding genes were predicted and 95.50% of these genes were annotated in functional public databases. After cluster contigs into chromosome level using Hi-C paired-end reads, we found that two chromosomes of P. forsythii were originated from one ancestral chromosome of species with 46 chromosomes. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that numerous characteristics associated with high- or low-altitude adaptation, including energy metabolism pathways, hypoxic adaptation, and immune, exhibit rapid changes or show signals of positive selection in the P. forsythii genome. This genome provides an excellent genome resource for the study of the karyotype evolution and ecological genomics of Phrynocephalus.
Acute heart failure presentation, management, and outcomes in cancer patients: a national longitudinal study
Authors: Coles Briana , Welch Catherine A , Motiwale Rishabh S , Teece Lucy , Oliver-Williams Clare , Weston Clive , de Belder Mark A , Lambert Paul C , Rutherford Mark J , Paley Lizz , Kadam Umesh T , Lawson Clare A , Deanfield John , Peake Michael D , McDonagh Theresa , Sweeting Michael J , Adlam David ,   VICORI collaborative, Darby Sarah , Gale Chris , Hawkins Mike , Lyon Alexander , Rashbass Jem , Reulen Raoul , Timmis Alistair Ring Adam , Lai Sally Vernon Jennifer , Charlton Paul , Donkor Akosua , Fazal Nadeem , Gunesh Anil , Harrison Andrew , Khushnood Abbas , Goodwin Andrew , Ludman Peter , McDonagh Theresa , Murgatroyd Francis , Shand Brian , Vernon Sally , Forman David 
Published: March 2023

Abstract

Aims
Currently, little evidence exists on survival and quality of care in cancer patients presenting with acute heart failure (HF). The aim of the study is to investigate the presentation and outcomes of hospital admission with acute HF in a national cohort of patients with prior cancer.

Methods and results
This retrospective, population-based cohort study identified 221 953 patients admitted to a hospital in England for HF during 2012–2018 (12 867 with a breast, prostate, colorectal, or lung cancer diagnosis in the previous 10 years). We examined the impact of cancer on (i) HF presentation and in-hospital mortality, (ii) place of care, (iii) HF medication prescribing, and (iv) post-discharge survival, using propensity score weighting and model-based adjustment. Heart failure presentation was similar between cancer and non-cancer patients. A lower percentage of patients with prior cancer were cared for in a cardiology ward [−2.4% age point difference (ppd) (95% CI −3.3, −1.6)] or were prescribed angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor antagonists (ACEi/ARB) for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction [−2.1 ppd (−3.3, −0.9)] than non-cancer patients. Survival after HF discharge was poor with median survival of 1.6 years in prior cancer and 2.6 years in non-cancer patients. Mortality in prior cancer patients was driven primarily by non-cancer causes (68% of post-discharge deaths).

Conclusion
Survival in prior cancer patients presenting with acute HF was poor, with a significant proportion due to non-cancer causes of death. Despite this, cardiologists were less likely to manage cancer patients with HF. Cancer patients who develop HF were less likely to be prescribed guideline-based HF medications compared with non-cancer patients. This was particularly driven by patients with a poorer cancer prognosis.
Trimethylamine N-oxide is associated with long-term mortality risk: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis
Authors: Wang Meng , Li Xinmin S , Wang Zeneng , de Oliveira Otto Marcia C , Lemaitre Rozenn N , Fretts Amanda , Sotoodehnia Nona , Budoff Matthew , Nemet Ina , DiDonato Joseph A , Tang Wai Hong Wilson , Psaty Bruce M , Siscovick David S , Hazen Stanley L , Mozaffarian Dariush 
Published: March 2023

Abstract

Aims
Little is known about associations of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a novel gut microbiota-generated metabolite of dietary phosphatidylcholine and carnitine, and its changes over time with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the general population or in different race/ethnicity groups. The study aimed to investigate associations of serially measured plasma TMAO levels and changes in TMAO over time with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a multi-ethnic community-based cohort.

Methods and results
The study included 6,785 adults from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. TMAO was measured at baseline and year 5 using mass spectrometry. Primary outcomes were adjudicated all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Secondary outcomes were deaths due to kidney failure, cancer, or dementia obtained from death certificates. Cox proportional hazards models with time-varying TMAO and covariates assessed the associations with adjustment for sociodemographics, lifestyles, diet, metabolic factors, and comorbidities. During a median follow-up of 16.9 years, 1704 participants died and 411 from CVD. Higher TMAO levels associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR): 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08–1.17], CVD mortality (HR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.00–1.09), and death due to kidney failure (HR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.25–1.66) per inter-quintile range, but not deaths due to cancer or dementia. Annualized changes in TMAO levels associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.05–1.14) and death due to kidney failure (HR: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.26–1.89) but not other deaths.

Conclusion
Plasma TMAO levels were positively associated with mortality, especially deaths due to cardiovascular and renal disease, in a multi-ethnic US cohort.