bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Case for a Funded Pension with a Defined Benefit
Authors: Otsuka Michael 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
Chapter 2—‘The Case for a Funded Pension with a Defined Benefit’—clarifies and assesses the concepts and principles, within and beyond financial economics, that underlie the regulation, valuation, and investment of defined benefit (DB) schemes to secure pension promises. With funded occupational DB pensions, in contrast to collective defined contribution (CDC), longevity and investment risk is borne, at least directly, by the sponsoring employers rather than their workers. This gives rise to the problem of how to ensure that employers will deliver the benefit they have promised, which is typically an inflation-protected income in retirement until death. This chapter assesses the merits of the ‘actuarial approach’ to funding an open, ongoing DB pension scheme at a low rate of contributions invested for the long term in ‘growth assets’ such as equities and property. It also considers the merits of the contrasting ‘financial economics approach’, which calls for a higher rate of contributions set as the cost of purchasing government and corporate bonds that ‘match’ the liabilities by providing guaranteed streams of income that closely approximate the promised pension payments. It shows how the UK’s large, multi-employer Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) provides a model for the actuarial approach. The ‘last man standing’ mutuality of this scheme constitutes a reciprocity-based prototype for the delivery of DB pensions across society more generally, involving the collective pooling of risks across geographic space as well as over succeeding generations. Such an arrangement justifies the actuarial approach to the funding of DB over the financial economics approach.
Conclusion
Authors: Otsuka Michael 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
The book concludes by posing and answering the following question: why should those who are young, able-bodied, and productive agree to pay for the pensions of those who are elderly, infirm, and out of work? Those who have recently reached the age of majority do not now know how long they will live in retirement or how well any investments they try to save up during the next decades for their retirement would fare. From the perspective of the beginning of their working lives, it is therefore rational for each to enter into an agreement with others, who also do not yet know their fates, that, if one turns out to be among the unfortunate whose private pension pots would not have yielded enough for one’s retirement, one will receive much more in retirement, whereas those whose pension pots would have overflowed their retirements will receive somewhat less. But this arrangement will work only if each agrees to bind oneself in advance so that, if one turns out to be among the fortunate, one is not allowed to defect from the collective pension scheme and go it alone. It is rational for each to agree to share one another’s fates by pooling risks across both space and time, on fair terms of social cooperation for mutual advantage.
Koulaks and Cocos
Authors: Clift Aaron 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
This chapter focuses on anticommunism among French agriculturalists. No party could hope to attain power without at least some measure of support in the countryside. The PCF recognized this and launched campaigns to gain the allegiance of the peasantry, a political surge that anti-communists reacted to by trying to inoculate the peasants against communist appeals. Moreover, anticommunism became a central component of a wider struggle for political control of French agriculture. It arose out of Liberation-era attempts by the Left to consolidate France’s diverse agricultural associations into a single confederation, a move which provoked a conservative backlash and attempts to champion their independence. Their debates reveal interrelationships between anticommunism and anti-statism, anti-Americanism, and anti-urbanism as well as concerns about the future of private property, class relations in the countryside, and the role of agriculture in a developing rural economy.
Recent progress in low-temperature CVD growth of 2D materials
Authors: Zhang Xiang , Lai Jiawei , Gray Tia 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) materials have emerged as a promising class of materials with unique physical and chemical properties that offer exciting prospects for various applications. Among all the synthesis methods, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques have demonstrated great advantages in the large-scale production of 2D materials with a controlled thickness. One of the main challenges in the growth of 2D materials is the need for high temperatures and crystalline substrates, which restrict the scalability and compatibility of 2D materials with existing manufacturing processes, due to the high thermal budget and the necessity to transfer the 2D films to secondary substrates. Low-temperature growth methods for 2D materials have the potential to overcome this challenge and enable the integration of 2D materials into a wide range of devices and applications. In recent years, there have been substantial efforts to develop low-temperature growth techniques for different 2D materials, including graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides. These methods include thermal CVD, plasma-enhanced CVD, atomic layer deposition and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. This review not only discusses the progress in the growth but also highlights the applications of low-temperature-grown 2D materials in various fields, such as field effect transistors, sensors, photodetectors, catalysts, batteries and supercapacitors.
Nonlinear, Multicomponent Physical Exercise With Heart Rate Variability-Guided Prescription in Women With Breast Cancer During Treatment: Feasibility and Preliminary Results (ATOPE Study)
Authors: González-Santos Ángela , Lopez-Garzon Maria , Gil-Gutiérrez Rocío , Salinas-Asensio María del Mar , Postigo-Martin Paula , Cantarero-Villanueva Irene 
Published: June 2023

Abstract

Objective
The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility, safety, adherence, and preliminary efficacy of the ATOPE program during radiotherapy (RT) or chemotherapy (CT) for women with breast cancer.

Methods
This single-blind, pretest–posttest feasibility study included 38 women with breast cancer at the beginning of their treatment. The ATOPE program consisted of 12 to 18 sessions of a multimodal physical exercise program, prescribed based on daily heart rate variability and clinimetric assessments using the ATOPE+ mHealth system. Overall health was assessed with quality of life, autonomous balance, and body composition, whereas health-related fitness was measured through functional capacity, physical activity levels, and upper and lower limb strength.

Results
The rates of recruitment, retention, and adherence were 52.35, 73.68, and 84.37%, respectively, and the satisfaction rating was 9.2 out of a possible 10 points. The perceived health status change score was 3.83 points, scored on a −5 to 5 point scale. No adverse effects were found. Compliance results showed that the ATOPE+ mHealth system was used on 73.38% of the days, and the Fitbit bracelet (Google, Mountain View, CA, USA) was used on 84.91% of the days. Women stayed physically active 55% of days. Regarding preliminary results, for overall health, the percentage of body fat in the RT group decreased by 1.93%, whereas it increased by 5.03% in the CT group. Lower limb strength increased in the RT group, specifically knee extensor isometric strength (6.07%), isokinetic knee flexors 180 degree/second (1.53%), and isokinetic knee extensors 300 degree/second (4.53%), in contrast with the reductions found in the CT group (11.07, 18.67, and 14.89%, respectively).

Conclusion
The ATOPE program, through nonlinear prescription based on daily monitoring with the ATOPE+ mHealth system, is feasible and safe for application during breast cancer treatment. The results suggest that the overall health can be maintained or even improved regarding most variables.

Impact
This study focused on the feasibility, safety, and completion of a physical therapist-led program at early diagnosis for adults with breast cancer. The multimodal, supervised, tailored, nonlinear physical exercise program is feasible and safe, showed a good completion rate, and was able to prevent the quality-of-life deficits that are often triggered by systemic breast cancer treatment. This study highlights the importance of daily morning assessments using the ATOPE+ mHealth system in patients with breast cancer to prescribe nonlinear physical exercise.
Scattering by a Perforated Sandwich Panel: Method of Riemann Surfaces
Authors: Antipov Y A 
Published: June 2023

Summary
The model problem of scattering of a sound wave by an infinite plane structure formed by a semi-infinite acoustically hard screen and a semi-infinite sandwich panel perforated from one side and covered by a membrane from the other is exactly solved. The model is governed by two Helmholtz equations for the velocity potentials in the upper and lower half-planes coupled by the Leppington effective boundary condition and the equation of vibration of a membrane in a fluid. Two methods of solution are proposed and discussed. Both methods reduce the problem to an order-2 vector Riemann–Hilbert problem. The matrix coefficients have different entries, have the Chebotarev–Khrapkov structure and share the same order-4 characteristic polynomial. Exact Wiener–Hopf matrix factorization requires solving a scalar Riemann–Hilbert on an elliptic surface and the associated genus-1 Jacobi inversion problem solved in terms of the associated Riemann θ-function. Numerical results for the absolute value of the total velocity potentials are reported and discussed.
New application of saline contrast-enhanced electrical impedance tomography method for right ventriculography besides lung perfusion: detection of right-to-left intracardiac shunt
Authors: He H , Wang N , Zhang M , Jiang J , Cui N , Frerichs I , Long Y , Zhao Z 
Published: June 2023

Summary

Aim
Saline contrast-enhanced electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has been used to identify the respiratory failure etiologies through assessment of regional lung perfusion at the bedside. In this study, we introduce a novel approach to detect right-to-left intracardiac shunt based on the center of heart (CoH) parameter determined from the early phase of impedance–time curve after saline bolus injection.

Methods and result
The timepoints when the saline bolus enter the heart (T0) and the lung regions (T1) are identified at first. A moving time window from T0 to T1 is then generated with steps of 0.5 s and the slope of the impedance–time curve in each pixel within the window calculated. CoH is calculated as the geometric center of pixel slope values in the right-to-left image direction. To illustrate how this method works in practice, we calculated the CoH values at T0 to T1 in 10 control hypoxic patients with no right-to-left shunt. In addition, we examined two critically ill patients with right-to-left intracardiac shunt. One was postcardiac surgery patient who had a residual atrial septal defect by color doppler of transesophageal echocardiograph. The other patient had a congenital heart disease of ventricular septal defect by color doppler of trans-thoracic echocardiography. A large difference in CoH between T0 to T1 was observed in the two patients with intracardiac shunt than in the control patients (11.06 ± 3.17% vs. 1.99 ± 1.43%, P = 0.030).

Conclusion
Saline bolus EIT for lung perfusion might be used as ventriculography to identify the right-to-left intracardiac shunt at the bedside.
Clinical and demographic features with outcome predictors of adult patients with acute intoxication admitted to a medical intensive care unit in the Mediterranean part of Croatia
Authors: Kovacic Vedran , Kvartuc Lukas , Mikacic Marijana , Jerkovic Ivan , Begovic Tanja Ilic , Maras Marina , Nazlic Jurica 
Published: June 2023

Abstract

Background
The objective of the study was to assess the demographics, clinical parameters, and outcome of acute intoxications among adult patients admitted to a medical intensive care unit in southern Croatia.

Materials and Methods
An observational retrospective study was conducted over a 1-year period. The subjects were patients admitted to the intensive care unit for acute poisoning.

Results
In all, 81 subjects (32.1% females) aged 43.16 ± 14.77 years were admitted to the intensive care unit because of poisoning (14.97% of the total annual intensive care unit admissions). Psychiatric disorders were previously established in 76.5% participants, and 69.1% of all acute intoxications were classified as suicidal. Non-suicidal subjects differed from suicidal subjects in age (37.36 ± 9.71 vs. 45.75 ± 15.93 years; P = 0.009), in pCO2 (6.38 ± 1.78 vs. 5.50 ± 1.26 kPa; P = 0.020), in length-of-stay in intensive care unit (median 1.00, interquartile range 1.00 vs. median 2.00, interquartile range 2.00 days; P = 0.022), and in length-of-stay in hospital (median 2.00, interquartile range 2.00 vs. median 10.50, interquartile range 15.25 days; P &lt; 0.001). Three (3.7%) patients died. Pharmaceutical psychoactive drug intoxications were the most common poisoning cases; of these, diazepam was the most frequent (16.8%), followed by ethanol (9.0%) and alprazolam (7.8%). Benzodiazepines/hypnotics were the most common group (28.7%), followed by antipsychotics (13.2%). Intoxications with more than 1 poison accounted for the largest number of cases (67.9%). The number of toxins was significantly correlated with length-of-stay in the hospital (rho = −0.265; P = 0.008), systolic blood pressure (rho = −0.318; P = 0.002), and diastolic blood pressure (rho = −0.262; P = 0.009). The electrocardiogram was considered abnormal in 50.62% of the cases.

Conclusion
Acute intoxicants were most commonly caused by psychiatric pharmaceutical drugs. Multidrug exposure was a typical pattern of acute intoxication.
European Company Law in transformation—Striving for participation and sustainability
Authors: Grundmann Stefan 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
European Company Law, a European Union (EU)-level company law (as ‘federal policy’), has passed the 50-year mark these years. Twenty-five of those years were dominated by a market function approach, the ‘black-box’ approach, where the company was seen from outside and guaranteeing necessary information for those outside the corporation, rational information users (namely long-term creditors and investors), was paramount. A transformation away from this approach began some 30 years ago; the last 20 years were dominated, first, by an approach that strongly increased participation and true multiple ‘voices’ in companies—as an approach meant to empower and heat up discussion, it can be termed the ‘red-box’ approach. This is an approach where more structural information and empowerment took place, and relations within the company were more in the focus of the legislature as well. The advent of new economic sociology could also be sensed, as the EU became more of a political Union or the concept of a competition of legislatures became a potential reality, such as with Centros. As a common denominator, the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ would seem to be more in the focus. The second phase of these last 20 years, primarily in the last decade, was then dominated by a fixing of certain long-term goals from the outside, fostering a goal of sustainability. Again, important general trends of theoretical thought emerged, and this phase can therefore be seen as a ‘green-box’ approach. A framework constitution of values is the aim of such an approach. This article brings together EU company law as a federal task and the development of these three phases, including the history of thought and political developments, as well as their theoretical and political underpinning. The article does this mainly for development at the EU level (ius communitatis), but also provides a link to (comparative) national developments and inspiration (ius commune).
Original Research: Can a Palliative Care Lay Health Advisor–Nurse Partnership Improve Health Equity for Latinos with Cancer?
Authors: Larson Kim L. , Mathews Holly F. , Melendez Carlos R. , Hupp Teresa , Estrada Michelle , Moye Janet P. , Passwater Chelsea C. , Muzaffar Mahvish 
Published: June 2023

ABSTRACT

Purpose:
A palliative care infrastructure is lacking for Latinos with life-threatening illness, especially in rural regions of the United States. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a community-based palliative care lay health advisor (LHA) intervention for rural-dwelling Latino adults with cancer.

Methods:
An exploratory mixed-methods participatory action research design was carried out by an interprofessional research team that included community and academic members. Fifteen Latino community leaders completed a 10-hour palliative care training program and then served as palliative care LHAs. Although 45 Latinos with cancer initially agreed to participate, four withdrew or died and six were not reachable by the LHAs, for a final total of 35 patient participants.
The trained palliative care LHAs delivered information on home symptom management and advance care planning to assigned participants. Palliative care nurses led the training and were available to the LHAs for consultation throughout the study. The LHAs made an average of three telephone calls to each participant. The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System–Revised (ESAS-r) and the four-item Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey (ACPES-4) were administered pre- and postintervention to determine the intervention's effectiveness. Encounter forms were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using case comparison.

Results:
The major finding was that significant improvements were shown for all four items of the ACPES-4 among both the LHAs (posttraining) and the participants (postintervention). Information on advance care planning was shared with 74.3% of the 35 participants. Participants showed clinical improvement in physical symptom scores and clinical deterioration in emotional symptom scores following the intervention, although these changes did not reach statistical significance. The advisors noted that participants were anxious about how to explain cancer to children, the uncertainty of their prognosis, and medical expenses. This sample was younger than those of other cancer studies; 51.4% were under age 50 and 73.1% had at least one child in the home.

Conclusions:
A community-based palliative care LHA–nurse partnership was shown to be a feasible way to engage in conversations and deliver information about advance care planning to rural-dwelling Latino adults with cancer. The positive results led to the regional cancer center's decision to select “cultural care” as its 2022 goal for maintaining its accreditation with the Commission on Cancer.
Minimally Invasive Decompression With Noninstrumented Facet Fusion Versus Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion for Stenosis Associated With Grade 1 Lumbar Degenerative Spondylolisthesis
Authors: Kim Daniel C. , Laskay Nicholas , Alcala Christopher , Schwender James 
Published: June 2023

Study Design:
Retrospective matched cohort study.

Summary of Background Data:
With a growing interest in minimally invasive spine surgery (MIS), the question of which technique is the most advantageous for patients with low-grade degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DLS) still remains unclear.

Objective:
To compare patient-reported outcomes, perioperative morbidity, and rates of reoperation between MIS decompression with either unilateral noninstrumented facet fusion (MIS-F) or with transforaminal interbody fusion (MIS-T) for grade 1 DLS.

Methods:
Twenty patients who underwent MIS-T and 20 patients with MIS-F were matched based on age, sex, and preoperative ODI, VAS back, and VAS leg. All patients had DLS with at least 4 millimeters of translation on standing radiographs. Exclusion criteria included prior level surgery, multilevel instability, disk impinging on the exiting nerve root, spondylolisthesis from significant facet arthropathy, or foraminal compromise from disk collapse. ODI, VAS back, VAS leg, and patient satisfaction measured by the North American Spine Society questionnaire were tracked at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months postoperatively. Minimum clinically important differences and substantial clinical benefits were calculated.

Results:
MIS-F and MIS-T resulted in decreased ODI at 3, 6, and 12 months following the index procedure. Sixty percent of MIS-F and 83% of MIS-T patients reached minimum clinically important difference at 1 year postoperatively; however, using the threshold of 30% ODI reduction from baseline, 67% of MIS-F and 83% MIS-T (P = 0.25) achieved this goal. Forty-three percent of MIS-F and 59% of MIS-T patients met substantial clinical benefits. Satisfaction at 1 year, measured by a score of 1 or 2 on the North American Spine Society questionnaire, was 64% for MIS-F and 83% for MIS-T.

Conclusions:
MIS-F and MIS-T are effective treatment options for spinal stenosis associated with low-grade DLS. Both techniques result in comparable patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction up to 2 years and have similar long-term reoperation rates. More evidence is required to delineate optimal selection characteristics for MIS-F versus MIS-T.
RNA Sequencing Analysis of CD4+ T Cells Exposed to Airway Fluid From Children With Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Authors: Ripple Michael J. , Huang Min , Stephenson Susan T. , Mohammad Ahmad F. , Tidwell Mallory , Fitzpatrick Anne M. , Kamaleswaran Rishikesan , Grunwell Jocelyn R. 
Published: June 2023

IMPORTANCE:
CD4+ T cells contribute to lung inflammation in acute respiratory distress syndrome. The CD4+ T-cell response in pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS) is unknown.

OBJECTIVES:
To identify differentially expressed genes and networks using a novel transcriptomic reporter assay with donor CD4+ T cells exposed to the airway fluid of intubated children with mild versus severe PARDS.

DESIGN:
In vitro pilot study.

SETTING:
Laboratory-based study using human airway fluid samples admitted to a 36-bed university-affiliated pediatric intensive care unit.

PATIENTS/SUBJECTS:
Seven children with severe PARDS, nine children with mild PARDS, and four intubated children without lung injury as controls.

INTERVENTIONS:
None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:
We performed bulk RNA sequencing using a transcriptomic reporter assay of CD4+ T cells exposed to airway fluid from intubated children to discover gene networks differentiating severe from mild PARDS. We found that innate immunity pathways, type I (α and β), and type II (γ) interferon response and cytokine/chemokine signaling are downregulated in CD4+ T cells exposed to airway fluid from intubated children with severe PARDS compared with those with mild PARDS.

CONCLUSIONS:
We identified gene networks important to the PARDS airway immune response using bulk RNA sequencing from a novel CD4+ T-cell reporter assay that exposed CD4+ T cells to airway fluid from intubated children with severe and mild PARDS. These pathways will help drive mechanistic investigations into PARDS. Validation of our findings using this transcriptomic reporter assay strategy is needed.