bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Transfer of elements from soil to earthworms and ground beetles in boreal forest
Authors: Majlesi Soroush , Roivainen Päivi , Kasurinen Anne , Tuovinen Tiina , Juutilainen Jukka 
Published: April 2023

AbstractData on the transfer of elements (such as heavy metals) and their radionuclides into organisms is needed for assessing environmental risks. The current data on many elements, species and environments is limited, but more information can be obtained both from field studies and experimental laboratory studies. However, it is essential to evaluate whether experimental studies adequately predict transfer in natural conditions. Moreover, because of the sparsity of species-specific empirical data, it is a common practice in current radioecological modelling to use data available for related species under the assumption that transfer into organisms is similar within broader taxonomic groups. Earthworms and ground beetles are examples of important invertebrates living near soil surface in terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, the transfer of 34 elements from soil to these organisms was studied in a field study conducted in boreal forest. The earthworm concentrations were compared to the values obtained in an experimental mesocosm study using soil from the field site and were found to be highly correlated. This indicates that the results of mesocosm studies can be used for predicting the transfer of elements from soil to fauna in natural conditions. Furthermore, concentrations in individual earthworm and beetle species were found to be similar to those observed in broader groups of related species, indicating that the generic approach used in current radioecological models may be useful for predicting uptake of elements into single species.
New therapies for spinal muscular atrophy: where we stand and what is next
Authors: Antonaci Laura , Pera Maria Carmela , Mercuri Eugenio 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThe natural history of spinal muscular atrophy has been radically changed by the advent of improved standards of care and the availability of disease-modifying therapies. The aim of this paper is to provide the current therapeutic scenario including new perspectives and to report the challenges related to new phenotypes a few years after the therapies have become available. The paper also includes a review of real-world data that provides information on safety and efficacy in individuals that were not included in clinical trials. Special attention is paid to future perspectives both in terms of new drugs that are currently investigated in clinical trials or providing details on current developments in the use of the available drugs, including combination therapies or new modalities of dose or administration. Conclusion: Clinical trials and real world data support the efficacy and safety profiles of the available drugs. At the moment there is not enough published evidence about the superiority of one product compared to the others.

What is Known:

• Safety and efficacy results of clinical trials have led in the last 6 years to the marketing of three drugs for spinal muscular atrophy, with different mechanisms of action.

What is New:

• Since the drug’s approval, real-world data allow us to have data on bigger and heterogeneous groups of patients in contrast with those included in clinical trials.

• In addition to the new molecules, combinations of therapies are currently being evaluated.
Malaria in Austria
Authors: Horak Paul , Auer Herbert , Wiedermann Ursula , Walochnik Julia 
Published: April 2023

Summary
Background
Although malaria is not endemic to Austria, each year infections are imported by travellers, migrants and refugees. This study aims to provide an overview of malaria cases diagnosed at an Austrian institute for tropical medicine between 2010 and 2020.

Methods
A retrospective, descriptive study was conducted based on the data of malaria cases confirmed at the Institute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine of the Medical University of Vienna. Laboratory diagnostics included microscopy, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time quantitative PCR.

Results
Overall, 122 cases were identified. Annual case numbers were consistently higher from 2016 to 2020 than during the first half of the decade. Most malaria cases were diagnosed during summer and early autumn. This seasonal trend was not observed during the year 2020. With 55.1% (65/118) Plasmodium falciparum was the most common species, followed by Plasmodium vivax (19.5%, 23/118). The majority of patients were male (71.1%, 86/121) and the median age was 34.5 years (interquartile range, IQR 22.5–47.0 years). With a median age of 20.0 years (IQR 14.0–32.0 years), patients with P. vivax infections were younger than those infected with other Plasmodium species. Moreover, they were mostly male (82.6%, 19/23).

Conclusion
From 2010 to 2020, the number of malaria cases diagnosed at the center increased. Growing international mobility and changing travel behavior could at least partly be responsible for this trend and there are indications that particularly P. vivax infections were imported by migrants and refugees.
Blood neurofilament light chain in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Buhmann Carsten , Magnus Tim , Choe Chi-un 
Published: April 2023

AbstractBlood neurofilament light chain (NfL) is an easily accessible, highly sensitive and reliable biomarker for neuroaxonal damage. Currently, its role in Parkinson’s disease (PD) remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that blood NfL can distinguish idiopathic PD from atypical parkinsonian syndromes (APS) with high sensitivity and specificity. In cross-sectional studies, some found significant correlations between blood NfL with motor and cognitive function, whereas others did not. In contrast, prospective studies reported very consistent associations between baseline blood NfL with motor progression and cognitive worsening. Amongst PD subtypes, especially postural instability and gait disorder (PIGD) subtype, symptoms and scores are reliably linked with blood NfL. Different non-motor PD comorbidities have also been associated with high blood NfL levels suggesting that the neuroaxonal damage of the autonomic nervous system as well as serotonergic, cholinergic and noradrenergic neurons is quantifiable. Numerous absolute NfL cutoff levels have been suggested in different cohort studies; however, validation across cohorts remains weak. However, age-adjusted percentiles and intra-individual blood NfL changes might represent more valid and consistent parameters compared with absolute NfL concentrations. In summary, blood NfL has the potential as biomarker in PD patients to be used in clinical practice for prediction of disease severity and especially progression.
What is it like to be a choanoflagellate? Sensation, processing and behavior in the closest unicellular relatives of animals
Authors: Ros-Rocher Núria , Brunet Thibaut 
Published: April 2023

AbstractAll animals evolved from a single lineage of unicellular precursors more than 600 million years ago. Thus, the biological and genetic foundations for animal sensation, cognition and behavior must necessarily have arisen by modifications of pre-existing features in their unicellular ancestors. Given that the single-celled ancestors of the animal kingdom are extinct, the only way to reconstruct how these features evolved is by comparing the biology and genomic content of extant animals to their closest living relatives. Here, we reconstruct the Umwelt (the subjective, perceptive world) inhabited by choanoflagellates, a group of unicellular (or facultatively multicellular) aquatic microeukaryotes that are the closest living relatives of animals. Although behavioral research on choanoflagellates remains patchy, existing evidence shows that they are capable of chemosensation, photosensation and mechanosensation. These processes often involve specialized sensorimotor cellular appendages (cilia, microvilli, and/or filopodia) that resemble those that underlie perception in most animal sensory cells. Furthermore, comparative genomics predicts an extensive “sensory molecular toolkit” in choanoflagellates, which both provides a potential basis for known behaviors and suggests the existence of a largely undescribed behavioral complexity that presents exciting avenues for future research. Finally, we discuss how facultative multicellularity in choanoflagellates might help us understand how evolution displaced the locus of decision-making from a single cell to a collective, and how a new space of behavioral complexity might have become accessible in the process.
The causal role of intestinal microbiome in development of pre-eclampsia
Authors: Xiong Zhihui , Wang Qingmin , Pei Shuping , Zhu Zheng 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThe correlation of pre-eclampsia (PE) and intestinal microbiome has been widely demonstrated in existing research, whereas their causal relationship has been rarely explored. The causal relationship between intestinal microbiome and PE risk was examined using large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics. To be specific, the causal microbial taxa for PE were identified using the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) method. The results were verified to be robust through comprehensive sensitive analyses, and the independence of causal relationship was ensured through novel multivariable MR analyses. The possibility of reverse relationships was ruled out through reverse-direction MR analyses. Lastly, the biofunction was explored through enrichment analysis, and a series of validations of PE results in a second GWAS were performed to confirm the results. After correction, four microbial taxa, including Streptococcus genus for PE (FDR q = 0.085), Olsenella genus for PE (FDR q = 0.085), Enterobacteriales order for PE (FDR q = 0.0134), and Akkermansia genus for PE (FDR q = 0.015), had a causal relationship to diverse joint PE (FDR q < 0.15). Moreover, when three different methods were employed on basis of the nominal significance (P < 0.05), five suggestive microbial taxa took on significance. The effect of heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy was excluded through sensitive analysis, and the possibility of horizontal pleiotropy of BMI was ruled out through multivariable MR analysis. The protective mechanism of the identified taxa against PE was illustrated through GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathways. A number of microbial taxa had a causal relationship to PE. The result of this study provides more insights into intestinal microbiome in the pathology of PE.
Exploring Self-reported Adherence Measures to Screen for Elevated HIV Viral Load in Adolescents: A South African Cohort Study
Authors: Zhou Siyanai , Toska Elona , Langwenya Nontokozo , Edun Olanrewaju , Cluver Lucie , Knight Lucia 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThe timely identification of ART non-adherence among adolescents living with HIV presents a significant challenge, particularly in resource-limited settings where virologic monitoring is suboptimal. Using South African adolescent cohort data (N = 933, mean age 13.6 ± 2.89 years, 55.1% female, follow-up = 2014–2018), we examined the association between elevated viral load (VL ≥ 1000 copies/mL) and seven self-reported adherence measures on missed doses, and clinic appointments –with varying recall timeframes. The best performing measures, which were significantly associated with elevated viral load in covariate-adjusted models are: any missed dose –past 3 days (sensitivity = 91.6% [95%CI: 90.3–92.8], positive predictive value (PPV) = 78.8% [95%CI: 77.2–80.4]), –past week (sensitivity = 87% [95%CI: 85.4–88.6], PPV = 78.2% [95%CI: 76.5–79.9]), –past month (sensitivity = 79.5% [95%CI: 77.5–81.4], PPV = 78.2% [95%CI: 76.4–79.9]), any past-month days missed (sensitivity = 86.7% [95%CI: 85.1–88.3], PPV = 77.9% [95%CI:76.2–79.6]), and any missed clinic appointment (sensitivity = 88.3% [95%CI: 86.8–89.8], PPV = 78.4% [95%CI: 76.8–79.9]). Combining the three best performing measures missed dose –past 3 days, –past week, and any past-year missed clinic appointment increased sensitivity to 96.4% while maintaining a PPV of about 78%. The discriminatory power of simple and easy-to-administer self-reported adherence measures in detecting elevated viral load warrants consideration in resource-limited settings and may contribute to the aims of the new Global Alliance to End AIDS in children and adolescents by 2030.
Rational expectations as a tool for predicting failure of weighted k-out-of-n reliability systems
Authors: Andersen Jorgen-Vitting , Cerqueti Roy , Riccioni Jessica 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThis paper develops a model for predicting the failure time of a wide class of weightedk-out-of-nreliability systems. To this aim, we adopt a rational expectation-type approach by artificially creating an information set based on the observation of a collection of systems of the same class–the catalog. Specifically, we state the connection between a synthetic statistical measure of the survived components’ weights and the failure time of the systems. In detail, we follow the evolution of the systems in the catalog from the starting point to their failure–obtained after the failure of some of their components. Then, we store the couples given by the measure of the survived components and the failure time. Finally, we employ such couples for having a prediction of the failure times of a set of new systems–the in-vivo systems–conditioned on the specific values of the considered statistical measure. We test different statistical measures for predicting the failure time of the in-vivo systems. As a result, we give insights on the statistical measure which is more effective in contributing to providing a reliable estimation of the systems’ failure time. A discussion on the initial distribution of the weights is also carried out.
Men’s Facial Hair Preferences Reflect Facial Hair Impression Management Functions Across Contexts and Men Know It
Authors: Jach Łukasz , Moroń Marcin , Jonason Peter K. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractMen with distinct facial hair are perceived as more aggressive, dominant, older, and more formidable, mostly by other men. However, despite considerable interest in the social perception of beardedness, only a few studies have explored men’s preferences toward facial hair. We investigated men’s preferences toward facial hair and whether their judgments of facial hair appropriateness in social situations depended on their actual beardedness and the type of social interaction (N = 509; age: M = 29.35, SD = 7.24). Men preferred having more facial hair, particularly when they have a heavy stubble or a full beard. Men preferred more facial hair for themselves compared to other men, suggesting that men’s preferences for facial hair could be based on the frequency-dependent value of a display, namely more value assigned to rarer attributes. Men’s judgments of the appropriateness of facial hair were sensitive to social situations for displaying facial hair as well. More facial hair was considered more appropriate for informal situations, especially with another man. Social norms associated with formal interaction could, therefore, limit the impression management functions of beards in intrasexual competition.
On the connected components of the moduli space of equivariant minimal surfaces in $$\pmb {\mathbb{C}\mathbb{H}}^2$$.
Authors: McIntosh Ian 
Published: April 2023

AbstractAn equivariant minimal surface in $$\mathbb{C}\mathbb{H}^n$$

C

H

n

is a minimal map of the Poincaré disc into $$\mathbb{C}\mathbb{H}^n$$

C

H

n

which intertwines two actions of the fundamental group of a closed surface $$\Sigma $$
Σ
: a Fuchsian representation on the disc and an irreducible action by isometries on $$\mathbb{C}\mathbb{H}^n$$

C

H

n

. The moduli space of these can been studied by relating it to the nilpotent cone in each moduli space of PU(n, 1)-Higgs bundles over the conformal surface corresponding to the map. By providing a necessary condition for points on this nilpotent cone to be smooth this article shows that away from the points corresponding to branched minimal immersions or ±-holomorphic immersions the moduli space is smooth. The argument is easily adapted to show that for $$\mathbb{R}\mathbb{H}^n$$

R

H

n

the full space of (unbranched) immersions is smooth. For $$\mathbb{C}\mathbb{H}^2$$

C

H

2

we show that the connected components of the moduli space of minimal immersions are indexed by the Toledo invariant and the Euler number of the normal bundle of the immersion. This is achieved by studying the limit points of the $$\mathbb {C}^\times $$

C

×

-action on the nilpotent cone. It is shown that the limit points as $$t\rightarrow 0$$

t
→
0

lead only to branched minimal immersions or ±-holomorphic immersions. In particular, the Euler number of the normal bundle can only jump by passing through branched minimal maps.
Overcoming Blanking: Verbal and Visual Features of Prompting in Theatre Rehearsals
Authors: Krug Maximilian 
Published: April 2023

AbstractIn theatre rehearsals, actors can occasionally be seen getting stuck in the play text, which is called blanking. To overcome such textual difficulties and continue with the given text, a prompter can verbalize the line in question, thus contributing to an actor’s word search by prompting. The paper focuses on interactional practices by which prompters and actors interactionally resolve blanking situations. This study’s data comprises a case collection of 67 prompting situations, which are taken from a 200-h video corpus of a rehearsal process at a professional theatre. These cases demonstrate how theatre professionals organize prompting situations and how they negotiate/sanction prompting actions such as when there was no blanking but a dramatic pause or when the dramatic performance is interrupted due to a missing prompt. In addition to the audiovisual recordings, eye tracking data of the person prompting is also used to describe the coordination of the visual resources in the context of multimodal interaction analysis. The analysis suggests that prompting and blanking persons interactively resolve blankings with the help of verbal and visual markers.
The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Helping People on Sick Leave to Return to Work: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Authors: Xu Huaying , Cai Jinxuan , Sawhney Rakshat , Jiang Stephen , Buys Nicholas , Sun Jing 
Published: April 2023

Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has systematically studied the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)-based interventions in managing both mental and physical symptoms of chronic disease including depression, stress-related mental disorders (SMD), and chronic pain that are common causes of sick leave. However, a systematic review focusing on the effectiveness of CBT in facilitating RTW is lacking. This study compiles research on utilizing CBT-based interventions for helping employees on sick leave return to work.

Methods
Randomized controlled trials (RCT) published between 1 January 1990 and 27 June 2022 were searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and PubMed. The primary outcome variables included a return to work (RTW) measure and sickness absences. The secondary outcomes include psychological conditions (mental illness, stress, anxiety, and depression) and physical condition (working ability, fatigue, and physical function).

Results
Thirty-four RCTs were included in the analysis. Fifteen RCTs with 1727 participants reported on sick leave. Results showed that participants who completed CBT intervention had reduced sick leave in days (mean reduction − 3.654; 95%CI − 5.253, − 2.046; p < 0.001) compared to the control group. Sixteen papers with 2298 participants reported that the intervention group RTW 1.5 days earlier (95%CI 1.019, 1.722; p < 0.05). CBT-based interventions were effective in managing fatigue, mental illness, and depression, and improving physical function while it showed no effects in managing stress, anxiety and working ability.

Conclusions
The findings indicate that CBT-based interventions are effective in reducing the length of sick leave and facilitating the RTW of employees in the intervention group.
Hamiltonian reductions in matrix Painlevé systems
Authors: Bershtein Mikhail , Grigorev Andrei , Shchechkin Anton 
Published: April 2023

AbstractFor certain finite groups $$G$$
G
of Bäcklund transformations, we show that a dynamics of $$G$$
G
-invariant configurations of $$n|G|$$

n
|
G
|

Calogero–Painlevé particles is equivalent to a certain $$n$$
n
-particle Calogero–Painlevé system. We also show that the reduction of a dynamics on $$G$$
G
-invariant subset of $$n|G|\times n|G|$$

n
|
G
|
×
n
|
G
|

matrix Painlevé system is equivalent to a certain $$n\times n $$

n
×
n

matrix Painlevé system. The groups $$G$$
G
correspond to folding transformations of Painlevé equations. The proofs are based on Hamiltonian reductions.
The behavior of the Gauss-Radau upper bound of the error norm in CG
Authors: Meurant Gérard , Tichý Petr 
Published: April 2023

AbstractConsider the problem of solving systems of linear algebraic equations $$\varvec{A}\varvec{x}=\varvec{b}$$

A

x

=

b

with a real symmetric positive definite matrix $$\varvec{A}$$

A

using the conjugate gradient (CG) method. To stop the algorithm at the appropriate moment, it is important to monitor the quality of the approximate solution. One of the most relevant quantities for measuring the quality of the approximate solution is the $$\varvec{A}$$

A

-norm of the error. This quantity cannot be easily computed; however, it can be estimated. In this paper we discuss and analyze the behavior of the Gauss-Radau upper bound on the $$\varvec{A}$$

A

-norm of the error, based on viewing CG as a procedure for approximating a certain Riemann-Stieltjes integral. This upper bound depends on a prescribed underestimate $$\varvec{\mu }$$

μ

to the smallest eigenvalue of $$\varvec{A}$$

A

. We concentrate on explaining a phenomenon observed during computations showing that, in later CG iterations, the upper bound loses its accuracy, and is almost independent of $$\varvec{\mu }$$

μ

. We construct a model problem that is used to demonstrate and study the behavior of the upper bound in dependence of $$\varvec{\mu }$$

μ

, and developed formulas that are helpful in understanding this behavior. We show that the above-mentioned phenomenon is closely related to the convergence of the smallest Ritz value to the smallest eigenvalue of $$\varvec{A}$$

A

. It occurs when the smallest Ritz value is a better approximation to the smallest eigenvalue than the prescribed underestimate $$\varvec{\mu }$$

μ

. We also suggest an adaptive strategy for improving the accuracy of the upper bounds in the previous iterations.