bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Learning to Read Country: Bruce Pascoe’s Earth, an Indigenous Ecological Allegory
Authors: Fonteyn David Michael 
Published: August 2023

Allegories contain specific forms and techniques which define a text as an allegory, including an intention written into the text. The reader is required to make an effort to determine that intention if they are to uncover the allegory. Also, allegories function didactically to educate the reader in a certain way, and, through that education, transform the reader. This is the traditional function of allegory.In this paper, I read Bruce Pascoe’s 2001 novel, Earth, as an example of what I term an ‘Indigenous ecological allegory’. The novel encodes in allegorical form an Indigenous worldview of the natural world. Many theorists agree that such a worldview can broadly be termed ecological. The didactic principle is to educate the reader about this Indigenous worldview of Country. As the reader comes to an understanding of Country, the narrative events, which describe a colonial (1880s) war between non-indigenous and indigenous people, as well as the language that encodes those events, become re-interpreted through this alternative metaphysics. What emerges is a possibility for the overturning of incipient dualism. The growth in the reader’s knowledge of Country opens the way to mutual acceptance. Country makes welcome all people to its land on the provision of respect and a commitment to its care.Pascoe’s novel utilises medieval allegorical forms, techniques and strategies in order to expose the narratives and language of the Australian Tradition to the language of the ‘other’ of Indigenous Country, that is (more specifically) the Wathaurong language and worldview that it encodes. The allegorical techniques include a cyclic narrative structure involving a Threshold scene followed by related scenes and commentary, direct address to the reader, narrative digression, debate, allegorical names and puns. Using these techniques, Pascoe uncovers a polysemy that has developed within the English language in its encounter with the Indigenous people. Finally, while allegory has yet to be studied in ecocrticisim as a form for writing nature, I argue that it is an ideal literary form in which Nature and an ecological worldview may be portrayed in a written text.
The Victorian Anthropocene: George Marsh and the Tangled Bank of Darwinian Environmentalism
Authors: Plotz John 
Published: August 2023

There is an important 19th century turning-point in thinking about the Anthropocene. Vermont environmentalist George Marsh's 1864 Man and Nature: or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action is a seminal account of how the unintended consequences of human action give humans a previously unsuspected role to play in secular terrestrial change. The role that Darwinian 'natural materialism' played in shaping Marsh's insights is profound, and grasping the particular developments in biological thinking that made his work feasible casts a useful side-light on our own current assumptions about humanity's relationship to the environment, and suggests some ways of thinking about which of those assumptions have the potential to shape further thought and large-scale human action.
Particular Planetary Aesthetics
Authors: Boscacci Louise , Phillips Perdita 
Published: August 2023

Particular Planetary Aesthetics is the title and theme of this Swamphen special issue. It has its origins in Ngā Tūtaki – Encounter/s: Agency, Embodiment, Exchange, Ecologies, the 2019 conference of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) held in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa. For this special cross-Tasman event, and from opposite coasts of Australia, we convened panels for participants under two invitational titles: “Affective Encounters, Shadow Traces, and Resonant Naturecultures in the Anthropocene: Particular-planetary aesthetics in the feminist ecosocial turn” and “Encounters with and within the Anthropocene: Speculating on Particular-Planetary Aesthetics.” Our project averred that the work of art in the Anthropocene was under interrogation by contemporary artists, writers, theorists and historians. Connected with this shifting ground, we argued that new energies and collaborations were emerging across the postconventional arts and ecological humanities, creating alternative critical frameworks to engage with: that the human is more-than-human and the social is an eco-social domain in a preternatural age of extinction and climate destruction. We set out to feel the pulse of what contemporary artists and researchers from Aotearoa and Australia were doing, making, speculating on, or writing about in the push and pull—the effects, affects and implications—of the Anthropocene-in-the-making. Our project’s defining call was to explore encounters in a new frame of particular planetary aesthetics: moving from the particular, bodily or affective encounter to trace, reveal or refigure planetary connections, relations and concerns.
In this guest editorial note, we write in the wake of the ravages of climate crisis fires in Australia, as well as the borderless COVID-19 pandemic. We flesh out the project in its beginnings above, and introduce eleven papers and three visual portfolios of art research in practice that respond to our provocations before and after the Auckland conference. Collectively these scholarly and aesthetic works consider, trace, and respond to affective encounters of the particular and the planetary in the capricious spaces of the Anthropocene-in-the-making.
Kāpia
Authors: Randerson Janine 
Published: August 2023

Not long after I was absorbed in the latent energies in the Tsunami boulders and Len Lye’s kinetic systems, I returned to more-than-human geologies in my art practice. The catalyst for my recent video work Kāpia: fossils and remedies was a story of kāpia, a relic of an ancient forest commonly called Kauri gum by the settler-colonists, uncovered in a sand dune in the Hokianga harbour in the ‘far north’ of Aotearoa New Zealand. In long-ago climates, the ancestors of Kauri trees, Agathis australis, grew throughout the country and their traces can be found in the leaf fossil records and in amber, their resin, and the solidified pre-fossil resin, kāpia. Today, only a few stands of original Kauri forest remain in Te Tai Tokerau, Northland, and their future survival is uncertain. The gigantism of the Kauri tree evidences their deep prehistory when they dwelled with huge creatures on the continent of Gondwana in proto-Australia, the Pacific islands, India and Antarctica. Kauri are believed, controversially, to have survived the complete submergence of Aotearoa in the Miocene era, but now they must withstand a new pathogen. Phytophthora agathidicida, commonly called Kauri die-back, surfaced in the Anthropocene, just like COVID-19. We humans are asked by many iwi, tribes, to socially distance from these living ancestor-trees for their own survival, under conditions of rahui, or temporary prohibition. How might we protect bodies of trees, people and other more-than-human companions?
Evaluation of the validity of the HPV viral load compared to conventional techniques for the detection of high-grade anal intraepithelial lesions in men with HIV who have sex with men
Authors: Díez-Martínez Marcos , Perpiñá-Galvañ Juana , Ferri Joaquín , Ventero Maripaz , Portilla Joaquin , Cabañero-Martínez María José 
Published: August 2023

Background
The incidence of high-grade anal intraepithelial lesions (HSILs) has increased in recent years among men who have sex with men with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This work evaluated the validity of the human papilloma virus viral load (HPV-VL) versus cytological and qualitative HPV results to detect HSILs.

Methods
From May 2017 to January 2020, 93 men who have sex with men and HIV were included in an anal cancer screening program from the Infectious Diseases Unit at a tertiary-care hospital in Alicante (Spain). The gold-standard for the screening of anal HSILs is the anal biopsy using high-resolution anoscopy. The diagnostic methods compared against gold-standard were HPV-16-VL, HPV-18-VL, and HPV-16-18-VL co-testing, anal cytology, and qualitative HPV detection. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and cut-off points for HPV-VL were calculated. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and Cohen’s Kappa coefficient (κ) were also calculated.

Results
The mean patient age was 44.6 ± 9.5 years. All of them received antiretroviral treatment, 96.8% had an HIV viral load of <50 copies/mL and 17.2% had a previous diagnosis of AIDS. The diagnosis of the anal biopsies were: 19.4% (n = 18) HSIL, 29.1% (n = 27) LSIL, and 51.6% (n = 48) negative. An HPV-16-VL >6.2 copies/cell was detected in the HSIL biopsy samples (p = 0.007), showing a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 46.2%. HPV-18-VL and HPV16-18-VL co-testing showed a sensitivity of 75% and 76.9% and a specificity of 72.7% and 61.3%, respectively. The highest PPV was 50% obtained with the cytology and HPV-18-VL. The HPV-16-VL showed a NPV of 100%, followed by 88.9% in the HPV-18-VL and 87% in the abnormal cytology. Cohen’s Kappa coefficient were: HPV-18-VL (κ = 0.412), abnormal cytology (κ = 0.353) and HPV-16-VL (κ = 0.338).

Conclusions
HPV-VL testing improved the detection sensitivity but not the specificity for HSIL biopsies compared to anal cytology and the qualitative detection of HPV. In men who have sex with men and HIV the HPV-VL could be an useful tool for diagnosis of HSILs in anal cancer screening programs. Further studies will be needed to evaluate the clinical implications of HPV-VL in these programs.
No genetic causal association between dental caries and Alzheimer’s disease: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis
Authors: Liao Qiao , Li Si-Zhuo , Tian Fa-Fa , Huang Kun , Bi Fang-Fang 
Published: August 2023

Background
An increasing number of observational studies have suggested an association between dental caries and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The association between dental caries and Alzheimer’s disease may be mediated by confounders or reverse causality. In this study, we conducted bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to estimate the bidirectional causality between dental caries and AD.

Materials and Methods
Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics of dental caries were extracted from a published meta-analysis which included a total of 487,823 participants. GWAS datasets of AD and AD onset age were obtained from the FinnGen bank. A bidirectional two-sample analysis was performed to explore the causality between dental caries and AD.

Results
For the dental caries-AD causality estimation, there was no significant association between dental caries and AD, neither with the AD GWASs from the FinnGen database (OR: 1.041, p = 0.874) nor with those from the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (OR: 1.162, p = 0.409). In addition, the genetic susceptibility to dental caries was not related to the onset age of AD. No causality existed between dental caries and early-onset AD (OR: 0.515, p = 0.302) or late-onset AD (OR: 1.329, p = 0.347). For the AD-dental caries relationship, no causality was detected by the IVW method (OR: 1.000, p = 0.717). Findings from other MR methods were consistent. The pleiotropy test and sensitivity analysis confirmed the validity of these MR results.

Conclusions
In this bidirectional MR study, robust evidence to support a bidirectional causal effect between dental caries and AD from the GWAS results within large-scale European-descent populations was absent. Having dental caries would not alter the onset age of AD.
Determining Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure with Firm Size as Variable Moderation
Authors: Prabandari Ayu Rinelisa , Fatimah Nurul , Rochayatun Sulis , Sartika Farahiyah 
Published: August 2023

This study aims to determine the effect of managerial ownership, profitability, leverage, and tax aggressiveness moderated by firm size on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure. The population in this study comprises energy sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), which have a capitalization value of more than 5,000,000,000. Determining the minimum number of samples using Slovin theory shows that 33 minimum samples must be met. The method of determining using purposive sampling with the criteria of energy companies listed on the IDX and issuing annual and sustainability reports in 2019-2021. The results showed that managerial ownership has a significant effect on CSR disclosure. Profitability has no significant effect on CSR disclosure. Leverage has a significant effect on CSR disclosure. Tax aggressiveness has a significant effect on CSR disclosure. Managerial ownership, profitability, leverage, and tax aggressiveness have significant simultaneous effects moderated by firm size on CSR disclosure. Future studies are anticipated to use a bigger sample size because this research is still only applicable to one industry, allowing the findings to reflect a wider range of businesses. Additionally, institutional ownership or shares as illustrations of effective corporate management can be introduced as additional variable factors, which may affect the company's CSR disclosure.
A Comparative Analysis of Nutritional and Chemical Composition of Eight Seeds Used as Native Medicine in West Africa
Authors: Ahajumobi N. E. , Oparaocha E. T. 
Published: August 2023

Background: Rising cost of healthcare globally has prompted governments to seek for ways to treat diseases and reduce costs, plants products offers hope.
Aims: To technically conduct a comparative investigation of the nutritional and chemical composition of eight seeds used for treating diseases in West Africa. To determine edibility, suggest new food, prompt suitable choices and provide easy access of consensus evidence to busy healthcare professional.
Place and Duration of Study: Dept of Public Health, College of Health Science, Walden University, Minneapolis, USA, and Dept of Public Health, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria between September 2022 and June 2023; research collaboration.
Methodology: A systematic review supported by a community approach to intervention services theory was used to determine seeds’ composition. Search engines used, Google, Google scholar, Fire fox, and Safari.
Results: Macro and micronutrients are predominantly present. Only three seeds are consumed as food, the rest are thrashed, and some do not have enough evidence as much as modern medicine is concerned; thus, authors goal is education of both health practitioners and the public about the seeds’ nutritional usefulness. Highest concentration of carbohydrates, 78.49% occurred in Chrysophillum albidum, while Plukenatia conophora ranked last, Tetrapleura tetraptera shows highest protein, while Magnifiera indica scored last, 5.67%. Carica papaya contains the highest fat, 28.3%, with Plukenatia conophora ranking last, 4.28%. Fibre concentration in Annona muricata was high, 35.20%, while Magnifera indica scored the least, 2.35%. Ash level in Tetrapleura tetraptera was highest, 5.59%, least amount occurred in Chrysophyllum albidum, 0.84%. Picralima nitida showed the highest energy level, 1468 Kcal/100 g, Magnifiera indica scored the least, 32.51 Kcal/100 g. Outcome would be beneficial to users.
Conclusion: The seeds are rich in nutrients, which link them to health control.
Performance of Different Varieties of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) under Prayagraj Agro-Climatic Condition
Authors: Ashish  , Topno Samir Ebson , Kerketta Anita 
Published: August 2023

Eight cucumber varieties were evaluated at SHUATS, Prayagraj Uttar Pradesh, in randomized block design with three replications during summer season-2022 for growth, yield and fruit quality traits. The variety AGRI GREEN gave maximum mean value for maximum vine length (217.33cm), number of primary branches (5.67), number of nodes per plant (39.10), Days to first female flower appearance and node to first female flower appearance were minimum and that was about (50.76) and (4.33) respectively, fruit length and weight with (15.83cm) and (126.00gm) respectively), node number at which first female flower appears (4.33), number of female flowers per Plant (16.37), fruit yield/ha (164.10 q/ha), number of fruits per plant (13.30), TSS (4.20 oBrix), was observed in same variety. The maximum fruit diameter was found in SS-100 (45.50 mm). AGRI GREEN was found superior based on overall performance in terms of growth, yield, and quality parameters. The study revealed that, these varieties of cucumber provide high benefit to the farmers through easy cultivation, better stress tolerance, diseases resistance and higher yields.
Genetic Studies for Determination of Yield Components in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Varieties under Saline Conditions Pooled Over Seasons
Authors: Anbuselvam Y. , Sruthi S. R. , Kumar N. Laleeth , Ivin J. Johnny Subakar , Williams Greetty , Joshi J. L. 
Published: August 2023

The current study was conducted on 50 rice genotypes to evaluate the pooled correlation and path analysis of various biometrical traits viz., fifty percent flowering, plant height, panicle length, number of tillers per panicle, number of productive tillers per plant, number of grains per panicle, 100 seed weight with seed yield per plant of three seasons under salinity. The analysis of variance pooled over seasons revealed that all eight traits were highly significant thus indicating the existence of high genetic variability among the genotypes for all the traits and suggest the possibility of improving yield under saline condition. The pooled correlation analysis indicated that seed yield per plant has exhibited significant positive correlation with total number of tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length and number of seeds per panicle. Thus, selection pressure could be applied for increasing the seed yield per plant under saline situation. From the path analysis studies, it was understood that the characters viz., number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length and number of seeds per panicle might be applied with selection pressure directly or indirectly to improve seed yield per plant and the characters studied for seed yield per plant is sufficient and sufficiently control the expression of seed yield in rice under saline situation due to their low residual effect.
A Rare Case of Leiomyomatosis Peritonalis Disseminata
Authors: Ezeigwe Chijioke O. , Okudo Uchenna D. , Ekwebene Onyeka C. , Egwuatu Emmanuel C. , Anyiam Daniel C. , Okudo Jerome C. , Ibidapo-Obe Oyetokunbo , Eleje George U. , Oguejiofor Charlotte B. , Obi Nkejesus C. , Nwodo Victor K. 
Published: August 2023

Leiomyomatosis Peritonalis Disseminata (LPD), also known as disseminated peritoneal leiomyomatosis is an extremely rare disease in women and men where there is a rapid increase in peritoneal and subperitoneal nodules mainly of smooth muscle cells. It is a benign condition, however, its diagnosis can mimic or degenerate into peritoneal leiomyosarcoma, making the diagnosis tricky. In addition, clinical manifestations can be very nonspecific.
We discuss the case of a 38-year-old nulliparous patient who presented to the clinic with a 2-year history of lower abdominal swelling and a 5-month history of severe menorrhagia. Intraoperative findings showed an enlarged uterus with subserosal fibroids and several deposits on the serosa and intestines. The patient had Total hysterectomy and bilateral-salpingoophorectomy. Because malignant transformation has been reported to potentially occur almost 10 years from initial diagnosis, patients should be monitored by repeat ultrasound scans.
Impact of Electronic Banking on Deposit Money Banks Performance in Nigeria: Evidence from Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares Technique
Authors: Ezie Obumneke , Musa Irimiya Christabel , Joshua Jeremiah Dandaura 
Published: August 2023

The importance of electronic banking and its performance can never be overemphasized and technology industries made it effective and efficient in carrying out transactions on a daily basis. On this note, the paper investigated the empirical effect of electronic banking on bank performance in Nigeria from 2009Q1 to 2023Q1. The paper adopted Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) technique and the variables include the dependent variable, return on assets (ROA) while the independent variables include point of sales (POS) and cheque (CHQS). The coefficient of the total number of point of sales transactions (POS) coefficient is directly related to electronic banking on bank performance long-run in Nigeria. The result reveals that there is a statistical and positive effect of electronic banking on bank performance on the return of assets (ROA) in Nigeria. On the other hand, the coefficient of total transactions carried out on the cheques (CHQS) is positively related to electronic banking on bank performance captured by return on assets (ROA). It means a rise in total transactions carried out on the cheques exerts a positive impact on e-banking on bank performance in Nigeria. The paper recommended that government or financial institutions should deploy the right technology that would model the digital global market and banking sector and that banks should encourage the consumers‟ of electronic ways of banking. On the aspect of cheques, therefore, there is a need to develop effective strategies for customers to shift from traditional to electronic banking and discourage the use of cheques.
Epidemiology and Sensitivity to Antibiotics of Uropathogenic Bacteria in Patients at the CHU Ignace Deen National Hospital in Conakry, Guinea
Authors: Camara Taliby Dos , Makanera Abdoulaye , Rachid Mounaida , Camara Mory 
Published: August 2023

Introduction: Urinary tract infections are caused by the colonisation of the various organs of the urinary tract by microorganisms.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the antibiotic sensitivity of bacteria isolated from urinary tract infections and improve the health care of patients with urinary tract infections.
Methods: This is a prospective, cross-sectional descriptive study that took place over three months, from 2 February to 2 May 2022.
Results: Bacterial identifications showed a predominance of Escherichia coli (E. coli) with 52%, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) with 13%, Enteroccus spp., with 9%, Enterobacter cloacae complex (E. cloacae) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) with 8% each. and the other germs are weakly represented. The antibiogram showed that certain antibiotics were active on the majority of strains, including imipenem (75%), cefoxitin (65%) and ertapenem (64%), amikacin (61%). All age groups were affected by urinary tract infections with a predominance in the age group of 51 years and over (54%), and 25 to 50 years are the most represented in our study with respectively 54% and 28%. The Marital Status shows that Married people were mostly exposed to urinary tract infections with a prevalence of 78%. The distribution according to socio-professional characteristics showed that Housewives were the most represented (30%). The majority of infected patients came from the Commune of Ratoma (35%).
Conclusion: Urinary tract infections are a major public health problem whose health management necessarily involves an antibiogram and possibly the monitoring of hematological parameters.