bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hyaluronan in COVID-19 morbidity, a bedside-to-bench approach to understand mechanisms and long-term consequences of hyaluronan
Authors: Hellman Urban , Rosendal Ebba , Lehrstrand Joakim , Henriksson Johan , Björsell Tove , Hahn Max , Österberg Björn , Dorofte Luiza , Nilsson Emma , Forsell Mattias N.E. , Smed-Sörensen Anna , Lange Anna , Karlsson Mats , Ahlm Clas , Blomberg Anders , Cajander Sara , Ahlgren Ulf , Edin Alicia , Normark Johan , Överby Anna K , Lenman Annasara 
Published: February 2023

ABSTRACTBackgroundWe have previously shown that lungs from deceased COVID-19 patients are filled with hyaluronan (HA). In this translational study, we investigated the role of HA in all stages of COVID-19 disease, to map the consequences of elevated HA in morbidity and identify the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2-induced HA production.MethodsLung morphology was visualized in 3D using light-sheet fluorescence microscopy. HA was verified by immunohistochemistry, and fragmentation was determined by gas-phase electrophoretic molecular mobility analysis. The association of systemic HA in blood plasma and disease severity was assessed in patients with mild (WHO Clinical Progression Scale, WHO-CPS, 1-5) and severe COVID-19 (WHO-CPS 6-9), during the acute and convalescent phases and related to lung function.In vitro3D-lung models differentiated from primary human bronchial epithelial cells were used to study effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on HA metabolism.FindingsLungs of deceased COVID-19 patients displayed reduced alveolar surface area compared to healthy controls. We verified HA in alveoli and showed high levels of fragmented HA both in lung tissue and aspirates. Systemic levels of HA were high during acute COVID-19 disease, remained elevated during convalescence and associated with reduced diffusion capacity. Transcriptomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2-infected lung models showed dysregulation of HA synthases and hyaluronidases, both contributing to increased HA in apical secretions. Corticosteroid treatment reduced inflammation and, also, downregulated HA synthases.InterpretationWe show that HA plays a role in COVID-19 morbidity and that sustained elevated HA concentrations may contribute to long-term respiratory impairment. SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers a dysregulation of HA production, leading to increased concentrations of HA that are partially counteracted by corticosteroid treatment. Treatments directly targeting HA production and/or degradation can likely be used early during infection and may alleviate disease progression and prevent long-term lung complications.
Effect of gastroesophageal reflux disease on sleep disorders: a Mendelian randomization study
Authors: Li Zijie , Zhuang Weitao , Wu Junhan , Xu Haijie , Tang Yong , Qiao Guibin 
Published: February 2023

AbstractBackgroundRecently observational studies have consistently shown an association between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and sleep disorders. In this study, Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to determine the genetic causal relationship between GERD and the risk of sleep disorders.MethodsThe summary statistics of GERD and sleep disorders were obtained through large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In addition to exploring sleep disorders, a deeper analysis was conducted on some major categories of sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea and insomnia. Various MR analysis methods including inverse-variance weighted (IVW), MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode were performed, and the results of IVW were taken as the primary results. In addition, sensitivity analyses including heterogeneity test and pleiotropy test were also performed to test the robustness of the MR results.ResultsAfter removing the ineligible SNPs and the palindromic SNPs, IVW detected a significant effect of GERD on sleep disorders (OR = 1.436, 95% CI: 1.309-1.576, p = 2.099E-14) and sleep apnoea (OR = 1.486, 95% CI: 1.341-1.647, p = 4.409E-14). However, there was no genetic causality in the effect of GERD on insomnia (IVW OR = 1.146, 95% CI: 0.877-1.498, p = 0.319). Furthermore, the heterogeneity test and pleiotropy test found no evidence of bias, which indicated the results were robust.ConclusionsOur study found that the presence of GERD increased the risk of sleep disorders and sleep apnoea, but not the risk of insomnia. Further research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms of causal relationships.
Mechanical Property Based Brain Age Prediction using Convolutional Neural Networks
Authors: Clements Rebecca G. , Claros-Olivares Claudio Cesar , McIlvain Grace , Brockmeier Austin J. , Johnson Curtis L. 
Published: February 2023

AbstractBrain age is a quantitative estimate to explain an individual’s structural and functional brain measurements relative to the overall population and is particularly valuable in describing differences related to developmental or neurodegenerative pathology. Accurately inferring brain age from brain imaging data requires sophisticated models that capture the underlying age-related brain changes. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a phase contrast MRI technology that uses external palpations to measure brain mechanical properties. Mechanical property measures of viscoelastic shear stiffness and damping ratio have been found to change across the entire life span and to reflect brain health due to neurodegenerative diseases and even individual differences in cognitive function. Here we develop and train a multi-modal 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) to model the relationship between age and whole brain mechanical properties. After training, the network maps the measurements and other inputs to a brain age prediction. We found high performance using the 3D maps of various mechanical properties to predict brain age. Stiffness maps alone were able to predict ages of the test group subjects with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 3.76 years, which is comparable to single inputs of damping ratio (MAE: 3.82) and outperforms single input of volume (MAE: 4.60). Combining stiffness and volume in a multimodal approach performed the best, with an MAE of 3.60 years, whereas including damping ratio worsened model performance. Our results reflect previous MRE literature that had demonstrated that stiffness is more strongly related to chronological age than damping ratio. This machine learning model provides the first prediction of brain age from brain biomechanical data—an advancement towards sensitively describing brain integrity differences in individuals with neuropathology.
Social experience influences thermal sensitivity: lessons from an amphibious mangrove fish
Authors: Melanson Chloé A. , Allore Claire , Lamarre Simon G. , Currie Suzanne 
Published: February 2023

AbstractUnderstanding factors affecting ectothermic fishes’ capacity to cope with warming temperature is critical given predicted climate change scenarios. We know that a fish’s social environment introduces plasticity in how it responds to high temperature. However, the magnitude of this plasticity and the mechanisms underlying socially-modulated thermal responses are unknown. Using the amphibious, selfing hermaphroditic mangrove rivulus fish (Kryptolebias marmoratus) as a model, we tested three hypotheses: 1) social stimulation affects physiological and behavioural thermal responses of isogenic lineages of fish, 2) social experience and acute social stimulation result in distinct physiological and behavioural responses, and 3) a desensitization of thermal receptors is responsible for socially modulated thermal responses. To test the first two hypotheses, we measured the temperature at which fish emerged (i.e.,pejustemperature) with acute warming with socially naïve, isolated fish and socially experienced fish. Our results did not support our first hypothesis as fish socially-stimulated by mirrors during warming (i.e., acute social stimulation) emerged at similar temperatures as isolated fish. However, in support of our second hypothesis, prior social experience resulted in fish emerging at a higher temperature than socially naïve fish suggesting an increase inpejustemperature with social experience. We measured whole-body cortisol concentrations of socially naïve and socially experienced fish and determined that socially experienced fish had significantly higher cortisol concentrations than socially naïve fish. To test our third hypothesis, we exposed socially experienced and naïve fish to capsaicin, an agonist of TRPV1 thermal receptors. Socially experienced fish emerged at significantly higher capsaicin concentrations than socially naïve fish suggesting a desensitization of their TRPV1 thermal receptors. Collectively, our data indicate that past and present social experiences impact the behavioural response of fish to high temperature. We also provide novel data suggesting that social experience affects the capacity of fish to perceive warm temperature.
Genetic analysis ofVCPvariants in a Turkish dementia cohort
Authors: Dehghani Nadia , Tufekcioglu Zeynep , Guven Gamze , Westra Kaitlyn , Hanagasi Hasmet , Lohmann Ebba , Samanci Bedia , Gurvit Hakan , Bilgic Basar , Guerreiro Rita , Emre Murat , Bras Jose 
Published: February 2023

AbstractValosin-containing protein(VCP) mutations are causative for multisystem proteinopathy, a disease characterized by variable phenotypes including inclusion body myopathy, Paget’s disease of bone, and frontotemporal dementia. More recent reports identifiedVCPvariants as the cause of other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease and vacuolar tauopathy. We screened a Turkish dementia cohort forVCPvariants in order to assess their role as the cause of disease in this population. One hundred and forty six Turkish dementia patients were examined clinically and were analyzed forVCPcoding variants using whole-exome sequencing. Familial samples were collected and analyzed in order to test for segregation of candidate variants. We identified a heterozygous missense VCP p.Ile216Met variant segregating with disease in a family where the proband was diagnosed with prodromal dementia with Lewy bodies. Our report potentially extends the spectrum of phenotypes attributed toVCPmutations to include prodromal dementia with Lewy bodies.
A multi-stage, delay differential model of snow crab population dynamics in the Scotian Shelf of Atlantic Canada
Authors: Choi Jae S. 
Published: February 2023

AbstractSnow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) are cold-water stenotherms in the northern hemisphere. As they are long-lived and have a complex life history, developing an operational model of population dynamics has been a challenge, especially in the context of an ever increasing and varied human footprint upon nature. Here we review past efforts at understanding the population dynamics of snow crab in an environmentally and spatiotemporally heterogeneous area, the Scotian Shelf of the northwest Atlantic of Canada. We address these difficulties with a moderately complex multi-stage, delay differential model and parameterize it leveraging Bayesian techniques. Operationalsolutionswere stable and reasonable and permitted inference upon the intra-annual dynamics of snow crab. Further, a concept of aFisheries footprint, akin to instantaneous fishing mortality rate, can be elucidated that directly addresses the conceptual impact of a fishery upon a non-stationary population. The approach is promising. The model suggests additional processes need to be accounted. We hypothesize that seasonal, interannual movement and spatiotemporally structured predation are key processes that require further attention. However, as computational costs are significant, these additional processes will need to be parameterized carefully.
Oscillatory brain activity as unified control mechanism for working memory and social cognition
Authors: Friedrich Elisabeth V. C. , Hilla Yannik , Sterner Elisabeth F. , Ostermeier Simon S. , Behnke Larissa , Sauseng Paul 
Published: February 2023

AbstractIt has long been thought that coordination of briefly maintained information (working memory) and higher social cognition (mentalizing) rely on mutually exclusive brain mechanisms. However, here we show that slow rhythmical brain activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex controls distributed networks associated with working memory as well as mentalizing during cognitively demanding visual and social tasks. Depending on the effort necessary for cognitive operations, the phase of slow frontal oscillations is used to precisely tune communication with posterior brain areas. For participants having low autistic personality traits, this mechanism is identical across tasks – no matter whether visual or social information is processed. This underpins a unified function of the mentioned oscillatory brain mechanism in working memory and mentalizing. Participants with high autistic personality traits – thus, with difficulty in social cognition – however, have an inability to efficiently tune brain communication depending on cognitive effort in visual information processing. Even more striking, in higher social cognition they fail to implement coordination of distributed brain networks by slow frontal oscillations completely. While these findings suggest a unified function of brain oscillations in cognitive coordination they also explain why individuals with high autistic personality traits can have difficulties with demanding cognitive processing across domains.Significance StatementOur findings revealed an interregional brain coupling mechanism based on rhythmical cortical activity to be responsible for successful social and visual working memory by tuning the fronto-parietal network depending on memory load. We suggest that this coupling mechanism can explain how communication between distant brain areas is effectively controlling cognitive functions, independent of the exact type of information that is processed. Importantly, participants with high autistic personality traits struggle with efficient tuning of fronto-parietal networks. Thus, a deficit in this coupling mechanism seems to be an underlying cause of impairments in social and visual working memory, which is often seen in individuals on the Autism Spectrum. These findings might even generalize to other mental disorders as broad cognitive control deficits and social problems are common in a variety of psychiatric and neurological conditions.
What makes hot beverage vending machine cups eco-friendly? A research into consumer views and preferences
Authors: Bertossi Alberto , Troiano Stefania , Marangon Francesco 
Published: February 2023

PurposeThis study aims to gain a first explorative view on what intrinsic/extrinsic attributes a generic cup for hot beverage should possess to be perceived as eco-friendly, and how some attributes of a hot beverage could influence consumers’ purchase decision and willingness to pay (WTP) for that beverage dispensed by vending machines (VMs).Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was developed in 2021 and sent to all students of an Italian university campus. For the first goal, students were asked to assign a score to some eco-friendly intrinsic/extrinsic attributes using a five-point Likert scale. For the second aim, a choice experiment with six scenarios was developed.FindingsBoth intrinsic and extrinsic attributes play a key role in shaping students’ opinions and preferences. Results indicate that students are attracted by the idea of a cup that communicates its environmental properties through corresponding labels and information, and it is made by materials that guarantee biodegradability, recyclability or reusability.Originality/valueThe research represents the first academic attempt to provide a first consumers’ viewpoint on the importance of eco-friendly attributes of cups for hot beverages able to influence consumers’ perceptions and consumption choices of hot beverages dispensed by VMs.
Integrating building information modeling with augmented reality: application and empirical assessment in building facility management
Authors: Khan Sochea , Panuwatwanich Kriengsak , Usanavasin Sasiporn 
Published: February 2023

PurposeThis paper presents a developed BIMxAR application, an integration of building information modeling (BIM) with augmented reality (AR) linked with real-time online database to support the building facility management work. The primary aim of this research was to develop and empirically examine the applicability of a BIM-based AR (BIMxAR) application in building facility management.Design/methodology/approachThe BIMxAR application was developed and experimented with maintenance work of a university laboratory building. The experiment consisted of a comparison of supportive maintenance tasks performed using the traditional approach and the BIMxAR approach by 38 university students. The time taken to complete each task was recorded and analyzed using statistical analyses to compare the performance between the tasks completed using each approach.FindingsThe results indicated that the group using the BIMxAR application approach completed the tasks correctly in a significantly shorter time compared to that using the traditional approach. The findings supported the applicability of the developed BIMxAR application and the improvement of the building facility management tasks when using the proposed approach.Originality/valueThis paper presents a methodological approach in developing a mobile application that integrates BIM with AR for facility management work, leveraging real-time information exchange through a cloud-based platform. The paper also provides empirical evidence that demonstrates how the integration between BIM and AR could be achieved and implemented to help facilitate building maintenance tasks.
An exploration of Australian attitudes towards privacy
Authors: Shanley Aleatha , Johnstone Mike , Szewczyk Patryk , Crowley Michael 
Published: February 2023

Purpose
Using technology to meet national security expectations and requirements is not new. Nations attempt to strike a balance between security and the (expressed or otherwise) privacy needs of citizens. Attacks (physical or cyber) on citizens shift the equilibrium point towards security. In contrast, civil liberties organisations act to preserve or increase privacy. The purpose of this paper is to explore Australian attitudes towards privacy and surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this paper aims to discover what (if any) factors contribute to societal acceptance of privacy encroachment implicated by surveillance programs.

Design/methodology/approach
Data collection occurred during 2021 using a cross-sectional survey comprising a variety of self-assessment questions. In addition, anchoring vignettes were introduced as a means of contextualising complex concepts, i.e. privacy and security. Finally, latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify homogenous patterns within the data, referred to as “classes” for the analysis of trust.

Findings
First, the survey revealed that citizens appear to be unconcerned about surveillance in public and private spaces (although this may be a temporary effect resulting from the pandemic). The potential for identification, however, does raise concerns. Second, LCA surfaced a specific group that were more likely to trust entities and showed less concern about surveillance in society. Finally, even this latter group displayed a “trust deficit” in specific organisations (private businesses and social media firms).

Research limitations/practical implications
The tension between security and privacy remains, even in a post-pandemic world; therefore, the authors consider that the results, whilst interesting, are preliminary. Notwithstanding this, the findings provide insight into Australian attitudes towards privacy and surveillance and, consequently, provide input into public policy.

Originality/value
This is the most recent survey of the Australian public concerning this issue. The analysis of the effect of the pandemic on attitudes provides further value.
On the drivers of drug shortages: empirical evidence from Germany
Authors: Francas David , Mohr Stephan , Hoberg Kai 
Published: February 2023

PurposeDisruptions and shortages of drugs have become severe problems in recent years, which has triggered strong media and public interest in the topic. However, little is known about the factors that can be associated with the increased frequency of shortages. In this paper, the authors analyze the drivers of drug shortages using empirical data for Germany, the fourth largest pharmaceutical market.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a dataset provided by the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte [BfArM]) with 425 reported shortages for drug substances (DSs) in the 24-month period between May 2017 and April 2019 and enrich the data with information from additional sources. Using logistic and negative binomial regression models, the authors analyze the impact of (1) market characteristics, (2) drug substance characteristics and (3) regulatory characteristics on the likelihood of a shortage.FindingsThe authors find that factors like market concentration, patent situation, manufacturing processes or dosage form are significantly associated with the odds of a shortage. The authors discuss the implications of these findings to reduce the frequency and severity of shortages.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the empirical research on drug shortages by analyzing the impact of market characteristics, DS characteristics and regulatory characteristics on the reported shortages. The authors’ analysis provides a starting point for better prioritizing efforts to strengthen drug supply as it is currently intensely discussed healthcare authorities.
The role of integrated thinking in corporate governance during the COVID-19 crisis: perspectives from South Africa
Authors: Myeza Lindani , Ecim Dusan , Maroun Warren 
Published: February 2023

PurposeThis study aims to examine how integrated thinking principles can be used to assist those charged with governance during and after a crisis.Design/methodology/approachAn autoethnographic approach was used to collect and reflect on information related to the economic, social and environmental impact of COVID-19. This was complemented with a bibliometric analysis of academic articles including “corporate governance”, “integrated thinking” and “crisis” as a keyword. This information was used to produce a data mind map of core themes. This was supplemented with a qualitative exploratory approach based on semi-structured interviews with 16 participants comprising preparers of financial statements, board members and corporate governance specialists to obtain insights into using integrated thinking in corporate governance during a crisis.FindingsThe results of the study indicate that those charged with governance can use integrated thinking to repurpose their business model by considering a multi-capital and multi-stakeholder perspective to value creation. The study highlights the importance of implementing a holistic capital integration process to gauge risks, capitalise on opportunities and improve business processes in response to a crisis. This can be leveraged by both the private and public sectors to manage a crisis and deal with the long-term indirect impacts of a crisis.Social implicationsAn integrated thinking approach can be used by both the private and public sectors to bolster confidence, tackle pressing social and environmental challenges and contribute to improved performance relative to the sector.Originality/valueThe expert interviews contribute empirical evidence to the profile of mainstream social and environmental accounting literature and offer a practical contribution by offering insights that can directly be used by organisations’ investors, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to manage a crisis. This paper also advances the sustainability agenda by assessing how a crisis can be managed in the context of a developing economy and advancing normative recommendations which will be broadly applicable to an international audience.