bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Helping networks to get synchronized: Effect of external stimulation
Authors: Nezhad Hajian Dorsa , Vivekanandhan Gayathri , Natiq Hayder , Parastesh Fatemeh , Rajagopal Karthikeyan , Jafari Sajad 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
The attempts to evaluate the synchronizability of chaotic systems have shown that additive periodic forcing, as a relevant source of stimuli, significantly impacts multiple forms of synchrony. This paper investigates the complete synchronizability of coupled periodically forced chaotic systems using the master stability function method. Three classic chaotic systems, Lorenz, Chen's, and Hindmarsh-Rose models are employed for this study. The numerical simulations supporting master stability function findings are also reported. The impacts of forcing amplitude and frequency on the critical value of coupling strength at which synchronization occurs are determined. Evidence implies that, as the stimulation is amplified, the chaotic forced systems tend to synchronize at weaker couplings than the autonomous versions. In contrast, high-frequency stimulation is entirely ineffective. The required forcing amplitude is also relative to the system's attractor size.
Mechanistic Insights of Thyroid Cancer Progression
Authors: Leandro-García Luis Javier , Landa Iñigo 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Differentiated thyroid cancers (DTCs) are primarily initiated by mutations that activate the MAPK signaling cascade, typically at BRAF or RAS oncoproteins. DTCs can evolve to more aggressive forms, specifically, poorly differentiated (PDTC) and anaplastic thyroid cancers (ATC), by acquiring additional genetic alterations which deregulate key pathways. In this review, we focused on bona fide mutations involved in thyroid cancer progression for which consistent mechanistic data exist. Here we summarized the relevant literature, spanning approximately 2 decades, highlighting genetic alterations that are unquestionably enriched in PDTC/ATC. We describe the relevant functional data obtained in multiple in vitro and in vivo thyroid cancer models employed to study genetic alterations in the following genes and functional groups: TP53, effectors of the PI3K/AKT pathway, TERT promoter, members of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, NF2, and EIF1AX. In addition, we briefly discuss other genetic alterations that are selected in aggressive thyroid tumors but for which mechanistic data is still either limited or nonexistent. Overall, we argue for the importance conveyed by preclinical studies for the clinical translation of genomic knowledge of thyroid cancers.
Legislative and Regulatory Options for Improving Medicare Advantage
Authors: Fuse Brown Erin C. , Williams Travis C. , Murray Roslyn C. , Meyers David J. , Ryan Andrew M. 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
The Medicare Advantage program was created to expand beneficiary choice and to reduce spending through capitated payment to private insurers. However, many stakeholders now argue that Medicare Advantage is failing to deliver on its promise to reduce spending. Three problematic design features in Medicare Advantage payment policy have received particular scrutiny: (1) how baseline payments to insurers are determined, (2) how variation in patient risk affects insurer payment, and (3) how payments to insurers are adjusted for quality performance. The authors analyze the statute underlying these three design features and explore legislative and regulatory strategies for improving Medicare Advantage. They conclude that regulatory approaches for improving risk adjustment and for recouping overpayments from risk-score gaming have the highest potential impact and are the most feasible improvement measures to implement.
Unmaking the Feral
Authors: Keil Paul G. 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Domesticated pigs (Sus scrofa) were introduced as livestock in Australia by European settlers, and now a large population is living wild. Rather than interrogate the settler pig as co-colonizer and destroyer of Australian ecologies, this article employs Deborah Bird Rose’s concept of “unmaking”—a process that fractures relationality in service of control—to articulate the relational violence done to the free-living pig by naming it a feral animal. An examination of the nonhuman’s historical entanglement with Anglo-Australian settlers in New South Wales will trace the free-living pigs’ shifting agency and identity. Introduced pigs were modern English breeds, domesticates in nascent capitalist stages of unmaking. Yet, these animals were made anew in Australia, living largely unmediated and demonstrating remarkable adaptability to novel environments. This article analyzes how porcine bodies and identities took shape in connection to a hunting culture and wild pork economy, a practice that encouraged Sus scrofa’s transformative ability to move between wild and domestic domains. Then, in the 1950s, how farmers, veterinarians, and government actors with converging motivations sought to reductively read the free-living pig as toxic and illegitimate, and to rebrand the “wild” pig as “feral.” To be feral in Australia is to be part of a systematic process that institutes strict limitations on an animal’s relational possibilities. By problematizing all life-sustaining connections the nonhuman being has with their environment, this process endeavors to radically unmake the socio-ecologies that constitute their being. Unmaking the feral targets the relational knots that make existence possible.
Becoming-with Donkeyness
Authors: Krawczyk Michał 
Published: July 2023

AbstractAs an environmental humanist, I grab a camera to mediate the world around me. The short film LAND/SCAPE (2020), cocreated by two donkeys (Dondolo and Giorgiana), fellow PhD candidate Giulia Lepori, and me, was filmed on the Mediterranean island of Sicily in the Valley of Sagana. As part of our doctoral projects, we were involved in managing the land in that valley and in undertaking caring performances among this lively meshwork. Simona Trecarichi and Danilo Colomela, the two permaculture designers behind this project, have been redesigning their landscape over the past fifteen years. In walking through the paths paved by the donkeys Dondolo and Giorgiana, I was slowly understanding other-than-human relations in the biome. I was becoming-with donkeys in their becoming-with land. Through my experimental aesthetic intervention in mediating the donkeys’ becoming-with land, I strapped the camera to Dondolo. In this article, I combine ethnographic multispecies vignettes from my fieldwork with my artist’s statement about my practice. I reflect upon cinema’s unique affinity with the Anthropocene—that double bind between the media and nature—and how the biogeomorphic qualities found in the film diffract the world back to us, enabling the viewers to feel the cinematic land affect. This is not the filmmaker’s gaze nor his story. It is a film world’s landsoundscape filled with more-than-human bodies; as such, this story belongs to the land and the earth others. Please watch the film LAND/SCAPE first, and only then engage with the written word.
The role of body size and cuticular hydrocarbons in the desiccation resistance of invasive Argentine ants (Linepithema humile)
Authors: Whyte Brian A. , Sandidge Rebecca , Buellesbach Jan , Cash Elizabeth I. , Scheckel Kelsey J. , Gibson Joshua D. , Tsutsui Neil D. 
Published: July 2023

ABSTRACT
An insect's cuticle is typically covered in a layer of wax prominently featuring various hydrocarbons involved in desiccation resistance and chemical communication. In Argentine ants (Linepithema humile), cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) communicate colony identity, but also provide waterproofing necessary to survive dry conditions. Theory suggests different CHC compound classes have functional trade-offs, such that selection for compounds used in communication would compromise waterproofing, and vice versa. We sampled sites of invasive L. humile populations from across California to test whether CHC differences between them can explain differences in their desiccation survival. We hypothesized that CHCs whose abundance was correlated with environmental factors would determine survival during desiccation, but our regression analysis did not support this hypothesis. Interestingly, we found the abundance of most CHCs had a negative correlation with survival, regardless of compound class. We suggest that the CHC differences between L. humile nests in California are insufficient to explain their differential survival against desiccation, and that body mass is a better predictor of desiccation survival at this scale of comparison.
Automotive Procurement Under Opaque Prices: Theory with Evidence from the BMW Supply Chain
Authors: Turcic Danko , Markou Panos , Kouvelis Panos , Corsten Daniel 
Published: July 2023

Several features of automotive procurement distinguish it from the prototypical supply chain in the academic literature: pass-through pricing that reimburses suppliers for raw material costs, market frictions that prohibit cost transparency and imbue suppliers with pricing power, and contractual commitments that span multiple production periods. In this context, we formalize a procurement model by considering an automaker that buys components from an upstream supplier to assemble cars over several production periods in an environment where period demands and raw material costs are both stochastic. Our paper clarifies how information asymmetry and market factors that amplify or weaken this asymmetry affect the firms’ procurement protocol preferences. Then, using proprietary contract and supplier data from BMW, we empirically validate this model and show that it reflects BMW’s reality: the factors that should theoretically go into automotive procurement decisions do so. Our analysis also reveals that existing contracting protocols in this context are not optimal for procurement under asymmetric information, and so we propose an alternative contracting method. We calibrate our model and estimate an automaker’s performance improvement from this optimal contract over the status quo. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4880 .
Preventing Risks of Infections and Medication Errors in IV therapy (PRIME): a patient safety initiative
Authors: Giri Jayant , Poojary Aruna , Coto Berling S , Agarwal Anuradha , Datta Babli , Ganguly Sumana , Hindlekar Prajakta , Patil Priyanka , Vitto Jasmine Virginia A. , Choi Aeri , Kim Sookhyun , Basaiawmoit Banrishisha , Biswas Doli , Prabhakar Shweta , Sharma Anita , Deshwal Neelam , Shin Jeong Ae , Jung JinYoung , Eshwara Vandana Kalwaje , Varma Muralidhar , Mukhopadhyay Chiranjay , Mundkur Suneel C , Shetty Avinash , Kurup Shreeshubha , Rajalakshmi Arjun , Kumar Rajiv , Shah Sweta , Fouzdar Havovi , Park OkSim , Kim HeeJung , Budhiraja Sandeep , Verma Arati , Dutt Arti , Mehta Yatin , Patil Nipun , Pollatu Joan Christina , Rikumahu Marisco , Inchaiya Phatharaporn , Weangsima Dararut , McCaughan Julie , Chandra Riny , Setyohariyati Florentina Dhianna Sri , Sihite Christin Rouli Juni , Bawaningtyas Benedikta Betty , Octaviani Susi Nur , Hoai Vu Thi Thu , Sang Doan Minh , Van Thang Bui , Van Anh Dinh Thi 
Published: July 2023

Background: Two major avoidable reasons for adverse events in hospital are medication errors and intravenous therapy-induced infections or complications. Training for clinical staff and compliance to patient safety principles could address these. Methods: Joint Commission International (JCI) consultants created a standardised, 6-month training programme for clinical staff in hospitals. Twenty-one tertiary care hospitals from across south-east Asia took part. JCI trained the clinical consultants, who trained hospital safety champions, who trained nursing staff. Compliance and knowledge were assessed, and monthly audits were conducted. Results: There was an overall increase of 29% in compliance with parameters around medication preparation and vascular access device management. Conclusion: The programme improved safe practice around preparing medications management and managing vascular access devices. The approach could be employed as a continuous quality improvement initiative for the prevention of medication errors and infusion-associated complications.
Exploring the concordance of recommendations across guidelines on chest imaging for the diagnosis and management of COVID-19: A proposed methodological approach based on a case study
Authors: Yaacoub Sally , Chamseddine Fatimah , Jaber Farah , Blazic Ivana , Frija Guy , Akl Elie A. 
Published: July 2023

ObjectiveTo describe a methodological approach to explore the concordance of recommendations across guidelines and its application to the case of the WHO recommendations on chest imaging for the diagnosis and management of COVID-19.Study design and settingWe followed a methodological approach applied to a case study that included: defining the ‘reference guideline’ (i.e., the WHO guidance) and the ‘reference recommendations’; searching for ‘related guidelines’ and identifying ‘related recommendations’; constructing the PICO for the recommendations; assessing the matching of the PICO of each related recommendation to the PICO corresponding reference recommendation; and assessing the concordance between the PICO-matching recommendations.ResultsWe identified a total of 89 related recommendations from 22 related guidelines. Out of the 89 related recommendations, 43 partly matched and 1 entirely matched one of the reference recommendations, and out of these, 8 were concordant with one of the reference recommendations. When considering the seven reference recommendations, they had a median of 12 related recommendations (range 3–17), a median of 7 PICO-matching recommendations (range 0–13), and a median of 1 concordant recommendation (range 0–4).ConclusionFollowing a detailed methodological approach, we were able to explore the concordance between our reference recommendations and related recommendations from other guidelines. A relatively low percentage of recommendations was concordant.
Lifestyle interventions for patients with non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis–Design, rationale and protocol of the study “target group-specific optimisation of lifestyle interventions for behavior change in non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis (OPTI-NASH)”
Authors: Krüger Kathrin , Oedingen Carina , Kautz Achim , Langenbacher Diane , Rossol Siegbert , Stahmeyer Jona T. , Krauth Christian 
Published: July 2023

Background
Non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis (NASH) is the inflammatory, progressive form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). A delayed diagnose interval is typical for the majority of the patients because of the asymptomatic natural course. However, serious sequelae may develop such as cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. NASH is also associated with an increased risk of metabolic diseases. Obesity developed due to a lack of exercise or a disadvantageous diet often leads to NAFLD or NASH, thereby interventions including enhanced physical activity and calorie reduction form the actual gold standard of treatment. To date, patients rarely use these. The project aims to model lifestyle interventions based on the preferences of the NASH patients.

Methods
Based on a systematic review and focus group discussions, two discrete choice experiments (DCE) will be designed, one on aspects influencing successful uptake of lifestyle interventions and one to analyses parameters contributing to long-term participation. An online survey will be used to elicit patient’s preferences on program design and on motivational aspects in a cross-sectional design. The recruitment will take place in nine certified specialist practices and hospital outpatient clinics aiming to reach a sample size of n = 500 which is also required for the DCE design.

Discussion
The results will provide an overview of the NASH patient’s preferences regarding the successful uptake and long-term implementation of lifestyle interventions. Recommendations for optimized lifestyle change programs will be derived and an intervention manual will be developed to facilitate target group-specific inclusion in programs in practice.
Intersections of informal work status, gender and tuberculosis diagnosis: Insights from a qualitative study from an Indian setting
Authors: George Sobin , Syamala T. S. , Paranjpe Aditi , Saalim Mohamed 
Published: July 2023

BackgroundThere is evidence that more than one third of tuberculosis (TB) cases in India go undiagnosed each year and it is more pronounced among female patients. While there are studies available on the socioeconomic, cultural and gender-related dimensions of TB diagnosis delays among female patients in India, intersections of gender, informal work and diagnosis delays are not sufficiently studied. The present study aims to fill this gap by examining the TB diagnosis delay that are linked to the contingencies of working in informal arrangements for women from lower socio economic background.MethodsThe study draws on 80 qualitative in-depth interviews conducted among female patients from lower socio-economic background, who were working or recently stopped working in informal arrangements and undergoing Directly Observed Therapy, Short-course (DOTS) treatment in Bengaluru (India) city and 60 willing significant others of the patients. The participants were identified through a scoping survey that covered 188 female patients from 18 DOTS centres in the city.FindingsOther than the already known reasons for the delay in TB diagnosis for women such as normalisation of symptoms, stigma and the gender-related discrimination leading to low prioritisation of women’s illness, the present study identifies reasons related to work informality. These are normalisation of symptoms as workplace health problems; work related concerns that restricted formal help seeking; non TB specific narratives of symptoms, often incorrectly assumed to be work related health issues or comorbidities and thus confounding the early accurate diagnosis by the medical personnel and shifting between formal and informal systems of help-seeking. Further, the study found that mere knowledge of TB symptoms did not always translate to early diagnosis for patients from the lower socioeconomic groups working in informal arrangements due to the fear of losing work and wages owing to hospital visits.ConclusionsThe workplace focus, especially the informal sector where a huge majority of India’s workforce is employed, is notably absent in the TB elimination programme. The study indicates the need to adopt a comprehensive approach in the ongoing TB elimination programme in India in which family, living environment and workplace should be integral parts.
Qualitative research concerning physiotherapy approaches to encourage physical activity in older adults with dementia
Authors: Yokogawa Masami , Taniguchi Yoshimi , Yoneda Yumi 
Published: July 2023

Background
Physical exercise is known to improve the level of activities of daily living and physical function in people with dementia; however, symptoms of dementia often pose challenges when implementing physical therapy. This study aimed to elucidate how physiotherapists (PTs) engage with older adults with dementia to encourage exercise and participation in physical activity.

Methods
In this qualitative study, four PTs working with older adults with dementia in long-term care facilities in Japan were recruited and interviewed. We used a modified grounded theory approach to assess how PTs engaged with older adults with dementia during physiotherapy sessions.

Results
Based on PT responses, five categories of engagement were identified: “make structured preparations for clients to begin physical activity,” “link exercise therapy to a client’s daily life,” “discover changes in daily life,” “ascertain cognitive function,” and “accommodate client differences.” Concepts were derived under each category. The category “make structured preparations for clients to begin physical activity” served as a preceding stage for PTs to engage with older adults with dementia. PTs linked exercise therapy to each client’s daily life activities to encourage voluntary participation in daily physical activity. PTs ensured the performance of routine patterns of movement and modified these movement patterns per clients’ differing paces.

Conclusion
PTs provided exercise and movement training based on various degrees of client involvement and made structured preparations for clients to begin physical activity that were linked to exercise therapy. Our findings may prompt PTs to encourage older people with dementia to participate in physical therapy and benefit from exercise.
Initial functional disability as a 1-year prognostic factor in geriatric patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection
Authors: Brière Olivier , Otekpo Marie , Asfar Marine , Gautier Jennifer , Sacco Guillaume , Annweiler Cédric ,   on behalf of the GERIA-COVID study group
Published: July 2023

Background
SARS-CoV2 infection has affected many older people and has required us to adapt our practices to this new pathology. Initial functional capacity is already considered an important prognostic marker in older patients particularly during infections.

Aim
The objective of this longitudinal study was to determine whether baseline functional disability was associated with mortality risk after 1 year in older patients hospitalized for COVID-19.

Methods
All COVID-19 patients admitted to the geriatric acute care unit of Angers University Hospital, France, between March-June 2020 received a group iso-ressource (GIR) assessment upon admission. Disability was defined as a GIR score≤3. All-cause mortality was collected after 1 year of follow-up. Covariables were age, sex, history of malignancies, hypertension, cardiomyopathy, number of acute diseases at baseline, and use of antibiotics or respiratory treatments during COVID-19 acute phase.

Results
In total, 97 participants (mean±SD 88.0+5.4 years; 49.5% women; 46.4% GIR score≤3) were included. 24 of the 36 patients who did not survive 1 year had a GIR score ≤ 3 (66.7%; P = 0.003). GIR score≤3 was directly associated with 1-year mortality (fully adjusted HR = 2.27 95% CI: 1.07–4.89). Those with GIR≤3 at baseline had shorter survival time than the others (log-rank P = 0.0029).

Conclusions
Initial functional disability was associated with poorer survival in hospitalized frail elderly COVID-19 patients.

Clinical trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04560608 registered on September 23, 2022