bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation on hand dexterity in stroke patients: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Alabdulaali Lulwa , Hickman Lydia , Punt T David , Jenkinson Ned 
Published: February 2022

IntroductionHand dexterity is the ability to execute the skilful movements using the hand and fingers. It is commonly impaired poststroke resulting in a profound deterioration in the quality of life for patients with stroke. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a form of non-invasive brain stimulation, which has gained a popularity as an adjunct therapy in recovering motor dysfunction poststroke. Promising results have been gained from applying tDCS in combination with motor rehabilitation, however, the outcome of tDCS on the upper limb motor function poststroke has been varied. Different results are potentially related to the discrepancy of the area of brain stimulation. Therefore, we aim to enhance the application of tDCS to improve its effectiveness in recovering hand dexterity through testing our hypothesis that stimulating the primary motor cortex could improve fine dexterity more than gross dexterity.Methods and analysisThis protocol has been reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses Protocols guidelines. CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Web of Science and CINAHL databases will be searched with no restriction in language and publication date. The selected studies will be randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of tDCS alone or in combination with motor rehabilitation in improving hand dexterity of patients with stroke with upper limb hemiparesis. The outcomes of interest are fine and gross hand dexterity measures. Two independent reviewers will assess the eligibility of the study, extract data and appraise the methodological quality. The data will be pooled in a meta-analysis if applicable or interpreted narratively. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach will be used to assess the overall quality of evidence for the fine and gross dexterity measures.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval is not required for this study. The dissemination plan is to publish the results in a peer-review journal and presenting results in a conference.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021262186.
Obesity among children and adolescents in Qatar: protocol for a scoping review
Authors: Alisi Mariam 
Published: February 2022

IntroductionApproximately half of the school-aged children are overweight or obese in Qatar. Childhood obesity is associated with health conditions in adulthood, such as hypertension, diabetes, metabolic defects, cardiovascular risks and psychological challenges. Existing obesity studies have limitations; thus, there is a need for further research with improved quality, wider representation of population including children and adolescents and methodological diversity. As Qatar moves towards a preventive evidence-based approach in tackling obesity, this scoping review aims to support the efforts of obesity prevention among children and adolescents in Qatar by providing an up-to-date research map that systematically highlights existing knowledge, research gaps and methodological range. In addition, this will be the first scoping review that analyses how obesity research has evolved in Qatar since 2000.Methods and analysisThis scoping review follows the guidelines of Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews for both developing the protocol and reporting the findings. It will use the System for the Unified Management, Assessment and Review of Information-JBI software for synthesis. The review will include any study in Arabic or English published between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2021 on obesity/overweight among children and/or adolescents in Qatar. Studies without specific data on the concept of obesity, the population of children and adolescents or the context of Qatar will be excluded. The following databases will be searched: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, IBSS, Scopus, J-STOR, APA PsycNET and Google Scholar. In addition, Arabic literature via Dar Almanthomah, Dar Almanhal and E-Marefah will be searched. A search strategy to identify grey literature will be adopted for a wider reach. The screening process will be conducted by two independent reviewers. Extracted data will be analysed descriptively and analytically using simple frequency counts and qualitative content analysis. The results will be presented using maps, tables and diagrams.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval is not required as data will be collected from publicly available published research. The results of this review will be disseminated via a peer-reviewed publication, national and international conferences, workshops and knowledge mobilisation activities among key stakeholders.
Validating risk models versus age alone for atrial fibrillation in a young Dutch population cohort: should atrial fibrillation risk prediction be expanded to younger community members?
Authors: Himmelreich Jelle C L , Harskamp Ralf E , Geelhoed Bastiaan , Virdone Saverio , Lucassen Wim A M , Gansevoort Ron T , Rienstra Michiel 
Published: February 2022

BackgroundAdvancing age is the primary selection criterion for community screening for atrial fibrillation (AF), with selection often restricted to those aged ≥65 years. If multivariable models were shown to have considerable additional value over age alone in predicting AF risk among younger individuals, AF screening could be expanded to patients with lower age, but with high AF risk as per a validated risk model.MethodsWe validated risk models CHARGE-AF (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology model for AF) and FHS-AF (Framingham Heart Study model for AF), and risk scores CHA2DS2-VASc and CHA2DS2-VA, and presented their predictive abilities for 5-year and 10-year AF risk versus that of age alone in a young Dutch population cohort (PREVEND) free from AF at baseline. We assessed discrimination by the C-statistic and calibration by the calibration plot and stratified Kaplan-Meier plot using survey-weighted Cox models.ResultsDuring 5-year and 10-year follow-up there were n=98 (2.46/1000 person-years) and n=249 (3.29/1000 person-years) new AF cases, respectively, among 8265 participants with mean age 49±13 years. CHARGE-AF and FHS-AF both showed good discrimination for 5-year and 10-year AF (C-statistic range 0.83–0.86) with accurate calibration for 5-year AF, but overestimation of 10-year AF risk in highest-risk individuals. CHA2DS2-VASc and CHA2DS2-VA relatively underperformed. Age alone showed similar discrimination to that of CHARGE-AF and FHS-AF both in the overall, young PREVEND cohort and in subgroups for lower age and lower stroke risk.ConclusionMultivariable models accurately discriminate for 5-year and 10-year AF risk among young European community-dwelling individuals. However, their additional discriminatory value over age alone was limited. Selection strategies for primary AF screening using multivariable models should not be expanded to younger individuals.
MicroRNAs associated with chronic kidney disease in the general population and high-risk subgroups: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Motshwari Dipuo Dephney , Matshazi Don Makwakiwe , Erasmus Rajiv , Kengne AP , Matsha Tandi E , George Cindy 
Published: February 2022

IntroductionChronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant health and economic burden, owing to its ever-increasing global prevalence. Due to the limitations in the current diagnostic methods, CKD is frequently diagnosed at advanced stages, where there is an increased risk of cardiovascular complications and end-stage kidney disease. As such, there has been considerable interest in microRNAs (miRNAs) as potential markers for CKD detection. This review seeks to identify all miRNAs associated with CKD and/or markers of kidney function or kidney damage in the general population and high-risk subgroups, and explore their expression profiles in these populations.Methods and analysisA systematic search of published literature will be conducted for observational studies that report on miRNAs associated with CKD or kidney function or kidney damage markers (serum creatinine and cystatin C, estimated glomerular filtration rate and urinary albumin excretion) in adult humans. The electronic database search will be restricted to English and French publications up to 31 October 2021. Two investigators will independently screen and identify studies for inclusion, as well as extract data from eligible studies. Risk-of-bias and methodological quality will be assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for observational studies and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation tools. Appropriate meta-analytic techniques will be used to pool estimates from studies with similar miRNAs, overall and by major characteristics, including by country or region, sample size, gender and risk-of-bias score. Heterogeneity of the estimates across studies will be quantified and publication bias investigated. This protocol is reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols 2015 guidelines.Ethics and disseminationThis study design does not require formal ethical clearance and findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.ConclusionThis review will provide the expression pattern of miRNAs associated with CKD. This will allow for further research into the identified miRNAs, which could later be used as biomarkers for prediction and early detection of CKD, monitoring of disease progression to advanced stages and as potential therapeutic targets.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021270028.
Lung cancer distress: screening thermometer meta-analysis
Authors: Zhang Lemeng , Liu Xiaohong , Tong Fei , Zou Ran , Peng Wanglian , Yang Hui , Huang Xufen , Yi Lili , Wen Minni , Jiang Ling , Liu Feng 
Published: February 2022

ObjectivesThe distress is associated with the life quality and prognosis of patients with lung cancer. Distress thermometer (DT) has been widely recommended for distress screening. This study was conducted to summarise the positive rate of distress in patients with lung cancer using DT screenings.MethodsThe PubMed, Embase, PsyclNFO and Cochrane Library databases were comprehensively searched to identify all eligible studies published before 31 December 2021. Studies were eligible if they were published in peer-reviewed literature and evaluated distress levels by DT.ResultsTen eligible studies, including a total of 2111 patients, were included in this analysis, and their methodological quality was moderate. The pooled positive rate of distress in patients with lung cancer was 49.04% (95% CI 41.51% to 56.60%). The subgroup analysis revealed that the distress positive rate was significantly different (p<0.05) across North America, Europe and China with values of 53.33% (95% CI 45.22% to 61.37%), 43.81% (95% CI 31.57% to 56.43%) and 38.57% (95% CI 33.89% to 43.41%), respectively. Moreover, the distress positive rate was significantly different between men and women (p<0.05). Additionally, in terms of histological type, clinical tumour, node, metastasis stage, previous treatment and DT threshold, the distress positive rate had no significant differences. No significant publication bias was identified by Begg’s funnel plot and Egger’s test.ConclusionsThe summarised distress positive rate was high and was significantly different according to gender and region. DT screening should be recommended for routine clinical practice and more attention should be given towards distress management.
Towards the development on new high capacity tensiometers capable of measuring soil matric suction beyond 3 MPa
Authors: Mendes Joao , Najdi Abdallah , Encalada David , Prat Pere C. , Ledesma Alberto 
Published: February 2022

High capacity tensiometers (HCT) are the only type of sensors in existence that can measure soil matric suction directly and are regarded to be the most accurate and reliable technique for the study of suction evolution in unsaturated soils. The measurement with HCTs is possible due to their design, composed of ceramic filter with a specific air entry value (AEV), small water reservoir, and pressure transducer. Where, the AEV of the ceramic filter, more precisely the largest pore size within the ceramic, plays the most important role in controlling the measuring range of HCTs. Specifically, decreasing the largest pore size within the ceramic results in an increase in the measuring range. In this work, a new development in HCTs is presented whereby the ceramic filter in HCTs was replaced from the typically used 1.5 MPa AEV ceramic filter with a new alumina ceramic filter with an estimated AEV of 3.5 MPa. To assess the performance of the new ceramic filter, similar designed HCTs were assembled with the Soilmoisture Equipment Corp. 1.5 MPa AEV and the new alumina ceramic filters. Early results show that the maximum measuring matric suction range is beyond 3 MPa for HCTs assembled with the new alumina ceramic filter.
Tracking and vertex detectors at FCC-ee
Authors: Bacchetta Nicola , Collins Paula , Riedler Petra 
Published: February 2022

AbstractThe combined vertexing and tracking performance of the innermost part of the FCC-ee experiments must deliver outstanding precision for measurement of the track momentum together with an impact parameter resolution exceeding by at least a factor five that typically achieved at LHC experiments. Furthermore, precision measurements require stability and fiducial accuracy at a level which is unprecedented in collider experiments. For the innermost vertex layers these goals translate into a target hit resolution of approximately 3 $$\mu \hbox {m}$$

μ
m

together with a material budget of around 0.2% of a radiation length per layer. Typically this performance might be provided by silicon-based tracking, together with a careful choice of a low-mass cooling technology, and a stable, low-mass mechanical structure capable of providing measurements with a low enough systematic error to match the tremendous statistics expected, particularly for the run around the Z resonance. At FCC-ee, the magnetic field will be limited to approximately 2 T, in order to contain the vertical emittance at the Z pole, and a tracking volume up to relative large radius is needed. The technological solution could be silicon- or gaseous-based tracking, in both cases with the focus on optimising the material budget, and particle identification capability would be an advantage. Depending on the global design, an additional silicon tracking layer could be added at the outer radius of the tracker to provide a final precise point contributing to the momentum or possibly time-of-flight measurement. Current developments in monolithic and hybrid silicon technology, as well as advanced gaseous tracking developments, provide an encouraging road map towards the FCC-ee detector. The current state of the art and potential extensions will be discussed and a generic call for technology which could have a significant impact on the performance of an FCC-ee tracking and vertexing detector is outlined.
Quantum spin-flavour memory of ultrahigh-energy neutrino
Authors: Kurashvili P. , Chotorlishvili L. , Kouzakov K. A. , Studenikin A. I. 
Published: February 2022

AbstractThere are two types of uncertainties related to the measurements done on a quantum system: statistical and those related to non-commuting observables and incompatible measurements. The latter indicates the quantum system’s inherent nature and is in the scope of the present study. We explore uncertainties related to the interstellar ultrahigh-energy neutrino and introduce a novel concept: quantum spin-flavour memory. Advanced uncertainty measures are entropic measures, and the effect of the quantum memory reduces the uncertainty. The problem in question corresponds to a real physical event: high-energy Dirac neutrinos emitted by some distant source and propagating towards the earth. The neutrino has a finite magnetic moment and interacts with both deterministic and stochastic interstellar magnetic fields. To describe the effect of a noisy environment, we exploit the Lindblad master equation for the neutrino density matrix. Quantum spin-flavour memory is quantified in terms of the generalized Kraus’s trade-off relation. This trade-off relation converts to the equality when quantum memory is absent. We discovered that while most measures of quantum correlations show their irrelevance, the quantum spin-flavour discord is the quantifier of the quantum spin-flavour memory.
Vertebrobasilar Stroke: Association Between Infarction Patterns and Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Angiography Flow State
Authors: Ballout Ahmad A. , Libman Richard B. , Schneider Julia R. , Black Karen , Sideras Panagiotis , Wang Jason J. , White Timothy G. , Dehdashti Amir R. , Woo Henry H. , Katz Jeffrey M. 
Published: February 2022

Background
Treatment and prognosis of vertebrobasilar atherosclerotic disease differs depending on stroke mechanism, such as artery‐to‐artery embolism, branch atheromatous disease, and hemodynamic ischemia. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between infarction pattern and flow status using quantitative magnetic resonance angiography (QMRA), to determine the validity of using infarction patterns to infer stroke mechanism.

Methods and Results

This is a retrospective study of patients with ischemic stroke with intra‐ or extracranial vertebrobasilar atherosclerotic stenosis, who underwent magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, neurovascular imaging, and QMRA, between 2009 and 2021. Patients with cerebral infarction predating or following QMRA by ≥1 year, or QMRA studies performed for basilar thrombosis, vertebral dissection, or only postangioplasty/stenting, were excluded. Poststenotic flow (basilar and posterior cerebral arteries) was dichotomized as low‐flow or normal‐flow based on published criteria. Of 1211 consecutive patients who underwent QMRA noninvasive optimal analysis, 69 met inclusion. Mixed patterns were most common (46.4%), followed by perforator (23.2%), borderzone (14.5%), and territorial (15.9%). Patients with low‐flow had a significantly higher rate of borderzone+ patterns (borderzone alone or in mixed pattern) compared with patients with normal‐flow (77.4% low‐flow versus 39.5% normal‐flow,
P
=0.002). Borderzone+ patterns were associated with 61.5% probability of low‐flow state, while no borderzone (perforator/territorial) patterns were associated with 76.7% probability of normal‐flow state.

Conclusions
Borderzone infarction pattern (alone or mixed) was associated with low poststenotic posterior circulation flow by QMRA. However, borderzone pattern only moderately predicted low‐flow state, and may be an unreliable flow marker. Therefore, infarct topography may complement, but should not replace hemodynamic studies to establish flow status.
Re-orienting the Diaspora–Development Nexus
Authors: Peck Sarah 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Since the 1990s diasporic communities have increasingly been recognized as agents of development, with states, citizens, and the global development community keen to harness their knowledge, skills, and economic capital. Approaches to the ‘diaspora option’ tend to be rooted in the discourses, practices, and products of neoliberal globalization. Yet the most recent decade of the 21st century has witnessed a backlash against this cosmopolitanism. This paper pushes for a re-orientation of the diaspora-development nexus that looks to respond to the contemporary realities of (and the backlash against) neoliberal globalization: (re)bordering, European and North American ethnonationalism, nativist politics, and anti-migrant discourses. Thinking through a post-diasporic lens foregrounds the interconnected geographies, the complex temporalities, and the (racialized) inequalities within the diaspora–development nexus. The paper concludes that through a post-diasporic lens the diaspora–development nexus can be centred on everyday social, cultural, material, and political circumstances and experiences and feelings of belonging through multiple locales, re-orienting the nexus to advance the everyday socio-economic, cultural, and political liberation of diasporic communities.
Emotive Banners and Billboards
Authors: Stodulka Thomas 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
This paper analyses the affective ramifications at the onset of the emerging Corona pandemic in Kupang, Indonesia. Steering towards now established social and political orders of public conduct outside one’s home and neighbourhood, public billboards and warning signs became early visible manifestations of worlding Covid-19 into the city’s infrastructure. Rapidly emerging governmental and entrepreneurial banners communicated new orders of personal and communal hygiene practices. They created messages of Covid-19 infectiology based on globalised public health rhetoric calling familiar socialities and ordinary feelings into question. This paper scrutinises the pandemic worlding of spaces and socialities and reflects on the relationship between newspaper reports, billboards and the feelings they evoked. The article proposes the concept of ‘orders of feelings’ as a valuable complement of ‘worlding’ theories via the analysis of banners, signs and newspaper articles as ‘emotives’. Ultimately, it contemplates anthropological knowledge production in a pandemic context that obstructed traditional ethnographic engagement.
The 2015 South Korean–Japanese Agreement on ‘Comfort Women’: A Critical Analysis
Authors: Ramaj Klea 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Before and during the Second World War, Japan established a legalised system of sexual slavery, in which approximately up to 200 000 women, euphemistically known as ‘comfort women’, were exploited. Although the victims came from all the regions of the Japanese Empire, the majority of them were Korean. While initial reconciliation attempts were met with refusal, a seemingly positive step was taken in December 2015, when South Korea and Japan announced that they had reached an agreement which would ‘finally and irreversibly’ resolve this issue. The main argument developed throughout the present article is that the agreement does not do justice in addressing the victims’ needs and rights in many ways, with the need for acknowledgement and memorialisation being primarily neglected. A critical evaluation of the 2015 agreement is particularly important in light of its suspension due to the dissolution of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation.
Control over the Theory: Reforming the icc’s Approach to Establishing Commission Liability?
Authors: Minkova Liana Georgieva 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
The icc has employed the ‘control-over-the-crime’ theory, which treats those who ‘control’ the commission of a crime as principal perpetrators. Legal academics and icc judges have criticised the Court’s reliance on that theory for producing unsound legal reasoning. This article engages with the question from a novel perspective, that focuses on the institutional factors affecting the adoption and reform of legal theory. Transplanting Barnett and Finnemore’s concept of the ‘pathologies’ of international organisations to the field of international law, the article argues that reforming the rules for assessing criminal responsibility is a challenging endeavour, even when those rules have exhibited significant deficiencies. Reform is possible, but it is more likely to be incremental rather than revolutionary. The findings also bear implications for international criminal justice more generally, as they suggest that the answer to delivering sound judgments is not improving criminal law theory but appreciating the peculiarities of each case.