bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cilostazol and isosorbide mononitrate for the prevention of progression of cerebral small vessel disease: baseline data and statistical analysis plan for the Lacunar Intervention Trial-2 (LACI-2) (ISRCTN14911850)
Authors: Bath Philip M , Mhlanga Iris , Woodhouse Lisa J , Doubal Fergus , Oatey Katherine , Montgomery Alan A , Wardlaw Joanna M 
Published: September 2022

BackgroundCerebral small vessel disease (SVD) causes lacunar strokes (25% of all ischaemic strokes), physical frailty and cognitive impairment and vascular and mixed dementia. There is no specific treatment to prevent progression of SVD.MethodsThe LACunar Intervention Trial-2 is an investigator-initiated prospective randomised open-label blinded-endpoint phase II feasibility study assessing cilostazol and isosorbide mononitrate for preventing SVD progression. We aimed to recruit 400 patients with clinically evident lacunar ischaemic stroke and randomised to cilostazol, isosorbide mononitrate, both or neither, in addition to guideline secondary ischaemic stroke prevention, in a partial factorial design. The primary outcome is feasibility of recruitment and adherence to medication; key secondary outcomes include: drug tolerability; recurrent vascular events, cognition and function at 1 year after randomisation; and safety (bleeding, falls, death). Data are number (%) and median (IQR).ResultsThe trial commenced on 5 February 2018 and ceased recruitment on 31 May 2021 with 363 patients randomised, with the following baseline characteristics: average age 64 (56.0, 72.0) years, female 112 (30.9%), stroke onset to randomisation 79.0 (27.0, 244.0) days, hypertension 267 (73.6%), median blood pressures 143.0 (130.0, 157.0)/83.0 (75.0, 90.0) mm Hg, current smokers 67 (18.5%), educationally achieved end of school examinations (A-level) or higher 118 (32.5%), modified Rankin scale 1.0 (0.0, 1.0), National Institutes Health stroke scale 1.0 (1.4), Montreal Cognitive Assessment 26.0 (23.0, 28.0) and total SVD score on brain imaging 1.0 (0.0, 2.0). This publication summarises the baseline data and presents the statistical analysis plan.SummaryThe trial is currently in follow-up which will complete on 31 May 2022 with results expected in October 2022.Trial registration numberISRCTN14911850.
Point of care biliary ultrasound in the emergency department (BUSED) predicts final surgical management decisions
Authors: Hilsden Richard , Mitrou Nicholas , Hawel Jeff , Leeper Rob , Thompson Drew , Myslik Frank 
Published: September 2022

ObjectivesGallstone disease is a common reason for emergency department (ED) presentation. Surgeons often prefer radiology department ultrasound (RUS) over point of care ultrasound (POCUS) because of perceived of unreliability. Our study was designed to test the hypothesis that POCUS is sufficient to guide the management of surgeons treating select cases of biliary disease as compared to RUS.MethodsThis was a prospective cohort study. Patients who presented to the ED with abdominal pain and findings of biliary disease on POCUS were included. The surgeon was then presented the case with POCUS only and recorded their management decision. Patients then proceeded to RUS, were followed through their stay, and analysis was performed to analyze the proportion of patients where the introduction of the RUS changed the management plan.Results100 patients were included in this study, and all received both POCUS and RUS. Depending on the surgeons’ POCUS based management decisions, the patients were divided into three groups: (1) surgery, (2) duct clearance, (3) no surgery. Total bilirubin was 34±22 mmol/L in the duct clearance group vs 8.4±6.5 mmol/L and 16±12 mmol/L in the surgery and no surgery groups, respectively (p<0.05). POCUS results showed 68 patients would have been offered surgery, 21 offered duct clearance, and 11 no surgery. In 90% of cases, the introduction of RUS did not change management. The acute care surgeons elected to operate on patients more frequently than other surgical subspecialties (p<0.05).ConclusionsThis study showed that fewer than 10% of patients with biliary disease seen on POCUS had a change in surgical decision-making based on the addition of RUS imaging. In uncomplicated cases of biliary disease, relying on POCUS imaging for surgical decision-making has the potential to improve patient flow.Level of evidenceII Prospective Cohort Study.
Influence of aerially seeded Pinus massoniana plantations on soil quality in severely eroded and degraded land of subtropical China
Authors: Zhan Changyan , Pan Ping , Ouyang Xunzhi , Ning Jinkui , Xu Li , Ju Linjing 
Published: September 2022

Vegetation restoration is widely used to reduce soil erosion and control soil degradation, which is conducive to improving soil quality. Aerial seeding is an effective vegetation recovery method that has been applied in large areas with severe soil erosion in China. Pinus massoniana is not only a typical native coniferous tree species, but also a pioneer tree species for vegetation recovery in subtropical China. This study evaluates the soil quality of aerially seeded P. massoniana plantations of different stand ages and examines the vegetation factors affecting soil quality. Principal component analysis and Pearson correlation analysis were used to determine the minimum data set (MDS) for developing a soil quality index. The relationship between soil quality and vegetation factors was analyzed using redundancy analysis. The MDS was established with soil bulk density, field water capacity, non-capillary porosity, total nitrogen, soil organic matter, and pH. The results showed that the soil quality significantly increased with vegetation recovery age at 0–20 and 20–50 cm soil depths. The soil quality of the surface layer was mainly affected by understory vegetation and litter, whereas that of the deep layer was mainly affected by trees. Therefore, the appropriate management of P. massoniana forest, achieved by appropriately extending forest management rotation, replanting broad-leaved trees, and minimizing the damage to understory vegetation and litter, is essential for effectively improving soil quality.
Impact of the free-streaming neutrinos to the second order induced gravitational waves
Authors: Zhang Xukun , Zhou Jing-Zhi , Chang Zhe 
Published: September 2022

AbstractThe damping effect of the free-streaming neutrinos on the second order gravitational waves is investigated in detail. We solve the Boltzmann equation and give the anisotropic stress induced by neutrinos to second order. The first order tensor and its coupling with scalar perturbations induced gravitational waves are considered. We give the analytic equations of the damping kernel functions and finally obtain the energy density spectrum. The results show that the free-streaming neutrinos suppress the density spectrum significantly for low frequency gravitational waves and enlarge the logarithmic slopenin the infrared region ($$k \ll k_*$$k≪k∗) of the spectrum. For the spectrum of$$k_*\sim 10^{-7}\,\hbox {Hz}$$k∗∼10-7Hz, the damping effect in the range of$$k<k_*$$k<k∗is significant. The combined effect of the first and second order could reduce the amplitude by$$30\%$$30%and makenjump from 1.54 to 1.63 at$$k\sim 10^{-9}\,\hbox {Hz}$$k∼10-9Hz, which may be probed by the pulsar timing arrays (PTA) in the future.
The structure of the ultrarelativistic prompt emission phase and the properties of the black hole in GRB 180720B
Authors: Rastegarnia F. , Moradi R. , Rueda J. A. , Ruffini R. , Li Liang , Eslamzadeh S. , Wang Y. , Xue S. S. 
Published: September 2022

AbstractIn analogy with GRB 190114C, we here analyze the ultrarelativistic prompt emission (UPE) of GRB 180720B observed in the rest-frame time interval $$t_{\mathrm{rf}}=4.84$$

t
rf

=
4.84

–10.89 s by Fermi-GBM. We reveal the UPE hierarchical structure from the time-resolved spectral analysis performed in time sub-intervals: the spectrum in each shorter time interval is always fitted by a composite blackbody plus cutoff power-law model. We explain this structure with the inner engine of binary-driven hypernova (BdHN) model operating in a quantum electrodynamics (QED) regime. In this regime, the electric field induced by the gravitomagnetic interaction of the newborn Kerr BH with the surrounding magnetic field is overcritical, i.e., $$|\mathbf{E}|\ge E_c$$

|
E
|

≥

E
c

, where $$E_c=m_e^2 c^3/(e\hbar )$$

E
c

=

m
e
2

c
3

/

(
e
ħ
)

. The overcritical field polarizes the vacuum leading to an $$e^+~e^-$$

e
+

e
-

pair plasma that loads baryons from the surroundings during its expansion. We calculate the dynamics of the self-acceleration of the pair-electromagnetic-baryon (PEMB) pulses to their point of transparency. We characterize the quantum vacuum polarization process in the sequences of decreasing time bins of the UPE by determining the radiation timescale, Lorentz factors, and transparency radius of the PEMB pulses. We also estimate the strength of the surrounding magnetic field $$\sim 10^{14}$$

∼

10
14

G, and obtain a lower limit to the BH mass, $$M=2.4~M_\odot $$

M
=
2.4

M
⊙

, and correspondingly an upper limit to the spin, $$\alpha = 0.6$$

α
=
0.6

, from the conditions that the UPE is powered by the Kerr BH extractable energy and its mass is bound from below by the NS critical mass.
Robust Revenue Maximization Under Minimal Statistical Information
Authors: Giannakopoulos Yiannis , Poças Diogo , Tsigonias-Dimitriadis Alexandros 
Published: September 2022

We study the problem of multi-dimensional revenue maximization when selling
m
items to a buyer that has additive valuations for them, drawn from a (possibly correlated) prior distribution. Unlike traditional Bayesian auction design, we assume that the seller has a very restricted knowledge of this prior: they only know the mean μ

j

and an upper bound σ

j

on the standard deviation of each item’s marginal distribution. Our goal is to design mechanisms that achieve good revenue against an ideal optimal auction that has
full
knowledge of the distribution in advance. Informally, our main contribution is a tight quantification of the interplay between the dispersity of the priors and the aforementioned robust approximation ratio. Furthermore, this can be achieved by very simple selling mechanisms.

More precisely, we show that selling the items via separate price lotteries achieves an
O
(log
r
) approximation ratio where
r
= max

j

(σ

j

/μ

j

) is the maximum coefficient of variation across the items. To prove the result, we leverage a price lottery for the single-item case. If forced to restrict ourselves to deterministic mechanisms, this guarantee degrades to
O
(
r
2
). Assuming independence of the item valuations, these ratios can be further improved by pricing the full bundle. For the case of identical means and variances, in particular, we get a guarantee of
O
(log (
r/m
)) that converges to optimality as the number of items grows large. We demonstrate the optimality of the preceding mechanisms by providing matching lower bounds. Our tight analysis for the single-item deterministic case resolves an open gap from the work of Azar and Micali (ITCS’13).

As a by-product, we also show how one can directly use our upper bounds to improve and extend previous results related to the
parametric auctions
of Azar et al. (SODA’13).
Pumping Iron: Ferritinophagy Promotes Survival and Therapy Resistance in Pancreatic Cancer
Authors: Jain Vaibhav , Amaravadi Ravi K. 
Published: September 2022

Summary:Autophagy is an adaptive response to metabolic and therapeutic stress, especially in treatment-refractory cancers such as pancreatic cancer. In this issue of Cancer Discovery, two groups establish ferritinophagy, a selective autophagy program that could become a drug target, as the mechanism that pumps iron into mitochondria via the lysosome, enabling survival and therapy resistance in pancreas cancer.See related article by Santana-Codina et al., p. 2180 (3).See related article by Ravichandran et al., p. 2198 (4).
Viver como uma águia: uma abordagem sensível da trajetória de um imigrante cubano no Canadá
Authors: Morais Marciglei Brito , Carvalho Lais Chagas de , Rougeon Marina 
Published: September 2022

Este texto propõe uma resenha do curta metragem The Eagle, realizado pelas antropólogas Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier & Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji. Foca nos aportes da abordagem sensível da trajetória de um imigrante cubano no Canadá, Miguel Aguila, proporcionada pelo uso da ferramenta audiovisual. Objetiva refletir sobre as potencialidades dos sentidos e da percepção sensível no exercício de analise da vida social, e mais especificamente das questões ligadas à migração, à doença e outras dificuldades vivenciadas. Destaca como, ao se apoiar nas dimensões associativas, sensíveis e imagéticas em torno da figura de uma águia, as ferramentas audiovisuais podem auxiliar na ampliação do campo de observação mas também na formas de escrita da pesquisa. Constituem um aporte importante na obtenção de elementos e nuances que escapam a atenção imediata, e na maneira pela qual essas nuances são reconstituídas em sons e imagens.
Fibroblast GSK-3α Promotes Fibrosis via RAF-MEK-ERK Pathway in the Injured Heart
Authors: Umbarkar Prachi , Tousif Sultan , Singh Anand P. , Anderson Joshua C. , Zhang Qinkun , Tallquist Michelle D. , Woodgett James , Lal Hind 
Published: September 2022

Background:
Heart failure is the leading cause of mortality, morbidity, and health care expenditures worldwide. Numerous studies have implicated GSK-3 (glycogen synthase kinase-3) as a promising therapeutic target for cardiovascular diseases. GSK-3 isoforms seem to play overlapping, unique and even opposing functions in the heart. Previously, we have shown that of the 2 isoforms of GSK-3, cardiac fibroblast GSK-3β acts as a negative regulator of myocardial fibrosis in the ischemic heart. However, the role of cardiac fibroblast-GSK-3α in the pathogenesis of cardiac diseases is completely unknown.

Methods:
To define the role of cardiac fibroblast-GSK-3α in myocardial fibrosis and heart failure, GSK-3α was deleted from fibroblasts or myofibroblasts with tamoxifen-inducible Tcf21- or Postn-promoter-driven Cre recombinase. Control and GSK-3α KO mice were subjected to cardiac injury and heart parameters were evaluated. The fibroblast kinome mapping was carried out to delineate molecular mechanism followed by in vivo and in vitro analysis.

Results:

Fibroblast-specific GSK-3α deletion restricted fibrotic remodeling and preserved function of the injured heart. We observed reductions in cell migration, collagen gel contraction, α-SMA protein levels, and expression of ECM genes in TGFβ1-treated KO fibroblasts, indicating that GSK-3α is required for myofibroblast transformation. Surprisingly, GSK-3α deletion did not affect SMAD3 activation, suggesting the profibrotic role of GSK-3α is SMAD3 independent. The molecular studies confirmed decreased ERK signaling in GSK-3α-KO CFs. Conversely, adenovirus-mediated expression of a constitutively active form of GSK-3α (Ad-GSK-3α
S21A
) in fibroblasts increased ERK activation and expression of fibrogenic proteins. Importantly, this effect was abolished by ERK inhibition.

Conclusions:
GSK-3α-mediated MEK-ERK activation is a critical profibrotic signaling circuit in the injured heart, which operates independently of the canonical TGF-β1-SMAD3 pathway. Therefore, strategies to inhibit the GSK-3α-MEK-ERK signaling circuit could prevent adverse fibrosis in diseased hearts.
Spiritual Power, Witchcraft and Protestants: Conflicting Approaches to Religious Belonging and Practice in the Komi Countryside
Authors: Leete Art , Koosa Piret 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
In this article we aim to explore how vernacular ideas about spiritual power, words, and silence shape perceptions of religion and witchcraft among the rural Komi people, whose predominant religion is Russian Orthodoxy. In this framework we investigate local ideas of witchcraft, belonging, and strangeness. During our joint ethnographic fieldwork trips to the Komi Republic, Russia, these notions were evoked repeatedly in discussions concerning the Evangelical Protestants who established their mission in a village historically associated with witches. This particular coincidence is reflected in discourses that brand the Evangelicals culturally alien, drawing on both traditional and contemporary categories of otherness. Our analysis shows that ideas about magical power and the usage of words constitute significant aspects of vernacular understanding of faith regardless of formal denominational belonging. We claim that religious practices are switched more spontaneously than feelings of spiritual power and traditionally accepted religious belonging among the rural Komi.
Der Geist als Bild des Einen
Authors: Tornau Christian 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Plotinus claims that Intellect, the second hypostasis, is an image of the transcendent One or Good. While this is certainly an application of the paradeigmatist language inherited from the Platonic theory of Forms, it is not obvious how this claim squares with the Neoplatonic axiom that the One transcends Being and Thought and is absolutely formless. I argue that Plotinus solves this dilemma by interpreting Plato’s characterization of Intellect and Being as “Good-like” in such a way as to refer, not to the eidetic properties of Intellect, but to the goodness, desirability and unifying power it receives from the One. While these are not reducible to Intellect’s essence, they are nevertheless an integral part of its being insofar as Intellect is fully real and intelligible only through the First Principle’s presence in it. It may be said, then, that Intellect is an image of the One in a non-paradigmatic sense.
Transformation Pathways Towards Climate Resilient Cities: A Comparative Analysis of Halle (Saale) and Mannheim, Germany
Authors: Izdebska Olga , Knieling Jörg , Kretschmann Nancy , Woyna Maischa-Katharina 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
This article explores the enabling factors and actors involved in the transformation pathways towards climate resilience of two German cities: Halle (Saale) and Mannheim. A specifically developed analytical framework served as basis for making the complex developments of the transformation paths of the two cities visible and comparable. The analysis has shown that despite strong similarities in terms of climate change impacts, the cities acted under very different political and economic conditions and thus applied particular strategic and tactical approaches and steering instruments. It can be stated that preparation of climate strategies, creation of a supporting central unit for climate issues and exemplary implementation of selected measures by the administration, as well as awareness-raising and cooperation with the stakeholders and citizens have played a key role in the cities’ transformation. In both cities, the city administration took the role of innovation organiser and orchestrated the pathway towards becoming climate resilient.
“The Intellect is a Point and a Circle”: A Case Study in the Textual Relationship of Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī’s Kitāb al-Maqālīd and the Longer Theology of Aristotle
Authors: Treiger Alexander 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
In his ground-breaking monograph Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī, Paul Walker has pointed out parallels between al-Sijistānī’s Kitāb al-Maqālīd and the Longer Theology of Aristotle – an augmented version of the Theology of Aristotle preserved mainly in Judeo-Arabic manuscripts and a sixteenth-century Latin translation. This raises the question of whether it is al-Sijistānī who cites the Longer Theology, or the unknown author of the Longer Theology who cites al-Sijistānī, or whether the two rely on a common source. Walker opts for the third solution: a common source used by both al-Sijistānī and the Longer Theology. The present contribution focuses on one of the parallels between al-Sijistānī’s Kitāb al-Maqālīd and the Longer Theology, demonstrates that Walker is indeed correct in postulating such a common source, and shows that this common source contained some of the most significant ideas for al-Sijistānī’s Ismāʿīlī Neoplatonism: the idea that the Word (al-kalima) mediates between the Creator (“Originator,” al-mubdiʿ) and the Intellect, that the Intellect is united with the Word, that the Word is “non-being” (lays), and several others. The article comments on the possible nature of this common source and on how the Longer Theology sheds light on the origins of al-Sijistānī’s Ismāʿīlī Neoplatonism.
Diplomacy in the Woods: Nature, Hunting, Masculinity, and Soviet Diplomacy under N.S. Khrushchev
Authors: Bakhmetyeva Tatyana 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Analyzing several documentary films and other sources through the lens of gender and feminist theory, this article explores the role of hunting and nature in Soviet diplomatic relationships. The article views diplomacy as a masculine space in which diplomatic negotiations relied on successful displays of toughness and the exhibition of prowess and agility. These skills were best demonstrated not in the official corridors of power but in settings imbued with symbolic meanings associated with masculinity, such as nature. The latter often served as a homosocial space where power was displayed and reconstituted through ritualistic performances of heroic masculinity. Such rituals as hunting sought to accomplish several goals. They promoted the male bonding that formed the basis of a preferred personal style of diplomacy and allowed Soviet apparatchiks to display marksmanship skills and a level of physical prowess that would present them to their foreign counterparts as potent leaders and desired allies. More importantly, as with other performative rituals of masculinity, Soviet diplomatic hunts produced and reproduced masculinity – and with it, power – and served strategically to assert or challenge international hierarchies, shape new and reaffirm faltering alliances, and demonstrate the agility and potency of the Soviet system to visiting state leaders.
An Outline of Romanticism in the West
Authors: Isbell John Claiborne 
Published: September 2022

Navigating the landscape of Romantic literature and art across Europe and the Americas, An Outline of Romanticism in the West invites readers to embark upon a literary journey. Showcasing a breadth of theoretical and contextual approaches to the study of Romanticism, John Isbell provides an insightful contemporary overview of the field, paired with wide-ranging comparative reflections on the art and literature that helped shape it.
Discussing seminal Romantic texts such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or Germaine de Staël’s Corinne ou l’Italie, Isbell provides a foundation through which to investigate core concepts, such as the continuum of Romance, the Romantic hero, and Romantic literature’s characteristic repudiation of its own Romanticism. Unusually for a single-author monograph, the book includes both published and unpublished material covering Romantic creation across Europe and the two Americas.
Identifying Romanticism as an international movement, Isbell seeks to emphasise a theme frequently ignored by many academics: the roots of Romanticism, and its variations, as a national art. His arguments are supported by extensive interrogations of the political and historical contexts that moulded the outlooks of the writers and artists central to the period.
An Outline of Romanticism in the West underlines the interplay between nationalism, history, and artistic inspiration, and will therefore be of value to students and scholars of literature and history, as well as to general readers with an interest in Romanticism in the West.