bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Automatic Measurement of Silicon Lattice Spacings in High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Images Through 2D Discrete Fourier Transform and Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform
Authors: Wang Fang , Shi Yushu , Zhang Shu , Yu Xixi , Li Wei 
Published: April 2022

AbstractLine width (i.e., critical dimension, CD) is a crucial parameter in integrated circuits. To accurately control the CD in manufacturing, a reasonable CD measurement algorithm is required. We develop an automatic and accurate method based on a two-dimensional discrete Fourier transform for measuring the lattice spacings from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images. Through the two-dimensional inverse discrete Fourier transform of the central spot and a pair of symmetrical diffraction spots, an image containing only a set of lattice spacings is obtained. Then, the pixel span of the lattice spacing is calculated through the centre of gravity method. Finally, we estimate the standard CD value according to the half-intensity method. The silicon crystal lattice constant guarantees the accuracy and traceability of the CD value. Through experiments, we demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method, which can be conveniently applied to accurately measure CDs in practical applications.
Ventral midline incisional Richter's hernia: A case report
Authors: Ndong Abdourahmane , Tendeng Jacques Noel , Diallo Adja Coumba , Diao Mohamed Lamine , Ma Nyemb Philippe Manyacka , Konaté Ibrahima 
Published: April 2022

ABSTRACT

Background:
Richter hernia is a particular entity characterized by partial strangulation of the intestinal wall through an hernial orifice. This form is associated with high morbidity and mortality due to the high risk of necrosis followed by intestinal perforation. We report a rare Case of Richter type strangulated incisional hernia.

Case:
It was a 68-year-old patient with a history of 7 pregnancies including two deliveries with cesarean section by midline laparotomy. She had an abdominal pain evolving for 48 hours with vomiting and cessation of passage of flatus and stool. Physical examination revealed a midline laparotomy scar with a painful non-reducible periumbilical mass. Surgical exploration via a 5 cm midline incision above the mass revealed an hernial sac, the opening of which revealed ventral midline incisional Richter's hernia with bowel necrosis. Bowel resection followed by end-to-end anastomosis and primary suture repair were done. The postoperative course was uneventful.

Conclusion:
Our observation shows that the high risk of intestinal necrosis should lead to a rapid diagnosis in order to reduce postoperative morbidity. The treatment without mesh seems to be a safe option in the context of emergency and intestinal resection.

Highlights
Project EARTH: Lessons from 10 Years of Teaching Public Health Skills for Resource-Limited Settings
Authors: Stoots James M. , Young Dara C. , Wykoff Randy 
Published: April 2022

The College of Public Health at East Tennessee State University started a program in 2011 to teach the skills needed to protect and promote health and well-being in resource-limited settings. The need to provide public health services in resource-limited settings exists in both wilderness and isolated settings and when a disaster disrupts basic societal infrastructure. In these settings, lives may depend on the ability to provide water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter, first aid, and other basic services. Over the last decade, the college expanded the program considerably into what is now known as Project EARTH (Employing Available Resources to Transform Health) that now includes several different academic courses as well as programs designed to develop innovative solutions to address the needs of people in resource-limited settings. Working in a resource-limited setting requires effectively utilizing locally available resources to improve and protect people’s health and well-being. Project EARTH focuses on teaching students to design and create specific products for these situations while progressively honing those cross-cutting skills necessary to work effectively in these settings—notably teamwork, creativity, and resilience. To this end, Project EARTH implements a sequential learning process that includes significant hands-on training and simulated experiences with debriefing opportunities at the end of each activity. Project EARTH may serve as a useful model for others considering a similar training program.
Here be Dragons: Legal geography and EU law
Authors: de Witte Floris 
Published: April 2022

AbstractThis paper sets out a research agenda for EU legal geography. It identifies some central traits to the project of legal geography, a relatively new and increasingly populated interdisciplinary space that links legal studies with geography. While the EU and the project of integration appear to offer particularly rich soil for the legal geographer, very little attention has been paid to the ways in which the nature, structure and lived experience of the EU can be explained from a spatial and temporal perspective. For many reasons, as will be elaborated, this is a shame. Most crucially, perhaps, there is a growing realisation in EU studies in general that the authority and legitimacy of the EU depends, more and more, on how it is experienced by its citizens. Legal geography, with its spatial awareness and focus on the way in which space, time and law are co-constituted, offers a lens, language and conceptual framework to fill this void. While EU lawyers have occasionally and haphazardly ventured into the terrain of legal geography, much work is to be done. This could take the form of methodological, empirical, or conceptual work, and would offer a new dimension to existing accounts of European integration and to the central concepts in doctrinal and constitutional work in EU legal studies.
EU law, down to earth
Authors: Vauchez Antoine 
Published: April 2022

AbstractThe emergence and consolidation of European Community law (later European Union law) was rendered possible by key legal and political actors drawing a map of supranational law with the key concepts of direct effect, primacy and uniformity. The underlying assumption was that the actual territory of the law, the law on the ground, would come to fit into the drawn map. However, the last two decades have seen trust on the transformative power of the map drawn through such concepts decline, not least due to related developments. First, what looked like residual points of resistance have become polarized sources of contention over the scope and meaning of EU law; (2) sheer indifference towards EU law has emerged as a relevant attitude, partially replacing acceptance or opposition. Both developments have not led not only to a crisis of European law, but also to an existential crisis of the very actors (the “cartographers”) in charge of drawing the map of European law.
The European Union and critical legal cartography: Old geopolitics, worn geopoetry and the return of geopower
Authors: Rajkovic Nikolas M. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractThe European Union (EU) arose, in purpose, to undo the legacy of European geopolitics. Over decades, the EU has attempted to disrupt, or ambitiously transform, how its constituent communities “imagine” the space and boundaries of the Union’s geography. Yet, some 30 years since the Maastricht Treaty, old geopolitics manifests a distinct inertia over the mental maps of EU policy-makers and EU legal scholarship generally. For instance, should one query the EU’s cartography, it is likely an old geopolitical grammar conditions how policy-makers and scholars “map” and see the Union’s boundaries: 27 members, spanning 4,233,255 km2, and comprising a population of 447 million. Obscured is how the EU has generated a transnational and performative geography, with novel boundaries of rule that operate differently in quality and scale. In a nutshell, cartographic perceptions in EU policy-making and scholarship have rarely ventured beyond the terms of statist geography, or the worn geopoetry of “shared” or “pooled” sovereignty between Member States. This state of cartographic perception is curious, since the EU has been a geo-institutional project created to disrupt the traditional mentality of geopolitics and, further still, expand horizons of imagined social spaces, boundaries, and belonging(s).
Exporting peace? The EU mediator’s normative backpack
Authors: Nouwen Sarah M.H. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractOn the occasion of the launch of the European Law Open, this article analyses two policy documents of the European Union (EU) on its ambitions in peace mediation, to think about what it could mean for European law to be open to the world. Reading these documents – ‘the Concepts’ – through the lens of the theme that I have been assigned for this opening issue – ‘Europe in the world’ – one discerns an outward-looking EU searching for a greater role in the international field of peace mediation. One also sees instances of eurocentrism: a set of assumptions about the superiority of European (or ‘western’) ways of knowing and doing. In these Concepts, the EU envisages sending EU mediators into the world – either to mediate themselves or to support mediation efforts by others. The Concepts also contain increasingly long lists of EU values to be carried along and distributed during peace mediation. But the Concepts do not consider that in the countries where the EU mediator arrives, this backpack filled with normative baggage may bring other associations. Without more explicit recognition of the EU’s obstinate baggage, the EU is unlikely to be an effective peace mediator or, indeed, a credible global actor. More generally, critical reflexivity could help the EU to address the lingering Eurocentric tendencies that these Concepts reveal. Such critical questioning by the EU of its own assumptions, as well as learning from perspectives from outside the EU or the past, can be a process of focusing on Europe in order to decentre it. That, then, could also be a mission for this bold new European journal.
Decline in oral antimicrobial prescription in the outpatient setting after nationwide implementation of financial incentives and provider education: An interrupted time-series analysis
Authors: Jindai Kazuaki , Itaya Takahiro , Ogawa Yusuke , Kamitani Tsukasa , Fukuhara Shunichi , Goto Michihiko , Yamamoto Yosuke 
Published: April 2022

AbstractObjectives:To assess the impact of nationwide outpatient antimicrobial stewardship interventions in the form of financial incentives for providers and provider education when antimicrobials are deemed unnecessary for uncomplicated respiratory infections and acute diarrhea.Methods:We collected data from a large claims database from April 2013 through March 2020 and performed a quasi-experimental, interrupted time-series analysis. The outcome of interest was oral antimicrobial prescription rate defined as the number of monthly antimicrobial prescriptions divided by the number of outpatient visits each month. We examined the effects of financial incentive to providers (ie, targeted prescriptions for those aged ≤2 years) and provider education (ie, targeted prescriptions for those aged ≥6 years) on the overall antimicrobial prescription rates and how these interventions affected different age groups before and after their implementation.Results:In total, 21,647,080 oral antimicrobials were prescribed to 2,920,381 unique outpatients during the study period. At baseline, prescription rates for all age groups followed a downward trend throughout the study period. Immediately after the financial incentive implementation, substantial reductions in prescription rates were observed among only those aged 0–2 years (−47.5 prescriptions per 1,000 clinic visits each month; 95% confidence interval, −77.3 to −17.6; P = .003), whereas provider education immediately reduced prescription rates in all age groups uniformly. These interventions did not affect the long-term trend for any age group.Conclusion:These results suggest that the nationwide implementation of financial incentives and provider education had an immediate effect on the antimicrobial prescription but no long-term effect.
Effect of influenza vaccination among healthcare workers on hospital-acquired influenza in short-stay hospitalized patients: A multicenter pilot study in France
Authors: Amour Sélilah , Bénet Thomas , Regis Corinne , Robert Olivier , Fontana Luc , Lina Bruno , Pozzetto Bruno , Berthelot Philippe , Vanhems Philippe 
Published: April 2022

AbstractBackground:Exposure to infected healthcare workers (HCWs) is a source of hospital-acquired (HA) influenza. We estimated the risk of HA influenza for hospitalized patients by rate of influenza vaccine coverage (IVC) of HCWs.Methods:A case–case negative control study nested in a prospective cohort was conducted in 2 French university hospitals during 2 influenza seasons. Each inpatient with influenza-like illness (ILI) provided a nasal swab sample that was systematically analyzed for influenza virus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. An HA influenza case was a patient with a virological confirmation of influenza with onset of symptoms ≥72 hours after admission to the ward. The IVC rate of HCWs in each participating ward was calculated from the data provided by the occupational health departments. A mixed-effect logistic regression was performed with adjustments on patient sex, age, the presence of a potential source of influenza on the ward in the 5 days prior to the start of the ILI, type of ward and influenza season.Results:The overall HA influenza attack rate was 1.9 per 1,000 hospitalized patients. In total, 24 confirmed HA influenza cases and 141 controls were included. The crude odds ratio (OR) of HA influenza decreased from 0.52 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.21–1.29) to 0.14 (95% CI, 0.03–0.63) when the IVC of HCWs increased from 20% to 40%. After adjustment, IVC ≥40% was associated with a risk reduction of HA influenza (aOR, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.01–0.78).Conclusions:Considering a limited sample size, influenza vaccination of HCWs is highly suggestive of HA flu prevention among hospitalized patients.Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02198638.
Behind the Political Connections Under Emerging Democracies
Authors: Ulziisukh Selenge , Wei Zelong 
Published: April 2022

ABSTRACTIn light of inconclusive findings on the effect of political connections, this study explores conditions that affect the effectiveness of political connections on firm performance in democratic systems. First, using a resource dependence rationale, this study stresses the importance of variation in political connections and classifies direct and indirect political connections based on sources of power and the mechanisms for developing connections. Second, this study recognizes that influencing political outcomes is an entire political process in which political power matters. Furthermore, as power is central to the resource dependence rationale unlike exchange in transaction cost economics, this study explores how the effectiveness of political connections is contingent on the dynamics of de jure political power. We find that the effect of direct political connections is susceptible to changes in de jure political power due to its dyadic relationship with de jure power, while indirect political connections are more robust to such changes due to their connections with informal networks holding de facto political power. Further, the positive effects of political connections on firm performance are mediated by operational capability.
Expression of anti-NbHK single-chain antibody in fusion with NSlmb enhances the resistance toNosema bombycisin Sf9-III cells
Authors: Zhang Renze , Zheng Shiyi , Huang Hongyun , Sun Xi , Huang Yukang , Wei Junhong , Pan Guoqing , Li Chunfeng , Zhou Zeyang 
Published: April 2022

AbstractNosema bombycisis a destructive and specific intracellular parasite of silkworm, which is extremely harmful to the silkworm industry.N. bombycisis considered as a quarantine pathogen of sericulture because of its long incubation period and horizontal and vertical transmission. Herein, two single-chain antibodies targetingN. bombycishexokinase (NbHK) were cloned and expressed in fusion with the N-terminal of Slmb (aDrosophila melanogasterFBP), which contains the F-box domain. Western blotting demonstrated that Sf9-III cells expressed NSlmb–scFv-7A and NSlmb–scFv-6H, which recognized native NbHK. Subsequently, the NbHK was degraded by host ubiquitination system. When challenged withN. bombycis, the transfected Sf9-III cells exhibited better resistance relative to the controls, demonstrating that NbHK is a prospective target for parasite controls and this approach represents a potential solution for constructingN. bombycis-resistantBombyx mori.
Give ears some respite from regular microsuctioning in bisphosphonate-induced osteonecrosis of the external ear canal
Authors: Abelardo E , Jaramillo M 
Published: April 2022

AbstractBackgroundThis paper reports a case series of three elderly patients who were regularly attending ENT clinic every four to six weeks for ear canal care to address chronic otitis externa. All three patients had been taking bisphosphonate alendronic acid for years, and it is suspected that this drug was partly to blame for the progression of their chronic ear conditions.ResultsSome improvements were noted when the bisphosphonate was discontinued. The regular microsuctioning, and application of topical antibiotics with steroids, provided temporary relief of symptoms. The present pandemic shut down the routine clinic and the patients were not seen for four to five months. On latest review, it was a surprise to see that their ears seemed to have significantly improved, with healthy re-epithelialisation.ConclusionIt is thus believed that excessive and repeated microsuctioning in bisphosphonate-induced osteonecrosis of that external ear canal can delay re-epithelialisation, and gradually prolonging the intervals between microsuctioning could help in overall resolution of the disease.
Using a theory of change to evaluate the impact of a conservation training programme: a practitioner's perspective
Authors: Gerrie Rachael M. , Concannon Lianne , Copsey Jamieson A. , Wright Tim , Young Richard P. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractTraining plays a central role in the pursuit of conservation goals, and it is vital to know if it is having the desired effect. However, evaluating the difference it makes is notoriously challenging. Here, we present a practitioner's perspective on overcoming these challenges and developing a framework for ongoing evaluation of a conservation training programme. To do this, we first created a theory of change, describing the pathway of change we expect from training delivery to conservation impact. This provided the clarity and structure needed to identify indicators of change in the short, medium and long term. For data collection, we utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods to provide a more complete understanding of the change expected and capture any that might be unexpected. However, the more time that passes since a training event, the more difficult it becomes to attribute results; in response, we shifted predominantly to the use of qualitative methods to understand the long-term results achieved. After 3 years of implementation, this framework has enabled us to measure the difference our training makes to individuals and their work, and to provide evidence for the contribution it makes to achieving conservation impact. We believe that the lessons learnt can be used to improve the evaluation of training activities across the conservation sector and maximize the impact they achieve.
Creating a musical for pre-schoolers in South Africa as pedagogical praxis for a tertiary music education module
Authors: van Vreden Mignon 
Published: April 2022

AbstractDespite a renewed interest in educational practices to develop future music educators in South Africa for a rapidly changing professional landscape, little is known about the meaning students themselves ascribe to these practices towards their own development as music educators. This instrumental case study investigated the learning experiences of second-year BMus students creating a musical for pre-schoolers. Data were collected through interviews, observations and reflective journals. Six themes emerged through a thematic analysis of student experiences, namely interaction, preparation, skills development, stagecraft, performance and enjoyment. A conceptual model that explains the production of a musical as a pedagogical praxis connects these themes with existing literature on three teaching and learning approaches that framed the study, namely authentic arts-based pedagogy, project-based learning and community of practice.
A systematic literature review of revealed preferences of decision-makers for recommendations of cancer drugs in health technology assessment
Authors: Wang Yitong , Qiu Tingting , Nikodem Mateusz , Francois Clément , Toumi Mondher 
Published: April 2022

Abstract

Objectives
This review intends to provide an overview of revealed preferences of decision-makers for recommendations of cancer drugs in health technology assessment (HTA) among the different agencies.

Methods
A systematic literature search was performed in MEDLINE and EMBASE databases from inception to July 2020. The studies were eligible for inclusion if they conducted a quantitative analysis of HTA’s previous decisions for cancer drugs. The factors with p-values below the significance level of .05 were considered as the statistically significant factors for HTA decisions.

Results
A total of nine studies for six agencies in Australia, Belgium, France, South Korea, the UK, and Canada were eligible to be included. From the univariable analysis, improvements in clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness were found as significant factors for the agencies in Belgium, South Korea, and Canada. From the multivariable analysis, cost-effectiveness was found as a positive factor for the agencies in the UK, South Korea, and Canada. Few factors related to characteristics of disease and technology were found to be significant among the included agencies.

Conclusions
Despite the different drug reimbursement systems and the socioeconomic situations, cost-effectiveness and/or improvement on clinical outcomes seemed to be the most important factors for recommendations of cancer drugs among the agencies.
The additive use of prosody and morphosyntax in L2 German
Authors: Henry Nick 
Published: April 2022

AbstractThis study investigates whether the use of prosodic cues during instruction facilitates the processing of German accusative case markers. Two groups of third semester L1 English learners of L2 German completed Processing Instruction (PI) with aural input: Learners in the PI+P group heard sentences that included focused prosodic cues; learners in the PI group heard sentences with monotone prosody. The effects of training were assessed through an offline comprehension task, a written production task, and an online self-paced reading (SPR) task. The results for the offline tasks showed that the groups were similar with respect to their offline comprehension and production. The SPR task showed that both groups used case markers to interpret word order online to some extent; however, only the PI+P group did so in all conditions. These results suggest that prosody does play a role in (morpho)syntactic processing, and that covert activation of prosodic structures can facilitate processing during online reading tasks.