bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and commodities: dynamic connectedness and risk management strategies
Authors: Cagli Efe C. Caglar , Mandaci Pinar Evrim , Taşkın Dilvin 
Published: October 2022

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the dynamic connectedness and volatility spillovers between commodities and corporations exhibiting the best environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. In addition, the authors determine the optimal hedge ratios and portfolio weights for ESG and commodity investors and portfolio managers.

Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the novel frequency connectedness framework to point out volatility spillover between ESG indices covering the USA, developed and emerging markets and commodity indices, including energy (crude oil, natural gas and heating oil), industrial metals (aluminum, copper, zinc, nickel and lead) and precious metals (gold and silver) by using daily data between January 3, 2011 and May 26, 2021, covering significant socio-economic developments and the COVID-19 outbreak.

Findings
The results of this study suggest a total connectedness index at a mediocre level, mainly driven by the shocks creating uncertainty in the short term. And the results indicate that all ESG indices are net volatility transmitters, and all commodity indices other than crude oil and copper are net volatility receivers.

Practical implications
The results imply statistically significant hedging and portfolio diversification opportunities to investors and portfolio managers across the asset classes, proven by the hedging effectiveness analyses.

Social implications
This study provides implications for policymakers focusing on the risk of contagion among the commodity and ESG markets during turbulent periods to ensure international financial stability.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature by differentiating ESG portfolios as the USA, developed and developing markets and examining dynamic connectedness and volatility spillovers between ESG portfolios and commodities with a different technique. This study also contributes by considering COVID-19 outbreak.
Common‐offset domain reflection–diffraction separation with deep learning
Authors: Zwartjes Paul , Yoo Jewoo 
Published: October 2022

AbstractSeparation of diffracted from reflected events in seismic data is still challenging due to the relatively low amplitude of the diffracted wavefield compared to the reflected wavefield as well as the overlap in the kinematics of reflection and diffraction events. A workflow based on deep learning can be a simple and fast alternative, but using training data made by physics‐based modelling is expensive and lacks diversity in terms of noise, amplitude, frequency content and wavelet. This results in poor generalization beyond the training data without retraining and transfer learning. In this paper, we demonstrate successful applications of reflection–diffraction separation using a conventional U‐net architecture. The novelty of our approach is that we do not use synthetic data created from physics‐based modelling, but instead use only synthetic data built from basic geometric shapes. Our domain of application is the pre‐migration common‐offset domain where reflected events resemble local geology and the diffracted wavefield consists of downward convex hyperbolic diffraction patterns. Both patterns were randomly perturbed in many ways while maintaining their intrinsic features. This approach is inspired by the common practice of data augmentation in deep learning for machine vision applications. Since many of the standard data augmentation techniques lack a geophysical motivation, we have instead perturbed our synthetic training data in ways to make more sense from a signal processing perspective or given our ‘domain knowledge’ of the problem at hand. We did not have to retrain the network to show good results on the field data set. The large variety and diversity in examples enabled to trained neural networks to show encouraging results on synthetic and field data sets that were not used in training.
Soundscape enrichment enhances recruitment and habitat building on new oyster reef restorations
Authors: McAfee Dominic , Williams Brittany R. , McLeod Lachlan , Reuter Andreas , Wheaton Zak , Connell Sean D. 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Marine soundscapes provide important navigational cues to dispersing larvae in search of suitable habitat. Yet, widespread habitat loss has degraded marine soundscapes and their functional role in recruitment. Habitat restoration efforts can provide suitable substrate for habitat regeneration, such as constructing reefs to facilitate recruitment and habitat growth by oysters, but typically occur where soundscapes are degraded and recruitment is limited. Enhancing marine soundscapes on newly constructed reefs using speaker technology may ensure sufficient recruitment to establish a trajectory of recovery for the desired habitat.

Across two of the largest oyster reef restorations in Australia, we deployed low‐cost marine speakers at four sites and at three times throughout the recruitment season to test whether soundscape enrichment could boost recruitment and habitat formation by oysters. In the presence and absence of soundscape playback, we compared oyster recruitment rates to settlement panels across space and time, and oyster habitat cover and three‐dimensional habitat building on newly constructed boulder reefs.

On the settlement panels deployed across the two reef restorations, soundscape playback significantly increased oyster recruitment at 8 of the 10 sites by an average (±1 SE) 5.1 ± 1.9 times (5281 ± 1384 more larvae per m2), and by as much as 18 times.

On boulders atop newly constructed reefs, where the restoration goal is for oysters to form three‐dimensional habitat, the surface area covered by oysters after 5 months did not differ between speaker and control treatments. However, soundscape playback appeared to influence the earlier recruitment of oysters, resulting in significantly more large oysters per boulder that formed significantly more three‐dimensional habitat building by an average 4.3 ± 1.2 times relative to nonspeaker controls.

Synthesis and applications. Our results show that using speakers to enrich marine soundscapes at new restoration sites can boost oyster recruitment, resulting in more larger oysters that form more three‐dimensional habitat atop reef restorations. In accelerating the formation of these vertical growth forms, which provide the ecological functions that motivate restoration efforts, the early application of speaker technology on new reef restorations may help steer ecological succession on a trajectory of desired habitat recovery, potentially reducing the substantial cost of ongoing intervention.
Direct and indirect effects of management and landscape on biological pest control and crop pest infestation in apple orchards
Authors: Daelemans Robin , Hulsmans Eva , Laenen Emily , Remy Serge , Beliën Tim , Honnay Olivier 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Biological pest control, relying on naturally occurring predator–prey dynamics, is considered a key element to achieve more sustainable farming systems. However, the combined effects of local management and landscape factors on communities of natural enemies as well as the cascading effects on pest infestations are rarely addressed, especially in perennial crops.

Here, we used Piecewise Structural Equation Modelling (PSEM) to test direct and indirect effects of landscape composition, landscape configuration and local management practices on natural enemy communities, the pest control services they provide and ultimately on pest infestation and pest‐related yield damage in apple crops. To this end, we surveyed 12 organic and 12 Integrated Pest Management (IPM) orchards during three consecutive years, and we also established a semi‐natural benchmark to quantify the extent to which predator communities in the orchards were degraded.

Natural enemies had a different community composition and were more abundant in organic orchards compared with IPM orchards. This had a small and positive effect on sentinel egg predation rates in organic orchards, but overall had very little impact on actual apple pest infestation. On the contrary, apple pest infestation levels were directly and positively affected by organic management practices and by increasing semi‐natural habitat cover and landscape edge density. Compared with a semi‐natural benchmark, both agricultural management systems showed degraded predator communities, which translated into an impaired delivery of biological control services.

Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that organic management and habitat conservation can enhance natural enemies and stimulate pest control, but also show that these factors can enhance pest infestations and can even lead to an overall increase in pest‐related crop damage. Our study thus highlights the complex interplay of ecosystem services and disservices provided by biodiversity, which should be taken into account when advising farmers, policy makers and land managers on effective and sustainable strategies to control pest species and safeguard crop production.
Impact of the combination of sintilimab and chemotherapy on the tumor and paratumor PD‐L1, IDO, TIM‐3, FOXP3+ and CD8 expressions in patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Zhang Shifa , Cai Haibo , Huang Junjun , Wang Gongchao 
Published: October 2022

AbstractBackgroundAnti‐PD‐1/PD‐L1 therapeutics have been widely used in the clinic in various tumors, including advanced esophageal cancer, showing remarkable treatment efficacy. Factors determining the response to anti‐PD‐1/PD‐L1 therapeutics are numerous, including the tumor microenvironment, such as CD8+ T cells and expression of PD‐1/PD‐L1. Our study aimed to explore the effect of chemoimmunotherapy on the expression of CD8+ T cells, TIM‐3, and FOXP3+ in tumor, paratumor tissues, and the expression of PD‐L1, IDO, in tumor, paratumor tissues, and lymph nodes, and analyze the correlation among these markers.MethodsA total of 18 patients were allocated into two treatment groups: a treatment group and a concurrent control group. A total of 38 tissue samples, 114 slides (tumor, paratumor, and lymph node) were collected in the treatment group, and 37 tissue samples, 111 slides (tumor, paratumor, and lymph node) were collected in the concurrent control group.ResultsThe expression of PD‐L1, CD8+, FOXP3+, TIM‐3, and IDO in tumors, paratumor tissues, but not lymph nodes, was significantly affected by chemoimmunotherapy. Compared with patients without chemoimmunotherapy, the expression of CD8+ T cells, IDO, and PD‐L1 was significantly decreased in tumor and paratumor tissues after chemoimmunotherapy, while FOXP3+ expression was significantly decreased only in tumor tissues, and TIM‐3 expression was significantly decreased only in paratumor tissues. Moreover, the correlation between these markers was also completely altered after chemoimmunotherapy. In addition, N staging was associated with high expression of CD8 in advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in the concurrent control group.ConclusionThis study provides new insight into the effects of CI treatment on isolated CD8+ T cell infiltration, PD‐L1, IDO, FOXP3+ and TIM‐3 expression as well as their cross‐talk in different tissues enabling a better understanding of the impact of CI treatment on the immune microenvironment.
Liver resection versus microwave ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma in ideal candidates for ablation per Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging: a propensity score matching and inverse probability of treatment weighting analysis
Authors: Tong Yao , Cai Ran , Li Jun‐Xiang , Chang De‐Hua , Wang Li‐Zhou , Cai Wen‐Wu , Xiao Yu‐Dong 
Published: October 2022

SummaryBackgroundLiver resection (LRE) and microwave ablation (MWA) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been widely compared.AimsTo compare the therapeutic outcomes of percutaneous MWA and LRE for HCC in ideal candidates for ablation according to Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stagingMethodsBetween August 2013 and November 2020, 483 consecutive patients meeting criteria for “ideal candidates for ablation” per the BCLC staging initially treated with MWA (n = 168) or LRE (n = 315) were included. Patients were further divided into BCLC‐0 (n = 116) and BCLC‐A (n = 367) groups. Overall survival (OS), recurrence‐free survival (RFS) and post‐procedure‐related complication rates were compared before and after propensity score matching (PSM) and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) in the overall population and subgroups. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to determine whether the treatment modality was an independent prognostic factor.ResultsLRE had a better RFS and similar OS and post‐procedure‐related complication rates compared to MWA in the overall population and in the BCLC‐A subgroup both before and after PSM and IPTW. However, the OS, RFS and post‐procedure‐related complication rates were equivalent between the two groups before and after PSM and IPTW in patients with BCLC‐0 disease. The multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that LRE was associated with better RFS over MWA in overall population (p = 0.003; HR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.51–0.87) and BCLC‐A disease (p = 0.046; HR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.56–0.99), while it did not differ in OS.ConclusionAn ‘ideal candidate for ablation’ according to the BCLC staging system may not be an ideal candidate for MWA. However, patients with BCLC‐0 may be the optimal population for MWA.
Statistical Inference and Power Analysis for Direct and Spillover Effects in Two-Stage Randomized Experiments
Authors: Jiang Zhichao , Imai Kosuke , Malani Anup 
Published: October 2022

Abstract
Two-stage randomized experiments become an increasingly popular experimental design for causal inference when the outcome of one unit may be affected by the treatment assignments of other units in the same cluster. In this paper, we provide a methodological framework for general tools of statistical inference and power analysis for two-stage randomized experiments. Under the randomization-based framework, we consider the estimation of a new direct effect of interest as well as the average direct and spillover effects studied in the literature. We provide unbiased estimators of these causal quantities and their conservative variance estimators in a general setting. Using these results, we then develop hypothesis testing procedures and derive sample size formulas. We theoretically compare the two-stage randomized design with the completely randomized and cluster randomized designs, which represent two limiting designs. Finally, we conduct simulation studies to evaluate the empirical performance of our sample size formulas. For empirical illustration, the proposed methodology is applied to the randomized evaluation of the Indian National Health Insurance Program. An open-source software package is available for implementing the proposed methodology.
Antegrade administration of mitomycin gel for upper tract urothelial carcinoma via percutaneous nephrostomy tube: a multi‐institutional retrospective cohort study
Authors: Rose Kyle M. , Narang Gopal , Rosen Geoffrey , Labatte Craig , Dumitrascu Catalina I. , Campagna Justin , Yu Alice , Manley Brandon J. , Spiess Phillippe E. , Li Roger , Adibi Mehrad , Murray Katie S. , Sexton Wade J. , Humphreys Mitchell R. 
Published: October 2022

ObjectivesTo assess the safety profile of antegrade mitomycin gel instillation through a percutaneous nephrostomy tube (PCNT) for upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) with the aim of decreasing morbidity associated with therapy.Patients and MethodsPatients undergoing antegrade administration of mitomycin gel via PCNT were retrospectively included for analysis from four tertiary referral centres between 2020 and 2022. The primary outcome was safety profile, as graded by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (v5.0). Post‐therapy disease burden was assessed by primary disease evaluation (PDE) via ureteroscopy.ResultsThirty‐two patients received at least one dose of mitomycin gel via PCNT for UTUC, 29 of whom completed induction and underwent PDE. Thirteen patients (41%) had residual tumour present prior to induction therapy. At a median of 15.0 months following first dose of induction therapy, ureteric stenosis occurred in three patients (9%), all of whom were treated without later recurrence or chronic stenosis. Other adverse events included fatigue (27%), flank pain (19%), urinary tract infection (12%), sepsis (8%) and haematuria (8%). No patients had impaired renal function during follow‐up and there were no treatment‐related deaths. Seventeen patients (59%) had no evidence of disease at PDE and have not experienced recurrence at a median follow‐up of 13.0 months post induction.ConclusionsAdministration of mitomycin gel via a PCNT offers a low rate of ureteric stenosis, demonstrates a favourable safety profile, and is administered without general anaesthesia.
Bibliometric investigation of the integration of animal personality in conservation contexts
Authors: Collins Sydney M. , Hendrix Jack G. , Webber Quinn M. R. , Boyle Sean P. , Kingdon Katrien A. , Blackmore Robert J. , d'Entremont Kyle J. N. , Hogg Jennifer , Ibáñez Juan P. , Kennah Joanie L. , Lamarre Jessika , Mejías Miguel , Newediuk Levi , Richards Cerren , Schwedak Katrina , Wijekulathilake Chirathi , Turner Julie W. 
Published: October 2022

AbstractConsistent individual differences in behavior, commonly termed animal personality, are a widespread phenomenon across taxa that have important consequences for fitness, natural selection, and trophic interactions. Animal personality research may prove useful in several conservation contexts, but which contexts remains to be determined. We conducted a structured literature review of 654 studies identified by combining search terms for animal personality and various conservation subfields. We scored the relevance of personality and conservation issues for each study to identify which studies meaningfully integrated the 2 fields as opposed to surface‐level connections or vague allusions. We found a taxonomic bias toward mammals (29% of all studies). Very few amphibian or reptile studies applied personality research to conservation issues (6% each). Climate change (21%), invasive species (15%), and captive breeding and reintroduction (13%) were the most abundant conservation subfields that occurred in our search, though a substantial proportion of these papers weakly integrated conservation and animal personality (climate change 54%, invasive species 51%, captive breeding and reintroduction 40%). Based on our results, we recommend that researchers strive for consistent and broadly applicable terminology when describing consistent behavioral differences to minimize confusion and improve the searchability of research. We identify several gaps in the literature that appear to be promising and fruitful avenues for future research, such as disease transmission as a function of sociability or exploration as a driver of space use in protected areas. Practitioners can begin informing future conservation efforts with knowledge gained from animal personality research.
Giant cell tumor of tendon sheath: A report of 216 cases
Authors: Huang Cong‐Gai , Li Meng‐Ze , Wang Shao‐Hua , Tang Xiao‐Qin , Zhang Hui‐Ling , Haybaeck Johannes , Yang Zhi‐Hui 
Published: October 2022

AbstractBackgroundIn this article on giant cell tumor of tendon sheath (GCTTS), we intend to summarize and analyze the clinical and pathological features of GCTTS hoping to improve clinical management and patient treatment.MethodsThe study retrospectively reviewed 216 patients of GCTTS, registered at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from January 2010 to December 2020. These cases were diagnosed by surgical excision. The clinicopathological features and the prognosis were reviewed in the light of the current literature.ResultsOf these 216 GCTTS patients, 72 were males (33.3%) and 144 females (66.7%), with a ratio male‐to‐female of 1:2. The patients' age ranged from 5 to 82, the average being 41.5 years at diagnosis. A total of 96 cases (44.4%) occurred in the hand region, followed by 35 cases (16.2%) in the knee, 32 cases (14.8%) in the foot, 25 cases (11.6%) in the ankle, 12 cases (5.6%) in the wrist, 12 cases (5.6%) in the leg, 2 cases (0.9%) in the head, 1 case (0.5%) in the forearm, and 1 case (0.5%) inside and outside the spinal channel. Histopathology mainly revealed large synovial‐like monocytes, small monocytes, and osteoclast‐like giant cells.ConclusionOur results confirm that GCTTS predominantly occurs in the hands of young women. Complete surgical resection with long‐term follow‐up is the preferred management.
British exports and foreign tariffs: Insights from the Board of Trade's foreign tariff compilation for 1902
Authors: Varian Brian D. 
Published: October 2022

AbstractThis research note contributes to the debate over whether British exports were elastic to foreign tariffs before the First World War. In doing so, this study is the first to make econometric use of the commodity‐ and country‐disaggregated foreign tariff data that Britain's Board of Trade compiled for the year 1902. Contrary to previous literature, British exports were indeed elastic to foreign tariffs across a range of manufactured commodities, with a conservative estimate of the elasticity being 3.1, which is not low by modern standards. Counterfactually, if foreign countries had emulated Britain's policy of free trade in manufactures in 1902, a partial‐equilibrium estimate is that British exports would have been 57 per cent higher. If the trade‐liberalizing trend of the mid‐nineteenth century persisted into the late‐nineteenth century, then much of the late‐Victorian deceleration of British exports would have been avoided.