bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Nostalgia, Gratitude, or Optimism: The Impact of a Two-Week Intervention on Well-Being During COVID-19
Authors: Dennis Amelia , Ogden Jane 
Published: March 2022

AbstractResearch indicates that brief 2-min positive psychology interventions (PPIs) increase well-being during COVID-19 lockdowns. The present study extended this to assess the effectiveness over two-weeks. Participants (n = 150) were randomly allocated to one of three PPIs; nostalgia, gratitude, best possible self (BPS), or control. The interventions were slightly adapted for the lockdown and were completed three times, every seven days over two-weeks. Well-being measures were completed immediately after the first intervention (T1), after the next two interventions (T2−T3) and at one-week follow-up (T4) (but no baseline measure of well-being was taken). At T1, participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had higher self-esteem than those in the control intervention. At T1 and T2, participants in the gratitude and BPS intervention reported higher social connectedness than participants in the nostalgia and control intervention. Then at follow-up (T4), participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had lower fear of COVID-19 than those in the control intervention. Overall, the results show the benefits of nostalgia, gratitude and optimism, compared to the control, during lockdown.
Patterns of Alcohol Use Among Italian Young Adults Before and During a COVID-19 Lockdown: A Latent Class Analysis Study
Authors: Aresi Giovanni , Sorgente Angela , Cleveland Michael J. , Marta Elena 
Published: March 2022

AbstractTwo not mutually exclusive theories explain the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol use. The Availability hypothesis contends that reduced opportunities to drink due to the closure of outlets and consumption sites should lead to decreases in alcohol use, whereas the Stress and Coping hypothesis argues that those exposed to stressful situations may increase drinking. The primary aim of this study was to examine changes—separately by gender—in the prevalence of drinking patterns among Italian young adults (18–34 years) before and during a COVID-19 lockdown. Study design was a repeated cross-sectional study, whereby data collected in 2015 and 2020 from nationally representative samples were analyzed. Latent class analysis identified five, fully invariant for women and partially invariant for men, drinking pattern classes among both cohorts: current non-drinkers (CND), weekend risky (WRD) and weekend non-risky drinkers (WnRD), daily non-risky (DnRD) and daily risky drinkers (DRD). In support of the Availability hypothesis, increases in abstaining and moderate drinking women and men were observed from 2015 to 2020. Concomitantly, among men only there were also increases in the prevalence of patterns characterized by risky drinking, coping drinking motives and related harm (Stress and Coping hypothesis). The pandemic and the three-tier lockdown imposed by the Italian government likely reduced overall alcohol use in the general population who drink moderately. However, there was a substantial increase in the prevalence of a small but significant group of men who drank daily and heavily to cope. Outreach and prevention efforts should target primarily this group, but also consider the opportunities that the exceptional circumstances of a quarantine offer to any individuals to reshape their lifestyle and health-related behaviors.
Environmental indicators combined with risk analysis to evaluate potential wildfire incidence on the Dadu Plateau in Taiwan
Authors: Lin Chao-Yuan , Shieh Pei-Ying , Wu Shao-Wei , Wang Po-Cheng , Chen Yung-Chau 
Published: March 2022

AbstractWildfire is a common disaster in the world, and it has a considerable impact on the safety of residents and ecological disturbance. Periodic wildfires are an urgent problem to be solved. This research uses big data from relevant departments to extract environmental indicators that affect wildfires, including satellite images, meteorological observations, and field surveys and establishes a risk model for the Spatio-temporal distribution of wildfires based on risk analysis. Previous studies using Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) to assess fire severity and distinguish wildfire ruins did not deal with the impact of atmospheric humidity on dNBR values. In this study, an adjustable fire threshold was developed to enable dNBR to improve the accuracy of identifying wildfire locations. Regarding the temporal distribution of wildfire risks, environmental vulnerability cannot specifically reflect the frequency of actual wildfires. If the hazard degree is introduced to calculate the wildfire risk, the coefficient of determination can be increased from 0.49 to 0.79. The verification of the village boundary zone depicts that the risk analysis can effectively show the temporal and spatial distribution of wildfire hotspots. On this basis, a village-level wildfire disaster prevention strategy can be formulated.
Dynamical analysis of the infection status in diverse communities due to COVID-19 using a modified SIR model
Authors: Cooper Ian , Mondal Argha , Antonopoulos Chris G. , Mishra Arindam 
Published: March 2022

AbstractIn this article, we model and study the spread of COVID-19 in Germany, Japan, India and highly impacted states in India, i.e., in Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka. We consider recorded data published in Worldometers and COVID-19 India websites from April 2020 to July 2021, including periods of interest where these countries and states were hit severely by the pandemic. Our methodology is based on the classic susceptible–infected–removed (SIR) model and can track the evolution of infections in communities, i.e., in countries, states or groups of individuals, where we (a) allow for the susceptible and infected populations to be reset at times where surges, outbreaks or secondary waves appear in the recorded data sets, (b) consider the parameters in the SIR model that represent the effective transmission and recovery rates to be functions of time and (c) estimate the number of deaths by combining the model solutions with the recorded data sets to approximate them between consecutive surges, outbreaks or secondary waves, providing a more accurate estimate. We report on the status of the current infections in these countries and states, and the infections and deaths in India and Japan. Our model can adapt to the recorded data and can be used to explain them and importantly, to forecast the number of infected, recovered, removed and dead individuals, as well as it can estimate the effective infection and recovery rates as functions of time, assuming an outbreak occurs at a given time. The latter information can be used to forecast the future basic reproduction number and together with the forecast on the number of infected and dead individuals, our approach can further be used to suggest the implementation of intervention strategies and mitigation policies to keep at bay the number of infected and dead individuals. This, in conjunction with the implementation of vaccination programs worldwide, can help reduce significantly the impact of the spread around the world and improve the wellbeing of people.
Uniqueness of unconditional basis of infinite direct sums of quasi-Banach spaces
Authors: Albiac F. , Ansorena J. L. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThis paper is devoted to providing a unifying approach to the study of the uniqueness of unconditional bases, up to equivalence and permutation, of infinite direct sums of quasi-Banach spaces. Our new approach to this type of problem permits to show that a wide class of vector-valued sequence spaces have a unique unconditional basis up to a permutation. In particular, solving a problem from Albiac and Leránoz (J Math Anal Appl 374(2):394–401, 2011. 10.1016/j.jmaa.2010.09.048) we show that if $$X$$
X
is quasi-Banach space with a strongly absolute unconditional basis then the infinite direct sum $$\ell _{1}(X)$$

ℓ
1

(
X
)

has a unique unconditional basis up to a permutation, even without knowing whether $$X$$
X
has a unique unconditional basis or not. Applications to the uniqueness of unconditional structure of infinite direct sums of non-locally convex Orlicz and Lorentz sequence spaces, among other classical spaces, are also obtained as a by-product of our work.
Exploring Parenting Profiles to Understand Who Benefits from the Incredible Years Parenting Program
Authors: Weeland Joyce , Leijten Patty , Orobio de Castro Bram , Menting Ankie , Overbeek Geertjan , Raaijmakers Maartje , Jongerling Joran , Matthys Walter 
Published: March 2022

AbstractBehavioral parenting programs are a theory-driven and evidence-based approach for reducing disruptive child behavior. Although these programs are effective on average, they are not equally effective in all families. Decades of moderation research has yielded very few consistent moderators, and we therefore still have little knowledge of who benefits from these programs and little understanding why some families benefit more than others. This study applied a baseline target moderation model to a parenting program, by (1) identifying parenting profiles at baseline, (2) exploring their correlations with other family characteristics and their stability, and (3) assessing whether they moderate intervention effects on child behavior. Individual participant data from four Dutch studies on the Incredible Years (IY) parenting program were used (N = 785 caregiver–child dyads). Children (58.2% boys) were at risk of disruptive behavior problems and aged between 2 and 11 years of age (M = 5.85 years; SD = 1.59). Latent profile analyses indicated three distinct baseline parenting profiles, which we labeled as follows: Low Involvement (81.4%), High Involvement (8.4%), and Harsh Parenting (10.1%). The profiles caregivers were allocated to were associated with their education, minority status, being a single caregiver, and the severity of disruptive child behavior. We found neither evidence that baseline parenting profiles changed due to participation in IY nor evidence that the profiles predicted program effects on child behavior. Our findings do not support the baseline target moderation hypothesis but raise new questions on how parenting programs may work similarly or differently for different families.
On Measuring Segregation in a Multigroup Context: Standardized Versus Unstandardized Indices
Authors: del Río Coral , Alonso-Villar Olga 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThere has been little discussion about the consequences of using standardized, rather than unstandardized, segregation measures when comparing societies with different demographic compositions. This paper explores standardization in a multigroup setting through an analytical framework that offers a clear distinction between the measurement of overall and local segregation, embeds existing indices within this framework, and addresses gaps in previous research. The local approach developed here allows us to focus on the principle of transfers used in the measurement of overall segregation from a new angle and brings analytical support to the interpretation of the components of standardized overall measures as the segregation levels of the groups involved. This approach also helps clarify the debate around the measurement of school segregation since the distinction between local and overall measures, together with standardization, is key to understanding the different proposals that have been used in empirical studies. This research also gives formal support to empirical strategies that compare the distribution of a minority group with that of the remaining population since they can be viewed as standardized local segregation measures satisfying basic properties.
Heterogeneous gradient computing optimization for scalable deep neural networks
Authors: Moreno-Álvarez Sergio , Paoletti Mercedes E. , Rico-Gallego Juan A. , Haut Juan M. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractNowadays, data processing applications based on neural networks cope with the growth in the amount of data to be processed and with the increase in both the depth and complexity of the neural networks architectures, and hence in the number of parameters to be learned. High-performance computing platforms are provided with fast computing resources, including multi-core processors and graphical processing units, to manage such computational burden of deep neural network applications. A common optimization technique is to distribute the workload between the processes deployed on the resources of the platform. This approach is known as data-parallelism. Each process, known as replica, trains its own copy of the model on a disjoint data partition. Nevertheless, the heterogeneity of the computational resources composing the platform requires to unevenly distribute the workload between the replicas according to its computational capabilities, to optimize the overall execution performance. Since the amount of data to be processed is different in each replica, the influence of the gradients computed by the replicas in the global parameter updating should be different. This work proposes a modification of the gradient computation method that considers the different speeds of the replicas, and hence, its amount of data assigned. The experimental results have been conducted on heterogeneous high-performance computing platforms for a wide range of models and datasets, showing an improvement in the final accuracy with respect to current techniques, with a comparable performance.
Impact of poly-arginine peptides R18D and R18 on alteplase and tenecteplase thrombolysis in vitro, and neuroprotective stability to proteolysis
Authors: Meloni Bruno P. , Blacker David J. , Edwards Adam B. , Knuckey Neville W. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe poly-arginine peptides R18D and R18 represent novel potential neuroprotective treatments for acute ischaemic stroke. Here we examined whether R18D and R18 had any significant effects on the thrombolytic activity of alteplase (tPA) and tenecteplase (TNK) on clots formed from whole blood in an in vitro thrombolysis plate assay. R18D and R18 were examined at concentrations of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 µM during the 1-h thrombolytic assay. We also included the well-characterised neuroprotective NA-1 peptide as a control. R18D, R18 and NA-1 all reduced tPA or TNK percentage clot lysis by 0–9.35%, 0–3.44% and 0–4.8%, respectively. R18D, R18 and NA-1 had a modest and variable effect on the lag time, increasing the time to the commencement of thrombolysis by 0–9.9 min, 0–5.53 min and 0–7.16 min, respectively. Lastly, R18 and NA-1 appeared to increase the maximal activity of the thrombolysis reaction. In addition, the in vitro anti-excitotoxic neuroprotective efficacy of R18D and R18 was not affected by pre-incubation for 1–2 h or overnight with tPA or TNK, whereas only R18D retained high anti-excitotoxic neuroprotective efficacy when pre-incubated in a synthetic trypsin (TrypLE Express). The present in vitro findings suggest that neither R18D or R18 when co-administered with the thrombolytic inducing agents tPA or TNK are likely to have a significant impact when used clinically during clot thrombolysis and confirm the superior proteolytic stability of the R18D peptide.
In-depth characterisation of the urine metabolome in cats with and without urinary tract diseases
Authors: Kim Younjung , Xu Wei , Barrs Vanessa , Beatty Julia , Kenéz Ákos 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
Introduction
Our understanding of the urine metabolome and its association with urinary tract disease is limited in cats.

Objectives
We conducted a case–control study to characterise the feline urine metabolome, investigate its association with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and feline idiopathic cystitis (FIC), and assess its compositional relationship with the urine microbiome.

Methods
The urine metabolome of 45 owned cats, including 23 controls, 16 CKD, and 6 FIC cases, was characterised by an untargeted metabolomics approach using high-performance chemical isotope labelling liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry.

Results
We detected 9411 unique compounds in the urine of controls and cases and identified 1037 metabolites with high confidence. Amino acids, peptides, and analogues dominated these metabolites (32.2%), followed by carbonyl compounds (7.1%) and carbohydrates (6.5%). Seven controls from one household showed a significant level of metabolome clustering, with a distinct separation from controls from other households (p value < 0.001). Owner surveys revealed that this cluster of cats was fed dry food only, whereas all but one other control had wet food in their diet. Accordingly, the diet type was significantly associated with the urine metabolome composition in our multivariate model (p value = 0.001). Metabolites significantly altered in this cluster included taurine, an essential amino acid in cats. Urine metabolome profiles were not significantly different in CKD and FIC cases compared with controls, and no significant compositional relationship was detected between the urine metabolome and microbiome.

Conclusion
Our study reveals in-depth diversity of the feline urine metabolome composition, and suggests that it can vary considerably depending on environmental factors.
Guillotine cutting is asymptotically optimal for packing consecutive squares
Authors: Balogh János , Dósa György , Hvattum Lars Magnus , Olaj Tomas , Tuza Zsolt 
Published: March 2022

AbstractMore than half a century ago Martin Gardner popularized a question leading to the benchmark problem of determining the minimum side length of a square into which the squares of sizes $$1,2,\dots ,n$$

1
,
2
,
⋯
,
n

can be packed without overlap. Constructions are known for a certain range of n, and summing up the areas yields that a packing in a square of size smaller than $$N:= \!\sqrt{n(n+1)(2n+1)/6)} $$

N
:
=

n
(
n
+
1
)
(
2
n
+
1
)
/
6
)

is not possible. Here we prove that an asymptotically minimal packing exists in a square of size $$N+cn+O(\!\sqrt{n})$$

N
+
c
n
+
O
(

n

)

with $$c<1$$

c
<
1

, and such a packing is achievable with guillotine-cuts. An improved construction is also given for the case where the constraint of guillotine cutting is dropped.
Fibula response to disuse: a longitudinal analysis in people with spinal cord injury
Authors: Abdelrahman Shima , Purcell Mariel , Rantalainen Timo , Coupaud Sylvie , Ireland Alex 
Published: March 2022

Abstract

Summary

Fibular response to disuse has been described in cross-sectional but not longitudinal studies. This study assessed fibular bone changes in people with spinal cord injury. Fibular bone loss was less than in the tibia and was not correlated together. This might explain low fibular fracture incidents in these patients.

Purpose
Cross-sectional studies suggest that the fibula responds differently to loading and disuse compared to the tibia. Whilst tibial bone changes following spinal cord injury (SCI) have been established in longitudinal studies, fibular changes remain unexplored.

Methods
Fibular and tibial bone parameters were assessed in 13 individuals with SCI (aged 16–76 years). Peripheral quantitative computed tomography scans were acquired at 4%, 38% and 66% distal–proximal tibia length at 5 weeks and 12 months post-injury. Changes in 4% site total bone mineral content (BMC), total cross-sectional area (CSA) and bone mineral density (BMD), and 38% and 66% sites total BMC, total CSA, cortical BMD and cortical CSA were assessed using paired T-tests. Relationships between bone loss in the two bones at equivalent sites were assessed using paired T-tests and correlation.

Results
At the 4% site, fibular total BMC and BMD losses were less than tibial losses (− 6.9 ± 5.1% and − 6.6 ± 6.0% vs − 14.8 ± 12.4% and − 14.4 ± 12.4%, p = 0.02 and p = 0.03, respectively). Similarly, at the 66% site, fibular BMC losses were less than those in the tibia (− 2.0 ± 2.6% vs − 4.3 ± 3.6%, p = 0.03), but there was no difference at 38% (− 1.8 ± 3.5% vs − 3.8 ± 2.1%, p = 0.1). No correlation was observed for BMC changes between the two bones (all p > 0.25).

Conclusion
These results support cross-sectional evidence of smaller disuse-related bone loss in the fibula compared to the tibia. These results may in part explain lower incidence of fibula fractures in individuals with chronic SCI. The lack of association between losses in the two bones might point to different underlying mechanisms.
Antrum Preservation Versus Antrum Resection in Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy With Effects on Gastric Emptying, Body Mass Index, and Type II Diabetes Remission in Diabetic Patients With Body Mass Index 30–40 kg/m2: a Randomized Controlled Study
Authors: Eskandaros Moheb S. 
Published: March 2022

AbstractBackgroundLaparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a widely performed procedure nowadays. There is a controversy on whether antrum resection (AR) or antrum preservation (AP) should be done and if this has an effect on BMI, gastric emptying, and associated medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus (DM).Study DesignThis randomized controlled trial included 56 patients in the AP group and 53 patients in the AR group with BMI 30–40 kg/m2. Weight, BMI, fasting and postprandial blood glucose (FBS and PPBS), HbA1C, oral hypoglycemic drug use, and % gastric emptying by gastric scintigraphy at 30, 60, 90, and 120 min were recorded preoperatively and postoperatively at 3, 6, and 12 months. Postoperative % of total weight loss (TWL) and symptoms of de novo GERD were observed at 3, 6, and 12 months.ResultsThe AR group had significantly lower BMI and HbA1C and higher %TWL than the AP group. There was a significant difference between the two groups regarding % of gastric emptying with the AP group showing higher values at 30, 60, 90, and 120 min. There were no significant differences regarding FBS, PPBS, and oral hypoglycemic use. The AR group had more incidence of GERD symptoms postoperatively yet with no significant difference.ConclusionLSG with antrum resection (2 cm from the pylorus) had significantly less postoperative BMI, higher %TWL, better control of type II DM, and more retention of gastric contents in patients with BMI 30–40 kg/m2in comparison with LSG with antral preservation with non-significant increase in incidence of GERD symptoms.Graphical abstract
The Relationship Between Percentage Weight Loss and World Health Organization-Five Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) in Patients Having Bariatric Surgery
Authors: Abdul Wahab Roshaida , Al-Ruwaily Heshma , Coleman Therese , Heneghan Helen , Neff Karl , le Roux Carel W. , Fallon Finian 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
Purpose
The association between bariatric surgery outcome and depression remains controversial. Many patients with depression are not offered bariatric surgery due to concerns that they may have suboptimal outcomes. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between baseline World Health Organization-Five Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) and percentage total weight loss (%TWL) in patients after bariatric surgery.

Materials and Methods
All patients were routinely reviewed by the psychologist and screened with WHO-5. The consultation occurred 3.5 ± 1.6 months before bariatric surgery. Body weight was recorded before and 1 year after surgery. A total of 45 out of 71 (63.3%) patients with complete WHO-5 data were included in the study. Data analysis was carried out with IBM SPSS Statistics (version 27) to determine the correlation between baseline WHO-5 and %TWL in patients having bariatric surgery.

Results
Overall, 11 males and 34 females were involved with mean age of 47.5 ± 11.5 and BMI of 46.2 ± 5.5 kg/m2. The %TWL between pre- and 1-year post-surgery was 30.0 ± 8.3% and the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index mean score was 56.5 ± 16.8. We found no correlation between %TWL and the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index (r = 0.032, p = 0.83).

Conclusion
There was no correlation between the baseline WHO-5 Wellbeing Index and %TWL 1-year post-bariatric surgery. Patients with low mood or depression need to be assessed and offered appropriate treatment but should not be excluded from bariatric surgery only based on their mood.

Graphical Abstract