bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and predictors of condom use among people who inject drugs in Georgia
Authors: Kajaia Maia , Butsashvili Maia , DeHovitz Jack A. , Kamkamidze George , Gulbiani Lasha , Abzianidze Tinatin , Djibuti Mamuka 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
People who inject drugs (PWID) are more likely to engage in unsafe sexual behavior placing them at high risk of acquiring HIV and other STIs. This study aims to assess the prevalence and predictors of inconsistent condom use with casual and/or paid sexual partners among PWID in Georgia.

Methods
Integrated Bio-Behavioral Surveillance Survey was conducted among PWID in seven major cities of Georgia. Study design was cross-sectional with respondent-driven sampling (RDS) methodology. Data collection was carried out through individual face-to-face interviews. Of the 2005 PWID who participated in the study, we analyzed a subsample of 619 (30.9%) who reported having casual and/or paid sexual partners during the last 12 months and described prevalence and predictors of consistent condom use.

Results
Consistent condom use during casual and/or paid sex in past 12 months was reported by 49.4% of respondents. The likelihood of consistent use with casual and/or paid sexual partners was statistically significantly associated with residence, family income, drug use frequency, drug dependence and HIV risk self-perceptions. In multivariable analysis independent predictors of always using condom at casual/paid sex during the last 12 months were place of residence (aOR = 6.4; 95% CI: 3.2–12.7), family income (aOR = 2.1; 95% CI:1.3–3.5) and drug use frequency (aOR = 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4–0.9).

Conclusion
The study revealed low prevalence of consistent condom use with casual and/or paid sexual partners among PWID in Georgia. Integration of safe sex educational interventions in harm reduction services may improve the rates of condom use among PWID and should focus PWID with lower socio-economic status and residing outside capital city.
A novel HVEM-Fc recombinant protein for lung cancer immunotherapy
Authors: Yao Yuanshan , Li Bin , Wang Jing , Chen Chunji , Gao Wen , Li Chunguang 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
The ubiquitously expressed transmembrane protein, Herpesvirus Entry Mediator (HVEM), functions as a molecular switch, capable of both activating and inhibiting the immune response depending on its interacting ligands. HVEM-Fc is a novel recombinant fusion protein with the potential to eradicate tumor cells.

Methods
The anti-tumor efficacy of HVEM-Fc was evaluated in C57BL/6 mice-bearing lung cancer models: a syngeneic model and an orthotopic model of mouse lung cancer. Additionally, patient-derived organoids were employed in conjunction with T cell co-culture systems. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, a comprehensive array of techniques was utilized, including single-cell RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, bulk RNA sequencing, and flow cytometry. Furthermore, the anti-tumor effects of HVEM-Fc in combination with Programmed Death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors were assessed. Finally, mouse immune cell depletion antibodies were used to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of action.

Results
In vivo, 1 mg/kg HVEM-Fc demonstrated effective inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis in C57BL/6 mice bearing lung cancer model and a KP orthotopic model of mouse lung cancer. Multi-omics analysis showed that HVEM-Fc induced an immune-stimulatory microenvironment. Notably, the combination of HVEM-Fc with a PD-1 inhibitor demonstrated the most potent inhibition of tumor cell growth. In vitro, HVEM-Fc was validated to eradicate tumor cells through the activation of T cells in both non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) organoids and T cell co-culture models.

Conclusions
Our data demonstrate that HVEM-Fc exerts a strong signal that augments and prolongs T-cell activity in both murine models and human NSCLC organoid models. Moreover, the combination of HVEM-Fc with a PD-1 inhibitor yields the most effective anti-tumor outcomes.
A translational perspective of the malignant hematopoietic proteoglycome
Authors: Borghini Naomi , Lazzaretti Mirca , Lunghi Paolo , Malpeli Giorgio , Barbi Stefano , Perris Roberto 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Proteoglycans are an ample family of complex extracellular matrix/cell surface components known to impact on virtually all biological processes that take place during life of a human being, in its healthy and diseased conditions. They are consolidated multivalent regulators of the behaviour of normal and malignant hematopoietic cells because of being critical components of their membranes, because of their pivotal role as multifaceted factors of the hematopoietic niches and because of acting as pillars of the tumour microenvironment. Likewise, they act as promoters of the growth, spreading and therapeutic resistance of diseased hematopoietic cells, also by modulating intracellular processes through a dual utilization of core protein domains and their glycosaminoglycan side chains. The intricate pattern of expression of the myriads of proteoglycan isoforms generated by differential glycanations of the core proteins is differentiation- and cell activation-dependent and often associates with genomic aberrations and gene amplifications. Selected proteoglycans stand out as widely recognized, disease type-specific markers and as alluring but still unappreciated therapeutic targets. We therefore pose here a clinical-translational view on the hematopoietic proteoglycome to highlight its underestimated biological and pathological significance during normal and neoplastic hematopoiesis. We underscore the potential of several proteoglycans to be exploited as key markers for prognostication and therapeutic targeting of hematopoietic cancers.
Initiating buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder without prerequisite withdrawal: an updated systematic review
Authors: Adams Kathleen K. , Waters Kristin , Sobieraj Diana M. 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Withdrawal prior to buprenorphine initiation may be intolerable or create barriers to therapy. We aim to update our previous systematic review on the efficacy and safety of buprenorphine initiation strategies that aim to omit prerequisite opioid withdrawal (POW).

Methods
We used the same search strategy for this update as in the original review with the modification of an additional term “low dose.” We searched Embase and Scopus from April 11, 2020 to August 1, 2024 with searches in Google Scholar and www.clinicaltrials.gov. A study was included if it described patients with opioid use disorder or chronic pain that transitioned from a full mu-opioid agonist to buprenorphine without preceding withdrawal and reported withdrawal during initiation as an outcome. Two investigators independently screened citations and articles for inclusion, collected data using a standardized data collection tool, and assessed study risk of bias.

Results
Forty-four articles met our inclusion criteria; 31 were case reports/series reporting 84 cases and 13 were single-arm observational studies reporting a total of 576 cases. These studies were added to the literature from our original systematic review, totaling 59 studies and 682 patients. Sublingual buprenorphine was the most common initial formulation, comprising 55% (376/682) of cases. In case reports/series, use of a validated scale to measure withdrawal was uncommon; validated scales were only used in 36% of patients. All other patients had withdrawal assessed in a manner not utilizing a validated scale. Approximately half of these patients experienced any level of withdrawal (57/106 = 54%). The specific outcome of “any level of withdrawal” was not consistently reported in single-arm observational studies. Eight studies reported on any level of withdrawal, which occurred in 41% (177/428) of initiation attempts; some patients experienced more than one initiation attempt. Thirteen patients in case reports/series and 37 patients in the single-arm observational studies reported clinically significant withdrawal (50/682 = 7%). 81% (451/555) of patients transitioned to buprenorphine.

Conclusion
The prevalence of buprenorphine dosing strategies that aim to omit POW has vastly increased over the past 4 years. While quality of evidence remains low, the increased quantity of publications and integration into health-system guidelines and protocols demonstrates the need for prospective, controlled studies. It is unknown how selection bias impacts current findings, further highlighting the need for prospective, randomized, controlled trials evaluating these dosing strategies.
Biofunctionalization of silk fibroin scaffolds with enamel matrix protein and injectable platelet rich fibrin for soft tissue augmentation: an in-ovo study
Authors: Heimes Diana , Wiesmann-Imilowski Nadine , Heidebrecht Timpe , Blatt Sebastian , Pabst Andreas , Becker Philipp , Fuest Sandra , Brieger Jürgen , Smeets Ralf , Kämmerer Peer W. 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Purpose
Silk fibroin (SF) is a biomaterial derived from the cocoon of the mulberry silkworm. This study aimed to assess the capacity of SF matrices biologized with injectable platelet-rich fibrin (iPRF) or enamel matrix protein (EMP) to modulate angiogenesis and immune response in the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay.

Methods
300 eggs were divided into the following groups: CM + NaCl, CM + iPRF, CM + EMP, SF + NaCl, SF + iPRF, and SF + EMP. Matrices were applied to the CAM on embryonic development day (EDD) 7 after rehydration. Angiogenesis, represented by vascularized area, vessel density, and vessel junctions, was evaluated on EDD 10, 12, and 14. Additionally, gene expression of HIF-1ɑ, VEGF, MMP-13, and NOS2 was assessed via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) on EDD 11 and 14.

Results
The number of vascularized specimens was notably higher in SF matrices regardless of the treatment applied, while in the CM group, only matrices biofunctionalized with iPRF demonstrated vascularization. On EDD 14, the CM + iPRF group exhibited the highest values for total vascularized area (CM + iPRF: 57.52%, SF + iPRF: 21.87%, p < 0.001), vessel density (CM + iPRF: 0.0067 μm/µm2, SF + iPRF: 0.0032 μm/µm2, p = 0.002), number of vessel junctions (CM + iPRF: 14.45, SF + iPRF: 4.82, p = 0.001). Gene expressions displayed high data variability and no significant differences between the groups.

Conclusions
Biofunctionalization with iPRF in CM leads to a high vascularization rate probably through their capability of retaining higher liquid volumes, suggesting improved intraoral wound healing after guided tissue regeneration (GTR). Despite biofunctionalization, SF matrices exhibit a high vascularization, indicating SF as a promising material for GTR.
Enhanced psychosocial assessment and rapid follow-up care for people presenting to emergency departments with self-harm and/or suicidal ideation: the Assured feasibility study and internal pilot trial
Authors: O’Keeffe Sally , Suzuki Mimi , Ryan Mary , Priebe Stefan , Byng Richard , Simpson Alan , Araújo-Soares Vera , Albert Rikke , Fialho Renata , Walker Neil , Bakou Alexandra Elissavet , McCabe Rose 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Patients presenting to emergency departments (EDs) following an episode of self-harm are at risk of future suicide. There are few evidence-based interventions for self-harm in the ED context in England. This study sought to assess the feasibility of a trial of a newly developed brief psychological intervention, the Assured approach. This approach consisted of an enhanced psychosocial assessment, collaborative safety planning and three rapid solution-focussed follow-up sessions. Phase 1 was a feasibility study, and phase 2 was an internal pilot trial of a cluster randomised controlled trial to assess whether progression to a full-scale trial was warranted.

Methods
In phase 1, patients were recruited and allocated to a study arm, the Assured arm or treatment as usual, depending on the allocation of their assessing practitioner, in four EDs in England. They were invited to research assessments after consent and at 6 months. Phase 2 was the internal pilot of a cluster randomised controlled trial conducted in six EDs in England. Practitioners were randomised to deliver the Assured approach or treatment as usual. Patients were recruited and allocated to a study arm depending on the allocation of their assessing practitioner. They were invited to complete research assessments after consent and at 3, 9 and 18 months.

Results
Sixty-one patients were recruited into the Assured (n = 46) and treatment as usual (n = 15) arms in phase 1. Findings showed we could recruit and follow up patients over a 6-month period. The research procedures were acceptable to patients and practitioners, and the intervention was delivered with acceptable fidelity to the intervention manual. Forty-seven patients were recruited into the phase 2 internal pilot trial, falling substantially short of our target of 491 in the stop-go criteria, indicating that the trial was not feasible in its current design.

Conclusion
The feasibility study indicated that both the intervention and research processes were acceptable. However, the internal pilot trial revealed substantial challenges in recruiting patients and delivering the intervention in the ED context. Adaptations to the trial design and intervention are proposed to enable the Assured approach to be tested in a future trial, to improve care for this underserved population.

Trial registration
ISRCTN16003313, 04/02/2020; ISRCTN13472559, 18/11/2021.
A dynamic journey of comprehensive school health policy implementation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Lombok, Indonesia
Authors: Warnaini Cut , Haq Abiyyu Didar , Kadriyan Hamsu , Shibuya Fumiko , Kobayashi Jun 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020 led to new restrictive policies in several countries, including Indonesia. The comprehensive school health (CSH) framework provides overall guidance for interventions most effective in achieving specific outcomes related to health, nutrition, and education, and creating CSH programmes that account for the main contextual variations in Indonesian communities and schools is important. This study aimed to clarify how school health-related policies made before and after the COVID-19 pandemic responded to COVID-19 control measures on Lombok Island, Indonesia.

Method
This was a qualitative observational analytic study. Researchers reviewed and analysed school health policy, held separate confirmation discussions and interviews with stakeholders and key informants, and observed policy implementation at public and private schools in Mataram.

Results
The analysis found weaknesses and opportunities. Weakness included lack of guidelines, comprehensive planning, inconsistent hierarchy of roles and responsibilities, and social and cultural barriers. Opportunities included the importance of funding for consistent CSH implementation, monitoring and evaluation system, implementation between public and private schools, and decentralisation. Positive findings included CSH policy integration into teaching and learning activities, regular healthy school competition program, teachers as role models, existing coordination and distribution of responsibilities between relevant stakeholders, and authorising schools to make needed adjustments. Factors influencing school health efforts included curriculum, school organisation, personal ethos, and healthcare provider partnerships. To effectively promote school health efforts, schools must assess existing health problems within the school environment and surroundings, organisational structure and capabilities including knowledge and skills, commitment, and leadership aspects.

Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the implementation of CSH policies in schools of Lombok Island, demonstrating flexibility and dedication to student welfare. Despite confusion due to changing regulations, collaboration with local health organisations and community support has resulted in effective policy implementation.
Religious Sodalities of the Ixil Maya of Chajul, Guatemala: A Historical Perspective
Authors: Castillo Victor , Banach Monika 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Indigenous confraternities of Mexico and Guatemala have received considerable attention in ethnographic research as key institutions of the civil-religious hierarchy of Native communities. Nevertheless, in many regions the origins and developments of such confraternities are poorly known. Through the study of ecclesiastical documents related to the parish life of the Ixil Maya of northwestern Guatemala, this article tracks down the historical development of the Indigenous brotherhoods in the town of Chajul, from the seventeenth century to present day. Data reveal that cofradias and other religious sodalities of the colonial period operated rather differently from what ethnographers observed during the twentieth century in terms of ritual behavior and communal financial matters. Moreover, ethnographic data show that in Chajul these organizations might have been associated to the colonial mural art that has been lately uncovered there, offering a new insight into the ritual life of colonial cofradias. This raises important questions regarding the transformations of the cofradia in the Maya highlands—from an institution under constant economic duress to a powerful local organization—and the timing of such changes.
Vanishing Mediators
Authors: Kara Taushif 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
The expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972 coincided with the formal and informal development of multiculturalism as state policy and as shibboleth, while their arrival in places like Canada and Britain accelerated or compelled its advance. In both contexts, Uganda's Asians as well as cognate communities from Kenya and Tanzania are often seen as one of multiculturalism's ostensible success stories, even though in Britain they have also become some of its most visible critics. This essay suggests that the history of the expulsion is intimately rather than only accidentally connected to that of multiculturalism. It traces the conceptual links between the colonial “multiracialism” that defined the contexts in East Africa from where the Asians were expelled and what is today called multiculturalism. It makes the case that both might be better understood in relation to the persistent problem of mediation, as well as the uncertain place of mediating groups themselves.
Zainichi Protagonists and the Making of Historical Fiction: Cold War Security and Economic Insecurity in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko and Yang Sŏk-il's Chi to hone (Blood and Bones)
Authors: Kim Adhy 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
This article discusses how the historical experience of Zainichi (the postcolonial Korean diaspora in Japan) is represented through the fictionalized family history, set from the colonial period to the dusk of the Cold War. Looking at two post–Cold War novels across English and Japanese languages, Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and Yang Sŏk-il’s Chi to hone 血と骨 (Blood and Bones), this article contextualizes the Zainichi intergenerational historical novel within a transpacific memory culture on Japanese-US imperiality and Korean diaspora. Built from firsthand or secondhand Zainichi memories, these novels experiment with different kinds of agency allotted to Korean characters amid the difficulties of effecting social change. Under dual conditions of Cold War security and economic insecurity, the agentive possibilities for a Zainichi character may be channeled in ways that reinforce the violent sociopolitical order as much as they might take the forms of revolutionary activity, resistance, or survival. These novels retrospectively narrate the experience of economic and geopolitical uncertainty within the frames of accepted historical knowledge. While Yang’s novel includes flashbacks to socialist and lumpen struggles as hallmarks of Zainichi memory, Lee purges her novel of the leftist Zainichi legacy, manipulating smaller levers of individual possibility within the unquestioned parameters of racialized labor and Korean division.
“Dulled Emotions and Dying Humanity”: The Jjimjilbang (Gay Bathhouse) as a Dark Space in Seoul
Authors: Cho John (Song Pae) 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
This article examines the discourses surrounding the emergence and growing popularity of Korean-style gay bathhouses known as jjimjilbangs in Seoul. Drawing on two years of field research conducted by the author in 2001–3, as well as follow-up research carried out in the summers up to the present, the author argues that Korean gay men have contradictory experiences of pleasure and abjection within jjimjilbangs. Such contradictory experiences arise not from their inherent depravity—as often depicted within mainstream media—but from the structural conditions of gay life in South Korea’s family-based society, in which homosexuality is considered so shameful for the entire family that “only orphans come out.” Unable to openly show their faces in public, men seek out these “dark spaces” to meet other men for sexual encounters. Unable to overcome these structural conditions, however, the men become trapped in “long tunnels of darkness.” In focusing on jjimjilbangs, this article contributes to the emerging body of literature on Queer Asia, which, in its insistence on the social embeddedness of individuals in the family and other social institutions, is articulating a counter-discourse to the hegemonic Western queer scholarship, based on the liberal notion of the “free” individual.
Tools and strategies to improve human locomotion performance and safety throughout history: on ice skates, skis, mountains and the battlefield
Authors: Formenti Federico , Askew Graham N. , Minetti Alberto E. 
Published: February 2025

ABSTRACT
Humans have developed tools and strategies to improve locomotion performance and safety throughout history. In particular, unusual environmental conditions and danger have pushed the limits of imagination and initiative, laying the foundations for the development of several tools to enhance locomotion. This Review summarises studies on the biomechanics and energetics of human locomotion on ice and snow, from a historical perspective and in load-carrying conditions. Environmental conditions challenge our locomotor performance: steep mountain paths and snow on the ground increase the metabolic cost of walking, ice increases the risk of falls, and fighting on the medieval battlefield required protection. In these conditions, humans evolved and developed tools and strategies to improve their locomotor performance and safety, typically with a trade-off between increasing the weight carried and reducing the metabolic cost of locomotion and/or increasing safety. Materials engineering and empirical understanding of muscle and locomotion biomechanics have aided performance improvement. In addition, environmental and even genetic changes have contributed to a superior physiological performance at high altitude. This Review presents and discusses findings integrating the biomechanics and energetics of locomotion. Overall, the thought-provoking historical perspective of this work helps to hypothesise some of the current technological and technical limitations to human physiological performance and highlights how improving the latter may well require a wide multidisciplinary approach.