julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
On Task and in Sync: Examining the Relationship between Gaze Synchrony and Self-reported Attention During Video Lecture Learning
2024-05-20

Successful learning depends on learners' ability to sustain attention, which is particularly challenging in online education due to limited teacher interaction. A potential indicator for attention is gaze synchrony, demonstrating predictive power for learning achievements in video-based learning in controlled experiments focusing on manipulating attention. This study (N=84) examines the relationship between gaze synchronization and self-reported attention of learners, using experience sampling, during realistic online video learning. Gaze synchrony was assessed through Kullback-Leibler Divergence of gaze density maps and MultiMatch algorithm scanpath comparisons. Results indicated significantly higher gaze synchronization in attentive participants for both measures and self-reported attention significantly predicted post-test scores. In contrast, synchrony measures did not correlate with learning outcomes. While supporting the hypothesis that attentive learners exhibit similar eye movements, the direct use of synchrony as an attention indicator poses challenges, requiring further research on the interplay of attention, gaze synchrony, and video content type.
The Patient Activation Measure-13 (PAM-13) in an oncology patient population: psychometric properties and dimensionality evaluation
2024-05-20

Abstract Background Accurate assessment and enhancement of health-related skills among oncology patients are pivotal for optimizing cancer care. The Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13), a questionnaire designed to reflect an individual’s knowledge, skills, and confidence in self-healthcare management, has been validated across diverse countries and settings. Concerns have been raised regarding the cross-situational applicability, as patients with specific diseases and cultural backgrounds interpret questionnaire items differently. This study aimed to examine the structural validity and psychometric properties of the PAM-13 in an oncological patient cohort. Methods Baseline data from a longitudinal non-randomized controlled study involving cancer out-patients ( n = 1,125) from Comprehensive Cancer Centres in Southern Germany were analysed. The German version of the PAM-13 was employed. With classical test and item response theory methods data quality, reliability, convergent and structural validity, as well as psychometric properties were assessed. Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were employed to investigate the postulated unidimensionality of the underlying construct. With a partial credit model (PCM) we examined item fit, targeting, local independence and differential item functioning. Results Participants were predominantly female (73.0%) with a breast cancer diagnosis (41.3%). While items were generally well-accepted, ceiling effects were observed and a high mean PAM-13 score (69.7, SD = 14.2) was noted, potentially compromising responsiveness to interventions. Reliability was adequate (Cronbach’s α = 0.81), person and item separation reliability were good to excellent (0.81 and 0.99, respectively). Explorations of the unidimensionality of the construct (EFA, CFA, PCM) yielded inconclusive results, hinting towards a two-factor solution. Item difficulty rankings deviated from the original. No differential item functioning was identified, and local independence was confirmed. Conclusions While the PAM-13 serves as a valuable instrument for comprehending and promoting health-related skills in cancer patients, the identification of ceiling effects, disordered item-difficulty rankings, and inconclusive findings regarding unidimensionality contribute to the expanding body of evidence, emphasizing the dependency of PAM-13’s validity and reliability on distinctive characteristics within the population under investigation. Future research should prioritize refining or adding PAM-13 items to better capture the specific health-related challenges within diverse populations, paving the way for more effective patient engagement strategies in oncology. Trial registration number DRKS00021779
Enhancing citizen science impact in environmental monitoring: Targeted engagement strategies with stakeholder groups
2024-05-20

Understanding the motivations and benefits of citizen science (CS) participants is critical to the success of environmental science projects that rely on data collection from engaged citizens. Tailored communication with citizen scientists is essential, leading to the need to target specific societal groups for extensive and high-quality data sets. The purpose of the study was to apply marketing concepts such as stakeholder analysis, value proposition canvas (VPC), and key performance indicators (KPIs) to CS projects. The study examined the extent to which these strategies can be applied to CS projects and add value, resulting in improved recruitment and retention of participants, as well as improved project management. The dynamic landscape of CS projects requires adapted business-oriented approaches supporting ongoing participation with high motivation, acknowledging community needs, and recognizing institutional scientists, akin to targeting potential customers. The case study focuses on the CityCLIM initiative, an EU-funded project collecting urban climate data, especially air temperature, using mobile weather stations. The CityCLIM VPC, analyzing stakeholder groups, facilitated tailored communication strategies by analyzing stakeholder groups and highlighting the effectiveness of the CS cycling initiative within the “Stadtradeln” program. Impact KPIs served as a roadmap for strategic refinement, while data quality KPIs identified deficiencies, guiding adjustments to the campaign. Applied marketing tools improved project planning, engagement, and evaluation, demonstrating the potential of this concept. Adapting marketing tools to recruitment and communication strategies benefits CS projects by targeting specific groups. The holistic integration of stakeholder analysis, VPC, and KPIs streamlines project management and creates a framework for sustainable success. This adaptation forms a robust toolkit for CS project coordinators, contributing to effective communication, engagement, and impact assessment. Applying marketing tools significantly increases CS projects’ reach and impact, ensuring long-term success and meaningful scientific contributions.
How Interaction Mechanism and Error Responses Influence Users’ Responses to Customer Service Chatbots
2024-05-20

As more and more people regularly interact with chatbots in their everyday lives, it is crucial to understand how users perceive and evaluate them. This study examined whether free text (vs. button) interaction with and social (vs. neutral) error responses of chatbots effectively improve user responses. Using an online experiment (N = 416) in which participants interacted with a customer service chatbot, we investigated how interaction mechanism and error response influence perceived warmth and competence, satisfaction, usage intention, and emotional connection with the company. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found no evidence that free text interaction increases acceptance. Interacting via buttons was preferred, potentially because participants perceived the free text chatbot as less warm and competent. Interestingly, social error responses only increased satisfaction. We discuss the results considering recent advances in Large Language Models and highlight how the findings can guide further research and help practitioners develop efficient, user-friendly chatbots.
Privacy-preserving Scanpath Comparison for Pervasive Eye Tracking
2024-05-20

As eye tracking becomes pervasive with screen-based devices and head-mounted displays, privacy concerns regarding eye-tracking data have escalated. While state-of-the-art approaches for privacy-preserving eye tracking mostly involve differential privacy and empirical data manipulations, previous research has not focused on methods for scanpaths. We introduce a novel privacy-preserving scanpath comparison protocol designed for the widely used Needleman-Wunsch algorithm, a generalized version of the edit distance algorithm. Particularly, by incorporating the Paillier homomorphic encryption scheme, our protocol ensures that no private information is revealed. Furthermore, we introduce a random processing strategy and a multi-layered masking method to obfuscate the values while preserving the original order of encrypted editing operation costs. This minimizes communication overhead, requiring a single communication round for each iteration of the Needleman-Wunsch process. We demonstrate the efficiency and applicability of our protocol on three publicly available datasets with comprehensive computational performance analyses and make our source code publicly accessible.
De novo AHDC1 Deletions Identified by Genome Sequencing in Two Individuals with Xia-Gibbs Syndrome
2024-05-20

Introduction: Xia-Gibbs syndrome (XGS) is a rare syndromic disorder characterized by developmental delay with intellectual disability, muscular hypotonia, brain anomalies, and nonspecific dysmorphic features. Different heterozygous variants in AHDC1 have been reported as causal for XGS, comprising mainly de novo stop-gain and frameshift events, but also missense variants, deletions, and a duplication of the locus. Case Presentation: We hereby report 2 patients with clinical features of XGS. In the first patient, a de novo interstitial deletion in 1p36.11p35.3 encompassing the entire coding region of AHDC1 was initially suspected by trio exome sequencing and subsequently confirmed by shallow genome sequencing. In the second patient, a de novo deletion comprising most of the 5′ untranslated region of AHDC1 was detected by genome sequencing. Conclusion: We identified the smallest deletion comprising AHDC1 reported so far by shallow genome sequencing as well as another small AHDC1 deletion by genome sequencing. These methods represent useful techniques for the identification and confirmation of small deletions and structural variants. Furthermore, our data provide additional evidence of AHDC1 haploinsufficiency as a disease mechanism in XGS. Clinically, foot deformity, skin and connective tissue abnormalities observed in one of the patients are consistent with other reported cases of XGS. These findings suggest that these manifestations could be considered as more prevalent characteristics, underscoring the importance of in-depth phenotyping.
Item performance of the scale for the assessment and rating of ataxia in rare and ultra‐rare genetic ataxias
2024-05-21

Abstract The Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) is widely used for assessing the severity and progression of genetic cerebellar ataxias. SARA is now considered a primary end point in several ataxia treatment trials, but its underlying composite item measurement model has not yet been tested. This work aimed to evaluate the composite properties of SARA and its items using item response theory (IRT) and to demonstrate its applicability across even ultra‐rare genetic ataxias. Leveraging SARA subscores data from 1932 visits from 990 patients of the Autosomal Recessive Cerebellar Ataxias (ARCA) registry, we assessed the performance of SARA using IRT methodology. The item characteristics were evaluated over the ataxia severity range of the entire ataxia population as well as the assessment validity across 115 genetic ARCA subpopulations. A unidimensional IRT model was able to describe SARA item data, indicating that SARA captures one single latent variable. All items had high discrimination values (1.5–2.9) indicating the effectiveness of the SARA in differentiating between subjects with different disease statuses. Each item contributed between 7% and 28% of the total assessment informativeness. There was no evidence for differences between the 115 genetic ARCA subpopulations in SARA applicability. These results show the good discrimination ability of SARA with all of its items adding informational value. The IRT framework provides a thorough description of SARA on the item level, and facilitates its utilization as a clinical outcome assessment in upcoming longitudinal natural history or treatment trials, across a large number of ataxias, including ultra‐rare ones.
Teachers’ trajectories of technology integration during participation in an online professional development program
2024-05-21

Abstract Technology-related professional development (PD) is a crucial strategy to prepare and encourage teachers to integrate technology into their teaching in a high-quality way. During teachers’ participation in technology-related PD, change processes occur from a current to a desired status of technology-enhanced teaching (TET). A higher probability of disruption of TET can be assumed during these change processes. However, previous research on PD is mainly based on cross-sectional data that does not provide insight into such change processes (especially during PD participation). In this study, we examined teachers’ trajectories closely during their participation in a 3-month technology-related online PD (OPD). We conducted a concurrent explanatory mixed-methods approach to analyze longitudinal data from the first four weeks of the OPD, focusing on 23 teachers who completed weekly reflection diaries. Findings from a multilevel framework revealed that most of the variances in the development of teachers’ technology integration (i.e., frequency and quality) and motivation to use technology for teaching (i.e., self-efficacy and utility value) was due to contextual factors. Using linear mixed-effects models, we found a statistically significant decrease in teachers’ quality of TET over time. Analyses of reflections on TET of extreme cases allowed us to identify possible relevant contextual characteristics related to smoother TET: 1) the use of one generic technology across lessons and 2) the use of ready-to-use domain-specific technology. Implications for practice are discussed, such as attention to unintended side effects of teachers’ TET during instructional phases of technology-related OPD.
Eosinophils, basophils and myeloid-derived suppressor cells in chronic Loa loa infection and its treatment in an endemic setting
2024-05-21

Background Chronic infection by Loa loa remains an unsolved immunological paradox. Despite harboring subcutaneously migrating adult worms and often high densities of microfilariae, most patients experience only relatively mild symptoms, yet microfilaricidal treatment can trigger life-threatening inflammation. Here, we investigated innate cell populations hypothesized to play a role in these two faces of the disease, in an endemic population in Gabon. Methodology/Principal findings We analyzed numbers and activation of eosinophils and basophils, as well as myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) subsets and associated circulating cytokine levels by flow cytometry in sex- and age-matched L . loa -uninfected (LL-), -amicrofilaraemic (MF-) and -microfilaraemic (MF+) individuals (n = 42), as well as microfilaraemic individuals treated with albendazole (n = 26). The percentage of eosinophils was lower in LL- (3.0%) than in the combined L . loa -infected population, but was similar in MF+ (13.1%) and MF- (12.3%). Upon treatment of MF+, eosinophilia increased from day 0 (17.2%) to day 14 (24.8%) and had decreased below baseline at day 168 (6.3%). Expression of the eosinophil activation marker CD123 followed the same pattern as the percentage of eosinophils, while the inverse was observed for CD193 and to some extent CD125. Circulating IL-5 levels after treatment followed the same pattern as eosinophil dynamics. Basophil numbers did not differ between infection states but increased after treatment of MF+. We did not observe differences in MDSC numbers between infection states or upon treatment. Conclusions/Significance We demonstrate that both chronic infection and treatment of L . loa microfilaraemia are associated with eosinophil circulation and distinct phenotypical activation markers that might contribute to inflammatory pathways in this setting. In this first ever investigation into MDSC in L . loa infection, we found no evidence for their increased presence in chronic loiasis, suggesting that immunomodulation by L . loa is induced through other pathways.
Can qualitative non-target data be indicative of PFAS contamination? First evidence by correlation with EOF in environmental samples
2024-05-21

We combined and correlated non-target screening (NTS) features and extractable organic fluorine (EOF) data for PFAS analysis in environmental samples. Soils, sediments, and ashes from different locations (Germany, France, Lithuania) (n=34) were extracted and analyzed via liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) and high resolution-continuum source-graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-GFMAS). NTS feature prioritization based on the mass to carbon (m/C) and mass defect to carbon (MD/C) ratio was applied to discriminate potential PFAS features from common co-extracted organic matrix. Our results show a high correlation between quantitative EOF data with the prioritized feature number (R2 = 0.87, rPearson = 0.93) as well as with the total peak area of prioritized features (R2 = 0.97, rPearson = 0.98) while commonly applied MD-ranges for filtering showed much weaker correlation with EOF. The observed highly significant correlations highlight that MD/C-m/C prioritization is associated with a good indication of the overall PFAS burden as evidenced by EOF. Also, semi-quantitative data can be extracted from PFAS-specific NTS as shown for the EOF vs. prioritized peak areas. The correlations indicate that lowly fluorinated compounds were negligible and that the EOF was mostly composed of higher fluorinated substances. We recommend further investigation of the unique complementary EOF vs. NTS combination for PFAS screening.
Electricity mix from renewable energies can avoid further fragmentation of African rivers
2024-05-21

Abstract In Africa, mitigating climate change in a context of a growing human population and developing economies requires a bold transition to renewable energy (RE) resources. Declining costs for solar photovoltaics (by 90% between 2009 and 2023) and wind turbines (by 57% between 2010 and 2023) fuelled their construction, and hybrid forms such as floating photovoltaics (FPV) on existing hydropower reservoirs are increasingly being explored. Nevertheless, 65% of the proposed RE capacity in Africa remains hydropower, despite confirmed ecological, socioeconomic, and political ramifications on different spatiotemporal scales. The 673 proposed hydropower plants (HPPs) would increasingly affect river systems and threaten their biodiversity. While there is clear evidence that a transition to RE in Africa is technically feasible, there is a lack of spatially explicit studies on how this transition could be implemented. Hence, the aim of the present study is to explore options for an RE mix that avoids additional hydropower construction and, therefore, further river fragmentation. Attribute data of the open-accessible Renewable Power Plant Database (RePP Africa) were analysed to assess the amount of lost capacity due to operation stops. Geospatial analyses of solar irradiation and existing reservoir data were used to derive the potential for FPV. The degree of possible replacement of future hydropower was assessed under consideration of economically feasible wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) potential. To enhance electricity generation from existing HPPs, efficient and sustainable renewable power plant planning must integrate the risk of failure, as it has diminished the available capacity in the past up to 24%. Our findings further reveal that 25 African countries could replace the proposed hydropower development by FPV covering less than 25% of the surface area of their existing hydropower reservoirs. All 36 African countries could replace proposed hydroelectricity generation by fully exploiting feasible onshore wind and solar PV potential with a mean surplus of 371 TWh per year. In summary, our findings provide scientific evidence to support policy discussions on the potential electricity gains from (1) minimizing plant failure, (2) installing FPV as a co-use option, and (3) exploiting wind and solar resources. This study provides quantitative, data-based, and spatially explicit scenarios on the implementation of an RE mix that could relieve the dam building pressure on African rivers.
Cover Feature: Intramolecular Coupling and Nucleobase Transfer – How Cytochrome P450 Enzymes GymBx Establish Their Chemoselectivity (ChemCatChem 10/2024)
2024-05-21

The Cover Feature shows an overview of the work presented in the Research Article by Shu-Ming Li, Georg Zocher, and co-workers. The authors report the structures of a new class of cyclodipeptide-modifying P450 enzymes named GymBx that are capable to transfer a nucleobase (hypoxanthine or guanine) onto cyclodipeptides (CDPs), an important class of secondary metabolites with a plethora of pharmacological impact. Structure comparison and protein engineering together with enzymatic kinetic analysis of the enzyme variants enabled the authors to redirect the specificity of the chemical reaction. A single point mutation (I227R) was sufficient to catalyse an intramolecular coupling reaction instead of the naturally occurring nucleobase transfer. More information can be found in the Research Article by J. Freytag et al. (DOI: 10.1002/cctc.202400105).
Gouqi-derived nanovesicles (GqDNVs) inhibited dexamethasone-induced muscle atrophy associating with AMPK/SIRT1/PGC1α signaling pathway
2024-05-22

Abstract With the increasing trend of global aging, sarcopenia has become a significant public health issue. Goji berry, also known as “Gou qi zi” in China, is a traditional Chinese herb that can enhance the structure and function of muscles and bones. Otherwise, previous excellent publications illustrated that plant-derived exosome-like nanoparticles can exert good bioactive functions in different aging or disease models. Thus, we issued the hypothesis that Gouqi-derived nanovesicles (GqDNVs) may also have the ability to improve skeletal muscle health, though the effect and its mechanism need to be explored. Hence, we have extracted GqDNVs from fresh berries of Lycium barbarum L. (goji) and found that the contents of GqDNVs are rich in saccharides and lipids. Based on the pathway annotations and predictions in non-targeted metabolome analysis, GqDNVs are tightly associated with the pathways in metabolism. In muscle atrophy model mice, intramuscular injection of GqDNVs improves the cross-sectional area of the quadriceps muscle, grip strength and the AMPK/SIRT1/PGC1α pathway expression. After separately inhibiting AMPK or PGC1α in C2C12 cells with dexamethasone administration, we have found that the activated AMPK plays the chief role in improving cell proliferation induced by GqDNVs. Furthermore, the energy-targeted metabolome analysis in the quadriceps muscle demonstrates that the GqDNVs up-regulate the metabolism of amino sugar and nucleotide sugar, autophagy and oxidative phosphorylation process, which indicates the activation of muscle regeneration. Besides, the Spearman rank analysis shows close associations between the quality and function of skeletal muscle, metabolites and expression levels of AMPK and SIRT1. In this study, we provide a new founding that GqDNVs can improve the quality and function of skeletal muscle accompanying the activated AMPK/SIRT1/PGC1α signaling pathway. Therefore, GqDNVs have the effect of anti-aging skeletal muscle as a potential adjuvant or complementary method or idea in future therapy and research. Graphical Abstract