Current Debate Research Articles

Metformin Treatment Is Not Associated with Altered PD-L1 Expression in Diabetic Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Background: The anti-neoplastic activity of metformin is a subject of current debate. Preclinical data have suggested that metformin enhances PD-L1 anti-tumor effects in various cancer entities by decreasing insulin levels and inducing energetic stress. However, its impact on PD-L1 expression remains unclear in a clinical setting. Therefore, we aim to investigate the impact of metformin treatment in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients on PD-L1 expression in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients with DM and OSCC treated at our tertiary referral center over a period of 12 years. The tumor proportion score (TPS), immune cell score (IC), and combined positive score (CPS) were used to quantify PD-L1 expression. PD-L1 expression of patients receiving metformin was compared to a control group without metformin prescription. Results: A total of 68 patients diagnosed with OSCC and DM were analyzed, with 24 receiving and 44 not receiving metformin therapy. No statistically significant differences were identified between the metformin and non-metformin groups for any of the scores (TPS: p = 0.818; IC: p = 0.748; CPS: p = 0.387). Conclusions: In contrast to previous studies, we could not find significant differences in PD-L1 expression between patients with and without metformin intake. Further research needs to shed light on the exact mechanism of metformin in different tumor entities. A comprehensive understanding of metformin's role in cancer therapy could provide valuable insights for potential use of metformin as an adjuvant treatment to immune checkpoint therapy.

Exploring Total Immunoglobulin A's Impact on Non-Biopsy Diagnosis of Celiac Disease: Implications for Diagnostic Accuracy.

In the current debate surrounding the biopsy-free diagnosis of CeD, it is crucial to identify factors influencing the accuracy of results. This study investigated the impact of total IgA on the non-invasive diagnosis of celiac disease (CeD). We retrospectively assessed total IgA titers' influence on the diagnostic accuracy of different tTG-IgA thresholds compared to the upper reference value (UNL). Of 165 included patients, tTG-IgA values at 10× UNL and 6× UNL showed specificity of 82.6% and 73.9% and sensitivity of 49.3% and 69.0%, respectively, in predicting intestinal villous atrophy (Marsh 3). In 130 patients, total IgA levels were known at baseline. These patients were divided into three tertiles according to total IgA, i.e., patients with lower, intermediate, or higher total IgA within the population. For patients with total IgA ≥ 245 mg/dL, using a tTG-IgA cutoff of 6× UNL instead of 10× UNL resulted in decreased specificity from 71.4% to 42.8% and increased sensitivity from 67.6% to 81.1%. For patients with total IgA < 174 mg/dL and between 174 mg/dL and 245 mg/dL, using a tTG-IgA cutoff of 6× UNL instead of 10× UNL maintained specificity (75.0% and 85.7%, respectively) with increased sensitivity (from 46.2% to 64.1% and from 36.1% to 52.8%, respectively). In conclusion, total IgA influences the diagnostic accuracy of a predetermined tTG-IgA cutoff. Greater consideration should be given to total IgA, beyond its deficiency, in evaluating the applicability and accuracy of non-invasive CeD diagnosis.

“… I still need to learn some things”: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of extended residential youth care in Denmark

ABSTRACT Youth residential home care is, in many countries, terminated at 18 years of age. However, current research suggests that leaving care at 18 is associated with several negative or suboptimal outcomes. Denmark has, in response to this, established an extension of care which can continue until the age of 23 years. This study aimed to provide a detailed understanding of the experiences of living in the Danish extended care program. This qualitative study explored the experiences of eight young adult residents (4 men and 4 women). Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the residents’ accounts which constructed three group experiential themes: (1) “It was me; I just didn’t want to listen:” The experience of the transition to adulthood while in residential care. (2) “I still need to learn some things:” The experience of maturation in extended care. (3) “They don’t come running to me every day anymore:” The experience of preparing to transition out of extended care. This study has important implications for practice given the sample’s perceived inability to live independently outside of care at 18 years of age. The findings support current arguments for establishing an extended care system in countries which currently only offer juvenile residential care.

Deep Brain Stimulation and Neuropsychiatric Anthropology – The “Prosthetisability” of the Lifeworld

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) represents a key area of neuromodulation that has gained wide adoption for the treatment of neurological and experimental testing for psychiatric disorders. It is associated with specific therapeutic effects based on the precision of an evolving mechanistic neuroscientific understanding. At the same time, there are obstacles to achieving symptom relief because of the incompleteness of such an understanding. These obstacles are at least in part based on the complexity of neuropsychiatric disorders and the incompleteness of DBS devices to represent prosthetics that modulate the breadth of pathological processes implicated in these disorders. Neuroprostheses, such as an implanted DBS system, can have vast effects on subjects in addition to the specific neuropsychiatric changes they are intended to produce. These effects largely represent blind spots in the current debate on neuromodulation. Anthropological accounts can illustrate the broad existential dimensions of patients’ illness and responses to neural implants. In combination with current neuroscientific understanding, neuropsychiatric anthropology may illuminate the possibilities and limits of neurodevices as technical “world enablers”.

To What Extent Are Taxes on Cigarettes Effective and How Does the Impact of These Taxes Affect Across Income Groups?

In this project, it will analyze the effectiveness of cigarette taxes and their impact on consumers of different income levels. The nature of cigarettes and the factors that determine the effectiveness of cigarette taxes will be considered, as well as the risks that cigarettes and cigarette taxes will bring. In particular, it will explore how consumers of lower and higher income, are impacted differently. In academic literature there is significant debate over the effectiveness or cigarette taxes. This paper will contribute to this debate by considering the impact of cigarette taxes on smokers of different income level from their perspectives. In this study, my goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of cigarette taxes varies across income groups. Specifically, this paper will investigate the economic rationale for cigarette taxes, how the impact of these taxes varies across income groups, and the causes of this variation in effectiveness. The rest for this paper will be organized as follows. The introduction will present the background and importance related to this paper. The literature review will survey the current debate on cigarette tax effectiveness and will summarize the evidence. The discussion section will: explain why cigarettes need to be taxed, study the price elasticity of cigarettes and how this determines the impact of the tax on smoking level, and discuss how high- income and low-income groups are affected by cigarette taxes, differently. The conclusion will summarize the research findings and outline areas for future work.

Exogenous spatial attention selects associated novel bindings in working memory

Real-world environments are complex, demanding a diverse set of cognitive functions such as attention and working memory (WM) to perform adaptive behaviors. However, exogenous attention, characterized as automatic and involuntary, has primarily been studied by focusing on spatial perception. In particular, the ability of pure exogenous retro-cues to select and prioritize not only spatial locations, but also novel stimulus–response (S-R) bindings held in WM remains largely unexplored. Here, in two experimental series, we provide evidence that pure exogenous non-predictive retro-cues can select not only space, but also associated S-R bindings held in WM. Additional evidence from a drift–diffusion model hinted at the possibility that the mechanisms through which exogenous attention selects and prioritizes WM contents depend, at least partially, on the hierarchical relevance of the different dimensions encoded within a specific representation. These results highlight the relationship between pure exogenous attention and complex WM contents and shed light on current theoretical debates about the interaction of attention, memory, and action.

AssocKD: An Association-Aware Knowledge Distillation Method for Document-Level Event Argument Extraction

Event argument extraction is a crucial subtask of event extraction, which aims at extracting arguments that correspond to argument roles when given event types. The majority of current document-level event argument extraction works focus on extracting information for only one event at a time without considering the association among events; this is known as document-level single-event extraction. However, the interrelationship among arguments can yield mutual gains in their extraction. Therefore, in this paper, we propose AssocKD, an Association-aware Knowledge Distillation Method for Document-level Event Argument Extraction, which enables the enhancement of document-level multi-event extraction with event association knowledge. Firstly, we introduce an association-aware training task to extract unknown arguments with the given privileged knowledge of relevant arguments, obtaining an association-aware model that can construct both intra-event and inter-event relationships. Secondly, we adopt multi-teacher knowledge distillation to transfer such event association knowledge from the association-aware teacher models to the event argument extraction student model. Our proposed method, AssocKD, is capable of explicitly modeling and efficiently leveraging event association to enhance the extraction of multi-event arguments at the document level. We conduct experiments on RAMS and WIKIEVENTS datasets and observe a significant improvement, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of our method.

What lies behind export-led growth? An inquiry into the role of price and non-price competitiveness

The paper enters the current debate at the intersection of comparative political economy and international trade on the role of price and non-price competitiveness in influencing export. Through an econometric exploration, we identify price competitiveness as a non-negligible factor in driving export for a set of Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1994 to 2019. The documented price sensitiveness, combined with the institutions and policies adopted to promote export-led growth, casts an unsettling light on the prospects for a recovery, particularly for the Euro area. These worrying conclusions are not, however, unescapable. The emergence of the export-led growth model – with its twin brother, the debt-led one – answered the demand-generating problems created by years of wage share decreases and a steady retreat of the State from its traditional demand management role. Drastically inverting these tendencies would contribute to strongly narrowing the need for export-led strategies.

Mapping data-driven management in accounting: the premise and promise of the debate and how to move beyond

Purpose This paper aims to point to the shift in the temporal orientation, going from reporting on the past to creating insights about the future, which might be suggestive of perennial managerial attempts to push the boundaries of bounded rationality. Design/methodology/approach In this essay, the authors want to critically engage with the concept of “data-driven management” in the context of digitalization. To do so, they sketch the edges of current discourses around the emerging idea of data-driven management and its relationship with the inner workings of organizations from an accounting perspective. They question the often-times supposed objectivity and increased rationality of the concept and instead introduce the idea of becoming “data-curious” (before being data-driven). Findings The authors observe that this push also seems to be accompanied by trends of individualized decision-making and prevailing hopes of technology to solve organizational problems. They therefore suggest that it is valuable for current debates to take a moment to give attention, in practice and in research, to the role of temporality, benefits of collective decision-making and changes in professions (of accountants). Originality/value The aim of this paper is to spark curiosity and engagement with the phenomenon of data-driven management by outlining a novel set of potential future pathways of research and point towards methods that might help studying the questions arising for a data-curious approach.

Delimiting species boundaries within the Babyloniidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Neogastropoda) using multi‐locus phylogenetic analysis

AbstractThe Babyloniidae is a family of marine snails consisting of 21 species and two genera. Current taxonomic debates on the Babyloniidae are mainly due to their extremely similar shell morphologies, which have led to incorrect locality records and mislabelling in legal or illegal international trade. We have therefore constructed a phylogeny of the Babyloniidae with high species coverage (57% of the family) by using multi‐locus genes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I [COI], 16S, and H3) with four species delimitation methods (Best Close Match [BCM], Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning [ASAP], Bayesian Poisson Tree Process [bPTP] and Multi‐rate Poisson Tree Processes [mPTP]). Based on our results, 13 clades/operational taxonomic unit were observed, which confirms pre‐existing species status for 10 Babylonia and one Zemiropsis taxa: B. areolata (Link, 1807), B. borneensis (Sowerby II, 1864), B. feicheni Shikama, 1973, B. formosae (Sowerby II, 1866), B. japonica (Reeve, 1842), B. lutosa (Lamarck, 1816), B. pieroangelai Cossignani, 2008, B. spirata (Linnaeus, 1758), B. valentiana (Swainson, 1822), B. zeylanica (Bruguière, 1789) and Z. papillaris (Sowerby I, 1825). A monophyletic group with four species collected from Indonesia which includes B. spirata f. balinensis Cossignani, 2009, B. spirata f. semipicta (Sowerby II, 1866) and B. angusta Altena &amp; Gittenberger, 1981, implying they should belong to a single species, B. semipicta. Additionally, we suggest B. formosae habei Altena &amp; Gittenberger, 1981 should be escalated as B. habei, and not as a subspecies.

How do heavily polluting firms cope with dual environmental regulation? A study from the perspective of financial asset allocation

In view of the current debate on the relationship between environmental regulation and firm financial asset allocation (FFAA), this study explores the compound effect of binding environmental regulation (BER) and public environmental engagement (PEE) on FFAA. The results show that the single constraint of BER cannot effectively inhibit FFAA, and that the governance effect can only be produced in coordination with PEE. In particular, in state-owned enterprises, areas with a high marketization level, and areas with strong environmental supervision, the synergistic governance effect of dual environmental regulation is more obvious. The inhibition effect mainly depends on the reduction of long-term FFAA, and can simultaneously improve firms' economic and environmental benefits. A mechanism analysis finds that strengthening firm research and development (R&D) innovation and improving total factor productivity are important channels through which dual environmental regulation can collaboratively govern firms to avoid the shift from the real economy to the virtual economy. This study provides new insights for the analysis of the real economy from the perspective of environmental regulation, and also serves as a reference for the improvement of multiple collaborative environmental governance systems.

Unearthed, Smuggled and Decontextualized Carl Schmidt and the Provenance of Hamburg’s Papyrus Bilinguis 1

Abstract Information regarding the provenance of papyrological material that was acquired in the Egyptian antiquities market in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is scarce and often unreliable. This article investigates the provenance of Hamburg’s Papyrus Bilinguis 1, famed for containing the apocryphal Acta Pauli. By researching archival files documenting the acquisition and the context of the find, the papyrus is shown to have been acquired in breach of the Egyptian antiquities law of 1912. The article reveals how Carl Schmidt (1868–1938), the collector who acquired the manuscript for the Hamburg library, by concealing information, tried to cover up his own criminal involvement in the smuggling of the manuscript. Through the investigation of a manuscript that was acquired by a public German institution in awareness of its illegality, the article hopes to contribute to current debates on the translocation of cultural heritage artefacts to Europe and the US in the age of European colonialism and imperialism.

Culture of care: the question of animal agency in laboratory animal science.

A majority of the current debates in experimental animal science research focus to a large extent on the significance and implementation of the 3Rs principle according to Russell and Burch. In this context, not least due to the EU Directive 2010/63/EU, the concept of a culture of care has become more prevalent. Although animals are essential actors in the field of laboratory science, the discussion around animal agency, as well as the resulting consequences for laboratory animal science, is currently unconsidered. The purpose of this qualitative survey was to identify the perception and understanding of professional workers in laboratory animal science regarding the culture of care in general and aspects of animal agency in particular. Using a non-standardized qualitative survey method (topic-oriented, guideline-based expert interviews), persons involved in animal experimentation in different groups (management, science, regulation, and care) were interviewed. Overall, the results of the qualitative survey showed that animal agency plays a subordinate role in the question of a culture of care in animal research. Although not all groups explicitly applied the construct of animal agency or comparable terminology for this, there were links to the theoretical construct. Overall, the interviews showed a recognized network between humans and animals and that animals can interact dialogically in research. This is justified, for example, by the transfer of emotions from carers or scientists to animals. Nevertheless, a differentiated reflection of an animal's agency remains disregarded. The present qualitative survey approached the understanding of a culture of care among experts in the field of animal research. Animal agency does occur in the theoretical reception of the culture of care model. However, it is not conclusively established in everyday practice. Rather, the results lead to the assumption that strategies are being implemented to largely fade out animal agency.

Four Pillars of Building Trust in Czech News Podcasts

ABSTRACT As trust in the media declines, podcasts’ ability to forge bonds between hosts and listeners can be a crucial factor. This study identifies four pillars of trust in the consumption of news podcasts: (1) trust in the voice, (2) trust in the person, (3) trust in the sound practices, and (4) trust in the editorial team and publisher. The dataset is based on five focus groups consisting of 30 Czech news podcast listeners (aged 20–49 years). The results are discussed in the context of the current debate on para-social connections in podcasts and their potential for rebuilding media trust.

(In)visible by Design: An Analysis of a Domestic Labor Platform

Since the rise of platform labor, food delivery, and ride hailing workers have become a visible part of cityscapes, unlike platform workers in the domestic sector. The invisibilization and economic devaluation of reproductive tasks, especially in the private sphere, has a long history.Although platforms are not likely to yield a radical transformation in this sector, qualitative changes concerning the invisibility of work outsourced by households can be observed. In this contribution, we draw from the analytical framework of (in)visibility of/in platform-mediated work and map it against our research findings on a key platform in domestic cleaning in Europe, including netnographic data and interviews with workers and clients. Using the framework as a heuristic tool leads us to a more nuanced understanding of (in)visibility in platform-mediated cleaning in perceptible, institutional, and individual terms. Moreover, we argue that the interrelations between these three layers of (in)visibility offer novel insights for making sense of worker organizing and collective action, the practices related to leaving the platform, and the issue of workers’ occupational identity of domestic cleaners. As such, the study contributes to the current debates on platform labor and domestic work, including the value-visibility relation and the role of digital platforms therein.

Innovative collaboration among developing countries: the role of national innovation systems in Latin America

PurposeBuilding on current debates on innovation, knowledge diffusion, and institutional dynamics, we explore the influence of national innovation systems (NISs) on international innovation collaborations in Latin America, focusing on intellectual property rights (IPR), access to scientific knowledge and regulatory quality.Design/methodology/approachWe analyze data from 17 Latin American countries from 2002–2015 using time-series panel analysis to evaluate how different NIS elements affect regional cooperation for innovation.FindingsRegulatory quality can improve international collaboration by compensating for weaker IPR and scientific knowledge bases. Interestingly, while both IPR and scientific knowledge inherently promote cooperation, stronger regulatory environments may diminish the effectiveness of IPR protections, suggesting a potential substitution effect.Practical implicationsThe study offers actionable insights for policymakers in developing regions to help them craft more effective policies for collaboration in innovation that consider the balancing act between regulatory quality and other NIS elements.Originality/valueThis research shifts focus from the conventional analysis of how developing countries attract collaboration from developed nations to how they can foster innovation among themselves, providing a unique perspective on the interaction between institutional factors and innovation capabilities within the Latin American context.

Encyclopedias, Information Overload, and the Intellectual Division of Labor in Early America

Abstract: This article examines the history of encyclopedias in North America and Britain during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to foreground wider shifts in knowledge formation and organization caused by a growing perception of information overload. Tracing the Enlightenment manifestations of this concept, which is more typically seen as characteristic of twenty-first century digital culture, the article considers how attempts by Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith to establish an intellectual model of the division of labor in Scotland migrated to and were reworked in the early United States. This transition is explored through analysis of the Philadelphian publisher Thomas Dobson's Encyclopaedia; or a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature (1788–98), which reprinted and added to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1787–97). Dobson's Encyclopaedia is situated in the context of: older traditions of synoptic writing practiced by figures like Cotton Mather, which retained a belief in the possibility of all-encompassing knowledge collection; emerging experiments by eighteenth-century encyclopedia makers with presentation and structure, designed to better order complex bodies of information and accommodate new data; and current debates around information democracy and management centered on Wikipedia, which indicate key points of change and continuity in the extended history of the encyclopedia form's struggle to be both comprehensive and up-to-date.

CEO Benevolence and Corporate Social Performance

The involvement of corporate CEOs/directors in not‐for‐profit (NFP) leadership is significant for corporate and NFP sectors. We refer to this activity as ‘benevolence’. These benevolent leaders bring synergistic effects to each leadership position. Although research has examined various characteristics of NFPs and corporate leaders independently, the impact of this combination of serving NFPs and listed firms is worth examining, given current debates on the form and function of stakeholder capitalism. We provide preliminary exploration of NFP leadership positions of CEOs/directors, from 2010 to 2019. Data were hand‐collected from CEO/director biographies in annual reports. NFP roles were verified through public sources (e.g., Australian Charities and Not‐For‐Profit Commission). We identify meaningful patterns in NFP leadership positions held by the those in the top echelons. In evaluating whether benevolent leaders influence corporate ethical outcomes, we find a significant positive association. Our findings establish the foundation for future inquiries on the influence of benevolent leaders on many corporate outcomes.

‘Children say playing and adults say working’: Children negotiating regulations on digital media in a Swedish preschool

AbstractIn current societal debate, opinions on children's use of digital technologies are polarized. This study investigates situated negotiations in everyday interactions by analysing how preschool children talk about digital media in relation to regulations on digital media use. A childhood sociological perspective guides an understanding of how children's experiences with digital media are shaped by their perspectives and social contexts. The findings show the participants managing tensions between home and preschool, resisting adult terminology, contributing to group identity and challenging the preschool rules. By restricting children's media use through policies might lead educators to overlook valuable insights offered by children.

Conceptual divergence and its causes in English for academic purposes abroad from the perspective of legitimation code theory

The reform of English for academic purposes (EAP) teaching requires clear understanding of its conceptual connotation. Based on the legitimation code theory, this study analysed the development of EAP in major English-speaking countries and the debates on the concept of EAP in the academic community. The study finds that EAP has evolved from a knowledge code, a knower code to an elite code. The core elements of EAP are embodied in a hierarchical knowledge structure, a systematic curriculum framework, and the integration of knowledge and knower in teaching. Therefore, in response to the current debates and problems in China’s EAP teaching and research, it is suggested that EAP teaching should focus on the dialectical unity of language knowledge and disciplinary knowledge, academic skills and academic literacies, knowledge creation and personal development, so as to achieve the resonance of talent cultivation and national development. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .